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[Music]

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you're listening to season 2 episode 5

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of the attempt adventure podcast a

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podcast all about travel finding adventure every day and seeking out

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adventurous ways to make life more interesting

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from boulder colorado i'm your host

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james barrett joined as always by my

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co-host michael derosers in bangkok thailand

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very good michael i'm doing well how are

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you sir what's up we're back on stage i

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almost said yeah i almost said bangkok

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when i was doing the intros they do both start with the

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letter b so

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that's that's good enough for me to get him confused i don't know he is for

0:54

bangkok that's good enough for me

1:00

c is for cookie which is indeed good

1:02

enough for me well james in this episode we're gonna

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be sitting down with special guest linda

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king from the smart travelista to talk

1:11

about travel health and safety a lot of

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times when we're talking about traveling and an adventure we think about these

1:17

you know the exciting parts the glamorous side of travel but there's a

1:20

very real practical side of it that kind of gets overlooked and that is keeping

1:24

yourself safe and keeping yourself healthy so

1:27

we're going to be having a fantastic conversation linda king has been all

1:30

around the world she's written books about the subject about health and

1:33

safety on the road as well as other books and so that's the topic of our

1:37

interview today and it's a great one but

1:39

first james did you do anything new or

1:42

adventurous this week

1:44

well went to

1:47

the farmers market it was the first one

1:49

of the season tried a new restaurant it was pretty

1:52

good bad daddy's burger bar

1:54

salad shannon one in flatix crossing

1:57

mall okay shout out to

2:00

you shout out to bad daddy's burger bar

2:05

if you're listening besides that it's just it's really just

2:08

been work my time there is coming to a

2:11

close yeah you just have like um what a

2:13

week and a half left huh it's kind of crazy at the moment and so i'm spending

2:17

way more time there than i would like but the most adventurous thing i will

2:20

say i did is there is a little tiny game

2:24

trail that leads up the mountain a little ways sort of off to the side and

2:28

i did go up there and took some pictures i'll share those with you guys nice so

2:31

what is your plan after the 20th

2:34

uh looking for a new job we're going to take a a trip down back home for a

2:39

little bit see the family and stuff like that and sort of

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go from there i'm okay money wise for a few months so i'm not

2:46

crazy worried about it i took this job

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with the implication that it would go from being

2:54

temporary like contract to year round

2:56

that is not the case so that was a

2:58

little bum that was a bummer right yeah

3:01

is what it is and you just kind of find

3:04

the best in it and move on yeah so i'm

3:06

not sure that's the best way to put it

3:09

what's next but something good well hey

3:11

i'm right there with you i've i've been job hunting and actually doing some

3:15

interviews lately as well with this i

3:17

just wore an ukraine teaching online no

3:20

longer pays the bills my bread and

3:22

butter were honestly russian students and nowadays they can't use visa

3:26

mastercard or paypal they're unable to

3:28

pay me so they can't hire me to teach uh

3:31

and they were you know they were the ones that were kind of willing to spend

3:34

more per hour so unfortunately you can't work for free

3:39

no no you absolutely can't and it's like

3:41

i understand that like this is

3:44

the smallest of losses of this war right i i almost

3:49

hesitate even complaining about it because like come on you know you know

3:53

considering that people are losing their lives in their homes but it still is is

3:56

really not good and it still does affect me so i actually got to fix your

4:00

livelihood yeah i did get a job offer

4:02

but it was out of school and it was going to be really good but it was at a

4:05

school that was going to take like almost an hour both ways to get there

4:09

and that would have been bad and i would have had to pay a taxi each day for like

4:12

an hour so it just that wasn't

4:15

there yeah i've done a couple other interviews since yeah

4:18

so i don't know we'll see how things go but

4:20

i'm there with you you'll

4:22

you'll find something i'm sure it'll be

4:25

good things will turn out all right things always turn out we always do

4:28

well this week james i decided to do

4:31

something i had a little extra time so i decided to do my wilderness first aid

4:35

certification my wfa i did it online

4:39

but hey

4:41

it counts it's kind of helped you know

4:43

motivate me to get back out there and i just feel like it's important to know i

4:47

don't know it's just good to be fresh with these things you know i think

4:49

that's why they have you get re-certified for first aid every you

4:52

know three to five years or whatever oh yeah because it's really easy to just

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sort of forget things you panic just forget

4:59

something happens i mean i've never had to administer first aid in my life

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besides like cuts you know cuts or minor

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things it's good to know and i mean a lot of it was very north america-centric

5:10

because i was getting it from a north american organization i'm not going to

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meet many like black bears here in thailand but still just like the

5:17

principles are sound tigers there yes but probably nowhere

5:21

probably nowhere where i would be i'm not sure how many there are how many

5:25

tigers i feel like if a tiger decides to

5:28

get you it doesn't really matter at that point well there are fewer than 200

5:32

tigers in the whole country so i would be supremely unlucky to meet one

5:36

it's not impossible yeah

5:39

really only that's that few that's kind of that's a bummer it is sad but we were

5:43

in a place with tigers because they told us to look out for them

5:47

true they did says mostly they live at the national

5:50

parks but anyway so i got my wilderness first

5:52

aid and if i ever have the time and the

5:55

money i might go on to get that next level which is wilderness first

5:58

responder which is a bit more intensive

6:01

i've been spending more time outdoors

6:03

both in the us and here in thailand so i

6:05

just i think it's good to good to be

6:07

fresh first responder one that's cool

6:09

because then you can like be part of search and rescues and things you can i

6:13

think it gives you like a level three search and rescue certification as well

6:17

if you have your wfr

6:19

although i'm not sure how much help i'd be here in thailand

6:22

needing someone to translate everything for me

6:25

but um like when those kids got stuck in that

6:28

cave yes yes and then elon musk wanted

6:31

to build a submarine and everyone was like no man we don't have time for that

6:34

just like send some divers in we don't

6:36

have time to construct a submarine

6:39

it's like thanks for your intentions but please

6:42

just send some scuba gear like that's what we need exactly

6:46

that's really cool anyway yeah it's good i mean obviously i did that stuff with

6:49

boy scouts but that was a long time ago so it's good to just refresh like how to

6:52

make a splint what to do for heat stroke

6:54

you know all that good stuff how to scare off animals be big or be small or

6:59

back away or charge them it depends on

7:02

the animal if it's a bear right if it's black fight back if it's brown lay down

7:07

that's that's what you do it's white it's a good night

7:10

yeah pretty much yeah

7:12

totally uh fortunately neither one of us

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live anywhere with polar bears so

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that is the one that i learned way back

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for those of you who may be in a place

