The Hawaiian island of Kauai.
There is place there called Queen’s Bath, which is a natural pool separated from the ocean by a lava wall. The hike to get there was kind of long and pretty difficult at times. There was one point where it was so steep I had to scoot down on my butt. Once I got there, I was left speechless by the incredible natural beauty of the place. I was standing on a lava cliff, on one side, a wall of lava that seemed to rise up for a hundred feet, on the other, the never-ending ocean. I looked into the waves crashing below and could see sea turtles swimming. And in the middle of all this, a natural pool with calm, clear water. Spaces in the rocks let tropical fish of all shapes and colors in. The fish were curious, and would came right up to me. I got some beautiful pictures with my handy Kodak disposable underwater camera.
Rose
Angkor Wat-
Ancient Khmer temple complex near Siem Reap, Cambodia.
You leave this tiny little city and head into the jungle, and after what seems like a long while you see the main temple rising out of the jungle. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. This one temple (there are hundreds) is a kilometer or so on each side, covered in bas-reliefs that are 8 feet tall on the walls. To get to see that was one of the great experiences of my life. Especially considering the history of the county with the Khmer Rouge, etc…
When I was there (summer of 1996) there had been some fairly recent incidents (read abduction and murder) with tourists, so I was pretty much the only westerner at the temples. It was amazing to wander the grounds and look at the carvings without having other tourists around. Smart? probably not… But definitely amazing.
blanx
First of all, you are one lucky son-of-a-porpentine! 
Taveuni. The nickname is the “Garden Island”. You can catch a ferry at Savu Savu on Vanua Levu (the smaller of the two large islands) that takes you to Taveuni. It’s totally worth a day trip if you can pull it off. However, the airport is on Viti Levu, the big island, and you would have to take a bus to a ferry to get to Vanua Levu, not to mention the ferry to Taveuni. If you could afford a quick hopper flight on a tiny plane, I would do that. It would be totally worth it. It’s an amazing little slice of paradise. However, you could also head over to Nadi, on the other side of the big island. It’s a decently sized city with a neat look at “civilized” Fijian life. Lautoka is also a neat town. Levuka is a smaller island that tourists can check out…do some snorkeling at.
Overall, Fiji isn’t exactly one of those places where there’s just one thing to check out. Just hop on a bus and see the countryside. You really can’t get lost. Feel free to get off the bus at any point and wander around some towns or take a brief hike up into the hills. The buses aren’t like here. Just a ride around the island can be the experienc eyou are looking for.
Good luck…I envy you like crazy…
Tangiers, Morocco, 1986. It’s not very often that 16-year-old boys from central Illinois get to set foot in Africa, so this was definitely a big deal.
Shortly after we arrived, our tour group had a bit of a scare. Some local was bent on buying one of our girls :eek:. I mean he literally wanted to buy her! He kept offering four camels! Our tour guide told him to f*ck off (or words to that effect), but he ignored her because she was a woman. He started asking where the girl’s father was so he could negotiate directly with him :eek:. Finally, one of the grown men in our group told the guy to buzz off, and he left.
The girl was quite shaken. But otherwise a good time was had by all.
Tijuana, Mexico, summer 1987. I had a great time there, but to be honest, I had better Mexican food in east L.A.
Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe. Camping out along the Zambezi. Hippos wandering through, lions growling in the distance, a dead impala hanging from the tree into which a leopard had dragged it, hyenas snuffling round the tent at night, monkeys stealing the potato chips, etc.
Luanda, Angola, not that you’d really want to visit there exactly.
Iquitos, Peru. On the Amazon; only access is by air or a very, very, very long boat trip. Saw the boat used in the movie ‘Fitzcarraldo’ tied up at the town pier.
Sfax, Tunisia; walled souk straight outta ‘Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark’.
Zern’s, Boyertown, PA. 'Nuff said.
Rocket88 said
LMAO. Yes, a small peice of exotica right here in my backyard. Get out now, onct.
Wiamea Canyon on the Big Island in Hawaii. Can’t get in or out with 4 wheel drive. Well, you can get down that hill, but you won’t come back up without it. Stunning peice of paradise.
I’ve been lucky enough to go to Easter Island. The place is amazing. I would have liked to seen it a few hundred years ago when it still had its native vegitation.
Another great place was the Manu Biosphere Preserve in Peru. Spider monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Giant River otters not to mention the huge varity of birds and insects.
The entire Inca trail is pretty exotic as well. After you get to Machu Picchu you are confronted with the Urumbamba River valley, and it is breathtaking. I would recommend going to Agua Caliente and going to the hot springs. You can sit in naturally heated water and drink beer as you look down the incredible valley. That was one of my favourite moments of my 2 month trip through South America.
I wholeheartedly agree. That was one of the most breathtaking places I’d ever visited.
I would also recommend Egypt. The ruins in Luxor took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes they are so amazingly beautiful. Watching the sunset behind the pyramids is another moment I’ll remember always.
