Knocked Out in Northern Nigeria: African Boxing with Harry Jaggard
We're rocking this week! Not only did we win 'Best Travel & Adventure Podcast' at the 2025 Independent Podcast Awards, we also received a knockout Tales of a Trip entry from Harry Jaggard! Whilst visiting Northern Nigeria, Harry was roped into a bare-knuckle boxing match. Tune in to hear the full story, and make sure you watch the video... Rather him than us!
Harry's YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/PzG7FMhP6ZI?si=XMWF8SjvDq3sFckK
Harry's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryjaggard
Alun's shaking in Siargao, after withstanding 31 earthquakes in the past week. We hear the latest news from the island, as well as some interesting earthquake facts.
Vagabot's off to Chiang Mai, in the latest edition of Hostel Wars. Will Alun's hostel be crowned as the most authentic or will Adam continue his winning streak?
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TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Tripology
Alun:
[0:02] Hello and welcome to this episode of tripology it's the only backpacking podcast, where the hosts don't also have a daily travel vlog channel on youtube.
Adam:
[0:13] Yeah i'm.
Alun:
[0:17] Alun and i'm here with the tectonic adam.
Adam:
[0:21] It's great to be back thanks everyone for joining us again we've got a wicked show this week of course a little catch-up uh where we're going to talk about what we've been doing this week what's been happening in our respective lives and then vagabot's back he's off to chiang mai apparently so we've got to find him the most authentic experience and then of course we've got tales of a trip at the end where we hear from one of you lovely guys about what you've been up to i'll.
Alun:
[0:42] Tell you what i've been up to this week mate i've been shaking all over the shop.
Adam:
[0:47] Oh yeah you're taking up dance lessons again yeah.
Alun:
[0:48] There's been something in the way of dance lessons but my primary reason for shaking and quaking and moving about is because of the i mean haphazard number of earthquakes that have been taking place.
Adam:
[1:01] More than one more than one earthquake guess.
Alun:
[1:03] How many there's been in the last seven days.
Adam:
[1:05] Well i've got to go for number seven haven't i seven seven in seven days mate.
Alun:
[1:09] There's been 31 earthquakes that have hit chargau in the last seven days.
Adam:
[1:14] Oh wait surely not just chargau the philippines in general 31 very.
Alun:
[1:18] Isolated very concentrated little quakes no they've been all they've sort of been in this region yeah.
Adam:
[1:23] Oh my goodness um did you know they were coming you know you've sort of got your finger on the pulse when it comes to that sort of stuff, Great choice of words.
Alun:
[1:32] I've got every part of my body has been on the pulse in one way or another. But let me give you the stats, my friend. In the last seven days, we've had three earthquakes above four, magnitude four, yeah? Including one up to magnitude seven. We've had six above magnitude three and 18 above magnitude two. And then the rest of them have just been little microquakes.
Adam:
[1:52] Hang on a minute. One at a magnitude of up to seven?
Alun:
[1:55] I think there was one at seven, yeah.
Adam:
[1:57] Would that not have created a tsunami?
Alun:
[1:58] Well, we were on the outsquirt.
Adam:
[2:00] Out squirts what you get up to in your own time is none of my business.
Alun:
[2:06] One of them hit sabu quite hard and uh it's been quite problematic but because, chargau is there just on if you look at a map you'll see it just on the edge of the red ring of earthquake-ness you'll see that uh it wasn't so bad for us but my shack did move quite considerably it.
Adam:
[2:25] Was the yeah literal shake shack uh so go on then talk Talk us through it, because when I was in Taiwan last year, I felt my first earthquake. I don't know if it's your first earthquake, but mine was a measly, I think it was a 5.1. And I didn't even know it was an earthquake.
Alun:
[2:41] Grow up.
Adam:
[2:44] I didn't know it was an earthquake at first, did you?
Alun:
[2:46] No, I thought that someone was playing a kind of practical joke. And what I'd imagined, I was lying in bed when it happened. and my initial thought was that several sort of burly men were outside my shack and rocking it back and forth that was genuinely my initial reaction i was like who's rocking the shack and more plausible.
Adam:
[3:07] Was it than an earthquake.
