Surviving as a Picky Eater while Travelling

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go I chat with Calvin. His early years were spent in Germany as a military brat before returning to the US in Shreveport, Louisiana. We discuss how he handles being a picky eater while travelling the world, missing flights, and the language he'd most like to learn. Calvin also shares why he left a successful corporate career at 50 years old to travel the world and become a travel content creator...right before the pandemic struck. Last, we chat about the profound gratitude he has for his life experiences and new perspectives he's gained because of his connections and memories from years abroad.

Travelling through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun and quirky show from Travel with TMc that delves into all things travel and adventures from the road, in the air, and in between here and there. Subscribe for weekly episodes!

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MORE RESOURCES & LINK FROM TODAY’S EPISODE:

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Unbound Merino - https://unboundmerino.com/

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction to Calvin Chronicles / Cubicles to Passports
06:07 Growing up in Louisiana, USA
07:43 Calvin Chronicles & Cubicles to Passports
09:11 Work Life Before Travel Content Creation
10:06 Early Life: Living in 3 US States & Germany Before Age 5
11:25 Getting Our Airline Wings
12:59 Early Life: Military Brat in Germany
15:10 Early Life: Moving Back to the US at 8-Years-Old
16:33 Third Culture Kid (TCK) & Having a Military Accent
24:05 First Trips & Childhood Experiences: Heidelberg Castle & German Beaches
27:02 How to Choose Where to Travel: History, Work, Friends Overseas
35:42 Personal Impacts of Travel: Profound Gratitude & New Perspectives
40:02 Travel Traditions
44:54 Pandemic Effects on Travel: Quitting the 9-5 & Travelling Through Asia
01:04:06 Travel Mishaps: Missed Flights
01:05:47 Scary Travel Experiences
01:08:17 Language & Travel: German, Spanish, & Japanese
01:20:55 Impact of Tech on Travel Style: Itinerary Flexibility, GPS, Translation
01:25:05 Trip Planning: Local Friends & Rental Apps
01:27:11 Personal Impacts of Travel: Learning Patience
01:30:10 Untried Types of Travel:  Land Border Crossings & Vanlife
01:32:52 Leaving a High Paying Job to Travel the World at 50
01:36:09 Personal Impacts of Travel: Diverse Exposure & Connection
01:40:53 Cubicles to Passports: Inspiring Others to Explore through Priorities
01:42:55 Fiascos at Home while Away: Fires & Floods
01:45:57 Spotify Travel Playlist: Calvin's Choice
01:47:18 Speed Round: Astronaut Dreams, Minority Nomad, & Thai TukTuks
02:04:37 Until Next Time & Where to Find @CalvinChronicles

Transcript

Tara (00:07)
Hello, hello. Welcome to Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go. I'm your host Tara and the founder of the blog Travel with TMc which is where this adventure all began over a decade ago. Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun and quirky show that delves into everything travel and adventure, whether from the road, in the air, or in between here and there. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen and give it a 5-star review.

These 2 simple, easy, and free actions make a huge impact on the show being able to reach a wider audience. So thank you so much for your support. In Season 2, my guests and I cover a wide range of travel topics. And it's my hope, as always, that you'll hear somebody who resonates with how you travel. You'll hear yourself represented in the show or you'll see yourself represented in the show. At the same time, it would be so cool if you heard a different way of travelling and went, wow.

I want to try that as well. So I'm hoping there's a little bit of inspiration here for you too. This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, we chat with Calvin from Calvin Chronicles and Cubicles to Passports. Calvin's a good friend of mine who I met in a hostel back in like 2018 at the very first travel conference I ever went to, TravelCon. Calvin and I have kept in touch since then. In fact, just like a couple of days ago, it's January of 2026 as I record this,

just a couple of days ago, he sent me a text saying, look up at the sky and wave, I'm flying over you right now. So that was pretty cool. While on the podcast, we talk about everything from his early years growing up in Germany as a military brat. And for those of you who don't know, I'm not saying Calvin's not a nice person. BRAT actually stands for or originally stood for British Regiment Attached Traveller and applied to the kids who were living abroad due to their parents being in the military.

We also talk about something that linguistically I thought was so fascinating, military accents. I don't know if you've ever heard this before, I hadn't, and it just kind of made me pause for a second. You'll literally hear me pause in the podcast as I kind of take it in. It was really cool. He also talks about later growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana, how he's a picky eater and how he handles that while travelling the world. That was a really funny part of the conversation. And his decision to leave a successful corporate life behind,

sell his house and become a travel content creator and photographer, which fortunately or unfortunately happened right before the pandemic. That's a pretty wild story. We end the show talking about his profound gratitude and the new perspectives he's gained from all of his years travelling abroad. I think you're gonna love this. Calvin's such a lovely individual. He's got so much enthusiasm for what he does and he's always reinventing himself and trying something new, which I admire a lot.

Alright, thanks for listening and let's dive in.

Tara (03:05)
Okay. Alright Well, we have a special guest on today. His name is Calvin. We met in a hostel, ⁓ gosh, back in 2018. were both at... Yeah, we were at the TravelCon conference, our very first one.

Calvin (03:05)
We can officially begin.

2018.

Tara (03:23)
and ⁓ Calvin has become a good friend of mine in the travel creator space. He is a multi-talented individual. His photography is phenomenal. He is podcasting. He's on YouTube. He is a historian like no other. Calvin is also the friendliest guy you'll ever meet and I am so thrilled to have him on the podcast today. So welcome Calvin.

Calvin (03:48)
Wow, I did not pay for that introduction. So I'm scared of the bill now. That's the best introduction I've ever heard. So I am happy that you brought up the hostel because I was like, wait a second, should I if I just mentioned that we were roommates, people might take that wrong.

Tara (03:50)
Okay. ⁓

No, for me, it's like a plug for people to go stay in hostels because it's been what? is that now? Seven years we've been friends because of that. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, no, think everybody should stay in hostels.

Calvin (04:13)
So going on 7 yep, going on 7.

So, and I actually funny

thing about that, I still keep in touch with one other of our roommates and then somebody else that was in the same hostel at the same time, but different rooms. I probably keep in touch with about a half a dozen people from that hostel stay. ⁓ So, super cool.

Tara (04:36)
Amazing. That's super cool. It was good vibes there, you know? Yeah.

Calvin why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Tell the people who you are, what you do, and where you're calling in from today.

Calvin (04:50)
Um, I am in Louisiana right now. So I am well who I am now. So I am a photographer. I am a, uh, travel junkie and I enjoy history. I try to combine all 3 of those as often as I can. So that is a lot of the things that I get out from travel. Um, I was in Texas for over 30 years after university, but I started travelling so much. actually, uh, sold my house and I.

kind of just travelling all the time. So I don't have an official landing spot all the time. So I'm just usually if I'm not travelling, I either stay with a family in a couple of different places across the country. So today I am in Louisiana, which is where I grew up, which is also where my mom lives. So if I'm not travelling, I just kind of spend some time with her and she's happy to have some company when I'm when I'm not on the road. So I'm in Louisiana. And if you are familiar with Louisiana, I'm from North Louisiana. Everybody always says New Orleans, but

Tara (05:42)
Yeah.

Calvin (05:49)
Shreveport, Louisiana is at the complete opposite end of the state and a lot of people will say it's a whole different Louisiana. So yeah, most people just kind of stereotype Louisiana as just New Orleans, but we're the other Louisiana.

Tara (05:56)
Okay.

Got it.

And I have to admit, I don't know much about Louisiana. What was it like growing up there? What is your Louisiana like?

Calvin (06:13)
⁓ it is, ⁓ you still have your, your stereotypical Cajun foods. ⁓ I am a picky eater, so I don't eat a whole lot of that, but, ⁓ I, most people actually kind of consider this part of Louisiana more like Texas. So, ⁓ so like I said, if people are coming for a Louisiana experience, this is not the place that they would originally default to, but, ⁓ definitely is history here. ⁓ there is, ⁓

a lot of history, guess that people don't realize. So, um, um, just going into history. something interesting about Shreveport, if you're familiar with the American Civil war, um, you know, so that ended everybody. Usually you hear about that in like, you know, Virginia, know, Tennessee, Alabama, but the, some of the last major battles were actually in Louisiana within an hour from where I live. And the last place that the Confederate flag officially flew was in Shreveport.

Tara (06:44)
Mm.

wow.

What? Wow.

Calvin (07:11)
So yeah, like I said, a lot

of people don't know that, ⁓ living here, and I didn't know that for the longest time even living here, but it's something that I've discovered just through digging through history here. So there is cool stuff to see here, just sometimes people aren't always aware of what to go and you default, know, New Orleans, you know, things like that. But New Orleans was actually one of the earlier first places to be under ⁓ Union control. So not a whole lot of stuff there. They weren't a part of the actual war.

but there was still stuff going on here in this area.

Tara (07:43)
Interesting, you know what? I usually get people to mention their handles and stuff at the end But we got to tell people your YouTube and Instagram and all that right now because I know you're just gonna be giving us so much good information People are gonna need to subscribe right away. What are where can people find you online?

Calvin (07:58)
⁓ I share my travel, so I'm a whole lot of places, but I share my travel stories, like the adventures and the things that I discover along the way at the Calvin Chronicles. ⁓ Instagram is probably the easiest place to find me, and then I can, you everything links from there, but it's just Calvin Chronicles all together. I have started because people keep asking, you know, how do you do that? How do you afford to travel? Like, you know, how can I do what you're doing? So.

I started kind of doing education on that same platform and then kind of realized that maybe some people just want the travel education. Some people want the story. So I started a different handle called Cubicles to Passports. And that is ⁓ strictly related to my international travel and also educating people on how to see the world with their own eyes without breaking the bank. So ⁓ I started that.

shortly after, well, I intended to start it right after the pandemic and I was like, whoop, bad time. I'll come back to this a little later. So I've really been working on that over the last year. So, so Cubicles to Passports is kind of from my story, how I actually started travelling. So my background before I was going all over the world, I worked in IT sales for nearly 3 decades and I

most of the time worked in office cubicles. So, you know, there's all the jokes like Dilbert and things like that, the office space jokes, and that was, that was my life. And so I, when I took my first extended trip out of the country, I basically had the, whole thing was that I was trading my cubicle in for, for my passport. So that kind of became a thing. And then when I started doing the education, I say, that's a good thing to, ⁓

to name it.

Tara (09:48)
Yeah, definitely. YouTube, Instagram folks, check out Calvin Chronicles and Cubicles to Passports. You also, in addition to Instagram and YouTube, you have a podcast, which was the first podcast I ever got to be a guest on. And that's Cubicles to Passports as well, right?

Calvin (10:05)
Yes. ⁓

Tara (10:06)
Yeah, yeah. Your passport using or your passport life started long before the cubicles though. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood growing up? It's so unique.

Calvin (10:20)
It did. So my, my father, he was in the air force and I was, I had the opportunity at kindergarten to go to Germany. So he was stationed in Germany for 3 years. And so I got my first passport at age 5. And so a really good situation for me, because you know, a lot of your, the things that you take into adulthood are

kind of related to how you grow up. So I was fortunate to, even before I went overseas, I had lived in 3 places before that. I was born in Houston, spent time in California, and then also to Arkansas before going to Germany. So I lived in 3 places before going overseas. yep.

Tara (11:09)
You've got that momentum just inside you,

⁓

Calvin (11:12)
Yep, I still have. I don't know where they are, but I know I have them. I still have my the wings that they give you. This was a Delta flight, so I still have the wings that they gave ⁓ to children on on flights.

Tara (11:18)
you

I have a story about this. When I was little, that's so funny, you brought up the wings. When I was little, my uncle and aunt took me to Arizona for a trip. And I remember on the flight, my uncle saying to the stewardess, know, can we get her some wings? And I was terrified, Calvin. I thought that they were gonna like toss me out the plane wings. I was so, I think I was like 5 years old. So I was like, no, I don't want these. I don't want wings. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, Get her wings, get her wings.

Calvin (11:27)
So.

Tara (11:55)
And so eventually the stewardess comes back and I'm dreading her returning and she gave me the little pin with the wings and I still have it somewhere. But I was like, I don't want those.

Calvin (12:02)
Right? ⁓

⁓ wow, I wouldn't even want to imagine that because that was pretty high. That's pretty high up.

Tara (12:13)
Yeah.

When did airlines stop giving those out? Do you know? And why did they start giving them out in the first place?

Calvin (12:21)
Well, I'm not old enough to know why they started. ⁓ But I'm trying to think. I think if you ask for them on certain airlines, you can still get them. But I don't know that it's I don't think it's like a just a everything to kids now. ⁓ But I'm sure that it was just to again, to kind of make it fun, you know, for you know, for kids. So ⁓ and then I also and this is something that doesn't happen anymore. But I did get to go up to the.

Tara (12:43)
You

Calvin (12:48)
the cockpit and meet the pilot co-pilot. So yeah, so that is definitely a thing in the past, but that was something kind of cool to be able to do.

Tara (12:51)
Wow, that's cool.

Amazing,

amazing. And how long did you live in Germany for?

Calvin (13:03)
I was there for 3 and a half years, so I ⁓ went in the middle of kindergarten and then I stayed through third grade.

Tara (13:12)
Cool, and do you remember anything from living there? You were pretty young.

Calvin (13:15)
I remember

things, I wish that I held on to more German. So we were taught German every year that we were there. I mean, the only thing I can do now, I can count to 10. I think I might know one or 2 dirty words and that's about it. So, that wasn't in class, that was on the playground.

Tara (13:36)
What were they teaching you at 3?

Calvin (13:42)
I was on the playground

and you learned a bunch of stuff there, but I know that we were in third grade. We would have done it in fourth grade, but I moved, but they were teaching us how to go to like a restaurant and how to, to place orders and things like that. So, um, um, it was, you know, I said, I wish I had more of the language, but like I said, when, when you moved to Louisiana and nobody speaks German, that's kind of, that's kind of about.

about it for that. So, one thing that is interesting though, because I lived there ⁓ as a child, I actually learned how to play European football before I even knew really much about American football. everybody, because I lived on a military base eventually, but when I first moved there, we live what's called on the economy, but off base. And ⁓ everybody was playing, we call it soccer, but you everybody was playing.

