TWiT+ Club Shows 750 Transcript - Jet Set With Johnny Jet #4

Please be advised that this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word-for-word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-free version of the show.
 

Leo Laporte [00:00:00]:
This is Twit. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, it's time for Jet Set with Johnny Jet.

Johnny Jet [00:00:16]:
Hello.

Leo Laporte [00:00:18]:
Hello, Johnny. I feel like this makes me look like underneath this, I probably am bald, so I'm gonna just show them I'm not.

Johnny Jet [00:00:27]:
Well, underneath this I am bald, so, good Lord, I will keep it on.

Leo Laporte [00:00:34]:
I thought you were putting it on to hide your messy hair.

Johnny Jet [00:00:37]:
No, guys, I went to the Lose your hair.

Leo Laporte [00:00:39]:
I feel like you had hair. Maybe that was my mistake.

Johnny Jet [00:00:42]:
I had longer hair and I was kind of doing like a comb over. Like a, you know, not as bad as Trump, but, you know, I was doing a comb over. And then I went to the barber and I told him I was going to Italy. And he's like, oh, I give you a perfect haircut for Italy. He goes, you don't even need a comb. I go, no kidding. I don't need a comb now. So now I got wear my cap.

Leo Laporte [00:01:06]:
You know, the comb over fools no one I know.

Johnny Jet [00:01:09]:
So

Leo Laporte [00:01:11]:
I'm sorry, I'm still eating lunch.

Johnny Jet [00:01:13]:
I have an 8 head, not a forehead.

Leo Laporte [00:01:15]:
You look great, John. You're a handsome fella.

Johnny Jet [00:01:19]:
You know, that's what my wife tells me.

Leo Laporte [00:01:20]:
I'm sure Natalie thinks you're just the best. The bee's knees.

Johnny Jet [00:01:25]:
I almost look like a conehead from this.

Leo Laporte [00:01:26]:
Jeff Jarvis yesterday said, is that his real name? Johnny Jett? I said, no, it's Johnny Jet Ski.

Johnny Jet [00:01:34]:
That's right. I'm Polish.

Leo Laporte [00:01:39]:
Johnny Jett joins us every other month to talk about traveling. This month, I want you to tell me all the countries I could move to and enjoy a frugal but fruitful experience on a limited income.

Johnny Jet [00:01:58]:
That's your question, or someone else asks you that?

Leo Laporte [00:02:00]:
That's my question.

Johnny Jet [00:02:01]:
Oh, I have friends who live all around the world. I mean, you could live.

Leo Laporte [00:02:04]:
Yeah. You know, Mike Elgin is, like, never home because he's nomadic. A lot of people are nomadic. I don't know why this came up, but in my mind it came up that maybe, you know, I don't know, I see, I like, I like California. I love California. I know you do too, definitely. But it's the most expensive place in the world.

Johnny Jet [00:02:30]:
It is expensive. You know how much my haircut costs? How much an Italian barber, like a hole in the wall. It was $40 without tip.

Leo Laporte [00:02:40]:
Mine's 55 with that tip.

Johnny Jet [00:02:43]:
I mean, I, I, I was gonna wait till I get to Italy. It's €15. Although when they see me coming, they turn the sign around.

Leo Laporte [00:02:50]:
It's Americano. Come on in Bienvenito.

Johnny Jet [00:02:55]:
And outside where my mother in law lives, I take my, I get a haircut there too, in Canada. And it's, it's 15 Canadian, which is like 11.

Leo Laporte [00:03:05]:
You know what my attitude is? A bad haircut lasts a lifetime. So I, you know, I go to a little. It is, it's a hole in the wall barbershop. And I've been going to Angie for quite some time and she knows how to do my hair. It's not a, it's not. I don't like. I used to go to a beauty salon where the ladies go and it was too loud. All the women are talking, talking, talking.

Leo Laporte [00:03:34]:
And it took an hour because, you know, the hairdresser gets these little tiny shears and goes, definitely. And Angie gets the clippers and goes. And it's half an hour and I'm out of there. And it's a, it's a salubrious place. They offer alcohol, which is probably illegal, but you can get a, get a nice drink. There's. She has snacks, she plays country music. That's great.

Johnny Jet [00:04:08]:
That's awesome.

Leo Laporte [00:04:09]:
So I don't know. It's worth it to me.

Johnny Jet [00:04:11]:
I mean, listen, I guess I shouldn't be complaining. 40 bucks. As I. When I had the show on the Travel Channel that, you know, I did a one off, you know, the producers paid for me to get a haircut in Beverly Hills.

Leo Laporte [00:04:22]:
250 bucks exactly.

Johnny Jet [00:04:24]:
And I mean, you know this place, you know, the celebs are in there and you know, I'm like.

Leo Laporte [00:04:29]:
And it's. Some guys go, let me think what I can do. Well, you, your head is around, but your nose is a square. So I'm going to give you a box cut. And it's like, okay. And it looks, by the way, I think this is a pretty good haircut. I mean, right?

Johnny Jet [00:04:45]:
It's fine with that head of hair.

Leo Laporte [00:04:48]:
I mean, I get my haircut every three weeks, so it doesn't look like I have a haircut, right. I don't want to go from long to short, long to short, long. I want it. So every three weeks I go in, Angie says same thing, I say same thing. And then she's gotten fancy, right? Because it was just a barbershop. She's got a beautiful barber chair and everything. She's got fancy, you know, she used to be the most. They would go, she'd say, you want cologne? I say, no, I don't want that cheap cologne.

Leo Laporte [00:05:15]:
No cologne. Always. She always asks me, I always say, no cologne. But she still asks. But now she takes a washcloth, hot washcloth, and puts it on your head. And she's got one of those things barbers have, the vibrating things. And it's like, yeah, thank you. You're giving me a nice hair.

Leo Laporte [00:05:39]:
But that's her way of being fancy.

Johnny Jet [00:05:43]:
It's one of my favorite things to do when I travel, by the way, is get a haircut in another country.

Leo Laporte [00:05:48]:
That's a great idea. Where's the best haircut? Italian. Italy.

Johnny Jet [00:05:52]:
I mean, my. My grandfather came over as an Italian barber.

Leo Laporte [00:05:56]:
Oh, no kidding? So that's kind of cool.

Johnny Jet [00:05:59]:
He came over with $18 in his pocket and one of his first job. His first job was a garbage man. Then he became a barber and then a real estate mogul, basically.

Leo Laporte [00:06:07]:
In Sweeney Todd, the wonderful Broadway play by Stephen Sondheim, there is a barber off. Sweeney Todd, of course, is the demon barber of Fleet street because. And they put you down the chute and they make meat pies out of it. Mrs. Lovett makes you into a meat pie. But they have a barber off because there's an Italian barber. I wish I could play this song. I'd probably get taken down if I do, but it's.

Leo Laporte [00:06:31]:
It's a wonderful song. I shave it a face I shave it a head it's really great. So I think Italians are famous for barbers. Well, definitely the barber of Seville. We're gonna go see that in next month in San Francisco. San Francisco Opera. Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figo. Seville's in Spain, though, isn't it? So I guess that's not Italian.

Johnny Jet [00:06:50]:
Speaking of Italian songs, you ever hear the Italian. The Christmas donkey song? Dominic the donkey? It's hilarious. You do that Christmas time.

Leo Laporte [00:07:00]:
Is that an Italian tradition? Is Italy your favorite country because you are Italian?

Johnny Jet [00:07:04]:
I am half Italian. I'm also part Danish and a little bit German and French.

Leo Laporte [00:07:09]:
The German and Polish because of Jet Ski.

Johnny Jet [00:07:12]:
Exactly.

Leo Laporte [00:07:15]:
Is it my favorite, actually, Your real name is Italian.

Johnny Jet [00:07:18]:
It is Italian, yeah. Very tie in. But no, you know, no one remembers that. And plus, you know, everyone remembers Jet,

Leo Laporte [00:07:25]:
so Johnny Jet's great.

