Bangkok for Nerds! Understanding the Chaos With Some Sweet Math [S7.E16]

Speaker 1 (00:00:00) - Side by foot.

Greg (00:00:03) - And on this episode, we discuss a few mathematical equations that may help us figure out the mysteries of Bangkok.

Ed (00:00:11) - So if you've ever felt defeated by the city's chaos, you might find some answers in this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Greg (00:00:32) - Somewhat decrepit. And welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Bangkok in 2001 on a search for relief from the unrelenting pummelling I got from bullies with snowballs and ended up getting an unrelenting pummelling from bullies with water.

Ed (00:00:47) - Guns are interesting. You're you're right, they are roughly the same thing they are.

Greg (00:00:52) - Yeah, and I just can't escape it. I guess I'm a target for bullies.

Ed (00:00:55) - And I'm Ed Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 23 years ago, fell in love with the shock of finding out how hot it actually is after doing a Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion. So I never left. Honestly, it's taken me. It's taken me years. It's taken me years to develop a shortcut because.

Greg (00:01:15) - 38 that isn't so bad.

Ed (00:01:17) - That's right. No, in my mind it's not bad. And then I do the math and I'm like, oh my God, it's 100 degrees. This happens pretty pretty much every year.

Greg (00:01:26) - That Saturday Night Live skit that I send you, I left Washington talking about the ridiculous numbers. Oh, I love it. Yeah.

Ed (00:01:33) - No, it makes no sense. It's indefensible. It's just war American. That's that's as far as it goes. That's all you need to say. All righty. We want to give a big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, a heads up to send questions to upcoming guests, and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world. But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we riff on current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we chatted about our Songkran adventures, recapping my afternoon on Soy Cowboy and Greg's afternoon with his son at Iconsiam, a list of recent events covering some badly behaved frogs in Thailand, which makes us wonder if Songkran is like the full moon for Thai based weirdos, and a discussion on how my job as an agent ironically becomes much more interesting and easier when bad things are happening around the world.

Ed (00:02:36) - To learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 700 bonus and regular back episodes, click the support button at the top of our website.

Greg (00:02:49) - Yeah, and also don't forget, if you listen to us on Spotify, you can now hear all of the bonus shows there as well. If you are a patron, simply link your Patreon account to your Spotify account and add our new feed titled Bangkok Podcast Badass Patrons only to hear the regular and bonus shows in the same spot. Alrighty then! On this episode, we are taking our inspiration from the one true universal language. And we're not talking about love or music or exploitation of the working classes, but rather mathematics. Heck yeah. And really strong in math. Back in the school days.

Ed (00:03:21) - I'm a pretty good math guy. I didn't end up going in that direction, you know, went into liberal arts. But basically I'm pretty good at math. I think I could have probably survived a proper engineering program, but I took another direction.

Ed (00:03:35) - I would say I'm pretty good at math and.

Greg (00:03:37) - Oh, interesting. That's really cool. I wasn't very good at math, and for when I was a kid, I dreamed of being an astrophysicist. and then when I got to start taking high school math and physics, I was like, oh, yeah, I'm not so good at this. So.

Ed (00:03:50) - So basically, you want to be Neil deGrasse Tyson or you wanted to be him?

Greg (00:03:53) - I want I still want to be him. Yeah. He's rad. but yeah, just don't have the brainpower for that. so I wasn't very good at math, but I do find this subject endlessly fascinating. And I got to thinking, if math can explain everything from how the pyramids were built to the design of a seashell to the structure of the universe, surely, surely it can be used to help us figure out Bangkok.

Ed (00:04:17) - So interesting.

Greg (00:04:18) - We put our heads together and came up with some mathematical equations and hypotheses that we think will help anyone get a better handle on living in Bangkok.

Greg (00:04:27) - And I got to take credit for this. If this episode is doesn't go over well, it's my fault. I thought this would be a fun thing to look into. What do you think?

