Out of the 33 countries I've explored, only two made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Before I head to a new city, I always send my itinerary and locations to my parents. I check in if not weekly, daily, and I let them know if anything on my itinerary has changed or if I'm feeling uneasy. As I gather information for my itinerary, I always check to see if the country has any active issues within its government, common scams, and crime rates. The first issue I had overseas was in Cairo, Egypt. After landing, I booked a ride on Grab to take me to my hotel. Grab shows you the driver's name and picture, type of car, and license plate number just like uber. Grab notified me of my driver which stated that he is 15 minutes away. I screenshotted the driver's information and sent it to my sister, I do this when I travel to ensure my safety. About 5 minutes later, a similar car pulled up to me saying he was my grab driver. The driver did not have a license plate on his car so I was skeptical. I asked for his name and he refused to give it. I looked at my app and saw that my real driver was 7 minutes away. I proceeded to back up from his car and survey my surroundings. I noticed a police officer a few cars down. I informed the driver that I already had a ride. He pulled out his phone and said the real driver called him to come to pick me up because his car was broken down. I continued to back further away from his car, shaking my head and telling him no thank you. He then opens his car door, walks towards me saying “I'm your ride, get in the car” and reaches for my luggage. I then raised my voice, telling him to get the fuck back as I smacked his hand away from my luggage. As I did so, the police officer began to come toward me. The driver saw him as well, retreated back to his car, and sped off. The officer approached me asking if I was okay, I told him yes and informed him what had just occurred. The officer then stated that this has been happening more than often lately and told me to be vigilant during the rest of my stay in Cairo. He waited with me until my real driver arrived. I didn’t have any other problems after that incident but it did put a bad taste in my mouth. I do not recommend traveling to Cairo solo, this city is would be better off being explored in a group.
The second unpleasant overseas experience I had happened to me took place in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur airport. As soon as I landed, I stopped at the HSBC Amanah ATM to take out $600 in cash. I placed my Master card inside and attempted to withdraw the amount. 30 seconds after typing my pin, the machine approved my request and told me to take the cash and my debit card but the slots never opened. The atm then spits out a receipt confirming my withdrawal while still holding onto my card and cash. I received a text from my bank notifying me of the withdrawal. There was a couple standing behind me that was on my flight so I informed them of what happened. The wife offered to go get help while I wait by the machine just in case it gives my card or cash. There was a 24 hour number on the ATM so I called it while she searched for assistance. I called the number and it was no longer in service. Suspicious. The wife came back and said the help desk didn’t help. Interesting. A security guard walked by and I informed him of my issues, he suggested that I go to the second floor to speak to a bank teller. The husband offered to wait by the ATM just in case so the wife and I headed to the second floor. I proceeded to inform the teller what occurred, she there was nothing she could do and gave me a customer service number. After waiting 30 minutes on hold for a HSBC representative and 40 minutes of arguing with him, again there was nothing anybody could do. The bank rep said it was a “me” problem and I needed to contact my bank to send me a new debit card. Frustrated and tired from the 8-hour flight I just took, I gave up, called a taxi, and went to my Airbnb. The following day I contacted my bank and saw that there were 6 purchase attempts on my card AFTER I left the airport. Luckily, capital one figured it was fraud before approving the purchases. They were able to give me my $600 back and sent a new card to my home address. Thankfully I had more than one debit card with me during my trip to Malaysia. If not I would have been in trouble!
These two unfortunate events have not changed my love for traveling but have made me more aware of scams