Johnny Jet [00:07:26]:
My nickname growing up was Johnny Jet Ski because I grew up Jet skiing on Long Island. Sound.

Leo Laporte [00:07:30]:
Right.

Johnny Jet [00:07:31]:
And then when I started the travel website, they're like, you need to come up with a name. I'm like, I don't know. Johnny Jett. I'm not Polish, so.

Leo Laporte [00:07:38]:
And look, did you see the. My, my. I have your name on my. Look at that.

Johnny Jet [00:07:44]:
Oh, awesome. I love that.

Leo Laporte [00:07:46]:
Isn't that great?

Johnny Jet [00:07:47]:
Good job. That is Great. And by the way, before we get started, you got to tell me where you went. You just came back from a big trip, right?

Leo Laporte [00:07:54]:
We were in Hawaii, the big island. Okay. Yeah, the big island for 11 days was wonderful. I actually did shows from there, which really kind of takes the V out of vacation. It's just an ache. But that was only. What. I did four shows in 11 days.

Leo Laporte [00:08:11]:
So I gave me a week of time off. It was great. Went to a coffee plantation because we were on Kona. And Kona's famous for its coffee. It's amazing coffee that made me into the coffee snob. I now do pour overs. And we went to. We didn't go see the volcano.

Leo Laporte [00:08:28]:
It erupted the day before we were gonna go. And then the thing about the big island. Have you been to Hawaii? The big island?

Johnny Jet [00:08:35]:
Many times.

Leo Laporte [00:08:36]:
Covered with lava. Right. The whole thing is black.

Johnny Jet [00:08:39]:
Not a lot of nice beaches.

Leo Laporte [00:08:41]:
No, but when the. The beaches that are nice are really nice.

Johnny Jet [00:08:44]:
Right.

Leo Laporte [00:08:45]:
But they aren't everywhere. There's a lot of lava rock. Maui's the same way, you know, you. You have to go somewhere where there's sand because there are coral sand beaches.

Johnny Jet [00:08:54]:
Right.

Leo Laporte [00:08:54]:
Actually, the condo we stayed in, we didn't stay in a resort. We stayed in a condo, which is kind of resortee. They had a pool and hot tub and maid service and stuff. But we had a kitchen so we could eat breakfast. And then they had associated with it a beach club which had a small but beautiful, really nice beach with great snorkeling. Was. You know, they have like a really nice coral reefs on the big island and beautiful fish. So we'd snorkel.

Leo Laporte [00:09:23]:
And they had a really good restaurant right there on the beach. So that was kind of resort. That felt pretty good. I recommend the condos. I think they were. They were great. It was the Mauna Lani condos. Manilani Point.

Leo Laporte [00:09:35]:
Right. So that was a nice. I think, was a nice trip. Now the next trip we're going on is a biggie, is Asia.

Johnny Jet [00:09:43]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:09:44]:
This is a cruise on Viking. Yeah, it's on Viking. And the story of that one, I think I told this before, is that we booked this in Covid. This was going to be the Mississippi river cruise, which they had just announced. Right. They built a boat for it and everything. And I booked it. Lisa and I booked it.

Leo Laporte [00:10:03]:
Had to cancel because of COVID Put it off. It was. Ended up being four or five years and we had to cancel. We were going to go last fall. Had to cancel because our house was in construction at Least they said, we can't leave these people alone with our house. So we had to cancel. But fortunately, we pay for travel insurance, which you and my wonderful travel agent Jane always said, get the travel insurance. This is the first time we've ever used it.

Leo Laporte [00:10:29]:
So we got the vouchers, and we thought, you know what? Let's forget the Mississippi. We tried.

Johnny Jet [00:10:37]:
You made the right choice.

Leo Laporte [00:10:38]:
I think there's some negatives to it, definitely. I'd read a lot of reviews, among other things, because it's a very shallow river. The riverboat they make, built for it, has a very weird propulsion system, which is like egg beaters, but they're flexible under the boat, and apparently there's quite a bit of noise and vibration. The good news is it's only at night while you're sleeping. And we had booked a cabin on the back of the boat. In fact, it was so bad, when they first built the boat, they extended the boat because it was so all night long, like an egg beater underneath you. So that was strike one. Strike two was, it turns out there's nothing to see on the Mississippi because it's.

Leo Laporte [00:11:22]:
It floods, so there's berms all the way. So while there's some great stops, I mean, I was really looking forward to Memphis. Oh, man, I was so excited. I was going to go to the Sun Studios and barbecue and. And we were going to, you know, Civil War. We were going to go to Vicksburg and see the Civil War Memorial. We were going to go see plantations. I had told my mom, who's a little, you know, senile.

Leo Laporte [00:11:49]:
I said. I told her about this whole trip, and I said, yeah, one of the things we really want to do is they've preserved at one of these plantations the slave quarters, and they have a whole lot of unexpurgated truth about what that was like. And I really want to, you know, experience that and learn about that. So for some reason, she got in her head. She said, when are you taking me to the slave quarters? I said, I'm not going to take you to the slave quarters. She said, no, I really want to go. Anyway, she got. She still thinks I'm going to take her to the slave quarters.

Leo Laporte [00:12:18]:
Anyway, that's another story. So, anyway, I thought, all right, I. You know what? As much as I want to see America, I haven't been to much of Asia. I haven't yet been to Vietnam. I haven't been to Thailand. I haven't been to Cambodia. I haven't been to the. To Bali, to Indonesia.

Leo Laporte [00:12:36]:
To Malaysia. I've been to Singapore 20 years ago. For a couple of days I thought this would be a nice trip. So that's what we're going to do. Instead we're going to fly to Bangkok and as I thought, as long as we're near there, we should really go to Cambodia and Siem Reap and go to Angkor Wat, the amazing Buddhist Hindu temple. What is it? I can't remember. I think it started Buddhist and it became, I don't know. Anyway, the temple complex there.

Leo Laporte [00:13:02]:
One of the biggest in the world and a must see. So we're going to do that. First they go back to Bangkok. You have to fly to see him reap.

Johnny Jet [00:13:11]:
Seoul, it's 44. 44 minutes.

Leo Laporte [00:13:13]:
I've done it. Yeah, it's a puddle. Puddle jumper.

Johnny Jet [00:13:15]:
A jet. You doing jet?

Leo Laporte [00:13:19]:
We're flying there via eva.

Johnny Jet [00:13:21]:
EVA to see him reap?

Leo Laporte [00:13:23]:
No, to Bangkok. I have no idea.

Johnny Jet [00:13:25]:
I was gonna say because you're not going through. No, you're gonna fly jet Asia or something.

Leo Laporte [00:13:29]:
I'd even look that up. The Vikings handling that. We're doing a Viking. Lisa said, I don't want to do a. Do it on our own because what if we miss the boat? And she said if we do with Viking, you're not going to miss the boat. Because if, you know, 20 of their people are late, they're going to wait

Johnny Jet [00:13:44]:
or they'll pay your way to get there or.

Leo Laporte [00:13:46]:
Well, I don't. They'll pay anyway. The next stop we get back, I think the. The boat doesn't sail to the next day we get back, we get on the boat, we spend the night in Bangkok and then it sails the next day. So I don't think we'll miss that.

Johnny Jet [00:13:57]:
You won't.

Leo Laporte [00:13:58]:
And then the boat goes down through the Malacca Strait all the way to Bali and we're going to see, among other things, the old Siamese capital. We're going to see Boro Budur. We're going to see. I told my. You want to know what I did? This is crazy.

Johnny Jet [00:14:22]:
By the way, while you're telling me that, my microphone keeps saying. I keep getting a notice.

Leo Laporte [00:14:26]:
Scarlet, you're fine.

Johnny Jet [00:14:27]:
Okay? It keeps getting reading.

Leo Laporte [00:14:30]:
I'm talking, you're just listening.

Johnny Jet [00:14:32]:
Okay, good. I like that.

