Counting Countries | Travel The Entire World

Download Episode! Drew is 26 and has already been to 110 countries and holds two Guinness World Records.   As a ten year old, Drew spun a globe in his room and memorized the countries of the world.  As a college student, he did a semester abroad in Prague and visited 20 European countries.  After college, he moved to a small town in South Korea to teach English and started his travel blog.  Drew now travels full time professionally and works with brands and tourism boards who support his travels.  He details during the podcast how he makes a living as a travel blogger.  He shares with us why he has been to McDonald's in over 50 countries and what his favorite food is.  Drew tells us what his favorite beach is in the Philippines and why he is not fond of Egypt.  He shares with us why he believes Kyrgyzstan will become a popular destination.  And Drew recounts how he survived a fatal bus crash in India.   Drew joins me on Skype today from the Philippines while I am in Boston,  Please listen in and enjoy. Subs

Download Episode! Randy is a well-known radio personality who happens to be on a quest to travel to every country in the world. Randy became intrigued with travel while listening to his Spanish teacher’s travel stories.  At the age of 26, he ventured abroad for the first time, and immediately became smitten with Brazil.  He traveled there over 30 times, and lived there for two years.  While discovering Brazil he decided to visit every country in the Americas before the age of 40.  That goal transitioned to visiting all UN countries. Randy enjoys visiting those countries which are less visited.  He spent New Year Eve’s in Tripoli.  He also recently visited South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Nauru, and North Korea.  Yet, he has not been to Greece, Turkey or Egypt.  On the podcast Randy shares with us many travel tales.  Randy was stopped in the Tripoli airport when departing and had several items confiscated from his bag.  When crossing into Burundi, he picked up a police escort who did not leave his side,

Download Episode! At the age of 24, Eric visited his last UN country beating Guinness World Record Holder, James Asquith.   Eric grew up in northern California, the son of Vietnamese immigrants.  He had the opportunity of international travel with his family growing up.  But his travel began in earnest when he went backpacking in East and Southeast Asia when he was just 18.  He was inspired to visit every country in the world and attempt to break the world record for three reasons.  First, Eric was inspired by world traveler and former guest, Gunnar Garfors.  Second, Eric learned about James Asquith, the Guinness World Record Holder at the time, the youngest person to travel to every country in the world.  But the final catalyst was a meeting with his college professor who encouraged him to see the world when he was young. Eric at times threw caution into the wind when pursuing his quest.  He couchsurfed in Libya, while local militias learned of his presence.  He had a very challenging time in West Africa.  

Dustin balanced his career as a dentist while completing all 193 UN countries and then some. Dustin grew up in small town America yet ended up living in Singapore working as a dentist.  Despite a childhood of limited travel, he spread his travel wings after settling in Singapore and began to discover the region.  Dustin shares with us an amazing collection of travel stories.  He crossed the border into Syria from Lebanon as an invited guest of Syria.  Dustin was the keynote speaker at a medical conference in Damascus.  He was banned from entering Israel and had to hire an attorney so he could attempt another visit.  Dustin couchsurfed in Burundi and ended up in jail.  He met his host in Afghanistan on Tinder.  Dustin tells us why the Maldives is one of his least favorite countries.  And Dustin also gave back when traveling, including spending two days providing dental treatment to half of the population of Pitcairn Island.      Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume

Download Episode! Thomas grew up behind the Iron Curtain, joined the military to travel, and now lives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.   Thomas was raised in in East Germany in modest circumstances, with virtually no travel in his life.  He joined the military for 12 years which allowed him the opportunity to travel.  During that time he traveled to hotspots like Afghanistan and Kosovo.  After the military, he settled in Saudi Arabia with a career that allowed him to continue traveling.  Thomas keeps an aggressive travel schedule, adding in 20 new countries a year.  He also likes to incorporate athletics into his travel, participating in multiple triathlons. Check out why he is fond of Nepal, but not so much on Brazil.  And listen in where he will be celebrating his 40th birthday this summer.  .   Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 20 more world-class travelers from various backg

