utterly wonderful places
There are some utterly wonderful places in the world. Places that astound your eyes, your ears, your nose and make you feel alive, excited and content to the extreme. My travelling days of open exploration are probably over; perhaps on pause if I’m very lucky. I’m relieved I roamed the world as much as I needed to, at an age it meant the most to me. But I do hope more is to come.
Here’s my top five.
1. Santa Lucia Cloud Forest in Ecuador. A glorious hilltop co-operative with paths roaming through a hilly rain forest filled with amazing birds, like the violet-tailed sylph hummingbird and mountain toucans. The insect noises are to die for, and best of all, it’s too high for mosquitoes. I’d love to retire here, it reeks of paradise.
2. Paris. I’ve never had a less than wonderful experience in the capital of France. French people delight me. Their language is truly the coolest in the world and their often haughtily comic attitude is endless entertainment. The city is beautiful and sparkling and real, in spite of all the tourists. In over two decades of random visits I have never been disappointed.
3. Tikal, Guatamala. Stunning Mayan pyramids appearing randomly in the middle of a monkey filled jungle with weird birds hanging upside down making weird noises. The gods these pyramids was built for almost certainly exist.
4. Alice Springs, Australia. I love all red, rocky desert areas. This one is smack bang in the middle of this huge land mass, and has the added bonus of rock wallabies bouncing about and peeking out behind rocks. The spring desert flowers are stunning.
5. New York, USA. I didn’t have any desire to visit New York, imagining it to be over-celebrated and most probably dull. But I was surprised to find it’s every bit as impressive, vibrant and fascinating as its best reputation suggests. I wish I’d lived there for a few years in my 20s when I had the complete freedom of movement.
I’m itching for recommendations. What are your top five?
You know, I was sitting in the dentist yesterday morning looking at one of those plants where the leaves have splits, so look like hands, and thinking it is beautiful. I have hardly travelled at all, but feel privileged to have grown up by Loch Fyne, below the hills, by a farm.
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Scotland is amazing. But the weather is so awful it could never make my top five. I’m feeling the need to move to the countryside.
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Kununurra, in the Kimberly’s.
Auronzo di Cadore, northern Italy.
Bora Bora, Tahiti
RaRa Lake, western Nepal (Incredibly hard to get there, but worth it)
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan
West Virginia, USA
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Oooh very cool! A small description/explanation wouldn’t kill you. West Virginia??
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West Virginia is postcard gorgeous. Helped to be staying there as a guest of a very, very, very, very, very, very wealthy lady.
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I’ve been there, so I was wondering. Nice trees of course, but didn’t get to see anything of the stunning variety. Guest in a mansion of some sort might have altered my memory.
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Oh, the Bungle Bungles, I’ve heard of them. I think on Neighbours.
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Bungles are great! That’s all in the area. We were there to buy a helicopter, were broke, dead broke, and flew it all the way back to Queensland, working along the way to get enough money for fuel and food and grog. Great time.
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Grog. Snigger.
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You think Insanity has ever left the States?
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I doubt it but she’s not as sheltered as some of them. Apart from wee trips to Mexico or Canada, most US citizens don’t travel much, do they? They hardly get any holidays, and overseas travel just isn’t part of the culture.
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Oh, let me add, Jumla, western Nepal, its one of the craziest and most enchanting places I’ve ever experienced.
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Very interesting Violet
Brugge, Belgium. Probably the prettiest city I have ever seen. Full of really nice people. Cobblestone streets, canals. Just very, very cool.
Jackson, Wyoming. What can you say, it’s the Grand Teton Mountains.
Anywhere in the Uintah Mountains in Utah. Best trout fishing on the planet if you don’t been a huge fish. Wildlife everywhere. Peace and quiet galore.
San Diego, California. Beach, Zoo, pandas. Need I say more? An awesome steakhouse called Hunter’s Steak house. Yum
Anywhere in the Alps. See Grand Teton comment above.
I love mountains, yet I live in the Arkansas/Mississippi River Delta area. Go figure.
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Bruges, Belgium? Rather than Bruges, Texas?
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Yes lol
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Pretty sure I said Belgium actually
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Thanks for giving your top 5 Wally. That is very odd that you love mountains and live in a flat area. I found it very hard living in a flat area and not having hills or mountains to focus on in the distance. It’s like living too far from the sea, I wouldn’t want to do it again because I felt oddly claustrophobic.
