The Danger Zone

After looking into the danger of pirates last week, I have since turned most of my attention to areas on land that are of danger to travellers. I quickly learned that war and civil unrest were not the only dangers. Many places have very high rates of violent crime, others have kidnappers that want ransoms - just like some pirates, then there is the ever present risk of terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, with the amount of dangerous places it was impossible to make a comprehensive list of all of them, and then go on to look further into the specifics of each. Instead, I have found that there are a number of countries that come up immediately in most searches. Here are a couple of lists I have found.
http://www.travelersdigest.com/top_dangerous_locations.htm
http://listverse.com/travel/top-10-most-dangerous-places-on-earth/

This searching has made me realise that with the huge number of danger zones, I am better off choosing my locations, and then checking the danger before putting it on my shortlist of places to visit. Many times, a country may be mentioned as one of the most dangerous, yet there are certain areas that are safe. By discarding all the dangerous countries, I may well be throwing away some of the best locations. As far as health issues are concerned, I am going to do the same thing. Most health issues can be dealt with in some way if you are prepared for them.

One interesting website I have found about travelling in dangerous areas is http://www.comebackalive.com/ which is "The official website of Robert Young Pelton. The place where professionals, adventurers, travelers & those who work & travel in high-risk areas can keep abreast of the latest info & safety tips." Robert Young Pelton is the author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places which is virtually the bible for those travelling to dangerous places. To get an idea of the book http://www.flipkart.com/world-most-dangerous-places-robert/0060011602-mmw3f99m8i has a short description of what it's all about. I hope to get a copy and will certainly post a review of it.

Also, an interesting read on war zone safety can be found here http://wikitravel.org/en/War_zone_safety

Enough on danger for now - My next post will be my first review.