In what part of the world have you met the kindest people?

Answer 1

I agree with Taubet, there are kind people all over the world. For me personally, I have met the kindest people in so many places. First there is right at home in New York, where despite its reputation for rudeness is full of friendly and helpful people always willing to be friendly and open-minded. In my travels I have experienced kindness on a massive scale in Amsterdam (especially because of the comraderie of the dance scene), Thailand and Tahiti both have locals whose good nature shines way beyond that considered obligatory courtesy. In Thaland and trekking across Europe there is also the backpacker friendliness, foreigners from all over the world are always outgoing.

By far, though, the place where I found the most extreme kindness was in Jordan. Everyone we encountered was overjoyed to see Americans in their peaceful and beautiful land, and Jordanians went out of their way to be hospitable, from inviting us for tea to our guide searching all over Aquaba for a music store so he could duplicate a mixtape that he had in is car for me. This is no doubt due to the royal influence, it is rumored that King Hussein would dress up as a commoner and ride taxis all day to talk politics to see what the people thought. From what I saw, his son King Abdullah and Queen Rania (who even went on Oprah!) are carrying on the tradition.

Ironically, it was on that same trip that we saw the exact opposite, the xenophobia of Egyptians in the Sinai peninsula. They treated us tourists as a necessary but unfortunate evil, and aside from a friendly Egyptian builder, we were met with nothing but hostility. When we were finally exiting, the border agent made the universal symbol for admiring my girlfriend's figure before offering (in jest I'm sure) to trade her for some camels. Naturally, it was not a good idea to start up with these people because of the large weapons in the tower pointed downwards.

In Beijing, busking is quite a nuisance as it is impossible to walk 3 feet without being harassed by aggressive merchants selling maps or trinkets or begging for donations. They are very aggresive, in that they will send children to grab on to your clothes or your arm, and we even had a 75 year old woman follow us for miles along the great wall in the heat of summer. I hope that more opportunities will be created to ensure prosperity for more citizens.

In Athens, there is a strange combination of kindness and contempt. Athinians would gladly give you directions if you're lost, and when our car broke down everyone around us stopped everything they were doing to help fix it and asked for nothing in return. But in my experience, people involved in hospitality (except at hotels!) treat visitors with disdain, and go out of their way to be downright rude. There are also student strikes on a daily basis, and anarchist groups infiltrate the demonstrations in order to cause mayhem (e.g. trying to firebomb the US embassy or incite the police to attack the protestors) and it's best to avoid these at all costs. I've been warned not to speak any english around the protestors.

Many people complain about the rudeness of the French, though after a week in Paris I only noticed it once (a biker yelling "You're in France, you must speak French!") and otherwise the Parisians were extraordinarily friendly to me. I've heard some horror stories about cities outside Paris (e.g. Lyon, Toulouse) but I wouldn't know. In Spain it is also very helpful to know some basic Spanish since most people don't speak English - but everyone takes there time and will have no problem waiting while you look things up in a phrasebook.

Nearly everyone in Amsterdam speaks English (which sucks because I'm trying to learn Dutch!) and have a laid back attitude, except when they're at work and then it is time to take care of business. The only exception I've found to this rule is in some of the coffeeshops - some are "tourist" shops where it is cozy and you're invited to stay as long as you like, and "local" shops where they want you to leave as soon as you buy what you want. It is helpful to look these things up before you go, since there is no sign expressing this. Unfortunately the downside of living in a free society is that some people take advantage of it, and don't repsect other people. This is aimed squarely at the tourists that smoke and drink too much and can't be bothered to find toilets. Luckily, this is confined to only one area of Amsterdam since the rest of the city is beautiful, like living in fantasyland.

Anyway, the moral of this story is to travel everywhere, and people will treat you with the same amount of respect that you give them!

Answer 2

The absolute kindest people I ever met (as a group) were Russians, hands down. I've been adopted (in an honorary sense) into at least 3 different Russian families and all of my closest friends are Russian, as is my boyfriend whose father is closer to me than HE is.

Answer 3

Have to say that as a Brit, the kindest people I've ever known were Americans.

Answer 4

I haven't done much international traveling, but I believe that I have met kind people in the Midwestern part of the United States, as well as Canada, Sweden, and Denmark.

I think the rudest people I have encountered were (no offense, this is just my personal experience, mind you) from France.

Answer 5

Spain

Answer 6

Back in the 1980s my family and I traveled a lot in the military. One of our all time favorite places to visit was the country of Turkey. While there we had such a wonderful, friendly and helpful reception by the local people it was really amazing to us. We loved living in and traveling in Europe, but we did not find such friendliness anywhere but in Turkey.

Answer 7

South East Asia and in particular Thailand and Philippines.

Answer 8

By far, the nicest overall group of people I've met were the Italians. They were so warm, friendly, helpful, and kind.

Answer 9

Vietnam and Australia

Answer 10

Russia is known for it's hospitality and friendliness