November 6, 2009
I wrote this blog 4 days before I left Africa… so here goes.
10/29/09 Mali, Central Africa
A week and half later we are finally in real Africa… or at least what you would think Africa would look like. We have left the deserts of northern Africa and its Muslim brothers behind and now are officially in sub Sahara Africa!
West Africa is whizzing by at an alarming pace as the kilometers tick away. The smiles are getting bigger and brighter the further we push south. After spending the last 5 years traveling as an American under the Bust administration… I must say I need to send a personal shout out to Obama…. “Thank you!”
Obamamania is in full effect here in Africa. Never before has it been such a cool thing to be traveling as an American… but before I go too far, this is still only Africa… the rest of the world is still on the fence!
Tensions are running high… the group is now splitting up. Nico and Kim are going their separate way, leaving Sam, John and myself in 1 car to continue on this ever growing pointless mission.
UPDATE 11/6/09 Barcelona, Spain
After coming to grips with where this trip was headed, I finally made the decision to cut the West Africa trip short and save it for another day when the time and friends are right. It’s now time for India and some much needed good food and friendly faces! But before India I had to make a stop off in Barcelona to meet with my designer and sort out a few things before I leave for mother India.
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January 11, 2009
As I sit here trying to recap what has happened over the last year I am amazed and yet shocked how amazing 2008 really was. 2008 seemed more like a few months, rather then a whole year. I started off the year in Japan and ended it in India, that statement alone is good enough for me. 2008 was filled with new adventures, new faces, new lessons in life and the best of all spending time with my family in Canada.
I used to be able to say where I would be the following year, work or a lease on an apartment or debt, always seemed to tie me to a planned future. Now it’s really hard to say where I will be this time next year. A year ago today I was in Tokyo Japan, and if you asked me at the time where do you think you will be a year from now, I would never have guessed I would be sitting in a bed at my friends house in LA at 3am due to jet lag from a trip to India writing this blog.
My trip to India was the prefect end to a prefect year, and more importantly a prefect start to a new and promising year. The catch phrase from our new leader of the free world “Yes we can!” is becoming my mantra for 2009.
I get a lot of emails asking what I have learned from each little adventure, so the lesson learned from my 2-week trip to India is… “It’s not the place, it’s the people that make a place amazing!”
So far 2009 looks very bright. I am wrapping up a show for MTV at the moment and I’m in the process of starting my own company, which we will start shooting our projects in April. Also it seems that my heart became alive again on New Years Eve, which is a good thing as I thought it had frozen over and lost its capability of functioning properly.
Here are a few images of my last few days of 2008.
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December 17, 2008
I know it’s been a while since I have written anything worth reading. The truth is other then working and some random nights in Las Vegas, my life has been pretty boring on paper.
I have been back in the US for 3 months now, and it is time for a break.
There are a few places in the world that I would call paradise, and Goa India is one of them. I know you might be thinking “India!! Are you nuts? Jimmy turn on the TV” Yes there has been a lot of bad things happening in India in the past month, but I will not let that get in the way. If I choose not to go due to the terror threats… then they win. I would rather die then live in a world where I can’t go outside “my bubble or safe zone” without the fear of dying.
I had such an amazing time in Goa last year that I can’t wait to get back. This time around I have about 20 or so friends from all over the world flying in for the special occasion. I plan to host the 2nd Christmas day beach treasure hunt, and party my ass off on the beach for New Years.
The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the 34-hour flight/travel time to get there!
This is my first time going overseas for just 2 weeks, so I will only be taking a small backpack filled with sandals, swim shorts, and my new book “The 4-hour work week”. There are a few reasons I am going back and one of them is to check on my pet cow. I know that sounds crazy, but on my first visit to Goa I made tons of friends and one of them was a local cow I named Betsy. She was a sweet old fatty, she spent most of her days lying on the beach and begging for food. She had a small birth defect, her horns somehow grew in a loop right back into the side of her face. The horns were actually breaking the skin as they continued to grow. Feeling that the horns would literally grow right into her face and kill her, I tried to come up with some ideas to help her. After a few failed attempts using a tree-trimming thing to cut the horns I gave up. All the local people keep telling me she would be fine, but they were wrong. I returned 2 years later to find out she died, but just like when I was a kid and a dog would die… we would just get another one and move on.