Alun:
[3:08] Well i just thought it's quite accessible this shack and i thought why are people shaking the shack maybe there's some construction going on maybe someone pushed past it is yeah i don't really know it's a corrugated shack so i reckon you could push it from side to side and then, I thought, this is very unusual. The whole foundations of the shack are moving. I went outside and I noticed that my driveway was moving, as was the street running alongside my building. And it was at that moment I put two and two together and realized this was probably an earthquake.
Adam:
[3:39] What do you mean it was moving? Was it sort of the pavement was cracking?
Alun:
[3:43] If you've only ever experienced a little earthquake, mate, you won't know this, but it's a very particular feeling of an earthquake. And I'd never felt it before. But it sort of feels like the whole planet underneath you is on one of those little wobble boards that you might sort of try and do Pilates on if you're a middle-aged woman.
Adam:
[4:01] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, go on. Okay, I can imagine it. That's quite a good description. I can imagine that now.
Alun:
[4:07] Yeah, it just felt like the world was sort of jiving at a little bit of a different frequency. And I don't want to make light of earthquakes because obviously they can be terrible, terrible disasters and wreak havoc in people's lives. But I didn't hate it.
Adam:
[4:23] You're working your core strength where you used it as an opportunity to get abs i.
Alun:
[4:27] Got out there amongst it i mean this was a minor earthquake but i got out amongst it and i was sort of just shaking and jiving a little bit and i am looking a little bit more toned.
Adam:
[4:36] As a result yeah i mean not that that's uh that's definitely not my sort of experience when i was in taiwan i was in a place called oh shit i think i was actually in a place called guangfu when this happened and i think there was an earthquake oh no yeah there was something something bad happened was it a typhoon or something anyway loads of damage uh one of our friends is out there helping joey big shout out to you um keep it up mate but anyway i was there and i remember lying on the bed as well and things started shaking and it sounded like a huge dumper truck or something was driving down the road and it was sort of rocking the building i thought wow that's a bloody big truck i thought it was a generator initially i thought they'd sort of wax up some piece of machinery and then it was uh you know shaking the whole building and then it got louder and didn't stop and i thought blimey that's a big dumper truck and then it got even louder and things started falling off the wall and i was like oh fuck that's probably an earthquake yeah.
Alun:
[5:25] I mean they are they have potential to cause a lot of issues earthquakes and they're, They're a pretty difficult thing that Mother Nature likes to throw up. And because I'd never experienced one before, and because my initial reaction to this one was, oh, I'm interested in you. I think I want to learn a bit more. I started frantically Googling about earthquakes, and I was pretty surprised by the outcome of my Googling.
Adam:
[5:51] Yeah, because you only know the rhyme if you encounter a bear, don't you?
Alun:
[5:55] Exactly which we all know if it's brown lay down if it's black fight back if it's white good night with earthquakes though it's a little bit of a different strategy and you strike me as being woefully ignorant as to the quaking of the earth so i'm going to use this opportunity to educate you, how many earthquakes do you think there are a year on this beautiful circle-shaped planet well.
Adam:
[6:17] Given that you've already experienced 31 in the last week uh.
Alun:
[6:21] Am i able.
Adam:
[6:22] To do the mathematics And how big do I go? Because I don't want to rain on your parade. I don't want to say something that's so big that ends up being reductive. Do you not think I could...
Alun:
[6:31] Go big, mate.
Adam:
[6:32] Really?
Alun:
[6:32] Go on, try and derail the podcast, yeah.
Adam:
[6:37] How many earthquakes do I think all over the world? Tectonic plates, doing the maths in my head.
Alun:
[6:42] Just say in different words. Oh, you might have volcanic aneuryses. Oh, yeah, tectonic plates.
Adam:
[6:46] Continental shift, geology.
Alun:
[6:49] How many did you say?
Adam:
[6:50] I said 100,000.
Alun:
[6:52] You're not far off mate they're not far off that i would i would put that in the category of a moderate derailing it's only 500 000 though oh.
Adam:
[7:00] My goodness 500.
Alun:
[7:01] 000 that's.
Adam:
[7:02] A lot of earthquakes that's more than one a day.
Alun:
[7:04] Yeah and only one fifth of those are felt by people about 100 000 people feel the earthquakes oh is that all 400 000 earthquakes a year, They go completely unnoticed. And I would like to use this opportunity to recognise them.
Adam:
[7:19] So you said 100,000 are recognised by people. You mean 100,000 of the earthquakes. The way it was phrased led me to believe that only 100,000 people could feel the earthquakes.