That's what I learned how to play first. you know, then as I got older, I moved to the States and you people, hey, run a, you know, run a button route. And I'm like, what? I didn't know all this stuff. Like, who was this kid? You know, but, ⁓ but yeah, so I've, picked it up. watched it on TV, but like, so I had no idea, you know, what was going on, you know, how to actually do it. So I learned I was the only kid that you had to play soccer.

Tara (14:54)
⁓

Great.

That's too neat. Wow, what a fun fact. And so when you were, you were about like 8, you said, when you moved back to the States, ish? 9? Did you live in other countries after that or was your dad stationed? Did you guys stay in the US from there on?

Calvin (15:15)
I was 9 when I moved back.

US from there. he let's see 1979. So he was about halfway through his career and both of my parents are actually from Louisiana. So ⁓ I he could have moved after that. So we had moved every 3 years up until that point when we got here. ⁓ We he had the opportunity to move again. ⁓ But he would have required I'm sorry he had the opportunity to get promoted.

He turned down his last promotion so that he could stay here because his parents were 90 minutes away and then my mother was like another 30 minutes. So we were able to get to 80 % of our family within a 4 hour, 5 hour drive. So there were some in Texas as well. So I had a feeling that we weren't going to move again. And he, you know we, did not. So a lot of times in military families, even if they, if they have the opportunity to get home,

before they retire, they'll stay there a lot or a lot of times after they retire, that's where they're coming back anyway. So ⁓ we were able to purchase the house. So I figure we probably weren't going anywhere. So.

Tara (16:27)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah, nice. One of the first things I remember you and I talking about in the hostel was this notion of TCK because you had lived in Germany as a little kid. And for those who aren't familiar with the term TCK stands for Third Culture Kid. It's when you grow up in an environment outside of your parents culture sort of idea. ⁓ Was that something that like resonated with you or were you like, no, because I was younger or?

Calvin (17:02)
It is so there is actually read. So I think you recommended a book. Somebody recommended the book to me. So I read through the book and it was actually, it was very insightful because some things you just kind of know. ⁓ but then actually kind of seeing things from other perspectives, it kind of filled in, ⁓ some different things, both from people that have experienced that and people that have not. So, ⁓ being able to go to a different place, ⁓

And in my particular case, it was not just one culture. So ⁓ I actually think that there is a ⁓ military culture in itself, so not just a German. And so my experience is kind of more on the military side. ⁓ I even just in my voice, I actually kind of say some people say like, you know, southern accent or this accent or that accent. I actually consider myself to have a military accent because what that means is

Tara (17:43)
a hundred percent.

Calvin (18:01)
My voice doesn't necessarily come from where I live. It's from all the other people that are coming in too. So I might be on a base in Louisiana, but I'm with somebody that was, you know, grew up in New York, California, you know, and they lived all over the world too. So, um, I think there is a somewhat kind of unique, you know, sound that you can kind of maybe even guess that, okay, Hey, you know, where are you a military kid? You know, so, um, like I said, I lived in the South.

most of the time outside of Germany, but I've lived with and have been friends with in those places, people from all over the US and the world. So you have those things. ⁓ There were certainly times, I remember in Germany, like you learn things, like they tell you some things about, know, this is how they do things, you know, in Germany or things like that. But I remember one of the first days that we were there, ⁓ we were out and, know, kid, you know,

Tara (18:38)
That's so interesting.

Calvin (18:57)
I was in But I remember me and my sister, my brother wasn't around yet, but we had lunch and we went outside to play and like, it was quiet. But we were like, we're the first ones to finish with lunch, you know, so we're out there and, ⁓ and, then like windows start opening up and like, people are like yelling and everything and

in different languages too. like I remember we had Germans, Italians, I think there were some people from Poland there. like, you know, we're getting yelled at in all these different languages. And I'm like, I don't know what they're saying, but something tells us that we should be quiet or something. so we find out later that there was like a, I'm saying siesta because I don't recall what it was called, but there was like a quiet time, you know, there or at least where we lived, you know, in the afternoon and nobody told us.

Tara (19:39)
Yeah

⁓ no!

Calvin (19:46)
Yeah, so we, so

we learned that in a, in a abrupt, ⁓ abrupt way. ⁓ and then just little things like, remember, you know, where I live now, like you go to the, you know, the grocery store shopping market, you get a big shopping basket and you'll go through the aisles and fill up. And then that's like your, you know, food for like, maybe like, you know, 2, 3, 4 weeks. And there it was kind of different. Like you went every day, you

Tara (19:51)
Yeah

Calvin (20:15)
had your own basket, you would go and you'd pick up bread and stuff and that's maybe one or 2 days' meal. So like little differences there that you remember and you're walking more. So you walked 2 places. The only walking that we really didn't do is when we were going from the economy to the base. So because you had to drive to get to the base. like, once we were in our neighbourhood, you pretty much walked everywhere. Cause I remember

Tara (20:26)
Hmm.

Cool.

Calvin (20:44)
Yeah, because my mom, my mom didn't drive, you know, because you can walk everywhere, you know, so like little, little things like that.

Tara (20:51)
So interesting. When you were talking about having like a military accent, I was, I studied linguistics and languages, so I'm always fascinated by these different linguistic components of our life. And I've never heard this before. I'm so curious, but it makes sense if you're living in a place where people from other places also live that you would end up like, not neutralizing each other, but like melding and mixing together in terms of how you speak. And now I want to hear.

how other people speak who've lived on military bases and analyze that and compare that. That's cool.

Calvin (21:24)
Right.

And for what it's

worth, that's not anything that I've read. That's my own scientific, you know, um, you know, analysis of it. cause people have tried to, guess, analyze, Hey, where are you from? And just from how, you know, and I'm, and they can't quite put their finger on it. And so that's just kind of analyzing it myself. That's kind of the conclusion that I've come to is, you know, because I'm, know, with all these, you know, different people from all over the place, you kind of pick up stuff. Cause people like you do pick up.

Tara (21:35)
Yeah.

Calvin (21:55)
things if you're around places like so ⁓ this isn't really to do with me, but ⁓ Louisiana, North Louisiana, South Louisiana, you have like Cajuns and that's a complete different, you know, ⁓ accent really it's his own language. And we had ⁓ a school event. We were down there for I think it was 2 weeks and we came back and like people were like, you guys sound different, you know, because some people are because they were kind of picking up on the

Tara (21:55)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Calvin (22:22)
you know, the little Cajun accent stuff. And I remember there was one person that like this, like went with it for like, it was like weeks and they were still like, okay, I, now is this, is this intentional, you know, because people kind of brought it up or not. Cause, but there were some people that were kind of like inadvertently kind of like picked it up a little bit, you know, so you kind of end up even where they were just sayings, you know, like if you end up meeting somebody and they've got like some little quirky saying that may have been unique to them. But if you hang out with them enough, you might end up catching yourself using it too. And you're like,

Tara (22:38)
Yeah, yeah.

Calvin (22:50)
Wait a second, I'm using that phrase or that word so, but I think the accents kind of play into that too.

Tara (22:57)
⁓ 100%. When I moved to Dublin, the friend that I moved with was also from my hometown. And she, I don't know if it was subconsciously or consciously, because she was also very ⁓ word-oriented, ⁓ very well-read, very articulate. ⁓ You know, I think paid a lot of attention to what she said, but she picked up on a lot of the slang and the lingo and even a bit of the lilt while we were in Dublin.

And I was hesitant, like from a conscious point of view, I was hesitant to do it because I was like, I don't know if they're going to like make fun of me or you know, whatever else. But since then, I will like slide into using Irishisms when I talk to people from Ireland or I find that like my cadence changes and it's not a conscious change at this point. So I know what you're talking about from both like a psycholinguistics point of view and I think sociolinguistics as well, how we

⁓ subconsciously and consciously fit into the groups that we're in with regards to language. It's so interesting.

Calvin (24:02)
it probably be an interesting study.

Tara (24:05)
Yeah, yeah, there's lots out there. So cool. I love this. So, OK, travel bug started early for you. You'd lived in 3 different cities. You'd moved across to Europe. You'd come back to Louisiana. Do you remember, like, did you guys do road trips or travel much as a family growing up once you were based back in the States or when you were in Europe? Did you guys have the opportunity to travel Europe at all?

Calvin (24:30)
We did take some road trips in Germany. I don't remember all of them, but one that I do actually, well, there's, I'm to tell the story, but I'm going to tell the first one first. So Heidelberg Castle. ⁓ It's a, well, most castles are usually have some historic history behind them, but we took a day trip to Heidelberg and they had

Tara (24:41)
Okay.

Calvin (24:57)
a, uh, there was a battle there that they would commemorate through like fireworks on like a light show. Uh, so I do remember that. And like, so we went to go and check that out and, you know, everybody likes fireworks. And when you're, you know, 6, 7, 8 years old, it's even more exciting. And, know, that was, you know, uh, nighttime. So, you know, got to stay up past bedtime to go and check that out. So that was a pretty cool one. And the story I was processing, I was, really going to tell this story or not, but

Tara (25:18)
Yeah! ⁓

Calvin (25:26)
⁓ We went, I don't remember the town that we went to, but ⁓ I was fortunate enough, one of my ⁓ cousins, older cousins was also in the military at the same time. And he was at a different base in Germany when we were there. So we ended up meeting somewhere. And again, I don't remember exactly what city this was, but we were supposed to go to a beach and ⁓ it was ⁓ a manmade beach. I remember

that we actually had to kind of go uphill to get to the beach because it was manmade. And we get here and I'm shorter than everybody. And I look up at my cousin and my cousin, like you kind of see his like his eyes, like they kind of like light up and Hey, you know, and I'm like, and I'm like, I'm like, why is he so excited? And then the next thing I know, hands go over my eyes and we, ended up turning around and I'm, you know, I'm like, what's going on? You know, and it's like, yeah, we're, yeah, we're, we're

Tara (26:07)
I think I know where this is going.

Yeah.

Calvin (26:22)
The beach is dirty something, you know, they just made up something where we're not going to the beach. And years later, I actually found out, you know, it that we had stumbled up on ⁓ a nude beach. So, so I was like, okay, well, you know, but they got me I was shorter. everybody else saw going up the hill. like, you know, they got me there. And so yeah, so I was like, Mom, Dad looking out for us. But it was funny, like my cousin, like, because he was probably he was probably in his like,

Tara (26:27)
Yeah.

for sure.

Yeah

you

Yeah.

Calvin (26:51)
mid 20s then, you know, so, you know, whatever. So he was excited, you know, but, but it's like, no, yeah, we got to go somewhere else.

Tara (26:56)
Yeah.

Too funny. So since...

Since you became an adult and started to do things on your own, how did you choose where to travel as you got older and weren't travelling with your family?

Calvin (27:13)
a lot of, well, multiple reasons. So it could have been like some history things that I was going. So, ⁓ even going back to part of my, big Asia trip, I was picking stuff that I wanted to see because of history. So, ⁓ my mom had a big interest in, ⁓ World War II history.

So all the movies growing up and even like books that she would read, I'd pick up and read books and then I would read, you know, age appropriate books as well tied to World War II. So as I started, you know, having the ability to go to places like, oh, hey, this happened here. You know, that might be some reason. And it might not be just World War II history, but if there is something, you know, historically interesting, then that might either play into the country itself or just factor into my itinerary.

Tara (27:50)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (28:05)
Some places can hand, it can just be like I've had to travel for work sometimes. So that will dictate a destination and then maybe it's okay. What's nearby. ⁓ and then the other reason is like knowing people. So the cool thing, once you kind of start travelling, you know, you have people that either live in different places or they're going to different places. ⁓ one of my best friends lived in the Philippines for work.

for 6 years. And it was actually funny because that was my second international trip after going to the well third, but as an adult second adult ⁓ international trip. But that was it took him 3 years to get me to agree going that because I never imagined myself on a plane that long. You know, even for a trial because I mean, Europe's a shorter flight. I mean, it's, know, 6, 7 hours just to get over there. But Asia, it's a few more hours just to

Tara (28:36)
Hmm.

Okay. Yeah.

Calvin (29:05)
to see land again, regardless of what country you're going to. So I just didn't see myself going that far. said, yeah, I'll go back to Germany. I'll go here as I'm not. don't want anything to do with Asia. So 3 years, you know, just really come on, come on, come on over. And finally, I was kind of like, you know, it's, you know, free place to stay, you know, I don't have to. I don't have to worry about a hotel.

Tara (29:09)
Yeah.

Right?

Calvin (29:30)
⁓ I had kind of just started learning a little bit about, you know, points and miles and, you know, somebody kind of gave me like a cool, you know, way to kind of make that trip, ⁓ a little more bearable. ⁓ and I'm still happy to stay for, you know, for that insight. Cause I probably would have figured it out at some point, but having somebody say, Hey, you know, here's how you do it. This is what you do. And, ⁓ you know, and it, you know, changes things for, ⁓ for the flight. So finally went over there.

Tara (29:42)
Mm-hmm. Yeah!

Big time.

