24. Stuck in India During a Pandemic - Dan Binde

This is the second part of last week’s episode with Dan Binde. In this episode, we are talking about Dan’s adventures in Alaska and getting stuck in India in early 2020 when the pandemic hit the world.  When I think of adventure the first person that comes to my mind is today's guest. Dan Binde is the very definition of a thru-hiker in my opinion. Dan has walked over 24,000 miles since 2015. Through hiking many trails such as the Pacific Crest Trail, The Continental Divide Trail, The Appalachian Trail, and many more. In 2017 Dan was able to accomplish his main goal of breaking the self-support speed record of The Appalachian Trail. This episode has been broken up into two parts. Follow Dan on Instagram @crazyknotts or visit his website www.crazyknotts.com

The hostels were not open to white people. They were kicking all tourists out of India. The last day to get out was $3,000 for a one way ticket, and I was definitely not paying that. I figured I'll learn hints, indie. I'll stay in India. I want to go back to India, so I'll learn the language and then I'll live in India for six months. It basically turn from like, oh, you're touristy. You have tons of money like this to your white. You have the Ronald, you're coping 20 cops, police officers run from me and start yelling at me because they thought I was coping. It's like, no, I'm just trying to go to the hospital to get tested, man. And they thought I was coping. So Delta, I think, was mandatory to pick us up in India. It was the biggest plan Delta had that could fly all the way around the world. They don't use those planes very often anymore. And so the plane had problems, too. Well, Hello, everyone. It's Erin. And it's another episode of the Simply Overcoming podcast. If you didn't hear last week's episode, I highly recommend you go back and listen to it, because today's episode is a continuation of last week's episode. Dan Bendy is an absolute legend, and last week we talked about all of his incredible through hiking feats. Dan has walked over 24,000 miles since 2015 through hiking mini trails such as the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, the Appalachian Trail, and many more. When I think of adventure, the first person that comes to my mind is Dan. In 2017, Dan was able to accomplish his main goal of breaking the self support speed record of the Appalachian Trail. So if you want to hear about Dan's speed record on the Appalachian Trail, go back and listen to the last episode. Episode 23 today's episode, we're going to be jumping right back into the conversation and talking about Dan's through hikes in Alaska, along with his story of getting stuck in India when Coronavirus hit in 2020 and his experience of trying to get out of the country when everything was completely shutting down. This episode is amazing. Last week's episode is amazing as well. Dan is a legend, and I really hope you enjoy today's episode, so we're going to jump right into it. Here we go. I don't know if I should tell you like, what my next big adventure is, because I don't want anyone else to do it. Okay, well, it doesn't include hiking, but it includes hitchhiking. I feel like you should drop it on me, and then we can decide later if you want it in the podcast, but I'm like, super curious. I really want out. You can't tell me that and then be like, well, you know. Oh, heck, yeah. All right. I'll hit you up and then I'll decide. I loved also doing, like, hopping trains idea. I've never done it, but I've also reached out to tons of Hoppers from Europe, and they go to Mexico and the US and Canada and guys from the UK, and one guy from the UK, he was thinking about going down and watching the migration in Mexico. And so I always thought train hopping was cool. And then I also leaned on that idea. But I also thought of hitchhiking to every 48 States within 30 days, as in like, a challenge using like, Craigslist, have you seen Craigslist Joe? No, Craigslist Joe? Yeah. So basically run that idea, but also do, like a crazy 48 States 30 days. I'm me chilling hard with a sign with, like, a lawn chair, drinking drinks and chilling with probably an umbrella. And like, who wants to pick me up looking for Craigslist rides and also trying to hitchhike, but also documenting all the crazy cool people that I run into. Yeah. So I really like that idea. That's better than that. But there's also hiking ideas, too. Totally. When are we going to get your book, Dan?

