#11 Coolest Place - Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in the world and home to one the most amazing sites. Registan was built here about 600 years ago as a major stop on the Silk Route and was later the blueprint for the Taj Mahal. Samarkand is essentially a city of blue domed, mosaic-filled Taj Mahals. It has an exceptional culture, people and history - it is worth spending a week here and Bukara. Some of the the best carpets in the world are avaliable here.

We almost crossed the border to buy carpets in Afghanistan, but ran out of time, as we needed to fly out of the capital Tashent, to meet our girlfriends in Istanbul. It was very fortunate as that was the day the Taliban made it over the mountains, and killed several hundred people and virtually every westerner.

Ulug Beg was the ruler here in the 1400's and built this astronomical observatory in 1428. He was responsible for the most accurate star catalog of the time. The roof of the onservatory is painted with constellations (above).

#10 Coolest Place - Rock Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia

Lalibela is a small town in the north of Ethiopia and one of its holiest cities - about 8,000 people live here now. It is known for its 13 rock cut churches that were built from 1100 - 1200 AD, and it is thought to have taken at least 50 years to build each. They have been in continuous use as churches since that time. The building are similar to Petra in Jordan, where dozens of huge buildings were also hand carved from solid rock, though Petra dates to over 3,000 years ago.

(above) An early morning parishioner looks down almost 100 feet (or ten stories) at the priest who has come to unlock St. Georges Church. Carved from a single piece of stone, this church represented an architectural style that resisted the burning and looting that accompanied invasions at the turn of the first millennium.


An Ethiopian priest peers through a metal cross that was forged for his church, almost a thousand years ago.

#9 Coolest Place - Wildebeest Migration on the Serengeti, Tanzania

Every year over 1,000,000 wildebeests migrate 1,800 miles looking for fresh grass as the dry season arrives ... and it is stunning. The Serengeti is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the migration goes south from the park for the short rains from October to November. From April to June, they then go west and north eventually returning to the Serengeti. Strong instincts make them attempt to cross rivers like the Mara River in Kenya, and many are attacked and eaten by hundreds of crocodiles in waiting. According to the guides, the Wildebeest weigh about 450 pounds each and live for about 20 years and make an excellent meal for the crocs.

Hot air balloons and full safaris are available at several locations including Masai Kopje or in the western Serengeti at Kirawira.

400,000 zebras usually accompany the wildebeest migration, making it that much more interesting

#8 Coolest Place - The Wodaabe Gerewol Festival & Cure Salee, Niger

Once a year in September, thousands of nomadic Wodaabe men show up for a great courting festival known as the gerewol. It is part of a centuries old celebration known during the Cure Salee festival, and the Wodaabe men dress up in order to be as attractive as possible to potential mates. The Wodaabe color their faces yellow and their lips black to accentuate the whiteness of their teeth and eyes. This is viewed as more beautiful by the Wodaabe women, who can choose up to four mates during the festival. If the men are not selected, they are very lonely for the next year.

The Wodaabe men hand make their tunics, hats and jewelry hoping to attract women at the festival.

A Wodaabe man prepares for the gerewol, prior to the dances which go on for several days in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Touaregs, a separate tribal group, come from hundreds of miles away, and dress up their camels to attend the annual two week long Cure Salee celebration.


The dancing, singing and courting goes on late into the nights.

#7 Coolest Place - Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert, Namibia

Towering as high as 1,000 feet, the Sossusvlei Dunes in the Namib Desert are viewed by many as the most beautiful in the world. They are slowly migrating inches every year moving further inland, and are the only desert in the world that borders an ocean.

Dead Acacia trees dotting the pale white salt pans contribute to the other worldly experience of Sossusvlei

It takes three hours to climb the highest of the dunes while the running and tumbling descent, only takes about fifteen minutes. The best time to go is May to October. Make time to see the shipwrecks on the Skeleton Coast by bush plane and a visit to the Himba villages in the North.

#6 Coolest Place - Underground Cities of Cappadocia, Turkey

About 8 million years ago, there was a volcanic eruption that deposited a couple thousand feet of soft rock called tufa, over central Turkey. Over millions of years, water naturally carved extensive cave systems. About 2,000 years ago humans started carving their own troglodyte homes and ultimately underground cities.


About 200 of the cities have been found, and they contain kitchens, wineries, stables, storerooms, churches, ventilation systems, water wells, and thousands of rooms people lived in. The cities are sometimes ten stories above ground and twenty stories underground. As many as 60,000 people lived in a city.


