Travel

Hmm, how do I make the damn map redder?

My problem is that I have pretty much visited all the countries I wanted to visit in Europe, and some of the ones I didn't particularly want to visit. The only ones left are Ireland and Greece (also Andorra, Lichtenstein and San Marino). I have nothing against visiting countries outside of Europe, but it's a longer flight and requires a longer vacation.

What would be nice to see next? Mexico sounds good, also Costa Rica. Brazil, Chile and Argentina sound interesting. I'd love to see Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan. China sounds interesting in principle but I am suspicious of communist countries. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia sound bad. India does not sound exciting either for some reason, and neither does Bangladesh. Turkey might be fun. Israel would be interesting if not for the terrorists (why don't they hire Fujimori now that he is out of job?). Most Arab countries wouldn't even let me in - not that I'd try. The rest of them are probably not safe either. Malaysia and Indonesia sound interesting - maybe someday. Not now. I can skip Africa. Australia sounds like a smaller USA with kangaroos and is very far away, but might be fun. Same for New Zealand, minus kangaroos.

I am surprised by the number of people wanting to go to New Zealand to see the mountains. If you take a 2.5-hour flight to Zurich and then a train to Interlaken you'll see perfectly good mountains there without spending lots of money and flying 20 hours each way. So, if any of you have been both in New Zealand and Swiss Alps, tell me: does New Zealand have significally better mountains? (Damn, I should've asked my Swiss New Zealander ex-roommate Xenia when I had the chance.) And yes, of course I understand that there are other things to see in New Zealand besides the mountains.

And then of course there are countries that I've seen already, and many of them merit another visit or several. I think I've been in West Flanders 4 times, and still haven't run out of the things to see, and that's just one province of Belgium.

They should invent teleporting.