Novel experiences

[Koolau]

A verse in One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head.

At dusk, just ask a Tuktuk to go to Patpong. It doesn't exist during the day.

IIRC Patpong is described by Spalding Gray in "Swimming to Cambodia." Think I'll skip that "novel experience" thank you.

 

[boog]

Here is one experience I kind of went above and beyond on. My DS, DF and I are all three travelling to Mazatlan for the Total Solar Eclipse. Experiences like that are literally unforgettable, as they will perhaps never again happen in one's lifetime, just based on pure scientific data.

I'll post pictures come April. I know there will be some super-geeks and next-level astronomer's with telescopes watching it all unfold.

I’ll vote for witnessing a total solar eclipse as a novel experience. Nearly 54 years ago, March 7, 1970, I was lucky enough to witness the “eclipse of the century”. I, and others from my Boy Scout troop were sitting in boats in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge swamp in southeastern Georgia witnessing the total eclipse. The reflection of the sky in the calm black water of the swamp and the sounds of the wildlife going beserk made a lasting impression in my mind I hope will never fade. It’s well worth the effort to experience such a spectacle.

 

[FI_RElater]

Here is one experience I kind of went above and beyond on. My DS, DF and I are all three travelling to Mazatlan for the Total Solar Eclipse. Experiences like that are literally unforgettable, as they will perhaps never again happen in one's lifetime, just based on pure scientific data.

I'll post pictures come April. I know there will be some super-geeks and next-level astronomer's with telescopes watching it all unfold.

For the 2017 eclipse.... we just went out on our deck, as we were in the area for full totality and tens of thousands from across the country and the world were heading in as it was noted as being the most likely area to be clear for total effect.

We're close in our current area to have mostly complete, but not total, but a real total is definitely different: the effect on the animals, the immediate cooling, the level of darkness...and so many minutes later it's "normal".

 

[FI_RElater]

You could get pretty crazy with this.

But I think for me experiences are better with people, for some reason. That is how it is with me. Travelling and seeing something cool with my dad. Or taking my son to his first fill in the blank. Or meeting up with an old friend at a new location.

These are experiences that can be inexpensive or off the charts expensive. Perhaps heli skiing is your thing. Or renting out an entire suite for your family in friends at a baseball game. Or bungee jumping with strangers...or doing some other extreme but still "bookable" and attainable experience.

I want to go on a hot air ballon. Learn how to play a few known jingles as well as create some of my own riffs on a guitar someday, learn another language well enough to understand the locals, I hope i experience seeing my own children's experiences that are important like graduation, first loves, marriage, and hopefully grandkids! Take them all on a cruise someday.

I've experienced a lot of cool stuff in my life, and some not so cool things but most of it wouldn't be much without the people that were there with me to experience it.

My late sister passed before she could see any of her three children graduate high school. You just never know, so don't delay.

We've been on one, it was just the pilot and us... actually travelled quite far. It's different as you can hear things below (dogs barking, loud conversations, sometimes animals (cows, etc) are loud enough. The landing was the "tricky" part...everyone get into the basket... as we hit the trees on the final descent before landing in the small field.

Another thing is going up in a glider... did that ages ago... just the pilot and you... and when they tell you "the stick is yours" !! It's a unique experience.

 

[Walt34]

Another thing is going up in a glider... did that ages ago... just the pilot and you... and when they tell you "the stick is yours" !! It's a unique experience.

Yes, I did that about 40 years ago with a friend who had his sailplane rating. Trouble was, it was winter. I hate cold weather. And sailplanes don't have heaters in them like airplanes do. The heat comes from the engine, a part missing on a sailplane. And oh, the temperature at 3,000 feet is about 20 degrees cooler. It was sort of fun in spite of the cold, but I'll never do that in winter again.

 

[calmloki]

Soloed in a sailplane back about 50 years ago. A few other sailors and I would camp on the ridge overlooking Calistoga Ca. then hike down in the morning for sailplane lessons. A lot of ridge soaring and thermal riding then. Remember once needing to burn off some thermal gained altitude by doing a dive then pulling up into a stall - that stall moment felt like "Hit me God!" - felt like at that instant lightning and oblivion would have been perfect. Release from the tow line was also a nice moment as the tow plane peeled off and the sailplane went suddenly quiet and vibration free.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, I did that about 40 years ago with a friend who had his sailplane rating. Trouble was, it was winter. I hate cold weather. And sailplanes don't have heaters in them like airplanes do. The heat comes from the engine, a part missing on a sailplane. And oh, the temperature at 3,000 feet is about 20 degrees cooler. It was sort of fun in spite of the cold, but I'll never do that in winter again.

