Anyone been to.... South America, Africa or Asia step in please.
 

Trying to plan some trips. I haven't been to either South America, Africa or Asia yet.

So I would like to know where you went (country, city, town etc.) What it was like and any tips or resources you used to plan the trips.

I wont be doing all 3 in one year but want to plan them all if I can.

Any suggestions please post them up :thumbsup

Pics also welcome!

congo road trip always fun.

FLICKR.com is all you need.

Travel away from the big cities, more real experences at a tenth the cost.

Northern Argentina, amazing like it has never been discovered.....

What do you like to do?

Libya is lovely this time of year.

Warning: a trip to South America will take you more than two years, and thats just seeing the highlights;)

but i would highly recommend these places-
1)Peru - Macchu Pichu. You could go there, spend a few days and return without doing anything else. Its that amazing.
2)Venezuela - Merida and Roraima. Merida is an andean town, university town filled with the hottest girls i've ever seen in one place. The town is beautiful, nestled in the andean mountains.
Roraima is a Tepui mountain where from Conan Doyle based his novel The Lost World.
While its well worth getting to the top (about 9000 feet) don't do it unless your physically fit or you will regret it. Takes about 5-6 days there and back but its incredible.

Also the caribbean coast of Venezuela is fantastic, very inexpensive and the scuba/snorkel tours of out of this world.

3)Colombia - ;)
J/K some great places here. Cartagena on the coast, Medellin inland, Bogota, and my favorite San Agustin in the south and Leticia which is an amazon border town.

4)Brasil - take boat from Manaus, Brasil to Leticia, Colombia. Spend extra money on cabin, or scrap boat trip, see sights in Manaus and fly to Leticia, Colombia where the jungle tours are awesome and you can catch a fast boat to Iquitos, Peru which is freaking great. Its the birthplace Of Fitzcarrldo, the famous rubber baron and basis of the Herzog movie. Great bar right on the river with a very hot bartender. She speaks Portuguese:)

There are many great places in Asia, what experience you're looking for?

i wanna check out the valley of the flowers in india.. think airfare is something stupid like 2k or something

:2 cents: Merida is very nice.

Also if in Venezuela, check out the tiny beach town of Choroni. Get a tent and camp right on the beach. Just don't take the bus there, it's a hairy drive. Take a taxi.

I've had some amazing times in Venezuela.

I've been to Venezuela. Thirty minutes after arriving, 5 guys with pistols tried to car jack us. Everyone I know that has visited there has had something stolen whether they are in a good area or bad area of the city. Their islands and interiors are safer.

Skip Venezuela.

Do you like to travel around?

where is it ., never heard of it .

don't go to Thailand, you will not want to leave ;)

300 clicks out of new delhi from my basic understanding.. gotta get to govindghat then it's a 20 click walk in, all up hill.. it's a religious place for some so you'll be hiking with pilgrims as i believe there is temples along the path

http://i.imgur.com/NR0vc.jpg

apparently there is some 'friendly' wildlife in the area.. make sure they don't have you stay for dinner ;)

i went to Peru 3 years back and loved it, Morocco is also bad ass if you got a good guide.

My favorite was Hawaii ( i know, it's not in the continents you listed but worth mentioning)

You're lucky. :2 cents:

Yea, Caracas is hardcore, but the rest of the country is generally safe as long as you don't get too close to the border with Colombia.

One of my friends took a serious multi-guy beat down in the middle of broad daylight, in the middle of a fruit market. Two nights later we had a gun pulled on us while in a taxi and the driver had to speed off. But that sort of thing can happen in any big city, especially in South America.

In 2000 I was also pulled off a bus there with my brother by some mountain guerrilla group while out in the middle of the Andes. They left the women on the bus, where my mom stayed and watched in horror, while the men were pulled off and lined up with machine guns on us all, yelling in rapid fast Spanish. I thought for sure that was it. But they went down the line looking at IDs, and after seeing our US Passports, put us back on the bus. Finally, everyone got back on and we were on our way. Scary shit.

But I keep going back. :helpme

Could write a book on the shit I've gotten into while in South America.

Never been there, always wanted to go. What do you suggest?

Argentina was one my first thoughts for South America along with Peru or Brazil.

Peru looks really interesting!

If I am going to do this, I want to go to learn something. Nightlife isn't high on the list for example.

For Asia I was thinking maybe Thailand, Japan, China, somewhere along them lines. Somewhere with a lot of culture and history. Maybe India.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. Will look into them places more and see what I can find out :) I'm not too sure on columbia, but I haven't really looked at that as an option.

Last year I did Vietnam and Cambodia, amazing places!

Several years ago I went to Egypt although with all the unrest there right now it might not be the best choice. It is an amazing place to visit. Seeing the pyramids and the different structures is humbling and life changing.

It is hot, some days as hot as 115+ degrees. Also I went with a tour company called Globus. They were great. Our tour guide was amazing and we saw a lot in the two weeks I was there.

