What was your 100th country?

[drron]

Back in my student mail sorting days I learnt over 60 languages for By Air Post. Remarkable what they teach you in mail sorting school.

 

[SYD]

Back in my student mail sorting days I learnt over 60 languages for By Air Post. Remarkable what they teach you in mail sorting school.

I thought the default was “Par Avión” regardless of language?

 

[drron]

I thought the default was “Par Avión” regardless of language?

Wouldn't work with those who spoke Swahili.

 

[Scarlett]

@Warks, I never really planned to get to 100 when I first started travelling, I just wanted to go different places and see different things. The ability to access different places was greatly enhanced by a couple of years living in the UK (pre-brexit), where even long weekends could mean trips to cities in new countries.

It was after that and some trips around Asia and the Pacific Islands that I realised the number of countries visited was already well above what most people would likely get to see. It was also the time that I was playing less cricket (getting too old) and more different golf courses.

I don’t even remember where the idea really came from, but because I’d been taking my golf sticks around with me I’d played golf in lots of countries. As I played more, the idea of actually trying to play golf in all the countries in the world that had golf courses sort of materialised.

It was that idea that got me more serious about travelling to new countries and for the past ten years I have planned my time off and holidays around it. During a year in Indonesia where I was studying and there were plenty of periods of ‘hurry up and wait’ time, I drew up a spreadsheet of all the countries (and constituent parts of countries / territories that look a lot like independent countries themselves) and where their golf options were. Lots of time poring over Google Maps too confirming whether other sources of info were correct. My spreadsheet lists 201 as the total number I need to get to, so I guess that now puts me firmly on the side of the ledger of people ‘chasing lists’.

At the present I’ve visited 101 countries and played golf in 95 of them. (the delta being: Vatican and Lichtenstein, because they don’t have golf courses; and the four other countries, because I didn’t get a chance to play golf whilst there for…reasons)


This is some of them.

 

[RooFlyer]

For me, you have to learn again for every new country so miss the essential nature of the places since often one only gets a superficial tourist view whereas on subsequent trips you get more into the culture and people,

I agree about the benefits of going back to places you enjoy and getting deeply into the lifestyle there. But I also think you have to 'shop around' to find the best place to focus on and return to . Other than the obvious ones of London, NY, Paris and the like, the only places I've immediately thought 'I must return here, above any new place' were Moscow and St Petersburg. I went back the next year to both and would go back again, if I could. Oddly, perhaps, I wasn't filled with a desire to return to Rome - maybe it was there tourists? Sicily, Milan and Florence, yes.

However for me, as @Scarlett does golf, I'm interested in ancient cultures and architecture, so that's a motivation to visit many new places. I'd love to visit the Mediterranean coast of Libya, Iraq and the pyramids of Sudan!

 

[GDSman]

I'm at 67 - so 2/3 of the way there. At least I think I am - I've revisited the list a couple of times and an extra 1 or 2 get added (just remembered one as I was typing). I'm clearly Africa- and South America-lite. I can claim that I've lived in 14 which feels like a decent number, especially given the last 35yrs have been in Aus...

 

[drron]

I have been able to revisit the countries that we liked. So far over 100 visits to the USA, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. We will not be going back to the USA- no ned as slept in all 50 states, don't need to go outlet shopping, have seen nearly all Civil war battlefields and travel insurance getting too expensive. Also Japan with them regarding me as a convicted felon for an MVA that in Australia I would have been the innocent party.
But I have always interacted with the locals. Until now when I was in a new place I would go for a wander. I still remember my second visit to Bangkok with good friend. We stopped at a place for a cool drink and ended up having a long talk with 4 Thai merchant seaman that all spoke good English then coming across a fellow making bottle tops in his houses ground floor with his daughter,an accountant acted as translator.
I would nearly always wander around non tourist areas so I could have my cake and eat it to.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I agree about the benefits of going back to places you enjoy and getting deeply into the lifestyle there. But I also think you have to 'shop around' to find the best place to focus on and return to . Other than the obvious ones of London, NY, Paris and the like, the only places I've immediately thought 'I must return here, above any new place' were Moscow and St Petersburg. I went back the next year to both and would go back again, if I could. Oddly, perhaps, I wasn't filled with a desire to return to Rome - maybe it was there tourists? Sicily, Milan and Florence, yes.

However for me, as @Scarlett does golf, I'm interested in ancient cultures and architecture, so that's a motivation to visit many new places. I'd love to visit the Mediterranean coast of Libya, Iraq and the pyramids of Sudan!

Italy is a big place One needs to get outside the main tourist towns (after you've done the of course) to smaller places and spend time in places such as Torino and Piemonte wine areas, Genova, Camogli, Lucca, Gorizia, Cognegliano, Ravenna, Modena, Brescia, Perugia, Spello, L'Aquila, Casteluccio, Piano Grande, Norcia, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Camp Imperitore, Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, Pitigliano, Tarquinia, San Gimigiano,Volterra, and islands like Sardinia, Elba etc, etc, not miss all the northern lakes and Lago Trasimano (for the Hannibal battle) and I could go on, and on...

Much more intersting to me than ticking off a new counrrty but if that's your thing...

 

[VPS]

Italy is a big place One needs to get outside the main tourist towns (after you've done the of course) to smaller less tourist places like Torino and Piemonte wine areas, Genova, Camogli, Lucca, Gorizia, Cognegliano, Ravenna, Modena, Brescia, Perugia, Spello, L'Aquila, Casteluccio, Piano Grande, Norcia, Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Camp Imperitore and islands like Sardinia, Elba etc, etc, not miss all the northern lakes and Lago Trasimano (for the Hannibal battle) and I could go on, and on...

Much more intersting to me than ticking off a new counrrty but if that's your thing...

and Verona and Vicenza

 

[TheRealTMA]

Yes I decided not to lose the audience and list the all the 200+ places we've been in Italy.

 

[RooFlyer]

Much more intersting to me than ticking off a new counrrty but if that's your thing...

I’ll be going to Gallipoli (Apulia) and back to Sicily in a few weeks .

 

[Scarlett]

Italy is a big place and I could go on, and on...

Much more intersting to me than ticking off a new counrrty but if that's your thing...

…and San Marino! (for at least one or two days)

Here’s the rub though: I love Austria and could walk the Ringstrasse every day and probably never get bored. Then Gmunden, the Hochalpenstrasse, Igls-Innsbruck etc etc. But in doing that I’d not have seen the impossibility azure waters of the Bahamas; the salt flats of Uyuni; the reliefs of Borobudur; or the way the Andes tower over towns and cities in Chile.

Best of all; there’s no wrong answer, as everything this thread has raised is a wonderfully RIGHT ANSWER.

I maybe overuse this phrase, but I refer you to my avatar.