2022 - A NomadMania Year in Review |
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Last year we opened our last newsletter of 2021 with the words: "Though it was clearly a challenging year for everybody, it was also one where the travel community returned to considerable movement, with a number of achievements overall."
On that note, we can confirm that 2022 was clearly even more challenging than 2021, to everyone's surprise. But it was also the year in which the travelling community returned to its almost pre-pandemic movement levels and has reached some new milestones. It was also a year of two great celebrations in NomadMania, two amazing trips and many travel meet-ups which brought us closer together after two years of waiting.
We now proudly count 18 new UN masters in 2022 which is very close to the 2017 and 2018 levels. We will dedicate more space to them further below and also recall all new updates and social gatherings that marked this year. We will try to stay on the positive side, but if we are to make a fair review of the year, some dark spots are inevitable.
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As each year starts with some updates and expansion, so did 2022 start with TCC introducing one new territory (the island of Nevis) and MTP rising to 1013 new regions, which we included to our maps and stats of course.
We will get to our 10-year anniversary in a moment, but first let's mention our first travel meet-up after 2 years of the pandemic. On February 17th, somewhat ironically, the first travellers meeting was held in Shanghai, organised by our member Eugenio Bregolat.
This was followed up by another 9 meetings and we are truly thankful to everyone who contributed and gathered around with their fellow travellers. You can apply at any moment to host a meeting like this in any corner of the world. All you need to do is message us here and please, plan ahead! In our experience, at least 3 weeks ahead gives us just about enough time to notify everyone.
Here is a full list of NomadMania's travellers' meetings of 2022 with a collage photo above of some of the travellers who met up:
Shanghai, February 17th, by Eugenio Bregolat;
Brussels, June 7, by Aurelien de Saint Blancard;
Paris, June 28, by Aurelien de Saint Blancard;
Warsaw, July 9, by our manager Milana, our IT's head and tail Daniel and our Executive Committee member and Vice-Minister of Internal Relations Wojtek;
San Francisco, August 21, by Andrina Ong;
Perth, August 26, by Mikhail Zarubin;
New York, August 28, by Joey Shurtleff;
VIENNAMANIA, September 17, by Sylvia Alfery and Geri Winkler (this is an event on its own that will be further explained below);
Bergen, September 25, by our founder, Harry Mitsidis;
Melbourne, November 27, by Dondon Bales of PGE.
If you wish to be on this list next year, don't forget to message us and set up a meeting with other travellers!
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This year was special for us because of the main three gatherings where we got the chance to meet new people, connect faces with names and create friendships.
It started with a trip in Azerbaijan during February. Following the first trip organised by ETIC in September 2021, NomadMania got a chance to gather around 25 travellers and so we did. The big bonus was celebrating our founder's 50th birthday with one of the biggest music stars of Azerbaijan. You can even see how it all looked in a video down below.
While the spring and summer passed in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, we were looking forward to the autumn. In September we participated in the 3rd edition of ViennaMania organised by our members Sylvia Alfery and Geri Winkler. They really did an exquisite job and this event now has a cult status amongst the travellers. Keep an eye on our Meetings section to see when the next round will happen. They start with the preparations quite early!
After that, in October, we attended the Extraordinary Travel Festival in Yerevan, organised by our friend Ric Gazarian. This is where our founder Harry hosted another trip with about 10 other travellers. The trip was done in cooperation with the ETF and one of the highlights, apart from the amazing Armenian food and scenery, was celebrating NomadMania's 10th birthday while there. Thank you Shushanik!
Right after the trip our manager Milana took over at the festival itself to represent NomadMania. She presented our "What is a visit" poll's results on a very lively and popular presentation. Seems like much of the community is interested in this topic. Luckily, you are not too late and you have a chance to share your opinions in our second poll - still live on NomadMania. Just log in and you will be guided there! Given that Christmas time is a time of giving, we truly ask for a few minutes of your time, as through this poll we will reach final policy decisions on 'what is a visit' - and your vote really does count. Note that if you use the app, you will need to go to the desktop version to access the poll.
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We did many great things this year, but not all of it was easy. After the aggressive start of the war in Ukraine, NomadMania broke its neutrality for the first time and declared its political opinion.
