June 2024 Life Recap

I was on the road for the entirety of June 2024.

I slept in at least 15 different beds, I wore the same pack of clothes, and I met lots of interesting people.

All this after a slow and laid-back May 2024.

Here are the highlights, my favorite photos, and some of my best tips for Bali and Bangalore.

I’m still testing out these public monthly recaps. See other entries from past months here.

Travel

I passed through Hawaii, to Manila, and then extended stays in Bali, Indonesia and Bangalore, India.

Honolulu was a layover en route to Manila.

The Austin to Honolulu direct flight on Hawaiian Airlines is still my favorite way to get to Asia. It allows me to split up a long trip and slightly adjust to the time zone better.

I stayed for 1 night with our family friends Jordan and Kim. They took me swimming in a secret cove and we toured a bit of the island. Swimming in this cove made me remember why I like snorkeling: you can just jump in and go with minimal gear. 

I filmed a short video here that you should check out if you go to Oahu: Byodo-In temple: Honolulu’s best kept secret

Manila, Philippines

I have 4 people who work for me in Manila, Philippines.

So next I went to Manila to visit them for our 2nd team building retreat. It was so good!!

Many people treat their overseas staff as a simple service expense. But not me!

I took them out for meals, we shared stories, and brainstormed ideas.

“The best part of the team meeting was the first lunch we had together, sharing our life stories, getting to know each other better, and eating great food outside of the professional side. I’m grateful Nick allows us to have this human connection and that we’re not just VAs working virtually together. “

from P, working with me for 2 years now

You can see a list of tasks that they worked on during 1 week last year here.

Here is another list of 48 actual tasks I assigned. 

“During our storytelling session, I felt truly valued and appreciated. It’s one thing when Nick thanks me for completing a task, but hearing him share and celebrate our accomplishments with the new team members filled me with pride and joy.”

from L, working with me for 1 year now

Bali, Indonesia

Next I was invited to Bali, Indonesia by Kevin Kelly and Craig Mod for one of their famous Walk and Talks. Later I hung out with Danny Postma which was cool: such a great guy.

Walk and Talk

As quoted from Craig’s article, The Walk and Talk: Everything We Know by Craig Mod:

A walk-and-talk is a moveable salon. A small group of people walk together for a week, having casual conversations side-by-side during most of the day. In the evening the group sits down to an intense hours-long discussion centered on a daily chosen topic by those present. A moderator keeps the conversation on that day’s single topic to sharpen it and make it memorable.        

We met in Ubud and then walked for 6 or 7 days due north to the ocean. We walked through jungles, rain forests, rice paddies, and farms. I think we covered almost 100 kilometers.

It was the longest I’ve walked or hiked ever in my life. And I loved it. I want to organize something like this on my own one day for my friends.

• Each night we slept on farms in the open air together on a single platform
• Setting up our own beds and mosquito nets
• Eating simple home cooked vegetarian meals together

When I have more time, I’ll try to type up my key reflections and learnings from this amazing experience.

For now, these are a few of my favorite photos from the hike:

Bali Hotel Videos

After the Walk and Talk, I was ready to see some of Bali’s nicer hotels. I filmed a few luxury hotel tours for my YouTube channel here:

• Aloft Bali Seminyak: Hotel and Room Tour
• Four Points By Sheraton Bali Hotel in Seminyak: Hotel and Room Tour
• The Westin Bali Resort Tour
• The Laguna Bali Hotel in Nusa Dua FULL TOUR a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa
• Courtyard by Mariott: Guide to Courtyard Bali Nusa Dua Resort

This one was my favorite hotel and I put the most work into a video for it: The St. Regis Bali in Nusa Dua.

These hotel tour videos keep me busy instead of truly relaxing, but I don’t mind it. These are fun to film and random people leave me nice comments on the videos when they are planning their vacations.

Singapore

I was getting bored after a few days by myself in Bali, so my good friend Nir Eyal invited me to visit him again in Singapore.

My favorite memories from the Singapore leg:

• Dinner with Nir and his family
• Cold plunging and coworking with Nir
• Coffee meeting with a diplomat, arranged by my friend Ben Casnocha
• Seeing the wild otters!
• Surfing on the huge surf machine
• Eating durian fruit for the first time (good!!)

I filmed a hotel tour for the Four Seasons Sheraton Singapore but I’m most proud of these shorts:

One negative that I want to mention so you know it wasn’t all roses: I hurt myself on the surf machine. I was going REALLY fast and slammed into the concrete wall. I had to get a sports massage the first day, and then a physio appointment the next day, to help feel better and loosen up. It was still fun though.

Bangalore, India

Next I decided to do a spontaneous trip to Bangalore, India. Thankfully India has eVisas now and I was able to get my 5-year visa approved after a few days.

Why did I go to Bangalore? Well, I’ve never been there. And it seemed like something special was happening in the city. Plus I had a lot of readers of my book, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, who follow me and have hosted events using my formula.

I hadn’t been to India in 12 years. It was nice to be back, although complicated. India is not for beginners. But for all the power cuts, cold showers, and sewer smells… I met some incredible people. Truly fantastic people. I love Indians, or at least I love the ones I’ve met. It’s a huge country and sometimes I get in trouble on Twitter / X for making generalizations.

I was writing almost every day in Bangalore which was such a treat. Here are a few of my most popular writings and profiles of the people I met there:

• Why I’m going to Bangalore, India
• Just landed in Bangalore; cute receptionist checks me in
• Shobhit Bakliwal is my Indian guardian angel
• Meeting an Indian Matchmaker: Radhika
• Indian Family Values: Two women teach me about it
• Speed Dating Event with SMALL WORLD
• Meeting Alisha: a fast friend and losing a bestie

Events

I hosted three events while I was in Bangalore, which was pretty cool!

1. Dating Salon with Radhika
2. Speed Dating, support for SMALL WORLD
3. Meetup with Puneeth Suraana

Conclusion

I almost didn’t go on the Bali trip. My tooth was bothering me, some things were happening in my personal life, and I was feeling avoidant about the long flight route to get there.

But I did go! And that kicked off the whole month here that I wrote about.

It’s wild because I was so, so close to canceling. And then I didn’t, and all this cool stuff happened.

The lesson here is: do the hard thing. Keep the commitment. And keep living for adventures.

See you next month!

p.s. I’m writing this all from Mumbai, India as we watch the cricket team celebrate their recent World Cup win. It’s hard to think back and recap as I feel like I’m still very much “in it” on the road. Thanks to H on my team for pushing me to get this out.