Travel Chat With Youtube Vlogger Where Is Dan

TMP 74 - Dan
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Meggan: Hey everyone and welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast. Now, this week is a big deal. As you all know, Peter and I recently got back from Cuba and Peter always does research on places we've just been in the process of that research, he found some videos on YouTube of a traveler that had been to Cuba outside the tour zone, and today that YouTuber is here. We are so excited this week to be sitting down to chat with Dan. Now, Dan is a travel YouTuber from Leeds England. It's YouTube channel, love the name is, where is Dan?

It's a fairly new channel, but growing fast and we are so excited to have him here to chat about his life and travel. So welcome dan.

Dan: Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Yeah, you're appreciate on the podcast. It's my first ever one and I'm very excited to do it.

Jenn: Woohoo. You are our first guest from the UK I believe so That's exciting for us too.

Meggan: Yeah. Very exciting for us as well. So our first question has to be though, like, What was the inspiration for you to start a YouTube channel in such a competitive space for views? Like did you have any inspirations of people you were watching or was there something someone suggested to you? Like essentially, what's your origin story for YouTube?

Dan: The reason I started it in the first place was because obviously I've always liked to travel, and whenever I do travel, I've always gone off the beaten track. And I just like the freedom of traveling and doing YouTube was a way to have freedom. I didn't have to go to an office and have to answer to anybody.

I could just do what I wanted when I wanted. And I also enjoy the creativity of it.

Meggan: Mm-hmm.

Dan: And it's just, it's my hobby. Traveling is my hobby. So to be able to turn a hobby into a full-time job, even though I don't look at it as a job, is, that's the reason why. It's just really, really enjoy.

Meggan: Yeah, definitely.

And were you, ha, have you had other YouTubers that you've watched before this or is it just something you're like, I'm gonna do this because I wanna travel full-time?

Dan: Yeah, well, I al, when I was younger, I always thought of starting a YouTube channel, like when I was gaming, when I was a game, one of my teenage years I thought of doing it, but then I never really got round to doing it.

And then I did see other travelers obviously making like millions of views. So I thought that's something I could do and it is a competitive space, but I don't really look at it like that because if I want to partake, I'm gonna try my best to like kind of win the race. I'm not gonna be get, have my mind muddy by all the other competition and look at it that way.

I see it as I'm just gonna be persistent keep making videos and hopefully one day I can be at the top. Like say it'll gimme the freedom to not have to go and work in an office or have to sit in traffic to make a living off my hobby.

Jenn: Yeah, and I think Meggan and I, it's kind of the same thing, right? Like with a travel podcast, obviously there's huge travel podcasts out there too, and you do just have to like put your blinders on and like focus on what you're doing and making what you do the best that it can be.

Yeah. And

Dan: I think, yeah, people are gonna, people are gonna join on board if they like what you are doing and they can see it's authentic.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: And if you do it for that reason, then people are gonna join on and and follow the channel. If you're just doing it. Like if I decide my channel to make money and just be successful or famous, and I don't think it would be what it would work, but because I do it, because it's something I genuinely enjoy.

And I think people can see that in the videos.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: When people wanna subscribe and people wanna follow and hopefully people are inspired by the videos, then yeah. I think that's a good reason.

Meggan: I couldn't agree more. I think authenticity is everything. And I think, you know, Jenn and I aren't flashy podcasters and we're not, we don't get all like, you know, in full hair and makeup or anything to do this.

We're just ourselves. And I think also that comes through in your videos too, that you're just out there being the extrovert, that you are talking to people, traveling, doing the things you enjoy. And you're right, people will gravitate toward that when it's legitimately often. Ah, authentic. See, there we go.

Genuinely, genuinely authentic. I think that that makes a big difference.

Dan: Yeah, for sure.

Jenn: Yeah. So what, when you're making your videos, like what is, what do you want people to take away kind of after watching one of your videos?

Dan: I really want to inspire other people to go out and travel. Because when I was younger, I, I've always traveled, but I remember I got a job in an office and after two days I quit.

I was sat, the, sat in the car in the rain, going to Leed city center and I thought, I can't do this. This is, this isn't for me. I just, I've always enjoyed traveling and I, I had enough money to buy a house. I was gonna settle down in England.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: But I decided against that. I quit the job and went traveling.

The first place I actually went to was South Korea.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: And then from then on I've gone on traveling around the world, and that's kind of the reason why I wanted to start this channel is because I just wanna continue doing it and inspire other people and let them know that if you are not happy in a job that you're working or you don't want to listen to your bosses telling you to go and write this email, whatever they're telling you to do, you'd have to do that. There's always another option for you out there, like if you want to travel and you are like me or my extroverted, or you wanna inspire other people to do it, or you might have an interesting drawing. You could just start a channel where you draw or something, or I don't know, whatever it may be. I just want to inspire other people to live out their dreams and be free.

Freedom is the most important thing.

Jenn: Yeah, I could not agree more. And I think that's something that I mean the pandemic has changed a lot of things for a lot of people.

