Latest / bit of a Rambler / 084 Ramble On

Transcript

084 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
0:03
Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories,
0:08
Speaker 1: and Hawaii is hot. I'm looking forward to getting out
0:12
Speaker 1: of here, but I'm going to Indonesia, which, as far
0:15
Speaker 1: as I understand, is pretty much just as hot. I
0:18
Speaker 1: think I lucked out because when I got to Hawaii,
0:23
Speaker 1: I've only been here a few weeks. But the first
0:25
Speaker 1: like two weeks were pretty cloudy and there were winds
0:28
Speaker 1: blowing and it was comfortable, and I was like, oh,
0:30
Speaker 1: that's pretty nice. And then the last few days the
0:33
Speaker 1: sun has been crazy, Like out in the water, the
0:38
Speaker 1: sun's been crazy. Just walking around, it's just brutal. But
0:42
Speaker 1: my next place in Indonesia has ac and all the
0:46
Speaker 1: good stuff, so I'll be comfortable in a couple few days.
0:49
Speaker 1: But what's been going on? I saw a monk seal.
0:53
Speaker 1: I guess I should probably start with that. I've mostly
0:56
Speaker 1: just been hanging out at the beach or walk movies
1:01
Speaker 1: because the sun is brutal. I don't know if I
1:04
Speaker 1: mentioned this last time, but I went to the beach
1:08
Speaker 1: and the sun was so bright that the bottom of
1:11
Speaker 1: the ocean. Oh, I think I did like the s
1:15
Speaker 1: under the water ten feet even fifteen feet down. It
1:18
Speaker 1: felt like someone was firing a laser from the sun
1:21
Speaker 1: directly down to the sand. So it was just too heavy.
1:26
Speaker 1: It's just been too heavy the sunlight these past few days,
1:31
Speaker 1: and the ocean has been really cool, and it's different
1:34
Speaker 1: on different days, and the top of the water, like
1:39
Speaker 1: the waves themselves, it's really difficult to know what the
1:41
Speaker 1: currents under the water are going to feel like just
1:45
Speaker 1: by seeing the top, because the last time the waves
1:49
Speaker 1: looked pretty calm on the surface. The water was pretty
1:53
Speaker 1: rough under when I was swimming around and I had
1:55
Speaker 1: to really push, like swim pretty hard stay in place
2:00
Speaker 1: and to get around and stuff. And then the last
2:03
Speaker 1: time I went with the brutal crazy sun, it was
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Speaker 1: pretty choppy on the surface of the water, but underwater
2:11
Speaker 1: it didn't feel like there was any movement. I could
2:13
Speaker 1: go out very far. I can just swim all around.
2:16
Speaker 1: So I guess further iteration of me not understanding how
2:21
Speaker 1: the ocean works, but I do appreciate it. And it
2:25
Speaker 1: was cool to see the unicorn fish again. I saw
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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of the Moorish idols, the yellow tangs.
2:33
Speaker 1: What are other fish name? I can remember that's it,
2:36
Speaker 1: the white one with the black spot on it. The
2:38
Speaker 1: trumpet fish has the big seahorse head. A bunch of those, well,
2:44
Speaker 1: I saw like one more. They're very difficult to see.
2:47
Speaker 1: They just look like ghost eals. But it's just cool
2:51
Speaker 1: being in that alien environment. So that's what I've been doing.
2:57
Speaker 1: Because everything's so expensive in Hawaii and it's all just
3:01
Speaker 1: boring city stuff. There's not a lot of like hidden
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Speaker 1: gems or like neighborhoods I can really walk around in
3:13
Speaker 1: like to find stuff. It's organized like any other American city.
3:18
Speaker 1: So you have population centers, and then you have shopping centers,
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Speaker 1: but you don't have like little local shops that you
3:24
Speaker 1: can just walk around and explore. They're pretty rare, which
3:30
Speaker 1: I always find boring when I come back to the
3:32
Speaker 1: US that you have to live in the residential area
3:36
Speaker 1: and then you can go to where a cluster of
3:38
Speaker 1: shops are and then you can leave that. And it's
3:42
Speaker 1: not very walkable. Of course, you have to drive everywhere.
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Speaker 1: But the bus system here is pretty good. It's the
3:49
Speaker 1: buses themselves are good. It's expensive. It's a few dollars
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Speaker 1: per ride, but you have a rechargeable card you fill
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Speaker 1: it up, you boop it and you're on the bus
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Speaker 1: and you can get around the island pretty easily, So
4:01
Speaker 1: transportation could be worse here. But during the day, like
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Speaker 1: I can't man walking around. I don't know. I need
4:08
Speaker 1: to be at eleven thousand feet elevation if I'm under
4:12
Speaker 1: some sun like this, Like I got to be back
4:14
Speaker 1: at Cusco and be subtracting those degrees because it's brutal
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Speaker 1: hot humid here and I just decided to go to Indonesia,
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Speaker 1: where I'm pretty sure it's going to be brutal, hot humid,
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Speaker 1: but I will have a much nicer house and ac
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Speaker 1: and everything's going to be new, and I'll be studying Indonesian.
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Speaker 1: The only thing I know is Tersetia, which I think
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Speaker 1: means it's ready, But I don't know. I have a
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Speaker 1: little app and I haven't studied at all, and I'm
4:45
Speaker 1: leaving in a few days, so maybe I should have.
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Speaker 1: But I'm only going to be in Indonesia for a month.
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Speaker 1: I'll learn a few words when I get there. For sure.
