Anyone Have A Place They Would Like To See But Think They Won't Make It There?

[SuePa]

I have emails from Sundowners Overland (who we were booked with in 2020) advertising departures in May & August 2023, plus a few more in 2024, which include Turkmenistan.
I guess they are hoping the place opens up by then. Would need to clarify what happens if not.

I'm booked with Kalpac Travel and have deferred the trip 3 times now. The owner has been very reasonable and even refunded a friend's deposit when she decided not to go. He said he can rearrange the trip to visit other locations, if Turkmenistan doesn't open, but there are places in Turkmenistan that I really want to see.

 

[Disco]

The places I have not yet given up on but may end up as a pipe dream include Tibet, Mongolia, Butan. We also like trains, this year we planned to travel on the Amtrak Adirondack as we were there at the time when the foliage turns however the train was not running (post Covid thing). As I only need a whiff of a reason to head to NYC there is a chance this may happen in the future. The other train trip I would like to take is the full length Trans-Siberian rail journey.

A little OT I would like to be involved and/or compete in the Peking to Paris rally, we have vehicles that could be entered as class B and C however they are not setup to rally. I also know that there is no way MrsM would agree to the cost to get these vehicles into rally condition, freighting car(s) to China, back from France and most likely the recovery from somewhere in between. I will put it out there, if there is someone that is looking for and willing to take on a co-driver, tag-a-long be it a navigator, bag carrier, tent setter upper, would be cook etc. I would be most interested in hearing from you.

 

[Disco]

Definitely do not give up on Bhutan; it's an amazing little country - I think it is something like 90% forested and the Government has the "happiness" measure for success. Very different approach. Of course, they have their share of problems, not least the relationship with the country on the North border. Trains unfortunately are a non-event. Tibet has the highest altitude railway (or was, may have been overtaken by now) but with the invasion by China not really a good destination.

 

[Disco]

sorry, just fact checked the forest - 70%. Possibly lost some over the past few years.
Agree with others about the Stans but doubt we'll ever get there.

 

[drron]

Sorry Bhutan is a place I won't visit. got to know a few Bhutanese refugees when working in Townsville and Launceston who had been ethnically cleansed. their stories were horrendous.

 

[Disco]

Sorry Bhutan is a place I won't visit. got to know a few Bhutanese refugees when working in Townsville and Launceston who had been ethnically cleansed. their stories were horrendous.

Bhutanese or Tibetans?

 

[AIRwin]

Bhutanese or Tibetans?

Ethnic Nepalis?

 

[drron]

https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/02/01/bhutans-ethnic-cleansing

 

[JohnM]

I had to cancel Kamchatka, Chad, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia in 2020.

With the current situation in E Europe, not much chance of ever getting to many of those.

One region of the world that is a substantial hole for me and that was in my dreams is West Africa.

The problem with going to slightly off-grid places with advancing age and the lingering spectre of Covid is getting travel insurance, at least at a reasonable price.

I'm sticking with domestic travel and not even thinking about anywhere overseas for the time being.

 

[moa999]

Even Cuba these days, given the impact on ability to get a US ESTA.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. The latter is a spectacular country but I'm unsure of easy access to a USA ESTA afterwards?

 

[JohnM]

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. The latter is a spectacular country but I'm unsure of easy access to a USA ESTA afterwards?

After visiting Iran, Sudan and Cuba, I took no risk with the US and got a visa. Not a question asked at the PER LOTFAP consulate about my visits to those places and visa was granted within a couple of hours.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

After visiting Iran, Sudan and Cuba, I took no risk with the US and got a visa. Not a question asked at the PER LOTFAP consulate about my visits to those places and visa was granted within a couple of hours.

That's good to know, thanks

We are thinking of a B1/B2 visa in the next 5 years to do a driving holiday around much of the lower 48.

 

[kpc]

I had to cancel Kamchatka, Chad, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia in 2020.

With the current situation in E Europe, not much chance of ever getting to many of those.

One region of the world that is a substantial hole for me and that was in my dreams is West Africa.

