The Matt Chambers Show
Welcome to The Matt Chambers Show, where we explore the world of traveling, living and doing business internationally. Hosted by Matt Chambers, this podcast connects people, places, and ideas, offering inspiring stories and practical insights to help you design a life beyond borders. Whether you're seeking adventure, remote work tips, retirement ideas, or entrepreneurial guidance, each episode brings you closer to turning your global dreams into reality.
The Matt Chambers Show
Passport Journeys: Secrets From A Travel Hacker
Ever wondered how holding multiple passports can transform your travel experiences? Join me, Matt Chambers, as I chat with a seasoned traveler who's explored 70 countries and is currently on the path to Canadian residency. We uncover the art of travel and passport strategies in our ever-changing world, exploring the freedom and opportunities brought by cross-cultural connections. From my adventures in Latin America and the United States to the intriguing prospect of residency in Paraguay, this episode offers insights into diverse travel paths, whether you're planning a local stint or eyeing remote work.
Bolivia, with its breathtaking salt flats and vibrant cities like La Paz and Sucre, comes alive in our conversation. Discover why it's a top pick for budget-conscious adventurers, as we share tales of biking down Death Road, visiting Potosi's silver mines, and navigating the cultural richness of Lake Titicaca. Personal anecdotes highlight the unique rituals and experiences that make Bolivia a treasure trove of natural beauty and cultural depth. If Bolivia isn't on your travel radar yet, it certainly will be after tuning in.
The journey doesn't stop there. We traverse the enchanting landscapes of South America and Southeast Asia, reflecting on memorable backpacking experiences. From the iconic Inca Trail and the charming streets of Cusco to the hidden gems of non-tourist areas in Southeast Asia, we discuss the joys and challenges of traveling off the beaten path. With budget travel tips and stories of sleeping on overnight trains to living in camper vans, this episode is packed with insights for both adventurers and planners. Whether you're a digital nomad or a weekend warrior, prepare to embrace the unknown and seek authenticity in every journey.
Hello and welcome to Matt Chambers Connects, a podcast hosted by Matt Chambers. This is the podcast that transcends boundaries, empowers cross-cultural connections and fosters a more connected world. I'm your host, matt Chambers, and I invite you to join us on this quest to expand our understanding and build bridges between my two favorite places on the planet Latin America and the United States. I've been traveling, living and doing business in Latin America for nearly two decades. You know you've been doing some traveling man, which is why I wanted to bring you on the show and I saw your profile and you've been to like 70 countries and I'm like man, I have to have this guy.
Speaker 2:I thought I'd done a lot right.
Speaker 1:I've maybe done 30, like somewhere between 25 and 30, I believe. Which you know, compared to a regular Joe, it's quite a lot of traffic and within those 25 to 30 countries I've seen a ton of cities in between. But when I saw your profile and it said 70 countries, you know, that's an excellent level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a journey almost a decade right, so it's not been like quick succession. But yeah, I had a year trip last year, so that kind of added to the account quite a bit.
Speaker 1:So yeah, is that kind of what you're doing? Do you do um? You know everyone has their different style of how they make it happen. Or you um I know you're monetizing the podcast and then, um, you're you just getting remote work, or do you just go back and work for a couple years and then hit the trail for a year or what's?
Speaker 2:your strategy? The strategy has been just work locally two, three years, maybe less, and then quit the job and go. But this year is a bit different because we're trying to get the passport for Canada. So we have to be here probably for like 18 months. So we're probably halfway through that. So we might as well get a normal job. If you're staying here, you might as well just work a normal job and wait for that passport to come through. So I don't think we'll be free, in a sense, until next summer and then we'll decide what to do. So you're in Canada now, yeah, at the minute. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You're in Vancouver, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of want the two passports because I want two options. So I thought if I get that ticked off, that's good options in the future. And then, yeah, we'll see what happens in in late next year. But I think there's another trip coming, but only only if we earn money on the road, not not quit jobs and have no income. I think those days are over are you looking?
Speaker 1:into any remote work at all, I mean, there's that'll be the in the future. Yeah, yeah, yeah um, so yeah, so you're trying to get your. I mean, you're Australian originally, right?
Speaker 2:UK English.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're UK, I get this mixed up man, as an American, I get those accents mixed up. So you're from the UK and you're trying to get a Canadian passport as well, huh.
Speaker 2:Yes, because you might think oh, what's the point? Point, because they're kind of similar. But actually the britain leaving the eu makes it difficult to stay in the eu for a longer period of time. So the rule now, which for most other countries is three months at six, you can be in in the eu, but that's it. You can't stay over 90 days out of 180. But if you have a second passport you can just leave the eu, go to uk for a weekend and then come back on the other passport, so you can be there for six months and then the whole year.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know if you follow that guy. There's a guy on youtube that talks about having multiple passports and uh well I mean, there's many people. The guy nomad capitalist, he, he kind of has pretty boring. His content is so boring it's like accounting content.
Speaker 2:But hey, he has a lot of followers.
Speaker 1:It's like 800,000 followers or something that he's always talking about Buying property. He has a lot of property around the world. Very interesting the way that he set up his business. I don't want to take anything away from him at all, I just I and I think what he does is perfect for the customer base that he gives after. He's always talking about having you know, 10 different passports and all this stuff. So yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know one that I want to get actually is Paraguay in South America.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've done any research. Oh no, south america. I don't know if you've done any research oh no, I haven't. No, what's good about that? You should look into it, because south america has the americosor uh group, which is a conglomerate of, you know, 10 12 countries in south america that have come together to. You know they work together on a lot of trade and business stuff.
