The Diary That Started 4 Years of Non-Stop Travel
In this week's very personal episode, Alun opens the travel diary that started 4 years of non-stop travel. Alun kept a travel journal for 4 years, documenting every day. We relive the moment he set off on the adventure that started it all. Hold onto your coffees tightly!
Adam shares his chance encounter with an inspiring gentleman who's had a huge impact on the travel industry. Let's just say he 'carries a lot of weight', without exceeding the baggage allowance!
Tales of a Trip returns with an embarrassing story that will have you giggling and cringing in equal measure. Honest, vulnerable, and lighthearted, this backpacker is a cup half full kind of gal!
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
02:35 - Adam meets the inventor who created the airport luggage scale
11:30 - Alun's Miscellaneous Travel Item
12:35 - Alun's Antiquated Adventures: Alun's travel diary reading
18:23 - Adam & Alun discuss Alun's first day travelling
25:12 - Tales of a Trip: Embarrassing Backpacker story
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TRANSCRIPT
Alun:
[0:02] Hello, and welcome to this episode of Tripology. I'm Alun, and I'm here with one of the greatest travellers who does a podcast as well. It's the ever-underweight, Adam.
Adam:
[0:15] What are you fishing for, showering me with compliments like that? We've got a hell of a show for you this week, guys. We're going to have a little catch-up, as we always do, find out what we've been up to in our respective travelling lives, and then we're going to go to the second section of the show, where I think we're going to have a little tree, I think a little birdie told me that you're going to read an excerpt from your diary. I can't wait. And then, of course, everyone's favourite part of the show. At the end, we've got Tales of a Trip.
Alun:
[0:37] Oh, what an excellent show we've got lined up. Yeah, we've got a little exclusive reading of something that normally happens over on Patreon. But we're going to tease it to our regular listeners in the hope that they'll basically spend some money on our Patreon to get the full version, Adam. That's called capitalism, baby.
Adam:
[0:57] I have heard little bits from your diary, little snippets, and it, my goodness, does it, A, make me want to travel, and B, make me want to spend money. I can't wait.
Alun:
[1:07] Let me tell you where I'm at, Adam. Basically, I've been spending all my time surfing and doing jiu-jitsu, and what it's resorted in is me feeling ever so lethargic when it's time to pick up the mic. So this episode, all the Adam fans will be ever so happy because I'm going to take what can only be described as a backseat in your new New Zealand traveling van. And I'm going to listen to you regale me with a story of your choosing. And I'm going to occasionally make some quips, occasionally jump in with a little comment or two. But for the most part, I'm just going to sit and listen to what you have to say. What on earth have you been up to?
Adam:
[1:45] In your words, this is going to be delivered as a sentence that you might say, you're throwing me under the proverbial bus. But we've been a bloody busy week, mate, actually, buying the camper van, as you well know. We're not going to talk about that. I went skiing for the first time in three years. We're not going to talk about that. I went to one of the most famous festivals in all of New Zealand, Snow Machine. We're also not going to talk about that. But we are going to talk about a meeting I had with a man in a bar.
Alun:
[2:15] Wow, you've got such a plethora of stories that absolute gems like a snow machine and a skiing holiday just go to the bottom of the pile in favour of a meeting with a bloke.
Adam:
[2:27] Well, we'll do another plug for the Patreon. I'll maybe tell you about those in the Patreon section because they are definitely worth chatting about and they did happen in my actual life. But I want to talk to you about a guy I met at my place of work. You know, I work in kind of like a wine shop slash bar. And because I'm not from where I'm working, i.e. New Zealand, I think that's fairly evident in my voice, this gentleman who was drinking in the bar, he started chatting to me and he said, go on then, where are you from? A little, you know, back and forth about what we've been doing and travelling around the world. He said... I kind of work in the travel industry. I said, oh, yeah, go on then. He said, yeah, you ever been to an airport? I was like, yeah. He said, have you ever had your bags weighed at check-in? I said, yeah. I mean, I usually carry on, but yeah, go on. He said, you know, the machine that weighs your bag? I was like the scales. He was like, yeah. He said, chances are you've used one of the scales that i kind of invented and i i own the company that that distributes them and i was like wow this is this is amazing.