The problem with going to slightly off-grid places with advancing age and the lingering spectre of Covid is getting travel insurance, at least at a reasonable price.

I'm sticking with domestic travel and not even thinking about anywhere overseas for the time being.

Even Cuba these days, given the impact on ability to get a US ESTA.

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. The latter is a spectacular country but I'm unsure of easy access to a USA ESTA afterwards?

After visiting Iran, Sudan and Cuba, I took no risk with the US and got a visa. Not a question asked at the PER LOTFAP consulate about my visits to those places and visa was granted within a couple of hours.

I'm glad that I have been to Cuba b4 this nonsense that you can no longer visit the US on an ESTA after going to Cuba. As stated in my thread above, there will come a time soonish that I no longer want to go to US again so will visit Iran, Pakistan etc. Apparently there is a 1 year wait to get an appt with US embassy in Sydney if you need to get a Visa. As you get older and collect more medical problems, getting travel insurance becomes more and more of a hassle not to mention more expensive. I have a plan to go to all the challenging places in the next 10 years before health etc gets in the way. I also have a strange desire to join the 100 club (visit 100 countries) before I leave this planet....no OS travel for the last 2 years did not help but if I can do 3 new countries per year for the next 10 years I should get there. I will be visiting 5 new counties next year so that will help. Hopefully can do the 5 Stans in 2024, a few Pacific countries, some more of Asia and Eastern Europe to help reach my goal.

 

[wandering_fred]

I have been fortunate to have been in many of the previously mentioned destinations.
For the Nepal fans, the altitude in Kathmandu is about 1400m, so on the low side of altitude issues.
I still have a few places I might still get to.....
Połczyn-Zdrój, Poland the birthplace of my maternal grandfather in 1865 then Pomerania
Hill country in India
Patagonia
Places I won't get to?
Lake Baikal via the Trans-siberian from China
West Africa overland from Lagos, Nigeria to Dakar, Senegal
Karakoram Highway in Pakistan

May you find exceptions to your limited expectations of wandering
Fred

 

[GoldCanyon340]

During COVID Mrs340 and I planned a trip to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway from Vladivostok. I'm unsure this could ever happen now, not just for moral reasons but of the >0% chance of being held by the PutinState authorities on make-believe charges.

 

[Brissy1]

I'm still trying to get to my 5 Stans trip from 2020, but Turkmenistan is still 'closed'. I have to decide whether I can wait or whether I settle for 4/5 Stans.

Mmm maybe grab whatever opportunities while you can. Went to Moscow a few years ago just on a whim as an extension to a holiday in Vietnam (cheap VN Airlines flight). Fantastic place, and felt quite unreal (brought up in the cold war)

Had intended to get " back to the USSR". Can't see it happening

 

[kpc]

Mmm maybe grab whatever opportunities while you can. Went to Moscow a few years ago just on a whim as an extension to a holiday in Vietnam (cheap VN Airlines flight). Fantastic place, and felt quite unreal (brought up in the cold war)

Had intended to get " back to the USSR". Can't see it happening

I spent 13 days in Russia (oh getting that visa was a royal PITA)....7 in St Petersburg and 6 in Moscow in 2014. Really loved Moscow but there is no way I would / could go now moving forwards!

 

[OZDUCK]

St Petersburg was a place I had intended to visit a prior to Covid and of course now very unlikely for at least a number of years.

We had booked to visit Moscow in 1976 on the 'ship-jet' route from Perth to a London. The flights from Singapore to Moscow and then onto London were to be on Aeroflot. That portion was cancelled as supposedly there were not enough spare hotel rooms in Moscow. Then the ship leg from Fremantle to Singapore was cancelled as the ship had to do an emergency dry dock visit for repairs. We ended up flying on a QF B707 charter from Perth to Singapore - the cabin crew treated us like intruders into their space - and then on a British Caledonian DC8 to Gatwick via Karachi.

 

[daft009]

The Taj Mahal ,, but I dont want to go to India ! My grandfather on my mother side was born in india.

Looks better in pictures anyway.
I've been 3 times since I was a kid.