Andy Argo (00:06)
So hello and welcome to the Andiago Adventure Podcast. I’m with my friend Charlie. He’s originally from the UK. He’s currently 30, but he started traveling at the age of 27. And we met all the way back in Delhi in 2024, a couple of years ago. And at that point, he’d cycled all the way from the UK to Delhi. He’s now kept on going. He cycled all the way through Asia. He’s now gone into North America. He cycled down from Canada through the US into Mexico. So he’s now calling in from Mexico. He’s done 37,000 kilometers of cycling, 23,000 miles.

thirty six countries over four continents. Welcome to the show.

Charlie (00:39)
Thank you for having me. Some introduction.

Andy Argo (00:43)
Yeah,

I’ll be honest, like I was saying, it’s very hard to summarise so much in just a few sentences. But honestly, it’s been

good to have a catch-up ’cause we haven’t really spoken since Delhi, which was years ago now.

Charlie (00:53)
Yeah, not much.

It’s just been the odd message, hasn’t it?

Andy Argo (00:56)
Yeah, and it’s it’s hard to keep up ’cause you’re covering miles in which for someone using pedal power is incredibly impressive. so yeah, I suppose for us, last time I saw you on about you’d obviously come through Pakistan and Arabia. But it’d be good to go back if we can and say of what made you think of this round the world cycle trip. ‘Cause when some people say round the world they mean they’re cycling across Europe. Yours is very much the literal around the entire globe.

Very thoroughly.

Charlie (01:21)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (01:22)
So how what gave you the idea and what made you kind of bite the bullet and do it?

Charlie (01:26)
Yeah, I think it goes back. One of my best mates was getting married, or was about to get married in Dubai. And I was at work, I’d been at work for…

at the same company for 11 years and I was seeing people in the office and I was kind of thinking I don’t want to be in this office for 40 years like Dave in the corner and I wanted to do something extravagant something extra and I just came up with this idea after seeing it on social media seeing people on Instagram doing bike packing and I thought do you know what I’m going to cycle to Dubai to my mate’s wedding what what a way to go

And I thought it would take like 6 months. I’ll quit my job, I’ll go for 6 months and see how it is. If I like it, I’ll carry on. And then the more I did, the more the ideas grew. The more planning I did, the more the ideas grew. Like even from a US standpoint, originally I was just going to go from LA to New York, which is just like across the lower 48. And then the more I looked at it and the more I looked at the map,

the more I looked at different cultures and different landscapes, I’m now doing top of Alaska to bottom of Argentina and it’s just grown into this like ridiculous dream which fortunately I’m in the middle of living so yeah it’s been it’s been a whirlwind but it’s been amazing.

Andy Argo (03:01)
Because

you look energized by this. You look I can tell you talk about this, like the passion there. You seem

Charlie (03:05)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (03:05)
obviously very much even though it’s like three and a half years later, you’re still very much enthralled by it. Have there been any times

Charlie (03:10)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (03:10)
you’ve kind of been like, Stuff this, I’m gonna throw it in the towel, I need to go back and rest my legs a bit? Or you seem just like it’s empowering you more

Charlie (03:16)
Never.

Andy Argo (03:17)
each day. Really? Interesting.

Charlie (03:18)
Never never

never once like there’s been like there’s been a lot of lows and there’s been times where Like I can remember a time recently. Actually, I felt pretty pretty like Not not crap, but like I felt a bit down like the weather was really hot during the day and then it was really hot at night and I was like struggling to keep struggling to sleep in the tent and If I slept outside of a tent, I was getting bitten by like

like

hundreds of mosquitoes. And my thought process was never to go home. It was more like, is it worth getting a lift to the next city just to try and like have a few days off?

I would never, I can’t go home like not unless I’m on the bike. I said to my, I think I said to my mum when I left, I was like,

If I could, when I come home, it will only be on the bicycle. Like it’s not going to be any other, any other way. So I have to cycle back into England. Well, via the ferry, you know, but.

Andy Argo (04:28)
You sound like a modern day Spartan, you know, it’s like the whole k you know

with carry my shield or on it kind of vibes.

Charlie (04:34)
Yeah, literally

that’s what I was, that’s the thought process. Yeah, I just don’t want to, I feel like once I set my mind on something, like I’d never forgive myself if I gave up.

Andy Argo (04:47)
you still keep in touch with your work colleagues then? ‘Cause I’m guessing this is the sort of thing where they will have heard about and be like, It’s pretty cool, but I’m guessing they’re probably gobs back that you’re still going after all this time. Like, you still keep in touch?

Charlie (04:55)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah, a couple of them, like, I’m in a group chat with like my old team and we message every now and again. And then a lot of the others, they’ll message on like one of my posts on Instagram, let’s say, or they’ll just drop me a message on Facebook every now and again to see how I’m getting on. But yeah, I left when I left work, I left with like a really good

What’s the word I’m thinking of like? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s it. That’s

Andy Argo (05:30)
You hadn’t burnt your bridges, do you mean? Like it was kind of a doors open to come back kind of deal. Yeah.

Charlie (05:34)
it. Yeah, so I left on good terms and Everything was like I was I was almost sad to leave like I actually really enjoyed my job and You know, I never thought about not leaving

But

Andy Argo (05:50)
Yeah.

Charlie (05:50)
it’s definitely something that I feel very fortunate about because I can look back and say, you know, I’ve only really had like one proper job and I really enjoyed it. So

Andy Argo (06:03)
What was the gig before then? I’m

sure you told me, but yeah, what were you doing before traveling life?

Charlie (06:06)
So I did an apprenticeship civil engineer course for the local

authority where I lived and then I was like processed through the ranks and ended up working as an operations engineer.

Andy Argo (06:22)
Well we were chatting as well ’cause it’s interesting where people start these long journeys from. And you said you started from your mum’s driveway, which I think is a beautiful

Charlie (06:28)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (06:29)
thing to have, where it’s kind of s you know, somewhere it’s obviously very personal to you. Like some people are I’ll start from my home city centre or from London or whatever it is. I like how it’s literally just from your mum’s house and you’ve just just cracked on. And it’s just bloody impressive, yeah.

Charlie (06:41)
yeah, I mean one of the things that I was kind of thinking with that is if I cycle off my mum’s driveway and then when I get back I’ve got to cycle on it and then it’s like that’s like the final piece of like going around the world.

But since I left, my mum has actually moved, well my mum and dad have actually moved house. So I’m gonna have to cycle onto some random person’s driveway now. So,

Andy Argo (07:09)
Just to complete the loop.

Charlie (07:10)
yeah, it’s only a small driveway so I hope they’ve not got a big car.

Andy Argo (07:16)
so

funny. We’ll have we’ll get a few of us round. We’ll have a few beers and stuff. We’ll welcome you back.

Charlie (07:19)
Yeah, yeah,

definitely, definitely.

Andy Argo (07:23)
So I think it’s always funny travelling as well, meeting people like you. Cause there’s some people like there’s that English fella, wasn’t there, who ran across Africa quite recently. He got a lot of publicity towards the

Charlie (07:30)
Yep.

Andy Argo (07:30)
end of his trip, I feel like it picked up like I think he’d done it for a long time, no one’s heard of him, he gets to the end and obviously, you know, it picks up a bit. And I feel like you’re in the same remit where it’s like you’re very much under the radar. But when the people hear your story, it’s like, that is one in not even one in a million. you know, the amount of people have done what you’ve done is just so few and it’s so unusual, but in such an awesome way.

but then with the cycling

as well, you’ve got the logistics of bikes. I’m guessing you cycle through England to Dover and then got the ferry, I presume, across.

Charlie (07:57)
Yep, correct, yep.

Andy Argo (08:00)
Yeah. And then how was how do you find cycling through Europe? So you’ve got w do you go through France and then do you go through the low countries or how do you kinda plan your route?

Charlie (08:07)
do you know what it’s a bit of a strange one. I’ve sort of changed how I plan my route so like

When I was going through Europe, was just using an app called Komoot, which is basically

like a cycling route planner. And I was just putting in, if I wanted to go to Barcelona and I was, I don’t know, like a thousand kilometers away, I’d just put it in Komoot and work out how to get there. But now I do it slightly different where I’ll go on Instagram and I’ll search the country or the

I’m in and I’ll see what’s like good in that area and then I’ll put that on the map and then that’s where I’ll cycle to and via commute so it’s kind of like

It’s kind of like I’m still going to all a lot of the touristy destinations But I’m not going on a bus or a train or a car I’m just going on the bike But you get to see all of the non touristy stuff on the way there as well

Andy Argo (09:14)
Are you using ’cause I I do something similar to me on this. I kind of I’ve got like a Google Maps and I plot points on it. I don’t know if you say and then that’s kinda how I

Charlie (09:21)
Yep.

Andy Argo (09:21)
keep a log and if I see it on Instagram or if it’s by word of mouth, I’ll plot it on the map. Even

Charlie (09:26)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (09:26)
for countries I know I won’t be there in like for five years and I’ll just plot them on and then when I’m there, I’m like, my route’s planned. I’ll just join up those dots and I’m in. Do you do something similar?

Charlie (09:33)
Yeah, yeah,

I’ve done exactly the same. If I look at my Google Maps now, I’ve got like little points all the way down through Central and South America.

Andy Argo (09:42)
which I think is a good way ’cause I don’t know about you, but I write in the description as well on Google Maps, I’ll be like, this was recommended by Charlie or Ryan or whoever it is And then at least I’m like,

Charlie (09:50)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (09:51)
okay, it’s word of mouth, so I’ll prioritize that over something

Charlie (09:54)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (09:54)
that some influencers put on that might be, you know, a bit over egged. Yeah.

Charlie (09:56)
That’s true, yeah, Yeah, it’s really good doing it like that.

But yeah, going back to what’s it like cycling for Europe, it’s very easy. Like it’s hilly, depending on the route that you take, but…

It’s very like, yeah, there’s like Lidl becomes your best friend because there’s Liddels everywhere,

especially in like Western Europe. And you just, yeah, it’s super cheap. You can camp anywhere. Everyone’s really nice. The weather’s good. You can get like tap water in all the little towns for free from like a little fountain. It’s really nice. It’s probably…

Maybe I’m slightly biased, but it’s the nicest continent to cycling I’d say

Andy Argo (10:45)
I suppose we’ve got the infrastructure for it. Like I remember obviously again go back to sort of India and you mentioned Pakistan before where it’s like I feel like they’re used to motorbikes there, but it’s not you’re

Charlie (10:54)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (10:54)
seeing really any cycle lanes. Whereas of course like you’ve got some companies like the Netherlands, right, where it’s just geared up for cycling and getting around and I feel like you’ve got a lot of cycle routes in Europe when they’re not even next to a road. They kind of are just designated, which is pretty beautiful, right? Like keeping it separate from the main highway.

Charlie (11:08)
Yeah, yeah,

well you actually have these designated routes they’re called the Euro Velo.

And I think there’s like maybe 15 of them and they’re like bike touring routes. So like they’ll go from like one of them goes from like the top of Norway to Portugal. And then one of them will go from like

Andy Argo (11:28)
Wow, no way.

Charlie (11:29)
yeah, yeah. And one of them will go from like Portugal to somewhere in Hungary. And it’s ridiculous. Like they’re huge routes and most of the time they’re like really well signposted. A lot of it is like segregated from the road.

with

the cars like they’re they’re really good it’s the only place I’ve been where we have that sort of infrastructure

apart from

in the US within the cities I would say the US cities have been pretty good for bike paths actually

Andy Argo (12:04)
Well interesting. I’ll be honest, I’ve I’ve not been south of the border from Canada yet. I’ve only done Hawaii so far, so I always

Charlie (12:09)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (12:09)
assumed they were very car centric. ‘Cause I know Canada seems very, for the most part, car centric. But that’s pretty interesting to hear.

Charlie (12:14)
Yeah,

yeah, they are very car centric and no nobody walks like nobody walks but but some a lot like I was I was in like some of the cities around LA and it was like really good for really good for bike paths I was just going everywhere on bike paths

Andy Argo (12:36)
Then how are you finding where you’re staying? ‘Cause I’m guessing you probably have a rough idea of how far you can go in a day, but then you’re saying in Mexico it’s crazy hot. So I’m guessing you’re not pumping out as many kilometers as you might have thought you would do in other cooler climate. So how do you kind of how do you plan the accommodation? ‘Cause I’m guessing you don’t want to book somewhere too close and then you’re like, I wish I you know, I could have gone way further and kind of cut myself short.

Charlie (12:58)
Yeah, I mean it’s very rare that I book somewhere. Like I don’t usually

stay in a hostel or a hotel. Like 90 % of my…

90 % of my accommodation is my tent. So I’ll just be camping

anywhere that I can find. Where I’ve been in Mexico is for the first few weeks, it was like in a desert landscape. So it’s really easy. You can just pull off the side of the road and just go in between all the cactuses. Then

the last week has been like a little bit more built up.

So I’ve had like a few nights on the beach. I’ve had a couple of nights just at like petrol stations, which hasn’t been particularly glamorous, but you know, you’ve got to the good with the bad. So it is what it is.

Andy Argo (13:54)
You must have

stayed some beautiful places and if you’re like beach camping, up in the mountains, you must have seen some sites that are just off a beaten track and stunning.

Charlie (13:59)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. There’s some which you can’t even get to in a car or a camper van and stuff like that. You’re trying to carry your bike through these bushes and then it’s almost like it’s some sort of oasis opens up and it’s beautiful.

Andy Argo (14:19)
Well I’m curious as well, like where have you found the you mentioned Europe’s probably easiest to cycle in, but where have you found is hard? ‘Cause I suppose from my gut instinct, it’s like where you’ve got the climate, could be I mean, I remember when I saw you last time you were on about cycling through Saudi and you know, locals are giving you water and stuff like that. And then you’ve got the the animal

Charlie (14:35)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (14:36)
side, you know, I’m always thinking, what if there’s a little scorpion on the ground in desert? Or the main thing for me that scares me is is drivers. ‘Cause I feel like in some countries where they’re not used to cyclists

A bit like even driving a motorbike in Canada, it’s kind of like well, they’re not used to seeing as many motorbikes as say in India. So I feel like it’s almost safer in somewhere like India where we feel like it’s a bit of carnage because they’re at least they’re looking out for you. So what have you found

have kind of been the most sketchy parts for a cyclist, really?

Charlie (15:01)
I would say in terms of sketchy, would probably say Pakistan and India have been…

were pretty difficult and a lot of it is basically just the bus drivers. Like the bus drivers,

I’ve never seen anything like it. Like sometimes they’ll be 200 meters behind you. They’ll start on the horn and then they’ll hold the horn until you get out the way and they don’t slow down. Like it’s insane. Like it’s the only place I’ve been where like you just, can’t wear headphones when you’re cycling. Like if you wear headphones, you’re

get killed like it’s ridiculous in terms of like difficulty for cycling i was in vietnam in the in the monsoon season and

It was just ridiculous. Like before I’ve even set off, I’m completely dripping with sweat. Like I look like I’ve just jumped in the ocean

and then you just sat in wet clothes all day. And then it’s just like, you you end up getting like saddle sores and it’s not fun. It’s not fun. You end up, I

Andy Argo (16:13)
Yeah.

Charlie (16:13)
was just doing like a week of cycling and then I’d stop somewhere for a week and then a week of cycling stopped somewhere for a week. It was

just, it was a bit ridiculous.

When you’re in a desert and it’s a dry heat, it’s a lot easier than when it’s humid. So you can cycle in 40 degrees and it’d be dry. It’s easier than 30 degrees and wet, in my opinion.

Andy Argo (16:43)
Yeah.

And I suppose I was I was gonna ask as well about the packing ’cause you mentioned I mean it’s a good story. I mean, you mentioned how you lost your camera. So I would like to circle back around to that ’cause that’s

Charlie (16:53)
Yeah

Andy Argo (16:54)
a pretty epic store in itself. But it’s interesting you saying that you take a large digital camera with you, ’cause I thought bikepacking, I mean, I’ve been I’ve I’ve done some sort of bikepacking before, but it’s more staying at place I wasn’t really camping much. It was more multi day trips, but you’re staying in hostels so you’re still travelling light. And then I’ve done motorbike

Charlie (17:11)
Yep.

Andy Argo (17:11)
trips, but then obviously

You know, the engines and all the hard lifting. So it’s kind of interesting that you are taking a big camera and how do you find sort of managing the the weight perspective? And even especially somewhere like Canada, you need like a big chunky sleeping bag ’cause it gets cold at night. Like, how are you managing the packing side of things and also buying, selling stuff as you go along? Like how do you how do you keep it lean and also get out of it what you want, if that makes sense?

Charlie (17:35)
Yeah, I mean, when I first set off, know, most bike packers will, when they first set off…

for the next few weeks they’ll start sending things home that they don’t use. For some reason, I started

gaining things and I ended up having to buy bigger bags and I was taking more stuff on until I would say after Alaska. And then I was like, right, this is getting out of hand. My bike weighed 60 kilos with everything fully loaded. And I had so

much stuff.

ridiculous so I’ve started like now I’m like right it’s time to calm down I’ve sent like loads of stuff home I’ve sold stuff I’ve took stuff to the charity store I did account a few a few months ago I had nine pairs of socks like

Andy Argo (18:34)
Yeah.

Charlie (18:35)
I don’t know why because I’ll wear the same pair for cycling for seven days in a row. So why have I got nine pairs? So I’ve got like three,

Andy Argo (18:42)
Yeah. A hundred percent.

Charlie (18:45)
I’ve got three now and I’ve not noticed any difference.

Andy Argo (18:50)
Yeah.

Charlie (18:52)
it’s just like, I don’t know why I never did that sooner, but you know, it’s just one of those things.

Andy Argo (19:00)
just fine tuning ’cause I don’t remember I and I feel like I’m getting a lot of flack for this. I remember when I was in India and I did this, I left all my bags in one place. I took a bike and I just took a tiny little backpack. Sounds gross. I feel like I feel like you’ll understand ’cause we’re also travellers, but I feel like a lot of people who haven’t travelled will think this is disgusting. But I just had two pairs of clothes. I had one during the day, I like, I’m gonna get sweaty and that I’m gonna get horrible. I’ll have a clean one at night. I just like set during the day I was gonna get sweaty and gross and do the hikes. The next day I’d put on the sweaty gross ones again. Maybe I’d wash it in the shower and just wring it out ’cause

pretty hot there. And I feel like it does work surprisingly well. Like I didn’t even take again, still a toothbrush, obviously, but even shampoo,

Charlie (19:35)
yet.

Andy Argo (19:36)
I’m like, well if the hotel’s got it, I’ll use it. If not, just hose off of water. And I feel like a lot

Charlie (19:40)
yet.

Andy Argo (19:40)
of people will hear that and like gross, but it does the job, right? It gets you by

Charlie (19:44)
Well, it’s funny you say that, you know, because I stopped using shampoo ages ago and your hair goes like really greasy for like the first few weeks and then it just like cleans itself out and then it’s fine.

Andy Argo (19:58)
Yeah.

Charlie (20:00)
And it’s like I don’t I don’t wear shampoo. I don’t wear deodorant. Like, I don’t think I smell.

