Mongolia includes CNN's 2013 travel wish list
(CNN) -- We've all got them: places that live large in imagination or memory, begging us to hop on a plane to uncover their delicious mysteries.
As the new year kicks
off, a handful of our very well-traveled CNN correspondents -- who've
been places and seen things many of us may never see firsthand -- share
their destination wishes for 2013 and beyond.
Where are you dreaming of visiting this year? Please share your picks in the comments below.
Mongolia
Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman set his sights on Mongolia early in life.
"Back when I was, I
think, nine or ten years old I read a book about Marco Polo, how he
traveled with his uncles on the ultimate business trip to the Mongol
Empire at its height," wrote Wedeman, who recently moved to Rome after
an assignment in Cairo.
"The trip lasted almost a
quarter of a century, during which he grew up, mastered Mongolian,
gained the confidence of the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, and then
eventually returned home with fantastic tales of strange lands and
stranger people. The story hooked me."
Wedeman socked away
money from his first job delivering newspapers with an eye toward a
$3,000 trip to Mongolia advertised in the Sunday New York Times
magazine. "Making around $30 a month, it would have taken me more than
eight years to come up with the money."
He read about Mongolia
in the meantime but spent most of his teenage years in the Arab world,
where he learned the language and became interested in journalism, "for
better or for worse, a busier profession in the Middle East than in
Mongolia, for example."
Wedeman took courses in classical and modern Mongolian while studying for his master's degree and found it "beastly difficult."
He still wants to visit,
in the spring or summer, he said. "Mongolian winters, when temperatures
drop to −30 °C (−22 °F) are not for me, thank you very much."
He says he would hire a guide and horses and set out for the vast steppes.
"I know it's changed
radically since I first latched on to the idea. For one thing it's no
longer part of the communist bloc, it's no longer isolated, and its
economy is growing rapidly fueled by a mining boom (which is destroying
the traditional nomadic lifestyle, and severely harming the once
pristine environment)."
The price today with an upscale company is reasonable, he said, "compared to the $3,000 it was back in 1971."
"Today the same trip is around $5000, which though a still hefty sum, is, in terms of inflation, a steal."
Jordan
CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson
spent much of the past year in conflict-ridden places that many
travelers avoid these days, including Syria, Libya, Egypt and Lebanon.
Next year, Robertson expects to travel to Afghanistan, Libya, Syria,
Jordan and Mali in North Africa, where he says al Qaeda is putting down
roots.
So you'd think he might
like to spend some time on a secluded beach somewhere. Nope. He wants to
travel with his wife and two daughters (ages 17 and 21) to Jordan.
"I have yet to take my
children there and it is a very special place to my wife and I as we met
there in the build up to the first Gulf War," wrote Robertson, briefly
at home in London, in an e-mail. "The hotel we met in, which was the CNN
hotel, at the time called the Philadelphia, now the Radisson, was
attacked by Zarqawi suicide bombers in 2005.
"Jordan today is
becoming less stable and I would like to take my children there to visit
places like Petra, the Roman ruins in Amman and Jerash, the Dead Sea
and Aqaba where I learned to dive. My eldest daughter's second name is
Jordan after the country ... so you can see the connection runs deep."
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Work has taken CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley
all over the world, but in her free time she's "never been much of a
traveler" beyond a yearly pilgrimage to Sleeping Bear Bay in Michigan,
which Crowley calls "the place of my heart."
Yet a few years ago, she was in a boat off the coast of Australia with her grown children, living out a travel dream.
"I began to see massive
areas of dark brown spread across the horizon of blue water. I started
to cry. I never thought a dream I had since I was a teenager would come
true, but there I was about to scuba dive and snorkel in an area of The
Great Barrier Reef," wrote Crowley.
"I love water, sea life,
scuba diving and snorkeling. I love the warmth of sand just before it
gets so hot you need shoes. I love a place with that spiritual feel of
history and mystery. I love being with my children there to share."
Crowley's got her next fantasy trip mapped out.
"Now I have a bank account with 'The Galapagos' written on it. It's not in the cards for 2013, but I'll get there.
"I want to do one of
those week long boat trips with the scientists on board who tell you
what you've seen, what you're about to see because I think it will
ratchet up the awe factor, if that's possible."
Pantanal region, Brazil
Shasta Darlington, a CNN correspondent based in São Paulo, is determined to visit the Pantanal region of Brazil.
"This is my second time
living in Brazil and it's something I failed to do the first time, so I
want to make sure I get there this time," wrote Darlington.
"It's the largest
contiguous wetland in the world and teeming with animal life. Most
people think the Amazon is the place to go to see Brazilian flora and
fauna, but the Pantanal region is easily just as rich in animals and
they're easier to spot, especially during rainy season when rivers rise
forcing animals literally onto islands."
The region is hard to
reach and navigate, Darlington said, with mostly lodge-like
accommodations and boats, small planes and four-wheel-drive vehicles for
transportation.
But the rewards are rich. "There are an abundance of birds, monkeys, caimans, snakes, butterflies and fish out there."
South Africa
"There are some
destinations that you know as soon as you step off the plane will change
you. For me, it's always been Africa," wrote Patrick Oppmann, CNN's correspondent in Havana.
He has visited the continent three times but has yet to make it to South Africa.
"As a journalist, I have
long been fascinated with how South Africa is emerging from decades of
the racial divisions of the Apartheid era.
"But it's one thing to
read about those years and another to actually visit Robben Island,
where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, or to walk in District 6, the area
where thousands of black residents had their neighborhoods destroyed."
And of course, the
country's spectacular beauty is a big draw. "You can hit the beach, hike
Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town, take in amazing wildlife and cage
dive among Great White sharks."
Oppmann wouldn't miss trying braai, the South African way of spit-roasting meat over an open fire.
"And if there was a cold glass of the excellent local wine or beer to go along with the braai, that would be just fine too."
Where are you dreaming about going in 2013?
source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/31/travel/cnn-travel-wish-list/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
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