AI Travel Bot Picks WORST Backpacker Hostel
This week we introduce a new segment: Hostel Wars - We present AI Travel Bot 'Vagabot 3000' (definitely not ChatGPT) with two accommodation options in Kotor, Montenegro. In the hope of backpacking Europe, Vagabot 3000 must pick the worst hostel based on genuine hostel reviews, continuing the search for the most 'authentic' experience.
Tales of a Trip takes a romantic but embarrassing turn, as we hear from a Brazilian backpacker who unknowingly let himself go in Indonesia. No amount of diarrhoea would stop this traveler finding true love.
🌍 We'd love to hear from you! Submit your own travel story to: https://www.tripologypodcast.com/talesofatrip
Before Hostel Wars and Tales of a Trip, we discuss:
Competitive backpacking and travel one-upmanship
Adam's 7-Eleven friend in Hong Kong
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
00:46 - Competitive travel
07:54 - Iron ore train in Mauritania
10:00 - Adam's 7-Eleven friend in Hong Kong
11:30 - Hostel Wars & Vagabot 3000
18:57 - Tales of a Trip
24:00 - Adam's embarrassing Hong Kong food poisoning story
27:50 - How to submit your greatest travel story + social links
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Transcript
Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of Tripology. It's the only backpacking show where the hosts
are actually on the road all the time. I'm Alun. I'm here with my best friend and one of the greatest
travellers of all time. It's the ever-competitive Adam.
Adam:
[0:17] This show, mate, we've got a bit of a fun one. We're introducing a brand new game to the show
where we pitch some hostels against each other in the search for the shittest accommodation we can
possibly find. And then, of course, at the end of the show, we're going to have another story
The Competitive Nature of Travel
Adam:
[0:30] from a listener building that travel community.
Alun:
[0:32] It's a bit of a curveball show. It's the kind of show that people either love to love or hate to regret
or anything in between because we're going in some tangential areas. I'm looking forward to it. You
know what I was thinking today and I wanted to talk to you about the competitive aspects of travel, you
know, that kind of vibe that you sometimes get. The reason I was thinking about it is because we were
recently traveling with quite a young traveler. And he was saying to me like oh how many countries
have you been to and i thought about that question yeah and the performative sense of it how many
times have we heard answered performed out that line of dialogue as travelers where you go oh i've
been to this many countries how many countries have you been to how long have you been traveling
for have you been to this place which is off the beaten track yeah
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about:blank 3/22
Adam:
[1:22] Yeah i mean i think for me the kind of analogy would be like middle management you sometimes
see people at the very very bottom end like this lovely young lad that we were traveling with who's
pretty sort of new to the game yeah humble as they come just really looking forward to a life of travel
can't wait to get stuck into the rest of the world and then you get people at the very top end that have
been to 60 70 100 countries also very humble it's the guys that are hovering around the 30 40 mark
that have got a point to prove uh they're the ones you want to clear off.
Alun:
[1:51] I wonder how new of a phenomenon this is yeah because when i'd hate to hark back like when i
started traveling in 2015 things were different when
Adam:
[2:01] I'd only been to 30 countries things were.
Alun:
[2:03] Different yeah exactly i wonder how much this is a symptom of the new instagrammy reward-
based travel where it's like you've got to go to this blue lagoon that you've seen on instagram and if
you're a don't then you're an idiot yeah but
Pandemic Travel Changes
Alun:
[2:17] when i think back in 2015 it was more like a badge of honor. Are you one of those travelers who
is just taking a year out from school to go traveling? Or are you one of the serious ones with a mental
illness who's traveling because you literally don't know what else to do? And we'd kind of wear that as
a travel community. Oh, I'm actually traveling for a year and a half now. And people would be like, Oh
my God, that's crazy. What's that like? And it was something happened in the pandemic, I think,
actually.
Adam:
[2:45] Oh, yeah.
Alun:
[2:45] I stopped traveling for a year during the pandemic. You did what? I stopped traveling because of
a medically enforced situation. And then by the time I got back, people were claiming some
extraordinary numbers.
Adam:
[3:01] Of countries that they've been to?
Alun:
[3:02] And how long they'd been traveling. I feel like before the pandemic, I'd been traveling for four
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years nonstop.
Adam:
[3:10] Right.
