Travel: Recommended countries to see

Wow, what a wonderful few years I have spent travelling (in between working!) I thought it would be useful to list a few highlights of the 33 countries I have been in so far to hopefully tempt some of you to follow suit:

1: The Sahara Desert. An AWESOME landscape of a vast magnitude. You will spend days without seeing a soul, but people do dwell in this hostile environment (such as the Tuareg Nomads) along with a surprising amount of animal species. Arriving at Timbuktu in Mali to witness a camel salt caravan arriving as the sun sets is quite something. Along with the Amazon Jungle and the tropical forests of South East Asia, this is truly an inspirational and amazing landscape.

2: The Temples of Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia. What an incredible testament to Khmer construction. Set in a stunning area, the temples are vast in size and widely scattered over a large area. The temples are mainly Buddhist, but some are of Hindu origin. A number are dramatically being over-taken by the surrounding jungle growth which creates quite an atmosphere. It is worth taking a guide on a moped to take you to some of the further a field temples and not just the main tourist attractions of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. You wont regret it!

3: Macchu Picchu and the Inca Trail, Peru. Trekking for 4 days to arrive at the Sun Gate to witness the sun rising over Macchu Picchu is, quite simply, one of the greatest highlights to date. From Cusco you journey through the Sacred Valley, visiting some incredible Inca ruins along the way, many of which are equally as impressive as Macchu Picchu (though not set in quite as dramatic a setting). Book early if you want to do the Inca Trail. Permits are strictly controlled.

4: Ancient Treasures of Egypt. From the Pyramids at Giza, to the Colossal Temple of Karnak, to Abu Simbel, to St Anthony’s Monastery, to the Philae Temple, Egypt is full of amazing highlights.

5: Salt Flats, Uyuni, Bolivia.. Imagine if you will, a vast area that looks like a Tundra landscape. But not snow, salt! Hexagon shapes on the surface and an island in the middle of the flats with giant cactus’ growing on a bed of rock. Quite incredible.

As for cities, some of my favourite to date include:

• New Orleans, USA – PARTY TIME! Essential Festival, Mardi Gras, Jazz festival.
• Hanoi, Vietnam – a beautiful city with a lot of charm, especially in the old Quarter.
• Bamako, Mali – Go to the Maison Des Artisans to understand why.
• La Paz, Bolivia – NO RULES!! A truly hectic city of complete contrasts.
• Dakar, Senegal – fond musical memories of this West African city.
• Marrakech, Morocco – Why? Go there and you’ll understand!
• Luang Prubang , Laos – stunning area full of temples.
• Rio De Janeiro, Brazil – PARTY TIME AGAIN!

Written by David Oades

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 10:33 pm. It is filed under Articles, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.