The Journey

The Journey is the Destination

Oh, the places you'll go

Oh, the places you'll go
Crete

Jamminnnn'

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

The Best Days of My Life

Are the best days behind me or in front of me?

One day, I'll look back on life and say, "Damn, I'm glad I did that."

The past 18 months have been quite a roller coaster, my work was by all means not glamorous, and often times completely negative. I loved living in Germany for 15 months and getting to experience a little more about how Germans live. I managed to go to 21 new countries, making a total of 29. I wouldn't yet say I am "well-traveled", but decently traveled is not out of the question. Well-traveled is definitely on its way. (Foreshadowing?).

Countries visited:            

USA, Jamaica, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, U.K. - England, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Hungary, Morocco, Israel, Jordan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea.

While my adventures in Europe were pretty adventurous and often times dangerous- Bier fests, Hiking the Zugspitze without a harness, getting robbed in Budapest, fleeing a crazy drug dealer, and many more unspeakable stories. This post is about my time in Asia after leaving Germany.

I have always known I have wanted to travel more and experience things the average person doesn't get to. After all, I know I am blessed and privileged with a great life. I have been given an opportunity in this life to explore and seek things others will never be able to attain due to limited resources, lack of will, socioeconomic factors, racism, etc. I have been dealt a great hand and I plan on going all in. If I do not, it will seem I have wasted this life, and no one wants to have that feeling.
The plan was quite simple, but would be challenging; Get out of my comfort zone in order to stretch it further. I left a lot of room for activities. All I did was booked my flight to India, my workaway, the meditation retreat, and my flight to Thailand. I did some research about a few areas before I left, but much of my information was given to me by fellow travelers along the way. One thing I realized is that planning everything is a headache, it leaves no room for creative spontaneity while traveling. You might meet some amazing people but you won't be able to get to know them because you have already booked a flight 3 weeks in advance, or a hostel in a different city. Slow down, converse, learn a little.

India - March 2018

My adventure started on March 9th at 8:00am. I took a red-eye 5 hour flight from Hamburg to New Delhi. I had no expectations of India besides that I knew it was a third world country. It lived up to this expectation, and then some. Third world countries are quite fascinating in regards to experiencing instead of just assuming you know. You have no idea what to expect, except the worst, and then when you experience it, you think of how much worse it is than you expected. Imagine a wild west world with limited governmental assistance, impoverished and malnourished masses, diseases run rampant, with a toxic water supply and pollution over major cities that makes it hard to breathe. Mix in the fact there are limited street lights and signs, and monkeys harass the hell out of everyone in order to steal meals or shiny objects, and a dry heat that is unbearable in summer months. India also has every season, from the mountains to the desert, to the tropics, there is no shortage of climate in this country.
Participating in a traditional Hindu ceremony


With all of these crazy culture shocks happening around the foreigner, there is also some kind of charm to India, a spiritual happening that is beyond explanation and reasoning. India holds the world's oldest religion, Hinduism, dating back an estimated 3500 years and it is still widely practiced throughout the country. If you can get behind the mantras, the chanting, and wildly fascinating and creative beliefs of this ancient religion, there is something here for you. I participated in several practices in a town called Vrindavan, where I arrived on the first day after being subjected to one very elaborate scam being played on all westerners in Delhi.

The ride to Vrindavan from Delhi was an absolute exhausting culture shock. I was very tired from no sleep on the plane and I had to take a 3 hour taxi ride to this remote town in order to find a temple I hadn't been to in a city that had 5000 temples, without wifi or a data plan. Talk about a shit show. It took over an hour to get out of Delhi traffic, over 21 million people live in this city and I must have seen 8 million of them. After getting out of Delhi, we got on a "highway" and I thought the worst was behind us, I was very wrong. India has limited infrastructure. The highway ended shortly after beginning and we were driving head on into traffic on a side road and my cab driver was honking the entire time. A cow stumbled across our path and we waited and honked while it would slowly pass. Kids were playing soccer in the streets while emaciated hogs and dogs were chowing down on trash on the side of the road. We would get back on the dilapidated highway system and drive for 5 minutes, before repeating an episode I had already scene, or some version of it. This would continue for the next 2 restless hours, and I never got used to it. I simply observed and sometimes chuckled out of absolute shock. Only in India.
The school we volunteered at

