newelty

I have a friend who is a hard core traveler. She’s been to South Korea and Qatar and Kenya and lived in Hong Kong and, well, you get the picture. Her travel experience, and the fact that she’s hilarious and laid back, is why I chose her to go to South Africa with me. She loves novelty, and is genuinely curious about the world.

We were chatting during our trip, and I asked her, “Is there any place on the planet you don’t want to visit?”

She said, “Antarctica.”

I was surprised. Now, I know that kind of adventure might not be for everyone, but she’s very outdoorsy and likes to push herself physically. But when it came to the South Pole, she told me that it just didn’t interest her.

I’m dying to go, as I’ve heard the wildlife is unprecedented and the landscape is completely pristine. Mountains are impossible to fathom due to their massive scale. In my desire for full disclosure, my significant other has been there (hence these amazing photos). He said it was unlike anywhere he’s ever been.

Sign me up.

Maybe I’m not game for exploring everywhere. There are obvious no-no’s: Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And maybe not Saudi Arabia since a friend once told me that Riyadh is quite possibly the sketchiest place he’s ever been.

But besides war torn areas, I can’t really think of any place I don’t want to go.

I love going somewhere new, and the more off the beaten track the better. I remember once landing in Odessa, Ukraine in December. It was snowing, and the Cyrillic alphabet covered the airport, making it impossible to form language assumptions. My tax driver wore a fur hat and coat and we negotiated the fare and my destination with a calculator and hand signals.

My desire to go anywhere probably stems from my childhood dream of being a foreign correspondent, and my obsession with interesting over happy.

Is it reckless and absurd to say I’d go to North Korea? Perhaps. I don’t really care. It’s new. It’s totally foreign. And it challenges me.