July 11, 2025 • 29 mins
This week we introduce a new segment: Hostel Wars - We present AI Travel Bot 'Vagabot 3000' (definitely not ChatGPT) with two accommodation options in Kotor, Montenegro. In the hope of backpacking Europe, Vagabot 3000 must pick the worst hostel based on genuine hostel reviews, continuing the search for the most 'authentic' experience.
Tales of a Trip takes a romantic but embarrassing turn, as we hear from a Brazilian backpacker who unknowingly let himself go in Indonesia. No amount of diarrhoea would stop this traveler finding true love.
We'd love to hear from you! Submit your own travel story to: https://tripologypodcast.com/talesofatrip
Before Hostel Wars and Tales of a Trip, we discuss:
- Competitive backpacking and travel one-upmanship
- Adam's 7-Eleven friend in Hong Kong
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello and welcome to. This episode of Tripology, it's
the only backpacking show where the hosts are actually on the
road all the time. I'm Alan.
I'm here with my best friend andone of the greatest travellers
of all time is the ever competitive Adam.
This show, mate. We've got a bit of a fun one.
We're introducing a brand new game to the show where we pitch
some hostels against each other in the search for the shittest
(00:25):
accommodation we can possibly find.
And then, of course, at the end of the show, we're going to have
another story from a listener building that travel community.
It's a bit of a curveball show. It is kind of show that people
either love to love or hate to regret or anything in between
because we're going in some tangential areas.
I'm looking forward to it. You know what I was thinking
today and I wanted to talk to you.
(00:45):
About. Go on.
The competitive aspects of travel, you know, that kind of
vibe that you sometimes get. The reason I was thinking about
it is 'cause we were recently travelling with a quite a young
traveller. Mm, hmm, very young.
And he was saying to me like, oh, how many countries have you
been to? And I thought about that
question, yeah. And the performative sense of
it. How many times have we heard,
(01:06):
answered, performed out that line of dialogue as travellers,
where you go, oh, I've been to this many countries, how many
countries have you been to? How long have you been
travelling for? Have you been to this place,
which is off the beaten track? Yeah, Yeah.
I mean, I think for me the kind of analogy would be like middle
management. You sometimes see people at the
(01:27):
very, very bottom end, like thislovely young lad that we were
travelling with who's pretty sort of new to the game.
Yeah. Humble as they come, just really
looking forward to a life of travel, can't wait to get stuck
into the rest of the world. And then you get people at the
very top end that have been to 6070, a hundred countries, also
very humble. It's the guys that are hovering
around the 3040 mark that have got a point to prove.
(01:50):
They're the ones you want to stay clear of.
I wonder how new of a phenomenonthis is.
Yeah, because when I'd hate to hark back, like when I started
travelling in 2015, things were different.
When I'd only been to 30 countries, things were
different. Yeah, exactly.
I wonder how much this is a symptom of the new Instagrammy
reward based travel, where it's like you've got to go to this
(02:12):
blue lagoon that you've seen on Instagram and if you're a don't,
then you're an idiot. Yeah, yeah.
But when I think back in 2015, it was more like a badge of
honour. Are you one of those travellers
who is just taking a year out from school to go travelling?
Or are you one of the serious ones with a mental illness who's
travelling because you literallydon't know what else to do?
(02:33):
And we'd kind of wear that as a travel community.
Oh, I'm actually travelling for a year and a half now.
And people would be like, Oh my God, that's crazy.
What's that like? And there was something happened
in the pandemic, I think actually, Oh yeah, I stopped
travelling for a year during thepandemic.
And you did what? I stopped travelling because of
a medically enforced situation. And then by the time I got back,
(02:57):
people were claiming some extraordinary numbers.
Of countries that they've been to.
And how long they've been travelling.
I feel like before the pandemic,I'd been travelling for four
years non-stop, right? And I would say that and people
would be like, well, it's a funny thing that happens.
You say you've been travelling ayear, people are like, wow, You
say you've been travelling for two years.
(03:17):
People are like, wow, you say you've been travelling for three
years. People are like, you say you've
been travelling for four years and people are like, are you all
right? Yeah, do you?
Need help. Yeah.
I mean, when, when I was travelling through the pandemic,
I travelled through seven countries during that sort of
two year, 18 month period, whichis most more sorry than than
(03:38):
most people I know. It's it's a tricky one because I
would say that you now sit in that, that category right at the
top, where you've been to so many countries.
It's difficult to make it sound like anything other than a brag.
Yeah, I appreciate that. But it's like you get to this
point where I run into people after the pandemic, I'd be like,
how long have you been travelling for?
And they'd be like 10 years. Wow, that's amazing.
(04:02):
You been traveling longer than me.
And I've pretty much spent my whole like 20s traveling and
you're younger than me. How is that possible?
And I would investigate. I already know it's coming.
And they'd be like, oh, yeah, well, I, you know, I went on
holiday when I was 13. So I started traveling then.
And that was when I started traveling.
And then, oh, by the time I was 20, I've been already travelling
(04:23):
for seven years. You know, the reason you're
manipulating that memory in those stats is because you want
to perform as someone who's really, really well travelled.
It's stopped being about your actual experiences and just
sharing, oh, you know, this is my lived experiences, how long
I've been travelling for. And it's become about like, I'm
(04:44):
a, I'm a level 5 traveller. I've been travelling for this
long. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's kind of
like a toxic culture that existswithin backpacking that we've
touched on before. I mean, I've even heard people
include the two years of the pandemic as, as travelling, You
know, they they travelled to a place, got stuck there for
whatever reason. And they're like, yeah, you
know, I've been on the road for six years or whatever, but two
of those years I was doing absolutely fuck all in a place I
(05:06):
didn't want to be. And you're like, oh, that
doesn't sound very positive. Are you ever guilty of it?
Because I sometimes count working holiday visa into my
travel time. Yeah.
Well, then it becomes about threshold, doesn't it?
It's like where? Where's the cut off line?
Because I've been travelling, travelling in inverted commas,
quote, UN quote or whatever for let's say 10 years.
I first left on my big trip through Russia and China in
(05:28):
2014. Obviously, I've been home a
couple of times. I've been to see my family.
I got stuck at home for four months or whatever it was during
the pandemic. And I've lived in seven
countries, some of those for 2 1/2 three years, but it's still
not home and it, and it was always temporary.
So that's probably a different subject for a different day.
I probably rephrase it and say I've been away from home for
(05:50):
about 10 years now as opposed totravelling for 10 years.
Because I think that probably gives people the idea that
you're just a backpacker and you're moving through, you know,
every week or two weeks you're changing location perhaps.
But yeah, it is, it is a bit of a grey area, this kind of 1
upmanship, or we even call it one downmanship, like trying to
go for as long as you possibly can on the least amount of money
(06:10):
you can possibly go. I mean, I see some people in
hostels now and they eat the food they're eating.
I just think you wouldn't feed it to your worst enemy.
