A cyclo man in Indonesia. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

Luong Thanh Chuong, 47 years old, loves reading books and traveling. In 2013, he planned a 10-year journey traveling around the globe.

Not taking tours, he wants to challenge himself by traveling to tourist destinations printed on the souvenir cups that he collected and taking photos to say “I have been here”.

Chuong collected 430 souvenir cups between 2015 and 2017. The cups have names of the cities, countries and territories or well-known symbols such as monuments, flowers, animals of the destinations.

For example, a cup of the Switzerland has two symbols - the Eidelweiss flower and the Matterhorn mountain.

The Austria’s cup has the Tyrolean Hat and the Alps. The Bulgarian cup has the rose and the Oslekov house.

Looking at the images, Chuong will raise questions: What do the symbols mean? Then he will look for information and prepare for the trip to check in.

Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

He aims to travel to 860 destinations printed on more than 400 cups. After five years, he has so far completed 172 locations with 86 cups checked in.

Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

A lot of travel lovers who take the same challenge visit famous places to check in. But Chuong challenges himself with difficult symbols in remote mountainous areas.

“Capturing famous icons in urban areas is easy. Taking photos of mountains and animals is really difficult,” he told VnExpress.

Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

For example, to check in the cup printed with the symbols of Sabah State, Malaysia, the orangutan and Mount Kinabalu, I had to wait at Sabah's sanctuary to capture the moment of that animal and climb over 4,000 meters," he said.

It was a two day and one night journey. Chuong started to climb at 8 am to the height of 1,800 m and then rested. At 3pm when he reached the height of 3,200 m, then had dinner. He conquered the peak of 4,000 m at 2am the next day.

He said the photo shoot that made him tremble the most was taking pictures of orangutans in a reserve in Sabah State. He had to ask the staff of the sanctuary to "lure" an orangutan close to him. His whole body was shaking while taking the photo because he was worried that the animal would snatch the phone or cup and disappear into the forest.

One of the most memorable photo shoots Chuong has had was the one at the top of Changbai Mountain, Jilin in China. When he arrived, he encountered a blizzard with the temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius.

But this was not the coldest shooting spot he has experienced. The coldest spot Chuong has ever experienced is Vu Tung Island, also in Jilin, with a temperature of minus 28 degrees Celsius to capture the ice tree - the symbol printed on the cup of China.

An ice tree in Jilin, Chian. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

The funniest shooting spot was the one with pandas in Chengdu, China.

The symbols that he thinks he will never be able to capture are the sun with birds flying by printed on a Spanish cup and the image of five animals on the cup of South Africa.

The journey he had to go the farthest to check in with a cup was when he departed from Ho Chi Minh City, transited in Auckland to travel to Santiago, Chile, then took a flight to Easter Island to take photos of the Moai statues - the symbol on the Chilean cup.

The photo of dancers in Cambodia, Thailand and Spain took the most time to take.

A female dancer at Angkor Wat. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

Chuong bought a ticket to Angkor Wat, found dancers and shared his photography idea with them.

Chuong hoped that when the pandemic is over, he will visit Sevilla to find a Flamenco dancer for the logo printed on the cup of Spain.

The destination he most wanted to photograph is Mount Everest. For many times he planned to go to Base Camp but could not.

“At the age of 40 to 50, I will capture all the difficult symbols on the cups. Then I will save the easier places to start my journey after the age of 50,” he said.

Chuong has checked in with a lot of places in Vietnam. In this photo, he checks in with the UNESCO World Heritage Ha Long Bay. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

Check in with Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

Lotus - a symbol of Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

Traveling community

He said there is a community in the world that loves collecting cups like him. Most of the members are from Philippines, the US, Europe and China. It was not until December 2014 did he know about this community and join.

Thanks to the group, his foreign language ability has improved and he has brushed up on language fluency to use it when traveling alone around the world.

A corner of Chuong's souvenir cup collection. Photo courtesy of Luong Thanh Chuong

One of the benefits of participating in the souvenir cup collecting community is that every time you visit a country or city, you just need to post an announcement on the group. The members will welcome you at the destination and show you everywhere, he said.

“They even help me solve problems on the way, teach me how to call a taxi, and give me local gifts. A lot of members are ready to take the train, drive hundreds of kilometers to meet me in person and talk endless conversations,” he said.

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