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Driving Profile: Jules & Christine
(sneak peek)
JULES: For road rage in Australia, I guess, it’s not really that big of a deal because people will sort of just honk and yell. It’s not really that big of a deal. But you don’t really have to think about people having guns or doing something crazy like that. And we were driving at night, visiting friends in LA, and this person was driving really little stupid and cut in front of us. I was like, ah. Screw this guy and I like honked him. And then he’s like, errr. Slammed on the brakes and kind of reversed a bit and we stopped. And they stopped the car and the guy got out of his car and started walking towards us.
(intro music)
BHAVNEET: Welcome back to Drive With Us, a podcast where we bring on a new guest every episode to talk about the crazy things they experience on the road, who they are as drivers and how they became the driver they are today. I’m Bhavneet.
TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit. And today’s drivers are Jules and Christine, professional travelers, content creators and podcasters. They’ve been on the road for over 10 years exploring all the world has to offer and met while traveling in Peru in 2012 working at a disaster relief nonprofit. They have been traveling together 24/7 ever since. Along the way they started a travel blog called Don’t Forget to Move which over the years has become their full-time job and now focuses on adventure travel and responsible tourism. Helping their audience experience the world in a more sustainable way. They also host the podcast Not So Bon Voyage, which is a comedic travel podcast where they talk about all things that can go wrong while on the road. And today they shared with us some of those few things that went wrong while they were on the road such as having to ride with farm animals in Colombia and their adventures in their converted van.
(transition music)
BHAVNEET: Welcome Jules and Christine. Thanks so much for joining us today.
CHRISTINE: Thank you so much for having.
JULES: Thanks for having us.
TARANJIT: So I know you guys are big travelers and I’m super excited to hear all your stories because I’m sure you have really crazy ones from all the places you’ve been. Let’s start with which one you think is the craziest driving story of them all.
JULES: Oh. We definitely have a lot of crazy driving stories. A lot of the time, it’s when we are not driving ourself. And the one that definitely comes to mind at the start would be our time in Northern Colombia traveling to a place called Cabo de La Vela, which is pretty much a middle of nowhere, Christine.
CHRISTINE: It’s almost the northernmost point of South America and it’s where not a lot of travelers go. They say it’s kind of like the wild west of Columbia. So it’s pretty far off the beaten track.
JULES: Yeah. And even just to get out there, it takes bit of a mission. You have to take a couple buses and a couple different small minivans and then you finally get to a little place called Riviera where you take you jump into a 4 by 4. And this is not your standard 4 by 4. This is a 4 by 4 that has been sort of personally modified to have seat at least a dozen people in the back tray like a pickup truck and the journey out there is four hours of bumping around and sloshing around in mud depending on the season, being crammed in with about a dozen people into a full person seater. And picking up a lot of livestock along the way like chickens and goats and all kinds of crazy things.
CHRISTINE: Yup. So you are basically crammed in the back of his 4 by 4 with at least a dozen other people. Of course all locals. Wwe were the only other travelers to went that far, I guess. And then random animals start coming in. So we had piglets on the floor. We had baby goats on the floor.
JULES: I think I even had a chicken on my lap at one stage or a couple at once.
CHRISTINE: I had a baby on my lap at one stage.
JULES: Yeah. Definitely had a little baby on my lap.
CHRISTINE: I am not sure whose baby it was but there is a lot of stuff coming in. And on our way back out, it was the same thing. Tons of livestock. Tons of animals. Just like feathers everywhere. And we were leaving very early in the morning. It was maybe 4 a.m. before it was even light out. And we are stopping at all of these farms and little houses along the way. And we had some unexpected visitors strapped to the roof.
JULES: Yeah. We had 3 huge desert tortoises that were about 6 foot wide. They were honestly the biggest tortoises I have ever seen in my life and about 5 or 6 men were putting it on top of the roof. I don’t know where it was going. The poor thing. But it’ was quite a wild ride.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It was literally a wild ride just filled with animals.
JULES: Wild animals.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It was a funny experience. T:Is that common for them to put like turtles or tortoises on the roof?
JULES: That is definitely our first tortoise on the roof experience, but it is quite common for them to travel with livestock. Especially when you are out traveling in rural areas. In more indigenous communities.It’s quite common for them to you know they’re coming from the local market so they’ve got a chicken that is tied up or they got a goat or little hog tied at the feet. So they’re jumping the bus or jumping the car and go back home. And yeah, that’s fairly common. We’ve you know, they call it chicken buses in Central America for a reason because there’s a lot of chickens on it.
TARANJIT: Were the animals with you for most of your trip or ike how long were you with the animals?
JULES: I would say the whole time. So this place here is is pretty isolated. So there is a few rural sort of villages, I don’t even think they call them villages. Sort of little succumbing areas along the way, but most of the people are going from point A to point B. And they are traveling with all that livestock either to there or they are bringing it back. So the whole 4 hours, we was sloshing around in the back of this 4 by 4 pickup truck with a whole bunch of animals and people. Just like one guy with a chicken might get off but then one guy with two chickens gets on. So, you know, it’s always balancing out.
BHAVNEET: What made you choose to go there out of all the places since it’s not a very typical tourist destination?
JULES: That exact reason
CHRISTINE: At that point, we had spent probably maybe a year in Latin America and we were just ready to get like push the boundaries and get even far off the beaten track. And just really wanted to go where we’re not going to be surrounded by backpackers. Cuz often times in Colombia and Peru and in those countries, you kind of end up on the tourist trail, and you just get stuck with you know, and it’s great. You make a lot of friends that way but you’re kind of sick of just being surrounded by backpackers all the time. So we wanted to go somewhere where it’s just all locals. We could really get to know the culture and it just push our boundaries basically. And that seemed like the best option. And it was an interesting experience. We were definitely the only travelers we saw there. We ended up sleeping in hammocks outside of this cabin thing in the wind and the rain and we are just swaying in these hammocks. It was pretty intense. But it was beautiful. Just super rugged, pristine landscape out there. Right on the coast, but still very desserty and dry. And yeah, it’s really gorgeous.
JULES: And we heard that the journey out there was half the adventure, and it definitely was. Probably one my favorite journey stories that we tell. Because the destination, it was nice out there, but you know, we’ve been traveling for 8 years 10 years, and we’ve been to a lot of beautiful places. Definitely not in the top of it, but the journey was in our sort of top 5.
TARANJIT: How would you describe the drivers there in comparison to other places you’ve been?
JULES: Well we were just talking to someone on a podcast recently on our podcast about their driving experience. And we were talking about a time that we were in a bus and this was on a bus in Colombia as well. And the bus driver, I’m pretty sure, was falling asleep, and we’re at the front. And you know when you tired you start to nod off and your eyes close slowly and your head kind of jolts back up? That was our bus driver. So I spent the journey talking to him in the front. My Spanish is pretty good. Just speaking to him as much as I could just to make sure that he didn’t fall asleep. But it’s pretty much a mix bag I’d say of drivers. Out there we’ve had drivers hitchhiking. Christine the one with the Aguardiente.