Reminds me of a great story.
I had a friend who was a serious sailplane pilot and he achieved one of his goals by setting a world altitude record one day. This was in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, the battery powered heater in his oxygen mask quit while he was "up there", so his breath immediately turned into ice crystals. It was a constant cycle of "breathe a bit, remove mask and knock the ice out of it, replace mask". He was happy to put up with that because of what he knew he would accomplish that day.

But even more unfortunately, his record was broken less than 24 hours later, so he never made it into the record books.

 

[Walt34]

But even more unfortunately, his record was broken less than 24 hours later, so he never made it into the record books.

Oh man, what a bite in the butt!

 

[skyking1]

Along the same lines as flight instruction and skydiving, take a look at a glider discovery flight.
It is best done with the right terrain, anywhere along the Rockies is good in the US.
https://www.milehighgliding.com/glider-flights

You get that silence but for the air rushing by the canopy. If you get into it you can do aerobatics, sail the ridges for sometimes hundreds of miles.
You can find schools all over the world if you are not in the US.

 

[Montecfo]

Some very good lists above. You know if you go on something like a mission trip to the third world you can work language skills, experience a different culture, help folks in profound poverty, fly in small airplanes, experience rough toilets, drinking water issues etc, checking many boxes.

We enjoy swing. Together or solo.

Western swing, east coast swing, big swing into favored swimming holes.

Now I have been known to dive off high platforms where form matters. And if you do not hit right you may lose your swimsuit.

But otherwise will pass on the nudity and things like bath houses.

 

[jollystomper]

Here is one experience I kind of went above and beyond on. My DS, DF and I are all three travelling to Mazatlan for the Total Solar Eclipse. Experiences like that are literally unforgettable, as they will perhaps never again happen in one's lifetime, just based on pure scientific data.

I'll post pictures come April. I know there will be some super-geeks and next-level astronomer's with telescopes watching it all unfold.

I agree this is a novel experience. We are doing simple travel for this, about 8 or so hours, to an area of totality (and hopefully no clouds!) in April.

 

[Koolau]

Yes, I know. You can see totality at the edge of the band, but it'll just last a moment. We'll only get the full 4:16 of totality if we drive ~100 miles to the centerline -- roughly Branson MO to Clinton AR. But we could come up 30 miles short and it would only lose us about 20sec of totality.

There's a great interactive map at https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2024-april-8 -- click on any spot and it'll tell you if it's in totality, and if so, when it starts, how long it lasts, etc.

That's not a real densely populated area, but who knows what kind of eclipse madness we'll run into. Totality starts about 1:50pm there, but I intend to leave Branson early in the morning. We can sightsee in beautiful downtown Clinton (population 2602) until showtime.

Does anyone plan to view the eclipse from "Little Egypt" area near Carbondale IL? This is the site of the "X marks the spot" intersection of 2017 and 2024 eclipses. That should be pretty novel. Lots of end-times prophecy YouTubes about the subject if anyone is interested.

In keeping with the bizarre X marks the spot (Twilight Zone stuff), it happens that the X isn't too far from the New Madrid fault where back in 1811/1812 several violent earth quakes rocked half of the virtually unsettled land of the new nation called the United States of America.

DO-do-do-do, DO-do-do-do,...

https://medium.com/@jamieacarter/the-crux-of-the-eclipses-little-egypts-seven-year-itch-f1b0ea2d5c2e


Earthquakes of 1811-1812 | New Madrid, MO - Official Website

 

[Ronstar]

We're meeting our niece, her husband and brood near Indianapolis for the eclipse. I tried to get a hotel room yesterday, but I'm not paying +$1k for one night in Indianapolis.

 

[skyking1]

@Koolau thank you for pointing out Little Egypt. I dug into the burial mounds there on the 'net and have added it to stuff we need to see on our road trips.
I had flown my aunt around some mounds in Indiana, on the way back from Washington DC.

 

[kgtest]

We've been on one, it was just the pilot and us... actually travelled quite far. It's different as you can hear things below (dogs barking, loud conversations, sometimes animals (cows, etc) are loud enough. The landing was the "tricky" part...everyone get into the basket... as we hit the trees on the final descent before landing in the small field.

