Various Shitholes in the USA and how I'm surprised I'm still alive.
At the tender age of 20 I found myself flying around America with my girlfriend on a 4 week unlimited standby flights ticket with Delta Airlines. It was called The Delta Pass and cost a mere 235 quid for non US residents under the age of 25. It was like Willy Wonkas golden ticket to the Promised land... of certain death.

Being rather naieve and on a tight budget we found ourselves in a few dubious areas due to genius accomodation idea #1. Get the bus into town and wander around looking for a hotel. It couldn't fail. Until:

Orlando: Getting off a bus at midnight in the middle of some downtown ghetto area of Orlando and wandering around looking for a hotel, wearing backpacks. Mercifully the first person that came across our frail souls was a cop on patrol. He guided us to a hotel and told us never to do something as stupid as this again. He'd got an *actual* shotgun mounted on his dashboard. I wasn't going to argue with that authority!

So genius Hotel Idea #2 was born. Once we'd landed in each destination we'd use the free phones at the airport to find the cheapest hotel that would put on a free shuttle service and had cheap rooms.

Miami: Upon returning from a nice trip to Miami Beach to what appeared to be a very nice hotel in a somewhat dubious area of Miami the bus driver insisted on waiting until we'd crossed the road and got safely into our hotel. He strongly advised us that the following morning we got the hell out of there. We did.

Denver, Colorado: Some remote suburb hotel that prided itself on free XXX hardcore porn in every room. There were a lot of ladies on the street corner who's stockings didn't go all the way up to their skirts. When we checked in the receptionist looked very wary of us. Turns out in future conversations that to most 'merkins we both looked about 12.

Sanfransisco: The lovely free transfer bus took us into a shabby hotel in the deepest suburb of Chinatown. Upon leaving the hotel to find something to eat 'Lets try Chinese, lol' it was very apparent when we left the hotel that this was not just some chinese themed tourist trap but was a whole district under Chinese occupation. i.e The only non chinese there was scrawny old me and my 5'2 blonde haired girlfriend wearing a bright pink t-shirt. Opposite the hotel was one of those metal fire escapes that the bad guys get chased down in cop movies. It was teeming with whores. We ate at the closest restaurant and got the hell back to the hotel. The following day the we went to see the Golden Gate bridge and on the way back realised the g/f had lost the map back to the hotel. All we had to go by was the name 'The airporter hotel'. Did any Cop in the dubious area of Sanfransisco we'd found ourself in at dusk know of this hotel? Did they fcuk. This was the only time I truly felt in fear of my life on the trip and things were getting desperate as light faded.

We were obviously looking desperate by this point and we were relieved to hear another English voice asking whether we were ok. 'No, We're lost. Nobody knows where our hotel is and we lost the map.' we told this 20-something. Upon giving him the name he only bloody knew where it was and insisted he escorted us back there. 'No wonder nobody knew where it was. It's 15 miles away.'

New York: The Delta Pass had run out. As had our money so we found ourselves at La Guardia airport with 3 days to kill before the return flight. Hailing the nearest taxi and handing over our bags to the rather large but smartly suited bubba look-alike it suddenly dawned upon me that this was probably not an official taxi (infact there was nothing to indicate it was a taxi at all) and as we headed into the night I was becoming increasingly agitated. When he took one of the long curving exits from one of the freeways I was seriously expecting him to rob us, throw us out and leave us in the middle of nowhere. I unsheathed my trusty Swiss Army knife blade (heh, I'm gonna go down fighting!).

20 minutes later we're dropped off at our hotel. Alive. Turns out the guy was down on his luck and all he had left was a nice car and a suit and just wanted to make a (semi-honest) living.

So there we were stranded for 3 days in a hotel in the middle of gangland New York. About 20 miles from the City. The first day we decided to venture out to the 7-11. It was like a scene from Boys in the Hood. We went back to the hotel and spent the next 3 days hiding under the bedclothes.

We took 22 different flights and there were many more shitholes but these ones stand out the most.

If I wasn't an athieist I almost think we had a Guardian angel looking out for us on that trip. We were youthful idiots.

Length? More like depth. About 6 foot(under) by rights
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 30 Oct 2009, 11:22, 5 replies)

A bit racist that really wasn't it?
Just trying to understand how you were in Gandland New York (New York whilst having groups of people whom associate, and organized Crime, has a very small percentage in the 'gangs' that you refer to. I've no idea how that area was 15 miles from the City, given that it's all City, unless you go out of the City. The worst areas are in the Bronx, Upper Manhattan can be a little rought, Queens has some dodgey areas, and Brooklyn can also etc... but it's generally nice... Boys in the Hood is actually set in Los Angeles, so I guess it's the large proportion of black people outside on the street that gave it that scary edge... and they were all in gangs... cos you didn't know them, but they knew one another? Truth is, I went all over NY, walking from Flatbush through to Redhook and back to manhattan, jumped off the Train at Kingson and Throop / Uttica, and been the only white face out on a real dark night... walked a couple of miles down the road carrying £4000 worth of video equipment, and only got hellos, nods and curious looks from a few... seriously...
(Universon, Fri 30 Oct 2009, 11:44, closed)

Well.
I think you need to put this in the perspective of 2 innocent 20 year old from pre-internet 18 years ago when the only things we saw about America were via American cop shows and films like Colors.

When we were there as far as we were concerned it was Gangland New York...and as far as we were concerned bubba was going to mug us until proven otherwise.

And yes. We were told of several recent shootings that occurred in the vicinity of the hotel. To 2 kids from Cheshire in the late 80's this is as gangland as it's going to get.
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 30 Oct 2009, 12:01, closed)

Crucial fact
18 years ago. Very different place. I've had the same experience as Universon above, but that was eight years ago and while I never felt threatened (Bed-Stuy, by accident, not a 'good' area at all) I certainly felt alert.

It's not racist to feel intimidated when sticking out as much as two white kids in the South Bronx would. Of course everyone you meet is likely to be law-abiding and at worst curious about your presence there, but you *will* draw attention to yourself and if there are any dodgy types about they *will* notice you. Pretending otherwise out of some white middle-class desire not to be racist is just stupid, not to mention patronising.
( Scrumper, Fri 30 Oct 2009, 14:25, closed)

hmmmm
What I was pointing out was, that it was racist to assume that it was gangland territory, and the comparison with Boys In The Hood, which is an entirely different Coast, thousands of miles away, with a completely different cultural approach to life... seems to have the similarity of 'a lot of black people live there, and seem to hang around outside their houses in the street'. In which case I walked through a small town in Yorkshire and it was like a clan rally.
(Universon, Fri 30 Oct 2009, 15:44, closed)

so..
You've been to Bradford/Keighley then?
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 10:11, closed)