You Be Trippin' - Afghanistan w/ Yoshi Obayashi | You Be Trippin' with Ari Shaffir

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Follow Yoshi on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/yoshiobayashi/ On this week's episode of You Be Trippin', Ari Shaffir talks to Yoshi Obayashi about his trip to Kabul, Afghanistan. Going in, Yoshi thought there was a real chance he might die. Instead, he found a country full of welcoming people, wild stories, and a reality that didn't match what he'd been told. From meeting Taliban members and visiting Panjshir Valley to finding the best hash in Kabul and learning how to safely travel through one of the world's most misunderstood countries. If you've ever been curious about what the country is actually like beyond the headlines, this episode is for you.خدا حافظ You Be Trippin' Ep. 124 https://www.instagram.com/arishaffir https://www.instagram.com/youbetrippinpod https://arishaffir.com Chapters 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:13 - Believing I was going to die visiting Afghanistan 00:07:32 - Meeting The Right People For Afghanistan 00:09:10 - Bringing American Idol To The Taliban 00:12:18 - How To Do Your Homework For "Dangerous" Travel 00:22:21 - Fecal Air In Afghanistan 00:27:12 - Going To Panjshir, Afghanistan 00:31:39 - Meeting Interesting People In Kabul 00:35:59 - Finding Drugs In Kabul 00:43:49 - Visiting The Largest Prison In Afghanistan 00:50:43 - Different Social Norms 01:01:43 - The Bathrooms Of Kabul 01:10:49 - The Dining Culture Of Afghanistan 01:12:11 - Sport Bans Lead To Dog Fighting 01:15:53 - Falling Into A Sewer 01:18:55 - The News Doesn't Show You The Full Truth 01:24:12 - Pornhubs Influence On The Middle East 01:26:22 - The REAL Asian Hate 01:28:30 - Afghanistan Wants Ari Shaffir 01:32:55 - Handling Conflicts With The Right Mindset 01:38:41 - The Do's And Dont's Of Afghanistan 01:48:21 Yoshi's Leaving For Switzerland 01:56:56 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? Scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans. And they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip. They stay for hours.

They don't move on. They manifest. They're not a demographic group. They're fans. Spotify advertising. You're among fans. I'm in a resort to resort. I only hear one person say about Kevin Isso.

He goes, I do hotel travel, which he's like, I want to see nice hotels. Huh. So you know how like to have watch? No. No. He definitely does that above his means. It's tough if you're into collecting watches. Like, that's expensive.

You should be into collecting rocks. It's way cheaper. But like, but you get what you get, you know. But he goes like, no, no, it's this crazy five-star hotel where they take you, like, it's a whole hiking area. It's like, oh, he likes the hotels as his, what he's going to visit. I'm opposite because I want to know how the locals live the money goes to local I don't agree all right let me let me start this okay I try to do a different every time but one thing yeah Vegas is the only country in a only place in the whole world you

specifically go to visit the hotels you go different city you use hotel to visit the city and then you leave it yeah but Vegas is the only few places in the world where you are specifically going for the hotels yeah good point it's very unusual good point yeah it is unusual that way i'm always trying to look at the different angle for each country and cities you know like what's the thing to do in new york the thing to do is go bar hopping you know it's like that's a good local thing but there's no like let's take a picture of this bar like no it's a dive bar yeah it's not it's not pictureable it's just the point is drink for not that expensive with some friends with some decent music and you lived here for hollow 10 12 almost 11 years oh wow okay you're new girl you're new girl

Yeah, I'm a New Yorker now. He said when you get to 10 years, I've gotten to it. But I'm ready to move on. Where you've been and where you're going? This is our Reese Travel Show, yeah. We're going to talk about travel today. It's you. Hello, everybody, and welcome to UB. Tripping.

It's a travel podcast. I take you every week with a guest to someplace they've been. It's kind of, it's not so much of a travel blog, like what you're supposed to see and do, but more like what you got into. More of an experiential podcast than a lonely planet. It's the only podcast in America that has both white people's guests

and some type of Asian. And today, it's no exception and it finally proves that role. My buddy and a fucking well-versed traveler himself, Yoshio Biashi. Thanks, all right. Wow, you said my last name correctly. I don't, dude, I haven't said your last name

in maybe a decade. I'm shocked that came to me. Perfect. And this is what the millennial coast, closure because I did your pod, I think a day or two days before I went to Afghanistan. What was you doing my last book? About the porn stuff? Yeah, it was really upset at the time and you did it and you're very kind and generous. But you also shocked me by paying me. You're the first person paying me for podcasts.

Oh, how much I give you? 50, 100 bucks. I thought you were joking a minute. This, buddy, this one's 200. Oh. So I'm glad it went up and not down. But yeah, I was kind of relieved because I think I was a little bit paranoid going to Afghanistan. Yeah. I thought I was going to get killed.

I want to leave some record why I was upset and things like that. And I think after I did. Oh, dude, I would have showed your episode after you died. Would have been a perfect one. I'd say, I'd say, so I'm banking some of these. And it's like, it's like had like Lewis Black on or, you know, anyone who is like, if they die, I'm like, do I save it for like a year? Yeah. And then like have their last.

Remain anything or do I release it the week they died Week they die Week they die Definitely get more views But imagine putting out a norm episode now Oh God Wouldn't be interesting Wait, do you have it?

No, but like if I did, you know And you'd be like, what? And I think You got an email from my ex-supervisor Possible lawsuit, remember that? That's right And I thought That's right, they were like

Bringing a Jew with a lawsuit Good luck with that one I know how the system works. You're in porn. Oh yeah, we talked a little bit shit about your ex-boss. Yeah, what I heard later on, they were so scared of that episode. Something's going to have. Nothing happened.

And everybody exaggerate the threats, really. And I think too many people were some over nothing. And I think people stop, they should stop doing that. And they all do it. Well, what if something happened? You're like, yeah, what if something happened? I mean, most of the times nothing happens. Yes.

So then the reality is you shouldn't say, what if something bad happens? You should say, what if nothing bad happens? And I didn't go. Right. Because nothing was even going to happen anyway. And I wasted a fucking, and you went to a fucking Gannistan. 2019, 2013. Wait, 2012, 2013 and 2019.

I probably talked to you right before you went 2013. Yeah. So you went during a fucking wild time. Yeah. I think 2007A was like surge. That was really... 2000 what? Oh, no, no.

I'm getting confused. Iraq, sorry, sorry. Yeah, it was rough, but if you do your homework, you have the right people, I think you can minimize the risk, you know? So this is what, this is the experience you had. And I actually mentioned this a bunch in this podcast. Yeah.

That's how I can do multiple times in a country because different experiences or different, whatever. But your Afghanistan was an interesting time. I actually went to Paris and I thought about it because we were talking about Napoleon and Hitler going to see Napoleon tomb. Yes.

And Napoleon built his tomb small, so he had to like bend over to get in. Yeah. Because he wanted you to bow your head to Napoleon, even after he was dead. And Hitler loved that idea. He loved like a fucking, you know, real leader leader. Yes. You know, real scared of this guy leader. But he goes, I'm not bowing my head to you though, buddy.

And he goes, I respect you. Yeah. But, you know, this dead guy. But he goes, so he built a series or had them build a series of mirrors so he could look in without having to bend his head. So he could stand up straight and see you. the Emir, which went down to Amir, then up, so he could look at his tomb without ever having to, like, tilt his head.

But you get that Jew labor, you can do whatever you want, you know? I think that's pretty common, isn't it, for these great conquerors, like whether Hitler or Julius Caesar crying, looking at what Alexander the Great Dead, you know. Yeah, he's like, give it up. They all study what each other have done in history. But my thought was that it would have been an interesting time to go to, when I went to Paris, for a writing class,

would have been an interesting time if you go to Paris as a German, retired officer during the occupation of France. Right. But like that five years later and five years before, it's a different France, but you'd run shit. If you had that German fucking outfit on, everyone's scared to you.

Yes. No one's talking back to you. And you get to have the great food in Paris. You still pay for stuff. You don't have to be a tyrannical guy. But what a fucking cool time it was. And Kabul during the American occupation. Yeah.

Which the way you told me about it, and let's get into it, all these fucking, what do they call it, the workers for the government? NGO. What is that? Non-government organization. Uh-huh. So it's like they have to build shit and whatever, and they're getting attacks on this. But it's like, it's a city that's not there anymore in that way. So let's get into it.

Yeah. What do you want to? I mean, like, first of all, why'd you go? What kind of food did you eat? Who do you hang out with? We got to talk about the bar and how they would tell you to like we need you to bring alcohol. Oh, sure. Yeah, all that's like, let's just talk about what it was like.

So, you know, Jim Noren's manager, Jonathan Brannstein, he's a manager. He has this obsession with travel, and he introduced me to his friend Sam Moseni, which is the book up there. He is that he hates it, but we call him the Rupert Murdoch of Afghanistan because he owns the major media company. Yeah. and he was visiting Jonathan and he called me and I met up with him. And when he fled Afghanistan in 1979, he was a kid. I think one of the first places he went with Japan, because I think his dad was ambassador,

he was ambassador to Japan representing Australia. So he spoke pretty decent Japanese, I hit it off with him. And he told me, like, if you ever have an interest going to Afghanistan, let me know. And he said that to a lot of people, but most people, or not crazy enough to go there. Yep. I mean, you told me about it, and I was very close to going.

I was very close. I was like, I wanted to go. It's just the time. The time was the issue. Oh, he, he invited you. Guarantee. If you want to go, he will make it happen. I remember it was like, is it safe?

If you're with him, you're safe. 100%. Yeah. Who is he? He is a businessman. He runs a major media company called Moby. There is a television department called Tolo, and he runs every major television

and radio station in Afghanistan. and he have to constantly deal with Taliban because they will report some news or certain television show like soap opera they're really upset all the time and they have to deal with them. Wow, you think fucking millennials are tough. Oh, you deal with Taliban, yeah.

But that's a tough one, you know. I think they have such a difficult, ugly history. They need entertainment, you know. And I think Stahl was the first person to bring music competition. What's that show on the first? Fox with the American Idol? Yes.

They have an American after African idols. Yeah, he brought that back. And I think one of the... Afghan Idol, don't they actually destroy false idols? Boomia. Yeah, they destroyed the Buddhist terracotta statue. I think they were trying to figure out their thing. I think now if they had to do it again, like that's just in antiquity.

We wouldn't destroy that. But as of now, three years ago, they got rid of a lot of those shows. and Afghans love music. They, I mean, to give you some idea, for him no more, he has this really popular viral video where doing a bunch of dances. He's famous in Afghanistan because of that.

Not really? Yeah. He's never been there. Afghani American. Yes. Funny guy. And they love dance, they love music. And I think Sad told me one first year,

I think the one that consistent show, I might be wrong, I apologize. I just show a little bit of cleavage or ankle or something, Taliban, of course, complain about that too, you know. So all the soap opera from Colombia, Turkey, anytime they show a little bit of a cleavage, they were kind of a blurred area and ankles and things like that. Wow. That's interesting.

That's interesting. It's weird with it comes together, the fucking repressive part and the fucking open part or the puritanical part. In America is pretty puritanical, to be honest. But so like in France, they just had that thing of like doing the last supper mockery, whatever, or doing a version of the picture of Leonardo's Last Supper. And in France, they're like, oh, we're very secular.

We don't care. In America, we're like, how dare you insult the Christians? And you're like, oh, right, we're Puritans here still. Yeah. What's the thing they had in Cincinnati 20 years ago, Piss Christ? They were making big deal over that, you know? Yeah, yeah. Key thing to deal with is just don't talk about it.

Just don't talk about it. The more they talk about it, the more power they give it. Yes. I'm convinced a lot of these things that, like, there's some, like, Republican talking point of something 2025. I don't know what it is exactly. But I think it's just a tiny fringe of people doing it. And then the Democrats are like, look what they're trying to do, even though it's like three people doing it. And they're like, look what they're trying to do.

And the Republicans then go, don't tell us what to do. And they're building this thing up. Kind of like Charlottesville for the other way with like, you have this statue of so-and-so. I'm like, I didn't know they had that statue. And now there's people there literally killing each other. Yes. About a place you didn't know because you're all talking about this thing you could have just ignored. You know, the people in Charlottesville, maybe a city council should go, hey, can we tear that one down?

The guy was like a big slave owner. But like, now it's international. And like, you're just propping it up by talking about it. I think you've trouble enough to know that media have incentive to their fearmonger. Fear mongers. And I think anything negative in fear is so small news. There's no news if you talk about something nice about places, you know. They talked about this in the fountainhead.

Nice, nice stories don't sell. Yeah. And even now, I will go back to Afghanistan. Really? Just do your homework. You'll be fine. So what does that mean, though, do my homework? People are watching this right now.