Speaker 1:So if you are a resident of any one of those countries, you can freely travel, do business, work, study whatever in any one of those countries. You can freely travel, do business, work, study whatever In any of the other countries with just your ID. You don't have to have a passport or anything. And Paraguay is, I think. Personally, I think it's the best one to have, because they don't charge you any taxes for any money that you make outside the country and any money that you make inside their country is only 10%.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it only takes like two days to get the residency. Like fly down for a day or two and apply for the residency and my friend said, within like 48 hours to maximum, like two weeks max, you have the residency and then, boom, you jet out and there's no minimum stay requirements where you don't have to really ever come back that's crazy, it's crazy and you know my friend. Uh, I was planning on going last year to check it out. Uh, I've been wanting to go for a few years to check it out actually but out of nowhere.
Speaker 1:One of my buddies that I met in columbia. I called him a couple months ago. I was like where are you? Are you? He was like Paraguay.
Speaker 2:I'm like why he's like I'm checking out this residency down here.
Speaker 1:We've been talking about that for the last couple months. I think he got it now. He just went back about a month ago. Definitely check that out, because it gives you access to any of those Mercosur countries with just an ID.
Speaker 2:That countries with just an ID. That's an unbelievable tip. That is.
Speaker 1:I'm about to do a podcast episode on it. That's mental. You get Colombia, brazil. I think they mix Venezuela, but there's a ton of South American countries like Bolivia, chile, a bunch of them you can go to and freely work, travel Out of your 70 countries. Can you even pinpoint what you know, your top two and three are yeah, I get asked that a lot.
Speaker 2:Um, I probably do change it every day, but I do put bolivia in there. That's the, that's in the top three. Yeah, yeah, because I loved it there. Yeah, I have weeks there. So I think, west to east, and then the middle is a bit crazy. It's completely different, right? So the amount of stuff you see in Bolivia, from the salt flats to the crazy mining towns like Potosi, la Paz, the crazy city, to the very serene Sucre, the capital, and then you go east to Amazon, I think there's such a wide range of things to see in one country. It's pretty crazy. So I think bolivia is always up there and it's one of the cheapest places in south america. So if people want to go somewhere on the budget, that's a pretty good place to go uh la paz is pretty massive right, aren't there about?
Speaker 1:yeah, huge million people there yeah, so it's like a.
Speaker 2:It's like a fishbowl right goes like in and crazy hills everywhere and it's like a fishbowl right. It goes in and crazy hills everywhere and it's like a bit mental. Taxi drivers are mental, there's hostels that are quite partying hostels and yeah, there's so much going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, do you see a lot?
Speaker 1:of foreign travelers down there.
Speaker 2:Or is it.
Speaker 1:You know I don't hear about a lot of people traveling there. I've always wanted to go myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think. But La Paz, you'll find some and obviously the Salt Flats. But on the whole, if you talk about just general day-to-day, I don't think you see many travellers at all. Yeah, I think it's quite a quiet country. It's quite landlocked right.
Speaker 1:What were the things that attracted you to it, besides just the ability to see a bunch of different styles and landscapes?
Speaker 2:What attracted me to it was definitely just the landscapes Salt Flats. What attracted me to it was definitely just landscapes, salt flats. I wanted to ride down.
Speaker 1:Death Road in La Paz. Oh, you did a bike ride.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So that was a cool experience. And then I wanted to go and see a mine. So I went to Potosi to look in the silver mine, which I think is slightly ethical not sure, but you can buy presents for the miners. So you go to the market beforehand and there's like things from like dynamite and tnt to children's books, to cocoa leaves, to the food anything that the miners might need in their day-to-day life. So we bought some dynamite, some children's books and some cocoa leaves. I think so, if you think about it, the cocoa leaves get some food a day, they've got. You think about it, the cocoa leaves get some food a day, they've got. You know that thing they chew on. The dynamite helps their job so they can blow up some stuff in the mine, and then children's books obviously for their children.
Speaker 2:So crazy experience yeah, you can do like, you can book tours and patosies to a silver mine tool and if you're claustrophobic or don't like the dark, wouldn't recommend it, because you're going to have a helmet on with a torch and you're climbing up ladders and you're getting led by this guide who obviously knows where he's going, but it's completely pitched up and you sort of hit pointers in the mines. You walk past like the. They're like train tracks, aren't they where they? They're not trains in them, but they have these big like skip type things, yeah, and they carry them through. So you might bump into some miners.
Speaker 2:You can speak, if you speak, quechuan, which is quite rare, but that's pretty good, but if not, I think Spanish will do and you go and see their sort of like their the angel of the of the mine. He's got like a huge penis. So the the thing is, this is the guy sitting in the corner. Obviously it's like a sculpture, this huge penis, and there's like a load of cocoa leaves on the floor and uh, some money, and apparently it's good luck if you bless it and all that sort of stuff. So it's a combination of uh, yeah, you can throw money and I don't know what happens to the money, but I'm sure the miners pick it up. But yeah, it's just like.