Calvin (29:59)
And it was so great. And it was actually the big, like I thought Germany was, or Europe was a culture shock, but you know, Philippines or Asia for somebody that's lived in, you know, Western civilization, it's a change. Um, and it's a scary change for some people, but, it it was really some of the first times that I saw just completely different ways of life. I mean, Germany, yes, you know, cities look the same, you know, architecture slightly different, but things are, you know,

mostly the same, slightly different here and there. ⁓ Philippines, all kinds of different stuff there. And yes, you've got your cities and things that look familiar like home, ⁓ but then you see people living in very, very different ways than you. And a lot of cases that was ⁓ in ⁓ less affluent situations as well. I've got some stories there. So, ⁓

one of my first nights there and I've been to the Philippines twice now, but one of the first times I was there, I was walking around one evening and I passed a, uh, a family of 4 or 5, but, uh, 2 or 3, um, toddler-aged children. And it was obvious that they were sleeping on the street. And you see that in the US you see people on the street. Um, now I had never, I had seen individuals on the street. I'd never seen families, um, on the street. And it was, you know, it was obvious that they were on the street and my

Tara (31:14)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (31:27)
reaction like I'm having a I'm feeling sorry for the moment but as I'm in this is all quick I'm takes me a time to share it but I'm about to have this emotion all how you know how sad but then I look and I see that the kids they're smiling and the mom is smiling and it kind of threw me for a loop because like here I am I'm about to feel sorry for this family because they're out on the street and they're smiling and so like I said that was

Tara (31:34)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (31:54)
they a culture shock moment for me. But the other thing is that nobody was bothering them. You know, like you could tell that they were that's where they were staying. It wasn't, you hey, this is where we're camping tonight. That's where they stayed like, you know, all the time or, you know, for at least, you know, it wasn't just tonight, like tomorrow night, the few days before that. And the fact that nobody was bothering them and that they could have something to smile about. Like I learned so much in that, you know, brief few second.

Tara (32:01)
Mm.

Calvin (32:23)
you know, interaction, you know, the things that we worry about here and we joke about first world problems. But I mean, there's so many things that we get been out of shape about that have absolutely nothing to do with anything. But you have people that are dealing with a lot more different circumstances, you know, worse circumstances and they can file something to smile about. And like I can, you know, I'm not better. I'm not perfect about it, but I'm a lot better in like how I look at things, not just from that.

Tara (32:37)
Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (32:53)
specific interaction, but it's one of those things that kind of gets you one grateful for what you have. But then also just kind of, you know, I don't need to be bent out of shape about all these different things that are going on. So like big culture shock there. ⁓ And then just even like minor things like there were.

Um, I was driving around, I think for 3 days and my, friend's driving, of course. And I'm, I'm looking out the window at all this stuff or whatever. And then somehow it hits me that, wait, where are the, where are the traffic signals? Like I said, I didn't, you know, I didn't see, like there were certain areas where they had traffic signals, but when you kind of got out of the city centre, it was still just as busy, but like, there's no intersection, no stop sign, no traffic lights in some areas. And.

It all worked, but it would just like, it would just kind of weird. once I realized it, you know, so, I'm really glad for my friend that he got me to, to go over there. Cause I think that's, that's what really, yes, I was kind of travelling around and going places, but I was kind of staying like, you know, done Europe.

Tara (33:43)
Yeah!

Calvin (33:51)
I got on the Dominican Republic and I enjoy getting up to Canada when I can. I had a streak where I was going up there every year. I'm behind now. I do need to get up there again soon, but I've been to Toronto 3 times. I've been to Vancouver twice. so yeah, so I was doing that, but yeah, just the, the opening up the door to Asia. is.

Tara (34:06)
You're saying it like a local Toronto. I'm impressed, Calvin.

Calvin (34:18)
probably my favourite continent now just because of the again history like going places. ⁓ I'm bouncing around right now, but Cambodia. You know to go there. I remember I was in you know, Angkor Wat, which everybody knows the one temple that's there, but I mean it's it. That's a chain of different temples. So you know going around and like hey, this one was built 900 years ago. This one was built 1000 years ago. This one was built 1200 years ago and you know the United States Canada history.

Tara (34:27)
Yeah. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (34:47)
you know, we're, you know, knocking on 250, so, and yes, there's other civilizations that have been in this land, but I mean, to actually go, there's, there's some landmarks here, but like to go to something that's like built structure, that was 4 times older than the country where you live now, it's kind of for me, and some people, they tell you that I see this and it's cool, you know, and that's that, but like, I actually kind of take in, you know, like, how do these people

build this, you know, like they didn't have, you know, power tools and things like that. So I kind of take those things in wherever it, wherever it actually is. So those are just kind of, you know, certainly different things when you kind of take in, ⁓ you know, the different factors, then, know, you meet people and things kind of work, ⁓ work a little bit different and like people live in different, ⁓ situations. And, I,

Tara (35:16)
Yeah.

Calvin (35:42)
I'm going to, I'm not sure, I may not mention the country because I actually, I am still in touch with this person, but it was a really, really, ⁓ and I didn't talk to them about it in advance, but this was a really, really ⁓ transforming moment for me. So this was a tour guide and it was in Asia, ⁓ but I had met him on previous travels. So I've been to multiple countries, multiple times in Asia and you know, he said, Hey,

before we go out on our tour, like we're gonna go, let's go have a drink. And I'm like, okay, cool, we'll go do that. And I'm thinking we're going to a bar. And we end up, we walked through an alley and ⁓ you've been to Asia. So things look different when you go around, it may not look like if you were maybe in the US or Canada, you've got like, hey, this, don't know if I want to walk down here, but Asia, it's normal. And like things might look older on the outside when you're kind of walking through. So we're walking through and you know,

Tara (36:18)
Mm.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Nyehehehe

Calvin (36:38)
go through a tunnel, kind of dark, not all the light. And we stop at like a little booth, but only maybe picnic table size. And we sit down and there's somebody there and they serve us a beer. And we're walking, I noticed on one side, they were like a bunch of curtains and stuff. And at first I was kind of thinking, maybe, know how like you got like the markets and things? Cause it was somewhat early. So I'm thinking, okay, maybe like markets and you know, they're not open yet, but we're just kind of coming in early to kind of have a drink or whatever. So still no.

Tara (36:57)
Okay.

Calvin (37:06)
nothing I don't realize really anything. I'm just, you know, just kind of taking and observing things. So we sit down, we have the beer and I look around and then I noticed also that there's not just the level here. There were like other levels like above, like a second and third level with like curtains and things and you people, know, heads in and out and stuff. And still I don't know what's going on. And then ⁓ my, my friend, he turns around and he starts talking to somebody like he knows them and everything.

Tara (37:23)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (37:36)
And they're chit chatting. And ⁓ then he's like, that's my uncle. That's how he sleeps there. And then he turns around and he's like, I sleep up there. And then it hits me. He's invited me to his home, basically. You know, and so ⁓ and for what it was, it was like, ⁓ I don't know what you what you call it. Some people call it squatting. But basically, they just kind of set up and, you know, were not necessary a legal situation. But

Tara (37:50)
Hmm.

Calvin (38:03)
This is where we can live and nobody's bothering us type of thing. And so when I realized what was going on, I could say it hit me from a whole lot of different angles because how many times do people invite you to their home anywhere, even at home, you know, like it, that that's a somewhat intimate thing. don't just invite everybody in your home. So I'm like, okay, wow. He invited me into his home. So I'm going in, you know, I'm, taking that in and then I'm also now realizing, you know, what this was, it's like a less than ideal situation that

Tara (38:11)
Hmm.

Most definitely.

Calvin (38:32)
You know, I don't know that people would volunteer to live in those conditions. ⁓ and, and he still invites me to that, you know? And then, so I had a whole bunch of things going on and it was, it was kind of, once I realized the gravity of what was going on, it was kind of an emotional experience for me. ⁓ because again, like he invited me into his home and I say, if I had somebody in the States or anywhere else that lived in some like someplace like that, would they have even thought about, you know, inviting me or anybody?

Tara (38:49)
Definitely.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (39:03)
you know,

to that place. And so it was a real special moment, you know, for me. like I said, I just don't, don't share a whole lot about it because like I'm still regularly in touch with this person and I don't know really how they feel about that. But, for me was a, it was a transformational, ⁓ moment to be a part of that. And it's actually probably one of my most special, times from all of my travels, to experience something like that.

Tara (39:29)
That's really special. It's so true what you said about the home being an intimate space. And I find especially in North America, it's not a common gathering space anymore, even though we don't have piazzas and plazas to gather in that way. I don't know if it's a pandemic thing or what, but yeah, being invited to someone's home is a special kind of invitation, I think. Yeah, and that hospitality that comes with it and the, yeah, yeah.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing that with us Calvin. ⁓ Do you have any travel traditions, whether it's something you do before your trip, during it or afterwards?

Calvin (40:12)
⁓

I don't know that I have traditions. I do probably things a little bit different than some people might do, particularly if I go to Asia. ⁓ I actually, I don't go to sleep the night before if I travel to Asia. ⁓ I kind of, like 2 reasons, I use that to kind of pack, but then I kind of use that to help get on a local time zone. Cause it's about...

Tara (40:29)
you

Mm. Mm-hmm.

Calvin (40:42)
that 12 hour different depending on whether it's daylight savings or something like that. It's like 12, 13, 14 hour time difference. So I learned that if I don't go to sleep on my flights and most of my flights are in the morning from the US going to Asia. So I leave  on my 10 o'clock AM flight here. It's 10 PM there. And so by the time I get up in the air, settle and things like that meal service, you know, 2 hours later, I'm now on their midnight time. So for my head that

I sleep now because I've stayed up all night. I'm ready to go to sleep. I sleep away some of that, you know, 12, 14 hour ⁓ flight. And I think it helps me to get on local time zone or adjust a little bit better. because I can usually I, you I you land morning time or the flights that I take they're morning arrivals and I just drop my bags off and I go. So I found that that helps me because I know some people say, hey, I'm not staying up all night or like I can't, but you're going to suffer at some point. So.

Tara (41:32)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

Calvin (41:42)
I'm like, hey, let

Tara (41:43)
it's true.

Calvin (41:43)
me let me get the suffering out of the way. But for me, it's kind of like that's kind of like when the excitement goes. So like if I book a trip that some people, hey, are you excited? And I was like, I'm not like until it's time to start putting stuff in bag or going to the airport. Like I say, I'm not, you know, like the kid on Christmas countdown, like things like that. Like I might look forward to a trip, but like once the trip is like booked and I know what's going to happen, it's that and like I don't turn the switch on until it's like go time. So

Tara (42:05)
Mm.

Calvin (42:10)
⁓ so that kind of helps me there. I could kind of, kind of get into it and get prepared. So I don't know that's a tradition because I only do that going, ⁓ to Asia, something, I guess this could be considered a tradition. So, ⁓ I'm not the, I'm probably one of the more picky eaters out there. ⁓ but I do try to experiment with, ⁓ local food when I get to a country, but something that I do try to do is.

even kind of get something that seems familiar. So some people say absolutely shouldn't do this, but I try to try a McDonald's everywhere I go. So ⁓ like I said, cause there's something different somewhere. Like I said, know like, you know, Japan, I just went there and I didn't actually try this one, but they have a teriyaki burger. ⁓ New Zealand, they have, it's called a Kiwi something, a Kiwi burger, but it actually has a ⁓ egg on top of it, you know, and I don't know.

Tara (42:52)
Great, great.

Mmm.

Okay. Okay.

Calvin (43:08)
any place at McDonald's that you can get an egg on your burger, but that's something that you have in New Zealand. So yeah, it's familiar, but like the menu is usually different. Like they've got, I think everybody has the Big Mac. Everybody has like the little double cheeseburger thing, but from there it's all different. So like the Philippines, they actually serve like white rice and brown gravy ⁓ that goes along with the chicken deal.

Um, a friend, when I'm my friend, he was telling me about that and I was like, you've got to be kidding me. Cause that's a staple in Louisiana. And I was like, what, what's that? I've got to see this. And that was, that trip was actually the one that kind of made me, Hey, I got to see what the McDonald's do like in different places. Cause that was just so off the rails, uh, from what they had. like they had rice as a side dish. They have a spaghetti as a side dish at the one in the Philippines. And that's a common side dish in the Philippines. Anywhere is like spaghetti. Um,

Tara (44:00)
Okay.

Calvin (44:00)
So yeah, so I was like, yeah, I got to see what the McDonald's is doing in like the different places. So tradition.

Tara (44:06)
So

interesting. have, I've like heard stories of people doing that before, but I haven't met somebody who or where it hasn't come up in conversation with friends of mine who travelled that that's one of the things that they do. That's neat. Do you have a favourite McDonald's item from around the world?

Calvin (44:20)
⁓

I don't know.

It's gonna be the Philippines one. It's gonna be the Philippines one with it's a little ⁓ chicken patty and the rice and gravy. I probably ate that more than I should have. It was so good. And affordable. was like less than 2 bucks. Less than 2 bucks US for that. So that's the favourite one.

Tara (44:47)
Wow.

Yeah.

That's nice. Changing tracks a little bit. So you and I met 2018, a couple of years before the big 2020. How did the pandemic affect your travel plans or your goals? Yeah, can see you. For anybody who's not watching the YouTube, Calvin's starting to laugh over there.

Calvin (45:08)
Well,

it was yeah, it was it was really really probably affected everybody. It was somewhat unique for me because my extended travel journey started right before right before the pandemic hit. So I left my corporate life in November of 2019. And that was a

Tara (45:15)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (45:34)
Awesome set of circumstances that led to me being able to take that trip. was originally just supposed to be a vacation to Singapore. ⁓ but I had a set of circumstances that never would have come up again. ⁓ my friend that lived in the Philippines was moving back to the States. So was kind of like last call for free place to stay in the Philippines. ⁓ I had an opportunity to get to Australia and then I knew some people in New Zealand. So one thing that's kind of like dominoed together and I was like, I gotta take this opportunity. So.

Tara (45:51)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (46:03)
I left a super awesome job. Some people thought I was crazy. I'll come back to that in a bit if you'd like, but to the question, I spent 4 months travelling through, it supposed to be an open ended trip through Southeast Asia. So I had in my head about 6 months, which would have taken me to May of 2020. But in January, I started seeing a couple things on the news and

Tara (46:11)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Calvin (46:33)
for what it's worth, not to get too political about anything, but news in Asia was different than what was probably getting reported elsewhere. So I was seeing real information. I actually had a hostel roommate ⁓ who was visiting from Wuhan. So I was getting real information there in January. And so I was kind of like, okay, I don't think my trip's gonna last as long as I was originally planning.