Like, well, this is my homework. So what should they avoid and what should they not avoid? Well, something like Afghanistan, we have a little bit advantage because now, some when they help you. But what I usually do is read up a little bit of a history, what's going on currently. but WickedTravel.org is always useful one. Really? That one, for example, if you put Allentown, Pennsylvania,

they'll tell you what to do, what not to do, but they also mention specific crime to watch over. So another one is like if you put Barcelona, they'll tell you things like pickpocket is like a major problem, you know. So if you know what kind of thing to worry about and legitimate stuff, wikitrable.org is pretty good. You know, there's a constant reminder of, what kind of crimes are associated of certain cities like rome and venice wiki travel so what do you do

barcelona oh let's say yangon let's say well actually let's do this then let's do um cabul i never thought about doing that but yeah yeah i mean you've already bought but so this this is what you do to find out like and they have warnings where to eat where to stay okay so a advisory right away yeah strongly discouraged as of august 2021 yeah yeah and they also have stuff like uh on the bottom like crime that you should be worried about. They have suggestions like where to eat, where to sleep. Climate oriented, things to do. Yeah, things to do.

Foreignal is you get a foreigner registration card. Okay, so this is the shit you actually have to know. Yes. Departure, the foreign registration is required to be taken with you when you leave Afghanistan. Okay, this is. So this is always a good one. And if you're trying.

I like the sentence, sorry, but I like a sentence. The foreigner registration card is sometimes required and taken from you when you exit Afghanistan. and a big fine slash bribe, as in some cases required if you haven't got it. Was it crooked? I had to pay them cash at the custom when I was leaving two out of three times.

They're so blatant about it. They're just like, we're going to fuck you. They're not going to give you a stamp and to leave if you don't pay them. And how much you have to pay them? I think the first time $20, another time, $40. Can you negotiate that? I guess it's up to them, right?

It's up to them. My friend Yuri said, like, corruption is great because at least when you pay them, you get stuff done quickly. So it just depends on how you deal with it. And I think Malaysia and Singapore, I mean, Malaysia or Indonesia, I can't remember one of those countries. The corruption is so prevalent that they give a receipt when you pay a bribe. Yeah. Because they're like, let somebody know you already paid the bribe. Yeah.

Because they're like, well, I'm going to pay you a bribe, the next guy's going to ask. Good point. Let me write you a, I already got to him. I think if you're from Japan and Singapore to have a very low corruption, I think you don't know how to deal with it, but I got kind of used to it, you know. You just have to put that shit aside. Kabul Wall, the Kabul Golf Club? Wow. Yeah, but my favorite is like the crime section.

You know, if you put Barcelona, pickpockets, like, a number one thing up there, you know. And then if you put San Francisco, watch out for a drug addict. Oh, really? Yeah, every city have a specific kind of crime to you want. paying attention to, I mean, South Africa or something. This is really a drink. Despite being illegal,

alcohol is pretty easy to find in Kabul's expat restaurants. Yes. Now, if they haven't been updating, so it might be, you should be, yeah, you know, they have warnings and things like that.

And when I'm traveling to Europe, I like Rick Steves. He's like the number one budget traveler. Rick Steves. Who is that guy? I've heard about him a thousand times. I sent him a message on Instagram because it's like,

Everyone's like he's the best travel writer. He's the Jesus Christ of a budget travel to Europe. He's from Washington's Day. He was a student in University of Washington. I think his family had a piano business. And when he started traveling in early 70s, he started making this little booklet explaining to America on how to travel cheap into Europe.

It was so popular, eventually it became like a mini empire, I think ever at Washington? So a bunch of people that work for him will travel overseas. he'll go different cities they'll go different cities update in different youth hostels

so there's constant updating of places you stay, places to eat so if you're going to Europe as an American Rick Steve is the guy to use and other than that anywhere outside of that Wakedge Travel.org

I really like that update Hey guys let me break in real quick to tell you about the guest Yoshi Obayashi he's a world traveler stand-up comedian at the highest level I've always repped him and I've been wanting to get on this podcast to talk about Afghanistan since before I even started recording the podcast.

So I'm lucky to get him. Please follow him on Instagram at Yoshi Obayashi. That's Y-O-S-H-I-O-B-A-A-Y-A-S-H-I-H-I-Y-A-Sha-I-H-I-O-B-Yash. Same thing. When I first met him, he was passing up porn DVDs. He was working as an adult film executive. He actually quit because he was like, seeing some things I don't really want to I don't really want to see anymore.

Pretty palsy. He's one of the first, like, moral acts I've ever seen. Morality is not good for your income. That's reality. And I wanted him to come and talk about Afghanistan because he told me about it. He invited me to Kabul. I never got a chance to go.

He said, I got the hookup. People want you there. You could perform or you can just hang out, and I never did it. I regret it forever. Kabul is now gone as a place to really visit in the same way that Yoshi went. I think he can still go.

I think it's different. A friend Oliver just went there. Anyway, for myself, I've got really nothing to perform. Please subscribe, promote. And leave a comment, wherever you're watching or listening, guys. If you're on Spotify, go ahead and subscribe right now.

If you're on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe right now. Why not? Just do it right now. Subscribe, leave a comment, like it. I don't know. Get the thing going. Get bigger guests. More interesting guests.

but Yoshi rules. All right, let's get back to the episode. It's always nice to have a handler when you're going places like, you know, Afghanistan, Yemen. Yeah, how'd you meet Sard? So through Jonathan Bransting, and meeting a guy like Brantstein and Saa,

they're obsessed with travel. I mean, we get obsessed like what kind of airplane, what's budget airlines like, first class and things like that. And we're just constantly talking about travel because we're just, we're all even obsessed with things like going to airport. what part of the airport is a nice place to sleep

if you're sleeping overnight any just oh I'm just obsessed about a little bit of everything traveling it's these little moment things that you really have to know but like uh so in that travel class I was talking to this guy Zane who's been on the podcast we did one from a hostel over there um about Morocco

but he said like I was just I was one of the older kids from the class you know and he was like who's this guy like yeah but he goes he goes you mentioned something that made me realize like oh you're real yeah when he talked about saving the box for your soap because when you're in a hostel and you have to put it back in someone so he saved the box and you can crunch it around that soap but you need it you're not going to get another bar of soap and he goes that's why I knew you know how to get around shit like

that those travel tips that you you have to be gone to even understand that's a thing in fact Rick Steve said it doesn't take you don't have to spend million dollars to have a million dollar travel experience to the less money you have I think it's better because it forces to mingle with locals you know where they eat Like, don't eat like Americans constantly want American food in Paris and stuff? This is stupid. That's crazy. Yeah.

It's crazy. If I saw a sign in Paris in English, I'm like, let me move on to the next place. Because the service is rude. It's not as good. The food's not as good. It's a tourist spot. They just want to whip people in it out. The non-tourist spots are like, stay here for three hours.

We got you. Like, that's what I want. I want someone taking like 35 minutes to prepare my food because they're doing it from scratch. I've even been to place in Paris They had pictures of 9-11 going down And the falafo was delicious You know Like weird places like that

So wait So okay So you hooked up with this guy saw it And he's like come on out Yeah And I think he thought When I say yes That I was joking

But I I'm like vampire If you give me Right to you into your house Invite me in I will show up with you like it or not So I went And, you know, I think we talk about me working in a sex business.

So right away on the first day, arriving in Kabul, you know, I think they're of a miscommunication. I was at the airport. No one there to pick me up. And eventually when I message somebody, somebody eventually picked me up. And it's so exciting when you go to a new place because everything's new, you know? Like somebody visiting New York City for the first time now, everything's new, right? Everything's exciting.

But you've been living for 10 years? Whatever, right? Yeah. But taking me the road block and a constant check for a boss. What is this? Yeah. Somebody said, it was Rolf, the teacher for the travel class who's friends with McCarty. He said, he said there's, you notice things.

He's a writer, so he knows how to express this stuff. He goes, you notice the signs are written in slightly different font. Yes. Or the yellow yield signs. It's a different yellow. Yes. And you notice these things when you get out. And there's something right when you get, not land, but when you leave the airport, like just the doors open up,

Yeah. There's a smell that that's when it hits me. It's like, oh, I'm somewhere else, you know? And not until then. You're right about the smell because I think certain percentage of air, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but there's a certain percentage, like a fecal matter, just flying around. Because plumbing is not that great. Even you really can't even walk three blocks away from the place because it might not be dangerous.

There's like wild dogs running around the neighborhood, you know, and nobody owns them, you know. And I think I made a mistake walking three blocks from the house I was staying. In Kabul? Yeah. And we turned right, right, and left. And all of a sudden there's a bunch of eyes staring at us because we were seeing a flashlight. And there were these goddamn dogs that nobody owned. And there must have been like a dozen dogs.

And I thought they were starting growing that. I was like, it was me and somebody else. It's like, what the fuck. And I didn't know what to do. Eventually a bunch of this Afghan kids started throwing rocks out of them. And they were helping us because they want money from us. That's the only reason, you know. And we went to Chinese restaurant, and that's when I realized,

you can get hookers in Kabul, Kabul. You can. Yeah, I said to Chinese restaurants because working a sex business, I knew right away, being a whore whisperer, like, oh, I could tell these are hookers. Right. Yeah. Oh, right. You know.

You know how it's a Muslim country. They're not supposed to drink alcohol, but there's alcohol. You can find alcohol anywhere. It's just heading away. It's just got to be discreet. This is what people understand with like, I heard this is illegal. It's like, yeah, but like weed's illegal in Austin, but you can smoke it. Use your head.

Don't be black. But like anyone else, just smoke. I mean, Jay Walking is illegal in New York. Yes. But no one's enforcing it. Yeah, during the World Cup, somebody asked somebody from Qatar. Well, you guys arrest gay people like, well, we arrest heterosexual too. You just got to follow the law, respectful.

Anyone could go there. They're not actively looking for Jews or gay people. No. Is it an anti-Jewish place? If you go to Afghanistan, if you say Jewish, they have no idea what that is. Most people can't even read and write. They've never traveled outside of it. Who's that guy who used to work for Vice?

Shane Smith. No, kind of left on his own. Oh, McGuinness? Gavin McGinnis. Yes. I saw him outside a Kumia podcast. because he was doing his podcast, so he was leaving, I was going in.

Yeah. And he was right when I got back from Asia, four months in Southeast Asia. And he was like, hey, I got to talk to you about it. Like, how do they, what do they think of Americans? So it was among other questions. Yeah. Like, you know, how long were you there?

What did you think of Americans? And I go, I thought about it. And I go, they didn't. Well, they're more concerned. Well, he said that because he's probably a narcissist that they're trying to come after Americans or trying to kill. I don't even, they really think about it. No, they have to work with their farm.

Yeah. Or their son getting married off. Yes. To another village or like, it's like, I'm like, I mean, they're a little aware of like Schwarzenegger. Yeah. Um, or music. But they don't think of us on a day to day. That's a very solipsistic idea.

You know Ari Eljorn? No. Irish, I mean, Icelandic comedian. It's like the biggest guy in Iceland. I see. He started off like comedy in Iceland. And, um, we did a festival in, in, uh, in, uh, Copenhagen. Okay.

We met him, me and Bobby Kelly. And he was funny even then. He was five years in, but he was funny. Bobby's like, you're funny. That's not the guy that draws pictures. No, that's Haldor. Okay, yeah, very funny guy. Yeah, Haldor I've met and drank with.

He's also very funny. But he goes, you're funny of you should move to America. And he's like, oh, no, I'm good. He goes, no, why? You could move there. And he goes, buddy, I love Iceland. I'm Icelandic. And he goes, it's something, Bobby couldn't understand.

He's like, but you could make it in America. Yeah. He's like, I don't want to. Yes. I don't have any love for your country. I have my own country. So it's not a fear thing with him. Right.

It's just like, what do you mean? My all my friends are here. My parents are here. Why would I leave this place and just, why do you think your country is the one to be in? Yeah. You know? And we have that here. Yeah, it's like when you look at the map, when the United States is center of the map.

Well, that's why I split this one. On purpose. Yes. I split America because I'm like, you should fucking get out of here. Yes. Like, this is mostly the rest of the world, even though South America I fucked over. But I all thought about. flipping it upside out.

There is no actual, like, top and bottom. It's just north-south. You know, the world is round, so there's no... You could have this right in the middle, Ethiopia in the middle. Yeah, when I saw Japan,

it sent her the whole map in Japan, so... Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they say move that over to here. Okay, anyway, let's get back to Kabul. So did you go anywhere else besides Kabul or just stayed kind of there?

We took a rye... Is this shit in Afghanistan? Do you see shit like this? Yes. It's gorgeous. And I went to Panshear, which is probably six hours. I don't know. Northeast.

It's absolutely beautiful. And it's not occupied by Pashtun, which is the majority of Afghanistan. Pashtun? What is that? Pashtun is the most majority of Afghanistan. Oh, yeah. So that guy on the far right-hand sound, Amasa Matsud. Maybe I'm not saying the right.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the guy. He was assassinate in September 9th, 2001 because Al-Qaeda was afraid him. I call him John Connor of Afghanistan. He is the leader of the Northern Alliance, and the Taliban was afraid of him. He was incredible guy. I think he was like engineering background, spoke multiple language. They thought he'd take over and like, what was he liberal?

He, I think he was a moderate guy. Yeah, which is far left over there. and he was an incredible leader. And they killed him. Yeah, they were terrified of him. So two days before 9-11, they killed him. I went into Panshir. Two days before 9-11.

