Photo via World Records Academy
He spent £350,000 to visit every country on earth in the shortest time possible and thereby earnt himself a mention in the Guinness Book of Records - just don't expect to be thrilled by his pictures.
Samaddar's mission was inspired by trouble he had in South Africa in 2002 over his Indian passport. Samaddar then vowed to visit every country in the world to show it could be done.
The globe trotting adventurer was determined to complete the whole trip using his Indian passport - despite opportunities to adopt Australian and Canadian citizenship - as he wanted to prove an Indian could travel the world.
He also wanted to highlight the difficulties some nationalities encounter obtaining visas to enter countries - a problem he is very familiar with.
'The most difficult visa to get was Moldova, which took me almost three years with many rejections,' he said.
'The problem isn’t with big countries like America, England or places in Europe, a lot of the time it’s smaller countries who don’t know what they should be doing.'
To abide by Guinness Book rules, he traveled using only public transportation. The rules state you only have to set foot in a country to count it, which may explain Samaddar less-than-impressive tourist photographs.
The photo above is of Kashi's last place visited:
Links: Article at Daily Mail | More at World Records Academy.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by digimouse.
This"submitters" decision crap is lame.
And while I'm at it, some admin needs to deal with artsyspots submission bot.
That guy has guts. There are a lot of really nasty countries.
i am persian....kashi did u enjoy PERSEPOLIS in persia?this place is very old with 2500 years of age...or did u visit CHUGHA ZANBIL? this place is 4000 years of age.
good luck
You're wrong, he is in Kosova in that picture. And, he's standing in front of a hotel- in the center of the capital, Prishtina - which is a beautiful & modern city... I lived there. Cheers, Nikki
You're wrong, he is in Kosova in that picture. And, he's standing in front of a hotel- in the center of the capital, Prishtina - which is a beautiful & modern city... I lived there. Cheers, Nikki
I am Indian too .... This is realy a pleasure.
Nice
Come one INDIAN PEOPLE ...show the world we are not the just a small developing country
Just getting into North Korea is an amazing accomplishment...
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 am
It wasn't "neat" when it had 5 down votes and it still isn't "neat" now on the main page. "
*You're* the nerd who's counting how many votes a random blog post is getting.
All he or she needs are two things: Money and Time
He had both. He has tons of money( i don't know from where) and he probably doesn't have a job coz if you had a job (especially in India) taking so many vacation days is kind-of hard.
I would have done it too. If i win a big lottery , the next thing i am going to do is quit my job and go globe-trotting.
Congrats to Kashi! A feat not many can claim to! If that ain't "Neat", it sure is COOL!
Thanks for highlighting the Visa issues for fellow Indians and all nationals travelling multiple countries for business/tourism puposes.
194 countries, 7 years, Guiness Record ..priceless for everything else one needs Golbe trotter Master/Visa card :)
He walked the entire globe with a wooden cross on his back. Of course he doesn't get mentioned because he did it for Christ. Like it or not, he was the original.
www.blessitt.com
ive been to every state inda usa except alaska, been to canada, end to end and around mexico, no n so, im 55
my kid age 20 been to eng de ans france, now in aust and new ze, i say, power to em!
How many people can say they have that much money to spend in 7 years? The national median for somenoe in america is $44,389. Not counting living expenses and the fact that time would be taken up with actually working, to get to the amount that this guy spent would take just over 13 years.
And to get past some visa hassles, he could hire people to help or make money cross hands. So money helps.
Anyone who had that much money could do the same, so as nice as this accomplishment is, ya gotta admit others could do the same with the same money and time.
now i'll start saving
STEVE G.