hey there we go audio is on great great hey everybody sorry about that I am very apologetic uh about that and um still learning a lot about how the streaming Works my rpods uh ran out of battery and
uh you can see them charging and whenever that happens there's not like I maybe I need to check out on YouTube just learning from other streamers like what they kind of do I know some people do super long
streams like uh Destiny's a really popular vlogger he does like he'll do six R hour streams and so I'm not sure I guess he just probably has a mic set up and he's not using something like this uh
yeah great to see you Tony thanks so much for joining and I appreciate everybody's patience wonderful John great great uh glad to hear that um yeah okay so I wanted to tackle uh and I guess it muted me
but thanks so much for join joining Tony I know you've been wanting to to join and participate for a while I'm so glad to to see you here welcome uh and then welcome back as well to John one
of our new viewers or subscribers you mentioned Cambodia uh so I guess kind of getting back to what I was talking about earlier I know that some people have an extreme preference I have not found anywhere I haven't
liked so I've been at this point to 17 countries and then had layovers in a couple of countries and uh those two were China and Taiwan so haven't technically visited China or Taiwan I would like to in the
future uh but the rest have been you know sprinkled throughout North America South America Europe Asia and uh and then Morocco as well for Africa and I haven't found that I didn't like anything about any of these places
there are places that I prefer and there are places that I really want to go back to places that I'm I'm not as um I'm not as convinced that I have to go back there I would say that
you know Thailand ranks very high for me it's among my favorites it's the first kind of long longer solo trip that I did on my own uh before that my first country I visited was Israel second country was
Mexico um but Israel trip was a study abroad for college and then the Mexico trip was just like a week and it was really a lot of fun but it was very short um and so the third one
was Thailand for a month and so Thailand has a special place in my heart and it's just such a special place that I'll never forget it and I always love it but I love Cambodia as well so uh
kind of talking a bit about what you mentioned about Cambodia I found it to just be I learned a lot about resilience there I learned a lot about like needing to be strong I learned a lot about like
sometimes you know when you come from a challenging background uh you feel like the world is out to get you or you feel like why can't I just catch a break and when I spent time in Cambodia it
really it made me more appreciative of what I have and I like the people a lot too I actually went there because I to meet a buddy of mine who convinced me to come check it out uh we've
been friends online for a long time through some online communities um but he was just like you should check it out I was like I've been to Thailand before but like man Cambodia like a lot of you know
people have kind of warned me about it and he was like No just check it out and I checked it out we had a blast we had so much fun uh we had so much fun in Cambodia I
mean like in Pome pen I mean we went out on the town hit up some bars hit up you know uh like a a a karaoke spot and uh it just you know I had the time of my
life there it like and then I um met up with a uh met a local woman on Tinder and she was a lot of fun and she showed me a bit around pen pen and like uh she I
don't know how to explain it like that was a life airm experience Cambodia overall for me so many times Pome Pen Life affirming experience um one of the one of the best trips I've ever had one of the
best places that I've ever spent time in totally underrated had no expectations for it and then I go in I'm having a blast with my friend I'm wandering around this city that reminds me of New Orleans like if
if you've ever been to the United States Pome pen reminds me a lot of New Orleans New Orleans is one of my favorite American cities because it's got the French influence like not only just like the like culture
or the food but also just the architecture like you look around and it's they've got all these ornate decorations and like uh it's just such a visually appealing City and the the um the main I don't know if
it's the temple anyway it's just such a cool City I I liked it a lot I like the history there's also a lot of tragedy there which puts things in perspective learn a lot about uh just you know
where the country came from through a lot of history museums and also through some displays met another Local woman who told me a lot taught me a lot about just like other parts of the country and told me
like hey penom Pen's cool I'm from here but like you should go to like baton bang or you should go check out the cardamom mountains or uh get out of penom pan like it's a cool City but it's
just the tip of the iceberg and and I feel feel the same way about Bangkok bangkok's a wonderful City but like there's so much to Thailand but yeah I I can't say enough positive things about my time in
Cambodia I'd be happy to go back um you know I if I wasn't squeezed for time I would take a bus from Bangkok or a flight to penom pen and then head on to Vietnam um but I've heard
it's a little bit tricky going through the land border from Cambodia to Vietnam and that's why I'm doing the flight is that I feel like the flight will be easier because I'll I won't have to rely on getting
a visa to the border which can be a little bit tricky I I'll be able to apply for it probably tomorrow probably tomorrow after I make my final immigration run I will uh I will apply for my Vietnam
Visa because if I get denied like you have to be very specific on the form the form you've got to include your first and uh middle name and then in the second part your last name some people don't
include their middle name and they get rejected but it is part of the passport uh so that'll give me a Runway I've heard it can take up to a few weeks for approval then you know by by the
end of this month I should have that Visa or if I've gotten rejected I'll know what I need to do to correct it and I'll be prepared to go to Vietnam but Cambodia is definitely on my list to
go back uh to and you know who knows maybe uh maybe I changed my mind about going to the Philippines maybe I go to Cambodia instead it's also Cambodia is also a place that I'm kind of interested in
for like a year because pre- pandemic and I don't know if they're offering it now but pre pandemic they were doing like they were offering like year visas for like 300 bucks so you know for 300 bucks you
know you go in you're good for a year you're not having to do like U uh runs or extensions or like any of that kind of thing and that sounds like easy mode to me um just you know
pay your flat fee you get your stamp you're affiliated with the local business and then you're able to just check things out what I'd probably do at that point is I'd probably get an apartment in penom pen and
then use it as a base to go check out other places for a week or two at a time um or do what I've done here like stay in P pen for a month and then go out to
other parts of the country a kempot is high on my list really want to check out the kempot peppers um they have a lot of really good Peppers up there that just really intrigue me uh and then just
seeing other parts of the country CM reap what am I thinking CM Reap is high on my list I if for nothing else like even though there's all this other stuff I love about Cambodia and I want to
go check out uh CM Reap is really up there for me being able to see Anor watt being able to see the other the sort of Second City in Cambodia super super interesting to me um it's let's see
Tony says I really liked your videos in Cusco Alex thank you so much Tony I was not expecting to love Cusco as much as I did not that I thought I wouldn't like it but like I don't know
like it just it's got that mysterious Vibe Peru reminds me of Thailand where you just feel like you're in some other world like time stopped and that is such a comforting feeling for me coming from the US that
such a dynamic place that's grow the economy grows rapidly and things change and towns change and cities change and people change and there's all this change and then you go to a place like Cusco and you're like this
place hasn't changed that much in like five six hundred years in some ways of course some ways it has changed they do have computers and a great internet there but in in other ways it's like wow like certain
aspects of this town are just so ancient and I like the people a lot the people are very warm and friendly um it was kind of surprising to me how friendly they were to Outsiders and like how welcomed