Interesting. He knew literature, poetry. Is Ponshire a people or like just a region? It's a valley. And the beautiful valley. Yeah, it's like that. And as we were traveling up there, there's a bunch of destroyed tanks everywhere.

and kids are playing around. It's a Soviet tanks, you know. Yeah. It's absolutely beautiful. There's no... So it's shit like this. Yes. Wow, that's gorgeous.

That is gorgeous. You didn't see at least Taliban because that's a Tajik minority occupied area. Rhesas knows a thing or two about great combinations. Chocolate and peanut butter, obviously. But there's more than one way to Rises. From Indulgent Ries's Big Cup. with caramel to crunchy Reese's pieces and Reese's miniatures. There's a delicious

Rees for every mood. It's the same combo you love just with more ways to enjoy it. So whether you're snacking, sharing, or just treating yourself, nothing else is Rees's. Wait, wait, so what does that mean? So there's like maybe ten different ethnicity, but the number one is Pashtun, Tajik, and Hazaras. Hazaras look like people like look like myself. And sometimes you see Hazaras, with blue eyes, which weird. Why from who? Who?

Why, I could look at the map when Alexander the Gray invaded the world. He went from Greece to defeat Darius in Persia. But he forced his soldier to go to the northern part of India. So they went through Turkey and, or up and above? And he encouraged all his men to marry the local women. So they literally brought Greek culture and DNA to all the way to India.

So you do see many blue eye Asians and things like that. Interesting. So you landed in Kabul. Yes. And I think Pan-Sh, I don't know exactly. I'm sorry, everyone, but Panxia's like not too, I don't know, 40, 50 miles from Pakistan maybe. Hold on, let's see it on the map here. Maps. Oh, here we go. But the hospitality, man, like...

What? Explain it. typical with all Muslim countries. Oh yeah, it's up there. Hospitality was incredible. People are very kind. They are. Not standoffish. The locals you meet?

Oh, it's right outside Kabul, punch here. Oh, maybe the road was terrible, so they feel like it took forever. Yeah. But yeah, we went to his tomb. Whose tomb? Amishir Moussuit.

That guy. Yeah, they killed him in September 9th. They were allowed a tomb for him? for him? Yeah, and if you go Kabul airport, when the Taliban finally took over three years, there was a big picture of his, I think they took it down after they took it over, you know. Yeah. For me, checking out all the ethnic groups, I really had a hard time knowing the difference. It's very obvious to Afghan.

Hazaras, it's easy because they look like myself. And what are they? From Asia? Yeah, I live in Afghanistan. They're probably Shiai. Most of, uh, pastis are all Sunnis, you know. Yeah, I don't, but okay. Yeah, so I was there. You meet tons of NGO. A lot of good people, some bad. They're there to profiteer. They sell a weapon. God knows what else they're doing. And they thought it was a spy. That's not a common thing. What do you do? Like, what do you do? I'm sure. But like, who's going to, what do you do? I do stand up. I used to work in porn. What a cover story. Medical testing. Spies seem more.

But yeah, if they don't know you, they just assume certain things about you, you know. Yeah. But when you go, it was great, 2012 and 13. They had a party for me. I think we had a diplomat from Spain and Netherlands was there. Because anytime somebody unusual show up, they want to know what's up with you. It's kind of nice knowing all kinds of interesting people. They're willing to take a chance and go to places like Kabul.

It's kind of fun to talk to them because everyone is interesting backgrounds, you know. So what type of people did you meet? They might be there for defense. They might be for NGO. They might be for health organization. Well, there's something also I've noticed like Hong Kong, for instance. Yeah. So when did you go?

When did I go? 2014, I think. Okay. But, so you meet people there and you do shows. And the shows are all around. Even Shanghai, the shows were all around. But like, let's say, let's say Hong Kong. Yeah.

Or let's say Shanghai, actually. So there's some shows that for the bars, the expats and the fucking, they're degenerates or English teachers. They're having a fun play pretend time while they're waiting for three years to get their life back. I met a couple that had met in like South Korea. They were teaching English together. They both decided and moved to Hong Kong together. Whatever. Let's call them the same thing.

But then also sometimes you do gigs in like a nice hotel lobby and you're like, oh, and these are like, those people got mad at me for like too much cursing and too much like sex talk. Yeah. Because like, oh, well, you guys are like businessman. But if you're a businessman, if you're a banker, let's say, and you're a British. Yeah. So you're choosing to not take a job in London. You're choosing to take a job in Hong Kong. Right.

So I know you're just a dumb fucking Norm Corps banker, but you're adventurous. Yes. Because you're taking that job over in a wild part of the world. If you're a, you have a skill, whatever, an engineer or whatever, you're choosing to take a job in Kabul. No one's sending you there. Right. You can say no. but there's something about you that wants to go there.

Sometimes they're running away for their problem. Sometimes they're very idealistic. They want to help people. There's others who want to take advantage of the situation. Even like during that evacuation of Kabul, there's a group of people who are taking advantage. Like if you give us X amount of money, we will get your family out of there. So they're like vultures waiting for opportunities.

Early 90s in Russia, it was just tremendously bloody time because there's transition of communism to capitalism. So mob were taking control of that similar thing in Kabul too you know Whenever there's a chaos and transition Unfortunately there's opportunity money grab you know So he'd like in a work camp They like it wasn't the best security yeah in the Holocaust but it wasn't like a death camp With it everyone would try to leave but anyway you could get out and you could sneak out under the barbed wire

They take a little bit of money sick it up give it to him or someone else you and whoever was being, like, go get bread, bring it back. But then these like bandits, not you, buddy, would be like, would be out there and like, well, let's beat up these Jew kids and take their money. But they weren't like acting on behalf of Nazis. They're acting on behalf of like 19 year olds who want a little extra cash. And they're like, they're victims, let's just do that. You know what I mean?

Like no one will bother us if we do that. So, you know what I mean? It's like what you're saying, taking advantage of a situation. Oh, yeah. And they're, that's everywhere, you know. Here, for sure. Remember after 9-11 people start selling parachutes? Yes.

You know, because like, well, you might get a 10. And it's like, you're profiting off this. Well, I mean, we had this thing with COVID recently. There's just money-making. It's really transfer of wealth, really. You know, it's always like that. But going to... Let's go back to Google.

You know, I'm not going to lie, it was really interesting. It looked like that scene from the Star Wars. Remember when Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan went to that bar, you have people from all of all those. It was like that. Just people from everywhere. You have no idea why they're there. Yeah.

It really is exciting to go places like that because what do you do? And you learn about how shit worked there. You want to get drugs? You could get them. There were drugs there? Yes. Like what? Oh, opium?

Heroin for sure. Yeah. That must be the purestucker heroin. I think under Taliban rules, it's illegal. but wink wink they have to make money it's going all the time my understanding

there was a place to go heroin row I apologize if I have this information role but there was role this alley in Kabul

there was a place where fancy mansions were bought by all the drug money you know because these are like a government worker

how do they have like these expensive mansion and stuff because it's corruption drug sales and it's not that African farmers are bad people. They're poor.

They want to make a crop that makes money. And the heroin's always been the case. It goes through Iran and then from Iran to the Bika Valley, Iran to Europe, you know, whether it's like Rotterdam or wherever. Where there is demand, they will create those drugs. Well, like in Guatemala, now it's changing a little bit, but there was never like a high end, same thing with Columbia. There's not a high end coffee market, you know,

for a $5 cup of coffee. Yeah. out of pour over or whatever, but coffee grows there. Yes. So it's almost all export. You know what I mean? But they're like, oh, you guys don't drink coffee? Like, we can't afford $5 for a cup of coffee,

but they send it to America where you can get $5 for it. Yeah, it's just, it's marketplace. They'll dictate what you should do with your land. And heroin is a nice way to make money. Yeah. In Ecuador, they had, this should remind me, it might have been Colombia. It doesn't matter.

But they were going to the farmers and go, we need just to grow weed instead of tomatoes. And they go, we don't want to. We don't want to do drugs. And they go, okay, well, if you grow the weed, we're going to give you 10 times what you make. If you don't, we're going to kill your daughter. Yes.

And everyone's like, well, you shouldn't be growing weed. It's like, well, they said they were going to kill my daughter. And also, the opposite is make a lot of money. Then you fucking save your daughter. You know what I mean? It's like, no way. there's money to be made yeah so

that's that in Kabul and did you do any I had hash I think when we went to Panshir we took a little break one of those roadside mini restaurants we were at the river

and I'm not like a big drug person but God damn the hash was incredible really yeah it's I don't know why am I thinking this wrong it was like a like a bowl kind of make like this and one of the drivers did a joint out of it is very very smooth

really because when we pulled over there's a bunch of kids and um i asked the driver slash translator jokingly hey you guys have any weed yeah the kid opened the jacket and and he had a big he just had it yeah um my god it looked like a pound of a hash or something, you know. And it would have been nothing. 50 bucks? I made me guess wrong, but it was just like nothing for that kind of

wheat. Because it grew so easily. Yeah, it's just everywhere. And the government doesn't try to like, there weren't like cops going like, that's really bad? Or was it just like, be cool? Just be cool about it. Be respectful of it, you know, just kind of be discreet, you know. And

I had some with, after the dinner. How was it? Which is just incredible, you know, of floating. And when you started meeting people, I went Penshear, it was beautiful, we went with the tomb. We got stuck driving back in the mountain. And there was a group of nomad called Coochies. They're like ship herders. So we were stuck for maybe 40 minutes.

There must have been thousand sheeps or something on goats. And another thing, if you're like an animal-right person, don't go. Don't go to Afghanistan. You're going to see things that's going to upset you. They just start beating sheep and goat with stick. Yeah. And they don't treat dog like family members at all. Yeah.

Yeah. So we waited. The strays also are like, they're like a problem for them. I'm trying to like, sometimes they've been over too far backwards for other cultures. Yeah. When we were in Ecuador, we hung up with this guy from Hong Kong. Yeah. And he just left the revolution.

So he was like, I had a gun point in my face. I don't want to die for this fucking country. Like, I'll just leave. But anyway, we were all talking about dog. Yes. And do you know this? I'm not trying to be racist. But when you kill...

It's not racist at all. When you kill dogs to eat them. So when you kill venison, you have to kill them clean. Yes. Because if it releases the adrenaline, if they get like wounded. Yeah. And then like with adrenaline, it makes the meat all gamey. Yes.

Having the adrenaline. Dog is the eye. opposite. They want adrenaline. It tastes better. So for like, I didn't know that. A couple of days before, they beat on them and they scream at them and they fucking beat on them for like three days and then kill them to get the meat really delicious. And we were all talking. We were like, you know, I guess other cultures are, uh, he was telling us this. Yeah. And it was, and we're like, you know, all these fucking white ladies from in Ecuador and expats and stuff. And like, uh, I guess other cultures, you know,

they just do things differently and, you know, it's tough. And he goes, what? No, guys, They're fucking assholes. Fuck them. They're barbarians. And we're like, oh, okay, permission. Great. When I was a kid visiting my grandmother in South Korea, I remember multiple times, this is like 70s, you know.

So people beating dogs. I thought, God, that's a misbehaved dog, I guess. I didn't realize they're going to eat them back then. Jesus. Yeah. And I feel really bad because they would treat dogs for pragmatic reason. If they haven't in the home, it's for security. So they'll be chained up against a tree or whatnot,

and they don't take them. It's just really sad. But if you grow up in their environment, you just didn't think about it that way, you know. But it does make me sad, like, oh, you know. Yeah. But you don't think about it that way. I'm sure people, when they see cows, like, what?

I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the beef industry. They put a fucking nail in their head. Yeah. In Muslim countries, cats are treated really, really well. Like, if you go to Istanbul, cats are everywhere. because cats are Prophet Muhammad's favorite animal so they're treated really well

like if you go down the subway in Istanbul there's cats everywhere by the ticket encounter or bookstore and coffee shop and they're treated really, really well. Italian's treat cats really well too and there's a heavy crime for herding on killing cats there and in Athens, Greece there's cats everywhere too.

But dogs are kind of mean to dogs man I just noticed there's not like because Prime Mohammed hated dogs and they're also eating out of your Oh, dude, you see it when I walk Bandit around past the fucking Mecca church, whatever it's called. They'll just look at them,

sometimes they'll like swipe at them with their legs. I'm like, wow, they really just hate dogs. Everyone else, the Chinese ladies near me, they're like, oh, hello. They're standoffish generally, but they'll be like, oh, cute dog without saying it. But those Muslims fucking, they're like, get it away from me.

