Do You Have to be a Weirdo to Thrive in Bangkok? [S7.E43]

Greg 00:00:05 On this episode, we revisit a topic from season two. Do you have to be a weirdo to live in Bangkok?

Ed 00:00:11 So if you've ever wondered if rejecting all the comforts of home to live in a chaotic city like the Big Mango makes you strange, you'll dig this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Greg 00:00:36 Sawat dee krap and welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Thailand in 2001 to pioneer a modern style of saffron kilt for Scottish monks, but have never been able to find the funding to get this groundbreaking project a chance.

Ed 00:00:52 Genius, genius, I tell you.

Greg 00:00:53 Yeah. Good work.

Ed 00:00:55 And I met Knuth, an American who came to town on a one year teaching contract 24 years ago, I fell in love with Thai people whose last names have more syllables than anti disestablishment terrorism. So I never.

Greg 00:01:07 Left. So funny. We don't we don't plan these before. The show is so funny that I read that because that's when I was in high school I committed myself to learning like the biggest words in the English language.

Ed 00:01:18 Oh really?

Greg 00:01:18 Oh, really? Yeah. And I would study every social studies class and miss MacDonald's class. I would study a word until I remembered it. I didn't learn anything, but I was studying these little words and and the disestablishment Arianism was, was one of the ones I learned. I also memorized Fox Knox and Ala Phillip action and the longest word in the English language, which has been verified by The Simpsons, even, is Newmont ultra microscopic silica volcanic osis. It took me like a week to learn how to say that.

Ed 00:01:45 I do not know that word at all. I thought it was like, I thought the longest word was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Greg 00:01:53 it's one of them. I'm not even sure it's a real word, though. But pneumonia, pneumonia, ultra microscopic silicone is an actual medical term. And yeah, I just remember their teachers like Greg. Do you have any questions? I'm like, no, no, no questions for me. I understand it all. I'm looking down new mono ultra anyway.

Greg 00:02:08 Yes, Ty names do have anyway.

Ed 00:02:10 High last names, many syllables. Let's just say that many syllables. All right. I 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 wherever we riff on current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we followed up on last week's main show with some further discussion points that our patrons have been discussing on discord. Greg's soggy march to his car today on his way home from work on a very flooded toy, and tales of a visit to walk Pakenham to visit a friend of the show, Prop Bandit, as well as a visit to the temple's extremely eclectic museum of extremely random artifacts, to learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 700 bonus and regular back episodes.

Ed 00:03:11 Click this port button at the top of our website.

Greg 00:03:14 Man that museum. One of the things in the cases was a big pile of old vinyl records. It looked like it was 100 years old, but I really wanted it might be worth millions.

Ed 00:03:22 Yeah, it might be worth millions.

Greg 00:03:24 I really wanted to take one out and it's like, can I just take this home? And Ed's got a turntable. I played on his turntable. Anyway, as always, if you have a comment to show idea or just want to say hi, head to Bangkok Podcast. Com and click the little microphone button on the bottom right to leave us a voicemail that we'll play on the show. Alrighty then. Well, on this episode we resurrect an oldie but a Goldie from way back in season two with our buddy Ivo, and it's a topic that actually I've long wanted to revisit with Ed to get his opinion on. Not only that, but it's been seven years since that episode aired and I'm curious to see if anything has changed in my outlook on the topic.

Greg 00:04:00 Now I am of course talking about season two, episode 48 titled Do Only Weirdos Live in Bangkok? The long and short of it is that Bangkok is not a place where a Westerner looking for a boring, traditional life would move to. But that doesn't mean you have to be strange or weird or odd to live here. Or does it? So I always wanted to get your opinion on this, because that Evo and I had a good discussion about it, I remember and I would, I would like to, to sort of also revisit it and see how my opinions on the subject have changed. Because, again, seven years is a long time in Bangkok and the city has changed a lot. So. So what do you think of this?