Alun:
[3:38] Okay well i mean it is amazing knowing very little about this and i'm sure you're going to elaborate it seems to me that the person who invented the scales that are used at airports is the same person that invented the scale because there's very little difference between the scale they use to weigh a bag and a regular old scale that people use to measure how much fat they've accumulated on their bodies so what is it exactly this guy invented i was like you look good considering you come from ancient greece.
Alun:
[4:09] Yeah oh archimedes are you've invented how to measure things using displacement uh No.
Adam:
[4:18] I mean, I was enthralled, obviously. I had so many questions for this guy. But he was talking specifically about the baggage weighing scales that you do find in airports, because they are very specifically one type of machine. And it's his kind of engineering and technology that he invented, I guess, with a team of people. But he now owns the firm that owns those machines and distributes them around the world. And apparently he holds contracts with basically half of the airports in the world.
Alun:
[4:45] It's a good job i wasn't there because i'd have said that line and i'd have gone so basically just a digital scale then and you're gone oh yeah you think you can wear your bag on a digital scale do, Be my fucking guest, because better men than you have tried and failed. Actually, luggage comes in all different shapes and sizes, Alun, and not all of it fits on a regular bathroom scale.
Adam:
[5:06] I'm very glad that you said that, because he then went on to say, we also have other models of the machine that you see in airports, but they weigh cargo. So the cargo that gets shipped, you know, the stuff that we don't see, you know sometimes you're going down, God, this is great, relatable travel content. You know that you sometimes are in a plane going along a runway and you see a FedEx plane that's just for cargo.
Alun:
[5:29] Yeah.
Adam:
[5:29] Have you seen that?
Alun:
[5:29] Yeah, it's bigger.
Adam:
[5:30] Yeah, I think, oh, fuck. That's how all the cargo gets shipped.
Alun:
[5:35] Oh.
Adam:
[5:36] I found out recently that actually for a lot of things that are getting transported around the world, some of it just does get lumped onto a commercial flight, like a passenger plane. I don't know if you knew that, but I imagine you did. But he then went on to talk about the cargo, right? And he said you know anything that you might be sending abroad we can also weigh sort of vehicles anything like pretty large any of your large packages dead people i went what he said yeah yeah the scales are also used to weigh people that die that are getting repatriated or you know bodies sent home to their families in other countries i was like jesus christ he said yeah then we take all that data and then we give it to the crematorium when they're getting burned so they know how hot to have the oven and i was like.
Alun:
[6:21] Was this was this satan.
Adam:
[6:23] You were having a chat with so the.
Alun:
[6:25] Same the same machine that's used to weigh my carry-on bag has also been used just hours earlier to weigh a deceased individual.
Adam:
[6:35] I don't think it's the same machine i think that would put a lot of people off when they're checking in for their flight how.
Alun:
[6:40] Do you explain all the blood on.
Adam:
[6:42] My backpack did you pack your own bag head bobbing out the top uh do you know i think um i was kind of taken aback because then we started talking about you know cremations and stuff and he said oh you do know that depending on how heavy the body is it changes how hot the oven is i.
Alun:
[7:00] Actually invented cremations.
Adam:
[7:01] Okay did you know it changes how hot the furnace is and i was like really and he was like yes to make sure that they're being efficient you know and the The furnace is hot enough to kind of burn the body. So it went off in a different direction, let's say that. But bringing it back to travel, bringing it back to the scales, I thought these things sound so ubiquitous. I can't wait until I'm next queuing up to check in. And, you know, someone's going to be weighing their bag and I'm going to lean over and say, you know what? Yeah, I met the guy who invented that machine.
Alun:
[7:32] Oh, I'm very sorry, sir, but our equipment's saying that your bag is overweight.
Tales from the Bar
Alun:
[7:37] Is it really? Let me just make a quick call.