They're like, Jesus, bro, it's Bandit. Relax. Wait, I want to go back to Kabul. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, we use a lot of taxi and driving. around and you mean a lot of interesting people and so I met a lady named Kimberly Mutley she's American practicing law in Kabul and second time meeting her she's half black and Korean so we have a you know Korean kind of thing in the background but she said would you

let go go a polycharchy prison which is the biggest president of Afghanistan and of course most people want to go but first thing I say was of course I want to go and she took me there and got pulled over by a cop and because she's a lawyer and knows everyone there, I think he was trying to get money from us. Man, she was saying like, hey, motherfucker, I know your police chief. So she started mentioning all kinds of names that translives. Are you sure you want to say it? You tell this motherfucker what I said. And after a while, we were all right. But I was really nervous because she went right at him. Yeah. She has no fear. This is right after she took me to her law office in Kabul. She told me the exit route. If somebody threw a grenade, just, you know,

just she was giving me all this instruction and get out of this way. This is how you deal with grenades. If they start shooting, get down the floor, here's the exit. So, you know, they constantly tell you exit route, you know. Because they have to think about that. Well, she always representing clients, like sexual assault cases or corrupt officials. She'll take any cases at all. So they're mad at her. Yeah. But because she's bulls. she, and because she talked back to men, which is something really unusual, she also drove, which is unusual, women driving in Kabul, you know. And so she took me a polychaki prison, and it's the biggest prison.

It was under that Soviet occupation. They were, I don't know, executed, like, 50, 60, maybe even 100,000 people there. Oh, what? Executed them? Yeah. So when I went there. Political prisoners? Hmm?

Political prisoners? Political prisoners, crime. So she had three clients. one British, one Australian, one American. I don't remember exactly what they did, but one was like drug case, murder, and money laundering. Of course, murder had the least amount of time they needed to serve. Drug and money thing was the bigger time you have to serve, you know. So when she was talking to one client, I was in the inside of the prison, open area,

and they didn't really trust me, but she said, oh, you could trust me. He's a pornographer. Then, of course, as soon as you... You're a porn. Then what? How do they react? Oh, any way you say your pornography people think to trust you because what do you do for a living? You're in the business of showing butholes and pussy and dicks.

You don't really hide anything. And there was a show called, HBO. Real sex? Oh, my God. I forgot. There was a show where a writer for Hustler was embedded to, American Marines first time around, they trusted him right away because he, right, just young guys. They don't know anything but magazine.

They don't trust journalism. But as soon as they say hustled, they get it. So they trust me right away, and they had a question about pornography. That's the thing. Like, even with Afghan, they want to know. So. There's people ask me, like, how your economy translates to other countries. Yeah.

And I'm like, well, if I did political stuff about America, that wouldn't translate. But if you do a blowjob joke, it's universal. They all know what it's like to have a woman have her dick in her mouth. That just, it translates. They always understand sex and violence, especially in Afghanistan. So one of the guards at the polycharchy prison, he spoke a little bit of English. He was kind of walking me around before I saw Kim's client, and there's gardening and things like that.

So inside of the prison, open area, garden, there's another fence, and there's a bunch of guys behind the fence, and they wave. And of course, you know, somebody wave, you're being friendly. And he just said, oh, you just wave a bunch of televang kids, you know, and they're cutting their hair or whatnot. And he told them, like, I'm visiting an American, blah, la-la, working porn. And one of them asked me, oh, do you know Sasha Gray? You know, that's how small.

You know, this is like 2012. So porn and anything to do with, like, Sebastian, Schrozenger movies, you can make a connection, you know. But anything outside of that, if you say Jew, they don't even know what that is. Yeah, it's funny how when you, when you,

that you would think they hate, it's like, that's what you, they don't, if they don't have a group there, they don't hate them. You have to have them there, hate them. Yeah.

Everybody hates black people on like Iceland, you know? They're like, well, most young people join Taliban most likely for work. They don't,

they're not ideologue, really. People need a job. That's just where the jobs are. Yeah. In fact, When my friend took me to picnic, I don't remember their names, but we went picnic a couple hours away from Kabul. And I met a guy, he was saying basically, I think he's a cop. And his brother worked as a Taliban.

And they're in the same house. So a lot of them, it's not audiologue, it's a job. And as long as you're respectful and bring religion and politics, a lot of times. there's like any other people. The food is delicious. I can't tell you the kind of food they have, but a lot of rice. Yeah, what was the food?

I got to ask you about the food and the bathrooms. Oh, yeah. What was, I can't remember. You're not supposed to shake with a certain kind of hand because you use one hand to wipe your ass. Oh, yeah.

Oh, because do you eat the food like this is like one of those? Yeah. You pick it up with your fingers and like moving into your hand. That's right. And you don't show the bottom of your feet. Oh, wow.

That's right. That's why they threw shoes at Bush, because it's like an ultimate insult. Dude, it's so funny to me when insults don't translate. Yeah. Like if a super Christian is like, you know, it's like, you'll never have kids. You're like, yeah?

Yeah. But they're like, I got you. Like, no, I don't want them. And they don't understand. You know, it's like they're trans. And then you insult them back. Like, you're going to fucking live your life or some dumb church and die.

someday. They're like, right, that's what I want. Yeah. And the bottom of the feet, that guy, I'm sure was like, ha ha, I fucking threw a shoe with this motherfucker. It's the worst you can do. And they're like, they missed. And I'm sure you've seen a bunch Muslim guys holding hands across the street. That's a very common

thing there, which was bizarre to me. Because they're all homosexuals. They could be homosexuals, but they're not. I'm joking. It's like a common thing, right? And what was that? That's nice, buddy. Way to prepare. Oh, okay.

So sex is like... Did you fuck there? No, no, I didn't do anything like... I mean, I think I could have maybe with expats. Once again, it's really weird for men and women to live together and premarital sex. You know, you're not supposed to do that, but wink, wink behind closed doors, that stuff goes on, obviously. But the one that I always trap out is, you know, how we talk about. You know, we're in Afghanistan, promote democracy.

We're protecting women and young girls, which is great. But sometimes we don't talk about things like Baja Basi. You know what that is? Bacha means boys. It's a tea ceremony. And after these boys serve tea, a lot of these guys fuck these boys between 12 to 17, 18 years old. This was fron-a-pound by Taliban,

but once American occupation and British-Western occupations, They brought it back, I guess. Because Taliban, there's nobody's going to enforce not doing it. So they just started fucking these boys? I got to get there. Oh, that's like that scene in Pulp Fiction. He goes, oh, I'm going. That's it.

Yeah, because, you know, my background sex, I always want to know, like, everyone has sex. And there's always taboo. How do they hide it? How do they go around doing shit? Because I know it's going on. You should do a show for international fuck travel. I did parts unknown with Anthony Bourdain. You did it?

First season, episode two. I was on like a minute, but I told him, Mr. Bordang, I didn't, I wasn't. What? I told him like, I'm going to be the Anthony Bourdain of sex. He laughed, but I kind of did that for last 12 years. Like, everyone fucks. I don't care what people say.

But do you know how my crude history of Taliban was created? you were wrong with David Cho? What? How was it invented? Down in South in Klaiqandahar. There was a very important guy named Mullah Omar. I think he died. Wow. Go-Band.

He got very upset because a couple of these warlords down there was raping teenage girls. So he got, I apologize if I don't have this right, but this is the way I remember. He got a group of students, a small militia, and killed these guys. And I think Pashtun, the word for students, Talib, hence the word Taliban. So sexual violation, Mila Omar went out to kill these people. And this tea ceremony where young boys are getting raped, he stopped that too. So I'm not fan of Taliban, but sometimes people forget these things that are rich and powerful do. They're getting away with it.

He was outraged by it. This is not the right thing to do. So he stopped these practices. So when the American occupation was returned, they want to work with local populists to deal with Taliban, so they're blind eyeing to these kind of things, which is wrong. This is what they talk about, these power vacuums.

Like you take away a guy, but he was actually enforcing the law, or like these cartels. But they're also running the schools. Yes. So you get rid of them, but it's like no one else was doing the necessary work. The bad stuff is bad stuff,

but like the necessary work, someone's got to get to that. Stopping people from raping 12-year-olds. MS-13 started in Los Angeles because they're getting hit attack by Mexican mafia. All kinds of terrible things are having for certain ethnic groups in Japan. So Yakuza was there to provide help for them. You know, they were killing Korean people,

major earthquake in late 1920s. Only group of people were protecting Koreans and Taiwanese and Chinese were Yakuza. Police were kind of blind eye to that stuff. So whenever they say some groups are bad, they're bad but weirdly they do some good too so like you got to look at the big picture you know and as much as people hate Taliban they're running the country now so if you want to get anything done you have to deal with unpleasant people yeah right my friend oliver runs an organization called skate stand providing skateboarding for young kids they work they have to work with taliban you

know and because they can't find anywhere in korean to prohibit skateboarding and And it was one of the few things they were providing. They thought about it. We want to prohibit. We start with the assumption to prohibit. Yeah. And then let's see if we're allowed. They can find anything there.

So, wow. They provide skateboarding for kids. They provide education for girls, which is very difficult now. So I think whenever you're living in comfort of West Hollywood saying this group of people are racist, this and that, it's easy for you to say that because you don't live in those places. But if you live in this environment, if you want to make any difference, you always have to deal with unpleasant people. That's where some good are done, you know.

You need context, too. I heard a story about a high-level comic who doesn't tip valet drivers. Yes. And I was like, where did you hear that? It's a guy I know. So what did you have? Well, it said the comedy story doesn't tip the guys. I'm like, oh, you're not getting the whole story.

Yes. We're supposed to just park our cars there. Yes. And we used to just do it for free. You just pull over, park, and then go in and then leave. and now it's like it's so packed there so many people showing up

at three rooms running at all times that it's like now they have like let me rearrange your car let me do what it's like and you're like well I should give you 20 bucks when I'm only making $25 yeah

and also you're burying my car it's just like he came from a time where we were the door guys we didn't expect to get when we worked a lot I wasn't getting tipped Rogan would tip 100 bucks to watch this fucking classic car

but he was the outlier and so it's like you need some context to be like you can't just say he did this like we did this in what environment You have to have nuanced and the more you travel, you learn that. And don't go there expecting American treatment. What considered clean is different from us.

And did I have diarrhea and then problems? Sure, sometimes that has happened. But these are the experience I live for, you know. I like sometimes when I show up and I had a reservation in the hotel in Berlin first time traveling and that place is shut down. A lot of people panic, but I kind of like them because it gives me an opportunity to like, okay, what do I do now? now don't panic these are actually opportunity to have a fun stories and i think that's what i

relish and i i think i'm so pleasantly surprised because you are one percent of all the comedians good attitude traveling places you go everywhere and you are a good representative of uh representing america because we need people like you know and i don't yeah it is it's like stuff goes wrong and you're like, oh, this is terrible? It's like, well, is it terrible? It's just a change of plans. Yes. Because they're like, I was supposed to go to this city

that I've never heard of until two days ago. And now the bus is closed. I'm like, well, you didn't know that city existed literally a week ago. So go to some other city you haven't heard of. What's a difference? Relax. Relax.

You'll have other opportunity. Because I think I was traveling. I think you told me your dad was from this part of this country. Romania. Romania. So I changed the plan. I went there. And then I learned like, oh, I didn't know

they were killing Jews and things like that. So it's an opportunity for me to go someplace I never really thought about, changed the plan. I went there. It was funny story. I went to the area where all the Jews are buried. I went there. I had to deal with this guy because there was a guy standing around

always harassing people about money. Like, he'll let you sneak in to the cemetery. I got a bunch of dirt into kimchi jar. I sent it to you. But it was nice. I would have never gone there if it wasn't for you telling me to go there. It was a reason to like, I'll check it out. It's not a tourist stop.

Yashi or whatever. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's not a tourist stop. But it's not a tourist. It's still foreign. Yeah. Rolf talks about this in Morocco. He had a story where he went to Chef Chowan with this major like the blue market.

It's beautiful, whatever. So he got off the plane in like a main city. He goes, take me a Chep Chuan. And they're like, no, no, he said it wrong. Instead of Chep Chowen, he said Cheshawin. Yeah. Which is another city. So they're like, hey, they don't know.

They're like, here's, and they let him out. And he's kind of walking around this tiny market. And he's like, what? And he looked at his map and he goes, I'm in the wrong fucking town. I went 30 minutes that way and said 30 minutes that way. But he goes, so now I'm around no tourists. Yes. In a super authentic market.

Yes. And he goes, it was a time my fucking life. Because no one was catering to me. No one was like inauthentic. It was just the real shit. And he goes, it wasn't as grand as a Chfchchchown market, but it was super cool. And those are the opportunities Like something always interesting happened

Like when I went I was in Israel recently Everyone kind of abrupt Not rub abrupt And I was kind of confused with it go But there was a lady that helped me And she just found out It was my first time visiting She was very kind of

Oh welcome to Israel Enjoy your trip I relish things like that Because it makes me happy Whenever I see Experience like that You know Yeah

And When I went to the YOT The YOT thing And dad, every city I go to, do they have a red light district? What's the prostitution situation? Is there serial killer stuff, terrorism, things like that? And I had a really cheap hooker thing. It was worth it.

I mean, you just find that right away. If that's the kind of stuff you're looking for, you'll find right away. What I call the dick-pussy and asshole of each city. I don't care. I want to see the dark side. I'm not interested in the nice part at all. Yeah. that's easy to do

yeah yeah right it's like all right cool but also you gotta be willing to have some non luxuries some discomfort yeah sometimes they try to rip up almost got mugged in Athens they're trying to pick pocket me multiple times

places like in Istanbul they're trying to shortchange me like you think I'm gonna be like a typical Asian I complain I just slammed the fucking window for a long time until a dozen people suddenly pay me back. I'm not afraid of making scenes. I was with Rogan and Rio for UFC.