Leo Laporte [00:14:34]:
And I don't know why I shouldn't be because this is the Johnny Jet Show. But let me show you what I did. This is an AI story. We were in Hawaii and the booking was noon of the day we fly out. We had a plane at 12:10 at noon, it turned out was 9am Hawaii time. So I knew we were going to get in the car and drive to the airport. I had to book these excursions. And I don't know if you've ever been on a cruise, but if you don't book the excursions on day one, you may not get what you want.

Leo Laporte [00:15:06]:
Right? Uh oh, Johnny's frozen in a very funny way. Oh, I would like to go to Chiang Mai. We're not going to Chiang Mai. And I really want to go to Vietnam. See if we can get Johnny back. His Internet died. Well, while we're doing that, I'll show you. This is an interesting use of AI So I gave AI the whole possible, you know, all the possible shore excursions.

Leo Laporte [00:15:37]:
And I said, here's what I'm looking for and this is important with AI to steer it. I said I want history, culture, education. I don't want the touristic stuff. So tell me, because I, I only. It's going to be. I gotta, I gotta get in there and book that. I got 10 minutes to book it. So what it did, which is really smart, I think.

Leo Laporte [00:15:59]:
Not only did it tell me what to pick, but it said if time is tight, do this first. This is the one you want the most, which is the Borobudur temple, which is in Semarang, Indonesia. Then if you get that, go to Ayutthaya, which is in Bangkok. Then if you get that. So it did it in order of booking of importance and it's all cultural stuff. So this was really helpful. It also said we're going to give you some time to rest. If you book anything on this day, make it a beach thing.

Leo Laporte [00:16:33]:
Rest, rest. Because those are sea days, you don't have a choice. It was really thoughtful about it. It even has tactics. And then it did a whole briefing on all the stuff. And then what I've also done with the AI is put together an itinerary. Once I booked these, they have a whole itinerary and recommendations and, you know, stuff. So this is an example of, I think what you can really do with AI I don't know is.

Leo Laporte [00:17:05]:
Johnny, have we lost? Johnny, can you hear me?

Johnny Jet [00:17:07]:
I'm here.

Leo Laporte [00:17:08]:
Yes, I can hear you. Johnny, turn on your camera.

Johnny Jet [00:17:12]:
It's on. Thank goodness.

Leo Laporte [00:17:15]:
You missed the whole boring thing where Leo. You missed the whole Leo. Boring.

Johnny Jet [00:17:20]:
No, I heard the whole thing. Oh, I heard the whole. Sorry. I heard the whole thing and I

Leo Laporte [00:17:24]:
apologize to all of.

Johnny Jet [00:17:25]:
That was amazing what the AI did.

Leo Laporte [00:17:27]:
Well, it's cool. I mean, you know, I'M I am probably foolishly trusting AI with far more stuff than I should, but that helped me a lot because I knew that I didn't have a lot of time, and I have in the past, you know, missed excursions. Anyway, that's going to be my next trip, and it's a very expensive trip because. But it was something we paid for in 2021, and it's pro. I have to say, Johnny, I'm not going to take a fancy trip like this again. I think the next time, from now on, we'll get an Airbnb and we'll stay somewhere for a couple of weeks, just like we did in Hawaii. It's a lot cheaper.

Johnny Jet [00:18:04]:
Well, that's one way. All those places that you mentioned that you're going to in Asia, that's where you can live for cheap, by the way.

Leo Laporte [00:18:10]:
I know.

Johnny Jet [00:18:11]:
You know, in the beginning, in fact,

Leo Laporte [00:18:13]:
I. I just watched a video that said five places you, as an American can go without a. You know, and stay and live forever. And number. The number four place. Number one was Belize, where they speak English and you don't need a visa and you can just go. Number two was Cambodia, which I kind of surprised me. So we are visiting Siem Reap.

Leo Laporte [00:18:37]:
We're going to Cambodia. So I'll.

Johnny Jet [00:18:40]:
I enjoyed my time there.

Leo Laporte [00:18:43]:
We went to a Thai restaurant. Yeah, well, I've been to Belize. We did a zip line in Belize. I took my mom to Belize. My mom and my son went to Belize with me on a. On a trip, and I enjoyed it. Yeah, I'm not sure I want to live there. I don't know.

Leo Laporte [00:18:59]:
I always thought Costa Rica would be kind of nice if you wanted to do Central America.

Johnny Jet [00:19:04]:
Americans. Are there so many Americans there?

Leo Laporte [00:19:07]:
That's the problem with being an expat. You end up with a bunch of Americans.

Johnny Jet [00:19:12]:
Right.

Leo Laporte [00:19:13]:
Italy really would be my dream. I would. Italy or France would be my dream. But, you know, I don't know, it's funny, my sister McPhee. Who? John McPhee.

Johnny Jet [00:19:24]:
You know, the. The security guy. Wasn't he living in Costa Rica?

Leo Laporte [00:19:28]:
Where was it McAfee ended up in a plantation somewhere, I think, where he

Johnny Jet [00:19:34]:
was making baths in Costa Rica, I think.

Leo Laporte [00:19:36]:
Got in trouble because he shot his neighbor's dog.

Johnny Jet [00:19:40]:
Right? Like three dogs or something.

Leo Laporte [00:19:42]:
Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I can't remember.

Johnny Jet [00:19:47]:
I got, like, a country.

Leo Laporte [00:19:48]:
The late John McAfee. He's. He's gone now.

Johnny Jet [00:19:52]:
Right.

Leo Laporte [00:19:53]:
So what was I gonna ask you about?

Johnny Jet [00:19:57]:
You were talking about the AI, but one website, by the way. That's cool to use. I still like Google flights. But you use Mind Trip. Have you tried that?

Leo Laporte [00:20:05]:
No. What is that?

Johnny Jet [00:20:07]:
So. So go to mindtrip and you can put in exactly what you.

Leo Laporte [00:20:11]:
What you want. AI Travel personalized to you. Oh, that's interesting.

Johnny Jet [00:20:15]:
Yeah. And they give you great results. So you can say, hey, I'm going to Asia. I want to see these sites or these countries, you know, around this time. I don't want it to be too hot. Or whatever you're. Whatever you're looking for. And you can put in your freaking flyer programs.

Johnny Jet [00:20:31]:
They have elite status on that's cool American. So one world. And it will personalize it for. So that's. That's a, that's a cool site to check out. So it's mine. Minetrip AI.

Leo Laporte [00:20:47]:
And you can share it.

Johnny Jet [00:20:49]:
Definitely. And it definitely. Let me go into it right now.

Leo Laporte [00:20:53]:
Oh, and they have an app, so.

Johnny Jet [00:20:54]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:20:55]:
So you could run this on your

Johnny Jet [00:20:56]:
phone if you wanted to. For sure. I do most of my planning on my lap and we're going to Europe for a month.

Leo Laporte [00:21:05]:
Oh, man.

Johnny Jet [00:21:06]:
I've been doing a lot of planning.

Leo Laporte [00:21:08]:
Oh, that's what I. Oops. That's, that's. This is, this is my, my agent. I don't like the idea of at some point not using a third party service, but having an AI that knows everything about me.

Johnny Jet [00:21:24]:
But you also want to book directly with the airline, you know.

Leo Laporte [00:21:27]:
Yeah, I would never. I don't. I've learned from using booking.com and others that you can't guarantee even. Especially at accommodations. You get there and they go. You booked it through who? Expedia?

Johnny Jet [00:21:39]:
No. And then if it's a problem, you got to go through them and the other person says, no, go through the other. And it's just a big runner. It's always still direct. Unless.

Leo Laporte [00:21:47]:
I still love my travel agent. I know that's kind of old school.

Johnny Jet [00:21:50]:
Not at all. Are you kidding me? Travel agents are up. They're back.

Leo Laporte [00:21:54]:
Are they?

Johnny Jet [00:21:55]:
Yes, they're back. They're not called travel agents anymore. They're called advisors. And most of them are for luxury trips. So. Not. They're not.