Alun:
[3:10] And I would say that and people would be like, well, it's a funny thing that happens. You say
you've been traveling a year. People are like, wow. You say you've been traveling for two years.
People are like, wow. You say you've been traveling for three years. People are like, oh,
Adam:
[3:22] Okay.
Alun:
[3:22] You say you've been traveling for four years and people are like, are you all right?
Adam:
[3:27] Do you need help? Yeah. When I was traveling through the pandemic, I traveled through seven
countries during that sort of two year, 18 month period, which is more than most people I know. It's a
tricky one because I would say that you now sit in that category right at the top where you've been to
so many countries, it's difficult to make it
The Authentic Experience Debate
Adam:
[3:48] sound like anything other than a brag.
Alun:
[3:50] Yeah i appreciate that but it's like you get to this point where i run into people after the pandemic
i'd be like how long have you been traveling for and they'd be like oh 10 years wow that's amazing
you've been traveling longer than me and i've pretty much spent my whole like 20s traveling and
you're younger than me how is that possible and i would investigate i
Adam:
[4:10] Already know what's coming.
Alun:
[4:11] And they'd be like oh yeah well i you know i went on holiday when i I was 13. So I started
traveling then. That was when I started traveling. And then, oh, by the time I was 20, I'd been already
traveling for seven years. You know, the reason you're manipulating that memory in those stats is
because you want to perform as someone who's really, really well traveled. It stopped being about
your actual experiences and just sharing, oh, you know, this is my lived experiences, how long I've
been traveling for. And it's become about like, I'm a level five traveller. I've been travelling for this long.
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Adam:
[4:47] Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a toxic culture that exists within backpacking that we've touched on
before. I mean, I've even heard people include the two years of the pandemic as travelling. You know,
they travelled to a place, got stuck there for whatever reason. And they're like, yeah, you know, I've
been on the road for six years or whatever. But two of those years, I was doing absolutely fuck all in a
place I didn't want to be. And you're like, oh, that doesn't sound very positive.
Alun:
[5:09] Are you ever guilty of it? Because I sometimes count working holiday visas into my travel time.
Adam:
[5:16] Yeah. Well, then it becomes about threshold, doesn't it? It's like, where's the cutoff line? Because
I've been traveling, traveling in inverted commas, quote unquote, whatever, for, let's say, 10 years. I
first left on my big trip through Russia and China in 2014. Obviously, I've been home a couple of times.
I've been to see my family. I got stuck at home for four months or whatever it was during the
pandemic. And I've lived in seven countries, some of those for two and a half three years but it's still
not home and it and it was always temporary so that's probably a different subject for a different day i
probably rephrase it and say i've been away from home for about 10 years now um as opposed to
traveling for 10 years because i think that probably gives people the idea that you're just a backpacker
and you're moving through you know every week or two weeks you're changing location perhaps um
but yeah it is it is a bit of a grey area, this kind of one-upmanship, or we even call it one-downmanship,
like trying to go for as long as you possibly can on the least amount of money you can possibly go. I
mean, I see some people in hostels now.
Toxic Travel Culture
Adam:
[6:14] And they eat the food they're eating. I just think you wouldn't feed it to your worst enemy.
Alun:
[6:20] Well, so you think that there's almost like a desire when you're traveling amongst a certain class
of slightly toxic people.
Adam:
[6:27] Yeah.
Alun:
[6:27] There's like, you want to have the most reductive shittest experience possible. Yeah. Because
that's deemed to be like badass.
Adam:
[6:35] The most authentic, without a doubt.
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 6/22
Alun:
[6:37] If you're staying in a hotel, I'm staying in a hostel. If you're staying in a hostel, I'm staying on a
mat on the floor without a roof over my head. If you're doing that, then I'm going to roll around in literal
shit in an attempt to have the worst possible experience and then brag about it later.