Though not everyone agreed with everything that we had to say, we continued our efforts to actually support the cause that we felt had to be supported - Ukraine and its people. So we gave some space to Orest for a live stream on our YouTube channel to help him spread his voice. We reached out to our scholarship recipients in Ukraine to see if they were doing well and we ended up employing two of them throughout most of the year.
Serhii, stuck in Lviv in western Ukraine, has been helping us with a number of small projects and you may have heard from him via email. He may have even interviewed you! Yevhen, on the other hand managed to escape from Donbass through Russia to Georgia. Truly a story that gave us goosebumps; he has managed to settle in Belgium for now and while he was on all that, he had helped us with creating some new designs of which many still wait to be fully implemented.
Finally, the issue of our neutrality was solved by our NomadMania referendum. Following that, on November 5 and November 21, we published two interviews - the two conflicted sides - to tell the whole story. We hope that we have managed to learn from this experience and to be an example of how to solve conflicts, help others and how to stay true to yourself.
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Sometime in August, our founder announced his definite retirement from NomadMania, though no one believed him with that. Four months in and we can definitely confirm - that we still don't believe him nor his intention to truly retire. Don't worry, NomadMania was never to be abandoned and we are continuing our business as usual.
After all - we have just concluded our second and successful NomadMania Travel Awards. The main difference from last year was that we introduced two new awards - Best fixer (chosen internally) and the Biggest LPI Traveller (chosen by your vote). Also, we changed the form of the award and we offered our winners to choose between the physical and a digital award. The digital award means also that the funds that would otherwise be spent on an actual trophy and the delivery will be donated to a Ukrainian charity. After spending an entire year with two of the 2021 awards trophies sitting in her basement, our manager Milana thought this was the only logical solution.
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All in all, this year we released a total of 10 new videos, including two brand new ones that we are presenting to you here today. We sent you a total of 23 regular, monthly newsletters, marking this one our 24th.
In those newsletters we brought you over 30 interviews, thus presenting you stories of 34 travellers in total. And all of that was managed, prepared and even done by our very small team.
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All Things New on NomadMania in 2022 |
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Let's start with our newest update - our M@P regions are now included in 'my map' and, well, mapped. You will find that if you click on 'my travels' and then navigate down to 'my map' and click.
As you can see on the screenshot above, some of the M@P regions can be seen fully marked, but because so many of them are tiny, they are simply grouped and marked by numbers. Once you zoom in or click those numbers, you will be able to see them AND to see which NM region they belong to. Isn't that great?
Apart from this amazing and much needed update, we also added two toggle switches to the top. This will enable to either show or hide NomadMania regions and/or M@P regions on the map. Please note that you will always see your personalised map here with a colour indicating which regions have been marked as visited.
Now that we have that revealed, let us quickly review all things new on NomadMania in 2022. We really try to bring you new features regularly and we dare say that we are more regular than many big, paid for services that can be found online. You will get the feeling once you read all this, so let's go!
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In February, we introduced a brand new and quite unique ranking of travellers - the Low Passport Index ranking. The LPI Ranking lets travellers from countries that have a 'worse' passport compare their travel accomplishments amongst themselves, thus making things a bit more fair, at least with this aspect. The logical extension of such a ranking was also our Biggest LPI Traveller Award which went into hands of Pongtharin Tanthasindhu from Thailand. As this was Pong’s second time to be nominated in our Awards, we had already done an interview with him earlier this year.
Later on we expanded Triumphs and Achievements by adding more categories. While Triumphs are updated several times a day and you can always see what is happening in our dynamic community, Achievements are updated only 4 times a year. So if you are new around here, you will have to wait until our January release in order to see your Achievements roll in. We will also bring more categories once again, so stay tuned.
Let us remind you that we also updated our Terms and Conditions and our GDPR section in March and April. Soon we will update you with our new Privacy policy statement (in January), so please make sure that you read it.
In April we released some big masterlist changes: 28 regions were moved out of the Masterlist and onto our M@P regions list, while 28 new regions entered the Masterlist as a result of deeper splits of existing regions. Admittedly, this has caused some unwanted, technical mess and chaos, so if you haven’t checked your own visited regions and maps, please make sure you do so.
