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OUT OF OFFICE PODCAST
Episode 6
Why traveling sustainably is easier than you think + vegan travel hacks.
[00:00:04] Travel create stories. Unforgettable Stories that can make a smile laugh.
[00:00:09] Or even cry.
[00:00:11] I'm David Calderon and you're listening to out of office. Powered by Con tickets. This podcast is for people who love to travel in each episode. We'll be talking about hot topics and intriguing destinations on today's episode. I'm going to be chatting to content creator Max Homer about everything you need to do in Peru that isn't Machu Picchu. And I'll be talking electric planes and the future of air travel with Misty Foster and Kevin Norton. But first think about this.
Clare Every aka @thelittlelondonvegan
[00:00:41] For those of us who don't have specific dietary requirements we have the luxury of not having to worry about what we're going to eat while traveling and discovering the world. Now I've heard stories about vegetarians having a tough time finding suitable meals while away on holiday. But what about vegans. Do all travel destinations cater for vegans. Claire every a.k.a. the little London vegan is here to convince me that traveling as a vegan is easier than people think. Welcome to the podcast Claire.
[00:01:07] Hi. Thanks for having me. So how long have you been vegan. I've Ashley I'm about to come up to my one year anniversary.
[00:01:14] Congratulations. Yes I noticed that accomplishment is not easy.
[00:01:17] Yeah. No it's not. It's really not. I was veggie for a couple of years before I was vegan and I was a massive meat eater before that. So I know better than anyone how hard the transition can be. Yeah almost a year and I've loved every second of it.
[00:01:32] What prompted you to kind of make this change for yourself.
[00:01:34] Yeah it's funny. I think there are a few reasons why people do it. Some people do it for a combination of reasons.
[00:01:40] There's like people do for the environment or like you said your health my animal welfare and animal welfare was my primary reason I watch some documentaries about I guess where our food comes from I'd never really put the dots together you know. And it just really struck a chord with me and I thought actually this is something I really agree with and I started to look into the options and what a vegan lifestyle really meant and I thought yeah you know what I'm going to give it a go. And yeah I haven't looked back.
[00:02:07]
So how has traveling impacted your food choices?
[00:02:12] You know what I used to go traveling. I mean I travel always traveled a lot. And one of the things I used to really love about traveling was you could just discover a town you'd be wandering around exploring a city and you could just duck into a restaurant look cute and you fancy the menu. You can't do that when you go vegan. I'm not going to lie it is it is different. You have to plan things more meticulously. So I mean I quite enjoy that side of things so before I go on a trip all I'm lucky enough to have an audience where I can ask people what the best places are. But I also do some research of my own. And I say okay what are the best big restaurants in the city. I plan it. I'd put them all on a little Google map so I know where to go. And I found that actually doing that means that you get to discover the coolest parts of a city without sounding ridiculous vague impressions always tend to be in like the hip trendy areas that know you. Yeah. And maybe you wouldn't discover those areas unless you were going to these restaurants. So my boyfriend and I now go to cities basically for a food store and then everything else kind of comes in between walking around the restaurants actually survive. So great. But yes I think I think it's given us a chance to explore different things in our city and obviously it does differ between cities because some cities are amazing for vegan food and others are sort of catching up.
[00:03:33] And I think the longer your vegan the more you you you.
[00:03:36] You're aware of ingredients do you think I know what goes into this and I know what I asked for and you sort of know what needs to be admitted from a recipe to make it vegan so you know I mean it depends on your language skills as well how confident you are speaking to the chefs and the waiters about it but you can kind of work around it that way as well.
[00:03:52] Where have you been where in the world have you gone and experience the best vegan food.
[00:03:56] So I was recently in Berlin and I thought it was amazing. OK you can options there are spectacular.
[00:04:04] It's just I mean it's no surprise Berlin has been voted one of the capital. You know the vegan capitals of the world and it really is like that. It's not just vegan restaurants you can go into omni restaurants as well and order vegan options which is I think one thing that's really important because you don't always go traveling with other vegans. You know you want to be outside walking anywhere.
