We welcome Gavin McFall to the show this week to talk about his 14-month round-the-world backpacking trip. Gavin visited 19 countries across South America, Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He shares how he saved for the trip, how to plan a round the world trip and how he did it with real examples you can learn from.

He also shares the work programs he did while traveling, which helped him get employment and an extended visa in Australia. The country has a special program for Americans under 30 years old, which Gavin used as the basis for his time in Australia. He also shares the fine print with this visa and valuable tips so you don’t make the same mistake he did.

He shares his experiences with guided tours with G Advetnures along his journey, how he made friends while traveling solo and tells all the stories from his journeys. G Adventures is a guided tour company that caters to those in their 20s and 30s and is a genius idea to lighten the burden of traveling “solo” for an extended period of time.

This episode will, without a doubt, transport you to a vacation of a lifetime and will inspire you to take a long trip for yourself.

Follow ⁠@gavman_97⁠ to connect with Gavin and follow along his travels.

Round the World Trip – Episode Transcript

4 (58s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast. Today we have a very special guest joining us today, Gavin McFall, who is a fellow Squadie OG Squadie from the very, very beginning when we started this podcast.

1 (1m 13s):
And in this episode we’re gonna talk with Gavin about his 14 month long backpacking trip. He traveled all around the world and he visited 19 different countries. He even obtained a work visa and he worked two different jobs in Australia during this trip.

2 (1m 28s):
I loved this interview with Gavin. He was so easy to talk to. It was so fascinating to hear about his trip. And I always think that these extreme long trips are really fascinating. I’m so interested in how people make them work and Gavin really gave us all the details he shares, how he saved, how he worked, how he sold his belongings to afford the trip, how he planned, how he made friends along the way. There’s a ton of inspiration and a ton of good tips in this episode. He even shared some of his experiences with guided tours, which you know, we love, which I thought was such a genius way to kind of lighten the brunt of a long solo trip.

2 (2m 8s):
So if you’re thinking about taking a round the world trip like this, then get your notepad out because this one’s going to inspire you. I know it did me. I wanna book my round the World trip now.

4 (2m 19s):
And with that, let’s welcome Gavin to the Travel Squad Podcast.

2 (2m 27s):
Hello Gavin and welcome to the Travel Squad Podcast. We are so excited to have you on the show. We’ve been going back and forth a bunch on Instagram dms and we’ve been following your trips and we’re so excited to have you on. Thanks for joining us today.

4 (2m 42s):
Absolutely. It’s an honor.

2 (2m 43s):
Oh, I love that. So we’ve been following your trips, you have been very busy and going all over the world and we’re so excited to dive into it. But we like to start every episode with a guest on going way, way back to one of your first travel memories that sticks out.

6 (2m 59s):
Yeah, so I’ve been traveling basically my entire life. My grandparents own a cottage up in Ontario, Canada and I grew up in West Virginia. My parents are from New York, so we would always just do a road trip up. We would stop in Ithaca overnight and then just drive up into Canada the next day. So I always just remember since I was a little kid sitting in the backseat, my parents’ rule was always don’t talk to the immigration officer unless they asked you a question directly. So that’s just something I’ve always grown up doing. And then when I was in middle school, my brother went on a band trip to Europe for two weeks during the summer and I was so, so jealous.

6 (3m 40s):
And after that I had to convince my parents to send me on a school trip and I did. I made the PowerPoint presentations, I had the poster boards, I worked them over and they eventually relented. They sent me to Costa Rica when I was in the eighth grade for a week with the school and it was just an eye-opening experience. And since then it’s been, travel’s been something that I’ve made a priority in my life. I studied abroad when I was in college and then I planned to do this whole trip around the world in 2020. Obviously that did not happen. So then it just kept getting pushed back and it grew and grew and more and then I just set sail.

1 (4m 19s):
So what was your motivation to take a trip and for our listeners Gavin, you took a 14 and a half month long journey around the world hitting 19 different countries. Yeah.

6 (4m 30s):
So what was

1 (4m 31s):
Your motivation behind even taking a trip of this link?

6 (4m 35s):
So it originally started with me and a few friends in college. We planned on doing an Australian work and holiday visa, which is a visa that Americans can get and they can go live and work in Australia full-time for a year. And if you do a certain amount of days in Australia working, you can have a second year put on if you did certain jobs. So it originally started as my friends and I were gonna move to Australia for a year, we’re gonna go live in the Outback, we were gonna have a great time. And then just the course of life my friends had to back out of the trips for one reason or another and I said, well I’m, I’m still gonna go, that’s not gonna stop me. And during the pandemic I really explored the travel side of YouTube and Netflix and podcasts.

6 (5m 21s):
That was something that helped me cope with the pandemic and isolation and that’s how I found the Travel Squad Podcast. And that’s how I listen to you guys a lot. But those other videos that I also saw people, they were doing six month trips in Southeast Asia or four months in Central America and I said, well a Australia’s right there, I might as well go do it. So a lot of that motivation inspiration was seeing other people do it and saying Hey, it’s possible. And then me also saying, well I’ve already committed, I’ve told all my friends I’m gonna do this trip, I’m not gonna back out. So I have to do it. And also for myself, I’ve, since I’ve been a kid, the amazing race has been my favorite TV show.

6 (6m 3s):
I dream about competing on it on a daily basis. So the, I got to go and see places that I’ve watched on TV growing up that I’ve had this desire to go to and now I had the chance and I took it.

4 (6m 16s):
Well let me tell you something real quick. Gavin, you really like melted my heart in some sort of way when you said the Amazing Race because I love the Amazing Race also I want to compete on the Amazing race I’ve talked about applying with Britney. We haven’t yet, not for any particular reason, but she doesn’t seem to necessarily be too gung-ho on it. So I’m seeing a potential teammate applicant right here.

6 (6m 40s):
You have my Instagram.

4 (6m 42s):
Alright, perfect. Perfect. But what you were saying about Australia and that work holiday visa, it brings a lot of questions to my one. Was that the first place that you went starting your travel journey for that duration of time or was that just one of the places and how easy is it to get that type of visa? Obviously I’m sure coming from other countries in the world that may be a little bit more difficult, but as an American was it very easy to get and what type of groups did you have to go through to get that?

6 (7m 12s):
Yeah, so I actually started my trip around the world in Mexico when I had started my trip. The Australian borders hadn’t opened yet, so I was still having to deal with wearing the mask covid tests and everything. So I started in Mexico and did three months going down to Panama. And by the time that I got to Panama, the Australian borders had opened and I had already gotten my visa at that point. And it’s actually pretty easy to get the visa as an American, you just have to hit a certain amount of requirements. The number one requirement is that you are 30 years of age or younger when you enter Australia. So they want young people, they want backpackers, people that aren’t gonna go and establish a life down there. And then I also had to show that I’m, that I graduated from university, I had have a degree and in addition to that I also had to upload a screenshot of my bank statement just saying that I had at least 5,000 Australian dollars in my account.