I arrived in Vrindavan after a long day extended from the previous day. As far as I could tell, I was the only white foreigner in this town, or at least the only one that stood out. I would soon discover there were many foreigners but they were all dressed in the local garments of loose fitting shirts and pants, head wraps, and scarves. I had on my backpacker boots and hiking pants. My workaway was at an ashram called Vrinda Kunj, which my driver asked 8 people how to get to. The practicing monks were very welcoming. I went out to eat local food with one and got a SIM card for $6 for the whole month, because there is no wifi anywhere in India and you'd be crazy to go without knowing where you are. I discussed life and religion with this Monk, whose name was "Dina", meaning "Person of the lowest people", in Sanskrit. It was a wild first day, but I made it.

Sneakin pics of Darya
For the next 10 days, I would be helping keep the ashram clean, feeding people, painting, gardening, and learning more about Hinduism and how to say a few words. I would meet many incredible and beautiful people including my new Belarusian friend Darya who would teach me many things about spirituality and Hinduism.  I would see many incredible temples along the way and eat a lot of good food. I would participate in several rituals, and get my palm read by an astrologist. On my third day, I would get new pants robbed by a monkey and have to trade him for juice in return for them. I would see many naked men walking through the streets as if it was the norm. I would be ever-present in a blur of a world that I could not relate to in the slightest, but I would feel a spiritual presence that could not be felt anywhere else in the world. I would become uplifted by the mere existence of this city, but I would be equally humbled by the death, disease, poverty, and garbage that littered the streets. This would add to my appreciation for how great my life is, and I would vow to myself to simply let things go from now on. Every day was gratitude and appreciation day in India.

I went to Agra for a few days upon leaving Vrindavan, and it was night and day. So many tourists who had flown to India simply to see the Taj Mahal. So many tourists who would never understand or truly get an understanding of the struggle outside of this more developed city. Was I any better than them? No, but I did hope many of them were staying for longer than a few days.
The incredible Taj Mahal at sunrise


I left Agra after being amazed by the Taj, which was absolutely stunning. My mouth stayed open in awe the entire time. I then headed to my meditation retreat in Lucknow. I wrote an entire blog post on this experience - HERE - so I won't say much about this 10 day experience. I told a friend this was the most mentally challenging thing I have ever done in my life, and he said "Well, you must not live a hard life." I told him to try one and get back to me, but he never will read this or try one, and that is the difference between his ignorance and my desire for growth. I understand I am not better than him, or anyone else, but I always try to be better than myself. I am always trying to advance and I see this as a challenge I willingly put myself in to grow, learn, and understand more about myself and examine the way my mind works.  No reason to knock on anyone's experiences.

After this experience, I was incredibly thankful for everything, I felt lighter and overall happier. I appreciated little things, like a comfortable bed and a shower, and being able to talk to others, read, and write, on a daily basis. I headed back to Lucknow city and did a couchsurf with a local Indian man who had great reviews. His name is Biren, and I would stay with him again in an instance. He used to own a restaurant for a long time and made a decent amount of money and his way of giving back was by letting travelers stay at his place and showing them the hospitality of India. I met several other backpackers here; Pratap from Varanasi, Pallav from Lucknow, and Ricardo from Mexico, all with their own delightful and wonderful stories. The conversation was enlightening, the food was delicious, and the end of my time in India was ideal.

Thailand - April 2018



I arrived in Bangkok on April 1st and I just wanted to rest a bit. I didn't plan anything for this leg of the trip, but I knew I would be heading to one of the islands, and Chiang Mai at some points. I wanted to see a few temples and read on a beach for a bit, and that is literally all I had planned. I Googled "best island to go to in Thailand", and one of the first things that popped up was scuba diving on Koh Tao, I was intrigued. The first night in Bangkok, I met a German guy named Maxim who had just come from Koh Tao and he said he got advanced certified and gave me the run down. Looks like I was heading to Koh Tao the next evening.

