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Driving Profile: Dan
(sneak peek)
DAN: It’s a, it’s quite an embarrassing story actually. ,
because I wasn’t even in the driver’s seat at the time.
, so my Jeep, , I drove it all
the way around Africa, so it had done a lot of miles and the, , handbrake, the
emergency brake didn’t work very well.
And so I was in Uganda and this
really remote spot, I came over a hill and there was like Albert in front of
me, this beautiful lake. And I really wanted to get a photo.
So I parked the Jeep. It was on
a little bit of a hill. , and I got out to take a photo. And so I walked maybe
like 20 yards away from the jeep.
And it started to roll down the
hill by itself.
(intro music)
BHAVNEET: Welcome back to another episode of drive with us
podcast, a podcast where we explore driving cultures around the world, by
bringing on a new guest each episode, to talk about the crazy things they’ve
experienced on the road, who they are as drivers and how they became the
driver. They are. I’m Bhavneet.
TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit and today’s driver is Dan Grec all
the way from Australia. Dan has been to so many different countries and he
shares with us his crazy experiences of driving in Africa and the Pan-American
highway, and many more places like the time has Jeep ended up rolling down a
hill, straight into a rock wall..
Dan isn’t an adventure writer,
photographer and snowboarder based in the Canadian Rockies. After successfully
driving the length of the Pan-American highway from Alaska to Argentina, Dan
then completed a 54,000 mile 35 countries, circumnavigation of the African
continent in his Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Now he is setting out to explore his
Homeland with an expedition, to all of Australia’s wild and remote corners.
Let’s meet today’s driver.
(transition music)
BHAVNEET: Welcome Dan to drive with us podcast. Thank you so
much for joining us today.
DAN: Thanks for having me. I’m really looking forward to
this. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. We’re super excited to talk to you since you’ve
been so many places around the world. Before we dive into your crazy driving
experiences, , tell the listeners a little bit about where you’ve been. So what
are some of the places that you driven and where are you currently?
DAN: , I’m originally from Australia, you can tell by the
accent. And that’s actually where I am right now. But years ago I moved over to
Canada and after working at a desk for years, I decided I wanted to have a more
adventurous life. And so I drove to the top of Alaska all the way to the Arctic
ocean.
And then I turned around and I
drove south all the way to the bottom of south America. So I drove through all
of north America, central America and south America through 17 countries. Which
changed my whole life, , camping, hiking, driving my own vehicle. And it was
something that I became addicted to. And so when I got back home, I manipulated
my whole life around just to save money and plan and do it all again.
And then I drove all the way
around Africa. So basically I started in Morocco in the Northwest and I drove
all the way down the west coast of Africa through about 17 countries. Then when
I got to South Africa or regrouped and drove all the way back up the east
coast, all the way to Egypt. So I drove through 35 different countries in
Africa, again with my own four wheel drive, camping, cooking all my own meals
and just having adventures out in the wilderness.
And it’s become a real passion
of mine to, to explore the whole world that way.
BHAVNEET: That’s awesome. I, I have a little like jealous of all
your driving experiences. , what made you decide to do the Pan-American highway
first?
DAN: Well, I was living in Canada at the time and I’d
always been fixated on Alaska. I think I read call of the wild when I was young
and, those epic mountains and the wilderness. And for my whole life, I’d
thought I wish I could go to Alaska. And then one day I was like, it’s right
there. It’s like a three-day drive or a four-day drive.
So I thought now is the time
let’s go for it. , I threw my little tent in the back of my Jeep and I hit the
road and then a friend of mine said, , if you want to skip the winter, why
don’t you head down the Mexico. Was like, oh, , that sounds like a pretty good
idea here. I like the sound of that.
And then the whole thing just
snowballed in once I was in Mexico, I was like, why don’t I drive into Belize.
And then why don’t I drive into Guatemala? And it just kept rolling of like,
this is so much fun and I don’t want it to end.
BHAVNEET: Oh, that’s cool. So originally you weren’t planning on
going the whole way, and then you’re just like, why not? One more? Why not? One
more and then made it all the way down.
DAN: Yeah. Originally, I found it really stressful to try
and think about doing the whole thing. I remember early on, people would tell
me, oh, you’re going to love Peru. And you know, when you get to Argentina,
make sure you go here. And I remember saying like, no, no, no, slow down. Like,
that’s why too far away. I don’t want all that stress and all that pressure.
I’m just going to go for as long
as I feel like it, and if I’m scared or if I don’t feel safe or something goes
wrong. I’ll just do something else, , I didn’t want to commit to the whole
thing. , so it was, it was more just like go until I’m not enjoying myself
anymore.
And whatever that turned out to
be,
TARANJIT: How has the drive, did
it
go smoothly?
DAN: The drive went very smoothly on the scale of how
smoothly these things can go. , but it’s, it’s like a whole different world. .
Some of those driving experiences. I still have dreams about them, or I still
think about it when I’m, when I’m driving here in Australia, , it’s extremely
organized and peaceful driving over there.
It’s hectic driving. And so it’s
like the opposite world.
TARANJIT: What was your most favorite stop, like point that you
drove through and what was your least favorite?
DAN: It’s, it’s really, I feel like it almost does it a
disservice to sort of pick one place, because people always say, what about
this other one? , but in general, I actually fell in love with Alaska. , and I
moved after I finished the trip. I actually moved and leave the Northern
Canada, just a couple of hours from the border of Alaska.
Because when you’re up there,
there’s, there’s something special about the wilderness and about the mountains
and the length of the days in summer, the sun’s up for 22 hours a day. And just
to be able to go and hike up a mountain and not see another person. And, you
only see a moose or you see a bear.
Then in the winter, you see the
Northern lights. And so for me, Alaska, or I think is one of the most beautiful
place I’ve ever been in my whole life. And I’ll go back for the rest of my
life. I love it so much. And in terms of least favorite Hmm. When I was in
central America, , Honduras at the time had a bit of a bad reputation for, ,
corrupt police and military and they try to extort you.
They, , they try to get money.
out of you. And so I actually drove across the entire country of Honduras in a
single day. So I got up really early in the morning in El Salvador, crossed the
border into Honduras, drove a few hundred miles across Honduras and then
crossed the border into Nicaragua. And so that was like an 18 hour day or
something.
It was enormous and it was
exhausting and stressful. And I don’t recommend that anyone do that, if they
can help it
BHAVNEET: Yeah. So that was just one of those kinds of countries
where you’re like, let me just get through it as fast as I can.