I felt not just the expats but also a lot of the locals met some local made some local friends as well one person I want to go back and see at some point is a guy named Freddy and
uh I ran into Freddy by accident I was just like wandering in some of the upper neighborhoods of of Cusco near uh near Sakai W Wan and Friday was like hey man what's up and I was like oh
hey what's up I'm just like wanding around Cusco um you know trying to learn more about the city he's like well you know I'm a tour guide if you want to go check out this spot we could just
hop in my SUV and go check it out I'm like that sounds great and so uh he showed me around he told me about the local culture taught me about kind of how they're adjusting in the modern world
or adapting how he felt like uh they were moving away from some of the the Spanish traditions and and one of his goals was to move back toward the Incan Traditions he talked about struggling as a young man
with anger and frustration unhappiness and how pursuing these Incan Traditions really really kind of brought him back to his roots and helped him to feel centered and connected with his ancestors and uh Cusco is a really special place
it's one of those places that uh I I do want to go back to like it it's just really high on my list and and um I I I felt that emotional connection to the place and to the
people and there's also this sense of isolation that you feel there because you're in the Andes mountains and you're so far away from everything and like most people get there uh by by plane right so you're you're flying
there to the middle of nowhere you're up at 12,000 FT elevation you don't really you feel like you're on another planet you don't really see how you're connected to the Earth in some ways like I I maybe you
feel like you're at the top of the planet but it's just such a cool feeling and I I love Cusco Cusco is really cool City uh Tony says I all or John says I also started following that YouTuber
seems like a genuine guy also like that guy on Cambo vlogs I'll have to check it out uh Tony says it's funny how people gravitate towards similar channels I like that channel because he's humble quiet and down toe
like Alex well thank you so much Tony that's very kind of you to say I appreciate that I wasn't always a humble or quiet person but I definitely had some lessons some tough lessons in my life that that
pushed me to be more reflective and and to think more about gratitude and um yeah and just just try to be a better person and and travel has done some of that for me right I mean when we're
coming from a developed country that's so wealthy we feel like we're rock stars or Superstars some of us do some of it it goes to some of our heads myself and um then you you leave and you go
to other places and you see the struggles that people have and you think see the things that people worry about and the things that people are concerned about and the things that people care about and it really it
it's kind of like a mirror and it flect some of that um those feelings back and you see yourself in a different light and yeah it's it's really really I really appreciate you saying that because I haven't always
haven't always been that way uh John Paul says how much stuff are you usually traveling with are you a minimal traveler I usually travel with a 40 ler bag that I can take on the plane but I'm only
traveling for two or three weeks at a time yes so I actually I can show you really quick John um this up so I'm traveling with this backpack yeah so this is the backpack I got this from my
previous Company the company I worked for in California and it's still in good shape even though I'm not working there anymore and so I thought why don't it's a North Face why don't I use it for my travels
when I started I went big like I had those you know you see the Backpackers in changmai or Bali or any of these really popular destinations for Backpackers and I insisted I have to have this big backpack and
I I lugged it all the way to changmai and as I traveled more and more I'm like okay the important stuff as long as the important stuff fits in my backpack laptop camera gear uh toiletries and a few
changes of clothes I'm good to go if there's something that comes up I'll just buy it and that's that's really served me well this trip there's a few things I wish I brought more of uh one being deodorant
I can't find the deodorant I like here uh very easily and if you do see it like Tom's deodorant Tom's of Maine it's like $20 a stick so that's a bit more than what I'm willing to pay but
uh yeah that's something if I would have brought if I could have brought a few more things I would have brought multiple sticks of sunscreen I like the deodorant stick style sunscreen and then also regular deodorant I would
have brought maybe two or three sticks of each of those um those are a little bit harder to find here but yeah less is more for me because especially when I want to move around um the less I
have the easier it is to kind of get around and do stuff and it took me a while to get there never thought I would I always thought how can people you know when I first TR traveled back
in the States it's like two suitcases and a backpack and like oh gosh is this enough like packing you know my closet into my uh luggage and and since I've traveled a lot since then I cut down on
what I need and a lot of it's just like um just accepting it's not I'm not going to have everything from back home that was that could be a little bit challenging because we're so used to convenience in
the west but I realized got to give it up got to give some of it up if you want to fully engage and not be just so consumed by carrying the stuff be interesting to see your Tech travel
setup um so for my laptop that's I actually I should do a video on that John that's a why don't I make a note of that um video on Tech travel uh setup and John I made a note
I am going to do a video on my tech travel setup uh because I think that would be really helpful for people to kind of get a glimpse into like what my style is um basic I'll just do
a basic run through really quick I've got a Macbook Pro I bought last year with h part of my severance check I really enjoy the computer I know Mac is controversial brand but uh I just find it to
be so great espe for the horsepower for editing 4K that's something I been found super helpful with having a Mac is I'm exclusively shooting in 4k now and uh it has an easy time rendering and um yeah putting
together those videos and it just it's saving me so much time and it's really helped me to increase my output Tony your Reflections on your time in Cusco that hey you know what that might be an interesting video
too Tony I'll make a note of that uh reflecting on my time in CCO yeah because I I think a lot of people would enjoy that and you know I feel conflicted sometimes about calling my channel Eastern dreamer
because I do feel uh a sense of attachment to Latin America and a curiosity about Latin America um I go back and forth on it on my next extended trip should I do something in Latin America it even
a a short-term sh in fact I think La Latin America in some ways from from an American perspective can be better if I'm going if like let's say I'm working my normal 9et to-5 in the US and I
get two weeks off it's a much easier time to just fly down to Latin America and you don't have to deal with a time zone difference so I'm not getting uh super jet lagged and of course it has
like it's the further I get away from America the the more time or energy or effort it takes me to integrate into the local culture scene and uh Latin America is closer in that way culturally it's more similar
I think foodwise it's more similar um some of the there's things that I recognized in Latin America from growing up in the US that I don't see as much here like skate parks I loved checking out skate parks
in Latin America they're so cool and the people there are so talented and it's just just like a it's a connection you know I I didn't get to skateboard much growing up but I always wanted to and so
I'd go to skat Parks some meden especially uh and there are skate parks throughout the city of medine I would you know talk to the skaters like wow like how can you do that and watch for hours I
mean there are times where I just sit there for hours and watch skaters skate and uh me just totally mesmerized John Paul says Tony Gua very true Frugal traveler kind of reminds me of a more successful version of
Dave and Cambodia I need to make a n a note of frugal Trav traveler Jay says Philippines is definitely on my list yeah Philippines is incredible um the Philippines it's so beautiful it's just such a beautiful country like
