Counting Countries

Key Links Listen with --------------------------------------- On today’s episode, I welcome Mar Pages to Counting Countries.  I first learned about Mar when researching a trip to Djibouti several years ago and came across her blog.  I emailed her a question or two and she responded back with some advice. Two years later, I shared dinner with her when a group of mutual friends met up in Bangkok at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Charlie Browns. We are regional neighbors as she lives in Singapore and I am in Bangkok.      Since university Mar has led a truly global life, living in multiple countries and traveling extensively for work throughout the world. This is quite a big change copated to her fist travel forays which were limited to road trips to nearby Andora to stock up on Nutella with her family.   Mar has lived in London, Dubai, and Singapore. She has also practically lived in multiple other cities on long consulting gigs like Nairobi and Manila. This year, Mar made a major change in her life as she officially left corporate life so she can focus exclusively on her online businesses and her travel.         Mar touches on the magic of Bhutan and her frustrations with Nigeria, a place she has traveled to often for work.  She shares with us how she felt unsafe in Somaliland and her interactions with the locals. She speaks about the isolation she felt in Sudan and the pyramids of Meroe.  And talks about a solo, multi-week to the Pacific which made her reevaluate her travel goals. Mar speaks about her travel inspiration Anthony Bourdain and one of her favorite travel blogs, Roads & Kingdoms.  Mar is the Chapter Leader of in Singapore.  Travel Massive is the largest travel network in the world with over 40,000 people.  It is sort of like LinkedIn for people who work in the travel industry, with both online and real world networking.  Check it out if you have a travel job. I encourage you to subscribe wherever you listen, Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify and of course if you like the program, feel free write a review like Steve_M_300 from USA did.    Ric is an excellent interviewer. He is able to keep things on track and will be sure to follow up where needed to bring to life some very unique travel stories. This podcast will give you wanderlust. This show has introduced me to many things the best of which was nomad mania. I was very surprised to see how my ranking ended up being on that site. Thank you Ric for putting this podcast together. Currently at 82 countries and hoping one day to be well traveled and interesting enough to appear on the program. I love to listen to your show while I am traveling as I find it motivates me to keep exploring. Thanks for everything you do. Please keep up the great work.”  Thanks for sharing these kind words and I hope you hit the century mark soon. I also want to say a quick hello to our fans around the world … from Paraguay to Afghanistan, from Angola to Haiti and over 100 different countries.   But for now, here’s my conversation with Mar who was in Singapore, the Garden City, while I was in Boston known to some as Beantown. Please listen in and enjoy.