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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks ab oh.

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Speaker 2: Our travel correspondent Mike Yardley has tips on tripping to

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Speaker 2: India for first times this morning, and Mike, India is

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Speaker 2: an amazing place. It can be a bit of an

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Speaker 2: intimidating destination for some people. But you are fresh back

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Speaker 2: from India, So how was it?

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Speaker 3: Yes, I was listening to your reminiscing on the Commonwealth

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Speaker 3: Games deck and I have to say my latest encounter

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Speaker 3: was absolutely your classic convulsing sensory assault, from the sublime

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Speaker 3: to the ridiculous. The thing that I've found really interesting, though,

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Speaker 3: was it's been fourteen years since I was last in

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Speaker 3: India and you can see the transformation to the country

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Speaker 3: like it's palpable. Things like road travel just so much faster.

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Speaker 3: Those major highway projects have slash journey time, although the

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Speaker 3: standard of driving behavior is still abismal in India. Oh

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Speaker 3: my god, they are the world's biggest undertakers. I reckon,

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Speaker 3: it's just so random. New daily struck me as decidedly

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Speaker 3: cleaner than I recall from fourteen years ago. Far ly

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Speaker 3: sliitter on the streets, although once you get out of

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Speaker 3: the big cities on a highway and the smaller towns,

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Speaker 3: those mounds of rubbish polluting the roadside are still depressingly

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Speaker 3: conspicuous and something which I think is really tragic. Jack.

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Speaker 3: A lot of those wandering cows that people love seeing

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Speaker 3: because they're, you know, so famously bestowed with sacred status,

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Speaker 3: A lot of those cows on the roadside actually succumb

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Speaker 3: to choking on plastic while foraging for food scraps amongst

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Speaker 3: all those heaving piles of litter. So it was a

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Speaker 3: sad note.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that is a bit grim, isn't it. It's yeah,

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Speaker 2: you see sort of humanity in all its extremes when

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Speaker 2: you're in India, right, And obviously poverty is one of

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Speaker 2: the things that many people are confronted by when traveling

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Speaker 2: in India. What was your sense? Is still very con picures.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, particularly on the outskirts of New Delhi and around

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Speaker 3: by the airport, there were plenty of mothers and children

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Speaker 3: begging at those busy traffic intersections. I still saw quite

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Speaker 3: a few people blavely taking a dump on the footpath.

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Speaker 3: But that being said, certainly not on the scale that

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Speaker 3: I vividly recalled from fourteen years ago. And what I

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Speaker 3: did notice, particularly around places like New Delhi Airport, there

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Speaker 3: are these forests of gleaning new apartment house sprouting everywhere,

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Speaker 3: and I mean that's proof positive of the booming middle

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Speaker 3: class that has doubled in size in just twenty years.

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Speaker 3: In fact, I was looking at the World Bank stats.

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Speaker 3: They reckon that nearly two hundred million Indian people have

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Speaker 3: been lifted out of extreme poverty in the past decade alone,

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Speaker 3: which is absolutely staggering. And yeah, the thing that really

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Speaker 3: struck me the swathe of slums that I recall from

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Speaker 3: fourteen years ago. They have dramatically shrunken size. So that's

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Speaker 3: a really affirming observation, you know, to see that India

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Speaker 3: is on a roll.

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Speaker 2: So for first time is what would you say is

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Speaker 2: the best way to get around?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well there's lots of options. You could do the

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Speaker 3: budget train like Jack Taman did after the Commonwealth Games.

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Speaker 2: Well it was an experience. I remember it to this day.

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Speaker 2: You know, So i'd taken a luxury coach, I i't

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Speaker 2: think I would.

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Speaker 3: Oh man, Yeah, I haven't done the luxury trains in

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Speaker 3: India and I know a lot of people rave about them,

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Speaker 3: like the Maharaja Express and so forth, So that's a

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Speaker 3: good option if you are a first time I would

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Speaker 3: definitely say get a guide to do a guided to

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Speaker 3: he I actually went to India with Wendy Woo Tour.

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Speaker 3: It's our sponsor Amazing, so they do lots of options

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Speaker 3: you can do like a big group guided tour, but

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Speaker 3: I would actually suggest you go with one of the

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Speaker 3: private tours so it's just you or your loved ones.

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Speaker 3: You're not traveling alone with a guide and a driver,

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Speaker 3: and it's still a really affordable way to navigate Indian

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Speaker 3: And what I love about this option as you have

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Speaker 3: complete flexibility over the itinery, you can optimize it to

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Speaker 3: the max to suit your preferences. So whether you're traveling

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Speaker 3: alone with a partner, of friends, family, Wendy, we will

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Speaker 3: get you sorted. And it really is a good way

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Speaker 3: to feel immersed, you know, authentically with real India.

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Speaker 2: And the Golden Triangle is probably the most popular route right.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I would definitely suggest the Golden Triangle as the

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Speaker 3: best introduction because you see so many you know, iconical landmarks.