Ed (00:04:35) - Well, when you tell me this idea I was, I was like, what are you talking about? Bangkok's chaotic. It's not. It's not mathematical. But I realized, you know, I am a social scientist. So even though society may seem random, it's not. So, I love this idea, but I got to be honest, I don't have too much to contribute. As soon as you gave me the topic of Bangkok equations, I immediately thought of Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion. That's to me, that's that's the equation. So I only I only I only have a little bit of insight, a little bit of help for foreigners who are American. I have a little bit help on, on the, on the conversion.

Greg (00:05:11) - Well, let's do that. How do you, how do you convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit, I don't know.

Ed (00:05:14) - Well, there is a proper format that no one can remember, but, you know, because it's an equation and the way the relationship works that if you want to do an accurate conversion, you're obviously either need your phone or you have to actually do the math for it to be perfectly accurate. But here's my little shortcut. Simplest thing in the world is around the range of temperatures that we have. So obviously we have a whole potential from like, you know, -102 to 100°C. But for us, you know, I still think in Fahrenheit, it's usually somewhere in Thailand. It's between like 70 degrees and 100 degrees. And I just realized that when I see the Celsius, if I just multiply it by like two and a half, that's it. So I don't know. So I don't have to remember. I don't have to remember like, you know, f -32 times, you know, 5/9, I don't, you know, I don't even have to remember that. Right. Because in that range, in that narrow band of what we're used to in Thailand, like Thai temperatures don't vary from, you know, in where we grew up, Fahrenheit wise.

Ed (00:06:22) - That's how I think it could be -10 or 100 degrees in the summer, like so. There's a huge range, you know, in Ohio and Calgary, right? But here, here there's a narrow range. So two and a half. That's it. That's all I'm saying. So if it's.

Greg (00:06:34) - Like 36°C it's like 90 Fahrenheit or something like yeah you.

Ed (00:06:38) - Just multiply by two and a half. It's not accurate. It's not. So I don't want to hear anyone make comments like that doesn't work. It's a rule of thumb. It is not accurate. It's just a rule of thumb. And that's that's what I do. So that's how we know. So now I know when it's you know in the in the mid to high 30s like that's really hot. I didn't know that when I first got here. I really didn't know that.

Greg (00:06:59) - That's funny. Well I got some lists here of equations that sort of go go into a bit more into specifically life in Bangkok. And the one that I always come back to is, is trying to explain to people who are new here when they want to get out to Bangkok.

Greg (00:07:14) - Hey, I got to go here. How long do you think it'll take? And that's a hard question to answer. It's sort of like, how long is a piece of string? So I call I call this traffic math. So whenever you're out in Bangkok and you're like, I got to get from A to B, how long is it going to take? You can't just answer that. So some of the things you have to take into account, to find out your travel time are what season it is, you know, whether it's sure.

Ed (00:07:41) - Well that matters. Sure.

Greg (00:07:42) - Raining or it could be flooded. It could be whatever, the holidays without associated season as well. So if you got Songkran, you got, you know, of course, the, the Buddhist holidays and things like that around the, the farming seasons, the planting, planting days. Sure. something else you have to take into account is the status of the schools, because if the schools are in, that means that at the end of the day, and a lot of times in the mornings, there's going to be a ton of parents, usually in their own cars.

Ed (00:08:08) - So if you you're right, if you if you happen to know a school is in that neighborhood, you're right. You got to factor in what time of day it is and what the status is. Right? Sure.

Greg (00:08:17) - So if it's like 3 p.m. and you're like, oh, I gotta go here and you think, oh, is that going to go past our school? Correct. That, that might that might throw you off because you might just have insane traffic around the school because everyone's waiting outside.

Ed (00:08:28) - That's a good that's some good insider advice. That's something that's something tourists would not be aware of.

Greg (00:08:33) - That's right. That's right. public holidays, of course they can be. You know, if you're going close to change everything, change everything. You go go to a shopping mall. There's going to be busier around there.

