Travel Tales & Adventures ft. @aakanksha_monga

0:00 What's up guys? Welcome back to the Having said that show. I'm Aman and I'm doing the intro today just because huh we thought we'll have some fun and in that spirit we have a very fun very exciting very cool guest on. Please give it up for Akanga. For those of you who don't know this is the having said that show. It is a show where a group of us a group of friends talk to interesting and cool people. And today the interesting and cool person we have is a Kanga who travels for a living. I learned and is not homeless but houseless. I do my research. Okay. I'm impressed. What's the thinking behind that? It's just that I mean I feel like home you can find and build in different places because a lot of people have the association of home with one place

0:45 because my dad's in the military. So we literally have never stayed in one place for longer than the longest I've ever stayed in one building is has been like 1 year. Wow. That's wild. I don't have an association of like oh this is my home and I feel like you can build a home anywhere and now currently since I don't have like a home and I live out of different countries and move every 3 months because that's how much a visa allows you to stay in a country. I'm houseless not homeless. Wow. I like that. That's the idea. I love that. That's really cool. I'm sorry before we move forward I am not used to doing the intro so I forgot to introduce Jay and Sid who are also here with me today. What's up guys? I like that I take precedence in this intro. I they never let me do the intro. So I'm like this is No, I I do I find it fascinating because

1:32 when you look back at it, it makes so much sense that obviously you'd have this passion and need to kind of like travel and kind of extend your childhood into your entire life, right? That's that's pretty interesting. Yeah. I mean, I've always thought about it that way cuz every time I tell someone uh that, oh yeah, my dad's in the military and this is how and then they're like, oh, okay, now it all makes sense. Before that, they're just like, what's wrong with you? Like why do you do this? But in my opinion, I don't know if it was just that cuz my brother and I both are like I mean we've been brought up the same way and he doesn't like that. So I think it's also it depends on your personality what you crave and I've always been someone who loved like I used to be excited when my dad would get posted to a new place cuz I would be like ah new friends new school like it's so exciting and my brother was always like new friends new school oh [ __ ] you

2:18 know so it was it's a the same situation to different responses and uh so I think now I still live life with that sense of like excitement towards like okay new people new culture new country and you get to see and live in different places and obvious Honestly, now I'm like slowing it down more and more. Like when I started it was like 2 weeks a month in a country. Now it's gone to three and I see it going to like six. Yeah. What do you think is the optimal time to spend in one country to like fully have that entire experience? I honestly feel 3 months is a great time. 3 months is a good at a stretch or I mean if you're there for like 6 months to a year then you're like properly integrated in the sense you can have like a good set of like friends a community hobbies and everything built

3:04 around it. So a year I would say is for that kind of life and to get a sense of the place really well 3 months is damn good and you want to stay in this in one city for for those 3 months. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we always start the show off with a controversial opinion. So what is your travel or non-travel controversial opinion? So I have two and they had to be travel themed. So um okay so I'll go with the first one. So the first one is that I feel that in a year everyone says that they want to take a vacation but in my opinion more than taking a vacation is like an unvation which is like the whole point of that trip is to be uncomfortable to put yourself in uncomfortable situations because I feel that growing up in India and especially like even when I would bring up these ideas to my parents that I want to do this or that and they would always look

3:50 at me as like what's wrong with you is everything fine why are you doing this to yourself and I realized that I Think we've always seen travel growing up as a very aspirational thing, right? Like like you'd go for holiday, you'd go for vacation cuz also your parents want you to live the most mostly comfortable life. It's not in our culture that your parents will take you like hiking in the mountains with a camp and like say like cook food. That's not a part of like not a part of a lot of households. So I personally feel that that is though where real growth happens through travel. That is the addictive part of traveling for me. So I every year do one trip which is just like uncomfortable in the sense like either like last year I'd gone hiking the Anapuna base camp, this year I went hiking in South Korea and I feel like all these trips make me a very

4:36 grateful for what I have cuz you're so in such uncomfortable situations and b it's so challenging that you grow a lot. So I feel like it's an unation but it still brings you back with a big fresh. How long was that cycling for? for like how long did you cycle? 5 days. Vin just I mean he just did that this year, right? You want to go out, right? How long did you cycle for? Yeah. Damn. That's so cool. It's so fun, right? Like and also I loved the feeling of so you basically it's called bike packing. So you pack all your luggage onto like on the sides. Um you put it on your bag and that's all you have for those days. I've also done one like that in Germany. Um but this that was like an ebike. This was like a normal bicycle. And just to know that your body and this

5:22 one cycle can carry you from literally city to city I don't know there's something about it it feels so like empowering. I think this this way of traveling it um it gets you gives you a more real experience of the place and it gets you away from those what I like what I like tourist traps which are something that you any country oh South Korea you want to like the most common thing is this but you're not doing any of those and you're getting away from all those tourist traps just to get a much more real and authentic experience. I think that's that's amazing. That's a really cool opinion. Yeah. And I think it's like um it's a bit controversial because a lot of people feel like okay when we're taking a trip we're taking a break from work from stress from this and that why would I put myself through this? But in my

6:07 opinion, I feel like the kind of lives we live right now, they're quite routine and comfortable. Like we work towards comfort, comfort, comfort. But you need to some days like working out is a form of discomfort that you put yourself, right? And but the gratification that's like I would say a mini uh version of Aman's pretty gratified today. I think it's type two fun. One week later, you look I think you look back on this experience. 100% man. I I get that. I get that. So this is type two fun. like you go on this trip obviously the day it was raining and we had like rain pouring over I wear glasses I was just like dude this is so bad but now it's in my head it's a story it's fun and it was like an adventure so so yeah I think everyone should do an on vacation once a year that's my un that's

6:54 there's like this uh Japanese word right it's called um then you know it's called is it called a misogi or something like that it's where like you do one really painful full out of the box thing a year. So like whether it's like running a marathon or climbing, you know, a mountain or whatever. It's that thing of like you live your life in a very routine way for most of the year and then your entire year is leading up to doing that activity. Like if you want to do an iron man in like November, you start training in Jan, stuff like that. So I don't know what it's called. Is a Japanese Shinto practice involving ritual purification often through immersing oneself in cold water. And the idea is that you cleanse yourself by doing something tough every day. I feel like Japan also has a word for

