Last night I was digging through various folders on my computer and I came upon a BBC list of “50 Places to See Before You Die.”
These lists always annoy me, because if you’re a foodie, New York City should be numbers one through fifty on the list. If you’re into history and old stuff, parts of China, all of Europe and the some of the Middle East should be on your list. If you’re into culture, the list would be completely different. What about going on a safari on South Africa to see animals in the wild?
When I counted, I was proud to have been to nearly half of the locations on the list. However, the list included a vague visit to “Florida” (Lakeland, anyone?), but had a very specific location like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on it.
Look, BBC, if you’re going to give us a list of 50 awesome places to go, maybe include a specific part of Florida to visit. The Keys, perhaps? Tallahassee doesn’t have much to offer in the way of beaches and tropical settings. Also, why isn’t “Holi Fest” in India, included? Holi Fest is mostly celebrated by Hindus as the festival of color.
In India, locals stock up on colored powered and in the days leading up to Holi, throw said powder at each other. If you’re short on time, powder can be purchased from many street vendors along the way.
In March of 2012 I visited India during Holi Fest. I didn’t just “swing by” as the timing would allow, but made a solid effort to get to the absolute epicienter of Holi Fest in India — Vrindavan.
Vrindavan is said to be the city where Lord Krishna was born, and the next town over is where he studied. Men, women and children all come out to participate in the festival of colors. Entire families are throwing colored power at each other in the streets.
As far as trips go, it was the one adventure testing my will, patience and travel abilities. I found out later a lot of locals — who don’t normally consume alcohol — go waaaaaaay overboard on the stuff during the fest. It explained a lot of things along the way, but it still doesn’t explain why India was left off the list of 50 Places to See Before You Die (well, the Taj Mahal made the list, but Delhi or Holi Fest is nowhere to be found). If you’re interested, below is the list. The places I have been to are in italics.
1. The Grand Canyon
2. Great Barrier Reef
3. Florida
4. South Island
5. Cape Town
6. Golden Temple
7. Las Vegas
8. Sydney
9. New York
10. Taj Mahal
11. Canadian Rockies
12. Uluru
13. Chichen Itza, Mexico
14. Machu Picchu, Peru
15. Niagara Falls
16. Petra, Jordan
17. The Pyramids, Egypt
18. Venice
19. Maldives
20. Great Wall of China
21. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
22. Hong Kong
23. Yosemite National Park
24. Hawaii
25. Auckland, New Zealand
26. Iguassu Falls
27. Paris
28. Alaska
29. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
30. Himalayas, Nepal
31. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
32. Masai Mara, Kenya
33. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
34. Luxor, Egypt
35. Rome
36. San Francisco
37. Barcelona
38. Dubai
39. Singapore
40. La Digue, Seychelles
41. Sri Lanka
42. Bangkok
43. Barbados
44. Iceland
45. Terracotta Army, China
46. Zermatt, Switzerland
47. Angel Falls, Venezuela
48. Abu Simbel, Egypt
49. Bali
50. French Polynesia
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