“Everyone” needs a bucket list, so we made one of a bit more unusual attractions.

#1: Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu might not be too unknown, but it is at least an attraction not to easily accessible. First you have to fly to Peru, travel to Cusco from there and walk 2-4 days through the Inca Trail. For those not familiar with Machu Picchu: It is an old Inca city in Peru, among others listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inca Trail is a road (trail) around 42 km long leading up to Machu Picchu, built by the Inca indians. Peruvian officials allow only 500 people a day through the Inca Trail and around 300 of these are guides and support. Therefore only  200 tourists are allowed here daily; however Machu Picchu itself can be visited by 2500 people daily.

We are planning to walk both Inca Trail and see Machu Picchu in November. If you want to go yourself, beware that the trail is closed in February every year for maintenance.

#2: Stone money on  Yap

Yap is an island belonging to the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean. The island itself is not special, even though people who have visited the place says it’s a typical island paradise with white beached, palms and blue water. However, what makes this place special is the stone money located here, called rai stones. These huge stones with holes in the middle were used as currency, but with a quite different system than what we are used to today. A big rai was usually worth more than a small rai, but the history of the rai was also important. When a rai was used to purchase something, it changed owner, but the stone itself was rarely moved due to the effort this would take.

One story tells of a rai stone that was going to be moved from Yap to another island. During the crossing, the boat capsized and the rai was lost to the deep ocean. Even though it was gone, everyone agreed that it did in fact still exist at the bottom of the ocean, and everyone knew who the owner was. Therefore it continued to be used as valid currency.

#3: Nan Madol

If we were making a list of unknown places that should be well known, Nan Madol would easily top that list. This place is visited by less than 1000 tourists a year, most likely because it’s not easy to get there. Nan Madol is an old city in the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean. It is often called Venezia of the Pacific because the city is built in the ocean of stone blocks many centuries ago, more accurately between 1100 and 1628. And this is what makes it so special; the city is made by stone blocks weighing up to 50 metric tons, and the whole city is estimated to weigh between 500,000 and 750,000 tons (Internet seems to disagree a bit with itself about exact numbers here). This is even more extraordinary when taking into consideration that the builders of this city had only rafts and primitive tools available.

If you want to visit this amazing place, United Airlines flies from Guam to Palikir in Micronesia three times a week. We are going here ourselves in November

#4: Ryugyong hotel

Next stop: North Korea. The country itself is special, but the hotel Ryugyong in Pyongyang is maybe even more special. In the middle of the North Korean capital is what used to be the world’s highest hotel until 2007. Due to the country’s … ehh … rather special status and secrecy, it has never been confirmed if the hotel has been completed and if it is possible to stay there. Some tourists have actually spent the night here, but reports say that it looks rather unfinished on the inside. However, from the outside it looks quite amazing. Who would have thought that this was in North Korea?

#5: Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is a tempel i Cambodia and is responsible for 50 % of the country’s international tourism. It is the largest religious monument in the world and is surrounded by a moat of 3.6 km. In the earlier days, Angkor Wat was painted in colours, but this has obviously faded with time.

We are going to see Angkor Wat in December.

#6: Door to Hell

“Door to Hell”  is a natural gas field in Turkmenistan that collapsed in 1971. Some brilliant minds came up with the idea of setting fire to it, assuming the fire would burn out in a couple of days. As of this day it is still burning and is supposed to be a spectacular sight. According to our big hero, Gunnar Garfors, this is his favourite attraction in the whole world, and staying the night here is an unforgettable memory. Sign me up!

#7: Kawah Ijen

The volcano Kawah Ijen in Indonesia appears to let out blue lava at night! To include some facts and geekiness, it is actually gass creating the colour, but it looks like the lava itself is blue. According to Wikipedia it takes around 3 hours to walk to the edge of the crater, where you can observe up to 5 meter tall flames at night.

While you are there, you might as well explore other parts of Indonesia, a country looks very interesting.

See more photos of the volcano here.

#8: Moais

Did you know that the statues on Easter Island are called moans? On the list of unknown attractions, this might be borderline of what one might call unknown, but due to the location very few people have actually seen these statues first hand. Around 50,000 tourists come here each year. It might sound like a lot, but at the same time the Eiffel Tower matches that number in 2.5 days … In recent years it has been more commonly known that the statues are “complete”, in other words more than just heads, even though this has been known since the 50s.

#9: Nauru

What? A whole country as an attraction? Well, it’s not just any country. Nauru is the world’s least visited country, with fewer tourists than both North Korea, South Sudan and Somalia. It also happens to be rather small, with just 10,000 inhabitants. As a matter of fact, Nauru is only 10 times the size of Angkor Wat. If you want to, you could run around the whole country; a total of 19 km is all you need to complete the task.

#10: Angel Falls

Have you ever seen the movie Up? The amazing place Paradise Falls is actually inspired by a real place, Angel Falls in Venezuela. Angel Falls is he world’s highest waterfall with it’s 979 meters. To get there, you need to travel to Canaima and take bout up river four around 4 hours. From there it’s 1.5 hours of walking to get to the waterfall itself.

We haven’t picked any dates to visit this place yet, but it has to be done soon!