Places RakelOm Wants to Go

This decommissioned DC-3 now forever points into the oncoming wind.

The world's largest and most outstanding marl lake regularly changes color.

The largest single concentration of harmless garter snakes in the world is a writhing Canadian serpent orgy.

Antarctica's bustling metropolis, originally established by Richard E. Byrd.

A wooden hut from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

One of the most extreme deserts in the world, these snow-free valleys harbor life, despite the hostile environment.

Russian Orthodox church built on an Antarctic island.

The best place to send your postcards home from Antarctica.

One of the world's southernmost bars.

An abandoned whaling station on an active volcano offers hot springs in Antarctica, surrounded by ruined giants of industry.

Natural time capsule containing an alien ecosystem.

A small Rwandan workshop where you'll find traditional works of art—made from cow dung.

Hidden treasures belonging to Mongolia's most revered and multi-talented monk spent decades buried in the Gobi desert.

A jagged silhouette of shamanistic stone heaps rises from the shore of this dazzling mile-high lake.

The grassy landscape is home to the world's last truly wild horses.

Mongolian Buddhists believe this monastery in the Gobi desert to be the center of the world's spiritual energy.

An institution dedicated to curiosity, logic, riddles, and Mongolia's long history of puzzles.

A huge communist-era propaganda monument and mural that offers stunning views of the Mongolian capital.

The oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia has survived centuries of invasions, political shifts, and religious purges.

Enormous statue of the Emperor of the Mongols.

Take respite inside this jaw-dropping church while climbing the volcano where Georgia's Prometheus was once chained.

The charmingly disheveled clock tower of Tbilisi's puppet theater.

Rock-hewn monastery complex with hundreds of cave structures tucked away into the mountainside.

This giant Buddha statue has 125,000 smaller Buddhas hidden inside it.