Seeing the World, Making Connections
With a goal of visiting 100 countries, Hoi Wong ’17 is slowing his pace of traveling to savor more of what he sees.
Two weeks of living with no running water, no internet, limited electricity, and a profound need for mosquito netting isn’t the likeliest spark to ignite a love for travel. At least, not for many people.
For Hoi Wong ’17, however, that winterim service-learning trip in a Nicaraguan rainforest tapped into something deep inside. It revealed a love for learning about other cultures and meeting people in other nations, and he discovered more about himself and his limits—not that he had expected such an experience. The trip was a component of LACS 20, a course taught by Douglas Moody, and planning for the two weeks away spanned the entire term. In retrospect, Wong admits he didn’t focus closely enough on the trip’s details.
“I thought we’d stay in a nice hotel. We flew into the capital city, and then we immediately took a small airplane to the jungle,” he says. “I got thrown into the deep end. But I enjoyed the challenge. There was nothing to do except talk to each other or play cards. No internet, no cell service. It was difficult at the beginning. I had never disconnected fully from the web. Towards the end, I learned to appreciate the time we had together.”
Wong grew up in El Paso, Texas, the son of immigrants who ran a shoe shop. He visited Mexico a handful of times and traveled to China to visit relatives three times. “Outside of that, we didn’t really travel. We didn’t have the time. My parents were busy running their store,” he says.
Dartmouth changed all that. Wong followed his Nicaraguan adventure with Department of Economics trips to Peru and China, as well as two Alternative Spring Break trips in Florida, where he learned about the myriad challenges facing migrant farm workers. Wong also landed two off-term internships abroad: working at the U.S. Consulate in Sydney, Australia, and a brand strategy consulting internship in Paris.
Wong, who today works in FinTech Partnerships at Visa, took a job at L.E.K. Consulting, a consulting firm in Boston, soon after graduating from Dartmouth and was often getting away for weekend trips to Europe. The firm offered an exchange program, he recalls, and there was a waiting list for places such as London and Singapore. A recently acquired office in Mumbai, however, wasn’t attracting as much attention, so Wong and a friend “raised our hands and said, ‘We’ll go.’”
“It was an amazing experience that led me to be even more aggressive about traveling, as I was able to go to a lot of places throughout Southeast Asia on weekends or work a little bit remotely,” he says. It was while in India that he decided to set a goal for himself: to visit 100 countries.
“The art of slowing it down”
With Google Translate on his phone and frequent breaks while pursuing his MBA at UC Berkeley Haas, Wong made steady progress toward that ambitious target, although his globetrotting has slowed down since completing his MBA and working in a U.S.-based role. Through fall 2025, Wong has visited 91 countries.
For some nations, his visits have been quick. Several small Eastern European nations, for example, held limited interest. Other trips, however, have been longer and more immersive, with Wong sometimes staying in a country for nearly a month. He still does the occasional “sprint,” when he swings through several countries in quick succession, but he says that pace is rarer today.
What he does while on the ground in a foreign country has evolved, too, he says. He doesn’t gravitate toward the typical tourist activities as much as he once did and instead has focused more on being immersed in the locals’ day-to-day life.
“I’ve learned the art of slowing it down a bit because—and this is mirrored in my professional life—I have always had this sense of urgency that I realize is completely manufactured,” he says. “Another thing I’ve learned, and I’ve discussed this with other travelers, is that when you first start going to a lot of places, you focus on what’s different. You think everything’s novel because there are so many different things that you’re seeing for the first time. Then you reach a point when everything starts to look kind of the same, and you realize we’re more similar than we’re different.”
Travel Tips from Hoi Wong ’17
Wong says he has taken about one-third of his international trips by himself. Solo traveling has its advantages, he says. It’s easier to meet locals, and he’s in control of the itinerary. On the downside, if something unpleasant happens, such as losing a wallet, there’s no safety net of family or friends. Wong has these tips for anyone planning to travel abroad alone:
- Bring a backup phone. If possible, have a cell phone plan that includes free roaming, which eliminates the need to buy a SIM card.
- Have multiple debit cards and credit cards in case you lose one or if your financial institution flags your card for possible fraud. As with your phones, pack them in different bags.
- Pack a few items of clothing in your backpack, as airlines do lose suitcases.
If you prefer to travel with others, check out the educational adventures offered by Dartmouth Alumni Travel. Each journey is led by a faculty member or other Dartmouth leader.
Wong is reluctant to name favorite destinations. He will say Bhutan and Easter Island were special due to their isolation. Beyond that, each country is unique, and the dynamics of how he’s traveling, such as whether he’s on his own or in a group, affect how he remembers the journey.
However, unanticipated discoveries and serendipitous encounters—moments not on the itinerary—are always memorable, he says. This includes spending time in the home of a Tajik family because he happened to meet an English-speaking woman on his flight who was traveling from the U.S. to Tajikistan to visit her parents. And during a three-week trip in Brazil, he took a detour to the inland state of Minas Gerais.
“It’s not very popular for international tourists or even local tourists. But I decided to go there because it was a suggestion from Anthony Bourdain,” he says. When Wong first arrived in Belo Horizonte, the largest city in Minas Gerais, he didn’t see much to do. Looking at Google Maps, he came across the nearby Inhotim Institute, a contemporary art museum with works spread across hundreds of acres.
“It was the most beautiful art exhibition I’ve ever seen, and I hadn’t planned for it,” he says.
Wong will soon travel to Vietnam for a friend’s wedding, and he’s planning to visit Cambodia and Malaysia while in that part of the world. They will be his 92nd and 93rd countries.
What will he do when he reaches 100?
“I'll probably continue to go to new places, but with less urgency,” he says. “There are still places I would love to see beyond the 100, and there are many places that I would love to revisit.”
As for how seeing so much of the world has affected him, Wong returns to the awareness that people everywhere are more alike than different.
“That has made me have a better appreciation for the simple things: family, friends, and community as the baseline, and food, career, and entertainment as the sprinkle on top,” he says. “All in all, travel has made me more empathetic and understanding of differences in this world, and as a result, I’ve found it easier to make connections with people of various backgrounds.”
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