I love to travel, then to spend enough time to get to know the place.
Here are some of my favorite places.
Micronesia is an area of the western Pacific ocean
with lots of small islands.
I'm just getting to know it: distances are great, so traveling to
Micronesia and between its islands takes time and planning (and
some money...).
The islands are different from each other.
Some, like Guam, are fairly ugly and crowded, while others are empty and
placid.
Some, like Chuuk, have problems with crime; others are peaceful and
friendly.
A lot of the islands have beautiful scenery underwater as well as above.
Micronesia photo tour
has photos from some parts of Micronesia during my trips there.
Vietnam is a country that's just getting its tourism
feet on the ground. Although a lot of it is densely populated, it's
still beautiful. The people are friendly, the food is delicious,
and traveling there can be cheap (I stayed in two- or three-star-type
hotel rooms for less than US$10 a night).
It's a long, skinny country; the weather varies a lot from north to
south.
Plan ahead, but be prepared to be flexible once you're there:
I bet you'll want to stay longer.
South Africa surprised me by all of its variety and
beauty, and by the optimism of its people after all of the difficult
changes their country has been through.
Chile is more European than almost any country in
South America, with so much variety along its long skinny sliver of the
southwestern coast.
The north has desert where it never rains (the climate at the coast,
Iquique and Antofagasta, is nearly perfect!).
The central regions show that this is a highly-developed country: the biggest
concentration of industry and people (and some great wine!) that almost
made me think I was in the USA.
The south is wild and rugged: huge tracts of forest, glaciers, and a
close approach to Antarctica.
Far off the west coast is Easter Island, a completely different place.
London
is like a home away from home to me.
I lived there in 1997-98 while I was on the one-year Masters degree
course in Computing Science at
Birkbeck College.
It's a huge city, with 2000 years of history (and almost that many
cultures!), so I won't even try to describe it.
All I'll say is that, if you visit, I hope you'll look past the hyped
tourist sights and the stereotypes of Londoners as cold and reserved.
Everyone's heard of the famous London West End theatre.
Much more interesting, I think, is London fringe theatre.
(My favourite on-line listing service closed down.
Some venues I like include the
Battersea Arts Centre;
Bush Theatre;
The Man in the Moon Theatre in Kings Road, Chelsea; and the
Bridewell Theatre, just off Fleet Street.)
Between West End and fringe, I'd bet you could go to a different
production every
night of the year and never see the same show twice.
How many cities have at least five full-time symphony orchestras,
three (two?) opera companies, and so much more classical music that you
could also go to those concerts every night without repeating?
And that's only the classical music: then there are all the jazz and
other clubs: London is a great city for jazz.
The really unique classical music is the two-month series of concerts every
summer, The Proms,
where you can hear more than 70 concerts by some of the world's best
orchestras and soloists for less than $200 US.
That's less than $3 per concert!