Ed 00:04:37 Well, I love I love the question, you know, kind of do you have to be weird to to to want to stay in Thailand? You definitely don't have to be weird to want to visit here.

Greg 00:04:47 Not at all. No.

Ed 00:04:48 You know, obviously, you know, 40 million tourists a year.

Ed 00:04:50 Not all those people are weird, but we expats were weird. Or at least I think most most of us are. But, it, you know, to me, I can get technical. It all depends on what you mean by weird. But, I've mentioned this before on the show many times. You know, I've said this to you. I rarely find expats who are boring, like, expats are almost always interesting in either a good or bad way. Right? They, you know, they can be just fascinating people with cool degrees or they're doing working on some cool NGO project, or they're on the lam from the law.

Greg 00:05:29 Or complete lunatics.

Ed 00:05:31 Yeah, yeah, that's to me, those are the classic things.

Greg 00:05:34 Right? And like we said, like, this is not a place where, you know, someone out of grad school would be like, I'm going to move to Bangkok and just sort of like, find a find a partner and settle down and have the white picket fence and have the traditional quiet lifestyle, like for various reasons that we've discussed on the show over the years, the probably would be an interesting place to live for a long time.

Greg 00:05:54 But as a young person who wants to move here and have what a Western traditional lifestyle would be. I don't think it's going to take many of those boxes, so it's not a place that you'd want to do that. So yeah, my, my it's my, my thinking that in order to live and thrive in Bangkok, a lot of people can live here and be miserable. But in order to thrive here, you need to be comfortable with sort of a constant level of low level chaos and unpredictability.

Ed 00:06:22 Yeah, which I think this is weird. This is true. Yeah. Maybe it is somewhat weird. You know, I it's funny, I don't you know, you and I both grew up pretty normal, you know, just kind of middle class, semi suburban. you know, I didn't grow up in New York or LA. You know, I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. You grew up in Calgary, like. Right. You know, you and I are in in many ways kind of generic westerner.

Ed 00:06:51 So I don't think of myself, you know, like, I don't think of myself as weird culturally or due to my background. In fact, it's just the opposite. You know, I grew up in cookie cutter America, just bought box house and then another box house and then other box house, like, you know, for as far as the eye can see, like, that's my suburban. I'm a suburban where I grew up, so there's nothing. It's the opposite of weird. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And and then also, even just in my upbringing, I wasn't some crazy punk rocker with spiked hair who dropped out of school, like, in seventh grade. I mean, I, I was an altar boy. You know, I did well, and I went to public schools, you know, so I didn't even go to, you know, when I was in law school, I met a bunch of private school people who went to, like these expensive private schools.

Ed 00:07:40 And the. I remember joking around with my, my girlfriend at the time who went to one of these things. It's like they all think that they're weird. It's like they they realized that, like, like it's funny, but like, often like in the States, like rich kids think of themselves as weird. Because yes, they do because. Because the United States has such a huge middle class like. So when you when you, when you're just kind of normal, it means you went to public school here and public school there and then this, you know, it's like you're just there's so many other people like you. And so I so I have several examples of friends of mine who were very privileged. But in the states, in the States, they start thinking like, what's wrong with me?

Greg 00:08:23 It's like, oh, interesting.

Ed 00:08:24 Because they realize that they're weird. So so the so the point I'm trying to make is, like, you and I are not weird by background.

Greg 00:08:33 No.

Greg 00:08:34 And we're, we're we're not weird. Like, we're not weirdos. We're not freaky, and we're not we're not the guy that walks into the room and scares everyone. Like we're normal guys.

