Am I Ever Coming Home from Bangkok?

am I ever coming back to America from Thailand and what are my thoughts on the pros and cons of this place after 3 months let's get into it guys I mean uh I've been here for almost three months now but of that three months I've spent about a month in places such as Hong Kong Saigon hoi Min City Cambodia nen and seam rib uh paa for Rolling loud I went to huahin which is a common like I guess vacation spot uh for people from Bangkok also a ton of retired Aussies there I had no clue it was going to be like Queensland or something like that Australia but I've got to say of all the places that I've been Bangkok has been my favorite so far eomi is my favorite neighborhood I feel like it's not the best at anything but it's got like seven to8 to nine out of 10 at everything it's a little bit like the kettle bell of neighborhoods the kettle bell it ain't the 10 out of 10 at anything but if you only got one thing to work out with you might want to make it a kettle bell and uh I just think that there's a lot of reasons why Bangkok uh won the most visited city in the world for 2024 and it is well on its way like tracking the current metrics for 2025 is going to be the top of the 2025 list for most touristed city in the entire world as well despite all this despite the fact that the air pollution index the aqi is pretty bad I don't think it's as bad as Beijing when I used to go like 13 years ago but like you 15 years ago but you know know it's relatively bad um you might want to wear a mask especially if you're on a scooter etc etc and um I do see them wanting to continue this trend of being able to secure foreign capital inflows from tourism like we said tourism to tourism related Industries 20% of GDP I want to say it's got to be the highest in the world for a larger you know for a country with a at least a mediumsized economy right and um like we said they're they're they're coming up with new laws to try to make it better for more people to come in because if you guys know about the way Economics work like you can circulate the money within the citizens but you need outside dollars being converted into bot or you know obviously it's got to be converted to USD first Sometimes then into bot but they buy and sell all types of currencies that you know super rich and things like that anyway there's a new 60 kilometer speed limit and um I feel like that's really designed to show that maybe you know the the streets aren't as wild and crazy you don't want somebody going down kilometers down sukum vit maybe about to it looks like they're about to kill a pedestrian you know and and that's not going to make it more friendly to get more money especially from higher class individuals and uh you know there's new bus routes and things like that I will say this before I get into my list of the pros and cons and things things that I've realized after three months I got to say that New York is in a polar vortex right now here's the image of Bangkok snowing here's what Bangkok actually looks like and here are the two major images you're going to see when you uh arrive at saan poom airport and you depart saan pum okay so those are your two things so anyway here are my 23 observations guys you wanted streamers Consciousness contact make sure you like subscribe turn your notifications check out SM at sms.com listen guys first number one it takes a little bit of time to catch the details to know the Rhythm to hit your stride to find your footing get settled I didn't need I still actually don't really know how to use a tie bum gun here is a uh you know like we said sometimes in the hotels and in the lobby depending on what Condor you live in you're going to have the Toto Japanese toilet but there's a more manual version with the bum gun Hur or hurts if you have hemorrhoids but it's a little bit like I remember going to New York seven eight 10 years ago and it was like you were a local if you could get the metro card swipe on a first try obviously nowadays they've sort of shifted away from that system but um I I would say it took me a while to even know how to cross the street to feel confident enough first of all this is what I do guys first of all you want to make eye contact you might want to do a y you might might want to just show some respect because they in the more um Superior Predator vehicle you're the prey as a pedestrian you could get run over you could get killed you might want to just show them some respect but one thing I learned is that if you cross at certain demarked like half crosswalks that's way better because usually there's uh an outlet for somebody to take a left turn right because here they drive on the other side they don't take the right turn out of uh the street out of like side streets they take the left turn if you go near the left turn spots obviously it's going to give you more the people are more watchful for cars trying to make a left out that's a great opportunity to run across the street um also other things sausage IQ for example I'm such a big fan of isan sausages changm sausages LP CHS which are more of the Chinese sausages that you find in Bangkok but like you know I used to think that these round circular sausages were the same as the mini Ean sausages and I didn't even know that the uh changai sausages had all the ginger and the herbs baked in more so than like on the side like the Ean sausages so so B with my sausage IQ along with being able to cross the street all the rhythms went up um my my ability to understand the rhythms and