CHRISTINE: Yes. That was also in Colombia, right? We were in The foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Colombia near this town called Minka and we did some hitchhiking around there. And we were picked up by this guy in a truck and everything seemed fine. He was very friendly. We were driving along with him, chatting what not and he pulls out this bottle of Aguardiente which is basically fire water alcohol.It’s like pure it’s like Everclear kind of. Just pure alcohol.
JULES: Yeah. It’s like rubbing alcohol.
CHRISTINE: And he was knocking it back and he was giving us some. And we were like, oh. Good Lord. What have we gotten ourselves into?Like I we’re going up on these very windy mountain roads. I don’t know if this guy should be drinking straight alcohol right now,but we basically had some just so we could calm our nerves.
JULES: Calm the nerves.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. And be less stressed out. But it turned out fine. We didn’t get in an accident or anything. But we I guess we’ve encountered some sketchy drivers in Columbia, but maybe that’s just our small sample size.
JULES: Yeah. You find that everywhere.
TARANJIT: Yeah. that must have been scary especially with a driver falling asleep.
JULES: Yeah. It’s definitely not what you want in a minivan full of people.
TARANJIT: In a different country.
JULES: :Yeah.
TARANJIT: So I know you also shared about traveling to Canada. You were there for two months in a converted van.
JULES: Yeah. So we have a van. It’s a 92 Dodge Ram. It is nothing special. It’s pretty bare bones. We bought it a few years ago and did some conversions on it. And gutted it and re-insulated it. Built a bed frame and some storage. And got solar panels and all the camping gear. And we have taken it out for some fun adventures and one was this year.
CHRISTINE: It’s definitely we have found out more of a summer van. So the majority of our travel has been through the western United States in the van mostly during the summer and in the fall. But we were like let’s take the van in the dead of winter to Canada. That’s a great idea. We drove up along the coast. It was gorgeous. Stopped in Seattle and went to Vancouver. Everything was fine until the temperature started dropping. We hit a ton of snow. So much snow day in and day out and the van was just not prepared for that low of temperature I think. So it stopped turning on for a while and then we had some mishaps with the snow.
JULES: Yeah. We had we first had some battery issues. And then we got the battery fixed and it was all good. Yeah, and then we got uh we are not really used to snow I guess you could say. So first time we had to put on snow chains was when we were actually stuck in a little bit of snow. So that was fun. We were learning how to put on snow chains while we were stuck. And had a couple of mishaps along the way, but generally not too bad. Haven’t had too much bad luck in the van.
CHRISTINE: We did get stuck in this snowy ditch.
JULES: We did.
CHRISTINE: Where we were going to check out this lake and Jules, not to throw you under the bus.
JULES: Yeah. Thanks a lot.
CHRISTINE: But Jules was driving and it looked like it was a completely flat, you know snowed over road. So he pulled over to the side and we found out that it was not there was a ditch that had that was filled with snow. So as soon as we pulled over to the side, the entire van basically tipped…
JULES: Tipped into it.
CHRISTINE: …leaned to one side. And tipped into the ditch and we could not get out. Luckily we have AAA and that works in Canada. So that’s a good tip, if you’re traveling to Canada AAA is really useful.
JULES: Yeah. It’s pretty much exactly the same. Which we didn’t know at the time, but it’s yeah. It’s just the CAA which is the Canadianversion. It’s exactly the same. So you get the same amount of callouts and support.
CHRISTINE: And they sent somebody really quickly cuz they told them that we were really cold. So they sent somebody out to us. And yeah, we just watched the office on our phone on Netflix for 40 minutes until they came out and then they pulled us out with their you know truck tow truck. But yeah, it was it was definitely good life lesson for us. Definitely check if it’s a proper road or a ditch that you’re going to fall into.
JULES: Yeah. Don’t drive onto snow unless you’re sure that it’s a hard compact ground underneath.
CHRISTINE: Exactly.
TARANJIT: Yeah. That was going to be one of my questions. How much experience have you had in snow, but you’ve already touched on that. So would you I guess if you had the opportunity again, would you drive in the snow again, or would you do you prefer not to?
JULES: I don’t I didn’t really mind driving in the snow. We had a in that van well let me preface it by saying in a better van or a better car, I wouldn’t have as much problem. In our van, it was not probably not the not necessarily the safest, but not the most equipped for it. It’s only rear-wheel-drive. We had mud and snow tires which technically are okay, but snow tires are probably a little bit better for the snow and the steering like the column shift is a little loose. So the van kind of as you drive the steering wheel kind of just got a little bit of like 3 or 4 inches sway on either side. So driving down a snowy snow covered road with the tires like not being exactly the right ones and the steering wheel kind of steady and you’re not used to snow, that’s a little bit not the best of conditions to drive under. But otherwise, I would feel confident in and be happy.
CHRISTINE: It was fun. The only issue is that with van life the whole idea is that you spend a lot of time outside of your van, right? So you don’t really want to be inside your van the whole time. And when it’s snowing constantly outside, we did take some snow hikes and explore, but you can’t spend as much time outside as you would if you were traveling in the summer or spring or something. So we kind of got stuck there. And there are a lot of road closures and trail closures because of the snow. So prefer to probably go back maybe in the spring or the fall back to Canada.
JULES: Yeah. And everything kind of looks the same in the snow as well.
CHRISTINE: That’s true.
JULES: Like let’s be honest. All of the…
CHRISTINE: It’s white.
JULES: Yeah. It’s all white. That’s it. All of the beautiful lakes like we wanted to see in Canada, we didn’t even think about it. All of those beautiful turquoise lakes like Lake Louise and Lake Moraine around Alberta, they were just all frozen. They were all frozen and then snow covered. And they just looked like they could be a grass field. So you don’t really get the same impact as those Canadian Rockies. But yeah. It still it was nice for us as a change because we pretty much follow the sun 24/7. We spend we rotate our travel schedule around the summer. So we spend the start of the year in Australia with their summer. We go to Bali, and then we come back to California for summer. So we are always chasing the sun.So this is this is like something different for us to do and now that we have done it, we probably won’t do it again.
BHAVNEET: You learned your lesson.
JULES: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: Yes we did.
JULES: We definitely did. We’re beach people.
BHAVNEET: So with all the places that you have traveled, there’s typically like different stereotypes I guess you can say of drivers in different areas. So were there any distinct stereotypes of different drivers in certain areas that you have noticed or where you are now?
CHRISTINE: I do think that the drivers in Rome have a bad reputation or maybe not a bad reputation but a reputation for driving kind of crazy. And when my family was there this is a long time ago, but we were driving to the airport and our taxi literally hit the car in front of them, and they were just like, it’s fine. We’re just going to keep going. Like it doesn’t matter. It’s like we hit people all the time. It’s all good. We just keep going unless it’s really bad. It’s like just fine. So I think they probably live up to their reputation.
JULES: I think you can generally find bad drivers and good drivers everywhere around the world which is probably what travel has taught us. I’d say that in certain countries that they’re little bit less I don’t know less particular about the rules.
CHRISTINE: In the bigger cities in Asia and Southeast Asia like Bangkok, and…
JULES: Manila.