Ed 00:08:44 I mean, it's an interesting question because, like, you know, whatever I teach, you know, I teach university. I'm a liberal arts professor. So I guess that's kind of weird. I mean, most people don't do that or want to do that or, you know, whatever. I've got a ponytail. Like what? You know what I mean? I don't know what. You know what I mean? I don't know what. I don't know what is weird, but but but I think your point is well taken in that, Bangkok has a caste to it. Thai culture is difficult to get a beat on for Westerners. That's kind of the genesis of the podcast itself. Right? So maybe the fact that you and I, adjusted to it and, and even though we've both had our ups and downs, we haven't left like, we've, you know, you and I have had many friends who've just gotten frustrated and they're like, I'm out.

Ed 00:09:32 I'm, I'm I'm out of here. Yeah.

Greg 00:09:34 Totally. Totally. And I think we have to peel back the the onion of the word weird a little bit, you know, peel back the layers because it's, it's a bit of a cheat because, no, you're not weird because you want to live here, but you're you're weird in the sense that you have to be. You have to reject certain, of the certain regulations and rules and norms that most Westerners are brought up to, just believe is the way life should work. So and that. That's what I mean with weird. Like, you're not a weird or like a strange person, but it's weird that you've you've comfortably been able to reject those foundational lessons.

Ed 00:10:09 Yeah, maybe unusual or or not. Average is better. You know, I was, when I was back home from my, high school reunion that I talked about on the show a little bit. I was just catching up with a buddy of mine. we're kind of in touch, just not, you know, weekly.

Ed 00:10:26 And, he said something like, It's amazing that you have made a life in Thailand.

Greg 00:10:33 Okay, why would he think that, though?

Ed 00:10:35 He's like, it's amazing. And I'm like, well, I guess, thanks. I don't think about it as amazing. It's just, you know, listener, podcast listeners know it's like I thought it was going to be here one year and then it was two years, then three. So to me, it's just it's just it has worked out. Yes, but, you know, that's how I think about it. It has worked out. But he. And he's actually a super successful guy doctor in the US. and, but he's just like, for him, it's unfathomable that he would live in another country, especially one in Asia.

Greg 00:11:07 Right, right.

Ed 00:11:08 Exactly. Just, you know, he's a successful American doctor, so he's just it's completely out of his frame of mind, like, wait, you you live somewhere else? Like, it wasn't just like a gap here.

Greg 00:11:21 Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Ed 00:11:23 You know, and then it's also it's also Thailand. It's not France or, you know, because we he, he and I actually were in French class together in high school. You know, it's not it's it's a non-Western country. You know, it's like, you know, Thailand is this is why you and I like Thailand. It's it's off the grid, but it's not South Sudan, you know what I mean? It's not. You know what I mean? So it's just it's just enough off the grid that it's it's an adventure, right?

Greg 00:11:49 Yeah, exactly. And I think I've told the story on the show before, but it's this was exemplified to me after I'd been here a few years and I went home and I, and I met with my, you know, my good friends, parents who were very close to me growing up and, and, Bernie, my friend's mom, she was like, she was like, you know, I was Tyler.

Greg 00:12:05 And I said, oh, it's good. She's like, so when are you going to like, you know, move back and get your life back on track? You know, like, have that come back to me, get your life back.

Ed 00:12:13 Basically get your life back, you know.

Greg 00:12:15 And and I sort of took offense to that. I was like, well. And I said, well how when are you going to leave this boring little one horse town, right. And come to Asia and live a more adventurous, exciting life? And she was like, yeah. And she was like, all right, all right, I get it. I get, you know, so but you, you have to sort of break through that barrier of you've been here three, 4 or 5 years and people start to go, all right, time to time to come back.

Ed 00:12:42 I mentioned, it wasn't just that one buddy I mentioned when I was back, for my high school reunion. The like.

Ed 00:12:49 You know, people did ask, you know, people did ask me if I was married, if I had kids. But but it definitely was living in Thailand was that was the thing. They were like, wait, wait, wait, you live you live in Taiwan, Taiwan, Thailand. Yeah. You know, that was definitely the thing. and, you know, most of them, I, I was actually just surprised at my high school reunion how actually, it's just I had more fun than I thought. And a lot of the people who actually never left Ohio, I actually still had great conversations with them, but but they but in their mind, you know, I was doing something weird or special, right?

