Scary vacations people actually pay for

Need a break from your boring job? Then don’t go on any of these vacations.

Cost: Sh225 per day

Paris isn’t all poodles and Eiffel Towers, and it goes without saying that there’s more to see than the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. In fact, after taking a poop in one of the city’s fine restrooms, you can actually pay to take a tour of the Paris Sewer System.

The tour will take you through 500 metres of actual Paris sewer lines. You’ll get the chance to see tools and equipment workers use as well as a brief history lesson on the past, present and future of the Paris Poop Management System.

Your amazement will perhaps not be powerful enough to distract you from the river of human excrement flowing nearby like a chocolate river.

Cost: Sh1,350 per day

For a tourist looking to have a good time, Mexico has it all: margaritas, senoritas and the Illegal Border Crossing Experience Tour. It’s like actually crossing a border. Considering that it is illegal and very dangerous, it isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea.

The folk at Parque EcoAlberto decided to fill a void no one knew existed and began offering guided ‘crossings’ over an imaginary border.

The typical adventure will put you out in the desert with a group of other people just like you; complete with a guide, the stars above and angry border patrollers threatening to send you back to Mexico.

You’ll spend the evening hiding in bushes, hiding under bridges, running through the dark and wading through creeks. It will almost be like an awesome game of hide and go seek, except that you have gunshots (blanks) fired and curse words (real) being shouted at you. That’s all while you are hiding next to donkeys in cornfields with mud up to your ankles.

Cost: Sh3,750 per day

When you travel to a strange city, do you fear taking a wrong turn and ending up in the ‘bad’ part of town?

Fortunately, when you travel to Rio de Janeiro, you can take a Ghetto Tour.

Thrill seekers will be disappointed to find that most of these ghettos aren’t all that dangerous. During these Favela Tours there are armed men stationed as guards (they don’t work for the police, mind you, but for the drug traffickers who run the neighbourhoods).

A portion of the proceeds from these tours always goes back into the community. But, not too much mind you. Because if you give poor people too much money, they won’t be poor anymore. And that would kill business.

Cost: Sh30,000 per day

The Ice Hotel is located just north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. The latest incarnation (they have been building these since 1980) has 31 rooms, a main hall, a church and a bar. It’s the pride of Sweden and the artists who lovingly sculpt it out of ice.

The average temperature in the Ice Hotel is 17 degrees and temperatures can drop down to negative five degrees at night outside its walls. Of course, that’s all necessary because the whole thing is made out of ice. And it all needs to stay frozen. There is no heat, no fires and the toilet is 100 feet away in a trailer.

It’s cold enough to make a solid block of ice out of any liquid you want to drink and cold enough to give you frostbite if you aren’t properly dressed. Meaning a stay at the Ice Hotel could potentially kill you.

|   |    |   Add Comment |    Comments (0)