Worst Place Ever: Karachi

As of now I have been to 60+ countries and territories on five continents and have been to more than 600 places ranging from simple and quaint villages to mega cities.

I know you are not supposed to say anything bad about a place, but there are really some bad places out there, in fact some are complete shit holes where they deform children to become effective beggars and execute refugees. Karachi is the worst place I’ve ever been.

My ship, the USS Niagara Falls AFS-3, made a port visit there in February 1981 shortly after the end of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which saw us in the Persian Gulf region operating for months on end.

First impression: deformed children beggars

More beggars than any other place I’ve been and many young children were purposely deformed by gangs twisting young limbs into grotesque shapes to make them more effective beggars.

Others were at least entertaining and made a living in front of a few tourist spots:

Traffic – no rules. surprised we survived when our motorbike taxi drove between two oncoming trucks . Following day we rented a camel buggy to take us around.

Trash – the whole city was an open dump and sewer

No Alcohol – come on, after 71 consecutive days at sea and no beer, though plenty of hashish.

Executions – to make a very long and complicated story simple, our ship rescued Pakistani refuges adrift and starving at sea and brought the survivors back to Karachi, against their wishes.

All survivors were executed the following day while we were in Karachi and the local gov’t hailed us as heroes for the public rescue. The executions were confirmed by locals as well as the US consulate in Karachi. Later we received a humanitarian award which I threw overboard once we left this shithole.

Best part of Karachi was leaving, knowing I would never ever return there. Next Port of call was Pattaya Beach, Thailand.

Note: all pictures are mine with the exception of the beggar children from BBC and news clip article.