May 22, 2025 • 51 mins
What does it really mean to travel authentically in a world dominated by filtered Instagram perfection? Buster Upton, a 26-year-old Australian adventurer, has the honest answer—and it's not what you might expect.
From his spontaneous childhood road trips with his adventure-loving mother to finding himself enrolled in a Finnish school at 16 (instead of dropping out), Buster's approach to travel has always been refreshingly genuine. At just 18, he quit his first construction job, used his dual Irish citizenship, and set off to backpack across Europe—a pattern that would define his approach to exploring the world.
The magic of Buster's storytelling lies in his willingness to share both the highlights and the gritty reality of long-term travel. Standing amid the haunting remnants of Chernobyl, participating in Laos' water-drenched Buddhist New Year celebrations, or finding himself stranded in a Filipino town with no water or electricity—these experiences reveal the true essence of exploration. As Buster puts it, "90% of backpacking isn't glamorous," but those challenges make the journey worthwhile.
Unlike the travel influencers who portray laptop-driven nomadic lifestyles, Buster's method is beautifully straightforward: work hard in construction back home, save aggressively, then purchase a one-way ticket to somewhere new. His preference for Couchsurfing with locals rather than staying in hotels offers authentic cultural immersion that can't be captured in a carefully staged photo.
For Buster, adventure means embracing the unknown with a hint of fear, stepping completely out of your comfort zone, and becoming "a drop in the ocean" of someone else's normal life. His stories will inspire you to look beyond the perfect Instagram shot and discover what travel really means—connecting with the world as it actually exists.
Ready to rethink what adventure truly means? Subscribe now to hear more transformative journeys and follow me on Instagram @journeywithjakepodcast for clips from this and future episodes.
To follow along with Buster give him a follow on Instagram @visit.with.buster.
Want to be a guest on Journey with Jake? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/journeywithjake
Visit LandPirate.com to get your gear that has you, the adventurer, in mind. Use the code "Journey with Jake" to get an additional 15% off at check out.
Visit geneticinsights.co and use the code "DISCOVER25" to enjoy a sweet 25% off your first purchase.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Buster Upton has a passion for exploring the world,
but not in the polished,picture-perfect way we often see
on Instagram.
For Buster, true adventure liesin authentic travel, where 90%
of the experience isn'tglamorous and moments of
uncertainty, challenge and evena little fear are all part of
the journey.
In this episode, we'll travelalongside Buster to some
(00:22):
incredible places, including thehauntingly fascinating site of
Chernobyl.
Get ready for a raw and reallook at what adventure truly
means with Buster Upton.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
(00:42):
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests or guests as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you will also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
To overcome the hardships thatcome their way.
(01:03):
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all.
It's not all about thedestination as it is about the
(01:29):
journey.
Hello everyone and welcome toJourney with Jake.
My name is Jake Bushman and I'myour host for another fantastic
episode.
What a great opportunity.
I had to speak with Buster Upton.
Like a lot of my guests, Ifound Buster on Instagram and
there was something about hisvideos and posts that just made
me like the guy and I wanted tohear more.
You're in for a real treat, aswe talk about all kinds of
(01:50):
things dealing with travel and,most importantly, buster's
journey and why adventure meansso much to him.
Before we get into myconversation with Buster, if
you've not done so already,please subscribe to the podcast
wherever you listen to yourpodcasts, so you don't miss any
episodes of the show.
If you'd like to get to know mebetter, the best place to do
that is on instagram at journeywith jake podcast.
(02:11):
Besides featuring past, presentand future guest clips, I also
like to put out some informationabout me as well.
While you were there, give me afollow, say hi and comment.
I love to hear from all of you.
Journey Journey with Jake ispart of the PodMatch Podcast
Network.
To check out some fantasticshows, just go to podmatchcom
forward slash network.
(02:32):
As I mentioned, buster was sucha great guest and I was
grateful I had the chance tospeak with Buster about his
journey, travels and adventures.
If you liked this episode, youwill also enjoy episode 29 with
fellow podcaster and friend,james hammond, about his many
adventures and travels.
Okay, let's get to myconversation with buster upton.
(02:52):
Well, I'm excited today I havebuster upton joining me on
journey with jake buster.
Welcome to the show, thanks forhaving me.
I'm excited.
Yeah, this is going to be fun.
Just so people know, and just alittle background on how I find
some of my guests sometimesbecause I don't think I've
really mentioned this on mypodcast much I do a lot of just
finding people like throughInstagram and you popped up, I
must have seen a reel orsomething, and it was a while
(03:14):
ago because what I do is Itypically save it.
If I'm like, oh, I want to talkto that person, I'll kind of
save back through.
I'm like, oh, yeah, buster, letme send a note to Buster.
And so here you are.
You said, yeah, let's do it.
So kind of fun.
Yeah, it's kind of fun, justorganically, how I come across
some people and anyway, I'mlooking, looking forward to
(03:37):
talking to you.
This one's going to be a littlebit different, I think, because
usually I can kind of gather alot.
You know, people have maybe awebsite or they're usually
promoting something, or they gota book or they're doing things
like that.
I don't know anything about youbusters.
This is going to be just likeyeah.
I'm going to learn all about youright here and now, so it'll be
a lot of fun.
This is the opening, exactly,exactly.
(03:59):
So before we get cranking cause, the only thing I do know about
you is you're out backpackingaround traveling the world.
Basically that's all I know.
So before we dive into some ofyour travels and experiences,
tell me about Buster, whereyou're from.
Obviously, your accent's alittle different than mine, so
tell everybody where you're from, and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah Well, my name's Buster, I'm 26 years old and I'm
from North Queensland inAustralia.
I live in a fairly small cityjust off the coast of the Great
Barrier Reef.
Ever since I was really young,I've really loved traveling.
I'm fascinated with the world,different cultures.
Last year, or the year before,I decided to make an Instagram
under the pressure of my friends, like a public Instagram, just
(04:40):
to kind of show off a little bit, I suppose, and I was never
much of a social media guru whenI was younger and I used to
travel a lot and they said, hey,you really need to start
posting some of your videos ordo a little bit of storytelling.
Yeah, it really started lastyear when I quit my job for
about the third time and went ona world backpacking trip.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
See, okay, that amazes me how people just can
quit a job and go travel.
So we'll get into that for asecond.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So born and raised Australia.
Yeah, I was actually born inIreland.
My parents are Irish, my mom'sAustralian, but she's of Irish
descent, and my dad is fullyIrish.
He moved here in his 30s, soI'm lucky enough to be a dual
passport holder.
That's always a bit of a funtravel fact.
Yeah, so I was born in Ireland.
I moved to Australia when I wasreally young.
Like I am Australian, but yeah,I moved here when I was about
(05:29):
one or two.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Your accent, though, is Australian right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.
Everything about me isAustralian.
Yeah, just that little piece ofpaper that says I'm not.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, Just a little piece of paper that says you're
not.
Your dad's probably hopingyou'll, the more that Irish
comes out.
But you know, hey, living inAustralia, what are you going to
do, right?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
He lives here now anyway, sohe's got no excuse yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Any siblings?
You just you solo, or you gotany?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Just me.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Just you.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, I grew up just with my mom for most of my
life.
Yeah, I had an awesome, awesomechildhood, lots of friends,
pretty normal life, lived in thesuburbs with my mom and, yeah,
now live here in beautiful NorthQueensland and yeah, so as a
youngster then, just living withyour mom, did you and your mom
travel like around Australia ordid you go international?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
What did you guys do, as you know, growing up?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, all the time.
Mom always liked to sort of gotitchy feet and just wanted to
go around.
Every sort of school holidays,every long weekend or something,
we'd go camping.
I used to camp all the time andI still do camp quite a lot
when I'm at home.
We live in such an awesomeplace.
I've been to the US now andit's very similar.
(06:37):
There's just so much to see.
It's obviously a massivecountry.
Yeah, I'm lucky enough to havebeen to most places in Australia
as well.
I remember when I was about 15or 16, I was in high school and
mom sent me a text at school.
She goes when you get home,you're going to pack your bag,
we're going to drive to WesternAustralia, which is like a five
day.
It's like it's like a thousand2000 miles away from where we're
living.
At the time she said, right,we're going to Western Australia
(06:57):
because I really want to go andthat was sort of not uncommon
as a kid.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Wow, okay, very good.
So your mom had thatadventurous spirit about her.
She was like ready to go.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
And then my first sort of bigtrip is when I was 14.
Over our Christmas holidays mymom took me to Western Europe
for two months.
That was like the big sort oflike I'd wanted to go overseas
for a long, long time.
I got to see sort of the town Iwas born in Ireland, got to see
some long lost relatives, andon that trip we went to the UK,
france, germany and Ireland.
(07:28):
Yeah, it was awesome.
From there it was sort of likeokay, now we're going.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So you had the bug.
Like you were like, okay, I'vehad a little taste of this
growing up with my mom.
Yeah, you've got the bug.
You're like, I got the travelbug, I'm gonna hit it.
And you start traveling.
What?
What do you think it was?
What do you think being ateenager, what was it that was
like so awesome about it to you?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I was just fascinated .
I like I was always fascinatedwith other countries, even like
when I was much younger, lookingat flags and different
languages.
And then I was kind of like, oh, I looked at a map and I was
like, well, I've only just beento this bit, I've just been to
the you know, france and germanyin the uk, like that's just a
speck on the whole globe.
I was like, right, well, Ireally want to go somewhere else
now.
I gotta, I gotta see that place.
(08:09):
And then, oh, someone wastalking about that place on that
trip.
I gotta go there.
It just unravels from there.
I want to go everywhere do itall go everywhere.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, getting done with school, high school, did
you end up?
Did you go to college?
Did you do that kind of route?
What did you?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
do.
I was actually, um, I reallydidn't like high school much,
much, much to mom's enthusiasm,actually, my travels actually
started when I was in highschool.
I was 16 and I was likeseriously considering dropping
out.
I just hated it.
Me and my friend used to skipschool like every day.
We got called into the school'soffice and they said hey, like
you boys are at like a seriousrisk of not completing high
(08:44):
school here.
What can we do?
Can we help you do anapprenticeship?
And there was a little form inthe corner of the office that
said go on student exchange.
And I looked at my mate and wewere a bit naughty.
Back then I saw you, should wedo this?
And, long story short, both ofus actually ended up leaving
school for the year to go toschool somewhere else.
(09:06):
And we went to this seminar andwe come home told our parents,
said, hey, you know, we canactually go to school overseas
and the school's going to helpus do it.
On the day they said, oh well,what are you thinking about?
And I said, oh well, I want togo to school in Northern Europe
somewhere.
I ended up going to school inFinland for my second last year
of school.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So you're like 16, 17 years old, living in Finland.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, that's basically how it happened.
I was like drop out of schoolor go to school somewhere else.
The next minute I ended up inthe middle of Finland, in this
small city in Eastern Finland,and my mate was in Sao Paulo in
Brazil, and we're texting eachother like this is awesome, this
(09:50):
is way better than going toschool.
Yeah, and yeah, mom was coolwith it.
Mom was really cool with it.
I didn't end up dropping out ofschool and I um did, yeah, most
of my last year of school inFinland and then from there.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
then that's when the travel like really started wow,
okay, I want to go back to thiswhole Finland thing, because
this is wild to me, okay, so,first of all, they set you down.
They're like hey, man, you andyour buddy, you're like, you're
not gonna make it, you guys aregonna flunk out of school,
you're gonna flunk out of highschool, but here's an
opportunity.
You see this opportunity to gostudy abroad.
Essentially, yeah, you ended upin finland yeah language
(10:18):
barrier.
I mean, was there any of thatgoing on?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I mean, yeah, I was.
I was lucky enough to beknowledgeable enough about sort
of these countries in northerneurope that I was like, okay,
well, at least they can.
Okay, no, they can speakenglish.
I ended up choosing finlandbecause it was, it was it was a
coin toss actually betweennorway and finland and I was
like, well, yeah, I'm gonna gothere.
(10:41):
And they actually sent me.
Um, when I got to finland,they'd place me in an
international class, like aninternational baccalaureate sort
of class, so all the lessonswere actually done in English.
There was a mishap when I firstgot enrolled to the school.
There was a whole heap ofclasses I had to do which were
taught in Finnish, and I didn'tknow a lick.