I still have writings from, like, the PCTN 15, the ATM 15. My little notebook. I have some right. A lot of writings on trail journals. I was like typing them up in 2015, but now I've stopped. I've been like, Journal at all. I'm so bad, but I do want to get a ghostwriter eventually. But right now basically go over, like, 30 00, 40 00 videos and 30 40,000 pictures and just make cool videos. We have to briefly cover Alaska. You've spent a little bit of time in Alaska. Apparently you appreciate it because you keep going back and there's some fantastic challenges there for you. What drew you to Alaska specifically, was there any specific person that sort of pulled you in that direction, or did you just kind of come up with that idea on your own? Are there many people that are doing these hikes across Alaska like, you are so back when I did my first hike through the Brooks Range in 2018, roughly, don't quote me on this. 13 people had done the Brooks Range roughly. I think now it's 30. So it's getting a little more popular, like going all the way through there's a lot of people do that certain sections in the Brooks Range, but going all the way through there's a lot less people because the resupplies are hard because it takes a lot of money owning a pack raft and getting food drops if you need food drops or if you can barely carry enough food or risk the biscuit and be like, oh, I hope I have enough food, but there's just nothing like Alaska, man. I mean, you have big animals. You got 15ft from Wolves. I've been 15ft from grizzly bears, caribou, tons of caribou. Walruses, 15ft from Walrus. Yeah, it's just sea Lions. It's just nonstop big animals. And you're literally out there in the middle of nowhere in the Bush figuring out your out trying to stay alive, get through like the dense Bush into the easier Bush into, like, the higher stuff, where it's easier walking. But then you eventually got to come down and get water. You got to eventually go to the next Valley or jump to the other side of the Valley. But also you're in the Arctic Circle, man. You're super far north, so much hours of daylight. But when I'm doing, like, 30 to 35 miles a day on trail in the 48 States, I'm doing 18 to 20, like, hard miles up there in the Bush with bowing on my back and surviving. Kind of my guess is you're out there for a week or more before you can resupply. Definitely. Yeah. So usually it's seven to ten days, but there's one stretch is 240 miles and that's 240 Bush miles of 18 to 20 a day. So then you got to factor in eating 5000 calories a day, too. So that's a lot of food weight. So you're carrying, like, 70 £80. My first hike. My collarbone actually popped out at the end of my hike because I was carrying so much food. I had my full Catalyst backpack boat on top paddles. And then I was also carrying a 30 liter in front, the same 30 liter pack I carried for the Appalachian Trail speed record. I loaded that up and I filled that up with food, and I thought, I wonder if I did have to carry. I might have had to carry my boat in my hands because I had so much food too that first day. Wow. Out there, man. Yeah. Dang. So obviously you're carrying, like, a blow up raft with you because you're having to do a lot of river crossings. Certainly. Yeah. So you can risk it and try getting lucky. There's been a lot of interesting bad stories and not being able to cross Rivers. And if you have tons of money, you can call in a Bush pilot whenever you want. You can totally do that. Or you could just buy, like, a pack raft and be safe. So I have a background and I had some learning experiences up there because I didn't train very much until I got up there and I had a couple of sketchy situations again up there. Figure it out once you get there. That's kind of how I roll. I usually take it slow. Try hitting the sketchy situations at a slow pace on how to make sure I can do it. Correct the next time I survive. Yeah. So along with carrying all of this gear and equipment, you got this thing for carrying skulls and other things out of the Bush. Definitely. The first two years up there, I did the Brooks Range, caribou, Moose skulls sheds everywhere, like multiple per day, and I just had no chance of carrying them out because I didn't pay for a Bush pilot in the Brooks Range. It just cost way too much. I was super cheap. I didn't even pay for a ride to the border on the Continental Divide trail from Lawrenceburg. I walked it and then hitchhike. So I definitely didn't pay for a Bush pilot this last year. My third year up there, I did get a Bush pilot because I had to have a Bush pilot. There was no other resupplying. It was 80 miles in one direction and a horrible upstream Bushwack. I could have floated down river, but then getting back up, it would have been horrible. Are you paying per drop? Is that how it works? Yeah. You have per drop, and then you try to work it. And if there's a hunting season going on, if you can Tan them up with another Hunter and drop in supplies off. And I was lucky enough to be able to kind of run into some connections up there. That's really been really neat over the last third year. Now, up there, I have a handful of connections, and I appreciate it. I feel like certain Alaskans are a little hot headed, kind of like the Montana people and the Idaho. And it can be like, you're in my country. But for the most part, I respect every situation. And I like hearing other sides of the story and taking things slow. But, yeah, it's been very fun to run into people from Alaska and talk about it. There's not too many people you can relate to going through the Bush. It's like a completely different experience altogether. I mean, that is proper wild country. Definitely, man. And this last time, I did about 2500 miles and the winds were blowing so bad. And, I mean, the stakes weren't holding some nights, and there was Hurricane warnings, Hurricane warnings. I'm not sure if it's a Hurricane, but it was winds. Going up to Dutch Harbor was getting 215 miles. Winds, dude. And I have a nonfreestanding tent. We'll figure it out when we get there, everyone's