Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / The Realities of Solo Motorcycle Travel with Chasing Crystal

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The Realities of Solo Motorcycle Travel with Chasing Crystal · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and today I'm joined by our latest guest,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Crystal Fong, a solo adventure motorcycle rider from San Francisco
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: who left a career in architecture for life on the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: road in Europe and beyond. In this episode from the Field,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Chrystal and I discussed the realities of solo travel, including
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: how to navigate first steps, building a sense of community,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and the power of simple acts of kindness from strangers.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Here we go, We're on location in Morocco.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed the episode.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: And a special thanks to Real Truck for their support
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: of this week's podcast, Find Your Freedom and Follow your
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Own Trail and the fresh air of vast uncharted places,
• 0:46
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• 0:51
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• 0:56
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• 1:00
  Speaker 3: all new Real Truck Go Rack, Go Tent, and overland Awning.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: And here's to those inspired, self actualized souls brave enough
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: to unplug and check into pure wilderness. Bring your Truck
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: to life. At realtruck dot com. Thanks again, Real Truck.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Ashley Yay.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: So you're from the Bay Area in California Originally.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: I am born and raised and I had my whole
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: life there. You know, I did the thing in this society.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: I went to college, I worked in like architecture for
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: ten years, and then I decided to do this huge
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: motorcycle trip. And I've been on the road for two
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: and a half years and I spent two years in Europe,
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: in almost like three months in Morocco right now.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Nice?
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: Nice, Wow, that's quite an adventure. How did you get
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: into overlanding? So you were saying that you were in
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: the Bay Area doing the thing that we do in life,
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: and then all of a sudden you're like, I'm gonna
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: I'm going to ride a motorcycle around the world.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I picked up riding motorcycles in my younger twenties.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: I got a license and then I just commuted for
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: eight years. I didn't do like any trips or anything.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: On the weekends, I would ride with friends, and then
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: during COVID I kind of stepped it up, and you
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: know how it was dangerous to travel on a plane
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: or with people. So I thought, oh, I could just
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: be in my helmet, breathing my own air and traveling
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: that way. So I did a few trips in the US.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: I rode from California to Yellowstone, California, to Chicago, Illinois,
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: and then from California to Baja Mexico. And once I
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: did all of those three, I was like, hmm, what
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: is the next logical step? And I decided to ride Europe.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: And then it escalated to let's try to ride every
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: country in Europe.
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: It's like that little you know, the steps, the progressive steps. Yeah? Nice?
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: And what bike were you? What did you start on?
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: I started on a Kawasaka Ninja Kawasaki Ninja two fifty,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: and then I totaled that and then I upgraded to
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: a three hundred, not much of an upgrade, but still
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: a little bit more in CC. And the bike I'm
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: riding now in Europe Morocco is a nineteen ninety Honda
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: Dominator two fifty. So I do like the lighter bikes.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I read somewhere that you had been
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: writing pillion with a friend and that's how you decided
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: to start riding Sola. Oh, is that right?
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: That's right. That was my very first ride. I think
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I was like twenty years old, and I was wearing
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: this like cotton hoodie helmet that was too big for
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: my head and like Nike dunks and jeans, which is
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: just not appropriate riding gear for what we were doing.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: And so we would do like Wheelie's and endos and
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: go one hundred and sixty miles per hour and that
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: made me really nervous in the back because I had
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: absolutely no control. So that's why I decided to get
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: my own license in.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: My own bike. Good call, A good call. Wow. So
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: you did all the training and started to do little
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: trips m nice and then yeah.
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  Speaker 4: I took that an MSF course. Yeah, I took the
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: MSF course. That's the first step. It's like the Motorcycle
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Safety Foundation course. And it's a over the course.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Of a weekend.
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  Speaker 4: I think, like Friday is the instructional, educational, like textbook learning,
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: and then Saturday Sunday you learn how to ride a bike.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: It's really fast.
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  Speaker 5: Wow. Okay, So then you obviously had more experience in
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: the US, and what made you decide to go over
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: to Europe to travel.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: I wanted to backpack Europe when I was younger, but
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I never did it. I got caught up in like
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: the corporate rat race, which is fine. And then after
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: about ten years working, I decided, oh can I work
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: forty more years until retirement? And the answer was no,
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  Speaker 4: Like that's another lifetime. So I decided to kind of
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: package up my life, sell anything expensive. I sold my
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: car and I just started focusing on planning this trip
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: and the first step was like finding a bike. Second
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: step was buying a plane ticket. And after I had
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: those two things nailed down, like I didn't have any excuse.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Like I was going.
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: Nice? And what were you doing for work before you left?
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: I was an architecture.
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: Nice. What kind of architecture work were you doing?
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: Like what I get in a hotel office? Okay, Yes, there's
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: a lot of industries you can go in, but I
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: focused on retail, warehousing, office space, coffee shops, restaurants, tenant
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: improvement projects.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: Nice. Okay, So you go to Europe, what did the
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: first twenty four hours look like? This is your international
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: experience and a motorcycle traveling alone?
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  Speaker 4: Well, the first week I was jet lagged, so I
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: didn't do much writing that first week, I allowed myself
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  Speaker 4: that toime to just recover before I hit the road.
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  Speaker 4: But once I got my bike and I learned how to,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: you know, put on preonier as a pack. I never
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: rode with that much weight before, and so I was
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: so scared. I couldn't even turn my head and look
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: over my shoulder to change lanes, like I would just
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: wait until I think I heard nothing, and then I
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: would change lanes. But once I got more brave, I was.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: It was just the most exhilarating feeling because I didn't
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: know what I was doing. I just left behind my
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: entire life and was in a continent that I didn't
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: know anyone. And so it was, I would say, equally
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: liberating but scary.