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Speaker 3: You do get a real sense of big city, small

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Speaker 3: town and it's quite a compact touring route. So we'll

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Speaker 3: talk about some of those key destinations over the next

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Speaker 3: three weeks. But you've got the head swirl of Old

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Speaker 3: and New Deli, you've got the marvels of Agra headlined

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Speaker 3: by the taj My favorite Indian city, Jpaul, is part

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Speaker 3: of that circuit. In terms of when to go, October

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Speaker 3: to April is the best time to tour the Golden

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Speaker 3: Triangle with the wise because once you hit May June

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Speaker 3: all the way through to August, you will be battling

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Speaker 3: forty five degrees plus and of course the monsooners in

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Speaker 3: full cry July August. So yeah, sort of time it

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Speaker 3: from now through to about April for optimum touring.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I remember in Gypaul because Jaipaul is the capital of Rajasthan,

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Speaker 2: right city. Yeah, I just remember having the most incredible

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Speaker 2: lassie in the in the cunning and the clay pots,

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Speaker 2: lovely clay, yes, absoluteous, so good. What is the go

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Speaker 2: with tipping?

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Speaker 3: I think USA, maybe even think USA with great insistence

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Speaker 3: because it's not just recommended but expected, if not imposed

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Speaker 3: on your bill right across the said in industry, so

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Speaker 3: definitely in restaurants and cafes for food and drink, it's

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Speaker 3: ten percent, no questions asked, and be sure to have

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Speaker 3: a few rupees for the likes of porters, ritual riders, guides, taxis.

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Speaker 3: But generally you won't need a lot of rupees for India.

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Speaker 3: It's just for those little service charges. Generally, credit cards

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Speaker 3: good to go wherever you go.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that.

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Speaker 3: I mean that.

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Speaker 2: I think yeah is totally reasonable. Right, Like, when you're

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Speaker 2: traveling through someone like that and there's obviously big income

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Speaker 2: disparities and stuff, it's like, actually, yeah, not too bad.

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Speaker 2: It's not exactly none for being the most expensive place

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Speaker 2: to travel anyway. What about delli belly? How do you

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Speaker 2: dodge it?

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Speaker 3: It seems to be what people fear the most about India.

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Speaker 3: I totally agree with you, Jack. When it comes to

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Speaker 3: street food, it's probably where you're most likely to come

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Speaker 3: unstuck if you don't use your scruples. So stick to

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Speaker 3: popular stores with high turnover. Always opt for freshly cocked items.

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Speaker 3: Do not anywhere near uncocked ingredients. Staercleayer of salads, be

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Speaker 3: super cautious of water sauces, always too spoiled or bottled drinks.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if I've got an ironclad constitution, but

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Speaker 3: I had no brushes with Deli belly, but as a precaution,

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Speaker 3: I yeah, yeah, and that's both fourteen years ago and

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Speaker 3: just yeah last month, but definitely I added a packet

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Speaker 3: of ammodium tablets my toiletory bag. And the idea is,

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Speaker 3: at the first sign of any tummy turbulence, get some

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Speaker 3: of those into you and you should be okay. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: thankfully I was all good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I managed to avoid it for five weeks the

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Speaker 2: first time I went, and in the second time I went.

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Speaker 2: I think actually the thing, the thing that caused me

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Speaker 2: most trouble wasn't so much the Deli belly, but was

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Speaker 2: the air pollution. And if you got the wrong time

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Speaker 2: a year in some parts of the air pollution can

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Speaker 2: be terrible. So have you got any other tips for us?

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Speaker 3: Well, I would say definitely get a visitor visa for

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Speaker 3: in thea before you to part because you will speed

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Speaker 3: through the airport arrivals process stress free. I couldn't believe

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Speaker 3: how fast it was a few weeks ago. You can

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Speaker 3: apply for a visa on arrival, but you don't want

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Speaker 3: to do that after a long flight from New Zealand,

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Speaker 3: stuffing about in a queue for maybe two or three

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Speaker 3: hours to deal with the local bureaucracy. So definitely get

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Speaker 3: that visa in advance. And finally, if you need to

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Speaker 3: use an Indian airline for any travel, particularly domestically, maybe

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Speaker 3: you're going down to Mumbai from New Delhi for example,

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Speaker 3: I would suggest you go with Indie Go. They are

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Speaker 3: now the nation's biggest carrier. Obviously people had concerns about India.

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Speaker 3: They had that terrible crash, you know, a couple of

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Speaker 3: months ago. But Indigo they've got super new planes and

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Speaker 3: a fabulous safety record.

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Speaker 2: Fantastic. Hey, thank you so much, Mike. We'll put all

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Speaker 2: the Mike's tips for taking your first trip to India

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Speaker 2: India for first timers on the newstalk z'd be website,

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Speaker 2: and Mike will be back with us over the next

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Speaker 2: couple of weeks to talk through some of those top destinations.

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Speaker 1: More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to

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Speaker 1: News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio