Travel Support Thursday

Travel Thursday, travel support Thursday.

Travel Thursday.

Travel Thursday.

I've got to start with a beat over here.

I don't know if I can hear.

Travel Thursday, travel Thursday.

We're in New Zealand.

Yeah.

I mean, look.

So right now we're in Bishops Bay,

which is kind of like an offshoot to the west of Lake Wanaka.

And you know, it's.

It's incredible.

It's hard for me not to constantly turn around

and look at this thing.

I'll just, I'll just, you know, no birds this time.

But thank you all for warning us about magpies.

We did see some here, but not here, New Zealand.

We've only been here for three days, but it's been incredible.

Yeah.

This is our third day in.

We've been campervan and tripping around.

But that's not what you're here for.

No.

We're going to make a whole video about this entire experience.

You'll see it in somewhere between now and a month from now.

Travel Thursday.

Today.

Travel support Thursday.

Today, we're talking about all sorts of interesting topics

like creator burnout.

Data speeds while traveling.

Yes.

This eSim stuff keeps coming up.

It seems like this is a really hot topic or maybe just like a big point of confusion.

I think it's just really interesting to a lot of travelers.

And then we're going to talk about your questions related to traveling in Europe

for a month.

And then finally, an interesting question that we received about what it's like

to travel solo as an Asian-American woman.

Yes, a topic.

I think I could answer.

We also have an audience of this little bird.

I know you guys were very interested last time.

This one's a much nicer one.

So much bird footage.

I just want to apologize in advance.

We are outdoors for those of you who are listening to this on the podcast,

right in front of a lake.

And it is occasionally going to get pretty windy.

So we'll try to reduce the wind noise as much as we can.

But I'm just going to apologize in advance.

Here we go.

OK, where are we starting?

OK, so our first question, IU2.

Lisa and Josh, could you please let us know what type of data speeds you were

getting while using Aero Loan East Asia?

So Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan.

I've read that data speeds are not good as others, especially in Japan.

OK, yes.

So in Japan and South Korea, you're going to want to use Ubigi.

You're going to get way better speeds everywhere that you go.

And the reason for that is because the company that Ubigi uses in Japan

to license their data from is on the CDMA network, which is like 95% of the networks

that are in Japan.

It's just a different technology that the phones talk.

And then if you use Aero Lo, you're going to be connecting to their GSM version

of their network, which is pretty much just one company.

So all of the people who are using this GSM network, so all travelers,

are going to be connecting through this one company.

So it's going to be really slow.

So we've generally found short story is Aero Lo was not really as fast

in Japan and South Korea, but Ubigi was.

So, yeah.

And what would you say the data speeds were?

We were getting like LTE most of the time.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So we were on 5G, almost everywhere that we went between like Korea and almost

everywhere we went between Korea and Japan, we were on 5G.

It was great.

And then in Taiwan and Hong Kong, I thought Aero Lo was better here than

Ubigi was.

Yeah, we both used Aero Lo and I think we also got LTE 5G most of the time.

But as far as speeds, so we were able to upload a video using our Ubigi E-SIM

way out in the middle of nowhere.

And it was going at about 200 to 300 megs a second.

Pretty fast.

It was incredible in Japan and in South Korea.

It was faster in South Korea than it was in Japan.

And then throughout Hong Kong slash into Taiwan and basically anywhere else

you're going to be on Aero Lo, you're looking at like 10 to 20 megs a second.

It's not super fast.

It's definitely good enough to get the job done.

Yeah.

It was definitely enough for us to travel around and make YouTube videos

and also connect with family and friends while we were traveling.

Yeah. It's pretty great.

It's great.

OK, thanks for that question.

OK, our next one comes from Linda Brew 983, who starts with hello fellow Wisconsinites.

Oh, hi there.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, oh, fellow cheesehead out there.

This is this is great news.

This sure is great news.

How about them Packers this year?

What about that Aaron Rodgers turncoat?

Oh, have you had a brat recently?

Have you gone to Fleet Farm?

What about Culver's?

Have you had one of them Butterburgers?

