Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane
I was unfortunately curious enough to click on a link posted on a photography forum which showed the aftermath of drug/gang violence in Mexico. Talk about grizzly -- eek, never again! Makes me put Mexico on the bottom of the list of places I wish to visit.
H
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Hi H,
I can't imagine too many queries with travel agents at the moment.
I often like to say that you can never really say that you have been to some place.
You can only really say you have been to some place at a particular point in time.
For an example of what I mean, the Soviet occupied East Berlin I visited in the
mid 80's is a different 'place' to the Berlin you would have seen more recently,
which in turn would be a different place to say, Berlin, mid 1945.
Likewise, I wholeheartedly would recommend a trip to Phnom Penh in 2010
but it clearly would have been unwise to go sightseeing there in 1975.
I've stood in a small laneway in Hiroshima reading a plaque next to a car park
that read "The first atomic bomb used in the history of humankind exploded
approximately 580 meters above this spot. The city below was hit by heat rays
of approximately 3,000 to 4,000 C along with a blast wind and radiation."
During the period of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the early 80's, Peshawar
and the North West Frontier of Pakistan was a place where one needed to be
vigilant, but welcoming cups of chai were generally forthcoming. If your average
westerner were to go back there now, there is a good chance of it becoming a one
way trip.
So things change over time for better or for worse, but hopefully in the not
too distant future, things will take a turn for the better for the good folk of Mexico
and it will once more become a safe place to visit.
Too many people, not enough work and all the rest of the social inadequacies and injustices. At least they are all safe.
