The man who traveled around the world 9 times in 10 years without using a plane has returned home.

His goal is to visit every country in the world without flying.

10 years of traveling to 203 countries/destinations

Pedersen, 44, set three basic rules for himself: spend at least 24 hours in each country, live on about $20 a day, and don't return home until the end of the trip.

On May 24, after nearly 10 years of traveling, Pedersen reached the 203rd and final country/destination of his trip, the Maldives. From here, he began his return to his homeland, Denmark.

However, he did not fly but boarded the container ship MV Milan Maersk for the 33-day trip.

Pederson returns to Denmark after 10 years traveling to all countries in the world

On July 26, Pedersen went down to the pier in the port of Aarhus, on Denmark's east coast, where about 150 people were waiting for him to celebrate.

Among the cheering crowd was his wife, Le. Pedersen proposed to his girlfriend on top of Mt Kenya in 2016 and married her in 2022 while on the journey…

Pedersen, who worked in shipping and logistics before setting off in 2013, didn’t deviate much from his original plan, aside from a few surprises. For example, he almost gave up on getting a visa to Equatorial Guinea, one of the world’s most inaccessible countries, only to be successful after four months and several failed attempts.

In another case, Pedersen thought he could get a Chinese visa at the Mongolian border and then travel to Pakistan. However, due to the long processing time, he had to return nearly 17,500 km through several countries to reach Pakistan before his visa expired.

Meanwhile, the time started to increase beyond expectations. Initially, he calculated that it would take 4 years to visit 203 countries/destinations (the United Nations recognizes 195 sovereign states) but it took 10 years.

During his years on the road, Pedersen endured months-long visa delays in places like Syria, Iran, Nauru and Angola.

He also overcame severe cerebral malaria in Ghana, survived a fierce four-day storm while crossing the Atlantic from Iceland to Canada, diverted when land borders were closed in conflict zones, and had to reschedule multiple trips due to ship breakdowns, personal exhaustion, or bureaucracy.

However, no delay could be more severe than the Covid-19 pandemic, which left him stranded in Hong Kong for two years with only nine countries left to travel.

On January 5, 2022, the pandemic ended and Pedersen left Hong Kong, continuing across the Pacific . It took him six months to wait for the Palau government to allow him to arrive by container ship. He then returned to Hong Kong and a month later traveled to Australia, then New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu.

In Vanuatu, where he met his fiancée Le and got married on the island. The final four countries on his journey were: Tuvalu, Fiji, Singapore and Maldives.

9 rounds of the earth and lessons of humanity

From start to finish, Pedersen tallied an astonishing number of trips: 3,576 days, 379 container ships, 158 trains, 351 buses, 219 taxis, 33 boats, and 43 trailers.

He traveled 223,000 miles, the equivalent of 9 times around the world, not including the long journey home.

Pedersen while stuck in Hong Kong due to the epidemic

But the trip is not all about numbers. It is more about celebrating people's kindness and sharing a positive outlook on the world.

“I started this journey with the motto, ‘A stranger is someone you have never met before,’ and I have proven this to be true time and time again,” he shared.

Pedersen says he has met warm, friendly, helpful people around the world, many of whom have invited him for tea, dinner, helped with translations, or simply given him directions.

“I have stayed in the homes of so many strangers throughout my travels and I have been through every country in the world – countries with armed conflicts, countries with outbreaks of disease – without any problems. Either I am the luckiest man on the planet, or the world is much better than the scary, dramatic news on social media and news channels,” he said.

His last voyage was on the container ship MV Milan Maersk across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, up the English Channel, through Germany and finally Denmark.

After taking some time off and regaining his balance, Pedersen plans to move forward in other ways. In the short term, he hopes to spend more time with his wife and build a family together.

Pedersen is also collaborating with Canadian filmmaker Mike Douglas on "The Impossible Journey," a documentary, and plans to write a book about the trip.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nguoi-10-nam-di-9-vong-trai-dat-khong-can-may-bay-da-tro-ve-nha-185230802155833677.htm