Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Near-Death Experiences With Ryan Estrada | The Christian Reeve Podcast #217

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Near-Death Experiences With Ryan Estrada | The Christian Reeve Podcast #217 · The Christian Reeve Podcast

0:00
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Christian Reef
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podcast. Today's guest is an author
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artist adventurer He was based in South Korea and now he's back
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in the States. His name is Ryan.
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Estrada, welcome to the show a demo.
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Great, thanks for having me. It's an absolute pleasure.
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I've been looking forward to this show for a long time.
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You might actually be no pressure.
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The most interesting guest I've ever had on the show because
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like so like I always I always sit down and do a lot of
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research, but my guests and I was just going through it and I
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was like, how is this possible? Like this guy's like Indiana
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Jones or some shit. There's this like so much stuff
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that you've done. I'm like, where do I even begin?
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Like, what I've just dumb, I've just been to a lot of things and
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not worried about being particularly good at any of
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them. That's why I'm mostly stories
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are interesting to stuff, failed miserably as trying so many
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things and makes an interesting story.
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So I guess that's the key. If you want to be interesting,
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just do a lot of really, really stupid things.
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Stupidest thing you've ever done in your life is, oh, that's
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swell. Probably even before the
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adventuring when I was in Middle School, probably that was the
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time I tried to make my own Halloween costume, okay?
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And I decided to see if it forever.
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My aunt had made my Halloween costume every year and one year
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she didn't in and I'm like, what's going on?
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Like why didn't Miami get your my mom's like tries to break the
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news to me or Ryan? You're you're in middle school
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now. You're too old to go
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trick-or-treating. I'm like oh no, I'm doing this
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myself and so I had like a few hours to prepare my own costume
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and I decided that in order. Like if I'm too grown up to the
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trick-or-treat, now I'm going to be like make the scariest
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costume I can in this. I decided to be an accident and
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You know, I attend make it look like I was in every accident
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possible. I made like, think tire tracks.
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I mean, like, big stab wounds. I'd like a head wound mask and
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then at the very end I'm like I'm almost done.
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It's missing something and I decided what it needed was fire.
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Oh my God and while the other ones were done with like paint
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and ketchup, this one I'm like well I mean with fire you got to
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use actual fire, right? I decided I wanted to have a
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shirt that was just like kind of singed on the sleeves and so
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like I got some fire have a cup of water.
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I got an I found an old old dry shirt of my dead grandfather's
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in the basement that have been like, why for like 20 years and
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I decided I'm just gonna Sims the sleeve a little bit Dow side
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with the water, but I decided this is the dumb part.
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I'm like, you know, Safety First trick or treat.
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He has come up. I don't want to get a cold, so
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I'm going to wear the shirt. Now it's kind of pulled my arm
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out of the sleeve and just kind of pick the lighter and went.
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And this shirt was so dry. It just went entire shirt and
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flames and then the others really, really stupid thing is
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that I didn't know what you're supposed to do when you're on
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fire. So I just kind of ran in circles
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flapping laughs really Fanning the flames.
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And I'm like, as I'm doing, I'm trying to remember a thing
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you're supposed to do. What is it?
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And then remember, stop drop and roll.
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Yeah so I see Up I dropped and I rolled one time.
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They never said, repeat this really put her old one time lay
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on the ground like well crap. That didn't work.
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I guess I'll just do this one more.
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I ran around until eventually my mother came out.
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Saw me rip the shirt off of me. My entire body looked like fried
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chicken my hair and melted into one giant hair and pick me the
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hospital where I'm like Tick-Tock Doc it's almost
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Trick-or-treating time. You got to wrap this up quick
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and they got me in all kinds of pain medication and then I'm,
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but I insisted, we get home, go trick-or-treating, I made it to
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my neighbor's house like, 10 steps away when I fainted on
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this porch and woke up the next day and that's the dumbest thing
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I ever did. And I'm still wearing the
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Halloween costume because I still look like an accident
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victim. Third degree burns.
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Damn. Oh my gosh.
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That's pretty dumb thing. Sounds like fun though.
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Is this best of his eye. Sounds how much?
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How much did your hair stink? Pretty bad?
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It was well like the thing about the hair is that like it it all
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melted together but like in a trite like the look like a
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little like palm frond because it all together and when I
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pulled it just kind of melted like a big chunk of it.
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This kind of came off all melty and like eyes through tract.
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Some problems. Since we took it about.
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Just yeah, you nearly killing yourself.
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Let's talk about near-death experiences.
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All right, I've got a bunch here from from the show notes that
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you sent over and I did have to skin.
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I even just read about my notes. I can't believe this shit.
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Okay, let's start at the beginning.
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See you. You barely survived being eaten
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by lions in the Masala tea Mara. So yeah.
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Yeah. What Well, I yeah, so after
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school, I started traveling and I just kind of really enjoyed
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traveling and I, especially I enjoyed having new experiences
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and not knowing what to expect and I had had enough already
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near death experiences that worked out fine that I realized.
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Like, you know, I kind of enjoy when things the unexpected
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happens because like, if something great happens, that's
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great, if something horrible happens.
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I'm going to have a story to tell.
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I'm going to, I'm going to be telling a Time Podcast forever
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and make comics about it. I'm going to write about it.
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I'm going to blog about it and so one day my sister who is a, I
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always say zoologist. But she held that means I'm
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going to say animal biologist no behavioralist.
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I don't know, I'm going to say zoologist again because I can
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never replicate. So she was studying, hyenas in
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the Masai Mara which is basically like where the Lion
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King takes place to the other side of the Border.
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Hmm. And she asked if I wanted to
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come meet her, we're going to travel around and climb
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Kilimanjaro together. So so I said, sure one thing,
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don't tell me anything no spoilers.
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I said, just tell me what airport to fly to what bus to
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get on, what stop to get off. That's all I want to know.
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And so I get on this bus, I realize like, oh, I don't
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actually know. Is this a 1 hour bus ride is
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three-day but sir? I haven't.
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No, and it's one of those buses were like, it's packed full of
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people. Like, people got chicken like
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they're carrying chickens on their heads.