Ed (00:08:42) - Songkran. Songkran is one of the best times to drive around Bangkok, except in very specific areas. But that's right, there's there's significantly less traffic.

Greg (00:08:51) - That's right. They can also work in your favor.

Greg (00:08:53) - There's public holidays too, because if it's Songkran like I had to get, I drove all the way across the city during Songkran to meet a friend for dinner. It took me like 15 minutes in a taxi. Yeah.

Ed (00:09:00) - It's great. It's heavenly. Yeah.

Greg (00:09:03) - And of course the time of day. So rush hour and things like that. So you combine all those things together.

Ed (00:09:08) - I like it. I guess you would need some. The problem is you need experience, but maybe some of it's common sense. But, you know, my joke about Bangkok traffic is a lot. A lot of people just think Bangkok traffic is bad. But for me it's if it was just bad, it would be born predictable. So maybe you're maybe your equation helps. Like for me, a lot of times it seems random because I'm not using your equation. I should, I should, I should be thinking more rationally about this.

Greg (00:09:33) - Yeah, that's right. We need to we need to like, pimp these out or something.

Greg (00:09:37) - Put them in the calculator. We just plug in the numbers and get like a, like a thing. That'll show you.

Ed (00:09:41) - But Wednesday during Songkran, you know, it's a Wednesday during Songkran. It is 3 p.m. in the afternoon. You have to put in all the variables.

Greg (00:09:49) - That's right, that's right. And I was talking with a friend of mine who said that, like my friend in Singapore when I was down there, and he said he doesn't really like Bangkok because it takes him so long to get everywhere. And I was thinking like, yeah, well, there are ways around that. There's always an alternate way to get from A to B, but that only comes with experience. You can't just and the.

Ed (00:10:06) - Public transportation, the public transportation is getting better and better and it really, really makes a difference. And I often use, the MRT to the BTS for a segment of a trip. So, you know, this is you're right, this is some advanced thinking because you can think like, well, I can take the MRT to here and then a quick motorbike across that junction and then I'll be able to get a taxi.

Greg (00:10:29) - Right. Or you can say I'll get out. I'm like two stations before. For my actual stop because instead of walking this distance, then I'll be able to take this little side soi. And I know there's a motorcycle wind right on the corner there.

Ed (00:10:39) - That's right, that's right. Yeah.

Greg (00:10:41) - These kind of things. Yeah.

Ed (00:10:42) - No it is it is an equation. Okay. So I like this one. I like this one. Yeah.

Greg (00:10:47) - The next one I got is again it has to do with traveling in Bangkok. When you're traveling from A to B in Bangkok, you need to consult what I call the triangular transport planner.

Ed (00:10:56) - Sounds serious.

Greg (00:10:57) - It does. Now, this really depends on what you're going to do. Like, if you're going to have beers with your buddy, you got to take that into account. If you're going for a job interview and you're wearing, like, a shirt and a tie, you gotta take this into account as well. If you're, you know, wearing a skirt or shorts or something like that, you got to think about these kind of things.

Greg (00:11:14) - So imagine a triangle and on each vertex of the triangle and each corner of the triangle, you have one of the following fast, cheap and comfortable. When you're getting anywhere in Bangkok, you can only choose two of those.

Ed (00:11:28) - Interesting. So of course I've seen memes like this before with with other other three things.

Greg (00:11:34) - Sure, it's quite, quite a well-known thing.

Ed (00:11:36) - Yeah. But, so let me think about this for a second. So fast, cheap and comfortable. So you think that if something is quick and cheap, it's not that comfortable? I don't know. I mean, taxi taxis aren't that fast, I guess. Okay, I get your point now, okay? Because because motorbikes are fast and cheap, but it is. You're obviously on the back of a bike and it can be awkward. It's not it's not really comfortable.

Greg (00:12:00) - It's not fumes and stuff like that you know. Yeah that's right. Okay. Yeah. And like I said like like if you're going to to a job interview, you want to get there, fast and comfortably, you got to do the train, right.

Greg (00:12:12) - You don't want to show up sweaty and stuff like that, but train if you're going to long distance, not very cheap if you want to get there cheap and comfortably, you get in a taxi. It's not going to be fast. You're going to be stuck in traffic, right? good point, going out with your buddies. You want to get there fast and cheaply, get on the back of a motorcycle taxi, but it's not going to be comfortable. You're going to be sitting behind a bus, sweating in the traffic.

Ed (00:12:32) - I mean, this basically works. I mean, I think this is exactly right. It's good advice, especially for for newbies, if I've got to say is probably the best deal ends up being public transportation. So, I mean, if you look it could be because okay. Because for if you're middle class and above, if you're a typical foreigner, then the MRT and tests are not that expensive like they're like for the we talked about it before. For average Thai people, there might be a lot more expensive than it than than a motorbike.

Ed (00:12:59) - But so I think if to me the lesson is if public transportation works for any segment of your journey, then you probably should be taking it.

Greg (00:13:08) - I agree, I agree, but it's not for everyone and it doesn't go everywhere. So to do that, you got to pull out the traffic triangle every once in a while to figure out what the best what the best option is for you.

Ed (00:13:19) - Excellent, excellent.

Greg (00:13:21) - The next one I got is something I just thought up the other day, actually at the end of, Songkran. And this says the quality of a vacation is directly proportionate to the length of time you go during that vacation without wearing lace up shoes. Hahaha. What do you think about that?

Ed (00:13:38) - Interesting, I wonder? Okay, I like the I agree with the concept. I wonder this might be only possible in Thailand because you know, I did occasionally wear flip flops in the States, but not that much. I mean, it's even in the summer I didn't walk around and flip flop.

Ed (00:13:56) - So you have to be you have to be going to the beach or going to the pool to put flip flops on. But in time. But in Thailand, I agree with you. It is a it's kind of a line of demarcation.

Greg (00:14:07) - You know, good word.

Ed (00:14:08) - Well, even if, you know, when I go out at night, I typically wear lace up shoes. But then some nights I know we're just going to be super casual and it's just I'm hanging out in a beer bar and I know I'm not going to go anywhere nice. And then and then it's flip flops or thongs, whatever you want to call them. yeah. So it is a good line of demarcation.

Greg (00:14:26) - Well, I agree, I agree, but you sort of you sort of made my argument for me there. Like if you're in Bangkok and you're on vacation. I mean, that's nice too, but that's that's not a really high quality vacation, is it? And we're talking about the quality of a vacation. You're on a beach, right? And you're not putting on sneakers to go to the beach or putting on flip flops, of course.

Ed (00:14:46) - No doubt. But yeah, no, I'm not trying to argue. I think this is a good a good thing. I think you could end up if you, you know, if you were lazy in Bangkok, you could end up putting your. Because in Thailand, I don't think you need the beach to put on your to put on your flip flops.

Greg (00:15:00) - No, but I always feel a little bit like a little. It's sort of like having your fly down when flip flops around Bangkok for me, you know, especially if you get on a motorcycle taxi or something. You know.

Ed (00:15:08) - As a foreigner, it's not as a foreigner, it doesn't feel totally natural or normal. No Thai people, but but for Thai people, it is.

Greg (00:15:15) - Yeah. I'm always amazed at the number of of Thais who drive with flip flops. I would never drive with flip flops. It seems a bit too too dangerous for to me.

Ed (00:15:23) - No, this is a this is a flip flop culture, correct?

Greg (00:15:26) - Yes.

Greg (00:15:26) - So when in Rome? so yeah, for me, the longer I go without wearing any flip flop, without wearing any lace up shoes. That's a that's a solid vacation for me.

Ed (00:15:34) - Agreed. Agreed.

Greg (00:15:35) - The next one. There's no scientific, data to back this up. This is purely anecdotal. From something I've seen on all of my bike rides, all around Bangkok and in suburbs. And we talked about this on a recent bonus show. I think the further away you get from Sukhumvit, the less likely it is that you'll be able to find Gatorade in a 7-Eleven.

