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Thread: Where's the most exotic place you've visited and would you go back?

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    Member hippypants's Avatar
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    Where's the most exotic place you've visited and would you go back?

    I guess Scotland for me. Beautiful scenery, nice people, good bars, so yeah, I'd go back. Same for the UK in general.

    The recent episode of Reedus (The Walking Dead) travelogue show was up that way.

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    I would have to say the south of India - Kerela, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Madurai in particular has amazing temples all kept vividly painted as they were hundreds of years ago - an amazing spectacle. Also Shravanabelagola with the Jain holy site featuring the Gommateshwara Statue which is one of the largest monolothic statues in the world; relatively little known, but more impressive and special to me than many more famous sites. Also magical is renting a houseboat and drifting though the backwaters of Kerela. Timeless.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    ^ Good question, and I don't think I can beat the above.

    But for me, my top three:

    - As a kid, we spent summers on Fire Island, the small island off the coast of Long Island, NY. This was the 60s, and the island was largely populated by writers, actors, and artists. One summer we rented the house of Alfred Bester, who wrote "The Stars My Destination." It was a great place to spend summers. No cars, you could go barefoot all summer, kids just wandered the island with no supervision. Great.

    - I spent a couple of summers in the '70s on the isle of Capri with my mother. I couldn't really imagine a more beautiful place, or with better food!

    - Around 2008 we went to Iceland, and drove around the whole island, camping out and staying at little inns. Iceland is an incredible place, with one alien landscape after another, so that was a great trip.

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    For places I've been:

    - Edinburgh
    - Tenerife
    - Morocco
    - Cape Sounion (Greece) / Temple of Poseidon
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    Mine would have to be Hawaii. We travelled there in 2000 on a 13 day package deal thing where we visited 4 islands. Expensive, but still probably my favorite vacation ever.

    Decided to go back for our 25th wedding anniversary last year. This time we did a cruise ship then also went to four different islands. We enjoyed it, but the experience did not live up to our first time there. I doubt that we will be going back again.

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    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    I'm sorry to say I haven't been to very exotic places. Work took me to 12 or so States - plus personal travel. I've been to Amsterdam (very cool society, advanced social justice), Paris, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

    Amsterdam was the coolest and fit my personal values.

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    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    In my case it's a lot of competition to pick just one, but (seriously), after really thinking about it, I would say a day trip to Kamakura from Tokyo to see the Great Buddha would win. If I still had the energy to go back, I would, but I'm done w/international travel.

    Courtesy of the US Navy.
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    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    I forgot to mention, my fiancee and I are going to take a 1 month vacation to China in the Fall of 2020. Definitely will be the most exotic.

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    Member Teddy Vengeance's Avatar
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    Having lived and traveled in Asia for 30 years, the concept of exotic will be quite different for me. I would probably find sonewhere like the rural US south or Texas deeply exotic. But by standard definitions:
    Rural Nepal perhaps. Tibet. North Korean border. Morocco. I’m a travel geek.

    Recently, I visited Bagan in Myanmar and, after Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, it was the most awe-inspiring place I’ve been.

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    Halong Bay, Vietnam - looks just like the pictures, only better.
    Hanoi, too, for its olde worlde French charm and wonderful people.
    Shanghai, for the art deco magnificence of the Bund, the elegant, tree-lined avenues of the French Concession, and the sheer dazzling spectacle of Pudong by night (best not visited at Chinese New Year, though).
    Downtown Baltimore and Trenton - definitely none more, erm, 'exotic'!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Teddy Vengeance View Post
    Having lived and traveled in Asia for 30 years, the concept of exotic will be quite different for me. I would probably find sonewhere like the rural US south or Texas deeply exotic. But by standard definitions:
    Rural Nepal perhaps. Tibet. North Korean border. Morocco. I’m a travel geek.

    Recently, I visited Bagan in Myanmar and, after Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, it was the most awe-inspiring place I’ve been.
    Nice! That’s like off my bucket list. I hope at least to get to Angkor Wat before I kick it.

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    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    Most exotic for my wife and I were Istanbul, Bursa, Edirne and Cappadocia in Turkey. Cappadocia in particular was amazing and we would love to go back there.

    We were also in Moscow and St. Petersburg, about a week in each. Fascinating places, not sure I'll make it back there unless opportunity knocks.

    Not especially exotic (at least by our standards), but really wonderful is Portugal. We've been all over the country, but haven't hit every place. Still much to explore there, plus the islands where we've never been. Our favorite part of Portugal is Porto and the Douro and Minho valleys in the north.

    Bill

  13. #13
    Monongahela national forest when I used to go backpacking. On morning a herd of deer were crossing the creek next to our camp and one came over and my wife and I fed it from our hands. I'd love to go back but the way the world has become you don't know who you will run into out there.
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    Hunza, Pakistan. Was there September last year and already planning to got back.

    The most spectacular scenery, very few tourists, good food and friendly people.

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    Member TheH's Avatar
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    Myanmar (former Burma) and lots of other places in Asia.

    UK in general.

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    Member Lopez's Avatar
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    Iceland, for sure. Have been twice and have only scratched the surface. Would go back in an instant. Loved the food (had horse for the first time) and the scenery is spectacular, and some of the best hot dogs I've ever had. No kidding. Near the harbor, in a parking lot, is a little hot dog stand where there's a line all the time for the most delicious dogs.