[00:04:23] Rarely do you go to other big cities on those that's really nice to have that option as well.
[00:04:30] You don't always want to go into a vegan specific restaurant. So yeah Berlin was amazing for that.
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[00:04:35] Did they have more than one option because I feel like the reference I usually go to even if you asked for like a vegetarian option it's like and here's your one at the garden salad.
[00:04:43] Yeah I know it's amazing like especially in Berlin and the places I went to were vegan only places just because I wanted to experience them while I was there. But we went to this place called 1990 vegan living. I think it's cool and the food it was just an entire menu of incredible vegan food like it was just unreal.
[00:05:04] We had to pick your favorite vegan dish what would it be. Oh you mean like here's our last week dish I've ever your life.
[00:05:10] It's going to be a tie between vegan macaroni cheese okay and a vegan burger with the Beyond Meat Patty because that is that just gives me life. It gives me so much life is so great. I love it. Well that's
[00:05:24] fair. I mean I would try both of those I've actually heard that vegan mac and cheese is very very good.
[00:05:29] It is I think vegan she's got such a hard rap like it's such a hard time because when it when I first went vegan even a couple of years ago it was pretty dire. But there are so many brands doing it now and it's improving all the time and you can get some really great options now. It doesn't taste exactly the same as cheese I'll be honest. But you sort of I think your taste buds changed a little bit when you go vegan as well and you start to appreciate different things and different flavors that maybe you haven't had before. You just I think you just adapt a little bit and I think you just discover so many different things like my range of cuisines now is so much wider than before a vegan food. You know we talk about being a food like it's this new thing but some cultures have been craving you know their food is naturally vegan and has been for thousands of years and you know South Indian food is amazing and Ethiopian food and Caribbean food. So yeah I've I've never had any of those things before I went vegan. So.
[00:06:24] So for our listeners do you have any other tips or secrets to eating vegan wherever you are.
[00:06:29]Yes so my top tip and something that's got me through quite a lot of tough travel times is the Happy Cow Web site slash app.
[00:06:39] It's incredible it's basically a directory of vegan restaurants and cafes and I think it's about your city is listed by you search by city and then you can use filters to search for restaurants that offer vegan options or restaurants that are purely vegan and it's just amazing. It's it's helped me through so many times because you can see them on a map and you can decide what's close to you where you want to go it's like you know it's got details about the restaurant it's so it's such a lifesaver. Do the users rate the restaurants as well. I don't think they do actually. I could be wrong. I'm pretty sure they don't it's not like TripAdvisor style it's basically just a directory but you never know. Like I feel like they're progressing all the time. It might get to that stage because that would be helpful.
[00:07:15]
Yeah. You're like five star Zach lifestyles in your opinion.
[00:07:22] What do you think is the best destination to visit if you are a vegan so I know you said you had fun in. Yes.
[00:07:28] Berlin is amazing. Can I be really biased and say London.
[00:07:31] Yeah I mean nothing. We're recording in London but no go ahead.
[00:07:35] I mean obviously I've had a lot more exposure to London than other cities. So this could be completely bias but I just think London has come so far in the last two years it's incredible we're so lucky to live in a city with a wealth of options. I mean like I was saying before it's not just vegan restaurants it's you can walk into a burger joint and you can get a vegan burger now that taste like me and looks like me and it's just nuts like there's new vegan restaurants opening every week and it's just it's crazy there's vegan festivals as vegan nights. It's just an amazing place to be vegan. It really is.
[00:08:11] No no I don't agree with you I mean so most of my life I've lived in like big cities. So those are the places that you see like you know connect the Tanni for you to find such food options. Sure. So I definitely understand that it's much harder for people who maybe don't live in such cities to find those options. No. Absolutely. Have any tips over like something that they can probably make easily at home.
[00:08:30] So my friends what you're into because there's a lot of people who like the meat free substitutes but there's also a lot of people who prefer the natural route. I my go to meal when I'm either feeling lazy or tired and just not something really easy. Is Curry like I absolutely love curry.