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, which country did you start in and how did
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: you get your bike there?
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: I started in Croatia. I actually didn't ship my bike
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: over by boat. I found a bike in Croatia and
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: this guy he buys bikes for foreigners and kind of
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: rents the long term to us.
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: Okay, nice, that's a really good option if you don't
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: want to ship your bike or fly it or it's
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: a lot of probably save some money and some time
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: and logistics there.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's actually pretty expensive to put your bike on
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  Speaker 4: a boat. I want to say, it's like I don't
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: know two k one way, and I think flying your
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: bike over is probably about one point five k to
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  Speaker 4: two k one way as well. So I didn't really
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: see an end in sight when I first started, so
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: I thought I didn't I wasn't thinking about the way back.
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  Speaker 4: So I just found a bike in Europe and was
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: committed to it.
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  Speaker 5: Nice. Did you find that Croatia was a good place
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  Speaker 5: to start for you?
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: I think it was a good place. It was definitely
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: a culture shock because I mean you have to relearn everything,
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  Speaker 4: like nothing's in English. Croatian is the language they speak,
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  Speaker 4: so there's just a lot of it's relearning how to
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: do the things you already know how to do, even
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: like grocery shopping or where to find an ATM or bank.
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  Speaker 4: Like for example, like if I asked someone for an
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  Speaker 4: ATM in Croatia, they wouldn't know what I'm talking about.
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  Speaker 4: You have to ask for a banko mat like little
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: things like that you just have to figure out. And
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: so I think I think it was challenging starting in
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  Speaker 4: a non English speaking country, but it probably like just
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  Speaker 4: helped me ramp up for the unfamiliar of what was
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: to come.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, because you're almost adjusting like that in every country
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: that you go to in a way, right, you're relearning
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: all of the things, where to get laundry done, where
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: to go grocery stoffe, where to find a bank machine,
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: and it's different in a lot of places, so you're
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: like constantly relearning.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Like you know, in the US, you can have
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: a cell phone and even if you cross into another state,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: it still works.
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  Speaker 2: That's not what it's like in Europe.
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  Speaker 4: Maybe within the EU, but like a lot of the Balkans,
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  Speaker 4: they're all separate countries, so I didn't know that. So
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: a lot of times I would just be stretted, like
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: right when across the border and not having like downloaded
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: Google offline Google Maps or anything, and just trying to
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: follow this blue dot of where to go next, and
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  Speaker 4: all these little things you just have to learn through
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  Speaker 4: experience and mistakes.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, you sometimes learn more from mistakes than you
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: from doing things right. You know, You're like, I'll learn
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  Speaker 5: that once.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't want to make the same mistake twice
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  Speaker 4: or be stranded at the border at nine pm.
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  Speaker 5: Did that happen?
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: That happened to me? I was crossing the border from
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  Speaker 4: Bosnia Herzevi g Hrtzegovina to Serbia and I didn't download
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: offline maps and I had like a reservation with a
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: CouchSurfing host, and so I'm at this little village town
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: right at the border figure out out what to do,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: like everything's closed ready.
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  Speaker 6: And.
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  Speaker 4: There are a group of probably like ten teenager younger
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: twenty like aged kids, and they're like reving motorcycles and
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  Speaker 4: I'm like, oh my gosh, I hope they don't approach me,
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: because there's like ten or fifteen of them and there's
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: like only me. I hope they don't want any trouble.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: And I'm just like trying to fiddle on my phone
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: figure out like which direction to go. And then one
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: of them approaches me, and I'm like, oh my gosh, Crystal,
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: this is what all your friends, like we warned you about.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: And then he speaks in broken English like do you
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: need help? And the blood just like rush back into
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  Speaker 4: my body, like oh my.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Gosh, I yess I need help.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, how has that been? I guess in the beginning,
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: like working through that fear because I think when you're
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: on your own and I'm speaking from like two weeks
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: of experience of traveling on my own, so not very long,
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: and I'm still working through it and it has been
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: really interesting and eye opening. But I think it's like
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: the trust level you know when you're around strangers and
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: you're by yourself and it's only you. And I know
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: this is different for everybody, because I think a lot
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: of people have they give and receive, you know, trust
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: more easily maybe than others. And feeling that vulnerability would
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: because you know that you're on your own. How is
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: that experience and that transition from living in the Bay
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: Area and you know where you're going and what you're doing,
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: and you're not in a situation where you're a vulnerable
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: traveler by yourself or you feel vulnerable anyway.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: It happens. The transition happens without you realizing it. Like
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: if you're in your home state or country, you speak
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: the same language, your guard is down. But then once
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: you're in a place where you're by yourself and you're
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: in a country or place where you don't speak the language,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: you don't know how things work. Your body just adjust
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: to being like hyper alert, especially as a female.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: And.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: You have to learn you have to quickly identify whether
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: a situation or a person is a threat or if
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: it's if it's not going to be anything. And so
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: you don't realize how exhausted this makes your body because
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: you're just trying to survive day to day, just trying
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: to get from one place to another or eat a
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: meal without you know, bad things happening to you. And
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: I just kind of get used to the high stress
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: and I don't realize. I realize it now after doing
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: it for so long, because I actually went home for
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: a month to visit my cousin, and I slept so
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: deep the first week, and I was like, I don't
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: usually sleep this deep. Usually, like when I'm in my
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: tent or I'm in high my hostel, I wake up
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: to every single sound just in case, because you just
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: never know. And that's just the type of alertness that
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: I go through.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I would say being a newbie. Also, my sleep
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: has definitely not been great, and I am definitely I
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: can feel my nervous system on alert as well, because
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: even you know you're you're more aware of what's going
