South Korea and Indian Adventure w/ HD Construction! – DT 454

Summary

Dirt Talk Podcast – Episode 454

Title: South Korea and Indian Adventure w/ HD Construction!
Date: June 23, 2026
Host: Aaron Witt (BuildWitt)
Guests: Ben & Chris (BuildWitt team)

Episode Overview

In this special edition of Dirt Talk, Aaron Witt and his team (Ben and Chris) recap their two-week journey through South Korea and India, visiting Hyundai/Develon’s construction machinery operations, shipyards, quarries, and more. The episode aims to share behind-the-scenes insights, reflections, and memorable moments from a whirlwind trip that spanned factories, the Taj Mahal, and vibrant urban and rural landscapes. The team discusses travel mishaps, local food, cultural quirks, and the impact of seeing construction on a global scale—much that doesn't make it into their video content.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trip Context & Getting There ([00:08–02:12])

• This trip was prompted by Hyundai (HD Construction Machinery) inviting BuildWitt to visit their operations in South Korea and India.
• Quote: “They reached out, though, they said, ‘Hey, we'd love to have you out to see what we do.’ And I said, that'd be great.” – Aaron [01:00]
• Both countries were new experiences for the entire crew; Aaron combined both visits into a single two-week trip.

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2. First Impressions of South Korea ([02:12–03:41])

• The team was impressed by how clean, organized, and friendly Korea was and especially how good the food was.
• Quote: “It was super clean, the people were awesome, and the food was great.” – Ben [02:38]
• Memorable first meal: legendary Korean BBQ with “three different kinds of steak” and a comical mishap with spicy leaves.
• Quote: “I didn't fly halfway around the world for you to cook the meat in the back room. I want it right in front of me.” – Aaron [03:41]

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3. Ulsan: Shipyard and Excavator Factory Tour ([04:21–09:08])

• High-speed train ride to Ulsan was a highlight: “Two hours, you're across the entire country… amazing.” – Aaron [04:29]
• Shipyard: Astonishing scale, activity, and efficiency with massive LNG carriers and ship engines weighing 500 tons.
  • Quote: “You could have spent one day in just one dry dock.” – Aaron [05:01]
• Excavator Factory: High-tech, clean, and highly automated with robots for welding, inspection, greasing, and AGVs zipping around. Very prescriptive, linear assembly.
  • Quote: “It was among the most impressive factories I’ve been in.” – Aaron [10:12]
  • The team’s filming accidentally tripped factory sensors and halted the line: "Ben did shut the production line down and probably costed Hyundai a few hundred grand." – Aaron [06:52]
• The experience of eating with factory workers in the cafeteria was memorable—the factory shutters and lights went off at lunch.

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4. Korean Culture, Countryside, and Quarry Visits ([10:20–17:58])

• Stayed at the Hyundai Hotel (very nice) and an eccentric “pet hotel” (more for dogs than humans).
  • Quote: “The place was made for dogs… Like almost to like, why is this place so made for dogs?” – Aaron [11:10]
• Quarries: Dramatic mountainous settings unlike what the team expected. Used drones to scout sites and orchestrate filming of working machines.
  • Quote: “It looked like the Smoky Mountains, but just, like, on and on. The whole place looked like that.” – Aaron [13:59]
• Operators at quarries ran machines specifically for the team’s shots—sometimes after some encouragement from stoic bosses.
• Food and cultural surprises: South Korea is famous for fried chicken; the team was repeatedly offered massive platters.

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5. Korean Forklift and Wheeled Excavator Licensing Challenge ([18:16–21:21])

• The team attempted the Korean wheeled excavator driver’s test and forklift certification—the real deal, complete with precise obstacle courses.
  • Quote: “I must have spent 20, 30 times trying it… I'd be just brushing the line. It was like, nope. Fail.” – Aaron [19:17]
• The local hosts took great delight in the crew’s efforts, with plenty of laughs all around.

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6. Testing Facility: Hands-on with Heavy Equipment ([22:01–24:42])

• At Develon’s testing facility, Aaron talked his way into operating a 20-ton excavator, and then a 90-ton monster, even loading trucks.
  • Quote: “Some poo came out on that one. And then I was like, all right, I'm going to lay off the heaping scoops here.” – Aaron [23:37]
• Shared the humor of jumping between operating machines and enjoying the luxury of hands-on access.

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7. Departure to India: Airport Drama and First Impressions ([25:46–30:48])

• Airport security in Asia, especially with all their electronics and batteries, was a recurring challenge—overweight and overpacked production gear almost got them booted.
  • Quote: “I just looked at her eyes and she was. I was like, this isn't good, is it?” – Chris [26:35]
• India made an immediate impression with sensory overload: cows everywhere, crazy traffic, families on scooters, endless activity.
  • Quote: “India is a whole different thing... beautiful and just super interesting. Everywhere you looked there was something like what. What is that?” – Ben [29:10]

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8. The Taj Mahal and Wonders of the World ([30:48–34:36])

• A day trip to the Taj Mahal was a must-do for the team, and it exceeded expectations in beauty, scale, and craftsmanship.
  • Quote: “That was my fourth Wonder of the World… They're all wonders, but they're all way different.” – Aaron [32:26]
• The team's amazement at the architecture, inlaid stone, and the sheer grandeur; observations about lack of American tourists.

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9. Udaipur, Quarry Visits, and Indian Road Life ([34:36–43:41])

• Udaipur: Rose petal greetings, traditional garb, and vegetarian feasts at a stunning hotel.
• Road travel: Chaotic but functional; monkeys, cows, and street hustle everywhere.
• Quarry visits: Huge granite blocks and dangerous, steep sandstone pits, but everyone extremely welcoming.
  • Quote: “How do people find this? They know that this was out here…” – Chris [40:28]
• Indian site vehicles: motorcycles, crocs, and flip-flops!
  • Quote: “It's motorcycles… They're just cruising sight and motorcycle. I'm like, flip flops.” – Aaron [42:40]
• Trucks and machines decked out with tassels, mustaches, and unique jingles—a highlight for the whole crew.

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10. Pune Factory Tour and Contrasts with Korea ([43:41–47:49])

• Pune factory: From raw steel to finished booms and sticks, less strict about safety but still extremely efficient and well run.
  • Quote: “They were moving Swiss watch in there. Yeah, I was really impressed.” – Aaron [46:58]
• More up-close access for filming—standing on machinery, inside paint booths, etc.

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11. Mumbai Finale and Reflections ([48:19–51:12])

• Mumbai: Massive, vibrant city with a welcoming atmosphere; beautiful coastal drives and lively street scenes.
• Quote: “I was really just impressed with. It was not really like what I was expecting. I think it gets a bad rap in the States especially. But I thought it was fantastic. I would go back.” – Aaron [49:03]
• Amusing street interactions, monkey encounters, and courteous hotel staff.
• Late-night dinners, vegetarian cuisine, and the challenge of adapting routines.
• Closing Tone: Grateful, impressed, eager for more global construction adventures: “Let's go.” – Aaron [51:59]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You could have spent one day in just one dry dock.” – Aaron on the Ulsan Shipyard [05:01]
• “I didn't fly halfway around the world for you to cook the meat in the back room. I want it right in front of me.” – Aaron on Korean BBQ [03:41]
• “It looked like the Smoky Mountains, but just, like, on and on. The whole place looked like that.” – Aaron on Korean quarry landscapes [13:59]
• “Some poo came out on that one.” – Aaron, after overloading the 90-ton excavator [23:37]
• “India is a whole different thing… beautiful and just super interesting. Everywhere you looked there was something like what. What is that?” – Ben [29:12]
• “They were moving Swiss watch in there. Yeah, I was really impressed.” – Aaron on the Pune factory [46:58]
• “I was really just impressed with. It was not really like what I was expecting. I think it gets a bad rap in the States especially. But I thought it was fantastic. I would go back.” – Aaron on India [49:03]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:08–02:12: Trip intro & Hyundai invitation
• 02:12–03:41: First impressions of South Korea—food, culture
• 04:21–09:08: Ulsan shipyard and excavator factory visit
• 10:20–17:58: Countryside, hotels, and outdoor quarries
• 18:16–21:21: Forklift/excavator driver test hijinks
• 22:01–24:42: Operating machines at testing facility
• 25:46–30:48: Fly to India; Delhi and airport dramas
• 30:48–34:36: Taj Mahal and reflections on wonders of the world
• 34:36–43:41: Udaipur, granite/sandstone quarries, and Indian roads
• 43:41–47:49: Pune factory, contrasts with Korean manufacturing
• 48:19–51:12: Mumbai, final reflections, and wrapping up

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Episode Summary

This travelogue-style episode delivers a lively, honest, and often hilarious snapshot of working in the global Dirt World. Aaron and the team reflect on industrial might, the hospitality of hosts, moments of awe (and comic disaster) in factories and at famed sites, the challenges of cross-cultural work, and the everyday details that make up the construction and mining industries in Asia. Their storytelling is filled with humor, tangible admiration for local craftsmanship, and a genuine passion for connecting the global construction community.

