My Travelogue #1
Last updated: Friday September 24th, 2021
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Unlike many of you who first visited JetPunk via the Country of the World Quiz, I first knew of this site when I googled the "Lonely Planet Best Cities in the World" and it brought me to this quiz. Since then I created the same quiz but with a map. Anyway, the Lonely Planet Cities Book ranked the 200 best cities for travel according to authoritative travel guide book publisher.
I have so far visited 70 69 of these 200 cities and 44 of the 196 countries, which may sound a lot to some, but I am still far behind many avid travellers here, some of them have visited 100+ countries. For most of these cities, I usually only stayed one or two days, sometimes even for few hours only as a stopover, while few of these I have lived in for many years.
When I travelled, I prefer big cities to the countryside or holiday resorts. I like visiting cities where the locals go on with their normal lives, rather than tourist traps that exist for the sole purpose of mass tourism (although I have visited few of these which were magnificent).
The beauty of travelling is that you can never anticipate what is going to happen, as your travel experience could be affected by many things, such as the weather, the crowd, or your health/mood at the time. Sometimes you may have a bad experience when you are travelling to one of the best places in the world (say if you get sick on the day or if it rains heavily), and sometimes you can have the best time of your life even though the place is mediocre. Therefore in my opinion, one should not take these city rankings too seriously.
International travel has been put on hold for now and I have not travelled anywhere since 2019. As there is no end in sight of the pandemic and the lockdown continues at where I live, all I can do now is to scroll through my old photos and write blogs here. So in this series, I will post photos I took myself (copyrighted 🤑) and write briefly about my visit to each of these cities.
024 Amsterdam
I visited Amsterdam twice but these were some years ago. Amsterdam was such a lovely city, with great vibe and atmosphere. The canals were lovely, the museums were great. However it was kind of a victim of its own success, as the city centre was packed with tourists, especially Brits for a quick weekend getaway in summer. I was at the Anne Frank House and the queue at the entrance was few hundred metres long so I gave up. If I have a chance I'd love to visit Amsterdam again during the off season.
068 Auckland
I only stayed there for a night and a morning. It was a lovely city but not too different from the Australian ones. I'd love to stay there longer next time to explore more.
008 Bangkok
Bangkok is ranked in the top 10 for the obvious reason. It is a tourist Mecca and packed with actions. I have been there four or five times, but I know many people go there much more often, e.g. some Singaporeans or Hong Kongers go there every second weekend. It is probably one of my favourite cities to visit, with excellent food, majestic temples, bargain shopping, and did I mention Thai massages?
004 Barcelona
I have been to Barcelona three times, but to be honest I would not claim myself an expert of Barcelona. There were just so many things to see and do. No wonder it was ranked fourth by Lonely Planet. And the food, who doesn't LOVE Spanish food? But again, overtourism is a major problem in Barcelona, and many locals would wish there are less of them. May be they got their wish now under covid? I don't know, it has been a few years since I last visited.
119 Bath
I spent a night in Bath many years ago when I was young (i.e. staying at the backpacker). It was a beautiful city and there were quite a few things to see and do for its small size. Beside the famous Roman Baths, there were the Bath Abbey, The Circus, River Avon and the Pulteney Bridge (my photo above) etc. If you are looking for a day trip from London, I would highly recommend it.
063 Beijing
I have been to Beijing twice, the first time when I was small travelling with my parents. If you have read my Chinese History blogs, you would know that Beijing has been the capital of China since the 12th century, i.e. there are lots of historical monuments. There are the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall at Badaling etc. But my favourite is the Prince Gong Mansion, which was the residence of Heshen, the most corrupted official ever in Chinese history. If you ever go to Beijing, make sure you don't miss it.
143 Belgrade
I spent two nights in Belgrade, but to be honest, it was the last stop of my long European trip so I was pretty exhausted by then. And as you can see, it was raining when I was there. Although on surface, Belgrade was not as attractive as the other gems like Vienna or Budapest, it did have its vibe and a sense of reality to it (i.e. it was not touristy at all). If you have a chance, do visit this interesting city.
018 Berlin
I went there twice, the first time was in the middle of winter, snowing and dark by 4pm; the second time there was a heatwave and the U-bahn was like an oven with no aircon. And for both times I did not manage to get a ticket to visit the Reichstag. However, Berlin is the place to visit in Germany. The east and west divide is still visible today, and it is just fascinating how people could once live in a split city. Anyone from Nicosia here?
033 Budapest
The Parliament Building was just beautiful wasn't it? And then there were the Buda Castle, the bridges across the Danube, the thermal baths and the vibrant city itself. I spent three days there and enjoyed every day of it.
130 Carcassonne
Everyone went there for the Citadel. It was beautiful, though unavoidably touristy. I only spent a day and a night there, took few photos, bought a fridge magnet, and had a great time. I could not recall much else of the "city" though.
These are the first 10 cities I visited. Have you been to any of these? Or do you live in one? Or is any of these in your bucket list? Feel free to comment and share your experience. And thanks for reading my blog.
P.S. I have a quiz series based on my own travel. I don't know why I made these quizzes or write this blog. Maybe I was a narcissist, or maybe I was simply running out of ideas.