Traditionally, a nomad is someone without a fixed home who wanders from place to place without a definite destination or purpose. I have a home but am not there very often. I travel for months to a few years and return home to relax, organize my life, and explore North America. It is my vacation.
A more modern definition of a nomad is a minimalist who travels with only their basic needs to explore different cultures or work. That is a more accurate reflection of my travel style.
“People don’t take trips, trips take people.” – John Steinbeck
“Love your life. Take pictures of everything. Tell people you love them. Talk to random strangers. Do things that you’re scared to do. Fuck it, because so many of us die and no one remembers a thing we did. Take your life and make it the best story in the world.”
If one has a sense of curiosity, wants to explore the world, has no fear and takes risks, wants to challenge oneself and has a desire for adventure, you may find that the nomadic style of travel suits you best.
The major habits of a nomad are: avoiding tours and guides unless necessary, having no fixed itinerary, travelling alone, having no fear with informed risk assessment, travelling light, and travelling cheaply (accommodation, transport, food).
THINGS I DON’T DO
“The three favourite words of usual tourists are prohibited in my travelling: hotel, restaurant, and taxi.” – André Brugiroux,
There are several things I don’t do unless there are no other options – tours, guides, resorts, lying on a beach, nightclubs, bars, or drinking alcohol. As I age, I stay in more hotels and use local taxi apps. It is too convenient. I have never flown business class and have never used an airport lounge. I am not a foodie and rarely go to expensive restaurants. I never buy souvenirs, not even a fridge magnet. And I don’t take photographs – I look at things for visual memory.
TOURS
“I have nothing against organized tours as long as I organize them myself!” – André Brugiroux,
I avoid tours as they are fixed, restrictive and expensive. The tourists would get frustrating for me. Dealing with a group of people easily overwhelms my Asperger’s Syndrome. I do best alone. Tours sometimes have interesting clients one would not meet otherwise – in Turkmenistan, my only travel companion was a 26-year-old woman on the Nobel selection committee for the Literature Prize. She was studying classical Greek philosophy in Greek and German.
Local guides can give good authentic experiences. They can be a wealth of information and are many travellers’ best interaction with locals.
• Tours are mandatory for North Korea, Tibet, Bhutan, Turkmenistan, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia.
• Iran. Americans, Canadians and Brits require a tour.
• Algeria. Renting a car and travelling through Algeria independently may be possible, but police escorts are required virtually everywhere. I don’t know how one could arrange that without a tour. It is necessary to have a tour if going to the far south, the highlight of the country and possibly all of Africa.
• Libya, Central African Republic, Niger for cost reasons due to security, require a tour to help divide the fixed costs of the trip. Getting a visa requires letters of invitation.
• West Africa overland. In 2016/2017, I took a 5 1/2-month overland trip from Morocco to Cape Town. At that time, we had to get a Ghana visa at home. All the countries but Morocco, Namibia and South Africa needed a visa on the road. The only place to get a Nigerian visa was in Bamako. Mali and that would have been difficult on your own.
We eventually obtained 18 visas on the road. Getting to all those embassies and dealing with the staff would be cumbersome. Using public transport to do the entire trip would also be very difficult.
Oasis Overland has been the only company offering this trip for decades. Steve, our guide has lost track of how many times he has done the trip. It was relatively cheap and we had a lot of freedom to leave the trip, explore on our own and see different places. Many took advantage of this to see parts of a country not seen on the trip.
Despite some negatives, a tour was the best and easiest way to see West Africa.
NO FIXED ITINERARY
“Then one day, when you least expect it, the great adventure finds you.” – Ewan Mcgregor
I often decide on an almost day-to-day basis what I will do next. I have a general idea but the specifics are decided on a short-term basis. Who knows what circumstances may change plans? Besides a general itinerary, fluid travel allows you to take advantage of unanticipated opportunities. With no set plans, one can spend as much time as desired. Other travellers give insights that change itineraries.
Travelling with no time pressure is so nice – I can go anywhere my heart desires and spend as much time as I need to see anywhere as completely as I want to. Not having a return flight home gives me the ability to return home when I have done all I want to. Having no financial constraints is also an asset (even though travelling cheaply is more fun).
Depending on where you are, it may not be necessary to book accommodation – turn up and find out what is available.
• I was in Pakistan in January 2022 and wanted to go to Bangladesh which had a 14-day quarantine, almost the last country in the world to require this. I waited to the bitter end, the quarantine remained and I flew to Trinidad. That is the advantage of having a fluid timeline.
