I don't want to leave Thailand 🇹🇭

hey that looks a lot better okay great the audio should be working this time please let me know if it's not I do see green bars uh lit up at the bottom of the screen this should be good

um but yeah welcome welcome to the live stream you know I think part of it was me trying to use the brave browser to do the live stream uh the brave browser I guess it just doesn't play as

well with YouTube as Chrome which would make sense because Chrome is a Google product and uh of course YouTube is also owned by Google so it makes sense that the stream audio is going to be better it's probably

a privacy thing it's probably microphone access and brave is not letting um not letting YouTube access my microphone uh my built-in microphone on my computer so anyway uh that's neither here nor there I appreciate the viewer that called

that out it's uh you know it's much appreciated I hate that I've wasted some of your time uh doing these multiple iterations but there's still a lot for me to learn as you can tell so thanks for bearing

with me but yeah I'll be here in Bangkok for about three more weeks I'll my flight's booked for three weeks from today I do need to print out my Eva so I haven't gotten around to doing that if

you go to Vietnam you'll need to apply for a Visa in advance so it's one of those countries at least for Americans but also I think a lot of people from all over uh the world they have to

get a Visa in advance so it's different from Thailand where you can just show up I think you're getting 60 days on arrival now and then you can extend hey Isaac what's up good to see you yeah I

think it was a a browser issue I think that's why the audio wasn't coming through um but yeah so with Thailand you know you could just come here you get 60 days on arrival uh you look at other

countries in the region Philippines I think you get 30 days on arrival uh Cambodia when I went to Cambodia it was $35 so you show up at you fly into penom pen airport you pay 35 bucks and they

uh they give you the visa for 30 days so a lot of these countries you can just show up and uh you know if you're coming with a US passport and I think I imagine UK is probably similar

um the EU countries are probably similar there's probably some overlap there there's probably substantial overlap there uh but with um you know with Vietnam you've got to apply advance and some people they don't catch it until last minute

some people exaggerated a bit to me so I was reading online like you better apply really far in advance because you don't know if you'll get it it took me three days the first time and then I got

a rejection and then I applied fixing the middle n the middle name aspect because a lot of Americans and I imagine other uh people from the Western democracies they just have a first name and a last name on

a lot of forums in Vietnam you've got to include your middle name so I fixed it and then sent it back and that was an additional three days but I've got it I just got to go print it

out uh which I'll do tomorrow there's a print shop I passed by in this neighborhood where I'm staying in Bangkok fact I'll pull that up just so you guys have a sense of where I'm staying not my exact

address but well you can figure it out because of the um actually because of the blue uh dot so that's something I'll show after I leave Thailand um but anyway there's print shop nearby and that was super convenient

I can show this uh other part of the city let's see here that's that what I'll do I'll share what I've Got U planned for the rest of my time here um but yeah so I got the Visa

I've just got to go print it out I'll have that in hand with my passport I don't know yet if they want want me to have an onward ticket if it's something I need to get I already know

where I'm going after Vietnam or have chatted with me in person you know where I'm headed after uh but I don't know how long I want to spend in Vietnam so I go back and forth on do I

want to book the flight three months out because if I'm you know for whatever reason not digging it then I'd like to be able to leave earlier and you know I don't want to be in the situation where

it's like you know it's not for me for whatever reason but I've got to stay here for three months uh so that's kind of in the back of my mind because I know you know some people uh you

know certain countries resonate with them more so than others um and so I always just you know try to keep that in mind but I don't know if they're going to require that or not so it may be

a situation where I book it and then um you know if I book it through a US provider I think they often do a 24-hour refund guarantee with Chase so I could just book it at the airport when

