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collecting countries


terratin

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Cool! Congratulations on that trip! I wish I could go to the Giga. Oh well, maybe next year :)

 

I'll be flying over to Denmark again next week for an extended business trip(Yiha, business class!), but there's no way I could justify a stopover somewhere along the way. It takes so much longer and the price increases big time. I just get the nonstop flight as per our travel policy. Anyway, good thing is: there's a Mega event on the weekend after next. Thus I know what I'll be doing that weekend. :)

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I don't know how Groundspeak became the sole arbiter of Palestine being a country, but I grabbed it last month.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3TXTC_a-shepherds-field?guid=99d6a6cb-5016-48a4-97fd-f172bf9670bf

 

Only 10 caches in the "country," and not many US geocacher finds.

 

I journey by Réd, but had to create this account as Groundspeak won't let me log into the forums with "funny" chars

Edited by RedsSockpuppet
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I don't know how Groundspeak became the sole arbiter of Palestine being a country, but I grabbed it last month.

 

http://www.geocachin...fd-f172bf9670bf

 

Only 10 caches in the "country," and not many US geocacher finds.

 

I journey by Réd, but had to create this account as Groundspeak won't let me log into the forums with "funny" chars

 

The State of Palestine is also listed in the ISO-3166-1 standard which defines codes for countries and territories. From what I understand the countries/territories list is based upon the UN Country codes (something I work with frequently in the form of the FAO developed geopolitical ontology). The geopolitical ontology does *not* include Palestine and seems to be one of the few places where GS diverged from that list.

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YES!! we did it. We cached in 5 countries in a day! :)

 

http://www.geocachin...2e-5f6ea72e4e4a

 

Nice job. It would been cool to do six with one of each of the qualifying cache types for the August souvenirs in each country. I was traveling the past couple of weeks and got two of them in Texas and one at an Earthcache at the top of an active volcano. The 4th was a local puzzle cache. I doubt I'll get the remaining two as I'll also be traveling next week. I could probably drive 30 miles and get the multi but there are no scheduled events this week or where I'll be traveling next week (Disneyworld) .

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lol, you learn something new everyday. Never heard the term "geopolitical ontology."

 

Thanks NY Paddle.

 

Now, I'm not making any political statements here, or advocating about the status one way or the other, just an observation.

 

Finding "A Shepherd's Field" was definitely a goal because of the country designation.

 

And, I hired an armed ex-Israeli military guide at $US500 for the day to drive us into Bethlehem to log it, just to be safe for me and my wife.

 

After traveling to Israel in June and just missing the war by a day makes the find all that more interesting.

 

Those people really don't like each other.

 

Just curious why Groundspeak would venture into the debate by classifying 10 caches in the "country" of Palestine, when it isn't recognized by the US, EU and UN.

 

I guess I'm agnostic on the debate of inclusion, because it now shows up on my stat list and is an interesting conversation piece.

 

Sorta on topic, I was very bummed a couple of years ago when I discovered my Scotland finds were not a new country, but part of the U.K.

 

What's the difference?

 

If Scotland secedes from the U.K. next month, I guess I get a new country then.

 

Trying to sort out the moral equivalence of wanting "more" countries for the numbers, while others are worried about more complex issues.

Edited by RedsSockpuppet
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lol, you learn something new everyday. Never heard the term "geopolitical ontology."

 

If you're interested in reading more: http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/geoinfo/en/

 

Coincidentally, last week I was in a meeting in Costa Rica that included a couple of women from FAO (I'm working with them on a contract to develop a system which will be used at FAO) and we were discussing the geopolitical ontology. They were also with me when I found and Earthcache and a traditional at the top of a volcano. Neither had geocached before but they thought it was interesting.

 

 

Now, I'm not making any political statements here, or advocating about the status one way or the other, just an observation.

 

Finding "A Shepherd's Field" was definitely a goal because of the country designation.

