As I walked along Pike Market on my own, an incident reminded me why I had always felt unsafe while visiting the states. I always get acousted by weird strange man. Several years ago when I was in L.A walking alone, a group of guys in a car slowed down to hassle me until a patrolling car came to my rescue.
This time, while I was minding my own business relooking at my camera shots out in open streets in broad daylight, this crazy guy suddenly grabbed me by my arm, asking with a smile if I want to take a picture with him. Fking hell. That totally caught me off guard and jolt me with momentary shock. I couldnt even swear at him because I didnt know if this joker had any guns with him and if he is trigger happy. So all i did was to wrestle his hands off and walked off. I didnt care what he was saying next. I just wanted to widen the distance between us.
And when I boarded the bus back to my friend's place, I felt really uncomfortable with alot of "homeless" looking people sitting across me and staring at me. It's just the whole mannerism that really doesnt sit well with me. I wasnt being a snob or anything but their super unfriendly expression really gets to me. In other countries, I didnt see as much poorly dressed people congregated in place as I do in states.
The incident at Pike was a real reminder that I was in a foreign land, where a woman's safety and security are not a given thing. One should assume the worst possibilty here and not think the best of people. There are too many crazy people here who can do really nasty things to you if they want to.
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