7:21

that doesn't have predatory animals

7:24

which i guess would be the uk i don't

7:27

think parts of europe i guess yeah yeah

7:30

parts of europe there are two

7:33

large land animals known to actively hunt

7:36

people that is polar bears and mountain lions

7:40

the us doesn't have polar bears

7:42

well do they do they i mean maybe like

7:44

in alaska but we do have mountain lions

7:47

yeah and mountain lions live near people

7:49

and they they hunt for fun too like they don't

7:52

just hunt for food they'll actually like

7:54

toy with you because they're just a big cat

7:56

and they sound terrifying yeah and they're not that rare it's not

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like a tiger like they're actually around you know let's see i'm curious

8:04

before we get into the interview

8:07

conservation so wilderness first aid if you're

8:10

attacked by a mountain lion first you have to make yourself look big and scary

8:13

but if it starts coming at you you just have to fight back never run if you turn

8:17

your back to it you're dead so you just

8:19

have to fight back kick and punch and be

8:21

as loud as you can see the thing is most

8:24

big cats in the world are endangered

8:27

mountain lions are not no they're all over the land

8:31

and they're they're protected because they're they are very very important to

8:34

the ecosystem where they live they were

8:36

listed as threatened

8:39

for a while up until 2008 where their

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population increased enough to where now they are just animals and yeah they are

8:46

one of my favorite animals they're cool i mean it's it seems they say any big

8:50

cat that lives in the mountains is cool

8:52

they almost seem too exotic for the us

8:54

does that make sense well the us has jaguars oh i know i know

8:59

even southern texas texas

9:01

southern texas east texas has jaguars

9:04

florida has panthers which is just a it

9:07

is a mountain lion but it's not it's like a subspecies

9:11

what do you say we get into this interview well that's actually a pretty

9:13

good segue because speaking of wilderness first aid here we have ladies

9:17

and gentlemen linda king the smart

9:19

travalista here to talk about travel

9:21

health and safety as well as to share

9:23

some of her own travel health and safety tips her experiences her adventures we

9:28

also talk a little bit about her travels during covid it's made traveling very

9:32

difficult so she has taken the chance to explore her own home australia

9:36

so enjoy the interview

9:41

[Music]

9:50

welcome back to the show today i am very

9:52

happy to be joined by linda king world

9:54

traveler writer travel blogger and the

9:57

smart travelista welcome to the show

10:01

thanks michael thanks for having me so

10:03

glad to have you well the first thing we always like to have our guests do is

10:06

introduce themselves of course so why don't you just tell us just a little bit

10:09

about who you are what you do where you're living and what

10:13

is your background with travel and adventure

10:16

as michael's just said i'm

10:18

a author travel writer and blogger um

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that's my side hustle so i do have a full-time job uh where i manage people

10:26

um at a company

10:28

other company um but i'm based in

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melbourne australia originally born in

10:33

sydney and what got me into the travel um i

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started traveling as a child

10:40

um which i can tell you about a little bit later

10:43

but that sort of gave me the um

10:46

the taste of travels so i ended up getting into travel as a career so i was

10:50

i worked for an airline and i was a travel agent there for quite a few years

10:55

travel's always been in my blood

10:57

what have been some of your favorite places that you've been

11:00

there's so many places in the world the

11:02

world's such an amazing place

11:04

um i'd have to say probably

11:07

europe is probably my favorite place

11:10

but look you know the states and and asia they're

11:14

all great too um but i seem to have a bit of an

11:16

affinity with with europe

11:19

the adventures i've been on i've been on so many um probably the first one i can

11:24

remember as a child was we went on a four-month road trip around australia

11:28

with my parents and my brother and that

11:30

was just totally amazing as a child you

11:33

you know don't know about travel and we

11:35

went on a road trip i think we were most

11:37

excited about not having to be at school

11:39

for four months

11:42

as a kid um but then what we didn't realize is our father had gone to the

11:46

teachers and we'd actually had a homework so he presented us with

11:49

homework to do every night

11:53

but it just really opened my eyes to

11:55

what sort of adventures you could have in life right every day was an adventure

12:01

when we're on the road and it was something that we've never

12:03

seen so i think for me what eventually

12:06

means to me is new exciting experiences

12:10

um the unknown

12:12

and being out of your comfort zone

12:14

adventures that are like the unknown

12:17

you've got to have them in life don't you

12:19

you know to make your life that more fruitful and especially as a traveler i

12:23

think we we thrive on adventures

12:26

you know what i find so interesting about that is that that's even just

12:30

within your own country finding all these new adventures as a child even

12:33

within your own country how can people

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find these adventures locally because that's that's one of the issues that