Another thing is going up in a glider... did that ages ago... just the pilot and you... and when they tell you "the stick is yours" !! It's a unique experience.

Lol. You survived to tell the tale! Did you tip the "pilot"?

 

[kgtest]

I agree this is a novel experience. We are doing simple travel for this, about 8 or so hours, to an area of totality (and hopefully no clouds!) in April.

I remember being in an ideal spot perched in a rest stop for 2014 totality. The drive home right afterward was a bit rough. Lots of traffic swerving and slikying the whole drive home. 8hrs there took us about 13hrs home...and we left near the tail end of the eclipse while it was still going on as traffic heading out had been getting pretty heavy.

There was one guy who had his "spot" roped off which I'm assuming was the "X" and had said he setup there about a week before the event and was camping.

 

[Route246]

Japan is unique in that it is not tourist-friendly (it is not tourist-unfriendly) due to a history of not focusing on tourism until PM Abe encouraged it to raise foreign currency injection to the struggling economy. That said, it is safe and the people are polite but not accustomed to masses of foreign tourists.

Taiwan is more interesting as Marko notes how things are novel there for westerners.

Go to Asia or Japan. A week in Taiwan alone will give you "a whole new way of looking at the day".

 

[CaliKid]

Spend a week in a place like Marrakesh, Morocco. It's different.

 

[RobLJ]

Everyone has their moments of experience, but for me,
hiking with DW and some of our friends in Tuscany, Ireland, Scotland, and the Alps reminds me of my childhood, which was in small rural areas, rather than LA and Houston where I spent my professional life (and met a lot of good friends and colleagues). My sons' experience is almost the direct opposite of my childhood since they grew up in a Houston suburb. We bought our Colorado cabin when one was in undergrad in Cali and the other was just starting in Pittsburgh, which is a regret. The first Christmas, the youngest spent at the cabin with us, a snowstorm cleared and the stars looked like they were touchable; he spent 2 hours lying out on the hood of the Subaru looking at the stars in 10 degree weather (no wind). I realized I just took all that for granted, growing up in very small towns in Missouri and Oklahoma.

When we hiked the Ring of Kerry, there were 4 or 5 times we either came out of a train station (afterwards in the outskirts of Dublin) or on the hike came into town looking at maps and the Irish would stop and ask us if we needed help, anywhere from grannies in their 80s to "kids" in their 30s. It reminded me of Southern Missouri when I was 8. Same in Tuscany.

I'm a sucker for museums but the Uffizi in Florence (I saw a room filled with Fra Lippo Lippis!) and the Capitolo museum in Rome, as well as the Tate (had a Blake room and a a special Turner exhibit!) were kind of a dream. My youngest and I spent almost 5 hours in the Uffizi, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group, and I could have stayed there for a week. Walking up into the Brunelleschi Dome, across from the Baptismal gates, was also a dream (I had read of Florence since I was a teen, so I insisted we spend 3 days in Florence before hiking/biking Tuscany).

Wilderness hiking is very mind-changing. I can't sleep on the ground for 2-3 days until I'm finally too tired to not sleep, so now I'm 65 I have less tolerance, but I can make it for 4-5 days.
I love fly fishing. It's close to meditation.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Japan is unique in that it is not tourist-friendly (it is not tourist-unfriendly) due to a history of not focusing on tourism until PM Abe encouraged it to raise foreign currency injection to the struggling economy. That said, it is safe and the people are polite but not accustomed to masses of foreign tourists.

Taiwan is more interesting as Marko notes how things are novel there for westerners.

It depends on where you go in Japan. I've been there numerous times for both work and tourism. I agree it is very safe. And I agree that the non-tourist areas are not tourist friendly in terms of having services for tourists, English speaking people, etc. But I've never let that stop me. I could tell many stories and all of them point to the Japanese being very helpful and accommodating in spite of a language barrier.

Places like Kyoto, however, are very tourist friendly.

On a business trip when I worked for an Australian company one of my Australian cow*rkers noted that our Japanese hosts (from a large and very well-known Japanese company) treated me with much more respect than him. We asked on of the young engineers why that was so after several weeks of working together and getting comfortable with each other. His answer: "You Americans beat us in a war so we respect you."