Andy Argo (20:06)
The deodorant. I I get a

lot of flack. I don’t use deodorant either. And I was I was sat with a few mates the other night and they were on about this game where it’s like, he’s a ten, but he doesn’t wear deodorant. I’m and I’m like, That’s me. That’s that’s me, that’s the guy. So I haven’t used it in years ’cause it’s too big, it’s too bulky. I think as long

Charlie (20:22)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (20:23)
as you shower, you’re not gonna smell, right? Like yeah. Yeah.

Charlie (20:25)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. what I

use is baby wipes. I use a lot of baby wipes and I keep a pack on me at all times. So like a lot of the time, if you’re in the middle of the desert and you go in like two weeks without a shower, you need to, you know, at least clean like the dust from the road off your legs and your arms and your face and just a quick baby wipes, like being at a festival, you know, just it’s not too bad.

Andy Argo (20:50)
Yeah. I suppose

that’s a gross thing, isn’t If you’re a pretty if you’re a bit of a sweaty mess and you into a sleeping bag, I feel like that is a bit gross, isn’t it? It’s nice if you can just kinda swab the thick of it.

Charlie (20:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

Andy Argo (21:03)
So Fusa, you went through Europe and then I’m right in thinking you’ve gone through Turkey, I’m guessing. You’ve gone ’cause I remember p chatting a little bit in Delhi, but you’ve gone through Europe and then you’ve gone through sort of through Turkey and then I remember you going all the way down to Oman, right? Before you then got the boat to Karachi in Pakistan.

Charlie (21:16)
Yeah,

no, so basically, sort of, but when I was in Turkey, to go through Iran would have been very expensive. I don’t know what it’s like now, but at the time you had to have a guide.

So

Andy Argo (21:32)
Yeah.

Charlie (21:32)
they’d be with you all day, every day, and you had to pay for the guide and you had to pay for their accommodation. I assume he wouldn’t have wanted to go top to bottom with me in the tent. So if I’d have been paying

Andy Argo (21:47)
Yeah.

Charlie (21:49)
for someone else in a hotel, it’s just not feasible. So I flew from Turkey to Israel, and then that’s how I got onto the, that’s part of the Middle East.

Then I went from Israel through Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, dipped into Qatar and then into UAE, went to the wedding and then got to Oman.

Andy Argo (22:15)
So I’m guessing you’re hustling for the wedding to a degree. how much was the time crunched to get there? Were you kind of pushing it or was it quite leisurely?

Charlie (22:21)
Not really,

not really, it was very leisurely. I set off like plenty of time. I ended up arriving like five weeks early, I think it was. So

Andy Argo (22:29)
sweet.

Charlie (22:30)
yeah, it was really nice. could get to, and I stayed at his house. I was just chilling and put my feet up for a few weeks and helped out with the wedding planning and stuff like that. Most of it was like already done, but you know, it’s just being there to support if it was needed.

But yeah, was pretty chill. It wasn’t like, there was no rush.

Andy Argo (22:55)
Yeah.

You must have been the bell of the ball at that wedding when people are like, where have you come from? floating from

Charlie (22:58)
Hahaha

Andy Argo (22:59)
the UK or like, j just cycled. Cycle from Lancashire.

Charlie (23:01)
I was trying not to tell anyone.

I was trying not to tell anyone. was like, yeah, yeah, just here for his wedding. That was it.

Andy Argo (23:10)
So if you’d cycled to my wedding in Dubai, I would have been like, My mate, he’s just cycled away from England. I’ll be telling every man his dog.

Charlie (23:15)
Yeah,

he did, he did at one point. Yeah. And I was sat there like…

Andy Argo (23:21)
Good on, yeah. So then

I remember you saying last time I saw you, you were saying about the hospitality in Arabia being incredible. Do you think it’s sort

Charlie (23:29)
yet.

Andy Argo (23:30)
of where have you found the most hospitable people? Do you think that’s kind of number one? Or where do you say is kind

of the where do your heart sit for the most friendly, let’s say, an open?

Charlie (23:41)
Saudi Arabia was like nothing I’ve ever experienced anywhere else. Like nothing comes close. It was insane.

What I will say though is that I’ve had amazing experiences with people in every country I’ve been to. Like, every country, people have been amazing. But Saudi Arabia, it was almost like sometimes it was too much. Like, I’d get offers every single day, come stay at my house tonight, like come for food with us now.

Andy Argo (24:16)
so sweet.

Charlie (24:18)
I’d have people like pulling over in the car 10 times a day. They’d get out with water, tea and coffee and mugs. They’d like, they’d come over, they’d be like, tea or coffee. And obviously I’d get a tea and they’d give it to me in a mug and then they’d just drive off. And I’d just be stood like with a mug on the side of the road, just like, what? Like, what do I do with this now?

Andy Argo (24:42)
Yes.

Charlie (24:43)
You know? And you know, you go into like supermarkets, they won’t let you pay.

you go to restaurants they won’t let you pay like it’s it’s crazy and and they don’t you know it’s 99 % it’s all through google translate like there’s very very limited english outside of the capital city and one one instance that always strikes me is well there’s two actually there was one guy who i met and he was asking me about my travels and

I asked him if I could get on the Wi-Fi and he was like, you don’t have a SIM card? And I was like, no, no, I just don’t bother getting one, it’s like expensive. And he went and bought me a SIM card and it was like an unlimited data SIM card. It costs like 80 pounds equivalent. And I was just like, what?

It’s crazy and then I had another guy pulled over in his car in front of me and he walked over and he already had in his Google Translate and he just showed it me and it was do you want to see my Falcon and I was like Okay, like and I just put all my stuff

in the back Yeah,

Andy Argo (25:57)
You’ve got to say yes to that. Yeah.

Charlie (25:59)
yeah just put all my stuff in the back of his Land Cruiser and we drove for like maybe two hours and we got to this house went in the house

and there was just like three falcons in this house all on these like stands and I was just like What’s going on? Like it’s ridiculous. I’ve never seen that before and then he took me out with these we went falconing where they were like catching pigeons and and then he fed me let me stay the night and then in the morning I just left like Like it was nothing, you know, and yeah, there is second to none the hospitality is crazy

Andy Argo (26:37)
Incredible. And I think there’s all these little spontaneous things aren’t there where it’s almost it’s almost hard to put into words, isn’t it? ‘Cause I’m guessing you’ll have so many, it’s probably not until you’re asked about it or jog your memory. I think it’s always hard to

Charlie (26:47)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (26:47)
kinda think off off the cuff, isn’t it, when you’ve done that much. Incredible.

Charlie (26:49)
Yep, yep, definitely.

But like say, amazing people everywhere. Even in the US, I thought I was gonna go to the US and I thought everyone’s gonna be fat and arrogant and it’s just, it’s not like that. Everyone was so nice and yeah, it very good experiences.

Andy Argo (27:12)
Do you find in the US that people have you sort of noticed the changes? Like I’ve met a lot of Americans here who come on sort of I’m doing a bit of tour guiding work in Canada and I found the Americans do kind of culturally are maybe a little bit different state by state. Like I feel like there is definitely that southern of hospitality. They’ll call you sir, right? And they seem just very

Charlie (27:28)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (27:29)
super laid back, super open, like just very down to earth. Do you have you sort of noticed the changes state by state as you’ve gone through, do you think? Or do you kind of notice much of a change?

Charlie (27:39)
I would do you know what do you know what it sounds ridiculous, but the biggest Thing that I notice it depends where you are so if you’re in a national park All the people are dead nice really easy to talk

to If you’re in the countryside really nice really easy to talk to if you’re in Walmart

bit of a different kind of people if you’re in McDonald’s bit of a different kind of people and that was kind of like a running theme through the whole country which I noticed and I was is I suppose it’s kind of you know what you’d expect but I don’t know would you expect it do you think

Andy Argo (28:24)
Yeah, I suppose

yeah. And even in England I suppose that’s the same, isn’t it? I suppose yeah, maybe you would like I feel like in England don’t go wrong, people are nice in cities the world over, but I feel like everyone’s kind of yeah, they’ve got a different lifestyle, isn’t it? To people who live in the countryside, you know, they’re used to seeing people all the time, they’re in their own little world. So don’t go city people are nice, aren’t But I feel like yeah, people in the countryside

Charlie (28:41)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (28:43)
always seem to be more approachable and curious and yeah.

Charlie (28:48)
Yeah, but as I say

that but also now I’m thinking I did meet people in the city, you know, like there’s a There’s a site called warm showers.

it’s a website that is only for cyclists it’s basically

couch surfing but it’s only for cyclists and I used that in the US quite a few times.

I used it in Las Vegas, used it in San Diego, I used it in south of LA. It was really, really helpful and I met loads of good people off there. One guy in particular, I stayed with this guy for over two weeks waiting for a parcel to come from the Netherlands and we had the best time. We were just surfing all the time, just barbecues and yeah, was really good.

really good.

Andy Argo (29:43)
I

think I saw this on your Instagram and I was wondering how have you wrangled such a good gig ’cause you have got the gift of the gap,

Charlie (29:47)
Yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (29:49)
you know, northern northern charm goes a long way, but I like, You jammy buggy? I like, This looks unreal

Charlie (29:52)
Yeah. Yeah,

it was ridiculous. I got really lucky. I got really lucky.

Andy Argo (30:01)
So then in terms your route then, in fact you just to jump back a bit, you’re on about Vietnam. I always found that was interesting how like ’cause I did Vietnam before India and I suppose you’ve done it in the

Charlie (30:09)
Okay.

Andy Argo (30:09)
other way around. But I remember Vietnam, you know, when you cross the street, it looks like carnage and you walk at the constant pace and the cars go round you. I feel like

Charlie (30:16)
Yep.

Andy Argo (30:16)
in India it’s kind of the opposite. It’s you walk down the street, it’s your job as a pedestrian to jump out the way. And I feel like for us being

Charlie (30:23)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (30:23)
sprightly, you know, like twenties, thirties, you can get away with it. But I’m like, these poor little old pensioners

I’m like, I don’t know how they

even cross the road ’cause it’s just it’s totally on you as a pedestrian to jump out of the way of a car.

And it it does look like they are

just gonna Yeah, just run you down if you’re not quick enough. It’s crazy.

Charlie (30:40)
Yeah, India is just different. It’s just a different ballgame, isn’t it? When it comes to crossing the road.

Andy Argo (30:47)
I’m curious as well, ’cause obviously you’ve travelled ’cause where did you go in India? So after Delhi, ’cause I kinda went north towards Kashmir and do you go into Nepal as well then and you kinda went dipped into there or?

Charlie (30:55)
Yeah, so I went

from Delhi, I went down to Agra and then went north through Uttar Pradesh up to Nepal

and yeah, crossed over into Nepal there. So that was a pretty, I don’t know if you went to Uttar Pradesh, did you?

Andy Argo (31:13)
I did.

So I kind of I did this motorbike

trip. I did one for Ryan obviously just before I saw you. Our scouse mate. And

yeah, we kind of did one through Rajasthan, and kind of sort of central a India. And then I did one just by myself through Punjab. Kind of started in Chandigarh and then went through Punjab up to Kashmir and back. But I only kind of dropped through ’cause I was rushing back, had this visa for Canada and had a wedding in Japan and I’m kind of

I’ve normally been quite a leisurely traveller, but it was kind of a bit of a rush job, so I’m keen to get back there.

Charlie (31:40)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I kind of rushed it as well because I’d been in Pakistan for like seven weeks and it had been like really intense and…

There was quite a few issues and it was like even I found it stressful and I don’t really get stressed about anything. And then when I got to India

it was kind of like, because it’s very intense, I don’t know how it was for you on the motorbike, but for me on the bicycle people follow you for like two, three hours on a motorbike. They’ll just follow you and then at some point they’ll just turn around and go the other way. They’ll not talk to you.

you

watch

what you’re doing is like if I was a girl I’d probably be

a little bit intimidated and there was one time I don’t know if you’ll want to put this in or not but basically you know the food situation in India can get a bit technical can’t it? so yeah

Andy Argo (32:38)
I’m including this now. No, we gotta be raw and gritty with mate. No, don’t you worry. This is going in. I feel like I can kinda guess where this is going. Let’s keep it in.

Charlie (32:46)
So I’m like, so I’m cycling down the road and I’ve got some guy following me on a motorbike as always and stomach started to go and I’m thinking, no, like.

and all in like, as soon as I thought, no, it’s just like gone. And I’m like, like I’m in trouble here. So I was like pulling over trying to, and I was gonna like just stop and just run in the bush and like basically clean myself up. And this guy’s just stopped next to me and he’s got off his bike and he’s just stood there staring at me. And I was just like, okay, this isn’t good. And I’m like

trying to get into like go,

and he just wouldn’t leave so I’ve got back on the bike, sit off cycling again and I’m like really uncomfortable at this point and I’ve gone down the road and he’s just followed me and I was just like what is going on so I ended up and I was literally I walked into these like little bushes

pulled my shorts down and just started like wiping myself with these baby wipes and I could just see him like because the bushes weren’t like it wasn’t like a huge row of hedges I could just see him watching me and I was just like

I felt very uncomfortable like 10 minutes after I was like laughing about it because I’m never gonna see this guy again like it doesn’t matter but at the time it’s a bit weird

so yeah

It was pretty funny but…

Andy Argo (34:22)
Mate, honestly, unreal.

‘Cause I I never had it that bad for being followed. Like people would come up and they’d want a selfie and I feel like sometimes it’s almost for I feel like for a bit of vanity. You’re kind of there as like a was like, look at my, you know, you know, my mate from overseas. But I’ve never had someone

Charlie (34:36)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (34:39)
I’ve never had one up in my grill that much. That’s I’ll be honest, I was he filming it then or is he just watching it or what’s he what’s he doing to get his kicks?

Charlie (34:45)
No, just

watching. Just watching. I don’t know what his

thought process was. yeah, like some of the places I was in, like in India I did get like some hotels.

because it’s very difficult to camp, like because there’s so many people everywhere. And there was a couple of nights I’d go out into like the town where I was staying and I’d have to go out with like a buff up to here and my hood up. And I remember one time

I went into this like pizzeria, sat down, ate my pizza, came outside and there was like a crowd of people. And I was just like,

and I’d like turn around to like look in the pizzeria and I was the only person that was like in there and I was like, these guys are here for me. And I was just like mobbed by these people just like

Andy Argo (35:37)
Yeah.

Charlie (35:39)
asking for selfies and stuff and they just like basically walked me back to my hotel. Like it was, yeah, it’s bizarre but it’s kind of, yeah.

Andy Argo (35:48)
It’s like your own little parade. Well, I was always thinking

in India, I was like, God, if you charge if you could imagine if you charge two quid for a photo, you’d be a bloody millionaire in no time. Like you’d be absolute. Although I’d one time I was

Charlie (35:55)
Yeah, it’d be alright, wouldn’t it?

Andy Argo (36:00)
with this mate, I was I was yeah, I was travelling with this I was in Rajasthan and obviously same thing, you know, you’re a white guy over there, you’re getting kind of mobbed for photos. And then I was travelling for a while with this blonde, you know what the Dutch are like, ridiculously good looking, tall, handsome devils. My mate

Charlie (36:14)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (36:15)
Dave, tall, handsome Dutch guy with blonde hair.

my five minutes of fame have never ended so quick. At first it’s kind of a bit like in intense when everyone’s asking for pictures and then they just drifted towards him and no one cared about me ’cause he’s a handsome devil. And I was like,

Charlie (36:27)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (36:29)
you know, all of a sudden I’m like, they should be should be chasing me around. Where’s my five minutes of fame? They’re fickle, you know.

Charlie (36:33)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Well, I thought it was pretty good, but then after a few weeks, it’s kind of like, aw, I’d hate to be famous. Like, it’d be an absolute nightmare.

Andy Argo (36:48)
Yeah, it’s it’s intense, isn’t it?

Charlie (36:48)
Yeah. F- F-

Andy Argo (36:49)
And especially when you’re just trying to do your day to day, it’s yeah, it’s hardcore.

Charlie (36:53)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Andy Argo (36:57)
A similar thing when I was I was near near Mumbai. There’s some mountains east in Mumbai and all these castles and stuff. So I was kinda spent like a week just on my toddl, got a motorbike, started going up to all these mountains, doing all these hikes. And it’s it’s a beautiful part of the world and there’s thousands of Indian tourists, but no foreigners. I remember it being up there and there’s a couple from Mumbai who are super laid back and they I’m still in touch from now. They just had a kid, they’re lovely people. And yeah, they I we made a WhatsApp group afterwards called Crowd Control because they were just there.

just kind of keeping people at bay ’cause it’s that intense, isn’t it? You almost need a don’t want to say a bodyguard, but it’s I’ll take one or two photos

Charlie (37:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (37:32)
but I float they want one individually, then one with they all want them individually, then as a group and I feel

Charlie (37:38)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (37:38)
kind of bad saying no, but if you don’t say no, you you’d never get anywhere. You’d never cycle more than a mile down the road.

Charlie (37:43)
No, no, I know it’s crazy, yeah.

Andy Argo (37:47)
Well the other thing that

I remember from our time there was sorry, far away.

Charlie (37:50)
No, I was just going to say though, I stayed with this guy in Pakistan and I think they really respect, most of the time I think they really respect getting a photo with you because I stayed with this guy and one of his friends asked for a selfie, the obligatory selfie, got a photo with him.

And then like I stayed there for like three days and like a couple of days later this guy was talking, his mate came back and for some reason I just saw his phone while it was locked and it was like me and him on the screensaver. I was like, there’s me. Yeah, literally. I was like, I was

Andy Argo (38:29)
No way. You’re like his wife. Best mate. No way.

Charlie (38:36)
kind of buzzing about that. was pretty impressed.

Andy Argo (38:40)
Damn, No way,

mate. That’s unreal. Well, I I remember when we met in India

Charlie (38:41)
Yeah, it’s pretty funny.

Andy Argo (38:45)
as well, and in fact I was gonna backtrack a bit. So I I met this Scouse guy from Liverpool, Ryan, and obviously then you met him as well in Delhi and we spent a bit of time together. And I remember there’s one time, I don’t know if you remember it, we’re in this train station. Do you remember us buying tickets together with a queue in? I don’t know if you remember. You’ve had a long time on the road, but we had one time where it’s me, you and him, and it’s this old school train station where obviously you to buy them in person.

Charlie (39:08)
Mm-hmm.

Andy Argo (39:08)
And there’s

the etiquette around queuing. I think us three being Brits is a bit different. I remember we’re stood in this queue and this train station is really empty. There’s actually no one in there except for

us. And we’re queuing and there’s like one guy chatting to the person in the booth. And then there’s us stood behind him. Because there’s this place is massive. We’re not obviously bumper to bumper. We’ve left a small gap because personal space. And this woman

Charlie (39:28)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (39:28)
kind of pushes in in front of us. So now all of a so she cuts in front of us. It’s a tiny queue. She’s not gonna like, you know, she’s gonna save herself a whole thirty seconds.