TARANJIT: So as you were taking this drive, did you encounter
different types of drivers? And would you say there’s certain types of drivers
in certain areas that you
drove through?
DAN: Oh, definitely. Yeah, there, there are different
drivers everywhere. But in general, I would say Latin America has a vibe to the
driving that, that you can adjust to and you can get used to. You get into
Mexico and it builds and it builds. And then you get to one of the really big
cities.
I think for me, it was Acapulco.
It was the first, , multi-million city and I call it, make it up driving. . So
it basically means the rules. Aren’t important. Stop signs don’t mean stop, ,
red lights don’t mean stop. It just means go wherever your vehicle can fit. So
if you come to a stop sign and there’s nobody coming, just go, don’t, don’t
slow down.
Or if, if you coming up to an
intersection, if, if the vehicle that’s in your way is smaller than you just go
and it will get out of your way. And so there’s all these kinds of adjustments.
And also you don’t have to use turn signals and you don’t have to check your
blind spots.. Because the cars behind you, they’ll just get out of your way.
If, if you just feel like
stopping in the middle of the road to let a passenger out or something that the
vehicles behind you will see that and they’ll stop. And so you have to really,
you have to concentrate a lot more because it’s all very uncertain. You never
know what’s going to happen next, but at the same time, as long as everyone’s
concentrating really hard, It actually works.
The traffic flows amazingly
well, , given how chaotic the whole thing is. So it did take quite a while to
adjust, but once you get used to it, once you’re okay with this, I’m just going
to go and see what happens. It’s scary, but then you adjust to it and it just
becomes a new normal.
TARANJIT: I feel like at least here in the U S I don’t think
people pay attention as much. And I don’t know how well that would work here.
Like you really have to pay attention in that situation. Yeah. Those drivers
didn’t pay attention. I can just imagine how much chaos
it could cause.
DAN: Yeah, that’s absolutely true. I think I read a
statistic, , in developed countries. A lot of accidents happen because a light
turns green and so people just go and they actually crash into a car that’s
already in the intersection. Because they didn’t even look, if it was safe to
go, they just went because the light told them to go.
And so that to me always defines
the difference between, , driving in a well-organized country like Australia or
the U S versus driving in Latin America. One you trust the rules and you think
that if you just follow the rules, you’ll be safe, but then the other one is
like, you completely throw away the rules and just do whatever you think is.
BHAVNEET: How would you compare that to African driving? , did
you notice any particular types of drivers?
DAN: it was actually really, , it was really familiar in
it. It was a really warm, fuzzy feeling when I drove into Morocco, which was
the first country I drove into an African. The first roundabout I got to, it
was like, the memories came flooding back of like, oh, I remember what this is
like. And there was a handful of chaotic intersections where, where I should
have gone, but didn’t, or I did didn’t, you know, and then after like an hour,
I was straight back into the rhythm of it.
It’s very similar, like along
the same idea, I would say though, African driving it differently. In that I
think a lot of the less developed countries there, people are just proud to be
able to operate a vehicle. So it’s, it’s an achievement to say, I have a
driver’s license and I know how to operate a vehicle.
And that to them means driving.
So they’re like, yes, I can drive. But the part they’re missing is the life.
Can you stay in your own lane? Can you use a turn signal? Can you okay, can you
do it safely or can you do it within some rule? That’s irrelevant, , a lot of
Africa. So the driving is even more make it up as you go along.
It’s even more you on a road,
everyone’s moving along at a good speed. And then there’ll just be a vehicle
doing, , a quarter of the speed limit because he has an enormous load of like,
or wheat , and ways like double the legal limit and the drivers just putting
along with these music players and doing his own thing, irrelevant of all the
other drivers.
It’s like, ah, they’ll get out
of my way.
BHAVNEET: How crazy
Did it feel once you went back
to like Canada or Australia after driving there?
DAN: It was really strange to go back to realizing, like I
had to actually pay attention to the speed limit and I had to use my turn
signals and it was, it was funny. I was really scared for awhile that I was
going to get tickets and I was going to get in lots of trouble.
TARANJIT: I know you’ve mentioned earlier that you had an
instance in Africa where your Jeep
rolled over.
DAN: That’s right? Yes. It’s a, it’s quite an embarrassing
story actually. , because I wasn’t even in the driver’s seat at the time. , so
my Jeep, , I drove it all the way around Africa, so it had done a lot of miles
and the, , handbrake, the emergency brake didn’t work. And, and I knew that,
and I’d been dealing with it for years and it was okay.
So I was in Uganda and this really remote
spot, I came over a hill and there was like Albert in front of me, this
beautiful lake. And I really wanted to get a photo. So I parked the Jeep. It
was on a little bit of a hill. , and I got out to take a photo. And so I walked
maybe like 20 yards away from the jeep.
And it started to roll down the
hill by itself. , even though I’d left it in first gear and the e-brake was on,
it rolled anyway because it was so heavy and I saw it start to move and I, , I
was terrified and I ran, but I had no chance of catching it. So it went
probably like 10 car lengths. And then it smacked into this big rock wall that
was on the side of the gravel road.
And that made it tip over onto
it. So in the span of about five seconds, it just went like bang crash, smashed
down on its side. I, , and the Jeep wide, like 6,000 pounds and it, and it was
my whole house with my bed and my fridge and all my passport and laptop. And,
and it was suddenly useless and broken.
That was the most terrifying
thing that happened to me. And, and the worst accident I’ve ever had.
But obviously, I mean, it was
really good that there was no one else around it didn’t hit anyone. It didn’t
go through a village or like it could have been so, so much worse.
It was, uh, a real lapse in
concentration and it was a big mistake on my behalf
TARANJIT: I guess you had to get another car after that. Were
you able to. Well, it’s like a Jeep,
like usable after that.
DAN: I was terrified that all the windows would be broken
and , it would be dented and scratched. And actually a ton of locals showed up
because they heard all the crashing and everything and, and they were like, oh,
don’t worry about it. It’s just a car. , it’s not a big deal. And so they
pushed on the back corner.
, and I had a winch on the front
of the Jeep and I winched it to a tree and with them pushing and using the
winch, it, it just came back up onto its wheels. I was really surprised how
easily that happened. And it was mostly okay. Like the rear view mirror was
smashed off. There was dents and scratches down the side.
But actually I put some duct
tape on it. , I checked everything out for a few hours and then I kept driving
it. And actually I still drove it, , for the rest of the trip and then in
Canada for years afterwards. And it’s fine.
