[JJ Roberts]

When I was making my way down the eastern coast of Borneo by ramshackle public boat taxis in the middle of nowhere I was held up in this tiny little town because of the complete lack of adherence to boat time tables.

It was about mid-day and I was sitting around on the pier when I actually saw dozens and dozens of fish actually walk out of the water and onto the land to hunt for food using their pectoral fins as make-shift legs.

They were not small either, each of these fish was about the size of a fist.

I am familiar with the theory of evolution and of land mammals as adaptions of sea creatures that crawled onto the land but I never thought I would actually see it with my own eyes.

Freaky!

Whats the freakiest thing you have seen on your travels?

[Tenerife]

Was it the mudskipper?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAz7iMcC8e0

[scotian]

My first night in Colombia, I was staying at a friend's house in a pretty poor barrio and we went out to get something to eat nearby. I saw a horse drawn cart coming down the street and the guy handling it was yelling into a mic, I took a closer look and saw that there were three goats in the back. People were going up to the cart and the guy was milking the goats into glass bottles they had. Mobile goat milk cart.

[lavidaloca]

Not sure if freakiest but was rather strange to see.

4 or 5 years ago, I was sitting in the central park in Holguin (Parque Calixto). A police car rounded up a tourist and there were easily a dozen police officers trying to put this tourist in the car. The tourist wasn't having none of it despite there batons and what not. Eventually they managed to get him in the car only for him to literally throw 3 or 4 cars off of him and exit and then try to make a dash where he was stopped by further re-enforcements. After 5 or so minutes of this they finally got him in the vehicle only after pepper spraying him. By then there was a crowd of hundreds watching this unfold. This one guy was literally manhandling a dozen police officers as they each came at him.

I'm from a rather quiet area so to see that kind of battle with police was pretty surreal to me.

I never found out what the guy did. Some people suggested he was a pedo, others said he stole artwork. Based on the amount of police i'd have guessed he was a pedo. He was one of the biggest men I've ever seen. Probably a solid 6'5 260 if I were to guess in his mid 50s.

[JJ Roberts]

(12-19-2013 01:36 AM)Tenerife Wrote:  

Was it the mudskipper?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAz7iMcC8e0

Looked like that but without the fins on top, I was a good 30 metres away though.

[Cr33pin]

Kids sitting at the bar getting drunk in China.

[Vicious]

A dozen possible options in Bangkok.

[JJ Roberts]

(12-19-2013 11:53 AM)Vicious Wrote:  

A dozen possible options in Bangkok.

Involving bananas and ping pong balls?

[Soma]

(12-19-2013 12:26 PM)JJ Roberts Wrote:  

(12-19-2013 11:53 AM)Vicious Wrote:  

A dozen possible options in Bangkok.

Involving bananas and ping pong balls?

And razor blades

[birdrussell]

Saw an enormous structure fire in New Orleans once. It was engulfing the entire I -10 East side of the interstate. My brother was flipping out and taking pictures. In a calm and collected voice as though I'd seen it a million times I told him welcome to New Orleans.

[InternationPlayboy]

@ scotian

When I was in brazil I saw then selling cows on tv, just like qvc, but with cows.

[vinman]

In the Australian outback, in the Northern Queensland territory we found an Aborigine woman's corpse 8ft up in a tree next to a stream. We went on a water resupply (my Army days). She was missing an arm and part of a leg. We told our Australian Army observer and he called a game warden of some sort to come out. Apparently a large crocodile got hold of her and while he was trying to tear off a chunk of meat it flipped her into a tree. He was really casual about it, so I guess it's not that uncommon down there.

[InternationPlayboy]

For me I think I'd have to say approaching a favela in São Paulo. The place was pure chaos. Basically hell on earth. When we pull off the freeway, there's a car on fire on the shoulder of the road. When we turn on the off ramp there are two guys getting frisked by policia militar. We get to the edge of the favela, our friend tells us to get out of the car because he doesn't want anything to happen to us. We get out and run into a market because we stand out like soar thumbs. Our friend finally gets back, and as were jumping into the car, two police pull up right in front of us, but then let us drive by. We were there scoring some weed, they knew exactly what we were doing. It's hard to explain the vibe in this place, but it was really really grim. This favela wasn't like any of the ones I saw in rio. It was kind of the oposite. Instead of being built on a hill, it was built into a valley, which looked more like a pit. It was totally nuts. I didn't get that feeling going around the slums in rio at all. In rio I felt like I could go into the favelas and be fine for the most part. The one I saw in São Paulo, I thought, "There's no fucking way Id step foot in there."

[Mojorisin808]

Every year I spend a few weeks in Acapulco with some local friends, last year we were driving to go grab some drinks on the costera, and seen a bunch of commotion going on down one of the roads, we decided to park and walk up to see what the deal was, once we get past the crowds and police, we come across four decapitated heads on a car. Turned out to be the heads of 4 police officers. Nasty shit!!! still can't get that image out of my head.

http://www.examiner.com/article/mexican-...s-acapulco

[aphelion]

Walking around in China with the girl I was there to see. (Blue pill days.) 2 year old kid milling about in front of parents' store. Kid drops trou and shits right on the sidewalk, then pulls his pants back up and carries on about his day.

