Round the World Trip

[Maguspk]

Doing a round the world trip (RTW) starting next month and looking for suggestions on places you would visit or think are worth making a stop at. So far my list looks like this:

South America
	Brazil requires visa
		Amazon
		Rio de Janeiro
	Iguazu Falls, Argentina/Brazil
	Atacama
	
	

Europe
	London (HUB - book small flights e.g. Ryanair to other dests)
		Colosseum/Pantheon of Rome
		Parthenon in Athens, Greece
		Paris, Louvre etc.
		Stonehenge of Wiltshire, England
	
	Iceland
	
	
Africa
	Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
	Sahara
	Victoria Falls on border of Zambia and Zimbabwe

Middle East
	Petra, Jordan
		Rock-cut architecture, really awesome

Asia
	Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities), Japan
		Kinkaku-ji
	Okinawa
	Tokyo

	China requires visa (10 days mailing, etc.)
		Great Wall of China, Beijing
			Huanglong
			Jiuzhaigou Valley
		Hong Kong

SEA
	Australia online visa application (easy, painless)
		Great Barrier Reef, Australia
		Alice Springs
		Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park (Ayer's Rock)
		Syndney
	
	New Zealand

Pacific
	Tahiti
	Easter Island
	
	Hawaii

Any tips from people who have traveled to these places or on a similar extended RTW would be greatly appreciated.

[Brill Weave]

Are you dying?

[Shadowscythe]

Not much at Stonehenge, least not when I was there a few years ago. You walk around it and thats about it. Not really worth a visit by itself imo.

[Indalecia]

Hit up Buenos Aires in Argentina. If I ever seriously decide to leave the US, I'll prolly move there.

[noblemountain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagan

Bagan, Myanmar is amazing...over 2k temples in this valley. One of the coolest places I've ever been.

Are you looking for cool landmarks/buildings/tourist attractions or just good places to visit in general? I have visited Laos quite a few times and love it there. The people are awesome and it's one of the most gorgeous places on earth. Similarly, and I may be biased here, Mongolia is beautiful during the right seasons. I have spent months there with my grandmother and her nomadic clan and it was an experience I'll never forget. It really changed my life, which sounds cliche, but is completely true. If you're going to be in Egypt you should go to the Valley of Kings as well.

[Caiyuo]

Round-the-world trips sounded really awesome until I read about a sort of tech celebrity coming back from hers and randomly having a seizure from what I last read was contracting cysticerocosis from food in a 3rd world country.

[Wulfgang]

I lived in New Zealand for a year in Wellington. Not sure what your plans are (North v South Island), but a few things that really stood out from my time there (I'll try to toss in some photos):

The Waitomo Caves spelunking / tubing tour
This was one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life. You basically get in a wet suit with a spelunker's flashlight helmet and an inner tube, crawl into a cave with an underground river, and jump off a small cliff to land in the river and spend the next three hours cruising through a decent current on an inner tube while there are glow worms all over the ceiling making it look like the night sky when you turn your helmet light off. I went with my best friend and three girls; we were all high as hell which only made the experience even more ridiculous. We did the Black Labyrinth tour from this company I think (been a while): http://www.waitomo.com/black-water-rafting.aspx

The ferry from the North Island to the South Island
If the weather is nice and you find yourself in Wellington, I highly recommend taking the ferry which lands at Pictet on the South Island. The views / water / lagoons / etc you go through are unbelievable; pictures you will remember forever.

Pic from the ferry:
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...03203609_n.jpg

Another ferry pic:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...39520952_n.jpg

Abel Tasman National Park
We took the aforementioned ferry, landed in Pictet, then rented a car and drove to Nelson (cool town) to spend a night drinking. In the morning we drove to the park and spend the next day hiking like 10 miles to camp on this secluded beach. It is absurd; the beaches there are like something out of "The Beach" movie with DiCaprio. Some of the best beaches in the world and there is almost no one on them. You can swim with seals as they are all over the place. If you don't have time to do a hike / camp, you can do canoe / kayak day tours around the waterline to watch seals and cruise around.