Greg 00:13:27 Right. Now, one interesting thing I wanted to think about was like the like I said, we recorded the original episode with Evo seven years ago, and I was wondering if if my opinion had changed based on the time elapsed. So, basically my my takeaway from from the first time we did this topic was, yes, you need to be a little bit strange to live here, and you need to be quote unquote weird.

Greg 00:13:52 Or what? What people back home would call weird to thrive in Thailand. And I was wondering if you need it to be less weird now, considering the type of development and evolution the city has gone through over the past seven years. And I kind of think you do. I kind of think in the past seven years, the city has grown and matured and become much more cosmopolitan than it was seven years ago, way more than it was 10 or 12 years ago. Seven years. I think it's just like the minimum amount of time needed to see that change.

Ed 00:14:24 It's funny, I personally don't think that way, but I do think I do think that way about, gurus, like Joe Cummings and other people who came in the 80s or 90s, you know. Oh, yeah. You know, my joke when I got here in 2000 is that there was a Starbucks and a McDonald's at the end of my street, you know, that that was in 2000. But but so when I, when, when I look at the early adventurers like Joe.

Ed 00:14:54 That's weird to me in a totally good sense. But I mean that, you know, when you're just one of the fewest foreigners here. But, but, but it is true that I mean, from 2000 all the way up until today, it just it does seem to be getting progressively more foreigner friendly.

Greg 00:15:10 Yeah.

Ed 00:15:11 So, I mean, so, you know, maybe we do deserve some props for being here in the not's. I think so, but for me, I mean, but for me, it's just like when I think back to, like, the pre, you know, when I talk, talk to a foreigners who are here in the 90s and there was no TZ, no emirate, I'm just like, that's insane. Yeah. You know. Yeah, that's completely insane.

Greg 00:15:32 But say say, say let's, let's let's set a benchmark for ten years ago. So there was, you know, there was much fewer RTS and subway lines. There was, you know, some, some very nascent internet, I think like 3G was here.

Greg 00:15:45 And that was that was about it, you know. So so you were forced to to understand Bangkok, I think, on a much more, on a much more visceral level than you are now. So I think. Yeah. So I, it's hard to put hard to put that into words, what I'm thinking. But I think you had to be a bit more weird ten years ago in the way that you were forced to digest. And yeah, you were forced.

Ed 00:16:12 Putting up with more.

Greg 00:16:13 Things. Deal with Bangkok on a on a much more rougher level than you are today.

Ed 00:16:18 Well, I mean, the bottom line, you know, this is the you know, we've mentioned before, it's it's just a simple fact that even though traffic is still bad, it has gotten better. So you and I had to wrestle with worse traffic. And then again, the early people who came in the 80s and 90s like they they look at us like we have the easiest.

Greg 00:16:35 Like cream puffs. Oh, yeah.

Greg 00:16:37 Oh. Are you are you sad sitting there in your air con taxi?

Ed 00:16:41 That's right. I want to mention this, on this topic. It's worth mentioning that, it does, of course, depend on why you're here. So there are expats who are, let's say, in the military or maybe on some type of corporate package and those types of people, when I, when I, when I meet them, they're pretty normal. And the other thing is also, the other subgroup I'll mention is retirees, like retirees, also tend to be fairly normal people. Like, I just have met a bunch of dudes like, retired here. And, they come from a variety of very normal middle class jobs, like so they are in a way, they are in some ways on an adventure in that they're retiring in a foreign country, but it's just not the same as when you come here in your 20s or 30s like, like they're really coming here for peace. Like they're not coming here actually for an adventure.

Ed 00:17:36 Yeah.