Thanos is on a quest to visit every country in the world and has already visited 146 UN countries.   Thanos initial focus in life was education and business, not travel.  In fact, one of his first overseas trips was a basic package trip to Sri Lanka.  After completing his doctorate in theoretical physics and starting his own business in India his life eventually transitioned into a life of travel.  Now adventures include summiting the seven summits with three already completed.  Thanos also enjoys road trips like a 3 week, 3000 km motorbike trip across Mongolia.  Thanos also appreciates a good land crossing such as when he entered Mali and ended up spending the night in jail.  Thanos will also share with you why he needs to go back to Laos.  Please listen in and enjoy.            Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 20 more world-class travelers from various backgrounds and nations

Download Episode! Audrey is a member of an elite club of female travelers who have traveled to all 193 UN countries.   I thought it was important to have a member of this club to speak on the podcast in regard to    the media’s claim that Cassie DePecol is the first woman to travel to every country in the world.  This false narrative has been embraced by the public.  During the podcast, we speak about this controversy and Audrey shares her perspective on being a woman who has accomplished this feat.  Audrey’s first international foray took place in 1969 as she traced her ethnic roots to Soviet Lithuania and recounts how a group of Soviet officers serenaded her.  Other stories include visiting China during the 1980s and almost being shot in Ethiopia.  Please listen in on how Audrey as a mother and grandmother accomplished this amazing quest.   Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 2

Download Episode! Gary sold his house and all of his belongings in 2007 and began his life of travel.   Gary over his 10 years of travel has established himself as an elite travel blogger with an expertise in photography.  Gary shares with us many tales from the road.  Gary, single handedly, changed the visa rules for the Pacific Island of Kiribati with one email.  He tells us why his motorbike driver pulled his gun as they made their way to the contested Temple of Preah Vihear at the Cambodian/Thai border.  And Gary also spends a lot of time exploring national parks, and tells us why his favorite national park is in Canada.  Please listen in and enjoy.   Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 20 more world-class travelers from various backgrounds and nations and from all walks of life who have tirelessly pursued visiting every country in the world and have filled their lives with a

Download Episode! Lee has led an incredible life, traveling to all 193 countries and being the youngest American to accomplish this feat at that time.  And he is only 6 territories away from completing the Travelers Century Club. Lee travels in style whether it is entering his 193rd country under a hail of gunfire or hanging out with Prince Harry in Antarctica.  Lee grew up in modest circumstances and began his travel with a semester abroad in London.  This trip and the loss of his friends on 9/11 sparked his interest in travel.  Lee was motivated to complete the Travelers Century Club after he read an article about Charles Veley accomplishing the TCC list.  He shares with us the high and lows of traveling in Africa.  Lee recounts summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro and spotting lions in the Serengeti.  And also, how even the ATMs in Nigeria are in on the scam.  Lee shares his journey to off-the- beaten path places like Tuvalu (awful experience) and Pitcairn Islands (rewarding experience).  Please listen in and enjoy

Download Episode! João is a quintuple threat. He is a professor, an entrepreneur, a father of seven, a romantic, and a believer in all of the world’s religions.   The professor shares his amazing stories of traveling the world.  As a romantic he has married his wife eight times in different ceremonies around the world, including their first in Addis Ababa with a honeymoon in South Sudan.  He spent time in a Yemeni jail cell that conveniently included wifi allowing for some Facebook updates. He avoided being strip searched in the Congo with a well placed bribe.  And the professor traveled the Karakoram Highway, one of the world’s  highest paved roads in the world.  The trip ended in Pakistan where he raised thousands of Euros to help Pakistanis who were affected by the severe floods.  The professor’s travels began in earnest when he began competing with his cousin.  The professor has been to all 193 UN countries, 292 places on the TCC list, and is the 35th most traveled on The Best Traveled.  He recently retu