Early Christians being persecuted by Romans in the 1st century, and during Arab raids that started in the 7th century, hid in these cities. Aside from the ten cities we explored starting out in Nevsehir, we had a very connected guide who was able to take us to Mazi, a little known underground city not open to the public. It went down seven stories and had not been excavated yet by archeologists - we saw old pottery, mummified horses and human bones without disturbing them.


The most memorable event was trying climb down a fifty foot vertical shaft while already ten stories underground in almost total darkness. There are also several cities that have bars and small cafes at that level where you can grab a cold drink, sitting on pillows in one of the ancient carved rooms.

Make sure you stay in one of the thousand year old rock hewn hotels as well.

#5 Coolest Place - Helicopter Trip to Mount Everest

The Nepali Air Force will fly you up to 17,000 feet, the maximum for most helicopters. It's very difficult to fly that high because the air is so thin that the helicopter blades can not grip. Our pilot had to drop extra fuel and extra weight at the bizarre Namche Bazaar at 11,300 feet, in order to fly that high.

Namche Bazaar has a real "Star Wars bar" other worldly feel to it with all of the mountain climbers from around the world trekking through, and so many different Nepali groups including the famed Sherpas. There are over 1,000 people per year now attempting the climb which starts at base camp 1 near the Khumbu Icefall at 18,000 feet.

Once you get to maximum altitude, the views are some of the best natural scenery in in the world - dozens of very high snow-capped mountains and of course, Mount Everest at 29,028 feet. On the way down, we stopped for tea and more incredible views at the highest Buddhist monastery in the world, Tengboche. Both Tengboche and the helicopter view of Mount Everest are not to be missed for any serious traveler. The trip originates out of the military area of the Kathmandu airport.

The best time to go is April through October if you want to also see the climbers going to base camp. May is the main climbing month on Everest as the weather is most conducive.

#4 Coolest Place - The Giant Moai of Easter Island (Rapa Nui)

From 1100-1500 AD, the Rapa Nui culture created six hundred of these giant Moai, reaching 70 feet and weighing as much 130 tons. The island went into serious decline when it was completely deforested as Jared Diamond suggested in his book, Collapse. Today, this is a stunning, unique and beautiful place - a place where I would return.

Easter Island is part of Chile and is the most remotely inhabited island on earth. It's over 2,000 miles from the nearest human in South America. It’s a five hour flight from Tahiti or Santiago, Chile. The best time to go is during South American summer from December to March.

The island was formed by lava from three volcanoes, and the rock is relatively easy to carve. There are over one hundred Moai that were never completed and lay in place in the quarry waiting...

In ancient times, warring neighbors would raft to the island and knock down their enemies Moai.

Besides the Moai, favorite memories were the sixty pieces of fresh tuna sushi caught a few hours prior at La Taverne de Pecheur, and sitting under a large remote Moai, watching the horizontal rain blow around me while I wrote in my journal.

#3 Coolest Place - Rock Cut City of Petra, Jordan

Walk down a narrow half mile canyon to glimpse the ornate rock cut Treasury building in this 3,000 year old Nabatean city located in present-day Jordan. It was unknown to the outside world until 1812 when it was discovered by Swiss Explorer Johann Burkhardt. There are dozens of huge buildings carved out of solid rock in Petra, and you can only guess on the hundreds of man years required to build a place like this. The Treasury building (above) was also prominently featured in the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Petra is at the top coolest sites list because it is so unique, wide open for wandering and has a wonderful and mysterious history. Spend at least three days here hiking the cantons and climbing to the roof of some of the buildings. While there, stay nearby at the amazing Taybet Zayman Hotel, which is a 3,000 years old and carved out of solid rock like Petra, making it one of the greatest hotels of the world.



Climbing the 800 steps of the Monastery toward the back of the city, will take you to the roof and the best view in Petra. While in Jordan, also check out the ruins of Jerash, snorkel in the Red Sea near Aqaba, read a book while floating on the Dead Sea, and camp out with the famed Howeitat bedouin in the spectacular Wadi Rum canyons made popular in the movie, Lawrence of Arabia.

#2 Coolest Place - Cambodia and Angkor Wat

(above) The main temple of Angkor Wat is most beautiful at dusk.

Nine hundred years ago, Angkor Wat was the most populated place on earth, with over one million people. London by contrast had a thousand people who were living in the Dark Ages. The dozens of temples At Angkor Wat were surrounded by an extensive system of canals that provided water, and were modeled on how the ancient Khmer kings saw themselves in the center of the world.