Greg 00:17:36 And it's interesting you say that because the flip side of this is maybe, like, not do you need to be a weirdo to live here? It's are you more easier able to find a normal, quote unquote normal lifestyle here than you used to be. So I think, yeah, definitely. Now you are. So you can find the creature comforts of home much easier than it used to be. You can be in contact with one of the at a couple of taps on your phone. So finding that normal lifestyle is closer or closer to it, as close to it as possible is much easier than it used to be in even much easier than it used to be for someone like Joe. But that's right for sure. Yeah.

Ed 00:18:11 The other thing I want to mention is, it's kind of a special case. I mentioned I made a joke earlier about some friends of ours who have gotten tired of Bangkok or or pissed off or just aggravated, and they've bailed, which I understand. but I've had several of those friends who've actually come back.

Ed 00:18:33 oh. Really? Oh, yeah. You know, people who get tired of the weirdness and chaos of Bangkok. They don't understand it. And they snap and they go somewhere else. They go back home? Or in the case of one of my friends. He he moved to Japan and and at first when he moved to Japan, he was just talking about how how much saner it was. And it's just calmer and more stable. And, you I got the vibe from him that he was just ready. He was just more mature, and he's just going to lead a more reasonable life in Japan. And now all he can talk about is coming back to to to Thailand, you know.

Greg 00:19:14 Well, we both have a friend who moved to the Philippines a bunch of years ago. That's right. Right. And he was he was done with Thailand.

Ed 00:19:19 Totally done.

Greg 00:19:20 Moved to the Philippines, but now he's back here.

Ed 00:19:22 Yeah. So I yeah, I you know, the bottom line is I guess my answer, my answer to the main, the main question, I know this affects a lot of our listeners out there.

Ed 00:19:31 A lot of our listeners are expats. So we're basically calling our listener base weird. That's what we're doing.

Greg 00:19:36 Well, man, I'll be the first one to say that I'm weird. I, I, I am the stranger. I'm the weirdo. I'm the I'm the guy that left my comfy little life.

Ed 00:19:46 But my point is, like by background, you're not weird. Like you're not. But there is something maybe about your personality in my personality that we we didn't get too freaked out by Bangkok. We didn't panic. We didn't leave. We didn't get too aggravated. Right? we adapted somehow. so maybe that is weird.

Greg 00:20:07 Maybe again, I talk about my my buddy Mark. I came to Thailand with him on a vacation, and we were supposed to stay for four months, and he left after, you know, barely two weeks. That's right. So it's. And, you know, I think most.

Ed 00:20:20 People yeah, most people just appreciate the familiar. Right. And it's just it's kind of not on their radar when I think of, some of my sisters or my buddies, they're super smart, like, just curious people, but just living in a foreign country, it's just not on their radar.

Ed 00:20:43 They're just they don't get it. They're just like, why would I do that? and so it's just we're just off the map, you know? What's that? What's that expression from the old maps? Like here there be dragons. Like it's just like we're just. We're just off the map. Like it's just not in their mindset. They're just not thinking of living somewhere halfway around the world. Right? So I guess that is weird then. It's weird. Dude.

Greg 00:21:08 It's funny how you how you sort of build up building a life in Bangkok as a bit of a, like an achievement, right? Like a, like a merit badge, which we've talked about. But I think after a while, I, I'm really proud of, of the fact that I've managed to survive and thrive in Thailand because it's not even something that most people would even consider, let alone I guess I am.

Ed 00:21:30 I guess I am, I mean, you know, the fact that I've made a life, let's just say that, you know, I'm not super successful, but I've made a life and I kind of stuck it out.

Ed 00:21:41 I, I guess I feel good about that, but. But the other thing I want to point out, is this that, you know, I would not be here if I was not unhappy as a lawyer. So, you know, you and I have different backgrounds, career wise and stuff like that, but, I mean, like, Thailand definitely is or was plan B for me. So I just wanted to be honest about that. Like I was a lawyer in the States, I wasn't happy. I started doing taking some teaching jobs in the States, but I was very much a lost soul. And then I took a teaching job here and then, you know, and ended up falling in love with that. But if I, you know, I do consider myself a failed lawyer, you know, so for me, it was a plan B.

