Today we ponder the immortal question for the ages...do you have to be a weirdo to be an expat in Bangkok? And you’ll get another reminder of our big anniversary show coming up, and how you can get your own freaky self involved.
On this episode we ask the immortal question: do you have to be a little bit strange to live in Bangkok? We don’t mean that (necessarily) in a bad way, you understand. But it sure seems that, on some level, people who tend to thrive on chaos deal really well with the uncertainty, noise, culture shock, and political instability that are endemic to Thailand. If nothing else, you sure need to have an 'elastic outlook' on life. All of that is the exact opposite of life in most western countries, so by definition, you have to be okay with rejecting the "normal" parts of your native culture. And that’s something not everyone is comfortable with. Not surprisingly, your hosts of the Bangkok Podcast self-identify with the moniker “weirdo”, which probably explains why we’re doing alright here. In this episode we talk about why we fit, what other strange people we’ve met during our time in the kingdom, and then diss on some people who claim to be strange, yet just follow along with the crowd. Let your freak flag fly and enjoy this fun episode of our show.
We’ve all seen them - trimming hedges, fixing cables, doing construction work. The hidden ninjas of Bangkok, the manual laborers who clad themselves from head to toe in clothing despite the ungodly heat and job in direct sunlight. Why do they do it? Don’t they get dehydrated? And why do they look at us like WE’RE the strange ones for wearing shorts?
This week, we’re thanking another of our supporters. This time, it’s Chris “The Coin” Stevens. How did Chris earn that cool nickname? You’ll have to listen to find out what story we have to tell. You can thank Cookies and dozens of other people who help us keep the show free of annoying ads and get access to bonus content, cool swag and more by supporting us on Patreon. You should join them!
If it’s your first time experiencing The Bangkok Podcast, you really should get our show downloading to your phone automatically every week. If you use iOS, it’s a breeze to listen via Apple Podcasts. Android users are be able get the show any number of ways. And for bonus points, leave us a review on those platforms or however you listen to the show. We’d love to hear from you! You can add our official LINE account, comment on a post or send us a message via our Facebook page, tweet to us @bangkokpodcast, or simply via the contact form on our website. You may also be interested in Greg’s tweets of snarky Bangkok goodness, and you can see way too much of Evo’s face on Instagram. If you’re really new, the Bangkok Podcast is co-hosted by Greg Jorgensen and Evo Terra. Together the have over 20 years expat experience in Bangkok, and are self-certified experts in living in the City of Angels. (Not Los Angeles. Thailand, silly!)