CHRISTINE: …parts of Vietnam is organized chaos for sure. Like just with all of the scooters. I don’t know how they do not get in more accidents. It is just a stream of scooters that seem to be going in all different directions following God knows what kind of traffic laws. But it’s just it’s Insanity to watch. But it’s actually kind of interesting because they just seem to have this really synchronized chaos, I guess. And we haven’t seen that many accidents there so it seems to work I guess.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. It kind of reminds me of India driving. When we went there it’s like you said it’s organized chaos. It’s like I don’t know how they can survive with the amount of crazy maneuvers that people are doing and all the people just walking and all the bikes but they seem to manage it somehow.
JULES: Yeah, I think it’s because they’re used to it and they they like grown up and practiced driving in that chaos. So they are almost more alert to what’s happening around. They are alert to the fact that you know, people going to walk out or the scooters. it is it’s kind of like chaotic. So they are trained for that. Sunday instead of trying for that. Whereas I feel like in maybe like the western world places that have like a lot more like stringent like traffic laws, everybody, just gets in the head. And so they just drive and don’t think about their surroundings and and that’s why I feel all those accidents just come from silly mistakes. Whereas you don’t really say there’s accidents in other places. But then when they do have accidents in those places they are usually bad because it’s like they have cars full of people and they don’t have seat belts or something.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It’s true.
JULES: So I guess it’s good and it’s bad.
TARANJIT: So if you were given the option, would you choose to be the driver or the passenger?
CHRISTINE: I prefer to be the passenger.
JULES: I prefer to be the driver.
CHRISTINE: I like to know I don’t want to be responsible for their craziness that could happen.
JULES: I like to be the driver, yeah.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Jules likes to be in control. Usually well well usually we’re in like Bali or other places in Latin America orSouth East Asia, we rent a motorbike. And Jules is the one that drives it cuz I got in a horrible motorbike accident in Nicaragua in 2011. So I choose not to drive the motorbikes now.
JULES: Mrs. Magoo.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
TARANJIT: Have you ever gotten in a car where you were the passenger and you wished you didn’t get in?
CHRISTINE: I mean probably. My younger days. I I’ve definitely ridden like in trunks and things like that. You know, if you’re going from maybe your party to another party or you know, reckless, you know, 18 year old things like that. So they’re probably some poor decisions I made in my life, but everything turned out fine. So it’s all good.
JULES: Yeah. For now.
BHAVNEET: How would you describe the type of driver that you are and this goes for both of you and would you say that your family and friends would describe your driving in the same way?
JULES: I think I am a good driver. I think that I am very alert and just like I don’t know. I
would think people would think that I am a good driver. What do you think Christine?
CHRISTINE: I think you’re a good driver. I don’t think you’re a bad driver. I think you’re a good driver.
JULES: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: I would say that I am also a good driver, but…
JULES: Mmm.
CHRISTINE: But I think that a lot of people would disagree. Although I have hit quite a few stationary objects, but I have never hit a person and I’ve never been in like a real accident that I’ve been driving. I’ve only hit mostly parked cars. Actually only parked cars. But I have hit several parked cars. I hit my dad’s boat with my mom’s car quite a few years ago. One time, I was backing up out of our driveway and I hit this visitor’s car and then I pulled forward and I backed up and hit it a second time.
TARANJIT: Oh my God.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. That was pretty embarrassing. and then I just left I was like, I got to get out of here. I have swiped had swide swide siped? siped?
JULES: Side swiped.
CHRISTINE: Side swiped! It’s a hard word to say.
JULES: Strike side.
CHRISTINE: I sideswiped a truck in the city and knocked my mirror off. I’ve hit a couple of parked cars where I’ve had to leave notes, but it but all that to say I’ve never hurt anybody or ever had an accident with a moving vehicle. So it’s only been parked card so far.
TARANJIT: I guess I shouldn’t park my car around you.
CHRISTINE: Probably. Probably a good idea. My car, we say has a lot of love taps. It has a couple like holes and dents and things like that that have from things that have happened to it.
TARANJIT: A lot of cities had to have more honking as opposed to like out in the town. Would you consider yourself someone who tends to honk at people?
JULES: No. Not generally. But I would do it if I would need to.
CHRISTINE: I never thought I was a honker until we were driving in our van and our horn doesn’t work in the van.
JULES: Oh. That’s true. That’s true.
CHRISTINE: So we cannot honk at anybody. And then once that is taken away from you you realize how often you actually really need to honk your horn. Yeah, so maybe I am a honker.
JULES: I don’t know if it’s because we don’t have the horn and we would want to use it. But I think that when you don’t have it and you want to use it, it really makes you feel like, ughh. I need to use a horn right now. But if you have it. I don’t know maybe you just take it for granted. Don’t take your horn for granted guys. It’s the number one tip.
CHRISTINE: It’s an important tip.
BHAVNEET: Do you substitute your honking with something else?
JULES: No. Probably just yelling. I don’t know.
CHRISTINE: It’s funny cuz even though we know the horn doesn’t work, we still hit the middle of the steering wheel as if it’s going to start working. But of course it never does.
JULES: Although one time, we were traveling in Utah in our van and it was early in the morning and I don’t know why there are some dodgy electrics in the van for sure. And I think we were going out to look at the end of Dead Horse Point National Park or State Park. And as we shut the door or something must have just triggered and the horn went off and it would not turn off. And it was just on.
CHRISTINE: And it was just this constant, errrrrn.
JULES: It was just constant. And it was the first time we had had the van for probably 6 months at this stage, and we knew that the horn didn’t work. It was the first time we ever the first and only time we ever heard it. And it was just stuck on and we were like, oh my God. Like I don’t know what we’re going to do. We’re in this beautiful state park. It’s in the morning and there’s visitors showing up. And it’s so like tranquil and this is just like, eeeeenn. And I’m like, I don’t know what we going to do. Like I’m going to have to pop the hood and find something to disconnect. And then I guess it like just after 5 minutes it just stopped.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It eventually just stopped.
JULES: I think we tried to like just open the door and slam it again. Open and slammed the door shut. And it eventually just turned off.
CHRISTINE: It was really embarrassing though.
JULES: Yeah. It was very embarrassing. And we were like, oh. We don’t need the horn. We were like please. I know we said we wanted the horn, but now we don’t want the horn.
CHRISTINE: No more horn.
TARANJIT: It’s making up for all the time you couldn’t honk.
JULES: Yeah. Seriously.
CHRISTINE: Yeah Exactly. It was saving them up.
TARANJIT: So what would you say is when you’re driving what would you say is your biggest pet peeve of other drivers?
JULES: My biggest pet peeve is people well actually I got a couple. And I feel like they are they definitely more present in the U.S. So I’m from Australia and I feel like people in the U.S. do a few things. Don’t do a few things that we do.
CHRISTINE: Oh. Here we go.
JULES: Here we go. You ready? Strap in. One is that people in the U.S. don’t use indicators as much as Australians or other people around the world. They just they just merge lanes. They don’t use indicators. And the other is that love to tailgate and I hate people who tailgate. And that really annoys me. And especially when you’re in the far left lane and you’re going as fast as you possibly can to the car in front of you and you got people right up your backside trying to like get around you. And I like to always keep a safe distance from the car in front of me, but they see that distance and like, oh I could get in front of that car. And I don’t know. They are like my two pet peeves. People who don’t indicate and they just merge. And also people who tailgate. They really annoy me.