Tara (46:49)
⁓ wow! my goodness!

Calvin (47:02)
Let me kind of start thinking exit strategy. And so I was in Cambodia when that happened. And then I left Cambodia and where did I go? I went to Taiwan after that and I had a connection in Hong Kong. And a lot of people, well,

If people have been to Asia, you might have known that before the pandemic, mask wearing is like it's a big thing in Asia, particularly China, Hong Kong, Japan, you know, even if I just sneeze. So well before the pandemic, you mask wearing was a thing. But I remember I flew from Cambodia and I had a layover in Hong Kong and the layover was for a while, but it was an overnight layover. But as I was boarding my flight,

Tara (47:31)
normal.

Calvin (47:53)
I noticed I was like, though, like, still, I didn't realize the gravity of what was going on, but I was one of few non Asian people board in the flight and everybody has a mask on. And the guy in front of me, when I go to board, he like turns around and he like, he offers me a mask. And I'm just like, you know, thank you. And, you know, but I still, I don't know, like really all of what's going on, but I've gotten, I got some information and ⁓ I got to my hotel in Taiwan.

Tara (47:58)
Mm.

Calvin (48:22)
And the next day, so nothing happened when I checked in, but the next day is when they kind of started doing protocols. Like they weren't letting anybody into the hotel or any kind of building. They were like checking temperatures and all that stuff. And actually, let me step back. When I arrived in Taiwan, there were doctors at before you even get to customs or bag check or anything like that, there was doctors and white coats and everything. And they're like checking everybody when they're going in and

Tara (48:45)
wow.

Calvin (48:50)
you know, and asking the question, have you been to China? So you're starting to see protocols. So now I'm like, kind of like, OK, hey, this, you know, this might be some, you know, something kind of wild. ⁓ And so and they also the airports, I think there were only 4 airports in the US that were open. So they closed some of the airports and I'm trying to get back to Texas and Texas wasn't open yet. So I'm like, man, what, you know, I need to figure out something. But I had some friends that I.

promise that I would see in Japan is, okay, well, I'm gonna go to Taiwan, go to Japan, and then I'm gonna, you know, figure something out. And so I go to Japan, same thing, they've got, you know, the doctors and everything, but they also had, they had security, they're like, okay, well, they had signs up. And it's like, if you're coming from China, like you've got to go through this process, if you're coming from somewhere else, you can go here. So they're protocol on everybody, but there was something different for China.

Tara (49:27)
Yeah.

Calvin (49:48)
And this is kind of a geopolitical thing. I'm like, I came from Taiwan and I'm going the not China line. And somebody stops me. like, like, you got to go this way. And it's like, I didn't, you know, I didn't come from China because I won, but there that is still considered China. So they're like, were you on this flight? And so I'm like, okay. Okay. I'm, you know, I'm not trying to break a rule. I thought it was instruction. So

Tara (50:01)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Right,

right.

Calvin (50:14)
I

had to go the other way. And I remember I still have it somewhere, but like they gave you this little slip and it says quarantine on it. So I'm like, I was actually kind of real. I was like, man, what's going on here now? Like, are they going to put us someplace? You know? ⁓ but that was just to let them know that we had to do the different sort of checks. So again, temperature check, all this stuff. And they were doing, ⁓ what were they calling it? ⁓ contact tracing. So they wanted to know like where you'd come from and then also where you were going. So if something popped up, then they had all this.

Tara (50:21)
you

Okay.

Calvin (50:42)
information and know what and where people were coming from. So then we do all the immigration stuff. So I get to Japan and it's somewhat. This is now February ⁓ is February around the seventh. ⁓ And so they opened up an airport in Texas. So as soon as that opened up, like I gotta I got my book to fight back on points. ⁓

Tara (50:51)
And this is at what point in time then? You're in Japan now.

Mm.

Calvin (51:13)
And that's like, let me, let me, uh, let's, let's get home. that turned out to be a good thing for a lot of different reasons. But yeah. So I cut my trip, you know, short by that. I, I'm going to get stuck somewhere, I'd rather get stuck at a place I can control, which is home. Um, but there were some people that got stranded in a bunch of places. So one of my, uh, one of my hostel roommates from Cambodia, they got stuck in the Philippines for 9 months, 9 months. So.

Tara (51:26)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Wow, ⁓ my gosh.

Calvin (51:42)
What happened? So the Philippines, they banned travel between provinces. And where they were, there wasn't an international airport. So if they had been like in Manila or Cebu, somewhere like that, they could have flown home, but they were in a province that did not have an international airport and they were not allowed to travel to the international airport. So they were stuck there for 9 months. They're from Canada. I forgot what city. I think West Coast. So, yeah, so they were there for 9 months.

Tara (52:02)
Wow.

Calvin (52:10)
And like I said, Philippines is awesome. And like, it's kind of cool sometimes, you get to stay at an awesome place for a long time. It's a little bit different when it's out of your control. And then there were some people, and you may know these people, but they got stuck in Poland for, I think it was 3 months with a rented RV from Germany. So, and I think, do you know the Howards? Yeah. Yeah. They got stuck with the rented RV.

Tara (52:16)
Right? Yeah.

Well.

Yes. Yeah. Mike and Ann. I didn't realize

that. ⁓ jeez.

Calvin (52:39)
And I was scared

to ask them for a while because I'm like, did they have a running bill for that? You know, and they said like, they didn't, they didn't get stuck with all that. But I was like, you know, but people got stranded in some places. knew some people. ⁓ met them in Thailand on that trip, but they were from Finland. So a lot of people from Finland go to Phuket for winter time, you know, cause you know, they get more than 4 hours of daylight and an affordable place to stay.

Tara (52:44)
Yeah

Cool. Yeah.

Calvin (53:06)
⁓ but they, they got stranded there, like they couldn't get home and, they eventually the government had to send charter planes to fly. Cause there were so many fans there, ⁓ to get them back home. but they were stuck there for awhile. So yeah, there's a bunch of things like that. And I just did not want to be one of those stories. So was like, yeah, let me, let me get home. ⁓ so that definitely impacted me and interesting thing. obviously I, I, I left a awesome career.

Tara (53:26)
Get home.

Calvin (53:35)
to take that trip. you know, that was supposed to set me on a path that going and doing some things. And I have people like they asked me, it's like, hey, well, you know, do you regret, you know, leaving your job to go and do that given, you know, what happened COVID and I didn't think about it for a second. I was like, heck no, because I have people from and this was right after the trip. And so I didn't know all this was going to happen, but I still keep in touch with so many people from that trip, you know, so I, you know, so if I didn't do that,

that, you know, those people wouldn't be in my life now. I wouldn't have had the things that was going on. And, you know, some of those places, mean, travel was, you know, travel is not super difficult now, but I mean, there's definitely things you have to consider because like even right now, there's still not as many options for me to get to Asia as there used to be, you know, so fights are still, you know, there's not as many fights going that way and then to a lot of destinations. So like I the options have come down and it's a little more challenging to get places.

Tara (54:23)
Hmm.

Calvin (54:33)
Um, but yeah, but I wouldn't trade any experience that I had to have, you know, oh, well, okay, there's going to be this pandemic. So I'll, you know, stay at my job for another 2 years and travel in, you know, 2022. I said, heck no, I wouldn't, wouldn't trade any of that. So, um, I wouldn't have had the random cause I, I ran into somebody else that, you know, uh, just randomly in Phuket, Eric. So, and you, you've probably heard this story, but, um, but I knew.

Tara (54:59)
Yeah, I think

I remember you guys messaging us being like, hey, look who I ran into.

Calvin (55:04)
Yeah,

so that was super crazy because like I was travelling through Asia and like he was travelling but like you know him he bounces he can switch continents like you know on a week so we're like ⁓ we'll just check in and see what's going on and so I was in Phuket and it was my last day I was supposed to supposed to be my last day I was supposed to go change cities and I was I remember you know Eric was travelling let me just check on and say hey you know what's going on and I'm in I'm in Thailand so I'm in Thailand you know but that's

Tara (55:14)
There needs to be a documentary about him.

Calvin (55:33)
you know, big long country, you know? And so I'm like, OK, well, where where are you in Thailand? So I'm in Phuket. like, oh, I'm in Phuket. But still, that's, you know, decent size island, you know, and I'm like, where, you know, where are you in Phuket? He drops me a pin. And at that moment, he is literally 50 meters away from me. 50 meters away from me. Yeah, he was like right down the street around the corner.

Tara (55:35)
Right.

Come on, are you kidding me?

Calvin (55:57)
And they were about to go off on an adventure. So they had met somebody that had come there a whole lot and they knew this awesome place to go watch sunset. And they were literally leaving right then. So if I had messaged him 5 minutes later, they would have been gone down the road, you know, and I probably would have been leaving and going later on. So like I've messaged it just the right time. We go off to this someplace and this isn't like that area. Like it's not like a tourist destination or anything like that. I mean, there was like maybe a dozen people there at this like mountainside.

Tara (56:10)
I love these stories.

Calvin (56:24)
⁓ like little bar type of thing. And so we watched sunset hang out there and like I said, just completely, completely random, completely random.

Tara (56:32)
That, you know what?

it's not. That's like synchronicity at its best. That is such a cool story. Wild.

Calvin (56:36)
right? So, so super, super, super awesome. So, and

we've actually we actually run into each other random in Japan too. So yeah, so yeah, so we were destined to always run into 2 people.

Tara (56:48)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

That's

super cool. And do you find too with social media now that the opportunities for that to happen have amplified? I ask because I've had this happen several times with me where I've had, like you know Angel from TravelCon. So when I was in Portugal last October, and I tend to not post in real time just for safety reasons and you know, keeping my head straight and whatever else.

Calvin (57:09)
Yes.

Tara (57:19)
I had posted something about being in Portugal and he shot me a message and was like, I'm in Portugal too. And I was like, that's amazing. Where are you? And kind of similar to your story with Eric, his, we ended up being in the same city at the same time. His hotel was one street parallel to the one that I was staying at. Yeah. And then it turned out we were both there for work. Like separately, I was working with my mom's tour company, MP TOURS, and he was doing his thing for work.

our itineraries basically mirrored each other. So we ended up meeting up in a second city in Portugal. But if we hadn't had like Instagram to, I don't know, have that little, I'm here, it wouldn't have happened. Has that happened with you through social media too?

Calvin (57:59)
It's happened. It's happened a couple of times. So actually, so the hostel roommate for Japan, that was, it wasn't live, but as I was talking about the trip, she reaches out and says, Hey, I, I, you're coming to Japan. Like I live in Japan now, which I had missed that just that she had relocated. ⁓ so that was kind of cool to, to catch that. ⁓ and I also, ran into somebody in Australia, ⁓ on that, on that same 4 month trip, I had arrived and I posted. So.

Tara (58:12)
⁓

Yeah.

Calvin (58:28)
I don't always post real time, like if I do post, I don't like post, okay, hey, you know, this hotel or anything like that. I just post like city. Cause like I said, if you find me in a city, random it's, it's meant to happen like Eric, you know, or, you know, but, um, but I get this message and the funny thing, it was somebody that I hadn't talked to, um, in probably about a year, but I posted a story and they're like, Hey, are you in Australia now? And I'm like,

Tara (58:30)
Mmm.

No, definitely not.

Yeah

Right, right.

Bye.

Calvin (58:56)
Yeah. And she's like, Oh, I am. And it turned out, so it was their last day and it was my first full day. And so we ended up catching up at a beach and like, I, you know, I, I, fortunately, I don't plan things like minute by minute. I was kind of like, let things happen. So it just kind of worked out as okay, well, I'll join you guys and I'll figure out the rest of my itinerary later. And so she left, but then all the people that she was hanging out with, like that was another travel person she had met either online or like a previous trip.

Tara (59:10)
Right. Yep.

Calvin (59:25)
And so she leaves and I'm like, I just inherited some new friends. So, so I had friends in Australia to hang out with. And so that was kind of cool. ⁓ I don't know. I can't think of any other social media, ⁓ meetings, but it does help when people kind of like see or kind of help things out, you know, even it's just like a tip, you know, piece of information, you know, that's kind of cool to, kind of get. So.

Tara (59:41)
Yeah.

Mm hmm.

So neat. This is one of the reasons why I love travel so much. These happenstance, like beautiful moments that come about and then the new connections and yeah, that's really cool.

Calvin (1:00:04)
Yeah. And that's actually,

that's actually a good thing. So that's actually the more important thing. So if this had been 20 years ago, yeah, you may travel someplace and meet somebody and you might exchange information or things like that. But though, because of social media, you can stay connected more. So I have had reunions with multiple hostel roommates. So I always tell people that that's my favourite.

Tara (1:00:20)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:00:29)
You know, I don't always stay in a hostel, but if I have the opportunity to visit right, which situation I will stay in a hostel because I almost every trip that I've had, have connections that I still have ⁓ from, like I said, nearly all of my, places. So I keep in touch with the hostel manager from Iceland, ⁓ Cambodia. I stayed with, ⁓ it was an 8 bedroom dorm and get this, I stayed 11 days.

in Cambodia for a hostel and they had a bar that ran a tab. They had they cooked food and meals. 11 days. My tab was $111.75. I'm sorry, $112.75 for 11 days. So it's super, super awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah, US. But

Tara (1:00:59)
⁓ huh. huh.

That's a beautiful thing. That's an American, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Calvin (1:01:24)
I stayed, like I stayed in touch with so many people there. So there's ⁓ a comedian from Canada that I still stay in touch with. He and his fiancé. ⁓ There was a girl from Germany who ⁓ she actually, she worked at Cologne Cathedral. So one of the landmarks from Germany. ⁓ So I took a trip to Europe 3 years later and went through, she takes a day off, but gives me.