6 (8m 4s):
So they knew that I would be showing up with a little bit of money. Then I just sent that to the Australian government and they emailed me back about three weeks later with my approval letter. Some people I’ve seen on Facebook get approved literally within seconds they’ll hit the submit button and then 30 seconds later they’ll get the email saying it’s gotten approved. And some people it takes months. So it’s kind of just a hit or miss. For Americans it’s pretty easy. There’s not a cap on it that, but I know some countries they only let 600 or 700 people apply. But a lot of people that go for this visa are primarily Europeans, specifically UK residents. But there were also lots of other Dutchess Germans met some Italians while I was traveling.

6 (8m 46s):
It was a really international scene of backpackers staying in hostels.

2 (8m 51s):
I have two questions for you. How long between graduating and taking this trip did you have?

6 (8m 58s):
So I had one year. I graduated December of 2020 and I left for my trip December of 2021. So I waited until after Christmas. That was my one promise to my mom. And I had say I had worked full-time for a year saving up for this trip. I lived at home because of the pandemic. I was doing my student teaching at first and my university said, we don’t want you working any other jobs, you should just be doing your student teaching. So that’s why I lived at home and my parents knew I was saving up for this trip so they weren’t charging me rent or anything. So I was able to save up all my money for a full year and then I sold my car and that’s how I set off on my jet. And when I was in Australia, I the, what’s really nice about the working holiday visa is the minimum wage is about 25, 26 Australian dollars an hour, which comes out to about 16, 17 US an hour.

6 (9m 51s):
So the minimum wage, even for just being a waitress or a bartender is a lot higher. So you can save and travel around Australia on that money that you earn as you’re traveling.

2 (10m 3s):
That’s amazing. And that was actually my second question is what was the job that you did When I was in Australia,

6 (10m 8s):
So I worked two different jobs. My first job I was working in a hotel slash hostel in Cannes up in north Queensland by the Great Barrier Reef. I was doing work for accommodation so I would just go clean the bathrooms, change the beds, all the, your typical hotel cleaner stuff. And so I was able to do that for a month and then later on I actually got a job doing ski rental. I was shocked that Australia actually even had ski resorts but they did, they do down in Victoria. So I was able to work there for two months. I was working 60 hour weeks and I saved up just over 11,000 Australian dollars in just under two months.

1 (10m 50s):
Wow. And then those were the only two jobs you had while you were in Australia?

6 (10m 54s):
Those were the only two and unfortunately the ski job that I was doing did not qualify me to renew my visa for my second year. And at that point I already had part of my trip to Southeast Asia booked ’cause I was gonna go to Southeast Asia for a few months and then come back to Australia. But basically the way that it worked out is I would’ve had to have canceled my entire Southeast Asia trip just to get work done to do the second year. So I just called it quit. So that’s when I ended up going doing Southeast Asia for four months before I headed over to the Middle East and then Europe and then back to the states.

1 (11m 29s):
So you made a really good point on there’s only certain jobs that are accepted on this work holiday visa. What are some of those jobs that qualify for the W work holiday visa?

6 (11m 40s):
So for Americans, if you are north of the Tropic of Capricorn or cancer, whichever the tropic is that goes through Australia, if you are north of that, any job within hospitality counts. And then if you are in rural Australia or very rural Australia doing things like agriculture. So picking fruit is a very popular backpacker job. Cattle farming, they need a lot of ranch hands out in the outback. And then you can also do construction, lighting technician. Some of those really more hard to find in demand jobs that are like we kind of just crank people through a little bit faster.

6 (12m 21s):
Those are the jobs that renew for that second year of that visa. But if you’re south of that tropic of that tropic, it’s only in the rural and very rural Australia. So the reason that mine didn’t count is because my specific town postcode that I was in wasn’t rural enough, but all the postcodes surrounding me were so that it was just a, a little technicality on the website, which was what caused me to not renew it. I

4 (12m 47s):
Mean I guess you were in the big city where you were working, even though it’s technically kind of rural, it was the big boy in town. So it doesn’t count then I guess, huh? A

6 (12m 55s):
Whole whopping 700 people.

4 (12m 58s):
Well, compared to the outskirts, I have to imagine that is a lot of people that

6 (13m 1s):
That is true out in the outback. It’s like you just drive for hours and you don’t pass anyone.

2 (13m 8s):
Oh gosh. Well let me ask you this, do you, looking back, do you feel like it was meant to be that way so you can continue your trip or do you have any regrets about not being able to stay?

6 (13m 21s):
I think that the universe aligned in a way that I benefited from not being there for another year. If I was there for another year, who knows, the universe could have put me on different paths. But when you’re backpacking the people that you meet and when you’re staying in hostels, you really form a unique connection because you’re in a very unique situation together. You take a bunch of 20 Western people and they’re all drunk and you plop ’em somewhere in the middle of Southeast Asia. It’s gonna be an interesting experiment regardless. So the people that I met when I was backpacking through like Vietnam and Thailand and Cambodia were some of the most amazing people that I ever got to meet.

6 (14m 3s):
And I’m still friends with ’em. We saw group chats, I just messaged them half of happy 4th of July, we won 1776 and all the Britts were like, yeah, whatever we have health insurance it, you just make those connections. So I don’t like to think of it of what could have been versus what was and more of just appreciative of the experience that I did get to have. That was something that I had to, that I reminded myself a lot on my trip is how fortunate and privileged I was to be in the position that I was. ’cause I know that not everyone can go do a 14 month trip around the world. I I had to sit down and recognize that that made every connection, every sunset, every rooftop bar that I went to that much more special

2 (14m 47s):
Rooftop bars. Yes, representing so

6 (14m 49s):
Many I loved

4 (14m 51s):
’em.

1 (14m 53s):
Yeah, I really love what you said about that because I mean as one door closes so many other opportunities open and it like just your mindset on, you know, I’m just gonna take it day by day and see how things go, I think is a really great mindset to have.

2 (15m 8s):
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2 (17m 26s):
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4 (17m 32s):
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2 (18m 6s):
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4 (18m 24s):
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1 (18m 31s):
But let’s go back to the start of your trip. So you went to Mexico and you were doing three months in Central America and you made it down to Panama. Tell us a little bit about that first part of your adventure. Did you do that completely on your own? How did you plan that? I mean you had 14 months kind of planned out in advance, so how much planning did you do each step of the way?

