Haha, what a small world. He stayed with me in Spain, back in the good old days of Couchsurfing.
Not sure if I feel honoured or guilty by being able to set his plans back a day or 2 by introducing him to the local nightlife...
FlyingSnake 44 minutes ago [-]
Back in the days I hosted a lady who also had been to ~190 countries. I miss the old world internet and community.
hakonslie 4 hours ago [-]
Ah, the good old days of Couchsurfing. So many good memories from 2009, all the way up to 2015, for me.
user070223 3 hours ago [-]
A great place to mention Karl Bushby whom is on his way from Punta Arenas, southern Chile to his home in the UK since Nov 1998 by mostly hiking.
He crossed the Darien Gap, the Bering sea walking on ice / glaciers / swimming, as well as swimming the Caspian sea.
In Mongolia he trained to work with camels
Had a lot of issues of course with Russia due to crossing the Bering sea, and maybe the war, as well as covid lockdown in countries, limited days issued for visas etc.
And he just left Turkey and entered Europe! so the only major challenge is swimming the channel.
And there's a documentary apparently coming out soon.
I followed his journey live on https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/ and it was a weird mix of inspirational and very sad. He was clearly struggling with severe depression towards the end of it, but he could not bring himself to stop, so there he was, squatting in a filthy boat for weeks on end with cockroaches crawling over his toothbrush, while he waited for the country's sole oceangoing cargo ship to be repaired so he could get the hell out of there.
Thanks. It is noted as "This title will be released on April 23, 2026." on Amazon.de which explains the long delay on Amazon.fr. However the hardback version looks available now. EDIT: well it is not yet published on paper.
darkstar_16 4 hours ago [-]
I miss reading Blogs. Old school, detailed blogs written in a plain and simple language. It's easy to follow and almost be invested in the journey.
mellosouls 4 hours ago [-]
An article from last month in the Guardian:
I visited every country in the world without flying. Here are eight things I learned
How many hours did he spend being interviewed for visas etc?
Some countries I cross off my 'worth visiting' list simply because they have a Byzantine and expensive visa process which is going to use at least a week of time and effort to navigate whilst I was only planning to visit the place for a week in the first place!
And some countries have a 'not allowed if you've ever been to this other country' rule, making it very hard to visit them all.
So I guess that he had to do about 6 visa interviews.
bloak 3 hours ago [-]
Thanks for that link, but Denmark's "189" seems to be out of 227 ("all 227 possible travel destinations for which travel restriction information exists in the IATA database"), while 195 is the number of "states recognised by the UN".
ta1243 59 minutes ago [-]
According to that list Saudi Arabia is one of the 189 countries. Saudi is a nightmare to get into, even as a Dane.
wkat4242 4 hours ago [-]
> And some countries have a 'not allowed if you've ever been to this other country' rule, making it very hard to visit them all.
In Holland this was a valid reason to request two passports, like if you frequently travel to both Israel and Egypt. They are mutually exclusive.
decimalenough 4 hours ago [-]
Egypt and Israel have a peace treaty. But eg Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran etc don't allow Israeli stamps in visitors' passports.
theMMaI 4 hours ago [-]
Israel doesn't stamp your passport, you get a small paper insert that they stamp instead. Problem is more the other way around, if you have stamps from Iran they won't let you into the country in Israel
londons_explore 25 minutes ago [-]
The problem is more they ask 'have you ever been to X', and if you say yes, they deny you entry, and if you say no they could imprison you for years.
And it's easy to find out which countries a person has been to, because passenger lists on planes are pretty much public knowledge so it would be an easy lie to detect.
agos 37 minutes ago [-]
there are two ways around it: either you keep two passports if you have to travel to both, or you wait until your passport expires until you visit the other country
fpoling 2 hours ago [-]
The same is in Norway. I new few people from oil industry there that got 2 passports to be able to travel to China and Taiwan.
darkstar_16 4 hours ago [-]
As an Indian, this was also my immediate thought but then I read the About section, I figured it was easy/ier for him. The not allowed if visited another place rule must have been easier to circumvent with some planning.
aidog 5 hours ago [-]
I followed Thor's journey over the years. Great dude and a incredible achivement. Imagine planning for 4 years but hanging on for 10! He also had bad luck being stuck during covid.
alabastervlog 1 hours ago [-]
Planning for a shorter trip but running into trouble that stretches it to 10 years seems like almost the ideal outcome.
The full Odysseus experience. Minus starting it with ten other years away at war, I guess.
"Then came his eureka moment: “I discovered that no one had ever gone to every country in the world completely without flying [in one unbroken trip].” (A British man, Graham Hughes, has set foot in every country without flying, but took two breaks from the journey for personal reasons.)"
He had a longer blog entry for North Korea, but I like how the FAQ summarized it as "DPRK is a far more normal country than what we are lead to believe".
> Propaganda. Isn’t that just telling people what you want them to believe? If so then there’s plenty of it to go around. In the USA the republicans have one story and the democrats have another. DPRK has its version of the events which unfolded throughout and after the Korean War. Is propaganda being spread in DPRK? Yes...I’m sure it is. However I have quickly come to believe that there is far more propaganda being spread outside of DPRK about the country than within it. When I enter a country today I do that with the experience of visiting and analyzing 175 other countries. I’ve been observing DPRK and what I have seen are just people being people. You can’t interact with the people. They are clearly not interested or maybe they are afraid to interact with foreigners. There could be consequences I imagine? DPRK is not a country which promotes individual freedom.
