Once upon a time, I lived in Seattle. And once upon a time I left Seattle to move
to Sydney. It was a big move, and one of
the main drivers for it was that I’d get more vacation time living in another
country. While I had travelled a bit
before, I hadn’t had the opportunity to travel nearly as much as I wanted
to. I started thinking and thought it
would be a good idea to compile a list of things I’d like to do around the
world. It wasn’t a bucket list per se,
but it was sort of similar. My plan was
to accomplish the 100 things on the list before I turn 40. Or maybe when I’m 40. Either way.
It took me a while to research and compile the actual list, and during
that time, I crossed off 3 of the things I added. I wanted to start from an even 100 things
undone, so I added 3 more to the list for a grand total of 103 Things. I posted the list to my blog about a year
later when I finally finished putting it together. You can read more here: http://phillipdavid.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/103-things.html
So, the question is, particularly after this big year of
travel, how are my 103 Things tracking?
I’m pleased to report that I’m just about half way there – 49 things
checked off the list since leaving Seattle nearly 7 years ago (47.6%). That puts me only slightly behind the rate
I’d need to be going to actually finish all this off before 40. Unfortunately, the half that remains includes
some of the more difficult ones to check off, such as things in expensive
Antarctica, far away Greenland, not-so-touristy Gabon, and recently war-torn
Mali. Political situations can change
rapidly in countries, and hopefully I’ll make enough money one day to take the
expensive trips. I’ll get there –
whether by 40 or not.
One important thing to note is that my travel plans aren’t
dictated by this list. While many of my
trips have centered around checking off one or more of these items, that’s more
because those things were ones that I’ve always wanted to do or places I’ve
wanted to go. I’ve taken plenty of trips
that didn’t involve any of my 103 Things, including many domestic trips in
Australia and even Myanmar in 2014. On
my gap year, I visited Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Rodrigues, Nepal,
Malaysia, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, Easter Island, and plenty more places which
aren’t on the list. People have asked me
in the past “Why isn’t ___ on your list?”
The answer: my list is set in
*stone but my travel plans aren’t.
(*stone = spreadsheet)
Here’s a little recap of my 103 Things and a few statistics
just for fun!
103 Things by Continent:
- Europe: 26 (25.2%);
4 completed (15.4% of Europe;
8.2% of total done)
- North America: 23 (22.3%);
10 completed (43.5% of N. America;
20.4% of total done)
- Asia: 21 (20.4%);
16 completed (76.2% of Asia;
32.7% of total done)
- Oceania: 11 (10.7%);
9 completed (81.8% of Oceania;
18.4% of total done)
- Africa: 11 (10.7%);
5 completed (45.5% of Africa;
10.2% of total done)
- South America: 10 (9.7%);
5 completed (50.0% of S. America;
10.2% of total done)
- Antarctica: 1 (1.0%);
0 completed (0%)
103 Things by Regions (mostly defined by the UN
Geoscheme):
- Northern
America: 13 total; 5 done
- Northern
Europe: 12 total; 4 done
- South America: 10 total;
5 done
- Australasia: 9 total;
all 9 done – yay!
- Eastern Asia: 7 total;
all 7 done – yay!
- Southeastern
Asia: 7 total; 6 done
- Southern Europe: 7 total;
0 done
- Caribbean: 6 total;
1 done
- Western Asia: 5 total;
1 done
- Central
America: 4 total; all 4 done – yay!
- Eastern
Europe: 4 total; 1 done
- Southern
Africa: 3 total; all 3 done – yay!
- Eastern
Africa: 3 total; 2 done
- Western
Europe: 3 total; 0 done
- Northern
Africa: 2 total; 0 done
- Western
Africa: 2 total; 0 done
- Southern Asia: 1 total;
all 1 done – yay!
- Central
Africa: 1 total; 0 done
- Central Asia: 1 total;
0 done
- Melanesia: 1 total;
0 done
- Polynesia: 1 total;
0 done
- Antarctica: 1 total;
0 done
- Micronesia: 0 total;
all 0 done - boo!
I am severely kicking myself for not ensuring that my 103
Things covered every region of the world.
I’m so sorry, Micronesia. I
promise I’ll visit you anyway one day!
Guam has all those studly military men so obviously I want to go there.
Obligatory Map:
Of course I made a map of my 103 Things and everything is
colour coded and numbered by order completed.
Click to enlarge.