I’ve not really seen much of the Alps, which is something I should rectify and could probably more easily than some of the other suggestions like Nepal. I lived in San Diego for a while and have very fond memories of the reliable sunshine but I avoid zoos like the plague as I love animals. Utah, yes, one of my favourite places, absolutely stunning.
Don’t worry about Pink’s comment. He’s French and probably can’t get his head round the fact that anyone could list any part of Belgium as worth visiting. Bruges is very quaint and I can imagine it’s particularly appealing to anyone from the States.
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Lol I don’t mind sink. He’s probably mad I spelled it Brugge and not Bruges. And I live in a flat area because Arkansas is home.
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Sydney. But I did meet my partner there and got married there so that might slightly account for my view.
I’d agree with John about Nepal, can’t remember the name, but one of those places that was a trekking station base for Annapurna. I love my photos of Annapurna.
I liked Bombay for the hustle, bustle, vibrancy and exuberance. And the nice police officer who sent a taxi driver back to my hotel to rescue my Swiss Army knife when I realised at the airport I’d left it behind and couldn’t get into my rucksack as the keys were on the knife.
Rotorua for the amazing sulphur and geysers.
Athens for the Parthenon.
The Hebrides for the beaches and the weather. I joke not. When we were there we had three weeks glorious sunshine and everyone thought we’d been to the Med when we got home.
Córdoba for the Mezquita, and because it’s slightly less touristy than Granada and Sevilla.
And Ravenna for the mosaics.
Sorry. You’ll have to pick the five most appealing out of those but I suppose they are cities biased. My last post but one on roughseas was about Paris. Check out the photos (not mine) they are stunning.
Most overrated place: Milford Sound.
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I think I’m too old for Nepal. I don’t like being cold and I can’t even stand camping much these days. But given that it’s got a double recommendation I should bear it in mind if the opportunity arises. Bombay sounds good too – that kind of bustle and vibrancy is great.
I really want to explore Spain more, I think it’s probably the most practical place for us to live but it’s so difficult to put a pin in the map. Where do you think would be the coolest place to live there?
I guess a lot of how you feel about a place is related to the experiences you have there. Sydney has everything that should make it wonderful but I’m left blah about it. I worked in an ice-cream factory there, which was one of the odder experiences in my life.
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I’d suggest five places but as they’re not open to the public it would just be teasing 😛
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Ah, my elitist chum, I would expect nothing less. 😀
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I do not like anything too sunny or warm, but bearing that in mind and in no particular order:
Tallinn Estonia and Visby Sweden, (Both of these have exquisite medieval old towns with the city walls almost intact) and I can not go to them too many times.
Tbilisi Georgia, as there are so many ancient, enchanted and ruined sites in that mountainous country, that the five recommendations could just as well be all from there, but even their capital in all it’s “post apocalyptic glory” was an unforgettable experience.
St Petersburg Russia is indiscribable. And finally the Finnish archipelago and all her forests where I personally have an overwhelming sense of belonging.
The last one was actually two different sites, but it is very difficult to just pick five specific places. I would have liked to add Norvegian fjords and mountains, Amsterdam, Gdansk, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Odessa and so many others and I can not say, if the ones I picked first are so much better than the ones I left out…
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Sounds lovely but cold! I don’t think of visiting Scandinavia or Eastern Europe much as I love being warm. But if I have an unexpected rich retirement I’d definitely want to spend some time in Sweden and Norway.
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If you like mountains & wildlife, visit Montana, I have been here less than a month & I have seen a few bald eagles, antelope, elk, & deer, I’m still hoping to see a moose, from a safe distance of course, I saw the bald eagles perched on powerpolls along the freeway, it was awesome
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Sounds good, I’ll add it to my list!
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Sheesh, Violet, has Insanity ever left the states! What kind of snooty comment is that? Canada and Mexico, you’re right. I’ve also kayaked all over British Columbia, sailed to Hawaii in a hurricane and fished the Aleutian islands. The US is a vast and diverse land that would take more then a lifetime to explore properly. My favorite places are probably Maui, the Oregon coast, and Denali.
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Well, it does account somewhat for your limited understanding of the world. But at least you’ve been out the state! I expect I’d hate Alaska, I’m more into the tropics. I think I’ve been to Hawaii but don’t think I left the airport. Must have been coming from Fiji.
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