Speaker 2:It's a strange experience, it's a work in mind. So you hear some explosions in the distance and you hear, uh, just people working, like chatting and working, and the classic, like that sound of the is it the pitchfork or pitch knife, whatever is that you're bashing in the mind, those sort of sounds. It's a strange, weird experience and when you get out of it you need to be careful, because you come out to daylight and you've been in pitch dark for an hour so that that brightness hits you right. You're like, oh, you can't really see that well, so, all in all, if you're potosi, it's worth. Uh, it's worth an experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure isn't uh lake titicaca, which is between la paz and it's kind of on the border of peru?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, it did, but I I went. I went on the floating boats which goes to the floating islands, but I was really ill. I must have eaten something the day before and I don't know why. I said yes, but I felt I had to do it. No, I basically had the shits, so like I was just really feeling really ill. But if you, if you're not ill, it's a great tour. You see the floating islands and the people who live there. You go and do some hike. There's another island you can do like a hike and a viewpoint, and obviously you can cross the border, so, and there's all sorts of options there. But I don't think I really enjoyed it because I was so ill.
Speaker 1:I was sick as well yeah, you know, I actually read a book that talks quite a lot about Lake Titicaca, and that one is it a reed? Plant.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's one plant. Basically the entire island and the people, all the inhabitants of the lake, survive on that plant. Those boats are made out of it, the houses are made out of it, I think they make food out of it. Plan, like those books are made out of it, the houses are made out of it.
Speaker 2:I think they make food out of it, um if I'm not mistaken, and basically, everything that they do centers around that point and you can go on that island and speak to the locals with the guide, right? So that's part of the tour which I did manage to get up and do. Um, that's the only thing I remember, really, but yeah, that that was an interesting experience. You know, you are just floating on these reeds like they're just it's a strange. Another strange experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the islands themselves, the way I understand it, that the float, they're floating islands and they build houses on the floating islands and they live in them so essentially, these people are floating around, like when they're sleeping at night. They're floating yeah, yeah, exactly yeah so they start out on this side of the lake and end up on the other side of the lake, or it's not? I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's that dramatic, but that's a great question. I don't know like can they just drift to the mainland I? I have no idea because you're probably about. You're about 20 minutes boat ride away from the mainland, right or half an hour so.
Speaker 1:So maybe it's just that they float and aren't really connected to anything, but they don't go anywhere. I don't know. I'm going to check that myself.
Speaker 2:What if it's connected to the reeds underneath the water? Are they that secure in the lake that it's good enough for them to stay? Still, I have no idea. That's a good question. Again, if I listen, probably on the tour I could tell you the answer, but I was so concentrated on not being sick I was like, oh, I just need to get through it. What was?
Speaker 1:the food, like I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people get sick there, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wouldn't rate it that much. I think the soups are good. They're known for their soups, so it's not just like watery soup, they put like lots of vegetables in in there. I kind of avoided meat because I got sick from eating chicken so I just went a bit vegetarian there because I couldn't risk getting ill again. But from what I remember, the soups are good and that is pretty much about it. La Paz I really struggled with food there. Actually I went to Weston a little bit because I couldn't really grasp what their food was. Maybe I need to go back and revisit, but I couldn't tell you the food, anything apart from soups and revisit, but I couldn't tell you the food anything apart from soups.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sometimes I mean I've heard a lot of negative about the food in Bolivia from a lot of different people and a lot of different things that I've read pretty much everyone. It's kind of like India, I think, in that way, where people say just prepare to get sick yeah so but I've always wanted to go I was so close. You know when you're in Cusco and Peru. I don't know if you've been there.
Speaker 2:Yeah Lovely, yeah, yeah Awesome, right, yeah, unbelievable. I almost went um.
Speaker 1:I almost went over to Bolivia from there, had some extra days and it's only like a six or eight hour car ride, and I just kind of got screwed up and I didn't end up going, and since then I just haven't been.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I've just had other priorities Was.
Speaker 2:Peru, one of your favorite countries. Well, the Inca Trail is incredible, you can't deny that. And Machu Picchu, I know it's a bit cliche but it is unbelievable, you get to see it. And Peru, yeah, cusco is, like, weirdly, one of my favorite places I went to in South America, even though it's a bit touristy and it is a hub. Uh, I actually love the feel of it, the cobbled streets. I think you get lost there a little bit and it's not too touristy. I think, yeah, I think you're fine. Um, but like Lima, I didn't like at all. Really what? Lima is a bit dull, a bit gray, yeah, so I had a bit gray, yeah, so I had a bit of a mixed uh vibe, but the cusco and the inca trail combined was incredible. Yeah, that is not not my favorite country as a whole, but those individual places definitely for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see I could. I couldn't get on the inca. When I went down there they had just changed the rules, um, and they were only allowing like 2 000 people per day or something on the inca trail or I can't remember exactly what the rule was, but it was pretty strict at that point and I think it maybe still is, because all these hikers are deteriorating the land, so they're only allowing so many per day and I think the wait right now or at least when I went to pass that check, I think was maybe a year or two years.
Speaker 2:So you put your name on a list and you're waiting two years. Really, I think ours was six months in advance. Yeah, ours was six months, so we put that in there, I heard.
Speaker 1:now it's one to two years or something like that.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:So my trip was kind of last minute. Right, we went like kind of last minute and we couldn't get on it obviously, so we did the salt on tag trail, which oh, yeah, yeah, yeah it was awesome.
Speaker 2:It was awesome yeah, a lot of people do that trail right, yeah yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1:It was five, uh, five days, four nights um and camped out in these like awesome I mean, it was totally glamping man it was it was.
Speaker 2:It was like a rich man glamping yeah where they pitch it.
Speaker 1:They do everything for you, right? They show up with these horses and they take your duffel bag. You can have a duffel bag with like 20 kilos or 20 pounds I can't remember which it was of items in it and they literally show up with all these horses, these Indian guys who lived in the wilderness.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they come pick up your um, your stuff, and they head off right and you hike for three or four hours. They're on horses, so they beat you by several hours to the next yeah and once you get there, they already have this incredible lunch made for you.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's like high class lunch, right, and you hang out there for a little bit, eat an incredible meal and chill and talk to everyone, and then, boom, boom. The afternoon you do the same exact thing. They take off in front of you. They have dinner ready when you get there and then at night they'll have drinks ready for you.
