Sleeping in Ghost Towns, Breaking Cultural Barriers, & Completing the PanAmerican Highway with Sim & Kartik of The Brown Vanlife

EPISODE SUMMARY:

This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go we meet Sim and Kartik of The Brown Vanlife. This amazing couple & their 2 energetic dogs drove the Panamerican Highway in their old self-converted Dodge B200 Tradesman campervan. From construction in a Toronto Home Depot parking lot to life on the road, Sim & Kartik’s story is incredibly inspiring. We discuss how they convinced their parents to embrace their lifestyle, how they fund their adventures as remote workers, & the unique ways they’ve documented their journey. We also chat about Sim’s phenomenal hospitality on the road, what home means, & the creepiest place they’ve ever slept.

Travelling through Life: A Podcast on the Go is a fun & quirky show from Travel with TMc that delves into all things travel & adventures from the road, in the air, & in between here and there. Subscribe for new episodes!

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Fodors Article
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MORE RESOURCES & LINK FROM TODAY’S EPISODE:

Sim & Kartik's Song Choice - Yun Hi Chala Chal

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction to Sim & Kartik of The Brown Vanlife 
08:26 First Trips & Childhood Experiences: Growing up a TCK, Family Road Trips, The Brown Vanlife is Born
25:13 Travel Traditions
28:00 Languages and Travel: Tamil, Hindi, English, Spanish + Favourite Phrases
32:54 Impact of Tech on Travel Style: Remote Work, YouTube, Vanlife Apps
36:23 Documenting Travel Memories: Journalling in Phone Notes, Home Videos, & Polaroid Photos
40:25 Personal Impacts of Travel: Skill Development
42:58 Biggest Surprise while on the Road
46:26 External Impacts of Travel: Indian Food and Hospitality on the Road
50:33 Respecting Local Cultures
52:10 Where is Home? Living vs. Travelling Abroad
53:45 How Are You Different when Travelling than at Home?
58:28 Weirdest Sleeping Spot: Mechanic Garages & Eerie Saskatchewan Ghost Town
01:03:39 Safety Tips for Travelling: Vanlife
01:05:26 Necessary Travel Items
01:06:53 How to Deal with Post-Trip Blues: Reflecting & Planning Activities & Using Points & Miles
01:09:49 Spotify Travel Playlist: Sim & Kartik's Choice
01:11:44 Speed Round:

Transcript

Tara (Travel With TMc) (00:06)
Hello! Welcome to Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go. I'm your host Tara and the founder of the blog Travel with TMc which is where this adventure all began. Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, is a fun and quirky show that delves into all things travel and adventure from the road, in the air, and in between here and there. And speaking of, I've got to tell you, I feel like I'm between here and there right now.

I'm recording this intro from my Airbnb in Guatemala City, where I'm currently locked out of my room and waiting for a locksmith. But until then, we'll be able to chat. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen so you get notifications for all the new episodes. And please leave a 5-star review and comments with what you've enjoyed and who you'd like to hear in future episodes. This season, we cover all sorts of travel topics, whether it's travelling with pets,

to vanlife, to starting a tourism business during the pandemic. We cover it all. It's my hope that you'll find one or many episodes that you can relate to and say, "yeah, that tracks, I travel that way". Or that you'll be inspired by someone's story to try something new. This week on Travelling Through Life: A Podcast on the Go, we meet Sim and Kartik of The Brown Vanlife.

This amazing couple and their two very energetic dogs drove the Pan American Highway in their self-converted Dodge B200 Tradesman campervan.

From constructing their home in a Home Depot parking lot to life on the road, Sim and Kartik's story is incredibly inspiring. We discuss how they convinced their parents to embrace their lifestyle, how they fund their adventures as remote workers, and the unique ways that they've documented their journey. We also chat about Sim's phenomenal hospitality on the road, what home means, and the creepiest place they've ever slept, which I can assure you is the creepiest place that you could sleep.

Thanks for listening and let's dive into this week's episode!

Tara (Travel with TMc) (02:13)
Hello guys, how's it going? I'm so happy to have you both on the show. For those of you just tuning in, we are having Sim and Kartik of The Brown Vanlife on the podcast today. Yeah, so if anybody isn't following along the adventure on either of our channels, I met these two, oh gosh, was it back in like 2020?

thebrownvanlife (02:13)
Hello?

Thank you.

Yay! So excited.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (02:42)
in terms of when we first chatted online? When did you guys do the gig with the suit?

thebrownvanlife (02:46)
Yes, we started chatting

in 2020. We had just launched our Instagram and you were like the first one from Ontario we kind of connected with. And then we went back 2021 or something like one of our first trip we went back for some work or to shoot the Sault Ste. Marie campaign. Oh yeah. And that's when we met you. 2021.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (03:00)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So like

random small fact.

Yeah, my are from the Soo and so I'm always following along with what's going on up there and I saw this stunning aerial shot of the fall colours in the Soo and I always check out who actually took the photo, not just the tourism board that's sharing it. And so I saw The Brown Vanlife and I like messaged these guys and I was like, I love the photo, what were you doing there? And that's, yeah, how we started chatting was because your photography is so great. Yeah, and

thebrownvanlife (03:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I remember now. Yeah. Oh yeah, that was the fall

left, right? Yeah, the photo that went viral was the fall we had, we left and then we pitched Soo the next year and we came back to shoot the campaign with the next year. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (03:45)
Yeah, right, which was a whirlwind

from what I remember. But yeah, and then we met in person within the last couple of years for reference, it's March of 2024. So it's funny how these things take shape over time. But we met on one of your whirlwind returns to Toronto. And you guys saw my van.

thebrownvanlife (03:51)
Yes.

Yeah. And we met. Yeah. Oh my God. It's all.

Yeah. Your van was so cute. Uh, and yeah, we met at that coffee shop in Toronto. Remember Madras coffee shop? Yeah. Yeah. It's always crazy. Time in Toronto is always so hectic.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (04:14)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was awesome. And then.

Yeah, I know you've gotta hit all the people you want to see all the stuff that you have to get crossed off the list and then flying to your next destination again, but enough about that Why don't you guys tell us a bit about yourselves? Who you are what you do and maybe where you're calling in from today because you're not in Canada right now

thebrownvanlife (04:24)
Every school? Oh, it's freezing, baby.

Hi, everyone. We are Smriti and Kartik from The Brown Vanlife and we are right now calling in from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Yeah, this has been kind of our last stop for now. We've been here for a month.

We started travelling all the way from Toronto, Canada, and we drove to the end of the world, Ushuaia, and now we're here in Buenos Aires, just taking a little break, trying to recalibrate, figure out what to do next. we drove here in a camper van that we converted in Canada, and it took us...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (05:12)
Thank you.

thebrownvanlife (05:19)
40 months to get here and we are travelling with our two dogs. That's pretty much everything about us.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (05:27)
Awesome. And by the way, belated Happy Holi. Were you guys celebrating yesterday? No.

thebrownvanlife (05:32)
No, really there was nothing happening.

There was nothing. We were just calling back home and trying to be part of the celebrations back home. We were supposed to go back to India for Holi but unfortunately... Our trip got delayed by a week. We were supposed to be there for this week for Holi but we couldn't make it in time. Yeah, it's just finding the day of dog boarding and stuff took a while. So yeah, we were trying to find out an event to go to here in Buenos Aires but...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (05:43)
Yeah!

No. No.

Fair enough, fair enough.

thebrownvanlife (06:01)
We didn't really find anything. So maybe if we're still here next year, we have to make one. Yeah. We have to host one.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (06:05)
Yeah. Oh

nice. And why don't you guys tell us a little bit about your dogs too because they're such a huge part of your travels and your family.

thebrownvanlife (06:17)
Yeah, of course, they are the most important part of our travels. We have two dogs, Everest and Bali. Everest has been with us since Canada, since like the month, the year we bought 2018, the van, Everest came into our life. He's a Border Collie and Labrador mix. He's going to be six years in August. Wow. And there's Bali, who's Kartik's favourite. Yeah, we picked her up in Colombia.

