Traveling outside the U.S.

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504RP

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Anyone travel frequently outside of the U.S. into other countries ? Is it safe ?
 
504RP said:
Anyone travel frequently outside of the U.S. into other countries ? Is it safe ?
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Different people have different ideas of "safe", but in general I'd travel just about anywhere but a war zone. The news is full of stories but they always focus on the worst. And for every horror story there are thousands of people coming home safe.
I don't worry about swimming in an ocean with less than a 100 shark attacks a year.
 
I’m sure there’s safe places to go outside of the US. At this point Canada (during the summer) would be my suggestion if going outside the US. Australia would be a good option too, but personally I ain’t ever had a hankerin to get in an airplane.
Wife’s cousin took a month a couple years ago and went to Sweden and Germany to visit some former foreign exchange students and their families that her family hosted previously.
I have a cousin who worked for a few years in Scotland, at one point they were thinking about the possibility of staying there long term but it didn’t work out with the job position and they came back.
When I was a small child, (I have no memory of it) my family went to El Paso TX, my mother was there for a work conference. One day while she was at work my father drove the rest of us across the border into Mexico.
They must have got quite a scare as a young man on a bicycle followed them for quite a while trying to grab onto the car. Finally my father decided to come back across. The next day they went on a tour bus. I’m surprised he would go back.
My wife and I always talk about how much there is to see here in the US.
 
Back when i was riding rodeos we hopped across the border into Canada a lot. I was about like going to another state except they stopped at the border. I know some ranchers who are right on the border in eastern Washington. It is well over an hour to the nearest grocery store in the US and about 10 minutes into Canada. They would drive across the border barely slow down and just wave to the guards. I don't know it is still that way.

My little sister worked for the Swede-Finn Historical Society in Seattle. She has gone to Finland a number of times. We have a number of relative there including a second cousin who owns the farm my grandfather was born on.
 
NIdahoShorthorns said:
Canada is great, and everything is 30% off. I go 8-10 times a year for various things. Not many places are unsafe, unless you are looking for trouble.
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I would like to see Canada and a lot of the states along its Southern Borders. I wish I could say the same for where I am and a lot of the surrounding states here. You don’t have to look for trouble here. It will find you.
 
I have been in every state in the western half of the US except Hawaii. Plus British Columbia, Alberta, and up through the Yukon in Canada. And one week trip as a chaperone to Maryland with a couple side trips that week into Virginia, West Virginia, And PA.
I have no desire to go back to the east side of the country. And the few areas in the west that I will avoid involve big cities or hot weather. But the rest of this part of the world is great.
 
There are a lot of places here in the U.S. I hope to get to see someday. Mostly the Northern parts like Oregon, Washington, and a lot more of Wyoming and Illinois I can’t name them all. I guess basically all the Northern states. I am like Dave I just don’t care much for cities of any size although especially big cities. I lived smack dab in Houston Texas for a while and I guess it wasn’t really all that bad. But I am just a country boy.

The reason I was asking about travel outside the U.S. is because there is something in particular that I think I would like to see in China. And that is the first emperor of China exhibit. That has amazed me ever since I found out about it.

For those of you that are like me and maybe haven’t heard about it. Farmers in China while digging a water well dug these life size statues of Chinese soldiers that archeologists later found out were replicas of the first Emperor of china who ruled back if I remember right ruled 2 or 3,000 years ago.

When these farmers found the first few of what has now turned into 8000 + full
life size statues of the Emperor’s army that are called terracotta warriors. And they were all them are buried next to
the emperors tomb and positioned like the 8000 terracotta warrior statues are in formation in front of the tomb to guard it.

These statues have been dug up by archeologists and the government has put them on display. You can google and see photos of this, to me this is pretty impressive and interesting. Something I would like to see.

Archeologist alss found the emperors tomb but have not entered it yet for several reasons. They have found documents that describe the tombs contents and learned it’s guarded by booby traps. And contains a lot of mercury that was put there to replicate bodies of water. The Emperors tomb is built to replicate his empire of all the regions in China he controlled and ruled. The oceans and rivers are filled with Mercury in his tomb.