Oh, they sure are good.

I mean, as soon as I hear that you're from Wisconsin,

I just immediately go into, oh, jeez, I sound immediately like a Wisconsinite.

Just as just as stereotypically as I possibly can.

Can you tell we miss Wisconsin?

I don't even know who I'm like modeling that accent after.

It's just like it's so stereotypical,

like a 90 year old grandma from Wisconsin that I met once sounded exactly like.

Oh, yeah. Oh, shoot. Oh, geez.

Say hi to your mom.

Oh, say hi to your mom for me.

Oh, gosh, oh my.

So Linda asks a really great question,

generally about traveling around Europe for a month and she provides really great context.

I would say that the main things to know is they'd like to be in Europe for about a month.

Sometime at the end of 2024 or early 2025,

they want to build up some points to use hiats.

They're retired, new to foreign travel.

They've been to London, but they want to they want to see more of Europe.

So a lot of their questions are surrounding whether it'd be reasonable

to base themselves in London for a month and take a lot of day trips.

They have no idea where the trains go, how much it will generally cost.

And they are also from Wisconsin.

So of course, they fly out of Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee,

but they're open to a lot of different places.

They've never flown business or first class,

but would love to if there are any great deals.

They have about 300,000 miles or rewards.

And they want to hold on to them as much as possible,

but they'd like to go to Europe sometime either before June or after August,

which I think makes sense.

You don't want to go in the heat of the August month or heat of the summer.

So so I think to summarize the request,

it sounds like they got a whole bunch of points across like MX and Chase and Hyatt

and a couple of other things they want to go to Europe next summer

and they want to figure out how to best use those points

and whether they should stay in London or like explore other places.

OK, so let's just start with getting there and back

because we've done this flight out of like Chicago and or Minneapolis

and or middle of nowhere, Wisconsin Airport

all the way out to Europe and back a bunch of times.

Right. And I think with your amount of points,

I think you'd be kind of foolish to not be looking at business class,

at least a little bit, because it'd be very comfortable.

And they're generally kind of long flights and a lot of times they're overnight.

So having that, I mean, why not?

Here's what I would do is since it's so far away from now, like

so flights are only searchable or bookable 330 days from today.

That's like the furthest out we can reach right now.

So we can't give you a specific flight.

We can only look at stuff that's happening like September this year

or, you know, middle of next year.

But I think where I would start is with Air France, actually.

And I think strategy wise, the way I would do this,

because it sounds like you got time,

I would take a flight from middle of nowhere,

Wisconsin airport slash Minneapolis or Chicago, and I would go to New York

and I would spend like three nights there.

And then I would grab an Air France business award flight

transferring from your chase points, which is giving like a 25 percent bonus

right now and probably will by the time this thing comes out.

Or you could use your AmEx rewards points,

but I know you said you didn't want to use those necessarily.

But I would start there and we've seen some crazy deals out of New York

to Paris, which is honestly where,

like if you're thinking of one place in Europe to start headquarter yourself into,

I would say Paris is about as good as it gets right in the middle.

And there's so many cheap flights going around.

And I think to answer your question about getting around Europe,

once you actually get to Europe, it turns out all the trains, all the flights,

they go pretty much anywhere across Europe.

It feels incredibly easy and convenient to get around to most places,

cities and countries in Europe, whatever mode of transportation,

trains, flights, they're all pretty affordable too.

Even the buses are really nice. That's also true.

The bus is great.

So we've seen things for like 35 to 40,000 points,

but specifically on Air France, because they're like business class package

that you can get with an award is just incredible.

And for 35,000 points one way, that means it'd be like 70,

maybe 80,000 points in both directions.

The award fees are usually really, really low

and you can transfer from both your AmEx and your chase.

And that would get you in and out of Paris in business class for basically free.

And I think that's a pretty good way to start off the trip is free.

And if you, so I guess if you had a month in Europe,

we were talking about this earlier, like if we had a month in Europe,

where would we spend our time? Right?

Like quintessential for me, because I hadn't.

Don't tip over camera. Don't do it.