6 (18m 55s):
So I liked to plan it chunk by chunk. So starting with that Central America, I knew I’d be there for three months and I had done lots of research on a different Itineraries, the different highlights to see I nomadic Matt’s website, broke backpacker.com use listening to other podcasts. So I kind of like Frankenstein stitched together what I knew I wanted to see. I knew I was starting my trip in Mexico City for New Year’s because I have a friend who lives in Mexico City. So I knew I was gonna be starting my trip with him. And we actually had another friend come down and we started as the three of us. We did New Year’s Eve and then we went up after New Year’s into rural Central Mexico up into the High Mountains to a small, small town called Rail de ke toce.

6 (19m 39s):
Now I’m from Colorado, but that elevation was rough and it was some of the most stunning sites. But we did a a Jeep tour where we went down into the desert but going down we were, it’s like a 45 degree angle. We were sitting on top of a jeep and it was just rock cliff to one side cliff face on the other. So we did that and went back down to Mexico and then I knew I was gonna fly over to the Yucatan and do Meida and some other parts. And while I was there I ran into another backpacker who said Don’t go to East la Ho Wash it’s rained out right now, go to Baccala. So I said I’ll go if you go. So she said sure. And we went to Bacca Art together and that was how a lot of my trips kinda were.

6 (20m 22s):
I never traveled with people except for small instances like that where we would say, oh, we’re going to the same place at the same time. Let’s go together. Safety and numbers, that’s a really big backpacker community thing. Stick together and you, because so many places and hosts are so social, you find the same people that you run into over and over again. So I was in Belize and I met this guy at a hostel and he’s like, oh, I’m going to Guatemala tomorrow. I said, oh, I’ll be there next week. It was nice to meet you, whatever next hostel I show, I show up at who’s sleeping in the bed beneath me, but this guy. So then we hung out for a little bit and he is like, I’m catching a bus to whatever city. So I thought that was it.

6 (21m 3s):
And then a week later we run into each other in the same hostel again. So we just kind of did this thing and he eventually said, just come with me to the Pacific Coast and learn how to surf for a few days. And I said, sure, why not? So I went to the Pacific Coast with him. And then after that I actually had booked onto a group tour with a company called G Adventures. They’re very similar to Gate one, but they have hundreds of tours around the world and they’re people from all over the world. And they also are meant for more adventurous kind of small group tours. So the tour that I did with them, we did 17 days and we did Honduras, El Salvador and we were supposed to do Nicaragua, but because of the Omicron variant they just flew us to Costa Rica and we had some days there instead.

6 (21m 46s):
So I did 17 days with them before I went off to Panama. After that I also did a few of these trips, group tours in between ’cause it’s also a great way to meet people. So I, that’s when I would travel with people and then if I would meet people along the way that we were going the same direction, we’d get a taxi or a bus together. But for the most part it was so low, really, really plugged into those headphones a lot.

4 (22m 10s):
Well I really loved a couple things about what you just said. One of them was of course you’re doing things on your own but patching it in between with a guided tour along the way, right? And for multiple purposes, like you mentioned, just to see a little bit more safety in numbers, even though on a guided tour and of course meeting people unfortunately, you know, we have not done the backpacking route in all the travels we have done and that’s kind of like one of my biggest regrets. So anytime we have somebody like you on or we’re talking to anybody and really envious about it. But you just mentioned how you started traveling with people because you kept seeing them, et cetera. And that’s one thing that people just don’t really realize when you travel.

4 (22m 51s):
Like even though we haven’t done the group or the backpacking thing, we’ve met so many people in our travels that we’ll start traveling with independently. Like once we’re back home on just little trips or if they happen to be in a certain area and we’re traveling there, we’ll always like meet up with them. And that’s something that people just don’t really recognize about the travel community if you’re not a traveler, you know? And so you just kind of hit the nail on the head with that. And it just resonates with me when I hear it.

6 (23m 17s):
And Jamal, you know, you’re never too old to backpack. You know, I was, I know meeting people who I would backpack and I’m like, you’re, you’re as old as my grandparents and they’re staying dorms. But there are places that honestly, hostels were just better than the hotels in Australia specifically. The hotel prices are just so outrageously expensive that they have rooms for families to book for hostels so they can book in for a family vacation. And especially in Central America, it’s really, really popular with people who are in their thirties, their forties who are backpacking. ’cause you can also book private rooms, which are still half the price of a night in a hotel. Now hostels in Southeast Asia are a different story. That’s much more of a a 18, 19, 20 year old backpack.

6 (23m 60s):
There were, there were hostiles that I stayed in. I was like, you guys party too hard for me. And I was in a fraternity like good luck. But yeah, I think hostels are a great way and whenever I say to people that I stayed in hostels, the first thing that came to their mind was the horror movie. And they’re like, you’re not afraid of getting murdered or or anything. Honestly, no. I felt, I felt pretty safe. I had a lock on all of my stuff. I didn’t have, I didn’t take anything valuable with me to begin with other than my laptop and my camera. So I wasn’t really that worried of getting robbed. And if I did, I had insurance on it. But hostels are a great way to meet people because oftentimes they’ll have free activities for everyone staying.

6 (24m 43s):
So the amount of hostels that I would stay in, they’d be like, great free drinks tonight at six, bring this plastic card and just show it to your bartender. So we would go and they would take the the card and we’d just get free shots and then we would all hang out together as a hostel. There was one up in Cannes that did a ladies night where they had male dancers that were shirtless walking around giving champagne to all the women, but all the men had to pay for all the drinks. So it was, they just have the name that one, that one is Gilligan’s backpackers. If you stay there you might wanna bring some extra pair of sheets. It’s not the classiest place, but it is one of the big like iconic hostels in Australia that people stay at.

6 (25m 27s):
So I recommend if you go up there one night, two nights, get the drinking outta your system, go stay at a different, a nicer hotel when you actually want to go snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, do not do it hungover. It’s a terrible idea.

1 (25m 41s):
Well so you talked a little bit about being in Panama and then I know your next part of your trip was to Australia, which you were just kind of diving into and you’ve talked about a little bit before. So other than the work holiday that you did there, what other traveling did you do while you were in Australia?

6 (25m 56s):
So I started in Melbourne on a group tour called Welcome to Travel. And this company specifically does tours for people coming to Australia on a working visa. So on that tour they set you me up with my Australian sim card, they set me up with my tax file number, they helped me open my Australian bank account. So that was an incredible, plus an advantage and resource to have. So after I, so I was in Melbourne and I actually got covid. So I had to go do a weak isolation in the government isolation hub. But it was all free because I was a foreigner. I didn’t have anywhere else to stay. I couldn’t stay in a hotel. So after that I flew up to Sydney, I was there for a week and then I flew up to the north and made my way down.

