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091 What Is The Best Country · 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.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And this one isn't a story, but it is an
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: answer to literally the most common question. I get what's
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the best country? And I don't get asked my favorite country.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I get asked which is the best country? And I
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: get asked that by people who have not traveled. Nobody
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: who has traveled has ever asked that question. It's kind
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: of the same thing. If you can imagine someone who's
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: never read a book before and they find out about
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: books like as a thing, and then they ask you, well,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: which one is the best book. It seems like a
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: logical question on its face, because you want the best book.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But if you're familiar with books, there's all these considerations.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: How long do you like to read, what genre is
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the most exciting or satisfying for you to read? Are
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you interested in the internal or external lives of the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: characters or do you not want characters in the story?
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Do you like poetry? And you know fifty other million
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: considerations In the same way, I couldn't tell someone what
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the best book is. I can't tell anyone what the
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: best country is, but I do like this question, and
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that's why it is one of the first things I
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: thought about answering, just because every single time I speak
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to someone who hasn't traveled before, that's the first question
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I get. And the best way to answer that question
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: is to narrow the criteria. What do you mean by best?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And so for the third episode, I answered the best
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: backpacking country because that for me solid easy answer. Japan.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: There are public baths, it's super clean, healthy food is
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: cheap and ubiquitous. Public camping is legal and socially acceptable there.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So if someone asked me what the best bath packing
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: country is, ten times out of ten, I will immediately
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: respond with Japan. Japan's the best, and then I'll repeat
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the story of my podcast to them in a real
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: life spiel for five minutes, trying to really get the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: bullet points. But being asked what is the best country
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: always throws me a little bit, Like someone finds out
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I'm an artist and they ask, oh, cool, what is
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the best color, and it's like, well, what do you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: want to use the colors for? They're all the best? Well,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I want to realistically paint a ocean on a clear
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: sunny day. Oh okay, then blue is going to be a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: pretty safe bet. But I have been asked that question
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: ever since I started traveling, and I still get asked
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that question today by Airbnb hosts, random people I meet
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: on the streets, restaurant owners. Everybody wants to know what
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: is the best color to paint with? What is the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: best country? And I thought it would be courteous to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: attempt to explain why there's no single answer, and why
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: especially if you want that answer so you know which
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: country to go to first. Every country is the best country,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and that's not a cop out or something cryptic. Every
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: country is the best country because every country is infinitely mutable,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: as in changeable and interconnected and filled with possibilities. There
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: are taco restaurants in Korea, bachi ball tournaments in Chile,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: arcade pinball museums in Slovenia. If a person who likes
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the climate of Slovenia, who happens to be a pinball
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: fanatic Moosta Slovenia, There's going to be more pinball opportunity
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: esan there, and Slovenia might become the pinball capital of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the world. They actually made that their national motto in
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. I'm just kidding, that's not true, but that
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: would be like pretty funny. Every single person's interests are
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: so diverse and specific that it's impossible to say there's
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: one best country. It's just what's the best mountain. It's
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: obviously an impossible question to answer. There are no qualifying criteria,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and the answer wouldn't matter anyway. Once you get to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: a country, you're gonna find something you love. So if
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you feel drawn to a country at all, go to
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that country. There's going to be tons of stuff you
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: didn't expect to find, and there are going to be
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: tons of things that you did expect to find there. Also,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: if you happen to find someone that you really connect
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: with and start a romantic relationship or a lifelong friendship
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: with or anything like that, and you can't imagine your
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: life without that relationship, then that was the best country.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Or if you just need a break and you move
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to a country and don't do anything for a while,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: just watch TV in your apartment for a few months
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and you feel better afterwards, that's the best country. And
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I sincerely mean that that every country is the best country.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've lived in a place where I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was like, oh, I could never live here the rest
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: of my life. Nope, Like there's always something. There was
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the olive bar in Morocco. I think that was the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: first thing where I was like, whoa, I can just
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: eat olives all day and Brian selected olives and they're
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: constantly refreshed in this olive market. I wouldn't mind living here.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Fifty percent sushi in every Japanese supermarket after two pm?
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Would am mind living here? Which book is the best?
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: There's how many events, foods, political rallies, inventions, or in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: just a single book, And then how many people have
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: been inspired by a single sentence from a million different books?
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Or I like to think of how many people have
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: been inspired by the same sentence, and how every person
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: read something different from the same set of fourteen words.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: People can read the exact same sentence and get completely
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: different meanings from it, or be inspired in entirely different ways.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: They can literally read the same sentence and come away
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: with two different, completely different interpretations. One hundred people can
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: come away with one hundred different interpretations, and so on.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: So when you think about the infinite complexity of a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: single sentence of a single book, a book which is
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: usually a static object whose contents don't even change. Just
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that one sentence in any book changes the lives of
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: an uncountable number of people in an uncountable number of ways. Countries,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, are ever dynamic, constantly changing and evolving,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: with cultures infinitely more complex than any book. I don't
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: even mind that question. I like that question because as
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: soon as somebody asks me it, I know a conversation
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: is going to start, because just by asking that question,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: they're indicating that they're interested in the world outside of
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: what they know. Asking well, which country is the best
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: is a question of is there something out there I'm
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: unaware of? But asking me what the best country is
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: is like asking me what kind of person you are.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I have to get to know you first, we have
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to have a conversation, and I think half the time
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: that's what people are looking for anyway. They're just trying
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to expand their knowledge of the world vicariously, and by
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: asking any traveler the most basic of questions that pops
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: into mind, well which place is the best, they can
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: start that conversation and they can hear about things they
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: may not have considered, and just hearing about something that
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: happened to someone else in another country that may have
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: been mundane to the traveler. It might help that person
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: solve a problem they've been thinking of for a couple weeks,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: or inspire them to take their dog to the vet.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: There's really no way to know how those conversations benefit people,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: but I do think that the very fact someone is
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: asking a question is valuable. If you're still interested in
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the world enough to be asking questions, it bodes well
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: for your development as a person. So it's good to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: ask that question. You're just not going to get a single, direct,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: finite answer since there isn't one. Because what is the
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: best color and what is the best food? It's good
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to ask that question. And another answer is you won't
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: know until you get there. Living life is the best country,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Experiencing a country for the first time is the best country.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Learning a new language and making friends is the best country.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people would benefit from
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: visiting that place. Thank you for listening. You can get
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: to me ad bit of a ramblerygmail dot com or
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: all the socials and I'll talk to you soon.