I never had a plan to visit all of the countries in the world. I didn’t start counting them until two years ago, when a fairly traumatic life event led me to pursue a goal in order to focus on something else.

However, I was born with the insatiable desire to learn, explore, and talk to absolutely everyone on the planet. 

It wasn’t until a few years after I began travelling that the realisation that I might be a bit different actually set in. Because what do you mean, not everyone in the world wants to travel as much as possible, whenever possible? 

I never did do things in half measures, I suppose. 

I took wanting to travel the world as standard until people started questioning me about why I was travelling so much, or my friends who I’d previously travelled with started saying no when I invited them for travels and instead slowly began to buy cars, houses, and settle down. 

A dream that still exists in my very distant consciousness; strangely, growing ever further away as I age. 

I suppose that’s not too normal, either. 

I don’t come from a family of travellers, and only started travelling when I was 15 and was taken abroad for the first time (aside from one stint to Disneyland Paris as a young child) by a school friend. 

And yet this year, after 18 years of travel, I made it to my country no. 101. 

I’ve never been in a rush, and during these 18 years, I’ve visited many countries multiple times and spent a great deal of time in some specific countries. I’ve lived in 5 countries (and counting). And I intend to continue travelling this way, with the lifelong goal of visiting all the countries in the world.

Not because of some badge of honour, but because I simply cannot give a reason not to visit any specific country. 

Of course, borders are man-made, and my desire to learn and visit countries is fuelled in large part by my love of people and culture; both of which, of course, traverse man-made borders and at the same time appear in multitude within the same country boundaries. Nevertheless, there has to be some kind of limits within which I record my adventures. 

So, here is my journey to visiting over 100 countries. 

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Where it All Began

Feel free to skip ahead or grab a cup of tea... because we’re going all the way back on a journey of how a girl from a working-class family in a suburb of Liverpool ended up travelling to 101 countries, and turning it into a large part of her identity.

Not for the reason that my upbringing was very interesting - it really wasn’t - but more to show and perhaps even inspire at least one or two that, regardless of your background, if you want something, all you have to do is want it hard enough - and, generally speaking, you’ll get it. 

My First Time Abroad 

I started travelling abroad when I was 15; almost 18 years ago now (?!). Before this, our family holidays were spent in Wales or elsewhere within easy reach in the UK. A single-parent family meant that we didn’t grow up with money, and a lack of desire and time from my mum’s part meant that international travel was off the cards. 

It wasn’t until a friend brought me on a family holiday to France that I finally applied for a passport and went abroad to France. We even drove into Monaco - two countries in one go. And through a bizarre turn of events, a few weeks later, another friend invited me on their family holiday to Spain. The following year I visited Greece with the same family. 

For their generosity, I am eternally grateful. I’m sure travel would have found me somehow later in life, but it certainly enabled my curiosity of the world to start to flourish. 

The Travels Begin

A year later, I then started travelling with friends during school holidays, as part of school language exchanges, and also solo - paying for 90% of it myself through multiple part-time jobs during school and college. 

I was hooked. I would often visit the same country multiple times: Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain… generally around Central Europe. 

A trip per year with friends soon wasn’t enough. I would take long weekends away, asking different friends to come along with me until finally I realised I could do it all by myself, too. 


It was never my intention to visit as many places as possible; rather, I was fuelled at first by my love of languages (German and French in school), which I later understood to be a love of people and culture - language being both the root and string that combines these together.

This intense curiosity to learn and understand, combined with my genuine love of life, fuelled me to keep going. 

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Moving Abroad For the First Time (Austria)

At 18, I moved abroad for the first time and went to work as an au pair (live-in nanny). I wanted to improve my German and, always having to do something different, I chose Austria (instead of Germany). 

During this time, my mind was truly opened for the first time. Having only been subject to life in the UK and the rigid British education system, I realised that life can be different. As someone who was very studious (and remains so still to this day), the thought of taking a gap year at the time was something quite wild - even for me.

None of my friends were doing it. Everybody went straight to university. 

Would I fall behind? Would I still be able to go back into study after a year away? 

In Austria, I found a whole new world. There, people were living different lives. Some people my age were still in school, some working, some already owning and building houses. There was such variety. And I learnt that that’s absolutely fine. 

