Travelling (and nuclear disasters)
I have pondered the idea of doing some travelling. Most people do it after university or even before. I'm thinking about doing it a bit later than other people but I find myself with some money due to an inheritance and I like the idea of doing some travelling. In considering where I would want to go a few ideas occured to me and at least one more cracking idea has been suggested when I was talking to quisalan earlier...
My thoughts on what I'd want to do are partly inspired by quisalan's travels around the globe and asia is a traditional place. Random temples with martial arts wielding monks and such like sound rocking. I'd like to see places like Hong Kong and Japan too. mi_guida was mentioning the idea of cross country train (train from london to beijing) that sounded like an interesting experience and due to being about 10 days of travel almost certainly not something you'd do on your normal holiday. Not sure that the enjoyment for the time would make it that sensible though...
The suggestion that Quis came up with though was when I was saying that I much prefer looking at old buildings and that sort of thing rather than just scenery. She suggested going to Prypiat which is the city that was closest to Chernobyl. The city was abandoned after the disaster and it just sounds like a fascinating place to visit both to see the eerily deserted city and to realise the consequences of what happens when some of what we take for granted can go wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster is an interesting read for those who know little about it. Personally I knew the broad outline but some of the detail is horrifying like how unprepared they seemed to be for any kind of incident.
But that's an aside really, this post is about me travelling and was meant to be to solicit thoughts on what places I should visit if I did. I know a lot of my friends list have done travelling and between the lot of you are a widely travelled bunch.
For what its worth things I've thought of myself are:
Egypt - ancient tombs and such like - I'd love to see these things but for a big "time off for travelling" it doesn't seem quite right. I think Egypt is something to do on a more normal sized holiday.
America - America is a place I am still to visit and I would like to. But again its probably easy enough to do it in fortnight sized holiday chunks. (I had wanted to visit New york many years ago to see for myself the remains of the world trade center).
South America - Copying from Quis again but I think I'd prefer asia as I am more familiar with the ancient cultures there that I'd be interested in seeing and also the modern cultures have more appeal to me (that may be largely through lack of knowledge of south america though).
Main worrying points are going places where I don't speak the language and they don't speak mine. Frankly though that's going to apply to most places so I shouldn't worry about that one...
So all you travellers or just those knowledgeable about the world, where should somebody with a couple of months and a bit of cash go travelling?
P.S. This might not happen for definite but it is something I am seriously entertaining and if I decide to go for it for definite then I'll still need to do things like see what my employers have to say on the subject... No harm at least thinking about it though... :)
My thoughts on what I'd want to do are partly inspired by quisalan's travels around the globe and asia is a traditional place. Random temples with martial arts wielding monks and such like sound rocking. I'd like to see places like Hong Kong and Japan too. mi_guida was mentioning the idea of cross country train (train from london to beijing) that sounded like an interesting experience and due to being about 10 days of travel almost certainly not something you'd do on your normal holiday. Not sure that the enjoyment for the time would make it that sensible though...
The suggestion that Quis came up with though was when I was saying that I much prefer looking at old buildings and that sort of thing rather than just scenery. She suggested going to Prypiat which is the city that was closest to Chernobyl. The city was abandoned after the disaster and it just sounds like a fascinating place to visit both to see the eerily deserted city and to realise the consequences of what happens when some of what we take for granted can go wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster is an interesting read for those who know little about it. Personally I knew the broad outline but some of the detail is horrifying like how unprepared they seemed to be for any kind of incident.
But that's an aside really, this post is about me travelling and was meant to be to solicit thoughts on what places I should visit if I did. I know a lot of my friends list have done travelling and between the lot of you are a widely travelled bunch.
For what its worth things I've thought of myself are:
Egypt - ancient tombs and such like - I'd love to see these things but for a big "time off for travelling" it doesn't seem quite right. I think Egypt is something to do on a more normal sized holiday.
America - America is a place I am still to visit and I would like to. But again its probably easy enough to do it in fortnight sized holiday chunks. (I had wanted to visit New york many years ago to see for myself the remains of the world trade center).
South America - Copying from Quis again but I think I'd prefer asia as I am more familiar with the ancient cultures there that I'd be interested in seeing and also the modern cultures have more appeal to me (that may be largely through lack of knowledge of south america though).
Main worrying points are going places where I don't speak the language and they don't speak mine. Frankly though that's going to apply to most places so I shouldn't worry about that one...
So all you travellers or just those knowledgeable about the world, where should somebody with a couple of months and a bit of cash go travelling?
P.S. This might not happen for definite but it is something I am seriously entertaining and if I decide to go for it for definite then I'll still need to do things like see what my employers have to say on the subject... No harm at least thinking about it though... :)