the nature there is so gorgeous and it's it's underdeveloped to me like I know some people think it's I'm crazy saying this there's some element of the Philippines that feels almost still like a secret to me and if
for nothing else comparison of Tourism numbers Thailand last year had 29 million visitors Philippines had something like maybe three to four million and when I was there I felt a genuine sense from welcome from a lot of people
who were like wow you came into the Philippines like local people are like surprised because um you know I think they that them being like a regional neighbor to Thailand they're seeing all these people going to Thailand every
time I come to Thailand uh or every time I go around Thailand especially in Bangkok uh I encounter Filipinos so Filipinos know about Thailand they're coming to Thailand but my Tha friends have never been to the Philippines so
I I did get that sense of gratitude and welcome that perhaps if you're in an over tourist City area like maybe some parts of Mexico you're not getting that that welcome as much just because they're so accustomed to
seeing tourists or foreigners but the Philippines is one of those places that I think people need to see before it totally like it totally just go goes big on the scene I mean and it already has to some
extent right I mean you hear about it with the uh a lot of the expats in the Philippines a lot of Americans are over there unfortunately some are um not giving us a great name but uh I think
it's going to be more and more popular in the future because it's just such a beautiful place and the people are hospitable and it's different it's very very different from just anything visually in the US but the people
have English uh so yeah Philippines I I give it a thumbs up it's also got a lot of variety uh you've got big cities there you've got a lot of islands also the different Islands do feel quite different
from each other to me anyway uh last when I was there four years ago I visited seu or SIU I got correct on a recent stream on Philippines Antics but SIU kigan Island and then kagay and deoro it
was just uh really interesting to see the differences to talk to the people um and to learn you know people around over there move around a lot too like my buddy and kagay and deoro who I went to
meet four years ago his mom's from dumag Getti uh so even though a lot of people they may think of it like in the US context where like oh I'm from Texas or I'm from California or I'm from
Tennessee but even though he's from kagay and deoro he still got that tie back to toag Getti uh Tony says Cusco has such a mystical look and feel to it your videos in Cusco were really self-reflective on being
introverted yeah I need to talk more about introversion because I'm starting to realize like you know from talking to youo that a lot of people are interested in that that you know I think at face value a lot
of people think oh you're traveling abroad you're you're going to a party destination you're you're just you know partying the whole time and um that's not the case for a lot of people and that's kind of been surprising
to me because when I first went to uh abroad that's kind of what I was expecting like okay we're going abroad we're gonna have a great time it's it's just to let off steam and then you know Cusco
was that place where I spent until this most recent trip I'd spent more time in Cusco than any other city outside the US and I was like this is really a place I could live like this is not
just a place I enjoy not just a place I like this is a place where I feel like I could live and one of my friends that I met there Maya she's still living there she's actually from Belgium
and I thought it was going to be one of those places like changai and I love changai but changai has a lot of people who come in for a few months maybe they come for six months 3 to
six months something like that maybe they just come for the high season uh November through February and then they're off to another destination but Cusco had a lot of long timers and that really stuck out to me I'm
like and another guy named Cody he's been there for like probably four or five maybe six or seven years he recently had a child with a his Peruvian wife and that really shocked me that was really really shocking
to me that uh you have these long long timers in Cusco and that shifted my perspective again to where I was like okay this is really doable like people really do this people really live overseas for a long
time and uh and it doesn't necessarily have to be about having a good time in the uh kind of assumptive way that a lot of people when you talk about living abroad they assume it's for uh pursuing women
or partying and there's a lot of people that live abroad for a lot of different reasons and those are just kind of shallow assumptions that maybe some people make but uh don't apply to everyone if you go to
C John says if you go to CM ree check out Lo tooi resident it's a really nice hotel with a cool Garden swimming pool and they have 100 to 150 monthly deal month month contract that's a really good
deal I'm going to look that up right now lock oh it popped up immediately yeah I'm gonna I have to make a note of this lock tooi residence thank you so much John um why don't we actually pull
up uh Cusco and we can share um I've walked through this Plaza so many times it's just and the weather oh the weather in Cusco is some of my favorite it's like um I can't think of the Celsius
conversion I do apologize John but it's like 40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and it's just so comfortable H 45 it gets chilly but you just get these big heavy blankets ideally um with some like uh alpaca hair and
uh you just feel so cozy it's just such a cozy City like yeah it's such a cozy City and it's so beautiful and you have the beautiful Spanish uh I don't know if you call it a cathedral here
Church um very very beautiful and then you've got these mountains in the background and I've wandered around this place so many times and into some really odd I remember one time I somehow got I try to get myself
lost in some of these places uh just for fun and excitement maybe a little bit less now but especially you know several years ago and I found myself in this random neighborhood like B totally dis on one of
these like the back end of one of these Hills and I had no idea how to get back to the city like the city where I was staying like not too far from here actually maybe yeah maybe like
eight or 10 blocks away from uh the plaza de armas this this area and I find this family that's just like I don't know they're at their they're at their house and I've like wandered in front of their
house and I'm trying to get back but there's all these dogs that people are using as security so I've got to be careful to avoid these dogs and they're like okay you see these train tracks and they pointed
down the hill at these train tracks they're like okay walk down to the train tracks and then you could follow them back to the city and so that's what I did I walked down to the train tracks and
I'm like okay I'm just trusting him like I can't see the city from our perspective but I don't have any reason to not believe him I even called an Uber before I tried that and it's like okay the
Uber is gonna take like an hour to get to you and then the Uber just canceled I called another one it was like okay the Uber is going to take 45 minutes to get to you because there's so
many winding and twisting roads and that Uber canceled and so then I I went to the people they gave me the advice eventually I found my way back to town uh but that was just a really funny story
towards end of my time there your Tony says your description of Cusco the in this stream the mysticism the combo of yeah it's just such a special place Tony I'm so glad we have that shared experience um yeah
Cusco like it's a little bit tricky to get to you have to uh you know for me I flew well I came from Colombia but going back like uh when I was going back to the States I flew
from uh Cusco to Lima but a lot of the flights from Lima are like late night so you have to end up flying overnight and so I flew from Cusco to Lima I think I I I spent a
week in Lima or 10 day no I spent 10 days in Lima uh and then I flew back to the states which you fly overnight so you get there like kind of an odd hour I think I got
there like I got to Atlanta and then I flew from Atlanta to Nashville or no Atlanta or Miami uh and then back to Nashville but it's it's worth it like it's really worth it it's place I'd happily go
back to and I'd like to see more of Lima too like I felt like a week or 10 days was not enough in Lima some might disagree but there was a lot there that I wanted to explore more
of of course I made a friend here in Bangkok from Lima and he kind of warned me about some of the safety issues in Lima uh so he's opened a perubian restaurant here in Bangkok called uh uh okay
