James Doran (00:06.254)

So hello and welcome to the Expat Pod. My name is James, your host. Today I'm joined by Alexandra who we met on Wisdom, I think. I think it's a social media app where you kind of answer questions with a voice note. And it's quite an interesting place to be and see some incredible stories and thoughts. So I think I found one of your answers and then messaged you about being a guest on my podcast. And lo and behold, we're here having this wonderful conversation about your life abroad. So

I don't know if you wish to share about your kind of experiences living abroad and what you've done as an overview and then we can go into the podcast. good. I was born, my first experience abroad was when I was born. So I was born in Moldova, which is a tiny landlocked country between Romania and Ukraine, former part of USSR. And then I ended up moving with my family in 91. I was five years old to Brooklyn, New York.

then I lived in Jersey. lived all over the country. And then when I met my husband, a little prior to that, I would travel with my parents because my parents, because we came from a communist country. When my parents moved here, one of the biggest things that they wanted to do was to travel because back in Moldova, you weren't allowed to travel. So that's kind of, it really influenced me heavily because I remember my parents spending every dollar they could on travel.

And that really ingrained in me deeply, almost to a fault, I don't know, but they probably didn't expect that to happen. And then, so when I met my husband, I was working as an attorney and life seems kind of great on the outside, but inside I was feeling really unchallenged, unfulfilled, and kind of everything I've been dealing with my whole life just kind of came like crashing down and to deal with it. So.

We made kind of like a random decision to move to Savannah, Georgia, which is like a really small town and like not a big place, not someplace you go for like New York City when you just like spent thousands and thousands of dollars and years of your time become an attorney and you tell your parents you're going to leave everything to go live in like some little rural place. They think you're crazy. And we lived there for a little bit. We lived there for about 11 months and we thought we would settle there. But we.

James Doran (02:29.006)

decided that we wanted to keep exploring and keep kind of seeing new places. So we ended up selling all our things and getting rid of as many bills as we could, getting rid of our apartment and decided to just put a mattress in the back of our SUV, travel around the country. So we did hit almost almost 50 states. We did that for months on the road and with no plans, kind of just figuring it out and then buy some like

blessing, we were able to discover house sitting, which turned our accommodations from like sleeping in truck stops to sleeping in mansions overlooking the beautiful hills and doing amazing things. So that gave us the motivation to think, OK, well, what happened if we took our adventures overseas? Maybe we can get some sitting overseas. And but we knew that we wouldn't be able to get the opportunity. And so we took the risk and actually like made the step first before we got the blessing.

So that's what we did. so we went, bought two one way tickets to Tokyo, bought two backpacks, got rid of even more of our stuff, and then just went off on a journey. yeah, so I don't know if you want to need to say all the countries that we hit along our way. If you can round them off as a list, that'd be great. And we can dig into a bit more. OK, sure. So the first country was Japan. We were there for about a month and a half, went kind of all over. And then

We took the ferry to South Korea. From South Korea, we went to Beijing. We had like a transit visa there. From Beijing, we went to North Korea. And then from North Korea, we went back to Beijing. Then we went to Malaysia, then Singapore, back to Malaysia, to Cambodia, then Thailand, then the UAE, primarily Dubai. Then we went to Azerbaijan.

And then from Azerbaijan, we went to Georgia. From Georgia, we walked into Turkey. From Turkey, we took the bus to Bulgaria, Romania, and we ended up back in Moldova, which was like a surprise. We didn't plan it. It was amazing, because my husband's also from Moldova. Totally random twist of fate. And then from Moldova, we went to Spain. And then we were in Spain for a few months. We went back to America, traveled again around the country, and then we lived in Mexico for six months.

James Doran (04:55.424)

And then we went to Costa Rica, then we came back, decided to move to LA to make it happen. And then COVID happened and then it turned our whole life upside down again. And long story short, now I live in Florida. Wow. It's a lot of places. I'm sure we'll understand a lot more about them in the next two sections of the podcast.

James Doran (05:24.182)

section one all about getting there so Alexandra this is where I kind of asked my guests all about the the kind of pre steps before moving obviously you've moved to quite a lot of places I'm guessing on a myriad of visas so be interesting to understand the kind of process from each country if you can maybe group countries because you'd be to so many with different types of visas like tourist visas or not and the kind of difficulty in getting them so we start chronologically then I guess

your move to the US as a child, you probably didn't have much say in the matter. You just followed your parents. Is that correct? Or did you demand to go? I had no idea where we're going, where they were taking me. They promised me candy, American candy, which was like a big deal for me because we didn't have that in Maloba. But yeah, it was a really long process, actually, because we came here as political refugees. So it was I remember we were supposed to be here two years earlier, but there was a lot of delays with them.

actual visa and the process. we were waiting for two years. We had already like sold all our stuff. My mom had put her job like, and then we had to wait two years to even move. So and then when we moved here, obviously we didn't have things set up. So luckily my aunt was already living in Brooklyn. So we stayed with her for a little bit. And until my parents kind of like got their feet off the ground. so as far as like other visas, that was one of the things that we really specifically

wanted to do is because we were very blessed to have an American visa and like people sometimes tell me you know they're like you're so privileged to travel I'm like I am very privileged to be an American because Americans have such a blessing with their with their passport that you can really visit so many places without a visa so we were trying specifically not to go places with visas because we were trying to save money we were on a very limited budget but the few places that we did

have a big thing was in China, Beijing, we had a transit visa. So I'm sure you're aware that to go to China, you need like a 10 year visa. It's like this crazy proclets, you go to the consulate and all this stuff. But he's been invited to the country of belief isn't I think that's Russia, you have to be invited. But China, you could just go to the consulate in your country, like for mine, it be like New York, and then you have to go stand in line, you have to pay a fee, you have to fill out all this application.

James Doran (07:46.862)

don't quote me on it, but it's like you get then you get a 10 -year visa. I don't think it's as difficult. think Russia is like a lot more difficult. But if you fly into the same airport and out of the same airport, then you'd be able to qualify for like a three -day visa. So we took advantage of that, which is a really good opportunity. Turkey was a really simple kind of like visa. You just fill it out online and you know, but.

Azerbaijan it was also like you had to fill it out online, but you have to go there to the actual whatever they call it. I don't know the official building Yeah, but that was really intimidating because like we spoke Russian to form really like you it's a formal country where they speak Russian as well So I can't imagine how it is for people who don't speak Russian because even for us it was intimidating like they're very intimidating there They make you very scared We thought we were gonna get arrested when we were leaving the country like I thought I was escaping for my life like it was like a whole

story with there because they monitor you like crazy. It was almost crazier than North Korea. and then North Korea, the visa for North Korea is you can't stamp your passport. By the way, tell me if I'm talking too much through this and like... No, no, it's all valid information, which I'm sure people are really interested to listen to. I am for sure. OK, awesome. So North Korea, you have to go through a tourist company, which is only in Beijing.

So the only two places that are allowed to fly into North Korea are from China and from Russia. They only have three flights in and out of the country every day. No one else can go into the country. So and you're not allowed to stamp your passport. So prior to that, they kind of do research on you. They do information on you. I still have Beijing, China. Like I look at my analytics. They're still checking my blog. Like to this day, I'm sure I'm on a list somewhere. And

But when they handed you your visa, the visa was like printed on a paper and it was like really tiny print. It was like off the side. It looked so fake. Like it looked completely bootleg. And yeah, they just hand you this visa. And I remember in South Korea as we were flying from Seoul to Beijing. But because we had the transit visa, they wanted to ask us, well, we need to know where you're going after Beijing because...

James Doran (10:04.462)

I just let you into Beijing on a three day transit visa and we don't know where you're going. So like, where are you guys going? And I'm like, this is like when tensions were super high and the entire country, South Korea, all they do 24 seven is a blast with the news about how horrible North Korea is. Like everywhere in the country, from the cafes to the buses, to the airplanes. So I have to tell them that we're about to go to your like mortal enemy.

And so when they asked us for our visa, we like handed them the visa and all of a sudden they started screaming in the airport and started screaming like Pyongyang Pyongyang like had everyone come over. had they were like taking pictures of us taking pictures of our passport, taking pictures of the visa, like creating all this commotion. They were like calling people. They it was so crazy. And then like my husband and I, were sweating like we were so paranoid. We thought like we

We didn't know what was going to happen to us. We thought they were going to just take us off somewhere. And then like five minutes went by, a bunch of came commotion and then everything just went quiet and they just handed us back our visa. And we're like, okay. And we're like, all right. It's like, are they going to get detained when we come back? Let me like land in Beijing. Like we don't know what was going to happen. So those are some crazy visa situations. As far as everything else, it was pretty simple. Then what was the motivation to start?