like, you're going to die. And then there's a straight that we had across from the mainland to the first island, UniMac island. And Bush pilot guys were like, You're going to die, you get swept out to sea. He's like, we'll pick you up in the middle of the ocean. He was serious, though. I was like, yeah, can't be that bad. But who knows how you get there? Because you can't just find information on a lot of stuff. You kind of just have to do it, man. Sometimes it's really hard because I know even just out on when you're out on trail, doing a hike in the lower 48 stories get blown way out of proportion. Trail rumors is a real thing, man. I mean, it passes through 25, 50 different people. And before you know it, a little tiny Creek is turned into a rushing river. Yeah. So when you hear something, you just have to take it with a grain of salt. Oh, definitely. Yeah. For sure, man. And I know you had said on your website that you've seen, like, 123 bears, 121 of those being grizzly while you were out there in 2020 as well. Yeah. Lots of bears fairly close. I was pretty close to. My biggest day was on Cinder River, and I went by the Grizzly man where he did his videos. Oh, really? And he got eaten by grizzly bear. I went by there. I went by the guy that died in Denali, not too far into the wild guy. Yeah. And so there's a lot of interesting spots like that and then also running into people one of the last frontiers with people. What do they call it? They can still have horses in the national parks. They still have their permit. I think two or there's only a couple of guys left that can have horses in the Wrangles Mount Saint Elias National Park. Really? And so I was even lucky enough to even run into those guys and talk to them and just see how they viewed it. How seeing pictures of when they were up there kind of like what you see on Eskimo pictures and stuff from the natives. It's really cool. You mentioned End of the Wild Christopher McCandles. What do you think about? They recently removed the bus that he died in. They removed it from the Bush because there were so many idiots out there trying to get to the bus that there was a constant flow of rescues going on out there. Yes. I don't know how to say it softer than you can't fix. Stupid. You can say that. I'll let you say it. Sure. No, there are people. A lot of people are dying. I think they were either contemplating whether to put bridges there or to pull the bus out altogether. Really. People have romanticized that story so much. And I'm not here judging anything. But it's like you do something like that and you make a mistake. And I don't think he was very experienced for being out there anyway, but people have romanticized it to the point where it was like a destination that people wanted to go to. And that's a real problem. I mean, there's a lot of money being thrown into trying to go out and rescue these people who shouldn't have even entered Alaska, much less go out there. Yeah. It's definitely can be a toss up touchy subject. Even with Karen Quinn trying to do the Brooks Range, I talked to Double Magic a little bit about that. Really? What were your thoughts? She didn't make it too far, but I think she even had sponsors by Revis and tons of other sponsors and stuff. And I was trying to reach out and get any kind of sponsor when it comes to getting sponsored for something like this. You just have to be really good at finagling your way into the hearts of some company. How do you make this happen? Like people make it happen. But it sounds like you've put in a lot of work trying to get sponsored for some of these things. And it's not as easy as people would think. It's definitely tricky with techniques from the Midwest, too. So people still don't know much about the Pacific Crest Trail. They know about the Appalachian Trail. Kind of like when I was going, I didn't know anything about the Pct or CDT till in 20, 14, 20, 13. So, yeah, that's another problem around here, but there's some cottage companies with gear coming out of Minnesota now, but still has been tricky. So I've kind of adapted just make your money, do your job and then buy whatever you need, and then you don't have to fulfill their requirements, too. And honestly, just like doing it for yourself is probably the most important anyway. And being able to be free kind of be free on your own. I can see how that would probably benefit to that. Oh, yeah, definitely. I could probably hear you talk about this stuff all day, super passionate about what you do. It's awesome. What I appreciate about what you do is the fact that there's so many expectations from friends and from family people out there, maybe looking at what you do and seeing your passions and feeling like you need to be more realistic in life. And so it's really cool when somebody like yourself comes along and just says, Screw all of that. I'm going to follow my path and my vision of what I want my life to be and you're not going to crumble. You're not going to crumble to, like, society and what people think that you should be doing. And so it's really awesome. I want to talk about India. Have we talked about walking enough? Hey, going back on that subject? Yeah, I definitely do feel like that's a tricky thing about kind of taking that light, that giant leap and like going out and setting yourself up even for, like, two months jumping unknown. I feel like I had a lot of support. My parents were super chill on supporting whatever I wanted to do, so they would even pick me up at the trail or drop me off, started the trails a lot. So I would feel like a lot of hikers probably get Flack from at least one of their parents. I feel like I was lucky where they did more than that. They didn't send me money or anything, but they dropped me off, which was way better than sending me money because instantly going straight home or instant to, like, hotels and chilling right after the trail. I was pretty lucky that way. That's amazing. That's great. It's great to have family behind you. And what you're trying to do. These trails have changed a lot of