 

And, I hired an armed ex-Israeli military guide at $US500 for the day to drive us into Bethlehem to log it, just to be safe for me and my wife.

 

After traveling to Israel in June and just missing the war by a day makes the find all that more interesting.

 

Those people really don't like each other.

 

Just curious why Groundspeak would venture into the debate by classifying 10 caches in the "country" of Palestine, when it isn't recognized by the US, EU and UN.

 

I guess I'm agnostic on the debate of inclusion, because it now shows up on my stat list and is an interesting conversation piece.

 

Sorta on topic, I was very bummed a couple of years ago when I discovered my Scotland finds were not a new country, but part of the U.K.

 

What's the difference?

 

If Scotland secedes from the U.K. next month, I guess I get a new country then.

 

Trying to sort out the moral equivalence of wanting "more" countries for the numbers, while others are worried about more complex issues.

 

There's a page on the GS site which explains the UK/Scotland/Wales/Ireland/Northern Ireland situation. The gist of it is that they try to determine the country/territories list based on geographic, not political boundaries. The FAO geopolitical ontology doesn't include Scotland, or North Ireland either (all are considered part of the UK).

 

There are other oddities in the official GS country/territories list as well. Take a look at the Saint Martin/Sint Martaan/Saba debacle. The Netherland Antilles was treated as one country prior to dissolving in 2010 but the country designation for caches located on the island which currently includes Saint Martin/Sint Martaan doesn't represent that change. Caches in the St.Martin part of the island are listed as St. Martin, but caches in the Sint Martaan part are still listed as Netherland Antilles. On the island currently known as Saba, and is listed as a distinct territory on the GS list but not the FAO geopolitical ontology or the ISO-3166 list, has some caches listed as Saba and others listed as Netherland Antilles.

 

Of course, the Netherland Antilles dissolved in 2010 , after geocaching was well established so it begs the question "should a country designation change if the location where the cache is located changes after a cache has been published?"

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There's a page on the GS site which explains the UK/Scotland/Wales/Ireland/Northern Ireland situation. The gist of it is that they try to determine the country/territories list based on geographic, not political boundaries. The FAO geopolitical ontology doesn't include Scotland, or North Ireland either (all are considered part of the UK).

 

Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are part of the UK (as well as England). (In the real world, not GS world).

 

In Groundspeak world, the anomaly is that Northern Ireland is part of Ireland. Yes there are reasons for that where they were trying to be apolitical. Scotland, Wales, and England are all part of the UK in Groundspeak world. It is only Northern Ireland which is an anomaly.

 

So yes, today a find in Scotland will be in the country of the UK. The UK is then broken into regions, so for example "Southern Scotland" or "South West England" (these are at the "state" level). If Scotland leaves the UK that should change, but who knows what GS will do).

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There's a page on the GS site which explains the UK/Scotland/Wales/Ireland/Northern Ireland situation. The gist of it is that they try to determine the country/territories list based on geographic, not political boundaries. The FAO geopolitical ontology doesn't include Scotland, or North Ireland either (all are considered part of the UK).

 

Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are part of the UK (as well as England). (In the real world, not GS world).

 

In Groundspeak world, the anomaly is that Northern Ireland is part of Ireland. Yes there are reasons for that where they were trying to be apolitical. Scotland, Wales, and England are all part of the UK in Groundspeak world. It is only Northern Ireland which is an anomaly.

 

So yes, today a find in Scotland will be in the country of the UK. The UK is then broken into regions, so for example "Southern Scotland" or "South West England" (these are at the "state" level). If Scotland leaves the UK that should change, but who knows what GS will do).

 

Even the real world doesn't treat England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland consistently.

 

The geopolitical ontology doesn't recognize them as constituent states and groups them all as part of the UK.

The ISO-3166-1 standard classifies England, Scotland, and Wales as a country and Northern Ireland as a Province. All four are assigned three letter ISO codes.

