0:00

why don't you go ahead and count us down

0:02

all right everyone

0:05

three two one

0:08

[Music]

0:23

this beer is brought to you by our

0:26

supporter my own brother kyle derosers

0:29

who is one of our sponsors on our kofi

0:31

page if you want to buy us a beer and

0:33

help keep the show on the air

0:35

go to kofi.com

0:37

attempted venture so what have you got

0:39

james

0:40

i have a ska brewing company

0:43

from durango colorado

0:45

the tropical hazy ipa

0:49

i do like a hazy ipa so

0:52

it smells very very citrusy and tropical

0:55

that's really good

0:57

that is very very nice

0:59

thank you kyle for my beer well james we

1:01

have another supporter that we have to

1:03

thank unfortunately it was a religious

1:05

holiday the other day and beer is not

1:06

available in thailand on religious

1:08

holidays however

1:10

i'm going to do something grossly

1:11

irresponsible

1:12

i'm going to be having some rum this is

1:14

sangsam it's a breakfast rum

1:16

[Laughter]

1:18

it's it's nine it's almost 10 o'clock

1:21

you're good it's 10 o'clock somewhere

1:23

and that somewhere is here so here we go

1:26

um so this one this drink is sponsored

1:28

by a dear friend of mine alex inn from

1:31

south africa uh so alex

1:33

thank you for buying me a drink i will

1:35

definitely have another beer

1:37

in your honor but today i'm having a

1:40

little bit of rum so

1:42

you know that uh you've seen that that

1:44

uh that meme that cooking video where

1:46

the lady is making like a smoothie and

1:47

she's got the vodka she's like two shots

1:49

of vodka and she like pours half of them

1:51

yeah it's amazing

1:53

two shots of rum

1:56

yeah

1:57

so uh so alex and kyle cheers and thank

1:59

you guys so much for supporting the show

2:02

and ladies and gentlemen if you want to

2:03

support the show you can buy us a drink

2:05

it doesn't have to be a beer could be a

2:06

coffee could be a shot of rum

2:09

but you can always also sign up at one

2:11

of our membership tiers and get some

2:12

little goodies so james take us away

2:17

or is it my intro who's intros it's your

2:18

intro yeah

2:20

it's my it's your intro

2:22

that's right so here we go wait a minute

2:25

well

2:26

i haven't even started drinking yet here

2:28

we go

2:35

[Music]

2:42

[Music]

