2017 is almost over. It is time to begin planning your 2018 outdoor adventures. I asked my fellow travel bloggers to share their recommendations for a 2018 outdoor adventure. I had a tremendous response and had to break up the responses by region. Keep a look out of my other 2018 region adventure lists. Here are 18 travel bloggers recommendations for Asian Outdoor Adventures in 2018.
The world can be a scary place at times. Some places are just scarier than others. Deep below the surface of history and a world of dark and disturbing comes to light. Many of these dark events have left a mark on the site they happened. These spooky places have been collected from around the world. From haunted house to sites of great tragedy to spooky nature this list has it all.
At first glance, the Queen Mary is a beautiful old ocean liner, docked peacefully in Long Beach, California. However, that idyllic exterior hides a spooky past. Guests at the hotel claim to have seen ghosts wandering the decks and rooms of the old ship. Apparitions range from children splashing in the now-empty pool to suite B340, which had so many sightings of long-dead guests that the room was taken out of circulation.
The ship offers tours of the most haunted locations onboard year-round. Guests will visit the pool area, look into lounges where voices and cigar smoke have been reported, and wander in near darkness through an engine room that a sailor who died aboard is said to haunt.
New this year, the Queen Mary offers a haunted maze around the story of a chef who was burned alive in a walk-in oven during the ship’s service in World War 2.
Whether or not you believe in ghosts, it is fascinating that, when asked, even the most skeptical employees on board the ship say they have seen things they can’t explain.
Rather than being haunted, the Dead Vlei in Namibia seems to have been abandoned with an uncommon totality. In this ultra-dry, inhospitable landscape, nature didn’t even bother to fell and decay its long-dead residents. Rather, she simply abandoned them to time. A grove of trees, hundreds of years old, still stands stark and lonely. Their bare arms reach to the sky or curve into shapes like ghostly hands and fingers, creating a very spooky space. Standing amid the skeleton trees of the Dead Vlei in the deep silence of the desert sends a wee chill up the spine, as you can’t help but wonder if you’ve accidentally stepped out of the land of the living.
In Bali recently we came across an abandoned Theme Park, Taman Festival. The locals say there are evil spirits present and never wanted it built on the location in Sanur. Fact or fiction I am not sure, but it is said that a patron died on one of the theme park rides just after it opened. A year after it opened it was struck by lightning and the laser show, a huge attraction was inoperable. Two years later due to a decline in tourist numbers and a shortage of funds the theme park closed.
20 years later it is still derelict and locals believe the abandoned park has been taken over by evil spirits. The deserted buildings are occupied by bats and it is said the grounds are home to cannibal crocodiles, left to fend for themselves after the theme park closed. Everything is in a state of disrepair, collapsed roofs, broken windows, beheaded statues and overgrown vegetation. The vacant buildings are now concrete canvases full of street art and there is a strong presence of mosquitos amongst the lush foliage. Entering the vacant Taman Festival to check out the art is weird and eerie but also an adrenaline rush considering the only residents are said to be evil spirits, crocodiles, and bats. Urban myth or truth? Would you succumb to the creepy allure of a quirky attraction this Halloween?
A destination that is mysterious and challenging to get to, Turkmenistan is home to one of the most interesting and intriguing spots in the world – the Door to Hell.
The Door to hell became a tourist’s spot after an underground cavern collapsed in 1971. A natural gas crater geologists set on fire to avoid a spreading of methane gas to the local town has been burning ever since, attracting over 50,000 visitors yearly to witness its heated fury. Experts believe the fire will eventually go out but it still burns today measuring 226 feet and 98 feet deep. It can be compared in size to a football field. Turkmenistan is a tricky spot to travel to so do take precaution and do your research before heading there. The Door to Hell is the main attraction for visitors to the country, but its interesting history is worth looking into and embracing.
If there’s one place in Berlin, Germany that is sure to be haunted, it’s Tempelhof Airport and its massively sprawling, building complex. At times a bustling civilian airport, forced labor camp for weapons manufacturing, Nazi high command air raid bunker, and Cold War hot spot; Tempelhof has seen its share of nightmares. Deep in the bowels of the building, the burned out Nazi bunkers lie littered with the charred remains of broken desks, overturned chairs, file cabinet drawers, and ash covering everything. It is said that the soldiers sent to obliterate evidence of Nazi atrocities set their charges but never made it out before the blast brought them down. Was it the ghosts of the cruelly treated and worked to death forced laborers that caused the charges to go off prematurely? We will never know for sure, but what we do know is that on a certain day of the year, fresh footprints are found in the soot covered floor of the hallway leading away from the cell where the initial charges were set. Luckily, English guided tours of Tempelhof take place at midday, so the chances of coming face to face with the ghosts of Tempelhof are comfortably low.
New Orleans, Louisiana, is home to a myriad of haunted buildings, cemeteries and everyday places of business. The Lalaurie Mansion, however, is known as the most haunted spot in the New Orleans’ French Quarter.
There is a world of things, attractions, and places to visit. During college, I started to notice a trend. Many people have traveled far and wide and yet haven’t done the traditional activities that are their hometown attractions. I attended college in Florida and many of my classmates hadn’t been to Disney or Kennedy Space Center. I couldn’t believe that they grew up a couple of hours from the site and had never been. Although it’s not like, I am innocent in this either.