Poll

My most recent poll asked "Which of the following places would you most likely travel to if given the chance?" and I gave the options San Francisco, Paris, France, London, England, Sydney, Australia, Egypt, Ireland, Venice, Italy, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Thailand, and New Zealand, asking everyone to pick their top two choices. All of these choices were hand-selected from a website of top cities to visit across the world. What I found most interesting was that the results showed most interest in english-speaking places, and I wonder if these places were chosen because traveling somewhere english is spoken would be most comfortable & convenient, or because our minds have been conditioned to think about these places in a certain way from how they are depicted in movies and on television. Although this city wasn't on the list of choices, I recently discovered (thanks to StumbleUpon & my friend Rob), that Dubai is a very progessive and impressive city. I feel like so many of us subconsciously think that any place that is rarely covered in the news/on television/in movies, (such as Dubai or Malaysia for example), we automatically think that they must be third-world and underdeveloped. While this is true of some places, there are so many beautiful places like Thailand that aren't as well known but would probably make for a much more magnificent and memorable vacation spot than Ireland (yes I said it). Maybe I am too biased, because I am extremely fascinated in exotic places and different cultures, but the more different a place is, culturally and geographically, the more power it has to totally give us a new view on our own life, possibly more appreciation for our own way of life, or inspiration to change how we live from day to day. I fully believe that everyone should spend some time at least out of the country (the further & more diverse the better), just to experience other ways of life and gain some perspective on the world and it's diverse mass of people, where no one way of life is the best. I think especially in the U.S. we tend to take things for granted & rush through life and act overly competitive, when life instead should be appreciated and savored.
On another note, a new poll will be up shortly :)