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Speaker 1: I'll definitely learn hello, please, thank you before I get there,
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Speaker 1: but I haven't yet, you know it, I'll do that
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Speaker 1: after this. I'll take my first, like real lesson on
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Speaker 1: the app, I decided to try a new one. I
5:06
Speaker 1: haven't gone back to Duolingo yet because my last few
5:11
Speaker 1: encounters with Duolingo since they updated with AI have been
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Speaker 1: so disappointing. It's just so much more difficult to learn
5:20
Speaker 1: using dual Lingo than it used to be before they
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Speaker 1: started integrating AI. So I tried. So when I'm learning
5:28
Speaker 1: a language, when I go to a new country, now,
5:30
Speaker 1: I'm just looking for apps that are specific for that
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Speaker 1: one language. And I found something called fun Easy Indonesian,
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Speaker 1: and I'll try that today. I will try that today.
5:47
Speaker 1: Oh but the beach okay, so the beach the monk seal.
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Speaker 1: So I swam out and I went pretty far, not
5:56
Speaker 1: not crazy this last time. And uh, fifty feet maybe, yeah,
6:03
Speaker 1: let's say seventy feet maybe. I don't even think of
6:05
Speaker 1: seventy feet. I think fifty feet is like a pretty yeah.
6:09
Speaker 1: I was only about fifty feet. I was pretty close
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Speaker 1: to shore, but I was starting to go out. I
6:13
Speaker 1: was going to go out farther and see if I
6:14
Speaker 1: could see any new fish or sea life at all.
6:17
Speaker 1: Still can't find an octopus. Don't know how I'm going
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Speaker 1: to do that. I just don't think my eyes are
6:23
Speaker 1: they recognize that shape. And everything down there is kind
6:27
Speaker 1: of tinged with blue, and there's floaty things, and everything
6:29
Speaker 1: is asymmetrical anyway, so it's pretty hard to see an
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Speaker 1: eight legged octopus down there, I think, is why I
6:37
Speaker 1: haven't seen any so far. And someone suggested that I
6:41
Speaker 1: look at pictures of octopi in like on the seafloor,
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Speaker 1: and then maybe my eyes can get used to it.
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Speaker 1: And that is a very good idea. So I'm going
6:51
Speaker 1: to try that out. That was just suggested to me yesterday,
6:54
Speaker 1: and I thought that was a great idea. So learn Indonesian,
6:58
Speaker 1: learn how to see an octopus. But anyway, I was
7:01
Speaker 1: going out looking for octopi or anything new, and then
7:05
Speaker 1: I looked to my left and I thought I saw something,
7:07
Speaker 1: but I wasn't sure. And when I kept looking, I
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Speaker 1: didn't see anything. So I just kept swimming. And then
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Speaker 1: I poked up my head and I was like, oh,
7:17
Speaker 1: what's that. Is that a turtle because there's a rounded
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Speaker 1: back above the surface, And nope, that was a big
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Speaker 1: old monk seal, bigger than me for sure, probably probably
7:30
Speaker 1: seven feet maybe eight feet. I don't know how big
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Speaker 1: they are. It's difficult to kind of tell in the water.
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Speaker 1: I did see one on shore though, and yeah, between
7:42
Speaker 1: seven and eight feet seems pretty close. It was pretty
7:46
Speaker 1: wild to see in the ocean, though, because I am
7:51
Speaker 1: slow in the ocean. I always remember Deep Blue Sea,
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Speaker 1: the movie with the sharks and Samuel Jackson Thomas Jane
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Speaker 1: where they're talking about how fast shark swim and how
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Speaker 1: fast human swim. It's like eight feet per second versus
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Speaker 1: eight meters per second, so they're just going way fast
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Speaker 1: or just like two feet per Humans are very slow
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Speaker 1: at swimming compared to aquatic animals, obviously, And so as
8:18
Speaker 1: soon as I saw this seal who is maybe maybe
8:23
Speaker 1: like forty feet away from me, not super close, but
8:26
Speaker 1: certainly not very far, and he can cover that distance
8:29
Speaker 1: in a couple seconds if he chooses, and they have
8:33
Speaker 1: big teeth. Seals got big sharp dog mouthed teeth. Their
8:39
Speaker 1: mouth just looks like a big dog. And so I
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Speaker 1: didn't even say hello or try and snap a picture.
8:47
Speaker 1: I just sort of went back and I just slowly,
8:52
Speaker 1: uh well, as quickly as I could, because you do
8:55
Speaker 1: feel graceful in the ocean. But I squid swam my
9:02
Speaker 1: way back to shore, and I watched the seal establish
9:05
Speaker 1: his territory. He went back and forth parallel to the shoreline,
9:10
Speaker 1: but like maybe sixty feet out or something, and looked
9:14
Speaker 1: he was probably hunting. He just went back and forth
9:16
Speaker 1: and scooped up a bunch of fish into his big
9:18
Speaker 1: old belly. And this one didn't come up on beach,
9:21
Speaker 1: but I did see one on the beach the other time.
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Speaker 1: And you can't get within one hundred and fifty feet
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Speaker 1: amok seals, so I didn't go very close, but it
9:29
Speaker 1: was It's just crazy to see these very large animals
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Speaker 1: in real life. It's bizarre because they, I mean, they're alive.
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Speaker 1: They're huge, alive organisms. And it's so rare, especially for
9:50
Speaker 1: me growing up in the United States, to see anything
9:52
Speaker 1: other than a dog and a cat and maybe a bird.
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Speaker 1: But the ocean life out here on Awa who is
10:00
Speaker 1: all around. And I didn't really go snorkeling pretty much
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Speaker 1: the whole time I was in Southeast Asia, which was
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Speaker 1: dumb of me, because it's fascinating. So if I get
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Speaker 1: back to Southeastateia, oh, I guess I'll go to Indonesia.