Alun:
[7:29] What, it's like a mutation that those people have?
Adam:
[7:33] Some special power. Oh my God, it's a 5.1. People are going, really? I mean, you are moving a lot.
Alun:
[7:39] You're on a date with someone, you don't know that they have this ability. and they're like, oh my gosh, what was it? I just felt an earthquake.
Adam:
[7:46] Your abs are so toned. Okay, wow, my goodness.
Alun:
[7:53] Do you want to know something else?
Adam:
[7:54] There's still a lot of earthquakes. I said 100,000 and how would I know otherwise?
Alun:
[7:57] Well, exactly.
Adam:
[7:57] If only 100,000 can be felt.
Alun:
[7:59] I try not to lie to you, mate, but let me tell you something else about earthquakes is sometimes they have the ability to literally change time.
Adam:
[8:09] Okay, now you've got me interested.
Alun:
[8:11] There was an earthquake on someone's birthday and they're aged by a whole year. There was an earthquake in 2011 in Japan. And because it was so ferocious, it just very slightly changed the Earth's axis and shortened the day by 1.8 microseconds.
Adam:
[8:38] As interesting as that is, it's negligible, isn't it?
Alun:
[8:42] I like to think there was someone in Japan who was doing that whole thing where you go, you'll never be as young as you are right now. And by the time they finished the census, the person was ever so slightly younger.
Adam:
[8:52] It's really interesting. You've been doing loads of earthquake digging, loads of facts and figures and stuff. Do you know where the most earthquakes are?
Alun:
[8:57] I think Chile is one of the most earthquakeable countries in the world.
Adam:
[9:01] Actually, that does check out because you know when you text me...
Alun:
[9:04] Because everyone there has toned abs.
Adam:
[9:06] No, in the first few earthquakes that you felt, you know, I would imagine that was the only time you bothered to tell me that you were going through an earthquake was in the first few when it was still novel.
Alun:
[9:16] Yeah.
Adam:
[9:16] By the 25th and 26th earthquake, you probably were just not bothered about it at all.
Alun:
[9:21] I was just sending you pictures of my tours.
Earthquake Experiences
Adam:
[9:28] No no i was i was with a woman at work when i received the text message and i i told her i was like oh my god my mate's in the philippines and there's an earthquake and we were talking about earthquakes and then i asked her she's she's from chile by the way i don't know if i just mentioned that she's from chile and um i asked she said have you ever felt an earthquake and i said yeah last year in Taiwan have you ever felt any and she said uh hello I'm from Chile so I think you're probably right I think there's a fair few earthquakes at Chile yeah.
Alun:
[9:58] Well that I do think that's true yeah so that was.
Adam:
[10:01] A boring answer sorry it stays in everything stays in nowadays yeah.
Alun:
[10:07] Well I'm sure I have empathy for her as a as now an experiencer of an inordinate amount of earthquakes the thing about an earthquake it's been very difficult to measure the severity of it because my experience of it has just been my shack shaking.
Adam:
[10:23] But my landlord.
Alun:
[10:24] Texted me and she was like, She was like, oh, I hope you're safe. I hope there's no trouble. You know, if you need anything, let me know.
Adam:
[10:31] And he said, yeah, I'll have a new water pump, a coffee pot, and if you can fix a safe, it'd be brilliant.
Alun:
[10:37] I said, I hate to break it to you, but I'm sorry, but in the last earthquake, several things got quite irreparably damaged.
Adam:
[10:44] This is the sign from the universe you've been waiting for. It has delivered.
Alun:
[10:49] I am the proud owner now. For those of you who are wondering after last week's episode, I am the owner of a new water pump and a new coffee pot, the safe door has as yet been unreported aha.
Adam:
[10:59] Okay well i think that's good it's a nice.
Alun:
[11:01] I've done a dribbling kind of situation i've gone oh oh my coffee pot's broken when she came to deliver me a new coffee pot i went you won't believe it you might think that by giving me this coffee pot you've reintroduced the ability to make coffee into my life but you haven't because i ain't got any water listeners.
Adam:
[11:23] Of the show if you don't understand those references it's a call back to a previous episode.
Alun:
[11:27] Um so.
Adam:
[11:29] What do you do then stop drop and roll what's the protocols get get on the floor get away from anything that might fall off the wall.