Following the April update, we started increasing our M@P list monthly, until it finally reached our initial goal of 1301 M@P regions, making it the secondary travel challenge worthy of the most extreme travellers. To make things even more interesting, we added more content and we introduced 1301 new pages - one for each M@P region.
While they still are a work in progress and don’t have much content except the map, this was a lot of work which was done by our IT’s head and tail Daniel. He surely well deserved his Best NomadMania team member Award for 2022, so thanks again Daniel!
We made a plan this year - to further develop our Fixers section and to make it more appealing to for our members to use it more often. Hence, authenticated users of NomadMania are able to rate and comment on fixers, which hopefully brings more transparency and trust as of May.
Our dream is to have each member of NomadMania introduce (or comment or rate) at least one fixer that they had an experience with. This way you are helping the community, but also your hosts by increasing their chance to get more guests.
Now this was all about our website, but our app also received several cool new features this year. First we introduced a feature of “create your own region” where you can pick a spot on the map (or make that your location) and select the radius that you want. This provides you with a “region” of 5/10/50/100 km around you and it includes all NM regions, M@Ps and Series in one spot so you can pick and choose what to see in the time that you have. Isn’t that just the coolest feature of a travel app ever? We certainly think so.
We also added a feature for making series more interactive on the app - now you can pick and choose categories that you actually like and remove the ones that don’t interest you. Try it out!
Back to the website where we introduced a unique list of 101 Essential Regions - both for NM and for M@P, which were hand picked by our founder with the help of the Executive Committee. We had also fixed our Milestones and made them more automated for your convenience.
Last but not least - important “old” novelties on our website were the polls and referendum. From July to August, all users could've voted on a unique Poll about Trav and Ling’s travel adventures. This is our famous “What is a visit” poll and its results with almost 1000 responses were presented by our manager at the Extraordinary Travel Festival in Yerevan. You can still see the results here.
Following the first, we released the second poll of this kind in November which, be reminded, is still ongoing and needing your vote. This is your way to influence what happens next on NomadMania and with our “What is a visit?” guidelines. We will certainly be conducting more polls in 2023 on a variety of topics, so stay tuned and do participate!
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What is new with Series in 2022? |
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We know that some of you are huge Series fans and so you perhaps also wish a small review of what has been added to the Series.
The biggest additions have been with Top of the Tops, which has now grown to reach 2901 items - just 100 short of our ultimate goal of 3001 items. Top of the tops is meant to note the 'unmissable' in each Series category and country. We urge you to recommend those that you still believe are missing so that we include them in the final cut. A museum you loved? A cave that you feel is truly exceptional? A lake that everyone should see? We aim to finish this completely by early next year so have your say!
Milestones, initially 101 items, were increased by 10 more. While perhaps not a traditional Series, this is where you can tell the 'men from the boys' to use a slightly inappropriate expression - probably our most challenging of all our categories. Who, we wonder, will ever complete all Top of the Tops in the castles, forts and palaces Series?
The mountain series, proposed by Geri Winkler, was introduced and then also counted in the cumulative series. In almost every other Series category, we have added items, especially for Northern and Western European countries and Australia; we will be working on more additions gradually next year with the aim of reaching a total of 70,000 Series items overall. That means 70,000 ideas for things to see and do around the world.
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Azerbaijan - Special Trip to Kalbajar Corridor | Biggest Travellers | NomadMania |
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This year was our inaugural year for our YouTube channel. We launched it mainly because of the 2021 Awards live stream and later on we did not pay too much attention to it. We are aware we cannot really compete with professionals who produce YouTube content for a living, but we still hope to offer you occasionally offbeat, interesting and amusing videos.
The only way that you stay up to date is to subscribe to the channel, so if you haven't already, please consider doing it now. It will help us reach you faster with some interesting travel videos during next year.
While today we are officially presenting two new videos on our channel, allow us to remind you about all the previous ones that we provided throughout the year.
After the inaugural video which was our Awards Show and then presenting our conference in Sao Tome and Principe, we continued our cooperation with Gus Rosted. He prepared the videos Which Country Do You Love?, followed up by Which Country Do You HATE?, where some of the biggest travellers state their opinions.
Next, February came and we suddenly were forced to adjust our approach, so we offered our platform and voice to someone who needed it the most in that moment. Orest Zub, a traveller and our operational partner for many years, from Lviv, Ukraine, decided to go back to his country and to face the war that was coming. He gave us an insight about the Situation in Ukraine from a local perspective by NomadMania member in a live stream that is still available for anyone interested to watch.