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Speaker 1: I just don't know how long I'll be in the
10:16
Speaker 1: rest of Southeast Asia. But I think I have to
10:19
Speaker 1: get to some beaches and see how the snorkeling is
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Speaker 1: in other countries, because seeing like the very large green
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Speaker 1: sea turtles and then the way larger monk seals, it
10:32
Speaker 1: just really smacks into my core. Hey, you are living
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Speaker 1: in a beautiful, magical world full of magical creatures. It
10:44
Speaker 1: is crazy that monk seals just coexist and that these
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Speaker 1: turtles are perfectly fine gliding along in the world like
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Speaker 1: it like we haven't ruined everything yet there are still
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Speaker 1: some magic animals around. There's the Komodo dragons in Indonesia
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Speaker 1: where I'm going. Yeah, that was pretty crazy. In Thailand
11:07
Speaker 1: when I used to go there, I didn't even notice
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Speaker 1: them the first time I went, I don't think. But
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Speaker 1: the second time I definitely saw monitor lizards maybe three
11:17
Speaker 1: feet long or something, just walking around. They have them
11:21
Speaker 1: in Lupeni Park, so they'll just be in the park
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Speaker 1: walking around or sunning themselves and you walk past them.
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Speaker 1: They're like any other normal part of wildlife. People don't
11:32
Speaker 1: even pay attention. And they're not just in the park
11:35
Speaker 1: or in zoos. They are also in canals or like
11:39
Speaker 1: sewage drains. They just hang out where it's kind of cool,
11:44
Speaker 1: but if you get too close, they're fast. They will zoom,
11:48
Speaker 1: they'll run away as fast as a lizard. And yeah,
11:53
Speaker 1: kimodo dragons kind of run faster than humans apparently, which
11:56
Speaker 1: you wouldn't think so when you think of a komodo dragon,
11:59
Speaker 1: maybe because because they seem like they're lounging in the
12:02
Speaker 1: sun or they're kind of slow moving. But after Thailand,
12:07
Speaker 1: where I saw these these like three foot four foot
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Speaker 1: long monitor lizards just bolt so fast, I completely believe
12:16
Speaker 1: because they look the exact same as the komodo dragons,
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Speaker 1: just half the size. I have no doubt that komodo
12:23
Speaker 1: dragons can also book it faster than I can. With
12:25
Speaker 1: their fore legs and venomous teeth. I know. Scientists went
12:30
Speaker 1: back and forth about this. They used to think komodo
12:32
Speaker 1: dragons had venomous teeth, and then they were like, oh, no,
12:35
Speaker 1: they're not venomous. They just have saliva and regular mouths
12:39
Speaker 1: are dirty enough that you get infected. But now it
12:41
Speaker 1: looks like it's back on the other side that they
12:43
Speaker 1: actually do have venom in their bite. So I will
12:47
Speaker 1: be seeing komodo dragons in a zoo I'm not going
12:49
Speaker 1: to go to the island. Also, they're in the wild
12:54
Speaker 1: anyway across Indonesia, and I'm kind of inland, so well, No,
13:00
Speaker 1: I guess they're aquatic, aren't they. They're sort of amphibious,
13:03
Speaker 1: so maybe they'll be only closer to the beaches. Anyway,
13:06
Speaker 1: I'll be happy not seeing a komodo dragon without a
13:10
Speaker 1: cage between me and them. They seem very dangerous and
13:14
Speaker 1: not worried about human interaction at all, and they're way
13:16
Speaker 1: faster than humans, and they have poison bites, and they're
13:20
Speaker 1: just an a live animal in this world. That is
13:23
Speaker 1: That's what's so wild. That's what's I love traveling because
13:27
Speaker 1: I get somewhere and then I'm really happy that something
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Speaker 1: is in the world. I'm just like, wow, Komodo dragons
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Speaker 1: are real, and here and then here on awahu. Oh,
13:38
Speaker 1: look there's a monk seal. I'm just so happy that's
13:42
Speaker 1: in the world, that that's part of this world. It's
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Speaker 1: amazing to live in a world this diverse and frankly unbelievable.
13:52
Speaker 1: Half the time. When you're when I am next to
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Speaker 1: a eight foot monk seal just chilling on the beach,
14:00
Speaker 1: I'm just looking. I'm just staring at this giant thing
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Speaker 1: that probably wasys three times as much as I do,
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Speaker 1: who hauled itself out of the ocean and it lives
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Speaker 1: in the ocean. It's just so crazy. It's like this
14:14
Speaker 1: astronaut walked right out of the ocean doctor Who's style
14:19
Speaker 1: and waved at me. And that's what it feels like
14:23
Speaker 1: when I see a monk seal on the beach, or
14:26
Speaker 1: especially when they like inch wormed their way out of
14:29
Speaker 1: the ocean up onto the shore to sunbathe. It's it's
14:34
Speaker 1: a whole new world. It's a whole new world. So
14:39
Speaker 1: the monk's seal in the water that I saw most recently, though, yeah,
14:42
Speaker 1: I popped my head up, saw a munk's seal, thought oops,
14:45
Speaker 1: and went back until I got back on shore safely,
14:50
Speaker 1: and then I just watched him and he was there
14:52
Speaker 1: the whole I stayed there for another I don't know, hour,
14:54
Speaker 1: ninety minutes or something, and I kept thinking of going
14:57
Speaker 1: back in, and I did go in. I just didn't
14:59
Speaker 1: go more more than like ten feet in and no
15:04
Speaker 1: coral anything. I was just in the shallow part of
15:08
Speaker 1: the very beginning of the shoreline because because they swim
15:13
Speaker 1: so fast. They are territorial all like all wild animals,
15:17
Speaker 1: monk seals are also territorial, and I don't know what
15:20
Speaker 1: he'll see as aggression. So I did think, like, oh,
15:23
Speaker 1: you know what, I'll just try and see underwater and
15:26
Speaker 1: if it's clear enough, I'll take a picture of him
15:28
Speaker 1: from one hundred feet or something and then get back,
15:30
Speaker 1: because it would be cool to get a picture of
15:31
Speaker 1: them underwater. And then I dunked my head underwater and
15:36
Speaker 1: the water was so turbid and particulate that I couldn't
15:41
Speaker 1: see more than fifty feet in front of me, and
15:43
Speaker 1: I started going forward to where the seal was, and
15:46
Speaker 1: then I was just like, that is so dumb. Don't
15:51
Speaker 1: do that. They have very clear guidelines of how close
15:55
Speaker 1: is safe for a human from a monk seal. It's
15:58
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty feet, and here I am, I
16:00
Speaker 1: can only see fifty feet. My camera can probably only
16:02
Speaker 1: see twenty feet under the water or whatever, and I'm
16:05
Speaker 1: sneaking forward as if I'm gonna get a candid shot
16:09
Speaker 1: of the animal that lives there without it noticing me
16:14
Speaker 1: and without pissing it off. So after going forward like
16:17
Speaker 1: twenty feet in I was like, no, this is so dumb,
16:20
Speaker 1: And I just went back and hung out in the shallows.
16:23
Speaker 1: And that's great too, because the ocean is very comfortable
16:27
Speaker 1: to just be into, just stand in on the sand.
16:30
Speaker 1: The cool water around the Hawaii sun is so hot
16:34
Speaker 1: that even the waters not too chilly, even the ocean
16:38
Speaker 1: waters not too cold because the sun is getting heated
16:42
Speaker 1: or the sand underneath the water and the shallow areas
16:45
Speaker 1: especially is heating up, and that's giving heat back to
16:48
Speaker 1: the water. So it's a great time even if I
16:51
Speaker 1: can't go out snorkeling, and I can't go out snorkeling
16:54
Speaker 1: because I'm seeing what sailors probably thought we're a mythological
17:01
Speaker 1: monster back in the day. Like I'm seeing this crazy
17:04
Speaker 1: creature with big puffy cheeks and whiskers and big black
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Speaker 1: eyes that's larger and heavier than I am, gracefully just
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Speaker 1: swim around, bob around in the ocean, snatching up fish
17:20
Speaker 1: at his leisure, and he's just there with me. We're
17:23
Speaker 1: both hanging out on the beach that day, which yeah,
17:27
Speaker 1: is never gonna not tickle my fancy, is never gonna
17:31
Speaker 1: not be interesting that I get to share this world
17:35
Speaker 1: with the monk seals and the monitor lizards and the
17:38
Speaker 1: komodo dragons and the polar bears. Haven't seen a polar
17:42
Speaker 1: bear yet outside of a zoo, not another that is
17:45
Speaker 1: another animal I'm not looking to see outside of a zoo.
17:49
Speaker 1: I don't need to do that. Those guys, those guys
17:54
Speaker 1: just eat everything, and I am part of everything. But
17:58
Speaker 1: this was the first time I was swimming in the
18:00
Speaker 1: ocean when I noticed a monk seal. Finally, I've seen
18:04
Speaker 1: them lying out sunbathing on the beach, but I never
18:06
Speaker 1: saw them really in motion, and especially when I was
18:09
Speaker 1: there in the ocean with them, and I was like thanks,
18:11
Speaker 1: and I just paddled my way back to shore real safely.
18:15
Speaker 1: Like I made some good pizza, kept it simple, minced
18:19
Speaker 1: up some vegetables, put them on top of a cheese
18:22
Speaker 1: pizza that they were selling at the supermarket, and then, uh,
18:26
Speaker 1: I didn't bake the mushrooms first, which I should have,
18:29
Speaker 1: because they have so much water that it kind of
18:33
Speaker 1: made the pizza soggier than I like it, because I
18:36
Speaker 1: like a crispy, thin crust and baked toppings. So next
18:40
Speaker 1: time I do that, which I don't know when that'll be.
18:43
Speaker 1: I will cook the mushrooms first to get most of
18:46
Speaker 1: it out, and then put them on and then bake
18:47
Speaker 1: the pizza because mushrooms just have too much moisture in them.
18:51
Speaker 1: I have been seeing a lot more sea slugs corollary
18:54
Speaker 1: to my search for octopi. I have been seeing a
18:57
Speaker 1: lot of sea slugs recently, and I didn't really notice
19:02
Speaker 1: them before. Like the first few times I've gone swimming
19:06
Speaker 1: around with my goggles on, I didn't notice any se cucumbers,
19:10
Speaker 1: and then I noticed my first one, and now I
19:13
Speaker 1: see them fairly frequently, Like now every time I go out,
19:16
Speaker 1: I'll see another sea cucumber. So my eyes have kind
19:19
Speaker 1: of gotten used to that weird blobby shape that they are.
19:23
Speaker 1: So maybe after I see my first octopus or like
19:29
Speaker 1: that person suggested, I can look at pictures of octopi
19:34
Speaker 1: on the seafloor now and then maybe that'll start to
19:37
Speaker 1: train my eyes. But I only have a few days
19:39
Speaker 1: left here, so I'll have to take that training over
19:41
Speaker 1: to Indonesia and perhaps the Philippines for my friend's wedding
19:50
Speaker 1: coming up. But I really want to go to Mongolia, man,
19:53
Speaker 1: I just don't know. I gotta think about this because
19:55
Speaker 1: there's a lot of places I want to go when
19:57
Speaker 1: I'm back in Asia, and I don't have that long
19:59
Speaker 1: because I have to come back for a summer wedding
20:01
Speaker 1: in the US. Again. I just got to figure it out.
20:07
Speaker 1: Did I say? I did get a wireless microphone that
20:10
Speaker 1: was pretty cool Walmart. I'm sorry I shopped there when
20:14
Speaker 1: I'm in the States, very rarely, not an excuse. That's
20:19
Speaker 1: where I got the underwater camera. And then they also
20:22
Speaker 1: had a USB C wireless microphone like a Lavalier microphone.