Some of my most frustrating times on the road have been when I had to follow a fixed timeline. Many visas require a hotel booking. Booking.com usually allows no upfront payment and free cancellation up to 24 hours before a reservation.
Many vias require an exit flight. There are two ways to deal with this.
• Brazil 2014. Brazil presently has a VOA but a visa with an exit flight was required in 2014. I didn’t know about fake tickets and had to figure out my entire itinerary and buy my ticket to exit the country. I bought an expensive flight to Venezuela that I didn’t want to eat and couldn’t cancel without significant cost.
• Nauru, December 2023. The same occurred when I wanted to visit the 10 Least Visited Countries in the World, all in the southwest Pacific. The Nauru visa was notoriously difficult, required hotel reservations and booked flights, and could take several weeks to get. I put it in the middle of the ten countries to ensure I had the visa. That meant booking all my flights before (Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu) along with the entrance and exit flights and accommodation in Nauru.
I now had a fixed itinerary that eventually caused many problems. My flight to Tuvalu was cancelled because of 3 cracks in the runway as we were about to board the flight. As it was over Christmas, all subsequent flights were booked for a few weeks and I couldn’t get to Tuvalu. It became my 193rd country.
Flights within other countries were also booked and I missed seeing several regions. Christmas is not the time to visit the Least Visited Countries in the World.
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
TRAVEL ALONE
“You have to be alone to travel properly. Two people travelling together are taking a holiday. Three is already a group. Over 3 starts colonization!” – André Brugiroux,
Most serious travellers travel alone. The ability to make all your decisions is most important. If you wait for that friend or partner to travel with, you could stay home forever. Travelling alone is far better than not travelling at all.
Travelling with people you meet on the road, friends, partners or relatives may have many negative issues. You may have had to deal with their judgmental comments, persuasive opinions or unusual personality.
Travelling alone forces one to talk to a wide variety of people. You never know who you will meet and many travellers have a good story to tell. The people I meet on the road are a significant part of my travel experience. I have travelled with others for short periods and frequently meet other travellers with whom I develop a good rapport and hanging out together for a few days can be great. It is always easy to break off the relationship and go your separate ways.
I find mealtimes alone the most difficult, especially at Christmas.
Because of my Asperger’s, I am not a very tolerant person. I only handle smart people usually one at a time.
Experiences. Alone opens doors to the very best experiences travel has to offer. You will meet and talk to far more people. You won’t be consumed talking with your companion but notice the everyday nuances of the culture around you. It forces you to interact with locals, experience places and cultures firsthand and interact with them without distractions. You immerse yourself in the culture, adapt to it and create your own truths.
You won’t be alone anyway as making friends and teaming up with people is easy. There are many interesting people out there. Luck can play a big part in who you meet.
Freedom. Probably the greatest gift is the experience of ultimate freedom. You decide where you’ll go, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. There’s no need to compromise. You’re in complete control of your travel experience. Life’s one big adventure full of experiences to be had, and nobody tells you, you can’t.
Personal Growth. Rather than relying on others, you’re responsible for it all. Problem-solve when a challenge comes your way. The more you figure these things out the more independent you become. Disasters will happen and there may be many hassles, but you soon realize that no matter how insurmountable the difficulty, almost always things turn out in the end. Solo travel will teach you that anything is possible. You will accomplish anything and everything. And it is those epic adventures that you will remember the most.
On Guard. Travelling alone, you have to be generally more on your guard. For single women, whether to go solo is more difficult. You may not want to go to India or Arab/Muslim countries, since men can give lone females more attention than you want. This can be frustrating, annoying and at its worst scary, although usually harmless. Many males (South Asians in particular) have warped ideas about women. It can’t be prevented, but it can be minimized with general common sense such as dressing conservatively and being assertive when required. In most destinations, women won’t get any hassle.
• Iraq September 2022. I rented a car in Baghdad for 9 days to drive to Basra, back through Baghdad and onto Mosul before returning on a different route to Baghdad.
I believe I was the first traveller to drive around Iraq without a guide or interpreter.
Well before the trip, I posted on Facebook Every Passport Stamp Meet up for a travel companion to share the experience. Mehul from New Jersey responded and we agreed to travel together. Born in India, he had an engineering and architecture degree and had lived in Montreal for several years. He arrived at my hotel in Baghdad at 6 am and had a shower in my room before we took a taxi to the Babylon Rotana Hertz office.