Alun:
[11:34] Well it's not got that serious really although i did google earthquake chargau and there was people in forums going is it safe to visit chargau right now is it really terrible and people were saying no stay away so i was quite surprised to learn that it was actually, there were some evacuations, people being told to get to high ground because there was the threat of a tsunami.
Adam:
[11:54] Wow. And how far away is your shack from the sea?
Alun:
[11:58] About, you could probably... You could probably get to the water. If I had to, I think I could be in the sea in 30 seconds.
Adam:
[12:08] Is it that close? Oh my God.
Alun:
[12:10] But I would be, to do that, I would be running.
Adam:
[12:13] No, I mean, even if you weren't doing that, they're still very close. What I'm trying to ascertain is whether you would be engulfed by a wave or not. And I think you probably would.
Alun:
[12:20] It would be quite good if in the Patreon section of this episode, you just riffed and I tried to jump into the sea and get back.
Adam:
[12:28] Can we do like a live stream or something? Maybe we'll try. Yeah, that's not worth a couple of dollars. I don't know what it is to see you in the Patreon section.
Alun:
[12:35] I can't do it right now because I'm scared of the tsunami. But in subsequent weeks, before I leave Shargao, we'll do something like that.
Adam:
[12:42] That sounds good. There you go. Now's the time to sign up, guys.
Alun:
[12:45] Yeah. Okay. Well, speaking of the Patreon section, I'd like to use this opportunity to let people know. We have a Patreon section, the Lost and Found section. It's ever such a beautiful
Hostile Wars: Authenticity Showdown
Alun:
[12:54] section at the end of the show. And it costs such a minimal amount of money. we need your support now very much more than ever to grow the show and make it a beautiful wonderful community so if you do by chance have a couple of spare dollars a month to listen to an extra 15 minutes at the end of the episode go ahead patreon.com forward slash topology podcast it's just a beautiful place over there and we love you very much for trying your best now though adam we've got to hear from our favorite travel ai the proverbial vagabond who's going to judge which hostel it wants to stay up based on the quantitative measure of authenticity alone.
Adam:
[13:30] Let's battle it out, Alun. It's Hostile Wars.
Alun:
[13:36] Okay here we are hostel wars vagabot of course our own tripological ai trained on data from backpackers who went to thailand on a gap year it just seeks the perfect most authentic experience ever and by authentic of course we mean absolute most horrendous me and adam are going to compete to find the worst reviews in chiang mai thailand and we'll see where vagabot wants to stay and that Hostel will be named and shamed live on air. Adam, you are the winner of last episode of Hostel Wars. You, of course, had the hostel, which Vagabot chose. I'll go first, shall I?
Adam:
[14:16] Sure, sure. Let's hear what you've got, mate. Let's hear what you're going to deliver to Vagabot, your suggestion. See if you can become the Chiang Mai champion. It's a place we've both been, I believe. A place we know and love.
Alun:
[14:26] Yeah.
Adam:
[14:26] And a place we absolutely want Vagabot to have an authentic experience.
Alun:
[14:30] Yeah, Chiang Mai. I didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but I tried to find the worst review that I could so that Vagabot would really get its teeth into Chiang Mai as a place. And I chose a review by a 25-year-old Spanish traveller who gave the hostel I'm about to read out the review from two stars only.
Adam:
[14:49] Oof. Low.
Alun:
[14:51] Here we go. The owners were not friendly from the beginning, but after I checked out, they were just so rude. I asked if I could leave my bags until 6pm and they agreed, but around 4pm I walked past the hostel and I found out there was no one in reception and my bags were left outside on the street. I called the owner asking for explanation and she basically hung up on me i have never experienced this lack of hospitality before very unprofessional and rude.
Adam:
[15:23] My goodness okay i don't fancy my chances i'd be furious i'd be livid you'd be livid wouldn't you things like that just left strewn across the lawn whatever they were what.
Alun:
[15:32] Would you do in that situation i mean there's very little in the way of recourse i suppose what you're going to do call the police but i would be furious.
Adam:
[15:38] At the very least i would do is go on the internet and leave a two-star review it's amazing i think i.
Alun:
[15:42] Mean the the stain must have been amazing the comfort of the bedding must have been amazing to have earned that extra start.