Adam:
[7:45] Thanks chris i'd like to phone a friend and that friend is going to tell you a new one so.
Alun:
[7:50] Has he just invented a method of making a very large scale.
Adam:
[7:55] No no i think it's i think he holds the rights the relationship the business relationships with all the airports and i guess his machine let's say 30 years ago was much better and more advanced and since then there's been new technology they've been at the forefront of all that kind of development and advancement and now it's just sort of snowballed into being the machine of choice by airports.
Alun:
[8:18] Right, okay.
Adam:
[8:19] So yeah, it's just a bag weighing device and there's slightly different technology, I suppose. And ultimately it's there to generate money, isn't it? I mean, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think the airlines earn a pretty penny off people's bags being slightly overweight. did.
Alun:
[8:36] He also invent those tiny little squares that budget airlines get you to force your bag.
Adam:
[8:41] Into you come out with a range.
Alun:
[8:44] Of products at.
Adam:
[8:45] Once he's a very clever businessman and he probably worked out what the uh difference is in terms of the weight oh.
Alun:
[8:50] You like this scale do you oh yeah it's amazing it's the most accurate thing we've ever seen we can do well i just uh knocked this up in my shed earlier it's a tiny little wooden.
Adam:
[9:00] Box people.
Alun:
[9:02] Have to put their bags inside it to check if it can go on the plane.
Adam:
[9:06] But nothing's ever gonna fit inside that that's the point yeah but a little buy one get one free is that what it comes with yeah.
Alun:
[9:13] Exactly he sells a range doesn't.
Adam:
[9:15] It but yeah going back to the bag weighing stuff I mean what is strange about that is that I don't even think my carry-on bag is weighed almost most of the time that I check into a flight because it's so small and it's just on my back, technically you could have something that's the size of a handbag but it weighs as much as a car and you can get that through onto the plane my.
Alun:
[9:37] Bag never gets weighed or put inside one of those boxes and i've done a whole litany of tricks in order to evade both those situations.
Adam:
[9:45] Yeah i know you have and you're bloody better at it than i am um but i i tend to go under the radar maybe 60 or 70 percent of the time do you think if we both went through together because of your charm and you're conniving that we would get through or would i just get picked out the crowd i'll.
Alun:
[10:03] Go to any length to avoid one of those little boxes mate i've once disguised myself as a small puerto rican boy with not a lick of english to his name and just like wandered my way perplexingly through the little airport tunnel got onto the plane so i mean i hope i'm a big fan of your uh friend's work.
Adam:
[10:21] Yeah well there you go that was maybe the most interesting thing certainly that's heavily travel related that happened to me this week and he now follows us on instagram so if you're listening mate thanks ever so much for the support we hope we've done your business justice it's uh completely ubiquitous why don't you listening to this show now the next time you get on a flight go and have your bag weighed and chances are it'll be on one of his machines there.
Alun:
[10:45] You go and there's a lot of pressure now for me to also find a sort of innovator in the travel world mark my words.
Adam:
[10:53] Adam by.
Alun:
[10:53] The end of the year i'll find someone who's invented something in travel be it a new kind of stamp or a little sort of belt that you can wear that evades people from picking your pocket i'll find someone and i'll bring him on this show okay that's the deal.
Adam:
[11:08] I don't fancy my chances mate but what i do fancy is hearing a little bit from your diary so i'd absolutely love it if we could go to the second part of the show well.
Alun:
[11:17] I would like to frame it as an Alun's miscellaneous travel item if only because i've been too lazy to make one for a number of months and i want to hear that funky theme music play it now, Goodness me, hey there, it's Alun's miscellaneous travel item and this week it's a little kind of a cheeky one mate because over on Patreon anyone in the train and plane tiers, there's a link in the description, has access to a monthly show called Alun's Antiquated Adventures where I read from the travel diary that I wrote when I very first went travelling. When I was 21 years old, just finished a little degree at the University of Leeds, and I was all disenfranchised and upset with my life, so I put on a backpack and blasted off to China. I just read from that diary, and anyone on the Patreon can have a listen. So I thought I'd just play you a little excerpt of that today. You can have a listen. Anyone hearing it who wants to hear more, just head over to the Patreon. Let's play it now.