We left for Basra. At the police checks, they always required the captain to make the final decision. We had our passports and car registration ready to hand to the policeman. After learning all the questions, I wrote a document covering all the questions and translated it with Google Translate. This worked very well as no one had ever had a foreigner before without a guide.
Police checks were frequent and laborious. At one they kept the car registration but had notified the next checkpoint and drove it there arriving 10 minutes after us. We were served pop and snacks.
After seeing Madain, Taq-i Kisra (Arch of Ctesiphon) and Wasit, Mehul wanted to drive. He is very short and carefully adjusted all the mirrors. Within a few km, he adjusted the side mirrors again and lost total control of the car. We were all over the road swerving from shoulder to shoulder for a few hundred metres. Luckily there were no other cars. He then hit a speed bump at speed. I got pretty upset and yelled at him. He then yelled at me for 15 minutes calling me mother fucker, a bastard and asshole and every name in the book at the top of his voice.
He would not pee on the side of the road if any building was in sight. He is a vegetarian and we had a hard time finding food. We drove for three hours after dark taking 11 hours to drive the 500 km.
In Basra, we stayed at the Castle Hotel for $50 for two beds. We were invited up to the owner’s suite where he had a friend from Canada visiting. There was whisky and arak to drink and Mehul got very drunk. Back in the room, I said “You got pretty drunk” and the next attack began “You are comparing me to your father – how dare you judge me.” Another 10 minutes of nonstop abuse followed.
In the morning Mehul refused to shower before breakfast at 7 (sunrise is at 5:30) and then took 60 minutes to shower. We had a late start at 08:40.
We stopped at a famous mosque. I parked directly outside the mosque in a legal area. Mehul said it was not a good place. I tossed the keys gently into his lap. Unfortunately, his phone was also there. It was unbelievable what happened next. He started screaming that I had scratched his phone – it was endless “motherf**ker, bastard, and asshole for over an hour. I asked if he had ever dropped his phone. That elicited another flurry of abuse. He said that I would pay – if I said anything, he would teach me a lesson not to be judgemental.
It was easily the worst abuse I have ever had in my life. At a checkpoint, the police asked me to pull over. I did not notice that his window was completely down. I locked the car and went into the office. The abuse started again. When we started to drive, the emergency brake was minimally on and the dash warning sounded. “You motherf**ker can’t even drive”.
The drive was uncomfortable as I was in the sun all day – I was in a constant moderate sweat and Mehul was in the shade. The air conditioning in this little Nissan Sunny was not made for this kind of heat. It was barely able to produce a light cool at full volume. I smoke and I then open my window at least halfway. Today, he opened his window completely and turned off the air conditioning. It made for a very uncomfortable day. He was going to make me pay.
He also refused to drive – which is just as well as he is such a poor driver (he doesn’t own a car). I got a little tired and smoked a little more. I asked him to drive. “You said you would drive all day, you motherf**ing liar”.
We saw Nasiriyah, Ur Ziggurat, Uruk, Nippur and Al-Diwaniyah before stopping in Najaf for the night. I had not said a word for hours. The Melien Hotel was nice but the cheapest in the city. Mehul complained about the noisy air conditioner and demanded a room change. There were no rooms and we moved into a suite with many sofas and a conference table. His abuse continued. He demanded the car keys. I refused and the fight was on. I have never fought in my life but I was much bigger and at least as strong (he had almost died of malaria 2 years ago and had not completely recovered). He hung onto my pack for dear life and ripped off my right front pants pocket where the keys were. He hit the wall twice with the pack trying to damage my computer. I got him in a choke hold, lay on him, and punched him in the left temple (I have never hit anyone in my life before). I started yelling and finally, the hotel staff arrived. I demanded to return to the original room and paid for it. There was a long discussion with six of the staff and the lovely manager who came onto my side as I had signed the contract and paid for the car. The manager threatened to call the police. I went out and carefully hid the car as I thought Mehul would try to disable it. I finally got to bed at midnight.
I was awake at 4 am, had a shower and left at first light at 5:30 – without Mehul. I am not sure how he thought he could get away with all his abuse and bullying. I kept silent through it all as any comment brought on another round of yelling and swearing. I had decided shortly after the mosque incident to abandon him in Najaf. The fight made up my mind. He provided a phone connection to find hotels and use Google Translate Voice to deal with all the checkpoints. I was also going to have issues with finding the cheapest hotel in every city but thought I could manage.
