What's the Most Unusual Country You Have Visited?

Badly Drunk Boy

I suppose the most unusual places I went to were the United Arab Emirates, and Iceland.

The amount of money in the Emirates is ridiculous. I flew into Dubai and them got a taxi to the city of Al Ain (100 miles away). Going through the desert, there were people watering the flower beds and tending to them along the way. In the middle of nowhere.

Iceland was great. I've love to go back and probably will. Last June, I went by myself, but the next time, I'll have to bring somebody with me.

Feeona wrote: »

Iceland. A bizarre mix of genes there with some of them looking very Scandinavian, and the rest looking very Irish. Lovely friendly people there, and the geographical sights are fab....think Ireland in it's infancy!

DNA testing in the last 10-15 years have shown that the Icelandic population has a very significant amount of Irish DNA.

Years ago, I got a DVD about Icelandic music. In the opening shot, a quotation appeared, something like, "On their way to Iceland, the Vikings stopped off in Ireland and took the most beautiful women with them".

Badly Drunk Boy

maninasia wrote: »

Imagine the UK had a policy to 'wipe Ireland off the map'. That's what Israel has to live with. Doesn't mean they don't have messed up policies but it's a lot more complicated than a quick comment.

That analogy doesn't work. Ireland wasn't an artifically made country with people moving here just because they have the same religion as the Irish.

Handy11

Bolivia. In La Paz you can pay to see old women wrestle [/reason]

pickarooney

Zebra3 wrote: »

Turkmenistan.

Bizarre to say the least. :eek:

Not sure why people have Ukraine listed as unusual.

Travel Hipster alert!

later12

maninasia wrote: »

Imagine the UK had a policy to 'wipe Ireland off the map'. That's what Israel has to live with.

Israel:Iran=Ireland:UK?

What on Earth has Iran's nuclear policy got to do with Palestine?

UTEOFTW

Ethiopia - Simien Mountains

Scenery was spectacular!

smash

Lumpa Land... those crazy little bastards are worse than munchkins.

Northern Ireland. The Accent is impenetrable!

Switzerland. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

uch

Tanzania, people there are amazing, and dirt cheap for everything

dpe

Venezuela - very schizophrenic, massive oil wealth and huge developments in places like Maracaibo, and then "glorious leader" Hugo Chavez stuff all over the place. Its like they want to be Cuba (which I've also been to) but they don't really mean it.

Philippines can get a bit surreal as well; bouncers with riot shotguns outside Starbucks!

Seaneh

Valle Del Sade in Ecuador.

It's not on any maps.
Most people in ecuador don't even know it exists.

connundrum

Hong Kong.

Everything operated at 100 miles an hour. We were there for a total of 7 days (stops over to/from Australia) but it felt like we were only there a few hours.

I remember twice where people were hit by a car or bus, and no one stopped to help or even gawk. The cops were on the scene within about a minute, they waved the offending car or bus to drive on and kind of moved the victims out of the way. Nothing can be seen to slow down traffic.

Apart from our appearance, you'd know we were tourists as we were the only ones looking on saying WTF.

Oh that and the ferrys and water taxis, and the dirt of the sea. Saw a dead shark floating as we steamed by.

later12

connundrum wrote: »

Hong Kong.

Everything operated at 100 miles an hour. We were there for a total of 7 days (stops over to/from Australia) but it felt like we were only there a few hours.

I remember twice where people were hit by a car or bus, and no one stopped to help or even gawk. The cops were on the scene within about a minute, they waved the offending car or bus to drive on and kind of moved the victims out of the way. Nothing can be seen to slow down traffic.

Apart from our appearance, you'd know we were tourists as we were the only ones looking on saying WTF.

Oh that and the ferrys and water taxis, and the dirt of the sea. Saw a dead shark floating as we steamed by.

I'm going there in just under 2 weeks, cannae wait after that description!

SisterAnn

theteal wrote: »

Yankland, Virginia to be specific. We stopped in a town to stretch our legs while driving down to Miami. The sense of an impending ass raping was so strong that we didnt stay more than a few minutes.

Movies. You watch too many of them.

Wattle

Lima Peru. Arrived at the airport in the middle of the night. The guy who was supposed to pick me up didn't show so I had to get a taxi to the other side of the city. We drove through these really dodgy looking slums for something like an hour. One of the first things I saw was a dead dog being eaten by another dog.

Zimbabwe. I was in the Victoria Falls area which is open to tourists and nominally safe but there was a very weird tense atmosphere around the place. There was virtually nothing in the shops. I went to a 'pharmacy' and paid 15 dollars for a can of shaving foam. Very weird place.

07438991

Arguably, St Vincent and the Grenadines or Swaziland!

For reasons I could only pm someone... :cool:

BopNiblets

Rarotonga was pretty cool, has it's own witch doctor, who gives hiking tours in the hills in the middle of the island.
Also they had triangular coins and a naked chick riding a shark on one of their bank notes...