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They went picked up in the market and like there's like,
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like people in full Masai Garb, there's like people in business
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suits, like everyone's bus together.
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Packed And it was like almost a full day of travel.
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We get out of the town, she told me to get out and it's literally
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like the size of a living room. Like there's a little like
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lemonade stand style shack where people charge their cell phones.
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There's like a stick. People tie goats to to sell.
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The restaurant is one of those. You know, when there's
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construction there's like one of those like wooden Wheels, they
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wrap cables around the put one of them on its side like the,
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you sit Next to it. That's the restaurant.
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They put food on it. The hotel was literally a cement
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box of the dirt floor in a bed and nothing else.
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No electricity. And I mean it's a really really
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cool Tiny Town but I planned my travels, I'd have like a day to
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walk around before my sister got back.
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You know, Stephen see the sights and I'm like, oh, there's not
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much to see here. I saw it all as I got a buzz.
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So I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna go for a walk.
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And I did. And what I did not know because
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I did not research, you know, I thought I'm just going to like,
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see a new city. But the the thing I should have
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learned was that this town was in the middle of the Masai,
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Mara, which is a protected Wildlife Preserve.
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And it is illegal to when you go out with it with a professional
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licensed guide, it's illegal to put your hand out the window and
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I went walking for about 12 hours.
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Lost. My God, just take a little
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stroll. I had my little camera with me
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and I'm like, well, I'm gonna like make a little nature
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documentary and I had like, I was out there like playing Dead
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trying to get the buzzards to come eat me.
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I pretended to be a gazelle and like, walked up to him was like
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eating grass to see how close I could get.
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I was watching like the little warthogs running around and
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singing Hakuna Matata to them. And then, at one point hours in,
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I found this dead giraffe and there's lots of like, well,
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hyenas and foxes and birds picking at it.
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So, I just went and sat and film them for a while.
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If the camera, and like hyenas are walking up to me and like,
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looking at me, like, do what you doing here?
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That's supposed to be here, but, I mean, I hate a itself could
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have like chop my leg off. Yeah, you know, I'm just
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watching them. They're cute.
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Seth there for like an hour ago. Chilled out with hanging nose.
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And then I got up and I'm like I, you know, it's getting late.
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I should get back to that little town and I leave behind the
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carcass and I walk for about two hours and then I know sorry, the
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giraffe carcass and I walk for two hours and then I see the
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giraffe again and I'm like, oh no, Let me try this way and I
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walk for another two hours, and then I see the Trap carcass
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again, I think I'm lost this, kept on walking and walking
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eventually, I saw some electrical lines and I'm like,
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okay, the electrical lines must go to the town because some
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people that's where people charge their cell phones.
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So if I follow that, I'll be able to find the town, but which
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way do I follow it? If one way is going to take me
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to Town the other is going to be A three-day Journey to the
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desert to the city. Luckily I chose the right way.
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Jesus, I got back to the town like well after dark.
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It's pitch-black. I'm like, and I see some lights
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of this that run up there. I see the team's geologist and
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my sister all they're freaking out like this guy is missing
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what's going on. And I'm like, they're all
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panicking and like figure out a plan to find me and I'll look
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like what's up guys. Look for a walk and they're
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like, did you cross the river? It's illegal to cross the river.
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I'm like, yeah. Like, three minutes had the
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Dreadful even talking about their life and they explained to
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me, how we legal, what I had done was, but I told him the
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whole story I told you about the draft carcass and their faces
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were white and they're like, Ryan.
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What time did you find? That giraffe?
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And I told him what time, they're like, Ryan, we tracked,
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the animals, that's our job. We know where every animal is
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the lions that killed that giraffe left.
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Like 3 minutes before you got there.
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Oh my God. So if I hadn't spent three
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minutes on the ground pretending to be dead, so bothered me and I
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could film it, I would have gotten there as the lions were
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still hungry. I would have been the giraffe.
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So yeah. And the next day she took me out
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in the car to show me the Lions and I saw them like Ripa
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wildebeest apart with their, with their jaws.
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And I'm like, oh yeah, I probably shouldn't have been
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walking around here, huh. Huh.
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Wow, when I even 20 minutes into this show, 10 minutes into this
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show and I'm just like captivated by this.
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I mean, this is, this is why I do this show.
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Oh my God, there's so many things I could ask her.
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I know very well. Before before we sort of explore
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the rest of your many near-death experiences because you're funny
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enough, you're not even the first guest I've had on the show
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who's had multiple near-death experiences.
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The last guy I had on the show, shout out to go check on I asked
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him I was like do you think you're cursed or something?
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And he's just like nah yeah and he had like a pretty kind of
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like chill response to it's okay so ask you the same question.
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Why do you think you've had so many?
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Near-death experiences. And how do you think you keep
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surviving? Well, I know exactly why I like
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the me that grew up in, in Michigan, in the u.s. like never
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would have like I did have a dumb experience of of putting
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myself on fire. But I never planned on traveling
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the world. I was very despite setting
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myself on fire. I was a very cautious and nerdy
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like, you know, don't want Still wrong, kind of guy I did as a
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kid like all of our family vacations always ended up in
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disaster. So I had that in my blood of
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like something always went wrong.
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But like, you know that like I like at that time.
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Appreciate now I can appreciate those stories about time.
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I was like, everything's always going wrong where always been
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ducking hurricanes or floods or something's going on.
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But I, I plant my life plan was I want to be an animator.
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I'm going to move to To La, I'm going to work for Disney and
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just have a very simple do what they tell me to do life.
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But I graduated from animation, school to hear that the entire
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animation industry industry, got laid off.
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And so I've just spent so much money on degree that is
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completely useless to me and there are no jobs for what I
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want to do. And then on a whim like someone
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I was complaining to a friend and as a messenger and she's
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like, have you heard about this thing in Korea, where you?
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They they're so desperate for English teachers that they'll
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light, they'll buy you a plane ticket.