I didn't even know anyone thatwas Finnish.
(11:01):
A lick, I didn't even knowanyone that was Finnish.
Yeah, my first day of schoolwas actually really daunting.
I was probably one of the onlythree kids at the school that
didn't have like pasty whiteskin and bleach blonde hair and
the blue eyes.
Everyone was staring at me andI couldn't understand.
My very first lesson actuallywas an ethics class and the
teacher talked to me for about15 minutes in Finnish, but I
(11:22):
didn't realize she was talkingto me until one of the kids gave
me a bit of a nudge on theshoulder and I was like, oh
sorry, and she was the onlyteacher at the school that
couldn't speak English Just meand I didn't know what she was
saying and I was just nodding,trying to be like a bit quiet in
the back, hoping she wouldn'tstop looking at me.
Turned out, the whole class waslooking at me and I just said
(11:48):
oh hey, I'm sorry, I don't knowwhat you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
What's crazy about this Buster is I sit there and I
think like if I was put in thatposition at that age I would be
scared.
I'd be like calling home,crying.
But it sounds like you.
You're like this was awesome.
You know my buddy's in SaoPaulo and I'm here.
This is awesome.
Is buddies in Sao Paulo and I'mhere.
This is awesome.
Is that what it was like?
Or was there any moments ofyou're like oh, what did I?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
do?
I don't know, it's weird.
I didn't think about it a wholelot.
I mean, it is looking back onit.
You know, 16, I'd only been inFinland for like three or four
days, and now I'm in this ethicsclass and I don't understand
what anyone's saying to me.
It should have been scary,really, but I was just like,
well, you know, doing maths athome, so I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I love the fact that you just rolled with it and it
just it kind of fits from whatI've seen of you on instagram
and all I've seen is just your,your instagram rules.
I don't really know you, but itjust kind of fits your
personality from what I've seen,so that seems appropriate.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I tend to not really like.
I don't really.
Nothing phases me a whole lot.
It's kind of like oh, there'snothing I can do about it, I'm
here.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So you did the whole the Finland thing and then you
said then that's what reallykind of sparked your whole
travel thing.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, when I was towards the end of my Finland
trip, I had a few weeks off andI had a backpack that my mom had
bought me for my birthday.
The year before, I caught aferry by myself and I went to
Estonia, and then I caught a busto Latvia and that was the
first trip I ever did by myself.
It was just just after my 17thbirthday and I backpacked around
the Baltic Sea for a couple ofweeks.
Yeah, it was.
(13:13):
Yeah, it was wicked as a 17 yearold just cruising around yeah,
yeah, and the language barrieris much worse in Latvia and
Estonia than it is in Finland,just for reference.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, so what were you doing?
Were you just using yourcreative juices to, like, figure
out where to stay and what todo?
I mean, how did you do this?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I had like I don't know.
I think I had like 400 bucks orsomething and I was like, well,
I got to make this work and Iwent to I don't know.
I went to some museums, I wentto the pub, I just went at
things that I thought would becool.
Had a scroll on Instagram,tried to find some ideas of
places to visit in the middle ofLatvia.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Wow Okay, so you're 26 now.
So this was just nine years ago, it wasn't too long ago.
Wow, okay, it's amazing.
So it was before the wholepandemic and all that.
Yeah, Back in the glory days.
Back in the glory days, rightyeah, because I kind of feel
like maybe it's because, youknow, I started this, well, you
know, partway through thepandemic.
(14:09):
So I feel like maybe travel hasbecome more of a social media
thing.
Maybe it was before too.
I just didn't notice as much.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I was pretty heavily into looking at stuff on
Instagram and travel and it was.
Instagram has definitelychanged and it is much easier
for people to find stuff and alot more people do promote it,
like myself now, I suppose, onInstagram post COVID.
I think every social media isbigger post COVID, I reckon.
But yeah, it was just, yeah,something to do.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
So in the meantime, okay, so you did that you travel
by yourself at 17 years old,which is just amazing to me.
But then you came home toAustralia.
I mean, I'm guessing you had toget a job.
You had to like, yeah, lifekind of settled in a little bit
Like kind of how did that allwork?
Because you said you ended upquitting your job last year or
something.
So kind of give me that story.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, actually it all sort of starts when I got home
from Finland.
I moved in with my grandmother,my, my mum moved states and I
got a job as a constructionlabourer.
I worked for a concretingcompany and we were just
building bridges, fixingapartment blocks, and then I
remember I got my first job andI was like first proper job when
(15:16):
I was 18 and I got paid $22 anhour.
I was like this is awesome, I'mgetting $22 an hour and I don't
really have to go to school,I'm getting paid and hour and I
don't really have to go toschool, I'm getting paid.
And I was living with mygrandma, I was saving up.
I was saving, you know, 95% ofmy salary.
After three months I looked atmy bank account.
I thought, well, that's a bitbigger than I thought it'd be.
And then I quit that job.
I used my Irish passport andI'd made some friends when I was
(15:42):
overseas and I moved to Swedenyeah, didn't take long at all.
So, yeah, one of the first jobsI quit and it definitely wasn't
the last job I quit to gotraveling.
Yeah, I ended up in my friend'sparents' house on a farm just
outside of Stockholm in Sweden.
It was just the best time ever.
My friends had just finishedhigh school.
(16:03):
They were actually exchangestudents in Australia.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Oh, in Australia.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That's how I met them and yeah, I was like cool, and
they're like what should we do?
And we're like, oh, let's driveto Norway.
That happened big Europe tripback.
This was proper backpacking,like super budget, maybe
spending like 10, 15 US dollarsa day, and that lasted me about
three or four months and Ilearned heaps on that trip.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So let's talk about backpacking for a minute,
because when you think ofbackpacking, a lot of people
like in my mind, the first thingthat comes to my mind is like
oh, people hiking through atrail in the woods or something
backpacker kind of thing.
But for you it's basicallyyou're just taking a backpack to
travel the world.
Essentially You're Norway andSweden and limited budget
(16:47):
everything.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, backpacking is just to me, it's just the same
three t-shirts for months on endand someone with a backpack in
a dirty bus station in themiddle of nowhere trying to find
your way.
That's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
What's the appeal to that?
Why is that so fun?
Why did you like that so much?
I?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
think just yeah, it is a funny question and I it
doesn't sound glamorous at all.
And it's definitely notglamorous for 90 of the time.
It's when you reach those youknow cool destinations at the
top of a mountain or a coolchurch somewhere.
That's when it's cool.
But the other 90 is just eatinglike supermarket, you know
pre-packed supermarketsandwiches yeah, it's not not
(17:24):
all the hype that it seems.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So tell me, yeah, maybe in some of those earlier
before you started your ownInstagram account and things
like that.
What were some of those?
Maybe where you got to the topof a mountain, or just some
examples of some places that yousaw, or some stories that
you're just like, wow, this isliving.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, on that first trip after I left home, when I
left Australia when I was 18, Iwent to Chernobyl with one of my
friends in Ukraine.
Yeah, we caught a flight toKiev and we caught a bus and
we're standing in the middle ofPripyat, the abandoned city, and
we're looking at reactor numberfour in Chernobyl.
And I said to my I was like,dude, this is awesome, like we
(18:00):
can do it.
Like getting there andrealizing that I can do whatever
I want really changed myperspective on travel and things
that I want to do, because Iwas like, well, we just wanted
to do that and we came here andwe did it.
To be fair, it was really easyand I thought to myself, well, I
could probably go anywhere.
I really want to go.
All it takes, all you want,everywhere on earth.
(18:20):
All it takes is a flight, a fewbuses and maybe a taxi or a
bicycle ride and you can getsomewhere.
That's all it is to it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
When you go to these places, do you have any set
plans, or do you just kind ofget there and say, let's check
this out?
How do you do it?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, very.
I typically say I mightwaypoint two or three places on
the way and the rest of it justunfolds.
You'll talk to someone andthey'll say, oh, you should go
here.
And 90% of the time I do go.
Oh yeah, all right, I'll gothere.
Yeah, I just.
I bought a one-way ticket toKiev in Ukraine and the only
thing I had in my mind was let'svisit Chernobyl.
(18:55):
I ended up in Chernobyl andthen after that, like cool, now
what?
And yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
All right, I got to ask about Chernobyl a little bit
then, because I've never had.
I haven't had anybody talkabout Chernobyl on the show
before.
So is it like what I imagine itto be, just kind of the remains
, I mean, what's it like?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It felt like the TV show the Walking Dead without
the zombies.
Yeah, it was honestly one ofthe coolest places I've been to.
We actually got lost in thecity of Pripyat and I thought I
was in a forest and I look upand there was just this wall of
concrete in front of me and likestairs, like concrete stairs,
and I was so confused because itwas just trees, trees and then
(19:35):
stairs and I was actually insidean old sports athletic stadium.
Wow, as I was in the stadium, Irealized that the forest had
actually grown up through thefield.
Wow, yeah, I read, I wasreading kids' school books,
ended up inside a school andthere's old school books with
(20:06):
kids' handwriting from the 80sand they because they just left
like that, they just got up andleft.
Yeah, it was really fascinating, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
That is wild.
Yeah, what's the situationthere now?
I mean, well, when you went, isthere still like radiation in
the area?
Yeah, like what's the-.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, there.
Yeah, there were some forms,but there were some stern
warnings.
The Ukrainian military wasthere 24-7.
I mean, there's going to beradiation there for thousands
and thousands of years.
I just had to be careful.
I covered up pretty well withmy clothes and tried not to
touch anything.
Yeah, I definitely didn't gotoo deep into some of the places
(20:41):
.
I mean, yeah, I was going to gothere anyway.
You know, I wasn't eating thedirt, I wasn't yeah right, yeah,
exactly, you're not rollingaround in it Okay.
Yeah, some people still actuallylive there the original
inhabitants, a few of the olderpeople decided they never wanted
to leave, so that wasreassuring.
Lots of wildlife actually inthe area.
Yeah, wildlife actually in thearea.
(21:02):
Yeah, it's probably seen morewildlife than I'd seen on most
of my travels.
It was actually in the PripyatChernobyl area.
What kind of wildlife do theyhave there?
Deers, fox, lots of bird faunaand some snakes.
Actually, it's probably one ofthe few places outside of
Australia.
(21:23):
I've seen snakes, wow,interesting.
Yeah, I actually nearly steppedon a snake in Chernobyl.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Have been quite the quite the story to tell if I'd
be bitten.
Yeah, wow, for sure.
Wow, okay.
So chernobyl was one of thoseplaces.
And and after you know, whenyou're you're 18, you quit that
job working, construction laborand you're off doing your own
thing.
How did the work?
You just kind of bounce backand forth between aust getting a
job and like how did this work,like what did you do until you
finally quit again.
But lead me up to where we arenow.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I guess yeah, sure, I actually applied for a job
before I left and I got the joband I was like, oh, this is a
pretty well-paying job.
It was in aviation.
Then I flew back home toAustralia, did that for a few
years and I actually did thatfor two or three years, that job
.
And I was like, oh, I'm gettinga bit, I'm definitely getting
(22:12):
itchy feet now.
And I was like, well, I wassaving lots and lots of money
and the whole idea was toeventually quit that job and
spend all my hard-earned cash onjust a big world trip.
Like a one-way trip I was goingto walk across Pakistan and I
was going to catch a boat toCuba, or like it was going to be
(22:33):
crazy and, long story short, Iquit my job on the 1st of March
2020.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
COVID time.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And, yeah, it was all downhill from there and I was
left with a whole heap of moneythat I'd saved up.
I ended up living with mygrandmother again Another house
because I'd actually quit my joband I'd driven about 5,000
kilometers across Australia topark my car at my grandmother's
house.
While I was going overseas, hadall these plane tickets set up.
I was taking my mom to Japanfor her birthday.
(23:02):
That was the first place wewere going to and then, yeah,
covid happened, and then it wastwo or three years until we
could really really travel again.
Couldn't find work for a goodyear during COVID.
Had to spend a lot of thatmoney just to survive.
Yeah, I'm sure everyone has asimilar story.
It seemed like 2020 was theyear everyone was going
(23:24):
traveling.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly right.
It seems like they all weretaking off doing their thing.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
COVID was sort of a bit of a blur, worked a few more
jobs, ended up moving back toNorth Queensland where I live
now.