Later on we tried reminding you of our first Awards and we added a few videos that were long 'shorts' of our Awards panels. After all, they featured some very interesting travel chats. So if you are too busy to watch the full 3 hour Awards stream, now you can hear from The most travelled WOMEN of the World or check Who visited ALMOST ALL countries of the world in only 10 minutes or less.
There is always interesting video about Men who visited ALL countries (of UN 193) where you can hear some much needed wisdom about where to start and end when you want to achieve this goal.
Later on, our founder Harry sent us some interesting short clips from his personal travels and we tried using it for your benefit. If you haven't already, we really recommend that you join him in his visit to the Communist Consumer Museum in Timișoara, Romania after which you can have a morning stroll in three countries while searching for a morning coffee and breakfast in this Triple border - Switzerland, France and Germany video.
Finally, there is our second NomadMania Travel Awards 2022 from November 27, that shouldn't be missed.
Today we are also presenting a newly released video called Azerbaijan - Special Trip to Kalbajar Corridor, that was actually filmed in February in Azerbaijan. We had an intensive and interesting trip with a group of about 25 other travellers and we got to celebrate Harry's 50th birthday in the most glamorous way possible - with a nationally recognised star from Azerbaijan. Though we went gladly as travellers, let us stress once again the importance of establishing a permanent peace in the region and for everyone.
We thank our member Mehraj Mahmudov for inviting us and also here's a big shoutout to Gustav (@gus1thego) who makes really great travel videos.
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Stars of our Community - UN Masters of 2022 |
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We started off in March when our dear friend Peder Zetterberg visited Saudi Arabia which marked his last out of 193 UN countries. Little did he know at the time, but he definitely paved the path for another 15 travellers to finish their big goal this year. And they all celebrated in the most unusual ways.
Flavio Ferrari Zumbini ended with South Korea and celebrated in the DMZ zone with some local friends who included one former North Korea citizen. Somewhere around the same time, Ciprian Enea became the first Romanian to visit all UN countries.
One of our wonderful travelling couples - Ursula and Jürgen Hacker finished in Syria and rushed to pass an additional verification step with our Thomas Buechler, just to confirm the last three countries. Though he is not our member (yet), Garret Gravesen and his infamous celebration that lasted 5 days didn't go unnoticed, since so many of the travelling community attended this 'monstrous' party.
Alessandro Gerevini also finished in Syria, so that's two for Italy this year, while Thomas Casswall became the second Swede to finish UN 193 this year by visiting Honduras.
Thomas Beck was the third German, finishing in lovely Bahamas, which is fairly close to Antigua where our dear Romaine Welds was one day late to join his family and friends in his celebration for making Antigua and Barbuda his 193rd country, due to a hurricane. This made him the first Jamaican and the first person from the Caribbean to achieve such an accomplishment.
Another first this year was David Yang, who became the first Taiwanese to cross his 193rd country by stepping into Venezuela. Asian forces were strong this year and we got another first when Odette Lourdes Ricasa became the first Philippine traveller to reach all countries of the world thus becoming one of the first women to mark this milestone for an entire nation.
Paul Couniotakis marked Libya as his final country, while we all cheered and observed Martina Sebova and Rachel Davey waiting for their Eritrean visa to arrive. This wasn't their final country, but it was the final country in Africa which prevented them from then finally finishing in the Pacific, in Samoa.
Sweden dominated this year's UN Masters list, as we have a total of four travellers who travel on a Swedish passport. Hans Ollongren marked the third Swede and our latest tip was Jian Kang who also considers himself Chinese. These days Jian lives in Singapore and he made Eritrea his final country on December 14.
One of our latest entries to the list was David Langan becoming the third Irish person to accomplish the goal with Laos as his final country. Just two or three days ago we received the news that a Swedish citizen Kang Jian made Erritrea his final country and while doing final edits of this letter, we were waiting for the final post about the final UN Master of 2022.