Actually going abroad then so you said you the house sitting What made you go choose Japan? What why was it the first place you wanted to go? So it's a funny story So when we were car camping and like traveling around the country We by some twist of fate we ended up discovering house sitting like I said and it was perfect timing because when we had gotten to California The way California is like when you're in the middle of the country and you're like in your SUV or whatever. It's really easy like

Even the Walmarts or the truck stops, like they're grand and everything's kind of set up for travelers. Like the showers are clean and it's roomy. The people are normal. Once you get to California, it's like a different story. Like it's very difficult to live in your car in California unless you're and on drugs. Like it really is difficult. So once we get to California, we still had the same mentality. Like we're going to live in our car. But thankfully we ended up discovering house sitting.

James Doran (12:25.25)

And that led us to be able to live in California, like without buying rent, without paying anything for free, but not in our car. So what happened was our third house that we ended up house sitting for was in the Bay Area. And it was a gorgeous like mansion. And we became really because we looked after their animals and they fell in love with us. They loved how we took care of the house and the animals. So what happened was

When we had already for the holidays, we went back to Jersey to be with family and they had written to us and we were thinking about where do we go now? And before this moment, my husband had a little bit of a fear of flying because he had a really bad experience. So we were, I really wanted to go international already. My husband was like still kind of hesitant. So we were like, okay, let's just go to England. It's close. It's one, you know, one flight, like easy, whatever. They ended up writing to us and saying, hey,

We're leaving again for three weeks. You guys, please come back. We don't want anybody else. Can you guys come to stay with us? We're like, OK, we'll go. But if you pay for our flight, you leave us your cars. get like we had all these kind of conditions. And they said, absolutely, no problem. We're like, all right, I guess we're going to go to Asia instead. So I convinced my husband. I'm like, well, we're going to be in Cali instead of going, you know, one flight. What's nonstop flight? We're looking for nonstop.

So I'm like, okay, we started looking all of a sudden like, where could we go nonstop from Cali shortest flight, cheapest flight. And I kid you not at the same time, cause we were all, we were both subscribed to all these different websites. So at the same time we got an email alert from one of these like a cheap flight websites. And it was like LA to Tokyo $300. And we're like, yes, we had no desire to go to Japan. I didn't really care about Japan. I was like,

I don't know what's in Japan. don't eat sushi. I don't eat ramen. I don't watch, you know, anime. Like it didn't really speak to me, but I was like, whatever, let's just see what happens. You know, obviously we fell in love. It's a major man. Japan is like one of the most amazing countries in the world, but I didn't know that before I went there. Wow. That's incredible. So that's the kind of origin story of your international experiences then.

James Doran (14:44.686)

Was there anything else you needed to try and do before you moved away? You mentioned you sold everything effectively and you'd started house sitting. I guess at that point you kind of lived a nomadic life anyway, so it was quite easy to just jump across. Yeah, I mean, was like the hardest part probably was the decision of like deciding that, okay, I'm going to sell my stuff. And it was funny because right before we decided to sell our stuff, one of the things that sparked our journey is

When we got married, we knew we wanted to move and we wanted to save money. So we didn't have a big wedding. We didn't go on a honeymoon. We didn't do anything. We just got married in my parents backyard and that's it. Like I think our entire wedding was like a thousand dollars. And then when our year anniversary was coming up, that's when we were like, okay, let's go traveling somewhere. So my husband really wanted to go to the Utah national parks. And I was like,

All right, I guess I'm like, not really a honeymoon destination in my mind. Again, never been to Yuson National Parks. They're phenomenal. But beforehand, I'm thinking I'm like, what? Like I'm thinking like on the beach somewhere, know, Maldives. Yeah. Right. You know, he's like, no, I'm scared to fly. We're going to drive. I'm like, OK. And before this, we were thinking of moving anyway, because we were getting tired of Savannah. It was too hot. And so we were thinking maybe we'll move to Colorado. And I had a very like specific criteria for

how I wanted my life to be. was like, well, I'm not going to downgrade. We need a two bed, two bath. I needed to be super nice. We need to have all these requirements. needed, I need a gym. I need this. Like I was just saying all these requirements that I had. And then we went off on our journey, not planned. We rented a car and we just drove from Georgia to Utah. It was like five weeks. And I started realizing, I'm like, we started looking for apartments. It didn't feel right. And I'm like, this entire time we've been living in hotels, sharing a bathroom, eating out in the microwave.

Like you could do anything. I was like, I can do anything. Like I don't need to live in a two bed, bath. I didn't want to stop traveling. I started seeing the country. like, I want to see more and more and more. Like I'm not ready to sell to Colorado. We haven't seen Washington yet. We haven't seen Oregon. We haven't seen Cali, you know? So it was kind of this motivation of trying to figure out we belonged. So when we came back, that's when it kind of sparked like, okay, what can we do? We don't have an RV. We don't have money for an RV. We have an SUV.

James Doran (17:08.994)

Let's just put our mattress in the back. And that's where like, okay, let's just sell everything. And I think that was the hardest part because I am a very sentimental person. So I gotten a lot of crap over the years and I had so much stuff. Like I'm the type of person, like I'll save a movie ticket from someone I don't even talk to from like, you know, the nineties. And here I was like having to get rid of everything, like literally anything. And I, and I watched, you know, that Marie Kondo, you know, the sparking joy or whatever.

And like really having to assess every little thing that I had in my life. And really having to be like, okay, is this necessary? What do I, what can I do with this? What I need with this? And having to eventually just be like, no. I had closets full of like brand new suits, cause I was going to be attorney. So I had these, spent thousands of dollars of brand new suits, brand new shoes, brand new belts, and having to like put it in garbage bags and give it off. It's a lot of stuff we just donated because I'm not going to be spending hours like putting this whatever. So.

That was really hard. think a lot of things people don't talk about is the donation part because people want to talk about how good it feels. And there is a part of you that feels like you're not even getting anything back in return for this. You know, I at least when you sell something, you're getting some energy reciprocated. But when you're donating, you don't know where it's going. All you're seeing is like literally I piled, I think, nine bags of this big. It's a car. I watched them drive away with them. And I'm like, it took me a few weeks to get over that, you know, and I'll be honest about that. And like

It was really difficult. What's a grief from your previous life, I suppose? Absolutely. I actually did a past life regression once because I have a thing with which is really funny with always being stocked up. But when it comes to food or whatever, like I always have to be stocked up. I always have to be prepared. And I'm sure it comes from some kind of like I was like a poor little Romanian boy, you know, eating porridge in the middle of the war or something because

I really have that so that even more having to get rid of that like I'm not this kind of person where I'm like whatever like I have to become this person it was not easy to to give everything up and it sounds a lot nicer to say it now but people don't understand the emotional struggle that comes with that so that was probably really difficult. Well yeah I can imagine that being quite quite the culture shock for yourself.

James Doran (19:31.302)

in terms of what we working online at this time, so you quit your job as an attorney. What did you and your husband kind of do in order whilst you were traveling to what did you literally survive on savings and just enjoy the time? our goal, like our goal, what we always was from day one to it never was to like, let's not have a job. Let's figure it out. Like our goal was like, okay, we need to make a lot of money fast. Cause I had a lot of loans for my law school.

So Michael was like to make, to be a millionaire as soon as possible by helping the world and changing the world. Like this was our goal. So we were going to start a consulting company and it started kind of with like a blog and we were going to do a podcast. And I started delving into that. did start a blog, but then when I started diving into the blog space, I didn't really like, felt really inauthentic to me. kind of saw the way the bloggers were growing. Like it was very

It wasn't natural. Like I didn't see a natural kind of growth. I'm sure people do it naturally, but what I was saw was like not it didn't feel right to me. for a while, like I was trying to keep up with the stories, but things were becoming so crazy that I'm like, I had this moment of realization where I'm like, it's a lot more important for me right now to just be present and enjoy the experiences than be so focused on sharing them or explaining them or like I'm not even having a chance to process them. Like I need to process everything.

So what we did when we were house sitting, we ended up doing food delivery. was like when DoorDash just came on the map, it was like, you one of the biggest food delivery places in California. They just started. Now they're huge. Have you heard of DoorDash? Yeah, have. Yeah. OK, so we were like the first ones to work for DoorDash. We went to his office in Oakland. We met the owner. He was like in a little shady office somewhere in like Oakland, California or something.