7:40 everything. Everything you want to like any profile next challenge before we get into your second controversial. What's the next challenge that you're going to that you're going to do? What's your next on vacation? My next I'm still looking for ideas. So actually if anyone has any ideas you mentioned high rocks next year, but have you already completed one this year? No, no, no. I want to train for it, but I feel like that's not like that's for me a different side of me. Like I love working out. I love like food, nutrition, workouts, but that's I wouldn't see that as like a travel trip. Like I would maybe do like Well, you could go anywhere and do it. That's the fun part. But it doesn't involve the culture of the play. I don't know like I I want to do the travel part as well. So maybe it could be Kilimanjaro. Yeah, that's literally the first came up on my mind. Track up to Kilimanjaro. The other thing I don't know how far that's

8:27 possible is to do the Trans Siberian Railway Journey. Yeah, that's again it's Russia. Yeah, I don't know. So I I mean I'm looking for ideas. So if anyone has any ideas for like wild things to do just Yeah. Please drop it in the comments. But I'm I'm actually curious like because you're so workout conscious and health conscious. How do you deal with that while you're traveling? Cuz I feel like that's the hardest part to overcome sometimes. like when you're on a plane journey, you can't help but like just kind of snack around and eat like [ __ ] or whatever. So, how do you kind of overcome that? I think it was a struggle during the first year when I started this cuz that you're just so excited by everything. You're excited by lounge food. You're excited by hotel breakfasts and all of that. But I think when it becomes like a it starts like harming your health and b what happened?

9:13 No, no, it's funny. It's true. It's true. Aman was like, "Yeah, that's what I you got to let go for good hotel breakfast because you do it so often that I understand that you found a routine in it, right?" Like it makes sense. But for someone who vacations maybe like once a year and every time it's almost like a people treat vacation as like, okay, now I'm abandoning everything and this is a break from everything. Yeah. Me. But I also feel like I don't feel like I'm someone I'm like that annoying person to travel with. like I hate to relax and I'm not the hotel chill person like I'd be like okay okay okay let's keep doing something let's keep moving so that's one part of it but I think also I realized like when I was first year when I was traveling I used to fall sick so often man like I I would fall

9:59 sick every month like I have a notion page where I started tracking cuz I was just like what's going wrong let me track this so I used to track it and I saw full 12 months I had one something or the other happening to me and then I realized okay let's take a step back what's going wrong and the two things were food, sleep, exercise, the basics of life and then I basically kind of the the whoop probably helps a lot with that while you're traveling as well. So it kind of fixed like so I kind of work towards fixing all of them one by one and now like when it comes to food for example I usually that's why staying at one place helps cuz I can then cook my own food. um in most places if I'm staying in somewhere in Southeast Asia, okay, you can still get like someone to help you out with some things. But like I was in Europe the last 3 months. So I cooked my own food,

10:44 clean food and exercise also. Like I like literally my partner and I now travel together for the last 1 and a half years. So we like our you know on Airbnb you can go and put a location. We always find a gym and try to find an apartment in 5 least friction especially when you're in a new country. I get that dude. So we always try to find a gym like the apartment is centered around the gym, not the gym centered around the apartment. So we find the best gym and um I personally do believe that pretty gyms make for fun workouts for me%. So yeah, so I think these things have really helped and now I feel like this has actually given me a few more years of like hardcore travel because if I wouldn't be in good shape, I would not be able to travel like you can do more.

11:30 I mean, yeah, you can't you can't bike in South Korea if you can't I mean, you know, if you're not getting the thing is what you said about like what people do, what Aman said he does, you know, when you go on holiday, you just kind of like No, I'm just I'll just give you as a reference point. Very hard work. We're all very proud of him actually. You know, we are we are I didn't faint. Uh but no, that's the thing, right? That's that's for most people who travel whose work is not travel. Yeah. for you work is traveling. No, I get it. I understand that. But at the same time, it's like you like it's kind of counterproductive to live your worst life healthwise on vacation. You know what I mean? Like I agree. I'm school of thought. It's

12:17 like, okay, cool. I I get it. You know, you also Yeah. Some people if you have like an office job and you're like stuck in the office and you're dreaming about this one vacation that's 3 months down the line and you're working working working working constantly. Why would you want to be in worse shape when you come back to this life than when you left it? No. I agree. I'm I'm a big proponent of working out on V. I will say you want to cuz everyone like in defense in defense of me I feel like No, there's no defense. Um I you do it because you want to enjoy the culture, right? Like when I go to Thailand, I will forgo my like no sugar thing or I will forgo my like complete like trying to not eat fried foods or whatever because for me it's a lot of it is diet based is why like I'm in Bombay. I know I'm going to be in Bombay for a while. I try and clean up my diet a bunch. But if

13:03 I'm in Thailand or if I'm in the US or if I'm in Greece, I want to like for me food is a big part of culture and I want to be able to experience that. I want to be able to say like I think that's completely fair. I think food is something actually like even for me I always keep like a food tour whenever I'm like that's a big part of my travel as well. You experience a country through food 100%. So I think I've also discovered that you can also pair it with workout classes because every country has I was in um Denmark and they have this uh class which is basically a the whole class is based on this this one machine. And it's a Nordic machine built by someone in Norway. And they like basically it's only in Denmark, Norway.

