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When I was living in Japan, which definitely won’t make it onto this here internet’s list of the most disappointing places in the world, I learned about something called “Paris Syndrome”.
The syndrome describes the sheer and visceral disappointment and depression that many Japanese people would feel after seeing Paris for how it really is rather than how it was in their imagination.
There are just some places that have been so excessively punted, that the dirty streets and sewage smells can’t live up to anyone’s expectations and leave them feeling rather let down.
Whether it is shitty sights, overpriced food, polluted nature, lurking danger, or just general bad vibes, there are quite a few places in the world that are completely overrated.
VICE did the hard work of sifting through the responses in a viral Reddit thread, where a user asked people about the city they were most disappointed in.
With more than 6 500 comments and 5 800 upvotes so far, people had a lot of disappointment to share.
Atlantic City, Myrtle Beach, and New Orleans in the USA:
“Atlantic City. It’s waayyy dirtier and run down than I thought it’d be,” said reddit User_492006, igniting a series of hard relates right after.
“It feels like a ‘Mom can we have Disneyworld?’ ‘We have Disneyworld at home’ kind of place,” agreed AltinUrda, while another user described it as “biting into an apple only to realize it’s an onion.”
Myrtle Beach, a city in South Carolina, was called out for having a lot of “meth and murder” besides just being really cheesy.
Folks were also wildly disappointed with New Orleans, saying that “the food was great, the music was great but the city was awful, it smelled of piss and vomit everywhere we went.”
Marrakesh
The Moroccan city was voted as massively overrated for losing its rich culture and authenticity:
“It [Marrakesh] would have been amazing before about 2000, but now it just feels like a Disneyland version of their culture to cater to western tourists. Ali Baba costumes pretending to be desert nomads,” said a user named legshampoo.
“Half of their ‘handmade goods’ are just cheap shit from China. And you can’t walk 20 feet without being approached by scammers. Like, literally every block. The entire city just feels like a facade to attract dumb tourist money.”
Niagara Falls
This natural wonder in Ontario, Canada was once a place where people could feel in touch with nature, but now it is just a built-up tourist attraction:
“I didn’t know the falls would be in a city. I thought it would be a national park. The whole place just felt like a giant shopping mall,” said user youburyitidigitup.
While most users did agree with this point of view, it also sparked an interesting conversation around what led to the segregation of national parks in the U.S. “The urbanization of Niagara Falls actually inspired conservationists into lobbying for the national park system,” remarked Reddit user zneave.
Dubai
Folks hated on how fake Dubai is:
“Decided to spend 10 days there while passing through. Had enough of it after 24 hours. Too many f$#&!&# malls. No culture,” said user wric84. A user named mal1k7 also pointed out how Dubai was built on labour imported from neighbouring countries. “That country was built on the blood and souls of cheap labour from Pakistan, India, Sri lanka, Bangladesh,” they said.
Bali
This highly Instagrammable hotspot in Bali is the epitome of what is wrong with the city:
“Bali changed so much the last 10 years. It used to be so beautiful and amazing… now it is full of ‘digital nomad’ douchebags and overpriced food and crap,” said user HippoNo9775.
“I remember when it was just a cool surf spot with cheap eats.”
Beijing
Besides being overhyped and prone to intense pollution, Beijing was also called out for being racist.
One user was teased by people in the subway for being a “very white European with curly hair”, which got another user talking about the soft racism faced for being Black:
”I stepped out of a train in Beijing with my brother and everybody was staring at us like we bitchslapped [their] mums. At least 10 people didn’t even ask and just started taking pictures of me, such a fucking weird experience considering I was 14.”
Racism was a big part of the discussion dissuading people from visiting a particular city again. Likewise, with safety levels.
Otherwise, people had a few bones to pick with the more smelly places on the menu, like Manila in the Philippines or Naples in Italy, as “sticky as a McDonald’s table”.
It is nice to know that you are not alone if you have had an awful travel experience.
Besides, since we can’t really go anywhere at the moment anyway, we might as well not want to go anywhere, too.
[source:vice]