The views on Koh Tao; Mango Viewpoint

Fabrice and I had an instant Bromance
On the bus ride to the Chumphon pier I met an Austrian named Eva and we talked for a while about all kinds of topics, she was amazingly intelligent and engaging. I told her to be spontaneous and meet me in Chiang Mai for Songkran with Shelby, my American friend. She was skeptical at first because I could be a killer (lol) but we exchanged contacts and would later reunite in Chiang Mai. I had only planned on being on Koh Tao for a few nights, but I ended up staying for 10 days and getting advanced diver certified. Meaning I can dive solo up to 30m (99ft) anywhere in the world. It started off as just open water certified, but I met another German named Fabrice (Germans were everywhere!), and we decided to stick together for the rest of our time in Thailand and get certified together. Hoping to see this dude again in the near future.


Scuba diving is unreal. I never realized I would love it so much. You are with a group of people examining marine life up close unlike in the forest. In a forest, you can't get a few inches away from a squirrel as it munches its lunch. In the ocean, you can get so close to a lot of marine life and simply watch as it lives its life. There is a meditative principle in diving that drew me to like it more and more as I did it more. It was awkward at first but it takes getting used to. Eventually you get very comfortable and next thing you know, you're 100ft under water wondering why, then you notice a school of fish and you're immersed in the moment of awesomeness surrounding you. We ended up diving 12 times, completing skills like mask and regulator removal, a night dive, deep dives, and an eco-dive (we got a free dive for cleaning up the ocean floor, how cool right?).

Me, Eva, Shelb, and Fabrice living it up
On April 12th, it was time to head to Chiang Mai for Songkran. This is the Thai New Year with the intention of embodying purification of the past and moving on. It was everything I needed at the time. Fabrice and I collaborated with Eva and Shelby to meet in Chiang Mai where we split an Airbnb and experienced the festival together. This was the most fun I had had since I was 8 years old playing with water guns and water balloons. I had always got in trouble for spraying people that didn't want to be sprayed as a kid, but it was acceptable and expected here. The festival consisted of taking to the streets for 3 straight days to soak the locals and tourists with as much water as humanly possible. Add a little alcohol to the festival and you have one heck of a wild time.

This pic sums up the festival
After the festival, we decided to go as a group to an elephant camp for a day of playing with, feeding, and bathing elephants. This was another magical experience in itself. These intelligent, majestic, and massive creatures capture your awareness at all times when you are around them. We got to learn about the history of elephants in Thailand, and the habits of the elephants. Then we got to feed them endless bananas and sugar cane. We trekked through the jungle with them for a while and took plenty of pictures with them. Eventually we got to show them respect by giving them a mud bath and rinsing them afterwards. Upon our ride back to Chiang Mai, we got absolutely drenched in the back of truck for several hours because Songkran was still going on, it turned out to be quite an amazing day.
She loved me


On the last day we visited the top of Thailand, Doi Inthanon and saw a Thai fight. Doi means "mountain" in Thai, Inthanon was the name of a King who had 36 wives, but only 1 of those got the "privilege" of being his Queen and having her own temple on top of this mountain with the King.
That night, we went to a Thai fight, where we got to see the national sport take place. We paid about $12 for 3 hours of fighting. There were 2 fights with children fighting, literally 12-13 years old. In one of these fights, a kid took a high kick to the head and was knocked out. It was brutal. The main event was anticlimactic with a lot of grabbing. It went to decision. The fight that interested me the most was one where an American girl fought a Thai girl (of course). This was a great back and forth brawl with a few huge kicks, punches, and slams but the Thai girl ended up taking the victory. It was awesome to experience this cultural sport in person even if it does not coincide with how the western world views the ideal of sports. In the west, everyone's national sports are team-oriented with a shared outcome, in Thailand, you fight by yourself for individual glory. It says a lot about the dynamic of the society.
Doi Inthanon


Vietnam - April/May 2018

The next day was travel and goodbye day for all of us. We were all heading to a new and different  location or back home. Eventually everyone returns back home. But for now, it was time to say goodbye and head to Vietnam with Fabrice. On a spur of a moment, Fabrice decided he would head to VN with me. I told him he need a visa and it was a headache for me to get one. He was silent and looked at his phone for a second and then goes "Nope, German's don't need a visa there." As he smiled. German's rarely need a visa for any country, they have one of the strongest passports the world knows. American's have beef with countries, so our citizens don't get as good of perks as others do. Now we were heading to Hanoi!