It's a little chilly risk over here.

I mean, I feel like Europe is still traveling in general is still very new for me.

But I feel like the things that the places that I wanted to see

were a lot of the places that we hit up when we first got to Europe.

So I would definitely want to go see Rome.

I would want to go see Paris, London.

I mean, Florence and Venice are incredibly beautiful as well.

And there's so many other parts of the UK and France that I would love to see.

And so if I had a month, I think the way that I would do it is probably like

five days in Rome, maybe four days in Rome or five.

Yeah, three days in Venice.

Yes. Maybe four days in Paris.

Maybe three days in Bordeaux.

Oh, yeah. Got a wine country for a little while or also Marseille.

Very beautiful town in the south.

Go to London for maybe five days and then maybe take some trips outside of London.

And then probably I'd bolt on a couple other cities, maybe one or two.

You don't want to go too fast.

And Spain, Switzerland, Croatia.

Oh, you're going in September. They're going in September.

So you got to go to Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest happens in September.

So you got to go to Munich.

You got to see Oktoberfest. It's so iconic.

It's it's just what an experience.

It's an experience.

I hope that I hope that answers your question out there.

And I sure am sorry if we didn't cover all the bases here.

But sorry about the wind.

Sorry about the wind as well.

And I hope you get to eat a brat soon.

Another interesting question that we got was from if we go to

which we might when we are in Japan.

Yes. Hey, guys.

Hey, hi, hi, hi.

So you miss you guys.

You hope you're well.

They ask, um, do you ever get creative or social media burnout?

If you do, how do you deal with it, especially with it being your job?

Been struggling with this a bit lately.

Would love to get any and all advice from you guys.

Oh, man. Yeah, yeah.

OK, so this is like, OK, so we had creative burnout yesterday

and we had it last week and we had it a month ago.

Is it burnout if you continue?

And we're going to have it another in another two weeks or whatever.

And I think do we struggle with this?

Yeah, absolutely.

We struggle with this all the time.

And I think that there's a couple of major reasons for this is that I think

creative burnout happens as a direct result of like the thing you're

creating, not meeting the expectations that you had for, whether that's

monetarily or whether that's creatively or any of those different things.

Like whatever you wanted out of the thing, it's from like when you

create it and release it, you're just not like receiving back the

thing that you were hoping for.

So your why is almost a little bit off kilter.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So like for me, I think about all the time this piece by Ira Glass

that talks about the skill gap and he basically describes it as a thing of

like you have this idea in your head of this beautiful thing that you want to create.

But your skill is so far away from being able to actually make it

that it feels like this just like impossibly large chasm between you

and then there's this big skill gap and then the thing that you actually want

to create and the ability to actually make it.

And I feel like when we started this thing, we were just so naive that we

were like, oh, that won't take very long.

We'll be filmmakers in no time, even though we've literally never done it before.

And then as we got further into it, we realized that that skill gap for us was

much bigger than we thought it was.

And that we had to learn all these things along the way.

But the frustrating part of being in the middle of that, of being in that skill

gap before you actually make it to the other side and being able to like make

the thing that you had in your head and turn it into reality and the way that

you imagined it, which for us is like a beautiful New Zealand video that like

explains everything that we want to explain about it and transmit this

feeling that we have over here.

And trying to get through that skill gap is just like crossing a desert.

You're just like taking a step at a time and you never see the other end of it ever.

You never, you just have to believe it's there and you just keep going and

going and going until eventually, eventually you reach that point where

you're like, I'm good enough to actually make the thing that I wanted to make.

And it feels so rewarding when you get there.

That's interesting.

So you think of your, like when you think of social media, creative burnout,

you think of it's related to like the outcome of it doesn't meet your expectations of it.

That's what I think of it.

And I think the burnout happens when enough of that happens over time.

Like for me, I would say that the monetary outcome of these videos is secondary.

Maybe even tertiary to like one, like, did I create the thing?

Did we create like one, did we create the thing that we wanted to make that we had

in our heads and then did it come out in the editing and come out in the filming

in the way that we were hoping and transmit the feeling and the information that we wanted?