Well, so you think that there's almost like a desire when you're
travelling amongst a certain class of slightly toxic people.
Yeah, Yeah, there's like, you want to have the most reductive
(06:31):
shittest experience possible. Yeah.
Because that's deemed to be likebad ass.
But with the most authentic without a doubt.
If you're staying in a hotel, I'm staying in a hostel.
If you're staying in a hostel, I'm staying on a map on the
floor without a roof over my head.
If you're doing that then I'm going to roll around in literal
shit, attempt to have the worst possible experience, and then
(06:52):
brag about it later. Well I mean the perfect example.
I think this is 2 things. And guys if you are listening
and you've done this or you knowsomeone who has, please correct
me if I'm wrong. This is going to take me a
little while to get to. So I've been guilty of this and
I'm sure you have as well. When you get from one
destination to another, especially in developing
countries, there's well, back in10 years ago, whatever, there
were bus companies, tour companies.
(07:14):
You could either maybe hitchhikeor you could get a local bus or
you could get a private car or you get a fucking chicken bus.
And if you get picked up by a chicken bus and you sit in the
back with a load of locals that are on their way to the next
village, that's an amazing story.
And that is like a badge of honor.
You get to the oh, oh, you booked a bus, Did you?
Oh, you booked a bus at the booking office?
Uber was it? You paid.
Oh, you paid. You paid five U.S. dollars for
(07:35):
that? Did you really?
I just hopped in the back of a chicken bus covered in shit.
It was absolutely miserable for the entire time and it took five
times as long. But it is a better story.
Definitely if if. You use that to put someone else
down. I'm not a fan of that now where
this kind of goes into what I was going to highlight, and I'm
sure you've seen this on Instagram.
Have you seen Is it that the iron ore trains through
(07:55):
Mauritania? I've not seen it.
Have you not seen it on? Instagram though, fucking no.
It's absolutely everywhere. You see people nowadays they,
they are doing like Instagram and and TikTok content of them
sitting in a train, just like a cargo train carrying loads of
whatever it is coal line or, I don't know, across through the
desert. And I guess way back when that
was a fucking cool way to travel.
(08:15):
That was a very old school and probably not good for your
health. But now it's become like a
glamorous thing to do where people are deliberately going to
Mauritania. And again, don't quote me on
that. I'm pretty sure it's Mauritania
just to do this train thing and it completely misses the fucking
point, right? Doesn't it?
It's just so you're just doing it because it's this
performative, like I did this crazy thing, yeah.
(08:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's now become a gimmick as as opposed to like a
way that really poor locals maybe used to travel.
Right you. Know, like stowing away on a
boat, it's like, Oh my God, did you have to Stow away?
No, I'm a backpacker who's been away for a month.
I just wanted to tell a cool story.
And my least favorite type of traveller are the ones who like
they have, they adopt A sort of challenging persona to meet them
(08:59):
at all. Like you, you go, I just got
back from, I just went out and got some food and they're like,
oh, how much did you pay for it?I'd be like, oh, you know, I
went to, I saw this recommended restaurant on Google Maps and
they're like, oh, I went to a restaurant.
Did you? I just went to the local market.
I actually paid, I just paid in beads, which is actually the
(09:21):
most early form of currency. So there was actually no
transactional exchange, actuallygot to talk to some really great
locals and had an authentic experience.
You went to a you were served bya waiter in a restaurant.
Ah, right. OK, I'm like, leave me alone.
You've fucking getting off my case.
I mean, I have to be careful howwide I open my mouth here
(09:42):
because I'm I definitely exist on the spectrum.
Maybe not in this example in particular, but there are other
areas that this kind of mindset bleeds into when it comes to
long term travel and backpacking.
And I have been absolutely guilty of that.
So, you know, I don't want to pretend that, you know, I'm not
the same in some areas because when it comes to food, I mean,
my good mate Stu, who listens tothis show, I, I visited him him
(10:04):
in Taiwan, right? And I remember when we were
living in Hong Kong together, almost every meal he would just
go to 711 for a sandwich. And I'm like, Stew man.
You're in Hong Kong, like is oneof the foodie capitals of the
world. Please, please, please, can I
just take you for some food because you're not getting that
immersive experience. And he's like, Adam, I don't
(10:25):
fucking care. I just want to eat a sandwich
that comes out of a plastic wrapper from the local shop.
I'm not bothered mate, I'm like ohk OK well travel is you know,
means something different to youI suppose.
He's still You're a level 1 traveler.
He's to their own, but you know,in the same breath, he lived in
Taiwan for fucking years. He's lived experiences that I
can only dream of, so I don't know.
(10:47):
It's a toughy. It's a really, really tough one.
It's a toughy, but you know what, I think you've got to just
live and let live. When it comes to travel, you've
got to travel in the way you want.
It's important to share stories first and foremost.
I think the reason people talk about where they've been, how
long they've been travelling for, it's because we ask these
questions of each other all the time and it's just a way of
encapsulating your travel story without having to go into too
(11:09):
much detail. It's just a way to quickly
reveal to someone, oh this is what I've been up to for the
last little bit. Yeah, yeah.
I think for me, the best case scenario is that you meet people
in the travel space, whether it be a hostel or anywhere else on
a work away, something like that.
And what they've done and what they're doing inspires you to to
do more. Absolutely man, Madam, I've been
(11:31):
thinking about this sort of performative 1 upmanship in the
travel space. Travellers who always want to
stay in the grittiest, dirtiest,most authentic accommodation and
will begrudge other people for staying in a nicer hostel,
Airbnb, hotel, that kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah, like us staying staying in an Airbnb.
Yeah, exactly. Well, I thought about this.
(11:52):
I was thinking what have you took all those toxic aspects of
the worst kinds of travellers and forced them, rammed them
into was sort of AI model, Definitely not ChatGPT, just
some sort of AI model. So I created this thing, this
sort of demonic travel monster. I call it Vagabot 3000.
(12:14):
Vagabot 3000. What an amazing name.
Yeah, and Vagabot. Basically, the idea behind this
AI model is that it's just desperate to have the most
authentic travel experience it wants.
It's like if you sent ChatGPT toThailand on a gap year and just
let it come back with all the things that have absorbed during
its time there. It basically fundamentally
(12:35):
believes that luxury is the antithesis of travel and that it
wants to have the most authenticexperience possible.
Yeah, this is going to resonate with a lot of people and
probably me included actually. Yeah, I wanted to play a game
with you, right? So every now and again we're
going to randomly generate a location.
We did this in the middle of theweek and we randomly generated
(12:56):
couture in Montenegro. Lovely, not been there myself.
Me and you went and found the worst possible reviews that we
could find in hostels in Qatar. We're going to compete them off
against each other and then we're going to find out where
Vagabot 3000 would rather stay. You're going to read your worst
(13:17):
possible review, A real review found on the Internet for a
hostel in Qatar. I'm going to read my worst
review that I've found. We'll battle them against each
other and then we'll find out where Vagabot 3000 this
authentic travel bot that bot wants to say.