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: on and you're scanning your surroundings, even if you're not
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: doing it consciously, it's always kind of in the back
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: of your head. And I don't feel like everybody's out
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: to get me. I don't feel that way, but I
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: do feel like I have a different level of, like
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: you said, alertness for sure, And I think I don't
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: know if this is the same for you. Evenings and
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: night times are harder than daytime. Oh absolutely, okay, cool,
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: good to know.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: You're not the only one. I mean, that's just like
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: general traveler safety, right, Like you don't go wandering in
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: like dark alleys by yourself in the middle of the night,
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: not that anything will happen, but things are more prone
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: to happen at night where there's less people watching or
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: walking around, and you kind of just try to avoid
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: those situations if you're traveling alone.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Have you found the way that you travel is
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: different from the way that you are back at home
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: if you're surrounded by friends or family In terms of
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: I guess how you are in the world, Like I'm
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: finding I'm like trying to keep busier kind of kind
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: of like get involved or appro you know, get in
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: reach out to people more often, and feel like kind
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: of more of a sense of community around me. Maybe
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: when I'm traveling on my own.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: I know exactly what you're saying. Back at home, I
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: formed community as well, so it's also something I'm seeking
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: out here. And even if I'm staying in a place
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: for a day, like I'm still looking for something familiar,
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: whether that's another motorcycle rider or another solo traveler, or
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: like anything to grasp onto. And so this is funny.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: So I play badminton, and I bring my badminton racket
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: with me, like on my motorcycle. And so the way
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: I form community is through motorcycle people and bad people.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: So I will find a gym wherever I'm traveling, in
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: whatever country I'm riding through, and that's where I find
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: my community. So and it just feels like home, like
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: when you have like something in common, like even though
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: you don't speak the same language, like we don't keep
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: score in the same language, but you just know that
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: it's You're just there to have fun and like interact
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: with people. So I know what you mean by forming
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: community even with your when you're by yourself.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: What are some of the best badminton experiences you've had? Oh,
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: this is.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: Kind of cute. Okay, So I'm in tom Rot right
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: now and there's a gym and agadeer. So usually like
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: I'm always just like blasting through places the most still
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: stay in the places.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: A week I.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: Found a gym here. I made a friend and he's
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: like really hungry to learn. They don't have like a
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: proper coach. No, there's not a lot of resources or
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: like even proper gyms out here. I've been training him
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: for a month.
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: Very cool.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I meet him like three to four times
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: a week and I just like I just feed him
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: birds and I like teach him like proper foot work
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: or like a proper way to hold the racket and
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: all this stuff. And it's really cute, Like we're just
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: it's like this energy exchange of like cultures and our baseline.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: Is bad and that's awesome. Yeah, it's like what do
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: you have in common with people? And these activities bring
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: you together to feel a sense of community and belonging.
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: And I think I read something that you wrote about
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: being alone versus loneliness and the difference between those two.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah. People ask me all the time, like aren't you lonely?
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, no, I never feel lonely. I'm alone,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: like I'm traveling by myself, you know, it's just me
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: and my bike. But loneliness, I feel like it's like
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: when you kind of feel empty or you're craving something,
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: whether that's you know, companionship of a pet or like
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: a friend. And I just don't feel that. People come
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: up to me every day when I'm writing and they
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: ask what what in the world am I doing there
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: by myself all this like stuff on my bike. And
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: I also like look for community, so I'm like people
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: are finding me and I'm looking for my people like
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: out in the world. So I don't feel like I
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: don't have time to like feel lonely, Like even if
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: I'm not doing anything, I'm you know, I'm reading or
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: I'm stretching or I'm working out, Like I'm very focused
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: on like just being like the best version of myself
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: in every aspect, and so I just don't have time
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: for that. There are moments I could count on my
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: fingers where I did feel lonely, though there was This
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: was a really hard few days. I was in Prague
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: in the check public. Oh my gosh, someone tried to
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: steal my bike and my hostel kicked me out or
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: kicked my bike out because the thieves like pulled my
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: fuel line and like gas leaked everywhere on the front door,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: and so my hostel kicked my bike out, and then
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: I had to get to the Root Canal. But like
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: I was there when Prague was on a two day holiday,
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: so everything was closed and I couldn't like call any
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: one because I didn't speak the language. And then I
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: asked this man on the street if I could use
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: his phone and if he could help me, like call
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: a dental office, and he told me no, and so
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: like all these happening, all these things happening, like I
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: was just that that was one of those times where
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: I felt absolutely despairingly alone and lonely.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: Mm hmmmm hm. When it rains, it pours.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah it does. But I found help, and you know,
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: the next place I went into, I got a smoothie
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: to try to make my tea seal better. And this
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: woman she helped me call like dental offices and then
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: uh schedule an appointment. And then when I told my badmin,
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: I played badminton progue too. When I told, like the
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: owners of that gym what happened, They're like come sleep
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: on our couch, like just until you recover, and like
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: go back out there on your journey, and they like
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: nurse me back to health for a week.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: So like those things happened, but then like they're they're
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: like offset by even greater good like every single.
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: Time, for sure, I think too. When you're on your own,
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: you're so much more grateful for all little things in
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: terms of people reaching out to you or including you,
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: or inviting you, or zipping up the back of your
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: wet suit or know all helping you with a surfboard
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: or I could do you know, all these little things. Yeah,
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: how do you feel like this experience has changed you
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: in that way?
