Roh, you bring up an excellent point about safety and caution while traveling. I'm so sorry for your experience and am just glad you weren't harmed. My brother and I stayed at a youth hostel one night in which a room is shared by several different people. My brother is extremely outgoing and I'm definitely an introvert--I retired to the girls' quarters early in the evening and he went out to the main court and stayed up late to chat with people. Unfortunately, at some point, one of them wound up stealing his credit card and charging multiple thousands of dollars on it (he was buying works of art) before they were able to freeze the card.
My only bad experience at the hostel was one girl who pressured each of us to give her money, claiming she would pay us back. I know as Christians we are to be compassionate and generous, but sometimes something doesn't feel right and this was one of those times. I gave her $10 and wish I hadn't because of how obligated I felt, but it was just one of those things.
Safety should be everyone's number one priority when traveling!
Though it cost more, we stayed at hotels the rest of the trip instead. I would stay at hostels again, but only if we had a larger group (so that, for instance, there was more than one of us staying in each of the male/female residencies.)
Yes, it is true that safety must be one's paramount concern while travelling. Sometimes tourists are unaware of their surroundings, especially when they are shutterbugs. There are so many incidents when tourists fall of heights when they 'step closer' for a better view. It just makes me shake my head reading about those accidents. Or when they drive through areas of unrest when the government has issued a warning not to do it (like the MH17). I remember about 2 years there were incidents of Asians being mugged/attacked in Australia. There was a big media outcry in India and they put a spin of 'racism' on it. I was visiting Sydney at the same time that these attacks were happening. But when I got there, my uncle told me one thing 'Never walk through a lonely street after dusk'. I went out exploring by myself with just a map in hand during the day. And I made it a point to be home by 6 or 7 pm. And by God's grace, I was completely safe. And I'm not physically intimidating, mind you. I'm just 5'6" and I weight about 150 lbs.
I was at fault for the mugging in Paris. We were warned that the metro was unsafe for tourists because of the burglars. But we wanted to travel cheap and quick. Plus, I was careless and I put my wallet in the back pocket. BIG MISTAKE. You have stressed on the importance of safety for a good reason. In the excitement of a trip, people forget the issue of safety and face undesired consequences.
i love bridges too. old ones. covered ones. and big ones. probably my sentimentally favorite bridge is the chesapeake bay bridge tunnel.
if you ever get a chance to cross it, i think it's well worth it. it's almost 18 miles from shore to shore, and these two sections of bridges are connected by a pair of mile long tunnels.
i love that when you're in the middle of it, you can't see land in front of you or in your rear view mirror--it really does feel like you're only surrounded by water on a bridge that does seem to move a little when one of those giant trucks flies by in the oncoming traffic.
when i googled for a picture, i found out it is listed as the 9th scariest bridge.
whatever.
check it out. it's a modern wonder and about as cool as steel and iron can get.
funny you say that. i am exactly the same way. there's nothing better than a road trip, and it's even better when you can zonk out for an hour or two. : D
Wow. That must be an awesome drive. The problem with me is that I have the fear of heights. I can drive through a mountain pass or a bridge. Just never tell me to look out of the window. DON'T! I may pass out. Or maybe in the interest of my "safety", since Seoul had stressed so much on it, I must skip this.
my ability to drive without sleeping is in direct relationship to my ability to trust the person i'm road tripping, both their driving and not getting lost while i'm asleep.
the first time i drove from the west coast to the east coast, i was with my dingy girlfriend, who is long on loyalty and extremely conservative/cautious sensibilities and quite short in navigational sense (i.e. reading highways reading highway signs).
anyway, she also drove so slow that the pre-fab homes would pass by. to top it off, her furrowed brow and almost expectant look of impending doom never seemed to inspire much confidence from me.
i think she drove MAYBE four hours of that trip?
and no, i don't think i even blinked when she drove. : )
I am used to driving with my companions sleeping. I just turn up the music, put on some "racy" music like house or club and I am good to go. In fact I prefer solitary drives. It is so good to spend time with yourself. I can enjoy my company as much as I can enjoy a car crammed with friends.
But what I am never good at is with the directions. I have been driving for about 7 years now and believe me, I cannot get my directions right. I am not exaggerating but I have got lost even around my home. I drive around my neighbourhood, take an unusual turn and then end up thinking "Wait, I've never been here before. Where do I go from here?" I rely a lot on my GPS. So when I plan for a trip, the first thing on my list is one or two GPS navigators (either mobile/tom-tom) with spare batteries.
There is a positive side to my directional-handicap though. The drive will ALWAYS be full of surprises. The trip will ALWAYS have memories. Isn't that a good thing? Like 'Why are we proceeding east when we should be going west?' Or, 'Why does it look like we're on the route to somewhere else?'