And then two, did it actually help people out there in a real tangible way?

And I think at first we were so far from that, that it just felt like we'd never get there.

And I think actually, so that part, I mean,

I definitely feel like we came into this knowing that we weren't,

we were completely new.

You know, we were newbies.

We had no idea what we were doing.

We had only known what we known.

We saw things on YouTube when you thought, well, let's try to make our own version of it.

But I think for me, the hardest part and why sometimes I feel social

media creative burnout is like the endless nature of it.

Oh, sure.

And and I mean, I think there's always room for improvement in any business

or anything that you do or create, right?

I think that part of the skill gap thing, I guess to me is just a sign

of wanting to constantly improve.

Yeah, get to get better over time and to be able to connect with more people

and make more of a change with the art or I don't know if we can call this art.

Like that's pretty lofty.

But with the with the videos and the other stuff that we make,

just to be able to see the change in the world that we're hoping to see

as we're making them, there's so many pieces of it on the one hand.

We want to be really helpful and we want to touch as many lives as possible

and help people physically get out into the world and travel as much as possible.

But then the interesting and most I think unique part about you YouTube

and social media is that you get instantaneous feedback.

I mean, we're all used to getting feedback and construction

criticism, constructive criticism in our jobs and any in any relationship,

anything right, we're used to getting feedback.

But with YouTube and social media, it almost feels a little bit more challenging

because you get it instantaneously and you're expected to like adjust

immediately and you get it from so many different kinds of people and anonymously,

which sometimes is nice, but also sometimes hurtful.

Right. I mean, I think don't get me wrong.

I think we've developed a very thick skin over the last,

you know, several years and we've learned not to take things too personally.

Sometimes it's easier, easier than it looks to not take the bad criticism

personally, you definitely feel it, but I definitely think that nature

of social media and content creation makes it so that you feel like you can

you can't always please everybody.

And so in that way, you're continuing, continuing to improve,

continuing to take feedback, continuing to take on other people's opinions

that sometimes you forget your why you forget your purpose.

You forget why you started doing this to begin with, which is that we love

traveling, we love having fun while we travel.

We love traveling on a budget and we love helping other people do the same.

And I think that to me is like we often have to remind ourselves kind of

like a course correction anytime we see like YouTube videos that feel like off

or we feel like, oh, we wish we had that or we were jealous of like someone's

views or someone's videos or someone's cinematography or we're in a place

and we feel like the thing that we're creating is not good enough.

I think we just have to remember why are we doing this and also look at,

you know, where we are, right?

Like, I think that to me is always the way to kind of get back out of the burnout

is to remember why we started doing this, why we're continuing to do it.

And also, I think the thing that is also specific to YouTube that I don't think

a lot of people talk about because it is a very charmed life that we live.

Breaks are really important.

Yeah.

And, and, you know, in our jobs before, yeah, maybe we got 10, seven days

PTO, which was great, but we were also very good about taking a break, right?

We, we had our nine to fives.

That means after five, usually we left and we had our lives outside of that with

YouTube and content creation.

Sometimes it feels so flexible, so endless that you really have to like double

down and say, when I, when I'm going to take a break, this is when I'm going to

take a break.

Yeah.

And I think like the happier, the happiest we've been in this is when we

treat this hourly like a job.

Yeah.

And I know that that sounds weird because that was exactly the thing we were trying

to get out of when we started this, but when we, when we treat this more like a

thing that we like clock in and out of over time.

And when we say like, okay, I'm working eight hours today, I'm going to get

these couple of things done.

And then when it's done, it's done because I think like the worst mistake, and we

made this mistake, the worst mistake you could do is you could take a job that you

could work anywhere and you can work anytime that you want and then turn that

into a job that you work on all the time, everywhere that you are.

And we did that exact same thing until we just burned out, fell on our faces and

realized that there had to be another path.

Yeah.

It just had to be.

And like, as we watch a bunch of your videos and we know like the type of thing

you make, we totally get like the expectations or the blueprint of a

successful type of channel.