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: Man, When you live on the road on a bike
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: that can't carry much, you're literally grateful for anything. Like
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: I'm grateful for when it's not windy so I don't
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: have like a rough night sleep, or like all those
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: little things you mentioned, like they're just they're like exponential,
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: Like it's not just people doing small acts of kindness
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: for you, it's people caring about you. Like when you're
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: traveling by yourself, you're you're super highly independent, you're self reliant,
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: and when someone invites you into their home to cookie
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: a warm meal so you don't have to, you know,
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: eat food out of a can or something like. I
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: like cried so many times from those experiences, because when
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: you care for yourself, it's one thing. But when people
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: care about you and take the time to like show
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: love to you, it's it just melts you.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: Mm hmm yep. Yeah, it's the beautiful thing. That's a
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: scenario that you don't understand necessarily if you are going
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: about your life in the daily way. I guess that's normal,
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: you know. I don't think about those experiences like a
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: commute on the way to or from work, or going
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: to the park or going wherever. This is very specific
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: to this experience as well. I think I can relate
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: to that all a little are actually really big.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I've talked to my friends about this, Like when
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: you live in society, I would say life is.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Not as hard.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: You're not pushed through major challenges every day. I mean
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: there's different challenges, but you're not trying to It's just
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: harder in different ways. Like you're not worried about where
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: you're going to sleep, or if you're going to eat,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: or like if the rain storm is going to leak
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: through your tent, or if your only mode of transportation
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: is going to be there in the morning, because it
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: might be stolen. Like like everything, every little thing you
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: have to worry about, but there's a certain comfort in
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: society that you just don't have to think about these
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: things and so you kind of take things for granted.
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: M Yeah, Yeah, for sure. I would say it's really
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: interesting too on that same topic that like, I'm traveling
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: with my husband most of the time, and we've been
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: together since I was nineteen, so like quite a while
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: without giving away my age, but I've never traveled on
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: my own before, and so actually a lot of the
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: things that he's been doing I have been taking for granted,
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: and now I have to do those things on my own,
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: which is cool. I like it, but it's also like
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: I appreciate it and will appreciate it so much more
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: when he gets back. So yeah, it makes any difference
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: for sure. I wanted to ask you about sleeping in
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: a tent and what that experience is like on your own,
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: and how you decide where to pitch your tent and
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: how you kind of deal with feeling safe.
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: Maybe I use the Apple Park for night, which is
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: like a kind of like an overland RV app where
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: you could parking parking lots, or you can go like
• 27:03
  Speaker 6: off in the middle of nowhere, And so sometimes I
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: use that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: Sometimes I go off into my own This might sound weird,
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: I part I camp in places that I think are
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: funny sometimes, so I think it'll be funny too. I've
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: done all this, like camp under a bridge like a troll.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: I've done that in Bulgaria. Or I've slept in front
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: of a grocery store in Italy. I thought that was
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: very ridiculous, so why not. And I've slept in a
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: lot of like parking lots in Ireland. I don't know
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: why I'm like this. I just think it's funny to
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: be people to say I slept in the zoo parking lot.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: But I also like to go like way out where
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: there's absolutely no one, and that gives me a better
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: night's sleep because I know there's not going to be
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: someone walking by or like cars or anything that will
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: happen to me. It'll just be animals. So it's I
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: never get a good night sleep sleeping in a tent.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: I'm just gonna be honest. I have a lot of fear, like,
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: you know, something might happen to me, or someone's gonna
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: steal my bike, Like everything runs through my mind. And
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: at first I didn't sleep with ear plugs because I
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: wanted to know to hear every single sound just in case.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: And then I have, you know, a bit of anxiety,
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: so I would like ruminate throughout the night and just
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: like all these thoughts like oh my gosh, what was
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: that like snap of a twig?
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Like, and it just keep me up for two hours, and.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: I was just like, I can't do this, So I
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: just I just put my earplugs in and I just
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: hope I wake up in the morning with every limb
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: attached to me. So I just do it with fear.
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: And A quick announcement of our new Tires for Overlanding
• 28:52
  Speaker 7: educational series that is going to be brought to the
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: Expedition Portal YouTube channel. This is a six part series
• 28:58
  Speaker 7: that is going to be really over the months of
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: May and June and it features detailed insights on mud tires,
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: all terrains, airing, down driving insand vehicle preparation, tread lightly
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: and more. And we're grateful to Handcook Tire for helping
• 29:16
  Speaker 7: to support this new series, so take a look at
• 29:19
  Speaker 7: the Expedition Portal YouTube channel for more details.
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: Nice. Yeah, sometimes it's you're just like I have the
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: SE's in and whatever happens is beyond my control, other
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: than listening to all the little noises and what's that
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: Brench snapping? Like what wildlife is coming to get me?
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: Or is there a person passing by or a monkey
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: or whatever. So Crystal, tell me a little bit about
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: your route. So you started in Croatia and uh where
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: you go from there.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to name every country because I've been
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: through forty of them, but in general, I started in
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: southern Europe where the Balkans are, where Croatia, Serbia, Greece are,
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: and then I headed up to central eastern Europe. I
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: did like Switzerland, Poland, and then I went up to
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: the Baltics, where like Lithuania and Estonia are. Then I
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: went over to the Scandinavias. I took a ferry from
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: Estonia to Finland, Finland to Sweden, and then I made
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: my way to the UK. I took the Eurotunnel from Calais,
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: France to Folkestone, England, and then I covered Scotland, Ireland,
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: and then I finally finished in southwestern Europe, where Spain, Italy,
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: France are and I took the ferry from Tarifa, Spain
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: to Tangier, Morocco, where I've been exploring Morocco a bit.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: How have you been navigating the Shangan rules of having
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: to be having to only spend ninety out of one
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: hundred and eighty days in most of the European.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: Union, Navigating the Shngen visa as a long term traveler
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: is like trying to figure out a puzzle. Luckily, the
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: Balkans is a pretty big chunk of countries that you
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: can exit out in, and so is the UK. So
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: I would do well now Croatias in the Shengen, but
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: I would go through the Balkans exit or enter into
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: Greece for three months, exit out into the Balkans, and
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: then I think my second leg into the Shengan, I
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: did seventeen countries in ninety days, which is a lot,
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: and so that is just not enough time to you know,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: take your time and embrace every country. So it's kind
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: of like a sprint for me to do that, and
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: then I would exit out into the UK. American citizens
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: get six months in England.
