Places stenaavel Wants to Go

The site where Sakyamuni Buddha first met his father after achieving enlightenment.

Nepal is home to the world’s tallest Shiva statue.

This restaurant preserves and serves lesser-known and regional Nepali food.

A museum with a window view of the Himalayas and an on-site climbing wall.

Jumping-off point for a climb up Mt. Everest is the most dangerous airport in the world.

This remote Himalayan temple is in danger of being completely washed away by a melting glacier.

This Kathmandu museum, built in an Austrian modernist style, looks like a set from Star Wars.

Last stop before the top of the highest peak in the world.

Where you'll find anything but nothing.

Dedicated to a Bolshevik revolutionary, this museum is a true time capsule of the Soviet era.

According to myth, there's a bloody explanation for the beautiful bright red color of this rock formation set amidst alpine vegetation.

These oldest of these "embroidered stones" were carved 4,000 years ago in a high mountain valley.

This village was once a thriving Soviet uranium mining center, but is now semi-abandoned and desolate.

This mysterious complex of abandoned yurts and fading murals was meant to be a center of science and spirituality in Kyrgyzstan.

A stunning blue-green lake located in the Terskey Alatau mountain range.

On the shores of Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Lake, a family cooks a feast that tells the sad tale of a people's exile.

An outstanding piece of retro Sci-Fi architecture built into a sacred mountain.

A boulder carved into the shape of the cosmonaut's head.

Glacial lake that mysteriously empties itself every year.

Time capsule of a museum, in which the Soviet Union remains alive and kicking.

Stelae-eyed stones greet visitors to a corner of Kirov Park.

Local lore says this 700-year-old tree has sacred and medicinal properties.

One of the most horrible legacies of the Cold War is a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear bombs on civilians.

This unique wooden mosque resembling a Chinese pagoda was said to be built without the use of nails.