First it was really hard totravel in those few years sort
of 2022-ish.
I did a couple of first flightback sort of things.
I just really wanted to travel.
I was on the first flight backto Bali from here and then that
(23:50):
just wasn't the same.
There's no like a lot of thetourism did shut down.
It's quite hard to travel andthere's also so many
restrictions on being aforeigner you can just go there
on that vacation holiday type.
Feel not these big backpackingadventures that I like to do.
Yeah, it got to the point whereit was like, right, travel's
back, let's go.
And yeah, last year finallyquit my job.
(24:12):
I'd been working in anotherconstruction job I still work in
now.
I'm quite lucky.
My boss is always happy to haveme back.
So I think I finally found thatsweet spot where I that was
actually him texting me before Ican sort of come back and forth
as I please and work for him,and I think that's going to be
my life now for the next fewyears Travel when I'm sick of
(24:33):
that, come back, earn some money.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Save up some money.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's right, did that last year.
I save really frugally when I'mat home because traveling is
kind of just my passion.
That's what I work for now Paymy rent, renovate my house and
then go traveling.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Wow.
So that's how you do itBasically you work for a little
bit, save up as best you can andthen hit the road.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Absolutely not.
I meet so many people who thinkI'm like a travel guru that I
take my laptop and sip chailattes at like random foreign
cafes.
But no, I work a normal job athome.
I shovel concrete and I use ahose and I save my money, put it
in my bank account and then I'moverseas.
That's when I spend it all.
Last year, that's exactly whatI did.
I worked for two years straightand then I said hey, dude, I'm
(25:16):
going to quit for a while.
I'm going overseas, got aone-way trip.
I'll let you know when I'm backand yeah, that was six months
ago.
I got home from a nine 10 month, wow, okay, so 2024 was a big
year for you as far as travelgoes.
It was wicked.
Yeah, ended up travelingthrough 20, 30 countries that
year.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Wow, okay, so can you kind of give me just the
overview kind of some of theplaces you hit?
I don't know if you know it offthe top of your head or not,
but what just come as somehighlights of the places you
went in 2024, because it soundslike that was kind of the year,
and is that the year that youstarted posting on Instagram for
everyone to?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
see, yeah, my account's about a year old now.
I think I'm pretty close to.
I left at the end of Januarylast year, got a flight to Bali
because I live I'll actuallylive quite close to Bali, so
it's it's really easy to get to.
I went to every country inSoutheast Asia, uh, last year,
except for, uh, myanmar due tothe civil war, and and Brunei.
(26:13):
So that, yeah, that's so that,yeah, did the whole lot Thailand
, cambodia, malaysia, singapore,vietnam, yeah.
So that was a big trip, thatwas a big part of the trip last
year, and then after that wewent to Sri Lanka for a few
weeks.
My girlfriend really wanted togo to Sri Lanka okay, because,
yeah, you said we.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So I'm like, who are you traveling with?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
yeah, yeah, last year I did um it's the first trip I
haven't done by myself when Iwas with my girlfriend, she also
quit her job.
She was actually living in NewZealand at the time, so it was
quite nice for both of us to umquit our jobs at the same time.
We're in the same frame of mind.
And then we took off.
I went to a few of the stands.
I went to Uzbekistan andKyrgyzstan last year, which
normally gets a few eyebrowraises from people.
(26:50):
That's somewhere a bitdifferent, a little bit of a
Europe trip.
Went to see some family in theUK and Ireland again, and then I
spent the last three months inAlaska my trip last year.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
All right, went stateside to Alaska Very cool.
Yeah, I've never been to Alaskaand I live in the States and I
haven't been.
I heard it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's what 90% of Americans I've met have said.
I find it to be like one of theonly states that other
Americans don't hate on.
Everyone's always complainingabout Californians or Texans or
New Yorkers, and then everyonegives a thumbs up to Alaska, but
none of them have ever been.
Yeah, I've never been.
I'd love to go, but I haven'tbeen.
Yeah, alaska is a differentplace.
It's cool.
Yeah, it was a reallyeye-opening experience.
(27:31):
Yeah, I've actually got a buddyfrom Australia who is Alaskan.
I got to stay with him, so Igot the real experience.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, from what I've gathered looking at
Instagram and your account, and,first of all, what is your
account?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
so people know what's your Instagram account it's
just uh, visit with buster,visit dot with dot buster visit
dot with dot.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Buster love it.
Visit with buster great yeah.
So it looks like that's what itseems like you try to find.
You try to find that realexperience.
You're not just going andsitting on a beach, you know, in
a tourist spot.
It sounds like you're like youknow you're going to Chernobyl
and you're going to these placesthat just seem real authentic.
Is that kind of the whole ideawhen you get out there.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Absolutely A lot of my travels.
I stay with people that I'vemet on previous trips.
I use an app calledCouchsurfing a lot of the time,
which is basically I've heard ofCouchsurfing, I've heard of
couch surfing.
Yeah, I've heard of couchsurfing.
Yeah, you just go stay with arandom dude or random lady.
And yeah, very first time I didit stayed with this guy in an
apartment in Poland, this Polishguy, and he taught me around
town.
I was like this is so muchbetter than staying in a hotel,
(28:33):
you know?
Yeah, things like that.
That's the idea Stay with somefriends, get a local experience
and really go out to thecountryside.
That was one of the best partsabout my trip in Central Asia,
in Kyrgyzstan.
I made a friend there and endedup staying with his mom and
auntie.
That was just like wow, this isso different.
Like you wouldn't you, wouldn'tyou know you'd never get to
(28:54):
experience that at a hotel or amotel or yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
What kind of things is it like when you're, when
you're staying with somebodylike that?
What is it that you're getting?
Cause I know, yeah, besidesjust a place to stay and kind of
seeing how they live what is itthat you're getting?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, it's a chat Like.
I love talking to people andwhen you're with someone you can
talk about all.
You can talk about everything.
It's not just the normalconversations you have.
You talk about what theneighbors do, what it was like
for them as a kid.
I love asking people how theirhometown's changed over the
years and if it's a touristdestination, whether they like
(29:28):
the tourism or if they don'tlike the tourism.
A lot of the time I'm sort ofthe only foreigner in the area
and I get lots of stares and Isay, hey, well, you ask them,
you get personal with a lot ofthe questions.
That's what I like and a lot ofpeople don't really care.
You can talk about politics oryou can talk about religion, and
they're normally pretty open.
Once you're in their house andtheir spare room, they're
normally pretty cool and youlearn a whole lot and you're
(29:50):
like, oh wow, I didn't think ofthat.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
It's those dadgum Americans who aren't so open
about that, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Some of them are far too open.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, or they're way too open.
Yeah, or they're way too open,yeah.
There you go, exactly.
Let's talk about the why.
What is the whole point of thisfor you?
Where do you see it going?
What does the future hold foryou?
Why do you do this?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Oh, good question.
I like the freedom of justbeing Well.
I actually just got back from a10-day trip to Indonesia.
I've actually got a bit of jetlag.
That's why I look so tired,sorry.
I got back yesterday I was atwork and I was like, oh, it's
only 100 bucks.
And I texted my girlfriend Isaid, hey, we're going to
Indonesia.
And it was kind of like we, weget them, like this is just the
best we can do whatever we want.
(30:31):
We don't have to go to work.
Because I don't like going towork.
To be honest, that's a big partof the war.
I mean, does anyone like goingto work?
But I really don't like goingto work some days.
The feeling of like impending,like adventure, I love.
I love having to work out whatI'm doing next.
If I want to go from a to b,somewhere foreign, like I, I
(30:51):
have to work for it and I've gotto.
I do have to use my head a lotof the time and work out the
most efficient route, learnanother language on the spot and
, yeah, problem solve a littlebit.
That's fun and it's all.
It all feel.
It feels like I've accomplishedsomething when I finally get to
the top of the mountain.
It's like a sense ofaccomplishment when you're like,
oh, I did that because a lot ofpeople are scared.
(31:12):
The reason behind my accountwas my friends are like proper.
A lot of them have that realsmall town mentality where
they're.
A lot of them will probablynever leave, uh, the state that
they're from.
I'm sure it's the same with alot of them will probably never
leave the state that they'refrom.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I'm sure it's the same with a lot of Americans.
Oh, absolutely, you know, andI've for sure, and I think
that's why I enjoy doing what Ido here with this, because when
am I ever going to talk toBuster, who's been all over the
place, you know who's gone toChernobyl, for Pete's sake?
I mean, it's just, it's amazing, and it's amazing to hear your
stories.
I want to talk to you there.
(31:46):
So I looked at quite a few ofyour reels that you have on
instagram, your your post.
There was one that really wasfascinating to me.
Okay, it was the the sounds ofdifferent places oh yeah, the um
with no with the no.
Audio overlap yeah, yeah, youjust.
You just had, like the soundsof where you're at, whether
there was a cat in one spot,there was sheep in a road, road
in another spot.
You're in a city.
I mean, talk to me about, like,just because it sounds like you
(32:09):
love it, because it gives you asense of purpose, like when you
make it from point A to point Band you figured it out, so it
sounds like you have that.
But there's so many differentelements to all of it as well,
like just with the sounds.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I'm actually quite happy you said that, because
I've made a couple of thosereels and they're one of my
favorites to make, because to methat's the real traveling.
You see travel videos andthey're often glamorized, which
sort of annoys me a little bit,because it's really not.
You're hearing the roar of anengine.
When you're on the plane,you're hearing the beeping of a
taxi.
There's sheep on the road.
(32:41):
You spend a lot of time byyourself, thinking when you're
traveling I'm doing a lot of busrides, a lot of times sitting
down, a lot of walking You'renot hearing a Dua Lipa song in
the background, you don't havethat awesome music, you're
hearing everyday sounds.
I think it's important forpeople to remember that when
you're doing this cheap budgettravel that was one of the
(33:03):
reasons I posted that, to tryand give it a sense of normality
and I find myself when I amtraveling, I'm a drop in the
ocean.
I'm just a person in someoneelse's life.
Whether I'm in a taxi of anUzbekistani man, in the back of
his car he's just trying to makefive bucks for the day, or I'm
(33:25):
in a national park in Sri Lanka,it's still someone's life.
I'm just like a side piece inthat person's life for an hour
or two hours, and it's importantto remember that life's normal
life goes on, and part of thereason I'm traveling is I want
to see what people are doing inSri Lanka at this time of day,
because it's totally differentto what I'm doing back home in
Cairns or in New York City.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Absolutely.
I'm glad you did that.
Again, that was one of myfavorite ones that I saw, just
because it was so just kind ofreal and like this is what you
know, what you're hearing andwhat you're seeing, so I loved
it.
So, yeah, keep doing thoseevery so often.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That's what Cambodia sounds like.
It doesn't sound like, you know, like a flight center ad.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
It sounds like it doesn't sound like, you know,
like a flight center ad.
It sounds like cats purring andyou know tuk-tuks driving.
Yeah, well, and you know, weget on instagram.
I get on instagram and I have abunch of travel accounts.
The algorithm pushes me to alot of them because I talk to a
lot of people like you and yeah,yeah yeah, it's all this cool
fancy.
You know there's someonestrolling on a beach with this
cool music, or they're incambodia through the.
You know the city, but it's all.
You know.
It's festive music and it'slike it's not really like that,
you know.
So it's nice to get the realfeel.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, yeah, that was the purpose.
Yeah, you gotta, you gottaremember that it's.
It's real, it's a, it'ssomeone's house, somewhere you
know.
Like to be fair, life soundspretty similar whether you're in
London or you're inJohannesburg, or you're in Osh
in the middle of Kyrgyzstan,it's all the same.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, I love that.
That's great.
So for this epic year that youhad last year, a couple of
highlights, some of yourfavorite places, any particular
story.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, let me think for a second.
Well, I'll give you one.
We were in Laos, in SoutheastAsia.
Just by coincidence, it wasBuddhist New Year in Laos.
It's quite famous now due toInstagram, and in Thailand, next
door, it's called Songkran andit's basically a three-day
festival.
One of the cultural aspects ofthe festival is you throw water.
(35:15):
Basically, it's a three-daywater fight that we'd found
ourselves in in the middle ofLaos and what it is.
People line up on the edge ofthe street in public and have
big buckets of water.
You just throw water at people.
It is people line up on theedge of the street in public and
have big buckets of water.