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: I think yeah, yeah, yeah, we have the same as Canadians.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, so you could re mm hmm, there's a fly,
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: so you could reset it that way. And then I
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: think I had like eleven or thirteen countries to do left,
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: you know, Belgium, Luxembourg, that chunk. So that was another
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: sprint before I could exit out into Morocco and reset
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: the chink in that way as well. I didn't want
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: to deal with, you know, trying to figure out long
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: term visas of getting a volunteer or visa or schooling
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: or work like I just I just did the hop in,
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: hop out thing.
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And is a good place as well, as you
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: were saying to come to come into. It's easily accessible
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: via Spain. How have you? How's your time been here?
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: It's been interesting.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: Morocco is definitely a different world. Things are very different here.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: How would I describe that? It's kind of taking a
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: step back in time where there's a lot of old
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: world going on. Like some people still like use donkeys
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: as the main mode of transportation. A lot of these
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: cities have like old medinas built hundreds and thousands of
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: years ago that are that are like they're not cobblestone
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: but like really big stones that are not like asphalt
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: or concrete, and it just feels very like other worldly.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, there is a sense of trying to figure out
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: how to explain it. It's like certain places in Morocco,
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: you could be you feel like you could be there
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: at any point in time, like it could be the
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: nineteen twenties and you could be coming in. You're just
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: looking around, seeing and it feels like if you're looking
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: at the same things as a traveler would at that
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: point or the nineteen fifties or you know, I felt
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: that kind of sense of timelessness in some areas for sure.
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: M And then there's you know, a lot of modern
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: modern I don't know that's the right word. Let's say,
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: you know, you can pay with visa, let's say in
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: some areas, and fast Wi Fi in some places, and yeah,
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: there's kind of a range of everything.
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: It's very interesting. Sometimes there's a huge contrast. Like I
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: was riding through like up in the mountains past Topka
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Gorge and some of these these village I will call
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: them villages where it's just super dusty and you know,
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: there's no paved road and I just see like a
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: giant solar panel, and it kind of just blows my
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: mind because of the stark contrast in like technology, Like
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: some of these houses just have one light bulb in
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: the entire room and there's not much decoration, and so
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: seeing like a solar panel that huge, like it was
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: just it was a weird like where am I moment?
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: That's a huge, huge solar I think I know which
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: one you were talking about. It's like you can see
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: the glare from the road and it's quite far away.
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: Or I've also seen little solar panels that people will
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: have just in the middle of the desert somewhere. There
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: a little many many solar panels. So yeah, I mean
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: there's a lot of sun here, so take advantage of it, right, Yeah,
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: it's fascinating stuff. Yeah, how has it been traveling in
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: Morocco as a woman.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: It's interesting.
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: I didn't know exactly too much about Muslim culture before
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: I came here. I just knew like you're supposed to
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: cover up, and that was kind of the only rule
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: I told myself in my head. And like as you
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: learn and you speak to locals, you learn more about
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: their culture, and you know, the media portrays Morocco or
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: Muslim culture a certain way, and it tends to be
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: very negative. I would say, like staying with a lot
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: of families who invited me into their homes. It's I
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: can see why it's portrayed that way, but that's not
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: the only way, you know, And I will say foreigners
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: are treated very differently than local Moroccan women like we have.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna call it protection in a way where the
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: police or government don't want anything bad to happen to
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: us and so or else that produces a lot of
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: bad press and tourism.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Is he It's not like.
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: M hm, And it's not like I do things to
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: take advantage of it. But I know that I have
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: that layer of protection where if I call the police,
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: where if something happens, they'll they will protect me. So
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: I feel very safe here.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: There's no life.
• 38:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all the police that we've passed through at checkpoints
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: and everything have been very professional and yeah, definitely more
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: so than some of the Central American countries. I mean
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: that was a decade ago for us, but it feels
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: like they're they have been really professional here. But yeah,
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: that's good to hear. So far, so good, but yeah, yeah,
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: good to know. Good to know what have some of
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: the highlights been for you? I guess in Morocco, let's
• 38:40
  Speaker 5: get specific.
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: I was I got adopted by this family for a
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: month and they didn't speak any English, so we use
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Google Translate to talk the entire month.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, like I was writing through.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was kind of a crazy experience. Like I
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: was riding through the village of Karreya bay Mohammed and
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: I was just doing my one of my late night rides.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: I was gonna grab a snack, shove it into my
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: mouth and just keep going. And at this sandwich shop
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: there were a bunch of like younger teenagers and I'm
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: trying to talk to them, but you know, like I
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: don't speak Arabic or Darisia and they don't speak English.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: But we kind of like went around like how old
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: are you? And you can kind of be like I'm
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: nine years old and just like have that type of
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: interaction with them. And so I'm asking all these kids
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: like how old are you? And then after like we're
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: done eating, one of the younger teenage girls is like.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Do you want to come home with me and stay
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: with us?
