What's the Most Unusual Country You Have Visited?

Kotek Besar

Singapore. Most suppressed and depressed people on Earth - and they don't even realise it. Poor sods.

Feeona

Iceland. A bizarre mix of genes there with some of them looking very Scandinavian, and the rest looking very Irish. Lovely friendly people there, and the geographical sights are fab....think Ireland in it's infancy!

NinjaK

London

Benny_Cake

Cambodia. A lovely country, but by far the poorest place I've ever been. Children begging all over Phnom Penh is one thing, but more than that, I had a sense that if I had enough money, I could have done ANYTHING I want, down to having someone bumped off. The crime reports in the Phnom Penh Post would make your hair stand on end too.

Rhys Essien

later10 wrote: »

I guess I'd have to say Israel.

The vast influence that Jerusalem has had on mankind, and the ludicrous state of affairs that remain there today, with what is effectively an 'outdoor prison' definitely makes the country the freak of the nations in my opinion.

What's also so remarkable about it, is that when you're in the wealthy suburbs of Tel Aviv, you feel like you're in Los Angeles or Miami, not the theatre of war and human cruelty that that country is. I found the whole thing a bit mentally distressing in fact.

With all due respect,Its the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that are living in hell on a day to day basis,not those living in Israel.

Benny_Cake

Domo230 wrote: »

Communism collapsed around when I was born but I would have loved to see first hand what life in East Germany. It seems rather weird that they so readily incorporated elements of the soviet culture which conquered them.

I went to the east German museum in Berlin. It was just full of regular stuff most houses today would have, but it was fascinating how the culture of communism and simple design affected even there everyday goods. Plus I love old soviet stuff like Ladas.

The DDR museum is one of the best museums I've been to, great fun too. I'd have loved to see East Germany pre-1989, or even just take a trip along the transit autobahn from West Germany to West Berlin, but I was 10 when the wall came down...good thing it did though.

snubbleste

Erm technically the Faeroes are not a country op :cool:

later12

Rhys Essien wrote: »

With all due respect,Its the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that are living in hell on a day to day basis,not those living in Israel.

Oh I know; I'm talking about the jursidiction, I'm saying it's amazing that they can live with themselves, and in such comfort in some cases.

I have a friend living in a beautiful house in Tel Aviv with whom I stayed, and she shrugged off my questions about politics as something I wouldn't understand because i don't live there. Incredible ability to get on with their lives despite what their government is doing to those people.

airscotty

Oman - was glad to get outta there!

My name is URL

Omicron Persei 8

helimachoptor

Kosovo.. an odd place to spend a couple of months

M5

Serbia, bosnia, ukraine

cc4life

helimachoptor wrote: »

Kosovo.. an odd place to spend a couple of months

Ya i've been to Serbia too..nice place..oooh controversy

cc4life

Cuba, China, Belarus, Ukraine, Mongolia to name but a few

helimachoptor

cc4life wrote: »

Ya i've been to Serbia too..nice place..oooh controversy

I worked with a lot of Croats, a few Serbs and then Kosovans, only for one of the Croats who liked beer and a hotel full of German cops it would have been a fairly depressing place tbh.

fat__tony

Im going to presume 'most unusual' to be 'biggest ****hole' you've ever visited to which my nomination would go to Saudi Arabia.

Ghastly, backward dump ruled by religious nutjobs.

Alessandra

losthorizon wrote: »

What! Bosnia is a lovely country and the people are really friendly especially the muslims.
.

Fair enough!


I spent two nights in Montenegro. A really stunning landscape. Very poor transport infrastructure. The people were so kind though. Everything was so cheap (their currency is euro so easy to compare). I'd go back.

John Mason

Haiti

Bahrain

cc4life

helimachoptor wrote: »

I worked with a lot of Croats, a few Serbs and then Kosovans, only for one of the Croats who liked beer and a hotel full of German cops it would have been a fairly depressing place tbh.

ah I was only in Belgrade and Novi Sad to the north myself..nice part of the world.. fair rough in the kosobo region now..big trouble ahead by the looks of it

Sunnyisland

India & ukraine.











