Most amazing/memorable places in the world you have been to in your life?

Yep in the words of one of my traveling companions “Chinese tourists are making Americans look good “. As an Asian American who speaks mandarin I’ve had a few interesting experiences dealing with not only Chinese tourists but also local hawkers trying to sell you crap.

Beyond just Chinese tourist the Instagram influencers are very annoying. When I went to the Giza Pyramids I got up earlier and the top of my hotel had a deck with a view of the whole Giza plateau. It was incredible watching the sun rise and bathe the Pyramids and Sphinx. Also with the quiet before the day really got going.

That sublime experience was shattered by a middle aged Indian couple with the wife wanting to do all these poses and Bollywood dances on the deck. At one point she climbed onto the railing to pose and I fought the urge to shive her off.

 

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Wow! Some pretty amazing pics. Notes taken on places to go that I wouldn't have expected.

We've been to Costa Rica a bunch of times since that's where the in-laws lived. They had (deceased) a place along the river near Arenal. Lots of memories and stupidity - like walking up Arenal with my 1st born son in a backpack to look inside the volcano which was active at the time. You could see lava at night but I wanted to look inside to see the lava during the day. Melted my sneakers while stopping too long to catch my breath near the top where fissures were spewing out steam. The wife at the bottom wasn't happy but I was determined - and I could say I couldn't hear her but I could see her and yeah... And stupid me never knew that poisonous gases are emitted from the top. Also took a $99 Amazon 4 man raft down the caiman infested river with 6 people. Did it again only the next time we tied a tube on the back for the MIL to ride in. There is no steering a tube and on one bend, she headed over to a bank loaded with caiman that caused them all to scatter in the water...good times...

Being an idiot with a little bit of money gives me tons of stories in life.

We love out west. Boating on Lake Powel going back into the canyons. Taking a Jeep along the White Rim trail (more dumb stories on that one). Diving in Maui. Climbing to the top of Angels Landing.

I have a friend at work that is planning a trip to Vietnam. He wants us to buy some scooter/small repairable motorcycles and travel around. Then at the end of the trip - toss the keys to some lucky young kid.

 

Double post

 

Caiman only? they have big ass crocodiles in CR

 

Only thing we saw were short (5-7’) but fat caiman. And of course spider and howler monkeys.

 

We just came from the southern part of St. Lucia. Two active Pitons (volcanos) make for some amazing scenary.

I forget the name but a Caye in Placencia(Island off of Belize) was the most amazing snorkeling.


Stayed in the rainforest near Arenal in Costa Rica. Amazing.

we won time took a ferry across the peninsula in Costa Rica to a town called Montezuma. The ferry ride at night was epic and scenic.

I’ve also been rafting in Costa Rica a couple times, including one time falling out of the raft on a big-time rapid.

Manuel Antonio is a national park in Costa Rica and is also very cool we went during the pandemic, so it was not as crowded tourist wise but apparently it’s just insanely packed at certain points. It’s funny because you go to this one beach in these little monkeys come out of the trees and steal your ****. I could watch those monkeys all day.

We used to go to a place in Mexico named Puerto Morelos.

15 years ago, it wasn’t that crowded tourist wise and had a bunch of great food. We went back six years ago, and it had become a little bit more touristy. My parents went last year and just said it was infested, too many people in a strong military presence

Vieques is an Island off of Puerto Rico. An amazing place as well.

 

Lol bro you and I need to share notes.

I want to go to St Lucia badly.

I went to Placencia and Caye Caulker last year.

We have tentative plans to go or Puerto Morelos next year for a music festival.

 

I'm not a huge traveler. I've always found it not worth my time and am very comfortable at home, and I always had the mindset that traveling was something you did to attain a goal, not something to be enjoyed. But I am envious of some of the exotic places you guys have been. And my outlook on travel has changed the past few years so I hope to hit some cool places soon with my wife and kids to create some lasting memories for them.

