Backpack Digital

Realizing that you may be seen as an ignorant or privileged traveler can be a blow, but if you just put yourself out there and try new things, you can overcome that image in a heartbeat. Hayden does exactly that as he drives in Vietnam, meets a snake “as thick as a Pringles tube, and twice as daunting,” and rowed a boat for a woman who had not taken a break all day. Hayden also has some serious adventures with food, including learning that you can live off just coconuts or just chili water, and finding a variety of American pets to snack on at a food market on the Mekong Delta. Show notes writer Nicole Mello also stops by to answer questions about what to do in Boston, and to explain the Boston Tea Party to Hayden. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Fear is a paralyzing emotion, but, in the end, it can truly be your best motivator, and Sean Whitehead has firsthand experience with both ends of that double-edged sword. Sean is not only a friend of Hayden’s and the singer of the band that Hayden and previous guest Guy Earnshaw were once in, but he is also an avid traveler. Sean wants to share his story of traveling in the Alps, and how fear, a good friend, and a bar of Snickers got him to the top of a nearly sheer-faced mountain. 

First, Sean shares a tale of traveling to Brazil and ending up in a weird, dodgy neighborhood, where he was served an Americana pizza that came, not with meat and cheese on it, as you would expect; no, instead, it came with egg and peas on it. It was in Brazil that Sean learned that there is more to life than just doing things the easy way. He found that doing things you have never done before can only lead to adventure. He also tells a story about a self-drive tour he took with his friends in Iceland, how they took their own route around the country, and the amazing place in the mountains they found to watch the Northern Lights from. Sean shares what he thinks on talking to new people when you’re in a new place in order to figure out where to go and what to do while you’re there, and when you should follow their advice. 

He also discusses how to decide what you are going to do when you are traveling. The highlight of Sean’s episode, however, is his story from Austria, aptly titled “Somebody ‘Alp’ Me,” a predictably punny name from Sean. Along the way, he and his friend John end up hiking in the Alps with no gear, a bottle of water, and a Snickers. Between them, they hike a kilometer and a half upwards, eat their one Snickers, drink their one bottle of water, have two panic attacks, but they manage to make it to the top alive. Though the fear was like nothing Sean had ever experienced, the adventure influenced his decisions in future travel, and he thinks he would not be the same now had it not been for that day. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Hayden recounts his last day in Bali, and what makes Indonesia such a peaceful place to be, away from the advertisements, money and stress of daily western life.  He goes on to Vietnam, meets and has connections with a lot of people that just moments before were complete strangers, and comes to revelations about life in Vietnam compared to other countries. He then gets given the opportunity to do something 'magical'. He doesn't know quite what it is yet, and has to make the decision to trust someone he just met. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

What is the secret to becoming your own Ultimate Man? What is the key to living a life with no regrets? How do you learn to follow your heart over your head? Richard Phu, of The Ultimate Man and the Forge Your Life podcast, comes with answers to these questions, along with questions of his own. How would you describe an ultimate man, and what is your purpose in life? These two are more tangled up than you might think. Richard leads us forth. Richard Phu visits Hayden from Australia, where he is currently working on his online coaching business. 

The founder of The Ultimate Man and the Forge Your Life podcast, Richard discusses what the Ultimate Man really is; the true ultimate man is not any one set person, he tells us. Instead, this man is exactly what you want it to be. As long as you follow Richard’s five pillars - purpose, wealth, health, mindset, and love - you can achieve your own ultimate man. Richard discusses with Hayden how his realization that he had to commit himself to living the most fulfilling life possible was connected to travel and freedom, and vice versa. He also brings forward a discussion featuring charity: water, a charity that works to bring sustainable, community-owned clean water projects around the world. Hayden and Richard go on to talk about how important it is to relinquish control and put trust and faith into the situation. Along with feelings of regret and disappointment regarding an experience you feel you missed while traveling, they talk about learning to listen to your heart and follow what it tells you. The star of this episode, however, is Richard’s travel story, aptly named “Am I in the Movie ‘Hostel’?”, recounting a time when Richard visited Vienna, Austria by himself and got hopelessly and terrifyingly turned around in a hostel. It does not help that he keeps seeing men turn corners right ahead of him. The moral of Richard’s story? Sometimes, you get pushed into really scary situations, but it’s how you deal with it, how you fight through it, and how you deal with it that truly matters. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Hayden’s continued journeys, as recounted by his past self through his travel journal, begin with him being told: “This is where I kill you and tell everyone you were eaten by cow.” Hayden travels to a secret shipwrecked beach, to a place seemingly untouched by civilization. He journeys through a forest filled with monkeys and snakes, and comes to a tropical island, where time ceases to exist. He also finds another island with as many brothels as they are cows and five hundred of those monkey-and-snake-filled forests. After encountering a real-world version of the Hog Wild level of Crash Bandicoot, and getting wrestled by waves, Hayden even has an island romance - but let him tell you about those adventures, in his own words. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

What is the key to success? For John Lee Dumas, the one aspect of success that all entrepreneurs share is setting a good, specific goal for themselves. He shares tips and tricks, as well as advice in just getting out there and getting to work. John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneur on Fire and author of The Freedom Journal, calls in from Puerto Rico to talk with Hayden. He shares his unique step-by-step process that he details in the Freedom Journal, a guide that helps you to accomplish goals in a set time frame of one hundred days. He also discusses his podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire, sharing his mantra with us: “Do what you can’t not do.” It was this mantra that led him to creating a daily podcast in 2012, and it is this ideal that led him to doing his job well, providing his audience with free, valuable, consistent content, and seeing how the road has unfolded before him ever since. John also recounts a story, fondly titled “The Golden Palace,” detailing his journey from law school to India, where he spent four months traversing the country. 

