Life hacks from a Travel-Hacking Doctor, Part 1

This is the first of my series, Life Hacks from Smart People, where I pick the brains of people who’ve figured out shortcuts to making the most out of life.

Calvin Sun is one of those people who’ve done so much that your eyeballs will water from reading his entire story. He’s a ER doctor, founder of a travel company, an entrepreneur, an activist, a dancer, a bartender, a former VJ on MTV, among other things.

I’m breaking this interview into a 3-part series to save your pupils the trauma. But read through the entire thing. I promise you won’t regret it.

CALVIN SUN

You have an interesting story about how and why you started traveling. Tell me about it.

I was actually the last person you’d expect to travel. I grew up in New York City and I was one of those people who thought everyone should come to us. I didn’t get why people spent so much on traveling when we had everything here. Like, when everyone left for college breaks (at Columbia), I’d stay behind. I wrote poetry about how peaceful the campus was.

Things just got really nerdy really quickly.

Haha. Yup, I was a huge nerd. But a number of things happened that culminated into me going on my first real trip, including my dad passing away really suddenly. The other reason came from losing a bet. 

I was bartending at the time and I met a girl one night. She told me about her upcoming trip to Egypt. My two good friends at the time happened to be going to Egypt too, so I introduced everyone. Somehow, things got turned on me and they asked me to join them.

The first day at the pyramids. Before I got left alone.

I thought it was impossible though; they were leaving within the week and flights were close to $4000. But they kept egging me on, so I made bet: I would go if flights went down to $800. It was an arbitrary number; I was nervous about going and I used the cost as an excuse. But I kept tracking flights for the next few days. I was being facetious, but deep down I think I was curious. Maybe there was a secret hope and I wanted something to push me to go.

On the third or fourth day, I checked again–– the same flight had fallen to $3000! I was surprised, but it was still way beyond what I could afford. So I checked again in an hour. And what do you know–– $650! My eyes popped out of my head. How the hell did that happen?! Imagine me in the middle of the bar yelling, “WTF?!“ But I’m a man of my word so I had no excuses. I bought the ticket on the spot…

My friends were surprised; they hadn’t actually expected me to go. But they reassured me that they would take care of me and that I wouldn’t have to pay for anything while I was there. They also told me not to bring anything because things were cheaper in Egypt. So all I brought was a dinky little bag.

Awesome. Sometimes, the most unplanned trips turn out to be the best ones. But I’ve never heard of flights fluctuating that much.

Well, I found out why. It was the beginning of the Arab Spring, the uprisings in Egypt. People were trying to get the hell out, not get in.

When my friends came to pick me up, the first thing they told me was that they couldn’t stay to show me around; the protests were getting bad and they needed to get home for one reason or another. The girl that I went there for came from a strict family, and she quickly let me know that they weren’t going to let her hang out with a random boy. As a result, I calculated that I was pretty much alone for the rest of my month in Egypt.

The Bedouins are excellent horsemen. We went to go riding with them.

Before my friends left though, they took me to see the Bedouins, a tribe of people who live off the grid. The Bedouins grow up riding horses, so that’s what we went to do. When we got there, they asked if I had ever ridden a horse before. I hadn’t. But I knew that if I said no, they would give me a donkey or something lame. So I instinctively said yes. Not only did they give me a horse, they gave me a wild horse. And then they smacked its butt so it took off running. “Holy shit”, I thought. These people live off the grid. If I fall off this horse and get hurt, I’m just going to be left here. So I held on and I just kept going.

And that’s my attitude towards life. I have no idea what I’m doing, but if something feels right, I go in with 100%. Once I make that decision, I have to hold on and keep riding, no matter what.

Riding towards the flame.

So where were you headed?

I had no idea. We had started riding at night, so this entire time I’d been riding blind. But after a while, I heard whistling in the distance; I realized the men up ahead were changing directions. They were riding towards a flame. So I turned my horse like and all of a sudden, I see the sun rising over the Great Pyramids of Giza. Over our silence and the clapping of the horses’ hooves, and my veneer of fear, I heard the most beautiful song. It was the music of the adhan, the Muslims’ call to prayer. From the desert, it enveloped the city of Cairo.

That was my first real memory of travel. That’s when I realized that this was what I came here to see and do. It was the sunrise of my life. And it was my reward for not letting go, for holding on.

The sunrise of my life.

So what happened after your friends left? 

