Make a map of visited countries

[Richard Hawkes]

...here:
http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries

I've been to a staggering 7% of the world's nations (that's sixteen). I've never been to the Americas. Actually the generated map looks pretty crappy, but it amused me for a minute or two...


[ July 28, 2004: Message edited by: Richard Hawkes ]

[Jason Menard]

Originally posted by Richard Hawkes:

I've been to a staggering 7% of the world's nations (that's sixteen). I've never been to the Americas.

A mere 5% (13) for me.



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

[Alan Wanwierd]

cool site!!!
I thought I was well travelled - (39 countries 17%)- but seems my map still has an awful lot of grey on it and not so much red!!!

(Maybe I should take a trip to US/Canada border and China/Russia border to shade in some seriously large areas!!)

[Richard Hawkes]

Coming from Europe it's easy to build up a list of countries over a week or two. However you can make other maps for visits to European countries, US states or Canadian provinces:

http://www.world66.com/myworld66/

[soumya ravindranath]

What about countries 'visited' on transit ?

[Jeroen Wenting]

I too need to get around more.
I've visited most every country on 2 continents and made a start on 3 more, but that's about it

Mind there's a few specs in there too small to see in the Caribbean

[Ko Ko Naing]

That's mine... Less than all of you, up there... Only 1% of the world... :roll:

[Pradeep bhatt]

I got 0 %

[Steve Wink]

I've been to these:



create your own visited country map

[Michael Matola]

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

19 countries (8%) for me.

Richard -- do you travel to Japan often? I just got back from a vacation there. Overall quite an interesting place. The food was outstanding. Went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Aso-san/Yufuin, and Himeji -- which was a pretty good first-trip overview of the country, I think.

[Jeroen Wenting]

would be interesting to see if together us moosechasers have visited every country on the planet.
Seeing the lack of visitors to Africa and South America it seems unlikely though.

[Joe King]

Originally posted by Jeroen Wenting:
would be interesting to see if together us moosechasers have visited every country on the planet.
Seeing the lack of visitors to Africa and South America it seems unlikely though.

There may be a couple of holes in the map in areas like Afghanistan and North Korea, but I expect we could probably cover must of the world between us. This would, however, require an extremely long winded thread full of people listing the countries that they've visited

[Jessica Sant]

I've only visited the US, Canada and Trinidad (in the Caribbean), so my US map is a bit more interesting:

(Got to mark off quite a few states on my cross-country drive from PA to UT and back)



create your own personalized map of Canada



create your own personalized map of the USA

[Helen Thomas]

14% if I include Russia,Canada and China. My next objectives. Otherwise 13%.
Large countries don't make much of a difference.
The percentage would be increased by a bigger amount if travelling to all those little European kingdoms and hopping across the borders.
[ July 29, 2004: Message edited by: Helen Thomas ]

[Richard Hawkes]

Originally posted by Michael Matola:
Richard -- do you travel to Japan often?

Actually I've never been but I'm really keen to go. It's a bit sad but I really want to visit Kurosawa/Anime/Godzilla country, see all those old castles and gardens, then spend a long time in what promises to be the really mental city of Tokyo. The thing is now I'm saving money to go to Australia (because they've the cheapest university fees out of English speaking countries) so realistically I'll have to wait some years.

[Steve Wink]

My personalised US map has lots of blank bits in the middle:

[James Swan]

Cool site, but I guess I have to travel more.
11 countries, 4%

[Dan Maples]

Mine:


[ July 29, 2004: Message edited by: Dan Maples ]

[Thomas Paul]

I don't get out much:



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Guess which part of the country I live in...



create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide



create your own personalized map of Canada
or write about it on the open travel guide

[ July 29, 2004: Message edited by: Thomas Paul - Forgot Texas!!!]
[ July 29, 2004: Message edited by: Thomas Paul ]

[Jessica Sant]

Originally posted by Thomas Paul:
I don't get out much:

Looks like you like the East Coast of North America a bit too much...

[Deepak Mahbubani]

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide


Does it include countries where you just make a stop over ?

[Warren Dew]

I can add Taiwan to the group list....



create your own visited country map

And various driving vacations paint a lot of states red even though I've only visited gas stations there:



create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

Why don't they show Antarctica?
[ July 29, 2004: Message edited by: Warren Dew ]

[Jeroen Wenting]

Why don't they show Antarctica?

Maybe because there's no countries on Antarctica?

[SJ Adnams]

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

6%

[Richard Hawkes]

Originally posted by Michael Matola:

...do you travel to Japan often? I just got back from a vacation there. Overall quite an interesting place.

Michael - I'm going to Japan for four days at the end of September. Entering and leaving through Tokyo and will take the train down to Kyoto for a day or two. I'm not too bothered about cramming loads of stuff in. With that in mind, what would you recommend seeing in Tokyo and Kyoto?

Cheers

[Michael Matola]

Hey, Richard --

Give me a day or so to write up some specifics on places to visit.

In the meantime, I'll say a couple of things about lodging and food.