Scientists are waiting until they have the technology to enter the tomb without damaging it. When the Archaeologists dug up the statues the paint on them and other artifacts started deteriorating from being exposed to fresh air after having been burried for the last 2 or 3 thousand years. And if they try and enter the emperors tomb the same could happen to it and its contents.

I want to say the emperor had 30 children and I can’t remember exactly how many concubines, want to say that number was around 800 or more. Think it was like 2000.

Something that else that’s amazing to me. He died at 49 years old by mercury poisoning. His alchemist was given him mercury pills thinking that would give the emperor immortality. But it was was because the emperor had order them to find a way to make him immortal so that he could live forever.

He had priest and other priests and other people constantly searching for wizards, priests or any type of spiritual person that could make him capable of immortality. He sent out expeditions that consisted of whole armies of 10,000 soldiers supplied with enough supplies and provisions that they never returned because they were ordered by the emperor to search until they found someone or something that would make the emperor immortal.

Now that’s not only crazy and amazing but hard to believe happened but it did and this archaeological discovery is the proof it did. This Emperor is also who built the Great Wall of China. And that’s something else I would like to see.

I know there are a lot of things to see and do right here in the U.S. But I can’t think of any to compare to the first Emperor of China’s display.
 
504RP said:
There are a lot of places here in the U.S. I hope to get to see someday. Mostly the Northern parts like Oregon, Washington, and a lot more of Wyoming and Illinois I can’t name them all. I guess basically all the Northern states. I am like Dave I just don’t care much for cities of any size although especially big cities. I lived smack dab in Houston Texas for a while and I guess it wasn’t really all that bad. But I am just a country boy.

The reason I was asking about travel outside the U.S. is because there is something in particular that I think I would like to see in China. And that is the first emperor of China exhibit. That has amazed me ever since I found out about it.

For those of you that are like me and maybe haven’t heard about it. Farmers in China while digging a water well dug these life size statues of Chinese soldiers that archeologists later found out were replicas of the first Emperor of china who ruled back if I remember right ruled 2 or 3,000 years ago.

When these farmers found the first few of what has now turned into 8000 + full
life size statues of the Emperor’s army that are called terracotta warriors. And they were all them are buried next to
the emperors tomb and positioned like the 8000 terracotta warrior statues are in formation in front of the tomb to guard it.

These statues have been dug up by archeologists and the government has put them on display. You can google and see photos of this, to me this is pretty impressive and interesting. Something I would like to see.

Archeologist alss found the emperors tomb but have not entered it yet for several reasons. They have found documents that describe the tombs contents and learned it’s guarded by booby traps. And contains a lot of mercury that was put there to replicate bodies of water. The Emperors tomb is built to replicate his empire of all the regions in China he controlled and ruled. The oceans and rivers are filled with Mercury in his tomb.

Scientists are waiting until they have the technology to enter the tomb without damaging it. When the Archaeologists dug up the statues the paint on them and other artifacts started deteriorating from being exposed to fresh air after having been burried for the last 2 or 3 thousand years. And if they try and enter the emperors tomb the same could happen to it and its contents.

I want to say the emperor had 30 children and I can’t remember exactly how many concubines, want to say that number was around 800 or more. Think it was like 2000.

Something that else that’s amazing to me. He died at 49 years old by mercury poisoning. His alchemist was given him mercury pills thinking that would give the emperor immortality. But it was was because the emperor had order them to find a way to make him immortal so that he could live forever.

He had priest and other priests and other people constantly searching for wizards, priests or any type of spiritual person that could make him capable of immortality. He sent out expeditions that consisted of whole armies of 10,000 soldiers supplied with enough supplies and provisions that they never returned because they were ordered by the emperor to search until they found someone or something that would make the emperor immortal.

Now that’s not only crazy and amazing but hard to believe happened but it did and this archaeological discovery is the proof it did. This Emperor is also who built the Great Wall of China. And that’s something else I would like to see.