The world fact book (cia.gov, another common data source) treats them the same way as the geopolitical ontology.

Geoname, a very useful system for geocoding with a huge backend database is sort of a mix. It recognizes the United Kingdom as a top level entity, and the constituent counties as second level administrative regions

 

 

 

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Taking advantage of some creative mileage tickets I’ll be heading from Seattle to Vienna this October. Will take the train up to Warsaw Poland stopping in Bratislava Slovakia then head back to Vienna. Next leg will fly to Bangkok (hopefully not flying over Ukraine) a pit stop in Bangkok and then to Taiwan. A couple days in Japan and then back to the Emerald city.

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Just got back from my great Alaska adventure. Three new ones for the log which are very cool even if not countries in their own right: Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon! :)

 

Fun fact for collectors heading to Alaska: only found one geocache in Vancouver as I was having fun catching up with my friends who live there, but unexpectedly got a second British Columbia one while visiting Skagway, Alaska. Turns out if you take the White Pass Railway up over the pass for the day you enter briefly into BC but don't get off the train, and if you're lucky enough to be on the first train like we were you go past an Earthcache before the turnaround point (I don't think all the trains do so). So a second geocache in BC for me, and didn't even have to show my passport.

 

Also, could've gotten a layover cache in Washington State during my layover in Seattle on the way home, but saw the security line before leaving the area and it wasn't one I really wanted to stand in. Especially as it looks like I'm likely returning to Seattle in January for a conference, so it doesn't really matter for a few months IMO.

 

Future plans: going to the UK in two weeks for a workshop outside Manchester, then heading to London for a long weekend (was originally planning Lake District, but think it'd be a letdown after Alaska just now and the incredible scenery there). Already have the UK, but for those heading to London it looks like there are a really neat series of challenge caches now just north of the Greenwich Observatory focusing on travel- for example,6 in 6 means you need to have found six categories of caches (trad, multi, puzzle, etc) in six countries. I qualify for 3x3 and 4x4, but am one cache shy of a 5x5. <_< If it's nice weather I think I'll walk around and find/sign them all, and then post notes for the ones I haven't found yet and change them to smilies as that happens. It'd give me something to do in countries already found if/when I return to them!

 

Also looks like I'm heading to Prague next month for a weekend with some friends, so will log Czech Republic for #33. Running out of "easy" new countries to nab around the Netherlands, particularly with winter coming on (I mean gee, lovely as Finland and Ukraine must be in winter... pass!).

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Hi, my first post on this forum! Anyway so far I have geocached in 2 countries, Ireland & Germany. I was in France after I started Geocaching although I have to use my phone to do geocaching since I don't know where to get a GPS offline and since I didn't have my phone I couldn't do it in Paris :(. Anyway, looking at places to go in the UK in October from Dublin Airport, or maybe somewhere else like Brussels that would be cheap but not much results coming up so far :( If anyone has any recommendations for both the amount of geocaches there (or the fun level of them) and just the city please let me know <3

Edited by diosma1
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Not sure if it helps but I really like the 'anywhere' option on skyscanner.com. Chose a month, a departure airport and 'anywhere' for destination and see what comes up with good prices (they don't list lowcost carriers. Maybe there's a dedicated website for that). Otherwise, would Edinburgh be an option? Lots of different cache types, somewhat compact city with things to see, and a nice hill with some great geological history (ok, that's me liking that). On the other hand most of northern Europe is rather expensive with regards to hotels and food, and the weather is probably not the best either.

What about something in central/eastern Europe, the Baltic states are fairly cheap, or look a bit further south? Amsterdam? Apaprt from caching, what would interest you?

