#expat life #Philippines travel #digital nomad lifestyle #southeast asia exploration #travel logistics

It's more fun in the Philippines! My flight is booked.

Key Insight AI-Generated

The content follows an expat blogger transitioning from Vietnam to the Philippines. He plans to spend a month exploring Dumaguete, focusing on networking with other content creators, engaging with the local culture, and prioritizing natural beauty over city life. His journey highlights the logistical realities and personal motivations behind choosing a lifestyle of international relocation and cultural immersion.

Key Takeaways AI-Generated

Collaborating with other creators can provide valuable logistics and community insights when moving to a new country.
Prioritize travel destinations based on personal temperament and the need for social or cultural compatibility rather than just popular appeal.
Be cautious and realistic about the limitations of transit infrastructure in developing regions, especially concerning ferry schedules and local traffic safety.
Budget-conscious travel and the lower cost of living abroad can be a viable strategy for managing personal debt or improving quality of life.

AI-Generated Summary AI-Generated

The air is thick with anticipation as preparations for a new chapter in the Philippines take center stage. There is a palpable sense of live discovery in this transition, marked by the meticulous planning of flight routes, accommodation scouting, and

the genuine excitement of connecting with fellow creators. The experience captures the raw reality of the expat lifestyle, moving beyond the polished surface to embrace the day-to-day challenges of navigating foreign infrastructure and the search for authentic community.

YouTube Video Questions Derived by AI AI-Generated

How do I plan a long-term move to Dumaguete Philippines?

What are the safest and most efficient ways to travel between islands in the Philippines?

Is living in the Philippines better for expats than living in Vietnam?

Key Moments AI-Generated

Mentioned in this video

Dumaguete Vietnam Manila Mike from Mike's Philippine Retirement Philippines

Frequently Asked Questions

AI-Generated Is Dumaguete a good place for expats to move?

AI-Generated Dumaguete is popular among expats due to its high English proficiency, large foreign community, and access to Western amenities, though it is often considered a place for established couples rather than a social hub for singles.

AI-Generated How do you handle ferry travel in the Philippines?

AI-Generated Ferry travel can be complex, often requiring multiple tickets and administrative slips. It is recommended to use official booking services or travel agents to avoid confusion, and be prepared for longer transit times than what appears on a map.

AI-Generated Why would an expat prefer the Philippines over Vietnam?

AI-Generated Many expats prefer the Philippines for the widespread English language usage, the cheerful and warm local culture, and the ability to easily engage in nature-based activities like snorkeling and island exploration.

hey what's up everybody I have now booked my flight to the Philippines as of last night I've now booked my flight to the Philippines as of last night and I am looking forward to it I'm gonna grab my airpods really quick because I just have had some issues with them charging like one sidal Char okay there we go okay good they're charging so anyway uh yeah so I am flying out of dang late uh it's next Saturday night late next Saturday night and I'll be flying to Manila I'll have about three hours in Manila to get through customs security and then to um I think I don't know if uh I need need to double check I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to transfer terminals but I need to just double check and then I'll be flying to Dag Getti so it'll be my first time in DTI I actually was familiar with it last time I went to the Philippines about close to five years now and just didn't make it there it was that was more of a discovery trip just wanted to kind of dip my toes in the water this time I'm planning to spend a bit more time in the Philippines I'm hoping to uh spend a month in doag Yeti that's kind of the plan I need to book my accommodation I found the one I want I just for whatever reason been tired today didn't I woke up early this morning because the gym across the street decided to start playing really loud music at 7:30 in the morning so um yeah I'll be going to I'll be here for a couple of more weeks in Vietnam in dang and the one thing I'm a little bit cautious about is when I filled out my paperwork from Vietnam I suggested that I'd be flying out of hoochi men City changed my mind about going to hoochi men City and so I actually booked my flight out of dang so I'm hoping that's not going to be an issue the cursory research I did says it won't be an issue um worst case scenario lost a couple hundred bucks and the grand scheme of things that's not a big deal I look at how much money I spent in the US just on rent um so yeah bound to make a few little mistakes here in there on my travels um but yeah so I should be you know just enjoying the last couple of weeks here be eating a lot of Vietnamese food uh trying to do some more exploring I still haven't been down to Hon or up to H uh so probably be nice this week to make a trip to one of those places and just a taste of something a little bit different from dang uh I think both are smaller um it's weird is that just a gray hair um no it's something else um you know those both of those towns are smaller than dang and should offer something a little bit different I'm just feeling kind of worn out from uh this experience so far to be totally transparent and I'm I'm looking forward to the Philippines I've already reached out to one vlogger so I've got one interview tentatively set up I'd like to get something set up with Mike from Mike's Philippine retirement I really like his channel of course I'm not at the point where I'm retiring but I just think his content is helpful and it's not just trying to sell you the dream I think he does a good job of talking about the logistics of living overseas and some of the challenges that you run into and I think it'll be interesting to sit down with him and have a conversation share a little bit different perspective with his audience and then potentially also some of my audience will appreciate his perspective I'm sure some of you all haven't really seen or heard about him I think his like I said I think his channel is great it's growing fast so he's doing something right uh what else um what else what else yeah I'm hoping to stay by the beach outside of dumag Getti City so I won't be why I pull this up won't be I don't plan to stay in in the city um there's not really like they have the pier and the boardwalk in the city but there's not really the same uh Beach vibe in the city proper that you have like it's more of a oh you've got the college youve got the airport you've got the faery terminal um in dumag Yeti and then also in SIU on so to me it's more of like a Transit kind of Hub I mean you've got a fair amount there but it's a place that people are passing through uh to get to Valencia or to get down to DN for the diving I'm not a diver but I do plan on snorkeling I tried diving when I went to Mexico and it was just a terrifying experience for a number of different reasons um Gerard asks how is the traffic in the big cities of Vietnam um so I can't speak for Hanoi or hoim Min City for dang it's pretty rough um people are driving the wrong direction people cut you off people speed around you uh people will pull out in front of you people just come to complete standstill they'll they'll drive halfway in the lane they'll drive like you know trying to decide if they want to stop or not um that's been a major concern for me here and the cities are not set up in a way such that you can get around on foot um so yeah I would say the traffic is is really a struggle um it's really a struggle I've heard it's more of a challenge in hoian city in Hanoi than it is here in dang it's more extreme and people do not stop for pedestrians so uh be very cautious if you with traffic if you decide to come here please be very very cautious um I've had some close calls uh my buddy Jake he was here for several months he had some close calls as well um you know it's something that I would just be very cautious about coming here uh it's a challenge throughout southeast Asia but here it seems like a little I don't know it's it's definitely worn on me let's put it that way you can't assume the other people are paying attention or even if they are paying attention that they yeah I I just ready to head out that's the best that's the most polite way for me to put it but yeah I'm super looking forward to going to the Philippines I need to reach out like I said need to reach out to Mike need to reach out to Paul um there's feel like there's some other people that I haven't been in touch with like i' I've known I've been in touch with uh Mark and also um Paul for like four or five years now uh but there's some other channels that are out there that I'd like to collab with that uh I just haven't reached out to yet so if you're in touch with or familiar with anybody vlogging from dag Getti that I haven't mentioned or that you think might be interesting feel free to like holler at them and send them my way uh because I'll be there for a month I may extend for one more month because um it just kind of depends on how I like it it's not necessarily where I plan to stay the majority of my trip do plan on leaving dumag Getti to go down to minda now for various reasons uh but I've never been to dumag Getti and everybody's you know seems to really really a lot of people really seem to like it there seems to be a lot of different activities that you can do there and I'm also looking forward to the English just being able to speak English with people is something that I really missed it's uh I need to just I need I need a vacation from my vacation I need to go to somewhere that's kind of fun and um you know they have the phrase it's more fun in the Philippines I definitely agree with that I think it's just a really fun country in general and there's a lot of opportunities to just uh goof off and it's light-hearted in a lot of it's cheerful cheerful is the right way to put it uh let's see let's pull up some of these photos of Duma yeah I love the Spanish influence the tile the I love this sign too this sign is it's just so like I don't know let me look at this word to make sure it means what I think it is it's I don't know if um it's I guess the word here is campy like I don't mean that in a disrespectful way but it's just so fun like doag get me I mean come on like it's it's they're not taking themselves too seriously I love the energy I miss it there's things about the Philippines and the Filipino people I didn't really appreciate um until I traveled more and I saw other countries and um I didn't really understand them right because in the US it's a very formal culture we're very formal we're very serious and there at like especially with the Filipina that I dated um she's just such a like optimistic like ball of energy I don't know how else to explain it uh this was in SIU and she just like laughed and joked around and danced and smiled and had this infectious like optimism and meanwhile I'm very like serious and uh plan plan plan and gota you know um I don't know got to be private and gotta like think things through and be strategic and yeah there's just something like I don't know what the word is for it but there's I don't know if the word's Innocent but like in a you know cuz we're talking about adults right like I you know I was when I dated her I was 27 and she was 24 um but yeah she just had this like the way the it's so I don't know it's it's you know some people say people in the Philippines have to grow up fast and in some ways I'd agree with that I think they do take on a lot of responsibility like she moved to the big city for a call center job and she's living there on her own and I I know that's got to be hard when you come from such a family oriented culture but there are other ways in which it's like this beautiful tropical country and you know you're not you're not sitting there in like the winter for like like half the year like we are in many Western countries where you don't want to go outside and it's cold it's windy it's overcast um it's a place where people I think are often used to spending more time outside in her case her family owned a resorts in B we can uh pull up ble here B I don't remember which area in Bal uh she mentioned we have unfortunately we lost contact um I don't know if she's still there in SIU I I'm not sure about that but you know she just talked about like being close to their family and living on this beautiful island and it's uh it's such a different culture from what we're used to in the west like I'm really looking forward to it I'm really excited I think it's going to be a wonderful trip it's uh you know it's it's not going to be as budget friendly as uh Vietnam or even Thailand but you know it's going to make up for that in a lot of different ways may not be able to spend as much time there as I would equivalent for the same dollars in Thailand or in Vietnam uh but I just remember making such good connections with people in the Philippines and uh people like smiling so big at me and just feeling so welcome there hey Christopher yeah yeah uh yeah I'm gonna go to doag Getti um it seems like a great you know a great opportunity in many different ways to um you know I meant to see it last time uh so uh and I do apologize I I looked into coming to nesia I want to what I think I'm going to do in my next trip to Asia is I'll probably start off in Indonesia um so my thought on my next trip to Asia is probably fly to Indonesia and experience that and then uh go from there right like maybe from there go to Thailand uh or from there go to um I still like to get to La at some point maybe it's a situation where I fly from there to La uh but next trip to Asia I got to do something I got to do more new places so this trip was um the new place was Vietnam Next time would be Indonesia but uh yeah so with dumag Getti yeah I I talked to some people in dumag Getti last time I came to the Philippines I decided hey this is my first time in the Philippines I want more immersion in uh like around more local people and I felt that that was going to be not as easy to do or pull off in do MTI just because even five years ago do MTI had tons and tons of foreigners a lot of foreigners choosing to relocate there because there's a lot of advantages that we get from being in a place with a ton of foreigners um you know you're not going to ever go without Western food you're going to have like all the people there are going to speak English effectively be able to communicate effectively if you want to meet friends from your home country or make friends from comparable uh Western democracies then you can do that there so there's a lot to like about that I was afraid that I wouldn't get the full picture if I I started off my Philippines Journey there so I started elsewhere and I do plan on going elsewhere from do MTI is I don't know you know I haven't been there but I don't know that it's a place that I'd want to live long term um and I also don't know if it's a great place to pursue a relationship uh so may you know one thing I'm noticing from some bloggers is they're saying dumag Getti is a place for couples it's a place you go to after you're in a committed relationship it's not really a place to go to um it's not like a you know a place you necessarily go to to to meet other people um and not that that's like a major major priority but it is you know in the back of my mind like I'm I'm definitely uh not apologetic about you know being a a guy and and being open to dating in this part of the world um I think there's a lot of synergy in the Philippines between English speakers and the local people because uh you know you have that English common ground and there's a lot of interesting cultural overlap that I didn't really notice as much until I spent time in the surrounding countries and I'm like okay um Thailand Vietnam very different from the US dumag Getti is a little bit less separated um uh yeah yeah Christopher dumag Getti will be a nice change of pace I'm really looking forward to it I'm looking forward to being able to commun unate with people more easily even if people in Thailand or Vietnam learn English there's still going to be some communication idiosyncrasies where you you know even just using the translate app the translate apps can be in ineffective uh not you know not exactly sharing your intention or meaning and there's another barrier of having the text based communication whereas if you're communicating with some somebody in person they can see your body language they can see your facial expressions communication is just more effective um and so that's something I'm really looking forward to and it's going to be fun like it's that's kind of what I feel like I need right now is you know Thailand was is a place for me for serious introspection Vietnam has uh also been more serious introspection but the Philippines is just such a fun country it's just such a fun place it's a place to let loose it's a place to smile and laugh and that you know another thing I'm really looking forward to spending time in the water uh it's it's unparalleled I mean I just to me the the beaches and the water in the Philippines are so beautiful and it's uh it's something that I remember fondly about some of the highlights of my trip to the Philippines five years ago were going to the beaches and going snorkeling and seeing the coral seeing the different species of fish that's something I need to ask about or I could research it too but I'd also like to ask friends is what kind of species of fish should I be looking out for in the water um you know here in DN uh south of the city uh unfriendly stoic what's up bro hey unfriendly stoic thank you for joining us I'm sorry you missed miss us last time I noticed you um it was around 2:30 a.m.

