Tourist trips, travel - usually when thinking about this, a person has very exciting and pleasant thoughts: novelty, acuteness of impressions, relaxation, knowledge of the unknown - this and much more attracts tourists to measure the earth with their steps.
But not every trip is enjoyable. New countries - new rules due to the unique cultural, ethnographic and historical heritage, the peculiarities of the natural and ecological state. In some jurisdictions, tourists are not welcome, in others - on the contrary, seeing a sucker or a potential hostage in an overseas guest.
We suggest looking at a few places where an inexperienced traveler without Mr. Winchester and an armored suit with a breathing mask is better off.
Hitchhiking in the USA: an imaginary romance
Hitchhiker's Guide to America is more a stereotype imposed by Hollywood products than the truth. Hitchhiking there, of course, is possible, but unsafe: among single drivers, the concentration of psychos approximately corresponds to that shown in all the same US movies; Every year in the United States, two hundred thousand people disappear without a trace. Not a joke.
The attitude of the Yankees to the voters is not particularly welcoming - you can buy a car here for a couple of hundred, a relatively decent one for a thousand dollars, rights are given almost everywhere at the age of 16, and the sight of a capable adult voting on the sidelines evokes associations with beggars, criminals and other villains. In a number of states, voting on the highway is prohibited by law (however, there is no question of gas stations and roadside cafes in the law).
Showcase with gold for fools
The vibrant colors of Laos hide unrestrained poverty: half of the country's population lives below the subsistence level, and almost a third shows symptoms of protein starvation. In addition, it is dirty, there is no work, there is no access to the ocean, and malaria epidemics periodically occur. So why come here?
Galapagos Islands - Maximum Security Resort
The Ecuadorian administration is worried that the host of visitors will literally trample the islands' unique flora and leave no place for fauna. Therefore, tourists are prohibited here:
- To smoke
- Eat outside cafes and hotels
- Get off the hiking trails
- Feed animals
- Touch stones, animals, plants, or flowers.
The slightest violation threatens with expulsion without the right to return. An additional measure is control not only at the entrance, but also at the exit; if you do not have permission, then you have arrived illegally, if you please sit in an Ecuadorian prison.
Burundi - war against the backdrop of natural beauty
Dwarf Burundi has an enormous natural wealth, as well as a great historical and cultural heritage: layers that testify to the domination of African states and colonial empires (such as German or Belgian) replace each other so often that you do not have time to notice the transition point.
Perhaps the study of the region would have been easier if it were not for the fifty-year war and the attendant dirt, poverty, unsanitary conditions and shooting on weekends. A week without a couple of thousand corpses in Burundi - consider that nothing happened.
Congo
In fact, Congo is two states, not one. The former French Congo became capitalist in the 60s ... Well, not heaven for sure. And the Belgian colony, which gained independence, surrendered to a strange regime, mixed with nationalism, socialism and sympathy for the Soviet Union. Years passed, and no trace remained of socialism in Leopoldville, as well as of the conflict between countries and systems. But the carnage continues: after finishing fighting among themselves, the governments of both Congolese republics began civil wars with the rebels in the central part of the country and in the east.
Ethiopia
Ethiopian fields and plantations are poor in crops, but extremely rich in anti-personnel mines of various systems. It is the legacy of the war with Eritrea and the civil war in the country itself; Until the conflict is over, the waterfalls in the upper Nile, the volcanoes and the lake surface of Tana are inaccessible to visitors from abroad, even in the company of the most desperate guides.
Totalitarian democracy in Singapore
Behind the external order and decency, the "Singapore Tiger" hides a totalitarian dictatorship. Despite the alleged multiparty system and regular elections, fear reigns in the country, the death penalty is applied, for major offenses, people face many years of prison sentences in animal conditions, and for minor offenses - flogging with a bamboo pole two fingers thick.
Haiti
Located on the island of the same name, Haiti is adjacent to the Dominican Republic; while the Spaniards ruled in the Dominican Republic, the colony with the capital in Port-au-Prince was ruled by the French, and the northern part was ruled by pirates from the island of Tortuga.
The French left, but the criminals remained, the western part of the island turned into a kingdom of lawlessness, fear and gratuitous violence, which, however, does not deter some of the most frostbitten tourists. In general, we are well fed here too.
Colombia
Colombia is the world center of the cocaine drug trade: at every step there are armed clashes between representatives of different clans, against this background, the civil war seems to be a minor misunderstanding. The police are in the subject and in action, so visitors to this country will be left without a single chance of salvation - as, indeed, the locals.
Peru
Another Latin American state, Peru, shared with Bolivia the architectural and historical heritage of the Inca civilization, including the world famous Machu Picchu. These places are famous for the beauty of nature and air, unique climate and the highest criminalization, as well as virgin forests teeming with hordes of poisonous reptiles.
In the dirtiest settlement of Peru, La Oroya, where copper, zinc and lead have been mined since 1922, the concentration of heavy metals exceeds the normal one and a half thousand times. Acid rains that occur in this area cannot be compared with those of Chernobyl - those against their background are mushroom rain.
Large cities are dangerous for tourists: the risk of being robbed is close to 50%. Unlicensed taxi drivers often take travelers off the beaten path, strip them down to their underpants and let them go on all four sides. But they can also kill (it is better to kill the taxi driver first - you are unlikely to be found: forensic science in the country is at an embryonic level. It's a joke, of course, but you'd better give up a taxi altogether).
The Andean rainy seasons are accompanied by avalanches and large floods, and earthquakes are frequent in the south along the border with Chile and Bolivia.
