I’m fortunate. I’ve enjoyed lots of travel and had good experiences as I’ve done so. For much of the time it’s been business travel but a lots also been vacations when I’ve shared it with my family.
In this and subsequent posts I’ve tried to be consistent with what is a country. It’s an independent self-governing entity, generally speaking I guess it would be a member of the United Nations in its own right (although there is one exception to this viz Taiwan). This means that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland don’t count, neither do the current ex Yugoslavia nations, several of which I visited before the breakup, nor the Turkish part of Cyprus. However it does include the so called micro states of which I’ve visited three.
The summary below covers my periods working with Shell and Mobil Oil and with Dow Chemical in Hong Kong. It includes the year that I got married (1978, see the photo above).
| 1971 |  | the Netherlands: this was my first international business trip and would be the first of a great many with regular travel there throughout my working life |
| 1971 |  | Spain: another European holiday and another drive down through France and 10 days just inside Spain. Another country I would subsequently visit many times |
| 1972 |  | Japan: my first big business trip, with Shell, and a three month stay in the country. I’ve been fortunate to experience several subsequent visits to the country. |
| 1972 |  | Thailand: travelling home from Japan I took the opportunity to enjoy stop overs in Hong Kong (not technically a country) and Thailand |
| 1972 |  | Germany: was this really a first visit to Germany? I was changing planes but the transit time was long enough to earn me a hotel room for the duration. |
| 1973 |  | Singapore: my second visit to Japan included a trip down to south east Asia where I enjoyed the weekend in Singapore before proceeding to my destination. |
| 1973 |  | Brunei: this was the other business end of my trips to Japan where Shell produced the gas which they sold to Japanese utilities. |
| 1973 |  | Greece: uncharacteristically I got on a plane and went to Greece with no plans but enjoyed time in Athens and on Mykonos and Crete |
| 1974 |  | USA: somehow I’d managed to excite the interest of a couple of US companies and one (Mobil Oil) flew me over to New York for an interview. |
| 1974 |  | the Bahamas: after New York I went to Houston before returning to the UK with a stopover in the Bahamas. I remember it being rather expensive. |
| 1974 |  | Malaysia: I joined Mobil and on my first trip for it I squeezed in a weekend in Kuala Lumpur between Japan and Indonesia |
| 1974 | | Indonesia: this was to be my home for two years and this was my first visit and the first time I’d enjoyed first class air travel. |
| 1974 |  | Australia: I was travelling from the USA back to Indonesia and one way was via Australia. I spent a day in Sydney and a couple more in Perth. |
| 1976 |  | Taiwan: from Indonesia I travelled a few times to Japan and used the opportunity to visit Taiwan on one of my return trips. |
| 1977 |  | New Zealand: I moved to Hong Kong for work with Dow Chemical in 1976. One business trip with it took me down to New Zealand |
| 1977 |  | South Korea: I’ve visited South Korea several times but I can still count them. It’s a country with a character forged by its history and geopolitics |
| 1977 |  | Seychelles: a first holiday trip to the UK from Hong Kong and a pleasant few days on this most idyllic of tropical islands |
| 1977 |  | Andorra: John Rickards and I enjoyed a couple of weeks in the south of France and ventured far enough west to include Andorra |
| 1978 |  | Philippines: to some extent visiting the Philippines completed my set of Asian countries, China was then still largely off limits, and I’ve not added to it till much later |
| 1979 |  | Mexico: Juni and I left Hong Kong for Switzerland and took the opportunity to spend some time in Acapulco and Mexico City on the way through |
So that’s it for the first 9 or so years of my working life: another 20 countries including one more micro state.
Note that I have not included Hong Kong and Macao. Neither were truly independent.
Click here for part 1.
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