Adam:
[15:48] Well yeah interesting to know your thoughts mate when you were doing your research a lot of bed bugs being mentioned are found in hostels in Chiang Mai I don't want to put a cat amongst the pigeons but I'm just saying if you are going to go there if you are going to Chiang Mai maybe do do read the reviews beforehand because you wouldn't want to stay there yeah.
Alun:
[16:05] I want to talk more about bed bugs I of course only experienced them once in my whole time but I've avoided them for the most part because they are the bane of the traveller.
Adam:
[16:14] Yeah i mean i don't think i've ever experienced them and maybe that means i actually have and i've just been completely unaware maybe it's me maybe i'm infecting all of the other beds oh that's nice that's what she said that wouldn't be a nice thing to say would it at all he infected my bed gross.
Alun:
[16:32] Gross gross yeah they're horrible.
Adam:
[16:34] Anyway moving swiftly on I have selected the review from a 18 to 24 year old female from Finland who has also given this hostel a two star review. Let's have a read. Here we go. Had a very bad experience in this hostel. Found bedbugs in many of the beds in two different rooms. The staff did not care about it and did not seem to be concerned at all. They were not helpful when we told them about the problem and when we asked for a refund, they completely ignored us and they were on their phones instead. The staff also slept in the same room as us, which was pretty weird. One morning, a random woman appeared in my friend's bed. I don't recommend staying here.
Alun:
[17:17] Yeah. I mean, it is the cardinal sin. They've allowed bedbugs into the property and then they've not been proactive about it. I don't fancy my chances in actual fact.
Adam:
[17:26] Well, depending on what you're after, a two-star review could be an eight-star review. Random people showing up in your bed and the staff sleeping in the room as well. So, I mean, surely the conditions aren't that bad, are they, if the staff are staying there as well?
Alun:
[17:41] I mean, if there's bedbugs, Adam, I think that Vagabot is going to absolutely love it.
Adam:
[17:47] I don't know if everyone knows what bedbugs are in the way you do. I think people might just see an insect in a bed and think it's a bedbug.
Alun:
[17:54] Well, let's find out where Vagabot wants to stay.
Vagabot 3000:
[17:59] Adam's Hostile, why? Because bedbugs are the nuclear bomb of authenticity that I'm looking for. Once they're mentioned, it's game over for anywhere else. Alun's review was bad service, but Adam's was legendary authentic backpacking at its best. Book me in, baby. Peace.
Alun:
[18:17] There we go, Adam. You win again. Vagabot, of course, viewing bedbugs as more of a beacon of authenticity than having his bags left out on the street, which I don't think touches the sides for Vagabot being a the perfect travel AI I think Vagabot probably doesn't have much in the way of bags anyway.
Adam:
[18:36] What can I say mate that's a couple in a row now yeah I think you need to step your game up and of course as is tradition I'm now going to reveal the name of the hostel that is New Warm Light Hostel New Warm Light Hostel in Chiang Mai if you want to go and have an authentic experience in northern Thailand go and head there you're.
Alun:
[18:54] Very good at choosing authentic places for Vagabot to stay. While it bodes well for your ability to win at Hostel Wars, it doesn't bode well if me and you decide to host any tropology tours in the future.
Adam:
[19:06] What, looking for the most authentic? No, because we would do it in reverse, wouldn't we? We would basically try and find the worst hostel and then definitely avoid that one, like the plague.
Alun:
[19:14] Yeah, if we do do a tropology tour, rest assured that we'll find out where Vagabot's staying and we'll stay on the other side of town.
Adam:
[19:23] Well, we might organise a walking tour where you can all meet up and that sort of stuff, but about:blank 14/29
10/18/25, 5:48 PM Tripology TRAVEL PODCAST
there will be no bedding bucks. I can promise you that.
Alun:
[19:29] The vagabond walking tour where you just go and look at a rubbish dump.
Adam:
[19:34] There I did. I really enjoyed that, mate. I'm glad. I'm not going to be a sore winner. I'm really happy with the result and I was quietly confident.
Alun:
[19:42] What is a sore winner? Someone who's just celebrating so much that they get sort of intramuscular damage. They're just like, yeah, man. Get all sore as a result.
Adam:
[19:51] Yeah, gloats. So it's all when it's someone who gloats, aren't they? There's just someone who rubs it in the loser's face and says, you know, there's an arrogance to them. And I don't want to be that guy.