TARANJIT: Duct tape. That’s a solution.
Well, that’s awesome that you
were still able to use it and it didn’t
get damaged that much.
DAN: Yeah, I was so lucky that it didn’t do real damage to
the steering or the engine or anything like that.
BHAVNEET: In terms of driving, are you someone that prefers to
be the driver or the passenger?
DAN: All I’m the driver every time. No, no question on.
TARANJIT: in the cases that you, where the passenger, have you
ever gotten in a car where you’re like, oh my gosh, this was not
a good idea.
DAN: I actually, these days I get a little bit car sick
when I’m not driving. I guess it’s something about, , I’m not concentrating on
the corners and, , not too long ago in Canada, I was on a really windy mountain
road and it was a really hot day and I was in the backseat of a friend’s car
and it wasn’t so much that he was driving crazy.
He was driving a little bit
crazy. But he’s a good driver, but just the, the constant windingness and the
heat. And I got really, really car sick and I was like, oh, please, can I
drive? And so he ended up letting me drive because then I didn’t get car sick.
BHAVNEET: I can, relate to you. I definitely get car sick a
little bit. And , for that reason, I prefer to drive.
TARANJIT: I’m interested to know who they know. We touched on
this a little bit of some of the countries you’ve driven through. How would you
describe the drivers in Canada and Australia versus the other
BHAVNEET: countries you’ve been in?
DAN: I would say Canadians and Australians, they’re very
much rule followers, so they’re very Placid and just do what the rules say to
do. So if the speed limit says, , 60 miles an hour, then you should drive at 60
miles an hour. And that you just put your trust in that. And even when the conditions
are bad, you don’t really adjust to driving.
Whereas in the other countries,
I would say people just, they’re more freestyle. They just ignore the rules and
they do, they use their own judgment of what they think is. Which works really
well most of the time, but then occasionally you see like a huge big accident
or you see a truck roll over or something because the person used bad judgment.
I think it went too fast for the
conditions..
BHAVNEET: what would you say out of all the places that you’ve
been, what is one of your most craziest experiences?
DAN: , right up there, the top of the list would be when I
wasin Peru, I was really excited driving all of these windy mountain roads.
They’re little gravel roads like glued to the side of the mountain. And, ,
busses in Peru, are just a certain type of suicidal. And so you coming around
these hairpin blind corners, you can’t see the oncoming traffic and halfway
around the corner.
Busses coming towards you and it’s, in your
lane, because he’s just cut the corner as he’s coming around. It happened to me
two or three times and just terrified me, , you have to swerve really hard to
avoid hitting the bus. And so after that, I would just, before I turned into
any corner, I would just honk the horn.
So just like BP, BP, trying to
warn on coming through. But I guess I got this like PTSD or some ingrained fear
of at every corner I would tense up and be scared and timid. And I mean, Latin
America, my, my Jeep was pretty little, so I could usually zigzag out of the
way, but it was always nerve wracking.
Those, those roads in Peru. And
then they had this national culture. Basically every day, there’s a huge bus
crash and lots of people are killed and it ends up on the front page of the
newspaper pretty much every day of another bus crash, like 50 people dead, but
nobody changes their driving style or, you come across a bus on the wrong side
of the road and you’re like, what are you doing?
Like, this is why so many people
are killed in crashes, but it’s every day for them.
TARANJIT: Sometimes in those situations, it’s like seeing
someone else be in that accident, does it really impact you as much as when you
actually get in an accident? Then I feel more people are like, okay, Now it’s
time to
change something.
DAN: Yeah, it’s funny like that people need the personal
experience for they’re like, oh, that’s what it’s actually like,
BHAVNEET: . Now in Peru, do they drive on the right hand side or
the left? Because I had a picture where you on the outside of the mountain
road, on the edge of the mountain, when you’re trying to make these turns or
where you on the inside.
DAN: Now you’re testing my memory because, , here in
Australia, I’m driving on the left. I need to concentrate to think about that.
So pretty much every country in Latin America drives on the right the same as
the U S and Canada , but those mountain roads in Peru, it depended which
direction I was going.
, which side the cliff was.. But
there were days as I was on the edge of the cliff and the bus was coming
towards me. That’s why it was so nerve wracking and why I would always bury the
horn.
BHAVNEET: That’s crazy. And I think you mentioned that you’ve
also driven on the death road in Bolivia.
DAN: I did drive the death road. Yeah, the world’s famous
road of being the most deadly road in the world. And it is a really narrow
gravel road. And again, the buses and the trucks just drive like maniacs. And
it used to be probably like 20 years ago. Now it used to be really dangerous
because it was so busy.
There were hundreds of buses and
trucks every day, but now they’ve built a bigger bypass road. And so when I
drove it, I think I only passed about five vehicles and it was, it was
actually, beautiful, like sightseeing in the mountains of Bolivia. So it’s,
it’s not as dangerous as it used to be.
But I could totally understand
if, if you drove that on a day when they were even 10 or 20 buses, it would be
terrifying. I don’t think I would enjoy that at all.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. You got really lucky taking in when there’s
nobody there.
DAN: Exactly right.
TARANJIT: What
would you say is, I know you’ve
been talking about some places was scary to drive in which country was the most
scariest
BHAVNEET: to drive in.
DAN: I guess there’s different reasons, reasons for it to
be scary. When I was in Nigeria, I was fairly scared. Would be the word I’d
use. Nigeria is renowned. , there are kidnappings that happen. There, there is
violence that happens there. Yeah. Bad things can happen. It’s not unlikely or
not impossible.
And I teamed up with another
couple in their four wheel drive vehicle and we decided to drive across Nigeria
as fast as we could. For about five or six days, we just drove like 14 hours a
day on these big expressways where you’re driving along at full speed.
Basically as fast as my four wheel drive would go like 70 miles an hour.
And there’s three lines of
traffic moving along, trucks, buses, and still with this, like, make it up
style of driving where at any point in time that we’ll just stop we’ll swerve
or there’ll be like a military roadblock and everyone has to stop. And so you
doing this all at like high speed on these crumbling roads that have big
potholes and boulders.
And so it just felt, it felt
dangerous from a driving perspective of like, if I have a crash right now, this
is going to be very, yeah. And it felt dangerous from a, like, I might get
kidnapped perspective.
TARANJIT: So that you’re kind of like, I don’t want my car to
break down because I’m also in a situation where like, oh no,
DAN: Exactly right. Yep. And it was scorching hot every
day. , and I wasn’t sleeping enough and I was drinking too much coffee. And so
the whole experience in my mind is this like adrenaline fueled white knuckle,
let’s cross Nigeria as fast as we can. I’ll never forget it. As long as I live.
