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I get asked a lot "why do you want to go strange places for holiday instead of somewhere like Mexico or Florida."
The answer is pretty simple: it's something different, I could go do the typical winter vacation in Florida or I could do some basic research, plan carefully and go visit Uzbekistan for two weeks and have an entirely different experience that you can't have really anywhere else and for less money.
The only times I ever got strange looks is for the fact that physically I was very much not the norm. I'm a very tall man (thank you icelandic mom, very awesome) with long braided black hair (something I've retained from the native wide) in many places I stand out for better or worse.