Most emotional travel experiences.

This thread was inspired by nickkembel, whose 17 Most Emotional Travel Experiences were as follows.

1. Ascent of Mt. Sinai for Sunrise, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
2. Encounter with a Rastafarian Poet, Belize
3. Barkhor Square, Lhasa, Tibet
4. Prayer Protest in the Old City, Jerusalem, Israel
5. The Sikh Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India
6. Sleeping on a Muslim Family’s Houseboat, Kashmir, Northern India
7. Hike along the Great Wall, China
8. The Taj Mahal, Agra, India
9. Awakening experience, somewhere in the mountains, South Island, New Zealand
10. Ascent to Everest Base Camps, Tibet and Nepal
11. Sleeping in the Jungle, Palenque, Mexico
12. Diving the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
13. Horse Trek into tribal region, Ethiopia
14. Jumping Cat Monastery, Inle Lake, Burma
15. Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
16. Yoga at Rishikesh, India
17. Anticipation, travel planning, getting there, and most importantly, coming back home to the ones you love

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1. Arriving in London alone, when I was 19. I tore around the city trying to take it all in at once, and getting lost all the time.
2. Seeing ethnic Indians being hassled by the army on night busses in Mexico, while the rest of us were ignored after a brief glance at our passports.
3. Travelling in places where I had fewer rights because of my gender and knowing that while I would be leaving, others have to live under these circumstances.
4. Arriving in India for the first time and braving the streets with both excitement and terror. I was so confused and so excited at the same time. There was a real sense of pushing through those fear barriers.
5. The way wretched beggars who people waved away in disgust or ignored looked at me, when I gave them some bread or fruit.
6. How bad it felt for me when I had no choice but to be shouted at by the police on my way into the Bangkok Hilton and knowing that it was way way worse for the prisoner I was visiting and knowing that he cant just walk away in a few hours like I can.
7. Witnessing expressions of warped morals, such as restrictions on women entering religious sites, when those sites were likely financed in the first place by completely ignoring morals against imposing misery on other human beings.
8. How unfailingly sweet and considerate and generous people were to me in Thailand, as a parent travelling with a little child.
9. Listening to a social worker in a remote part of Kenya talking about his work. It made me feel the harshness of life in Africa. Social work there is not what it is in the European Union.
10. Falling in love with an Australian backpacker I met in London when I was 19, and taking off on a trip around Europe with him.
11. Arriving on mainland Europe for the first time, with my ex, when I was 19 and buying chocolate pastries and coffee for breakfast, while my ex danced around singing tip toe through the tulips in as high pitched a voice as he could manage. Reply to this

1. Saying goodbye to a lovely young woman who lived on the streets who I'd befriended in India. I was leaving town and couldn't find her that morning, and had to get in the rickshaw to catch my bus on time. Halfway down the road I heard my name being called and she was running after me in the rickshaw to say goodbye.
2. Getting on a plane to leave India after 6 months there.
3. Being looked after by a fellow traveller who I'd only just met when I got sick in India
4. Being guided out of a labyrinth-like neighbourhood I'd got lost in in Bangkok, by a Thai man and his son who called after me to find out if I was lost and needed help.
5. Walking beneath the leaves of a large banana plantation in Hampi, India and thinking, how lucky I am to be here, experiencing this moment. Reply to this

Also off top of my head in no particular order

1. My daughter at age 2 reaching out to be held to a homeless Vietnam man in Hanoi and to see the immense smile on his face (without teeth) when he briefly held her.
2. Reaching the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro
3. Having my mom meet me in Costa Rica after I had been travelling for 5 months, one of her only times out of the country. Before she died, said that it was probably the best time of her life.
4. The day at the Taj Mahal with my daughter. Spent over 5 hours there with her mesmerized and laughing and running around...One of the best days of my life.
5. As a 2nd year medical resident, trying to help save the lives of some small children in rural South Africa suffering from different diseases, and many times being unsuccesful. Mothers still thanked me for doing all I could do to try to save their childs' lives.
6. Watching USA beat Portugal in the world cup 2002 in Korea. EVERYBODY said we had no chance.
7. Auschwitz
8. Going to Easter Island with my daughter when she was 12 months. It had been a dream of mine since doing a project on Chile when I was 6 or 7 years old.
9. Camping in the Norwegian Fjords with my daughter
10. Travelling around with my daughter....everyday is very emotional as I see her interact with the people and places.

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1) Saying goodbye to my then girlfriend when I left for Indonesia the first time in 2007.

2) Diving at Barracouta Point in Sipadan. Scanning along the wall then turning to be staring at a large Green Turtle. She looked at me in the eyes, scanned me from head to toe, yawned, then promptly fell asleep.

3) Communicating in a foreign language for the first time. A group of children in Borneo chasing me around until I turned around and started speaking to them. When I asked how old they all were all 20 of them started screaming various ages at me and then, without warning, all started doing karate kicks off the jetty into the water below.

4) Going to Gili Moya in Nusa Tenggara with a man I had met on the ferry. He took me to meet his mother, who was at least 80 years old. The entire village came to watch me climb an 8m high coconut tree and laughed at me as I attempted to break it open to drink. As I left I was piled with young coconuts and fruits. I remember holding the hand of my friends mother and although it was calloused and wrinkled, it was an incredibly warm and humbling moment.

5) Sitting at Gantheume Point in Broome watching the sunset with friends from all over the world. The colours were like nothing I had ever seen and it was one of the first times I felt I was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

6) Returning home to Tasmania after being away for the better part of the year. Flying into the local airport where everything was as green as green could be and the sky was crystal clear. The air was so clean and fresh. I was filled with as much expectation arriving home as I was arriving in a foreign country.

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