He Visited Every Nation, 'Feared for My Life Several Times'

An American who has earned multiple world records after traveling to every nation on Earth is now spilling more details about his journey, reports the Guardian, including some rather scary ones. Indy Nelson, now in his early 30s, most recently was verified for breaking the world record for airlines flown on—170 unique ones—and told Guinness World Records in an interview last week that "I feared for my life several times," including when he was detained by four countries for suspected espionage. "There were definitely several times that I did not think that I was going to get out," he said. "[But] by the fourth time, it was like, 'No big deal anymore.'"

The California native names those nations as Iran, Libya, Papua New Guinea, and Russia, which detained him for a combined total of 24 hours. Other highlights from the interview included his favorite country to visit (Cambodia, for its culture and "super friendly" residents) and least favorite—Comoros, an archipelago off the African coast, where he says the locals were "not too friendly." He also praises Middle East airlines as being "awesome," said he barely faced any flight cancellations on his trip, and revealed that he handled turbulence on some of his flights by treating it like a "roller coaster ride." "I'll bundle up into a little cocoon and put my feet into the back of the seat in front of me if no one's there," he noted. "I close my eyes and don't get any headaches."

Nelson says he got the idea to circumvent the globe and hit every country after going to North Korea for spring break during college. On his website, Nelson claims six other world records, including the fastest time to visit all sovereign countries on Earth (one year and 174 days) and being the youngest person to do so, at age 24 years and three days. Nelson is now encouraging others to make the same travel leap, if they're able. "Just do it. Do it when you're young," he told Guinness. "Get out of your comfort zone. ... It changes your foundation, changes who you are, changes your view of the world." (More Guinness World Records stories.)