[00:08:48] You can do Thai curries with coconut milk. Well you can do Indian curry like tomato based Indian curries. It's just so quick and easy. I mean obviously you make them pay so if you want so they can taste incredible at the spices you can use is just you know you can make it the way you want it.
[00:09:03] So there it is very revolutionary. So convince me give me three reasons why travelers are beginners easier than people think.
[00:09:11] That's tough. OK so one as we were discussing for there are apps like Happy Cow now where they've done the legwork for you. You don't have to even do any research if you don't want you can turn up in a country and and you know what is available for you. I think to the increase or the you know expansion of the vegan movement has meant that more and more restaurants are onboard with this now. It's not as difficult to go to a city now and find an option as it used to be. And three I think there's a lot of there's a lot of people online all social media influencers and bloggers who are highlighting these places for you.
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[00:09:49] You can go into it on Instagram and you can find and then maybe there's a little German vegan I know got some a grab that handle right now and you can and you can.
[00:10:00] So people are so willing to help especially in the vegan movement I've message people and I've been overseas before and said I need tips I'm going to the city and that more than you know very very happy to give you a list of places that you need to go to. So I just feel like a lot of the hardware that used to be there has been taken away. It's not as hard as it used to be.
[00:10:20] Well thank you. Clever stopping by. Thanks for having me.
[00:10:23] So if people wanted to follow you so they can see are your vehicle recommendations is just at the little London Bingo. That's the one. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
[00:10:33] Thanks so much to Claire Avery for her insights it's big and travel. Listen. We all know travel expenses weren't created equal. If you travel for the brand you ever think of the word wonderful and unique you are going to love the next part of the podcast suitably called Travel board.
Max Homer
[00:10:54] Today we're talking about everything to do in Peru that isn't Machu Picchu with film student and content creator Max Homer. How's it going Max. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. So when did you visit Peru.
[00:11:06] I literally just arrived back from my trip on Monday.
[00:11:09] Oh are you fresh off the boat. Yeah. Most people when they think about Peru think Machu Picchu. Why do you think that is.
[00:11:17] I'm guilty of thinking that it's it's a wonder of the world like it's much a picture. It's unreal to witness and there's so much like history behind it.
[00:11:25] You're going to educate us about the rest approve because Peru is much more than just Machu Picchu. So where should we start to start it off.
[00:11:32] There's a traditional drink called Pisco. It's there national like a drink it's like a brandy type a drink. It's probably best to try it in the city of Lima Lima is the capital of Peru. And it's framed by a coastline and drive it rugged cliff edge which is pretty unreal to see. And it's a very old city with a touch of like modernization Saleem has made up a whole different number of districts and there's a district called Branco which is considered like the bohemian district. It's probably I would say the most gorgeous colorful part of town when you go to slaine. Can't miss it.
[00:12:05]
OK. So pisco sour in Lima. What would you say is your second point to deal with that isn't much appeal to you at a few second guesses about it but it's to try guinea pig guinea pigs you know I have two guinea pigs that's aligner I have one guinea pig now Frodo AQA to give you a Frodo.
[00:12:22] Well this one was named Peter so it actually had a name on that and I said it was Peter and we were like Oh. And how was it. It was actually really nice. Say guinea pigs are considered like a delicacy over there. It was weird having it but it's like a mix between like a chicken and a beef. So it was quite tasty but it wasn't as like tender as chicken but did do it. Like what. Like on a skewer or. Yes it can be gurgled or roasted. And it came out in the shape of a guinea pig.
[00:12:56] Oh no I can't. I don't have to type out on that. I don't eat crustaceans for this exact reason. All right. Is a third thing to do.
[00:13:06] Third thing to do would and is a definite months would be like visit the ancient ruins of the Incas throughout Peru and mostly in Cusco. OK. There's like heaps of different ancient ruins that come from like the Inca period.
[00:13:20] So what's the feeling when you're like when it is like ancient ruins there's parts of it.
[00:13:24] You go to and there's not many people around it's that big.
[00:13:27] Mm hmm.
[00:13:29] So it gives you that moment to I guess imagine what it was like back in those times and what they used it for.
[00:13:38] All right. So what would you say is your fourth tip things to do.