Yeah. And they were like, I told you, they told everybody like, hey, be careful of whatever. They told all the UFC people, be careful, these kidnappings here. And then John Jones is like, they go, don't go anywhere in the favelas.

They're like the ghetto. And John Jones went to a party in the favelas. I went to. He was like, fuck it. What are you talking about? But the risk goes up, but like not insurmountable. But, um, go with handler. Yeah, right.

So we asked this guy who's a driver slash bodyguard. We're like, is it dangerous to walk around? And he goes, oh, you guys are too like, this was 10, 12 years ago. You're two like younger guys. They're not looking for a fight. They're looking for free money. So if you were a 70-year-old man alone, yeah, they'll rob him. But you guys are going to fight back.

They don't want that. And if you have a little bit of swagger and walking right, looking straight and not confused, no. Yeah, right. It's too much of a headache, you know. Yeah. So let's go back to Kabul a little bit. I'm going to get a cigarette. Do you mind?

You want to take a break? No, I don't want to take a break. I'm just going to get one. Okay, yeah, smoke. It doesn't bother me at all. Okay. So let's talk about the bathrooms. What?

The bathrooms. Okay. It's like an Asian bathroom. At least that's the way I remember. Or a lot of times maybe just a hole. There's a water thing, pressure out if you want to clean your ass. The bum gun?

Yeah, they had those. and it's pretty minimum. I mean, it's minimum. I mean, you know, just toilet paper, dad. They have toilet paper? It's just a hole in the ground mostly. And if you have one of those guns with the water, toilet paper. Here it is.

Yeah, there's a lot of that. So that's kind of toilet. So you sit or is it a dose or sometimes they're a hole? I think the second time I went, I was leaving Dubai. and during Ramadan, if I remember, and I was at Terminal 4, which they call Terror Terminal in Dubai, because that's the tournament.

You go all the horrible places in the world, like Pakistan, North Korea, Afghanistan, places like that. And, man, it was so disgusting because they did this thing where they put their thumb in the nose, they skirt their snout out. They're washing their feet at the, you know, regular faucet or whatever. So they were doing that.

And... But they don't think it's weird. It's a little weird for me to see that. But I'm not going to complain. And... You can't complain about another culture because you're like, is this guy being rude or is this just what everyone does? That's right.

You need more data points. I mean, look, it doesn't bother me, but you know how many times I've been in the country, they call me Jackie Chang or they do this kind of stuff, make fun of me? I'm so used to it. Yeah. So... We had in Cambodia,

or sitting at some beach. and um and uh yeah and some lady was bitching about she was like I want to talk to the manager some white lady yeah she goes this waiter hasn't come back to give us our check we've been sitting there for 45 minutes

just waiting and then I've already been to Southeast Asia for two months at this point so I wanted to tell her I didn't interrupt I wanted to be like hey just so you know the culture here is they wait for you to ask yes I think Paris is similar to you you bought your meal you get the table let us know when you're done

but we're not gonna bug you're not gonna be that you know I had a regular restaurant here like you guys done like no wait a minute man I sell food on my plate yes they're the polar opposite so she thought it was it was root she said it was racism in reality she just didn't know the culture yes it's just how it's done and actually far nicer to me leave me alone let me sit here I might nibble I think you need to before racism whatever sexism stuff you need to pause for a second like is this considered rude here they really need to do that because I think we're obsessed with race in this country so we take that mentality the other country and they didn't even think about you in paris they don't

bring your check because they want you to eat the meal but have a nice conversation relax whereas other cultures soon as they put the food they put the cup with a check already it's kind of rude to me but i have to get used to that you know um so bathroom stuff is pretty minimal in in Afghanistan um yeah that's that would be a thing seeing somebody wash their feet in the sink you're like what the fuck you're like nope nope it's a lot cleaniness is important but that's kind of fucking weird, but the women wearing hijabs and stuff? Oh yes, they're covered completely. And do the whites of Kabul,

the NGOs, the... Okay, so I think the Westerners get a little bit of pass because you're not supposed to... Well, I've seen plenty of women showing their hair. I guess they get a little bit of path. Sott's mother and dad

because first time when I went, Satt wasn't there. So I was staying with his parents and I watched Sope offer with Sot's mom. And these are from Maloomian Turkey and things like that. What's so great about these shows, it gives women hope. Because they're things like,

women are allowed to drive. They could dress like that. It gives like those soap opera shows become aspirational for women, right? Oh, yeah. Showing tetties and having jobs, telling people to fuck off and things like that. These are wonderful.

Sounds great because they're giving hope. A version of what you could be. Could be the country that they could have because they, that after dinner will show me pictures from 50s and 16 in Kavol. It looked like Paris. Afghanistan was like the Paris of Asia. They would show women in miniskirt, they would have a fancy dress, bars and alcohol. It was a very sophisticated place. There was time when if you're from, if you're an English person, you could literally drive a vehicle from London ferry across

Europe, go Iran and Afghanistan, go all the way to Baleigh to Japan. You could do that. was a lot more open back then you know so he'll show me I was stunned like I didn't need you can wear many skirts like yeah it's so quickly you could lose everything to wear the close you want to go to college that you want to go you know because under Soviet occupation this is my understanding what happened was after they overtraw the king the king of Afghanistan yeah I think what the Afghan government did they were playing do you know the movie Jojimbo? What is it?

Yorimbo, Mids Bariga, Kurosawa movie where main character was played around with two houses in this village fighting each other. He would go one side and kill the other side. He got the other side to kill other side. It was a metaphor like Japan taking no part between the battle

between Russia and Americans. I think Afghanistan did the similar thing where they were taking money from America but they were getting military expertise from Russia. The problem was, was when you brought Russians over in Afghanistan, they brought communism too and Marxism.

So eventually many of the officers and leaders were, I don't want to make it, to me, brainwashed by Marxism, they brought those mentality and eventually they overthrew the government brought a lot of the Russian thinking to... Because they were raised with it. Yeah, so there was like,

Because, you know, Marxism hate families because it's one thing that they have a hard time breaking down. They're bringing Marxist ideology, and one thing that prevent anybody from believing that is family. That's why anything related to social policy, like transgender stuff, they want to break the family because that's one thing will never buy into any of the ideology, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, right. The family stuff, you know, Afghanistan is a very, on families and shit like that, you know. I don't even why. But you, but your experience wasn't really like locals. Your experience was the foreigners, was expats. Expat's, but I, I talked to a lot of the locals when they were traveling outside Kabul, you know. But, okay, but to me, that's not a negative there because it was an expat city at that point, right?

Yeah, overrun. Yeah. So then, like, this was this occupation city. That's what I'm saying. It doesn't exist anymore like that. Well, you told me about as soon as the, as soon as America pulled out, the Taliban went from like, we got like a 20-mile. safe zone from Kabul to like Kabul's gone we got to leave yes we just got we they told us so we

all got to get out so that version of it like makeshift bars yeah makeshift American restaurants like done that's done they're gone I mean maybe they're bringing back because I think like like the skates that all over that was talking about they still have to pretend like some rule of law so even though oliver told me that Taliban people want to take over the building to his control they can't just take it they have to still pretend like there's some rule of law because they still want foreign money to enter Afghanistan. So, you know what I mean? There are still foreigners there, but it's a very complicated situation, isn't it?

Like, they need expertise because I heard. It's like, do you know how to build this bridge? I know you're not from here. So somebody said too, like early on, they were like Taliban took over, like make sure they took the law, like respect us. And they're like, well, we all got to exist. So my buddy, Julia, went to Afghanistan and Syria. And he's just all the time. These women walk around without burkas.

What is she like? I think you have to do burkas. And they go, yeah, you're supposed to. But in the big cities, we're pretty liberal. They will cover and I think. No, they said in the big cities, it's half burqas, half just open hair. Because it's like a liberal part of Afghanistan or Syria or wherever. And it's like in the villages, it's much more like rednecky, just like here.

Our villages are much more Trumpy and our cities are much more. Like the lawyer I was talking of Kimberly, she didn't cover her area. at all. She'll cuss people out and they got kind of used to her, you know, and being a lawyer and she knows everyone. But I was nervous when we got pulled over and she was yelling at the police. It's not worth it. And eventually he just raised his hand and just let us go. But I don't think I could do that because I don't have any sort of like a clout there, you know. Oh, so she probably knows how far they're going to go and you don't. So yeah, the foreigners are there. Who'd you eat with? Sometimes they were the drivers and the people that I'm staying with.

Did you have any like really epic meals? Epic like not, not, I'm talking about the food as much as the company. Yeah. I apologize. I don't know any of the names, but I ate everything. They're all delicious, you know. There's a lot of rice and like meat and, you know. How do they eat?

Is the same like three-course meals? Is it like just a big buffet? Is it like a lot of dips? First couple of times, like a huge kind of banquet thing. But eventually like the house serving like, you don't have to make me. Can you just give me the rice and the meat stuff? and they were always ready for you in the morning and the hospital is incredible

as soon as I come back from that I've been out all day they were fixed the place I think the second time I was there Moby through Saad they brought soccer back that was incredible what do you mean what?

They brought the soccer league they were banned under Taliban so that you couldn't watch soccer well they didn't even have a teams anymore under Taliban play? I think after they ban like soccer and cricket and things like, oh, no, no, I don't think they ban cricket.

They'll be insane. When they ban other major sport, it's a religion of Indian Pakistan. But after they ban like soccer, I think they were used in stadium to execute people and things like that. That became like a national sports. A lot of good seats. They have dog fighting. They have a bird fighting, cricket fighting.

They literally had a bird fighting. Yeah, they had like, um. Like cocks? Quails. I think they made the quills fight each other. They had a certain kind of bugs. And it's bad, but like, I was more interested, like, what's the over and under? The gambling kind of thing.

It was kind of interesting. But they had dogs fighting each other, yeah. I saw one dog fight in New Orleans. In what? Yeah. Unsettling, for sure. Unsettling. I was just there, and we heard a rut, and we saw people, like, it was like,

kind of like a pit. Yeah. Went over there. I'm like, what the fuck? It was out right by the river. But like, um.

This gotta be kind of like a download, right? Yeah, but it was outdoors. But I saw, uh, cock fights in East Timor. And I saw, um,

uh, Thai kickboxing. These aren't animal fights, but I'm just talking about the gambling. Thai kickboxing in Chang Mai. And, um, and,

um, the gambling, I'm like, this needs work. Because you're just going, who do you want to bet on? you or me and it's like no no no I need odds you're getting a fucking rooster that's three times as big as that rooster

and you want to just take even odds or fucking some tie kickbox who's like this or some tiny kid is like no you can't give me two to one and even a no I'm like yeah I want the big guy like oh I want the big guy I know we both want the big guy so make a fucking line I don't remember I think I bet a couple of times but they were why would they do it they would sometimes put the animals like hit buds and make them angry yeah yeah yeah and they're all right other yeah and they're around and yeah we walked around I knew a guy named Nando he passed away he died

oddly not in Switzerland taking a bunch of people in the swift alps but he was walking in Afghanistan white guy from Spain or something that guy was crazy he would hedgehack across Afghanistan and didn't give a fuck and he was okay yeah he never had a fear like if he get pulled over he'll bribed him or whatnot so you know there's a different level of risk sticking but I'm not What a different version of the world that I've received? Because from my understanding of Afghanistan, you'd maybe last a day before they killed you and took all your stuff. The idea that you can hitchhike across Afghanistan as a non-Afghani is retarded.

Like that couldn't be. But you're telling me it is. Things happen, but I heard like a busload of Korean Christian got killed or something. You know, you have to have a handler. Things do happen. but more than often more often than not kind news was everywhere and you show respect even if you don't know the religion i don't know anything about it but respect goes pretty far everywhere in the world and also it's not that hard to be not disrespectful yeah it's like a basic like you know

some old ladies behind you like hold the door open you don't think like i'm going to be respectful here you just do it and you don't even remember and kids will run up because they never seen A yellow. Or if speaking English or I had a bunch of like a sticker from one of the podcasts I had. I should give it away to kids. And, you know, little kindness will go pretty far over there. I got to say, I don't think I was ever fearful except when we got pulled over by a cop, you know. Other than that, oh, I fell into a sewer.

The road's not great. So if you not pay attention, there was a whole. like a, but this hole, I was looking around, I feeling a little head, I had that shit all the way here. And I have to apologize to everyone and I have to get a ride. Oh. Yeah, stuff like that. You just got to worry about.

Just walking into a, and you walked into a sewer hole? Yeah. Oh, gosh. I didn't pay attention. Because a lot of times you have to walk, there's like a small canal to each home. A couple lumber of sticks will appear across the house. we walked around I literally fell into a like sewer

and it's black and I had to apologize driver and you know everybody had to stay away from me so that was a hassle we had to worry about a bunch of dogs that was another headache

once I was in Vietnam in southern Vietnam yeah and there was a hike where you go up this mountain and the sea into Cambodia yeah if it began or whatever

I'd be getting this wrong let's see if I'm getting it right Right. Can vote. You're not. Yep. Show dock down here. And this is a mountain towards the border you can see way into it.