Like what we do is that you release three videos a week, probably more indefinitely

everywhere that you go.

You're filming almost every day and you're editing every single night.

And I would just think on that default blueprint just for a little while and think

like maybe, maybe that default blueprint isn't right for me.

Like we came to that realization that that wasn't right for us.

And we just absolutely, we didn't like it.

We couldn't do it.

And it totally works for some people.

And I love that.

But it's just like that one blueprint that we all saw when we first started as

like the successful model, right?

Like the right way to do it.

It probably is not a one size fits all thing.

We started to realize that the more that we did YouTube, the more that we blurred

the lines between travel and YouTube work and hobby work and fun.

Yeah.

The more we started to take, take it for granted a little bit.

And I think we talked about this in a past podcast, but I think we

started to take traveling for granted.

And that was when we realized we needed that course correction.

We needed to start remembering why we're in this, why we're doing this.

And for us, I don't know, having that home base and having a little bit of

separation between travel, work and personal life, I think helped a lot.

Hunter, I think that that's been everything for us in a lot of ways.

And I think also that like gratitude piece, like you were talking about, we

started taking things for granted that should not be taken for granted at all,

especially in the line of work that we're in.

And I think just taking even just a brief second for as cheesy as hell as it sounds,

just to appreciate the absolute lunacy of the fact that we're paid, I mean,

indirectly, right?

Like we're getting paid and we are receiving revenue for recording a podcast of

us talking into microphones that are probably way too windy in front of Lake

Monica right behind us with snow.

I mean, like it's just insane to even be able to think about this job.

And obviously a bunch of hard work had to go in to us getting to this point and

a bunch of luck and a bunch of other things for us to be able to get here.

But I think once you just like think on that for a little while, I find that the

burnout, the sting of it starts to peel back its layers a little bit.

And then you can start thinking a little more reasonably of like, okay, like why

am I burned out?

My schedule sucks.

I'm working all the time.

I'm just like making these videos and there's nonstop.

And I feel like I'm just going to be creating infinite stuff forever.

Or is this stuff actually the things that I want to create?

Like does this resonate?

Like it might resonate with thousands, hundreds of thousands of viewers, but

if you don't feel it and you don't feel like, I mean, cause we've been there,

right?

We've made videos and we all that ice cream roll video.

I felt like such an empty shell of a human when we were filming it because I

knew that I was doing it for the wrong reasons.

And it fell completely.

And it totally died.

And I'm glad it did.

I'm actually, I'm happy.

If that thing had done 10 million views and all we would have done forever is

just make ice cream roll videos everywhere.

I would have been miserable.

I would have been absolutely miserable.

There's no depth there.

There's, there's nothing that we like about that other than just trying to

chase some outside benefit that we don't even care about.

Yeah.

When you feel right, when you feel ready, when you feel right, and when you feel

good about it, create.

Otherwise it doesn't feel like art anymore.

It doesn't feel like greeting.

For us, we have found that taking breaks, taking care of ourselves, attending and

doing the things that you love doing, um, to help balance out any work that you do

is really helpful.

And then also just, you know, figure out your why, figure out the why, why we're

doing this and, and when you're ready, when you're feeling good, get back to that

why.

Yeah.

And to be clear, I hope this doesn't come across like we're talking from some

high horse, like we figured this out because we struggle with this weekly.

But I think, yeah, we, we, we understand you.

We totally get you and we've absolutely been there.

And I think most importantly, I'm really sorry to hear that you're feeling burned

out right now because that sucks.

That's true.

That sucks and we get it.

That's not fun.

We hope you get a lot of self care and, uh, some breaks soon and some happiness.

Sunshine.

Yeah.

To switch topics a little bit to something a little bit more lighthearted.

I came across this interesting article from BBC travel and the title is our

luggage free trips, the future.

Oh man.

And it's talking a little bit about the idea of sustainable travel, encouraging

travelers to not bring suitcases, not pack so much stuff.

In line with that, some countries are following suit, like Japan Airlines

recently launched a program giving overseas travelers the option to rent

clothes for their stay in the country in advance.