and that's sort of like getting your footing as a freshman in college or anything like that but here's another thing is you're going to try dishes that you never really had before in America because we have a lot of Thai food in America but typically it's going to be focusing on the top 10 20 dishes once you get obviously once you get to a country there's 500 dishes a thousand dishes in the Lexicon um but in your country I would imagine a less Advanced country than America or less International maybe they only have access to like the top five Thai Dishes Tom yungun Pat Tha Pat obviously in America depending on New York now we're at like 20 20 40 dishes but yeah like here there's like 500 and um probably my favorite one and I'll just pop on some of the things here by the way I saw a ton of people in Cambodia drying salted fish on the side of the street I'll say this some of the chuo oyster omelets or crab omelets those are really interesting you've never had mango sticky rice with the pumpkin or the squash on the side and there's a ton of soups and Ean like galai which is like a chicken herbal stew um and by the way guys if you if you try to avoid sugar and uh high fructose corn syrup they have a ton of that in the American food here which I would consider like Toasties Toasties are primarily designed for non-tie people so all everybody making videos about Toasties in Thailand just know that that was designed for you I've never seen a Thai person actually order a toasty to be honest I'm not saying none ever have I just never personally witnessed it before Point number two you learn more tied language expressions after a while like I said I'm coming up on three months even though I spent a month outside and um of course guys we're going to learn how to call women Beautiful s right um it's funny because it sounds like schw like which is handsome in Mandarin but like um a lot of the numbers you know what I mean you know like it's driven from deu cantones cantones De like some of the uh the the numbers I would say about 80% of them sound very similar to Cantonese so if you're Cantonese you will be able to understand tie numbers um something's delicious aoy ma aoy Mach Mach you you know you can double the Mack and um like pet is is spicy like food terms you know chicken is Guy uh moo for pork you know P you know this Chopsticks to keep to keep of course I look like I used to keeps but like I'm always in restaurants asking for the keeps um you also learned some other Insider stuff like so basically in America in Thailand it's okay to call out which cultural sphere that a girl is leaning toward so if she's leaning toward Western men typically that means white men that's SCI fall if they're she's leing more towards Korean guys or more Asiatic look saal if she's going Arab there's a there's a because you know Nana is the Arab zone they got a Arab zone there sa sa Arab sa ABC which I guess I'm an ABC you know what I mean so um these are all terms that indicate which cultural sphere that a Tha girl may be leaning towards in terms of um the lifestyle she aspires to live consumption patterns or the guys that she may or may want to date or be in those circles at least hang out with and I think that that's actually true in America too but for some reason you're really not allowed to call it out it's considered un very PC un PC whereas here they're just like no that is like that is just what it is we can just say you know and I actually appreciate that level of honesty it reminds me of the honesty that we have in uh in Asia around like whether if people with high body fat content or if they're fat they're just like yeah eat too much too much sugar fry you fat or you know anyway Point number three in terms of using products I feel like there's this like many just like many things in life there's like this sign curve curve so basically what you're going to do is you're going to you're going to get here just get grab right at to do everything out of right but then later you're going to get line man and food Panda and bolt food and like whatever other apps there is there's so many different apps and then eventually at least if you're like me you're going to get sick of using all the Thai apps and then just go back to grab lzada and a Goa I'm gonna book my flights to a go and by the way none of this is paid by the way I'm just saying I noticed there's two different types of X passs here there's ones that want use like 10 to 15 different like Thai specific apps you know you can have ones from Watson's Thailand and all this other stuff oh the other one I will shout out though I do use movie which is for electric TTS because that's like a whole really cool experience but it sort of saves you from all the uh the arguing and the negotiation and the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah um Point number four I'm just a little bit more P picky on where I spend my time for example you know I think when you first arrive to a place you're trying everything then when you are there a little bit longer you just get picky again right like I like tyoka Rim go you know melodic hip-hop spots that play Lauren Hill Rafael sadik they also play Michael Jackson or whatever Chris Brown you know what reminds me of fat Buddha in New York with the boombap era backpack NYC you might hear Mo's def black star tal qual definition you know what I mean and uh of course if you want to hear more of like your street Banger sway I think they'll play Gunna popm smoke um who else is big in the I don't even follow that