Keeping Resolutions in Bangkok: A Fool's Errand? [S7.E52]

Greg 00:00:22 On this episode, we discuss the New Year resolutions we made in the first show of 2024 to see how well we did.

Ed 00:00:29 So if you're like us and have resolved to improve your connection with Bangkok and maybe fail, you'll love it this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Greg 00:00:53 Sawa Dyke Wrap and welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Bangkok in 2001 to start a farang boy band. But in the 23 years it's taken to get off the ground, it's now turned into a Rolling Stones cover band.

Ed 00:01:07 That sounds about right. Like the age level and everything. It sounds perfect.

Greg 00:01:11 Yeah.

Ed 00:01:12 And I met Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 24 years ago, fell in love with people.

Ed 00:01:19 Assuming I'm a world traveler simply because I live overseas, so I never left.

Greg 00:01:24 That's so funny. I still get added to lists, write emails, and like, hey, world traveler or digital nomads?

Ed 00:01:32 I just get credit, you know, since I was just back home and it's, you know, we've talked many times before about how for people who haven't left home, it is a big deal for us to live overseas. But, especially in my case because I don't travel that much. I feel like I'm getting I'm getting extra credit. Credit I don't deserve.

Greg 00:01:49 That's right. It's like if someone says, what's a great hotel to stay at? I'm like, I don't know, right? I don't live in a hotel. I don't use hotels here.

Ed 00:01:56 All right. 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.

Ed 00:02:12 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 IT vendor jib being almost too efficient with Greg's order, a review of the iconic Chuck weekend market after a recent visit, which neither of us has been to in years, and discussions about a great video that shows the evolution of Bangkok's transit lines from two little baby greenies to a sprawling network that will eventually, hopefully have over 700km of track. 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 00:02:59 Look at that. You know, we could say that by the year 2035, Bangkok's rail network will have one kilometer of track for every episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Ed 00:03:07 There you go, there you go. Ha, ha.

Greg 00:03:11 That's right. And if you have a comment or show idea or just want to say hi, head to Bangkok podcast.com.

Greg 00:03:16 Click the little microphone button on the bottom right to leave us a voicemail that will play on the show and listen to the end. We have a voicemail from one of our listeners to entertain and delight. And before we get started and check this out, I, had a very nice dinner with one of our pals, our patron, Doctor Daniel. He was in town, and you may have remembered the gift he brought us last year. Well, he upped his game this year. And I've got a gift that I'm going to give to you next time I see you. Check this out.

Ed 00:03:41 Oh, nice. Yeah. That looks delicious. Hazelnut liqueur.

Greg 00:03:47 Hassall news Spiritus hazelnut spirits. Excellent. 38% alcohol volume. This stuff is really delicious. Gasoline. So that Doctor Daniel bought two bottles over one for me, one for you. Nice. And, thank you, sir. Just shows you how.

Ed 00:04:04 Much I appreciate it. Just shows you.

Greg 00:04:06 Much appreciate Daniel. And it is just. It just goes to show you how much of a good friend I am.

Greg 00:04:10 Because I could not have shown you this at all and just had it for myself.

Ed 00:04:13 There you go. Thank you. Thank thanks to you.

Greg 00:04:17 Thanks to me. And thanks to Daniel. Yeah. All right. On this episode, we are going to dive right into the new year with a little bit of introspection. Now, listeners who have been with us for a while may remember that in our first show in January 2024, we each made a few resolutions that would help us improve our connections to Bangkok and even offer a modicum of self-improvement, which is never a bad thing. So on this show, we're going to look back at those resolutions, discuss whether or not we managed to do them, and improve our connection to life in Bangkok, and also talk about how Bangkok itself might actually be playing a role in making it more difficult for good intentioned people. like like Ed and I to keep our promises. So, we're going to jump right into it. Ed, what do you what do you think of this? I, I you know, you reminded me that we made some resolutions.

Greg 00:05:03 That's right. I didn't even remember them.