Adam:
[6:53] Well, I mean, the perfect example, I think this is two things. And guys, if you are listening and
you've done this or you know someone who has, please correct me if I'm wrong. But this is going to
take me a little while to get to. So I've been guilty of this and I'm sure you have as well. when you get
from one destination to another especially in developing countries there's well back in 10 years ago
whatever there were bus companies tour companies you could either maybe hitchhike or you could
get a local bus or you could get a private car or you get a fucking chicken bus yeah and if you get
picked up by a chicken bus and you sit in the back with a load of locals that are on their way to the
next village that's an amazing story yeah and that is like a badge of honor you get to oh oh you
booked a bus did you oh you booked a bus at the booking office uber was it you paid oh you paid you
paid five us dollars for that did you really i just hopped in the back of a chicken bus covered in shit it
was absolutely miserable for the entire time and it took five times as long but it is a better story
definitely if you use that to put someone else down i'm not a fan of that now where this kind of goes
into what i was going to highlight and i'm sure you've seen this on instagram have you
Hostel Wars Introduction
Adam:
[7:52] seen is it that the iron ore train through mauritania i've.
Alun:
[7:56] Not seen it
Adam:
[7:56] Have you not seen it on instagram no fucking hell it's absolutely everywhere you see people
nowadays they are doing like instagram and and tiktok content of them sitting in a tram which is like a
cargo train yeah carrying loads of whatever it is coal line or i don't know across through the desert and
i guess way back when that was a fucking cool way to travel that was a very old school it probably not
good for your health, But now it's become like a glamorous thing to do. People are deliberately going
to Mauritania. Again, don't quote me on it. I'm pretty sure it's Mauritania. Just to do this train thing. And
it completely misses the fucking point.
Alun:
[8:31] Right.
Adam:
[8:32] Doesn't it?
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 7/22
Alun:
[8:32] You're just doing it because it's this performative, like, I did this crazy thing.
Adam:
[8:36] Yeah, yeah. It's now become a gimmick. As opposed to like a way that really poor locals maybe
used to travel. Right, yeah. You know, like stowing away on a boat. It's like, oh my God, did you have
to stow away? no i'm a backpacker who's been away for a month i just wanted to tell a cool story.
Alun:
[8:51] And my least favorite type of traveler are the ones who like they have they adopt a sort of
challenging persona you'll meet them at all like you you go oh i just got back from i just went out and
got some food and they're like oh how much did you pay for it right i'd be like oh you know i went to i
saw this recommended restaurant on google maps and they're like oh went to a restaurant did you i
just went to the local market, I actually paid, I just paid in beads, which is actually the most early form
of currency. So there was actually no transactional exchange. I actually got to talk to some really great
locals and had an authentic experience. You went to a, you were served by a waiter in a restaurant.
Oh, right. Okay. I'm like, leave me alone. You fucking get off my case.
Adam:
[9:39] I mean, I have to be careful how wide I open my mouth here. Cause I'm, I definitely exist on the
spectrum maybe not in this example in particular but there are other areas that this kind of mindset
bleeds into when it comes to long-term travel and backpacking and i have been absolutely guilty of
that so you know i don't want to pretend that you know i'm not the same in some areas because when
it comes to food i mean my good mate stew who listens to this show i visited him in taiwan right and i
remember when we were living in hong kong together almost every meal he would just go to 7-eleven
for a sandwich and i'm like stew man, You're in Hong Kong. Like, it's one of the foodie capitals of the
world. Please, please, please, can I just take you for some food? Because you're not getting that
immersive experience. And he's like, Adam, I don't fucking care. I just want to eat a sandwich that
comes out of a plastic wrapper from the local shop. I'm not bothered, mate.
Vagabot 3000:
[10:31] I'm like, oh, okay. Well, travel is, you know, means something different to you, I suppose.
Alun:
[10:37] Oh, Stu, you're a level one traveler.
Vagabot 3000:
[10:39] He's to their own.
Adam:
[10:40] But, you know, in the same breath, he lived in Taiwan for fucking years. He's lived experiences
that I can only dream of. So, I don't know. It's a toughie. It's a really, really tough one.
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Alun:
[10:49] It's a toughie. But you know what? I think you've got to just live and let live when it comes to
travel. You've got to travel in the way you want. It's important to share stories. First and foremost, I
think the reason people talk about where they've been, how long they've been traveling for, is because
we ask these questions of each other all the time. And it's just a way of encapsulating your travel story
without having to go into too much detail. It's just a way to quickly reveal to someone, oh, this is what
I've been up to for the last little bit.
Adam:
[11:14] Yeah, I think for me, the best case scenario is that you meet people in the travel space, whether
it be a hostel or anywhere else on a work away, something like that. And what they've done and what
they're doing inspires you to do more.