But then now we’re like sort of our chest is against her back and everyone’s crushed in and I’m like, it just seems strange the I don’t know, the etiquette around personal space is kind of a bit interesting compared to what we used to.

Charlie (39:46)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that’s what it’s like, isn’t it? It’s like when you’re queuing, it’s like this. And like when I’m in the queue and I can feel the guy behind me, like breathing on my neck, and I’m like, what are doing? Like, yeah.

Andy Argo (40:03)
Even on your neck. Kinky.

Charlie (40:10)
Yeah, it’s

just their culture though, isn’t it? Like it’s unusual for us, but for them it’s completely normal.

Andy Argo (40:20)
Yeah. And I think the same with kind of it’s interesting ’cause even like have you been to Japan at all as well? I’m assuming didn’t go that far.

Charlie (40:25)
No.

Andy Argo (40:26)
‘Cause now with them obviously they’re super densely populated, but they’re kind of they’re maybe a little bit more like us in terms of I people off the train before they go on and I feel like more sort of China, India, they’re kind of it’s kind of organised chaos almost or disorganised chaos. It kind of it still works, but it’s just a different approach to being a densely populated environment.

Charlie (40:39)
Yeah. Yeah.

Just like crossing the road. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (40:46)
Yeah. Just yeah, just say your prayers and have a crack. Just yeah. Well, I remember

in Delhi as well, you were chatting about ’cause I’ve I’ve been to the border with Pakistan, but it’s my dream to go there, but I haven’t been yet. And I remember I was asking you about the differences ’cause obviously until partitioning in ’47 they were unified under the British. I always

like countries where they’re kind of you know, they’ve separated quite recently. Like I spent a lot of time in Taiwan, I’d like to see a bit more of China.

just to kind of compare, you know, how they’re sort of similar and different and things like that. So I remember you saying a little bit about the difference between Pakistan and India. And you were saying I think in terms of economy, I remember you saying like the, you know, generally the cars and things were a little bit lower budget in Pakistan. And you mentioned about being escorted

Charlie (41:28)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (41:29)
by police as well, which was new information for me. So are you happy to share a bit about Pakistan and how you got on basically?

Charlie (41:36)
Yeah, yeah, so the Pakistan’s, it’s a very interesting place. It’s where I was, so I started in Karachi and it was a really good start because I stayed with some people that I knew and we went to a wedding together in Karachi and…

The city itself, I think it used to be very dangerous.

and I think it still can be dangerous now but it’s not as bad as it used to be but a lot of the time like every ATM has got a guy with a shotgun every gas every petrol station at night has got a guy with a shotgun a lot of street corners have got in like the nicer areas have got like a guy with a a Kalashnikov or a shotgun and it’s just it’s so in one way it kind of feels safe but it also really

Andy Argo (42:37)
Yeah.

Charlie (42:37)
doesn’t

It’s a weird situation to be in. When we were there, when you’re travelling, because I ended up cycling with two other people, a guy from England and a girl from Iran.

and when you’re cycling you have to have a police escort so when you’re if if you’re in like in the city you’re absolutely okay but if you’re going between the cities you have to have one it’s non-negotiable you don’t have to pay for it but they are very hard work 90 percent of the time and what i mean when i say hard work is that they look after a jurisdiction of about 15 kilometers

that particular escort so all they want to do is get you through their jurisdiction as fast as possible so we’ll be cycling along you know no we’re not in a rush but they’ll they’ll be sat behind you in the car on the horn shouting out the window faster faster speed up speed up and they’re like the only words that they know in english should he must have like google translated like how to tell them to go faster

something and if you if you want to stop and buy water on the side of the road from like a petrol station you can’t stop here it’s dangerous if you want to if you want to go off the highway into a village you can’t go into this village it’s dangerous if you want to camp at night you can’t come here it’s dangerous but every single time you say why is it dangerous when can we do this they say in five kilometers it’s safe

But in five kilometers you get a new escort and they tell you it’s dangerous so it’s like

Andy Argo (44:29)
Yeah.

Charlie (44:30)
an it’s like a never-ending cycle and it’s just it’s so ridiculous and Yeah, yeah, it was

Andy Argo (44:36)
She’ll just getting beasted throughout the whole country then. It sounds brutal. Like, yeah.

Charlie (44:41)
it was a bit of a nightmare and

The other issue that we had was because we were cycling with a woman, she didn’t have like a hijab, she didn’t have a niqab on. So these guys aren’t used to seeing women in the open like that. So every police escort was trying to get her number, trying to get her Instagram, trying to speak to her. They were like literally harassing her. Like I was having to tell them to F off, like openly telling them that, like leave her alone, blah blah

and it was all day, every day. Like it was, it was terrible. And don’t get me wrong, some of them weren’t like that. Some of the police escorts were really nice and you know, I stayed in the police station a couple of times at night and they were really nice to me. They’ve took me out for food. So they’re not all like that, but it does happen the majority of the time.

and one particular day we were kind of like getting fed up of it and we decided right we come to like a crossroads there’s three of us let’s just split up and then we’ll meet in a village in the middle of nowhere

So that’s what we did. And I ended up having a day cycling on my own for like four or five hours or however long it was. It was so nice. The police didn’t follow me and I was just like, this is what it’s like to not feel, you know, duress the whole time.

I eventually got to this village where my friends were. There was a crowd of like a hundred people and I was thinking, they must be in the middle of that crowd. And it turns out basically where we decided to meet up was like this super bad, like hotspot for terrorism. It was where like three districts meet and apparently the terrorists go from district to district to avoid like the police and the army going from.

district or something along those lines and the police and the escort were absolutely furious with us like we had this big standoff and like one of the

One of the police actually slapped the Iranian girl that we were cycling with, which caused like a big commotion. But anyway, it all got blown over. Everything was kind of okay. The next day, we were sat in a cafe just having breakfast and one of the escorts came over and he’s shouting at us, get up, get up. And we were like, no, we’re just like, I’m having a cup of tea. Like, what do

you mean? Like get up. And the other lad that I

cycling with the lad from England he’s got his GoPro out and he’s put he’s got it on a little like tripod he’s put it in front of him and like just started like filming the interaction and police officers grabbed his GoPro grabbed him by the hair and like basically like rag dolled him across this cafe and this lad’s turn around pepper sprayed the police officer

So

Andy Argo (47:57)
Good on him.

Charlie (47:58)
I’m sat there just like, my god has this just happened? Like we’re in Pakistan, this police officer’s gone to his car, he’s got his AK-47, he’s pointing it and like all the other police are like stood in front of him like no, no, no, no, no, don’t do it, don’t do it. Like it was like I was in the middle of like some sort of movie.

The thing was, when he’s grabbed the camera, he’s basically turned it and filmed himself grabbing this lad by the hair.

and there’s so many people have come because this police officer has been sprayed in the face you know he’s pointing his AK-47 at people like there was a huge crowd of locals tons of police came the media came and then the media ended up getting this video and that day it was on national television the newspaper the day after the headline said three cyclists tortured by police which was

bit extreme But like these these press that released that headline got arrested the next day like it was this It was this crazy crazy like time and we ended up getting out of it because I’d met a guy a couple of days ago just on the road it just pulled over in his car just for a chat and He he was messaging me was like you you’re on the news like what’s what’s going on?

and basically his dad was like a really high-ranking politician and Yeah, I don’t really know what happened, but we were okay. We were told we had to leave the

we had to leave Punjab which basically meant I had to leave Pakistan because I was crossing the border in Punjab so yeah, it took me like three days and I cycled like 600 K and I was out of there like it was Yeah, it was crazy. It was like

My head was just like, at what was going on. you can search now, if people ask me about what’s been some of the challenging times, I just say to them, just put in Google, free cyclists tortured by the police in Pakistan, and it’ll come up.

Andy Argo (50:20)
And the video’s still on there as well, I take it, that it was on the GoPro.

Charlie (50:23)
You can find the video, I think to find the video you have to go onto a reddit post or something like that. But if you just wanted to read the article there’s a few different news channels that covered it.

Andy Argo (50:39)
Yeah. Well what happened with the I remember you

saying a bit about this when we’re in Delhi and I remember just being like, This is this is nuts. Like I’ve heard some pretty crazy

Charlie (50:47)
yeah

Andy Argo (50:47)
travel stories, but I also kind of fair play to the English guy from the guts to I mean, the guy sounds like he does getting pepper sprayed, but also

Charlie (50:56)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (50:57)
I don’t know if I’d chance it. I don’t know if I’d just take the beaten and just keep my head down. I don’t know how I’d play it really, but he’s got some guts doing that.

Charlie (51:02)
Yeah,

I don’t know, brave or stupid, I don’t know. But I

don’t think I would have done it. Like, I would have, there’s more chance of me turning around and like, maybe hitting them back, not pepper spraying them.

Andy Argo (51:21)
Yeah.

Charlie (51:22)
It seems so far-fetched, like. It doesn’t even sound real. When I say it out loud, I’m like, ugh.

It must be a dream, but it wasn’t. was like…

Andy Argo (51:35)
it’s almost smarter with a pepper spray ’cause it’s like, it’s no lasting damage done to the copper whereas if you lamp in one, I’m guessing the bruises will show up and maybe it goes against

Charlie (51:42)
That’s true.

Andy Argo (51:44)
you. Like I kinda get it, it’s non lethal, but but you mentioned about the girl getting slapped as well here for the Iranian girl. So how did s was this just a copper is a bit shirty and sort of what happened from that? Was she all right or

Charlie (51:52)
Yeah,

so she was fine. There was something to do with like either she slapped him first and then he, I think she slapped him and then he slapped her back. And it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was, but.

Andy Argo (52:05)
Has she slapped a copper? A police officer, I should say, for her. Wow. You caught some interesting mates. They’re they’re courageous, I’ll give that.

Charlie (52:16)
Yeah, so it was that was like a it was the day before but it was kind of like the build-up to like all this all this commotion so

Andy Argo (52:24)
Yeah.

Charlie (52:25)
and that was that was because That incident happened because we’d split up and decided to meet in this town and the police were like really angry with us for going to this town so Yeah

Andy Argo (52:39)
Yeah.

Well, I feel like we’ve talked a bit about maybe some of the negatives of Pakistan, but what are your I feel like we should show in a good light as well. What were you kind of ’cause of the obviously countryside’s supposed be beautiful. Karachi where you started obviously a port city, so I’m guessing that’s more industrial from what I’ve heard. But what were you kind of your positives and how do you kind of what do you say are the similarities to India and what are the differences, if that makes sense of sort of the main ones that kind of scream at you?

Charlie (53:04)
Yeah, the main ones I would say the hospitality of the people in Pakistan is amazing. Absolutely amazing. know, a lot of the people there, a lot of them, you know, they live in severe poverty.

but they will pay for your food, they’ll buy your drinks, they’ll invite you into their home. To them, not really about the money, it’s about making sure that you feel safe and at home in their country. And the local people are all very nice. I still message some of them now every now and again on Facebook, on Instagram.

Yeah, very nice people. The only thing, they’re not very good at pool because I played pool against the best guy in this bar one time and I absolutely smoked him. But yeah,

Andy Argo (54:05)
Nice, there you go. Good on you. Too many nights down the pub back in Lancashire, Got the practice in.

Charlie (54:15)
the people were really nice, really hospitable.

And although you get that in India, I would say it’s not quite as much in India. I feel like Muslim countries are a lot more hospitable than other religious countries, from my opinion of

Andy Argo (54:36)
Yeah.

Charlie (54:36)
what I’ve seen.

Andy Argo (54:38)
Did you venture down into like sort of Indonesia, Malaysia as well, when you kind of went down that neck of the woods? ‘Cause it’s obviously

Charlie (54:44)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (54:44)
a a different I don’t want to say a different kind of Muslim. I mean they’re all Sunni Muslims aren’t they from my understanding, but I feel like they are sort of, you know, a little bit different. So what do say are sort of the similarities difference then between your more sort of like say your Arabic

Muslims I it’s very generalising, we’re

Charlie (55:00)
Yep.

Andy Argo (55:00)
lumping a lot of countries into one here, so I’m probably being unfair, but sort of would you say there’s kind of a lot of similarities between your say Malaysian your South East Asian Muslim countries versus your Arabic ones? Would you say they’re always hospitable? I know you said Saudi is obviously number one probably,

but but yeah, what would you say is kind of the pros and cons of each and where would you recommend maybe newbie travellers to go?

Charlie (55:21)
I

would recor… Nooby Travelers, Malaysia is a great place to start. It’s a very…

You know, you’ve got like Kuala Lumpur, you’ve got Georgetown, you’ve got Singapore on the doorstep. It’s a very, there’s a lot of like very westernized areas. So it’s quite easy to navigate. There’s lots of like food options. There’s lots of English speaking people. I would say like the Islamic community is probably not quite as intense. So like as a woman, can, you know, you can dress kind of like not however you want probably in some areas. But if you go into like Kuala

You can dress however you want and like you know you can go out you can go to the bar you can drink alcohol But you can’t do that in places like Saudi Arabia, so I would say the Islamic side of it’s more intense in the Middle East Probably you know because it was so like born there But yeah, I would say like Indonesia is

very cool place to go. I know a lot of people go to Bali. That’s like your sort of standard go-to. But even Bali, one thing I will say about it, if you look at the map of Bali, you’ve got like the whole of the north and then you’ve got Denpasar and then you’ve got below Denpasar. And that tiny little almost like a peninsula under Denpasar is where all the tourists go.

North of Denpasie you’ve got like Ubud and you’ve got like maybe a surf that little surf town on the on the west and the east and like apart from that there’s not really many tourists like I’m trying to think when I was there it was probably a hundred and fifth when I got the boat to Where was it to the west coast?

Yeah, the west coast of Bali. It’s like 150k, like 100 miles to get to the city of Denpasar. And in that

Andy Argo (57:37)
Yeah.

Charlie (57:37)
100 miles, I probably saw like two tourists. But once you get to…

Andy Argo (57:43)
So this is you sorry,

this is you going by boat, is it from the east of Java to the west of Bali, I take it? Yeah.

Charlie (57:48)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah. It’s only like a really short, really short boat.

yeah, there’s still a lot of it which isn’t what people… Everyone thinks Bali is like completely overtaken by tourists and don’t get me wrong, there are areas which are completely ruined. But there’s still a lot of really nice, you know, feels like you’re just cycling through the jungle, there’s perfect rice terraces everywhere and it’s exactly what you think Bali probably used to look like but it still does. People just don’t go to those areas. So…

Andy Argo (58:25)
Yeah. Well that

was that was my issue with Bali’s. I felt a

Charlie (58:26)
you

Andy Argo (58:28)
lot of it is the city. Like I feel like Dempasa and the suburbs like Ulawatu and Ubbard, I feel like it kind of blurs into one as kind of greater Dempasa. And I feel like that kind of is like a third or a quarter ish of the island. I feel like it is a lot of city for c for a relatively small island.

Charlie (58:43)
I don’t think there’s way more of the island to see I think. It’s

a small portion of it. And one thing I would say as well about Java, there’s really cool things to see in Java. It’s just extremely densely populated. So if you were new to traveling and you wanted to go there, I’d probably try and plan what your route was in Java just so you didn’t get totally overwhelmed.

that with it, but there’s still lots of cool stuff to do. I stayed with this woman for a few days and she has a tea company.

I stayed with her through couch surfing. She just took me up into the hills, went and looked where all the tree plantations were, and we were just walking through the terraces. It was this really genuine experience of what her life was like. Doing things like that, which I didn’t pay for it because it was through couch surfing, but things like

that just make you realize like like you know it’s it’s a different world out there but you’ve just got to look for it and find it.

Andy Argo (1:00:04)
Yeah, and I suppose especially doing what you’re doing where you’re doing it cycling, a lot of people in Southeast Asia the classic is you’ll go these big overnight buses, right? You’ll cover a lot of ground in a lot of time and, you know, often, you know, a bit of barley belly on the way, probably while you’re getting banged around in

Charlie (1:00:14)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:00:18)
a I don’t know by a bus and stuff. And I feel like the way you’re doing it, you probably will see so much more. And I feel like I haven’t cycled as much, but on motorbikes, you you know, you get the climate, the smells, you’re kinda

taking

Charlie (1:00:28)
Yep.

Andy Argo (1:00:29)
in more

sensory impact when you kind of rather in a car it’s all air conditioned, right? You kind of out the elements. I feel like there is a lot to be said for that way of travelling.

Charlie (1:00:38)
Yeah, well it’s like Thailand for example.

Everyone thinks, well maybe not everyone, but most people think, yeah, everyone speaks English in Thailand. But it’s genuinely not like that. Like if you got a map of Thailand and circled all the tourist hotspots, it’d only be like a small amount of the country. The rest of the country don’t speak English. Like

Andy Argo (1:01:03)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:01:04)
there’s no English. And it feels like you’re in a different world.

to go into Bangkok where everyone speaks it or go into like one of the islands like Koh Tao and like Koh Phi Phi everyone speaks English there but if you go to like some random small town these guys you know these guys have never seen like a white person before sometimes and you’ll get kids like walking running after you down the road waving at you shouting and it’s it’s so cool it’s so cool that’s the best thing about being on the bike like you see things

like that which you wouldn’t get if you were if you were on a bus just like going through and it’s a lot slower but it’s also a lot more rewarding.

Andy Argo (1:01:53)
Yeah, and you can be more spontaneous, right? You’re like, stop the car, pull in, you can just jump off whenever, right? I suppose the

Charlie (1:01:58)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:01:58)
only negative I’m always scared of with a bike is yeah, I suppose it depends where you are. You’re going through a lot of countries which aren’t as developed as obviously where we’re from. Are you worried about, you know, like I said, that time when that guy’s following you, you need to quickly clean up your business. You’re jumping off your bike. Like

Charlie (1:02:12)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:02:12)
I’ve got a mate from from well, I knew this guy from Darlington in the north of England, or Darlo, I suppose, to us. And I remember he went back to his house, he’s got a nice road bike.

He jumps out, runs into his house to use the loo, comes out two miliseconds seconds later, his bike’s gone. And that’s my issues. I suppose we’ve got the infrastructure of bike chains and all these kind of things we can chain our bikes to. Are you kind of worried about your bike getting pinched or your little your stuff getting stolen? Like how do you manage that side of things?

Charlie (1:02:38)
I am I do worry about it I have my I have like anything expensive I’ve got I have it in two specific bags so if I ever leave the bike and I go into a supermarket I can take one of them is a backpack and one of them is like a shoulder bag so I can take those with me in the supermarket and then I usually I will just when I get to a supermarket I’ll just wheel the bike inside and I’ll just I’ll just wheel it inside and I’ll just look around

if there’s anywhere to just put it inside I’ll put it there and then I’ll lock it inside even if it’s just like locking like the wheels so it can’t be pushed it is it is a worry but

You just gotta trust that 99.99 % of people are good people. If you

Andy Argo (1:03:31)
You’re on the same

Charlie (1:03:33)
worried about it too much, you’d miss out on so much stuff.

Andy Argo (1:03:39)
You’re on the same bike. It’s the same

bike that’s carried you all the way thus far, isn’t it? You haven’t had to swap out for any reason. It is the same one.