Dan: Yeah.

Jenn: But I think it's also opened people's minds to different ways to live other than a regular live in the suburbs, drive to an office and work a nine to five and retire at 65 kind of life. Like there are so many other ways that you can live and that are pot potentially more fulfilling and amazing and beautiful. So I think it's really important to get that message out there for sure.

Dan: Mm-hmm. And I appreciate that you've subscribed to my channel and have been watching my videos.

Meggan: Yeah,

Dan: it's really cool to speak to people in person.

They've actually watched my videos cause you know, I'm just, yeah, no, I'm just a lad from the north of England. I'm making my videos. It's cool that people have actually thought, oh, I like this guy. I like watching these videos. I'm gonna subscribe and to engage with people is really cool.

Meggan: Yeah, yeah. No, definitely.

And I think, I think that comes down to you. I mean, you are, you're showing us these places, but you're also the, the focal point of the videos that you make and so that a lot of that credit goes to you. So that's, I mean, that's why we're here, for sure. But I do wanna talk about your life leading up to YouTube a little bit.

So you're from Leeds England like we mentioned earlier. We've never been there. So what was it like growing up there? You're there right now earning some money to get back on the road, right?

Dan: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So growing up in Leeds was very fun. I had a very good childhood. I remember my house, great parents, great family, great friends.

Our front door was always open. My era was kind of just before the internet, so I was always out in the woods. Playing hide and seek, you know, just having fun like a kid does. But at school I was very naughty. I was always in detention, I was always in isolation. The teachers are always ringing my parents saying Dan's in trouble again.

I was on report card and I'd have to write down how I'd behave and show it to my parents and they'd sign it. But they got sick of that. So I've just like forged my mum's signature and signed it and then showed the teachers. I was never really academic and I kind of that, that probably is a reason why I decided YouTube as well, because it gives me that ability to just do what I want when I want to do it.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: So growing up in Leeds was really fun, but because I've always been an adventurous person, I've always wanted to kind of not be here and be in other places. And the world is so vast, the universe is so vast, there's so much to see on this little planet that we're on. I wanna see as much as possible before I died.

The thought of for me, of sitting in an office, no, it's a nightmare. I could not be anything worse. Could not think anything worse. I think it must be nice as well after the pandemic that people can work from home because if they get bored with something, they can just go out for a walk in the park.

Jenn: Yeah.

And, and, and you can work from somewhere else. You know? Like we could go. Spend a couple of months somewhere else. My husband also works from home, and so we can, we have that flexibility. I mean, we don't have children and we don't have those type of impediments that peop other people might have to, to working from somewhere else.

But it's so nice, like you said, the freedom. It's just, yeah, it can't get much better than that. So I think,

Dan: Everyone should strive for freedom.

Jenn: Yeah. Yeah.

Dan: One of the main things, that's why like at the end of my videos where I always write why have a nine to five life's too short is for those reasons, you just, in my opinion, you're wasting your life if you are doing something that you want to, you don't want to do, or you're working for somebody you don't want to work to or saying yes to somebody you don't wanna say yes to, you should make your life about you, be more selfish and do something that you want to do.

Jenn: Yeah.

So I know you lived in Seoul Korea for a while. So tell us how you ended up going to Korea and what you did there.

Dan: So when I was in Leeds, I kind of was just floating around doing different jobs and I always thought I want to get out of here. And I saved enough money when I was younger to go on a big world trip.

And the first place I went was South Korea because my friend Jack was teaching English in Seoul. So he is like, oh mate, just come and see me. You can stay on my floor for a month. We'll go out drinking. We'll have a fantastic time. And I, I did no research before I went, I turned up, didn't realize how expensive it was gonna be, and I had an absolute blast.

It was fantastic. And after being in Korea for a month, I went to the Philippines for a month and traveled around. And then I went to Vietnam to see my friend Chris, who was an old neighbor. And I ended up living in Vietnam for almost a year because I went to a festival with him in Hanoi called Quest Fest.

Meggan: Okay.

Dan: And moved him with all these people I met at the festival and we had motorbikes downstairs. It was a fantastic life. Lived there for a year and I thought, that's it. I'm never going back to England. After that, I didn't wanna go back to England and have a job. I thought I want to live abroad or do something kind of different with my life.

Jenn: Right.

Dan: Which leads into why I did YouTube and then after living in Vietnam, lived in Australia, Spain came back to England for a short period, and then went back to South Korea with the intention of staying there for a year. But obviously covid happened. I ended up staying for three.

Meggan: Oh, okay. So you were there during the height of the pandemic then

Dan: height of Yeah. Yeah. I got there just about two, three months before it happened. Oh. And I felt really lucky. Cause at the time, looking back at England, England was in complete lockdown.

Meggan: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Dan: And people couldn't do anything. Whereas in Korea, I had a bit more freedom, like the cases didn't really start to take off until, towards the end of it. But actually only eight days ago from when this is being filmed on the 20th of March, they finally released and relaxed all of the mask mandates. So you have to wear masks anywhere.