good screen comeing back thanks so much I do apologize for that um and thank you so much for letting me know because I I want to make sure this is uh as as um Quality experiences it can be
um but uh wow wow you okay so John says well done on being such a light traveler one bag travel is the way best way to go yeah it's so much more convenient I don't have this nagging feeling
that I forgot something when I traveled with more stuff I was always worried okay what did I forget did I forget this did I forget that are they gonna be able to mail it to me do I need
to reach out to Hotel reception and mention oh I forgot this with one back backpack travel it also forces me to not buy a bunch of extra stuff that I don't need I when I was younger I'd always
be buying these trinkets or whatever especially in America when you feel like oh I've got to buy something or it didn't count or nobody nobody will believe me that I went to Florida or California if I don't come
back with something and I don't do that anymore now it's like the memories are the important part the relationships the important part and if I love a place enough I'll go back there in my lifetime and um yeah
I I agree John that uh one bag is the best way to go and you're just so much more mobile I mean if I want to uh you know if I'm checking out of a hotel and flying out
that night I just throw my backpack on I can wander around and explore when it's time to go just call up a cab or or call up an Uber or hop in a cab and head to the airport
and um yeah just such a relief to have less is more less is definitely more tony says I haven't been back to Cusco in 25 years but still am influenced by my time there and I still dream about
it um the First videos of yours that discovered were the Cusco ones where you travel talked about traveling as an introvert yeah Cusco is so introvert friendly and I really liked that about it that the people were a
bit more quiet and a bit more reserved and so you get the Latin American hospitality and warmth that you have in Colombia or or Mexico for example but sometimes in Mexico or Colombia I didn't feel pressured to socialize
but the people are so nice that like oh you want to engage with them and talk to them and like just learn about them and learn about the way they think and the way they approach decision making and
the way they the things that they value and like um but that can take a lot out of me right like uh that can take a lot out of me and and at times I just want to like
think and and wander and Ponder and Cusco is very very good for that it's really really great for just like not feeling like you need to be on and just taking in the environment and examining like oh wow
like this building looks really cool and like this street just has so much history and you can see that it's been worn down by the sheer amount of pedestrians and um yeah and just I mean people were really
laidback I remember this was during covid and uh they would shut the city down like every Sunday but people would be out anyway I walked out anyway because I'm like look I can't just I can't just sit in
the hotel like all they that just lose my mind and the uh the cops would drive by and they'd flash their lights and honk but they wouldn't get out and do anything they just like hey you shouldn't be
out but they didn't care enough to enforce it and so that was cool that was really cool that I was like I feel like I could get in trouble but like nobody's doing anything so I'm just GNA keep
going out every Sunday and uh it was fine you know it was fine uh John Paul says you only get two weeks off a year in America I heard about it but I didn't think it was true go
to Europe and it's 26 to 42 I'm on 29 but my French boss is on 42 as a standard I'm a little bit confused 26 to 42 like total working weeks uh John if you could um expend on
that a bit Yeah like at my last job worked at this financial technology company and I didn't take a day off for nine months um so I started that job in April of 2022 and did not take maybe
it was eight months it was eight months I didn't take a day off until January of 2023 so I worked from April of 2022 all the way to January without I mean we had Christmas off and we had
some like New Year's Eve off and stuff like that but I didn't take any time off because I was like just in the grind needed to make as much money as I could uh while the getting was good
and I also wanted to learn a lot it was a different kind of role it was uh outbound sales so a lot of cold calling and uh a lot of like cold Outreach emailing people trying to set up
these uh the software you know software deals basically but uh yeah I finally took a couple weeks off and I went to Europe for the first time so that was the nice part about that job is even though
time off was you know it was for me I've been spoiled by long-term travel so like two weeks to me in Europe just felt like a taste uh whereas to people that are in the grind like two weeks
how could you take two weeks off um and my cooworker established it because he didn't take time off until like November so he was there for seven months and didn't take time off then he wanted to go do
two weeks in New Zealand and so uh he set the precedent he got some push back but he pointed out like hey I saved up my time I haven't taken a day off in like seven eight months because
I want to go do two weeks and I've never never been to New Zealand and so he and his girlfriend went there and really really enjoyed it and so I was like okay well if he gets two weeks
off I get two weeks off and so I went to uh started in London went down then had a day in London flew down to Portugal uh spent a couple days in Portugal in The Algarve and then I
ended up going to Spain because I didn't realize how easy it was to get to Spain and so I then I spent like 10 days in Spain uh and then I came back to the algar for a couple
of days and farro and also visited OA and stopped through Tavira but I really wish I'd spent more time in Tavira because Tava is so beautiful let's pull up to Vera yeah tavir is gorgeous we just stopped through
but I'd like to actually take some time to explore um and then I had a day in London before I flew back to the San Francisco area the John says the French know how to do holidays yes I
I've heard that I have heard that that the the friends definitely know how to do holidays Tony says where are you from watching from I'm watching from Poland uh Tony says I'm in Canada oh very cool um Poland
I've never been to Poland what's Poland like John are you originally from Poland or are you there for your uh job opportunities um and Tony says I'm in Canada what a beautiful Country Canada is John says You must
know Toronto Brad oh okay great U so John says uh I mean days it can vary from 26 days a year is minimum and max out at 42 days a year in France only for that Max that's a
ton of time off that's really generous that's I guess that's a Max of seven weeks off and oh that's 42 days so that's actually more like eight weeks off and then an additional two days so that's that would
be amazing man like I need to you know I need to research more about France because having two minutes off I'd be probably feel a little bit more lacad isical about pursuing fire if I had that much time
off to enjoy of course um you know some of that would be Transit time like if you wanted to do I don't know uh four four pairs or four sets of two week vacations then that might be nice
but uh the downside of Europe you will be taxed so much on your salary average for a guy like you on a good salary is 40% and up to 50% in Belgium yeah that's that's nuts um that's super
high in America I'm very fortunate that with this business I can actually write off a lot of expenses and so uh even even with the high taxes in California which to be fair the taxes in California are up
there right they're close to 50% if you don't have writeoffs with a business that can write off a lot of expenses which is going to be wonderful uh that's going to help a lot with the refund check my
tax refund check but like for California uh so first I pay 30% Federal uh so right off the top close to a third of my income is paid to the Federal government uh and then California at my at
that tax bracket I was in it was another I think it was 6 and a half 7% so then that goes to the state then also consumption tax is like 10% so anything I buy I pay an additional
10% uh whether it be takeout food or purchases from Amazon uh there's another 10% then also property tax is baked into my rent and so uh you know I imagine at least 10 to 20% of my rent was
probably just paying the owner's property tax so California can really add up but you've got a lot of ways to mitigate it like Ira or not Ira uh 401k contribution so that helps me is I immediately because my
