Around The World With Dan Perry

In this episode, I talk with Jun, owner of the Tavern 47 Hostel in Shangri-la, China. Jun's story is very interesting. He grew up in Seoul, South Korea and was a real go-getter. As a young adult, he was making a handsome salary and living the high life. How did Jun transition from a fast lifestyle in a big city to running a youth hostel in a remote town? Listen to our conversation to find out.

My guests for this episode of The Around the World Podcast are Kroy and Shalon Nernberger. Kroy is a world-class curler who was invited to play in a tournament in remote Xining, Qinghai Province. His wife Shalon joined Katie and me in Beijing, and together we traveled to meet up with Kroy. We recorded this podcast from Xi'An, just before we split up. Shalon and Kroy recounted all of their adventures in China. Hopefully you'll gain some inspiration to plan your next trip!

My guest for this episode of the podcast is Sam Dreiman. His first trip to China was just before the 2008 Olympics. He has been living in the country, on and off, for the last six years. Other than China, we talked about his upbringing in Africa, my trip to Antarctica, his time biking down the World's Most Dangerous Road, and North Korea. Sam is a fascinating character who has spent much of his life traveling around the world; I had a great time talking with him.

My guest for today is Paddy Robertson. He and I met on his first night in Beijing, about a year and a half ago. At the time, he was just beginning to study Chinese, and now he speaks the language far better than most foreigners, even among those who have been here for much longer than him. How has Paddy managed to learn Chinese so quickly? One big reason is that he works for Smart Air, which sells affordable air purifiers. His co-workers are Chinese, so he gets to practice the language on a daily basis.   Paddy was a very interesting guest. He has accumulated a broad array of knowledge about China and much of the world. Our hour together flew by.

My guest for this episode is Monica Tooki. We talked about her upbringing in two very different worlds – Singapore and Mississippi. We also discussed the Peace Corps and her time living in Kiribati. Monica is an experienced traveler and an expat, with lots of good stories to tell.

My guest today is Wang Ye. Last time he was on the podcast, he was about to begin a long journey around Asia. Now, he's back in Beijing (at least he was; he just took off for Russia), and we decided to catch up on old times.   Wang Ye and I talked about his love of Starbucks coffee and co-working spaces, as well as his latest trip. He paid his respects to the Dear Leader in North Korea, decided to leave Istanbul after a terrorist bombing and hitched a ride on an Iranian bus to the border with Georgia, among other things. What's he up to next? Listen to the podcast to find out.

For this episode, I talked with Jeroen from the Netherlands and Linda from Germany. They started hitchhiking from their home in Berlin several months ago, and plan to make a giant loop around Asia. I met them in my apartment in Beijing, when they were about halfway through their trip. Hitching has given them a unique perspective on the world, in which they place their complete trust in other people. During the show, we talked about their amazing journey, and told many stories along the way.

My guest this week is Ryan Campeau. We sat on my balcony in Beijing for a lengthy discussion about travel, specifically in China, Europe, and the good old US of A. Along the way, we did quite a bit of story-telling. I hope you enjoy our chat.

My guest for this episode is Honey Sherma, from Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. He has traveled to every continent except Antarctica on cargo vessels. We discussed his life, both on the high seas, and in small towns in India. A large part of our conversation was focused on dhabas, those wonderful shops/guesthouses that always seem to pop up in the middle of nowhere in India. I like the concept of the dhaba, and the conversations that take place in them, so much that I even considered changing the name of this podcast to “Chai and Chat with Dan”.

For this episode of the podcast, I sat down to talk with Ben Ochner from Germany. We were huddled in a tarp-covered shelter called a dhaba on a cold and rainy day in the remote outpost of Chhatru, India, population 120. Just to mix things up, Ben decided to interview me for this podcast, so we get a little more insight into my life and why I chose to travel.

Fei (菲) is from China. Tapani is from Finland. They met in New Zealand. They almost lived together in England. How did they end up in getting married and moving to Beijing? I got their story for this podcast.

For this episode of the podcast, I talked with Kade Mascarella. He and his wife Stacie have lived in Beijing for the last eight years. They traveled extensively before they had kids, and they made a conscious decision to continue traveling after their kids were born. Kade and I talked about many parts of the world, but the focus of our discussion was on traveling with children. I learned that not only is it possible to travel to exotic places with your kids, but in some cases, you'll actually open doors to more genuine interactions.   Kade's advice is simple: plan more, go slower.