Meggan: Oh, okay.

Dan: They're very late to everything. Cause when I got back to England last year, it's like covid didn't exist at all.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: So guys, I'm gonna be going back and it's kind of finished there as well now. So Yeah.

Meggan: Good.

Dan: I've kinda good worked out of it.

Meggan: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's really good. And I think you know, it, it's interesting to hear your perspective having spent it there, because Canada too, we were in full lockdown for a long time and it's been about a year since our mask mandate ended here. Almost a year. Exactly. And it's been nice to sort of get back to to whatever, whatever normal means now. Um,

I do wanna talk though, languages. Cause that's also, I think kudos to you. One of the things that makes your video so engaging is that you are able to engage with people who live in the places that you go.

I can't tell you how many times around my house a week now I say "Kamsahamnida " I say it probably 10 times a week. If my husband does something for me, I'm like, Kamsahamnida anyway.

Dan: That's awesome.

Meggan: It's a word. It's it's part of my life now. So obviously you speak English Spanish Korean. That's, are you fluent in any other languages?

And talk to us about how you learned these languages. So, did you use a program, speak with people, like, talk to us about these languages.

Dan: Back to school. I was never an academic, but I could easily have done very well if I'd concentrated at school. But I just never did. Cause I wasn't, I didn't, it was not something I wanted to do at the time.

Jenn: Right.

Dan: But when I was, I think 18 or 19, I started going to Spain regularly. Mm-hmm. And I made lots of Spanish friends. And the only way to converse with them was by learning Spanish. And in that summer I'd learned so much that I went, when I got back to England, I went to a Spanish school and I went straight to elementary two.

I just missed all of elementary one because I'd learned so much from just speaking to people and going out, drinking with them.

Meggan: Right.

Dan: So I did that for three years. I'd go to Spain every summer for like six weeks, and then throughout the winter I'd go to a Spanish school in England to learn. And after three years I got to, I think like the advanced.

And I just, I stopped doing it because I was like, I'm, I can speak enough now. I'm happy with it. I did actually go back recently when I went back to England to kind of just so I didn't forget it. Yeah, right. But people always comment on my videos and ask, how do you speak Spanish so well? And it's simply from studying and I was just looking at my notes then, because I've got a little notepad.

And on my notepad. This is one that I use for like studying Korean. So I'll just like write some stuff down and. It's just basically studying so that the answer to most people's questions is how? How do I learn languages? It's from studying. There's no other way.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: If anybody tells you differently, they're lying.

The only way to, to learn a language is to study. Mm-hmm. You have to study. You also put in the the time.

Jenn: Yeah. You have to use it. Like you have to use it. It's not, and it's not even just studying it as in like reading. You have to use it and you have to talk to people and

Dan: Yeah.

Jenn: I mean I at one point in my life was very fluent in French.

I did all of my junior high and high school education in French and now, Don't use it hardly at all. And I'm like, okay, you need to, like, I really do wanna get myself back into using it because like my reading comprehension is very good. But speaking, it, it, it's, I mean, if you don't use it, you lose it.

And that is like seriously true with languages.

Dan: And that's why I chose to go to Cuba after I was in Korea because I wanted, well, there was two reasons. I wanted to first go to a country where there was no covid restrictions and there was a list of lots of countries and one of them was I think it was like Kyrgyzstan, so I was gonna go to Kyrgyzstan, but then I also saw Cuba's on the list and I thought, actually, I'll go to Cuba because I can practice my Spanish again.

Yeah. Because number one is you have to study, but number two actually might be even better, is to just speak to people.

Jenn: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dan: I think for me personally, actually, I think if I was in a room with a group of five Koreans for like three months, I'd be able to speak really, if they were only speaking Korean. That for me, would be more beneficial than it would be to sit in a room by myself and study on a piece of paper. Because for me it's more about, like I say, I'm not an academic. I'm more about speaking to people and I'm also very extroverted. So it, it just depends how people wanna study. But yeah.

Meggan: Right.

Dan: Sometimes I do study, I don't study enough like I should, but I. Speaking and being in a country is very helpful as well.

Meggan: Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. And, and like I said, like I, it helps so much in, in the videos because it allows you to sort of teach us as you are going through these places too, about the things and the people that you're learning about, and we get to come along for that rather than just you by yourself all the time trying to give us tidbits about countries, which is fine as well.

We watch videos like that too. But it's always more engaging when, when you're speaking with the locals. So you know. Thank you as a viewer.

Dan: Well, thank you for watching.

Meggan: Yeah, no problem.

Dan: And I'm happy that it's funny to say that you've been saying, Kamsahamnida around the house.

Meggan: I have. I have. It has at first and And you say it a lot.

So I was just like, so at first I'm like, he says that word a lot and then, and then it got into my subconscious and now it is within me. So yeah,

Dan: I think I say a lot because I'm very, as an English person, I'm very polite.

Meggan: Yeah,

Dan: I just like to say it to people all the time Kamsahamnida all the time

Meggan: next time you say it, think of me and know that I'm watching and I'll say it along at home.