stylum you know as much anymore Point number five five um I finally found some local parks to play basketball at I was going to bench of kitty bench of Siri and it was a little bit far from me so I started I settled at pink skate park in eami you know I like to keep things local especially if I need to hoop for just an hour to you know just keep the skill sharp I will say the court there is incredibly slippery so if somebody from the Thai government is watching this at all please recot pink skat Parks basketball court it is way too slippery um but it's it's possible and um I noticed that there's like a lot of different things on on on eai road like I said I live in eami and it's like there's different parts of it like the middle of ecai is kind of more like Tong lore where it's very Japanese and trendy and then the bottom of echine you the BTS is for like divorced guys over 50 right you've got uh echine beer house and Bourbon Street which are almost like more wholesome versions of Nana and it's like uh and you got tops Fine Foods you could just buy Western foods and then you know you get to Don donkey and you're just buying everything is from Tokyo and Osaka and Kyoto and Hokkaido and then you get back up there and then you know there's uh you know there there's there there's Swenson's if you guys know about Swenson's Swenson is a ice cream chain in America that went under in like 1995 you know they're still around in the San Francisco area a little bit but then they got they made a lateral move out here and got like gigantic so Swinson's man for all everybody's trying if you didn't like your life in America should you be so lucky to become the senson of your own life and have that rebirth in Thailand right right um Point number six you bump into people you know around the neighborhood obviously you know tongore ecomi there's a lot of people that went to International School that have been you know back and forth we know somebody from you know ecai that they lives between Brooklyn and eami you know what I mean and uh uh so bumping in the people that you know definitely makes you feel like you're more home at a PL a place you know I mean that's how I feel when I'm in the Lower East Side that's how I feel like when I'm in alhamra or you know what you know parts of Seattle Point number seven you learn that there are different levels of isan food Funk so uh I think the thing that people really love about isan food is how fresh and different it is and how mountainous it is and it's got really good macros it's usually just meat and veggies however the amount of fermented crab juice or fermented shrimp paste can vary a lot I realize that the Ean spots in ecay and Tong lore they're already toned down from what comes from like Le prow which is like outside into a more local Zone and then obviously the Ean food that we would get in America first of all there's not a lot of Ean food but it would be L isan like that's already toned down for an American audience so you got the American version the eami version and then you got the outskirts of Bangkok version then you probably got the isan Nissan version and it's just levels to this man it's just levels to this it's levels to changai food as well Northern Thai food there's levels to the seafood I was just in huahin huahin is like I said it's a is a vacation place for people coming out of Bangkok like almost like a little like uh going to you know Rhode Island or something or just a nice little going to Napa for somebody from LA and I I realized the seafood there was better than Bangkok you know what I mean and uh Point number eight how good is Mark we's P mark spot so Mark weens has a pad caprow spot that is famous for having a lot of raw eggs and you can add like up to five six eggs if you want I'mma give it a 7.5 out of 10 I would say that really it's the eggs and then the spiciness but you know it is pretty reasonably priced for a um like an influencer own spot and there's a lot of foreigners there and I'll say this riip to one of the co-owners I heard that he had a tragic scooter accident and rip to him but you know it goes to show you like you know you can leave a legacy and you know it's it's so crazy to think about it but like um maybe in the future a Food Spot is something that I'd be interested in doing you know possibly Point number nine there are spots that influencers care about specifically Western influencers care about that I simply do not care about like you know what I mean like a lot I'm not saying all of them there are cool you know ones that I met um but like I would say a lot of the western influencers specifically from like Australia or like England are almost like failed wannabe Central SE kid looy types and then of course you've got your wild ratchet bogans from Australia or Austria or whatever like that like basically it's like I don't know like it doesn't attract you know like I'll say this it's definitely different from Tokyo I think even Tokyo has had his incidents but Bangkok it's not necessar I think you get a variance but what you stands out is the more misbehaved foreigners and I by the way I get it I'm not just faulting like whatever group of people like uh there's videos out there about like Indians and Paya there's videos about like Mainland Chinese letting their kids pee at a temple and things like that and it's just like man it's just um it's unfortunate but I think that things take time and as long as people call them out they will begin to stem that behavior moving forward wh while understanding that you