I think to me scarcity is very much of value. Eg: China has a Manichean temple, and there's very little left of the Manicheans anywhere. Harbin, China, has a Jewish synagogue: there are, obviously, very few synagogues relatively anywhere in the world, particularly not in Asia, so that's super-interesting. (Relatedly, I'd find a synagogue in a central European city likely of more interest than one in New York.) A Manichean temple or Jewish synagogue in China is of interest just by being there, whereas the bar is much higher for Buddhist or Taoist or Confucian temples (the Great Mosque in Xian is also interesting, partly because of its heritage, but also because mosques are relatively rare in China). Zoroastrian and Baha'i things are interesting, too, just because you don't see very many of them.
That applies to natural stuff as well: Borneo rainforest is particularly interesting because it has so many endemic or close to endemic species (orangutans, proboscis monkeys, sunbears, pygmy elephants, yada yada). Everest is particularly interesting because it's the world's highest mountain, etc.
When I think about my Indonesia bucket list, I tend to think of Papua (I've not been to PNG), including the Raja Ampats—that's endemic wildlife and remarkably diverse cultures and languages—Sumatra, in particular Lake Toba, which is big and old and a remnant of a super-volcanic eruption, as well as being beautiful and having an unusual culture, and the Bandas, which is a history thing (Run being swapped for Manhattan). I would also like to get to Malang at some point because it sounds lovely, but I'm not itching for it because it doesn't have the scarcity factor of the other places I've mentioned here. And I'd love to see the pygmy elephants in Kalimantan, but I'm not sure I'm committed enough to spend two weeks getting bitten to pieces looking for them.
Yeah scarcity is a good one—what would you say are your primary sources for knowing what is scarce? Schooling/uni? Travel guides? Mass media? How/where did you learn about pygmy elephants in Kali & Sabah?
So scarcity would be a mixture of general knowledge (I know there are billions of Christians and Muslims and loads of churches and mosques around the world, and I know that Zoroastrianism, Baha'i and Judaism are much smaller faiths, while Buddhism and Hinduism, despite having relatively large headline numbers, tend to be concentrated in relatively few countries) and travel guides (the Manichaean temple and the Harbin synagogue were both in Lonely Planet). Hinduism, for example, has 1.16 billion adherents (claims Google), but well over a billion of those are in India.
The pygmy elephants I know about from a conversation with a guide on a river boat in Kalimantan (from Balikpapan): I'm not sure they make it into guide books because you basically need expedition levels of organisation to see them which puts them out of reach for the guide book writer and makes them pretty niche for the average punter. (Tangent, but I'm told there are parts of Papua where animals have not evolved to be scared of humans as they haven't encountered them—but again, it's expedition stuff. You need to be helicoptered in.)
I think another thing about what's "interesting" depends on how familiar you are with the area. I am reasonably familiar with the UK as I grew up here and lived most of my life here, so, for example, a 9th-century cave house which was probably the home of a king who became a saint (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/anglo-saxon-cave-house-scli-intl-gbr/index.html) was fascinating to me. I think it would be a bit niche for the average visitor to the UK, who's going to be looking at Stratford and London and cathedral cities and Edinburgh and the Lakes and nightlife and so on and so forth....
And another point would be age (which is, again, closely related to scarcity). Thinking England, again, a 12th-century pub is much more interesting than a 16th-century pub (though that's still interesting), whereas a 19th-century pub won't even move the dial. Egypt has loads of very, very old mosques (and churches): St. Katherine's Monastery is 4th century, Ibn Tulun Mosque 9th century. My perspective on what's old, however, is very much a European/MENA one, not an American or Australian one.