[00:13:43] Visit the Amazon. So Amazon apparently produces 20 percent of the world's oxygen if you have upfront adventure and you think you're pretty adventurous it's definitely must do. It took about where we stayed in the Kentucky special stay.
[00:13:58] It took about an hour of hiking through the mud in the pitch black to get to the hotel.
[00:14:03] And it took about four canoes by Yeah there was hate to life and nature and wildlife around. Like we spent one of the days on the lakes in canoes looking for wildlife. We saw that keeps the monkeys and alligators and giant otters in groups eating fish which was pretty cool to see. All right. So what would be your fifth tip. You're in Peru and there's a lot of culture there. So you probably want to get amongst the culture and see some traditional stuff. So visiting the shed right waving center in Cusco is definitely a thing to do if you're up for culture and whatnot and you'll see a lot of alpacas and llamas along the way. We watched a few very talented locals who were wearing traditional dress waving items from the alpaca and llama.
[00:14:47] You just sit there and watch them do their work and it looks very complicated because they've told us that some of these items which would be like gloves beanies alpaca jumpers alpaca ponchos and and like rugs and towels and stuff like some of these items to take up to three months of waiting just the one item.
[00:15:07] So what would be your number moving back to the capital city of Lima one of the famous landmarks in Lima is the bridge's site. Guys. So the bridge's size in the eighteen hundreds was that was when it was built. It was a place for writers and poets as well as lovers to meet and still today remains as a symbol of love. OK so that's in the District of Franco and legends say that those who can hold their breath the whole way walking across the whole bridge they will see their wishes come true.
[00:15:38] So we were told to walk across the bridge make a Make a wish and not breathe. And apparently it to come true. Is it a long walk or can you like run it. At.
[00:15:47] Night. And it's not long at all. No I guess it's not impossible did it. It's like no no no no it's not it's not risky at. All.
[00:15:56] Awesome. Well then what would be your final thing to do in Peru. That is a much a picture that you're like you have to do when you go. This was my highlight of the trip.
[00:16:06] Is hiking the Rainbow Mountain.
[00:16:08] I actually did not know what a Rainbow Mountain was improved until I looked it up in the earth. So tell us what's the Rainbow Mountain the rainbow now Mountain.
[00:16:16] It's a few hours drive out of Cusco. There's a group of mountains around it and it's literally just like rainbow colored mountains like stripes of different colors. Something I'd never seen before with my own eyes. And it's about 14000 feet in the sky. So about 5200 meters above sea level. So it's quite a high altitude hike. I found it to be the best Hike I've ever done in my whole entire life so far. The moment you reached the top and see the remote mountain for the first time is such an amazing and amazing accomplishment and something you'll definitely remember forever because Tatas did not give it justice at all.
[00:17:00] Yeah. I was actually like looking like so many of the photos and I was just like oh I got to just even be there to see that in person has to be just like a completely different experience for sure.
[00:17:08]
It's completely different. And so much better to say things with your own eyes.
[00:17:12]Well thank you very much Mr. Max for coming onto our episode of travel port and letting us know the things to do in Peru.
Misty Foster, and CEO of Ampaire Kevin Noertker
[00:17:18] That is at Machu Picchu. Thank you for having me. We all want to live more ethically don't we. Sustainability is something we're all thinking about whether it's hard to tread lightly when we travel or new inventions to help protect the world we live in. That's what this part of the podcast happy planet is all about. Today we're talking about electric planes and the future of the aerospace industry. Joining us is Kevin Nick hewer CEO of Empire and Misty Foster founder of the green suitcase travel. How are you guys doing.
[00:17:51] Well how are you. Very well thank you.
[00:17:52] Good good. Thank you for joining us. Today's episode so starting with you Misty. Tell me about green suitcase travel. Where did that inspiration behind the idea come from.