Anyway, so I was like, this driver let me off. I'm like, I'm gonna go up. You need me back here in three hours after sunset. I'm gonna come, whatever. And he decided to come meet me. So halfway up the mountain, he stopped, and I was holding a stick. And he was like, oh, let's drive. And I was like, okay, cool.

I put the stick down. And he's like, well, what's the stick for? I'm like, oh, I don't know. I goes, for the dogs. And I'm like, yeah, I'm scared. And he's like laughing. Because he's like, yeah, man, some of them are just fucking brutal up here.

Did you go killing fields? Yeah, we did a little recreation. It was a lot of fun. They give you this like fake baby and you can smash it against the fucking rock and then you get a little prize. Yeah, I'm joking. Okay.

To the killing field, we're nuts. They tell you that they were saving bullets. They use these palm leaves that had jagged edges and they're like, let's just slice their throats with those. Because like, why waste a bullet? We'll need this. for actual combat. Sorry, man.

I'm not doing good job remembering, but you had a bunch of other coins of Kabul. Did I answer? The liquor, getting the liquor. What you told me is, and now expound on it, is they're like, can I bring you anything when I come? And they're like, if you can bring us two bottles of Jack Daniels, that means we can have a bar for a month.

Yeah, I was a little worried, like, are they going to check? But soon as cross the border, they didn't really check my stuff at all. You told me they just couldn't get it there, but if they had it with the expats, like, you guys can have your bar. the major hotels

they got them you know once again you got to be discreet obviously you shouldn't walk around drunk in the streets

and things like that but I think as long as you're respectful local customs you'll be fine even being gay just you know

don't kiss in public and stuff like that you know right you could hold hands because everybody's doing that you know but

other than that I really can't think anything else if you watch the news Like, I'm sure I already know the answer, but did you ever see people burning U.S. flags in Middle East? Burning any? Yeah.

No. Every time you see news about middle years, you think that's going out 24-7. I've never seen it. I've been going for 20 years. They don't have enough money just buy flags to burn. They're just, like, can I have water? That's a good point. Things happen.

I think sometimes I wish, like, Wicked Travel was really good in travel book. But a lot of times it's almost written for, like, white men traveling. I wish they would have a section where, well, what's it like for gay person or women traveling? That could be more useful. I remember asking, I actually never put out the podcast, but like it was just a bunch of different travelers. And that Swedish lady that I told you who went to Iran. And I was like, were you worried? She goes, no, there's a couple places we had to cover your hair.

But she goes, the other places you don't have to cover your hair. And she goes, it was mostly just great hiking. Yeah. And because she wasn't American, she didn't have to have a chaperone with her. Yeah. She was just allowed to go wherever she wanted. And it's just, she was like. It's not the version that they're giving you.

It's just not that. And if you talk to anyone, my brother worked in Luxembourg for a couple years. And so it was people from all over. It's this tiny place. They have people in France and people from Belgium, people from Germany and Sweden. And they're like, oh, you're American. They're like, how many guns do you have? And he goes, I don't have any guns.

Like, come on, you have guns. And he goes, I know, I don't have any guns. They're like, wow, what? He goes, all right, but that's your, do they look at you? Like, you're weak because you don't have any guns? No, it goes, but most people have guns. He goes, no, most people don't have guns. Yes.

And they're like, now you're clearly lying. Of course most of you guys have guns. And he goes, I'm telling you most of us don't have guns. And they're like, wouldn't believe him. Because the story they got is this Wild West, there's school shootings every day. Everyone's just firing it everybody. But it's just not the reality. I've never seen school shooting.

It does happen. But, yeah, like, you know, I think we were talking before. Like, there was attack with D.C. sniper. And my aunt was concerned. And I told them, no, I live in Washington State. It's not D.C. You know, they don't know the difference. And if there's an incident in New York City, like, it's such a large, I mean, you know, I was in Israel recently, two miles away from Gaza.

I didn't notice anything. There's no danger. Wow. Yeah. You know, does it happen, of course. But we're not talking about it doesn't happen. Yes. We're not if it realistically happens.

Yeah. If you have to actually worry about it. And I actively look for those places and still things doesn't happen, you know. Yeah, I was on Rogan's podcast with Norman and Shane and. and Norman said something we were talking about the subway and Rogan just, he has this version of New York

that's just battleground all the time and Norman was like yeah I took the subway over there and Roman's like, yeah, he goes, why? And Norman's like, it's faster? But you're not worried about it. Oh, dude, no one I know

has ever seen anyone get pushed in front of the subway. It's, it's. I mean, you know, my friends and relatives in Asia, they think during COVID, I mean, was there attacked by black people in Asians?

Did that happen? Yes. But it's kind of exaggerated because the rate, it does happen. But let's be honest, black people committing crime more and other black people too, you know. And it's so small. So like I went to those places. Nothing happened. You know what it is?

I saw it's like reported hate crimes are up this percentage. I'm like, but they, no one sees that word reported. Yeah. So if you're thinking about how it's all awful for us all the time. Yeah. And you see something like what we said before, it's like this guy was racist. against me for not to start giving my check right away because well you're looking for that if you're not looking for it you're like god this waiter's slow you don't you don't think to look so they're all

thinking oh they must hate asians now because of covid so any rude situation they're like racist they say they hate me because i'm Asian they hate me because i'm gay no no no no they hate you because you're a fucking asshole yeah you're a cunt yes yeah that's why they hate you they hate you because it just reconfrey how great it is to write everything off as racism and not and have to do any work on yourself. Yes. Even that fucking attack on the spa. Yeah.

They're like, they kill his Asians. I'm like, and three white ladies. Like, we're not going to talk about those. We're just talking about the Asians. I'm like, you sure it wasn't just a hooker, angry thing? Because I have black friends that they say like they hate black people, whatever. But I think more than it, more often than not, when black people are in Asia, they're fascinated by the black skin, how clear their skins are, their hair.

Because they stare because they've never seen a black person, you know? Right, right, right. It's not like a waste of them, you know. It's just like, that's weird. A seven foot two person. People are going to like, what the fuck? Oh, yeah, every black person, the NBA players. Right, yeah.

Yeah. But I hope you go because, you know, Ari, when you did that. So you think it's safe again? Hmm? You think it's safe again? Yeah, I mean. What I was going to say is, so I asked this lady when I was talking to her, I was like, is it safe?

And then I'm like, how is it for a woman? Like a solo woman traveler. I'm like, have you ever, she goes, you have to look. up a little more. Yes. So she goes, I don't drink at night. Yes.

That's when you get into trouble. So I drink daytimes or when I'm already at my hostel. Yes. If they have a bar, I'll drink there. But like, you drink and walk the streets. You up the odds. And so you just don't. She goes, one time I got robbed in wherever.

But she goes, wasn't because I was a woman. It was because I was alone down an alley. And they didn't woman rob me. They just stole my wallet. I have to say porn however have a huge influence, what they think about. white women particular and I think I don't want to stereotype but places like

India Pakistan Bangladesh and places like that I noticed that a lot of the Muslim countries too my my impression is they just assume every blonde women are easy and they're ready to fuck and they they're interested in sex with everyone and I think I hate I hate seeing that kind of shit like that's their only if porn hub is your only version of Americans. You think they're all slutty when in the reality is only like 70% are.

Like Laura Logan, very famous reporter, she was sexually assaulted during Arab uprising in Cairo. And I think it's a combination of things, right? Like, I think if you don't have a job, you don't have money. If you don't have money, you don't have an apartment. If you don't have an apartment,

you can't have a sex with somebody. And if you don't have money, you can't get married. So you have this young man, they're frustrated because they don't have a future. and you know it's terrible what happened to her but these things that's happen

you just got to do your homework but during crisis be careful but most of the time just be smart about it you know but you don't think it's a problem like where they would go after you for being American

well how could they just tell a white person they can't really I mean they assume you're not from there yeah So are they going to be like, let's get this outsider? Look, look, like we said, there's crime in America, but they're not going to attack you because you're American. No.

Or even white. It's because it's like, well, you're a target. So is the crime there? Would they be more likely to look at you if like, oh, this guy's American? I hate him or not really. I thought in China they must hate us because of a, or sorry, Vietnam because of the Vietnam War. And they're like, oh, no. They hate Chinese.

Yeah, they're like America. You're 100% great. What you guys did, but that was in the fucking 70s. 60s we don't care about you now when they say Asian hey yeah you know who hate Asian people Asian people bro no one hates Chinese like Chinese I've never seen just the outward like fuck that Hong Kong people yeah hating Chinese where they don't even like look both ways before they say some horrible shit they just say it Chinese the Hong Kong people um the way I describe them it's kind of like um you have a PC computer with uh Apple operating system

So they look like Chinese, but their mind is Western. British, yeah. They want free speech, rule of law, preventing corruption, things like that. You know Hard M? Yes. The Hard M? Mainlander?

Yes. But they say it was such spite. Like, fucking mainlander. It's like, damn, that's a hard M. Even Patrice, who hated Asian people. And believe, last time I saw him, he was telling him how much he doesn't like Asian people. How's he doing?

I haven't seen him in forever. It seems like him on the podcast. But even he said that Americanized Asians in San Francisco, they're cool people. And I think that rudeness... It's the culture more than the country. It's the country you hate, not the... When you have a country with a billion people,

they're the lying so long, you have to save time. I hope that Chinese eventually, after they travel more, they would adjust their behaviors. But they travel in a way, like they go get their picture, go back to their cheap hotel,

and then go to the next place, go acquire their... picture, get the next place. Yes. They're not looking to meet anybody. They can possibly tell you why this particular painting is important. They just want to take a picture because that's what rich people do. They want to go to certain restaurant, not because they're foodier or so things like that.

It's like very crude, rich people. So let's wrap this up in Afghanistan. Let's go back here and wrap us up. So you were there for how long? Was there anything else you want to tell me about it? I hope you go because after you did, what's the part that you did? What's his name from Canada? sorry, Canadian comic that you're retaining the anti-Semitism is a little bit exaggerate.

Oh, Holly Mandel. Dude, after that, I had so many of my Muslim friends, like, how great you are. They want to provide hospitality. I have a friend, Hatham, who will love to have you in Yemen. Saad would take care of you in both Afghanistan. Yenman. They won't want you to go because I think, I'm so proud of you, because you went from amazing racist

to somebody who could bring an understanding to the world like Anthony Bourdain. You know? And they're like, do you know this guy, Ari? It was so crazy. Like, yeah, I'm known it for 20 years. They want you to go because, and they're educated.

It's funny how much pushback I get from that too. It's pushback and people going, thank you for saying it. It's all I'm saying is this shit's not that bad. It's crazy that it is revolutionary now to say things are pretty good. Yeah, you know how many more? Muslim said they didn't like what happened to Jewish people in October 7th, you know.

And I have many Jewish friends who doesn't like what happened to Palestinian, too. And it's really nice for them to hear what you have to say because I think this powerful, rich people that live in the States, they live in their own community. They think it's like 1941 Germany or something. I think what's happening too is social media, whichever is on. Exaggerating. And we're not only exaggerating, it's going to show. show all the Jews, no Muslims saying that's wrong. It's not going to even show you.

They're saying that, and we're like, well, we're not going to present that to you. Yeah. And for the Arabs, they're not going to show any Arab going, hey, that was, that was too far. Or any Jew going, hey, guys, easy on the fucking Palestinian murders. Yes. They're not going to say that. So they're just like, none of these Jews care. It's like, well, the verse, yeah, you're just given, you're being given a fake version of reality.

And it's making everybody hate everybody. And it's just like, close this. and gone outside and everyone's pretty cool. Doesn't it seem like the leaders of Hamas and the leadership of Israeli government, they kind of need each other. Well, that's it. Yeah.

Creating problem because it puts them both in a position of power. Yeah. Because it's like how do we get all these, unless we have a threat out there, a boogeyman, which they both use each, ISIS will use us as their boogeyman and we'll use there. Without that, I can't get funding to keep power. I think Hamas was like,

let's go extra harsh so Israel won't stop so we can stay in power. I might be wrong, but during the negotiation, even for all, there was a talk between the Taliban leaders in the West and the American in Doha. And it was kind of funny hearing, they were going back and forth. And during lunch, when they go into the hotel elevators, and there's all this women in bikinis. And there's just standing in a room with the Taliban representative and then the American counterpart looking at these girls in bikini and things like that, you know.

They're both like, nice. And I think there's plenty of leadership in both sides. They make a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah, they make money to keep the conflict going. And also the Zuckerberg's is another leader that's also like, I make money if the people are fighting. Yes. He has his own country.

You know, Facebook, Instagram, that whole corporate and meta corporation, that's a country. They exist outside of any sort of nationality. So he makes his money, his tourism, is anger. that get more thanching but when I went to Israel recently in May I just saw Jews and Muslims get along I mean they just tolerate each other because they still have to work

they have restaurants Jews eat their food Muslim eat the Jewish service God Yafo everybody eats the same shit And You see this? Where's this? I don't know Kabul

Was there a river that runs through it? It doesn't look that clean When I was there last time It might have been Photoshop The green is way too green Was there a lot of pollution Oh, God, yeah. When I was there, yeah.

