Hi Gordon,
I thought I'd quickly mention some research I've read about (and others may have read about too), which is that apparently, buying
"experiences" makes you happier than buying
"stuff"...
http://www.livescience.com/6158-stud...ces-stuff.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-02-10/h...h?_s=PM:HEALTH
Anyway, on to some experiences!
I think that a lot of "travel" is for the purpose of getting new experiences - whether it could be the experience of a different culture, or just a different environment... Depending on where you are, you could get to a new environment for a few hundred bucks! In North America, for example, traveling to Quebec (where they speak French) or Mexico (where they speak Spanish) could be quite a "different" experience for many people, due to a different language and culture... (Though there are travel warnings about drug war-related violence in Mexico nowadays that it's good to be aware of...)
I've paid to go white water rafting before (it was my fiancee's idea, she's more adventurous than me!). We were packed in with around 7 or 8 people to a raft, if I remember correctly... It was a good experience! (Translation: I'm happy we survived!)
I tried "sailboarding" once... I gotta say, I was pretty terrible at it. Most of my time was spent trying to lift the heavy sail out of the water, after it had fallen over!
I also paid to go "sea kayaking" once, but got a sore back from the way you have to sit in a kayak...
I remember doing some horse riding when I was a kid, as a kind of tourist "experience"... That was cool.
I tried indoor rock climbing once, does that count as an experience? When I was still in my 20s, a friend wanted to go indoor rock climbing for her birthday, so I was one of around 10 friends who went indoor rock climbing with her...
One big experience that stands out in my mind is that about 5 or 6 years ago, we paid to go snorkeling with whale sharks! We did it in Western Australia, though you can also apparently do this in Mexico too, and also in some Central American countries...
(Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea, but they only eat plankton, and are no danger to humans, unless you get close to their tail which could give you a big "whack"!)
http://www.holboxisland.com/photos/w...ale-shark1.jpg
(Above is a picture of a snorkeler with a whale shark... You can see they're pretty big! The picture comes from
here...)
By the way, I've always thought I should sometimes do more "experiences" in my own city (hot air ballooning, maybe, that sort of thing)!
Best wishes,
Dien