Antiquated Alun:
[12:39] Day one, the very, very first day that I started traveling. So I'm 21 years old. I've just finished university and I've decided to pack my life into a carry-on bag and zoom off straight to China. Let's get started. It's Alun's Antiquated Adventures, day one. I hadn't slept at all. I had stayed up all night and turned my mind inside out with all of the possibilities. It was almost too much to even comprehend, this complete surrender to a journey without any explicit direction. I didn't know where in the world I would be next month or the month after that, or in a year. As previously significant dates came and went uncelebrated, would I lose track of time altogether? Who would I be by the time I was in this house again?
Antiquated Alun:
[13:32] I felt the sharp needle of nostalgia burrowing into the front of my head, and I was overcome with this vague but undeniable sense that this night would continue to be significant. I wanted to do something to paint it more vibrantly in my memory, as the starting block from which I kicked off into the world. In an attempt to anoint the occasion with something tangible, I sat down beside my new rucksack, an Osprey Farpoint 40, and grabbed three sheets of paper and a pen. I began to write a
message to each of my family members. I would leave these on the dining room table for my family to pick up and read in my absence.
Antiquated Alun:
[14:13] Kindly, my mum and dad gave me a lift to the airport. There wasn't much of conversation on the way, and if any attempt had been made, it likely would have gone somewhat unnoticed. I was already kind of lost to reality and in my own world, effervescent and wide-eyed. I stared out of the window at every morsel of grey monotonous pavement I had seen innumerable times before. Everything becomes significant when you're about to rip yourself away from it. We pull up at the airport and I depart the car. My mum and dad must have sensed that I was uneasy or apprehensive because they looked at me and my mum asked, are you going to be okay? I stared back and grinned wildly. I could feel my eyes prickling with fatigue and fascination and I replied, I'm terrified. I gave them both a big hug, promised to keep myself safe and went towards the check-in desk.
Antiquated Alun:
[15:15] I stride up to the desk and showed the lady working there my boarding confirmation. I proudly tell her that I only have carry-on luggage, but she doesn't even glance upwards. She simply hands me my ticket. I've put a lot of thinking time into the decision to have this rucksack and no additional luggage. I want it to be as unencumbered as possible so that my options were unlimited. I'm waved through and aware of how inexperienced I am as I navigate the airport labyrinth towards security. The first bump in the road comes almost immediately as it turns out I'm carrying well over three times the allowed amount of liquids for carry-on travel. I'm forced to throw an uncomplimentary amount of SPF and mosquito repellent in the bin. This must have irked me somewhat, because I promptly received a zealous pat down from security, the kind that I felt must have been reserved for anyone looking shifty or unusually irate.
Antiquated Alun:
[16:14] After that, the journey was relatively smooth sailing. I had a pretty peaceful and dream-filled flight to Amsterdam, where I bunkered down for a six-hour layover. I selected a coffee shop to be my base and sat in the corner, hoisting my bag up on the chair next to me. There was a family at the next table, made up in part by some young children. Their mother befriended me by asking me for the time and then quickly segued into requesting the use of my phone charger. I lent it to her for the duration of my layover. Everything I had was, like me, completely charged up in anticipation of the journey ahead. Sometime later, one of the kids knocks of his frappuccino off the table and a dollop of it landed on my rucksack. Never have kids, the lady said to me, winking. She asks if She could buy my phone charger off me by decline. And before I know it, it's time for my overnight flight to Beijing.
