October 25, 2025 • 29 mins
We're rocking this week! Not only did we win 'Best Travel & Adventure Podcast' at the 2025 Independent Podcast Awards, we also received a knockout Tales of a Trip entry from Harry Jaggard! Whilst visiting Northern Nigeria, Harry was roped into a bare-knuckle boxing match. Tune in to hear the full story, and make sure you watch the video... Rather him than us!
Harry's YouTube video: https://youtu.be/PzG7FMhP6ZI?si=XMWF8SjvDq3sFckK
Harry's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryjaggard
Alun's shaking in Siargao, after withstanding 31 earthquakes in the past week. We hear the latest news from the island, as well as some interesting earthquake facts.
Vagabot's off to Chiang Mai, in the latest edition of Hostel Wars. Will Alun's hostel be crowned as the most authentic or will Adam continue his winning streak?
Submit your travel stories: https://www.tripologypodcast.com/talesofatrip
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, we're coming from the future into the past to let you
know that this week we just won an independent podcasting award
in the Travel and Adventure category.
Yes, it's a really exciting timein the podcast live.
Thanks so much for everyone who's listened.
We simply could not have done itwithout you.
Thank you so much on with the show.
Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology.
(00:23):
It's the only backpacking podcast where the hosts don't
also have a daily travel vlog channel on YouTube.
Yeah, I'm Alan and I'm here withthe Tectonic Adam.
It's great to be back. Thanks everyone for joining us
again. We've got a wicked show this
week, of course, a little catch up where we're going to talk
(00:44):
about what we've been doing thisweek, what's been happening in
our respective lives, and then Vagabots back.
He's off to Chiang Mai apparently, so we've got to find
him the most authentic experience.
And then of course, we've got tales of a trip at the end where
we hear from one of you lovely guys about what you've been up
to. I'll tell you what I've been up
to this week, mate. I've been craking all over the
shop. But Oh yeah, you're taking up
dance lessons again. Yeah, there's been something in
(01:06):
the way of dance lessons. But my primary reason for
shaking and quaking and moving about is because of the, I mean,
haphazard number of earthquakes that have been taking place.
More than one, More than one earthquake.
Guess how many there's been in the last 7 days?
Well, I've got to go for #7 haven't I-77 and seven days,
mate. There's been 31 earthquakes that
(01:29):
have hit Chagao in the last 7 days.
Oh well, surely not just Chagao.The Philippines in General 31.
Very isolated, very concentrated, little quakes.
No, they've been all, they've sort of been in this region,
yeah. Oh my goodness, did you know
they were coming? You know, you've sort of got
your finger on the pulse when itcomes to that sort of stuff.
Great choice of words I've got. Every part of my body has been
(01:50):
on the pulse in one way or another.
But let me give you the stats, my friend.
In the last seven days, we've had three earthquakes above 4
magnitude 4. Yeah, including one up to
magnitude 7. We've had six above magnitude 3
and 18 above magnitude 2 and then the rest of them have just
been little micro quakes. Hang on a minute.
One at a magnitude of up to 7. I think there's one at 7, yeah.
(02:13):
Would that not have created a tsunami?
Well, it just we were on the outsquirts.
Outskirts, what you get up to inyour own time.
It's none of my business. One of them hit Cebu quite hard
and it's been quite problematic.But because Char GAO is there
just on the If you look at a map, you'll see it just on the
edge of the red ring of Earthquake Ness.
(02:35):
You'll see that it wasn't so badfor us, but my shack didn't move
quite considerably. It was the, yeah, literal Shake
Shack. So go on then talk, talk us
through it. Because I when I was in Taiwan
last year, I felt my first earthquake.
I don't know if it's your first earthquake, but mine was a
measly, I think it was a 5.1. And I didn't even know it was an
(02:57):
earthquake. Grow up.
I didn't know it was an earthquake at first.
Did did you? No, I thought that someone was
playing a kind of practical jokeand what I'd imagined.
I was lying in bed when it happened, and my initial thought
was that several sort of burly men were outside my shack and
(03:17):
rocking it back and forth. That was genuinely my initial
reaction. I was like who is rocking the
shack and more. Plausible was it than an
earthquake? Well, I just thought.
It's quite accessible, this shack, and I thought why are
people shaking the shack? Maybe there's some construction
going on, maybe someone pushed past it as yeah, I don't really
know. It's a corrugated shack, so I
reckon you could push it from side to side.
(03:40):
And then I thought, this is veryunusual, The whole foundations
of the shack are moving. I went outside and I noticed
that my driveway was moving, as was the street running alongside
my building. And it was at that moment I put
two and two together and realized this was probably an
earthquake. How?
What do you mean it was moving? Was it sort of?
The pavement was cracking. If you've never, if you've only
(04:00):
ever experienced a little earthquake, mate, you won't know
this, but it's very particular feeling of an earthquake.
And I'd never felt it before, but it sort of feels like the
whole planet underneath you is one of those little wobble
boards that you might sort of try and do Pilates on if you're
a middle-aged woman. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Go, go. OK.
(04:21):
I can imagine it. That's quite a good description.
I can imagine that now. Yeah.
It just felt like the world was sort of diving a little bit of a
different frequency. And I don't want to make light
of earthquakes. Obviously they can be terrible,
terrible disasters and wreak havoc in people's lives, but I
didn't hate it. You're working your core
(04:41):
strength where you used it as anopportunity to get ABS.
I got out there amongst, I mean this was a minor earthquake, but
I got out amongst it and I was sort of just shaking and jiving
a little bit and I am looking a little bit more toned as a
result. Yeah.
I mean, not that that's, that's definitely not my sort of
experience. When I was in Taiwan, I was in a
place called Oh, shit. So I think I was actually in a
(05:02):
place called Guangfu when this happened.
And I think there was an earthquake.
Oh, no, yeah, there was something, something bad
happened. Was it typhoon or something?
Anyway, loads of damage. One of our friends is out there
helping Joey. Big shout out to you.
Keep it up, mate. But anyway, I was there and I
remember lying on the bed as well and things started shaking
and it sounded like a huge dumper truck or something was
(05:23):
driving down the road and it wassort of rocking the building.
I thought, wow, that's a bloody big truck.
I thought it was a generator initially.
I thought they'd sort of wax up some piece of machinery, and
then it was, you know, shaking the whole building.
And then it got louder and didn't stop.
And I thought, Blimey, that's a big dumper truck.
And then it got even louder and things started falling off the
wall. And I was like, oh fuck, that's
probably an earthquake. Yeah.
I mean, they are, they have potential to cause a lot of
(05:45):
issues, earthquakes and they're,they're a pretty difficult thing
that Mother Nature likes to throw up.
And because I'd never experienced one before, and
because my initial reaction to this one was, oh, I'm interested
in you. I think I want to learn a bit
more. I started frantically Googling
about earthquakes and I was pretty surprised by the outcome
(06:06):
of my Googling. So.
Yeah, because you you only know the rhyme if you encounter a
bear, don't you? Exactly which we all know.
If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back.
If it's white, goodnight. With earthquakes, though, it's a
little bit of a different strategy.
And you strike me as being woefully ignorant as to the
quaking of the earth. So I'm going to use this
(06:27):
opportunity to educate you. How many earthquakes do you
think there are a year on this beautiful circle shaped planet?