You just throw water at people.
You get a, you get a glass ofwater, you get a bucket and the
whole idea of the festival isjust to douse people in water.
Um, so we're walking throughthis little town and some little
(35:36):
kid just throws his bucket ofwater straight in my face and
you're like, oh, and because I'ma, because I'm a foreigner in
lao, I was just like the targetand everyone's like get him.
And I was just soaked for threedays straight.
And it was like being a kid andI was culturally inclined to
throw water bombs at everysingle person.
I saw squirt people with thehose throw water at cars.
(35:57):
It was awesome.
It was like being a little kidagain, but it was encouraged.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
But it was encouraged .
I love that.
That's a great story.
And you were with yourgirlfriend too.
Was she there as well?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, yeah, she was having a great time.
I was throwing water at her formost of the time because you
know she's like get off.
But you know all the other kidswere like you know, you've got
to get her, you've got to gether.
So I was you.
Yeah, it was cool.
(36:28):
I mean, I'm sure everyoneanyone that's traveled with
their partner before realizes afew.
There's a few issues.
I am.
It's a shame both of us getreally hangry, so that's
probably a bit of a.
That was the only downside.
Some of the days like get off anight bus and you just like
just want something and I eat.
I eat everything.
My girlfriend's lactoseintolerant, so she's got to be
really careful with the streetfood and we both got food
(36:52):
poisoning in Cambodia and noneof us ate for like four days.
It was cool, it was actually.
It was good.
It was a lot easier to travelwith someone in a lot of aspects
.
We did argue a few times likeshe really didn't want to go to
the Philippines.
I was like, no, we're going tothe Philippines.
And then I didn't really wantto go to Sri Lanka.
So we compromised and we wentto Sri Lanka.
But it was cool to have someone.
(37:16):
It was actually cool to havesomeone take videos and photos
of me the whole time, especiallyfor Instagram.
That made life a whole loteasier.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, I was wondering about that too, because I was
like how did you get all these,some of these shots of you like
doing stuff?
There you go.
That makes sense, all right.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, there you go.
That makes sense, all right.
Yeah, it was.
It was nice because before Ihad the instagram account, I um,
I really rarely took photos.
I actually come back from athree-month europe trip and I
had like nine photos on my phonethat I took.
I just didn't, I didn't thinkabout it.
But now I've got an instagram Ifeel inclined that I've got a
yeah, and it's nice to look back.
It was a year ago today.
I was in the philippines.
I got a notification onInstagram.
(37:51):
You know, one year ago today Iwas like, oh cool, I was
ziplining.
A year ago today, so I was like, oh yeah, it's cool to have.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
So everything seems fun.
I mean you know it looks good,but you said like 90% of it is
just kind of the.
You know trying to find foodand going to the supermarket,
and you know traveling andthings like that.
What would you say are thebiggest challenges of living
like this?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, it is Backpacking for a long period of
time is you're just living alogistical nightmare, sometimes
when you're overseas, and a lotof the time like we live in
Australia and the US.
We live at a really affluentpart of planet earth.
Things work, our roads arepaved, we never have a shortage
of gasoline in the car and wecan afford everything.
This isn't the case for 90% ofpeople.
That's definitely an issue.
We had a horrible, horribletraveling time in the
(38:44):
Philippines.
Nothing worked, everything wasa nightmare to get to.
We were in a town that actuallyhad the highway collapse on it.
We got into the town and thehighway was just like it's just
a nightmare to drive.
A two-hour drive turned intolike six hours.
We got there, the whole islandlost power, all the internet
signals went out and then in themiddle of the night the town
(39:07):
had bled dry its water source.
So in this town with nowhere toget out, there's no internet to
even.
I mean we couldn't speak thelanguage that they were speaking
there.
There's no water.
You just got what's left inyour bottle and that was hard.
You've got to remember that.
You know stuff like thathappens and it's you know if
you're not in Western Europe orNorth America or Australia, you
(39:29):
know, yeah, they didn't evenblink, and for us it was like,
oh, we've got no water, what arewe going to do?
It was funny.
Actually, next door to me whenthe power went out, there was
these American girls who hadjust left high school and they
learned how to plumb theirtoilet because they had no water
.
They learned how a cisternworks, and I'll never forget at
2 o'clock in the morning, though, yeah, this, these american
(39:50):
girls, would you know?
18, 19 were learning plumbingin the middle of the night in
the philippines because therewas no water.
Yeah, it was awesome yeah sorrythat's a bit random, but I'll
I'll definitely know that.
Yeah, for sure and that's partof it.
There's limited to no publictransport in kyrgyzstan, which
is which is really different.
(40:11):
You've very few places have nopublic transport in Kyrgyzstan,
which is really different.
Very few places have no publictransport and you basically
everyone just catches taxis andpeople just haggle on the street
to get anywhere.
People drive vans and people go, and I'll give you 10 bucks to
drive me there in the van andthat's what it was.
Yeah, that's something that youwould never think of and it is a
real issue.
Sometimes, like, we had placesthat we wanted to go.
(40:31):
Once you're outside of yourcomfort zone, you really gotta
think outside the box.
So, yeah, that's, things likethat are really it's really hard
to travel in some places.
I can understand, I'm sure this.
I'm sure you've interviewedsome people that cycle a lot for
their travels.
They go somewhere really randomand they'll cycle, they'll take
a motorbike.
It's probably easier sometimes,to be honest, because some of
(40:52):
the I've been trying to getsomewhere someday.
You can't walk there and, yeah,cycling or taking your own
motorbike is definitely the gothen trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
If you can't walk there and there's no public
transportation and trying tohaggle your way, that's got to
be got to be tough.
Yeah, did this make youappreciate, like, what did this
do for you as far asappreciation for, for what you
have, I guess?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
every time I get home I'm happy that I live in
australia and I'm happy where Ilive, and it's not just that one
trip, it's every trip.
I've been grateful for livingin such a well developed place
where things work, things are ontime, it is fun and it's
definitely fun to try the others.
But if it's your daily life,yeah, I'm, I'm pretty happy for
it.
And even, to be fair, evencoming back from some other
(41:34):
places like even when I comeback from the US I was like you
know, I was like, oh, I'm glad Idon't live there.
No offense to anyone that'sAmerican, but I'm sure people
say that about Australia youlike your creature comforts at
home and I'm very much someonethat likes living in Australia.
I'm happy to travel, I'm happyto spend a lot of time, but
things work really well here.
And every time I've come home,every time I've crossed
(41:58):
immigration, I've been like,okay, I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
All right, so we're going to kind of we've been
chatting here for quite a whileLooking back, especially this
last year, but you can lookanywhere, I guess, but any of
your travels, If you had onlyone place, you can only go back
to one place.
Which place are you going backto?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
I hate that question.
It's probably going to be theUnited States.
It's such a massive country.
If it wasn't Australia, it'dhave to be the US.
You guys are so lucky and I getreally annoyed because a lot of
Americans don't travel.
You live in one of the mostbeautiful countries on earth.
I did a road trip around theSouthwest two years ago and I
was in Arizona and New Mexicoand I was like oh, this is just
(42:38):
stunning.
I travel for nature most of thetime and you guys have such a
diverse, beautiful country.
Yeah, it'd have to be the US,purely based on size and
diversity.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, I mean you said you were in Alaska, which is
part of the US.
Like you said, 90% of Americanshaven't even been to Alaska.
Yeah, to the Southwest, I'mfrom Arizona and Utah.
I live in Utah now.
So, yeah, I love the Southwest.
But then the Northeast isbeautiful.
The Southeast is beautiful, Imean there's so much the plains
in the middle of the country.
Yeah, it's very diverse.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I've already got plans to go back.
I'm actually I'm actually ummigrating to canada in a month.
I've actually got a visa to golive and work in canada, which
is quite you know, the landscapeis quite similar to the north
of the us.
Yeah, my girlfriend and Ialready made plans to go visit
montana and go visit theappellations and the great lakes
.
Yeah, it's a really specialplace, and I think you know you
can go anywhere on earth.
But if it's a really specialplace, and I think you know you
(43:31):
can go anywhere on earth, but ifit's one country, yeah it's got
to be the US.
It's just so huge.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
It makes sense.
Yeah, with how big it is?
For sure, absolutely so.
It sounds like you have thoseplans.
You're going to migrate toCanada, and yet what other
future plans do you want to do,like, what's the plan with the
Instagram account or anythinglike that, or what do you just
want to keep that rolling?
What's kind of your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
yeah, to be fair, the um.
I got really into the instagramfor a while and I kind of just
post on it willy-nilly now, justfor and I I've made some
friends online there and I'veobviously got a personal
instagram that I don't sharewith other people.
Yeah, I just, I don't know.
I just I just post it now whenI feel like it.
If there's something cool thatI think other people will like,
(44:10):
I'll take a video and upload itto my story.
Currently I'm talking to peopleabout my Indonesia trip because
that fascinated me.
Going to Java, I climbed twovolcanoes last week and I was
like, oh yeah, people will likethat.
Yeah, there's no plan and, tobe fair, I'm not really good at
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Me neither.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
It's hard.
I don't know how people do itand make it look so nice and
fruity.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
It's amazing.
I don't know.
I don't know how people do it,because it's tough for me too.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I'm with you on that I'll keep it around.
I'll definitely post myCanadian trips on there.
Yeah, I should be back in theUS next year.
Yeah, I've got most of my.
About 20% of my followers areactually American.
They're the biggest cohort ofmy following, which is cool, so
I'm sure that'll get me a bitmore attention.
Yeah, a lot of my videos thatdid well is the American
(44:59):
audience that really pushed it,liked it.
They tend to eat it up a bitmore, which is cool.
The Instagram's just there.
I mean, follow me if you want.
I know sometimes the videosflunk, but I like what I upload
and that's the main thing.
I Sometimes the videos flunk,but I like what I upload and
that's the main thing.
I'm not here to make money outof it.
This is the first sort of.
This is the second sort ofthing I've done.
Really, I've never done aninterview before my girlfriend.
She does it quite well and shegets stuff.
(45:21):
She gets like free bags andtravel vouchers and things like
that, but I'm just like, I'mjust not good at it.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
I'm not fair to her.
Yeah, yeah, that's yeah.
My Instagram is not greateither.
I'm struggling with it too.
I mostly post little posts ofus talking or some pictures you
know it's all my guests.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
you know it's all my guests that I'm posting.
You got you got a few followers, though, so that's cool.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like it's fun.
It's a question I like to askeverybody For you, buster what
does adventure mean to you?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Adventure to me is when I'm traveling.
It's almost the fear of theunknown.
It's those times that I've beenin the middle of somewhere
random and I have no idea whatI'm doing.
That's the adventure is unknown, copied with.
You know, I've got to work itout.
Like that's an adventure to me.
I go somewhere with no plan andI feel like when I feel like
(46:24):
I'm a knight from the 7thcentury going through medieval
Europe, you know, I've got towork it out, I've got to plan,
I've got to talk to people towork my way through the forest,
like that's what I, yeah, that'swhat.
That's what happens in my head,unplanned and unknown, and it's
almost, if you're a little bitscared, that's when you're on an
adventure, I think a little bitof the fear of sneaking in
there yeah, out of your comfortzone.
(46:45):
That's the main thing, that'swhat makes an adventure, I think
for sure.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, that's probably the thing I hear the most from
my guests is being out of yourcomfort zone.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
That's the general consensus.
All right, cool, definitelycorrect.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Buster, thank you so much.
This was a ton of fun.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Thanks for coming on journey with Jake yeah, thanks,
jake, it's um, it's been awesome.
First time I've done a podcastand, um, I've.
Yeah, I'm happy I've seen yours.
Now, um, I've read through someof your stories.
As you know, once you talk topeople like this, you realize
that there's actually thousandsand thousands of people out
there who have reallyinteresting stories and without
asking them the questions youprobably wouldn't know.
So, yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
A big thank you to Buster Upton for joining me on
the show and sharing his raw,honest perspective on travel and
adventure.
I loved hearing about hisjourney from navigating
unfamiliar places to visitingsomewhere as fascinating as
Chernobyl.
Buster reminds us that trueadventure isn't always
comfortable or Instagram worthy,and that's exactly what makes
(47:41):
it so powerful.
If you'd like to follow alongwith Buster's travels, check him
out on Instagram at visit withBuster.