Ed (00:15:55) - Yeah, we chatted about this before. I like this, I like this, and it's one of those things that I never noticed or thought about. But then as soon as you brought it up, I. It it's totally true.

Greg (00:16:07) - Yeah. Now I find it like when you're in anywhere close to Sukhumvit or anywhere near a heavily touristic area, the chances that a 7-Eleven is going to have Gatorade are pretty high. But once you start getting out into the boonies, I mean, I think a lot of Thai people, they drink the milk has sip or the sport.

Greg (00:16:25) - Gatorade is sort of like this more expensive high.

Ed (00:16:28) - So scatter at high.

Greg (00:16:29) - So I don't know. But it's I think it's probably a more expensive imported brand. Right. It's sort of like the, the, the Doritos compared to the Lay's.

Ed (00:16:37) - Yeah, it is a foreign brand. I wonder I never even noticed. Is it more expensive? Right. That's that's my privilege, my, my from privilege that when I, when I reach, I'm not even looking. Is it 18 bot or 14 bot.

Greg (00:16:49) - Well, I do happen to know a bottle of Gatorade is 25 bot and a bottle of Emily, I think is about 15, maybe even.

Ed (00:16:56) - Oh wow. Okay. So that so that's that's a that's a difference. That's not a small difference.

Greg (00:17:01) - Yeah. That's right. So that's what that's what I've seen in my bike rides. Anyway I know if I go into a 7-Eleven I'm looking for a Gatorade and there's none there, I'm like, whoof. Must be getting pretty far into our.

Ed (00:17:09) - The truth is, I prefer I prefer the Gatorade. I think the Gatorade is better, but I don't know if it's just because that's what I grew up on or if it's actually better. But I do think it's better because I've had them both. And, I don't I don't just grab the Gatorade out of being familiar with it. I actually think it tastes better. Yeah, I.

Greg (00:17:26) - Agree, I agree, I do love it. Now, the one thing that the one variable that throws this, this scale off is Pocari Sweat.

Ed (00:17:33) - Oh good point. The Pocari Sweat variable. Good point. Very good point. I love Pocari Sweat man I love it.

Greg (00:17:38) - Great. It's great stuff. But I I've seen it in 7-Eleven way out in the boonies and I've seen 7-Eleven in it that have it right in the middle of Sukhumvit. And I've also seen neither of them have it all over the place. So there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where you.

Ed (00:17:52) - I agree that that's a good point.

Ed (00:17:54) - It's, it's it's you're right. It's kind of random. Yeah. I never know when it's going to be there or not. But if I have a choice between Pocari Sweat and Gatorade, I grabbed the Pocari Sweat.

Greg (00:18:04) - Really interesting I do.

Ed (00:18:06) - Okay, it just has a unique taste. I remember I believe the first time I had it was when on one of my visits to Japan, and it it tastes different. It's hard to explain, you know. I mean, it is just another electrolyte drink or replenish her, but I don't know, there's something distinct about it. I don't, I don't, I don't know what it is, but I'm a fan.

Greg (00:18:28) - Of anything named after the body sweat of a mythical animal. Imaginary animal. That's good. I just like the.

Ed (00:18:33) - Idea of, of something tasting good that has a horrible name. It's like one of the. It's one of the worst names, you know? Name a beverage after sweat.

Speaker 4 (00:18:44) - That's right.

Greg (00:18:45) - The only way they're going to come up with the new drink is called, like, ass juice or something like that.

Greg (00:18:49) - It's kind of. I just love this.

Ed (00:18:56) - Bottom of the foot powder. You know, something like that. Yeah. That's right.

Greg (00:18:59) - Well, the next one is something that I think a lot of people here have to put up with. And now we've, we've talked on the show many times before about how, you know, like an old Thai lady walking it, you know, an eighth the speed as you are will be able to completely block you on the sidewalk somehow. Yep. And in general, Thais walk much slower than foreigners do. But we've also come to the conclusion, after many years of living here, that surprise, surprise, the Thais know what they're doing. And the reason that happens is because they're walking slower so you don't sweat as much.