Download Episode! Sepp left his family farm in Austria in 1985, and he did not see his family until 1995, when he returned after visiting every country in the world.   Sepp is a vagabond at heart as he traveled the world with his guitar.  He traveled non-stop for 19 years as he traveled to every country in the world at that time (190 countries).  He nearly lost his life on more than one occasion, as he battled gun wielding attackers in Nigeria, and hepatitis in Angola.  He was both drugged and arrested in China prior to its opening to the west.  Sepp also shares a different perspective since his travels took place pre-internet, with all of the difficulties from communications to managing money.  He shares with us the beauty of Libya under Gaddafi.  His ten year journey, ended as he walked the final few kilometers to his family farm, as he nailed his backpack to the wall, to mark the end of his journey.            Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest

Download Episode! Dave’s travel and life has morphed into one collective.  He began his travel career after graduation with the start of his travel blog, Dave’s Travel Corner and has been travelling ever since.    Over the past 20 years Dave has managed to visit 140 UN recognized countries in a quest to discover and experience true travel.  He does not have a specific stated goal of visiting every country, but through his desire to discover the world he has already managed to visit 140 countries, with a target of visiting ten plus new countries a year.  Dave’s other quest is to visit every winery in Napa Valley.  He has visited approximately 850 of the 1,000 wineries.  Dave shares with us how he nearly perished on his first true international trip as he trekked to Everest Base Camp and had to be carried off the mountain after being felled by altitude and food sickness.  This challenging event spurred him on to travel even more.  Dave shares more stories from traveling independently in Papua New Guinea to bac

Download Episode! David is traveling to every country and sending home a postcard! David has a passion for stamps and postcards.  The first has helped him finance some of his travels while he has sent a postcard home from every country and territory he has traveled to.  He started traveling as an intrepid teenager on a solo trip to the Pacific Islands after saving money for three years.  Today, his travel adventures have spanned five different decades with no end in sight.  He has traveled to some of the most remote corners of the world from Pitcairn Island to Tristan da Cunha, where he met the one and only Elvis impersonator.  Listen in on this amazing tale of travel.   Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 20 more world-class travelers from various backgrounds and nations and from all walks of life who have tirelessly pursued visiting every country in the world and have filled the

Download Episode! Lawrence is on a quest to travel to every country in the world while honoring his uncle, by spreading his ashes in every country.   Uncle James was a free spirit and travel pioneer who inspired Lawrence to travel even more.  Lawrence lost his uncle to cancer and wanted to honor his memory.  Lawrence is now traveling to every country in the world as well as the 325 regions noted in Travelers' Century Club to spread his ashes.  Lawrence has braved the streets of Mogadishu and has been detained by North Korea while pursuing this quest.  Lawrence is based in The Gambia where he moved with Uncle James in the 1990s.  Their goal was to protect and preserve the environment and culture and along the way they built a beautiful lodge.  For years, they lived off the land, camping in the forest, with no running water or electricity.  Today, Lawrence joins me on Skype from England while I am in Boston.  Please listen in and enjoy. Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 1

Download Episode! Don has traveled to 851 places of the 875 places listed on the Most Traveled People list.  He is number one on the list, making him the most traveled person using this benchmark.     Don has been traveling and discovering the world since the 1960s when he worked in a factory in Germany on an exchange program.  He has an incredible passion for history and connecting events and people throughout time.  He has traveled to the Soviet Union in the 1960s as well as traveling to each 83 political subdivisions.  He has been traveling to China for over four decades witnessing the changes in the rising dragon.  He shares with us some of his favorite places to visit including Socotra Island, Iguazu Falls, the Panama Canal, Ayers Rock, and the Grand Canyon.  The MTP contains incredibly remote islands in the Pacific and the Atlantic which are only reachable via chartered boats.  He has made over 60 of these challenging and risky trips, including places like the Pitcairn Island, with less than 50 reside