Dan: I'll be saying it in in two weeks, right. Yeah. In two weeks. I'm Korea, I can't wait.

Meggan: Excellent. No, that's awesome.

Dan: Yeah, you'll be hearing a lot.

Meggan: I'll. How long? Canadians are also very polite, so we get it.

Jenn: Yeah. Canadians are the same. How long are you planning to be in in South Korea this time?

Dan: I fly there on the 9th of April.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: And I fly back to England on the 28th of June, so about two and a half months.

Jenn: Nice.

Dan: And I've got it planned out so when, when people watch my video, Obviously, like when I was in America, I think I did like maybe 10, I dunno, can't remember. I did a lot of videos from America, but I actually got back to England about six weeks ago and all the videos I filmed on whilst I was there, I've been uploading in the background because I've been in England earning money to go on my next trip.

So when I go to South Korea, I plan on filming about 30 videos. I'm actually going to another place as well. Not just, so only South Korea, but I'll make about 30 videos, come back to England at the end of June, earn money o over the summer, and then around October, early November time, that's when I'll need to start filming more videos because that 30 video, if I do one a week, I'll run out.

Right? And then that's when I'll go to another country, maybe somewhere in Asia. I don't South America, I have no idea.

Jenn: Cool.

Meggan: That's a good plan.

Dan: I always remember as a kid, my dad saying to me, Dan, if you don't work hard at school, you gonna end up, you're gonna end up stocking shelves at Sainsburys, like just working second shelves and just having like a minimum wage. And he just used to say it all the time. And now looking back on it, that's probably why I just, I, I want to be successful cause I don't want to end up just doing a minimum wage job and doing something I don't enjoy.

Jenn: Right.

Dan: And I say I never really got any, well, never got any qualifications. So the only way for me to be successful is for to do something my by myself. And so what I do in England is successful enough for me to fund YouTube, but I love traveling so much that I want to transition from what I do in England to be able to travel full-time or maybe a little mix of the, the two, I'm not sure yet, but

Jenn: Right.

Dan: This one's already built in England, but I want to build YouTube so that I can be free and just not have to worry about earning money's gone trips and then coming back and earning gone trips. I just wanna be free to do it when I please.

Meggan: Another big piece of what you do too is like you don't go to more traditional tourist spots.

So you are out there in the Bronx walking about, around Yankee Stadium. You're doing all the things. So talk to us about that piece because it's something you also talk about a lot in your videos is getting outside the tourist zone. So does. And obviously there are sketchy places you've, you've ended up, et cetera.

So does that scare you or is that the thrill of it for you? Like talk to us about why that piece is also important for you.

Dan: Well, when I travel, I've never really done touristy things, but for me, the touristy thing I imagine is you see a lot of people get off a bus. See a big church in the central Barcelona.

Snap some photos, jump on the bus, go back, do it all, go to bed. Like there's no freedom in that. That's what you might, that's just for the people that have an office job that wanna have everything done for them on holiday, that go get on the bus, go to the thing, go home. Whereas people that wanna have a bit more freedom or are adventurous, that's why I like to do that.

I have zero intention of going and doing what TripAdvisor tells me to do. I'd rather go and see the countries for myself. When I, I go see these like sketchy areas. If you search on Google, like Google's worst New York, worst neighborhood, it said it was Hunt's Point. But I went to Hunt's Point and all the people were super friendly.

Meggan: Of course,

Dan: it was like I went to Tepito in Mexico and there was mixed reviews. People said it's dangerous. People were really friendly. There was a lot of police presence. But I've been to places in Europe. Where no one mentions how dangerous it is, they're far more dangerous than places I've been on the other side of the world.

And one of the main things is when I go on these trips, people always say to me, oh, were you not scared. Is it not dangerous? Leeds on a night, on a Saturday night is far more dangerous than places that I've been on the other side of the world. I would not go to my city in England on Saturday night at 4:00 AM because people get drunk. People carry knives, people doing. It's not safe. Like I've seen it firsthand when I was younger, like that's, it's so much worse than places I've been on the other side of the world. So it's just kind of, people have got a misconception of what the world's really like. And so that's what I want to show in my videos is I'm gonna go to this place that's sketchy, or we're gonna get off the beaten track and go to see the locals and they'll tell you what it's like.

You'll really see it for what it is. So I think that's hopefully what people can see in my video. He goes to these areas and there's far more to see and do than typical touristy stuff.

Meggan: Yeah. No, and I think that that's, that's right. And I've seen a few YouTubers now go to Teptio and it's been the same experience, but some people say it's dangerous.

Some people say it isn't. No one that I've seen has had a bad experience. Sure. You don't hang out there at, at 12:00 AM you still need to be smart about it, but I think that those are sometimes where you can find the most interesting stuff. So

Dan: I agree. Yeah. The characters are always the most interesting as well.

The people that you meet.