2:45

you are listening to season 2 episode 13

2:48

of the attempt adventure podcast

2:51

a podcast all about travel finding

2:53

adventure every day and seeking out

2:55

adventurous ways to make life a little

2:57

more interesting

2:58

from bangkok thailand i'm your host

3:00

michael derosiers joined as always by my

3:03

co-host james barrett from boulder

3:06

colorado well not from but currently

3:08

living in boulder colorado yeah well i'm

3:10

not from bangkok either there will be a

3:12

point in my life when i have lived here

3:14

longer than i lived in the u.s and that

3:16

will be when i turned 44 years old you

3:18

know i passed my nine year anniversary a

3:20

couple weeks back

3:22

just crazy to think about

3:24

oh man really nine nine years you know i

3:27

honestly i don't think i could actually

3:30

i don't think i could actually

3:31

assimilate back in the u.s anymore like

3:33

it's great when i go back and visit and

3:34

i fit in and i feel like it's you know

3:35

still home but like i don't know how to

3:37

do

3:38

adult things i would be starting over

3:39

like a 23 year old college grad you know

3:42

i don't know how to like open a bank

3:43

account that's not true i have a us bank

3:45

account i don't know how to like

3:47

i don't know buy a phone plan or stuff

3:49

like that that i know trust me

3:51

it's no

3:52

it's i don't know nobody here knows well

3:55

james in this episode we're going to be

3:57

talking about airport survival a lot of

3:59

times in travel

4:00

we talk about like travel tips but

4:02

people

4:03

traveling abroad end up spending a lot

4:05

of time in airports so i thought today

4:07

we would share our favorite airport

4:09

stories

4:10

as well as just tips and advice for

4:12

passing those long long boring hours in

4:14

the airport

4:16

but first james you did not have to do

4:18

anything new or adventurous this week

4:19

and neither did i but we both had to do

4:21

penalties we had to do two so you had to

4:24

have coffee outdoors and you had to

4:26

learn about your nearest haunted site i

4:29

did i had to go to my airport and i also

4:32

had to learn about my nearest historical

4:35

marker

4:36

i um

4:37

it's been hot in colorado lately

4:40

so you could tell me if this is cheating

4:42

and then i will do another penalty i

4:44

bought an uh like canned coffee and then

4:47

cracked it open and poured it into a cup

4:49

sitting on my patio

4:51

that is totally not cheating james that

4:52

is coffee and that was outside it's hot

4:54

and i don't have um

4:57

air conditioning so it's one of the few

4:59

days when i woke up normally it's still

5:01

in the 60s when i wake up and it's very

5:03

nice and but for whatever reason it was

5:05

already almost 90 degrees by the time i

5:07

woke up and i was gonna go plug my

5:09

kettle in and make coffee and everything

5:11

else and i was like you know what no i

5:13

walked to the gas station got a canned

5:14

coffee and

5:16

opened it

5:18

how about your other one how about your

5:19

haunted site what is the nearest haunted

5:22

site to where you live so the closest is

5:25

boulder creek which runs through

5:28

downtown boulder basically pearl street

5:30

mall not a whole lot of information

5:31

about this one mostly like local

5:33

sightings it's not so much a historical

5:35

haunting okay um there's a few of those

5:37

but it's more a modern kind of haunting

5:39

local legend

5:41

so this one

5:42

now let me read you the little blurb

5:44

okay near 9th avenue and pearl street

5:47

pretty much right it's in the middle of

5:48

town right in the middle of town if you

5:50

go down next to the creek late at night

5:53

you might see a man with a dark hat his

5:55

head tipped to the ground carrying a

5:57

dark tote bag huh but when he turns

5:59

around he has no face

6:02

some believe this is the ghost of

6:03

william tull who was arrested for

6:05

stealing horses in the 1800s and

6:06

imprisoned beaten tortured and hanged on

6:09

pearl street the catch it was discovered

6:11

he was innocent

6:12

so that is the closest one

6:14

to me not a whole lot in northern

6:16

boulder north boulder is kind of newer

6:19

so less

6:20

historical stuff that and and i think

6:23

people do forget that at one point

6:24

colorado was very much the wild west

6:27

oh yeah during the 1800s it really

6:29

really was so that is the nearest

6:31

haunting to me

6:33

i mean then they're like cemeteries it's

6:34

like yeah every cemetery is gonna be

6:36

haunted that's just how it works awesome

6:38

jams i like that well well done you do

6:40

not owe me 50

6:41

that's good i don't have it

6:44

i don't have it so it's really good well

6:46

good news for me bad news for you i

6:47

don't owe you fifty dollars either i

6:50

went to the airport i did not go to

6:52

swanapoom airport i went to don wang

6:53

international which is near where i live

6:55

uh it's closer you can take the bus

6:57

there for 30 baht damong airport is

6:59

actually the oldest airport in asia it

7:02

celebrated its 100th birthday several

7:04

years back i think it's around 105 106

7:06

years old now it was open and i can tell

7:08

you for sure let's see

7:10

1914

7:12

uh obviously it's been renovated since

7:14

then it's a nice airport it's a lot

7:16

smaller than sowanaboom it is an

7:18

international airport it's more

7:21

of a regional airport you know you can

7:22

fly to other asian countries real easily

7:25

that's really interesting to me because

7:27

for those of you that aren't up to date

7:29

on aviation history the first

7:32

um powered flight in human history was

7:34

only in 1903. yeah thailand was way over

7:38

the game there yeah

7:39

yeah and i'm just realizing this is

7:41

really thematic for our episode as well

7:43

that works out quite well but uh yeah

7:44

it's a it's a great little airport i

7:46

don't think you've ever been there

7:47

though have you i'm not no i also had to

7:49

find my nearest local historical site

7:53

and that is chatuchak market and you

7:55

have been there so i know that you and i

7:57

went there together chatta check market

7:59

goes back to

8:00

uh 19

8:03

goes back to 1942. so

8:05

in 1948

8:07

this is a little bit of a thai history

8:08

for you 1948 thailand

8:11

had recently

8:12

undergone a coup that ended the absolute

8:15

monarchy

8:16

and it was currently under the

8:18

administration of a guy named field

8:20

marshall plague pibunsenkram also known

8:22

as marshall p or just pibun

8:25

he instituted a vast series of reforms

8:29

in the country a lot of things that you

8:31

might recognize he introduced the first

8:32

constitution

8:34

the beginning of thai democracy the

8:36

absorption of the kingdom of chiang mai

8:38

which was previously a client state kind

8:40

of a quasi-independent client state and

8:42

unified siam

8:43

also changed the name to thailand to

8:45

modernize the country he introduced the

8:47

greeting sawati crop before that thais

8:50

just asked have you eaten yet in thai

8:52

and he wanted to have a roof an analog

8:54

to hello yeah yeah food of course very

8:57

important

8:59

yeah there was no way of saying hello

9:01

you would just greet someone and say

9:02

have you eaten yet like that's how

9:04

important like hospitality and mental

9:06

health is

9:07