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They'll get you an apartment and pay you a bunch of money every
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month to teach kids. That already know how to speak
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English. And I'm like, no, but I'm going
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to do it and it like 4 a.m. I had a job and I moved there
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and I at that point I'm still like I'm moving to a new place
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is weird. Like I got to do as much
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research as possible. I don't want any Wrong.
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But then there was the Visa trip.
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In order to teach in Korea, had to go to Japan, to get your visa
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which for some reason at that time, they would always bring
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you out first. And you would like, start
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teaching illegally until they like got around to sending you
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for your visa. And so they sent me to Japan,
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but since I already started teaching, they don't want me to
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miss a day of classes so they sent me on a holiday and it did
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not occur to them. That the Korean consulate is
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closed on Korean holidays. So I ended up stranded in Japan.
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And for various reasons, including, you know, I had to
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miss my flight because I didn't have my Visa yet.
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And I had just finished college and moved internationally, and
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haven't paid yet. So I was broke.
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And I had enough exact enough money for 24 hours in Japan.
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And it's stuck there longer. And I also like was bad at the
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exchange rate, like it's bent, like 30 bucks to see Men in
15:46
Black 2 and like that was supposed to be with the money to
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sleep. And I completely ran out of
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money and ended up sleeping on a park bench in at excellence.
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Because my plan to sleep at the airport and I found out the
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airport clones at 10 p.m. and we're in the middle of a typhoon
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and I'm like the security guards you get out and I'm like,
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there's a, there's a typhoon to like trees are falling over and
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he's like, I don't care. I got to go home, get out.
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Wow, the ones that he's pretty much just committed you to death
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right now. Is that like my problem?
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Yeah. And like even if I had money to
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get A taxi or something like the airport's closer, there's
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nothing in the airports like in the middle of nowhere along a
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highway. So I'm just walking along the
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highway completely empty because everybody's like, those typhoon
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were not drive it in. Like literally like of the trees
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are going like that and I'm like, just I don't know what to
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do and and I also got the flu through all this.
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So I have the flu, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I'm wet.
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Like, I'm trying not to To like blow into the freeway because it
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winds are so high and eventually I come across a part and it's
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full of like, homeless people sleeping and I'm like if there
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were a better safer place to sleep, they would be there.
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So I guess I'm just going to grab a bench.
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So I just lay down on a bench and like I am just miserable
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stick angry upset. And as I'm doing this, this
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little black kitten comes and lays on my chest.
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And I just started laughing, hysterically was the funniest
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thing, just hilarious experience.
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And I suddenly realized this is the worst thing that's ever
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happened to me and I'm fine. Like, I can laugh about this.
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And I'm going to survive and I did survive it.
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I just kept laughing a circle whole trip when like the next
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day I tried to get an I finally got my Visa in the next day.
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I tried to get on a flight and all the flights are full because
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of, you know, they're trying to rebook like three days worth of
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cancelled flights and I end up stuck in Japan for over a week
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with no money. I found out that at that time.
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Japan would not let you use international ATM cards even if
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I did have any money in my account, Because I just spent it
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all and like I was just, I survived all of it and I made a
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comic about it and I've been telling the story since and I
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realized like I'm a, I'm a writer stories are my currency
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so that experience made me realize that, like, I can
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survive unexpected things. So if unexpected things happen,
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that's great. And I can tell stories, I don't
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seek dangerous experiences but because I seek New experiences
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and I'm very stupid. I hope, I mean this was decades
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ago, I hope I've gotten a little more intelligent now but
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especially I'm still pretty stupid but that time I was very
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very stupid. Then that led me to a lot of
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near-death experiences and I survived them just because I
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don't freak out like when it happens, I'm thinking
19:01
narratively. I'm thinking like what's this
19:04
going to be a my going to make an uncommon.
19:05
Am I going to making a podcast? I'm going to make it.
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I look at like, what would make, you know, I'm seeing, like, The
19:14
Wider picture of, like, what's the narrative endpoint of this?
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Like, what if I could not not that I'm like, trying to make it
19:21
a story but like, that's the way my brain sees it.
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So like seeing the big picture instead of panicking at what's
19:28
happening in the moment, helps me survive it.
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Did you know that you like cuss do something?
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Go like there's some weird Cosmic Force at work like it was
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it just weird luck. I don't think it's a curse
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because I enjoy. I love talking about them so
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like it's just it's my own stupidity is on as I mean, like
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I said our family vacations always like it was a notorious
19:52
that like we would as a kid. I guess there was something
19:57
there because we felt cursed because like we would go on a
20:01
camping trip in the mountains and then there would be a
20:03
hurricane. So be like you know we're going
20:05
to leave and go another place and like so we decided you know
20:07
we're going to go to Colorado instead.
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Like my mother's, like, there'll be no water there because I used
20:13
to. I used to live in Colorado.
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There's been a drought ever since I left.
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And we got we got there and there was a flood like she had
20:19
been 30 years. I'm so there's a flood and then
20:22
everywhere we went some natural disaster happen, but we survived
20:27
them all. So, I think that also kind of
20:30
led me to believe. Like, I can survive this stuff.
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I'm used to it, Let's yeah, let's this fall through some of
20:39
these. You were thrown out of a moving
20:41
train by the police in India. I'm sorry, I was so this is a
20:48
story that I had, you know, I'd like I said, when these happen
20:50
I'm like, I'm going to tell the story forever make comics about
20:54
it. Is this story Untold for like
20:56
over a decade and like, I'm never really worked and all of a
21:01
sudden I'm on stage telling it the halfway through telling the
21:03
story I realized. Oh wait.
21:05
I'm the bad guy of the story and that's why it's, that's why no
21:11
one ever laughs, because they're like to see noises very good and
21:14
that led a once I lead them that people, like all of a sudden,
21:17
people get the story and I better doing.
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So, in my defense, I had just left in Gandhi's house.
21:27
So you slept in Gandhi's house, Watson Gandhi's house.
21:30
So I was traveling across India and I was just waiting for a
21:34
train. And I'm walking around, I walk
21:36
in, I see this like bunch of cool little buildings and people
21:39
are chanting and I walk off and they're like, are you here to
21:41
sleep in Gandhi's house and I'm like, am I what?
