Travel Support Thursday

Welcome back to travel, whoa.

Plant needs to move out of the way, sunny V2.

Welcome back to travel support Thursday.

Oh man, it has been a minute.

Yeah, we're back home and it has definitely been a whirlwind.

Yes, yes.

It's been like two weeks, three weeks, two weeks.

It's been a long time, but we're back in action, ready to go.

It's time.

It's time with our top five travel experiences of 2023.

That's what we're talking about today.

We did a lot of pretty cool stuff this last year,

and I think the most surprising thing

was all the things on this list that we had.

I think all of them were not what I was expecting

to actually put on this list until we started putting it together.

It was actually really, really hard to decide

what would go in our top five.

And I mean, not giving away too much,

but we spent like two hours debating.

Yes, yeah.

It was a very, very heated debate

about what the best things we did in 2023.

The list got pretty long.

And we're also going to answer some of your questions

and thanks so much for asking them.

But the first question that we just

want to get out of the way, because it's a really nice

and kind question, our first question comes from ULFW.

Are you guys OK?

You know, that's just a nice thing to check in on.

Thank you.

Probably just a nice thing to ask your friends.

Just to generally ask people that you care about.

So we appreciate this question.

We are OK.

Yeah, we're doing more than OK.

What we did for the past month or so,

where we've been quiet not only on this podcast,

but also in like every other thing that we make,

is that we saw family, all sorts of family

that we really haven't seen a lot of since we started

this YouTube thing.

Yeah, essentially right after our last big trip

to like Singapore, Bangkok, and Vietnam,

which the video we're still currently working on,

it's a beast.

Yeah, we went on like a three week vacation basically

across the US.

Oh yeah, first Lisa's family came into town.

And we celebrated Christmas here.

And then basically right after that,

flew out to Minneapolis, brother's birthday,

and then back again to Los Angeles after that, I think.

And then all the way out to New York City

to see some friends and then back here.

So it was an action packed lots and lots of flying thing.

But basically we just took a couple of weeks

to see some friends and family that we have not

seen for far too long.

And I think when you're doing YouTube,

it can just feel like this constant, I don't know,

almost treadmill, where you're just always saying like,

yeah, I'll come and visit you when I'm not so busy.

Or I'll come and visit you when we're done with this next video.

But then there's always another video.

Especially with travel YouTube.

Yes.

And we've been kind of like pushing this thing off for a while.

And then we feel like, oh, we got to go and film some more.

And then we keep pushing that off.

And finally this year, I don't know,

we just decided to kind of get our priorities in order.

Working real hard.

Yeah, yeah, we're back at it.

We were making this Vietnam video.

We're right in the dead center of it.

So that's what literally we're going to do and finish up

right after we're done with this.

Speaking of Vietnam and a lot of the other awesome things

that we did last year.

Let's get into our top five list for 2023.

Again, this list was hard fought.

And there were so many things that we wanted to include on it.

But I think in the number five spot,

this was for sure the most obvious.

I think it had to make the list because it kind of like

changed our perspective, not only on ourselves,

but on this thing that was kind of like our first real big hit

on the internet, I guess, in a lot of ways.

And that was the Camino.

Number five.

The Camino.

Camino.

For sure.

But Camino, Portuguese.

Yes.

The second one that we've ever done.

Yeah, why do you think this one made our list?

I was a little bit surprised, but it definitely

was a defining moment for us.

Yeah, I think it was a big deal.

Because one, we were doing the same thing

that we had done before, but it was in an entirely different

way.

And I don't know.

I think that, for me, at least, this

was kind of the release of all the expectations, which

is what our first Camino documentary was about.

And just kind of answering the question, hey,

could the Camino, instead of being this really hard trudge

through your own personal problems and issues and stuff

like that, and that's important, could the Camino also

be just the most super fun, amazing walk

across beautiful places, going from tasty restaurant

to amazing wine spot to beautiful view?