12:38

everyone's having right now we can't travel thanks to covet 19. it's

12:42

hard to travel uh immigration anywhere is very

12:45

difficult there's a lot of requirements some countries just are completely

12:48

closed off still so how can we still find adventure

12:52

what have you been doing to find adventure in these past two years yeah

12:55

so we're just about traveling locally as

12:57

you said it's been hard for us and probably you as well um you know a lot

13:01

of the borders the state borders have been closed so just about finding those

13:05

untouched places that you might not have traveled to like

13:09

had you had the a chance to go international that's obviously your

13:12

first priority um but and you sort of

13:15

don't look at your own backyard which was really interesting as a child

13:18

because we did look at our own backyard

13:21

and australia is such a big place

13:23

you think you only really concentrate on

13:26

where you're living but there's so much more to offer so i

13:29

think in a way it's been good for us

13:32

to look at our own backyard because

13:34

you know we should be looking at that before we travel further abroad well

13:38

what are some uh hidden gems maybe that you've discovered this past year i know

13:42

i'm kind of putting on the spot here i didn't prep you for these questions but

13:44

i'm just uh i'm curious now that we're on the topic what are some hidden gems

13:48

in australia that you've discovered

13:50

probably in victoria or in melbourne

13:52

where i am there's a lot of

13:55

little wineries out at yarra valley you

13:58

know you wouldn't really go there normally when you think of wineries

14:01

normally what i would do is go to adelaide in south australia we've got

14:05

you know the barossa valley down there

14:07

um but yeah they've actually got some really nice wineries there which i

14:11

haven't really investigated before i

14:13

think yeah you just got to sort of look outside the box in a way because i've

14:17

been really lucky i've traveled a lot of australia

14:20

um but then to find a hidden gem is like

14:22

a really big trait because it's like oh

14:24

i haven't seen this before

14:26

yeah so but i think probably the wineries um there's a really nice place

14:31

in victoria sort of a little bit out of victoria which is a spa wellness place

14:35

which i think is really topical at the moment everyone wants to

14:39

worry about their wellness and health

14:41

exactly yes yeah there's a really nice one

14:44

outside of um victoria also the great

14:47

ocean road's a really good one

14:49

um it's on on the coast

14:52

it was the 12 apostles

14:54

which is no longer the twelve apostles because of weathering i think some of

14:58

them have actually gone into the ocean

15:00

but it's like a cliff um and it goes

15:02

along the coastline um but that is a really lovely place um

15:07

and always brings a lot of people so yeah there's just so much to offer um

15:11

you probably got the same in the us well

15:13

you're in thailand at the moment yes yes

15:17

there's so many great places there too i

15:19

guess uh australia i would imagine very similar to the us in that it really

15:22

benefits from a road trip right i think

15:25

that in the us anyway you know going by

15:27

cars the best way to get around the country well it's all good and well to

15:30

talk about the great adventures where everything goes really nicely and it's a

15:34

lot of fun but sometimes the best stories come from when things just don't

15:38

go right you know that's that's one of the most interesting questions i like to

15:41

ask what are some stories where things

15:44

have gone wrong but have led you into an adventure some some adventure that

15:47

started when maybe something

15:50

uh happened unexpectedly something that

15:52

you couldn't prepare for yeah i was in

15:54

miami i'm in the middle of a hurricane

16:00

right i was going there to you know

16:03

taste the local culture do a bit of shopping do a bit of

16:07

beach you know um yeah a hurricane hit

16:11

um and miami beach was right on the eye

16:13

of it they basically got on tv and said

16:15

we need to evacuate so i had two options

16:18

to go into a school building which

16:20

wasn't an option for me because i'd been out shopping and i had quite a number of

