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If any of you have ever been to at least 2 or more of these cities, what would be your pick?
Been to all but two of them:
Least Exotic to Most, IMO:
Bali <-- Don't know, but since it's an Austrialian vacation town, I doubt it's very exotic.
Singapore <--Don't know, but since it's a former British Colony, probably a lot like HK.
Tokyo / Osaka <--Very Japanese, but not all that exotic. Fun, clean, safe, expensive.
Shanghai <--Very cosmopolitan for the most part. Most of the interesting local stuff has been forcibly removed by developers with connections to The Party
Beijing <-- Similiar story to Shanghai. Exotic in a 1983 sort of way. Still has some old neighborhoods and holdouts. Certainly worth a visit.
Seoul / Busan <--Less English spoken here.
Taipei <--A great city in a great country. I've spent a lot of time here, so I can't really judge on how exotic it is.
Kuala Lumpur <--Malaysia, overall, is an interesting mix of peoples. KL reflects this.
Bangkok <--Crazy Awesome, and sometimes just crazy. How exotic you find it depends on where you go and what you do.
Hanoi / Hochimin City <--A small, sleepy town compared to the rest. Different, certainly.
Whoops, I see I lumped in HCMC/Saigon with Hanoi. They are quite different. Hanoi is sleepy and somewhat obnoxious by my tastes. I guess that counts as exotic. HCMC is much more busy and less "exotic."
Delhi is another world. By the time we got there, we were pretty experienced and worldly travellers--we thought. Five minutes after walking out of the airport started wondering what planet we were on.
Jaipur, Agra, Mumbai, and Bangalore all are very India, but Delhi is the Indiest Indian in Indiatown. If you want a thrill, make Delhi your first stop on a visit to India. Or Asia, for that matter. It will blow your mind. If you can handle Delhi, you can pretty much handle anywhere.
If any of you have ever been to at least 2 or more of these cities, what would be your pick?
Tokyo / Osaka
Beijing
Seoul / Busan
Shanghai
Bangkok
Hanoi / Hochimin City
Singapore
Kuala Lumpur
Bali
Taipei
Other(s)
I've been to all of them. They'll all seem exotic to a native English speaker who hasn't been to Asia before.
Vietnam probably seemed 'the most exotic' as the Vietnam War movies and such lingered in my mind the most of 'Asia' of my childhood. That being said, all of northeast Asia will feel exotic.
I'd say Singapore, Bali, and Kuala Lumpur might feel a little less exotic, as you'll hear and see so much more English there than the other places.
It's been many years since I have been to these places but I think they can still be called exotic:
Chiengmai
Kathmandu
Angkor Wat the Temple City.
Two places I have never been but would like to go are in China
Wu Dang which is also a complex of temples but they are inhabitied
The old cities on the Silk Road in Eastern China's Taklamakan Desert.
Being to all the listed except Bali and Taipei my pick would be Hanoi. However if you want a really exotic city i would try just about any city in far western china India or Iran
I've been to most of those cities and I would say Bangkok is the most exotic, esp if you've never been to Asia. It is a real eye opener, and not always in a good way.
Of that list I have only been to Beijing and Shanghai. I would say that Beijing is more exotic of the two for sure. But I don't think of Shanghai as being very exotic in general as there is a large international community there.
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