Until today I had thought that it might be Antarctica or the Aral Sea, but there’s a new contender: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
A looming environmental threat the size of Texas should be hard to miss, but when that threat is floating in a rarely-visited section of the Pacific Ocean and composed of a diffuse mass of plastic, it’s easy for it to avoid public attention. The recent establishment of a marine preserve north of the Hawaiian Islands has refocused attention on this floating refuse heap, which has picked up the moniker the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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I dunno – I’m not going to think of this as an exotic tourist spot until there’s at least three or four decent resort hotels there and JTB starts offering tours. At the moment I doubt there is even one decent Hilton or Nikko hotel on the entire Patch. And what about a proper DFS Shoppers? They have that branch at Amundsen Base (in the new ANA Nankyoku Hotel and Spa) so why not here?
If JTB offers tours there, isn’t it be definition no longer exotic?
Not to the Japanese.
(And yes, I am aware that is a blatant stereotype and that there are many Japanese far far more adventurous than I am, but I can’t help thinking of travel brochures for “Exotic Asia” that feature such recherché destinations as Hong Kong….)
JTB “Grand Tour”would take you afar to Patagonia.
http://www.jtb-grandtours.jp/tour/latin_america/2007b1233/
This packaged tour start from one person tour.The destination is Madagascar,Bhutan,Papua New Guinea etc.
OK, those are respectably exotic destinations. Still, call me when JTB has a Polar Tour.
How about this, Roy: http://www.jtb.co.jp/med/ryojo/CRU/UR0806/index.asp
A “16-day Antarctica Cruise.”
Not strictly polar in that there is no actual stay at the ANA Nankyoku Hotel and Spa, but not a bad effort. Call it the ANA Shackleton Hotel and Spa….
Obviously I should have checked the web page before I spoke. I must admit, I am impressed.
Curzon and I actually considered a trip to the Aral Sea a few years ago, when we met up at our friend’s place in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Still interested?
Yeah, the Aral Sea looks like a most pleasant destination. Here’s your cruise ship:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AralShip.jpg
Did I kill this blog, or have all the authors signed up on for that luxury Aral Sea cruise?
Well, I spent all of last week being extremely sick, and I’m going to spend this week cramming for the GRE math section, which mostly consists of crap I haven’t done in a decade.