TARANJIT: Now that we’ve heard
some of your crazy driving
experiences, let’s dive into what type of driver you are, how would you
describe it? The type of driver you are and what is your family and friends
agree?
DAN: there’s no doubt about it. My friends would say that I
drive like a grandpa. I drive like really slow, really smooth. I’m never in a
rush. I usually drive. Five or 10 below the speed limit. , and part of that is
because my vehicles just don’t go any faster because they’re big, heavy four
wheel drives.
But part of that too, I think
is, is I have that ingrained memory of like around the next corner could be a
herd of donkeys on the road or there could be a big pothole. And so I’m always
driving really defensively and really , concerned about what’s coming. So yeah,
very much a slow and cautious driver..
BHAVNEET: Would you consider yourself someone who honks at other
people?
DAN: typically, no, I don’t honk except a big part of make
it up driving. , when I explained earlier is that you use your horn to
communicate quite regularly, especially in some countries. They’re really good
at it. Instead of checking your blind spot and changing lanes, you just tap
your horn and then change lanes when you tap your horn and you’re saying to
everyone around you, like, Hey, pay attention. I’m about to do something stupid
and then you are just allowed to do something stupid. And so there were
definitely some, yeah, the countries where I, I didn’t use my horn, out of
anger or out of frustration, I just would just tap it briefly just to be like,
Hey guys, I’m pulling out into crazy traffic or I’m about to do a U-turn in the
middle of five lanes So I think I blended with the local way of using the horn.
I didn’t use it, , out of anger.
TARANJIT: Did you did that? Driving trait, come back with you.
When you went to other
countries.
DAN: It definitely did. And I have quite a few habits now.
Odd. And, and sometimes here, when I’m driving with dad, I do things and he’s
like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can’t do that. I, , I like go in the exit of a
shopping center or I drive on the wrong side of the road to get around a slow
car or yeah, I do things that are just like unpredictable.
Because I drive a four wheel
drive. I can just put a tire up on the curb to go around something or, yeah, I,
I don’t necessarily follow the rules. I do whatever I think makes sense at the
time.
TARANJIT: Is being influenced by all those other
drivers.
DAN: Yeah, absolutely. Cause it’s, it’s been years and
years of my life, all of that style of driving. So now it’s kind of part of how
I drive.
BHAVNEET: , would you consider yourself someone? So I know you
don’t really honk your horn, but would you consider yourself someone who gets
road rage?
DAN: Typically not, I think that I’ve practiced and
cultivated this let it go mentality because driving has been such a big part of
my life and dealing with all the crazy drivers and all the different rules and
all the different road conditions. If you let it get to you, I think you’d just
be an angry, stressed person all the time.
, so I usually I’m pretty chill,
occasionally I , I let it all out and I, I get a bit wild when something really
bad happens or, , I see someone who quite literally is going to cause like a
major accident. That definitely makes me angry. I’ve been known to shake my
fist a few times.
TARANJIT: Has anyone ever had road rage towards
you?
DAN: All definitely. Because of all the, make it up driving
and , sometimes I get it wrong. You get to like a four way stop sign. I
remember this really chaotic one in Argentina. It’s right in the middle of
Buenos Aires, the capital city. So it’s a massive, massive city. And I’d
actually sat on that intersection and had coffee a few times in this cafe.
So I’d watched and basically
every car comes to the four ways. Does it actually stop keeps going quite
quickly and just times that right, so that they go by just in front of, and
behind another vehicle going the other direction. So it’s like this constant
dance of all the cars almost crashing, but I watched it for hours and hours and
there was never a crash and nobody ever gotit wrong.
And then, , right me the end of
my trip, I had to actually drive through that intersection. And of course I
hesitated in chickened out and I slowed down too much. And then that broke to
the rhythm and then everybody else had to adjust because of what I’d done
wrong. And so you could see people were pretty angry at that.
They were like, come on, get out
of the way.
BHAVNEET: He’s not from here.
DAN: Exactly. Rod, he’s not from here. I think I got that
quite often where people would just. Make some allowances and be like, oh,
whatever, this, get him out of the way. And then we’ll go back to doing it
properly.
TARANJIT: That’s
hilarious a little bit now that
you think
back on it.
DAN: Yeah. It was really, , it’s fun. And, and oftentimes ,
people will give you a thumbs up or people will laugh and be like, , a silly
foreigner, but it’s, it’s usually ingest or it’s usually , everyone’s just
having a laugh and no harm done, in the big scheme of things.
TARANJIT: Speaking of road rage, do you have any driving pet,
peeves yourself? , are there any driving
peeves you have.
DAN: I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. ,
I’m inclined to say something like driving way too slow or driving a radically.
But all of that is just become such a normal part of my life. I think I just am
used to it now. And I’m like, oh yeah, that, that happens all the time.
TARANJIT: That’s interesting. Yeah. I guess since you have been
so many places, you’ve you just have to adjust and just be like, okay, well
that’s how
they’re driving.
DAN: Yeah. That being said though, I think tailgating bothers
me. , and since I just got to Australia, about six weeks ago, I noticed
Australians really tailgate. And I think it’s because they’re just so used to
everything being safe and perfect. There aren’t any herds of donkeys on the
road. There aren’t any potholes, so it’s safe enough to drive really close to
the vehicle in front of you.
Like nothing bad has ever
happened to doing that before. So why would it happen this time? Whereas I’m I,
, I leave a lot of space to the vehicle in front of me because I’m expecting
the most random thing in the world to happen.
TARANJIT: And then nothing.
DAN: Yeah, here in Australia so far nothing
TARANJIT: Well that’s
good. You don’t need to have
something all the time.
DAN: Fingers crossed. It stays that way. And not too many
kangaroos jump out in front of me.
TARANJIT: Yeah. That’s interesting that you brought up
kangaroos. I know when we were there, uncle mentioned that. Some kangaroos have
flipped cars.
DAN: Yeah, it’s really surprising. I think kangaroos have a
reputation of being like cute and cuddly and that’s how people think of them,
but actually kangaroos get really big, like it’s bigger than deer. And so it’s
more like hitting an elk or maybe even a small moose sometimes. So it can
completely write off a car.
