My Country Visits in 2011

Overview of 2011 International Travel

In 2011, I completed my visits to all 193 UN countries. This is a major accomplishment. See my UN journey.

The Travelers Century Club made me a Diamond Member; I have visited 312 of the 321 countries on their list.

I moved up on the leaderboard of MostTraveledPeople.com. At the end of 2011, I was ranked #4 in the world.

I met the Prime Ministers of Norway and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

In August 2011 and in September 2011, I made my 4th and 5th circumnavigations. I visited the South Pole on the 100th anniversary of its discovery on December 14, 1911 by Norwegian Roald Amundsen. My grandfather, Carl Anderson, was also born in Norway. To celebrate, I made 100 circumnavigations on December 14, 2011. This took me about 2 hours. My task was made easier by a stake that marked the exact position of the South Pole on December 14. Read my South Pole trip report.

I continue to be an active Life Member of the Circumnavigators Club and an officer in the Chicago chapter.

Finally, I would report that I visited Abbotabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden was killed, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11/2001. Read about my connection to Ground Zero.

Highlights of 2011 International Trips

I made 8 major international trips in 2011:

• 1. Far East Pacific in January
• 2. Mexican & French Pacific in April
• 3. Russia & the Caucasus in April and May
• 4. North Atlantic Trips in June and July
• 5. Circumnavigation (Caucasus & Asia) in August
• 6. Circumnavigation (Pakistan & Pacific) in September
• 7. Iraq & Africa in November
• 8. Antarctica Expedition in December

1. Pacific trip highlights:

• Visit to Guadalcanal and other WWII battlefields in the Solomon Islands.
• Experiencing the rugged beauty of the wind-swept Chatham Islands.
• Seeing the earthquake damage in lovely Christchurch, New Zealand just weeks before the second devastating earthquake.
• Hiking thru the enormous public rose garden and park in Wellington, New Zealand.

2. Mexican & French Pacific cruise highlights:

• Visiting Clipperton Island discovered by Magellan & ordered seized by President Roosevelt in WWII.
• Four scuba dives to see the various sharks and other sealife around Clipperton Island.
• Seeing a mother whale teaching her calf to breach at Roca Partida.

3. Russia & the Caucasus (plus Belgium) trip highlights:

• Border official let me hold his official baton in the Tuva Republic and posed for a photo.
• Toured Peter the Great's cabin in Kolomenshoe and his recently reconstructed wooden palace.
• Private tour of Trinty Lavra of St. Sergius, the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church.
• Visiting Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands in the Pacific.
• Visiting Anadyr near the Arctic Circle.
• Exploring an enormous abandoned building in Kranoyarsk.
• Seeing the military parade on Victory Day in Vladivostok.
• Tour of the WWII submarine in Valdivostok. Reminded me of German submarine in Chicago.
• Seeing the magnificient cemetery for the children killed by terrorists in (see video) in Beslan.
• Visit to the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
• Visit to the seaside city of Batumi in Georgia
• Tour of the famous battlefied of Waterloo in Belgium. The view from the Lion's Mound.
• Tour of the gorgeous work of art that is the Horta Museum in Brussels.

4. Highlights of North Atlantic trips:

• In Iceland, I went horseback riding at the same place I did in 1977, but this time my horse fell TWICE throwing me on the ground, cutting my hands. Scary!
• Toured the delightful, small-scale Faroe Islands with grass-roofed houses.
• Marvelled at the Harpoon throwing demonstration from a kayak in Greenland.
• Talked to a French women visiting Greenland. Her father visited Clipperton Island when he was in the Navy. I am the only other person she knows who has been to Clipperton.
• Enjoyed a bike tour of Bermuda. Learned all houses are build to withstand 400 kph (250 mph) winds.
• Bermuda has unique limestone roofs designed to purify rainwater that is then collected in cisterns under the houses. No piped water.