Greece and the surrounding area is also pretty exotic, especially if you take one of the tours out to the islands to see the Minoian ruins
Antarctica. McMurdo Base. Colder than hell, though the people who’d wintered over were walking around in shorts and t-shirts. Crawled into an ice cave, got close enough to a seal to touch it (smooth fur). Visited a wooden hut left from a 1910 expedition. Lots of things inside, like unopened tin cans of food, dried seal meat, and other neat stuff. The dry Antarctic air kept them preserved. They sometimes had turnaround flights that went to the South Pole, but I didn’t get a chance to go. pout
Rastahomie, I’ve also been to Tangier, Morocco. It was 1978, and I was in my late teens, and the same thing happened to us–somebody wanted to buy one of the teenage girls who was with us. Except we were offered 13 camels.
We started moving away, then one of our group joked that we were holding out for 15 camels, at which point the man smiled and said “Okay!” After some explaining from our guide, though, the deal was off. Thankfully for all of us, but especially for the girl in question. She was rather rattled by the whole thing.
I’ve been to many exotic places, but I’d have to say that one of the places I never expected to find myself was Western Australia. In my times there, I’ve managed to see some of the Margaret River wine country, spent some time on a dairy farm, made it out to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie/Boulder, and been all over Perth and the environs. A remote part of a remote land, but well worth the effort it took to get there.
I’m with you on Thailand, Nepal, jungle ruins without tourists, the sunrise on Machu Picchu.
But the most exotic place was Ladahk, or Little Tibet, in the extreme far northern corner of Kashmir in the north of India.
Monasteries from the time of christ and the landscape was indescribable, I didn’t know there were such places. It took four days on Indian buses to get there overland but we flew out over the Zanskar mountains and it was breathtaking. The culture and the landscape, the altitude and the light, I will never forget it if I live to be 1000 years old.
I’ve never left the U.S. either. I guess I’d have to say an ice cave in Montana, which was very beautiful and strange - in fact, I’ve been to a few caves, including Lewis and Clark Cavern and some big one in Missouri.
Yellowstone Park was also rather exotic for me. I managed to get within 10 feet of a moose.
Psst… Dominica is cool. Last Carribean rain forest, last tribe of Caribs (please, leave them alone), smooshed school bus with a big-ass tree growing out of it at the botanical gardens. Can’t find a picture of that, unfortunately. German hikers everywhere. Seems like they’re the only ones who know the place. Tourism is not the primary source of income to the island, so tourists can get quite a razz if they act like… Americans. I had a great, brief stay.
They’re not shy about telling you it’s a nice place to visit, so now fork over some money and get the fuck out of here. Most of us, sitting on that wonderful place, would do the same, I think.
The one most likely to cause jealousy: Nuweiba’, Sinai, Egypt. Nuweiba’ is this teeny town in Sinai, and my friend and I went there for a weekend when we were living in Israel. Anyway, there are these wild dolphins that get a kick out of the silly humans who invade their water and like to hang out at the beach there. So, my friend and I paid the Bedouin the equivalent of $2.50 US to enter their beach, and we swam about in the Red Sea while the two dolphins (mommy and baby) frolicked about us. The jagged red mountains of Sinai rose from the land behind us, and across the narrow sea, we could see the mountains of Saudi Arabia through the haze. While paddling in place, the baby dolphin poked his head out of the water and nudged me on the hand with his nose. Oooh, was so cool!
I have many treasured memories from my time in Israel itself. Going to Easter services at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, that was amazing. Walking through the streets of Jerusalem at 4 am for sunrise Shavuot services at the Western Wall (although that ended up in a bad way…). Hearing the muezzinin call to prayer for the first time, at midday in Nazareth. I love the muezzin’s call, actually. Especially if I happened to be in the Old City of Jerusalem, where there are so many mosques, and the call would come from all directions, and bounce off the walls and echo and echo and echo. Trying to find the 9th Station of the Cross, on the Via Dolorosa (harder than you might think!). Sunrise at Masada. Swimming in the (ouch!) Dead Sea.
I’m homesick now.
Ouazarzate, pronounced Wa Zar Zat.
It is a nice area, and the Tachelhit folks are fine people. Should visit Jbel Sahrou also.
Last October. The west coast of Fuerteavenutra, Canary Islands. Sat on the beach for 2 hours without seeing another soul. Of course my wife and I did it under the shade of a cliff.
1 year ago. Havanna, Cuba. Full of contrasts. A great place to love and hate.
Tulúm, Yucatan, Mexico. The Mayan ruins with the iguanas are cool. The beach and the water are the best I’ve been to. I want to go back.
2 years ago. New Dehli, India. Far out place. I can’t say I’m in a hurry to go back but worth a visit.
Ko Samet in the gulf of Thailand. On the same trip I went to KAN CHANABURI which is were the Bridge on the River Kwai was/is. I stayed up late on my own and just sat beside the river drinking Thai Whiskey and contemplating the hell those poor POW’s had to go through.
My god kids, don’t be so gullible.
This is just fucking with you as (a) no one buys brides nowadays with camels, (b) camels aren’t actually used in the North except as part of tourist shows © all the tourist touts know how much you guys love telling these stories about exotic arabs trying to buy your women with camels and they play it up. The most interaction btw the Guide and the souq people is a little show for your benefit.
That is, it is an act – except the part about wanting to get with the girls, because most North Africans “know” from seeing good old TV shows like Dallas that all Western women are loose and will get with anyone…
So, next time you hear about this or experience this, go on with the knowledge its all part of fucking with the gullible tourists. (not a bad sport if you’re bored)