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Final Thought:
“It was a fantastic trip… factories, equipment, culture. I would go back 10 times over."
— Aaron Witt [49:03]

Transcript

[Aaron]

All right, so this special edition of the Dirt Talk podcast is to recap our most recent adventure. Ironically, we're leaving for another adventure today, which will hopefully be another recap episode. But I thought we'd just.

[Ben]

If we pass the test.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

And if we survive, we still have a job for.

[Chris]

For bigger.

[Aaron]

For bigger trips. I thought, like, as much as we can just get on here and tell people what we are doing, why we're doing it. The behind the scenes, just different perspective because it doesn't all come through in the YouTube content, social content, pictures, etc.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah.

[Aaron]

So we.

[Ben]

The.

[Chris]

The.

[Aaron]

The.

[Chris]

The.

[Aaron]

To preface the trip, Hyundai, which is HD construction machinery is their technical term out in Korea.

[Chris]

They.

[Aaron]

They've sponsored the Dirt World Summit. I think they're coming back as a sponsor this year alongside almost every other equipment manufacturer other than one of them, which paints equipment yellow, which is really weird. They reached out, though, they said, hey, we'd love to have you out to see what we do. And I said, that'd be great. The brands, I think, are better known in the States as Hyundai and Devon. So they're both the brands. But we've been. I've. I've now been to. I've seen Lieber out in France and Germany. I've seen XCMG in China, seen Hitachi in Japan. So when Hyundai offered not just Korea, but also India, I was like, let's go. And they suggested Korea and then India at some point. But I was like, why don't we just combine the two trips? Which I think was a good. A good move. I'm glad we did that. Oh, yeah. And let's see. Both. One week in Korea, one week in India, which I also think was the right order of operations. So none of us had ever been to either country. You guys, you'd never been to Asia?

[Ben]

No.

[Aaron]

You'd been to Indonesia.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But it was our first foray into Korea and India. We flew from the United States through Minneapolis to Seoul, and then we took a train from Seoul to Ulsan to then do the shipyard excavator factory. What were your guys's initial impressions of Korea? Did you have expectations going into it?

[Ben]

I didn't even know what to expect. It was. But it was different than whatever little bit of expectation I had. But in all in a positive way. Like, it was super clean, the people were awesome, and the food was great. So, you know, anywhere you go, anytime you go somewhere, it's like, what am I going to be eating over here? But it was all leaves.

[Aaron]

I mean, you. You probably ate more than. More than any both of us combined. Yeah. There wasn't a single thing that you didn't try.

[Ben]

Yeah, no, I'm down to try things, man. And the Korean, like, you know what they were giving us? What? You know, I'm sure they were giving us the, the good stuff, but still all the meat and everything. They were. The Korean barbecue was. You can't beat that.

[Aaron]

Well, night. Night one I think we agreed was the best meal of them all. The, the, the. I don't know what kind of steak we had.

[Chris]

There was three different kinds of it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Chris]

It was like, which one do you

[Aaron]

like that Mike, a little in front of you and you're kind of talking over it. Yeah, There you go. Or just push it back.

[Ben]

He's a video guy, not an audio guy.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They just started bringing us meat and they're like, do you want us cook in the kitchen or here? It's like you're cooking it here, man.

[Ben]

Let's see. Yeah, yeah. Let's see the show.

[Aaron]

I didn't fly halfway around the world for you to cook the meat in the back room. I want it right in front of me.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And it was, it was fan. That was. Yeah. I don't know what, I don't know what we were eating, but it's tasty.

[Chris]

It was great.

[Aaron]

Boy, was that good.

[Ben]

Why? I ate a lot of leaves. How'd you like the leaves?

[Chris]

They're spicy. Yeah, they're very spicy. Yeah. I'm way too.

[Aaron]

Brought me back. I'm too white for, for spice.

[Chris]

I wanted to be like, Ben, try everything. And then I tried the leaf. Like just as soon as they sat down, I was like, I'm be brave and shouldn't have.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

That was like day two or three. And then you were a lot more reserved on the trigger.

[Chris]

Where's the fried chicken at?

[Aaron]

Well, we took a train. Did you guys enjoy the train ride?

[Chris]

Train was great.

[Ben]

Train was great. Yeah. Yeah. Leaving out of Seoul and then going through some of the country.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Two hours, you're across the entire country on a high speed train, which is. It's just amazing. We did the shipyard first thing.

[Ben]

That was awesome.

[Aaron]

Thoughts of the shipyard. It was quick.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Yeah. I wish we spent.

[Aaron]

We're able to film it.

[Ben]

There was so much going on. Like it was just packed with activity and like the. You'd see him moving these huge like pieces that were going to get, you know, welded together and you just like get a glance inside these hangers and just the work that was going on. In there was, was pretty incredible.

[Chris]

It's like a beehive.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You could have spent one day in just one dry dock.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And they're what, like what, like 10 or 15 dry docks all with some mega LNG carrier cargo ship or they're building submarines over in the other corner.

[Ben]

It's just unbelievable how many towers were on that one carrier that we saw. What was it, like 80 something or probably even more. You remember that the low boy with the little guy in front.

[Aaron]

Oh yeah.

[Chris]

Crammed in there.

[Aaron]

Yeah, yeah. With the bicycles. Yeah, with the bike.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I, I, the, the part I wish we could have seen more of and they said we can come back and actually see it. But, but I wanted to see the engines get built.

[Chris]

Oh my gosh.

[Aaron]

Yeah, like the, the ship engines there. For people that are unfamiliar with ship engines, they weigh 500 tons. Yeah, the engine. 500 tons.

[Ben]

That's crazy. Think about it.

[Aaron]

When an Escalade is like maybe three tons. So. But that was, that was just really cool to see. That was like they kind of just threw it out there. Do you want to see the shipyard? Boy, do I want to see a shipyard. World's best shipyard. Of course. But then no drugs, no filming, unfortunately. But then the real party kicked off when we went to the excavator factory. Yeah, no, it was. I think you guys had never been in a factory before either.

[Ben]

No. Yeah, not like that at all.

[Aaron]

What'd you think about the factory?

[Chris]

Well, oiled machine, the assembly line was so cool. Just.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Kept moving down. Everyone was doing their part. Very cool.

[Ben]

We were very out of place. We were slowing them down, it felt like. But they were. Yeah, they were getting after it.

[Aaron]

They were, they were locked in, man. Like they didn't really care about us buzzing about. Or maybe they were just playing it cool.

[Chris]

Yeah, well, I mean, Ben kind of

[Aaron]

crossed a couple lines dripping the sensors,

[Ben]

stopping production one or two times I think. Didn't help. But the people there were great and yeah, they, they were locked in and focused.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Ben did shut the production line down and probably costed Hyundai a few hundred grand.

[Ben]

Those senses are very.

[Chris]

The shot is going to look so cool.

[Ben]

Yeah, the shot will be good. It will look great once my thumb

[Aaron]

gets photoshopped out of it once I hit record. But yeah, the video, it'll be the whole excavator production process from, from start to finish, which I think is just going to be a killer video. Very prescriptive, very linear, very. There's a payoff at the end, of course. You get to see the final machine

[Ben]

watching the tracks get put on them. And then watching the two pieces get married, too. I mean, those. I've never seen anything like that.

[Chris]

The tracks and the grease were cool.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Greece was fun.