Leo Laporte [00:22:03]:
Yeah. You don't. They don't make anything on a hotel or a flight. Yeah, it's for.

Johnny Jet [00:22:08]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:22:09]:
Packages.

Johnny Jet [00:22:09]:
They make money on hotels.

Leo Laporte [00:22:11]:
Oh, they do.

Johnny Jet [00:22:12]:
But they'll book a hotel for you. They won't book a flight for you, or if you do, they might charge you because they do not make any money on that. But hotels. Most hotels will give you a percentage. Like 10 or 15, whatever it is. So that's all. That's the reason why all the hotels want you to book directly.

Leo Laporte [00:22:30]:
Right.

Johnny Jet [00:22:30]:
With them instead of going well.

Leo Laporte [00:22:31]:
And you get the expertise. If you have a good travel agent. My travel agent, Jane, has been everywhere like you.

Johnny Jet [00:22:39]:
That's the thing. That's why a lot of these. Yeah. Companies will fly these travel agents out, pay for them, so they can experience their hotel, what's around them.

Leo Laporte [00:22:50]:
Exactly.

Johnny Jet [00:22:51]:
So they can sell it.

Leo Laporte [00:22:52]:
Exactly.

Johnny Jet [00:22:52]:
And they have pull, these guys. Plus.

Leo Laporte [00:22:55]:
So they have pulled. She has relationships with all of the cruise lines, for instance. So when I said, I. I don't know, there's something going on with Viking. And I. I call her and she says, oh, yeah, let me talk to my person at Viking. And so that's really a huge advantage.

Johnny Jet [00:23:14]:
Definitely. And they can usually get upgraded.

Leo Laporte [00:23:15]:
They.

Johnny Jet [00:23:16]:
They deal with if there's ever a problem. If there's a volcano in ice, you don't have to sit on the phone for 12 hours.

Leo Laporte [00:23:22]:
I'll tell you a problem that we did then. It's all my fault.

Johnny Jet [00:23:26]:
Okay.

Leo Laporte [00:23:27]:
We took a lovely cruise, which I'm glad we did when we did it from Athens to Dubai, and we saw Israel, we saw Jordan, we saw Egypt, we saw the pyramids. You can't do it anymore. I mean, you wouldn't want to do it anyway, at least right now. So I was really glad. We saw the Middle East. We floated in the Dead Sea. We saw the Valley of the Kings. We saw.

Leo Laporte [00:23:49]:
We sailed through the Suez Canal, which is a bucket list. We had the guys get on because there were pirates, Somali pirates. And we had the guards get on with the machine guns standing on the decks so that we wouldn't get boarded. They said, don't worry. They don't usually board cruise ships, but if they do go immediately to your cabin and don't leave,

Johnny Jet [00:24:08]:
they make you shut the curtains and turn the lights out when you're going through there. Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:24:11]:
Well, no, they said, if anything happens, we will tell you. If we get a. If a pirate approaches us, you must immediately go to your cabin. Yeah. Cause they don't, you know. Anyway, nothing bad happened, but we sailed around to Dubai. We got to Dubai. We had a wonderful hotel.

Leo Laporte [00:24:26]:
Jane gave us a. Booked us a beautiful hotel in Dubai. I think it was the Mandarin. It was really incredible, and it was expensive. But what I didn't know is she had booked us an extra day so that we wouldn't have to check out early for our flight that evening. But I was looking at the Itinerary. And I thought we didn't leave to the next day. So we go to the airport.

Leo Laporte [00:24:47]:
We stay in the hotel that night, we were supposed to go to the airport for that dinner time, but we didn't. We had a lovely dinner. Beautiful, amazing dinner on the roof. It was incredible. Lovely evening. Go to the airport the next day. And they said, oh. They go, mm.

Leo Laporte [00:25:05]:
Huh. And then he goes back and comes back and says, your flight was yesterday.

Johnny Jet [00:25:10]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:25:13]:
What? Your flight was yesterday. Oh. Oh, I mean, my heart. And it's my fault because I'm keeping the itinerary. It's my fault. So we got all our luggage. We regroup, and I call Jane. Now, Jane isn't there, but she's an affiliate of Travel Store, which is a big, I guess, affiliation agency.

Leo Laporte [00:25:38]:
So we didn't get her, but we got the travel. Her Travel Store backup. And I explained this thing, and she said, all right, let me see what I could do. And she got us out.

Johnny Jet [00:25:49]:
Did you have to pay? They probably made you pay.

Leo Laporte [00:25:52]:
I had to pay, but at least we got a flight, a comparable flight. Then I didn't have to leave the airport, go back to the hotel. We were. And it wasn't easy. And so that is one of the reasons you have an agent, because she backs it up, right. She takes care of you. Yes. It wasn't free.

Johnny Jet [00:26:11]:
Sometimes they'll let. Depending on what the reason was, they might let you slide.

Leo Laporte [00:26:14]:
Oh, it was my fault. It was.

Johnny Jet [00:26:16]:
Yeah. I mean, there's.

Leo Laporte [00:26:17]:
I mean, it was a. It was a dumb thing.

Johnny Jet [00:26:19]:
Military time used to mess me up. And, you know, every time I look

Leo Laporte [00:26:23]:
at the pictures of Lisa and me enjoying a wonderful dinner, a sunset dinner on the roof of this hotel, I go, that was a $14,000 dinner.

Johnny Jet [00:26:33]:
Oh, my gosh. Are you. You mean to question that much? That's crazy.

Leo Laporte [00:26:39]:
Well, they were business class and anyway.

Johnny Jet [00:26:43]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:26:44]:
Because it wasn't. You know, anyway, it was. But that's life. At least we got home. And I'm never going back to Dubai. I'm never. I'll probably never get to. You know, we loved Petra in Jordan.

Leo Laporte [00:26:59]:
I don't know if we'll ever see that again. I certainly not sail in the Suez Canal anytime soon.

Johnny Jet [00:27:02]:
No, it's gonna bounce back. It's just gonna take some time. Yeah. No, are you kidding me? Next year it should be fine.

Leo Laporte [00:27:11]:
Really. All right.

Johnny Jet [00:27:11]:
Yeah. I just. I did see. I think Lufthansa or KLM today announced that they. They stopped flights to Israel till December. So that tells you something.

Leo Laporte [00:27:26]:
I Mean, it's, you know, it's mostly safe, right.

Johnny Jet [00:27:30]:
I have friends that are living in Saudi right now and they're like, you know, it's not a problem, but tourism is dead.

Leo Laporte [00:27:37]:
Yeah, well, I'm really glad we went to the Holy Land. We did a. It was a cruise, but they had. And sometimes the cruises do this. They said, but if you want, we have a three day land tour. You just leave the boat, you'll meet the boat, you know, the next port. And so we did that because we were in Israel and I wanted to see the Holy Land. So we went to Jerusalem, went to the Fort Masafa, Masada.

Leo Laporte [00:28:04]:
It was incredible. Masada, that's the fort. Masada. It was incredible. And we went to. Yeah, we saw.

Johnny Jet [00:28:15]:
Masada is right next to the Dead Sea.

Leo Laporte [00:28:17]:
We went to. Yeah, we went to the Dead Sea after that. Floated in it. Do not, by the way, they give you advice. You're floating in the Dead Sea. They say, stay on your back, be careful. If you flip over, it's very hard to get out. It's very hard to get out back because you can't.

Leo Laporte [00:28:31]:
You're so buoyant. You're like a turtle. It was fun. All the sites of the Holy Land. We saw Gethsemane, we saw Bethlehem, we saw Golgotha, we saw all of the sites of the Holy Land. By the way, if you ever go, it's a crowd. Lisa's father wants to go. And we said, you know, we're going to go off season.

Leo Laporte [00:28:52]:
We were there. I don't know what high season is. It was jammed with people, but it was worth it to see that. And I know probably I'll never see it again at my age. I'm almost 70, Johnny. I feel like every trip I take is, you know, this is the last time I'll see this, but I want to see all these places. I want to see Angkor Wat while I can.

