another kid wandering around earth

Always loved your updates, and saved this thread for future ones

You never talked about poker too much so was always wondered how you could afford to bounce around so much, did you just invest all your winnings basically?

do you speak fluent spanish If i remember? Have you learnt that via your travels and school, or from a kid?

yeah, plenty of other resources to chat poker, and I haven't played a ton in the last 5 years or so. Dabbling in cash a bit, but a big month for me is maybe 10k hands and a couple grand profit - not much to talk about. people always wonder how I can afford to bounce around. I often spend $500-1000/mo for everything.

People in usa make 100k+ a year and are dead broke just living a typical american life - no splurging. I make less than half of that and save over 50% of it - for the last 15 years. Whose gonna have more money and retire earlier? this guyyyyy. I do have various investments and have gone plenty periods of 100+ hour work weeks.

and yeah I speak spanish I guess now. learned more in a weekend in spain than I did in a few years of school though. Language is hard. Speak only that foreign language for 6+ months though, ZERO english - and you'll make some progress
Portuguese was mostly duolingo and living with locals. gf there was peruvian so we just did spanish or english. mistake
My thai got quite a bit better last year, thats a tough one to study. mostly youtube.
Indo I've forgotten like 80% of the little I used to know.
Now studying Mandarin and moving to China after snowboard season! duolingo only for now

My spot for a couple weeks, feels gooood to be back on the snow again. I'll add more pics of the van setup as well sometime. Just added a heater, sink, water faucet, more solar. avg rent in california is $2300 right now. vanlife is rad

test trip with the van was a success, Heater I put in is way too hot but I roll the windows down a bit and works fine. rest of the season I'll be trying to avoid big storms and head to the mountains when its clear. Think my build is pretty much finished now, a water heater for shower could be cool instead of using a solar shower as I do now, but regardless I have to shower outside and am not going construct an in van shower - which is possible but meh.

So this was the start of the build, just figuring out a bed solution. With some piano hinges this folds up and down really easy from a 2 sided couch into a bed. I have to move around cushions and pillows but can sit like tailgate style if I'm hanging out at a beach or park, inside couch I use when day/night while in the van, and then it folds down for a nice bed which is super easy to make as I leave the scrunchy bottom sheet on the far cushion and then it just pulls over the rest, toss a sheet and pillow down and good to go.

I've added more, but typical setup for when I'm in the van at night. I got rid of LED light strip since it uses AC power, now I have 12v lights that I don't need to run the battery's inverter for

Back couch. I use that alot after surf/snow as I don't want to get in yet and am still sandy/wet/taking off snow gear

Bed folded down. I don't like sleeping bags unless its super necessary, normal bed has been fine down to 15 F so far when I turn the heater on for a bit at night.

Have a table that I use as a desk or cooking space for inside/outside. If its windy on the passenger side and I want to cook outside - it's easy to setup the desk on the driver side or back hatch. Just using a single burner propane stove that's as big as a laptop. Also have a USB screen that folds down from where the stock DVD player was so I have another screen either for poker work stuff or mostly netflix

Roof headliner is saggy in spots but I fixed that with becoming mexican and tossing up a flag

Table off the back for beach cooking. This is in Abreojos, Baja, Mexico. Stayed here for a week, was a perfect spot to get my paddle arms back and even bought a cheap 5'6" foamy to lessen the back to surfing struggles.

Nine Palms, baja sur, mexico - not too far from Cabo. Spent probably a full month here. So hot in the day but found out that inside with doors open and fan on is way cooler than sitting under and awning if there's no wind. Glad I had the awning anyways.

Nine palms - dawn patrol getting ready for sunrise session

Current state of the build and not sure what else I really want to add. Installed a diesel heater and ducting, sink, faucet with a 3gal tank below and another 3gal water storage I can refill with. 12v lights are bright but I should have done more smaller lights. They do dim and have a blue night setting, but I miss my LED strip lights a bit. Extend-o table is where I put my stove for cooking. Little trash chute i thought was rad, as normally the trash is just a can that floats around the cabin. Battery is also in the middle shelf and I was able to run most things 12v (if you run off AC power, the inverter turns on which is less efficient and takes electric just to run) - so I have lights, solar, fridge, diesel heater, and cig outlet that charges the battery all connected to 12v now. Top shelf is kinda just for stuffing clothes in, and with snowboard season that works fine as everything is puffy and bulky. Come summer I might put in more dividers or shelfs for better organization. Bottom shelf is where heater sits in the back and the duct work runs thru and comes out under the sink. Also have a blackout curtain installed for easier stealth, which is one reason I love this van. It's just a random minivan you can't see into, unless I have the heater going which exhausts under the car and has a noise- I can be full cooking a meal or watching TV with the lights on and nobody would have a clue. I poop in the trashcan or dig a hole or swim out into the ocean or go to any store/business.