CHRISTINE: My biggest pet peeve is definitely people who text when they drive. That drives me nuts because it’s so incredibly dangerous and I’m like is that really that important that you can’t pull over or just text when you arrive at your location. But I see it all the time and it terrifies me. It’s so dangerous.
JULES: Yeah. That’s when I honk at people.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
JULES: You see them if you see them on their phones. I may honk at you. Give them the international symbol for stop texting you you know.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Exactly.
BHAVNEET: Well if you were here in Maryland, I think you wouldn’t stop honking ever then because literally everyone’s on their phone.
CHRISTINE: Really? Oh my God. That’s so bad.
JULES: That’s so bad.
BHAVNEET: It is.
JULES: I mean people do it here, but yeah.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. People do it here, too. I think that I don’t know. Maybe we have tough laws on it because I don’t see a ton of people doing it. But when I do, I’m just like, oh. Stop. You you’re so bad.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. But I agree with the whole putting your signals on because when we we also when we went to Australia, I was like, oh my God. People put their signal on in the circles. Or in the roundabouts.
JULES: Yeah.
BHAVNEET: And it’s like here it’s like nobody.
JULES: Yeah. See. I’ve validated. Christine always thinks it’s just me. Just me like complaining about U.S. drivers, but I swear it’s true. Like even when they are turning sometimes, I feel like people don’t use their indicators. So they’ll come to an intersection and they’ll just turn. And I’m like, yep. Not a fan.
BHAVNEET: It is like, I wish I knew why I wish there was a way you could tell me that you were going to slow down. Oh, wait there is.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It’s so easy.
JULES: Yeah. Pretty much. I wish there was a way that car could indicate to me that he was going to turn.
BHAVNEET: Speaking of all these annoying drivers, have you ever experienced road rage or has someone ever had road rage like towards you?
JULES: Probably I have at some stage. I’m usually a pretty level headed driver. Actually wait, one time it just made me think of LA. Remember that time we went to LA?
CHRISTINE: Mmhmm.
JULES: I think this was when I was pretty pretty new to the U.S. and to like living here and like coming back here with Christine. And like for road rage in Australia, it’s not really that big of a deal because people sort of honk and they’ll yell. It’s not really a big deal. But you don’t really have to think about people having guns or doing anything like crazy like that. And we were driving at night, visiting friends in LA and this person was like driving really stupid and they cut in front of us. I like honked them. And they stop the car and the guy got out of his car and started walking towards us and I was like, *car driving off sound.* Just drove around and I was like, cya.
CHRISTINE: I was just like Jules like the in the states you never know who has a gun and people can be crazy. Especially in LA.
JULES: This guy was in a big pickup truck and he cut us off. And I was like screw this guy and I honked him. And they he was like, errrr. Slammed on the brakes and kind of like reversed a bit. And then he stopped probably like 50 yards ahead of us. And we were like, what is this guy doing? And then he gets out and starts walking towards us, and I was like, nope. Just drive off around him.
TARANJIT: I’m outta here.
JULES: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think I’ve had too much road rage.
CHRISTINE: I don’t really get road rage. I was in an accident where the so I wasn’t driving. I was with a friend and we are driving back toUniversity. And somebody cut him off on the highway. And so he kind of swerved around to get in front of the person and in doing so he almost hit this person. So we had to turn the wheel really quickly to the left and we spun around twice and hit the median twice when were spinning around . And it was a pretty bad car accident. And his car was totaled. But everybodys fine. Just like a little bit of aches and pains but nothing serious happened. But it was pretty scary. And after that it was just like it’s never worth it to get upset or get mad at another driver. Or try to get in front of them or anything like that because you never know what’s going to happen and it could just be you know at the end of everything. So I like to play it safe. I’m pretty level-headed and I just like let things go. It’s not a big deal.
JULES: Yeah. I like to get like if there is anything that really bothers me in the moment, I get over it pretty quickly.
TARANJIT: Well it’s good to hear that you were safe from the accident because that sounded like it could have ended badly.
CHRISTINE: Absolutely. It could have been really bad. Especially if there were tons of cars on the road and we were just really lucky in that the car hit the median and ended up staying pretty much on the side of the freeway away from other cars. So yeah. We are were pretty lucky.And it’s funny cuz we are driving to University. So I had a couple of friends were also driving down from the Bay Area and they saw us on the side of the road. And they were texting me like, hey, are you okay? Just saw you on the side of the road with the cops and whatnot. I was like, yeah, we’re fine. But that was probably the worst car accident I’ve been in. So but survived that one. So it’s good.
TARANJIT: Yeah. That’s good. So now that we have heard what kind of drivers you are, let’s go back to how it all started. And I’m curious to hear Australia vs. U.S. since you guys have both of those views. How would you describe your first time driving experience and who was it with?
CHRISTINE: The first time. Oh gosh. I mean when I was growing up maybe 12 or 13, my parents would like we would if we were like kind of in the country, they would let us drive around whatever. Or we would do the thing where like we would steer and the parents would do the gas and the brakes and whatnot. That’s probably really illegal. But I think you know I feel like most parents do that with their kids. And then as I started actually being old enough to drive like 15, my dad taught me how to drive and he took me to a community college that had like big parking lots. Very safe. Very empty. And he had filled out these big black trash cans or sorry trash bags and put them out into like a pile and had me practice stopping really quickly right in front of the trash bags. So I could get used to like if I need to stop like if someone, you know stepps out in front of me or whatever happens, I feel comfortable with that sense of being like stop immediately. Like this is scary, but you know have that quick reaction. And I think that actually was really helpful. Obviously not that helpful cuz I’ve hit many things, but It was definitely a good lesson in being like okay. This is what it feels like to stop emergency stop if you do. So that’s how I learned how to drive.
JULES: I got to remember how I learned how to drive. With my dad I would say. Probably cuz my dad was more relaxed than my mum. So my dad was kind of crazy. When I was learning to drive with my dad, I remember my dad being like, yup. You’re doing good. With my mum it was a lot more like, ah. A little bit more worried. I think it was just driving my dad.
CHRISTINE: Well it’s funny because Australia you when you can get your driver’s license at 18?
JULES: You get your learner’s permit at 16.
CHRISTINE: Okay.
JULES: When you can drive with someone and then you get your driver’s license when you can drive by yourself at 18.
CHRISTINE: Okay, cuz for us you can get your permit, I think like 15 or 15 and a half or something and then you can drive at 16 by yourself.
JULES: That’s crazy.
CHRISTINE: Which just seems crazy now looking back on it. I’m like, oh my God, no wonder parents are so nervous to have their children driving. 16. That seems too young to be driving by yourself.
TARANJIT: Yeah. That was going to be one one my questions, what the difference between the driving ages were between Australia and the U.S. And I agree that I feel like 16 is a little young.
BHAVNEET: But not when you’re when you’re getting it. When you’re getting you like, that’s not young at all.
CHRISTINE: Totally. Isn’t that funny when you’re 16, you’re like, I am in adults. Like I’m so responsible. I’m totally fine. But looking back like sometimes I had that would have like a car full of my friends and the music will be up so loud and just all these distractions and it just a recipe for disaster, you know.