Ed 00:05:05 First off, I don't even want to do the show because I'm so embarrassed at how badly I failed. So, I mean, really, this is a bit painful because I remember being so optimistic, especially about Thai language, which I've mostly miserably failed at which which I'll talk about on the show that I, I really almost don't want to do this, but but the way your intro is perfect like a you were like a bit of introspection, you know, introspection, it tends to be painful. It's rarely like sunshine and roses.

Greg 00:05:30 That's right. Well, if if you don't criticize something, you can never improve it. And that's what we say about Bangkok. The reason that we sometimes criticize yes, systems or things in Bangkok is because we want them to improve forever.

Ed 00:05:41 Absolutely, absolutely. And it also but I think this is a kind of a funny topic, because in general, of course, when when you don't live up to your New Year's resolutions, you got to blame yourself first.

Ed 00:05:51 So I don't I don't I don't want to be negative. But all of you out there who have resolutions for 2025, you are probably going to fail you personally. You it's on you. you don't.

Greg 00:06:01 Want to be negative.

Ed 00:06:02 Yeah, well. Well, I don't want to be to negative, but I want to keep it real. And I guess that's what our show is, keeping it real. So the bottom line is I like your I like your spin on it, that we're going to talk about how Bangkok might make it hard to keep these resolutions. So I like your spin because it takes a little bit of pressure off me. I don't feel as bad.

Greg 00:06:19 Well, I will, I agree with that. But I'm also going to push back ultimately. Ultimately, the ball is in our court. Yeah, the blame lies squarely on our shoulders. Now, that's not to say that it isn't a bit more of a an uphill battle here than it would be back home.

Ed 00:06:32 I'll tell you this.

Ed 00:06:32 We decided not to make this show about new resolutions, because we're going to keep a little more a little more private this year. But I'll, I'll I'll just be honest. I'm not giving up on on Ty. So I'm basically my resolution for last year was learning, this pdf of 9000 expressions. I can't remember if I, if I promise to learn them all, but that that was going to be my working, document and I'm going to stick to that. So, you know, we're going to talk about how I mostly miserably failed at this, but, I'm not giving up, you know, just because just because, you know, you you you have failed to something a thousand times. Correct? It doesn't mean you shouldn't try again.

Greg 00:07:10 That's right. Man, just like Thomas Edison said, I haven't failed a thousand times. I've just found a thousand ways that don't work.

Ed 00:07:16 Well, that's. That sums up my my Thai studying experience. But why don't you, why don't you remind listeners what your resolutions were last year?

Greg 00:07:25 Sure.

Greg 00:07:26 Do you want to go through these, like, one by one, yummy yummy or Moo moo or. Yeah.

Ed 00:07:29 Yeah, just do that. So, so so pick one of yours and talk about if you did it or not. And if you did not, why not?

Greg 00:07:36 Okay. Well I wanted to do this first one because I thought it would really help me improve, like I said, improve my connection with Bangkok and its history, which I'm kind of a geek about. And, I, I said that I was going to watch a movie called the Overture and read a book called The Falcon of Siam. the overture is a is a movie about, I think I believe it's like in World War Two about a classical Thai musician. I remember I was talking about this.

Ed 00:08:04 Yes, I remember I was talking about this. Yeah.

Greg 00:08:06 Right. And The Falcon of Siam is a very famous book about the true story of of, Constantine Pol con. That's right. I think his name was.

Greg 00:08:13 Yeah. Who came to Siam and the the court of a utopia in the 1500 1600s. Right. And had had adventures and shenanigans. well, I, failed completely. I did not watch the overture, and I did not read The Falcon so.

Ed 00:08:26 Well, basically, your resolution was to kind of brush up on Thai history more or less with these two specific examples. Now, you did you did read some fictional historical novels or at least made some headway.

Greg 00:08:38 I did, yeah, I did read the first book in the trilogy by Paul and John Waddell. two of our favorite guests who have been on the show twice now. and that was that was very, very cool. But it was, it was.