Could the Camino also be that?

And it turns out very much yes.

Yeah, and I would say that Camino, this last Camino,

so we did the Camino Portuguese in February earlier in 2023.

And I would say that the defining part of that Camino

was really, it was the first time that we felt, I don't know,

that I felt really lightweight about the entire experience.

Lightweight in that I didn't worry so much about people's

judgment of us, which was nice.

Even though we vlogged the entire thing

and we made videos every single day,

there was less of this pressure to feel like we had to do it

in some extreme way.

And we knew, kind of, even though we

were in a different country, Portugal this time,

it felt like an escape.

It felt like a vacation from our typical travel YouTube

vacation, too.

Yeah, and now that we did it a second time,

and we found this other side of the Camino,

this other way to do it, not just in Portugal,

but a different mindset that we had going into it,

I think for us both, the Camino represents

the perfect vacation in a lot of ways.

You're getting this adventure, and you're getting exercise,

and you're outdoors, and you're seeing beautiful things.

You're also going inwards and reflecting a lot.

Yes.

You're not distracted by noise.

Yeah.

It's just, yeah.

And I could totally see us doing a Camino every year.

Every year.

Every year.

And after the first time we did it,

my first reaction when we finished was like, yeah,

that was cool.

I'll probably never do that again.

That was tiring, and I was sad a lot of the time.

But I think finding a more measured approach

to this experience changed everything for us.

And we've applied that same thinking

to, I think, everything we did after that.

Yeah, I would say we released a lot of our own internal

and external pressure going into it.

But I also think, I don't know if you feel this way,

but it was also kind of the last series of daily vlogging.

Oh, yeah.

There's a little behind the scenes information.

I don't know if you guys recognize this

or see this in our videos.

But yeah, since the Camino, I think

we've actively pursued mostly these three days in series,

doing a little bit more oncoming,

doing a little bit more complete videos, I would say,

and movies versus the daily vlogging.

And that has been a huge shift for us.

And I think that's part of the magic of the Camino

is it's such this time for self-reflection, not just

in our YouTube videos that we make,

but also in our lives as a whole.

And we find that every single time that we do the Camino,

we leave in a better place than when we started.

And I think that that's the magic of it.

And I don't know a better word to explain it

than it is just a little bit magic.

And that's really cool.

OK, I don't want to belabor this point

and get all woo-woo hand wavy about this thing.

But definitely in our number five spot

was Camino de Santiago, Portugal edition, for sure.

I had a great time with it.

OK, number four.

Number four.

So this is actually, I mean, this was a big debate

because this was one of my favorite experiences of all time.

We went to a laughing yoga class in Hanoi, Vietnam.

And for those of you that are wondering,

what is a laughing yoga class, we had no idea either.

It's not even really a class.

It's like we were walking around the lake

and then there was a group of elderly seniors just

like laughing together and holding hands like that.

Like so silly, so silly.

And you just hear this from so far away.

And then you get closer and you see the t-shirts.

And they all say like laughing yoga.

And it's like this spiraling thing just goes ha ha ha

on the logo.

You'll see it in our video soon.

But it is genuinely like they welcomed us in literally

with open arms as we were doing like some stretches,

some movements all the while just like laughing.

And it made me so happy.

And it is one of those things that I look back on.

And I think I don't think that we would have ever experienced

that had we just not gotten out the door and walked around.

Yes.

And it was so fun and so welcoming.

And the idea behind it, right?

Like it was created by, I think, the guy who was there?

Yes, actually.

It's a really big deal.

Like if you look up laughing yoga,

I think it's international and correct me if I'm wrong,

I think the first person who ever started it came from India.

But he was the guy who, the guy we saw was the one who ran

like the Vietnam.

Yes.

Yeah.

So the Vietnam side of it.

The Vietnam or the Hanoi branch was started by this man who

I think is a pharmacist.

Actually, I found an article that talked about this.

