We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places around the world. The EU Schengen Schengen Countries is the best example. It wasn't always that way. 4.) Overseas territories don't count. You have to go to the main country. Interestingly, my four months in Antarctica doesn't count as a country. Also not counted with us are Hong Kong, Macau, Gibralter, French Guyana, Taiwan (Yes, Taiwan is not a main country), Virgin Islands and many other Caribbean islands.
Not all the crossings have been in airports, of course. Airports are almost always the easiest borders. They are expecting pre-checked foreigners and have infrastructure to deal with it. The land borders are where the real color is. We evaluate and have done land border crossings whenever possible. Certainly they are not always practical. Lots of great stories are about the land border crossings. Examples: Costa Rica to Nicaragua, Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan, Poland to Russia (Kaliningrad), and many more.
I am commonly asked, "What is your favorite country?" Without meaning to being trite, I respond, "The US, ...seriously." Of course, there are usually more thought-out questions that follow. All Countries are different and all the same in similar regards. The people are the same. People are variable everywhere. Every country has varibility with its people. Generally, humans are giving, polite, and helpful. We have many countries we wouldn't mind visiting again. Some we don't see a need to go back to. Even with the countries we don't want to go back to they have interesting culture. For example: "Midget boxing entertainment in Manila." Yes. It is a thing. Cultures are definitely different, sometimes very different. They are different, not wrong. Expereiencing culture is to me the most intriguing reason to travel.
My list order starts from the obvious then generally geographically though regions. We planned our trips as regional efforts. Central and South America, The Caucuses, Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Africa, The Balkans, The Baltics, Europe and then the places we forgot to add. We didn’t have much fun in the Phillipines (sorry my Filipino friends).
USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, China, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Brunei, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Greece, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Ireland, Iceland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, San Marino, Spain, Czechia, Austria, UAE, Honduras, Philippines.
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