JULES: Well I guess within the U.S., so it’s different because you get your license at 16 and then you can’t drink well legally you can’t drink until 21. Where in Australia it’s a little bit more of a recipe for disaster because everything is at 18. So you can get your license at 18, but you can also drink at 18. So the day you turn 18 you can go in and buy a 6 pack of beer and you can also get your license. And so that makes it a little bit more problematic. But they do it differently now, I think. In Australia, when when I first got my license, you had a probationary period from 18 to 21 I think it was. Where you had to have 0 blood alcohol. I think that was pretty much it. And now they give you an extra year in your first year that you have your license, you can only have one passenger who’s under 25. No alcohol. There’s a couple of different rules for that first year. And then once you get past that first year you have another 3 years of like no alcohol and things like that. So there is like a probationary. Do you have that?
CHRISTINE: I don’t well it if you’re under 21, even if you…
JULES: Oh. You can’t drink anyways.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Your blood alcohol level has to be 0 or you can get done for drunk driving. Which even if you’re not like .08 or whatever, I think if you are any level of alcohol is I think you can get done for drunk driving if you’re under 21, I believe. I’m not sure.
JULES: It’s been a while.
CHRISTINE: It’s been a while. But I actually didn’t get my license until I was 17 because all of my friends had their licenses and they had cars. So I was like, well, why do I need to spend my gas money when everybody can just drive me around. So I was like, I’ll wait and then I got mine when I was 17.
JULES: I was actually late as well for the same reason. Instead of getting at 18, I got it at 20. It was because I’d moved out for college and all my friends were older. So they all got their licenses first. And by the time I was 18, every one of my friends had a car and had their licenses and I just didn’t need it. I live close to everything like that I needed. Like the sports team I played for in school. And yeah.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
JULES: And then I was like, I need my license.
B:That’s really interesting. Cuz I feel like here, at least, once they hit that mark. They are like, I just I just need my license. Even if I’m not going to drive, I just want it.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Isn’t that funny. I wonder why it was like that. I just didn’t really have that much interest in driving myself. I guess it just I mean I probably was smart enough to think it’s safer for me not to be driving at 16. But yeah, it was it was just a personal decision and I just had so many friends, too. Cuz I didn’t have a car either. So even if I had have my license I wouldn’t have been able to drive that much anyways. But I had friends who actually had, you know, had hand me down cars and whatnot. So I asked a lot of people for rides during High School. I was always, you know asking for a ride home or ride to a friend’s house or something like that.
TARANJIT: I feel like at that age, everyones willing to give friends rides because they just learned to drive and they are just excited to drive.
CHRISTINE: Absolutely. Yes. It was very easy to get rides from people. Everybody was excited just to just to I mean we would just drive around. Like I remember that was like a big fun thing to do is just play music and literally drive around. I mean horrible for the environment obviously, but it was just, you know cruise the streets in your car.
JULES: Yeah. We had the same thing.
B:Yeah. I’m interested in knowing for Jules, how difficult was it for you to switch from driving cuz I think in Australia drive on the left, right? So switching from that to driving on the right
here.
JULES: It wasn’t that bad to you’re honest, I guess it was sort of did it over a period of now it’s now when I go back and forth it doesn’t really feel that different I guess. Wherever I spend the most time recently so when I switch back to like if I had spent a long time in Australia and came back here, it takes like a little to readjust or vice versa. But it wasn’t that bad. It’s just so you just have to be a little bit more alert. Little bit more conscious. Sometimes I would pull out of a driveway or something and I would forget which way I was supposed to turn. Like if there are no cars on the street. And I have definitely I havedefinitely in both Australia and the U.S. sort of pulled out of a gas station and back onto the road and pulled into the wrong lane for a little bit, and gone like, woops. Wrong lane.
CHRISTINE: Oh my God.
JULES: But apart from that it’s really like I mean driving it’s all the same. Like it takes a little bit more to readjust like parallel parking is on the opposite side. You know, just getting comfortable with being on the opposite side of the car as well. That’s probably more so than being on the opposite side of the road. Cuz driving is driving. Like it’s all the same. It’s mostly just your judgment is different because you’re on the left side instead of the right of the car.
BHAVNEET: That’s really interesting to hear. I thought it would be a lot more difficult.
JULES: I think it is for some people. I don’t know. I guess it’s just traveling around a lot and I guess it was sort of you know when I was in Peru, I was driving around in a truck when we were volunteering down there. I was driving this big truck around and like I’ve had a lot of experience around the world like traveling here and there and just getting used to it. So yeah, I guess maybe the start of it was a little bit trickier but I never really found it too much of a massive change.
CHRISTINE: I think that parallel parking on the other side at being on the other side of the car as well, it’s probably one of the hardest things. That was a big adjustment when we lived in Australia. I was like, I don’t know how to parallel park this way. This is really scary. And also the car we have in Australia is this very beat up old Subaru. And the steering wheel…
JULES: Well, it’s not that beat up. The steering I will…
CHRISTINE: It’s pretty beat up. Pretty beat up.
JULES: It’s a little bit beat up, but the steering I will…
CHRISTINE: It’s very sticky. Is that the right word?
JULES: :The power steering doesn’t work anymore and it’s very temperamental.
CHRISTINE: You literally have to unless you’re parallel parking unless you have some like momentum and gas on it, you literally have to turn It with two hands because it is that difficult. I always say that I get the best upper body workout driving this car this car because it is so difficult to turn that wheel when you’re just stationery. And yeah, I’ve definitely gotten some people honking at me when Im’ really slow parallel parking, trying to crank this thing around.
JULES: It is very it is very tough. It is almost like the reverse of power steering. It’s like harder to steer than a car with no power steering.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It’s horrible.
TARANJIT: And you feel comfortable getting in this car?
JULES: Yeah. The car itself the car works great and it’s it just seems to be when when you’re driving it’s fine to turn. Like if you’re turning around the corner, it works fine. But as soon as you’re off the gas for some reason the power steering sort of just cuts out. So if you’re if you’re like slowly edging into a park a car park, it doesn’t really work. But if you’re like going around the corner, the power steering’s fine. I don’t know what it is. It’s just is it kind of like a beach car and it’s it’s my old car that we just kept at my parents’ house. And they just use it now, too. It’s a station wagon. So they just used it to take the dogs down the beach to take the dogs. So it’s kind of like if it gets scratched up or banged up, it’s a bit of a run around car. So just it’s always there when we come back which is handy, So it’s not really worth getting fixed up.
TARANJIT: It seems like your vehicles tend to have parts that just start working and stop working. Like the horn and then your power steering.
JULES: Yeah. Oh there are heaps more things on the van that don’t work.
CHRISTINE: Oh gosh.
JULES: The odometer stopped working. Thespeedometer is very like once you get over about 50 miles it pretty much just ticks.
CHRISTINE: It goes from like 60 to 80. It just like goes back and forth.
JULES: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: So I always we always joke about if we got pulled over and the cop would be like, do you know how fast you’re going and we be like somewhere between 60 and 80. I don’t know.
JULES: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: We actually use Waze sometimes cuz if you use Waze the maps app it tells you how fast you’re going. I don’t know how accurate it is but gives you a general idea of how fast you’re going. And sometimes we use that as our speedometer.
