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

New grange is beautiful but the exterior of it is actually a fanciful modern recreation. There were a lot of white stones found around it but there is no clear evidence that they were plastered to the front of it like you see.

I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about India but would still love to go. I would particularly love to go see Sarnath and some of the early Buddhist monuments. My mom also went to Kashmir decades ago and from the pics she has it looks amazing. Unfortunately like too many other places riven with conflict.

 

As for India, a lot of it depends on where you go. Being male is a massive advantage as well. India is a country very much controlled by males, and unfortunately women are very often harassed and assaulted.

The nicest places in India are on par with the most impressive places on the planet. It is very much how Eden is depicted. The problem is that these areas are very expensive and fairly rare. The amount of poverty and the degree of poverty is very hard to get used to and is jarring. Also the Ganges river is literally full of floating skeletons, including babies and there are birds everywhere eating garbage and picking at the bodies.

The most impressive part of India was the smells. I have never been somewhere that had so many smells, such a large number of smells and how strong the smells are. The food is obviously smells very strong and overall is pleasant - there is a strong clean and floral smell in the countryside which is probably the nicest consistent smell in the world IMO. However there are also terrible smells everywhere from massive trash piles, people that haven’t bathed and sweat. It’s REALLY intense and the first country I have been to where smell is the strongest consistent sense.

You seem adventurous and probably would appreciate the unique and awesome parts of it and can deal with the poverty and death and keep it in perspective. Everyone I have known from the West that has gone there has gotten sick though.

It is worth seeing because it is in many ways not different than it was 500-1000 years ago - and I think that is going to drastically change over the next 50-100 years.

 

around three million litres of sewage is emptied into the Ganges – and only about half of that has undergone any kind of treatment​

 

Yup. Even hardened travelers are startled by what they see in parts of India. There were literally dead bodies floating in the Ganges … I have had a couple Indian nationalists say it isn’t true, but I saw it and smelled it… it’s a very unique place in the world in 2023.

 

I remember the narrator in the opening of John Irving's "A Son of the Circus" saying "India is obdurately foreign to me".

Even if I wanted to go, my wife wouldn't. First off, she would be accosted as an Indian who married a white man (she's not, she's Brazilian, but looks absolutely Indian), and the poverty would just be too crushing for her. She disliked Belize for just that reason, so I'm sure India would be a no-go.

If I could go, yeah, it'd be those few-and-far-betweens. The Taj Mahal. The Lotus Temple (we're Bahá'is), although I hear tell New Delhi's pollution makes Houston look like Austria.

 

Nice list never been to your spots but will check them out

Interlaken gets many tourists so you should have no problem getting around with basic English.

 

Meteor Crater was actually really cool. Carlsbad caverns too.

Not exactly sandy beaches but I'll never forget that trip.

 

I can't believe nearly a month into it nobody's mentioned Carhenge yet

 

Cadillac Ranch is better: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220