Meggan: Yeah, definitely. No, definitely. And we, not to make a whole different segue here, but we love food on this podcast. We talk about it a lot. Recently you had barbecue in the American South that looked amazing. But what country would you say so far in your travels has had the best food?

If you can narrow it down,

Jenn: I'm gonna guess it's not Cuba just gonna say,

Dan: oh my god, Cuba is the worst

Meggan: pizza. And, and, and that's about it. Sandwiches.

I

Jenn: always say there's no such thing as like bad pizza. Still good pizza, but that pizza looked real bad,

Dan: really bad. It wasn't even a pizza. It was like undercooked dough.

Meggan: Yeah.

Dan: You were lucky if you had cheese because the farm would have to bring it in from the countryside and then sell it when the there and then, and it didn't even have like tomato sauce. It had some sauce, but I don't even know what it was.

Meggan: I think it was tomato soup from our, from our experience. That's what it tasted like to me, was tomato soup with water.

Jenn: No!

Dan: That's what its, Yes.

Jenn: No. Mm-hmm. Alright. Best. Where's the good food? Where's the good food?

Dan: Yeah, the food. Cause before I went to Cuba, I didn't do any research. I thought, I'm gonna go there because like I said, I don't wanna go on Google and it tells me what the country's like.

I'd rather go and make my own like perception of it. But the best food is a hundred percent Korea.

Meggan: Yeah.

Dan: South Korea is the best. I have a tradition when I go back to Korea, this will be my third time that I've gone back. There's a place in Cholsan where I eat Gamjatang it's my number one favorite food in the world.

Gamjatang. If anybody's gonna go to South Korea and you want to a recommendation, try Gamjatang. It's the best. Have you?

Jenn: I have not had it. So what describe it to me.

Dan: It's so, in Korea it's very common that the main dish is cook. On the table for everybody to eat together.

Meggan: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Dan: And it's big, big stew, spicy stew, and it's got pork spine and it's so soft, it kind of falls off the bone.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: And then there's big potato. Gamja means potato and tang is like a big soup, so basically means potato soup soup. But really it's like a pork spine stew with potatoes. Mm-hmm. There's some big green leaves that cook for so long, they're really juicy and just kind of fall apart and. I think it's Sujebi.

Sometimes I put Sujebi, which is like a dough that cooks in the bottom, which is kind of like gnocci in a way.

Meggan: Yep.

Dan: And it's,

Meggan: but did you just say spine? I, I just have to go back to that.

Dan: Yeah. Normally I'm a fussy eater, but it's a pork spine. I think it's fine. Is anyone Korean watching this? Correct me in the comments, but I'm pretty sure it's spine.

Meggan: I love, I'd love to know for sure. Yeah,

Dan: I think it's spine. And when you're eating it falls, there's, there's not a lot of meat and you have to kind of get you teethed between the bones, but it doesn't sound good like them. There's some things I will not eat, but Gamjatang. Good memories, good food, good times.

Meggan: I will trust you. I will trust.

Dan: You have to try it. Have you been to South Korea?

Meggan: No.

Jenn: No, no,

Dan: no. It's also my number one country in the world I've been to.

Jenn: Oh. Wow.

Meggan: You haven't been to Canada yet, that's why.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: We'll do a, we'll do a formal invite before we end the show. Yeah.

Dan: come to Canada and do a food tour.

Meggan: You should! Donairs and poutine?

Yeah. Putin poutine. It's all the same thing. Yeah.

Jenn: Oh, that depends on who you ask Meggan.

Meggan: Yeah, true.

Jenn: That's so funny. So have you had any experiences when you're traveling that you didn't expect to happen?

Dan: Uh,

Jenn: Lot. Not everything. Yeah.

Dan: Constantly all the time. That's one of the things that I'm, I enjoy about traveling and I'm sure most people do, is how unexpected it is and, well, I think there's two types of travelers.

There's people. Trouble with a plan, and then people that just kind of turn up and see what happens. And I'm definitely the second I just turn up and see what's gonna happen. And I think that's when the unexpected happens because you don't really expect anything to happen and it's a lot more fun. But to answer the question, when I went to Vietnam, I think I was about 26 and I went to see my friend Chris, and I kind of thought I'd stay there, but I wasn't too sure.

And after, I think it was like two or three weeks I'd gone to this festival. And I, it was probably one of the best times of my life going to this festival and I made so many friends that we all took a plane back to Ho Chi Minh in the south together. And I went back to their house to chill and they lived in this huge block and it was four apartments in this one building and the middle floor was empty.

And I was like, I'm gonna move into, I just need to find someone. And then randomly met a guy called Kevin in a bar, an American guy. And he's like, yeah, I need to move in with someone. I was like, move in with me. And I, I think I met him that night. We ended up moving in together and lived in this building for a year, so didn't expect that to happen.

Just turned up at Vietnam into a festival and ended up staying there for a year.

Meggan: Brilliant.

Jenn: That's so funny because I, I am a recovering over planner I and like and who, whoever's been listening to this podcast since the beginning, almost three years ago, I was a serious over planner and now I am.

Recovered, I think.