Hanoi is a very busy city with a lot of overcast weather. VN is a very wet country and rain season was about to start in May and last until September or so. The overcast weath in Hanoi was much different than the beach and sun I was coming from, it was gloomy. Although something about VN was charming in it's own way. I can't say it was the cleanliness of the streets, or the overly capitalistic feel of the businesses, no. It was probably the Pho, definitely the Pho.

The traffic in Hanoi was mad. Honking everywhere. Scooters flying every which way. It reminded me of India, except the streets were complete and there were no cows. A tourist could get in some awkward footwork walking across the Hanoi streets and it was never lacking entertainment. I quickly realized you have to time your crossing and then go with unwavering confidence and practically dare a driver to hit you- they will do anything they can to avoid you.

After 2 nights of hanging with Fabrice, we had to part ways. It was a sad time. I had grown fondly of this dude and we had a good connection. I hope he takes me up on my offer to host him in the states one day because I do plan on going back to Germany and seeing him and all the other Germans I have made friends with over the past 18 months. Fabrice was heading south after a week or so, but I was going north, way north.

I made my way to Yen Bai that evening. This town was at the foothills of the northern mountain range of the SaPa valley. I was about 2 hours from the China border, and I would be calling this home for the next 10 days for a workaway on a local farm. My host and I were in contact through phone but I had never got to speak to her in person, but I did get to meet her parents...who did not speak any English! For the first couple days I entertained the hostel area and taught VN kids English and played games with them. The work was easy and minimal. I ended up going to their farm on the 3 day via scooter. It was a 30 minute drive and the scenery was of great Vietnamese farm area. Imagine jungles and mountains with farms in between.

Down the street from the workaway in Yen Bai
The workaway was quite an experience. Since no one in the area spoke any English at all, we resulted to Google translate with a lot of hand gestures and simple grunts. It worked out, but the work was still minimal. I always felt as if I could be doing more to help and I was not sure what to do all the time. Maybe this was my American work ethic trying to come out- always looking for more work to be done when really there wasn't much. My days consisted of wheeling a bucket of supplies up to a hill and planting trees on the side of a very slippery and muddy hill. I did not mind the physical work and actually welcomed it as a part of my daily physical activity, but part of me had become majorly connected to my surroundings and the planet since India. I realized I was digging up a giant ecosystem under the mud filled with worms, bugs, and frogs. I did not quit but I felt some sense of remorse on each dig which I tried to justify by saying these people need this land to live more than these animals.

Some temples on top of a mountain
When I was not working on their land, I was attempting to explore the area on the scooter they let me borrow. I paid about $.80 for a liter of gas and took off to the surrounding streets. I found a few waterfalls, some valley areas, and plenty of Bia Hoi's where everyone wanted to drink beer with me. Many of the locals had rarely seen foreigners, but they seemed to love the fact that I was there on their home land enjoying life how they had intended it to be lived.

I came to quickly realize how much meat the Vietnamese eat. They eat more meat than Germans do, but they actually eat vegetables as well. Every meal had meat in it, which was quite a change from where I had come from. I had no meat in India, only once a day in Thailand (maybe not that much), and now they served it in every meal. On the first day I was there, they slaughtered a pig and cut it up to split for 3 families. This hog would provide meat for them for the next several weeks. Trust me, it was delicious, but my stomach was not always having the meat for every single meal. I realized how much better my mind and body feel when I eat less meat. I think clearer, I sense things better, and I have more energy. There is a direct psychological and physiological correlation between less meat and feeling better for my body. Having said that, I tried everything they cooked up as to not be rude, and because I am a foodie.

Every day, "Mama Han", as I would begin to start calling her, would whip up breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a platter. In the morning's, we had rice, for lunch, we had rice, and for dinner, we had rice. Ha. But with the rice, it was always accompanied by something different and delicious. Breakfast's included some kind of egg mix with a typical VN vegetable, and some pork dish. Lunch included more pork, some different vegetables, and one vegetable that was incredibly bitter that gives you the face of having just smelled a fart. Dinner was a platter of different VN dishes including spring rolls, Pho, pork, and anything else she could come up with. Everything was incredibly tasty, and could be dipped in fish-oil or soy sauce. In between meals, she would serve up some local mango's. Let's just say I was well-fed during this time.

