yeahletsgothere

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Hiking in northern Laos. My guide asked me if I wanted to see something. He walked me about 100 ft off the trail and showed me this. "Whose?" I asked. "USA," he said. From the Vietnam War.

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Film Review: New York’d

I feel like I just got New York’d. If that is the hope of Writer / Director Karan Choudhary, and it may be, then success! The short film, impressively shot in just a day, stars Choudhary as Sean as he goes about his Saturday morning, which begins with promise but is derailed by a series of unlucky mistakes.

A loveable original song by Charles Duke helps set the mood for this quirky comedy. Sean is perfectly costumed in Batman boxer shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt. He wears it with impressive confidence on an open sidewalk when he is forced to meet his food delivery man outside. Played by co-star Kyle McIlhone, the delivery man’s stubborn refusal to bring Sean’s meal up to his fifth floor apartment triggers the start of an unforgettable day in the life of a Sean, your typical New Yorker. 

Karan Choudhary’s first lessons in filmmaking came from his native India’s renowned Bollywood film scene, and those lessons show up, blended through the lens of his many years of New York studies. It opens in a classic American style, Sean asleep on a futon surrounded by paraphernalia indicating a lonely evening. Then it jumps to a narrator explaining the film’s title over beautiful time lapses of some famous New York scenes. Later, Sean drinks coffee at his window sill while we hear his inner monologue summing up what an efficient and easy week he’s had. And in a turn of perfectly Bollywood coincidence, McIlhone’s delivery character moonlights in the exact profession needed to solve Sean’s greatest dilemma. 

New York’d has its flaws, an unnecessarily slow pace and an obvious plot. It’s a twelve minute film that spends fifty seconds ordering food and the film’s central conflict isn’t introduced until halfway through. But it is also easily relatable with some charming performances by both Choudhary and McIlhone.

It’s a silly comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously. In a world of overly pretentious short films, New York’d is a relief.

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Sponsored content incoming!

Just a heads up, I’ve been hired to write a couple short reviews of a couple short films. I’ll be posting the reviews here. 

Travel stories to follow!

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Waiting to board a plane to India. The next adventure begins. pssst, that means more travel stories coming soon

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Troll hunting in Norway. 2013. 

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Hikes in Pai, Thailand. I’ll always remember this one because I did it alone. It took all day. My feet were cut and bleeding terribly by the time I got back to my guesthouse. And I got to swim naked underneath a waterfall. So worth it. 

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Paragliding in Colombia. 2014. We did some cool dips and turns and I thought I was going to puke. No one warns you about the urge to puke. But it’s real. 

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Working on the edits. Draft two is in the works!

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Grumpy Old Men Try Porn

I’m moving into my own place finally, and it can’t come soon enough. I’d stopped writing about my two insane roommates because they’re so horrible and cruel I couldn’t find any humor or joy in writing about it. But, here in the final days of living with them, I feel the burden lifting, and I don't mind sharing some of the lighter, quirkier things they do and say to each other.

OSCAR: I don't think this address you gave me is a website. It ends dot net. I think a web address has to end in dot com or dot gov.

FELIX: Dot net is a real website.

OSCAR: Oh, well then it doesn't work.

Minutes later...

FELIX: I went to transbay dot com on my computer and I'll show you what happened.

Felix walks into Oscar’s room.

FELIX: That's a different website. We need transbay dot net. You're on a porn site.

OSCAR: And it says here that I've got a virus that's associated with porn sites.

FELIX: That's because you're on a porn site. Get the hell out of there.

OSCAR: I'm going to call them.

FELIX: No! Then you're giving them your phone number. And they might use your phone number to get into your computer. You might want to save that. Do you know how to snapchat?

This conversation is happening as I type it. I could keep going, but I think you get the jist.

[yeahletsgothere]

Submissions Now Open for Season 2!

Stories for Yeah, Let’s Go There are gathered by traveling to unusual places and interviewing the extraordinary people met along the way. As I gear up to edit the second season of the show, I’d like to give those people who didn’t happen to be in the right place at the right time a chance to share their stories as well.

From now until April 16 only, Yeah, Let’s Go There the podcast will be accepting stories from anyone who would like to submit. 

YLGT stories are travel themed stories with an element of redemption and typically include a significant personal change. We are not looking for shock value but rather unique tales of personal triumph of all kinds.

If you have a story to share you can contact us on our website here, or via email: yeahletsgothere@gmail.com.

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I finished the rough draft of my travel memoir today and I feel like crying. 

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Throwback Thursday to when government officials had to provide boats to allow passage through downtown Hoi An. Just your typical rainy season in a tropical nation. 

Vietnam. 2013. 

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Barefoot 3v3 soccer match in Bagan, Myanmar. First youths played, and they were fearless. Then the adults after. The crowd reached at least 500, if not 1,000. Bagan itself is a protected city known for its temples, several thousand I believe. Virtually unpopulated now. They gathered from villages all around the area to watch the games.

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Human chilling against the rock for scale. 

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There is a natural waterslide in Pai, Thailand. And it is fantastic. 

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Anyway, Happy New Year

I spent a lot of time finding the perfect drone for my brother-in-law, Levi. I browsed hundreds of reviews of dozens of different types of drones to find a great one within my budget. But there were none, so I appealed to my mom who immediately agreed to help out knowing this would be the gift of the year at our family Christmas gathering. And it was.

It has all the cool features. It can hover in place. Built-in HD camera. Syncs to your phone and your VR device, which he also happened to get this Christmas. By my stoic brother-in-law’s standards, he was giddy upon opening.

It came with a large manual and he spent half the afternoon trying to set it up for its first take off. We stepped outside, placed the delicate thing on the sidewalk, and watched it lift into the air via its built-in auto-pilot. That’s right, it can take off and land completely on its own. It flew a few feet in the air and stayed there. He pushed the controls around and nothing happened. Back inside. More reading.

The next day, Levi was officially ready. He took the drone with him on our morning walk to the beach. A huge, long, flat open sand beach. No wind. Sunny. Conditions were perfect.

I watched Levi fly the drone overhead and his son chase after it when it touched down. We watched the video feed together on his phone. The picture was astoundingly gorgeous. “Do you want to try?” he asked me?

“Oh, yeah!” It lifted into the air, hovered around our heads, then flew in a straight line into the ocean.

In a panic, I tossed Levi the controller and tore off my clothes as I ran towards the water.

“TAKE OFF YOUR WATCH!” My girlfriend screamed. “How many expensive presents can you ruin in one minute?” She asked, sincerely. I threw the watch at her, leaving only my underwear for dignity.

I kept my eyes on a floating bottle the drone had splashed beside. The drone bobbed under the surface next to it. The water reached my waist. It was warmer than I expected. The sand dropped out from under  me and I had to swim. I inhaled involuntarily. I was wrong about the water temperature. “I have to keep going,” I told myself. I had vision of holding the wet toy above my head, triumphantly, as I emerged from the sea.

I slowed my breathing to a regular pace. The cold is nothing. I can do this. When the bottle was within reach, I could see the bobbing drone was seaweed. There’s no drone. I looked down. I tried to touch the sand with my feet. I couldn’t reach. It was gone.

I emerged from the soft push of the waves, defeated. Levi consoled me. “It’s not your fault,” he said, even though it clearly was. The sunshine felt warm. I was drying already. We stared at the water together, waiting for the drone to fly itself back to us.

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Coffee beans in Vietnam. Freshly fallen off the tree, drying in the sun.