If you need ideas for a less boring holiday, look no further, because travellers have taken to an online debate to reveal the strangest destinations they have ever visited.
And we have selected some of the gems.
User ‘pacinosdog’ kicked off the Reddit symposium when he asked: “What’s the strangest place you’ve ever been?” He added: “This could mean a place with a strange vibe or a place that clashes with the rest of the country or region.”
This sparked a torrent of responses, with over 700 comments at the time of writing.
Scroll down to discover six offbeat tourist attractions, from a semi-abandoned island in Japan “overrun by vines” to an Obama-obsessed Irish village.
Haw Par Villa, Singapore
Haw Par Villa, a “weird as hell” theme park in Singapore that’s “filled with thousands of bizarre statues”
Haw Par Villa, formerly known as Tiger Balm Garden, is an 8.5-hectare theme park dedicated to Chinese mythology, which one Redditor says is “weird as hell.”
User ‘Truncated_Rhythm’ wrote: ‘Haw Par was absolutely mesmerizing! Weird as hell. But still, I loved it!’
What’s on it? One user reveals that it’s “filled with thousands of strange statues and scenes depicting people suffering in hell, decapitations, torture scenes and animals killing each other.”
‘Skyortik’ commented: ‘Parents take their children there to make them behave. Schools too. I went there once with my parents when I was five and once on a school trip when I was eight.
“It’s been more than 30 years since I was last there, but the images are etched in my psyche.”
‘ReputationCold275’ added: ‘I still have nightmares about that place sometimes. I can’t imagine how the kids I saw there on a school trip manage.’
User ‘curiouslittlethings’ wrote: ‘Every child in Singapore has some form of PTSD from Haw Par Villa.’
Moneygall, Ireland
Moneygall has become a kind of shrine for Barack Obama
Pictured above is ‘Barack Obama Plaza,’ a Moneygall gas station dedicated to the former president.
Barack Obama watches Michelle Obama pour a pint at Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall in 2011
Barack Obama visited Moneygall, on the border of counties Offaly and Tipperary, in 2011 after learning that his great-great-grandfather was from there.
Since then, the city has become something of a shrine to the 44th American president.
Visitor ‘Maddy_egg7’ wrote: ‘It was very strange to see so many keychains, trinkets and city decorations dedicated to a US president.’
‘Over-Ice-8403’ pointed out that the town has a ‘really cool’ gas station called ‘Barack Obama Plaza’, while user ‘Over-Ice-8403’ commented: ‘Seriously! This is so random. I’ve never seen anything called Barack Obama Plaza here in the US.’
User ‘-TheFourChinTeller’ wrote: ‘My first time abroad I went here and since I was American one of the restaurants gave me free lunch.’
To which ‘Maddy_egg7’ replied: ‘Yes! I got a free keychain from a gift shop in town. Plus, it was my first time abroad so I was very confused as to why everything was dedicated to the US President.’
Ikeshima, Japan
Ikeshima is “absolutely post-apocalyptic,” but also “the coolest place in Japan”
The semi-abandoned island of Ikeshima, near Nagasaki, previously functioned as a mining facility and was in operation until 2001, but is now, according to redditor ‘throwaway3123312’, “absolutely post-apocalyptic” but also “the coolest place in Japan”.
They continued: ‘Japan is Japan and there are still regular bus and ferry services to the abandoned island, which had no passengers except me when I went.’
On the island, the user notes, there is a small hotel, a school and a town hall. “There are a few people living on the island, most of whom are quite old. The population lives mainly in a small area, and the rest of the island is in ruins,” he adds.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
A Reddit user described Turkmenistan’s capital as the “cleanest and most elegant city ever”
User ‘kjerstih’ noted that Turkmenistan was the strangest place he had ever visited and added some additional comments about the capital, Ashgabat, which was eye-catching in several ways.
They commented: ‘Ashgabat is the cleanest and most elegant city ever, just white Italian marble and gold everywhere.
‘Few people on the streets. Lots of extravagant monuments and golden statues of the former dictator. Plus, there are lots of strange laws and regulations, like the one that all cars have to be white.’
Swakopmund, Namibia
Reddit users have described Swakopmund, a coastal town in Namibia, as “strange” and “interesting.”
This coastal town in Namibia, a former German colony, has baffled some Reddit users due to its striking resemblance to its former colonizer.
The original poster, ‘pacinosdog’, wrote: ‘That place is so strange and interesting. It almost looks like a little piece of Germany has been transported to Africa.
‘It has German architecture, German breweries, German restaurants, a significant white German-speaking population, German street names and place names, and all of that with wide, empty streets lined with palm trees, nestled between the ocean and the desert.’
User ‘jabberwocky_’ agreed: ‘Swakopmund was truly fascinating. I agree that strange is the right word. Plus, it’s in a very remote location. I understand that the country was a German colony (hence the excellent beer), but I wasn’t expecting that.’
‘GoegrousUnknown’ commented: ‘Swakopmond was a bit of a strange place… but we had fun there. We went horse riding and danced with the locals.’