He's a pharmacist in Hanoi.

And he was talking about how it's really hard for seniors

and a lot of people to find community now, especially

after COVID.

And so he learned about laughing yoga.

And now there's like six or seven branches in Hanoi alone.

So probably way more across Vietnam.

And probably here where people just get together every morning

there at the lake and just laugh together.

Yeah.

And at first I was like, that sounds so strange.

But like, it's so contagious.

Like we were doing things like, and there's something about when

somebody laughs, you just want to laugh.

And there was no reason to laugh, except that we were just

all laughing together.

It immediately brought me back to being a six-year-old.

It was just fun and lighthearted.

There was no expectations and just,

I thought it was going to be weird.

My expectations coming into it when I saw it,

I'm like, that's going to be awkward.

I'm going to try it, but it's going to be weird.

And then within like two seconds,

I was so bought in to this idea of just like waking up

and just like laughing your face off for 10 minutes

because for the rest of the day, we were just felt,

we felt light, we felt happy, and then it was just so cool.

And we never even had like a conversation with the people

there, like actually we just laughed with them.

And I felt so connected.

I mean, I think Vietnam was an incredible place

to visit in general, all the different places

that we got to go were really magical.

But that one experience definitely like,

I feel like you just can't miss it.

It's so different, it's so unique,

and the people there are so lovely.

Yep, all right.

Number three.

What do we got for number three?

Okay.

Oh, this one's a, this one's a Josh special,

wrestling a sumo in the streets of Kyoto, Japan.

Oh my God.

Okay, so we were walking around Kyoto and we were actually,

we had a totally finished filming the video

at this point in time.

So we were like, oh, we did it.

All right, let's go like get some dinner

and yeah, celebrate, we wrapped.

And then as we were walking,

we saw this man screaming at the top of his lungs,

wearing sumo outfit right next to the river in Kyoto

and just carrying people and wrestling people

right in the middle of the streets.

And I'm like, I have to do that.

I think you were, I mean, I remember feeling your nerves

because it is a big deal.

He's a big dude and he's very strong.

Obviously he was kind and joking and approachable,

but there is something like nerve wrecking

about doing this in front of hundreds of people too.

Yes, so I just walked up to him and he welcomed me in

and he's got this like little rope ring

that's about the size of like a sumo dojo or whatever you

call it, sorry, I forgot the word for it.

I think it's dojo.

Oh yeah, the dojo, yeah.

So about the size of a normal dojo, maybe a little smaller

and he just like sets up this like rope circle on the ground

and he's just in the full sumo outfit,

which is to say he's not wearing a lot

and you walk up to him, he bows to you

and then are you like bow to each other

and then he starts like talking you through

kind of the steps of what you need to do.

You know, you like lift up the leg and kick it

and then you do the big clap.

And then just like that, you just like slam into each other.

You just charge into each other.

This man on the street in front of like hundreds

of other people, just a sumo wrestler out here

and what he's trying to do is just like spread

the love of sumo throughout the world

by kind of like taking some of, I guess,

the seriousness out of it and making it a little bit more

fun and a little bit more approachable.

Mission accomplished there.

But this guy, he was so strong.

He picked me up like a little baby.

He just picked me up literally over his head

and just walked me out of the ring

after like pretending to actually struggle,

wrestling me for like a minute.

He pretended that I was actually like a fair match

for him for a minute and then he just literally

picked me up over his head and walked me out.

That is probably what I remember thinking too,

like, oh, he must, he must, like he could have totally,

he could have totally like just won every single match

that he'd ever, you know, every person that came up to him.

He could have just won the match in like two seconds.

But I think that's actually one of the things

I appreciated about him.

I think he could tell that you were also in a jovial,

like joking kind of mood.

Like I think you were, you yelled, you're so strong.

And he laughed and then he just like picked you up

for like the show of it.

What a showman.