Ed 00:08:50 And we did and we did discuss how we both learned about the history of the South from that. So I mean, I'm just trying to I don't want you to beat yourself up. So you did not read this particular book and you did not see this particular movie, but you did brush up on your Thai history a bit.

Greg 00:09:07 Yeah. You're you're buoying my spirits here a little bit. Yeah. I failed that specific resolution. But in the overall general aim of it, I, I think I did okay. And I'll touch on that in another resolution I made as well. So I'd give myself a 10% pass on this one.

Ed 00:09:22 Okay. A 10% fail, not a zero. Just 10%. Well my I might as well get it over with. My, my actually two really two of my resolutions had to do with improving my tie. One was to focus on this super cool PDF which I mentioned before, which you can just Google if you Google. actually, I might even be up to 10,000, but if you google 10,000 useful Thai expressions, there's a free download downloadable PDF. and it's, just these are expressions that are, meant to be useful. So these are not academic type things you might find in a Thai textbook, but everyday ways Thai people speak and, my, my resolution was to, study those, in a particular method.

Ed 00:10:05 And then also my second resolution was to watch the top ten best Thai movies of all time with Thai subtitles. and I basically failed both. I mean, I feel it might be somewhat similar to yours in that I made tiny headway in each of them, but just never stuck to it and never progressed. But, but but I when I go back and look at these things, I'm like, this is the right idea. It's like some fantastic, that's it. Like, this is exactly what I should be doing. And then I failed to do it. I mean, and if you know, again, you have to blame myself first. I mean, is there is there something about Thailand that makes it hard to do this? I mean, it's just what we kind of said before. The bottom line is that if you just have basic Thai, which you and I have emphasis on basic, you're kind of very functional in Thailand. So I get the only pushback I get about my bad Thai is from other foreigners who say, how long have you been in Thailand? And you can't speak Thai fluently, but Thai people, Thai people never say that.

Greg 00:11:02 That's a really good point. That's really good. They never say it.

Ed 00:11:04 They're always like, you know, they're always saying like, wow, you speak so clearly. You know, you're you're 20 words that, you know, you know, so it's funny.

Greg 00:11:12 Passive aggressive.

Ed 00:11:13 You know, it's funny, that, you know, again, it is our fault. But there's really there's really nothing in Thailand that's pushing me to do it. So not my job. You know, the women who work in my office, they all speak, English. The, you know, my students, my programs in English. So I'm not even supposed to be speaking Thai with them. There's really nothing. There's nothing in my life in Bangkok other than my desire to, open up the vista of of interaction, so I agree. I agree with you. I agree with our buddy John. Everyone who you know Stu Jay, everyone says your life will get better in Thailand if you speak Thai better. I thoroughly agree with that.

Ed 00:11:53 But the weird thing is, if you have the you know, in all honesty, I probably have a couple hundred Thai words once. If you have that, there's really nothing poking or prodding you, it's really up to you to do it right.

Greg 00:12:06 Exactly. It's 100% driven from your internal motivation. There's no external forces pushing you.

Ed 00:12:12 Apparently I suck and so.

Greg 00:12:15 But it's funny. I had a very good friend of mine who I went to high school with, was in town with her husband over Christmas, and we had a couple of days together, which was lovely, and we were talking about life in Bangkok and life in Thailand and all the ups and downs and, and I said, like, you know, a lot of people where we're from in Canada, they, they, they, they have a very negative view of, of immigrants. Yeah. Like, oh, I can't understand how you could move here and not even speak the language. Right, right. If you live in a big city, it's really easy not to speak the language.

Greg 00:12:42 That's right. yeah. Don't criticize unless you've seen it from the other side.