Then we'll name and shame that hostel live on the podcast.
Because if Vagabond wants to stay at your hostel, that means
(13:39):
it's properly. Shit.
So it's our ability to find the worst, most authentic
accommodation possible? Yeah, as decided by Vagabond
3000, the ultimate backpacker. Absolutely.
So what review have you brought to the table today?
The worst review you could find for a hostel in Couture Hostel
Wars. OK so after much research I
(14:01):
found a hostel review that was awhopping 5.7 stars.
Oh. It's quite high.
Quite. High, quite high, so I'm going
to read the review now. We waited almost an hour in the
reception. At first the staff seemed busy,
but we realized that was not thecase.
Most of the people living in thehostel were in fact the staff.
The BBQ is not to be recommended.
It was €25 and you were offered two sausages and some bread.
(14:24):
In the evening the staff, mostlyAussies, concentrated on
themselves. Nick was the only service minded
of the entire staff, consisting of 10 plus people.
At some point it was difficult to buy beers due to the lack of
hierarchy. Oh no.
OK, so it was an odd social strata in your hostel.
Yeah, yeah. Does Vagabot drink?
(14:45):
If he if he drinks, I fancy my chances.
I think Vagabot will drink because he's seen other
travellers drink. He likes Chan, yeah.
Exactly any reply from the hostel itself to that awful
review? Yeah, one of the reasons I chose
this actually was because of thefantastic reply from the owner
of the hostel. OK, who has said this is this is
(15:07):
so amazing. I love this sort of stuff.
We could do a podcast just aboutreviews.
I'm sure the owners replied to that by saying thank you for
your review. I will do my best to find you
and treat you with the opportunity to say all of this
to my face. See you soon.
Happy smiling A smiling emoji. Oh my Jesus, now I don't know if
(15:29):
we can factor the owners response into Vagabots decision.
I think Vagabots deals in the cold hard material fact, but it
is interesting that the owner essentially issued a threat to
the person that made the review.I do think it says a lot about
an establishment if you know, the owners chimed in and he's
gone. Go on then, if you think you're
hard enough. Yeah, come on then.
(15:51):
You couldn't find a fear, could you?
To say all of this to my face, amazing.
That's. Brilliant.
Yeah, he's one of the staff. He's probably an Aussie.
Yeah, I went in a slightly different direction with my
review. I chose a.
Hopefully not too far away from Qatar.
Well, still in control as per the rules of Vagabot's sick
little twisted game, but I choseA1 Star Review and it simply
(16:12):
says the following. Not worth it.
Impossible to sleep in a boilingtiny room due to the unbearably
noisy air con machine is walkingdistance.
The Old Town. I know the cleaning lady who was
only a temporary worker for two days was lovely even though she
hadn't been given instructions about the hostel and was totally
lost on her own. I don't think I know, just
(16:33):
wondering. There's a halls mysteriously at
night, not all knowing what's going on.
The reviewer says it's impossible to sleep at night due
to an extremely loud unbearable freestanding air con machine
inside the tiny bedroom that made an industrial noise and was
heard on the whole floor room unbearably hot.
It was located just under the roof and had wooden walls and
(16:56):
barely no electric light inside the room.
Impossible to read in the room. Alex, the Russian employee was
very rude to me. He only turned up my door on the
last night at midnight asking for €30 at the cleaning lady.
That's I knew again, isn't it? This is all I know is fault.
This is a review of I Know. Yeah, the cleaning lady had got
wrong very brook behaviour and bad manners.
(17:19):
The hostel's located right next to the supermarket is rubbish
dump and only one one bathroom and shower for eight people.
They refuse car payments and force you to pay in cash.
So there you go, much longer review vagabonds got much more
to go on. You've got multi layers.
You've got I know the wandering cleaning lady who doesn't know
anything about cash. You've got Alex, the Russian
bodyguard, forcing kind of payments in the middle of the
(17:39):
night. I get the impression that the
room was hot. Yeah, they mentioned that a few
times. They really drilled that home,
not somewhere I'd want to stay, but I also don't want to lead
Vagabot 3000 down a down a path.Well, I fancy my chances here
because I think Vagabot is goingto appreciate the sweltering
nature of my hostel and we don'tknow how he feels about beer, so
(18:00):
I think he'll factor that in. But.
I wonder, I wonder, just wonder whether the owners reply would
have swayed the decision. But I am looking forward to
finding out because it is. He is looking for that authentic
experience after all. Let's say what the Vagabot has
to say. Vagabot 3 thousands decision.
Alan's Hostel. Want to know why?
Because sleeping in a boiling attic box under a noisy air con
(18:21):
with a wandering cleaning lady and a panoramic view of a
supermarket trash heap is absolutely wild.
Adam's hostel was poorly run, but Alan's that had real
character. Book me in peace.
There you have it, everyone. Vagabot 3000 has chosen to stay
at Couture Hostelito. Oh dear, fair and square.
(18:42):
You won this one mate. I'm looking forward to the next
one. I've got to step up my game,
obviously. Couture hostelito, of course,
the most authentic accommodationin the whole of couture, will
play again soon. That was hostile Wars and here
we are, a place that's fast becoming my favorite time in the
show. It's listeners go to
(19:03):
tripologypodcast.com/tales of a trip.
There's a link in the description.
There's an opportunity to submityour best travel story, be it an
emotional memory, a crazy tale. Last week we heard from Will who
got chased around by a bunch of monkeys in India.
Yeah, very scary stuff indeed. Not everyone, not everyone would
(19:25):
want that. Not everyone would want to be
able to tell tell that as their greatest ever travel story, but
I mean, 11 extraordinary opportunity we're giving people
now to sort of share what they've been up to.
Yeah, every week someone tells their greatest travel story.
We want to hear from you, so head over to Tales of a Trip and
submit it. But right now, we've got an an
amazing story to tell. Let's listen to it.
(19:46):
Hey guys, how's it going? Huge fan here, Lucas from
Brazil. I used to live with Alan back in
2018 and he was actually one of the the first guys that, you
know, started to grow that that no dream of being a traveler and
(20:07):
this kind of stuff. Today I am a digital Norman and
living currently in Costa Rica. So basically I'm going to tell
you guys how I knew that my current wife was the one.
Because this story is really funny and involves love, love
and a lot of shit like literary and, you know, travel.
(20:33):
So basically 2018, we were in Guilty Tea right after a really
nice man, you know, really nice time that we had travelling
around Indonesia and we were in Guilty Tea and we went to a
night market back that time, me and my, my wife, we were like, I
(20:59):
don't know, four months, maybe something like that together.
And we went to a night market. We we choose some, some food
there and I had like Gilly Bali,you know, sorry, a Gilly, A
Gilly belly, not a Bali belly, you know, but like island belly,
(21:24):
something like that. So I consume like water.
That was not that good, I reckon.