13:48 And they have these specific workout classes where you're basically simulating like skiing in the northern lights. So the whole room is northern lights themed. So this is these are things that I feel like damn you're also experiencing culture in a different way. 100%. He just mentioned he just mentioned Thailand, right? Like dude, the the kickboxing culture and and everything is is so much in I'm not saying go kickbox somewhere. That's not what I'm saying. I I understand that this guy I I no I will say that you know like you said you can't do that if your work is travel but I also think you can't have your work be travel if you don't do what you're doing and I genuinely do believe that what you've done with this like outlook and with this mindset to approach your trips is very commendable because a lot of people don't see that. I I genuinely do think

14:34 like like you're saying man like when you're on a plane when you're like whole body is messed up and okay maybe usually most people aren't traveling for 3 months at a time but even if I'm going for a week 2 weeks like I'm trying to sort of say okay why would I stop myself cuz I want to enjoy it and I I do think there are people like me who don't see workouts as enjoyment like for me a workout is like I I need to do it because I know it's good for me but I I don't want to do it so I'm trying to go to Jay's gym more now because like I I need to you know like it's not that oh I enjoy going to Jay's gym. Not saying Jay's gym is not enjoyable. It's just me. I love his gym. Um it's the best gym in Bombay. Here to see this guy workout. Yeah. Which is nice. Your culture your Bombay cultural experiences.

15:20 Yeah. It it it makes a huge difference. I think when you start enjoying it and then and then you can get into like the cultural side of things like it's great because I enjoy it. So I think it's like if you love this part of it then it's fair. Like for example, my boyfriend is not like he's he's someone who doesn't like to work. He work out. He does it from the just to optimize the health part of it. So he goes to the gym like it's work only. Like he's like I'm going there to have fun. He's going there for like I just need to work out. So for him for example, this would not be enjoyable. But the only idea is that for us because again this is our lifestyle that we can't completely let go of our health and stuff when we're on a trip. So if it's not working out then we try to like walk everywhere. You can I actually learned this from Sid. I haven't put it into practice yet. So, you get your 10k steps a day. That's But running um running to discover the

16:09 city you're in is like I do that a lot. Yeah. I think that's such a cool way to just just bear your shoes and go wherever the road leads. I love doing that. In fact, it's in my last vlog where I say I do this every city when I first go, I go for a run the first day in the morning in the morning before everyone wakes up. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. It's such a good start to the day. It's it's you've already and you being the person that you said that, you know, let's go and do something. We I can't be in the hotel room. It's the best thing to do. Then you're seeing something, you're exploring the place, you're also getting a workout in. And that run doesn't seem taxing at all cuz you're not doing loops of some. I'm not a big road runner, though. That's what I have to get. I mean, it becomes more of a track. Like, I'll go to the track and I'll run. I won't really run on the road. I I told you that. Beep beep. You said road runner.

16:55 Uh, no. I I Okay. Your travel experience really depends on who you're with. Yes. At least for me. Like I remember thinking growing up that when we traveled, we would always go like do cultural things. Like my parents would always take us to museums or like to historic sites. And when I was six, I was like, why the [ __ ] am I in these ruins? Right? And as I grew up a little bit, I sort of learned to appreciate it more. I started to engage with history more. And I remember being on one trip in 2019 to Korg and my brother had been like working really hard, was exhausted and he really needed like a vacation, okay? And that was the first trip where like I was like, "Oh, I'm in a new place. I should go explore it." And we would go out and my brother would be like, "You know what? Like I am tired. Like I'm just going to sit in my hotel room. That's what I want to do."

17:41 And I think that was the first time I learned that you could do that without feeling guilty about it. I I until then it was always like, "Oh, I'm here. like I want to go see this or I want to go do this and then he sort of like he he was just like no I just don't want to do that and you go do it like you do something in a different setting is also very under and I was like [ __ ] you know and so then I realized like this last trip I did with Thailand was the definition of like a vacation we didn't pay for hotel breakfast cuz we were like we are not going to wake up for hotel breakfast right like that was the mindset we had going into it was like my girlfriend had been working really hard she really just wanted a break it was her birthday we were just like that's what we're going to do. We ended up walking a lot. Like we did at least like 15 16,000 steps a day which was nice but it was just like we got out of the hotel room really late

18:28 and I had to like there was no pressure basically you're saying because with travel does it comes with pressure of like we have to see this we have to do this and I'm usually the one who's like oh we should go here we should go and do this and she's always been like oh I just want to chill right and I think because it being her birthday and you know it being like in the middle of all this chaos I was very much so like okay you know what let's relax and it took me also a little bit of time to like be like, "Oh, it's okay if I don't leave the room before 2 p.m., you know, it's okay if I don't do this." And it was a very enjoyable trip in a very different way. Interesting. Um, that being said, Ooh, close. Good. Safe. Yeah. Oh, we have to take a shot if you have. Yeah. That being said, like I think what you

19:14 said about an on vacation to me again sounds terrible. I would love to take Jay and his friends and maybe should someone should they should kidnap you once and like so we um I I would love to take Arman on on vacation. So Jay and Jay and his we can school friend group that part a lot of them have now become part of my friend group used to do these hikes where they'll be like off-rid for a few days and they'll just go up the boys you know they sleep in tents they'll uh excrete in holes like that's their life you made it sound so like excre how you you second can I just say something defeated in nature can I just say something do you know how it works

20:00 at in the camp there's a tent there's aole there's a not even not even you know we did there was a you know those WWE chairs that you open up you take out the sink you put a [ __ ] toilet seat and just sit down on the [ __ ] take that was luxurious camping that is pretty luxurious I thought you just make it so everyone's poop you just put mud over it mud that's the camping bro it's fine it's actually it's actually better than a wet bathroom it's more hygienic more hygienic Those are some those are some of the best trips I've ever taken. I have a question for you guys. I just I just thought about it cuz I I'm very curious. I've been talking with my friends about this that you guys tell me cuz you mentioned you've traveled as a kid and your parents used to take to museums and stuff. I didn't travel actually so much with my

20:45 parents as a kid, but I want to know if you guys were to remember the most fun trips you had as kids because I I don't think kids enjoy what we enjoy now. Like I think so. What was what what do you guys feel was the most fun trip you has had when you guys were kids? What did you enjoy about travel as a kid? What did I enjoy about? Let's say between the age of 6 to 12, what did you enjoy about like if I would tell you we're going to XYZ place? What is it about the place that's going to be like I'm so excited to go here? Are you talking about travel or one vacation that we remember that was really both? Give me the answer regardless. Um I have an answer. I always liked traveling with my friends. So like if my parents' friends had kids and we'd go