Vietnam time uh and I think I had wrapped up by that point I usually try to go for a couple of hours that's about when my voice starts to give out um but I did do some English teaching last night and so my voice I don't know if it'll make it quite two hours tonight but we'll see how it goes yeah I just I booked my flight out of Vietnam so I'll be flying to um Manila in about two weeks and I'll have three-h hour layover in Manila I'll transfer to a domestic probably a domestic terminal is where I'll go and then I'll fly down to Dag Getti I get down to Dag Getti around 7 AM and I'll head into town I'll get some breakfast um and then I'll head to head to my accommodation I'm planning on staying like uh probably in the beong area uh south of the city so not quite to D but um you know somewhere somewhere in here and apparently you know a lot of the accommodations are near uh near the beach so I'll be able to quickly go down and get in the beach really quick everyone if uh you guys could give the stream a thumbs up that would be super helpful I uh I I should uh what's it called oh hey GMM good to see you um brown puppy did you get a massage in Vietnam yeah no plans for that brown puppy uh I'm you know I'm ready to head out um yeah I'm just I'm ready to head out I'm I I've gotten my f of uh you know F of Vietnam at this point I you know people are warming up to me somewhat at the places where I'm a regular but just some of my struggles with traffic uh safety also you know when you have those kinds of experiences it makes you a little bit nervous about running around town uh so I'm mostly sticking to my immediate area it just seems like every time I go out now I'm I'm worried um and it's not it's not conducive to moving things forward and getting things done when I feel tired I want to make more cont content but I just feel kind of worn down and if I'm you know I want to make content that's helpful for people and if I'm in a bad mood I think it sometimes doesn't translate to the um the output that I want and there's room for like negative videos or sad videos but I don't know I I just have to I think it's important to balance it to make sure that I'm cons consistent about focusing on what is not being done um and not getting too personal about it because sometimes if we have difficult experiences we can project that and we can not focus on how it's tail it's it's an individual experience and may not be reflective of other people's experiences um because there's places I've gone I did not like at all that other people love and keep going back to repeatedly and uh there's places that I love that other people you know just didn't care for I mean I I love the Philippines Philippines isn't for everyone if there's some ways in which it's going to wear on my patience uh because you're on island time you're not able to just hop in the car and go drive in the same way that you are in the US like in the US I can drive across the country you know 2,000 miles in probably four days F maybe five days uh you can't do that in the Philippines you know you're talking a maximum of 40 miles per hour in much of the country also the fairies are not going 40 miles an hour uh and sometimes the way the ports are oriented what looks like a straight shot I I'll show you an example of this too what looks like you know here here we go so that looks like it'd be quick right uh you know just uh I mean it doesn't look that far right to go from Bingo on to caman this was like a 4-Hour ferry ride like I mean to me that doesn't look that far but you don't actually at least the fer I took you don't go from the shortest point to the shortest point you go all the way around all the way around to uh is it I guess it's I guess this is it this is I this looks like it could be the port the lines are not reflective of my experience um so I did not experience the straight shot kind of thing maybe it was Bon Port anyway it was it was much longer than what it would look like on paper so um yeah I mean it's you know but I I can't get over the people there I mean the people there are so nice and so warm and friendly um but yeah I hope that answers your question brown puppy I don't plan on getting a massage here yeah I just I don't I don't plan on it um Gerard have you experienced Japan yeah so I went to Japan about five years ago on that same trip and loved it it's wonderful um you know if I get a good job offer back in the States I wouldn't mind stopping in Japan for a week although I haven't been to to Korea so I lean toward Korea first time as opposed to doubling up on Japan uh but now is a great time to go to Japan the exchange rate is really uh advantageous it's like a a dollar is like 157 Yen so if you're bringing US Dollars and the exchange rate is probably decent coming from British pounds or Australian dollars as well for those who are watching from those places but yeah great time to go to Japan right now you're definitely getting value for your money Japan is great value for your money anyway like some people say it's expensive to me it's been the best value as far as like yeah I might pay a lot but they're also going to do a great job so uh yeah Japan's a great experience I'd love to go back to Japan at some point can't go wrong it's yeah it's just super super developed it's like to me it's comparable with the skin and Avan countries in terms of development great public transit fantastic food uh very comfortable hotels very interesting too like the advanced bathroom technology there um GMM hi there leave Manila as fast as you can when you land yeah I'll just be there for a few hours and if I could avoid flying into Manila to get to doag Getti to be honest I would I don't have a strong interest to even have a lay over Manila um it's yeah it's going to be interesting getting there at 2 a.m.