49 Things Completed (in order of completion):
2009 (2 done):
78. USA – Grand Canyon (AZ)
81. USA – Paula Deen’s Restaurant (Savannah, GA)
2010 (1 done):
88. AUSTRALIA – Sydney Opera House (NSW)
2011 (7 done):
89. AUSTRALIA – Tree Top Walk (Walpole, WA)
83. AUSTRALIA – Barossa Valley Wineries (SA)
86. AUSTRALIA – Penguin Parade (Phillip Island, VIC)
90. AUSTRALIA – Uluru (NT)
15. CHINA – Great Wall of China
16. HONG KONG – Star Ferry to Kowloon
23. MACAU – Casino Lisboa
2012 (4 done):
87. AUSTRALIA – Port Arthur Historic Site (TAS)
62. CANADA – Beaudry Street Metro Station (Montreal, QC)
63. CANADA – CN Tower (Toronto, ON)
74. USA – Ancona Pizzeria (Valley Stream, NY)
2013 (7 done):
85. AUSTRALIA – Parliament House (Canberra, ACT)
84. AUSTRALIA – Great Barrier Reef (QLD)
42. ESTONIA – Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Tallinn)
44. FINLAND – Temppeliaukio Rock Church (Helsinki)
27. RUSSIA – Trans-Siberian Railway
24. *MONGOLIA – Museum of Natural History (Ulaanbaatar)
29. SOUTH KOREA – Demilitarized Zone
2014 (1 done):
91. NEW ZEALAND – Rotorua
2015 (14 done):
18. INDONESIA – Uluwatu Temple (Bali)
28. SINGAPORE – Singapore Zoo Night Safari
11. ZAMBIA – Victoria Falls
1. BOTSWANA – Chobe National Park
6. NAMIBIA – Quivertree Forest
8. SOUTH AFRICA – Table Mountain (Cape Town)
5. MAURITIUS – Dodo Bird Exhibit at the National History
Museum
32. UAE – Burj Khalifa (Dubai)
17. INDIA – Taj Mahal (Agra)
22. LAOS – Nam Song River Tubing (Vang Vieng)
33. VIETNAM – Halong Bay
31. THAILAND – Full Moon Party (Ko Pha-Ngan)
14. CAMBODIA – Angkor Wat
30. TAIWAN – National Palace Museum (Taipei)
2016 (13 done):
20. JAPAN – Todai-Ji Buddhist Temple Complex (Nara)
40. ENGLAND – Harrod’s Food Hall (London)
67. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Catedral Primada de America
69. MEXICO – Teotihuacan
65. COSTA RICA – Monteverde Cloud Forest Zip Line
70. NICARAGUA – Isla de Ometepe
71. PANAMA – Panama Canal Locks
100. COLOMBIA – Museo de Oro (Bogota)
103. URUGUAY – Plaza Independencia (Montevideo)
94. ARGENTINA – Cementerio de la Recoleta (Buenos Aires)
99. CHILE – La Piojera (Santigo)
102. PERU – Machu Picchu
41. ENGLAND – Lloyd’s of London Building
*The worst thing ever: sometime in between booking my trip
and arriving in Mongolia, the Natural History Museum was condemned. That didn’t stop me: I walked straight inside, got yelled at in Mongolian,
and promptly left. But I went inside and
that’s the key thing, though I didn’t quite see the dinosaur exhibit that I
really wanted to see there. I’ll
probably go back one day. Until then,
I’m counting it.
54 Things Still To-Do:
2. EGYPT – Pyramids at Giza
3. GABON – Loango National Park
4. MALI – Great Mosque of Djenne
7. SENEGAL – House of Slaves Museum (Dakar)
9. TANZANIA – Stone Town (Zanzibar)
10. TUNISIA – Ruins of Carthage
12. ANTARCTICA – The Antarctic Peninsula
13. ARMENIA – Tsitsernakaberd Memorial (Yerevan)
19. ISRAEL – Yad Vashem (Jerusalem)
21. KAZAKHSTAN – Bayterek (Astana)
25. PHILIPPINES – White Beach (Boracay)
26. QATAR – Al-Corniche Promenade (Doha)
34. ANDORRA – Caldea Spa
35. BELARUS – Town of Pruzhany
36. BOSNIA – Mostar Bridge
37. CROATIA – Diocletian’s Palace (Split)
38. CROATIA – Dubrovnik City Walls
39. DENMARK – Carlsberg Brewery (Copenhagen)
43. FAROE ISLANDS – Vestmanna Bird Cliffs
45. FRANCE – Palace of Versailles
46. GERMANY – Neuschwanstein Castle
47. ICELAND – Blue Lagoon
48. IRELAND – Blarney Stone
49. ITALY – Grand Canal (Venice)
50. NORWAY – Mack Brewery (Tromso)
51. NORWAY – Viking Museum (Oslo)
52. POLAND – Auschwitz
53. ROMANIA – Bran Castle
54. SCOTLAND – Loch Ness
55. SLOVENIA – Lake Bled
56. SPAIN – Guggenheim (Bilbao)
57. SWEDEN – Volvo Museum (Goteborg)
58. SWITZERLAND – Matterhorn
59. TURKEY – Hagia Sophia (Istanbul)
60. BAHAMAS – Atlantis Paradise Island Resort
61. BARBADOS – Andromeda Botanical Gardens
64. CANADA – West Edmonton Wall (Edmonton, AB)
66. CURACAO – Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue
68. GREENLAND – Air Greenland Helicopter Ride
72. ST LUCIA – Castries Public Market
73. ST MAARTEN – Princess Juliana International Airport
75. USA – Biltmore Estate (Asheville, NC)
76. USA – Carlsbad Caverns (NM)
77. USA – Gateway Arch (St Louis, MO)
79. USA – Grand Ole Opry House (Nashville, TN)
80. USA – Hot Air Balloon Ride (Albuquerque, NM)
82. USA – Wall Drug (SD)
92. USA – Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
93. VANUATU – Mt Yasur Volcano
95. ARGENTINA – Perito Moreno Glacier
96. BOLIVIA – Salar de Uyuni
97. BRAZIL – Avenida Paulista (Sao Paulo)
98. BRAZIL – Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro)
101. FALKLAND ISLANDS – Falkland Islands Museum (Stanley)
Who wants to come along?