A culture so close, and yet I already found so many differences. 

I lived in the vineyards of Burgenland - where a good bottle of wine cost less than 5 EUR. People still smoked indoors in bars. I met Krampus, a horrific addition to Christmas celebrations in Austria. And I became ‘the British girl who you have to speak Hochdeutsch to’ (as opposed to Austrian dialect, otherwise completely unintelligible to me).

I survived on 300 EUR per month, and the family I worked for weren’t quite the au pair family from hell - but they weren’t far off.

There was neither time nor money for exploring Central Europe at the weekend, despite Austria’s land-locked status. Indeed, there are still countries in the region I’ve yet to visit. Like I said - at that time, the goal wasn’t to visit as many places as possible. But to absorb as much of the culture and the language. To learn. 

I didn’t end up staying the full year in the end, but having made a few friends (and an ex-boyfriend) I continued to go back to Austria multiple times, and I still smile today when I hear people speaking in German with an Austrian accent. 

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The Journey to North Korea

After all my worries, I did indeed go back to study and went back to the UK to complete my undergraduate degree in Modern Languages and Linguistics in Newcastle. One of the few places in this world where I’ve still left a little piece of my heart. 

For entirely no reason, I chose Japanese. This was probably the single most informative decision to impact my life trajectory. The four years included a year abroad in Japan. And it was during this time that I decided to travel around East Asia during the holidays. 

This was the first time I also travelled to North Korea - a trip that changed my life forever.

Why did I choose to visit North Korea?

In a very long story short, we’re in 2015/2016 now, and the UK and Europe were going through the refugee crisis and had a few terrorist attacks, putting the UK on ‘high alert’. 

My Japanese friends would always say the same thing: 

‘We want to visit the UK - but it’s too dangerous at the moment’.

I’d just come from the UK - and hardly noticed a thing. And yet, it was so bizarre to me to talk about the UK like it was a war zone. It was then that I realised the power of media and news reporting.

One evening I went home and decided to visit a country I thought was too scary because of what I’d heard in the media. 

The natural choice was North Korea. 

Like many, I googled ‘can you visit North Korea?’ 

And the rest is history. 

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Visiting North Korea



This trip changed my life in two main ways.

Firstly, it was my first time being introduced to the human side of North Korea. Like many, I still remember the first time I “saw a North Korean”. Yup, I thought it was crazy back then, too. Wow, a real North Korean?! It was a group of waitresses in China, on their way back to North Korea. 

Looking back, it seems so crazy and weird to think that I could think like that. How sensationalised a view we have of North Korea that I was so wow’d to see a “real North Korean” - so I don’t blame people who also have the same kind of opinion today.

But I was inspired to try to change this. To show the more normal, human side to this otherwise highly politicised and sensationalised country. 

(This aspect changes my life trajectory even further a few slides later…).

The second way was that it was the first time I’d ever done a group tour in my life. By this point, I’d done a whole lot of solo travel. Interrailing in Europe, travelling Southeast Asia, sleeping in train stations and 30+ people dorm rooms - the normal early 20s adventures. 

But seeing the group tour and looking at our guides, a seed was planted. I thought to myself, hey - I think I’d be kind of good at this job. 

It was never my intention to actually act upon that small thought. But when the job opportunity presented itself as I was preparing to graduate and thinking about next steps, I couldn’t help but seize it. At the very least, it would buy me some time before I got a “real” job - I thought.

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Moving to China

The job took me to Beijing, which is often considered the starting point for North Korea tours. 

My love of languages followed me to China, and I started teaching myself Mandarin and having lessons at a local language school in exchange for blog writing. The next big thing that impacted my life a lot, as I was introduced to the world of SEO and digital marketing. 

10 years ago, I’m the marketing manager here at Koryo Tours. 

Perhaps by now the pieces of the puzzle of my somewhat crazy life are starting to take shape, and it’s a little easier to see how one thing, slowly but surely, led to another.

This was my life for 3 years. Visiting North Korea over 30 times, on average around once per month. I took it for granted entirely. This closed-off country had become so easily accessible to me. When I wasn’t there myself, my colleagues were. 

Our small, cosy, beautiful office in Beijing, full of North Korean art and a business centred around North Korea, meant that I was constantly thinking about it, hearing about it, talking about it. 

