In this episode of the Travel Addict Podcast, host Malcolm Teesdale speaks with global traveler and investor Ryan Floyd, who has visited over 80 countries and lived as an expat in India.
Ryan shares stories from living and working in Mumbai, building a fruit export business, and traveling extensively across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
He also discusses his international investment firm, Barca Capital, and reflects on how travel, culture, and curiosity have shaped his life and career.
The conversation highlights the rewards and challenges of long-term travel, cultural immersion, and balancing adventure with family life.
Learn more about Ryan here:
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.
(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Feesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.
(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.
SPEAKER_02 (00:27):
Good morning, everybody.
Malcolm Teesdale here, thetravel addict.
I'm back in town for a while,but not for long.
So apologize for the lack ofepisodes, but uh there'll be a
bunch next year early, I'm sure.
Anyway, today I have Ryan Floyd,lives in Boston, and uh great
area of the country, by the way.
And Ryan's got uh some greatstories to tell.
(00:51):
Now, I love stories that uh comefrom expats, you know, people
who've been living in a foreigncountry for a while.
And Ryan's one of those.
He's traveled to about over 80countries, and uh he's got his
own finance company these days.
We'll we'll go over that aswell.
But uh he's got stories to tell.
So Ryan, welcome to the TravelAddict Podcast.
(01:13):
Thank you for having me.
I I'm very proud to be here.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, no worries.
So I I know you've traveled to abunch of countries, we'll get
into that uh a bit later on, butyou know, when you when I got
your uh profile, I was somethingintrigued me in the first
sentence there.
And um it was in your early 20s.
(01:34):
I know you want to say that justa few years ago.
I wish I could say that, butanyway, you lived in Mumbai in
India, and uh so before we getinto your your work stuff now, I
was gonna say um what made yougo to live in Mumbai?
SPEAKER_00 (01:55):
Uh, good question.
So I made the decision my senioryear of college.
I had lived in Spain one summer,and which I enjoyed a lot, and
it seemed at the time, this wasthe late 90s, early 2000s, a lot
of my friends.
I don't know if it was myfriends or uh the sign of the
(02:16):
times.
People were talking about livingin southern Europe or Brazil or
China or uh the Middle Eastarea, and uh it was funny to me
that no one was really talkingabout India, a huge country with
so many people.
There really weren't manyclasses in college about India.
(02:37):
This is kind of a huge uhpowerful country that it seemed
like people didn't know thatmuch about.
And I wanted an adventure, and Iremember at the time I reached
out to the head of careerservices and said, What are the
chances I could get a paying jobworking for an Indian company as
(02:59):
an American?
And they said, Look, really,really low.
I said, Well, how low?
And they said, I don't know,it's like 1% chance, like the
chances are really low.
I said, Oh, that's pretty good.
So if I email maybe a thousandpeople, then I could probably
have about 10 offers.
So that's basically what I did,and got a handful of offers and
(03:20):
had a wonderful opportunityworking for an Indian industrial
company.
It was an adventure and a half.
I didn't know uh my girlfriendat the time, who's my wife, she
uh also got a job in ruralIndia, and so we knew one
another, but we were like eightor ten hours away from one
another by bus.
(03:41):
And I was the first foreigner towork in the head office of this
business, which is a reallygreat experience.
I traveled all over the countryfor work, and there were a lot
of vacations, and it was it wasfantastic.
SPEAKER_02 (03:53):
Yeah, it sort of I I don't know anyone who has gone
to live in India for work.
I've been to India a few timesfor work myself, but that was
for meetings and trade shows andstuff, but primarily Bangalore
and Delhi, uh, which wereextraordinary.
Mumbai, no, now it's a massivecity, isn't it, Mumbai?
SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
It's a massive city, it's a peninsula, and I guess in
the olden days, maybe only thebottom part of the peninsula was
settled, and then now it hasreached up very, very high, even
above where the peninsula ends.
And there are some wonderfulbridges that expand to the east,
maybe like Brooklyn relative toManhattan, and it is a lot of
(04:36):
people.
I remember I moved to New YorkCity after living in Mumbai, and
I told someone it felt like Ihad moved to North Dakota, which
is a very sparse rural area.
Like people are like, oh, NewYork has so much energy and all
of that, which is true, but itfelt like maybe one eighth to
action.
Just I I don't know, though Iwas riding packed buses back
(04:59):
from work and having to get onthe bus, which was always a
challenge because there were alot of people kind of trying to
get onto the bus.
There were great life lessonsabout having to navigate a place
that was very different from Igrew up in rural Baltimore, uh,
sorry, in suburban Baltimore,uh, with routes to rural
Pennsylvania.
So very different from myupbringing, but that's what
(05:20):
life's all about.
It is, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02 (05:22):
Um, I mean, Mumbai is uh it's just south south of
Goa, I think, uh, that area.
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
And no, it's north, but it is a similar spirit.
Goa had more of a Portugueseinfluence, but Mumbai also is
partially settled by thePortuguese.
SPEAKER_02 (05:38):
Yeah, okay.
And um I know Mumbai has it'sprobably got some fantastic
historical sites there, and II've glanced at it a few times,
but I'm trying to think um noton the top of my list to go to.
I know it has um, I hate to usethis word, but a slummy type
(05:58):
area.
It's got a what there's aspecial name for that.
I can't remember the name of it,but it it's got an area of which
is fairly destitute, isn't it,in Mumbai?
But there's obviously rich areasthere as well.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
Like every city, there's a lot of income
inequality.
Uh there's one area that'scalled Dada V, if I'm
pronouncing it right.
And I bought a they havefantastic leather goods.
I bought an amazing bag that Idon't remember how much I paid
for it, but it was veryreasonable that I still use.
Uh, it's in my um it's in mybedroom, and I just used it the
(06:36):
other day uh to transport booksand something else.
So um I think the real lessonthat I got was that so many
people were incrediblyhardworking and really proud of
the jobs that they did, and thatmade me inspired.
It made me inspired kind ofbeing a part of it in my own
(06:59):
way, commuting to this smallbedroom in Gottkopur West, which
is the neighborhood that I livedin, and uh subscribing to all
these services or having peoplehelp me out with this and that,
and uh being a part of it in myown way, and then seeing other
people trying to do the bestthey could in life at all levels
(07:21):
of the or all parts of theeconomic spectrum.
I found that very inspiring, andI continue to feel that way.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
Yeah, you know, you know what, you're right there.
My experience in India, um Ifound the people to be very
hard-working, um, honest, and umand all that.
And uh I tell you, I myexperience there was it goes
back a long way now, but um Idid enjoy it.
(07:48):
But I I'm gonna ask you thisbecause um I'm a great fan of
this, and uh because I grew upin England, Commentary, England,
and Comentry was sort of famous,not famous, but it it was a
place where a a lot of Indianslived.
They came over from you know thetime period when India became
independent from um in Britain.
(08:10):
So Comentry had a lot a largeIndian population, which in turn
a lot of Indian restaurants uhcame about, and it's full of
Indian restaurants, they're allover Britain now because British
food tends to be a bit bland.
So I grew up on Indian food andI love it, it's my favorite food
today.
It's great, yeah.
And you probably got to likethat as well, right?
SPEAKER_00 (08:30):
You had to funny thing, actually.
When I arrived, I I was a decentcook, but not a very good cook.
And my friend uh from work livednearby, and he basically gave me
cooking lessons, and I cookedIndian food.
I cooked dal every day.
I would come home arriving.
(08:52):
Maybe work got out maybe at7:45, 6:45 or 7.
I would take the bus, arrivehome maybe 8, 815, and then I
would cook dal, rice, and veryspicy vegetables every night.
And it was fantastic.
Uh people I got quite good atit, and to this day I cook with
(09:14):
I don't like to use the wordIndian spices because they're
used elsewhere, but cumin andcoriander and chilies and all
kinds of stuff, and I'm kind ofsneaking them into my kids' diet
too.
SPEAKER_02 (09:24):
Yeah, well, I know you're making me feel hungry
right now, thinking about it.
Uh, back time we cooked one hairas well.