[Chaos]

Ladyboys in Pakistan, that was the last thing I expected to see in a hardcore islamic country, those assholes tried to snatch everything they got their hands on.

The redlight district in Lahore was also quite a freakshow, I cruised through with an motorbike. On both sides there were fat Pakistani women waving with their hands behind big iron doors mean while hordes of men were fighting for their turn. Right after the district I came to a park that were full of junkies who were shooting up heroin openly. I've never seen so many fucked up people in my life.

During eed when they were chopping necks of camels in every corner until the streets were red of blood that, was quite a sight also,
Pakistan must be one of the most insane countries in the world. I had so many fucked up crazy experiences over there so I don't know even where to start. I can't believe I spent two months over there.

Another memorable thing was coming into Quetta escorted by 5 police men on a pickup truck with a machine gun on the roof.

Fucking hell, two months of armed talibans, camel executions, dangeorus roads i the Himalayas, ladyboys, heroin, free hashish, high policemen,bombblasts, ak 47's,36 hours busrides, mixed vegetables and rice and 12 days of hardcore stomach problems and diearhoa, and no beer or alcohol at all.

[Alpharius]

It's a tie, either:

Being present for an indigenous protest in Guatemala city with a union leader speaking about how he was ready to die for the cause, meanwhile the army was taking position on a building over looking the rally.

Or one time I was ordering lamb at a Chinese bbq, then watching as a the chef grabbed a goat, killed it slowly with an unsharpened knife right on the table next to me.

There's also the time I was in Nicaragua getting a ride from the local pimp as he drove down the beach, sand flying everywhere, trying to get me to the last ferry across the bay for the night, all while he screamed obscenities into his phone and kept up a conversation with three undressed women in the backseat.

[Duke Castile]

Saw some horribly deformed people in Vietnam. Shit you can't unsee.

One guy was missing most of his face and there was what looked like an exposed skull from the bottom of his nose down.

[Merenguero]

(12-22-2013 05:34 PM)Fisto Wrote:  

Saw some horrible deformed people in Vietnam. Shit you can't unsee.

One guy was missing most of his face and there was what looked like an exposed skull from the bottom of his nose down.

Do you think that was from the war or some kind of disease or what?

[Duke Castile]

Some I think some agent orange played a roll in the way some people looked. They were to young to be participants.

[CamelToe]

seen some fucked up shit over the years...... more dead people fighting for whatever "ideological" reason than i can count

but strangest thing i've seen...... in the middle of San Francisco a homeless dude shitting in the middle of the sidewalk

[JJ Roberts]

I saw a bunch of napalm damaged people in 'nam too.

[Fortitudinal]

In Kunming, China there is an attraction of sorts that is composed of a butterfly sanctuary and a midget town. next to each other.

the midget town has a show, where the little people ride scooters, sing karaoke, shit like that. They have a 'king' and a 'police'.

Weird even for my standards. Best thing was catching a bus back into town with a lot of them in a regular passenger van. A suprising amount of them could fit

[TopPanda]

Like the poster above, I also saw lots of deformed/burned people in China. I don't think Chinese people like giving money to beggars, so to make money on the street you gotta have some real shock value.

One of my most memorable experiences in my 10 months abroad this year was of incredible thunderstorms.

9/11 in Bangkok was unforgettable for me, namely because Sukhumvit turned into a river and I had to wade through over a foot of water to get back to my hotel. Still, this being Thailand, it didn't stop the locals from carrying on cooking:

[Bogart]

Worthy of a bump

I’ve got a bunch of random ones, including the eponymous children shitting in bins on the metro in China, but the most jarring that comes to mind:

- in Kyrgyzstan we were driving through this majestic plateau in the high mountains filled with yurts, horses and cattle as far as the eye could see. Really picturesque oasis type vibe with beautiful mountains and clear blue sky. Then as we progressed further into this amazing scene we came to a point in the road where there were something like 20 dead horses that had their throats slit - probably because they were hit by cars and had to be put down. Just shocking to see these magetic creatures with those horrible dead eyes and pools of blood everywhere.

- Uzbekistan in two occasions my inter city taxi service was smuggling some kind of contracab (usually booze) and would stop in the middle of the highway to make exchange. I was recruited to help unload a few dozen crates of vodka.

- Birmingham Alabama, accidentally going to the very wrong side of the tracks into the ghetto. The change in vibe and safety was instantaneous and saw burnt houses and vans sitting around just blocks from white suburbia.

- claymore, Sydney Australia. Most fucked up ghetto on Australia with smashed cars and windows and drug deals happening in daylight in the middle of public areas.