So much for not travelling alone!! I believe that when Mahul had his severe malaria, he had cerebral involvement (he was unconscious in the ICU and almost died), and this caused his psychotic behaviour.
• Afghanistan June 2024. This is a banal and common example of differing opinions. I was in Kabul writing this book in June 2024 and was arranging a trip to Bamiyan with two women (from the US and Switzerland) with Sami, a great guide. He offered to take us return from Kabul to Bamiyan and visit the lakes for $250 ($83 each). Because of the increased security after the killing of 3 tourists about 3 weeks previously and all the transport changes, his offer was not only cheaper but much more hassle-free. The Swiss woman was determined to take public transport for cost reasons (an error) and the “experience” (multiple checkpoints, several taxis and share vans) and would not even consider the other option. It was a deadlock. That is why you travel alone. Everyone has different ideas.
TRAVEL LIGHT
“He who would travel happily must travel light.” – Antoine de St. Exupery
“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.”– Susan Heller
Carry-on Pack. I used a Deuter Futura Vario 50l backpack in my earlier travel when many trips involved trekking. A pack with a good suspension system was necessary. I also had not streamlined my gear.
In 2022, I looked for a good carry-on pack. Packs with padding, a suspension system and wheels didn’t work. I then found the G4 Free pack on Amazon. It is a big sack of lighter nylon with no waist belt, minimal padding in the shoulder straps and none in the back. A small front pocket, a sleeved area on the inside and two pockets on the lid allowed some separation of the contents. Even though it cost only $40, it is extremely well made. Its large sack necessitates using smaller nylon bags to separate items – one for tops, one for pants and one for underwear and socks. Its size qualifies for carry-on and weighs about 10-11 kg when full.
Reasons for Carry-on.
a. Luggage handlers in airports are very rough
b. Avoid theft from checked-in luggage.
c. Avoid waiting at carousels. I’m always first out of the airport.
d. No lost luggage.
e. Limit what you can take – no souvenirs.
f. Deal with stairs, escalators, sidewalks, and rough terrain. After a long day of travel, I like to walk to my accommodation. And when I get home, I feel great joy walking the 45 minutes to my apartment.
g. Use it for short treks.
You would be surprised what I can carry – a travel sleeping bag, sleeping mat, silk sleep sheet, rain cover, hair clippers, car rental accessories (phone holder, a tiny inverter to convert 12V to 110) and standard travel gear. I also have a down puff jacket and a light down vest. This allows me to sleep and tolerate temperatures down to -10° C.
Clothes are many traveller’s biggest item. However, there is a secret. I have used a powerful antiperspirant (Drysol) for 3 decades. Apply once a week. Never smell. Clothes never smell reducing laundry. I only carry 2 T-shirts and a light long-sleeved top. I wash underwear in a sink (bring a sink stopper and a small clothesline). This may sound gross, but I can wear the same top for a month (and much longer). No deodorant, antiperspirant, or perfume to carry. I have used it for so long that I only apply every 2 weeks. A tiny bottle can last me for over a year.
Day pack. Another small 30l pack with no padding that folds into a small pocket.
Shoulder bag. This is another simple sack with no padding that stuffs into a tiny pocket. I use this when doing walkabouts in cities carrying an umbrella, power bank and cord, water, notebook, pen, and cigarettes.
TALK TO EVERYONE
When travelling, it is important to “put oneself out there”. Talk to everyone. You never know who you will meet or what you can learn, and I have met many wonderful and interesting people.
Make them the center of the conversation, and find out what they are all about. There is no point in talking about yourself – you already know about yourself.
As most other travellers seeing the world in my style are less than 30, I often spend a few days to weeks travelling with young people. Germans and Israelis are more accepting of an old man, and I have spent longer periods with them but it varies with the person.
• Jakarta in 2015, I met a traveller who had done an overland trip from Morroco to Cape Town with Oasis Overland – 5 1/2 months of sleeping in a tent and cooking over a fire. It sounded like the easiest way to see 20 countries in West Africa. I did the trip the next year.
• Indonesia Jan/Dec 2015. In Yogyakarta, I met a young Ukranian woman (working as a translator in Munich) and we travelled together for over a month seeing most of Indonesia. She was lovely – there were never issues about where we were going or what to do.