And so that was like our first thing, cause we saw this guy with like a red shirt delivering things. And because we were one of the first ones, we had such a benefit to the pay structure. Like we were making so much money and we were in one, we were house sitting one of the richest areas in California. All the restaurants were within this vicinity. So my husband and I were like, perfect. We could travel around, be together, hang out, drive around, discover all these gorgeous houses and make money while we're doing it. So.

James Doran (21:53.12)

That's what we did. We made like a lot, a lot of money and we worked our ass off for like the whole time we were there. So anytime we'd be in the US, we'd do food delivery. Like wherever we were, we did Postmates, did DoorDash. It was an easy way for us to make money, be together and also explore. Like check out restaurant scene, check out, you know, you're getting paid to basically travel, like to see different neighborhoods and. You should be a travel blogger or a restaurant critic. They can have that as part of your thing.

I know, I I said that so many times. I feel like I've been to every restaurant in the US at this point. But yeah, so we did that. So we really worked off of our savings because that's why we were really budget. We considered every single dollar we spent. And I mean that completely literally. All the spreadsheets were done and stuff. You were tracking it. No, we were just kind of figuring it out.

as it went on and kind of praying. But every time it was always a goal of like, this is our next break, this is our next break. We just didn't know because we were trying to figure out what that break was. I just didn't know what it would take eight years, you know? And thank God for that. Because if I knew it would take this long, I would have stopped and I never would have started. But it was like that feeling of thinking that it's around the corner, like kept us going. Yeah, wow, that's incredible. And while the new first doing it must be, it must have been consciously

Reassessing it every year every so often. Now. It's you know, why don't we just go back and still got my license to do law or But how long it lasts for but I'm sure you can renew it or go back to life quite easily if you want it wanted to but imagine it'd be quite a Quite difficult thing to have to do but well than you for sticking it out. I suppose I guess we can we can delve into section 2 all about your

your life actually living in these amazing places abroad. Sure, yeah, let's do it.

James Doran (23:59.864)

So welcome back to the podcast and welcome to section two, what about being there? So as Andrew, this is where I ask my guests a lot of the first impressions. Now you've obviously lived in so many places and visited so many amazing countries and I guess kind of literally lived by doing your house sitting for people. So if we can kind of go to your first impression of moving, which made when you were young, but what was your impression of the US when you moved as a child? that kind of, does it?

still stick with you what you first thought when you moved? Yeah, I think the very first memory I have was stepping outside into the street with the cabs and everything swishing by and just like seeing how many cars there were and how busy it was. I just remember that feeling because obviously I was, you know, grew up in a place where it's one of the least populated countries in the world. So going from the least populated country in the world to the most populated country in the world was a lot.

The main thing I remember was the food, to be honest, because in Moldova, we don't have things like supermarkets. I'm not saying people are starving there, but like it's just not you're not indulging in food all the time. Like you want a watermelon, like you're going to go stand at the end and line for a truck to give you watermelon. And so when we went to the supermarket, I just remember being so fascinated with the supermarket that I became in love. And it was like my favorite place on earth, like more than Disneyland. Like I was just

obsessed and I think even now I have an obsession with supermarkets. So even if we're in foreign countries like my husband, I would love to go into supermarkets and see like what's going on there. What you know, how does it look and stuff like that? So yeah, I just remember just tasting like a banana. Like we don't have bananas in Moldova. You we don't have kiwis in Moldova. Like so the luxury of being able to have these fruits and veggies and food from all over the world was just something that that's probably like my main impression as a five year old, you know.

I mean, that's a very good point because supermarkets like internationally are quite interesting places to kind of spend some time because you Kind of understand what it's like to live there by you know what what foods are quite common and things like when we're in was in Sweden there's lots of like tubes of cheese like and Like ham and stuff. It was it was not not appealing to me, but it was very very popular and things like that and they love Mexican food, but not like

James Doran (26:24.394)

Mexican food you get in Mexico. It's what the Swedes believe to be extra food So it's nachos and just like taco nights and the out there like every Friday was taco Friday or something can It's it's panic. I was like, is too crazy. There's a whole like section of taco food. It's like all Mexican food Yeah, but it did I did find When you all when you're going around supermarket, it takes you a lot longer in a foreign country because you're trying to read what everything is You don't know the same products of the same

The language is different in lot of cases. So you can get your phone out and try and translate it all to make sure what looks like bread is definitely bread But How is it going to going forward to your next move then internationally as Bose going to Japan obviously such a Contrasting place to the US and I'm sure mold over as well What was that like when you first arrived in Japan? Then what did you feel? What did you think? What did you see?

The first thing I remember, we arrived in Japan in, it was like seven o 'clock in the morning. And so I remember the first thing I remembered was just how quiet it was. And me being so shocked that I was arriving in one of most populated countries in the world and couldn't hear a pin drop. Like it was just so quiet. The people are incredibly quiet. We were on the train and no one's eating.

listening to music, no one's speaking. All I see in the corner is this seven -year -old Japanese boy reading a newspaper. It's just such a different atmosphere. the craziest part for us was that we were in a very... This was right before they had transitioned to more English translations of their signs and stuff like that, because they had...

weren't accepting of like a lot of foreigners for a long time. And then I think the new leader or president or something, he was really trying to change everything to make it more like acceptable for foreigners and more comfortable. But they were still in the transition period. So I just remember looking around and there was no English anywhere. All you see is these characters. And speaking of food, my husband and I were transitioning to like a plant based lifestyle at that point. So it made it 10 times harder because

James Doran (28:50.766)

We were so terrified to eat anything and you realize how Google Translate doesn't work for shit. Like it's so bad. Like you're trying to Google Translate with people and showing them and they're looking at you like you have 10 heads because they don't know what the hell you just said to them. And it was just a big process because there they don't speak English. We don't speak Japanese. We're trying to like communicate and make it work. But it was nothing but such positive impressions when we got to Japan because

It was just completely opposite from anything I'd ever experienced. It was very calm and peaceful and I don't know, just like this calm energy in a crazy city that I just didn't expect. And whilst you were there, were you working or were you just as tourists most of the time? Or what was your kind of experience of the country? Was it to understand working life or was it also just to be a sponge for all the

culture, which is kind of all over the country. Yeah, it was just a sponge. Like I said, like we were thinking about doing something for money at that point. But I knew that like it was very much of like a calling. Like I don't want I don't have to describe it, but it was very like spiritual for us to be there. And I kind of felt very strongly that we need to put everything aside and really be concentrating and present on what we're doing. So I didn't really want to create a situation where

And I know that's a little different for a lot of your listeners. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, if you have the opportunity to live somewhere and work, incredible. But this was a very much of like a pilgrimage of like a healing journey. So I really needed to be completely present and not be taken away and be pulled into like something that rooted me down, which was a job. And I just needed to be free and not really think about anything, not think about any timelines and...

It was just kind of made it a very unique journey because it was basically nine months of not working, just being completely immersed in the culture and the people and having experiences that we would have never been able to have if we were working. Interesting. then so that pilgrimage then in temperature Japan, it just in Tokyo? Or did you explore lots of other parts of the country as well? yeah, we went everywhere. We got the bullet train, which is a really good if you ever go to Japan. Have you been to Japan? No, no, I haven't. But it's on my list for sure. It's just

James Doran (31:15.118)

It's very far away. This is a really good tip for anyone traveling to Japan. If you go to Japan, foreigners have an advantage to the bullet train system, but you have to purchase it outside of Japan. So if you purchase your bullet train tickets outside of Japan, you get like a foreigner advantage and your price is literally you pay for I think for three weeks, we paid the same price that someone would pay one way to go to Kyoto from Tokyo. And we were able to go all over the country, unlimited.