I don't know, she just kind of came into our lives. We thought we wanted a second dog and we kind of put it off for a long time and then we're like, yeah, let's just get another dog and put it to the, add one more to the mix on the family. And yeah, she happened and she's, it's been good. It's been great. Travelling in the van with two dogs has been incredibly entertaining. And yeah.

But I think the real legend is Everest. He's travelled to 15 countries with us now so far. And yeah, what a great life he's been having with us on this journey. Or having with him. Or we're having with him, yeah. We're living in his world. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (07:23)
Yeah.

I love it. I feel like there's a children's book in there somewhere, like the travelling dog or something.

thebrownvanlife (07:31)
Yeah,

the narration has to be from Everest's perspective, a wise dog. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (07:39)
Yeah, oh I love it. And you guys often share about how like the dogs have been such a wonderful way to connect with people wherever you are, whether it's the kids or adults walking by who just, I mean we all love dogs, so that's gotta be really neat too.

thebrownvanlife (07:42)
Maybe.

Yeah,

we have made a lot of friends just by walking the dogs to dog parks or people who wanted to just hang out with the dogs and dog people connect fast with the dog people. So we've made a lot of friends through that. And we people have hosted us because they just just started playing with the dogs and they wanted to know what we are doing here with the two dogs and kind of then invite us to their home. So they are a good icebreaker and they have led us to a lot of.

cool adventures and homestays with the dogs.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (08:26)
cool. Awesome. Well, I want to backtrack a little bit because while you've been on the road for the last three and a half years, I'm curious to know where the travel bug started for each of you and how your...

upbringings either influenced or contributed to your desire to see the world because you guys not only travel a ton you've lived in several countries as I understand it you like the slower travel just like I do so like where did the spark for all of this come from?

thebrownvanlife (08:55)
Yeah, I mean, I mean, for me, I guess it's similar for Sim too but it all started with for me, it started because my dad is an Indian diplomat. And as we grew up, we moved to a different country every three years. So I never lived in a country for more than three years since I was pretty much born. And what a crazy good life. And and something I guess something something from that.

lifestyle of growing up like that has always made me curious about new cultures, new countries, and it's so easy for me to just go to a new place. Like for me, when I was a child, going to new schools and adapting to a completely new school, making new friends was easy for me. Yeah, I guess, I mean, that's kind of where it kind of all began if I think about it now. And just staying in Toronto was like the longest time.

I've stayed in a single city for my entire life. I lived in Toronto for more than six, seven years at this point before we left. And I guess that was like the threshold. And now I know that I'm in a position where I just need to move every few years to experience something new and see something new. Luckily, I met Sim, who's on the same boat too. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (10:14)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (10:22)
I grew up travelling not so much internationally, but my dad had a touring job in India. And because of that, we would take multiple road trips, multiple vacation in a year to the point where my school authorities were annoyed how much these kids were always travelling. My dad was just like, no, I have to take the kids. I have to take the kids. Whenever he would go for a tour, he would just tag us along, apply for holidays, or apply for sick days. And so we would just be, we were a road.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (10:22)
Bye.

thebrownvanlife (10:50)
road tripping family to begin with. Road trips were our favourite thing. And then I moved to Canada for my graduation. And then just life took over. And in my heart, very strongly, I knew that I'm not going to be stationary. Like my long term life, once I'm done graduating and working, I don't see myself being stationary. That's not how I'm going to live my life. I just kept telling me.

myself that idea, you're not meant for this life, you're meant for living in different countries. You know, I just like told myself that I think that kind of manifested that like self -talk manifested into meeting Kartik and just the van life happened. And I was reading through different ways people slow travel and live in different countries. And that's when the whole van life idea came into picture. So a lot of upbringing. Yeah, a lot of it has definitely to do with.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (11:43)
Amazing.

thebrownvanlife (11:47)
our parents and Funny enough our parents were the ones that were more shocked in the beginning what you're gonna live in a van and travel and now we tell them Yeah, you you guys brought this upon us

Tara (Travel with TMc) (12:05)
Yeah, that's so cool. It's like you have that inner rhythm of just like momentum going forward. Yeah, the constant change. Yeah, yeah. And then Kartik, I guess, like have you ever heard of the term Third Culture Kid before? Are you familiar with this TCK notion?

thebrownvanlife (12:10)
Totally, yeah, totally.

Yeah,

Third Culture Kid, yeah. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (12:22)
Yeah,

does that, so I guess for anybody who's not familiar with the TCK, do you want to describe what it is and then does that resonate with you at all or?

thebrownvanlife (12:32)
I don't know. I mean, I don't know if it completely resonates with me because I kind of like to think of myself as a local once I'm in that country. Yeah. What is your definition of the TCK?

Tara (Travel with TMc) (12:53)
So in the books that I've read, a TCK is a child, so TCK stands for Third Culture Kid for people who haven't heard of it before. And a TCK is somebody who grows up outside of their parents' culture. So their parents' culture is like considered the first culture from what I understand. Then the child's culture is kind of like the second culture from that. And then the third culture is the culture that surrounds them, the environment that they grow up in. And that is different from...

thebrownvanlife (13:01)
Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (13:24)
from the parents' original setting or context, I suppose is how you would put it. So oftentimes, historically, it was used to describe military brats or missionaries' kids, but in today's world, and this is back in the 50s and 60s, but in today's world, it applies to so many different people who are living in different places around the world outside of their parents' own culture. And I think TCK also kind of assumes,

being like how it started that each parent shared the same culture, but today so many people have parents from different cultures. So yeah, like, I don't know. I think it started as a very simple idea. The reason why I ask if it resonates with you is because it's quite different for everybody nowadays. And some people like the idea and some people don't.

thebrownvanlife (14:00)
Yeah.

I think we would say there is

an element of Third Culture Kid in our life because what, of course our parents are very open -minded and they are good with the kind of life we lead and everything, but still there is a way we live that is very different from how they live. Our values are sometimes very, very different from their values. It could be something very similar, how much importance they give to society.

and what the other people are saying. That's something we don't even... What the society thinks. What your choices are, yeah. We don't give a shit about that. So there are those boundaries that are so different for them and for us. And their version of happiness and stable life and secure life is so rigid and so different from us. So yeah, I think there is that element for sure.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (14:44)
Right.

thebrownvanlife (15:08)
Yeah, but I mean, we're like the way that we grew up is that our like the culture our parents have has kind of also like In green has been ingrained in us like it or not. Yeah, right. Like we still refer back to I mean, that's why we care about what they think in our lifestyle also or else we would not care totally not give a crap about how they feel about our lifestyle and we wanted to

involve them in this in our choices as much as possible. So there is that also. I mean, we're completely not disconnected from their ways of their values and their upbringing. So it's like a mix. That's why I kind of wanted to say that I don't completely relate to that, but I kind of do also relate to that term, especially because I've just been and I've been growing up in so many different cultures.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (15:54)
Yeah. Yeah.

Great.

thebrownvanlife (16:06)
And the only way to survive in these countries is to adapt to the local cultures also. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I'm still in a confused state at this point. They have another term for like Brown kids. It's called ABCD, A -B -C -D. And it's called American Born Confused Desis It's for us, for kids like us. It's us, so we're like.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (16:10)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

No!

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah

thebrownvanlife (16:34)
Born in America, but we're confused, Desis. Yeah, but we are confused about our identity, you know? So it's called ABCD. We're not born in America, but we're definitely confused Desis. We're CDs.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (16:42)
I think a lot of...

Yeah,

I think a lot of people can relate to this where the world is so much more connected than it was like 40 years ago, 50 years ago. And so we have these wonderful influences and impacts on our upbringing, which mean that traditions can look completely different because they're a mix of things or upbringings aren't the same as our grandparents or so on and so forth.

