Most fun mountain biking route on the planet:
“World’s Most Dangerous Road,” Bolivia
- Country with weirdest sayings on t-shirts: Japan
- Best children’s parks above the tree line: Switzerland
- Most ubiquitous fast food restaurant: KFC. Second place: McDonalds
- Most ubiquitous food product: Pringles
- Most ubiquitous product advertisement: Coke
- Most counterfeited food product: Oreos (Okeos, Oleos… the list is endless)
- Worst food: England
- Best hot dogs: France (Surprised?)
- Worst hot dogs: England
Best children’s parks above the tree line: Switzerland
- Best ice cream: Italy
- Worst ice cream: Turkey
- Place where you are least likely to get a restaurant bill: Poland – you essentially have to beg
- Most ubiquitous product: Microsoft Windows
- Best postal system: China
- Most mystifying postal service: Sweden; there are no post offices
- Worst postal system: Czech Republic
- Most illiterate taxi drivers: China
- Most repulsive toilets: China (notable exception is the “hotel” in Laguna Colorado, Bolivia)
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Country with the friendliest stray cats: Turkey
Most elaborate toilets: Japan
- Best roller coaster: Thunder Dolphin, Tokyo
- Most shoe shine boys per square km: La Paz, Bolivia
- Most internet cafés per square km: tie, Thailand and Bolivia
- Fewest internet cafés per square km: England
- Best internet cafés: Japan – wicked fast upload speeds!
- Most littered plastic bags per square foot: Tanzania
- Most Rolex dealers per square km: Zermatt, Switzerland
- Most aggressive beggars and touts: Arusha, Tanzania
- Most bang for buck: Thailand
- Most stunning scenery: Switzerland; Although Machu Pichu and the Lake District near San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina are also fabulous
Country with the best ice-cream: Italy
(You’ll have to search hard for the Gelato shop in Venice, but it’s worth it!)
- Best chocolate: Forget Switzerland. San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Go for the chocolate and stay for the scenery.
- Most appalling gutters: Dar es Salaam
- Most colorful hair on old ladies: Japan
- Most aggressive carpet salesmen: Turkey
- Worst named travel agency: Mauritius (Dodo Travel)
- Coolest over-the-counter fireworks: Mauritius
- Most helpful people: England
- Most friendly people: France (Surprised?) Of course we found friendly people everywhere we went.
Best roller-coaster: “Thunder Dolphin” in Tokyo
- Best public swimming facilities: Germany
- Best climbing tree in the world: Plaza Brasil, downtown Santiago, Chile
- Most on-time trains: tie, Switzerland and Japan
- Least on-time trains: Thailand
- Prettiest big city: Stockholm
- Most dazzling big city: Hong Kong
- Most unusually-decorated church: Church of Bones, Kunta Hora, Czech Republic
- Hardest place to lunch: Dubai during Ramadan
- Most complicated bathing ritual: Japan
- Most difficult place to do laundry: Europe (two hours to wash, one to dry)
- Easiest place to do laundry: Tanzania; teenaged girls follow you to the shower and are ready to take them from you the moment you step out. Of course, this can be a bit of a shock when you are wearing nothing but a towel
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Coolest over-the-counter fireworks: Mauritius (you buy them at the grocery store)
Hardest to travel in: China; the language barrier is huge
- Most pickpockets per square meter: Rome
- Best water park: Wild Wadi in Dubai
- Most obnoxious coins: Sweden and Costa Rica (tie); Forget stuffing them in your pocket. You need a wheelbarrow to cart them around they are so huge.
- Most obnoxious paper money: China; there are no coins to speak of so you end up with a wad of bills so thick you can’t stuff it in your wallet.
- Most blatant product counterfeiting: China, although Bolivia is a very close second
Best climbing tree in the world: Plaza Brazil, downtown Santiago,Chile
- Noisiest country overall: Tie, United Arab Emirates and China
- Noisiest city: Panama City with their freaking buses
- Country with friendliest stray cats: Turkey
- Country with friendliest stray dogs: Thailand
- Most frustrating “thing” you can’t do while traveling: make a phone call
- Nicest subway: Hong Kong
- Most confusing subway: Paris
- Most elaborate subway: London
- Mean time for solicitation in Bangkok: 20 minutes
Best water-park in the world: Wild Wadi (Dubai, United Arab Emirates). It’s right next to the famous Burj al Arab Hotel (background). We tried to sneak onto the hotel grounds but we were quickly identified as riff-raff and booted out!
- Worst traffic: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Worst drivers: Istanbul
- Most perplexing economy: Thailand. How can things be so cheap?
- Strangest question asked at a restaurant: “Do you want gas or no gas?”
- Most fun mountain biking route on the planet: “World’s Most Dangerous Road,” Bolivia
- Worst pencils: Tanzania – the lead breaks if you dare write anything
- Most dangerous thing we did the whole trip: Cross the street
- Most traveled citizens: the Dutch. They are everywhere. Twenty-year-old Israelis are a close second.
- Most “Gilligan’s Island-ish” place we visited: Boca del Drago, Panama
- Worst Fanta flavor: Belize. We think it is aspirin flavor
- The most famous U.S. personalities worldwide: Michael Jordan and Monica Lewinsky
- Most bizarre law: Kids under 18 can’t use the internet in China