Even though he didn't make it official yet, we've been waiting to send our congratulations to Ilir Morina who should've became the first person from Kosovo to visit all countries of the world. We know that he was waiting for that airplane a day ago and we honestly hope that he had made it to Eritrea as well. Though he doesn't travel on a Kosovan passport only, this is certainly a great accomplishment and he is a unique traveller. Congratulations to him and to all of amazing travellers who marked 2022 their year!
We remind you that we also have our special part of the UN Masters list devoted to the travellers Very close to goal and we know that there are several travellers there who are still waiting for some countries to open for them. Hopefully we see them all complete the UN list in 2023!
Finally, we managed to gather some of the 2022 UN Masters in our first panel of the Travel Awards Show. One of them finished way back in 2020, but this was a unique chance to get him to talk about that accomplishment. See the image below and don't forget - we are always welcoming new tips and messages about new UN masters, so please let us know if we're missing someone!
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France - French domains of Saint-Helena - M@P regions that you may not know
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Here is something of our usual content - another M@P region that you may not know. This year we presented 11 others to you and we hope that we have inspired you to go ahead and try visiting some of them. For now, let us focus on the last one that we present in 2022 - French domains of St Helena.
In our M@P list we generally do not include buildings - and this is something that we had to say twice in the last three months - but we have made another exception for the historically significant French domains of St Helena, which are probably the highlight of any stay on the island. Three small properties, including the original burial site of Napoleon and Longwood house where he lived in exile in the final years of his life are all owned by France.
Longwood house, where the French flag welcomes you, is arguably the largest of the three areas and features a well-maintained museum house and the gardens. A caretaker sent by the French government ensures all is in order while the visit certainly will conjure a bit of nostalgia for a time long gone and for a man who, no matter what you believe about him, is one of the truly significant historical figures of the past centuries.
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The Interview - Ramblin' Randy Williams |
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Do we really need to introduce his Eminence the Sultan? Any words seem to be too small to express the greatness that is the Sultan. Following his magnanimous appearance at our 2nd NomadMania Travel Awards in November, we have the pleasure of allowing the man to speak for himself. What better way to end the year, what better gift than an interview with the Sultan of Slowjamastan aka Randy himself!
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Randy, tell us a little about your early life and how your love for travel developed.
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I grew up in Los Angeles and Tucson, Arizona. I was lucky enough to begin my career in radio at just 15 years old. By the time I was a junior in high school, I was the nighttime personality on my city's hip-hop station. I've been extremely fortunate to enjoy a long, fruitful, and most of all, fun career in broadcasting. Today, my Sunday Night Slow Jams radio program is heard on over 200 radio stations in 14 countries. I also manage two radio stations here in San Diego, California, as well as host a live and local afternoon show. I am a workaholic, but truly love what I do - it rarely seems like work. I've also negotiated an obscene amount of vacation time with my employer - so make no mistake about it, I play just as hard as I work.
As a boy, I always loved to explore and push boundaries. I remember using the public transportation system in L.A., solo, before I was even a teen. I wanted to see what was out there, beyond my neighborhood and comfort zone. I went to a school where they bussed-in kids from not-so-good neighborhoods in the inner-city. I remember stowing away on "their" bus to go stay the night at some of my friends' houses in the bowels of East L.A. It was thrilling. I've never been afraid to leave my familiar surroundings and see what else was out there. It's always just been instinctive to me.
Also, my parents divorced when I was three. I was flying unaccompanied at six or seven years old - maybe even five - to visit my dad during the summers. I'm sure that has something to do with my travel insanity today.
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Your aim is to reach 193. What has motivated you and when do you think you will manage that?
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I really wish I could pin down the exact moment, day or even year that I decided to take on the challenge of seeing every country. I can't seem to pinpoint it. Rather than a specific, black and white decision, I think it was a culmination of numerous things that happened in my life, and before I knew it, I was booking to trips to Kabul, Mogadishu and Pyongyang, to the horror of my friends and family.
One life changing moment for me was that first trip to Brasil, as a young man. Who knew you could have a love affair with an entire "country?" All I knew was, ten days later, when it was time to go, I was in tears at the airport. Tears! Brasil absolutely captured my heart. I'd quit my job and move there just four years later.
