I am currently in South Korea, speaking at an international school in Seoul. This is my first visit to South Korea (despite having had many Korean friends and worked with many Korean TCKs over the years). Which means something exciting – I get to add a new country to my list!

Most people in international circles have a list. A list of countries they’ve visited. Everyone has different house rules – what counts? I’ve been part of many discussions where different rules were suggested and different situations debated. Lists went up and down in number with each decision agreed on. What can you put on your list? Can you count it if you land, but don’t leave the airport? What about if you leave the airport, but only to stay in a hotel overnight? What if you travel through a country on a train, but never step foot outside a train station? And yes, all those hypotheticals apply to me!!

Here’s my list, listed chronologically from first (non-debatable) visit, and skipping all repeats.

• debated countries in [brackets]
• + debatable countries that stamped my passport
• * countries started out as debatable – but then I went back and visited properly!

1. 1982: Australia
2. 1983: USA
3. 1994: UK
4. 1994: France
5. 1996: Canada
6. 1996: South Africa
7. 1999: China
8. 2000: Malaysia
9. 2001: Vanuatu
10. 2004: [Japan]+
11. 2006: [Hong Kong]
12. 2007: Thailand*
13. 2008: [Macao]
14. 2009: Cambodia
15. 2010: Vietnam
16. 2010: Singapore*
17. 2014: Laos*
18. 2017: [UAE]
19. 2017: Netherlands
20. 2017: [Belgium]+
21. 2017: Ireland
22. 2018: [Portugal]+
23. 2018: Czech Republic
24. 2018: [Russia]
25. 2018: [Qatar]
26. 2018: Tanzania
27. 2018: [Kenya]
28. 2018: Sudan
29. 2019: South Korea

Huh, now that I count up like this, looks like South Korea is my 20th non-debatable country! That’s a nice, round number. I personally think three of my debatables are close enough to count. Hong Kong and Macau returned to Chinese rule before I visited either of them, but they are still treated very differently to mainland China. And Belgium – well, I traversed the entire country by train, and I had my passport stamped as exiting the Schengen zone from Brussels. The rest were all airport visits. I technically left the airport in Japan, but only far enough to go to an airport hotel for the night. But I do have a passport stamp so a lot of my friends say it counts. So – that gives me a count of anywhere from 20-29, depending on your rules. I’m going to go with 23. Maybe 23.5?

Fitting that the only Australian stamp I can find in two Australian passports is when I left to really move to China. Also – note that I have a stamp from Brussels, Belgium! Total list of countries shown: China, USA, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Tanzania, and Belgium.

I can’t decide if it’s more funny or sad that I’ve never been to any of the closest countries to Australia – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and New Zealand. I’d swum in oceans around the world before I ever visited the south coast beaches of Australia, a 2-3 hour drive from “home” in Canberra.

What about you? What’s your number, list, and what are your “house rules” for counting countries?

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