Well, given that you've already experienced 31 in the last week,
am I able to do the mathematics?And how big do I go?
Because I don't want to rain on your parade.
I don't want to say something that's so big that ends up being
reductive. And do you don't think I could?
(06:48):
Big mate really. Go on try and derail the
podcast, yeah? How many earthquakes do I think
all over the world? Techno tectonic plates?
Doing the maths in my head. Just saying different words.
Oh, you might have volcano on our series.
Oh yeah, tectonic plates. Continental Shift.
Geology. How many did you say?
I had said 100,000. You're not far off, mate.
(07:10):
They're not far off that I would.
I would put that in the categoryof a moderate derailing.
It's only 500,000 there. Oh.
My goodness, 500,000 that's a lot of earthquakes.
That's more than one a day. They had only one fifth of those
are felt by people about a 100,000 people feel the
earthquakes. Oh, is that cool?
400,000 earthquakes a year. They go completely unnoticed and
(07:32):
I would like to use this opportunity to recognize them.
I see you said 100,000 are recognized by people.
You mean 100,000 of the earthquakes?
The way it was phrased led me tobelieve that only 100,000 people
could feel the earthquakes. Well, it's like a mutation that
those people have. Some special power.
So we're like, Oh my God, it's a5.1.
(07:53):
People are going really. I mean, you are moving a lot,
are you? You're on a date with someone.
You don't know that they have this ability and they're like,
Oh my God, what was it? I just felt an earthquake.
Your apps are so toned. OK, wow, my goodness, do.
You want to know something else?There's still a lot of
earthquakes. I said 100,000 and how would I
(08:13):
know otherwise? Well, exactly.
If only 100,000 can be felt. I try not to lie to you mate,
but let me tell you something else about earthquakes is
sometimes they have the ability to literally change time.
OK, now you got me interested. There was an earthquake in an
earthquake. There was an earthquake on
(08:34):
someone's birthday and then paidby a whole year.
There's an earthquake in 2011 inJapan, and because it was so
ferocious it started, it just very slightly changed the
Earth's axis and shortened the day by 1.8 microseconds.
(08:56):
As interesting as that is, it's negligible, isn't it?
I like to think there was someone in Japan who was doing
the whole thing, but you'll never be as young as you are
right now, and by the time they finish the census, the person
was ever so slightly younger. It's really interesting, even
though in those of earthquake digging loads of facts and
figures and stuff. Do you know where the most
earthquakes are? I think Chile is one of the most
(09:16):
earthquake able countries in theworld.
Actually, that does check out because you know when you text
me because. Everyone there has turned ABS.
No, in the first few earthquakesthat you felt, you know, I would
imagine that was the only time you bothered to tell me that you
were going through an earthquakewas in the first few when it was
still novel by the by the 25th and 26th earthquake, you
probably were just not bothered about it.
(09:37):
So. I was just sending you pictures
of my tours. Yeah.
Excited. No, no, I was.
I was with a woman at work when I received the text message.
And I told her I was like, Oh myGod, my mate's in the
Philippines and there's an earthquake.
And we were talking about earthquakes.
And then I asked her, she's she's from Chile, by the way.
(09:58):
I don't know if I just mentionedthat she's from Chile.
And I asked, she said, have you ever felt an earthquake?
And I said, yeah, last year in Taiwan, have you ever felt any?
And she said, hello, I'm from Chile.
So I, I think you're probably right.
I think there's a fair few earthquakes at Chile.
Yeah. Well, that I do think that's
true. Yeah.
So that was boring. I'm so sorry.
(10:22):
It stays in. Everything stays in nowadays.
Yeah, well, I'm sure I have empathy for her as as now an
experience of an inordinate amount of earthquakes.
The thing about an earthquake, it's been very difficult to
measure the severity of it because my experience of it has
just been my shock shaking. But my landlord texted me and
(10:42):
she was like, she was like, oh, I hope you're safe.
I hope there's no trouble. You know, if you need anything,
let me know. And he said.
He said yeah, I'll have a new water pump for coffee pot and if
you could pick to save it, it'd be brilliant.
I said, I hate to break it to you, but I'm sorry, but in the
last, in the last earthquake, because several things got quite
irreparably damaged. This is the sign from the
(11:02):
universe you've been waiting for.
It has delivered. I am the proud owner.
Now, for those of you who are wondering after last week's
episode, I am the owner of a newwater pump and a new coffee pot.
The safe door has as yet been unreported.
Aha, OK, well, I think that's good.
It's a nice. I've done a dribbling, kind of.
Situation I've gone oh. Oh, my coffee pot's broken.
(11:24):
When she came to deliver me a new coffee pot, I went.
You won't believe it. You might think that by giving
me this coffee pot, you've reintroduced the ability to make
coffee into my life, but you haven't because I ain't got any
water. Listeners of the show, if you
don't understand those references, it's a call back to
a previous episode. So what do you do then?
(11:46):
Stop, drop and roll? What's the protocols?
Get get on the floor. Get away from anything that
might fall off the wall. Well, it's not got that serious
really. Although I did Google earthquake
Chagao and there was people in forums going, is it safe to
visit Chagao right now? Is it really terrible?
And people were saying no, stay away.
So I was quite surprised to learn that it was actually there
was some evacuations, people being told to get to high ground
(12:08):
because there was the threat of a tsunami.
Wow, and how far away is your shack from the sea?
About you could probably, you could probably get to the water
if I had to. I think I could be in the sea in
30 seconds. Is it that close?
Oh my God. But I would be to do that I
(12:28):
would be running. No.
I mean, even if you weren't doing that, they're still very
close. What I'm trying to ascertain is
whether you would be engulfed bya wave or not, and I think you
probably would be. Quite good if in the Patreon
section of this episode you justrift and I tried to jump into
the sea and get back. Can we do like a live stream or
something? Maybe we'll try.
Yeah, that's not it. That's not worth a couple of
(12:49):
dollars. I don't know what it is to see
you in the Patreon section. I can't do it right now because
I'm scared of the tsunami, but in subsequent weeks, before I
leave, Shagao will do something like that, yeah.
That sounds good. There you go.
Now's the time to sign up, guys.Yeah, OK, Well, Speaking of the
Patreon section, I'd like to usethis opportunity to let people
know we have a Patreon section, the Lost and found section.
(13:10):
It's ever such a beautiful section at the end of the show,
and it costs such a minimal amount of money.
We need your support now very much more than ever to grow the
share and make it a beautiful, wonderful community.
So if you do by chance have a couple of spare dollars a month
to listen to an extra 50 minutesthe end of the episode, go ahead
patreon.com/tropology podcast. It's just a beautiful place over
(13:31):
there, and we love you very muchfor trying your best.
Now, though, Adam, we've got to hear from our favorite travel
AI, the proverbial vagaboot. Who's going to judge which
hostel it wants to stay out based on the quantitative
measure of authenticity alone? Let's battle it out, Alan.
It's hostile wars. Hostile wars.
(13:53):
OK, here we are. Hostile wars.
Vagabot, of course, our own tripological AI trained on data
from backpackers who went to Thailand on a gap year.
It just seeks the perfect, most authentic experience ever.
And by authentic, of course we mean absolute most horrendous.