But we're gonna move forward a little bit. I'd love to know how you choose where to travel because you've done a ton of travelling in your life and of course you've just completed the Pan American. Like where did that idea come from and had you travelled together in the past or how are you gonna choose your plans coming up? What are those decisions like for you guys?

thebrownvanlife (17:33)
think when you start travelling, at least when I started travelling, the idea of travel was like, oh, I'm going to find a cool place and go to this cool place that nobody has seen, and I'm going to do this cool thing, right? That's how everybody gets into travel. So when I remember the early on trips I took with Kartik, it was like a road trip to US, and we went to Havasupai Falls and like, like,

like many years ago when nobody had went there and we want to see the Antelope Canyon and all of these cool places. It was just like the idea of seeing these unique landscapes and cool places. But then trying to maximize the holidays, the time that you have off, you know, those days off, you're like, I want to be something really cool in the three weeks off I get. And then, then you're like, you burn out and then you come back and you have vacation blues and you're like, oh shit, like.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (18:16)
Yeah!

thebrownvanlife (18:26)
vacation is over. And then you start exploring the possibility of how do I live long term experiencing this joy that I just experienced in the three weeks. And that's when I started looking in people who were doing long trips and doing long term travel, you know, people who are doing world tours, either they were backpacking, they're cycling, biking, doing car camping, whatever. And that's when I came across.

this man's article his name was Gunther um really old man who's travelled the world in his um what car was it I always forget it was like a Mercedes G Wagon G Wagon like old school old school Mercedes G Wagon and he travelled the world for 25 years his world tour was 25 year long he went through he had like two three different partners through that and

went through countries that don't even allow land travel. He became so big that Mercedes sponsored him. Like getting into China, Mercedes was taking all the diplomatic actions to bring him into China. And Cuba, the prince of one of the kings of Cuba brought him in. So his story was just so phenomenal. That's when I was like, OK, this is it. This is it. When I read that, I was like, OK, this is it. We have to live long term.

road tripping through the world. That's how I'm gonna live this life of travel. And then later on I met this man. And of course, world travel sounds daunting. So then I realized there's a Pan -American highway that people actually starts from North America. So I thought, okay, that's doable because we're already in North America. And I pitched that idea to Kartik. And then what happened? And...

I didn't mean what happened. What happened? Well, I mean, I was never I never even knew the concept of travelling for really long. I thought that it was something that I mean, I've read about people that just backpack for like a year, but I never knew that people travel indefinitely. So I didn't want to get too much into learning about that way of life. But I was kind of obsessed with.

at least starting out and getting out of my comfort zone of doing van life and doing this Pan -American journey. I mean, even the Pan -American journey was not completely mapped out for us. We just had some sort of general idea that we wanted to, hopefully we'll drive through all these countries. Yeah, my goals were very, very different before I met Sim. I was very much the corporate guy, wanted to...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (21:05)
Go.

thebrownvanlife (21:17)
just continue studying, growing up the corporate ladder, working in tech, having that Toronto penthouse, those were like my aspirations before. And it was all getting there until I met Sim. And I traded out all my suits for hiking gear and really minimal clothing. Yeah, from buying expensive watches, he...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (21:28)
Right? Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (21:46)
started buying expensive camera gear and expensive camping gear and the money was getting spent on different things. And then once we started doing road trips together, Kartik was like, Kartik just knew this is a life. Why am I speaking on your behalf? Yeah, I mean, my perspective definitely changed and I knew that I wanted to at least experience this kind of slow travel for once and then decide if it was for me or not. So that's where it began and...

Yeah, and what's next? As I said earlier, it started as a cool thing to do. But now I feel like our future plans, once we started doing Pan-America, the itinerary was very free flowing. What the locals would suggest us, we would just do that. Keep few places from Instagram in mind, OK, this place looked cool, this place looked good. But a lot of Reddit, what locals are saying.

a lot of things that Reddit people are saying or locals in the town are telling us to do. We would always just chase those things. And one rule we had just go south. You know, we were never going north. So we just kept going south, south, south, south, south. And 40 months later, we made it to Ushuaia. Very free flowing itinerary. But for future, I think after travelling through these Latin American countries, you realize how much culture and people make a difference. So for example, as much as...

Europe sounds amazing. Beautiful. I feel like the culture in Latin America and the people that experience is what we are seeking. So maybe for next we want to do like Asia, you know, more more like countries where we can have explore more culture and do Asia and like Cambodia and all of that. So, yeah, maybe Asia would be next. Yeah, I don't know where.

I kind of want to go to places where it's less talked about. I mean, everybody's trying to find that less discovered place, which is hard to do nowadays. But I think it's more about people now. Yeah, definitely trying to find places like the Stans. I'm interested to go to like the Stans and try to see what... because I have no idea what people over there are like.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (23:38)
You're figuring it out.

Yeah.

Yes! Yeah! Yes!

thebrownvanlife (24:05)
Like I've never even heard about those stories. So I want to go discover those stories. I mean, that's kind of what we're planting in our brains right now.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (24:06)
Great.

Yeah.

I love this. And with The Brown Van be a part of this? Like, would you be shipping it or would you be buying and building something over there? Or would like, is this all just up in the air ideas at the moment?

thebrownvanlife (24:23)
It's

up in the air ideas and I think it's a good way to make it into reality to keep talking about up in the air ideas and eventually before you know it, it's turned into, yeah, it's turned like we're already there. Yeah, but I think it's The Brown Van is a vintage one and we did have our fair share of hardships with it. So we have considered the idea of just putting.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (24:34)
about it. Yeah.

I love.

thebrownvanlife (24:52)
Brown Van back in Canada for our local travels and buying something more like rigid and badass for, you know, the Stans because the landscape is hard and the roads are harsh. So we definitely would not mind just getting something way stronger and converted into The Brown Van. Brown Van 2 .0. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (25:11)
Yeah, nice. I love it.

I can't wait to see where you guys go next, literally and figuratively. Before we get on to the next segment, I'm curious to know if you guys have any travel traditions, because you've been travelling together a long time. Is there something that you like always do together or a way that you prepare that's consistent or something special that you do for your travels?

thebrownvanlife (25:17)
Yes.

I think we do.

border crossing days, you know, those are our travel tradition in a way. Before we, it's always a hectic day, the border crossings, we are mentally prepared. So there are a few things we do right when we enter a new country, of course, we go explore their currency, what the money looks like, you know, and go to a local grocery store, because I'm so excited to see what spices and new fruits and vegetables they have. And yeah, those are the end always just like,

I'm always looking at their new recommended food items. We are big foodies. So those are like, the moment we cross the border, those are the first three things we do. Currency, grocery shopping, finding out the new ingredients and just trying the new food. Those are our travel rituals, I guess. But do we have any other rituals? Do you like say a prayer or anything? I do say a prayer every time we are crossing, we're into a new country. I just say a prayer out loud.

And we also do something. What is that? What do we do? What is that when we say, when you're starting that thing, the way that Papa says.

My dad says something in Hindi which is like chanting to the Lord Krishna. So we sometimes say that chant when we are starting a long drive. So we would say that chant out loud. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (27:11)
That's

awesome. Our family actually did something like that growing up too. Anytime we would go to visit our family in the zoo, our mom would like have us say a little quick prayer, get us there safely. And you know, that sort of thing. That's me.

thebrownvanlife (27:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we would like

say that little prayer before we start a long drive. And I think it just kept us safe and alive after so many years of driving. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (27:26)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, this actually kind of segues perfectly because my next question is so for anybody who's just tuning in for the first time or doesn't know me outside of the podcast, my first love before travel was actually words and languages and still is to a big extent. And both of you are polyglots. Like you speak multiple languages and I love that on your Instagram and on your YouTube you incorporate all of that. I think so many people...

section off their lives in different ways and there's reasons why people do that too but would you share with us like which languages are yours and how you came to know them?

thebrownvanlife (28:10)
Yeah, I think just being an Indian kid, you're by default a bilingual kid, right? Sometimes actually kids from India are trilingual because you are, Kartik is trilingual by default. So you're born in a language that's spoken, which could be Tamil in Kartik's case. Then you learn a language which is more used.

which is in India, it's Hindi, which is primarily used in India and northern region, like the majority of population. And for, because his dad worked in the government, for that Hindi is used a lot. And my dad worked in the government, so Hindi is primary, it's the main official language. And then in school, it's almost like mandatory to speak English and learn language. So you do literally grow up learning three languages, if you're an Indian kid. And in on our Instagram and social, we encode.

