Weird Bucket List Travel

[telescopes]

I have traveled more than most, but not enough to suit me. In the next year I’ll cross off at least seven more countries. The only thing that settles me down is fishing off a boat in a place like Table Rock. Weird place? That would be having fried chicken in Shang Hai in the Bund and having a group of Europeans telling us that Americans are too noisy.

 

[Streeper541]

I've been fortunate enough to travel to 27 countries outside the US during my military service and have tripped 46 of the 50 States. (I've lived in five of them!) There are only a few places I I'd really like to see.

I'd like to visit and tour Ireland. My family is Irish-American immigrants, so obviously I'd like to see the Emerald Isle. An extra benefit to the site seeing I can get fresh Stout, Whiskey & check out Peterson's shop & store!

I'd also very much like to visit Jerusalem and perhaps do a walking tour of the Galilee region. As a minister, it would be a dream come true to visit the Holy Land and see the sites described in the Bible.

Sadly, as a bi-vocational High School Teacher/Pastor I don't, and probably won't, have the funds for either.

 

[DrTeeth]

What part reached u the most?

The cathedral itself. The grandeur. You could literally fit the Statue of Liberty under the duomo. And, of course, Michelangelo’s Pietá. The Sistine chapel is amazing, but it’s very difficult to see anything. You are walking around with your head pointed straight up, bumping into people, and the Swiss guards are (ironically) screaming at everybody to be quiet. And it is packed.

 

[captpat]

I'd like to take the DW to Italy and Germany. The former for the food and of course the Vatican, the latter because my father's parents were immigrants from there.

 

[cigrmaster]

My dad was a world traveler. He went on like 6 vacations a year every year. He finally couldn't figure out a new place to go so he went on an ice cutter to Antartica and said it was a ball. All kinds of sea creatures,, walking on the ice, carving through the ice on that big mother of a ship.

Hi last trip he took me and my wife at the time king salmon fishing in Gustavas Alaska. We caught limit every day which was 7 kings and then all the halibut our boat could hold. My dad died one month later. At least we got one last trip in.

 

[trouttimes]

I would love to spend months in Tuscany learning to cook and enjoying the wine and women.

 

[CoffeeAndBourbon]

I would have to say India and Vietnam, both for the food experience.

 

[mso489]

DrTeeth, I wasn't in Indianapolis at race time, but from the size of the unending grandstands fading off into the mist, and descriptions of the waves of people hiking in from parking on race day, it really draws a picture.

Bullet08, yes, New York City is really contradictory. It's a world center and endlessly cosmopolitan, but in neighborhoods and even among the well-traveled, it can be amazingly provincial. Even people in relatively isolated rural places have a sense of he world beyond, whereas, some New Yorkers are totally absorbed in their city.

The New Yorker (magazine) had a great cover years ago depicting a map of the United States from a New Yorker's perspective. Half the continent was the boroughs of the City and the rest of the country had three or four destination cities before you got to the West Coast.

The comedy Seinfeld was set in New York City, and the whole world was the Upper West Side. Some say New York City is thousands of small towns packed on and around an island. The local dry cleaner or coffee shop knows most of its regular customers by name. Some shops take mail for their clients when the clients travel.

 

[mso489]

A colleague who went to Vietnam was amazed at how densely the traffic was packed in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Crossing the street required waiting for a crowd to cross and then maintaining an absolutely uniform speed with the crowd to get across before the vehicles surged forward. It's not what you'd call a great walking city.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I've been to every continent except Australia, Africa and Antarctica. Soooo, I wouldn't mind visiting New Zealand.

 

[DrTeeth]

A colleague who went to Vietnam was amazed at how densely the traffic was packed in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Crossing the street required waiting for a crowd to cross and then maintaining an absolutely uniform speed with the crowd to get across before the vehicles surged forward. It's not what you'd call a great walking city.

Hanoi is similar. But, there is a trick to it. We had to be taught how to walk across the street. There are some thing like 4 million scooters in Hanoi. You just have to start walking, and let them “part the sea” around you. It’s very nerve-wracking the first few times. You can feel the wind of the scooters going in front of you and behind you as you walk. You have to keep a steady pace and they won’t get you. They have no interest in crashing any more than you do being hit. It’s wild, for sure.

That would be a death wish in Bangkok. They don’t give any mind to pedestrians at all.

 

[cigrmaster]

Hanoi is similar. But, there is a trick to it. We had to be taught how to walk across the street. There are some thing like 4 million scooters in Hanoi. You just have to start walking, and let them “part the sea” around you. It’s very nerve-wracking the first few times. You can feel the wind of the scooters going in front of you and behind you as you walk. You have to keep a steady pace and they won’t get you. They have no interest in crashing any more than you do being hit. It’s wild, for sure.

