To Hell And Back — Turkmenistan Part 3
Welcome back to our tour of Turkmenistan, the second most restricted country in the world and the final country I visited to achieve my goal of traveling to all 193 member states of the United Nations. So far, we’ve bounced through the capital city of Ashgabat a few times, visited a not-so-grand canyon, and spent…
Living On The Edge In My Final Country — Turkmenistan Part 2
To cut to the chase, Turkmenistan is a large country and we won’t quite make it to the Gates of Hades in this post. But we will get close, and along the way, we’ll survive a car crash, visit the not-so-Grand Canyon of Central Asia, touch the Caspian Sea and check out a prohibited beach…
My Final (Recognized) Country In The World – Turkmenistan Part 1
I’ve taken a bit of a break from publishing lately, but not from travel. At the ripe old age of 32 — and despite there being many border closures during the recent scamdemic and many Greta wannabes shaming me for my carbon footprint — I have now travelled to every fully recognized country in the…
A Coastal City And Consternation In Congo — Republic of Congo Part 2
We last left off halfway through my trip to the Republic of Congo, where I had toured the capital city of Brazzaville and sacrificed some sweets in a sacred cave at sunrise. I had also experienced the highlight of my West Africa trip by visiting some massive gorillas in their natural habitat. While it was…
Staatenlos Meet Up in Bali
I arrived in Bali absolutely hungry! I was fasting for 30h after my trip in South Korea. And of course whenever you are hungry, everything seems like to take longer 🤯 When I arrived in Bali, there was a huge queue for the immigration at the airport. I was already choosing my order at the…
Skeleton Coast: The sailors didn’t see this coming!
This story is the continuation of my adventures in Namibia in June 2021. You can read the first part here 📖 After having an amazing Savannah experience in the Etosha National Park, we were headed to the coast to see some sea safari. At the coast we have the “The Skeleton Coast”, which is part…
Namibia: where the only rule is to be wild.
This time I will talk about my amazing experiences in Namibia. I am a huge fan of the wild life and enjoy seeing animals in their purest form in the nature. So of course, I should consider coming to this southern African country to see its beauty with my own eyes. And this is exactly…
Seeing Benin — From Voodoo Serpents To Lake Living
Do you know what’s the birthplace of voodoo? Let’s pay a visit to Benin (😉) to check out everything from the serpent temple, where we’ll get to hang with pythons, to the Venice of West Africa, where we’ll get to experience life on the water in Africa’s largest lake village. Let’s do it… Getting to Benin…
Mud Mastery And Surviving The Elements — Mali Part 2
Mali has much more to see than merely Mopti and Timbuktu. But again it doesn’t come without danger. So let’s get ready to hide in the backseat of a blacked out car (not all the time) and continue our travels around this West African nation, where we’ll get to see the largest mud building in…
Executing A Visit To Timbuktu — Mali Part 1
Have you ever wondered where Timbuktu is? Of if you’re a more adventurous type like me, have have you wanted to visit? Well, Timbuktu is long past its golden age when it was a center for learning and culture in in the Mali (😉) Empire. And in its present state, it is surrounded by danger…
Cruising Cameroon And Going On Safari In The CAR
Let’s take a step up in West African wildlife watching from monkeying around in Ghana to hanging with habituated gorillas and buffaloes in the Baï of the war-torn Central African Republic. Also, get ready to canoe in and out of the CAR and check out city life in neighboring Cameroon. Plus, you want to see…
Monkeying Around In Ghana And Togo
It’s not quite like being in the Serengeti, but there is more to do in West Africa than visit beaches and sightsee in capital cities. So on this two-country trek, let’s do a little monkeying around and see some animals — both alive and dead. 😱 I flew from Abidjan, Ivory Coast to Accra, the…
Making The Most Of The Ivory Coast
Bags in hand or not, it’s time to tour the Ivory Coast and see the crocodiles, cultural dances and gigolos (not for me 😂) this rather developed West African nation has to offer. After a few days in Liberia, I was ready to move on to the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast, also known as…
Freetown And Freedom In Sierra Leone
Ready to go road tripping, canoeing and even sailing on a catamaran (not SY Staatenlos) through a country founded for freed slaves to return to Africa? Let’s go! On this West African adventure, we left off heading south overland to Sierra Leone after a great three days of traveling through Guinea. I was permitted to enter…
Life, Liberia, And The Pursuit Of Happiness
Though liberty is enshrined in the name of the country, Liberia hasn’t always been such a free place. Let’s explore this America-esque West African nation and see how it is overcoming war, warlords, poverty, and decay… and maybe find a little sanctuary along the way. After a few good days exploring Guinea and then Sierra…
Simple Living In Guinea
Our West African adventure now continues with a look at a dirty yet scenic capital, nearby island life and a surprising waterfall — all in the country of Guinea. After parting ways with Alana in Guinea-Bissau, I flew back to Dakar, Senegal, and from there I flew onward to the country of Guinea, which was…
Quaint Island Life In A Narco State – Guinea-Bissau Part 2
Join us as we continue our travels through Guinea-Bissau, a country that just weeks ago experienced a deadly coup attempt that aimed to kill the president, prime minister, cabinet, and army officials, and succeeded in killing almost a dozen people before it was stopped. The president describes the coup attempt as an attack on democracy,…
Seeing Bissau & Bouncing Around The Bissagos Archipelago — Guinea-Bissau Part 1
Think there’s nothing to see in a poor West African country that you’ve hardly, if ever, heard of? Think again. It’s time to go sightseeing, island hopping, hippo watching and more in Guinea-Bissau. And keeping reading until the end as we will travel to a previously renowned matriarchy to meet a soon-to-be-king. 👑 From Mauritania…
Me And My Desert Rose In Mauritania
I dreamt of rain. I dreamt of gardens in the desert sand. And unlike Sting, I did not wake in vain. That’s because I made it to Mauritania. What is there in Mauritania, you might ask. 🤷 Well, there’s the infamous Eye of the Sahara, which some people believe is the ruins of the lost city…
Somaliland and Djibouti – Volcanoes, Salt and History!