Ed 00:12:46 That's right. yeah. I mean, something we rarely talk about, but, I mean, maybe the West is a little bit different in that just because of just because of the happenstance of where we were born, there's just a lot more people who speak English. Maybe it's a bit weirder that if someone can't speak English, then they can't speak Thai. But but the but the situation is essentially the same that, you know, a lot of people, when they move to a new community or new country, they stick to their own community. So they might know someone might have basic English, but they're hanging out with Thai people in the US. Right. You know, and again, their experience of the US would be better if their English was better. but it's just we're just creatures of habit and we're lazy. but, yeah, I gotta put it. It's just a fail. And I think focusing on this idea that it really is on me, like, I just can't, I cannot expect anything in Thailand to be pushing me in that direction.

Ed 00:13:44 It is on me. And, you know, when I when I look back at like why I failed, it's like it's like it all comes down to me being in a groove where I just have certain daily habits and I'm just in that groove and I just have to bust out of that groove. I have to stop doing what I'm doing and I just have to say, you know, whatever it is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, one hour. I just have to destroy my current schedule and just commit whatever that is. Like for example, you that you did it. I mean, I don't want to steal your thunder, but you, you started your archery thing and then. So now it's in your schedule, you know, you just committed a certain amount. You just committed the time to it. It busted up your previous schedule, and you just committed to a new one.

Greg 00:14:27 That'll be a great t shirt we should make. Destroy the groove.

Ed 00:14:30 Destroy the groove. I mean, that's what I need to do.

Ed 00:14:32 I mean, it's I guess I am complacent. I mean, it's weird. What's the difference between happy and complacent? You know, it's like, I, I think I like my life. I dream of these achievements, but I don't need them, you know? I don't need them, you know? So.

Greg 00:14:49 That's right. Yeah.

Ed 00:14:50 so, I don't know, am I happy or am I complacent? I don't know which one I am, but I, I, I refuse to give up on on learning Thai. I'm telling you, when I'm on my deathbed, I will be saying I still might learn Thai.

Greg 00:15:03 All right, time to crack open that 900 word document I have.

Ed 00:15:07 I'm. I'm not giving up, man.

Greg 00:15:09 Good for you. Good for you. Well, yeah. My second one, like you mentioned, was to take up a hobby. And in the conversation we had in January of last year, it was either going to be, Japanese archery, which is called kudo or knife making.

Greg 00:15:27 Blade making. Oh that's right.

Ed 00:15:28 Okay. Wow. This is just okay. Bring you back memories from one year ago, right?

Greg 00:15:31 Right. So it turns out that, I actually did decide to do kyudo, and I Damn you! Damn you! I joined you, kept.

Ed 00:15:40 You kept up one of your promises. That's horrible.

Greg 00:15:43 Yeah. That's right. And I joined the, Sam Kudo Kai, which is the Kudo club in Thailand. And, I've been doing it for God, I guess, about, I guess about six, 6 or 8 months now. Maybe. Maybe a bit. Just a bit.

Ed 00:15:58 Say six. Know. Are you making progress?

Greg 00:16:01 Well, here's the thing. First of all, like a lot of Japanese martial arts or any kind of Japanese cultural extension, it takes a lot of time to make sure you get the very basics right. And with this, with kyudo, it's all about the stances and the movements and the vocabulary and the placement of your feet and the structure of your back and your pose and where your eyes are looking.

Greg 00:16:26 It's crazy complex, way more than I thought it would be. So. Right. I've been doing it for, say, 6 or 7 months, and about a month ago, I got to practice with a bow, not an arrow. A bow.

Ed 00:16:41 Well, I didn't know that. Yes, well, I did not know that. So you mean this whole time you haven't been using a bow?

Greg 00:16:46 No. We've been using, like, little, like little practice elastics that you hold in your hand. It's like a mini little mini.

Ed 00:16:52 Oh, I didn't know that. No, you're right. I mean, that is very Japanese to take every detail like and take a look seriously. Oh, I didn't know that. So now that.

Greg 00:17:01 Was one part of, like, what I like about it is because it's sort of it's almost like meditation. Like you're serious, right? Shoot a shooting a bow. Shooting an arrow is not even really what you're doing. It's more of like.

Ed 00:17:10 A mental, a.