Me and Adam are going to competeto find the worst reviews in
(14:15):
Chiang Mai, Thailand, and we'll see where Vagabot wants to stay.
And that hostel will be named and shamed live on air.
Adam, you are the winner of lastepisode of Hostile Wars.
You, of course, had the hostel which Vagabot chose.
I'll go first, shall I? Sure, sure.
Let's, let's hear what you got, mate.
(14:35):
Let's hear what you're going to deliver to Vagabot.
Your suggestion? See if you can become the Chiang
Mai champion. It's a place we've both been, I
believe, a place where you know and love and a place where you
absolutely want Vagabot to have an authentic experience.
Yeah, Chiang Mai. I didn't spend a whole lot of
time there, but I tried to find the worst review that I could so
that Vagabot would really get its teeth into Chiang Mai as a
(14:56):
place, and I chose a review by a25 year old Spanish traveller
who gave the hostel. I'm about to read out the review
from two stars only. Oh.
Low. Here we go.
The owners were not friendly from the beginning but after I
checked out they were just so rude.
(15:17):
I asked if I could leave my bagsuntil 6:00 PM and they agreed.
But around 4 PMI walked past thehostel and I found out there was
no one in reception and my bags were left outside on the street.
I called the owner asking for explanation and she basically
hung up on me. I have never experienced this
lack of hospitality before. Very unprofessional and rude.
(15:40):
My goodness. OK, I don't fancy my chances.
I'd be furious. I'd be livid.
You'd be livid, wouldn't you? Things like that just left
strewn across the lawn, whateverthey were.
What would you do in that situation?
I mean, there's very little in the way of recourse.
I suppose what you're going to do, call the police.
But I would be furious. Oh, the very least I would do is
go on the Internet and leave a two star review.
It's amazing that they, I mean the, the, the stain must have
(16:00):
been amazing, the comfort of thebedding must have been amazing
to have earned that extra start.Well yeah, interesting to know
your thoughts mate. When you were doing your
research a lot of bedbugs being mentioned I found in hostels in
Chiang Mai. I don't want to put a cat
amongst the pigeons. But I'm just saying if you are
going to go there, if you are going to Chiang Mai, maybe do do
read the reviews beforehand because you wouldn't want to
(16:21):
stay there. Yeah, I want to talk more about
bedbugs. I of course only experienced
them once in my whole time, but because I've avoided them for
the most part because they are the bane of the traveller.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think I'veever experienced them, and maybe
that means I actually have and I've just been completely
unaware. Maybe it's me.
Maybe I'm infecting all of the other beds?
Oh, that's nice. That's what she said.
(16:44):
That wouldn't be a nice thing tosay, would it?
At all? He infected my bed.
Grace, Grace, Grace. Yeah, they're horrible.
Anyway, moving swiftly on, I have selected the review from a
18 to 24 year old female from Finland who was also given this
Hostel A2 Star review. Let's have a read.
(17:08):
Here we go. Had a very bad experience in
this hostel. Found bedbugs in many of the
beds in two different rooms. The staff did not care about it
and did not seem to be concernedat all.
They were not helpful when we told them about the problem and
when we asked for a refund, theycompletely ignored us and they
were on their phones instead. The staff also slept in the same
room as us, which was pretty weird.
(17:29):
One morning a random woman appeared in my friend's bed.
I don't recommend staying here. Yeah, I mean, it is the cardinal
sin. They've allowed bed bugs into
the property and then they've not been proactive about it.
I don't fancy my chances in actual fact.
Well depending on what you're after a 2 star review could be
an ace or of you random people showing up in your bed and the
(17:52):
staff sleeping in the room as well.
So I mean, surely the conditionsaren't that bad, are they, if
the staff are staying there as well?
I mean, if there's bedbugs, Adam, I think that Vagabot is
going to absolutely love it. Let's, let's, I don't know.
If everyone knows what bedbugs are in the way you do, I think
people might just see an insect in a bed and think it's a
bedbug. Well, let's find out what
(18:13):
Vagabot where where Vagabot wants to stay.
Adam's Hustle. Why?
Because bed bugs are the nuclearbomb of authenticity that I'm
looking for. Once they're mentioned, it's
game over for anywhere else. Alan's review was bad service,
but Adams was legendary. Authentic backpacking at its
best. Book me in baby peace.
(18:35):
There we go Adam, you win again.Vagabot, of course, viewing
bedbugs as more of a beacon of authenticity than having his
bags left out on the street, which I don't think touches the
sides for Vagabot. Being at the perfect travel AI,
I think Vagabot probably doesn'thave much in the way of bags
anyway. What can I say, mate?
That's a couple in a row now. Yeah, I think you need to step
(18:57):
your game up. And of course, as is tradition,
I'm now going to reveal the nameof the hostel that is New Warm
Light Hostel. New Warm from light hostel in
Chiang Mai. If you want to go and have an
authentic experience in NorthernThailand, go and head there.
You're very good at choosing authentic places for Vagaboot to
stay. While it bodes well for your
ability to win at Hostel Wars, doesn't bode well if me and you
(19:19):
decide to host any tropology tours in the future.
Looking for the most authentic because we would do it in
reverse, wouldn't we? We would basically try and find
the the worst hostel and then definitely avoid that one like
the plague. Yeah, if we do do a tropology
tour, rest assured that we'll find out where Vagabot's staying
and we'll stay on the other sideof town.
(19:40):
Well, we might organise a walking tour where you can all
meet up and that sort of stuff, but there will be no better hugs
like I promise you that. The Vagabot walking tour where
you just go and look at a rubbish dump and.
There I did. I really enjoyed that mate.
I'm glad I'm I'm not going to bea sore winner.
I'm I'm really happy with the result and I was quietly
confident. What?
Is a soul winner someone just celebrating so much so they get
(20:02):
sort of intramuscular damage? They're just like, yeah, man.
Get all sore as a result. Yeah, gloats.
It's all winning someone who gloats, aren't they?
There's just someone who rubs itin the loser's face and says,
you know, there's an arrogance to them and I don't want to be
that guy. Well, I'm happy for you.
I'm happy for you winning at Hostile Wars again.
I know that you're sort of developing quite a deep
relationship with Vagabot now. The he told me that you'd be
(20:25):
messaging him quite late into the night, sharing your travel
ideas. So I'm not going to say that I'm
jealous necessarily, but you know, Vagabot should just bear
in mind that I edit him and put a voice to him.
So just, you know, maybe want togive me some flowers next week,
Vagabot. Now, though, Adam, it's time for
my favorite part of the show. And your favorite part of the
(20:46):
show? And I've been messaging a couple
of listeners. I prefer to interact with the
listeners. You prefer to interact with
Vagabond. That's just one of the key
differences between us. They've been saying it's their
favorite part of the show. I'm of course Speaking of tales
of a Trip. 3 minutes where listeners can send in their
greatest travel stories at tripology.com/tales of a Trip.
It can be. I mean, you can talk about
(21:07):
anything. You can tell me a story about
the time where you bought a coffee for a homeless gentleman
on the streets of New York City and ended up having a whistle
stop tour of Long Island. Or you could tell me about the
time where you broke into a pillow factory and just nestled
yourself in amongst all the lovely soft bedding there.
That would be nice story. 3 minutes as you like.