I was a guest in their house here, but they made me feel part of their family. My stomach was not feeling well one day and Papa Han gave me a bitter tasting plant from the garden that was good for digestion. It actually did make me feel better after having it for a day or so. I was thankful for the remedy. They let me borrow the scooter for my own adventures. They gave me space when I wanted to write or relax on my own. They brought their entire family over for dinner and we all dined together. They did not mind if the kids came and jumped on me and hung all over me. I was a stranger, but they trusted me in their home, and I reciprocated the feeling by opening as much as possible to them given the language barrier. Sometimes the best and most pure form of communication is body language, for spoken communication can get lost in (Google) translation.

After 10 days in Yen Bai, it was time to head further north to SaPa Valley. I was heading here for the serene views and tallest mountain in Vietnam. I won't delve to far into this part of my trip because I plan on writing a blog on how to climb the tallest mountain in Vietnam, the Fansipan, without paying a guide and the local government and doing it on your own instead. I wrote a review on TripAdvisor on how to do this and a German couple messaged me saying they used my advice and did it. Makes me feel good! I will update this blog with a link when I complete that blog.

Seoul, Korea - May 2018

I ended up in Seoul on May 3rd or 4th. I had one hell of a headache getting out of Vietnam because they have some very shit policies on their airlines. They will take advantage of every dollar they can get out of you. Bags do not fly free. I checked one bag for equivalent of $30. I tried my hardest to carry it on, but they saw right through my usual, "but I'm just a stupid tourist" skit.
Seoul was by far the most westernized part of my trip. I had now gone so far east, that I was back west. The culture was strikingly similar to any American city I had visited, with the only exception being that everyone was Asian. They were incredibly hospitable here. Very friendly and welcoming at every turn and many people were inclined to help you if you looked lost at all or if you simply asked for directions.

Dumplings and something else delicious
My friend Cole attempted to teach me a few sayings in Korean. Yeoboseyo was my go-to saying, which means Hello. It was common to say this to anyone and everyone, and Koreans seemed to love if foreigners interacted with them, unlike in America. I quickly realized how addicted to their phones everyone was. Right when you get on a subway or any form of transportation, everyone would be glued to their phones the entire ride. I did not buy data in SK because it was very high priced. Instead I would leech Cole's unlimited data plan when I was around him. Sharing is caring.

Korean BBQ
Seoul has an incredible food culture. This was one of my favorite places for food. The flavors were vast. I had Kimchi, Bibimbap, BBQ, and a dish with rice and cheese that is brought to you in a skillet and kept warm right in front of you as you place it in lettuce wraps and chow down. One of the most ridiculous things I ate was a corn dog covered in cinnamon sugar with ketchup. It was disgustingly good. South Korea is fat and I fit right in. I ate a lot of food and walked around Seoul, but I barely saw much of the city in the week I was there. It is huge. With over 20 million people living in the metropolitan area, the city spans several miles and there are a lot of different suburbs to explore.

We did what we could with the time we could. We rode the subway to new areas, we saw plenty of temples, we went to a super-naked Korea spa, and we drank a healthy amount of Makgeoli. We also ended up taking a tour to the DMZ and seeing a train station that is one day hoped to go to Pyongyang. We went deep into one of the tunnels the DPRK dug in order to stage an attack on Seoul. The experience at the DMZ was one of a kind, but the amount of selfie sticks and tourist shops ended up stealing from the feeling of being in one of the most dangerous and tense places on Earth. We were in Seoul at a good time with the peace summit having just happened and Kim-Jong-Un crossing into SK and holding hands with President Moon. For Korea, and the world, this is an historical time that will be looked back on as one of the greatest moments mankind has traversed.

One last interesting note is how Koreans have relationships with each other. My friend described it as a "skin-ship". It is completely normal for a heterosexual same-sex pair of friends of all ages to hold hands, hug a lot, and touch each other in a non-sexual manner. I saw it everywhere. At first I wondered if there were just a lot of these couples but then I realized they are all just friends who are comfortable with their sexuality and expressing their normal feelings with signs of intimacy. This is one thing I really appreciated in SK and realized how a stigma in America would never allow us to get to crossing our personal boundaries for this. We are all human, humans need touch, there is nothing wrong with showing a friend you care about them with some caring and intimate moments.