can't really stop the bad tourists coming to Thailand quite yet because it's just not perceived the same way as Japan and the enforcement and things like that but it could get there as long as it's handed in the right direction I'm not a big fan of rooftop bars so that's why like you know a lot of foreign influencers and I know I just uh lumped in the the bad foreigners with the foreign influencers but I know they're different but like you know the a lot of the Tulum Burning Man m Pichu type spots it's not my main thing you know um Point number 10 I think everybody uses nasal inhalers right that's so trendy out here but realistically I feel like there could be better solutions to feeling a little bit more awake or getting more air flow like I said there's all these different types of nasal inhalers big ones small ones dual ones but I think that people need or maybe there's a there's a big Market gap for like you know people understanding how turbinate reduction Sur uh surgery impacts your air flow neomed sinus rinses nasal strips magnetic strips magnetic bars Asal lasting Mone internal nasal dilators humidifiers um there's a lot of things um that people could do to improve their breathing I just feel like the inhaler industry I get it temporary relief you get the Menthol whether or not you know your actual nasal passages are being relaxed in the air flow oxygen intake is being increased it feels like it but it's I just feel like it's very short-term solution number 11 I just think that H&M and Zara they do look good uh especially Zara right because it copy counts all the you know other the fashion brands that are higher end but I think they're even more expensive in Thailand so I would say take a look at yed pow on shopy or lzada to be honest uh number 12 you know I'm still thinking about getting an air fryer I don't know because I just feel like I do think that getting nice steaks is expensive though like getting nice steaks is expensive you can get Ean steak you can get the Ean Stak but the crying Tiger but to get Western Stakes they are expensive should I get an air fryer I don't know it's I don't know if it's worth it for just a few months uh Point number 13 the reason why I feel like despite the fact that Hong Kong has a skyscraper Skyline density more similar to New York even than Bangkok does bangkok's probably uh one notch below New York right and Hong Kong's one notch above New York in Hong Kong you don't really feel the wildness you don't feel that Vibe whereas like there's parts of New York that are super Wild wild and Bangkok feels wild as well but not really when it comes to violence um even though I'm going to get into the whole like Chinese scam Farm thing later but Point number 14 I think that getting the shrimp is never a bad option in the west getting the shrimp option with your dish whether that's pad Tire whatever dish you're getting is not only super expensive but the fish uh the shrimp might be Frozen and not good but here the shrimp are going to be large that you you might get some River prawns you can suck the juice out of the head it's just going to taste shrimpy but not in a bad way because they just have access to very good and cheap shrimps here like very good and cheap salmon in Seattle because they Farm them in the Pacific Northwest right it's just literally uh sometimes uh geoarbitrage right Point number 15 um I don't know why chorus wear so many elephant pants but it's a big thing I saw it in Cambodia too you know I got a Cambodia video coming out I know it took a long time in the editing and the postprocessing see that's why if you hit me up at David beun on Instagram let me know your Instagram I need somebody to help me organize everything on the back end all these flows and all these things so everything can come out at the right time and you know you can more feel it when it's like it's still fresh but it's just not as fresh as it could be moving on to number 16 here's the thing I think when you get cheap street food or you get cheap massages is very hit or miss you could get somebody who where you're like I can't believe that massage was $10 I can't believe that street food was $2 $1 that was amazing all the way to like man that really felt like a $8 dollar massage that felt like a you know what I mean like I didn't get a lot of bang for my buck and I just think it's very hit or miss it even could be dependent on the the spot or even the masseuse or how the massuse was feeling that day how many clients did she have prior like or you know what I mean so I just think that that's sort of like anything in life when like it's almost like if you're buying stuff I don't know you guys I'm not a big teu guy but just let me tell you this sometimes you might get something on teu and you'll be like I can't but I just robbed timu I got such a high quality you think for such a low quality price but there's other times where you're going to be super disappointed or or or just neutral point number 17 the Stray chill dogs outside of 7-Eleven I mean someone told me that the reason why all the dogs and the cats are so chilled that you see in Bangkok is because they remove the misbehaving ones from the population they don't kill them but they remove them that makes a lot of sense like it's crazy because like in the west or some other countries they might just round up every dog but then here they almost like grade the animals on their behavior they barking are they doing this doing that you know I think that's fascinating you know like we said there's so much