We’ve been slashing and burning countries from the list to work around our half-slow / half-fast (don’t try to say that out loud around small children) accord reached, appropriately enough, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – so, there is peace in the house again.
With an eye towards keeping everybody happy on this manufactured holiday (Valentine’s Day), I thought it would be great to have each of us write down our top 5 or so MUST DOs and our 3-5 LET’S NOTS so no-one ends up feeling dragged to places where they’d be intensely unhappy.
Here are the lists:
J MUST
1. Prague, Czech Republic
2. Santorini, Greece
3. Jimbaran Bay, Bali
4. Tahiti
5. Newcastle, Australia
6. Ghent, Belgium
7. Any place with good beaches that isn’t super crowded
J NO WAY
1. Iraq
2. Middle East
3. Japan (This one hurts!)
4. Phuket, Thailand
5. Africa
Snoop MUST
1. Taj Mahal, Agra, India
2. Sydney Opera House and a place to cuddle a “Wala”, Australia (yayyy, I don’t have to list this!)
3. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
4. Colosseum, Rome, Italy
5. Tiger’s Nest Monastery geocache, Bhutan
6. TIE Machu Picchu & Myanmar
7.Human Chess, Marostica, Italy
Snoop NO WAY
1. Any museum that has dolls and puppets (they are scary and evil)
2. Any place that is boring
3. Somalia
4. Iraq / Iran
5. Any place that there is a war
K MUST
1. Chiang Mai, Thailand for Loy Krathong
2. Paris for the last day of the Tour de France
3. Germany for the Rhine in Flames
4. Hot air ballooning, Cappadocia, Turkey
5. Sunrise at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
6. Moomba Festival, Melbourne, Australia
7. Baci Ceremony, Laos
K NO WAY
1. Bangladesh
2. Any lodging that describes itself as “rustic”
3. Sudan
4. Pakistan (or any of the Stans – need to work up to these)
5. Mexico (been too much, can’t waste precious days)
Our work is cut out for us. I’ll let you know how it goes.