What do you think are some of the most unknown and mysterious countries in the world? (friendly, area)

[Tiger Beer]

Suriname/Guyana/French Guina (Oddballs in South America)

Turkemenistan & Tajikistan (in Central Asia) - isolated and unknown.

Madigascar (just so much different from continental Africa)

[Thepastpresentandfuture]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Suriname/Guyana/French Guina (Oddballs in South America)

Turkemenistan & Tajikistan (in Central Asia) - isolated and unknown.

Madigascar (just so much different from continental Africa)

Is that really all you can come up with?

There are definitely more relatively unknown and mysterious countries in the world than that.

[Thepastpresentandfuture]

Originally Posted by pigeonhole

@ tHEPASTPRESENT AND FUTURE : there are numerous countries on your list I don't agree with, for they are far from being unknown :
-Austria (well known in fact, wonder why you put Austria on your list)
- Czech Republic (everybody knows the capital Ptrague)
-Madagascar and Senegal (very touristy for Europeans)
- Panama ( for North Americans)
- Bulgaria and Slovenia (members of the EU)

Wow. So you liked my thread subject, agreed with the majority of countries that I listed(you agreed with 25 out of 32 of my countries), and I gave you a rep point for your contributions to this thread, but yet you decide to focus on only the negative and not give me a rep point back?

Well to me those seem like the most unknown and mysterious countries in Europe(Austria, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia). I know a lot of things about many countries in Europe but those are the only countries in Europe that I don't know much(if anything) about. So to me, they are relatively unknown and mysterious. And I know many people that don't know much about those countries compared to other European countries. So yes, they seem like they deserve to be on the list.

Also, Panama still seems relatively mysterious and unknown, including by North Americans. I many met Hispanics in the USA that didn't now Panama existed just like Uruguay

Also I doubt if many Europeans travel to Madagascar and Senegal. Probably very few at most. The more known countries in Africa are South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, and Nigeria. Definitely not Madagascar and Senegal which are some of the most mysterious and unknown(Just like Mauritania, Mozambique, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Angola).

[gosling]

Bhutan
Brunei
Togo
Polynesian Islands

[Thomas R.]

On French Guiana I was thinking it's still technically a colony and not a country of its own. If we're including autonomous regions or territories maybe some of the following are obscure enough to mention here.

Mayotte - Another overseas department of France.
Niue - Associated state to New Zealand, self-governing in internal affairs.
Norfolk Island - Associated to Australia.

[LadyKLO]

Originally Posted by Thepastpresentandfuture

You can base that on different factors such as
-If the vast majority of people in the world know that country exists or not
-If the vast majority of people in the world don't know much or anything about a particular country
-If you know that country exists but don't know much or anything about it, etc.


To me, these are some of those countries:

-Azerbaijan
-Kyrgyzstan
- Indonesia,
-Turkmenistan
-Uzbekistan
-Belarus
-Slovakia
-Austria
-Czech Republic
-Slovenia
-Belgium
-Bulgaria
-Ukraine
-Tajikistan
-Mauritania
-Madagascar
-Angola
-Papua New Guinea
-Uruguay
-Senegal
-Cameroon
-Brunei
-Panama

Interesting places..I've always wanted to go to Czech Republic but to Karlovy Vara because of a movie I saw some years ago. I have friends from Senegal, Cameroon and Brunei.

Originally Posted by Thomas R.

Kind of a hard question to answer. Some that I think might be fairly obscure

Burkina Faso
Comoros
Guinea-Bissau
Kiribati
Lesotho
Malawi
Saint Lucia
Tajikistan

Oman seems like it's somewhat obscure considering its size and region. The Mideast usually gets a great deal of attention and although protests in Oman received some attention I think it was generally lower than for most of the Arab world.

Bhutan, Laos, Myanmar, and North Korea might be among the least understood or "mysterious" of known countries. I think they traditionally limit outside influence and cultural exchange.

Malawi..have friends from there as well..