Greg 00:22:22 Right? Okay. I didn't even have I didn't I didn't plan A or B, I just, I just.

Ed 00:22:28 Oh, okay.

Greg 00:22:28 It just sort of happened.

Greg 00:22:29 I didn't have a, I didn't have a plan A or B at home. Yeah.

Ed 00:22:34 But to me, you know, I've met so many different people here with different backgrounds. So some people are here and they're coming from like success to success. But then I've met many people here who are just more like lost souls or this didn't work out, or they lost this job or they got divorced or whatever. Right, right. but to me, that doesn't really change much because that's just kind of like why you're here, but it doesn't say why you stayed or why it worked out.

Greg 00:23:05 Right? Yeah.

Ed 00:23:06 You know what I mean?

Greg 00:23:08 Yeah. I think, in, you know, as we're finishing up here, I think sort of my takeaway is, is you have to be weird to to live here in the respect that you you have to be prepared to reject the things that make you safe and comfortable and familiar back home, which is it goes against human nature. It goes against what people expect to you.

Greg 00:23:29 So that can be seen as weird. but you can live here and be a very normal person. And I think these days it's even easier to do that. And and to and have more of the creature comforts that you're used to that keep you, that make you feel safe. Then and then you could ten years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago.

Ed 00:23:48 I mean, I had a pretty easy I mean, I had a pretty easy transition in 2000, to be honest. And I think it's certainly easier now.

Greg 00:23:55 Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So so my take is a yeah, you've got to be a weirdo to live here. but that doesn't mean that you're a weird person, just that you're more comfortable doing things that probably most people back home would not even consider.

Ed 00:24:10 Makes sense. Like, you know, that was my impression. Talking to talking to people back home is that I'm. I'm just off their radar. I'm off the map. I'm off the map. I'm off the map.

Greg 00:24:21 Yeah, I know my friends. You know, every once in a while, they'll pull out their yearbook back home. And who's that guy? Oh, that's Greg. Yeah, he, like, he just went off the radar, man. Oh, yeah. Moved to Thailand, and he's never come back. What a weirdo. And a strange, eccentric man. That guy is.

Ed 00:24:39 So funny.

Greg 00:24:40 Crazy uncle Greg. Yeah. Anyway, you know, but we, we love our fellow weirdos who live in Thailand. And, for sure, we welcome your weirdness. Yeah. All right. Hey, we ask our listeners to send in a voicemail using our little microphone button on the website if they have something to say. And, this week we heard from our pal Eric. Take it away, Eric.

Eric 00:25:00 Hey, guys. I'm taking advantage of the holiday Wednesday and heading out on the BTS to explore the Samsung area. And I was just listening to the bonus episode and Ed said something. I just wanted to quickly send a voice note in about, that he appreciates ties to know about the world, that you guys have joked about ties, not knowing much about their neighbors Cambodia, Myanmar, and I just wanted to remember him, that there are countless and I mean countless comedians who go around America and ask Americans questions about Canada and Mexico that they have no clue the answers to.

Eric 00:25:53 so I think it's a pretty common thing around the world where people don't know much about their neighbors or unfortunately, just have very negative views of them. So, yeah, we're, we're a select few. And, when you do meet people who are connected, for sure, it's cool. but I don't know if ties or are any different than Americans who know absolutely nothing about Canada or Mexico, which are very important partners right next to them. So, yeah, just a quick reminder. Cheers, guys. Have a good day.

Ed 00:26:27 Hey, Eric, man, thanks for that message. And I just want to say this. You are 1,000,000% correct about Americans. Americans are actually Famously ignorant of of of really I mean, no, this was this is a joke among Americans and it's been on The Tonight Show, Jay Leno, you know, where you know, they even ask Americans questions about, you know, Montana and they, you know, you know, they think it's a foreign country, you know, no, Americans are famously ignorant of, geography either, either inside the US or outside the US.

