Jump to content

Strangest Place You've Ever Been / Want To Go


englandmj7

Recommended Posts

Not in the sense that the people or the place itself is literally "strange," but in the sense that the place is off the normal path of tourism/probably wouldn't occur to the average person as a vacation spot..........

Not just the bumfuck town you took a train past on your Shinkansen ride through Japan, but somewhere you spent time/were interested in experiencing, and why.

Most obscure places I've been:

- Kisumu, Kenya

- Kanchananburi, Thailand

- Karachi, Pakistan

- All over Egypt (Taba, Aswan, Cairo)

- Jaipur, India

.......can't think of more right now; having a blank.

Some distant places I want to go to:

- Bora Bora - Simply looks amazing, although I guess it isn't really that "distant"

- Petra, Jordan - The structures here are phenomenal. Looks like the home of the 40 Thieves.

- Llhasa, Tibet - Spiritual reasons.

- Shetland Islands - I want to drink in an old ass bar with some Scottish/Norwegian dudes and shoot the shit.

How about you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been to Kathmandu, Nepal.

I've always wanted to go to the Seychelles Islands ever since I did a report on the country in the 9th grade. lol.

Seychelles would be fantastic.

How was Kathmandu? That is another place I forgot to mention.......would be very cool to go there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i want to go to east timoor and mogadishu.

WANT TO GO (unrealistic)

+1 for mogadishu. I was bored and reading a lonely planet on africa and they go through all the countries and I get to somalia. Somalia has a huge coast line and seeing the conflict for the last x amount of years, always thought it would be completely pristine. "If you get past the militia and make it to the beach, there are two things you should worry about, Somalian pirates and SHARKS."

Would love to make it through to the Nicobar islands. Last time i researched it, you weren't allowed to go there unless you were an Indian citizen.

Western Burma near the the Indian border. Heard the government shuts that area down as well. Wouldn't doubt it seeing the last time I was in Burma I was almost arrested.

D.R.C. It really actually pissed me off seeing the Vice guide to travel cuz they got to go there and all they did was jerk off and try and find a fake dino they knew wouldn't exist anyways. fucking idiots.

Columbia just won't go

WANT TO GO (realistic)

Trips

Lebennon to Jerusalem

Eastern Africa (would love to do overland Cairo to Capetown)

Western Africa

Other stuff

Russia

Turkey

Mongolia

Peru

Tibet

Nepal

China

I come up with a new list fairly often

Been...

err..

I loved Cambodia. The overland bus ride from bangkok to siam reap is something you should do very soon (if not yet) cuz that paved road is going to really change things. In 2003 there were no ATM's, so you had to bring cash. I barely made it into Vietnam. There are some pretty amazing stories I could spend hours telling about Cambodia, but i digress and can attribute it to the Wild West at that time, even more so 10 years earlier, when you couldn't even go there safely.

Arendal Norway. Stayed at this fishing town with my buddy and his family. Surreal.

Nghe An Vietnam. as backasswards as Ho Chi Minh's hometown could get.

Ko Sok Thailand. First time seeing a Gibbon, accosted by a cobra, and went water tubing down the Sok river. Fucking lush as hell.

That's all i can think of now. Interested in what people say. Still want to take a round the world next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice Poly.

This winter my pops, my brothers and a bunch of our friends are taking jeeps/trucks from Pattaya, Thailand through Laos and up to the southern tip of China. Each dude is only allowed to bring a backpack and its gonna be partying all the way along. I am so fucking stoked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice Poly.

This winter my pops, my brothers and a bunch of our friends are taking jeeps/trucks from Pattaya, Thailand through Laos and up to the southern tip of China. Each dude is only allowed to bring a backpack and its gonna be partying all the way along. I am so fucking stoked.

that sounds amazing. can you cross the borders like that? Let me know how that goes as that really brings a whole new level of traveling to my attention. The best part of Norway was the rented car and drive. That and the Fjords

Link to comment
Share on other sites

bontang, borneo - right on the equator. hot as hell and they still cut head off there and march them on a pole for parade.

aceh, sumatra - just north of the equator, still hot! my dad worked at the mobil plant so we were surrounded by the locals waiting to put a hurting on us because all of the oil money went to jakarta and not them.

arkansas - enough said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

that sounds amazing. can you cross the borders like that? Let me know how that goes as that really brings a whole new level of traveling to my attention. The best part of Norway was the rented car and drive. That and the Fjords

Yep. Citizens of most countries are able to. I know that my dad's friends from Egypt (who are also coming along), however, can only get a visa to leave to one country, so they can't go Thailand -> Laos without going back to Egypt first.