 

Mrs. terratin, currently in southern Oman. Only 7 caches, but now 8 in total :anibad:

Actually, makes me wonder if the very dry 45 degrees at home in Doha are so bad compared to the 30 with 80% humidity here. At least it's green and there are mountains :P

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Hi, my first post on this forum! Anyway so far I have geocached in 2 countries, Ireland & Germany. I was in France after I started Geocaching although I have to use my phone to do geocaching since I don't know where to get a GPS offline and since I didn't have my phone I couldn't do it in Paris :(. Anyway, looking at places to go in the UK in October from Dublin Airport, or maybe somewhere else like Brussels that would be cheap but not much results coming up so far :( If anyone has any recommendations for both the amount of geocaches there (or the fun level of them) and just the city please let me know <3

One word: RyanAir.

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Hi, my first post on this forum! Anyway so far I have geocached in 2 countries, Ireland & Germany. I was in France after I started Geocaching although I have to use my phone to do geocaching since I don't know where to get a GPS offline and since I didn't have my phone I couldn't do it in Paris :(. Anyway, looking at places to go in the UK in October from Dublin Airport, or maybe somewhere else like Brussels that would be cheap but not much results coming up so far :( If anyone has any recommendations for both the amount of geocaches there (or the fun level of them) and just the city please let me know <3

 

I did a little geocaching in Brussels after scheduling an overnight layover there on the way back to the States from Rome. It was real easy to get into the central city on a train from the airport. I DNFd the first two caches I looked for. The first was because they closed the park I was in just as I got to ground zero and the second was in an areas that had been fenced off. Still, if you have a few hours there were quite a few caches you could search for in central Brussels.

 

 

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Hi, my first post on this forum! Anyway so far I have geocached in 2 countries, Ireland & Germany. I was in France after I started Geocaching although I have to use my phone to do geocaching since I don't know where to get a GPS offline and since I didn't have my phone I couldn't do it in Paris :(. Anyway, looking at places to go in the UK in October from Dublin Airport, or maybe somewhere else like Brussels that would be cheap but not much results coming up so far :( If anyone has any recommendations for both the amount of geocaches there (or the fun level of them) and just the city please let me know <3

One word: RyanAir.

 

One more word. EasyJet

 

I've never used Skyscanner but kayak.com/explore and https://www.google.com/flights/ does the same thing. Pick a starting airport and an (optional) travel time and just look at a map to find the best airfares to different places. I use both quite often to find different options when flying to Europe, Africa, or Asia. Just a quick glance and I can see that the least expensive option for me to get from the US to Europe is to fly to Dublin. Then I can check RyanAir or EasyJet to see if there some inexpensive flights to where I actually need to go.

 

 

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So today the people of Scotland are voting to decide whether or they should become an independent country. Apparently polls indicate that the decision is too close to call but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?

 

GS was pretty quick to split off South Sudan when it split but there many have only been 1-2 caches (if any) in what is now South Sudan. What will GS do if Scotland becomes a new country?

 

 

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Apparently polls indicate that the decision is too close to call but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?

 

I think that the underlying decision and the potential effects of Scotland becoming a country of its own for Europe are much more far-reaching than a few cachers collecting a new country.

From the political point of view, it would be quite a challenge for Europe and I would prefer if the vote will end with a rejection.

 

Cezanne

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Apparently polls indicate that the decision is too close to call but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?

 

I think that the underlying decision and the potential effects of Scotland becoming a country of its own for Europe are much more far-reaching than a few cachers collecting a new country.

From the political point of view, it would be quite a challenge for Europe and I would prefer if the vote will end with a rejection.

 

Cezanne

 

But this is a geocaching forum for discussing geocaching related topics. There's a off-topic forum if you want to discuss politics.

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So today the people of Scotland are voting to decide whether or they should become an independent country. Apparently polls indicate that the decision is too close to call but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?

 

GS was pretty quick to split off South Sudan when it split but there many have only been 1-2 caches (if any) in what is now South Sudan. What will GS do if Scotland becomes a new country?

 

I had hte same thought. My daughter wants to do a study abroad program in London. I would be great to get UK, Scotland and Ireland.

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So today the people of Scotland are voting to decide whether or they should become an independent country. Apparently polls indicate that the decision is too close to call but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?