6 (26m 41s):
And then after that, that’s when I went, went and did my ski work. After I finished that ski work, I flew to Alice Springs in the Outback. So I got to see Uluru ’cause that was like the one big thing I really wanted to see in Australia before I had left. And then after that I took a 22 hour bus ride up to Darwin where that’s where I flew from Darwin to Indonesia to start my four months through Southeast, Asia. It

4 (27m 6s):
Sounds like a lot in Australia. I haven’t been there yet and I really commend you because quite honestly, Australia just scares me. I feel like all the things that can kill you in Australia and of course I’m gonna go but to live there and be around that for a long time, I commend you for that. ’cause I would constantly think, is this spider in my bed? Is this snake under my bed? Yeah, the farm workers that you were talking about earlier potentially on the visas, I, I can’t even imagine what they’re coming across out in the fields out there sometimes in terms of what can kill you. So in Australia,

6 (27m 39s):
Thankfully I don’t have too many encounters with deadly animals. I do have one close encounter and I was up on magnetic island, which is up far in the north and it’s, it’s one of the islands that has the highest percentage of koala population in the world. So I went up there and I did a day hike, walked around and then I ended up at a beach and it was a clothing optional beach. It was not an official clothing, optional beach. But I was sitting on a rock and I just looked down to my side and maybe two feet from me, it was like this little snake, it was curled up and I was like, I bet that thing could kill me.

6 (28m 22s):
And there was a guy about 20 feet away, I was like, Hey, there’s a snake over here. And he goes, well is it gray with dark stripes on? He goes, yeah. He said, well that’s a death a, it’ll kill you. I don’t think I’ve ever ran faster in my life. Thankfully that was the only deadly animal encounter I had. But the rule of thumb is just in Northern Australia, stay outta the water honestly. Like that’s, yeah, the spiders are scary, the snakes are scary. It’s the crocodiles that are the worst. So just stay outta the water and don’t go out in the bush and you’ll be fine.

4 (28m 57s):
Well I know we talked a little bit so far of course of your South America or Latin America, obviously Australia, you mentioned how you flew from Darwin to Indonesia. So talk to us a little bit about your Asia adventures.

6 (29m 13s):
Yeah, so I started in Indonesia. I started in Bali, I went there for my birthday. I celebrated turning 25 in Bali. It was great. And question,

2 (29m 23s):
We’re considering going to Bali next year. What’s your honest opinion of it?

6 (29m 28s):
I, okay, so Bali is a very chaotic place. If you have, if you react to strong smells it, you will not have a fun time in the city parts of Bali. But Ed is in the middle 10 outta 10. It was absolutely incredible. That one was very much yoga retreat kind of vibes, lots of rice patty fields. And while I was there I did a day tour and we went to the Ubud water temple, which is a very big tourist site, but it’s also a very holy pilgrimage site as well. And what you can do is you can put on the traditional clothes and you can take a like cleansing bath and what you do is you go and you, you put your hand under your water three times, then you wash your face, then you drink outta your left hand and then you wash your hair and then you get in line, you do that like six or seven times.

6 (30m 17s):
And we were there with other tourists, but we were there with these families of all these local people. And our tour guide said he comes there once a year with his family and it’s to cleanse yourself and to spiritually wash away the, the sins and the dirt. So I was like, it’s a very refreshing experience. But it was absolutely incredible. Ed, when you go to Bali, highly, highly recommend you have to do that. It’s in the middle spend a few days there they have the fire dance, traditional dances that they do every night at the palace, which was really cool. So I loved Bali. And then if you take a fairy over to the next island, which is Gilly t, there are no cars on the island.

6 (30m 57s):
It’s only horses and bikes and the entire island is basically sand, but it’s a big party island. And the island that’s right next to it is the same thing, but it’s not party, it’s more chill, more Airbnb, more resorts. So definitely the Gilly Islands, they’re just a short 45 minute ferry boat across. Highly recommend it just for a few days at least. But be very careful of getting Bali belly. I did. So just make sure you have some antibiotics to Oh yeah, get rid of anything your system’s not ready for. That

1 (31m 30s):
Sounds amazing. And I think when Kim asked, we were talking about going to Bali next year and I could see the smile on her face that we’re probably gonna make this the trip and she’s probably gonna wanna hit up one of the Gilly islands, the, probably the party island for sure. But where else did you go in Southeast Asia during this of your trip?

6 (31m 50s):
So after my birthday in Indonesia, I flew up to Singapore and I met up with a friend who I met. He actually worked at the ski shop with me. He showed me around Singapore. I was there for about four or five days. And then I took a bus up into Kuala Lumpur where I spent a few days. And then I flew up to Thailand where I spent three weeks starting from the south. And I made way my way up all the way to the north. And then I was gonna go into Lao, but my dad texted me and this was right before Christmas at the time. And he said, if I pay for your plane ticket home, will you come home and surprise your mom for Christmas? And I said, of course it’s a free plane ticket, why not? So I flew 55 hours home, surprised my mom for Christmas.

6 (32m 32s):
And then right after New Year’s I flew back to Asia, I flew into Vietnam, I flew into Hanoi and then I spent a month going down Vietnam. And then I went over into Cambodia where I was for three months. Then I crossed back over into Bangkok where I then flew to Dubai. So that was my section in Southeast Asia. So it totaled about four months from start to finish. And

1 (32m 54s):
What was your favorite part about that part of the trip?

6 (32m 57s):
It was just a absolute culture shock. Unlike anything I experienced before. And I loved every second of it since I’ve been a kid, I’ve always loved like Asia Asian cultures. I love whenever history or geography teacher said pick a project to do a country on. I was always like China, Japan. That was my, that was what I loved and I found it so fascinating. So just being there and being in it was incredible. Vietnam was one of my favorite countries that I traveled to. It was one of the most beautiful places in the world. The people were so friendly, so nice, it was so incredibly cheap. I would eat out, drink out and with like transportation, shopping, all of that.

6 (33m 42s):
And my hostel, it would be about 30, 40 bucks a day. So it’s an incredible place to travel to if you want to travel for long-term on a budget. And the people of Southeast Asia were just so incredibly friendly. And the food, of course the food, God loves the food.

