On August 29, 2022, I officially entered the Seychelles. This destination marks my 100th country. It had taken 2.5 years for that moment to happen, and for that period of time, I kept the location to myself and did not tell anyone. However, once the immigration official put the stamp in my passport and let me pass, I knew I had done it, and I am extremely thankful to have finally been given the opportunity.

Originally, I was supposed to have made this trip in March 2020. However, COVID put a stop to that. Interestingly enough, two days before I was scheduled to depart, the airport where I live shut down, so if I had left earlier, I would have been stranded there. When it became clear that COVID was going to get worse before it was going to get better, I was able to cancel my flight and get a full refund but was not able to get a full refund for the hotel.

Therefore, from March 2020 until basically August 2022, I did no international traveling at all although I did do a handful of local day trips in the country I live in. Since traveling for a majority of 2020 was out of the question, I opted to return to grad school to pursue a second Master’s degree, and with that, I made a personal promise to myself that I would not travel at all until I finished the degree. When I finally finished it in May 2022, I did fly back to the US for a bit to see family and put different affairs in order but held off a bit longer to do Country #100.

Admittedly, while I was super excited to get back into traveling, it was somewhat of a challenge to motivate myself to plan the trip again. COVID had gotten me very used to leading a very homebody-centric lifestyle, and I became very accustomed to spending my days laying on the couch reading (something that continued even after the world moved beyond COVID). In fact, my reading habits improved drastically during that time and still continue to this day, and reading has actually become one of my favorite activities aside from traveling. However, with a work break coming up for me, I knew this would be my chance to finally reach country #100.

The journey to the Seychelles was fairly straightforward, but by virtue of the flight schedule, I had to have a 20 hour layover at Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. While it would have been possible to leave the airport and get a hotel in Doha, that would have required doing additional paperwork with COVID documentation, and I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Therefore, I resigned myself to spending the entire time in the airport.

I have had long layovers before but never as long as 20 hours, so my main goal was to figure out how to keep occupied and kill time. Initially, my plan was to stay in the airport hotel within the terminal, but it was completely booked for the time I would be there, so that plan was nixed. Prior to departing, I made sure to download a lot of long books on my phone to read. My flight arrived in Doha at around 6:30am, and the flight to the Seychelles was scheduled to depart at 2:00am the next day, so I had a lot of time on my hands.

Thankfully, I was able to kill time fairly effectively since I needed to do a couple work projects which took a few hours to complete. I was able to make good progress on those in a lounge, and I then spent about 8 hours in Doha’s “Sleep n’ Fly Sleep Lounge,” which consists of several sleep pods that one can rent by the hour. This was my first time staying in a sleeping pod, and I would describe it as comfortable although it kind of felt like being in a mausoleum since there was literally no room to walk around, and while it is possible to change the bed to a recliner, space was definitely limited. Plus, if you have to use the toilet, you have to leave the area and use a hallway bathroom, which is very close to the “Sleep n’ Fly" area. After spending several hours there, I checked out and then kicked around a lounge for a few more hours until departure time. Ultimately, the 20 hour layover was not as bad as I had been fearing.

The flight from Doha to Seychelles was uneventful. After a four hour flight from Doha to the Seychelles, the flight finally arrived to Mahe Island, which is the main island in the Seychelles. Passing through Immigration was a breeze, and since I did not check any bags, I was able to skip the baggage claim although I was briefly questioned by immigration officials as to why I did not have any checked bags, but there were not issues.

Unfortunately, on the day of arrival, it was pouring rain, and one of my fears was that the rest of the trip would be rainy or at least cloudy or overcast (thankfully that did not happen). Once I stepped into the arrival hall, everything went smoothly since the driver I had hired in advance was there on time, and we got to the guest house without any issues. Since I had been up for over 24 hours with only sporadic sleep in the sleep pod in Doha and fitful sleep on the flight, I had only a little energy to take a brief walk around the area to get my bearings before crashing back at the guest house for the remainder of the day.

Overall, if I had to describe my feelings at finally reaching country #100, it would be joy, relief, excitement, and a renewed desire to pursue my goal to visit every country in the world.

Please stay tuned for more entries on the Seychelles and photos since there is much more to share.