Speaker 1:You know, liquor, whatever you want to drink or eat at night is there. And then they have these like makeshift, man-made, freezing, cold, freaking showers. Because you're, I don 15,800 feet, so that would be a little less than half of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like 4,500 meters, maybe 5?.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's about right. I think some of the time it's actually 5.
Speaker 2:I think it's a little bit taller than the Inca Trail. Yeah, I just thought on the Inca Trail when you have a hard day's hike and you see those tents there and the big tent to set up with all the food there is nothing better and nothing more. Needed these these tents that we did they would have these.
Speaker 1:I mean they're incredible. Tents right. And then, yeah, they're, they're covered with the straw tent like yeah, incredible. I mean you could well. I mean you got cold because it was below zero, but you didn't get as cold as you think you would, because they added and the food is incredible, right as you said there, and even our food.
Speaker 1:I think we just booked a normal local tour operator, but the food is incredible, like unbelievable yeah, I never had one, one single piece of food in in peru that I would complain about, but even one that I wouldn't tell you was some of this food yeah, so yeah. And you know we had people when we did our hike. Everyone was chewing on coca leaves the entire time, because that's what you do to thin your blood out so you can get to those altitudes yeah.
Speaker 1:You can get those altitudes. And then we had four or five people within our group who had either higher horseback or oxygen. They had oxygen, oh wow, really.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, had four or five people within our group who had either higher horseback or oxygen. They had oxygen. Oh wow, really oh wow. So a couple people were on oxygen, riding horses, you do see, like these horses and or ponies that have come down, and our guide was saying that these are the guys that just given up because they've obviously got too ill or they just can't do it, like physically that's too tired. Um, you kind of got an impression that you don't want to be one of those people because it's such a an extra admin for them, the cost. They have two guys, probably one guide has to go back and you just need to make sure you can deal. I know it's a bit random sometimes, but the altitude is key and you're fairly fit and you can get the hike done. I'm not the fittest guy but I did manage to get through it. But it is tough uphill battles, most of the first two days I think.
Speaker 1:I was pretty worried about it because we've done some research on it. When you get on Google, it tells you all what you just said you need to prepare. You can't just show up down there a big, fat slob with no exercise for the last two years and expect to make it. So I think I lost like 15 pounds or something in the couple of months before I went.
Speaker 2:All right, wow, yeah, yeah, okay. Good on you.
Speaker 1:But then luckily I got down there and you know it ended up working out. So I guess my training worked out for me and I chewed on a heck of a lot of cocoa leaves.
Speaker 2:I was at the World Cup in Brazil about for two, three weeks before. Right, I had a few weeks travelling after that before, but I had no training. So the only thing I had training in was a bit of altitude, because I went to Northern Chile and Northern Argentina so I had a little bit of altitude training, if you like, in brackets. But yeah, I had no training in terms of physical doing stuff. I was just in Rio partying up for the World Cup, so I got away with it.
Speaker 1:I'm in Rio now. I'm here. That's where I am right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great city unbelievable.
Speaker 1:It's incredible, all of Brazil actually. It's incredible and I would say Rio is probably the hardest place in Brazil to meet people. They're a little bit more standoffish just because. I don't know why but I think touristy cities like this sometimes can be standoffish, because you're just there for three days and you're gone, or leave and you're gone, so they don't care about meeting Once you're here for a while. Notice at this time. Once you're here for a while, they really warm up to you.
Speaker 1:They start passing places over and over. But yeah, I love Rio. Is there a more beautiful city than Rio? I have no idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those cities on the water. Vancouver is similar and Sydney. I can think of one as well where it just has that natural harbour and they've got the beaches. Vancouver has no beaches, but Sydney obviously does. Those cities on the water, you can't beat them. I don't think there's just something about it where you've got the mix of a happening city with great beaches and a great lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Hong Kong was another one that I did.
Speaker 2:Ah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:I flew in Hong Kong man. There's so much energy in that city that I couldn't sleep. I was there three weeks. I could barely sleep. I could not stop seeing stuff. I've been three times now, but yeah what an? Incredible place. I would say Hong Kong and Rio at this point in my travel career are my most definitely the two most beautiful cities.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's an interesting one.
Speaker 1:Your other two big ones. Yeah, these do change regularly, so I'll have you on in the next six months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's go a recent one. I did have a really good time in Oman, I must admit, in Middle East. Oman, yeah. So Oman is on the coast next to Yemen and Saudi Arabia and UAE I think they border those three but totally safe for the desert, but also for the pristine beaches and islands, and super safe with great roads. So if you're looking to do a road trip and speak to some locals, uh, amani people, they're really cool and they can also speak english and they wouldn't help you out. Hospitality is incredible. So we had a 10-day road trip there in muscat.
Speaker 2:We started in muscat and then headed down through ras al jinn's to wahiba sands and then down to masira island, uh, back up through bala and uh, jabreen and, yeah, just had the, and nizwa as well, which is like a, an old capital. Just had the most incredible time. Lots of different things to see. Uh, cheap petrol you're gonna get I don't know you do gallons, right, so what's that about? Four liters? You're probably gonna pay, I don't know a dollar for a gallon, something like that. Super cheap. So road tripping is cheap and the food's incredible, the people are incredible and the scenery is out of this world.
