All of these places were cool to visit in their own way, except Taiwan where I was just at the airport. I'm not cool for visiting them and this isn't a brag. If my comments sometimes inspire feelings of envy in you I suggest you travel more. It doesn't have to be as expensive or difficult as you think.
If you hear someone say "I'm going to drive to New Jersey next weekend," and you respond with "oh? I was just there last month," would this be you bragging? Or would you be attempting to have a conversation like a normal human? Every time you make a statement about something you've done does that mean you are bragging? Are you so pathologically insecure that you can't open your mouth to even comment on something without saying something meant to inflate your ego? Are you the kind of person so in need of validation that you seek to impress the anonymous faceless members of a website that you will never personally interact with and have no desire to meet? Maybe that's true for you. And I assume it must be true for a lot of people as I see them projecting their insecurities on me and on others all the time. I wasn't bragging. If you doubt this, again, I suggest you look inward. It's your issue, not mine.
I spent last year in Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines. I can't talk about visiting New Jersey last year because I didn't. If this makes it seem, to you, like to relate anything from my own experiences means I am bragging, again, a) that's on you, and b) I kindly suggest you travel more. What's stopping you?
Probably wise. However, can you make an exception in my case because I went to Dubai for a week and am now thoroughly repentant? I don't plan to return.
Are you kidding me? Whoever wrote the second comment on this list really annoys me. Why would you EVER say something like that? Maybe you didn't mean it in the way I think you meant it, but come on! Jetpunk seems like a pretty diverse place, and I can't believe you would ever think to say something like this. I don't know if this site has administrators or something, but can someone please take this comment down?!?
Until carib decides to explain themselves we won't know, but I'm guessing that the comment had nothing at all to do with racism or religious bigotry or anything like that. I assume... it's probably meant to imply either a) that the people who go to Dubai are the sort of people who are happy to look the other way on things like human rights abuses, oppression of gays, women, and minorities, and wanton destruction of the environment... or maybe b) that people who vacation in Dubai are likely to be tacky tasteless rich people... or maybe sex tourists... the two demographics they seem to cater to the most.
It could be something about race or religion but if so why pick on Dubai and not Turkey or India?
It could simply be that someone who reguarly vacations in Dubai is likely wealthy, and that they wouldn't run in the same circles due to the large difference in wealth. That is how I took it anyway.
I've been to Dubai many times. It was an improvement on neighboring Saudi Arabia where I was living at the time, but I can understand why people wouldn't like it there.
Im surprised Russia is not on the list. There is lots of tundra to go visit. And some more tundra. And there is tundra. And there is lots to do in the tundra that would keep people coming, those treeless siberian plains are great.
Russia is cool. And not just in a meteorological sense. Moscow is a huge vibrant interesting city with lots to do. St Petersburg is, for my money, the most beautiful city in all of Europe. Great museums, great food, great architecture, and so many model-gorgeous open minded women connecting with me on Tinder I honestly did not have time to even say "hi" to each of them. The current Russian president also speaks highly about the quality of their prostitutes. However, all of this is in the European part of Russia. I've never been to Siberia before.
It's not only tundra, there's probably more of taiga, lots of steppe in the south and Altai mountains, plus volcanoes in Kamchatka. Vladivostok has nice beaches as well, while the most beautiful are places around Baikal lake. South Siberia is quite warm in summer. Many different cultures, religions, some nice architecture also, though it's true you could drive (or take a train) for days without a change in scenery.
So there's certainly enough to fill your vacation in the Asian Russia, but it's very different and less compact than ither countries.
On this site Russia is usually included as part of Europe. My parents toured the Soviet Union in the 1970s and it was one of the highlights of their travels - they visited Moscow, Tashkent, and Odessa on a farm tour of Europe and the Soviet Union, but at that time there were negatives, too. When their group entered a restaurant for a meal, their guide made everyone get up from their tables and stand around the edge of the room until the Americans had eaten and left. Mom was so sad at the negative impression that must have made on the people against Americans when the point of their tour was to promote better relations and cooperation among farm families through exchanges of ideas and farming methods.
I'm surprised no one has brought this up, but it's worth pointing out that a *lot* of this is probably due to Asian immigrants and their families traveling to and from their countries of origin. I know plenty of Asian-Americans who travel to their home countries almost yearly. I'm not saying that tourism isn't a factor, but it's worth pointing out that Malaysia, a top tourism destination, doesn't make the cut, while India and South Korea, which don't get nearly as many tourists (though both are still in the top 10 among Asian countries), do.
It could be something about race or religion but if so why pick on Dubai and not Turkey or India?
So there's certainly enough to fill your vacation in the Asian Russia, but it's very different and less compact than ither countries.