lives. You meet these trail Angels and the trail has changed their lives, and that's why they are there because it's become an all consuming fire. It's become their life. And so I don't know, man, I think the trail can do a lot of good for people, whether you're out there doing as many miles as you are going for the extreme, or whether you're just somebody that passes through. It's a really special thing. I think it's a really special community. Oh, for sure. I always tell people go out and do it like you'll spend $3,000, but you'll save that $3,000 easily by the end of your life, by saving for your next adventure, by figuring out what you really want to do or figuring out what makes you happy. That definitely is easily. You're a lot healthier, and you also make lifelong friends, too. Man, I can really relate to you on. I can't relate to your situation in India, but I was actually in India, and I heard that Dan Not was in India, and I was like, What's going on here? Man, this is fantastic. And it seems like you had some incredible adventure there, but due to the virus, you have to come home early. You said that you were planning on covering between 20 and 30,000 km on a motorcycle in around five months, and you made about 1000, 1000 hundred of that. Isn't that what it was, 1700 or was it seven? No, it was 9000. It was 9000. I think it was 9000. I got to go look back and look back. I have it right here in my notes. You did around 9000. I wrote it right there. So you survived. You're right. Yeah. All right. This is why I need to look at my notes. Yeah. So basically, I was in Nepal doing the great Himalayan trail, and it was on the list. I think I heard about it. I was on the Pct when I heard about it. So it was on a list of things to do, like the Alaska, and eventually it was on the back burner, and it came up. And so it's on the other side of the world. And the main price is the plane ticket. So I wanted to have another adventure site. It was only another $100 to India, so I kept it going way to way to be. Oh, my goodness. I could pick your brain about this for a whole entire episode. But I know what India is all about, man, the traffic is out of hand, and it is a whole nother planet. And for somebody to go there and buy a motorcycle and plan to ride their motorcycle across India, you are going from north to south, and then you are planning on going back again. Is that what you were doing? So basically, I had two weeks in New Delhi to figure out what I was doing in India because it was still a toss up to, like, committed. So the commitment was last second kind of it was either China or India, and China was way too cold. And so I went to India, and it's a little bit easier motorcycle. So it turned in from hitting a lot of these tourist tractions around India to hitting all 29 States. So I made it halfway. My guess is that you spent a lot of time in very remote areas. Did you sort of keep to yourself or did you try to make friends? It's kind of hard to make friends when you don't speak the dialect or the language. There's over 100 languages and dialects in the India. I mean, you can drive two and a half 3 hours and you're in a completely different dialect or a completely different language altogether. Most people in India, they speak three dialects and then, like, three or four languages, it's just very common. But surprisingly, English is sort of like people in India say that English is like a main language in India, which I don't understand. I don't understand that. I've had people tell me this, but I think what they're trying to say is that's like one language that if you do know it across the board, you can sort of communicate with certain people throughout the whole entire country. And I think that's sort of what people have met when they tell me. Oh, like, English is one of our languages. Yeah. I feel like the younger generations definitely being taught English more in India, probably like any country around the world, but also, like, maybe more tourist attractions to have really come up with being able to speak English. For me, English was not happening anywhere. It was really difficult, but I was off the beaten path. I was on my little 100 CC motorcycle. I could go 30 to 35 mph, and I was going on back country roads. I Typed in my go to location, and I let Google pick that road. How do you get to that next location? So I went on some crazy roads that she probably shouldn't have been on, but it was really cool. I did a lot of stuff that I had two weeks to plan what I want to do for those two options and accomplish quite a bit. It was really draining, and it was really hard to travel in India. It's really draining. Someone told me, you need a vacation from your vacation because it's overwhelming. So luckily enough, I hit up some people on coach surfing, and I stayed with Gal for a week and just hung out and Jov our motorcycles around the city at night. Yeah. My experience in India has probably been a little different. I go over there. I've worked with an organization that trains health workers in remote villages, how to teach people just basic. You teach somebody how to wash your hands and you can potentially save a life. And so there's so many simple things that people in these remote villages don't know. So being able to go in and teach them about proper nutrition and also just teaching them just how to go to the doctor. There are so many people that something happens. And if you're poor enough, there's a certain the health system is as such that there's a certain amount that you can just get for free if you go to the doctor. I don't think it's the greatest health care system, but a lot of people just won't go to the doctor because they're ignorant as to the fact that there is a doctor for the most part, if you break your leg, that's just the end. You're just going to crawl around the rest of your life. It's crazy, very sad. And so a lot of my time in India has been in remote villages and seeing the poverty and just some of the really sad things about India, but something that every time I go back to India, I get drawn back. I've spent about ten or eleven months, ten months collectively over the past few years in India, and I have to say that the people just keep pulling me back. Man, I love the Indian people. And what blows me away is there are so many countries that I've visited and you're worried that you're going to be robbed. I have never once felt really concerned in India about being robbed. People really respect you and respect your stuff. I don't know what it is. Did you have the same experience, or did you have any issues with people trying to Rob you? I feel like the tricky thing for me was finding that there was no happy medium. It's either like we'll give you our house, we'll Cook your food. You are a guest, like, anything you want, we'll do it for you. Or people are like a little sketchier from my experience. But the families I did stay with were super nice and