The history, the massive, beautiful complex and the Buddhist culture make this place exceptional. Cambodia is very safe now but the first time I went, another civil war had just started. On the plane from Myanmar, I found out an Englishman and his translator were kidnapped and killed by the Khmer Rouge, a mile from my hotel. I was able to hire a bodyguard. but this is not necessary today.



Two Buddhist monks relax in front of one of the many large, smiling faces carved in to Bayonne Temple.

Ta Proehm Temple is overgrown with huge Jing trees that look like they were dripped over the structures. Angkor Wat was only found one hundred years ago, after being abandoned for at least four hundred years and completely reclaimed by the forest.

The Choeng Ek Killing Fields Memorial, is in the Cambodian capitol of Phnom Penh and contains 25,000 skulls of the three million people killed by Pol Pot in the 1970's. The majority of the victims were killed with hammers or machetes and many bodies were found with arms still tied or with blindfolds. Most travelers to Angkor Wat have to fly through Phnom Penh for the one hour flight, and this is definitely worth seeing, along with the Tuol Sleng high school turned Khmer Rouge torture chamber.



Few people know that for less than $200, you can shoot a rocket launcher with the Cambodian Army. Click on the photo to enlarge it and you can see the rocket flying just above the tree line, on the right. The site at the regional army headquarters, is about an hour from the Phnom Penh airport. For $500, you can shoot a tank-round, if the tank is available. They have AK-47s ($15 for 20 rounds) and hand grenades ($20) available, if you prefer something a little smaller...

The List - Top 45 Coolest Places in the World

#2 - Bayonne Temple in Angkor Wat, Siem Riep, Cambodia

After 70 countries, hundreds of sites and 12 years of traveling, here is the ranked list of our coolest places in the world.

1 The Country of Myanmar
2 Angkor Wat, Cambodia (photo above)
3 Rock Cut City of Petra, Jordan
4 Dinosaur Expeditions
5 Moai of Easter Island
6 Underground Cities of Cappadocia, Turkey

7 Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert, Namibia
8 Cure Salee Festival of the Wodaabe in InGall, Niger
9 Helicopter to Mount Everest
10 Djenne Mosque and the Dogon, Mali
11 Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan
12 Rock Cut Churches of Lalibela, Ethipoia
13 In the Amazon with the Shuar, Ecuador
14 Tsechu Parties of Bhutan
15 Wildebeest Migration, Tanzania
16 Burning Man Festival, USA
17 Buddhist Temples of Tibet
18 Sahara Desert
19 African Safari, Botswana and Tanzania
20 Temples of Luxor, Egypt
21 Cuba
22 India - Taj Mahal and Rajasthan
23 Voodoo in Haiti
24 Machu Picchu, Peru
25 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
26 Nepal
27 Borobodur and Prambanan Temples, Indonesia
28 Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina
29 Temple of Jupiter in Lebanon
30 Waking Up On Top of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
31 The Wild Wall, China
32 Morocco
33 Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe
34 Fjords of Norway
35 Iguazu Falls, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay
36 Syria
37 Anasazi Cliff Dwellings, USA
38 Patagonia, Chile
39 Climb Cotopaxi, Ecuador
40 Terracotta Warriors of Xian, China
41 Grand Canyon, USA
42 Ephesus, Turkey
43 Moscow, Russia
44 IRA and Loyalist Graffiti in Northern Ireland
45 Alaska, USA

#6 - The Underground Cities of Cappadocia in Turkey, Held Up to 70,000 People

RANKINGS
So how did we rank them? We know we are biased and here’s what mattered:

• Novelty and surprise like Cappadocia and Easter Island.


• The combination of a stunning place and great history like Registan or Angkor Wat.


• Highly unique and very interesting cultures, like the Bhutanese, the Wodaabe and the Shuar Indians of the Amazon.


• Amazing visual beauty like Petra and Myanmar.


• Completely unique and "hard to get access to" situations like dinosaur hunting in Niger and dancing with a samba school in Carnival at the Sambadrome.


• We chose to rank many great natural areas like the Grand Canyon and Iguazu Falls much lower than great cultural and historical places.


• We strongly prefer places and cultures that are very different from the US and Europe.


• We are a generally underwhelmed by sites that are overpromoted and highly commercialized, like the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal, and rank them a lot lower than many people would.