The first day with them was amazing. I was taken care of and I had nothing to worry about. But after they left, I was back in fear mode. I thought, I don’t know anyone and no one knows me. I didn’t bring anything and I don’t have cash. If I die, no one would even know. I pretty much walked around the train station in circles for two hours, wondering what to do. I channeled my inner nerd and calculated it like a math problem: if I go back now, there’s a 100% chance I’d regret it. If I don’t go, there’s a 20% chance that I might die. But I would not regret it.

Alone at the train station. I was terrified.

So I got a one-way train ticket to Alexandria. That’s the trick: do an action that you can’t turn back from; you’ll absolve yourself from the burden of over-thinking. It was an overnight train. And I started talking to the people next to me. They asked me what I was going to Alexandria for. So I told them that I was going to see the Wonders of the Ancient World, the Lighthouse and the Library of Alexandria. They gave me a look. You know that that the Library was burned down centuries ago, right? And the Lighthouse was destroyed in an earthquake.

Oh, was it recent? I asked.

They were gone before Jesus was born.

Oh.

I felt like such an idiot. But out of pity, they gave me a couple of addresses of places to stay and taught me a few Arabic words just so I could at least try to get around. By the time I got to Alexandria, it was 3:30 in the morning. I still had no idea what to do. It was like watching a 2-year-old play The Sims. I’d walk around, bump into walls, bend down to pick something up that wasn’t even there. It was pathetic.

But I eventually found my way to a guesthouse and slept on the floor. And when I woke up, I sat there for a good two hours. I was starving, but I didn’t know how to get food. I was terrified of leaving. Eventually the people at the guesthouse came to ask what I was doing, so I forced myself to leave. It was like skydiving. I just had to get up quick, close the door behind me, and just go.

For the next week, I did the same type of thing. Every waking moment, I kept thinking, “I’m going to die. I’m going to die”. But every passing moment, I thought, “I’m not dead yet. I’m not dead yet.

When the second week rolled around, I woke up and realized, “Hey, I’m getting the hang of this”. By the third week, I thought, “This is awesome. I see why people like this travel thing.” Plenty happened in those three weeks. I met some awesome people, and eventually I ended up seeing the girl I had originally met back in NY–– the one who’d convinced me to go to Egypt in the first place.

I saw some amazing places after the first two weeks.

She was traveling with her family at the time, and coming from a conservative background, her parents would not be excited to see me. I was really bummed out about it this entire trip. But I’d procured a phone by this point, and I said, “Fuck it”. I asked the girl where she was, and I told her I’d find her.

Through a series of luck and chance, I located her with her family at the Egyptian Museum. Her parents were pissed. “Who was this boy?” her dad asked. Then she said the magic words: “He’s a student in Columbia. He’s going to be a doctor.” Lucky for me, her mom happened to be an anesthesiologist and they finally relented. So I grabbed the girl and ran. 

 We went to a park to see the sunset. We almost got arrested for handing hands and kissing in public (It’s very conservative in Egypt). So I pulled the, “I’m Chinese, I don’t speak English” trick. The policeman probably didn’t get the same satisfaction arresting a Chinese over an American, so he gave up after I said that.

Where I learned to smoke hookah.

I took her to dinner that night and invited all my friends out. At one point, they led the girl and me to a bar and ditched us. They were messing with me, but I was like, “WTF?!” They had dropped us off in a really, really, really, local dive bar. When she and I stepped in, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared. But eventually I ordered a hookah, and by this time, I’d learned how to light one up properly and smoke. People were impressed. When a belly dancer came out, I got up and started dancing with her. (Yes, I have experience belly dancing.  Don’t ask.) I could follow her every move and I knew the words to all the songs. The bar just exploded. Everyone started lighting our cigarettes. They were so touched by the fact that two foreigners were so respectful and appreciative of their culture. It was an awesome night.

Owning it.

The girl and I eventually found our way back to the hotel at 6 in the morning. I remember falling asleep in the middle of the conversation with her mom. Because of flight delays, the girl and her family had extra time in the city. I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, so I asked her parents if they’d toured around Cairo yet. They hadn’t, so I hailed a cab and showed them around the city. Honestly, I’d only gone to these places once, and I had no idea if I was going the right way. Every time I directed the driver, I’d silently pray that it was the right turn. Somehow, I’d get it right every time; I was pretty much the luckiest guy in the world.

When time came to say goodbye, her dad shook my hand. He said, “ I really like you. I don’t like a lot of people. But you have a really good soul.” Here was an Indian father, who was suspicious of me just 12 hours ago. How he felt meant more to me, than how I made the girl feel the entire night.

Check back tomorrow for the next installment on Life hacks from a Travel-Hacking Doctor, Part 2

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