I would suggest the following to anyone going there: 1. Use the tour guide/company. There are a lot of people that speak English, but a lot don't and the guide tells you the history behind everything you are seeing and you get a lot of bang for your buck. 2. Depending on where you are flying from, it is a long trip. I live on the west coast so it was about 24 hours in the air plus layovers. A good idea might be to have a 23-48 hour layover in a European city. 3. Get there a day before the tour starts. This will let you see stuff you won't see on the tour and rest up from the trip.

Sure do!

I was thinking Egypt, maybe when it calms back down that will be an option.

Morocco looks good aswell.

Argentina is amazing in terms of landscapes, culture, night life, whatever. However, if you like the kind of "archeological" tourism, you might get disappointed, there's hardly nothing before Spaniards.

Buenos Aires is usually known as the "Paris of the Americas", but in fact it looks more like Barcelona. Either way, it's a ride, and way more exciting that those boring frenchies :winkwink:

If you like breath taking landscapes, anything close to the Andes, whether in the North or in Patagonia is incredible. And of course there are lot of activities. Patagonia and Cuyo zones are more for regular mainstream tourism, while North (Puna) is for those looking for the real South American experience. Plus, you can cross to Bolivia and even reach Machu Pichu in a 3 days journey (counting back and forth to North of Argentina and 1 and a half day in Machu Pichu)

If you want EVERYTHING (landscapes, night life, tradition, modernism, culture, food, etc) you need to go to Cordoba. It's the second city in Argentina, the most beautiful, the most historic yet the most modern and it's 30 minutes from tens of touristic destinations.

If you like beaches, Argentina has big beaches, but nothing "tropical style" and water isn't very clear unless you're in Patagonia (which is COOOOLD!!!). But if you go to Patagonia, you may go to Antarctica. And then... you'll be seen like someone who went to the moon, there are no words to describe it :thumbsup

All of the above are just a few reasons why, being able to live in Europe or US (I'm Italian and my first son is born and lives in USA) I'd never move away from Argentina if I can avoid it.

And let's not even start with food and women :winkwink: : in Argentina steaks of the finest meat in the world are EVERY DAY meals and we get bored of them. As for women, they look more European than Latinas, but the breed is impressive, a girl looking like Jeniffer Lopez is pretty standard here.

Yes, I really love MY country! :thumbsup

PS: the downside is it isn't very cheap. Going to Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and even parts of Brazil may cost you half or even less money

Thanks Harvey! Great insight :)

You saying about Antarctica, have you been? or anyone else here been?

http://www.zmetravel.com/wp-content/...landscape1.jpg
http://pixdaus.com/pics/IIivL1btD7Ia8nmg3T.jpg
http://www.south-images.com/photos-a...scape-2211.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/...dd578154c2.jpg
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http://www.3viajesaldia.com/wp-conte...ito_moreno.jpg
http://www.destination360.com/south-.../patagonia.jpg
http://cosmictravelnetwork.com/pics/..._patagonia.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-Ob-jPQxry...ZE/s1600/3.jpg
http://www.visitingargentina.com/ima...-argentina.jpg
http://www.photoseek.com/05ANT-10954-Iceberg-arch.jpg
http://www.photoseek.com/05ANT-10713-Gentoo-chick.jpg
http://www.photoseek.com/05ANT-11053...ater-seals.jpg

BUENOS AIRES:
http://www.metrolic.com/wp-content/u...os-aires-2.jpg
http://www.info-slovenia.info/wp-con...res-Avenue.jpg
http://i.treehugger.com/files/th_ima...os%20Aires.jpg
http://www.lolahousebuenosaires.com/...757f61a8de.jpg
http://doniganmerritt.files.wordpres...v-_de_mayo.jpg
http://www.clubtravel.co.za/admin/sp...enosAires2.jpg
http://www.eurixinternational.de/img...os-aires-2.jpg

beat that shit fucking brazucas! :1orglaugh

You kill any gooks?

No, my father went, and also some friends, and they told me it's an out of this world experience. It's in my "to do" list though :thumbsup

My vote is for my country also : Argentina
let me know if u came down here :)
http://rlv.zcache.com/argentinian_gi...05qqsy_400.jpg

Cool! I would love to go there aswell. Did they go by boat/cruise?

there are cruises, expensive but worth the money. Also, there are a few planes, but very limited spots and you need to have contacts since they're military. They're supposed to be open to everybody, but it's almost impossible to get in those airplanes

Perhaps a cruise is best, I know it isn't going to be cheap to do that but maybe I can combine a trip to Argentina and the Antarctic in one.

New Zealand if your ass can take the flight.

Link to New Zealand Photos

http://www.aaanews.com/redrob-img/FoxGlacier-sm.jpg

Morocco is great, Marrakech and the High Atlas Mountains is a beautiful area to visit, people are friendly and you can get by with a mixture of English, Spanish and French.

Thanks. Not sure why I've never made it there, but just one of those places I can't seem to get.

I love Argentinian girls too,i grabbed once one for boobs and she didn't mind at all :1orglaugh

Looked at your thread the other day actually, great pics! :thumbsup

Goa does sound really good! Had a friend who visited a few years ago. Might have to ask her where she went etc. And see what she has to say about it. I'm pretty sure she loved it aswell.

