Places MeanderingMind Wants to Go

This staircase in a lush tropical grotto was built by enslaved laborers and renamed to honor Queen Victoria's role in ending slavery in the British Empire.

Inhospitable caverns just beneath this island paradise offer insights into alien worlds.

One of the deepest blue holes in the world.

In paradise, feral pigs have claimed an island all to themselves.

Inside this faux cave, visitors can learn how some of their favorite fantasy characters were created.

This aluminum “stairway to heaven” has impaled at least a couple of birds.

Water-powered gadgets whirr to life in this quirky eco park.

The oceanic dumping ground where spaceships go to die.

A New Zealand couple's shell-adorned home living room, now on display at the Canterbury Museum.

Anyone wanting to know what a dwarven mine sounds like need only visit the tunnels of this New Zealand artillery compound.

One of the world's steepest streets seems to have houses sliding down it.

These phallic stone spires once served as Tolkien's Paths of the Dead.

One of the world's largest Tesla coils.

A gigantic sculpture garden is packed with innovative oddities.

Twice a day a speeding train passes only inches from the homes of this residential neighborhood.

An ornate tomb pays tribute to one of the most influential and cherished military leaders in Vietnam's history.

Vietnam's largest Buddha statue depicts a female sage.

The wartime prison now features haunting sculpted reenactments of the atrocities that took place there.

A memorial to the monk who set himself on fire to protest the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam.

Walk through a clothing store, across a courtyard, and up several flights of stairs for delicious coffee with a side of beautiful views.

The notorious "Hanoi Hilton" where Vietnamese colonial subjects and later American POWs, including John McCain, were imprisoned.

This Vietnamese bar doubles as a multistory labyrinth.

Ha Long Bay's "Cave of Surprises" houses a popular phallic rock formation.

An extravagant monument to an extravagantly unpopular Emperor.