 

GS was pretty quick to split off South Sudan when it split but there many have only been 1-2 caches (if any) in what is now South Sudan. What will GS do if Scotland becomes a new country?

 

I had hte same thought. My daughter wants to do a study abroad program in London. I would be great to get UK, Scotland and Ireland.

 

If Scotland successfully secedes I wonder if Wales will be next. In all my travels, so far I've never had to opportunity to visit any of the British Isles. There are plenty of flights to places in Europe I might go that go through Dublin or London so it's probably only a matter of time.

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But this is a geocaching forum for discussing geocaching related topics. There's a off-topic forum if you want to discuss politics.

 

I do not want to discuss politics (neither here nor elsewhere apart from the fact that I could not use the off-topic forum even if I wanted). I just find it somehow strange that people use a geocaching related argument as a reason for favouring a certain outcome of a poll and apparently do not reflect about the consequences their preferred outcome would have in areas that are much more important than geocaching.

Edited by cezanne
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But this is a geocaching forum for discussing geocaching related topics. There's a off-topic forum if you want to discuss politics.

 

I do not want to discuss politics (neither here nor elsewhere apart from the fact that I could not use the off-topic forum even if I wanted). I just find it somehow strange that people use a geocaching related argument as a reason for favouring a certain outcome of a poll and apparently do not reflect about the consequences their preferred outcome would have in areas that are much more important than geocaching.

 

I don't think anyone is favoring an outcoming. Just wodnering what will GS do and how quickly. And how we as cachers gain by it.

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I don't think anyone is favoring an outcoming. Just wodnering what will GS do and how quickly. And how we as cachers gain by it.

 

So how do you interpret this question by NYPaddleCacher "but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?"

If he had not formulated his statement in this way, I would not have written anything at all.

 

Cezanne

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I don't think anyone is favoring an outcoming. Just wodnering what will GS do and how quickly. And how we as cachers gain by it.

 

So how do you interpret this question by NYPaddleCacher "but is anyone else hoping that the referendum passes so we'll have a new country to collect?"

If he had not formulated his statement in this way, I would not have written anything at all.

 

Cezanne

 

I think it's worth considering that statement in the context of this thread. This collecting countries thread is somewhat of a rare bird. Almost all of the participants are a regular group that have been talking about a variety of topics all related to finding caches in other countries. It's almost like it's own forum section, but without any of the drama of conflicting opinions and long drawn out debates. The statement was pretty much a rhetorical question in the context of this thread and I almost expected that the answer would always be yes.

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The statement was pretty much a rhetorical question in the context of this thread and I almost expected that the answer would always be yes.

 

Sorry, but even with your explanation I do not regard your question as a rhetorical one and my answer is "No, I do not share your hopes" and the reason for my opinion is totally unrelated to

geocaching (I will not provide any details here as it does not belong here) but I regard them as far more important than geocaching ever could be. If each of the states of the United states became a separate

country, you and many others could improve your country statistics dramatically, but I do not think that this would be a good idea to follow.

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The statement was pretty much a rhetorical question in the context of this thread and I almost expected that the answer would always be yes.

 

Sorry, but even with your explanation I do not regard your question as a rhetorical one and my answer is "No, I do not share your hopes" and the reason for my opinion is totally unrelated to

geocaching (I will not provide any details here as it does not belong here) but I regard them as far more important than geocaching ever could be. If each of the states of the United states became a separate

country, you and many others could improve your country statistics dramatically, but I do not think that this would be a good idea to follow.

 

You're missing the point. If I had asked the same question in the UK forums I would have expected an entirely different answer, but I asked the question here, where pretty much every regular participant is a self-proclaimed country collector. If you're not a country collector, you might answer differently than most of the participants in this thread who are.

 

As I said, this thread has been active for quite awhile without any drama or long drawn out debates, and personally I'd like to keep it that way. In an effort to do so, this will be my last response to you regarding Scotland in this thread.