16:23

bags with me or to go to a another hotel mooring land

16:28

i actually met some french guys and they

16:31

couldn't speak english and they were totally distressed

16:35

and i spoke a bit of french so i was like just come with me we'll get into

16:38

we'll get in a cab we'll find another hotel and we'll sort it all out don't

16:42

worry so i took them under my wing um i

16:45

was a bit scared myself it was a little bit scary

16:48

and so yes we went to this inland hotel

16:50

the only um room that they had was on the top floor

16:54

i spent probably the next few days with the whole building shaking

16:57

from the winds even though we were in land we i couldn't get out of miami

17:01

because of what had happened everyone was trying to get out and they couldn't

17:04

get out so terrifying but i think

17:08

yeah but i think the big thing that i've

17:10

um got out of that was my resilience

17:13

and ability to

17:15

handle things that you know are unexpected so i think all

17:19

those sorts of adventures when they go

17:22

wrong actually build your character and your

17:25

strengths right part of your blog is about helping

17:28

people not have a disaster helping people to be

17:32

more prepared so that things don't go wrong and you've

17:34

written a several books about this so please tell me about your books that

17:37

you've written sure yeah so i've got four books that i've written

17:41

so the first one's about finding the best travel barkers and managing your

17:44

budget so that one's really around

17:47

investigating doing things online and

17:49

and those saving tips

17:51

yeah and maybe not go to a travel agent

17:54

to do your travel second one um with best overseas bargain

17:58

shopping shopping so that's about the

18:00

way that you can save bargain shopping

18:02

but also the destinations you know my favorite

18:05

destinations where i know a lot of bargain shopping happens thailand being

18:09

one of them yes

18:12

book number three is how to increase your airline loyalty points and fly for

18:15

a phrase i used to teach clients how to

18:18

do this quite a lot when i was at the

18:20

airline and i don't pay commercial at all

18:23

anymore i do do this all on point so

18:25

that's sort of books around that

18:27

and the fourth book is how to protect your travel health and safety so

18:31

that's i think really very topical at

18:33

the moment especially with what's going on and also just

18:37

any of the books that i've written are about things that resonate with the

18:40

traveler and that can help the traveller

18:42

yeah i think it can be really scary maybe if you don't have experience

18:45

traveling you know where do you start i think that having someone that's been

18:49

there been there done that you know that can offer advice is very comforting and

18:54

even for experienced travelers right picking up on pieces of advice from

18:57

other travelers is really valuable

19:00

yeah well the the last book that you mentioned about health and safety that's

19:03

one of the main topics that i wanted to talk to you about today as you said

19:06

that's so important especially nowadays

19:09

with um so many you know i think we've learned

19:12

more about health in the last two years

19:14

than we've ever thought about ever in

19:16

the past and it's such a big i guess we could say

19:20

a big limitation right now on travel

19:22

so i wanted to ask you about some of your favorite travel tips for protecting

19:27

one's health and safety while abroad or

19:29

just while on a trip uh how do you recommend people staying healthy what

19:33

are some of the tips and tricks that you have for staying healthy on a trip yeah

19:37

so i've got some health and safety tips but the health tips would be

19:41

if you're going to a developing country

19:44

get your vaccinations really important that you investigate

19:47

that find out what vaccines you need

19:51

because it's going to stop you you know

19:53

it's not going to be a total guarantee but it's going to help you be healthier

19:56

while you're over there normally get that six weeks in advance

20:00

that's always the suggestion

20:02

because sometimes you need multiple doses um so that's probably one good tip

20:06

um take out travel insurance

20:08

do not leave home without travel insurance it's really really important

20:12

that you have that i've been and

20:15

as everyone would have experienced i've been sick on trips

20:19

you know the medical is not the same

20:21

like in australia we're really lucky we've got cheap medical um treatment

20:25

some other countries don't have that luxury

20:28

and you could be paying a lot of money if you need help

20:31

you know this is such a great tip i had

20:33

never i had always gotten travel insurance

20:36

when i was traveling around southeast asia if i was going to cambodia or

20:39

something like that i had never thought about it when i was going home to visit

20:42

my family before i just never

20:45

considered it i thought oh that's my home i don't i just never crossed my

20:49

mind recently i got to go back to the u.s for the first time in a couple of

20:52

years and i decided to get health insurance you

20:56

know travelers insurance for my own home country

20:58

i've never needed it before i've never had an instance when i needed it before

21:01

but wouldn't you know it this time that i was home i stepped on a nail and i had

21:05

to go to an emergency room and have the wound cleaned and i was so thankful that

21:10

i had that travel traveler's insurance

21:12

because that could have cost me thousands of dollars they would have had

21:14

they had to x-ray my foot and they had to you know make sure there was no rust

21:18

left in the wound and it was such an

21:20

important thing that i had never considered

21:23

previously yeah and you know if you've got the

21:25

money to travel then that should be part of the deal as far as i'm concerned i'm

21:29

never not doing it again

21:31

yes i've always done it and i i'm always

21:34

glad that i've got it and you and it's insurance right you might not need it

21:37

right it's an insurance just in case exactly right yeah another big one is

21:41

food hygiene so don't drink the local water

21:45

always use bottled water and that includes washing your teeth as

21:49

well people don't think about that but you can get sick from drinking the local

21:53

water while you're still ingesting it aren't you yeah

21:57

yes so that's one big thing that i've noticed that people don't

22:00

realize there's a lot of good health

22:02

tips in flight um always be really

22:05

selective about your seat so if you're

22:08

paying you know extra money to get a seat make sure you pick a good seat by

22:12

that what i mean is don't have an oil seat have a window seat because the rc

22:18

gets a lot of traffic you're getting a lot of traffic from people

22:22

and so if you're in a window seat

22:24

you're more enclosed and away from that

22:26

you know what i mean like you've got a lot of tenants going up and down giving

22:30

you food you've got people going up and

22:32

down to go to the toilet or have a bit of an exercise you're getting a lot of

22:36

people that's like a really bad traffic

22:38

area another thing to do um always have your

22:41

air on so you might be feeling a bit cold in flight continue the air all the

22:45

time and push it on you because that's

22:48

getting the stale air away from you

22:50

and obviously we know this one from the last few years but wipe everything down

22:54

yeah whatever you touch wipe down

22:57

um and clean regularly so um i never

23:00

really considered how gross airplanes were until this last year

23:04

until i had to fly for the first time so

23:06

so what like paranoid the first time i got on the flight

23:10

in 2021

23:12

i've got other little tips that i won't tell you they're in the book but i'm

23:15

having work to do yes

23:19

i know all the all happens on the plane

23:21

so but then yeah talking about the

23:23

safety tips don't keep all your money in

23:26

one place so don't keep all your money

23:28

together so if you're going out

23:31

don't take all your money with you it seems like a no-brainer but

