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Where's the Strangest Place You Want to Visit or Have Visited?


NotThePars

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40 minutes ago, Hampden Diehard said:

Team Moscow up with St Petersburg.

Was meant to be going to St. Petersburg and Moscow via Helsinki for my 30th wedding anniversary in July last summer. Ended up in the Lake District, not quite the same.,

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On 13/12/2020 at 09:22, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

It's hardly off the beaten track but I'm desperate to go to Moscow at some point in my life. Even less so would be Iceland. Maybe one for 2021

Iceland's a great place.  Reykjavik is a really nice city.

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The Philippines was pretty interesting despite having probably the worst poverty that I've seen. It has a really unique vibe, having been a Spanish colony before falling into the American sphere of influence. It felt more like Latin America than Asia. The public transport consisted of clapped out old WW2 Jeeps that were covered in pictures of Jesus and there were people driving around in old hot rods. It didn't feel quite safe though. There were a lot of guns on display. Shops, hotels and restaurants had armed guards. There were army checkpoints. I enjoyed my visit but I'm in no hurry to go back.
Mongolia sounds interesting. I've always fancied Central Asia, ie Uzbekistan, or deep into Siberia.
 
Can I recommend this book to you. A tour round all the Stans. Really interesting book, I read it in a couple of long sittings over Boxing Day. It's quite interesting to see how each of the Stans has emerged from the post-Soviet era.

Not sure I'd ever visit based on the book, as my holiday tastes are generally of the remote cottage on Scottish Island / weekend city break variety, it would be a fair bit out my comfort zone.

The most out of the ordinary place I've ever visited myself was Marrakesh (which is fairly mainstream these days). That big square for dinner was quite the experience. Also the pointless haggling for prices for every single purchase in the market.

Also travelling up to Northern Iceland in mid 90s was outstanding. Will be going back there one day. IMG_20201231_102804.jpeg
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I ended up in a small village in rural southern China about 6 years ago, the name of which sadly escapes me. It was part of a guided tour, but it was the first time the tour had ever run and as a result the only people on it were me, the guide and my two mates.

The town wasn't touristy at all, but, for some reason or another, they were preparing to be.

Our accommodation came in the form of a huge, newly built but barely furnished, hotel that only had electricity for one hour a day. There were no staff, only a caretaker and the hotel itself was in the middle of nowhere. Parallels to The Shining were somewhat overbearing and it was hard to properly relax in such a setting.

At night, as a means of retaining sanity, me and my two mates would buy big bottles of Tsingtao from the caretaker and drink them under torchlight whilst huddled together in one of the bedrooms.

As an aside, these bottles came from a fridge behind the front desk. A fridge that obviously wasn't switched on resulting in rather rancid tasting beer. Unfortunately, we found out that an unplugged fridge was pretty standard for beverage retailers throughout the country as cold drinks are, quite obviously, bad for your 'inner heat'.

The reason we were there was to go on a cruise and see some cliff-side caves that were inhabited by humans thousands of years ago, an undeniably cool experience. Especially as some ancient artwork can still be seen at the side of some of the caves.

Before this cruise, though, we had been given some rather unusual invitations. 

The first was an invitation to a wedding that was happening that night. As the first white tourists to visit the village we would be guests of honour.

The second was an invitation to watch the pigs being slaughtered for the big event.

A strange, strange experience, especially as it took about 5 minutes for them to chase the pigs down, eventually catching them by the tail, pinning them down and putting a knife through the neck. Genuinely shocking to see, but as a meat-eater I feel it was important to see first-hand how it often happens.

The wedding itself was utterly bizarre, with the entire village being there and treating us like celebrities. 

Each table's centre piece was a big basin of rice wine that was liberally ladled into your bowl at every possible opportunity. This basin was refilled from numerous oil drums of the stuff dotted around the place. The poor groom, as was custom, had to do a shot of rice wine with every single guest, of which there must have been almost 100.