Antiquated Alun:
[17:10] This flight is immediately more challenging. Even before takeoff I'm drifting in and out of consciousness and I'm woken up about 30 minutes later by an air hostess offering food and drink and so begins the next nine hours desperately craving sleep but unable to access it. I have this horrible pain in my jaw and head and I conclude that the motion of the plane caused me to grind my teeth away like an enthused sanding belt while I slept and after some time the lights illuminating the plane are switched off and suddenly the whole thing feels like a submarine. The darkness makes its altitude indistinguishable. There is only the rumble of the plane's engines. The man next to me is Chinese and he's spending his homeward flight watching his TV on the brightest setting. I open a tired eye to observe him watching an entire episode of a sitcom at three times speed, a clear abuse of the fast-forward function. He has a talent for waking me up just as I'm about to fall asleep. It's almost comical. He sneezes, yawns, and readjusts himself into unfathomable configurations. Eventually, though, the plane touches down, an age after it lifted off. I leave the aircraft fatigued, droopy eyes, and impossibly excited.
Reflections on Travel
Antiquated Alun:
[18:32] I've been travelling for over 24 hours now, meaning that the second day of my adventure has begun.
Alun:
[18:42] There we are! That was the first ever day I set off travelling. It's really interesting, like, reading out that diary and hearing it back, because it's so apparent how different that person was, how sort of naive they were and clueless they were about travelling, and how excited they were i still remember those feelings and those sensations it's it's really interesting having that record of of who i was when i first did it.
Adam:
[19:12] Oh totally yeah i mean i was there with you and as you approached the check-in desk in the airport i don't suppose you caught a glimpse of the manufacturer of the weighing scale did you i tell you what one of my very early.
Alun:
[19:25] Positive traveling experience was just the efficiency at which.
Adam:
[19:28] That bag was weighed the accuracy is unbelievable um no seriously mate i think you're in the wrong job i think you should be a published author uh absolutely incredible writing even as a little sprightly 21 year old uh yeah i felt like i was along for the ride with you and what is it like reading back those sorts of things do you remember it i guess so so vividly how you were feeling at that time i.
Alun:
[19:53] Do remember but I remember that Chinese man, I remember him watching that movie really quick. I sort of, see it as if it's a movie though because it it does feel like me but i know i was so different then and i've changed so much and i look different and act different and think differently so you almost it feels like i'm hearing the account of a really close friend who i'm very invested in welfare of as opposed to like the acknowledgement that's actually me i.
Adam:
[20:25] Wonder if even your perception of the world around you and how you experience what it is you're doing in a travel context has changed as well maybe you wouldn't necessarily pick up on certain things that you've chosen to write about in your diary maybe now you're you're focused on other other parts of travel.
Alun:
[20:42] Well everything is significant when you first start right and i think that is something that you lose the more you travel so like now and indeed in three weeks of that journal i'm no longer writing about the woman whose kid spilt a frappuccino on my back but when you first start, everything has huge significance to you because you're on this adventure finally but.
Adam:
[21:04] What i would say to that is that even the small things even the tiny details in your day the things that do feel insignificant if they're written the right way if you notice them in the right level of detail and you spin it into a wonderful story i think that it is worth telling.
Alun:
[21:19] Yeah but i think that's almost the shame of life right is that we don't appreciate the insignificant things once we're used to them and while they're happening and that goes for that lady with the frappuccino who i remember that interaction now because i wrote it down, How many of those interactions haven't been significant for me enough and they're just gone?
Adam:
[21:43] Yeah.
Alun:
[21:43] But then also like the time you spend with friends and family that feels insignificant because it's the same friend you've seen a thousand times before. And then it takes you like losing that friend or losing that family member to be like, oh God, I would give anything to just have that one mundane moment back. Just as we become used to things, they become less significant. And if you can get a little glimmer of that significance and how important they are, it's really enlivening. Like, I wish I could travel like that guy again, you know?
Adam:
[22:15] Yeah, yeah, completely. I mean, just maybe a little bit broader and a bit more general just about writing journals in general. I'm not someone who writes journals, but I try to every now and again jot down little notes. Or, you know, I think I did when I first started traveling. I might have kept a journal or a blog for the first month maybe. but as someone who's written a journal almost religiously for years is it something you would implore people to do who do want to travel.
