I still have few months to go till my 28th July 2012 deadline for the 100 countries, but given that my next trip in march will take me to 99, I only have one country/trip left to plan. So far pacific island archipelago of Samoa seems to be the one with most brownie points.
It is independent country and member of United Nations (unlike New Caledonia, Cook Islands and other pacific bad boys); it has direct flights from Sydney that take 6h each way (do not need to take lots of holidays) and do not cost a fortune (600d return), plus it actually seems like a pretty interesting destination, both culturally (Samoans are curious bunch) as well as geographically (i.e. beautiful beaches).
I’ve spent quite a few hours researching the most exiting destination for the final country, but so far nothing beats Samoa. My ideal destination for the 100th country would have been one of the many special spots I’ve not seen yet, such as hiking in Nepal, playing with Gorillas in Rwanda or getting lost in Canadian wilderness, but those all are big trips that deserve special planning and attention, not something that is worth compromising for over few holidays left before July. Have a look at my country list, and may be you have better ideas, any suggestions welcome. Over and out.
Posts Tagged '100 countries'
Will Samoa be the One?
Published February 8, 2012 Life , Travel Leave a CommentTags: 100 countries, last one, samoa
If the road is not challenging, it’s not worth going
Published January 24, 2012 Life , Travel 4 CommentsTags: Travel, middle east, challange, 100 countries, big trip
I’m preparing for my last big trip of 100 country challenge coming up in March, a trip that will cover 7 countries and take me to the total of 99, I can smell the finish line, but I’m not there yet.
I knew it will not be easy or cheap when approaching the end, what I did not know was that I’ll be living in Australia, upss.
In march I plan to go to Sri Lanka, several Middle East countries, such as Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and on the way back finish up in Maldives. This trip will be by far the most expensive short term (less than a month) trip I’ve ever taken, not only flights are ridiculously expensive, I have no close by countries left, and those who are left are not only far but also require visas, which unfortunately are needed for Latvians in most Middle Eastern countries, even UAE (Dubai). There was a point when I regretted not getting UK citizenship and staying proud Latvian, after having that opportunity living 5 years in London. But that weakness is over, you’ve got work with what you got.
So now my focus for next month is to get 4 tourist visas via quite complex requirements to ensure the trip runs smoothly. Wish me luck, I will definitely need it. Will keep you posted how my preparation goes. And keep traveling, world is such a beautiful place.
What do you do when you need to change a passport?
Published October 23, 2011 Travel Leave a CommentTags: 100 countries, 92, armenia, challange, georgia, new passport, south korea
If you are are a Latvian living in Australia, you spend $2000+ on tickets and sit on a plane for 25 hours (each way) to go home. My latest trip was triggered by very practical reason of not having enough free pages in my passport to travel, so I had to go home to get a new one. You see, passports are normally issued only in the country itself or its legal offices of representation – embassies. Slight problem with being Latvian citizen is that we only have about 15 embassies around globe, most of them in Europe, and from Australia, the closest embassy is, wait for it, Japan, only 10 hour flight away. I figured if I have to fly to Tokyo to get a new passport, I might as well go home and on the way add some new countries. So I did, result – 2 week holiday, 7 flights, 3 new countries and a new passport.
I already posted about South Korea stop-over, this one is about more detail on adventures in Georgia and Armenia, where I was lucky enough to spend 8 days. Georgia gets my vote, super easy to get in (no visas, quick customs), great food (khinkali, khachapuri, lobio), welcoming people (60 year old dude on marshruthka sharing his headphones with me to listen to some Georgian dance music) and amazing nature, such as Kazbeki mountain range that I explored a bit, not to the top at 5033m, of course, only to about 3000m or so, here’s a complimentary snap.
I thought Latvia has had bad run in 20th Century, but look at Armenia. Not only had they endure Genocide from Turks that resulted in death of more than 50% of Armenian population, they lost most of their territory, and now have no access to sea, no minerals underground, little arable land, two aggressive neighbours with locked borders and Armenian pride and joy, mount Ararat, sitting on the Turkish side of the border. Look but don’t touch, how cruel is that, here is a picture from Yerevan, Armenian capital with Ararat in the background.
Full set of pictures from the trip are here.
