My Travel Bucket List Is Better Than Yours

February 13, 2012 - Highlights, Sights & Attractions, So Much To Say, TBBL - Tagged: #TBBL, backpacker, blogger, bucket list, destination, recommended, travel, unique, vagabond, wanderlust, world travelers - no comments

Now in a relationship with a lovely lady still a couple months away from graduating, I have grudgingly had to accept the fact that it will be a couple months before I — we — can resume traveling. In the meantime I am forced to re-live past adventures by catching up on blog posts and HoliDaze articles while salivating on how great it will be to immerse myself in some new foreign cultures… I know, boring right? But at least it has allowed me to find the time to get theHoliDaze.com up and running. Call it an explanation or an excuse, whichever you like, but either way I have spontaneously delayed my travel plans. But then again that is how I live: spontaneously.

That also allows me to catch up on my to-do list, as well as fine-tune my bucket list. How many of you have created a bucket list? If you already suffer from wanderlust or happen to be a travel blogger, I’m sure this is nothing new to you. Actually, if you are like me you probably have a problem with crossing too many things off of your bucket list. And thanks to the 2007 movie staring Jack Nicholson / Morgan Freeman (aptly named The Bucket List) the term has seen a fresh surge in popularity, even spawned a few social web sites.

But in honor of 2012 I had an idea. First, to cross off and remove from my bucket list every item already accomplished, every sight already seen, every drunken idea actually followed through… And then find some new ones to replace those. Intense items. Obscure sights. Over-the-top adventures. Basically items that would be fit only for a travel blogger or lifelong wanderer. 366 of them to be exact, one for each day of 2012.

See the grand canyon
Visit Hawaii (4x)
See an active volcano (2x)
Live in Tokyo, Japan
Eat nyotaimori — it was great!
Go on a cross-country USA road-trip
Be spoiled by a cougar
Go on an international cruise
Spend a night in a Mexican jail because my buddy tried to buy something he shouldn’t of from an undercover officer
Have a spiritual experience in a foreign country
Take home a stripper from a strip club while spending $0
Volunteer my time in a third-world country
Smuggle back something almost harmless from a foreign country (lambanog, from the Phils)
Drive over 2,000 miles in less than 36 hours by myself.

You get the point. Not your usual ‘visit the pyramids’ bucket list. I try and think I little differently. I’ve been told time and time again that people live vicariously through me. I do not see myself as really doing anything that extreme, I am just trying to see and do everything once. I purchased super small hidden cameras from the spy store here in town and had them affixed to my clothing for my trip to North Korea! That will be a blast, I cannot wait!

North Korean Mass Games

Unfortunately, I did not realize that you had to have your request for the North Korean centennial celebrations on April 15th, 2012 submitted and paid for by January 31st, 2012. Kinda missed the date, so I’m not going to be able to catch the grand ceremony… You have no idea how disappointed I am about that! Heart-crushed actually. But at least now I have someone new to travel with. And I’m rambling now, sorry…

As I was saying, this here new bucket list is comprised of 366 items, some stereotypical (how can a few now be with that many?) but most obscure or extreme — or both.

It took quite awhile to put together and required a lot of research, but I guarantee you there are a few things on there that you have yet to even hear of. And if you have any suggestions that I have missed, feel free to share your comments below!