23:34

you know if you were to be mugged or robbed everything would be gone so it's

23:39

just about one thing that i do

23:42

and you know might be something other people do i separate depending on how

23:46

many days i'm there and have it in like little parcels

23:50

and then separate it through your luggage

23:52

another thing i wouldn't use the hotel

23:55

safe ever all employees have that master

23:57

code and if someone wants to go into the safe

24:00

they've got the code irrespective of the

24:03

code that you create right

24:06

and i'm not sure people know that but they've got they've got the master code

24:09

so most people are honest you know that

24:11

work at the hotel but some people might not be

24:14

and don't carry your belongings on your back

24:16

this is you know some people put their backpacks

24:19

on their back put your backpack on the front so you can actually physically see

24:22

it we don't we can't see anything on the

24:24

back i've seen so many people mugged you know

24:28

putting wallets in the back of their pants or putting um you know backpacks

24:33

on the back someone is coming up from

24:35

behind you you can't see them

24:37

you can only see them when they've taken off your backpack and taking it with

24:41

them

24:44

well it's always about wearing it you know it might look might look a bit

24:47

strange but carry the backpack on the front with you

24:50

um i've learned you just don't worry about what other people think how you

24:52

look when you're traveling you know you gotta take care of yourself first right

24:56

no you're never gonna see these people again right all these other tourists or

24:58

local people

25:00

that's right exactly right

25:03

another great one is mac probably see your travel documents so your password

25:06

such a good idea yeah and and again put it in a separate place

25:11

so if you are mugged they take your

25:13

passport you might you'll have a photocopy of it you'll have the number

25:17

you'll have everything you need and when

25:20

you go to your your countries consulate

25:22

you can quite easily get it reissued

25:25

it's never happened to me but wood

25:30

again it's about the insurance right having the backup

25:33

if you haven't already gathered i'm a bit of a planner and i think everyone

25:36

should be if you're a traveler be a planner because it's going to help you

25:40

um and the final thing is register your

25:42

details with your consulate as well

25:44

so if anything happens in australia um

25:46

we've got a facility where we can register where we're going and when what

25:50

the dates are um and it's really good so they can

25:53

contact us so hopefully there's no

25:56

natural disasters but if there was they could get in contact with us quickly we

26:00

have something similar in the us uh in the us it's called the smart traveler

26:04

enrollment program or step most of the

26:06

times you never hear from them but i was here in thailand in 2014 when the coup

26:10

happened and they were very good about emailing us and just keeping us updated

26:14

with what was going on and people don't even know that exists a lot of people

26:18

don't know that those programs exist

26:21

yeah so that'd be probably my big tips i

26:24

think if you you do all those things you're going to be a lot

26:27

safer and a lot healthier while you travel

26:30

absolutely so did you learn these tips

26:32

mostly through experience i haven't had

26:34

things go awry

26:36

but luckily i'm still alive but which is

26:38

good um but but yeah it's i think talking to

26:43

people too um you know when you're a traveler you talk to people and they

26:47

tell you stories about things that have gone wrong as well and you think oh i

26:50

better do that next time and it's in you

26:52

sort of put that in your memory bank so

26:54

yeah some of these things have happened today probably when my

26:58

earlier in my overseas travel journey

27:00

but yeah now they're sort of no brainer slightly just

27:03

common common sense i suppose

27:06

but yeah i mean if those tips help people then that's a good thing because

27:10

it means that they won't experience that so yeah it a little bit of both but i

27:14

think when you get into scrapes when you

27:16

travel you always learn something i try

27:19

and say it from a positive light that you know if an adventure goes

27:22

wrong you always learn something from that

27:25

that's what i've kind of the i wouldn't call it a tagline but one of our sort of

27:28

unofficial mottos of our podcast is that

27:30

good adventures start when things go wrong because that's that's where the

27:34

good stories come from that you can sit around telling people the perfect trips

27:37

are pretty boring to listen to i think for most people okay

27:41

everything make good you're going to

27:43

remember those adventures where things were a little bit uncomfortable and a

27:46

little bit chaotic but you still got something good out of

27:49

it in the end i think that's kind of

27:51

where the fun of travel comes from is that it's not always comfortable

27:55

yeah i think i think it's quite addictive you know why yes it is

27:59

well great well so you know you mentioned that you're a planner and i

28:02

think that's so important what are some of your

28:04

uh best tips for planning a trip abroad what are your

28:08

strategies for preparing in advance

28:10

before you go somewhere so i think you've got to do the research so if you

28:14

haven't been to the place research it

28:16

know what you're going to be up for um is it developing is it a developed

28:20

country i think if it's a developed

28:22

country then you sort of know what you're up for it's probably similar to

28:25

where you come from but it's a developing country

28:28

there's going to be things a little bit unique and different

28:31

um so it's really about and it's sort of

28:34

around the health so you're finding out about the health because that's part of

28:37

you know the vaccinations but you also

28:39

want to find out a little bit about the culture

28:42

so when you grab it then you're not really

28:44

offending anyone and you're being respectful to that culture for me it's

28:48

about the research so first probably

28:50

identify where you want to go and and

28:52

around that are you going to book everything yourself online or you're

28:56

going to go to a travel agent so identify that if you're gonna do it

29:00

online great um you're gonna save a lot of

29:03

money if you do that um but obviously

29:06

it's gonna take a little bit more planning so

29:08

it's just step by step some some people

29:10

think it's overwhelming to go all right

29:12

i've got to plan that overseas trip

29:15

if you look at it as a whole it probably looks overwhelming but if you track it

29:18

down into steps step by step so

29:22

firstly you're going to need a flight

29:24

book the flight find out about the

29:26

flight oh firstly find out when you can have

29:29

holidays that's probably the first thing you need to do ask your employer when i

29:34

have time off yeah

29:37

get them to approve that right you've got the holidays then probably look at

29:40

the the flights what are the flights try and find the

29:43

flights that are you know going to be within your price range then you're

29:47

going to need a hotel or accommodation

29:49

think about that um

29:52

are you going to you drive over there you're gonna need a

29:55

car or you're gonna go on tours so it's just

29:58

about breaking it down um and step by

30:01

step have a bit of an itinerary so

30:04

you you know you're gonna fly out this

30:06

day due to time difference you might be

30:09

arriving on a different day but it's just about the logistics so

30:12

it's for me it's just starting at the thought

30:16

where am i going and it's breaking down it into steps

30:20

there's so much so many good resources

30:23

on the internet so many review sites

30:26

so many great travel um websites

30:28

my travel website's a great one as well

30:31

absolutely um all the links will be in our show notes

30:34

and on our website so we will yeah if

30:37

you want to find that you can definitely click

30:39

below this

30:42