Charlie (1:03:43)
Yeah,

same bike. I met this really cool guy.

It’s such a funny story. I met him in Croatia and I was in the middle of the woods and I was repairing a puncture on my tire and he came past on a bike and I’d not seen anyone for hours like it’s the middle of nowhere and he was like, I’m going to do like some rock climbing without ropes. It was like free solo up this little face and to get to it you had to like basically do like an arm

In between these two rocks it was like it was fully like this it was like really claustrophobic and he was saying after we’ve done that we’ll just cook some sausages and I was like All right sounds amazing and then we got to a point where we couldn’t take the bikes any further and he was like Yeah, we’ve just got to leave the bikes in the bush And I was like, I don’t know about that.

Andy Argo (1:04:46)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:04:47)
Like I don’t I don’t feel like too good about that

And then I was in my head I was like this is a bad idea But in my heart I was like this is gonna be such a good experience So I just I just left my bike and I took my bags took my two bags And I was like it’s gonna be alright and I had such good time and I still I’ve not messaged him for a while but we’ve messaged each other since and He’s such a good guy and we had this really cool little experience just like half a day with him You know it’s and things like that

I would probably miss out on if I was like worried about this and that and it’s kind of like when you When you get someone who offers like do you want to stay in my house tonight? No, like any normal person will be like no like why would why would I do like it’d be it’d be weird wouldn’t it you know, but You’ve just got to put your trust in in them and then you have these amazing experiences

and that’s what it’s all about.

Andy Argo (1:05:50)
I suppose your proof I mean,

you’ve done it for years and you’re still here. You know, you’re not being kidnapped, you’re not being ro you haven’t been robbed,

Charlie (1:05:55)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:05:57)
you know, pickpocketing, anything like that, or anything too crazy.

Charlie (1:06:00)
The only thing I’ve had was I had a small solar panel about this big and it was on the on the back of my bike and I was in a petrol station in Italy and when I went into pay because I have like a little petrol stove when I went into pay someone nicked it off the back of my bike

Andy Argo (1:06:21)
Shame. Yeah.

Charlie (1:06:22)
And that

was… But to be honest, it was absolutely crap, that solar panel. So I was kinda glad. I was like, at least it gives

me a reason to buy a better one now. time

there’s ever been anything…

maybe I’ve been lucky.

But as long as you keep your wits about you as well, know, like sometimes you go to a place like I’ve got to campsites before and I thought I’ve just got a bad vibe. So I’ll just leave. Like don’t don’t just sit there and think about it for half an hour. Act, move, go somewhere else, you know.

Andy Argo (1:06:59)
Well, in terms of stuff as well, so I’d like to I’m jumping all round with the storytelling, but it’s an interesting story. You’re on about your camera and losing it in

the Yukon, which

Charlie (1:07:07)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:07:07)
is I mean, where is obviously the Yukon territory in Canada but you mean the actual river of the Yukon. So you happy to tell your story how you were, how you lost ’cause I feel like this is the kind

Charlie (1:07:15)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:07:15)
of story where people listen and for you it’s just another day in your traveling life, but I feel like for for

Charlie (1:07:19)
Yeah

Andy Argo (1:07:20)
a lot of people this is this is pretty pretty damn wild. So if you’re happy to tell your little Yukon adventure, I’d be much obliged to

Charlie (1:07:25)
Yes,

so I met this, I met a girl from Taiwan on the bike. We were both cycling down the Dalton Highway together, which is basically from like the far north of Alaska to Fairbanks, which is kind of in the middle. And it’s like a super remote stretch of highway.

She was telling me about this dream that she had to do this remote canoeing trip down the Yukon from Whitehorse to a town, it might be called Carmacks or something like that. I can’t remember exactly what it is, but it’s like eight days.

super remote there’s nowhere like once you set off from Whitehorse you you’re pretty much like on your own for eight days like you don’t really you might see a couple of other people on canoes but that’s about it and

Yeah, basically, I don’t, still don’t really know exactly what happened. We ended up flipping the canoe and like my stuff was like pretty tied down, but I’d just been in my bag and we were trying to find somewhere to stay that night and we were like checking out this island and we were thinking, we’ll stay there tonight. And I’d left my bag open with my camera on top and my phone and my wallet and

Yeah, we’ve ended up going on an angle across the current trying to get over to the other side to this island. And I think a big gust of wind and maybe it was too strong. It’s just one of those things, it all happens so fast. I’m not 100 % sure, but we ended up going over and I’m pretty strong swimmer, so I was like…

fine like I didn’t I didn’t I wasn’t like worried or anything but I was worried about my stuff because I knew that my bag was open so I managed to like I actually managed to like find my stuff before it sang and I’d like managed to get it to the side so I actually saved the camera

and but i didn’t save my phone there was like loads of other stuff that was completely gone but i actually managed to save the camera which was the big thing i ended up sending it off it was too far gone to repair so you know it was it was dead dead in the water

Unfortunately the girl I was with wasn’t the strongest of swimmers so I had to use my life-saving skills from school and pull her out. So that was entertaining. And then she’d lost pretty much all her stuff. All her stuff was gone. So I’ve had to dive back in the river and I’ve gone swimming after some of her stuff. Managed to get one of the bags which was good.

that to the side. Luckily the canoe, we’d got it out of the current so we’d paddled like when it had gone over it had gone past the current so it was sort of just like half sinking half not just sort of like hanging around so I was able to pull that to the side as well.

I’m pretty sure the girl had jumped back in to try and get one of her bags, couldn’t get out again. So I’ve had to jump back in again and pull her out again. It was pretty entertaining. But yeah, we were like completely soaked.

lost so much stuff like we’d we’d got like one day of food left this was on like day three we had like one day of food left and we were just like what do we do now so we went to this little island

All our clothes, everything, all the camping stuff, sleeping bags, everything was completely soaking. She’d lost all her camping stuff. She didn’t have a tent, didn’t have a sleeping bag, didn’t have a sleeping mat. Like her whole backpack full of stuff had gone down the river. So everything that I had, everything that she still had was all laid out on this little island trying to get it to dry. And we were just sat there just like…

the hell? What’s going on? So then we just had to like the day after Luckily, I still have my tent. So we slept in my tent that night and she just Unfortunately, she just had to like sleep on the rocks on the floor in the tent. Like it was really uncomfortable but the day after we set off and we were like, right, we’re just gonna set off and Just like see how it goes. We only had one paddle left. So I was the only person paddling

And then we got like, it was probably like half a mile down river and I saw her bag on the side and it was stuck on like a branch on the side. So I was like, my God, like no.

So we’ve gone over to the side, she’s got out, gone and got a bag. And then half a mile down, further down, found another paddle. So we’re like, there’s a paddle, stopped again, got the paddle, carried on. So we kind of felt like a little bit better about it, I suppose, because we’d just found a few things and, you know, like she, but she, she lost way more than me. She lost like a drone, a phone.

a GoPro, Garmin InReach, like the list is endless. My camera was like, it’s an expensive camera, so it was really frustrating, but luckily like…

It was just my camera and my phone. All the other bits was like, it wasn’t that bad. It was like a couple of power banks and a solar panel. But yeah, we ended up having to like paddle back in like, I think we did like a hundred K a day for the next two days. Like it was a ridiculous amount. And then we got back and yeah, was, it was frustrating. But it’s one of those things. Like I look back now and it’s like kind of funny.

But it actually led to a really good experience that I wouldn’t have done if that situation didn’t happen. So basically, I was back on the bike, I was cycling down the road.

Probably, I don’t know, like 500 K’s from where it happened. I was on this super remote, not super remote, kind of remote stretch. It’s called the Cassiar Highway. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. It’s in BC.

Andy Argo (1:13:54)
No, no.

Charlie (1:13:55)
It’s in like the top left of BC, just like before the Yukon basically.

Andy Argo (1:14:02)
yeah.

Charlie (1:14:02)
and I was just camping at this like rest area and this rest area is like maybe 50 or 60k to the closest gas petrol station and I was just there there was no one else there I was on my own and all of a sudden this guy comes running through this rest area and I was just like

What’s going on here? Like who’s here? Like how, do you know what I mean? Like how’s this random guy here? So he came over to speak to me and I was like, what are you doing here? And he was like, I’m working. He’s a berry picker. He’s picking these berries.

on this dirt track a couple of kilometers away. And I was like, all right, that sounds good. And he was like, do you want a job? And I was like, yeah, right. And that was literally it. I just packed all my stuff up there and then, because I told him about the experience I’d just had and he was just like, do want a job? I’ll help you out for a few days. I was like, yeah, sure, why not? So I packed all my tent up, put all my stuff on my bike,

just followed him up this little dirt track for a couple of K and it was kind of like…

It’s kind of like a gypsy site. There was like a few caravans, a few people living in like really old battered vans and cars, some people in tents. And it was just like, I didn’t really know what to think of it. And all I could think of was like a gypsy site at home, you know, like

Andy Argo (1:15:45)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:15:46)
that sort of vibe.

I was kind of, that was one of those times I was like, what about my bike here? Are these people gonna steal my bike? that what it’s gonna be like? But no, I just set my tent up, went and spoke to this guy, the guy that I’d spoke to already, he said, go and speak to this guy.

So I went and spoke to this guy, said, how you doing? looking for a job for a few days. Like, don’t know what it’s like. Never done it before. Never heard of it. And he, and he was like, you were biker. And I was like, yeah, yeah. He’s like, I love bikers. You can, you can work for us for a bit. Yeah, sure. No problem. I was like, all right, cool. Like,

Andy Argo (1:16:28)
Last job interview.

Charlie (1:16:29)
and I was like, that was easy. And he was like, come back at 7 a.m. in the morning. So I was like, sure. So I went back at 7 a.m. and

and he gave me like a tennis racket with gaffer tape around it and a bucket and basically all you do is just put your bucket under these they’re like huckleberries they’re called like blueberries but black and you just put your bucket under it hit the bush with your tennis racket and they just fly in

Jobs are good and that’s it. And you just do as many as you can, as long as you can all day. And then you go back to the camp at night and you just basically pick all the stalks off, clean them up a little bit. And then you take them to get weighed. And then the guy just pays you cash on the spot. And that’s it. And

Andy Argo (1:17:16)
Nice.

Charlie (1:17:19)
when I went out the first day, I was still a bit like skeptical about it. I weren’t too sure what it was gonna be like, what was going on.

on and when we first got there the guy was like…

yeah, so obviously this area loads of grizzly bears because you’re basically carrying around grizzly food and I was like,

yeah, that’s interesting. And then he was like, bear sprays in the car if you need it. And I was like, right, OK, turn around. The car’s like half a kilometer away. And I was just like, OK. I don’t know if that’s going to be any good. I’ll just tell the bird, I’ll just wait a minute. I need to go and get the spray.

Andy Argo (1:17:57)
hahaha

Charlie (1:17:58)
And but yeah, you get you get to like the they call them a patch.

go

to these patches and they’re just wild like so you have to be with someone who knows where they are they’re not like planted they’re just in the mountains they’re at the top of the hills and you drive up in a 4×4 and you you basically like scaling up like these really steep terrain to find these bushes hitting these berries into your bucket and then you have a backpack which fits a big bucket in so like sometimes you’ll be walking back to the car after a few hours and you’ve got like

60 kilos of huckleberries on your back and in your

Andy Argo (1:18:36)
Jesus.

Charlie (1:18:36)
hands and you’re thinking if a bear sees me now, he’s going to be absolutely buzzing and I’m not going to get paid.

Andy Argo (1:18:46)
I’m gonna run very fast with that on your back

Charlie (1:18:47)
and

Andy Argo (1:18:47)
as well,

Charlie (1:18:49)
then so yeah that happened and then the first day The guys like I went and went to sell these berries the guys like sorry. I have no cash today I’ll write you a ticket and pay you tomorrow, and I was thinking Here we go like typical

Andy Argo (1:19:06)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:19:06)
and he’s given me this ticket. It’s like $280 and I was like my yeah, and I was like I

Andy Argo (1:19:12)
For a day. hello. I could pick some muckleberries.

Charlie (1:19:16)
know I was like my god

That’s pretty decent Second day comes done the same again. He’s like sorry still no cash Writes me a ticket $260 I was thinking is this legit am I just getting scammed next day comes? Did the same again

Same again, gone to this guy, sold my berries and he’s gone, I’ve still not paid you for the last two days. He gave me like 800 cash. And I was just like, my God, I was absolutely buzzing. And the best thing about it was this guy who was like taking me out, he was feeding me as well. So we had this little agreement where I’d help sort his berries out at night and he’d cook all the food. And I was just like, no worries, like

Andy Argo (1:20:05)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:20:06)
absolutely sound.

I ended up staying there for like, I can’t remember, it was like two weeks and I walked away with like 3,000 Canadian and it was just like,

Andy Argo (1:20:18)
Incredible.

Charlie (1:20:19)
yeah, it was ridiculous. It was so good. And I wouldn’t have had, if I didn’t lose the camera.

I’d

have probably said no to that guy. Do you want a job? I’d have just been like, no, I’m all right. I’m going to cycle somewhere for a bit. But because I did, I was kind of thinking in my head, if I can get a little bit of cash together, it’d be a good start to put it towards the camera. And I ended up walking away with nearly three grand. was buzzing.

Andy Argo (1:20:48)
Unreal.

I’d be honest, I s I thought it’d be half decent pay, but I mean I don’t know if it’d be that it’d be that good. I’ve been in the wrong job.

Charlie (1:20:55)
Yeah, yeah, was, don’t get me wrong, really tough work.

I was working from the moment I woke up until you finish your berries at night, you go and sell them and then you go to bed because you’re that tired. It’ll be like 10pm when you finish. So it’s a long day but it feels fairly relaxed. Honestly it’s such a thrill when you get to a patch and you see the bushes and you see all the berries on you’ve got dollar signs in your eyes.

and you’re like,

Andy Argo (1:21:30)
haha

Charlie (1:21:31)
you’re like, here we go, you’re like, whee, like hitting these bushes, it’s great fun. It’s such a good little job, I loved it.

Andy Argo (1:21:41)
There’s stuff like that and I’ve met a few people who do tree planting in Canada and I’ve met people who do it in Australia

Charlie (1:21:45)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:21:46)
and it’s like you’ll see probably these random parts of the country that no one else will ever see and it’s just you and your

Charlie (1:21:51)
Yes.

Andy Argo (1:21:52)
mate, you know, picking up our berries. I think you’ll see all these random bizarre little spots, which in itself is pretty awesome, right? Like

Charlie (1:21:58)
Yeah, yeah, literally like we were, it’s near a place called Stewart where it was.

was like a two hour drive from Stewart and it was just on the top of this mountain is basically where we were and you’ve just got this unreal view at a landscape but you don’t really notice it all day because you’re too busy with your head in these bushes and then when you’re driving

Andy Argo (1:22:20)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:22:21)
back you’re like wow look at this place like it’s incredible and like the only people who go up there are literally people for picking berries like nobody else goes there you don’t see any tourists up there like because there’s not really anything else

there. It’s just overgrown bushes, know, like, but yeah, it’s incredible.

Andy Argo (1:22:43)
So

you having to wash off quite thoroughly, I’m guessing you get a bit of huckleberry juice on your fingers. I wouldn’t want to go to bed with that on in case a bear smells me from our way and he just thinks I’m the equivalent of a bear granola bar. Like you kind of having a big scrub down at the end of the day then.

Charlie (1:22:54)
Yeah

Do you know what no because if if you don’t cover up you get really bad rashes off the bushes so

Andy Argo (1:23:05)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:23:06)
you have to base I was in my full waterproofs a fly net and gloves and it’s like

Andy Argo (1:23:15)
yeah.

Charlie (1:23:15)
and it’s hot as well, it’s like 28 degrees. So you’re like crazy, but you you’re just thinking about this money coming in and you just work

Andy Argo (1:23:27)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:23:27)
through it and drink plenty of water, eat good food and you’re absolutely fine. Like it’s a great, great craic

Andy Argo (1:23:37)
It’s

nice getting paid every two or three days as well. You think even jobs, you know, might get paid every couple of weeks, every month. Like to get it that quick of a turnaround

Charlie (1:23:42)
Yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (1:23:44)
is pretty nice if you’re a skint backpacker, you know.

Charlie (1:23:46)
Well

that was the only time that I didn’t get paid on the same day. Every other time was the same day. it’s

like the same day you’re just getting cash in your hand and you’re just like unreal. yeah, literally, literally. You’re like

Andy Argo (1:24:02)
Jumping out of bed the next day. Tennis jacket in one hand. Good on you.

Charlie (1:24:06)
buzzing another wad tonight. Like it literally feels like that, yeah. It’s quality.

Andy Argo (1:24:09)
Yeah. Well what are you doing what

are you doing camping wise with the animals then? ‘Cause obviously like you’ve got the bear issues. When I’m camping I’ll I’ll either use a bear locker at a campsite or hoit up a tree and hope for the best. But then you’ve got even like the even like the squirrels and stuff, I’m always worried they’re gonna go in and get my stuff. So when you’re wild camping, how are you kind of managing are you taking much food with you? Or like how are you doing that side of things?

Charlie (1:24:32)
Depends where I am, it depends where I am so like there was one time in Alaska I had to carry 12 days of food because there was nowhere to restock. Sometimes I will put it somewhere away from the tent. Sometimes I am ridiculously lazy and won’t care.

and it’s not like sensible and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but it’s just what I’ve ended up doing I’ve been fine but yeah like I had these like they were like smellproof bags I don’t know if they were smellproof to bears but I used them and I never had any issues so yeah

Andy Argo (1:25:26)
That’s that’s what scares me ’cause remember I was in Mongolia and I was doing a motorbike trip by myself and I was in this area that was bad for wolves. They got wolves in a lot of it, but this area was bad ’cause I remember even during the daytime these guys are riding round on motorbikes with rifles over their shoulder and they’ve all got, you know, these big dogs to keep the wolves away. And I did some hiking, I remember I went miles away from this place. So I thought I was all right. And it probably same for you, right? You know, these big days where you knack it at the end of the day. Although I

Charlie (1:25:52)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:25:53)
sound like a bit of a

a Muppet, ’cause I’m saying I’m tired and I’ve been on a motorbike. Not quite as hard caught as pedaling, but

Charlie (1:25:56)
Hahaha

Andy Argo (1:25:58)
but I remember being really tired and I had all this stuff and I’d I was so tired I’d burnt my rice in my cooking pot and had this jar of food and I’d chucked it just near my tent and I was so tired I like, Well I’ve not had any issues, I’m just gonna crawl into bed and I couldn’t sleep. I woke up in the night and then all of a sudden I’ve got this wolf that’s just like I heard this dog drinking from a dog bowl and I’m like, nah, there’s no dogs here, that’s that’s a wolf. And then I’d see this wolf just like plodding round my tent and I was just

I was yeah. I was probably like you when you were in India, let’s put it that way. I was I was needing to clean myself up afterwards. But yeah, it’s he’s terrifying.

Charlie (1:26:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

a cool experience though to have that.

