Blow away a cow for $400, and other weird tourist attractions

By JIM EAGLES, travel editor

How would you fancy the chance to fire a rocket-launcher at a cow? Or an anti-aircraft gun at a chicken? They are among the special attractions on offer to tourists in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

I think that tops off the parasite museum, sewer tours, turtle races, asylum-hotels and bone sculptures in the list of weird tourist attractions sent in by readers in response to the story about Flight Centre's Top 10 Strangest Tourist Attractions.

Tim Mitchelson discovered the Cambodian Army's jolly little foray into the entertainment industry when his taxi driver in Phnom Penh asked if he would like to try his hand at firing an assault rifle.

"Replying in the affirmative, I was driven to a nearby Army base, where I was met by a young soldier with a price list," he says.

"These guys had everything under the sun: pistols, grenades, machineguns, anti-aircraft guns, and - of course - rocket-launchers. Asked if I got to shoot at anything, they offered me a choice of a coconut, a chicken or a cow.

"Pressing them further on price, they announced their special combo was a cow and a rocket-launcher for US$400: US$200 for each. On the bright side, you got to keep your US$200 for the cow if you missed. I settled for the machinegun and the coconut."

But if you want to take the armaments home, Somalia is the place to head for.

The Economist magazine reports that, "Brave tourists can find unusual bargains in Mogadishu. In the market a hand grenade sells for US$10, a howitzer for US$20,000." Weirder still, it also reports that Somalia, which has a Minister of Tourism, has officially not had a single tourist for 14 years.

The minister, Abdi Jimale Osman, can't understand this. "I'm sure tourists would leave Somalia alive and I'm hopeful they wouldn't be kidnapped," he is reported as saying. "At least, we would try to make sure they were not kidnapped, though it can happen."

Runner-up in the weirdness stakes would have to be the Parasite Museum in Meguro, Tokyo, which displays 300 varieties of parasites that have been found in humans. Charlie Eng, who discovered it while she was living in Japan says, "Its house, a very small, unassuming building, looks so normal, in fact, it's easy to miss.

"The definite highlight is the 9m long tapeworm that was found growing in some poor man's stomach after eating some dodgy sashimi [you can put your nose right up to the glass and see every detailed inch of it]. Oh, yes, you can buy souvenir T-shirts there, and best of all it's free."

Apparently the Parasite Museum is a popular destination for young dating couples. You can get more information about it at www.greggman.com/japan/kiseichuu/kiseichuu.htm .

Then there is the Penis Park outside the Fisherman's Museum in Sinnam on the east coast of South Korea. Martin Robinson says the park is "packed with giant wooden penises carved in fanciful designs. Every July a Penis Festival is held when more are carved and added to the park collection."

But, Robinson adds, "You don't have to leave New Zealand to visit strange tourist attractions. Seacliff Asylum, 30km north of Dunedin, used to house psychiatric patients, including author Janet Frame. You can tour what's left of the asylum and even sleep there as part of it has been converted into a backpackers."

When it comes to weird places to stay, however, Alex Robertson recalls a hotel in New York which has "very interestingly designed rooms with no two the same.

"I stayed in one that had a mannequin embedded in the bathroom door, so that it greeted you on your way into the bathroom and you stared at it's backside while on the loo."

For those who like their accommodation on the unusual side he recommends: www.hostels.com/tt/weirdhostels.html

And for anyone whose appetite was whetted by reference in an earlier article to tours of the Parisian sewers, Robertson suggests a visit to www.ooze.com/sewer/howto.html. It has details of sewer tours, with a couple of toilet tours thrown in for good measure, in most of the major cities of Europe.

Amanda Davie came across a strange tourist attraction during a train journey to Flam in the Norwegian fiords. "During part of the train journey we pulled up at a large platform in front of a waterfall and everyone got out," she says.

"All of a sudden this music started blaring from somewhere and way up at the top of the waterfall from behind a boulder this woman dressed in a red costume appeared. She wiggled her hips a little then disappeared back behind the boulder.

"Then another woman appeared, dressed the same, this time further down the waterfall. They did this alternately for a while then the music stopped and that was it. We were a bit confused but afterwards we saw posters of the performance on the train and realised it must be a tourist attraction."

Larraine Stevenson was greatly taken by the turtle racing offered by a bar in Santa Monica every Tuesday night. "Patrons go out a side door to the race track which is surrounded with wooden grandstands.

"The turtles that are racing are placed in the centre of the circle covered with a container. When all bets have been placed the cover is lifted and the turtles race to the edge."

She also recommends the cemeteries under Paris. "Apparently, all the bones were shifted there during some war or other. They are arranged in fantastic patterns, such as skull and crossbones, houses, boats, etc."

Then there is the Museo delle Mummie which Linley Downey found in the village of Ferentillo a couple of hours' drive from Rome.

"In the crypt of the church San Stefano are different types of corpses which have been preserved by accident. Apparently they have been dried and preserved by the sandy soil conditions and the wind from the south.

"Just inside the door were two French soldiers hanged during the Napoleonic wars. They were just hanging there and you could tell exactly where the rope had been. There was a dwarf, a mother who died in childbirth with her baby lying next to her, a soldier bolt upright with his gun, a local lawyer shot in a feud and another man shot through the stomach in the same feud."

Siobhan O'Donovan found something similar in the catacombs of Palermo in Sicily.

"Once inside it was pretty freaky. Bodies were literally hanging from and standing up against the walls. Others were stacked on shelves like books in a library.

"There were probably around 200 bodies in total. Some were very well preserved, some were not. Most were clothed. The strangest were the little children, one or two no more than babies, still with bowed legs and enormous heads. One baby was so well preserved that, but for the cold, you might have thought it was asleep.

"I left the catacombs and was flashed at by a man in a nasty, dirty white Bambina. All in all an unforgettable day."

It surely is a weird and wonderful world out there.