Egypt would be nice, but perhaps not just now.

That's unfortunate. I was in Venezuela for about 4 months total (2 trips) walking around Caracas at night occasionally solo and never had one problem. Ditto for Colombia, although i did see people killed there (apparently drug related).

There were 2 travellers i met in Merida who were robbed in the street, but that was the extent of it.

IMO safer to walk the streets of Caracas than many areas in New York.

Sounds a lot like my trip to Sao Paulo. In the car on the way to the hotel we got held up by gunmen on motorcycles. Definitely put a damper on the visit.

Chile

http://www.fuckingnikki.com/sanpedro/sanpedro37.jpg

Southern too...

That sounds great!

Ok Goa is going on the "look into more" list for Asia :thumbsup

i've been to brasil 3 times, all to fortaleza. i haven't hit rio or sao paulo, the main tourist cities, but from what i've seen brasil is amazing IF you have the right people with you. that means a local group and body guards. its gotten pricier since i started going, but is still relatively inexpensive. i've always had a great time, the food is great, the people for the most part are friendly and the beaches/areas are picturesque. but i've always had bodyguards and the locals to take us to the right spots and keep eye over us.

pipe crew came with me last year, i think he enjoyed it. we did a summer carnivale party called fortal, like mardi x10. i did carnivale this past march, and i hope to do fortal again this summer. pipe crew also did venezuela, said similar things about the safety things. he didn't have anything happen to him, but he had the right people with him keeping an eye over him.

i think anywhere you go, try to go somewhere that you can trust someone to really get the full experience.

also if you go to brasil, start studying portuguese, they don't speak a word of english down there. lot of hand signals, translating going on cause i don't know anything besides "oui", their "hello"

Morocco is an excellent time. North Africa in general is my favorite place to be.
Start in Tangier, take a ferry from Algeciras in southern Spain if you have time.

Tangier is an extension of Madrid or Barcelona in many ways. Best opium tea i ever had was there. you can buy it in the old market. look for the old fat ladies selling herbs...keep it on the down low. Tangier at sunset on hasisheeshay is a wonderful memory...

In the kasbah beware of cons... In general I would say its worth 2-5 bucks to hire 1 fly to keep 1000 off you...either that or be fluent french, spanish or arabic. i know the last. little of first two...keep a sharp instrument, not knife, close at hand at night in old medina...and be hard. softies get taken for more than a ride. not up to it? go in a tourist group. boring but safer.

liquor is sold by jews but dont get wasted in public. drink in restaurants or in your room.
hookers are usually in the sidestreet cafes and restaurants off the main boulevard...you will recognize them. for the most part, only chicks who will openly check you out.

Hang out in cafes, hike around Cap Spartel...take a taxi or bus down to Larache is cool as well...

Berbers towns along Med coast are fun but pretty wild. Be prepared for a lot of fighting. Hand to hand. Keeps you alert...its all for fun.

Some cool art galleries and what remains of the old literary scene can be ok. Most are dead or moved on. In tangier.

Going south, take a train... do the overnight sleeper or 2nd class, kill 2 birds with one stone - travel/sleep.

check roman ruins...mind blowing...volibulis, fez, around northern coast...

Marrakech is my favorite city. Next to Fes, next to Tangier, lol.

if you have time, test your guts and go up into the Middle Atlas. Women are amazingly beautiful...but berber dudes are hardcore badass. Got into a hotel fight once there, Started inside went outside...cops...aint no cops up there. lol.
Met a couple working girls who followed my partner and i from rabat, the capitol. Girls were trying to pose as journalists, no one bought it. Got ugly but lead, a few days later to an orgy up in the mountains...chicks look asian up there. saudis fly in all the time, drop 50k$ US and buy one or 3. they are really, really, beautiful. really.

These/berbers are the dudes who stopped romans dead in their tracks... and just about every other invader since.

Marrakech is where africa meets arab world meets mediterranean...
beautiful women, great food. Place to hang is djemaa el fna. Easy to get laid - tourists and locals...But dont act like a cock on the walk...they will knock you down with datura leaves or knives...worst is datura leaves...
ex-wife was from there. Met her at a "leila."

Feeling bold - go into the sahara...

I've taken trucks and land rovers into western sahara, mauritania, mali and east into chad and sudan...its a fun ride. my cover was counting sheep for CIA bt was actually recording music and dance for film and music companies. still my side gig.

plan on several months....key to morocco is stay in few places long time or go for a long time period. if you have only 1-2 weeks hit 3-4 towns max. otherwise, not as fun.

if you are cool, they will know it. if you are not, they will know it. you will meet many guys in the street never been to school a day in their lives but they fluently speak 8-10 languages...

Been to Siwa, place of cleopatra's well...thats at Libya/Egypt border. wait for that trip.
If you go now, they will think you are radio america/usis.

Japan is cool, have lived there...take money. You will need lots unless you slum it...and i would not...perhaps. ;)

DWB has Thai covered... I like Malay and Burma border areas too.

Checkout Central America, Jaco, Costa Rica and Panama City, Panama are awesome quick trips.

Thanks for the input guys :thumbsup