21:30 uh because then whatever you do like you can really just sit in a box and have fun. So again it's not really about the place. It's just like your company. I mean yeah dude as a kid who like gives a [ __ ] Like I mean it it's cool but 6 to 12 is like how can I immerse myself in culture if I don't know what culture is. You know what I mean? Like I thought culture was like Cartoon Network back in the day or is that too old for 6 to 12? I don't know. I would say my favorite trip would be like Africa or something. That would be that would be dope cuz you get to see animals and you're like oh I read about this in my story book yesterday. Yeah. Exactly right. the day I'm seeing. Yeah, I think this Yeah, we did Kenya twice after that period

22:16 because one of my friends like his grandparents lived in Kenya and so like a large group of us would go and that was really fun but my favorite part of travel was always not a big shock but a lot of it was trying new food or trying new snacks even as a kid. That's so interesting. Even as he was ahead of his time like really eating for that long? No, man. like not like that. It was even if it was just like as simple as like seeing the difference in like the snacks or like even like how McDonald's was different or KFC was different, right? Like the different le flavors. I do love going to McDonald's in new countries. He's absolutely right about that. Different burgers, man. So that was one part of it. The second part of it was also hotels are really fun places for kids

23:04 because it's a really different experience. It's like I I think I don't know if you have seen the Adam Sandler movie, Bedtime Stories. No, at the third act of Bedtime. Yes. Love that movie, bro. Great movie. The third act of that movie, he's pitching his dream hotel. And what he ends up saying is that a lot of young kids like going to hotels because it's different and it's unique and you have access to things that you don't have access to. all these big elevators and like you know fluffy and like you know I think experiencing those kinds of places also growing up was a lot of fun in we went to Thailand a bunch cuz like my dad's firm would go on trips or whatever and so like I got to experience a part of Thailand that I really love like going and sitting on the beach or

23:50 Yeah, I think actually I was just going to say beaches used to be I feel like kids are very fun cuz you can play. It's like a big playground. You can make things and I think beach trips like now actually I'm not a beach person anymore. But I like as a kid I loved it because I love the beach. I didn't care about which country you take me to a beach in Goa. You take me to a beach in Mumbai also I will have fun because it's like a beach is a beach. I think my answer would also be the same thing. There's going to hotel rooms would be something you know you get like those fluffy pillows and nice comfortable man robes and [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah. You go you see all the toiletries in the bathroom. It's fine. I will I will say though, my parents I hope my parents aren't watching this because this is probably going to be like the biggest I told you so moment of all time, but um my parents and my

24:37 sister obsessed with like museums and paintings and [ __ ] and like sculptures and all of that stuff. And I was heavily heavily bored throughout the whole thing until I realized that I could take the headphones and connect it to my phone instead of whatever they gave me. That's so true. So, I never thought of that. Back in the day when OX was universal, I just used to [ __ ] switch the thing. So, I'd be standing like this. I'd be listening to my own music or whatever I enjoyed during the day. And eventually what ended up happening was they just used to leave me alone cuz I used to be like pretty horrible to be with as a kid. And uh I would just walk around on my own as as long as they were on the same floor. It's chill. I would just

25:22 walk around on my own. I would listen to my music. I'd be in like an art gallery listening to Lil Wayne or you know just it it was just and my music progressed over the years and I had more and more and more fun at those art galleries and whatever all of that stuff. So very interesting. That's also like super fun for me now. Yeah. Great. It's just interesting to think because I feel like a lot of parents or maybe it's just me. I always feel like okay when I have kids like I really need to like show them the world like since then, you know, like make them cultured. But then I also think about the fact that I don't think they care or they'll enjoy. Like if you would take me to a trip like this, I wouldn't value it. So it's better to like it's very like counterintuitive cuz you can't they might start hating it. Yeah. Like you they might start hating it but they also might never develop

26:09 a liking for it. You know what I mean? Like now now I would go to a museum. I really hope my parents aren't watching this or like an art gallery or something like guys and I would have cables in our phone working. So I was just like you know like it's it's fine. Controversial opinion. Sorry. Can I talk about museums? Can we actually do a museum? Bombay has some of the nicest museums. We can't film in museums though. You know dude we can get permission. The Bodhaji Museum is one of my favorite places in the city. Yesterday I found out sorry a page in Bombay you guys do it man like I wish I had one more day I would have booked it. They doing tours like go like ghost walking tours in the league the gir walk something like this. Yeah yeah yeah. I boo I mean I was affiliated with them. I

26:55 was conducting those walks myself. No way. Oh my god. We have to talk about it after the board. Yeah for sure. They are amazing. They do a fantastic job about uh with their walks and it's it's so um it's so well researched and um yeah it's like you've been living in Bombay your whole life but then you see this building day in day out but there's so much more to it that you don't know and you get to know. Yeah, I have a big problem with like I think went on one of those. Yeah, she went on. I have a big problem with FOMO and I saw this yesterday and now I'm just like man like I'm such a bad traveler. I came here look what I did. Like I've been giving myself BT since yesterday that I only went to like I went to eat at Tan Tanjour Tiffen and Bougie like this is my experience of Bombay and go for this walk room though. Shout out

27:41 I was also there on Thursday. I felt cultured by all those little dal the dal is dope. I like I like such an experience you know. It's new it's new. Yeah. Anyway, I think going back to your controversial opinion on vacation. Great mentality to have when you're back in Bombay next, we'll take on a like a mini on vacation. I hope I once have that mentality in my life. You will. Hopefully not. Um, so is it an on vacation if you do what you like? Yeah. Yeah, of course. It's still for example, right? I'm trying to frame this question, right? If I already like doing all of these things, then wouldn't that still be in my comfort zone? No. Because the situation is only like like now for example you like cool I was just making sure I didn't have to like go on vacation and read

