Out In The Open

How visiting every country on Earth made this Canadian feel like a stranger at home

Mike Spencer Bown has travelled the world for the last 26 years. He's been away for so long that his homeland now feels foreign to him.
Mike Bown (Courtesy of Mike Bown)

Mike Spencer Bown has been travelling almost non-stop for the past 26 years.

He has visited very single country in the world and written about his travels in his new book, 'The World's Most Travelled Man.'

"I was really interested in reality...I'd see a new kind of palm tree and I'd be really fascinated by it...I was always looking for what was different or changing, especially in the environment around me, like the natural environment and then later it shifted toward people."

As a modern day nomad-of-sorts, it's Canadian society that seems foreign to him now.

"Canadians, I did notice, they have dark circles under their eyes and they're always tired and kind of distracted...I guess they fill their days with so many activities. Where as a lot of the time in village life you have a lot more time to lounge around and especially to interact with freinds."

For Mike, Canada feels like home when he's around his family, but he isn't necessarily tied to any place in particular, and especially not to his birthplace.

"I think I'm in a state now where the whole world is really what interests me," he says.  "Wherever I hang my backpack...it feels like home to me."