Tara (1:01:42)
Mm-hmm.

⁓

Calvin (1:01:53)
tour. She's not a tour guide, but she like she works there. So she takes me takes me on a tour. And we go through and there was like, there's exhibits that are closed or things that aren't even open in the public. And she's like, this is my friend from the US. Can we go in? Sure, like go in. So I get to see all this cool stuff, you know, that nobody got to see that day. And like some people probably didn't even get to see like period, you know, so you know, I've had experiences like that. I have another roommate from that same trip.

Tara (1:02:07)
No!

Yeah.

Calvin (1:02:23)
I, ⁓ she was from Japan. ⁓ we reconnected, there in Japan. ⁓ and then she's a photographer and journalist too. So kind of got to see some other like non-touristy locations and things like that. I have, I met in Singapore. I had some people, they were on holiday from Thailand.

Tara (1:02:49)
Mm.

Calvin (1:02:49)
And then

I'm like, I'm going to Thailand, you know, in however many weeks it was. And like, well, let us know when you get here. And so they took me, you know, to their areas and I'm in like a carry, like a Thai karaoke bar and everybody's to have no idea what anybody's saying. But, know, you can tell when somebody's having fun, somebody's having fun, you know? So, ⁓ so that was, that was super, super cool to go and do there. But yeah, but because of social media, you were able to keep those connections and then like kind of reconnect in other places. So it kind of.

Tara (1:02:55)
I love them.

you

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hmm.

Calvin (1:03:17)
snowballs once you get out there. Cause people are always like, Calvin, like, it ever like lonely when you're out there? It's like, no, I mean, you're as lonely as you let yourself be. Like if you don't talk to anybody, you know, then yeah, you're, you know, you're not going to have any meaningful connections or experiences, but if you, you know, talk to people and like the, and hostiles are easy ways to do that because you can't avoid anybody really, you know, so like somebody's there, you know, at some point in time. So, you were almost forced to.

Tara (1:03:22)
Hmm. Yep.

Yes.

Calvin (1:03:46)
Uh, have conversations and they, they are almost always cool ones. said, has everybody I've met in the hostel been cool that I want to touch base with again? No, but, um, I, I will sacrifice those one or 2, um, uh, not cool people for all the awesome people that I.

Tara (1:04:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so true. Have you because you've done a ton of travel and you've got some like very far destinations in there. Have you ever missed a flight?

Calvin (1:04:15)
I have not missed a travel flight and probably the reason for that is I had a misfortune of missing a work flight. And so, yeah, so that, that taught me a lesson. I used to be that person that kind of cut it close, you know, for, for boarding time. So after that, I'm like, Nope, not don't want, don't want to deal with that ever, ever, ever again. Uh, so yeah, so I've never, I've never missed a flight. Oh, I have, I thought I was going to miss my first flight in Japan in

Tara (1:04:23)
Ooh, ouch.

hehe

Calvin (1:04:44)
2023 because I, ⁓ I actually made a mistake on the train and I ended up, got on the wrong train and I was kind of going the wrong way. ⁓ and then I probably should have left earlier anyway, but had I gotten on the right train, I would have been fine. But I've got on the wrong train and was kind of going the wrong way. And then I realized it, but instead of rolling with it, I kind of tried to make my own train route. ⁓ but the way, have, have you been in Japan? Okay.

Tara (1:04:53)
Mm.

I have a couple times,

yeah.

Calvin (1:05:12)
Okay. So the train that they're super, super efficient. ⁓ but they're like, they're, they're, they're all tied in together. So rather than following like a, ⁓ a maps route, I kind of try to make my own routes. I, well, if I get off at this station, I know I can go there from this station, but now like I had to wait longer. So now it's making me further behind and I cut it about as close as you can get it. But I probably, if I was in any other country, I probably would have missed my first flight.

Tara (1:05:40)
Yeah.

Calvin (1:05:41)
They're super efficient in getting people

through, I didn't, but that was about the closest that I came to missing a flight.

Tara (1:05:46)
Wow.

Have you ever had any scary experiences, any hospital visits, any close calls?

Calvin (1:05:55)
⁓ No,

no hospital visits. ⁓

I'm fortunate I have not had anything that would really be considered scary by most standards. I mean, like not knowing where you're going for a few minutes. I don't call that scary. ⁓

Tara (1:06:10)
Right.

Calvin (1:06:13)
Yeah, I haven't. The only thing that I can maybe consider like a situation that might not go well, it didn't. But like I was in this is in Cambodia and you're familiar a lot of places if you're in any tourists, you know, heavy area like somebody is trying to sell something or whatever. And that's not a bad thing. I know some people like, ⁓ scam this scam that. And so I don't look at it that way. But yeah, there are people that are trying to sell something and that's how they earn money, however they do it. But

Tara (1:06:41)
Yep. Yep.

Calvin (1:06:42)
Um, there was a taxi driver and there was, uh, you know, you know, the first thing, Hey, you know, can I, can I offer you a ride? I said, no, I don't need a ride. Cause you know, I have my camera, I'm walking around trying to, you know, take pictures of things. And, um, so I turned down the taxi and then, um, and you may not run into this because as a, as a solo female traveller, but solo male travellers, if there's somebody out, if there's a place where like you'll get.

propositions of all kinds of things. so first it was like taxi and I'm like, no, I don't need a taxi. And then it was like, you know, girls and like, no. And then it's like drugs and I'm like, no, but he's like, he's just persistent, persistent, persistent, you know, and I, kind of like playfully, I'm just trying to hang out, I'm just taking pictures. And so I kind of jokingly like raise my camera up, like I'm going to take a picture and

Tara (1:07:19)
You

⁓

Calvin (1:07:37)
usually like I run in that situation a lot, you know, and like that'll usually kind of either in it, they either realize, he's taking pictures or I don't want my picture taken. And then that kind of ends it. But like here he kind of gets like hot. And I don't understand what he's saying, but I knew he was not happy that like I raised the camera up and he's like yelling, yelling, yelling. And like, I think I just I'm just going to walk that way, you know. And again, nothing, nothing really happened. But like that was probably about the probably the the

Tara (1:07:46)
Right.

Calvin (1:08:06)
precarious situation that we ran into. ⁓ Yeah, so that that wasn't fun. That wasn't fun.

Tara (1:08:10)
Yeah.

Interesting, interesting.

And you mentioned earlier you spoke a little bit of German when you were young. Did you have to learn Spanish in school at all or do you know languages other than English? Why are you laughing?

Calvin (1:08:26)
⁓

because I took 2 years of Spanish, at least 2 years. may, I don't think I took the third year, but I took at least 2 years in, ⁓ here in Louisiana, but I'm laughing because I don't know much of it at all. ⁓ and I'm not proud of that, but our Spanish class and

If there's anybody I went to high school with, they're probably going to chuckle at this and agree. But our class was so fun. We just had fun, you know, so I even remember my grades like I would I would get top grades like the first grading period and they would kind of go down and I'm like, whoa, we're about halfway through. I don't want to finish that with this. And then it would kind of come back up. But yeah, it was just so fun. And I didn't take full advantage of that. And I am regretful of that to this day. Like I

Tara (1:09:12)
Yeah.

Calvin (1:09:20)
⁓ I know, you know, some verbs, you know, where I can kind of know some things. I cannot hold a conversation. ⁓ I can, I can ask for a beer if there's a lyric in a song from a song. I know that. So, you know, my cerveza 4 4 4. ⁓ but yeah, I, could not hold a conversation. And actually as close as I live to Mexico, I've never been. I've been super close. ⁓ I have been to places where I can see Mexico in my travels.

Tara (1:09:26)
Mm.

Yeah.

Calvin (1:09:48)
⁓ but I have not been across the border into, ⁓ Mexico. I should have been one time and I actually, I caught COVID the week before that trip. so, so I should have already had that taken care of, but I have not yet been to, ⁓ Mexico. ⁓ the only Spanish speaking country that I've been to, I've been to Spain, ⁓ for a week and

Tara (1:09:59)
Aww.

Calvin (1:10:16)
Is Argentina, is Argentina Spanish or Portuguese? forget. Okay, so, so yeah, so those are the only Spanish speaking countries that I've been to.

Tara (1:10:21)
Spanish, Brazil is Portuguese speaking.

Cool, if you were to pick up a language, which one would it be?

Calvin (1:10:34)
prior to the last couple years, it probably would have been Spanish.

If I wanted to learn one right now, it probably might be Japanese, even though I haven't started. Yeah, I have not started, but I said that would probably be the one because this year I was kind of looking at like how many times that I've been to because I've been to 24 countries, but I was kind of going through like which ones I have been to more than one time. And I've been to Japan.

Tara (1:10:43)
I knew you weren't gonna say that.

Mmm.

Calvin (1:11:04)
the most. I've been to Japan 5 times and I've been to Thailand 5 times, although my Thailand trips were shorter stints in some of those, but I've been to both countries 5 times. I would probably pick that one up. I dabbled, I dabbled in ⁓ Russian a little bit because for there's a lot of people from Russia that live in Thailand.

Tara (1:11:12)
Mm.

Calvin (1:11:28)
even like signs you'll see signs. I'll be in Thai, Chinese, English and Russian. ⁓ In there so and I had run into a number of people from there. I was like, let me I'm going to surprise him and learn some stuff and then I realized I was well, this may not be the one, but I I if I take one up it would probably be Japanese.

Tara (1:11:34)
Mm.

You

That's been on my list too. It's such a beautiful language visibly, visually I should say, and auditorily. Yeah. How do you navigate? I mean, in North America, we're in an interesting and odd position in the world in that North American born individuals tend to be monolingual, whereas people born in the rest of the world tend to know and use.

Calvin (1:11:58)
Right.

Tara (1:12:16)
2, 3, 4, 5 languages in their everyday life. And given that English is the lingua franca at the moment, ⁓ how do you navigate that ⁓ privilege, I suppose, of moving throughout the world and your language being the one spoken? What do you do in situations where you don't speak the language of the place that you're in? And what does that look like?

Calvin (1:12:41)
⁓ it, I, first off, I don't make assumptions. I see a lot of things where people are like making judgments from something. Well, I went all the way over here and I spent all this money and like, they can't even speak English, that it, whatever. like,

That's something that frustrates me so much for people to go and do. I shake my head, you know, whether it's online or actually seeing it ⁓ in public and like, is it awesome if somebody, you know, has English menus somewhere? You know, certainly is. It makes things easier. ⁓ Especially, you know, for somebody like me, like I said, I am I've improved with it, but I'm a picky eater. So like I want to know, hey, what's in this type of thing? I might not want something in this thing. So.

Tara (1:12:59)
You and me both.

⁓ You're not

the close your eyes and point at the menu item guy.

Calvin (1:13:26)
⁓ no, no, I am not. I need to know almost exactly what's going on in there. So it

certainly helps if there's an English menu, to go through, through that. ⁓ I've been fortunate in some places like Japan, when I go, like, if I go to like a fancy restaurant, I'm fortunate that I usually have somebody from, ⁓ the country with me. So that say, you know, that makes it a whole lot easier. ⁓ but outside like, you know,

Tara (1:13:52)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:13:55)
I will look for things that, does this mean you have pictures? You know, does that, you know, kind of help you out? cause I, I realized I'm in somebody else's place and I kind of break it down to like a house. Like, would you go into somebody else's house and tell them to run their house? Like you run your house. Like, do you put your stuff here? Do you, you know, uh, leave your shoes on or off?

Tara (1:13:58)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Calvin (1:14:18)
You know, like whatever you do in your house, I'm going to do it. I'm going to respect that or I'm not going to go, you know, one or the other. You have something that I don't agree with or can't handle. I'm not going to go. And I think that's what we should do when we travel someplace. Also, I will be honest, as much as I do travel, I used to kind of try to OK, let me kind of learn a couple things ⁓ to say in any country. And if you're going to one country.

Tara (1:14:24)
Hmm... Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:14:46)
That's it's somewhat easy to do to kind of get a couple of phrases. But when I went to Asia, that was, did 15 countries in, you know, or 12 countries in 15 weeks. I can't, you know, I can't pick, pick all these things up, you know, ⁓ you know, that quickly. So I kind of stopped doing that ever since I did that trip and just kind of, you know, just navigated that. But I, you know, try to just kind of go with the, go with the flow. ⁓ a smile goes a long way.

Tara (1:14:56)
my gosh!

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:15:15)
You

know, so if you go in, you know, walking angry somewhere and they're, they're not going to feel comfortable and you know, they're not going to be willing to help you, you know, some stuff, but at least if you smile, um, you know, sign sign language kind of helps out a whole lot. Um, it doesn't always work out though. funny story. My first trip to Japan in 2018, I actually, I got, uh, it was either sinuses or something was going on, but I had like some sniffling going on and.

Tara (1:15:24)
Mm.

It's true. Yeah.

Calvin (1:15:45)
I'm like, okay, well, let me try to go in drugs. Like you can't just go someplace and get, you know, ⁓ over the counter drugs. Like you have to talk to a pharmacist. So I incorrectly assumed that a pharmacist would know English. So I go in and pharmacist doesn't know English. So I'm like, okay, well, what do do now? And so I'm making signals and like all this and, know, making coughing noises. So he's like, you know, and he goes and he gets something and gives it to me.

And I buy it and I take it and I felt better, but like, I didn't go away. And I, it's just kind of towards the end of my trip and I get back and then like weeks later, I realized I've got this app on my phone called Google translate lately forgot about. I'm like, okay, well what, you know, what did he give me? And, ⁓ you can, a lot of people don't know even like you could type stuff in, but you can also take pictures and it will translate the word. So.

Tara (1:16:30)
Hehehehehe

Right.

Yeah.

Calvin (1:16:44)
I don't know why I think about that, but like 2 weeks later, I think about it. was like, what did he give me? And he gave me aspirin. And that was it. So, so that's why I didn't feel anything, but like it didn't fix, you know, the, the sign and whatever it was causing the sign, it's saying, so that was a, a, not quite a fail, but I said, I didn't get exactly what I was trying to, uh, to get to at that, at that time. So that was,

Tara (1:16:54)
Yeah.

