#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.

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.