November 19, 2018

Is the Welcome Mat Out?

By roads-rus

ed

When I tell people that I was just in Nicaragua and Guatemala, they often look at me with an are you nuts? expression on their faces.  I recently talked to a Japanese friend who just got back from a road trip in Canada.  He said it was becoming easier for him to travel because he didn’t look Caucasian.  I told him that on our Panama Canal cruise many of the passengers on our cruise ship were from Canada, and many assumed we were also from Canada.  Often, I was tempted to not correct them.  Ruth and I have been in situations in foreign countries when locals have asked where we’re from.  When I say, “The United States”, they sometimes react negatively to the news.  Americans are clearly not welcomed is some places.  We’ve experienced anti-American vibes in Turkey, Hungary, Poland, etc.

I got to thinking about where we are still accepted and googled countries that welcome Americans.  The results were surprising on theculturetrip.com.  According to this website, there are 11 countries where local citizens are generally glad to see us–India, Georgia, Australia, Cuba, Japan, Russia, Canada, Thailand, Ireland, Belize, and The UK.  Cuba?  Russia?   I was uncomfortable in both places.  We cancelled a trip that included Georgia last year partially because of anti-American sentiment in that part of the world.  I had a good friend who was murdered in Belize.  I would not have gone to Guatemala on my own in 2018 because my friend was killed by Guatemalans.  hmmmmmmmmm

247wallstreet.com reported through John Harrington and Samuel Stebbins that a record number of Americans plan to travel to other countries this year, and that in 2017 38.3 Americans left the United States at some point during the year.  Harrington and Stebbins wisely recommend that it’s in every citizen’s best interest to check the US State Department’s website for travel advisories before foreign travel.  Parts of Mexico are no longer safe, and the article says that there are 29 countries that the US Government doesn’t want its citizens to go to.  The 29 include expected places like Afghanistan, Chad, and Iran.   But the list also includes Russia, Turkey, and Nicaragua.  Haiti, a destination for many Americans who want to help other cultures, is also on this list.

I suspect that this list of 29 will increase in 2019 and hope that I’m wrong.

Hank

 

 

 

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2018 at 9:53 pm and posted in Travel Obstacles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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