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And they're like, that's is that not?
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Why you came here? Like this is ashram the Gandhi
21:49
build. He built the house with his bare
21:50
hands and for $5 you can sleep in it and I'm like, yeah, I'm
21:54
sure to sleep in God's house. I didn't know that but it's
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true. The Train on waiting for, rip up
21:59
that ticket. Yeah, here's five dollars.
22:02
I'll sleep in Gandhi's house. And like you literally get sleep
22:06
in there. They give you food, you get to
22:08
talk to people who knew Gandhi, you get to like, do meditation
22:12
and like, like read books about and learn all this stuff.
22:17
And so I did that for, for like a couple days and I had learned
22:22
about like his theory of satyagraha, which is where if
22:27
there's an unjust law, it's your duty to break it.
22:31
And I leave thinking, you know what?
22:33
I'm so inspired the. I hope one day I see an
22:37
injustice and I can do what's right, which is already the the
22:41
key that I'm the bad guy in the story because she should not
22:43
walk up being like, man. I hope I see some injustice
22:45
today but then I get on my train and when I traveled in India,
22:52
always traveled in the third class car.
22:55
There's first class, second class, third class, and first
22:58
class is like, really Really fancy like, you know, get your
23:03
own little little bed and everything stuck in classes.
23:06
Just like you get a designated seat and third class is like
23:10
human Tetris. And the price difference is like
23:13
five dollars, really? Yes, but I I love going in third
23:20
class because like in first class you're literally like you
23:23
locked in your room alone. Third class, you meet everyone,
23:26
you become best friends, like you share food, people are
23:30
Neither babies to hold when they go take a nap.
23:32
We're laughing. Even if there's like three
23:34
stranger sitting on my lap in like people lined up in the
23:37
luggage racks. And like someone like, I'm still
23:40
this, someone's in my armpit because we're literally packed
23:43
in, like human Tetris. It like, I love that experience
23:47
and I love talking to people and stuff.
23:51
So, I'm in there were laughing, we're going for like an hour,
23:55
two hours into the journey. It's like a two-day trip, train
23:59
trip, my mind and get back home where I lived.
24:02
And all of a sudden, when the train stops two men in uniform,
24:06
get on the train and say, everybody get off.
24:09
We're mailmen not cops there mailmen and it turns out that
24:16
these two mailmen, there's a mail car, where they keep all
24:19
the mail, but they've decided it's too hot and they want to go
24:23
in our car but it's illegal for for anyone else to be on the car
24:29
with the mail. They have two bags of mail.
24:33
Basically act like tiny amount of mail but they're like we want
24:38
to send another car and you We're not going to kick out the
24:41
people, the rich people that paid extra five dollars.
24:44
We're going to go to the poor car because nobody cares about
24:46
them. Basically what I'm thinking at
24:47
that point and they're like and everybody's like whatever they
24:51
all, get off the train and and I'm like, I don't understand
24:55
what's going on here to explain it to me, and then they tell us
24:58
the pack into the second class card, which is not bad for
25:01
everybody, because the second class car, they paid for their
25:05
own seat, but now they're squeezed in and also, now we're
25:08
squeezing some bad and sometimes Don't like the damn thing back
25:10
on questions. I get jumped in last.
25:13
So me and a bunch of people are literally, like hanging out the
25:15
doors of the train moving train. I got like two fingers holding
25:20
me on dangling over like, as were speeding over Roxy stuffed.
25:25
Oh my God. Like, and I mean, that's in
25:27
India, people do that a lot like people always hang out the door,
25:30
but there are so many of us because we're not supposed to be
25:33
in this car. That literally, like, I feel
25:34
like I'm going to follow any point, And there is the people
25:38
are explain to me, what it all just been happening in Hindi,
25:40
and I'm like, that doesn't sound right.
25:44
That sounds like fun Injustice because of course, I'm an
25:50
American. So to me and Injustice is bad
25:52
customer service. It's, you'll speak to the
25:55
manager please. Yeah, exactly.
25:58
But I was like, you know, Gandhi would do in the situation.
26:01
Like God, he go back to his seat and he refused.
26:06
Leave. I'm doing to stop talking to
26:07
huh? Who's with me?
26:09
And they're all like no, I'm like anyway.
26:15
So the next time, the train stops, I run back.
26:18
And I said I'm going back to my old seat in the mail, manner, by
26:20
the door. They see me.
26:21
Come there. Like a, what?
26:23
Why is this guy Terminator 2 running at us?
26:25
They slam the door shut and lock it.
26:27
And I'm like, I'm calling back door and run and he like I have
26:32
the advantage because the trains moving toward me.
26:34
But also I'm very fat and slow, so they will make it their first
26:39
lock the door. And then I'm like I'm jumping
26:42
through the window and jumped into the window and I get stuck
26:45
like we need to move. And they're like you've got to
26:49
get out of that window and I'm like, I can't I'm stuck but also
26:52
won't because such shock about eventually I climb in and I get
26:58
take off my belt and tie myself to the seatbelt like shot.
27:04
And they're like, okay well we're going to call the cops and
27:08
I'm like, do it like this train will not leave, and taking the
27:13
train leaves. They're just sitting there,
27:16
like, what is this? What is this guy doing in the
27:19
next train? The next train station were
27:21
called the cops and they don't have a phone.
27:23
So that Larry meant, they'd be like cops, cop comes and he's
27:28
like, what? What's going on?
27:29
I'm like, yeah, I'm doing a Santiago and they're like, what?
27:34
Just get out dude. And then, and then so I refused
27:42
to get out the next translation. There's two.
27:44
UPS, the next train station, there's four cops.
27:46
The next train station is need cops and then I'm gonna get me
27:49
out until eventually, we pull up to the next station.
27:53
They stopped the train, they turn off the engine and the
27:56
train station has been cleared. And all of the cops of the city
28:01
are lined up in a row with their love.
28:04
You like ready? It's a very small town, so that
28:07
there's like eight cops, but they also have gotten all the
28:11
security guards, random like Railway workers.