Along came the dearly departed swines from earlier and a very hearty meal ensued. Another peculiar element came in the form of it being expected that you just spit any bones or bits of gristle directly on the floor for the dogs to hoover up; a cultural export I'd love to introduce to the western world. 

Not long after this our guide made excuses and spirited us away as the rate of rice wine consumption was really something to behold.

All in, a great experience and further proof that the Chinese really are a great bunch of lads.

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Petra was fascinating as well as bizarre.
A lot of the cave dwellings stink of piss and have remnants of fires, from the Bedouin who still the inhabit them. The women who work the stalls are beautiful and just sit on their iPhones, when not trying to sell junk. I was told they’re brought in from Amman to entice tourists to buy stuff. They genuinely try and sell you small bags of sand and rocks, in a city built into the rocks in a desert. It’s as if they’re scooping up gravel off the ground and trying to flog it.
After a 4 mile hike up a mountain to the monastery we sat down in a small shaded tent that posed for a cafe, to get a nice cold drink. As soon as we sat down, all the staff kept trying to do was give us the WiFi password, which we politely declined. They seemed genuinely confused that we weren’t too bothered about using the internet, while sitting looking at one of the most fascinating architectural feats in human history.

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I’ve been to Uganda for work a few times. It’s a fab country - friendly people, incredible wildlife, interesting culture, and usually safe to get around.

They’ve got a presidential election coming up. I was there in 2016 - the last time they had one. In one corner there was Yoweri Museveni - dictator for 30+ years, and very much in the mould of the classic African strongman leader. In the other corner was main challenger Kizza Besigye, who probably wasn’t in line for many Nobel peace prizes either, but presented himself as the candidate for change.

Fair to say it was pretty full on. In the 3 weeks I was there, Besigye got arrested/detained several times, the two candidates had rallies in a football stadium 300m from where I was staying on consecutive days and there was fighting, tear gas, etc as Museveni’s supporters left and Besigye’s arrived, I spent an afternoon stuck in a traffic jam with hoards of (friendly) Besigye supporters singing and dancing all around the car, they cut the country’s internet on the day of the election, there was pro-Museveni propaganda everywhere - especially the media (even P&B was infiltrated- see below). One afternoon when I was out for a walk in Kampala they suddenly shut all the streets off to traffic and I saw Museveni and his motorcade speeding past. It felt a bit close to the action sometimes with the potential for trouble to flare up, but couldn’t help but find it all quite fascinating.

Everyone I spoke to supported Besigye, but expected the election to be a stitch up. Museveni was re-elected by a landslide, of course.

 

Kizza Besigye supporters returning from a rally in Entebbe.
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Election posters, Kampala.

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P&B nailing íts colours to the mast (I was messaging a friend who posts on here and screenshotted this to show him the extent of the pro-government advertising).
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Edited by Adamski
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On 11/12/2020 at 19:56, Hedgecutter said:

Weirdest would be down a mine in Bolivia, finding myself giving a paper mache Devil some coca leaf, pure alcohol and some fags to appease the superstitious miners.

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Somewhat unsurprisingly, given the cocktail of distilled hedonism regularly bestowed upon him, this bold c**t stormed the Capitol Building.

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North Cyprus and Albania are 2 I'm looking at doing whenever we can.


Albania is on my list. Has anyone climbed Mount Fuji? It looks quite mental with shops on various parts of the mountain along with the free WiFi.
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8 hours ago, Waspy said:

 


Albania is on my list. Has anyone climbed Mount Fuji? It looks quite mental with shops on various parts of the mountain along with the free WiFi.

 

I climbed Mount Fuji.  Long time ago.  You climb it overnight so you can see the sunrise at the top.  It basically consists of following the person in front of you.  You start at around 8,000 feet and the top is around 13,000 feet.  There are numerous stations along the way where you get food and water.  Even in August it is cold.  At the top there are shops, a post office and an observatory.  Everybody is yawning and nobody is running.

