Torbjørn C. ‘Thor’ Pedersen, a Danish traveller whose goal is to visit every country in the world without the use of air travel, shares tales of his adventure in Hong Kong and across the globe, and how to endure seven years of continuous travelling.
”In 2013, I set out to visit every single country in the world in an unbroken journey completely without flying. I have reached 194 countries. I’m only nine countries away from my goal. I have been travelling on-board container ships to reach some of the faraway islands and also go between continents. So I have travelled with 25 container ships so far. I got stuck here in Hong Kong in January 2020 due to the pandemic and been here ever since.
“It was far more likely that I would have gotten stuck on-board a ship or on a small island with 20,000 people during the pandemic. I was very lucky to get stuck in Hong Kong. And like most people who arrive here, I had no idea about all the nature. I thought Hong Kong was Hong Kong Island and the city and my jaw dropped when I discovered that Hong Kong is 75 per cent nature because I love nature and mountains and beaches and waterfalls and all the different animals and hiking trails. There’s so much going on in Hong Kong that I cannot imagine getting stuck anywhere better. It’s a full-on opportunity.”
“Something I find really interesting with Hong Kong is this extreme diversity within the population. So you can stand next to some guy with smart hair and smart shoes and he is looking into his iPhone 1,000 or whatever it’s called today. And he’s texting everyone. And then right next to him, it’s an old woman in more traditional clothing who definitely does not speak English, who is smiling with the four teeth that she has in her mouth and with all the life in her eyes. And those two people that are right next to each other, you know, so I find that truly interesting about Hong Kong.”
“I have truly been through a lot to get this far. And sometimes I worry that what I do is too mundane. It’s too ordinary, under extraordinary circumstances, but I’m still going to the supermarket to buy milk and I’m still boiling some water for a noodle soup. And I still get on the MTR. It’s not all that extraordinary when you boil it down to the day-to-day basis.
“I think most people who head out to travel and explore the world, they come back home after a year or two years, and the reason is not only because they run out of money, but it’s also because they have seen enough waterfalls, met enough people, tried enough exotic food. Their phone book is full of new contacts and they want to go home and digest and sort of look through the photos and remember the good places and maybe start over again. And then after some time, they will go travelling again. You have to remember, I haven’t been home for seven years now.”
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