Download Episode! Rick has managed to travel the world while raising a family heading an international marketing firm! Rick was inspired to travel by his globe-trotting grandmother and a visit to the World Expo as a child.  He spent over a month in Bucharest during Ceaușescu reign in the early 1980s.  And during a 6 month backpacking trip through Europe he crossed Checkpoint Charlie and toured Tito’s Yugoslavia. He also shares some of his favorite travel experiences in the Galapagos and on safari.  He is an avid runner who has finished marathons from Buenos Aires to Budapest.  Please listen in and enjoy!     Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 20 more world-class travelers from various backgrounds and nations and from all walks of life who have tirelessly pursued visiting every country in the world and have filled their lives with a virtually endless amount of adventure. More abo

Download Episode! An intrepid traveller who has travelled to over 100 countries and has a special place in her heart for the continent of Africa.   Lillie is a Peruvian native who arrived in the US as an exchange student.  Avoiding the violence of the Shining Path in her home country she opted for a new life in America.  She began her international travels with a group bus trip across Europe and quickly graduated to more challenging adventures.  She toured multiple countries in South America on the back of a motorcycle.  Lillie traveled overland with her mother between Cameroon and Central African Republic.  She is very fond of Africa and has traveled to this vast continent 12 times.  And finally, listen in, on how Lillie kissed a South American president.  Please enjoy this episode of Counting Countries.     Subscribe on iTunes today! Check out our partner and sponsor: Chasing 193, Volume II: The Quest To Visit Every Country In The World. Explore the unique stories from 20 more world-class travelers from v

Stefan has been able to strike a great balance between life and travel.  Stefan has a full time job and is married, yet still has managed to travel to 186 countries.      Stefan’s passion for the Chinese language in school led him to studying, working, and living in China for eight years.  He also managed to visit every province in the country.  With detailed planning and with an expertise in travel hacking, Stefan has managed to live a life of travel and exploration.  Despite working full time has has managed with business trips and his vacations to methodically travel the world.  Listen in as he shares amazing travel stories of exploring Djibouti, dealing with a missing baby in Saudi Arabia, and why Tunisia is his favorite country.   Please enjoy this episode of Counting Countries.          Subscribe on iTunes today! More about Stefan Krasowski:   Born in: Minneapolis, Minnesota Passports from: Two, valid US passports Favorite travel book: My first Lonely Planet China book Favorite travel film: I still ha

Download Episode! Sal has travel in his blood.  He was born to an Italian father and German mother who began a quest to visit every state in the US when he was a kid.  And Sal attended a boarding school with fellow students from 80 different countries. Sal is only 26 but has already traveled to 151 countries and has 193 in his sites.  If he continues traveling at this fast pace, he might be the youngest American to travel to every country.  He attended a true global high school where visiting a friend entailed a long distance flight to distant country. Attending university included two semesters abroad in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.  Sal then settled in Abu Dhabi after graduation to begin his work career which took him to many countries, including hard to enter, Saudi Arabia.  He has strong ties to Tanzania where he visits often.  Sal founded a NGO, Trail of Seeds, which brought him to Tanzania.  Sal is joining me on Skype from Cambodia and I am in Bangkok.  Please listen in and enjoy.   Subscribe on iTunes tod

Download Episode! Savannah left a comfortable life in Vancouver as a young teenager to backpack the world with her family and at 18 years of age had already traveled to 80 countries.       Savannah, as a 14 year old, and her family were shaken out of their comfort zone in Canada.  With her mother, older brother and sister, she embarked on a four year journey across the world.  They traveled and lived as locals on a very tight budget.  The family was audacious, not shying away from the more challenging corners of the globe.  They traveled overland in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They spent months in India. The family circumvented Africa.  She literally grew up on the road, even meeting her fiance in Western Africa.  Savannah has documented her incredible journeys in a series of books: Sihpromatum.  Please listen in on her amazing adventures.    Subscribe on iTunes today! More about Savannah Grace: Born in: Vancouver, Canada Passports from: Canada and hopefully Holland soon! Favorite travel book: Gone With The