If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
Two free tickets, anywhere in the world. The first question is where. The second question is who gets the other ticket, which I will come back to. The world is opening up for travel again, and I have been thinking about this far longer than a hypothetical deserves. Here is the shortlist. It has four places on it, which is two more than the tickets allow, and I am not sorry.
Iceland
Fire and ice, as the brochures say, and for once the brochures are not exaggerating. Geysers, glaciers, volcanic ground that looks borrowed from another planet. Reykjavik for the city part, the Northern Lights for the part that makes grown adults go quiet, the Blue Lagoon for sitting in warm water while the air tries to freeze your ears. Waterfalls with names I will practice on the flight: Gullfoss, Skógafoss.
There is also the small matter of the people, who are welcoming, and the folklore, which runs straight back to the Norse myths. Fishing villages, Icelandic food (I will try it, I promise nothing), glacier hikes and whale watching. It is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, mostly because once is probably all my fingers can take.
Bali, Indonesia
If Iceland is for being awed, Bali is for lying down. Quiet beaches, rice terraces that look combed, and a culture that is everywhere you turn. Temples like Uluwatu and Tanah Lot, waterfalls around Ubud, and locals who seem genuinely pleased you came.
The island takes its art seriously: traditional dance, woodcarving so detailed it looks impatient with the rest of us. There is yoga and meditation for people who can sit still, and surfing, snorkeling and the sunrise hike up Mount Batur for people who cannot. Then Balinese food, then a beach, then nothing at all for several hours. I am very good at nothing. I would like to practice it somewhere nicer.
Egypt
Egypt is the trip for anyone who wants to feel young by comparison. The pyramids, the Sphinx, the temples at Luxor and Karnak, all built by people who had never heard of a deadline extension. I would float down the Nile on a felucca, the slow way, and if there is time, see what the Red Sea is hiding at Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one still standing, which seems like a reason to go and check on it. The Valley of the Kings, the temples at Abu Simbel, and then the living Egypt: loud bazaars, street food that smells like it means it, and dance that has been going on since before most countries had names. It is the cradle of civilization. I would like to see what the baby grew into.
The Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon is the opposite of all of the above. No monuments, no spa, no gift shop. Just the most crowded place on earth, if you count the residents properly: pink river dolphins, macaws in colors that should not be legal, jaguars that will see you long before you see them, and anacondas, which I plan to admire from a respectful distance, possibly another country.
Guided eco-tours are the way in, both because the ecosystem is fragile and because I would otherwise be lost within the hour. Indigenous communities live there with a connection to the forest, in their customs, chants and dances, that I can only read about. The flooded forests, the igapós and várzeas, are the part you travel by boat, and also the part where the conservation argument stops being abstract. You see what is at stake. It is quite a lot.
So where am I going?
Iceland for the drama, Bali for the rest, Egypt for the history, the Amazon for the humility. Four very different trips, and every one of them worth a free ticket.
If I must choose, I will choose on the day, with the tickets in my hand, and probably change my mind at the airport. Where would you go? Think about it carefully. The other ticket is not going to the person who talks the most.