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, oh quick analyzation. There's a teenage daughter
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: in the house. I'm safe, Okay, let's go. So I
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: like pushed my bike to her dad's shop and he's
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: kind of like what's going on here? And she like
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: talks to her dad in Arabic. I think she's saying, like, oh,
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: we met at the sandwich shop, like can she stay
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: with us? And of course he's not going to say
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: no to me, like turn me away, like at like
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: nine pm at night, and so he says yes. I
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: ended up I was just gonna stay with them for
• 40:28
  Speaker 4: two days. I ended up staying with them for an
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: entire month. I would go to the weekly sook with
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: their mom and like walk like arms linked and like
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: carry all her groceries back and like any aunties that
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: she saw along the way that we're struggling with their groceries,
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: I would carry them back.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: And it was just and it's just like our weekly thing.
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: And it was like I was learning Arabic and they
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: I was teaching them English too, and it was just
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: like this accidental culture exchange. Like that's just one of
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: my favorite memories.
• 41:10
  Speaker 5: What did you do? What was your takeaway from that experience?
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: People are very kind to travelers and will take you
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: in without asking for anything in return. Like there are
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: times where I tried to pay for groceries or like
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: snacks or whatever, and they like just refuse, like it
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: was offensive to them, And it was just like life
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: is very hard in Morocco, you know, like there's a
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: lot of poverty around and people don't have a lot
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: of money. And so when people with the absolutely give
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: so much to you and don't want anything in return
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: and like even refuse your money, like that shows you
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: how good of a people they are, right, Like yeah,
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: And I kind of asked myself, like would I do
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: the same thing if I'm in the US, and like
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: I see a traveler coming by, Like would I invite
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: them into my house for a month and not ask
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: for anything? I don't know, right, you know.
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I was following I've been following you on
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: Instagram and following all your stories and you had a
• 42:29
  Speaker 5: your eye do you have an eye infection in Morocco? Lacking?
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: And that seems like that was such an experience.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: It was such a terrible experience.
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, so this is my second abscess in my life,
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: So maybe I will develop a pattern of them in
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: my life. Who knows, But pimple. There was a small
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: piple here. I just like scratched it off, and then
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: it got infected and it became this huge, bulbous red
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: thing on my face where every time I like would
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: swing my head, it felt like a gravitational pull. And
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: you know, I tried homeopathic methods like icing or heating
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: or you know, putting a tea bag. None of that helped.
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: And I discovered what it was like to be a
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: patient in the Moroccan hospital system, and it's an absolute nightmare.
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: I it was such a headache. Like thank goodness, one
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: of the daughters of that family that adopted me, she
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: accompanied me through the whole thing because none of these
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: doctors spoke like English, like they speak French, which a
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: lot of travelers here do, but I don't. And so
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: I went to the first hospital. They looked at it.
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: They told me, you know, this needs to be cut open,
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: like drained, but they didn't do that there because the
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: their specialty is not the face and the neck.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: I have to go to a second hospital.
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: So I taxi to the second hospital and these optometrists,
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: I think she was like on her phone, like you know,
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: with all this bacteria, and she like opened up my
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: eye with her like cell phone fingerphone, and I was like,
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: oh my god, Miami system is gonna get even better
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: after this. And she started berating me, like why didn't
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: I come here sooner? And I'm just like I thought,
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: I thought I was like taking care of it. And
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: she's like, you need to go to this third hospital
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: and like get this looked at because I've never dealt
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: with this before.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: And I was just saying, I.
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: Was like, like, this is all through like from my
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: friend like translating everything to me. Yeah, it was such
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: a hittae. I go to the third hospital and I
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: complain about the US healthcare system, but things are a
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: lot better there. Like, for example, at this third hospital,
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: you have to go pay and then deliver your receipt
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: to a second building and then they have to give
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: you permission you go back to this first building and
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: then you deliver some PaperWorks to some third building like
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: in the dark, and you're basically running around this paperwork
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: because there's not an like a central electronic computer system.
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: And I can't imagine how someone with like a real injury,
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: like who can't walk or see like can do this
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: by themselves. And I mean I could go on about this.
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: It's just an absolute headache. In the end, they told
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: me they just gave me allergy medicine and told me
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: like just to eat this and it'll go away on
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: its own. Surprise, it didn't, and I was in a
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: bathroom where it like ruptured on its own and all
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: this ooze was like dripping down my face. And three
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: nurses came in and we were like, we saw you
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: running in here, do you need help? And usually, like
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: I would be like no, I can do this, but
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: I'm like bus and bus blood losing out my face
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: and I'm like I think I need help this time,
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: and they they're like for nurses, we know what we're doing.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: And they just helped me drain this thing for like
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: thirty minutes and they like, wow, you know, disaffected it
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: for me and like patch me up.
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: The timing of that is like the uh, the forces
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: of the universe that came together to have three nurses
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: in the vicinity to help you out with that.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: It's pretty amazing. Yeah, Wow, it's crazy, Like I it
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: was perfect timing, Like the chances are like one in
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: a million.
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: Again, Yeah, the kindness of strangers. Yeah, yeah, I think
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: the overall, I've been so lucky. Timing is everything. M Oh,
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: what would you give somebody that is embarking on a
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: solo trip that has never gone on one before, or
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: things maybe that you are like, you know what, you
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: just be prepared for x Y.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: Then ooh that's hard. Well, first, I would say, take
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: a test solo journey, like maybe don't go for a
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: few months before you've even done one. Maybe go for
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: a weekend or a week to see if you even
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: like it. That would be my first advice. The second is, oh,
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: this is kind of sad if I didn't realize this
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: would be a side effect of traveling solo away from
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: home for so long. But just know that.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: You will be.