Do people just throw their trash out? Or is it like what kind? They're burning stuff because that's the cheapest form of keeping yourself warm in the winter. Is it snow there? It gets cold in the winter? Oh, God, yeah. Oh, interesting. But I don't think it was during, I was never there during the wintertime.

It gets, how hot does it get in the summer? I don't. I'm not really good at the temperature. I'm saying where you're like, it was like, is it repressively hot or just like, It can be warm. Yeah. The last time I was there in 2019, they blew up the building across from our apartment. That's nice.

I know this is a terrible thing to say, but I was kind of happy because it's not good news for the people that got killed, but it's good news for me because they're not going to bomb the same area again twice right away, so I'm safe, you know. That's like, I mean you see a cop pulling somebody over and like, I can speed now. Sometimes when you try to avoid one danger, you put yourself in bigger danger. So you really have to sit down, be calm, kind of like, don't go crazy. Like you have to do some little statistics, you know.

Yeah. But it's a beautiful place. People are wonderful. I'll go back. I want to go back. Miss my friends there. And I would like to go other places. But I'm curious what is it like living under Taliban rules.

You know, my friend Vinay, when his wife gave birth to their second kid, a baby girl, he received a text from somebody really higher up in Taliban saying, congratulations. He told me, I really have a mixed feeling about a Taliban. leader saying, congratulations having a baby girl because you know how they treat women over there. But if you're there, you've got to deal with them. And when you're in Egypt, you have to deal with certain unpleasant characters

because you're not going to deal with pleasant people everywhere. You're just going to learn to learn to learn to keep your head down. And when somebody yells at you, you learn how to go, not worth it and just keep walking. And then some other places are like, hey, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? You go back here, you just realize, I'm not going to win this fight. I'm going to get into a fight with a strength. or walk away. I saw a bunch of kids start fighting and my friend now to say, mind your business,

don't get involved. Soon as you're getting bad, you create more problem. I think that's why American people are good. They want to go and help. But before you do that, ask yourself, do you know the solution? Do you know how to implement it? And you know how to do that? If most of those questions are answers are no, stay the fuck out.

Yeah, it's like Eddie Muferson, number one rule of show business, mind your own business. So I have this, I've started to accrue a list of stereotypes about Americans that we don't know because we're too deep in. Yeah. But I've heard other people talk about it. By the way, when I'm there, they don't, even when I tell them American, they don't believe it. Chinese, Jackie Chang. And they did a lot, ha, yeah, you know, with a karate and stuff. It doesn't bother me because they don't know anything.

They don't know anything. But they have, they have, so here are the stereotypes that I've seen. One, Americans wear a lot of free bank teachers. shirts like MBNA America like they just notice we wear shirts you never heard that at a bank and they're like you guys are just wearing these you have no fashion sense at all you're wearing a free like Budweiser shirt like that kind of shit but one of them is Americans will rush into change a situation they have no understanding of so they'll see like an injured bird on the beach we got to help it somebody get a box yeah and everyone else just looking like why aren't you

looking like that's a dead bird man that bird's dead his wings broken we're not going to take him to a vet and fix the fucking bird. It's going to get eaten by a turtle and it's going to be part of life. Yeah. But also like, what box? What do you mean? You don't even know anything. And that's what Americans will do personally and internationally. They're like, well, Afghanistan has been taken over this. We got to correct it. Like, all we're going to do is kill 150,000 people and create poverty. We're not the right people to take care of it. We just keep fucking shit up. Ask yourself, are you going to make the situation better or worse? And if you can't make it better, don't get involved. Get some help.

And let's be honest, you travel enough. Like, war is a money-making thing. It's a business. And America's big on business, you know? Yeah, I was at a full moon party in Thailand. What kind of party? Full moon. Okay.

Chance for excuse for travelers to meet up and do drugs and drink. It's really not Thai at all. Yeah. The Thai people are serving the booze, but like it's just a moneymaker. And anyway, we're leaving. Sunup. We're leaving. We're headed back towards the jetty to get back to our island.

There was this baby, you know, those like strollers, babies can't walk, but they can sort of walk because the thing goes around. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? And there was one who was just in the road, but like a glorified dirt road, paved, but like nothing. And some fucking brodie was like, who's baby is this?

Why is this fucking baby being taken care of? We got to, and he's dressed in a fucking tank top. Actually, I have this picture up. That it'll look, you'll look like this, you know, just fucking neon paint all over you. Yeah. And that, it went all over his face. He's like, who's fucking babies?

Someone's going to take care of it. I'm like, bro, bro, the baby's fine. It's 7 a.m. You're still fucked up on drugs and alcohol, and they're getting their day started. It's not your baby. Don't take care of it. It's not an issue.

I'm sure they're around here keeping an eye on it. In Scandinavia, they keep babies in carriage and keep it outside. I panicked when I saw the first time. I know. Somebody's got to do this. It's like, why? Relax, bro. No one's taking babies here.

You come from a fucked up culture where people take babies. They want to keep it up because if they cry, it disturbed the, everyone in the restaurant. Yeah, they'll be fine outside. Yeah. But like in New York, you keep like band it outside sometimes and be like, ooh, somebody might steal that dog.

Yeah. Steal a dog. And like at other cultures, like, no one's, they just let their dogs run rampant and come back for dinner. I didn't even think about that. Because they're like, like stray dogs. Like some of them are stray and some of they're just house dogs with no collars or leashes. Right.

They're like, but don't you think these expensive purebred dogs, don't they? No, the purebred dogs, yeah. But yeah, they'll take those. But like outside, I'm saying in like Mexico or Ecuador or something like that, where it's like, yeah, there's somebody's dog, but if it doesn't come back one day, it's been run over and you're just going to deal with it. But they go out and have adventures. I don't know. So here's something I ask people. Two questions.

Okay. Well, actually, I'm going to ask you another one first. But I'm going to ask you if you have any general travel tips, which you've told me a lot already. Ones I've gotten to like grind up mushrooms and put them in granola. No one will check. Or bring a nice toilet tree bag. or travel light or whatever. Could be anything.

Go down alleyways, whatever. Another one is what's on your mind of where to visit next. But before that, I was like, is there anything you would tell somebody going to Afghanistan, like tips you would tell them? Like, don't do this. Bring toilet paper or make sure to bring this. Like, what would you tell somebody if they're going?

Try to be honest and don't bring drugs. I have idiot friends even though they're available over there you don't want to get caught with drugs because they'll give them reason to lock you up here's an example I had idiot friends smoke weed before they're traveling to UAE Dubai

and they put stuff on Instagram I think I'm correct on this if the custom knew you took drugs in LA you flew 16 or whatever many hours to fly into Dubai they'll take you to clinic take your blood.

If they find marijuana in there, you literally brought drugs to that country. So I think you should be anything with drugs, you should be careful. You could get in trouble for that. I'm not telling you not to do it, but you don't want to give authority

a reason to lock you up. Don't post about it. Yes, don't do that. But I like doing all the homework. I like studying the map. I got chased in Nice by some homeless person. Because every place I visit,

I kind of study all the map in case I'm chased. So I'm a little paranoid. I do all my homework before I leave, but do all your paperwork. That's a general travel tip. Yeah, like don't, you should know something about we're visiting. Like, don't be a complete idiot. Don't be a complete idiot.

I like that. But my biggest tip on traveling is people would say, I don't have a time to travel. And it's a lie. We all, you could always make time for something that matters to you. So if you tell them you don't have money to go or time to go, it's a lie because it's not a priority. I have so many friends.

What do you have time for? What do you have money for? Yes. And so I think you should travel because I think it will enrich your life. You'll see the world better light and you'll be more mistrustful media because they're lying about places, you know. They'll just lie. They just like, and it's like not, they don't say anything specifically wrong.

It's just like they're showing you so much of one side that it gives you a wrong impression. Okay, you're right. They're lying they're misleading the truth. Yes. So do school shooting

happen? Yes. Not at the rate that people think of Yeah, if you're a reporter coming to America to report on America back to a fucking Indian.

They're like, oh, you didn't see one school shooting while you were there. No, I don't, you don't know when they're going to happen. Yeah. It's one a month. Always have copies

of your passport. Okay. Email in case it gets stolen. Yeah, could a, That's a good tip. Have a copy on your email of a passport. Yeah. That's a good tip.

Because you're fucked if you lose your passport. It's really bad. You could also go to American Embassy and get it going. But yeah. But what about Afghanistan in particular? What would you have wished you knew before you went there? Or you would tell somebody about Afghanistan. Like, hey, make sure to, I don't know, get out and walk around because it's okay.

Or like, don't walk around. Eat the food. Don't eat the food. eat the food try to have a handler there try to have a handle interesting and if you don't

go someplace reputable and meet people and have enough contacts and friends that they could help you if there's emergency but best way to deal with emergency

not to put yourself in the beginning with and that's like a common sense thing but yeah other tip no that's okay you gave me some good ones

already unless you're thinking of something like but but but very respectful of like how you deal with women there because I was very careful not to talk to any women, especially their single woman, you know, I would just, I try not to do that. I went to this place in Guatemala.

Yeah. I have these like churus, this like, to mescal's, like a hot bath. And anyway, they're only kind of there in that region. But I did read up a little bit, which I don't normally do. Yeah. Usually pretty bad, actually. And they go, they killed a tourist and his driver. because he was taking pictures of kids

and they were like, you're going to steal our kids and take it back to England. Oh. And so I just didn't talk to any children. Other places, I'll be like, it's a way to connect. My Spanish is closer to theirs

as a 10-year-old than an adult, you know. But I was like, stay away from me. Nope, not going to talk. I don't know what you guys are doing. I don't want to get burned alive like this other guy did. Sorry, here's some advice.

If you're a rich person or medical, us, you might have tendencies and pay somebody to buy a grocery store or things like that. No, no, do it yourself because even going to grocery store, not speak the language, it becomes a minute adventure.

And don't get a haircut before leaving the country. Get a haircut in another country. To see what haircuts like there. Yes, because even if they don't speak the language, it's an opportunity to sit there and talk to somebody who live there. Oh, right, you're stuck for 40 minutes while you're getting your haircut.

Yeah, and it's a pleasure for them because they have a misunderstanding about your country too. So maybe you could take out order? No, go to a restaurant and order and talk to the locals, getting haircut. They have a toothache, go see a dentist, do everything local? Because it's an opportunity to meet somebody. Who knows, you might meet your future wife through one of those kind of encounter, too.

That's why I don't like rich people going to, like, expensive five-star hotel because they take care of everything. You're missing the whole point. Why leave America then? Just stay in New York City. Dude, this reminds me. I got my haircut in Berlin. not this last time, but two times ago.

Okay. And needed a haircut. I was on a European travel anyway. I was all, I was doing a European tour. Is it like an ethnic person cutting your hair? It's a Czech person. Yeah. So, you know, you're talking to them.

Yeah. You see the different styles of like, do they give you a shot of alcohol? Like I do here in New York with it with the, you know, Persians and stuff. Yeah. But like, but like, you're talking to him. It's like, where are you from America? What are you doing here? I'm a stand a comedian.

What are you doing here? It's like, I'm trying to build boats, but I'm doing whatever. Or I'm getting my hair. It's like, you speak English? and they're like, yeah, it's just a way to talk. It's reminding me of this haircut now. And he goes, yeah, everybody kind of meets up in either German or English. So I'm Czech, so I don't speak German.

I'm learning German. But in the meantime, we all speak a little bit of English. You're from Luxembourg. You speak a little English. If you're Czech Republic, a little English, even German speak a little English. So we can all, but then I realize it's a very worldly city. People from all over. Yeah.

And they meet up in either English or German. Oh, here's other advice. So if you don't have handling like myself and that's in Kabul. Give them the money, yeah. And let's say, let's say you're a Chinese person visiting Kabul. Find a Chinese restaurant run by ethnic Chinese. When you see your people and you speak the language, there's a vested interest for them to help you.

Because if you talk to somebody, say, hey, I'm from Shanghai, this restaurant happened to be in Shanghai. If you talk to them long enough, you're going to find, like, oh, I think I know your uncle, da-la-da-da. I went to this school and like, oh, my cousin went there. That's one of the most cost-effective way. find somebody who will trust you because if you're in the same ethnic group or a certain part of the world, it's easier to get help because you don't have to explain certain mannerism. You're on the same

playbook. Like if I went to another country and let's say a frog and then there's a Japanese restaurant, they're from Osaka, my hometown. Right away, there's a direct connection like we understand each other. So they're more inclined to help you because you're from there. That's the cost-effective way to find somebody to help. So it would be like finding an American in like Costa Rica. And then like, so what's there to do around? You can all, you can like, like, where are you from? Like New York, like, oh, okay, I know I grew up in like Georgia.

I'm like, oh, cool. Yeah, or do you speak Hebrew or Yerich or something? Yeah. Okay, so let's say you go to Japan for the first time. You go to Tokyo. You go to Delhi and from Jerusalem or Telibis, you speak to them right away that you are that much closer in trust. You understand each other.

We were in Acadia National Park with my parents. parents and we passed them on some small hike past some Israelis. Israeli kids speak in Hebrew. My dad is Israeli. He speaks fluent, fluent. Yeah. And he said something like, he's like, whatever he said, like, hey, watch out the rocks in Hebrew. And they're like, oh, ah.