Andy Argo (1:26:36)
It is, yeah. I feel like at the time you’re like, This is are you’re either gonna die which you know is unlikely at the time,

Charlie (1:26:39)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:26:40)
but your head’s still like this is pretty terrifying or you’re like, it’d be a good story. Like saying if you’re in the Yukon

Charlie (1:26:43)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:26:43)
right? Probably at the time pretty stressful after you’re like, good little story out of that, you know. All’s well that ends well.

Charlie (1:26:47)
Yeah, yeah,

I woke up like a week ago, maybe 10 days ago, and I was putting my tent away. I lifted my tent up just so, you know, when you like shake it out just to like clean all the stuff off the bottom. And under

the tent was a tarantula like this big. It was huge. And I was like, whoa.

Andy Argo (1:27:10)
Jesus.

Charlie (1:27:11)
It’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen. It’s really big. And it was like, it was black with some sort of browny, like a light brown colour. Don’t know what it was, but it was pretty cool.

Andy Argo (1:27:27)
I’d snap a photo, give it a quick Google later, just yeah, see what it was. See how close you came to death.

Charlie (1:27:30)
I’ve got a

picture of it. I need to look to see what it is.

Andy Argo (1:27:39)
John, yeah. Well have you got have you got sick much as well? ‘Cause I feel like that’s one of the main negatives of travelling is if you get sick or like everyone’s always worried about catching dengue fever or malaria. Have you had much in the way of illnesses? Or do you just kind of if you get sick you’ll just get hotel and just chill out for a couple of days?

Charlie (1:27:53)
very

very rarely get sick just doesn’t really touch wood doesn’t really happen like

i feel like i feel like because i predominantly just live outside and just sort of like not immune but i just feel like my body just reacts differently to things now like it just

I just don’t seem to be affected by getting a cold or anything like that. It just doesn’t happen at all. I can’t remember the last time I sneezed or coughed or…

was ill at the very start of the trip in Pakistan. I had food poisoning and that was…

How long ago was that? Like two and a half years or something.

Andy Argo (1:28:42)
Jesus.

Charlie (1:28:43)
That was the last time I can remember being ill.

Andy Argo (1:28:46)
Yeah. Well I remember I’d you’re

Charlie (1:28:48)
So.

Andy Argo (1:28:49)
on about going to the f you went east to Java to Bali. I was with a few mates and I was supposed to sit in reverse. And I remember I got Bali belly is do you manage to dodge it then I’m guessing?

Charlie (1:28:57)
Yeah, I didn’t get it, no.

Andy Argo (1:29:00)
Honestly, I made a such a mistake out a guy in a hostel ahead of me. I’d avoided ice, water you I was drinking bottled water. There’s some German guy in the hostel ahead of me brushing his teeth with the water. And I’d been told not to do that. But I was like, he looks pretty healthy. I’ll splash some

Charlie (1:29:11)
Yeah

Andy Argo (1:29:12)
of that that on, I’ll be fine. Four days, just both ends, just just horrendous. It was yeah, not ideal. But yeah, I mean it happens, doesn’t it?

Charlie (1:29:18)
Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, it happens. The only thing I would say is like for like for me…

I don’t mind here, but especially when I was in Asia, I don’t try like super extravagant food because I have an allergy to peanuts, which is like really severe. So I struggle with, you know, like a lot of the Thai street food, they use like peanut oils and things like that. So I tend to just stay away from it. But yeah,

Andy Argo (1:29:51)
So have you had any flare ups while you’ve been

away then? Are you just taking a couple of epipens and just hoping for the best?

Charlie (1:29:56)
Yeah, I’ve got a couple of epipens I actually had an allergic reaction. I was in Saudi Arabia. I don’t know if I’ve told you this story actually in the past maybe.

Andy Argo (1:30:08)
No, I don’t think so, no.

Charlie (1:30:11)
picture the scene. I’m in Saudi Arabia. I’ve got probably a hundred kilometers each way where there’s a town. Just in the middle of the desert basically on the highway but in the middle of the desert.

start struggling to like my lip starts feeling a bit weird and I’m like it feels a bit strange I don’t know what that’s for and then like slowly started to like struggle breathing a little bit and I was just like what’s going on here like it’s very strange feeling I just had lunch and I’d had it’s called halva I don’t know if you’ve heard of that it’s kind of like

Andy Argo (1:30:54)
no.

Charlie (1:30:57)
You know what, I don’t even know how to describe it. I was using it as like a filling for bread and it’s kind of like a hummus texture, kind of,

Andy Argo (1:31:10)
yeah.

Charlie (1:31:11)
but maybe a little bit more of a solid than a hummus.

and sometimes they put pistachios in it and I didn’t know that they did that sometimes. So I’d been having it for weeks and then all of a sudden this new tub of it that I’d bought had pistachios in and so I’m in the middle of a desert. It’s like 40 degrees.

and there was like a tree just off the side of the road but there was no like leaves on it it was just like a dead like just the trunk and a couple of twigs and I was like sat next to this trunk trying to hide from the sun trying to breathe and I was just like

and I had like snot coming out my nose and I was like dribbling and I was like, and I got my EpiPen out, but for some reason I had that much adrenaline like already like in my body trying to like fight it off. I felt like absolutely unreal. I felt like on top of the world, even though I couldn’t breathe. And I was like, do you know what? I’m just not gonna use the EpiPen. I’m just gonna like leave it for five more minutes for this feeling.

and just like embrace this feeling and then after like I don’t know maybe like half an hour just got a little bit easier a little bit better and I was and eventually just came around and I could breathe again normally and I was just like that was absolutely mental like I can’t believe I’ve just I can’t believe I didn’t use the EpiPen how stupid but like I had a great time having an allergic reaction and then like my whole

whole face was like completely swollen up like the day after I could hardly open my eyes. I looked like I’d gone 10 rounds with Tyson Fury or something.

But yeah, and then I was just like, I had to set off the next day and do like 100K, because I was just like, middle of nowhere, gonna run out of water. So like, my whole face was swollen up, and I’m like cycling down the road, trying to get to this village so I can get

Andy Argo (1:33:25)
Jesus

Charlie (1:33:26)
some water. But yeah, was crazy.

Andy Argo (1:33:30)
What do the locals think when you’re rocking up looking like you’ve been beaten up?

Charlie (1:33:33)
sunglasses on, I refuse to take them off. I was just like, I can’t show my face.

Andy Argo (1:33:39)
I’ll

be honest, it’s a different kind of high as well. I feel that’s one of the classics, don’t try this at home. Don’t have some kid listening to be yeah, I’m gonna spash a peanut bar see how I’ll get on. You know. Jesus. The guts on that just assume it’s gonna sort itself out.

Charlie (1:33:47)
I know yeah, I know it’s yeah,

Yeah, I was I was I was in two minds because I was kind of like I don’t want to like waste the EpiPen I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to waste it from but I also felt like

I

don’t know, I felt that good, I felt like I wasn’t gonna die. It was weird. It was very strange feeling. I’ve never felt anything like that before. I felt amazing. I’ve felt amazing before, but not in that kind of way.

Andy Argo (1:34:20)
Interesting.

Charlie (1:34:22)
yeah, it was pretty cool.

Andy Argo (1:34:25)
Think you do that much hardcore stuff, you’re just seeking that near death experience any way you can, you know. Living on the edge. Unreal.

Charlie (1:34:30)
Yeah, yeah,

Andy Argo (1:34:34)
And it’s funny ’cause you were saying as well about you know, obviously picking huckleberries. I don’t know if you get a lot as well, but I feel like people who travel for multiple years, I feel like when you speak to people back home, it’s always, daddy’s money. That’s kind of the classic response, isn’t it? I think everyone assumes ’cause they’ve all flown on holiday to Tenerife or somewhere, where it is obviously don’t go wrong, it’s it’s not an expensive holiday, but it is not sustainable to live

Charlie (1:34:56)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:34:57)
like that for years. That’s their probably their reference point for how much it costs to be on holiday.

Whereas feel like for someone like us, where you’re like living out of a tent, cycling, you can do it crazy cheap. So I mean, for you it’s all

Charlie (1:35:07)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:35:08)
self funded, isn’t it? So I mean, do you mind me asking more about funding? ‘Cause I’m guessing you just saved when you had your career back in England and you’ve just done odd jobs and working holidays as you’ve gone along, right?

Charlie (1:35:17)
Yeah, so basically when I was at home I was on the verge of moving out and getting my own place so I was still living with my parents and it was kind of like I was going to look at houses, I had a mortgage advisor, I had this lump sum ready for a deposit and like these guys are saying yeah 35 years you pay 700 pounds a month and I’m like whoa

steady on like I don’t want to commit to something like that so when I when I set off I had like a decent amount of money I sold my car I had I had a pretty good car I was driving a fairly new Golf GTI that I owned so I had I had a pretty good you know

a pretty good pot to last enough time to be able to get somewhere where I could get a decent chunk of work in.

So yeah, that sort of covered me for the first few years. And then I got a working holiday when I got to New Zealand. did a small one in Australia, New Zealand, and then cycled for the summer, worked in Canada, picked up a couple of jobs here and there. So yeah, it’s all sort of worked out pretty well, combining it with the extremely cheap lifestyle.

very frugal like I it’s very rare that like I will pay for a hotel like

It’s very rare. Like I can’t remember the last time I did. Like the only time I’ll pay for a hotel is if someone sends me some money and says, get yourself a hotel on me. like

Andy Argo (1:37:07)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:37:07)
if I go, like for instance, when I was in the U.S. I didn’t pay for a hotel when I was there. I didn’t go out for one meal when I was there because it’s so expensive. So I just cook all my own food and I camp every night. If I spend like…

I don’t know, let’s say if I spend north of £400 in a month, that’s an expensive month.

Andy Argo (1:37:32)
Incredible. Yeah. Well done.

Charlie (1:37:35)
Yeah, so you know when you put it like that if you’ve got five grand you can go for a year.

Andy Argo (1:37:42)
Yeah.

Which is easily done, isn’t it? I mean, if you’re saving that amount of money and even I suppose for me, I left it too late. Not once I left it too late to travel, but I was twenty eight before I did my first travels and I went straight to this working holiday and Aus But I feel like if people knew sooner about working holidays, you could easily save abroad. Like you’re picking Huckleberries for three grand. It’s like, well, you could travel for a good few

Charlie (1:37:58)
Yep. Yeah, I know, yeah.

Andy Argo (1:38:02)
months off the back of just a couple of weeks’ worth of cash in hand work. It’s just crazy, isn’t it? The amount of hours you’d have to put in to

Charlie (1:38:05)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:38:08)
have so much fun off the back of it.

Charlie (1:38:10)
Yeah,

and it’s like now I’m in this situation where I am now on the west coast of Mexico. I’m in a town called Puerto Velarte.

and I’m just volunteering at a hostel. And for doing that, you get a bed and you get your breakfast every day. And, you know, it’s gonna cost me next to nothing to live here for a month. Like, if I spend like, what, 200 pounds on the rest of my food and doing a few activities in a month, it’s, you know, it’s nothing. So it’s really good.

Andy Argo (1:38:45)
I

suppose it’s a good way to meet the locals, isn’t it? I feel like if you are travelling and you go into hostels, it’s great, but you’re mainly meeting other travellers, aren’t you? Whereas I suppose doing what you’re doing, you’ll be in a

Charlie (1:38:54)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:38:54)
place for a while, you might meet the locals and I did you say you’re doing it to get better at Spanish as well? Was that kind of the the thought process?

Charlie (1:38:59)
Yeah, yeah,

so…

Yeah, so like one of the things that I had when I first set off on this trip, I had like some goals that I wanted to like achieve. So like one of them was to learn how to snowboard. So when I was in Canada, that was like number one goal, learn how to snowboard, get half decent at it. I had another goal where I wanted to conquer my fear of heights. So the reason I wanted to conquer my fear of heights was because I knew I wanted to do the Everest Base Camp trek.

Nepal so I set myself little challenges along the way to do this and this and this and try and conquer it like hot air balloon for instance.

And one of my other goals, one of my other dreams is to learn a second language. I meet so many people who aren’t English and they can all speak two languages. you know, we’re so like just one language all the time. I know like two English people that speak another language. That’s it. So I’ve always had this dream.

Since since like before I set off that I wanted to learn Spanish Because I feel like you know, it’s local in Europe to go to Spain, but also they speak in a lot of different countries It’s not just Spain so my plan while I’m in Mexico is to stay in this hostel for four four to six weeks I don’t know and just trying you know get using a bit of vocabulary. I’m absolutely 1 %

speaker at the moment, like I’m not very good at all. But there’s only one way, you know, the best, or there’s not only one way, but the best way to get another language is to immerse yourself into it and to speak it and to practice. And yeah, that’s my plan while I’m here is to just, you know, have little conversations with people every day, go into the little taco stands and order in some food and that’s my plan. So it’s, yeah, just trying to…

Trying to build the foundations for learning the second language.

Andy Argo (1:41:13)
I think it’s a good way to do it, isn’t ‘Cause that exposure, that constant exposure is so good. And you’re working for free in the hostel, but you’ve got so much more time to get exposed to and it’s like, well, if if you were back in England working your corporate job or whatever you want to do in an office, then it’s like, how much would you be paying to probably do a one hour lesson a week? You’re gonna learn

Charlie (1:41:29)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:41:29)
way more for way less by just taking that time off. And I think some people, like you say, they’ve got a mortgage, right? They’ve got bills to pay. But I think it is definitely the way to do it, just to get stuck in and

like I’ve

Charlie (1:41:39)
Yep.

Andy Argo (1:41:40)
learnt all my Spanish

largely and I’ve been to Mexico and stuff. I learnt a lot of it from my Chilean mates here. I was chat to my I’ll just say speak to me in Spanish

Charlie (1:41:45)
Okay.

Andy Argo (1:41:47)
and that constant exposure hurts. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not great. But it’s been good enough even where I was I met some Brazilians the other day. And because it’s so similar, my terrible Spanish combined with their probably

Charlie (1:41:58)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:41:59)
slightly you know, bare Portuguese, it was enough to kind of get the gist of what we’re trying to communicate. And it was just really

Charlie (1:42:03)
Yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (1:42:04)
beautiful to have that connection where otherwise it would have been like yours you said before, where you kind of

We’ve all done it right, you use Google Translate. And it works, it gets

Charlie (1:42:11)
yet.

Andy Argo (1:42:12)
across, but it’s just it’s a different experience, isn’t it? If you just even have a few words of something. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie (1:42:15)
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, it’s like

for me when…

The best moments I’ve had so far have been when I’m in some tiny little Mexican town where there’s no tourists and I’ll go to the plaza which is like the main square and there’ll be some old bloke sat there with his Mexican cowboy hat on and I’ll go and sit next to him and I’ll just try and tell him and he’ll look at me and he’ll be like, where are you from? And I’ll tell him and he’ll be like, where are you going on your bike? And I’ll be able to tell him and just

not in English obviously but in like having those little conversations and it’s like just meeting some random 75 year old Mexican bloke on a bench for 10 minutes and then for the rest of

Andy Argo (1:43:02)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:43:03)
the day then I’m like buzzing about it and yeah it’s such a cool experience to be able to do that in a different country with someone with a different language it’s normal to like most of the world but to us it’s like yeah it’s it’s a privilege so it’s very

cool.

Andy Argo (1:43:22)
Really

is, yeah. And it’s it’s always interest as well in North America even for us ’cause it’s like even our English. Like I’ve changed my accent over time. I’ve changed my slang. I don’t use as many metaphors. ‘Cause I suppose even between

Charlie (1:43:32)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:43:32)
English speakers, like us as northerners obviously there’s some stuff we say up north but and you don’t even know they don’t say it down south until you say it in a sentence and they look at you like you’ve got two heads. You’re like, didn’t rise that wasn’t a thing down here and same over here, like I was

Charlie (1:43:38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:43:44)
saying, I was trying to get a coffee the other day and you just ask for a mocha and then look at you again like you two heads and they’re like, you mean a mocha? And I’m like, yeah

Charlie (1:43:50)
Hahaha

Andy Argo (1:43:51)
And they still

make that jump. And it is funny on these little quirks and stuff.

Charlie (1:43:55)
Yeah, yeah, it’s funny.

Andy Argo (1:43:58)
Because you’re so you’ve got as far as Mexico and you went so your route then, you’ve kind of gone through Europe, down through sort of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand. And then we went straight from

Charlie (1:44:06)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:44:07)
New Zealand to Alaska, was it? Or to

Charlie (1:44:10)
Yeah,

I flew from New Zealand.

Connected in LA connected in Anchorage and then you can take a plane to a place called Dead Horse Which is right on the Arctic Ocean in Alaska and everyone on that plane is going there to work on the oil fields and then sometimes you get a Cyclist and it’s more it’s more common than you’d think But it is very remote so you have to take like 10 to 12 days worth of food with you on the plane and then Water is easy. You can get water everywhere because you know, there’s lots

of water, lots of streams, creeks and things like that but food’s the key one out there.

Andy Argo (1:44:51)
So what are you doing for your walls then? Are you using like a life straw or are you doing using tablets or how are you kind of purifying it?

Charlie (1:44:57)
So out there in Alaska, they tell you that you’re supposed to use a life straw. But I do the old fashioned way and just look at it and think, that looks all right. And just drink

Andy Argo (1:45:10)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:45:11)
it. But yeah, like I have like a filter. I don’t really use it. I’ve been okay up to now.

don’t drink out of the taps here in Mexico.

because it’s supposed to be really bad. But like here what they have is they have these shops called Agua Purificada and it’s basically where all the locals go for their tap water so they have these huge jugs of water that they go and fill up and I go with my little five liters worth of bottles and they’ll fill it up and it costs like 20p so

Andy Argo (1:45:49)
sweet.

Charlie (1:45:50)
that’s the way to do it down in Mexico. But yeah most other places like even coming across the

US just go to a gas station and they’ve got like drinks fountains and every time you can just fill up water for free so yeah

Andy Argo (1:46:05)
That’s pretty good. Yeah. ‘Cause it’s a lot of weight to carry

as well, isn’t it? Especially the environments you’re going through. Like you need it, don’t you, of the

Charlie (1:46:11)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:46:11)
amount of deserts you’ve cycled through, but so much weight to carry.

Charlie (1:46:16)
Yeah, yeah, depends on where you are. So like between now and probably like Chile, I’ll have to do this system of going to these water shops. But then after there, once you get down to Chile and it’s a bit more desert landscapes, you’ll probably start finding more like creeks and like runoff water and stuff like that.

Andy Argo (1:46:40)
Have you planned so you’re going straight the way down to the bottom of South America? Have you planned about the Darien Gap as well? Obviously it’s a bit in for everyone who’s not heard of it, the bit of Central America you can’t cross ’cause it’s all mountainous and gangs and cartels from what I’ve heard. Are you kinda

getting a ferry around it?

Charlie (1:46:53)
Yeah,

yeah, so from what I’ve read there’s three options. You can either fly from Panama to Columbia, which I don’t want to do because with the bike it’s just annoying. It’s a bit of a faff

Andy Argo (1:47:10)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:47:11)
with the bike and all your stuff. And to be honest, I’m sick of flying with the bike. I’ve done it like four, four times so far and it…

Andy Argo (1:47:20)
You just pay for an oversized item,

is that how it works? ‘Cause I’ve never taken anything that big before.