(21:30):
Let's hear what 1 listener had to say.
Hey guys, I hope you're well. Thank you for connecting with
me. I've got many stories, many
crazy stories to tell, but the one that comes to mind, the one
that that is better than the rest, it's the best.
Always whenever people come up to me, this is quite often I
(21:53):
speak about this and people always ask me what's the
craziest story you have? And this one is the craziest
story I have for sure. So basically I was in Nigeria.
I was in northern Nigeria, whichis known to be one of the most
dangerous parts of Nigeria. It's known to be very dangerous
for extremism there and I went to go see a bare knuckle boxing
(22:14):
match. I thought I was going to watch,
but actually what happened was Ididn't just watch.
So went with my tour guide and he sat me down.
There's a stadium of maybe 5000 people to 10,000 people, all
Nigerian. And basically these young, young
guys are just basically just punching the hell out of each
(22:35):
other with rope. They just have rope around their
hands. So actually the, the hit is
more, it hurts more with the, with the rope.
And he told me we're just going to watch.
But he said to me, my tall guy said to me, it'd be funny if
you, if you joined, you'd be thefirst ever foreigner to, to
fight. And I laughed and I said that
that would be funny. And he took that
(22:57):
miscommunication. He took that as a yes.
So all of that, I guess I've gotto take responsibility for that.
But he took that as a yes. Next minute, you know, he's, I
didn't know any of this, but I hear my name on the loudspeaker.
That's the first time I knew that I was fighting when they
when they said Harry Jaggard from England is going to fight
now. And I was rolling the camera at
that point. So I thought in the in the
(23:18):
moment, I thought it would be funny.
So I said yes. And that's I have no boxing
experience, by the way. Not, not any now now I've been
boxing, but before that I had noboxing experience.
And next minute, you know, they're tying me up with rope.
They're putting rope on my hands.
They spit water on you so you'remore like lubricated.
So you get hit. The hits don't hurt as much.
(23:40):
And then I'm in the ring and this guy's like the same height
as me. But it's a weird style of
fighting where you just, you hitwith one hand.
And he, he really went to town on me.
I said to everyone, I was like, oh, can you just make it like a,
can you make it like a easy match, like a fun exhibition
match. But he didn't get that
miscommunication again. And he's hitting me, hitting me,
(24:01):
hit me, and then he knocks me out.
I fell to the ground. I thought I was knocked out, but
didn't look in the video like I was knocked out.
But got up and they called the match off and I had a bloody
lip. And that is the last time I'll
be boxing internationally, professionally, I guess it would
be parents weren't happy about that.
Had a injury for the rest of thetrip, couldn't eat, had to eat
(24:24):
through a straw. And so I probably wouldn't
recommend it for anyone. And that's the craziest story I
have, so thank you. How's the Harry Jagger?
The crazy, crazy times they put.They tied him up with rope and
spat water out of it. Sounds like a mugging.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, as if it wasn't bad
enough already. That is my idea of of maybe a
(24:46):
nightmare. I don't think I would have ever
rope as well. As soon as Harry said rope it
just makes me wince. The cascade of events they're
going, yeah, that would be funny.
And in doing that, in acknowledging the humor of the
situation, Sir, you've agreed toa rope tying, some water
(25:07):
spitting, a punching in the face, and a week of drinking
food through a straw. Yeah, my God, talk about getting
stuck in. I mean, if you, if you haven't
seen Harry's stuff yet, of course put links in the
description, that sort of stuff to his Instagram and YouTube
channel and stuff. It's amazing, amazing content.
Absolutely love watching his stuff over the years.
Really like endearing, great interacting with locals and just
(25:30):
captures a side of travel that Idon't think many other people
do. Speaks a number of languages as
well. Just an awesome, really, really
likable guy, which almost makes this story even worse because I
can't imagine the the physical violence of, you know, even just
a sparring match with big guys from northern Nigeria with ropes
around their hand. I'm not sure I would.
(25:51):
I would even do that for for funor an excursion or even for the
don't get any ideas, Alan. I wouldn't do it for the
purposes of content. Yeah, well, I mean, let's play
some tripological reasoning withregards to this.
Let. I think that you might have a
similar reaction if a Nigerian gentleman said to you, oh you
know, it'd be really funny if you went into this bare knuckle
event. You might say, yeah, that would
(26:12):
be funny. At what point do you abjectly
make enough of a fuss to stop the cascade of event?
Well, I think, I think I don't, I'm not sure in that environment
it would already be quite strange for me to be in that
environment watching a bare knuckle boxing match.
I don't think I've seen, you know, Chiang Mai got a mentioned
earlier and I'd see a Mai Tai fighting match.
(26:33):
Exactly. So just imagine that, but in.
Africa, yeah, I would like to think that my response to that
would be yeah, that would be funny because that's quite sort
of light hearted and yeah, a good joke.
But in reality I'd be I'd be thinking there would be few
things less funny actually than me being in that ring.
I would I maybe I'll regressively, I would have put a
(26:55):
stop when I saw the the ropes coming up to me.
No, no, no, this is not you know, that is yeah, I know, I
get, I know I'm like that would be the first foreigner and
that'd be really cool and you know, you'll be really good for
the, you know, event and whatever, but I'm absolutely not
going to do it. I've just seen the previous
fights and I don't want any. I don't want any of it.
(27:16):
Thanks. So as the situation snowballed,
you would kibosh it I. Think so?
I would have to. I mean, I wouldn't.
I've never had a punch in my life, Alan.
I wouldn't know what I'm doing. I'd be so out of place.
It would be, you know, I mean, Ithink out of the two of us,
yeah, you would Would we be there together?
Maybe. And we, we could just usher.
Usher you in, perhaps? That's what I would do if I was
(27:38):
in that situation and you'd beenso stupid as to say that's that
would be funny. I think I would have to step in.
With a tour guide in that way. Yeah, if you did something like
that, I would go Adam, it's not looking good for you, mate.
I'm going to have to going to have to save you here.
But in return, consider it a sort of life and you'll have to
(28:00):
do it a podcast with me for the next 10 years.
You say funny, I'll show you fucking funny.
Adam, I'm sure for straight awaythis all guy says, oh, it'd be
funny if you stepped in and you go, yeah, that would be about
Adam, you idiot, you don't understand the Nigerian
customers at all. This is going to get out of
control. You're going to be in the ring,
you're going to get a bloody lip, you fool.
The northern Nigerians have got a very particular sense of
(28:22):
humour that I don't think you quite understand.
That's that's right up your street though, isn't it mate?
I can imagine you wanting to go to an event like that, maybe
drawing the line of being involved in one until you'd had
more boxing experience perhaps. But for anyone who hasn't seen
it jump on YouTube, I'll put thelink in the description if
there's any consolation. Harry, the video is worth it.
(28:45):
It's it's pretty rough, but I dothink it makes for great
watching. Yeah, and what a great
submission to Tales of a Trip. I think that you, more than me,
are good at sort of saying yes to experiences while you're
travelling. I don't think I'd have got in
that situation. I think I'd have been like,
absolutely not emphatically. I don't think I would have
engaged. So there you go.
(29:06):
I'd have missed out on that wonderful experience and the
wonderful accompanying video. Yeah, well, thanks ever so much
for sending in Harry. Big, big fan.
