would you go?

As part of my job I have to travel to various conferences; of course, having a new baby has put a bit of a crimp in things. So I'm looking for some place to go to this year. I've missed a lot of deadlines, so my choices are a little more limited than usual. Calcutta, Tel Aviv, Saudi Arabia, San Jose California and somewhere in Eastern Florida are pretty much what I've narrowed it down to.

Of course, there are other issues to consider other than just where is the coolest place to visit, but all that aside, here's the question: would you go to Calcutta? on your own? if you were a woman? How 'bout Tel Aviv? Saudi Arabia? I'm finding that there are quite a few places I'm extremely nervous about visiting, particularly on my own. If I am meeting up with someone then it's not quite so intimidating a trip, but if I have little to no prospect of knowing someone on the other end then I find myself quite leery of traveling, even to Europe. And I've been THERE a few times, and there's not quite so much culture shock as, say, Saudi Arabia might offer. Hell, I'm nervous even going to Seattle!

Not to mention the fact that let's face it, women truly are second-class citizens in some of these places. (not seattle. I don't think so, anyway.)

So I think it's gonna be a choice between San Jose and Florida. Not that this is any hardship (poor me, do I go to Florida or San Jose -- sun, sun, or more sun??) but I can see Joe going nuts that I am turning some of these places down just because I'm worried about traveling on my own (e.g. past options have been Bangkok, Peking, Kobe, Hiroshima ...). So what would you do?

There's my thought for the day. To dan and tina -- good luck with the deck!