Dan: Mm-hmm.

Jenn: Um, but I like about

Meggan: You're mostly recovered.

Jenn: I'm getting there. There are relapses of course, but there, I mean I think that there's a, for me, and it depends on everybody, but for me it's a good balance between like, here are some things that would be interesting to do that I want to do or that I wanna see, or that I want to eat. Cuz let's be realistic. There's always a list of food. And then also having open time to kind of discover things and like get recommendations from people too is really important to me because showing up without a plan for me would cause so much anxiety. And in fact, it also. It keeps me from doing things because I get like decision paralysis and then I'm like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. So it's interesting to meet someone who's like, yeah, I just show up and, and yeah. Good things happen.

Dan: Yeah, always does, always does. Especially like if I go to a new city. When I was in Philadelphia, we only had one day there, so I thought, I'm just going. We're parked of the car and I'm just gonna start walking.

I'm just like walking around and seeing what happens. I do that most of the time I just get, go somewhere and just start walking around, see who I meet, see what happens. Even when I'm not making a YouTube video. That's what I do.

Meggan: Right, right. I think that leads it really well into something else I wanted to ask you about though.

So when it does come to filming how do you pick what you'll do in your videos. So some of them I'm sure are random, but we Peter and I have loved the videos of exploring like the abandoned hotel and this ski resort in Korea. And often at the end of videos, sometimes I guess you do talk about what viewers can expect to sort of see in your next video.

So how do you sort of, you know, go about planning or finding those kinds of places? Is that just from locals or?

Dan: So in regards to like video ideas, I do write things down of like what I think would be a good idea. Like for my upcoming trip to Korea, I've had to plan it kind of, I've planned it meticulously in the way that I know what I want to do, but like day by day, I've got no idea.

I'm just gonna write it. I'm gonna do this video, but what's gonna happen? I've got no idea, right? Because I need to maximize my time whilst I'm there. In regards to like what videos I'm gonna do, I've got two series planned, which is gonna last me hopefully, well it will 30 videos.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: But what's gonna happen in those videos?

I've got no idea. I know where I'm gonna go and kind of what the theme is, but particularly, I'm not sure, but like, past stuff with the Korean stuff with the abandoned hotel. Somebody on Instagram I'd seen had been there and somebody said, oh, you should, you should go there and make a video. So I was like, hell yeah, that's right on my street.

And I was on this was just before I left Korea last time. I went with my friend Rafi and he is something he fancy doing. So we went along and it, that was a really cool experience. Yeah. And also with the abandoned Ski Resort, I had a friend bar, a Dutch guy who makes videos in Korea and we, we did two videos.

We went to a dam, which is close to North Korea. Yeah. And then we went to the ski resort, and that's kind of, so before I went, I planned like, all right, how, what can I do while I'm out there? I'll do these two things and it's just like seen on Instagram or somebody had told me.

Meggan: Gotcha. I love the, I loved too scavenging for like North Korean garbage. I'm like, I've never seen anyone do this before. Cool.

Dan: I've still got it in my house. I've got a little a beer, a beer wrapper. Because that, that was actually the I think it's the second, the second or third video on my channel that I uploaded. I went with bar to an island called Yeonpyeong, which if you look at geographically, it looks like it's part of North Korea. But after the Korean War ended in the 1950s, the UN gave it to South Korea.

Meggan: Okay.

Dan: So you can take a boat there, right? But in 2010, North Korea, I did a missile out strike and blew up the island. I think four people lost their lives and the whole island had to be evacuated.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: So even though the war, there's Truce of the war, this island was in place. It was the most recent attacking, you know, you see it in the media all the time that, yeah, there's lots of tension between the two countries. I thought that would be a very interesting place to go and see like how the people feel about it. And most people didn't care. I'd say something to them about North Korea. There was one guy who was just cycling on his bike through the alleyways and he had a, a radio and he was listening to North Korea on his radio cuz they're that close. We met another guy whose house had been hit by a missile and he's there sharing the story saying a missile here exploited these four houses.

You go down the street, you can look at where theres still some shrapnel. And he's telling us his family's history about how they all got evacuated and all the men had to stay on the island. All the military came over and all the electricians were working. And then we got a private tour to one of the underground bunkers.

And it was, that was actually one of my fa that I, my personally, that's my favorite video on my channel, right, is the one of us exploring this island in North Korea. So if anybody's watching this and you haven't seen that video, It's go my channel, it's something to do with, it's called like getting too close to North Korea or exploring an island close to North Korea, something like that.

It's like my second one. You'll see if you search my channel.

Jenn: Yeah, I'll, I'll link it to I'll link it to, so people can just click on it, but yeah. That's wild.

Meggan: It is, it is.

Dan: Yeah. And actually when I go back to Korea, there's another island that's even closer and. I think it's like one kilometer away, and you can see it across the shore.

And on one of the beaches of small beaches, there's a sign where it's, if North Koreans have fled and they land on this beach, they press the button, the military come and pick them up and take them to safety.

Jenn: Whoa.