Of course, the thing that drew me in in the first place - the people - was the main thing that would be on my mind. I made friends there - real friends, who I think about a lot to this day. When you spend days and weeks together with the same people, you start to get close - especially when you’re in a high-stress environment like North Korea, that’s for sure.

Previously hating social media, I started an Instagram focused on showing the ‘human side’ of North Korea. I was adamant I’d ignore the politics. Focus on the people. Looking back, this was naive. But I’ll get to that below. 

This then led to me deciding to start setting up a YouTube channel to showcase this further. To aim to educate people about travel to North Korea, to encourage more people to go, and to show the country for how I knew and understood it. Largely through the people and culture.

I decided to do that in December, 2019. Which is highly significant, because… well…

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COVID-19 Begins
 

It’s no secret what happened in January 2020. 2020 was a year that will remain at the forefront of the consciousness of many for decades to come. 

Of course, lives around the world were disrupted and destroyed, and many lives were also sadly lost. Working in the travel industry, I also was not immune to the effects of the pandemic.

This is a longer story in itself - I ended up locked out of China and locked onto an island in the South Pacific with a population of little more than 70,000.

But the main thing of significance here is that I was also locked out of North Korea; unable to see or speak to my friends I’d become so accustomed to seeing every month, and indeed the entire industry I worked in was put on hold.


This was an important part of my journey. What should I do next, now that I was both stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere and my job and industry were put on pause?

A Journey Back Into Studying

Two things brought me to make my next decision. Two things I’ve mentioned above that I said I’d come back to. The first one is here.

My passion for learning hadn’t disappeared, and I was still interested in how media can shape our understanding of life. I spent my time in China surrounded by contradictions: Westerners who would think I’m crazy for doing the job I do and “oh my God, your job is so cool is it scary? Is it dangerous?!” vs. the response I’d get from Chinese people:

“Oh, North Korea? Is it the same as South Korea?” They didn’t care. 

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North Korea in the Media



So, stuck on Tonga without a library or secure internet connection and armed only with a laptop, I decided to study a master’s in International Communication Studies. Focusing, of course, on North Korea in the media.

I wrote my thesis on the framing of North Korea in Chinese vs Western media, for which I got a distinction and graduated with a distinction overall. 

You may have guessed by now that I loved my job a lot. It’s true. So, I wasn’t ready to let it go, and no pandemic was going to stop me.


I waited.

I didn’t get another job. But 1.5 years later, I’d graduated from my MA. North Korea was still closed and… I needed something else to do.

So, the second thing I said I’d get back to…
Whilst trying to see past the politics was done with good intentions, I had since realised that ignoring the politics in a highly politicised country was naive. And if I truly wanted to bypass the politics; I needed to first understand it completely. 

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North Korea in Politics

So, I decided to study a second master’s programme - International Security and Global Governance. 

I spent a year in London, and this was probably the hardest year of my life. My money had run out; people who had lent (a lot of) my money were not paying it back despite promises, and I was working the equivalent of 1.5 full-time jobs whilst also studying full-time.

Without anywhere to live, no money for food, let alone university fees, I remembered the job I did 10 years prior that gave me at least the security of a place to live and food.

Being an au pair. 


Hilariously, I signed right back into the same website I used back then and found the perfect place. Working as a nanny in London provided me with the two basic needs in life: a place to live and secure access to food. The second (and third) jobs made it possible to enjoy London life - a little, at least. 

But I was more than happy to leave the UK again. 

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Moving to Taiwan


If you’re keeping up, it’s around 2022 by now, and once again, I found myself in a situation of graduating from my degree but still waiting to slip back into my old life as I knew it.

But the problem was, North Korea still hadn’t opened.

Considering it had almost been 3 years since the closure, my presumption was that an opening was only getting nearer and nearer, and I wanted to be ready for when it finally happened. That included wanting to move back to the side of the world I’d called home for the previous few years - East Asia. 

Now, perhaps the more normal decision at this point would have been to just get a new job - even if it were only temporary.

And in hindsight, this probably would’ve been the better solution. But, determined to stay in the North Korean industry (for whatever reason), I took the only logical next step…

Carried on studying. 