• India 2015, I visited the Sasan Gir Wildlife Sanctuary with 10 people staying in Diu, as everyone wanted to minimize the $40/jeep permit, $10 for the jeep and $3 for the guide. After the safari, everybody went their separate ways and I continued with two young Swiss women with a similar itinerary to mine. Using several buses, we travelled through Junagath (best known for its 10,000-step climb up Girnar Hill covered in Jain and Hindu temples), Ahmedabad, Modhera and its beautiful Sun Temple, and Patan with Rani-ki-Vav, a beautiful step well-protected by centuries of silt. We finished the day at Mt Abu in Rajasthan. We were on 6 buses during the day and stopped in some out-of-the-way towns unused to Westerners. At one, a few people stood looking at us and we were soon surrounded by over 100 staring Indians, from little kids to turbaned elders.
I asked a driver his destination and he couldn’t understand me with my unaccented North American speech. One of the Swiss women then went and he understood her perfectly.
After two weeks, we had different plans and went our separate ways.
It is amazing how isolated some people are on the road. Language difficulties can be an issue. But some nationalities rarely talk to anyone even if they speak good English. I often think about how much they are missing. A significant part of the travel experience is the people you meet on the road.
Talking to locals depends on several factors. I only speak English and conversations are brief if their English is poor. Using Google Translate only goes so far. Because of my Asperger’s, I only relate well to relatively intelligent people. Looking at the bell curve of IQ scores (I appreciate that IQ tests are imperfect), half the world has an IQ less than average. If not educated or well-read, conversations also don’t last.
It also depends on their personality and conversation skills. When I went to Socrata, we were a group of six. Two of the women from Denmark had poor personalities, one didn’t initiate a conversation in one week. Another from Bulgaria had limited life experience. Another woman from Bulgaria was lovely. The last was a physician from Florida my age who was well travelled. You might think we would get along famously. However, he talked nonstop, always about himself and was boring. Everyone repetitively told him to stop talking and give us some peace. He was also a Trump supporter and believed in conspiracy theories. We finally agreed to stop discussing politics.
NO FEAR
I am always surprised how some people’s lives are fear-based, Christianity and Islam are fear-based religions, not letting your children be “free-range”, not hiking because of fear of bears, or where you travel.
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it is lethal. The more risks you take, the bigger the adventure you have. I’d rather look back at my life and say “I can’t believe I did that.” instead of saying “I wish I did that”.
“The more I travelled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” – Shirley MacLaine
“A life lived in fear is a life half lived.” – Spanish Proverb
“I feel the need to endanger myself every so often.” – Tim Daly
“If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.” – Seth Godin
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
“I travel because I become uncomfortable being too comfortable.” – Carew Papritz
Many people have poorly informed ideas of safety and the true risk of personal crime. Almost everywhere has places in cities to avoid at night. It is easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One of the lesser-known benefits of Asperger’s syndrome is our brains are wired with a defect in the anterior cingulate gyrus that controls fear response. I rarely experience fear. One must still evaluate risks – some countries are not safe. Things always turn out.
Travel Advisories. If you followed most countries’ travel advisories, you would not leave home. For litigious reasons, the advisories are overly cautious, but also often out of date. They rarely reflect what is happening on the ground. Unfortunately, travel insurance is invalidated if one travels to places with a level 4 travel advisory. I generally ignore them and do my research to inform me of true danger.
Thieves often congregate where naïve tourists are common. If you want to be robbed, go to Barcelona and walk La Ramba. Roma (gypsies) control the streets. I’ve been robbed twice there. Rome and other big cities in Europe have a reputation almost as bad.
Vancouver has the second highest incidence of personal crime in North America (after Miami). You may not get pickpocketed but there are many opportunities to be robbed. My three children all lived in Vancouver for several years. Parking on the street required leaving all the doors unlocked and the car empty, or you would wake up to smashed windows. Don’t go walking at night on the lower east side of Vancouver where there are many heroin addicts.
• South America. In my opinion, South America has the highest incidence of personal crime. Ecuador has always been high-risk. Walking even a few yards outside Old Quito or going to New Quito would guarantee you would be robbed. I know people in New Quito who were robbed twice in the same night. Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil have always had a deservedly bad reputation.
• La Paz, Bolivia. February 2012. When I was in La Paz, I heard a frightening story. Two couples had travelled together and went their separate ways in La Paz.
Several weeks elapsed and the family of one of the couples had not heard from them. They checked their emails, found the other couple and slowly pieced together the details.
Their children had been seen entering another cab. They were taken to a safe house, their credit and debit cards were used to empty their bank accounts and then they were killed.