5. Circumnavigation (Caucasus & Asia) trip highlights:

• Visited Vladikavkaz with its unique "flat" traffic signals.
• Visited the new enclave of South Ossetia via the Roki tunnel where border guards shared their delicious summer pirog made out of the leaves of beets.
• Revisited my favorite minaret in the world, the incomparable Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara.
• Toured the delightful Itchan Kala in Khiva, Uzbekistan.
• Toured Korea's Jeju Island including its famous lava tubes.
• Toured Seoul to see how it changed from 1980 when I worked there for a total of 3 months re-shaping Korean telecommunications.
• Visited famous historic places like Jongmyo Shrine and Hwaseong Fortress in Korea.
• Experienced the vastness of Mongolia while being driven on the ground. Most roads are unpaved.
• Sleeping in a ger and watching while a ger was reassembled helped me understand nomadic life.
• Riding a two-humped camel (much easier than one-humped) and holding an eagle were wonderful experiences in Mongolia.
• Toured the world famous Potala Palace fulfilling a goal of over 50 years. It is a special place.
• I visited the UN World Heritage site where Peking Man was discovered.

6. Circumnavigation (Pakistan & Pacific) trip highlights:

• Visited Abbotabad, Pakistan on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, but Osama's house was off limits to all. Pakistan's government demolished it in February 2012.
• Visited UN World Heritage sites of Taxila and Rohtas Fortress in Pakistan.
• Visited the Mausoleum of the Founder of Pakistan in Karachi.
• Visited the remote Lo Mustang Kingdom in Nepal.
• Stayed at the atmospheric and magical Dwarika Hotel in Kathmandu!
• Hiked in the Chitwan National Park and learned to recognize elephant dung.
• Visited Lumbini, an important pilgrimage site, where Buddha was born.
• TWICE at night on 2-lane mountain roads my driver had to pull off the highway at high speed to avoid a head-on crash when one huge truck passed another. Scary!
• Watched a emotional greeting between native groups on Rurutu on the Austral Islands.
• Experienced the Lagoons of New Caledonia via chartered helicopter. Exhilarating!
• Toured the impressive Tongariro National Park during the Rugby World Cup.

7. Iraq & Africa trip highlights:

• Experienced the wonderful airport business lounge of Turkish airlines in the old Ataturk airport in Istanbul with its high-tech player piano.
• Impressed by the progress in Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region of Iraq. Can fly to without a visa.
• Drove thru dozens of checkpoints on a day trip to Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers always happy to be in a photo with me. Always treated well at checkpoints. An American passport was a positive.
• Iraqi army had closed the UN World Heritage Site of Hatra and we were prevented from seeing it.
• The UN World Heritage Site of Ashur was fascinating. I logged 35 checkpoints returning to Erbil.
• In Algiers, I stayed in part of Eisenhower's suite during WWII in the atmospheric El Djazair hotel.
• Seeing the 2,700 km (1,600 mile) long sand wall ("Wall of Shame") separating Western Saraha from the partially-recognized Sharawi-controlled Free Zone.
• Seeing the refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria and meeting the Prime Minister of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
• Amazed by the progress in Angola. Saw a unique indoor-outdoor movie theater built 60 years ago.
• Charter flight to the difficult to visit island of Annobon, part of Equatorial Guinea.

8. Antarctica Expedition highlights (Read my trip report):

• Spent 3 nights in an unheated tent at the South Pole at 9,300 feet or 2,800 meters.
• Made 100 circumnavigations on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the South Pole.
• Met the Prime Minister of Norway after his speech at the South Pole on the anniversary.
• Talked to a man who got Amundsen's watch from his grandfather, a member of the expedition.
• Was photographed holding Amundsen's watch which was at the South Pole 100 years earlier.

Travelers Century Club Initial Visits in 2011

The table summarizes the 22 TCC countries I visited for the first time in 2011. The 3 UN member countries are bolded. From the CIA web site and Wikipedia, I gathered key data on these countries providing guesses where necessary. The data was color-coded to aid pattern recognition. I hope you find this insight-dense table an educational experience.

In 2011, I completed my visits to all 193 UN countries. See my UN journey.

Click to see my master list of visits to 312 of the 321 TCC countries.

MostTraveledPeople.com Initial Visits in 2011

MostTraveledPeople.com builds on the TCC base of 321 countries by adding the states or provinces of large countries and remote islands with the goal of having the most comprehensive list of places (872) for the serious traveler to visit.

In 2011, I moved up on the leaderboard of mosttraveledpeople.com to rank #4. My name and travel statistics are listed on their main page. I visited an impressive 60 MTP locations in 2011 for the first time.