20:27
Speaker 1: And I've always wanted to do interviews with the locals,
20:31
Speaker 1: but it's kind of difficult to do that, like because
20:35
Speaker 1: I have a stationary microphone I plug into my computer.
20:39
Speaker 1: But now I have this twenty dollars Walmart mic that
20:44
Speaker 1: worked pretty good when I've tested it out the last time.
20:48
Speaker 1: So I'm going to have to if I find someone
20:51
Speaker 1: over in Yoga Karta in Indonesia, I will be asking
20:55
Speaker 1: them about their country, because I've been wanting to do
20:57
Speaker 1: that in every country, all in Central South America. But
21:00
Speaker 1: I couldn't find a good Lavalier mic locally, and I
21:03
Speaker 1: wasn't ordering anything online. Really, I guess I could have
21:06
Speaker 1: been less lazy about that, but online shopping is not
21:10
Speaker 1: big in Central and South America. The way that people
21:15
Speaker 1: see the world, just being from a different country is
21:19
Speaker 1: so interesting and so evident. When I talk to people
21:23
Speaker 1: from around the world, they just the answers they give
21:26
Speaker 1: me for something that would be very normal in the
21:29
Speaker 1: US where I'm from, Like as we share that cultural
21:33
Speaker 1: pool of context, it's just absent from wherever I go,
21:37
Speaker 1: obviously because it's a different country. So I'm constantly surprised
21:41
Speaker 1: when I talk to new people and they tell me things.
21:44
Speaker 1: It just feels like I'm always learning something. And I
21:47
Speaker 1: think it would be interesting if listeners to the podcast
21:50
Speaker 1: could hear that contrast between me talking and some locals talking,
21:57
Speaker 1: maybe someone from Indonesia. If that happens, they'll probably be
22:01
Speaker 1: a main episode or ramble on episode. I have to
22:04
Speaker 1: consider that. Also, I gotta get out of the US.
22:07
Speaker 1: It's making my mind slow down, So maybe when I'm
22:09
Speaker 1: in Indonesia my brain will wake up again and I
22:11
Speaker 1: can figure all this stuff out. Baby Turtle. I mentioned
22:15
Speaker 1: the baby turtle I saw last time. Right, He's real
22:17
Speaker 1: zippy and going all around. Oh, that was really interesting.
22:20
Speaker 1: When I saw the seal in the water. I was like, well,
22:22
Speaker 1: the turtles probably aren't gonna want to be there, but
22:24
Speaker 1: they had no problem. They just floated swam right along
22:28
Speaker 1: with and around the seal. So I'm thinking maybe the
22:31
Speaker 1: seal doesn't want to bite them because it's kind of
22:33
Speaker 1: a pain in the butt to bite through a turtle shell,
22:35
Speaker 1: especially when there's so many fish available that he can
22:38
Speaker 1: just snatch up. Yeah. Originally, I was pretty surprised that
22:42
Speaker 1: the turtles felt so safe around the monk's seal, But
22:45
Speaker 1: I guess they are not Monk's seal prey because there
22:48
Speaker 1: was a bunch of them just floating around, not even
22:51
Speaker 1: not hanging out near the monk seal, just incidentally nearby.
22:56
Speaker 1: They were going about their business, and neither the monk's
22:59
Speaker 1: seal nor the turtle really paid much attention to the
23:01
Speaker 1: other one while they floated around. Because I think all
23:03
Speaker 1: the turtles were feeding also snapping up whatever they eat
23:09
Speaker 1: in the ocean near the surface. It looks like they
23:11
Speaker 1: mostly eat stuff near the surface. I don't know what
23:14
Speaker 1: turtles eat. That's I'm gonna what do green sea turtles eat.
23:18
Speaker 1: Let me check algae, sea grasses, so mostly sea grass, seaweeds,
23:23
Speaker 1: different types of little plants growing on the coral. They
23:26
Speaker 1: scrape it off with their jaws apparently, which now I
23:31
Speaker 1: do they just like floating around because I see a
23:33
Speaker 1: lot of them swimming around and they have to oh
23:37
Speaker 1: maybe because they have to go up for air. Maybe
23:39
Speaker 1: that's why they're on the surface so they can just
23:41
Speaker 1: chill out and breathe easily, because when they go down
23:45
Speaker 1: they have to eat for a while. But uh, yeah,
23:49
Speaker 1: I thought there were maybe some kind of filter feed
23:51
Speaker 1: or grazers. Even though they don't have you know, baileen
23:54
Speaker 1: in their mouth or anything. It just seemed they always
23:57
Speaker 1: seem to be poking their head around while near the surface,
24:00
Speaker 1: so I figured they were eating something. But looks like
24:03
Speaker 1: maybe they weren't and they're just floating around. Because the
24:06
Speaker 1: Internet says that they mostly eat seaweeds, different types of
24:11
Speaker 1: seaweed or sea grass, I should say, because it grows
24:15
Speaker 1: from the seabed. Seaweed can be like floating and all
24:19
Speaker 1: on its own. Says the babies eat jellyfish, but once
24:23
Speaker 1: they become adults they just eat mostly seagrass and algae.
24:27
Speaker 1: Off seagrass isn't available. That's interesting, man, Maybe I should
24:31
Speaker 1: pay more attention to the ones under the coral shelves.
24:33
Speaker 1: Maybe they're not hiding from the rough waves. Maybe they're
24:36
Speaker 1: munching on sea grass. That'd be pretty cool to see
24:40
Speaker 1: and pretty impossible to photograph, but pretty cool to see.