Right. And then

in some ways that was probably an okay thing too that he went the aspirin route instead of giving you some. It could have been something else not so great.

Calvin (1:17:14)
True, true. So, all

right. So he, were in the neighbourhood. ⁓ But, but yeah, but I don't make assumptions. ⁓ I also on the flip side of that, when somebody happens to know English, it can help me in communicating. ⁓ Whether it's their second, third, or like I say, in some cases that might be their fourth language. ⁓ I don't make anybody feel uncomfortable about their English.

Tara (1:17:23)
Yeah

Calvin (1:17:44)
Because again, like you mentioned, you know, some people they know 2, 3, 4 multiple languages. I know one. I am not going to judge anybody else for how they sound on their second, third, you know, or any. Yes, if there's not their native language, I'm not judging you at all. If I can understand what you're saying, I'm I'm grateful of anything. I'm not judging how it came out, you know, so and that's that's my my philosophy. And even even with English.

Tara (1:17:51)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Calvin (1:18:14)
depending on where you learn English, some words mean different things. So I've had

Tara (1:18:20)
You

and I have had this conversation on your podcast.

Calvin (1:18:23)
Yeah.

But yeah, words mean different things. And I've not run into big differences on those things. But like, again, I'm picky food person. And I was ⁓ I was somewhere. And I think this was in the Netherlands, but there was like a international food court. So each court was like from a different ⁓ place. And I went to I don't remember which country in Africa this place was from, but there was some food and it was something like rice.

And again, I mentioned rice and gravy earlier, Louisiana staple and like in in Louisiana, like gravy is kind of made with like like either like a chicken, you know, with like flour and stuff like that. And it's usually brown, but there's a white gravy also. But one of those 2. And but I know what that is. And that's the only thing I've ever seen called gravy. And so I'm there and it some like fish and gravy. It's like, wow, I'm going to have like rice and gravy in Amsterdam from Africa.

Tara (1:18:54)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:19:21)
And I, you know, place my order, I go pick up my food and there's like some red and green stuff on it. And I'm like, what? said, I asked for rice and gravy. And they're like, this, yeah, that's, yeah, that's, that's what it is. That's what you got. I thought they gave me the wrong order, but gravy was something different from that country. And I was like, well, I can't even get mad. Cause I got what I asked for. So, ⁓ so, so yeah, I, I will probably never have that again, but I.

Tara (1:19:38)
Mm.

Yeah!

Calvin (1:19:51)
I ate it, I got through it, but it was just different, you know? And just different things like ⁓ when you buy fries, like they'll ask you, do you want sauce? know, that can be ketchup, that can be mayonnaise, that can be something else or whatever. So ⁓ yeah, I learned about the sauce, because I'm usually a no sauce person, but I had to learn that I was a no sauce person. ⁓

Tara (1:19:51)
you

Yeah.

Hmm.

some sort of surprise, yeah.

Okay. Okay. ⁓

Calvin (1:20:20)
And then like, I'm not a big vegetable person, even though I've been evolving, but like, ⁓ if you get like sandwiches in Europe, sometimes like certain countries, they'll call it salad. You know, do you want salad on this on the sandwich? You know, and I'm thinking that's maybe like a side thing or whatever. No, you're putting no, I don't want salad on my sandwich, no salad. You know, so yeah, there's there's words that, you know, can can kind of trip you up if you

Tara (1:20:32)
Mm.

Right.

Yeah

Calvin (1:20:50)
Only know one definition of that word.

Tara (1:20:53)
Yes, yeah, it's so true. You mentioned Google Translate earlier. How has tech changed the way that you travel or how has tech influenced your travels over the last few decades, ⁓ especially given that you also work in travel and tech with content creation and whatnot? What does that look like for you?

Calvin (1:21:13)
The biggest thing ⁓ for somebody like me, I don't necessarily need to have every day or moment planned out for my trip. And I know I could not travel with some people probably because of that. Like I have travelled to countries and I have been on the plane and not knowing where I'm going to stay that night. ⁓ You know, well, you know, I'll book it either.

Tara (1:21:26)
you

Yeah.

Calvin (1:21:35)
you know, in the immigration line or on the plane, kind of research some things. I don't do that for every trip, you know, because there's some places where it's probably not a good idea to do that for. But there's some places if I am comfortable that there is going to be options, then I may not do it, you know, right away. And that's particularly like on my long trip, because I may not have known, OK, am I leaving today or am I leaving to this? So if I mapped all that out, I would have been stuck in a specific itinerary. And that actually would have messed me up a couple of times because I

thought I was going to a country one time and I ended up not because of a volcano in the Philippines. So I was like, nope, not going back to the Philippines right now. I'm going to go someplace else. ⁓ but if I had done stuff in advance, then that would have been a little bit trickier to, to deal with. So technology does help you to kind of do things last minute if it suits your style. Like I said, I know that's not for everybody, but for me, it's really, really helpful because I can now like I'll

Tara (1:22:11)
Okay.

Calvin (1:22:35)
If I'm staying in a place for a week, if it's my first time going there, I usually do not book the whole time. I'll book the landing. Okay. I got a place to stay when I arrive and like a couple of days, but if it's a big city, I might want to see a different part of the city. Or I might get there and realize that, it's not as easy to transit around, you know, or something like that, you know? So, um, technology really, really helps out with logistics. Um, it also helps out with, um, really

Tara (1:22:42)
Mm.

Calvin (1:23:06)
you can get lost now, but like it's not the end of the world now. mean, yeah, you can, you know, without, you know, GPS, you can figure it out eventually maybe, but yeah, it might be a little more stressful getting in some place, but it's really cool to kind of see, okay, hey, my, my lodging is way over here. And even though I'm this way, you know, it's, it's not the end of the world. ⁓ and then definitely for, for translation. So again, I'm picky eater and it's probably easy to

order things directly off the menu as it is. But on my things, when I check out my McDonald's around the world, if it's not in English speaking country, I've got to be able to tell them no ketchup, no pickles, no onions, you know. And so I'll type that out and I can just show it to them and they OK, I get it. I can I can get it ordered. So ⁓ and Google Translate actually told me I was trespassing once.

Tara (1:23:54)
Yeah.

⁓

Calvin (1:24:01)
So

I was in Thailand and I think it was my first trip there. So this was 2019 and I usually like to go to things early in the morning so I can kind of catch it with not a lot of people around and get some decent pictures and stuff like that. And so I show up to this museum early and I'm, Hey, I'm the first one here. Walk into a gate that was open and security guard walks up to me and I don't understand what he's saying to me, but I'm

Tara (1:24:07)
Mm.

Calvin (1:24:29)
you know, just thinking I'm, you know, I'm early and where do I go? And so finally I realized he's really trying to tell me something important. So I type out and I give him the phone and I'm just double checking. Is this the museum? And he basically told me that it was closed for remodeling and I wasn't supposed to be there. So it was it wasn't like a bad, bad situation, but I wasn't supposed to be there. I just walked in like an open door like that.

that the workers were at. So yeah, so I found out I was trespassing through Google Translate.

Tara (1:25:00)
Right?

Nice. When you do prep for your travels, do you have ⁓ any go-tos, whether it's blogs, podcasts, YouTube, social media, or do you go to people, preferably that you know that have been there or that live there, or are there any colleagues in the industry that you would want to shout out based on the information that they have?

Calvin (1:25:27)
⁓ I don't know that I have a go to, ⁓ because if I'm going someplace, it is either some history that I'm tied to. And there's actually, there might be a couple, I don't know, like a go to like travel history, ⁓ blog. mean, it's something I've kind of considered getting into going and doing, but I do cover things more than history. So I'm not sure that that's my specific lane to fill.

Tara (1:25:37)
Hmm.

Mm.

Calvin (1:25:54)
but I usually just kind of searched by like, what can I find out about different things? So, I, and then I also go to places because I know somebody there, so I might get, you know, stuff from them. So like, I'm not a, I don't want to, I guess, disparage anything, but I'm not like a Lonely Planet person or like any of other things out there.

Tara (1:25:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Calvin (1:26:17)
What I have done though, just as far as like trying to have options of things to go and do, even if you're not staying in like a short term stay, ⁓ some of the apps like Airbnb and even some of the hotel apps, they will have things for like experiences that you can go for like tours and things like that. There's things like, ⁓ Get Your Guide you know, that can give, and

Tara (1:26:38)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:26:39)
I may or may not actually book the tour, but it just kind of gives me like ideas on like what I can do. And then from that, I'd say, okay, can I get context by having a guide with me for this? Or is it just something that I want to put on my radar? Because if it's something that shows up as a tour option, it's obviously something that somebody says is important to see. So it's something that I can go to put onto a list, but I kind of piecemeal ⁓ my trips or itineraries together.

Tara (1:26:46)
Right.

Yeah, What has been a new skill that you've honed from travelling or one that you've improved?

Calvin (1:27:18)
I don't know if this qualifies as a skill, but patience.

Tara (1:27:21)
Definitely that's a skill. For sure!

Calvin (1:27:23)
So yeah,

patience because ⁓ if you have travelled more than one time, ⁓ something's not going to go right. ⁓ And you can, you know, choose to get bent out of shape about it and, you know, have that energy, you know, for that day or affect your trip or things like that. ⁓ But yeah, it's made me much, much more patient ⁓ because I remember.

Tara (1:27:32)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:27:50)
I remember once ⁓ when I was in grade school, my first job and I'm going to cash my first paycheck before direct deposit was a big thing. And ⁓ I came back home because there was one person in line in front of me and made the mistake of telling my father that made the mistake of telling my father that. so got scolded a little bit and got sent back to the bank. But yeah, but that's

Tara (1:28:17)
Yeah.

Calvin (1:28:18)
That's how impatient that I used to be. ⁓ and, and yeah, so things would, you know, either frustrate me a whole lot easier, but yeah, but when like a flight still a, like I've been in the airport, I spent all day. I spent 13 hours in an airport in Baltimore because of delays. And if I hadn't already been on that, you know, patience journey, that would have been a heck of a day.

Tara (1:28:37)
Hmm.

Calvin (1:28:43)
you know, dealing with that, you know, because it wasn't just like, Hey, you're delayed 13 hours. It was like 30 minutes delay, 30 minutes delay, 40 minutes, you know, so for 13 hours. So, ⁓ but it was actually probably, it was one of my more peaceful days. Cause I was like, Hey, I can't, I can't control when that plane gets here, when it's fixed. And I can either, you know, raise my blood pressure about it or, you know, talk to, you know, some of the people. funny thing is I met a retired

Tara (1:28:44)
Right.

Right.

Calvin (1:29:13)
pilot during that delay and we still keep in touch 12 years later. know, so if I had been, you know, a jerk, you know, griping about, you know, this or this or that, you know, we probably wouldn't have even, you know, had a conversation at all, you know, so, um, yeah, but there's been things from, you know, various trips. If you go to the Philippines,

Tara (1:29:17)
Cool. Wow.

Right.

Calvin (1:29:33)
You're going to be waiting in line for something. If you go to the train station in Japan at the wrong time, you're going to be waiting in line, you know, for the next train that's, coming, fairly quickly. you know, there, there is some waiting and there's some time there's hurry up and wait, but travel involves a lot of wait. It involves a lot of things where you think something is going to happen and it doesn't happen the way that you expect it to. yeah, patience has been a big, big improvement has helped me.

Tara (1:29:55)
Yeah.

That's such a fantastic answer. can relate to that as well. We won't go there. Is there a type of travel that you haven't tried yet that you'd like to?

Calvin (1:30:16)
I don't know that I've done are you as far as like method of travel or?

Tara (1:30:21)
Yeah, I would say method of travel, like not a location, but a way of travelling or a way of being in a new place.

Calvin (1:30:31)
I've been on one cruise, so it was cruise, I did take a cruise to Antarctica. So I chose the most difficult cruise of all ⁓ for my first cruise. ⁓ I don't...

Tara (1:30:39)
You

Calvin (1:30:47)
I've travelled by train, cross country, travelled by plane. I have not done a crossing borders on a bus. So I've not done, I've not done a land border crossing. ⁓ so maybe that is one I've heard that can be interesting for some places. ⁓ so if that is a, if that's a type of travel, that is one that I think I would do it.

Tara (1:30:57)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:31:15)
What other types of travel are there? I forgetting some type?

Tara (1:31:18)
I think it could be anything from the transportation that you take to adventure versus cruise versus luxury versus whatever, solo travel.

Calvin (1:31:28)
So actually,

well, here's an easy one. And I almost did this right before 2020. And I'm actually glad that that didn't turn out. But I actually would be interested in doing van travel through the US. I actually, seriously before I took my Asia trip, I was actually looking into that for 2020. said, yeah, so that's actually, I'm really happy that didn't.

Tara (1:31:41)
I was wondering if he would say that. Yeah.

Really? No way!

You

Calvin (1:31:58)
coming together because

that yeah, that would have been ugly. Because I watched some people do that through 2020. So but I seriously looked into it like I knew that I knew the van that I wanted and everything. It was it was a Heimer. And I so they and that was the other thing they ended up going out of business in the US too. So yeah, so a bunch of things that turned out to be something that didn't work out that was like busing for a lot of reasons.

Tara (1:32:02)
Yeah.

Which one?

Or I don't know that one.

Calvin (1:32:26)
Um, but it's similar to, a Winnebago. So I had looked into that. so I, 2020 that's when I turned 50. So I had this thing that I was going to like travel to all 50 States in 50 weeks for my 50th birthday. That was like supposed to be what that was for. And, uh, yeah, I was like, people like Calvin, that's crazy.

Tara (1:32:42)
⁓ my gosh. Yeah.

