Today, I touched down in Brunei’s capital Bandar Seri Begawan and am now only 5 more countries away from my big anniversary of 100 visited countries! Setting up every destination in a chronological list, I have ticked off 95 out of 196 (48,47%) and counted the 193 United Nations countries, Holy See, Palestine as well as Kosovo. With Australia and New Zealand taking up nearly half a year from June onward, my 100th country has to wait until November and will be the Philippines!

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How many countries are out there?

It is a bit tricky to determine the correct number of countries, but I have decided to stick with the official UN list (193) and added the two observer states Holy See and Palestine as well as Kosovo. The latter declared its independence in 2008 and while it is recognized by most countries, it is not by Russia and thereby also not a member of the United Nations. Serbia considers Kosovo as part of their own country, but after having traveled both countries in 2016, I can only tell that it personally felt like a real country to me and thereby added it to my list. I will do the same personal judgement about Taiwan once I have been there later this year as well.

Will I visit every country in the world?

Considering the fact that less than 100 people have actually done this so far, it would be a great accomplishment and honor to join the club and visit every country in the world. However, I will not travel full time forever and actually take a break and make an attempt to settle down mid 2018, so visiting the remaining countries will certainly take some more time. As of now, I do not have the goal to see all countries, but sooner or later it is certainly something to look into, especially after having made contact with a Sheik from Saudi Arabia thanks to hitch hiking in Thailand 😉

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To be continued…

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