24:43
Speaker 1: I met a beach bum I think from Tennessee, and
24:48
Speaker 1: I named him Tennessee Williams in my head, even though
24:50
Speaker 1: that's not his name, because I don't have much of
24:55
Speaker 1: an imagination and Tennessee Williams is such a good name.
24:59
Speaker 1: So we talked. He was kind of a hippie, and
25:05
Speaker 1: he said he was farming. That's what he was doing
25:07
Speaker 1: down in Oahu. But I went. Every time I've been
25:13
Speaker 1: to the beach, his car has been there, and he's
25:16
Speaker 1: usually just right on the beach, hanging out watching the ocean.
25:20
Speaker 1: All the best to Tennessee Williams. I hope he is
25:25
Speaker 1: enjoying his life on the beach and that it goes
25:28
Speaker 1: on as long as he would like it to. Actually,
25:30
Speaker 1: he wasn't there this last time. It's the first time
25:32
Speaker 1: I haven't seen him at Loni Kaiso. Maybe he has
25:36
Speaker 1: moved on finally. That's all that's been going on. I've
25:40
Speaker 1: been avoiding the sun when it's murderous, having fun at
25:45
Speaker 1: the beach when the sun is less murderous, and preparing
25:50
Speaker 1: for getting off to Indonesia. Oh, actually, you know what.
25:55
Speaker 1: Speaking in preparation, I finally had another curf with Airbnb,
26:01
Speaker 1: not with Airbnb, with my host. They confirmed it. And
26:05
Speaker 1: then after confirming my Airbnb, they said, by the way,
26:10
Speaker 1: you're also going to be charged extra for utilities when
26:13
Speaker 1: you get here, and that's not how it works. You
26:16
Speaker 1: look at the agreement. If it says in the description
26:21
Speaker 1: you have to pay for electricity, extra, whatever, then yeah,
26:26
Speaker 1: you can work it out with the host. But I
26:28
Speaker 1: wouldn't choose a place. I don't like to think about
26:30
Speaker 1: that at all. I just want to pay one thing
26:32
Speaker 1: upfront and then not think about it until I check out,
26:35
Speaker 1: And especially when I'm there for a month, I don't
26:37
Speaker 1: want to go refill the electricity every week and walk
26:41
Speaker 1: down wait in line to pay. I've had to do
26:43
Speaker 1: that before and it's not it's just not worth it.
26:47
Speaker 1: It's now worth the trouble when there's so many other
26:49
Speaker 1: nice places that I could live that I just don't
26:51
Speaker 1: have to think about that, and I don't have to
26:53
Speaker 1: think about the Wi Fi going out if I need
26:55
Speaker 1: or the AC. What if it's a super hot Dane
26:57
Speaker 1: and then the electricity randomly runs out? So but the
27:00
Speaker 1: host was insistent that even though it wasn't in the
27:04
Speaker 1: listing or in the house rules, I still had to
27:07
Speaker 1: pay for the utilities. And I was like, nope, and
27:12
Speaker 1: he asked me to cancel, but it's non reservation, non
27:16
Speaker 1: refundable reservation, so I can't do that because then I
27:18
Speaker 1: would just lose all the money I paid. And I
27:21
Speaker 1: told him he could cancel, and he refused to cancel.
27:24
Speaker 1: So I had to contact Airbnb for the third time
27:26
Speaker 1: in like a decade. Pretty rare anything pops up, And
27:30
Speaker 1: now the last one happened just about one year ago,
27:32
Speaker 1: and then this one's happening. Still not that bad. But
27:35
Speaker 1: the great thing about Airbnb, every time I have to
27:38
Speaker 1: call them up or contact them for anything, I get
27:40
Speaker 1: a human within a minute. They can for my identity
27:44
Speaker 1: and then they solve the problem. And that pretty much
27:46
Speaker 1: happened this time, except this host was really insistent on
27:51
Speaker 1: the guest paying for utilities. But because he didn't, that's
27:54
Speaker 1: not part of the rental agreement that we both agreed to.
27:57
Speaker 1: I booked. He confirmed, Yeah, there was nothing he could do.
28:01
Speaker 1: He didn't have a leg to stand on. So Airbnb
28:03
Speaker 1: the first day explained to him that that if you
28:07
Speaker 1: want guests to pay for their own utilities, you have
28:09
Speaker 1: to mention that in the listing beforehand, this listing and
28:13
Speaker 1: this reservation with me, you can either cancel that reservation
28:18
Speaker 1: or you have to provide the electricity as is stated
28:22
Speaker 1: in the rental agreement that we have. And he told
28:25
Speaker 1: Airbnb yes, and then I asked him to confirm and
28:28
Speaker 1: Airbnb was like, we solved it. He's going to pay
28:31
Speaker 1: for electricity and water your entire stay. And so I
28:36
Speaker 1: just checked with the host, Hey is that correct? And
28:39
Speaker 1: then he didn't answer me for a day as I
28:41
Speaker 1: sent him a few messages. So I just called Airbnb back,
28:44
Speaker 1: which that's the first time I've had to do that.
28:46
Speaker 1: They usually yeah, it's usually resolved the first time. But
28:49
Speaker 1: I've only done this a few times. So and this
28:52
Speaker 1: is happening as it happens with all the issues that
28:56
Speaker 1: I've ever had with Airbnb first time hosts. The first
28:59
Speaker 1: time host they usually want reviews, like good reviews, so
29:04
Speaker 1: they rent their places super cheap. So on top of
29:07
Speaker 1: the monthly discount, there's another discount. So this house that
29:11
Speaker 1: I'm renting went down from eleven hundred dollars to about
29:15
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars. And I was like, yeah, I'll get that.
29:19
Speaker 1: Why not. That's about how much I pay for a
29:21
Speaker 1: house usually anyway. And yeah, it's a new place. I
29:26
Speaker 1: don't mind new place. I've stayed with tons of new
29:28
Speaker 1: hosts on Airbnb and it's always been fine. It's always
29:32
Speaker 1: been a good experience, and I get the further increased discount.
