On my last trip featuring Monaco, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, I reached a important milestone in my life’s ambition of traveling to every country.
I’ve now officially visited half the countries in the world!
Here’s me in the Swiss Alps celebrating the moment.
I’ve now been to 99 out of 196 countries.
(Although Taiwan, Kosovo, and Palestine are not one of the 193 UN members—due to security council vetos by China, Russia, and the USA, respectively—most of the world consider them independent states.)
Here’s a map of all the countries I’ve visited so far.
Aside from that, I’ve also visited Antarctica and several unrecognized, de-facto states. All of these have their own border controls and governments.
List of Rogue States I’ve visited
- Somaliland (Formally Northern Somalia)
- Transnistria (Formally Eastern Moldova)
- Abkhazia (Formally West Georgia)
- Ngoro Kharabakh (Formally West Azerbaijan)
- The Northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus (Formally north Cyprus)
For those interested, I also did some short videos for Monaco (where I got robbed) and Liechtenstein below. Follow me on Instagram for more updates like this.
A video posted by Mark Zolo (@naughtynomad) on
A video posted by Mark Zolo (@naughtynomad) on
Why did I decide on this goal?
In my first book, I told the story of having unprotected sex with a woman in Uganda who told me she had HIV afterwards. I was only 20 at the time, and the three months I had to wait to get tested were some of the most stressful of my life.
During that time I had to ask myself some hard questions.
If I had only 10-20 years left of my life, what would I do with it?
Forget about family, a mortgage, or a career. I’d have to make the most of the time I had left. Contemplating this, the answer to my question become immediately clear: I would travel the world and experience everything it had to offer.
Thankfully, I was blessed with a clean bill of health, but nonetheless that mindset remained, and over the next couple of years I travelled like a mad man, often visiting 12-15 countries a year.
The Next Chapter
It was only when I was around 27 and discovered the New York City underworld did I decide to slow down. I realized I was not going to die, and didn’t want to run out of the world too fast. I wanted to soak it up and enjoy the ride. So right now I’m stacking cash to provide for my future, living in the sunny Mediterranean.
I intend on travelling the rest of the world over the next decade, but for the next two years I’m going to continue working hard. I will be travelling here and there (I’m going to Iceland next month, for example), but a return to the grand adventures of my youth spanning several months will have to wait.
But worry not, Naughty Nomad readers, I have a few surprises up my sleeve…
Wow, you’ve been to 99 countries but not Mexico, Colombia, or Brazil? Priorities, bro. It will be easy to rack up a lot more countries in latin america.
You should definitely do Brazil, Colombia & Mexico before hiiting your 30’s. Try to live in those countries
I’m just about to hit 30. Going hit Colombia in the next year though.
How many flags are you at now- is it near parity with countries visited?
I stopped flagging three years ago. Wasn’t healthy for me. Since then I think I barely increased the count. I have article you should read on the topic. http://naughtynomad.com/2015/05/29/sex-for-sport-is-collecting-flags-unhealthy/
nice. from iceland you should make an americqs run. from greenland to fapkland islams. surprised you never hit brazil.
you should hit vancouver for its nature n weed.
*americas,falklands islands
You thought you’d have 10-20 years to live with a HIV diagnosis? What are you living in – the 1960s? Traveling the world is an admirable goal, but you might want to brush up on some basic medical knowledge. With proper anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) someone with HIV can live pretty much like a normal person (only a higher risk of infections in your life) – just don’t have unprotected sex with lots of people.
Dude, how have you not been to Canada yet. You would love it there. Way better than the states..
I’m visiting next summer. Both my brothers will be living there.
cool, you should hit all parts since they are different to each other from the super nice noofies and snooty frenchies to the egotistic torontoians and redneck albertans to nature loving stoners in vancouver.
prairies suck btw.
I’d like to see a post where you go through the countries you’ve traveled to.. I’m especially interested in the ones you did’t like and would never go back to and why? Also on the other end, I’d like to know your favorite countries and why.
Sure thing.
you should also count Vatican and Greenland as countries bringing the number of countries to 198
I agree.