The world is a huge place to live in and offers a lot more to see. Our earth is abundant with some magnificent locations, some natural and some man-made. From the world class New York’s Times Square to our India’s Taj Mahal, or from the jungles of Masai Mara in Africa to the magical land of Venice, and the list goes on and on. Our planet offers some peculiar sites that are hard to give a miss.
Make your life worth a living by paying a visit to such places once in a lifetime. I bring to you, some of the ‘best of rest’ that you must visit. After all you live only once.
1. Blood Falls, Antarctica-
This place more or less looks like a battle field where hundreds of soldiers have been killed with their blood draining into a nearby river. The Blood Falls is an eye-catching sight in the Antarctica. The Blood Falls, known for its red hue is actually a subterranean lake that is rich in iron. The Blood Falls, have been staining the Taylor Glacier of the Antarctica since long.
2. Magnetic Hill, Moncton, New Brunswick-
‘Life has to move forward.
Everything has its time
and everything ends.’
This quote says it all, the only way to success is to move forward in life. Well, this is what we all do always wanting to move upwards in our lives. But, what if your life starts going backwards all of a sudden. It would be a strange series of night, evening, afternoon, morning and it continuous again. All of us would end up our day with a breakfast and then laying asleep. This is practically impossible. But, the Magnetic Hill in Moncton, has defined a backward way of living. To experience the Magnetic Hill, drivers must pay a certain amount of fees to drive up to the end of the road. As you place your car in neutral, it automatically begins to move backwards, uphill.
3. Longyearbyen, Norway-
‘After every sunset, there is a sunrise.’ This quote doesn’t seem to fit for the world’s northernmost city and Svalbard’s only town in Longyearbyen, Norway. A mind blowing fact about this region is that from April 20-August 23, the sun never sets over Svalbard. This phenomenon puts its inhabitants in a state of perplex as after a day or two, it is hard to tell if it is noon or midnight. This would surely confuse one’s diet and sleep patterns as wee.
Another strange fact about here is that it is considered illegal to die here. Longyearbyen has a small graveyard that has stopped accepting the corpses for over 70 years as the bodies never decompose due to the permafrost. So, if you are going to die, you may have to go elsewhere, says the law of Longyearbyen.
4. The Skeleton Lake of Roopkund, Uttarakhand, India-
The human skeletons found at the edge of the Roopkund Lake is what makes it renowned worldwide and a scary site altogether. Located in the Himalayas, as the snow melts every year, one can see hundreds of human skulls scattered around the lake. The skulls were first sited by a British forest guard in 1942, initially believed to be those of the Japanese soldiers who had died while crossing that region during the World War 2. But the research carried by the scientists revealed that the skeletons were of the pilgrims and local people dating back to 850 A.D.
5. The Ik-Kil Cenote in Yucatan, Mexico-
Have you ever taken a dip in to a well? If no, then try taking a dip in the Ik-Kil Cenote in Mexico. As per the legend, this was one of the sacred wells used by the Mayans where young men and women were thrown in to drown, symbolizing a sacrifice to the Rain God. Lately, these have been converted in to popular tourist sites for swimming. A dive in to one of these will reveal you the Mayan ideologies.
Just take a tour outside your comfort zone, away from all the pollution and the hustle and bustle of the city life and you will realise that the earth is really a wonderful place to live in. do let us know about your journey, while you write your travel diaries.
– Urvashi Shah
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