Ed (00:19:31) - They're just more chill.

Greg (00:19:32) - Yeah, but my the equation says when walking, the rate of sweat produced is directly proportional to the speed at which you walk. So walking half as fast will produce half as much sweat.

Greg (00:19:43) - But we'll double the travel time. So you're outside twice as long now.

Ed (00:19:48) - But but if you're. But if you're outside twice as long, doesn't that mean the total sweat should correct itself?

Greg (00:19:53) - That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking all this evens out. But what I did check this out. Now, this reminds me of the old argument. Like in a rainstorm, do you get wetter if you walk or if you run? Because if you're running, you're going through the water faster.

Ed (00:20:06) - Right? Oh, right. Oh yes. Yes, this is a real physics problem.

Greg (00:20:10) - It is. And I found this article that said Harvard mathematician David Bell worked out the answer back in 1976. His answer was that if the rain is falling vertically, or if there is wind blowing in your face, you should run. And the faster you run, the less wet you will get over the same distance. But if the wind is blowing from behind, you should still run. But now there is the optimum speed at which you will get at least wet.

Greg (00:20:31) - The speed of the wind. So you go.

Ed (00:20:34) - Oh, wild. So. So there's an actual answer in the rain situation.

Greg (00:20:38) - Yeah. No, I don't know if that's directly equal to to the sweat and walking speed situation, but there does seem to be some correlation between there. But which one would you rather have. Would you rather be slower and less sweaty but outside half the time, or show up a bit more sweaty, but be there quicker?

Ed (00:20:53) - I mean, my problem is I'm naturally a fast walker. I always, I always act like I'm I'm under stress or what I'm doing is really important. So I'm a naturally fast walker. So it's, I mean, I the, the right answer is to go more slowly. So that's, that's that's what I, that's what I prefer. In a perfect world, it's just not my personality.

Greg (00:21:13) - Yeah. I'm a very fast walker too, but I've never actually done like a controlled experiment where I, you know, like go out on a temperature that's the same as the, the other day.

Greg (00:21:23) - And I, the one day I walk fast and the one day I walk slow and then, I don't know, measure the dampness of my armpit. I don't know how you do it.

Ed (00:21:30) - I think going slower, I mean, the bottom line is if you just keep your heart rate down, then you won't sweat at all. In theory, I think if you if you, if you keep if you keep going slow enough, maybe.

Greg (00:21:39) - I'll take my wallet out of my back pocket and hold it up so I get the shadow on my face. Like a lot of times. Do you see? There's a lot of.

Ed (00:21:45) - There you go. Now that's super tight. That's you cross the line into super tightness, right?

Greg (00:21:50) - Drinking my amyloid tape, holding my wallet up over my face. And the last one we got, I'm actually stealing this from our buddy Dan Fraser, who who has written about this on his on his website before. And when he told me this, I thought it was a very interesting look.

Greg (00:22:05) - But when he explained it, I was like, I guess that makes sense. So Dan says one of the best ways to decide if a hotel is actually a good hotel is to go to their restaurant and order the club sandwich.

Ed (00:22:18) - Interesting. As in you're going to you're going to maybe eat eat one meal there. So not just so you're going to check out the restaurant first. And then if the club sandwich is good then the hotel is good.

Greg (00:22:30) - That's right. Because Dan's thinking is a club sandwich is really easy to do, but it's hard to do. Right. So he, he was talking about like, you go into a hotel and they're like, oh, we've got like Phillips Stark, decorations. And our thread count is 720. I don't know what it is. you know, we've got all this imported marble from Italy. Like, that's great, but anyone can do that. All you have to do is buy it. Right?

Ed (00:22:54) - But, Interesting.

Greg (00:22:55) - I lifted this, this quote from Dan's blog, and it says, but a club sandwich is different.