employer had a match immediately put away I think I for that job it was 6% then they matched me half that so they matched 3% and uh that helped reduce taxes my tax burden and of course I can
expense a lot of things now that I have my YouTube business going which will help me reduce that even more like my flights my anything related to business so uh you pay it on the front end with the
job being taxed slot and then ideally you can get some of it back on the back end uh through strategic decision making Poland is a fantastic PL Place being here for 10 years Great Value beautiful ladies amazing Summers
and negative 20 Winters I love it here you know one YouTuber that's based in Poland right now um I don't know I I've like I've been watching some of his content I think we have different approach or think
about things in a different way but a guy named where's West uh he's uh Chinese Filipino ameran uh so his family is originally from Manila but he grew up in the states and he recently did a trip to
Southeast Asia he came he visited Thailand Vietnam and the Philippines and I think he's in Poland right now and he really likes Poland I actually discovered him because he was living in medine or no he was living in
he was living in a town south of meden I don't remember the name um was it Manzanita maybe that was it um but he married a Colombian woman it didn't work out unfort but he really opened up a
lot about his experiences colia and uh yeah I I enjoy his channel um he focuses a bit more on The Dating than I do I don't consider dating as much of a priority at the current time um but
yeah he's got some interesting content I look forward to seeing more of what he has to say about Poland I'll definitely reach out John if if you're uh he's he's not polish but he's actually uh he's actually American
but he's based in Poland right now and he's uh originally his family is from the Philippines uh he's uh a Chinese Filipino guy but American and I say that just because he's talked about it I don't uh I
share that just because as Americans it can be a bit ambiguous like I'm an American but I also am so uh yeah I I like his content of course like I said he covers a lot he focuses a
lot on dating not as much of a focused topic for my Channel at the current time uh but I think he has some interesting observations and he really um I appreciate his vulnerability talking about his experiences as an
Asian-American guy dating abroad because uh people have different feelings about it you know some people feel like oh it's it's challenging other people feel like it's great he's able to kind of share his experiences which have uh helped
me to better understand the dynamic because he spent quite a bit more time outside the US than I have Tony says I'm also pursuing fire I am two to three years away from getting there uh congrats Tony you're
really getting close like I definitely super excited for you and I'm going to be there to congratulate when you and hopefully you know we're able to to congratulate you on the stream and and really just uh shout you
out because it's such a a big accomplishment it's such an exciting thing it's lifechanging and it's cumulative efforts on your part for many many years advancing in your career learning new skills being disciplined about your purchases and uh
you know some people say oh the world would be ruined if everybody was financially independent I totally disagree uh I think the world would be a much better place if everybody were financially independent uh wealth is just assets
that earn while you sleep and everybody can have assets right we think about like robots in a factory producing wealth there's no shortage of robots there's only shortage of engineering talent to build robots so I I commend anybody
that attains it and anybody that pursues it and even if a person doesn't attain it right or or takes longer than what they anticipated then making strides to be financially disciplined is something that a lot of us that
aren't pursuing that would benefit greatly from um John says where will you fire oh Tony says same for me but I'm five years away aiming for 900k Euro how about you what is your fire number John says where
will you fire at Asia Tony says probably Latin America Peru Mexico Bolivia Ecuador are the places I think about Mo uh mostly great choices Tony yeah they're all uh they're all beautiful places um and several of those that
you mentioned are are of interest to me thank you so much Tony you are the first person that has uh sent me a super chat I can't thank you enough that is so so generous and um I just
really appreciate that that's that's so nice of you and um definitely helping to to uh to make me continue to be able to create content and share with everybody that's it's kind of a more long-term goal of mine
is to do this full-time the goal would be really to hit my fire number so that I'm not I don't want to rely on it right I don't want to be one of those YouTubers that's like and I've
been in in live streams where people are like where the do donations this and that and um you know no judgment everybody's got a got a Hustle but um you know that's the dream of mine is to be
able to just make tons and tons of content to help people to like better understand the world around them because I think from a different perspective because I the thing that I noticed about a lot of YouTube con
travel content or living abroad content when I first started traveling long term was that a lot of it is designed to help you on your vacation plans and I think vacations are important like I always say the first
step should be a vacation then the next step should be a discovery trip and then you actually make the move um you can't do a discovery trip without that cursory seeing whether you even like to visit there on
a vacation and you can't live there without that Discovery trip so um being able to do this helping out introverted people helping out people with the financial side of things because I often talk about it like you know
people you know people say like how do you do it and it's like where where the sort of the holes in the boat that you got to patch and like one of those things is the finance right is
like how am I going to get to the point where my Equity provides me with the money that I need uh to survive and so that's the goal for a lot of people and um trying to show the
you know the way to get there but also the way to build a lifestyle that's not around having a good time because not really not having a good time but people have a certain definition of what having a
good time looks like and for me I've been able to have a lot of fun doing it in a more um doing in a way that fits my style uh doing it a way that fits my style and
I think is a little bit more sustainable because I found that when I'm in party mode and I found this out in my hometown when I was partying all the time when I was younger I just got burnt
out like I my pleasure receptors were burned out I was tired I um I lost that s that magic right I lost that sense of magic and enthusiasm and I see that at times when I'm abroad right you
hear about it sometimes too if you see certain expat YouTubers uh or content creators and you can tell they're kind of burnt out on it and and for me I worried a bit about that uh when I came
here to Thailand but that hasn't been the case for me at all I don't feel burnt out on Thailand at all I love Thailand more than ever it's um I I feel just uh you know it's um it
just keeps growing on me it just keeps growing on me and there's more depth that I find to Thailand with each trip I meet more people I see more and more of the country I I'm humbled by the
kindness that the people show me like just how kind type people are and how nice they are and throughout the country too like whether it's Bangkok or Krabby or Patia or changai uh it's just really been such a
special place and it's taught me a lot about how I can better conduct I can conduct myself in a better a more positive way a more calm way uh John thank thank you so much I really appreciate your
support as well it really means a lot to me um you know I can't thank you you and Tony enough for being my first Super Chat contributors I I just man that's I'm I'm humbled that I'm able to
provide value for people enough that they'd be willing to contribute so of their hard-earned money to um helping make my dream a reality and and I plan to continue to try to deliver as much value as possible uh
such that you guys are able to uh gain some kind of different Insight or different perspective and uh maybe some different ideas that that help you in your journey Tony says if these super chats keep coming uh Alex
is gonna hit lean fire in this stream yeah wouldn't that'd be nice Tony that that's um that's so funny that that's yeah it's it's um it's definitely a goal of mine to to you know to hit lean fire