& cavan.

later12

And I wouldn't much care for Sierra Leone
If I hadn't seen Killenaule,
And the man that was never in Mullinahone
Shouldn't say he had travelled at all

Tru dat.

earpiece

Feeona wrote: »

Iceland. A bizarre mix of genes there with some of them looking very Scandinavian, and the rest looking very Irish. Lovely friendly people there, and the geographical sights are fab....think Ireland in it's infancy!

That'd be the inbreeding.... centuries of being stuck on a féckin' island.

couldntthink

Botswana, very tidy. Saw a fence made out of old toilets.

Zebra3

Turkmenistan.

Bizarre to say the least. :eek:

Not sure why people have Ukraine listed as unusual.

Da Shins Kelly

cassi wrote: »

India! Wish I could undo that trip! Got so fed up eventually ended up booking a sweet hotel by the airport and not leaving it! I dunno what was stranger the man caked in makeup begging or the monkey caked in makeup begging?!

It really seems as though people either love or hate India. I've heard some great things about it from people who've had wonderful experiences there, and then some horror stories.

M5

Zebra3 wrote: »

Turkmenistan.

Bizarre to say the least. :eek:

Not sure why people have Ukraine listed as unusual.

Ukraine is well off the beaten track, only met a handful of people that have been there. That will change this summer though

jpm4

Alessandra wrote: »

Fair enough!


I spent two nights in Montenegro. A really stunning landscape. Very poor transport infrastructure. The people were so kind though. Everything was so cheap (their currency is euro so easy to compare). I'd go back.

It is stunning.....in fairness the country is tiny you can't expect much in the way of transport.

Where To

All the French-speaking* ones.


*may be coincidence.

Zebra3

M5 wrote: »

Ukraine is well off the beaten track

Yeah, but that doesn't make it unusual.

keano_afc

UAE, or Abu Dhabi to be precise. Very odd place, like a giant dust bowl. Seeing how women are treated as 3rd class citizens is bizarre. They really cant do anything on their own.

M5

Zebra3 wrote: »

Yeah, but that doesn't make it unusual.

you could argue that any country is not unusual or usual, moot point really

jpm4

keano_afc wrote: »

UAE, or Abu Dhabi to be precise. Very odd place, like a giant dust bowl. Seeing how women are treated as 3rd class citizens is bizarre. They really cant do anything on their own.

Yup that place was odd....only there for a stopover but the entire city seem like one gigantic bling statement. Endless amounts of fancy cars and impressive looking skyscrapers smack in the middle of a desert.

Chavways

Belarus.An experience to say the least

M5

Chavways wrote: »

Belarus.An experience to say the least

Thats still communist, right?

Cambodia... The fact that every disgusting thing you could ever want is so readily for sale is a bit unusual.

Chavways

M5 wrote: »

Thats still communist, right?

I think so yeah.Theres a bit of a rebellion on there at the moment to get the president out.

Kotek Besar

M5 wrote: »

Thats still communist, right?

Yup. And they've recently banned the internet. Well, any non-Belarusian sites anyway.

M5

Kotek Besar wrote: »

Yup. And they've recently banned the internet. Well, any non-Belarusian sites anyway.

Not quite, they banned Belorussian sites from hosting their sites outside the country IIRC

bnt

Spent one night in rural Swaziland and hardly saw any of the place, so I don't suppose that counts. I did spend two weeks in Bangalore, which was a trip and a half. People, people everywhere, nor any spot to think. It's not that big - not as big as you'd imagine a city of 8+ million to be. It's not all slums, either, there are some fairly posh areas and big houses. The roads are not for tourists or the sane. Getting out was harder than getting in, through the old airport.

Kotek Besar

M5 wrote: »

Not quite, they banned Belorussian sites from hosting their sites outside the country IIRC

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/02/it-is-now-illegal-to-access-any-foreign-website-in-the-republic-of-belarus/

HellFireClub

Cairo, Egypt... Maddest place on earth, unimaginable poverty standing right beside unbelievable wealth.

gigino

keano_afc wrote: »

UAE, or Abu Dhabi to be precise. Very odd place, like a giant dust bowl. Seeing how women are treated as 3rd class citizens is bizarre. They really cant do anything on their own.