Kartik has not spoken much Tamil. That's true, yeah, maybe one day. But I speak Hindi on our Instagram a lot and English for our global audience. So Hindi and English is what? Yeah, now we're getting there with our Spanish. Yeah, we're getting there with our Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so it's fun. Languages are so much fun. And such a

Tara (Travel with TMc) (29:20)
I was gonna say, don't leave out the Spanish, cause I know you guys speak Spanish as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, they're a blast.

you guys? Go ahead, sorry.

thebrownvanlife (29:31)
Such a cool barrier breaking

thing, You like, people bond with you.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (29:32)
Yeah, it

contributes to your trip so differently, eh? Yeah. And so like, how has language impacted the way that you travel then? Like did it, did you know any Spanish before you went on the Pan -American route? Or did you pick that up all as you went?

thebrownvanlife (29:36)
Definitely, yeah. What were you saying?

No, we had zero Spanish knowledge

when we entered Mexico, like zero. We were watching a video recently where Kartik was saying "jugo" which is juice. He was saying Jugo. I was watching that video, this is like day three of entering Mexico. Kartik is telling me, you want some Jugo? I'm like, yo, it's not Jugo, it's "jugo" which is a juice. Yeah, we had zero Spanish knowledge when we entered and it's pretty incredible how far we've come now. I mean,

I was just thinking about this other day where we were invited to dinner with some locals and they spoke zero English and we were able to keep the conversation going for an entire night. Just interacting with them and like whatever broken Spanish that we know, they were able to understand our stories and we were able to understand them. So it's pretty incredible. But like share just talking to people. We were hesitant first.

We were very reliant on translator, just using translator quickly and using that. But at some point we stopped doing that. We're like, okay, whatever damage Spanish we have, we have to throw it out, let people correct us, learn from people because that's like the fastest way to learn is by talking with your broken language. We're not trying to be entirely grammatically correct here, right? We're just trying to get our point across and they know that we're travellers.

They're not judging you. They're just happy that we're making the effort to speak their language. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (31:21)
Yeah,

yeah. Do you guys have any favourite words or phrases from any of the languages that you know? Like does something really stick with you or you love how it sounds or the translation into something else that you know just seems like out there like...

thebrownvanlife (31:34)
What is on your whatsapp?

My whatsapp status on Instagram, on my whatsapp is it's called "mi vale madre" "mi vale madre" It means I don't give a crap. Like the most aggressive way. Like I don't care. aggressive and most passionate way, "mi vale madre" And then someone recently taught us about

about the food and the heart. Oh yeah, she just taught us. We invited some locals over for dinner the other day. Actually, the dog sitters were going to take care of our dogs when we go to India. We invited them for dinner and made Indian food for them. And she taught us how do you say it? I forgot. Argentinians say very beautifully how when your stomach is full, your heart is content. I'll find that phrase. It's a very beautiful phrase. The way it sounded was really beautiful. So yeah, we do carry a lot of words.

throughout, but I cannot pinpoint one right now. I mean, our favourite phrases are how to order food in restaurants. Yeah. What's good to eat here? What's your recommendation? Those are our favourite ones.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (32:54)
That's awesome. Awesome. All right, well another topic I'm really curious to hear people's perspectives on is travel and technology, which for you guys I think is even more interesting because you both work full time, right? Which I don't think a lot of people know. And so tech has got to play a huge part into your ability to live abroad. But also you've built your own business with YouTube and Instagram, which is another tech. And then you talked about translators. Like...

thebrownvanlife (32:54)
Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (33:22)
How has technology changed the way you travel? And do you remember life travelling before? Like we talked about travelling as kids. It would have been guidebooks and things like that. Like how has that all changed?

thebrownvanlife (33:34)
I think we are living in the best times possible because if we even try to compare it to our trips, like our first few trips, we were not.

Yeah, first few trips we had like printed out itineraries of where we're going and by dates and like general directions of where we need to go. Yeah. Yeah, it's very challenging now. I mean, that's why it's because of technology. I think it's so free flowing. We we don't even know where we're going to be parking the van to sleep until like maybe two hours before the time of where like where we need to go search for a camp spot.

because of the technology that's in the phone, right? Yeah. Like imagine you were driving throughout Pan American Highway, you would have to plan your campsites months in advance because there's cities are scattered, there's nothing in between. Sometimes it's so isolated and you will struggle to find campsite. But now with iOverlander, which is the app we use, we can plan our campsites days in advance. We never have to struggle where to sleep.

In terms of maps, of course, there's Google Maps, but in Latin America, there are multiple maps like Waze. Waze is the app that everybody use in Latin America. Then there is Maps Me. If you're doing off -roading, this app is only for off -roading. Maps that don't exist on Google, if you're just going off -roading adventure into the wild, use Maps Me. And then translator, it's crazy how people just think it's just voice. We use it for translating menus. You use the Google Lens, and it translates the whole menu for you.

It's road signs in Spanish. You can translate it using Google Lens And then Starlink has been a blessing. Since we got in Colombia two years ago, we never have to worry about struggling at Wi -Fi's and cafes and three SIM cards we would carry in hotspot for work calls. That stress has gone out of the window. And in general, just keeping in touch with parents. Just telling them our whereabouts, sending us our live locations.

giving them peace of mind. I don't think we could have done this before WhatsApp days or before Google Maps days. It would have been such a challenge if we did this without Google Maps and before WhatsApp. Those two elements would have really made it a terrible journey. I mean, I do see some travellers still using like old school maps. It is pretty cool. I mean, I think it would be a cool exercise to try it out one day. But...

Yeah, we have to get over that and see how to do that. We did buy a map of Patagonia to try it out, but we haven't tried it out yet. Just for fun, yeah. Just for fun, yeah. The people who are starting are going to try using maps. No, just for the nostalgia. Yeah. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (36:18)
That's amazing.

Yeah, definitely. And do you guys, I mean, I think this question maybe answers itself a little given that you have a YouTube channel and your Instagram, but I'm wondering, like, a lot of that is for your audience as well as for you, but how do you document or do you document your travels just for the two of you? Like, are you guys journalers or do you have, like, I'm sure you've got pictures up in the van or what's the way that you hold those personal memories for yourselves?

thebrownvanlife (36:47)
Yeah.

We do printed pictures, we take Polaroids. These are the pictures that don't go anywhere in social media. They still have these mini Polaroid albums and we've filled up two or three albums so far. And these are the pictures. Yes, you journal. I journal. I definitely make a lot of videos that never make it anywhere to the public and it's just like something that we look back at.

That's my form of recording moments for ourselves. I just take notes on the phone. I'm not a journal by pencil or pen that much, but you know the Notes app on the iPhone, I will just take a random note, put a picture in it and write down how I felt in that moment. Or sometimes I leave a voice note for myself, for if there's something very...

powerful I want to remember from that day, whether it's someone's kindness or a cool location or just a thought that I had was very beautiful. And knowing how forgetful I am, I definitely want to write that thought down. So yeah, we like to document it just for ourselves. It's a lot more fun. And then now that we are sharing, doing like a recap episode of 100 episodes of our whole journey, just going through all those. Thank you.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (37:57)
I'm loving those, by the way. They're

awesome. Yeah, they've been fantastic to watch.

thebrownvanlife (38:04)
Thank you, thank you. So for those episodes, we have to skim through the footage we have never shared. And it's such a joy to watch these videos, you know, just to see those days, how we were struggling, how we... And now we know we have come out of it. So to watch those episodes and those days when you're struggling in retrospect, it's really fulfilling. Yeah, I was just going to say, we definitely, I think we record more for...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (38:28)
Yeah, I always find it interesting when...

thebrownvanlife (38:33)
Primarily ourselves, then for the aspect of sharing it on any of the socials, that's kind of secondary. And this is more memories that we want to record. And I don't know, like we always keep saying that hopefully we'll show this amazing journey to our future kids. So it has, it really has secondary priority for socials. But of course it's a cool way to

get to know the community and build a community around it. And it is definitely helping, but primarily it has always been for us. Yeah. One day our grandkids will watch our YouTube videos, like, yo, our grandkids were cool. Our grandparents were cool.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (39:08)
Yeah.

