where in the world

Here's a fun thing: create your own coloured-in map of the world based on where you've been and where you haven't.

Here's mine:



I've had to apply some stringent rules; basically I have to have actually stood on the soil of the country in question (airport tarmac will do), and national boundary shifting after I did my soil-standing activities doesn't count. So, for instance:

• I get Japan because I hung out at Tokyo airport (Haneda, I should think, as it handles traffic to Seoul, which is where we were going, and also the current main international hub, Narita, wasn't open when I was there in 1975) for a couple of hours, during which time I managed to fit in eating a bizarre lukewarm Oriental approximation of Spaghetti bolognese in an airport restaurant and being violently sick. Well, I was only five at the time. Nowadays I'd have been steaming into the sushi and Sapporo. And being violently sick.
• I don't get China because, although I've been to Hong Kong, it was before it reverted to being under Chinese sovereignty (1976 against 1997, so it wasn't even close).
• I don't get either Russia or India because, although I've landed there (Moscow and Bombay - as it was then - respectively) for a stopover on the way somewhere else, I never got off the plane.

Give it a try; then start filling in the blanks. I'm off to Kyrgyzstan on Monday.