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I used to go to India a lot a few years back for work purposes, an excuse to get away from the wife and generally 7-10 days of heat and cold beer. One trip involved a visit to Hyderabad. After a few beers, my contact took me to the Charminar area, the big Muslim area of the city. It was like stepping back in time about 500 years. Weird feel to the place compared to other parts of India. Even Raj was apprehensive when we’re wandering about some of the side streets. Interesting all the same.

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4 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

I used to go to India a lot a few years back for work purposes, an excuse to get away from the wife and generally 7-10 days of heat and cold beer. One trip involved a visit to Hyderabad. After a few beers, my contact took me to the Charminar area, the big Muslim area of the city. It was like stepping back in time about 500 years. Weird feel to the place compared to other parts of India. Even Raj was apprehensive when we’re wandering about some of the side streets. Interesting all the same.

Agree with that, wandered about the muslim part of Bangalore and it was pretty bad, even by Indian standards. My colleagues were shocked I had walked about the area when I told them I had done so and launched into a lot of shit about how bad muslims were which turned out a tad embarrassing for them.

India is a fascinating place but utterly filthy especially if you get off the beaten track. 

I am usually over every couple of months and traveling throughout and with Covid, a year since I have been and missing the place. 

 

 

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Edited by Tight minge
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6 minutes ago, Tight John McVeigh is a tit said:

Agree with that, wandered about the muslim part of Bangalore and it was pretty bad, even by Indian standards. My colleagues were shocked I had walked about the area when I told them I had done so and launched into a lot of shit about how bad muslims were which turned out a tad embarrassing for them.

India is a fascinating place but utterly filthy especially if you get off the beaten track. 

I am usually over every couple of months and traveling throughout and with Covid, a year since I have been and missing the place. 

 

 

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Haven’t been for a couple of years. Was up in Amritsar last time for the border closing ceremony. Fucking mental. We should have that on the A1 when Scotland becomes independent.

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9 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Haven’t been for a couple of years. Was up in Amritsar last time for the border closing ceremony. Fucking mental. We should have that on the A1 when Scotland becomes independent.

It doesn’t get less mental with time, but always interesting. Any road trip can be enlightening.

 

 

 

 

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I have wanted to to travel from Dunbar to Hong Kong by train, though this is probably touristy thing to do now. Berlin, Moscow, Ulaanbaatar and Beijing though would be excellent to visit.

The most out of the way place I have been is St. Vincent and the Grenadines. As there are no huge expanse of beaches it is relatively tourist free.
Though if it is golden sands you want then jump on the ferry from St Vincent to Bequia.
I loved the place, incredibly laid back, which might be due to there most abundant crop being marijuana., with absolute no hassle.

Virginia Atlantic have just launched direct flights from London so the islands may become mote tourist orientated but I hope not.

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I've been to a fair few places mentioned here: Mongolia, Siberia, Transnistria, Abkhazia, Karabakh, Syria (not Homs like Melanius though but I did see the tanks surrounding it while it was under siege), Iraq, I spent five months in Central Asia and I used to live in Albania.

Probably the best holiday I had though was a month travelling around Ghana. Algeria was also top notch.

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10 years ago today I was on Port Lockroy in Antarctica, where there is a museum and post office, from where you can send mail all over the world. 

Port Lockroy is on Goudier Island (64º49’S, 63º30’W) off the Antarctic Peninsula.

Following a conservation survey in 1994, British ‘Base A’ – Port Lockroy was recognised for its historical importance and designated as Historic Site and Monument No. 61 under the Antarctic Treaty.

In 1996 a team from the British Antarctic Survey was funded to renovate the buildings in 1996. Since then the site has been open to visitors during the Antarctic summer (November to March).

It is now managed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) who operate the site as a ‘living museum’ including a very popular small gift shop. All profit from the shop proceeds goes towards renovation of other historic sites in Antarctica.

 

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Edited by paul wright scores
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