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You're missing the point. If I had asked the same question in the UK forums I would have expected an entirely different answer, but I asked the question here, where pretty much every regular participant is a self-proclaimed country collector. If you're not a country collector, you might answer differently than most of the participants in this thread who are.

 

In any case I was very surprised about your question and stance even though I of course know that you are are country collector (which is nothing bad in my opinion). The source of my surprise was the high priority you assign to geocaching in such matters while at the same time ignoring other effects. This will also my last post on the topic Scotland. I did not intend to create drama as you put it.

I simply was very surprised about what you wrote about the topic.

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Hold on. Let me win the Lottery and then I will talk about collecting different countries. So far I have two others. Bahamas, when I had money and Canada when I lived in WA. I haven't even done Mexico yet.

 

You don't need to win the lottery to travel. One of the regular participants in this thread had over 20 countries while still on a student "income". You just need to make it a priority. I suspect that many of the regulars in this thread would prefer to find 10 caches in 5 countries, then travel to the Nevada desert to get over 1000.

 

I haven't found caches in Canada or Mexico either. I had a chance to grab a few in Mexico City a few weeks ago on the way to Costa Rica but I didn't want to risk missing my connecting flight. For one of my potential upcoming trips I'm thinking of driving up to Toronto and flying from there rather than from NYC. It's about the same distance and the airfare is about the same. That's the kind of thing a country collector will do.

 

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I suspect that many of the regulars in this thread would prefer to find 10 caches in 5 countries, then travel to the Nevada desert to get over 1000.

 

Yep...that's me! In fact, one cache per country (followed by a delicious meal in a local restuarant accompanied by a glass of local beer or wine) is all I need.

 

I would have guessed that after reading about the "find a cache in mutiple state and eat some BBQ" trip you planned a few years ago.

 

Although for several countries I only have 1 find I usually try to find at least two just in case there might be an issue with the first one I attempt. When I was in Brussels I was kicked out of a park that was closing before I found the cache there. I went off to the next one on my list and discovered that it was behind a construction fence that had recently been put up. I found the third one I attempted.

 

I was just thinking the other day that whenever I travel I almost always make time to do some geocaching, but I almost never make time just to go out and do some caching locally.

 

 

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I suspect that many of the regulars in this thread would prefer to find 10 caches in 5 countries, then travel to the Nevada desert to get over 1000.

 

 

This holds true for >80% of the cachers I personally know if the 10 caches/5 countries are selected appropriately.

I can hardly imagine anything in geocaching that I would not prefer to 1000 caches in the Nevada desert.

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Yep...that's me! In fact, one cache per country (followed by a delicious meal in a local restuarant accompanied by a glass of local beer or wine) is all I need.

Amen brother.

 

I went all the way to Nicaragua for a single traditional - but couldn't find it. Also couldn't find a couple other traditionals, argh. Had to settle for leaving the country with nothing more than a Virtual. (Not really a "cache", but it'll have to do...)

 

Next project is SE Asia somewhere, and I need to study the geo-map to choose a country. It was going to be South Korea, but the specific caches of interest to me were suddenly archived for no apparent reason, by an owner who's already archived 2000 hides (!), all for no externally apparent reason. That's too unstable for me. Maybe Indonesia instead; I like the food...

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Yep...that's me! In fact, one cache per country (followed by a delicious meal in a local restuarant accompanied by a glass of local beer or wine) is all I need.

Amen brother.

 

I went all the way to Nicaragua for a single traditional - but couldn't find it. Also couldn't find a couple other traditionals, argh. Had to settle for leaving the country with nothing more than a Virtual. (Not really a "cache", but it'll have to do...)

 

Next project is SE Asia somewhere, and I need to study the geo-map to choose a country. It was going to be South Korea, but the specific caches of interest to me were suddenly archived for no apparent reason, by an owner who's already archived 2000 hides (!), all for no externally apparent reason. That's too unstable for me. Maybe Indonesia instead; I like the food...