Greg (00:23:00) - It must be created from scratch. It must be presented to a stranger. And while it might be easy to slap one together, check it off the list and move on to the next order. I've noticed that smart hotels don't do that. Indeed, in my experience, there is almost always a correlation between a great club sandwich and a hotel's attention to fine touch details.

Ed (00:23:18) - Wow, I'm not even going to try to argue with that. I mean, Dan Fraser, Dan is the man, as they say when it comes to, especially when it comes to travel stuff. So that that just sounds like a nugget of golden nugget that, I'm just going to say I believe it.

Greg (00:23:33) - Yeah, I believe it to Dan's were very well traveled, much more than we are. so he knows what he's talking about. And hey, man, worst case scenario, you get to order a club sandwich, so.

Ed (00:23:42) - Heck yeah. Agreed. Dude, this show was, I was when you said you want to do a show on Bangkok Equations.

Ed (00:23:47) - I was a bit skeptical, but you came up. You came up with some good stuff, man.

Greg (00:23:52) - I think these these help sort of, figure it out. Like, some are a little bit more tongue in cheek than others, but some, I think are, are really practical.

Ed (00:24:01) - We got some rational distinctions out there. I'm sure we got some scientists and math people in the crowd. They'll appreciate it.

Greg (00:24:07) - I think so too. Now all we need, like I said, we gotta do gotta make like the Bangkok Podcast branded like Bangkok, math gadgets that you like or app or something like that, that you plug all these.

Ed (00:24:16) - Well the travel, the travel one. Yeah. If we could come up with a way, just write an app where you could enter all the different variables, you know, date, holiday, time of day, location, you know, Google. The funny thing is Google is supposed to be doing that. But to me it's not very accurate at all. Like I'm a huge Google guy, right? But the Google Maps like estimated destination time is not good.

Greg (00:24:38) - I was thinking we should do that. Like, you know, you can choose the layer, you can choose the traffic, you can choose the shirt or whatever. We should add like a another layer where you can plug it in like school closings.

Ed (00:24:48) - And just add at the Bangkok podcast layer, you know, like recent.

Greg (00:24:52) - Weather and our.

Ed (00:24:53) - Wisdom just comes, comes down, comes down from on high.

Greg (00:24:58) - Anyway, we, we hope you had fun with that. That's just a couple of little equations. Some some a bit more practical than others, but I think all of it will help you understand how Bangkok works, if that is even possible.

Ed (00:25:08) - Yeah.

Greg (00:25:09) - All right, let's get into some love, loathe, or live with where one of us picks a particular aspect of living in Bangkok, which we then discuss to decide if it's something we love about living here, loathe about living here, or have come to accept as something that we just have to learn to live with no matter how we feel about it.

Greg (00:25:22) - So add this is over to you this week.

Ed (00:25:25) - All right, I got something. I need you to be totally honest. not not that you're not totally honest all the time. Like. Okay, maybe I just let let the cat out of the bag. I let people know you're not usually honest, and I. Jerry, are you lying? I want you to be honest this time. this this might just be a pet peeve of mine, so just be honest. Whether this bugs you at all. Okay. so this could happen in a couple different scenarios. It's really a kind of a general point, but but the the typical example is if you need a Thai person to talk to someone, as in, you know, our Thais bad. So we you're going to hand a phone to a sales girl so she can talk to your wife? that would be the classic thing. So I presume this happens to you occasionally?

Greg (00:26:11) - Probably way more often than my wife is comfortable with. But yes, that's right.

Ed (00:26:15) - I'm constantly giving Thai people my phone and asking them to talk to a stranger. This is the this is a this is a regular a regular thing I do. I feel the Thai people almost always use the speakerphone, even at inappropriate times. If there's a lot of background noise, they're very reluctant to put a stranger's phone to their ear. And. What's your take on that? You ever noticed that Thai people love the speakerphone?

Greg (00:26:42) - Yeah, man, I gotta say, I think I'm on board with this. they love the speakerphone.