    My son has returned home from working in Yangon, Myanmar, for 5.5 years. I regret never having gone to visit him there.
    Last edited by Lopez; 02-27-2019 at 09:46 AM.
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    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    I've done
    - the whole of North (8 of the 10 Canadian provinces and Yukon, +/- 35 of the US states - including Alaska - and a large chunk of Mexico) except for Greenland,
    - a fair amount of the continental Central America and a few Antilles islands
    - all of the Andean countries in South America (from Venezuela all the way to Tierra Del Fuego >> but didn't venture to Cape Horn), but not Brazil, the three Guyana and the two Guays lands (Uru and Para).
    - I've done most of Europe (minus Iceland, the ex-USSR countries and some Balkan states) and the odd smaller countries

    ====================

    TBH, outside Ethiopia and Mali, most of (black) Africa doesn't attract me much, but Morocco (been there), Algeria and Tunisia do.
    Not really all that interested in tropical Asia (below the Pamir-Himalaya line) either >> That's from Pakistan until Papua New-Guinea..

    Someday, I plan to visit wallabies and kiwis, and I'd love to do some of those central Asian countries and the southern face of Caucasus mountains (Georgia, Armenia).
    One "arab" country that's still got me dreaming is Oman. Before the unrests, I wanted to visit, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and the "would-be" Kurdistan as well.
    Last edited by Trane; 02-28-2019 at 04:08 AM.
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  18. #18
    Most exotic place that I've been to, but I wouldn't probably go back there - Pakistan, but I only visited Karachi.
    Most exotic and fascinating place I've visited and I would go back even today if I could - Singapore.
    I would also highly recommend United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi), Morocco (Marrakesh, Fès), Thailand, Malaysia.

    Next on my bucket list - Petra in Jordan.

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    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    The Amazon jungle

    The summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro

    Many, many African safaris - some were on foot.
    Regards,

    Duncan

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    H'mmm. It would be a tie between:
    - Samburu National Park in Kenya, as part of a safari trek; and,
    - The Forbidden City in Beijing. Or maybe the dig of the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an. One of those two, anyway.
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    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    Italy, though I'd forgo the obvious tourist attractions this time around and travel the interior.

    Bucket list: Japan

  22. #22
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
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    I'm fortunate that I have been able to travel the world and see many sites that I would never have been able to on my own.


    International
    I would love to spend a month or two in Australia. I loved Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide. I want to travel to Broken Hill to visit sites that The Road Warrior was filmed.

    Domestic
    On my bucket list is spending a good two weeks in a small town that is home to one of those heartland high schools where the town shuts down to attend a Friday night high school football game. I want to take in the town and culture. I know I'd be an outsider, but I'd love to follow the happenings of a small town like that. I've seen movies like All The Right Moves and Varsity Blues that glorifies this type of town assembly and I know it comes from Hollywood. However, I have seen news reports and other specials that concentrate on these small towns. It interests me, especially since I grew up in Southern California, where this type of cultural event isn't as prominent as a small town.

  23. #23
    Member hippypants's Avatar
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    So there are travelers and others like me, less experienced. Can anyone offer any advice? I've not experienced anything crazy or anything, but I've never just winged it. I have a friend in Austin that does more that thing when travelling with his wife. He flew over to Thailand a year or so back to visit his son over there that was teaching. He visited with him some and then went off on his own. He didn't run into anything scary and for the most part enjoyed it, but got some stomach bug about the time he had to leave and had diarrhea on the plane back. He said that was a rather unpleasant way to fly.

    Another time they were in Mexico and while on the beach someone stole his glasses. They spent the better part of the day trying to track them down, which they finally did, unbelievably. The rest of the trip was pleasant.

    They only thing for me was camping out in New Mexico, doing the tent thing I got a stomach bug, so we went on up to Santa Fe and I felt sick. We ate at a restaurant, and I had to visit their rather open-air-ish bathrooms, and drive the porcelain bus a bit. I guess I was noisy as the waitress asked me when I got back to the table if I needed anything. I should have ordered some tea.

    A lot of ya'll have done some great travelling.

  24. #24
    Member Sputnik's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hippypants View Post
    So there are travelers and others like me, less experienced. Can anyone offer any advice?
    It sort of depends on the type of travel you enjoy. I'm not an "adventure" traveler. My wife and I enjoy cities, museums, historical sites, restaurants, shopping. A bit of "outdoorsy" stuff in that context is cool, but that's not our focus.

    If you like that sort of thing, Europe is extremely well set up. You can often find packages that include train or bus transport, hotel, museum admission, some restaurant deals, etc. It's a good way to get in the groove without doing a full on tour like on a tour bus. In certain circumstances and certain areas (particularly those that are spread out), a well-chosen bus tour can also be an entree to getting comfortable with foreign travel. If you enjoy history, there are companies that focus their tours on various history or archeological subjects, and that can be really fun. Once you've done one or two of these, you'll start to get comfortable and maybe get the hang of booking things by yourself.

    The other tip I'd give you is to start with a relatively small number of things/places. You can easily spend a week in Paris (with perhaps a couple of day trips out which can be booked while you are there). If you're doing Italy, don't try to do everything. Try to pick a few places and go a bit deeper with them rather than constantly uprooting to go somewhere else. For example in 9-10 days, you could do Rome and Florence, and that would include sampling places surrounding those cities like Siena, Tivoli, or a day at Rome's ancient port of Ostia Antica (almost as great as Pompeii, and far easier to get to from Rome).

    That would be my quick advice, based on that sort of travel.

    Bill

  25. #25
    Member Yodelgoat's Avatar
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    St Petersburg Russia, Berlin Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland - For a guy from Olympia Washington (at the time in '96) that's about as exotic as you can get. I don't expect to ever return. It was lovely, but they are not places I need to see again. It was a 23 day cruise of the Baltic sea with my dad.

    Favorite place I will return to is Belize. I could probably live there.

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