Definitely. I always find it interesting, like as a documenter myself, when people have this opinion that taking photos, taking videos, whatever it is you do to document takes you out of the moment, but I really think it can bring you back to the moment, just like you're doing now, reflecting back on your journey. Like it is a way that works for a lot of us to experience a place and to experience something new that is very immersive still. Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (39:41)
Yeah. Yeah. I know you,

there is always a debate that you're going to miss the real moment, but at the same time, you're, you're kind of making that moment so permanent for your whole life. There's so much only your brain can handle out of 40 months of travel. You know, there's only very selective moments that are going to save be saved in your memory for the rest. We will look back, scroll through.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (39:46)
I'm

Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (40:07)
terabytes of footage and find out days that we would absolutely not remember at all. And we would watch that day and be completely shocked that, oh, this happened to us, you know? So thankfully, it's a beautiful way to preserve those memories.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (40:20)
Right? Yeah.

Yeah, and kind of along that vein, like what are some new skills you guys have developed from living on the road and from travelling? Photography and editing and all that has got to be some of them, but are there others as well? Or just in general, like any skills that you've picked up? I mean, you talked about language.

thebrownvanlife (40:34)
photography wise I mean

I mean, just in general, photography and videography wise,

I feel like just having the ability to pick up our camera every single day and creating something has definitely upped our skill in that. Like I'm looking back at our videos from when we started. Like I find it so, like I can't believe I created that because like our skills are so much better now, but in that same category. So just putting something to practice every single day.

you're bound to get better at it. And this is like, like we've seen this. If you see what Kartik creates, it's unbelievable compared to when he started four years ago. His cinematography, his sense of shooting angles and frames is so advanced and so like professional level that sometimes I watch his clips and I'm like, whoa, this is so cool. I could never see a place like that in that view.

And of course, in the beginning, it was a learning curve. So we've improved a lot. Now we understand so many elements of editing and sound design and light, camera work, all of that, storyboarding. There's so much that goes in creating content. So we understand that. But apart from just content creation, we have also, we were not handy people at all when we started. True, yeah. To fix things.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (42:02)
Right, yeah,

talk about the build.

thebrownvanlife (42:04)
Yeah. So like when we started the build, it was like zero skills of building anything, not even, couldn't even put a frame on the wall kind of people we are, you know, so, and now we're not scared of break broken things, you know, we can just literally pick up tools and fix things. I mean, for example, when we bought the van, we had like two holes in the floor and I was so scared about fixing that myself. I paid somebody.

thousand bucks in Toronto to fix it. And now I look back at it, I'm like, what a waste of money. Like I could have just done that myself. Right? Like I am so not afraid to do, like, yeah, we're not afraid to fix things and just try figuring things out ourselves now, which has been, I know it's going to be immensely helpful in any future project we do now. Yeah. Just the confidence you get.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (42:58)
Yeah.

100%. Yeah, oh gosh, so many thoughts on this, but we're gonna move on. What's been the biggest surprise for the two of you on their travels? Whether it's been about a place that you visited, maybe you had a preconceived notion or you had no idea about it, or a big surprise that you've had about yourselves.

thebrownvanlife (43:22)
Wow. You're squeezing the mic, Kartik. I mean, I guess like travelling through Latin America, we're always told these negative stories about these places, right? We never really walked into any of these places with that thought process to begin with. We had a very open mind. But what surprised us was that how kind and loving these people are.

that what we had, like we knew that these places were not gonna be as bad as people that made them out to be, but they have far exceeded the openheartedness and the kindness that these locals bring. So that really surprised us that places like this can be, like people can think about these places so often the wrong direction.

That's been the most surprising for us on this journey. What have you learned about yourself? About myself? Mm

I think the same thing. I think that has been the biggest takeaway. You know, when you are, when you grew up in a society, developed society, you judge other person's kindness. Like, okay, he's helping me, what's in it for them? And then when you even like, sometimes, even right now after four years, it's so hard to just understand that maybe someone is helping you out of pure good heartedness, like nothing else.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (44:46)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (44:58)
When people helped us in the beginning, I was like, hmm, what do they want from us? Why are they helping us? Do they want money? Do they want something? It took us a while to wash that thought process. And now after like three and a half years, if someone is helping me, I'm instantly, I know they're good humans. I know they're doing this out of their, like, because they're just good people.

and there's no other motive and I'm instantly so grateful for them and I want to thank them. I want to host them for dinner. So yeah, I think that has been the biggest change to be open to kindness, not just giving kindness, but receiving kindness.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (45:41)
Gosh, those are such good responses. Thanks, guys. I think that kind of...

thebrownvanlife (45:41)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's been the biggest. And we're like monk

level patience now. Oh, yeah. That's another thing that we have learned. Nothing can break us. Yeah, we have become almost too patient about things where people get annoyed of us that why you are not reacting. I'm like, OK, it'll be done. No worries. We have become too patient with this thing. Yeah, things work out. Yeah. Truly.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (46:05)
Yeah, things work out, right? Yeah,

yeah. I think that kind of ties into with like, a lot of times, and maybe this is a Western centric way of thinking, people here talk about the way that they benefit from travel personally. But I feel like, of course,

those benefits are gonna happen. But you guys also kind of do the other side of thing from what I've seen anyhow, from some of the conversations that we've had where you consider the impact that you have on another place. And Sim, I think of you right away with this with your cooking because I feel like it's legendary. I mean, I haven't personally tried any of it, but you cook for everybody everywhere you go. And that is part of your impact on a place is...

you know, bringing that warmth and hospitality and kindness and generosity to the places that you're in too and respecting the places where you are. So I guess my question is, like, is that something, is your impact on a place as people being world citizens, do you consider your impact on where you go? And is it something that you make conscious decisions on or that, you know, like, what's your view on this?

thebrownvanlife (47:24)
Yeah, I think for us, we were recently actually talking to someone about this. What is our exposure to us? Like, of course, you get exposure from being in a new place, but what is other people's exposure when they see us? You know, because first of all, of course, they've seen a lot of European tourists and American tourists. They have never. I'm telling you, Pan -American Journey, we are literally the only only Indian couple driving this van. There's no other Brown couple driving this van on this itinerary. There was nobody in the 40 months. We didn't come across a single

Tara (Travel with TMc) (47:37)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (47:55)
Brown couple or solo person driving the site in a race. So we were, when we get to places, people have not seen us before there. When we show them our in passport to the police or to the border patrol, they have not seen someone with that, right? So then there comes not a burden, but more like a responsibility to show them.

like to give them that first impression that's your job and you want to leave a good first impression for your whole country so it's important you teach tell them the right things like correct a few assumptions they might have about your country uh them calling oh do you speak Hindu you correct no it's not Hindu, it's Hindi. Hindu is a religion, you know um and then they honestly people in Latin America have not tried Indian food

Tara (Travel with TMc) (48:41)
Right. Right.

thebrownvanlife (48:49)
They're just not that open to international cuisine and Indian food is like way far away on their list of desired items or like they have even explored. So when I make Indian food for them, it's literally I'm exposing them to a huge part of my culture, which is food and also the hospitality. I'm giving them a glimpse of how hospitable and warm Indians are in general, you know, to our culture. So.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (49:07)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (49:17)
I think that is a big responsibility. And we always sit with them, talk about the culture in India, the festivals, the movies. I've written lists and lists of movie recommendations and songs for people and politics, if they have any assumptions about politics. So we try our best to give them a neutral opinion on things that they might be saying wrong. So yeah. Teach some phrases in our languages. Yeah. They just want to...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (49:44)
Yeah!

thebrownvanlife (49:46)
get like a general overview. Some people want to get in detail, but yeah, a lot of them just want to get a general overview of like which part of India are we from? How is it different to where Sim is from versus where I'm from? Yeah, it's very, very fascinating how they take the opportunity to learn from us about our country as much as we are taking the time to learn about everything they have to offer. They're equally curious about who we are, our country, you know.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (50:10)
Right?

thebrownvanlife (50:12)
and whatever questions they have, it's our responsibility to answer them.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (50:13)
Yeah.