Hopefully we see you out there somewhere, mate.
We'll have to do something in the future.
And I think that's pretty much it mate, isn't it?
I think we're going to shoot offinto the Patreon section now.
Yeah, the Patreon section, the Lost and Found section.
Go to patreon.com/topology podcast if you want to hear that
(29:26):
little bonus 15 minutes, the endof the episode.
But for now, send in your Tales of the Trip stories and we'll
see you all next week. Thanks for watching.
We'll see you there. Bye.
Hey, we're coming from the future into the past to let you
know that this week we just won an independent podcasting award
in the Travel and Adventure category.
Yes, it's a really exciting timein the podcast live.
Thanks so much for everyone who's listened.
We simply could not have done itwithout you.
Thank you so much on with the show.
Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology.
(00:23):
It's the only backpacking podcast where the hosts don't
also have a daily travel vlog channel on YouTube.
Yeah, I'm Alan and I'm here withthe Tectonic Adam.
It's great to be back. Thanks everyone for joining us
again. We've got a wicked show this
week, of course, a little catch up where we're going to talk
(00:44):
about what we've been doing thisweek, what's been happening in
our respective lives, and then Vagabots back.
He's off to Chiang Mai apparently, so we've got to find
him the most authentic experience.
And then of course, we've got tales of a trip at the end where
we hear from one of you lovely guys about what you've been up
to. I'll tell you what I've been up
to this week, mate. I've been craking all over the
shop. But Oh yeah, you're taking up
dance lessons again. Yeah, there's been something in
(01:06):
the way of dance lessons. But my primary reason for
shaking and quaking and moving about is because of the, I mean,
haphazard number of earthquakes that have been taking place.
More than one, More than one earthquake.
Guess how many there's been in the last 7 days?
Well, I've got to go for #7 haven't I-77 and seven days,
mate. There's been 31 earthquakes that
(01:29):
have hit Chagao in the last 7 days.
Oh well, surely not just Chagao.The Philippines in General 31.
Very isolated, very concentrated, little quakes.
No, they've been all, they've sort of been in this region,
yeah. Oh my goodness, did you know
they were coming? You know, you've sort of got
your finger on the pulse when itcomes to that sort of stuff.
Great choice of words I've got. Every part of my body has been
(01:50):
on the pulse in one way or another.
But let me give you the stats, my friend.
In the last seven days, we've had three earthquakes above 4
magnitude 4. Yeah, including one up to
magnitude 7. We've had six above magnitude 3
and 18 above magnitude 2 and then the rest of them have just
been little micro quakes. Hang on a minute.
One at a magnitude of up to 7. I think there's one at 7, yeah.
(02:13):
Would that not have created a tsunami?
Well, it just we were on the outsquirts.
Outskirts, what you get up to inyour own time.
It's none of my business. One of them hit Cebu quite hard
and it's been quite problematic.But because Char GAO is there
just on the If you look at a map, you'll see it just on the
edge of the red ring of Earthquake Ness.
(02:35):
You'll see that it wasn't so badfor us, but my shack didn't move
quite considerably. It was the, yeah, literal Shake
Shack. So go on then talk, talk us
through it. Because I when I was in Taiwan
last year, I felt my first earthquake.
I don't know if it's your first earthquake, but mine was a
measly, I think it was a 5.1. And I didn't even know it was an
(02:57):
earthquake. Grow up.
I didn't know it was an earthquake at first.
Did did you? No, I thought that someone was
playing a kind of practical jokeand what I'd imagined.
I was lying in bed when it happened, and my initial thought
was that several sort of burly men were outside my shack and
(03:17):
rocking it back and forth. That was genuinely my initial
reaction. I was like who is rocking the
shack and more. Plausible was it than an
earthquake? Well, I just thought.
It's quite accessible, this shack, and I thought why are
people shaking the shack? Maybe there's some construction
going on, maybe someone pushed past it as yeah, I don't really
know. It's a corrugated shack, so I
reckon you could push it from side to side.
(03:40):
And then I thought, this is veryunusual, The whole foundations
of the shack are moving. I went outside and I noticed
that my driveway was moving, as was the street running alongside
my building. And it was at that moment I put
two and two together and realized this was probably an
earthquake. How?
What do you mean it was moving? Was it sort of?
The pavement was cracking. If you've never, if you've only
(04:00):
ever experienced a little earthquake, mate, you won't know
this, but it's very particular feeling of an earthquake.
And I'd never felt it before, but it sort of feels like the
whole planet underneath you is one of those little wobble
boards that you might sort of try and do Pilates on if you're
a middle-aged woman. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Go, go. OK.
(04:21):
I can imagine it. That's quite a good description.
I can imagine that now. Yeah.
It just felt like the world was sort of diving a little bit of a
different frequency. And I don't want to make light
of earthquakes. Obviously they can be terrible,
terrible disasters and wreak havoc in people's lives, but I
didn't hate it. You're working your core
(04:41):
strength where you used it as anopportunity to get ABS.
I got out there amongst, I mean this was a minor earthquake, but
I got out amongst it and I was sort of just shaking and jiving
a little bit and I am looking a little bit more toned as a
result. Yeah.
I mean, not that that's, that's definitely not my sort of
experience. When I was in Taiwan, I was in a
place called Oh, shit. So I think I was actually in a
(05:02):
place called Guangfu when this happened.
And I think there was an earthquake.
Oh, no, yeah, there was something, something bad
happened. Was it typhoon or something?
Anyway, loads of damage. One of our friends is out there
helping Joey. Big shout out to you.
Keep it up, mate. But anyway, I was there and I
remember lying on the bed as well and things started shaking
and it sounded like a huge dumper truck or something was
(05:23):
driving down the road and it wassort of rocking the building.
I thought, wow, that's a bloody big truck.
I thought it was a generator initially.
I thought they'd sort of wax up some piece of machinery, and
then it was, you know, shaking the whole building.
And then it got louder and didn't stop.
And I thought, Blimey, that's a big dumper truck.
And then it got even louder and things started falling off the
wall. And I was like, oh fuck, that's
probably an earthquake. Yeah.
I mean, they are, they have potential to cause a lot of
(05:45):
issues, earthquakes and they're,they're a pretty difficult thing
that Mother Nature likes to throw up.
And because I'd never experienced one before, and
because my initial reaction to this one was, oh, I'm interested
in you. I think I want to learn a bit
more. I started frantically Googling
about earthquakes and I was pretty surprised by the outcome
(06:06):
of my Googling. So.
Yeah, because you you only know the rhyme if you encounter a
bear, don't you? Exactly which we all know.
If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back.
If it's white, goodnight. With earthquakes, though, it's a
little bit of a different strategy.
And you strike me as being woefully ignorant as to the
quaking of the earth. So I'm going to use this
(06:27):
opportunity to educate you. How many earthquakes do you
think there are a year on this beautiful circle shaped planet?
Well, given that you've already experienced 31 in the last week,
am I able to do the mathematics?And how big do I go?
Because I don't want to rain on your parade.
I don't want to say something that's so big that ends up being
reductive. And do you don't think I could?
(06:48):
Big mate really. Go on try and derail the
podcast, yeah? How many earthquakes do I think
all over the world? Techno tectonic plates?
Doing the maths in my head. Just saying different words.
Oh, you might have volcano on our series.