Cause deaths when, when you hit
a kangaroo, if you’re unlucky. , it’s a really big problem hitting kangaroos on
the road
BHAVNEET: Yeah, I agree with you. Like I did not realize how big
kangaroos can get, like we saw this one that was super massive and he was like,
totally jacked. And we’re like, oh my God,
DAN: Yeah,
BHAVNEET: you like the death glare.
DAN: totally. Yeah. They, they give you this like
intimidating stare where you’re like, and I’m not going to go any closer to
you. I’m just going to like walk away.
TARANJIT: Yeah,
exactly.
DAN: And kangaroo are really annoying too, because they’re
really unpredictable. There’ll be on the side of the road, just eating grass.
And you’re like, oh look, I’m pretty kangaroo. And then suddenly for no reason
it’ll jump. And actually I’ve had one hit the side of my car. So it actually
jumped into the side of the car.
I dunno. I guess it got
confused, but they’re renowned for all. It looks like they’re intentionally
jumping in front of the car.
BHAVNEET: That’s really interesting. Well, now I know, stay away
from kangaroos. They’re not cute and cuddly.
DAN: I think some of them are cute and cuddly, but on the
whole, probably not
TARANJIT: now that we’ve heard a little bit about the type of
driver you are, let’s go back to your driving first. How would you describe
your first time driving experience and who
was it with?
DAN: The first time I ever drove a car was with my dad. ,
it was here in Australia and we had just taken a load of trash to the dump, ,
which was on a country gravel road. And on the way home dad was like, oh, why
don’t you And we were towing a trailer and it was in his, he had a big sedan
that was, , a, five-speed like a standard manual transmission.
And I remember struggling so
hard to deal with the clutch and , get it moving. And it was, it was
embarrassing and scary to feel the car lurching and moving violently. Because
in all the years I’d been in it with dad driving. It had never done that
before. , dad drove it really smoothly.
, so I remember being really
confused about like, why is this so difficult? Dad makes it look so easy.
BHAVNEET: , would you prefer to drive an automatic or a manual?
DAN: Oh, I definitely prefer to drive a manual. I really
love being connected and being part of the process and , how fast you going and
it makes it easier to slow down. And it’s more fun as well. You just get to
play with the machine instead of, I feel like when you drive in automatic, you,
you closer to being a passenger.
All you have to do is put your
foot down and you go put your foot down and your stop it. and that’s it
Yeah.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I feel like you have an easier chance of zoning
out are not paying as much attention when you’re an automatic, because it will
have to do
as much.
DAN: Yeah, totally. And especially when you’re going
downhill or something, I find it hard to tell how fast am I going when I’m in
an automatic, there’s no easy way to keep track of that
TARANJIT: When you’re describing driving, like your dad just
putting you into the car for the first time, I can only imagine what it was
like learning to drive a manual and just being put into it and having to figure
out
BHAVNEET: everything.
DAN: Yeah. And I guess it was just how he decided to do it,
of like, oh yeah. You know, take your foot off the clutch and it’ll go. And I
remember stalling it a few times and then revving the engine really hard. And
it was baptism of fire, , and then, and then I have a funny memory too. We got
to a T intersection.
And so I had to turn 90 degrees
and I remember I just turned the steering wheel a little bit and then was
really calm. And dad was like, keep turning, keep turning. , I, I didn’t, I
didn’t realize you had to turn the steering wheel so much to actually make the
car too. And even just 90 degrees..
TARANJIT: Yeah,
it’s not like a video game. Just
like
turn.
DAN: Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was funny to realize all of
those differences of it’s so much different in real life. Then I guess I had
thought of as a kid.
BHAVNEET: How would you describe your driving test experience?
Were you able to pass it on the first
bhavneet—taranjit_1_07-27-2021_182757: try
DAN: I did pass it on the first try. I remember, , I was
really nervous. I remember back then I was 17. I just turned 17. And I was
pretty timid back then. I didn’t have much confidence. And so I was shaking and
nervous. , but actually my test went really well. , I didn’t do anything wrong
that I remember.
Maybe I lost a point here or
there, but all in all, I remember I had to do a reverse parallel park and that
was, that was the scariest part for me, or, , the most intimidating, but I had
driven out there with my dad to do the test. And on the way to the testing
station, dad was like, oh, why don’t you practice a park?
And just, , over there behind
that red car. So I practiced one and I did really well. And then during the
test, I actually parked in that exact same spot behind the red car. So that
really when the, when the instructor was like, oh, why don’t you park behind
that red car? I thought to myself, like, yes, I can do this.
So I’m like, I got it. Yeah. And
then, so it went well, and . I got my license.
BHAVNEET: That’s awesome. Your dad pcked the same exact spot. So
you’re like, I’ve already done this. I got it.
DAN: And then I have a really funny memory too. So that was
in Australia. And then about seven or eight years later, I moved to Canada. And
back then the licenses didn’t just transfer you couldn’t, you couldn’t just
swap your Australian for a Canadian. So I had to go and do a driving test and
all of that again.
So I did the written test and
they gave me a learner permit in Canada, but I’d already driven there in my own
car in Canada, because I was just driving with my Australian license. And so to
do my driving test, I drove there in my own car with no one with me because ,
it was all the rules were just strange.
And so I went for a drive with
the instructor and I remember we were just chatting the whole time and , oh
yeah, turn around here, parked there, whatever we get back to the station and I
park. And he was like, Dan, I didn’t even write anything on the piece of paper.
It’s pretty obvious you can drive a car. was the strangest experience. Cause it
goes like 27 or something at the time, , to have to go through that experience
of being a 16 year old again. It was funny .
TARANJIT: Well, that’s awesome. It worked out pretty smoothly
for you and, , chatting with a guy helped you just get through it and he didn’t
have pay attention to what you’re
BHAVNEET: actually doing.
DAN: Yeah. And I think, you know, in those 10 years from
when I was 16 to 26, , I gained a lot of confidence and a lot of practice. And
so I think I was a different person, but it was just so much easier and so much
different to do the test the second time.
TARANJIT: since you have been driving in different countries,
and you mentioned that you couldn’t transfer it when you went to Canada, do you
have to do anything special when you’re driving in other countries, in terms
of your license?
DAN: What we actually do is you get an international
driving permit. And so you can get it from the automobile association. And
it’s, it’s really strange. It’s basically an international driving license that
says you can drive in 150 countries or something. And so I always find that
really bizarre because I don’t know what the rules rules are in Bangladesh or
like South Africa, but I’m legally allowed to drive there, which seems a little
bit dangerous.
