World Top-10 List: Top Weird and Wonderful Things from around the world

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This list is our own personal top ten based on what we have seen and experienced in our travels, mostly from our year long trip around the world in 2005. When you first step outside your backyard, many things you see for the first time may seem a bit weird, but as you travel more it is hard to get surprised about some of the unusual things you will come across. These are some travel experiences that still surprised us!

1. Eating Insects

A spider seller in Cambodia

While travelling in Thailand and Cambodia we saw a lot of insects for sale at the local markets. Clare could not resist eating a spider in Cambodia, despite her phobia of spiders – very brave! (see more weird food)

2. Cow manure patties

It is very practical and economical to reuse cow manure for fuel, but a bit unexpected to see them plastered on the wall in Varanasi India for drying

3. Decorative Monks Bones

Paris Catacombs

At the Capuchin Crypt in Rome, there are rooms featuring a unique displays of human bones. We have seem stacks of bones, such as in the catacombs of Paris (like in the photo above), but here in the crypts at the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini they are used to create some interesting decorations.

4. Volcanic mud pools

The bubbling mud pools we came across in northern Coast Rica looked very enticing – not!

5. The Mummie Museum

In Guanajuato Mexico is  a museum called El Museo De Las Momias (“The Mummies’ Museum”), displaying the remains of bodies dug up from the local cemetery. The local soils have naturally mummified the remains.

6. Trick Fountains

The tricky fountains are a fun distraction at the Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg, Austria

7. Dog Lady, USA

You see a lot of unusual things in the US, this one caught us by surprise. A lady and a car full of small dogs, and I mean full, and it was a small car. There must have been 15 or so of them. We did not expect that. A pity we did not take a photo.

8. Camel Road Kill, Nullarbor, WA, Australia

Driving away from Norseman in WA we were very surprised to see a large camel on the road. It had been bit by a truck and had come off worse for wear. We had seen a lot of road kill on the sides of the roads while travelling around Australia, but nothing like this.

9. Meeting a Mennonite, Mexico

It was not as good as visiting an Amish community, but meeting and having a chat with a Mennonite on the bus while travelling in the US was certainly an interesting experience

10. Deer on the Beach, Costa Rica

Probably not that unusual, but seeing a deer on the beach in Costa Rice seem like it was out of place. We have since seen Kangaroos on the beach, which is probably just as surprising.


*** missing out on this top 10 were: going down a one way street in Cairo, being the guest of honour at an Indian Wedding, visiting ground zero in New York.

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