My first dedicated "challenge" was to finish South and Central America by 40. When I stumbled into places like The Guyanas, I quickly realized I possessed an affinity to the more "bizarre" (at least in my eyes) places of the world. I got a kick out of going to countries like Suriname - a nation none of my friends or family had ever even heard of. It's in The Amazon? And they speak Dutch??? Super weird and I just ate it up. That specific trip would wet my appetite for the countless other very "different" places that would await me: from Mauritania, to Timor Leste, to Equatorial Guinea to Transnistria - the weirder the better. I adore these places!
At the same time, I'd form an addiction to those regions that I "shouldn't" go to. I was scared shitless venturing into places like Venezuela, North Korea and Iraq. But each time, I left just absolutely loving those countries, wanting to stay longer, and just overall being so happy that I took the chance. I left feeling so fortunate that I'd had such a rich experience and met so many incredible people. Normal people never get to experience the incredible things that we insane nomads do. I feel like I've been granted this whole second life, you know? I've been told I was the first tourist/traveler to enter Libya after the war. I really had no idea what I was doing, but I'm glad I did it.
God willing, I'm on track to reach 193 in 2023 - the moment Turkmenistan opens for travel. It's driving me crazy!
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You are one of those travellers with a 'normal life' who is nevertheless trying to do 193. What are the difficulties of combining the two and what sacrifices have you had to make in order to achieve this?
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It can definitely be stressful at times - cramming so many countries into one, two- or three-week trip. I think my record was 14 nations in 22 days. The biggest challenge - besides making all those flights - is making sure I truly experience each country I'm visiting. I don't believe quantity (or days) always relates to quality (of the experience). I can land in a new country in the morning, throw my bags down and be heading out the hotel's doors by noon, packing in a delightful afternoon of genuine, local experiences - leaving the next day with new friends and memories that will last a lifetime.
Of course, there are many times where I wish I had longer in a country, but with only a finite amount of vacation days and a goal to finish 193 within 10 years of starting, what can you do?
Full disclosure, I'm an unmarried man with no kids (Hey, ladies!), so I'm able to pick up and go whenever I want to. I really admire others, who have to balance work and family. I can't imagine!
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Of the countries you have been to, which ones surprised you most, both positively and negatively?
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The best surprise: Bangladesh.
I'd only been chasing 193 for a couple of years and had asked a few different fellow-travelers which country was their least favorite. Multiple people had told me their disdain for Bangladesh. That was enough to make my mind up that I was not going to like it either. I planned just one night there - get me in and out quickly. I was so ready to hate this place. But less than two hours in, Dhaka become one of my top ten cities (maybe top 5) in the entire world! The sights, the sounds, the chaos - the energy flowed through my veins and gave me life! There were more rickshaws than autos and everything happening around me looked like it was straight out of the 1800s. Add to the fact that everyone was nice to me - the whole experience was nothing less than magic and I hated to go. That one day in Dhaka goes down as one of my best travel experiences ever and a valuable lesson that everyone's experience somewhere can be different.
Algeria was an amazing surprise, too. This too, was very early in my travel career - back when I still had so many preconceived ideas about places. I'd only remembered hearing the name "Algeria" connected to terrorism (the news!), so I was freaked out going there in general. What I experienced was one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever seen - a vibrant, cosmopolitan port-city with wonderful food, beautiful people and stunning architecture. Algiers, in general, was just such a learning lesson to me: a lesson that the world is not everything you grow up hearing on the news.
On the negative side, Nepal. Granted, I never left Kathmandu, so I really didn't give the country a chance and I know it. But I'd just finished an amazing week in stunning Bhutan. I don't know what I expected from Nepal, but after that initial 20-minute walk around the capital, I hated it. A million motorbikes nipping at your heels on pedestrian walkways and crap load of tourists? It wasn't my vibe at all. I cut bait and left the next morning. It's only one of two times I left a destination early.
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Have you ever been in danger?
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I've come to learn a lot of potential "danger" is made up in one's mind. On the other hand, I've probably been closer than ever to danger and not even knew it. Life is funny that way, isn't it?
I was probably the most shaken during an overland trip to Burundi - not by what happened, but what "could have" happened.
I'd spent all my time researching how not to die in South Sudan, I'd completely skipped over Burundi and the tensions on the border of Rwanda. I crossed by land being completely oblivious of the tenuous relationship between the two countries. I remember finding it odd that the border, while open, was completely desolate. Where was the traffic, the lines of people, the vendors, the businesses and the overall "border" activity I'm used to seeing at crossings? Something was amiss. It felt like an episode of The Twilight Zone.
