Most inhospitable place you have visited

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I believe many Numista members have done quite a bit of travelling. In your experience what has been the most inhospitable (due to nature or isolation, not to residents) locality where you have spent at least one night. My experiences were 30 or 40 years ago and so places may have changed.

The worst place due to nature was LA QUIACA, Argentina, on the Bolivian border. The wind blew non-stop and the grit in the air was like sandpaper on exposed skin. There were no attractions in the place and it was just a place where my tour stopped before continuing into Bolivia (where you would not want to drive at night unless it was an absolute necessity).

Runner up: HODEIDA, Yemen, the hottest place I've ever been. We stayed penned in the hotel air conditioning all day and the sightseeing tour started at 9 PM due to the heat.

The hardest place to reach: MOUNT DATA, Philippines, a long drive on a dirt road often blocked by landslides. But very scenic.

Runner up: BAUICHIVO, Mexico, way off the beaten path, reached by railway with a stop in the middle of nowhere and then a long desert drive in an old school bus run by the only hotel in the town at the time, a converted mission. Near the territory of the Tarahumara Indians.

Will
As I've already humblebragged about over on my Where have you visited in the world? thread, I've been on four continents already, and someday I intend to make it to all seven. Yes, even Antarctica, so maybe I'll resurrect this thread in a few years. :` But from what I have visited:

Worst place; Giza, Egypt
I was only 7 when my parents decided to go backpacking in Egypt, but I still remember the day we were on the Giza Plateau, a stone's throw away from the last surviving Wonder of the Ancient World, a gust picked up and we basically spent the day covering our faces. Nothing like a true sandstorm, but I've had enough of a taste, thank you very much! A human contribution to our misery would be the endless snack and souvenir hawkers, who pop up next to every famous tourist site from Giza to the Valley of the Kings to Abu Simbel. And believe me they can be persistent when they see some foreign visitors....

Most remote place; Uluru
A giant rock in the middle of the Australian continent; can't get much more remote than that! Even if it has become a bit of a tourist trap since. There really wasn't anything worth doing other than photo shoots, but I have fond memories from other (remote) parts of Australia involving sliding down massive sand dunes and even a hot-air ballooning trip.

Runner up: The Maldives
Another very isolated country, this time an atoll in the Indian Ocean, sadly now threatened by the effects of man-made climate change. This time geographical placement is the only indicator of remote here, since it was a comfy resort with all the comforts of home. Journey was a flight to Dubai, a connection to Malé, and seaplane to the resort.
In terms of remoteness, I went to the British Indian Ocean Territory a few years ago. 10,000 miles from home.

In terms of inhospitality to human life, I have been 100 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
I would hardly call the Maldives "inhospitable" it's a little island paradise.

For me it was actually in my own country. I went with a group of people to do some tramping and snow caving up in the mountains near the St James walkway in the Lewis Pass in the middle of winter. We camped in front of a frozen waterfall in a tent and it was so cold that our sleeping bags froze to the sides of the tent overnight, and our boots and trousers that we hung on the guy-ropes of the tent froze solid. We had to light a fire and thaw them out before we could put them on. It is a beautiful part of the country though.

What? Me Worry
Im spend my money on stamps, banknotes, old objects, alcohol and numismatics, so I have not travelled so much. And its hard. But...

Remote: the Finnish forest.

Worst: I have not been to many places, but somewhere in bristol. 4 police cars went, at night next to the motel I was staying in. The neighbour had a party.

I have not been in many places, as I have said.
Quote: "neilithicman"​I would hardly call the Maldives "inhospitable" it's a little island paradise.

​I put it there as a runner up for most isolated, not for most inhospitable. 8)
question is "most inhospitable place you have visited" Maldives may be remote but it's not inhospitable because of its remoteness, especially if you're staying in a resort.
What? Me Worry
If you mean a country that is far away from anywhere then probably Fiji.

If you're meaning the furthest place from civilisation (which I believe the post is supposed to be about) then that'd probably be the times that I was doing some glacier work up in the Rockburn or hunting red deer in the Upukerora Valley and Acheron lakes.

and the hardest place to reach in the original post was talking about the most difficult places to access i.e. "a long drive on a dirt road often blocked by landslides", If you can get to The Maldives on an Emirates flight it's not hard to reach.
What? Me Worry
I wouldn’t deliberately do holidays or travel to places that are “inhospitable”. However I was in Beijing in December 2014 and standing with my friend on prospect hill as he took pictures of the forbidden city from the advantageous view. All I remember was the nail bitingly cold winds that day. That’s the closest I’ve come to “inhospitable” places I’ve travelled to. Of course, here in my country, I was once waiting at a stop for the bus to come in London ON. It was -45C, my fingers and toes were starting to go numb and I wanted so badly to pee. Now that was inhospitable lol
Outings administrator
Quote: "ashlobo"Of course, here in my country, I was once waiting at a stop for the bus to come in London ON. It was -45C, my fingers and toes were starting to go numb and I wanted so badly to pee. Now that was inhospitable lol

Ha, I saw a post from someone one time that was clothing for temperatures in Canada.