Uh when you when you livedthere, uh what what was a
business?
I I saw you part of your yourbiofruit export.
SPEAKER_00 (09:39):
Yeah, it's a funny thing.
I worked for a big industrialcompany called Mahindra and
Mahendra.
Um, this is not a pitch to pitchof the company, but uh I I
worked there and I worked withina division called Mahindra
Shublob, which was anagriculture kind of a consulting
(09:59):
or services business, but theyalso did some buying and selling
of uh fertilizer and things likethis.
I worked with a small team, andfrom scratch we built a fresh
fruit export business thatcontinues to this day.
So it was a small businesswithin this giant conglomerate,
(10:20):
and it grew.
It grew, of course, it grewwhile we were there, but there
are all kinds of lessons aboutchallenges of finding buyers.
My job was sort of findingbuyers for pomegranates and
mangoes and grapes, if you canbelieve it.
Uh kind of cold called all ofthese people in Singapore and
(10:41):
Western Europe.
What a job.
I really enjoyed it though.
It was totally a different life.
I don't do any of this rightnow, but you can imagine being a
foreigner sitting in Bombay,picking up the phone, calling a
fruit importer in Netherlands,saying, Hey, do you want our
Indian pomegranates?
A lot of people were just veryconfused by the whole process.
(11:05):
Uh, but it was great fun.
And we eventually it wassomething like, Hey, could we
can we do this?
And people said, Yeah, I thinkwe could do it.
So I became quite close withthese folks that I worked with,
and we ended up, I went into therural areas in Maharashtra and
Madhya Pradesh and met withfarmers.
My Hindi, I can speak someHindi, but it was not very good.
(11:26):
Anyway, the mother tongue ofthese guys was not Hindi anyway.
And I met with some of thesefarmers, and they we were trying
to pitch them.
If you kind of grew it in acertain way, or if you trimmed
some of the grapes, the the thegrape, the grape itself would be
(11:47):
a little bit bigger, and you'dget a bigger market, even though
typically that's not how you didit in India.
So these guys were taking arisk, and I had to sort of
convince them that I could sellit on their behalf, and then
they would make more money.
This was all in the heady daysof is globalization good or not,
which I guess we're having thesame argument now.
But these guys exported grapesand made some money, and now
(12:10):
it's a bigger business.
And uh it was it was a greatexperience.
I mean, I joke around that I Iwas this expert on the Indian
pomegranate international salesmarket, which is unbelievable.
You know, when you're starting,but at the age of 23, you know,
you take what you can getbasically.
SPEAKER_02 (12:31):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
Very proud of it.
SPEAKER_02 (12:32):
Yeah, I was thinking when you started off talking
about this, uh when you talkfruit export, I think, what
fruit could this be?
And of course, pomegranate nevercrossed my mind, you know, and
grapes.
Well, I didn't know that either,but anyway, that's right.
You know, when when you'reyoung, you just fit right in,
and that's that's a cool thingto do.
Hey, did you in India?
(12:53):
Did you ever go to the Taj Mahalin Accra?
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
I did, yeah.
You know, the funny thing aboutIndia is that it has so many,
first of all, it has a reallylong history that stretches back
many millennia, yeah, and eachregion is very different.
Uh, most of the regions havetheir own language, their own
history, and um often religiousdifferences, too.
(13:18):
So the Taj Mahal gets a lot ofuh publicity, but it's really
one of many, many, many, many,many, many, many architectural
sites uh for both local touristsand foreign tourists.
I had such a great timetraveling all over the place,
going to these places, and itwas really humbling.
In some cases, they were a bigdeal, in some cases, they
(13:41):
weren't such a big deal.
Um, and I I like that a lot.
It was this long process ofdiscovery.
Yeah.
Uh it was fantastic.
Uh, the Taj Mahal was great, butI would say I enjoyed going to
Rajasthan or Kerala, probablymore than going to um Agra.
(14:03):
But you know, each person hastheir own preferences.
SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
Yeah, I know.
It's a place to see it's I heardit's getting a bit overcrowded
these days, but Taj Mahalobviously was uh um that that
was commissioned by the Shah,Shah of Jahan, and after his uh
wife died, giving birth to their14th child, and uh so it was a
mausoleum and uh it is anarchitectural wonder.
I looked at the concert wasplayed there by Yani all those
(14:27):
years ago there.
Taj Mahal, fantastic, but uhyeah, I know there's a lot of uh
wonderful architecture andbuildings uh in the country.
Now, a question for you.
Um living in India, uh I couldbe wrong when I I come out and
say this, but having you youlived in India, you may be one
of the very few Americans whoare familiar with cricket.
SPEAKER_00 (14:53):
Yes and no.
I don't know.
I have some friends that arepretty good at it, and there are
a couple games nearby that Isee.
I I didn't really get into it.
There was an apartment myapartment complex had a lot of
kids, and they played it all thetime.
It was very clever, even thoughit's played on a huge field.
Uh you can play kind of two onthere were sort of two on two,
(15:15):
one on two, three on two games,kind of the way we used to play
home run derby as a kid orstickball as a kid.
And uh I played a few times andthey they showed me I was pretty
bad.
Um I didn't get the blood, yeah.
Yeah, it was before India's ProLeague, and so all the
(15:38):
excitement was around theseinternational games.
And I couldn't really get, Idon't know.
I don't want to offend peoplewho are listening and love
cricket, but I couldn't I Igenerally like playing sports, I
don't watch a lot of sportsthough.
So I didn't want I didn't getinto these like seven-hour test
matches or whatever.
(15:59):
I just couldn't really getbehind it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:01):
No, I like that's what I mean.
I say to my American friends,this is the only sport in the
world that can last for fivedays and then end up in a draw.
It confuses the hell out ofthem.
Uh anyway, anyway, it's uh Igrew up on that in England, but
it obviously cricket's anational sport of India, and uh
they're they're that's rightabout it.
It's one of the most popularsports in the world, actually.
(16:22):
People don't know that, but it'splayed even in the Caribbean a
lot as well.
So interesting.
Now, okay, that's India, and umobviously a lot of memories uh,
and you've got to see plenty ofthe country.
Now I know on your travels, uhyou mentioned that you've been
in Africa and Asia as well,right?
Sure, yeah.
(16:43):
Yeah.
Um, I'm curious.
I used to live in Asia myself,in Singapore, but uh where in
Asia did you venture?
Well, uh India is in Asia, sortof South Asia, but where else in
Asia?
More to the uh Southeast Asiaarea.
SPEAKER_00 (16:59):
Uh yes, I spent a couple weeks in Japan.
Um some work, some travel orleisure.
I've never been to mainlandChina, but gosh, I've been to
Cambodia, Vietnam, uh Indonesia,Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.
(17:22):
Spend quite a bit of time in SriLanka, Pakistan.
I don't know, the list goes on.
But yeah, a lot of differentplaces.
And each place is different,which is a lot of fun.
Exactly.
Um yeah, each I like going toeach of those places.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
Yeah.
I still I'm usually uh go toAsia about once a year because I
like going there basically.
And uh I've got done a I dospeaking on cruise ships
occasionally, so I might maybethere uh sometime next year
doing that and just venturearound Asia.
But close to India, obviouslywhere you were, you got to
travel a bit.
(17:59):
And there's a couple of placesthat are sort of adjacent to
India.
Um, I don't know if you venturedthere.
One place comes to mind, it'sprobably my favorite nation in
the planet, is Bhutan.
Did you ever venture there?
I've never been to Nepal orBhutan, no.
So uh Bhutan is quite there's aquite a few Indians working in
Bhutan in the um touristindustry, but uh fantastic if
(18:22):
you ever get a chance to gothere, everybody out there and
uh Nepal, um which is obviouslythe Himalayan region.
So uh but anyway, that's that'sgood.
You've got out and about, and uhwhat about Africa?
SPEAKER_00 (18:35):
Uh I've been to many African countries.
So when I came back from India,I got a job working in finance
for a company uh that's specialuh a comp my job basically was
to facilitate investment invarious ways in and out of
(18:55):
sub-Saharan Africa, and then inSouth Asia too.