When I was 15 I lived and worked on a horse ranch in northern New Mexico for a summer. It was really beautiful and we would take the horses up into the Rockies on occasion. These were friends of my parents and we had gone to see them in Colorado when I was younger (they had a ranch there previously) in the Rockies. Some of my best memories are riding horses straight up mountainsides, I swear there were points where it was close to 90 degrees but the horses knew what to do. It's absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful there and a treasure that I don't think the majority of Americans appreciate that we have.

 

We just came from the southern part of St. Lucia. Two active Pitons (volcanos) make for some amazing scenary.

I forget the name but a Caye in Placencia(Island off of Belize) was the most amazing snorkeling.


Stayed in the rainforest near Arenal in Costa Rica. Amazing.

we won time took a ferry across the peninsula in Costa Rica to a town called Montezuma. The ferry ride at night was epic and scenic.

I’ve also been rafting in Costa Rica a couple times, including one time falling out of the raft on a big-time rapid.

Manuel Antonio is a national park in Costa Rica and is also very cool we went during the pandemic, so it was not as crowded tourist wise but apparently it’s just insanely packed at certain points. It’s funny because you go to this one beach in these little monkeys come out of the trees and steal your ****. I could watch those monkeys all day.

We used to go to a place in Mexico named Puerto Morelos.

15 years ago, it wasn’t that crowded tourist wise and had a bunch of great food. We went back six years ago, and it had become a little bit more touristy. My parents went last year and just said it was infested, too many people in a strong military presence

Vieques is an Island off of Puerto Rico. An amazing place as well.

What sort of shape was Placencia in? I don’t remember where I heard it, but it seemed like I heard that the storm and some of the impact from Covid had just changed it a little bit.. I think that was the name of the Caye.

The great thing about Saint Lucia was how cheap it was. Food and beer very reasonable. We ended up taking a car to the north as well. We went to a place called Rodney bag and for 50 years they have a Street Party every Friday night. local food families and Tourists come out. And then about 11 it gets a little bit more local.

 

So our original plan was just to go to Caye Caulker, but after 3 straight days of constant overcast thunderstorms we bailed and headed south to the nearest town that had hits on google maps when we searched for "scuba" lol.... that was Placencia.

We were there Labor Day of 2021. It was absolutely deserted (as was Caulker). Covid was raging bad. Not sure about any storm damage, but the place was a ghost town.

 

Wonderful memory for me in Placencia what is this man named Albert? It would walk around and sell Salbute. A great dish.


So the day we arrive we fly from Belize city to the island and head to our little Hotel Place. A bunch of us head down to the beach and my dad comes down a few minutes later looking absolutely sick and panicked. He had lost his wallet and was sure that it was with the taxi driver or in the charter plane. we try to get help in contacting these people and try to reassure him but he had about $1000 cash in there so he was fretting. He also app had eaten a bunch of mar1juana edibles before he got on the plane, so he was just quite frazzled.

he continues to panic and says he’s going to go take a nap. He comes back about 15 minutes later, and in his strange state of mind had hit his wallet from himself in the microwave. Because you’d never forget it in the microwave.

 

I was similar until I met my wife, and then she's convinced me to go out of my comfort zone a bit more and we've visited some pretty cool places in the last 6 years. Nothing too crazy, but I'd never been outside of the US until 2017, which was wild for me to venture out. I do still really love being at home though and am still a homebody, but slightly less now.

 

Northern Vietnam

 

Bariloche

and several other pleaces in that half of the country

 

Rio de Janeiro.
Grand Canyon.
Zion and Bryce Canyon.
Austria.
Mt Etna above the clouds near the crater, blue sky above.

 

I went to Manuel Antonio a few summers ago. Got there early and my son's idea to go all the way to other end furthest small beach in the left corner on the map for the first few hours and had it to ourselves for about 30 minutes. Also stayed at Arenal Observatory Lodge and highly recommend it, although the restaurant there was mediocre otherwise great experience.

 

Shove her off or shiv her off?

Either is acceptable ending for a Bollywood wannabe.

Just curious about your preference.

 

Say what you want about Utah as a city or whatever, but these places are top notch amazing.