Sunrise over Mount Sinai
I’ve written a number of posts about what to bring home, but I haven’t given just due to experiences. Trends, of course, change and the millennial generation’s preferences for experiences over things is getting wide attention in the press.
For this post, I sifted through my own travel memories throughout the decades to prepare a short list of knock-your-socks-off types of experiences. Call it a “Things to Do Before You Die” list, rather than a “Places to Go Before You Die” one. There are many such lists on the interwebs, and I would dispute much of what’s there. (Case in point: you can skip the pyramids at Giza, Egypt and the rock carvings at Petra, Jordan, and still be fine IMO, but many people disagree with me.) Some of the experiences that made my list were dependent on the destination (for example, hiking Mount Sinai at dawn, which I’ll recount later in this post) and others can be created in a variety of places.
In the first example on the list, it was the combination of place+experience that puts it on knocked-my-socks-off list:
1. The Great Wall of China
I was underwhelmed by my first visit to the Great Wall. It was a busy tourist stop. There were super-sized tour buses. There were stalls selling various trinkets, such as “gold”-plated moulds of the wall. It was difficult to get a photo without tourists in it. I snapped a few and left.
Later in the trip, my family held a double bat mitzvah reception on an area of the Wall reserved for private events. This experience deserves its own blog post, but in short… The evening began with an elegant cocktail hour on the Wall with traditional drummers and dancers. Then we were seated at round tables in a formal setup in an adjacent section of the Wall. Our tables were surrounded by lush flower arrangements and beautiful decorations. We were served a delicious multi-course Chinese meal with red, white, and sparkling wine. A mix of music played and people got up to dance. We watched the sunset from our tables or from the dance floor. Sometime after dark, some secret guy behind a switchboard lit up the Wall section by section. At the end of the party, as the guests made their way back to the chartered buses, the skies opened up. It poured and lightning bolts lit up the wall in flashes. It was the most suitably dramatic end to the night.
2. Paris
Paris is enchanting anytime, but especially at night. Pro-tip: the light show in the gardens at Versalles (a short train ride outside Paris) in the summertime is total magic.
3. Prague
I’ve written some about my time in Prague. This was a function of time+place, and there’s a full-length book that will emerge someday from my two years living there. I could be walking to work any day and see some architectural detail I’d never noticed before. Or look up (instead of down at the cobblestones) and see what I’d seen many times before, but my mouth would still drop open in disbelief at the beauty and grandeur.
4. Safari in Africa
It could be Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi or Zambia. You pick. There is nothing like seeing these great creatures living undisturbed on their own lands.
5. A quiet beach
Take a trip and find your spot, away from the crowds. My two favorites were in Costa Rica and Dominica, but beyond that I won’t specify. You have to find your own. On a vacation without an itinerary and with a malleable return date.
6. Oktoberfest in Munich
It was 1996 when I first went, and then returned a couple years later, so I can’t attest that the raucous, multi-cultural vibe remains the same. This experience merits its own post, but it would be rated R and names would have to be changed to protect certain people. You know who you are.
7. The Grand Canyon from the air
I was a seasoned traveler, even hardened, but when I flew over the Grand Canyon my jaw dropped open and stayed that way for a while.
8. Mount Sinai at sunrise
This is the moment captured in the photo at the top of this post. My aunt and I awoke at 3 a.m., as the local residents said we should, without a plan. We walked from our camp with its two dozen or so cabins in the desert, following the road out until we found other people on the pilgrimage. People were already out walking at that hour and the numbers grew throughout the night. We walked by a few homes and businesses. Villagers were up early, watching us, and we stopped a few times to ask where we were going. We chose a less trafficked, but steeper path up. Along the way, we hired a man for a few dollars to guide us. It was dark and cold and the path was steep and rocky, eventually heading nearly straight up. There were a few huts on landing areas on the way, serving tea and snacks. Our guide basically ended up pushing my aunt most of the way up the hill by her butt. He still turned around to give me his free hand to grab at times. We wouldn’t have made it without him. At the top, travelers from all over the world gathered and we set our gaze on the eastern horizon. We waited through hushed utterances of “what time is it?”, “which way?” When the sun peeked over the horizon, there was an audible gasp from the crowd, including me, and the sounds of shutters clicking and clapping all around. I am not a religious sort, but it was such a spectacle (nee miracle?) that it was easy to see why the ancients believed this was a holy place and why it inspired belief in gods.
9. Macchu Picchu
If you plan to go, keep an eye out as closures have been discussed.
Where were your most memorable experiences?
Ampersand book art!
Celebrating a double bat mitzvah at the Great Wall
Ancient gate marking the entrance to the hutong where our cooking class was held
Our lovely hostess warming our woks. She had white rice already going in a rice cooker.
Tofu prepared three ways!
We ate the results, with tea, in the small courtyard outside.
Sheepdog monitors a flower shop in Dinan, France
Antigua, Guatemala – a heavily touristed town, but full of splashes of color
Hillside around Pétion-Ville, Haiti
Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi’an, China
Curious girls at Adadi Mariam, Ethiopia
Sunrise at the top of Mount Sinai
Cuban Cowboy
Left to right: cousin Rachel, cousin Tammy, me (shot by Dani)
Flores, Guatemala
Farmer grows three colors of potatoes on an island in Lake Titicaca, Peru
Eastern Mountain Gorilla in Virunga Mountains – only 1,000 left in the world
Rwanda – dancers were waiting for us when we came down from the mountains
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