uh or hit fire and then have all of my bills covered and then be able to just do this content and like oh okay well if this video or topic wasn't successful or um you know if I want
to go to some place that maybe isn't as popular well who cares like I've got my bills paid by my investments and this kind of Niche place or this industrial city um which is an interest of mine I'm
weird in that way but I like to see industrial cities I still can't figure out why maybe it was from when I was growing up my grandfather used to uh take me to construction sites and he would take
me to like the fire department and he was a in law enforcement for his career previous to that he was the military and so he would just show me these industrial sites and like industrial places and maybe that's
just throw a throwback to that but there's some like kind of interesting places and and people that I'd like to go meet and tell their stories that aren't on that are off the beaten path and um that's that's
the long-term goal that that's really the long-term goal to be able to do that um yeah and you got it John I'll definitely be uh making a tech travel Vlog I think a lot of people are really going
to enjoy that because um I do have a uh some friends of mine that are from my hometown that watch these and I was kind of the first person to do these long trips abroad outside of like Europe
which nothing wrong with Europe I think Europe's amazing I would love to go back in the future there's so much I have yet to see there I haven't even sced scratch the surface right just having been to the
UK Portugal and Spain um and but right like uh many of us are budget conscious and and I think that Europe can be a little bit heavier on the budget compared to places like Latin America or southeast Asia
especially for people that want to go for a while like one of my high school buddies uh we met in 11th grade actually this was 14 years ago 15 years ago and I never imagined this but he told
me that he's actually planning on coming to Thailand with his girlfriend for a month and one of his close friends and his close friends significant other as well so the four of them are going to be coming to
Thailand later this year unfortunately I'm going to miss them uh likely I'll be in Vietnam when they come here to Thailand but uh it shocked me right because I'm also uh friends with his kind of extended group and
I think you know at times there was a bit of nervousness there right like uh you know when I talked about going to Thailand people like oh my God you're going to Thailand you're going to Mars like you
you are going to Mars by going to Thailand a lot of the people in my hometown had that feeling and I'm like no it's not going to Mars it's just Thailand like I'm still on the same Planet it's
a long plane right but I'm sure the people there are nice uh the fir before I went to Thailand for the first time I'd already eaten tons of Thai food across the United States I had developed a love
for the cuisine and started to get dip my toes into the culture learning about the culture online and uh and that was what was so shocking so you know making a video like that kind of showing them like
hey this is how I pack light uh you may feel intimidated because you're TR taking your first extended trip outside the country uh but then they've seen like I've been here for almost a year with no issues consistently
uploading videos showing different parts of the country uh showing that hey I'm safe like I many ways I feel safer here than where I lived in California um i' I warn people much more so about like hey I'm
going to take a trip to California hey you need to be careful taking a trip to Thailand oh have fun like you're gonna have a great time so that's kind of the dichotomy there where um trying to demystify
it of course it's not a mystery for you John you you spent a lot of time here in Thailand uh but for some viewers I I take for granted I I take this for granted because when I when
I first went to Israel uh we were in I think we're in hia or in natana it's not a very big country it's actually pretty small but we were in one of the beach towns and it was I
think this was hia and uh no maybe it was later in the trip it might have been Nat it might have been natana um or it might have been by the Dead Sea is natana by the Dead Sea
let's pull up a map of Israel so we did this like we did this trip where we in t aiv we went to natana okay then we came up to hia then we came back down to Jerusalem and
then we saw Bea and may it was ashalon I can't recall it was toward the end of the trip and um I was there with by my ex-girlfriend she had jumped on the stud abroad trip as well and
one night toward the end of the trip uh I was like hey I'm just going to go wander around outside like I'm just gonna leave the hotel and just go walk around outside um and to me that was
just normal like i' had never been outside of the country before the trip but I was like how dangerous is it to walk down the street like and I understand right now there's a lot going on I don't
want to get into all that out of respect but at the time it was fine this was 10 years ago and so I went out walking and uh came back to the hotel and my girlfriend at the time
was like why you know oh that's wild that's crazy you can't just go out and walk and I was like what this is normal I was talking to the other students about like yeah I just walked out the
door and just walked around like it's not you know I don't see the problem with that and uh she was shocked and some of the other students were shocked as well like what we need to just stay on
the track we just need to stay with the guide and I was like well it's after hours like we're not it's not during the day and I'm also not walking like 20 miles like I'm just going for a
walk around the city but my ex-girlfriend was like well these people just don't have your experience and I have to be fair I traveled a lot in America by that point I've been to La been to New York
spent several summers in Washington DC uh been to Florida numerous times been to uh you know been all over the country been to Colorado and so uh it wasn't a shock but like realizing that a lot of people
do benefit from seeing like step by step how do you do that I think that would be really helpful for a lot of people R says how do you feel about Japan well uh Japan is interesting um right
now is a great time to go to Japan so the dollar is a super strong I'm not are please clarify or uh are you coming from the US because if you're coming from the US the dollar is really
strong right now it's like a dollar is let's pull this up really quick uh USD to JPY conversion rate 158 so uh really strong right now you have great purchasing power Japan is super safe I just spent a
month in Krabby uh with the only Japanese man in Krabby I didn't interview him because I didn't want to push to Japanese people can be shy I'm part Japanese I can be a shy person working in sales help
me get out of that a bit uh but even so like it's uh you know it's there's so much I could say about Japan it it was it was emotionally hard for me in some ways just because um
people have a very clear sense of what of order and Japan is a very orderly country uh people work very long hours people work very hard there are very multi-layered rules none of these are going to apply to
you as a non-japanese person but uh you know you'll have a wonderful time one of my favorite um history uh history podcasters uh is actually doing a trip in Japan right now he's doing his part of a guided
trip where he's brought along because he's this history expert and he can really he did a series on Japan as well uh it's called history on fire danieli blei bolle and he lives in La um and really interesting
guy he was on Joe Rogan a couple of times actually uh I think they kind of had some differences in the meantime but uh I just reached out to him on Facebook and and befriended him and he's been
through a lot in his life and so uh I've kind of talked him a little bit about that and I found him to real be a really warm and and receptive person but uh yeah with Japan like you
know it's a really good experience you will notice people aren't necessarily stressed out like to where it's going to affect you but you will notice people are kind of worn down people work really long hours um I remember
walking around Osaka at like 9:00 at night and just being so confused because you look in the windows of these Office Buildings and people are still at work and it's like what are you doing like I know we
work long hours in America but I'm not going to be at the office at nine o'clock at night I mean that's just uh I've been in the office as late as like 6 you know 6 PM 6:30 p.m.
