Saturday, February 25, 2012

Mason Bay

I just discovered the existence a very neat area of grassy sand dunes at Mason Bay, on the west coast of New Zealand's Stewart Island. The views from these spots look beautiful.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Bukit Kelam

While exploring the equator on Google Earth, a sudden terrain feature showed up on the island of Borneo. A little more Google action later, I have learned the thing's name is apparently Bukit Kelam, and it is actually quite an impressive monolith. It seems to be like Indonesia's jungle-covered response to Uluru. Quite a mysterious place to put such a mountain, I'd say, but it seems somewhat compelling.

Wanlu Yuan

The city of Haikou on the Chinese island Hainan contains an "evergreen park" of sorts called the Wanlu Yuan (or Wanluyuan, or WanLuYuan, etc.). It's basically a very large garden, but the views from it look very promising. To the south, the skyline of Haikou rises above the trees. To the north, the park includes part of the coast of the Qiongzhou Strait. There are also many works of art throughout the park, which may make it a nice place to wander around.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Vik i Myrdal

Vik i Myrdal is a place in Iceland that is not only a geographic point of interest (reportedly the southernmost point of Iceland's main island), but it's also got quite a beautiful natural arch at Dyrholaey that would make a visit to such a place actually impressive. The southernmost point on Iceland has a spectacular beach as well, with pretty confusing geologic structures.

Jokulsarlon

The Jokulsarlon lagoon is famous for a bunch of floating icebergs. I'm not sure if this is seasonal or not, but either way I'd like to see all that artistic ice in one place at one time. Cool.

Svartifoss

The waterfall Svartifoss in southern Iceland pours over a pretty cool cliff made of hexagonal basalt, if you know what that means. It looks quite surreal.

San Pedro Sula

San Pedro Sula is a city in Honduras. It looks charming.

Citadelle La Ferrière

In northern Haiti, there is a well-constructed fortress called the Citadelle. It's on top of a pretty good-sized mountain; if I was choosing a place for a fortress/castle thing, I'd consider that a really good location myself. About three miles northwest is a palace which was the residence of the same king who had something to do with the Citadelle I think. Both structures are pretty old and historic, but still impressive.

Kaieteur

Kaieteur National Park in Guyana includes the famous Kaieteur Falls, which flows into the spectacular Pataro Gorge.

Bafatá

Bafatá is a city in interior Guinea-Bissau that exhibits some pretty neat buildings apparently from the Portuguese colonial period. It is also adjacent to the Rio Geba river.

Kindia

Kindia, Guinea, is surrounded by pretty neat natural features, especially the nonpareil-seeming mountains. There are also some waterfalls, but the mountains here look pretty spectacular of their own category.

Lake Atitlan

Lake Atitlan is a large lake in Guatemala surrounded by volcanoes and villages. Both the natural scenery and the communities would likely be an interesting tour for me.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Oia

Oia is a village on the Greek island of Santorini. Oia is a community with buildings which have colorful exteriors, predominantly white. Normally not much of anything, but the architecture and the terrain of the island combine to form a spectacular scene of magnificence.

Saxon Switzerland

In the region of Germany known as Saxon Switzerland is a national park with the same name that contains many amazing rock formations. One place called Bastei that features a building complex among these peculiar twists and turns, accompanied by lovely views of the surrounding forestry.

Gudauri

Going northwest on the road from Gudauri, Georgia (the one in the Asian Caucasus, not the American state), one should come to a memorial complex serving to honor the relations between the nations of Georgia and Russia. This structure is simple, but artistically decorated in a mosaic style. The best part of this place, however, seems to be the view.

This spot is in the area of Kazbegi National Park, an area of amazing beauty, which itself would be worth a few days of roaming.

Ivindo

The waterfalls of Ivindo National Park are apparently attractive enough to get the area included in a safari/tour. There may be many other things here to discover.

Batéké Plateau

The Batéké Plateau National Park in southeastern Gabon contains lovely meadow-like areas (possibly meadows) and a colorful spot called the White Canyon or Canyon Blanc.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Tianshan and Wensu Canyons

I discovered a beautiful and mysterious area in northwest Xinjiang at about 41.64 N, 80.68 E. It appears to be a red dry canyon that's somewhat popular among travelers, and by the photographs found, I think I'm with them. One problem is that I can't seem to find the name of the place in English, but apparently there are similar canyons (or are they all the same one?) around northern Xinjiang. If any I found in research are the one I discovered first, I'm guessing it's the Wensu Canyon. But all of them seem worth a visit, possibly even an entire vacation with these formations as the destination.