Drunk on the beach we were camping at:
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...961_2494_n.jpg

Doing some seal watching (man the water was so amazing):
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...972_8380_n.jpg

[Wulfgang]

I've also been to Rio, but I was there for Carnival and basically spent the entire time in a drunken hedonistic stupor, so I can't be very helpful other than seeing Sugar Loaf

[Viq]

Go to Seoul and check out things like Gyongbukgung and Namdaemun Market. Also, eat tons of Sabgyubsal and Gamjatang.

[Maguspk]

Not much at Stonehenge, least not when I was there a few years ago. You walk around it and thats about it. Not really worth a visit by itself imo.

I've heard it's gated off to prevent crazy people and only opened for special occasions e.g. solstice. Their website says you can go 'inside' and the tour price seems pretty cheap? Do you have first hand experience to verify what this entails?

Hit up Buenos Aires in Argentina. If I ever seriously decide to leave the US, I'll prolly move there.

Added to my list, thanks! South America is probably first in the list and Argentina was already planned for Iguazu so that works nicely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagan

Bagan, Myanmar is amazing...over 2k temples in this valley. One of the coolest places I've ever been.

Are you looking for cool landmarks/buildings/tourist attractions or just good places to visit in general? I have visited Laos quite a few times and love it there. The people are awesome and it's one of the most gorgeous places on earth. Similarly, and I may be biased here, Mongolia is beautiful during the right seasons. I have spent months there with my grandmother and her nomadic clan and it was an experience I'll never forget. It really changed my life, which sounds cliche, but is completely true. If you're going to be in Egypt you should go to the Valley of Kings as well.

This sounds amazing and is definitely the sort of stuff that interests me but Burma looks like it has a really strict visa policy. Do you have experience with this and any recommendations? I'm already hating the whole process for getting my Chinese and Brazil visas so adding another seems really cumbersome.

Added Valley of Kings to my Egypt location list, thanks. Laos seems to have a lax visa on arrival policy as long as I have two photographs which is fine, I'll add that to my list too any cities/places in particular? Where should I land travel from, maybe fly in and train to Hong Kong?


Great post Wulfgang, thanks for the pictures and recommendations. New Zealand definitely seems great especially for it's landscapes. I'll be there during their Winter though so I don't know how much of the beach/spelunking etc. will be feasible but I'll definitely look into it.

I might visit Korea by land while I'm in China, thanks for recommendations, Gyongbukgung looks really cool in particular. This is the sort of stuff I like, large, ancient architecture.

[ChairmanMeow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabaul
I'd check out Rabaul, Papua New Guinea if I were you. There's really nothing else like it. It's a mostly destroyed town surrounded by jungle/ocean and ww2 relics. You can walk around and explore abandoned buildings, the sections of the town that are buried in ash, even all of the ww2 relics and bunkers and whatnot.

Or get a guide and go to Pripyat.

[Cleverness]

You should prepare to experience alot of diarrhea if you plan on eating your way around the world also, and bring whatever you can to counter this.

[Chun Liroy]

Costa Rica.

If at all possible, go to the galapagos, once in a life time trip for me and I enjoyed every minute of it. Though you need more than a few days there to really appreciate it.

[Indalecia]

You should prepare to experience alot of diarrhea if you plan on eating your way around the world also, and bring whatever you can to counter this.

Can't stress this enough, especially in carib/south america. Stick with alcohol or bottled stuff when drinking. Also, if you didn't know, there is a lower tier of beer than Budweiser, its called Panama beer. For the love of all things holy, don't, just don't.

On the plus side, if you're a wine guy, you can get craaaaazy cheap wine in South America. I prefer Chilean Cabernet-Sauvignon, so it worked out really good.