Upon crossing, I was immediately surrounded by local police, who were obviously mystified by a foreigner traipsing across their border on holiday. One deputy announced he would be my "escort" to my destination (the village of Kirundo.) I spent the next 16 hours with him glued to my side. This was 10% really cool and 90% terrifying.
The shakedowns started almost immediately, with him making sure to charge me a "fee" for every landmark I was shown. The deputy would pull the car over at certain times and have me get out, sort of "showing me off" to the curious villagers that would suddenly surround the car. It was so weird.
At the end of the night I would be buying all of his comrades beers at the local bar, and of course he insisted I bring him a "gift" for the village chief, which meant an envelope of cash. I probably could have enjoyed the experience so much more if I wasn't worried what "might" happen at any moment. I was seriously concerned that in the middle of the night, officers were going to break down my hotel door and haul me off to jail on some false charge, in an effort to shake down my family for cash. Silly? Maybe. Paranoid? Yes. But when I finally got home and did the proper research, people in the region (Rwandans) informed me I was lucky to be alive, while many Burundians just apologized and welcomed me back. Was I in real danger? I may never know, but being in such a desolate part of the world, under someone else's thumb, whose intentions I did know was surely unnerving.
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There is a lot of talk about the 'extreme travel community' out there. What do you find the people have in common, if anything, beyond their desire to go everywhere? Are the people you have met similar personality-wise or not at all?
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Many of us share some common values, but I think there exists many more differences than similarities, and that, for the most part, is to be celebrated. For example, I know friends who only stay at five-star hotels and others who enjoy casually couch-surfing through Somalia. I enjoy witnessing how others travel, and, at the same time, I've learned so much about myself.
I would be remiss if I didn't thank everyone who has ever helped me in this community. There is no doubt, I would not have been able to take on this journey without the help of other travelers. It is simply impossible to find some of the intel we travelers exchange on a daily basis in our private groups and chats. I've been assisted countless times by complete strangers in this community - too many people to name. So if you've ever answered one of my private messages, a question under your post from me, or provided feedback to one of my online queries, I thank you so very much. I appreciate you!
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You have a detailed blog called Ramblin' Randy, Tell us about it and what your aims with this have been.
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I treat my blog like a personal journal, however it is open for the world to eavesdrop on. You won't find many "Top 10 Restaurant" lists, or "How-To" guides on my website - it is literally a journal of my personal experiences, some exciting and others mundane. Sometimes I ramble on in detail of the quirky specifics of a morning walk somewhere less-traveled; other entries might just be a quick, broad stroke on two days spent in a very common destination. As I get older, I want to make sure I cement some of the these memories down before they fade.
My writing style seems to be very different from most travel blogs. I do my best to go beyond facts and make the reader feel like he is "with" me, or better yet, "is" me. I do my best to convey the emotion of every trip, be it excitement, fear, anticipation, confusion, or whatever. I want the reader to feel what I feel. My audience is small, but loyal. And when I hear from someone that they enjoyed my article; that they felt like they there with me; or even that they used some of my intel on "their" trip - it's one of the most rewarding feelings ever.
Writing about a trip after I come home is also like reliving it all over again. It's like a second, bonus journey back. It's another chance to process everything that happened, layout the timeline and organize the photos. Finally, sometimes I find myself going back to blogs from trips many years ago, and chuckling at how naive I was back then. We are constantly growing and evolving when we travel. It's fun to look back and see the different person you were years ago.
I don't make any money from my website, but that's not why I do it. It's 100% just for personal satisfaction. It's such a great outlet and a way to travel all over again without leaving the house...and spending the money!
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Now, a year or so ago, on your birthday, you founded Slowjamastan. Tell us all about it.
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Who hasn't heard of The United Territories of The Sovereign Nation of The People's Republic of Slowjamastan??? I thought we'd already made the history books!
Well, for those that don't know: In 2021, I annexed an 11-acre parcel of land about an hour south of Palm Springs, California. After putting up signs, a border gate and fence, on December 1st, we declared our independence and seceded from The United States. Today, we are our own independent nation.
