#97: Tajikistan
(A friend from the U of Hawaii lived there 20 years ago helping students get into universities in the US.)
#98 is my ancestral homeland: Switzerland.
#98, Switzerland:
Oldest republic in the world.
Has four official languages - German, French, Italian and Romansch.
Birthplace of Louis Agassiz, original theorist and foremost scholar of continental glaciation and ice ages. Also, later in life, much beloved professor of geology at Harvard.
#99: Jordan.
#99 Jordan
World famous almonds.
Considered a model of Christian-Muslim co-existence.
Named after the Jordan River.
#100 Papua New Guinea
#100 Papua New Guinea
Archipelago formed by the incoming Indian-Australian plate slamming into mainland Asia; has mountains 10,000 feet and climbing.
Official language is Tok Pisin, an English-derived pidgin that is not “broken” English, despite appearances; Prince Phillip in Papua New Guinea is known as “fella-bilong-queen”.
Occasional appearances of kuru, a prion disease associated with cannibalism.
#101 Togo.
#101 Togo
Capital, Lomé.
Once a German colony, and a bit bigger than now: in post-World-War-I carve-up, a strip on the western side went to Britain (combined with adjacent Ghana) – what is now Togo, was taken by France.
Was long ruled by an unpleasant despot with the marvellous name of Gnassingbé Eyadema.
#102 Hong Kong
A special district of the People’s Republic of China, and not actually a country
Setting of the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice
Airport has scary approaches: - YouTube
103: Bulgaria.
Bulgaria
Capital: Sofia (for St. Sofia)
Continuously occupied site for the past 9,000 years
Chefguy spent about six months there while renovating the US embassy.
104: Mali
oops, already done. There needs to be a list.
104 is Serbia, not Mali, in today’s Wiki list: List of countries and dependencies by population - Wikipedia
Serbia:
fragment of the former Yugoslavia
notorious as home of war criminals
helped spark World War I
105: Paraguay.
#105 Paraguay
Capital, Asuncion.
Has had a tendency toward fighting ugly wars with its neighbours – one such in the mid-19th century, went on until few male Paraguayans who weren’t very young or very old, remained alive.
Has a tradition of IMO beautiful folk music, in which the harp is prominent.
#106 Laos
#106 Laos
Has a population of around 7 million.
Most of the population is Buddhist.
The traditional garment for women is the Sinh.
#107 Sierra Leone
105: Paraguay.
Notorious as refuge of Nazi criminal fugitives. Worst among them was Auschwitz Dr. Josef Mengele.
In 1864 Paraguay went unwisely went to war against both Argentina and Brazil, the two largest countries in South America. Paraguay lost.
In 2009 Timothy Towell, the former US Ambassador to Paraguay, was arrested on lurid sex charges:
(from link):
Re Paraguay – asking, with respect: is this just a game (one participant, three items-whatever-they are, move on) – or are people seeing it as rivalry concerning suitable / proper lore re the country concerned?
Nelson Pike: if with your submission, you’d failed to notice that I’d already “done” Paraguay: then, no harm, no foul.
No sense of rivalry intended by me, and when I began to compose my reply Paraguay was next up. I was delayed by looking up that war I mentioned- I wanted to make sure it was both Brazil and Argentina involved. Then I read a bit of the article before finishing what i had started.
No worries ! I didn’t notice that our replies were almost simultaneous – sorry.
(Missed edit window – with Prof. P.'s Laos just in-between yours and mine on Paraguay.)
#107 Sierra Leone
Capital, Freetown.
Formerly a British possession – colony or protectorate, I forget which – became independent circa 1960. In independence, has liked to style itself “The land of iron and diamonds”.
Used to be served by a delightful railway system with a track gauge of 2ft. 6in. This closed down three / four decades ago – a pity: but even if it had lasted longer, the recent nastiness in S.L. would most probably have put an end to it.
#108 El Salvador
El Salvador
#109. Libya
#109 Libya
Lots of oil
Belonged to Turkey until early 20th century; then taken by Italy; became independent post-World War II
Contains a much-cherished historic / archaeological site: Leptis Magna, reckoned likely the best-preserved ancient Roman city anywhere
#110 Nicaragua
#110: Nicaragua
(Side note: Siam Sam spent some time in Nicaragua in 1986.)
#111: Kyrgyzstan
:smack: D’oh! No, that was 1987 that I was there, not 1986.
Still up: #111: Kyrgyzstan