Our 9 best quirky experiences of 2014

Let's step into the stranger side of life

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9) Can a festival cure life's common complaints?
Whether you’re wracked with remorse or wrecked by workplace worry, our resident Festival Doctor can offer a cure through festival form.

A sādhu can offer a blessing at Maha Shivaratri, Nepal
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8) Top 20 wonders of the underwater world
From barrier reefs and blue holes to seabed sculpture parks, we don our wet suits and explore 20 of the best underwater attractions.

An orange-lined triggerfish surveys the Great Barrier Reef
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7) The 20 quirkiest places to stay in Britain
Looking for lodgings with a difference? Then have a scroll through our guide to the most unusual accommodation in Britain.

This suspended tent in Cornwall is not for sleepwalkers
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6) 20 islands you never knew existed
From an islet inhabited exclusively by pigs to an atoll made of seashells, we round up 20 of the quirkiest islands you never knew existed.

The last king of Clipperton was slaughtered by his female subjects
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5) 10 New Year's Eve alternatives for 2014
Forget Auld Lang Syne and elbow room only, our alternative New Year’s Eve guide will take you from punch-ups in Peru to the bottom of a Siberian lake.

Peruvian's start the year afresh - thanks to a fight at Takanakuy
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4) The 19 strangest places to ski
Hitting the slopes this winter? Then have you considered the pistes of Algeria, Pakistan or Iran? Didn't think so. But perhaps you should - some of the best skiing can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

Après-ski drinks on the beach? Only in Hawaii
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3) The 10 weirdest restaurants in the world
If you’ve never been spanked by your waitress or dined in a public toilet, then you’re not eating at the right places. We round up the world’s weirdest restaurants.

This toilet is clean enough to eat your dinner off - and some do
Attendant

2) I visited Buzludzha, an abandoned Communist Party HQ
David Hillier unwittingly stumbles upon Bulgaria’s Buzludzha, the ex-Communist Party headquarters in the clouds.

Cyrillic script circles the hammer and sickle centrepiece
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1) The 20 craziest festivals in the world
Fancy yourself as a champion tuna thrower or perhaps you’d be better at wife carrying? Whatever your bag, we’ve got it covered in our weird festivals roundup.

A cheeky peek of Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri in Japan
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