And that like I think was such a fun experience

because I think we went to the Sumo tournament

like a couple of years ago or last year

and everything's very, very serious, very sacred,

very quiet, understandably, very traditional.

And there's rare moments of just like loudness or intensity,

but most of the intensity is because of the match itself.

But it was cool to see this

in a very like joking, lighthearted, lovable way.

He definitely is a former Sumo wrestler.

We'll leave his like Instagram handle

in the video description below.

But yeah, what a joy.

We still follow him and just like to see sometimes

he still does like, he's also a rapper apparently.

Oh really?

Like he's a musician on his Instagram.

He raps and he plays music and he sings.

Super talented.

Such a cool moment.

I think for me personally,

just be able to actually try Sumo

and to be able to try it in a safe space

with a guy who's an actual professional at it.

In Kyoto, in Japan, randomly, it was so much fun.

It was one of those moments.

I have never felt weaker physically.

You were such a good sport though.

And I think that was what made it so special.

You were open to like the idea of it.

Okay, so I think, okay.

So number two, I think this was an easy pick for us.

In that it was the White Horse Hills Campground

in New Zealand, right at the foothills of Mount Cook.

And I think for, yeah, and I think for us,

this moment right here at White Horse Hills,

I think this was like maybe our second or third day,

was for me when our New Zealand trip actually started.

You know, we had like prepared a whole bunch.

We had gotten our camper van all figured out

and we had started driving.

But I think once we arrived at this place

and we just saw this massive mountain

that somehow there's a campground right in front of it.

And we had perfect weather.

I mean, it was a little cold, but-

It was not perfect weather.

Well, the first night it was, yeah.

But when we got there and we got settled

and then we hear the first like glacier cracking,

calving up in the actual mountains,

it just felt like where are we in the best way possible?

Just-

I think as soon as we stepped out of the van,

visually like New Zealand is incredibly beautiful.

As soon as we stepped out of the van,

I mean, it was incredibly beautiful, right?

Mount Araki, all the mountains and the scenery,

but then like just the frigid air and the temperature,

you're like, oh, New Zealand's like in its own category.

It's wild.

It's got everything.

Yeah.

And we, I don't know, it was just such an incredible,

we were able to do that hike.

And the next day, do you remember, it was just so windy.

And like some people might say like,

oh, the weather would ruin it,

but I thought the wind and then the little bit of snow

that we got was incredibly, it was just cool.

It was adventurous.

We didn't get to do like our favorite hike out there

to see the glaciers,

but I think it just added to the feeling of adventure

and yeah, wild nature that New Zealand is.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Our number one travel experience of 2023

is for sure the Bulgogi Festival

that we went to in Busan, South Korea.

Definitely.

This was something that Lisa found

through somebody's Instagram.

No, and it wasn't even, it was like a random,

it was a random flyer, I think, that was in Korean.

And we had to Google translate it

and all it said was Bulgogi Festival or like some event.

And we had no idea, we had no other details.

Yeah, so we're of course super in

because this sounds like something one,

that we have no idea what it is.

Two involves grilled meat in some way, shape, or form.

And three is going to be featuring

the Korean version of Michael Buble

who is going to be singing that night

or the Korean equivalent, I guess,

Korean equivalent of Michael Buble.

So we could not figure out where this place was at all.

We tried translating, we tried asking people

and then finally the people at our hotel

called some other people who then called some other people

who then literally called some other people

and got back to us an approximate location on a map

of where this Bulgogi Festival is going to be held.

It was like somewhere in the field, right?

I think we had to take a train, a bus,

and then another train and then another bus.

There were a few different forms of transportation that day.

And then it took us to this field

and then you step out of the bus

and you just see clouds of smoke.

That's all I remember and it smelled so good.

And you know that feeling of like Bulgogi

or like just barbecue in general?

Your like skin just starts to feel like it has,

it's sweating me already and you haven't even eaten it.

That's what it felt like in the air.

And then it was just like a huge festival.