Johnny Jet [00:29:10]:
So you crossed the border, you went to Bethlehem?

Leo Laporte [00:29:14]:
Yeah, we went over. Yes. That was an interesting thing because Bethlehem is in the Palestinian side, it's on the west bank. So you have to go through a checkpoint and. Yeah, that was. See, all of this to me is cultural.

Johnny Jet [00:29:27]:
I loved.

Leo Laporte [00:29:28]:
It's learning is experience.

Johnny Jet [00:29:31]:
Definitely.

Leo Laporte [00:29:31]:
That's to me what travel's all about. That and photography. I love taking pictures of everything. So, Johnny, I've just eaten up all of your half of your time.

Johnny Jet [00:29:39]:
No, no, listen. I could see my wifi says it's strong, but I keep getting thing you're cutting in and out. And I know it's not your WI fi, so

Leo Laporte [00:29:52]:
we use WI fi here in the I know I attic.

Johnny Jet [00:29:56]:
I, I, I should plug in, but every time I plugged in for you, the hardware.

Leo Laporte [00:30:02]:
Don't worry about it. All, all. Here's what happens with WI fi. It's polite. So you're on the WI fi, you're humming along, you're sending the packets back and forth, and then some other WI fi is going on, and it goes, oh, sorry, after you. And it pauses and it lets the other data go, then tries again. If the other data's still there, it goes, okay, after you. And so what happens is we're on a stream where the packets are supposed to go, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Leo Laporte [00:30:30]:
All of a sudden you will freeze for, you know, a second or two while it's waiting for the other data, while Natalie's, you know, Pinterest page gets updated and then it starts up again. So that's all. It's just a pause. It's a brief pause.

Johnny Jet [00:30:43]:
It doesn't usually tell her I should make sure she's not streaming.

Leo Laporte [00:30:47]:
Get the kids off The Netflix, the YouTube.

Johnny Jet [00:30:49]:
They're at school. Do you use orbs?

Leo Laporte [00:30:52]:
What?

Johnny Jet [00:30:52]:
Yeah, they're at school.

Leo Laporte [00:30:54]:
What is school?

Johnny Jet [00:30:55]:
What is school?

Leo Laporte [00:30:57]:
That's what my kids go to school. Still. I didn't know kids still go to school.

Johnny Jet [00:31:01]:
Yeah. He wants to travel and homeschool little Jackie Jet.

Leo Laporte [00:31:05]:
Yeah. He says, daddy, Daddy, why do I have to go to school? Why can't I go with you all over the world?

Johnny Jet [00:31:13]:
I mean, you know, he counted the countries up. These guys have been to. He's been to over 25 countries.

Leo Laporte [00:31:18]:
Wow.

Johnny Jet [00:31:19]:
Nine years old. My daughter has been to 22. They're going to 10 countries a summer.

Leo Laporte [00:31:26]:
So, okay, tell me, wow. What is the. So what do you, what are your upcoming trips? I told you about mine.

Johnny Jet [00:31:34]:
Well, me on social to find out.

Leo Laporte [00:31:36]:
Ah, now, it's easy to do that. You go to Johnny Jet. Johnny's always been cagey, you know, he actually, actually, you get some fun. I know because you do the where am I today? Post and a picture of you at the airport. And it's always fun. J O H N N Y I will tell you, right J O H a bunch of content ny J O

Johnny Jet [00:32:01]:
H N Y J E T I'm not related to Joe.

Leo Laporte [00:32:06]:
Not Johnny Jet. Johnny Jet.

Johnny Jet [00:32:08]:
My socials. Johnny Jet on almost everything.

Leo Laporte [00:32:11]:
And there's only one T in the Jet. So this is the website, but you could always follow him because he's Johnny Jet everywhere. So what's your primary social. Is it insta.

Johnny Jet [00:32:24]:
I mean, Facebook, unfortunately, because I, I got a lot of friends and.

Leo Laporte [00:32:28]:
And that's where your people are. It's okay.

Johnny Jet [00:32:30]:
Yeah, but I also, you know, on Twitter or X, you know, I follow

Leo Laporte [00:32:37]:
you on Kind of Lost interest.

Johnny Jet [00:32:39]:
I do threads a lot. But by the way, I was. Funny.

Leo Laporte [00:32:45]:
Yeah,

Johnny Jet [00:32:48]:
no, I was speaking at a conference in, In Florida. IPW in Powwow. It's one of the largest travel conferences in the world. Have over 5, 000 people from around the world come in. And they're all trying to bring. It's from US Travel. The goal is they're trying to bring people into America and right now.

Leo Laporte [00:33:04]:
And by the way, it's not easy. It's been real, like, really problematic.

Johnny Jet [00:33:10]:
Yeah, well, we're. We're the only developed country that has lost tourism in the last year. We're down 5%. Everyone else is up. And most of it is Canadians. I think a lot of a big part of it is Canadians aren't coming here. Listen, I have Canadian.

Leo Laporte [00:33:26]:
They're mad. They're. They're, they're myths.

Johnny Jet [00:33:29]:
I don't blame them.

Leo Laporte [00:33:31]:
Your wife is Canadian, so you understand this.

Johnny Jet [00:33:35]:
Definitely.

Leo Laporte [00:33:35]:
You are the original travel influencer. Look at this.

Johnny Jet [00:33:38]:
I mean, look at this.

Leo Laporte [00:33:39]:
According to Forbes, there you are with King Charles. Actually, that's me with King Charles over there, by the way.

Johnny Jet [00:33:44]:
Well, that's a funny story. By the way. I was, I was. This is. This is 16 years ago. I was in a hotel in. I went to. I went to Marriott.

Johnny Jet [00:33:55]:
I went to London with Mr. Marriott himself. And I was in the Grosvenor House, which is their first luxury hotel, I think, in London, or at least it's a very luxurious hotel. And I'm having dinner with a gm and he's like, oh gosh, I gotta go meet Prince Charles. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, there's an event right here and I gotta greet him. I go, is there any way I can go with you? He's like, let me message. Let message their security. He goes, it shouldn't be a problem.

Johnny Jet [00:34:21]:
Anyway. He goes, yeah, but you have to stand right here, right in front of the paparazzi, in front of all the stands. And it was freezing cold out. It was. It was November. And I was like, I had nothing on. I'm telling. It was cold and I only had a BlackBerry.

Leo Laporte [00:34:35]:
I see you got a beautiful black suit, though. You're well dressed.

Johnny Jet [00:34:39]:
So he comes up. I was just I was going to an event that. A party that night. Anyway, he comes, he walks up to me, and you're never supposed to approach them, but he's walking right by me. And I just, like, I, I always. I stuck my hand out.

Leo Laporte [00:34:52]:
Oh, geez.

Johnny Jet [00:34:52]:
And I. And he just looked at it and all. I can just hear, like the crowd go. Because you never. You gotta wait, let them initiate.

Leo Laporte [00:35:00]:
Yes.

Johnny Jet [00:35:01]:
And he just looked at it and it felt like eternity was probably like three seconds. But he didn't do anything. And next thing you know, he stuck his hand out, shook my hand, and he said. And he was so nice. And he said something really funny. And I don't remember what I said, but I said something really funny back. And the paparazzi later said, what did you say that made him laugh? I go, I have no idea.

Leo Laporte [00:35:20]:
But what a great story. So that's on Johnny's. That's on Johnny's Insta. I think Insta would be the best place to follow you. I mean, look, Facebook and Insta are the same company. Here's his family, if you want to see Jack, you went to CES and Olivia and of course, Natalie. Good looking family.

Johnny Jet [00:35:41]:
Tessin. You heard of Tessin? It's a big. Anyway, they invited us and they're like. I was like, we're coming back from a cruise. We're on a Caribbean cruise. I said, we don't have time to drop.

Leo Laporte [00:35:50]:
You look like you were on a Caribbean cruise. That's hysterical.