So they don't need to lug and load a lot of their clothes.

Like reserve clothes.

Yeah.

Like you would book a plane ticket.

You like book clothes.

Yeah.

They call it the anywhere, anywhere, uh, program.

And so basically the airline, you know, their, their, their story is that passengers

heading to Japan can check in or carry on minimal luggage and then they can measure

the environmental impact of handling less luggage as well as lower airplane weight.

So once people arrive to places like Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, they have tailored

clothes available in a range of sizes and styles to choose from, delivered to

their hotels.

Oh man.

But all this is doing is just like babysitting all these airlines, like, like

creating a venue for these airlines to reduce their baggage limits even more to

even more insane levels.

Like it'll be like two kilos in two years and it's just offloading that to

these clothing companies.

It is interesting because on the one hand, I think it's a, it's a cool idea.

Like I love, I love sustainable and reusable things.

Like I love shopping secondhand.

So I think the idea is incredible, but I'm not sure if this, like, what about the

time it takes to like go and deliver these items and what about if these clothes

don't fit and what if the, like, how do you account for all of these things?

Yeah.

Um, but I appreciate the idea.

I mean, and I think this idea isn't completely new, right?

They're rentable ski, ski, um, ski equipment.

So you don't have to lug your own.

Um, and the hope is that they're reducing the need for travelers to invest in

equipment and, and have to bring it on these flights.

Sure.

But hopefully travelers already own clothing by the time they get on a plane.

Like, you know, a lot of people don't own skis, but they still go skiing, but

like most people own shirts.

It's an interesting, I mean, I'm curious, would any of you be open to trying this?

I'd be interested in trying it mostly because I want to see what Japan

Airlines fashion tailored clothing would be like.

I'd be so curious to see that.

And I like, I want to be more fashionable.

I would like to, I would like to be more fashionable.

And I think it'd be kind of cool to see like what they would pick out for me.

But I know that there are services not related to airlines that can also do that.

Um, I don't know.

I think it'd be fun.

I don't think this will catch on though.

I think the idea of like not bringing a lot of stuff with you when you travel is

just kind of inevitable because of how kind of greedy all the airlines have gone

with these baggy.

Well, Jetstar that we just flew over here, we could bring like a teacup and

that's it.

The truth is bring the teacup on a flight.

I'm all about secondhand and thrifting and reasonable things and renting things

that we're buying brand new.

But is this now just shifting their responsibility to consumers and to

travelers versus like the airlines themselves for like being more green?

I think that that's exactly what they're doing.

But I do the idea of having someone else pick out real adult clothes for me for

the first time in my life would be a very interesting.

And I think fun experiment that I would probably hate.

Maybe we should try it because it wouldn't be comfortable, but I think it'd be

fun to try Japan Airlines.

Yeah, JL.

Yeah.

Maybe if it's just the JL pajamas, I'm sold on those all day.

I was so comfy.

Okay.

It's gonna look, it's, it's a lot windy out here.

So we're just gonna, we're going to move this into the van.

Please hold just a minute.

Okay.

Add it again.

All right.

We're in the van now.

This is our New Zealand camper van that you will see in a video at some

point in life, three weeks in New Zealand.

Part of how we also prevent creator burnout is creating and editing and

making videos at our own pace.

So sometimes soon.

Okay.

Next question.

Okay.

So I think next question, I think it's the last question of the day, right?

I think this is it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So this question is for Lisa.

I'm getting ready to travel full time as a single older woman.

I am Asian American and I have not experienced any overt racism in Europe or

South America, except for some teenagers and Dublin in the early 90s.

As an Asian American woman in this post COVID world, are there any places you

would have second thoughts about traveling to if you were not with Josh?

Wow.

And I think that this is kind of overall the question kind of feels like, what's

it like traveling these days as an Asian American woman?

Yeah.

It's kind of what I'm gathering from that question.

And like, is there anywhere that I wouldn't, wouldn't go solo?

That's a really, really good question.

And it's really, it's really interesting.