29:37
Speaker 1: They usually just discount the monthly rate. It's super high.
29:40
Speaker 1: So I figured i'd book it. And then this first time, Yeah,
29:43
Speaker 1: the host was like, okay, I'll pay for electricity to Airbnb.
29:47
Speaker 1: But then when I asked him, he said, yeah, we'll
29:50
Speaker 1: give you electricity, but if it runs out, you'll have
29:52
Speaker 1: to refill it. He just said the same thing, and
29:55
Speaker 1: I was like, Nope, that's not the booking agreement we
29:58
Speaker 1: have in black and white. You agree to provide these
30:01
Speaker 1: utilities that run on electricity and water, then they have
30:05
Speaker 1: to be running for the duration of my stay basically,
30:09
Speaker 1: and he said, definitely, they'll totally run and you just
30:11
Speaker 1: buy the utilities. Like no, So I contacted Airbnb again,
30:16
Speaker 1: and this time they went back and apparently made it
30:19
Speaker 1: very very clear that for the duration of the stay
30:23
Speaker 1: he has to provide the services he has to provide
30:27
Speaker 1: what was in the booking agreement. And they said that
30:31
Speaker 1: he now understood that, and I talked to him and
30:34
Speaker 1: he said he didn't that I would still be paying
30:36
Speaker 1: for utilities. And I talked to him a few more
30:38
Speaker 1: messages and he finally said, fine, if you run out
30:41
Speaker 1: of electricity, we will buy the electricity. So it'll be
30:45
Speaker 1: interesting because I've never dealt with a hostile host and
30:47
Speaker 1: this guy. I mean, this is not a crazy amount
30:53
Speaker 1: of money. It's probably going to be maybe thirty dollars
30:56
Speaker 1: for the month. But I paid an all inclusive fee,
31:01
Speaker 1: which is how Airbnb works, and we me and this
31:04
Speaker 1: host have an agreement, so I'm not gonna just pay
31:07
Speaker 1: for utilities that weren't in the original booking agreement. If
31:11
Speaker 1: it was a refundable reservation, also, I would have canceled
31:15
Speaker 1: because I just don't like dealing with any kind of trouble.
31:18
Speaker 1: I want to buy the house and then not talk
31:20
Speaker 1: to the host until I leave, when I say bye,
31:23
Speaker 1: thank you. But because this was non refundable, the host
31:26
Speaker 1: would have had to cancel, and he did not want to.
31:30
Speaker 1: He wanted to keep this booking really bad. But I
31:32
Speaker 1: don't know how this is going to work now because
31:34
Speaker 1: he was so difficult for four five days something while
31:40
Speaker 1: this booking was going on. I can't review him great.
31:44
Speaker 1: I can't give him like five stars as the host,
31:47
Speaker 1: but maybe the house is really nice and either I
31:51
Speaker 1: like this. It's kind of a fun adventure for me,
31:53
Speaker 1: and I know that I did the right thing. Airbnb
31:55
Speaker 1: Support is also very clear, like, yes, this is the
32:00
Speaker 1: booking agreement you both agreed to, so for the duration
32:03
Speaker 1: of your stay, you receive these things. That's how it works.
32:06
Speaker 1: So they told me, yes, you're correct, you booked it correctly,
32:10
Speaker 1: like there was no mistake made on your part. So
32:12
Speaker 1: since I'm secure that I that I haven't violated any
32:16
Speaker 1: Airbnb policies and I can rely on Airbnb Support to
32:19
Speaker 1: help me out, it's not really a bother because it's
32:23
Speaker 1: mostly them dealing with the host. I just have to
32:25
Speaker 1: tell them, hey, the host is demanding I pay extra
32:29
Speaker 1: fees after I arrive that we haven't agreed on, and
32:33
Speaker 1: then Airbnb goes and mostly deals with it. So I
32:37
Speaker 1: was kind of surprised that I had to talk to
32:38
Speaker 1: the host again a couple times, but he said explicitly, yes,
32:43
Speaker 1: we will buy electricity if you run out now, so
32:46
Speaker 1: they'll replace it themselves. But I'm kind of curious if
32:50
Speaker 1: I get there and I need more electricity, if they'll
32:52
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, sure, and who knows how long it'll
32:55
Speaker 1: take to recharge the electricity. But if I mean, that's
33:00
Speaker 1: the thing the Airbnb. It's really interesting for guests and
33:04
Speaker 1: hosts because it really is just an agreement between the
33:07
Speaker 1: two groups. It's not really it's not directly managed by Airbnb.
33:13
Speaker 1: They're sort of mediators between and they provide rental agreements
33:19
Speaker 1: that the two parties, hosts and guests can agree to,
33:23
Speaker 1: so rather than Airbnb being this overarching thing, they just
33:29
Speaker 1: provide the space in which hosts and guests can interact
33:33
Speaker 1: and sign rental short term rental agreements. It's a very
33:37
Speaker 1: interesting setup. It was a good model, and because the
33:40
Speaker 1: company is so much smaller and don't interfere that much,
33:45
Speaker 1: I feel like that's part of the reason why I
33:47
Speaker 1: can reach Airbnb support so easily, and they are so
33:51
Speaker 1: effective at taking care of any Airbnb problem. They just
33:54
Speaker 1: address it directly, because that's where their resources go to
33:58
Speaker 1: making sure the community areas is simple and effective. You
34:05
Speaker 1: put up a house, the guests can choose the house,
34:08
Speaker 1: they rent it, you both agree pay, and it's done
34:13
Speaker 1: for the duration of your stay. Well, of course you
34:15
Speaker 1: can't always extend the duration, but Indonesia is only thirty
34:19
Speaker 1: days for the visa on arrival, and because I want
34:24
Speaker 1: to get up to the rest of East Asia, I
34:27
Speaker 1: think I'm only going to stay for the one month
34:29
Speaker 1: in Indonesia. I haven't been in a Muslim country in
34:32
Speaker 1: a while, and I liked being in Malaysia and Morocco
34:36
Speaker 1: and hearing the chance, the Muslim chance in the morning
34:41
Speaker 1: go off. So that'll be interesting because I'm pretty sure
34:45
Speaker 1: I haven't checked anything. I'm pretty sure Indonesia is very
34:48
Speaker 1: heavily Muslim as well, so they'll probably have the morning
34:51
Speaker 1: and evening prayer bells like all the other Muslim countries.