Oh yeah, tectonic plates. Continental Shift.
Geology. How many did you say?
I had said 100,000. You're not far off, mate.
(07:10):
They're not far off that I would.
I would put that in the categoryof a moderate derailing.
It's only 500,000 there. Oh.
My goodness, 500,000 that's a lot of earthquakes.
That's more than one a day. They had only one fifth of those
are felt by people about a 100,000 people feel the
earthquakes. Oh, is that cool?
400,000 earthquakes a year. They go completely unnoticed and
(07:32):
I would like to use this opportunity to recognize them.
I see you said 100,000 are recognized by people.
You mean 100,000 of the earthquakes?
The way it was phrased led me tobelieve that only 100,000 people
could feel the earthquakes. Well, it's like a mutation that
those people have. Some special power.
So we're like, Oh my God, it's a5.1.
(07:53):
People are going really. I mean, you are moving a lot,
are you? You're on a date with someone.
You don't know that they have this ability and they're like,
Oh my God, what was it? I just felt an earthquake.
Your apps are so toned. OK, wow, my goodness, do.
You want to know something else?There's still a lot of
earthquakes. I said 100,000 and how would I
(08:13):
know otherwise? Well, exactly.
If only 100,000 can be felt. I try not to lie to you mate,
but let me tell you something else about earthquakes is
sometimes they have the ability to literally change time.
OK, now you got me interested. There was an earthquake in an
earthquake. There was an earthquake on
(08:34):
someone's birthday and then paidby a whole year.
There's an earthquake in 2011 inJapan, and because it was so
ferocious it started, it just very slightly changed the
Earth's axis and shortened the day by 1.8 microseconds.
(08:56):
As interesting as that is, it's negligible, isn't it?
I like to think there was someone in Japan who was doing
the whole thing, but you'll never be as young as you are
right now, and by the time they finish the census, the person
was ever so slightly younger. It's really interesting, even
though in those of earthquake digging loads of facts and
figures and stuff. Do you know where the most
earthquakes are? I think Chile is one of the most
(09:16):
earthquake able countries in theworld.
Actually, that does check out because you know when you text
me because. Everyone there has turned ABS.
No, in the first few earthquakesthat you felt, you know, I would
imagine that was the only time you bothered to tell me that you
were going through an earthquakewas in the first few when it was
still novel by the by the 25th and 26th earthquake, you
probably were just not bothered about it.
(09:37):
So. I was just sending you pictures
of my tours. Yeah.
Excited. No, no, I was.
I was with a woman at work when I received the text message.
And I told her I was like, Oh myGod, my mate's in the
Philippines and there's an earthquake.
And we were talking about earthquakes.
And then I asked her, she's she's from Chile, by the way.
(09:58):
I don't know if I just mentionedthat she's from Chile.
And I asked, she said, have you ever felt an earthquake?
And I said, yeah, last year in Taiwan, have you ever felt any?
And she said, hello, I'm from Chile.
So I, I think you're probably right.
I think there's a fair few earthquakes at Chile.
Yeah. Well, that I do think that's
true. Yeah.
So that was boring. I'm so sorry.
(10:22):
It stays in. Everything stays in nowadays.
Yeah, well, I'm sure I have empathy for her as as now an
experience of an inordinate amount of earthquakes.
The thing about an earthquake, it's been very difficult to
measure the severity of it because my experience of it has
just been my shock shaking. But my landlord texted me and
(10:42):
she was like, she was like, oh, I hope you're safe.
I hope there's no trouble. You know, if you need anything,
let me know. And he said.
He said yeah, I'll have a new water pump for coffee pot and if
you could pick to save it, it'd be brilliant.
I said, I hate to break it to you, but I'm sorry, but in the
last, in the last earthquake, because several things got quite
irreparably damaged. This is the sign from the
(11:02):
universe you've been waiting for.
It has delivered. I am the proud owner.
Now, for those of you who are wondering after last week's
episode, I am the owner of a newwater pump and a new coffee pot.
The safe door has as yet been unreported.
Aha, OK, well, I think that's good.
It's a nice. I've done a dribbling, kind of.
Situation I've gone oh. Oh, my coffee pot's broken.
(11:24):
When she came to deliver me a new coffee pot, I went.
You won't believe it. You might think that by giving
me this coffee pot, you've reintroduced the ability to make
coffee into my life, but you haven't because I ain't got any
water. Listeners of the show, if you
don't understand those references, it's a call back to
a previous episode. So what do you do then?
(11:46):
Stop, drop and roll? What's the protocols?
Get get on the floor. Get away from anything that
might fall off the wall. Well, it's not got that serious
really. Although I did Google earthquake
Chagao and there was people in forums going, is it safe to
visit Chagao right now? Is it really terrible?
And people were saying no, stay away.
So I was quite surprised to learn that it was actually there
was some evacuations, people being told to get to high ground
(12:08):
because there was the threat of a tsunami.
Wow, and how far away is your shack from the sea?
About you could probably, you could probably get to the water
if I had to. I think I could be in the sea in
30 seconds. Is it that close?
Oh my God. But I would be to do that I
(12:28):
would be running. No.
I mean, even if you weren't doing that, they're still very
close. What I'm trying to ascertain is
whether you would be engulfed bya wave or not, and I think you
probably would be. Quite good if in the Patreon
section of this episode you justrift and I tried to jump into
the sea and get back. Can we do like a live stream or
something? Maybe we'll try.
Yeah, that's not it. That's not worth a couple of
(12:49):
dollars. I don't know what it is to see
you in the Patreon section. I can't do it right now because
I'm scared of the tsunami, but in subsequent weeks, before I
leave, Shagao will do something like that, yeah.
That sounds good. There you go.
Now's the time to sign up, guys.Yeah, OK, Well, Speaking of the
Patreon section, I'd like to usethis opportunity to let people
know we have a Patreon section, the Lost and found section.
(13:10):
It's ever such a beautiful section at the end of the show,
and it costs such a minimal amount of money.
We need your support now very much more than ever to grow the
share and make it a beautiful, wonderful community.
So if you do by chance have a couple of spare dollars a month
to listen to an extra 50 minutesthe end of the episode, go ahead
patreon.com/tropology podcast. It's just a beautiful place over
(13:31):
there, and we love you very muchfor trying your best.
Now, though, Adam, we've got to hear from our favorite travel
AI, the proverbial vagaboot. Who's going to judge which
hostel it wants to stay out based on the quantitative
measure of authenticity alone? Let's battle it out, Alan.
It's hostile wars. Hostile wars.
(13:53):
OK, here we are. Hostile wars.
Vagabot, of course, our own tripological AI trained on data
from backpackers who went to Thailand on a gap year.
It just seeks the perfect, most authentic experience ever.
And by authentic, of course we mean absolute most horrendous.
Me and Adam are going to competeto find the worst reviews in
(14:15):
Chiang Mai, Thailand, and we'll see where Vagabot wants to stay.
And that hostel will be named and shamed live on air.
Adam, you are the winner of lastepisode of Hostile Wars.
You, of course, had the hostel which Vagabot chose.
I'll go first, shall I? Sure, sure.
Let's, let's hear what you got, mate.
(14:35):
Let's hear what you're going to deliver to Vagabot.
