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Vietnamese couples go to 100 countries around the world

“We will conquer all 195 countries and territories in the world with Vietnamese passports,” Quynh Hoa said on her 100th arrival day.

At the end of July, amidst the Bulgarian summer sun, friends of Ms. Quynh Hoa (29 years old) and Mr. Hoang Anh (31 years old) welcomed them with banners with congratulations. It is also the day marking the milestone that the couple from Hanoi has set foot in 100 countries around the world.

Hoa deliberately chose the capital Sofia, Bulgaria as the 100th destination. The reason was that she was impressed with the poem “Bulgaria Rose” when she was in elementary school. The poem mentions the name of a foreign country to the little student that day. “I don’t understand why that name keeps haunting me. After many years, I finally set foot in Bulgaria and set my own meaningful milestone here,” Hoa said. The female tourist also shared that if she had a daughter, she would name her at home Sofia. She now has a young son, named Sau.

The couple’s trip around Europe this summer is the first time they have gone abroad after two years of the epidemic. Quynh Hoa works as a freelancer, while her husband works in the field of hotels and restaurants, and does a part-time job in information technology. They went to Southern European countries and then around Eastern Europe. At first, Hoa thought to go around to reach the milestone of 100 countries and then return and thought that she alone would be enough for that goal. But when she arrived in Albania, she and her husband sat down to list the countries and found that her husband had traveled as much as his wife. And Bulgaria is the couple’s 100th country.

Vietnamese couples go to 100 countries around the world
The couple took photos in Switzerland during their journey to conquer 100 countries. Photo: NVCC

Quynh Hoa said that these are 100 countries recognized by the United Nations. And if you include territories such as Taiwan, Hong Kong … their list is even longer.

At first, Ms. Hoa just wrote the number 100 with a marker on the paper and then took a photo with her husband as a souvenir. But then they were surprised when a group of friends also went to Europe to celebrate with them with banners and balloons number 100.

“After years of traveling and accumulating, counting each country, I finally accomplished my goal. Everything becomes twice as happy and fun when in this special moment, we have close friends by our side to share. When I took souvenir photos with them, I was very happy,” Hoa said. By the way, Hoa also wants to send a message to you: “Next time, when I reach the goal of visiting all 195 countries and territories, everyone can write welcome banners in ‘western’. no,” she said humorously.

Hoa has had a passion for travel since childhood. At the age of 14, she was allowed to go abroad with her parents. The trip to China at that time was on April 30 and May 1. She still vividly remembers the excitement of going abroad for the first time, seeing a different world from the usual familiar things in Vietnam. After the trip, Hoa discovered she had a passion for travel and since then, she has begun to conquer other countries around the world.

After getting married, Hoa continued this passion. Hoang Anh, her husband, supports his wife’s passion because he also loves to travel. Before getting married, the two used to travel around the Americas together. In 2020, they had to suspend overseas trips because of the epidemic. That same July, they got married.

Romania was the 99th country China arrived. Before that was Bosnia Herzegovina (pictured). Photo: NVCC

When she got married, Hoa also brought her love of travel into her wedding photos. The couple went to Vietnam to take pictures . The set of photos was taken by Hoang Anh and Quynh Hoa in 15 days, through 3 regions of the North, Central and South with 11 cities. The list of destinations includes Ha Giang, Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, Ninh Thuan, Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, and An Giang. The two always try to change their outfits to create diverse styles for the set. The number of dresses to carry weighs about 100 kg.

2019 is the year they travel “longest”, through 40 countries in the Americas in 4 months. The total cost is 1.2 billion VND per person. The cost for all 100 countries is about 3-4 billion VND per person. Another special thing is that in all the countries that require a visa, the United States applies and applies for self-sufficiency. There is no country she needs to ask the travel agency to apply for. When coming to Europe, Hoa applied for a Schengen visa, and in the American countries, the couple (then still lovers) went wherever they wanted to go. They only apply for US and Canadian visas from Vietnam in advance. The female tourist said that the availability of visas of these two countries is a great advantage when applying for visas from other American countries. “We just need to go to the embassy to apply for a visa, hold up our passport and open the US-Canada visa page, the processing is very fast. Time to apply for visas for other countries is from two to five days,” she said.

The next goal of the couple is to visit all 195 countries and territories recognized by the United Nations in the world. “We will use Vietnamese passports to go to these places,” shared the Hai Phong female tourist. After that, the couple plans to exercise to conquer the seven highest mountains in the world.

The couple took a photo in Greece. Photo: NVCC

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