Charlie (1:47:24)
depends

on the airline so Alaska Airlines is free to take a bike on Thai Airways it’s like 300 USD it’s like it just completely depends so if you go with like easy jet I think it’s like 50 quid

It depends on the airline and it depends on the route. So if you’re going from like transatlantic, it’s going to cost way more than if you go in like within Europe. It just, it just depends.

So yeah, you’ve got that option, which I’m not going to do. The other option is a speedboat. And the speedboat,

Andy Argo (1:48:08)
fancy.

Charlie (1:48:09)
well, sounds fancy, but it’s not. It consists of like multiple local boats. And you’re basically going from point to point to point to point along the coast. And you can’t pre book everything. You basically go from one point to the next point. And then once you get there, you have to find someone to take you to the next point.

So it’s it’s like unorganized chaos. It’s very localized

I know how safe or unsafe it is, I’m not sure. But I was looking at doing that option and it costs like 350 US, something, or 400 US, something like that. And then the next option, which is like 100 US more, is you can go with like a tour group on like a five day sailing adventure where you stop at these Caribbean islands called

sandblast islands are they caribbean i think the caribbean still but maybe they’re not quite but they’re called the sandblast islands and they’re like really small remote like desert oasis islands in the middle of the ocean and you do that for like five days so that’s yeah you can get you can guess which one i’m going for

Andy Argo (1:49:28)
That’s an easy choice to make, innit? Yeah, I’m sold.

I’ve never heard of that one, but that’s such a good way to do it. That’s unreal. Yeah.

Charlie (1:49:38)
Yeah,

it’s supposed to be pretty popular with backpackers. And you just take this sailboat and you get a bunk in there and it’s like 500 US. And that’s all your food included. So, yeah, it’s pretty good.

Andy Argo (1:49:56)
Well then are you planning the seasons? You obviously mentioned about cycling in the monsoon in Vietnam and obviously it’s coming into sort of summertime in South America. Was that intentional or is it more just it depends where you are and you’re just

Charlie (1:50:07)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:50:08)
kind of it’s just happy coincidence?

Charlie (1:50:10)
No,

completely intentional. Because of how it was in Vietnam, I was just like, I’m not doing that again for so long.

I don’t want to put myself in that situation. So that’s another reason why I’m staying in this hostel for like five or six weeks. The Spanish and also because it’s the monsoon season here now. So I’m just sort of like waiting for it to pass. It’s on its way down. So it’s getting better, but it’s it’s still here. We are actually expecting the biggest monsoon of the year tomorrow night. So like all.

All the shops along the front have all boarded up. There’s sandbags, like hundreds of sandbags all along the front. Apparently it’s going to be absolutely crazy. It’s like a level four typhoon or something, monsoon or typhoon. It sounds terrible. It’s like 150 mile an hour winds are expected. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know.

Andy Argo (1:51:11)
For a guy who lives in the tent, I bet you’re very happy to be indoors for that one then, Yeah.

Charlie (1:51:18)
Yeah, I don’t know how my tent would cope, but I think, yeah, I’m glad I’m gonna be inside.

Andy Argo (1:51:24)
I’m just impressed that you are keeping it

so spontaneous as well, how you’re just kinda booking it as you go along and obviously you’ve kind of roughly planned the seasons right, but how you just winging it each day is such a it’s incredible. It’s a good way to do it.

Charlie (1:51:35)
Yeah, like, like,

like I started this gig maybe like three days ago and I arranged it like a week ago. So it’s very last minute.

Yeah,

there’s not much that’s planned. I’ve got a mate from home who’s flying out in the middle of December and he’s gonna be cycling with me for a couple of months. It’s the first time that someone’s done that from and cycled for a while. So…

That’s gonna be really good. I still don’t know which airport I’m gonna ask him to fly to. So I need to find a city where I’ll be able to get a bike and get him set up and that he can fly to. And then apart from that, it’s kinda like just seeing what happens. I don’t know, have you been to Bolivia? They have some…

Andy Argo (1:52:33)
No, never. Yeah.

Charlie (1:52:34)
have some salt flats in Bolivia and apparently in like June, July, August it’s like extremely dry and it gets this like cool like hexagon shape and I think I’ll try and get to Bolivia to

see it when it’s like that. That’s basically my only plan for the timings.

Andy Argo (1:52:59)
So you’re mainly going down the wests of South America.

Charlie (1:53:01)
Yeah.

Yeah, West coast, probably, yeah.

Andy Argo (1:53:04)
Are you gonna dip into Brazil then?

You gonna go up the east or do you think when you’ve got to the bottom then you’ll be ready for Africa? How are you gonna or you’re gonna see how you feel?

Charlie (1:53:10)
So I’m

gonna see how I feel but also I would quite like to do a volunteering opportunity or if I can get paid, get paid somewhere like a ski resort in Chile or Argentina. So…

If

I want to do that, there’s probably going to be a period of time that I need to hang around and basically waste, not waste the time, but use the time to do something else. So at that point I might go into Brazil, go and check out some different parts of the Amazon. I have a friend

from Brazil and he’s recommended some really cool places and he beats the stereotype you know everyone thinks Brazil’s super dangerous and he’s you know he’s telling me that it’s just not what everyone says kind of like everywhere that we’ve been up to now

Andy Argo (1:54:15)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:54:17)
So yeah, I would love to see it and hopefully I’ll get time and I think it might end up working out kind of like that if I’m sort of, if I can find something to do a winter season somewhere and then take a few months, go and see that and play it that way. Maybe.

Andy Argo (1:54:37)
Good on ya. Well mates brings on to another point as well, which is well I suppose first of all the this hostel, I’m assuming is this like a work away kinda gig? Is that how you found it or Facebook or

how do you kinda track it down?

Charlie (1:54:47)
yeah

so so this place so basically what I did I looked on work away and

I was looking in this town because I knew I was passing through and I saw that there was a hostel that was looking for help and on work away you have to pay it’s like $50 for the year and obviously I’m a bicycle tourist and we don’t like to pay for anything so on work away they don’t advertise what the hostel is called but if you go into the reviews from previous people sometimes they might say

I loved my stay at such and such a hostel. So I went on to the reviews, found

what the hostel was called, messaged them directly on Instagram, and that’s how I’ve got this gig. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:55:38)
Go detective work. Save yourself fifty quid. Good man. I honestly I couldn’t agree more. I’m the same. I’m tight as anything.

Charlie (1:55:46)
Yeah.

Yeah, but you know, like I look at it like, right, I’ve just saved 50 quid, so that’s another week I’ve got of traveling or food, you know.

Andy Argo (1:55:57)
Yeah. I always think about hourly as well. Like there’s some jobs like I’m working seasonal work now which doesn’t pay too well and I know a few backpackers where you’re kinda working like, you know, if I buy this, this is half an hour of my time or an hour of my time

Charlie (1:56:09)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (1:56:09)
and it does kinda make you more don’t say stingy ’cause I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it does make you less frivolous.

Charlie (1:56:17)
Yeah,

definitely, definitely.

And when you do this as well, the volunteering is very relaxed. It doesn’t feel like you’re at work. You do your tasks and then you’re kind of just relaxing and if any of the guests have got any issues you deal with it. It’s low season here so there’s probably more volunteers than there are guests at the moment. So

Andy Argo (1:56:40)
Yeah.

Charlie (1:56:41)
it’s very relaxed. I’m in a dorm room right now but I’m the only person in this dorm room. So it’s like having a…

Andy Argo (1:56:47)
Jackpot.

Charlie (1:56:49)
a private room so it’s pretty good.

Andy Argo (1:56:53)
Well, you mentioned

about your mate coming out to meet you as well. And we we spoke a little bit before we hit record about you haven’t been home in like three and a half years you’ve been traveling and your parents haven’t come out to see you or family. So it’s like, well, a lot of people, homesickness, for me I always feel like six months is always like a bit of a wall where people kind of a lot of people I feel like they typically go home. Very few people I meet traveling stay for more than six months ’cause they do get homesick. They some creature comforts. You’re the

I think you’re probably a record setter I’ve met for travelers who have been away for that long and not gone home. Like I’ve met people who’ve emigrated and not been home for a while. But I think it’s a different experience living somewhere as opposed to just being on the road for that amount of time. How do you find kind of the how do you think your family find it and how do you find the sort of the do you get homesick? How do you keep in touch and that kind of stuff?

Charlie (1:57:43)
Yeah,

I mean, I don’t really get homesick and I feel like part of that is I feel because I’m most of the time, not at the moment, but most of the time I’m in a different place every day. I’m experiencing different things. I’m speaking to different people. It’s almost like I don’t have time to miss being at home and…

Yeah, like obviously I miss my family and I’d love it if at some point they can come out and if it works out that they can then that would be great. But also when I first set off I sort of said I’m not coming home until I’ve until unless I’m cycling home. So in my mind I’ve got like this mission that I’ve got to complete before I can go home and

There’s

nothing, there’s nothing that’s gonna, unless like some, something happens at home where I have to go home, like some sort of situation. There’s nothing else that will stop me. Like even if I get injured, like if I break my leg, touch wood I don’t, but if I break my leg tonight, falling over, I’ll stay in Mexico until it’s fixed and then carry on and then yeah. So.

I don’t know how long this trip is going to take. I’m really not sure. But there’s no way I can go home. It’s just my

mindset. Because I’ve said it, I feel like I’ve got to do that now. So I told my mum.

Andy Argo (1:59:27)
I’ll be honest, I r I respect it, yeah.

Charlie (1:59:30)
Yeah, like I told my mum I was like, I’m not coming home unless it’s on the bike. So in my mind, I’ll almost feel like I’ve failed if I go home early. Like I know I won’t have done and I know some people listening to this will think I’m stupid and ridiculous, but it’s just how I’m wired, unfortunately.

Andy Argo (1:59:50)
And I suppose there’s also the I suppose for you it sounds like more of a motivation of you want to fulfil the goal. But also I always thought as well when I was on my I think for me it was over about two years, I think, before I went home. And it’s always like, Well, if I fly home to go back out again, it’s like I could travel for so many more months for the cost of being home for I’ve got some mates here who are going home to Australia

Charlie (2:00:08)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:00:09)
for three weeks and I love it, it’s good, they might have weddings and all the rest of it go to go to, but I’m always like, That’s a lot of

you know, that’s a lot of free time that you’re kinda

Charlie (2:00:18)
yeah

Andy Argo (2:00:18)
sacrificing to go home. And I thought suppose it’s easier

Charlie (2:00:21)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:00:21)
for us, right? We’ve got WhatsApp, you can video call and it’s not as it’s not like back in the day we’d have some long distance phone call or sending letters and stuff, right?

Charlie (2:00:29)
that’s it yeah i feel like if you know I probably speak to my parents

It’s maybe like once every like four to six weeks, I would say. And we’ll just have like a FaceTime. And it’s like, you know, it’s not the same as having a hug, but it sort of ticks over. It’s not too bad.

Andy Argo (2:00:50)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:00:51)
I’m sure my mum would say something completely different. I’m 100 % sure she would say something completely different, but she knows what I’m like and she knows that.

still been so

Andy Argo (2:01:07)
Yeah, it’s different, isn’t it? Like you say

for us, you’re so busy on the road, you’re constantly occupied, you always think about ahead, whereas for them, because it’s more repetitive, they’re in more of a routine, it probably does hit a lot harder for people at home, isn’t it? And I suppose I always think from our point of view, we can book a flight home at any point. Like we were saying before, like you can fly home

Charlie (2:01:25)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:01:25)
tomorrow. Whereas for them, they’re kind of waiting for us to come home, which is yeah, it’s probably a lot

Charlie (2:01:30)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:01:31)
harder on them and than for us. But I honestly I think it’s amazing. I think it’s such an inspiration. We’re saying before we hit record how there’s probably

a

lot of people listening to this who maybe are nervous to even even just go on holiday alone. There’s a lot of people not holiday alone. And there’s you talking about cycling through Pakistan and Saudi and all these crazy places. And you’ve survived some really extreme stuff. So I hope you kind of I hope people listening to this get the confidence to be like, well if he can do that, I can take the baby steps, you know, sort of if that makes sense.

Charlie (2:01:59)
Yeah, yeah, I hope so. I hope so. know some people who’ve like, you know, they’ve gone out and they’ve got a bike and there’s people who started bike packing and stuff like that after seeing my stuff. So which is pretty cool. I’m kind of quite proud of myself for that, I suppose. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:02:18)
It should be honestly you’re my inspiration as well. ‘Cause I feel like whenever I see you on Instagram I’m like, he’s still going, he’s still peddling. It’s just incredible.

Charlie (2:02:27)
Yeah, cheers, mate.

Andy Argo (2:02:27)
I mean I was gonna ask as

well, so you’re going down to South America and then the plan is you’re gonna head to, I presume, Cape Town or South Africa somewhere and then work your way north, isn’t it? Through Africa back towards Europe.

Charlie (2:02:39)
Yep, yep. So the plan at the moment is head down to Ushuaia at the bottom of South America and from there I would like to take a trip to Antarctica.

which is, feel like while I’m there, I’ve kind of got to do it. So when I first set off like ages ago, I had this like pot of money and it’s basically Antarctica fund and I’m not allowed to touch it and I’m not touching

Andy Argo (2:03:12)
Good man.

Charlie (2:03:13)
it. And even if it like breaks the bank, like it will break that pot, but I don’t care. Like it’s got to be done.

Like for me, I feel like if I’m cycling around the world, I have to go to all seven continents.

Andy Argo (2:03:33)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:03:34)
Like that’s just, yeah, it’s just part of what my thought process is. But yeah, after a trip there, go to Cape Town, West Coast, cycle back home, get the ferry from Morocco to Gibraltar, and then yeah.

few easy weeks in Europe.

Andy Argo (2:03:57)
It’d be good to check back in ’cause obviously we’re I mean, it might be a while before we before we check in and ’cause your progress is gonna be in the nice plus world slow because you’re you’re obviously taking time to enjoy it. But it’ll be it’d be interesting

Charlie (2:04:06)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:04:09)
towards the end of your trip, I kind of do wonder how you’ll feel if you’ll you know, I’m sure it’ll be nice to go home and I feel like when I’ve gone home it’s been I’ve sort of remembered how much I miss it. But we were saying before we hit record about how I think it would be almost impossible

In the nicest possible way for someone like you to do an office job after this, ’cause you spent so much time being outdoors doing wild stuff. And we I know before we started hitting record, I do you know what you want to do afterwards? And you said, You’re not sure. So it’d be interesting, like say, if we can check in the future and see if you’ve mused over it.

Charlie (2:04:39)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:04:40)
I’m guessing a spontaneous guy. I feel like everything will just fall into place for you ’cause that seems to be how your life’s kinda going,

Charlie (2:04:44)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:04:45)
which is again impressive. It’s just kind of going with the flow and it’s it’s beautiful.

Charlie (2:04:50)
Yeah,

I hope so. I actually met this guy, I’ll never forget him, it was in Albania, in the Albanian Alps, and he was with his family.

and I was just sat in this town square just having some lunch and he came over and he was asking me what I was up to and he asked me, he said to me he was like what do you think is going to be the hardest part of your trip and I stopped for a second and for some reason I just said to him I was like I think cycling through India will be difficult and he said no the hardest part will be when you’ve finished

And I was like, what do you mean? And I didn’t really understand it at the time because I was like new to it. I hadn’t even thought about finishing. And he was like, when you finish, you don’t know what to do and you’ve got to go back to normal life.

And I was just like, alright, okay. And I didn’t really think much of it. And then the longer the trip’s gone on, the more I think about that conversation. And I’m just like, that guy, that guy back then was was right. Like, this is

it’s gonna be an absolute nightmare.

Andy Argo (2:06:02)
I suppose

that’s a good thing for you though, isn’t it? I suppose if it goes well, you then just cycle around, take a different route, lap the world twice over, just keep on going. Be like Forrest Gump, just keep on going. You know. Yeah,

Charlie (2:06:08)
Yeah, that would be nice.

Andy Argo (2:06:14)
yeah. It is impressive. So I mean you’re three and a half years in, you reckon it’ll be another couple of years at least, you reckon, before you’re home, I take it.

Charlie (2:06:22)
I think two and a half more. I think. I’d like to take my time through Central America. I’ve got a lot of stuff planned. Lots of things to see. Like I said, my friend’s coming out. He’s gonna cycle with me for a couple of months. I’d like to do like a language school at some point for maybe a month if I can find like one that’s cheap enough.

Again, maybe the ski season if I can get like somewhere where I can stay for free that would be good. But yeah, lots of different stuff planned.

It sounds ridiculous but I’m like so excited for one country and I’m still in another one like with

Andy Argo (2:07:08)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:07:09)
so much to do. Like I don’t even know how much longer I’m gonna be in Mexico. Like maybe like three or four more months? I don’t know.

Andy Argo (2:07:19)
Well it’s funny you’re saying about before

you’re about Pakistan as well, when you know how the guys have the guns everywhere. I feel like Mexico has a I don’t say guns everywhere, but there is a similar vibe, isn’t there, where you see a lot of armed police. And I think for us as Brits, we barely ever see armed police. Like maybe in Heathrow Airport and stuff, but like for us

Charlie (2:07:35)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:07:35)
to see a gun, we’re like, Whoa, something’s kick it off. Like even on Australia, right, where they’ve got like a pistol on the hip, I’m like, Ooh, weird.

Charlie (2:07:41)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:07:42)
and I think for us, but then it does make you feel safe at the same time. Like I feel if I saw in a photo, I’d be like, Ooh

You know, it must be dangerous there. But when you’re there, I’m like, I actually feel really safe and well looked after and it’s a funny one,

Charlie (2:07:52)
Yeah, I mean, it was surprising for me when I first came into Mexico, I was in Tijuana.

And that city kind of reminds me of a city in Pakistan. it’s very similar in the buildings and the people and it’s quite dirty. It’s a border city. They’re all pretty similar. And I was kind of like, whoa, I didn’t realize Mexico was, I thought it was more built up and more cleaner, I would say, in the nicest possible way.

then you see like these trucks coming through like a like a pickup and they’ve got like four army blokes on the back and like one of them’s on a turret gun and I was just like whoa what the hell is that guy doing here and after being here for like a month I’ve realized that’s pretty normal like

Andy Argo (2:08:53)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:08:53)
those guys just drive around and like yeah it’s kind of weird because like you say because they’re

Andy Argo (2:09:08)
Yeah, no smoke without fire.