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: Distanced emotionally in closeness from your friends and family back home.
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: I didn't realize this would be a side effect. You know,
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: you're in a different time zone, you're living your own
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: wild solo life, and you know everyone else is in
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: society like working living. You know they're nine to five,
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: paying bills, and so your lives just like split like this.
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: It's hard for me to relate to my friends from
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: home much anymore, because even though I did live that life,
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: I can't relate. I don't. I have a completely different life,
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: and you know, keeping in touch is very difficult because
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: there's times of differences. Some people are at work, people
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: are tired, whatever the reason, and you're going to be
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: forgotten sometimes and it's it's just like a harsh reality
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: of it.
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: So that's good advice, Like.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: That's I think something that's something like I don't think
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: people talk about because you just see the glory of
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: solo travel. You see all the pictures, you see all
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: the cool places like, and that is part of it.
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: But there's also like this part where you do want
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: to share it with someone but they're sleeping or you know,
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: like we're like, that's just not their concern right now,
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: you know, sure, yeah, they're trying to survive.
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: Yes, Yeah, Relationships definitely change. I think every every traveler
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: that I've spoken to has had that experience, and it's
• 49:48
  Speaker 5: often sometimes surprising who checks in. It's not necessarily who
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: you think it's going to be. Yeah, yeah, sometimes people
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: that you don't expect are like, hey, how are you doing.
• 50:00
  Speaker 5: I had that happened recently, like during the first week
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: that I was traveling on my own, and I've had
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: people check in that were like, how are you doing?
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: This must be hard for you. This is a really
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: hard situation to be in for the first week. And
• 50:17
  Speaker 5: I'm like, wow, it goes back to that thing again
• 50:20
  Speaker 5: that we were talking about earlier, that these little acts
• 50:23
  Speaker 5: of kindness are actually not little. They're a lot bigger
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: and you appreciate them so much. And yeah, they're not
• 50:29
  Speaker 5: necessarily coming from who you expect. So yeah, it's like
• 50:33
  Speaker 5: other relationships will grow and other others will change, and
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: some will die unfortunately.
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I know what you mean by sometimes the
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: people you don't expect to reach out will reach out,
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: which is very interesting sometimes. But I told myself, like,
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: I will foster these relationships if and when I go back,
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: but I should you know, fault me or anyone that
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: they're not flourishing right now, Like there's a lot of
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: factors at play and they can resume when I go back, totally.
• 51:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, it's a healthy way of looking at it,
• 51:15
  Speaker 5: for sure. That's what change does, right, big change.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: Oh that's another thing, Like you grow exponentially when you're
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: by yourself if you choose to, because when you're outside
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: of where you grew up or what your constant friend
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: group or social circle is you do this without knowing
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: You kind of behave in ways that fit in society
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: or how people see you. But when you're by yourself,
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: you kind of the restraints are lose. Nobody knows you
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: you can do something that you wouldn't normally do because
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: of that opportunity has come up and which would not
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: come up in society, And so you're pushed to these
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: boundaries that you didn't even know existed, Like.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: How do I explain this?
• 52:15
  Speaker 5: You're like, I'm gonna pitch more grocery store.
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: Like you're encountered with situations which you would not living
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: in society, and you're like you're just questioning yourself, like
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: why not, this isn't hurting anyone. Let's just let's just
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: see what happens. And so when you have that like
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: curious growth mindset, ah, and you're facing and solving all
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: these problems by yourself because there's just no one else around,
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: Like your growth just spikes. And that's also like a
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: side effect of traveling by yourself.
• 52:52
  Speaker 5: Mm hmm. Do you view more confident?
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: Yes, I would say I was confident before, but I
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: wouldn't say as versatile, like I have been through so
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: many random situations that weren't necessarily dangerous but but just
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: kind of tests like your boundaries and like, and they're
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: not like dangerous boundaries. They could be like well, how
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: long don't I have to shower for? Or like how
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: little do I have to do I have to eat today?
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: Or what strange new food can I eat to survive?
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: And it's just like when you take these like tiny
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: steps every day of like the unfamiliar, when you look back,
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: like six months you're out here and you're looking back like,
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: oh I was I was here, and you can clearly
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: see through your own growth, through your own taste, through
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: even photos, Like when I look back at photos of myself,
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: I'm like, that's so I was so great even a
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: few months ago, Like I didn't know anything about Morocco,
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: but now look I'm surviving here. Mm hm.
• 54:07
  Speaker 5: Hm, yeah it is. It's always a good idea to
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: celebrate those milestones or those experiences by looking back like
• 54:15
  Speaker 5: that and seeing the growth instead of we can get
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: very like forward thinking and kind of beating ourselves up
• 54:22
  Speaker 5: over what we haven't done or haven't accomplished or haven't
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: gotten yet. But looking backwards is always like, wow, look
• 54:29
  Speaker 5: how far I come? Like what I know now? Like
• 54:32
  Speaker 5: how many words in Moroccan Arabic? I know that's more
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: than I did when I got here. You know, yeah,
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: that's always insightful. But yeah, Crystal, I have a question
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: for you, what is your favorite book?
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: My favorite book? I have a list of all the
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: books I've read, maybe the last ten years after college
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: when I started reading for fun. Yeah, and this, this
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: book really changed my perspective. The Books of Great Alta
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: by Jane Yolin. Have you heard of it?
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: No?
• 55:17
  Speaker 5: What is it about?