That's at visit dot with dotBuster.
Give him a follow.
At visitwithbuster.
That's at visitwithbuster.
Give him a follow.
Thanks again, buster, foropening up and sharing who you
are with all of us and to you,the listener.
I know I say this every time,but I truly mean it.
(48:02):
Thank you for tuning in andbeing part of the Journey with
Jake community.
It means the world to me.
If you're enjoying the show,I'd be so grateful if you could
leave a rating and review andmaybe share the podcast with
your friends and family.
Every little bit helps spreadthese incredible stories.
Next week episode is a fun one.
It's all about bucket lists.
(48:22):
I'm talking with Jeremy George,who set out to complete one
bucket list item every week fora whole year.
His journey is inspiring,uplifting and might just spark
some ideas for your own list.
Don't miss it.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destination as it is
about the journey.
Take care everybody, thank you.
Buster Upton has a passion for exploring the world,
but not in the polished,picture-perfect way we often see
on Instagram.
For Buster, true adventure liesin authentic travel, where 90%
of the experience isn'tglamorous and moments of
uncertainty, challenge and evena little fear are all part of
the journey.
In this episode, we'll travelalongside Buster to some
(00:22):
incredible places, including thehauntingly fascinating site of
Chernobyl.
Get ready for a raw and reallook at what adventure truly
means with Buster Upton.
Welcome to Journey with Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
(00:42):
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will featuredifferent guests or guests as
they share experiences andstories from the different
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you will also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
To overcome the hardships thatcome their way.
(01:03):
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
challenges.
After all.
It's not all about thedestination as it is about the
(01:29):
journey.
Hello everyone and welcome toJourney with Jake.
My name is Jake Bushman and I'myour host for another fantastic
episode.
What a great opportunity.
I had to speak with Buster Upton.
Like a lot of my guests, Ifound Buster on Instagram and
there was something about hisvideos and posts that just made
me like the guy and I wanted tohear more.
You're in for a real treat, aswe talk about all kinds of
(01:50):
things dealing with travel and,most importantly, buster's
journey and why adventure meansso much to him.
Before we get into myconversation with Buster, if
you've not done so already,please subscribe to the podcast
wherever you listen to yourpodcasts, so you don't miss any
episodes of the show.
If you'd like to get to know mebetter, the best place to do
that is on instagram at journeywith jake podcast.
(02:11):
Besides featuring past, presentand future guest clips, I also
like to put out some informationabout me as well.
While you were there, give me afollow, say hi and comment.
I love to hear from all of you.
Journey Journey with Jake ispart of the PodMatch Podcast
Network.
To check out some fantasticshows, just go to podmatchcom
forward slash network.
(02:32):
As I mentioned, buster was sucha great guest and I was
grateful I had the chance tospeak with Buster about his
journey, travels and adventures.
If you liked this episode, youwill also enjoy episode 29 with
fellow podcaster and friend,james hammond, about his many
adventures and travels.
Okay, let's get to myconversation with buster upton.
(02:52):
Well, I'm excited today I havebuster upton joining me on
journey with jake buster.
Welcome to the show, thanks forhaving me.
I'm excited.
Yeah, this is going to be fun.
Just so people know, and just alittle background on how I find
some of my guests sometimesbecause I don't think I've
really mentioned this on mypodcast much I do a lot of just
finding people like throughInstagram and you popped up, I
must have seen a reel orsomething, and it was a while
(03:14):
ago because what I do is Itypically save it.
If I'm like, oh, I want to talkto that person, I'll kind of
save back through.
I'm like, oh, yeah, buster, letme send a note to Buster.
And so here you are.
You said, yeah, let's do it.
So kind of fun.
Yeah, it's kind of fun, justorganically, how I come across
some people and anyway, I'mlooking, looking forward to
(03:37):
talking to you.
This one's going to be a littlebit different, I think, because
usually I can kind of gather alot.
You know, people have maybe awebsite or they're usually
promoting something, or they gota book or they're doing things
like that.
I don't know anything about youbusters.
This is going to be just likeyeah.
I'm going to learn all about youright here and now, so it'll be
a lot of fun.
This is the opening, exactly,exactly.
(03:59):
So before we get cranking cause, the only thing I do know about
you is you're out backpackingaround traveling the world.
Basically that's all I know.
So before we dive into some ofyour travels and experiences,
tell me about Buster, whereyou're from.
Obviously, your accent's alittle different than mine, so
tell everybody where you're from, and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah Well, my name's Buster, I'm 26 years old and I'm
from North Queensland inAustralia.
I live in a fairly small cityjust off the coast of the Great
Barrier Reef.
Ever since I was really young,I've really loved traveling.
I'm fascinated with the world,different cultures.
Last year, or the year before,I decided to make an Instagram
under the pressure of my friends, like a public Instagram, just
(04:40):
to kind of show off a little bit, I suppose, and I was never
much of a social media guru whenI was younger and I used to
travel a lot and they said, hey,you really need to start
posting some of your videos ordo a little bit of storytelling.
Yeah, it really started lastyear when I quit my job for
about the third time and went ona world backpacking trip.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
See, okay, that amazes me how people just can
quit a job and go travel.
So we'll get into that for asecond.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
So born and raised Australia.
Yeah, I was actually born inIreland.
My parents are Irish, my mom'sAustralian, but she's of Irish
descent, and my dad is fullyIrish.
He moved here in his 30s, soI'm lucky enough to be a dual
passport holder.
That's always a bit of a funtravel fact.
Yeah, so I was born in Ireland.
I moved to Australia when I wasreally young.
Like I am Australian, but yeah,I moved here when I was about
(05:29):
one or two.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Your accent, though, is Australian right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.
Everything about me isAustralian.
Yeah, just that little piece ofpaper that says I'm not.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, Just a little piece of paper that says you're
not.
Your dad's probably hopingyou'll, the more that Irish
comes out.
But you know, hey, living inAustralia, what are you going to
do, right?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
He lives here now anyway, sohe's got no excuse yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Any siblings?
You just you solo, or you gotany?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Just me.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Just you.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, I grew up just with my mom for most of my
life.
Yeah, I had an awesome, awesomechildhood, lots of friends,
pretty normal life, lived in thesuburbs with my mom and, yeah,
now live here in beautiful NorthQueensland and yeah, so as a
youngster then, just living withyour mom, did you and your mom
travel like around Australia ordid you go international?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
What did you guys do, as you know, growing up?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, all the time.
Mom always liked to sort of gotitchy feet and just wanted to
go around.
Every sort of school holidays,every long weekend or something,
we'd go camping.
I used to camp all the time andI still do camp quite a lot
when I'm at home.
We live in such an awesomeplace.
I've been to the US now andit's very similar.
(06:37):
There's just so much to see.
It's obviously a massivecountry.
Yeah, I'm lucky enough to havebeen to most places in Australia
as well.
I remember when I was about 15or 16, I was in high school and
mom sent me a text at school.
She goes when you get home,you're going to pack your bag,
we're going to drive to WesternAustralia, which is like a five
day.
It's like it's like a thousand2000 miles away from where we're
living.
At the time she said, right,we're going to Western Australia
(06:57):
because I really want to go andthat was sort of not uncommon
as a kid.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Wow, okay, very good.
So your mom had thatadventurous spirit about her.
She was like ready to go.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
And then my first sort of bigtrip is when I was 14.
Over our Christmas holidays mymom took me to Western Europe
for two months.
That was like the big sort oflike I'd wanted to go overseas
for a long, long time.
I got to see sort of the town Iwas born in Ireland, got to see
some long lost relatives, andon that trip we went to the UK,
france, germany and Ireland.
(07:28):
Yeah, it was awesome.
From there it was sort of likeokay, now we're going.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So you had the bug.
Like you were like, okay, I'vehad a little taste of this
growing up with my mom.
Yeah, you've got the bug.
You're like, I got the travelbug, I'm gonna hit it.
And you start traveling.
What?
What do you think it was?
What do you think being ateenager, what was it that was
like so awesome about it to you?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I was just fascinated .
I like I was always fascinatedwith other countries, even like
when I was much younger, lookingat flags and different
languages.
And then I was kind of like, oh, I looked at a map and I was
like, well, I've only just beento this bit, I've just been to
the you know, france and germanyin the uk, like that's just a
speck on the whole globe.
I was like, right, well, Ireally want to go somewhere else
now.
I gotta, I gotta see that place.
(08:09):
And then, oh, someone wastalking about that place on that
trip.
I gotta go there.
It just unravels from there.
I want to go everywhere do itall go everywhere.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, getting done with school, high school, did
you end up?
Did you go to college?
Did you do that kind of route?
What did you?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
do.
I was actually, um, I reallydidn't like high school much,
much, much to mom's enthusiasm,actually, my travels actually
started when I was in highschool.
I was 16 and I was likeseriously considering dropping
out.
I just hated it.
Me and my friend used to skipschool like every day.
We got called into the school'soffice and they said hey, like
you boys are at like a seriousrisk of not completing high
(08:44):
school here.
What can we do?
Can we help you do anapprenticeship?
And there was a little form inthe corner of the office that
said go on student exchange.
And I looked at my mate and wewere a bit naughty.
Back then I saw you, should wedo this?
And, long story short, both ofus actually ended up leaving
school for the year to go toschool somewhere else.
(09:06):
And we went to this seminar andwe come home told our parents,
said, hey, you know, we canactually go to school overseas
and the school's going to helpus do it.
On the day they said, oh well,what are you thinking about?
And I said, oh well, I want togo to school in Northern Europe
somewhere.
I ended up going to school inFinland for my second last year
of school.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
So you're like 16, 17 years old, living in Finland.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, that's basically how it happened.
I was like drop out of schoolor go to school somewhere else.
The next minute I ended up inthe middle of Finland, in this
small city in Eastern Finland,and my mate was in Sao Paulo in
Brazil, and we're texting eachother like this is awesome, this
(09:50):
is way better than going toschool.
Yeah, and yeah, mom was coolwith it.
Mom was really cool with it.
I didn't end up dropping out ofschool and I um did, yeah, most
of my last year of school inFinland and then from there.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
then that's when the travel like really started wow,
okay, I want to go back to thiswhole Finland thing, because
this is wild to me, okay, so,first of all, they set you down.
They're like hey, man, you andyour buddy, you're like, you're
not gonna make it, you guys aregonna flunk out of school,
you're gonna flunk out of highschool, but here's an
opportunity.
You see this opportunity to gostudy abroad.
Essentially, yeah, you ended upin finland yeah language
(10:18):
barrier.
I mean, was there any of thatgoing on?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I mean, yeah, I was.
I was lucky enough to beknowledgeable enough about sort
of these countries in northerneurope that I was like, okay,
well, at least they can.
Okay, no, they can speakenglish.
I ended up choosing finlandbecause it was, it was it was a
coin toss actually betweennorway and finland and I was
like, well, yeah, I'm gonna gothere.
(10:41):
And they actually sent me.
Um, when I got to finland,they'd place me in an
international class, like aninternational baccalaureate sort
of class, so all the lessonswere actually done in English.
There was a mishap when I firstgot enrolled to the school.
There was a whole heap ofclasses I had to do which were
taught in Finnish, and I didn'tknow a lick.
I didn't even know anyone thatwas Finnish.
(11:01):
A lick, I didn't even knowanyone that was Finnish.
Yeah, my first day of schoolwas actually really daunting.
I was probably one of the onlythree kids at the school that
didn't have like pasty whiteskin and bleach blonde hair and
the blue eyes.
Everyone was staring at me andI couldn't understand.
My very first lesson actuallywas an ethics class and the
teacher talked to me for about15 minutes in Finnish, but I
(11:22):
didn't realize she was talkingto me until one of the kids gave
me a bit of a nudge on theshoulder and I was like, oh
sorry, and she was the onlyteacher at the school that
couldn't speak English Just meand I didn't know what she was
saying and I was just nodding,trying to be like a bit quiet in
the back, hoping she wouldn'tstop looking at me.
Turned out, the whole class waslooking at me and I just said
(11:48):
oh hey, I'm sorry, I don't knowwhat you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
What's crazy about this Buster is I sit there and I
think like if I was put in thatposition at that age I would be
scared.
I'd be like calling home,crying.
But it sounds like you.
You're like this was awesome.
You know my buddy's in SaoPaulo and I'm here.