Dan: And it's, it's that close.

Meggan: Wow.

Wow. Well, I can't wait to see that video then.

Jenn: Crazy.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah.

I've got, I've found some really cool stuff. I actually found a military watch from one of the soldiers. My favorite watch that I wear all the time is in the other room on the, the beach.

Meggan: Cool. That's, that's wild.

Dan: Good time.

Meggan: Yeah, indeed.

Jenn: Yeah. So a lot of people don't realize how much work it literally takes to make a YouTube video. It's a lot of work. I, I fancied myself a travel YouTuber for a hot minute and made like four videos and went, wow, this, this is a lot. So kinda talk us through a little bit about your, your editing process. How long does that typically take you?

Dan: Mm, so I'll film a video probably in a day, and to edit it. If I sit down and edit it nonstop, it'd probably take me, depending on the length, about six or seven hours.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Meggan: Wow.

Dan: But because I'm back in England and I've got other things to do, I don't have time to focus on, on it too much. Right. So I kind of do, I'm trying to like juggle two things at once here.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: So it is, being here is very hard. So, and especially like the next six months is gonna be jam packed because people, it's a good question. Cause people are watching my videos and think, oh, Dan's just traveling all the time. He must live a luxurious life. He must be privileged and have loads of money. But the reality is I work my absolute socks off, like, because I work for myself when I'm in England, from the moment I wake up till basically the moment I go to sleep, I'm just working like doing what I do, but then also editing videos, replying to comments. So that's the first thing I do. Every morning I wake up, make a coffee and make it my mission to reply to every single comment.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: But yeah.

Meggan: Awesome.

Dan: It takes a lot of work. It's a lot of hard work.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: But it, I think it's worth it because it, I, I think it's very gratifying.

Meggan: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I think you do just enough editing with your facts and stuff at the bottom that people aren't barraged by extra things happening, but it's applicable when you do put them in.

So those are also appreciated as well cuz it's if you don't speak about it, but it's something we could learn about as you're in that place. That is helpful. So that's a, a really good aspect of it.

Dan: Mm-hmm. Well, that's good. Yeah. Some good feedback about the fun facts.

Meggan: That's right. That's right. What would you say has been the most surprising thing about either starting or having a YouTube channel?

Dan: Meeting people for sure. Mm-hmm. For sure, for sure. When I first went to Korea, like I say, the pandemic started just when I'd got there.. And I was living in a guest house. I, when I arrived there, I didn't have anywhere to stay. I didn't really have much money, so I, I didn't wanna spend all of my money on renting somewhere cause I rent's very expensive in Seoul.

So I've got a skateboard, went around all of the guest houses saying, can I work here? Like, I'll clean for free. So I worked in this guest house. And then everybody started to leave the guest house cause of Covid.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: But people were still coming to Korea because they wanted, like, they were working on student visas or tourist visas and they were like, I just want to come here anyway, regardless of having to quarantine.

Jenn: Right.

Dan: And lots of people were watching my videos, so we had this like little community. It wasn't very big. There was, I was getting like 2, 3, 500 views on a video, but there was enough people that were commenting, and I had this really cool. Uh, Friendship group in Korea from making YouTube videos. I think the majority of my friends that I had in Korea were from like basically subscribers.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: Oh, cool.

Dan: I was like, and now my channel's got a lot bigger. I constantly get messages from people saying, Hey mate, you're in my neighborhood. Come, do you wanna hang out? Or, if you want to come to India and meet me, I'll put you up for the night. Or if you're in Finland, come stay with me. Like people all over the world.

So it's like building this little community, which is really cool.

Meggan: Yeah. That's awesome.

Jenn: I love that. So I don't know if we've mentioned that here, but you, you have a goal of getting to a hundred K u YouTube subscribers by the end of the year. So tell us about, tell us about that and your big goals for the channel.

Dan: So, I, I wanna do it in steps. So I've kind of got. A six month plan, like a life plan.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: By October. By October I want to, like, when all my Korean videos are finished, I wanna have at least 20,000 subscribers.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: And have enough money saved in the bank that I can kind of just be free for a year or so.

Jenn: Nice.

Dan: But by the time I get to that many subscribers, it kind of grows, like at the start it's very, very slow, and then it'll start to increase quite rapidly. So when it get to 20, 20,000, the next step is a hundred thousand. I want to do it in this year because by 2024, that's when I want to transition from having to come back and rely on Leeds to earn a living.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Dan: To being able to be free and just work from anywhere. And I think once I get to a hundred thousand subscribers, that's kind of just like a target that I've set my mind, like a goal to reach.

Jenn: Right.

Dan: Instead of like saying, oh, let's get to 10,000, or let's get to a million. Just, I, I don't wanna say it's nice and easy, but it's attainable.

It's something I can foresee. A hundred thousand. And then from there, the next goal would be 600,000. And then just keep going from there, like keep aiming and moving forward from there. So,

Meggan: Awesome. Well, I mean, and it's funny, every time we go, each week when we watch a video, my husband's like, how many subscribers are there now? So like, we're all watching them tick up with you, so,

Dan: oh yeah. I really appreciate the part that's so kind.

