The Brazilian government department for Indian affairs, FUNAI, estimates that there are up to 70 tribes that have had limited contact in its rain-forest. This is despite the incursion of loggers and cattle farmers into these areas over recent years.

On second thoughts, as fatality rates usually rise after first contact, due to disease and violence, perhaps we’d best leave them alone….

Uzbekistan

This leaves vast tracts of desert that are mostly uncharted and unexplored …

Get out there and explore!

Czech Republic

My first warning came at the airport when the lady at the bureaux-de-change claimed in was ‘about 25 degrees’ in Prague at the moment. ‘Surely she’s wrong…’ I said to my wife and carried on to board the plane.

Arriving to the blazing sun and four days of perfect mid-twenties weather I had a great if somewhat sweaty and ill-prepared for (by around 15º C) few days.

So, the moral of the story is, in these days of uncertainty whilst checking the weather trends is useful, make sure that you also check the current weather conditions as well. You never know what might be waiting for you.

This is human nature at its most basic - the hunter / gatherer instinct to find new lands, search for Eldorado or find the grass that really is greener on the other side.

The ‘down-side’ to this is the tendency of people to travel in groups and seek safety in numbers. This is what leads us down the slippery slop of the back-packers trails and whole graduations classes from Surrey trooping around the far-east.

So listen to your family and friends and take on board their opinions of both the places they’ve been and things they’ve done - let the story guide you!

It’s all about tourism to the sites of tragedy and evil — Ground Zero, Holocaust sites like Auschwitz and infamous places such as Strawberry Fields & the Dakota Building (where John Lennon was assassinated) and Soham, England (the scene of the murder of two young girls).

Grisly but fascinating, a real exploration of the dark side of human nature and our attraction to the horrific.

In truth, it’s not the risk that may be present in other countries that puts me off travelling (I think I’m probably at greater risk at home in the UK), but the (seemingly) pointless additions to existing security arrangements. To start to list them -

Restrictions on hand luggage,

No liquids through security (but I can buy whatever I like in departures! - how hard would it be for a terrorist to get one of his mates a job in duty free and smuggle through whatever liquids or powders he needed?),

Checking the soles of my shoes,

A bevvy of security people staring at me intensely as I pass through customs,

Arriving ridiculously early for flights….

…That list is enough to put anyone off and that’s just a start!

Now I read on http://www.wherewhenwhy.eu/ that liquids are to be allowed on flights - seems sensible, but on reading further, this is to be limited to…

100ml containers carried in a one-litre re-sealable clear plastic bag

…What??? is it just me or has the world gone mad?

Basically, you write about them on your site (like this) and in return get a link from their site to yours…a million dollar, travel pixel, home page mashup type scenario…

So this is me writing about them…and now you should go and do the same thing…traffic? We’ll see!

Ecuador

Basically, cruise ships have begun to visit the waters around the islands and those concerned with protecting them are keen to ensure that this doesn’t escalate. They cannot legislate to stop these visits so rely on the ethics of travellers to not stimulate the demand for low-cost tourism to the islands. They are keen that the islands don’t become just another box to tick on the world-travellers itinerary.

Having seen the voracious Japanese tourists devouring Europe under their lens caps and Brit’s gobbling up the med’s sun traps I question if such a ‘caring’ approach can succeed…

Having played the Emperor of Kyoto in a school play, dressed in a kimono (is that what Japanese men wear?) with fan in hand, Japan and the orient have always held an allure for me. This has been compounded for through some great TV - ‘Monkey Magic’, ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Water Margin’ (none of which I imagine have stood the test of time).

My other main inspiration from childhood is the Netherlands (or Holland as we called it in school). To me the stereotypical combination of canals, windmills with clog clad mice dancing on the steps (don’t ask!), tulips and big red edam cheeses was irresistible. At 7 years old, I went so far as to get a Dutch phrase book from a well travelled family friend, with every intention of learning the language. Needless-to-say my Dutch has not come on greatly since.

These long held dreams may provide some of our most precious experiences.