uh it'll be better than being there in the middle of the day when um you know everybody when it's more busy I assume it's going to be less busy at 2 am it's uh it's just such a crowded airport like it's it's such a crowded airport and it's spread out too like in a really kind of weird way but it's uh you know is better than flying to SIU and then taking a like it's like a six hour I can show you guys so the alternative to Flying to Manila and then flying to dumag Getti would be flying to CBU City and you don't even actually fly to SIU you fly to mton so you fly across the bridge then you got to take a bus I assume the bus crosses the bridge you go South all the way down through here through Naga through car car uh through plon through dag Getti and through plason 2.0 um through another neighborhood called area called Pon and to finally to the fourth area called poon um then you get to lilan and then you take the fery from liloan to siulan so talking like 6h hour I think it's like a six-h hour bus ride from SIU and then another two or three hour ferry ride from leoan so yeah it's like okay I'll just do it on the airplane I'll fly to Manila I'll deal with the Manila congestion to get to do MTI because that beats the bus ride and the ferry ride now to go from when I leave toag I will be taking a fairy most likely but I'm not sure it may be an overnight Ferry where I've got toh sleep on the ferry I'm still learning about the fairies in the Philippines I you know they're not very common in the US where I'm from so it's a different kind of experience Christopher says agreed GMM yeah it's all about the nature for me it's all about the nature and the people and that's what I'm looking forward to in the Philippines is being able to experience the nature engage with the nature I've got to find out if I could order some contacts there because I want to be able to I want to be able to put on the swimming goggles so when I go snorkeling I can see more clearly and more effectively GMM says dramati be sure to avoid all the YouTubers there yeah so I'm actually seeking out the YouTubers GMM I'm hoping to do do some collaboration I think it's a great way to uh connect with other people and share some interesting YouTubers that I really like with my audience and then also H get to know Their audience too right like I think that uh I think collaboration is awesome I think having this group where people have different perspectives from different ages different backgrounds can be super helpful to uh help to grow our comprehension and our understanding and I don't mind the drama because I don't get involved in it right like I don't for all the drama that I hear about I'm not picking sides I don't think one guy is the good guy the other guy is the bad guy I personally haven't been attacked by any of this stuff I'm sure I'll get at least a little bit of trolling after I do some interviews with some of these people because they certainly have their detractors or the people that don't like them I don't take it personally either um I've had trolls try to come after me a little bit and I don't feed them right so like a lot of trolls all trolls are looking for attention they want people to pay attention and to feed them their attention and I don't give them the reaction that they're looking for and so they move on to somebody else that they can get what they're looking for they can get the attention they can get a rise out of them I also am not afraid to block them right so you know I'll I'll block them super quick and there's also not as much for them to like feed on like I feel like I just don't really do that divide and conquer um like I try to I Really try to avoid talking about politics for example and I don't at all when it comes to countries outside the US like I don't I have no interest in talking about that stuff outside of the US and so it's harder for people [Music] to I don't know pick that apart if that makes any sense but [Music] um I found some YouTubers will talk about americ American they'll say oh I don't want to talk about politics and they'll talk about American politics and then they'll get mad when you disagree and it's like you can't control that conversation it's like talking about religion you want to bring up religion or politics that conversation is probably going to spiral out of control um especially if you've got a large audience especially if you're streaming to a lot of people you're going to quickly um make somebody upset and I don't I don't care to convince people to change their beliefs if if uh you know some of my viewers are Christians some are Muslim some are Buddhist makes no difference to me I don't want to change anybody's opinion I don't you know I respect everybody everybody has their own experiences in life that are different from my own and that also influences politics for what it's worth when it comes to American politics I'm politically homeless um I My Views do not neatly fit into any package there's too much nuance and intricacies to my experiences to believe in one side or the other um but yeah that's I don't want to get too much more into that except to just explain that um 7,000 islands and a thousand are populated pretty hard to drive around in the Philippines yeah GMM it it's not the easiest place to drive around um I think my buddy may have a work truck in minda now but you know I know he's he's used it somewhat in the past but uh I think he's also got a motorbike up there so I may try to do a little bit of motor bike riding uh but of course I'll be wearing a helmet it's just where where I'm going am minda now is much more sparsely populated it's not like changmai which is the second largest city in Thailand it's not like dang which is the third largest city in Vietnam where I'm going into now is real small town Vibe um GMM taking a fairy in the Philippines is Adventure you have to go to four to five different Cashers and pay different amounts and in the end you have many papers and receipts and realize that the fery left you yeah that I I'm starting to remember what you're talking about because whenever I took the ferry to cigan I bought a combo ticket where they gave they provided me with the ferry ticket and they provided me with the the transportation and my accommodation on the island and they gave me all these little slips of paper I'm just like what am I supposed to do with this what am I supposed to do with this and uh for some people it's even more right like they they bring their vehicle with them um they bring a bunch of luggage with them it's uh it's such a [Music] trip I am glad I'm not going to be flying over the sea of behle because when I flew from cigan to seu when we were above the Sea of B we dropped like we hit some kind of weird air pocket and all of a sudden it felt like the plane was plummeting and I grabbed the like the arm of the dude next to me like tried to grab the armrest but his arm was there everybody was screaming fortunately we were all buckled in or some of us probably would have hit the ceiling but uh that was terrifying fortunately the pilot got it sorted out but the rest of the flight everybody was quiet wide awake and eventually we landed uh in SIU safely but that was yeah that was terrifying um I don't know if I'll Fly Above the Sea of behle again just based on that experience that was really sketchy I don't know if that's normal I don't know if anybody else has had that experience if you're watching watching this on replay let me know if you've ever flown uh above the Sea of behle if you had that experience I you know nothing ultimately came of it but it was scary Gerard says I wonder what I'm wondering what qualities would P persuade you to stay in a particular country uh so that's a great question Gerard um I hate to say depends it does depend I try to you know as I've started go more countries I've started to figure out what I like and what I don't like I've narrowed down the uh places that I'm interested in into would return or would not return so uh I've done a lot of new countries in the last few years and I thought why don't I go back to some places I've already been because new countries are awesome right seeing something new is awesome a lot of people they commit to that they're like I want to go to everywhere want funds um and there's nothing wrong with that right everybody's got limited travel funds limited travel time and they want to maximize their enjoyment you know for their preferences for me um I would say a few things factor into it uh the more affordable countries are appealing if you're on a limited budget like I'm on a limited budget so if I was to compare Southeast Asia to Western Europe um I'm probably spending half in Southeast Asia is what I would spend in Western Europe so if I have money to spend you know uh six months in Southeast Asia that money would take me for maybe three months traveling in Western Europe so and that that's even more exaggerated if we're talking about Scandinavian countries UK Ireland these countries are very expensive uh versus Spain SP bit more economical Portugal a bit more economical parts of France can be a bit more economical um Poland bit more economical so that's a big one is budget I would say like you know just considering I have X amount of money these are my options uh but another one would be well how culture right like cultures where I feel like uh my personality my temperament is more compatible uh I don't want to go to a place where I'm so different from the locals that we're not able to see eye to eye some of that can factor into safety as well like there's um you know there's places that have a reputation for being unsafe where even if I feel like I'd get along with people I don't want to go there and risk my safety right so uh there's a number of countries that have really unfortunate circumstances right now and I'm not going to name them they you know they're in the news uh but those places would be off limits for me because I'm not going to risk my safety I'm not going to risk running into some significant problems I'm not g to risk uh not going back um because I want to keep traveling like I love to travel and if something terrible happens to me when I'm traveling that could mean the end of my travels uh what else I would say research like I just do a ton of research um on the countries at this point I've researched most of the places that I want to go in the world also the places I would consider living long term uh I've kind of narrowed it down between like if I was totally financially independent I would probably live in uh either Latin America or southeast Asia for for different reasons they're economical the people are generally friendly the quality of life is high the um what's the word they a number of countries in this region seem pretty um stable as the word uh and that's another Factor where you feel like hey people have been living in these countries for decades like you look at southeast Asia people have been visiting Thailand for like 50 60 years U same like Bali has been popular for at least probably 20 30 years probably longer than that Philippines has been popular for decades uh so these places have a long history of people going there and enjoying it um one thing that also helps is meeting people from those countries in the US so in the US I grew up around uh a person from the Philippines grew up around a few people from Vietnam um didn't really meet any Thai people until I was an adult I think more Thai people are checking the us out now but when I was younger just where I lived uh yeah so Singapore is interesting but Singapore there's a few challenges with Singapore um one is that it's you know it's not necessarily a place I would call vacation oriented um you know you have some elements there but it's a big city right it's like would I want to take a vacation in Manhattan you know it might be it's be fun for a weekend or a week I spent a week in Singapore about five years ago I felt that it was a place that even if I had the budget to live there it's uh you know it's pretty business oriented right people are living many people are living there because that's where their career is at that's where their job is at that's where their education is at it's not necessarily a place people move to to kick back and relax to enjoy their lives if I was going to live in Singapore I'd probably just stick to San Francisco um a city I've lived in close proximity to for a long time uh and yeah that's how I feel about Singapore and I feel the same way about London or Sydney Australia is these Global mega cities you know I have access to those cities in the US so I don't know that it would be worthwhile for me to put in the effort to move to one of those cities I know some people say oh they're so different I don't doubt that they're quite different and unique based on my visits to places like I visited London I visited Singapore but as far as the logistics of getting a Visa getting a job trying to apply for residency all those things things are costly and timec consuming it's much easier for me to move to a Manhattan or to move to a San Francisco than it would be or or Los Angeles than it would be to move to one of those places um because that moving to a place like that is for career right most of the people that are going to move to Singapore they're going there either to get their education or because they want to go there and make some money um and so if I was going to go for my education or to make money I've got some fantastic options in the United States for that uh I don't you know I don't judge people that have lived there um but it's not it's not practical in terms of my goals with my goals I'd rather just I mean I've lived in San Francisco off and on around San Francisco off and on for a while I know where I can get an apartment like with a snap of my fingers I have friends there that I can go and spend time with um I'm not I wouldn't be starting over that's the best way for me to put it is if you know I compare plugging back into the bay area where I have friends throughout the Bay Area I know people I um know the places I like to eat I know the beaches I like to spend time at versus Singapore where I'm having to learn a whole new place much easier for me to just go back to SF and the weather I prefer like I like California weather a lot better than whether in London or whether uh in Singapore um you know California weather in my mind is perfect I can't think of anywhere else in the world you know that other than the Mediterranean climates like I haven't been to Greece but Greece or Portugal or Spain it's that temperate weather that's just um unbeatable for my preferences I don't live in Southeast Asia for the weather I'll tell you that much GMM it's like in a bar never speak about politics Sports religion absolutely agree there's nothing to be gained from that I have friends of all kinds of different backgrounds from all over the world and we have a lot of fun together we don't need to talk about things that are divisive and stressful and things we don't even have control over um GMM I did follow Canadian couple that went to Bangkok wh Heen to live the maximum six months on a tourist visa to become debt free in Canada they did spend around 30% of what they spent in Canada that's about what I spend in Southeast Asia GMM I I spend about a third roughly of what I would be spending there the uh rent is the biggest savings food is somewhat of a difference but I do eat more Western food than probably some people in Southeast Asia like I that's something I haven't totally been able to get over is I do enjoy Pizza um infrequently I do enjoy you know other Western treats infrequently it's something I can't totally give up uh today I had only Vietnamese food but that's not something I want to do every day and same in Thailand like I love Thai food but I don't want to eat Thai food for every single meal um it's delicious food it's amazing food some of my favorite food but it's kind of like any other food if I only have like variety is the spice of life for my preferences I love being able to try a lot of different stuff um so yeah I hope that that helps and you know it is a place people can pay off their debt like one of my favorite channels I'll mention JP and Amelia they have managed to pay off their debt too like they had some debt back in the US I think some it was medical JP has some medical health challenges related to his spine and they I think Amelia mentioned she may have had some education related loans and so living abroad has allowed them to pay off a lot of that stuff because they're not putting out a financial fire every day like in America you know it just feels like you're constantly back you're constantly going uphill in a blizzard financially every little thing costs an arm and a leg um rents are through the roof roof maintaining a home is through the roof car you know maintenance is through the roof it's just you know basically the middle class is being priced out and I think a lot of middle class people have the choices of one just accept being poor uh you could say working class interchangeably one accept being poor or two move to a different country and you know for young people in the US Western democracies maybe they anticipate having enough career growth where they'll be able to catch up uh but you know some people aren't in that position like JP and Amelia I think they're both around 50 there's limited career there's the career growth at 50 is not quite as Extreme as say from 30 to 40 or 40 to 50 maybe for some people it is if they're lawyers or they're doctors but like a lot of people they may be running into health issues right like if you're like JP is having some significant health challenges if you're having significant health challenges at 50 do you have the energy to go grind it out in your career when you're having to go to the doctor you're having to get different work done you're having to get surgeries you know some people's bodies just can't take it the stress of living in the west and in the modern West and so yeah um I think it's a great idea what what GMM the couple you mentioned what they did to become debt free um I have some debt it's not massive like maybe around 5K in student loans but uh you know at one point the US president was talking about excusing all the debt or uh forgiving it and so I was thinking why would I pay it off if they're G to forgive like 10K in debt now they've walked that back uh but they may it may come back out again it like I said 5K it sounds strange it's a negligible amount of money in the US um it's I I let's put it this way I could pay it off today in cash but if somebody else is going to pay it off for me you know I'd be stupid to not let that happen um and I know some people feel strongly about it like oh you borrow it you should pay it back there's a lot that goes into that it's a very complex issue it's student loan debt is is overhanging a lot of Young Americans I'm very fortunate that mine is fairly minor but there are a lot of people that will never be able to pay their student loan debt back and uh yeah I'll just I'll cut it short at that um yeah Gerard likes Singapore Gerard PA Gerard rent is very expensive in Singapore many companies and people leave it nowadays because of this renting a small condo in Singapore is like renting one in New York and price yeah I mean rent is very expensive in Singapore they have a lot of public housing for are citizens of Singapore but if you're moving there just to work you're probably not going to get citizenship to get citizenship in Singapore is a very expensive and lengthy process I think you can buy permanent residency for five years for like I think it's like a million dollars you have to invest a million or2 million dollar something like that and I'm not at that point in my life currently so yeah it's Singapore is beautiful it's a gorgeous country it's very safe probably the safest country I've ever been in it's uh the architecture is incredible like I enjoyed just the architecture alone I mean on top of everything