yes yes that's that's that's really

9:09

interesting linguistically this is

9:11

really interesting james too the word

9:12

sawat d actually comes from the word

9:15

swastika

9:16

which is a symbol in buddhism for good

9:18

luck like a blessing of good luck upon

9:19

someone so when you're saying swati crop

9:22

you're actually blessing somebody with a

9:24

swastika essentially that's where that

9:26

word linguistically comes from isn't

9:27

that interesting that is interesting so

9:28

he created that he also created the

9:31

modern thai tri-colored flag which was

9:33

modeled after those of western countries

9:35

he instituted the thai national anthem a

9:38

series of cultural mandates many of

9:39

which are still in effect today and most

9:41

importantly of all he created along with

9:44

his private chef the dish pad thai

9:47

before this he wanted to have a national

9:49

dish but thailand has all these

9:51

different regions different culinary

9:53

regions and the food in the south and

9:54

the north and the northeast very

9:56

different what is your favorite my

9:58

favorite region of thai food

10:01

of course i love central thai food but i

10:03

have it every day so for special

10:05

occasions i love northern food i love

10:07

something like cow soy

10:09

which is like a kind of a curry soup

10:10

with chicken i love sayula this kind of

10:13

spicy sausage

10:14

i believe it's eastern for me that's lob

10:17

and um

10:18

sticky rice papaya salad yeah minced

10:21

pork like some tom uh so that's what he

10:24

did right he wanted a dish that was of a

10:26

neutral flavor that could be accepted by

10:29

each of these regions and he invented it

10:31

basically from whole cloth with his chef

10:33

to make just a national dish so pad thai

10:35

is not an organic food it was created in

10:38

the 1940s

10:40

well one of his mandates also was that

10:43

every province must have its own market

10:47

shadow check market was part of this

10:49

it was created as this weekend market

10:51

and even nowadays it's still incredibly

10:53

active it's a bit more touristy now than

10:55

local but you can still get really great

10:57

stuff there you can find everything i

10:58

mean silverware and clothes and candles

11:02

and just trinkets i mean you've been

11:04

there let's talk about chatta check

11:05

market right now you you see the the

11:07

famous paella guy the big spanish man

11:09

that cooks paella and dances with a

11:11

photograph of himself

11:13

i do want to bring up one thing um

11:15

before we continue on

11:17

um again just

11:19

if p if if our listeners don't know the

11:22

the swastika is a very old symbol and

11:24

was adopted by

11:26

um hitler nazi germany so it was it was

11:29

hindu and buddhist long before it was

11:31

i'm a bit desensitized to it you know i

11:33

see it yeah everywhere nowadays i see it

11:35

written on people's houses and people's

11:37

necklaces it's not a nazi thing this is

11:39

not a nazi thing yeah

11:42

so yeah just thought i'd bring that out

11:43

for those of you that don't maybe don't

11:45

know and are like wait a minute that's a

11:46

good point i'm like in the 1930s they

11:48

instituted the swastika

11:51

related

11:52

unrelated um

11:55

it does it's like a kind of peace and

11:56

good luck and kind of

11:58

all the things so just

12:00

just a little you know thank you james

12:02

that's important yes appreciate it and

12:04

so as back to um chatuchak chatta check

12:07

right uh

12:08

yeah

12:09

or jj market you can call it jj market

12:11

as well it is hectic what we kind of did

12:15

was we just sort of because there's the

12:17

outer rim and that's where all like the

12:19

food stalls are and like

12:21

some like more popular

12:23

vendors and things like that but then

12:25

you just enter into this maze of

12:29

stalls

12:30

and

12:31

you just kind of get lost and you just

12:33

wander and wander and wander and there's

12:35

everything again from

12:37

silk scarves to yeah candles and i saw

12:40

one that was selling paintings and

12:42

electronics antiques books i mean

12:46

like exhausted

12:49

well here's a fun fact james it has 15

12:52

000 stalls 11 500 vendors 27 sections

12:56

over 200 000 visitors every weekend and

12:59

it is the world's largest weekend market

13:02

it's a lot of fun highly recommend and

13:04

you got to see the paella guy who is

13:06

this uh spanish expat makes a gigantic

13:09

like just massive thing of paella i

13:12

didn't get to eat any of his paella

13:14

because he is popular

13:16

i never have either no i saw him at

13:18

immigration once

13:20

do expats have like a head nod do you

13:22

look at another expert and you're like

13:24

all right

13:25

no no i do not make eye contact with

13:27

them i'm like hey just because we're the

13:28

same ethnicity doesn't mean i have

13:30

anything in common with you it really

13:32

bugs me because it's usually tourists

13:33

not other expats they'll be walking

13:35

around the street they'll be like

13:35

looking at me and like you know i'm like

13:37

just because i'm white doesn't mean i

13:39

want anything to do with you i wouldn't

13:40

acknowledge you in america why would i

13:42

acknowledge you here in bangkok

13:45

that's true

13:46

that is very true

13:50

but i i don't know the paella guy he's a

13:51

bit of a celebrity i don't know james

13:53

have you ever encountered a celebrity in

13:55

the wild and what do you do when you see

13:57

them

13:58

i mean it kind of does it kind of segues

13:59

into it because mine was at an airport

14:01

or more honestly

14:03

do you remember the show supernatural

14:05

yes

14:06

the two brothers there was dean and sam

14:08

i forget his name

14:10

i forget both their names

14:12

but i sat next to sam the guy that

14:14

played sam on a plane

14:15

that was that was it that's the closest

14:17

i've been to a celebrity oh and i saw

14:18

patrick stewart at a comic-con

14:21

i didn't meet him and i didn't want to

14:22

pay to like do the like going to get his

14:24

autograph so i like snuck a picture

14:26

through the crack in the door

14:28

like a freak i once uh once saw george

14:32

rr martin at lax

14:34

but i didn't bother him that is the

14:36

thing is like if you do see a celebrity

14:38

i mean

14:39

part of me is like it's their

14:40

celebrities so they're used to it and if

14:42

you want to like politely ask for like a

14:45

picture or something i wouldn't do it

14:47

because i'm awkward

14:48

and so like

14:49

i would just like like i talked to this

14:51

guy i said let's i literally sat next to

14:53

him on the plane i talked to him for for

14:54

just a little bit but it was just like

14:56

i'm just on a plane like i'm not because

14:58

like they're going where they want to go

14:59

they're not like here on celebrity

15:01

business like with george rr martin how

15:02

weird must it feel to just be like

15:04

walking through the airport and like

15:05

people know who you are you know he's

15:08

very recognizable he had his little hat

15:10

and his beard and everything you know

15:12

like he was

15:14

exactly like he wasn't in disguise james

15:16

he was exactly how

15:18

i don't i don't think he can disguise

15:20

himself

15:22

honestly

15:23

that was the day i moved to thailand

15:25

that was when i left the u.s