Johnny Jet [00:35:53]:
And they said, bring the kids to dinner. And they had this event and they could not have been any nicer. And so. Yeah, and I. But they have great products, by the way, when you're doing. When you're for travel. Actually, I have one right here. They sent me a whole bunch.

Johnny Jet [00:36:08]:
They couldn't be.

Leo Laporte [00:36:09]:
Wait a minute. Don't. Don't show it yet because I gotta go back to your picture. Your picture. We can see you show it now.

Johnny Jet [00:36:16]:
So, you know, it's universal.

Leo Laporte [00:36:17]:
What is that?

Johnny Jet [00:36:18]:
A universal charger?

Leo Laporte [00:36:20]:
Give you. They give you crap.

Johnny Jet [00:36:22]:
Oh, oh. But this is great stuff, especially they have these thin ones that are great to travel with. So I'm hoping to do some work with them. They've been so nice. And anyone invites my kids to a party, I'm like. And they paid for their flights. And I was like, dude, we're there.

Leo Laporte [00:36:39]:
So speaking of parties, next time you're in Turkey, go get an ice cream cone.

Johnny Jet [00:36:46]:
Oh, yeah, this is Jack last summer. You've been to Turkey. I think we talked about it, but the ice cream vendors are the best.

Leo Laporte [00:36:53]:
I have not. I never did this. I've seen videos of them and their performances with their long ice cream sticks. Jack's having so much fun.

Johnny Jet [00:37:03]:
Olivia was before or after. And they just. These guys are.

Leo Laporte [00:37:07]:
That's the best part of the ice cream.

Johnny Jet [00:37:08]:
They're hilarious.

Leo Laporte [00:37:10]:
That is so funny. I love Turkey. Istanbul was amazing. But I never did the ice cream thing. I don't know how I missed that.

Johnny Jet [00:37:29]:
Yeah, well, you missed on that one. You gotta get back.

Leo Laporte [00:37:32]:
I did. I did.

Johnny Jet [00:37:33]:
But, yeah. That was a picture of us in Bora Bora at Thanksgiving.

Leo Laporte [00:37:36]:
So where are you going this year? Where are you going this summer? You said you're going to. How many?

Johnny Jet [00:37:40]:
We're doing a river cruise. 10.

Leo Laporte [00:37:43]:
I love river cruises.

Johnny Jet [00:37:47]:
And we're doing an ocean cruise.

Leo Laporte [00:37:50]:
Who are you going with? Viva. Never heard of that. No.

Johnny Jet [00:37:54]:
German. So.

Leo Laporte [00:37:57]:
And where does the river cruise go?

Johnny Jet [00:37:59]:
It starts off in Vienna, Austria. Wow. I'm not going to tell you the rest. You're gonna have to follow for the rest.

Leo Laporte [00:38:08]:
Oh, yeah, you. That's right. I forgot. I asked you already and you wouldn't

Johnny Jet [00:38:10]:
tell me, but yeah, it's gonna be. And we're also doing a princess ocean cruise

Leo Laporte [00:38:18]:
now. Do you get. People give you these, right? You don't have to pay for this.

Johnny Jet [00:38:21]:
The Viva. I don't have to pay the princess. I get a. I get a family, friends.

Leo Laporte [00:38:26]:
Right. I should have been a travel writer because I have spent a lot of money on travel. But I figure I. You know, I feel like spending money on experiences is better than spending money on things. Definitely.

Johnny Jet [00:38:39]:
You know, I pay for my flight.

Leo Laporte [00:38:41]:
Fills my heart for the most part.

Johnny Jet [00:38:43]:
Yeah. I've been. I've been. I've been using my miles. Oh, totally. I mean, you must.

Leo Laporte [00:38:48]:
So many miles.

Johnny Jet [00:38:50]:
Not anymore. I did, but after the pandemic, I really stopped traveling like I used to. I used to fly, you know, every three days.

Leo Laporte [00:38:57]:
Right. I used up all my points flying to Hawaii. All four of all three of us flew to Hawaii.

Johnny Jet [00:39:04]:
For Hawaii, not Hawaii, because Hawaii, they rip you off on the points unless you got a really good deal, but you got to use it.

Leo Laporte [00:39:16]:
Flights were expensive.

Johnny Jet [00:39:17]:
Flat, by the way, are you flighted? Okay, so if it wasn't my flat,

Leo Laporte [00:39:21]:
we weren't even in. We were. We were. We weren't even in an economy. Plus, we were just. And the seat front was right there. I thought, is this spirit. How many miles per person? Probably 30,000.

Johnny Jet [00:39:37]:
You don't want to.

Leo Laporte [00:39:39]:
Well, it was free, but the price would have Been thousands. It was very expensive, at least it looked. And it was really. And that's why we ended up using points, because. And this was at the beginning of the. Of the war, so I think the gas. They were freaked out about jet fuel prices probably.

Johnny Jet [00:39:53]:
And is this. Is this for Easter?

Leo Laporte [00:39:56]:
It was. No, it was right after Easter is May 1st through 11th.

Johnny Jet [00:39:59]:
Because I did look to go to.

Leo Laporte [00:40:01]:
It was this month.

Johnny Jet [00:40:02]:
Oh, gosh. And it was crazy expensive. But you know what? The prices actually dropped like a week before. I know we blew it sometimes, but it's. Usually they do not drop, so it's.

Leo Laporte [00:40:13]:
You can't do that with points, though. Once you pay for points, you can't put a price alert on it, can you?

Johnny Jet [00:40:20]:
Of course you can. And you can. You. Oh, can also, if it drops, cancel it and rebook it.

Leo Laporte [00:40:26]:
Oh, yeah, that's what I did. I booked the cheapest thing. Well, anyway, it's over and it was basically fine. It was an easy flight.

Johnny Jet [00:40:37]:
Don't ever buy Basic Economy.

Leo Laporte [00:40:40]:
Why? Because no refund.

Johnny Jet [00:40:42]:
Because you can't. There's no refund. You can't change it. And there's a snowstorm or a big storm and they cancel the flight, then you get your money back or your miles back. But yeah, I. The only time I ever. I think I booked Basic Economy once, and it was because I was booking it for two hours from that, and I was like, well, I know I'm going on the flight. I'm almost at the airport, so then you can book it.

Johnny Jet [00:41:04]:
But I. I highly recommend not booking. It's extra. 30 to 70, whatever they're charging per person, but it's just worth it. Just so you can get. You can change your flight, get on an earlier flight.

Leo Laporte [00:41:15]:
Or.

Johnny Jet [00:41:15]:
Or I was lucky.

Leo Laporte [00:41:16]:
I mean, we didn't need to do it. Yeah, we didn't need to do anything. So it was okay.

Johnny Jet [00:41:22]:
And since we've been on. Spirit went under. Went under. And so all the airfares are going up because Spirit went out and don't

Leo Laporte [00:41:31]:
have to compete anymore because the cheap guy went away. Is there. Is there anybody like Spirit still around? There's in the. In Europe, you've got Ryanair. And is there anywhere in the US Is there?

Johnny Jet [00:41:43]:
Yeah, definitely.

Leo Laporte [00:41:44]:
Easy Jet.

Johnny Jet [00:41:45]:
Yeah, Front Frontier.

Leo Laporte [00:41:46]:
Frontier. Okay.

Johnny Jet [00:41:49]:
Frontier and Allegiant. And now, you know, JetBlue, who just gobbled up a lot of their slots in Fort Lauderdale, so Jamaican, one of their real first hub in Fort Lauderdale. They're just trying to capitalize on it.

Leo Laporte [00:42:03]:
I really like JetBlue. Are they going to survive?

Johnny Jet [00:42:08]:
I hope so. They're going to survive the year. We'll see what happens after.

Leo Laporte [00:42:12]:
That's tough. You would think they'd make a lot of money, but no. In fact, airlines don't make money on the tickets, do they?

Johnny Jet [00:42:20]:
Not. Not a lot. Very little over. They make a very little on each ticket.

Leo Laporte [00:42:26]:
That's why.

Johnny Jet [00:42:26]:
Except for.