Camel wrestling, one of the most obscure sports in the world, can only be found in Turkey. Travel and see it firsthand.
Finally opening April 15th 2012, Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea is tallest building you’ve never heard of. Book a reservation soon.
Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. 200-300 minor injuries each year, but only 16 deaths since 1910. Sign me up!
Camp out underneath and photograph BOTH the aurora borealis (northern lights) and aurora australis (southern lights).
Visit the Coral Castle in Florida, USA. Secretly assembled only at night by a single man frail old man who “discovered secret of the pyramids,” Coral Castle defies modern explanation despite being a modern structure — it is less than 100 years old!
Truly experience Alaska by staying with an Inuit family to learn / experience the soon-to-be-extinct Eskimo way of life. Igloos woo-hoo!
See Hell’s Door in Turkmenistan before it burns out or is closed up. Located near the small village of Darvaza, in the middle of the Karakum desert, Hell’s Door is a methane gas release that has been burning for over four decades straight!
The lake that kills people… on land! Lake Nyos in Cameroon gained infamy in 1986 when an unexpected outgassing of CO2 killed nearly 2,000 local residents in small neighboring villages.
Eat at the first ever totally dark restaurant, Nocti Vagus in Berlin, which is staffed entirely by blind individuals. And yes, they will help escort you to/from your seat, the toilet, and the exit.
Wander and then spend a night under the stars in the beautiful White Desert of Egypt. The area offers one of the best examples of wind erosion visible anywhere.
Bribe — hey, it’s Mexico — my way into seeing the Cave of the Giant Crystals (Cueva de los Cristales), otherwise known as the Naica Mine in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. This one may be a little tough.
Watch a space shuttle launch at Cape Canav…errrr I mean Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is located in Kazakhstan.
Go on a gorilla trek in the small African nation of Rwanda.
Explore the underground cave cities of Cappadocia, Turkey, that have become popular recently with ancient astronaut theorists. Carved out of solid rock, these structures provided living quarters for up to 20,000 people and even included massive rolling doors only workable from the inside, thousands of tall chimneys for ventilation, animal pens, churches, even wine distilleries! All that and not a single tool or clue as to how/why these quarters were constructed, nor have historians firmly agreed upon who actually first constructed these caves.
Ascend Mount Roraima, the tabletop mountain at the border points of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana that is now recognized as one of the oldest geological formations on Earth, dating back over two billion years ago to the Precambrian Period.
Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji is Japan’s — and quite possibly the world’s — most popular place to commit suicide. Signs in Japanese and English posted at the entrance urge visitors to seek help instead of committing suicide, and every year large groups of local volunteers and government officials scour the forest to hunt for and remove that year’s bodies.
Steal one of the road signs from the small village of Fucking in Austria. It wasn’t until 1945 that locals learned of the Anglo-Saxon translation, when Allied soldiers first arrived in the region.
Climb the pink rabbit that can be seen from space. Located on Colletto Fava in the Italian Alps, this stuffed animal tourist attraction will probably not last past 2025.
Spend some time experiencing Sealand, this bizarre anti-aircraft platform off the coast of Britain that is now an independent “country” (note: UN does not recognize the Principality of Sealand as a sovereign nation… yet).
Photograph the Wave Of The Desert, a sandstorm rock formation near the border of Arizona and Utah. To help protect and maintain the natural beauty, there are no trails leading to the wave and photographers frequently have a hard time finding it.
The world’s first underwater restaurant, the Red Sea Star, is located in the Red Sea off the coast of Israel and offers a truly unique dining experience. Although reviews of the food differ substantially, all agree the the entrees are not cheap.
Baltoro Glacier in Pakistan is one of the longest in the world — better see it before climate change gets there first!
Catch a sports game at Quebec’s Olympic Stadium, uniquely designed for the 1976 Summer Olympics to include its own version of a leaning tower a la the famous Pisa — it is still to this day the world’s tallest inclined tower, topping out at just under 575 feet.
Be in Honduras at just the right time to catch the yearly Lluvia de Peces, or Rain of Fish. Witnesses of this phenomenon state that it begins with a dark cloud in the sky followed by lightning, thunder, strong winds and heavy rain for two to three hours. Once the rain has stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground. People take the fish home to cook and eat them. National Geographic sent a team of professionals out there but they raised only more questions, rather than being able to provide any answers.