we're really really lucky there's so much all you've got to do is google if

30:45

that's what you do google and there's so

30:48

many and all you've got to do is put the country name

30:50

um or do it like a keyword search

30:53

and you can get so much information so

30:56

we're really lucky there's so much out there um so it's just about planning it

31:00

so once all that's planned what i do is

31:02

i book it ahead of time so that's all covered for financially

31:07

and then it's about okay we've got to pack

31:10

and that's about what time i need to be at the airport get the uber or the cab

31:15

and it's just about step by step once

31:17

you get there you should better relax really because

31:21

you've done all that preparation you've done all that planning

31:24

um so you've done all the hard yards before you've left

31:27

and then it's just about keeping yourself

31:29

safe and healthy while you're over there

31:31

yeah and enjoying yourself really that's what we're traveling for aren't we

31:35

to see the new to relax

31:38

and hopefully stay out of trouble

31:40

yeah right right

31:43

what are some of your favorite resources for finding this information like say

31:46

you want to go to a new country you've never been you want to find out about

31:49

the culture or health risks safety risks

31:52

what sources do you tend to gravitate towards obviously we

31:55

google we look for you know things in general but do you have any sources that

31:58

you find to be really valuable

32:00

in your planning so so yeah depending on the country i will

32:04

go to their local airline

32:06

because it's usually got a lot of great

32:09

um local information also look at the

32:11

tourist view tourist bureaus so most countries will

32:15

have a tourist um

32:18

office so i will go on to their website

32:21

um also what i really love is tripadvisor for

32:24

reviews so when you're trying to work

32:26

out what hotel you want to stay on tripadvisor is excellent but there's

32:30

also other review sites that are really good

32:32

and also expedia i really love as well

32:35

that's got a lot of good good information but you know i think about

32:39

okay so i might want to go to um the states i

32:43

will go onto all the airline web

32:45

websites so american delta

32:48

and find out what i can find out

32:50

from their airline site

32:52

also go on the um normally in australia we've got local

32:56

tourist bureaus for each country so

32:58

we've got a u.s tourist bureau i will be

33:00

interested in investigating um i don't know whether you've got that there but

33:04

within australia they've got like every country pretty much a tourist bureau

33:08

represented in australia

33:10

so i will go go there as well as the

33:12

local um you know international websites

33:16

um but yeah i'd do that to start with um

33:20

i'd also look up tours

33:22

because true the tours if you google the

33:25

tours of that country you'll also get a

33:27

lot of information you might not go on that tour but it'll give you

33:30

things that you might not have thought of doing it it may seem like common

33:33

sense but it's things that people don't think about i mean i've never even

33:36

thought about looking at other you know

33:38

airline websites that's such a good idea

33:40

what do you think are the biggest mistakes that people make in planning a

33:43

trip not having travel insurance is one

33:46

big thing and not um

33:49

not looking at the currency also

33:52

currency is a big thing i don't know whether i mentioned it but

33:55

not looking at the currency rates

33:58

um is a really big

34:00

big thing that people make mistakes with

34:02

if you purchase a currency here or look

34:05

to see when it's positive you're better

34:07

off actually purchasing it at home

34:09

before you actually get over there but it depends on the country you're talking

34:12

about so in asia for instance you

34:15

actually get a better rate when you arrive there but in certain countries if

34:19

you keep an eye on the currency before you leave you're actually saving

34:22

yourself some money another big thing that people do i think

34:27

i think personally is go to a travel agent because you're paying for their

34:30

commission yes they're planning it for you so i

34:33

mean look there's always going to be opportunity to have either a travel

34:36

agent or do it yourself but the big mistake people make is they go to a

34:40

travel agent that travel agent is actually going to push things

34:43

that are going to give them the best commission and it may not be suited to

34:46

what you actually want to do and i know

34:49

that because i was a travel agent and we used to push

34:53

but i think not planning is is a big

34:55

thing as well not to say that you can plan for everything like things happen

34:58

that you can't control right yeah and that's the beauty of travel but yeah

35:02

that's probably my my top i would say

35:04

well you know you're our first guest that we've had from australia so i'd

35:07

also like to talk to you about some of your favorite places to travel in

35:11

australia and give some local tips for

35:14

people that might want to visit so what are some of your top destinations

35:18

for someone that's never been to australia that might want to

35:21

um look everyone thinks of sydney and melbourne when they think of australia i

35:24

know there's a really it's a really untouched place called adelaide in south

35:29

australia that is a fabulous place not a

35:32

lot of people go there i would say internationally

35:35

the shopping is phenomenal they've got as i mentioned

35:38

before the barossa valley which is a fantastic winery they've actually got a

35:43

place called um handoff actually i think

35:45

it's called um which is a german

35:48

it's like a german themed little town a

35:52

lot of germans came to south australia

35:54

um and just made it their own so that's

35:57

a really awesome place to travel to very

35:59

cheap as well people probably know about the gold

36:02

coast in brisbane so that's where

36:04

everyone goes for all the sun

36:07

but another really great place is perth

36:10

you've probably seen the little quackers

36:12

little bubbles like the little hobbies with the smaller little faces i love

36:15

them i've always wanted to meet one in real life

36:19

yeah so what you've got to do is you've got to travel to purse which is a bit of

36:22

a trip so it's probably about a three and a half to four hour journey from say

36:26

sydney but if you go to a place called rottnest

36:29

island that's where the quackers are they'd

36:32

probably be my big tips and if you love beaches if you're in western australia

36:36

so if you're in near perth if you go up

36:39

the coast there's a place called broome

36:41

they've got phenomenal beaches

36:43

the water is just crystal clear and the

36:46

beaches are so clean i could talk for

36:49

hours about australia there's so many places if you come to australia you

36:53

would need to spend a few weeks here and

36:56

don't just as much as i love sydney and

36:58

melbourne because they both i both love them there's so many other places within

37:02

australia that will blow your mind just

37:05

to visit uh what is the best way to get around you do you recommend mostly

37:08

driving or is there a good train system what do you what do you recommend if you

37:11

want to see australia it depends on the amount of time you've got here so if

37:14

you've only got a limited time then you're probably better off getting in a

37:17

plane but what i would say there's some really good journeys so if you say you

37:21

had a month or four months like we had

37:24

maybe not if now you're interested in

37:27

going from the east coast to over um the

37:29

west coast over in perth there's actually some really great train

37:32

journeys that you can take so there's a thing called an indian pacific

37:36

which takes you from perth

37:39

or vice versa from the east coast over

37:42

to the west western part you'll go to

37:44

the nullarbor plains which is a really

37:47

untouched place of australia

37:49

but yeah there's a lot of train journeys and there's another one began which goes