I know there are a lot of things to see and do right here in the U.S. But I can’t think of any to compare to the first Emperor of China’s display.
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China is a wonderful place to visit. But be aware that there are pick-pockets at any tourist location, and every tour goes through gift shops on the way out of any venues. And there are beggars. People with horrible deformities and injuries.
The terra cotta warriors are worth seeing. There's a huge building covering the exposed dig, and displays in other buildings.
My personal favorite was the Great Wall. Depending on where you see it, you should have a choice about which direction to walk on it. I recommend you walk the opposite way that the crowd is walking. And if there are steep parts, go that way. The steps they made were not uniform at all. They had steps that were four inches tall and others that were sixteen inches tall and one height can be right next to the other height, all jumbled up. I can't see how any army could march on it.
I'd heard that you could find donkey jerky at the Great Wall in the shops, and I wanted to try it. But I never found any.
Visit a public park if you can. You'll see some thing you would never find in the States. And pay attention to the way things are wired from the electrical poles. They steal electricity and there can be a spiderweb of wires half way between poles with twenty wires leading away to buildings. The high rises are interesting too as every balcony has different stuff on it. Lots of elevated freeways.
The hotels were high class, and the food was very good, and it was surprising how many people spoke English.
 
I follow a couple of travel blogs that are interesting. Allows you to "travel" through the eyes of others.

Here is a canadian couple that quit their jobs, sold their possessions and became full time travelers about 20 years ago when they were in their 40's. They are in China now and recently visited the terra cotta warriors. They post daily with pictures and descriptions of what they did and what they saw.
https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2026/06/the-famous-terracotta-warriors.html#more

Best of all is this Dutch girl who travels alone on a motorcycle. She produces outstanding videos of her adventures. Her story is that she worked internationally as a geologist and was starting work on a PhD program. She discovered her love of international motorcycle travel and has traveled full time in 80 countries since 2018. Very organized, very resourceful, amazing drone footage and video content. Interactions with the locals and great scenery of places you will never visit. I thought Saudi Arabia was just a big desert. Her videos there show that is not the case. Better than a tv program or movie. She goes way off the beaten path. Generally, 2 videos per week now. There are now over 800 videos. And she does it all herself. She is currently on a trip from Turkey to Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/@ItchyBoots

Here is a longer highlight video of her trip from southern South America to the Arctic ocean in Alaska. One of her longer trips that was interrupted by covid. There are 235 videos of this multi year trip. 65,000 km through 18 countries. This longer 90 minute video shows highlights of that trip. You can travel and see the world with her.
 
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simme said:
I follow a couple of travel blogs that are interesting. Allows you to "travel" through the eyes of others.

Here is a canadian couple that quit their jobs, sold their possessions and became full time travelers about 20 years ago when they were in their 40's. They are in China now and recently visited the terra cotta warriors. They post daily with pictures and descriptions of what they did and what they saw.
https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2026/06/the-famous-terracotta-warriors.html#more

Best of all is this Dutch girl who travels alone on a motorcycle. She produces outstanding videos of her adventures. Her story is that she worked internationally as a geologist and was starting work on a PhD program. She discovered her love of international motorcycle travel and has traveled full time in 80 countries since 2018. Very organized, very resourceful, amazing drone footage and video content. Interactions with the locals and great scenery of places you will never visit. I thought Saudi Arabia was just a big desert. Her videos there show that is not the case. Better than a tv program or movie. She goes way off the beaten path. Generally, 2 videos per week now. There are now over 800 videos. And she does is all herself. She is currently on a trip from Turkey to Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/@ItchyBoots

Here is a longer highlight video of her trip from southern South America to the Arctic ocean in Alaska. One of her longer trips that was interrupted by covid. There are 235 videos of this multi year trip. 65,000 km through 18 countries. This longer 90 minute video shows highlights of that trip. You can travel and see the world with her.
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Thank you Simmie. More than likely I won’t make the trip for various reasons. Cost, my health and concern of possible robbery and all that goes along with that. I have been googling sastistic’s of things that can and has happened in China and even in the U.S.

As a teenager while a senior in high school a friend and me had a couple of men in their mid thirties pull a gun on both of us telling us they were going to kill us. Spent about 12 hours at the police station looking at suspects through a one way mirror as the police picked them up and brought them in. Police took what happened to us very serious because come to find out several people had been killed and their bodies dumped in the back waters of the river where these two men had threatened to kill us. This happened within a couple of miles of Arkansas University college campus. Some of the bodies of the victims they had recovered were college kids. And this happened in the late 70’s when supposedly there was no reason to worry about crime here.