And suddenly after, I don't know, like 4 hours, 5 hours, I
was like literally shitting myself, you know, I shat on the
bed, guys, can you even imagine?You are like dating a girl for
(21:48):
almost four months and suddenly you wake up and you shed the
bed. That was the moment that I
realized that I was completely fucked.
And my, my current wife, she actually went to to the
pharmacy, She bought medicine, she returned from our Airbnb and
(22:14):
man, she took care of me. You know, even she cleaned the
bed, bro. And that time and that, that
exactly time I knew that she wasthe one.
And now, like we are currently married eight years already and
(22:34):
everything begun with literally shitting the bed.
Thank you guys, that's the story.
Hope that you enjoyed. And that's it.
Kiss, kiss. Hey, thank you so much for
sending your story, Lucas, a change of pace from Will's story
last week. That's actually my friend of
(22:54):
mine because I live with him very, very briefly, right?
And I was first in New Zealand. Was it so brief because he was
shitting the bed? No, it was so brief because, I
mean, I mean, we were just, I arrived in New Zealand with
absolutely zero money and I justsquirmed into a house share
which Lucas lived. We stayed in touch.
We stayed in touch for quite a long time, but I am.
This is Lucas from the aforementioned crack den in
(23:17):
Auckland. Is it?
No, no, Lucas never made it to the crack den.
Lucas lived a much more luxurious life than I in New
Zealand because he figured out how to not move into a crack den
primarily. But lovely, lovely guy.
Thank you so much for saying your story.
I mean you will be able to empathize with this more than me
and I'll tell you for why, OK? I don't know if you've shit a
bed, but you've definitely had more gastrointestinal issues in
(23:40):
your life than I have. Yes, yeah.
I mean, I I can empathize, although it didn't result in
being married to the woman of mydreams.
But yeah, I have had some some very unfortunate episodes.
And you know, stews already got a mention once on this episode.
But you know, it was a time in Hong Kong where I was feeling
(24:01):
pretty bad. I got food poisoning, I think,
not from drinking water or whatever on Gilly tea.
I didn't even realize that GillyTea had a bad reputation.
For having bad water. Or for people getting sick.
I mean, lots of Ocas is Gilly belly.
Yeah, I think you've heard of barley belly.
Gilly Belly. Belly, belly.
A lot of bellies. Yeah.
I'm drinking water right now on this show that you boiled for
(24:22):
me. Yeah, and Manila has pretty good
tap water. Yeah, yeah, you just, you just
never know. But anyway, back in Hong Kong in
20, sort of 1819, I guess it would have been maybe early
2020, I ate a beetroot that I had bought from a market, from a
local market, you know, a local market, because I'm always
having the most authentic experience.
I wouldn't go to a supermarket. And I washed it.
(24:46):
I kind of cooked it in the microwave whilst I was working
in a wine bar. It was, you know, my brief sort
of 5 minutes when there was no customers.
And later that night I started feeling really cold, really
cold, like freezing, even thoughI was fully clothed as you'd
expect, but with my jacket on aswell.
In Hong Kong, even at that time,it wasn't that time of year, it
wasn't, it wasn't winter. Even in the winter, it's not
(25:07):
that cold. But I, I came down with the
chills. I couldn't even make it back to
my hostel without huddling a fewtimes in in buildings and stuff,
trying, trying to keep warm. Went to sleep that night with
the chills fully clothed with myJack Wolf skin down, jacket
zipped up and my hood on. Yeah.
Could you like, on a top bunk and then wake up in the morning?
(25:27):
And yeah, it was fairly embarrassing.
I mean, I know I had to call in Stu, bless him, to help me out.
And he went down to the local, local kanji store.
He bought me a bowl of soup, a kanji, which is like a rice
soup, pumpkin and sweet corn kanji.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
He placed it next to my head andI didn't touch it for 24 hours.
I didn't even have the strength to lift the spoon to my mouth.
(25:48):
Just 20. Sheer evocation of fecal murder.
Yeah. And do you know what this is so
embarrassing company if this going on a main episode.
But I mean, Lucas is leading by example.
Yeah, fair plays with Lucas. What an amazing story.
Thanks for sharing. It did lead.
Lead to a marriage, so he kind of styled it out.
Yeah, whereas this one, I mean, I, I spoke to Stu afterwards
after he looked after me with a couple of other people in the
(26:09):
dorm because we were long term as we couldn't get away from
each other at this point. We were bonded.
And yeah, I remember saying to them, guys, this is so
embarrassing, but I really appreciate all your help.
I did actually shit the bed and Stu said, oh, we know.
I was like, oh, how? How do you know?
He was like, Adam, we're sleeping in the same room and
you shit in the bed like. I mean, it's so much better that
(26:31):
you can stop to it rather than going like trying to stay that
out and clean the sheets, syrup digitously.
We're talking about cleaning thesheets.
I mean, hats off to Lucas's now wife.
Yeah. Is that the sort of thing that
you would just take in your stride?
I mean, imagine. They're obviously madly in love.
They've been together for a longtime now.
I've met her but I didn't realise they were married
actually, so congratulations Lucas.
(26:51):
A good friend of mine but I didn't know he was married.
That's awesome 4. Four months into the
relationship, which in travel terms, I mean that can be a
year. Really.
Yeah, easily. I always think that because when
you're travelling, you're together all the time.
Yeah. When you're in a marriage,
sometimes you can be with each other, you know, you go to work,
see each other in the evening. And, you know, like, maybe we
(27:12):
would do this or you would do this for your backpacking
friends or whatever. You're talking to people back
home or people you meet on the road and you talk about newly
formed relationship whilst you're away.
You say, yeah, things are movingreally fast.
You know, we're spending 24 hours a day with each other.
We're in each other's pockets. We're shitting the bed together.
You know, they're cleaning it upfor me.
And you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, what what's happening?
It's just an amazing development.
(27:33):
And I think once you get that sort of stuff out of the way
early and they're in, I mean, it's, it's only going to go from
strength to strength. Travel the best conduit possible
for relationships, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely beautiful.
Lucas, thank you so much for sending that story in.
We want to hear from all the tripological audience.
If you have a story to send in itstripologypodcast.com/tales of
(27:55):
a trip record your best 3 minutestory all about travel.
We've got a bunch of social links down in the description.
We've got Instagram. Instagram.
X Facebook, Gmail. We've got a website where you
can send us emails. There's all sorts of stuff going
on. Not to mention it's Patreon.
It's Patreon, the Lost and Foundsection.
That's a little 1520 minutes if you're lucky section after the
(28:18):
show where we we sort of go backto sort of old Tripology, just
chin wagging and telling storiesand talk about what happens in
our personal lives and all that sort of stuff.
The gloves are off. We go a bit on Hinge and I've
got two stories to tell in this week's Patreon Section. 1 is
about a terrible encounter with a German traveller and the other
is about Lucas, the guy who's just called in the show.
(28:39):
Oh God, telling a right mischievous lie.
And I want to talk about that because it happened to me.
