In this issue of Wanderlust magazine

May 2013 issue • On sale from 18 April

Grab your passport and pack your bags the new issue of Wanderlust magazine is here! Pick up your copy and start exploring…

...Peru: from Lima to Machu Picchu, the Andes and beyond, we take a tasty food tour with a distinct Latin flavour.

...37 World Class Walks: we reveal the best walks in the world. Warning: guaranteed to give you itchy feet.

...The Maldives: hop on board a fishing boat to discover the people and culture beyond the tourist resorts.

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May 2013

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Posts

  • 16
    Strange placenames for a round-the-world trip idea.

    Afternoon all.
    After listening to a brief article on the radio this morning about the twin town of Dull and Boring, I was reminded of an idea I had. I long time ago I wondered whether it would be possible to create a round-the-world type trip, based on strange, wonderful, evocative or just plain ridiculous placenames. For example, visit Timbuktu, Samarkand, Shangri-la etc.

    I know we had a thread on here a little while ago about rude places, but I wondered whether anyone has ever wanted to visit somewhere just because the name of the place sounded intruiging, special, or otherwise odd.

    I quite fancy visiting Boring and Dull . . . I wonder what the people are really like?

    Report as inappropriate
    ElliFry

    10 posts | 151 responses

    Posted 6 June 12

Responses

  • 1

    Yeah, absolutely...I think a few places I've been to, or want to visit are simply because the name of it is so wrapped up in mystery and very evocative.

    Kathmandu
    Zanzibar
    Timbuktu
    Jerusalem

    Casblanca was a bit of a let down though...as is Bethlehem as I'm told.

    We went to a place called Hell in the Netherlands last summer.

    Report as inappropriate
    mattyboy876

    21 post | 191 responses

    Posted 6 June 12
  • 2

    How about Burkina Faso. I'm keen to do a train journey from Ouagadougou to Bobo-Dialassou via Bingo.

    Report as inappropriate
    Julia69

    19 post | 636 responses

    Posted 6 June 12
  • 3

    For me, like Mattyboy, it's the names of places encountered as a child which seemed wrapped in exotic mystery, evocative of faraway lands and people living very different lives - Timbuktu, Irkutsk, Przemysl, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Barbados, Jamaica, Jakarta, and above all Samarkand, the city at the end of the Golden Road.  In Flecker's words: for lust of knowing what should not be known, we take the golden road to Samarkand.
    Of them all I've been only to Llanfair PG (which is Welsh and wet) and Samarkand.  The road is not of gold, the knowledge I discovered was no more esoteric than anywhere else, but it is a fascinating city and I have great memories.

    Report as inappropriate
    Alan Taylor

    15 post | 438 responses

    Posted 6 June 12
  • 4

    I agree with the lure of exotic sounding places from childhood......I fitted in visits to Java and Deadwood on the basis of that.....I always wanted to visit the Great Sandy Desert, just to make sure it was.....

    Report as inappropriate
    Howellsey

    18 post | 206 responses

    Posted 7 June 12
  • 5

    Disappointment and Monkey's Eyebrow sound interesting!
    I have always wanted to visit Ouagadougou too Julia, it just sounds so foreign. I used to pore over the road atlas on long car journeys looking for odd names, Worms, Moos, Hell...
    The Great Sandy Desert? Is that related to Sandy, Beds.?

    Report as inappropriate
    ElliFry

    10 post | 151 responses

    Posted 7 June 12
  • 6

    I've always loved the sound of Fuengirola - which until quite recently I didn't know actually existed. I thought it was like a mythical City of Gold or something....

    Shame one me :-/

    Report as inappropriate
    calamine2808

    26 post | 264 responses

    Posted 7 June 12
  • 7

    Isn't there a diving center in Muff?

    Report as inappropriate
    mattyboy876

    21 post | 191 responses

    Posted 7 June 12
  • 8

    I've always fancied going to Timbuktu and Samarkand, just because of their names. The name was also the reason why I decided to go to Zanzibar, and quite frankly I'm glad I did.

    Report as inappropriate
    Nick78

    0 post | 26 responses

    Posted 7 June 12
  • 9

    There is also a Hell in Norway, just north of Trondheim. I had an Experience about it titled A Cold Day In Hell published in the magazine, although it was more an exercise in wordplay than a travel story. I've also visited the Welsh place Alan mentions, purely beacause of its name. 
    I wouldn't get too excited about Dull. It's just a very small village near Aberfeldy. In the same area of Scotland, there is also the wonderfully named Findo Gask, but again it's just a tiny village. I also like Fogwatt, which is somewhere in the Borders region.
    I was walking in the Yorkshire Dales a couple of years ago and passed through a village called Crackpot
    There was a town in the USA called Intercourse (meaning the meeting place of two highways), but they changed the name, I believe.

    Report as inappropriate
    DavidRoss

    0 post | 32 responses

    Posted 8 June 12
  • 10

    Shangri-La, I meant to add, isn't a real place. It was the name of the mythical utopian community, probably in Tibet or Nepal, in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. There are also a couple of film adaptations.

    Report as inappropriate
    DavidRoss

    0 post | 32 responses

    Posted 8 June 12
  • 11

    Bit of a question out of the deep blue yonder Matty! But no, not unless it opened very recently, there ain't no diving centre in Muff!! But then the Foyle waters aren't exactly coral...mind you there would be an odd U-boat from WW2 days when the British navy would have hauled captures into Derry.....now methinks ya weren't exactly anticipating a serious answer but that's all gospel!!!

    Report as inappropriate
    Fintown Trekker

    56 post | 455 responses

    Posted 8 June 12
  • 12

    I had to divert from my intended route last weekend simply to have a look at Cackle Street which is a tiny hamlet near to Nutley in East Sussex. Pretty but also pretty much the same as the next village!

    Report as inappropriate
    Dabbler

    1 post | 11 responses

    Posted 9 June 12

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