-40 was full gear, -20 was jeans and a shirt, 0 degrees the dude was standing in his undies sweating :D
What? Me Worry
Quote: "neilithicman"
Quote: "ashlobo"Of course, here in my country, I was once waiting at a stop for the bus to come in London ON. It was -45C, my fingers and toes were starting to go numb and I wanted so badly to pee. Now that was inhospitable lol
​​
​Ha, I saw a post from someone one time that was clothing for temperatures in Canada.

​-40 was full gear, -20 was jeans and a shirt, 0 degrees the dude was standing in his undies sweating :D
​haha, I usually wear shorts the moment it climbs over 5C. Parading in my undies at 0C isn’t appealing to me, and I can only imagine probably not to others as well bahaha
Outings administrator
Toronto.

Been twice, been detained twice. That's pretty damned inhospitable. Nuff Said.


Matt bruv….. you have a way of stating things with great clarity.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
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Oh, and it was once in January and once in February.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
The Maldives is not remote. Over 300 international passenger flights land there weekly, and in the first 3 months of 2015 they had 400,000 international arrivals.
By comparison, Keflavik, Iceland's main international airport had 300,000 international arrivals in the same period.
My most 'inhospitable' visit is probably to Somaliland - basically went because my mum told me I can't go to Somalia, so it was kind of a compromise. From what I've heard and read, you don't want to go to Somalia for real though, so Somalia is about as close as a sane person from the west will get. Ended up smoking pot/shisha and munching on chicken for 2 days. Lovely people, despite the misconceptions. Unfortunately my mother wasn't particularly impressed.

Also visited Svalbard, which is absolutely stunning but probably not as great a story. Better photos though.
Quote: "oggy"​My most 'inhospitable' visit is probably to Somaliland - basically went because my mum told me I can't go to Somalia, so it was kind of a compromise. From what I've heard and read, you don't want to go to Somalia for real though, so Somalia is about as close as a sane person from the west will get. Ended up smoking pot/shisha and munching on chicken for 2 days. Lovely people, despite the misconceptions. Unfortunately my mother wasn't particularly impressed.

​Also visited Svalbard, which is absolutely stunning but probably not as great a story. Better photos though.
​lol, Why Somalia of all places in the first instance?
Outings administrator
Most inhospitable: Viet Nam 1968 - 69

Runner up: Nome, Alaska 1972 -82°F wind at 96mph ..
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Do not argue with ignorant people .. !! They will drag you down to their level, then pulverize you with experience ...
Quote: "pnightingale"Toronto.

​Been twice, been detained twice. That's pretty damned inhospitable. Nuff said
​haha, considering this is where I live, I guess I’m downright gangsta B)
Outings administrator
Quote: "ashlobo"
Quote: "oggy"​My most 'inhospitable' visit is probably to Somaliland - basically went because my mum told me I can't go to Somalia, so it was kind of a compromise. From what I've heard and read, you don't want to go to Somalia for real though, so Somalia is about as close as a sane person from the west will get. Ended up smoking pot/shisha and munching on chicken for 2 days. Lovely people, despite the misconceptions. Unfortunately my mother wasn't particularly impressed.
​​
​​Also visited Svalbard, which is absolutely stunning but probably not as great a story. Better photos though.
​​lol, Why Somalia of all places in the first instance?

There's so much to learn about it, it just fascinated me. A rich history, blackhawk down, and so much internal division yet living. Unfortunately Mogadishu is probably the most unsafe place in the world for white foreigners, even within the 'safe zone' within the airport. Al Shabab run riot and they use the 'dual bomber' tactic to blow up blast walls with one suicide truck and then use another to blow the interior walls before going in and killing everybody. Most war zones are literally safer. It just wasn't a realistic option.

Somaliland is another kettle of fish though; very chill and far north from the Islamist terror threat - you see such a mesh of people with so much hope, in a place where most of us would see none. It's a real reality check.
Quote: "oggy"
Quote: "ashlobo"

Quote: "oggy"​My most 'inhospitable' visit is probably to Somaliland - basically went because my mum told me I can't go to Somalia, so it was kind of a compromise. From what I've heard and read, you don't want to go to Somalia for real though, so Somalia is about as close as a sane person from the west will get. Ended up smoking pot/shisha and munching on chicken for 2 days. Lovely people, despite the misconceptions. Unfortunately my mother wasn't particularly impressed.
​​​
​​​Also visited Svalbard, which is absolutely stunning but probably not as great a story. Better photos though.
​​​lol, Why Somalia of all places in the first instance?
​​
​There's so much to learn about it, it just fascinated me. A rich history, blackhawk down, and so much internal division yet living. Unfortunately Mogadishu is probably the most unsafe place in the world for white foreigners, even within the 'safe zone' within the airport. Al Shabab run riot and they use the 'dual bomber' tactic to blow up blast walls with one suicide truck and then use another to blow the interior walls before going in and killing everybody. Most war zones are literally safer. It just wasn't a realistic option.