28:14
Ours, and they're already, like, if you've seen like train to
28:17
Busan take that, that one where they're all like a cabinet is
28:20
basically that. As soon as the Train, the train
28:23
stops, they all run in and start like, grabbing me and trying to
28:26
pull me. And I'd like, I got my, my
28:29
backpack wrapped around my legs, my arms around, you would like
28:32
the bars like I did with my belt and of Santiago.
28:37
And eventually, they like rip off the belt, they start
28:41
dragging me to the door, I put out my arms like this, like in
28:44
Annex and like old, none of the door, they're trying to push me
28:47
out and then they're like, we almost got him out and get the
28:50
train moving and like the train starts moving and then I won't
28:57
move. And then the lead guy comes up
28:58
and he's like, just let us find you.
28:59
Another seat and likes not about to see it.
29:01
It's about the principle thing. Of course, I'm not helping any
29:04
of the people that are affected by this.
29:06
This I'm literally I'm the only one getting what I want even
29:11
though I'm not and he's like, I'll talk to conductor let you
29:15
set up an engine car and I'm like, I are you kidding?
29:19
I am standing up for what's right?
29:22
I'm not going to go like, give up, just because it would be
29:26
really, really cool to sit up front.
29:27
Watch him, go to to, but it's just enough to make me just
29:31
briefly think about how cool that would be.
29:34
And I let go just enough that as the train is taking off, I let
29:39
go and they just shove the other moving train.
29:45
Hit the concrete. I roll.
29:47
They throw my backpack at me. Hit me in the head with it.
29:50
Oh shit. The crane takes off.
29:54
And I immediately just like, get off my phone and text everyone.
29:56
I know and I'm like, he just got thrown out of a moving train by
29:59
the police. Don't touch.
30:00
I got. This is the best vacation ever.
30:05
And then and then 20 years later I'm like I was the bad guys.
30:11
Did I swear if it hasn't been done already but one day they're
30:14
just going to make a movie about your life and it will be the
30:18
fucking craziest shit. I think anyone's ever seen fuck
30:23
man. There are so dumb though they're
30:27
all so dumb. One time you tried to kayak
30:33
across the ocean and Stranded yourself on an island from the
30:37
movie, the beach in Thailand again?
30:40
Yeah, what is it? That was volunteering in
30:44
Thailand after the big tsunami that happened there a couple
30:47
days ago and like we were I was working all day like we're kind
30:53
of like digging up all the buildings that have felt fallen
30:57
over and helping them rebuild. And one day we had a day off in
31:01
like the big touristy thing to do.
31:02
There was to go visit the beach where they filmed the Leonardo
31:04
DiCaprio movie, the beach and I haven't done it yet because you
31:10
know I quit my job was volunteering for months.
31:13
So life again very broke and the the taxi boat to go there was
31:21
like $30. Well the kayak was 10 if and I
31:30
convinced a friend like like let's get this ten-dollar kayak
31:35
of course life vests were five. So that would brought it up for
31:39
two of us. I would have brought to 20 but
31:42
we're alike and though so we didn't get the life vest we just
31:49
got the kayak. We did not tell the personal
31:52
risk in the kayak. From that we're going to kayak
31:53
across the ocean to another Island.
31:56
Oh my God. And also neither mustn't ever
31:59
kind of before Brenda goes that's a $20 savings.
32:04
So it was worth it, their minds DD balancing cost away like
32:08
couple balls. I had seen, I had seen the beach
32:14
and I'm like, Leonardo, Leonardo DiCaprio swam it in the movie,
32:18
okay, Kayla is a movie. Ww-what would Leonardo DiCaprio
32:23
do like I actively time and yes, that was very much a movie and
32:29
it was not like that is kind of like a couple of hours in we
32:36
realized. Well it's not really that close
32:38
it's just a much bigger eyelids. Like we get there like it look.
32:43
Linda look really, really look like a tiny Islands, really
32:45
close. But is actually a larger.
32:47
I hope that's really, really far and smaller.
32:50
So we're going in like this kayak is like in the air more
32:55
often than its touching some water because he's wave giant
32:58
wazers whipping us up in the air and we like kind of fly for a
33:01
bit. Then land in the boat would go
33:03
upside down, we've capsize. We like, also, neither of us
33:08
could swim that well, It's like we have to like swim down like
33:15
rescue each other and pull each other up and put the bone over
33:18
and like I'm I'm like so seasick.
33:21
I'm like, puking all over myself repeatedly, like eventually.
33:24
Like every time I puked like the the boat will capsize again
33:28
Adventure, I realized if I just puked on myself and next we
33:30
would come and wash me so that I got that worked out.
33:34
But then we're we're at this for hours.
33:38
And then in between us, it looks like we're close again because,
33:40
you know, When you see nothing but water and Island, it's hard
33:44
to judge because, you know, sized Island.
33:47
And then we see this giant freighter ship had passed
33:49
halfway between us and the island and it looks small and
33:52
we're like, oh no, we are much further than we thought.
33:55
And then this freighter ship is going like that.
33:57
And we're like If that freighter ship and have all these waves
34:04
we're going to die but I'm still like WWL DD what would be in our
34:08
DiCaprio? Do he would keep going?
34:12
And we'd capsize so many times, but eventually we made it to
34:15
this island but we crashed on the wrong side of the island
34:19
islands, like shaped like a horseshoe in the movie, they
34:22
cgi'd. In this little Gap.
34:24
So it looks like it's like, you know, like cock.
34:27
But it's like that and we land on the back and then we're like
34:32
screw the kayak to leave it there.
34:34
I'll buy him a new one but I don't have any plenty of figure
34:36
it out. I'm not going back out in the
34:37
water and we have to figure out how to get around the island
34:40
sir. Kind of shimmying.
34:42
It's like the island is like a the Wall go straight like a rock
34:46
wall that goes straight up but then like at the bottom, the
34:50
waves have cut like this like indentation into it and we're
34:55
shipping along the indentation and it's like covered in these
34:58
giant crabs. Like, what if you go to the
35:00
restaurant? They got the king crabs, like,
35:02
and they're like bigger than them and they're always bright.