Your suggestion? See if you can become the Chiang
Mai champion. It's a place we've both been, I
believe, a place where you know and love and a place where you
absolutely want Vagabot to have an authentic experience.
Yeah, Chiang Mai. I didn't spend a whole lot of
time there, but I tried to find the worst review that I could so
that Vagabot would really get its teeth into Chiang Mai as a
(14:56):
place, and I chose a review by a25 year old Spanish traveller
who gave the hostel. I'm about to read out the review
from two stars only. Oh.
Low. Here we go.
The owners were not friendly from the beginning but after I
checked out they were just so rude.
(15:17):
I asked if I could leave my bagsuntil 6:00 PM and they agreed.
But around 4 PMI walked past thehostel and I found out there was
no one in reception and my bags were left outside on the street.
I called the owner asking for explanation and she basically
hung up on me. I have never experienced this
lack of hospitality before. Very unprofessional and rude.
(15:40):
My goodness. OK, I don't fancy my chances.
I'd be furious. I'd be livid.
You'd be livid, wouldn't you? Things like that just left
strewn across the lawn, whateverthey were.
What would you do in that situation?
I mean, there's very little in the way of recourse.
I suppose what you're going to do, call the police.
But I would be furious. Oh, the very least I would do is
go on the Internet and leave a two star review.
It's amazing that they, I mean the, the, the stain must have
(16:00):
been amazing, the comfort of thebedding must have been amazing
to have earned that extra start.Well yeah, interesting to know
your thoughts mate. When you were doing your
research a lot of bedbugs being mentioned I found in hostels in
Chiang Mai. I don't want to put a cat
amongst the pigeons. But I'm just saying if you are
going to go there, if you are going to Chiang Mai, maybe do do
read the reviews beforehand because you wouldn't want to
(16:21):
stay there. Yeah, I want to talk more about
bedbugs. I of course only experienced
them once in my whole time, but because I've avoided them for
the most part because they are the bane of the traveller.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think I'veever experienced them, and maybe
that means I actually have and I've just been completely
unaware. Maybe it's me.
Maybe I'm infecting all of the other beds?
Oh, that's nice. That's what she said.
(16:44):
That wouldn't be a nice thing tosay, would it?
At all? He infected my bed.
Grace, Grace, Grace. Yeah, they're horrible.
Anyway, moving swiftly on, I have selected the review from a
18 to 24 year old female from Finland who was also given this
Hostel A2 Star review. Let's have a read.
(17:08):
Here we go. Had a very bad experience in
this hostel. Found bedbugs in many of the
beds in two different rooms. The staff did not care about it
and did not seem to be concernedat all.
They were not helpful when we told them about the problem and
when we asked for a refund, theycompletely ignored us and they
were on their phones instead. The staff also slept in the same
room as us, which was pretty weird.
(17:29):
One morning a random woman appeared in my friend's bed.
I don't recommend staying here. Yeah, I mean, it is the cardinal
sin. They've allowed bed bugs into
the property and then they've not been proactive about it.
I don't fancy my chances in actual fact.
Well depending on what you're after a 2 star review could be
an ace or of you random people showing up in your bed and the
(17:52):
staff sleeping in the room as well.
So I mean, surely the conditionsaren't that bad, are they, if
the staff are staying there as well?
I mean, if there's bedbugs, Adam, I think that Vagabot is
going to absolutely love it. Let's, let's, I don't know.
If everyone knows what bedbugs are in the way you do, I think
people might just see an insect in a bed and think it's a
bedbug. Well, let's find out what
(18:13):
Vagabot where where Vagabot wants to stay.
Adam's Hustle. Why?
Because bed bugs are the nuclearbomb of authenticity that I'm
looking for. Once they're mentioned, it's
game over for anywhere else. Alan's review was bad service,
but Adams was legendary. Authentic backpacking at its
best. Book me in baby peace.
(18:35):
There we go Adam, you win again.Vagabot, of course, viewing
bedbugs as more of a beacon of authenticity than having his
bags left out on the street, which I don't think touches the
sides for Vagabot. Being at the perfect travel AI,
I think Vagabot probably doesn'thave much in the way of bags
anyway. What can I say, mate?
That's a couple in a row now. Yeah, I think you need to step
(18:57):
your game up. And of course, as is tradition,
I'm now going to reveal the nameof the hostel that is New Warm
Light Hostel. New Warm from light hostel in
Chiang Mai. If you want to go and have an
authentic experience in NorthernThailand, go and head there.
You're very good at choosing authentic places for Vagaboot to
stay. While it bodes well for your
ability to win at Hostel Wars, doesn't bode well if me and you
(19:19):
decide to host any tropology tours in the future.
Looking for the most authentic because we would do it in
reverse, wouldn't we? We would basically try and find
the the worst hostel and then definitely avoid that one like
the plague. Yeah, if we do do a tropology
tour, rest assured that we'll find out where Vagabot's staying
and we'll stay on the other sideof town.
(19:40):
Well, we might organise a walking tour where you can all
meet up and that sort of stuff, but there will be no better hugs
like I promise you that. The Vagabot walking tour where
you just go and look at a rubbish dump and.
There I did. I really enjoyed that mate.
I'm glad I'm I'm not going to bea sore winner.
I'm I'm really happy with the result and I was quietly
confident. What?
Is a soul winner someone just celebrating so much so they get
(20:02):
sort of intramuscular damage? They're just like, yeah, man.
Get all sore as a result. Yeah, gloats.
It's all winning someone who gloats, aren't they?
There's just someone who rubs itin the loser's face and says,
you know, there's an arrogance to them and I don't want to be
that guy. Well, I'm happy for you.
I'm happy for you winning at Hostile Wars again.
I know that you're sort of developing quite a deep
relationship with Vagabot now. The he told me that you'd be
(20:25):
messaging him quite late into the night, sharing your travel
ideas. So I'm not going to say that I'm
jealous necessarily, but you know, Vagabot should just bear
in mind that I edit him and put a voice to him.
So just, you know, maybe want togive me some flowers next week,
Vagabot. Now, though, Adam, it's time for
my favorite part of the show. And your favorite part of the
(20:46):
show? And I've been messaging a couple
of listeners. I prefer to interact with the
listeners. You prefer to interact with
Vagabond. That's just one of the key
differences between us. They've been saying it's their
favorite part of the show. I'm of course Speaking of tales
of a Trip. 3 minutes where listeners can send in their
greatest travel stories at tripology.com/tales of a Trip.
It can be. I mean, you can talk about
(21:07):
anything. You can tell me a story about
the time where you bought a coffee for a homeless gentleman
on the streets of New York City and ended up having a whistle
stop tour of Long Island. Or you could tell me about the
time where you broke into a pillow factory and just nestled
yourself in amongst all the lovely soft bedding there.
That would be nice story. 3 minutes as you like.
(21:30):
Let's hear what 1 listener had to say.
Hey guys, I hope you're well. Thank you for connecting with
me. I've got many stories, many
crazy stories to tell, but the one that comes to mind, the one
that that is better than the rest, it's the best.
Always whenever people come up to me, this is quite often I
(21:53):
speak about this and people always ask me what's the
craziest story you have? And this one is the craziest
story I have for sure. So basically I was in Nigeria.
