FYM Travel Destinations

[A_Wanderer]

I am figuring out what to do next year, a gap before tackling a PhD and carbon chewing international travel is on my agenda, I have a few destinations that I think would be really interesting to visit and want to know what places fellow FYM people dream of visiting.

Some places I dream of visiting

Iran - so much history coupled to a fascinating culture, the most realistic destination for a month or two at the end of 2009
Iraqi Kurdistan - it looks like a beautiful place, and relatively peaceful as well
North Korea - I want to see Oceania
United States - a road trip across the mainland
Argentina - visit Patagonia
Russia - the fossils of the white sea as well as the volcanos of Kamchatka
Cuba - sanctions mean its like stepping back to the 50's

Who knows, enough experience could turn me into some jaded Grahame Greene style expat.

 

[Varitek]

The middle east and north africa is definitely at the top of my list, but I'm a female who likes to travel alone, so I'd have to adjust my travel style.

My next trip would probably be to south and/or central america.

I also think the Trans Siberian railroad (in the summer) would be cool to do, getting off along the way of course.

And cuba would be awesome. Another back-in-time destination is Moldova, particularly Transdniestr. I've been there, it's trippy.

 

[Varitek]

As for the expat thing, as a frequent traveler but newly minted expat, it is a very different thing to actually live somewhere than to travel...but that's just me being touche.

 

[A_Wanderer]

But I will be an expat one way or another, what type is a function of experience

 

[Irvine511]

Who knows, enough experience could turn me into some jaded Grahame Greene style expat.

no matter where you go, keep a journal and write down as many details about that day that you can remember, especially the quirky stuff that you'll likely forget. a journal is better than a photograph -- reading what you wrote years later brings you right back to that day, and the memories are quite vivid.

me, i'm all hot for SE Asia and South Africa these days.

but, me, i'm such a travel slut, i'll do anything.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Honestly I just want to go to Disney World, I've never been there

 

[Varitek]

But I will be an expat one way or another, what type is a function of experience

I was just saying that simply traveling/passing through does not make one an expat. The traveling lifestyle and the expat lifestyle have some things in common but many things are different.

 

[UberBeaver]

I am figuring out what to do next year, a gap before tackling a PhD and carbon chewing international travel is on my agenda, I have a few destinations that I think would be really interesting to visit and want to know what places fellow FYM people dream of visiting.

Some places I dream of visiting

Iran - so much history coupled to a fascinating culture, the most realistic destination for a month or two at the end of 2009
Iraqi Kurdistan - it looks like a beautiful place, and relatively peaceful as well
North Korea - I want to see Oceania
United States - a road trip across the mainland
Argentina - visit Patagonia
Russia - the fossils of the white sea as well as the volcanos of Kamchatka
Cuba - sanctions mean its like stepping back to the 50's

Who knows, enough experience could turn me into some jaded Grahame Greene style expat.

Join the Marines. They'll probably travel to a few of those places in the next few years. And THEY PAY YOU!

 

[Irvine511]

i'm still wondering if there isn't some kind of super subtle political subtext here ... those are quite unusual places to want to travel ... but better get the US done first, because if you visit the rest of those places in a short period of time and then try to enter the US, i think you're going to find your arse shackled up in Gitmo where they'll torture you by threatening to flush a geology textbook down the toilet.

 

[UberBeaver]

i'm still wondering if there isn't some kind of super subtle political subtext here ... those are quite unusual places to want to travel ...

Like a code? Like during WWII when the Nazi's put coordinates in ads for, like, dice or something? That's awesome.

 

[Irvine511]

Like a code? Like during WWII when the Nazi's put coordinates in ads for, like, dice or something? That's awesome.

so long as it involves the decapitation of Jon Bon Jovi, then i'm all for it.

and that the Americans take credit for it, even if the Brits actually broke the code.

 

[No spoken words]

Join the Marines. They'll probably travel to a few of those places in the next few years. And THEY PAY YOU!

You should visit Long Island, A Wanderer.

 

[A_Wanderer]

I was just saying that simply traveling/passing through does not make one an expat. The traveling lifestyle and the expat lifestyle have some things in common but many things are different.

I know, and I have to defend an inelegant statement.

 

[anitram]

I haven't been to the top 3 or Argentina.

I really want to go to Nepal/Bhutan in the next 5 years. I'm an outdoorsy person so that seems fabulous to me. I will also do a Namibia/Botswana/Angola/Zambia trip probably in 2010, for many reasons, but mostly I want to sand surf.

