Passport Stamps: Travel Trivia

France's longest land border is not with Spain or Germany. Thanks to an overseas region in South America, it is shared with which country?

• Brazil
• Suriname
• Belgium
• Switzerland

Answer: Brazil. French Guiana and Brazil share about 730 km of border, longer than France's 623 km frontier with Spain. Suriname borders French Guiana on the other side.

The architect of the Sydney Opera House quit mid-build in 1966 and never returned to see it finished. Which country was he from?

• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Denmark

Answer: Denmark. Jørn Utzon was Danish. He left after rows over costs and design, and the building opened in 1973 without him.

Cross from India into Nepal and you change your watch by an unusual 15 minutes. What is Nepal's offset from UTC?

• UTC+5:30
• UTC+5:45
• UTC+6:00
• UTC+5:15

Answer: UTC+5:45. Nepal used Indian time until 1986, then moved 15 minutes ahead. Quarter-hour time zones like this are rare worldwide.

China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei, was asked in 2003 whether he had spotted the Great Wall from orbit. What was his answer?

• He could not see it
• He saw it clearly
• He saw it only at night
• He saw only its shadow

Answer: He could not see it. The wall is long but only a few metres wide and close in colour to the land around it, so it is very hard to pick out from space.

Liechtenstein has no coast, and neither do its only two neighbours, Switzerland and Austria. What is a country like that called?

• An enclave
• A microstate
• An exclave
• Doubly landlocked

Answer: Doubly landlocked. To reach the sea from Liechtenstein you must cross at least two borders. Uzbekistan is the only other country in the same position.

Under the glass dome of Jewel at Singapore's Changi Airport stands a world record about 40 metres tall. What is it?

• The longest indoor slide
• The tallest indoor waterfall
• The biggest indoor cricket pitch
• The largest indoor ski slope

Answer: The tallest indoor waterfall. The HSBC Rain Vortex pours from an opening in the roof and is the tallest indoor waterfall in the world.

Indonesia and the Philippines are famous for islands, but one European country counts more than either, about 2,67,000. Which?

• Norway
• Finland
• Greece
• Sweden

Answer: Sweden. Sweden counts roughly 2,67,000 islands, most of them tiny and uninhabited.

Climb Everest by the north route and your base camp sits in which region?

• Gilgit (Pakistan)
• Sikkim (India)
• Tibet (China)
• Bhutan

Answer: Tibet (China). The summit sits on the Nepal-Tibet border. The south route starts in Nepal; the north side starts in Tibet.

Istanbul commuters hop between Europe and Asia by ferry every day without leaving the city. Which strait do they cross?

• Bosphorus
• Dardanelles
• Strait of Gibraltar
• Strait of Hormuz

Answer: Bosphorus. The Bosphorus splits Istanbul between two continents, and passenger ferries cross it all day.

More than 200 steep, narrow pyramids stand at Meroë in Sudan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Which ancient kingdom ruled from there?

• Axum
• Carthage
• Mali
• Kush

Answer: Kush. Meroë was the southern capital of the Kingdom of Kush, whose kings once ruled Egypt too.

Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade all stand on one river, which touches ten countries on its way to the Black Sea. Which?

• Rhine
• Danube
• Elbe
• Volga

Answer: Danube. The Danube passes four national capitals, more than any other river, and is Europe's second-longest after the Volga.

As of 2026, India's longest train route runs over 4,000 km from Dibrugarh in Assam to which town at the country's southern tip?

• Rameswaram
• Thiruvananthapuram
• Kanyakumari
• Chennai

Answer: Kanyakumari. The Vivek Express takes about three days to cross the country, with more than 50 stops on the way.

Sail through this canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific and you finish slightly further east than where you started. Which canal?

• Suez Canal
• Kiel Canal
• Panama Canal
• Corinth Canal

Answer: Panama Canal. The isthmus bends, so the canal runs north-west to south-east and its Pacific end lies east of its Atlantic end.

This Indian Ocean nation's highest natural point is only about 2.4 metres above sea level, the lowest of any country. Which?

• Maldives
• Mauritius
• Sri Lanka
• Seychelles

Answer: Maldives. Its coral islands average about 1.5 metres above the sea, which is why rising sea levels worry it so much.

Most Indians travel on a navy-blue passport. What colour is the passport issued to Indian diplomats?

• White
• Maroon
• Green
• Orange

Answer: Maroon. Diplomatic passports are maroon, and officials on government duty get a white one.