JULES: And the gas gauge also it’s like shows you where it’s at when you first turn the van on and then it just drops down. So you don’t always know what the gas gauge is at so you kind of have to make sure it gets relatively decent mileage. So but we always need to make sure that we fill up just in case the gas is low. We don’t know.
TARANJIT: Oh my gosh. I would never want to get in this vehicle.
CHRISTINE: We live life on the edge.
JULES: Yeah. I mean mechanical mechanically it runs fine. Like we’ve never had any issues with it. We’ve taken it in. It runs great. It just has a few minor things. Yeah, I mean do you really need a speedometer?
CHRISTINE: It’s debatable.
BHAVNEET: Do you really need to know how much gas?
JULES: Yeah. I mean that one that one most likely gets called out, but otherwise like you know, odometer, yeah it would be handy to know how far the van has gone, but it doesn’t really make a difference. And everything else is like, you know, speedometer. Just check the car in front of you. Just go as fast as they go. You can work around it. The main thing is it doesn’t break down. That’s the main thing.
BHAVNEET: Very true. Yeah. Well, I guess you’ve gotten really good at yeah, I don’t even know how you do it. But kudos to you.
JULES: Making do. That’s what it comes to.
BHAVNEET: How would you guys describe your driving test experience? Where you able to pass on your first try or was it difficult?
CHRISTINE: Yeah. I passed on my first try. It was not difficult. I think although I did almost I did make a mistake right towards the end. I was actually I completed the test. I was on the way back to the driving like our equivalent of the DMV and but you can still lose your license if you make a mistake, but I’ve finished everything. And there was a car that had parked like right at the lights. They they had actually parked in the wrong spot. And I thought that they were stopped at the lights and I sort of pulled in behind them. And then the light turned green and the car didn’t move and I realized there was no one in the car that actually stopped. So that was like a little bit, I was like, uhhh. But because the person in front of me was kind of in the wrong as well and it was a bit confusing. Luckily, I was okay and the driving instructor in the car was just like, reverse and around them. Other than that it was fine. I actually had to get my license well not had to, but to get my California license, I had to do a test again. Which is also a very interesting experience because I’ve been driving for so long and then I had to go do go to the DMV and do my learners on the computer just like with a whole bunch of 14 year olds. And had to do that and then I had to book a driving test and get bring the car with an instructor and go and do the whole thing again at like 32 years of age. So that was interesting.
CHRISTINE: I also passed on my first try. I had had a lot of friends cuz everybody you know goes the same DMV and whatnot. Everybody who had already taken the test was like, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t get the Russian woman, who is the instructor. And I was like, okay. Okay. No Russian women and I’ll be fine. Okay, So course I get in the car. The instructor gets in the car. Of course, it’s the Russian woman. And I’m like, oh no. So I was really nervous. I was like, you know, trying to remember everything but I passed with flying colors. Did really well. Excellent driving. And I was totally fine. I did have a girlfriend who had to take her driving test 7 times. And one of the times I think it was her first time, she got in a car accident during the test.
BHAVNEET: Oh my God.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. So that did not go well for her. And yes, she had to take it 6 more times after that.
JULES: Wow.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
TARANJIT: Wow, that’s a lot.
CHRISTINE: Yes. She not the best driver.
JULES: And yeah. She’s still not the best driver.
CHRISTINE: I hope she is not listening to this podcast.
BHAVNEET: Wow. I think that’s a record. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say they’ve had to take it that many times.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. It’s quite a few.
JULES: Yeah.
TARANJIT: I feel like there’s a lot of a DMVs have that one instructor that everyone talks about that. They’re like you don’t want this person. And I had the same situation where I ended up getting the person that they’re like you don’t want to get.
CHRISTINE: Oh. That’s the worst.
TARANJIT: Does the California test and in Australia, do you have to do parallel parking on the driving test?
CHRISTINE: No. We don’t have to do it.
JULES: No. In Australia, they make you do I think they make you well this is ages ago. So I don’t know what it’s like now, but at the time I think you usually got a combination of the two. So you might have to do parallel parking. You might have to do a three-point. They make you I think for mine I had to I went to an area and I had to reverse back like in a straight line for 20 or 30 yards and 3 point turn I had to do. And I can’t remember if I had to parallel park. You don’t always get it but I think that it is part of it. So it’s like one of two parks. And they usually make you do one of like a combination or so you might have to be like you might have to do a 90 degree angle park where you pull in and they go, yup. And then you pull out. I think I did that on my California one. But they just said, pull into this park here like this and then drive away. But no parallel parking.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. No parallel parking.
BHAVNEET: This is like super shocking. I think we need to now I want to know who actually does it because I was under the impression that that’s the thing that you have to do because we had to and I thought that it was just like standard. But apparently it’s not.
JULES: I feel like you should have to do. it’s the it’s the most difficult obviously parking maneuver, but also if you don’t have to do it in your test and you’d say you don’t want to do it and you don’t learn it because it’s hard. What do people do? I mean, I know people just I’ve seen so many people maybe that’s why in California I see so many people up to a car park. I’m like you can easily get in there and they’re like nope. And they keep driving. Maybe that’s why I find good park sometimes because people don’t want to parallel park into them.
CHRISTINE: I feel like maybe we just have a lot of parking lots and you don’t really need to parallel park all the time.
JULES: Is that your excuse?
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Maybe.
BHAVNEET: I guess you have not been to the east coast.
CHRISTINE: Oh God. I would not drive on the east coast. It seems scarier.
JULES: We did a we were out sometime where somebody was trying to get into this park, and they were they were a little bit older and they were struggling. And the person that we were with, he was kind of a little bit of this eccentric east coaster who who’s kind of like very New Yorker, and he was like, give me the car. And he was like literally…
CHRISTINE: Yeah. And they gave him the keys.
JULES: He like ran out into the street and got these people out of their car. And he took their car and he parked it for them. It was like a really funny experience. They were older so I am sure it’s what you expect from the drivers. But it was pretty funny.
TARANJIT: That’s hilarious. Well, it just means that there’s more parking for you since you know how to do it.
CHRISTINE: True. True.
JULES: Yeah. Yeah. Well we just went out for a hike recently just in the North Bay, and we were like looking we rolled in and the state officer, she was like, telling people where to park. And there was a park, it was a huge park, she was like, uh. Parking. There is a spot up there if you can parallel-park. And I was like, lady, I got this. Don’t worry. Just like rolled in. I coud have almost driven into it, it was so big. But so many were people driving past it trying to find other parks. Yes, I guess that’s the benefit of knowing how to parallel park. You always find a park.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. So I always wondering like if you don’t know how to parallel park like, what are you doing? Just driving around in circles? Especially here, I feel like you really need to know how, otherwise like, how are you going to stop the car?
CHRISTINE: No idea. I mean now they have park like self parking cars I guess. So maybe people just use that.
JULES: Yeah. I want to drive one of those. My friend I’ve never driven a Tesla, but my friend was telling me one about one recently and he said that you basically just pull up to the spot and once all the cameras align it just there’s this blue light and you just press the button and it just parks itself. It’s like, whoa. That is the future of driving.
TARANJIT: Would you trust that? or would you feel comfortable getting in a driverless car?