[Ben]

A lot of grease. Yeah.

[Aaron]

People loved the grease, man. I haven't posted the India grease robot either, yet. I've been sitting on that one for any day. Yeah. I. I like. When I first went to factories, too, I always expected it to be more chaotic, but there's just. And no drama anywhere. It's just people doing their jobs.

[Chris]

Yep.

[Aaron]

And it almost seems just like. It's just very simple. There's not a lot of talking. There's not a lot of stuff around. It's just. And then stuff just shows up as they need it. Like, it. It's just very. Like, it just flows so, so nicely.

[Ben]

That's what it looked like. Everything was so organized. Like, all the pieces. They had plenty of whatever they needed at each station. That was definitely something. They were loaded up with all the parts that they needed.

[Aaron]

It looked like plenty, but not too much. There's not like racks of parts sitting.

[Ben]

It wasn't messy at all. Like, it was all just.

[Chris]

No one was running around to grab stuff. It was all in their little area.

[Aaron]

Yeah. That was fun. We had lunch at the factory.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Which was great. I thought that that was actually a really good meal.

[Chris]

It was good.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

And they all ate together, too. I didn't realize that was a thing. Like, all the people.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Ben]

All the factory workers were up there. Yeah.

[Aaron]

It was pretty cool. Which is pretty common. Yeah. Everybody. Yeah. Yeah. They just have a cafeteria there.

[Ben]

Nice.

[Aaron]

But what was unusual there was. They shut down.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

The factory shuts down at lunch.

[Chris]

Yeah. They turned the lights off. And they turned the lights off, which I was not. We're going to have to come back after lunch. We can't see.

[Aaron]

One of those nights we got fried chicken.

[Ben]

Lot of fried chicken.

[Aaron]

Which was not expected. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris]

My buddy told me South Korea is actually famous for fried chicken.

[Aaron]

Really?

[Chris]

Yeah. Because when I told him, I went. He was like, how was the fried chicken? Really? It's like. Well, it was good.

[Aaron]

That's how people ask.

[Chris]

That's.

[Aaron]

People ask of us from Nashville. They're like, I don't know. I don't eat five chicken. I couldn't tell you.

[Chris]

The hot chicken.

[Aaron]

You ask the tourists. They're the only ones that eat it, I think.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So excavator factory. Any other thoughts? Impressions?

[Chris]

That was so cool. It was very Clean, very clean. The, the AGVs, the auto automated guided vehicles or whatever, they were so cool. Zippity doo. Dawn around.

[Ben]

Yeah, a lot of them too.

[Chris]

A lot. All over.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. They, they, it was. It's their smart factory. So they had robotic welding, robotic inspection. They had automated paint. The little AGVs carrying stuff around automatically dropping off heavy parts. The robot greaser.

[Chris]

Yeah, the greaser.

[Aaron]

They had like camera systems for the inspection process. It just, it was among the most impressive factories I've been in.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Ben]

In the yard too. I mean they were pumping out excavators and they had them all lined up. Just the outside was pretty impressive too. Yeah.

[Chris]

Oh yeah. Very symmetrical.

[Aaron]

So that excavator factory. Then we got in the van and drove into like the middle of the country, into the countryside. Stayed at the Hyundai Hotel which was baller.

[Chris]

Very cool. Very, very.

[Ben]

Right next to the yard. The shipyard.

[Aaron]

Right next to with a shipyard with

[Ben]

the generals coming through.

[Aaron]

Coming through.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Then we the next night stayed at

[Chris]

the pet hotel, the penitentiary. Yeah. Which was.

[Ben]

Felt a little like insane asylum.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Big was big unpainted steel doors.

[Aaron]

Yep. Yeah, steel doors.

[Ben]

A little more rustic.

[Chris]

Dog tied up in the lobby.

[Aaron]

But it was a happy looking dog.

[Chris]

The dog was happy.

[Aaron]

I think. I think the hotel was like a dog's.

[Ben]

Sure. For a dog it'd be great.

[Aaron]

There are four seasons for a dog.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

The place was made for dogs.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like almost to like. Why is this place so made for dogs?

[Ben]

Yeah. Should I be here?

[Aaron]

Am I a dog?

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like in my room I had just an empty room. It had a door on it, no windows, nothing inside the room. Just an empty room. Dog room.

[Chris]

Kidd. I would love it.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So we stayed up there. It was really. I had a great run that morning though because it was. I just ran through like the South Korean countryside which was beautiful. It was still winter, had spring hadn't sprung yet, unfortunately, so the trees weren't looking all that good. But really nice morning. Then we went from there to the first. Corey.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Which was pretty neat.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

What you guys think about.

[Aaron]

About that one?

[Chris]

That was awesome.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Just finding the machines and we're like, oh wow, there's one way up there.

[Ben]

Dramatic. Dramatic.

[Chris]

And then the owner was like, let's drive too.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Getting my suv.

[Aaron]

Yeah. So we like when we got there, I was like, I've, I've. I've. I've done trips to China, I've done trips to Japan. So I had a little bit of an understanding of how things went. So like when we went. We first went into the office and we had some tea, which I was. I wasn't surprised by. I was like, of course. You've gotta. Like, I get there, and the sun is still good, and I'm like, let's go.

[Chris]

Shoot.

[Aaron]

But they're like, let's go have tea. I'm like, okay, yeah, let's go talk

[Ben]

to this guy through an interpreter. Yeah, he speaks no English. We speak.

[Aaron]

Let's go. Let's.

[Chris]

Sounds like he's angry at us.

[Aaron]

No, he was chill as it.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben]

That was the biggest boss, like, energy, dude. Like, again, no. No language between us. But you could just tell that guy was running.

[Chris]

Yeah. He was like, they brought the first machine over here. I bought it. They brought the first machine. I bought it.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But then he was even giving him. He's like, I don't. I didn't get a trip. Like, where. Where's Mike?

[Ben]

Yeah, he was good by that.

[Aaron]

He wanted to go to Vegas.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Drove a Maybach, which I thought was pretty baller.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah.

[Aaron]

So got a pretty good thing going.

[Ben]

He got that one guy in stuck up on the. Up on the rocky road, too.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

He just got out of the car, walked over to him, starts yelling at him.

[Chris]

It worked.

[Ben]

It worked. We got him out.

[Aaron]

Yeah, it was. But it was fun. Like, each site we went to, you'd kind of. It's so big, you just throw the drone up, and then you kind of scout, all right, there's that machine up there. This machine over there. This one isn't working. Could they make it work? And then you kind of ask for what you need. And so, yeah, we went, like, the elevation change from where the plant was to where that top. Top. What was it? It was a doosan. All the way up there. Devil on. All the way up at the top. It was way up there. Beautiful.

[Ben]

Yeah, the view was amazing.

[Aaron]

Yeah, it was prettier than. Way prettier than I was expecting. Yeah, just the mountains.

[Ben]

It looked like the Smoky Mountains. Like, I kept thinking of that because I grew up in Eastern City, but, like, just the view you got, it just kept on going. Like, all the mountains and everything.

[Chris]

You wasn't expecting to be mountainous.

[Aaron]

No, I wasn't at all either. But, yeah, it was like the Smoky Mountains, but just, like, on and on. Like, the whole place looked like that.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So we saw the smaller machine, and then they're like, no, they don't. They don't have that machine up there. I'm like, no, they do the. What was it? 870, I think maybe like 900 ton.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Excavator. Yeah. I was like, no, no, no. It's up there, but it's not working. Can they make it work? And they're like, yes. So they put it up on a pile for us. And I think the guy just throws some stuff.

[Chris]

Like in Saudi Arabia at that last site we went to, we were like, can you do something? He started pushing rocks off the edge. And the boss man yelled at him.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Whereas this time it was the boss man telling this guy, just push up. Yeah, just look busy. Yeah. They didn't really need to run it that day, but they ran it for us, which I thought was.

[Ben]

It was great.

[Chris]

Very cool.

[Aaron]

Was really good.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So that was the first quarry. Then where did we stay? We stayed on the coast.

[Chris]

Yeah. Right by the beach, right?