It was very curious and it was one of the most mind blowing
experiences I've ever had. He said something to me, that
caller that we just listened to that changed my perception of
reality so wholeheartedly. I'm still recovering from it and
we can hear about that in the Patreon section.
(28:59):
That's patron.com/tripology podcast.
Next week though, it's going to be ever such a back and alien
event of chaos. Going to be everything kicking
off here at Tripology. We'll see you there.
We'll see you there. Cheers guys.
Bye. Bye.
Hello and welcome to. This episode of Tripology, it's
the only backpacking show where the hosts are actually on the
road all the time. I'm Alan.
I'm here with my best friend andone of the greatest travellers
of all time is the ever competitive Adam.
This show, mate. We've got a bit of a fun one.
We're introducing a brand new game to the show where we pitch
some hostels against each other in the search for the shittest
(00:25):
accommodation we can possibly find.
And then, of course, at the end of the show, we're going to have
another story from a listener building that travel community.
It's a bit of a curveball show. It is kind of show that people
either love to love or hate to regret or anything in between
because we're going in some tangential areas.
I'm looking forward to it. You know what I was thinking
today and I wanted to talk to you.
(00:45):
About. Go on.
The competitive aspects of travel, you know, that kind of
vibe that you sometimes get. The reason I was thinking about
it is 'cause we were recently travelling with a quite a young
traveller. Mm, hmm, very young.
And he was saying to me like, oh, how many countries have you
been to? And I thought about that
question, yeah. And the performative sense of
it. How many times have we heard,
(01:06):
answered, performed out that line of dialogue as travellers,
where you go, oh, I've been to this many countries, how many
countries have you been to? How long have you been
travelling for? Have you been to this place,
which is off the beaten track? Yeah, Yeah.
I mean, I think for me the kind of analogy would be like middle
management. You sometimes see people at the
(01:27):
very, very bottom end, like thislovely young lad that we were
travelling with who's pretty sort of new to the game.
Yeah. Humble as they come, just really
looking forward to a life of travel, can't wait to get stuck
into the rest of the world. And then you get people at the
very top end that have been to 6070, a hundred countries, also
very humble. It's the guys that are hovering
around the 3040 mark that have got a point to prove.
(01:50):
They're the ones you want to stay clear of.
I wonder how new of a phenomenonthis is.
Yeah, because when I'd hate to hark back, like when I started
travelling in 2015, things were different.
When I'd only been to 30 countries, things were
different. Yeah, exactly.
I wonder how much this is a symptom of the new Instagrammy
reward based travel, where it's like you've got to go to this
(02:12):
blue lagoon that you've seen on Instagram and if you're a don't,
then you're an idiot. Yeah, yeah.
But when I think back in 2015, it was more like a badge of
honour. Are you one of those travellers
who is just taking a year out from school to go travelling?
Or are you one of the serious ones with a mental illness who's
travelling because you literallydon't know what else to do?
(02:33):
And we'd kind of wear that as a travel community.
Oh, I'm actually travelling for a year and a half now.
And people would be like, Oh my God, that's crazy.
What's that like? And there was something happened
in the pandemic, I think actually, Oh yeah, I stopped
travelling for a year during thepandemic.
And you did what? I stopped travelling because of
a medically enforced situation. And then by the time I got back,
(02:57):
people were claiming some extraordinary numbers.
Of countries that they've been to.
And how long they've been travelling.
I feel like before the pandemic,I'd been travelling for four
years non-stop, right? And I would say that and people
would be like, well, it's a funny thing that happens.
You say you've been travelling ayear, people are like, wow, You
say you've been travelling for two years.
(03:17):
People are like, wow, you say you've been travelling for three
years. People are like, you say you've
been travelling for four years and people are like, are you all
right? Yeah, do you?
Need help. Yeah.
I mean, when, when I was travelling through the pandemic,
I travelled through seven countries during that sort of
two year, 18 month period, whichis most more sorry than than
(03:38):
most people I know. It's it's a tricky one because I
would say that you now sit in that, that category right at the
top, where you've been to so many countries.
It's difficult to make it sound like anything other than a brag.
Yeah, I appreciate that. But it's like you get to this
point where I run into people after the pandemic, I'd be like,
how long have you been travelling for?
And they'd be like 10 years. Wow, that's amazing.
(04:02):
You been traveling longer than me.
And I've pretty much spent my whole like 20s traveling and
you're younger than me. How is that possible?
And I would investigate. I already know it's coming.
And they'd be like, oh, yeah, well, I, you know, I went on
holiday when I was 13. So I started traveling then.
And that was when I started traveling.
And then, oh, by the time I was 20, I've been already travelling
(04:23):
for seven years. You know, the reason you're
manipulating that memory in those stats is because you want
to perform as someone who's really, really well travelled.
It's stopped being about your actual experiences and just
sharing, oh, you know, this is my lived experiences, how long
I've been travelling for. And it's become about like, I'm
(04:44):
a, I'm a level 5 traveller. I've been travelling for this
long. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's kind of
like a toxic culture that existswithin backpacking that we've
touched on before. I mean, I've even heard people
include the two years of the pandemic as, as travelling, You
know, they they travelled to a place, got stuck there for
whatever reason. And they're like, yeah, you
know, I've been on the road for six years or whatever, but two
of those years I was doing absolutely fuck all in a place I
(05:06):
didn't want to be. And you're like, oh, that
doesn't sound very positive. Are you ever guilty of it?
Because I sometimes count working holiday visa into my
travel time. Yeah.
Well, then it becomes about threshold, doesn't it?
It's like where? Where's the cut off line?
Because I've been travelling, travelling in inverted commas,
quote, UN quote or whatever for let's say 10 years.
I first left on my big trip through Russia and China in
(05:28):
2014. Obviously, I've been home a
couple of times. I've been to see my family.
I got stuck at home for four months or whatever it was during
the pandemic. And I've lived in seven
countries, some of those for 2 1/2 three years, but it's still
not home and it, and it was always temporary.
So that's probably a different subject for a different day.
I probably rephrase it and say I've been away from home for
(05:50):
about 10 years now as opposed totravelling for 10 years.
Because I think that probably gives people the idea that
you're just a backpacker and you're moving through, you know,
every week or two weeks you're changing location perhaps.
But yeah, it is, it is a bit of a grey area, this kind of 1
upmanship, or we even call it one downmanship, like trying to
go for as long as you possibly can on the least amount of money
(06:10):
you can possibly go. I mean, I see some people in
hostels now and they eat the food they're eating.
I just think you wouldn't feed it to your worst enemy.
Well, so you think that there's almost like a desire when you're
travelling amongst a certain class of slightly toxic people.
Yeah, Yeah, there's like, you want to have the most reductive
(06:31):
shittest experience possible. Yeah.
Because that's deemed to be likebad ass.
But with the most authentic without a doubt.
If you're staying in a hotel, I'm staying in a hostel.
If you're staying in a hostel, I'm staying on a map on the
floor without a roof over my head.
