"The Big Stain" and 12 Other Dream Trips

Mexicans call it la Gran Mancha, the Big Stain. It's a filthy, chaotic mess. It's crowded, polluted and loud. In short: Mexico City is a wonderful place.

This and a dozen other essays are the semifinalists in the Corolla Dream Destinations Contest. Your vote will help determine which essay goes on to the final round, where a round of celebrity judges determine which entrant gets to make his trip a reality. After the jump, quotes from the other twelve, and info on how to vote. (pingnews/flickr)

• In Iceland's outrageous, white-hot capital Reykjavik, I can only assume an immediate connection with my inner Viking would form. Perhaps it would rear its head -- horned-helmet-clad, of course -- while deliberating with locals about whether elves really do exist in the sparse country's nether regions ...
• "I want to jet to the beautiful and exotic city of Marrakech, Morocco. My girl and I will stroll the wide boulevards in the Ville Nouvelle and dive into the maze-like medina.
• Like the city itself, my dream trip to Tokyo would be cute and kinky. I'd shack up at Hotel J Girl, a love hotel in Ikebukuro which looks like what would happen if Rainbow Brite bought a plantation and pimped it out.


• Siem Reap immerses you in sheer chaos - tourist-filled busses, screeching motorbikes (often carrying entire families), and the ubiquitous tourist-friendly tuk tuk (motorcycle pulled rickshaw) create a buzzing, honking din that continues day and night.


• Imagine: a brief UK road trip, bookended by two mind-blowing shows. You arrive in Manchester, and check into the decked-out Lowry Hotel. The following evening, you bundle up and head down to the LCCC to witness Radiohead performing live.


• I want to go to the rudest city in the world. Badly. Reader's Digest may deem Mumbai as no fan of Emily Post, but I know Mumbaikars are just hardened and misunderstood urbanites.


• Reputedly one of the most beautiful cities on earth, it will also help host the world's most-watched sport during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. My dream destination? Cape Town (aka The Mother City).


• In Rome, I'll bestow
  One big shopping spree
  Time to drop those Euros
  On the Via Condotti


• Saturday night [in Buenos Aires] will be spent downing copious amounts of Argentinean beer at Cossab.


• I'd start my "Roman Holiday" at stylish Hotel Art on Via Margutta during the outdoor art show "Cento Pittori Via Margutta".


• A total of 24 hours in flight may not be much fun, but a long weekend in Tokyo would be well worth it. Despite the novelty staying in a capsule hotel may provide, my base of operations in the city would be the Sadachiyo, a traditional Ryokan inn.


• It's three in the morning and I'm pleasantly tipsy, traipsing through the neon embrace of [Tokyo's] Roppongi. A bitchin' psych-rock band finished their second set at Superdeluxe hours ago, but the hip, young coterie of Tokyo artists in attendance just kept drinking . . .

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