[Aaron]

Yeah, yeah. Very cool. That was a great spot. I went running that next morning and was like. It was. I was like, on an aquarium tour the whole time. Because every restaurant on the beach had, like, one tank would have, like, a hundred octopus on side of it. The next tank would have giant fish. The next tank would be full of crabs. The next tank would have sharks in it.

[Chris]

Yeah. What are you doing with those sharks?

[Aaron]

I'm kind of bummed we didn't get to have something like that. Snap food where you get to actually see your foods.

[Chris]

I want that one. Oh, man. That would be like, shirt.

[Ben]

You would eat it.

[Aaron]

No, I wouldn't do. No, I would.

[Ben]

I would eat.

[Chris]

I mean, shark fish, right?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

It's controversial, but.

[Aaron]

It's controversial.

[Chris]

When in Rome.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Chris]

It's a delicate.

[Ben]

Just a little bit, right? Yeah.

[Chris]

It's a little bit of dolphin.

[Aaron]

No, I would try that, but, like, I mean, some of the shellfish that

[Ben]

they had look delicious. Yeah, definitely.

[Aaron]

I'm sure it was incredible. Yeah, incredible. Get some eels. We went to Starbucks, which we did a lot. We went to Starbucks a lot this trip.

[Ben]

They had hot dogs at the Korean Starbucks that. That threw me for a loop.

[Aaron]

Korean Starbucks was.

[Chris]

Wasn't this the one where we got kicked out for sitting.

[Aaron]

Yes, because we got to go cups.

[Chris]

We got to go cup some of the silly Americans.

[Aaron]

And if you get to go subs, you go.

[Ben]

You go.

[Aaron]

You gotta get out.

[Chris]

You get out.

[Aaron]

And there was no one in the store.

[Chris]

No.

[Aaron]

Only a single soul. Yeah.

[Chris]

And they were. Yeah, yeah.

[Aaron]

They're just pointing at the door.

[Chris]

What are these guys doing?

[Ben]

You leave now.

[Aaron]

So from there, we went to another quarry, which they made machines busy for us as well. They put those two machines again all the way up at the top.

[Chris]

It had to be like 300ft up way.

[Aaron]

I mean.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Hundreds of feet up there. Yeah, hundreds. I wish I would have. You could have measured the drone pretty easy.

[Chris]

I think with the VLC video player. When you play the ROTH or the log file, it shows you at the bottom. It should show you your altitude. So I need to, I need to look at it. But it was, it was up there.

[Aaron]

Yeah, that one again was like. Yeah, just let us know what you need. And those were all Hyundai machines. And There was a 90 ton Hyundai up top and it was just grabbing buckets and then just yeeting them off the edge.

[Ben]

That was, it was like right there, very far down.

[Chris]

It's like we got up there, we're like, oh, wow. And then we're like, oh, there's an avalanche.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

It's the most cost effective way to move material.

[Chris]

Yeah. Grab it. Yeah. Yeah.

[Aaron]

But that was again beautiful. Yeah.

[Chris]

So cool.

[Aaron]

Huge mountain. All that like in the haze.

[Chris]

Yeah. It looked like a painting. Just boom, boom, boom.

[Ben]

Yeah, the drone shots were. Yeah, that's. It was. You couldn't get a bad shot up there, you know, it was just great.

[Aaron]

Yeah, I, I got some fantastic shots.

[Ben]

Yeah. Oh yeah, I got some bad shots.

[Chris]

But yeah, well, when I hit. When I remembered to hit record, it was bad. So.

[Aaron]

Second Corey. Then from there we went to the forklift and we had actually the trainer test.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Yeah. How'd that go?

[Aaron]

Oh, you told it.

[Chris]

How did it go? You didn't get your license?

[Aaron]

I am not licensed.

[Chris]

He gave you. Matthew gave you baby. Next year.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. So the, for, for the people out there. Wheeled excavators are super common in South Korea and they. It's super common to drive them on the road. And we saw them driving everywhere. Like I saw wheeled excavators. I mean, and they're, they are hoofing it, you know, like 40 miles an hour, just straight through town. But to drive a wheeled excavator on the roads, you need a special wheeled excavator license. And then you need a forklift license. Of course. Forklift certified.

[Chris]

Gotta be.

[Aaron]

So that was another thing they offered up. They're like, do you want to try to get your. You want to go through the driver's test, so to speak? And I'm like, boy, do I. I'd love it. And the guy gets in the wheeled excavator and you kind of have to just make this s. And stay within the lines. You can't touch the lines.

[Chris]

And it's pretty.

[Aaron]

It's not super tight, but it's snug, right Enough.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So you have to go through the S and then you have to back up. Back through the S. And he made it look very easy. He did it in one try. No problem. I must have spent 20, 30 times trying it.

[Ben]

Yeah. And it would be up there.

[Chris]

You were good at going forward. And then you'd go back, and I'd, like, look at it. I'd be like, oh, dude, he's got plenty of space. And the guy go, yeah. Bail. Yes.

[Ben]

They're right there watching. Yeah. They call it out right there.

[Aaron]

And I'd be just brushing the line. It was like, nope. Fail.

[Chris]

No. Yeah.

[Ben]

On the drone, it looked like, like, if you even got just a little bit off, like, the next few feet are going to go terrible. You know what I mean? Like, you had to be so precise with it. Yeah. So it was. It was pretty comical from the drum.

[Chris]

Yeah. I can't. I'm ready to see the time lapse.

[Aaron]

Yeah, it was. It was frustrating.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Ben]

I was.

[Aaron]

To the point where I'm like, I, like.

[Ben]

You just kept going. We were like, 15, 20.

[Aaron]

I'm gonna get it.

[Ben]

Y. Yeah, do it.

[Aaron]

And I did do it.

[Ben]

And they were loving it. They were. They were dying.

[Chris]

Like, every time I came to the cab or came to the cab after a try, you'd be like, first try, here we go. Try number one.

[Aaron]

So that'll. That'll be fun. In the video, I tried to get forklift certified, which I enjoyed way more. That was a lot more enjoyable. I did not pass that.

[Ben]

That, like, a more fun course, too. It was fun, but, you know, you know, more engaging.

[Aaron]

A lot more fun. Forklift certification carries a lot more clout, especially with women.

[Ben]

Of course.

[Chris]

Of course.

[Ben]

Why else would you get.

[Aaron]

So I'm a little bummed I didn't get my South Korean forklift certification.

[Chris]

Yeah. But I.

[Aaron]

If I had another try or two, we didn't have as much time. We had to go elsewhere. I. I think I could have nailed that one. That one. I was like, yeah, I could do this.

[Chris]

I liked how whenever you went to the forklift, Hong, our host, got in the excavator and went and did it perfectly.

[Ben]

Yeah. Oh, he commented. Yeah. He was like, I think he failed in the first time. It's like hog talking trash.

[Aaron]

They were fun.

[Chris]

It was.

[Ben]

They were fun. Hong was great. Their whole team was awesome. Yeah.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They were a ton of fun.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Yeah, they were yeah, yeah.

[Ben]

How's the chicken? It's good.

[Chris]

Man.

[Aaron]

You a whole lot of baby, huh?

[Ben]

That one guy was just responsible for our food and he was very concerned. Oh.

[Aaron]

And they, I mean they were like feeding us.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Towards the end I was like guys, I don't need the entire table.

[Chris]

Every time was just platters and 5,000 poles.

[Aaron]

I. And then the, the meat like it was so rich one night I just, I had too much of it.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I didn't even, it wasn't even a lot but it was just so rich and fatty that I was not feeling good after that one. Oh yeah. But just in like a.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Need to sleep for 10 hours.

[Aaron]

And then the final stop was the testing facility where Devlon does all of their equipment testing. Which was cool cuz there were a bunch of guys there just running excavators around. Lap wap wap wap. Cycle, cycle, cycle. Kind of off in the distance. But then they gave us maybe like a 20ish ton excavator. And I was like can I run it? And they're like okay, yeah, you can run it. I don't think they're expecting me to ask if I could move some dirt with it. It's like well it's an excavator. There's a third here. I, I'd like to move some dirt.

[Chris]

That's what it does.

[Ben]

Let me get a halt truck over.

[Aaron]

Well, so I think it caught them off guard. And then I was like can I load? And there's, there's like a whole buffet of equipment sitting right there.

