From an Irish village obsessed with Obama to a Singapore theme park full of strange statues, travelers reveal the ‘weirdest’ places they’ve ever visited

If you’re looking for ideas for a less boring vacation, look no further. Travelers have been discussing online the most bizarre destinations they’ve ever visited.

We have selected a number of gems for you.

User ‘pacinosdog’ opened the Reddit symposium by asking, “What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever been?” They added, “This could be a place with a strange vibe or a place that clashes with the rest of the country or region.”

It prompted a flood of responses; at the time of writing, there were over 700 responses.

Scroll down to discover six unusual tourist attractions, from a semi-deserted Japanese island ‘overgrown with vines’ to an Irish village obsessed with Obama.

Haw Par Villa, Singapore

Haw Par Villa, a ‘weird as hell’ theme park in Singapore that is ‘filled with thousands of strange statues’

Haw Par Villa, formerly known as the Tiger Balm Garden, is an 8.5-acre theme park dedicated to Chinese mythology — which, according to one Redditor, is “weird as hell.”

User ‘Truncated_Rhythm’ wrote: ‘Haw Par was absolutely mesmerizing! Weird as hell. But still loved it!’

What’s inside? One user reveals that it’s “filled with thousands of strange images and scenes showing people suffering in hell, beheadings, torture, and animals killing each other.”

‘Skyortik’ noted: ‘Parents take their children there to make them behave. Schools too. I went there once with my parents when I was five and another time on a school trip when I was eight.

‘It’s been over 30 years since I was last there, but the images are etched in my psyche.’

‘ReputationCold275’ added: ‘I still have nightmares about that place every now and then. I can’t imagine how the kids I saw there on a field trip cope.’

User ‘curiouslittlethings’ wrote: ‘All Singaporean children have some form of Haw Par Villa PTSD.’

Moneygall, Ireland

Moneygall has become something of a shrine to Barack Obama

Pictured above is ‘Barack Obama Plaza’, a Moneygall gas station honoring the former president

Barack Obama watches Michelle Obama pour a pint at the Ollie Hayes Pub in Moneygall in 2011

Barack Obama visited Moneygall, on the border of counties Offaly and Tipperary, in 2011 after learning that his great-grandfather was from there.

Since then, the city has become something of a shrine to the 44th American president.

Visitor ‘Maddy_egg7’ wrote: ‘It was very strange to see so many keychains, trinkets and city decorations dedicated to an American president.’

‘Over-Ice-8403’ pointed out that the town has a “really cool” gas station called “Barack Obama Plaza,” while user ‘Over-Ice-8403’ commented: “Seriously! This is so random. I’ve never seen anything called Barack Obama Plaza here in the US.”

User ‘-TheFourChinTeller’ wrote: ‘When I was abroad for the first time I went here and because I’m American I got a free lunch at one of the restaurants.’

To which ‘Maddy_egg7’ replied: ‘Yes! They gave me a free keyring at a souvenir shop in town. It was also my first time abroad so I was really confused why everything was dedicated to the US president.’

Ikeshima, Japan

Ikeshima is ‘definitely post-apocalyptic’ but also ‘the coolest place in Japan’

The semi-deserted island of Ikeshima, near Nagasaki, used to be a mining facility and was in operation until 2001. According to Redditor ‘throwaway3123312’, it is now ‘definitely post-apocalyptic’, but also ‘the coolest place in Japan’.

They continued: ‘Japan is Japan, so there are still regular bus and ferry services to the deserted island, which, when I was there, had no other passengers but me.’

On the island, the user notes, there is a small hotel, a school, and a town hall. They added: ‘There are a few people living on the island, most of whom are quite old. The population lives mainly in a small area, and the rest of the island is in ruins.’

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

A Reddit user described Turkmenistan’s capital as “the cleanest, most posh city ever”

User ‘kjerstih’ called Turkmenistan the strangest place they’ve ever visited. And they added a few extra comments about the capital, Ashgabat, which stood out in more ways than one.

They noted, ‘Ashgabat is the cleanest and most luxurious city ever, with nothing but Italian white marble and gold everywhere.

‘Few people on the streets. Lots of extravagant monuments and golden statues of the former dictator. Plus lots of strange laws and regulations, like the fact that every car has to be white.’

Swakopmund, Namibia

Reddit users have described Swakopmund, a coastal city in Namibia, as both ‘weird’ and ‘interesting’

This coastal city in Namibia, once a German colony, is baffling some Reddit users because of its striking resemblance to its former colonizer.

The original poster, ‘pacinosdog’, wrote: ‘That place is so strange and interesting. It almost feels like a piece of Germany has been transported to Africa.

‘The city has German architecture, beer halls, German restaurants, a significant German-speaking white population, German street and place names, and all of this with wide, empty streets lined with palm trees, situated between the ocean and the desert.’

User ‘jabberwocky_’ agreed: ‘Swakopmund was really fascinating. I agree that strange is the right word. It’s also in such a remote location. I get that the country was a German colony (hence the great beer), but I didn’t expect that.’

‘GoegrousUnknown’ commented: ‘Swakopmond was a bit strange… but we had fun. We went horse riding and dancing with the locals.’