I was in northern Nigeria, whichis known to be one of the most
dangerous parts of Nigeria. It's known to be very dangerous
for extremism there and I went to go see a bare knuckle boxing
(22:14):
match. I thought I was going to watch,
but actually what happened was Ididn't just watch.
So went with my tour guide and he sat me down.
There's a stadium of maybe 5000 people to 10,000 people, all
Nigerian. And basically these young, young
guys are just basically just punching the hell out of each
(22:35):
other with rope. They just have rope around their
hands. So actually the, the hit is
more, it hurts more with the, with the rope.
And he told me we're just going to watch.
But he said to me, my tall guy said to me, it'd be funny if
you, if you joined, you'd be thefirst ever foreigner to, to
fight. And I laughed and I said that
that would be funny. And he took that
(22:57):
miscommunication. He took that as a yes.
So all of that, I guess I've gotto take responsibility for that.
But he took that as a yes. Next minute, you know, he's, I
didn't know any of this, but I hear my name on the loudspeaker.
That's the first time I knew that I was fighting when they
when they said Harry Jaggard from England is going to fight
now. And I was rolling the camera at
that point. So I thought in the in the
(23:18):
moment, I thought it would be funny.
So I said yes. And that's I have no boxing
experience, by the way. Not, not any now now I've been
boxing, but before that I had noboxing experience.
And next minute, you know, they're tying me up with rope.
They're putting rope on my hands.
They spit water on you so you'remore like lubricated.
So you get hit. The hits don't hurt as much.
(23:40):
And then I'm in the ring and this guy's like the same height
as me. But it's a weird style of
fighting where you just, you hitwith one hand.
And he, he really went to town on me.
I said to everyone, I was like, oh, can you just make it like a,
can you make it like a easy match, like a fun exhibition
match. But he didn't get that
miscommunication again. And he's hitting me, hitting me,
(24:01):
hit me, and then he knocks me out.
I fell to the ground. I thought I was knocked out, but
didn't look in the video like I was knocked out.
But got up and they called the match off and I had a bloody
lip. And that is the last time I'll
be boxing internationally, professionally, I guess it would
be parents weren't happy about that.
Had a injury for the rest of thetrip, couldn't eat, had to eat
(24:24):
through a straw. And so I probably wouldn't
recommend it for anyone. And that's the craziest story I
have, so thank you. How's the Harry Jagger?
The crazy, crazy times they put.They tied him up with rope and
spat water out of it. Sounds like a mugging.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, as if it wasn't bad
enough already. That is my idea of of maybe a
(24:46):
nightmare. I don't think I would have ever
rope as well. As soon as Harry said rope it
just makes me wince. The cascade of events they're
going, yeah, that would be funny.
And in doing that, in acknowledging the humor of the
situation, Sir, you've agreed toa rope tying, some water
(25:07):
spitting, a punching in the face, and a week of drinking
food through a straw. Yeah, my God, talk about getting
stuck in. I mean, if you, if you haven't
seen Harry's stuff yet, of course put links in the
description, that sort of stuff to his Instagram and YouTube
channel and stuff. It's amazing, amazing content.
Absolutely love watching his stuff over the years.
Really like endearing, great interacting with locals and just
(25:30):
captures a side of travel that Idon't think many other people
do. Speaks a number of languages as
well. Just an awesome, really, really
likable guy, which almost makes this story even worse because I
can't imagine the the physical violence of, you know, even just
a sparring match with big guys from northern Nigeria with ropes
around their hand. I'm not sure I would.
(25:51):
I would even do that for for funor an excursion or even for the
don't get any ideas, Alan. I wouldn't do it for the
purposes of content. Yeah, well, I mean, let's play
some tripological reasoning withregards to this.
Let. I think that you might have a
similar reaction if a Nigerian gentleman said to you, oh you
know, it'd be really funny if you went into this bare knuckle
event. You might say, yeah, that would
(26:12):
be funny. At what point do you abjectly
make enough of a fuss to stop the cascade of event?
Well, I think, I think I don't, I'm not sure in that environment
it would already be quite strange for me to be in that
environment watching a bare knuckle boxing match.
I don't think I've seen, you know, Chiang Mai got a mentioned
earlier and I'd see a Mai Tai fighting match.
(26:33):
Exactly. So just imagine that, but in.
Africa, yeah, I would like to think that my response to that
would be yeah, that would be funny because that's quite sort
of light hearted and yeah, a good joke.
But in reality I'd be I'd be thinking there would be few
things less funny actually than me being in that ring.
I would I maybe I'll regressively, I would have put a
(26:55):
stop when I saw the the ropes coming up to me.
No, no, no, this is not you know, that is yeah, I know, I
get, I know I'm like that would be the first foreigner and
that'd be really cool and you know, you'll be really good for
the, you know, event and whatever, but I'm absolutely not
going to do it. I've just seen the previous
fights and I don't want any. I don't want any of it.
(27:16):
Thanks. So as the situation snowballed,
you would kibosh it I. Think so?
I would have to. I mean, I wouldn't.
I've never had a punch in my life, Alan.
I wouldn't know what I'm doing. I'd be so out of place.
It would be, you know, I mean, Ithink out of the two of us,
yeah, you would Would we be there together?
Maybe. And we, we could just usher.
Usher you in, perhaps? That's what I would do if I was
(27:38):
in that situation and you'd beenso stupid as to say that's that
would be funny. I think I would have to step in.
With a tour guide in that way. Yeah, if you did something like
that, I would go Adam, it's not looking good for you, mate.
I'm going to have to going to have to save you here.
But in return, consider it a sort of life and you'll have to
(28:00):
do it a podcast with me for the next 10 years.
You say funny, I'll show you fucking funny.
Adam, I'm sure for straight awaythis all guy says, oh, it'd be
funny if you stepped in and you go, yeah, that would be about
Adam, you idiot, you don't understand the Nigerian
customers at all. This is going to get out of
control. You're going to be in the ring,
you're going to get a bloody lip, you fool.
The northern Nigerians have got a very particular sense of
(28:22):
humour that I don't think you quite understand.
That's that's right up your street though, isn't it mate?
I can imagine you wanting to go to an event like that, maybe
drawing the line of being involved in one until you'd had
more boxing experience perhaps. But for anyone who hasn't seen
it jump on YouTube, I'll put thelink in the description if
there's any consolation. Harry, the video is worth it.
(28:45):
It's it's pretty rough, but I dothink it makes for great
watching. Yeah, and what a great
submission to Tales of a Trip. I think that you, more than me,
are good at sort of saying yes to experiences while you're
travelling. I don't think I'd have got in
that situation. I think I'd have been like,
absolutely not emphatically. I don't think I would have
engaged. So there you go.
(29:06):
I'd have missed out on that wonderful experience and the
wonderful accompanying video. Yeah, well, thanks ever so much
for sending in Harry. Big, big fan.
Hopefully we see you out there somewhere, mate.
We'll have to do something in the future.
And I think that's pretty much it mate, isn't it?
I think we're going to shoot offinto the Patreon section now.
Yeah, the Patreon section, the Lost and Found section.
Go to patreon.com/topology podcast if you want to hear that
(29:26):
little bonus 15 minutes, the endof the episode.
But for now, send in your Tales of the Trip stories and we'll
see you all next week. Thanks for watching.
We'll see you there. Bye.
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