Some Odd Places to Visit

Tired of the usual tours to crowded places and looking for some unique experience on your summer vacation? Here are some weird tours that are offered for tourists. 

 Weird Meat tour, Shanghai

Fans of the reality game show "Fear Factor" are used to seeing people eat the most disgusting things. But in Shanghai, where the UnTour company says "people will eat anything with four legs except a table, and anything with wings except an airplane," dining on scorpion skewers and fried honey bees is par for the (main) course. The 3.5-hour Weird Meat tour ($220 for up to three people) visits several back-alley restaurants and night markets, where dragonflies and duck tongue — along with plenty of beer for courage — are all on the menu.

Abandoned subway tours, Cincinnati

Tired of squeezing into packed subway cars during rush hour? You won't have to deal with that headache in Cincinnati, home to the largest complex of abandoned subway tunnels in North America. Tours of the more than three kilometres of darkened tunnels are occasionally offered by the Cincinnati Museum Center and Over-The-Rhine Foundation. They consist of wandering around the spooky passageways — wearing hardhats and toting flashlights — while a guide explains why trains aren't trundling down the tracks, part of a project started in 1920 that's now known as "one of Cincinnati's biggest failures."

Trolley Dances, San Diego

This public transit tour is nothing like its Cincinnatian counterpart (or any other tour for that matter). The 13th instalment of the event — running six times daily Sept. 24-25 and Oct. 1-2 — sees guests and a guide hop on one of San Diego's quaint trolleys, which then whisks them to six stops where the San Diego Dance Theatre stages shows in the public squares, pools and fountains along the way. Think of it as a mix of dance recital, city tour and flash mob ($30 for adults).

Brighton Sewer Tours

Ever wonder what happens after you flush the toilet? Didn't think so. But visitors to the seaside town of Brighton, England, are apparently intrigued by the city's subterranean workings. Tours of the "award-winning- sewers" have "become established as a highly popular attraction for tourists and local residents," according to the Southern Water utility that runs the hour-long, $20 outings. First off, who knew sewers could win awards? It seems Brighton's system is among the best examples of Victorian waste disposal, which could be why the sewers were named the "Best Place to Visit in Brighton" in 2007. We're not sure what this says about the rest of Brighton ...

Historic Toilet Tour, York
Who knew the British were so obsessed with their loos? The northern English city of York is a hotbed of history, with a world-class Viking museum, spectacular Gothic cathedral and well-preserved Roman walls. What ties all this history together? Toilets, of course, which is why York Walk offers its "Historic Toilet Tour," a $10 "jaunt through the pungent history of the public toilet." While strolling across the famous Lendal Bridge and around Exhibition Square, visitors will learn about Viking toilets (fetid pits in the ground), Roman facilities (they had seats and everything!) and medieval garderobes (which often emptied into castle moats). Note: make sure you go before you go.

Red Light District Sex Tour, Chicago

Billed as "America's only sex tour" by Weird Chicago, this titillating three-hour jaunt takes in the steamy side of the Windy City. It includes Chicago's original red light districts (once quite racy, now quite yuppified); the world's first Playboy Club (the subject of an upcoming NBC TV series); and various adults-only toy shops and S&M boutiques. Needless to say, the $30 tour is for adults only, and according to Weird Chicago requires "clothing, open minds and polite attitudes." It's good that they're clear about the "clothing" part.

Chernobyl tours
Note to visitors: don't forget your lead underwear. More than two decades after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine,Solo East Travel is offering $450 "ecological tours" of the crippled power plant and surrounding region. Visitors get to see the infamous Reactor No. 4 (from about 100 metres away), the eerie "dead town" of Pripyat — complete with abandoned ferris wheel and empty public swimming pool — and the "red forest" where pine trees have changed colour because of radiation. You even get to feed catfish in one of the power plant's cooling channels and measure radiation levels yourself — just to see if the tour was really such a good idea.

Illegal Border Crossing Tour, Hidalgo, Mexico

Had enough of Mexico's cushy all-inclusive resorts and breezy cabana bars? This four-hour "caminata nocturna" — a guided night hike — skirts the desert hills and dry riverbeds of Parque EcoAlberto , an ecological reserve about 800 kilometres south of the real U.S. border. But this isn't just any evening stroll: participants follow a fake smuggler under real barbed wire fences in an effort to cross a fake border patrolled by fake police officers who'll blind you with real spotlights and even shoot at you — using blanks, of course — in an effort to slow you down.

That is it for now! Stay tuned... Next post will continue traveling topic.

Source: http://travel.ca.msn.com/international/photogallery.aspx?cp-documentid=30152324