15:27

it was a good omen i saw um we've both

15:30

seen hodor

15:32

not the actual hodor but he was just his

15:34

neighbor a really really tall neighbor

15:37

this man was he had to be seven foot

15:38

something this enormous enormous man

15:42

uh and he wasn't just tall he was like

15:44

he was huge

15:46

he was a huge man living in a tiny

15:48

apartment

15:49

he was yeah yeah james that's a good

15:51

point he was proportional he was just

15:53

really big

15:55

because i remember like

15:57

passing him in the door and i'm a big

15:58

i'm a big guy

16:00

i'm i'm fairly tall like i'm broad i'm a

16:02

big guy i don't normally feel small

16:05

when i open the door for him one time

16:07

and he walked by and i was like i felt

16:09

like a child anyway i hope i hope you're

16:12

doing great we're not calling him hodor

16:14

out of a fence he was just huge

16:17

he's just a large guy i saw him getting

16:18

a taxi once it was spectacular

16:21

so he he was probably like the size of

16:23

shaq

16:24

like legitimately he looked like he was

16:26

like a white shack

16:30

anyway

16:31

we're getting off topic again

16:34

so

16:35

using george r martin at the airport i

16:37

sat next to whatever his name is on the

16:38

plane

16:39

all right well let's get into it james

16:42

today we're talking about airports and

16:44

so apart from sitting next to that one

16:46

guy how about this what are some of your

16:48

favorite airports in the world

16:50

got to give a shout out to my home

16:52

airport of dallas love field

16:55

not the international airport well it is

16:57

an international airport it is not the

16:59

international airport right we're not

17:01

talking dfw yeah dallas love field it's

17:03

a it's a smaller airport but it has the

17:06

best food court i've ever seen in an

17:08

airport ever my only gripe is that it's

17:10

kind of hard to get to

17:12

that is true

17:13

it's kind of like in the middle of town

17:15

without like

17:16

highway access you kind of have to

17:17

meander

17:18

yeah at least from where where we grew

17:20

up i was once flying out of there to go

17:22

back to bangkok and i was really

17:23

stressing because like traffic was weird

17:25

and and it was hard to get there and i

17:27

was like if i miss this flight i'm going

17:28

to miss my international flight and it's

17:29

not going to be great but but i'm a fan

17:31

i do like it the reno airport is very

17:34

nice

17:35

again very small but even on the day

17:37

before thanksgiving which is

17:39

awful i had no issue i had seats i had

17:43

an outlet wonderful time other than that

17:46

sawanaboom airport is

17:48

insane

17:50

it's so huge i got there one time and my

17:53

flight was in like 20 minutes

17:55

and like sprinting through the airport

17:57

and it's a big airport i feel like i ran

17:59

like two miles

18:01

most airports are kind of just airports

18:03

you know

18:04

of the ones i've spent any amount of

18:06

time in

18:07

swanaboom

18:08

okay it's my favorite

18:10

so one of whom is a good one i'm really

18:12

fond of well as far as little airports

18:14

go the flagstaff airport in arizona is

18:17

really nice so if you're flying in to go

18:19

visit the grand canyon it is tiny i

18:21

think it has two gates has a little bar

18:23

but it has a really nice

18:24

like viewing area it is so

18:27

small it's like you're at a little house

18:28

but it's a really nice experience

18:31

super easy

18:32

internationally i've had really good

18:34

experiences at incheon airport in korea

18:37

which is one of the like recognized one

18:39

of the best airports in the world they

18:41

have a museum

18:42

i think they have a cinema

18:44

singapore airport also is recognized as

18:46

one of the best i've been there but i

18:47

wasn't able to really spend any time

18:49

there i can't i can't comment on it i'm

18:51

afraid but i've heard that they're very

18:52

nice as well

18:54

but what's nice about on airport the

18:55

thing i loved about it is that they

18:57

offer these they call them transit tours

18:59

that are free so if you have a layover

19:02

like say you have a five hour layover

19:03

and you don't know what to do you can

19:05

book from the korean government a free

19:07

transit tour they'll pick you up they'll

19:09

take you to see like a local site so i

19:11

only had a short time i had like four or

19:13

five hours

19:14

so i took a one hour transit tour to

19:16

visit this local temple

19:18

and the guy taught us a little bit about

19:19

korean history and culture and a bit

19:21

about the the history of this temple we

19:23

went back to the airport

19:24

just a brief introduction to korea but

19:27

it was free you know and the idea of it

19:29

is that they want to interest people so

19:31

that they come back and they visit uh

19:33

korea in their next trip those are my

19:35

favorites how about your least favorite

19:37

i'm curious to see if we both agree on

19:39

this one

19:40

least favorite airport i've ever been in

19:44

you know lax is bad

19:46

that's it very bad that's where i have

19:48

to fly in when i come back to the us

19:49

from from asia and it's awful lax is

19:52

the los angeles international airport is

19:55

definitely not my favorite but it is not

19:56

my least favorite is it not

19:58

i have two

20:00

that beat it for me

20:02

because at lax at least it's big

20:04

you know and like

20:06

i've i haven't been there in years and

20:07

years and years so it could be very much

20:09

worse now for sketchy last time i was

20:11

there i saw like two homeless dudes

20:12

fighting over a thing of grapes and like

20:15

this woman was like most definitely

20:18

schizophrenic was like trying to come up

20:20

and talk to me about just like her life

20:21

philosophies i don't even know i had to

20:23

go hide in the baggage claim to escape

20:25

from them

20:27

okay that's bad um i would say laguardia

20:31

is

20:33

is worse laguardia airport is worse in

20:36

new york it's a hallway with like seven

20:38

foot ceilings old fluorescent lights

20:41

no seating no outlets and one like

20:43

auntie anne's

20:45

and that is it and i was stuck there for

20:47

like seven hours

20:49

southwest had one terminal so you

20:51

couldn't even like leave and go wander

20:53

and then las vegas las vegas airport i

20:56

hate i hate it i hate it i hate it one

20:58

always packed full of stupid slot

21:01

machines and all this other crap

21:03

um

21:05

they built a new section onto it that's

21:07

very nice but they didn't renovate the

21:09

old section they just like kept it old

21:12

and so like you're walking you're like

21:13

oh it's nice and then all of a sudden

21:14

like your gate's in the crappy section

21:17

and

21:17

i don't know it's more

21:19

if i can find a seat away from people

21:22

and just chill out i'm pretty much okay

21:24

with anything like i don't really care

21:26

about the amenities because there's

21:28

always going to be like a

21:30

place you can go get some crackers in a

21:32

seven dollar bottle of water

21:34

yeah but like you go you get your little

21:37

thing of grapes and you

21:39

hide from the homeless you go sit yeah

21:42

to be clear james they were not my

21:43

grapes they were just on the floor i was

21:45

just trying desperately to