unbelievable. It's just different than in the US. They don't have much. But then you're their guest. Basically, they do, like everything, Cook for you and make sure you are totally fine. And no, I'm good. I just want to relax. They're sleeping on a dirt floor, they're sleeping on a cot. And yet they want to feed you. They want to give you three square meals a day and take care of you. Exactly. It's pretty unbelievable. The hospitality is something to be much desired. There's a lot of people that are living in poverty that are just really happy with their lives. It's not crazy. Yeah. It's pretty much like in India, people in the US with a couple of $1,000, they don't think they have anything. It's like go to India. There's absolutely nothing to complain about today, man. It's a good day. I know about the health care system a little bit because within the first two weeks, I got bit by a dog in New Delhi, did you? So I had to get Raby shots. I got back to my hostel. I got talked into going out and having fun the night before. So I was making my way back at 08:00. A.m. Like, no, I need a break from party in a little bit. It wasn't too crazy. But I was walking back and a dog came up, ran up and bit me in my hip. I was like, oh, man, what the heck. I can't even have any food in my hands or anything. And then I get back to the hostel, sit down for breakfast, and I put my hand on my hip and I see blood. I'm like, and I can talk to the hostel owner and stuff. He's like, oh, don't worry about it. I talked to my sister back in the States, like, if it's a rabies, you're dead. And so, like, I had to figure out how to get to a government hospital. And within the government hospital. Within the 3 hours I was there, they had different wards, massive government hospitals. It was kind of a sadder deal. So I can't even imagine what's going on with Kovan. But there was at least 50 people that had to get Rabbi shots within those 3 hours at that one government hostel. And was this in, like, a bigger city? It was in New Delhi. Oh, this was in New Delhi. Okay. Yeah. And the interesting thing was there was a lot of other Indians staying at my hostel because they were looking for work. They were from other parts of the country. And so they're like, welcome to India. We were like, hanging out and party and stuff. I'm like, Fuck India, man, my experience with the hospitals there, and I don't really remember much. But the first time I went into India, I got terribly sick and I was running fevers of 103 and above for days. And so a doctor came to see me and he was like, oh, here, you need to take this. And I took it. And on top of being extremely sick, I had an allergic reaction. I came so close to dying, I lost, like, £40 in ten days. I don't remember what happened for ten days. I ended up in one of their hospitals, and it was a smaller hospital too. All the people are all in the same room, but they gave me my own private room because of the color of my skin. It's like, you skipped the line because you're an American, but, yeah, interesting. I don't really remember much about that, but I know the system there is definitely not perfect. I think that there's probably a lot of problems with it and the way that it's set up, it can help the poor people. But there are so many people in India, and there is no way to be able to help everyone if they look at death in a completely different way. There are children that get thrown out all the time, and it's like, no big deal. And that's just the way that it is. And one of the things that I realized when I was in India that really messed with my head. It took, like, three trips to India before it dawned on me. And that is that brothers and sisters marry each other regularly, to keep the money in the family, to keep the Gallery in the family. Brothers and sisters marry each other and then also brothers and cousins in the remote villages. Brothers and sisters, Mary, it's less the case when you get into the bigger cities, but then they'll marry their cousins regularly. So a lot of times when you're in these villages, you'll see these, like, messed up kids that are just, like, all curled up and they're just dying. And the families just left them out to die. And it started to dawn on me. And I started realizing when talking to some of the doctors that were with, like, yeah, these kids are messed up because this is a brother and sister, and it's like, Holy shit, the education needs to be had. And if you try to explain like, this is why this is a bad idea. They just do not get it. It does not compute. I mean, they laugh and they say, like, what are you talking about? They just don't get it. So there's a lot of education that needs to be had in India. And I think that's why I really appreciate this organization I've worked with because training health workers to go into these remote village and just teach them some of these little things. Maybe we can make a bit of a difference anyway. Now I'm going off on a tangent. What parts were you at? Like, what States and stuff. I've been up north in New Delhi, and then I've been way down south, about 30 minutes from the coastline. But most of the States that I spend the most time in is Ondra Pradesh and