Greg 00:17:10 Whole. The whole picture is a mental exercise to control every element of what your body is doing. So anyway, it's really cool. And when, when I started, there was one other foreign guy there named Wolfgang, but a really nice guy, but he eventually dropped out. So now I'm the only foreigner there. Oh, wow. And there's, there's probably about 15 or 20 other Thai people who are taking it. Now. I'm just talking about my learners class. When we go to the to the dojo, over onto the side, there's probably 5 or 6 foreigners, and then probably about another ten Thais who are all shooting arrows like they're experienced. They're actually senior.

Ed 00:17:47 People. Senior people? Yeah.

Greg 00:17:48 Senior people. So but everyone, that I talked to, most of the people that I talked to, most of the students I'm with, and all of the instructors speak pretty good English. Gotcha.

Ed 00:17:57 Now has, has, you know, because it's a Japanese thing. I noticed that when I did yoga back in the day, I did learn a little bit of Thai from the instructors.

Ed 00:18:07 So I learned how to say hi Jack Hao and hi, Jack, which is breathe in and breathe out. but but a lot of the vocab I picked up were Sanskrit words. So. So I mean, are you picking up more Japanese or more Thai when you do this?

Greg 00:18:23 No, I'm picking up mostly Japanese words. Right, because when they do the instruction, it's almost all in Thai. And then they sort of come over to me afterwards and they're like, okay, so what I was talking about was blah, blah, blah.

Ed 00:18:32 Oh, wait a minute. Okay, wait a minute. But I'm confused. You said you picked up more Japanese than Thai, so.

Greg 00:18:38 Yeah, because when they're talking in Thai, I'm not really listening. Like, oh, I see what I'm watching, but I'm not really.

Ed 00:18:43 Oh, but then they come over in English with Japanese words. Yes, exactly. I get it, I get okay.

Greg 00:18:48 So all of this, all of the stances have a word like boomy, you know, the bow is called the yumi and the arrow is called the.

Greg 00:18:55 Yeah, things like that that are just sort of gotcha. Like so. So when you pick up the Yumi, you know, things like that. So, that's how you.

Ed 00:19:02 Oh, cool. Well, I mean, the bottom line is you, I mean, you you succeeded. So this is a I gotta I gotta give it up to you, Greg. I'm going to give you the polite. I'm going to give you the golf clap.

Greg 00:19:13 The golf clap. There you.

Ed 00:19:14 Go. You deserve it. I like it that, you know, because I'm on my resolutions. I'm. I'm basically zero for three, you know? So, so so you might end up being one for you may end up being one for three. But that was better than I did.

Greg 00:19:27 Well, part of it was, the all sorted for this resolution is to increase my social circle of Thai people goes right. For years and years we've complained about how we don't know any time men really right. We don't have a lot of Thai friends, but that's that's nice.

Greg 00:19:38 Now, now, I haven't hung out with anyone yet from this group, but as I get better and better at it and enjoying the real people doing actually doing it, then hopefully, I'll be it'll be more of a social thing, but so far everyone I've met has been really, really nice. And it's really cool to see a group of people that I get to see once a week.

Ed 00:19:55 You rule, Gregg rules Jamie. All right, well, my other other resolution, besides that, my two that related to Thai. My second was watching the best Thai movies with Thai subtitles, which, of course I failed to do. I think I downloaded a few of them, but haven't done it, so we just have to shove learning Thai over in a corner. My other resolution I made a much more serious attempt at but ultimately failed. So we did a show on third places. The idea of how most people have a home and a workplace, which are the first two, but a key component of happiness is having a third place.

Ed 00:20:32 You can go and hang out, and this is one of the reasons why you wanted to get do the hobby thing. And now at least you have another crew of people, your kudo people. so I have, already have a couple solid third places, my blues bar and and my film club. but I really wanted another one. and I because what I realized is, you know, can people ask me all the time, why do you stay in Bangkok so long? And the truth is, is finding new things. So my experience, and I mean, some of my. I have some old friends like you, but there's 3 or 4 times in Bangkok where I just took a left turn and started doing something I wasn't doing before. like the like I've got a yoga period. I dated for three years and I've got various. I found various new things, and I really wanted to find something else. And my plan was, the gym, my plan was to combine fitness, which is a classic New Year's resolution with a social scene.