You get included some buses on there, some regular like local trains. So we bought this package and I remember we met a guy, a Japanese businessman and he told us, he's like, you guys are so smart that you took this package because it costs me to go to Kyoto the same price that it costs you for a few weeks. So we went everywhere. We went to all over Japan. We went to the big cities, know, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya. We went to the smaller.

places you probably never even heard of like Shimizu and Utsunomiya which is like the number one Gyoza capital of the world. went up to Hokkaido. I do love Gyoza's. Yeah we did so. We went all the way up to Hokkaido which is like the northern region where Sapporo is and then we went down to Kyushu to Fukuoka so we literally went all over Japan like yeah I see

We know it very, very well. then on from Japan, then you went to Korea, said South Korea, you said, sorry. Yeah, South Korea, which was a shock because we thought, you know, they're right next to each other very naively, just assuming because two countries are next to each other, they're going to be very similar. know, Asian countries, they're next to each other. Couldn't be more opposite. Like.

so opposite and when we first arrived to South Korea it reminded us so much of New York. You know when you go to Japan you almost feel like you're in a glow of like your own you're in like your own planet like you just nothing else exists you're in somewhere so different than anything you've ever seen or know and then when you go somewhere like South Korea for us it felt like kind of going back home and it was too soon so we didn't really like it we didn't really enjoy

James Doran (33:30.87)

South Korea and mainly only for the time period we were in our life. It just was too familiar to us. It was too hectic. Everyone's like angry. Like the traffic is crazy. Driving there, you need like a helmet and a prayer because people drive so crazy there. So it was just like very chaotic. And we just didn't expect that. So we weren't really fans of South Korea. that Seoul you went to? it other parts as well? We went to, we started in Busan.

which is the southern part. So I thought it was going to be very like San Tropez -ish, know, like very relaxing. No, it's like a huge city. You know what I mean? We're just... well. And it was mainly just our expectations. We just were so unaware, but we had expectations. The difference is with Tokyo, we had zero expectations. So it made it easier to enjoy it. But because we had so many expectations of South Korea and they didn't fulfill what we thought, it made it more disappointing.

And then you went to Beijing from South Korea, right? So what was that like going to China? of that, what was your first impression of living in China or experience in China? was it? It for three days. It was quite a short time, I suppose. When we first arrived in Beijing, the Metro was amazing. I don't know what to expect, but it was gorgeous. Like we ended up in this gorgeous train station. We had like amazing food. Like everything was wonderful. I remember seeing all these fruits, which was incredible because in Japan, in South Korea, there's like no fruits.

Especially Japan, like especially we went during the winter. So we went in March and all you see is oranges, bananas. And you'll see like a piece of like one strawberry wrapped in like 10 pieces of silo foam sold for five dollars. So when we so we went to Beijing all of sudden I see dragon fruit and kiwi and like all this stuff. And I'm like, my God, this is amazing. But where we stayed in our Airbnb, we stayed in a really old like

old building that looked like it was pre -war. don't know, it was like a really old building. So right back, we were brought back into like communist times, like, and you see the extremes in the city because you have these really old kind of communistic structures and then you have these gorgeous monuments and big malls. So there's a lot of like imbalance in Beijing. But overall, we were very surprised, pleasantly surprised by Beijing, but it was a very interesting place. Super busy.

James Doran (35:54.942)

really hectic, like you cross the street and pray kind of thing too, know, because cars are like going in every direction and. then jumping forward to North Korea, then it's not a place that maybe would have been but what was that like when you first because obviously the it gets quite a negative reputation in the rest of the world. Is that a fair one? Is that something you experienced? Or what was it like being there? Yes, I'll be honest, we were scared.

I didn't go there like, yeah, who cares? Like, no, I was like, I'm gonna go, but I'm terrified. And I actually have a picture of my husband and I like on the flight and our eyes look like we're being held hostage. Like we were just so terrified because we were so scared going into there. And one of the reasons we went there and I decided to go is because I didn't like not knowing. like a lot of people, you know, had mentioned something. Someone was talking to us about.

family, they're like, we're going to go traveling and we're like, I don't know, we're going to go anywhere, you know, everywhere. And they're like, well, you're not going to go to North Korea. And I was like, and I made like some kind of slick comment like, not unless I want a one way ticket, you know. And then after and then afterwards, I was very much mad at myself because I'm like, I had done this growth and this journey. And here I am commenting about a place that I literally know nothing about. And it made me feel really kind of bad. So that made me look into, I go to North Korea?

And it became a goal of mine. was like, I need to see it with my own eyes for that very reason that everyone had such negative things to say about it. And I'm like, I'm not that type of person. Like I don't just repeat what other people say because I don't I don't know what's out there. It's a full moon opinion. Yeah, I want to form my own opinion. I want to see with my own eyes. And so it was very terrifying going in there because our flight was delayed. First of all, like right before we went into North Korea, my husband and I almost got detained in China.

because we forgot to, speaking of visas, so when you go to China, even for the three day visa, you need to register with the police if you're there for longer than 24 hours. And because we stayed in some kind of illegal Airbnb that wasn't even registered and she didn't tell us to do anything, we never registered with the police. So when we were at the airport, they had pulled us aside and they were like, you didn't register. And it was like crazy. had this...

James Doran (38:16.554)

guy who was like eight feet tall spitting in our face. It was like really terrifying. And they had us like they put us off to the side for a few hours. Like we didn't have any communication with anybody. We know what was going on. So we were already a little terrified. Then our flight was delayed even more because of whatever reason. So one of the craziest part is that when we were flying into Pyongyang, because the city is a communist country and they turn off all their lights, the entire city was pitch black.

So we were flying into pitch blackness. So if you fly into a normal airport, like you see things like whatever, like, no, it was dark, it was pitch black. We were flying. I don't even know how the plane was landing because it was complete pitch blackness. So that was a little intimidating. It took a while to kind of get our feet on the ground, but it surprised me at every turn. I think with any country, you can't generalize a country based on a few news articles.

because a country is so much more than just the government or what's going on. Like we were really there to see the people and see the culture and really find out like what's going on. And honestly, I really wanted other people to see us and see us in a different way because I think a lot of people go to North Korea and they're just like, they want to check off a box. know, they're like, I want to go somewhere dangerous. Let me check off a box. And when we went there, we were like, no, we're going to specifically make eye contact with these people.

smile at these people, wave at these people, let them know that there's people out there that don't all think that they're like brainwashed lunatics. Like we're just humans having a human experience and we could be from different places. you know, so we went out there really open minded and we had an amazing time. And one of the best reasons why we had such an amazing time there is because it's completely shut off from the world. So there's no internet access at all. Like, unless you're in the government, you don't have internet access.

So for five days or how are my five, six days, we had no access to the outside world whatsoever. No one knew where we were. We didn't tell anyone we were going. We didn't tell family we were going. So we were in like this little bubble of like anonymity. A real digital detox. Yeah. And it was such a mental detox. I felt so relaxed and present being there. The food was great. The people were really warm and welcoming. And, you know, they party, they drink after work. Someone smokes a little weed like

James Doran (40:42.88)

It's not how you expect it to be. I'm not saying I know everything about the country from what I saw, but every country has their things. I've been, every country you went to, let me tell you one thing that all people have in common, because we specifically, we go to countries and we take like, you know, Uber or something like that. We love to talk to drivers and get to see like how the country is and their perspective. And they all say the same thing. The government's corrupt. The government's corrupt. The government's corrupt. Like.

It doesn't matter what country you're from, everyone has the same complaints and the same problems. Completely, yeah, it's a very good point. I think you will struggle to find one country without some issue with the government from some parts of the country because there's always someone who wants someone else in charge, so they're always going to think it's not right. Well, I guess it's how humans are, suppose, aren't they? But it's amazing to see how...

I removed the prejudice you were when you arrived because it's quite quite difficult to try and do that I think even if you're most present person you always have the subconscious side to it but to really try and actively focus on it which sounds like you were doing must have been quite tiring I guess because you were constantly going no you know your first thoughts and go and like investigate and have conversations when you were there what

Were sure you were speaking English? Was the level of English with locals quite good? was the language barrier difficult? No, everyone there speaks great English and actually their culture is very high on education, which I understand from communist countries that's what they emphasize on is education. So little kids as early as six, seven years old, they're learning like three languages. know? So we were actually, we spent a lot of time, my husband and I, we

We were paying the ass to this tour group because we were trying to save money and we also wanted to see things like that other people weren't seeing. So sometimes they try to put you into like an environment. They're like, they took us to a circus. They took people to the circus, whatever, right? You know, North Korean circus. OK, it's cool to see a North Korean circus. I'd rather walk, stay on the street when there's no one else around and I'm not part of a tour group. Like that was more interesting for me. So when they're like, hey, it's ten dollars to go to the circus. We're like, no, we're not paying ten dollars. And they're like, OK, well, now we have to have

James Doran (43:09.932)

Like all our guides are with them. What are we going to do with you guys? And we're like, well, I guess we're just going to walk around the city for a few hours. So we had like a private tour of North Korea. Basically a lot of the time we were there because we were doing these kinds of things. And so we were on the, we were by the water one day and a few kids kind of came by us and started speaking to us in English and a few ones said something in Russian to us. So they're, very like educated people. I don't know how the, the common population, I don't know if they speak English or not, but

Definitely the people in the bigger city, you know, and the government jobs or the higher jobs. And, but I do think they try to prepare their general population to speak different languages. going forward in time to your next, was it the UAE? Was it Cambodia you went to next? Or Thailand? Malaysia. Malaysia. There's quite a lot of places. So Malaysia then going to Malaysia, which