21:48

be inconspicuous

21:50

but no i mean if i can find a spot away

21:53

from some people it doesn't have to be

21:55

like by myself because i know that's not

21:56

really feasible in an airport but like

21:59

in an unused gate or something where i

22:01

can sit and like pull out my computer

22:03

and like watch netflix or something in

22:06

some relative peace i'm fine

22:09

but like laguardia there was no there

22:11

was like because all these flights were

22:13

delayed

22:14

so people were backed up for hours and

22:16

hours and hours and so there was no

22:18

seats people were just sitting in the

22:19

hallway just lined up along the hall

22:22

and it's just terrible just terrible

22:25

but

22:26

those were not my worst airport

22:28

experience my least favorite airports

22:30

did not have my worst airport experience

22:33

so where was that that was in um

22:36

puden

22:43

thank you i i was trying to complete

22:46

like um man i spent so much time there

22:49

well you're blocking it out the my worst

22:51

airport experience was in pudong

22:53

international airport in shanghai china

22:56

i have never had

22:58

just a worse time

23:00

in my life i've been there twice

23:03

and have purposely rounded every other

23:05

trip i've ever taken not there my first

23:07

time i went there was the very first

23:09

time i ever came to thailand

23:11

i got the cheapest flight and it

23:13

happened to go through shanghai this is

23:14

not a ding on shanghai i'm sure it's

23:16

lovely i flew from dallas to new york

23:21

which is a four and a half hour flight

23:23

then from new york to shanghai which is

23:25

a 15 and a half hour flight and then i

23:27

had a 17-hour layover where they would

23:29

not let me through security so i was

23:32

stuck outside of security

23:34

i mean it is not

23:37

i had a guy trying to sell me the same

23:39

iphone three or four times

23:42

you know i i wanted food but the

23:46

the one restaurant that was outside of

23:49

security

23:50

had no pictures on the menu

23:52

so it was just all in chinese and this

23:54

was before google was good you couldn't

23:56

take a picture and translate it

23:58

i had no way of knowing

24:00

what they were serving and

24:03

i like chinese food i've had authentic

24:05

chinese food

24:06

some of it gets crazy for me and i

24:09

wasn't about to take that chance and so

24:11

they had a little convenience store

24:13

that i was able to at least look at

24:15

packages

24:17

right coca-cola looks like coca-cola

24:19

whether it's in english or chinese i got

24:21

a coca-cola and some random snacks

24:24

and

24:26

it is just not a very

24:28

at least outside security is not a

24:30

foreigner friendly place

24:32

okay which is odd because it's such a

24:34

big international city yeah but it is at

24:36

least for me it was not and dude this

24:39

was my first time out of the country the

24:41

first time i spent any amount of time

24:44

out of north america was in shanghai and

24:47

right by myself stuck outside and i

24:49

asked a couple times like can i just go

24:51

through security like why like and of

24:53

course there's a language barrier so

24:54

nothing

24:55

um yeah

24:56

17 hours

24:58

of i can't sleep i can't relax i tried

25:01

to read my book so basically i was just

25:04

like

25:04

trying to do stuff on my phone to keep

25:06

me entertained except everything's

25:08

blocked you know i can't watch netflix i

25:10

can't just surf the web i can't do any i

25:13

can't talk to people because everything

25:15

is blocked

25:16

and so

25:17

17 hours felt like 50.

25:20

and it was so bad that on my way back

25:24

i had to lay over at the same airport

25:25

but for 22 hours and i got a hotel

25:30

i spent

25:31

i don't even remember it didn't matter

25:33

how much at that point i was willing to

25:34

pay whatever so i stayed at like

25:37

the super like fancy hotel like the

25:39

airport hotel

25:41

no it was actually like five or six

25:43

miles away from the airport i got there

25:46

and i'm in my thai clothes i'm in shorts

25:48

and a t-shirt

25:49

yeah i called the hotel and

25:52

we eventually are able to communicate

25:54

that i need someone to pick me up at the

25:55

airport so they send someone

25:57

and i step outside

25:59

and it's like 20 degrees it's so cold

26:04

like oh man i have never slept so good

26:06

though i bet

26:08

i you know what's the funniest part is

26:10

like you joked about me blocking it out

26:11

i kind of do

26:13

like my brain doesn't register that i

26:14

spent the night in a chinese hotel like

26:16

i the next day my flight wasn't until

26:19

like 3 p.m and so i was just a checkout

26:21

was at 11 i checked out and i like i

26:24

just hung out in the lobby you know i

26:26

went to the restaurant and i had a

26:27

burger

26:29

nice

26:31

it was like a radisson or something it

26:32

was it was a european american hotel

26:34

chain i had like a mushroom burger in

26:36

the hotel was great it was delicious

26:38

it was a pretty hotel like it had like a

26:40

waterfall garden outside it was it was

26:43

great but my brain legitimately blocks

26:45

that time period out

26:47

oh man but anyway i did meet a very very

26:50

nice guy a few nice people there first

26:53

one i met on my flight from new york to

26:55

shanghai i forget his name he was great

26:58

he did not have a long enough layover

26:59

because he was originally from shanghai

27:02

but he was going to visit

27:03

family in central kind of china and like

27:06

some rural parts of china um and so we

27:08

had been talking we sat next to each

27:09

other on the plane we were talking

27:12

and he didn't have a long enough layover

27:13

he was going to

27:15

show me around shanghai

27:16

and i was like that would have been way

27:18

better yeah than

27:21

just sitting in the airport oh well so

27:23

that is my worst airport experience it

27:25

may sound silly because it was just long

27:27

but oh man well that's kind of the point

27:30

right that's kind of what we're talking

27:32

about today like sometimes you have to

27:34

have a layover for 12 14 22 hours like

27:37

what do you do if you're not gonna get a

27:38

hotel

27:40

i mean i've done all sorts of crazy

27:42

stuff to pass the time like so let's

27:44

talk about that james how do we survive

27:46

because airports are typically i would

27:48

say safe the biggest quote survival is

27:52

boredom right the thing you have to

27:54

survive yes boredom of just being you

27:56

know being stuck there

27:58

in this gray

28:00

fluorescent sort of uh in time

28:03

time moves differently in airports

28:05

yeah like airports kind of feel like

28:08

their own dimension

28:09

like

28:10

it doesn't feel real and time moves very

28:13

differently if you're running behind an

28:16

hour is 10 minutes if you are there too

28:19

early an hour is eternity yes

28:22

and you're right i mean again there is

28:23

nothing to quote unquote survive most

28:25

airports are very safe

28:27

but boredom is awful so and i know just

28:30

repeated juice but like

28:32

it's how podcasts work you just repeat

28:34

each other until you reach an hour and

28:35

then you're done so in short james

28:38

there's nothing that we're really

28:39

worried about surviving

28:40

but

28:46

[Laughter]

