The Marble Caves, Chile Chico, Chile. This is a nice little side trip along the carretera austral in Patagonian Chile, definitely cooler to do by kayak than by boat. Although it’s kind of a bummer, some dickwad carved their initials into one of the formations so now you can’t kayak under and through the caves. But definitely a fascinating place to travel if you’re into outdoorsy stuff, I’d recommend having a car though 
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I feel like it’s only photographers who get visibly excited about burning trash on the side of the road in the late afternoon! Well they love doing that in Myanmar, here’s on from the small town of Katha. Orwell’s book Burmese Days is pretty much obligatory reading if you’re here as this town was the setting for it. And I guess two years ago they finally turned his house into a museum. Katha is right on the train line for a convenient stop, but there’s not much to do besides maybe rent a bicycle, so plenty of time to get reading! (or staking out trash burning locations)
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A sunset on the beach in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. In the last 5 years this once sleepy town, popular among expats for its cheap coastal living and for backpackers looking to party it up in the beachside shacks, has basically been transformed into a Chinese gambling enclave. Nowadays the hostels are gone, the beach shacks knocked down, the city has more than 60 casinos, multiple high rise apartments, new paved roads, and a burgeoning Chinese population either looking to make money from the gambling industry or to escape from China or both. Almost all the N American/European expats have left and backpackers mostly just use the town as a jumping off point to the islands. The insane amounts of construction when I was there made living in town pretty awful. If you look closely you can see some of the new construction in the background, buildings that would have been crazy to think about just a few years prior.
I think the only non-Chinese foreigners who experienced some upside in the changes were… poker players! It’s was a very strange poker scene, with action being spread out over 7-8 different casinos. The poker tables were basically rented out from the casinos, making them effectively semi-private. White people were allowed to play, but in certain games if too many foreigners were showing up or were winning too much, then you might find yourself on the permanent waitlist, especially the nitbots. As someone who can at least speak some Mandarin, I did pretty well getting into good games. And fortunately everything is in USD!
and some chip porn bc I couldn’t resist, my best night in Sihanoukville
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Here’s a photo that’s unfortunately impossible to take now. This is the town of Hasankeyf in Southeast Turkey, aka Kurdistan. It’s said to be 12,000 years old. The Romans built forts here in the 300’s, then it switched hands to the Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Mongolians, and eventually incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. As of last year this whole town does not exist anymore. It is now completely flooded by water released from the dam as part of the AKP’s project to get more water to region, despite large pushback from activists and residents. All the town’s residents were relocated to some little cookie cutter city across the river. Pretty sad…
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I somehow just discovered this thread. Incredible stuff @CS04, really. I’d be happy to see more of your photos from the Middle East if you take requests.
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Ty ty! I suppose I could do some extra ME photos… Although I’ve only really traveled Turkey and Egypt extensively, plus Jordan and Israel for a week each, but I can’t seem to find my Jordan + Israel photos right now 
I’m going to join on the chorus of praise @CS04 . The quality of this thread is fucking outstanding. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.
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Somewhat random mini-dump of ME shots, mostly daily life type stuff
Getting a car unstuck, Dahab, Egypt
Sheep on the loose, Mardin, Turkey
The swimming hole, Diyarbakir, Turkey. Boys only
Busy streets in Jerusalem
A nice stroll in Cairo
Somewhere in Luxor
West Bank of Luxor is way more chill
Somewhere along the entrance to Petra
Firing up the balloons in Cappadocia
hitching a ride on the main tourist street, Istanbul
Near the Western Wall, Jerusalem
Somewhere in Petra
I like the shisha cafes
Market under my balcony in Edfu, Egypt
dudes chilling in Istanbul
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Beautiful. Can’t wait to buy some of these when you inevitably make them nfts.
really need to visit petra when i go back. Ive never been.
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Ha yeah, I’m pretty sure stuff like this is a million miles away from what the NFT crowd is looking for, but MAYBE!
It is definitely worth it to go to Petra though, I never realized how big the whole complex is beyond the Treasury. And Wadi Rum is pretty spectacular too
Try pixilating and adding laser eyes
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Ha, yup! Just gotta figure out what cartoon animal to turn everyone into…
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Some people photos in Kyrgyzstan. Gotta love the Kyrgyz hats! And this girl kinda reminded me of Deb from Napoleon Dynamite with the one-sided ponytail going on.
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Migraine/seizure trigger warning
Shut up and take my money!
Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, from the boardwalk in Panajachel. Talk about a gorgeous lake, it’s a filled in caldera from an eruption 85,000 years ago and has three volcanos that sit on the edges. It’s also the deepest lake in Central America. The area is culturally interesting, mostly Mayan, and when I think about places I wouldn’t mind staying for longer term, I think of this place quite a bit. The volcanos are active though…
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A hazy morning near the temples at Bagan, Myanmar. It took a little while for the sun to cut through the haze, which worked out nicely for this photo. It’s basically obligatory to wake up early for the sunrises here, as you beat all the tourists and get the place to yourself for a couple of hours, which is magical. Plus the better the photo opportunities :)
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Yea the aesthetics of that particular temple, plus the haze + mist, and the birds just kind of worked out perfectly for those early civilization vibes.
Here’s some Indiana Jones vibes from the Am-Phu (hell) cave in the Marble Mountains, just outside of Danang,
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Dude I totally have to see this.
Yea it’s pretty neat, most of the caves have the whole heaven/hell interplay going on, but it is pretty touristy! In non-covid times you really didn’t want to get there during the middle of the day when a few tour buses would roll in.