To ask what the scariest thing ever to happen to you abroad was?

[RainbowBriteUk]

Mine was unknowingly walking in to a cafe where only men where allowed in the Balkans and they just all stared. Some quite icily. I just turned on my heel and walked out!

Being constantly groped and hassled in India.

I was travelling with my super tall male friend (6ft 3). Our bus stopped in the dark, people started getting off- we had no idea what was happening, but friend went to get our bags from the roof.
4 men surrounded me and started groping (I had a sack like neck covering shapeless dress). My mate saw what was happening and -despite being usually such a gentle soul- he punched the crap out of them.
Everyone else stood back and said not a word.
Friend said, he was tired and pissed off and that was the last straw.

India- such a beautiful country filled with the shittiest of men.

I agree, these are very some appalling and terrifying stories indeed. For anyone to be raped or gang raped, male or female, it must have been a very traumatic experience

I was drugged and gang raped by a group of men in tenerife. Awful. The worst part is the guy said "your too good for this" as he took me down in a lift and put me in a taxi. I'm lucky I came to and remembered where I was staying. Made me question everything though because he said that, but I was on my period and I never have sex on it. Never told my family I was with. A holes.

In Bali with 2 female friends walking down the street full of stalls. They left me to walk over to a henna stall and suddenly I was surrounded by 8-10 local men whose hands were all over me pulling me, groping me, hands in my pockets, hands on (and in) my private parts. I screamed as they were all pulling me down whilst I tried to hold onto my purse. Luckily my friends saw and they raced over and had to punch their way in to get to me. My friend who was a big lass literally picked me up and carried me out of there whilst my other friend punched all the men to get them away from us. That was in 1998 and I never returned to Bali.

I was on my first 18-30s holiday after leaving 6form in school I was only 18 near enough the whole year was there we had went , me and my group of friends went out for lunch not a drop of booze as we were leaving I saw a skirt I liked the look of in a window across the road me and my friend went to cross the road on the strip as the rest paid their bill she was a few steps behind me I checked as I was crossing out of no where a huge jeep came screeching round the corner and hit me at at least 40mph it threw me into the air ,my friend went to run backwards to try and stop herself getting hit and as she done this a taxi swerved off the other side of the road to miss her and as it done so it hit me on the way down from being throwing up in the air , I hit the taxis wind screen and slid off , I suffered a broken leg and fracture in the bone just below my eye and and a fracture to my jaw I have an inch scar on my eyebrow and a 2 inch scar on my leg along with mussel damage in my eye but other than that I walked away from it (kind of) the police told us after seeing cctv footage they were pretty sure if the taxi hadn’t slowed down and hit me that I would of died or ended up breaking my neck because I would of hit the ground with such force but basically the taxi broke my fall

So yeah that was fun ! It took me 8 years to get back on a plane

I lived in France in my early twenties. I've always been a runner but had to give up there as every time I went out I got followed in cars, I was flashed at several times and some bloke grabbed my boobs. Nightmare.

Staying in Istanbul, the hotel next to ours was bombed by the PKK.
Also in Istanbul, was followed by a man and had to run to lose him.
In Israel, the taxi driver who took us from the airport to the hotel was terrifying on the road. Actually didn’t think we’d make it in one piece.

@jd88123 I am so very sorry to hear that:(

In Turkey. I was with my boyfriend taking a romantic walk back to the hotel via a very remote route late at night. Suddenly, all the streetlights snapped off (apparently they were programmed to do so at the same time every night). At that moment two of the most aggressive and terrifying dogs I've ever seen in real life started bounding towards us, barking, growling, baring their teeth and foaming at the mouth. He pushed me aside and 'squared up' to them. I have no idea what he intended to do. As they got a couple of feet away from him somebody called/whistled to them and they abruptly turned around and ran off. It was terrifying.

I haven’t had scary experiences (thank goodness and more through luck than judgement) but I do remember going off with a lad on a moped in Greece once and thinking “wtf am I doing? This is everything my mum said not to do”.
Also remember arriving in New York on the greyhound at about 11pm with a friend when we were travelling at 18, quite a dodgy area and miles from our hotel. We were escorted off the bus by a very kind group of recently released prisoners who said this was “not a safe area, we should know!”, literally put us in a taxi (pushed us to the front of the queue) and sent us on our way. So the opposite of this thread but it was a situation that could have been very different!

I do agree that French and Italian men live up to their reputations. My mum said when I was in France at 14 older men would just leer at me constantly and she would give them a hard stare and say “she’s only 14” and they would just shrug.
In Italy I had constant kisses blown and “Bella Bella” at me in the street even though I was only 13. Honestly, I didn’t mind it there as it was handsome young Italian men but now I look back, it was gross, I was an obvious child.

On a road trip around the uk (for me a foreign country) with my then dp when I was just 18. We stopped in a pub for a drink before going back to the hotel. Two guys were chatting with us, being very nice, giving tips for our holiday. When we were leaving, I was outside waiting for dp to come out and the two (big) men came out and cornered me and started groping me and saying horrible stuff to me. Dp came out and before he could make it over they turned on him and beat him unconscious. When one of them punched me flat, other men intervened and ran them off. Dp spent 3 weeks in a uk hospital before he was well enough to travel home. The experience was harrowing. Dp was so beat up I thought he might die. They kicked him in the head. He never truly recovered.

Being on a catamaran from Mumbai to Goa in a hurricane - I spent the journey under my seat, I hate boats but we couldn't get a flight. I remember Men in Black was playing which added to my distress.

Again in India, In a taxi across the desert just my female friend and I- took hours, I was really ill by the time we got to our hotel (doss house) and passed out. Remembered my partners aunt had said to me 'if you get ill, go to the best hotel nearby as they will have an excellent doctor' so did that - injections of who knows what in my bum and 3 days on a drip with a male nurse who went through his address/phone book asking me if I knew any of his relatives who live in England! Oh and my friend went off for the night and next day with the doctor.