 

I see that you haven't found any caches in Singapore yet (how'd you get to Malaysia?). That might be a good place to start. The downtown area is pretty impressive and you can also head over to Pulau Ubin on a boat, then rent a bike to travel around the island and find a few caches. Airfares into Singapore are typically quite good and Indonesia would be a short flight away.

 

I was looking at South Korea as a possible layover for a potential trip to Southern China (Guangzhou). There are a ton of caches there. On the other hand, a colleague of mine that I've worked with on several projects lives in Thailand (the food there isn't too shabby either) so I'm looking at Bangkok as well.

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Although for several countries I only have 1 find I usually try to find at least two just in case there might be an issue with the first one I attempt.

 

For these trips, I always cherry pick several along our route to make sure I can color in the country. And I try to make sure there is some redeeming quality to the caches - there *are* P&Gs in Europe that I try to avoid!

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I see that you haven't found any caches in Singapore yet (how'd you get to Malaysia?). That might be a good place to start. The downtown area is pretty impressive and you can also head over to Pulau Ubin on a boat, then rent a bike to travel around the island and find a few caches. Airfares into Singapore are typically quite good and Indonesia would be a short flight away.

I might just do that - hit up Singapore on the way to Indonesia (probably Java, maybe Bali/Lombok). I've heard good things about caching in Singapore from others as well. I liked the place when I visited long before taking up this game.

 

(I got to Borneo via Seoul going, and Hong Kong coming back. But I'm not one to pop out of airports quickly while passing through; you'll usually find me zoned out at the gate or hitting the Wifi.)

 

I was looking at South Korea as a possible layover for a potential trip to Southern China (Guangzhou). There are a ton of caches there. On the other hand, a colleague of mine that I've worked with on several projects lives in Thailand (the food there isn't too shabby either) so I'm looking at Bangkok as well.

Have you considered Hong Kong? Seems like it's right on the way, and I was quite impressed with the caching scene there - lots of good quality, maintained caches. I had a blast in Hong Kong; in two weeks I found 50-ish caches there, mostly along trails in HK's green space.

 

If you're going in the cooler season, you might like Mini 360 which is a quick bus ride or longish walk from HK's airport. I don't think it's the closest, but it has a decent view. Alternately, the Airport Express train has a special there-and-back price that's ideal for layovers; it'll whisk you right into the heart of the action.

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I suspect that many of the regulars in this thread would prefer to find 10 caches in 5 countries, then travel to the Nevada desert to get over 1000.

 

Yep...that's me! In fact, one cache per country (followed by a delicious meal in a local restuarant accompanied by a glass of local beer or wine) is all I need.

 

Yep, that's us as well! We easily could have picked up 17 caches in southern Oman, though we chose to only do 7 and do more sightseeing instead: historical sites, small hikes, souq visit, great landscapes without any caches. Mind you, 4 of the 7 were ECs, which were available at interesting locations :)

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I see that you haven't found any caches in Singapore yet (how'd you get to Malaysia?). That might be a good place to start. The downtown area is pretty impressive and you can also head over to Pulau Ubin on a boat, then rent a bike to travel around the island and find a few caches. Airfares into Singapore are typically quite good and Indonesia would be a short flight away.

I might just do that - hit up Singapore on the way to Indonesia (probably Java, maybe Bali/Lombok). I've heard good things about caching in Singapore from others as well. I liked the place when I visited long before taking up this game.

 

(I got to Borneo via Seoul going, and Hong Kong coming back. But I'm not one to pop out of airports quickly while passing through; you'll usually find me zoned out at the gate or hitting the Wifi.)