28:27 no yeah you know when he was saying that we woke up at 2 we skipped breakfast I was like that'll be stressful for me that's why the idea of like that's what I'm saying so on vacation for you that's yeah so that would be but no on vacation is basically you actively put yourself in situations which challenge you like for example uh last year I'd also gone to Ethiopia and I'd spent a week living with tribes in the Omo Valley. Now the idea is that again like obviously we didn't have a fancy there's no hotel so and you're just living with the tribes there but you know the discomfort of that trip wasn't like I've gone on enough camping trips like that was not the uncomfortable part. The uncomfortable part was seeing the culture and being

29:12 okay to respect what they're doing is so different from what you've been taught. Like there were ceremonies that I saw that like broke my heart and like I was just like do I do something? Like every day you're conflicted with these emotions where you're just like this is wrong. Like I don't like this or like they're eating you know like they cut the animal they just like this is like these are still tribes like the oldest tribes in the world. They don't have like now some of them have like one like the daba phone that they they would chill with you like Yeah. So they basically it's very interesting. So there's this um amazing company which I would give a shout out to called Omo Valley Experiences or Tours and it's basically a guy actually who's formed that tribe and he um once there was a photographer like years ago who went there and he um he just had an

29:58 urge like he was just like I I want to like see what's out there kind of. So he the photographer kind of like pseudo not adopted him but like kind of like okay I'll help you get education in like Adis Saba which is like the capital city come give him like he went to school and everything in the latter part of his years and then he became a guide to pay take people or to these tribes in a way that is not like it's not because there's a fine line between zoo like you know where you it's a people's zoo and where you're immersed and you're just observing there's a huge difference. um 100%. So it's really great that someone like him is doing it because he understands the culture. He can talk to them. He it's like some of them are his brothers and sisters like distant relatives who are there. So you don't feel like you're

30:43 in like a you're just there like to watch like they take you to their ceremonies and stuff and you just sit and again I think this is also very dependent on the kind of people that go there. You can be like oh no or you can be like I'm here to experience everything. I'm here to observe not judge and these are the principles you go with. So that was an unvocation as well because it was not uncomfortable physically but it was uncomfortable emotionally. So to answer the long answer to your very short question that was a great answer. No I get it instantly I guess I don't think anyone who would have that mentality would go there also you know so or maybe I don't know sid drag zan or something I guess. Yeah, but it was I'm not going to judge. But the food was a struggle there, man. Like that was like I think the biggest

31:30 struggle that I had was the food because I'm now like since the past 2 months I haven't been like a pure vegetarian but like for the last 4 years I I'm Punjabi but I turned vegetarian and um obviously they're I mean firstly you can't eat their diet cuz uh your body cannot digest it cuz they're eating like raw meat like they just cut the uh the meat in front of you. They take the skin, they dry it, the next day it becomes their clothes and the meat becomes the food and they drink like uh the water and everything like you can't digest it. So they dry the meat? No. Uh they cook it on fire and they eat it. Well, yeah. Okay, sure. It's the same thing, dude. What do you mean? I'm assuming they catch it wild, right? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. So, there's much more like parasites. Yeah, there could be. And I mean, we

32:15 just like our bodies are not used to it like even like uh you go to like Yeah. Some people can't brush their teeth with Yeah. Our environments are very sanitized. We all know that. So, so I think those were the things that we struggled cuz then we had to just eat the same thing again and again obviously cuz the and but for us to even like I remember sitting there and I was like, you know, I'm complaining about like what I'm eating. But like just the fact that I have like a sandwich sitting here so far away from any sort of like quote unquote civilization is also like a big privilege. Yeah. No, for sure, dude. I would un vacation for like work, like for work, like if I was shooting something or making a movie or something. I mean, you did go to I did. I did. I mean, I I don't want to

33:02 call it an on vacation by any means cuz by all definitions of the word, I had a pretty comfortable experience. Obviously, very different from what I was used to because I was like completely off grade basically and you know, you're sort of adapting to that life. But I spent a lot of time in the like in Orisa shooting like a week plus shooting something and it was like even just looking at this the sunsets and it wasn't like really a different culture on the sunset. It was still India, right? Like I could still communicate with everyone but it was just like it was very different from what I'm used to especially as someone who has a lot of ailments. Uh it was like difficult to like irrigate. Yeah, you can't really Yeah, you can't really irrigate with Yeah. I I I mean like I had a little irrigation like emergency irrigation bottle and stuff. I'm very confused, guys. Ah, okay. Oh,

33:50 like farm everywhere you are. So confusing. I have caught up. I have caught up. You can't leave Aman alone in the wilderness. You're not going to make it. But I'm not going to make it, dog. Like, I'm just not going to be hunted and eaten by if my glasses break, I'm finished. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. It's over for me. I can't even like get lasic. Like, I'm done. You know what I'm saying? I believe in you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I believe I'm I'm okay. This has been a long conversation, but second controversial opinion. Yeah. My second controversial opinion is on the relationship and travel end that in my opinion people take too long to go on a trip with their partners like so if you're dating someone in my opinion for example uh I don't I don't mean that oh you've met someone the first time and you're like oh let's take a trip

34:35 together. No I mean that's great. I would go on a date like that with someone. But um let's say you're into the you're seeing each other phase for like let's say 2 3 months and you're kind of trying to make it official. I would say before you take make it official you should go on a trip with them. I think nothing teaches you more about a person than traveling with them because you face the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on a trip and you can see how they react to everything and you can get a full assessment of this person and then you can decide is this going to work out or not. If it the trip doesn't work out, I don't think the relationship can work. That's controversial, but I 100% I agree with you. I do think though if I do go on a trip with someone, I am more invested in them to try and make it work because now I've put in that effort of traveling with them and living with

35:20 them. And so maybe even though I should not have made it work now, dog, I've been with you for 6 days. It's like, okay, like I should hopefully try a little harder. You know what I mean? But what if they're not trying? Isn't that a red flag already? Sure. then I would just feel bad that I took a trip with them. But you've saved yourself 7 months of dating them. True. That's a good opinion. Yeah. So that's what was the first trip you took with your significant other? It's different for us because what ended up happening is we um started dating and then we both went back to college, right? So we were doing like that long distance across the US. And so every time we visited each other or like I would go visit her, that was kind of kind of a trip, you know what I together.