It's such a beautiful way to interact with people, isn't it? With that curiosity and that openness and that receiving and giving of ourselves. Yeah, that's so cool. I love that. When you are in other places as well, do you have any tips for people maybe who haven't travelled before or who haven't lived abroad on how to respect local cultures or things to consider?

thebrownvanlife (50:26)
Yeah.

Yeah, people can do it. Yeah, I think, let's see. Come with an open mind. If you're coming with fear, if you already believed, oh, I'm going to Colombia, it's going to be unsafe. Oh, I'm going to Mexico, it's going to be unsafe. You're not going to have a good time. You have to come with an open mind. Okay, I've heard of some bad incidents, but let's just believe that.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (50:45)
Yeah, one or two. I'm like, there's a million, but are there one or two that may become to mind?

thebrownvanlife (51:12)
majority of the humans are going to be good here. So start with that. Do not just blindly believe in media or there was a robbery here, a robbery there. Do not just believe 100%. Just come here, meet people, decide for yourself. Don't judge a country in advance. Have any preconceived notions in advance. Come explore it, then decide for yourself. I think that's the biggest travel tip I would give to anyone travelling anywhere.

Yeah, any trip you have? No, yeah, just literally try, be open to trying anything that you are comfortable with trying, but have that open mind to accept those new experiences.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (51:41)
Nice.

Yeah, fantastic, awesome. Where do we want to go next? There's so much I want to ask you guys, but I know that we, I want to be respectful of your time as well.

thebrownvanlife (52:07)
No, it's

okay.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (52:10)
Oh, is there anywhere that you've visited or moved through that you could see yourself living in longer term, whether longer term is a year or three years or maybe six years, but is there anywhere that you've been like, oh, this hits, this connects with us?

thebrownvanlife (52:23)
Yeah.

Mexico. Mexico and Argentina is a really close second also. The people are very nice here. Weather is amazing. I mean, the major factors for us is like good weather year round and warm people. And good food is a bonus too. I mean, a place like Argentina is amazing food. And Mexico, of course, like it's... I think for us, the chord that Mexico hits is...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (52:47)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (52:58)
Spicy food. A lot of things in Mexico reminds us of India. The flavourful food, the really rich, intense, spicy, flavourful food that always hits the chord. Multiple tons of festivals. They're constantly hosting festivals in different parts of the country all the time. It literally feels like India. There's some festival happening every other weekend. And just the warmth of Mexican families. They're like good, big, joined families that we have back home. And they really value their...

siblings, their grandmoms, they're part of their culture. So that's why it feels very familiar. So if we were to live long -term, definitely Mexico hits those blocks. It's perfect in that sense.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (53:44)
So awesome. And have you, well, I guess when you're travelling, is there anything that you do when you're away that you don't do when you're home? Although this also kind of ties in with my next question, which is what does home mean to you? Because that's different for everybody. So maybe touch on like, what does home mean to you first? And then what do you do when you're travelling that you might not do while you're at home?

thebrownvanlife (54:12)
Home to me is a place of comfort and feeling safe. And for me, that's when I'm with Sim and my dogs. And even though the van is such a small space, when we're in the van, it feels like we are home, no matter which part of the country or which, like we're in the globe we are. So.

So any space that makes you feel like right now this Airbnb that we've been in for a month feels like home. Cause I feel like I have my family next to me and I feel safe. Those are the two main aspects for me. Yeah. I think home is definitely a feeling for us. We don't have any visual image of a home. You know, it's not a house with a big yard or a van for that matter. It is where we are happy together.

Um, it's me and Kartik and then the dogs, um, and we can do things, but also the, the aspect of curiosity. I feel like, I feel like the moment both me and Kartik will get bored of a place, it won't feel like home. So the, the moment we won't have curious experiences or new experiences, even in Buenos Aires, we're constantly exploring new things. It's such a huge city. Um,

I feel like after a point when we're like, okay, seen it all, done it all, it won't feel like home anymore. So that desire to explore constantly, that state of mind is home. I don't know if it made sense.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (55:44)
So interesting.

Very cool.

Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. And is there anything that you guys do, like travelling and home are one and the same for you because you are home for each other. Like you are space together, your movements together are home. So maybe the next question is irrelevant that if you do anything when you're travelling that you don't do in your home. Yeah. Do you do anything when you're travelling that you don't do while you're at home?

thebrownvanlife (56:03)
Yeah.

No, what is the question? What is the What are we doing?

Hmm. No, I keep going back to food. Right now in this AirBnb we have a whole cupboard just stocked up with Indian groceries and spices. It's cyclical. I keep talking about food, but honestly, that food, that Indian food is such a big element of our home. Whether we make it at the van, if I'm not eating that food, I'm not home. Simple. It's so crazy how important the food is for us, but.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (56:42)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (56:49)
If I didn't have all these spices here, all these ingredients here where I can make my lentil and rice or have some Indian food, it won't feel like home. Yes, it's a big part. So like if you're saying what is one thing that we have in home, like because our home is everywhere, our Indian food, our culture is what makes it home. So we can't just like have a beautiful house but in Europe and not eat Indian food. We'll never feel like home. We'll be like, where are we?

So our food is a big part of our home. Yeah. We'll be lost without our food. What did you do in Antarctica? Huh? Antarctica? Oh my God. We asked. We were in Antarctica. And I found out the head of the restaurant, the head chef was an Indian guy. And I'm yo. See, I used to find home there too. I'm like, yo, you got to make me some Indian food, man. I can't eat this food for 11 days. The guy literally.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (57:23)
I love that. And that's...

thebrownvanlife (57:46)
He literally made Indian food for me for 11 days while I was on the ship. He didn't tell anyone and our table will get secretly served Indian food. And nobody knew that. And then people started looking at our table smelling and started ordering cake. And we have one, what these guys are having. Cause I was like, I'll go crazy. So even in Antarctica, I was eating Indian food. It drives me crazy if I don't get to eat my food. Yeah. So that's a big, big.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (58:11)
hilarious. I love that.

That's so sweet that he did that too. That's really neat.

thebrownvanlife (58:15)
Yeah, he was so

sweet. And he said, I had a limited stash of my garam masala. I used it all on your food. Thank you so much. He was so sweet. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (58:26)
That's so neat.

Changing tracks a wee bit, what's the weirdest place you guys have slept? I love this question in general, but considering how many different places, yeah.

thebrownvanlife (58:33)
Oh my god, so many views.

I feel like I've erased those nights out of my memory. Oh, Lord, we have slept in some really weird places from like garages, really dingy, dark. Where you're like questioning your life. Yeah. What have we gotten ourselves into? It's like grease all around you, oil all around you, and this is like a messed up garage. We've slept in garages. We have slept in some very...

questionable neighborhoods where we could hear people like really walking by a van all night and just like I'm ready. I'm like, okay, somebody is going to break in any second. We have slept in those places. Well, tell her about our weird night in Canada crossing into Saskatchewan in that ghost town. Oh, the ghost. Yes, the weirdest place. I think that has to top it. And that was like...

In the beginning. first two months of van life. Oh my god, we are crazy. There's something wrong with us. Nobody would do this stuff. So we got, you know the ghost town trail in Saskatchewan? There's a highway of ghost town. Do you know about it? It's called the highway of, it's called the highway of dead or something that's called, it's like a very dark name, but it's just a highway of old ghost towns. And we were driving through Saskatchewan and we thought it would be a good idea to just take a detour and drive on this ghost town highway and explore all these ghost towns.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (59:49)
Yeah, I've heard of this. Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (1:00:07)
And at some point it got dark and we were running low on fuel. So I just saw this like distance. There was a town very small. I just zoomed in on Google map. It was showing a random name, Bear Head or something like that. I was like, it looks like a town. Let's just go in here. We go in and there is no road. It's just like we go in there's some street light and like a parking lot situation.