34:55
Speaker 1: But next time next to ramble On, you will know,
34:59
Speaker 1: because cause I will be in Indonesia figuring things out.
35:04
Speaker 1: I hear the food is very very good. I don't
35:07
Speaker 1: know anything I got. I got to read up something
35:09
Speaker 1: about Indonesia. It's just dawning on me. I do this
35:12
Speaker 1: every time, though I don't usually learn about a country
35:15
Speaker 1: until I land there. I didn't learn anything about Guatemala.
35:18
Speaker 1: I was surprised they have volcanoes, they have a ton.
35:21
Speaker 1: Didn't learn anything about Columbia. Turns out median A super
35:23
Speaker 1: safe and A has an amazing digital nomad visa nine
35:28
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a month proof of income and you can
35:30
Speaker 1: get an indefinite digital nomad visa in Colombia. Like that's
35:36
Speaker 1: by far the lowest digital nomad visa I know of,
35:41
Speaker 1: especially in such a desirable country like that is an
35:45
Speaker 1: easy place to live with good food, nice people, and
35:49
Speaker 1: nine hundred bucks a month. Any any native English speaker
35:52
Speaker 1: can prove that immediately by teaching English. It would be
35:57
Speaker 1: so easy to prove that that in just by teaching
36:01
Speaker 1: part time on your laptop, like for a couple months.
36:05
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but I didn't know about that before I
36:07
Speaker 1: went to Colombia. I knew about the Panama Canal, but
36:11
Speaker 1: I didn't realize Panama was such a metropolis really, or
36:15
Speaker 1: I didn't know that Panama was as big as it was.
36:18
Speaker 1: And I did not know that everything is basically in
36:20
Speaker 1: Panama City and the rest of it is very small
36:23
Speaker 1: towns and cities and jungle, and I should have lived
36:26
Speaker 1: in one of those. I was in Panama for a lot.
36:29
Speaker 1: I was in Panama for like three months and I
36:31
Speaker 1: only lived in the city. And I don't even really
36:33
Speaker 1: like living in cities. What was I thinking? So I
36:36
Speaker 1: don't know much about Indonesia yet, But once I get there,
36:40
Speaker 1: I'll read a little bit about On the way, I'll
36:42
Speaker 1: sudy some words, and then once I get there, depending
36:44
Speaker 1: on how I feel about it, I will read a
36:45
Speaker 1: whole bunch of it. That's I have to be in
36:48
Speaker 1: a place before I really have an investment in it.
36:52
Speaker 1: I don't believe i'm there until i'm actually there, so
36:57
Speaker 1: it's difficult for me to prepare much beforehand. I'll just
37:01
Speaker 1: do the really basic hello, goodbye, thank you, please, I'm
37:05
Speaker 1: sorry words. I'll study those before I go. But everything
37:10
Speaker 1: else once you land, there's nothing to worry about. Every
37:12
Speaker 1: single country has supermarkets, hospitals, transportation like everything's there, ride shares.
37:19
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry that they're not going to
37:22
Speaker 1: have sofas in Armenia or something like every country has everything,
37:27
Speaker 1: or every country I've been to has had everything. I need,
37:30
Speaker 1: so there's very little that I worry about before getting
37:33
Speaker 1: to a new country. I book a new place a
37:35
Speaker 1: week before I go, ish like I did this time,
37:39
Speaker 1: and then it's just waiting for me. And so far
37:41
Speaker 1: that has worked every time for a decade, so we'll
37:44
Speaker 1: see how it goes this time. I'm optimistic and I've
37:48
Speaker 1: had a very fun travel life so far, so pretty
37:53
Speaker 1: happy to keep going on a new adventure. I hope
37:57
Speaker 1: you go on an adventure too, if you want to.
38:00
Speaker 1: I hope you're having a great day. You can talk
38:02
Speaker 1: to me a bit of a rambler at gmail dot com,
38:05
Speaker 1: bit of a rambler all one word, or a bit
38:08
Speaker 1: of a rambler on lemmy, where I am always posting.
38:12
Speaker 1: There's green Sea turtle pictures. The pictures a bunch of
38:14
Speaker 1: the stuff I talked about. And then in other countries
38:18
Speaker 1: like Indonesia, there's a lot of cool street art. I
38:21
Speaker 1: bet oh, Actually, maybe Indonesia is like Malaysia, there's no
38:24
Speaker 1: street art. I don't know. I'll find out, but I'll
38:26
Speaker 1: be posting a bunch of pics of Indonesia coming up
38:28
Speaker 1: very soon, in just a few days. So I hope
38:32
Speaker 1: your day is going great. My day's going pretty good.
38:36
Speaker 1: It's just hot, so I have a great rest of
38:40
Speaker 1: your day. Talk to me if you want to go
38:42
Speaker 1: on the travel community on Lemmy, Crazy People Dot Online
38:47
Speaker 1: slash See slash Travel. All the best to you and yours.
38:55
Speaker 1: Get out here, get on out, get on out like
38:59
Speaker 1: a travel machine. Y