We will go through a border checkpoint of course and will surely get our passports checked/stamped, etc. though.

Speaking of cool drives: it has always been a dream of my dad, my brothers and I to take a 2-3 month road trip from California down to Peru or Chile. Now that would be fucking cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India. This is the southern most tip of the subcontinent. This is where three major bodies of water converge. The Indian Ocean, Arabian Ocean and the bay of Bengal. The sand literally has 7 colors and one of the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen. Kanyakumari is also known as Cape Comorin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think strangeness is subjective; for me it's linked to situations in obscure places like:

· nondescript roadside towns in Victoria, Australia - really feels like the middle of nowhere in the 1950s or something.

· parts of Göteborg Sweden felt kind of post-war Russian melancholia, and parts of Geneva and Zürich in winter have that similar vibe.

· at night in buses on the south coast of Portugal / Spain.

· oh yes the Chimera attraction near Antalya, Turkey: incredible natural flames coming from the center of the earth! Eternal fires which have been burning since the Greek gods walked the land.

· Gozo, the island north of Malta. It's tiny, but there are hundreds of churches, and ancient Leland buses, and cactus everywhere. The food is typically British (baked beans, fish+chips).

I haven't visited crazy weird places unfortunately (except the Chimera).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Highmore South Dakota!

Went there a long time ago with the whole family to see my mothers relatives side of the family ( uncles etc )

She had only seen them once before in her life so that gives you an idea how remote the location is.

Driving for hours not crossing any towns or anything but fields and fields :eek:

I would see myself going back there to chill out for vacation as it is so calm and quiet over there but the people have little to no notions of the outside world.

Going through ex-Yugoslavia before the conflict in the 90s.

Seen Serbian owned hotels completed deserted as they were rushing for their lives to get out of Croatia as fast as possible.

Picture restaurants were the tables were set and sometimes the food is still on the tables and have been that way for a very long time.

Weed green swimming pools which were never emptied

Montenegro were driving through the mountains felt like you could die any minute as the road was split in so many locations. The cities in Montenegro were the saddest things I ever saw in my life.

At the time gas trucks took forever to fill up the gas stations so you had lines that lasted for days.

People would park their cars at the station line and come back the next day and move forward a little bit.

The family car was a diesel we were nearly out and due to leave the next day with an almost empty tank...

Only the Serbian army vehicules were diesel. My father found this out when he gave a ride to a guy working at the state hotel were we stayed.

He managed to be sent to someone who sold diesel to the Serbian army and my father got a fill up for free. The guy gave the gas to my dad but said to never mention it to anyone there or else he could get in big trouble ( aka potentially killed )

Hearing gun shots and various explosions was quite a freaky experience as well.

I was also in Bulgaria numerous times in the 90s for humanitarian work bringing medication from France. The country had access to little to no medication.

Living with the poor locals who opened their homes to me was the most humbling experience one could ever live.

They gave you the most they could when they themselves had nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

how old are you england? Jeez Im 24 and the farthest ive been is to Berlin.....Crap...I need cash for travelling/

23.

I was raised abroad and have always traveled, many trips with my family whilst growing up. If you are fine with roughing it you can damn near go anywhere for as cheap, if not cheaper than you might spend simply living in your hometown (minus the airfare of course). Alot of people don't realize this. For instance: other than shopping, I think I spent less in Tokyo per day on food/lodging than I do on average here in the bay area.

It also helps to have family & friends all over the world, and going on trips with friends can always help alot in cutting down on transportation/lodging costs. I try to have "guy" trips at least once a year to some obscure locale for this very reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last summer I went to Barrow, Alaska to work on a dig. It was my first time in the artic circle and by far the 'strangest' place I have ever been. I wouldn't nessesarily recommend a visit, but if you are interested in seeing whale skeletons and polar bears and eating at the northernmost mexican resturaunt in the world...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...