This is awesome.
Is buddies in Sao Paulo and I'mhere.
This is awesome.
Is that what it was like?
Or was there any moments ofyou're like oh, what did I?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
do?
I don't know, it's weird.
I didn't think about it a wholelot.
I mean, it is looking back onit.
You know, 16, I'd only been inFinland for like three or four
days, and now I'm in this ethicsclass and I don't understand
what anyone's saying to me.
It should have been scary,really, but I was just like,
well, you know, doing maths athome, so I love it.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I love the fact that you just rolled with it and it
just it kind of fits from whatI've seen of you on instagram
and all I've seen is just your,your instagram rules.
I don't really know you, but itjust kind of fits your
personality from what I've seen,so that seems appropriate.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I tend to not really like.
I don't really.
Nothing phases me a whole lot.
It's kind of like oh, there'snothing I can do about it, I'm
here.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So you did the whole the Finland thing and then you
said then that's what reallykind of sparked your whole
travel thing.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, when I was towards the end of my Finland
trip, I had a few weeks off andI had a backpack that my mom had
bought me for my birthday.
The year before, I caught aferry by myself and I went to
Estonia, and then I caught a busto Latvia and that was the
first trip I ever did by myself.
It was just just after my 17thbirthday and I backpacked around
the Baltic Sea for a couple ofweeks.
Yeah, it was.
(13:13):
Yeah, it was wicked as a 17 yearold just cruising around yeah,
yeah, and the language barrieris much worse in Latvia and
Estonia than it is in Finland,just for reference.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, so what were you doing?
Were you just using yourcreative juices to, like, figure
out where to stay and what todo?
I mean, how did you do this?
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I had like I don't know.
I think I had like 400 bucks orsomething and I was like, well,
I got to make this work and Iwent to I don't know.
I went to some museums, I wentto the pub, I just went at
things that I thought would becool.
Had a scroll on Instagram,tried to find some ideas of
places to visit in the middle ofLatvia.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Wow Okay, so you're 26 now.
So this was just nine years ago, it wasn't too long ago.
Wow, okay, it's amazing.
So it was before the wholepandemic and all that.
Yeah, Back in the glory days.
Back in the glory days, rightyeah, because I kind of feel
like maybe it's because, youknow, I started this, well, you
know, partway through thepandemic.
(14:09):
So I feel like maybe travel hasbecome more of a social media
thing.
Maybe it was before too.
I just didn't notice as much.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah, I was pretty heavily into looking at stuff on
Instagram and travel and it was.
Instagram has definitelychanged and it is much easier
for people to find stuff and alot more people do promote it,
like myself now, I suppose, onInstagram post COVID.
I think every social media isbigger post COVID, I reckon.
But yeah, it was just, yeah,something to do.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
So in the meantime, okay, so you did that you travel
by yourself at 17 years old,which is just amazing to me.
But then you came home toAustralia.
I mean, I'm guessing you had toget a job.
You had to like, yeah, lifekind of settled in a little bit
Like kind of how did that allwork?
Because you said you ended upquitting your job last year or
something.
So kind of give me that story.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Well, actually it all sort of starts when I got home
from Finland.
I moved in with my grandmother,my, my mum moved states and I
got a job as a constructionlabourer.
I worked for a concretingcompany and we were just
building bridges, fixingapartment blocks, and then I
remember I got my first job andI was like first proper job when
(15:16):
I was 18 and I got paid $22 anhour.
I was like this is awesome, I'mgetting $22 an hour and I don't
really have to go to school,I'm getting paid and hour and I
don't really have to go toschool, I'm getting paid.
And I was living with mygrandma, I was saving up.
I was saving, you know, 95% ofmy salary.
After three months I looked atmy bank account.
I thought, well, that's a bitbigger than I thought it'd be.
And then I quit that job.
I used my Irish passport andI'd made some friends when I was
(15:42):
overseas and I moved to Swedenyeah, didn't take long at all.
So, yeah, one of the first jobsI quit and it definitely wasn't
the last job I quit to gotraveling.
Yeah, I ended up in my friend'sparents' house on a farm just
outside of Stockholm in Sweden.
It was just the best time ever.
My friends had just finishedhigh school.
(16:03):
They were actually exchangestudents in Australia.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Oh, in Australia.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That's how I met them and yeah, I was like cool, and
they're like what should we do?
And we're like, oh, let's driveto Norway.
That happened big Europe tripback.
This was proper backpacking,like super budget, maybe
spending like 10, 15 US dollarsa day, and that lasted me about
three or four months and Ilearned heaps on that trip.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So let's talk about backpacking for a minute,
because when you think ofbackpacking, a lot of people
like in my mind, the first thingthat comes to my mind is like
oh, people hiking through atrail in the woods or something
backpacker kind of thing.
But for you it's basicallyyou're just taking a backpack to
travel the world.
Essentially You're Norway andSweden and limited budget
(16:47):
everything.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, backpacking is just to me, it's just the same
three t-shirts for months on endand someone with a backpack in
a dirty bus station in themiddle of nowhere trying to find
your way.
That's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
What's the appeal to that?
Why is that so fun?
Why did you like that so much?
I?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
think just yeah, it is a funny question and I it
doesn't sound glamorous at all.
And it's definitely notglamorous for 90 of the time.
It's when you reach those youknow cool destinations at the
top of a mountain or a coolchurch somewhere.
That's when it's cool.
But the other 90 is just eatinglike supermarket, you know
pre-packed supermarketsandwiches yeah, it's not not
(17:24):
all the hype that it seems.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So tell me, yeah, maybe in some of those earlier
before you started your ownInstagram account and things
like that.
What were some of those?
Maybe where you got to the topof a mountain, or just some
examples of some places that yousaw, or some stories that
you're just like, wow, this isliving.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, on that first trip after I left home, when I
left Australia when I was 18, Iwent to Chernobyl with one of my
friends in Ukraine.
Yeah, we caught a flight toKiev and we caught a bus and
we're standing in the middle ofPripyat, the abandoned city, and
we're looking at reactor numberfour in Chernobyl.
And I said to my I was like,dude, this is awesome, like we
(18:00):
can do it.
Like getting there andrealizing that I can do whatever
I want really changed myperspective on travel and things
that I want to do, because Iwas like, well, we just wanted
to do that and we came here andwe did it.
To be fair, it was really easyand I thought to myself, well, I
could probably go anywhere.
I really want to go.
All it takes, all you want,everywhere on earth.
(18:20):
All it takes is a flight, a fewbuses and maybe a taxi or a
bicycle ride and you can getsomewhere.
That's all it is to it.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
When you go to these places, do you have any set
plans, or do you just kind ofget there and say, let's check
this out?
How do you do it?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yeah, very.
I typically say I mightwaypoint two or three places on
the way and the rest of it justunfolds.
You'll talk to someone andthey'll say, oh, you should go
here.
And 90% of the time I do go.
Oh yeah, all right, I'll gothere.
Yeah, I just.
I bought a one-way ticket toKiev in Ukraine and the only
thing I had in my mind was let'svisit Chernobyl.
(18:55):
I ended up in Chernobyl andthen after that, like cool, now
what?
And yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
All right, I got to ask about Chernobyl a little bit
then, because I've never had.
I haven't had anybody talkabout Chernobyl on the show
before.
So is it like what I imagine itto be, just kind of the remains
, I mean, what's it like?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
It felt like the TV show the Walking Dead without
the zombies.
Yeah, it was honestly one ofthe coolest places I've been to.
We actually got lost in thecity of Pripyat and I thought I
was in a forest and I look upand there was just this wall of
concrete in front of me and likestairs, like concrete stairs,
and I was so confused because itwas just trees, trees and then
(19:35):
stairs and I was actually insidean old sports athletic stadium.
Wow, as I was in the stadium, Irealized that the forest had
actually grown up through thefield.
Wow, yeah, I read, I wasreading kids' school books,
ended up inside a school andthere's old school books with
(20:06):
kids' handwriting from the 80sand they because they just left
like that, they just got up andleft.
Yeah, it was really fascinating, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
That is wild.
Yeah, what's the situationthere now?
I mean, well, when you went, isthere still like radiation in
the area?
Yeah, like what's the-.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, there.
Yeah, there were some forms,but there were some stern
warnings.
The Ukrainian military wasthere 24-7.
I mean, there's going to beradiation there for thousands
and thousands of years.
I just had to be careful.
I covered up pretty well withmy clothes and tried not to
touch anything.
Yeah, I definitely didn't gotoo deep into some of the places
(20:41):
.
I mean, yeah, I was going to gothere anyway.
You know, I wasn't eating thedirt, I wasn't yeah right, yeah,
exactly, you're not rollingaround in it Okay.
Yeah, some people still actuallylive there the original
inhabitants, a few of the olderpeople decided they never wanted
to leave, so that wasreassuring.
Lots of wildlife actually inthe area.
Yeah, wildlife actually in thearea.
(21:02):
Yeah, it's probably seen morewildlife than I'd seen on most
of my travels.
It was actually in the PripyatChernobyl area.
What kind of wildlife do theyhave there?
Deers, fox, lots of bird faunaand some snakes.
Actually, it's probably one ofthe few places outside of
Australia.
(21:23):
I've seen snakes, wow,interesting.
Yeah, I actually nearly steppedon a snake in Chernobyl.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Have been quite the quite the story to tell if I'd
be bitten.
Yeah, wow, for sure.
Wow, okay.
So chernobyl was one of thoseplaces.
And and after you know, whenyou're you're 18, you quit that
job working, construction laborand you're off doing your own
thing.
How did the work?
You just kind of bounce backand forth between aust getting a
job and like how did this work,like what did you do until you
finally quit again.
But lead me up to where we arenow.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I guess yeah, sure, I actually applied for a job
before I left and I got the joband I was like, oh, this is a
pretty well-paying job.
It was in aviation.
Then I flew back home toAustralia, did that for a few
years and I actually did thatfor two or three years, that job
.
And I was like, oh, I'm gettinga bit, I'm definitely getting
(22:12):
itchy feet now.
And I was like, well, I wassaving lots and lots of money
and the whole idea was toeventually quit that job and
spend all my hard-earned cash onjust a big world trip.
Like a one-way trip I was goingto walk across Pakistan and I
was going to catch a boat toCuba, or like it was going to be
(22:33):
crazy and, long story short, Iquit my job on the 1st of March
2020.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
COVID time.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And, yeah, it was all downhill from there and I was
left with a whole heap of moneythat I'd saved up.
I ended up living with mygrandmother again Another house
because I'd actually quit my joband I'd driven about 5,000
kilometers across Australia topark my car at my grandmother's
house.
While I was going overseas, hadall these plane tickets set up.
I was taking my mom to Japanfor her birthday.
(23:02):
That was the first place wewere going to and then, yeah,
covid happened, and then it wastwo or three years until we
could really really travel again.
Couldn't find work for a goodyear during COVID.
Had to spend a lot of thatmoney just to survive.
Yeah, I'm sure everyone has asimilar story.
It seemed like 2020 was theyear everyone was going
(23:24):
traveling.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, yeah, exactly right.
It seems like they all weretaking off doing their thing.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
COVID was sort of a bit of a blur, worked a few more
jobs, ended up moving back toNorth Queensland where I live
now.
First it was really hard totravel in those few years sort
of 2022-ish.
I did a couple of first flightback sort of things.
I just really wanted to travel.
I was on the first flight backto Bali from here and then that
(23:50):
just wasn't the same.
There's no like a lot of thetourism did shut down.
It's quite hard to travel andthere's also so many
restrictions on being aforeigner you can just go there
on that vacation holiday type.
Feel not these big backpackingadventures that I like to do.
Yeah, it got to the point whereit was like, right, travel's
back, let's go.
And yeah, last year finallyquit my job.
(24:12):
I'd been working in anotherconstruction job I still work in
now.
I'm quite lucky.
My boss is always happy to haveme back.
So I think I finally found thatsweet spot where I that was
actually him texting me before Ican sort of come back and forth
as I please and work for him,and I think that's going to be
my life now for the next fewyears Travel when I'm sick of
(24:33):
that, come back, earn some money.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Save up some money.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
That's right, did that last year.
I save really frugally when I'mat home because traveling is
kind of just my passion.
That's what I work for now Paymy rent, renovate my house and
then go traveling.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Wow.
