They’re all gems! I can’t think of any place I’ve been to that I won’t revisit. Even the super touristy places (which sometimes seem better to skip in exchange for hidden gems) tend to offer unsuspecting fun the second and third time around. It’s never the same. It’s always different. And boy oh boy, do I enjoy watching interactions between tourists and tour guides! No doubt a tour guide has the potential to either make or break a trip, experience or place, but you wouldn’t be traveling if you didn’t know how to take a risk. So whether you go to the touristy places or not, and with or without a tour guide, the story is in the going!
Side-note: generally, not as a rule, I think it best to make local friends outside of the tourism world in any place you’re traveling. Anyone with whom you need to start the conversation, who’s not interested in you being in their home country. From the guy working at the nearby bakery, to the lady sitting next to you in the bus or train, to the old man feeding the pigeons in the park, there’s a lot of places you won’t hear about until you ask any one of these the question: “what is your favourite place to visit in your country?” Curiosity seldom fails to get the better of me if the places these people mention aren’t the one’s you’ve read about or heard of before. I think of these places as the hidden, hidden gems. These are the places that I add to my list of options of places to visit.
There’s not many places I don’t enjoy. I’ve heard some people suggest that Cairo isn’t a fun place to visit, especially for women. A part of me agrees with what is said about the city. Sure there are other places in or near to Egypt which offer a more accommodating and perhaps even a more authentic touristic experience, which might sound more appealing to you. But there is something that only Cairo can give to you. The same can be said of Biskra and Vegas, of Addis Ababa, Dubai, Xian, Varanasi, Maputo, Johannesburg. All of these are places I’ve been to that have some or other gnarly reputation. And… each of these places has a story to give that no other place can.
The same can be said of places affected by war. They also offer unsuspecting wonder. War creates the need for humanitarian aid, which sometimes leads us to places we’d never thought of going to. Naturally, where you find yourself at any given moment influences what conversations you will have. For example, the conversations I’m prompted to have in Istanbul are different to the conversations that Duhok in north Iraq prompts me to have. For this reason I really loved Tabanovce, the border station between Macedonia and Serbia. Here I was surrounded by fleeing Afghani and Syrian migrants whose ambitions were simple: to live. I would go back there, and to northern Iraq, just to be refreshed by the conversations and stories these places gave me.
Now then, it’s almost as difficult but slightly easier to write and tell you about places that I’ve really loved and enjoyed. Jansie requires of us to have all kinds of favourites…
Favourite moments from our Namibian roadtrip; favourite foods on any plate; favourite characters from Downton Abbey; favourite coffee and tea cups; favourite birds and favourite bird-sitings; favourite dogs from house and pet-sitting; a favourite Tour de France climber and sprinter; favourite cities and favourite capitals!
It gets difficult, sometimes it’s impossible for me to have a favourite. Adjectives always help. They give definition and guide us in the way of categorisation. Favourite first world capital. Favourite lesser known capital. Favourite capital city airport. Favourite hidden gem Capital…
Tehran is one such place, a gem of a capital and a gem of a city. Other capital gem leads would be Kolkata, Kas, Constantine, Zomba, Tofu, Livingstone, Dire Dawa, Chefchaouen… We’re getting close. Beautiful and blue and famed as Chefchaouen is, I leave you instead with its hidden gem capital city, the one I favourited: Rabat.
