any places NOT featured in the travel agents' windows that you'd like to visit?

i'm curious bout visiting some of the lesser known sub-tropical Ryukyu island groups south of Japan (of which Okinawa is the most well known). The one i was planning of visiting once i'm in Japan next year is Taketomi-jima. Apparently its the most chilled out and out-of-the-way place you can think of without leaving the Developed world :D Ancient Okinawan residences in a sleepy village, empty white sand beaches, clear coral sea, lush green forests: all in a little island. Perfect place to set the record for sleeping 24 hours straight :D (joke)

Taketomi Island, Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
竹富島、八重山诸岛、沖縄県日本
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-1s.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-3s.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-4s.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-6s.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-19s.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-18s.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v241/anak_1/taketomi-12s.jpg

Eastern Siberia

Evenkia (inland central Siberia) and the small part of Russia that is in the Western Hemisphere (including the Diomede Islands in the Bering Sea).

I wanna check out The Kuril Islands which is a chain of volcanic islands between Japan and Russia. There's something mysterious about that place.

http://staff.aist.go.jp/y.ishizuka/ikip/Fig1KurilMap2.gif

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/ebeko/ebeko2.jpg

I would like to see the Yukon & NW Territories of Canada.

Antarctica.I dont understand why it's so untouched....

I'd love to visit some of the ancient Persian/Babylonian ruins in Iran... not exactly the easiest thing to do as an American citizen!

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Images2/CtesiphonePalace3.jpg

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/spqr/Images/pol_vue.jpg

http://www.bestirantravel.com/images/sights/shiraz/apadana.jpg

http://sylvain.saustier.free.fr/VOYAGE/IRAN/IRAN014.JPG

http://sylvain.saustier.free.fr/VOYAGE/IRAN/IRAN002.JPG

Maldives or the Seychelles

Antarctica.I dont understand why it's so untouched....

Or the Arctic. I think one of the reasons why is because of the extreme climate. No country owns Antartica except a few countries like The United States or Australia have research stations there. Most tourists visiting Antartica stay within cruise ships and not touch ground in the continent.

^ Who would want to go to a place that is basically barren, cold and lifeless? You might even get depressed when you visit that place!

Rapa Nui, called Easter island too. Only 10,000 tourists per year, 300-400 are from Spain.
;)
http://i1.tinypic.com/ngq80g.jpg
^^That's me in the photo.^^
:wink2:
It is my favourite place on Earth!!
:happy:

The Yarlung Tsangpo gorge in east Tibet, over 3 times deeper than the Grand Cayon going from tropical jungle to snow capped peaks in a few miles.

http://www.albany.edu/geosciences/nbwapkwf.jpg

Most remote off-tourist place I was is a fishing village on Lac Aloatra in the center of Madagascar in 99. We were a group of 4 (white) people arriving by taxi brousse in two days from Tana. When climbing out of the car the whole village came together and the children touched us shortly to run away laughing. One of the only white guys that was ever there was a researcher we visited, his name was "Thomas". So we white ones were all "Thomas" as well for them (even the women :lol: ). Fortunatly one of us was actually a "real" Thomas.

Freshly scanned pic with two "real" out of four "Thomas":
http://www.socio.ch/maro/images/aloatra.jpg