How to Travel to 203 Countries on $20 a Day Without Flying

Torbjørn “Thor” Pedersen was sounding a little worse for wear Monday, but a nearly 10-year trip can do that.

The intercontinental feat has crowned the 44-year-old as the person to have traveled to the most countries — 203 — without flying. Reached at his home in Copenhagen, Pedersen said when he set out in October 2013, he hoped to cover the distance in three-and-a-half years. Nine years, nine months and 16 days later, he returned to his native Denmark late last month after what amounted to a 220,000-mile trek.

A business school graduate who served in the military for a few years, Pedersen had a 12-year run in shipping and logistics. An article about people who had visited every country in the world made him realize that that goal was within reach. All told, the adventure cost close to $72,000, due partially to his self-imposed maximum per diem of $20. The Danish geothermal specialist Ross Energy covered about 70 percent of the expenses, and the remainder was paid for by Pedersen and crowdfunding.

Still doing back-to-back interviews, Pedersen hopes to create a foundation and hit the speaking circuit to share his story, and inspire and motivate other people. Having spoken with Danish and British publishers about a book, he is in talks with potential co-authors. A documentary that has been in development for four years should be released next year.

“When you’re dealing with people all around the world, it’s like the opposite of playing the lottery. It was hard to lose. Most people are truly just people. They go to school, to work, have family issues and relationships, they take photos to upload to social media, they like music, food, sports and games. There’s a lot of barbecuing going on. People don’t like rain generally or getting stuck in traffic. We are very much alike across the planet,” he said. “It’s unbelievable that we have these differences, when you look at how much we do the same. A lot of the idols around the world are the same whether that be in sports, music and movie stars or what not. The things that become trendy just seem to be trendy everywhere.”

Contrary to what is often captured by cameramen — it’s a terrible world and everything is falling apart — Pedersen said despite conflicts the reality that he faced was unequivocal normalcy and kindness. Although there were harrowing moments, too, like being held at gunpoint by three armed, uniformed men at a checkpoint in central Africa or being aboard a “a relatively small” container ship in the North Atlantic during a four-day storm with 22-foot swells.

“The vessel wasn’t of ice class and we had reports coming in of ice sightings in the area. We were not far from where the Titanic went down and that was in the back of my head as well,” he said, adding that three of the ships he traveled on during his odyssey are now at the bottom of the sea. “A lot of the vessels I was on board were in truly poor condition with no safety equipment.”

A 12-day bout with cerebral malaria that left Pedersen with shaky hands for weeks was also “pretty rough,” he said.

Along the African coast of the Mediterranean, he came upon several dead bodies of apparent asylum seekers — based on the damaged vessel that he saw had washed ashore farther up the coast.

Acknowledging how his final tally of 203 countries exceeds the United Nations’ benchmark of 193 countries and two observer states, Pedersen said he included other locales like Kosovo, Taiwan and Greenland.

As for fashion trends, Pedersen can attest how that varies from one country to the next. While in some countries women have to dress “very modestly,” in others, they can wear whatever they want and “show as much of their bodies that they want,” Pedersen said.

Bhutan was interesting for the “very cool” traditional dress worn by government workers. The sari-wearing women in India were another standout, as was the “beautiful, charming and often very comical” dress seen in Africa — a two-piece ensemble with a colorful puffed-sleeve top and a coordinating head wrap. Western world clothing often boiled down to a suit or jeans with a T-shirt.

After the pandemic broke out, Pedersen’s pace stopped short, due to travel restrictions that anchored him in Hong Kong for two years. The fact that his fiancée at that time, Le, was unable to visit prompted an online marriage via a Utah-based company after determining that if he could get residency in Hong Kong, and was married, then his wife could visit. Due to the time difference, Le was married on Dec. 19 and Pedersen was married on Dec. 20, but the paperwork was official enough for the couple to reunite following a three-week quarantine.

The duo later wed again on the beach in Vanuatu. But a cyber attack on the government’s server and two typhoons have delayed the pair from receiving the documents.

His own attire started with the essentials — about a dozen pairs of underwear to limit laundry time. Pedersen also designed a uniform for the endeavor — four or five polo shirts, four or five long-sleeved T-shirts with a logo on his chest of project partners’ insignias and an emblem of the Danish flag on one arm. Another key piece was a fedora-type “travel hat” that had already been to the Great Wall of China, Sahara Desert, atop Mount Kilimanjaro, and on motorcycle trips, among other jaunts. The hat’s bill shaded his eyes and eliminated the need for sunglasses, and more importantly allowed him to look people in the eyes and vice versa. His footwear of choice was Salomon, based on a store employee’s recommendation.

Given the distance — comparable to traveling from the Earth to the moon — subsequent pairs were purchased and worn out. After reaching 170 countries, it dawned on Pedersen that he might let Salomon know about his adventure. “Today I am a brand ambassador,” he said with a laugh.

His apparel was stowed away in a duffel bag and a backpack. Other essentials were a sleeping bag, a hammer, mosquito net, medical kit, books, running shoes, rope, a compass, and a couple of knives. “I came home without ever having used the compass one time,” he said. “The highlights were when something comes together. When someone says, there’s no way to get to an island without flying and then somehow with the help of a lot of people, we got to secure a voyage aboard a ship.”

More challenging were the two days Pedersen spent traveling in the Congo on top of the roof of a truck with 55 other people. “That was pretty much misery. It was uncomfortable and very dusty and hot. But as the sun was about to set on the first evening, a woman started banging empty water bottles rhythmically and singing in the local language. Suddenly, the entire truck was singing the song. It was very beautiful and transformed the experience. We were in the outback and it was just magical for 15 minutes. You cannot buy an experience like that. When the sun set, they stopped singing and it went back to misery,” Pedersen said.

After being delayed in the Solomon Islands, Pedersen ventured out to the western part where he was invited to a small village with a Christian community with no running water or electricity. “They were basically hunters and gatherers. They fished every day, collected coconuts and rain water. It was very idyllic, peaceful and calm,” he said. “The village elder asked if I had a laptop with a battery and any movies. That night about 80 people sat around my laptop watching ‘A Thin Red Line,’ a movie that takes place in the Solomon Islands in WWII with the Americans fighting the Japanese in Guadacanal. We were in a small house with no walls. Imagine a small roof being held up by pillars. It was evening, raining gently with the palm trees [silhouetted] against the night sky and bats flying around. And 80 people crouched around a laptop watching ‘A Thin Red Line.’”

Glad to be back in his homeland with his wife, Pedersen said as social as his journey was at times, it could also be lonesome on the road. “It’s the loneliness that people feel, when they feel misunderstood and that no one understands their situation. In that sense, you can go to a party and still feel alone even though there are people everywhere. I have felt that way — and that people judge me or see me simply as a tourist. They do not know the accomplishment of all those miles, checkpoints, wearing a lot of hats and doing a lot of work. They don’t know what I’ve been through. It’s been lonely being the only one, who has the knowledge of everything that has been going in the past [nearly 10] years, and being just misunderstood.”