28:49

oh man what do you do let me give you a

28:51

few of my tips and i want to hear a few

28:53

of yours first so first of all my first

28:54

tip is just check if there is a transit

28:56

tour uh korea is definitely not the only

28:59

country that does that i

29:01

think but don't quote me on i think the

29:03

uae has something similar if you're at

29:05

dubai airport i think they also offer

29:06

some kind of tours and i think that most

29:09

i don't know i won't say most but i

29:10

think that several different

29:12

international airports have a similar

29:13

program so just google it you know

29:15

google whatever airport you're at

29:17

transit tours something like that you

29:20

might be able to find something to have

29:21

a guided tour this way you're not like

29:23

running out on your own you're

29:24

guaranteed to be back in time you're not

29:26

trying to find out where to go or what

29:28

to see you're just on a tour you know

29:30

created by the airport or by the

29:31

ministry of tourism and that's a really

29:33

cool way to you know a pass the time but

29:36

b learn a little bit about the country

29:38

that you're in just for that short time

29:39

that you're there uh if you don't or if

29:42

you're not able to do that you know you

29:43

could always just

29:45

go to a taxi driver say how much for for

29:47

one day you know i don't know fifty

29:49

dollars hundred dollars whatever and

29:50

have them take you to the best most

29:52

famous tourist sites they're going to be

29:54

way more touristy but you're still going

29:56

to see some of the sites you know you

29:57

can at least get out and explore a

29:59

little bit

30:00

i would rather have an organized transit

30:02

tour if i'm in that in that scenario but

30:04

that's an option as well so

30:07

i mean what else what else can you do to

30:08

pass that time if you can't leave the

30:10

airport

30:12

i like walking around the airport for

30:13

one a lot of airports have

30:16

quite a bit of history behind them

30:18

and

30:18

places like

30:20

especially in the u.s big airports some

30:21

of them have like museums inside them

30:23

yeah museums art installations

30:26

things like that stuff to help you

30:29

in your hour of need

30:31

right so wander around the airport if

30:33

you're the talkative kind of person

30:35

maybe try and start a conversation with

30:36

someone they're not always going to

30:38

reciprocate but it never hurts you know

30:40

especially if someone is as bored as you

30:42

are they're going to be happy to have

30:43

someone to talk to michael you and i do

30:46

most of our traveling alone it seems

30:48

like yes and so this is kind of what

30:50

that's focused on if you have a person

30:51

with you it's way better way way better

30:54

at least you can talk to someone right

30:56

yeah it almost doesn't matter how long

30:58

the layover is if you can just talk to

31:00

your friend

31:01

and we'll we'll have a story about that

31:03

in a little bit yes we will dfw has that

31:05

sound maze have you ever been able to

31:07

figure that thing out i have not i've

31:09

honestly only ever been to dfw airport

31:11

like two times really okay yeah i'm i

31:14

almost always fly out of low field okay

31:15

see i've only been to love field like

31:17

two or three times well for a long time

31:20

i i was able to get really cheap flights

31:21

on southwest right and so for a long

31:24

time i had no reason to use another

31:26

airline now i'm just kind of like yeah i

31:27

can use whatever but so i've only been

31:28

to dfw airport

31:30

flying back internationally ah okay so

31:33

you've never actually tried the sound

31:34

maze i have not it's in terminal d which

31:37

is like the international terminal but

31:39

i've never actually been able to figure

31:40

out how it works it's very

31:44

confusing

31:46

yeah because even when

31:48

i do fly out

31:50

i have flown out of dfw internationally

31:52

but i fly to somewhere else in the us

31:54

first gotcha okay

31:56

like i flew from dallas to houston than

31:58

houston to tokyo yeah which tokyo

32:01

airport that's a good one too also nice

32:03

yeah both of them narita and hanita both

32:05

nice i've been to narita and it was very

32:08

nice i have a tradition at both of them

32:09

whenever i'm in tokyo either airport i'm

32:12

usually just there for a layover i will

32:13

always grab a beer at the convenience

32:15

store and i will go and i will sit on

32:17

their viewing deck because both airports

32:18

have a really nice

32:20

like airport viewing deck

32:22

and i guess if you if you smoke whatever

32:24

you can go up there and smoke but uh but

32:25

it's a nice place to sit down crack open

32:27

a beer and just watch the planes take

32:29

off and land kind of feel the cooler air

32:31

it's kind of one of my travel rituals

32:33

when i'm laying over in japan and it's a

32:35

fun way to do it so if your airport also

32:36

has a viewing deck which a lot of them

32:38

do

32:39

that's a really fun way to pass the time

32:41

you know if you can especially if you

32:42

can get a beer

32:43

just go and you know sit down and enjoy

32:46

for you know an hour or so it's nice

32:48

there's another tip drink a beer or two

32:51

yeah it helps

32:53

oh it

32:54

helps you can have like a a beer at six

32:58

a.m because nobody cares because you're

32:59

at an airport and again time's not real

33:01

right go get a beer go get a cinnabon

33:04

and just

33:06

enjoy eating the worst foods humanity

33:09

can come up with i was i think it was

33:11

frankfurt and i had a layover for like

33:13

five or six hours so i just went to the

33:15

shower

33:16

and it felt nice you know after being on

33:17

the plane you kind of feel kind of grimy

33:19

and greasy and gross so

33:21

you know i always carry a change of

33:23

clothes so i just went to the airport

33:24

took a shower changed clothes and felt

33:26

so much better because after 15 hours on

33:28

a plane

33:29

like an airplane is the only place you

33:31

can somehow be freezing and sweating at

33:33

the same time it's disgusting air travel

33:36

is not glamorous i don't care what

33:37

anyone says unless you can afford

33:40

business class it is honestly my least

33:43

favorite way to travel i would rather be

33:45

on a boat i would rather get on a

33:47

container ship

33:49

honestly i would love to do that i would

33:51

love to sail across the sea on a

33:52

container ship they'd you know you can

33:54

do that you can book book a ticket if

33:56

you want you can you can't they're like

33:58

look and there's like there's nothing to

34:00

do for you like you bring your own stuff

34:02

because there ain't nothing for you you

34:04

when we you eat what we eat there's no

34:07

entertainment

34:08

nothing

34:09

but anyway

34:11

so

34:12

just sort of embrace the the weirdness

34:14

that are that is airports one time i got

34:16

a haircut in japan just to pass the time

34:22

why

34:23

i had like three hours and my hair was

34:25

getting a little bit long and i'm like

34:27