36:08 We traveled together out of the country, but when we were on the US, it was like it felt to me like a tour trip. Yeah. Fair. This actually uh reminded me of a really of so I think a year or so ago we had Larissa on the show, right? Yeah. And um she her opinion was that she being a travel blogger does not like solo travel and her whole point of it is that because uh traveling is so important and such a um core part of her she wants to do it with the people that she loves. So whether it's with your partner as well or any anyone who's enthusiastic about Yeah. Yeah. Whether it's her partner, friend, parents, whatever, whoever it may be. But it's such a great experience that she wants to share it with people and not just be at that place alone. So good point. I mean I I was having to

36:56 yesterday by the way. So it's um I guess it's like a multiverse of travel. Yeah, it was um No, I don't I mean I that for me like I think it's also very personality dependent like I love traveling solo. I think it's like the one of the most transformational experiences that I've ever had because for me I don't think so. I think the idea of solo travel has now become like a like almost like you're not you've never traveled solo like how can you do this to yourself vibes but in my opinion uh traveling solo isn't done right a lot of times I feel like a lot of people go and stay in a hotel and then they'll you do obviously will feel lonely man like or you won't feel like you're having fun the whole idea of traveling solo is to meet new people in my opinion it's not

37:41 to isolate yourself for me so for me it would be like I always try to then puts in situations where I will meet people. So even if I was for example in Denmark that the trip I mentioned earlier, I was staying in a hotel cuz it was a collaboration with the hotel but then I booked um walking tours and I went for these like workout classes and I made friends there and then it was such a great way to like I feel that we are surrounded by the friends that we've grown up with or whatever like whoever you're surrounded by when you're living in a certain place and when you travel solo you can kind of break free from everything that people think you are. So let's say you will go with Ammon on a trip and you're like Ammon is someone who

38:27 will find us the best food spots for example right now Ammon is on a trip this solo trip and he's like dude you know what today I don't have this expectation on me like there nobody expects me to like because you're someone you can be whoever you want to be on that day there's nobody there who knows you you can literally be like you know what today I can go for moai and maybe even maybe I enjoy it, maybe I don't but there's no one who's going to be like oh Ammon's going for moa like you know it's just you doing you and I think we very rarely in our lives get that opportunity actually especially in India cuz we are surrounded by friends family and a lot of I'm not going to say judgment just assumptions and it takes away strips you

39:13 all of that and allows you to think organically every morning what do I want to do today and it's a great opportunity to learn a lot about yourself and also allow yourself to meet new people who you would otherwise never speak to because a you could also be again afraid that my friends will judge me if I talk to these people or when you're with a like you guys tell me if you're with a big group of friends in a cafe very low chance you will go and talk to someone else cuz you're immersed in your own conversation in your own world and that's beautiful like so I'm not never going to say that one trip is better than the other I'm just saying that both hold a lot of importance because when you're traveling solo, you're more open to meeting people because we're social beings. We want to talk to people. We want to meet people.

39:59 You meet people. You talk to people. Like you were in a hostel. You're meeting people from 20 different countries having 20 new perspectives. Where will you get that kind of education I would say? So yeah, that's my that's wonderful. Why solo traveling is really important in my opinion. No, I I actually love that. And like two of my closest friends who I would honestly not like have assumed that they would solo travel did solo trips obviously separately. They don't know each other but um they and in both like both of them had very like life-changing experiences and it really opened them up in new ways to things. And these are people that like especially one of them I didn't expect her to do it but she pushed herself outside her comfort zone. She stayed in

40:44 a hostel. she like made friends and I I I've like seen it firsthand what a difference it's made. So it is really cool. I want to get back to your original point. Um so you've been like traveling now for 4 years. You are now dating someone. You said your partner is traveling with you. How do you meet someone have that consistency even go on dates while you're doing this while you're across the world? Is this something you don't want to talk about? No, no, no, no. I was just smiling cuz I was like that's a it traveling is the best way to meet people. It's the most Did you meet your partner on your travel? We met in Sri Lanka so he's from Germany and um yeah I mean so I've like I've uh I even made this video on my profile and it was like a very that was a truly controversial opinion

41:29 cuz I said that I think travel ships should be put in the dictionary as a word like relationships. There are travel ships. Nice. Uh have you guys watched the movie Before Sunrise? Yes. uh three there are three parts to them. Yes, I have not watched it. Thanks for your very valuable opinion. But I I I know what you're talking about. It's a great Please watch it, please. Isn't it just like talking for like 3 hours? Yes, it's like a podcast. You guys should do this version. I did actually try watching it. Couldn't get past like 15. I'm like, what is it? Not a real podcast. Like is the train not going to blow up before it? Not even a little bit. before sunrise then after sunset. Yeah. And then for before midnight something this Twilight series

42:17 as a true fan I'm very bad with names by the way. Right. It's a before sunrise before sunset before midnight. They said it somewhere lighting. So what is the there's an Alice even Chris Evans movie that's also similar. Oh, New York before we go where they spend the whole night in New York. Very cute is I have to watch this next. So, yeah. So, basically before sunrise is a good example of how you could meet someone while traveling. Both of them are alone. Solo traveling very easy to meet new people cuz you're in a hostel and in fact like so yeah. So, I mean you can meet people very organically which is what I loved with travel because I'm very I'm not able to I was not a dating apps person. It gave me also a lot of anxiety like I felt like there was always an expectation for something.