Odisha. That's like, central, right? That's very central. Central, central, east, central east. Yeah. So those are the States where I've spent the most time doing some training in New Delhi. And then we spent some time down south in some remote villages, which was a really interesting experience as well. Some of those Southern places are a little sketchy just because the poverty level is on a whole nother level. And everybody's just sort of fighting to survive. And if they see somebody with white scan, it can get really dangerous, really quick. I'm lucky I didn't stay in a spot for too long. Kind of trying to avoid sketchy situations. Yeah, smartly in third world countries. But I experienced that in Nepal and stuff taking local buses instead of flying like everyone else is not going to pay that much money. So I just went out there with my guide, and I took the bus, which was brutal. But I also had to get to the edge of Catmandew where the buses leave. And, yeah, it's tricky on how to help people. And the mentality in the remote villages. And this is one of the reasons why this is one of the reasons why a place like India could really do some good. Capitalism could really do a little good is if you live in a village, my stuff is your stuff and your stuff is my stuff. And so if I make more money and I try to stash it away and my neighbor knows that I made more money, he can come over and say, hey, I need your money. And the village consensus is that you owe that person the money because that person needs it. The problem with living that way is there's no incentive to work harder and save money in the remote villages. Things are changing in the bigger cities. But when you're in a remote village, it's like there's no reason to work harder for food for your food tomorrow, because if you make extra money, somebody's going to take it anyway. And so that's been my experience. It's sad. And of course, the cast system plays a part, too. And that's really sad, too. But India is changing really fast. I'm sure you probably heard that a lot when you were over there. Things are changing very quickly. And I know you said in your radio interview you were like, hey, I want to start visiting some of these third world countries before they change. Yeah. I mean, some for the better, some for the worse. But I'm always out there to see local farmers see the way of life. Totally. It's definitely changed a lot more when big companies or wealthy people from wealthy countries come in and build marble resorts, at least in Thailand. When I was there 15 years ago, it's nothing but marble resorts on Co cement now. So it's a lot of that. Where in Thailand were you? My sister was in the Peace Corps for two years. So I went to surprise her because she was, like, really depressed. So we only told one of my sisters is going to go. And then my other sister and I arrived, and I was in 8th grade when I went over there to surprise her. My sister was in Nicola Dome. I'm sorry. I really want to look now. Yeah, I believe it's far east. I thought it was like the Northern part, but I think it's east or northeast, and I don't remember anything from what I went over there, but I remember going to Cosmetics, and at the end of the resort, there's just Marvel resorts coming up. And that was even 15 years ago. So now it's definitely got to be nothing but marble. Will you ever go back to India? So supposedly I still have a motorcycle in India. Yeah, but I was trying to tell them sell it, maybe give me some money or just give it to a farmer that could use it. But I think they're still holding on it. I was planning on going back after six months, I wanted to stay in India until the tourist attractions got shut down. I was not too worried. I didn't mind if I got it. But then the States shut down. I was getting stuck. Hostels were not open to white people. They were kicking all tourists out of India. Why was that health care system? I think, health care system. And then there was no information either. There's no information. When the Indian President was going to shut down international travel. There's no information from the US embassy. Tell me how to get out. The Step program did not work. I signed up for the Step program for international travels that did not work for me. And so basically, the Germans, Israelis, they were doing everything on Instagram. And I didn't know that either. People at the embassy in Chennai, in New Delhi, they didn't know that. At least they didn't tell me that information. So I had nothing to roll on. So it was a little stressful. The last day to get out was $3,000 for a one way ticket, and I was definitely not paying that. I figured I'll learn Hindi. I'll stay in India. I want to go back to India. So I'll learn the language and then I'll live in India for six months. Totally. Yeah. Exactly. Yes, sir. Same page, man. Do you stay in contact with any friends there? I know the coronavirus, the situation there has just been. I mean, at least the media has made it look as if it's just an absolute disaster. So I had to get an Indian phone, and then I wasn't able to transfer my WhatsApp app to my US number because I had an Indian number. And so I have a couple of friends on, like, Instagram and Facebook. And I talk to you from what I've talked to them, it's not too bad. It definitely goes up and then goes down. But I don't know, you know, the slums in India, man. Oh, I know if they transferred through the slums, I feel like Kovid would be way worse. What scares me, and what we have seen is people there are so worried and the poor people, they assume that coronavirus is in the air. And so what they're doing is they're shutting themselves up in their house and closing their windows. So they're not getting fresh air. They already aren't eating the greatest. So if they do get hit by the virus, they're screwed. And there's a lot of elderly people in India. And I think the population of the elderly is just like being cut. It's just being completely cut. Definitely. But it doesn't help. The pollution in the big cities doesn't help either. But kind of like what the US was doing, though. Don't go outside state parks, don't go to state park. Yeah, it's like stay out of the fresh air. The fresh air will destroy you. But the crazy thing about it in India, the government President invested in thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars putting billboards up in the big cities. Don't wash your hands like the basic concepts. They should have been doing this in the US, like on the radio, like, wash your hands. Like, don't do this. Don't do that. Stay 6ft apart or like this. And that like over in India, it was on mass. You couldn't miss it. I always wonder why health isn't very pushed in our country, and I'm definitely not trying to get all political. It confuses me as to why we are not pushing the idea of living a healthy lifestyle. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Like, everybody knows that living a healthy lifestyle, your body can fight off disease if you live a somewhat healthy lifestyle. But this just doesn't get talked about at all. Nobody's talking about that. That's the one biggest thing also in India was about people not being able to get food. Like, there's so many poor people in India. If you're not going to the market, they go to the market all the time to get food, like every day, every two days they go to the market, they don't have pantries, they don't have fridges. Some of them do. So that's the one thing I was really worried about for people in India. And how are they going to stock up on food when people are locked in their house all the time? That's a really good point. And the farmers can't go out and work because they're being locked away in their homes. I'm more worried about the aftermath of this in India. The aftermath is going to be India is never going to be the same in our lifetime. I really believe that a lot of countries may never be the same. I just keep wondering, is travel ever going to be the same? But man, a country like India, I can't see it ever being the same. This is going to really affect the country, the number of people who are going to die after just from starvation, like you're saying, not being able to go to the market, not being able to farm their crops or suit, not being able to make enough money for their family to provide food. That would be really hard. My friend's Grandma survived in Koban in India, though, is she? Yeah. Sixties, early Seventies. You know what? We have to just take a moment and appreciate the country that we're in. Let's just be honest here. It could definitely be a lot worse. I think we as Americans a lot of times. It's so easy to appreciate what we have. And that goes around to like, so many people in India who are happy, they're poor, and yet they're happy about their life. And we've built this society off of, like, happiness comes from things and from personal possession. And it's just different in India. That's not how it works. I think that's probably why poor people who are living day to day, wondering where their next meal is going to come from. They just don't know anything else, and they're just happy. What matters to them is their family and their friends. That's really what matters is their tribe and their connection. And we've lost that. We've lost our tribe. Like, who's our tribe is, our tribe, the political side. People need a tribe. And everybody's just so lost right now. Yeah, there's too much politics and everything out there. You were stuck in India for two weeks before you were actually able to get outright because of COVID. So, yeah, definitely. I had one day. It was a 3000 ticket to get back to the USA. I was in Chennai. There's basically three hubs, Chennai, Mumbai or Bombay and New Delhi international hubs. I was like, okay, I'm in Chennai, the smallest of the three Southeast. The other two are way bigger. So I got a domestic flight to Mumbai, and I called eight other hostels, trying to figure out a place to stay, talking to friends, travelers, tourists that I met in India. Like, hey, did you find a place to stay? Like, Where are you staying? Are you stuck in this state? Kerala. And like, did you get out? Did you get tested? And he got tested, got negative tests. He still couldn't find a place to stay in Mumbai for the longest time, called eight other places. He finally found a spot. And that was my only chance because I was calling tons of places in Mumbai as I got my domestic flight. And I thought I was going to have to sleep on the streets in Mumbai until they finally accepted me at the door. Did your skin color have to do with this at all? Were people just so afraid that they were turning? Yeah, it basically turned from your tour sea, you have tons of money to your wife, you have the Rona, you're Combin. So it was really hard to figure out a lot, like, completely 180 flip. People just assumed you had the Rona, basically. And I think the thing got up because Italians were flying out of China. And then they came to India. Supposedly, it was in the news that I heard that they started in India. So then they assumed every white person had it. I was trying to figure out how to get tested. So then I could stay with my friend of Mumbai. So the hostel saying that was super expensive. And I was like, if I got to stay here for months to month, my sister was like, you better get money if you don't have money, you're in deep trouble. So I have tons of Indian rupees now that I wasn't able to spend. But I had tons of money just in case. So right before the Western unions shut down, you could not go outside and was highly restricted. I got tons of money. And so I was trying to get tested at a hospital so I could go to my friend's place because I didn't want to affect her mom. And so I was just trying to go to the hospital and 20 cops, police officers run from me and start yelling at me because they thought I was coping. It's like, no, I'm just trying to go to the hospital to get tested, man. And they thought I was coming. That's just, like, understand, like, how everyone starts thinking it a lack of education on the whole thing. And then people just make assumptions because that just out of fear and really bad communication, too. Yeah. It's like, no up to dates. Like it's all last second. Stay shut down. Then you're stuck. There's nothing to get out. And you have no clue when the state was going to shut down. The US embassy couldn't help with anything. That's not our problem