, but that, that’s all you have
to do. You, you have your regular licensed from wherever you’re from at home,
and then you have an international permit and you can drive basically anywhere
in the whole. And, and like you said, people just , they give you a free pass
because they like, oh, he’s not from here.
Like he didn’t know about that
crazy rule. We’ll just forget about it.
TARANJIT: I feel like it depends where you are. Some people are
probably like, oh, come on a person from out of, out of state or out of the
country, like get out
of my way.
DAN: Yeah. I think it depends how stressed they are. And
if, , if they’re doing their daily commute and they’re stuck in traffic,
they’re like get out of my way.
TARANJIT: you’ve been so many places. I know you mentioned
earlier about extortion attempts. , have you ever gotten a ticket
while you’re driving?
DAN: I have gotten a couple of tickets. , I’m really proud
though. I went a decade of my life before I got my first speeding ticket. , and
it is a strange thing when you’re in Latin America, when you’re in Africa. There’s
a lot of corrupt police and military. In some countries you get pulled over
basically every single day.
And they’ll just try to come up
with any excuse to have you give them money. And usually they’re just making
stuff up. , I had people tell me my tires were expired. , I, I crossed the
yellow line when I didn’t, or, and they’re just trying really hard. Like if you
give them money, they just going to put it in their pocket and take it home.
, it’s not a proper legal
ticket. , And my most memorable ticket actually. So this happened all the way
down the coast, most of west Africa. So I was like, I was in the Congo
Cameroon, and it was so wild. And so remote, I crossed 17 in countries, but my
passport it didn’t even get scanned once because at all the border crossings,
they didn’t even have computers.
They just write your name down
in a book. They write it down with a. That’s what the international board is
alike. So it’s really remote, , modern and wild. And I hadn’t seen development
or technology for a year. And I felt like I was, out in the jungle. And then I
drove into Botswana, which is much, much more developed, paved roads and proper
gas stations.
And I wasn’t really paying
attention to the speed limits and I was driving in my usual, make it up
fashion. And so a policeman pulls me over. And he’s wearing this uniform and
he’s got badges and a hat and a really nice police car. And I thought to
myself, oh, this is all a bit more legit than what I’m used to.
And, my standard approach for
getting out of a ticket, , you let it go on for a while and they’re like, oh,
you were speeding. , you have to pay us $50. And so I talked for a long time
and then I usually say, I don’t have any cash on me because I’m really worried.
Someone’s gonna steal from me.
All I have is my visa card. And
so I have to go to the bank to pay. So if you write me out a ticket, I’ll go to
the bank and I’ll pay the ticket. And, and I’m sorry. And 99 times out of a
hundred they’ll then leave you alone because they don’t actually want you to
pay the ticket at the bank because then they don’t get any money for their own
pocket.
What they really want is you to
just slip them a $20 bill. And so once you make it really clear, you don’t have
any. They’re like oh whatever, go away. Like we’re not wasting any more time.
So, you know, I, I mean, Botswana and I let this develop for a while. And so
I’m like, oh, you know, I’m really sorry. I just got into the country.
I don’t have any money yet. I
need to go to the bank. And I held up my visa card. And so we’re in what I
think is the middle of nowhere. And this guy’s like no problem. He pulled out a
wireless credit card machine on the side of a dusty road in Botswana and
processed my credit card. And I paid like a $50 fine on this wireless machine
that apparently had 3g service.
I just had to shake my head and
be like, oh, I guess he got me.
TARANJIT: Wow. I didn’t
expect that.
DAN: No. I like, I probably use that excuse a hundred times
or more of like, oh, I’m sorry, I only have my visa card. And then there was
that one time out of a hundred where the guy was like, oh, that’s okay. You can
just pay with that.
TARANJIT: They’re
probably like, oh, we know this,
these excuses. We’re not going to let that fly.
Carry this around
with them.
DAN: I wonder if he thought it was strange or for him
that’s like an everyday occurrence. He’s like, oh yeah, fine. Use your card.
That’s not a problem.
TARANJIT: How does that
does, I guess if you get enough
tickets on your international license, does it have any kind of
impact on it?
DAN: I don’t think so. No, I, I don’t, I think there’s any
connection or any feedback in terms of if you do things wrong. , and a good
example of that actually in South Africa, the big cities have like really big
freeways that have automated toll stations. And so, , it takes a photo of your
license plate and you have to pay however much it is per day to use the
freeways.
But of course I was driving in
South Africa with my Canadian license plate. So they took a photo of my
Canadian license plate, but it’s not like they’re going to have my address on
file. So I just used the toll ways in South Africa for free.
TARANJIT: That’s one way to do it.
DAN: Well, I mean, I didn’t know what else to do because I
couldn’t, I don’t know, call up and pay and be like, oh yeah, I have this
foreign license plate. I’m sure that’d be like, yeah, who care, whatever.
TARANJIT: Yeah, let’s do much work.
DAN: Some advantages to driving a foreign car and having a
foreign driver’s license. , and the other one I found out actually in Tanzania,
the police also a really strict on speeding and, , they’re always pulling you
over and they have radar guns, even which again, felt like it was from the
future.
But what I learned is they have a little
computer, they have to type your driver’s license into, and then that will
issue you a ticket and then you have to pay it. But because I only had my
foreign one, my driver’s license number wasn’t in their system. So they would
type the number in, and then the computer would say, no, that’s not valid.
So then they’d sort of stand
around for half an hour and be like, ah, we can’t write you a ticket. Okay. You
can go. So I got, I got out of more than a few tickets in Tanzania that way,
where they were just like, ah, we can’t give you a ticket, go away.
TARANJIT: We don’t have time for this.
BHAVNEET: That’s awesome.
DAN: Some days it’s really fun and it works to your
advantage and you’re like, I’m just going to use, like, because I’m from
somewhere else, I’ll just let this play. I know what’s going to happen, but
I’ll just let it go for half an hour and be like, yeah. Okay.
TARANJIT: Yeah. It helps you out now that whenever you go
somewhere and you’re like, okay, I know how to get out of this.
DAN: Exactly. Yeah. But it’s frustrating now that I’m here
in Australia driving an Australian car, , I went on all the tollways the other
day in Melbourne and I had to pay like $35 for the day to drive on the whole
tollway system. And I was like, oh, rat. So, you know, I can’t get out of that
because they have my license plate.
TARANJIT: Darn didn’t work.
BHAVNEET: You went to pay for tolls.
DAN: Exactly right. I, I’m not a foreigner anymore. I’m
like, oh, I’m just part of the system.