Alun:
[22:41] Yeah totally i mean for the first four years of me traveling i wrote a journal entry every single day so the first four years of my travels are absolutely documented in hundreds of thousands of words and that's really cool yeah i actually stopped doing a journal when i started this podcast oh uh which is a shame in some sense But then the form of journaling just changed because now I do this podcast every week. And what that does for me is I just take the most important stories of the week and we sort of tell them on the show.
Adam:
[23:13] Yeah.
Alun:
[23:14] And, you know, obviously, I think for me, there was limited value in like journaling the times where I was in Canada during the pandemic because it didn't feel like the kind of thing I wanted to document as religiously. Because a lot of those days would be just went to work, built a ukulele, went home, went to sleep. Goodbye.
Adam:
[23:31] You know yeah canadians famous for being very careful with their coffee um but mate i don't know what you're going to do well hopefully we hear a lot more of those stories i know that if you go to patreon.com forward slash tripology podcast and pay a little bit of money every month to support us you can hear far more but if you ever turn it into a book i will buy one because i think it sounds wonderful well.
Alun:
[23:53] I'd love to release a full book i mean there's just so much more content to do with that journal over on Patreon. The 14th of every month is called Alun's Antiquated Adventures. And even in that episode, you just heard the first five minutes, but that goes on to describe my very first experience in China and what that felt like. And it's quite interesting. And then on the first of every month, there's an evening with Adam where it's like a really cool show where you talk about latest news stories in the travel community and that sort of thing.
Adam:
[24:22] Yeah, yeah. There's almost too many A's on the screen at one time. But An Evening with Adam is me sort of opening a bottle of wine, something fairly local. It might be something international, but something I enjoy. If you're interested in learning about wine, we sort of go into little bits, I suppose. But really, it's like the backpacker and travel news bulletins where I go through three to five stories that have happened in the last couple of weeks. It's putting this newsreader voice to good use, shall we say. It's a lot of fun.
Alun:
[24:47] There you go. So Tripology is and always will be free, but we do have a Patreon where we do exciting extra bonus shows. So head over there if you're interested in hearing some more from me and Adam, patreon.com forward slash Tripology Podcast. Now, though, we're approaching my favourite part of the show, where we get a listener to call in on TripologyPodcast.com forward slash Tales of a Trip, their greatest travel story, be it a time where they went off with some strangers and became best friends, or the time they saw a matador in Spain and thought, that's wrong, probably shouldn't do that, stepped in, stopped the old thing from happening. Those kind of stories. Three minutes, your greatest travel story. Let's hear from a listener right now.
Tales of a Trip:
[25:31] My name is Bea, and I'm from British Columbia, Canada. At 30 years old, I went on my first backpacking trip. My partner and I traveled Central America and Mexico for nearly three and a half months. As a green traveler, the first time I had been on an airplane had been when I was 18 years old traveling to Saskatchewan. I had to learn how to pack a bag properly and sparingly, read bus schedules using Google Translate, and come up with cheap, quick hostel dinners. I read travel blog
after travel blog, listening to podcasts like this one, trying to figure out the tips and tricks to make this a successful trip.
Tales of a Trip:
[26:01] One thing I didn't read about is the struggles with being a woman with a diva cup. A fact of life that everyone with a uterus struggles with is having your period every month, and especially one that becomes inconsistent thanks to the stressors of traveling. While in Nicaragua, we stayed in a hostel that had troubles with running water and bathrooms that were open to the elements. A fact about me is that I am not a big fan of bugs. I hate creepy crawlies. While in the bathroom trying to take care of business, a cute little gecko was playing on the ceiling. While I don't mind these little guys, I did start panicking, wondering if they can lose their grip and fall on people's heads.
Tales of a Trip:
[26:36] While yes, not so pleasant an issue, sitting on the toilet, I thought better be safe than sorry and hurry up this chore. While doing so, a massive, and not just massive by insect-fearing women like me, but a true representation of bugs in the jungle cockroach crawled from the other side of the door to keep me company i froze knowing full well screaming in the jungle is not ideal hurriedly i pulled up my pants and ran out the door jumping over the cockroach and spilling the contents of my cup onto my hands and the floor i rushed over to the sink and all i got was a drip dripping from the tap, Already embarrassed, I looked over to the adjacent sink to find a man whose eyes reflected the concern and worry my image presented. A woman with blood all over her hands, hair a tangled mess from forgetting to pack conditioner, shirt stained with dirt, and tears welling in her eyes. He mumbled a, oh, I'll let you get sorted, and hurried out of the bathroom. I stood at the sink, attempting to wash up from the drip dripping of the tap, wondering why I didn't think about just bringing tampons. Thanks for listening.