Whoever organizes this, probably the city of Busan.

I don't even know if we were in Busan or anything.

I don't know, I don't know either.

I think we're in Chulma or something.

Yeah, they set up a huge tent of just hundreds

and hundreds of tables with their own little like barbecue,

barbecue like grill meat stations.

It was incredible.

It was awesome.

And I like, first thought I had is like,

I want this in the United States so bad.

Like, could you imagine, just imagine anywhere

in the United States you just like set up

the world's largest tent and inside of it

are like 200 small grills and everyone inside of there

is getting just plastered of a beer, wine,

whatever they're into and cooking their own steaks

and just having a blast of a time.

It's so cool.

You know, like it could not possibly exist in the US

because I'm sure people would be like,

you're gonna get sued or they might burn down.

I've never gone to a Packers game,

but is that like tailgating?

It is basically exactly like tailgating

except for this is like a formal event

that would like absolutely happen.

I'm also sorry about for those of you that, you know,

the Packers lost last week.

Come on, sorry.

You don't have to bring that up here.

But it's so it's like tailgating.

Yeah, it's a lot like tailgating.

And this was just the coolest day

that I think I had all last year.

It was so unexpected.

It was so like delicious.

All right, like this was probably the best grilled meat

I've had maybe ever.

And also we got to connect with so many cool people

while we were there and it felt so friendly

and welcoming and just so random.

It was so unexpected.

I was gonna say actually of the list

of the things that like are on our list,

some of the ones that made it

are definitely the ones that were unexpected

and unplanned, right?

Laughing yoga, wrestling a sumo in the streets of Kyoto

and this Bulgogi festival.

Yes.

It was pretty, pretty cool.

Incredible, but my favorite part

about the entire experience too was again,

much like a lot of these experiences,

we couldn't speak Korean

or we couldn't speak the same language,

but like the people around us

that were also partaking in the festival

and cooking their own meat.

Like one guy saw that we were struggling

to figure out what to do

and he like called me over

because he had said, oh, this table's available.

Basically he pointed and said like saved this table for us.

It was such a community event

and it definitely this last year

helped me realize that gosh, people are so kind

and people are so good.

And I think we all just want the same things

for each other, really good meat

and really good drinks and a really good time

and we'll help each other get there

without even like needing to speak your native language.

Yeah.

Those are pretty cool experiences.

But we do have some other honorable mentions

that we didn't make the top five

but are definitely some really cool experiences

that I think defined this year.

Lucha Libre.

Oh yeah, Lucha Libre with my dad who came with us.

Mexico City, unforgettable.

It's such a cool.

You're gonna see this next one soon.

The Cat Ba.

Cat Ba.

Ha Long Bay boat tour.

Which was for me was the highlight

of our entire Vietnam experience.

Besides maybe the karaoke bus.

We got a heck of a video coming for you guys.

Besides Latin yoga?

Yeah, Latin yoga as well dude.

There's so much crazy stuff happening over there.

It's so fun, what a cool country.

Going to Sushi 10 doing some Omakase sushi

was for me like unforgettable

and it made me look at food in a totally different way.

And that I think was very interesting.

It's just normally where the cheap O go to 7-Eleven,

Family Mart, grocery store bread and cheese kind of people

at all costs.

But yeah, that was an experience in itself.

It was like a show for you and your mouth.

Right, a personal show for you to eat.

And I think the next one is biking to the Singapore airport.

I think this was like our expectations with that.

This was going to be like exhausting and really hard

and we were kind of doing like a challenge thing.

But in reality, it just ended up being super fun

and super delicious because every couple of kilometers

there was another like giant hawker center

and we just like kept eating and kept biking.

And it was such an amazing way to spend a day in Singapore.

It really was.

I think it was one of those things too.

We were like, why?

But then afterwards, I was like, why not?

Right, right.

This seems like the right way to do biking.

And especially if we lived there,

I don't know that I would always bike to the airport,

but like I could see the value in it.