CHRISTINE: Oh man. I mean, I think thats the future. So I guess we just have to get used to it. I have we have friends who’ve been in self-driving cars and they said it works pretty well. Honestly it probably works better than human error. Right? So I probably would trust it.
JULES: Yeah. I’d drive I’d trust that. It’s basically just to park. It’s like, what’s the worst that’s going to happen to me if I’m inside? Try and blame the car.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. I don’t know how that would work. It’s like, you hit my car. It wasn’t me. It was my car.
JULES: Yeah. Yeah.
CHRISTINE: Good excuse.
JULES: Lawsuit against Tesla. Would you would you trust it? Would you trust a self-driving car or have you ever been in one that does it?
BHAVNEET: I don’t think I would. I just I don’t know. I feel like it would malfunction. Like I know how to parallel park so I I think I would trust myself to be able to parallel park.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
TARANJIT: She also stresses out a lot. So she would be the first one to worry about everything. She would be like, on no. This is going to go wrong. This is gonna go wrong.
CHRISTINE: Well, if you like to be in control, that would be a stressful situation for sure.
JULES: Yeah. I think that is the problem I’d have with the just the out of control feeling. Especially going, like if it was driving around the city. I think it would be nice. Although I don’t know because the driving around the city is a lot more going on. But driving out in the open roads when you are going faster, that’s when I would feel a bit funnier. I don’t know. I’m sure we’ll get to a stage probably not too far in the distant future, where a lot of cars are self-driving and you know, it’d be interesting to see where that goes.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Parking is just the first step.
JULES: Yeah.
BHAVNEET: Bonus question time. Are you ready?
JULES: Oh. We were born ready?
CHRISTINE: Yes.
BHAVNEET: If you could make one new driving law, what would it be?
JULES: Can I like change an old one? One that could I like bring back one that used to be around?
TARANJIT: Yeah. Of course.
JULES: J:Okay. Well, it sounds really irresponsible, but like I think you should be able to drink in the car if you’re a passenger.
CHRISTINE: Okay, There’s there are some states where you can do that.
JULES: Okay. And maybe if you the driver, you can just have one.
CHRISTINE: Oh God. That seems like a slippery slope.
JULES: Yeah. I know. Well I guess that’s the issue with that law because then you’re sort of more tempted to, but I think that if you are the passenger, it would be nice to you know you’re cruising on a road trip, you got your designated driver or at least for the time being and you just crack a beer and wind the window down and not have to worry about getting caught.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. That’s a good one. I would say if you’re so I don’t know if this true in where you guys are, but in California, you can stop at a red and turn right if you stopped at an intersection. I would like it to change it so that you just have to slow down, you don’t have to make a complete stop, and if you slow down and make sure it’s safe, you can turn right on red. Because that’s the only time I’ve ever gotten a ticket was for a red light camera, and I didn’t come to a full complete stop. And I just went slowed down and I went through and everything was fine. But I I got caught by a red light camera and then I got a ticket. And that’s the only time that happened to me. So I would change that.
JULES: I would actually speaking of that I would actually if I could change one law in Australia, I would make the right on red cuz that well it would have to be left on red in Australia. So it wouldn’t have the same ring to it, but that I love that. I think that’s such a great I don’t think it’s is it in every state?
CHRISTINE: Yeah. I don’t think so. Can you do it? You guys are in Maryland?
BHAVNEET: Yeah. There are certain states that you can’t, but in Maryland you can. Unless if there is a sign saying, don’t turn on red.
JULES: Yeah. I love that. I think that’s such a good traffic law. I I love it. I would love to bring that back to Australia. I think that’s such a good thing because it’s essentially just like a stop sign at that stage and you’re not crossing anything and it’s just I really like that. It’s my favorite U.S. law or at least California law.
BHAVNEET: But Christine. Spoken like a true Californian. You and your rolling stops. I don’t want to completely stop, I just want to keep going.
JULES: The California roll.
CHRISTINE: California roll. What can we say. We love it over her.
JULES: Especially we we live in San Francisco and every like I’d say that 90% of the intersection are always stops. So you just have to like you are constantly if you’re in the unless you’re on a main street which has traffic lights, pretty much every other street is an all way. There is like very few two ways, so you’re always everyblock stop stop stop. And I think it’s just ingrained especially in San Francisco that you just you’re rolling through those. And you see people roll through them pretty quick sometimes as well. It’s more like a California Sprint through sometimes.
BHAVNEET: I don’t think I would be able to handle that. Like I would probably start honking at people and I am not one to honk.
TARANJIT: So in San Francisco it’s like very steep hills and stuff. So do people like just go right through the hills? I know like when we were there when there’s like a stop sign but you’re like at an incline, so I was like how you’re supposed to stop at this angle?
CHRISTINE: Yes, Some of those are crazy.
JULES: Especially if you’re driving a manual car. It would be a lot trickier as well, definitely need to you definitely get that back roll. Even in an auto you need to you can’t pull up super tight behind people. You have to give them space. Which a lot of people don’t do. But yeah. Some of them there’s a couple we live sort of at the bottom of a of a hill. Sometimes when we head out south you start to like you can’t you pretty much it’s so steep that you can actually see the top of the road. Like ahead. You have to really like roll over that one slow cuz you can’t see if there is anyone crossing or anything.
TARANJIT: That just sounds scary.
CHRISTINE: It can be kind of scary if you’re just driving driving and then all the sudden you end up on like this basically like a cliff and you’re like about to go down. And some of those inclines are just really gnarly. They can be pretty terrifying.
JULES: It’s like a roller coaster. Weee.
TARANJIT: A real life one instead of in a controlled environment.
CHRISTINE: Exactly.
BHAVNEET: Yeah compared to your hills over there like ours seem like nothing.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Yeah. It can be pretty nerve-racking. And some people like skateboard down them. I’m like your crazy.
JULES: Yeah. They’re hard to even walk up and down.
CHRISTINE: Oh. So tiring.
TARANJIT: Oh. I can imagine. Well I well we both really enjoyed your stories today. Do you guys have any final thoughts or any tips you would like to give other drivers?
CHRISTINE: I probably am not the best person to give driving tips.
JULES: Yeah. You need to be getting terrible navigation.
CHRISTINE: Just stay off your phones. Stay off your phone. And oh yeah. I also have horrible navigation. I don’t I’m really bad at directions, but we’ll save that for next time we’re on the podcast.
TARANJIT: So you guys both have a podcast and a blog, where can listeners find you if they want to check it out?
CHRISTINE: So our travel blog is called Don’t Forget to Move. You can find us at DontForgetToMove.com and all social media Don’tForget2Move. And we’re all about adventure and sustainable tourism.
JULES: Yup. And our travel blog travel podcast sorry is called Not so Bon Voyage where we tell stories all about when things go wrong on the road. So we have quite a few travel stories of when a breakdowns and car troubles, but we also talk about hiking and adventuring and all those crazy stories of when things just don’t don’t go your way for the day. And we’re on all podcast platforms and on the socials at NotSoBonVoyage and yeah you can check us out and hear some funny and crazy travel stories.
BHAVNEET: Thank you both so much for joining us today. We enjoyed listening to your stories and well definitely have to do a part 2.
JULES:Thank you so much for having us.
CHRISTINE: Thank you for having us.