Lodging. In both Tokyo and Kyoto my wife and I stayed at a chain hotel called APA (rooms were identical in both places). It was one of several places that our Japanese friend who lives in Tokyo recommended. The rooms are *very* small, but they met our needs just fine. The trick was getting our Japenese friend to book for us (using our credit card) at the cheapest rates -- the English-language website had higher prices than the Japanese sight. (Our friend probably just phoned in the reservation.) The location in Tokyo was very good. It was about a 5+ minute walk to Hiroo subway station on the Hibiya line. The location in Kyoto was great -- right around the corner from the main train station and huge shopping mall. In both cities, we paid, I think, 10,500 yen per night (roughly $100 USD) for a "small double" -- but this was at the cheap Japanese rate. One of the reasons my wife picked this place is that the company is owned and run by this charismatic woman. (She kind of looks like a Japanese Cyndi Lauper, without the colored hair. And you'll find her biography in the desk drawer of your room, if you stay there. We actually *saw* her the one morning in Tokyo. The staff and other guest were in quite an uproar because she was there.)

Eating. Overall the food was outstanding and we ate very well. Meals didn't cost as much as I thought they would, but we did have the advantage of a Japanese friend in Tokyo and American friends in Hiroshima taking us to places they know. We sampled a variety of Japanese cuisines. Plus we had some very good Italian (twice). I don't know what you're interested in foodwise or how much you want to spend. I'd describe me and my wife as "value-conscious" diners. We like to eat well and will try pretty much anything, but we don't like to spend outrageous amounts of money. We're not interested in extremely fancy or the trendiest places or ego-chef cookery. I can probably track down the names of some of the specific nicer places we ate, if you're interested. But some of my best advice: if you have similar tastes and interests to ours, eat some meals at the food courts in the basements the major department stores like Takashimaya and Isetan. You'll find a great variety of fresh and well-prepared food at good prices. Also, if you don't have much Japanese, the point-and-nod technique seems less awkward in this kind of setting (at least to me). (We're great fans of Takashimaya food courts. My wife lived for a couple months right across the street from the one in Singapore. I would give Singapore the edge over Japan, though, on the food because of the wider variety and much cheaper prices.) Anyhow, another fun place to eat we found was the Muji furniture store. (Sort of like going to the cafeteria at Ikea, only Japanese instead of Swedish.)

Getting around. I know only the very basic politeness words and travel essentials in Japanese. I found Japan to be a bit more challenging than other places I've visited. Signage and explanations in English are very good. But interacting with service people was tricky at times. We had some confusion over our train tickets because of some complicated plans and I believe we ended up not getting the best possible price. The Tokyo subway is more confusing than it needs to be because some lines are owned by the city, some are private, and there are suburban commuter lines mixed in too. There are different ticketing systems that sometimes overlap and sometimes don't.

[Michael Matola]

APA hotel websites in Japanese and English.

Didn't realize APA had multiple locations in Tokyo. We were at Nishi-Azabu.
[ September 07, 2004: Message edited by: Michael Matola ]

[Amit Agrawal]

Originally posted by Richard Hawkes:
Originally posted by Michael Matola:
[qb]
...do you travel to Japan often? I just got back from a vacation there. Overall quite an interesting place.

Michael - I'm going to Japan for four days at the end of September. Entering and leaving through Tokyo and will take the train down to Kyoto for a day or two. I'm not too bothered about cramming loads of stuff in. With that in mind, what would you recommend seeing in Tokyo and Kyoto?

Cheers [/QB]

Don't miss Kyoto / Nara...even though you miss Tokyo..
I hv been to Japan couple of times ..what i liked the best was Kyoto/Nara and then Mt Fuji. Do watch 'The last Samurai' if u hvn't seen it so far...I was trying to relate movie to places there all the time...good timepass.

[Prakash Dwivedi]

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide


0%

[Nick George]

if you squint, you might confuse Lake Victoria for red, and think I'd been to Africa!

[Richard Hawkes]

Originally posted by Michael Matola:
...
Cool. Thanks for the hotel tip and the other information. I'll get some basic vocab memorised before I go to aid travelling. As for food, point and order is my speciality The more I read, the more I'm thinking of going straight down to Kyoto and spending my four nights there. Maybe save Tokyo for another time.

Originally posted by Amit Agrawal:
...
I'll check out Nara, thanks for the tip The Last Samurai was filmed in Taranaki ... Did you find it? Taranaki is actually in New Zealand!

[Amit Agrawal]

Originally posted by Richard Hawkes:
Originally posted by Michael Matola:
[qb]...
Cool. Thanks for the hotel tip and the other information. I'll get some basic vocab memorised before I go to aid travelling. As for food, point and order is my speciality The more I read, the more I'm thinking of going straight down to Kyoto and spending my four nights there. Maybe save Tokyo for another time.

Originally posted by Amit Agrawal:
...
I'll check out Nara, thanks for the tip The Last Samurai was filmed in Taranaki ... Did you find it? Taranaki is actually in New Zealand![/QB]

No...didn't know Taranaki is in New Zealand ! by name, i thought its at Japan only. Anyway I was told that tom cruise spent some time there at Japan for shooting�.mostly at places near to mt. fuji.