Zebra3

pickarooney wrote: »

Travel Hipster alert!

Ukraine is not hard to get to.

About €220 return with Malev via Budapest if you book it a good bit in advance.

Kiev is an amazing city.

No visa needed either.

blackwhite

DR Congo

The poverty and lawlessness had to be seen to be believed.
Saw a guy being beaten by a mob. Our guide asked what was happening, and was told that he'd been caught stealing from a market stall. After the beating he was going to be stripped naked and marched through the town.

catthinkin

Shetland islands in scotland
took two days to get there plane couldnt land due to fog
one tree on the island due to the unrelenting wind
Dark during the day due to being near the north pole
locals were all mental alcoholics taxi driver had been in the pub all day drove us home
geniunely scared was going to end up burning in a large wickerman

07438991

Wattle wrote: »

Zimbabwe. I was in the Victoria Falls area which is open to tourists and nominally safe but there was a very weird tense atmosphere around the place. There was virtually nothing in the shops. I went to a 'pharmacy' and paid 15 dollars for a can of shaving foam. Very weird place.

Were you very hairy and they guy just wanted to make some extra money...? Maybe he say an opportunity to take advantage of your hairiness... :pac:

goose2005

later10 wrote: »

Almost 4 out of every 5 people in Palestine live on less than $2 per day.

That seems unlikely, given that the per capita GDP is about $8 a day.

I don't know how this compares to elsewhere in the middle east, quite frankly, but it wouldn't be much consolation to a Palestinian if he heard that elsewhere the statistic was worse.

But the UN gives it a higher standard of living than South Africa, India or Kenya, which people would not describe as "Hell."

Wattle

07438991 wrote: »

Were you very hairy and they guy just wanted to make some extra money...? Maybe he say an opportunity to take advantage of your hairiness... :pac:

No no. Nothing like that at all.

Paparazzo

goose2005 wrote: »

But the UN gives it a higher standard of living than South Africa, India or Kenya, which people would not describe as "Hell."

I would if I was living there on a couple of euro a day

later12

goose2005 wrote: »

But the UN gives it a higher standard of living than South Africa, India or Kenya, which people would not describe as "Hell."

I presume you're discussing the HDI here, which was dealt with earlier.

As I hope you know, the HDI does not measure what one might perceive as 'Hell' in terms of general welfare, it is a narrow measurement of public facilities and GNI. If you look at the GNI minus HDI differential, you see that Palestine has one of the highest numbers in the world, which shows that Palestinians are efficient enough with what tiny income they have to increase their place on the scale significantly.

HDI does not measure basic human rights like freedom of movement, it does not measure fear. Although I would just say that the fact that Israel is about 97 places ahead of Palestine in the HDI speaks volumes in itself.

Edit: as for the 4 out of 5 people living on less than $2 per day figure, that applies to the West Bank. Only about half the population of gaza live on less than $2 per day. GNI per capita per day in Israel is about $70. Palestine is about $7.

Cork boy 55

Spain
When I came to Spain, and I saw people partying I thought to myself, what the ****.

rainbowtrout

A lot of people have said Iceland, I've been too, absolutely fabulous. Will definitely visit again.


Most unusual place: Greenland. Went 2 years ago in the middle of winter. Gives a whole new meaning to back arse of nowhere. For the northern lights alone it was worth it. Nothing opens until 10 and you have to fly between towns for the most part, pace of life is very slow because they can't really go anywhere. Loads of Danes living there.

Really want to go back.

crosstownk

Kiruna, Sweden
Bodø, Norway
Narvik, Norway

I've been above the Arctic Circle quite few times and would much rather holiday there in winter rather than all that sun holiday sh!te. I like cold weather!

A Primal Nut

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. One ****ed up place but nice in some ways - architecture, infrastructure is amazing. In many ways it reminds me of America more than Europe despite the cultural differences. Everything else is just weird.

One time I went to a shopping centre with one of the people I was working with ther (he was Sudanese). He said normally single men aren't allowed in but as I was European it should be ok. Eventually a security guard stopped us and spoke to guy I was with in Arabic. He told me later what was said.

Security Guard: Where is your family?

Muhammed: It's just us two.

Guard: You aren't allowed in without your family.

Muhammed: He's new to Saudi and I'm just showing him around.

Guard: But where is he from? (he assumed I was Middle Eastern apparently).

Muhammed: He's from Ireland.

The guard turns to me and says "Ah ok, welcome to Saudi, enjoy the shopping centre, have a great day".

Apparently it happened because they are worried about other muslims stealing their women. There is little crime in Saudi due to the punishments so security people occupy their time with **** like this.

Beheadings are one of the main tourist attractions.

I went out to the desert in dirt bikes which was kinda fun.

To be fair the Saudis are very nice people but their culture is crazy. They are brainwashed from cradle to grave.

bradlente

Uzbeki beki beki beki stan stan