else I liked about it but it it's just uh you know the botanical gardens are amazing I think they're probably the best botanical gardens I've ever visited in the world it's very clean Singapore is extremely clean like shockingly clean um very it does it doesn't look very lived in compared to some other places I mean you go to the parks and they're spotless I mean it looks like somebody took uh took a pair of scissors to the grass as far as it being so neatly cut and maintained living in Southeast Asia long time changes your stomach and taste buds uh more than one slice of pizza or a greasy hamburger with cheese makes me nauseous and sick nowadays yeah it is changing my that's something I have been worried about GMM is I'll probably be going back to us in the spring if not before then if I get a great offer and uh I'm not looking forward to American food it's just so depressing like it's you know so heavily modified with hormones and um oils they use a lot of oils and if you're not in California which I may not be going back to stay in California then you know the food is just not I mean where I'm from in Tennessee like Tennessee has a lot of great qualities the food is not one of them uh most like all the food I enjoy in Tennessee is food from other countries uh the local Cuisine it's tasty but it's just not it's just not healthy um and that's true for much of the US and then even in California you've got plenty of fast food I mean you got In-N-Out Burger for example that's very very popular out there I used to enjoy one on occasion um but the food yeah I like the food in Asia a lot better that that to me like is another Factor at Gerard is the food in Asia is fantastic that's something that like I grew up on Asian food in the US which is very atypical for a lot of American people and the food I eat here is closer to what I'm used to growing up like I ate rice every day growing up in the United States most most people don't grow up eating rice like I did um so for me tonight I had beef with fried rice and it reminded me a little bit of American Chinese but it's like more Viet style delicious but that beef with fried rice was uh $3 equivalent in California I'd probably pay $18 for that um so it's just not really economical because Asian food is much more Niche like in the United States uh such that you're anytime you've got a niche like kind of thing in the US um they're going to charge you through the nose for it uh many returning Americans seem to feel sick powerless and gain weight fast in America when they go home pretty scary yeah it depends on where they go to and also I think it depends on what they're returning to I'm I'm optimistic s going back I it's probably displaced because I haven't been back in over a year now uh and what's it called um you know so I have probably an overly optimistic attitude toward America right now because I've spent so much time I've been away for over a year that in some ways I've forgotten how bad it is or how bad it's gotten um and it's what's the word I'm looking for like I'm just so used to the conveniences of living in Asia uh Thailand especially is extremely convenient being able to pay with your phone everywhere you go being able to order things and them showing up like next day um being able to hop on the BTS Like the train system being able to fly really quickly um all over the country without having to like it's just like in America the systems designed for the public are terrible and the people have bad attitudes um and so you feel that like you feel like you're burdening the airline staff in America by going to the airport um you feel like you're I don't know it's just such a hassle like I think part of the attitude people don't take pride in their work like they used to because of many different reasons um here are people like they take their job seriously a lot of the times like the flight attendants you know they seem like they're they have some pride sense of Pride they're helping people get around um yeah I mean America just ain't what it used to be um and you know I do plan on making content about that the channel May pivot to just me talking about some of the challenges that Americans face because it's um a lot of people are going through tough times and you know I don't know if it's going to get better in the near future I'm not sure you know if the government will respond to the recession with dropping interest rates a little bit it's uh may take a alarm Bell situation right like it did in o08 uh you know yeah it's it's a it's a tough time right now in the US I think that that a lot of people are frustrated stressed out with the direction of things um and so I'm I'm trying to plan my next steps to be able to lead permanently so my goal with my next stretch of time in America is to make as much money as I can save as much money as I can invest as much money as I can hit my fire number uh and then leave and not come back that's just kind of where I'm at I'd like to do there's a few different options I have as far as like a slow travel wheel maybe getting like uh you know in the Philippines for example Americans do have a path towards citizenship a lot of people don't talk about this this is not legal advice but in the Philippines for example if you're an American and you enter the Philippines and you don't leave for 10 years uh you can uh I think you get I think it's you get permanent residency at I don't know there there's a PHX Pat prepper is a channel that's uh working on it he's somebody I would reach out to ask about it but he's actually working toward Philippine citizenship um so this isn't something that's common it's probably not applicable for a lot of people and he I think he may be on a marriage visa so that may be the path where you get on the marriage visa you keep extending the marriage visa when you haven't left in like I think it's five or 10 years you can apply for citizenship so he's really serious about it he's been there for a while uh he retired from the tech industry in California I think he married a Filipina when he was in California and then they moved to the Philippines um some years back but that's something that he's he's working on um but yeah that's that's my long-term plan and I've got the target amount of money that I need uh it's just a matter of putting in the work and being disciplined not falling for the short-term Thrills um you know just uh living frugally living economically living below my means regardless of how much money I'm making I'm I'd like to get back into Tech because it's just a great you know there's a lot of great opportunities in Tech you have a lot of Leverage with tech um you have scale in Tech where you're making more money because you're Ser you're basically you're serving a lot more people in Tech right a solid Tech business can serve millions or even billions of people so uh you your compensation reflects that and it's um yeah I that that's just kind of what I'm looking at right now and I'm trying to plan out that those steps um ideally I would be able to accomplish that in like five six years if things go super fast maybe three or four years that things take longer than expected more like eight or nine years but in the meantime I will keep traveling like you know I if I hit certain Financial Milestones I'll probably take you know vacations interpers in that time uh and who knows you know we'll see how YouTube goes in that time I'd like to do YouTube on the side it's hard in the states when you're working a soul sucking job and you're just dealing with the headaches and the time consumption of that uh but my Channel's grown a lot since then I mean when I came over here to Southeast Asia I had maybe like a year ago I had maybe 400 subscribers and now I'm at like 16 over 1600 I'll probably pass 2,000 within a few months in the Philippines because uh my Philippines um content like I did a little bit last time and those videos got tons of views because like what ended up happening is like Filipino people who were living abroad were watching watching those videos because they had they had left the Philippines when they were kids and just never gone back they prioritized other things maybe they could go back every 10 years um so content in the Philippines tends to do really well I also have a super positive uh impression of the Philippines and so people can pick up on that and I'm more enthusiastic people really like it when they can tell you genuinely like a place and you're not just trying to sell it um and I think some bloggers they try to just sell these places and they don't want to um they don't want to they don't necessarily pick places they're genuinely interested in they pick places they think will be successful and I I don't know I I like actually like the Philippines a lot I debated on going to numerous other places that would be firsttime places for me but I thought do you want to go to just another yet yet another firsttime place where you're seeing yet another beautiful destination but not really engaging with it because everything kind of Blends together or do you want to go to a place where you're connected with the local people you love the local people you have met some of the local people you've seen in the environment you can connect with people like I yeah I that's that's what I'm missing and I miss my friends there I haven't been there in five years I want to go see my buddy Z we've been chatting a bit and he's just like bro you need to come here man you need to come here like let's stop talking about it let's be about it and he's making a great point he's he's much more polite than that I'm I'm the one that's not so polite sometimes but uh I should say I'm a little bit more direct but uh yeah I'm excited I mean I there's so much about the Philippines I did not understand when I went there the first time I was like why are these people so nice why are they so polite why are they so friendly and um in the time since then I understand it I've watched a lot more content on the Philippines I've been you know I've been friends with z for like seven years now um six years maybe six years but a while now and he's just such a consistently nice guy uh and so yeah it's it's I'm looking forward to it a lot I think it's a great experience Gerard says born and raised in New York City but I cook and eat Asian food yeah Gerard I think part of it is growing up in New York where you're in this International world city one of the best American cities in my opinion you're exposed to people from all over the world uh people of different ethnic backgrounds people with different cultural backgr grounds um very different from Middle America where people are not so exposed to these other places um it's night and day difference when I talk to my friends in California about World Travel versus when I talk to people from Tennessee about World Travel when I talk to people from Tennessee about World Travel they're saying how could you go there it's so bad and I saw in the news this and I saw on the news that and I watched uh this news channel and they said this and that and wasn't it really bad 30 years ago and so it's a place that's kind of stuck in time especially among the older generations and they have very negative perceptions of anything that's different from what they're accustomed to and so uh you know I talked about going to Colombia and people are you know when I talk to people in Tennessee isn't that Pablo Escobar like that's all they know they don't know about the biodiversity right Colombia is like the most biodiverse country on the planet you have extreme variety there like shocking amount of variety in the environment also the cities are really unique and different from one another it's uh Colombia is amazing like I you know I love Colombia but that you know a lot of people where I'm from they've never tasted Colombian food um they think Colombian food is Mexican food which they're very different from one another um but they you know people where I'm from can't tell the difference many people not everybody and definitely the more older Generations are worse than the younger Generations the younger people are more open to it but it's a state where a lot of the younger people leave right a lot of the younger people actually move to other places for opportunity that they can't get in that state especially if they don't have family there like I don't have much family in Tennessee so I was ready to go as soon as I graduated college and did I left actually before like right before I finished college did my last class online um and left and so that's uh that's kind of the difference between a place like New York or San Francisco versus Middle America is that in Middle America most people you know I I just had so many negative experiences with trying to talk to people about my Asian background and I thought I can either stay here and continue to get a negative reception or I can go to a place where there are a lot of Asian people um where people are not shocked at the idea of going and living in Asia like most of my friends in California all of my friends in California have either lived in another country or they are from another country even my friends in uh California who came from different US states um and so that's where it's just such a different experience from the um you know from New York where in New York I could talk to people about anything oh man you're from such and such country what's that like I've never been there that's so interesting um where in Tennessee like they're immediately that's a third world country wow that's a third world country I can't believe you came here and so you know you just yeah it's like I said it's not everybody there um but there's a sizable portion of the population that doesn't that is afraid of the world outside of what they're accustomed to that's extremely resistant to change of any kind and uh and I get along great with people from New York um I was somewhat raised by somebody from New York my Grandma had a boyfriend from New York City and he opened up my eyes in a lot of different ways because he just had a kind of a New Yorker attitude that some that rubs some southern people the wrong way they think oh he's thinks he's this and that it's like no he's just trying to be efficient um he's just trying to get things done he's just trying to Val like make the maximum value of his time um just because he doesn't want to like sit around and do nothing um and watch TV all day like he would go he was playing tennis in his 80s I don't know anybody from Tennessee that's playing tennis in their 80s um and you know like I said it's not it's not everybody but there's yeah I mean yeah it's just uh like I said the young people in Tennessee they're not like that they tend to be more diverse more open-minded more kind of international and their mindset um more open-minded to trying different things and trying new things but uh the leadership in Tennessee is just really bent on keeping it the way it is because they make a lot of money from it being the way it is they make a lot of money from the dysfunction um I've talked to a friend of mine that works in that environment and he's like yeah I mean people here uh they make money from the dysfunction that's why the dysfunction is not going to get uh fixed um but that you know that's a Tennessee issue beautiful thing about America is that if you are an American uh you know you have one of the you don't even need one of these documents and you can go to any state of your preference uh if you want to live in New York and you're an American you can go live in New York if you want to live in California you just get in your car and go uh so there's there you know to contrast what i' in some of the ways I've been critical there's a lot I love about America that I didn't appreciate until I spent at this point I've collectively spent around two years outside of the United States and it's make it's made me more appreciative uh of my country and the advantages that we have the blessings that we have the opportunities that we have the variety I mean just the variety alone is amazing in America like if you don't like some like you don't like the people around you in America you can go somewhere else and be around totally different people there's just so much human capital there and it's kind of this shining beacon on the hill to some extent more so historically but even today we're like if you want to go you know learn something new if you want to be intellectually stimulated like I you know I have a lot of positive things to say about America after living abroad for as long as I have uh and not you know missing some of these things about uh the country samuro mab Island I had to double take the name yeah I still do every time I see every time I see mazete where let's see mazete yeah every time I see mazete I I uh I laugh you know I've never um I've never really looked at it much though I'd say most of what I've looked at in the Philippines is the big Islands uh of course Luzon in the north um and then SIU uh Elo Elo and then mind now um hey Tony good to see you Tony I meant to say hey earlier welcome to the stream thanks so much for joining us Tony says I always feel like I'm dropping in to visit a friend for a coffee when I catch one of your live streams thank you so much Tony I'm so glad that this time slot is effective uh for you and one sec guys I need to plug in my laptop charger first I need to pull my table back they were doing really loud one of the neighbors was doing loud karaoke last night and so I moov my table I moov my table uh away from this back wall yeah I I really enjoy doing these live streams they're a lot of fun and we can cover so much more ground and I can answer your question in real time when I do my videos I have to compress things to make them efficient for a really wide audience right I don't know who's going to be watching and I've got to structure it in such a way that it's fastpaced and in in the live stream I try to go fast but uh I can take more time I think I could take more time to answer your questions uh ronal what's up boss where you out where you at now what country um that's the only complaint in the Philippines karaoke roers noise and dogs barking yeah I mean Rell that's the one drawback um I can say uh noise does bother me if I'm being fully transparent it's it's definitely like if I could put point out one challenge uh in the Philippines that's you know that's a fair point it's you know you have karaoke and music being played everywhere uh and and for me like I you know I sometimes I I just prefer it to be quieter uh I'm trying to remind myself it's a tradeoff like in the US it's so quiet that it can feel kind of lonely at times right like people aren't really talking to each other um people if they are engaging it's in some kind of conflict like in public you see a lot of people going through some serious challenges um and so you hear people they're going at it uh in the Philippines it can be boisterous I try to remind myself these people are in this like fun loving environment and uh they want to socialize um they want to communicate and connect with others it's very different from myself and it's in a way I feel like an old man trapped in a young man's body sometimes to be fully transparent when I did that interview on tyus times I mentioned I'm 31 and people in the comments were like this guy looks like he's 51 or 41 not there's anything wrong with being 41 or 51 my grandmother is 93 and says you're not an adult until you're about 50 so that just to put things in perspective like that's the different attitude toward the same number uh but in the Philippines I'm pushed out of my shell I'm forced to communicate in America I'm distrustful I don't trust people I don't want to talk to people because I don't know how they're going to try to get one over on me I don't know how they're going to try to take advantage of me everything turns into a sales pitch uh everything is an upsell where people are trying to sell you on this trying to sell you on that oh sir while