but nine o'clock I'm laying in bed like I'm ready to crash out but I'd also see I walk by fine dining establishments and there'd be like a bunch of workers with their boss there uh having drinks and having
dinner and so there's this kind of always on feeling I think that a lot of people have in J uh in Japan that I think can kind of wear on people of course I have a unique perspective because
I was raised by my grandmother from Japan so I look at it in a different light than a tourist would if you're just a regular tourist you'll have a wonderful time I found that there's great value for money
in Japan like things may be more expensive than some other popular tourist destinations but people work hard for their money and they really deliver you Great Value when it comes to accommodation food um transportation's pricey Transportation can be
a bit pricey in Japan but uh even so the cities are clean and orderly and safe and you they're also quite pedestrian friendly due to the War uh destroying a lot of the infrastructure then uh it's very easy
to walk around and like I walked at least 10 miles a day when I was in Japan and cases like in Koto I had a hotel near the train station in the city center the dawa Hotel actually I
have a video on my YouTube kind of doing a room tour but it's pretty shaky so you might not want to watch it but uh I walked from that hotel to the kizu let's pull up a map here
Cho oh yeah so I walked from see directions Dalk which one was it uh I guess daa got bought by another hotel chain it was somewhere in the center okay maybe this yeah okay so I walked from there
to ke that's it seems so much farther back then maybe I walked up here to the north part of Kyoto anyway I walk from here to all the way to the temple this is the famous temple that uh
a lot of people think of when they think of kyotto and uh this Temple is so beautiful 362,000 photos that's how popular this Temple is that's the most photos I've ever seen of any location on Google Maps um
and then walk through this Forest there's this like Forest over here and uh yeah it's just so beautiful you can walk so much in Japan it's just so friendly to um pedestrians and um fukoka is nice too depends
on where you go in Japan too like I would say kind of narrow it down to a region like Kanai or um Edo like if we going to go to Tokyo or kushu like uh where my people are
from on kushu um trying to do all of it it's deceptively like there it's such a dense place like there's so much to do there so much to see that even though it's like the size of California I
wouldn't try to get everything in one trip unless you're going to go for say two or three months then you could do it but if you're going for say a couple of weeks um then even up to a
month then picking one region I think will really increase the quality of your experience Tony says I too like de-industrialized places I live in one in Canada and also lived in West Virginia Pennsylvania I often watch videos of
people driving through Rust Belt towns it is interesting Tony I'm gonna make a note of that to actually look up uh R belel towns I'm going to look that up uh later on tonight before I go to bed
uh when I'm wrapping things up here because I like um I like that too like I like just kind of seeing the remnants of the past and seeing how things change and like being reminded to to appreciate what
we have and I think that seeing those de-industrialized places even though it could be a little bit sad like one of my favorite places that I've been in America is Detroit and that really surprised me but I learned
so much from going to Detroit I went about seven years ago and and um yeah Detroit was really interesting and to just see the change in scenery going from outside the city limits to inside the city limits um
just start and getting stared out a lot too people could definitely tell I was not from Detroit uh and just developing that kind of like you watch documentaries like Roger and me and you hear about like the outsourc
and the offshoring but you don't really fully appreciate it until you see some of these rest Bel towns Detroit being the most notorious but of course Pittsburgh is also up there Pittsburgh's reinvented itself as far as you know
having Carnegie melon and um having some tech companies there but uh you know Rochester I spent some uh at least one summer in Rochester kind of the same story there and uh it's yeah it's tough I mean it's
emotionally difficult to to see what these people have gone through Tony if you like places like that you got to check out Chernobyl I was there a few years ago it's amazing to see how nature takes back a
city plus the overly friendly Chernobyl dogs harmless wow they have dogs there why don't we pull that up actually let's see um wow I've never looked at photographs of it I've seen Indigo traveler video um where he visits
Chernobyl but I've never actually seen pictures of it yeah it's definitely got a dark kind of vibe here wow I do want to check out some former Soviet countries um that's like a weird interest to mine I listened
to this group called mulat Doma uh let's see here they have this interesting sound I think they're from bellus uh yeah but that is wild to see how this I mean you talked about nature overtaking a city um
and you can see it here right you see it looks like a phone booth uh that's falling [Music] apart okay that's I don't think that's chobble [Music] um got a perhaps like an Orthodox Church it looks like it
just has a haunted kind of a look it definitely has that hollowed out feeling too where you notice most of these pictures there's no people that's so weird like I just noticed that like I appreciate that uh you
uh you pointed this out to me John just because i' I've seen some videos but it's like it's been a few years and in those videos you're kind of just like shocked you're not really paying attention to the
details as much as you're like wow I'm looking at Chernobyl but um I didn't expect so many pictures to be uploaded because it's the same same Orthodox Church I do apologize by the way if the background noise is
disruptive here in uh lad prow like uh you got a lot of these people love to come through and and have fun and it's uh it's kind of a it's a busy intersection in the city it's I like
it in that way actually it's Crossroads where you see like the highway and the BTS and the MRT and um it's yeah it's good to be back in Bangkok I I love this city this is um yeah this
is that that Ferris wheel that I think I recall from some of the videos I've seen that you know this fisv hasn't been used in such a long time like just looking at it it's but it's also like
the only one of the only things that's okay there this guy's wearing or G is wearing a red jacket but it's one of the only bits of color in this like you see the gray dead trees you see
a few green but they're dark green and then the gray of the buildings and the gray of the pavement and then these yellow these kind of bright yellow uh carriages like I yeah it's just such a Stark Stark
photograph this looks like maybe it was a former billboard I'm not sure what that is okay that's nice I like that that's real creepy guess it was like maybe a hospital for children so maybe a statue of former
Soviet leader I know some people might judge you know you John for checking it out like oh it's this tough Place how could you you know go there I I think you know more attention to be drawn to
these kinds of difficult places just because uh we got to learn from the the history if we don't want to repeat it and I would definitely be open to checking it out at some point in the future assuming
things are safe and uh yeah interesting I wonder what this I can't read that um make a note to myself about uh what the translation of that sign would be I guess this is the reactor there's another picture
kind of showing nature uh taking back over you've got some of the tanks and uh really interesting tragic um but interesting and you know I've heard there's still some people living there John uh that's I think one of
the most surprising things to me like I know I mentioned you don't really see a lot of people here but I've heard there are some people that just like ah you know what I don't have anywhere else to
go I'm gonna stay here John says I was in Jerusalem about six years ago it's an amazing place the amount of history there is mind bling yeah it's it's one of those places that put things in perspective because
like in America you know America is a fairly young country like 300 years old um less than 30 250 years old and uh going to a place like Jerusalem like makes your problems feel small right like seeing that