Just in case u get this small pocket book "JAPANESE PHRASEBOOK - DICTIONARY
By : KAWASHIMA TERRY", take it along. Basically its a travel guide which turned out to be quite informative and helpful for me. I had 3~4 such books bout Japan but this one was particularly more helpful.

btw if ur intention is not to chill out but to travel around while at Japan, Kyoto/Nara can be easily covered in 2 days, Mt Fuji in 1 day n rest of the time can be kept for Tokyo....n yeah, Japanese do understand some English n mostly they try to help out as long as the person is talking slowly n is patient enough to hv a conversation with them..

oh man...i can spend hours talking of Japan...truly speaking i loved the place. I loved their culture, the way they live and the way they are...honest, disciplined, systematic, so attached to their ancient roots...i wish i cud understand Japanese so that i cud understand everything bout them !!

[Michael Matola]

RH: The more I read, the more I'm thinking of going straight down to Kyoto and spending my four nights there. Maybe save Tokyo for another time.

Yeah, I wondered how you'd do justice to either place in four days total. We spent almost a full two days in Kyoto, and we definitely could have occupied ourselves for a third. If you're skipping past Tokyo, why not try three days in Kyoto and take a day trip to Himeji. (Or Nara, as has been suggested. But I can't comment on Nara because I didn't go there.)

Kyoto, somewhat randomly --

You'll hear people rave about how beautiful Kyoto is, but my take is that there are some beautiful *sites* scattered throughout a fairly unattractive city. I think you have to have some idea what you're interested in seeing.

Nijo-jo shogun fort and palace. This was my favorite site in Kyoto. A definite must. The intentionally squeaky wooden floors cracked me up.

Imperial palace. This was almost on par with Nijo-jo, but in my opinion, if you have to choose between, go with Nijo-jo. Note that admission is only at set times, you have to have your passport with you, they herd you along in large groups (several guides, each speaking a different language), and you don't get to go inside many of the buildings.

Gion neighborhood. This is one of the places where you'll find the old-fashioned wooden houses on tiny streets with geishas and lanterns. A definite must.

Ginkaku-ji. This has a remarkable garden.

Kiyomizu-dera. Another definite must. It's a big temple complex high on a hill.

There are a whole slew of temples and gates and gardens and shrines to the east. I mentioned the ones we saw, but there are plenty of others to chose from. We didn't have time to see the garden at Ryoan-ji, which people say is very good.

Himeji -- *If* you decide to skip Tokyo and spend your time in Kyoto, Himeji would be a great day trip. (We stopped on the train ride back from Hiroshima to Tokyo. I'm thinking we spent about four hours at Himeji.) There's an amazing fortress (Himeji-jo) that you can climb all around in. The gardens right next to the fortress (Himeji Koko-en) are very good too. The fortress and gardens are an easy walk from the train station.

I'll have to put off writing on Tokyo for a week or so. Incidentally, you mentioned anime. I saw some information that there's some sort of anime theme park somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo. It's somehow connected to the guy who did Princess Mononoke We didn't have time for that and it wasn't a top priority for us. Maybe do a web search if you're interested.

[Axel Janssen]

Here's my map.
Few in eastern europe and a white spot for Swicerland (don't even no to spell it ) and Great Brittain.


here's my US map. Typical for german tourists, I guess. Wisconsin (=Relatives) + big city nearby (Chicago) and watching some spots in the south western part. Was with my parents 1 time and a long time ago:

[ September 10, 2004: Message edited by: Axel Janssen ]

[Chris Baron]

I can contribute some central america.
Hmmm, i've got to visit portugal and czech republic.



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

[Marc Peabody]

Thomas Paul is running for the President of the USA?

A very electoral-vote map you have, sheriff!

[Kishore Dandu]

I am at 4%. No one so far listed Israel as visited country.

[Warren Dew]

So now I'm wondering what some of those one pixel countries are. The one on the French/Spanish border must be Andorra, and perhaps the one in southeast France is Monaco? What about the one towards the north end of the east coast of Italy?

There seem to be a few others, as well.

[Axel Janssen]

Originally posted by Warren Dew:
So now I'm wondering what some of those one pixel countries are. The one on the French/Spanish border must be Andorra, and perhaps the one in southeast France is Monaco? What about the one towards the north end of the east coast of Italy?

There seem to be a few others, as well.

France : Monaco (purpose: low taxes for sport stars, some royals extra for yellow press, Formula1 Gran Prix extra for France)
Italy : San Marino (purpose: Formula1 Gran Prix extra for Italy)
Italy : Vatican (purpose: religion)
Austria/Switzerland: Liechtenstein (purpose: tax evasion for rich people)
Spain/France: Andora (purpose: tax free shopping)
Faroer Islands: between Scottland and the Northern Polar Pole. (Purpose: sheeps, lots of rains and a "national" football team which somehow manages to play 2:2 against Scottland and 1:1 against Austria in Euro/WC qualifications)
[ September 11, 2004: Message edited by: Axel Janssen ]