Part of that involved travelingquite a bit.
So I've been to Lagos, Nigeria awhole bunch of times.
Okay, and I think every Africancountry that has a coastline,
maybe, um, but also Zambia,Zimbabwe, Botswana, I mean uh
(19:20):
maybe 30 African countries orsomething like that.
SPEAKER_02 (19:23):
That's unbelievable.
That's more than anyone I knowthat's uh been there.
Zambia and Zimbabwe, obviouslyyou've you've probably seen
Victoria Falls because it's likethey're separate the two
countries, right?
SPEAKER_00 (19:34):
I've never been to Victoria Falls.
The one challenge is since sinceI began working in the United
States, I haven't been able, orI just generally haven't
combined too much um tourismstuff with work travel.
So when I'm on work, I willmaybe stay back a day or
(19:55):
something, but I haven't sooften done an extra week or two
to see all the sites.
So it's kind of shameful, eventhough I've been to this, I've
never been to Mount KimKilimanjaro, even though I've
been to Tanzania many times, forexample.
SPEAKER_02 (20:09):
So wow, absolutely.
I don't know, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00 (20:11):
Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_02 (20:12):
This is the nature of the beast.
I know I may have made a pointum when I had my technology
company.
I you know, if I'm going tothese weird and wonderful
places, I need to spend a fewextra days before or afterwards.
So when I went to South Africa,Joe Burg, I thought, damn, I'm
gonna see Victoria Falls, adirect flight up to Livingston,
(20:32):
Zambia, and I stayed in a hoteladjacent to the falls.
I thought, God, what is that?
That's a great thing to do.
I'm glad I did this.
SPEAKER_00 (20:40):
Now, when I'm getting home, I said obviously a
bit challenging to get therenow, but uh anyway, it's a yeah,
it's a good idea, and it'ssomething I've sort of I go back
and forth where I will take someof these trips adjacent to my
work trip, but I have thistension where I'm both a family
man and also an adventuroustype.
(21:00):
So uh these are often twoconflicting things.
More recently, it's been funbeing able to take family
vacations in places where itintersects with uh my business,
basically.
And that's been fun too.
So uh these are conflictingareas, it doesn't always work
out perfectly, but I'm veryblessed that I've been able to
(21:22):
explore the world in ways thatI've I've done.
SPEAKER_02 (21:25):
Yeah, and uh you've got these members that will last
a lifetime.
I've you did you say you had anychildren, by the way?
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
I do, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:32):
Yeah, okay.
I don't I'll obviously uh Idon't know how old they're but
if they're young it's difficultto take them to obscure places,
right?
It may may scare the hell out ofthem.
I don't know, but uh always along way to travel uh on on a
plane, but maybe one day, youknow.
SPEAKER_00 (21:49):
Maybe one day.
SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
That's okay.
Maybe one day never rule itnever rule it out.
I I know 'cause I've what you'resaying here, I I've been through
the same thing now, so I'veobviously uh I'm a what they
call an old geezer now inBritish terms.
So I'm doing it while I can,which I you know, uh you've got
that adventure spirit in you, soyou're still gonna do it.
(22:11):
Um but I understand the thefamily thing there as well.
Anyway, that's that's uh okay soyou've you've done these did oh
when when you're in Africa didyou ever go to Namibia?
SPEAKER_00 (22:22):
I've never been to Namibia even though yeah I said
all the countries of thecoastline I never went to
Namibia though.
SPEAKER_02 (22:29):
Yeah no I say about um three years ago it's the
world's oldest desert scenery isunbelievable.
Yeah so you fly into Windhookdrive about five hours and uh
you're in the desert stay in alodge there scenery sunsets yeah
fan and spice the hell out of menever expected that but uh
obviously uh it's a good thingnow what about so you're in Asia
(22:53):
Africa and obviously you knowWest Asia and what about Europe
any time there?
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
Yeah when I was in college I did the backpacking
thing and flew into Prague andthen made it city by city to
Madrid and lived in Madridworking for a law firm uh that
was a wonderful experience and Ithink since then basically for
(23:21):
work and some pleasure have beento most of the European
countries if I haven't spent alot of time in the UK actually
uh but apart from that mostEuropean countries I've been to
in one way or another yeah Iknow that sounds like a funny
thing that's all right well alot of countries in Europe to go
(23:42):
and see right yeah no to do allright have you ever been up the
northern area into Scandinaviayes uh I really like I really
like um the Scandinavian cultureuh the people are very tough I I
(24:03):
mean each country has qualitiesabout it that I really admire
which I think is very specialeach place is different and has
its own culture that is fun tolearn about and explore
Scandinavia is fun because thepeople are very tough and also
precise the days in the winterare so slow uh sorry are so dark
(24:26):
uh I think it I don't know youhave to be very clever in order
to figure out how to live aroundthat and I I certainly respect
that a lot my dad's family isfrom Sweden back many many
generations and um we didn'treally grow up with Swedish
culture but certainly from afarI've appreciated it.
SPEAKER_02 (24:47):
Yeah yeah it is I I like that area and every
country's got its ownpersonality uh in Norway Sweden
Finland Denmark but also in theregion the Baltics are fantastic
as well but um if I tempt temptyou here Ryan uh neck if you are
up in that neck of the woods umtake a trip to Svalbard okay
(25:08):
it's the northernmost set humansettlement in the world and I
was there a few months ago andyou just see how people live in
that as in the Arctic Circle wayway north it belongs to Norway
but you know that it's thesettlement there about 2,000
people live there and aboutthree and a half thousand polar
(25:29):
bears and uh so it's it's justwonderful watching the people
live there scenery isspectacular I just decided to
you know go there for a few daysand uh hey I wouldn't mind going
back there I understand whypeople live in that area it's
it's believe it or not wintersmust be a bit tough but anyway
yeah so you've done Europe andyou've probably done Latin
(25:50):
America as well haven't you yeahI've traveled in a lot of the uh
cities in Latin America uh Iparticularly have enjoyed going
to rural Peru I love the storiesaround the Incan empire and how
the Spanish kind of basicallyintertwined or built on top of
(26:12):
it.
SPEAKER_00 (26:13):
It's really the architecture of the Incan
architecture uh that kind ofbleeds into Spanish architecture
is such a great metaphor I thinkfor how human society evolves
and nothing kind of often nothistory often just doesn't go
away really um I've yeah I'veenjoyed going to Brazil uh it's
(26:37):
really fascinating I thinkwork-wise it's been interesting
to see how the companies operatethere and I've found the
management teams have beenparticularly sophisticated this
is not an offer to buy or sellany securities or anything like
that but um yeah I don't knoweach each country's kind of
(26:59):
interesting and different and uhI like going there I spent quite
a bit of time in Chile alsoChile yeah Santiago probably
yeah but uh yeah yeah it's greatuh uh just going there and uh I
haven't been down there for workmyself and uh the locals no I'm
I'm a Brit.
SPEAKER_02 (27:19):
Uh they basically okay Malcolm now I know you want
to do this but let's take you toa soccer game right so they took
me to one in Brazil and one inArgentina it was a bit edgy
that's great no it was all rightthat's what the locals do there
you know uh anyway the greatwork ethic down there as well so
uh it's it's all good uh yeahall part of it well you've
(27:42):
you've got many years of uhtravel ahead of you now tell me
a bit about your company BarkerCapital I'm looking at your
screen here and your logo hasgot a picture of an elephant in
it right that's right yeah andit looks like there's a guy on
it and he's got a uh like asomething like a sword or
something but tell me a bitabout your your company Barker
(28:03):
Capital uh sure so uh this is aninvestment advisor that manages
capital for investors uh weinvest mostly outside the United
States um legally we can investin all kinds of things but
basically we look for mostlycompanies or equities um that we
(28:27):
could own if it works out formultiple years ideally that the
broader investment public is notreally looking at so it's fun to
look at I just find it enjoyableand often there are interesting
things to do work wise thatother people are not doing and
that's both travel uh it's funto go to a place where not all
(28:48):
the tourists are but likewisefor investing it's fun to invest
in a place that not everybody'slooking at and maybe to try to
gain some insights that otherpeople don't have.