Alun:
[11:26] Absolutely, man. Adam, I've been thinking about this sort of performative one-upmanship in the
travel space. travelers who always want to stay in the grittiest dirtiest most authentic accommodation
and will begrudge other people for staying in a nicer hostel airbnb hotel that kind of thing yeah
Adam:
[11:47] Yeah like us staring at staying in an airbnb.
Alun:
[11:49] Yeah exactly well i thought about this i was thinking what if you took all those toxic aspects of
the worst kinds of travelers and forced them random into a sort of ai model definitely not chat gpt just
some sort of ai model so i created this thing this sort of demonic travel monster i call it Vagabot 3000
Vagabot
Adam:
[12:14] 3000 what an amazing name.
Alun:
[12:15] Yeah and Vagabot basically the idea behind this ai model is that it's just desperate to have the
most authentic travel experience it wants it's like if you sent chat gpt to thailand on a gap year and just
let it come back with all the things it has absorbed during its time there. It basically fundamentally
believes that luxury is the antithesis of travel and that it wants to have the most authentic experience
possible.
Adam:
[12:41] Yeah, I think this is going to resonate with a lot of people and probably me included, actually.
Alun:
[12:46] Yeah, I wanted to play a game with you.
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 9/22
Adam:
[12:48] Go on.
Alun:
[12:48] So every now and again, we're going to randomly generate a location. We did this in the middle
of the week, and we randomly generated Kotor in Montenegro.
Adam:
[12:58] Lovely. Not been there myself.
Alun:
[13:00] Me and you went and found the worst possible reviews that we could find in hostels in Kotor.
Adam:
[13:07] Yeah.
Alun:
[13:08] We're going to compete them off against each other. And then we're going to find out where
Vagabot 3000 would rather stay. You're going to read your worst possible review, a real review found
on the internet for a hostel in Kotor. I'm going to read my worst review that I've found. We'll battle them
against each other. And then we'll find out where Vagabot 3000, this authentic travel bot, where that
bot wants to say. Then we'll name and shame that hostel live on the podcast. Because if Vagabont
wants to stay at your hostel, that means it's properly shit.
Adam:
[13:40] So it's our ability to find the worst, most authentic accommodation possible,
Worst Hostel Reviews
Adam:
[13:45] as decided by Vagabont 3000, the ultimate backpacker.
Alun:
[13:50] Absolutely. So what review have you brought to the table today? The worst review you could
find for a hostel in Kotor?
Vagabot 3000:
[13:57] Hostel Wars.
Adam:
[13:59] Okay, so after much research, I found a hostel review that was a whopping 5.7 stars. Oh, it's
quite high. Quite high, quite high. So I'm going to read the review now. We waited almost an hour in
the reception. At first, the staff seemed busy, but we realised that was not the case. Most of the people
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 10/22
living in the hostel were in fact the staff. The barbecue is not to be recommended. It was 25 euros and
you were offered two sausages and some bread. In the evening, the staff, mostly Aussies,
concentrated on themselves. Nick was the only service-minded of the entire staff, consisting of 10 plus
people. At some point, it was difficult to buy beers due to the lack of hierarchy.
Alun:
[14:37] Oh, no.
Adam:
[14:39] Okay.
Alun:
[14:40] So it was a odd social strata in your hostel
Adam:
[14:43] Yeah yeah does Vagabot drink if he if he drinks i fancy my chances i.
Alun:
[14:47] Think Vagabot will drink because he's seen other travelers drink
Adam:
[14:52] He likes chan yeah.
Alun:
[14:53] Exactly um any reply from the hostel itself to that awful review
Adam:
[14:58] Yeah one of the reasons i chose this actually was because of the fantastic uh reply from the
owner of the hostel who has said, this is so amazing. I love this sort of stuff. We could do a podcast
just about reviews, I'm sure. The owners replied to that by saying, thank you for your review. I will do
my best to find you and treat you with the opportunity to say all of this to my face. See you soon.
Happy smiling. A smiling emoji.
Alun:
[15:26] Oh my goodness. Now, I don't know if we can factor the owner's response into Vagabot's
decision. I think Vagabot deals in the cold, hard material fact. But it is interesting that the owner
essentially issued a threat to the person that made the review.
