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In Madagascar & Yemen |
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| "there are places in the world where one is mysteriously magnified
on arrival or departure by the emotions of all those who have arrived and
departed before...It is a sadness we do not experience today: our journeys
no longer take years to complete, we know exactly where it is going, and
our chances of coming back are so much greater." Cees Nooteboom
in Roads To Santiago
More Travel Quotations below - click here |
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Click map to see details
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I love travelling and have been to over one
hundred countries. There are places where I have spent more than a month
and others as little as a day or two. I may be accused of
country-collecting...True
and false, depending on how you look at it.
Not everyone has the luxury to spend extensive time in a single country. Most people do have to work to support their travels. The important thing is whether one bothers to find out about the places pre-trip or post-trip, and to attempt to appreciate and understand things in the short time he has in each country. There are too many people who have spent months in a single place but spend most of their time on beaches or hanging out in backpackers' bars. Besides, there are some countries where you don't need much time, e.g., Vatican City, Monaco. I also make repeated visits to the same country for business reasons and non-business trip extensions are often made on those trips. I have listed below the countries I have been to, with the year of visit and links to my travel reports (which were to only some of my trips). Have fun reading!
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| e a s t
a s i a, s o u t
h e a s t a s i
a
s o u t h a s i a & a u s t r a l a s i a South East Asia:
East Asia:
North Korea (2004) ; South Korea (2003) ; Mongolia (2002) South Asia:
Australasia:
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| e u r o p e
Central & Eastern:
Western Europe:
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| t h e a m e r i c a s
United States of America:
Anguilla (2007), Antigua & Barbuda (2007), Aruba (2007), Bahamas (2002), Barbados (2008), Bermuda (2006), British Virgin Islands (2006), Cuba (2001), Dominica (2008), Greenland (2001), Grenada (2008), Guadeloupe (2008), Martinique (2008), Montserrat (2007), Netherlands Antilles (Curacao & Sint Maarten 2007), Puerto Rico (2006), St Barthelemy (2007), St Kitts & Nevis (2007), St Lucia (2008), St Martin (Fr) (2007), St Vincent & the Grenadines (2008), Trinidad and Tobago (2008), US Virgin Islands (2006) Belize (2002), Costa Rica (2002), El Salvador (2002), Guatemala (2001), Honduras (2001 & 2002), Mexico (2002), Nicaragua (2002), Panama (2001) Argentina (2000), Brazil (2001/2), Ecuador (2002), Chile (2001 & 2002), Colombia (2002), French Guiana (2008), Guyana (2008), Paraguay (2002), Peru (2002), Suriname (2008), Uruguay (2001) |
| p l a c e s s t e p p e d
o n
Mere stopovers:
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| p l a c e s t o
v i s i t:
m y w i s h - l i s t wish me luck in lottery !
Parts of Russia (Tuva, Kamchatka, Altai, Northern Caucasus, Volga region)
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An issue some may raise is, how do you define what's a country/territory, and what's not ? What's considered a visit and what's not ? My definitions are:
1) Sovereign internationally recognised countries and those which are recognised as separate territories by the UN - for example, Western Sahara is treated by UN as a separate territory from Morocco, and so is West Bank & Gaza currently controlled by the Palestinian Authority, i.e., Moroccan and Israeli occupation treated illegal and hence these two are considered separate entities.
2) Constitutionally separate territories, i.e., colonies and dependent territories like Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Faroe Islands. Hong Kong and Macau are considered separate territories before their reunification with China and since I was there before 1997, I regard them as separate territories.
3) Territories enjoying de jure or de facto independence though not recognised by most of the world, e.g., Taiwan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniestria and Abkhazia are examples.
4) Territories that are merely culturally different or merely aspire independence but enjoy neither de facto nor international recognition are NOT considered separate entities, e.g., Quebec and Tibet. Their inclusion will bring about excessive disagreement and a temptation to include every province and district.
5) Places I have not done any sightseeing are treated as mere stopovers.
Favourite Places
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Favourite Country/Regions -
Libya -
Yemen |
Favourite Large Cities (population >1 million) -
Esfahan -
Kathmandu |
Favourite Small Cities/Towns (population <1 million) -
Thimphu (Bhutan) |
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Unique "Small" Places/Sites (Culture & Heritage) -exclude those already listed elsewhere -
Dogon Country (Mali) -
Ghadames (Libya) -
Khoima (Nagaland, India) -
Pushkar (India) -
Wadi Hadramawt (Yemen) |
Unique Places (Nature) |
Weird Regimes - Adjara (Georgia) - Kosovo - Montenegro - North Korea - Somaliland - Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) - Transdniestria (Moldova) - Turkmenistan Epic Journeys - Baltic To The Black Sea - Inca Trail - Reunification Express (Vietnam) - Trans-Siberian Railway |
| Various quotations from
John Simpsons in A Mad World, My Masters:
"Once we had a planet. Now… we’re left with a suburb." "There are three bad times: the night
before you leave for somewhere difficult, and you sit with your lover or
your family trying to behave entirely normally in order to show how safe
everything is going to be; the following morning, when the car comes to
take you to the airport; and the moment when the plane touches down at
your destination. Of all
these moments, the last is by far the worst.
It is also more unpleasant than anything you are likely to
experience later." "Even if you find yourself under long intensive shelling, which is the nastiest thing I know, or are attacked by an angry crowd, which is the second nastiest, it never quite matches that dreadful sense of foreboding when the plane jolts, the tyres scream, and the trip begins to unfold: the separation from the comfortable, safe, familiar world of an aircraft, the cold air, the uncertainty of standing in line at the immigration desk, defenceless against all the fears you have been suppressing. And of course if shelling, arrest, or angry crowds materialize – and they usually don’t – you are much too busy to worry about the outcome." "Serious traveling is never comfortable or safe, and is very rarely accompanied by champagne, unless, that is, you have brought your own. Serious traveling is difficult, and the enjoyment is in direct proportion to the degree of difficulty. By which I mean, it only starts to be really enjoyable once it’s over." |
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