Help me choose my next vacation spot.

The BBQ Pit
#1

I’m thinking of taking a vacation where I can get some real scenic hiking.

There’s a lot of places available to me -
so here are my choices

  1. My back yard - the good ol’ **U S **of A
  2. Europe - explore the rich history and beauty
  3. A war-torn country in the troubled Mideast where everybody is trying to kill one another

Activities I could pursue

  1. Staying somewhere very public and protected
  2. Use well armed, well trained local guides for protection
  3. Wander around close to unmarked disputed borders with nations hostile to your native country.

I’ve though it over and decided I would rule out number three for each category. I’d have to be one of the stupidest people ever to walk the face of this earth if I made those choices.

But then again, I could get a lot of attentionif I made it out alive.

Maybe even a book deal.

#2

Oman is a “tiny Persian Gulf nation”? It has twice the land area of the UK (though one twentieth of the population).

Stupid AP fact-checkers.

Oh, yeah, and fuck those hikers.

#3

BubbaDog, Have you considered leasing an expensive yacht and cruising the Indian Ocean along the lovely coast of Somalia? It’s supposed to be fabulous.

#4

Yes, the hikers clearly intended this whole escapade just to make it rich.

  1. Get lost while hiking
  2. Spend 2 years in Iranian jail, being subjected to abuse
  3. Be shaken down for a million dollars in bail
  4. Profit!
#5

Well, they’ll be stupid if they don’t try to make some $$ out of the whole deal. Not that they intended it that way, but why not turn lemons into lemonade and set up a nice little stand. Cah-ching!

#6

It’s the American way. Anyway, the hikers didn’t pay their own bail.

#7

I suppose that makes two years in Iranian jails much more pleasant. Shoot, I bet it was fun.

#8

I suggest doing that on “International Talk Like a Pirate Day.” Unfortunately, it was just a week or so ago, so next year, perhaps.

#9

On the news this morning, they were saying that the US government has “no idea” where the bail money came from (uh huh). The other day on the news, I believe they said that the money came from private organizations. So ridiculous: it was what? A million and a half dollars between the three of them? There are so many betters way that money could have been spent helping people who aren’t total fucking morons.

I think what rubs me the wrong way the most about this story (and always has) is that these dummies are just your stereotypical Berkeley douchebags who wanted to go prove how darned cosmopolitan they are. Ridiculous.

#10

BubbaDog missed the deadline for Pirate Adventure? Oh dang … but there is still excitement to be found. Comb through the travel brochures for these action packed hot spots:

  1. Liberia

  2. Israel

  3. Afghanistan

  4. Tajakistan

  5. Chechnya

  6. Columbia

  7. Congo

  8. Iraq

  9. Sudan

  10. Papua New Guinea

Taken from
http://www.broowaha.com/articles/6721/the-10-most-dangerous-travel-destinations

#11

Aren’t you kind of overlooking the obvious?

It seems obvious to me that they were doing something, tangentially related to ‘spying’ under the guise of young,innocent hikers!:smiley:

I just can’t convince myself they’d be in that spot, innocently.

Probably got their student debt erased, and get to keep the cash from the book deal!

#12

That IS the obvious explanation but the second rule of life may be in play here.

2nd rule of Life - Never Rule Out Stupidity

#13

Hey now, upper Manhattan isn’t that unsafe anymore. Hasn’t been for decades.

#14

Something that seems to get overlooked on a regular basis is that two of the three lived/worked in Syria, so Iraq was much more their backyard than the Colordao Rockies. Not that that doesn’t make them stupid for choosing to hike right near the border with fucking Iran, but it was not quite the Herculian effort in stupidity as if they had traveled half-way across the world to get there.

#15

It’s bail, not a payoff; theoretically, it might be paid back.

#16

Sure, they just need to show up for their next court date in Tehran, and I bet the judge will refund the cash bond.

I recall that a Doper knows one of the hikers. IIRC, his “cover story” of being a dopey, clueless hippie goes all the way back to grade school.

What’s more likely – a spy being in training since the 7th grade, or a harmless American being used as a pawn by Iran?

#17

What’s more likely - that an unnamed doper knew one of the hikers well enough in 7th grade to rule out the possibility of him being a spy 15 years later, or that none of us have any fucking idea?

#18

I wouldn’t want to be captured by Iranians on talk like a Pirate day - it seems like they might not get it.

“Yarr, I’m not a spy ya greasy land-lubber”

#19

The odds of you having no clue about anything you post about are about 1:1.

#20

I’m sorry you feel that way, but I think our respective posts in this thread speak for themselves.