Once places where desert aborigines came looking for work, they degenerated into pools of despair.

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The off-strip locations like the Luxor and the Holiday Inn Desert Club were comparatively nice places, with the latter offering a two-bedroom suite with full living room and kitchen for a fraction of the price of other hotels.

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As one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, supporting jungle, high mountains and coastal desert, Peru calls upon a formidable stash of raw materials to concoct its cuisine.

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The backbone of this would-be tourism boom is nature-viewing safaris to places like Chobe National Park, the Okavango Delta and the vast Kalahari Desert.

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Since launching his company in 2002, Smith has trekked to places like Pingliang, China, 1, 000 miles from the coast and bordering a desert that stretches north into Mongolia.

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