So that's how you do itBasically you work for a little
bit, save up as best you can andthen hit the road.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Absolutely not.
I meet so many people who thinkI'm like a travel guru that I
take my laptop and sip chailattes at like random foreign
cafes.
But no, I work a normal job athome.
I shovel concrete and I use ahose and I save my money, put it
in my bank account and then I'moverseas.
That's when I spend it all.
Last year, that's exactly whatI did.
I worked for two years straightand then I said hey, dude, I'm
(25:16):
going to quit for a while.
I'm going overseas, got aone-way trip.
I'll let you know when I'm backand yeah, that was six months
ago.
I got home from a nine 10 month, wow, okay, so 2024 was a big
year for you as far as travelgoes.
It was wicked.
Yeah, ended up travelingthrough 20, 30 countries that
year.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Wow, okay, so can you kind of give me just the
overview kind of some of theplaces you hit?
I don't know if you know it offthe top of your head or not,
but what just come as somehighlights of the places you
went in 2024, because it soundslike that was kind of the year,
and is that the year that youstarted posting on Instagram for
everyone to?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
see, yeah, my account's about a year old now.
I think I'm pretty close to.
I left at the end of Januarylast year, got a flight to Bali
because I live I'll actuallylive quite close to Bali, so
it's it's really easy to get to.
I went to every country inSoutheast Asia, uh, last year,
except for, uh, myanmar due tothe civil war, and and Brunei.
(26:13):
So that, yeah, that's so that,yeah, did the whole lot Thailand
, cambodia, malaysia, singapore,vietnam, yeah.
So that was a big trip, thatwas a big part of the trip last
year, and then after that wewent to Sri Lanka for a few
weeks.
My girlfriend really wanted togo to Sri Lanka okay, because,
yeah, you said we.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So I'm like, who are you traveling with?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
yeah, yeah, last year I did um it's the first trip I
haven't done by myself when Iwas with my girlfriend, she also
quit her job.
She was actually living in NewZealand at the time, so it was
quite nice for both of us to umquit our jobs at the same time.
We're in the same frame of mind.
And then we took off.
I went to a few of the stands.
I went to Uzbekistan andKyrgyzstan last year, which
normally gets a few eyebrowraises from people.
(26:50):
That's somewhere a bitdifferent, a little bit of a
Europe trip.
Went to see some family in theUK and Ireland again, and then I
spent the last three months inAlaska my trip last year.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
All right, went stateside to Alaska Very cool.
Yeah, I've never been to Alaskaand I live in the States and I
haven't been.
I heard it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's what 90% of Americans I've met have said.
I find it to be like one of theonly states that other
Americans don't hate on.
Everyone's always complainingabout Californians or Texans or
New Yorkers, and then everyonegives a thumbs up to Alaska, but
none of them have ever been.
Yeah, I've never been.
I'd love to go, but I haven'tbeen.
Yeah, alaska is a differentplace.
It's cool.
Yeah, it was a reallyeye-opening experience.
(27:31):
Yeah, I've actually got a buddyfrom Australia who is Alaskan.
I got to stay with him, so Igot the real experience.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, from what I've gathered looking at
Instagram and your account, and,first of all, what is your
account?
Speaker 2 (27:44):
so people know what's your Instagram account it's
just uh, visit with buster,visit dot with dot buster visit
dot with dot.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Buster love it.
Visit with buster great yeah.
So it looks like that's what itseems like you try to find.
You try to find that realexperience.
You're not just going andsitting on a beach, you know, in
a tourist spot.
It sounds like you're like youknow you're going to Chernobyl
and you're going to these placesthat just seem real authentic.
Is that kind of the whole ideawhen you get out there.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Absolutely A lot of my travels.
I stay with people that I'vemet on previous trips.
I use an app calledCouchsurfing a lot of the time,
which is basically I've heard ofCouchsurfing, I've heard of
couch surfing.
Yeah, I've heard of couchsurfing.
Yeah, you just go stay with arandom dude or random lady.
And yeah, very first time I didit stayed with this guy in an
apartment in Poland, this Polishguy, and he taught me around
town.
I was like this is so muchbetter than staying in a hotel,
(28:33):
you know?
Yeah, things like that.
That's the idea Stay with somefriends, get a local experience
and really go out to thecountryside.
That was one of the best partsabout my trip in Central Asia,
in Kyrgyzstan.
I made a friend there and endedup staying with his mom and
auntie.
That was just like wow, this isso different.
Like you wouldn't you, wouldn'tyou know you'd never get to
(28:54):
experience that at a hotel or amotel or yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
What kind of things is it like when you're, when
you're staying with somebodylike that?
What is it that you're getting?
Cause I know, yeah, besidesjust a place to stay and kind of
seeing how they live what is itthat you're getting?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, it's a chat Like.
I love talking to people andwhen you're with someone you can
talk about all.
You can talk about everything.
It's not just the normalconversations you have.
You talk about what theneighbors do, what it was like
for them as a kid.
I love asking people how theirhometown's changed over the
years and if it's a touristdestination, whether they like
(29:28):
the tourism or if they don'tlike the tourism.
A lot of the time I'm sort ofthe only foreigner in the area
and I get lots of stares and Isay, hey, well, you ask them,
you get personal with a lot ofthe questions.
That's what I like and a lot ofpeople don't really care.
You can talk about politics oryou can talk about religion, and
they're normally pretty open.
Once you're in their house andtheir spare room, they're
normally pretty cool and youlearn a whole lot and you're
(29:50):
like, oh wow, I didn't think ofthat.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
It's those dadgum Americans who aren't so open
about that, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Some of them are far too open.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yeah, or they're way too open.
Yeah, or they're way too open,yeah.
There you go, exactly.
Let's talk about the why.
What is the whole point of thisfor you?
Where do you see it going?
What does the future hold foryou?
Why do you do this?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Oh, good question.
I like the freedom of justbeing Well.
I actually just got back from a10-day trip to Indonesia.
I've actually got a bit of jetlag.
That's why I look so tired,sorry.
I got back yesterday I was atwork and I was like, oh, it's
only 100 bucks.
And I texted my girlfriend Isaid, hey, we're going to
Indonesia.
And it was kind of like we, weget them, like this is just the
best we can do whatever we want.
(30:31):
We don't have to go to work.
Because I don't like going towork.
To be honest, that's a big partof the war.
I mean, does anyone like goingto work?
But I really don't like goingto work some days.
The feeling of like impending,like adventure, I love.
I love having to work out whatI'm doing next.
If I want to go from a to b,somewhere foreign, like I, I
(30:51):
have to work for it and I've gotto.
I do have to use my head a lotof the time and work out the
most efficient route, learnanother language on the spot and
, yeah, problem solve a littlebit.
That's fun and it's all.
It all feel.
It feels like I've accomplishedsomething when I finally get to
the top of the mountain.
It's like a sense ofaccomplishment when you're like,
oh, I did that because a lot ofpeople are scared.
(31:12):
The reason behind my accountwas my friends are like proper.
A lot of them have that realsmall town mentality where
they're.
A lot of them will probablynever leave, uh, the state that
they're from.
I'm sure it's the same with alot of them will probably never
leave the state that they'refrom.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
I'm sure it's the same with a lot of Americans.
Oh, absolutely, you know, andI've for sure, and I think
that's why I enjoy doing what Ido here with this, because when
am I ever going to talk toBuster, who's been all over the
place, you know who's gone toChernobyl, for Pete's sake?
I mean, it's just, it's amazing, and it's amazing to hear your
stories.
I want to talk to you there.
(31:46):
So I looked at quite a few ofyour reels that you have on
instagram, your your post.
There was one that really wasfascinating to me.
Okay, it was the the sounds ofdifferent places oh yeah, the um
with no with the no.
Audio overlap yeah, yeah, youjust.
You just had, like the soundsof where you're at, whether
there was a cat in one spot,there was sheep in a road, road
in another spot.
You're in a city.
I mean, talk to me about, like,just because it sounds like you
(32:09):
love it, because it gives you asense of purpose, like when you
make it from point A to point Band you figured it out, so it
sounds like you have that.
But there's so many differentelements to all of it as well,
like just with the sounds.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I'm actually quite happy you said that, because
I've made a couple of thosereels and they're one of my
favorites to make, because to methat's the real traveling.
You see travel videos andthey're often glamorized, which
sort of annoys me a little bit,because it's really not.
You're hearing the roar of anengine.
When you're on the plane,you're hearing the beeping of a
taxi.
There's sheep on the road.
(32:41):
You spend a lot of time byyourself, thinking when you're
traveling I'm doing a lot of busrides, a lot of times sitting
down, a lot of walking You'renot hearing a Dua Lipa song in
the background, you don't havethat awesome music, you're
hearing everyday sounds.
I think it's important forpeople to remember that when
you're doing this cheap budgettravel that was one of the
(33:03):
reasons I posted that, to tryand give it a sense of normality
and I find myself when I amtraveling, I'm a drop in the
ocean.
I'm just a person in someoneelse's life.
Whether I'm in a taxi of anUzbekistani man, in the back of
his car he's just trying to makefive bucks for the day, or I'm
(33:25):
in a national park in Sri Lanka,it's still someone's life.
I'm just like a side piece inthat person's life for an hour
or two hours, and it's importantto remember that life's normal
life goes on, and part of thereason I'm traveling is I want
to see what people are doing inSri Lanka at this time of day,
because it's totally differentto what I'm doing back home in
Cairns or in New York City.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Absolutely.
I'm glad you did that.
Again, that was one of myfavorite ones that I saw, just
because it was so just kind ofreal and like this is what you
know, what you're hearing andwhat you're seeing, so I loved
it.
So, yeah, keep doing thoseevery so often.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
That's what Cambodia sounds like.
It doesn't sound like, you know, like a flight center ad.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
It sounds like it doesn't sound like, you know,
like a flight center ad.
It sounds like cats purring andyou know tuk-tuks driving.
Yeah, well, and you know, weget on instagram.
I get on instagram and I have abunch of travel accounts.
The algorithm pushes me to alot of them because I talk to a
lot of people like you and yeah,yeah yeah, it's all this cool
fancy.
You know there's someonestrolling on a beach with this
cool music, or they're incambodia through the.
You know the city, but it's all.
You know.
It's festive music and it'slike it's not really like that,
you know.
So it's nice to get the realfeel.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, yeah, that was the purpose.
Yeah, you gotta, you gottaremember that it's.
It's real, it's a, it'ssomeone's house, somewhere you
know.
Like to be fair, life soundspretty similar whether you're in
London or you're inJohannesburg, or you're in Osh
in the middle of Kyrgyzstan,it's all the same.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Yeah, I love that.
That's great.
So for this epic year that youhad last year, a couple of
highlights, some of yourfavorite places, any particular
story.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, let me think for a second.
Well, I'll give you one.
We were in Laos, in SoutheastAsia.
Just by coincidence, it wasBuddhist New Year in Laos.
It's quite famous now due toInstagram, and in Thailand, next
door, it's called Songkran andit's basically a three-day
festival.
One of the cultural aspects ofthe festival is you throw water.
(35:15):
Basically, it's a three-daywater fight that we'd found
ourselves in in the middle ofLaos and what it is.
People line up on the edge ofthe street in public and have
big buckets of water.
You just throw water at people.
It is people line up on theedge of the street in public and
have big buckets of water.
You just throw water at people.
You get a, you get a glass ofwater, you get a bucket and the
whole idea of the festival isjust to douse people in water.
Um, so we're walking throughthis little town and some little
(35:36):
kid just throws his bucket ofwater straight in my face and
you're like, oh, and because I'ma, because I'm a foreigner in
lao, I was just like the targetand everyone's like get him.
And I was just soaked for threedays straight.
And it was like being a kid andI was culturally inclined to
throw water bombs at everysingle person.
I saw squirt people with thehose throw water at cars.
(35:57):
It was awesome.
It was like being a little kidagain, but it was encouraged.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
But it was encouraged .
I love that.
That's a great story.
And you were with yourgirlfriend too.
Was she there as well?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, yeah, she was having a great time.
I was throwing water at her formost of the time because you
know she's like get off.
But you know all the other kidswere like you know, you've got
to get her, you've got to gether.
So I was you.
Yeah, it was cool.
(36:28):
I mean, I'm sure everyoneanyone that's traveled with
their partner before realizes afew.