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Seoul for a day
Published October 7, 2011 Travel Leave a CommentTags: 100 countries, korea air, number 90, seoul, south korea, stop over
Friend of mine and self confessed avid reader (yes you Liesma) reminded me today that I’ve neglected my blog and my regular post is few days late. No excuses, being back home and catching up with friends is so exiting that I’ve lost track of time. So here we go.
This one is about my brief stopover in Seoul a few days ago,on the way to London. Actually Korea Air offer from Sydney to London via Seoul is amazing value and quite comfortable way to get through 22h of pure flying time. As part of ticket and 20h layover in Seoul, Korea Air gives you free hotel accommodation, transport to and from airport, plus dinner, breakfast and lunch, not bad perks.
Normally I do not count transit stops as country visits, but considering the fact that it was with overnight stay and I did actually went out at night and into town centre the next morning and explored it for a few hours, its good enough for me, so here’s a tick for country number 90.
Seoul is a funny beast, with high tech infrastructure and efficiency next to centuries old shabby buildings and tiny street labyrinths in the old town it reminder me of Tokyo a lot.
At night I hooked up with some fellow travellers and we hit a local karaoke bar, needless to say they did not seem to get many foreigners, also as we were the only costumers in the early evening, bar hostess sat down with our table to chat and otherwise entertain us. Within minutes I was called Jesus Christ, only to be renamed Orlando Bloom moments later, my other two fellow travellers were given less glamorous anime character names, lucky me Jesus. They all seemed to be multi talented as other dude from behind the bar appeared with electric guitar and mic in hand and started punching out heartfelt Gary Barlow ballads in broken English, only for us, just surreal. Ough, did I mention the sweet grandma who was so impressed with my Vibram five finger shoes that she leaned down, touched and tickled my fingers and then she insisted to hold my friends jacket for a duration of 30 min metro journey, some kind of bonding I guess, we did not resist.
So that’s my 5 minutes in Seoul, hope you’re having fun too, where-ever you are.
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Me talk long time
Published August 1, 2011 Life , Travel 2 CommentsTags: 100 countries, 2, birthday, second, Travel, two, years
2 years and counting, my blog just had a 2nd birthday, it was a quiet one, slowly chucking away, one step a time, no big announcements to make, but plenty of little actions on the list. I’m getting around 1000 monthly views, up from 6-7 hundred last year, which is not bad.
After 3 months not leaving a country (very unusual for me), I’ve finally booked in some trips, heading to Vanuatu in Pacific for a long weekend, and then hitting Europe in Oct, via South Korea, visiting Armenia and Georgia on the way, so exited. So I should be at 92 countries by end of this year. Will take plenty of snaps to keep you entertained. The coveted 100 is now in sight.
With Sydney’s winter at its best, lingering above 20C, I’m very exited doing more local shoots as well. I’ve had plenty of cancellations lately, but keeping the spirits high, in the long term it will all work out.
On the third point on my list, exploring and getting to know Sydney, I’m doing much better, in last week alone I’ve been to several cool bars had some amazing sushi, couple of great parties, visited Manly beach, Cronulla and Bundeena, sweet.
What should I do in every country I visit?
Published July 23, 2010 Life , Travel 8 CommentsTags: 100 countries, challange, every country, sperm, Travel, what to do
Here’s a deal, I’ve been to 50 countries out of my 100 country challenge, but so far there has not been any single defining moment or action that connects all these trips together (besides me being there). So I identified the need to establish a routine or something little that I do in every country that I visit.
So far I’ve had a few good ideas from friends about what to do in every country, ranging from simple ones such as ‘take a picture of favourite mascot/talisman in some typical scenery or in front of recognizable monument’ like here, to more extreme ones such as ‘donate sperm in every country you visit’, sounds very exciting, but hard to implement once you think it through, promise, I did think it through.
Couple other ones that were suggested are to ‘cut out or get 3 inflatable stars and stand as mother Latvia’ depicting our most famous Latvian monument. Another one was ‘do what locals do (for a living)’ meaning that I’ll try to be a local for 5 minutes, e.g. picking rice in Vietnam countryside, or shearing a sheep in New Zealand.
So chaps, please let me know what you think about any of these ideas or in case you have something else in mid. I’ll happily take it on board. The concept though has to be flexible enough to work in any country, I guess that’s where the donation would get stuck as not all the countries have easily accessible health clinics where foreigners can just pop up and donate sperm.
BTW next up is trip to Iceland later in the August, so I can test it out.