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Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, they did. They have um a lot of like international flights into muscat, so it's quite, quite good. Oman air is one of the best airlines in the world so you can get some good flights there and they have cheap flights out to. You can go to like. We flew to Nepal so we went to Kathmandu from there, or you can go from Europe. It's pretty cheap and they even fly down south to like Tanzania, to Africa, so it's a nice hub to be based in.
Speaker 2:What's the food like Food is absolutely incredible. It's that sort of spicy chickpea lentils and a lot of bread, like the sort of mix between pita and naan bread, I suppose, isn't it? Lots of vegetables and meat. These like spicy. They've got a lot of Indian and Pakistani influence as well, so they have a lot of those like Indian type tasting curries as well. So we had a plethora of food and, yeah, just incredible. The food's incredible and the coffee is great as well. The coffee was the biggest thing for me last year.
Speaker 2:That was the best country for coffee they've got they've got it going I didn't go to brazil last year, so I'll I'll caveat that, but, like for last year's trip, um, I think omaha was up there in the top two for best coffee you know what's interesting?
Speaker 1:I've spent a lot of time in Colombia, a lot of time. In fact I lived there for several years and as good as you know, they just have a reputation around the world. It's like the best coffee. Yeah, yeah, and I think that's right. Right, I think that they have incredible coffee because you can grow anything in Colombia, the soil is just so fertile. But I'll say that inside the country, I was not impressed at all.
Speaker 1:There were a couple of places like when you go down to the coffee region, which is like Paria de Manizales, all that. Those people know coffee. They're giving you their grade A coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I drank some really know coffee.
Speaker 1:They're giving you their grade A coffee. I drink some really good coffee, but what I learned is Colombia actually exports all their grade A beans to other countries and they leave the B, c, d quality beans in their country for their own people.
Speaker 2:Even the locals were like if you don't go to a coffee farm where people still have some grade A beans that they haven't decided to export yet, you're not going to get good coffee here. Wow, there you go. That's incredible. Yeah, yeah, I imagine no one probably gets the Colombian beans right. So there you go. That's probably why it tastes so good, yeah maybe.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, I think that's probably accurate and you know I've had brazilian beans in a lot of other countries as well, which is interesting. You know you get to another coffee country like brazil I'm sorry, colombia. In colombia I had tons of brazilian beans and so it doesn't make much sense.
Speaker 2:It's a shame that they have to export the best stuff. I do find that a real big shame. That's just business, I suppose. Right. But it's a shame that locals don't get to taste their own great coffee.
Speaker 1:That is a bit of a shame, and something that was interesting about Colombia is they you know, if you order coffee, it's just coffee. You're not going to get like a Starbucks type latte, I mean you can get lattes and all that. That's not what they're good at, right. They're good at the process of making a regular brew. Yeah, when you task them with throwing in a bunch of sugar and extra flavors and stuff like that, it's just not.
Speaker 2:I just don't think they want to do that right. Yeah yeah, sugar and extra flavors and stuff like that. It's just not. I just don't think they want to do that Right, I think. Yeah yeah, that's fair enough. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe a professional coffee farmer. They feel like it might screw up.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you know, I um, I saw on your website you had mentioned, and I think you're going to agree, I think we definitely.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I think travel is never a bad idea, because of two reasons really, and I can't see any way out of it If you're interested in travel but you're a bit scared, or you're financially not sure, whatever. If you go and do a travel trip could be a month or two weeks, whatever. It is somewhere new, a bit off the beaten track for yourself. What are the two things that are going to happen? Well, number one you're going to hate it, that's fine. You go back home, but at least you learn something about yourself. So that's good for future life stuff. Right, you probably learned that maybe you don't like that culture or you don't like that country, or the way you traveled wasn't good. You learn something about yourself that's going to be invaluable going forward.
Speaker 2:So that's good for the soul, because I think you learn something about yourself. Number two you're gonna love it and it's gonna be like me, where you can't stop and and yourself. So you go to one country you love that. You think, oh, where can I go next? And this starts this journey throughout your life where you're constantly thinking about what is possible for my next adventure. I think that's a great thing too. So I don't actually rank both of them higher than one than the other. It's just about what your situation is and how it goes for you, right? So it's a win-win. I I can't see any other um way other than that I don't think I think it becomes a drug. I mean, you just said it in a different way.
Speaker 2:It becomes a drug um for many reasons I it's constant learning, nonsense, 24 hours a day when you're in another country. It's not something, yeah, and you know I've 24 hours a day when you're in another country.
Speaker 1:It's nonstop learning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, I've always said.
Speaker 1:I think that you learn more about your own country when you're traveling than the country you're actually traveling in. True, which is incredible. Yeah, I think it's one of those things that I don't know, man. Once you get the bug, it's just I don't know how to stop it. I've never been able to, um, yeah, tell me about it. But I would say, like, going back to what you just said, like if you go for a week or two, I don't even know that guys like you and I could even sit consider that travel anymore. That's just a quick, quick getaway, right because, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a conversation, isn't it? About the traveler versus the explorer, if you like, or the tourist versus the explorer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very interesting chat yeah, I think if you stay less than two weeks, um yeah, we'll put you in that tourist category and there's so much learning that comes after the two weeks, right when you, when you actually have to go do something like laundry in a place where you don't speak the language yeah, yeah, yeah yeah those basic things that become you know, I think takes it from tourism to exploration yeah, I think I don't know what the cutoff point is, whether it's two, three weeks, but some of the other options I could have given you for like the countries, um, like, if my third country would be a combination one of the three of thailand, vietnam or new zealand, and all of which I've spent at least two months in, so definitely thailand and vietnam, and I lived in new zealand for a year.
