Losing 35 pounds due to violent, bone-cracking diarrhea is scary. Once several of us nearly lost our lives at sea in a tiny boat. That was scary. Some road trips, like the cab ride from Damascus to Beirut, are horrifically scary. Snake-infested places are scary. But fortunately, the rest of the benefits of travel completely overwhelm those minor inconveniences. You can find scary. Walking on fire, something I did for years in the South Pacific, is so scary it's laughable.