A picture says a thousand words
The idea behind the ” Signature Pose ” was/is to pose like this when I’m visiting all these iconic landmarks.
Intro:
Born in South Korea, adopted by Belgians, so that’s how I ended up with my Dutch name De Clerck.
It creates a lot of funny, odd, strange and some unbelievable moments in the airports. They are always surprised and often confused even suspicious, a Dutch name, Belgian nationality, but an asian face (most people think that I’m Japanese). And when they browse through my passports, with all those stamps, bit of Yakuza/Japanese mafia look, they think this is too fishy and maybe that I’m some kind of a criminal or an international money trafficker.
My mother tongue is Dutch and I even speak better Turkish than Korean…
As you will read below, I actually started traveling quite recently abroad.
Until the summer of 2015 I only took twice a plane in my entire life.
Travel Numbers & Shizzles:
So far I travelled to 71 countries
2020:
Turkey ย
Sรฃo Tomรฉ รฉ Prรญncipe (71)
Saudi Arabia (70)
Oman (69)
2019:
Kenya (68)ย
Tanzania (67) $470 – โฌ385 roundtrip flight *
Maldives (66)
Sri Lanka (65)
United Arab Emirates (64)
Tunisia (63)
Cabo Verde (62)
Kosovo (61)
Macedonia (60)
Ukraine (59)
Belarus (58)
Moldova (57)
Azerbaijan (56)
Turkey (55)
Malta (54)
Perรบ (53) visited Machu Picchu, the last of 8 World Wonders
Canada (52) visited Niagara Falls
Andorra (51)
*** Travelled in 2019 to 25 countries and visited over 18 new countries (PTR)
2018:
Palau (50)
Hong Kong
Macau
Philippines (49)
Senegal (48)
Portugal (47)
United States of America (46) $370 – โฌ250 roundtrip-flight *
United Kingdom (45) visited Stonehenge
Finland (44)
Estonia (43)
Latvia (42)
Lithuania (41)
China (40) visited the Great Wallย $570 – โฌ465 roundtrip flight *ย
Poland (39)
2017:
Belize (38)
Mรฉxico (37)
ย visited Chichรฉn Itzรก
Isla de Pascua ย visited Easter Island
Chile (36)
Vatican (35)
Madagascar (34) visited the Allรฉe des Baobab
Singapore (33)
Indonesia (32) visited Borobudur (biggest Buddha temple in the world)
Brunei (31)
Malaysia (30)
Thailand (29)
Cambodia (28) visited Angkor Wat
2016:
Brazil (27)
ย visited Cristo Redentor & Iguazรบ Falls
Jordan (26) visited Petra
Egypt (25) visited the Pyramids
Cuba (24)
India (23) visited Taj Mahal
Norway (22)
Sweden (21)
Denmark (20)
Morocco (19)
2015:
South Africa (18)
South Korea (17)
Birthday Travel Tradition (BTT)ย :
2020:ย Turkey ย ย ย continent: Asia
2019: Kenya ย (68) ย continent: Africa
2018: Palau (50) ย continent: Oceania
2017: Mรฉxico (37) ย continent: North America
2016: Brazil (27) ย continent: South America
2015: South Africa (18) ย continent: Africa
Personal Travel Records
2016: Visited 4 Wonders of the World in 18 weeks
2016: Travelled to 5 continents in 1 year
2016: Travelled to 9 new countries in 1 year (New Travel Record/NTR)
2017: Travelled to 5 asian countries in 12 days
2017: Travelled to 11 new countries in 1 year (NTR)
2018: Travelled to 12 new countries in 1 year (NTR)
2019: Visited all 8 Wonders of the World
2019: Travelled to 18 new countries in 1 year (NTR)
2019: Travelled in 25 countries
2019: 51 flights in 1 year
Travel Statsย
2015 – 2019: 138 flights & 37 different air lines
2016 – 2017 – 2018 – 2019: managed to travel each year to 5 continents
2015 – 2016 – 2017 – 2018 – 2019 – 2020: managed to spend my birthdayย abroad (since 2015 outside of Europe)
Drove so far in 4 continents and 21 countries:
* Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Denmark (20), Sweden
(21), Norway
(22), Malta
(54)
* North America: Mรฉxico (37), Belize
(38)
* Asia: Oman (69), Turkey
* Africa: Sรฃo Tomรฉ รฉ Prรญncipe (71)
ย
How I became ” traveller “-ish:ย
* South Korea 2015 – The very first time that I left Europe by plane, my very first solo travel abroad, my first time back to my birth country, my very first time to Asia.ย On my way back to the airport of Incheon, I met in the train a South African family, we exchanged Facebook, messaged and 5 months later, I went also to South Africa, it was my first time in Africaย and from that moment I also introduced – without knowing – a new Travel Tradition, to celebrate my birthday (11th of December) ย each year in another country than Belgium.
* 2016 –ย 7 trips, visitedย 4 Wonders of the World in 18 weeks and did 5 solo travels.
Taj Mahal (India), Pyramids (Egypt), Petra (Jordan) & Cristo Redentor (Brazil).
7 trips was also a new Personal Travel Record (PTR)
Travelled in 5 continents in 1 year (PTR)
By plane, by taxi, by car, by ferry, by rishka, by tuk tuk, by bus, by horse, by boat.