Speaker 2:So, like, I think when you do that sort of portion of time in those countries, you do get to know the nuances about what you like and don't like about the countries. I think that is key as well, because you say if you dip in for two weeks, you're not going to learn too much, especially if it's a fast-paced trip and you're dotting around quite quickly. But then, saying that if you go to Europe and you do the micronations, like Andorra, san Marino and Liechtenstein like we did last year and Monaco, I mean they're about as big as our houses, right, so that literally a day and you've done everything in it in terms of like walking around.
Speaker 1:So I guess it depends on the size of the country as well you know, for me, being American, it's um, for most Americans, um, you know, it's it's. I think that many people around the world laugh at us because we'll go to Europe for 10 days and be like I'm gonna backpack Europe. How many countries can you see? I'm gonna see nine countries in 10 days. You're just gonna go like put your foot in and run to the next train yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:How do you do that right? I mean, I was there for 10 days, probably 20 years ago, and I saw Munich, germany, and then we took a nine-hour train ride to the Czech Republic. Prague yeah, it's one of my favorite cities, but it was all we could do to get those two cities in, really actually yeah, yeah, of course. Because if you're in and out, you just, you just don't have time to really mesh with the locals. You're not going to learn much about the food In a week or two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess you're an eight year old.
Speaker 2:That's just a lot of stuff you miss, so I don't know. You did a backpack trip through.
Speaker 1:Southeast Asia, didn so I don't know. You did a backpack trip through Southeast Asia, didn't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've done a few. I've done, I think, two, maybe three. The first one was 2013. That was three months in Southeast Asia, and the second one was probably 2017, for six, seven weeks, maybe two months, I can't quite remember. But yeah, I actually repeat the same trip, but one was a younger myself, I was 23 or something and the second time was with my girlfriend now. So it's two different types of trips, but most of the same places. But what's interesting, you see the place that you've seen before, but in a different angle. So the first trip was a lot of partying, right. So Southeast Asia is great.
Speaker 2:If you want to guarantee to meet other backpackers similar age on the same sort of route around the region, that's a good place to start. Start in Bangkok, work your way east, go up around Vietnam, then work your way west through Laos and northern Thailand and back down. It's quite a popular route and that is incredible the amount of stuff you can see and do and all the tourist visas are like three or four months, so you've got no rush and it's cheap. So if you're looking for a budget backpack area, southeast asia is still, in my opinion, up there with one of the cheapest, even though it's been around for 20 years, like thailand's always been for a long time been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, popular vietnam's really coming up.
Speaker 2:I understand yeah, I went to vietnam, I said in 2013, and I was a bit shocked because I was a bit what's the word? A bit green in those days. I was like oh wow, this is quite a modern country even in those times. And then I went back in 2017 and I think vietnam is the next place where maybe, like digital nomads are going to go, because I think it's up and coming, it's got great internet, the locals are super nice, half a population under 30. I just think it's up and coming. It's got great internet, the locals are super nice, half the population are under 30.
Speaker 2:I just think it's got that youthful vibe of it's going somewhere right and it's all super safe and lots of see and do. There's little pockets where it's really touristy, like Nha Trang, ha Long Bay. They're going to get the Chinese and the Russian tourists, but other than that, I think as a country as a whole, there's so much to see and do and I was talking to my friend here. She's vietnamese and she was saying you've got the classic cities and towns that we all go to. There's westerns and I can you can reel them off on a backpacking trip. Then there's the alternate places that the locals go to that the backpackers don't go to. So I'm like, ah oh, next time I want to do that trip. I want to get a list of these places that are next to the tourist places and go to the local vietnamese places and see what it's like. Is any different is? Can anyone speak english, like all that sort of stuff? Right?
Speaker 1:so you know what's helped me with that and, totally by accident, um is airbnb, um. So you know I've been in some situations where you know I was trying to get an airbnb as actually now. There was just a huge event in Rio, the place I had rented my time was up there. I tried to extend, but someone else had already extended it, so I was forced to move.
Speaker 2:When I started looking at other.
Speaker 1:Airbnbs. There was nothing in any of the tourist places like Copacabana, ipanema. It was all taken up by all these people coming in for this huge music event. So I found this wonderful house, incredible house, about 30 minutes outside of Rio and but it's on the train line right the Metro.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Within, you know, within 20 minutes I can be back here for all the stuff that I'm already doing the gym food, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm doing the gym food, whatever it is, yeah, um, so I'm gonna get this out, man. I came out here and it's been the most incredible airbnb experience definitely top two or three that I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 1:Oh wow the lady that owns the place is that she's. She lives in the apartment next door and so, like every morning, she asked me if she could do this. Every single morning she'll come in to the kitchen and she makes a big, huge thermos of coffee. She leaves three or four things there that you can eat for breakfast in the morning. You know, like breads, I typically don't eat it, but anyway. And then every single night, every night since I've been here I've been here for about seven days now I think I have two more days here Every single night I come in and she'll text me and be like, text me and be like, hey, did you get back from the gym? I'm like, yeah, I got back. And she brings over some form of dinner.
Speaker 1:It'll be kind of hearty soup with fresh grape juice like real grapes that she's boiled and made into a fresh grape juice. Sometimes it's this thing called tapioca which they stuff in Brazil. It's like a quesadilla and they stuff it with just whatever and she'll bring me. One night It'll have chicken like seasoned chicken. The next night it'll have eggs and cheese. Every single night.