#1 Coolest Place - The Country of Myanmar (Burma)

There are just so many amazing, world-class places in this one, very Buddhist country. It includes the gold covered rock of Kyaiktiyo, the 5,000 temples of Bagan, the culture of Mandalay, the Hill Tribes in the Golden Triangle, Schwedago Pagoda, the boat culture of Inle Lake, Buddhist monasteries, Mingun Pagoda, Mount Popa Temple and so many more.

Myanmar is also one of the most corrupt and repressive regimes in the world (we do not let politics dictate where we go). Visiting these types of countries allows us to see first hand what is happening politically and culturally, and to share that information. Our first visit, coincided with the release of Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Su Kyi from house arrest. We went to her headquarters at great risk of arrest and that remains a truly transcendent experience. While her release was an optimistic sign, unfortunately she was put under house arrest again and remains there today.

The Schwedago Pagado (above) in the capitol Yangon, is covered with gold and is the tallest religious building in the world. It is reported to contain over $1B in gold and it continues to grow daily. Buddhist worshippers purchase small amounts of gold leaf and use an adhesive to attach it to the side of the temple. Not all of it sticks and sometimes a little wind blows small flakes of gold around your feet.

A precariously balanced rock, in Kyaiktiyo
is covered with gold leaf, and sacred to Buddhists.

Mount Popa is an amazing temple built on top of a volcanic crag.














There are 5,000 temples in sixty square miles in Bagan. They are over 1,000 years old and were built by wealthy Buddhists in order to have a better afterlife.

A Lot of Places Did Not Make the List...

The list of places that did not make our list is long and distinguished:

Ephesus (very disappointing), Galapagos Islands, Versailles, Stonehenge, the island of Zanzibar, the Vatican and St. Peter's Cathedral, Bath, the whirling dervishes of Konya, the Forbidden City, Haya Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, stepped pyramids of Saqqara, Cristo Redemptor (so overrated!) and Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio, the Eiffel Tower, Salisbury Cathedral and much of England, Timbuktu (ripoff and very unethical guides), St. Petersburg, most Caribbean islands, much of Spain including the Pyrenees, Al Hambra and Costa Del Sol, the Panama Canal, Costa Rican cloud forests and Arenal Volcano, the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Pamukale (destroyed by locals), Jaipur, Pushkar, much of Italy including the Coliseum, the Pantheon and catacombs of Rome - though Tuscany is nice, La Paz, the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia, Buenos Aires, the wine growing area of the Maipo Valley, Brazilian beaches including Ipanema, Copacabana and Le Blon, Ireland, most of the US, Copenhagen, sandboarding in Morocco, the Statue of Liberty, Tokyo, much of the Netherlands, Niamey, Bamako, Istanbul, Izmir, much of China, Otovalo, historic Cuzco, the Sacsahuaman Incan Walls, and about 200 more...

Coolest Places Still To Go Before We Die

There are so many other Coolest Places to go and a few of our favorites are listed here. With any luck, we should visit most of them.

Adventure or Experiential
1) Australia or South Africa - Photograph great white sharks off the coast
2) Climb a live volcano in one of the most active places in the world
3) US - Tornado Storm Chasing in Kansas or Oklahoma with the pros
4) Galapagos Islands - Take a submarine to base of Galapagos on ocean bottom
5) Recover gold or valuables from a live shipwreck operation
6) Sweden - Ice Hotel in Arctic Circle, via dogsled
7) Bahamas - Feed sharks by hand
8) US – Trip on Zero Gravity C-130 plane known as the “Vomit Comet”
9) Outer Space – Take Richard Branson’s Spaceship One 200 miles up and return

Ancient History
10) Central America & La Ruta Maya - Guatemala (Tikal), Honduras (Copan,), Mexico (Palenque, Tulum, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Teotihuacan), Belize (Caracol)
11) Libya – Libyan culture, Leptis Magnus Roman Ruins, and Tadrart Acacus rock art sites
12) Greece – Meteora monasteries on sheer peaks

Culture and History
13) Iceland – Culture, waterfalls shooting out of mountains and calderas (volcanoes in glaciers) by helicopter
14) Mongolia - Living in a yurt, horsemanship and Mongolian culture
15) India - Rajasthan Camel Fair - 120,000 camels at full moon in November
16) India - Varanasi during Hindu holidays
17) India - Ellora and Ajanta Caves
18) Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya – Sing Sing festivals, and diverse colorful culture
19) Indonesia - Lombok, Komodo, Flores Islands
20) Iran – Persepolis, Tehran and Persian History
21) Tibet - Mount Kailish Sky Burial
22) Australia – Uluru and Aboriginal culture