you're getting your oil change you want to buy this you want to buy that and that's at every that's at every step in society you drive down the road there's Billboards here Billboards there uh you turn on the TV it's advertisement after advertisement is this constant in your face pushing you to engage to spend money where in the Philippines like a lot of people just want to have fun like I remember I was dating this woman in SIU and she genuinely just wanted to spend time with me like she never wants to ask me for money uh she never once asked me to take her here or take her there she never never once tried to get me to invest in some kind of business uh she wasn't con she wasn't judging me she wasn't telling me what was wrong with me um no we didn't date for a long time I had to of course leave the Philippines this time that's part of the reason I'm staying much longer this time is I have more time to invest in a potential relationship uh but it's it's hard Rono like it it it was wearing on me some Diet because there were certain days where I didn't get a great night's sleep because I was woken up in the middle of the night in the Philippines and it tested my patients I was like why go why I I was checking into this hotel and I can pull it up here uh this is just full transparency because like I don't know some YouTubers will try to convince you they're these awesome people and I I have some real flaws and weaknesses um but I was staying at this hotel hey here we go yeah I was staying at this hotel and that's crazy it was really cheap back then it looks like it's like it's they're charging 60 bucks a night I think I paid like 10 bucks a night five years ago um but yeah so I was checking in this hotel and they uh let me double check okay we're still pulled up and they're just like talking and talking and talking in the lobby I mean just talking like just chattering and I didn't sleep great the night before and so they're waiting to like clean my room or whatever and I just go and sit outside I sit out here on this these P this Pebble kind of area and the woman comes out and she's like why are you sitting out here I'm like I just need like sorry maam I just need some peace and quiet like I I didn't sleep great last night and I've got a headache and I just I can't take the conversation right now I can I can't think clearly um so then I check in right I go to the room and it stinks um I may have to edit this out actually because I don't anyway um yeah I'll probably need to um to do that um darn it oh anyway uh that's fine I need to make a note of the time stamp sorry guys I just want to be respectful one so I'll I'll zoom out anyway so I'm staying at the hotel and and so you know that was on me right like that wasn't anything wrong with them they're just having fun they're just being social um I you know I I was just tired from travel probably the pace of travel uh and I needed a break and it's not on them that was on me right like I just could have made a stronger effort to be more patient um I could have like I I just could have approached the situation differently and um that's something that you know is important [Music] to important to be aware of it's important to be self-aware when you are traveling uh anywhere that's different from your home country but yeah let me get back on track here um Tony says I lived two years in a part of the us that was very much like the way you described uh Mississippi and the Mid Country uh very insular ethnocentric threatened by anything outside of their holler yeah yeah Tony absolutely I mean that's a challenge like in a lot of the US and most rural areas you've got a few families that own everything and everybody else just kind of barely gets by um you know they they try to distract themselves but you know they're just unhappy with their lot in life and I who can blame them right I mean when you live in an area where the few good jobs go to the people with connections and everybody else fights over the scraps then uh yeah naturally people are just going to be stressed out and like they're also easily more easily manipulated I mean when you've got a few people that you have to appease uh to succeed then um you know I think it just kind of bends people's psychology Tony says the only restaurants for fast food complete lack of knowledge of the rest of the world distrusting of it yeah I mean it's you know it's like they got frozen in time um the rest of the world keeps moving forward and they are still um they're convinced that if they just bury their head in the sand that things won't change um so uh yeah that that's just um that that's a part of it and uh I may be fine with what I said earlier I I'd happily go back and stay at the pocket Hotel they were super friendly and accommodating with me um that like I said that was that was my bad that wasn't their bad I just want to clarify that but uh at the time I was very into World cultures music and people with different experiences and outlooks in the part of the us I was in people were suspicious of these things yeah it can be really discouraging too Tony like when you're an open-minded person and you want to like learn about other places and you want to expand your mind uh expand your experiences um empathize with other people like one of the things that really helped me to open my mind was going to Mexico I talked a bit about that in the previous stream where I met a friend at Burning Man or no I talked about in a video I made recently I met a friend at Burning Man and he's from Mexico and I tell him isn't it dangerous and he I got the sense somebody other people had probably said something like that to him before and I was I tried to be like mindful or tried to be more polite than just saying hey isn't it dangerous like hey isn't where you come from you know rough but was like no it's not and so um I gave it a try and I was just shocked at how awesome it was and uh it's the thing about Mexico is at least where I've been it doesn't feel dramatically different from uh you know from the US like it's you see so many Americans down there like it's not that exotic um it's people don't understand a like Tony people don't seem to understand a lot of these places are on a scale like on one end you have France or Canada or uh the United Kingdom and then on the far other hand other and you have like Iraq right or you have um uh you know enk um so it's not this like people think it's a binary right it's not a binary um it's a spectrum and it's also a spectrum of safety in the US uh the safest city probably you know very small towns where they're in the middle of nowhere like Nebraska or no offense to people from watching this from Nebraska or Colorado um the most dangerous like maybe some part of Chicago but like there's a whole lot of places that are in between there it's not a binary where like everything is either the safest place or the least safe place and that's how you know people in parts of the US think about things is like I I know people that haven't left my home state in 10 15 20 years like they haven't even driven to a neighboring state uh much less you know conceptualized and going to another country to me like you could probably go to about 80 different countries before you start to run into more serious issues once you get to like we can zoom out here a little bit once you get to like 100 120 countries is when you start to run into places with some serious issues but most people don't need to go to that many countries I think most people will be happy with like the top 40 or the top 50 uh southeast Asia Latin America uh Europe um that you know that's going to Encompass a the places where most people would consider living right like most people are not oh I'm gonna move to Mongolia nothing wrong with Mongolia it's just very cold right it's cold it's sparsely populated uh most people are not interested in extremely cold weather and and a lot of people want to be in environments where they have some level of convenience that uh if you're in a place that's sparsely populated it's just simply not coste effective regardless of where you live right it's the same reason most people aren't moving to Nebraska or Kansas or we'll go over here to the US um you know Wyoming is also is like the most sparsely populated state it's just not practical for most people to live there um and so they assume though that like everywhere in the US is like that and I'm thinking like man where I'm from Tennessee often feels like more of a backwat than Bangkok or um here in daang right like or uh especially outside of Nashville like Nashville is nothing like the rest of the state Nashville has people from all over the world there's a lot of interesting uh different cultures there but you go to like I take an example like up here here um Tiptonville right I've I've driven I've been to near here um I nearly went to college here in Union City there's nothing up there I mean there's really very little up there you know it's just might as well be like anywhere any small town anywhere in the world it's like pretty far apart from civilization most of the people there they'll get they're you know if they're ambitious they'll get their degree they might come up here to Union City and get their degree uh at at uh Martin and then they're going to go to uh or Martin actually actually I get these two mixed up because they're so similar but then they're going to move right they're going to move to the big city Memphis or Nashville uh they may move up to Chicago they're not gonna most of them are not going to stick around there um so that's another challenge that you have uh Tony in some of these places that are you know super remote is that the super ambitious people the people that are more open-minded like yourself it's hard to keep those people in these small towns um and I've had debates with people in smalltown Tennessee a lot about this where they're like you know what you think you're better than this town it's like no I just want variety like I just want to do something different I just want to see something different I want to um experience some different thing out that's out there that you don't have have around here and you're never going to have around here because uh you don't have enough to offer by comparison um the world is a very efficient place in the modern world or in the modern era it's also very very competitive places are trying to offer as much as they possibly can with the human capital they have and uh unfortunately some places have more to offer than other places and um it's tough I mean I also you know you have to look at NAFTA in the United States NAFTA really hurt a lot of rural areas I mean most of the economic growth in the last couple of decades in the US has been in uh Urban California urban New York metropolitan area even in Nashville has grown a lot in the last say five years but uh you know there's other places that have I've spent some time in Mississippi and you know much of the state is just not changed it's just not a a vibrant or a dynamic economy theii is pretty extreme it's the poorest state in the United States there's some very nice people in the United States I got pulled over a couple of times uh in Mississippi with expired tags and the cops let me go um well I got pulled over once and I was speeding I was doing 70 and 55 uh here around here north of Oxford I went to a concert Oxford and uh you know it's uh they're polite and friendly but like it's you know they've got to compete with places like Memphis and then places like Memphis have to compete with Atlanta and Chicago and Atlanta and Chicago have to compete with LA and New York and so people were always like trying to sort out the most efficient the best place for them uh one of the bestc decisions I ever made in my life was moving to California and when I moved to California and I think you might appreciate this Tony I got so much push back in Tennessee people telling me Oh it's so expensive oh you this and that it's so this and it's so that and there's some there's brown people out there and there's lgbtq people out there and um I felt all of that was exaggerated um these days California is not much more expensive than Tennessee Maybe it's 10 or 20% more expensive um but you get a lot more you get the beach uh you get International Airport or you can fly to Asia be in Asia in 10 12 hours uh you've got the Central Valley which produces 25% of the food in America uh California Central Valley you've got the San Jose like you know that produces this technology that's popular around the world you've got uh Wine Country up here in the north of the city um you've got the Lost Coast that's popular for the Redwoods um and that's just North I mean if you want to go to SoCal you've got La home of the entertainment industry you've got all these beaches up and down the coast like Newport Beach lagona beach uh Dana be Dana Point uh San Clemente where one of my buddies from Oceanside um and then you've got access to Mexico so uh you know if I'd listen to them I'd still be making $115 an hour in Nashville complaining about being broke maybe I would have had to borrow money at that point gone into debt uh you know so it was amazing for me to leave and and get to experience California uh the crime that happened to me was fairly inconsequential I did get a window smashed and Berkeley um you know I was able to pay for it to get fixed I I uh yeah I just you know you feel like you're living in the future when you live in Northern California um so let's see uh let me get caught up here ronell oh it was like when Tony Bourdain went to West Virginia yeah I mean you've got some wonderful people in West Virginia like I'm not saying that the people all the people are bad um there's a lot of really friendly people there but um you know there're there's also a lot of just like insularity and you know you're either one of us or you're against us and uh I just got tired of that Dynamic it's just uh you feel like it's a you feel like some of these places or our dreams go to pass and so let's see um ronell says interesting facts Mexico and Philippines were trading Goods when Spain colonized them oh yeah um something I'm curious about and Bud Brown talked about this a little bit there are uh there were Filipinos in Mexico so there are people that went moved from the philipin means let me look that up actually uh 1,200 wow um we can I can pull it up here on the map so apparently in halisco which is the guadalahara area there are uh so there's 1,200 people of Philippines nationality actually living in Mexico which is wild um but yeah like back in the day I think that was really common for I don't know really common maybe too much but somewhat common for people to go between the two um and it makes sense right because they're very different from one another as far as geography agriculture crops um even culturally they're they're somewhat different um let's see back in the 1600s between uh Mexico City and Manila um oh okay ronell wow I didn't know you were uh also in the bay very cool um yeah it's you know I love the bay like it's probably my favorite part of the United States if I'm being totally honest it's the weather's wonderful the people are so interesting you're surrounded by brilliant people some of the most intelligent and hardworking ambitious people in the United States you've got uh such a variety of activities you've got intern like I said international airports you can go anywhere in the world uh you can yeah the world is at your fingertips there and it's h it's such an interesting and vibrant place to live but yeah um how was your weekends uh Tony and also Ron anything uh fun this past weekend I I don't think I did a whole lot um went out to some restaurants uh did some walking by the beach that was really nice and last Friday night after the stream I went walking on the I guess you could call it the it's sort of a beachfront walk Walking area and I may do that tonight as well I'm trying to maintain being more active I haven't worked out today and I didn't work out yesterday so I like to to get active more um had a good nap today I slept for several hours caught up on sleep I'm just like in scramble mode cuz uh bouncing to another country and just trying to uh trying to get everything together got to start packing here in the next few days I think I'm I'm Sor to feel a bit sleepy ronell do you have any travel plans coming up um for this year um oh Tony says one of the first TV shows before the internet that inspired me to World Travel was Lonely Planet it was called different things in different countries pilot guide guide Globe treer that's so interesting um Lonely Planet I didn't realize was a TV show it um it's I was familiar with the guide books right like you I'm sure Tony you're familiar with the Lonely Planet guide books and they uh I didn't really know about it much until I was an adult but there's so much value information right like I think that back in those days you had to be a bit more adventurous like to me traveling the world now doesn't feel as adventurous as it used to because I've got like hundreds of YouTube videos on every single City there is right any City you could think of that you'd want to go to we could pull up content on YouTube and uh watch a watch people traveling in that place we've got Google Maps as well like we can map our way around all these places back then I think those people really had a lot of Courage um when I traveled in the US I remember when I started traveling us and I felt so scared I can't believe I'm about to get in the car and drive that far and I you know I was a bit sheltered growing up only child single mom that kind of dynamic is naturally going to lend itself to uh you know being a bit sheltered um so it was really scary for me to like get in the car and go somewhere but uh you know now that I've traveled to the extent that I have I don't worry about it anymore but part of what helped that process like being so fast is you know having these internet tools where uh yeah did Tony I'm curious like when you were watching these shows about World Travel um did you ever feel like nervous like what was your first country outside of your home country that you went to um and then like yeah I'm just curious if you felt nervous or you were excited nervous might not be the right word I I use that word a lot maybe I use it too much but uh I wasn't nervous the first time I was more nervous later on um the first country I went to was a study abroad and I felt like well I'm going with my teacher how bad could it really be like my teacher who's an experienced professor she's been to this country five or six times um you know like we're on we're on like rails in a certain way right we're like in this guided experience we've got a guide like it's it's full on tourism mode very different from okay I'm just gonna book a flight and a hotel and I'm gonna land there and I'm going to figure out what I'm going to do now that I've already booked my flight and committed right like now that I'm locked in with this expensive flight in hotel room uh or Airbnb now I've got to figure out what I'm gonna actually do there because even like watching videos you get a cursory understanding you get a sense of the vacation mode there but you don't really there's just nothing like actually being there and then you also wonder too okay if I'm not taking like if I'm not going on a guided tour the whole time how am I going to structure this thing like how am I going to structure my time how am I going to figure it out so then I just pull up highlights like what are the highlights of this city what should I be doing what should I be checking out and then just kind of plug those in um yes you're correct Alex there was no YouTube Only the Lonely Planet TV show books there was nowhere else to learn about World Travel and now it's everywhere and Walter's World actually did a video I I'll probably watch it after the stream but he released a video I'll I'll go ahead and share his uh or his channel Walters world did a video how has travel changed