Philippines – Country #60

Manila 001

Welcome to the Philippines!  Country #60

It’s taken some time for me to make progress on my country count, as I continue to return again and again to the same places I frequently travel to.  It’s also been five years since I was last in Southeast Asia, which both feels like a long time ago and no time at all.

I just did the math, and with 196 countries in the world, that means I’ve now covered 30% of countries.  It will take me another 5 to make it to a third of the countries in the world.  Not bad.

My country count first came up when I was in my first year of travel as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in Finland, when I decided that traveling to as many countries as my age was an ambitious and yet reasonable goal that I could achieve.

Though over time I definitely appreciate the quality over quantity, there is something about being in a place, even if it is brief, that can’t be replicated in any other way than being there.

The photo is the view from my hotel room.  My meetings are mostly held at a tall high rise on the 30th floor of a building that is blocked by a couple of older buildings on the left foreground of the photo.  I’ve got another two weeks to go of my month long stint here.

Cheers,

Miel

Leave a Comment