TARANJIT: What would you say is your most memorable animal
encounter?
DAN: There have definitely been a lot of animal encounters.
And they, they very differently. I find when I was in the national parks in
Botswana, in Zambia, it was really common to just drive along and see elephants
like 20 yards off the road. So I’m sitting in the driver’s seat and I couldn’t
even use the zoom lens on my camera because the animal was too close.
And just, just look at it. And I
had to swerve off the road to avoid lions a few times. But I always found the
really special ones. Well, when I wasn’t in international park, so, you hadn’t
paid for entry, there’s no fences. You’re just out in the wild and driving
along. There’s a herd of elephants on the road.
And you just stop and wait. And
sometimes you wait for 20 minutes, , as the herd of elephants, just slowly move
across the road and eat some trees and you give them lots of space because
there’ll unpredictable. , but it, it always felt special to me to realize that
they’re not in a national park, they’re not locked in a fenced area.
These are just wild animals.
They just roam around and roads to them. They didn’t, oh, well, we’ll just go
about our life. And so every time that happened, , it always was really, really
exciting for me to be like, whoa, I’m really doing it. This is really Africa.
BHAVNEET: Yeah, it must’ve probably felt really surreal at
moments. You’re like, whoa, this is, this is actually here.
DAN: So surreal. So like pinch yourself because, cause I
spent years and years planning and saving money trying to get there, , and then
doing it was exhausting. And I was so in the moment I couldn’t, I couldn’t see
the forest for the trees, but then yeah, a moment like that, or you’re sitting
around the campfire at night and hear a lion.
And, and I guess there’s
something like deep down inside of us that knows the sound of a lion roaring
and your whole body just like screams out, run, run, run, run, this is life or
death. And so you have those moments where you’re like, oh yeah, I guess I’m
really in the African wilderness and there’s lions around.
I better be careful.
TARANJIT: Well, now that we’ve heard about your driving past
your current driving, let’s talk about the future of driving. What are your
thoughts on self-driving cars and would
you get in one?
DAN: Yeah, I think they’re really interesting. And, and I
think it’s the future in terms of safety, so many people are killed every
single day on the roads. It’s, it’s terrible. And if computers can make it
safer, then I think we will adopt it. , and actually I’ve driven a Tesla. , it
didn’t have the crazy self-driving, but it, I was on the freeway and it did
that thing where, it’ll change lanes by itself.
It’ll accelerate to match the
car in front or slow down. , and it’s a really eerie feeling, you can let go of
the steering wheel. , so I guess for people like me, I’m 39, I guess it’s maybe
never going to feel natural but I think anyone who’s in their teens right now
for them, that’ll just be normal life.
Like, of course your car just
drives you around. Why, why would you want to drive a car? I could just, , read
or play with my phone instead of having to drive the car.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I feel like for people who have actually driven,
they might be more on the fence of like, do I want to give up my driving
ability? Because some people really enjoy it. Like you said, you love, you love
being the driver, but then those, I guess, younger generation who haven’t actually
driven yet, it might be like, oh, like this will be the norm.
I don’t
need to drive.
DAN: Yeah. That’s exactly what I think. And, and we’ll
realize too, that driving is actually really inconvenient. It, it takes up so
much of our lives. And instead, if you could go to sleep or talk to your
family, or just be more like a train where you just get on it. And then when
you get off, you’re at your destination and you don’t feel exhausted and it’s
not dangerous.
Like, I think the world will be
a better place, but it’s going to take, , quite a while to adjust to that Okay.
TARANJIT: Is
that something that you would
like to get in or would you prefer to stick to driving yourself?
DAN: I can see it both ways. , a self-driving car. I think
it’d be really fun and useful if you just commuting to work every day or some
known easy trip, you just using it for transport. But also I’d really love to
still drive my own car when I’m going out into the wilderness or, or going
off-road or exploring, or just having an adventure where it’s like, I’m not
actually on a timeline.
I’m just going to drive out here
and see where I get to for the week.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. And then you won’t be able to drive your manual
vehicle anymore. If you have a self-driving car.
DAN: exactly. Yeah. And I think it’ll change so much where
it’s more like you just sit in the car and look out the windows, just like you
do on a train or a bus. It’s really passive. You’re not, you’re not connected.
You’re not engaged. And it’ll feel, I think a bit like you’re not making your
own decisions about where to go.
You get to an intersection, the car just turns
left or right. Based on the GPS instead of like, oh, it looks beautiful that
way. And it looks boring that way the car might go the boring way.
TARANJIT: Yeah, it has
to be like an override function.
No, no. Take the scenic route.
DAN: Yeah. Which I, for us, it’s going to be, yeah. I want
to drive, let me be in charge.
BHAVNEET: bonus. Question time. Are you
DAN: I’m ready I’m excited to know what this is.
BHAVNEET: If you could make one new driving law, what would it
be?
DAN: I actually, I, nothing comes to mind at the front.
Wow. You’ve really stumped me on that one.
BHAVNEET: It can be as a realistic or unrealistic as you want it
to be.
DAN: I think, I think we’d be safer if everyone had to take
some sort of advanced driving. , early on when you’ve got your license go for a
weekend, like go to a racetrack and, drive fast and skied out and slam on the
brakes and like, for me, I guess I would think that would be fun, but also just
understand the car a bit better.
Cause I think lots of us, we
don’t really appreciate that. It’s a two ton piece of steel moving really fast
and it’s, it’s dangerous, and, and we all should concentrate more and not use
our cell phones and stuff like. But to go and to go and learn and have, have
like more driver training. I think that’d be well personally, it would be fun,
but I think it would also make it safer.
BHAVNEET: I think that’s a really good idea. I mean, especially.
Here or where in areas where it snows. , I don’t think a lot of people
understand how to handle ice or , the different driving conditions. So having
extra training in those kinds of conditions would be really helpful.
DAN: Yeah, definitely. I couldn’t agree more. I feel like
it’s such a thing you need to practice and you need to keep practicing because
every year when the snow comes, I have the same feeling where it’s like, oh, do
I remember how to do this? Like, this feels a bit sketchy.
TARANJIT: That’s actually funny that you said that should be a
law because we had someone, I think two seasons back who said the exact or
something very similar about everyone should be required to drive on a race
course.
DAN: Oh, okay. Yeah. And I guess for me, it would be fun to
do a weekend on a race course, but even like we said, more practice, like go
somewhere where it’s safe to do so in the snow and intentionally slide out, ,
pretend there’s a moose on the road and just slam on the brakes and see what
else.