I'm really glad that you asked this question because it is something that I

definitely think about a lot that I don't think often gets shared either on

social media or the internet and you, you know, and I think it's really

important to talk about, I will say first off the bat.

Of the three years that we've been traveling, there is not a place so

far, luckily, that I would say I would not go to as an Asian American woman as

a woman solo or not, you know, there were a lot of places that I felt like I

could have gone by myself and traveled and felt completely safe.

I mean, definitely in general, I'm a very cautious person, right?

Like, if I'm going out by myself, I try not to go out at night.

Or if I do, I'm always very aware of my directions.

I look like I know where I'm going.

I try to have cell phone service and battery at all times.

Um, and I'm generally, yeah, I just generally feel like I'm a more risk

averse question person.

So I am very cautious.

So I will say, I feel very lucky that of all the countries that we've been

fortunate enough to travel to in the last three years, um, I haven't felt like

I would never go back to a place.

The other question I think it's, um, it's interesting because I definitely

hear you and I hear the like, the meaning and almost like the fear behind

that question, right?

Sometimes they can feel like as an Asian American or a minority somewhere

else, or you feel like different or that you don't belong, I'm always a little

bit worried that I'm going to be, um, alienated, treated poorly, feel like,

you know, was I scammed because I'm Asian?

Was I scammed because I didn't speak the language?

Um, and especially post COVID, I think there was a lot, a lot of anti Asian

sentiment everywhere.

Um, you know, people thought that people attributed COVID to Asian people.

And that was very scary for a lot, a lot of people, a lot of times in the US and

outside of the US, you know, when I came back from our full time one and a half

ish, two years of travel, my overall feeling was that there will always be some

situations out there that will make you question whether you are truly welcomed

or not.

And I think that's just coming from a place of I'm a minority.

I'm a minority in the country that we live in.

And, and that's what I grew up feeling.

Um, you know, we always talk about how in general, when we're traveling, the

differences between us is very stark, right?

Like I'm always trying to not be seen.

I, I'm always trying to blend in.

I'm always trying to not draw attention.

And it's really hard with a gigantic camera and the big mic on top of it.

It's impossible.

It's so hard, but I'm always like, please let, let's just wait until people pass

by, please let, like wait till there's nobody in public.

Because I was always kind of raised to live life.

Like you're just blending in.

You're just trying to assimilate.

You're trying not to cause a scene.

You're not trying to stand out.

I don't know.

All that is to say, I think I validate your feelings about this and your fears

and concerns about this.

The truth is, yeah, racism is real.

It's real.

I mean, whether it's overt or not, it's real.

And it's real everywhere.

We get it online.

We get it on YouTube comments.

We have to delete a lot of them and it's unfortunate that there are a lot

of people out there that exist that still feel like it's okay to call people

names or to make fun of the way they look for being different.

Take your time.

We had friends that came and visit us when we were in South Korea, kind of

towards the end of our one year, our one year honeymoon.

And our friend, Melissa, she asked me, like, what was this overall?

What was the overall feeling of this, this last year of travels?

And I was even surprised by my answer.

My answer was that overwhelmingly, I felt positive about the world as much bad

things were happening in the news everywhere.

I felt that everywhere we went, there were always more than one person always

willing to help, always willing to be, to extend themselves, to understand me.

Even if we didn't speak the same language.

And overwhelmingly, I think that everyone is just trying to be happy.

And if they're not happy, oftentimes the result of that is some miscommunication

or, you know, misunderstanding.

And at the heart of it, I truly believe that travel is the way that when done

right and responsibly and selflessly, travel is the way that we can

understand each other better, empathize with one another better, and see how

the other person lives and embrace difference.

That's truly why I think travel actually makes people and humans better.

So long-winded answer, I will say lots of thoughts.

We talk about this all the time.

We do, all the time.

Yeah, we do.

I mean, there are lots of times when we'll be traveling somewhere and I will

ask Josh, like, do you think that person slighted me or said something to me

because I'm Asian?

Do you think that person made a comment or was making fun of me?

It's a very real, like, concern.

It is.