 

[SecondAttempt]

Here is one experience I kind of went above and beyond on. My DS, DF and I are all three travelling to Mazatlan for the Total Solar Eclipse. Experiences like that are literally unforgettable, as they will perhaps never again happen in one's lifetime, just based on pure scientific data.

Total solar eclipses happen almost every year. They are not rare nor are they random. They are predictable down to fractions of a second. It may surprise many here to know that one of the US Navy's main missions is "Global Time and Position" and observations of eclipses and other astronomical phenomena are used to adjust GPS. So if the eclipse happens a few seconds early, leap seconds are added or subtracted to fix the US/international master clocks so our missiles find their targets when they need to.

They follow an 18-ish year cycle called the Saros cycle. What makes this one special to Americans is that it will be visible over a wide and accessible path across the continental US.

True aficionados try to complete a full Saros cycle!

The next total solar eclipse will occur on August 12, 2026 and will be visible in Iceland, Greenland, and parts of Portugal. Pretty accessible.

After that, August 2027 in North Africa, accessible but more dubious. Then July 2028 in Australia. Then November 2030 in southern Africa and Australia. All accessible.

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html

 

[sengsational]

A lot of talk about how trips can be a novel experience. It's also possible to have a novel experience on a trip without leaving home. It might even be legal in some US states now.

 

[kgtest]

On a business trip when I worked for an Australian company one of my Australian cow*rkers noted that our Japanese hosts (from a large and very well-known Japanese company) treated me with much more respect than him. We asked on of the young engineers why that was so after several weeks of working together and getting comfortable with each other. His answer: "You Americans beat us in a war so we respect you."

I went over to Pearl Harbor and took in a lot of that history as a young man 10 yrs ago. Standing besides Americans, Japenese, and Japanese-American's all a the same site of history that has such incredible meaning...

I stood there and all I could think of was "wow".

I suppose that in itself was a Novel experience. The craziest thing about this experience was right before I was entering onto the gangway of Battleship Missouri a group of Japanese tourist has just disembarked.

I had the ENTIRE battleship to myself. I actually don't think I was supposed to be in the area at the time but I somehow rode a shuttle bus with a worker and I think I sort of slipped in unknowingly before the ship was technically "open" for the day. I think I basically slipped on in the middle of a private tour booking somehow.

I spent about 45 minutes walking around the battleship reading the placards and didn't see a single person. Thinking back, I might be one of just a handful who could say that. I went into every single little crevasse of the ship that was not roped off, and never saw a soul. Went all over the deck. At one point I got a little worried , but rolled with it and just enjoyed the moment.

LOTS to do at Pearl Harbor, I kind of want to go back as I did not have a chance to go into the USS Bowfin. Ticket times were beyond the time I could afford as I had a work training to get to.

 

[kgtest]

I had to go back. I am not an astrophotographer and knew folks would have much better images that they took than me. Here is the classic "cellphone" shot from the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse




Pop over to the photographer's corner to see the my friend's pictures he took with some crazy telescope in Nebraska at the rest stop I mentioned.

 

[Hermes]

Unusual conference experience and more

Unusual, novel, and way out of most people's comfort zone: https://peterrollins.com/wake-2024
I'd listen to some of his lectures before you decide though. Yes, a lot of it is around God, but I'm not religious and found this to be an incredibly novel experience. Two years ago, we got a spray-painting lesson on a wall, it was so fun.

Other things on my list:
- Great White Shark cage diving
- Swim with giant manta rays (the ones that are 16+ feet across)
- Meet komodo dragons in the wild
- Amazon river boat cruise (not a fancy one)

Novel experiences I've already done:
- Been a victim (cough, "participant" during a drag show)
- Toured a Scientology center, complete with letting them do an "audit" on me
- Toured the Mormon temple area in Salt Lake City (they sicked two missionaries just on me for this one)
- Ran the original Olympic track in Athens
- Cried on the beaches of Normandy
- Hiked the Wilderness areas in New Mexico (way more adventurous than it sounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisti/De-Na-Zin_Wilderness)
- Went to a swingers party in Salt Lake (did not participate, not my thing and STDS exist)
- German Christmas markets in Berlin/Leipzig Germany
- Rode in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans on one of the big floats
- Kayaked with killer whales in Washington state
- Got into a discussion with a man in a Prince-style purple suit about who is the best street preacher in Chi-town while walking the streets

I don't consider naked saunas in Germany and The Netherlands as novel given my culture, but I do recommend them. Very relaxing.

I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of.