Pakistan
Wagah, Lahore, Karachi. The Wagah border ceremony is the most spectacular human show I have ever seen. More here http://www.youtube.com/
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India - Kumbh Mela 2013
My first day with the newly released Sony RX1. Fair to say it exceeded all expectations.
This is the largest festival in the world only held every 12 years. I had seen it in Time Magazine in 2001 and remembered I wanted to go. By sheer luck I heard it was on and manged to get in there to see the action.
70 million people come during the month to bathe in the Ganges for this Holy Festival. On this morning there was an estimated 20 million. The naked Sadhu holy men bathe and then form a procession.
You needed to submit 10 years of Associated Press or Reuters photography accreditation to be allowed inside the crazy area. I don’t have that so jumped the barrier and made the most of it.
Apart from the first 5 pics these are chronological to show the light coming up from appx 3am when I headed out of my tent hotel to see the action.
There are 6+ movies just about getting lost at Kumbh Mela its really quite something.
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Bangladesh
Great stay in Dhaka and Cox’s Bazaar (Longest beach in the world). Was invited to 3 weddings on first night went to them all. Pics of me at end there to show how many people insisted I have a photo with them (this is a summary). Wonderfully friendly place and great history to learn. Note – first trip using a camera so these are not the modern artistic level.
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Venezuala
Very lucky to visit this troubled country. What is happening there is a tragedy of epic proportions. A country with the most oil in the world yet horrific levels of child malnutrition, murders, and violence. I felt like I was in the eye of the storm. The country had basically run out of food a month before and a lot of people died trying to access the government food stores. The currency had been cancelled impoverishing practically everyone.
I spent 5 days there and visited the incredible Salto Angel. 1km high falls and a natural wonder of the world.
4 years ago they had 120 tourist a night just at the lodge I stayed – I was the only tourist in the entire town and the only person that day at the falls. This was eerily similar to Djenne in Mali (from 15,000 tourists a year to 100).
I had a lovely dip in the waters beneath the fall and felt conflicted by how incredible it was to have one of the most famous tourist attractions in the world to myself and by awful it was that my guide was making around 20 cents an hour as his work relied on taking full boatloads of tourists daily and earning tips.
My trip was arranged by hike-venezuala.com who were totally reliable and managed every aspect. It is a 3 day two night trip to get out there. From Caracas – to Puerto Ordiz, one hour transfer, spend night, next day cessna to Canaima, next day boat to the falls and spend the night.
I really hope the political crisis comes to a peaceful end sooner rather than later.
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Peru
Fascinating trip to learn about ancient cultures in Peru. The scale of sophistication in construction and design is astonishing.
I did a one day hike option to Machu Picchu rather than the 4 day option. Was great. I used Kanoo Tours – I highly recommend them for communication speed and personal service.
The Nazca lines were created between 1500 and 2500 years ago and are up to 300 meters wide. The flight is a lot of fun as the pilot needs both sides of the small plane to see each design so it banks frequently and sharply.
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Guyana
Situated in the north coast of South America.
There is a little strip from the east coast of Venezuala through to the north Coast of Brazil.
It was Dutch for a while but eventually the Brits and French carved pieces off – Guyana was British, Suriname in the middle speaks Dutch, and French Guiana is not independent. (reminds me of Djibouti, Somaliland, Somalia)
The purpose of these places was plantations and trading with the empire – as such in spite of being on the South American continent they are considered Caribbean for all intents and purposes. There are basically no useable roads even joining each other. (similar to west africa with no trade useable roads between neighbours).
Guyana is most known in the west for Jim Jones and his cult who committed mass suicide 30+ years ago. While the phrase ‘drink the Kool aid’ is common it is possible it was an alternative brand of ‘flavour aid’ that was used.
Sadly the place is becoming another victim of America’s war on drugs. Locals I spoke to said the level of violence had massively increased last 10/15 years since other drug smuggling options closed up and Guyana became a viable route.
Not a big tourist destination, most famous thing is a waterfall and a lighthouse.
There were some small museums about history and independence which were really good and I highly recommend.
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Ecuador - Galapogas
Fantastic visit to the Galapogas.
I am VERY weary of places people say are great but…. I am officially giving this place an ‘exceptional‘ rating (in league with Yemen, Petra, Palau, Micronesia).
As a result of my skepticism I only had 3 full days there. The shortest time to have a decent trip would be 7. Reason being there are 3 main islands and you have to travel 7am between them and usually when you get to the next one the excursions have already departed so you lose time.
Also if there aren’t sufficient numbers for an excursion it gets cancelled – so one of my days that was to include diving and one of the best land places vanished and I didn’t have much of a plan B as there was little to be done on that island unless you were on a tour.
It is remarkably cheap to be on the islands – airbnb can be found for under $30 a night with full kitchen. The cost is the exclusions to other islands or diving etc.. usually $130 USD a day at least or more.
Some things are free or cheap like a cycle trip to see the Tortoises.
I had a magnificent day at Kicker Rock free diving. I was lent a go pro by a diver to get some footage – I will definitely go back with a proper camera.
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Chile - Easter Island
Now this is a fascinating place..
It is part of Chile and can be reached from Santiago or Tahiti. Only takes a few days to see everything.
The number one recommendation is DO NOT DO A TOUR. I thought I would to get around and learn about the sights. However.. as the tour was multilingual and most tourists are Chilean the lady would explain something for 10 minutes in Spanish then look dismissively at me and an American guy and say ‘umm yeah thats a house’ or something.
Also we went in reverse direction for photography so the whole day was shooting into the light at every place when we could have gone the opposite direction and had great photos. 
Renting a car for one person is the same cost. The guy at the car rental place will give you a map and a route for optimal photography. There is ubiquitous book recently written for $20 that gives the summary of everything.
What impressed me was that the largest line of Moai (heads) had been destroyed in a tsunami and the Japanese Govt paid to get them back in place and basically created the tourist market for the island.
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