I am the first (and so far only) person to visit every country in the world without flying... ask me anything!!

Why did you get thrown in jail? What were the jails like in Africa?

In Cape Verde, it's because they thought I was a people smuggler... 5 nights sleeping in a tiny 8' by 8' cell with 10 other people, no bed, slept on the concrete.

In Congo, they didn't like the look of me or something. I also got angry with the police officers which didn't help my situation. I was put in a big cell, and had a bit of foam to sleep on this time, but it was seriously grim - smears of blood all over the walls... they took my shoes and socks, my t-shirt and my glasses. I didn't eat for 6 days because I didn't want to have to take a shit - the toilet was a squatter that had not been cleaned since 1972.

What was your kindest experience from a stranger?

The little old Iranian grandmother who took me home with her to make me breakfast. Just thinking about her kindness always makes me smile!

What was the hardest country to get in and out from?

Good question! Saudi Arabia was a toughie for visa regulations, as were Angola, Turkmenistan, Libya and Algeria. Island nations such as Cape Verde, Sao Tome, Nauru, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Micronesia etc put up a bit of a fight, just in terms of getting there without flying - I got to these places on a mix of sail boats, cargo ships (big and small) and even cruise ships (I hitched a ride).

But the hardest, hardest, hardest country to get to was The Seychelles. Not only an island nation, but slap-bang in the middle of the High Risk Area for Somali pirates - that meant no yachts, cargo ship companies couldn't take me (I would invalidate their anti-piracy insurance) and very, very few cruise ships.

I tried getting there from Diego Suarez in Madagascar and Mombasa in Kenya in 2009, and Salalah in Oman and Kerala in India in 2010. I eventually got there in October 2012 on a cruise ship from India that was heading south for the winter... it was the 200th country out of my "must visit" list of 201... with good reason.

Beautiful place though, incredibly friendly people, and oh the Takamaka rum HELL YEAH!!

Wait... You got to travel the world AND you have your own private island?

Sigh

Yes, but I am ginger. God gives with one hand, takes with the other.

What was your most memorable meal on your journey?

Ooooh.... it was freshly caught squid in a sweet and sour sauce that I ate in an awning by the docks of Jayapura in West Papua. You know how squid can be like really rubbery? This wasn't - it melted in my mouth.

You've made me hungry now!! Haven't had my breakfast yet :D

Where did you find the nicest people?

Iran!! So, so friendly it was delightful. Here's a story I like to tell (I took this from an interview I did for British Airways):

I was on an overnight bus in Iran, from Shiraz to Khorramshahr. I was sitting behind this elderly woman and she was speaking on her phone in Farsi. She turned around and passed me her phone. It was her grandson, who spoke perfect English and he said ‘You’re sitting behind my grandmother and she’s asked me to tell you she’s worried about you. The bus gets in very early and she’s concerned that you won’t have anyone to make you breakfast, so she’s asking if you will go to her home and she will feed you’. Did I go? Of course. She laid out a thick tablecloth on the floor, we sat on cushions. Breakfast consisted of flatbread, eggs, jam and spices.

Which country has the best prostitutes? Estonia is the best I have encountered thus far.

Ahahaha oh God this is the first question I get asked?!! I'm actually quite boring in real life, I need to get out more.

Which country was the country where you said to yourself "I'm not leaving here alive. I should never have come here."?

America!! Nah, only joking. I think after being thrown in a holding cell in Congo for five days I was getting to my wits-end, but I knew the British Embassy was on the case. Thank God for my secret back-up phone and Twitter!!

Where was your secret back up phone hidden exactly?

In his back, up.

Ahahaha no, it was in my left pocket... they didn't think to look there.

• Which country had the most exotic food?
• Were there any dishes you just couldn't make yourself eat?
• Which country had the best food in your opinion?

I ate bush meat in Africa, which wasn't bad. I narrowly avoided the boiled sheeps head in Uzbekistan, but I did try dancing octopus in South Korea (quite nice actually), fertilised duck-egg in The Philippines (DISGUSTING!) and deep fried cockroach in Thailand (crunchy).

I couldn't finish the duck-egg. It was hard-boiled grey mush yuck. Although China probably has the most 'exotic' food overall... best food overall? I just said if I had to eat just one country's food for the rest of my life it would be France, but so long as I don't have to eat it every single day, I'd go with India for the best food - I LOVE the spicy!!