you know two birds with one stone right

34:28

just like

34:30

they have a barber in the airport yeah

34:32

so like i guess that's that's the lesson

34:33

right explore and just see what

34:34

facilities they have they might have

34:36

more stuff than you think man u.s

34:38

airports suck

34:41

they do compared like internationally

34:42

like some of the airports have

34:43

incredible facilities so like singapore

34:45

airport let's talk about this one for

34:47

example okay so singapore airport

34:49

usually wins the annual award for having

34:52

the best facilities so let's have a look

34:55

at what they have at changi

34:57

international airport in singapore so

34:59

they have a botanical garden inside the

35:01

airport with a waterfall they have a

35:04

butterfly garden

35:06

they have a cinema

35:07

they have they singapore also offers

35:10

free city tours they have a children's

35:11

playground see what else they have

35:13

museums bicycle rental so you can you

35:16

can rent a bike and go biking

35:18

like they have facilities to help you

35:19

pass the time u.s airports are really

35:22

boring it's a bus terminal with a plane

35:24

it's yeah yeah but internationally they

35:26

tend to have a lot better facilities and

35:28

a lot more interesting things to see and

35:30

do and you know museums and a butterfly

35:32

garden like in the airport you know i

35:35

think what it probably is

35:37

honestly is that most most foreign

35:39

airports are funded by the government a

35:41

lot of airports in the us are private i

35:43

at some level i believe i could be wrong

35:45

on that i think you're right no i think

35:46

you're so i mean

35:48

it's just profit i mean why put any of

35:49

those things in when people still have

35:51

to go there you know what i mean and

35:53

that's that's a very american kind of my

35:55

business model is that people are going

35:56

to have to be here anyway it doesn't

35:58

matter if they're miserable or not just

35:59

kind of like the air travel industry as

36:01

a whole i mean they're coming up with

36:02

new and inventive ways to cram

36:04

us all in like sardines

36:07

i guess the last story to tell is the

36:08

time that we were coming back from

36:10

florida we were in fort lauderdale

36:11

together yeah we were and our flights

36:14

got massively delayed and that's not a

36:16

very big airport that's a pretty small

36:20

pretty good airport though

36:21

yeah no it's nice but there's not a ton

36:23

to do to pass the time

36:25

no and so we had already been there so

36:27

we had spent i think three days in

36:28

florida three days something like that

36:30

eating pringles drinking beer

36:33

snorkeling

36:35

yeah we spent all our money on

36:36

snorkeling in the hotel yeah so we just

36:38

like hung out on the beach and went and

36:40

like just had a good time it was just it

36:42

was great it was a super relaxing nice

36:44

time highly recommend fort lauderdale

36:46

highly recommend love it it's like one

36:49

one of two places in florida i enjoy

36:51

jupiter florida

36:53

is really nice so is fort lauderdale

36:55

miami is cool if you wanted italy i've

36:57

never been to the keys i've always

36:58

wanted to yes

36:59

i have some friends that i worked with

37:01

from chile and before they went back to

37:02

chile they went to the florida keys and

37:04

said it was the best place they'd ever

37:06

been so i want to go but anyway we so we

37:09

it was our last day i'm pretty sure we'd

37:11

like gotten like margaritas before we

37:13

went to the airport because why not

37:15

so we got to the airport they were a few

37:17

hours early nothing crazy

37:19

and so we're hanging out and then

37:21

some storms start rolling in and then

37:25

delayed an hour delayed another hour

37:27

plane lands we get on the plane

37:29

and then we're stuck

37:31

one hour goes by

37:33

two hours goes by

37:35

then they open the doors and say if you

37:36

want to go sit in the terminal you can

37:38

if they ever let you off the plane

37:40

you're not leaving no it was so long it

37:43

was hours later when we left our flight

37:46

was supposed to be at like 6 00 p.m or

37:48

something like that and we didn't leave

37:49

until close to 10 11 pm

37:52

to be fair they did give us free

37:53

cocktails i had a gin and tonic it was

37:56

great we were flying from fort

37:57

lauderdale to houston to catch a flight

38:00

to dallas now

38:02

once we finally were about to take off

38:03

the flight attendant stands up at the

38:04

front and says how many of you have a

38:05

connecting flight in houston everyone

38:07

raises their hands he goes well now you

38:09

don't

38:11

so we very quickly booked a hotel do you

38:14

remember the like huge fat guy that like

38:17

kicked that indian man off the thing

38:19

he's like i can't fit i can't fit you're

38:21

gonna have to get out

38:23

yeah that's not how this works no he

38:25

didn't get out did he no but he had to

38:27

like let the guy in and then move to the

38:29

back the poor little old indian man had

38:31

to move to the very back of the bus

38:32

because this enormous man couldn't fit

38:35

that was the shuttle to the to the hotel

38:37

into the hotel we get to the hotel and

38:39

there's a jack in the box and we're like

38:40

oh thank god

38:42

they closed 45 minutes early they were

38:45

closed man it was weird people were in

38:48

there their doors were locked

38:50

they were looking at us trying to get in

38:51

like they was looking and so then we

38:54

i think i got the pizza hut order in

38:56

with like two minutes till they closed

38:58

a nice tip yeah i remember that thanks

39:00

tip that was a great night and you know

39:02

honestly it kind of made the trip better

39:04

it extended the trip a day we just like

39:06

hung out and like watched tv and ate

39:07

pizza we watched jack remember that we

39:10

did oh we did watch

39:12

fun fact you guys that was going to be

39:13

one of our podcast ideas it was we were

39:16

just going to watch every episode of jag

39:17

and talk about it

39:19

you know i don't know

39:21

how a good idea that would be we're just

39:23

going to watch every episode and comment

39:25

on it yeah the re-jagging would have

39:27

been fun that would have been fun the

39:29

rejecting not only were we going to

39:31

watch every episode we were going to

39:32

re-dub every episode of jag i'm i'm both

39:36

upset and happy we didn't do that

39:39

nobody watches jag and nobody wants to

39:41

hear michael and i re-dub jag with

39:44

whatever nonsense we're talking about

39:46

even talk about jag

39:49

what an odd idea for a podcast and the

39:52

episode we watched was super strange too

39:54

there was like a north korean spy you

39:56

remember that it was one of those late

39:57

episodes where they weren't really

39:58

realistic anymore but anyway we are so

40:01

off topic at this point

40:03

uh man

40:05

this was supposed to be about airport

40:06

tips but you know it

40:08

airport stories how about that airport

40:10

stories yeah airport stories

40:13