Ideally this is my last year of ultra cheap living and making sacrifices. Next build would be something that I can stand in that also has a stand up indoor shower, larger kitchen space, much larger battery/solar that can support A/C in summer. Great learning experience overall though and I'll be 6+ more months in this rig before moving back to asia

Where you at for this "atmospheric river" or whatever tf they're calling it?

would for sure be more sustainable, I'd just lose all stealth and gas mileage. I got really tempted with a pickuptruck and cab over camper, but losing the stealth and safety aspect is a tradeoff.

was on my way to ride diamond peak when you wrote that, small resort in tahoe. I meant to lazy day it and just get a couple hours in but fresh storm midweek at a small local resort and it was super good! Rode the next day at squaw and stayed in the park the whole time which was also a mistake - long lap to the bottom was funnest of the day with so much fresh snow still around. Rest of this week I'll be at squaw/alpine. Plan for this season is to avoid any major weather events.

It got to 11 degrees last night! I turn off the heater at night and it got down to 28 inside the van which seems cold but was fine with some blankets/socks/beanie/jacket. Waking up is cold so I have a remote next to my head for the heater that I turn on until it warms up to get up.

pulled up to this spot last night at night after scouting for a few night camp locations. Saw a parking lot and no signs so parked and woke up to this view!

snowboard season was fun. this was closing weekend. Upcoming plans is hiking mt. whitney with some poker homies, stop by and say hello to some friends at WSOP, then back to mexico for surf summer!

Think I'm officially done with online poker, at least for quite some time. I did switch to cash and made a bit of monies, but it doesn't make sense if I'm not willing to commit fulltime to both study and play. Will dork around live once in awhile, but farewell to button mashing for me.

What are you favorite places to stay in Mexico with close by access to consistent breaks and good quality of life? I live in Pichilemu, Chile, and it's the midst of the winter. I forget how easy is it to just surf in your shorts in that warm water!

Awesome ending to snowboarding season, what a party!

As per the last couple years - in lieu of actively blogging, I been makin videos. Still have mexico/vanlife/surf trip to edit from this past summer but am catching up and snowboard season 2024 is here:

Sold the van at a loss but who cares, lived in that thing for 18 months and had a hell of a time. Then I moved to china, but china is cold. and so incredibly difficult. The government could really give a **** less about promoting any type of tourism besides groups that see the famous stuff and stay in hotels - so finding short term furnished housing was hard, not having google/fb/instagram/basically any internet was hard. VPNs work a bit, often with lots of tinkering and then they still go out too often. So as committed as I thought I was to become chinese, I moved to Vietnam for a few months and am currently a couple weeks into my stay. Bangkok would have been nice it's just too easy. Have a girl there I love but she's looking for all those grown up things in life so also don't want to pressure her at all for another short term stint with me for the umpteenth time. Still, might end up back in thailand - popular places are popular for a reason. Siam Reap - cambodia for a month or so also seems appealing to me, as last time I lived in cambo I just played poker all the time, so it could be nice to get to know the place a bit better.

Vietnam (saigon) is cool so far. Found an apartment for not a great price, but again short term furnished housing comes at such a premium in this country. I'm in a cool 'expat' neighborhood that the culture fanatics look down upon, but honestly it's plenty vietnamese for me, just also have bars, pizza, sushi, and a million other intl food choices all around instead of pure duck embryos and whatever else vietnamese people eat. No idea how I'll be spending my time here, but haven't lived in my own place in 2.5 years so catching up on crypto, video games, video editing, dating, and partying again seems like the plan. I could imagine myself bouncing back and forth between China, thailand, China, phillippines, China.... for the next couple years until I miss snowboarding too much and go back to california. Life is nice. I want a girlfriend.

hey sorry forgot to answer this. So mazatlan, sinaloa is probably my favorite. I had a condo right on the beach and walking distance to like 4 spots, and could take a bus to a few others or friends would drive. An hour north has big boy double overhead waves when the swell hits, but I'm not at that level yet.