Which country would you like to visit again the most?

Iran. I loved the bones of the place. I was only there for 3 days, I could happily spend 3 months.

Failing that, Nicaragua, Canada, Montenegro, Madagascar, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Philippines and Fiji are pretty high on my "must return!" list. I'll be in Nicaragua next month, yay!!

which were the most dangerous countries? maybe where you encountered some problems with small criminals trying to rob you or something?

Strangely enough, I didn't get mugged or robbed or attacked anywhere on the entire journey. I think I almost got mugged in Durban, South Africa, but an ambulance driver stopped and told me to get into the ambulance. He told me I was being followed by a known criminal. I hopped in the ambulance!

In terms of 'danger' I never felt in any immediate peril. I (briefly) visited the Somaliland region of Somalia, which has not suffered the same kind of terror attacks and warlords as the rest of the country. In Iraq I spent three days in the Kurdish autonomous region, which is still remarkably safe, even with ISIS running around the south of the country. In Afghanistan I spent a day in Herat in the very north-west, again I never felt threatened (I was welcomed into the country by a remarkably friendly border guard).

Papua New Guinea is a dangerous place though. I was there for a few weeks and there was a massacre, a plane crash, a riot, an earthquake and a tsunami warning... still, it wouldn't stop me going back, I had a really great time there!

What do you have against airplanes?

Or

Show me on the foldable map where the airplane touched you.

Hahaha no. Three reasons: carbon footprint, it's cheaper not to fly, nobody had visited every country without flying before.

Do you think that a female traveler could pull off a similar feat?

Yes. Absolutely she could. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Around_the_World_in_Seventy-Two_Days

1. Which countries had the most and least prosperous people and why?
2. Which countries had the most and least friendly people and why?

I look forward to watching your doco. =D

Well, I think Scandinavia is doing pretty well in terms of prosperity - well governed places that look after the less fortunate. The least prosperous would have to be the impoverished landlocked nations of Central Africa... they're damned by geography. Without access to the sea, you're in trouble - a single ship can bring in 12,000 containers full of stuff. Don't have a port? Try getting 12,000 trucks across somebody else's country where the roads are a mud track and it's the rainy season.

Most friendly, Iran and Central Asia... so so so hospitable. Least friendly? I don't know. I met friendly people everywhere. Maybe Russia has a bit of an unfriendly edge to it, but after a few drinks we're all friends again!

What's the most memorable experience from your trip?

The three that really stick in my head as total moments of awesome are seeing one of the last space shuttles taking off from the Cape Canaveral causeway, swimming in a lake filled with stingless jellyfish in Palau and breaking into the pyramid complex in Egypt and climbing to the top of the Great Pyramid under cover of night!

breaking into the pyramid complex in Egypt and climbing to the top of the Great Pyramid under cover of night!

They're probably mad about that.

He is no longer allowed to visit Egypt

edit: probably

Until fairly recently, people used to be allowed to climb the pyramid, it was only because people fell and injured themselves that they stopped allowing it, same as the pyramid of Chichen Itza in Mexico.

Where was the worst place to be a ginger? And the best?

Ahahaha!! The Sahara Desert I guess? Dubai? The Australian Outback? Or maybe on a sail boat near the equator with no shade? I reckon the best place to be a ginger is Scotland - the sun never comes out and us gingers are permitted to roam free seeking the souls we'll never know.....!!

Can you please tell us more about your island?

Hi! Sure!! I won it in a Samsung-sponsored survival competition back in December 2013. I moved in the following May, named the island Jinja Island and have lived here ever since! I haven't updated my island blog for ages (cos I is naughty) but you can see some pics of the place over at http://www.jinjaisland.com

For the AirBnB listing, got to https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/7153550 - I'm new on there and I don't really know what I'm doing so bear with me! (Story of my life!!)

With your tight budget, which country was the most difficult to get by in? Which the easiest?

Angola is painfully expensive... like $8 for a bottle of Coke. The GCC countries like Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE weren't exactly easy on the wallet, but it was still possible to CouchSurf for free and cheap eats were available if you knew where to look.

As things turned out I was stuck in Australia for much of 2011, and that was hard. Even though I was staying with my Aussie girlfriend at the time, $27 for two pints of lager? I almost burst into tears.