That would be a death wish in Bangkok. They don’t give any mind to pedestrians at all.

You want to see crazy ass drivers go to Cairo. There is a thick layer of dust in the air. No one follows the traffic rules or adheres to the traffic lights. It is a total free for all and I am amazed I didn't see any crashes.

The worst road I was ever on is the ride from Montego Bay Jamaica to Negril which is on the west tip of the island. They drive on the left side of the road. It is a one lane road and is only 54 miles. It takes 3-4 hours depending on time of day and there is always blood on the streets. Motorcycles, buses, work trucks, it is insane. I once had to do it at 4 in the morning because our plane was late. My hands were so sore from gripping the wheel with both hands. I dreaded it every time I had to drive it. And this is coming from a Boston driver where we are total maniacs. One side of the road is a drop into the ocean and it is not a short drop.

 

[DrTeeth]

You want to see crazy ass drivers go to Cairo. There is a thick layer of dust in the air. No one follows the traffic rules or adheres to the traffic lights. It is a total free for all and I am amazed I didn't see any crashes.

The worst road I was ever on is the ride from Montego Bay Jamaica to Negril which is on the west tip of the island. They drive on the left side of the road. It is a one lane road and is only 54 miles. It takes 3-4 hours depending on time of day and there is always blood on the streets. Motorcycles, buses, work trucks, it is insane. I once had to do it at 4 in the morning because our plane was late. My hands were so sore from gripping the wheel with both hands. I dreaded it every time I had to drive it. And this is coming from a Boston driver where we are total maniacs. One side of the road is a drop into the ocean and it is not a short drop.

I have experienced that. I’ve driven all over the interior of the island and throogh the Blue Mountains. Feels like driving through Baghdad.

I have only been motion sick 3 times in my life. And all due to insane drivers in the mountains . Once in Martinique, once in Chiang Mai Thailand, and once in Jamaica.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

You want to see crazy ass drivers go to Cairo.

Hell, just try to drive across Atlanta. All of the cars in Atlanta have the texture of a crumpled paper bag. I will drive 4 hours out of my way to keep from driving across that city. In fact, just fuck Atlanta. I'd drive across any other city, any day, over that damned place. No one there follows any street laws of any sort. And, I'm pretty sure that official City Mascot is Meth.

 

[DrTeeth]

You want to see crazy ass drivers go to Cairo. There is a thick layer of dust in the air. No one follows the traffic rules or adheres to the traffic lights. It is a total free for all and I am amazed I didn't see any crashes.

so you’re saying that the GL Pease Cairo should taste more like dust?

 

[jguss]

I don't mind average crazy traffic when I'm driving overseas (parts of SE Asia, the Middle East, etc) but there are limits. I have a friend who landed in Ethiopia and thirty minutes later on the drive from the Addis Ababa airport was in a fatal accident (the fatality was in the other car). The other driver was drunk and hit their car head-on after veering into opposing traffic. And Ethiopia is nothing special in that regard in Africa; there are dozens of countries there with worse stats.

 

[puff_not_snuff]

I would have to say India and Vietnam, both for the food experience.

I was in Nam for a couple months around 2001 and the food there is amazing. The stuff offered here is pretty lame in comparison but that could be said about most "ethnic" cuisines in the USA.

 

[Egg Shen]

I was having a discussion with a colleague at a party a few years ago. We were talking about bucket list destinations that raised the eyebrows of friends and family. His response was North Korea. Which, I have to say, even raised my eyebrows. Haha!

The fun part of that story is that the late, great Cliff Robinson was at the party we were attending. I remembered that he had visited North Korea with Dennis Rodman. So, we walked over and got to hear all about traveling around North Korea with Kim Jong Un as the tour guide. Strange tales, indeed.

But, I digress. What travel destination is on your bucket list that seems “weird” to your friends, family, or culture?

I’d like to go to Easter Island. Various deserted atolls I see on Google Earth as well…which are mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. I’d like to kite-surf island-to-island in French Polynesia

 

[Bob the bear]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Africa much, if you want to see some crazy stuff go through the streets of downtown Johannesburg…
P.s drive fast….

Iceland. I’d like to visit Iceland ….it looks picturesque

 

[Egg Shen]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Africa much, if you want to see some crazy stuff go through the streets of downtown Johannesburg…
P.s drive fast….

Iceland. I’d like to visit Iceland ….it looks picturesque

It’s basically like Chappie, right?