Leo Laporte [00:42:27]:
I was shocked that to check a bag on United was going to cost me 80 bucks. I was like, what?

Johnny Jet [00:42:35]:
Yeah, well, you didn't pay for your

Leo Laporte [00:42:37]:
ticket points, but you were gonna get you.

Johnny Jet [00:42:41]:
It's worth getting their credit card just for that one reason. If you fly United, so you get a free bag and, and the person who's ever on your reservation with you will get a free bag. Yeah, well, so that's why they are

Leo Laporte [00:42:51]:
like a credit card. But I paid with points. So did I. I must.

Johnny Jet [00:42:58]:
No, no, no. That shouldn't matter.

Leo Laporte [00:43:02]:
And at least that's why I had so many points for the bag. Pay with the United card. Yeah.

Johnny Jet [00:43:10]:
Yes, but they shouldn't even charge you if you have that card. I, I gotta take a look at it. It's not over. You can still get some money. You can get some money back. You send any.

Leo Laporte [00:43:22]:
It ain't over till it's over. Huh? If I could get money back on that flight from Dubai, I'd get that money back. That would be the money.

Johnny Jet [00:43:34]:
I'd be like, I'm staying.

Leo Laporte [00:43:34]:
Wait a minute. What country are you living in? Receipts. Where's the receipt? It's all digital.

Johnny Jet [00:43:42]:
When they email it to you. Yeah, when they email it to you, you keep it. You keep that ticket number.

Leo Laporte [00:43:47]:
Oh, my email is a big old stack somewhere. I didn't go through a travel agent, although Jane did recommend. That's why you should go through those condos. She's good about that. Jane, at travel store, people always ask me, I don't know if I should give out her name. I don't want her to get swamped with people. She's really good. You know, it was Dr.

Leo Laporte [00:44:11]:
Mom gave me her name. Remember Dr. Mom? She said, oh, use my travel agent. Jane. I haven't seen her in a while. I don't know what she's up to. That happens. People, people follow us for a while and then they go.

Leo Laporte [00:44:24]:
All they talk about is, AI. I don't, I don't want to talk about that anymore. So that's why you're on, Johnny. You're on. To give us a relief.

Johnny Jet [00:44:33]:
Hey, you know, one of my friends yesterday, one of the parents had. I was at a Cub Scout thing and he's like, hey, I, I, I was Googling, actually. He was on grand,

Leo Laporte [00:44:44]:
like I was grokking.

Johnny Jet [00:44:45]:
You know the 10 how to survive a long flight with it.

Leo Laporte [00:44:54]:
Natalie's on Pinterest again. You got to get her off Pinterest. We lost that. What? What did you say? What did you say? John?

Johnny Jet [00:45:04]:
He found my story. Can you hear me now?

Leo Laporte [00:45:08]:
Yeah.

Johnny Jet [00:45:09]:
No.

Leo Laporte [00:45:10]:
Yeah. You keep coming and going. You see how long that lag is. That's, that's, that's called Y5.

Johnny Jet [00:45:16]:
Let me yell the Malik.

Leo Laporte [00:45:18]:
You know the French say it. WiFi here is Johnny Jet. This is the place to go. Johnnyjet.com All 12. Oh, I. You better have petaluma in the seven small town charming celebrations. Probably don't. Petaluma is a great town for coming to.

Leo Laporte [00:45:42]:
I don't know if it'll be for fourth of July. Probably not. Where's the best place to go for 4th of July this year? Because it's going to be the 250th.

Johnny Jet [00:45:51]:
I mean, new York. New York City's pretty New York, actually.

Leo Laporte [00:45:54]:
They. You do have really good fireworks. They have really good fireworks.

Johnny Jet [00:45:58]:
Williamsburg, Virginia.

Leo Laporte [00:45:59]:
That'd be fun.

Johnny Jet [00:46:01]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:46:01]:
That's the cosplay town.

Johnny Jet [00:46:04]:
Is it? Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:46:06]:
They got. They'll dress up in colonial garb.

Johnny Jet [00:46:08]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, they do.

Leo Laporte [00:46:12]:
You see, they've been doing that for so long. What didn't used to be called cosplay, but it is now. They're larping Colonial Edwardsville, Illinois, on Route 66, Mackinac Island.

Johnny Jet [00:46:28]:
Natalie wrote this article.

Leo Laporte [00:46:31]:
Durango, Colorado, because that's going to be frontier town. Bardstown, Kentucky. Interesting bourbon, bluegrass and southern hospitality. You know what? They're going to have a lot of hush puppies. Cody, Wyoming. I've been to Cody. Oh, I didn't know it was founded. Named after Buffalo Bill Cody.

Leo Laporte [00:46:50]:
I did not know that. You know how I got to Cody? I was on the Amtrak California Zephyr train when we moved to California back in 1971. From Rhode island, from Rhode island, we flew to Chicago because the Zephyr doesn't go all the way across. We flew to Chicago with our little dog. Hannah was a beagle. And then we got on the Zephyr in Chicago and it goes all the way to Oakland, California. And that was, I'll never forget that. It was like three days we had a sleeper and we would get out in all the little towns, including Cody, Wyoming, to walk henna and it's fun.

Leo Laporte [00:47:32]:
Cause you're going and you stop for half an hour in these little towns and just so you could stretch your legs or whatever. And I really enjoyed that. That was a wonderful trip. I don't know if Amtrak's is good. It was really good in the 70s. It was still, you know, white tablecloth and all the porters with white gloves. And they have silver service and stuff. It was really pretty fancy.

Leo Laporte [00:47:55]:
It was really pretty fun. What's. Is. Are there still great train trips? Have you done any great train trips?

Johnny Jet [00:48:02]:
Definitely.

Leo Laporte [00:48:03]:
I want to do the via.

Johnny Jet [00:48:04]:
Canada has Via. Really?

Leo Laporte [00:48:08]:
Yeah.

Johnny Jet [00:48:08]:
I would love to do that. I've never done that, and I've done.

Leo Laporte [00:48:11]:
That's a bucket list.

Johnny Jet [00:48:12]:
I've done Chicago to New Orleans on the pullback car.

Leo Laporte [00:48:16]:
Yeah. The city of New Orleans.

Johnny Jet [00:48:19]:
And I think we talked about this before, but I've done the gan. From Darwin down to. You can do it.

Leo Laporte [00:48:24]:
Is that the straightest. That's the straightest train in the world, right?

Johnny Jet [00:48:30]:
Is it? I don't know. I don't remember that.

Leo Laporte [00:48:34]:
There is. I think it's the north, south. Oh, Bangkok. Two.

Johnny Jet [00:48:42]:
Bangkok to Singapore. Singapore.

Leo Laporte [00:48:46]:
Oh, forget the cruise. We're going on the train. Honey, that.

Johnny Jet [00:48:52]:
That. That first night is bumpy. And I was like, what? But it is. I mean, the service is incredible.

Leo Laporte [00:49:01]:
Well, you've seen Belmonda, the videos of the Bangkok trains, right?

Johnny Jet [00:49:07]:
Oh, I mean, when you're sitting, I'll tell you.

Leo Laporte [00:49:10]:
Want to know why it was bumpy? Yeah. You want to know why? You want to know why it's bumpy? I'll show you why it's bumpy. Let me show you why it's bumpy. People eating train food.

Johnny Jet [00:49:21]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:49:22]:
In Bangkok. It goes right through the middle of the market. Get ready for this. Get ready for this. So this is the market. See that? That's the track, right? See that? That's the track. They're gonna. The train

Johnny Jet [00:49:40]:
this.

Leo Laporte [00:49:41]:
I don't know how people don't die.

Johnny Jet [00:49:43]:
I don't either.

Leo Laporte [00:49:44]:
The train is gonna go to. Go through here. Let me go to where the train actually shows. They pull everything back.

Johnny Jet [00:49:52]:
Yep.