Latin America is good for keeping the costs down while travelling and South-East Asia is a bargain backpackers dream... in Vietnam a beer will set you back $0.50 - that's more like it!!

Should I start Eddy Lacy over T.J. Yeldon this week?

Eddy Lacy over T.J. Yeldon

No, stick with T.J. Yeldon. Whoever the hell he is. hides behind cup of tea

If you had to choose one country to stay in for the rest of your life, what would it be?

If I had to? You're going to hate me saying this, but the UK. Specifically my hometown of Liverpool. I love the bones of the place, I can't help it!!

How did this trip change you as a person?

It made me realise a bunch of stuff: mostly that you can't judge a people by the actions of their government. Also that the vast majority of the people on this planet are good people who just want to be helpful and just want to be liked. Of course the odd dickhead you meet will stick in your head, but they are (mercifully) few and far between.

Finally it made me a lot more positive about the planet, humanity, and our shared future. If all we know of the world comes from news reports of massacres and atrocities it's easy to think that the world is going to hell in a hard cart, but the truth is that the media by its very nature tends to over-report the bad and under-report the good. Going to these places made the world seem a lot more real, a lot more connected and made the challenges that we face seem less insurmountable.

We've still got a long way to go, and we'll stumble along the way, but we're getting there.

Hello Senor Hughes,

Feel free to just answer one of these (or none)-

Which were the most and least progressive (in terms of social policy) countries? Which were the most and least technologically advanced? Which country did you feel, had the balance of these two right? Which country surprised you the most, perhaps the opposite of what you were expecting?

Many thanks,

Bean ;)

Hey Bean! In terms of social policy, Scandinavia always ranks pretty high, as do most Northern European countries (including ours, which some might see as a surprise), the absolute worst has to include Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Congo and North Korea.

As far as technology goes, EVERYWHERE has mobile phones, the internet, flat screen TVs. You see these guys in Papua New Guinea walking along the road with nothing but a bit of string around their waists, machete in one hand, mobile phone in the other. Most tech? Probably South Korea. Least tech? Chad, Central Africa Republic - around there I suppose. Best balance? I'd say Fiji. I was staying with a Fijian family for Christmas day. In the morning we made an earth oven (a lovo) and cooked all the food. In the afternoon we watched Pixar films with the kids. Awesome!!

As for surprising, I'd say Iran, but I'm sure I'll be talking about it a bit more later today!

Do you have any good stories of misunderstandings due to language barriers or recovery from sicknesses (minor or serious) during your travels that you could share with us?

My favourite misunderstanding story is when I reported to the bus station in Ethiopia at 3am only to find it closed. Confused, I asked the nightwatchman what gives? When I was sold the bus ticket I was told the bus left at "three in the morning."

He laughed. In Ethiopia "three in the morning" means "three hours after the sun rises." Or 9am to you and me.

GAAAAAAH!!

Remarkably, I didn't get ill. At all. For the whole 4 years. I think I built up my immunity from years of eating dodgy kebabs and attending muddy European music festivals.

Were you in any moment genuinely at risk of death and you didn't out of sheer luck?

Yes!! When I was in Wallis, a tiny French island in the Pacific, I almost fell into a crater lake, but I was saved by the elastic of my underwear.

http://www.theodysseyexpedition.com/2011/day-m68-m70-my-lucky-underpants

Did you meet some random person with whom you felt a deep connection with?

Yes, quite often actually - I made a lot of life-long friends on my travels, from all over the world. Doing this really helped me have a positive attitude towards this wonderful little planet of ours.

I really admire the fact that you just get on and do stuff, you seem to do whatever you put your mind to. I am so conflicted, I struggle with having faith in myself and listening to the naysayers, how do you deal with that?

Truth be told, I struggle with it too. For every one of my projects that's actually worked, there are about 20 which died a horrible (but quiet) death. The only trick is to keep plugging away until something works.

Any regrets?

Regrets? I've had a few!

But seriously, I messed up a few times along the way, made some idiotic decisions. I don't know if they really count as regrets because I didn't really know what I was doing... there was no one guidebook for travelling to every country without flying.

I think the fact that I finished, that Guinness World Records validated it and now people are following in my footsteps makes me think "well, somebody might do it faster, but I'll always be the first". That puts the small regrets I might have into perspective!

When do you think were in you in the most danger?