4 (33m 57s):
You can never go wrong with the food, especially in certain countries, you know, you’re always gonna get a really, really good cuisine. And so when you were done in Asia, you said you flew to Dubai. Now, was that the only area in the Mideast that you went to or did you go anywhere else in the recent, so

6 (34m 14s):
With that company G Adventures, I did an eight day tour in Jordan. So what I did was when I flew from Thailand, I was f I was really flying from Thailand to Jordan with a layover in Dubai for four or five days. So I just extended that, saw the sites, I went to the Atlantis, Palm Jamara, did the, did the leap of faith water slide from the Amazing Race, all that stuff. I did chicken out at the one where you like step into the coffin and the floor just Dr Drops out beneath you. That one, that was a no for me. But we

4 (34m 47s):
Participate, I don’t mean to interrupt you, we participated in those ones when we were staying out in Dubai as well. And I remember, see I love the Amazing Race, but I could not remember if they did that water slide scene in Dubai or if they did it at the Advantis in The Bahamas.

6 (35m 2s):
It was in Dubai. Ooh.

4 (35m 4s):
I feel even better now. That’ll be Did it?

6 (35m 6s):
Yeah. So I, it was, I’m part of an amazing race Facebook group. So I took a picture of the slide and I put it in and it got hundreds of likes and from like previous racers and they’re like, we’ve done that. So I was like, yay. My connection.

1 (35m 20s):
I wanna say that when we were at that waterpark, we had a great time at the waterpark by the way. So the four, there was actually four of us that went. But the coffin one that you’re talking about where you step in and the bottom drops out, Jamal did that one by himself and I would convinced Jamal’s sister to race me down it. And so we were both supposed to get in at the same time and then they were gonna drop us and we were gonna race. And as I was already loaded in and she was supposed to load in after me and she chickened out. So then I had to race myself down instead by myself. And she did the walk shame down the stairs.

6 (35m 59s):
I see. What was funny is no one was in the line for it and I get up to it and the guy’s like, yeah, you can go in. And he opens it and I literally look in, I step halfway in my, I just start freaking out and I’m not claustrophobic and I’m not afraid of heights, but something about it was just freaking me out. So I was standing in the line for the other slide next to it and the guy, like people would come up, they would get in, he’d be like, alright, three, two. And then they would drop on two and I was like, no. And there were big like big muscly guys behind me and they also chickened out of doing that one. I was like alright, I don’t feel as bad now. But yeah, so after I did Dubai I did eight days in Jordan.

6 (36m 40s):
So we did Aman and we weighed, made our way down through Petra and Wadi rum all the way down to aba. And then we went back up to Aman where I then flew from Aman to Vienna, Austria and I was gonna do a few months in Europe and I just hit a point in my bank account where I told myself I’m at that point time to go home. So I only spent about a week in Europe and I did Austria and Prague. So I did those two countries before going home. So I hit four continents on my trip.

4 (37m 9s):
So unfortunately you probably hit the most expensive places at the very end when they’re sitting there, you know, on the euro at that point in time too. So yeah. And I guess that kind of brings up a point to another question that I have that I’m sure I know the answer to. But of course I imagine all of this was funded from your savings that you talked about earlier, minus what you were working for in Australia. ’cause I can’t imagine you worked anywhere else on this journey, just had the visa in Australia to work legally and then made money there and plus with your savings.

6 (37m 41s):
Yeah, so I paid for this trip with four kind of big like chunks of money. The first one was my savings from living here and working for a year. My second one was also when I lived and worked in Australia, but I also, before I left, sold my car. So I got seven grand off of my car. So that was a big chunk. And then I also was fortunate to get a really juicy tax return last year. So all in all total, this whole 14 months around the world cost me just north of about $20,000. Which for a trip that sounds like a lot of money. But then when you look at the cost of how much it lit costs to live in the US for a year, you’re like wow, it is not a lot.

6 (38m 25s):
It’s just that first step of having that money to get out there first.

4 (38m 31s):
Well in some places 20 grand won’t even get you a year’s worth of rent, right? So you had places to stay, food, your transportation activities, everything that you did. So you’re right in the grand scheme of things, that is not very much, but to your point you are correct. You just kind of need that initial boost to kind of get you there to get started. Which I know is hard for a lot of people. But making it work on not that much money to compare to, like you said, rent prices or mortgages even in the US.

6 (39m 1s):
Yeah, absolutely. And it also helped to just actually track, I tracked every penny that I spent with the exception of like the a t M withdrawal fees. Those were the only ones I didn’t really count. And there was this really cool app that a guy showed me when I was in the outback of Australia called Travel Spend. And I highly recommend it to all travelers. And what it is is you put on your trip that you’re gonna put in. So if you’re gonna go to Bali next year you’re gonna say Alright, we’re gonna go to Bali for 10 days and our budget for the trip is $3,000. So then what the app does is it tells you how much you can spend every day and then as you put in how much you’re spending it tracks if you’re going over budget, under budget and then it adjusts your remaining days budgets as well.

6 (39m 50s):
So if you’re under budget for three days, your daily budget may go up from $50 to $75, but if you overspend, that will drop down. So it’s a great way to track those budgets and you literally just type in how much you spent and it will track your location. So it says, oh you’re in Japan, we’re automatically gonna put it in as a yen. So that way you can, you can track that way, you don’t have to worry about tracking the currency conversion, it automatically does that for you in the app.

2 (40m 17s):
Budget was one of my biggest questions because I’ve really been daydreaming a lot lately about taking a year to travel myself and I, I’ve just been starting to think like, how much do you actually need? And it’s possible, I know it’s possible but So you said 20,000, did you, were there any days where you felt like I need to conserve money or you stayed in hostels or were there any other decisions that you made for the financial reasons you took some tours so I imagine

6 (40m 49s):
Oh yeah, absolutely. A lot of, a lot of my decision making was based on how much money can I spend left for this day. And sometimes it was like, you know, I have to make sacrifices. I can’t go do this one thing that my friends are going because it would put me way over budget. And then there were some days where I treated myself, I was in Brisbane and you know, my hostel wasn’t particularly social, you just find some of them like that. And I said, you know what, I haven’t been going out and doing things with people, I’m gonna treat myself. So I bought my ticket myself a ticket to see nine to five the musical. And I went and I saw the musical, I treated myself to a nice Italian dinner, I got myself some drinks, bought myself some souvenirs.

6 (41m 31s):
So there were days where I definitely really went over my budget and there were some days where I, my only cost was an energy drink and lunch. So it was a ba, it was really finding that balancing act. But yeah, I did have to make some sacrifices saying, you know, that’s too expensive or I can’t get that one thing I wanna get ’cause it costs too much. So I did have to make lots of sacrifices on some of those daily cost things,

2 (41m 55s):
Eh, not unlike regular life, right?

6 (41m 57s):
Yeah. I mean I wish I could go see nine to five the musical every day, but I can’t,

4 (42m 4s):
You can always pop in the old D V D and watch Dolly Parton and you know I could you there kind of,

6 (42m 10s):
I think I have a on Amazon Prime.

