Exactly 250 days after departing from his native Egypt, Omar Nok, 30, set foot in Japan, marking the end of an epic journey that saw him travel 42,380 kilometers without boarding a single airplane. Daily video diaries uploaded to Nok’s personal Instagram account have proven to be a hit online, and he now finds himself with over 750,000 followers on the platform. After arriving by boat in Fukuoka, Nok slowly zigzagged his way up the country, traversing Kyushu, Shikoku and a significant portion of Honshu before arriving in Tokyo, his final stop.
1. Even within Japan, you’ve traveled extensively already — more than many of the locals here, I’m sure. Do you hear this kind of thing a lot? Every country I visit, the locals always tell me that. But it is often the case that people travel more outside their own country than within it.
2. Is this also the case with you? A little bit. The capital of ancient Egypt in the south of the country is very popular with tourists, but I still haven’t been there.
3. Was this trip to Japan planned so that you’d arrive on day 250? I’m far from that level of detail! I just planned the general route — the countries I’d be passing through and the points of interest in each. But even that changed.
4. How so? My original plan was to travel around India and then head to Southeast Asia. The problem with that, though, is that there’s no way of crossing Myanmar, so there’s this bottleneck between the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. As an alternative, I could’ve gone from India to Nepal and then to Tibet, but visa restrictions meant there was no guarantee I could’ve continued on from Tibet into China. I ended up exploring more of Central Asia before heading straight into China from Tajikistan.
5. Not having a detailed travel plan would be an anxiety-inducing prospect for many, and yet you seem to be very calm. Have you always been this way? I did not start traveling like this. As I’ve gained experience, I’ve definitely become more spontaneous.
6. Were you traveling from a young age? Traveling wasn’t really a thing in my family, and overseas travel from Egypt is expensive, so it wasn’t much of an option either. When I got a job in Europe after university in Cairo, traveling finally became a possibility, and I began by visiting all the usual touristic places in Europe in the normal way. But over time, every trip became a little more adventurous and a little less easy to plan.
7. What sort of trips were you taking during that transitional phase? Like, I’d book a one-way flight to Romania and a separate flight back home from Montenegro, figuring out the route between them as I went along.
8. How have you funded all of these trips? I always had it in my mind that, before settling down, there’d be a chapter in my life when I’d have the freedom to see as much of the world as possible, so I began saving up money from way back when. Even though I was promoted three times at work, my lifestyle did not change one bit over the course of those five years. I continued living like a student.
9. When did you make the leap of faith and quit your job? That was roughly three years ago now. I took a sabbatical from work for three months just to test out the lifestyle. I loved it, of course, so I quit my job a few months later and traveled around Latin America for a year. After that, I traveled a bit more around Europe and spent some time with family in Egypt, and then I began this journey to Japan.
10. Why did you start documenting your travels on Instagram? Before starting this journey, my account was private, and I had about a thousand followers — all friends and family. During those first two years of traveling, so many friends were constantly telling me that the places I was visiting and the things I was doing were worth sharing with the wider world, but it was only on this trip that I gave in. I made my first video on the ferry from Dubai to Iran, and there was an immediate response.
11. I’m guessing your attitude toward posting about your travels eventually changed? Being in Iran really gave me the motivation to make the videos. Open any news source and you’ll struggle to find anything positive on Iran. Family and friends wondered why I was going, telling me to be careful, things like that. But when I finally went, it was the complete opposite: The locals there were just so hospitable and friendly. Seeing a contrast between people’s perception of a place and the reality of it was something I’d encountered before in other countries, but this was by far the biggest contrast I’d seen.
12. Would you say there’s an overarching message to the videos? A big message is that there are good people everywhere, but this is something I’ve never had to say in any of the videos. The viewer can see it themselves through all the generous people I’ve met along the way who’ve accommodated me, fed me and taught me about their culture.
13. Has the growth of the account changed the way you travel? Not really, but actually here in Tokyo, I’m being hosted by a Japanese couple who heard about me through Instagram. It’s rare, but it’s great when it happens because it’s another way of spending more time with locals. Experiencing what the locals experience has long been a focus of my travel, and this can be things like only taking public transport or going to small eateries and ordering what everyone else is having.
14. Is the no-flying rule mainly for environmental reasons? It’s an added benefit, but it’s not the primary motive. If you take a plane from point A to point B, well then it’s only about points A and B; you skip everything in between, and I don’t want to skip anything. I want to see and experience the world — to see how the landscape changes and how cultures slowly shift.
15. Any particularly memorable train or bus journeys along the way? The 46-hour train journey in Kazakhstan. Because of the Eurasian Steppe, the terrain is completely flat, so I’d see the exact same view outside my window for the whole day. This might sound boring to some people, but it fascinated me. The locals also invited me to eat and play board games with them. It was so much fun; I didn’t want it to end.
16. Accommodation highlights? Aside from staying at locals’ homes, camping on a remote section of the Great Wall of China.
17. Of all the countries you visited during the trip, do you have a favorite? Kyrgyzstan. It’s the third most mountainous country in the world, so it has a lot of incredible nature, and it’s rarely visited by tourists. At the viewpoint for the Ak Sai Canyons, I saw one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen in my life, and there wasn’t a soul in sight.
18. Has anything particularly inspired you? The hospitality across Central Asia has inspired me to up my own hospitality game for people who visit Egypt. I actually put on weight during my travels there, as I was given so much free food. I would try my best to pay for things, but no one would let me. For a two-week stay in Afghanistan, my total spend came to $88.
19. Is fatigue ever an issue for you? Travel burnout is a thing. I’m aware of that, so I adjust my pace according to how I feel. Also, if the circumstances allow it and there’s suitable accommodation around, I’ll take a rest stop for a few days, call family and friends, go to the same restaurant several nights in a row — that sort of thing.
20. What’s the story behind your signature blue bucket hat? This is actually the second one. I bought the first one at a store in Spain and traveled with it for many months, but it eventually got stolen in Chile when someone broke into our rent-a-car while we were hiking. After weeks of searching for a similar hat, I finally found one in Argentina, and that’s the one I have today. I guess I’ve had it for almost two years now, so it’s probably been to 40 countries at this point.
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