A 2023 Travel Review

Hello! And welcome to my annual travel review. It’s the (only) time of year again where this long-running blog is (ever) updated. If you’re reading the blog for the first time, past reviews can be found here. These reviews are a way for me to consolidate the year’s travels in one place, and a give a little bit of thanks.

2023 has been a relatively quiet year in terms of new countries. I am still averaging the same number of travel days as previous years, so that is something to be thankful for. Much of this time however, has been spent revisiting countries and discovering new regions and sights within these places.

• Feb – Nepal: From Chitwan National Park, to the birthplace of the Buddha in Lumbini, celebrating Holi in Pokhara and a first paragliding experience, exploring Kathmandu.
• Jun – South Korea: Climbing up Seongsan Ilchulbong on Jeju Island, beachcombing in Busan, wearing Hanboks in Seoul, Lotte World park, and a visit to the Naminara Republic.
• Aug – Malaysia: A father-daughter trip to downtown Kuching, and the orang-utan sanctuary.
• Oct – Nigeria: Lagos and the World Heritage site of Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, visiting the northern emirates of Nigeria, including Gerewol, damba boxing, hyena men, Hawsa-Fulani weddings and durbars.
• Oct – Thailand: A brief but welcomed return to Bangkok, not visited since pre-COVID
• Nov – Azerbaijan: The little visited Karabagh and East Zangezur regions with the folks at Nomadmania, and an extension to the exclave of Nakhchivan.
• Nov – UAE: Stopover in Abu Dhabi, visiting the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the famed Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
• Dec – France: Lovely Paris is early winter, Disneyland and the relatively warmer regions around the French Riviera, including Nice
• Dec – Monaco: A day trip to Monaco
• Dec – Italy: Train across the border from France into nearby Ventimiglia, for a day trip
• Dec – Switzerland: Zurich, and a trip to Jungfraujoch – the top of Europe

Highlights of 2023 include:

1) Into (West) Africa: The epic adventures of Red.
Making my first foray into west Africa: Nigeria. I tend to visit places by regions. For example, I made repeat visits to eastern Africa in order to complete that region, before even considering stepping foot into other parts of Africa. It’s not entirely on purpose, but that empty white space will have me thinking about that particular country I have not visited, whenever I make my next travel plans. And the thought will haunt me until I tick it off my list.

2) Namaste my friend!
Finally visiting Nepal (That white space is gone now, take that! Bhutan, you’re next in line!). Somehow Nepal became one of those places that got classified into the category of ‘countries that aren’t too difficult to plan, and can be put on the backburner of places to visit. So I was glad I made the split-second decision to visit Nepal. I had my first paragliding experience in Pokhara, despite my staid self telling me not to attempt it.

3) Real treasure was the friends we made along the way.
Meeting fellow travellers and luminaries of the travel community as we visited the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, the recently reclaimed territory which was formerly the unrecognised Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. I was fortunate to be a part of the NomadMania expedition, catching up with old friends, meeting many other new ones and drawing inspiration from the stories of their extensive travels. The icing on the cake was a side-trip, an extension to visit the autonomous region of Nakhchivan.

What didn’t go too well:

1) The plan to visit a minimum number of new countries each year has been badly derailed since the COVID years. And this year has not been much better, compounded by some bad luck with flight cancellations which led to one less country visited. Still, I take solace with some quality re-visits and exploring new regions.

A map of UN countries I have visited.

A more modest map of NomadMania regions I have visited.

In summary here are the stats for 2023:
Total number of new countries and territories visited: 4 + 1 (Nepal, Nigeria, Monaco, Switzerland) and (Nakhchivan)
Total number of countries and political territories where I made repeat visits: 5 (South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Azerbaijan, U.A.E., France, Italy)
Total number of calendar days spent travelling: 58
No of days of solo travel: 32
No of days of family travel: 26

February: Nepal
From safaris in Chitwan National Park, to the birthplace of the Buddha in Lumbini, and the sights and sounds of Kathmandu, my experience in Nepal was a bit of everything really. I also found myself celebrating the Holi festival on the streets of Pokhara, and did a bit of paragliding as well. No climbs up mountainous peaks for me though, that’s maybe for a return trip in the future.

 

June: South Korea
Previous visits to South Korea had been a while back, and this was the first time with family. The kiddos were champs as usual, hiking up Seongsan Ilchulbong peak on Jeju Island, and traipsing through urban Seoul. They did enjoy their time at Lotte World, the giant amusement park, and I must admit reluctantly, I did too. My big highlight though is visiting Naminara Republic, the self-declared micronation. Slightly more than an hour by train from Seoul, Nami Island is a tourist attraction, having “declared independence” some time back to attract tourists.