35:05
Neon colors. They've like never seen humans
35:07
before. So they're like crawl.
35:08
I was while looking as like who are these dudes?
35:11
It's and we're so we're just shimmying and then the tide
35:15
starts coming in and it starts moving up our bodies and we
35:19
realize like we're under this rock.
35:21
We're under this rock wall than the water's coming up.
35:24
If we don't shit me faster we're going to we're just going to
35:27
drown people are kayak. So we're just shifting as fast
35:32
as we can. The sun is going down.
35:33
It's getting dark and then we get to the corner.
35:36
We see the beach, we're almost there, but then there's this
35:41
little, like extra cave cut out where there's like a platform.
35:45
It's like a looks like a Mario level where these, there's two
35:47
Platforms in the middle is cut out and there's this like the
35:51
waves come in. They do this.
35:52
Like, they like make this a little circular swirl that like
35:56
if you were caught in the middle it would literally just slam you
36:00
Heading to Iraq and then just keep spinning you around.
36:03
Like you're in a washing machine, hitting rocks the whole
36:05
way, but I'm like, we can time it like it.
36:11
It's like, dude, there's like 10 seconds in between and then it
36:16
happens again. So I'd like you just wait for
36:18
that 10 seconds. And so like, we've also like
36:21
I've lost my glasses in these ways.
36:24
I like, I've lost my shoes and so, I watch it.
36:29
It does nothing. I jump and I make it I do land
36:33
on like very sharp rocks and I don't have any shoes very
36:36
painful but then I'm like to my friend says I'm like see does
36:40
you can do it zero-turn just time.
36:42
Okay, ready, go and he does the jump at the right time, but he
36:46
doesn't jump far. Now, many lands in the water but
36:50
so he's not at the point where it's going to slam into the
36:53
Rock. He lands below.
36:55
But now he's in the place where it's just gurgling him around
36:58
like a washing machine. And he's like, saying he saved
37:01
me and I'm like I'm at the point where you hit the rock, like, I
37:05
can't if I reach down is because I'm in rock.
37:07
You just gotta swim out because he's like, to just go go
37:13
sideways and eventually he gets out and then I jump down the
37:17
other side and we're walking along the Rocks.
37:19
We finally make it. It is now pitch-black dark.
37:23
We cannot see the island became to see and the last taxi boat of
37:27
the day is leaving. And we're like stop.
37:30
Stop, stop save us. And he were like, we're so glad
37:34
we caught you and he's like, yeah, like I already have
37:37
tourists at paint me, like you can't get in my boat.
37:40
The more like, this is a like there's nothing on this island.
37:44
It's just nature and we're like, won't be stuck here all night
37:47
and he's like, yeah, we're like, please well, what do we have to
37:51
pay? You in need.
37:52
Like felt like he tells us like, I forget what it was, but it was
37:56
far more than we would have spent on facts about to begin
37:59
with. And then we're like, oh, also
38:01
can you If you've heard or kayak that we left over there and he's
38:05
like that's going to cost you extra and so he does that he
38:08
like has to chase it down with floating away.
38:11
Gets us back and taxi plate. There the kayak rental place is
38:15
closed. We have to keep it out to the
38:16
next day. We're renting a sing our leeks.
38:19
So we have we keep it all night. Also, since we abandon it and
38:22
got scratched up against rocks, it's totally destroyed.
38:27
Basically, in order to save $20, we spend hundreds of dollars on
38:32
Most died horribly injured ourselves lost their shoes, lost
38:36
their glasses and but we survived.
38:40
And we got to see the beach from the beach but like five minutes
38:47
30 seconds, I'd say vague silhouettes.
39:02
You once were sucked into a Riptide in Costa Rica.
39:07
Yeah experience. So I lived in Costa Rica Frolic.
39:11
Um, well, when I first started traveling, I'm like I can get
39:14
jobs overseas and work, but eventually I liked it so much
39:17
that I'm just like, I would just like seeing video of a sloth on
39:20
YouTube. Be like looks funnel.
39:22
You don't move to Costa Rica because like I work to the
39:26
internet can live wherever I want and I like couldn't afford
39:28
to live in America but in Costa Rica like I went Deep in the
39:32
jungle. And I got like my own private
39:34
beach house for a hundred bucks. A month.
39:36
Like to story of amazing beach house in like, Problems like
39:42
it's in the middle of nowhere. So remote that like if I wanted
39:45
to buy bread, it was a 12-hour trip.
39:49
There's a bus at 6 a.m. the comes back at 6 p.m. and I had
39:52
to do my shopping in Panama whole other country because I'm
39:56
in a place called think Udo Beach.
39:59
And it's like this little Peninsula that just my nearest
40:04
neighbor was like a 30 minute walk, but I'm a private beach
40:07
and everybody tells me. Just watch out for Riptides and
40:10
I'm like, I definitely will And I go swimming, and I caught her
40:13
impact. I'm like, found one and I
40:16
realized what they meant by watch for the Riptides was
40:19
figure out what you're supposed to do.
40:20
When you're in one. I didn't do that.
40:23
I just watched out for him and I saw it and I'm like, crap.
40:26
I don't know what to do now. So I'm just sucked out.
40:29
Deep out in those like I can barely see my house immediately
40:32
elegant sucked way out, and I'm just like, I guess I got to
40:37
figure this out, so I just start like swimming against the Rip
40:39
Tide toward my house and that's, of course, doing nothing.
40:43
But even if I was a good swimmer, like, I couldn't go
40:46
fast enough to outrun over to the riptide, but I figured out
40:49
that like Like I can't pull the water but I can swim down to the
40:53
bottom and stick my hands in the mud and put myself forward.
40:57
And so I'd like do that till I ran out of breath, pull go up
41:02
and it pulled me back, but not as far as I went.
41:04
Before them getting like a few inches for my house, each time,
41:09
which is absolutely nothing. My house is a speck in the
41:12
distance and I did that for a while and I just get up.