[00:18:02] Yeah. So green suitcase travel started with an idea I wanted to travel more just like many people do. And I grew up in the south where the motto leave a place better than you found it is really instilled in you you know start with your bedroom. But it extends out to the outer world and so once I started traveling I started to see my direct impacts. And you know I started looking online for what information was out there about traveling sustainably and what that even looks like and is that even possible. And as you can imagine Sustainable Travel isn't. It's not inherently sustainable to travel. It's it's just not. But there are ways to do it better. Right.
[00:18:43] So when someone who wants to travel more sustainably comes to you for advice. What sort of things would you recommend.
[00:18:49] Sure. So a GST we help folks travel on purpose by taking a look at your environmental or social and your economic impact when you travel. And for me that really means matching your choices with your values.
[00:19:00] We kind of offer a variety of services such as trip planning we also work with businesses in the sustainable tourism industry to do content marketing services and in my myself and a group of contributors have the blog and we are constantly sharing stories of what that looks like on a practical level.
[00:19:17] Okay cool. So what would you say are some of the common misconceptions people make when they think about sustainable travel.
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[00:19:24] I think a lot of people think it's hard and expensive and it certainly can be any anytime you travel it can add up and if you want to have luxury experiences that can be quite a bit out of pocket. But I actually think it's a lot more affordable to travel sustainably because you're going to be taking public transportation when you're on the ground. You can shop locally at farmer's markets and bodega as in little shops that are you know maybe not charging an arm and a leg for their wares. If you take bikes if you take walking tours there's a lot of free walking towards museums.
[00:19:59] It also sounds like you could get more of an authentic experience anyways.
[00:20:01] Absolutely. And then in the accommodation side if you don't want to spend a lot of money on a hotel there are plenty of really really fun authentic homestay programs no matter which way you cut it though like if you're traveling something far where you have to fly there and we know flying on an airplane.
[00:20:18] That in itself is not good for the environment. And that has a big effect on the world in general. What are your thoughts about traveling and flying more sustainably right.
[00:20:28] So as it stands your options are to carbon offset which is a great way to do that but it's not easy for people to pass through the information and to really understand where their offsets are going if your money is actually going towards the project they say it's going to you know my biggest recommendation is take a direct flight try try slow travel once you get to your destination don't hop around as much as you can. Spend a few weeks in a destination and not really cuts back on emissions but.
[00:21:01] Obviously these are these are only short term solutions in the aviation industry as a whole really needs to be revolutionized and there needs to be better alternatives. So my biggest my biggest recommendation is take a direct flight. Try not to take multiple flights when you're at your destination tray. Ground transportation if you can.
[00:21:21] Yes speaking about like changes in the aviation industry. Kevin tell us a little bit more about empire and what's its vision for the future of aviation means for empire.
[00:21:30] Thanks David. So empire or mission is to be the world's most trusted developer of practical compelling electric aircraft. So as Misty described here there are some issues with with air travel and the impact that it has on our environment.
[00:21:49] And we're focused on taking all of the great technology which has been electrifying the ground transportation and applying it into vehicles that fly. And the plan here is to take existing airplanes and to convert them to electric by pulling out the combustion engine and putting in a fully electric drive train.
[00:22:11]
And so with this we can decrease the impact on the environment and decrease the operating cost of those planes.
[00:22:21] That's great. What did the scene. This makes me think of is. So I've always thought that we should have had electric cars a while ago. I feel that technology was a you. I was there. But perhaps you know the oil industry had some hand in dealing its predictions. We don't know. Maybe they tried to shut it down. Do you think electric planes will face any resistance like that.
[00:22:38] I think that we're not likely to see that kind of pressure against electrification. The reality is especially with electric aircraft the economics of switching over to electric are very beneficial for the for the operators. And so the pressure to switch will actually be coming from the customer base. It's unlikely that we'll have to re convince people.
[00:23:02] And what about safety. How safe are these electric planes versus traditional flying.
[00:23:06] Yes. So we we fundamentally fit into the same regulatory framework as existing airplanes but we actually think that the electric vehicle components are going to be more reliable and less prone to user error than the combustion engine. So it's we do think that there is a chance for increased safety but certainly meeting the same levels of safety for our first plane. What we're actually doing is converting a twin engine plane where one of the engines is going to stay combustion and the other is going to go fully electric.