if you have the money you can stay at a

40:14

lounge i've never done so i have flown

40:17

business class one time in my life one

40:19

time it was from bangkok to tokyo

40:23

that's a nice long flight nice that's

40:25

like six hours

40:26

we had the lounge they had hot food they

40:29

had cold food they had cocktail bar

40:32

everything you could ever want

40:34

little pastries and coke zeros

40:36

all free of course

40:38

at the bangkok airport at swanapoom if

40:40

you have like a business class ticket

40:42

you have your private security

40:44

private security the line for regular

40:47

security was like two hours long and we

40:48

were through in 15 minutes that's

40:50

awesome because you know when you go

40:52

through security you go up and you go up

40:54

the escalator yeah is that someone yes

40:56

um there's a door underneath that if you

40:59

go up to the escalator walk along it

41:01

there's a door that's for business class

41:04

and so we got that we got priority

41:06

boarding

41:07

the only problem is i was sick as a dog

41:11

so i couldn't even enjoy it i'm happy we

41:14

were in business class because i was

41:15

able to lay flat and just relax and just

41:18

you know thank god for big chairs but

41:21

then they like served a meal it was

41:23

beautiful looking it was like i don't

41:24

even know it was chicken and like rice

41:26

and all this other good stuff and i

41:28

couldn't eat it i couldn't enjoy it but

41:31

united airlines does have economy plus

41:33

which i will never fly anything less

41:34

than that again if i'm going on an

41:36

international trip for michael for you

41:38

you travel internationally a lot i don't

41:41

and so for me it's like a big deal and

41:43

so when i do i'm willing to pay the

41:45

extra couple hundred bucks me and my

41:47

wife when we last went to thailand we

41:49

had economy plus and you get

41:51

seats that are um there's two seats then

41:54

three seats then two seats so it's the

41:57

same layout as like business class is

41:59

typically

42:00

on the older planes but it's just me and

42:02

her on a row they're wider you have leg

42:04

room you can lay back just wonderful

42:07

yeah it's just so much better flying to

42:09

asia in economy is is one of the worst

42:11

experiences well tell me about it james

42:13

i know

42:16

you should upgrade one time just if i

42:18

had the money believe me i wouldn't be

42:19

flying like this that's true

42:22

well folks if you have some airport

42:24

experiences or tips that you'd like to

42:26

share get in touch with us hello at

42:28

attemptedventure.com

42:30

we would love to hear from you and we

42:31

will definitely check out your listener

42:33

mail and maybe even read it on the show

42:39

[Music]

42:46

[Music]

42:50

well james it is now time for our

42:52

favorite segment adventures in the news

42:54

this week sir it's my turn

42:57

and i have found an article

42:59

uh and here's the headline japanese man

43:01

83 becomes oldest person in history to

43:04

sail solo non-stop across the pacific

43:07

nice so this is uh kenichi horier he

43:10

was the first person

43:12

to successfully do it in 1962

43:15

and now at the age of 83 he has done it

43:18

again

43:19

this man's just sailing across the ocean

43:21

for fun he is oh man see it's stuff like

43:24

that that makes me look at like what i'm

43:26

doing and i'm just like

43:28

what am i doing well here's here's what

43:30

he says james here's his quote and i

43:31

want you to think about this one and we

43:33

can talk about it in a second this is

43:34

what he says right so after he landed

43:36

cnn interviewed him over satellite phone

43:39

he said don't let your dreams just stay

43:41

as dreams have a goal work towards

43:43

achieving this and a beautiful life

43:45

awaits that's great advice honestly yeah

43:48

it's one of those things that sounds

43:50

kind of

43:51

um what's the word i'm looking for it

43:53

sounds just like something like a

43:54

motivational poster would say

43:56

but it's true it's true and to hear it

43:59

from someone that actually did it and

44:01

not like a life coach you know what i

44:03

mean not that being a life coach is bad

44:05

but

44:06

that's awesome well congratulations

44:08

again he left san francisco california

44:12

on the 27th of march uh he made no port

44:15

calls he was spotted off the coast of

44:17

hawaii on the 16th of april

44:19

eventually made his way and arrived in

44:23

japan

44:24

uh june 4th so this is uh fairly

44:26

recently so it took him a couple of

44:28

months

44:29

it says that he has traveled across the

44:30

pacific in multiple vessels including

44:33

one made from aluminum cans one made

44:35

from beer kegs and whiskey barrels and

44:36

powered by solar panels and foot pedals

44:38

uh it says he does not train for his

44:40

adventures he says i'm always fine

44:42

always in shape no overeating no over

44:44

drinking asked whether he had any

44:45

concerns about his trip he said nothing

44:47

at all well maybe just being old

44:50

this man just sees the ocean he's just

44:53

like that's nothing i'm gonna go in a

44:54

whiskey barrel

44:56

this man has no fear of the ocean which

44:59

i guess you really can't if you're gonna

45:00

do something like that which is why i

45:02

could never do something like that see

45:04

i'm not afraid of the ocean the ocean

45:05

doesn't scare me deep water doesn't

45:07

scare me no i'm not afraid of the ocean

45:08

i would be afraid of going solo across

45:10

the pacific

45:12

yes i would just be afraid of being by

45:13

myself yeah i couldn't do it by myself

45:16

i'm not gonna say i could do it at all

45:17

because well i'm not in shape i do it on

45:19

like a motorboat

45:21

i can do that

45:22

but anyway well that's really cool so

45:25

yeah advice here just pick an adventure

45:27

and just make it happen whatever it

45:29

takes make it happen all right well

45:31

folks that is the advice for today if

45:32

you enjoyed the show please don't forget

45:34

to subscribe and maybe even consider

45:36

giving us a review on your podcast app

45:38

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45:40

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45:42

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45:43

don't forget you can check us out on our

45:45

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45:48

click the support the show button on our

45:50

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45:52

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45:54

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45:55

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45:58

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46:00

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46:02

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46:04

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46:07

and it will send it directly to our

46:09

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46:10

we will see you next time and until then

46:12

keep adventuring

46:16

[Music]

46:35

you