41:15
And I'm like, yeah, I'm just probably gonna die here and
41:19
weirdly, my First thought as I realize I'm going to die is
41:25
crap. I didn't hit save on my own the
41:27
file. I was working on making a
41:28
comment, I don't know, but I'm like, and I'm like we're gonna
41:33
die and who's going to post it unlike.
41:34
Well, eventually like my family's going to my computer.
41:37
And like they might post my last Comics Twitter.
41:40
But like I didn't save it. And the electricity goes all the
41:43
times of electricity goes out, my computer's going to die.
41:45
It's going to lose the file. All right.
41:49
Steve. That's where my mind is and then
41:52
I'm like, And then eventually, like, as I'm doing this, I just
41:57
kind of move a little bit to the left and I realize, oh, that's
42:00
what yourself sooner Riptide, just move the other way because
42:07
they're like a straight line. So, don't go against it.
42:10
Just move like to the left or right, where there's not a
42:12
reptiles, and you're fine. So I just kind of by accident,
42:17
got out of the riptide and then like just had to swim like an
42:21
hour to get back to my house and then like, yeah, I mean it's not
42:27
that easy, you can still be in horrible danger, but I just
42:30
happen to accidentally swim into the exact place where I was
42:33
safe. And I if I had accidentally done
42:39
that, I would have just gone deep deep down to the ocean, may
42:44
be gotten by a shark. I'm glad you still alive.
42:48
Thanks a lot for that. Lily, I think.
42:51
Well, I'm still amazed by as well.
42:52
Like, I know you mentioned earlier about sort of having
42:55
this kind of narrative mindset, whenever you were in these
42:58
experiences, but like, when it's beginning to happen to you just
43:02
kind of think to yourself like not, here we go again.
43:05
Yeah, basically, okay, my brain has lost the ability to like
43:09
Panic or get stressed out about this situation.
43:11
I'm just like like I look at it, like I'm watching a movie and be
43:16
But we get to the interesting part of my brain does.
43:20
And so like, the good thing is that gives me like the space to
43:27
critically look at the situation as well as panicking.
43:30
But also, I'm stupid. So that helped because I did I
43:33
man it sounds like you've been pretty smart when push comes to
43:37
shove. I mean, being able to remain
43:38
calm like that. I I mean I imagine that's
43:41
probably the biggest thing. Saving your life each and every
43:43
time because of what it, obviously.
43:46
Apparently, you get emotional, you can't think, and then that
43:48
could be the difference between life and death.
43:50
But, yeah, yeah, I'd like to think that now, that I've been,
43:54
like, it's been a while since I've had one of these, horrible
43:57
near-death experiences, a guy just like, I've been through
44:00
enough of them that like, I know how to avoid them better and how
44:03
to get out of them better. But like, but you know, all
44:07
these stories are like in my 20s.
44:09
I said, I think is when I got into the most of these dangerous
44:13
grapes but luckily Only I survived them all by sheer.
44:17
Dumb luck. And then now I think I'd be
44:20
better at it. We got one final one so you were
44:25
caught in the middle of a Coca war in Peru.
44:30
Yeah, I mean after everything I've heard like I'm not really
44:34
surprised like how did this happen, what the like how easily
44:41
this is when my wife started traveling with me and we were
44:45
traveling around South America and we wanted to go in the
44:49
Amazon River and the Amazon to get to the hit to where you
44:54
started the Amazon River. It's like It's actually
44:59
excellent. There's like one road that goes
45:01
there and it takes a long time, there's like nothing else there
45:04
and you take a bus that takes like 10 hours, something like
45:07
that. And you go through the mountains
45:09
tell you got there and we had a direct bus but halfway through
45:13
my wife was getting really really like stick like bus sick,
45:19
just really, really feeling bad. And I'm like, you know why don't
45:22
we get off the bus and stop for the night and get another bus in
45:25
the morning and so we stopped like Halfway in this lovely
45:28
little town. Took a nap.
45:32
And what we didn't realize is that while we were sleeping, all
45:38
hell broke loose because the there was a new president.
45:44
And he had announced he's going to try and cut down on the Coca
45:47
trade because coca is legal there.
45:50
There's like everywhere you go there's like coca shampoo,
45:53
there's coca snacks, there's coconut people.
45:56
Just eat coca leaves as medicine, and, of course, the
45:58
export like Coca-Cola still made with it, but they have special
46:01
permission imported. It is anywhere else you.
46:05
If you try to carry coca leaves, like you go to prison polka is
46:09
not a drug but it's used to make drugs.
46:12
So like But it's, you know, I always say it's like hops like
46:16
if you hops you're not going to get high but like it's used to
46:19
make beer. So the president had said, all
46:26
these people are legally, making coca, but they're making more
46:30
than the legal uses that I know they're making more than as
46:34
being legally used in there like selling it to cocaine
46:37
manufacturers. So we're going to come up and
46:40
all the all you farmers were gonna destroy half your crops.
46:44
and the farmers said, no, we're fighting back and they have the
46:50
support of the people who they sell the extra coca to and they
46:57
you know, they got some weapons, they got some power and so The
47:04
bit that we would have safely passed by on that bus, but
47:08
didn't that's where it all went down and, like the president
47:13
declared martial law, he brought in tanks, the citizens, like
47:17
they set up roadblocks, they put it like giant concrete barriers
47:20
and set them on fire. And the police just went in
47:23
there with like machine guns and like, arrested everybody and let
47:27
her shoot, there's shooting, there's fires, there's like they
47:30
just arrested everybody. They saw there.
47:35
And then like other people are in hiding and they cleared it
47:39
all out. We have no idea where sleeping
47:41
safely in our hotel, like Obama is this what this?
47:45
All this had gone down, like been so big that like, we found
47:48
out later Obama had done his press conference about it going
47:51
on. We're just snoozing, we get up
47:53
in the morning, we go to the bus station, where like, yeah, we're
47:56
going to go book that second half of our trip.
47:58
They're like, No Buses today. Roku me, there's no buses, like
48:01
no buses going that way. I'm like there's It's one row.
48:04
There's only one place to go. How can there be?