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BHAVNEET: I just want to start off by saying that here is another example of how we as Americans are less quote unquote sophisticated in our terminology. You know how previously how we talked about how everyone says roundabout and we’re like circle. And then Jules’ pet peeve was that no one uses their indicators.
TARANJIT: Oh yeah. And we say blinkers.
BHAVNEET: And I’m like, we say blinkers. And when he said indicators, I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. I hate when no one uses their…
BOTH: Indicators.
BHAVNEET: I agree with you. But I do agree with it. But I had to catch myself and be like, yeah, I’ll say indicator, too. I’m fancy.
TARANJIT: I’m not going to say blinker.
BHAVNEET: Yeah, I don’t the thing that blinks. The blinky.
TARANJIT: Yeah. The blinky. No, but that’s so true. Cuz when we went there, I was just like woah, they like turn on their blinkers to go into the circle.
BHAVNEET: To go into the…
TARANJIT: Wow. Look I just said the two things.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. I mean, that’s what I thought. I didn’t say, oh. They turn on their indicators.
TARANJIT: In the roundabout
BHAVNEET: In the circle. Yeah.
TARANJIT: Yeah, but that’s so true. Like we don’t. That’s become a you don’t use that here.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. When I saw that I was like, mind blown. I’m like, oh my God, that is so smart.
TARANJIT: Why don’t we do that?
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Why don’t they teach us that? They teach us that the very basics. They don’t really teach us this, but my driving instructor was very vaguely like, yeah. Just turn it on when you exit the circle, and I’m like…
TARANJIT: I didn’t even get taught that.
BHAVNEET: But what I do is like I’m like it makes so much more sense to just turn it on when you enter and then if you are about to turn out, it’ll automatically turn off. So that people know that you’re no longer coming around.
TARANJIT: What? You keep it on in the circle?
BHAVNEET: That’s what yeah. That’s what they did in the circle in Australia. He was entering the circle. Our uncle was entering the circle and he turned on his indicator and then started driving around.
TARANJIT: Oh, I thought it was you turn it on when you’re leaving.
BHAVNEET: I thought so, too. But like I saw people turning it on when they entered.
TARANJIT: Oh.
BHAVNEET: And I was like, woah, that’s a new way. And then when they were exiting like, you know, you turn the opposite direction, then it turned off.
TARANJIT: Oh.
BHAVNEET: And I was like, mind blown. I was like, what. See now what I like what I do is like halfway when I’m in the circle and I want to go like to the 3rd exit all the way around. I then turn it on because people don’t stop. Because they think you’re automatically going to just keep going straight.
TARANJIT: Yeah. Exactly.
BHAVNEET: But yeah. That and then they are sophisticated language.
TARANJIT: But okay. So his driving law, we ask every guest to share if they can make one driving law, what would they make? And his law was at least let the passenger be able to drink, and then he’s like, and then the driver can have a drink. I don’t think that would work as well.Maybe it would work in Australia, but I don’t think it would work for drivers in the U.S.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Especially with as he mentioned the roadways as his pet peeve and like in America. It’s a little extreme. And that person that just like walked up to them. Just like stopped. Like I dont think a drink would be helpful in that situation.
TARANJIT: Well maybe it will help calm his nerves like they did with the bus driver falling asleep. But yeah. I’ve only experienced road rage once on the road and and I felt like that driver was ready to get out of the car. But we’re in the middle of turning in a intersection. So they’re just like…
BHAVNEET: Oh my God. Yeah. I’ve only experienced like true road rage like when I was in that moment. I was like, oh this is road rage. Like I don’t know why this dude was mad. But yeah.
TARANJIT: Yeah. Having that person pulled over and started walking towards you. That’s like, uhhh.
BHAVNEET: Yeah.
TARANJIT: Uh. Time to get out of here. Bye.
BHAVNEET: Exactly. And then also how they were talking about how they’re converted van has all these little quirks. It’s an enigma.
TARANJIT: The more they talked about it and the more things they mention that didn’t work or went wrong. I’m just like…
BHAVNEET: Woah.
TARANJIT: You’re still driving this thing. Oh yeah. That’s not like it’s not that important. Like, you’re good.
BHAVNEET: We don’t need a speedometer. We don’t need to know how much gas we have.
TARANJIT: Well they’re well they’re probably just like we just wont go above 60. Which I don’t know if I wont go above 60, but it’s just like 60 to 80. I don’t know what we’re going officer.
BHAVNEET: Just follow the car in front of you and hope that they are not excessively speeding.
TARANJIT: But everyone is already going 20 above the speed limit. So would you follow the person in front of you? And on top of that not every car’s speedometer reads the same way.
BHAVNEET: Exactly.
TARANJIT: So but I found it hilarious that they are saying that they’re horn in the van doesn’t work and then when they went to like the one park and all of a sudden, the horn just went off.
BHAVNEET: I know. It’s like, how did they turned that off?
TARANJIT: That reminded me of…
BHAVNEET: That reminded me of your incident, too.
TARANJIT: Yes.
BHAVNEET: Or our incident, but it was your rental.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I had that rental car, which first of all I never had a push start and having a keyless like a keyless lock system where I could just like tap the door and it would lock it.
BHAVNEET: You typed it wrong.
TARANJIT: No. I tapped it, but then I was like, wait. Did it really lock? And so I went to go touch it again and then I unlocked it and then I locked it and then unlocked it. So then it went off.
BHAVNEET: You’re making it spaz out. LIke, what is this person doing?
TARANJIT: Yes, but it and then we couldn’t get the alarm to shut off.
BHAVNEET: Yeah.
TARANJIT: And we were in a shopping plaza parking lot.
BHAVNEET: It was busy
TARANJIT: And i’m just like, this is my car.
BHAVNEET: We’re like, this is our rental. I don’t know what to do.
TARANJIT: Oh my gosh. That was…
BHAVNEET: Embarrassing.
TARANJIT: Yeah. And you had to turn it off. I just couldn’t. My hands were shaking so much.
BHAVNEET: I was just pushing buttons. I was like hit the hit the unlock, hit the lock, hit the alarm. Ahh.
TARANJIT: I just like looking around. Like, no one look at us. This is our car.
BHAVNEET: It’s like, hit the buttons. In broad daylight, too. We’re like, we’re not trying to steal this. I wouldn’t want this.
TARANJIT: Yeah, I wouldn’t want this.
BHAVNEET: If I had a choice, this is not the car. But anyways, we’re not stealing stuff. And that was Jules and Christine. We hope you enjoyed listening to their crazy driving stories around the world pretty much. And if you or anyone, you know has any crazy or interesting driving stories and would like to come on as a guest. Fill out the interest form on our website at drivewithuspodcast.com.
TARANJIT: And stay tuned until the end of this episode for a sneak peek of next week’s episode, which is the last episode of the season.
BHAVNEET: Oh no.
TARANJIT: We were joined by Shira and Ariel who shared with us there many road trip driving stories of driving across the country from California to New York and from Mississippi to New York. And how driving in the south is way different than driving in the Northeast. Thanks for driving with us!
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(next week’s sneak peek)
SHIRA: I drove back from Jackson which was about 18 hours to my parents in New York, and it was completely fine until I hit the tri-state area. And I was so stressed.