Travel – Aidan Doyle

Travel Recommendations

Aidan — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 12:06:15 +0000

I often get asked for travel recommendations. In many ways it depends on what people’s preferences are – nature versus cities. And everyone’s experience of a place varies so much depending on the languages you speak, the people you meet, and the weather. Cities like New York, London and Paris are great destinations and full of interesting experiences, but after you’ve done a lot of travelling, they might not seem as exciting compared to going to places you’re not as familiar with like Samarkand or Ashgabat. Some people take this to further extremes, announcing they don’t want to go to “touristy” places. I generally like touristy places – usually the reason they have many tourists is because they are interesting places. I also have a fondness for history and exploring some of the world’s ancient sites. I’ve been lucky enough to visit more than 100 countries, although there are still plenty of places I haven’t been. Here are some of my favorite travel destinations (I’m sure there are others that I’ve forgotten to include).

10 Favorite Countries

These are some of the most interesting countries I’ve visited (which doesn’t necessarily mean I want to live in these countries). Somewhere like North Korea is one of the most fascinating places I’ve been, but not somewhere I’d be keen to spend a great deal of time.

Bolivia – The salt plains are amazing and La Paz is fascinating.
Brazil – A vast country with beautiful beaches.
Cuba – I suspect it has changed a lot since I was there in 2003, but the mix of socialism and its revolutionary history made it a
Egypt – If you like historical sites, then Egypt is hard to beat.
Japan – Crammed full of fascinating culture.
North Korea – The world’s strangest country.
Norway – Fjords, glaciers, northern lights.
Peru – Inca empires, lost cities.
Switzerland – Mountains!
USA – In terms of contrasting landscapes and variety of things to do, the US is hard to beat, ranging from Hawaii to Alaska and cities like New York and San Francisco

Other favorites include: Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, New Zealand, Russia, Tanzania, Zambia

10 Favorite Cities

Again, these are favorite places to visit. If I was listing places to live, then Melbourne and Osaka would be on the list.

Berlin (Germany) – Great museums and packed full of interesting history.
Buenos Aires (Argentina) – Tango
Cusco (Peru) – Former capital of the Incan empire
Dubrovnik (Croatia) – Beautiful walled city
Kyoto (Japan) – Temples and shrines
New Orleans (USA) – Voodoo history
New York (USA) – One of the world’s great cities
Prague (Czech Republic) – Castles and old streets.
Tokyo (Japan) – The geekiest city in the world.
Venice (Italy) – The most beautiful city in the world.

Other favorites include: Barcelona, Dresden, Edinburgh, Fes, Florence, Florianopolis, Glasgow, Granada, Istanbul, La Paz, Las Vegas, Moscow, Oxford, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Seattle, San Francisco, Vienna

10 Favorite Scenic Places

Alaska (USA) – Glaciers and forests
Antarctica – Vast whiteness
Namibia Desert (Namibia) – The world’s biggest sand dunes.
Rocky Mountain Lakes (Canada) – Lake Louise and Lake Moraine.
Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) – Spectacular salt plains
Svalbard (Norway) – Glaciers and darkness
Swiss Alps (Switzerland) – mountains!
Tromso (Norway) – One of the best places in the world to see the northern lights.
Uluru (Australia) – It’s just a rock, but it is a very impressive rock.
Yakushima (Japan) – greener than green forests.

Other favorites include: Cappadocia, Darvaza Gas Crater, Ferghana Valley, Greenland, Iceland, Kakadu National Park, New Zealand (Waitomo Glowworms), Tasmania, Wave Rock, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park.

10 Favorite Places to See Animals

Alaska (USA) – Bears!
Antarctica – Penguins!
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (Uganda) – Hiking up into the mountain forests to visit gorilla families.
Etosha National Park (Namibia) – Elephants, rhinos and lions.
Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) – Unique wildlife, including giant tortoises, iguanas and birds.
Jellyfish Lake (Palau) – Swim in a lake full of jellyfish
Jigokudani Monkey Hot Spring (Japan) – Monkey hot spring!
Rinca Island (Indonesia) – Komodo dragons!
Rurrenabaque (Bolivia) – There are lots of great places to visit the Amazon Basin. I did a jungle trek in Bolivia.
Serengeti National Park and Ngorogoro Crater (Tanzania) – lions!

10 Favorite Historical Sites

Wonders of the ancient and medieval world.