[Viq]

I might visit Korea by land while I'm in China, thanks for recommendations, Gyongbukgung looks really cool in particular. This is the sort of stuff I like, large, ancient architecture.

Just a heads up, visiting Korea by land is not really an option.

[noblemountain]

Just a heads up, visiting Korea by land is not really an option.

Was just about to post that...at least not the Korea you wanna visit. lol

I went to Bagan in 98, before they cancelled their visa on arrival, so no idea how tough it is now. The government there is no joke and if you're a journalist...just skip it for safeties sake. I would stay out of Mandalay and Rangoon just because they are huge tourist areas and have had some terrorist attacks lately. Also...bring cash everywhere you go...a lot of countries don't take cards and have no ATMs.

In Laos you have to go to the Plain of Jars, Luang Prabang, and Wat Phu. Four Thousand Islands is cool too if you have time and there are a few tours of the indigenous hill tribes and tiger spotting as well. If you spend time in southeast Asia, do me a favor and avoid elephant rides. Tourists always think this is so awesome and these poor elephants are treated worse than Mike Vick treats dogs. Our vet does a lot of work in Myanmar, Thailand, and India with wild and captive elephants and it's just horrifying some of the things she sees. I wouldn't go too far off the beaten path in Laos as we dumped a LOT of unexploded ordinance there after doing bombing runs in Vietnam. I spent time there on three different occasions as part of a cleanup team. It is insane how much crap we dropped there...especially considering they weren't involved in the war at all.

[bluefan]

I visited Gyongbukgung back in 2002. The guards there are like the British fuzz heads, just standing there silent. One freaked out a couple that was posing with him, making a peace shine just as the light flash hit. Was awesome because he went right back into form, standing silently and stone faced lol.

[Shadowscythe]

I've heard it's gated off to prevent crazy people and only opened for special occasions e.g. solstice. Their website says you can go 'inside' and the tour price seems pretty cheap? Do you have first hand experience to verify what this entails?

I honestly can't say about recent days as I've heard its fenced off now too. When I went it wasn't fenced off, but the guide pathway they had was quite far away so you really couldn't see much. There were no tours going inside it either at that point so I cannot even comment about those. It was heavily reinvested and rebuilt after I'd gone so you'd be best off having a poke around first. My main problem is unlike the Louvre which takes awhile to go around, and is in a nice area with things to do and see. You can't make a day trip out of this one. Its in the middle of nowhere off an A road away from civilisation. The best trip I could try and make out of it is to try and find a quaint village with a pub and get plastered after walking around it for 15 minutes.

[Maguspk]

Korea by land, that has got to be one of the dumbest things I've said in awhile. I was looking at maps the other night planning routes too, like I knew full well that North Korea was above South Korea. I'll have to fly in I guess, there's probably some cheap airline I can use. Worst case scenario I'll throw it in between Japan on my actual RTW ticket.

Thanks for the info regarding Stonehenge, Shadowscythe. I'd rather not waste a day on it so I'll rethink that.

RE: Sickness, diarrhea, etc. I have not gotten sick in my life outside of chicken pox, which were forced upon me by my mom having me 'catch them' purposefully. The one other time was food poisoning from McDonalds when I was about 13. Other than that I don't get colds/upset stomach from foods, etc. It'll be interesting to see if I can uphold this overseas, but I'm actually confident here to the point where my cockiness is an ongoing joke with my friends.

Thanks for all the ideas guys, keep them coming. If you can't tell I like architecture, world wonders, beautiful landscapes and physical activities like hiking.

[Clash Perez]

Dubai was pretty interesting when I visited in 2005. I'm not sure how much has changed since then, but they were building like crazy at the time. There're some fairly famous modern buildings there, like the Burj al-Arab.

What I found to be most interesting is the clash of cultures. Women wearing burqa walking into the same shops as women in spaghetti-string tops and short shorts.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could use it as a hub in the Middle East while you're in the region.