Travel Joker 🃏

Now, you are about to travel to an unknown place. You want to experience this place and make the best of your time. You're travelling, after all. Some research seems appropriate.

Who do you trust most:

• Google ratings?
• TripAdvisor reviews?
• Random YouTube comments?
• ChatGPT?
• Or your friend, a person you actually know, and who is originally from that place?

Enter the travel joker.

The idea

The idea seems natural. If you are lucky enough to have a person in your life that comes from the country you are about to visit, you will contact this person and ask them:

• What to see?
• What to do?
• Where to go?
• When to go?
• How to get around?
• What to eat?
• Where to eat?

Better than any algorithm in the world, your travel joker will give you amazing advice. They are your friend, after all. Not only do they know the beauty of their home country, but also do they know you. They know that you like hiking, nature and adventures. They know that you don't like overly touristy things. Their advice guarantees an awesome trip.

That's the simple idea of the travel joker.

The Vietnam Joker (Nga)

For me, it all started in Vietnam.

In a country, whose culture is so opposed to what you are used to if you come from Central Europe, I was lucky to have someone explain it to me. This person was my friend and co-worker, Nga.

It started with the most important of all questions: what to eat for breakfast in Vietnam? Unsurprisingly, but yet unconventional to someone who loves French toast, porridge or Viennese breakfast the answer is a 3-letter word: "Pho".

Nga spent part of her childhood in Vietnam and has successfully assimilated in this culture after being away for some time. She gave me the ultimate advice, when I was about to drive a scooter in this crazy Vietnam traffic for the first time in my life:

Don't shit yourself, just take it easy.

With Nga it feels like we really became friends thanks to her jokership and the time we spent together in Vietnam. No matter if she showed us around Đà Nẵng, my favourite city of the country, or if she gave us the best advice anyone could ask for in our WhatsApp travel group called "Hello Vietnam": I always felt in good hands with a Vietnam Joker like her.

Danke, Nga. ✌️

The Hong Kong Joker (Anthony)

For the last 8 years, I have thought of Anthony, when I thought of visiting Hong Kong. We met in Osaka, during my first time in Asia in the cutest little hostel, that only allowed 6 guests at a time.

After our time in Osaka, we managed to reunite in Kyoto and both of us made it to the peak of Mt Fuji, the highest point of Japan, although each one on their own.

I was very happy to finally visit Hong Kong this year, but unfortunately during my crazy adventures in Asia, Anthony was having his own crazy adventures. In Europe!

Nevertheless, he became my remote Hong Kong joker. And he did make all my Hong Kong dreams become reality. After all, he was the one who introduced me to the pineapple bun:

It's just a name and it has no pineapple in it, lol. The one with butter in it is awesome, they usually serve it warm, so the butter would melt in the bun.

And his recommendations didn't stop there. He taught me what Hong Kongers eat for breakfast (Satay Beef Noodle Soup), where to get mouth-watering Dim Sum and I learned never to skip on the hot milk tea, a drink, that originated during the British colonial rule.

Last but not least, Anthony helped me understand the difference between Cantonese and Chinese, a question I had never asked myself before my trip:

Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong, Macau and the east of Guangzhou (Guangdong).

While writing this, Anthony is on his way from Europe back to Hong Kong. Once he arrives in Asia, I will have already left for America. It's funny, for some reason we can't manage to be on the same continent at the same time.

When I'm in Europe, he's in Asia. When I'm in Asia, he's in Europe. When I'm in America, he's in Asia. I wonder where he'll be once I eventually make it back to Europe. Africa?

We will meet up, in the end. I'm sure of it, my friend. 🫶

The Philippines Joker

For people like David & Chad it was only natural to be our Philippine jokers. My girlfriend and I never asked them to take us around their home and show us the beauty of the Philippines.

They just did. And the reason is so very amazing: it's because during our visit, we became their friends. David was originally our Airbnb host (slash surf instructor) on Siargao. Chad was our surf instructor too, but in Baler.

Siargao Island (David)

How can I ever forget the search mission David initiated when one night on Siargao island, my shoe was nicked by a dog. It consisted of local children that he paid with chocolate and contrary to my expectations, I actually got my shoe back!

How can I ever forget the dinner he invited us to, in the best restaurant in Pacifico, called "LeBron". Yes, named after the famous NBA player LeBron James, due to the Filipino obsession with basketball.

Forever will I be grateful to David, for he was the person that introduced me to surfing. In less than an hour under his guidance, I was riding my first wave and the feeling doesn't compare to any sport I have tried before. It's absolute freedom. And David made it seem so simple. The smooth waves of Pacifico definitely helped, too.

Salamat, David!

Baler (Chad)

If you ever make it to the alleged birthplace of surfing in the Philippines, then of course you are going to continue your surf training.

Chad was my surf instructor. And while he is an excellent teacher that upgraded my surfing game from beginner to intermediate, there are so many more areas in life where he excels:

• Observing the sea and estimating the perfect surfing conditions.
• Cooking Filipino food.
• Snorkelling and free-diving. Comes in handy when you need support with your underwater video capturing but also when it comes to foraging edible shells.
• Cooking Sinigang (Filipino sour soup with fish and shells that have been foraged in an earlier free-diving effort).
• Baking Buko Pie (Filipino Coconut Pie). The definite best Buko Pie in the entire world!
• Gathering his Filipino friends to hang out, go surfing, go snorkelling, eat Buko pie or have Sinigang together.

I'll miss you, Chad!

The Korea Joker (Sani & Sophia)

When I made it to Seoul in July, I've suddenly turned so very old. On the night, when I reunited with my Korean friends Sani and Sophia, I was reminded that my Erasmus term to Northern Finland was 11 years ago.

I managed to meet them once after Erasmus. 8 years ago, on my first trip to Asia (the same trip on which I got to know Anthony), we reunited for the first time.

This second reunion felt surreal. Sophia picked us up from the metro station and invited us to her home. Her husband Dowan was the friendliest person ever, when he captured the moments of our gathering on camera, printed the photos and framed them. Then he packaged them and gave it to us as a gift. All of this, in the same night that we had our reunion, while taking care of their 2-year old son Yul!

When I gave the girls the hand-drawn cards my girlfriend and I designed for the occasion, Sani and Sophia started sobbing because they felt so touched. I was close to tears too. The moment was too powerful. Reuniting in remote Korea, in a place that is at least 12 hours of travelling away from my home in Vienna, 8 years after our last reunion, 11 years after we first met in Finland.

We told old stories of the student dormitory and our unforgettable time of that very special year. We even could remember all the names of the fellow exchange students that lived on our floor. We reminisced about the parties we had in my flat with the magical number "404", we recalled a bike trip to the beach Nallikari, where one member of our group, Gabriel from Brazil, had his clumsy accident (he wasn't injured), but reminded us for the rest of the trip that he needed proper care.

We remembered the cold of the Finnish winter, that reached depths where your fingers felt frozen even if you wore two sets of gloves, while warming your hands over an open fire. But then again, it didn't really matter since you just rode a husky sledge beyond the arctic cycle after having visited the real Santa Claus (yes, really) only days before.

By the way, it's super helpful to have a Korea joker in a country, whose culture is just so absolutely strange to the Central European mind.

Sani and Sophia, I can't wait for our next reunion.

Travel Joker

What's left to come? The USA (San Francisco) and Mexico (Cancún). At least, that's my September (oh boy, what a year).

And after that? Hopefully, Peru and more of South America, but it remains to be seen. If you want to be my travel joker for any of these countries, I will be glad to. So don't wait to hit that reply by email button.

Be safe out there. ✌️