another kid wandering around earth

another kid wandering around earth

Hi, I'm Bryan. I like to travel a lot. I used to keep a couple blogs here on moving to Mexico, then travelling South America - felt like it just got played out eventually and a ton of people ended up moving there so I didn't really have anything new to offer.

This is my new dear diary where I'll post pics and happenings when I feel like it.

In Bangkok, Thailand right now and will probably cruise Asia until summer, then move back to South America. I like skateboarding, fat girls, vegetables, sun, skinny girls, and alcohol.

Since I last posted about a year ago, I got lasik, partied a lot in medellin - moved to Pereira, Colombia for a month - stayed in Lima, Peru for awhile - stayed in the amazon jungle of Peru for a month - traveled Europe for 4 months with my mom, and now have been in Bangkok for a month and about to start exploring around Asia a bit. It's okay to have a smartphone here and you don't become an instant mark for thieves, so I'll take some pictures along the way.

Meh will post some pics later, thai internet keeps being thai internet

02 April 2015 at 02:19 PM
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9 Replies


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?


by ThePressure P

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?

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


Dude that is sic .... imagine what you could do with the extra size && comfort of a full sprinter van?!


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


by Duffman08 P

Dude that is sic .... imagine what you could do with the extra size && comfort of a full sprinter van?!

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.

by 5 south P

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

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.


by boliver P

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 aw


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!


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