in the last 25 years since he was uh you know since he was a young man and he's I think he's probably going to talk somewhat about that where you had to be somewhat more Cavalier back then and you had to be a bit more of a risk taker versus now like I hear Americans talk about Bali like all the time not maybe not all the time is the right word but more frequently uh I you know manage her at a previous job he ended up going down to Colombia um it's you know people now a lot of Americans are going to Mexico for dental work and health care I think the state of Utah actually flies people down to Mexico to fill their prescriptions it's cheaper for the state of Utah to send these employees to fill their prescriptions in Mexico and then fly them back to Utah than it is for them to fill those prescriptions in Utah Cusco was my first wasn't nervous but for a guy that never left his home City 25 years ago with no YouTube Google Maps I felt like an astronaut visiting different planet that's a perfect way to talk about it Tony is like you do feel like in those initial trips especially and I think like to an extreme back Back N right because now you know you could look up top 10 activities in Cusco and watch people do those activities back then like yeah you could watch you know Lonely Planet TV show but there's also an element where you're like okay that's a production crew they've got you know um they they've got these guard rails right they reached out to reputable tour company they've got um you know people that are there to ensure their safety they yeah EXA yeah exactly um I I felt like an astronaut the first time I left the US really the first first three trips after the third trip I was adjusted enough where it felt comfortable enough that it wasn't as big of a deal but the first three times I was thinking like I I hope I come back I hope I come back from this because there's no telling with where I'm going if I'm going to come out the other end okay and now I recognize like that you know everything was fine but back then like you just feel like I hope things work out I hope people are nice to me I hope people really got to cut out my likes and my ums I say them too much no uh drink a bit water here my throat's a bit dry no GPS back then no smartphone or Whatsapp in my hometown no one heard of Peru no one understood why I would go for two months to a weird country Peru is yeah Peru is weird um in a lot of different ways it's what I loved about it is that it is kind of weird place it's not cookie cutter it's not cut and dry it's not like and I love Mexico but like you go to you know uh Cancun and it's like the 51st state of America in some ways um they have a Costco they have a Sam's Club they have Burger King McDonald's uh you know you're you're closer to you're closer in Cancun to the lower 48 one of our guests a couple days ago is living in Alaska you're closer to the lower 48 than you are if you over here in Hawaii or you're up here in Alaska um so it doesn't really feel that different whereas if you go to Peru you are decide like you're 10 countries away like between not 10 countries you've got Mexico Guatemala Honduras El Salvador Nicaragua Costa Rica Panama Colombia and Ecuador but between you and the US and I know Tony you're in Canada so that's an extra you know extra country entirely um but yeah I mean and two months is is a lengthy Journey a lot of people they're going to go to Cusco for like a week right they're going to fly into Cusco why don't we zoom in on Cusco here I've done some research on Cusco I wanted to to talk about it I need to still do more research like there's a lot to unpack because the history is so long but with Cusco a lot L of people they fly into Cusco and then they um they say maybe they stay a night to adjust the altitude maybe they stay a couple of nights um but they're quickly on their way to olano why don't we pull that up they're on their way to anano uh and then on their way to Machu Picchu um and then they quickly you know as soon as they finish the hike it's like a four day hike they come back down to Cusco maybe they stay a night in Cusco uh to relax to rest up and then they're back on the plane to Lima and then from Lima back to their home country um so you know they so two months is like a big commitment right two months is a big commitment to being in somewhere so different from North America it just the geography is different the weather is different the language is different the people are different it's it had had to be jarring um and it's it's also like remote like it's it's not like going to a coastal city where you know you go to Lima and Lima is very modern um Lima is international feeling you've got Japanese architecture in Lima you've got sushi restaurants in Lima you've got here in the uh come down to where I stayed um in Mir Flores you've got there's like a Medical College in Mira Flores you've got par Kennedy that has these really cute cats it's it doesn't feel like I mean it's definitely unique right Lima's Unique city it doesn't feel extremely different from like an LA or San Francisco or San Diego it's got that somewhat of that West Coast vibe Cusco doesn't have at all Cusco you really feel remote and like you are on another planet it's you're surrounded by mountains you're surrounded by these like remote Villages um it shocked me because it there was some parallels between being in Cusco and being in the mountains of Colorado where you do feel super remote you see that okay they found this flat place that they built all the houses because all around this flat like grid is mountains going up in every direction uh so it's it's very unique in that way also people understand going to a resort town in Mexico for a week but two weeks two months exploring Cusco why are you doing that what the heck are you going to do there um and I'm curious to too Tony like how are you receiv when you came back because I imagine some people were a bit nervous for you they're thinking like ah man what is he doing down there why is he going down there how is he gonna occupy his time for two months is he gonna come back in one piece are we gonna have to go rescue him is you know is he gonna run into trouble and it's not Cusco is a super safe City I felt super safe I felt like it's more safe than many North American cities there's uh you know I feel like if as long as you're you're staying uh in central historico or you know some of these areas like there's nothing to be worried about um you you know go to you can go to Pak very safe feeling like super small town I if I go back at some point I'd like to spend more time pack visit Kaa what else um you know just some of the surroundings towns that I didn't spend time in because I'm a city guy and so like Cusco to me okay I'm in the city I'm it's fine it's like any other city it's not but there's this probably false sense of comfort I feel from just being in a big city we're in a small town it's like okay I you know is there um you know are there some of those conveniences like can I just walk into the phone store and get data can can I you know can I just ask somebody for directions if it's midnight and I don't know where I'm going um I don't know it's it's just it's in my head right um the only traveling people did back then was visiting family abroad or one week to Florida or Mexico to a resort I was alienating coming home I wanted to talk about my experience and self change but no one could relate to the experience now there are online communities that do Global Travel I felt like I was in a dream when I C when I came home I wondered if the whole thing was just a dream that's a great way to put it Tony there is kind of that Melancholy feeling like whenever I go back home to the States because I've had all these wild experiences but nobody else can relate and you want to talk about them because everybody wants to talk about the good things in their lives right right like when we see people we care about we haven't seen in a while we want to talk about what we've been up to they want to talk about what they've been up to um but they haven't they haven't been on that Journey um it's kind of like going to an awesome concert and you go and you see your favorite musicians play an awesome concert and they're playing up a storm and everybody in the audience is vibing together and connected and moving their bodies to the music and in tune in that same wavelength and uh it's you you know you try to tell your friend about it the next day you try to tell your family member about it the next day and they just don't understand they weren't there and you can't you can't also I think part of the trouble there too Tony is like you may have experien this as well people have asked me why don't you like travel with a group why don't you wait and try to bring people with you and it's like if I waited for other people to go with me I would just never travel I would never be able to um you know I would never be able to travel if I just waited for other people to join me because other people have their own priorities right they have their financial priorities they have their time priorities they may not even have a passport like most Americans don't have a passport so uh if I was to try to get friends to go with me abroad you'd be I'd be waiting at minimum multiple months to even start to plan or schedule anything and that doesn't even get into uh what if they get nervous right like what if they you know I had that experience when I I did my study abroad my ex-girlfriend was a girlfriend at the time now we broke up after that long story not gonna get into that in this video but at one point I just like walked around the town we were I'll just go ahead and say we were in Israel for my study abroad I know it's a controversial topic I don't want to you know debate with anyone the finer points of of that but you know at the time it was it was fine and I just got up and walked out of the hotel and walked around the town and she said oh I can't believe you're just you know doing that and I said you know what what's the big deal like I I doubt we're in a bad area like I doubt you know this is hotel is like probably $400 and that it's you know we're not I could just tell like our our professor our teacher the guide for our trip is not going to put us in a bad area and I could see the outside of this area and it looks relatively fine am I gonna be out all night actually not but I just want to walk around the block and she was just shocked at that and oh these people are you know they've never traveled before and they can't you know um they can't imagine you know doing even just walking around the block and so it was uh yeah it was just strange uh it was it was strange it's hard to put into words and I just had a flashback to that trip um yeah that's the beauty of online communities right Tony is like we could connect with people that are going to these places and having these experiences and it's h it's such a beautiful thing to be able to do that because you can meet different people that have these shared experiences these really powerful experiences that are lifechanging and really deeply in some ways deeply spiritual I was talking a bit about that with Jake recently and we were just discussing how healing it can be to go to Thailand and uh how we felt that and we we had our unique experience that kind of matched each other that being in these places you really have time to slow down and process your experiences put things in perspective I know that there Cusco is a deeply spiritual city with a lot of especially in the sacred Valley a lot of opportunities to have other worldly experiences and uh yeah it's it's definitely like important it's important to to talk about these exper share these shared exper it's it's important to talk about these experiences with other people who have also experienced these things because you feel less isolated right like it can feel a bit lonely to have done all of these different things and to not be able to talk about them with people who they just don't understand like you get the oh that's cool man anyways um back to you know back to our regularly scheduled programming and my friends have been supportive like back in in Nashville my hometown my friends are like wow dude you get to travel the world like really cool but they've got their own lives that they're excited about they've got they're in relationships theyve got significant others some of them have purchased houses um you know some are really making Headway in their careers different people value different things right and a lot of people they value the progress they make more than they would value doing these extended trips that I've done for me I I value these trips a lot because you know I don't necessarily have some of the things they have in our hometown as far as family goes uh so for me it's like I'm kind of finding my family in the world [Music] and yeah I really connected well with the people in Cusco they they're in touch with tradition they're in touch with the ancient way of life they it's a Time less place where people work hard but they're not so rushed G drink some more water here watching you do Google Maps talking about Kaa brings back powerful memories for years those places were just in my memory bank now hearing and seeing others talk about it on YouTube makes it seem real listening to you talk about this I'm overwhelmed with feelings of nostalgia and also uh to be fair Tony I don't feel like husco gets enough attention um you know so many people are focused on Machu Picchu that it's almost an afterthought to some extent I've done a lot of digging on content related to cus and they talk a lot about the architecture which is very beautiful it's got this like classic look to it it you know there's a lot of rules about the development in Cusco maintaining certain height restrictions that you know North America doesn't make as much sense to me because you've got growing populations in North America you've got immigration bringing lots of people in people need places to live Cusco isn't necessarily A place where tons of people it makes sense for tons of people to move to right and part of what makes it appealing is that classic kind of look um but people you know people don't necessarily talk about like the ancient feeling the ancient Vibe I think there's some of it that's just Indescribable and the local people to them it's their day to-day life so they appreciate their Trad their Traditions they appreciate their history I think to some extent they wonder how relevant it is to the outside world like yeah this works for us is it going to work for you elsewhere and some of it you know you could say is like more in the sacred Valley but I think that you know the I think you have to also take into account the business Hub Cusco is the business Hub it's it's part of what provides people the opportunity to visit the sacred Valley to visit Machu Picchu like you got to fly into somewhere right most people if they had to travel to if they had to travel to Cusco Overland would just never make it I mean it's like from Lima it's like a 16-hour bus ride maybe 18-hour bus ride that's assuming no traffic that's assuming the you know perfect weather um that's a long journey I can't imagine what it was like in the past before they had modern technology modern trans transportation technology so it is a place that is in some ways quite isolated from the world and I think that you do get that bubble feeling there I was shocked when I met people from other countries because it almost seemed like to them it was a secret too because it was people coming as individuals like I think what was appealing to me about Cusco is some places you go is very much oriented toward family or big group travel places like um even changai people will go like let's get several friends together and go there in Cusco I kept meeting solo Travelers and that was something that stuck out to me and still sticks out to me versus Colombia where most of the people I hear going to Colombia it's like me and several of my buddies are going to go down there right or card Hanah uh me and several buddies are going to go there um even uh you know Mexico me we're going to go there on a spring break trip in Cusco a lot of the people I met it was like yeah I found out about it online uh it seemed like a cool place I wanted to visit and then I ended up just staying like I met quite a few people in Cusco that were traveling there and they basically they just decided to stay they thought well I'll just come to Cusco for a couple of weeks and then I'll keep traveling I'm GNA go down to Bolivia I'm gonna go you know I'm GNA stop in Cusco and I'm gonna head on to laaz and and then maybe I'll head down to Chile but for a number of the people I met they were thinking okay I'm gonna go to Cusco keep traveling and then they got there and they thought why don't I just stay why don't I just stick around here I like this city a lot I like the weather I like the people and then they start building up a Social Circle then they get an apartment then they commit to like Maya Maya Lombards this Belgian woman I met in Cusco she ended up uh getting a Belgian roommate and then she signed up to do singing several nights a week so I think two or three maybe four nights a week she's singing at different bars in Cusco and she just like people just end up there and then build a life there and they have all these different backgrounds another guy I met there this guy named Cody he has a nonprofit there he's also married to a local woman a kusya they have I think they just recently had a child um he's from Texas originally and I think he told me he was just researching the history in Cusco reading about the history decided to visit and fell in love with the place decided to stay another guy um that was probably more surprising to me than anything this guy named named Amit amit's a chef from India he's from one of the cities in the triangle there's like three historical cities that form a triangle Agra is one um basically where the Taj let me pull up the Taj Mahal Taj and we'll come back to Peru so yeah I think he's from Agra and there's a couple of other cities I don't remember I think per he ended up in Cusco and so this guy's from India like he's from nowhere I mean I get Europeans and I get North Americans especially because South America not that far uh from you know North America but he's from India and I talked to him about he said well I came here as a Backpacker and I really liked it and so I went back to my job in India and kept working and saved up money and decided to open a restaurant here so that's where he opened this restaurant um garwhal and he's doing cooking classes now very cool okay he wasn't doing cooking classes back then he was just doing the restaurant and it's open he's open till 11 pm that's that's mindblowing he's still in the same spot let's see if he's got a picture yeah so you can kind of it kind of looks like him but he decided I'm going to open a restaurant there I think he lined up financing and he he's just such a high energy person but yeah another like Solo Traveler that stopped through there decided they loved it in what feels like the middle of nowhere and committed right so he's been there for gosh like three or four years now I need to reach out to Amit because he was so hospitable he welcomed me into the kitchen and was showing me all this different stuff and really shocked me he told me like we can get some of the same ingredients that we can get in India here it takes more work but there's it's like how to explain it it's uh yeah there's just this entrepreneurship kind of culture there Tony says yes returning home at least 25 years ago when I first did it had a demoralizing aspect effect it was the most powerful life-changing experience of my life but there was no one to talk about it that's how I felt going back to Nashville I remember showing up in Nashville sitting at the airport for about six hours because everybody was at work and I landed around 10:00 a.m.