Meggan: No, it's it's enjoyable. So now, Looking forward, obviously you mentioned trip you have coming up for the, you know, till June. And then you said you don't really know where else after that, but do you have any places that are sort of travel destinations, you know, in the future you want to go? And also part B, there was a point where you said you wanted to cycle from Scotland to Africa. So is, are you still planning to do this?

Dan: Yeah. So that was in my first video when I went to the barbers. Yes. Cause I, I'd been, I, I was in Germany for Christmas. I went back to Korea and I had to quarantine for 10 days. And when I got out quarantine, I went to the barbers and at the end of that video, that's when I said kind of as for people that watched the full videos to show like what I want to do, like the potential of the channel and my aspirations and stuff. So that's definitely something I want to do.

Meggan: Mm-hmm.

Dan: When I lived in Seoul, when I first arrived there, I cycled from Seoul to Busan by myself. Mm-hmm. Which is 600 kilometers, and I think I did it over five days and I, it was fantastic. And then kind of after the pandemic, I did it again. We did it for a charity, but there was I think 22 people altogether. And we did it in a big group.

So, and when I lived in Vietnam, I think it was after the festival, I bought a motorbike and I drove from Ho Chi Min to Hanoi over like five weeks.

Meggan: Right.

Dan: Just going to all these little villages and towns and visiting caves and beaches and everything. So I've always been really adventurous. So that's definitely like on my bucket list of something to do because I dunno if you've seen the TV show called Long Way Round or Long Way Down.

Meggan: Nope.

Dan: With, you know, Ewen McGregor from Star Wars and Rouge, he did it with a guy called Charley Boorman. They got big motorbikes and the first time they did it, I think they went from London to New York around the world.

Jenn: Okay.

Dan: And then the second time they did it, they went from like Scotland to South Africa.

Meggan: Okay.

Dan: On the motor bike. So, and because I was in Morocco recently, I thought that that'd be not easy, but kind of cool to go down England because most people never really travel their own countries. They always go to other countries who travel those.

Meggan: Yeah.

Jenn: Yeah.

Dan: So I thought that's a great opportunity to travel my own country, go through France, which I is expensive, so I've not really been there.

So it'd be cool to like travel through France and camp, go through Spain, I speak the language, and then go through Morocco. So it sounds like a cool trip. So definitely in the future.

Meggan: Definitely. Well, before we we sign off today, which we'll do in just a second, I do want to, of course formally invite you to the beautiful country of Canada.

Nova Scotia is amazing. You can meet some characters here, trust and believe. And my husband has already said, tell Dan I'll take him around. So you have a tour guide, you have it all. If you wanna come and visit Nova Scotia, just putting it out there.

Dan: Yes, I'll definitely take you upon that.

Meggan: Excellent. Excellent.

Dan: Cause like recently when I went to New York, Mike who took me around Queens, shout to Mike. He was a subscriber, a long time view with the channel, and he said the same thing like, when you're in New York, give me a shout, I'll take you around. And that was probably the highlight of my trip in America was going around Queens because there's, there's so many things that I don't put in the videos that I have to edit out.

Meggan: Right.

Dan: Like, There's so many things that happened that I can't talk about, but we had such an amazing time. But yeah. Yeah. So yeah, the offer of inviting me to Canada, that's amazing.

Meggan: Of course.

Jenn: We'll we'll be there. That's amazing. So if people want to follow along your adventures where can they find you?

Dan: YouTube. Where is Dan?

Jenn: Perfect.

Dan: Nice and simple. Where is he?

Jenn: Where is he? Right now his Leeds and then he is gonna Korea.

Meggan: And your And what about your Instagram? What's that?

Dan: @whereisdangram.

And also people in the comments. I want to know people like your viewers, what kind of travelers are they?

Do they kind of just go with the flow or do they like to have a plan? Let people engage with me in the comments? I want to know.

Jenn: Yeah, that's a good question. That's a good one. I suspect our listeners are planners.

Meggan: Yeah, we we're probably pretty pegged in with the planning group, but I would love to know for sure.

Dan: Yeah, it would be interesting to know.

Jenn: Yeah, for sure. Thank you so much, Dan, for coming on. This was an absolute blast to get to, to chat with you and I've had a great time today.

Dan: Me too. Thank you. I look forward to seeing it on YouTube.

Jenn: Yes, for sure.

So as for us, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram Travel Mug podcast. You can also find us on YouTube and all of the podcast players that you can imagine. We are there and on our website, travel mug podcast.com. You can support the show by buying us a coffee or sharing the show with a travel loving pal. And we also have a contest going on right now for some free merch.

So all you have to do is leave us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. Screenshot it and DM it to us on Instagram or Facebook, and we'll enter you in for that, the draws at the end of April, and we will chat with you all again soon. Thank you so much.

Meggan: Bye everyone.

Dan: Bye. Thank you.