It was when I (stupidly) took a leaky 40ft wooden fishing canoe from Senegal to the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa. 4 days at sea, 650km, no radio, no sail, no sat-phone, no distress beacon... just an outboard motor and a pocket GPS. I was travelling with 10 Senegalese fishermen who didn't speak a word of English.

And then when we arrived in Cape Verde we were all locked up for six days because they thought I was a people smuggler. bangs head against wall

What is your favorite Led Zeppelin song?

Immigrant Song. Closely followed by Kashmir.

Which country had the food you liked the most and what was it? (description if it's uncommon)..

That's a tough question... I love my food!! I was thinking about this the other day - if I had to eat the food of just one country for the rest of my life, which would I chose? India would rank very highly, as would Ethiopia, Mexico, Italy, Thailand and China... but you know I think I'm going to go for France. I don't necessary know what they're cooking but by God it ALWAYS tastes amazing.

How could you have possibly gone into North Korea? Also, how did you receive the funds to do this?

Getting into North Korea is only a problem if you're travelling on a South Korea passport. Otherwise, you can go in on a tour from Beijing... there's a tour company called "Young Pioneers" that will take you over there for a few days. But it's waaaay expensive and I didn't want to spend that much money knowing it would probably go into the pocket of a excessively grim regime.

I just went to the DMZ from the South like the guys from Vice and walked around the conference table that straddles the border of the two nations.

As for funding, I saved up £10,000 before I left and was given some cash from Lonely Planet for the footage I shot along the way (screening tomorrow on Travel Channel in the US http://www.travelchannel.com/schedule.2015.12.21.EST hint hint). As mentioned above, I was on a pretty strict budget - I CouchSurfed, ate street food and travelled overland exclusively on public transport. Travel doesn't need to be expensive... and even if you're not making a TV show you can work along the way.

Did you travel illegally on any ships? i.e., were you ever a stowaway?

Ahahaha no... too risky, even for me. Although on a small cargo boat going from St Vincent to Barbados and then to St Lucia I was made to feel a bit of a stowaway... the captain took me against his will and I had to sleep on a bit of cardboard on the floor of the greasy floor of the tiny galley!

Which country has the worst cuisine?

Oh God I'm not going to make any friends by answering this one honestly am I? Anywhere it's all potatoes and cabbage and no spice. There, that's a diplomatic answer? Runs from angry comments

Red or blue?

Also how did you manage adapting to the many languages of the world?

Ciao

Hahaha Blue! I'm from Liverpool, not Surrey (or Malaysia) :D

Terribly. I barely speak English!! I know enough Spanish and French to get around though. That'll do for most places, and then there's the old point, smile, rub fingers together for "how much?", hold up fingers for the price and a handshake to seal the deal!

Top countries with hottest chicks ?

That's hard to say!! Lots of people say Colombia, but I saw beautiful women pretty much everywhere - Madagascar and Iran especially.

What small countries fascinated you more than you had expected before visiting those?

Gabon in Africa is a fascinating place. There I stayed with a Bwiti tribe for a couple of weeks. They consume this hallucinogenic tree bark called Iboga. I tried some, but not enough to see any visions. Some people report seeing their place in the universe after taking it... sounds like the Total Perspective Vortex from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to me!!

I really loved Tuvalu in the Pacific, it's slowly going underwater as a consequence of climate change... heartbreaking stuff.

Palau, also in the Pacific, is an amazing place too - if you love the water or you're a Scuba diver it's the best.

Other tiny countries I loved included: Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, Lesotho, Mauritius, Rwanda, Singapore and Fiji.

Panama is a great little country too... one of the reasons I now live here!!

It's not beautiful, but Nauru in the Pacific is a fascinating place... the "Canary In The Coal Mine" when it comes to the global economy and environment.

For a traveler who wants to do 10 countries in a month, what traveling route would you suggest?

Europe is the easiest place on Earth to do that... you could probably do 10 countries in one day if you wanted to!! You could certainly get around 10 countries of South America in a month too, but you'd be spending a lot of time on the road. SE Asia could be good for the 10 countries challenge too.

What was the best day of your adventure, if you can pick one? How about the worst day?

Best day: Probably reaching Mauritius on the last day of October 2009 after having successfully got to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Comoros and Madagascar in a month without flying. I won on the horses and then blew my winnings in a bar trying to "Drink My Way Around The World" with 20 beers from 20 countries. That was a good day! You can see how hilariously drunk I got in episode 7 of Lonely Planet: Odyssey With Graham Hughes tomorrow afternoon on Travel Channel US. SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!!