37:53

up through the middle of australia up through from darwin

37:56

right all the way down to adelaide and south australia but i would say

38:00

probably your best bet is flying if you

38:02

haven't got a lot of time are there any specific health and safety tips for

38:06

australia that people might not be aware of now i know that this might be a

38:10

stereotype i know that there's a lot of dangerous animals but how can a traveler

38:13

stay safe in australia yeah don't

38:15

approach a kangaroo unless it's in it you know like a

38:18

oh that's that's good because they look really cute don't they

38:22

look i can tell you a bit of a story where i live

38:25

we've got a reserve on the other side of the road

38:28

and we've got kangaroos that

38:31

the family of kangaroos you do not want

38:33

to approach them they are so huge their

38:36

tails the tails of the ones that live

38:38

near near me are bigger than my arm and probably my

38:41

leg combined oh my gosh they are such

38:44

powerful animals so beautiful though

38:46

such beautiful animals they only ate grass i don't know how they become so

38:50

strong they are very strong and they're very

38:53

they've got very big broad backs i suppose you could call it but yeah don't

38:57

ever approach a wild kangaroo because

39:00

they'll get quite distressed um they'll probably hop away anyway because they'll

39:04

they'll be frightened but if you would

39:06

in the position that you were next to one go the other direction i'll tell you

39:10

a quick little story they tend to come round very at the

39:14

beginning of the mornings with before the sun rises and also in really cool

39:18

weather one time i was going to work

39:20

when we actually went to work yeah it

39:22

was one of my footpath eating grass i

39:25

turned my head and saw him or her and

39:28

they saw me and it was sort of like and

39:30

he was only quite a few meters away but he was too busy eating the grass

39:34

yeah i was i would not have gone through

39:36

that path because i would have ended up in hospital so i went the other

39:39

direction turning and looking at my back

39:42

just to make sure that they weren't following me but yeah if they're

39:45

startled you've just got to really watch

39:47

the kangaroos with koalas you're not

39:50

going to really see them because they're going to be sleeping up a tree but if

39:53

you see them they'll probably run away from you as

39:55

well we've got wombats which are quite

39:57

cuddly as well they'll probably run away

40:00

be careful with the dingos if you're in the middle of

40:03

australia be really careful with the dingoes because they are wild and feral

40:07

dogs and they you could end up having to

40:10

have a tetanus needle i think if one of them bit you so you've got to be really

40:13

careful there we've got a lot of spiders

40:15

and snakes as well so if you see a snake

40:17

just get out of there quickly and we've got some spiders that are quite deadly

40:22

we've got a funnel web spider if you're

40:24

in new south wales that if you get

40:26

bitten by that you'll die if you don't get to hospital quickly and red backs

40:30

are quite deadly as they're not deadly but they'll give you a good bite i've

40:33

been bitten by a spider so i've got

40:36

first-hand experience one tip that you

40:39

need to do is if you're bitten by a spider killer and put it in a in some

40:42

sort of jar and take it with you to the hospital so what i did in the middle of

40:46

summer because we have quite hot summers here i was taking clothes off the line

40:49

and there was one hiding inside the basket

40:52

and as i was taking the clothes out

40:55

it jumped on my arm and bit me so

40:57

you've got to be really careful especially in the summer time in

41:00

australia shake everything out

41:02

especially your clothes once you've been bitten by spider you shake the clothes

41:05

and you you always make sure that um

41:07

you know that it's nothing in there

41:10

right actually it hasn't got a family just be careful you know there's some

41:14

really lovely animals here but this we've got some deadly deadly ones as

41:18

well so yeah take care of yourself right

41:21

awesome well linda are there any other

41:23

stories or or messages you'd like to

41:25

share to the people today at the podcast

41:27

before we finish up be brave traveling

41:30

is wonderful um adventures are what

41:33

makes us i think you know makes our life

41:35

um i love that if you think you can't do it if you think you can't do it just do

41:39

it anyway right take the tips you know

41:42

make sure you've prepared yourself but you know we're only on the planet for a

41:45

short amount of time and i think we've got to live our life and i think life's

41:49

to be enjoyed an adventure

41:52

if you think about it when you get become older

41:55

you'll look back and go wow what a life

41:57

i've had and you'll think back to those

41:59

adventures you could even have enough

42:02

adventures to write a book um you know depending on what what

42:05

happened but yeah be brave if you want

42:08

tips on how to do things there's so many

42:10

resources out out there that will help you but it's just having that confidence

42:15

and i think it's about doing it once

42:18

first time's going to be a bit scary but

42:20

once you've done it once you should be to do it from then on if you just you'll

42:24

build your confidence and all those

42:26

other adventures will be out there waiting for you and the world's such an

42:29

amazing place i don't think we ever get

42:32

to the whole we only do a small part but

42:34

it's so amazing and you you're doing

42:37

yourself a disservice if you don't go out and have those adventures and travel

42:41

well you've written four books and we can find those on amazon do you have any

42:45

other books that are in the works or any

42:47

other projects that you have in the works right now

42:50

yes i've got a bit of a travel memoir

42:52

talking about adventures so i'm i've done the first draft on that

42:56

so i'm going through and doing a bit of a revision on that so hoping that hoping

43:01

to have that out this year yeah that would i love reading trouble memoirs

43:04

you're going to have to send me an email when it's when it's live and i'll i'll

43:07

definitely have to go and read that i love travel memoirs yes they're true

43:10

stories it's about what happened to me

43:13

but also about the people i met because

43:15

i think that's really important they they play a big part in the in the

43:18

stories other than that i'm probably got

43:20

some more smart travelistic guide um

43:22

books up my sleeve um but getting the

43:25

travel memoir done first and then yeah

43:27

just probably doing a few more events

43:29

travel events so yeah participate in a

43:32

travel event virtual travel event last

43:34

year probably i'm getting involved in a

43:36

few more this year but yeah look there's

43:39

so many things to do and never enough time michael to do that

43:43

right what you can guarantee that is

43:45

i'll have my head in trouble probably for a very long time probably for the

43:48

rest of my life but yeah if you want to

43:50

want to know about any updates um or any

43:54

new things on the website um i've got

43:57

a number of newsletters that you can

43:59

sign up for that will you know talk

44:01

about the book updates and also the travel updates

44:04

as well tell you we'll have links to all

44:06

of that links to all your social media where to find you all of that uh in our

44:10

show notes and on our website so it'll be really great for everyone in touch

44:14

with you uh with just a click

44:16

yeah and i love feedback and i love

44:18

people reaching out that really makes my

44:21

day when i get an email so

44:23

i encourage people to do that because i love it the engagement is the best part

44:27

of what i do i think right so what are

44:29

your next adventures i know that travel's still a little hard right now

44:32

thanks to covet but once this is all

44:34

over what are your next big adventures where do you want to go next i've got a

44:37

bit of shopping withdrawal so i'll probably go to honolulu is that a good

44:41

shopping destination i didn't know that yeah never been um

44:45

oh i've been many times so it's probably

44:47

not a new adventure for me but it'll

44:49

feel like a new adventure considering we haven't traveled for a little bit but

44:52

then after that probably next year i

44:55

will be doing another europe trip visiting

44:58

some countries in europe that i haven't seen

45:01

probably greece also looking to see the

45:03

northern lights big thing on my bucket

45:05

list yeah um

45:07

so i've went started i went to

45:10

scandinavia before covert um went up to

45:13

sweden but i want to investigate a few

45:15

more countries and probably go up to i

45:17

think i think it's either iceland or greenland where you get a better chance

45:21

of seeing the northern lights so that'll

45:23

be on the cards linda thank you so much for coming on

45:26

the show and we want to tell all of our listeners again to go check out the

45:29

smart travelista check out your books

45:31

and yeah when your travel memoirs come

45:33

out we really would love to uh read

45:36

those we'll definitely be talking about that on the show and maybe you can come

45:39

back sometime in the future to talk about writing a travel memoir because

45:42

that's a really interesting thing that we've never talked about on the show

45:45

either it's something i'm really interested in and have always wanted to

45:48

do well thank you yes so much for coming

45:51

on the show today i had a ton of fun really appreciate all your insight and

45:54

your practical tips thank you michael it's been a pleasure

46:04

[Music]