4 (42m 12s):
Yeah.

2 (42m 13s):
What were some of the other things along the trip that you consciously chose to do to save money? Like hikes versus paid experiences or other ways you saved money along the way?

6 (42m 24s):
Yeah, so one thing that I like to do is I like to do free walking tours. Those are always a great option because if you’re not liking it you can always just kind of dip off to the side a little bit. And I actually did that in Austria ’cause it was just so cold. I was like, screw this, I’m gonna go get food and go back to my hostel. But yeah, so I definitely tried doing free walking tours if there was something I wanted to do. I tried finding a a cheaper alternative and then where it was possible I would buy groceries and just cook for myself. I took a travel Tupperware container and a travel, a travel like set set of cutlery so that way I could cook myself a big pasta in the hostel kitchen and have that for three days.

6 (43m 9s):
That means three dinners I don’t have to go out. That saved me 60, 70, 80 bucks right there. So those were definitely things that I chose to do. And also I, my biggest expense, it’s always alcohol and food. So definitely just picking and choosing when to go out and drink or when is it cheaper to go to a store and bring a bottle of rum back to the hostel and everyone gets to drink for cheap kind of thing. So definitely having to pick and choose when to go out and celebrate. When it came to tours and activities and stuff and stuff, I put that as a priority. So I would say, you know, I am gonna, I would rather go to the Great Barrier Reef and go on a three day bender.

4 (43m 54s):
Makes a lot of sense on that end of things. And one thing that I’m just wondering, of course you’re talking about this as a backpacking trip, but I have to ask the question, did you have a check luggage or was really everything in a backpack

6 (44m 6s):
For you? It was all in a backpack for me. I swear by carry on only it, it saved my life and not only did it save my life, but it saved my wallet too. And I was able to get it all down into just two or I think at the most, I had three backpacks at one point, my big backpack. And then I had my backpack that had my camera and my laptop in it with also like my medicines. And then I had my day pack that had my journal, my jacket snacks and stuff. But the backpack I have is an Osprey backpack and it specifically is one where the day bag attaches to the backpack. So I, I would go from two bags to one in a matter of 30 seconds.

4 (44m 46s):
Well if you got the Osprey, you’re already ready to go for the amazing race, I can tell you that.

6 (44m 51s):
Oh yeah. I am ready to go Jamal, just let me know when you want to film and audition.

4 (44m 56s):
Well I know I can speak for all of us when I say we’re a completely envious of this journey that you had and beyond journey, just a complete life experience. But of all the places that you went on this 14th month and a half adventure, what was your favorite place overall that you went to and what was the most underrated place? Doesn’t necessarily have to be the same or it can be, but I’m just genuinely curious about that.

6 (45m 23s):
I tend not narrow it down to just like one particular, I can’t even narrow it down to one country that I loved more than any of the other ones. But my top three favorite countries that I went to were Guatemala, Vietnam, and Jordan. And the three moments that I fell in love with those countries, I’ll give you those ones. Those are the closest that I can give you. To answer your question. When I was in Guatemala there’s a volcano you can hike called Vulcan Akao and it’s just outside of Antigua and it’s a five hour hike from the base to from the start to base camp. And it is basically a 45 degree angle and it’s all volcanic sand.

6 (46m 5s):
So two steps forward, half a step back kind of thing. And it was the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done in my life. But we got to base camp and you’re above the clouds, you’re above the trees and you just are. So you look around and it’s just clouds beneath you and then just volcanoes popping up in between and you are about two miles from the next volcano peak and it actively erupts about every 15 minutes. Wow. So as we’re sitting there and we just see like these cl ash clouds coming up, but as the sun starts setting, those ash clouds start turning red in orange. So there are these beautiful eruptions. And it was so cool because before I left to save up my money, I worked as an elementary school teacher and when I told the kids I was leaving, they were all really bummed.

6 (46m 53s):
So I told them that I would film videos as I traveled around the world and I’d send them back. So one of the videos I did was I took the kids up this volcano and I taught them about plate tectonics and earthquakes and all that stuff. And as I was teaching the kids this, other people on my hiking tour were like, te teach us about this. We never paid attention in high school. Tell us. So I was teaching not only my kids but these these backpackers who are on this hike with me. And it was absolutely incredible. But the worst part of the hike and also the best part is they wake you up at four in the morning to summit. So you hike up to the summit, it it’s dark, you’re there in your pajamas, you’re hating everything. So it’s freezing cold. But you get to the summit and you can see the Caribbean ocean on one side, the Pacific Ocean on the other.

6 (47m 36s):
And the sun is coming up over Guatemala as these volcanoes are around you are erupting. And that was one of the most life-changing moments ’cause I got to see the earth physically change in front of me. So that’s why I fell in love with Guatemala, with Vietnam, it was Howlong Bay, which is up in the north, which it’s thousands of islands that are just jetting out of the ocean. They look like scales coming out. And I did an overnight cruise that a lot of backpackers do you just stay on the boat? But I did it for two nights and we went around how long bay and it was, even though it was misty and rainy, it was still one of the most incredible moments. ’cause I woke up before everyone else, I woke up at like six in the morning and I walked up on the deck with my camera and I just took pictures because it was glass still except for one fishing boat that was slowly making way its way across and it had the Vietnamese flag in the sail.

6 (48m 28s):
So I got these pictures and it was just calm and serene. And one of my friends, she’s from Vietnam and she was telling me about this before I went and she said, when I think of my happy place, like if I’m stressed or yelling at a yell, customers yelling at me and I go to my happy place. That’s where she goes. And I was there and I texted her, I said, I get it. You’re right. It makes perfect sense to me. And so that’s why I fell in love with Vietnam. ’cause that was just the start to a very beautiful country. And then in Jordan it’s absolutely incredible going to Petra. We went at Sunrise and we were the first people there and our tour guide messed with us. And he was like, you can hear the aqueducts underground.

6 (49m 11s):
So like look down, you can see some of the sand moving on top. So we’re like looking, we’re like, we can’t see the sand moving. We can’t see the sand moving is, oh well anyway, we’re at Petra and we’re look up and it’s right in front of us. We’re like, and he just laughed at us the whole time. It, it was just such an incredible experience. As a gay man, I’ve always been afraid to go to the Middle East, but Jordan was just such an accepting and friendly and safe place. And that, I think that’s one of the reasons that I fell in love with it because I had such different expectations that it really flipped my worldview of this country and a region that as Americans growing up post nine 11 was something that I was very scared of going to. My parents were afraid of me going.

6 (49m 51s):
And it really just changed my opinion on a lot of what I was expecting.

