My Top Ten Travel Experiences, #6-10

Inspired by a couple of friends' recent facebook and blog posts, I have been thinking about my top ten best travel experiences.  That's a tough assignment--I think at last count I've been to 57 countries! (Now, before you think how costly that must be, remember--most of you reading this have children. That's about $200,000 a pop from cradle to 18!  Or a lot of trips.)  And of course having lived in 5 of those countries, I'm already nearly there to wherever I'm going.  And living there gives you the chance to experience things a traveler or tourist may not get to experience just because you're there at the right time.  But, I'm going to give it my best shot.  Here goes...

10.  The Pacific Northwest - holds so many lovely memories for me, how can I not include it?  Going up to visit my dear friend Annie and her family, staying at their cabin up near Mt. Ranier, seeing the elk, driving down to Cannon Beach in Oregon, visiting my friend Karen and drinking coffee on her porch looking out at that beautiful view of Mt. Ranier, and taking my niece there this past summer. When the outdoors calls, this is one of my favorite places!





9.  The Bosphorus, Istanbul, Turkey.  This place also holds so many memories for me, and so many fun times with friends.  Sitting on my balcony, laughing with friends and looking out at the Bosphorus; mom and sis coming to visit, taking many a cruise on the Bosphorus; looking out my classroom window at Rumeli Hisar fortress, watching the changing colors--when it's green it will snow!  So I suppose it's cheating to include this in a list of travel experiences--maybe I should have opted for a gullet cruise on the Mediterranean?  Oh well, it's my list--I can put what I want. ; )



8. Machu Pichu, Peru  This was a crazy trip--the lowlights: being caught in a Revolucion' in Arequipa and getting tear-gassed in the streets, held hostage on a bus by a group of hothead Peruvians, being so hungry I ate mystery meat hacked off by a woman wielding a cleaver and a bucket of unknown meat (I think it was llama), and having the worst altitude sickness of my life at Lake Titicaca.  Highlights included flying over the Nazca lines, walking back down from Agua Caliente hot baths and seeing thousands of fireflies flickering in the forest across the river, and of course finally seeing Machu Pichu.  Any trip you can walk away from is a good one, right?




7.  I have to cheat again and say Beijing, China.  I lived there three years so there are several places that make the list, but first and foremost is walking on the Great Wall of China.  Any experience that's so powerful it makes you cry deserves to be on this list, right?  And seeing the Great Wall of China for the first time was one of those experiences.  Of course I visited many times, and to a few different sections including some of the really old and crumbly parts.  Going with friends to the Pearl Market and heading to the roof to see the view over the Temple of Heaven, ice biking on Frozen Hou Hai lake, seeing all the red lanterns on "Ghost Street" while going to eat amazing Chinese food at the restaurant with the "face changer" show... and Chinese New Year with fireworks going off so heavily all over the city that red paper literally rains from the sky.  So many wonderful experiences!

Great Wall, Mutianyu section

Temple of Heaven viewed from Pearl Market

Ice biking on frozen Hou Hai 

Ghost Street

Face changer at work

                                                        Chinese New Year fireworks

  6.  Petra, Jordan.  This was a fun trip with a group of ladies from my school in Moscow.  We arrived at Petra at night, and had opted to do the candlelit tour before we saw Petra the next day.  So you arrive and the guide makes everyone be totally silent.  And it is pitch black.  You are walking, and walking, and walking some more totally in the dark, and don't have a clue where you are going.  And finally you see a faint glow up ahead, and there it is...the Treasury building of Petra, lit up by hundreds of flickering candles.  Some musicians begin to play a haunting melody.   The whole experience took my breath away!  We went back the next day and explored Petra properly.  The photo of a friend and I leaping was after a very long climb to the top--fortunately that camel milk revived us!  What an amazing place!

The view of the treasury building by night.

Treasury by day--we didn't realize we were walking
through a canyon the night before!

Woo hoo!  We're at Petra!

Hamming it up in the doorway.

Would you believe I've spent hours doing this, as these pictures have come from several computers long since dead so I've really had to work to get the photos!  So the top five travel experiences are going to have to wait for another day!