We’ve had the king of traveling pick-up’s Roosh V chat to us already, today we’re sitting down with plucky young upstart Neil Skywalker. Neil calls himself “a backpacking Casanova” and has recently released a book entitled “Around the World in 80 Girls”, launching a blog of the same name to coincide.
We want to find out just what separates Neil from the crowd and makes him worth reading for all you sex-obsessed travelers out on the road.
Table of Contents
1. Hey Neil, thanks for sitting down with us here at TSL. For those that don’t know about you or your site, could you explain who you are and tell us, briefly, what “Around the World in 80 Girls” is all about?
I’m 35 and was born and raised in the Netherlands. I started traveling to escape my life back home and in search of personal improvement. I wasn’t very social, a bit shy and introverted. Not happy with my love life which consisted of either dry spells or bad relationships. I tried the whole nice career/house/car/girlfriend thing and at 31 years old I was still a boring average Joe who had barely seen anything of the world and never backpacked before. The company I worked for went bankrupt and I immediately sold everything I had and took the opportunity to leave everything behind. While traveling I improved my social skills and started to do much better with the ladies. Things got out of hand quickly in South East Asia and I decided to write a book about it. I decided to start blogging after being already on the road for almost 2 years. Things went fast from then on.
The book is about defeating my own personal demons, including my approach anxiety, about traveling through more than 40 countries on a tight budget, sightseeing and of course lots of drama, heartbreaking and affairs with mostly local girls since I lost interest soon in Western girls when I saw the grass was a lot greener outside the Western world.
2. Now, as you know we’ve already featured traveling pick-up artist Roosh V on this site. What makes you so special? How do you differ to Roosh in terms of what you’re about and what you offer your audience?
I’m very familiar with Roosh’s work and enjoy reading most of his books and articles. I think the big difference between us is that he is more a relocating pick-up artist and I’m more of a backpacking Casanova. Roosh goes from country to country and stays a while in an apartment and I’m rushing from city to city having no money and staying in hostels on the cheap. For me the biggest problem is always finding a place to bring the girls, not picking them up. The other difference is that I’m not really battling feminism. I don’t like it but I don’t care enough to make an effort fighting it. Maybe it’s worse in the States than in Holland.
I actually don’t like the term “pick-up artist”. This term has been tainted by the dozens of marketers who ruined the scene in search of big money instead of big punani. I mean, 1,999 dollars for a 3-day “bootcamp” – Dude, for me that’s 2 months of dancing reggeaton with hot Latinas in Ecuador.
3. Last time we fielded answers at Roosh we upset some of our readers concerned that he was offensive to women and promoting sex tourism, which is popular in many countries. What would you say in response to such allegations? Do you consider yourself and people like you slime-balls or truth-liberators?
You know, calling these things sex tourism always makes me laugh. If American girls go to Italy, then they are in search of flowery romance, but if a guy goes to Eastern Europe he’s a sex tourist. I don’t see the difference between a (older) woman going to the Caribbean for a Jamaican banana or to Bali for a beach boy and guys going on holiday in the Dominican Republic or Thailand. They are both looking for something they can’t find at home. The women want to be treated like a Disney Princess because they think they are entitled to being treated that way, just because they are female, but they make no effort to learn how to attract a man. The guys are looking for the love of a young and hot girl who treats them with respect and care and actually looks feminine. In the end both women and men go home with an empty wallet and a broken dream.
I don’t consider myself a sex tourist at all, because first I don’t want to be associated with people like that and secondly, my aim is self-improvement and getting the most out of my life while learning new stuff and about other cultures. I may break some hearts along the way but I’m never rude or disrespectful to girls. Deep down I’m still a nice guy, I guess.
4. Ok, let’s speak a little about your travels, your book and your sexual experiences abroad. What’s the best travel sex memory you have that we can expect to read about in this book? What’s the worst?
The best experiences I had must have been in Cambodia with either Cambodian or Vietnamese girls. The feeling of being treated like a rock star and having girls beating the crap out of each other to stay with me is a very powerful one. The best sexual and emotional experiences I had were with my Russian and Philippine girlfriend. Also with my Indonesian and Brazilian girlfriend too. Oh and wait the one from Chile too. And the one from Norway and from Peru and the one from …
The worst was probably in Malaysia. The sex was good but the fact that she tried to stab me was less fun and I had to get a bit rough with her to avoid bleeding to death on a small island. The Bolivian “stop and go” girl was a train wreck of a lay also. Bitches be crazy!
5. Your own sexual experiences aside, what countries did you think had the best cultural attitudes to sex and which did you think had the worst? How could those with poor sexual attitudes improve in your opinion?