Are you when you say invest inother places mean you yourself
or you get companies to investin these places?
SPEAKER_00 (29:06):
It's a good question.
It's not me personally so uh itis investing a pool of capital
in shares of companies largelypublicly listed.
So believe it or not there aresome 130 stock exchanges in the
world almost every country hasits own stock exchange and there
(29:28):
are companies listed on thosestock exchanges and they trade
just like alphabet trades.
SPEAKER_02 (29:36):
And you can analyze them in similar ways which is
kind of scary to some people butbelieve it or not uh you often
there are very good companieslisted in places you wouldn't
really expect or doingbusinesses in places you
wouldn't expect yeah I got towell one of the most important
things is when you do businessinternationally is this word
(29:56):
trust you have to be able totrust they have to be able to
trust you you have to be able totrust them and uh so yeah I mean
uh investing in a foreign landyou have to obey by the laws and
everything.
So it must be is it qu is it agamble or you just know so much
about it now you don't you justsort of if you get involved with
(30:16):
investment in a foreign land youjust feel comfortable with it
you know the steps to take.
SPEAKER_00 (30:21):
One thing that is uh surprising to a lot of people is
that often companies that arepublicly listed have one of the
top auditors global auditors astheir auditor so often people
think that the financialstatements maybe look totally
different or you can't reallyunderstand what the company's
(30:42):
doing.
And that actually hasn't been myexperience.
Often you can understand thefinancial statements and believe
it or not they're kind of likean international language and
the financial statements oftensay it's rarely a surprise in my
experience that a company looksreally great but actually it's
(31:03):
horrible there are lots ofpublicly listed companies where
managers are doing sketchythings and it's super obvious
because you can see it in thefinancial statements like uh
they have way too much propertyon the balance sheet or the
receivables are way too high orthey are very profitable but
they don't buy back any sharesand they don't do any MA and
(31:24):
they don't pay dividends.
So like what's going on thereand this exists everywhere and I
would say outside the UnitedStates it maybe exists a little
more because the regulator inAmerica in my experience is a
little more stringent maybe orhas more teeth or America's a
little more litigious and thatkeeps companies on their toes
(31:48):
but uh there are managers thatare manage you know they're
running companies that arepublicly listed in lots of
different places that areallocating capital in a smart
way and economies that aregrowing and even doing
intelligent MA.
People might say well why don'tthey list in New York well I
(32:10):
don't know it's kind of a toughsell oftentimes for a company
that's not that big to list veryvery far away and then have to
convince foreigners that theyshould pay attention to this
company that's not really thatliquid or I don't know it's not
that special really so theywould list locally and maybe
(32:31):
local investment managers or uhpension funds or something like
that on their shares.
That's really common.
It's common all over the place.
Well I mean you've you've done alot Ryan I mean uh if you had to
pick a place um out there likeyour favorite country to go if
you if you just wanted to go toa place again because you
(32:52):
enjoyed it where would it be Idon't know there are so many
good spots uh I really like thecoast of Sri Lanka which is
really nice I really likewalking the streets of Hanoi in
Vietnam I really like theChristmas market in Prague a lot
(33:14):
of these places are just veryvery special I really like Cusco
in Peru um I don't know thereare a lot of different places I
really like Kerala maybe Keralais my favorite place in India
with you there's there are a lotof canals and little rivers that
go to the coast but also goinland maybe one of my favorite
(33:38):
times is just sitting on one ofthe boats and lazily having some
coconut shrimp or coconut dolluh it's really delightful.
SPEAKER_02 (33:48):
So those are a lot of options for you but um yeah
yeah yeah I mean it's sureobviously today people you've
got to be aware of it because uhyou know if I'm going anywhere I
was all check out the globalpeace index make sure it's safe
the safest country in the worldtoday is Iceland sure yeah and
I've never been too worriedabout I don't know my safe maybe
(34:11):
fingers crossed I haven't hadmany experiences with like
sketchy people doing sketchythings.
SPEAKER_00 (34:16):
Now never say never maybe it'll happen but I found
that there really is somethingabout human nature and human
beings and appreciation fortraveler that is really a nice
thing.
I didn't mention my own countryI mean in the United States I
like going to uh the ChesapeakeBay where I grew up or I love
going to Maine and NewHampshire.
(34:38):
Also I spent a lot of time inSan Francisco and all the places
up and down the coast in SanFrancisco are great.
Growing up uh we would go to theareas around Gettysburg
Pennsylvania I love going there.
So my own country has a lot ofgreat spots and also obviously
Massachusetts too has thiswonderful old history that's
nice to explore.
SPEAKER_02 (34:59):
Yeah I tell you that there's a lot to see in the in
the US putting in that area wellfairly close to you is the very
first time I came to the US wasin 1971 I was still at high
school and it was an exchangehigh school visit between
Comtree England and ComtreeConnecticut and uh so we stayed
(35:19):
with them and they came to staywith us.
It was neat and we had a soccergame with them and all that and
it was excellent and that'sreally made me attractive to the
United States and I ended upmoving here so this is good.
Uh so uh yeah I mean that'ssounds great.
Yeah so there's more to see I mymy philosophy is that yeah I've
(35:39):
traveled internationally butwhen I get a bit older when I
just don't want to fly anymoreprobably just travel more in the
US and uh that that that who thehell knows where this is heading
but that's that's it just uh fornow at least that's that's the
way I'm thinking but anywayyou've done a lot and then
you've got a lot more uh stuffto do um company's doing fine
(36:01):
you traveled there's more to seethe travel book will never
escape you that's for sure youknow that already don't you yeah
and uh but uh hey if anyonewants to reach out to you Ryan
where how do they get older youjust go to your website uh feel
free to reach out you know onefunny thing is that um I haven't
(36:21):
been doing this but I've beenthinking gosh if there are older
if not older guys but I'm in my40s 40 plus soccer league abroad
or or basketball league I don'tknow why there's no website for
like hey there's this pickupgame this is something that I
haven't done traveling youmentioned it a few times um but
(36:44):
I think the prospect of likeshowing up someplace and playing
in a pickup game I'm not anamazing soccer or basketball
player but I play lacrosse Icould probably figure it out and
this is maybe the next step I'dreally like to try out anyway
how could people find so I Imentioned that if anyone's
listening to say you know youmentioned a lot of countries or
(37:05):
there's this one website whereyou can find pickup games I'm
all ears basically so I'm onLinkedIn it's Ryan Floyd my
company's called Barca Capitalfeel free to send a message and
my website is Barca B-A-R-C-Acapital.com and you can fill out
a form and send me a message ifyou want to say hi.
SPEAKER_00 (37:27):
Okay what Barca stand for by the way where did
that name come from uh it's agood question so when I was
trying to pick a name gosh itseemed like every name was taken
this was back in 2008 and I hadread Polybius and I'm I'm
thinking Libby and I like thestories about Hannibal Barca
being wily and clever now Ithink as I've gotten older there
(37:52):
are elements of his characterthat I don't think are so great.
But anyway I thought wow it'd beclever to he was also kind of an
outsider who challenged theultimate insiders which was Rome
at the time during the PunicWars so I thought well it'd be
clever to name a company afterHannibal Barca but I don't know
(38:12):
I'm not sure it's aged that wellbut it works.
SPEAKER_02 (38:15):
All right fair enough well all right I wish you
um all the best in the futurethanks for coming on today.
Yeah thank you Malcolm forhaving me it's all good and uh
keep in touch buddy you know letme know about your escapades.
SPEAKER_01 (38:30):
All right all right thanks so much by that's it for
this episode of the TravelAddict Podcast where we chase
sunsets flirt with danger andoccasionally make questionable
choices in foreign lands.
Until next time may your flightsbe on time and your travel
stories just scandalous enoughto leave a few details out.
(38:51):
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and
travelingenglishman dot com.
Safe travels and enjoy lifeeveryone
Welcome to the Travel Addict Podcast.