If you're doing that then I'm going to roll around in literal
shit, attempt to have the worst possible experience, and then
(06:52):
brag about it later. Well I mean the perfect example.
I think this is 2 things. And guys if you are listening
and you've done this or you knowsomeone who has, please correct
me if I'm wrong. This is going to take me a
little while to get to. So I've been guilty of this and
I'm sure you have as well. When you get from one
destination to another, especially in developing
countries, there's well, back in10 years ago, whatever, there
were bus companies, tour companies.
(07:14):
You could either maybe hitchhikeor you could get a local bus or
you could get a private car or you get a fucking chicken bus.
And if you get picked up by a chicken bus and you sit in the
back with a load of locals that are on their way to the next
village, that's an amazing story.
And that is like a badge of honor.
You get to the oh, oh, you booked a bus, Did you?
Oh, you booked a bus at the booking office?
Uber was it? You paid.
Oh, you paid. You paid five U.S. dollars for
(07:35):
that? Did you really?
I just hopped in the back of a chicken bus covered in shit.
It was absolutely miserable for the entire time and it took five
times as long. But it is a better story.
Definitely if if. You use that to put someone else
down. I'm not a fan of that now where
this kind of goes into what I was going to highlight, and I'm
sure you've seen this on Instagram.
Have you seen Is it that the iron ore trains through
(07:55):
Mauritania? I've not seen it.
Have you not seen it on? Instagram though, fucking no.
It's absolutely everywhere. You see people nowadays they,
they are doing like Instagram and and TikTok content of them
sitting in a train, just like a cargo train carrying loads of
whatever it is coal line or, I don't know, across through the
desert. And I guess way back when that
was a fucking cool way to travel.
(08:15):
That was a very old school and probably not good for your
health. But now it's become like a
glamorous thing to do where people are deliberately going to
Mauritania. And again, don't quote me on
that. I'm pretty sure it's Mauritania
just to do this train thing and it completely misses the fucking
point, right? Doesn't it?
It's just so you're just doing it because it's this
performative, like I did this crazy thing, yeah.
(08:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's now become a gimmick as as opposed to like a
way that really poor locals maybe used to travel.
Right you. Know, like stowing away on a
boat, it's like, Oh my God, did you have to Stow away?
No, I'm a backpacker who's been away for a month.
I just wanted to tell a cool story.
And my least favorite type of traveller are the ones who like
they have, they adopt A sort of challenging persona to meet them
(08:59):
at all. Like you, you go, I just got
back from, I just went out and got some food and they're like,
oh, how much did you pay for it?I'd be like, oh, you know, I
went to, I saw this recommended restaurant on Google Maps and
they're like, oh, I went to a restaurant.
Did you? I just went to the local market.
I actually paid, I just paid in beads, which is actually the
(09:21):
most early form of currency. So there was actually no
transactional exchange, actuallygot to talk to some really great
locals and had an authentic experience.
You went to a you were served bya waiter in a restaurant.
Ah, right. OK, I'm like, leave me alone.
You've fucking getting off my case.
I mean, I have to be careful howwide I open my mouth here
(09:42):
because I'm I definitely exist on the spectrum.
Maybe not in this example in particular, but there are other
areas that this kind of mindset bleeds into when it comes to
long term travel and backpacking.
And I have been absolutely guilty of that.
So, you know, I don't want to pretend that, you know, I'm not
the same in some areas because when it comes to food, I mean,
my good mate Stu, who listens tothis show, I, I visited him him
(10:04):
in Taiwan, right? And I remember when we were
living in Hong Kong together, almost every meal he would just
go to 711 for a sandwich. And I'm like, Stew man.
You're in Hong Kong, like is oneof the foodie capitals of the
world. Please, please, please, can I
just take you for some food because you're not getting that
immersive experience. And he's like, Adam, I don't
(10:25):
fucking care. I just want to eat a sandwich
that comes out of a plastic wrapper from the local shop.
I'm not bothered mate, I'm like ohk OK well travel is you know,
means something different to youI suppose.
He's still You're a level 1 traveler.
He's to their own, but you know,in the same breath, he lived in
Taiwan for fucking years. He's lived experiences that I
can only dream of, so I don't know.
(10:47):
It's a toughy. It's a really, really tough one.
It's a toughy, but you know what, I think you've got to just
live and let live. When it comes to travel, you've
got to travel in the way you want.
It's important to share stories first and foremost.
I think the reason people talk about where they've been, how
long they've been travelling for, it's because we ask these
questions of each other all the time and it's just a way of
encapsulating your travel story without having to go into too
(11:09):
much detail. It's just a way to quickly
reveal to someone, oh this is what I've been up to for the
last little bit. Yeah, yeah.
I think for me, the best case scenario is that you meet people
in the travel space, whether it be a hostel or anywhere else on
a work away, something like that.
And what they've done and what they're doing inspires you to to
do more. Absolutely man, Madam, I've been
(11:31):
thinking about this sort of performative 1 upmanship in the
travel space. Travellers who always want to
stay in the grittiest, dirtiest,most authentic accommodation and
will begrudge other people for staying in a nicer hostel,
Airbnb, hotel, that kind of thing.
Yeah, yeah, like us staying staying in an Airbnb.
Yeah, exactly. Well, I thought about this.
(11:52):
I was thinking what have you took all those toxic aspects of
the worst kinds of travellers and forced them, rammed them
into was sort of AI model, Definitely not ChatGPT, just
some sort of AI model. So I created this thing, this
sort of demonic travel monster. I call it Vagabot 3000.
(12:14):
Vagabot 3000. What an amazing name.
Yeah, and Vagabot. Basically, the idea behind this
AI model is that it's just desperate to have the most
authentic travel experience it wants.
It's like if you sent ChatGPT toThailand on a gap year and just
let it come back with all the things that have absorbed during
its time there. It basically fundamentally
(12:35):
believes that luxury is the antithesis of travel and that it
wants to have the most authenticexperience possible.
Yeah, this is going to resonate with a lot of people and
probably me included actually. Yeah, I wanted to play a game
with you, right? So every now and again we're
going to randomly generate a location.
We did this in the middle of theweek and we randomly generated
(12:56):
couture in Montenegro. Lovely, not been there myself.
Me and you went and found the worst possible reviews that we
could find in hostels in Qatar. We're going to compete them off
against each other and then we're going to find out where
Vagabot 3000 would rather stay. You're going to read your worst
(13:17):
possible review, A real review found on the Internet for a
hostel in Qatar. I'm going to read my worst
review that I've found. We'll battle them against each
other and then we'll find out where Vagabot 3000 this
authentic travel bot that bot wants to say.
Then we'll name and shame that hostel live on the podcast.
Because if Vagabond wants to stay at your hostel, that means
(13:39):
it's properly. Shit.
So it's our ability to find the worst, most authentic
accommodation possible? Yeah, as decided by Vagabond
3000, the ultimate backpacker. Absolutely.
So what review have you brought to the table today?