[Ben]

Give a mass cookie like come on, keep sending that.

[Aaron]

And, and it was a. Well there was a whole truck there. So I was like can I load the truck? And they're like I, I, I guess so they kind of get the area set up. It was not set up at all.

[Ben]

No, not at all.

[Aaron]

I get up on the pile. The pile is way too high to be loading a haul truck with a 20 ton excavator.

[Chris]

The tiniest excavator. Yeah.

[Aaron]

It wasn't really working all that well. But to their credit they're like, do you want to use the 90 ton machine? And I'm like oh boy, do I. Is it bear shit in the woods? So they got it a little bit more squared away. I got in the 90 ton excavator up on the pile. The material was really wet so I took a big old heaping scoop.

[Chris]

That first scoop. Yeah dude.

[Aaron]

I lifted the back end of that machine up.

[Ben]

But I was going right as you can hear them all gasping. Yes.

[Aaron]

I. Some poo came out on that one. And then I was like, all right, I'm going to lay off the heaping scoops here. Half buckets only I'm not playing around. And then I load the truck, and I'm like, beeping to the truck driver because the. One of their operators had backed it in, and I thought.

[Chris]

And he stayed for the 20 ton. When you were loading the 20 ton, he stayed with it, moved it, dumped it, whatever.

[Ben]

Yeah. Then he's standing over on the side.

[Aaron]

I didn't realize he got out. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, oh, wait, there's nobody in the federal first bucket.

[Ben]

He ran. Yeah.

[Aaron]

I don't blame him. So then I got out of the excavator and then got into the truck. Yeah.

[Ben]

And then that was. That was very funny. You just see Aaron get down this huge excavator, run down the pile, then hop in the truck. Yeah.

[Chris]

And the whole time you're commentating, you're like, all right, as the truck driver, I now have to put this. This pile in the most inconvenient spot.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Then you get in the excavator. Who put this pile here? Yeah.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

What idiot dumped it here? But that was. That was. That was a ton of fun.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

That'll make the video really fun, too.

[Chris]

Yeah. That'll be good for the travel vlog. Yeah.

[Aaron]

So that was our time in Korea. We then wrapped up again in Incheon before we went to the airport. We got some skincare products.

[Ben]

We did. Yeah. They insisted on it. They're like, you have to get some face masks or whatever. And they're like, okay, just let us leave. No, they were great. They were very friendly.

[Aaron]

We went to the mall.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Very busy, that mall.

[Ben]

Yeah. That whole area out there. Yeah. I mean, it was crazy. A huge mall.

[Chris]

Like, I mean, the cherry blossoms were in bloom, too, so there were tons of people there for that.

[Ben]

It's like their Disney world. What do they call it? I can't remember what it was, but it had some name. They had that little chipmunk whatever thing.

[Chris]

The Mickey Mouse ripoff statues. Yeah.

[Ben]

They just, like, owned them all. But see, did you just see this, like, cartoon creature staring at you while

[Chris]

Dizzy's rolling in his grave?

[Aaron]

Any other thoughts? Comments on Korea?

[Ben]

No. That was.

[Chris]

That was amazing.

[Ben]

Super impressive. Yeah. Just. They were great. Great hosts. Yeah. Had a great time.

[Chris]

Took care of us. Didn't.

[Ben]

Had a lot of no request.

[Aaron]

Yeah, No, I. I had no complaints.

[Chris]

Yeah. No, they were amazing.

[Aaron]

Yeah. So then we boarded a flight the next morning from Seoul to Delhi. Delhi. Well, like seven, eight hours, not so.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah. Me and Ben had a hard time getting on the plane because they almost. Yeah, they were giving us the little

[Ben]

child and aneurysm because our bags, they have a very strict weight limit for that carry on. And our gear bags are like 60, 70 pounds. And they're like. You could just see that her brain kind of exploded. Yeah.

[Aaron]

The weight limit's like 25 kilograms, which is like, insane. Well, like 14 pounds. No less.

[Ben]

Well, I think it was 10 kilograms. It was way less because ours, it

[Chris]

was like seven, I think.

[Aaron]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds.

[Ben]

Is it? You're asking the wrong guy. I just remember the signs that I.

[Chris]

I just looked at her eyes and she was. I was like, this isn't good, is it?

[Aaron]

I think it's 2.2.ish. So, yeah, if you're. If you're a airline. Anybody close your ears, Your mouth?

[Ben]

Yeah, sorry.

[Aaron]

Our bags are, like, way.

[Chris]

They're.

[Aaron]

They're over the limit and. And Ben packed a lot of stuff.

[Ben]

I overpacked. It was my first big trip like that. Two weeks on the road. I was like, I'm bringing your backpack.

[Aaron]

It was like 70.

[Ben]

70 over 70.

[Chris]

It was 70. Mine was around. I think my. Yours was.

[Ben]

It was their news. I mean, I get why they're concerned.

[Aaron]

Yeah. You see, you could have £25, I think is the limit. But yeah, you'd see 75.

[Chris]

His was 33 kg. And then mine was like 24. Yeah. And then. But then it. We get on the plane and. Because on the Indian. The India flight, you could book. You could like, reserve a middle seat so you have no one there. So we did that just because, like, why not? And then the lady was like, well, you've reserved the middle seat, so you can put your bags there, not in the overhead bin. And then as soon as we get on the flight, they're like, can you.

[Ben]

Another flight. You gotta just get those up in the bed.

[Chris]

And then it says in the bag, it's like, weight limit is 110lbs. So as long as we didn't put our bags in the same one.

[Ben]

Yeah. Nobody dies.

[Chris]

Yeah, but looking.

[Aaron]

Looking at your bag, it was like, I wouldn't let you on.

[Ben]

Yeah. Yeah, it does look. It looks wrong. Yeah, it looks really.

[Chris]

And like, you. You have like the whole backside. Even the roll top is like, just stuff down.

[Aaron]

And then you have the mesh on the outside with shit stuffed.

[Ben]

Which looks like something you shouldn't have a plan anyway. And the reason they were like we couldn't check them because they all have drone batteries and a ton of batteries. So it's like we have to keep them with us the whole time.

[Chris]

Well that's.

[Aaron]

That's the irony is like, well, you want us. You're limiting us on weight, but you don't want batteries in checked bags.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So which is it? And that. And I love making that argument to them. It's like, well, which is it? Like, okay then I'll put all my batteries underneath. Well, you can't do that. Okay, then I'm taking it all with me.

[Chris]

Like you.

[Aaron]

You choose. You tell me what. What the issue is. But it's only a problem. International.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Never once.

[Ben]

It was only that one specific airline. Yeah. And the rest of it was not too bad.

[Chris]

And she was like, this is the only time you can do this, talk to the flight crew. You can do this once.

[Aaron]

Yeah, I've been told that by other.

[Ben]

And I was foreshadowing for the Indian air security. We'll get to later. But.

[Aaron]

So we fly into Delhi. What were your impressions of Delhi?

[Ben]

Oh man, it. Awesome. But it. That's a completely different place. Like South Korea was like. You could see similarities like in a big American town. But it, you know, had its. Obviously its own thing. India is a whole different thing. Which was like awesome to see that.

[Chris]

You know, just cows everywhere.

[Ben]

It's a whole different thing they got going on over there. But again, incredible. Like beautiful and just super interesting. Everywhere you looked there was something like what. What is that?

[Aaron]

You know, so much happening.

[Ben]

Yeah. So much every. So many people.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Cows like you said everywhere. Scooters flying by with like four or five people on them and caring propane

[Chris]

tanks and chairs just staring gear.

[Aaron]

And then the Delhi was beautiful.

[Ben]

It was. Yeah. It really was gorgeous. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Unbelievable.

[Ben]

So vibrant, colorful.

[Chris]

The archway. The entrance to India. Yeah, it was called.

[Aaron]

Yeah. We stayed. Yeah. Pretty close to like the government area buildings, the embassies and I know Delhi is a big place, but wherever we were was. I thought was beautiful. I ran down like it's kind of like their Washington Mall version of it. It's just this long stretch with their government building at the. At the very end of it. And I thought it was. I had. I had a great time. But we went to Delhi because the next day we went to the Taj Mahal. So we drove to Agra.