And he's like, yeah. And then they started, they spoke English and up. But they're like, where are you from in Hebrew? Where are you from? Oh, what do you do? It is. You're right. It's a connection.

As soon as you have the connection, if in travel, they could help you. And if you're looking for food or certain kind of service you need that maybe that local or that's an unaware, you'll find something right away. Wow. So that's a cost-effective way of getting along, you know. Interesting. But smile helps a lot, and don't be loud. Loud shit is not good.

You could be loud in here, but especially in places like Asia. Loudness means aggression. So be polite, be mindful. Call attention to yourself. Go one of this ethnic restaurant that you feel comfortable, and you'll find help right away. All right, that's not bad. All right, Josh, what are you working on?

You got a podcast? No, no. Can I... Were you about to read something? Oh, do you have a couple more questions, or... No, not really? So I'm going to be in Switzerland. What?

This fall, and I'm working with my friend Harry and Christian Breaker. I'm working at my Enbrook show. I'm redoing again. This fall, late this fall, like October, November, December. Buddy, I got to be honest with you. I'm 20 weeks. ahead on this so I don't know when it's going to come out. I'm going to read your dates in particular, but I don't know if you have like an overarching

thing, like a podcast or... Oh, that's fine. At least my friends know that I made a Tim promoting it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll never matter what right before it comes out, I'll find out where you're going to be. But for sure, in your face, comedy. That's where you're going to be, Harry and my friend, Christian Breaker, I'll be working with him next couple years on this one-man show.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And they also say... Oh, that's what you were asking me. They told me They feel really bad Because they told me

They were pretty sure You were having bad time in Switzerland They said if you want to do a tour They will take care of you And they're not going to have any issues No, I actually just added it Because I was going to visit my brother So I was like, you know what?

Fuck it, I'll just add a show on Zurich Yeah But the promoter was just like not great Scumback, right? It's not that he just lost touch He has like a mailing list And it's like bro, time has moved on Yeah

We just don't do it that way And I was like Why did I draw worse than I did five years earlier? Yeah I'm doing way better everywhere. Why is it worse? It's like, and he was just mad at Live Nations.

Like, fucking Live Nations and these people. And I'm like, what, they're supposed to go with you? Live Nation is a massive company. They'll take, also, bro, we lost people here. What are you talking about? Yeah. It's not going well. And then I said, I wanted some local to introduce to, you know, go on the show.

He goes, oh, you want it open? I'm like, yeah. But I asked Andy Haynes. He goes, I know a girl, which is funny. Great. Recommendation from a comic who's funny saying he met a girl is funny. Okay. Not trying to fuck her or anything, you know.

So I was like, okay, if you think it's just funny, I'll book her. He said, hey, I found somebody. He goes, no, they're in a different stable of comics. I won't have any of their comics performing here. And I was like, bro, I need an opener. And he goes, I'll find one. And then someone else was on for a hundred bucks. He goes, no way.

He goes, I'll do it myself. And so he opened, but he's not a comic. It was just like, dude, it was an ad on show. But it was just like, this is all very annoying. Yeah. Anyway. All right, but I'm really excited. I can't wait until you go to these.

Yeah, Yemen now. Muslim countries. Yemen's really, the way you, when you just said that, it unlocked something in me where I was like, you know, other places are like, try that,

try them like, okay, okay. But when you said Yemen, I could feel my emotions go up. Where the fuck is Yemen? Right here. Oh, wow. Sana's running out of money. Sanas running out of money?

I mean, we're running out of water. They're running out of water, and they're constantly attacked by Saudi Arabia. My friend Hatham is from there. he will provide all the security and you should go. But yeah, it's interesting. I don't know if you notice,

people are really excited about Korea because of K-pop. American pop culture is very popular in the United States. I believe there's an invert relationship. Inverse. The bigger your export of your pop culture, there's an inverse relationship where average person live in misery. Like Korea have all this wonderful K-pop and things like that, but average person do not have a good life there. And Yemen is borderline failed state, but he told me, you know, Yoshi, Hatham said,

my country is a war-torn country, and some people say fail-state, but you don't have to make an appointment with your family members. So maybe they don't have a luxury, but really in places like that, the family structure is so amazingly strong. Whereas in America, everybody works. They have a nice home, but dad's working when they have a dinner. Kids on cell phone. They're not having conversation with their family. The living standards great, but the things that we consider good traditional values, it's not necessarily great in advanced countries, you know.

So, but that role, that guy who wrote that Vagamon's White, and he's that one I took the class with? Yeah. Yeah, he sent. Sot. Sard Moseini. Yeah, I got to meet him. Yes. I want him to do the podcast.

Actually, if I go to Afghanistan, I'll do the podcast with him from Afghanistan. Do it a word. And Sa would take care of you, Afghanistan, and Hatham would take care of him in Yemen. I love it. And with Pakistan, I know Saa knows a lot. But this is such an interesting place. It's what the 19th century people call the great game, the battle between Russia and the British Empire. To get all this.

Yeah. And Afghanistan was old. was important because India always needed Afghanistan as a shield from the influence from Russia. You know, the geopolitical of this area is just so interesting. So I love the fact that you go there because I think when you go, you're going to educate the public because you have a massive fan base. And I cannot believe how many Muslim friends of mine. Like, do you know this going to Ari Shafir?

This is so crazy. Just because I said it's not that hard to be a Jew. Yes. By the way, I'll say it again. Jews and anyone who thinks Jews are weak. Look what we did to Gaza. You don't think we're coming for you next? You don't think when we're done with that.

We're going to see what you said online and fucking handle our business. Keep talking. So. This is what I like on this map is these stripe areas where it's like, they're like, I don't know who controls it. Oh, the Kashmir area. Like this is either China or India. I don't know. This is either Pakistan or India.

I don't know. And I forgot the name of the valley, but there's a valley around this place where the terrorists are just rampant. and nobody's in control. But I love going places like that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And I want to go back. I want to go Pakistan, India, and just go there. Yeah, Pakistan doesn't call me.

India, sort of. But now Yemen is now just moved way high on my list. You should go. Oh, I'll fucking go with you. And 2017, I think I had a lunch with you. We were thinking I'm going to Iran. And while during lunch, Trump has travel bans, if we couldn't go there anymore. But there's an island from...

Can you go to Cuba now or no? Technically no, but everybody goes through Canada or Mexico. So that's not that difficult. But there's an island control by Iran where you could take a vote from Dubai to go there. It's technically under the control of Iran and tourists could go there. Oh, really? Yes, there's places like that where... Look at these dots right there.

It's interesting. All right. Let's wrap this up. Yoshi, thank you. Yeah, at Yoshi, I'll ask you at Instagram, but that's it. Other than that, I don't really have anything going on. As soon as I started this, I was like, I got to get Yoshi on. More than Rob Lowe. My thought was, well, I wasn't even thinking about Roblo.

I was thinking about Yoshi and your trip to fucking Afghanistan. It's such an interesting time. Yeah, Andrew McCarthy, you should get him to. I got to get him. I just realized he turned from acting to travel writing, and the travel writing is interesting, and now I'm like, I want him bad. And Sebastian Younger is another great travel guy. He's been all over the place, and he lost his friends in Northern Africa.

Where were they? They were covering, I think, the conflict, no oblivia, or something like that, and the guy got killed. I forgot the guy's name, but he was a very close friend. I think camera guy, but now that he's got a wife and a kid, I think he's more careful about it. But Henley Rollins, another amazing travel guy. And when he talked, he brings those countries alive, you know.

I love guys like that. He's so expressive and good at, like, saying this. He's talking about in India, like, having a funeral pyre and smelling the smell of dead pot. It was like... Rick Steves, please get him on the show. He, uh, admire of his, yeah. All right. Let's go outside and smoke a cigarette.

All right. Thanks, Ari. I got your money. No, no, no. No, relax, bro. I'm getting it. First time in 12 years. Thanks, man.

Yeah, it's, wow. It's been a long time, huh? Yeah, I guess I had you on. in pocket so long. Well, you know, because you'll come back onto this one, do another country. Because you, you're the only one as a stand of comedy really travel. Yeah. They only do fun shit.

You really go places. I get my hands dirty. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, man. All right, man. Thanks, man. All right, buddy.

Well, that is the episode. Thank you very much. Yoshiyobi Joshi for coming in. I don't know, a little disappointing, to be honest. What we talked about, Afghanistan, person to person, it was more. excited for me. I was hoping you'd have some of those stories and I guess I waited too long and I kind of forgot some of them. But I remember I remember specifically him saying like anyone who comes like please bring two bottles of Jack Daniels and we can have a bar. You can have a bar for a short time.

This lighting is wrong. Yeah, I backlit it. This is a mistake on my part. And that just seemed cool. It seemed cool to be in a, I, this is kind of my example. This city is my example. Don't forget to follow Yoshi Abayashi on Instagram and Twitter. and YouTube at Yoshi Obayashi. Obayashi. Yoshi Obayashi Obayashi Obayashi.

Yeah, it's my example of one of the types of travels where it's like occupied travel. That time in Kabul when Americans were ruling it and all these like, you know, just workers, not even like military, just. workers.

They were like running it. And the other example, that would have been like Nazi occupied Paris. You know, would have been, what a wild time to be there. I mean, if you're a German soldier, that's a different experience. What if you're visiting? So, would they allow people to visit? Now, it's wartime. You couldn't just pop over from England on a trip.

Maybe you could. Maybe they did trade. I don't know. I really don't know. Did they do trade? Do they have tourism? If you were a soldier, I mean, man, it's like, yeah, I'll pay for a croissant, but if the smiles out there, or, oh, shoot, I'm a dollar short,

I can just get it for free, right? Right? I can just get it for free, though, right? Right. Yeah, and then if you're French also, it's like all of a sudden there's other people there, like the watchers or the observers from, what was that movie with Josh, TV show with Josh, whatever his name is, on Fox, The Observers, not Tallhouse, anyway.

Yeah, but an interesting way to travel. Occupy travel. But I mean, Gio is doing it. Julio, excuse me. He's going there now, so I guess it's kind of different. Something to think about. Guys, please subscribe. Leave a comment right now on

this episode and kind of on all episodes. Just leave some dumb comment. It helps. I think that's it. Congratulations to the New York Knicks. I was in New York for 14 years. They have two baseball teams, two football teams both playing in New Jersey, hockey is the Rangers and yeah, they play basketball too. They have eight teams. eight teams in the biggest market in America. And it was 0 for 13 until right at the end of my time here.

The New York Knicks wrap one up. What an exciting time to be here. I met some tourists. Man, I did shows, and I could see America from their perspective where everywhere was partying. And they're like, what? We got here. I mean, they're at the comedy seller.

Nobody was there. So there's that. They didn't enjoy that. It was unpacked. But they're like, I don't care about this team, or even basketball. It's an American sport. The vibe.

To be there during that. I read articles about being in, there was an uprising in Ecuador and just having to be there. Actually, I was in three different, I was in three different countries when they deposed or got a new leader in Latin America. It was an interesting time to be there. Watch the new leader of Bolivia.

First one in 20 years get sworn in. People were crying. I started crying too. To be in New York, the New York Knicks won game five. By the way, they could have easily lost four nothing. That Wemby shot goes down. Game two.

The pass. Game three. I mean, they won. Game four, that comeback. Game five. They could have been a five-nothing to Spurs. Oh, anyway. Guys, please subscribe wherever you're watching and listening.

Today's episode is produced by the Your Mom's House Network. They are the best comedy network in the business. The people I have on there, Dunkin' Trust. and Kurt Metzger's new show, Ian Finances show, Steph Toll have as a new show. They are all comedy all the way. Josh Zolo has finally taken his head out of his fucking ass

and started booking some goddamn comedians on a comedy podcast Network. I think the history of hyenas are there. Maybe just for ads. I don't know. Great ads, though. No ads on today's episode. That's it, everybody.

So please leave a comment or subscribe wherever you're watching. Today's episode was edited by Alan Kathy. It was hard. It was a difficult to edit because it didn't look like Yoshi's eyes were open the whole time. And he had to edit around what he thought were blinks. And I had to tell him. All right, I'm not going to get into this. Thank you very much, everybody, for tuning in.

Yeah, that's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah. And check out my final Legion of Skanks episode on Gas Digital right now on the Legion of Skinks. What a run that was. What a run right at the end of New York. Nick's Championship. I'm not a Knicks fan, but I got into it.

Banwagon fan. We outnumbered the regular fans. Fuck, you think the Yankees would have won once. And a 10 or 12-week run on the most offensive podcasts in the world, Legion of Skanks. And they inducted me into the Skanks Hall of Fame right at the end. What a run right at the end.

You're really going to make me miss this place. All right. Anyway, it's not for a travel podcast. And neither is the other thing. I'll just mention we had our first passing. on you be tripping so we really got it i'll say whatever all right all right yeah all right um what a fucking legend though huh what a way to go out what a fucking way to go out too early you know but what a way to go out god damn what a cool fucking good all right guys thank you very much for

it's like what it's like what and that it's like okay bye