And houses, they're like four or five houses in the distance I can see and the lights are on. That's it. We're like, okay, cool. Let's just sleep here. Nobody, nobody else. It's huge, vast. You know how vast Saskatchewan is, just land and land. You don't see anything. We sleep there and I'd get Everest out of the van. He's not getting out, Tara. He's like not getting out of the van and he's just growling at the darkness. Right? He's like grrrr.

And I'm like, Kartik, why is my dog growling at the, like, like the air? Airbrush refuses to go out. Like this dog would jump out of the van, start playing ball immediately that night. He did not come out. He's like, yo, something is wrong here. He's like, I am not going out. He refuses to go out. And then something about that place had a very eerie feeling. So I am a very like, like intuitive about these things. I was like, I'm not.

So I took a knife and just put it under my pillow. I'm like, I'm going to sleep in the night just in case somebody is there. I'm ready to attack. I'm not scared, but I have a plan. So I put a knife into the and I sleep and the whole night. Ever since is growling at the air. Next morning. OK, we're still alive. I go to the only grocery store in the town to buy, I think, eggs or apples or something. And they're like.

Oh, pretty much the entire town was at the grocery store. Yeah, entirely. It's like 20 people town. And I think two of us added the population of the town by 10 percent. So I go to the grocery store and the lady at the checkout is like, oh, you guys came in last night, didn't you? And I was like, yeah. OK. Then we go outside and another old man is like, you are the people who rolled in last night in the town, right? I was like.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:02:01)
Oh, jeez.

thebrownvanlife (1:02:22)
Okay, it's like everybody called everybody that there's a random, like there's a car here and there are people here. Everybody knew that we rolled in and just, it was so bizarre. I was like, I think we need to go. I don't want any grocery. We need to leave. It was the creepiest. Or maybe they just wanted to invite us over for lunch. How do you know now? Yeah, yeah, sure. It was very weird. Yeah. Just spooky.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:02:35)
Oh my goodness.

So interesting. That's when you

wish you could get inside a dog's head and know, like, what did they know? You know? Oh my gosh.

thebrownvanlife (1:02:52)
Yeah. Like, what is it, Everest? What is it? Yeah, that our dog didn't leave the land.

Yeah, definitely a lot of weird, spooky places we've slept in that we have not told our parents about. Yeah. They'll call us and be like, you guys are at campsite, right? We're like, yeah, yeah, we're all safe. And we're like, no. Hopefully, we'll make it out tonight. Yeah, yeah, we are at a campsite. We are at campsite. And Katik's mom's favourite question is,

Are you at a campsite? Yes. Are you, are you, are there other people at the campsite? We always say yes. But there's sometimes like, you don't have hours of driving before we see human beings. So I'm like, yeah, yeah, there are people somewhere two hours away. There are people, but

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:03:39)
Yeah, that's a big thing people ask us about van life, eh? Like I know as a solo female travelling in a van, I get asked that all the time, but I'm sure you guys as a couple get asked about safety in the van as well. Do you have any safety tips for people, whether it's for van life or just on the road in general?

thebrownvanlife (1:03:58)
I would just say if locals are saying it's unsafe, it's not worth the risk. I mean, some people try to take the risk for the thrill of it. We are not those people. If we were travelling with our entire home, for one. And then we have to look at our own safety also. But yeah, we're also not those kind of people where we're overly, overly cautious, but we will definitely take a locals word.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:04:12)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (1:04:28)
And if they say do not travel on this road, we probably would not do that. Yeah, we know what they're talking about. We don't take our tips of what safety from internet. But if, like, for example, our friend Paloma in Mexico, she told us certain towns that are not safe to drive her his dad gave us a whole map of what itinerary to follow and which highways to avoid. We just blindly follow that because they know their country, you know. So that is one tip I would say. If you're concerned about your safety, ask a local.

what the red flags are in the country and just avoid that. Yeah. And then we always, I mean, for us, like without our laptops and our camera gear, we would be kind of handicapped. So just as a safety precaution, even if the van is in like a secure neighborhood, we'll just carry back two backpacks with us at all times. Yeah. We don't leave that in the van. Yeah. We just don't leave those two things in the van. Everything Camera and laptop should not get stolen. Yeah. That's just...

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:05:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like you've got your turtle shell within the turtle shell of the home. Yeah, yeah. Are there one or two items that you always travel with? I mean, this again, maybe doesn't apply to you guys because you've got your home with you. So you've got everything with you. But like you have travelled like when you head back to Toronto or when you head back to India or when you're leaving the van and you're going to Antarctica, like what are one or two things that you have to have with you when you're maybe outside the van?

thebrownvanlife (1:05:29)
Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

You

For me, it's my AeroPress. Coffee. My coffee maker. So I will not leave anywhere on a trip without my AeroPress. That AeroPress and the coffee grinder goes with us everywhere. I mean, for India, we don't have to worry about anything. But I would take some basic spices and chai ingredients with us. Outside of India. Yeah. But again, we're not that, of course, camera, we don't go anywhere.

without our cameras. But apart from that, we are not too materialistically attached to things and stuff. You can literally send me to a new country and I'll figure it out. Just barely, like nothing with zero, I can find out how to survive and not emotionally invested in things, clothes or bags or anything, except like if it's.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:06:32)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

I like to say if

you have a credit card and a good attitude, you can do anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you guys deal with the post -trip blues? Yeah, yeah, it's true. It's absolutely true. I'm with you on that. How do you guys deal with the post -trip blues? Do you always have something planned coming up? Is it reflecting back on what you've done? What's your secret?

thebrownvanlife (1:06:50)
Yeah, exactly. True. You can figure it out. Yeah, that's what travel teaches you.

We

haven't had the opportunity to get the blues

You know, we haven't felt the blue. This is like we just finished Panamerica, came to Buenos Aires and we needed this time to just be calm because we've been moving for 40 months and really enjoying this life in having an apartment and stuff. Maybe the blues will hit us in a few months when we are not moving. If we come back to Buenos Aires, we are more stationary for a few more months. Then maybe it'll hit us.

If anything, I get blues when I go to India, when I come back from India. That's when I get major blues. I always cry and stuff. And then it takes me a few days to just... Because in India, you're surrounded by family, people constantly, and you're spoiled. Like my parents spoil us. His parents spoil us. My parents spoil us. So when I come back, I feel like my life is so, so sad and lonely. Nothing makes sense.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:07:50)
Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (1:08:13)
Um, so we always plan some exciting activities right after when we arrived for India. So I can get out of that funk. What are you laughing at? He's laughing. Cause I know I have to plan something now after India. I'm very, very like, it takes me a few weeks of just sadness to get on. That's the real post trip. Yeah. Those are my blues. Just leaving mom, dad every single time.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:08:22)
Something to look forward to.

Yeah, makes sense.

Are you looking forward to your big trip coming up back to India? Yeah. Oh, no. Really?

thebrownvanlife (1:08:44)
I haven't seen parents in one and a half years and yeah,

yeah, it was 2022 November we went. it's just Latin America from India is such a far flight. It's literally two days worth of flying and they're too old. It's

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:08:52)
Oh.

that's fair.

thebrownvanlife (1:09:00)
Unless I can afford business, I cannot afford business yet. Hopefully one day I can afford business class seats for them. Yeah, I know, I have to do that. Yes. We have all these Air Miles and some other points. We just don't know what to do with them. Yeah, we're not well aware. Yeah. And Kartik uses American Express points.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:09:04)
Yeah. Now, points, Sim. We gotta get you guys on points.

Yeah, that's most people. That's fair.

thebrownvanlife (1:09:27)
I don't know how that works. I have no idea.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:09:28)
Yeah.

Anything for you, Kartik?

thebrownvanlife (1:09:30)
Yeah.