Ed 00:27:00 So your point is very well taken. But I will say this in defense of my point. Europeans, are very aware of their neighbors. And, you know, my joke about Europeans is that, you know, that they speak a minimum of three languages. You know, my, my, my European friends. And, I think the US is different than Thailand in that the US is so damn big, like, you know, all of Thailand almost fits inside of Texas. And, you know, it almost fits inside of one state. And so the US being geographically so huge and having different states, it's a little bit more understandable. You know, Americans should know more about Canada and Mexico, there's no doubt about it. So I'm not disagreeing with that. But, I just think that how crowded Southeast Asia is and the size of the countries, and I think most, most Thai people would even, you know, admit, you know, I mean, they really almost know nothing. So I'm gonna I'm gonna say you're not wrong about Americans, but I don't think I'm wrong about Thai people.

Ed 00:28:05 I feel like they should know more about their neighbors.

Greg 00:28:08 Yeah, yeah, I would agree on that, man. There is a very. The iconic Canadian comedy show called This Hour has 22 minutes years and years ago, like the late 90s. And there's a like a legendary comedian named Rick Mercer who would go around and he would have conversations with Americans and he would get them to like, hey, we're from Canada. We're doing, we're, messages from our American friends. And he would have people on camera going, congratulations, Canada, on finally getting, the technology for VCRs in your country. And this was in like 19, you know, 96 kind of thing. Oh, that's great, that's great. And he was making say, all kinds of silly thing. But man, Canada has morons too. And I, you know, shamefully, I know a few of them. And I remember, they will remain nameless in the off chance that 1st May listen. But, you know, five years ago I was talking to a really good friend of mine from high school who I was very tight with my whole life.

Greg 00:28:59 And, I was having a conversation with him. We hadn't talked in about ten years, and it just sort of hit me in the middle of our conversation. I'm like, wow, this person is really dumb. They don't know anything about anything in the world. They only know the little town they grew that we grew up in. And, you know, I've got friends in Canada who purposely do not read any news at all about anything. So there's sort of like the ignorance is bliss crowd. But yeah, Thailand doesn't have a lock on it for sure.

Ed 00:29:28 I no, I appreciate the comment though. Americans, we're just going to have to plead guilty to. To geographic ignorance. Guilty as charged.

Greg 00:29:38 I was telling my son tonight, I said, we're going to redecorate his room. And I said, I'm going to make sure you get a gigantic map on your wall. And he's like, why? And I said, because I don't want you growing up to be one of those people that doesn't know how many continents there are.

Greg 00:29:50 And he's like, okay.

Ed 00:29:51 So that's great. That's great. Yeah.

Greg 00:29:54 Anyway, thanks, Eric. That's great. That's great. And, good, good insight.

Ed 00:29:58 Okay, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping and are never any 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 always reply to our messages through that.

Greg 00:30:23 You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. Send us a voicemail through our website through a feature on the show, just like we just did with our pal Eric. Hit me up on threads at BCC. Greg, thanks for listening, everyone. Watch out for that deep water when you're waiting for your car. And we'll see you back here next week. No doubt.

Ed 00:30:57 Yeah, I think I kind of think I'm right.

Ed 00:30:59 I like I don't. Americans are ignorant, but our country is huge. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 00:31:06 Same in Canada.

Ed 00:31:06 Whereas I, I think Thai people, they should be a little bit more like Europeans is the point I was trying to make, you know, like people from Belgium like know everything about Germany, France, the Netherlands, like they right there. Totally.

Greg 00:31:21 Well, that would be like someone from Washington might know everything about Oregon, but they don't know anything about North Carolina. And. Right. Why would they?

Ed 00:31:29 Right, right. Exactly.