True danger of injury or death is so rare as to never cross my mind. True danger changes with time because of wars, terrorism, poor governance, or poverty.
Dangerous countries in 2024:
• Sudan. Because of the civil war, Khartoum, Darfur and other destinations are definite no-go zones. But Port Sudan on the Red Sea might be ok?
• Haiti. Since the assignation of their president in July 2021, 160 gangs have controlled the streets and roads into Port au Prince and have slowly taken over the country. Carjacking is common. When I was in Haiti in March 2022, it was safe to go to Cap Haitian but you had to fly to Port au Prince. There were many no-go zones in Port au Prince. The driver who picked me up from the airport avoided the main road into the city and drove a circuitous route through the north part of the city to get downtown. I couldn’t go more than a block south of my hotel.
I wanted to go to Jacmel, safe in September 2021 but it was now impossible. My driver wouldn’t drive a vehicle there as it would be carjacked but we could go by motorcycle. Really! I would have had to go blackface to avoid kidnapping.
The situation has only worsened since. I am not certain but the whole country in 2024 may be a no-go zone. Two missionaries were killed in May 2024 (I can’t believe they were so foolish to have stayed in the most dangerous country in the world).
• The Sahel. This broad area just south of the Sahara includes Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Many members of ISIS and Al Queda came here after being ousted from Iraq and Syria. Because of weak governments, their influence is growing. The French have left BF and Mali.
In the fall of 2022, I travelled to this area for a month. I was with a group of eight travellers organized to split travel costs. To travel to the Gerewol Festival from Agadiz, Niger required two trucks full of soldiers at 800 Euros per day for three days.
Two weeks before our visit, a Thai tourist was kidnapped when he crossed the border from Mali to Burkina Faso and paid a $150,000 ransom to be released. There was also a peaceful coup in Burkina Faso the week before. We received a stream of advice to not go outside Ouagadougou and not Djenne. We crossed into Mali safely and went to Djenne. Timbuktu, Gao and Dogon Country have been difficult or impossible for some time.
• Nigeria. This also includes northeastern Nigeria where Boko Haram is terrorizing the local citizens and. kidnapping girls.
• Somalia has been dangerous for many years because of El Shebab. A two-day trip in November 2023 cost US$1,250 for the bullet-proof Hilux and the two armed guards in the back of the truck. We stayed in the safe Green Zone, a heavily fortified part of Mogadishu. We could get out of the vehicle in the Yellow Zone but not in the Red Zone. Our guides told us that El Shebab was ransoming the citizens in Mogadishu for protection money and that they served as elected citizens in the government. The tour company had a low profile in the city to avoid them.
• Russia. Especially since the start of the war with Ukraine, one would have to be very careful in Russia. Admitting that there was a war could result in prison. Russia is using trumped-up charges and a corrupt police state and judiciary to imprison many foreigners.
Considered dangerous but are safe.
• West Africa. On my 5½ month overland trip through 20 countries in West Africa, there were 17 travellers. Many of us repeatedly left the trip to travel independently to different places. Not one person experienced anything negative including personal crime for the entire trip. A few got VD but that is usually not on travel advisories.
• Pakistan had high-level advisories throughout the country in 2022. The war in Afghanistan was over and the risk was less. Going to Karachi was level three with a supposed high risk of kidnapping. I spent 7 days all over the city, even at night, with no issues. Balochistan had a level four advisory but I had no problems in Quetta, the capital.
• Afghanistan. Since the takeover by the Taliban in August 2022, travellers (including women) can travel independently anywhere safely. ISIS has been effectively controlled. One of the few benefits for both tourists and locals since the Taliban took over is security. They are everywhere and carry AK47s. Checkpoints are common.
In May 2024, three Spanish tourists and their guide were killed in Bamiyan, the first terrorist attack in many months. Security was increased significantly but many tourists wouldn’t go there. They don’t think of the U.S.A. as being dangerous despite 24 people being killed every day.
• Yemen. Eastern Yemen and Socrata have always been safe.
• Mexico. My favourite country to travel to is Mexico which has been having a wave of drug-based violence. But that is mostly drug cartels killing people in other cartels or politicians and newspaper journalists. Rarely are tourists affected and you would have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to be affected. Tourism has been severely affected. Unfortunately, some travel insurance is invalidated if your country has issued travel advisories. Tourists are missing one of the best cultures and cuisines anywhere. Of course, one must be careful and show common sense wherever you go.