43:03 It's like I think it's great dating apps actually I mean I've gone on a bunch of dates but for me the organic side felt more organic to me. Um so I think traveling actually helps you find meet a lot of people that way mostly when you're traveling alone because I feel like when you're with friends again that part comes in that there's this judgment you're a bit shy that I don't know if my friend's going to judge me for going for this guy or that guy or like talking to someone or whatever. So I think in when you're traveling alone, you're in a hostel, you have people from all over the world you can meet and it happens a lot. And travel ships are basically if you're traveling for an extended period of time, you meet someone, you guys are kind of like, dude, this is never going to work out. Like I live a completely different life. You live a completely different life. I have no interest in

43:48 making this work, but I like this for now. And there's no expectation of this going somewhere. But we'll have fun for now. We'll do new have new experiences. We'll enjoy each other's company and then very happily we'll part ways unless what happened with me and my boyfriend where we actually were like okay this is great and our lifestyles could actually match. So he's um he works remotely as well. He owns he's a founder of an marketing agency in Germany. So I could see that it would work out like you know there's a because he's also traveled to like 90 countries. Wow. So there were too many things that aligned and the lifestyle can align versus I meet someone who let's say lives in some remote part of their country and they want to go back there. That would never work. So um that's how we met. We met in Sri

44:35 Lanka and funnily enough like we just met uh it was like a date and then after that uh we never saw each other again like it was just like ciao. And u it was just a follow on Instagram cuz we like the vibe like I mean we had so many things in common. the creators we liked. He was really into social media as well, travel. So, it was great. Then one year later, random things happened like, you know, cuz he traveled so much. He would see me traveling in another country and be like, "Hey, you should go here. Like, I've been to this restaurant here. Check this out." So, it we were like Instagram friends. Then one thing led to another and he had to for some reason come towards Asia. And he was like, "Uh, I'm planning on doing a trip to the Philippines. Have you been there?" I was like, "No, I want to go." And he was like, "Do you want to

45:20 go together?" And I was like, "Why not?" My friends were a bit sus, as I said. They were just like, "This is a bit strange, don't you think?" And I was like, "No, but I know this guy." And that's the thing with solo travel. Once you've traveled alone enough times, you know, you can bounce. Like I was like, "If I don't like his vibe, I'll leave." And I think you also you develop a better sense of judgment of people. the gut instinct. Like really bad restaurant recommendations, you like I'm not going that's literally your gut talking. It's my true gut instinct. Um but yeah, I mean and we like the same kind of travel style. So there was no friction there. So like I said, I think we like went into a speed bulletful Japanese bullet train of like dating cuz we went

46:06 on the trip and then we were like one thing led to another and then we never stopped traveling. We're still traveling. That's so cute. What is your favorite kind of train? Cuz I'm assuming you've been on a lot of trains. I'm not a train person. What kinds of trains are there? So many. People, you know, travel like that. Like just to experience trains. I love trains. I've been I've gone down a real deep rabbit hole on YouTube of people just sleeping on trains. Dog, I see that for you. There's a train. Why sleeping on days? Someone watches live streams of Have you been to Japan? I have been to Japan, but we didn't take many. Like we took trains, but it was the main bullet. Yeah. It wasn't like really a train trip. I'm not really like a train dude. Even I'm not a train dude. I just like No, dude. I'm not a train girl. I like I like the idea of a like I I get the best sleep on a train.

46:52 Like I don't know why. I think it's because it's the the moving. It's the moving dude. Like when I was a kid, like when I was like one year old, if I couldn't sleep, my mom would put me on her thigh cuz I was that tiny back then. Hard to believe now. And she would just shake her thigh. Oh my god. Really? You were that tiny, man? Yeah. It's funny how life works. You know, you shake her thigh and I think the trainim simulates that like wild. And that's why I sleep really well on trains. Yeah. I'm not a road trip or a train person either. My my favorite napping spot just in this since we're on this on the nap. Uh in my gym, there's like this little small tiny office on top where we used to all film the show. That was our old HSC studio. Yeah, that's

47:37 I was going to say great. So the couch over there when my coworker is taking sessions down, he listens to like very house bey. So I get the best sleep when he's blasting like that house music, but the room it's actually a studio. So the room is soundproof, but it's not vibration proof. So I it's like it's like and I just I just knock out I don't know what it is. I'm telling him. He's like, he's like, "Bro, I'll try and be quiet." I'm like, "Don't don't." You know, there's this sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of my sleep. I text him, "Hey, play this song." And then I'll go back. Oh my god. It's like, you know, there's this device that I don't know if you know Brian Johnson. He talks about this device. It's like to relax your stimulate your vag nerve.

48:24 It's like a pulsating device. Like you put it here and it's definitely the same. It's just relaxing you too much. 100%. That's great. I actually get the best the best naps. Having we have you on the show, I feel like I must ask certain questions. One being visas, bro. How do you deal with visas? I feel like it's so tough for a lot of people to travel. It's the I would say there's it's there's nothing fun about it. Like I like So right now, why am I here? Uh so after Germany, I would have loved to immediately go to Indonesia and then have to leave for Japan. But I had to come to get the Japanese visa. So uh I come for visa shopping. Basically I apply one after the other tuck. Now I have a great agent. Earlier I used to do it all by myself. Then I realized that

49:10 you know form filling like might as well delegate this one task. Not very mentally stimulating. So so yeah I mean it's a pain but I feel like the one thing that has made my life 10 times easier is getting the US visa cuz it unlocks so many countries for you. Like I went to uh South America the start of this year. I lived there for um 4 months and it allowed me to visit so many countries man. like I didn't have to think of the visa at all cuz with the US visa you can enter a lot of the countries there so it makes life a lot easier and the second thing that I learned only last year is that you can apply for a lot of visas in other countries also so for example I lived in Cape Town for a while and there I applied for my um Brazil visa and they processed it in a day and I was like these times are not clocking man like that's so fast one working day

49:56 yeah one working day and like there was no line nothing I just went there she was like oh you're a kanga give me a minute I'll just stamp your visa and give it back. I was just like this is great. So this is another thing you can't apply for a UK shenen and you no US you can still UK shenen and I think one Japan visa in another country but lots of other countries visa you can apply in different countries where the processing times and the tasks can be done way faster and they're more efficient. So that these are the two things that I feel like make it easier but it is the toughest it's probably a challenge. Yeah. And I'm dating someone who's too privileged with his stupid passport. He turns up every I think it's officially like the best passport in terms of travel access countries.