Biking to the airport and they have showers there

that you can shower before you catch a flight.

Presuming you don't have much luggage and just a backpack.

It was perfect.

It was such a perfect day.

Okay, so that is enough for our top five

plus a couple more experiences in 2023.

What I would love to hear from you out there

is what were your top travel experiences from 2023?

Put them down in the comments below.

I think we also just love hearing from you guys

and hearing like your unexpected,

surprise, spontaneity, adventures.

I think it's telling that some of the ones

that made our list are definitely not the ones

that we could have planned or anticipated.

For sure.

Our list, yeah, your top 2023 travel experiences

and what you thought was gonna happen,

what ended up happening and why it was the best thing ever.

Yes, okay.

Let's get on to a couple of questions

from people right we have a few, I think.

Yes, so our second question,

because the first question actually was are you okay?

Are you guys okay?

Our second question comes from Mark Duffy

who asks, how do you store and organize

all of your travel videos and pictures?

Oh, yeah, okay, so this is a big problem

that is growing bigger every single time we make a video.

So I would say our average video, for example, New Zealand,

that New Zealand video was about 1.3 terabytes of footage

which is 1,300 gigabytes.

Before YouTube and before making YouTube videos,

I didn't even know terabytes was a word, was a unit.

That stuff could get that big, right?

So with each video that we're making, being like,

probably around a terabyte or so or bigger,

organization of these things has become quite a problem

that we have tried a bunch of different solutions for

and I think we've kind of centered around one

that we're currently happy with,

but that we may be outgrowing within the next 24 months.

Explain it from top to bottom, right?

We take all this footage, it happens on SD cards, right?

Those SD cards then go into the computer

and then we put them into a Final Cut Pro Library

which is what we use to edit, right?

That Final Cut Pro Library gets automatically uploaded

to our Google Drive where we have 10 or so terabytes

of space up there and then also that library

and all the footage gets backed up to another card

because we've lost some footage and that's very sad

and we're trying to not have that happen anymore

and then all of that then gets backed up to a server,

a Synology network attached storage device

that we have here that has like 30 terabytes of space

and we're almost full on that thing already

and then as we work through the library

and make edits that in live time gets backed up

to Google Drive so that way we never lose any of our edits

or any of our timelines that we're creating

and then when we're finished with the entire project

and then when we're finished with the entire project

we export the final video which also gets backed up

to Google Drive and also gets backed up

to our network attached storage device

and then we zip that big old library file

and we send it to another network attached storage device

for backup that we have at my parent's house

and then also we put that final zip file for the library

into AWS Deep Glacier Archive Storage on the cloud

and then delete it off of Google Drive

and then we go through the whole process again

from top to bottom.

Thanks mom and dad, it's definitely a whole process

and honestly one that, I mean I don't know

if this question is meant for personal use

or for like the kind of,

because we just have so much footage

and so many photos and videos,

but this is definitely not a cheap process.

No, but it does ensure that we never lose anything

which is for me the most important thing

is that we never lose any footage along the way.

I would say like if we didn't do this YouTube thing

I think the way I would think about it

is I would backup almost all of my photos

to something like Google Drive or to Amazon Photos

or to whatever service you already have a subscription for

and then for videos that's quite a bit trickier

I think I would still get a Synology Network Attach Storage

and then shove them all into the photos app

that they have on there that automatically like indexes them

and then tags them and then you can do facial recognition

just locally on your own stuff, exactly.

And then use that to be able to quickly find videos

and that's what we're hoping to do

but truthfully that photos app has not been fast enough

for us to be able to quickly go back

and find an old piece of footage

which is something that we're going to need to do

a lot of going forward is find this old archive footage

and then find just a little specific chunk out of it

and pull that out.

And if any of you guys out there have a good solution

for how to do that with like,

you know, hundreds of thousands of video clips

I would be all ears.

