+1

My experience is out of date so not going to contribute but I do have some questions.

Agreed, but a Bachelor's degree ≠ "well educated" imo.

Maybe a kindly mod can just excise the derail from here to start it?

Yeah I would if I had limitless the free time and money. I mean your odds if not a missionary, secret journalist or humanitarian seem really really low.

But I'd be nervous and scared the whole time and I'd be thrilled when it was over.

So given that and not having endless free time there are a ton of other places in the world I still haven't seen where I wouldn't be terrified the whole trip.

You literally started the post saying yes then finished by saying, in effect, NK is the last (or something close to last) place on earth you’d visit.

Yeah Americans read about bad neighborhoods in San Salvador and freak the **** out. Then you ask them if they'd go walking in the worst neighborhoods in major US cities late at night and they're like - well no but we know that. Something about the unknown.

The key to me is just remember that everywhere you go on earth is just gonna be 99.x% good people just trying to raise their kids in peace. The only times things get really out of whack for foreigners imo is when you have a cult-like religion which hates your existence or over-zealous secret police tracking you. Even super high crime areas are still going to have mostly normal families just trying to live their lives who will absolutely help a stranger in trouble.

I did the last leg of the Trans-Siberian from Irkutsk to Ulan-Bataar. That was good for me. The whole thing would get really old imo unless you break it up a lot - which means you need many months.

Yes - if you want to just hang out at the Sheraton in Venezuala you're probably ok. I was talking about actually seeing any of the country w/o an army of protection. I'll take my chances in NK over that in a heartbeat.

I have no idea about Yemen as I've never even considered going there.

A ton of other places != last.

NK would be a struggle for me because I know it wouldn't be much fun but I have a feeling when it's all over I'd be really glad I did it and richer for it. But there are plenty of other places I'd get a lot out of as well, and have some fun at least, w/o the risk.

Say on one extreme is sitting on a beach in Cancun. It's pleasant, you get to drink pina coladas. But when you go back you're not really any richer for it, just more relaxed. But maybe if you live in the midwest, it's February, and your job is super stressful - this is exactly what you need.

On the other end is uncomfortable, somewhat risky, awkward stuff like staying with some indigenous family in the jungle while you sweat and get eaten alive by bugs. You learn a lot and come back with all kinds of experience and great stories - and hopefully no bot fly larvae growing under your skin. But it wasn't all that fun or relaxing.

To me, every vacation is somewhere on that spectrum. I try to force myself into at least some adventurous/enriching stuff, even though a big part of me just wants to sit at an outdoor cafe somewhere and drink while I watch the world go by. But I know if I don't get some adventure in I won't feel as recharged when I get back.

You go to NK and have an experience like the tea shop girl - it stays with you your whole life. You look at your own world a little differently because of it.

There was a PRI story this week about an Australian attending uni in NK. You guys are going to love this guy. Doing his master's on romance in the DPRK.

I hope nothing happens to him. I'd feel bad if his last tweet was
ARGHHH NOOooo.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pri...iversity%3famp

I would guess that Warmbler was not a good outcome for them and they probably don't want it to happen again. Clearly if they wanted another Warmbler they could just start framing people like the Aussie guy and holding them as bargaining chips.

This is true for any rational person. So what. Although I would probaby visit NK before Disney Land so there's that.

At least NK would be novel. Disney Land is just an endless slog of geting ****ed by your corporate overlords while you are told it is the best place on earth.

Speaking of travel, today I learned there is a direct flight from Kansas City to Reykjavik in the summer on M/W/F - and my mind is blown to smithereens.

Iceland always has crazy cheap tix, it's just super expensive once you get there

I think there were years when "Kansas City International Airport" (aka MCI for some reason) literally only had one or two international flights - to Mexico or Canada.

I'm pretty sure they had to work some years to make sure they didn't lose the I in MCI and become a regional airport.

And now I find out they have a nonstop all the way to Iceland. Crazy pills.

I want to go to Iceland. Some things may be expensive, but they have freedom - The Right to Roam. You can camp on pretty much any uncultivated land, public or private. A few weeks roaming, camping, stay in an airbnb a few times sounds pretty good and not very expensive.

Once in a while that have like $99 flights to Iceland.

For landscape photographers it's basically a pilgrimage to go to Iceland at some point.

I would guess the death rate of Americans visiting North Korea is lower than all South American countries and most European countries.

My Dad was absolutely terrified the entire time I was in Mexico and Central America. FWIW he's a massive liberal - but still just thinks you die if you go down there.

The funny part is he lives at 40th and Warwick in KC - which is a neighborhood that tons of people in the suburbs feel the same way about that he feels about Central America - you are risking your life to even go there.

I've tried to get this point through to him to no avail.

No offense to you nice people, but what the hell is going on with this thread?

most Americans think anywhere outside USA or western Europe is unsafe.

Please report to mods to they'll excise to a politards-travel thread. Oh hell I'll just report myself for this post

Iceland is really nice. Recommend it. The natural beauty there is more ends-of-the-earth desolate than it is stunning (you know, majestic fjords like in Norway) but it's very beautiful all the same. The people are great. Iceland remains the one and only place that I have been standing talking with a couple other men in a bar and the group was approached by a woman, on her own, who was clearly aiming to pick someone up. (A survey by Durex once supposedly showed that Icelanders have sex more frequently than any other country. My taxi driver from the airport said to me "here in Iceland, in the summer, we fish and we ****. In the winter, we don't fish.")

Hostel dude.

Iceland Air has an interesting setup where you can book a flight from one city to another and include an extended stopover in Iceland in between (anywhere up to 10 days I think). Way cheaper than buying two separate plane tickets. Stayed in Iceland for 5 days on that setup.

Don't let the winter discourage anybody from going to Iceland either. I went in January and still had a great time.

Will second what SuperUberBob said. Have done the same thing myself with the layover and Iceland is one the most unique landscapes I've seen. Just be prepared to pay $10/gallon for gas and $15-20 a beer.