[Ben]

This was Saturday or Sunday, right? Yeah.

[Aaron]

And that was. That Was my request. I'm like, if I'm going to India. Yeah. I don't know where we're going in India. I want to go to the Taj Mahal. They're like, all right. Yeah. Like, I thought that was well worth the trip. My gosh.

[Chris]

It's incredible.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Beautiful.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Beautiful.

[Chris]

Insane.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Tons of people, but, I mean, not. Not many. Like, we're the only Americans there.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Ben]

I was surprised by that.

[Aaron]

I was. I was surprised, too.

[Ben]

Not. Not a lot of visible Americans.

[Aaron]

No, no. I mean, it was. Yeah. Mostly people from India.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

That were there visiting, which is cool.

[Ben]

So. Yeah. They like it, too, you know, really cool. But, yeah, that's. It's you. Because you walk through that doorway, you know, and you can see it in the background, and it's kind of like a big reveal. That was. That was pretty incredible because just you got to go through and get there. You don't really see anything. You know, maybe off in the distance, but then that's the big moment. And it was. It's very cool. Yeah. I would recommend it to anybody.

[Aaron]

Yeah. We got to go inside the.

[Chris]

The pigeon. Just living it up.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Chris]

At the top of the dodge, the happiest business.

[Aaron]

They have no idea how good this is.

[Chris]

Letting loose wherever.

[Aaron]

Right in the dodge. All over the time.

[Ben]

They make us put the. The. The covers over our feet. Meanwhile, the pigeons just flat around.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They're allowed, but they. I mean, they. They really take care of that thing.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah, they. And it was. It's incredible, too.

[Ben]

Security all over the place.

[Aaron]

Well, security all over the place, but the whole place was way overgrown, like, a few decades ago. Not even that long ago. So it. It's only like. We've always known it as this beautiful, manicured space, but the whole place was untouched for centuries. Twice as old as America.

[Ben]

Yeah. Yeah. Just overgrown.

[Chris]

Was crazy. They said they cleaned it, like, once a year. It takes, like. Was that it? Or once every.

[Aaron]

A deep clean. Every eight years.

[Chris]

Every eight years.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Felt like a full cleaning of every marble surface.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Outside, inside, everything. Awesome. That was my fourth. Fourth wonder the world. We went to Petra.

[Chris]

Yeah. That was super cool, too. Yeah.

[Aaron]

That was badass.

[Ben]

How do you rank the four that you've been to so far? Or can you. I know it's.

[Aaron]

They're all wonders, but they're all way different.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. They're all completely different.

[Ben]

Tough to rank them.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I don't know if you can rank them.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I think Petra, though, was the most, like, intricate. Intricate and also just, like, why is this even here? And they don't even still know.

[Chris]

They do.

[Aaron]

And yeah, they have their theories, but nothing's confirmed. Nice little mystery. Yeah. And they think they understand it, but it's like a lot of it's been.

[Chris]

Are you sure about that? Yeah.

[Aaron]

And. And then Petra, too. I was expecting it to be like, what is on in the pictures? Like the main gallery, but there's so much more to it. Like, I mean, it's a whole city.

[Chris]

Yeah. Like, you had the main gallery, then you'd walk around it and it just opens up.

[Ben]

Oh, wow.

[Chris]

It's crazy. Yeah.

[Aaron]

And you're kind of looking at it, you're like, so what were they doing here? Like, there's just more mystery to it.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You know, it's like, why here? Yeah.

[Chris]

Why in the rock? Yes.

[Aaron]

Yes.

[Ben]

It looks.

[Chris]

There's got to be something easier.

[Aaron]

Well, in it. It's out there. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's out there because.

[Chris]

Because we pulled up to the place and it's like, all right, you have a half mile walk through this. These caverns at least can. It might have been.

[Aaron]

It might have been more than that. It might have been a mile or two.

[Chris]

Yeah, it was.

[Aaron]

You're walking for a while.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah. But then it just opens up.

[Aaron]

It's so cool. Well, yeah.

[Ben]

The one thing I didn't realize, the Taj Mahal was mausoleum like I thought it was.

[Aaron]

I thought it was an Alice thing as well.

[Ben]

One per. Two people, I guess, are buried there. Yeah, that's the. The whole thing. It was built for, which.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

His late wife.

[Ben]

His.

[Aaron]

Yeah, his sweetest sweetie. 14 kids, I think it was.

[Chris]

Yeah. She died in childbirth after the 14th

[Aaron]

kid spent 20 years building it.

[Chris]

20 some thousand people made it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Incredible.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Marble from hundreds of kilometers away.

[Chris]

Somehow all the jade and emeralds and precious stones.

[Aaron]

Well, and just the precision. Like even all the carvings.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You have all the Arabic all the way up and down it and they're like, that's not painted. That's carved into the marble with then stone inlaid into the marble. And you look at it really close and you're like, whoa. But there's not a single gap.

[Ben]

I mean. Yeah, it still looks exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like they did it with a laser.

[Ben]

That's crazy.

[Aaron]

That was great. Then we flew from Delhi to Udaipur. Udaipur. And that was when we started to learn about Indian airport security. Our friends.

[Chris]

Our friends, they were happy to see us.

[Aaron]

Yeah. So our bags are dense with electronics, to say the least.

[Chris]

And metal Lots of metal and batteries,

[Aaron]

and they want every cord out of your bags. And we didn't know that going into it.

[Chris]

We just rolled up, like we usually do. We were like, all right, yeah, whatever. Laptop, shoes. I got it. And then they're like, take more out. We're like, all right, batteries. Got it. Oh, camera body's got it. Oh, the cables. And then poor Ben, he's like, bring his bin up full of stuff, and the guy would be like, another bin.

[Ben]

Get out of there.

[Chris]

Go grab another tote thing. Put some more in.

[Aaron]

Nope.

[Ben]

55.

[Aaron]

Well, it was like. It was like a comedy bit.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like, it could have been part of the show.

[Ben]

You just had to laugh at something.

[Aaron]

I was looking back at you because you're the last one. I. I had somehow gotten through finally. And, yeah, there's just, like, piles of

[Ben]

bids and a lot of angry, like, native Indians waiting. Like, this fucking guy.

[Aaron]

We shut the security line down.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But maybe 30 minutes.

[Ben]

Yeah. It was prolonged.

[Aaron]

And then they called. They had to call the airport guy over, and they're talking. They're like, we made it through. And he's like, you're gonna have to come to the counter out back. Out of security. I'm like, no, because her flight was a boarding in, like, 15, 20 minutes.

[Chris]

Yeah. I'm like, it was tight.

[Aaron]

No, no, no. So I'm arguing with the guy because I know if we go back out, there's no way.

[Ben]

No.

[Chris]

We're going to dungeon.

[Ben]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Aaron]

And I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if we're making any flight after that.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But somehow they waved us through after all of us got every single cord and piece of metal checked. Yeah.

[Chris]

No, and it was. It was crazy because all my stuff came through. I packed it up and, like, I was like, all right, I'm good. And the guy was like, nope, we. We need it again. And I had to take it off, and they had to scan it all again. So it's just. It was crazy.

[Aaron]

Yeah. But that was really good. We were with our friend at this point. Abdi.

[Ben]

Yep. Shout out.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Works for HD Construction in India. He was our.

[Ben]

Who was?

[Aaron]

Our guy. He was with us.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah. The whole entire time, day and night,

[Aaron]

which was really cool.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So we flew to Udaipur, which they said is very famous for weddings.

[Chris]

Yeah. The. The lake.

[Aaron]

Pretty.

[Ben]

Yeah, it was. Yeah.

[Aaron]

It kind of reminded me of, like. Like wine country. Like Temecula almost.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like, it wasn't super lush. Delhi was a little bit more jungle, leafy. Yeah, yeah. Whereas this was. Was a little bit more dry. Not barren, but not. Not like jungle.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But they still had monkeys.

[Ben]

They did have more monkeys there, I think we saw than anywhere else. We saw a few in Delhi, right?

[Chris]

Yeah, in Delhi, at the Starbucks on

[Ben]

the road where they were.

[Aaron]

Well, I saw a shitload of monkeys at Delhi. Okay.

