10 curious places you must visit in your lifetime, according to the world's most travelled person
Don Parrish has been to all 193 UN member countries, seen more than 500 World Heritage Sites, and holds the number one ranking on a database of the world’s most travelled people, having visited 852 of the 874 countries, territories, states, provinces and islands it details.
He is, probably, the world’s most travelled person.
So we decided to ask the 73-year-old Washington DC native to rank some of his favourite trips. But after decades visiting every corner of the globe, he explains, it’s no easy task.
“It is like asking a gourmand to rank the best five meals during their entire lives,” Parrish said.
“I understand why people want to ask me this question because I have been almost everywhere, [but] my life is not some scientific experiment where I visit places under some kind of ‘standard’ conditions that would allow ‘fair’ comparisons. I have been travelling overseas for more than 50 years and that compounds the difficulty.”
Equally, Parrish, who used to work for AT&T Bell Laboraties, wasn’t particularly keen on revealing his worst trips. “Why waste time figuring out the places of lesser interest,” he said. “And because I wasn’t keen on a place doesn’t mean it would be prized by some of your readers.”
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However, we did manage to coax out of him 10 of his favourite trips of the last decade or so [additionally, on his website, he says Egypt is his favourite place to visit]. Read on for insights from the man who has seen (nearly) all the world.
1. Vietnam
“My major discovery was how entrepreneurial the Vietnamese were,” he said, having spent 11 days in the country. “All communist countries like to boast of their public transportation, but in Vietnam motor scooters were the standard transportation. The Vietnamese motorcyclists self organized busy intersections without traffic lights or traffic police. I had to see this to believe it. I was also mesmerized by their attitude to not focus on the war that had killed so many people, but to focus their energy on the future.”
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2. North Korea
“North Korea is the perfect example of a place that is so terrible to live in that it makes it an outstanding place to visit,” said Parrish. “This place is bizarre and unlike any other country. The streets are virtually empty. We had to ask permission before taking every photo.”
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Note that the Foreign Office currently advises against all but essential travel to North Korea
3. Iwo Jima, Japan
He said of the trip to the Japanese island: “This is one of those trips where objectively you paid your money like any other American could have, but it felt like a special privilege and a high honor to participate. Today this island is a Japanese military base that opens up one day a year to allow a Reunion of Honor between a few veterans from the United States and Japan to commemorate this bloody battle. All Americans my age know the name of this island. The photo of the famous flag raising is the most republished photo from the Second World War. The value of travel is to see things first hand.”
4. Socotra, Yemen
“This is an island of Yemen (the Foreign Office currently advises against all travel to both mainland Yemen and Socotra) in the Indian Ocean,” said Parrish. “It is the home of the endemic Dragon Blood Trees, many of which are 300 years old. I took over a 100 photos of these trees. To me they are like lemurs and penguins in that it is hard to stop taking photos. In this arid climate, they serve breakfast outside. When I was having breakfast one morning, a goat walked over put his hooves up on the table, and with a jerk of his head pulled out a Kleenex and ate it. I was laughing as I took a photo. He did not bother my food just ate the Kleenex!”
5. The Pitcairn Islands
“These are the islands selected as a refuge by the mutineers on the Bounty. Today, more than 200 years later, about 50 of their descendants still inhabit the island,” said Parrish. “I’m one of a small number of people who have visited all four islands of the Pitcairn group. What makes Pitcairn special is that people hang on to this isolated place. There is no landing strip. There is no way to be medically evacuated in less than weeks. The company with which I used to visit Pitcairn had several guides who had been there 10 or 11 times so we were greeted as old friends.”
6. Bosaso, Somalia
Parrish said it was difficult to gain permission to visit Somalia, to which the Foreign Office advises against all travel. “The flight in, on Jubba Airways, used an old Russian airplane with worn out tires. We landed on an unpaved runway. The station chief was there to greet us with two Ford Explorers, four uniformed guards with AK-47s, and an inspector from the government (it was suspicious why two Americans without any relatives or business contacts would be visiting). We visited the port, the university, the hospital and the town. At trip to the port was like time travel. You cannot order this kind of travel out of a glossy brochure. This is real travel.”
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7. The South Pole
“When I signed up for a trip to the South Pole I could not believe my luck,” said Parrish, who visited exactly 100 years after Roald Amundsen. “Normally people who visit the South Pole fly in and fly out on the same day, but to be there on the 100th anniversary requires getting there early and at least three days in an unheated tent. The weather at the South Pole is famously unpredictable. Most of the year is it below minus 50 degrees celsius. The warmest it gets is about minus 25. It is windy and about 2,800 meters in altitude, and 2,700 of those meters are ice. Many people are rejected from visiting because they are not healthy enough or have some disqualifying medical condition.”
8. Mount Athos, Greece
“This is the spiritual center of the Orthodox Christian world,” said Parrish. “In the course of my travels I have visited dozens of Orthodox churches in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Georgia and the United States, but it was a special privilege to visit this unique place. Only men can enter this peninsula with its 20 monasteries, and only a maximum of 10 non-Orthodox men are allowed per day. You have to write a letter explaining why you want to visit and be approved.”
9. Tristan da Cunha
Parrish said: “This is one of the favourite places of prolific travellers, and many spend five weeks on a ship to make a visit only to fail at the last moment because sea conditions do not allow it. I succeeded in making a wonderful visit in 2014. What makes Tristan so special are the people. They are of mixed origins with some descending from shipwrecked sailors. Imagine living on this lovely isolated island growing potatoes and exporting rock lobsters. In 1961 a volcanic eruption forced the evacuation of the entire population to England. These people saw cars and TVs for the first time. Yet the people of Tristan vigorously lobbied the UK government, who urged them to stay in the UK, to allow them to return to Tristan. Hearing this poignant story first hand from a woman aged around 70, but who was a teenager at the time, confirmed my views of the specialness of this place.”
10. Marion Island, South Africa
Parrish visited the largest of the Prince Edward Islands, around 1,200 nautical miles south of South Africa, and to which he reckons only 1,000 people have ever been. “The only way to visit is to charter a ship and get special permission to land. I was one of four travellers who chartered an older sailing ship with a crew of four including the owner, a man of 75 born in Germany. We were bringing a replacement part for the nitrogen generator in the research center needed to inflate weather balloons. There are 23 employees of the South African government who live in the research center on 13-month assignments. Each year a ship arrives with 23 new employees with all of the food and other supplies they will need for an entire year. Marion Island has an average of 320 rainy days a year. But when we arrived to blue skies and thrilled employees, it was magical. There are no trees on Marion Island because of the wind. It is a lovely volcanic island. And its unique feature is its mires. These are similar to pockets of quicksand.”
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