Adam:
[15:42] I do think it says a lot about an establishment if, you know, the owner's chimed in and he's
going, go on then, if you think you're hard enough.
Alun:
[15:49] Yeah, come on then. You couldn't find a fear, could you?
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 11/22
Adam:
[15:54] To say all of this to my face. Amazing.
Alun:
[15:58] That is brilliant.
Adam:
[15:58] Yeah, he's one of the staff. He's probably an Aussie. Yeah.
Alun:
[16:00] I went in a slightly different direction with my review. I chose a one-star review.
Adam:
[16:04] Hopefully not too far away from Kotor.
Alun:
[16:05] Well, still in Kotor, as per the rules of Vagabot's sick little twisted game. But I chose a one-star
review, and it simply says the following. Not worth it. Impossible to sleep in a boiling tiny room due to
the unbearably noisy air-con machine. It's walking distance to the old town. Ina, the cleaning lady, who
was only a temporary worker for two days, was lovely, even though she hadn't been given instructions
about the hostel and was totally lost on her own. I don't think Ina is just wandering those halls
mysteriously at night, not all knowing what's going on. The reviewer says it's impossible to sleep at
night due to an extremely loud, unbearable, freestanding aircon machine inside the tiny bedroom that
made an industrial noise and was heard on the whole floor. Room unbearably hot, it was located just
under the roof and had wooden walls and barely no electric light inside the room. Impossible to read in
the room. Alex, the Russian employee, was very rude to me. He only turned up at my door on the last
night at midnight asking for 30 euros at the cleaning lady that's einer again isn't it this is all einer's fault
this
Adam:
[17:13] Is a review of.
Alun:
[17:14] Einer yeah the cleaning lady had got wrong varied brook behavior and bad manners the
hostel's located right next to the supermarket's rubbish dump and only one bathroom and shower for
eight people they refuse car payments and force you to pay in cash so there you go much longer
review Vagabot's got much more to go on you've got multi-layers you've got i know the wandering
cleaning lady who doesn't know anything about cash you've got alex the russian bodyguard forcing
kind of payments in the middle of the night i get
Adam:
[17:40] The impression that the room was hot yeah they mentioned that a few times they really drilled
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 12/22
that home um not somewhere i'd want to stay but i also don't want to lead Vagabot 3000 down down a
path well.
Alun:
[17:51] I fancy my chances here because i think Vagabot is gonna appreciate the sweltering nature of
my hostel and we don't know how he feels about beer so i think he'll factor that in Well,
Adam:
[18:02] I wonder, I wonder, just wonder whether the owner's reply would have swayed the decision. But
I am looking forward to finding out because it is, he is looking for that authentic experience after all.
Alun:
[18:10] Let's hear what the Vagabot has to say.
Vagabot 3000:
[18:13] Vagabot 3000's decision. Alun's Hostel. Want to know why? Because sleeping in a boiling attic
box under a noisy aircon with a wandering cleaning lady and a panoramic view of a supermarket trash
heap is absolutely wild. Adam's Hostel was poorly run, but Alun's? That had real character. Book me
in. Peace.
Alun:
[18:33] There you have it, everyone. Vagabot 3000 has chosen to stay at Kotor Hostelito.
Adam:
[18:41] Oh dear, fair and square. You won this one, mate. I'm looking forward to the next one. I've got to
step up my game, obviously.
Alun:
[18:46] KOTOR Hostelito, of course, the most authentic accommodation in the whole of KOTOR. We'll
play again soon. That was Hostel Wars.
Tales of Travel Stories
Alun:
[18:56] And here we are, a place that's fast becoming my favorite time in the show. Listeners go to
topologypodcast.com forward slash tales of a trip. There's a link in the description. There's an
opportunity to submit your best travel story, be it an emotional memory a crazy tale last week we heard
from will who got chased around by a bunch of monkeys in india yeah
Adam:
[19:21] Very scary stuff indeed not everyone not everyone would want that not everyone would want to
be able to tell that as their greatest ever travel story but i mean what an one extraordinary opportunity
we're giving people now to sort of share what they've been up to yeah.