(00:02):
Your host and fellow traveladdict, Malcolm Feesdale, is
here to take you into the heartof the world's most fascinating
destinations.
He talks with passionateglobetrotters and fearless
explorers who share their wildjourneys and cultural insights
from around the world.
Or sometimes he just chats byhimself, describing enriching
travel experiences.
(00:22):
So buckle up and let's hit theroad, because the world is
calling and we're answering.
SPEAKER_02 (00:27):
Good morning, everybody.
Malcolm Teesdale here, thetravel addict.
I'm back in town for a while,but not for long.
So apologize for the lack ofepisodes, but uh there'll be a
bunch next year early, I'm sure.
Anyway, today I have Ryan Floyd,lives in Boston, and uh great
area of the country, by the way.
And Ryan's got uh some greatstories to tell.
(00:51):
Now, I love stories that uh comefrom expats, you know, people
who've been living in a foreigncountry for a while.
And Ryan's one of those.
He's traveled to about over 80countries, and uh he's got his
own finance company these days.
We'll we'll go over that aswell.
But uh he's got stories to tell.
So Ryan, welcome to the TravelAddict Podcast.
(01:13):
Thank you for having me.
I I'm very proud to be here.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, no worries.
So I I know you've traveled to abunch of countries, we'll get
into that uh a bit later on, butyou know, when you when I got
your uh profile, I was somethingintrigued me in the first
sentence there.
And um it was in your early 20s.
(01:34):
I know you want to say that justa few years ago.
I wish I could say that, butanyway, you lived in Mumbai in
India, and uh so before we getinto your your work stuff now, I
was gonna say um what made yougo to live in Mumbai?
SPEAKER_00 (01:55):
Uh, good question.
So I made the decision my senioryear of college.
I had lived in Spain one summer,and which I enjoyed a lot, and
it seemed at the time, this wasthe late 90s, early 2000s, a lot
of my friends.
I don't know if it was myfriends or uh the sign of the
(02:16):
times.
People were talking about livingin southern Europe or Brazil or
China or uh the Middle Eastarea, and uh it was funny to me
that no one was really talkingabout India, a huge country with
so many people.
There really weren't manyclasses in college about India.
(02:37):
This is kind of a huge uhpowerful country that it seemed
like people didn't know thatmuch about.
And I wanted an adventure, and Iremember at the time I reached
out to the head of careerservices and said, What are the
chances I could get a paying jobworking for an Indian company as
(02:59):
an American?
And they said, Look, really,really low.
I said, Well, how low?
And they said, I don't know,it's like 1% chance, like the
chances are really low.
I said, Oh, that's pretty good.
So if I email maybe a thousandpeople, then I could probably
have about 10 offers.
So that's basically what I did,and got a handful of offers and
(03:20):
had a wonderful opportunityworking for an Indian industrial
company.
It was an adventure and a half.
I didn't know uh my girlfriendat the time, who's my wife, she
uh also got a job in ruralIndia, and so we knew one
another, but we were like eightor ten hours away from one
another by bus.
(03:41):
And I was the first foreigner towork in the head office of this
business, which is a reallygreat experience.
I traveled all over the countryfor work, and there were a lot
of vacations, and it was it wasfantastic.
SPEAKER_02 (03:53):
Yeah, it sort of I I don't know anyone who has gone
to live in India for work.
I've been to India a few timesfor work myself, but that was
for meetings and trade shows andstuff, but primarily Bangalore
and Delhi, uh, which wereextraordinary.
Mumbai, no, now it's a massivecity, isn't it, Mumbai?
SPEAKER_00 (04:14):
It's a massive city, it's a peninsula, and I guess in
the olden days, maybe only thebottom part of the peninsula was
settled, and then now it hasreached up very, very high, even
above where the peninsula ends.
And there are some wonderfulbridges that expand to the east,
maybe like Brooklyn relative toManhattan, and it is a lot of
(04:36):
people.
I remember I moved to New YorkCity after living in Mumbai, and
I told someone it felt like Ihad moved to North Dakota, which
is a very sparse rural area.
Like people are like, oh, NewYork has so much energy and all
of that, which is true, but itfelt like maybe one eighth to
action.
Just I I don't know, though Iwas riding packed buses back
(04:59):
from work and having to get onthe bus, which was always a
challenge because there were alot of people kind of trying to
get onto the bus.
There were great life lessonsabout having to navigate a place
that was very different from Igrew up in rural Baltimore, uh,
sorry, in suburban Baltimore,uh, with routes to rural
Pennsylvania.
So very different from myupbringing, but that's what
(05:20):
life's all about.
It is, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02 (05:22):
Um, I mean, Mumbai is uh it's just south south of
Goa, I think, uh, that area.
SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
And no, it's north, but it is a similar spirit.
Goa had more of a Portugueseinfluence, but Mumbai also is
partially settled by thePortuguese.
SPEAKER_02 (05:38):
Yeah, okay.
And um I know Mumbai has it'sprobably got some fantastic
historical sites there, and II've glanced at it a few times,
but I'm trying to think um noton the top of my list to go to.
I know it has um, I hate to usethis word, but a slummy type
(05:58):
area.
It's got a what there's aspecial name for that.
I can't remember the name of it,but it it's got an area of which
is fairly destitute, isn't it,in Mumbai?
But there's obviously rich areasthere as well.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
Like every city, there's a lot of income
inequality.
Uh there's one area that'scalled Dada V, if I'm
pronouncing it right.
And I bought a they havefantastic leather goods.
I bought an amazing bag that Idon't remember how much I paid
for it, but it was veryreasonable that I still use.
Uh, it's in my um it's in mybedroom, and I just used it the
(06:36):
other day uh to transport booksand something else.
So um I think the real lessonthat I got was that so many
people were incrediblyhardworking and really proud of
the jobs that they did, and thatmade me inspired.
It made me inspired kind ofbeing a part of it in my own
(06:59):
way, commuting to this smallbedroom in Gottkopur West, which
is the neighborhood that I livedin, and uh subscribing to all
these services or having peoplehelp me out with this and that,
and uh being a part of it in myown way, and then seeing other
people trying to do the bestthey could in life at all levels
(07:21):
of the or all parts of theeconomic spectrum.
I found that very inspiring, andI continue to feel that way.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
Yeah, you know, you know what, you're right there.
My experience in India, um Ifound the people to be very
hard-working, um, honest, and umand all that.
And uh I tell you, I myexperience there was it goes
back a long way now, but um Idid enjoy it.
(07:48):
But I I'm gonna ask you thisbecause um I'm a great fan of
this, and uh because I grew upin England, Commentary, England,
and Comentry was sort of famous,not famous, but it it was a
place where a a lot of Indianslived.
They came over from you know thetime period when India became
independent from um in Britain.
(08:10):
So Comentry had a lot a largeIndian population, which in turn
a lot of Indian restaurants uhcame about, and it's full of
Indian restaurants, they're allover Britain now because British
food tends to be a bit bland.
So I grew up on Indian food andI love it, it's my favorite food
today.
It's great, yeah.
And you probably got to likethat as well, right?
SPEAKER_00 (08:30):
You had to funny thing, actually.
When I arrived, I I was a decentcook, but not a very good cook.
And my friend uh from work livednearby, and he basically gave me
cooking lessons, and I cookedIndian food.
I cooked dal every day.
I would come home arriving.
(08:52):
Maybe work got out maybe at7:45, 6:45 or 7.
I would take the bus, arrivehome maybe 8, 815, and then I
would cook dal, rice, and veryspicy vegetables every night.
And it was fantastic.
Uh people I got quite good atit, and to this day I cook with
(09:14):
I don't like to use the wordIndian spices because they're
used elsewhere, but cumin andcoriander and chilies and all
kinds of stuff, and I'm kind ofsneaking them into my kids' diet
too.
SPEAKER_02 (09:24):
Yeah, well, I know you're making me feel hungry
right now, thinking about it.
Uh, back time we cooked one hairas well.
Uh when you when you livedthere, uh what what was a
business?
I I saw you part of your yourbiofruit export.