Calvin (1:32:47)
But it would have been fun. It would have been crazy. It would have been crazy. But even when I said that I was leaving my job to go travel, you know, Asia for 6 months, not everybody thought I was crazy. Like some people, hey, that's cool. I wish I could, you know, like have the guts to do something like that. I'm happy, you know, that somebody is doing that. ⁓ But I had I had 2 people.

Tara (1:32:48)
you

Yeah.

Calvin (1:33:11)
They called me and they didn't come right out and say it. like they're like, is everything OK? They thought I was dying and like taking my last hurrah trip. Yeah, so 2 people called me to ask that. ⁓ But yeah, but they they they weren't comfortable in coming right out. So they were kind of like just kind of like asking around and I'm kind like, what? Like, what? What are you asking? Yeah, you know, and so.

Tara (1:33:22)
my lord.

Calvin (1:33:38)
They're like, yeah, like who leaves? You know, because it was it was a very, very good job. I mean, I. If I if I ever see a single paycheck. That high ever again, I'm I'm doing good. I'm doing really good in life if I ever get to that point again. ⁓ But I walked away from that and you know, some people would call that crazy, but I have had.

Tara (1:33:57)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Calvin (1:34:06)
so many awesome experiences since that point ⁓ that I wouldn't trade for anything. And it's it's changed my outlook on thing because like, number one, because I had an awesome job that paid so well, I bought a lot of things that really in the grand scheme of things aren't important. I mean, if somebody has them and that's important to you, that's fine. I'm not making judgments, but like you don't necessarily have to have that.

Tara (1:34:17)
Hmm.

Calvin (1:34:36)
Like it's not a necessity to do things. And then obviously, you know, travelling and seeing people with less things and that they're happy and they have joy. You know, it's something like I said, I have a lot less ⁓ stress in my life. I may have stressful moments, but like, you know, hitting a sales quota or something like that, you know, and it's there were some some stressful times and I had.

not my not my last company, but I had a company that I worked at one time, I literally I could feel my blood pressure rising because of how stressful that day or that week was. And I and I actually there was a clinic ⁓ in the back in the parking lot or like across the lot. And I felt it so bad. I wondered and I went and my blood pressure was elevated like right then it wasn't normal, but it elevated because of how stressful that day was, you know, and so

Tara (1:35:11)
Aww.

⁓ wow.

Calvin (1:35:27)
I've not had anything like I've had stresses in travel, but I've not had anything, you know, that that that led to, you know, ⁓ unhealthy stress. I would say if anything, I've had quite the opposite. So, you know, I said some people think might think that it was crazy, but I've I've gained a lot out of it, you know, personally, ⁓ health wise, and then also the ⁓ the connections that I've made, whether it was just a

you know, connection for that brief time that, we're in the same airspace or people that I've, stayed in, in touch with, because one of the things, and I don't know if we've already talked about this or not, but like one of the things that I get, ⁓ from travel and I think everybody gets from travel is we all have opinions on everything, but your opinions are based on like the sample size of

experiences that you had, whether that's a place or the people that you interact with. And the more that you have different and diverse experiences, it helps out with so many things.

Most of my discussions, they've kind of been insightful. We end up talking about how ours are, our different governments work, things like that. So I might learn something about their government. The, funny things are just like misconceptions. So I've had, ⁓ people where, okay,  well you're from.

Tara (1:36:48)
Mmm.

Calvin (1:36:53)
Texas, like, you know, how many guns do you have? You know, it's like, I personally don't have any, like, I know how to use them. I, you know, I've done them. And I don't have an opinion one way the other, but I don't own like, I don't have a arsenal, like some people, but like, they were like, yeah, how many guns do you have? And, you know, do you have a horse and things like that? So there, there are certain stereotypes that, you know, people get if, if that's your only, like, you saw something on TV, you're one person from Texas, you know, then you might think, you know, for good or bad that that

Tara (1:37:11)
⁓

Great. Yep.

Calvin (1:37:22)
that that happens. And for me, for me specifically, ⁓ as a Black American, I've had some unique discussions. I was ⁓ in Argentina on a tour. And there was a, a couple so Europe people, it's a big thing for like, when you graduate from grade school to take a holiday, you know, and so

Tara (1:37:44)
yeah gap year.

Calvin (1:37:45)
They were on their first trip out of country and we're travelling somewhere. And this was in 2022 and, ⁓ they had asked me about something like, you know, like, ⁓ like, do you feel safe in the United States? And I didn't get what they were talking about at first, but they were talking about like the, you know, the police brutality and the deaths and things like that. And so they're,

Tara (1:38:01)
Mm.

Calvin (1:38:09)
whole thought was that every Black person is hiding from the police. Yes, are there some bad things going on with police and unfortunate things happen to people? Yes, but it's not every day. I said, if it was like that, I would have moved, you know, so, you know, so but that was their whole existence, you know, so, ⁓ so travelling, you run into everybody, you're kind of crossing from different things, and they have their experience and their base of knowledge from their own life. But then they also have a different like their

Tara (1:38:23)
Right.

Calvin (1:38:38)
vision of the people that they interact with is based on what they have. So if they haven't seen Americans, if they haven't met a Canadian, it's like they might think whatever they think. And that's not a good or bad thing. It's like they just have that slice that they got from whatever media sources they, that they received that thing from. so getting out and travelling, you know, it helps you to one meet other people and learn about them. But then they also get to learn about you and where you're

from. So ⁓ that's a benefit. like I said, I think that there is ⁓ a unique perspective that you get from seeing different things and places. So I think that you can go and do that. Going back to the Third Culture Kids book, there was actually something in there that they said people that do not have experiences elsewhere, like if they've not left their city or not left

maybe their state or something like that, that they have a, almost like a ⁓ fear of these things that they don't know because they don't know them. And it's a natural thing to kind of feel a little bit of apprehension about something that you're not familiar with. Now, what you do with that, that's a whole different thing. But if you're not familiar with something, like you have some sort of doubt, you know, for a second, you might say, okay, well, I'm going to try this out and see,

Tara (1:39:41)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:40:00)
there is something if you're not familiar with something, It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just how you handle those things. But I was interesting to see from that book people that don't have those experiences are not only maybe fearful, but they're also now a little bit fearful about people that have had those experiences.

Cause now it's like, okay, well now I feel intimidated or less than because this person has done this, this and that, you know? And so then it kind of can snowball into the same. Now, did they get curious about what you've done and want to learn from that? Or are they now, you know, built up a wall because okay, well, Hey, well we're different because this and that and I haven't done or can't or whatever. So, ⁓ that was probably the most interesting part from that book is not necessarily the people that have had those experiences, but when they did the comparison from the people that have and

Tara (1:40:21)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Calvin (1:40:50)
have not basically. ⁓ that's one of the things that I want to do from my Cubicles to Passports side is to not only inspire people to travel, but to also kind of help them, you know, with some tools. I remember when I took my Asia trip, some of the things people, man, Calvin hit the or whatever, you know, but

Tara (1:40:52)
Mm.

Calvin (1:41:12)
On that trip that was 15 weeks, almost 4 months, I did not spend, I came in below $8,000 US for that trip. So now can anybody just go out and just say, and do that right away? Maybe not, but it's still, it's attainable. Like you don't have to even go somewhere for 4 months. So if you can go somewhere for 4 months for that, where can you go for less money for maybe less time?

Tara (1:41:21)
Wow! Yeah!

Calvin (1:41:41)
Like I said, I think anybody can go somewhere if they set their mind to it but you have to prioritize what is important to you. what I realized, I looked at what I was doing and I was doing a lot of partying, you know, a lot of nightlife, which, know, you see some people's bar tabs and you know, that

Tara (1:41:48)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:42:00)
can take up some budget. ⁓ And I was a big sports fan, I was travelling to American football games. So, you know, flying across the country and going and doing that. So yeah, from between tickets and the flights and US hotels, I was spending a bunch of money on, you know, some stuff. And then half of those trips, I probably wasn't happy because my team lost, you know. So when I realized that, you know, travel was something that I wanted to do more of, I

Tara (1:42:02)
Yeah

yeah, those are notchy.

Calvin (1:42:28)
prioritized, like I've not been to an American football game since 2018. And ⁓ but I ramped up my travel in 2019 and have been doing that since then.

Tara (1:42:33)
Bye!

Calvin (1:42:38)
if you want to make it happen, there are some steps that you have to take to.

you know, to do that.

I sold my house, um, cause I wasn't there, you know, I was gone half the year and I said, why am I paying for this when those can be, you know, either flights or something else.

An alarm went off where they thought my house was on fire while I was in Asia. And so yeah, that was kind of tricky there because they there was nobody there to open the door. And I actually I came back from that trip and I they broke my door to get inside. So so I was like, yeah, that, you was not fun. So

Tara (1:42:59)
my gosh

⁓

I

feel like I'm being away when something happens. When I was in Guatemala last month there, very luckily I had a friend staying in my place and I kid you not, Calvin, within 5, 10 minutes of me leaving, like I hadn't even left KW and wasn't even on the 401 to go to Toronto yet. He sends me a text and he goes, he has a bit of dark humour. He goes, don't panic, but your ceiling is leaking. And I was like, you've.

Got to be kidding me. So I call him and it's literally like we're video calling and there's literally a river of what it's not dripping. It's like a proper stream that's coming down through my ceiling and I haven't even been gone 10 minutes. I was gone for a month. So if I had been gone that whole time and he hadn't stayed here, like I don't even wanna go there, but I hear you about not being home and things happening and yeah.

Calvin (1:44:03)
Right.

Yeah. So, so

I fixed that problem, although it did cause me other problems that I didn't think about. So, yeah. So I sold the house and then I took right after I sold the house, I was gone for like, I was going to be gone for 5 weeks in Europe. And then I, finally hit me. I was like, what about my car? I didn't, I didn't even think about that. I literally was like the day before I was going to leave. like, what am I doing with my car? And I was like, I,

Tara (1:44:15)
For sure, definitely.

Right?

Calvin (1:44:38)
could have parked it at the airport or something like that, but that would have been a heck of a bill when I got back. So I was like, ⁓ I got to think about that now. So, ⁓ so yeah, so it changed, it changed a couple of things, but I like this form better than the other one. And I will probably settle down at some point. ⁓ like said, I had, and you, you know about this, but I had, ⁓ some life circumstances kind of changed a little bit where I kind of had to slow down travel last year and

Tara (1:44:41)
hefty.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:45:06)
kind of get back to things right now, but ⁓ I will probably get a home base at some point soon, because it was originally supposed to be 2 years, supposed to be a 2 year experiment. ⁓ And it turned out to be a good experiment. So I kept it going for a little bit, but there's pros and cons of being completely untethered to having at least a home base to go at some point. So there will be a home base at some point.

Tara (1:45:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Always.

Yep.

Exciting, exciting. feel like I'm, my energy is swapping from years right now where I've had a home base for, can't even believe I'm saying this, like 7 years, which doesn't make any sense to me. And I'm feeling that itch to get rid of the home base and get back at it full time, as they say. But moving on, because I want to be respectful of your time. We've got a couple of things left here.

Calvin (1:45:48)
I'm gonna go

Tara (1:45:57)
With the help of my guests, I'm creating a travel playlist for people to listen to as they're on the road. And so I'm wondering what is one song that either sums up your travel style or reminds you of a particular trip?

Calvin (1:46:11)
So my song ⁓ is actually, it's Bobby McFerrin and Don't Worry Be Happy. And it ties back to ⁓ the skill that you mentioned earlier, the patience. Like I said, there are a lot of things that can get you little out of sorts, bent out of shape on a trip if you let it. And like I said, if you just kind of take things as they go and don't

Tara (1:46:21)
⁓

Calvin (1:46:40)
plan too much and just kind of like, some of the best parts of your trip are going to be things that you either don't plan or is involved with a change of your plan. So if you kind of go into it with that mindset or kind of open to the things that are represented, then like I said, it's going to be a much better experience for you. And it might even be some things that you either run into or try and say, I'm never going to probably do that again. But it was a cool.

Tara (1:46:41)
Mm.

Calvin (1:47:06)
experience to kind of, yeah, kind of go through that. So if you go into it, with open mind, open heart, then it's going to make your experience a whole lot better.

Tara (1:47:16)
100 % and I couldn't agree more with that. Alright, you ready for a speed round? In one word or one sentence, where was your last trip?

Calvin (1:47:21)
Speed round.

Japan.

Tara (1:47:29)
Where's your next trip?

Calvin (1:47:31)
Next trip might be Japan again. Depends on work, but might have work there.

Tara (1:47:33)
Okay,

okay. Is this photographing or one of your tours that you do? Okay, very cool. ⁓ What is your dream destination?

Calvin (1:47:40)
⁓ photographing.

Ooh, dream destination that I haven't been to already.

I wouldn't mind actually living in Japan. Like that would be like a super like dream because that would be a change of a destination.

I need to get somewhere on the African continent.

I'm gonna go with not Morocco. I want to get to, it's gonna be on the Eastern coast, like somewhere. I want to do Kilimanjaro. That is actually something that's on my list. I wanted to Kilimanjaro.

Tara (1:48:14)
Hmm. wow. Okay.

Yeah. Alrighty. Do you prefer to see many places or to get to know one really well?

Calvin (1:48:28)
Both. Both.

Tara (1:48:31)
Okay, bougie or budget? Solo travel or with others?

Calvin (1:48:34)
budget.

Both. ⁓ there. Because I do I do solo travel and I enjoy solo travel, but I enjoy introducing places I've been to others. And that's what Japan last was. So it's cool seeing some place that you've been to and that you're familiar with through other people's eyes for the first time.

Tara (1:48:41)
Yeah.

So true. Yeah, we'll have to include information about your tours in the show notes. So I'll get that that link from you as well. Do you prefer guided tours or like a choose your own adventure?

Calvin (1:49:09)
Mostly choose your own adventure, but if it's a place that I've never been to before I found it helpful to have a private guide as much as possible for like kind of orientation so

Tara (1:49:20)
Nice and do you like to do that because of the photography or just in general you prefer?

