It is not safe to hang out with casual strangers.
Again, with what most experienced travelers will describe as bad advice. Traveling in protective bubble, not interacting with "locals" for the most part helps to defeat the reasons many of us travel.
LW
It is not safe to hang out with casual strangers.
Again, with what most experienced travelers will describe as bad advice. Traveling in protective bubble, not interacting with "locals" for the most part helps to defeat the reasons many of us travel.
LW
I consider myself an experienced traveler. If a local approaches you to make friends, it's always out of some sort of interest. This type of interest varies, it could be getting you to buy something, it could be a scam, or it could be just getting you to give them a dollar or buy them a beer. Or -rarely- it could be just establishing a relationship with a foreigner which they see as bringing unknown benefits in the future. They will never approach a visitor just for being friendly. So get real. This doesn't mean they're necessarily bad people, it just means they're rational people who don't talk to strangers for no reason, like you or I wouldn't either. So... if you don't know what the reason is, then yes it could be dangerous.
Depends on the country. Go to places like Myanmar, Iran, Sudan. The majority of people there just want to chat and have no ulterior motives.
You're right, if you go to the poorest countries where a foreigner is still exotic, true. In Mexico if anyone wanted to be friends with me being a tourist, I would be suspicious as hell.
I've made friends with some local guys in Peru who started chatting with me, apparently their purpose was to get me to buy them a beer and cigarettes, but I had a fun night with them in exchange. So you have to use common sense.
They will never approach a visitor just for being friendly. So get real.
Utter and complete nonsense. While the advice to be wary of "over-friendly" strangers is valid ("HEY BUDDY! You American right! You want girls! Let's go my house!"), you are depriving yourself of serious traveling joy with this attitude. I've been approached by countless people in this way... maybe everyone has their "motive" – i.e. getting to know you – but this has resulted in invitations to small town fiestas, late-night concerts, family dinners, and more.
In this case, the "extroverted" Canadian was up for adventure, and they ended up at the San Marcos Feria, which is really a pretty fantastic event that many foreigners would be thrilled to end up at. A phone was pickpocketed at the country's largest festival – yes, this is shocking, but turning it into advice to never chat with new people really isn't the lesson here.
I didn't think you'd get it. Thanks for illustrating that in some of your remarks. ;-)
LW
Well I've had plenty of nice friendly people approach me in Canada and USA - neither of which I'd describe as poor and both get lots of tourists. Common sense does not mean assuming everyone is out to get you before they even open their mouth.
Well I've had plenty of nice friendly people approach me in Canada and USA - neither of which I'd describe as poor and both get lots of tourists. Common sense does not mean assuming everyone is out to get you before they even open their mouth.
Don't quite understand why anyone would approach you in the USA or Canada if they don't want something from you? I'm not talking about places like bars where people go to meet others, or social situations where it's normal to speak with other people there. Normal people do not start talking to strangers for no reason or purpose. The only country I've been where I felt like people were introducing themselves for no reason was Sri Lanka, and it was quite stupid and quite annoying after a while. In all other countries people who introduced themselves always wanted something, like the Filipino scammers, the pagoda scammer, and of course all the tuk tuk drivers, etc.
I lived in Cambodia for 3 years and during that time Filipino card scammers introduced themselves to me about ten separate occasions on the street. Not a single Cambodian ever introduced himself like this. So being reasonably paranoid is quite justified in my opinion. I do get it, I meet new locals all the time, but it's never them introducing themselves to me for no reason.