Was ex British, I believe. So a lot of British influence in Malaysia. What was that like when you first arrived? So that was interesting because we had no desire to go to Malaysia. We actually wanted to go to Taiwan during that time. So we were planning to go to Taiwan. But because when we were traveling to North Korea, it was during a really crazy political time. So they had sanctioned our flight that was supposed to go into

go back from North Korea. So we weren't allowed to take that flight anymore. So now it was like this whole convoluted system, which really messed up our visa, our transit visa. So now, because we had a certain deadline that we could leave the country. And that's why we chose Taiwan, because the Taiwan flight was specifically, directly how long we needed to get out the country. So when they eliminated that option for us, we didn't know what to do. So we literally just looked and we picked the flight.

that fit this like three hour limit that we needed to go and it just happened to be Kuala Lumpur. And I remember when we looked at the weather, it was during, yeah, yeah. So it was monsoon season. So I'm like, we did not want to go. We're like, where are we going into? It's going to be raining literally 90 % of the time. We never, it's going to be hot. And I have to tell you, we loved it. Like I, we love Malaysia so much, even being there during monsoon season, because you have these

James Doran (45:29.322)

amazing rainstorms and then nothing. And that's just like peace and like beautiful weather. And and I remember we wanted to like spoil ourselves because we had gone through this treacherous kind of few months. And so we want to spoil ourselves. So I remember we got this Airbnb and it was like twenty dollars a night and it was on top of like one of the biggest buildings. And we had this huge infinity pool and we were overlooking the towers and it was like the most incredible Airbnb for twenty dollars that you could imagine. So we

We had a ball, like we just totally swirled ourselves there. We got a lot of good food and we met great people and it was incredible. We loved Malaysia. We wanted to move there. How long were you in Malaysia for? Was it quite a short trip? We were in Malaysia for about a month and a half. We did some house sitting there. We also did some, we stayed with strangers, kind of like a version of couch surfing.

Yeah, but it was like TrustRoutes. So was like a different website. So we did that. And then we ended up doing a house sitting in Singapore. So we took the bus down to Singapore, did a house sitting for a few weeks. And then we came back to Malaysia, went all the way up to the border because to Thailand, because we were going to go to Thailand. And then something happened and we ended up going back. And then from there, we took like a twenty dollar flight to Cambodia. And then what was Cambodia like? Obviously being a different

East Asian country or South Asian country. What impression of it when you first arrived compared to what you thought it was going to be like? Yeah, Cambodia is it's like right next to Vietnam and it was totally opposite because Malaysia is a very like new city and it has huge malls and huge buildings and it's very With the times, you know, they're very I can't think of the words like slipping my mind but modern and basically the poor Singapore is such a futuristic city. It's beautiful, but

It's so crazy to go to it. Exactly. So we went from these huge, super modern, luxurious places to Cambodia, where it's complete opposite. Like the country is the most simple I've ever seen. It was one of the most simple places I've ever been. The rural in a sense of very, just very simple life. And surprisingly, we we loved it. Like every aspect of it, just to how

James Doran (47:49.88)

how simple was to see these people live with barely anything and they're the happiest people like they really are so happy. They call Thailand the land of smiles and I really think Cambodia deserves the land of smiles more than Thailand because all you see there is just people living life, enjoying life and not letting the circumstances of like their very dark history take them down and they only have used it as like a light and I

really want to move there. Like I was ready to give up all my luxuries of life and I wanted to just live in Cambodia, start a food hut and like sell food on the corner out of my little car. Like I was ready to do that because there's some aspect that is just so liberating when you're in a place like that. was your kind of favorite part of in terms of where you were traveling? Was it the nature? Was it the environment they were in or was it a simple life in terms of

being quite mindful in in simple pleasures. What was it that really struck you that made it so happy? think it was just so untouched by civilization. Like there's no McDonald's there. There's no Starbucks like, you know, at all. I don't think the entire country has any of these big chains. And so it's very untouched by civilization. So you get a real taste of the culture, which I think is really hard to do right now in any country, because you might go to the most amazing place.

You know, like the Great Wall of China and then there's like a Starbucks, you know? So it's here. You don't have that. You've really got to see this culture for what it is, the energy of it, the freedom. Like my husband and I, rented moped, we rented like, started driving around the country, which is crazy because they tell you that Cambodia has a lot of landmines. So they actually tell you like, don't go off where you don't know, because at any moment you can be blown up. And, know, so

We never knew we were like driving around and it's like you never know if you're going to get hit with a landmine. don't know. It was like very scary, but it was very liberating because no, you don't feel like anyone's watching you. You don't feel like anyone cares what you're doing. Like I remember my husband, I like they're very free on cannabis there. Right. So I remember my husband, I went to this resort and we were like, try to be like kind of sneaky. We're like, we're in Cambodia with this gorgeous view, whatever. Like, let's roll like a little joint, whatever, and sit by the beach.

James Doran (50:12.78)

And then all of sudden, people, like the people who work there, ended up coming over. And I thought they were going to tell us, like, to stop or like to put it away, whatever. And the guy brings us an ashtray, you know, we're like in this like fancy hotel and he's like, here you go. It's fine. Like, I just never experienced anything like that. Like at that time period, especially because this was several years ago before kind of the world changed. So it was just, I don't know, it just seems very like liberating. Like you kind of do whatever you want there.

Wow, that's insane. did you then move to the Middle East after that, which is maybe the opposite of liberation depends on how you look at it. But well, we went. Yeah, we went to we went to Thailand for a little bit. And then we went to Dubai. We did a house sitting in Dubai, which was incredible. We met phenomenal people that we and we're still friends with to this day. So they're just incredible people. And it was it was a different world. And we went there in the summer. So it was

super hot. It was like 120 degrees. So you spend most of your time in like malls or you know, whatever. But no, Dubai, Dubai was cool. I've been in Dubai before. So it wasn't like a new experience for me. But you experienced living there. So we lived kind of like Dubai people live where most of them have servants, they have someone who cooks for them, they have a driver or whatever. because

stayed with a family that also had that. We kind of had that experience right away. So we got picked up from the airport with a driver. He drove us around. Like we had a family cooking for us. Like we had someone taking care of all our stuff. Like they treated us like royalty. So it was really like a vacation for us more than anything else. And but Dubai is very different than any part of Middle East. Like it's just its own its own culture, its own world. And it's very open. Like you'll have

you'll see a woman in a burka and then you'll see a woman next to her in a bikini and they coexist harmoniously. That's interesting to think about. guess it's accepting of everyone's different beliefs, different wishes and how they want to their life as long as it's not doing any harm to each other. It's their issue, So that's the way we should all live, I suppose, in that sense. With Dubai then, did you...

James Doran (52:28.206)

Did you stay in just one place or were you staying in few places when you're house -sitting? What was that whole experience like? So we were supposed to only be there for few days, but we didn't have any plans. We were buying our plane tickets when we were ready at the new place. So we didn't know where we were going to go. And so we were supposed to go there just to house -sit their dog for a few days. The guy is a pilot. He was a pilot or he's still a pilot with Emirates. So because he was a pilot, his schedule is very sporadic.

He wasn't able to get leave for that specification. So they asked us to stay later. We became friends with the wife and we became like she stayed at home and like she just Loved us. So they asked us to stay longer. So we just stayed for three weeks. We didn't do any house sitting We really just hung out with them the entire time like honestly like they just fed us drove us around like we just drank wine and hung out and told stories and So we just stayed at their house the whole time until

We left. Yeah. And were they local to Dubai or were they expats themselves? He was Bahrainian from Bahrain and she was South African and British and I think he was from Bahrain and British. And then you moved to Azerbaijan following that. What was that? How did you find, because Azerbaijan is not a game, you're getting into your country to move to. What was that whole experience like? Did you find that there was a house sitting opportunity there or what was the reason for Yeah, no, they don't have house sitting there.

That was just honestly it was just something like a calling to where we were deciding it was funny because we were deciding between Going to Georgia and going to Azerbaijan and they're right next to each other The difference is is that Georgia you don't need a visa like you can go there especially with an American pal I think any passport honestly, it's like they take anybody like they don't care for a year. No problem for free you live there

So for a while we thought maybe we just go to Georgia, maybe we're gonna live in Georgia. And in Azerbaijan you need to get a visa, but it's $30. So like I said, $30 is not a lot of money, but when we were traveling the way we were, $30 is a lot of money. So we thought long and hard and we looked at the flights and the flights were $30 apart. So the flight to Azerbaijan was actually $30 cheaper than Georgia. So balanced out.