​Somaliland is another kettle of fish though; very chill and far north from the Islamist terror threat - you see such a mesh of people with so much hope, in a place where most of us would see none. It's a real reality check.
​I got as far South as the Sudan and was considering Somalia next but fell ill and had to return to Cyprus for treatment. I kinda wish I'd made it now as it's no longer a realistic destination. My revised plan was to visit the Crusader castles built in the Mediterranean as they were driven finally from Acre. That was immensely interesting but I never did get to see the jewel in the Templar crown, Crac De Chevalier. That along with Petra remain at the top of my bucket list but as I refuse to fly it's gonna be difficult.

Edit: Add Jacob's Ford to that list. It's the site of the first real defeat of the Crusaders by Saladin when the garrison of 1,500 at Chastellet was put to the sword. An Israeli archeological team has been working on the site for many years and I've been following the progress on Nat Geo but all reporting stopped in 2011 just at the point where they had started to discover the interesting layer with the actual remains being uncovered. So frustrating.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
I've given everybody a lot of lattitude in this thread to air their frustrations and concerns as adults, but that last one from Myeackle has gone too far, so I'm going to be deleting the drama related posts momentarily.

Again, this isn't high school. I'm not going to issue any bans today [though other moderators may do otherwise], but consider your words more carefully.
Thread has been cleared from irrelevant discussions/debates/arguments, no matter how we call it here.

Our friend Coinman48 launched a nice thread that can bring a really nice discussion on remote places. Please stick to the topic of the thread and stop creating false debates or commenting on each other replies, adding to never-ending and clearly not interesting discussion for anybody.


Back to the topic:

In your experience what has been the most inhospitable (due to nature or isolation, not to residents) locality where you have spent at least one night?
Sapientiae plerumque stultitia est comes.
Si c'est un grand plaisir d'être reconnu par ses amis, c'est peut-être encore plus flatteur d'être reconnu par ses adversaires.
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
I'm still waiting for the Aussie members to discover this thread for their stories about flushing snakes and red-backed spiders out of their dunny before using it.
What? Me Worry
As the initiator of this thread, I have some comments about what I wanted to see. pejounet is right, it was meant to be a place to just give information about remote places and places that were/are inhospitable due to nature, not due to actions of people. It would be fine for people to interpret "remote" however they wished, far away in distance or reached by a difficult journey or both. If I disagree about a place being remote, I could just think to myself "I don't think so" but respect the person's opinion.

Luckily I was spared the posts that needed to be cleared as I was busy with other things. I do hope people can move beyond petty disagreements, which have no place on the forum. Can't we just provide information and entertainment and challenge ourselves to be positively involved in an exchange of information and ideas and avoid hostility and show respect? In almost 70 years of life I have learned disrespect never gains you anything but momentary gratification.

Will
Most inhospital - Warsaw during the Euro 2012 at the day of Russia-Poland match))
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That's great to hear, Will. Thanks for your message as well! :)

Back on topic; it's not as remote or inhospitable as some of the corners of the world touched on previously, but I think after seeing Monninen's post, I think a trip up to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) in Lapland, Finland is valid. There was a bus ride that lasted a few hours from the capital, Helsinki; then at an outpost snowmobiles were available for transport until we got to one of a few locations recommended for viewing it.

I'm the sort of person who prefers being too cold to being too hot, but my God did I misjudge the temperature there! It was right before New Year's, so I'm fairly certain it was at least -20 degrees Celsius. The feeling of your fingers going numb is probably what made me decide never to live somewhere more than 50 degrees latitude from the Equator from now on. :O
Does the same room as my Ex count?
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.  It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so.  Mark Twain
Peter,

If you spent the night with her!

Will
Coldest - Spent 3 days in a cabin in Alaska, the wood stove never melted the ice from the inside walls. Landed on skis on the lake, had a 1000W generator to run the engine and battery heaters, but as temperatures got below -40 it couldn't keep itself warm enough to stay running, so we had to sacrifice a precious blanket to the generator. If it had failed, even the afternoon highs were too cold to start the engine, would have had to walk about 20 miles on snowshoes to the nearest road. Our drinking water froze solid after the first day, so we used the ax to cut blocks of ice from the lake and boil them to drink


Hottest / Least Forgiving - I lived in Nevada for 4 years, and I would take my jeeps all over the desert there, California, and Arizona. 110* F was common, occasionally 120* (49* C). And in a jeep with no air conditioning, and no shade, it could get pretty bad. I most often took my jeep out alone, and always carried about 500 lbs of spare tools and survival gear, because being 10+ miles from any house was common, sometimes over 50 miles, so broken, stuck, lost, bit by snake or scorpion, lots can go wrong. In that heat you can die in well less than a day (I've read of unprepared people dying within 6 hrs after getting stuck in sand). I stopped letting people who weren't acclimated to that intense heat go with me, because no matter how much water they drank, their body couldn't process it fast enough and would end up going home early or once even to the hospital. Longest I ever drove (in a relatively straight line, not going in a circle) without see a person, another car, or even crossing a paved road, was 200 miles (waiting for the Australian to tell me that's the length of their driveway...)
Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK :D

February 198? Wind chill -30F
Apparently it was -40F when it left Siberia.
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