Danish traveler Torbjorn Pedersen says he’s the primary person to go to every country on this planet — without flying.
It is a feat that took 10 years to perform — with average costs of around $20 a day, he said.
“In some countries like Singapore, I actually have to spend greater than $20 a day. But in other countries like Bolivia, $20 is good enough,” 44-year-old Pedersen told CNBC.
When he was not sleeping on trains and ships, in hostels or his hammock, he stayed with host families, he said.
Pedersen said through the yr tons of of individuals opened their homes to him after he became popular on social media.
“The truth is, I actually have often needed to say ‘no’ to people because I had too many offers or since it was inconvenient,” Pedersen said.
He has even been invited several times to remain at five star hotels, he said.
Pedersen’s decade-long adventure was funded by geothermal electric power generation firm Ross Energy, who sent him about $600 every month, he said.
“They simply felt [my plan] was really crazy, and so they desired to support it. What I did is an element of world history, and so they desired to be an element of it,” Pedersen said.
Pedersen took a couple of decade to go to 203 territories world wide.
Selena Wright
To go to 203 territories, Pedersen said he traveled about 382,000 kilometers (237,363 miles) and used 20 different modes of transportation, including:
- 351 buses
- 67 minibuses
- 219 taxis
- 46 motorcycle taxis
- 87 shared taxis
- 4 shared motorcycle taxis
- 28 four-wheel drive vehicles
- 9 trucks
- 158 trains
- 19 trams
- 128 metros or subways
- 43 rickshaws or tuktuks
- 40 container ships
- 33 boats
- 32 ferries
- 3 sail boats
- 2 cruise ships
- 1 horse carriage
- 1 police automobile
- 1 high performance yacht
Pedersen spent essentially the most time in Hong Kong where he lived for 772 days through the pandemic, and the shortest time — just 24 hours — in Vatican City.
The perfect and worst times
Pedersen had planned to remain in Hong Kong for about every week when he arrived in January 2020. But his plans took a drastic turn when the pandemic broke out.
On the time, he was just nine countries shy of achieving his goal, he said.
“I have been trying to perform this goal for such a protracted time,” he said. “I didn’t know if I used to be going to be stuck for five months or five years.”
“Every single day I had a reason to offer up and go home. And daily I had to search out a strategy to persuade myself to maintain fighting,” he said.
Pedersen spent essentially the most time in Hong Kong, staying 772 days due to the Covid -19 pandemic.
Torbjorn Pedersen
Pedersen said being stuck in Hong Kong was the “worst time” of his life, but now he said he views town as his second home.
“I feel more at home in Hong Kong than I do in Copenhagen, ” he said. “On one side it was the very best time of my life, and on the opposite side it was an absolute nightmare.”
Near-death experience
Pedersen said one of the crucial harrowing experiences happened on a visit to the border between Cameroon and the Congo.
After driving on a dust road for hours on end with “a wall of trees on either side,” he said his taxi was stopped by three men that were “drunk out of their minds.”
“From the moment one in all the uniformed men saw me as I stepped out of the vehicle, you can just see fire in his eyes,” Pedersen said. “There was a lot rage and emotion. It was as if all the history of Western colonialism was my fault.”
Don’t do it … it’s simply an excessive amount of and too hard.
Torbjorn Pedersen
on others who need to follow his path
Pedersen served as a soldier in Denmark and a United Nations peacekeeper in Eritrea and Ethiopia, but he said this was the primary time had been aggressively held at gunpoint during his journey.
“They’d their fingers on the trigger, so I knew in my heart that I used to be going to die that night, and I knew of course that was the tip of the road for me,” he said.
But after about 45 minutes, the soldiers suddenly allow them to go, he said.
“We raced back to the taxi and drove for 3 kilometers before I told the driving force to stop. I got out and sat on the roadside, crouched down and began shaking for about 10 minutes.”
Pedersen also shared memories he said he would always remember, including visiting the Solomon Islands where he shared his laptop with villagers who had no access to electricity or running water.
“About 80 people sat around my laptop and watched a war film ‘The Thin Red Line’ while I leaned back and checked out palm trees … and stars making a roof across us.”
“I never checked out my laptop in the identical way again,” he said.
Biggest lessons
For individuals who need to follow in his footsteps, Pedersen has this recommendation: “Don’t do it.”
“It has come at a really, very high cost and has taken an enormous chunk of my life. I spent loads of resources attending to the tip. And it’s simply an excessive amount of and too hard,” he said.
Pedersen in Ethiopia.
Torbjorn Pedersen
“Do something that is more sensible. Do something that is fun and enjoyable,” Pedersen said candidly.
He also talked about how one can get essentially the most out of each travel experience.
“Listen and look. Smell and taste. Use all of your senses and take a look at to suck every thing up like a sponge,” he said. But “leave nothing behind aside from your footprints.”