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 13/22
Alun:
[19:34] Every week someone tells their greatest travel story we want to hear from you so head over to
tales of a trip and submit it but right now we've got an amazing story to tell let's listen to it hey
Tales of a Trip:
[19:46] Guys how's it going huge fan here uh lucas from brazil i used to live uh with Alun back in 2018
and uh he was actually one of the the first guys that you know started to grow that dream of being a
traveler and this kind of stuff. Today, I am a digital nomad. I'm living currently in Costa Rica. So
basically, I'm going to tell you guys how I knew that my current wife was the one because this story is
really funny and involves love and a lot of shit. And, you know, travel. So basically, 2018, we were in
Gili T, right? After a really nice, man, you know, really nice time that we had traveling around
Indonesia. And we were in Gili T and we went to a night market. Back that time, me and my wife, we
were like, I don't know.
Tales of a Trip:
[21:01] Four months, maybe something like that together. And we went to a night market. We we
choose some some food. And I had like a ghillie belly, you know, I'm sorry, a ghillie belly, not a belly
belly, you know, but like island belly, something like that. So I consumed like water that was not that
good. I reckon and suddenly after I don't know like four hours five hours I was like literally shitting
myself you know I shed on the bed guys can you even imagine you are like dating a girl for almost four
months and suddenly you wake up and you shed the bed that was uh the moment that I realized that I
was completely fucked.
Tales of a Trip:
[22:02] And my current wife, she actually went to the pharmacy. She bought medicine. She returned
from our Airbnb. And man, she took care of me, you know. Even she cleaned the bed, bro. And that
time, man, that exactly time, I knew that she was the one. And now like we are currently married eight
years already and everything begun with literally shitting the bed. Thank you guys. That's the story.
Hope that you enjoyed and that's it. Kiss, kiss.
Alun:
[22:47] Thank you so much for sending you a story. Lucas, a change of pace from Will's story last
week. That's actually my friend of mine, Lucas. I live with him very, very briefly when I was first in New
Zealand.
Adam:
[22:59] Was it so brief because he was shitting the bed?
Alun:
[23:02] No, it was so brief because, I mean, we were just, I arrived in New Zealand with absolutely zero
money. And I just squirmed into a house share in which Lucas lived. We stayed in touch. We stayed in
touch for quite a long time, but I...
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
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Adam:
[23:14] This is Lucas from the aforementioned crack den in Auckland, is it?
Alun:
[23:18] No, no. Lucas never made it to the crack den. Lucas lived a much more luxurious life than I in
New Zealand because he figured out how to not move into a crack den primarily. But lovely, lovely guy.
Thank you so much for sending your story. I mean, you will be able to empathize with this more than
me. And I'll tell you for why. I don't know if you've shit a bed, but you've definitely had more
gastrointestinal issues in your life than I have.
Adam:
[23:41] Yes. Yeah. I mean, I can empathize, although it didn't result in being married to the woman of
my dreams. But yeah, I have had some very unfortunate episodes. And, you know, Stu's already got a
mention once on this episode. But yeah, it was a time in Hong Kong where I was feeling pretty bad. I
got food poisoning, I think, not from drinking water or whatever on Gilly Tea. I didn't even realize that
Gilly Tea had a bad reputation.
Alun:
[24:09] For having bad water?
Adam:
[24:10] Or for people getting sick.
Alun:
[24:11] Well, I mean, lots of ochres. It's gilly belly. I think you've heard of barley belly, gilly belly, deli
belly, all the bellies. I'm drinking water right now on this show that you boiled for me. And Manila has
pretty good tap water.
Adam:
[24:25] Yeah, yeah. You just never know. But anyway, back in Hong Kong in sort of 18, 19, I guess it
would have been maybe early 2020, I ate a beetroot that I had bought from a market, from a local
market, you know, a local market, because I'm always having the most authentic experience. I
wouldn't go to a supermarket.