Leo Laporte [00:49:53]:
And. And here comes the train. Look at that. It's knocking the tomatoes off this thing. Slicing the cucumbers for them. That's why it was bumpy, John.

Johnny Jet [00:50:06]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:50:08]:
Holy moly.

Johnny Jet [00:50:11]:
And people sit there and they dine. They're dining right there, too. It's like, I don't understand how.

Leo Laporte [00:50:16]:
How it could be safe, but this is it. Pull everything back a little bit. I guess they know exactly where the train's going to go. Right. Somehow they know that.

Johnny Jet [00:50:27]:
Correct.

Leo Laporte [00:50:28]:
But that is awfully close. It's going over the veggies. Can I have the veggies that are cooked by the train?

Johnny Jet [00:50:40]:
I gotta look at my old photos because I think I did take. I think I was in the back car and I took photos of all the.

Leo Laporte [00:50:46]:
As you're going.

Johnny Jet [00:50:46]:
All the people. Yes.

Leo Laporte [00:50:49]:
Wow, that is crazy. This is why you travel, though, because you see stuff you would never see anywhere.

Johnny Jet [00:50:56]:
Yeah, it's amazing.

Leo Laporte [00:50:57]:
And then as soon as the train goes by the awnings go back, the market goes back and it's as if nothing happened.

Johnny Jet [00:51:03]:
Exactly three minutes later. You know, nothing has ever happened.

Leo Laporte [00:51:06]:
Crazy.

Johnny Jet [00:51:07]:
But the. The fruits are amazing in Southeast Asia.

Leo Laporte [00:51:12]:
Are they? So what should I do when we get to Bangkok? Should I. What would be the best thing to do?

Johnny Jet [00:51:16]:
Definitely write this down. Get. Get a mangosteen if it's in season. Mangosteen is my favorite fruit. Also rambutans, which you could sometimes get here. Actually, I saw yesterday Trader Joe's, they had lychee, which is okay, but rambitons and mangosteens are the best.

Leo Laporte [00:51:31]:
Mangosteen and ramitan. Okay.

Johnny Jet [00:51:33]:
Yeah.

Leo Laporte [00:51:35]:
I am very excited. We went to our local Thai restaurant

Johnny Jet [00:51:39]:
and she was go to night market.

Leo Laporte [00:51:42]:
Night markets. Okay. Yeah, we have a few. We have a couple overnights in the Bangkok. So a night market. Okay, I'm excited. I'm excited.

Johnny Jet [00:51:52]:
And you know, there's a Michelin star chef, by the way, in Bangkok. You got to go to that. This woman is. Yeah, no, no, no. The street food. Okay, but you know, the street food there.

Leo Laporte [00:52:06]:
I want to do. I hear you can, you can go on a boat. You can go on a boat in Thailand and then sail up to somebody and have an eat. Am I crazy? Am I imagining that? I think you can. I think you can.

Johnny Jet [00:52:30]:
I did a Anatara dining cruise. Anatara hotels. They have really nice hotels there. But you don't even have to be staying at their hotel. But they do have a night with a really nice. You know, the views are incredible at night. The river at night is magical. During the day it's not so pretty.

Johnny Jet [00:52:50]:
It's brown. But do it at night. Try and book that if you can.

Leo Laporte [00:52:56]:
I wish we had a little more actually a little more time in Thailand. But, you know, that's, that's the downside of a cruise is you get, you get, you know, right. You get to see a lot of different places, but you don't get a lot of time in all those Places.

Johnny Jet [00:53:13]:
Exactly.

Leo Laporte [00:53:15]:
Yeah, exactly. This is the. Well, I can't say I appreciate you having.

Johnny Jet [00:53:20]:
I gotta go pick my kids.

Leo Laporte [00:53:22]:
Gotta go pick the kids. What are the. What are the kids doing right now? They're in school. Tell me about this school thing of which you speak. They go to. They go to a. They sit in a room and the teacher teaches them.

Johnny Jet [00:53:35]:
Yeah. They're like, why do I gotta be here?

Leo Laporte [00:53:37]:
All right, well, Johnny, I appreciate your time. Johnny.johnnyjet.com Follow him on Instagram, Facebook threads. He's in all the meta properties and. And. And then play the game as he travels. We know where the first stop is, but where is he going from Vienna? No one knows.

Johnny Jet [00:53:57]:
Actually, that's not my first stop.

Leo Laporte [00:54:02]:
Oh, I bet your first stop is the ski Pole airport in beautiful Amsterdam.

Johnny Jet [00:54:08]:
It's a beautiful airport, but nope.

Leo Laporte [00:54:09]:
It's a logical first stop. You get a stroopwafel and a coffee and then get on the flight to Vienna. Johnny, have a wonderful, wonderful day. Give my love to the kids and Natalie, it's great to see you, Jack and Olivia all grown up and we will see you in a couple of months. Jet set with Johnny. Jet. Bye. Bye, Johnny.

Johnny Jet [00:54:32]:
Thank you. Bye bye.

Leo Laporte [00:54:34]:
All right. Bye bye. And we of course, thank our club members who make all of this possible. Another wonderful Sterling club event. We've added a new show off by one with the wild and woolly Mr. Jeff Atwood. That is a crazy. He keeps saying, how can I give people more stuff? Monday, you want to tune in? We're going to have a conversation Monday morning, 11am with the founder and CTO of Bitwarden.

Leo Laporte [00:55:06]:
I have questions for Kyle Spirit. I'm looking forward to talking to him. They are a sponsor, but more importantly, it's the password manager I use and recommend. And I had some questions because there was a little bit of a kerfuffle about Bitwarden. They had temporarily removed the language that said free forever and they put it back. But I want to get. I want. I want Kyle to explain what happened.

Leo Laporte [00:55:29]:
And I think there's a lot to talk about. Credential Management, Scott Wilkinson's Home Theater Geeks, our AI user group. I won't miss it this time. I was in Hawaii last time, but it's June 5th. It's always the first Friday with lots to talk about there. These are. This is unlike intelligent machines, which is really AI news. This is actual AI practitioners.

Leo Laporte [00:55:48]:
I want to rename it to leap, the League of Extraordinary AI Practitioners. Darren Okey, Lawrence Gold, Larry Gold, and many other People, this is always a lot of fun. Highly recommend it. Hands on tech every month. Oh, WWDC's coming up a week from Monday. That will be club only. And that is because otherwise Apple yells at us and tries to cancel our YouTube account, which we don't want them to do. So the keynotes now are in the club only.

Leo Laporte [00:56:23]:
IOS today. Photo time with Chris Marquardt. He had to delay it last month, but we will do the playful assignment June 19th. And there it is, off by one with Jeff Atwood. Crazy. Crazy. What did Anthony, what did you write? Follows its own logic. Prop, comedy, computing history, the open web, wealth inequality.

Leo Laporte [00:56:45]:
Yo, Yoshi. That's pretty good. I gave Claude the transcript from the last one. It's like, I don't know, come up with something that makes sense. I gotta send this to Jeff. He will love it. He will love it. Micah's crafting corner.

Leo Laporte [00:57:02]:
Of course. Every month, that's a chill, calm place to do your favorite craft. Micah, I don't know. Lately he's been doing paint by numbers, but he was doing crocheting and Lego and it's always fun. Bring your kindness and curiosity. Thank you, everybody. Oh, origami. I forgot.

Leo Laporte [00:57:16]:
That's right. Thank you, Paul. Last couple of crafting corners have been origami. I forgot. Micah switched to paper folding. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Anthony Nielsen.

Leo Laporte [00:57:26]:
Couldn't do it without the great Anthony Nielsen. He is boy above and beyond. We missed you when you were on vacation. Glad you're glad you're back. Appreciate it. And we will see y' all next time. There's Anthony wearing his muni shirt. I like it.

Leo Laporte [00:57:43]:
That is one of the best logos ever, by the way. Yeah, well, there's a line of T shirts where it's, like, different. This one says Japantown, but they, like, turned it into font with the muni logo style. That's really awesome. Take care, everybody. We'll see you next time.