Originally Posted by pigeonhole

-Centrafrica
-Chad
- Burkina Faso
- Malawi
- Equatorial Guinea
- Sao Tomé
-Botswana
-Swaziland
-Lesotho
- Comoros
- Kirghyzystan
- Tadjikistan
- Uzbekistan
- Turkmenistan
- Brunei
- Federal States of Micronesia
- Belau
- Marshall islands
- Nauru
-Tonga
- Laos

I've had the pleasure of being in the Marshall Islands which is in the Federated States of Micronesia. Very interesting place to say the least....

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Thepastpresentandfuture

Is that really all you can come up with?

There are definitely more relatively unknown and mysterious countries in the world than that.

Yep, that's all I got

Most of Europe has way too many similarities...they seem too similar to each other to me. All of it is very well-explored and very accessable.

Africa as well is largely similar, except for a few exceptions in there that are totally different. Most of it is either typically arabic-influenced, or typically subsaharan-like.

Latin America/South America is quite homogeneous in its similarities in many ways...except for a few that use a non-Spanish/Portuguese language.

Maybe the more a person travels around, the less exotic and mysterious places seem....

Eritrea is interesting...quite a bit different from everywhere around it. A ton of photos from there:
Asmara (ኣስመራ) | Eritrea (ሃገረ ኤርትራ) | City Gallery - Page 5 - SkyscraperCity

[Buscape]

I think some of the choices are odd...
Czech Republic seems pretty well known, especially the capital of Prague. I believe Austria is well known too if you associate it with the Austria-Hungary Empire... I think Madagascar is popular for no other reason, but the cartoon movie, people definitely heard of it... Panama too seems like a very well known country... The Panama Canal connects the world, and it's airport serves as a major airline hub... I think you can fly from Panama to the vast majority of American Capitals...

You can fly to French Guiana via Belem, Brazil, Miami, Martinique, and Guadalupe... I believe pre-earthquake, Air_France connected french guiana with port-au-prince, I am not sure if they still run this route... Also, I do not think it is a colony... It is considered an overseas department... People in French Guiana have all the rights as people in Metropolitan France...

To me the Central Asian countries have always seemed the most unknown...

[hadrett32]

Czech Republic and Austria are well known due to their popular capitals Prague and Vienna (who did not heard anything about Vienna?) . In my opinon the most exotic and mysterious countries are those of the Pacific Ocean, e.g. Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Palau etc. In Addition there are plenty of Asian countries (like Cambodia, Myanmar or Laos), which seem very mysterious and unknown for me.

[Thepastpresentandfuture]

Originally Posted by Buscape

I think some of the choices are odd...
Czech Republic seems pretty well known, especially the capital of Prague. I believe Austria is well known too if you associate it with the Austria-Hungary Empire... I think Madagascar is popular for no other reason, but the cartoon movie, people definitely heard of it... Panama too seems like a very well known country... The Panama Canal connects the world, and it's airport serves as a major airline hub... I think you can fly from Panama to the vast majority of American Capitals...

You can fly to French Guiana via Belem, Brazil, Miami, Martinique, and Guadalupe... I believe pre-earthquake, Air_France connected french guiana with port-au-prince, I am not sure if they still run this route... Also, I do not think it is a colony... It is considered an overseas department... People in French Guiana have all the rights as people in Metropolitan France...

To me the Central Asian countries have always seemed the most unknown...

Well to me those European countries are some of the mysterious and unknown in Europe compared to other countries in Europe.

How do you feel about the other countries on my list here:

-Azerbaijan
-Eritrea
-Burkina Faso
-Kyrgyzstan
- Indonesia,
-Turkmenistan
-Uzbekistan
-Belarus
-Slovakia
-Slovenia
-Tajikistan
-Mauritania
-Angola
-Papua New Guinea
-Uruguay
-Senegal
-Cameroon
-Brunei
-Mozambique
-Yemen
-Oman

I am surprised I have not been given more than 2 rep point for this thread...