In this episode of the Around The World Podcast, I talk with Wang Ye. Originally from Xian, China, Wang Ye moved to California and went to school at Berkeley, before dropping everything to take on the life of a digital nomad. We sat on my balcony in Beijing to discuss his life story and his future plans.

My guest for this episode is Matt Sheehan. Matt has lived in China for five years. He speaks Chinese fluently and works as a journalist for the Huffington Post. He also has a number of side projects, including a video series where he teaches Chinese people about ultimate Frisbee, a game he loves. Our discussion drifted into all of these topics, as well as Beijing's pollution, the state of the Chinese economy, the education system in China, Matt's walk across Beijing and much more.

Josh Klemons is my guest for this episode of the podcast. Having lived in Isreal, Josh has a deep understanding of Israeli-Palestinian relations, as well as those of the rest of the Middle East. Josh is also the voice behind Reverbal Communications, which manages social media for companies with a variety of budgets. I can attest to his expertise – he has helped me to grow my presence exponentially. Finally, Josh is the editor of my first book, 1000 Days Between. He did a great job of bringing my book from draft to final copy. If you want a sample, you can read the first twelve chapters for free, at 1000daysbetween.com. My conversation with Josh was great. We talked about travel in a number of different places, as well as what's happening in our respective lives on opposite sides of the planet.

Carson Leong is my guest for this episode of the podcast. Carson and I met on top of 黄山 (Huang Shan, or Yellow Mountain) in central China. He and his girlfriend had been hiking around the park, and they were staying in the same hostel as me. We hit it off when we learned that we both had the same camera. We even did a short hike together, posing in each others' pictures for dramatic effect. Carson currently lives in Hong Kong, so when I made my way to his city, we met again for some hiking and chatting about travel. On a Saturday night in a lively park in the middle of the city, we spontaneously sat down to record one of our conversations. We touched on a variety of subjects, from travel in Vietnam and China, to designing comfortable clothing, to podcasting and photography. Special thanks to Carson for coming on the show.

I'm going to try something different for this podcast. I met Jesús and Elisa in Yangshuo, China. Because both of them were from Spanish-speaking countries, I decided to record a podcast in their native tongue. I hadn't spoken much Spanish in the last five years, but it still came back to me, more or less. If you don't speak Spanish, you might want to skip this one. Otherwise, enjoy!   Este podcast estaba grabado en español. Lo siento, no había usado mi español en mucho tiempo, pero no se preocupen. Jesús de España y Elisa de Chile hicieron la mayoría del hablando. En el podcast hablamos sobre varios paises, incluyendo China e India. También hablamos sobre la alerta roja de contaminación en Beijing y porque es tan importante viajar por el mundo. Espero que ustedes desfruten nuestro conversación. Dígame lo que piensas.

I met Roni Rodrigues and his wife Hester on top of Zhangjiajie National Park in southern China. The park is renowned for its hundreds of karst pillars, which make for some fabulous scenery. In fact, James Cameron was supposedly inspired by Zhangjiajie when he made the movie Avatar. One of the mountains was even officially renamed to Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. Still at the beginning of an open-ended trip around the world, Roni and Hester were busy filming hour upon hour of footage with their quadcopter drone. I sat down with Roni outside of his hotel in the famous town of Yangshuo to record this podcast. Roni was an inspirational character who always kept a positive attitude about the world. What do you think?

I have a special podcast for you today. Liese Alsen is a high school history teacher from Berlin, Germany. We sat down in her kitchen for a long chat. She starts with a great summary of Germany's separation after World War II and the Berlin Wall's construction 1961. Then she tells the story of where she was when the wall fell. Later, we discuss how she spent part of her childhood in Lesotho, her years living in the United States and her recent teaching stint in Guatemala. I learned a lot during our talk. Let me know what you think.

I met Kevin Lamb a few years ago in Madison, Wisconsin. We've reconnected several times since then, usually at some random time and place. Thus, our last meeting was typical: by coincidence, we were both in Berlin, Germany at the same time. Since I last had seen Kevin, he had ridden his bicycle across the United States, using his curly mustache as his map. We sat down in Victoria Park to discuss “Mustache Across America,” as well as his future ambitions and philosophy on travel.