Visit the cloud forests of Central America and feast your eyes upon some new flora and fauna.
Apparently anyone who has stayed out past sunset at Bhangarh Fort, the most haunted place in India, has never returned alive. As such, the Indian government has now made it illegal to stay in the area after sundown. Hmmmm…. interesting.
See the Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan province, China as soon as possible. Pollution from nearby expansion combined with tourists are damaging the structure at an increased rate.
The first offshore oil platform in the world, Neft Da?lar? in Azerbaijan (aka Oily Rocks) is now also a tourist attraction, despite still employing over 5,000 people on a daily basis.
Experience (and yes, photograph) the amazing 250° view of Iguazu Falls at the Brazil / Argentina Border.
Visit the Boat City of Aberdeen Harbor, Hong Kong, eat at one of the many floating restaurants, and make friends with a family of “boat people” for an inside tour of their home — err, boat.
Go skiing inside at Ski Dubai, part of the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The mall itself is actually one of the largest shopping malls in the world, you could almost count this as two items [maybe if I'm stumped by 366...]
Make a trip to the ‘Floating Island Of Immortals’ in Belgium. Sound scary? It’s actually merely a sculpture by Chinese artist Zhan Wang and an integral part of the Beaufort Art Trail. In photos it almost does not even look real.
Experience Brazil’s Carnival twice, to see both distinct styles. The first and most famous is the grand processions and floats organized by the samba schools of the southern cities Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; those are designed to be watched on TV, even by locals. The second style encourages public viewing and interaction in the streets and is carried on throughout the northern cities of Salvador, Porto Seguro, and Recife.
Visit the “Friendly Alien,” officially known as the Kunsthaus Graz art museum in Graz, Austria. This blob-like building definitely deviates from the typical minimalist style of modern art museums and at night, when it is lit up, it looks unlike anything else in the world.
Catch a symphony show at the Tenerife Concert Hall in the Canary Islands, and — part two — snap some photographs of the truly unique-looking structure.
Go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia, which I’m sure you know is the world’s largest reef system.
Eat a romantic dinner at the Sirocco Rooftop Restaurant & Bar in Bangkok, Thailand, which is perched 64 stories up atop The Dome at State Tower.
Ride on at least five of the ten fastest trains / railways scattered around the world, almost all of which are in Spain, France, Germany, China, Japan, and South Korea.
Travel the majestic Skardu Valley of Pakistan, once an integral part of the Silk Road.
Catch a truly unique sight in Colombia during the brief period in between the wet and dry seasons. At that time, the algae on the rocks of the Caño Cristales river in the Serrania de la Macarena Mountains turns a rainbow of colors — and thanks to the clear river visitors can get a perfect view! Unfortunately, this river is so remote it does not even have any fish and you can only get there after a long trek via foot or donkey. Fun fun.
Meditate with Taoists in the mists of Sanqingshan, China.
Visit Guimarães in northern Portugal this year, as it has been dubbed the European Capital of Culture for 2012
See Uluru aka Ayers Rock at the National Park in Australia. I know, stereotypical, but with 366 items it is hard not to be.
Swim in the supposedly sacred underground lake is located near Macan Ché, on the Yukatan Peninsula. The Mayans considered it a gift from the Gods.
Stand atop Kjeragbolten. What, don’t know what that is? It’s that famous rock only a few feet across that is stuck in between the two cliffs of Kjerag, in Norway. The drop is only 3,228 feet, but the climb up to it takes about three hours each way.
Make my way into the now abandoned Mirny Diamond Mine in Siberia for a firsthand look.
Catch the fall-color spectacle at the White Mountain National Park in New Hampshire, arguably one of the best places in the United States to see the leaves change. Unfortunately, that also means crowds. Ugghh. (If I come up with 367 I’m taking this off the list.)
Settle down at a small oasis in the Sahara Desert for a day or two and catch a couple of those priceless Saharan sunsets I have heard about.
Attend the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan, Thailand. This event is not for the faint-of-heart — don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Explore the Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset, England. It is a popular tour cave and have been used as humans as far back as 50,000 years ago.
Stay at the legendary Bussaco Palace Hotel in Portugal.
Explore the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji. Totaling 20 in all, they offer miles of snow white sand and turquoise waters.