Ed (00:26:48) - Well, they use it way more than I remember. Anyone using it to back home, but.

Greg (00:26:52) - But do they use it loudly or quietly? Because when I use a speakerphone, I turn the volume way down, but I hold it right to my ear.

Ed (00:26:59) - You see. So you're kind of half, you're kind of in between. You like the in between?

Greg (00:27:02) - Yeah.

Ed (00:27:03) - You're almost holding it to your ear, but it's still the speakerphone.

Greg (00:27:06) - But what I don't like is that people who have it at full volume and are holding it in front of their face, so I can hear the call clear as day.

Greg (00:27:11) - Well, I don't.

Ed (00:27:11) - Like I don't like that. And I feel that they also use it when there's even background noise and is clearly difficult for the conversation to take place. You know, you could be in a noisy environment and you know, putting the just using the the phone normally would, would be much easier. But they're still trying to use the speakerphone, right. so okay. I mean, you kind of picked up on my take already, but I'm a loathe man. This just just drives me crazy. I'm always like, I'm always just. Just put it to your ear. Just, you know, just. And sometimes I kind of push it up, like, hey, just just use.

Ed (00:27:45) - Just use it like a normal phone, okay? They're making it more difficult trying to have this conversation over. Over a speaker. I don't know, man.

Greg (00:27:52) - I think I'm kind of on board with this. I think I'm, I'm a live with bordering on love.

Greg (00:27:57) - I think it's a way to go. I hate even when I have my own phone taking away.

Ed (00:28:00) - You're not making any sense. I thought. I thought you said you hate it when they're when they're talking loudly on their speakerphone.

Greg (00:28:07) - So turn the volume down and put it close to your ear like the.

Ed (00:28:12) - I have an I have a crazy idea for you. Don't use the speakerphone. Just put put it to your actually put it to your ear.

Greg (00:28:17) - No, no, you can hear me, you didn't let me finish. I hate when you put it to your ear, because when you pull it away, it's all greasy and sweaty. What if someone didn't use our triangular transport planner and they're on the BTS and they're sweaty or something like that?

Ed (00:28:29) - I understand there could be some hygiene matter, but I don't know. To me, okay, like during Covid or if someone is obviously sweaty. But I don't remember back home people being reluctant to put someone else's phone to their ear.

Ed (00:28:44) - I don't remember that hygiene matter. Is that a thing? I mean, listeners, listeners, help me out here. I, I just all I have no memory in the past of handing my phone to someone and them and them holding it out like, well, I don't want to put that to my I don't want to put that to my face. I have no memory of that.

Greg (00:29:02) - When we came to Bangkok, there was no such thing as cell phones anyway, where there barely was.

Ed (00:29:07) - Well, I have been back, I don't know. Well, okay, whatever we can, we can agree to disagree, but I'm a loath.

Greg (00:29:13) - I think as long as they keep the volume down and they put the speaker right next to their ear, I don't want someone holding my phone to their greasy ear after they just got in from walking five blocks outside in Bangkok.

Ed (00:29:23) - You hygiene freak. You must be some kind of hygiene freak.

Greg (00:29:25) - Hey, I've got an old phone. It still works fine because I keep it clean.

Greg (00:29:28) - Yo! Cleanliness right next to godliness. No, I'm a I'm a I'm a live with bordering on love for this. I'm all on board. As long as they don't use a speakerphone. A full, full volume.

Ed (00:29:39) - Okay, you're free to be wrong if you want. That's fine. All right, we're done with that.

Greg (00:29:42) - Cool, cool.

Ed (00:29:43) - Okay, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling helping and our never ending quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online. Where? Bangkok podcast on social media Bangkok podcast.com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and ours. Reply to our messages.

Greg (00:30:08) - Yeah baby! You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. You can send us a voicemail through our website that will feature on the show. I am on threads at K.K.. Greg. Thanks for listening everyone. Hope you're staying dry after being so wet during Songkran.

Greg (00:30:20) - We'll see you back here next week.