189 countries and counting: Record-chasing traveller falls in love with Pakistan

KARACHI: Eric T. Nguyen looked out from the plane’s window at the lush green mountains of Islamabad with anticipation, as he prepared to cross out the 189th country from his travel itinerary.

At just 24 years of age, Vietnamese-American Eric is chasing the Guinness World Record to become the youngest solo traveller to visit all 197 sovereign countries of the world. As he set foot in Pakistan this past week, he was only eight countries short of breaking the record, held currently by James Asquith of UK.

But it isn’t just the impending record that had him excited. The fact that he was finally in Pakistan experiencing the country in real, despite the concerns of his well-wishers, on his whirlwind trip around the world was beyond exhilarating.

“Pakistan is nothing like I had been led to believe!” Eric exclaimed when I caught up with him to jot down his travelling adventures in the country and around the world.

“From what I witnessed through western media all my life, I had expected it to be a barren land with hostility everywhere, poor infrastructure with no services. But Pakistan is poles apart from my initial perceptions,” he said as he looked in admiration around the posh café in Karachi where we were seated.

The most stunning aspect of what he thought would be a “dangerous” country was the “mind-blowing hospitality of the locals” he encountered every step of his way during his week in Pakistan.

“Everyone I meet here is so nice and welcoming, they are some of the warmest people I’ve come across,” the young traveller remarked, as he wondered how just about everyone he met wanted to snap a selfie with him.    

Eric was staying in Karachi with a Pakistani guy he became friends with on Couchsurfing website. Touched by his host’s kindness, he told me how his friend, who had not even met him before, helped him with the visa process and opted to write an affidavit for him which finally enabled him to come to Pakistan.

“I was moved by this act of kindness, I knew I was going to meet incredibly welcoming people here even before I landed in Pakistan,” he said.

A local food spot high up in the mountains of northern Pakistan

Besides sightseeing, Eric was eager to immerse himself in the local culture and customs. In Islamabad, he went to a mosque and was stunned by how the people lining up for prayers welcomed him inside.

“I observed how they used the cleansing water to wash themselves before queuing up for prayers. They were really nice and welcoming, despite me being a foreigner.”

People getting ready for prayers at a mosque in Islamabad

Even after having seen all kinds of natural wonders in his expeditions around the world, Eric was in awe of the scenery he experienced in the north of Pakistan.

“It’s beautiful. I travelled across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and couldn’t get enough of the mountains and valleys. By the way, those monkeys are cheeky!” he added.

Cheeky but adorable beings high up in the mountains of northern Pakistan

And, of course, who can ignore the Pakistani cuisine? It was love at first sight with “those spicy yellow rice” (biryani! I helped him out a bit) and paratha roll, topped with freshly squeezed sugarcane juice which he tried in Lahore.

The incredibly delicious biryani, kebabs and sugarcane (ganna) juice

So what really inspired him to set out on this daunting quest to become the youngest person to travel to all 197 countries? I asked the adventurous fellow.

“I was born and raised with a travel bug. I’ve been travelling with my parents ever since I was a kid,” said Eric, as he explained how, at the age of 18, he decided to chase the Guinness world record by travelling around the world solo, starting with Asia.

But what kept him motivated through the ups and downs of extensive travel and how in the name of Vasco da Gama was he able to afford it?

Eric said motivation is never a problem as his travelling adventures, complete with their good and bad memories, always widen his perspectives about different cultures and places like nothing else does. As for money, he said he Couchsurfs everywhere and therefore gets to stay with locals (“which is a huge cost saver”), no matter whether it’s Lebanon or Sierra Leone or New Zealand.

“When I dragged myself 10 miles in Central Africa just to get clean water to drink, I realised just how incredibly privileged I had been all my life,” he recounted. “Travel opens our eyes to the grim reality of everyday life in the underdeveloped world, and how we owe it to these people to do our bit to improve their lives.”

A man labouring away in Kabul, Afghanistan

Eric also narrated how travelling to war-torn countries can change our lives forever; how, when we see the war-hit zones and the houses reduced to a rubble, when we hear gunfire echoing into the darkness of the night, we finally realise the true horrors of wars.

He has also had a close brush with death several times. Once it was malaria in the jungles of Liberia; another time it was an unexpected sighting of Daesh near the Syrian border.

Near the Syrian border

But the strangest experience so far? “North Korea, hands down!” said Eric, as he recalled how after finally securing the visa to Kim Jong-un’s land, he and the other fellow tourists were made to stay at a hotel located on an island (so that they wouldn’t escape) and monitored by three officials at all times.

The forbidden land of North Korea

“But at the end of the day, you are always left stunned by the kindness of people wherever you go, no matter where in the world,” he observed, as he reminisced about how at one time “some kind strangers” in Japan walked over 10 miles out of their way to drop him off to his hotel.

Of all the bizarre things he's experienced during his globetrot already, you’d think he’d eventually run out of things to surprise him.

“No way!” he laughed. Just a few days ago he was surrounded by a horde of people who thought he was a “Chinese man from CPEC”, he told me (I then explained politely why that may have happened, complete with the details of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project).

He also recalled how for one bizarre moment he thought people in Pakistan spoke Arabic, not Urdu, as his host in Islamabad was fluent in Arabic (I assured him that this was an exception; Arabic wasn’t spoken in this region).

Eric is now headed to the eight countries (only!) left in his quest to clinch the Guinness world record, namely Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. He's promised to visit Pakistan again (I suspect it’s primarily the biryani, although I’m quite sure it’s the hospitality as well).

The writer is a producer at Geo.TV and tweets @Mariaa_54