[Ben]

They weren't. There were a ton, to be fair, but that was the one where they were just climbing up on the walls. And the big monkeys, too, were like. We were driving. We saw. Yeah.

[Chris]

They were just charging down at some big boys.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And they were like. They're like. If, like a kid draws a monkey, it was like those monkeys, they got the. The big curled tail. They looked exactly.

[Chris]

Stereotypical monkey.

[Ben]

This the real deal.

[Chris]

Cartoon monkey. Cartoon monkey.

[Aaron]

But we stayed in, like, one of the prettiest places ever been.

[Ben]

Couldn't live. It's like, we do not belong here.

[Chris]

Oh, my gosh. We got. And like, we'd walk into the hotel. Oh, rose petals are falling down on us. They put the. The hats and the. The garb on us, and they bless us with the. Some.y paint or whatever on foreheads.

[Ben]

They went all out. Yeah.

[Chris]

We shimpag and scrap.

[Ben]

I did see later that they just had a stack of those hats. I was like, they're just ready for the next. Yeah. Yeah.

[Aaron]

You said you saw more white people. More white people get the hats. Yeah. But it was. That was a nice touch.

[Ben]

It was. It was great.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Stayed in a beautiful place. My only complaint was that it was vegetarian. It was vegetarian. They had honeycomb, so.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Worth it. But I mean, I. I don't. I think that was like two or three days vegetarian. That was the longest I've not eaten ever an egg or some chicken or something. And I. I don't know, maybe since I was a baby.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Seriously.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I don't think I've ever not eaten some animal product in my life.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But, yeah, beautiful time we from there. That was a lot of driving.

[Chris]

Yeah, it was.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Three or four hours one way.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah. It was like three and a half.

[Aaron]

Three and a half. And you go through the town and the town is just chaos.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Everybody's hustling, dude.

[Aaron]

It was chaos.

[Ben]

It was fun. Like, how crazy it was. It's like, is this real? Like, what's going on?

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

You get anything on the side of the road?

[Ben]

Everywhere. There's no, like, everywhere. They have their own system and never saw a crash to their credit. Like, it was all. It was working. Well, they're going for.

[Aaron]

There was one crash and then there were like 50 people all surrounding the one stopped everything.

[Chris]

And it was two scooters.

[Aaron]

Yeah. I don't know what it was. But then. Yeah. You're just. There's stuff to look at every.

[Ben]

Everywhere. Yeah.

[Aaron]

It was. It was so much fun driving around there because there's just. It's just nonstop sensory overload.

[Ben]

It really is. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like a scooter goes by with a family of five on it. You're like, what did I.

[Ben]

Then I see that cow just walks through traffic and everyone just goes around it. It's no big deal. Exactly.

[Aaron]

Everybody just goes around.

[Ben]

Yeah. The kids out there are not afraid of death.

[Aaron]

That's town was great. We went to a granite quarry.

[Chris]

Yep.

[Aaron]

They were. They were quarrying some big slabs. That was granite.

[Ben]

Yeah. That was. That was incredible. Yeah.

[Chris]

Get to see him cut it falls.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And we were out there. I don't know where we were.

[Chris]

It always amazed me. It's like, how do people find this? They know that this was out here.

[Aaron]

Yeah. And they had excavators just bossing these big old slabs around.

[Chris]

Oh my God.

[Aaron]

20, 30 tons.

[Chris]

People with the big saws, rope saws,

[Aaron]

cutting through everything and beautiful product. It goes all over the world. This granite, this marble they were quarrying and.

[Chris]

Yeah. As we got closer, you'd see them like plenty of granite and marble places. Just selling the stone. I mean, just endless everywhere. We had trucks with it. Yeah.

[Aaron]

So that was cool. Then we were supposed to go to a marble mine to see some blocks. But they were like, we're not doing that anymore.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They're. They're having problems. We're like, yeah, okay. And I thought we were going to. They were like, it's only an hour away tomorrow. They're like, well, change of plans. Now it's like four.

[Ben]

It's even farther.

[Chris]

Yeah. Okay. And I mean the sights were very cool. But it was. The granite was more impressive in my

[Aaron]

opinion than the sandstone. Yeah. Yeah, the sandstone. It was just a little crazy because they were like 80ft deep. So it was like 80 foot high wall.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

With a 20 ton excavator underneath it.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And even when we were in the hole there, I was like, it's just

[Chris]

a little close to me.

[Aaron]

I don't dress it.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

This is a little. I don't know, this is a little shady. But that, but that's how they do it. And there were tons of those operations out there. And they were, they were. Everybody was the, the second, the second Operations. I feel like people. Everybody was pretty stoked to have us.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But it was like, especially that last one we went to. It was like everybody just came out of the work.

[Ben]

First one to all the boys.

[Aaron]

Yeah. There's like, guys there stole your glasses.

[Chris]

Our hard hat.

[Aaron]

They just come up. Yeah.

[Chris]

Didn't say anything. Just grabbed it.

[Ben]

I really loved our day with their.

[Aaron]

With their hard hats and glasses.

[Chris]

Because you were like, those. I have glasses that look just like that. Crazy.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Well. And then the boss yelled at him like, hey,

[Chris]

what are you doing?

[Aaron]

And then they all left.

[Ben]

Scattered.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ben]

They all ride off of motorcycles. That was the coolest part. I thought. Everybody has a motorcycle out there. Yeah. All the boys.

[Aaron]

It's a site vehicle. It's motorcycles.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Aaron]

They're just cruising sight and motorcycle. I'm like, flip flops.

[Chris]

Yeah. And they're crocs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Crocs. And lot of safety toad footwear. Slippers and shorts.

[Aaron]

Shorts.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

I liked that. But I mean, really nice machines that they're running.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They let me run an excavator out on one of the sites and. Yeah. Then we drove the four and a half hours back to town.

[Ben]

The trucks were cool, too. They had the custom decorated trucks and everything.

[Chris]

Oh, the tassels.

[Aaron]

Indian trucks. Huge fan of. Yeah. Super impressive.

[Chris]

The horns, too. It's like they put anything you want.

[Aaron]

Any sound. Yeah. There were no two that were the same. Each one had a different jingle.

[Ben]

They were jingles.

[Chris]

They were catchphrases, really.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

It was awesome.

[Aaron]

Yeah. But in each truck was hand painted.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Hand decorated.

[Ben]

They put a lot of care into it.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Chris]

A lot of them had mustaches.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

And a lot of tassels.

[Aaron]

The trucks were.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They were well cared for. They're not. They're not piles of junk.

[Chris]

I mean, some of them are. Yeah.

[Ben]

No, that was cool, though, because that was kind of like everywhere we went. It was like that everybody.

[Chris]

And I mean, even the. The excavators at the. The first sandstone site on the second day, they had the big tassels on it. Those are cool. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Excavators even had the tassels.

[Chris]

And then the. The fuel tractor had the tassels on. It was decked out too. Yeah. But that.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Saw two operations. Then we went to. We flew from Udaipur back through Delhi. We had to go through airport security twice that day, which was.

[Ben]

That was heartbreaking. Yeah.

[Chris]

Oh, my gosh.

[Aaron]

And it was the same process every airport security.

[Chris]

But we were prepared this time. We were like all right, we're probably gonna have to do this.

[Aaron]

We were mentally prepared.

[Chris]

I still tried to sneak it in. The guy.

[Ben]

I feel like we got better as we with the tr. You know, with practice. Yeah. We got smoother with it because, like. All right. We just know. We'll start. We got a system getting the bins.

[Aaron]

No arguing. Yeah. All right. If you want every cable out. Great.

[Ben]

Don't argue. Yeah. Just bend over and get all your stuff.

[Chris]

Yeah. I mean, because there were guys with AK47s in the airport. Take it out.

[Ben]

Yes, sir.

[Chris]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Don't even think.

[Aaron]

I mean, I don't. Some of the AKs was like. I don't even know if that thing fires.

[Ben]

But they did look a little worn.

[Aaron]

Some were pretty warm.

[Chris]

But when we got the Pune and we walked outside the airport and the guy, the guard is sitting down with the barrel pointing towards.

[Ben]

There's two of them, and they're both. They're both in towards the crowd.

[Chris]

Oh, good. I feel good.