and I'm just sitting there and I just had this mindblowing experience and I'm coming down from it in a way you could almost describe it as like um an otherworldly experience and I'm trying to talk to people about it and I'm trying to figure out where I am like wait a second I've been in South America for the last six months like what where am I what what's happening here and uh trying to talk to people and they were initially excited but then the excitement wore off because now I'm back in the grind right now I'm getting a job now I've got to do an oil change in my car now I've got to um now I've got to talk to people in a business or professional setting now I've got to worry about this now I've got to deal with this now I've got to do that now I've got to speed back up I've got to rush rush rush I've got to do the things required of us to live in a developed country where we have these expectations placed on us to contribute at a very high level and uh and it was just like it it happens so so quickly it was six months of my life that I reflect on that almost at times felt like it went by in a snap Gerard for an introvert you have outstanding communication skills thank you so much Gerard that's so kind I think working in sales really helped me sharpen some of these skills where I had to talk to people all day long it was a grind and it was definitely uncomfortable for me at many points but it forced me to articulate this stuff because when I think this stuff in my head it sounds great in my head but it's not it's not as organized until I actually have to put it out there and I actually have to share my experience with people actually have to talk to people like Tony where Tony and I can individually think about our experiences in Cusco all day long but you know they're just they're just thoughts in The Ether right but when we actually have when I actually have to communicate with him and he's communicating back and sharing his experiences we can compare and contrast and synthesize these experiences into one and I think a lot of other solo Travelers have been there in Cusco where something just clicks for them there's something about the place that's magical that is spiritual that is timeless that is creative it's it's underrated too like Cusco is to me an extremely underrated city um I yeah I will always look back at my time there fondly um my thought is if I go back to us who knows maybe I save up some money and and do another return trip I mean it's just it was so good it's like hard for me to hard for me to imagine a place that would beat it like would be that I would prefer to live in South America because that's how much I enjoyed it it's got It's not too big of a city like I'm curious about s Paulo Brazil I taught a guy in s Paulo yesterday but s Paulo is 22 million people am I going to really have those down Earth experiences or be able to have those in-depth conversations with people in a city of 22 million I'm not sure um you know I go if I go to a country like Chile like Santiago is the capital of Chile very very developed is it too developed for me to have some of those experiences where in Cusco people feel very much connected to the Earth it's like an agriculture Hub in a way you see farmers markets throughout the city where people just put put out blankets and just cover the blankets and vegetables and fruits I've tried so many strange fruits and vegetables there that I never would have tried one of my favorites is the custard apple and I'll just go and type that in the chat but it's uh it's such an odd fruit it's like it's just such an odd fruit it looks strange it's uh you know it's just such a god it's such a strange place it's it's hard to explain the more I think about it the less the place makes sense um but it's it's so special I'm trying to think of some other people the Venezuelan couple I I didn't mention my friends from Venezuela um Tony says and I'll talk I'm gonna respond to Tony's comments and then uh talk a little bit about this Venezuelan couple I met watching the ladies selling choco in the market a funny thing Tony every time I saw the word choco like in Cusco it took me a couple months I was thinking chocolate are they talking about chocolate I like chocolate chocolo is the corn right but it just took me so I mean it literally took me I think a month or more to figure out they're talking about corn with really large kernels the big corn because I'm used in the states we've got our GMO our our GMO corn it's kind of small and uh and I even ate a bunch of it like they would always you in Cusco at a lot of the restaurants the perubian restaurants they serve you like a little dish about that big full of the dried and salted choco it's delicious it's so crunchy and the texture is so good the salt is also nice if you've been sweating a lot if you've been really active which is easy to do if you're walking in those Hills you're just it's a it's really exertion Tony says time slowed down for me it was only two months but felt like a decade yeah it's I get what you're saying Tony because sometimes I feel like it went by with the snap of my fingers the other time and then other times it was such a jam-packed experience with so many different experiences and conversations and connections and a lot of uh what I would call uh Intimacy in the form of friendship right I I don't mean that in a dirty way but having these emotional connections to other people that uh that felt extremely unique and um yeah that that was yeah it it definitely like I think about the the the visits I had with people and the exploration I did um the times I spent alone that were really nice to recharge but also just being able to have like it's weird in that because it's a laidback City you can have lengthy conversations like I would go visit friends at their apartment and we'd hang out for several hours that's in that's infrequent in the US my friends in the US all work a lot they have busy jobs um we hang out we can hang out for a few hours but it feels like some of a conversation is dominated by work like we're just trying to destress from work and the demands of our jobs so that we we're halfway present you know we might we might have we might IDE some beverages that help us to to decompress and open up a bit but there's just this kind of edge that you have from go go go go go and when you're there and you really slow down you can discover I think your true self a bit more Tony says I'm getting a little choked up hearing you talk about this my private thoughts and dreams of 25 years feel real hearing someone else share that they had the same experience yeah it's such an intense it's such an intense experience and the uh it's like I it's like what I wanted Colorado to be like being in the mountains being there but not cold and frigid like in Colorado you're stuck inside half the year because it's snowy and ice cold um in Cusco you're not stuck inside like you can go outside and uh enjoy yourself and I was even there part of the time I was there was in the winter and uh it was still nice but the Venezuelan couple I met I think they're I think they may be back in Venezuela but I met them because I met my friend Maya and Maya invited me out to lunch at this vegetarian restaurant I can't think of the name at the it's it's at this Market um was it Marcato Sun Blas let me see um yeah so is it the Marcato Sun blast uh so it's she's got like kind of a I don't know if you call it a popup shop but uh it's you know so I I went there to meet with Maya and she was meeting her friends from Venezuela and also from Colombia there they're so welcoming and I got to talking with them about like why they came to Peru and he mentioned he's a video editor and he wanted to be able to work but in Venezuela he just couldn't get paid every time he'd open up a new account a PayPal account a um you know a money transfer account it would get shut down because you know there's sanctions against Venezuela such that um he just couldn't make you just couldn't keep an account open so he did research and figured okay I'm gonna go to Peru so he and his wife went to Cusco and uh he said we you know we have a nice place here it's very comfortable I can get paid for my work here uh and I learned a lot about Venezuela from him he said yeah the media like it they have a strong bias um and I told them I want the other side like I want to hear about your perspective because uh in our country we don't we're not getting the truth about a lot of the world we have there's a certain bias to get people to maintain patriotism and Allegiance and to not question things and I'm not sitting here to say Venezuela is very different from the way they say it is I'm just suggesting that I would rather get the story from somebody who's actually from there who's actually lived there who's actually going back and forth uh than to just blindly trust you know somebody who's trying to sell advertising right most of all of the major media Corp businesses they're there to sell ads they want to create content that's palatable to advertisers they're not going to add Nuance to the conversation so he's telling me how his parents have these fast food restaurants in Venezuela and I'm like who who actually eats there because you know we we're always hearing about the uh challenges the economic challenges in Venezuela and if you were to you know talk to American they would assume nobody would have the resources for that and he said well you know uh there's a lot of people from China actually living here and they are working in oil and gas and so they actually come to our restaurants they actually support our restaurants and it's just so like you just don't get that kind of information like if if you watch Western media it's uh there you know there's they're only going to talk about the struggles and I know there's challenges there I'm not going to be dismissive of those or downplay those I met Venezuelans in Colombia I at Venezuelans in Peru there're also Venezuelans all over South America and now also in North America uh but it's uh it's just very different to talk to somebody and actually get their perspective and their experience and he loves Cusco and he uh I think they went back because his wife ended up having a a child and they wanted to um at least for some time like get some interaction with his parents but they maybe came back to um Peru like I don't know uh I don't know I think they might have a Visa scheme as well like a a situation where people from other South American countries are uh are more welcome to travel to other South American countries but it would make sense he's contributing a lot he's you know buying groceries there he's paying rent there they had a really nice apartment very conveniently located and seeing this picture like it it makes me a bit emotional too because I remember how chilly it could be and and how cozy Cusco feels and how different from it uh how different it was from what I was expecting because before I went to Peru I was thinking oh it's South America it's hot it's tropical it's all Mexico that's not the case at all I learned that it's South America has a lot of variety in geography and you have plenty of places that are chilly or cool you know mountainous that feel very different from the beaches in Mexico almost the opposite and the colors I I love the orange red contrasting with the uh gorgeous blue skies it's um yeah it's just so beautiful like it's such a strong contrast ah man Tony like starting to make me emotional like having this conversation because it's um it was an interesting in between like transition space in my life where I was wrapping up like my programming education kind of giving up on that to some extent deciding to go into software sales but uh you know hadn't really made the transition and also psychologically I just needed a break it's um and it's kind of a happy place too I mean people even though it's like a working City and people work like hard I imagine it's pretty Cusco is probably pretty expensive compared to the surrounding areas um it's also a place where people go on vacation and so you see a lot of happy tourists that are like wow this is so interesting and so unique and so different um but yeah let's let's check out some of these places I'll probably wind down the next uh 10 minutes or so um maybe 15 minutes just because my voice is starting to coab bit um thank you so much Tony I really appreciate your generosity that's H very kind and I greatly appreciate it definitely helps with the channel um yeah I much appreciated Tony it's it's viewers and guests like yourself of of the uh of the channel that really drive me to keep creating content and and adds a lot of meaning right because for a while I felt like ah this stuff just it only matters to me like not that it's not not that other people don't also have these experiences but when you're when you're not online connected with other people these experiences live in your head and you feel like the only way I could recreate a relive that is if I go back to Cusco but even that's not the same because some people have will have moved on some people will their lives will have changed in different ways um people have different priorities you know like my friends that went back to Venezuela I think their friends may have gone back to Colombia uh but you know in this way like we had this moment in time where we can discuss these things and it's really helping me to appreciate the time I had there because anytime you have a wonderful experience by the like at least for me anyway toward the end of it I'm thinking man I don't want to leave I don't want to go like I I want to stay here why do I have to leave but life calls responsibility calls um it's you know the only constant is change and so it's really nice to have the Nostalgia to relive these experiences I took my time in Cusco for granted to some extent it I I felt like ah this isn't Asia right so this isn't like extremely different from what I'm used to and at the time like my previous trip was in Asia for about four months and I I was a little bit convinced that I need to have this the most different or the most like strange experience possible compared to what I'm used to and and in reflecting on it I'm thinking no Cusco is amazing and not better than Asia not not as good as Asia but it there's a level of comfort there that I just don't get here in Asia I I'm not exactly sure if I could narrow it down to one point or one subject um the layout of the city is nice Cusco is a very walkable City very easy to get around that's something that's just harder to find in Asia broadly speaking um you get it in sing Singapore you get it in parts of Bangkok but it's not like Cusco where Cusco was designed well before cars right so people