I would love to hear what a good solution

to that would look like.

But yeah, that's how we back up and organize all of our stuff

is in a very complicated multi-tiered way

to make sure we never lose anything

with kind of like Synology NAS being our backup

and then the Glacier Deep Archive in AWS

being our backup of a backup

to make sure we always have it.

Yep.

So hope that answers your question.

So our next, it's actually not a question

just a comment that, I don't know, I loved hearing this.

So this one came from Ben Miles, 8161.

Just wanted to let you know that I followed your advice

and transferred my Capital One points

to Flying Blue with Gare France.

I'd always just booked with points directly

from Capital One in the past.

Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of two tickets

direct from RDU to CDG, saving over $1,400 in the process.

Let's go walk the Camino.

Thanks.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

So proud.

CDG being Paris.

So, probably Raleigh Durham, I think.

Wow, how do you know that?

So yeah.

That's amazing.

That is awesome.

That is awesome.

A free trip to Paris with the points that you already got.

Yes, this is...

Just by a simple thing of not using the platform

that they give you.

Yes, it is convenient.

These Capital One travel platforms,

Chase Ultimate Rewards travel platforms,

they're super convenient, really easy to use.

But man, you could be getting so much more.

They're a bad deal.

You did, congrats.

That's awesome, have a great time.

Are you gonna go walk the Camino?

I hope you are.

That's amazing.

So our final question comes from SBK pilot one

who asks a really great question.

This one got me thinking.

I think I know your answer.

I'm not sure, but I don't even know my answer yet.

Maybe, I don't know.

Okay, so it's, if each of you were solo instead of a couple,

would you still want to do long-term travel like you do?

What would you do differently?

I mean, I think I know your answer.

Do you know mine?

I think you would still do solo travel,

but I think you would do less of it

than we currently travel.

I think that's correct.

I think you would travel less.

I think you would still go on solo trips,

but you would only do it like once or twice a year

or something instead of like half the time

like we're doing now.

Yeah, it's hard to know.

I think I know your answer is that you would be traveling

way more.

Heck yeah.

And you would be traveling solo

because you've done it so many times.

The thing I can't figure out though

is like the equation in all of this is like YouTube.

Like would you, so I mean, obviously one of the reasons

why we get to keep traveling is that we have now turned this

into a business and we can travel

and make a living off of it.

But like, what would it look like if, yeah,

we had never met?

I mean, I think I would have,

I started traveling by myself for a little bit

and I would go with friends.

But yeah, I was at my own job.

Would I have that time off?

Would I have quit my job to travel the world?

I don't know.

Would I have done full-time travel?

I don't know.

I think I would.

I think I'd still probably be doing YouTube.

But I'd always had this idea

to make a YouTube channel or something

and the original like incarnation of this,

the original idea for me was to stay in hostels,

find other people who had gone on like long-term trips

like three months or longer or whatever,

some arbitrary amount that's longer than just a vacation

and then interview those people and ask them like,

how did you do it?

How did you afford it?

How are you enjoying this trip so far?

And then hopefully catch them at the beginning

and at the end of their trip

and ask them those same questions

and like tell those stories for these people

as a way to try to like capture all of this knowledge

of how so many different people managed

to make this happen in their lives.

I love that idea.

And then like package that out too.

We could totally do that now.

Yeah, true, true.

But it is, yeah, I don't know, like would you be vlogging?

Maybe vlogging, I think, I don't know.

I think I'd be doing a very similar thing

to what we're making now.

This question is so fascinating to me

because it is one of those like,

what is that sliding doors movie

or like past lives is a movie that's recently been out

that reflects on like what your past life was

and what it could have been.

And I, I don't know.

I mean, I think, I definitely think that

I would have, before we met,

I was definitely, I was just getting into traveling

and I was finding every possible way

to like make a trip out of something.

Like I would go on a work conference

and I'd take a couple of days off and I'd travel

and I'd explore on my own

or I'd like save up my PTO for certain trips.