There's a few issues.
I am.
It's a shame both of us getreally hangry, so that's
probably a bit of a.
That was the only downside.
Some of the days like get off anight bus and you just like
just want something and I eat.
I eat everything.
My girlfriend's lactoseintolerant, so she's got to be
really careful with the streetfood and we both got food
(36:52):
poisoning in Cambodia and noneof us ate for like four days.
It was cool, it was actually.
It was good.
It was a lot easier to travelwith someone in a lot of aspects
.
We did argue a few times likeshe really didn't want to go to
the Philippines.
I was like, no, we're going tothe Philippines.
And then I didn't really wantto go to Sri Lanka.
So we compromised and we wentto Sri Lanka.
But it was cool to have someone.
(37:16):
It was actually cool to havesomeone take videos and photos
of me the whole time, especiallyfor Instagram.
That made life a whole loteasier.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, I was wondering about that too, because I was
like how did you get all these,some of these shots of you like
doing stuff?
There you go.
That makes sense, all right.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, there you go.
That makes sense, all right.
Yeah, it was.
It was nice because before Ihad the instagram account, I um,
I really rarely took photos.
I actually come back from athree-month europe trip and I
had like nine photos on my phonethat I took.
I just didn't, I didn't thinkabout it.
But now I've got an instagram Ifeel inclined that I've got a
yeah, and it's nice to look back.
It was a year ago today.
I was in the philippines.
I got a notification onInstagram.
(37:51):
You know, one year ago today Iwas like, oh cool, I was
ziplining.
A year ago today, so I was like, oh yeah, it's cool to have.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
So everything seems fun.
I mean you know it looks good,but you said like 90% of it is
just kind of the.
You know trying to find foodand going to the supermarket,
and you know traveling andthings like that.
What would you say are thebiggest challenges of living
like this?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Yeah, it is Backpacking for a long period of
time is you're just living alogistical nightmare, sometimes
when you're overseas, and a lotof the time like we live in
Australia and the US.
We live at a really affluentpart of planet earth.
Things work, our roads arepaved, we never have a shortage
of gasoline in the car and wecan afford everything.
This isn't the case for 90% ofpeople.
That's definitely an issue.
We had a horrible, horribletraveling time in the
(38:44):
Philippines.
Nothing worked, everything wasa nightmare to get to.
We were in a town that actuallyhad the highway collapse on it.
We got into the town and thehighway was just like it's just
a nightmare to drive.
A two-hour drive turned intolike six hours.
We got there, the whole islandlost power, all the internet
signals went out and then in themiddle of the night the town
(39:07):
had bled dry its water source.
So in this town with nowhere toget out, there's no internet to
even.
I mean we couldn't speak thelanguage that they were speaking
there.
There's no water.
You just got what's left inyour bottle and that was hard.
You've got to remember that.
You know stuff like thathappens and it's you know if
you're not in Western Europe orNorth America or Australia, you
(39:29):
know, yeah, they didn't evenblink, and for us it was like,
oh, we've got no water, what arewe going to do?
It was funny.
Actually, next door to me whenthe power went out, there was
these American girls who hadjust left high school and they
learned how to plumb theirtoilet because they had no water
.
They learned how a cisternworks, and I'll never forget at
2 o'clock in the morning, though, yeah, this, these american
(39:50):
girls, would you know?
18, 19 were learning plumbingin the middle of the night in
the philippines because therewas no water.
Yeah, it was awesome yeah sorrythat's a bit random, but I'll
I'll definitely know that.
Yeah, for sure and that's partof it.
There's limited to no publictransport in kyrgyzstan, which
is which is really different.
(40:11):
You've very few places have nopublic transport in Kyrgyzstan,
which is really different.
Very few places have no publictransport and you basically
everyone just catches taxis andpeople just haggle on the street
to get anywhere.
People drive vans and people go, and I'll give you 10 bucks to
drive me there in the van andthat's what it was.
Yeah, that's something that youwould never think of and it is a
real issue.
Sometimes, like, we had placesthat we wanted to go.
(40:31):
Once you're outside of yourcomfort zone, you really gotta
think outside the box.
So, yeah, that's, things likethat are really it's really hard
to travel in some places.
I can understand, I'm sure this.
I'm sure you've interviewedsome people that cycle a lot for
their travels.
They go somewhere really randomand they'll cycle, they'll take
a motorbike.
It's probably easier sometimes,to be honest, because some of
(40:52):
the I've been trying to getsomewhere someday.
You can't walk there and, yeah,cycling or taking your own
motorbike is definitely the gothen trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
If you can't walk there and there's no public
transportation and trying tohaggle your way, that's got to
be got to be tough.
Yeah, did this make youappreciate, like, what did this
do for you as far asappreciation for, for what you
have, I guess?
Speaker 2 (41:14):
every time I get home I'm happy that I live in
australia and I'm happy where Ilive, and it's not just that one
trip, it's every trip.
I've been grateful for livingin such a well developed place
where things work, things are ontime, it is fun and it's
definitely fun to try the others.
But if it's your daily life,yeah, I'm, I'm pretty happy for
it.
And even, to be fair, evencoming back from some other
(41:34):
places like even when I comeback from the US I was like you
know, I was like, oh, I'm glad Idon't live there.
No offense to anyone that'sAmerican, but I'm sure people
say that about Australia youlike your creature comforts at
home and I'm very much someonethat likes living in Australia.
I'm happy to travel, I'm happyto spend a lot of time, but
things work really well here.
And every time I've come home,every time I've crossed
(41:58):
immigration, I've been like,okay, I'm happy to be back.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
All right, so we're going to kind of we've been
chatting here for quite a whileLooking back, especially this
last year, but you can lookanywhere, I guess, but any of
your travels, If you had onlyone place, you can only go back
to one place.
Which place are you going backto?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
I hate that question.
It's probably going to be theUnited States.
It's such a massive country.
If it wasn't Australia, it'dhave to be the US.
You guys are so lucky and I getreally annoyed because a lot of
Americans don't travel.
You live in one of the mostbeautiful countries on earth.
I did a road trip around theSouthwest two years ago and I
was in Arizona and New Mexicoand I was like oh, this is just
(42:38):
stunning.
I travel for nature most of thetime and you guys have such a
diverse, beautiful country.
Yeah, it'd have to be the US,purely based on size and
diversity.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, I mean you said you were in Alaska, which is
part of the US.
Like you said, 90% of Americanshaven't even been to Alaska.
Yeah, to the Southwest, I'mfrom Arizona and Utah.
I live in Utah now.
So, yeah, I love the Southwest.
But then the Northeast isbeautiful.
The Southeast is beautiful, Imean there's so much the plains
in the middle of the country.
Yeah, it's very diverse.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I've already got plans to go back.
I'm actually I'm actually ummigrating to canada in a month.
I've actually got a visa to golive and work in canada, which
is quite you know, the landscapeis quite similar to the north
of the us.
Yeah, my girlfriend and Ialready made plans to go visit
montana and go visit theappellations and the great lakes
.
Yeah, it's a really specialplace, and I think you know you
can go anywhere on earth.
But if it's a really specialplace, and I think you know you
(43:31):
can go anywhere on earth, but ifit's one country, yeah it's got
to be the US.
It's just so huge.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
It makes sense.
Yeah, with how big it is?
For sure, absolutely so.
It sounds like you have thoseplans.
You're going to migrate toCanada, and yet what other
future plans do you want to do,like, what's the plan with the
Instagram account or anythinglike that, or what do you just
want to keep that rolling?
What's kind of your thoughts?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
yeah, to be fair, the um.
I got really into the instagramfor a while and I kind of just
post on it willy-nilly now, justfor and I I've made some
friends online there and I'veobviously got a personal
instagram that I don't sharewith other people.
Yeah, I just, I don't know.
I just I just post it now whenI feel like it.
If there's something cool thatI think other people will like,
(44:10):
I'll take a video and upload itto my story.
Currently I'm talking to peopleabout my Indonesia trip because
that fascinated me.
Going to Java, I climbed twovolcanoes last week and I was
like, oh yeah, people will likethat.
Yeah, there's no plan and, tobe fair, I'm not really good at
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Me neither.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
It's hard.
I don't know how people do itand make it look so nice and
fruity.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
It's amazing.
I don't know.
I don't know how people do it,because it's tough for me too.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I'm with you on that I'll keep it around.
I'll definitely post myCanadian trips on there.
Yeah, I should be back in theUS next year.
Yeah, I've got most of my.
About 20% of my followers areactually American.
They're the biggest cohort ofmy following, which is cool, so
I'm sure that'll get me a bitmore attention.
Yeah, a lot of my videos thatdid well is the American
(44:59):
audience that really pushed it,liked it.
They tend to eat it up a bitmore, which is cool.
The Instagram's just there.
I mean, follow me if you want.
I know sometimes the videosflunk, but I like what I upload
and that's the main thing.
I Sometimes the videos flunk,but I like what I upload and
that's the main thing.
I'm not here to make money outof it.
This is the first sort of.
This is the second sort ofthing I've done.
Really, I've never done aninterview before my girlfriend.
She does it quite well and shegets stuff.
(45:21):
She gets like free bags andtravel vouchers and things like
that, but I'm just like, I'mjust not good at it.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
I'm not fair to her.
Yeah, yeah, that's yeah.
My Instagram is not greateither.
I'm struggling with it too.
I mostly post little posts ofus talking or some pictures you
know it's all my guests.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
you know it's all my guests that I'm posting.
You got you got a few followers, though, so that's cool.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like it's fun.
It's a question I like to askeverybody For you, buster what
does adventure mean to you?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Adventure to me is when I'm traveling.
It's almost the fear of theunknown.
It's those times that I've beenin the middle of somewhere
random and I have no idea whatI'm doing.
That's the adventure is unknown, copied with.
You know, I've got to work itout.
Like that's an adventure to me.
I go somewhere with no plan andI feel like when I feel like
(46:24):
I'm a knight from the 7thcentury going through medieval
Europe, you know, I've got towork it out, I've got to plan,
I've got to talk to people towork my way through the forest,
like that's what I, yeah, that'swhat.
That's what happens in my head,unplanned and unknown, and it's
almost, if you're a little bitscared, that's when you're on an
adventure, I think a little bitof the fear of sneaking in
there yeah, out of your comfortzone.
(46:45):
That's the main thing, that'swhat makes an adventure, I think
for sure.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, that's probably the thing I hear the most from
my guests is being out of yourcomfort zone.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
That's the general consensus.
All right, cool, definitelycorrect.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Buster, thank you so much.
This was a ton of fun.
Speaker 2 (46:59):
Thanks for coming on journey with Jake yeah, thanks,
jake, it's um, it's been awesome.
First time I've done a podcastand, um, I've.
Yeah, I'm happy I've seen yours.
Now, um, I've read through someof your stories.
As you know, once you talk topeople like this, you realize
that there's actually thousandsand thousands of people out
there who have reallyinteresting stories and without
asking them the questions youprobably wouldn't know.
So, yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
A big thank you to Buster Upton for joining me on
the show and sharing his raw,honest perspective on travel and
adventure.
I loved hearing about hisjourney from navigating
unfamiliar places to visitingsomewhere as fascinating as
Chernobyl.
Buster reminds us that trueadventure isn't always
comfortable or Instagram worthy,and that's exactly what makes
(47:41):
it so powerful.
If you'd like to follow alongwith Buster's travels, check him
out on Instagram at visit withBuster.
That's at visit dot with dotBuster.
Give him a follow.
At visitwithbuster.
That's at visitwithbuster.
Give him a follow.
Thanks again, buster, foropening up and sharing who you
are with all of us and to you,the listener.
I know I say this every time,but I truly mean it.
(48:02):
Thank you for tuning in andbeing part of the Journey with
Jake community.
It means the world to me.
If you're enjoying the show,I'd be so grateful if you could
leave a rating and review andmaybe share the podcast with
your friends and family.
Every little bit helps spreadthese incredible stories.
Next week episode is a fun one.
It's all about bucket lists.
(48:22):
I'm talking with Jeremy George,who set out to complete one
bucket list item every week fora whole year.
His journey is inspiring,uplifting and might just spark
some ideas for your own list.
Don't miss it.
Just remember, it's not alwaysabout the destination as it is
about the journey.
Take care everybody, thank you.
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