Alun:
[19:58] Well, I'm happy for you. I'm happy for you winning at Hostel Wars again. I know that you're sort of developing quite a deep relationship with Vagabot now. He told me that you'd be messaging him quite late into the night, sharing your travel ideas. So I'm not going to say that I'm jealous necessarily. But, you know, Vagabot should just bear in mind that I edit him and put a voice to him. So just, you know, maybe want to give me some flowers next week, Vagabot. Now, though, Adam, it's time for my favorite part of the show and your favorite part of the show. And I've been messaging a couple of listeners. I prefer to interact with the listeners. You prefer to interact with Vagabot. And that's just one of the key differences between us. They've been saying it's their favorite part of the show. I'm, of course, speaking of Tales of a Trip, three minutes where listeners can send in their greatest travel stories at Tripology.com forward slash Tales of a Trip. it can be i mean you can talk about anything you can tell me a story about the time where you bought a coffee for an homeless gentleman on the streets of new york city and ended up having a whistle stop tour of long island or you could tell me about the time where you broke into a pillow factory and just nestled yourself in amongst all the lovely soft bedding there that would be nice story three minutes as you like let's hear what one listener had to say.
Tales of a Trip: Nigeria Adventure
Tales of a Trip:
[21:16] Hey guys i hope you're well um thank you for connecting with me um i've got many stories many crazy stories to tell but the one that comes to mind the one that that is better than the rest it's the best always whenever people come up to me this is uh quite often i speak about this and people always ask me what's the craziest story you have and this one is the craziest story i have for sure so basically I was in Nigeria I was in northern Nigeria which is known to be one of the most dangerous parts of Nigeria it's known to be very dangerous for extremism there and I went to go see a bare knuckle boxing match I thought I was going to watch but actually what happened was I didn't just watch so went with my tour guide and he sat me down there's a stadium of maybe 5 000 people to 10 000 people all nigerian and basically these young young guys are just uh.
Tales of a Trip:
[22:16] Basically just punching the hell out of each other with rope they just have rope around their hands so actually the the hit is more it hurts more with the with the rope and um he told me we're just going to watch but he said to me my tour guide said to me it'd be funny if you uh if you joined you'd be the first ever foreigner to to fight and i laughed and i said that that would be funny and he took that miscommunication he took that as a yes so although i guess i've got to take responsibility for that but he took that as a yes next minute you know he's.
Tales of a Trip:
[22:48] I didn't know any of this, but I hear my name on the loudspeaker. That's the first time I knew that I was fighting when they heard, when they said Harry Jaggard from England is going to fight now. And I was rolling the camera at that point. So I thought in the, in the moment I thought it would be funny. So
I said, yes. And I'd, I have no boxing experience, by the way, not, not any now, now I've been boxing, but before that I had no boxing experience. And, uh, next minute, you know, they're tying me up with rope. They're putting rope on my hands. they spit water on you so you're more like lubricated so you get hit uh the hits don't hurt as much and then i'm in the ring and this guy's like the same height as me
but it's a weird style of fighting where you just you hit with one hand and he uh he really went to town on me i said to everyone i was like oh can you just make it like a can you make it like an easy match like a fun exhibition match but he didn't get that miscommunication again and he's hitting me hitting he hit me and then he knocks me out I fell to the ground, I thought I was knocked out but it didn't look in the video like I was knocked out but got up and they called the match off and I had a bloody lip, and that is the last time I'll be boxing, internationally, professionally I guess it would be, parents weren't happy about that, had an injury for the rest of the trip couldn't eat, had to eat through a straw and so I probably wouldn't recommend it for anyone and that's the craziest story I have, So, thank you.
Alun:
[24:15] Wowza, Harry Jaggard there. Crazy, crazy times. They tied him up with rope and spat water at him. It sounds like a mugging.
Adam:
[24:24] Yeah, yeah. I mean, as if it wasn't bad enough already. That is my idea of maybe a nightmare. I don't think I would have ever... Rope as well. As soon as Harry said rope, it just makes me wince.
Alun:
[24:38] The cascade of events there are going, yeah, that would be funny.
Adam:
[24:42] And.
Alun:
[24:43] In doing that in in acknowledging the humor of the situation sir you've agreed to a rope tying some water spitting a punching in the face and a week of drinking food through a straw.