when you finally got on that plane to leave India and you left out of Mumbai, right? Yes. Yeah. When you finally got on that plane, what was the feeling? So Delta, I think, was mandatory to pick us up in India because not all of them. Majority of the Delta flight attendants were really pissed off. So it was the biggest plan Delta had that could fly all the way around the world, so they don't use those planes very often anymore. And so the plane had problems, too. What was your question, though? I totally blanked out on your question. No, I was just wondering, what was that feeling? Like when you finally got on their plane and realized you were getting the heck out of India? Oh, it was literally whenever the next country would leave and go to the airport because you had to get a special shuttle to get to the airport. And then you had to line that up through your embassy, which hopefully you have, like, a phone or some kind of connection to line it up. And then hopefully the embassy would respond to you. And yeah, it was just last second I was on the flight. I figured out like, the two days before or the night before. So it was not much up to date or, like, ahead of time. Basically, when the next country would leave, we'd all like, cheer, like, hey, this is crazy. Two weeks ago, I got to know, like, tons of people, a couple of cool Canadians, cool people from, like, overseas, too. And yeah, everyone would just cheer. But it was really weird. Like, then we went to the US Embassy, get checked through customs, and then we took another bus to the airport, and no one was at the airport like a Mumbai airport. La. No one. But, like, USA flying out today. Wow. It was weird. You said that the plane had problems. It wasn't a one way flight, was it to the US? It was a one way flight. It was okay. So the cool thing about it when I left Mumbai. They went up and over the Euro mountains in Russia, one of the mountains that I haven't done any extensive research but is kind of high on the list I would like to do, because it's in the Arctic Circle, and I think it might remind me, like, of Alaska a little bit. So I flew over the year olds. It was at night. But then the first city was Detroit, and the backup engine had problems because I don't think that plane gets used very often. It was the biggest plane that had biggest tank, too to get all the way around the world. And so then they had problems. And then we landed in Detroit instead of Atlanta. So then there was like, no customs. No one was checking us in with, like, fevers or anything, no temps, nothing. You're just like letting people land. And here you go. So there's a lot of things I question about this pandemic with even domestic travel with, like, flying New York City, la. Maybe if you just shut off the air travel, that would help out a lot. So there's a lot of things I don't agree with, though. I still love everyone. Yeah. You got to love everyone, right? You can't let this eat you up inside. Spot on, man. I feel like you can always learn something from everyone. Absolutely. Yeah. That's so true. And one of my favorite things to do is just to sit down with a homeless person and have a conversation with them. They always have an interesting story and you always walk away, like, really appreciating the fact that you sat down and took the time to talk to them. That's awesome, man. That's much props, because a lot of the times, it's mainly just the talking. They don't even want money. I feel like a lot of times and that's cool. Dan, I got to let you go, man. It's been a whole lot of fun talking, but before I let you go with everything that you've done and having the drive that you have to continue pursuing, the things that you love in life. Do you have any advice to anybody out there that maybe is at a crossroads in their life, and they're trying to decide what they should do, whether they should pursue their passions or whether they should stay realistic. What do you have to say to those people? Definitely take a chance. Keep it realistically, but start slow and see how possible your goal is. Definitely aim high, but also make sure it doesn't bring you down too much if you can't complete it. But you'll never know unless you try it. Even when I was on Pct. Now I was doing 8 miles a day. I love saying it because it's crazy that turned into doing more miles every day. Hey, man, when your book comes out, I'll be one of the first people in line to purchase, so just let me know. Just let me know when the book's coming out. Man, I'll be old and I can't walk anymore. Yeah, the journey is still ongoing, so maybe wait a few more years before you write the book. I'm planning on settling down, though. And getting into career. I got a girlfriend now, so that's kind of slowing me down a little bit. Yeah, there's definitely a season for all things, right. That's true. So if somebody wants to follow you on social media, I know you have a website. Where can they find you easiest on Instagram. I don't post too much anymore, but I do have tons thousands of videos and pictures on Crazy Knots on Instagram. Klotts. And then my website is crazynots. Com. Dan, thank you. This has been fantastic. Let's do this again sometime. Oh, yeah. Whenever you want, man. It's always fun. All right, man. All right. Sounds good. Hey, have a good night, my friend. Yeah, peace, brother. All right. I hope everybody really enjoyed this episode. I know I did again. If you want to hear the first part of the episode with Dan, go back and listen to last week's episode episode 23. Again, if you want to learn more about Dan, if you want to follow him along his journeys or check out his website, we will have those down in the show notes. Thank you very much for joining us, and we will talk to you next time.

Bye.