50:41 And they have the scanning thing also, man. Like they have so many times he goes through a separate queue and then waits for me on the other side and I'm like dude you wait. I have I've experienced that also. I was dating someone who had a UK passport and we used to travel together when I was studying in the UK and she would go through in like 5 minutes and I'll be waiting like a pleb in that snaking line for [ __ ] 1 hour. It hurts but like but I'm like yeah you better wait for me. Yeah. Okay. So that was one thing. I'm going to do some rapid fires with you. One country you haven't visited you want to. Japan. Lovely. Where are you going in Japan? I we're basically going there for 2 and 1/2 months. So, we're going to spend a month. Yeah. We want to stay there and actually experience what it's going to be like. So, we're going to spend a month living in Tokyo. Um, and then

51:28 we're going to do like a four or five day. We were thinking of doing like a cycling thing cuz I now I'm I really like that. And, uh, we'll probably, so we're not planning to do destination wise like so we'll obviously do the Kyoto and Osaka and all of that, Hokkaido, but we want to do plan our cities based on activities we want to do. So like for example, we want to do one either ninja or samurai training. So we found a few cities that do that. Like they have original old traditional samurai and ninja training school. So maybe we'll do like six days of that. Then um we want to do another like there's also like sumo wrestling is huge there. They have a huge competition happening. So we'll do that and we do want to do one temple stay. So it's like we've planned our trips around not the location but around the activity.

52:13 Lovely. Um how many countries have you been to? Number-wise, now 46. Amazing. Are you a hotel or Airbnb person? 100% Airbnb. Isn't it like a tough experience? So, I've started to realize you can have a lot of like horror stories in Airbnbs. Bad hosts, like lies on services, hidden fees. How do you deal with all that? I consider myself to be like an Airbnb like finder. So, I love like this is my by the way my like guilty pleasure. So, people scroll on Instagram at night. scroll like I put like random destinations in the world and I like have so much fun. I'm like, "Oh, this house is so nice." Like they do. Okay. The Airbnbs like I'm an Airbnb partner. No, but more than anything like I think

53:00 after staying in so many so many Airbnbs, I know what to look out for. So when it comes to reviews, actually always try to find the reviews by the Germans. They write the most detailed reviews. They'll write like this this Airbnb had these many spoons too less. Like they're damn weird with their reviews, man. So I always try to look like okay know exactly what they're doing. That's a stereotype that we didn't know about the Germans that they write good reviews like not good just insanely detailed. Sometimes you don't want to know the details also but mostly it helps you only with the Airbnbs and stuff you're like they don't have blind blackout curtains. It's written in the thing but that's why I've given them three stars. So so yeah. So I look for basically like when it comes to the reviews are a bit part um when it comes to this is one

53:45 thing I'm surprised a lot of people don't do is if you go on the Airbnb map you can never see the exact location of the Airbnb for security purposes but if you zoom out you can see things around the Airbnb and then you go do that then you'll go on the Google maps what is that sat street view and that way you can see if like your Airbnb is in a sus location in a good location or not. Yeah. So good tips. So, I think these are the two main things. And with hidden feasts and stuff, honestly, you just you have to read the the description and it's everything's written. I have one craziest food food experience. Craziest food. I was going to say best bite of food. Okay. Okay. This is putting me on the spot because I'm not like a very big foodie. Most of the best food experiences I've had are in India actually. So, I am a big fan of South

54:33 Indian food. So I love like a good like I just remember that we were in Kerala and we were in this really like I don't even know like a random small town and there was a family that made food and it's just like that what is it called sadhya every I am guilty of thinking that south Indian food was very limited to the varieties of dosas and idlies and a few curries here and there but sadhya is basically like this dish that you lay out with like multiple different things and not and they think of it very thoughtfully like what it's like all related to your digestive system. So what should you eat first to line your gut? What a way to eat it. Exactly. So it's like very thoughtful. You know how like in the morning for

55:19 example, you shouldn't eat something that spikes your glucose the first thing. But the same way they the the way the food is laid out is like okay your gut is lined. You don't start with something damn spicy. So you slowly slowly eat your way. It's like a snake game. You eat your way through the banana leaf. That's awesome. So, I think that's my favorite food experience. Favorite not food experience, but like I want to say like a postcard moment. Like favorite place where you're like, "How is this real?" Ooh, Norway. Yeah. So, we did a Norway during the summer. I think maybe you guys know the sun doesn't set, right? Like we were in the northern most part of Norway, which is this area called area called Thumzo. Loten Islands it's called basically. So yeah, and we did like a and in Norway wild camping is allowed which was a very

56:05 interesting concept for me which is basically you can set up your tent anywhere as long as it's in not not in someone's private property. You can set just set your tent anywhere and um you're not scared of like bears and [ __ ] I should know what it is now. There's no snakes. There's no the only thing they have are these little flies that annoy you like cuz it's sunny and it's hot sometimes. So that's the only thing. There were no insects otherwise. Maybe there are, but like none that were dangerous in that area. So, and there are no like big animals. Um, so we just camped and I think when you would see the sun like so the sun doesn't set, right? There's a horizon and the sun stops. So, it's like it goes down, it stops, and then it comes back up. Wo. And that was crazy. And that sunset to watch amongst the like fields where the

56:51 birds are flying. It's 3:00 a.m. You're like, "What's going on? and the sun is not setting this. Like we hiked, it was our friend's birthday, so we cut his birthday cake at 12:00 a.m. on on on the top of the mountain cuz it was still light and you could just hike. That's kind of crazy, man. I have a few more. Most friendly people, Indonesians. Nice. Very my favorite country for because of the people. Least friendly. Um I wouldn't say least friendly, I don't know. But Eastern Europe, like I was in Montenegro and Albania, like they're not again like I even asked my hostel host. I was like, "Do they hate me?" And they were like, "No, man. We're just we're not like culturally it's not in our culture to like say good morning and smile a lot and stuff." I don't know. So, they were not rude. It's just that that's a part of their culture

57:37 where they don't talk a lot. They do calm bath. Like you're at a grocery store. If you drop an apple, they won't be like, "Oh, it's it's okay." Like, they'll just be like, and so you're just like, and I am someone who's just like, "Oh my god, we dropped an apple." So, so I would say but they're not rude. I think it's just their culture. So, it's it's fine. One country that everyone should visit.

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