You don’t say…
lifthrasiir 7 hours ago [-]
I think the GP is meant to say that it is somehow a functioning country (contrary to what clueless westerners believe), but that doesn't mean that it is [EDIT: was "isn't"] in the good state. Just that the belief is too strong to be true.
Added 2025-05-20T08:40: I realized what happened, double negations ruined the comment. I'm very much aware that DPRK has serious human rights problem and economic issues (after all, I am South Korean), and it also makes use of a western curiosity for business, but they are often exaggerated to the completely impossible extent.
dgfitz 7 hours ago [-]
They recently held the Olympics, yes they are a functioning country. Or are westerners too clueless to make that connection?
A functioning country is the bare minimum requirement. The recount of experience here does not mean that somehow the country isn’t horribly repressed and poverty-stricken.
lifthrasiir 7 hours ago [-]
You are definitely confusing North Korea (DPRK) and South Korea (ROK) from each other.
How can you stay 24+ hours in Vatican City as a tourist? Are there hotels there? It seems there is https://www.residenzapaolovi.com/en/, but it's not within the Vatican.
Speedrunning tip for future contenders: Be born inside a plane
dmurray 4 hours ago [-]
Or have one built around you.
sandspar 8 hours ago [-]
I'm struck by his quotes. They sound like basic advice. "People are generally good, few people want to hurt you" etc. Normally people say this without thinking but with him it's backed up by so much experience. It's hard to share experience. I remember seeing a man whose son was murdered in a shooting. He kept trying to describe his pain, using simple, profound language. I felt sorry for him because of course few people in the audience could relate to him. So his words kind of went in one ear and out the other, at least for me. It's hard to know how deeply truthful something is unless you've lived it. I imagine that this guy in the article may feel very lonely sometimes. Plus it's hard to be "post adventure" etc. Olympic athletes and astronauts etc always talk about how hard it is to be on the other side of the mountain. "What now?"
Caelus9 7 hours ago [-]
The first person in the world?
WillAdams 3 hours ago [-]
This was done back in Victorian times by an Englishman using nothing more than a visiting card and a letter of credit from his bank.
Not sure if I feel honoured or guilty by being able to set his plans back a day or 2 by introducing him to the local nightlife...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Bushby
https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Journey-incredible-through... (not an affiliate link)
And there's a documentary apparently coming out soon.
I followed his journey live on https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/ and it was a weird mix of inspirational and very sad. He was clearly struggling with severe depression towards the end of it, but he could not bring himself to stop, so there he was, squatting in a filthy boat for weeks on end with cockroaches crawling over his toothbrush, while he waited for the country's sole oceangoing cargo ship to be repaired so he could get the hell out of there.
https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/blog/489-most-definitely-possib...
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1472149777/
I visited every country in the world without flying. Here are eight things I learned
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/21/i-visit...
Some countries I cross off my 'worth visiting' list simply because they have a Byzantine and expensive visa process which is going to use at least a week of time and effort to navigate whilst I was only planning to visit the place for a week in the first place!
And some countries have a 'not allowed if you've ever been to this other country' rule, making it very hard to visit them all.
Danes have visa-free entry to 189/195 countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henley_Passport_Index
So I guess that he had to do about 6 visa interviews.
In Holland this was a valid reason to request two passports, like if you frequently travel to both Israel and Egypt. They are mutually exclusive.
And it's easy to find out which countries a person has been to, because passenger lists on planes are pretty much public knowledge so it would be an easy lie to detect.
The full Odysseus experience. Minus starting it with ten other years away at war, I guess.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Hughes
The rest of the FAQ is great reading as well:
https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/more/faq
You don’t say…
Added 2025-05-20T08:40: I realized what happened, double negations ruined the comment. I'm very much aware that DPRK has serious human rights problem and economic issues (after all, I am South Korean), and it also makes use of a western curiosity for business, but they are often exaggerated to the completely impossible extent.
A functioning country is the bare minimum requirement. The recount of experience here does not mean that somehow the country isn’t horribly repressed and poverty-stricken.
https://www.onceuponasaga.dk/journey
Speedrunning tip for future contenders: Be born inside a plane
I have been led to believe that it is:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133405977-an-overland-jo...
which arguably should be contrasted with:
https://goodreads.com/book/show/5144131-a-woman-s-journey-ro...
The history of circumnavigations (esp. solo), and the books about it are an interesting set:
- sailing (solo): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/881902.Sailing_Alone_aro...
- bicycle (solo): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/301255.Around_the_World_... (all the more remarkable since it was a penny farthing rather than the essentially contemporary "safety bicycle" invented shortly after his departure
Those are in the public domain, and I recommend them highly as a view of what the world was once like, and how people are still much the same.
Been meaning to read newer accounts, but still need to track down copies and decide which are worth reading:
- amphibious landing vehicle (husband and wife): https://goodreads.com/book/show/17208213-half-safe
- walking (solo): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436398.Letters_From_Stev...
- human power (solo): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5215427
- air (military unit): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23167711-first-flight-ar...
- submarine (submerged, military vessel): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1018686.Around_the_World...
and of course, one would presumably include the obvious records of Magellan and arguably the _H.M.S. Beagle_ and Darwin.
(obviously, this is something of an interest of mine, having been delighted by: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54479.Around_the_World_i... when I was younger)