All Mexicans seem to have at least one crazy story to tell about something that happened to him or her while in Mexico City, and the consensus is that it's a horrible place. I've heard all kinds of stories, from kidnappings to muggings to robberies to shootings and more.My father-in-law was pulled over by the police and escorted to an ATM in the middle of nowhere so that he could pay the police a several hundred-dollar bribe for being in the city at the wrong time with his car (in D.F., you can only drive on certain days of the week depending on your license plate numbers).
This weekend, CC and some guy were trading their DF stories, and the guy said that once he was driving through D.F. and happened to make an illegal turn, and two cops pulled him over. He didn't have any money on him to pay them a bribe, so the cops were threatening to turn him into the corral (they round up people who can't bribe the cops into a parking lot, and then those people have to sit and wait for a tow truck to come and take their cars away until they pay the actual city fine). The guy obviously didn't want this to happen, so he was kind of pleading with the cops to give him a break. The cops decided to take his stereo. The guy agreed, so the cops came over with tools, extracted his stereo system and left.
I know someone else who says that he was tricycle-jacked when he was 5 years old, riding down the street in his Mexico City neighborhood. I guess that isn't too weird as it is sad, now that I think about it. Worse was the case of CC's cousin who was car-jacked, thrown into the trunk and left in the middle of nowhere. He had to beg for his life, and they let him have it, thank god.
I don't know. I really like D.F. We don't spend a lot of time there because of all this the anecdotal evidence that it's a bad place, but I'd like to. My friend and I went there about two and a half years ago and kind of explored the safer areas and I thought it was a beautiful city. The picture I posted is from that trip, taken out of our hotel window.
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Bulgarian cops are corrupt but also lazy/chill so encounters with them are rarely scary and usually amusing...
For example my drunk friend and his drunk friend crashed their car into the fountain in front of the presidential palace and didn't get arrested.
Another friend used to steal his parent's car every night and we'd all drive around in it... one morning (i.e. 6am) the cops pulled us over and one of them asked us to give him some money so that "my colleague and I can go drink some coffee"... we had no money so he let us go.
A rich guy in Sofia bought a brand new car and bought a police escort so he can test it out on the freeway.
When I was in Nepal, our car was stopped MULTIPLE times, and we were made to get out while the Nepalese Army or Nepalese Police Force (I never knew who was who, but apparently mixing them up got them really offended) poked overly-long guns alongside us and into our things to make sure we weren't Maoist guerillas.
We'd have to plan our arrival back to our motel at night very carefully -- once we even ran -- because all the businesses would pull a big garage door -like thing over their doors every night to lock down for the nighttime curfew, and if you didn't make it back before they did that, the army/police peoples would start marching around and you'd be left outside with just them and their big guns. I'd watch them go by from my window. And I don't know what kind of punishment it was to be out there during curfew, but I didn't want to find out.
I don't think the Nepali law enforcement peoples were mean, but then again I also don't think we Americans looked all that much like Maoist guerillas, and they were still kind of STERN about everything.
But they were also like 12 years old, so I probably could have sat on them.
That's really freaky, Lisey. You could write a book about all the stuff that happened on that trip... Maoist Guerilla wars, your one night in Bangkok, nursing lepers back to health. Dangerous. It's dangerous here, too! We have a big drug cartel problem. Bulgaria sounds fun.
Lisa! I never knew it was that horrible in Nepal. You told us a little about it, when you were there... about the road blocks.The insurgents were just starting to unify and go up against the government. I remember just living for that one e-mail from you to let me know that you were still alive, and that put me at ease until the next contact from you. That was the hardest time of my life!
Now it is you. Judy, that I worry about daily. You drive around alone with a baby in a Mercedes! Not good! Think kidnappings....Mom.
Oh my God, she actually does read my blog... the urban legend is true after all
Nieeeheehee hueeee! I reads ur blog toooooooooo!!!
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