August: Kuching, Malaysia
Last year, I made a trip to Kuala Lumpur with my elder kid. This year, it was the younger one’s turn, and we decided to go to Kuching. This daddy-daughter duo visited orang-utan sanctuaries, an exotic animal exhibition, upside down houses, and made a pilgrimage to the the aptly named Hana bridge.

October: Nigeria
I did so much and visited so many places in Nigeria, but it felt like I barely scratched the surface. Lagos was a whistle stop tour, and we also visited the Yorubaland regions of Abeokuta and the UNESCO listed Osogbo grove. The meat of the tour is an in-depth exploration of northern Nigeria. Very different from the south, northern Nigeria is abound with powerful emirates which have existed throughout history. Spectacularly, we were hosted by a Prince of the Dutse Emirate, who ensured we could access palaces interiors, engage with royal protocol and meet emirs, enjoy durbars held in our honour, and experience the Gerewol festival of the Mboro Fulani people.

October: Bangkok, Thailand
My little adventure coming back from Nigeria to Singapore was via Bangkok, including a self-transfer from Suvarnabhumi to Don Mueang airport, to catch a low-cost airline. I had almost a day, which was usually more than enough for a wander and a meal in the city, before flying out late evening. It was not to be though, firstly my plane from Addis Ababa arrived late. Secondly, at customs my initial amusement turned to panic when the official said records showed that I did not leave Thailand the last time I was there. I spent the next hour trying to recall when I last visited, and finally managed to extract an old email which had my flight ticket. Luckily that sufficed, as it would be next to impossible to find my old passport page with the correct stamp, which they originally wanted. Needless to say, my appetite for an extended visit to the city was all but gone, and I was content to grab a bite and just wait at Don Mueang.

November: Azerbaijan
Long time readers of the blog may know about my fascination with semi-recognised and unrecognised countries. One of my prouder achievements is to have visited all 10 (well 9 now) unrecognised countries (based on the Declarative Theory of Statehood, wikipedia page). Karabakh is probably the first unrecognised country I have been in my travel lifetime to have been dissolved, after Azerbaijan’s victory over the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the second half of 2023. This visit allowed access to the previously inaccessible provinces of Karabakh and East Zangezaiur. The conflict, involving multiple wars since the 1990s has finally abated, and hopefully there would be peace in the region.
Additionally, I made two side trips: 1) Further exploring the areas outside the capital Baku, including a dip into mud volcanoes before making day trip of it to Lankaran and Xanbulan lake. 2) Making an extension tour to the exclave of Nakhchivan, having no prior expectations and ending up totally wow-ed by the autonomous region.

November: Abu Dhabi & Dubai, U.A.E.
I have always been exploring Dubai in small bites whenever I have stopovers, usually less than 24 hours. This time round, I made went around the massive Ibn Battuta Mall, en route from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, where I would catch my onward flight to Baku.
In Abu Dhabi, I had an entire day and spent it visiting the Abu Dhabi Louvre and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Unlike Dubai, I have only been to Abu Dhabi once so this was a good time to get reacquainted with the city.

December: Paris & Nice, France
A trip with family again, this time into Europe where winter had just begun. Aside from Paris – Eiffel Tower and Disneyland for the kids, we also traversed across France to Nice on the Mediterranean Cost. I was hoping to temper the winter cold with some mild Mediterranean weather, and the French Riviera seemed like the perfect place to go. No, actually I just wanted to go to Monaco and claim a new country *wink*. Anyway, Nice ended up being really pleasant and a good place to based oneself out of, as we explored the region around.

December: Monaco
We walked across Monaco, twice. Once to get up to the Prince’s Palace, and then back down across the port to get to Monte Carlo. The country is not that big. It is the second smallest UN country (smallest if you exclude the Vatican).

December: Ventimiglia, Italy
Since we were so near to the border, I decided on an excursion to the first big town across the border, Ventimiglia. The initial plan was to visit the Principality of Seborga, another self-declared micronation not too far away from the France-Italy border. But I gave up because we had taken the train, and dragging the family up to visit a random town was too much effort. Instead, Ventimiglia, including its medieval city centre located up on a hill, was an easy alternative.

December: Switzerland
Our time in Switzerland was cut short by a day, no thanks to the flight cancellation delay due to bad weather. Something had to give on the itinerary, and unfortunately it was the day trip to Vaduz in Liechtenstein. On the flipside though, the horrible weather that caused havoc on airports in Germany and Switzerland meant that we had snow throughout our stay. It was even snowing up on Jungfraujoch.

And that’s it. Goodbye and thank you 2023. Here’s hoping 2024 will bring more travels to both you and me!