2 (49m 57s):
Jordan is another one of the countries that I need to visit in the next three years, like on the top of my list.

6 (50m 4s):
Oh, absolutely.

2 (50m 5s):
Did you go with a tour or did you go solo?

6 (50m 8s):
So I went with a tour. It was with that company G Adventures. It was eight days and we hit all of the highlights of Jordan. And so G Adventures offers of wide variety of tours. They offer tours that are specifically designated tours, outdoors and activity people. There are tours that are meant just for food. And then there were tours that are met. There’s a bunch of tours that they have that’s called 18 to 30 somethings. And it’s for anyone under the age of 39. 39 and younger. And they’re offered at discounted rates. So my Central America tour I think was $1,400 and that covered almost everything. The Jordanian tour was one of their classic tours and that one was just about a thousand dollars ’cause it was on sale.

6 (50m 52s):
But that one, we had people who were upwards of their eighties on that tour with us and I was one of the youngest people. So you’d just meet incredible people on these tours from all walks of life, all different ages. Highly, highly recommend the company. G. Adventures along with Gate ones,

2 (51m 9s):
How did you pick the countries? ’cause I’m hearing about Jordan and then Egypt’s right there. I would wanna go to Egypt and then you were in South America and I would wanna go to Columbia. And like there were obviously some that you had to skip. How did you go about picking them?

6 (51m 25s):
Well, it was kind of just a fly by the seat of my pants decision. My goal in life is to visit every country. So I always like had that in the back of my mind. Well, I’ll always go back and visit it if I don’t get to it. Egypt was one that I really wanted to travel to, but it’s one that I know I want to travel to on a tour. Yeah. It’s also one that I know that my brother and sister-in-law wanna travel to. So I, we kind of agreed that maybe we’d do that as a sibling and significant other tour in five to 10 years. So I tried picking tours on not only where I wanted to go, but also where does my family wanna go with me. Awesome. So I also thought, thought about perspective like that because I really wanted to go to Japan, but my dad is very set on us going to Japan after he retires because he climbed Mount Fuji when he was in the Navy.

6 (52m 15s):
But unfortunately our apartment flooded and it ruined his Mount Fuji stick. So as you climb, you get a walking stick that they’ll burn kanji into at every station along the way up the mountain. So he wants to go back and get another one of those, but with my brother and I this time. So I told him I, I’ll wait to go to Japan till he goes. So yeah,

1 (52m 38s):
I love that and I love that how you broke down every place that was your favorite. Guatemala has been on my list for a little while and doing that volcano hike, once he said that I was like, yes, I’m frantically adding this to my bucket list right now. Jordan been on my list as well to see Petra. So I love how you broke it down and gave us like really great examples of all of the moments that made you fall in love with that specific country. Was there any country that you visited that you felt was overrated?

6 (53m 6s):
Oh,

2 (53m 7s):
Or City.

6 (53m 9s):
I was not a fan of koala Lumpur in Malaysia. And I know a lot of people who are like Malaysia, it’s beautiful, but they’re talking a lot about Oreo side and the countryside in Georgetown. I was not impressed with Koala Lumpur. I just personally didn’t like it. I thought it was dirty and crowded and how I thought Bangkok was going to be. But I was surprised at how nice Bangkok was actually. So I’d definitely say Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. It Dubai felt like a middle Eastern Vegas. It it just without the fun. It was funny ’cause I actually stayed in a hostel in Dubai, which I was surprised they even existed. But the hostile balcony view was looking at Caesar’s Palace in Dubai.

6 (53m 55s):
So I was like, I, I’m in Vegas. I, there’s Caesar’s Palace, there’s a Ferris wheel that’s sliding up at night. Great.

4 (54m 1s):
That’s exactly how we equated Dubai too. I loved our time there. It’s worth a visit just for people to check it out, but honestly I can’t imagine spending any more than, you know, two days there top to just kind of really see it. Unless you are that person that has all that money and wanna live in that opulence than great. But just like as a visitor, you know? Yeah. Dubai, not hating on it, but agree with you wholeheartedly.

6 (54m 28s):
I’ve told all of my friends and family that if you want to go to Dubai, do it as a layover. If you’re going somewhere else in that part of the world, like if you’re going to India or Africa, do a two three day layover in Dubai. ’cause Emirates Airlines, if you call them, they’ll just extend your layover for free. It’s not that. Yeah. So that’s how I recommend it to people because it’s, I it’s not a vacation destination. When you

2 (54m 54s):
Were in Thailand, did you go to the full moon party?

6 (54m 57s):
I did not. I missed the full, full moon party. I was, I was not there at the right time of the month. It, it just worked out that I was basically gonna be there on the new moon. And so that party, those parties happened on Copen Yang. I was on Koa Mui and I was gonna go up to Copen Yang. I had such a terrible time on Koa Mui that Iry said, screw this. I’m going up to to Bangkok early. And it was a combination of a few things. It wasn’t the island’s fault, it was a combination of one, I was recovering from my Bali belly, so I was a little on the e edgier side with my stomach. The hostile I stayed in was a bunch of 19 year old British backpackers that all they would do is drink and they would not talk to me.

6 (55m 42s):
And it poured rain the whole time. So I, I would love to give some of the Thai islands a second chance, especially on that eastern side. I enjoyed the Thai islands on the western side. Copp Lanta, I loved Lanta. I went and I sat in a beachside bungalow for four or five hours. They just kept bringing me beers. My bill at the end was $9. Oh yeah. So I, that’s one thing that I loved about Thailand. I, when I was in co ppp, I went to the tourist boxing matches. Have you heard of it? Oh yes,

2 (56m 13s):
Yes. I went to it.

6 (56m 14s):
Oh my gosh. I took a video of it and I had to explain to my parents that these people were beating the crap out of each other for a $5 bucket of alcohol.

2 (56m 25s):
You didn’t get in this?

6 (56m 26s):
No, I would just pay the $5 to watch them beat each other up. So I had people who were like, what? You’re not doing it? I was like, no. But I also knew people who totally would do it. But yeah, I, I liked the, the western islands. I want to get back to the eastern side, but I was there in rainy season so they were a little monsoonal while I was there.

2 (56m 48s):
Yeah, there’s just so much to see and do over there that I, I really wanna go back to, I love Thailand. That’s my favorite country that I’ve been to.

6 (56m 56s):
I want to go back to get my scuba certification out in Tau. ’cause apparently the fish cir schools just circle around you and it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world to get your scuba. So I want to go, I wanna go back to do that.

4 (57m 8s):
Well I feel that’s kind of like a perfect transition ’cause you’re talking about the, you know, what you want to do and what’s next. And so I’m genuinely curious, you know, how is transition back to life? Like not that that’s not real life, but you know what I mean, coming back to the US and then from here, where do you go in terms of your travels? Are you saving up for another big adventure like this or are you taking little smaller ones?