Speaker 2:Incredible.
Speaker 1:Airbnb forces you sometimes to be out in areas that you typically wouldn't choose, and in Sao Paulo it was the same. I probably know seven or eight different neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, because I'll just get a couple of weeks in the neighborhood and then, get a couple of weeks somewhere else, and somewhere else, and somewhere else.
Speaker 2:And the next thing you know, you know half the city, you know more than the locals right.
Speaker 2:That's the great thing about Airbnb if it's done properly, because it's a big problem in Vancouver where people just buy houses just to rent out because it's a moneymaker maker. But if Airbnb was like the old days, where the local owns it and you stay with, like you know, next door to the person who owns it, like you do, that's the proper experience that you want, because that is what it's designed to do. Meet a local I mean, what you're describing is unbelievable where they're giving you food that's like extras, but you just want a bit of guidance, like around the local area. That is what you want and I think if you can get that experience in most places, I think you're a winner because you get a bit more of a local experience well, I never liked, I've never been used to living or staying with anybody.
Speaker 1:I still like that, right, I'm like a little bit past that. I'm just way past that actually in age I guess. American ideology, sure um, but I've had some us American ideology, sure Um. But I've had some situations traveling by Mexico city. Anyway the eight. 95% of my Airbnb stays have always been me just renting my own apartment. Okay, and, but then there's been these extraneous circumstances where I was kind of forced to get a room, like in Mexico city.
Speaker 1:I was forced to get a room there in the good part of town for one or two nights, I can't remember, and then immediately you go in there's three or four different people in the house, and almost always they've been there at least a week or several days before you. So you learn so much about the city. You get all kinds of little tips from them. So once I realized that, then to your, your point.
Speaker 1:I sometimes will look for that right when I go. Yeah, really nice house for at least three or four days, learn some stuff, and then go out and get my own place. Yeah, yeah it's incredible.
Speaker 2:In it you can get experience. Yeah, I try and find that all staying hostels or local hotels. That's kind of all guest houses if you're in Asia, but um, yeah, that's I try and find that all staying in hostels or local hotels or guest houses.
Speaker 1:If you're in Asia. That's what I try to do. I need to get some Asia in. I haven't done a lot of Asia, only first world Asia. I've never done a lot of Asia. I'm going to hit Vietnam next year. With all this experience, do you have any hacks or trips? We're going to hit Vietnam next year, so do you have any? With all this experience, do you have any hacks or trips I'm sorry hacks or tips or anything like that that you would share with people?
Speaker 2:In terms of how to travel.
Speaker 1:I don't know Packing tips. It could be. It could be how to find the best deals on stays.
Speaker 2:I sort of do wing it a little bit. So, uh, what I mean by that is I've got my trip coming up november in el salvador and then guatemala and mexico. I won't book anything apart from the first two nights and then I'll just see what is next place to go, probably based on a local recommendation or research while I'm there. And the reason I do that is because you can always book in advance on bookingcom or Hostelworld, and I might do that one or two times. But you do want to leave a bit of space for someone to recommend somewhere to go. That's local. So I've got two interviews lined up in San Salvador with two locals for the podcast I'm doing. Well, I'm going to ask them, right, well, where should I go next? Where's even best to stay here? So I want to leave that open, right, so I do, probably will go on Hostelworld that's probably my go-to for hostels and Bookingcom for accommodations and Airbnb, as you said. And for packing, I don't pack a suitcase or go check luggage, so I go with carry-on only. So, probably about 10 kilos, and I pack that bag with as much as I need, as much when you're there, right, yep, yep, as much as I go, admin as I go. Last year we had for the year 10 to 12 kilos and then an extra day pack. That was the whole year's worth of stuff, which was interesting.
Speaker 2:I'm also a big renter of cars. I do like renting cars out and driving and then it takes a bit of balls to do that because you're in a different country or even mopeds or scooters. I don't mind doing that either, but I like seeing, either walking a place quite a lot, or going on the local roads and trying to check out the, the towns and cities around that. So Vietnam's a great place to get a bike out. I know it's a bit crazy, but if you can get past the first day culture shock, then it's a good place to see on a bike. Thailand the same as well, even Myanmar. We biked around in Bagan on electric scooters. They're quite fun. So, yeah, I love public transport. I love trains, probably buses and trains. Yeah, I go local. So, yeah, transport a lot of trains, probably buses and trains. I, yeah, I go local.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, just kind of keep it as local and as probably as cheap as possible and authentic as possible if you can yeah, you know, I've had so many business people that I've met over the years that you know they'll say world travel is so expensive.
Speaker 1:And when you talk to them about how they're traveling you, find out why they think it's so expensive and, to be fair, it takes years for anyone to travel alone and start figuring out how to make it. You know, afford right Because in the beginning even us seasoned travelers when you go to a new place, you're going to spend more in those first two weeks to a month than you are in the second, third month You're going to start figuring it out, right, yeah, but you start talking to a lot of business people like man.
Speaker 1:I've got to have $100 million to be able to travel the world like my wife used to do and you're like, oh, where are you guys? Going to stay and they're like oh, we're going to stay at the W Hotel. You could rent a full house right on Airbnb for a fourth of what you're going to pay for a hotel, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're going to live a better life living in a house or an apartment than you would in a hotel. You could cook if you want to. I mean, it's just so much more comfortable the longer you stay, you know, to get a house and an apartment than it is to stay in a hotel.
