Travel is one of the great joys of life,
but today you've arrived in a new city
that is anything but joyous.
The temperature is a frigid -50 °C (-58 °F),
everyone is watching you
and creepy creatures
are lurking about.
If you had done your research,
you'd know that you just landed
in one of the deadliest
destinations on the planet.
And it's not the only one.
The world is full of unsafe cities,
and today,
we're visiting them all.
Not all cities make great tourist spots.
Today we'll be looking at the top seven
most dangerous cities in the world.
Some of them have high
violent crime rates,
while others have extreme natural disasters.
But all of them can kill you.
Darwin,
located on the northern tip of Australia,
is known for its dangerous wildlife.
About 150,000 saltwater crocodiles
live in Darwin.
And box jellyfish are abundant
in the waters off the city.
Both animals are deadly.
Each year,
40 people get stung by
box jellyfish.
Its venom is so potent
you could die within five minutes.
But the ground is just as dangerous.
The soil contains bacteria
that can cause melioidosis.
Between 1999 and 2008,
23 people died
due to this disease
in northern Australia.
It's even possible to be infected
by inhaling contaminated
dust or water.
The scary thing is
that symptoms may not appear
for a few years after infection.
So, if you visit Darwin,
be sure to stay clear of the water
and don't play in the mud.
Human trafficking is a huge
problem in South Africa.
This is especially true in Cape Town.
Victims are often destitute children
or desperate young women
who get forced into sex work,
domestic servitude
or marriage.
Traffickers lure victims with false job ads,
kidnapping
and false immigration.
Sometimes, the victims are sold
by their own families.
The South Africa Department of Labour
can help validate
that job advertisements are authentic,
including if the "job" is outside the country.
And the city's homicide rate
is 66 per 100,000 people.
In 2015,
it reported a terrifying 2,868 homicides.
If you live in Cape Town,
avoid posting any personal information
to social media,
especially financial information.
With an average temperature
of -50 °C (-58 °F),
Oymyakon is the coldest
permanent settlement on Earth.
Located in the Arctic Circle,
the town is in the dark for 21 hours a day.
In 2013,
the coldest temperature ever recorded
was -72 °C (-98 °F).
The ground is so frozen
there is no sewage system
and bonfires are needed
to melt the soil to dig graves.
So, if you visit this Siberian town
of just 500 people,
your eyelashes will become covered in frost.
Any saliva on your lips will freeze.
So be sure to dress extra warmly.
The most dangerous city in the U.S.
is Detroit.
In 2019,
Detroit's crime rate
was three times higher
than the U.S. average.
According to one source,
compared to the U.S. national averages,
there were more than four times
more murders and three times
more robberies in Detroit.
So be aware of your surroundings.
And you may want to avoid
certain neighborhoods,
especially at night.
"Seven Mile Road" is dominated
by drug dealers,
killers and thieves.
It's so dangerous
that the police
won't go there at night.
Crime is not the biggest danger in Tokyo.
The ground is.
It's located on the most dangerous part
of the Ring of Fire,
fault lines around the edge
of the Pacific Ocean
where 75% of Earth's volcanoes reside.
It is also where 90%
of all earthquakes happen.
In Japan,
earthquakes happen almost daily.
And they can also trigger tsunamis.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake
hit Japan in 2011.
Although the epicenter
was hundreds of kilometers (miles)
off the coast,
an eyewitness said
buildings in Tokyo swayed
like trees in a breeze.
The following tsunami
caused the worst damage
and killed 20,000 people.
But don't worry,
Tokyo has a plan
for the next devastating earthquake,
including a network of rescue vehicles,
school closures
and evacuation routes.
Why does that worry me even more?
In 2018,
Tijuana had 2,640 homicides.
That's about seven murders per day.
Tijuana is the murder capital of Mexico.
Only 24 km (15 mi) south of San Diego,
California,
Tijuana is also a major center
for human trafficking
through its profitable "smuggling corridor."
Drug cartels also play
a huge role in Tijuana's violence.
Rivalries between cartels
result in gruesome murders
with people being hung from bridges
or having their tongues hacked out.
Significantly more women
than men get murdered.
More women get killed in Tijuana
than in the rest of the state.
Residents are campaigning
to move the city's morgues.
They are so overwhelmed with bodies
that locals say,
"Every single day, we breathe death."
If you visit Tijuana,
don't walk the streets after dark.
Don't display any valuables.
Keep your money hidden.
And wear clothing
with buttons and zippers
to make it harder for pickpockets.
And if you're threatened at gunpoint,
just hand over your valuables.
It's better to be broke than dead.
With a homicide rate
of 100 per 100,000 people,
Caracas is considered
the world's most dangerous capital city.
Many residents live in poverty,
and violent crime is a big problem.
In addition to economic hardship,
the city also suffers from hyperinflation.
This has brought crime out in the open.
Now, criminals approach people
on busy streets
and crowded areas
to rob them.
Locals no longer carry cash in their wallets.
So the criminals demand
electronics from victims.
Express kidnappings are common too.
These short-term kidnappings involve
stealing money from victims
and accessing
their hostages' bank accounts.
Kidnappers also use fake surveys
to learn personal information
about family members.
They then make threatening phone calls
using info from the surveys
and say they have taken a member
of your family hostage.
Many governments label Caracas
a "do not travel" city.
If you have any plans to visit
any of these cities,
you may want to reconsider.
And if you can't avoid visiting,
be careful.
Sometimes it's not just
the deadly destinations
you have to worry about,
but also the deadly routes
you take to get there.
Do you know which highway
causes 200 deaths per year?
Find out here
on How to Survive.