Can You Be More Pacific? My Next Adventure To 7 New Countries

“It’s decision time again, our love will stretch a little bit” – Everything But The Girl.

It’s time for a new adventure far far away. To a place I neglected all my life. You see, I meet new people all the time, it constantly happens and that hasn’t changed since relocating to Poland in 2016 in the midst of a mid-life crisis, a period of dark, deep depression (nobody outside of my body has a clue about my feelings or situation) and a suicide bid that nobody really cared about, to the point that I stopped caring about others completely.

“Eyes opened wide; looking at the heavens with a tear in my eye” – Richard Ashcroft.

These days, I’m sceptical, cautious and dubious about new people I meet now, more than back in 2014 when I encountered the wrong people (the nasty ones). You’ll take something special to be my friend these days. Liars, Guru Gods, stalkers and people who hide their double lives on social media – all people I want and need to avoid. I’m an open book and everybody should be more honest. However, I wasn’t sure whether to keep this trip secret, unknown or even not blog about it at all, but I’ve decided to write about it and outline my plans.

Since 2016, I’ve not been ambitious or wordly at all. I just didn’t care anymore after the depression era and the liars. Long term travel was a thing of the past for me. A craze, a fad. It had passed me by. This new trip is my longest bit of backpacking since June 2016. You see, my map of the world has horrific gaps in it. Especially for someone like me who claims to be an everyday tourist. I have one huge gap that needs filled in – Pacific Ocean islands. I’ve only been to 3 islands in the Caribbean, I’ve only been to 2 countries in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and apart from swimming in Los Angeles, El Salvador and New Zealand, I have NO experience at all of Pacific Ocean travel. It was glaringly missing, and I am not sure why. So the Pacific Ocean needs visited! In Chile, I never even went to Easter Island. In Ecuador, I unbackpacked the Galapagos Islands, I skipped it also in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica; places like Nauru and Guam were always elusive. It’s time for that to change as I make a long journey to the Pacific Ocean on a 10 country tour (not including Poland – my start and end point), 7 of these countries are new! Plus I’ll be visiting 4 of the world’s 15 least visited countries!

So these are the seven new countries:

1.Guam
2.Federated States of Micronesia
3.Eneko Island / Enenkio Island (fake micronation)
4.Marshall Islands
5.Nauru
6.Solomon Islands
7.Kiribati

This is the order and plan for my trip, subject to change but mostly set in stone…

1.Munich, BAVARIA / GERMANY
I have been to Munich once before, in April 2016. I enjoyed that trip to Bavaria, where I also visited Nuremberg and Stuttgart and crossed into Austria for the Salzburg adventure and SV Grodig Bet tour. Highlights were the Bicyle Tour of Munich, the nightly Beer Tour of Munich’s famous Beer Halls and of course getting my willy out in public legally at the Nudist part of the English Garden. I’ll fly into Munich from Warszawa in Poland.

This time, it’s only a one night stopover in Bavaria, so probably a quick bit of nudity and a beer before heading back to the airport for my connection to the United States of America. It could be a bit emotional as I was happy last time I was in Bavaria, it was just before I was lied to and plunged into depression…

2.Honolulu, Hawaii, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
I’m not very well travelled within the United States of America. I have only been to 4 states so far (California, Georgia, Florida, New York) out of 50 (!) but I’ll get a fifth one in on this trip with three nights and four days in Honolulu, Hawaii. I’ve never been a big fan of the USA and its culture, commercial capitalist takeovers and overarching ethos, but I am looking forward to visiting it again! For the first time since 2014!

It was meant to be just a stop over on route to the Pacific Islands, but I decided to see a bit of Hawaii while I am there. However, the main point of this trip is to visit 7 new countries in the Pacific Ocean and so here they are…I’ll be visiting at least one place in each of Australia, Micronesia (new), Melanesia (new) and Polynesia (new).

3.GUAM
I still find it odd that most fellow tourists don’t recognise Guam as a country. The fact then is – if it’s NOT a country, why is it not a US state? There are 50 States in the USA, and Guam isn’t one of them. And if it’s not one of them, then which state is it in? Is it part of Hawaii or Alaska? No it’s not. So for me, no – Guam is a totally separate country and of course on my hitlist. I’ll have two quick nights here, I really can’t wait as my ex-workmate (in Delaney’s Hong Kong), Katherine used to rave about Guam.

4.Pohnpei, FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
There is a difference between Micronesia and the Federated States of Micronesia, and I will visit both the FSM part (i.e. the country called Federated States of Micronesia) and the other part (Micronesia in general). In FSM, I’ll stay on the island of Pohnpei, for just a night.

5.Majuro, MARSHALL ISLANDS
The Marshall Islands are one of only 4 United Nations recognised countries without a FIFA international football team (the others are Nauru, Monaco and the Vatican City State). I’ll meet up with Young Pioneer Tours here (more details at the bottom of the post) and will aim to visit more than one of the Marshall Islands, time permitting. On researching, I found that Marshall Islands is actually the ONLY United Nations state that holds NO record of EVER having an international football team!!

6.ENEKO ISLAND / WAKE ISLAND / THE KINGDOM OF ENENKIO
Another wacaday republic and fake micronation for me to visit, and count in my real country count is the Kingdom of Enenkio! Or is it Wake Island or Eneko Island? It will be a dispute for sure…I have no idea what to expect and we will be going there by boat.

7.NAURU
Nauru is officially the world’s LEAST visited recognised country in the world! (Yes I know I backpacked Podjistan, Adammia and Austenasia before – all less visited! But also less recognised) Due to the flight schedule, I’ll be spending 5 days in (or on!) Nauru. This single island is the world’s smallest United Nations country, it is also the smallest UN country without a FIFA national team. 5 days might seem too long to be here in Nauru, but I plan on having a day of only writing, to ensure my book, Backpacking Centurion is finally complete.

8.THE REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI
Kiribati is up next. We’ll arrive there by flight. No idea about it as I haven’t even researched it yet!

9.Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDS
“Solomon bites the worm”, was a The Bluetones song back in 1998 when I was still 17 and studying at Belvoir Tech in Belfast. I remember hearing about the Solomon Islands back then. My dream will become a reality here on this magical series of islands, we’ll start in the capital, Honiara.

10.AUSTRALIA
I’ll have a transit through Australia, where I’ll visit Brisbane and Sydney again, depending on flight times, I might have time to leave the airports and check out the cities again, but I won’t be bothered if I don’t. Emotions might take over though, as I spent 20 months living in the land down under from 2009 – 2011 and had a great time there…

“I wanna fly and run till it hurts. Sleep for a while and speak no words, in Australia” – Nicky Wire.

From Sydney, my route back to Poland will have one more new city for me to check out. This is a busy and hectic trip, and I will skip the following countries / states completely, maybe save them for another day:
-Palau
-Northern Mariana Islands
-Vanuatu
-Fiji
-French Polynesia
-Rapa Nui (Easter Islands)
-Galapagos Islands
-New Caledonia
-Tonga
-Samoa
-American Samoa
-Rarotonga
-Cook Islands
-Tahiti
-Niue
-Pitcairn Islands
-Tokelau
-Tuvalu
-Wallis and Futuna

Also, I extend a welcome to any readers or locals to meet me on these journeys. Just send me an email via my contacts page, or my Facebook page. The trip will start in just over a week’s time. I hope to keep everyone up to date with it.

Here is the part of my trip where I will be joining Young Pioneer Tours:

The Least Visited Countries Summer Tour