46:08

right and james we're back

46:10

all right yeah so

46:13

yeah first of all thank you linda for coming on the show it was fantastic and

46:17

just a little reminder linda has

46:19

actually suggested our upcoming monthly

46:22

challenge which is travel writing so linda is a travel writer

46:25

and her suggestion was that we do a

46:28

written monthly challenge do a little travel writing for us make it as

46:32

exciting and as evocative as you can

46:36

now james have you ever been in an experience where you have had to

46:40

worry about travel health and safety has

46:42

that ever come up because it doesn't always happen

46:44

like we mentioned it's one of those things where

46:46

you hope it never happens but it's better to be prepared as they teach us

46:50

in the boy scouts have you ever actually

46:52

had to deal with that no not really um i've

46:55

been lucky in that any injuries that i have sustained or

47:00

other people around me have sustained while traveling

47:02

have been very minor yeah um

47:06

things like being stung by a scorpion or which can

47:10

be very serious if you're allergic that's why i always keep i i don't know

47:14

how true this is would he like take my

47:17

medical advice

47:19

yeah but my

47:21

yeah please don't i am not a trained medical professional

47:24

in any way i'm a phlebotomist i can do

47:27

that i can draw your blood that's it

47:30

um so folks there was a little recording

47:32

issue here james is telling a story but

47:34

unfortunately it didn't record part of

47:36

it so i will start us out so one time james

47:40

was camping and he got stung by a

47:43

scorpion and his old scout master

47:45

happened to have some cigarettes in his

47:48

first aid kit now

47:50

he also smoked cigarettes so i mean i

47:52

don't know if he said they were multi-purpose okay

47:56

sure um

47:58

they were his emergency stash and they

48:00

served a purpose because i got stung by a scorpion which let me tell you sucks

48:04

it hurts so much i've never had that happen

48:06

apparently and it worked for me

48:09

is you take some of the tobacco out of

48:11

the cigarette and you like moisten it in your mouth and then you put that on the

48:14

scorpion sting and it's sort of like i

48:16

don't know if it draws the venom out i don't know if it just

48:20

is a placebo i don't know but it worked

48:23

and all i know is it it fixed me

48:25

nicotine is kind of isn't it like a very

48:27

minor like numbing agent as well could

48:30

that yeah and so it might have numbed it it might have in the tobacco and i'm

48:34

pretty sure tobacco has been used as for

48:36

as from additional purposes right yeah

48:39

who knows but all i know is that it worked there's a bunch of chemicals

48:42

another crap in there too um and so i

48:45

always keep i always keep a few loose

48:47

just loose cigarettes in my first eight kids interesting i've never heard that

48:50

yeah um i have been

48:53

let me tell you i would almost rather

48:55

have an injury than deal with like food poisoning while

48:59

traveling ugh yeah i would rather like

49:02

break my arm almost i know that sounds

49:04

extreme but at least that you can deal

49:06

with it no man i i once i was in burma

49:10

is the only time i've had food poisoning while traveling i have a really strong

49:14

stomach i eat street food all the time so i don't get sick all that often

49:17

but i had some fermented bamboo which is

49:20

a bad idea the night before i had to go on an

49:23

overnight train and i got horrible horrible food

49:27

poisoning and i was incredibly sick i couldn't eat anything

49:31

for like over 24 hours and this train

49:33

was awful this train was so

49:35

uncomfortable dirty old the beds were

49:38

like thin mattresses they were damp the

49:41

window was stuck open and it was raining and we were getting soaked

49:45

this is a first class compartment

49:47

it was terrible uh the tracks looks like

49:50

i don't know but the tracks hadn't been repaired for like 60 years like they

49:54

were the old british tracks it was an extension of the death railway so like

49:57

the train was bouncing all night and just like i was just sitting there kind

49:59

of just like holding my stomach feeling so sick and the toilet was

50:03

just like a toilet but it was just a hole that would open up onto the tracks

50:08

it was so dirty and so gross and it was

50:10

like one of my worst traveling experiences i've ever had food poisoning

50:14

while traveling is just awful uh didn't you also

50:18

was that the same train where you like

50:20

made a friend yeah

50:22

and yeah there was this a friend's thing

50:24

there was this french girl and she was

50:26

in another compartment but she was with

50:28

some local guys who were making her feel uncomfortable and so we had already met

50:32

her because we had accidentally been

50:34

sent her ticket by the travel agency or

50:37

the train the trained booking agency so

50:39

we had to run up to the the train office or whatever and

50:44

exchange tickets with her and so we had already known her and so like in the

50:47

middle of the night she came knocking on our door because uh my wife and i had

50:50

booked out the entire compartment because we didn't want that to happen

50:53

there were four beds and so we had just bought the whole thing because we didn't

50:55

want to be with strangers uh and it's a

50:58

good thing we did because this girl was getting uh i'm not gonna say she was

51:01

getting harassed but she was starting to feel uncomfortable by the people in her

51:04

compartment local guys and so she i

51:06

guess saw us as just a tourist couple

51:08

she saw us as a safer option so she came and she stayed with us

51:11

and you're and you're a married couple and you know it's it's just

51:14

yeah right yeah but anyway again safety

51:17

tips make a friend i don't know

51:20

sure sure no i got food poisoning the

51:24

last time i was in thailand i remember that you're on the website

51:28

we were on co what kosa meant i was fine

51:30

we were there for think three days i was

51:33

fine fine fine and then one day but it

51:35

was like weird food poisoning because like i would the normal food poisoning

51:39

stuff but then it was just like horrible horrible just like pain i don't know

51:42

what it was it was weird however so then

51:45

we had to then take a speedboat from the

51:48

island to the mainland which that's

51:50

bumpy right

51:52

and then it was either going to be what

51:55

a five hour bus ride or like a one and a

51:58

half hour taxi ride

52:00

and so i paid

52:02

like a lot of money

52:05

for a taxi directly back to bangkok yeah

52:07

directly back to bangkok and let me tell

52:10

you i have never felt worse i remember when

52:13

you knocked on my door when you were back home like you were like white as a

52:16

ghost you were so pale i always looked

52:18

awful like in that night when i was sleeping

52:22

like i got a fever and like chills and

52:25

shaking and then the next day i was fine which is how food poisoning works

52:29

so that's that was my worst experience i

52:31

think yeah and that's i've never really been

52:33

injured i've never really had to deal with a whole lot really bad

52:37

sunburn will mess you up but that's just

52:39

me being stupid

52:42

anyway

52:44

it is time for our favorite segment

52:46

adventures in the news and this week it's your turn

52:49

what have you got for us today

52:51

i found one that i was hoping was good

52:54

but then it has a pay wall i can't i

52:57

hate pay walls anyway so the title is

53:02

an improbable 6 000 mile boat trip

53:04

around the east coast it says joining up

53:06

at the great loop an intricate route that transforms half the united states

53:10

into an island

53:12

since i cannot get into the article let's see if you can pulse anything up

53:16

real quick but it could also be fun to just speculate

53:19

the great loop yeah okay i found it

53:21

there's actually a wikipedia article about the great loop the great loop is a

53:25

system of waterways that encompasses the eastern portion of the united states and

53:29

part of canada it is made up by both

53:31

natural and man-made waterways including

53:33

the atlantic and gulf intercoastal waterways the great lakes the redu canal

53:38

and the mississippi and tennessee tom

53:40

bigby waterways the entire loop stretches about 6 000 miles wow so it

53:45

looks like it goes from i mean the mississippi all the way from like the

53:48

eastern border of louisiana then up

53:50

through the great lakes then all the way around down the east coast down past

53:54

florida it's massive uh the people that

53:56

do it are called loopers i mean if you

53:59

have like a houseboat you just go for it

54:02

yeah i mean it would be fun that would be a

54:05

fun adventure just to get to get even a

54:07

little i mean i don't know because the

54:09

the hard part the scary part is going to be the atlantic when you're there unless

54:12

you're just like really hugging yeah i mean like like i'm pretty sure even at

54:15

the widest part of the mississippi river you can still see both sides you can do

54:19

a little but just a little huck fin and

54:21

just raft it yeah just build a log raft

54:24

and just get you a buddy and just hang

54:26

out that's actually really cool i had not heard of that that would that would

54:30

be a fun adventure so if anyone is out there and they're looking for a grand

54:32

adventure why not vote the great loop

54:34

that's really cool that yeah that's totally new for me i've never heard of

54:37

that yeah i had no idea that existed

54:39

at all so depending on the speed of

54:41

travel the route can take as little as two months so most people take a year to

54:46

complete uh the route can also be completed in segments so it's kind of

54:49

like the appalachian trail where you can do it in segments loopers can begin at

54:53

any point along the route and when they return to their starting point they are

54:56

said to have quote crossed their week

54:58

and to have finished the great loop that's pretty cool i didn't know i

55:02

didn't know this existed james how much is a

55:05

how much is the cheapest pontoon boat

55:07

let's go let's go to the great loop

55:10

for attempted venture let's see if i just uh

55:14

cheap um i can get an inflatable

55:18

canoe for 199

55:20

all right well if anyone genuinely donates us 199 dollars then james and i

55:25

will attempt a portion of the great loop

55:28

that's a attempted adventure uncovered inflatable

55:32

we're not going to get very far we'll get as far as we can

55:36

yep we're gonna check the weight limit because um

55:40

that'll be another issue we're not small men

55:42

no we're not ladies and gentlemen thank

55:45

you so much for listening thanks for listening to us ramble thanks for

55:48

listening to us talking about the green loop if you enjoyed the show today

55:51

please don't forget to subscribe and again if you have the time please

55:55

consider giving us a review on whatever podcast app that you choose we're on

55:58

pretty much all of them maybe a five star review if you're feeling generous

56:01

and you liked the episode you can also visit us at www.attemptadventure.com

56:06

where you can find show notes pictures

56:08

and again that's the best way to contact

56:10

us as well just click the little contact button

56:13

absolutely thank you for listening and

56:15

until next time keep adventuring

56:18

[Music]

56:38

you