I've been to:

Central Calif. Coast (a few times)
Vancouver (just for a long weekend)
San Diego (when I was much younger)
Los Angeles (a few times)
Lake Tahoe (born near there)
Tokyo (for a week)
Taipei (for a week)

and that's it so far

would really like to go to all these places in SE Asia, but from the East Coast you basically need to be able to take off more than two weeks to even make a dent in, like, Cambodia and North Vietnam alone, so it's tough...not to mention that half the year they're not nearly as pleasant tourist destinations due to the rainy season

one of my biggest regrets in life -- and i have so, so, so many, because i have made such stupid, important choices again and again -- is not spending a good chunk of time traveling when i was much younger

now i'm so old that it basically ****s up your life direction for good if you want to do it, especially as an American

sucks

I've been to 17 of the drafted places but none of the ones Gad has been to, man the world is a big place. I did a lot of travelling when I had poker money. Don't regret it but wish I'd saved some money instead of spending everything recklessly. Now have a job, kids and markedly less cash to go anywhere even if I had the time. Am enjoying railing this draft at least

of the 17 you've been to, which are the 5 or so that you'd put in your top echelon?

(obviously if you were a young poker gun then your priorities for having a good experience in places might be different than mine, but i'm still really curious)

New Zealand by some distance the best (maybe even 1st of the 80 odd countries I've been to). Luang Prabang was great, the city is lovely and the surroundings great + super nice people. I enjoyed Bali but would have taken several other places in Indonesia ahead of it in the draft. I liked the Krabi area too, thought taking that over other Thai places was pretty expert. Also had a great time in Sri Lanka and Moscow.

I'm not a beach person at all so that means my take is probably different to a lot of people. Of the drafted places I've been to I would never have taken Bangkok or Vientiane, I think they're both horrible places. Lukily for me I've got a tattoo I had done in Bangkok as a permanent reminder

I guess I'll have some strong opinions on the European countries once you get there since there's only about 4 in Europe that I haven't been to. Still, means nothing, a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there, small sample size yadda yadda. Of the drafted ones I haven't been to I'd love to go most to Vancouver I think. Plus I am very poorly travelled in the USA so any of those, especially the national parks would be a dream.

thanks, really interesting

I was actually a little disappointed with Vancouver when I was there; it was way dirtier than I was expecting. Some really good food, though.

I came pretty close to taking Portland in the first round here just because I love it so much, but then my girlfriend made a good case for how that's pretty dumb since I can basically spend a week there anytime I want, job permitting

So if you ever get over to the U.S. Pacific coast, you def need to hit up Portland before or after Vancouver

is it my pick?

Kathmandu for my next pick.

I'm aware I owe an absurd number of writeups - hoping to get them done this evening.

Pretty sure Bloo is up unless we're skipping folk now. I PM'd him while I was doing my writeup.

eyebooger's up next, I think?

I'll pick very shortly. Debating internally between two choices.

Also, if anyone else has an opinion on whether or not we should re-rand in round 9, say so soon.

Biester: for
Gad: mildly against
me: mildly for
xander: doesn't care
JM3: doesn't really care

.

Also, do people have opinions on this? I'm mildly against it, but probably the least affected because I'm still so far east.

mildly against

My thought process is you do your 8 rounds, & then you start over from wherever you are & deal with the rand. Having the ability to plan what the next rand is going to bring a round in advance seems silly & defeats a lot of the upside of a re-rand.

The other purpose being so that if people have similar interests, it is less likely that the same person will be picking exactly before you 21 out of 24 rounds sniping you.

I don't think anyone really is running the same sort of vacation as me, so none of this really matters to me, I just have odd & arbitrary definitions of fairness I'm looking at protecting.

I'm going to stay a little east and take Beijing. Too much interesting history there for me to pass on it.

NOW it's your turn, filthy.

i felt bad about it, but just had such a hard time pulling the trigger on anywhere in mainland China (I prob would have snagged Hong Kong if it had been available, and have thought hard about a few other places) just due to the air pollution

it's a shame because there's so much interesting stuff in China that you could probably spend a year there and not scratch the surface, and yet i have no great desire to go there

almost certainly a me problem

I sure as hell wouldn't want to live there. But I really want to go there for a week or so.

poor kid in that photo

i'm betting her lungs aren't the healthiest

Yeah, of course I've seen pictures like that. But I know two people who have gone there, and both said it wasn't anywhere near that bad.

Anyone here been there?

STOCKHOLM

Hoping you brought a lot of $ - getting drunk there is more expensive than your whole trip...