Ed 00:21:28 So and I did talk about this on the show last year. I did join a gym near my house and is basically 100% Thai, so I never saw another foreigner in there like in any capacity. And I went regularly for about three months. And, you know, I, I just never met anyone. I mean, I occasionally chatted with a couple guys there, but then I didn't see them again. Or it's just it's kind of like what you said before. I do think it's harder to make connections with Thai men and Thai women. And it also could have been just this particular gym, or the fact that there were just no other foreigners there. It just meant that there's none of that international vibe. a lot of people forget, I think both tourists and expats, we have to remember that there's about what do you think the number is? I think a half to two thirds of Thai people there. I wouldn't say they don't like foreigners, but they're not acclimated to interacting with foreigners. And they'll and they'll avoid us if they can't.

Greg 00:22:31 Hey, man, maybe there's a couple of Thai people right now recording a podcast going this year, man, this year I, I'm gonna I'm gonna meet a white guy.

Ed 00:22:37 I'm gonna meet a white.

Greg 00:22:38 Guy, a foreigner, and I'm going to start talking English to foreigners and get to understand them a bit. Well, and again, it's it's we don't blame them, right? I mean, they're in their little rut and it's.

Ed 00:22:47 No, I think it's what I'm trying to do is not be an arrogant foreigner who just assumes the Thai people think I'm interesting, you know, it's ridiculous, you know, to ridiculous.

Greg 00:22:56 I barely think you're interesting.

Ed 00:22:57 Yeah, I know, like, my closest friend. Barely think I'm interesting. My mom doesn't think I'm interesting. but you know what I mean. And so, you know, because, again, I blame myself for not establishing another third place. But in this case, I do think there's some bit of Thai culture or Thai society going on.

Ed 00:23:15 I mean, a local Thai gym. I'm not on Sukhumvit Road. I'm not somewhere where foreigners regularly are. I can blame my Thai. Maybe if my Thai was better, I could have made better connections. but I failed, and I still I still need another third place. But I don't think it's going to be a gym. Like, I like the way. The way Kyoto is. You're not just going, hey, I'm going to go to the park and exercise like you're there to learn this ancient art. And that's the bonding thing, which makes it a click. You know.

Greg 00:23:44 There's also an incentive structure, because if if I don't go to like, I think it's 70% of the, of the lessons, then I can't pass to the next level. Oh that's.

Ed 00:23:53 Cool. No, no. Exactly. Okay. That's what I'm saying okay. Yes. Yeah. I need to come up with like a program, like I need a philosophy. The Kool-Aid. I need a yeah, that's exactly right.

Ed 00:24:02 Kool-Aid is good. I need to drink the Kool-Aid.

Greg 00:24:05 Drink it. Drink it down. Okay, bust that rut. That's right. Drink that Kool-Aid.

Ed 00:24:10 Find your own cult. That's my thought. Don't move. My 25. My 2025 resolution. I gotta find. I gotta find my cult.

Greg 00:24:18 The Bangkok pod cult.

Ed 00:24:20 That's right. That's what.

Greg 00:24:20 We. Yeah, that's a good one. Well, my my final one was, to spend more time at the Siam Society and the Siam Society. For those who don't know the Thai and Thai, it's called Sam Semicolon, and it's basically a cultural and historical organization that is really sponsored, that exists to promote Thai culture and Thai things to the world. And, it's very much a, a scholarly sort of place. They've got a library, they people who sit on the board or all these, you know, eminent professors and experts in archaeology and textiles and languages and art and things like that. So it's a lot of eggheads sitting around, but they do a really good thing.

Greg 00:25:03 They they really promote some of the important parts of Thailand and Thai society and culture. And, man, I remember for I.