For me, I mean, I try to just reflect back on the time. Like, for example, for Antarctica, I had all this footage that I had recorded, and that's kind of my way to cope with the post -trip blues, is to go through that footage and try to make some sort of memory out of that.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:09:49)
Nice, I love it. All right, we're kind of wrapping up here. I've got two more sections we'll say. As a bonus for the listeners, I'm putting together a travel playlist and would love to know if there's one song that either sums up your travel style or a song that reminds you of a place that you've been to.

thebrownvanlife (1:09:54)
Okay.

Give us the Bollywood music. I really like this song called Yun Hi Chala Chal . It's basically it says, keep on going. You wander, keep on going. The world is too big, just keep on going. Basically that's what it's a song for a person who is exploring the world. And actually that was a song the first time I saw a camper van. So it's a good song. It's, yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:10:19)
Okay.

Amazing.

Oh cool.

thebrownvanlife (1:10:39)
So I think I would suggest you that song. Yun Hi Chala Chal from the movie Swades.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:10:45)
Perfect. And do we have a second one? Sounds like we got two people over there. Yeah, not for the both of you. Like you're welcome to both submit a song if you want, or is that the group song?

thebrownvanlife (1:10:46)
That's our theme song. That's our theme song. Sorry?

That's the group song. Yeah, I don't have much song selections in the van, to be honest. If I'm in like slow mood, we'll start with John Mayer. Hype mood, we'll blast some techno music. I'm in a party mood. Then it always comes back to Bollywood. Then we always come back to Bollywood. So it's like a different world of music happening. But Yuhi Charachal is a big, you know, every time we just want to feel up.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:11:02)
Sims the DJ.

Nice.

thebrownvanlife (1:11:25)
like uplifted and like in good mood we play that song it makes you feel good yeah yes yeah

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:11:30)
Perfect, we'll add it into the playlist. Awesome, thank you. Okay,

last little bit here, we've got a speed round. So in like one word or one sentence, if you guys can answer each of these questions, okay? Okay, where is your next trip?

thebrownvanlife (1:11:44)
Okay. Okay.

India.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:11:49)
Favourite mode of transportation.

thebrownvanlife (1:11:52)
Campervan!

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:11:54)
 you prefer planned trips or spontaneous trips?

thebrownvanlife (1:12:01)
spontaneous trips.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:12:02)
Yeah, for both of you? Yeah, okay. Are you guys underpackers or overpackers?

thebrownvanlife (1:12:03)
Yeah, spontaneous trips.

Underpackers. Underpackers. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:12:13)
Which

is amazing to me because I saw your Burning Man video. I actually passed it on to a friend who was going for the first time and I was like, you guys have to watch my friend's video who went to Burning Man. This is the packing list. But that's a different scenario too.

thebrownvanlife (1:12:25)
Yeah,

that you need to everything for survival. So you have to pack properly. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:12:30)
Yeah,

what's the most overrated destination you've been to?

thebrownvanlife (1:12:37)
Overrated? Yeah, I would say so. Tulum, yeah. Tulum is so overrated.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:12:43)
Yeah, what's

the most underrated destination?

thebrownvanlife (1:12:49)
Nicaragua, like the entire country. Yeah. So underrated. Oh my God. It has the most beautiful sunsets, beautiful waves and beaches. The Ometepe Island is like a paradise. We can tell we love it. We love Nicaragua.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:12:53)
How come?

Cool.

Best piece of travel advice you've either received personally or you've seen somewhere.

thebrownvanlife (1:13:17)
Always famous words. Oh, our friend right here, he's a friend from Germany who's visiting. His favourite advice is move, you're not a tree. Move your body. He says move, you're not a tree. That's definitely our favourite advice. Yeah, move, you're not a It reminds us to move every single day.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:13:34)
Thank you!

thebrownvanlife (1:13:46)
every hour.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:13:47)
Perfect. Window seat or aisle seat?

thebrownvanlife (1:13:52)
100 % window for me. Yeah, I have no choice then. I have the aisle. He's the middle, most likely if I'm on the window. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:13:57)
Ha ha!

and describe yourself each as a traveller in three words.

thebrownvanlife (1:14:08)
Three words. Clueless. Courageous and open -minded. Spontaneous.

I would say brave and foodie.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:14:37)
Definitely. And yeah, what's a characteristic that makes for a good travel partner?

thebrownvanlife (1:14:37)
Big foodie yes.

Yes person. Yeah. You just say yes to my plans. It goes both ways dude. No, we both are very um yeah. Patience and yeah. Patience and just being open to doing things. Just say yes to everything. That's what works for both of us. That's why I'm the clueless person. Because he just says yes to my plans.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:14:50)
Yeah.

amazing.

And what's the best gift you think for a traveller if there's somebody who's going out on their own for the first time or people who are well travelled? What's the best gift that you could give them? It doesn't have to be a tangible thing. We've had some interesting answers with this question.

thebrownvanlife (1:15:28)
Hmm.

For a traveller, the best gift. I think get into postcards. I know postcards are so cliche, but send yourself a postcard. Someone recently, was it you who told me to write each other a postcard? Yes, we did that. So I think that's a great tip.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:15:48)
Yeah, that was me. When you guys were in Antarctica. Yeah. Oh, you did.

thebrownvanlife (1:15:53)
Yeah, we did. I absolutely love that idea. And we wrote each other a postcard. That will open in three years, no, five years. We wrote a postcard for five years later. So from Antarctica. Yeah, write a postcard to yourself from a place you've just finished travelling. Write a lesson that you've learned there. Write the feeling that you've learned there. And like maybe a highly recommended hidden place you might have recommended. And just send it to yourself. And keep collecting those. That's pretty cool.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:15:55)
Oh.

I will

thebrownvanlife (1:16:22)
over the years and you'll have like a like a beautiful guidebook of your own travels. Postcards are really good. Yeah. Yeah, I wish we did that earlier. Oh my god. Yeah, I saw that. I saw you did that. Yeah. It's so hard to do in Colombia huh? Wow.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:16:27)
Yeah, yeah, fantastic. They are, they're the best. I just sent some more yesterday.

Yeah, I didn't realize until

I was there. I was like so gung -ho to do the whole post office thing and all that and yeah, everybody was like no. They use like, yeah, yeah, it's not reliable there. So people use like FedEx and other things like that. And I was like.

thebrownvanlife (1:16:44)
Yeah.

What? Why? I don't know. They have a good personal service.

Cool.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:16:59)
I love people and sending postcards, but I'm not paying FedEx prices to send these postcards. I'll send them from Canada. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Last one. Best travel app.

thebrownvanlife (1:17:04)
No. Yeah. Exactly. Okay.

Our only travel app is iOverlander. It's like the lifesaver app for us. The lifesaver for us. And can you believe it's free, free of cost? All that information on iOverlander is free of cost. It's just a community run app. So if I find a new place where I've slept, I'll add it to the app and a moderator will approve it. And then the other people will leave a review for the place saying it was good place or bad place. And that's how it works. Community run app. Yeah.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:17:20)
Yeah, every van lifter.

Yeah, it's a true community -based

app, like you said. Yeah, definitely. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, both of you guys, for coming on the show.

thebrownvanlife (1:17:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So happy. I think we have to do her podcast. We cannot wait. I was like, okay, we'll do it after coming from India. I was like, no, let's do it right now. Awesome.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:17:53)
Aww.

Yeah, yeah, nice.

Well, I hope you have a... Yeah, thanks for coming. It's always nice chatting with you guys as few times as our paths have crossed in person. Yeah, love it. I hope that you have a wonderful time in India. Enjoy the rest of your time in Buenos Aires. And yeah, hopefully we'll get to connect next time you're in Ontario.

thebrownvanlife (1:18:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, thank you.

Okay, yes, definitely will come. All right. Don't cause. Oh.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:18:19)
Oh, before we go, where can people find you? And is there anything

else that you'd like to add? Yeah.

thebrownvanlife (1:18:28)
People can find us on The Brown Vanlife on all platforms from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, everywhere. It's the same username. And yeah, just come follow us, our journey. Say hello. Say hello to watch two cute dogs and two almost cute humans travel around the world.

Tara (Travel with TMc) (1:18:49)
Love it. All right, guys, we'll chat again soon.

thebrownvanlife (1:18:52)
Okay, bye.