Calvin (1:49:25)
That

is just a like almost orientation and I may not even do as many pictures then I'm kind of taking in that person's information and guide. Now I might go back to those places later on my own, but it's a good like orientation.

Tara (1:49:28)
Okay.

Right.

Cool, cool. ⁓ Would you prefer to travel in the ocean or outer space?

Calvin (1:49:46)
Ooh, well, outer space because from kindergarten until Algebra 2 in high school, I was going to be an astronaut. Until it. Yeah, until I figured out that I was not good at math. So.

Tara (1:49:55)
Didn't know that.

That'll do it. Do you have a favourite travel content creator or you want to shout out ⁓ anyone in the space that you think is doing an awesome job?

Calvin (1:50:12)
one of my, would consider him actually probably a mentor as well. ⁓ Erick Prince, he goes by Minority Nomad. ⁓ he is one of the first people even before my, TravelCon adventures that, I was aware of him before that. So I had been following him. and he has been inspirational to me because the way that he actually looks at the world. So he, most people, they kind of

Tara (1:50:20)
Yeah, hi Erick!

Hmm.

Calvin (1:50:39)
there's a generic way of doing or looking at things and he is completely different than that. Like he has his own view and I can say it helps people to actually think and use their brain about how they're travelling, why they're travelling. So very inspirational for me.

Tara (1:50:56)
Yeah, I would double down on that one, Erick's awesome. Do you have a favourite mode of transportation?

Calvin (1:51:03)
⁓ Mode, I mean, because I'm flying so far, ⁓ airlines, or if you're talking about in-country ⁓ transportation. Okay, so I fly a lot, but ⁓ probably in-country transportation, it's either gonna be a tie between bullet trains in Japan or ⁓ tuk-tuks in Thailand. That's a cool way, open air way of travel.

Tara (1:51:13)
Your choice.

Nice, nice.

Yeah. Planned trips or spontaneous trips?

Calvin (1:51:37)
On the scale they're closest to spontaneous, but I, like if I'm travelling internationally, I obviously know when I'm going to go, but I don't necessarily know everything that I'm going to do when I get there.

Tara (1:51:49)
Yeah. Are you an underpacker or overpacker?

Calvin (1:51:55)
I am still an overpacker, but not by most people's definition. Like I travelled to Asia, my 15 week trip that was, took a 30 liter backpack. That was all I had in my camera bag. And I still felt that I was overpacked. Cause I didn't, cause I didn't use everything in there. Like I stuffed all these t-shirts and shorts and I found that I didn't use some of them. Like I got my, my favourite shirts and my

Tara (1:52:08)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Really?

You're

Marino?

Calvin (1:52:23)
favourite

shorts and there was laundry. Are we allowed to plug anybody or so? Yep. So yeah, Merino wool from Unbound Merino is awesome. Not sponsored, but they're awesome to help with with saving space in your in your travel.

Tara (1:52:26)
Yeah, go for it. Especially if it's helpful to somebody else, for sure.

Mm.

Yeah, definitely. ⁓ What is the most overrated destination you've been to?

Calvin (1:52:49)
overrated.

I'm not sure if I can answer that question because like that kind of goes into either your favourite or least favourite. And I don't I don't know that that's fair because unless you spent a lot of time, I haven't spent like if you spent a year in some place or something, I think maybe you kind of have some space to say that. But if you haven't lived in a place for a significant amount of time, your experience is just like a slice of thing. And I don't know that it does justice to either

Tara (1:53:25)
Hmm.

Calvin (1:53:25)
overly

raise or put down a place because it may have been you missed something that would have completely changed that outlook. So if you stay there for a year, then you can say that and I've not done that except for Germany and I don't think Germany is overrated. So ⁓ I don't yeah, I don't think I can answer that one.

Tara (1:53:28)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I really like that response the way that you broke down why. I'm not going to ask you the next question then. We're going to skip it. What home comfort do you miss the most when you're away?

Calvin (1:53:56)
A lot of the home comforts that I enjoy, I can find them because like I love a good burger every once in a while.

But really...

I guess driving my own car is one, because I I do a lot of thinking, you know, when I'm driving brainstorming, things like that. So when I'm here driving, I mean, that is a comfort. I know some would say, you know, sleeping in your own bed, but I mean, a bed, you're not there for that. You're asleep.

Tara (1:54:09)
Hmm

Yeah, yeah. What's the best piece of travel advice you've received?

Calvin (1:54:32)
⁓

I mean, just go. That's the easy one is it to just go. ⁓ But something else is ⁓ smile. I there's there's so much that you can get whether you know what somebody is saying or anything like that. A smile goes so far in, especially if you need help. If you need help, if you're you if you got an anxious look on your face, even if you're nervous or sweating inside, like a smile goes a long way towards.

Tara (1:54:42)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:55:01)
you know, getting somebody that may be deciding, hey, do I do I or should I help this person? ⁓ Or maybe even if somebody might be thinking, OK, hey, can I is this a target or not a target like a smile can be, you know, it's a it's a good ⁓ weapon. It's a good asset. ⁓ So, yeah, so just don't don't not go like take take the trip. There's never ⁓ a right time to go anyway. So if it's something that you want to do,

do it and the sooner that you do it the better

Tara (1:55:33)
Yep. Cool. Worst piece of travel advice?

Calvin (1:55:40)
worst piece of travel advice.

And this is almost going to be the opposite of what I just said. Like, don't go. Like when people say, don't go to something like don't not do something because somebody says that it either wasn't ⁓ fun or whatever. Because again, your experience is your experience. I had somebody that went to a country I was about to go to and they were, ⁓ unfortunately they were robbed.

Tara (1:56:11)
Hmm.

Calvin (1:56:11)
⁓

on the trip and I, I hesitated for a minute. said, wow, I'm about to go there. Like, should I go there now? You know, and I ultimately decided to go, but I didn't have any of that experience. But if I had made that judgment on what happened to my friend, then I would have missed out on that actually is probably, I don't rank countries, but it is. If I were ranking countries, it would be in my top countries of places that I would enjoy spending extended time at. So, yeah, don't.

necessarily take anybody's advice just on face value.

Tara (1:56:46)
Mm-hmm. Have your own experiences. Do you prefer house sitting, couch surfing, hostels, Airbnbs or hotels?

Calvin (1:56:59)
I'm going to choose hostels and hotels. So it's, it's situational. Like it really depends on the country on what makes the most sense. I

I try to do hostels as often as I can. The only times that I do not is if the logistics aren't good.

I used to kind of have Airbnb's above hotels, but the, the landscape is kind of changing there and there's still a, there's still a time and a place, um, for, uh, Airbnb or any kind of a short-term rental, but

Tara (1:57:33)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (1:57:38)
Um, there, if there's going to be a problem if you are looking at what short term kind of does to the local community,

a lot of those places where that exists. But like I said, there's still a time and a place for it, it's ⁓ probably those 3, but in order, hostel, hotel, ⁓ short term.

Tara (1:57:50)
Mm-hmm.

Cool. Window seat or aisle seat?

Calvin (1:58:00)
Used to be all team window seat. ⁓ I will not stick to that if I'm flying overnight, because you can't see anything anyway. outside of that, I have to be ⁓ window seat if at all possible.

Tara (1:58:17)
Nice. Describe yourself as a traveller in 3 words.

Calvin (1:58:24)
Three words.

Curious.

Open.

Curious open.

I thought it was gonna be hard to stop at 3.

Tara (1:58:37)
Woo.

added Friendly in there for you.

Calvin (1:58:42)
That is one.

I took that to mean like outward well.

or for myself.

curious open we can go with friendly. ⁓ Yeah, we can go with friendly

Tara (1:59:00)
you

Calvin (1:59:03)
curious, friendly. So what do you call it? I'm now at a loss for words, but

I'm more, I'm more brave with certain things when I go out and I don't know what the right word for that is. Like I will, I will try things like I've only had ramen in Japan.

Tara (1:59:15)
Mmm.

Okay.

Calvin (1:59:26)
And that was, I was there and somebody learned that I'd never had it and they're like, we got to fix this. So I, ⁓

Yeah, I experiment with food a little more away from home than when I'm at home. I'm more set in my ways here.

Tara (1:59:47)
I like that. Yeah.

Calvin (1:59:48)
So, if food

adventurous, I guess, but.

Tara (1:59:53)
Only at McDonald's, no, I'm joking. I'm bugging you.

Calvin (1:59:55)
No, no, I know I have. I have. Yeah,

I have. I have eaten some pretty interesting things. I have plucked stuff out of shells and yeah.

Tara (2:00:07)
Cool,

cool. ⁓ For you, what is the best part of travel?

Calvin (2:00:13)
I'm really just expanding ⁓ collecting experiences. Because like I each place even even if it's something that didn't go cool, I mean, it's still it's still a story. And if you didn't take the trip, then you wouldn't have that experience to to share. So ⁓ like I said, getting out and seeing that ⁓ that the world is not as scary as sometimes the

that the media and maybe people ⁓ make it out to be. We all want the same things at the end of the day. We wanna be safe and ⁓ enjoy life and enjoy each other when we take the time to meet each other. But yeah, the experiences.

Tara (2:00:59)
What about the worst part of travel?

Calvin (2:01:03)
Um, the worst part, would, in a lot of cases, it would probably be a lot easier if you could, you know, maybe teleport someplace, um, and not, you know, and not have to, you know, to be, uh, in, in, in the air for so long. think the longest single flight that I've been on is 16 hours. I mean, nice if those flights were, uh, were shorter, but sometimes some of those things it's, you know, the journey is, uh, is part of the.

Tara (2:01:13)
you

Whoa.

Calvin (2:01:32)
experience like the 2 day trip to Antarctica. You know, so there's, I've told people that, you know, I've discovered now that you can fly and skip that, you know, that I would not recommend that, you know, because I miss so much on that, you know, on that, the cruise, if you don't take that, and that is bonding with the people, you know, before we get out and start exploring. And they taught us about the continent on the way, you know, so you're not going to catch that in a, you know, a couple hours flight.

Tara (2:01:35)
Thank

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, we'll have to have you back on the podcast to talk to us about Antarctica and the Drake Passage and all the experiences that you had there. ⁓ What's the best travel app?

Calvin (2:02:13)
The best travel app I'm going to...

I'm going to, I know there's probably, there are other apps out there, but I'm going to say Google translate.

Tara (2:02:23)
Cool, do you have a favourite travel book or movie? And it doesn't have to be like the story was about travelling, it could just be something that's set in another place or about another culture.

Calvin (2:02:35)
There was a series of books that I used to read. I think I've kind of gone through most of them now. The author's name was ⁓ Wilbur Smith. He either lived or he's from South Africa, but he wrote a lot of what I call historical fiction ⁓ about stories in the African continent. he did, there was a series from ⁓ Egypt.

Tara (2:02:52)
Mm-hmm.

Calvin (2:03:02)
There was a series in South Africa where they literally walked through like the beginning stages of colonial South Africa all the way through World War II, you know, but it was like a series type of thing.

Tara (2:03:14)
you

Cool, thank you for that. Last question. What is the best gift for a traveller?

Calvin (2:03:24)
The best gift for a traveller. ⁓ That anybody can give or just period. Cause I'm gonna say, huh?

Tara (2:03:33)
You choose.

What do you have in mind? What do you choose?

Calvin (2:03:37)
I'm saying miles miles or miles or points. So yeah.

Tara (2:03:39)
Miles!

Yeah, points and miles for sure. And we didn't even

talk about that really that much this time either, but yeah.

Calvin (2:03:49)
Yeah, if anybody can get, yeah, if you can make anything that can reduce costs of travel for a traveller that I don't think anybody would ever be upset about that. And so there's probably not a whole lot of scenarios where that can happen. But if there is I, yeah, that's awesome.

Tara (2:03:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I agree. And for any Canadians who are listening, you're in luck because I have a course teaching you how to earn and use points and miles. So that'll be in the show notes. Thanks, Calvin. I did not pay you to say that either. That was a great little setup.

Calvin (2:04:17)
So,

there's an American that's probably that you know is probably going to have one pretty soon.

Tara (2:04:28)
Are you starting it? No way! That's cool. ⁓

Calvin (2:04:30)
So I

have, yeah,

Tara (2:04:32)
if and when that's up and running, we'll add it to the show notes. Yeah. Calvin, that was so nice to talk with you today. Like you and I get to chat through WhatsApp and whatnot, but we haven't had a proper catch up in a while. So thank you for being here and for sharing your time and your stories with us. Only one or 2. Yeah.

Calvin (2:04:35)
cool stuff.

And we only talked a few minutes. So, one thing I do want to say, though, you cannot move

until I get back up there. Yeah, yeah, I have to. Yeah, it's been I've not been there since the pandemic. It had it was becoming an every year country for me. And I for whatever reason, I've not since then, I haven't been back up there. So.

Tara (2:05:01)
⁓ Toronto.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, well I make no promises, but if you're this way, maybe I'll just come back and visit you. Yeah, before I let you go here, where can people find you and is there anything else that you'd like to leave our listeners with today?

Calvin (2:05:19)
Alright, that'll work.

The easiest place just because it's probably the shortest username to put in is just Calvin Chronicles at on Instagram. My bio link links to everything else that I that I have I'm on YouTube. I'm on another Instagram. I've got a website I had a Facebook page before the it's almost a year ago now when all that stuff got hacked, but There's a newsletter newsletter

Tara (2:05:57)
Hmm.

Calvin (2:06:01)
link that's out there. So yeah, so just go to the Calvin Chronicles Instagram and the bio link has every other place that you would ever think about wanting to see me.

Tara (2:06:12)
Awesome awesome, and you and I will cross paths in person soon, hopefully Great. Okay. Well, thank you so much Calvin. We'll chat again soon Bye

Calvin (2:06:17)
Yes.

Thanks for having me.