Wrapping it up

I promise I am looking at something cool
By the end of this wild 18 months, I came to realize a lot about myself and my life. I came to realize how much control I have over myself and my actions in my life. Before I left, I had this dire fear of getting comfortable in life and feeling stuck. I felt as though had I let more time go on without making a decision and acting on it, then I would let my life slip by without accomplishing any personal goals I had set in my life. I felt as if I would simply go with the flow instead of attaining an opportunity to learn, grow, and take a giant leap that would thrust me outside of my comfort zone into a land unknown and uncertain. I felt as if fear would enable me to truly understand what I was made of and it would make me incapable of accruing confidence that would propel me into the future knowing what I am truly capable of. Have I realized my full potential? Of course not. I never will. The idea is that I am learning and growing and continuing to try and reach it. But each day I get closer, the bar gets set higher and the only person I can be better than is the person I was yesterday. This life is not a competition against others as it is against the self. You aren't in competition with what others are doing. You are competing with your own mind in order to gain control and put yourself on a path that aligns with what you value in life. That is the ultimate goal. Of course you will die one day, and this could scare the hell out of you to the point of not allowing you to do anything, or it could have the opposite effect and make you want to act and accomplish everything you have ever put your mind to! Don't let it be the former. We need more people on this planet that are willing to realize their impermanence and take life head on instead of cowering away and letting it float by. To get what you have never had, you have to do what you have never done.

Over these 18 months, I had come to grow very used to meeting wonderful individuals and then parting ways with them shortly after. That is how traveling goes, especially when it's solo; you meet someone else or a small group, you get to know them for a day or several days, and then you part ways wondering if you will ever cross these beautiful souls again. More often than not, the answer is no you won't. I came to the understanding that as awesome as traveling solo can be, as much as you can learn about yourself, it is equally appreciating to travel with friends or ones you care about. Traveling can be as introspective as you want it to be, or it can be as exciting and thrilling as having a group of friends go with you can be. By traveling with others, you really learn a lot about those you travel with and the moments you are experiencing are only as awesome as the people you are experiencing them with.

Although Fabrice and I were different. I met him at the beginning of my Thailand trip and stuck with him for about 3 weeks until we got to Vietnam. He had been traveling for the past 9 months. This German had been all over the place in Asia, New Zealand, and Australia. His plan was to travel for a year because he had just finished school and wanted a true gap year. We talked about all kinds of things, and learned a lot from each other and things we had experienced. We talked about how Americans don't do the gap year like Aussies/Kiwi's, and Europeans. It is not seen as something normal to do in America. In America, we are encouraged to go to school, pick a degree, get that degree while accruing debt, get a job to pay off said debt, and not take many breaks. We work hard for life and then we die. There is no gap year encouraged. We are pieces of property. We are assets. We are tools used to fix, fuel, and tweak the conglomerate of a machine that is America. American resolve is what moves the world forward through hard work and ingenuity, and every generation is taught the perpetuated regurgitated belief that if we do not continue working hard, then we will never get to where we want to be. But what about when that hard work never ends? Then you have raced your life away on the endless rat wheel, and all you have to show for it is a fund of cash and a life cut short from health problems. In America, we work hard to trade our youth and health for money. Then we get older and spend all of the money we accumulated in order to trade it for health and moments of youth again. It is paradoxical, and exhausting at best. Why can we not take the time to shift this paradigm? Slow down a bit. Realize that life is what we live for. Not the company we are part of.
As my adventure came to a close, I was excited to head home. I was excited to see friends and family and catch up on everything that had been happening in our lives. I had learned so much and I wanted to share it with people as much as I wanted to learn what others had learned. I was very aware that I had not seen friends, family, and acquaintances in the past 18 months, and for me, everything had changed. But for many of the people I would see, not much has changed, and I would be the one sharing these stories they wish they could partake in. I quickly took a step back and vowed to not share stories or lessons learned with people unless they inquired. I would soon learn that not many people cared to inquire, which was fine, but I knew I had gained a plethora of stories to tell my grandkids one day, "Hey kids, want to hear about a time when Grandpa got lost and scammed in India then 2 days later a monkey stole his pants?!" *Slaps knee and laughs*. I can see it now.

Thanks for reading!

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