180 million years old but only first used by humans 1,200 years ago, the Reed Flute Cave in Guilin, Guangxi, China were not re-discovered until the 1940s. See them with your own eyes.
Visit the hot springs and man-made pools of Pamukkale, Turkey, which have been used for healing for thousands of years.
Take a ride into space on the new Virgin Galactic spaceship… Okay, little pricey and not ready and already booked, yeah yeah yeah… But they are still offers tours of the Spaceport America complex. I guess that will have to do for now LOL.
Camp out in the Canadian Rockies and spend a week hiking, canoeing, fishing, and just general relaxing.
It does not matter whether it is in Vietnam, Thailand, or China, just try some of the fresh snake wine — the kind where the kill the cobra in front of you and the wine / blood mixture is drank in shot form. Not that fermented snake wine, that is for scaredy-cats
Celebrate the end of the Mayan long count calendar (and the possible end of the world) on December 21st, 2012 in Belize, which is hosting several events leading up to the main show at the ruins of Xunantunich.
Hike and camp my way up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. Do it like the Inca did.
Known as “Drunkards Alley,” Nonbeiyokocho lies a mere few feet from Shibuya Station in Tokyo, Japan. It is comprised of two parallel alleys that are home to between 4-5 dozen “mini” bars, each no bigger than 10 feet by ten feet. Spend a night (or two months) getting one drink from each of the mini-bars.
Spend the day at a nude beach on every continent except Antarctica — unless you want bonus points.
Swim with the sharks… in one of those metal cages though, obviously. We want to live through all 366 if we can.
Visit all five of the world’s top balanced rocks: 5) Balanced Rock, Colorado, USA; 4) Chiremba Balancing Rocks, Zimbabwe; 3) Balancing Rock, Digby, Nova Scotia; 2) Mexican Hat, Utah, USA; 1) Idol Rock at Birmingham Rocks in North Yorkshire, England.
Execute a flawless but illegal skydive off a really tall bridge and do it without getting arrested or fined. Double points if you make it on the news though. And triple if you do both
Check-in for a relaxing rest at this elegant woodland castle turned hotel in Cashel, Ireland: the four-star Ballynahinch Castle Hotel.
What is the largest national park in all of the United States? Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska. Take a trip and check it out.
Solve the mystery of the Sailing Stones of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, USA… or at least check it out firsthand and take some photographs.
Go hang-gliding through the Grand Canyon. Attach video camera to hang glider and publish vid to YouTube.
Walk through the world’s largest man-made excavation just so I can feel insignificant — Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah.
Experience the world’s only natural double-cascading waterfall with my own eyes. Known as “the Golden Falls,” Gullfoss Waterfall in Iceland has become a wonderful tourist destination because of the panorama it creates in summer days.
Become a practicing Buddha just long enough to gain access to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery in Bhutan. Off-limits to ordinary tourists (hence the practicing Buddha prerequisite), this monastery is precariously on the edge of a 3,000-feet-high cliff in Paro Valley and is one of the holiest places in Bhutan.
Soak up the history of Athens, Greece (can anyone say Parthenon).
Visit the almost completely unknown Fly Ranch Geyser near Gerlach, Nevada (population 499). Technically the geyser is on private property, but it can be seen from the nearby road or you can hop the fence and get a much closer look
Go spelunking through the Cheddar Caves. Inside you will find the Cheddar Gorge, Britain’s largest canyon and also where the UK’s oldest complete human skeleton was found, the Cheddar Man.
Check out Glass Beach in northern California. It is a section of coastline in MacKerricher State Park that was used as a public dumping ground from the late 1940s to late 1960s. Local officials put an end to the practice at that time, then all it took was 40+ years for the waves to have worn down all the glass shards into nice smooth stones. Pretty cool, huh?
Experience the view of Arizona’s plateaus and pines from the 12,000 foot mountaintops of Coconino National Forest.
Take a ski trip to the Swiss Alps. Must buy Swiss chalet style cuckoo clock while there.
Voted best hotel in Europe by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2006, get away from the hustle and bustle and kick back for a stay at the Inverlochy Castle Hotel near Fort William, Scotland.
Translated ‘Valley Of The Moon,’ Vale Da Lua in Brazil has been carved out by the San Miguel River to form terrain that looks like the surface of the moon, hence the name. Some of the rock formations date back 1.8 billion years.
Mined since 3,000 BC for gold, silver, and copper, the Rio Tinto in southwestern Spain actually flows an orangish-reddish hue thanks to high iron content.
Get a job as a trimmer or farm-hand in northern California during the autumn in order to experience harvest season (yes, you know what I mean).
Go bear / cougar hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest of Canada, one of the last unspoiled tracts of temperate rainforest left in the world. Oh, no, not literal hunting — with a camera.
Spend an extended period in Tibet and learn more about the Tibetan culture.
Witness firsthand the majesty of the Chamarel Falls and the Colored Earth in Mauritius. Mauritius used to only be famous for its waterfalls until the 1960s when the colored earth was discovered. The colored sand was created from clay made of lava cooling off at different times, which effectively caused seven different colors of sand to form: red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple, and yellow. But here is what is really crazy: if you take all the colors and mix them together, they will naturally separate and rejoin the correct color grouping that they belong to! Scientists who have studied this are still mystified, not only by that but also by the fact that the sand experiences no erosion despite the heavy rainfall season.
Visit Roswell, New Mexico, and learn the truth about aliens.
Ever heard of Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, Thailand? I’m guessing probably not. It is a pretty unique structure too. very ornate and entirely white with mosaic mirrors in just the right places to make the whole thing shine! Initially completed in eleven years (1997-2008), it is now back under construction with another eight buildings. Some experts have predicted this phase of construction could last 80-90 years. Regardless, visitors nowadays will still be amazed not only by the architecture but also by some of the modern images found inside (you may find a few superheroes and even Leo fresh from the Matrix…).
The world’s most crowded beach is Huiqan Bathing Beach, located in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, and thanks to climate change and China’s urban migration, more and more people keep coming every year. Visit it firsthand but don’t go swimming, just get some good pictures of the crowds.
Pretend to be a mime on a street corner of New York City for a day. End up making more than $100? Do it again the next day — different street corner.
The Plain Of Jars in Laos is a megalithic archaeological landmass and maybe seeing it firsthand would help determine how and why it was made. Or maybe not. But at least this way it can be checked off the list.
13th century fortress turned Scotland’s finest luxury hotel. Yes, that is the Dalhousie Castle Hotel. You can even dine in what used to be the dungeon, how fun!
Attend a live Daft Paft show, preferably somewhere in Asia where the duo has a tendency really goes balls-to-the-wall.
Take out a boat out two miles off the coast off Dubai to see The World, the failed man made island project that is now slowly sinking back into the sea. You can thank the 2008 financial crisis for that.
Say hello to the fine folks of McMurdo Station, Antarctica, home primarily to researchers but also Antarctica’s only two ATMs, a bar, and even a bowling alley.
Go swimming at Hamilton Pool in Austin, Texas (my hometown!) and relish in its natural beauty. It was created when the dome of an underground cave collapsed, revealing a stunning natural pool.
Find out more about Robin Hood on his own turf: the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire, England.
In Boston Harbor, amongst all the other little islands stands one in particular. The 39-acre George’s Island is home to an abandoned Civil War fort turned semi-unknown tourist attraction.
Ride in a barrel over the highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls in Venezuela… or maybe just take a few photos. Yeah, I’m thinking photos. That beast is 3,208 feet tall.
Walk through the Giant Redwood Forest of California.
Part of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico is the deepest in the continental United States at over 1,600 feet. It is also the fifth longest cave in the world, stretching for a grand total of 120 miles! Check it out firsthand.
Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland has no shortage of ghosts stories. Let’s see if it’s possible to verify one of them by taking a day-trip there.

Well, that’s the first 100. What do you think? 266 more items to go. And yes, I have managed to cross off a few items already. You can see more in the full HoliDaze article.

Share your thoughts below!

What Is On Your Bucket List?

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About The Author

Derek Freal is a cultural enthusiast and perpetual wanderer, as well as the founder of the HoliDaze travel community. He loves going locations where he does not speak a word of the local language and must communicate with hand gestures, as well as places where he is forced to squat awkwardly to poo (supposedly its healthier and more efficient). If you tell him he cannot go somewhere, well I guarantee that will be the next spot he visits. For more view Derek's bio or stalk him on the social sites below....