by Chaval Brasil

DO NOT GO THERE – Places not to travel to, due to pollution, dangers, crime

Do not go there!

Polution, crime and long lines. A new guide book made by Peter Greenberg guides you away from the worst travel destinations on the earth.

Places you very well can avoid is listed up by Mr. Greenberg, and also lists up the airports you should avoid and at what times it is wise to visit sights around the world. A handy little guide, with some other perspective than other travel guides available to you.

Go there in the winter: According to Greenberg the lines at the Eiffeil tower in Paris is worst in the summer (big surprise?). He recommends of course to visit the sights in Paris in November and December months.

The internet is full of travel tips sites and guides that tells you were to go and what to see. An example of a travel guide is TripAdvisor

However, now there is a guide book available to you that tell you where you should not travel and make sure travelers stay away from these places.

The author calls his guide book; «Don’t go there!» And is listing up places not to go to and should avoid and at times you should avoid some places.

Here you will find a good overview of travel destinations that at first glance looks exotic and exiting, but be aware that some of these places can have surprises you would like to stay away from.

The guide book lists up the worst airports in the world and common tourist traps in addition to cover topics like pollution, crime and the worst environmental sinners.

Stinking beaches and hazardous roads have also been covered by the investigative traveler.

Several cruise ships are mentioned as not having acceptable sanitary conditions, lack of food hygiene and falsification of discharge logs.

You will in addition to advices get anecdotes about places you should avoid visiting.

For example the increased pollution in Delhi in India is caused by the increasing care sales amongst the normal people since a Indian car like Nano is sold for around 2500 USD which more people can afford in today’s India. The paradox is that some of the new cars pollute more than the older models according to what is written in the book.

The air in Calcutta is so bad that the police has to carry oxygen tanks with them., so you would not like to go for a walk and sightseeing there, unless you are a heavy smoker and do not mind to get some extra chemicals down your throat.

New York is a splendid city to visit, but be aware that statistically there will be a hurricane in the Big Apple soon. According to the guide book from Greenberg, the geography tells that the east coast of U.S.A is vulnerable to hurricanes and big storms, and big storms come on a regular basis to these areas through the last 100 years. The last big event was back in 1938, so watch out now.

In Pattaya polluted sanitary water is dumped into the ocean from large apartment complexes. The authorities made a law that complexes larger than 60 units should clean up their waste water before dumping it into the ocean. However, the entrepreneurs just found out to save costs they build complexes with 59 units in them and can therefore continue to dump sewage into the beach waters.

In the U.S.A you can visit the garlic capital called Gilroy in California, which is Americas arm pit. Battle Mountain in Nevada and the largest hand made well in Greensburg in Kansas, or maybe not.

First of all, this is a guide book for the normal tourist, which needs some guidance to avoid the tourist traps, and not avoid places were your health is at risk.

Here is a summary of destinations that Greenberg categorize as the worst candidates within their category.

Worst airports

• Sheremetevo in Moscow – corruption, lines, lousy service, dirty and depressive. Make sure you have dollars and toilet paper with you before you arrive here. There are no alternatives as the other 3 airports in Moscow are equally bad.

• Ninoy Aquino in Manila – taxi-mafia, corruption and general incompetence, but there is an alternative in Clark International which is newer.

• Leopold in Dakar –Do not spend to long time here, it’s dangerous as criminals rule the area in and around the airport and usually luggage gets lost here. There are no alternatives.

• Charles de Gaulle in Paris – smell, arrogance, and long lines combined with lack of logistics which is deemed to be the worst. Alternatives would be Paris-Orly or Paris-Beauvais
• Congonhas in São Paulo – is one of the most dangerous airports in the world due to safety of flights due to short runway and the state of it. There are no real alternatives as Guarulhos is to busy.

Pollution

• Tianying, China – an industrial city with lots of lead and heavy metals in the food. • Chongqing, China – crowded coal and steel city with an invisible sky line.

• Cairo, Egypt – 2,1 percent of the deaths are caused by air pollution and the city is full of industry.

• Delhi, India –the second largest polluted city in the world due to lots of traffic and lots of cheap cars which pollutes lots.

• Calcutta, India – 70 percent of the people there has asthmatic problems or lounge problems in one way or another. And the police use oxygen tanks.

 Windsor, Canada – is called North Americas most polluted city due to wind carried polluted air from Detroit.