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Randy as the Sultan of Slowjamastan |
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We are especially interested in the founding principles of Slowjamastan. Please elaborate on them and explain their significance in the travel world.
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Before founding Slowjamastan, I'd found myself very concerned with many Americans' choice of footwear, specifically those fashion-monstrosities they call "Crocs." Have you heard of the Crocs? These reprehensible, cartoon-looking rubber clogs with Swiss-cheese holes in them have been spreading like a disease here in the US (among other places) and it was giving me anxiety. How could anyone in their right mind ever put those abhorrent and embarrassing things on their feet...in public! Attempts to convince congress to ban these evil slippers proved futile, so I decided to create a nation of my very own, where I would make the laws. Of course, our very first federal statute was a complete ban and zero-tolerance for Crocs. We provide swift and severe punishment for anyone breaking this sacred law.
Other laws include prohibition of using the "Reply-All" function when receiving a company-wide email, driving in the left lane when you are not passing other cars, and playing "mumble rap" in public.
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You are the Sultan of Slowjamastan. How does it feel to be a Sultan.
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It's not all glitz and glamour. Sure, I have hoards of servants at my beck and call and a never-ending line of ladies waiting for a chance to dance with the Sultan - but being the Supreme Leader comes with responsibility and even some risk. I do my very best to put my people first and provide a safe and bountiful land, free of the evils of Crocs and auto-tuned rap music.
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We understand you can become a citizen and get a great passport. How many citizens are there now and are there any requirements?
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We have over 500 registered citizens from 79 countries and over 3,000 applications in queue. It's free to become a citizen - we just need a solemn swear that you will not bring Crocs into our land. Sexy ladies to the front of the line please.
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So what is the purpose of this whole venture?
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Randy speaking now, not The Sultan - and I hope everyone reading understands the fun and satire here. The only thing more entertaining than satire, is watching the 1% of people who don't understand satire!
Why Slowjamastan? I guess I'm always looking for a new creative outlet. Slowjamastan is for fun - think of it as one big art project. But this project is interactive. This project never stops growing, moving and expanding. Plus, anyone can be involved. And here's the really cool part: Slowjamastan is whatever people want it to be. With all the divisiveness of modern-day social media, news and politics, Slowjamastan is a place where people can get away and escape it all - both physically or virtually (99% of our citizens will probably never make it there in person). Slowjamastan is just a fun thing that anyone can be a part of it - in any way. You can be just a casual observer online, or sign up to be a member of our parliament. You can follow us on Instagram or go so far as to have one of our states named after you. The possibilities are endless.
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What are your travel aims once you reach 193, if any?
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First, I am actually really looking forward to slowing down! It's hectic and expensive to see five countries in two weeks! It will be such a luxury to simply slow down.
Of course, I'm most excited to get back to the places I love the most - to unpack, and relax a little bit, and then go deeper and explore more. A few places I'm really jazzed to get back to: Philippines, Indonesia, Armenia, Venezuela, Japan and Bangladesh. There are so many more.
I look at my current travel style like this, hear me out: The world is this giant buffet of 193 different foods that I've never tasted in my life. My plan is to take a tiny bite of all 193 dishes - just a morsel - so I can try it all, and then go back for bigger plates of the dishes I really loved. If I filled up on just three or four, or even 20 or 30 dishes - that would leave so many more dishes on the table, un-tasted! Give me a small bite of everything now, and then when I'm done sampling, I'l head back for bigger servings of the food I liked.
I'm almost done tasting the whole buffet and I can't wait to go back to my favorite dishes, this time with a giant bowl and serving spoon.
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And finally our signature question - if you can invite any 4 people from any period in human history to dinner, who would your guests be and why?
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First and foremost, my dear Mother, who recently passed. I'd give anything for more time with her. Probably my grandmother too. Next would be musician Louis Armstrong and you gotta invite Jesus, right? I mean, the guy makes wine out of water.
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Did you like reading this? |
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We thank His Excellency, Randy “R Dub!” Williams, Sultan of Slowjamastan for sharing his personal photos with us here at NomadMania.
We only send two emails a month and every time we share new features and NomadMania plans for future. Be the first to find out what's happening next.
Our next 'shorter' issue will be out on the 5th of January 2023 with an exciting new announcement for the New Year!
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