people have lived there for thousands of years and fought for what they believe in and uh civilizations have risen and fallen and like you get kind of a different perspective on time I think being in a place like
Jerusalem um why don't we look that up actually pull up yeah the ancient architecture and um the golden uh Dome I remember that distinctly and the I think this is the Wailing Wall I did meet an interesting guy
at my hotel when I was staying there because I couldn't sleep and so I went to go swimming in the pool it was like 2 am and uh there was just like one other person there this tourist and
he was a local he actually lived in Israel and uh learned a lot like just I asked some questions about it because I knew you know my professor had a certain kind of um perspective and I I wanted
to get the perspective of a local and uh he told me you know this is probably a bit idealistic and it's not to me meant to be callous or or inconsiderate of the current situation but he said you
know he has uh he was a Muslim guy he's like I got Jewish neighbors and Christian neighbors we all get along like he's like my barbar's a Jewish guy when I go to get my haircut I see a
Jewish guy um and he said he felt like there you know without getting too too much into it he said here on the ground like we're neighbors and um you know that was his perspective of course I know
that doesn't represent everything I know there's a lot of tragedy going on right now and I don't want to uh get too much into it but really learned a lot from talking with him it kind of reminded me
of the movie I Am Legend the craziest part of the tour is they take you to the Nuclear Station that exploded you go to the workers canteen and have lunch you end up eating alongside the workers wow yeah
that does sound like we'll pull we can pivot back to Chernobyl Chernobyl can't let's see if it let's wow we could is this this might be what you're talking about yeah I could see why you know having a
nice meal in a place like this would be kind of um it's so word I'm looking for I don't know like I don't know if I have an appetite right like knowing that you're in this place that's seen
so much tragedy and hardship uh you know can you fully sort of U disconnect and and enjoy it yeah this is this is strange this is like a restaurant Atron Noy so confusing so this is the cooling tower
this was not the reactor why am I looking at I'm looking at reviews of this anyway um you can go inside wow e you've got this Forest wow so this is IR radiated how do you I'm curious John
how do you know where is safe to go I mean I guess you have a guide like what are the places that are safe to check out that are not too high on the radiation and then what are
the places that uh are not are not safe right safe versus unsafe kind of curious if you could chime in on that because I've always had that paranoia in the back of my mind I want to go check
out Chernobyl learn about the history learn about what happened there but is it safe right uh in the case of my grandmother growing up in Japan uh she was very lucky because she grew up in a part of
Japan where the wind did not blow in that direction so when the radiation got dispersed it didn't get dispersed where she lived and uh she was fortunate that way I wouldn't be here if it had because it she
had a lot she knew and had a lot of friends as adults that uh could not have children because of that um so it is really really unfortunate part of history in Japan also we've got five watching I've
had um a lot of great conversation with Tony and John but uh other folks feel free to chime in with any questions or thoughts that you may have just here uh in Bangkok in town for uh extending my
my Visa tomorrow so tomorrow I'll wake up and um actually why don't I this is might be a little interesting kind of things some people may have not seen I'm gonna go to this spaceship looking building I've become
very familiar with this building and uh yeah I'll just be here to extend my education Visa then got like a running track here too I've walked around it a number of times and some days I don't know what
the schedule is but they've got all these like uh these vendors down here uh to check out and it's kind of a nice place like even though it it can be a bit timec consuming to come to immigration
to do the things they make it as nice as it can be as far as from a a visitor perspective you got 7-Eleven in the basement you've got places to walk uh I always bring my laptop and try
to get some stuff done like while I'm waiting um well thank you so much again Tony I hope you have a wonderful day uh it was wonderful to chat with you and uh yeah take care look forward to
seeing you next time Tony so glad you can make it today what else do I want to share um it might be nice to show a little bit of chatu chck the guide picks you up in Kev and
then when you get there you just follow them around and they give you some kind of handheld machine to test the radi okay that's good yeah that's good that that would definitely Inspire confidence knowing that you've got the
guide and then you've also got the radiation tester I think it's called a ronen machine um let's see here yeah like something like this I will admit by the way guys I am starting to lose my voice a
bit um but uh happy to to kind of answer any more questions or thoughts that anybody has I'll probably wind down the stream in the next 101 15 minutes just because um yeah definitely definitely feel my voice going
a bit and need to get some water and um probably grab a bite to eat before I head to bed you know something that I do want to mention that I think is so um cool John about like
you being in Europe is is that you know something that you have in Europe that uh we American people um don't have is that you're able to uh do a lot of these really cool uh weekend trips to
other countries right or weekl long trips to other countries of course you have the extra vacation time but you also have like proximity I think for a lot of people in North America uh we're primarily thinking like if
it's going to another country we're thinking about Canada if we're coming from the us or US for Canadian or Mexico uh maybe Central America as well but not as many of us are thinking oh yeah I'll jet over
to Europe for a weekend or something like that so that's a really big appeal of being in a place like Poland where uh you can easily uh you know check out places like Ukraine or um I think your
neighboring Germany um let's pull that up on a map actually c yeah czechia Slovakia bellarus Lithuania Ukraine and not that far from a lot like not at all far from the baltics and the U you know the former
Soviet block countries like uh Serbia uh Romania mova yeah Poland is definitely on my list um list to check out at some point and uh you know I mentioned a little bit different of course the neighboring country I
mentioned bellarus because I grew up with a dude from bellus and he told me like a couple of things he said one let me know when you go because my grandparents still live there and I'll connect you them
and then he told me don't walk around the outskirts of the city like he said you'll get you know there's Hooligans there so be careful uh if you're going to like Minsk and you want to um you know
you want to go outside the the city center then it can be a little bit um iffy in in some areas and it's a piece of the puzzle like I've been to Latin America and Southeast Asia and I
think for a lot of people Eastern Europe is part of that Trifecta of long-term travel destinations or places that they want to spend a lot of time uh and you know assuming things get resolved um in the near
future or in the the the future uh in Ukraine then you know I think it it could open back up as a really popular place for people to go like especially people that are open to to cold Winters
right um yeah thank you thank you so much John for joining us I really appreciate it and I hope you're able to catch us next time as well hope you have a a great rest of your week and
uh yeah definitely will'll keep everybody posted on on my Thailand Journey but everybody else I I think uh you know I think I am going to wind this stream down just because I'm I'm getting pretty tired it's uh
it's pretty late here in Bangkok and I think it's uh probably time for me to hit a get a shower and head to bed but uh I hope all of you have a great week and I'm gonna try
to do a stream this weekend and uh yeah take care have a great great rest of your week until next time