• Mexico City, Mexico – lies in a pot with lots of ozone and particles in the air. The city is encapsulated by smog at all time.

 
Polluted waters

• Pattaya, Thailand – once it was a beautiful beach, but now the growing population pumps out pure sewage into the beach waters.

• Aral lake, Uzbekistan – dehydration causing death of fishes, salt and pure drinking water causes lots of diseases.

• King-river, Australia – dumping ground for copper mines, and all animal life is gone in parts of the river.

• Bangladesh – salt water destroys the drinking water and agriculture along the coast line pollutes a lot. There is a high content of arsenic in the water further inland.

• Jakarta, Indonesia – The large drinking water source is polluted due to large activity of chemical treatment of textiles in the area.

• Sarno-elva, Italy – Heavy metal pollution which pollutes rivers running into the Naples bay.

Toxins and radio activity

• Bhopal, India – A big accident in 1984 which still brings heavy smell close to the old factory there.

• Tsjernobyl, Ukraine – A known history of tragedy which is now used for extreme tourism as guided tours are given there. Do not risk this, stay away from there. • Dzerzjinsk, Russia – Fabrication of chemical weapons during the cold war and lots of remnants can be found in the region still.

• Kabwe, Zambia – lead exploitation up till 1994 and we can still find dangerous metals in the earth and waters.

• La Oroya, Peru – This place is full of heavy metals due to the industry in this area. • Linfen, China – is amongst the worst places in China and that tells you the most you need to know. Bring oxygen and water before you enter this area of the world.

Smelling places

• Taean, South-Korea – oil spill in 2007 makes the place smell terrible even today. • Rotorua, New Zealand – Geothermal activity makes the whole city smell sulfur, so do not plan to dress up in your finest clothes or taste good food and wine here.

• Naples, Italy – Very bad handling of garbage makes the trip to Vesuvius and the ruins not worth the trip.

• Dharavi-slum, Mumbai, India –a rapid growing slum with open sewage and terrible sanitary conditions.

 
Most tourist traffic

• New York – worst before Christmas and new years eve as well as during Thanksgiving.  Expensive hotels and crowded city makes it a nightmare for most of us. Its best going there between January and March or when the locals have long weekends in the summer and escape the city.

• Disney World, Florida – endless lines in school holidays, Christmas, easter, spring break and 4th of July. An advice is to go there on a Tuesday and first go to Magic Kingdom, then Epcot followed by Hollywood Studios and last Animal Kingdom.

• Grand Canyon – worst to visit during the normal weekdays since excursions and tours makes up most of the traffic and are found to be on these days. Its best to go there in October or early in the spring.

• Eiffel tower, Paris – very bad in the period between May and September and longest lines in the summer months. Its best to go there in November and December as lines are better at that time. Try to go there in the weeks following Thanksgiving and New-year.

• Louvre, Paris –weekends are worst, especially in the summer and in vacations. It is best to go there in the middle of the week or late on Fridays, after 20:00 as its open till 22:00 in Fridays.

• Ayers Rock, Australia – Populated on the look out points at sun rise and sunset. Its best to go there in February, April or December.

• Great Barrier Reef, Australia – 1,8 million of visitors per year by boat, semi-subs or helicopters. Its best not to visit at all, rather try Lord Howe Island or Dunk Island which is more or less identical and much less people.
• Pyramides in Giza, Egypt – most popular between October and April months and when its not hot. You should go there as early in the morning as possible at around 5:00 o clock and look at the pyramids in the sunrise. It makes the objects much more photogenic and less people around you as well. Rent a driver that collects you and ride into the sunrise in the morning.

• The Chinese Wall – Big crowds year around and the tourists comes around 09:00, come there before this, and you can be almost alone on the wall, and enjoy this architecture alone.

Crime and dangers

• Yemen – has a bad reputation with kidnapping of westerners, and do not ever drive a car there.

• Tijuana, Mexico – drug cartels dealing with kidnapping and shootouts; take care of your money.

• São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – violence and corruption combined with dangers of being robbed and shot at.
• Johannesburg, South-Africa –not as bad as its reputation, but still lots of violence, robberies and rapes in the streets.

• Kingston, Jamaica – increasing crime in areas outside the tourist hotels.

• Port-au-Prince, Haiti – kidnapping and other types of crimes are common here. Foreign airliners personnel never leave the airport when they have to stay here.