cardijn was also a frequent traveller around the world and made his first trip to australia in 1958 where he spoke at public rallies in both melbourne and adelaide; he returned to australia one more time in 1966 to attend other rallies. he made his first trip to the americas in june 1946 and visited costa rica during the trip and made a visit in 1948 to northern africa. in 1950 he received a distinction of the légion d'honneur (french legion of honour). cardijn made his first visit to asia in 1953 and visited india and sri lanka visiting new delhi and colombo. he left belgium on 20 november 1952 and returned on march 4 1953 having gone first to beirut and baghdad before heading to karachi. following india and sri lanka he was in japan and honolulu before visiting chicago and new york after visiting washington, d.c. on 24 february 1967 he left for hong kong and japan on what would be his last international visit.