I had a great time in Somaliland and Djibouti – but to get there I needed to push a little bit beyond the means. Still the sun’s good lightning, the volcanoes, the brown and yellow landscapes and rocky hikes made every effort worth of it! The chance to experience one of the most colorful coral…
Big Cities And Border Battling – Pakistan Part 6
We had just trekked magnificent mountain ranges, where we cruised The Roof of the World, conquered The Bridge of Death, found The Fountain of Youth and braved the ninth tallest peak in the world… well at least its base camp. That was it for my grand adventure around Pakistan with a group of travel buddies.…
Nanga Parbat’s Breathtaking Beauty And Danger – Pakistan Part 5
After spending a few good days in Passu, we had a long journey ahead to get to the mountain, Nanga Parbat, where we would spend the next three days. We left early in the morning and began our long drive all the way back down the same road that had previously taken us through the…
Finding The Fountain Of Youth And Bridge Of Death – Pakistan Part 4
Want to live to eternity, or at least to 120? Well you may want to move to Pakistan’s Hunza Valley, where the local people have metaphorically found the Fountain of Youth. On this leg of our grand Pakistani excursion, we’ll see if we can boost our longevity in, of course, the Hunza Valley… Then we’ll…
Cruising The Roof Of The World – Pakistan Part 3
As a German tourist, you don’t want to be dropped off or left behind in the middle of nowhere on Nuku Hiva, which is part of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. While a remote area of Pakistan’s Hindu Kush Mountains, located close to the “Roof of the World,” is not a place where German-eating…
French Guiana: Not the Shit-Hole I Expected
This post picks up right after my layover in Paris. I’d made my way to French Guyana and made my way to the boat, which was waiting in the waters near Kourou. Back with my crew in Kourou The crew received me with a nice welcome dinner, and I woke up early the next day,…
Getting Cultured In The Kalash Valleys – Pakistan Part 2
Trekking Pakistan’s renowned mountainous terrain involves more than just skillful driving, sightseeing and getting acquainted with the topography. This type of travel is also about getting cultured. We left off in the last post still at the beginning of my journey to and through Pakistan. After a disastrous time trying to exit Libya, we traveled…
Ups And Downs Of Journeying To The Hindu Kush – Pakistan Part 1
While traveling to Afghanistan was a major accomplishment of mine, I was surely not going to overlook neighboring Pakistan, a country that is the fifth largest in the world by population and that is famous for its rich culture, mountainous terrain and turbulent political history. After an amazing yet challenging trip to Libya, I planned…
First Time in Paris in Over a Decade
As a perpetual traveller, the start of every new travel adventure is almost always intertwined with the ending of another travel adventure. Sometimes, I even manage to make the in-betweens and layovers noteworthy as well. Such is the case of my layover in Paris, the prelude to French Guiana. This story begins in Munich, where…
La Digue and Praslin: Seychelles pt. 2
This story picks up right at the end of my time on the main island of Seychelles. I had just spent a few days road tripping through Mahé, and I was ready for new horizons. So, I gave back the car rental shop and walked onto a ferry to La Digue. La Digue 101 La…
Ancient Civilization, Modern Marsh Life And Shia Islam – Iraq Part 2
You should already know that after wrapping up my travels around Afghanistan, I headed to Iraq. In the first half of my trip, we checked out Baghdad and Central Iraq and got to climb the Great Mosque of Samarra. Now in the second half of this Iraq adventure, we’re heading south from Baghdad to trace ancient civilization and…