[00:23:38] So it's like a hybrid. Correct. Yeah. OK. So how far are we away from having these electric planes.
[00:23:44] Well the first the first electric planes in the world are actually already out there. You can yeah you could go by a little two seater electric airplane and fly it around locally.
[00:23:54] OK. Two seater. OK. I'm Allianz like there's like a full on electric plane. I fucking love me.
[00:23:58] And so at AMP air we'll be flying are a converted 6 seater coming up soon this year in order to fly commercially though or actually to buy a ticket on an airplane.
[00:24:10] You're looking at about 2021 timeframe after the regulators have approved the first commercially available planes.
[00:24:18] Okay so that's not even that far away.
[00:24:19] No that's to say that's a lot sooner than I had previously read.
[00:24:23] Right. I was not ready for that 20 21 so would more electric planes would that mean lower travel costs for consumers.
[00:24:30] It could lead to lower ticket prices. Certainly it'll cost the airlines less to fly those routes. So ticket prices may go down and certainly what we'll see though is an increased accessibility to places that flights aren't currently flown because of poor economics.
[00:24:48] That's awesome. So you're saying that there would be less of a premium on flights to smaller locations. Do you think these places could see a rise in tourism then.
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[00:24:57] Correct. It can be. So to restate that these smaller airports which are not currently served by commercial routes either commercial for passengers that's tourism and business or logistics like package delivery those routes that aren't served or communities that don't have flights. We'll see new flights serving those communities at reasonable prices.
[00:25:20] So I think that's fantastic I mean a lot of people talk about over tourism and industry and how there's these destinations that are sort of being overrun by mass tourism but there's also an issue of under tourism. Like you said underdeveloped communities who would really benefit from bolstering the economy. So I think this is a fantastic long term solution for that as well.
[00:25:42] Yeah it's it's a really benefit. I had even thought about that. But let's talk about one of the more obvious benefits the environmental impact you know as we said traditional flying has a huge effect on the environment.
[00:25:54] Kevin how much CO2 is the commercial airline industry responsible for generating per year so commercial aviation is responsible for injecting about 800 million tons of CO2 directly into our atmosphere every year.
[00:26:07] So in terms of switching then to your electric planes how much with your electric planes kind of counteract that.
[00:26:15] Well when you're flying a fully electric plane you're completely eliminating the direct emissions. Now you have to look at what where the energy is coming from. We see a lot of locations especially early adoption locations switching to completely clean grids which can give a zero operational emissions for electric aircraft.
[00:26:36] That's amazing. That would actually make a huge difference. So are there any other benefits you think electric planes have over a traditional slaine. Absolutely.
[00:26:45] It's one of the other major benefits that we see with electrification is the decreased noise burden on communities. So currently cities which have community airports the people in those cities are up in arms about the noise and pollution oftentimes shutting down the airports. So the quieter electric aircraft will enable communities to find these airports as assets to the communities rather than burdens.
[00:27:12] That's also though. So should we as a planet then really be focusing our efforts on electric planes.
[00:27:19] Absolutely not. I think that there are many many important industries that need to be focused on even within aviation.
[00:27:29] I think there are multiple solutions that need attention. For example for long haul transportation. These are the flights let's say trans atlantic. You're going to need to be looking into other alternatives like biofuels or hybrid electric vehicles or replacing the auxiliary power units on large planes. So there's a whole portfolio of solutions that need to be pursued electrification is a very compelling one that I personally believe in. It's it's one of the solutions that will help us alleviate these big problems.
[00:28:02] So it's a step in the right direction but not necessarily the solution to everything correct.
[00:28:07] All right guys. Thank you Kevin. Thank you mr. You guys are amazing here. Thanks so much to our guests Kevin Neuer and Misty Foster for talking to me about electric planes and the future of air travel. That's it from today's episode about an office powered by Kentucky. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. I'm going to be delving into the issue of men's mental health with model Mina Gerges and rugby player Stevie Ward and asking if travel can improve your mental health. I'll also be getting tips on what to see and do in Europe and how to take that perfect picture while traveling. See you then.
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