In Miami a hurricane that meant a curfew - there was rioting, we had to leave, We had two kids, one 9mths - one 5 who thought it was exciting. Had to drive to Orlando to find a place to stay.

Getting to passport control and being told my passport was not mine and was fake.

Cue getting taken to a secure room by armed Police who shouted at me in Czech for an hour - thank heavens for the UK embassy who sorted everything out. Have to say when the plane landed in Stansted i just burst into tears.

My passport was completely legitimate and my friend who spoke Czech had just gone through and they would not let me call her back to interpret.

Being on a small boat off the coast of Mexico as a storm was brewing. A 20 minute crossing took an hour, the Mexican woman beside me was praying the whole way across, there weren't enough life jackets (and they were locked away in a cupboard), everyone was screaming and it was utterly terrifying every time a huge wave hit the boat and almost capsized it.

The one time speaking Spanish was not an advantage as I could hear how scared the locals were and realised we were not just tourists being silly.

Oh, and being in Belgium on a school trip in 1982 when the Falklands war stared. We were 11 and distraught thinking it was the start of WW3 and just wanted to get home.

So many horrible experiences on this thread

No awful experiences here, but I’m not surprised to see Morocco mentioned a number of times.

On a family holiday in 1995 we encountered a dead body on the beach, a waiter lured me (15 years old) into a bedroom, exposed himself and tried (unsuccessfully) to assault me, and I was constantly groped and propositioned in the town even when covered up and with family.

The week after we returned home someone went mad with a gun in the hotel. A number of people were killed. I remember one girl who was shot but survived by pretending to be dead.

When I went to Paris, a man started harassing me and my boyfriend at the time when we were sat down, he grabbed my own and started putting a shit bracelet round it and then demanded €10 - my boyf started saying no and refusing but I could see a gang of men eyeing the situation so I took his wallet and gave the man the €10 cos god knows what they were planning. Never want to go back honestly.

Mugged in Paris on my honeymoon. But some of these posts are just terrifying.

I've heard things about Morocco. Never want to go there.

Wow, there are some nasty men around. The most shocking to me are those posts where a child has been grabbed and dragged away from their parents. WTF.

Cat 5 super typhoon in Taipei, pre-internet, pre-cellphone pre having any idea it was coming. I thought the building was going to be destroyed.

7.3 richter scale earthquake, many buildings did collapse, never want to be in one of those again. Also Taiwan, a very scary few days with the aftershocks too.

Wow.

Some terrible experiences.

I watch holiday story time on YouTube and so many in India. It's quite disturbing. Rape is very common in India. And men leering angry being crude. I honestly cannot believe it.

As for Morocco, those encounters sound absolutely awful. Some men are absolute pigs.

I have never been abroad and I am 34 this year.
These stories actually put me off....

I have had several incidences abroad.

1. Majorca 1996 on holiday with a friend we got split up on a bar crawl with reps. The next thing i remember i was in a strange appartment and one of the reps was on top of me. I yelled no and with some superhuman strength i pushed him off me and i bolted. Got lost trying to find my way back to the hotel and wandered for hours.
2. Majorca again in 1998. I took my mum on a last minute break as she had had a cancer scare and we ended up on the outskirts of the resort in a mainly residential area. On the second last night i woke up to find 2 men in our room and one held a knife at my throat while they robbed us. They got away with money, watch and my mums wedding ring and engagement ring but we were ok. Spent the last day at the police station giving statements and met 4 other families who were all targeted by the same men on the same night.
3. 2007 zante. My friend decided to take a local man back to our room for some fun while i lay on the beach. What seemed like a consenting experience turned into a nightmare when he ended up raping her and doing things she had refused to do. She refused to report to the police and never left the room for the rest of the holiday. I never left her side while she cried until the plane landed back in britain.
4. 2009 tunisia. Myself and my boyfriend(now husband) went to visit el gem where they filmed gladiator. There was not a lot of tourists around and there seemed to be a lot of locals hanging around in the dark corners underground etc. We climbed up to walk round the different levels and then noticed a head poke out from a stone piller up ahead. They were hiding in small gangs then jumping out and robbing tourists. Thankfully my spidey senses noticed something so we doubled back to escape and then headed back down to sit in the arena seats to watch what was going on. We then witnessed two robberies of poor unsuspecting tourists. We headed straight back to the bus to report to the tour guide but they just shrugged and did nothing. I think they were all in on it. Very sad at such a beautiful place

Goodness after all the awful stories of Morocco I have to say I had a wonderful time when I went there a year or two ago. We stayed in a beautiful riad owned by a young French couple. Walking through the souks and in the main square in Marrakech it seemed like there had been a huge clamp down on behaviour and we weren't hassled at all - we were expecting it to be a nightmare having been to Tangier years before. I had a similarly amazing time in Turkey - with the exception of a couple of grumpy bus/taxi drivers we had a fantastic couple of weeks travelling around.

Jordan too, I went alone and found people really looked after me as a lone female - I even (to my shame) walked around Madaba with my skirt zip undone and my white knickers showing - I was alone in a shop with a male shop keeper who was making signs like he was going to undo his belt - I thought this is dodgy, but there was a counter between us - then I realised what he was trying to tell me!

The biggest problems I've had having travelled all over have been in France, Spain and Italy. In France I was walking along a quiet street with my backpack and a man pulled over and asked me to give him a blow job - I ran in the other direction. I was flashed on the way up to the Alhambre and also in Spain an old man put him arm around me on a train (I was 21 when these 3 things happened). In Rome with my boyfriend a couple years later we had two attempted pick pocketings and again more recently in Naples.