were living in Cusco for hundreds of years before they ever got cars and so it's very pedestrian friendly um also the cuisine is more similar to North American Cuisine so even though I like Asian food and I grew up on it um I also ate plenty of North American food where the ingredients are a little bit more similar like potatoes um you know uh different proteins um the weather is like much more similar to California weather which is much to my preference like I wish I don't wish this because this this would be kind of terrible but uh for other reasons but like Cusco is pretty close to my ideal weather sunny chilly um it almost felt like and it may have just been the time of year I was there but like Perpetual fall um or Autumn and and uh it's yeah I miss that City so much it's such a god it's such a nice city it's such a cool City let let me um yeah so this is an example of some of the history there the Cory kcha and it's just right there in the city like you um you're not traveling super far outside the city so you can just you can see it at nighttime it's they light it up really well uh you see some of the Spanish style architecture reminds me a lot of Spain andul Lucia for example with the Arches um which I I suspect they got some of that from Rome right I think uh parts of Spain were part of the Roman Empire and the wispy clouds what else can we talk about here I don't know if I no yeah I think uh I think Freddy did take me to the Cho Blanco yeah Freddy did take me to the Cristo Blanco it reminds me of like I've never been to Rio deiro but it reminds me of the Christ the Redeemer statue and so you get this gorgeous view over the city and you see the you see the level of organization like it's not as necessarily apparent when you're walking around in the city because you're just like living your life you're trying to get around you're not from there so you don't exactly know where you're going but when you see it from above you see that that grid infrastructure where you're thinking they plan this city really really well like they knew what they were doing when they placed all these buildings here because you can get around it's so easy to get around Cusco that's one of those things that sticks out to me about Cusco is it's a very easy City to navigate by foot or by vehicle and most cities are one of the other like American cities most American cities they're great by car not so great by walking um or vice versa like I had a buddy that worked in Manhattan for a while uh and he talked he was working as a driver and he talked about how stressful it was to be a driver in Manhattan right it's a city that very much caters to pedestrians Cusco somehow gets both down um there were times I took cabs in Cusco and the driver was very calm and like not freaking out not stressed out or I'm used to when I travel in the developing world cab driver and even really in any country cab drivers can be kind of stressed out and like worked up it was like I think I even rode in the front seat with him I it was it was that relaxed I don't even know if he was an official cab driver he just like he just pulled up and was and told me hey I hop in and so I get in the in the front seat and we're just cruising around he's playing music smiling and laughing and just really laidback it was it was pretty strange Gerard says great conversation for over two hours keep it up thank you so much Gerard that's very kind um Tony says Perpetual Autumn great term can you show the area you stayed in your apartment it was the capital city of the Inca Empire Cusco meant the naval of the world I believe it um I believe it absolutely Tony uh I'd be happy to show you some of the places that I stayed the uh hotels I stayed in and great value for money um like fantastic value for money I it's one of those places where I'm I'm not going to tell anybody that has hotels there but it seems like a place that could be more expensive than what it was I was genuinely impressed at what I was getting for my money there the uh oh look at the alpaca the goofy kind almost kind of a smile um that's something that I'd like to do uh when I go back you you've kind of convinced me You' helped to convince me I should say Tony that I need to go back at some point in my life I don't know exactly when that will be but uh it's yeah it's a special place um yeah so I'll go ahead and pull up the hotels I stayed at this is the hotel I spent most of my time at the hotel golden Inca and it's uh I wish you could see the front of the hotel it's distinct oh here we go this is a good example I can show they have this breakfast every single day so I'd start off the day I'd go upstairs and have they'd have like toast andh fruit and a little bit of meat and uh a little bit of vegetables and some tea I'd have te was a great way to start off the day because I was exerting myself a lot in Cusco super super active I was the healthiest I think I've ever been in my life in Cusco because I was so active and the weather is so conducive there to getting out and uh doing stuff the uh so yeah so I was staying here this is I was like I was maybe maybe 10 blocks from the uh historical City so I wasn't in the historical City but how I would get there is I walk up the hill khon REO REO REO REO and I'd walk where's the plaza de armas I'll just pop it in the map here Plaza okay that's that's not what I was looking for let's see Plaza yeah so I would walk it was about a 18 minute walk um a little over half a mile I'd walk up the hill and then down this road and then I'd be in the Historical Center I loved it because it it felt a little bit more spacious I didn't feel quite as densely packed as the Historical Center the hotel is a bit more modern and also there's it's right next to this or across the street from there's some kind of Transportation or construction like business across the street which was kind of interesting just to see that to look out the window and to see that it was relatively quiet uh it wasn't perfectly quiet but it was relatively quiet for being in such a convenient location uh being so close to the Old City it also the thing that I liked about it was that you had access to this local neighborhood where you had a lot of local people who work in tourism the tourism industry but they're not going to live in the old city right because the old city is pretty pricey you're paying a premium for rent in The Old City it's also not easy to like drive around in the old city so like if you want a place to park your car you're not going to really find a I don't I don't think any of my friends that lived in the old city had cars uh whereas here it's more like a normal neighborhood and the people were so friendly too they got to know me at the convenience store I'd go to the convenience store to get Gatorade and they got and also get my laundry done uh because I didn't really I don't think I saw in this part of the city any laundromats where you'd go and wash your own clothes so I'd go and pay probably like a dollar a kilo equivalent so very good value as far as laery service there and then I get my Gatorade and also they have a ton of places that open late night like even though it's kind of a sleepy City in certain ways it's not like people feel relaxed but you can get like you noticed a meets restaurant is open till 11: PM it it's a place that seems like it should close early but it doesn't um and also I would sleep really good there once I got adjusted the altitude I was working out a lot I would sleep like a baby um every almost every night which is not easy for me like I I've struggled with insomnia since I was pretty young and so to be able to get a good night's sleep every night was wonderful it's also like uh being here is also just a very convenient to get to the um it was kind of a long walk but like it bad in a cab to come down here to Plaza via which is like cusco's biggest store um so if you need to go to pull it up here if you need to go to a Walmart type of a store they've got all kinds of normal Goods I bought some clothes there um you've got a lot of imported goods here like if you want laay potato chips um if you want you know just your normal stuff it's it gives you a sense of normaly in such an interesting eclectic City where you don't expect to be able to find a Walmart type of a store but you have that convenience there so it's very very convenience they've convenient they've also got a movie theater which shows a lot of the modern movies it's it's uh I looked at it staying here as The Best of Both Worlds I have the access to the old city where a number of my friends stay and I can meet up with people very easily it's a central location for people throughout the city we don't know where to meet oh let's just meet up at the plaza de armest or let's just meet up at this restaurant in the old city and that's a little bit harder when you're more on the outskirts so I liked it proximity to the old city and then proximity to the new city because if you go over here to the to the newer city you've got uh there's even an anime store in Cusco like to be in Cusco is far away from I think there was also video game shop there's all these conveniences in the new part of the city that you wouldn't expect in such an ancient and traditional City coupled with the old world down the street so it's like the new world is here and then the old world is over here here the other place uh and I think I stayed in a couple of other places but the other place that I stayed was because I I wanted to mix it up I thought why don't I check out a different part of town I like this but I also want to stay somewhere a little bit different and also there was some good deals on it they were so nice um the guy moved there from Lima he bought this hotel [Music] the hotel oh here we go Hotel Tor Dada so after I figured out that cusa is a pretty safe City then I wanted to check out some other places and I thought I'm up here why don't I go to a different part of the city still not in the Historical Center but and I did stay in the Historical Center when I first got there there was a hosti I stayed in um can't think of the name off the top of my head it was you know it was okay it created I think it catered to a little bit younger crowd uh but yeah um Hotel Tor D so I booked this hotel because I thought ah it's a little bit further outside of the city center it might have a bit more local Vibes it might have uh some different markets or different kind of interesting things down there and this hotel super comfortable very modern very nice rooms the shower was freaking awesome like really nice hot water of course all the uh both both of the hotels I stayed in had hot water the hostel did not have hot water kind of a disappointment but yeah really nice breakfast here they uh they would serve like they basically they'd send one of the ladies there uh to the market and she would just buy a bunch of different fruit and then she would just ask me okay which which fruit do you want I'll just cut it up and uh and how do you want your eggs cooked and such great Hospitality made me feel so included and the hotel is just super comfortable I I really liked this hotel a lot and uh and different too I mean different like not in the city center surround it was like in a residential neighborhood too which was kind of surprising surrounded by residential houses it was also uh you have this park here right in front which is a nice place I'd go there at around Sundown and just enjoy the sunset that's I have I didn't see this building this is beautiful but uh yeah you have this this park here and then also you could walk along you could kind of walk by the river not exactly but you I mean it was pretty peaceful place to go walking but yeah lots of local places I liked too I would come down here and there's a lot of local restaurants where you could have fantastic I think it's like what I would call the best value for money for food of any City I've been to in the world they I would have like I have these small steak or chicken lunches for like six solay which is equivalent to about a150 um the laptop charger is there we go okay it's staying on I was just kind of shocked confused by that but yeah this was a great neighborhood to stay in there's a market I was going to Marcato was it Marcato de juano uh this might have been it but uh maybe it was Cusco SE no yeah but very different uh very different from being in the city center and people were super welcoming in this neighborhood too I was kind of surprised because it's very much a local neighborhood people were very nice they had uh somewhere around here they had a place where almost like a soccer camp or soccer training facility where people could uh practice soccer really interesting um what else and also not too far I mean you can still like I'll show you here wait um I could still get to Plaza de armis in about 4 minutes of walking um or i' just call it cab it's you know it's not that bad like pricewise you're not going very far so I'd walk up there and it was you a little bit steep I mean you're walking uphill most of this way but still it provided me an opportunity to explore some different neighborhoods but um yeah I I think I'm gonna wind down here guys my throat is really really starting to go um I greatly appreciate the you both joining me for this long Gerard and also Tony thank you again Tony for the super chats always appreciated you know your cont rtion definitely helps the channel continue to go and continue to grow as well um thanks so much I I can't thank you guys enough for helping taking me back to this experience and I could definitely talk more about Cusco and future streams because it was a highlight of my time in Latin America um I liked Colombia a lot I enjoyed seeing my buddy chully in there but Peru was uh I love the piece of my heart in Peru that's the best way to put it and always good to visit with you Tony it is like having a cup of coffee together these live streams are um so yeah if you haven't uh just going to do a little bit of a rundown on some admin stuff before I wrap the stream up if you're watching this on repeat please give us a thumbs up it helps with the YouTube algorithm um comment if you're interested in going to Peru or to in America if that's something that is intriguing to you after watching the stream I wouldn't blame you it's definitely been a highlight for folks like myself Tony and I'm sure many other subscribers will make it there one day uh finally if you're watching a repeat of this stream and you haven't yet please subscribe to the Channel Down Below we greatly appreciate your subscriptions and yeah we'll wrap it up here thanks so much everyone I hope everybody has a great week ahead and see you soon

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