Holding hands and traveling around the world: Ti - Tham couple and the goal of 195 countries

Hoang Anh and Quynh Hoa with children in Mali, Africa

"We aim to be the first Vietnamese people to use Vietnamese passports to travel to all 195 countries ," the 9X couple Nguyen Minh Hoang Anh and Vu Thi Quynh Hoa, currently living in Hanoi, shared their dream in early spring 2025, which is also their "lifetime dream".

To date, Hoang Anh has set foot in 134 countries, Quynh Hoa has been to 136 countries, and the couple has traveled to 105 countries together.

We have been to 26 American countries, 25 European countries, 24 West African countries, 14 East African countries, more than 10 Asian countries... We are confident that we will use our Vietnamese passports to travel to all 195 countries.

QUYNH HOA

Get married because... we love each other

Hoang Anh is from Binh Duong province, Quynh Hoa was born in Hai Phong. They both happened to have studied and graduated with master's degrees in England. Hoang Anh has a master's degree in business administration from Greenwich University, while Hoa has a master's degree in finance from Northampton University.

They became husband and wife in 2020 when they accidentally found out that they both had the same goal of traveling around the world , so they made an appointment to... "meet and confront each other" and then fell in love!

When they got married, the couple Ti - Tham traveled from Ha Giang province in the northeast of the country to An Giang province in the South to take "cool as water" wedding photos in 12 provinces and cities of Vietnam.

Not only vividly depicting the sweet words of groom Hoang Anh to his wife: "I searched the whole world, and finally found you", the video of their wedding photos is also titled Let's go Vietnam with the intention of contributing to promoting the beautiful landscapes of the homeland for international friends to admire and visit Vietnam.

Busy with business activities of imported health products, fashion design and most recently starting a visa business "for domestic tourists to satisfy their passion to step out into the world", Hoang Anh and his wife always keep their passion for traveling, discovering and experiencing.

Despite two years of travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple still held hands and took five cross-continental road trips and visited 105 countries together.

Hoang Anh and Quynh Hoa recorded and shared their interesting and rare journey on social media through the channel "Ti - Tham Travel".

They have principles: absolutely comply with immigration regulations in every country; read, learn and research carefully about dangerous and insecure lands; make full use of diplomatic ability, problem-solving skills, and calmly handle incidents if any.

"We decide our entire travel schedule, and wherever we go, we try to understand every aspect of the locality through experiences of eating, living, and activities from the most basic to the most luxurious. We have a career in our hometown and a young son (born in 2021), so wherever we go, we have to prepare carefully and not rush into danger. On each trip, my husband and I calculate the time every day, every hour so we can return to our child," Hoang Anh shared.

Young couple explores Mongolia

Vietnamese couple in rural Burkina Faso - Photo: NVCC

Memories of "up and down"

Ti and Tham's world travel journey is not a luxurious vacation, but they are truly travelers with an adventurous spirit and a desire to see every corner of the world with their own eyes, experience the real life of local people, and hear stories they have never heard before.

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On road trips across remote roads, climbing mountains, and crossing glaciers, they have experienced traffic accidents, disagreements with locals, robberies, loss of belongings, unreasonable visa cancellations, being stuck at the border, frostbite, malaria in the jungle, food poisoning...

The most recent trip through 24 West African countries lasting three months in 2024 was the most difficult and arduous experience for the couple Ti and Tham.

They went through the journey through the jungle in the dark of night in Guinea Bissau, sat on a wooden boat for 5 hours by sea from Nigeria to Cameroon, passed through the hot spot of riotous rebels in Mali or the ongoing coup in Burkina Faso, gnawed on bread and waited in vain to enter Togo despite having a visa...

Recalling unforgettable memories in the harshest places, such as the couple "sharing a small bucket of water to rinse their bodies instead of bathing" in the border region of Guinea Bissau, Quynh Hoa confided: "The trips help us appreciate life and what we have. That is why I always smile and feel grateful that I am extremely lucky to have a partner who shares the same dream and accompanies me to conquer the world."

Ti and Tham said the invaluable lessons from their trips helped them become "more confident, stronger, and more mature". When they returned home, they felt more than ever "the priceless happiness and pride of being born and living in an independent and peaceful country".

Quynh Hoa said she often sits on a street corner in Hanoi, sipping hot milk tea, "finding everything around her incredibly sweet."

"Looking at the world makes us understand clearly that while material things only bring short-term satisfaction, the joy and experiences of traveling will follow us for life," Ti and Tham sympathized and said that in the year of At Ty 2025, the couple will continue to travel with the plan to fulfill their dream of visiting 195 countries around the world together before 2030.

Fellow countrymen

When asked about their most wonderful and emotional memories, Hoang Anh and Quynh Hoa said they were the times they met Vietnamese people making a living in extremely remote places in the world.

When arriving in Liberia during the flood and heavy rain, Ti and Tham were welcomed by two young Vietnamese men named Thuan and Long and given shelter at their home, treated to home-cooked Vietnamese meals with spinach and boiled pork for several days.

"Ti - Tham" share a love for traveling here and there to explore the world.

In Ivory Coast, Ti - Tham accidentally met and quickly became close to a girl named Hoai, manager of the Pho Hang restaurant in Abidjan (the country's largest city), and also discovered very interestingly that this sub-Saharan West African country has dozens of Vietnamese restaurants opened by Vietnamese people!

Arriving in Senegal, both were very excited to meet and hear the story of Michel - a French man who had never been to Vietnam but had a Vietnamese grandmother and a father born in Vietnam.

Michel and his wife were taught to cook Vietnamese food by their aunt (mother's sister) and opened a restaurant called "Hanoi" in the coastal city of Saint Louis, the northernmost point of Senegal.