Alun:
[27:41] Yeah cool adam it's it's so cool to have a female perspective on the show talking about some of the issues that me and you simply don't have whilst traveling and don't have to think of but of course heard from our our female traveling counterparts and friends these are just things that we don't have to worry about or consider but they obviously are a concern yeah.
Adam:
[28:01] Yeah i mean things that we're not necessarily able to relate to through firsthand experience but yeah there are other complications and things I guess women have to think about and deal with when they're on the road. I mean, I don't know how you could have really got around that happening. It was making light of what I imagine was quite an embarrassing and stressful story at the moment. I mean, maybe my first tip would be don't stay at that hostel in Rosario from the previous episode because it opens right out into the kitchen.
Alun:
[28:26] Oh, mio Dios!
Adam:
[28:27] Yeah, yeah. But you can imagine the scene, can't you, be covered in blood and the bloke's like, hang on a minute, do I ask or don't I ask?
Alun:
[28:33] Yeah, I mean, he did what I think most male travelers would do and just take himself out of the situation. I have heard from other female travelers that a diva cup is the way to go, though. You know, it's like reusable. You don't take up carry-on bag space, packing a load of tampons or sanitary towels. So that's probably like a good tip. But obviously, prone to mishap if you are surrounded by lizards and cockroaches, the natural enemies of the show in many ways. Many a time we've had to stop a recording of Tropology because a gecko sounded off in the corner of my room.
Adam:
[29:06] Is that the correct terminology? Is it called a diva cup? Is it sort of a brand name or is it, you know, what is it?
Alun:
[29:12] Or a moon cup, I think they're sometimes called, but it's basically just like a reusable cup that collects the blood as opposed to, you know, absorbing it into a tampon.
Adam:
[29:22] Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, I imagine it's probably better for the environment. It's probably made out of silicon or something like that, isn't it? And I guess something that's just one item and that is reusable and probably doesn't weigh anything. If we can give any tip, I don't know if we're really in a position to do so, but maybe that's a good thing to have instead of a little bit of tampons.
Alun:
[29:41] I like the fact that the listener's concern was that the gecko would lose its grip. As if climbing up a wall actually requires significant effort from a gecko. And it's like, really, it's holding on like, oh, God.
Adam:
[29:55] Yeah.
Alun:
[29:56] Like, it's above a toilet. It's like, now is not the time to lose your grip.
Adam:
[30:00] Yeah, yeah. I think if a gecko loses grip, it's kind of devolving. I think it's probably pretty safe, a gecko on a walk.
Alun:
[30:07] The gecko's looking and it's like, oh, now great. Now cockroach is looking and he's going to see this bug, which is absolutely designed to climb up walls, is going to see me sliding off towards the toilet. It's going to be right embarrassing.
Listener Travel Stories
Adam:
[30:21] The last thing I want to do is fall on that poor lady who's already having an absolute meh.
Alun:
[30:25] Yeah. Well, there you go. If you, the listener, have a specific experience, that you think me and Adam can't possibly have for ourselves, a story that involves something specific that you think adam and Alun won't have been through this i'm going to share it perfect do that topology podcast.com forward slash tales of a trip we want to hear all about your most interesting travel stories thank you so much for sending yours in right now we're going to head over for a little bit more patreon content the kind of content that you get if you sign up to any tier over on patreon.com we're going to head there right now it's called the lost and found section i.
Adam:
[31:01] Might go and talk about my skiing trip or the festival i look forward to speaking to you there Alun loads of love guys cheers we'll see you there.
Alun:
[31:07] Bye,