SPEAKER_00 (09:39):
Yeah, it's a funny thing.
I worked for a big industrialcompany called Mahindra and
Mahendra.
Um, this is not a pitch to pitchof the company, but uh I I
worked there and I worked withina division called Mahindra
Shublob, which was anagriculture kind of a consulting
(09:59):
or services business, but theyalso did some buying and selling
of uh fertilizer and things likethis.
I worked with a small team, andfrom scratch we built a fresh
fruit export business thatcontinues to this day.
So it was a small businesswithin this giant conglomerate,
(10:20):
and it grew.
It grew, of course, it grewwhile we were there, but there
are all kinds of lessons aboutchallenges of finding buyers.
My job was sort of findingbuyers for pomegranates and
mangoes and grapes, if you canbelieve it.
Uh kind of cold called all ofthese people in Singapore and
(10:41):
Western Europe.
What a job.
I really enjoyed it though.
It was totally a different life.
I don't do any of this rightnow, but you can imagine being a
foreigner sitting in Bombay,picking up the phone, calling a
fruit importer in Netherlands,saying, Hey, do you want our
Indian pomegranates?
A lot of people were just veryconfused by the whole process.
(11:05):
Uh, but it was great fun.
And we eventually it wassomething like, Hey, could we
can we do this?
And people said, Yeah, I thinkwe could do it.
So I became quite close withthese folks that I worked with,
and we ended up, I went into therural areas in Maharashtra and
Madhya Pradesh and met withfarmers.
My Hindi, I can speak someHindi, but it was not very good.
(11:26):
Anyway, the mother tongue ofthese guys was not Hindi anyway.
And I met with some of thesefarmers, and they we were trying
to pitch them.
If you kind of grew it in acertain way, or if you trimmed
some of the grapes, the the thegrape, the grape itself would be
(11:47):
a little bit bigger, and you'dget a bigger market, even though
typically that's not how you didit in India.
So these guys were taking arisk, and I had to sort of
convince them that I could sellit on their behalf, and then
they would make more money.
This was all in the heady daysof is globalization good or not,
which I guess we're having thesame argument now.
But these guys exported grapesand made some money, and now
(12:10):
it's a bigger business.
And uh it was it was a greatexperience.
I mean, I joke around that I Iwas this expert on the Indian
pomegranate international salesmarket, which is unbelievable.
You know, when you're starting,but at the age of 23, you know,
you take what you can getbasically.
SPEAKER_02 (12:31):
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
Very proud of it.
SPEAKER_02 (12:32):
Yeah, I was thinking when you started off talking
about this, uh when you talkfruit export, I think, what
fruit could this be?
And of course, pomegranate nevercrossed my mind, you know, and
grapes.
Well, I didn't know that either,but anyway, that's right.
You know, when when you'reyoung, you just fit right in,
and that's that's a cool thingto do.
Hey, did you in India?
(12:53):
Did you ever go to the Taj Mahalin Accra?
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
I did, yeah.
You know, the funny thing aboutIndia is that it has so many,
first of all, it has a reallylong history that stretches back
many millennia, yeah, and eachregion is very different.
Uh, most of the regions havetheir own language, their own
history, and um often religiousdifferences, too.
(13:18):
So the Taj Mahal gets a lot ofuh publicity, but it's really
one of many, many, many, many,many, many, many architectural
sites uh for both local touristsand foreign tourists.
I had such a great timetraveling all over the place,
going to these places, and itwas really humbling.
In some cases, they were a bigdeal, in some cases, they
(13:41):
weren't such a big deal.
Um, and I I like that a lot.
It was this long process ofdiscovery.
Yeah.
Uh it was fantastic.
Uh, the Taj Mahal was great, butI would say I enjoyed going to
Rajasthan or Kerala, probablymore than going to um Agra.
(14:03):
But you know, each person hastheir own preferences.
SPEAKER_02 (14:05):
Yeah, I know.
It's a place to see it's I heardit's getting a bit overcrowded
these days, but Taj Mahalobviously was uh um that that
was commissioned by the Shah,Shah of Jahan, and after his uh
wife died, giving birth to their14th child, and uh so it was a
mausoleum and uh it is anarchitectural wonder.
I looked at the concert wasplayed there by Yani all those
(14:27):
years ago there.
Taj Mahal, fantastic, but uhyeah, I know there's a lot of uh
wonderful architecture andbuildings uh in the country.
Now, a question for you.
Um living in India, uh I couldbe wrong when I I come out and
say this, but having you youlived in India, you may be one
of the very few Americans whoare familiar with cricket.
SPEAKER_00 (14:53):
Yes and no.
I don't know.
I have some friends that arepretty good at it, and there are
a couple games nearby that Isee.
I I didn't really get into it.
There was an apartment myapartment complex had a lot of
kids, and they played it all thetime.
It was very clever, even thoughit's played on a huge field.
Uh you can play kind of two onthere were sort of two on two,
(15:15):
one on two, three on two games,kind of the way we used to play
home run derby as a kid orstickball as a kid.
And uh I played a few times andthey they showed me I was pretty
bad.
Um I didn't get the blood, yeah.
Yeah, it was before India's ProLeague, and so all the
(15:38):
excitement was around theseinternational games.
And I couldn't really get, Idon't know.
I don't want to offend peoplewho are listening and love
cricket, but I couldn't I Igenerally like playing sports, I
don't watch a lot of sportsthough.
So I didn't want I didn't getinto these like seven-hour test
matches or whatever.
(15:59):
I just couldn't really getbehind it.
SPEAKER_02 (16:01):
No, I like that's what I mean.
I say to my American friends,this is the only sport in the
world that can last for fivedays and then end up in a draw.
It confuses the hell out ofthem.
Uh anyway, anyway, it's uh Igrew up on that in England, but
it obviously cricket's anational sport of India, and uh
they're they're that's rightabout it.
It's one of the most popularsports in the world, actually.
(16:22):
People don't know that, but it'splayed even in the Caribbean a
lot as well.
So interesting.
Now, okay, that's India, and umobviously a lot of memories uh,
and you've got to see plenty ofthe country.
Now I know on your travels, uhyou mentioned that you've been
in Africa and Asia as well,right?
Sure, yeah.
(16:43):
Yeah.
Um, I'm curious.
I used to live in Asia myself,in Singapore, but uh where in
Asia did you venture?
Well, uh India is in Asia, sortof South Asia, but where else in
Asia?
More to the uh Southeast Asiaarea.
SPEAKER_00 (16:59):
Uh yes, I spent a couple weeks in Japan.
Um some work, some travel orleisure.
I've never been to mainlandChina, but gosh, I've been to
Cambodia, Vietnam, uh Indonesia,Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.
(17:22):
Spend quite a bit of time in SriLanka, Pakistan.
I don't know, the list goes on.
But yeah, a lot of differentplaces.
And each place is different,which is a lot of fun.
Exactly.
Um yeah, each I like going toeach of those places.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
Yeah.
I still I'm usually uh go toAsia about once a year because I
like going there basically.
And uh I've got done a I dospeaking on cruise ships
occasionally, so I might maybethere uh sometime next year
doing that and just venturearound Asia.
But close to India, obviouslywhere you were, you got to
travel a bit.
(17:59):
And there's a couple of placesthat are sort of adjacent to
India.
Um, I don't know if you venturedthere.
One place comes to mind, it'sprobably my favorite nation in
the planet, is Bhutan.
Did you ever venture there?
I've never been to Nepal orBhutan, no.
So uh Bhutan is quite there's aquite a few Indians working in
Bhutan in the um touristindustry, but uh fantastic if
(18:22):
you ever get a chance to gothere, everybody out there and
uh Nepal, um which is obviouslythe Himalayan region.
So uh but anyway, that's that'sgood.
You've got out and about, and uhwhat about Africa?
SPEAKER_00 (18:35):
Uh I've been to many African countries.
So when I came back from India,I got a job working in finance
for a company uh that's specialuh a comp my job basically was
to facilitate investment invarious ways in and out of
(18:55):
sub-Saharan Africa, and then inSouth Asia too.