Worst day: the day my sister Nikki died. I had made it to 184 countries and had just 17 more to go, but it made me not want to go on. It took me a long time to get back on the horse and start travelling again -- I didn't want to let her, my family, my friends and all the people who had helped me along the way down.

What is it like traveling by ship?

Travelling by a cargo ship is amazing. I'd really recommend it, the crew will go out of their way to make you feel welcome and it's nice to disconnect from the outside world for a few days (no internet in the Pacific!).

Travelling by cruise ship is... surreal. I'm there in my scruffs and everybody else is wearing suits and ball-gowns! But it's a great way to get around if you just want to spend a day or so in each country, and they're REALLY handy for getting to island nations!

Travelling by sail-boat is my least favourite way of crossing the ocean (well, after wooden fishing canoe!)... I burn in the sun, I get sea-sick and WHY ARE WE GOING SO SLOOOOOOW?!?! Oh yeah, there's no wind. Great!

What was your stay like in Yemen? Anything particularly interesting?

My "stay" was brief. I got stamped in at the border point with Oman, was allowed to get a bite to eat on the Yemen side, and then was asked to leave because of the security situation. That was in 2010. I have a friend who went in 2009 before things started escalating and she loved the place - apparently the old architecture and history is incredible.

Some countries have clauses that say you cant enter if you have visited other countries on their no go list.

How did you get around this? Careful planning?

Yeah, and having two passports helps (you can apply for two in exceptional circumstances). You'll get hassle of US Homeland Security if you have a Cuba stamp, apparently Algeria has a problem with Malawi stamps (weird I know!), but the big one is Israel.

How to go to Israel without getting stamped in or out: go from Jordan via the Allenby Bridge crossing. The Jordanian authorities won't stamp you out and if you're quick (and polite) the Israeli authorities will stamp a piece of paper instead - leave via the same route.

Also be sure not to have any Israeli Shekels on you when you cross into a "no Israeli stamps" country, or have any Israeli hotels, restaurants or bars circled in your guidebook.

How was Afghanistan for you? Where did you go?

I spent a day in Herat in the north-west of the country. The people I met were friendly and inquisitive, I didn't feel threatened at all. It's so sad what's happened to Afghanistan... until the late 70s it was a favourite stop of people overlanding it from London to Kathmandu in Nepal. I just hope that they can return to those days of peace and tranquillity. I think it may take some time though.

Experience in India.?

I love India. Especially the South. And the food. And the trains.

It's smelly and noisy and infuriating but by God it's fun!

What is your "can't miss" to-do or to-see list for the top ten favorite places you went?

Taj Mahal, Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Anchor Wat, Uluru, Great Wall of China, Petra, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, the Parthenon, the castles of Gondar in Ethiopia, Mount Fuji, the Empire State Building, Jellyfish Lake (Palau), the tribes of Papua New Guinea... so many!! I'd keep going all day so I'm going to stop it there.

I would have added Palmyra, but I can't even think about it now without tearing up.

Did you catch any illnesses during your journey ?

Nope. Only itchy feet...!

Did you go to the countries with snowy winters during winter or summertime?

Yes! Canada, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan... crikey they were FREEZING!! Happily, the vast majority of non-European countries are tropical, so that worked out well for travelling light!

Have you been attacked in least-developed countries?

No, not at all. In fact I felt safer in some of the least-developed countries than I did in some of the more developed places. I mean, the US has a murder rate higher than Yemen (5.1 per 100,000). Eek!

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

Were you ever mugged or held up at gun point during your journey? Did you ever fear for your life at any point?

Nope. Never got mugged, never got robbed. I think I'm just a jammy bastard! Although....... you know that most stories of backpackers getting mugged begin with the words "well, we were buying these drugs and...."

Say no to drugs kids! You'll live longer!!

As for fearing for my life, not really.... but maybe the last night I was in jail in Brazzaville, Congo. The British honorary consul's wife came to speak to me, told me to stop shouting and kicking the door. "You're in Congo, Graham... just do as they say." The tone of her voice shut me the hell up.

how good is travel around the world?

It's AWESOME! Loads of fun. That's the main reason I did it!