Alright guys check it out
It’s Trevor James, I am deep in the Karakoram region of Xinjiang province in China
Near the Pakistan border
And just looking over the Karakul lake
It is beautiful
And that mountain in front of us is 7500
Today we are going to do a questions and answers video
All of your top questions, answered, over the last month
So let’s start
The video girl is your girlfriend?
And the answer to that is yes
We are together
We’ve been together two years now
And we met in turkey
So, yes, she is my partner and girlfriend
And we get along great
And we work really well together
Before this video progresses
I really just want to give a big thank you to Ting Ting
Who is also my fiancé now
You’ve really helped this channel so much
And I’m so lucky to be with you
To have found someone with the exact same passion for food and travel as me
And who I would do anything for
None of this would have been possible without you
Do you ever buy food for your girlfriend
And maybe Ting can answer that one?
No
No?
Yes
How does it usually work
It really depends
Sometimes I am hungry so I eat first
If I am not hungry, I will eat after
Yeah, that’s usually how it works
And it’s actually different every time
Sometimes Ting eat’s first
Sometimes I eat first
Sometimes she’s not even hungry
It’s different
But, Ting is always well fed
And that is a question we always get, does the camera girl ever eat?
How do you not get fat when you eat so much
And the answer to that is that I don’t always eat a lot
I just eat a lot…well actually I do eat a lot
I had two bowls of noodles today for lunch
And two plates of rice for dinner in this yurt
But I guess we walk around a lot
Sometimes I get a little chubby and then I ride my bike some more
I’m not in the best shape in the world
I’m quite average
So you really like to eat organs
Aren’t they too chewy?
Is the flavor disgusting?
And the answer to that is that I do enjoy organs if they are cooked properly
I’ve had some intestines that haven’t been cleaned and they taste horrible
And I can’t handle that
But most of the time
Organ soup or stew
Like yangzasui, niuzasui here in China
Is delicious
And some of the organs that we’ve had here in Xinjiang have been off the hook
mmm, how is your stomach?
And the answer to that is 99% of the time
I don’t get sick
I get sick sometimes when I go a little too adventurous
But most of the time my stomach can handle it
Especially after living here in Asia for 3 years
I think I’ve gotten used to the food here
And I love the street food
Street food really is the best
It’s where all the heart is and the soul is
There is a real street flavor that you cannot get in fine dining restaurants
How did you learn Chinese
This is another top question that we get all the time
When I was in Canada in Vancouver at UBC
I studied for one year of Chinese
And I took two terms of courses
And I nearly failed
It was really hard
And I think I got like 57% in the second term
And I nearly gave up
So I decided actually I burned out
And I didn’t practice or speak any Chinese for one year
But then after that in my faculty
There was lots of Chinese students
And I’ve just started practicing with them
It was actually lots of fun
And I started to enjoy it
And then I came to China
And I practiced on the streets
And it really turned into a hobby for me, to learn the language
And I think that’s the best way to learn a language
Is to just play with it
And learn, with local people
And try and have fun
Don’t make it memorization
Don’t make it stressful
Just hit the street and chat
And that is the best way to learn Chinese
Or any language
And now I’ve been speaking for a bout 7 years
How do you afford to travel?
How do you afford all of this?
And this is a question we get a lot
Actually when we first started
I could barely afford it
I moved to China as a student
And I came on the Chinese government scholarship
So I was getting about 1700 RMB per month to study and live
So that’s about 200 or 300 dollars per month
And that was really not enough to travel
So I made videos in Chengdu, where I was based
And started to grow my youtube channel really slowly
And at that point I think we were making about 5$ per month from youtube
And that wasn’t enough to travel
So I actually had a period where I went completely broke
And I had no money
And I was in China in Chengdu
And it was kind of a low point
I asked one of my good buddies for 300 RMB which is like 50$ and I payed it back a couple weeks later
After I decided to make some money by teaching English
And teaching English is a great way to make money here in China
And that is how I got from not being able to being able to travel is by teaching English to students
And that payed for all of my first trips
To Turkey, across China
To Malaysia, All over
And then slowly, as our channel started to grow
And after I met Ting Ting
Ting Ting came on full time to help me shoot videos
After the summer of 2015
And then the Youtube channel started to grow
And it became possible to take trips outside of Chengdu
Using the money from youtube
Because advertisements are played before each video
And that is how we finance all of our traveling right now
And it is so lucky
And not a day goes by when I don’t feel grateful for this opportunity that we have
To share videos with you
And to share our food experiences with you, our audience
And that is how we are affording travel right now
We are so lucky and I am so grateful for this opportunity
If you are trying to get into making videos and becoming a travel blogger or travel vlogger
I really suggest just starting wherever you are
And just try to get a small enough base to be able to support yourself to make some trips out
Even just 20$ per month
That will pay for one meal
And when I first started that was enough
To allow me to create more videos
Paying for one nice meal at a restaurant was enough for me to create enough content to grow it
If you’re wanting to get into food and travel blogging or youtube
My advice is to just keep going
Keep producing
Keep shooting
And smile, and keep a positive energy
Because positive energy is really what keeps things going
And what keeps you working hard and happy
Wow, it’s beautiful
Another question is actually a comment
It says you should come to X country like Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, everywhere else
And that is in the plans, we want to go everywhere
And that is what we are planning for in the next few years
We are going to be shooting a lot less China and a lot more other countries
Since we are based in China right now, the majority of the content will be from here
But we are going to be traveling pretty much full time over the next few years
So stay tuned because there is going to be a lot of great content
So that was just a quick little update video to answer some of your top questions
If you’re interested in getting into this
I hope I gave you some insight
And if you have any other questions you want answered
We will answer them in the next question and answers video
Thanks so much guys
And we are just enjoying the deep Silk Road journey
Thank you so much for watching these food and travel videos guys
If you have any other questions or comments
Please leave them below
And I’ll do my best to get back to them in my next questions and answers video
Make sure to leave this video a thumbs up
And subscribe to this channel if you haven’t already
Thank you so much for watching guys