Ed 00:25:12 I'm sorry to interrupt. I haven't been there for years and it just reminds me what we were we were talking about this on the bonus show, how there's certain places that we used to go to a lot, but we aged out of. And then we wonder. We wonder if our. Are they still a thing?

Greg 00:25:26 Well, these guys are still a thing. And I've been a member for about six, 6 or 7 years now and I don't use them a lot, but I do like to have it on hand, and I like supporting them because I like what they do. But this past year, I did make it a point to use them a few more times. I did go to a couple of discussions and talks that they held at their, at their, their, their place on Silk Road. And I did go on a couple of study trips and every few months they organized these study trips.

Greg 00:25:50 And it could be something as it could be something as simple as like, we're going to visit four temples in Thornbury today. Or it could be something like, we're going to look at some archaeological dig in in Kathmandu, you know.

Ed 00:26:01 All right. So hardcore. Some of them are hardcore, a.

Greg 00:26:04 Bit out of my budget range. I think a lot of the members here are sort of retired. So they have the time and money to do this. But so I did go on a couple of these and I'm really glad I did. So I think this resolution of mine is a success. I have made more of a use of the Sam society this year. Cool. And let me tell you something that I learned about the about about Bangkok. I joined a study trip and they went to see 3 or 4 different temples in Ratna Britannicus in the main area around the Grand Palace. And I'll tell you what, and it was a great full day, and we were led around by someone who's like a professor of history, archaeology, but Buddhism or whatever.

Greg 00:26:39 So we got a really in-depth, explanation of all of the why it was built and when it was built and who built it. And this means this and that means that. So it was really cool. But I'll tell you what. One thing I learned about this is when you have friends coming to Bangkok, I always tell people not to visit the Grand Palace because it is undeniably beautiful. It's great grand, it's.

Ed 00:27:02 But it's crowded and right.

Greg 00:27:03 It's so crowded, dude. But I'll tell you what. On this study trip, we went to two places that have now become two of my favorite temples to visit in Bangkok. First one is what? Benjamin pulpit. Okay. and within walking distance of that is what I know.

Ed 00:27:18 What's he taught? I know what's he taught. Yeah, yeah.

Greg 00:27:19 Yeah, right. What's he thought is right by the south, the giant swing. Right? Right. And both of these temples are the same, like ranking as the Grand Palace in terms of their importance to Buddhism.

Greg 00:27:30 Oh, but both of them are almost totally deserted. Oh, I see okay. One there.

Ed 00:27:37 Oh, this is good. This is good. Insider tip thin.

Greg 00:27:39 It's great man. And, you know, neither of them are as ornate or as beautiful as the Grand Palace. Right. But they're pretty gorgeous and they're pretty beautiful. and there's no one there. So that's what I tell people. Skip the Grand Palace. Go to these two.

Ed 00:27:54 Now, let's let's be accurate here. Now, you did spend more time at the same society, but did you go there dozens of times?

Greg 00:28:04 No. I went to probably 2 or 3 different talks and I went on two study trips. Oh, that's not bad.

Ed 00:28:11 Okay, I'm gonna give you credit. I was gonna I was gonna nickel and dime you and say that that only count, that only counts is half a resolution. But I guess that's okay. That that's enough. If you went on three or 4 or 5 things, man, you're.

Ed 00:28:23 So basically I'm an I'm an offer. I'm an over three and you're a two for three. You're making me look bad, dude.

Greg 00:28:29 Well, I guess, a resolution next year is to make me look bad. That's right.

Ed 00:28:33 Resolution. Yeah. I mean, your resolution has to be. I need to take add into account when I make my resolutions, and I don't want to make him look bad next year.

Greg 00:28:43 My resolution is a loaf.

Ed 00:28:46 I have to lower my standards so I don't make it look bad.