Dangerous or Forbidden Places
23) North Korea and DMZ on South Korean side
24) Saudi Arabia - Mecca and Arab culture
25) Iraq
26) Afghanistan – Ancient treasures and sites, culture
27) Rwanda – People, culture, Gorillas, aftermath
28) Yemen - Ancient skyscrapers of Sana’a and Yemeni culture
29) Sudan – Visit and photograph in Darfur

Nature, Beauty and Animals
30) New Zealand
31) Laos – Natural beauty and culture
32) Australia - Great Barrier Reef
33) Bolivia – The spectacular Salar de Uyuni
34) Antarctica mainland, Ross Ice Shelf, islands, penguins, visit a base
35) North Pole
36) French Polynesia – The beauty of Tahiti, Fiji, Bora Bora
37) Lower Himalayas – Ladakh and Kashmir in India, and the Kingdom of Mustang in Nepal
38) Congo - Mountain Gorillas of Virunga National Park
39) Norway - Priekestolen cliff, Kjergabolten, Lofoten
40) Madagascar
41) Viet Nam - Halong Bay
42) Belize – Great Barrier reef
43) Seychelle Islands
44) Mexico - Cenotes Cavern and underground River in Yucatan

Modern Wonders
45) Dubai
46) US - Very Large Array of satellite dishes in New Mexico

An Introduction to the Coolest Places in the World

So what are the coolest places in the world?

It's a question we have been asked a thousand times. After travels to 70 countries and hundreds of the world's most amazing and unique places, we wanted to share our thoughts. Along the way, we shot five hundred thousand photos, travelled a couple million miles and with a little prodding from friends, we finally decided to write a book & blog that answers that question. It is both unscientific and highly biased – we have just ranked what blew us away. Specifically, we have ranked the top 45 Coolest Places in the World.

So who are we? One of us is an internet entrepreneur and photographer whose photos have been seen in over 5,000 publications and includes the New York Times and the Washington Post. Our other blogger is a hardcore traveller and successful equities market maker. Together we have traveled to these seventy countries with friends, girlfriends and ex-friends over the last 12 years. We have been to every place that will be listed here and all the photos are ours.

The primary goal of this blog is to share the best times we’ve ever had and to inspire our workaholic friends to travel to some of these places – at least, to the top 15.


How We Ranked the Sites:
Here’s what mattered:

- Novelty and surprise like with Cappadocia and Easter Island.
- The combination of a stunning place and great history like Registan or Angkor Wat in Cambodia (above).
- Highly unique and very interesting cultures, like the Bhutanese, the Wodaabe and the Shuar Indians of the Amazon.
-Amazing visual beauty like Petra and Myanmar.
- Completely unique and "hard to get access to" situations like dinosaur hunting in Niger, the shipbreakers of Bangladesh, and dancing with a samba school in Carnival at the Sambadrome.
- We chose to rank many great natural areas like the Grand Canyon and Iguazu Falls lower than great cultural and historical places.
- We strongly prefer places and cultures that are very different from the US and Europe.
- We are a generally underwhelmed by sites that are overpromoted and highly commercialized, like the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal, and rank them a lot lower than many people would.


Lessons Learned
We have learned a few lessons along the way:

1) Always get good seat belts in your cars. I have been in six car accidents overseas, including two total wrecks. In Syria, the driver flipped the car at 85 mph and the car went down a hill for 200 feet upside down. I walked away from every accident.
2) Worry much more about the mosquitoes than the terrorists. There are one hundred incurable diseases from the former and your overall risks are extremely low with the latter.
3) Never drink unbottled water, and eat all of your food well done and very hot.
4) Pack plenty of the miracle drug Cipro.
5) Enjoy the moment. Make sure you leave plenty of time to spend with the local people. While the sites are truly amazing, our favorite memories almost always involve the people we’ve met.
6) Remember that surprise is the lubricant of great travel. Don't over-plan.
7) Always bring a Polaroid camera with hundreds of shots, and a frisbee. Everyone loves them, regardless of culture, religion or language.

Happy Travels and by all means, let us know your thoughts and what you think are the coolest places in the world.


Disclaimer: Please note that the photos vary in quality depending on when they were shot, what medium and how they were scanned originally.