like Temple and Buddhist culture here and of course that's also interfacing with modern ways of doing things and I'm sure that the planners of Bangkok are traveling all around the world and they're trying to find where everything can kind of like fuse properly right at a way that satisfies a lot of different parties uh enough right uh Point number 18 this is like kind of a random thing that I noticed but arabica coffee which is a chain from Japan from Kyoto it just the build outs are amazing in Bangkok they're much better looking than the build outs in New York obviously generally all the Asia build outs look better than the Western build outs whether due to local Operator just investment or overhead cost or whatever whatever but just the coffee could be more inventive Arabica don't just be for The Vibes please give me just I get it you guys got the beans from over here and here but like I just need some more better flavors I don't know I'm not saying you know some people are going to say you know you got to be a coffee purist or whatever but that's that's just what I think Point number 19 uh terminal 21 I recently went there it's a really interesting food court because there's a rich guy who owns terminal 21 and he doesn't charge anybody rent so they're able you're able to basically deliver really good street food for prices from back in the day 30 40 50 bot for like very uh relatively high quality street food so everybody should check out terminal 21 pretty cool um you know it be triple price at Emporium or msphere or something like that maybe quadruple uh but it would be a more swaggy viby environment too it just depends on what you value what's your budget like etc etc everybody's different point number 20 I think that you can catch a vibe in Bangkok just by being out and doing stuff you don't really need to look up timeout Bangkok or um obviously a super old school one is Lonely Planet or whatever whatever like I don't know if you even need to go to monuments I think if you went to the best one to three temples you don't need to go to 30 temples after you've been to the top three uh provided that you actually engage uh you know uh some people uh have things against that or with that but like you know you like the incense and you do if you actually participate in it then I just for me at least I'm not into going to 30 of them but I did when I was in Cambodia I think we went to went to 10 um what number 21 there's a lot more foreign workers nowadays working in Thailand from La Burma Cambodia and it's so interesting because I was in what petting the Tigers and paa and I just remember that like we were ordering food we had somebody tie with us and then uh the the the the the the server couldn't even barely speak tie because they were from Burma they could speed tie but just you know to get the hyper um you know to get the order right with all the spe specificity everybody you know somebody can't do gluten somebody can't do this and this somebody's drink needs to be have less sugar extra sugar that was getting kind of crazy and I remember I was like oh that's so fascinating that Thailand's tourism industry is booming that not only people from like other far away rural regions are moving to Bangkok but to those rural regions other people are moving from other countries to work in the hospitality industry here so very interesting number 22 I think the 247 Starbucks are some of the just best design that I've ever seen whether that's in uh there's one at M cordier and there's one in eami that I just think are the just you know really great places to get work done um and uh yeah yeah last but not least guys I just think that you know that that's my brain dump those those are things that I've been seeing experiencing um feeling tell me if they cross reference with your experience whether you live in Thailand or you just visited um I'm sure there's going to be a lot of TI people in the comments as well what's up to you guys and uh yeah like in terms of do I see myself being in Thailand long term uh I would like to I like to you know we'll see how we goals but you know what is the the the thing that it's really dependent on is having a career and like me being able to do what I want to do at the level that I want to be able to do it um you know I got a video that's coming out about the decline of the West is like are people optimistic now there's a new Administration in or this or that I just think that everything nowadays the answer is more individualized than it ever was I think it's a lot more individualized that when it was our parents generation where it was like come to America come to Canada come to Australia but obviously America you earn the most even though uh Canada and Australia are more I guess in a Way Pleasant less roller coaster like but America's like if you want to sort of the highest peaks you got to be in America too so I mean listen guys hit me up David be fun email I'm looking for a full-time worker here in Bangkok for at least the next three months and then maybe Beyond let me know what you guys think in the comments section below what are you guys feeling uh about you guys' trips right now like uh would you would you want to live abroad in the future in which countries would that be in would that be in a country like Thailand or Bangkok or would it be somewhere else and what are your reasons what are your pros and cons that you would list out for yourself make sure you sign up for Tiger Club in the uh you know Google form below and until next time I'm out peace