Howard Bubski's Top 5 Bucket List Destinations

Howard Bubski is leading several international expeditions which will introduce you to metal detecting, a hobby that is experiencing a surge in popularity (according to Howard).

Join Howard at these top International Bucket List destinations:

Komodo Island

Picture the thrilling experience of metal detecting while being surrounded by 200-pound (90.72 kg) venomous prehistoric Komodo dragons.

Why would anyone explore this island?

To collect the items previous tourists dropped while fleeing in terror.

Fun fact: Sharon Stone had a close encounter with a Komodo dragon in 2002 when her husband Phil Bronstein was attacked. It was a near fatal attraction — he needed to undergo surgery to reattach severed tendons and rebuild a crushed toe.

Venice Beach, California

An ideal setting to develop one’s skills, offering fine dining, friendly war veterans eager to share their stories for a few dollars, and a beach that will keep you on your toes with its abundance of buried hypodermic needles.

Fun fact: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s trained in Gold’s Gym at Venice Beach in the 1960s. Just imagine if he had also been metal detecting.

Hong Kong

Bombed by the Japanese at the start of WW2, then bombed by the Americans another 47 times in the middle, the verdant hills of Hong Kong hold a bounty of unexploded bombs as diverse as the cast of Shōgun.

Expert Tip: If you detect a large chunk of metal, and you are unsure if it's an old washing machine or an unexploded piece of wartime ordinance, hit it with a hammer — household appliances will make a hollow sound.

Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine

Remarkable “hidden gems” abound in this area, and their enchanting glow is a sight to behold!

The blast from Reactor №4 hurled sizable chunks of steel over a broad area, leaving a landscape strewn with debris. These piece of metal are the most radioactive lost artifacts on the planet (outside of US X-ray machine parts that sometimes wind up in Mexican scrapyards).

Start your once in a lifetime collection before halftime, and while supplies last!

Pro Tip: Detecting near the abandoned Pripyat city or the reactor site is strictly prohibited, but right now in Ukraine, who’s really paying attention?

Northern France

Over the past few centuries, peace loving Western Europe has been the home of more wars and religious genocides than a dozen Myanmar and Rwandas. Soldiers with their cannons have littered its fields with scrap metal since the 1500s.

‘Deep Digger Dan’ on YouTube uses metal detectors such as the Nokta Fors Core 2x to uncover items from previous wars and potentially have a blast:

Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaii

This man is standing on a gold mine!

$60,000 in gold flows out of the Mauna Loa’s main fissure every hour. Interesting to watch, but you may have a tough time collecting it, as it's mixed with 330 million kg of molten lava that is flowing into the ocean.

Pro Tip: Watch your step.

The Donbass

Yearn for more followers? Want to have young people follow in your footsteps?

Take the lead in finding a safe route through a Russian minefield, and you will have them.

Most, if not all, of the WW2 bombs around the world are too old to detonate. Not so the freshly laid anti-personnel mines of the Donbass.

Experience the thrills of the Netflix’s Squid Game in real life!

Fun fact: Hold up your white flag and have a borscht in Luhansk, and then return for the night to feast on the same dish in Ukraine. It's the national dish of both countries.

Author’s Note: the metal detecting activities described are extremely hazardous, carried out by experienced, qualified individuals, and should not be attempted at home.

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Read more from Howard Bubski:

My new book “Diaries of an Insurance Claims Adjuster - Volume #1” is coming soon from Simon & Schuster (just kidding, it's self-published.)

The story of how I began writing, “At Age 64, They Told Me to Keep Writing” is on Medium.com.