Because I think a lot of people
will be surprised. It’s a lot sketchier and a lot scarier than you think. And
then when it comes to it and you do have to slam on the brakes, bad things are
going to happen,
TARANJIT: Yeah, I agree. I feel like the driving. Education,
that you get before you get your licenses enough to like, okay, understand,
this is how you drive, but having the additional tips and information on what
to do after you get your license, like, okay, now you got your license. This is
what you should do.
And these certain situations
kind of like being an adult and just push into the adult world, you know? Okay.
Well now how do I adult it’s
BHAVNEET: similar like that.
DAN: Yeah, absolutely. And it feels like anyone who just
got their license, it’s more like, ah, you’ll just figure it out in the next
few years. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get away without a crash, but maybe you
will just have a few crashes and that’ll, that’s how you’re gonna. Which isn’t
ideal.
TARANJIT: Do you have any final tips or any advice that you
would like to give
other drivers?
DAN: . My advice definitely is just get out there and enjoy
it and, and figure out what it is you love doing. And as much as I love
driving, I just use it as a way to get to beautiful places so I can go hiking
and camping and fishing and, whatever it is in the outdoors. So for me, it’s
like go out there and have fun, get outside, , use your vehicle, get somewhere
beautiful.
And then, , put up a camp chair
and read a book in the sunshine, whatever that, whatever that happiness looks
like for you, use your car and go and do it
TARANJIT: Yeah, I agree. Just take the adventures and then just
let it take you where it takes you.
DAN: Yeah, that’s right. . I feel like cars are amazing,
enablers of adventures and just go with it.
TARANJIT: Before we let you go, I want to give you the
opportunity to plug yourself and let our listeners
know where they can find you.
DAN: , I’m fairly active across social media and, my handle
is the road chose me. So I’m on Instagram and YouTube now as well. And I’ve got
videos on YouTube from pretty much every country in Africa. , and then tips and
advice to, to help people get out there and have their own adventures around
the world or up to Alaska or wherever they’re thinking about going.
So that’s all the road shows me
online and then I’ve written a couple of books as well. I wrote a book,
documenting my trip from Alaska to Argentina. , and I wrote one about my three
years around Africa as well. And so it’s, it’s not only the adventures I had,
but it’s the misadventures, the things that went wrong, the highlight.
Touches on some politics, how the media
portrays the world, my own feelings and the ups and downs. So all of the
adventures that I’ve had behind the wheel, and those books are also under the
name. The road chose me.
BHAVNEET: thank you so much for joining us today. It was so fun
talking to you about your driving experiences all around the world. And now we
know how to get out of tickets and tolls in other countries.
DAN: Thank you guys so much too. This has been a lot of fun
to remember all the craziness.
(transition music)
TARANJIT: That was an amazing conversation, which, I mean, all
of our conversations we have are amazing, but he was not one of the first to
recommend that there should be some kind of like race track course or something
along those lines. I think our guests back in season two, I think it was Eliza
hall. I believe he was episode 11.
Also mentioned something
similar. I’m all for it. What are your thoughts on this? Would you be open to a
race track? Course
BHAVNEET: So aside from it being like great for learning skills,
which would be awesome. I just think it would be cool. I want to take a
racetrack course. I want to learn more about cars.
Just like, cause again, like we
were talking about, I don’t think that even with driver’s ed, you don’t learn
that much. Actually about the car itself, just like in this season, talking to
Shannon, the Spain driving test is more, it asked you more questions about like
physical car knowledge in addition to road knowledge, which I feel like we need
here because people don’t know the basics myself included.
And I would like to learn more.
TARANJIT: Yeah, I feel like I agree with you, but personally
again, I don’t think our drivers had actually taught us anything. Well, I don’t
think it taught me anything. I feel like you had a better driving instructor
than I did. It felt like one of those elective, I guess, classes that you take
electives, you
BHAVNEET: didn’t, and you had to take
it, it wasn’t an elective
TARANJIT: or like those gen ed classes that you have to take in
order to graduate high school or college.
You don’t really get anything
from them. They’re just like, oh, sometimes I feel like a waste of time.
Honestly, I would have loved it. to have this more advanced driving course,
which would have been more beneficial to actually teaching me something about
driving, as opposed to just going through the motions of like, I took a driving
class,
the advanced driving course
would teach you more, like you said, that Shannon in Spain was mentioning that
they have to learn basic maintenance and repairs. I feel like that would be so
beneficial especially if you do commute, as long as.
And you’re on the road for that long
BHAVNEET: , just like how to change a tire
TARANJIT: and the amount of flats that I have gone through. I
think it would be very useful for me to know how to at least change the tire,
which I should have learned really soon.
BHAVNEET: Well,
I mean, you could do what Chris
did and just learn via YouTube university at the time
when you did it.
TARANJIT: Okay. At the time is when I first got flats. I didn’t
have a smartphone. Yeah. So where would I? YouTube,
BHAVNEET: YouTube university.
What if
they just made the drivers, ed
teachers, race car driver.
TARANJIT: Our drivers taught drivers
BHAVNEET: know that’s. So that’s what I was trying to say. What
if race car drivers were your driver’s ed teachers,
TARANJIT: or you have to just go to a race track where they’re
at and like that’s where you go for driver’s ed as opposed to a classroom in a
building.
BHAVNEET: I’m very hands on. I like it.
Well, that was Dan Grec. We hope
you enjoyed hearing his driving stories and be sure to stay tuned until the end
of this episode, to hear a sneak peek of next week’s episode with driver Erin
Hynes
TARANJIT: who shared about her different rental car experiences
around the world. . Like the time her car shut off in Jordan and the time that
she had to file a police report
BHAVNEET: Thank you for tuning in this week. And if you enjoyed
this podcast, you can help support the show by sharing it with your friends
subscribing or leaving us a review. It truly does help us get discovered.
TARANJIT: Thank you for choosing to drive with us and we’ll see
you next week.
(outro music)
ERIN: when we visited Jordan, which was actually one of the last places we went to before, the pandemic started, we decided we would road trip the entire country.
Most of the trip, no problems, everything went smoothly. until finally we were driving one of the last stretches of our trip from Aqaba up to the Dead Sea.
My partner, like I said before, likes to speed. And so he was speeding a lot of the way and we were in the desert. So we’re most of the way through the trip, when suddenly my partner looks at me and says the car shut off.
I looked back at him and I was like, what do you mean that we’re still moving?