48:06
No buses going that way. But, nobody will tell us to,
48:09
like, I'll tell you what, you can't get a bus, but maybe
48:12
there's a place down. The road has a van, maybe he'll
48:14
take you. And so we go get this van and
48:18
he's like, I can only take you halfway.
48:21
And then he takes us halfway and then they're like there's a car
48:26
that can take you halfway. So like each little bit starts
48:30
getting longer but also each of these modes of transportation is
48:35
the price of what was supposed to be the entire trip and it's
48:39
exponentially getting shorter and shorter because everyone's
48:41
afraid to go any further. Until eventually we're in like a
48:44
little took like when I was little things it's like a
48:47
lawnmower engine and wheels and for just like three people and
48:52
so we're there with this random woman and then all of a sudden
48:55
like we're keep asking like what is going on, why will no one
48:58
takes any further? They're like I don't want to
49:00
talk about it and then this guy in a tux taking us until he gets
49:05
to like he stops at a certain point and it looks really scared
49:08
and he's like I can't take you any further and I'm like alright
49:12
well once the like this is a smallest vehicle I've ever been.
49:15
And what's the next one going to be?
49:16
And he's like there's nothing else you have to walk.
49:21
And we're like, what what is going on?
49:24
He will not tell us and we just get out and we start walking.
49:29
And then I start realizing like, I see those concrete barriers.
49:33
I see the bullet holes. I see The Scorch marks, I see
49:37
where things have been on fire, and then like all of a sudden
49:40
it's like military truck like with full of soldiers with like
49:44
M16s goes flying by us and we're like something happened here.
49:49
And then like we're just walking nervously.
49:54
And then on the other side, we walked through that for awhile
49:58
aside, there's another little mini taxi, we asked him, can you
50:02
get us there? And then like he takes no he
50:07
takes us for a bit and then all of a sudden he stops and he all
50:12
of a sudden quote says he's like this is dangerous here have to
50:15
pay extra And it was like even more than the entire trip was
50:21
supposed to be and I realized I've given so many just cost me
50:24
20 bucks and I've given so many people 20 bucks.
50:26
I'm now out of money is all you can give a card to a dude in the
50:29
lawnmower engine. I had like a last 20 bucks in my
50:32
sock but now it's like 40 and I'm like I literally don't have
50:37
the money to pay this dude and I tell them you didn't you can't
50:42
say that after we were in your car sir I'm going to give you 20
50:45
bucks and that's all we got. And he's screaming at us so we
50:49
just run. And he's afraid to come after us
50:52
because like the cocaine manufacturers have been like
50:56
nobody passes through. And so like he's afraid to come
51:00
follow and we just run and run and run and then we eventually
51:06
eventually, we got to the town and Googled and found out all
51:09
this that happened. And like if one person had just
51:12
said, hey there's a Coco War there and and a drug cartel has
51:19
said no one's allowed I pass we would have waited a day.
51:22
I think. Why don't you tell her?
51:25
But we survived it. We got there.
51:27
We dinner trip. And it was lovely.
51:29
We did a little Amazon tour like the kind like not like going to
51:34
big boat, literally just a canoe and like a local guy takes us
51:37
out and that was also a near-death experience because
51:41
like, he's just showing us like taking us out.
51:45
We went, he went fishing for piranha and then he, he's like,
51:50
Who wants to go swimming with the piranhas?
51:52
And I decided to go at that time.
51:55
I was also doing like a YouTube series or people give me
51:57
challenges and and someone had said to go skinny-dipping in the
52:02
Amazon, I'm like, what? If I go skinny-dipping with
52:05
piranha side, went skinny-dipping with a piranha
52:07
and the they don't bite you, they just swim around.
52:09
It was lovely. And then was that amazing
52:13
Mithun? Because I've heard is that a
52:15
complete myth that parole has do that, or was there something is
52:18
it a different varieties? He's that will they like like
52:22
feel for a bit of piece of meat in the water and they'll swarm
52:26
it either. But like a living human, they're
52:28
not going to bother like Justin, you know, you're too big.
52:35
Supposedly, that's what he said and I survived it so I guess
52:38
it's fine. But also later he took us to
52:40
that exact spot and started feeding the crocodiles and I'm
52:44
like, you didn't tell us there were crocodiles there, he's like
52:48
oh they were sleeping. I'm like yeah, they're like I
52:51
could have kicked one in the face like and yeah, like we just
52:58
took this out. We like, you know, when you have
53:01
a local guide, like you trust him with all these things, all
53:04
the things we did. Dead like you find help the
53:07
she's kind of kind of, I don't know.
53:10
Well after the trip was over, he took us to his house.
53:15
And we learned that he taught all of his babies to smoke,
53:20
because his witch doctor told me it's good for him and it takes
53:23
his away ghosts and we're like this is who we trusted with our
53:26
lives to swim with piranhas and crocodiles.
53:29
We're sitting, there he is like it, he has like a ten-year-old,
53:33
an eight-year-old 26, year-old a four-year-old 22 year, old two
53:35
year old sitting there. Drag on a cigarette.
53:40
And he's like, yeah, my wish doctor said, it's good for Matt,
53:43
chases away evil spirits, more like, that's how much we trust
53:50
me with their lives. Oh my gosh.
53:56
I feel that we've barely scratched the surface, but it's
53:59
been, it's been an hour already and we've sort of Gone In Every,
54:04
Which crazy way I can imagine. And yeah, as I said, we barely
54:09
touch the surface with you and I'm so glad that you're going to
54:12
be on the show again. And we're gonna then just go
54:16
through your crazy and wacky life that guys, if you thought
54:22
that this episode Good. Just wait until you discover
54:27
everything about Ryan's life. It's just as I said before, it
54:31
might be the most interesting person I've ever interviewed.
54:33
It's kind of mind-blowing. Thank you so much for your time.
54:37
I really, really sincerely. Appreciate it and see you in the
54:40
next episode here then and to all my listeners of the
54:43
Christian re podcast, thank you for listening, be safe.
54:47
Be well then I'll see you in the next.