Charlie (2:09:14)
I was sleeping at this petrol station. It was a bit of a weird one because there was like…

It was too hot to sleep in the tent and there was like, I couldn’t turn these lights. There was like eight lights around me and I could, I could take the bulbs out of three of them at this petrol station. And this guy came over while I was taking these bulbs out and I was thinking, no, I’m in trouble now. And I got talking to him, blah, blah. And he was from, he was from the army and the army was staying in like a little compound next to the petrol station.

basically like, this petrol station is 24 hour, so there’s people filling up fuel and they can just see me under these lights, just on the floor like a homeless person. And then this other army guy comes over and he starts speaking to me. We spoke for maybe, I don’t know, like 20 minutes? It was a long time.

thinking like God man, I’m trying to go to sleep, just leave me alone kind of thing. But he was a really nice guy and it was really good to have this conversation. And this was in the Sinaloa province, so I don’t know if you know.

about the geographical area of Mexico but the Sinaloa province is like pretty renowned for like cartel territory and he said something to me through Google Translate and it was basically read something like

when we are here, you are safe or something like that. And it just made me think like, thanks very much. And straight after he’d said it, I’ll show you, he pulled this off his arm, right? So this is like the badge that they have on the army uniform. And he’s like,

Andy Argo (2:11:47)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:11:48)
he’s pulled it off and he’s give it to me as a gift. And I was just, don’t know.

Andy Argo (2:11:52)
What a lovely guy.

Charlie (2:11:54)
I think it was upside down. And I was just like,

my god like I could I was like speechless I was like I didn’t know what to say and and so yeah this is this is like The army badge would you call it a badge? I’m not sure

Andy Argo (2:12:09)
It’s yeah, I don’t know, I suppose

yeah, the Mexican for everyone who can’t s if everyone’s listening to this, it’s the Mexican flag, isn’t it, that they wear on their

Charlie (2:12:15)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:12:16)
on their sort of sleeve, isn’t it? Yeah. What a lovely guy.

Charlie (2:12:18)
Yeah, yeah,

from an army officer of the Sinaloa province, which is pretty cool.

Andy Argo (2:12:26)
Way. Well we’re on about collecting things,

weren’t we? And how you collect stuff and you send it home. I’m like, that is that’s the kind of stuff

Charlie (2:12:33)
Yes.

Andy Argo (2:12:34)
way when you get home you’ll open it and it’ll be like another Christmas, right? Like, I remember this, I remember that. I feel like that’ll be an incredible kind of keepsake.

Charlie (2:12:39)
Yeah,

yeah, I’ve got like maybe four or five times I’ve sent home like a parcel and it’s like full of like random little gifts that people have given to me along the way and like there’s lots of like different ones and there’s ones from like even like in the start of Europe.

Just like little things, you know, like I can’t even remember what they are. I got gifted like, is it called like a candora? The outfit in the Middle East that the guys wear. And it’s like the full white dressing gown-esque sort of thing. And I was like, sent one of those home and when I get home, I’ll have it. Like it’s, yeah, it’s very cool. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:13:26)
Wearing it around the house where every new cup of Tetleys (famous English tea brand) in the morning.

Charlie (2:13:31)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:13:32)
incredible. I think

that’s the cool thing about travelling, isn’t it? It’s like, you start out with this stuff that you bought in the UK and over time stuff will get like you say, you’ll get your solar panel nicked, or you’ll lose it, or just degrade. Like I’ve got some socks. I’ve I’m kind of I’ve got some socks behind me now. They’ve got holes in. I them in Tasmania years ago, and they’ve little Tasmanian

Charlie (2:13:49)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:13:50)
tags on. Kind of heartbroken to chuck them out. But you do kind of build like a

All these things that have this sentiment behind, which is quite beautiful, isn’t it? And you’d be like, that’s nice. That’s been with me for X amount of countries and miles and Yeah, it’s beautiful.

Charlie (2:13:58)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It’s kind of like a memory as well, like, you know, a lot of your memories are, it brings back your memory that you have. And I kind of wish I had like an emblem to represent other memories that I can remember, but yeah, it’s cool. It’s cool.

Andy Argo (2:14:21)
It’s funny, it comes back

to isn’t it? A bit like you’re saying you found this city in Mexico and it’s like, that reminds me of Pakistan. It’s like you might have forgotten all about that place in Pakistan until you seen some and then it’ll just jog that little traveller memory and I feel like you’ll have that for years. Yeah.

Charlie (2:14:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, probably. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:14:37)
I know we’re jumping around a bit, but then Malaysia as well. I do want to touch on it ’cause I feel like Malaysia’s for some reason I feel like a lot of people skip it. When they go to Southeast Asia, I feel like it’s classic Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, maybe Cambodian Laos. And I feel like Malaysia’s it’s feels more developed, doesn’t it, than the rest of the ones around that region. Like everyone speaks reasonably good English. It’s affordable but developed, super safe. People are awesome. The food is incredible. I don’t know about how you feel, but I feel like that’s gotta be

easily one of the most underrated countries in the world of all the ones I’ve gone to for like places to be.

Charlie (2:15:09)
Yeah, I like Malaysia. I thought it was really cool. It was… What was on when I was there? I think the World Cup was on when I was there.

think we lost to Spain. Did we lose to Spain?

can’t remember but I remember watching the World Cup or the Euros. It was either the World Cup or the Euros

Andy Argo (2:15:34)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:15:35)
in Georgetown. Wait, has the World Cup just been?

Andy Argo (2:15:39)
We’ve just had World Cup now. Must might have been the ch I think now, is it the Euros? I feel like we lost in the Euros.

Charlie (2:15:41)
okay it must have been the US

Andy Argo (2:15:45)
Yeah. I remember us losing. To be fair, I remember us losing a lot. I think that’s our our running theme, isn’t it? Could be any year really, but you know.

Charlie (2:15:49)
Yeah, I think

we lost to Spain in the Euros and I remember watching it in Georgetown and like yeah, it brings back good memories.

Andy Argo (2:16:03)
I feel like Georgetown is one those places where

you go for two days, you end up spending two weeks, isn’t it? It just sucks you in. Yeah.

Charlie (2:16:07)
Yeah, yeah,

but yeah, it’s a really cool country. I really enjoyed it. It’s almost like relaxed compared to like Thailand’s very, especially like the south of Thailand, it’s very full on, it’s very party and lots of drinking and then

you go over the border and it’s, it’s kind of like going from India to Nepal. Like you’re going from intense to relaxed.

Andy Argo (2:16:32)
Yeah. I suppose

even like on the road, isn’t it? I feel like Thailand’s very much scooters, motorbikes. I feel like Malaysia’s very much like air conditioned cars. It’s like you can kind of tell that people have got a bit of a

Charlie (2:16:42)
yeah

Andy Argo (2:16:43)
yeah, a bit of cash around. But then I suppose it’s the culture, isn’t it? I suppose Malaysia is Muslim and I feel like I feel like a lot of the Buddhist countries are very interesting, aren’t they? Like you’ve got like Thailand, they’re just super open and welcome and I mean there’s not many Buddhist countries around are there? But yeah, it’s a bit of an interesting despite being so close, they’re very I suppose culturally

Charlie (2:16:59)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:17:00)
very lovely people but also kind of different.

in their own way and yeah, interesting, yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you as

Charlie (2:17:03)
Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool.

Andy Argo (2:17:06)
well, I know we jumped around, but we mentioned before we hit record as well about wisdom. So you’ve got years of wisdom of travelling. Obviously the bike packing I think is an inspiration ’cause it’s something that’s very cheap. Like I’m guessing you’re eating a fair few calories to keep sort of pedaling as far as you

Charlie (2:17:19)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:17:20)
are. But are you sort of in terms of wisdom, have you got any sort of books you’d like to recommend or any wisdom that you would like to share with share the world from your years on the road?

Charlie (2:17:30)
Do know what? I don’t really read. The biggest piece of advice that I would give someone…

is never make a decision hungry because if you’re hungry it’s just a disaster like if you’re trying to be on a budget don’t go shopping when you’re hungry don’t go food shopping when you’re hungry or if you need to decide whether to do this or to do this eat something and then decide like your mind is just so much more like switched on and

clearer. Like if I’m, I’ve made so many mistakes where I’ve gone food shopping and I know I just need like a sandwich and I’ll go in and I’ll spend a fortune and I’ll come out with like four days of snacks and stuff that you don’t need. But yeah, that’s, so I always, I always repeat that to myself. I’m like, don’t make a decision when I’m hungry.

It seems

to tick over all right.

Andy Argo (2:18:38)
I suppose for you as well, if you are buying four days worth of snacks, that’s more stuff you gotta lug around in the bag as well, right? That you won’t need and you could have bought it later. I like it. Good advice as well. Good on you. And

Charlie (2:18:44)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:18:49)
then I’ve got to ask, and this is I’m putting you on the spot now. Good into your head,

Charlie (2:18:52)
Okay.

Andy Argo (2:18:53)
you’ve got to choose I’m gonna ask you one question first, which ’cause it’s hard to say which one’s your favourite country ’cause they’re so different. I know each country has, you know, Australia’s got the beaches and stuff like that. But which one would you say which one would you want to go back to most that you’ve been to?

Which one

Charlie (2:19:07)
Saudi Arabia

yep doesn’t know yet

Andy Argo (2:19:09)
So top. Interesting. Okay. That was quick. I appreciate the the the speed.

Charlie (2:19:14)
yeah nothing there’s not a country that comes close to somewhere I want to go back to and

Think about it all time like if I go back I want to go in a car or on a motorbike and I want to just go and drive around and see all the people that helped me and All the people that I’m like me. I’m basically like friends with these people they took me in for like days and just There’s so nice and I’d love to go back and like even some of them are still message now like years later and like it’s all through Google Translate and

I feel like I’ve got friends for life there so I’d love to go back and see them and speak to them and see how they’re getting on. In terms of like, this is gonna be a bit of a weird one. The USA,

Andy Argo (2:20:10)
Greater the better.

Charlie (2:20:11)
the USA is like pretty decent. I thought it was gonna be crap.

It annoys me to say it, but it’s like second place, I’d say.

Andy Argo (2:20:27)
Really. So what was it about the US? Were you talking the national parks, the people, or just just the whole shebang?

Charlie (2:20:33)
I think, I feel like the US, it’s not got the best mountains, but it’s got really good ones. It’s not got the best deserts, but it’s got really good ones. It’s not got the best rivers, but it’s got really good ones. It’s not got the best animals, but it’s got really good ones. It’s not got the best people, but it’s got really good ones. It’s like, it sets the bar high on every aspect. Is…

Andy Argo (2:20:56)
Yeah, it’s a good jack of all trades as

countries.

Charlie (2:20:59)
Yeah,

yeah. And I never thought I’d say that. Like when I thought I was going to go to Alaska, absolutely love it there. And then I thought, yeah, the rest of the US, I’ll just like fly through there and it’ll be, it’ll be crap. But it’s just, yeah, it’s been amazing.

Andy Argo (2:21:16)
I do blame

I do blame us. It’s interesting to say, but I do blame us as Brits ’cause I think we are and maybe not just Brits, maybe all Europeans. I think we’re maybe a little

Charlie (2:21:24)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:21:25)
bit pretentious when it comes to the US because we know they’re the rich ones and they’ve got the big army and all the rest. And I’m wondering

Charlie (2:21:30)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:21:31)
if maybe we’re a little bit jealous in that way. But then I think we kind of think we’re culturally superior. As I feel like that’s what we’re kind of indoctrinated to. We’ve kind of got this pretentious kind

Charlie (2:21:38)
Yeah

Andy Argo (2:21:39)
of ethos. And then you meet the people and they’re lovely and they’re super open. Like you said, the countryside sounds amazing.

And I think I wonder if we are just raised to be a bit pretentious. Is my theory. I don’t know if you agree to that, but I think that’s how I feel.

Charlie (2:21:50)
Yeah, I think everyone

has a perception of the US. Unless you go… It’s like any country. Don’t listen to what anyone else says, just go and find out for yourself.

Andy Argo (2:22:06)
And I suppose it’s always that classic of

I was thinking the media. Like I always use the example of India. The amount of people who I s who I meet are like, I don’t want to go to India. It’s smoggy, it’s overcrowded. But it’s ’cause they’ve seen the news and it’s some journalist in Delhi. And yeah, it is smoggy and it is a big

Charlie (2:22:20)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:22:21)
city because it’s their capital, the same way that like the US, there might be a news reporter in Washington DC, but it’s probably not, you know, corresponding to the lifestyle of someone in Montana or someone in Utah and all these other awesome places. So it’s like

Charlie (2:22:32)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:22:33)
there’s always something for for everyone, right?

Charlie (2:22:36)
Yeah, I loved it in Delhi. I thought it was such a cool… like loads of people hate Delhi. I thought it was so cool. Like… I thought it was really good.

Andy Argo (2:22:44)
You’re the one I’ll

be honest, I love India, but Delhi’s one place. I wouldn’t say I hated it, but I definitely feel like it’s I feel like

it’s okay. But

Charlie (2:22:51)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:22:52)
I feel like the red fort’s okay, there’s better castles elsewhere in India. The food’s okay, there’s better food elsewhere. I feel like it was I dunno, I just feel like it was just okay.

Charlie (2:22:59)
Did I tell you about…

I don’t know if you’d already left. Did I tell you about when I went to the landfill site? No?

Andy Argo (2:23:08)
No, no, you definitely haven’t.

Charlie (2:23:11)
Aww. So, do remember Mark, the Swiss guy that

Andy Argo (2:23:16)
Yes.

Charlie (2:23:17)
I cycled into Delhi with?

Andy Argo (2:23:20)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:23:21)
So when we were cycling in, we came past Gazipur landfill site. Do you know what that is? It’s like where they put all the trash. It’s one of the locations and it’s like a 60 meter high pile of trash. And there’s like

Andy Argo (2:23:37)
Jesus.

Charlie (2:23:39)
thousands of birds. It’s like, it’s like…

It’s like the size of Malham Cove. Like it’s ridiculous.

Andy Argo (2:23:47)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:23:48)
And we, for some reason we were like, let’s, let’s, let’s go to the top of the trash pile. So, so we were like, right, how are we going to do this? So we got a Tuk Tuk and even in the Tuk Tuk on the way there, we paid the Tuk Tuk driver so that we could drive. So I, so I had to go driving through the streets of Delhi in this Tuk Tuk. It was so good.

And then, yeah, so eventually we got there and we went to go inside, go like start just walking up the landfill site and some, it’s like proper security fences and the site manager came out and was like, what are you doing? And we’re like, we want to go up to the top and just like see what it’s like. I don’t even know why we wanted to do it. And he was like, no, no, you can’t do it. And we were like, got our wallets out.

and we were like, no, no, no, come on, you know we can go there. And he’s like, absolutely no chance. And we tried to like bribe him and he was just like,

Andy Argo (2:24:54)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:24:56)
genuinely, you can’t come. And then we were like, right, what can we do? How can we get to this landfill? How can we stand on that pile of trash there? So we’re walking back and then we see all the wagons, all the bins.

We need to get in a bin wagon. We need to get in the bin lorry. So we’ve paid this, we’ve flagged the driver down, we’ve paid him, and he let us hide in the foot well, you know, in the cab, basically

Andy Argo (2:25:28)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:25:29)
where he’s sat. So me and this Swiss guy are hiding in the cab like this. But then where we’d done it, the security saw us getting in the truck.

Andy Argo (2:25:42)
rookie era.

Charlie (2:25:44)
When we pulled up at the gate they were just like, get out, what are you doing? So we were like two school children, we had to get out. And the site manager was there again, was like fuming, he was like really cross at us. And then we were walking back and we were like, right, we need to come up with another plan. And Mark, he goes, we need to go and speak to like the local people. And I was like, and I knew exactly what he meant.

straight around like that we need to go to the local council so we just went to like the local council building which was like in delhi in the city center found like the waste management department like we were just in this like 20 story building and we were just walked in looked at the lift and it was like waste management floor 16 just went to floor 16 and we were just on this floor just looking around and we’re like we want to speak to someone about going to the

landfill site. So then we were speaking to this guy and I ended up saying, yeah, I used to work for the local government back at home and I’m just interested in your waste management procedures and want to see what you’re doing to try and conquer this huge pile of trash you’ve got outside. And he was like, well.

I suppose we could arrange a tour if you want to. And I was like, yeah, that’d be really good. Thank you. And then the next day, the site manager that kicked us out twice the day before had to give us a tour around the whole landfill site.

Andy Argo (2:27:18)
bloody awkward. Did it climb it then, or did you just

walk round the base? Did you actually get on top of it?

Charlie (2:27:21)
So

we got to climb, I would say like three quarters of the way up. He wouldn’t let us go right

Andy Argo (2:27:28)
Very done here.

Charlie (2:27:29)
to the top because what he was saying is that the stuff right at the top is like all the new trash. So it’s kind of like contaminated or potentially contaminated. Whereas the stuff further down is like bone dry. It like doesn’t even smell. It’s like completely dry.

Andy Argo (2:27:49)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:27:50)
It’s like there’s no…

smell and we had to have but we did have to have like these masks and glasses and like a hair net and stuff over our shoes and stuff like that but it was just comical how it was the guy who’d kicked us out twice the day before giving us this tour around it’s yeah yeah yeah it was free it was free and and there was

Andy Argo (2:28:08)
That’s awkward as hell. And it was free as well. You don’t have to pay anything or they just let you in. Good thinking.

Charlie (2:28:16)
yeah it was was quality that’s why i love delhi that’s why i loved it because of that experience

Andy Argo (2:28:21)
For

the trash. Unreal. I think I’ve just had a bitter of taste in my mouth

Charlie (2:28:23)
Yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (2:28:24)
after I got pickpocketed. I that kind of left a sour taste in my mouth. Yeah. I didn’t go to the trash heap. That’s where I went wrong. That’s where I should have should have gone.

Charlie (2:28:27)
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. Yeah.

If anyone wants to go to Delhi, they need to go to Ghazipur Landfill and then they’ll be alright. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:28:40)
Number one tourist attraction. You heard it here first, guys.

Don’t go to Taj Mahal, straight to the trash heap. That’s that’s it. Do

Charlie (2:28:48)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:28:50)
you have loads of animals there as well then? Was it just loads of animals feasting on the trash, I take it?

Charlie (2:28:54)
Not really, just loads of dogs. Probably a lot of rats.

Andy Argo (2:29:00)
reminds me I was in I went up to Kashmir and I took this bike up and I remember there was all these landslides. So I’m trying to go up there in winter and normally obviously India’s full of motorbikes and then I’m like, there’s no motorbikes here. And then when I got to Kashmir I realised because it’s ridiculously freezing and I’m an absolute Muppet and it’s it’s absolutely Baltic.

Charlie (2:29:16)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:29:17)
So all these landslides have happened and there’s a lot of army are stationed up there. So you got all these fuel wagons that are kind of like stuck on the hills going up there.

And I remember I get to this one place. I stay sort of in the south of Kashmir and Srinagar ’cause couldn’t get too far in because the roads are closed, cause I’m an idiot and it’s winter. So I couldn’t get it towards like Ladakh places. But I saw this pile of rubbish, it’s trash. And it was interesting. I I go to film it, which sounds really weird, but it’s just cause it was like Noah’s Ark. There’s like dogs there, there’s cows, there’s eagles, there’s all these animals. Like it’s kind of weird that it’s trash, but it was pretty good for the nature watching. So I’m like, this is kind of

Charlie (2:29:51)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:29:53)
It sounds harsh, but I feel like this is maybe the the foreign stereotype of what India is. Like obviously not a lot of India is not like that, but there is that element of it not being potentially as clean as other parts of the world. And the wildlife

Charlie (2:30:01)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:30:03)
was pretty cool and yeah.