I was going to go to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji next summer but work may prevent me from doing so (not enough time). If I can't head out there, I'm going to the Canadian Rockies for some hardcore outdoors stuff and then to Hawaii to hop around the islands for a while.

 

[Vincent Vega]

A friend of mine does his exchange semester in Kelowna, Canada. And he has transportation every weekend. I'm jealous.

 

[yolland]

Have you or will you at least be(en) able to hike and camp in Montana, Vincent? So many great places to do so out there.

 

[Vincent Vega]

I have a host family here and maybe they will have time to do something. Apart from that I have not been nearly as able to get around as I would have preferred to. For camping it's getting too cold now and the higher parts of the mountains are already covered with snow. I have been to the hills around Missoula which was pretty nice. I really wanted to go down to Yellowstone but with no car and uni stuff keeping me too busy from just taking a few days of I had no luck, yet. The week of Thanksgiving we will have off, so hopefully me and a few friends can do something during that week.
I really would love to add a holiday semester here with no classes so that I could then go explore Montana.
The weekend there was an organised trip to St. Glacier National Park I attended a wonderful wedding in Delaware.

I did one whitewater rafting trip which was amazing. Definitely would do that again in a heartbeat.
Once I'm ridiculously rich I will come back to Montana and get around the state. I really love how the state has realized what an asset they have in their nature and the effort they put into protecting it. The state is larger than Germany, yet only has around 900,000 citizens. That makes for vast amounts of uninhabited space.
Unfortunately, November won't be less busy, so I'm afraid chances are low to see much. But if any opportunity should come up, I will take it. And from what I have seen I really can recommend putting Montana on the travel list.

I will also try to find a place for my internship here in the US. Don't know where that will take me, and if it will take me anywhere in the US, yet. But I guess that won't be in Montana. The opportunities for an economist are rather limited up here.

 

[dazzlingamy]

Do come to australia, as our dollar is down the toilet at the moment, you can do such wonderful things for about 5 cents!
In 2002 when we were 50 to the us dollar, our american exchange students had an absolute ball.
Don't be like me, with a trip booked to Europe and madly checking XE a thousand times a day crying into my cheap dollars.

yes, im feleing a little bitter at the moment.

AW i think those places are great, especially Africa. I would love to do that one day!

 

[Varitek]

Speaking of currency value, it is an excellent time to go to iceland.

 

[Pearl]

Next year I will be going back to work after getting my MA, so I'm lining up trips to make up for lost time. While there are so many place I would like to go to, Greece, Hawaii or somewhere in the Caribbean will be my first stop. I just want to go to a place where I could hit the beach everyday of my stay. Hawaii and the Caribbean will be ideal. Greece would be nice to go to the islands and also see the ruins and all, but maybe I'll save my history tours for some other time.

 

[ntalwar]

Speaking of currency value, it is an excellent time to go to iceland.

I think they're down to 8-9 hours of sunlight (and going down) right now. So I would wait to go to Iceland. And the prices seem merely in line with what they should have been all along, although there seem to be some great off-season discounts.

On the other hand it never gets totally dark in the summer - I took this of my hotel in June ('05) at 11PM or so

 

[dazzlingamy]

no pic?
i want to see! (always wanted to go to iceland!)

 

[Vincent Vega]

There was a pic, but it seems the hosting site is having problems since it's not loading anymore.

 

[ntalwar]

Yeah the Iceland pic was deleted or something. Here it is again (plus another one) - nothing exceptional, except for the fact that they were taken between 11 and midnight. This time of year, it would be darker than this by 4pm probably.

 

[dazzlingamy]

that is really cool

 

[Ava79]

Speaking of currency value, it is an excellent time to go to iceland.

It's always an excellent time to go to Iceland! Spent the whole summer there in 2006 and fell in love with the country. It's simply the most gorgeous place on earth if you ask me.

 

[Varitek]

The daylight thing would be the most disorienting thing ever. But I would like to go.

 

[Pop Artist]

I'm going to Iceland in a month! It's been on the list forever and I know people there now, but now finally got to be the time with the dollar being stronger. I actually started planning to go over the summer, when the krona was about 80 to the dollar, and booked right before it really crashed... Despite the short days, I'm really looking forward to the trip.

 

[Irvine511]

no pic?
i want to see! (always wanted to go to iceland!)

i highly recommend iceland!

Iceland Air used to offer terrific packages where you could fly, say, roundtrip NYC to London, but have a three day stopover in Reykjavik.

but this was 6 years ago, and you could get such things in the neighborhood of $400.