Adam:
[24:43] Uh, and I washed it. I kind of cooked it in the microwave whilst I was working in a wine bar. It
was, you know, my brief sort of five minutes when there was no customers. And later that night, I
started feeling really cold, really cold, like freezing, even though I was fully clothed as you'd expect,
but with my jacket on as well. And Hong Kong, even at that time, it wasn't that time of year. It wasn't,
um, it wasn't winter, even in the winter, it's not that cold. Um, but I came down with the chills i couldn't
even make it back to my hostel without huddling a few times in in buildings and stuff trying to keep
warm um went to sleep that night with the chills fully clothed with my jack wolfskin down jacket zipped
up and my hood on yeah could you even like on a top bunk and then woke up in the morning and uh
7/8/25, 7:08 PM Enter the Vagabot transcript
about:blank 15/22
yeah it was fairly embarrassing i know i had to call in stew bless him to help me out and he went down
to the local local congee store he bought me a bowl of soup a congee which is like a rice soup um
pumpkin and sweet corn congee i remember it like it was yesterday he placed it next to my head and i
didn't touch it for 24 hours i didn't even have the strength to lift the spoon to my mouth just the sheer
evocation of fecal matter yeah and do you know what this is so embarrassing i can't believe this is
going on a main episode but um i mean lucas is leading by example yeah yeah fair play to him lucas
what an amazing story thanks for sharing it did lead lead.
Alun:
[26:02] To a marriage so he kind of styled it
Adam:
[26:03] Out yeah uh whereas this one i I mean, I spoke to Stu afterwards after he looked after me with
a couple of other people in the dorm because we were long term as we couldn't get away from each
other at this point. We were bonded. And yeah, I remember saying to them, guys, this is so
embarrassing, but I really appreciate all your help. I did actually shit the bed. And Stu said, oh, we
know. I was like, oh, how do you know? He was like, Adam, we're sleeping in the same room and you
shit in the bed.
Alun:
[26:29] I mean, it's so much better that you faced up to it rather than going, like, trying to style it out and
clean the sheets syrupticiously.
Adam:
[26:36] We're talking about cleaning the sheets. I mean, hats off to Lucas's now wife. Yeah. Is that the
sort of thing that you would just take in your stride? I mean, imagine they're obviously madly in love.
They've been together for a long time now.
Alun:
[26:47] I've met her, but I didn't realize they were married, actually. So congratulations. Lucas is a good
friend of mine, but I didn't know he was married. That's awesome.
Relationships and Travel
Adam:
[26:54] Four four months into the relationship which in travel terms i mean that can be a year really
yeah.
Alun:
[27:01] Easily i always think that because when you're traveling you're together all the time when you're
in a marriage sometimes you can be with each other you know you go to work see each other in the
evening
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about:blank 16/22
Adam:
[27:10] And you know like maybe we would do this or you would do this for your backpacking friends or
whatever you're talking to people back home or people you meet on the road and you talk about a
newly formed relationship whilst you're away you say yeah things are moving really fast you know
we're spending 24 hours a day with each other we're in each other's pockets we're shitting the bed
together you know they're cleaning it up for me and you go whoa hang on what what's happening it's
just an amazing development and i think once you get that sort of stuff out the way early and they're in,
I mean, it's only going to go from strength to strength.
Alun:
[27:40] Travel, the best conduit possible for relationships, isn't it? Yeah. Absolutely beautiful. Lucas,
thank you so much for sending that story in. We want to hear from all the Tripological audience. If you
have a story to send in, it's tripologypodcast.com forward slash tales of a trip. Record your best three-
minute story all about travel. We've got a bunch of social links down in the description. We've got
Instagram. We're on X, Facebook, Gmail. we've got a website where you can send us emails there's
all sorts of stuff going on not to mention it's patreon it's
Adam:
[28:13] Patreon the lost and found section that's a little 15 20 minutes if you're lucky uh section after the
show where we we sort of go back to sort of old tripology just chin wagging and telling stories and talk
about what happens in our personal
Patreon Section Tales
Adam:
[28:24] lives and all that sort of stuff the gloves are off.
Alun:
[28:26] We go a bit unhinged and i've got two stories to tell in this week's patreon section okay one is
about a terrible encounter with a german traveler and the other is about lucas the guy who's just called
in the show oh god telling a right mischievous lie and i want to talk about that because it happened to
me it was very curious and it was one of the most mind-blowing experiences i've ever had he said
something to me that caller that we just listened to yeah that changed my perception of reality so
wholeheartedly i'm still recovering from it and we can hear about that in the Patreon section that's
patreon.com forward slash Tripology podcast. Next week though it's going to be ever such a
bacchanalian event of chaos. It's going to be everything kicking off here at Tripology. We'll see you
there.
Adam:
[29:09] We'll see you there. Cheers guys. Bye bye.