The most open-minded girls are in the Philippines. They don’t need much convincing and are up for anything, though a lot of times there’s a hidden (baby-making or money-sending) agenda. The passion of the girls in South America was a bit disappointing and overhyped, but it’s still my favorite continent. Mainly because I like the local culture and music in those countries.
The worst by far was Brunei. There are no bars/no alcohol and no parties. Even the cinema was closed down. The best improvement would be to ban the Islamic religion there. Never trust a guy in a dress, no matter what religion they promote.
6. There’s many male travelers taking a similar route to you in discussing openly (or in your case behind this Skywalker pseudonym) their sexual adventures abroad? Why don’t you think women take a similar route? Have you ever encountered any willing to speak openly about their sexual escapades and why don’t you think they put pen to paper so to speak?
Pff, tough question. I’ve encountered lots of girls who are very open about sex, but putting it in writing for the world to see is a different story. We all have a life besides what we do in the bedroom. This is the reason I use a pseudonym. I still have a family who doesn’t want this kind of publicity and, well, for me, I won’t be on the road forever and might have to pick up my old career soon if this book doesn’t make me a zillion dollars. This is also the reason I don’t really promote my book in my own country (The Netherlands/Holland).
7. Let’s talk about your blog. What kind of things can we expect to see on there? Right now we see a lot of flag-sharing (which is something Naughty Nomad brings to the table) but will you go on to offer practical travel expertise or try to appeal to a broader audience at all?
The flag capturing is just a hobby. Anyone can be successful in their own country if they have the right tools, like money, looks and pick-up skills. Seducing girls in other countries of other cultures is a completely different thing. Picking up girls without speaking the local language or basically knowing anything about their culture is not an easy task in many countries.
I will offer some expertise in other fields but for now I’ll try to focus on seducing girls abroad. I don’t feel like repeating the same boring lists of what to see and do in specific countries. Most backpacker blogs are one big blur of rehashed info and there’s little new to see on them. I recently took off all the blog posts and I started to put back the stories which are not touched in the book. It provides a more in-depth view of my trip and serves the people who want more background and pure traveling stories. There will be many more in the future. It wasn’t easy writing a book on 3 years of travel and more than 40 countries. I had to edit out a lot of things to keep the page numbers down. It’s still a big book, with 500 fully packed pages which will take a while to read. I always intended this book to be a “on the road book” and not something you can quickly read in two days although judging by the reviews most people have trouble putting the book down.
8. In putting together this book do the women involved in your travels have any idea that they might feature in it? Was this something you mentioned to them, that you might be using them as experiences to draw together a book? If not, why not?
I guess there are 4 or 5 girls who know about the book but most of the time I kept it a secret. I changed all the names of the girls to protect their privacy and because I don’t want to ruin the memory of the thing we had together. This goes especially for the girls I’ve been with for longer periods of time. I have pictures on my blog but blurred out the faces after I received many death threats from expats in Cambodia.
9. Why do you think so much literature based on hooking up abroad exists like this? Do you think men are generally unsuccessful sexually abroad or is this just something everyone likes to read about? Who are you targeting specifically with your writing?
Eh, which literature? You can count the writers touching traveling and sex on one hand. You can count the books about poor backpackers picking up local girls on a couple fingers. There are however lots of books on guys getting scammed out of their money and about whoremongering. I think the whole hooking-up abroad thing is severely overhyped. Sure, I have seen guys “getting lucky” sometimes but most of those hook-ups were with backpacking girls, not locals. I know a guy who traveled all over the world for a year and only hooked up three times with a local girl. Once because I nearly pushed him on her. There are still a lot of people out there who can learn a lot from my book.
10. Finally, what kind of impact do you hope you can have on our readership here at TSL? Why should people invest in your book or come check out your site?
I wrote this book because I wanted to share my story on life on the road. It’s an unusual view on traveling and some people will love the travel part and others will love the love and sex stories. It’s also a practical guide on what to expect traveling the world on the cheap and the hairy situations you can get yourself into. Moreover it’s a book on picking up girls, and I added over 50 bonus pages with tips and tricks on seducing local girls. Most normal pick-up advice won’t work abroad and you need some extra pointers to pick up hot Latinas with big bundas or tiny silky-skinned girls in Asia. Not only the language barrier will hold you back but you have to change your whole mindset to battle yourself through relentless struggling in some countries. I hold no punches and don’t sugarcoat anything. I tell you how it is. You can of course also go for the lousy bathroom hostel lay with a drunken western girl you don’t really like but was easy to score while getting drunk in the hostel kitchen. I really wish I had a book like this when I left home.