James Doran (54:48.48)

And that was our main deciding factor of why we went to Azerbaijan because we're like, okay, screw it. We have to get a visa, but we have to go there. And thank God we did because it is one of our favorite countries in the world. It is such an incredible, incredible place. mean, it's just phenomenal. They're completely restructuring because it was also communist, then because they have a lot of oil, so they have a lot of

money. They're basically taking all this oil money and restructuring and rebuilding their entire city. So all you have is just these gorgeous futuristic designs built by the most talented architects in the world overtaking the entire city. And it's just mind blowing. Was Baku you were staying in then? Yeah, we stayed in Baku and which is amazing because you have the blend of like the Middle Eastern culture with the Soviet culture.

And it felt so like home. Like it was just, it was a place we felt very like a home. It was the first time we heard our language. We could speak to people in Russian and we understood the culture and the food and it felt very, very comfortable there. And then we ended up renting a car and we drove the entire country. So we just, we rented a car with no plans and we went all the way up to Cuba, which is like the Northern part of.

Azerbaijan and it's always to the west. We went right up on the border of like the area that was like problematic. But the head is with and then yes, so we spent three days just traveling around the entire country to the mountains. We went to the highest point in the Caucus Mountains, which is called Xenolique. So it's the it's the large it's the only population of the highest point where there's actual civilization still so.

It's super high in the mountains and people still live there and they actually live like they did in the days and they call themselves Noah's grandchildren because they say that they have remnants of shells into the rocks that show that the flood was there. So very like interesting place. Yeah. Very spiritual and very religious like a pilgrimage perhaps people might go there and things. That's incredible.

James Doran (57:07.85)

And then did you go to Georgia following Azerbaijan? Yes, we went to Georgia. We took a car and we just drove in to Georgia. And Georgia, Tbilisi is a gorgeous city, really beautiful city, one of a kind, really. But we didn't really have a good experience with Georgia. I think because we expected we had such a high built up from Azerbaijan.

And again, it was like the same thing that happened with Japan and South Korea that we expected the same energy to flow into the new country. I don't realize how different people are. And again, it's nothing against Georgians or whatever. It's just that they were very different than Azerbaijan. And I think because at that time they were getting an influx of tourists, whereas Azerbaijan had barely any tourists. Like I think we were like, so when you go to Georgia, the problem is, is that the people, started taking advantage of the tourists. So

They see your tours and they take advantage of you. And like when you're a backpacker, like saving your last dollar, like that really rubs you the wrong way. Completely. Wow. Yeah. So come on. You've been to all these places and then going on from Georgia was this. we went to Turkey, Turkey after Georgia. Was that the East and East part of Turkey? So it's quite different to the West, I imagine. Yes. And we again, because we were so fed up with Georgia people. So when we were at the border.

We were planning on taking a bus into Turkey, but we went to the bus ticket counter and the guy was trying to take advantage of us again because he could tell we're like not from there. And I was so fed up. I'm like, no, I'm not dealing with these people anymore. They're not taking my money. We're just going to figure it out. We're just going to walk. like, we're just going to land in East Turkey and we're just going to walk with our backpacks and figure it out. Little I didn't know to my knowledge that the next city is like an hour and a half from the border.

So when you cross into Turkey, all you see is the Black Sea and just miles of highway and there's like nothing around. So we start walking and walking and walking and like 20 minutes later and we have all these bags and it's hot as hell because it's August. So we start hitchhiking and we had the most phenomenal hitchhiking experience ever. We got picked up back to back to back.

James Doran (59:26.712)

people were taking care of us, they were feeding us, they were giving us tea, they were putting us up to stay, they were taking us out to dinner. We're still friends with people to this day that picked us up hitchhiking in East Turkey. yeah, so that - Were you communicating in English then as well or was it Russian or how were you communicating with? you need to know? No, we didn't speak any English. One of the guys spoke a little bit of English, but the one guy that we spent with, we spent two days with this one guy who was a traveling salesman and

So it was like perfect. He ends up picking us up and he's like, perfect, I'm going that way anyway. Like just spend two days with me and I'll come with me in my business meetings and I'll drop you off. And he spoke not one word of English. And, somehow we had the most amazing connection and tried a little bit with translator, but it was mainly just, I can't even describe it, but we, I felt like we knew so much about each other that when we actually left, we all cried. Like we had built.

action that we all got so upset when we left each other. It was phenomenal. And then we ended up house sitting there for about a month and a half in Kars. So it's like already down in like the west south corner, about Mediterranean Sea. And then we made our way up to Istanbul. So we did the whole country also of Turkey. Traversed the entire, yeah, that's incredible. What was the experience like from east to west and obviously going from Asia to Europe?

It was really different. East Turkey, even East Turkey to West Turkey is like night and day, you know, like it's totally a different feel because East Turkey don't have barely any visitors at all. I think they were shocked to see us. They were like, what are you doing here? You know, because they don't have foreigners come to East Turkey at all. It's very authentic, cultural. I mean, Turkey is authentic everywhere, but you definitely get a little more variation when you go to Istanbul and then.

Obviously, I love the way we travel because you do see the subtle differences between as the cultures go on, you start in Asia. Yeah, and then it's just like, you know, and then you slowly end up in you know, somewhere like Spain and it's, know. And then going on from Turkey, then did you, where did you go to next? So we did Bulgaria. We took a bus to Bulgaria. We stayed there only for a few days. And then we went to Romania for a few days. And then we ended up in Moldova, which was...

James Doran (01:01:46.638)

really incredible because we actually we didn't plan it at all. But like I told you, my husband's also from Moldova. So we landed there. We took a bus. We we did. We had this crazy hitchhiking journey, but we tried to hitchhike from Romania to Moldova. And it kind of was like didn't really work out. And but we ended up in Moldova at like 4 a on a bus and no plans. Just try to figure it out. And we had to.

The bus dropped us off at the rock part of the city. So our first impression of Moldova was walking at 4 a from one part of the city to our Airbnb, which was like, I don't know, like 15 miles and nervous, not knowing where we're going or anything like that. But that was incredible to be back. Was it your first time back since you left as a child? And for both of you, imagine all.

We actually got there on the 25th anniversary of when my parents and I came to New York. serendipitous stuff. I know, so breezy. And then did you go to the city or town where you were from or did you go? Yeah, we actually, so I was born in the capital. So we actually went to the same building where I grew up in and we were swinging on the same swings that I used to play on, which was really a really crazy experience because you just see it and you're like.

It's hard to describe because it's very different. know, the building is a very different building. You know, you have an old communist building. It's very different than, you you're going to visit like your hometown, like where your parents grew up, you know, in the same city. Right. So it was a very weird experience. And then we ended up taking the trek to where my husband was born, which was about three hours north in a really small village. So we also went to where he went to school. We kind of had like the whole, the whole tour. can we, the, the full

memory lane experience, suppose. And did you call your parents when you were there? you call your husband's parents and talk to them or show them whilst you were there and things for them to see? Or have they been back since? My dad had been back. And so he's been back recently after we went. And yeah, we were we were keeping contact with our parents kind of pretty much the whole time, like, let me know, like our stories and what we were doing, kind of letting them know that we were there. And we stayed with a family friend.

James Doran (01:04:08.554)

my husband's mom's family friend, who she still lives there. So we stayed with her. We had like the full authentic experience. Was it how you remembered it growing up or was it completely different or? There are some aspects that are definitely the same, but it's such a weird, it's such a weird feeling to come back to a place like that because you're almost coming back to a place that's supposed to be home. But it has changed so much because obviously pre -Soviet Union and post -Soviet Union has changed drastically.

Some for the better, some not for the better. So it was a weird feeling of being like, I should feel like home here. And there are some familiarities, but also feeling like a stranger and feeling like you don't belong. And it was very obvious, like us walking around, like you could just tell we're not from there. And, you know, we still got like sore thumbs. So it was a very like strange experience, but I'm grateful that we were together and had that, you know, had that experience together. So I definitely, I love it. I love my country and

It's a beautiful place. then leaving Moldova then, where's your next destination? Spain. That's where we ended off the trip. We had a house sitting there for about a month and a half, but we also traveled all the country and yeah, that was incredible. We stayed in a beautiful, beautiful house overlooking the Mediterranean in Costa Blanca. Yeah, Costa Blanca, the White Coast. How did that compare, obviously, going to this?

European country after being all this incredible Asian and Middle Eastern places with, I guess, different experiences of modern life. And you seem to go through a lot of highs and lows in terms of the wealth of countries compared to each other. Maybe going from Dubai, which is quite an African country, to Azerbaijan, to Georgia, Turkey, which is probably quite mixed in terms of its

Equality and same with a lot of Eastern Europe as well What was our whole experience like going to Spain as your final country and experiencing the Spanish life or the Iberian life? I mean it was definitely nice to be back in like what feels more like home which is Europe right because everywhere else feels so foreign to you that this was probably the closest to what we're used to and what we understand so that that aspect of it was nice, but it also was very Carefree and relaxing. It was like the perfect way to end

James Doran (01:06:33.998)

the trip because Spanish people in general, very like, they just want to party and they just want to take naps during the day. like, you know, they're just like hanging out. They eat dinner at 10 o 'clock at night and like they just have a very like laissez faire kind of way of living life. It was just amazing. And it purely was just fun for us. Like we had a great house sitting. We we had a car like they let us use their cars like it was pure luxury for us. It was like kind of a way to wrap up.

the journey because it was such a treacherous journey and there was so many ups and downs and was such a roller coaster. We went through so many hard times that it was kind of like our reward at the end of all that and kind of like, OK, just just relax for like a month and a half. So there wasn't anything like really crazy. It was just it was just being it and enjoying the lifestyle. And the hardest part was like, I remember trying to go to the store to get food and like finding out that everything's closed because it's a random holiday on Tuesday. Like they close.

They're all closed all the time. were like, wasn't there a holiday yesterday? Like, yeah, but this is a different holiday. We're like, OK. And everything shuts down. Yeah, it's probably as far away from America as you can get. Yes, yes. They're always celebrating something and they close everything for that reason. So sometimes you just can't find food. But that's like that's the biggest problem. And we still being plant based at this point, or because guess having plant based diets in Spain can be quite difficult. It was actually because so I speak Spanish, so I would

go to places and I remember one specific place they had like a bunch of empanadas or something and I was like okay like I was trying to explain like all right you don't eat meat you know so was saying it in Spanish I was like okay no carne you know no pescado no fish whatever and then she's like I'm like just just vegetables verduras whatever and she's like jamon jamon like you know like like no ma 'am ham is not a vegetable you know so it's like their understanding like they just don't understand that at all they're like

Of course you eat ham, like that's not meat, you know? So that was definitely difficult. yeah, we were plant -based. Luckily, we weren't fully like vegan or whatever the terminology is at that point. So we were still eating cheese and stuff like that. So it didn't make our journey a lot easier. We were trying to do good, but luckily there's a lot of cheese there. But we went to lot of farmers markets and the food there is just incredible. So we just eat.

James Doran (01:09:00.276)

bread, olives, cooking all the time, veggies and soups. Wow. Is there anything else you want to divulge, we've been thinking about for quite a while about your very short time abroad. Is there much else to share or do want to go to the next section? I think that's it. After that, we just went to, we lived in Mexico for a while, so that was also an incredible experience of just...

because that was also a very tumultuous time to go there politically. Like everyone was like, you're crazy. Don't go there. And we're like, not only we're going to go, but we're going to drive our own car across the border through the most dangerous part and figure it out. US plates. Yes, exactly. With our Jersey plates and people are like, what's Jersey? Like they're like, where, what country is this? They don't know where we were from. It's an island near England actually. Mexico was phenomenal. It was like

The people are incredible. had such an amazing experience from beginning to end. yeah, it was incredible. So we are really blessed with that. But every experience really kind of like fed off of each other and there was very spiritual purpose behind each of it. And it really was like a healing journey. Like it wasn't just to see things. It was more of a self discovery of figuring out, you know, your place in the world, my place in the world, like figure out what life is about.

just trying to be really present and get out of my thoughts and my mind and just really figure out like what's going on in this world. Because I think so often we're so disconnected like we're one place but we're somewhere else like all the time like our minds always wandering we're always we're never present. So I think the biggest lesson I got from the travel and especially the way we did it because everything was on land is just really learning how to be present. And now because I used to be a person I said daydream all the time like to skate.

my world, used just daydream. And now it's gone to a point, and this is kind of a negative aspect, but I can't even daydream anymore. Like, I'm so present that I try to daydream and I literally Ikea because I'm just so pulled into the present moment. Wow, that's incredible. So we should all try and do a bit more of suppose because it's is easy to think about tomorrow. Not not not enjoy today.

James Doran (01:11:21.258)

On the house sitting kind of stuff that you were doing in order to kind of fuel a lot of your experiences abroad, how did you find out about that? What was your... Was there a website to use? Was there networks you were involved in internationally? How can someone listening try and find a way they could do it themselves? yeah, so the thing is that I never even knew anything about house sitting before and I remember when my husband and I, first...

started our car camping journey and it was like one of the first days we were on the road and you have all this time in the car and I'm like, what are we going to do? Let's listen to a podcast. So we put on a podcast and I remember someone was talking about they had just mentioned the word house sitting and it just like kind of rang in my head, but I forgot about it. We turned off the podcast and you know, we forgot about it. Then when we were on our journey, it was right around the time of my 30th birthday. So

my parents kind of like gave us a gift to go to Alaskan cruise. So I was kind of upset about it at first because I'm like, we're going with no plans, we're traveling. And now you kind of gave me a deadline that I have to be at a certain place, you know, by a certain time. So I was a little upset about it. And at first I didn't really want to go. And then I'm like, you're an idiot. Like, of course you're going to go. Like you want to see everything. Why wouldn't you go? This is a good thing, not a bad thing. So.

We were on this Alaskan cruise and it was the last day of the cruise and we were up at it was called like the crow's nest. And it's like everyone like drinking, dancing or whatever. And we ended up bonding with this older couple from New Zealand. And they must have been like, I don't know, 60s or 70s. They were awesome. And we saw them. They ended up calling us down to sit with them and have a few drinks. So it's like two in the morning. We're sitting drinks. It's our last night.

And we start sharing our adventures and they start telling us about all their wild, crazy traveling adventures and how they've been overseas and all this stuff. And we start sharing with them what we're doing. And they said, have you guys heard of this website about house sitters? And when they mentioned it, because I had already heard it before, it made me really pay attention. And they're like, yeah, we have this one friend, these friends that they're like always traveling all around the world, house sitting. And I was like, really? Yeah. And they gave us the website name.

James Doran (01:13:40.098)

So it's trustedhousetitters .com. But there's a bunch of websites like this. This is just the one that we specifically chose. So as soon as we landed in Seattle, profile, and I made the most elaborate profile sharing everything about us. And you basically handle it like, it's kind of like an Airbnb situation, but you apply. the homeowners, they pay a fee, you pay a fee. I think it was like a hundred and something dollars for the year.

which if you end up getting a house sitting, it pays for itself like a thousand fold. So, and the way it is, is that these people, have animals or they have houses or sometimes they don't have animals at all. Sometimes they just have multiple properties and they're like, I have this property, can you live here for a year? Because I don't have anyone to take care of it. No animals, no nothing. Or you have someone with a million animals, know, whatever it is. So we, people find, put their...

how long they're living, living for, what they need, what they have. They have a whole profile set and then you apply or people apply to you. So in the beginning we were applying to people because we were brand new on the site. And by the time we were done with the site, like after a few years, we were actually like number one or two on the website. Like we had the highest views and people from all over the world were reaching out to us like on a weekly basis. Like literally from all over the world.

Any given time, like, hey, can you come out? Can you fly out to like sit, you know, whatever? we're like, where's this? Do we want to go here? We're like, no. You when it was like kind of like on our thing. But our craziest, our first house sitting experience was so interesting because it was a 41 acre ranch in the middle of a national forest in the Trinity Alps. So it was like really high above sea level in Northern California.

for seven goats and a llama and a cat. So they have a huge farm. They had a giant organic farm or giant organic property. And they wanted us to, and they asked if anyone knows how to milk a goat because the goat needs to be milked like every day in order for her to keep producing milk. And so I wrote, I'm like, sure, I can figure it out. So I had to learn like our very first house sitting, we're like pulling up to these people's

James Doran (01:16:03.608)

house in the middle of nowhere and I was terrified. I literally like when we first arrived there we pulled up after like this winding road we were like this for like a half hour I was like car sick and then we arrived at these people's house these people are walking towards us and I look at my husband I'm like is it too late for us to turn back like I think we should like this is crazy what are we doing like we're nuts we're literally nuts we're about to live with these strangers who live in the middle of nowhere taking care of their animals like what are we doing

And it was too late to leave, obviously. So we're like, all right, I guess we got to do this. so we lived there for about a month, taking care of a farm and the animals and everything like that. So a milking gut. Yes. In care of goats, cleaning poop, doing all that. Yeah, it was phenomenal experience. And then the other house settings were a little more normal and mild. But that was a pretty it was a good one to like, get us started. It was like, all right, you want to have sit like

Here you go, here's this experience, let's see how you can handle it. And if you survive, then we'll give you more. wow. That's incredible. Well, yeah, what a great way of ending the second part of the podcast, and then we can kind of get into your advice and reviews for other people.

James Doran (01:17:23.278)

So hello and welcome back to the podcast on Volcan section 3 which is kind of a review of your time so as I said this is where I ask my guests if they could kind of go back to their the start of the kind of journey abroad and give themselves some advice what might it be so maybe it's difficult for when you were a child but let's go back to when you started moving abroad to Japan if you could think of yourself back then in California what might you

Say to yourself before going on this incredible journey, which might help or might make it richer for you. That's a good question. I'm trying to come up with like a really like amazing answer, but if I could be really honest, I was so intentional before I went on my journey that I don't think I would change a thing because and I'll and the advice I gave myself and what I advice I took is the advice I would give to anybody listening.

is just to believe that everything will work out. Like just know that you can't prepare for a situation that you're not in yet. And I think so many times we try to prepare ourselves from this present self of where we're at. And you're not giving yourself room to grow and evolve into a person that then can have that answer come naturally. Like we're so trying to figure out like a calculus problem when we're still doing like algebra.

Like let yourself get to the point where you're doing calculus, right? And then you'll figure it out. It'll come second nature to you. So I think for me, I was just very conscious and present of like, take it one step at a time and take the first step. Even if you don't know what it's gonna look like, even if you don't know what's gonna happen, just believe and trust that everything will work out and you make the right decisions for you and the right people are gonna come into your life when you need them. People will be there to protect you and to save you and to help you.

As long as you stay present, you have the right intention and you're just intentional with what you're doing and you're going there for the right purpose. Like, I just feel like everything's going to work out. And it did. Like our journey was really phenomenal for that reason. I really, I wrote books about it because it just was so unbelievable how everything happened. And in the books, I specifically share every single detail.

James Doran (01:19:43.616)

And maybe some reading and they're like, why is every detail on here? Like, why are you telling me what you eat for lunch? But because I felt like every step we took led to the other step. So if we had chose here to eat instead of here to eat, it's because it was for a reason and it led us here. And just being that present with your decisions and understanding that there are no wrong choices. It's just your choices are gonna lead you down a certain path and like be okay with that and just trust what's gonna happen.

Wow and then I loved your mathematical analogy of it because just like calculus you learn how to differentiate your experiences and integrate into society I suppose which is the nerdy side of me coming out. I'm a big math nerd I lost my love I would have paid you math if I knew better but yeah. I'm an engineer which is applied math. That's actually my dream career like if I could go back I probably would have been an engineer. What's some advice that you might give to someone who

or would leave the US to live anywhere in the world in terms of what might they need to think about? Maybe it's understanding, differences in culture, differences in things. What might be something you would advise someone from the US to strongly consider? I think just really wiping your slate clean of your expectations and not having expectations. think expectations really will bite you the ass.

I think in all aspects of your life, like I really try to eliminate expectations, but when you're traveling, especially, you have to understand that you are leaving your culture to go somewhere else and you can't expect other people to accommodate your culture. And you have to understand that some things are just a part of people's culture. It's not them being rude. It's not them being, it's not a negative, like just cause you don't understand something, it's not something you're used to. It doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Like not everything is black and white. Not everything is good and bad.

Like for example, you go to Dubai or whatever and you see a bunch of women wearing burqas or whatever. If you go into that mentality, you're gonna be judging it. You might as well just not go, right? You have to understand you're in a different world. The same thing, you go to Japan. If you go to Japan and you walk around like my husband and I did with our bright hats and we're the only non -Japanese people in the vicinity, you're gonna get stared at. People will stare at you, but you can't be offended by it. I can't be like...

James Doran (01:22:04.096)

they're looking at me because I'm a foreigner. Like you smile, you wave. Like some, sometimes people are like nicer than others, but you're a stranger in their environment and you're weird. Like you have to be okay with that. People are going to stare at you. And, that's the thing about, that's the biggest difference is that I remember when we first came home and we went to a DMV and do you know what the, do you know DMV? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's the way you get your driver license. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's usually like a

mixed bag of nuts of people. Like it is like the strangest people in your community all go to the DMV. And I remember when we went it was so shocking because you see so many ethnicities and for so long where we were traveling you don't see that. You really just see just one type of person and then a few mixed people throughout that but mainly it's just their culture and but there's nothing wrong with that right? It's not like a bad thing it's not a negative it's just the way the culture is so

I think it's just being open to other people's culture and just dropping your expectations so you can really appreciate the moment for what it is and not for what you think it should be. Yeah, if you go in thinking of things negatively perhaps and you tarnish your experience where it even starts by having no expectations, which is possibly not the best way to be. Yeah, so it's a very good point. Also, you highlight the...

diversity, which should be celebrated in the US. know, amazing cultures to all that yourself, for instance, you you've got the Moldovan heritage, you know, is something which is wonderful. And you would obviously influence your future and then the people you've interacted with as well because of your background. that's something which, the US is founded upon immigration and

a lot of the world is too. The UK now is a similar situation. We've got loads of great diverse cultures and backgrounds which we need to really try and highlight and celebrate, which is the main thing to make sure we have a nice integrated society where everyone feels welcome and part of it and contribute and doesn't feel like an outsider because that's not true. Everyone lives here or lives in America or lives anywhere in the world and wants to feel like

James Doran (01:24:27.32)

they wake up, they get involved in the community and carry part of it. it's the way we need to try and be. That's my cynical view, suppose, is all. Hopefully it's happening more than I see it, but it's maybe not. I guess, is there anything you want to kind of share about your own work or what people can find you in terms of getting involved? you write some books where might people be able to find your work for that? Sure, yeah. I'm...

I've written three books about our journey. So the first one is Japan, the second one is South to North Korea, and then third one is Malaysia and Singapore, and then they're going to keep going like with our journey. I'm writing the fourth one right now. You can find it on Amazon. I do have a pen name. So my pen name is Sasha Boya, which is B -O -R -Y -A. And that's kind of nicknames of both my husband's name and my name. So my name is like Sasha. It's like a shortened nickname. My husband's is Boya.

And so right now what I do is because of my wild kind of adventures and journey for a long time, I've been trying to find my place. And I finally realized that I need go back to my main purpose of why I started this journey to begin with, because I started this journey wanting to help others. But before I did that, the world was like, hold up, you got to heal yourself first, help yourself, or you're in any condition to help others. And now I feel like I finally am. So I call myself a life transformer.

and a mentor. I love to work with people that are going through major transformations in their life where they're looking for a transformation, they're feeling unfulfilled. They're kind of where I was in a place where everything looks great on the outside, but they're not, it doesn't feel well. Like they don't sleep well at night. When they go home at night, they feel empty and they don't feel like they're living their purpose. So my goal is to get people out of that and let them see that you really could create.

your own reality and with a mindset shift and just doing things that make you uncomfortable, you could complete transform every aspect of your life from your health to your career to your relationships to your mentality to even your personality. Like I just don't believe that we're meant to be one person. And if there's something about your life or even part of you that you don't like, you could change it. And I really strongly strongly believe that. my goal is just to get people to

James Doran (01:26:48.96)

touch with their intuition and to think for themselves. So my business is Teach A Man To Think. That's my podcast. So could find some of my stuff there. And otherwise you could just find me on social media. My full name, Fireman, it's pronounced Fireman, but it's spelled F -A -Y -E -R -A -N. I'll be sure to put it in my notes for you and people can find your amazing work. And I just want to thank you for your

time for sharing this incredible story and hopefully people have found some interesting nuggets. I mean, how could you not? Because it's such a vast story with so many amazing twists and turns and it's interesting to hear about your experience in North Korea for such a country which has such a negative external view to get your point of someone who's been there and then communicated with locals and has such a positive experience, it would seem.

That was really interesting for me and to understand more about how sitting and how that's a potential people here while they're listening to this podcast to want to use that vehicle in order to hit their goal of living abroad or being able to travel or have a nomad life through something like that. That's a great kind of vehicle to achieve that. Yeah, and as always, if you have enjoyed the podcast, please let us know. Please do.

involved in social media or just in the comment section, then that'd be great. And we'll see you next time for the Expat pod.