There are countless times when you get treated fully differently than I do in

the exact same situation and we interact with so many people and so many restaurants

and so many things and the treatment will be different and worse for you than it

is for me in just very kind of like slight underhanded ways, but they're super

tangible and it makes me furious.

It's real.

Have I ever felt like my life was in danger?

No, but it is something that I feel.

It's something that I wonder and worry about all the time.

And even making YouTube videos, I remember thinking, I don't really want to

talk about race and ethnicity.

I don't want to talk.

I don't want to open the door for other people to, like, use something against

me or other people like me.

I don't want to be, add a little bit more about my identity just so that

someone can use it against me.

Even though 90% of the time it's always positive and it's always kind.

There's still racist people that probably haven't been able to travel a lot.

I was going to ask, like, do you have any tips for Asian Americans who want to

go out and travel right now?

But I realized how stupid of a question that is because it's like, you don't need

tips.

You shouldn't have to have tips.

Just do you, you know, that's the, that's the hard part.

And that, that it's really, really hard to do that, I think.

And that, that's to me is like, I know when you say, like, do you, or when people

say you do you boo boo, or like you be yourself, it's hard to remove, like, right?

A lot of years of experiences of racism or overt or not.

Um, you know, I remember my dad always telling me that every time he got pulled

over, he felt like it was because he was, um, darker skin and he was Asian when

he was, you know, in his forties, he was working at a job for many, many years.

Someone told him that he wasn't getting promoted because he was Asian and it

took him a long time to, to get the promotion that he wanted, but he kept working.

So I think, and then for you to hear that, the only reasonable thing to think

is like, Oh, that's going to be my life to you.

That's the story and that's the experience of my ancestors and the people

that came before me and for thousands, millions of other people, not just Asians,

not just Asian Americans, many, many minorities and wherever they live, that's

their experience.

And so you can't erase that.

So to say, like, just, just let it go or do you, it's really hard.

But if I could tell past Lisa, like the Lisa that was afraid to travel before,

afraid to be seen, even the Lisa that's afraid these days, right?

Like I literally want to close all the curtains and never be seen filming

because I don't want to be seen.

Um, I would tell her that the vast majority of people are friendly and

curious and kind and just want to be happy.

And probably you do too, you know?

And so, and the people that, the people that aren't, the people, you know,

the rare people that sign up for YouTube just to, you know, say bad things

about people or the people that, that do yell at you on the streets.

Sometimes they're the bad apples.

They are not representative of hopefully the vast majority of people

that you will encounter in your trips.

I will, I will say though, and end this question with appreciation for this question.

It's, it's a brave question to ask because I think a lot of people are afraid

to ask it and afraid to talk about it.

And I hope that on your travels, wherever you go, you feel the positivity,

all positivity, um, because I think in general, we've had nothing but great,

great interactions and loving experiences from people from all over the world.

And I will say traveling through Asia, very, very liberating.

There's this very, I can't find it now, but there's this TikTok that I saw

of this creator, there's an Instagram maybe, this Asian American woman walking

through the streets of, I think it was Hanoi somewhere in, in Southeast Asia.

And the caption was like something like, I've never been to this country before,

but somehow I feel like home.

And it was because all these people were walking past her and no one was staring

at her, no one was looking at her weird, no one was questioning whether she was

from there, that was the sentiment of the video.

And I saw that and I was like, Oh, I feel that to my bones.

If anyone has seen that video, please share that with me because I can't find it.

She's been looking for, for like a week now.

With that, we are signing off from Wanaka here in our camper van in New Zealand.

Next week, we will also be in New Zealand somewhere else, maybe in our van,

maybe not depending on the weather, but feel free to keep asking us those travel

questions.

We really love hearing from you and we really appreciate the support for those

of you that are listening on podcast.

Thank you.

And hopefully the audio is doing okay.

And for those of you that are watching on YouTube, yeah, feel free to leave us

a question, travel question below, and we'll try to tackle them next week.

That's it for this one.

Thank you for joining us.

We'll talk to you later.

See you next time.

Bye.