The World's Most Traveled Man

Chares Vehey - I think he's the one smiling.

Today, I read an interesting article on the World's most traveled man- Charles Vehey - who has visited 823 of the world's 872 countries. wow.  Who has the time or the money? Evidently, this guy.  It's taken him 8 years but, what it doesn't mention is how much it's cost him - now that would be interesting.

He and some other "professional travelers" offer some tips and advice in the article. They all recommend packing "light".  One woman said that she can be gone for 5 weeks and only use one carry-on. Impossible. I need one carry-on just for hair products. Plus, I like to have options;  1. the ability to dress up or dress down and 2. fat day clothes and skinny day clothes (women know exactly what I mean) not to mention handbags and shoes, hello.  My guess is this woman travels alone because unless you have laundry facilities everywhere you go, she's going to be a little ripe near the end of the five weeks.

I've heard one of the other suggestions before and it confuses me: shipping your bag instead of paying airline fees to check it. I have a few questions:  I have to pack a bag and ship it several days before I travel, right? what if it doesn't arrive when I do? what if I require items from it before I leave? And what makes no sense to me at all is that it's still going to cost me $50 to ship it, so what's the point?  I'd love to hear from you if you've done this and why it works for you.

Here's a tip: Fly Southwest where every bag flies free or get a credit card that will pay those fees for you...and wash your clothes, Stinky McStinkerson.