His story takes place in Amritsar, in northern India, where he visited the Golden Palace, an awe-inspiring holy and sacred place, filled with religious shrines and shining with gold. Join John as he accompanies a couple of locals to a flag-lowering ceremony at the border of Pakistan and India, and views the unbelievably intricate ceremony, with about forty soldiers on both sides of the border gates where they lower the flags of their respective countries. “When I look back on India,” John shares, “there was a lot of highs, were definitely some lows, as anybody will experience traveling/backpacking for four months in a third world country. But when I do look back, that is definitely the memory that stands out most in my mind, and something that I will always treasure.” John also shares tales of being in a Bollywood movie (search for John Lee Dumas Bollywood on YouTube - you can see the trailer for the movie), of breaking free of his scripted life, and of making the transition into the life he knew he wanted to live. He advises to start planning your trips now, and to start knocking them out as soon as possible. “So many of us think that we have an endless amount of time to travel the world,” John says, “but we don’t.” 

This story takes place specifically in Amritsar, at the Golden Palace, a holy and sacred place which rendered John speechless when he visited it. He then journeyed on with a couple of Indian guys who studied at a local university and who invited him to part of a famous flag-raising and flag-lowering ceremony. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

Hayden returns with his travel journal, pulling an entry from when he arrived in Bali, Indonesia. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

When you travel, you never know who you will meet, or what kind of experiences you will have. Half the fun of adventuring is not knowing where you will be lead next, and Jason Moore is a firm believer in trying new things while you travel. Jason Moore, a resident of Oslo, Norway, hosts the Zero to Travel podcast, because he hopes to help people achieve their desire to live a life of travel, and help them travel on their own terms. He also runs Location Indie, a podcast based on the community support system of people who want to work while they travel, work remotely, and live independently. Jason’s story, which he calls “Thumbs Up,” gives us an inside look at the life of a hitchhiker, through the eyes of Jason, his friend, Gary, and their hitchhiking race around Scotland. Join Jason on a 546-mile quasi-circumnavigation grassroots race around Scotland, where he goes wild camping, visits eight iconic Scottish checkpoints, and meets a number of people who changed his life, who you can hear about in detail in the story. Jason’s adventure traveling through Scotland was an experience which he called, in a word, “transformative”. 

When you travel, you can give as much as you take; you can give energy, stories, a listening ear, and, most importantly, companionship. You learn to trust, and you realize that people really are awesome. “Many things happen when you step out on the side of the road and stick your thumb out,” Jason says, “but I think the best thing is the reminder that we are all connected, and this world is filled with wonderful and kind souls.” If you ever see Gary, or anyone else, hitchhiking, consider pulling over and giving them a lift; you might be pleasantly surprised by what happens. And if you are the one traveling, try putting your thumb out sometime, and you might just learn something new about humanity. 

Join Jason and Hayden as they learn to trust humanity and travel around Scotland for a time. You never know what you might learn about trust, humanity, and the energy that comes from hitchhiking. 

The main part of Jason’s story features a Scottish hitchhiking race, beginning on May 1, 2014, and continuing for several days on an epic 546-mile quasi-circumnavigation around Scotland. He had to visit eight iconic Scottish checkpoints on the way and get photo evidence of each checkpoint.

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

When we last left Hayden and his travel journal, he was leaving Queensland for Brisbane, with the intent to catch a plane to Indonesia. With nowhere to be and nothing to his name but what he has on his back, he spent the entire day in Brisbane on foot. It was here that he learned to pay it forward from a busy mother who wanted to do something kind, along with encountering a couple other kind characters who populate this rich, inspiring tale of humanity in Brisbane. 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital

To make a difference in the world, you do not have to make a major impact. You do not have to bring water to an entire country; you do not have to feed entire villages; you just have to make someone smile once a week. This is exactly what Daniel Venn does with his nonprofit organization, Helping Kids Round First, which he discusses with Hayden. Daniel Venn works with Helping Kids Round First, doing fantastic work with kids. They collect donated baseball equipment in the United States, and give the donations to children in Nicaragua. They give children the opportunity to have a childhood in a country that does not often afford that chance, and gives them the opportunity to escape poverty through baseball. Dan also discusses the book he wrote and published, Beyond Baseball - Rounding First , representing his trip to Nicaragua with Helping Kids Round First. They work with the nonprofit organization to bring baseball, sustainable agriculture, and hospital supplies to Nicaragua. Join Daniel Venn as he describes the smell of his childhood (warning: it is not a pleasant one), recounts how baseball brought him around the world, and shares anecdotes that detail why it really is important to learn the specific language of the area you are visiting before you go, just in case. Make sure you know how to say “towel” and “uncle” correctly, and have suitcases with children’s books and old men’s underwear on hand, or else you might not end up on the trip you thought you were going to go on. Daniel handed out equipment village by village, meeting the young kids and adults whose lives he was changing through Helping Kids Round First. He realized how you could change the world with just a baseball bat and a smile. “Travel has become less about the places that I see,” Daniel shares with us, “and more about the people that I meet and the relationships that I form.” 

Get in Touch with Hayden on Instagram: @backpackdigital