Abu Simbel (Egypt) – Look upon my works ye mighty.
Angkor Wat (Cambodia) – Amazing temple complex.
Carcassonne (France) – One of the most enchanting medieval walled cities.
Luxor and the Valley of the Kings (Egypt) – Tombs!
Machu Picchu (Peru) – Hiking the Inca Trail to arrive at Machu Picchu remains one of the absolute highlights of my travel experiences.
Persepolis (Iran) – Ancient Persian city
Petra (Jordan) – City in the desert
Pompeii (Italy) – Wandering around the ruins of the city is awe-inspiring.
Teotihuacan (Mexico) – Enormous pyramids.
Tikal (Guatemala) – Pyramids surrounded by jungle.

Other favorites include: Alhambra, Ayutthaya, Bath, Beijing’s Forbidden City, Chichen Itza, Ciudad Perdida, Colosseum, Ephesus, Fes, The Great Wall, Jerusalem, Marrakech, Masada, Mont St Michel, Neuschwanstein, Palenque, Pantheon, Parthenon, Pont du Gard, Pyramids of Giza, Taj Mahal, Tower of London, Xian Terracotta Warriors

2014: The Year in Numbers

Aidan — Sat, 03 Jan 2015 00:14:48 +0000

2014 was a great year for me.

Number of story submissions: 150

Number of stories brought to justice (acceptances): 13

Number of languages I was published in: 4

Number of jellyfish swum with: 10,000+

Number of dragons vanquished: 7

Number of giant sheep defeated in single combat: 2

Number of superheroes caught up in Murdoch phone hacking scandal: 1

Number of ice cream toast banquets: 1

Number of chocolate terrariums consumed: 1

Number of nights stayed at the library hotel: 1

Number of giant donuts consumed: 0 (for health reasons I didn’t finish it)

Number of famous astronauts I met at NASA: 1

Brighton Up Your Day

Aidan — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 10:25:38 +0000

After Germany, I travelled to England. I had another flight cancellation due to storms in England, but managed to get another flight the same day. I stayed with friends in London for a couple of days and did a day trip out to Bletchley Park, the estate where Alan Turing and the other codebreakers were stationed during World War 2. They broke several of the German military codes, including most famously, the Enigma code, which allowed the allies to track German U-boats. Some estimates claim this helped shorten the war by a couple of years, others go as far as saying this was what saved Britain from being defeated. The codebreaking was kept secret for years after the war and it wasn’t until the mid-70s that the details became public knowledge. The estate now houses a museum with displays on the codebreakers.

Next door to Bletchley Park is the National Museum of Computing, which houses a rebuilt Colossus, one of the very first computers ever built.

Then I spent a few nights in Brighton. Although Brighton is probably the most famous of British beaches, it not particularly impressive by Australian standards. It is lacking in sand for one thing.

But the beach does include more mirror balls than most Australian beaches.

Although it was raining and windy, a sign on the pier urged visitors to “Brighton Up Your Day”. Fortunately I spent most of my time indoors at the World Fantasy Convention, a four-day writer’s conference. In contrast to the board games convention in Essen, this was a much smaller convention around 1000 attendees, mainly writers. There were panels on topics related to writing science fiction, as well as a mass signing session, where I got to meet lots of my favorite writers, such as Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman. I also met up with some online writing friends and made some new friends.

Enlightened Rhinos

Aidan — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 09:44:31 +0000

We crossed from India into Nepal and stopped at Lumbini, the place where Siddharta Gautama, aka Buddha, was born. Enlightenment doesn’t include free parking, though.

Next was Chitwan National Park, where we went on a canoe ride followed by a jungle trek.

There were plenty of leeches waiting in the long grass.

This is as close as we came to the park’s wild tigers.

The guide instructed us that if we came across a rhino and it charged, it was best to run in a zigzag pattern and try and make it to a tree.

We later went on an elephant safari. The rhinos don’t seem to mind the presence of elephants.

2009: The Year in Review

Aidan — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:38:49 +0000

2009 was one of the best years of my life.

At the start of the year I was fortunate enough to spend 6 weeks attending Clarion South (a science fiction writing workshop) in Brisbane. I learned a lot and made some wonderful new friends. After that I went on to sell two stores to a SFWA-level professional market. I also had other stories and articles published.

In the middle of the year I spent 3 months backpacking in Asia and Eastern Europe. I visited my friends in Japan, took the boat to China, the train through Mongolia and then the Trans-Siberian Express across Russia. Then I spent a while wandering around the Baltics and the rest of Eastern Europe. I’ve now managed to visit the grand total of 73 countries.

Asia & Eastern Europe 2009:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnILi-REIsw

In November I returned to Melbourne and got myself a job programming for a government department. I enjoy the work, my co-workers are great, the pay is good and I only work 4 days a week. So I can’t complain.

I also found an apartment to rent in South Yarra and moved in at the end of the year.