Part of that involved travelingquite a bit.
So I've been to Lagos, Nigeria awhole bunch of times.
Okay, and I think every Africancountry that has a coastline,
maybe, um, but also Zambia,Zimbabwe, Botswana, I mean uh
(19:20):
maybe 30 African countries orsomething like that.
SPEAKER_02 (19:23):
That's unbelievable.
That's more than anyone I knowthat's uh been there.
Zambia and Zimbabwe, obviouslyyou've you've probably seen
Victoria Falls because it's likethey're separate the two
countries, right?
SPEAKER_00 (19:34):
I've never been to Victoria Falls.
The one challenge is since sinceI began working in the United
States, I haven't been able, orI just generally haven't
combined too much um tourismstuff with work travel.
So when I'm on work, I willmaybe stay back a day or
(19:55):
something, but I haven't sooften done an extra week or two
to see all the sites.
So it's kind of shameful, eventhough I've been to this, I've
never been to Mount KimKilimanjaro, even though I've
been to Tanzania many times, forexample.
SPEAKER_02 (20:09):
So wow, absolutely.
I don't know, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00 (20:11):
Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_02 (20:12):
This is the nature of the beast.
I know I may have made a pointum when I had my technology
company.
I you know, if I'm going tothese weird and wonderful
places, I need to spend a fewextra days before or afterwards.
So when I went to South Africa,Joe Burg, I thought, damn, I'm
gonna see Victoria Falls, adirect flight up to Livingston,
(20:32):
Zambia, and I stayed in a hoteladjacent to the falls.
I thought, God, what is that?
That's a great thing to do.
I'm glad I did this.
SPEAKER_00 (20:40):
Now, when I'm getting home, I said obviously a
bit challenging to get therenow, but uh anyway, it's a yeah,
it's a good idea, and it'ssomething I've sort of I go back
and forth where I will take someof these trips adjacent to my
work trip, but I have thistension where I'm both a family
man and also an adventuroustype.
(21:00):
So uh these are often twoconflicting things.
More recently, it's been funbeing able to take family
vacations in places where itintersects with uh my business,
basically.
And that's been fun too.
So uh these are conflictingareas, it doesn't always work
out perfectly, but I'm veryblessed that I've been able to
(21:22):
explore the world in ways thatI've I've done.
SPEAKER_02 (21:25):
Yeah, and uh you've got these members that will last
a lifetime.
I've you did you say you had anychildren, by the way?
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
I do, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:32):
Yeah, okay.
I don't I'll obviously uh Idon't know how old they're but
if they're young it's difficultto take them to obscure places,
right?
It may may scare the hell out ofthem.
I don't know, but uh always along way to travel uh on on a
plane, but maybe one day, youknow.
SPEAKER_00 (21:49):
Maybe one day.
SPEAKER_02 (21:50):
That's okay.
Maybe one day never rule itnever rule it out.
I I know 'cause I've what you'resaying here, I I've been through
the same thing now, so I'veobviously uh I'm a what they
call an old geezer now inBritish terms.
So I'm doing it while I can,which I you know, uh you've got
that adventure spirit in you, soyou're still gonna do it.
(22:11):
Um but I understand the thefamily thing there as well.
Anyway, that's that's uh okay soyou've you've done these did oh
when when you're in Africa didyou ever go to Namibia?
SPEAKER_00 (22:22):
I've never been to Namibia even though yeah I said
all the countries of thecoastline I never went to
Namibia though.
SPEAKER_02 (22:29):
Yeah no I say about um three years ago it's the
world's oldest desert scenery isunbelievable.
Yeah so you fly into Windhookdrive about five hours and uh
you're in the desert stay in alodge there scenery sunsets yeah
fan and spice the hell out of menever expected that but uh
obviously uh it's a good thingnow what about so you're in Asia
(22:53):
Africa and obviously you knowWest Asia and what about Europe
any time there?
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
Yeah when I was in college I did the backpacking
thing and flew into Prague andthen made it city by city to
Madrid and lived in Madridworking for a law firm uh that
was a wonderful experience and Ithink since then basically for
(23:21):
work and some pleasure have beento most of the European
countries if I haven't spent alot of time in the UK actually
uh but apart from that mostEuropean countries I've been to
in one way or another yeah Iknow that sounds like a funny
thing that's all right well alot of countries in Europe to go
(23:42):
and see right yeah no to do allright have you ever been up the
northern area into Scandinaviayes uh I really like I really
like um the Scandinavian cultureuh the people are very tough I I
(24:03):
mean each country has qualitiesabout it that I really admire
which I think is very specialeach place is different and has
its own culture that is fun tolearn about and explore
Scandinavia is fun because thepeople are very tough and also
precise the days in the winterare so slow uh sorry are so dark
(24:26):
uh I think it I don't know youhave to be very clever in order
to figure out how to live aroundthat and I I certainly respect
that a lot my dad's family isfrom Sweden back many many
generations and um we didn'treally grow up with Swedish
culture but certainly from afarI've appreciated it.
SPEAKER_02 (24:47):
Yeah yeah it is I I like that area and every
country's got its ownpersonality uh in Norway Sweden
Finland Denmark but also in theregion the Baltics are fantastic
as well but um if I tempt temptyou here Ryan uh neck if you are
up in that neck of the woods umtake a trip to Svalbard okay
(25:08):
it's the northernmost set humansettlement in the world and I
was there a few months ago andyou just see how people live in
that as in the Arctic Circle wayway north it belongs to Norway
but you know that it's thesettlement there about 2,000
people live there and aboutthree and a half thousand polar
(25:29):
bears and uh so it's it's justwonderful watching the people
live there scenery isspectacular I just decided to
you know go there for a few daysand uh hey I wouldn't mind going
back there I understand whypeople live in that area it's
it's believe it or not wintersmust be a bit tough but anyway
yeah so you've done Europe andyou've probably done Latin
(25:50):
America as well haven't you yeahI've traveled in a lot of the uh
cities in Latin America uh Iparticularly have enjoyed going
to rural Peru I love the storiesaround the Incan empire and how
the Spanish kind of basicallyintertwined or built on top of
(26:12):
it.
SPEAKER_00 (26:13):
It's really the architecture of the Incan
architecture uh that kind ofbleeds into Spanish architecture
is such a great metaphor I thinkfor how human society evolves
and nothing kind of often nothistory often just doesn't go
away really um I've yeah I'veenjoyed going to Brazil uh it's
(26:37):
really fascinating I thinkwork-wise it's been interesting
to see how the companies operatethere and I've found the
management teams have beenparticularly sophisticated this
is not an offer to buy or sellany securities or anything like
that but um yeah I don't knoweach each country's kind of
(26:59):
interesting and different and uhI like going there I spent quite
a bit of time in Chile alsoChile yeah Santiago probably
yeah but uh yeah yeah it's greatuh uh just going there and uh I
haven't been down there for workmyself and uh the locals no I'm
I'm a Brit.
SPEAKER_02 (27:19):
Uh they basically okay Malcolm now I know you want
to do this but let's take you toa soccer game right so they took
me to one in Brazil and one inArgentina it was a bit edgy
that's great no it was all rightthat's what the locals do there
you know uh anyway the greatwork ethic down there as well so
uh it's it's all good uh yeahall part of it well you've
(27:42):
you've got many years of uhtravel ahead of you now tell me
a bit about your company BarkerCapital I'm looking at your
screen here and your logo hasgot a picture of an elephant in
it right that's right yeah andit looks like there's a guy on
it and he's got a uh like asomething like a sword or
something but tell me a bitabout your your company Barker
(28:03):
Capital uh sure so uh this is aninvestment advisor that manages
capital for investors uh weinvest mostly outside the United
States um legally we can investin all kinds of things but
basically we look for mostlycompanies or equities um that we
(28:27):
could own if it works out formultiple years ideally that the
broader investment public is notreally looking at so it's fun to
look at I just find it enjoyableand often there are interesting
things to do work wise thatother people are not doing and
that's both travel uh it's funto go to a place where not all
(28:48):
the tourists are but likewisefor investing it's fun to invest
in a place that not everybody'slooking at and maybe to try to
gain some insights that otherpeople don't have.