And I can add a lot more incidents like that which has happened since that time. I have just learned to be careful of where I go. Here at home or wherever I go.
 
Every since 911, the only places I have gone, or will go, is the resort cities in Mexico, the Bahamas, Canada, Bermuda, The Caymans, Coasta Rica and the US Virgin Islands. I have crossed over with my friend and partner from El Paso to his ranch in Chihuahua several times in the past 30 years. But, about 3-4 years ago, he was murdered and his truck stolen on his ranch. I dealt with his son some after that, until the border was closed to Mexican cattle in 2024, but I never went back into Chihuahua.
 
Warren Allison said:
Ever since 911, the only places I have gone, or will go, is the resort cities in Mexico, the Bahamas, Canada, Bermuda, The Caymans, Coasta Rica and the US Virgin Islands. I have crossed over with my friend and partner from El Paso to his ranch in Chihuahua several times in the past 30 years. But, about 3-4 years ago, he was murdered and his truck stolen on his ranch. I dealt with his son some after that, until the border was closed to Mexican cattle in 2024, but I never went back into Chihuahua.
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Probably 40 years ago I flew in to Elpaso and drove to Las Cruse’s New Mexico to train on a new automated machine that was the first of 50 to be built for the company I worked for. Most of the people that worked at that plant were Spanish people and very nice people. The man that was teaching me about this new machine invited me to his home to have dinner with him and his wife. I had always heard of Waraz New Mexico and that you could buy stuff cheap there and had planned on going there.

So I asked the man about it and he said that unless I had a local from the area that I knew well he wouldn’t recommend I go there the first time by myself and that if I did decide to go I should get some kind of insurance on the rental car I had got at the airport because I stood a good chance of having it stolen if I went there. I have heard both good and bad things about Waraz New Mexico.
 
tater74 said:
Juarez. Been there. Lived in Las Cruces.
No desire to go back.
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Really ? I thought Las Cruces was pretty neat, kind of desert with big cactus, rolling hills. Adobe houses. The man who invited me to eat dinner with him and his wife had one of the biggest bull elk shoulder mounts hanging on his den wall I have ever seen. Was just sightseeing a little after work there one evening and drove to place close to white sands Missile base base. I have never seen sand as white as that sand was. Looked like snow.

Did you live there long and why would you not want to back there ?
 
Dave said:
Back when i was riding rodeos we hopped across the border into Canada a lot. I was about like going to another state except they stopped at the border. I know some ranchers who are right on the border in eastern Washington. It is well over an hour to the nearest grocery store in the US and about 10 minutes into Canada. They would drive across the border barely slow down and just wave to the guards. I don't know it is still that way.

My little sister worked for the Swede-Finn Historical Society in Seattle. She has gone to Finland a number of times. We have a number of relative there including a second cousin who owns the farm my grandfather was born on.
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A friend told about being in a bar in northern North Dakota and they would blow the siren in town so the Canadians could get back across the border before it closed for the night.
 
Was listening to the local radio station to day and there’s a 30 minute news report. One report was about a double Homicide less than 30 miles where I live in a rural area just outside of the city limits in the country. Police were called by an elderly woman in her 60’s saying a man they were letting live with her and her husband that was 62 years old was being killed by the person they was letting live with them. Her last words while on the phone was “ He is killing me ! “

When sheriff deputies arrived there was a one hour stand off and ended in tear gas being used to enter the residence. While trying to restrain the murder he went for one deputy’s holstered pistol and another deputy ended up shooting the murderer twice in the chest killing him. The murder had stabbed the man and woman 47 times killing them.

Something like that would have never been dreamed to happen here 20 years ago. But stuff like that and surrounding areas are more and more common all of the time. That’s why when a few was making statements that most places they know of are safe unless you are looking for trouble and I replied back that around around here anymore you don’t have to look for trouble it will find you.

And this happened in the heart of the U.S. that’s supposed to be one of the safest places on earth.
 

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