The worst review you could find for a hostel in Couture Hostel
Wars. OK so after much research I
(14:01):
found a hostel review that was awhopping 5.7 stars.
Oh. It's quite high.
Quite. High, quite high, so I'm going
to read the review now. We waited almost an hour in the
reception. At first the staff seemed busy,
but we realized that was not thecase.
Most of the people living in thehostel were in fact the staff.
The BBQ is not to be recommended.
It was €25 and you were offered two sausages and some bread.
(14:24):
In the evening the staff, mostlyAussies, concentrated on
themselves. Nick was the only service minded
of the entire staff, consisting of 10 plus people.
At some point it was difficult to buy beers due to the lack of
hierarchy. Oh no.
OK, so it was an odd social strata in your hostel.
Yeah, yeah. Does Vagabot drink?
(14:45):
If he if he drinks, I fancy my chances.
I think Vagabot will drink because he's seen other
travellers drink. He likes Chan, yeah.
Exactly any reply from the hostel itself to that awful
review? Yeah, one of the reasons I chose
this actually was because of thefantastic reply from the owner
of the hostel. OK, who has said this is this is
(15:07):
so amazing. I love this sort of stuff.
We could do a podcast just aboutreviews.
I'm sure the owners replied to that by saying thank you for
your review. I will do my best to find you
and treat you with the opportunity to say all of this
to my face. See you soon.
Happy smiling A smiling emoji. Oh my Jesus, now I don't know if
(15:29):
we can factor the owners response into Vagabots decision.
I think Vagabots deals in the cold hard material fact, but it
is interesting that the owner essentially issued a threat to
the person that made the review.I do think it says a lot about
an establishment if you know, the owners chimed in and he's
gone. Go on then, if you think you're
hard enough. Yeah, come on then.
(15:51):
You couldn't find a fear, could you?
To say all of this to my face, amazing.
That's. Brilliant.
Yeah, he's one of the staff. He's probably an Aussie.
Yeah, I went in a slightly different direction with my
review. I chose a.
Hopefully not too far away from Qatar.
Well, still in control as per the rules of Vagabot's sick
little twisted game, but I choseA1 Star Review and it simply
(16:12):
says the following. Not worth it.
Impossible to sleep in a boilingtiny room due to the unbearably
noisy air con machine is walkingdistance.
The Old Town. I know the cleaning lady who was
only a temporary worker for two days was lovely even though she
hadn't been given instructions about the hostel and was totally
lost on her own. I don't think I know, just
(16:33):
wondering. There's a halls mysteriously at
night, not all knowing what's going on.
The reviewer says it's impossible to sleep at night due
to an extremely loud unbearable freestanding air con machine
inside the tiny bedroom that made an industrial noise and was
heard on the whole floor room unbearably hot.
It was located just under the roof and had wooden walls and
(16:56):
barely no electric light inside the room.
Impossible to read in the room. Alex, the Russian employee was
very rude to me. He only turned up my door on the
last night at midnight asking for €30 at the cleaning lady.
That's I knew again, isn't it? This is all I know is fault.
This is a review of I Know. Yeah, the cleaning lady had got
wrong very brook behaviour and bad manners.
(17:19):
The hostel's located right next to the supermarket is rubbish
dump and only one one bathroom and shower for eight people.
They refuse car payments and force you to pay in cash.
So there you go, much longer review vagabonds got much more
to go on. You've got multi layers.
You've got I know the wandering cleaning lady who doesn't know
anything about cash. You've got Alex, the Russian
bodyguard, forcing kind of payments in the middle of the
(17:39):
night. I get the impression that the
room was hot. Yeah, they mentioned that a few
times. They really drilled that home,
not somewhere I'd want to stay, but I also don't want to lead
Vagabot 3000 down a down a path.Well, I fancy my chances here
because I think Vagabot is goingto appreciate the sweltering
nature of my hostel and we don'tknow how he feels about beer, so
(18:00):
I think he'll factor that in. But.
I wonder, I wonder, just wonder whether the owners reply would
have swayed the decision. But I am looking forward to
finding out because it is. He is looking for that authentic
experience after all. Let's say what the Vagabot has
to say. Vagabot 3 thousands decision.
Alan's Hostel. Want to know why?
Because sleeping in a boiling attic box under a noisy air con
(18:21):
with a wandering cleaning lady and a panoramic view of a
supermarket trash heap is absolutely wild.
Adam's hostel was poorly run, but Alan's that had real
character. Book me in peace.
There you have it, everyone. Vagabot 3000 has chosen to stay
at Couture Hostelito. Oh dear, fair and square.
(18:42):
You won this one mate. I'm looking forward to the next
one. I've got to step up my game,
obviously. Couture hostelito, of course,
the most authentic accommodationin the whole of couture, will
play again soon. That was hostile Wars and here
we are, a place that's fast becoming my favorite time in the
show. It's listeners go to
(19:03):
tripologypodcast.com/tales of a trip.
There's a link in the description.
There's an opportunity to submityour best travel story, be it an
emotional memory, a crazy tale. Last week we heard from Will who
got chased around by a bunch of monkeys in India.
Yeah, very scary stuff indeed. Not everyone, not everyone would
(19:25):
want that. Not everyone would want to be
able to tell tell that as their greatest ever travel story, but
I mean, 11 extraordinary opportunity we're giving people
now to sort of share what they've been up to.
Yeah, every week someone tells their greatest travel story.
We want to hear from you, so head over to Tales of a Trip and
submit it. But right now, we've got an an
amazing story to tell. Let's listen to it.
(19:46):
Hey guys, how's it going? Huge fan here, Lucas from
Brazil. I used to live with Alan back in
2018 and he was actually one of the the first guys that, you
know, started to grow that that no dream of being a traveler and
(20:07):
this kind of stuff. Today I am a digital Norman and
living currently in Costa Rica. So basically I'm going to tell
you guys how I knew that my current wife was the one.
Because this story is really funny and involves love, love
and a lot of shit like literary and, you know, travel.
(20:33):
So basically 2018, we were in Guilty Tea right after a really
nice man, you know, really nice time that we had travelling
around Indonesia and we were in Guilty Tea and we went to a
night market back that time, me and my, my wife, we were like, I
(20:59):
don't know, four months, maybe something like that together.
And we went to a night market. We we choose some, some food
there and I had like Gilly Bali,you know, sorry, a Gilly, A
Gilly belly, not a Bali belly, you know, but like island belly,
(21:24):
something like that. So I consume like water.
That was not that good, I reckon.
And suddenly after, I don't know, like 4 hours, 5 hours, I
was like literally shitting myself, you know, I shat on the
bed, guys, can you even imagine?You are like dating a girl for
(21:48):
almost four months and suddenly you wake up and you shed the
bed. That was the moment that I
realized that I was completely fucked.
And my, my current wife, she actually went to to the
pharmacy, She bought medicine, she returned from our Airbnb and
(22:14):
man, she took care of me. You know, even she cleaned the
bed, bro. And that time and that, that
exactly time I knew that she wasthe one.