I decided to study for a PhD. Something previously so out of reach to me.

I was the first in my immediate family to get a degree - let alone do a master’s. And now a PhD? In a subject I’d only just started getting into?

Feeling like an absolute imposter, I was awarded a scholarship to study Political Economy at NCKU in Taiwan. The answer to all my needs. 


And this is where I am today - about to enter my 5th year. 

And still waiting on North Korea to open.

There were so many concepts I didn’t understand. So much vocabulary I was missing. But gradually, I think I’m getting there. 


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Expanding International Tours

I had to put North Korea to the back of my mind a couple of years ago. Never forgetting about it completely, but waiting for it to open had consumed me for years and it only led to stress and disappointment year after year.

So, instead, I channelled the same passion and motivation I had for working in North Korea to other largely misunderstood countries.

\With North Korea closed and the travel industry still recovering, I started exploring a lot of my now favourite countries and places I see as second, third, fourth and fifth homes today. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and many more. 


At the same time, I was publishing papers, attending conferences, and - of course - travelling. 


The past few years are when my travel really kicked off, and I started the goal of trying to visit all the countries in the world - with the 100-country mark firmly in sight. 


Whilst juggling all of the different aspects of my life- study, work, social media, relationships- I travelled at any opportunity I could. Both for work and also personally. 

I visited every country in Asia apart from Iran and the 5-Stans (curious, as it’s one of Koryo’s main operational areas!), and spent several months over a 2-year period in Afghanistan, now one of my many homes and a place that truly holds a piece of my heart.

I’m also proud to have set up the first completely women-run and women-focused tours in Afghanistan, both training up local female tour guides as well as working with them directly, and many other women-led initiatives. 

Working on these cultural projects in Afghanistan is what this industry is all about for me.

Ensuring ethical tourism in complex destinations, giving back to the societies that give us so much, and building strong, meaningful foundations in the places Koryo works in. It is certainly true that for most of our destinations that we’ve built up over 30 years, our local partners go far beyond just being business partners and instead become close friends and family. 

I’m grateful to have built up a life where my friends and loved ones are both everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

From hearing my name shouted to me on the streets of Kabul by someone whom I’d taken to North Korea a few months prior for the marathon to bumping into friends I hadn’t seen for years in the Babur Gardens to accidentally staying in the same hostel in Fiji and sharing a beer with friends I’d met on the road. 

I’m sure most world travellers can agree that the more we travel, the bigger and smaller the world becomes at the same time. The more you explore, the more you realise there is to explore.

At the same time, it becomes evident how similar we are as humans, and how common it may be to bump into people you know in the most remote corners of the planet. 

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After 101? 

None of the above came without a whole lot of hardship; a whole lot of hard sleeps on train station bathroom floors, friends lost along the way, and a bank account that has more digits with a ‘-‘ in front than not. As friends start to settle down and get married, have children, and build their lives, I’m left behind in many ways. 

But so much more fulfilled in others. 

One of the main things I want to highlight here is that if you want it, you can get it. This isn’t just for travel. I truly believe that if you want something in this world enough, and you make choices focused on this, then it will happen. But it will take great sacrifice. 

It’s easy to look on at someone’s life with great envy, as many of my friends and those on social media do. On the outside, it looks incredible.

And largely, it is.

But the thing is, if you truly wanted that too, you can. You can do it. But most prefer a much more diluted version of this lifestyle: coming home from work and sitting on the couch with your significant other to watch the next travel vlog on YouTube and dreaming of that next big annual trip.

Which is fine, too. 

In fact, I’m envious of that lifestyle, in many ways. 

Today I remain living in Taiwan; still waiting for North Korea to open; still studying; still travelling. I don’t see any of those ending any time soon, although of course life has its ways and nothing lasts forever. (The North Korea closure, hopefully not). 

My life will change its trajectory in due course. Until then, the road to 193 / 195 / however you count the countries of the world will be the road I slowly carry on walking; as always, in no rush. 

A note on country collecting: I feel like "country collecting" is a very personal venture. So, what counts to you, counts to you. Personally, I should at least physically be present in the country for a certain amount of time - not just the airport. The list I use is the 195 list. 

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Koryo Tours
Experts in Travel to Rather Unusual Destinations