Any wet market,Mercado, night market. Anywhere anytime :) Food what’s new, what’s different? What’s eaten locally. Food gambling, take a gamble and try something new :)
I think to me scarcity is very much of value. Eg: China has a Manichean temple, and there's very little left of the Manicheans anywhere. Harbin, China, has a Jewish synagogue: there are, obviously, very few synagogues relatively anywhere in the world, particularly not in Asia, so that's super-interesting. (Relatedly, I'd find a synagogue in a central European city likely of more interest than one in New York.) A Manichean temple or Jewish synagogue in China is of interest just by being there, whereas the bar is much higher for Buddhist or Taoist or Confucian temples (the Great Mosque in Xian is also interesting, partly because of its heritage, but also because mosques are relatively rare in China). Zoroastrian and Baha'i things are interesting, too, just because you don't see very many of them.
That applies to natural stuff as well: Borneo rainforest is particularly interesting because it has so many endemic or close to endemic species (orangutans, proboscis monkeys, sunbears, pygmy elephants, yada yada). Everest is particularly interesting because it's the world's highest mountain, etc.
When I think about my Indonesia bucket list, I tend to think of Papua (I've not been to PNG), including the Raja Ampats—that's endemic wildlife and remarkably diverse cultures and languages—Sumatra, in particular Lake Toba, which is big and old and a remnant of a super-volcanic eruption, as well as being beautiful and having an unusual culture, and the Bandas, which is a history thing (Run being swapped for Manhattan). I would also like to get to Malang at some point because it sounds lovely, but I'm not itching for it because it doesn't have the scarcity factor of the other places I've mentioned here. And I'd love to see the pygmy elephants in Kalimantan, but I'm not sure I'm committed enough to spend two weeks getting bitten to pieces looking for them.
Yeah scarcity is a good one—what would you say are your primary sources for knowing what is scarce? Schooling/uni? Travel guides? Mass media? How/where did you learn about pygmy elephants in Kali & Sabah?
So scarcity would be a mixture of general knowledge (I know there are billions of Christians and Muslims and loads of churches and mosques around the world, and I know that Zoroastrianism, Baha'i and Judaism are much smaller faiths, while Buddhism and Hinduism, despite having relatively large headline numbers, tend to be concentrated in relatively few countries) and travel guides (the Manichaean temple and the Harbin synagogue were both in Lonely Planet). Hinduism, for example, has 1.16 billion adherents (claims Google), but well over a billion of those are in India.
The pygmy elephants I know about from a conversation with a guide on a river boat in Kalimantan (from Balikpapan): I'm not sure they make it into guide books because you basically need expedition levels of organisation to see them which puts them out of reach for the guide book writer and makes them pretty niche for the average punter. (Tangent, but I'm told there are parts of Papua where animals have not evolved to be scared of humans as they haven't encountered them—but again, it's expedition stuff. You need to be helicoptered in.)
I think another thing about what's "interesting" depends on how familiar you are with the area. I am reasonably familiar with the UK as I grew up here and lived most of my life here, so, for example, a 9th-century cave house which was probably the home of a king who became a saint (https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/anglo-saxon-cave-house-scli-intl-gbr/index.html) was fascinating to me. I think it would be a bit niche for the average visitor to the UK, who's going to be looking at Stratford and London and cathedral cities and Edinburgh and the Lakes and nightlife and so on and so forth....
And another point would be age (which is, again, closely related to scarcity). Thinking England, again, a 12th-century pub is much more interesting than a 16th-century pub (though that's still interesting), whereas a 19th-century pub won't even move the dial. Egypt has loads of very, very old mosques (and churches): St. Katherine's Monastery is 4th century, Ibn Tulun Mosque 9th century. My perspective on what's old, however, is very much a European/MENA one, not an American or Australian one.
And, in addition to scarcity, I'll look at things like age and aesthetics and the hoary old UNESCO status: is something a good example of its kind?
Any wet market,Mercado, night market. Anywhere anytime :) Food what’s new, what’s different? What’s eaten locally. Food gambling, take a gamble and try something new :)
“Food gambling” I like that! May steal it for another post 😀
😃👍🏽
That’ll cost you a bowl of noodles