Places johnsongeographic Wants to Go

Self-mutilation in the name of beauty.

Malaysian fireflies create a dazzling display as thousands light up in unison.

Extravagant mosque honors modern Islam.

Giant relaxing Buddha in Malaysia.

Holy Hindu shrine in an enormous, monkey-filled limestone cavern.

A castle hand-built by a Spanish dreamer in the Australian tropical jungle.

Hanging over one of Japan’s “hidden valleys,” these vine bridges must be remade every three years.

A chain of 16 wondrous lakes formed as a result of the gradual dissolution of soluble layers of bedrock.

Berkeley Springs State Park boasts the nation's only monument commemorating presidential bathing.

"The prettiest love letters in the world" ... or so said Lord Byron.

Okinawan dining in a twenty foot tall, man-made tree house overlooking Naha Harbor.

French commune at the heart of conspiracies.

Lovers proclaim their unbreakable bond by leaving their names on locks fastened onto the Shoreditch fence in East London.

North America's oldest authentic African Village.

Parking garage where Bob Woodward met Watergate source "Deep Throat."

A super-sized promotional trick that is now a D.C. landmark.

A haunting tribute to pioneering photographer Clover Adams.

Dodge prohibitionists and slide through the telephone booth in Crif Dogs.

New York City's only preserved family home from the 19th century.

The remains of a 12th-century chapter house in Golden Gate Park.

A storybook European village in Berkeley.

The old Niles Canyon Aqueduct in the San Francisco Bay Area is a bemusing and secret trail through nature for wayward travelers.

The John Snow Memorial marks the epicenter of London's 1854 cholera epidemic.

London's smallest police station is barely the size of a phone booth.