But would I have done full-time travel?

I'm not sure.

Maybe eventually, maybe.

Yeah.

What would we do differently?

What would we do differently?

How would you think our travels would look different

if we were solo?

I think, hmm, like had I still been doing solo travel

from like the first time I did it,

like 12 years ago or whatever,

I think I'd be trying my best to organize

these like really big adventures,

sort of things. With friends or.

And I'd be deep into that.

I'd be like, let's go sailing for three months

or let's go like walk across India

or less, you know, it'd be like much bigger picture,

much longer time things. Adventures.

And not so much, I think at this point,

going from like City A to B to D to whatever.

But that's maybe like YouTube related, right?

I mean. It's like job related.

What, like which part?

Well, because we're making the three days in series.

So that's why we go from city to city.

Yeah, I'm talking about in an alternative universe.

If I had been solo traveling that whole time

from when I first started to now

and I'm still solo traveling,

I think I would be focusing more now

on doing like really big, really long adventures.

Yeah, I think if I were solo traveling,

I think I would still,

I don't know that I would do like a year long trip.

I think what I would do is still,

I think I would still be into travel.

I don't know, a lot of it is unfortunately job related,

right? And job dependent.

But I think now that I know how much I enjoy this like lifestyle,

I think I would have done like maybe three months of traveling

and then coming back home

or like convincing friends and family to come out

and meet me in certain places.

That seems like more of a jam.

And I think I would be,

I think we'd both probably be staying in hostels

because it's the cheaper and it's the cheaper way to go.

And we'd meet people that way.

Yeah, yeah.

And maybe we'd meet each other along the way

in those hostels.

I like to think that that would happen.

I like to think there's a future where that would beat the case.

This was an awesome question.

Thank you for asking this.

This has gotten very metaphorical for us at this point.

But yeah, I think solo travel definitely has,

I have a deep love of it.

And I think a solo trip is fully different

than going on a trip with like a bunch of friends

or even just one other person.

You're so much more open to the things that happen in the world

but also way more lonely.

Way more insular.

I was gonna say simple.

I was gonna say simple lonely.

I think another thing that I would call out

and specifically say is that if we were not a couple

and I was solo traveling,

I think I'd choose my destinations a little bit differently.

I think I would be a little bit more cautious of some places

maybe and do a little bit more planning

than we are used to right now.

I think that it can be a really good thing

to go on trips with friends.

But I think the most personal growth I had

in my entire life in the shortest period of time

was from a solo trip, was from that first trip.

I'll go on everywhere just meeting people,

getting way out of my comfort zone

and doing that every single day

where the options were either like make friends

with people there or just be like,

or just be like incredibly lonely.

And those are the only two worlds that I could live in.

And just how much that taught me

and just how much that taught me about myself

but also about the world that I was in.

I felt like I was very connected to the place

that I was in and very undistracted.

I think solo travel for me was super important

and I think a thing that I want to do again in the future.

We talk about it sometimes.

I think for as much time as we spend together,

which is like 24 seven mostly,

especially when we're filming, making videos, editing

and life at home, otherwise,

we talk about how it would be cool to take solo trips too.

Like you go somewhere, I go somewhere

and then we meet up again.

Just to relive some of those memories

but also remember what it was like to be independent.

Well, there's something about traveling by yourself

that I also just makes you feel like,

I don't know, maybe this is too wooey and hand wavy

but anything is possible, right?

That if you can navigate and you can meet people

and you get to see how cool the world truly is

and how the vast majority of people are similar

and kind and want to help you,

it makes you feel a little bit like, yeah, I got this.

I'd like to think that we would both,

even though that we're a couple

and we travel full time together now,

I'd like to think that we both are able to

and will do that soon.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Okay, that is it for this episode.

Thank you so much for watching Slash Listening

and we will see you next week.

Boop-boop, ask us your questions in the comments below.