You could say the same about most middle eastern countries except israel, they treat women equal to men.

nowyouresix

Algeria. Stayed six weeks. Never have I seen such controls in an airport in my life. Our bags were checked so many times, and then before you got on the airplane, they put the baggage on the runway and you had to confirm it was yours again before they put it on the plane. Frisked 3 times before getting on the plane. Police everywhere, checkpoints regularly on the roads.
Brilliant country though.Place of outstanding natural beauty. Roman ruins everywhere. Beautiful, unspoiled beaches. No tourists. People very warm, if a little confused as to why we were there! Fantastic food. Crazy drivers. It's an absolutely wonderful place. Wouldn't live there though.

Ghandee

Ghandee wrote: »

Cuba.

Was great place don't get me wrong, especially Havana, but there was something about watching folk on the high ways (which were empty for the most parts) packed into the back of tipper Lorries (in the way Irish people use a bus) seemed strange, they all seemed to be military folk if that makes any difference?

Was also the first country I'd been in where beggars jostled to get you leaving your hotel, hoping for a few peso from you, with security actually beating then back sometimes!

But with Havana having roughly one police man/woman on the street for every for citizens (roughly a million cops) thanks to communism and employment!
Never felt scared though, Havana definitely one of the most interesting places i've ever visited in my life though!

I speak the truth!

(these seem to be civilians, but you get the idea)

Benny_Cake

Ads by Google wrote: »

Cambodia... The fact that every disgusting thing you could ever want is so readily for sale is a bit unusual.

I'm not the only person who felt that way there, when the bus pulled into Saigon I felt like I was on a different planet from Cambodia!

p

Kiev, Ukraine - Strangely wealthy city, with lots of high fashion brands, but we couldn't find anywhere that normal people would eat/drink. Also, the stereotype of it being known as a destination for sex tourism is definitely true. It also has no street crossings, you have to walk under the road to get across the street, and they have large underground malls that stretch for blocks. I guess that's useful in winter time.

Iceland - Not culturally, but never seen so many different landscapes over such a short distance. Really loved the place.

goose2005

Slovenia - it was odd to find an actual country there, you think of it as more of a name they put in so there won't be a blank bit on the map. Like Tolkien writing "Khand" on his map of middle-earth even though he probably never bothered to give it any history.

later10 wrote: »

What's also so remarkable about it, is that when you're in the wealthy suburbs of Tel Aviv, you feel like you're in Los Angeles or Miami, not the theatre of war and human cruelty that that country is. I found the whole thing a bit mentally distressing in fact.

That description would also apply to a lot of LA and Miami...

Rhys Essien wrote: »

With all due respect,Its the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that are living in hell on a day to day basis,not those living in Israel.

Hell is something of an exaggeration; living standards are better than in some Arab countries, worse than in others.

jpm4

goose2005 wrote: »

Slovenia - it was odd to find an actual country there, you think of it as more of a name they put in so there won't be a blank bit on the map. Like Tolkien writing "Khand" on his map of middle-earth even though he probably never bothered to give it any history.
.

What on earth is unusual about Slovenia? Beautiful country and Ljubljana is one of the most pleasant and friendly cities I have ever visited in Europe.

later12

goose2005 wrote: »

Hell is something of an exaggeration; living standards are better than in some Arab countries, worse than in others.

Almost 4 out of every 5 people in Palestine live on less than $2 per day.

I don't know how this compares to elsewhere in the middle east, quite frankly, but it wouldn't be much consolation to a Palestinian if he heard that elsewhere the statistic was worse. It's not even all about standards of living, it's about things like the freedom of movement which we all enjoy here and which is not measured in terms of public facilities. I think the question of general welfare is far more important than merely standards of living.

Randy Anders

Deleted User wrote: »

Cambodia... The fact that every disgusting thing you could ever want is so readily for sale is a bit unusual.

What do you mean by that?