Greg 00:28:50 That's right. So let's just finish this off by saying, I kind of think that keeping resolutions like this is a bit more difficult as a foreigner who lives in Bangkok, because like we said, as a foreigner in Bangkok, you're already in your little bubble, you're a foreigner in Bangkok. That's your identity. And it's it's just like the lifestyle here is a lifestyle that doesn't require you to bust out of your bubble and try something new. It's very, very easy to stay in your assigned bubble.

Greg 00:29:25 When I was living in a back home, I didn't feel like I was in a bubble. I was just in my city, you know what I mean?

Ed 00:29:31 It's a very good point. I mean, we have done shows back in the day about like the expat bubble. And I think I think you're exactly right. so, I mean, you know, we can blame the situation we're in, but it just but it just reminds us that it's really up to us. Like, it really takes effort to bust out of that bubble.

Greg 00:29:50 Right. And the bubble is a total, you know, falsified construct that we just sort of place on people. So it's not like it's a real thing that we have to write, but a permission to leave.

Ed 00:29:59 Right. But but it it is totally up to us because it's just because you're in a foreign place. And with our limited Thai, those are like just these barriers or obstacles that are there all the time. That it's just the easiest thing to do is just stay in our expat lane.

Ed 00:30:12 Right? Stay in the lane, man.

Greg 00:30:15 So I think Bangkok makes it a bit more difficult to do these things, but that's still no excuse.

Ed 00:30:20 Agreed. Agreed. Yeah.

Greg 00:30:23 All right. Well, we ask our listeners to send us a voicemail using our little microphone button on our website if they have something to say. And this week we did get a voicemail. We got one from our pal Vinny. Oh, cool. And, and, Ed, you're going to want to listen to this one because he has a message for you. Cool.

Vinnie 00:30:37 Hey, Greg and Ed, Vinny from new Jersey here. So, Ed, I've been thinking about your last love, loathe or live with. And, I'm not one to highroad, but perhaps this is an opportunity for you to learn to read Thai. And perhaps it should have been to live with being that that is an option now that the high reading is done. I would say that if you have Google on your phone, you can just use Google Lens pointed at the label, and you will be able to see all of the ingredients in English on your screen, rather than having to peel the sticker off. So there's a little hack for you. All right, guys, have a good one.

Ed 00:31:23 Wow. We need that actually was a twofer. so that the first thing you did was point like point. Make the obvious point that I need to prove my tie, which is exactly. He's actually backing me up, because what I said earlier in the show was that it's always foreigners that are poking me to improve my ties. Never tie people. So he.

Greg 00:31:43 Jesus, dude, get on it. Yeah.

Ed 00:31:44 So he proved me correct. But his actually, his second point is also very good. because I always forget now that Google Lens will do live translations. So for years I've been years I've been taking pictures of stuff and, and then putting them through a Google Translate, which is an extra step which I often feel like I don't want to take the time to do that. But actually, he reminded me that it actually can do it live now. which is super. And it's only going to get better.

Ed 00:32:12 Of course, it's almost like an augmented reality thing that you know, that you can just point your camera at something and it's going to it's going to overlay. In this case, it's going to overlay English. So Vinnie I appreciate it. A two for you can't do better than that.

Greg 00:32:27 Yeah. Although I will say Vinnie, I mean you should know how much of a Google slut that ad is.

Ed 00:32:32 no, actually, it makes me, you know, it's something that I should, you know, I knew. I know that, Google can do this now, but I'm still stuck in the old, Take a picture, import it into Google Translate. I'm, like, stuck in that mode. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta break out of that.

Greg 00:32:49 And then once you decide to buy, you go and pay with a check. You pull out your checkbook and write on it like, oh, that's right, by the times. Oh, good. That was good. Thanks, Vinnie.

Greg 00:32:57 We appreciate that.

Ed 00:32:59 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 ending. Quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online or 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.

Greg 00:33:23 That's right. You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. Send us a voicemail through our website like we needed. We'll feature it on the show. Hit me up on blue Sky at BKA. Greg, thanks for listening everyone. Happy New Year again. I'll see you back here next week.

Ed 00:33:34 Absolutely.