6 (57m 32s):
So transitioning back was interesting. Moved back in with my parents and I’ve just been getting my feedback on underneath me. I actually start a new job in about a week and a half with a company called EF Education first. And what my job is, is my job is gonna be working one-on-one with middle schools and high schools to help those schools set up international overnight field trips. So the company that I went to Costa Rica with is now the company that I work for.

4 (58m 4s):
My

6 (58m 4s):
Gosh. Yeah. So that, I definitely brought that up in my interview. They’re like, yay, you’re an alumni. So that’s my new job and I’ll get to travel with that work as well. So I’ll be going to Europe next, sometime next spring or summer. I’m not sure when or where, but they do send me on tour with some, the schools every so often. So I’m saving up to do a, another backpacking trip to Europe especially. ’cause this last one got cut short. So I’m gonna do, I’m gonna finish up my Europe part of my round the world trip next year. So that’s, that’s my next trip. Big trip coming up. But I also have a few trips planned throughout the US through the fall. I’m going to Seattle in September and then my family and I were going to Maui for Thanksgiving this year.

2 (58m 47s):
Oh that’s Jamal’s favorite place.

4 (58m 51s):
You know me, Kim, you know me. No, I love that. Have you been to Maui before? Gavin?

6 (58m 56s):
I’ve not been to Hawaii before.

4 (58m 59s):
So you’re so you’re gonna love it. You know the girls rag on me ’cause it’s, when we did our Maui episode, they were like Jamal’s coming off like he’s hating and I’m not hating, but you know, for how much people talk about, I love Maui. Maui’s great. You know, and I want to reiterate this to defend myself. You’ve been to Kauai. I loved it a lot more and that was my first island. So you know, that’s why

6 (59m 21s):
Kim says that. But if you haven’t been to Hawaii, you’re gonna love it. This I can

2 (59m 25s):
Say that. Well Gavin, I think you’re gonna have a problem because you’ve been so many amazing beautiful places in the world that sometimes us places don’t really match up when you’ve seen the amazing stuff out there.

6 (59m 39s):
I have to disagree. I think the US has some of the best natural beauty in the world. And we do. I live, I live out here in Colorado. Like, I mean I got the Rocky Mountains literally just to the west. That’s how we determine what direction we’re driving out here. But yeah, no, like coming from this trip around the world, people are like, well you don’t wanna travel to the US anymore. I’m like, no. I’ve, since I’ve traveled around so much, I’ve realized how little of the US that I’ve traveled to and I’ve still been to 20 plus states. So I definitely have more trips. I actually just got back from Chicago a couple weeks ago. I had never been to Chicago, had very low expectations for it, but my boyfriend’s out there and he is like, come out for Pride weekend.

6 (1h 0m 21s):
I said, yeah, sure. And it was one of my favorite cities that I’ve been to in the US It was absolutely incredible. When I was there we did the ghosts and gangsters walking tour. Oh my gosh, I loved it. It was so cool. And people make fun of me for liking ghost tours, but in reality they’re just history tours. So that’s, I think a great way to get into seeing cities is to do a history tour, go do a ghost tour.

1 (1h 0m 49s):
Yeah, we did a ghost tour while we were in Savannah and it just did have so much history. They brought you to all of the historical squares, you learn about historical events and it just gave us, like doing the walking tour just gives you just such a great layout of a city so that when you go and explore it by yourself, you’re like, oh, I kind of have the lay of the land on top of some of the history. So if you haven’t been to Savannah, it was another city where we’ve heard a lot about it. I kind of had low expectations and it completely blew me out of the water. 100%. Go back again. And I would completely agree with you that the US is one of the most beautiful places and there’s so many different states with different geological landscapes and so much diverse beauty in the US that we’re trying to hit all 50 states.

1 (1h 1m 35s):
We’re also trying to hit all of the countries. I told Jamal the other day, I said, if we do five countries a year, we will hit all 195 in 33 years. And so he was like, oh my god, you’re ridiculous. But

6 (1h 1m 50s):
I think that sounds attainable,

1 (1h 1m 51s):
Right? Yeah. I was like, I can break this down by year. Yeah. Why

2 (1h 1m 56s):
A trip like Gavin?

6 (1h 1m 58s):
I did. I did 19 and 14 months. I think five a year is very much a great goal, Brittany,

1 (1h 2m 3s):
Thank you. Appreciate that. Well, Gavin, as we wrap up this interview, is there anything else that you want to tell our listeners about your trip or anything in general?

6 (1h 2m 13s):
I would have to say just any experience that you can traveling, get that experience, whether it’s a weekend away in your home state or a family vacation for a week to a new country or 14 month trip around the world. Just getting out there and experiencing life is a way to not only learn about yourself, but learn about everyone else who calls this planet home. There’s 8 billion of us. Might as well make some connections. Right.

2 (1h 2m 43s):
Absolutely. This has been a great conversation. So interesting. I definitely wanna see a lot of these pictures and videos that you were mentioning and just really, really great talking to you and I can’t wait to see where you’re gonna go next.

6 (1h 2m 57s):
Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much. I’ll make sure I get those pictures sent over to you. Yeah, and I keep li I’m keeping listening to the podcast. You got a subscriber, so yeah.

4 (1h 3m 8s):
Excellent. And just let our listeners know real quick where they can find you on Instagram or any other social media.

6 (1h 3m 14s):
Yeah, if you wanna follow me on Instagram, my Instagram handle is at Gman 97. So that’s how you can get ahold of me. And you know, I had a great time here conversing with you guys. And when Travel Squad launches, group tours, send me an email. I’ll be one. The first ones to sign up. We will

2 (1h 3m 33s):
Email

4 (1h 3m 33s):
Gavin.

2 (1h 3m 34s):
Yeah, Gavin, you’re, you’re an Honorary. Squadie for life for now on.

6 (1h 3m 38s):
Fuck yeah. Ah,

2 (1h 3m 40s):
Love. Thank you so much, Gavin.

6 (1h 3m 43s):
Awesome. Thank you so much.

2 (1h 3m 46s):
Thank you Squadie for tuning into our episode this week with Gavin. Keep the adventures going with us by following us on Instagram and YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast. And send us in your questions of the week.

4 (1h 3m 57s):
If you found the information, this episode would be useful. Or if you thought we were just playing funny, please be sure to share with a friend that would enjoy it too. And as always, please subscribe, rate review our podcast and tune at every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

7 (1h 4m 11s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode. We have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.

2 (1h 4m 16s):
Bye Squadies!