Speaker 2:All depends how comfortable you are, right. So an example would be what I would do if I'm in Vietnam and I'm taking a bus up or train and it's overnight. Well, are you willing to not pay for an overnight accommodation because you got a train? So can you sleep on trains? Are you comfortable with that? That saves an accommodation, these sort of things. We're on a road trip last year across Canada. We would do probably Max three nights in a row on a truck stop because it, because you just turn up and park and sleep. Right, you have your own food. You cook a little food in the camper van, that's fine. It all depends if you can do that. If you can't do that, I assume business people are probably used to a certain standard when they travel, which is fair enough. Nothing against that. But if they are used to that, they can't complain the expense of that because that is expensive the way they do it. There's no two ways about it. But yeah, it all depends how easily you can rough it a little bit in certain countries, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's about changing the mindset, and I think even even business people, business person myself I think it's just changing the mindset from thinking that you have to stay in a 10-star hotel Because you don't. You're going to be much happier in a really nice house than you are in a hotel, no matter where you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:No matter who you are or what your socioeconomic status is, you're going to be happier in an apartment or a house. Yeah, you can do it for a hell of a lot of people.
Speaker 2:So next on your travel list is Guatemalaatemala, mexico and what'd you say?
Speaker 1:el salvador? That's where I'm starting.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I'm looking forward to. I've seen a lot of stuff this year, so looking forward to getting stuck in probably at 10 days there, I think so you're gonna do some live podcasting down there yeah.
Speaker 2:So I've got two interviews lined up for san salv, salvador, where I start, so that's cool and they're locals. I may have a third, just in conversations, and then I'll start to probably organize Guatemala for that as well. So, probably Antigua I might see if there's someone there who wants to come on, who's local. And then definitely in Oaxaca, new Mexico, I'm going to go there and get some people to come on and then, yeah, I might, I might nip to Belize as well, because I want to do the flight over the blue hole. I probably do have one rule, one extravagant experience that could be paragliding or or a skydive done before you know stuff like that. So my one for this trip is going to be, hopefully, a scenic flight over the Blue Hole in Belize. So that's on my list. But, yeah, it'll just be a month over land, crossing borders, public transport no real plan. I have a few things in my mind, but nothing to nail down.
Speaker 1:So let's see what happens. You have a few things scratched out on paper, but no details in the middle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Best way to be. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:You and I are similar. Any city that has a metro and a really good subway system. Like Rio Sao Paulo, they both have incredible metro. Yeah, absolutely no reason to have a car. It's faster to take the metro. It's cleaner to take the metro. Yeah, obviously it helps a lot too. How do people get? Uh, how many, how many episodes are you doing?
Speaker 2:you're doing an episode every week, right? Yeah, I won't do. It's a mix. Actually, I'm gonna do the guests, whatever. How many of that is could be three or four, um two now. So I'll do maybe one in guatemala, one in mexico, maybe more, we'll see and then I'm going to do uh eight sort of episodes. They're like immersive audio episodes, um sort of trialing at the minute, where collect sounds and uh talk live on the ground but also provides the overview whilst doing the episode. So there's gonna be eight of those for the trip. So two a week, uh, detailing all the different parts I'm in.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's but you're still, you're podcasting even when you're not traveling. Right, you're still released, yeah, yeah podcasting.
Speaker 2:Even when you're not traveling, right, you're still releasing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I probably won't do those solo episodes whilst I'm traveling until maybe Mexico, because I need, as you know, you need to be somewhere stable and somewhere you can have like good internet for a start, but also somewhere quiet you can do your voiceovers. So I don't think I'll get that until Mexico. So that'll be the last week of my trip. But the interviews, I might be able to get them out in quick time, so we'll see. Yeah, but it'll be a good end to the year.
Speaker 1:There'll be a lot of Central America stuff for the last 6-7 weeks of the year, I think well, if there's anything on those trips that I might be able to help out with, let me know.
Speaker 2:I know quite a bit about Latin America. I don't know much about Guatemala.
Speaker 1:I know a little bit about Salvador just reading. I used to have a really big furniture customer in Salvador actually who had 800 stores. They had a warehouse in Salvador. They had 800 stores all over South America. I learned quite a bit about Salvador.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:How do people reach out to you and tell me what's the name of the over South America? So I learned quite a bit about the South Nice Doing business with those guys. But how do people reach out to you and tell me what's the name of the podcast so they can? Where are you publicizing that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's Winging it Travel Podcast. That's posted all over Apple and YouTube and Spotify the same name for website, so wingingittravelpodcastcom On. There's all the links if you want to go on there. And I'm mostly on Instagram is my main hub. I do YouTube shorts as well on my youtube channel and also I'm on tick-tock not great on there but got get the Gen Z's involved and I do share it to Facebook, but not really on Facebook. You can find wing at child podcast on there too, but mainly Instagram. And if you want to send me an email, you can submit a form through that website or you can send one to jameshammondtravel at gmailcom and that is pretty much it, yeah awesome man.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, I appreciate you coming on. I think we, uh we got a lot of good information out for people and I'll be keeping up with you and I'm sure we'll be in touch in the near future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been great fun. Cheers, matt, for having me on, really appreciate it and I hope the listeners get something out of it, and if they've got any questions they can just reach out to me. I'm pretty open to that.
Speaker 1:Thanks, man.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it, Cheers dude.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Matt Chambers Connects. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes where we'll dive deeper into these two fascinating worlds. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, matt Chambers Connects. You can also find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts, youtube Music and many other major podcast platforms, so you don't miss a show. Also, please join us on our social media channels so you can connect with other listeners and ask your most pressing questions and also tell us what types of guests you'd like to see on the show. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time.