My gap year wasn’t just about all of flights and types of
accommodation and luxury toilets and offensive toilets. I also did actual things too. And just like my flights and accommodations
and toilets, I also kept track of these things.
Below I’ve included my Top 10 Museums and my Top 10 Non-Museums. I’ve compiled the list not based on the
absolute best things, because the lists would just be the big ticket items like
the Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu and the Apartheid Museum, but rather based on a
combination of how far my expectations were exceeded, how different or unique a
museum or activity was, or just how unsuspectingly cool or thorough something
turned out to be. Many of these places
were ones that I didn’t really plan on visiting beforehand, but ended up there
through a last minute glance through Lonely Planet or by word of mouth. I’ve also included the top monuments, because
I saw a lot of monuments, though not many of them really stood out.
Top 10 Museums (in chronological order):
1. Singapore City
Gallery (Singapore): This museum is all
about Singapore’s urban planning, and I am all about nerding out.
2. Miniatures Museum
of Taiwan (Taipei, Taiwan): Quite
possibly the biggest “museum” surprise of my trip, this whimsical miniatures
museum was small but I was there for ages.
So cool!
3. Mazda Museum
(Hiroshima, Japan): This museum combined
with the Mazda factory tour – containing the world’s longest assembly line –
was a super cool glimpse into how cars are designed and made.
4. Edo-Tokyo Museum
(Tokyo, Japan): I love a good history,
and I love when it’s presented well. The
Edo-Tokyo Museum gives a VERY thorough but not boring history of Tokyo.
5. Brunel’s SS Great
Britain (Bristol, England): This museum
about a ship was fascinating – charting the ships innovative beginnings, grand
voyages, abandonment, and recovery from the Falklands.
6. Museo Guayasamin
(Quito, Ecuador): I was not familiar
with famed Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamin, but this house-turned-museum
and his massive Chapel of Man next door are a grand tribute to his incredible
works.
7. Museo Botero
(Bogota, Colombia): My favourite
artistic discovery of the gap year, still-going-strong Colombian artist
Fernando Botero has a whole museum devoted to his voluptuous, disproportionate
works.
8. Museo de Arte
Moderno de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina): This one was pretty good as far as modern art
museums go, but it was the La Menesunda funhouse-type special exhibition that
threw this one to the top of the list.
9. Museo Nacional de
Bellas Artes (Santiago, Chile): Most
fine arts museums eventually bore me, but Chile’s edition displayed select
pieces from their permanent collection around themes of sexuality. The presentation was atypical and I loved it.
10. Museo de la Moda
(Santiago, Chile): Set in the curator’s
mother’s old house, the Museum of Fashion was something unique and unexpected
in Santiago.
Honourable mentions:
- National Palace
Museum (Taipei, Taiwan): This is one of
those big ticket museums. I had great
expectations and they were met. This one
gets an honourable mention because it pisses off China.
- Mori Art Museum
(Tokyo, Japan): I LOVED the special
exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, and the roof-top open-air
helipad/observation deck was the icing on the cake.
- Museo de los Andes
(Montevideo, Uruguay): This little
museum outlined the real-life crash of a rugby team’s plane in the Andes – the
one that the film “Alive” is based on.
Top 10 Non-Museums (in chronological order):
1. Singapore Zoo
Night Safari (Singapore): By far the
best zoo experience I’ve ever had, the Night Safari was something totally unique
– getting to see all the animals at their nocturnal best.
2. Table Mountain
(Cape Town, South Africa): I love a good
hike, and Table Mountain lived up to and beyond its reputation. The views were amazing and I earned my
chocolate cake after.
3. Kruger National
Park Safari (South Africa): I was pretty
safari-ed out by the end of Africa, but my last safari in Kruger was a
showstopper: all big 5 in one morning
and a ton of other sightings.
4. Rault Biscuit
Factory (Mahebourg, Mauritius): It’s not
often you get to go right into the heart of a biscuit factory and have each
worker show you how they do what they do.
I loved the tour… and the free samples!
5. Reunification
Palace (Saigon, Vietnam): After suffering through one propaganda-filled museum
after another in Vietnam, the now-terribly-named former South Vietnamese
presidential palace was left largely intact from when it fell during the
Vietnam War, and propaganda wasn’t the main menu item.
6. Choeung Ek
Genocidal Centre (Phnom Penh, Cambodia):
The saddest thing I did on my gap year, I didn’t know much about the
Cambodian genocide, but this historical site – often known as “the Killing
Fields” – gave me an education and helped me better understand my favourite
Southeast Asian nation.
7. Monteverde Cloud
Forest Zip Line (Monteverde, Costa Rica):
I’m a chicken but I absolutely loved the zip lining at Monteverde… after
the first few zips at least!
8. Palacio
Legislativo (Montevideo, Uruguay): Not
many tourists hit up Uruguay’s parliament building – especially not many
English-speaking tourists – so my tour was me plus 2 Austrians and an extremely
knowledgeable English-speaking guide who took us all around and answered all of
my questions. I think the small size
made it one of the best parliament tours I’ve ever done.
9. Palacio Barolo
(Buenos Aires, Argentina): I visited
this old 22-story skyscraper when I realized I’d have to wait ages for a tour
of Argentina’s Congress. I’m so glad I
did! The story of the architecture was
fabulous and the little lighthouse on the top offered stunning views of the
city.
10. Inca Trail
(Peru): I thought Machu Picchu would be
the highlight of Peru, but it was actually the Inca Trail. It wasn’t as strenuous as I was thinking it
would be, and the views and cultural interactions were great. It must be true: it’s not about the destination, it’s about
the journey to get there.
Honourable mentions:
- Bois Cheri Tea
Plantation (Bois Cheri, Mauritius): Just
like the biscuit factory, the tour of the tea factory was fantastic, as was the
tea plantation setting and the on-site museum.
My tour included all of the tea I could taste (and lots of trips to the
bathroom) and the on-site restaurant fed me delicious tea-inspired dishes. Win.
- Poas Volcano (Poas,
Costa Rica): I took a bus up to the top
of an active volcano and got to look down into the crater. Did I mention I was a geology nerd back in
the day? And still…
- Real City Tour
(Medellin, Colombia): The best walking
tour I did, the Real City Tour shies away from Medellin’s famous drug kingpin
and tells the story of… the real city.
Top Monuments (in chronological order):
1. Hachiko Statue
(Tokyo, Japan): It’s a statue of a dog
that the locals erected to commemorate a dog that used to meet his owner at the
station every day. Amazing.
2. National Peace
Hall of the Atomic Bomb Victims (Hiroshima, Japan): The atomic bomb memorial’s every detail had a
specific meaning. It also didn’t blame
the US for the events that led to this disaster, but rather acknowledged that
they themselves started the war. The
whole thing was a touching, moving tribute.
3. Monument to
Ferdinand Magellan (Punta Arenas, Chile):
I got to kiss one of the toes on this statue to ensure I’ll go back to
Punta Arenas one day. I love it!
I’m running out of things to blog about now… I’ll have one
more blog coming up which covers the best beaches, best internet, and a few
other random bits of information. If any
of you, my four readers, are curious for a specific list, then please let me
know and I’ll include it in the next installment. Woooo!