[Ben]

Very casual.

[Chris]

Smoking a cigarette.

[Ben]

Yeah. Kind of like Italians.

[Aaron]

They did look nice. Like, they weren't. I've been to other countries where it's like, that's not somebody you talk to, but these guys were just.

[Ben]

Yeah, that's true.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

So we went. Yeah. Flew through Delhi to Pune. So two flights. And then Pune was another adventure. Just driving through town. Like, we didn't even go that far as the crow flies, but. Holy.

[Ben]

Just jammed up non stop. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Going through that town to the other factory that we saw on the trip, which I thought was just as impressive. It was. It was incredible.

[Ben]

That one was. Yeah.

[Chris]

No, I love that one because it was literally the raw steel. And it's like, here's how we shut it. Here's the boom. The stick.

[Aaron]

Yep. Every time they cut everything.

[Chris]

So cool. Yeah.

[Aaron]

They had plasma. They had lasers torches.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

That was a big part of the plant, too, was just the fabrications.

[Ben]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris]

And they were less. Less concerned about safety, I'd say, than this Korea factory was. Because, like, when we got what we knew, our safety, we could get right over our safety. Yeah. They let us do whatever we wanted. Didn't you stand on the laser?

[Ben]

Yeah. The guy told me. He's like, you can get up there. It's like, good. Get a little closer. I was like, all right.

[Chris]

We went in the paint booth, and they were just spraying paint and just breathing.

[Aaron]

I saw paint. My glasses. Yeah. And my phone.

[Chris]

Yeah. I got. The gimbal is very gritty now.

[Aaron]

Painted.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But they. I mean, it Wasn't like for. For their sake. It was still way buttoned up.

[Chris]

Oh, my God.

[Aaron]

There was. There wasn't a single thing out of line, out of place. Nothing about that factory was like, okay, this is a little Western. Like. Yeah, they had that thing.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

They were moving Swiss watch in there. Yeah. I was really impressed.

[Ben]

More automated machines. Yeah. It was just very efficient. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

And.

[Aaron]

And they even said they're like, yeah, when we do a tour, it's pretty. It's pretty. Like you stay on this line, but for you guys, we're get the shots you need.

[Ben]

Yeah, yeah.

[Aaron]

Which we love.

[Chris]

Like, we're all about it.

[Aaron]

We're not gonna do it irresponsibly, but yeah, it is nice to be a little closer to the action so you can get the better shot.

[Ben]

That's what we're here for.

[Aaron]

That's what we do, baby. So that'll be, I think, a great video as well. We got some different stuff there. Got to spend a little bit more time on some certain things.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Like cutting the steel.

[Ben]

Yep.

[Chris]

Bending it was so cool.

[Aaron]

Bending it and welding it. Very cool. Yep. Painting it. Saw the paint process there. We didn't get to see that really. In. In Korea.

[Chris]

Yeah. Yeah. I'd never really seen it other than like the. The automated stuff, but these guys were just going at it. Yep.

[Ben]

Yep.

[Aaron]

And that was that.

[Ben]

Yep. So it's great.

[Aaron]

Then we. I ran.

[Chris]

I did.

[Aaron]

I did a long run in Pune down the. The highway, which was a busy.

[Ben]

Was that the one with the dogs, you said?

[Chris]

Hours.

[Aaron]

Lots of doggies.

[Ben]

Lots of dogs.

[Aaron]

Yeah, lots of doggies. Lots of people looking at me like, who is this guy? Why is he running?

[Chris]

We shouldn't get him.

[Aaron]

Yep. Yeah, but that was. That was good. And then we drove from there to Mumbai.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

And we got to see Mumbai, which I thought was really, really impressive. Massive city as well.

[Chris]

Yeah, very cool.

[Aaron]

Yeah.

[Ben]

And we got. We were pulling into the city right as the sun was going down over the water and all the people lining up like on that little, I don't know, beach walk, whatever was. It was pretty cool.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben]

Again, just went on for miles and miles and it was just packed with people. It was. Yeah.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Ben]

Very cool.

[Chris]

Me and Ben got the barter with somebody over two elephant pictures. Yeah.

[Ben]

Did a little haggling. Yeah. Authentic Indian non lingual haggling. Lower.

[Aaron]

I was. There was a while I was waiting for you guys. There was a kid out outside trying to scam me. I thought was like, yeah, it has to. Had to Happen.

[Ben]

Everyone's hustling over there, man.

[Aaron]

Dude, they're all hustling.

[Chris]

They got to get their bread.

[Aaron]

I don't blame them one bit.

[Ben]

Yep.

[Aaron]

But I was really just impressed with. It was not really like what I was expecting. I think it gets a bad rap in the States especially. But I thought it was fantastic. I would go back.

[Chris]

It was very.

[Aaron]

10 times over.

[Ben]

Yeah, I would definitely. Absolutely. I want to go back and see more of it.

[Chris]

The guard at the hotel was like, bring your family.

[Aaron]

Yeah, Yeah. I hope to see you with your family next time. And they called us by our middle name.

[Chris]

Did you.

[Aaron]

Did you notice that?

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

He called you Joseph.

[Ben]

Did he really?

[Aaron]

Oh, you do call me Michael.

[Chris]

And I was Patrick. Yeah. And I had to think about it

[Aaron]

for moments like, oh, I think he's using my middle name.

[Ben]

I was probably just doing my.

[Chris]

Okay, don't hurt me.

[Aaron]

Well, and then we were sitting there waiting for the taxis to show up, and this guy just starts playing this instrument.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Chris]

Incredible crazy instrument.

[Ben]

Making direct eye contact.

[Aaron]

We're the only ones.

[Ben]

The only ones.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. And it's like, for 15 minutes, I was like, that's pretty nice. And then he just kept going.

[Ben]

He kept going and going, smiling and nodding.

[Aaron]

And then the monkeys showed up. I'm like, oh, good. I Something to go look at. So I took off and went to go chase after the monkeys.

[Ben]

Yeah. No, shout out to that guy for entertaining.

[Chris]

He was very good.

[Ben]

He was very good at whatever instrument he was playing. Yeah, it was great.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

But awesome time. Nice equipment, factories, culture. Yeah, it was. It was a fantastic trip, but it wasn't.

[Chris]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

It was like. It was just a good week. I didn't. It wasn't. It was long, but I. I didn't feel like I was getting clobbered. No week. I.

[Chris]

No. Yeah. Most of the time we were back, but within a reasonable hour to go. Reason. Hour.

[Aaron]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just. We weren't eating at a reasonable hour. You got con.

[Chris]

Yeah, you got con.

[Aaron]

Some midnight dinners.

[Ben]

They like their late dinners and I'm okay with that. But. Yeah, these boys are not. Late night, late night guys.

[Aaron]

No, no, no, no. But. But everybody's not waking up to those. Those guys aren't waking up.

[Ben]

You're working different hours.

[Aaron]

Six miles, eight miles.

[Ben]

I like that. You were just like, well, I'm just not eating dinner tonight. Just like, go.

[Chris]

That's not possible.

[Ben]

He is very concerned.

[Chris]

How are you going to live, really?

[Ben]

What are you going to eat? How are you going to survive?

[Aaron]

Well, I've made it 31 years. I'll be okay. I'll be fine.

[Ben]

Yeah.

[Aaron]

Yeah. Well, that was this, this, this one. And yeah, tonight we fly to Africa.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah.

[Aaron]

Which I'm sure is going to be another adventure. Oh, yeah.

[Chris]

It's can't wait.

[Aaron]

Okay, well, everybody, thanks for tuning in. Check out the YouTube channel search buildwit B U I L D W I T t on the YouTube because all these videos at this point, when you're listening, Indonesia is up.

[Chris]

Oh, yeah.

[Aaron]

The Everglades video with the army engineers is up. Ice Road is probably up.

[Chris]

That should be nice. We get approved. Yeah.

[Aaron]

Maybe the diamond mine video. And then we get into Texas. We get into Korea, India, then Africa. Later this year, hopefully Europe, Australia. Let's go.

[Ben]

A lot of good stuff. Let's go.

[Aaron]

Yeah. All right, everybody, thanks as always for listening. We'll see you on the next one. Stay dirty.