Upon arrival I noticed a new kid on the block that seemed to be moving in on Betsy turf as the new beach begging cow, so I cleverly named her Betsy Jr.
During my month long stay in Palolem beach I spent countless hours training Betsy. She has a soft spot for neck massages and a sweet tooth for nan bread. She was such a hit with the crowd my friend Meghan made a Santa Hat for her for Christmas. She might be a little bigger now but I hope she is still there and not on a hamburger bun.
So between the sun, beers, sleeping in all day hammocks, parties that don’t end till the sun comes up and looking for Besty Jr…. my 2 week trip to India is going to be the prefect winter getaway! I now have some serious flying to do! Goodnight….
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December 29, 2007
I’m learning to expect the unexpected when traveling. Today when things started to get a little crazy Joe Barrows a famous Bollywood Actor came to the rescue… well sort of. Today started out like the rest of my days in Goa with my normal breakfast in a hammock on the beach. But instead of heading back to my room for a nap… I was jumping in a taxi bound for the airport. I guess all good things come to an end… and this was my time to say goodbye to Palolem beach and all the great friends I have made over my month long stay… but I digress. The underling theme of this story is delays and the unexpected. The mission for today was to fly from Goa to Tokyo Japan via Mumbai and Delhi. Well to start off my taxi was 20 minutes late to leave… so I rushed to Goa airport to find that my flight to Mumbai (where I catch my Tokyo flight) was “delayed” for 2 hours.
I started to panic thinking that I would miss my flight to Tokyo, which was “Scheduled” for 6:30pm. So now I would be arriving at 5pm which would barley be enough time to get my luggage and take the 30 minutes ride to the International airport. Intro Joe Barrows… while I was on the flight to Mumbai I noticed a few kids asking a nicely dressed man sitting next to me for his autograph. Now I have lived in Hollywood for 10 years, so I have met every famous person you can imagine… so I wasn’t afraid to talk with him and at this point I needed answers. So I asked him how far it was to the international airport… He answered and started asking about my impending doom about missing my flight. When we landed he sprung into action like the true Bollywood star he was. He seemed to demand great respect from everyone. He started talking with the flight crew and then him and I were escorted off the plane first and then he proceeded to convince the ground crew to pull my bags off the plane rather then wait for them to arrive at the baggage claim area. He then started arranging transportation to the international airport; at this point he felt I was in good hands so he left. I said “Thanks for everything… and have a Happy New Year!”
During this whole process, which was only 10 minutes he was signing autographs and taking pictures with people. I could tell that the Indian people were like “Who cares about this American guy, I want my photo with Joe Barrows damn it!” So within 10 minutes he was gone and I was reduced to a commoner with no celebrity friends. I decided to have the tour information guy call Air India and let them know that I was on my way (like they would hold the plane for me…haha) But I was surprised to hear that he said my flight was “delayed” until tomorrow morning! Now it was only around 5:30pm and most airlines wouldn’t delay a flight that long they would just cancel the flight until the next day… but again this is India we are talking about so you cant think straight… instead if you think backwards and a little sideways you might be close to understanding. But that said I still wasn’t sure who to believe because this (tour info guy) could have been talking to the wrong airline. So I decided to rush to the international airport anyway.
When I finally got there I ran around like a chicken with its head cut off… guards telling me to go that a way and then other people saying to go back where I just came from. I finally found the Air India check in… I said to the guy “So my flight is delayed until tomorrow?” He looked at me puzzled and then yelled “No”… “It’s about to leave… hurry hurry!” So I ran to the gate like a mad man knocking down old ladies and small children that would run in front of me like a cat that runs in front of a car. I finally made it the gate to find the sign reading “Boarding Calcutta”.. Hmmm Calcutta? I sure don’t want to go there! I asked at the gate and found that my flight was indeed delayed by 3 hours although 2 minutes earlier they checked me in and told me the plane was leaving and sent me on the 100 meter dash. They must have just been messing with me…because they cant be that stupid. But in the end it turned out ok. I finally boarded my flight for Tokyo at 9:30pm, the flight was empty so there were tons of seats to sleep in and there was a super cute flight attendant… so at least something was going right. But I also learned a lesson or two in life. 1) Never count on anything in India to be on time. And 2) Bollywood actors are nicer then Hollywood actors. And that was my story about how a Bollywood star sort of saved the day!
Oh and Joe if your reading this… Have your people call my people! 
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