Baja California Sur has a few options as well, cabo area has plenty of breaks, san jose del cabo has a nicer vibe and better/closer wave access, I used to camp at east cape for months on end and just surf everyday but zero civilization around - not even cell signal. Cerritos is another decent option and it has the basics, but not a well developed city with movie theaters or wal mart or anything. Puerto escondido is another option although its spread out, it's probably the mecca of Mexico surf, from beginners to heaviest waves of your life it has it all. Zihuatenejo/ixtapa was another area I was interested in but never made it out there. Mexi got options

Wrapping up my time in Vietnam soon and will reluctantly head to Bali for summer. fack i hope its not too crowded and douchey. If it is I'll hop across the water and go to lombok, went forever ago and it was cool but underdeveloped, but chinese and other foreigners have been dumping money into the 'next' bali so hopefully they've got some infrastructure by now.

Saigon is an awesome place, feels a bit bad to be leaving but currently waiting for the ground to dry so I can go skate tonight, so im outta here soon for that reason alone. The type of expat it attracts is busto english teachers mostly and almost zero crypto bros, health and wellness self absorbed children of the light, rich people on a 2 week vacay looking to ball out... my god im gonna hate bali 😃 Anyways just a much more relateable type of expat that's here, girls are insane beautiful, locals are very welcoming and party heavy, and english levels blow me away, maybe 5% of people have no english skills, but everyone else is with it. Great weird little cheap chaotic city this is, would consider coming back in the future.

That's interesting about Saigon. I was there for a week and liked it, but might have been a bit too disorganized for me. I like long walks, but that seems very difficult in Saigon b/c the walking infrastructure is very lacking, you'll be dodging random motorbikes on sidewalks, and even crossing is often super stressful when you'll have non-stop bikes zooming by without a crossing signal.

If not for that, I think I'd rate it quite a bit higher b/c the food was good, there are some interesting spots in the city, and locals seem cool.

I prefer large cities, so of the ones I've seen in Asia so far I'd rate them

Bangkok - 9
Seoul - 9
Kuala Lumpur - 7.5
Saigon - 6
Phnom Penh - 5

Have you spent much time in Hanoi? I'm gonna do another Vietnam trip and am trying to decide what I'll do. Prob Hanoi + Halong + Ha Giang. My wife raved about Ha Giang. Might include some stuff in central Vietnam too, but that might be a bit ambitious.

Always enjoy reading your updates and hope you're doing well. Wife and I might head to Bali for a week in late May so let me know if you'll be there then.

lol yepp, its disorganized as hell but that's also a bit of a first impression until you get to know the city a bit. long walks from district to district kiiinda ain't happening, but also just gotta know the city. My neighborhood is fine as well as some of the other more upscale places with really nice parks around them, but walking def isn't a thing here which is half the reason I picked this neighborhood as everything I could ever need is a stroll away. For living I'd go saigon > hanoi anyday but for quick visits the north probably has more cool day trips around. Da nang is apparantly the hotspot now as well, if waves didn't die over summer I'd be on my way as its dry season. I was there 10 years ago and didn't care for it but seems to be a chiang mai/bali crossover these days and a few very worthwhile day excursions from there - worth looking into a hue/da nang/hoi an trip if it's on your radar.

Randomly would also highly recommend Penang, Malaysia over KL anyday, very surprised how much I loved it there.
Looks like we'll catch up in Bali! gimme a shout when you get in, would be great to see you guys

Try Taipei excellent for walking. Nice weather good food

more than twice as much rain as seattle and basically no sunshine - yeah great weather 😃 😃
was crazy tempted to move to taipei to continue mandarin studies - the weather made it an absolute no go. but yes, very walkable, safe, efficient public transport, and bike friendly

Moved back to Bali last week and starting up surf season again, so figure I should finish editing my last surf season. Had a lot of great days and never brought my camera out for em, lol - but got a bit of footage of life and surf while living in a van on the beach in mexico last year.

Bali seems great so far - I avoided it for years during/after covid since they had asinine rules and quarantines, then social media made it sound like everyone came here and ruined the place. That is indeed true in some areas, but honestly it feels great being back. New skateparks, so much amazing food I missed, prices jumped up a bit but nothing extraordinary, and the dollar is a bit stronger now which offsets it a bit. Traffic is a bit nuts at times and I just got a board/fins/leash after a few days of hunting, so yet to be seen if the waves are more crowded than before (expecting so). Even then, there's new areas being developed that are similar to the places I used to love years ago, and plenty of options for intermediate waves. The world class stuff seems to be a bit of a kooked out mess, but that ain't in my ballpark anyways.