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: So so I think I read this in like twenty
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: twenty one or something. And this was when okay, there's
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: a little background to this. You know, COVID everything was
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: shut down. You were stuck inside your house for like
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: a year. You couldn't go to the gym, you couldn't
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: see your friends. That made me literally have a mental
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: breakdown because all my hobbies are outside and my friends,
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: you know, going to Jim's Blamon, go to the gym,
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: to live waits, seeing all my friends. Couldn't do any
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: of that, And so that made me deal with my
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: inside stuff, my dark stuff, And it was really really
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: hard for me. But this book, the Books of Great Alta.
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: It's it's not particularly famous or anything, but this author
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: writes it's like a fiction, kind of like sorcery type
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: of book where it talks about how these sisters of
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: powers to kind of protect like each other. There's a
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: light sister and a dark sister, and so like the
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: dark sister you would assume is like the evil one,
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: the one you know, causing mischief and stuff, but it's
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: like a balance of the two.
• 56:35
  Speaker 5: And so like.
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: The light sister exists both in the day and the
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: night time, and the dark sister only comes out in
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: the shadows in at night. And so that just reframed
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: everything for me. It reframed me to think that I
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: can use, you know, maybe the things I don't love
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: about myself, like the darkness, into something positive. For example,
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: like I can be stubborn, I can be angry, but
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: those things allow me to speak up sometimes when I
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: do have those feelings, Like those things push me into
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: action when I feel something is not right mm hmm.
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: And so.
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: Like every negative fault I don't like about myself, it
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: always there's always like some benefit to it. And so
• 57:21
  Speaker 4: that book helped me change my mindset so much.
• 57:25
  Speaker 5: Wow. Yeah, being stubborn it's a pretty good trait to
• 57:30
  Speaker 5: get you out onto the road motorcycling around the world,
• 57:35
  Speaker 5: that's for sure.
• 57:40
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah. It's like persistence and resilience and how long
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: can you go for even though it's painful or it's
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: not like the most enjoyable time, like that's an important skill.
• 57:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and working through that, working through those emotions, working
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: through beating yourself up for feeling a certain way, or
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: finding out what what do you do for fun? I
• 58:11
  Speaker 5: think that's another thing that I've had to look into recently.
• 58:16
  Speaker 5: Being by myself, I'm like, Ashley, what do you do
• 58:18
  Speaker 5: for fun? Why are you so intense? Like what do
• 58:21
  Speaker 5: you want to do? And what can you do to
• 58:24
  Speaker 5: have fun once in a while? In certain personality types,
• 58:28
  Speaker 5: I think, you know, I'm very like have to do
• 58:33
  Speaker 5: things like this and get work done, and very like
• 58:35
  Speaker 5: studious and can be too serious. So finding the things
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: that are fun, even for just like half an hour,
• 58:43
  Speaker 5: even just for ten minutes, that's sometimes really helpful. And
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: for you it sounds like that's badminton, So yeah, what's fun?
• 58:57
  Speaker 5: So I think it's too serious? Play is very important.
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: M hmm. I think there's a time for you know,
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: being serious and getting things done. But I think like
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: our inner spirit also needs time to like play and
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: like laugh and like just be silly. Sometimes that's important
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: you realize that.
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, And sometimes it takes a little bit of
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: structure to make that happen. But I think it's it's good.
• 59:20
  Speaker 5: It's a good thing. Yeah. So, speaking of fun, what's
• 59:25
  Speaker 5: next for you? So you're in Morocco for now? You
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: have a grand scheme? Are you're heading back north? What's
• 59:32
  Speaker 5: that for the next phase?
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: Before I left on this trip, I told myself I
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: was going to do the Europe and the Middle East.
• 59:41
  Speaker 4: So I'm actually just using Morocco to reset my shin
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: gun and a place to rest before I head to
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: the Middle East. So that is the next chapter.
• 59:51
  Speaker 5: Nice, So are you going to How are you going
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: to get there? Do you know yet?
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: Why?
• 59:58
  Speaker 5: Why?
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: I think I will take I will definitely ride, not
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: leaving my mind alone, she's like connected to me. I
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: will probably take a series of fairies. I don't want
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: to ride the entire length again, like I've already done it.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: I'm a bit over Europe at this point, so I'll
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 4: probably just try to get there as fast as I can,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: maybe visit a few friends along the way in those countries,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: but Turkey will be my entryway. I'm really excited about that.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 5: Nice, fantastic. Well, I can't wait to follow along on
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 5: your journey. I have been definitely watching your stories on
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 5: Instagram and reading your posts to see where you're at.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 5: And yeah, I'm glad that our paths have crossed. But
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 5: where can everybody find you online?
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: The easiest place is through Instagram Chasing dot Crystal, and
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 4: I also have a blog, Chasing Crystal dot com calm
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: as well. Awesome.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you're posting pretty regular updates on there, and it's
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: been it's been really fun to follow your journey. And
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: we've crossed paths like two ships in the night a
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 5: few times where you've left one campsite one day and
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 5: I've been there like the next day. So we'll have
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 5: to have to make it happen one day. Maybe it'll
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 5: be in Turkey, who knows, but yeah, that would be cool.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 5: Good stuff. Well, thank you so much Crystal for being
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 5: a guess on the Overland Journal podcast and chatting all
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 5: about solo travel and motorcycle travel and your experiences on
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 5: the road. So far and I wish you all the
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 5: best and safe safe journey going forward, So thank you, Thank.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 4: You for your time, Ashley, and I wish you safe
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: travel as well.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 5: Thank you, and special shout out to the Overland Journal
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 5: podcast listeners for tuning in to another episode. We appreciate
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 5: having you around and having your feedback on these episodes,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 5: so thank you so much and we will catch you
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 5: next time.