Not many, only 2: Greece France (and that was only because I had a connecting flight) I really want to travel with the wife once the kids get out on their own; here are some places I want to go to: England Scotland Canada Brazil Ireland Australia Netherlands Germany Italy Norway Sweden Denmark Finland Switzerland Considering that my kids are 9 and 6 months old, travelling internationally won't be happening for a long time.
Austria (Vienna, Innsbruck, Salzburg) Belgium (Belgium, Bruges) Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Niagara Falls) Czech Republic (Prague) France (Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Calais, Rennes, Mt. St. Michel) Germany (Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Fussen) Greece (Athens) Ireland (Dublin) Italy (Naples, Capri, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Venice, Verona) Mexico (Monterrey) Switzerland (Geneva) UK (London, Bath, Windsor, Edinburgh) Vatican City Vietnam (Saigon, small towns nearby) And I can't wait for more.
Asia India UAE Muscat Europe England France Germany need to get out more... about to go to netherlands...
I was living in South Korea at the time and hooked into a Korean tour group. My girlfriend and I were the only non-Koreans in the group. We entered through the southern border by bus and spent 3 days in the Kumgang region, which is sort of a special tourist zone. Even within the zone the rules were pretty strict. For example, there was a big red stripe painted along the concrete which you weren't allowed to cross after a certain time of day or you risk getting shot. Actually, I remember reading that some South Korean woman did end up getting shot in that area last year or something and that the zone might be closed now. Don't have the complete details about that. The primary draw of the area was hiking through the nearby mountains. I must admit, the mountains were absolutely spectacular. Some of the best (and most challenging) hiking I've ever done. At the top of one mountain, one of the local North Korean watchmen/guides practiced his English on us. It was pretty bad, but he shared his lunch with us which was quite touching. Some observations: - all citizens wear a special pin of Kim Jong Il on their shirt. It's quite nice looking, actually. - most locals smell like wood smoke due to lack of electricity in most homes. - soldiers are everywhere. You would look out in some random field with nothing around for miles and there will be a soldier standing there at attention keeping watch, holding a big signal flag. - the soldiers are all so young. Some looked no more than 15 years old. - people walk or ride bicycles. The only vehicles I saw were the tour buses. - all visitors had a plastic pouch with various identification papers which had to be worn visibly around your neck at all times. - crossing through their "customs" was intimidating as hell. Imagine going through the security checkpoint at the airport except it took place in a huge, crappy tent with armed North Korean soldiers all around processing people like cattle. - our first night there we were in bed and at 3:00 am in the morning someone starts banging on our hotel room door. We hop out of bed and freak out wondering if a soldier was about to bust in to inspect the room or something! Turns out it was just some drunk South Korean from next door who went to the wrong room. lol... All in all, it was an awesome experience that I wouldn't trade for anything.
Canada China Indonesia Singapore Switzerland Thailand I hope to add on to that list: Italy Japan Mexico US - Houston - NY - San Francisco
fadeaway, that NK trip sounds awesome. I've definitely gotta do more traveling in Asia. For some of the other conversation going on: my mom has been a British Airways manager at IAH for most of my life (I'm 33). That's how most of my traveling came to be. Been everywhere with mostly her and other family for most of my life. So, her working there = free flights, which are standby, but out of every plane I've ever been on I've only been bumped a handful of times, so that's never really been an issue. I also have friends and family in the UK in England, Scotland, and Wales, so room and board there is usually free. We're just standard, middle-class Americans....not rich at all. As others have said, it can be really, really cheap to travel internationally. You've just gotta make it a priority to do so. I know several people who do the beach vacations in Mexico and/or the Caribbean, but who've never been to another continent. The cost is about the same for travel and accommodation....you just gotta want to do it.
30 that I can think of: Qatar Kuwait Bahrain UAE Sierra Leone Colombia Venezuela Ecudador Brazil Mexico Canada Vietnam Thailand Australia Philippines China Japan S Korea Singapore Malaysia Taiwan England France Germany Switzerland Italy Spain Portugal Austria Netherlands If you count Macau and Hong Kong a few moons ago, add 2 more. If you count Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, add 3 more.
Gee not much love for the beautiful country that is Australia in this thread. Seeing as the Rockets now have 2 Australians on the team.. I have visited the following. Thailand India UK Wales France Netherlands Germany Austria Italy Russia Japan USA Canada China (March 2010) New Zealand
Mexico Costa Rica England France Scotland Norway Australia The Netherlands Was scheduled to spend time this summer also in Kosovo, Greece and Turkey at least but that was preempted by injury in The Netherlands.
been to: malaysia (home) singapore thailand australia new zealand china hong kong taiwan south korea japan UK (studying currently) france spain USA might travel around europe soon
Not necessarily true, we have a two income no kids family (I’m 27) and we life very cheap (like we did when we were students except for our house) so we safe a lot of money in order for us to travel. Traveling in Europe is not that expensive for europeans. We safe money for the trips to Asia, Africa and South America. We went to Jordan and Egypt last year. It was great, I especially loved Jordan. We went to Petra the moment it opened (so at sunrise) and we were the only people in the Siq so we saw the treasury and the monastry completely abandoned. Just amazing, the people in Jordan were also great and friendly. Wow you guys only have 2 to 4 weeks holiday a year??? Does this inculde christmas? I have 6.5 weeks of holiday a year, but I work for a university (which helps in this department)
Americas Canada Mexico Jamaica Grand Cayman Belize Europe France Germany Luxembourg Belgium Netherland Asia Vietnam (born there but never been back... not sure if that counts) China I chose 6-10 but I guess I've been to 12.
My work doesn't give me Christmas/New Years off, I have to use vacation time to get anything more than Christmas day or New Years day off. I get 4 weeks a year and we try to travel internationally with each one. I'm really looking forward to Petra.
Yeah like i said i have six and a half weeks of each year. Man petra was amazing, I thought it was even better than the Pyramids (which also blew me away). In Petra we stayed for two whole days, just walking around, the views are amazing. You have to get in early, like I said we were the first ones in the Siq and that was just amazing. When we returned to the Treasury later that day it was to crowded, and you couldn't get a good picture of it. So make sure you are there early, and after you watched the Treasury walk towards the Monastry, it is good to make that trip early in the day, otherwise the sun is ust to hot.
Damn, now I'm bummed I didn't go there. We were really close when we were at the Taba (Egypt)/ Eilat (Israel) border.
When I was 16 I went with my parents to Israel, and we were also in Eilat. We could go to Petra, but didn't since you had to get up very early and have a long busride. The problem with going there on a tour from Israel or egypt is that you get there at the beginning of the morning. It is very crowded there at that time and you miss out on the magic of waking trough the Siq alone, or see the treasury alone If you ever go to that area again, go to Jordan, and take 2 days to go to petra. It really is an amazing place.
I went to an ex-pat church one Sunday when I was visiting Switzerland. They regularly had travelers passing through come to attend, so that had a practice of welcoming visitors where the visitor would say his name and what country he was from. The person before me said his city instead of the country, so they made him say the country. So, I made a point of saying I was from Texas. No one asked for any clarification.
Thanks for the advice, my wife is a picture person(2600 over 12 days in china recently). so she'll definitely want to get pics of petra with no one else there.