Are you when you say invest inother places mean you yourself
or you get companies to investin these places?
SPEAKER_00 (29:06):
It's a good question.
It's not me personally so uh itis investing a pool of capital
in shares of companies largelypublicly listed.
So believe it or not there aresome 130 stock exchanges in the
world almost every country hasits own stock exchange and there
(29:28):
are companies listed on thosestock exchanges and they trade
just like alphabet trades.
SPEAKER_02 (29:36):
And you can analyze them in similar ways which is
kind of scary to some people butbelieve it or not uh you often
there are very good companieslisted in places you wouldn't
really expect or doingbusinesses in places you
wouldn't expect yeah I got towell one of the most important
things is when you do businessinternationally is this word
(29:56):
trust you have to be able totrust they have to be able to
trust you you have to be able totrust them and uh so yeah I mean
uh investing in a foreign landyou have to obey by the laws and
everything.
So it must be is it qu is it agamble or you just know so much
about it now you don't you justsort of if you get involved with
(30:16):
investment in a foreign land youjust feel comfortable with it
you know the steps to take.
SPEAKER_00 (30:21):
One thing that is uh surprising to a lot of people is
that often companies that arepublicly listed have one of the
top auditors global auditors astheir auditor so often people
think that the financialstatements maybe look totally
different or you can't reallyunderstand what the company's
(30:42):
doing.
And that actually hasn't been myexperience.
Often you can understand thefinancial statements and believe
it or not they're kind of likean international language and
the financial statements oftensay it's rarely a surprise in my
experience that a company looksreally great but actually it's
(31:03):
horrible there are lots ofpublicly listed companies where
managers are doing sketchythings and it's super obvious
because you can see it in thefinancial statements like uh
they have way too much propertyon the balance sheet or the
receivables are way too high orthey are very profitable but
they don't buy back any sharesand they don't do any MA and
(31:24):
they don't pay dividends.
So like what's going on thereand this exists everywhere and I
would say outside the UnitedStates it maybe exists a little
more because the regulator inAmerica in my experience is a
little more stringent maybe orhas more teeth or America's a
little more litigious and thatkeeps companies on their toes
(31:48):
but uh there are managers thatare manage you know they're
running companies that arepublicly listed in lots of
different places that areallocating capital in a smart
way and economies that aregrowing and even doing
intelligent MA.
People might say well why don'tthey list in New York well I
(32:10):
don't know it's kind of a toughsell oftentimes for a company
that's not that big to list veryvery far away and then have to
convince foreigners that theyshould pay attention to this
company that's not really thatliquid or I don't know it's not
that special really so theywould list locally and maybe
(32:31):
local investment managers or uhpension funds or something like
that on their shares.
That's really common.
It's common all over the place.
Well I mean you've you've done alot Ryan I mean uh if you had to
pick a place um out there likeyour favorite country to go if
you if you just wanted to go toa place again because you
(32:52):
enjoyed it where would it be Idon't know there are so many
good spots uh I really like thecoast of Sri Lanka which is
really nice I really likewalking the streets of Hanoi in
Vietnam I really like theChristmas market in Prague a lot
(33:14):
of these places are just veryvery special I really like Cusco
in Peru um I don't know thereare a lot of different places I
really like Kerala maybe Keralais my favorite place in India
with you there's there are a lotof canals and little rivers that
go to the coast but also goinland maybe one of my favorite
(33:38):
times is just sitting on one ofthe boats and lazily having some
coconut shrimp or coconut dolluh it's really delightful.
SPEAKER_02 (33:48):
So those are a lot of options for you but um yeah
yeah yeah I mean it's sureobviously today people you've
got to be aware of it because uhyou know if I'm going anywhere I
was all check out the globalpeace index make sure it's safe
the safest country in the worldtoday is Iceland sure yeah and
I've never been too worriedabout I don't know my safe maybe
(34:11):
fingers crossed I haven't hadmany experiences with like
sketchy people doing sketchythings.
SPEAKER_00 (34:16):
Now never say never maybe it'll happen but I found
that there really is somethingabout human nature and human
beings and appreciation fortraveler that is really a nice
thing.
I didn't mention my own countryI mean in the United States I
like going to uh the ChesapeakeBay where I grew up or I love
going to Maine and NewHampshire.
(34:38):
Also I spent a lot of time inSan Francisco and all the places
up and down the coast in SanFrancisco are great.
Growing up uh we would go to theareas around Gettysburg
Pennsylvania I love going there.
So my own country has a lot ofgreat spots and also obviously
Massachusetts too has thiswonderful old history that's
nice to explore.
SPEAKER_02 (34:59):
Yeah I tell you that there's a lot to see in the in
the US putting in that area wellfairly close to you is the very
first time I came to the US wasin 1971 I was still at high
school and it was an exchangehigh school visit between
Comtree England and ComtreeConnecticut and uh so we stayed
(35:19):
with them and they came to staywith us.
It was neat and we had a soccergame with them and all that and
it was excellent and that'sreally made me attractive to the
United States and I ended upmoving here so this is good.
Uh so uh yeah I mean that'ssounds great.
Yeah so there's more to see I mymy philosophy is that yeah I've
(35:39):
traveled internationally butwhen I get a bit older when I
just don't want to fly anymoreprobably just travel more in the
US and uh that that that who thehell knows where this is heading
but that's that's it just uh fornow at least that's that's the
way I'm thinking but anywayyou've done a lot and then
you've got a lot more uh stuffto do um company's doing fine
(36:01):
you traveled there's more to seethe travel book will never
escape you that's for sure youknow that already don't you yeah
and uh but uh hey if anyonewants to reach out to you Ryan
where how do they get older youjust go to your website uh feel
free to reach out you know onefunny thing is that um I haven't
(36:21):
been doing this but I've beenthinking gosh if there are older
if not older guys but I'm in my40s 40 plus soccer league abroad
or or basketball league I don'tknow why there's no website for
like hey there's this pickupgame this is something that I
haven't done traveling youmentioned it a few times um but
(36:44):
I think the prospect of likeshowing up someplace and playing
in a pickup game I'm not anamazing soccer or basketball
player but I play lacrosse Icould probably figure it out and
this is maybe the next step I'dreally like to try out anyway
how could people find so I Imentioned that if anyone's
listening to say you know youmentioned a lot of countries or
(37:05):
there's this one website whereyou can find pickup games I'm
all ears basically so I'm onLinkedIn it's Ryan Floyd my
company's called Barca Capitalfeel free to send a message and
my website is Barca B-A-R-C-Acapital.com and you can fill out
a form and send me a message ifyou want to say hi.
SPEAKER_00 (37:27):
Okay what Barca stand for by the way where did
that name come from uh it's agood question so when I was
trying to pick a name gosh itseemed like every name was taken
this was back in 2008 and I hadread Polybius and I'm I'm
thinking Libby and I like thestories about Hannibal Barca
being wily and clever now Ithink as I've gotten older there
(37:52):
are elements of his characterthat I don't think are so great.
But anyway I thought wow it'd beclever to he was also kind of an
outsider who challenged theultimate insiders which was Rome
at the time during the PunicWars so I thought well it'd be
clever to name a company afterHannibal Barca but I don't know
(38:12):
I'm not sure it's aged that wellbut it works.
SPEAKER_02 (38:15):
All right fair enough well all right I wish you
um all the best in the futurethanks for coming on today.
Yeah thank you Malcolm forhaving me it's all good and uh
keep in touch buddy you know letme know about your escapades.
SPEAKER_01 (38:30):
All right all right thanks so much by that's it for
this episode of the TravelAddict Podcast where we chase
sunsets flirt with danger andoccasionally make questionable
choices in foreign lands.
Until next time may your flightsbe on time and your travel
stories just scandalous enoughto leave a few details out.
(38:51):
Check out Malcolm's websites atmalcolmteesdale.com and
travelingenglishman dot com.
Safe travels and enjoy lifeeveryone
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