Angola – 119th Country
To see where I have been so far, check out my map as I count down the final 93 countries on the road to all 193 UN countries. Angola is my 119th country. Check out the best 193 travel books to read! Angola can be found on the Atlantic Ocean in the southern part of Africa. Angola was colonized by Portugal and was wracked by a brutal and long civil war. Today, it is a wealthy petrol-state but it is a country of extreme haves and have-nots. Angola is virtually untouched by tourism, and until just recently, it was one of the more difficult visas to get in Africa. Once I learned of the more lenient visa protocols I added on a side trip to Angola when visiting four other countries in Africa. It was a brief visit with a day spent visiting the city and another day visiting shipwreck beach. This country has a lot of potential from a tourism perspective if they expand the tourist infrastructure and provide more competitive prices. What you need to [...]
Namibia – 120th Country
To see where I have been so far, check out my map as I count down the final 93 countries on the road to all 193 UN countries. Namibia is my 120th country. Check out the best 193 travel books to read! The second least densely populated country after Mongolia, Namibia is twice the size of California. Namibia located on the Atlantic Ocean is just north of South Africa. Namibia is a diverse and beautiful country, known for its ancient deserts with towering dunes, great game watching, and the spookily named Skeleton Coast. I spent ten days visiting Namibia with G Adventures (check out my agenda). There are too may highlights for a single trip, and some of them included the surreal Deadvlei, watching lions in Etosha National Park, climbing 300 foot dunes of the Namib desert, and taking a scenic flight for two hours across the Skeleton Coast. Namibia Highlights Scenic Flight Over The Desert Cheetah Conservation Fund Why Travel With G Adventures Visiting Penduka Village Namibia – 120th Country Disclosure: I was an invited guest [...]
Maurice Brand … has completed 148 UN countries
Maurice is planning on completing his quest next year On today’s episode, I welcome Maurice Brand to Counting Countries. Maurice of course is a fellow country chaser as well as one of my neighbors in Bangkok. We met for a Lebanese lunch on Soi Arab in Sukhumvit and then retired to my apartment for our conversation. Maurice does everything at either 0 or 100. Maurice began a career in entrepreneurship in his home country of Holland. So for many years, he was focussed on growing his business and nothing else. After nearing burn out, he sold his business and moved to Thailand. Why Thailand? He had a lovely Thai girlfriend. Maurice also began to dip his toe in the water, with a trip to Bali. He was disappointed with the number of tourists and motorbikes. This was not his expectation of paradise found. A triple inspiration led him down the path of travel. As a kid, he grew up with a globe in his room which planted the seeds of travel. After Bali, he wanted to test [...]
Why Small Group Travel With G Adventures
Why Small Group Travel With G Adventures. What is your style of travel? I often get this question. And I don’t have a good answer. Why is that? Because I don’t have a consistent style. I have stayed in a $3 room in the Mekong Delta, slept on a teenager’s pull-out coach in Transnistria, and lived it up for a week at a $1200 a night, over the water villa in the Maldives (that was awesome!). I have rented cars, hired private taxis to cross borders, and jammed myself in the back of a marshrutka. I have traveled solo for months, with friends, visited friends, with my special someone, and on also on group tours. As you may note, I am not committed to a single travel style, it is simply what makes the most amount of sense for the country I am visiting. In June, I visited my 120th country when I visited Namibia. I traveled to Namibia and Zimbabwe on a National Geographic Journeys with G Adventures tour as part of a group trip. Using [...]
Michael Runkel … has completed 193 UN countries
Michael has visited every country in the world and is ranked #10 on Nomad Mania On today’s episode, I welcome back Michael Runkel back to Counting Countries. Michael first appeared on Episode 17, back in the fall of 2016. At that time he had completed 176 countries. I am in a difficult position. There are only 26 podcasts a year, and there are so many incredible individuals in the 193 community. I have an ongoing personal debate whether to only feature new people on the podcast or revisit with prior guests. I decided in some cases, it would be interesting to touch base with previous guests who were in the midst of their quest, and who at a later point completed the 193. Hence, Michael rejoins Counting Countries again. And he does not disappoint. Michael is a prolific traveler and shares more incredible travel stories including one from Central African Republic. He introduces us to Kolja Spori’s Extreme Traveler International Congress, which took place in Somalia, where William Baekeland made an appearance. Michael also touches on his [...]
Noratus Cemetery Must-See
This has been on my radar screen for a long time. I have been to Armenia every year since 2003, but somehow this historical gem was always overlooked by me until this year in 2018. Noratus cemetery is a medieval cemetery filled with stone-carved crosses. Noratus located on Lake Sevan is filled with over 1000 stone carved crosses known as khachkars. Some of these khackkars date back to the 10th century. This place is oozing with history. Noratus cemetery must-see. Noratus also known as Noraduz is a leisurely 90-minute ride from Yerevan. Noratus is a small village on Lake Sevan, Armenia’s largest body of water in this landlocked country. Noratus was part of a seven day road trip I took across southern Armenian and neighboring Artsakh. My car rolled up to the edge of the cemetery, a wide green expanse surrounded on one side by the villagers’ homes. The other side eventually seeped into the lake. Khachkars are part of the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Most khachkars feature a cross in the center adorned with [...]