 

That's certainly understandable after a flight (or flights from North America). When I went to Kuching I had flights through Singapore both directions. When coming from the U.S. I had a 13.5 hour flight from NYC to Tokyo, a four hour layover, then a 7 hour flight to Singapore. I got there around 2:00AM, checked into one of those tiny hotel room at the airport and flew to Kuching the next morning. On the way back, I scheduled an overnight layover (about 28 hours) in Singapore so I had some time to do some caching. I had a 7 hour layover in Tokyo on the way back as well so took the train into the town of Narita and grabbed a few caches.

 

 

I was looking at South Korea as a possible layover for a potential trip to Southern China (Guangzhou). There are a ton of caches there. On the other hand, a colleague of mine that I've worked with on several projects lives in Thailand (the food there isn't too shabby either) so I'm looking at Bangkok as well.

Have you considered Hong Kong? Seems like it's right on the way, and I was quite impressed with the caching scene there - lots of good quality, maintained caches. I had a blast in Hong Kong; in two weeks I found 50-ish caches there, mostly along trails in HK's green space.

 

If you're going in the cooler season, you might like Mini 360 which is a quick bus ride or longish walk from HK's airport. I don't think it's the closest, but it has a decent view. Alternately, the Airport Express train has a special there-and-back price that's ideal for layovers; it'll whisk you right into the heart of the action.

 

I did look at Hong Kong and it's a viable option as well. I've made good use of airport trains/light rails in several other cities when I've had a layover longer than 5 hours or so.

 

 

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Haven't posted anything on Groundspeak in a longtime. This thread caught my eye since this is my caching goal - a large number of countries. So far I have 41 countries. Granted, some of them I only snagged one cache but hey it still counts :-) My goal is to have fifty countries by the end of the year. The nine I plan to add in December are almost like cheating since they will be Caribbean Islands. Next year I hope to add Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

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Anyone been to Addis Ababa? Our absolute favourite band is playing a concert there, and it's a rather short flight. Is there anything to do and see next to finding two caches? Safety?

 

The alternative might be a trip to Istanbul where our other absolute favourite band is playing. What to see and do is easy there, and we wanted to go there anyway at a certain time. :anibad:

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Anyone been to Addis Ababa? Our absolute favourite band is playing a concert there, and it's a rather short flight. Is there anything to do and see next to finding two caches? Safety?

 

I've been there twice and will be going again, probably in November. The Addis Ababa #1 micro is *in* a hotel and the Inside Outside Nano is on the grounds of another hotel (probably the one I'll be staying at in November). Did you look at the listen for "Fresh and Green Academy"? Although it's 6 miles from city center it's easily accessible. From reading the logs, it's one I definitely want to do next time I go.

 

Both times I've been there it's been for work so I really haven't had a chance to do much exploring. The National museum is supposed to be good, and although sometimes the exhibit is on loan, the 3.2 million year old "Lucy" skeleton is something you might not see anywhere else. Enoto Natural Park, just north of the city, is supposed to be nice and there are two other caches near there.

 

Addis is the third highest capital city in the world and due to it's elevation there are no mosquitoes. There is, of course, the food. Some find injera to be an acquired taste but I found all the different ingredients served with it to be quite tasty. We went to a place called YOD Abyssinia that not only had great food but also put on a traditional music and dance show that was quite amazing. Ethiopia is also the birthplace of coffee. The hotel I stayed in the last time had a traditional coffee ceremony (they're serious about coffee) every morning in the lobby.

 

My impression of Addis is that it is pretty safe, relative to other large cities in Africa. The Mercato area is known for pick-pockets but like any other large city just keeping aware of your surroundings will keep you out of trouble. Overall, I like Addis quite a bit. There is still some planning to do for my upcoming trip there but most likely I'll be spending a few days in Addis then going down to Jimma (about a six hour drive) for a few days

 

You might try looking up DuneBuddy. He's pretty much the only active geocacher in Addis. I just missed meeting him the last time I was there when he hosted a WWFM there (I was on a plane on the way from Istanbul when it happened) and I believe ended up being the only attendee.

 

 

 

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