If you feel in need of ideas for a less hum-drum holiday, look no further, for travellers have taken to an online discussion to reveal the most bizarre destinations they’ve ever visited.
And we’ve picked out some of the gems.
User ‘pacinosdog’ got the Reddit symposium underway when they asked: ‘What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever been to?’ They added: ‘This could mean a place with a weird vibe or a place that clashes with the rest of the country or region.’
It sparked a torrent of responses, with over 700 comments at the time of writing.
Scroll down to discover five offbeat tourist attractions, from a semi-abandoned island in Japan ‘overtaken by vines’ to an Irish village obsessed with Obama.
Haw Par Villa, Singapore
Haw Par Villa, a ‘weird as hell’ theme park in Singapore that’s ‘filled with thousands of strange statues’
Haw Par Villa, formerly known as the Tiger Balm Garden, is an 8.5-hectare theme park dedicated to Chinese mythology – which one Redditor said is ‘weird as hell’.
User ‘Truncated_Rhythm’ wrote: ‘Haw Par was absolutely fascinating! Weird as hell. But yet, I loved it!’
What’s in it? A user reveals that it’s ‘filled with thousands of strange statues and scenes depicting people suffering in hell, decapitation, torture scenes, and animals killing each other’.
‘Skyortik’ remarked: ‘Parents bring their kids there to make them behave. Schools as well. I went once with my parents when I was five and another time on a school field trip when I was eight.
‘It’s been more than 30 years since I was last there, but the images are seared into my psyche.’
‘ReputationCold275’ added: ‘Still occasionally have nightmares about that place. I can’t imagine how the kiddos I saw there on a field trip are coping.’
User ‘curiouslittlethings’ wrote: ‘All Singaporean kids have some form of Haw Par Villa PTSD.’
Moneygall, Ireland
Moneygall has turned into something of a shrine to Barack Obama
Pictured above is ‘Barack Obama Plaza’, a Moneygall service station dedicated to the former president
Barack Obama watches as Michelle Obama draws a pint at Ollie Hayes Pub in Moneygall in 2011
Barack Obama visited Moneygall, on the border of counties Offaly and Tipperary, in 2011 after learning that his great-great-great grandfather was from there.
Since then, the town has turned into something of a shrine to the 44th American president.
Visitor ‘Maddy_egg7’ wrote: ‘It was very strange to see so many keychains, trinkets, and town decorations dedicated to a U.S president.’
‘Over-Ice-8403’ pointed out that the village has a ‘really cool’ service station called ‘Barack Obama Plaza’, while user ‘Over-Ice-8403 commented: ‘Seriously! It’s so random. I’ve never seen anything called Barack Obama Plaza here in the USA.’
User ‘-TheFourChinTeller’ wrote: ‘My first time abroad I went here, and because I was an American one of the restaurants gave me lunch for free.’
To which ‘Maddy_egg7’ replied: ‘Yes! They gave me a free keychain at a gift shop in town. It was also my first time abroad, so I was really confused as to why everything was dedicated to the U.S president.’
Ikeshima, Japan
Ikeshima is ‘absolutely post-apocalyptic’, but also ‘the coolest place in Japan’
The semi-abandoned island of Ikeshima, near Nagasaki, previously operated as a mining facility and was in operation until 2001, but is now, according to Redditor ‘throwaway3123312’, ‘absolutely post-apocalyptic’, but also ‘the coolest place in Japan’.
They continued: ‘Japan being Japan, there’s still regular public bus and ferry services to the abandoned island, which had no passengers except me when I went.’
On the island, the user notes, there’s one small hotel, a school and a city hall. They added: ‘There are a few people who live on the island, most of whom are rather elderly. The population mostly lives in one little area, and the rest of the island is in ruins.’
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
One Reddit user described the capital of Turkmenistan as the ‘cleanest, fanciest city ever’
User ‘kjerstih’ noted Turkmenistan as the weirdest place they’ve visited. And they added a few extra comments on the capital, Ashgabat, which was eye-catching in multiple ways.
They remarked: ‘Ashgabat is the cleanest, fanciest city ever, just Italian white marble and gold everywhere.
‘Few people in the streets. Many extravagant monuments and gold statues of the former dictator. Plus lots of weird laws and rules, like the fact that every car needs to be white.’
Swakopmund, Namibia
Reddit users have described Swakopmund, a coastal city in Namibia, as both ‘odd’ and ‘interesting’
This coastal city in Namibia, once a German colony, has baffled some Reddit users due to its striking resemblance to its former coloniser.
The original poster, ‘pacinosdog’, wrote: ‘That place is so weird and interesting. It almost feels like a bit of Germany was just transported to Africa.
‘It has German architecture, beer halls, German restaurants, a substantial German-speaking white population, German street and place names, and all that with wide and empty palm-tree-lined streets, nestled between the ocean and the desert.’
User ‘jabberwocky_’ agreed: ‘Swakopmund was truly fascinating. I agree that weird is the right word. It’s in such a remote location, too. I get that the country was a German colony (hence the great beer as well), but I didn’t expect that.’
‘GoegrousUnknown’ commented: ‘Swakopmond was a bit odd… but we had fun there. We went horseback riding and danced with locals.’