And now, like we are currently married eight years already and
(22:34):
everything begun with literally shitting the bed.
Thank you guys, that's the story.
Hope that you enjoyed. And that's it.
Kiss, kiss. Hey, thank you so much for
sending your story, Lucas, a change of pace from Will's story
last week. That's actually my friend of
(22:54):
mine because I live with him very, very briefly, right?
And I was first in New Zealand. Was it so brief because he was
shitting the bed? No, it was so brief because, I
mean, I mean, we were just, I arrived in New Zealand with
absolutely zero money and I justsquirmed into a house share
which Lucas lived. We stayed in touch.
We stayed in touch for quite a long time, but I am.
This is Lucas from the aforementioned crack den in
(23:17):
Auckland. Is it?
No, no, Lucas never made it to the crack den.
Lucas lived a much more luxurious life than I in New
Zealand because he figured out how to not move into a crack den
primarily. But lovely, lovely guy.
Thank you so much for saying your story.
I mean you will be able to empathize with this more than me
and I'll tell you for why, OK? I don't know if you've shit a
bed, but you've definitely had more gastrointestinal issues in
(23:40):
your life than I have. Yes, yeah.
I mean, I I can empathize, although it didn't result in
being married to the woman of mydreams.
But yeah, I have had some some very unfortunate episodes.
And you know, stews already got a mention once on this episode.
But you know, it was a time in Hong Kong where I was feeling
(24:01):
pretty bad. I got food poisoning, I think,
not from drinking water or whatever on Gilly tea.
I didn't even realize that GillyTea had a bad reputation.
For having bad water. Or for people getting sick.
I mean, lots of Ocas is Gilly belly.
Yeah, I think you've heard of barley belly.
Gilly Belly. Belly, belly.
A lot of bellies. Yeah.
I'm drinking water right now on this show that you boiled for
(24:22):
me. Yeah, and Manila has pretty good
tap water. Yeah, yeah, you just, you just
never know. But anyway, back in Hong Kong in
20, sort of 1819, I guess it would have been maybe early
2020, I ate a beetroot that I had bought from a market, from a
local market, you know, a local market, because I'm always
having the most authentic experience.
I wouldn't go to a supermarket. And I washed it.
(24:46):
I kind of cooked it in the microwave whilst I was working
in a wine bar. It was, you know, my brief sort
of 5 minutes when there was no customers.
And later that night I started feeling really cold, really
cold, like freezing, even thoughI was fully clothed as you'd
expect, but with my jacket on aswell.
In Hong Kong, even at that time,it wasn't that time of year, it
wasn't, it wasn't winter. Even in the winter, it's not
(25:07):
that cold. But I, I came down with the
chills. I couldn't even make it back to
my hostel without huddling a fewtimes in in buildings and stuff,
trying, trying to keep warm. Went to sleep that night with
the chills fully clothed with myJack Wolf skin down, jacket
zipped up and my hood on. Yeah.
Could you like, on a top bunk and then wake up in the morning?
(25:27):
And yeah, it was fairly embarrassing.
I mean, I know I had to call in Stu, bless him, to help me out.
And he went down to the local, local kanji store.
He bought me a bowl of soup, a kanji, which is like a rice
soup, pumpkin and sweet corn kanji.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
He placed it next to my head andI didn't touch it for 24 hours.
I didn't even have the strength to lift the spoon to my mouth.
(25:48):
Just 20. Sheer evocation of fecal murder.
Yeah. And do you know what this is so
embarrassing company if this going on a main episode.
But I mean, Lucas is leading by example.
Yeah, fair plays with Lucas. What an amazing story.
Thanks for sharing. It did lead.
Lead to a marriage, so he kind of styled it out.
Yeah, whereas this one, I mean, I, I spoke to Stu afterwards
after he looked after me with a couple of other people in the
(26:09):
dorm because we were long term as we couldn't get away from
each other at this point. We were bonded.
And yeah, I remember saying to them, guys, this is so
embarrassing, but I really appreciate all your help.
I did actually shit the bed and Stu said, oh, we know.
I was like, oh, how? How do you know?
He was like, Adam, we're sleeping in the same room and
you shit in the bed like. I mean, it's so much better that
(26:31):
you can stop to it rather than going like trying to stay that
out and clean the sheets, syrup digitously.
We're talking about cleaning thesheets.
I mean, hats off to Lucas's now wife.
Yeah. Is that the sort of thing that
you would just take in your stride?
I mean, imagine. They're obviously madly in love.
They've been together for a longtime now.
I've met her but I didn't realise they were married
actually, so congratulations Lucas.
(26:51):
A good friend of mine but I didn't know he was married.
That's awesome 4. Four months into the
relationship, which in travel terms, I mean that can be a
year. Really.
Yeah, easily. I always think that because when
you're travelling, you're together all the time.
Yeah. When you're in a marriage,
sometimes you can be with each other, you know, you go to work,
see each other in the evening. And, you know, like, maybe we
(27:12):
would do this or you would do this for your backpacking
friends or whatever. You're talking to people back
home or people you meet on the road and you talk about newly
formed relationship whilst you're away.
You say, yeah, things are movingreally fast.
You know, we're spending 24 hours a day with each other.
We're in each other's pockets. We're shitting the bed together.
You know, they're cleaning it upfor me.
And you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, what what's happening?
It's just an amazing development.
(27:33):
And I think once you get that sort of stuff out of the way
early and they're in, I mean, it's, it's only going to go from
strength to strength. Travel the best conduit possible
for relationships, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely beautiful.
Lucas, thank you so much for sending that story in.
We want to hear from all the tripological audience.
If you have a story to send in itstripologypodcast.com/tales of
(27:55):
a trip record your best 3 minutestory all about travel.
We've got a bunch of social links down in the description.
We've got Instagram. Instagram.
X Facebook, Gmail. We've got a website where you
can send us emails. There's all sorts of stuff going
on. Not to mention it's Patreon.
It's Patreon, the Lost and Foundsection.
That's a little 1520 minutes if you're lucky section after the
(28:18):
show where we we sort of go backto sort of old Tripology, just
chin wagging and telling storiesand talk about what happens in
our personal lives and all that sort of stuff.
The gloves are off. We go a bit on Hinge and I've
got two stories to tell in this week's Patreon Section. 1 is
about a terrible encounter with a German traveller and the other
is about Lucas, the guy who's just called in the show.
(28:39):
Oh God, telling a right mischievous lie.
And I want to talk about that because it happened to me.
It was very curious and it was one of the most mind blowing
experiences I've ever had. He said something to me, that
caller that we just listened to that changed my perception of
reality so wholeheartedly. I'm still recovering from it and
we can hear about that in the Patreon section.
(28:59):
That's patron.com/tripology podcast.
Next week though, it's going to be ever such a back and alien
event of chaos. Going to be everything kicking
off here at Tripology. We'll see you there.
We'll see you there. Cheers guys.
Bye. Bye.
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