Adam:
[24:55] Yeah my god talk about getting stuck in i mean if you if you haven't seen harry's stuff yet of course we'll put links in the description that sort of stuff to his instagram and uh youtube channel and stuff it's amazing amazing content absolutely love watching his stuff over the years really like endearing great at interacting with locals and just captures a side of travel that i don't think many other people do speaks a number of languages as well just an awesome really really likable guy uh which almost makes this story even worse because i can't imagine the the physical violence of you know even just a sparring match with big guys from northern nigeria with ropes around their hand i'm not sure i would i would even do that for for fun or an excursion or even for the don't get any ideas, Alun. I wouldn't do it for the purposes of content.
Alun:
[25:41] Yeah, well, I mean, let's play some typological reasoning with regards to this. I think that you might have a similar reaction. If a Nigerian gentleman said to you, oh, you know, it'd be really funny if you went into this bare knuckle event, you might say, yeah, that would be funny. At what point do you abjectly make enough of a fuss to stop the cascade of events?
Adam:
[26:02] Well, I think I don't, I'm not sure in that environment, it would already be quite strange for me to be in that environment. watching a bare-knuckle boxing match. I don't think... I've seen... You know, Chiang Mai got a mention earlier, and I did see a Mai Tai fighting match.
Alun:
[26:16] Exactly. So just imagine that, but in Africa.
Adam:
[26:18] Yeah. I would like to think that my response to that would be, yeah, that would be funny, because that's quite sort of light-hearted, and yeah, good joke. But in reality, I'd be thinking there would be few things less funny, actually, than me being in that ring. Maybe, regressively, I would have put a stop. when i saw the the ropes coming up to me no no no this is not you know that is yeah i don't i get i know i'm like that would be the first foreigner and that'd be really cool and you know you'll be really good for the you know event and whatever but i'm absolutely not going to do it i've just seen the previous fights and i don't want any i don't want any of it thanks so.
Alun:
[27:00] As the situation snowballed you would kibosh it.
Adam:
[27:03] I think so i would have to i mean i wouldn't i've never had a punch in my life Alun i wouldn't know what i'm doing i'd be so out of place it would be you know i mean i think out of the two of us yeah you would would we be there together maybe and we we could just usher you in perhaps that's.
Alun:
[27:20] What i would do if i was in that situation and you'd been so stupid as to say that's that would be.
Adam:
[27:26] Funny i.
Alun:
[27:27] Think i would have to step in.
Adam:
[27:28] So you were the tour guide in that way yeah.
Alun:
[27:31] If you did something like that i would go adam i'm It's not looking good for you, mate. I'm going to have to save you here. But in return, consider it a sort of life debt. And you'll have to do a podcast with me for the next 10 years.
Adam:
[27:46] It's like, funny. I'll show you fucking funny.
Alun:
[27:50] Adam, I'm sort of frustrated. The tour guide says, oh, it'd be funny if you stepped in and you go, yeah, that would be it. But Adam, you idiot. You don't understand the Nigerian customs at all. This is going to get out of control. You're going to be in the ring. You're going to get a bloody lip. You fool.
Adam:
[28:02] The northern nigerians have got a very particular sense of humor that i don't think you quite understand um no that's that's right up your street though isn't it mate i can imagine you wanting to go to an event like that maybe drawing the line of being involved in one until you'd had more boxing experience perhaps but um for anyone who hasn't seen it jump on youtube i'll put the link in the description if it's any consolation harry the video is worth it it's uh it's pretty rough but i do think it makes for great watching yeah.
Alun:
[28:32] And what a great submission to tales of a trip i think that you more than me are good at sort of saying yes to experiences while you're traveling i don't think i'd have got in that situation i think i'd have been like absolutely not emphatically i don't think i would have engaged so there you go i'd have missed out on that wonderful experience and the wonderful accompanying video.
Adam:
[28:52] Yeah well thanks ever so much for sending in harry uh big big fan hopefully we see you out there somewhere mate we'll have to do something in the future um and i think that's pretty much it mate isn't it i think we're going to shoot off into the patreon section now yeah.
Alun:
[29:03] The patreon section the lost and found section go to patreon.com forward slash topology podcast if you want to hear that little bonus 15 minutes the end of the episode but for now send in your tales of a trip stories and we'll see you all next week thanks.
Adam:
[29:15] For watching we'll see you there bye.