Charlie (2:30:05)
Yeah, I think in the south it’s a little bit better than the north from what I’ve read online Like I only did the north but from what I read it’s like the south’s a lot better

Andy Argo (2:30:15)
Yeah,

I’d I’d agree. I’d say like if anyone’s wanted to go to India, I always say go Sri Lanka. If you’ve got time on your hands, I’d say do Sri Lanka first, then do South India, then do North India and kind of ease your way into it. ‘Cause it is and I felt the culture’s so

Charlie (2:30:24)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Andy Argo (2:30:28)
different, South India. Like a lot them speak English and I remember I remember I’m like some kid on a bus down there and I I’m obviously like you were saying there’s parts of town where I’ve never seen a white guy. I’m on this little local bus and there’s a school kid at the back of the bus and I’m sat next to him and he’s just staring at me. He’s obviously another white guy before.

And he pulls out his school book and he’s got this map of India with all the states on it. And I’m impressed he’s learning Indian states at whatever young age he is. And then he looks at me and he looks down his map and he knows he’s living in South India. I think I was in Karnataka from memory, which is like pretty sort of central South India. And he looks at the map and he looks at me and he’s like, he’s obviously the cog’s are turning like, This guy looks nothing like anyone around here. So he points up to Kashmir and he’s like, He must be from far away, ’cause he looks nothing like me.

And I said, no, I’m from from and he’s speaking a bit of English. I’m like, I’m from England, you know, England. He’s like, no, no, no. And then I get out Google Maps and I zoom in on India so we can see and I match it up to his map. And then I zoom out all the way to England. I can tell his mind was just like blown. And I thought it was quite sweet. So I’m like, we’ve probably all had that moment at some point in our lives, but we don’t remember it, because we’re too young. I’m like, it’s quite sweet. But with it

Charlie (2:31:31)
Yeah, that’s cool.

Andy Argo (2:31:33)
but this trash heaper, I remember all these animals around at a film and there was but like we were saying with Mexico and Pakistan with the army.

There’s a guy in a ghillie suit next to this trash heap. And he just pops out and I didn’t I had no clues he was there And he’s like, No filming, no filming And I was like, God, I didn’t even see him. I thought, How many guys they’re around here? I just have no idea just hiding in the bushes, you know. Yeah.

Charlie (2:31:52)
Yeah, that’s crazy.

Andy Argo (2:31:54)
I was also impressed by ’cause obviously you met what was the name? The ring this g the other guy you were cycling with through Pakistan. I forgot what was his name, I totally forgot.

Charlie (2:32:04)
Alex

Andy Argo (2:32:05)
Alex, ’cause I remember you meeting you in Delhi and you’re I met this guy in Pakistan. We’re both cycling through Pakistan. And at the time I remember thinking, is it that common for people just to be cycling through Pakistan as foreigners that you actually bump into each other?

Charlie (2:32:14)
Yeah. no, that was…

No, that was the Swiss guy. Sorry. Yeah, yeah.

Andy Argo (2:32:20)
Swiss guy, sorry, yeah. So how how

many people do you bump into where you kind of like link up for a little a shared adventure? Was that quite rare or is that more common than I think it is

for cyclists?

Charlie (2:32:33)
I would say it’s common if you want it to be common.

There’s like apps and WhatsApp groups and Facebook groups that you can join and you can easily find people. Like I personally know of like…

two or three other cyclists who are like close into the region where I am now and like there’s a chance that we might cycle together there’s a chance that we might not it just depends on how things line up a lot of the time you struggle to find someone who’s going to be the same pace and

Andy Argo (2:33:11)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:33:12)
Unless you’re both like not in a rush then it’s hard work. So like when I was when I was in Pakistan there was no rush so it was just like yeah we’ll just do whatever happens like we were doing like just 50 kilometers a day some days because it just didn’t really matter. But when I was in like Vietnam I started cycling with this guy from China and

We weren’t going the same pace and because I wasn’t really enjoying it, I just wanted to do as much as I could to get it finished. So we ended

Andy Argo (2:33:48)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:33:49)
up just cycling for like half a day together and then we left each other. Yeah. So

it just, it just depends on like, and you also get like a vibe off someone straight away. Like it’s a lot easier to like, for me, it’s a lot easier to cycle with someone if they’re like young and like.

you sort of like talk the same way and you think the same way and things like that as opposed to going with someone who’s a little bit older and you know tends to be like people who a little bit older they’re more like a lot more relaxed they want to stop for a coffee here and then stop for a coffee there and whereas I’m not like I don’t really drink that much coffee so I’m just like you know not really that bothered like for instance Mark who I met we cycled together from the Pakistan border

to Delhi and then that was it because

like he he wanted to I remember the first conversation we had he asked me so when you set off in the morning after breakfast when is the first time that you stop and I was like lunchtime

And he was

Andy Argo (2:34:58)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:34:58)
like, and he was like, right, I stop every hour for a tea. So yeah, so he used to stop

Andy Argo (2:35:03)
Every hour. Wow.

Charlie (2:35:05)
every hour for 10 minutes to have a tea. So that’s the sort of like differences you sort of have to combat. So that’s why

we only cycled together for like a week or 10 days or something like that. And then parted ways.

it’s always very, very respectful and there’s no hard feelings on either side. It’s all happy cycling.

Andy Argo (2:35:33)
suppose

that’d be the interesting when your mate comes over for a couple of months as well, ’cause it’s you’ve spent so much time by yourself where you can just pick and choose if you’re alone or with people and what you do. And I suppose if your mate is coming out to see you we’ll be, I suppose, obliged to spend time with them, which I’m sure will be great, but then you will obviously have to compromise more. And I think it’s I feel like it’s almost the same, you know, when people have you know when people have been single for a while and they start dating someone, they’re very set in their ways. I feel like it’s almost like the

Charlie (2:35:55)
Yep. Yep.

Andy Argo (2:35:57)
traveller equivalent, isn’t it, where you kind of you’ve got your routine almost and I wonder if that’ll be interesting.

Charlie (2:36:03)
Yeah,

I think, to be fair, I’ve known this lad since we were like four years old. So it’s one of them. It’s going to be absolutely fine. I think like it’s going to be very relaxed. We’re not in a rush to get anywhere. We’re just going to be having, you know, good vibes, good time. And we’re just going to see what happens.

Andy Argo (2:36:26)
So has

he got two months off work or is he qu I’m just wondering if we want to stay will you inspire him just to keep going for the rest of the adventure?

Charlie (2:36:29)
He’s, yeah,

he runs his own business. So he’s a stone mason, which is like someone who, he does like headstones for graves. He does like building restoration. He builds walls, like all that sort of thing. So he’s just, it’s his own business, he can just take the time off and then when he wants to go home, he’ll go home.

Andy Argo (2:36:58)
In which case I suppose, yeah, it could be a regular thing. Might you know, go back to work for a couple of months, come back out again. Could be a nice little gig. Yeah, good on you.

Charlie (2:37:01)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Could

be good. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:37:07)
I think in terms of the future it’d be good to catch up and see where you’ve got to because you’ve done so much but there’s so much more to do. It’s pretty awesome what you’re doing. So I was gonna ask as well in terms of sharing your details if anyone does want to follow on, are you happy to share your Instagram and your or your YouTube channel or anything like that.

Charlie (2:37:21)
Yeah sure,

sure yeah so my instagram is peddle.west and my youtube is peddle.west1 with

the number one

Andy Argo (2:37:33)
the number one, not the word. Okay, perfect. There you go. I’ll also

Charlie (2:37:36)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:37:36)
link it down in the if you go to andyargo.com slash podcast and then look under this one as well, you’ll find all the links on there as well for ease as well. There’s few more photos as well. We’ll put some photos on of Charlie and his travels as well. So you can see what the guy looks like for anyone who’s listening along and not watching the video podcast. But I do want to ask you as well. Yeah, I’ve always wondered why you pedal west when you’ve been peddling east.

Charlie (2:37:58)
My second name is West.

Andy Argo (2:38:01)
there you go, that makes sense. I was like you should have gone West Rather than East just to fit the name. That makes sense. the There

Charlie (2:38:02)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yeah. Yeah. My name’s Charlie West. So.

Andy Argo (2:38:10)
you go, that there you go. Mystery solved.

Charlie (2:38:13)
that’s where it came from.

Andy Argo (2:38:14)
I’ve always been wondering that. I was like, I just assume the name East was taken. I was like, he’s just he’s just picked

Charlie (2:38:19)
Hahaha

Andy Argo (2:38:20)
another one. There we go. So then after you’ve done this one, if

Charlie (2:38:22)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:38:23)
life in the UK isn’t working out, you’ll have to just spin around and go the other way.

Charlie (2:38:27)
Possibly, yeah. Possibly. But no one goes the other way. That’s… Yeah. Because there’s like a few people who’ve done this sort of thing, right? And I don’t know anyone who’s gone… west. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:38:40)
’cause I suppose the if you did your actual route in reverse you’d be going straight into Africa, which I think is always seen as a bit more hardcore and I suppose the heat as well, right? So I wonder if maybe is is Europe

Charlie (2:38:48)
Yeah, that’s true.

Andy Argo (2:38:50)
and Asia seen as more accessible? Yeah. I’ll say in that, you can maybe go straight to Canada and go that way.

Charlie (2:38:56)
Yeah, yeah, I suppose. Europe’s a good warm-up. It’s like the warm-up of… It’s pretty easy. Once you get to Turkey, it’s like a little bit more, like, rogue, I’d say. It’s

Andy Argo (2:39:11)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:39:12)
like the first kind of Asian country, and then it starts to get hardcore after that. But like…

It gets better. When I say hardcore, it’s like, it’s so good. Turkey’s amazing. Turkey’s so good. Have you been to Turkey?

Andy Argo (2:39:31)
No, I had plans this

winter and then then bombs started falling in Iran and it all the flights around that necklace cancelled. So I’m I’m desperate

Charlie (2:39:37)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:39:38)
to go and big history nerd, so the history side appeals. And of course, yeah, the food, the people, but yeah, desperate to.

Charlie (2:39:41)
Okay. Yeah.

Cappadocia

it’s this place in this… in this valley. It’s like right in the centre of Turkey. And…

They have all sorts of stuff there. They’ve got like an underground city and they’ve got lots of

caves in these like old rocks and they are in every morning they have like 150 hot air balloons all set off at the same time. It’s incredible. It’s like this

one of one of the single best things I’ve ever seen. That is so good.

Andy Argo (2:40:18)
It’s good too, it’s good ’cause now I didn’t know by name, but now I remember I’ve seen it, like even like your Windows wallpaper is often that, isn’t it, with the the caves and the hot air

Charlie (2:40:25)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:40:25)
balloons. But there’s always that question of, is it as good as it looks? But you’re saying it is definitely as good as it looks, is worth worth a hype.

Charlie (2:40:31)
It’s

better than it looks on photos.

I was gonna go there and just stay there for like one day and I was there for like a week.

and I only left because I had a flight already booked and I was just like in awe of the place like yeah. We had it really good like there was loads of, it’s very popular for bike tourists so like we, and everyone saw like camps on the same hill so you’d just set up your tent and you’d just stay there and then all of a sudden more random bike tourists would turn up and you’d camp together and at one point there was like 10 of us all camping on this hill and everyone had just met there

you wake up in the morning and all these balloons are just like blowing up in the valley below you and then they set off and then they come over your head it’s yeah it’s incredible

Andy Argo (2:41:22)
Unreal. Alright. Well,

while we’re on topic then, have you got any top recommendations then? Have you got like a I don’t want to put you on the top and say top three ’cause I think it’s hard to think of on the start and rank them, but where where do you say are kind of your for have you got any sort of underrated spots? Obviously everyone knows like the Taj Maha and stuff like that, but have you got any places which you think are kind of awesome but need a bit more recognition for how good they are?

Charlie (2:41:47)
Okay, I would say Cappadocia, like I don’t think enough people know about it, like it’s popular, there’s a lot of people, but not a lot of people go, like

Andy Argo (2:41:59)
Yeah.

Charlie (2:42:01)
it’s amazing. There’s a place in Saudi Arabia and it’s called Al Ula, which is

Andy Argo (2:42:11)
Lula. Okay.

Charlie (2:42:13)
Al Ula.

If you’re looking at the map of Saudi Arabia, it’s on like the west side.

fairly… I’m trying to think… On a bike I think it was like four or five days so it’s probably like four or five hours from from the border with Jordan and in Alula it’s it’s got to become this tourist place at some point because it is amazing. They have you know like Arches National Park in Utah

it’s these rock arches which are like huge like forms of rock with an arch and Yeah, yeah,

Andy Argo (2:42:51)
These the ones that people wing suit through. Is that is that where they’re doing it?

Charlie (2:42:55)
they have they have those in alula and

I saw them there before I saw them in Utah obviously. In Alula they have, it’s called Hegra and it’s these tombs which are like, Petra?

So the same people that built Petra built Hegra.

and there are basically these tombs which are like carved into these rocks and there’s like hundreds of them and when you go and look at it as a tourist you just get on like a coach and they drive you around and there’s like 20 people there’s like hardly anyone else there you go to Petra and there’s thousands of people you go to Hegra

and there’s like 30 or 40 people like it’s ridiculous like there’s hardly anyone

also have the biggest mirror building in the world. It’s this huge concert hall, which is just set in this like desert with rocks around it. And it’s just the whole building is just a mirror. It’s crazy. Right. It’s very cool place. And it’s popular.

Andy Argo (2:44:04)
Incredible.

Charlie (2:44:04)
It’s it’s not popular, but it will be popular at some point.

Andy Argo (2:44:10)
Yeah, once a few influencers get down it’ll blow up. It’s kind of stuff, do you reckon?

Charlie (2:44:13)
Yeah, there’s a little old town. Which is, it’s like old, but it’s like, it’s newly made, but it looks, it’s like made to look old. And it’s got like little souvenir shops and cafes and coffee shops and it’s very picturesque, very pretty, very nice place.

That’s two.

Number three, I’m gonna go Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:44:45)
yeah? Anywhere in particular? Or just in general, the whole place.

Or country, I should say.

Charlie (2:44:55)
It’s a small country, so you know, you could spend a bit of time there. There’s some really cool waterfalls there. I can’t remember what they’re called, to be honest. And they also have like a town there called Mostar. I don’t know if you’ve heard of that. It’s got like a bridge and you can like, well, I didn’t, but people can jump off the bridge, but it is really high.

Andy Argo (2:45:22)
I’ve seen videos, this is the one

that looks horrendous. It’s massive, isn’t it? But the locals seem to be pretty fearless and just have a crack. Yeah.

Charlie (2:45:27)
Yeah.

Yeah. And it’s very cheap. It’s very cheap. Like it’s basically, it’s like next door to Croatia and it’s like half the price. Like in the

Andy Argo (2:45:39)
Wow.

Charlie (2:45:40)
supermarkets, it’s like half the price.

Andy Argo (2:45:42)
So I feel like

Croatia’s kinda blowing up, isn’t it, now? I feel like a lot of people seem to end up in Croatia. So it’s good to get the sort of the next big one, isn’t it? That’s a bit more affordable and bit bit less touristy.

Charlie (2:45:49)
Yeah… Yeah…

Well Croatia sort of like blew up when it was…

When it changed to the euro, they used to have like the Croatian Kuna, I think it was called. And then when they changed the currency to the euro, everything just became like expensive and they, you know, they got, the tourism blew up as well, obviously. And it’s a beautiful place. But if you go, you’re not paying Balkan prices, you’re paying Western Europe prices. So.

Andy Argo (2:46:28)
Yeah, that makes sense.

I think a lot of Game of Thrones was filmed in

Croatia as well, isn’t it? I feel like that’s kind of had an uptick in Isn’t King’s Landing filmed down there or something? Game of Thrones, yeah. Certainly you won’t have time for TV too busy cycling.

Charlie (2:46:36)
I don’t know. don’t know. But yeah, it’s. Yeah.

But yeah, Bosnia is a cool place. Like I met a lot of cool people there and.

Like even I can remember like some of the small towns that I was in and like I can’t remember the names of them but they were like really cool just Bosnian people and they’ve got like a really cool culture and everyone’s very relaxed everyone’s very nice it’s a good spot.

Andy Argo (2:47:08)
Beautiful.

Okay, yeah. I I love it. Honestly, good tips as well. So for anyone listening, I’ll put Charlie’s Instagram and his YouTube on my podcast kind of blog page for this as well. I’ll also Google Map link these recommendations for places. You can just go on there and add them nice and easily to your little list of stuff to do. I’ve also got a blog on my website about how I plan the trips using Google Maps, which sounds like how Charlie does it as well. So if you want a a step walkthrough guide of how to do that, feel free to search for that. So just andyargo.com

And then if you want to go the podcast page, I’ll put loads of photos on there of Charlie as well and and explain how it all works. And yeah, we’ll link that one for Google Maps and all those other handy ones. So it’s nice and nice and easy to to collect the information, if one of a better way of saying it. But honestly, thanks so much for joining us. Any for more you wanna add or anything more, any of the nuggets of wisdom for the for the people listening.

Charlie (2:48:00)
I would say people have just got to get out there and you don’t wait for the right time. It’s never going to be the right time. Like I know it’s so cliche saying it, but it’s just, you’ve just got to go. I’ve not thought

Andy Argo (2:48:14)
You’re not missing the office job then?

Charlie (2:48:17)
I’ve not looked back once. So

Andy Argo (2:48:19)
Yeah,

Charlie (2:48:19)
yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s the best, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. So yeah.

Andy Argo (2:48:25)
It’s an endorsement and a half. I’ll take it. Couldn’t agree more.

Well obviously, thanks so much Charlie. Thanks for taking the

Charlie (2:48:29)
Yeah.

Andy Argo (2:48:29)
time and honestly, yeah, we’ll we’ll keep in touch. Hopefully have you back on in a few months when you’ve seen a bit more of the world and we’ll have a catch up and see how you’re getting on.

Charlie (2:48:37)
Yeah, thanks for having me. Thank you.

Andy Argo (2:48:39)
So thanks again, Charlie, for joining me today. Before we go, I just want to mention about your calendar as well. So can you tell me a little bit more about it?

Charlie (2:48:46)
Yeah, so last year I created a calendar which was in November time, start of December and it had some photos for each month. Every photos were ones that I’d taken along on the travels and

I’ll be doing the same again this year and basically all proceeds just go towards my bike maintenance and any clothes that I need, any repairs and food and things like that. So it’s just another way that I can like build the pennies up.

Andy Argo (2:49:18)
So there

you go. If you like Charlie’s story, if you’d like to help him out, do go on to my website, andyargo.com slash podcast. I’ll put a link to Charlie’s Instagram on there. And when he releases the calendar, then you can follow along and you’ll get notified for that. If you can help him out, he’s doing an awesome thing. I think it’s good to help him out and cheer him on as well. So thanks again for joining and happy travels, everyone.