5 totally badass travel experiences

Everyone likes to get a little off-the-beaten-path once in a while and if you look around enough, you’ll find the world is full of crazy experiences. Sometimes you have to do little more than hop on a plane, plop down some cash and get down to business.

Whether you’re looking for a taste of torture, want to look a mankiller straight in the eye or fire off a few rounds on an AK-47, here are five badass travel experiences that are bound to get your blood pumping:

Take a plunge in the Cage of Death

Swimming in a cage surrounded by great white sharks in South Africa is certainly a cool experience but everyone seems to be doing that nowadays. As an alternative, head to Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, Australia and climb into the Cage of Death where you’ll have the opportunity to get in the water with a full grown salty croc and look him straight in the eye. While crocodiles only kill about one person per year in Australia, they’re still serious mankillers and in sub-Saharan Africa, the Nile crocodile takes the lives of a few hundred people every year.

Dodge logs and bodies at the Onbashira Festival

While Japanese people have a reputation of being modest, polite, intelligent and orderly, they also put on some of the most dangerous and chaotic festivals on the planet. This couldn’t be demonstrated more than at the Onbashira Festival in Nagano, Japan where local men ride insanely massive logs down steep slopes at breakneck speeds. Serious injuries are common and up to a few people die every year by being crushed under the weight of the logs. It only takes place every seven years but you’re in luck because the next one is set for 2011. Unfortunately, you’ll have to forget about taking part in the event and riding the log, it’s open to Japanese men only. There’s enough danger standing near the slope anyway. If you don’t think this is dangerous enough, check out this badass video.

Fire off some rounds in Cambodia

Home to one of the biggest genocides and mass killings in modern history, Cambodia is awash in guns and weaponry. It’s a pretty peaceful place these days but there are still opportunities to get a taste of the weapons of war. There are a number of military firing ranges outside of Phnom Penh and Siam Reap where you can shoot just about any weapon imaginable. This includes fully automatic AK-47s, Uzis, long range rifles, .50 calibers, M1919 Browning machine guns and all kinds of other weapons that you ypically can’t shoot in your own backyard. You can also throw hand grenades and fire rocket launchers.

Get tortured and interrogated Soviet-style

Located just outside of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius in an old bunker, the “1984 Adventure Park” offers you the opportunity to be beaten and tortured KGB-style. Step inside an old bunker where you can experience KGB interrogation methods first-hand. Tour leaders dress like agents of the Russian secret police and will beat you with a leather belt and shout at you to show you what life was like under Soviet rule. It’s all for show and you’ll likely emerge without serious injuries but visitors should be prepared to be humiliated.

Take a Cocaine Tour in Colombia

You’re not going to find a web site for this kind of thing and I don’t think your local travel agent can book it but some travelers have reported the opportunity to tour cocaine labs in Colombia. Assuming you can even hook up with the right people without getting yourself killed, you might be able to visit a lab and learn more about how the yeyo is made.  If you still want to explore Colombia’s drug world yet want to stay legit, head to Hacienda Napoles, the ranch of now-deceased drug lord Pablo Escobar. It has now been turned into a theme park which still features his narco décor along with his zoo, wanted posters, burnt-out cars, bullet marks and more.

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