I'm about to fly to Vietnam show that to the Personnel uh and then when I get through cancel the flight rebook it for uh you know when I want to head out in within my Visa uh guidelines but

uh feel free to you know chime in with any questions or thoughts that you guys have um yeah I went I'm I've been going to this spot mahog market and I finally got some durian I loved it was

really really tasty and it was sort of medium ripe and when I tried it before it's over ripe and I think when people talk about the extreme smell they're often talking about rarer varieties or overripe Duran um and

so tried it that where it was like under rpe and or medium ripeness and I liked it a lot I'm looking for a photo nobody's posted you can't really see any photos of it but yeah a great vendor

for the durian at Mahan it's like 180 per kilo so the one that I had was right at 1 kilo and so I paid about 180 bought this is a great fruit market probably my favorite in Bangkok it's

open 247 uh so you I've been there at like 3:00 4 in the morning and I was so confused when I found it the first time because I was staying nearby uh there's like a market called bobay Market

this is a uh pop basically popular for the textile industry this area you could almost say I would use the phrase Design District um there's a lot of different clothing Benders throughout here but uh Mahan Mahan is fruit

focused I remember walking like find at 3:00 in the morning I'm like what are all these people doing out here because I didn't quite I didn't understand Thailand at that point um so I didn't realize a lot of

people they kind of chill out during the day and they're staying up late night working and if they're selling fruit to various like restaurants in the city then they need to be up early before all those restaurants open

even you know before a breakfast hour so it's uh yeah it's really interesting for sure oh Chris hey welcome to the channel Chris um you uh may have sent me a message and uh I did want to get

back to you on that uh in regards to Visas so I use the education visa and you can use it I think my with my school it's up to 18 months um I've heard of some people pushing it

two years or longer it's I look at like a medium-term Visa uh the idea being like you can't just study Thai forever um so I use the education Visa I signed up and I don't get I'm not sponsored

by them although I should ask about that uh you know for referrals but uh triaa language school and they're based in Racha ratou and they uh yeah they trying to describe so they do classes I think it's like

six hours per week it's like when I was going anyway it was something like Monday Tuesday Friday or Monday Wednesday Friday uh two hours or three well three hours and then maybe it was only twice a week I

I you know I'm nearing the end of my Visa and so my classes are over with but basically you study Thai few hours per day few times per week with the teacher and some other students and you get

uh well I I basically I got it was like three months with renewable three times roughly roughly something like that it was like two months and then three months renewable uh two more times but it works out to

11 months and you can go up to I guess 17 months if I added an additional six uh thanks so much Jay much appreciated that's uh great to hear I think it was a browser issue um but I'm

yeah I'm really glad that I was able to Pivot over to Google Chrome I was using Brave and I think Brave was not letting YouTube access my microphone um but yeah so with uh yeah with with Thailand you

know I I think the edv is great I've heard of some people saying it contrasts or conflicts with the elite Visa that's why I would suggest not going for the cheapest uh one I selected one It's associated with

the Ministry of Education there are schools that are cheaper but you know I suspect that it may reflect poorly on the official channels if you do want to get an elite Visa later on I think personally it's worthwhile

to come for a year before committing to an elite Visa because some people may find you know what I can't acclimate to the hot weather uh I'm struggling to learn the language for whatever reason and so that's why

I'm a fan of trying a year uh because Elite Visa technically like it's quite expensive but I think it could be worth it for some people uh but those people might want to find that out over the course

of a year as opposed to committing to five staying a year and then deciding to Pivot elsewhere it is quite expensive but you know it's in the grand scheme of things if you really enjoy Thailand uh it's you

know it's better to have um better to be prepared financially for it but yeah I would say to leave the uh now I don't know if things have changed right U at the time they would allow uh like

roughly one I would say basically one exit and return and you can be gone for something like I think it's up to 30 days in the span of that 11 months so if you needed to go back home

if you wanted to go to a neighboring country on vacation but it's not a Visa that's as friendly to coming and going a lot now I have heard with the Muay Tha Visa uh they are more friendly to

entries and exits because I guess because they figure if somebody's sending my time maybe they're a professional fighter and they need to go fight in another country uh and then come back and then they're uh you know in

training camp again or they're rejuvenating or recuperating whatever it may be uh so that's do your own research and uh just check into some of this stuff because I don't know the specifics of your situation and I can

only give general information share my own experience general information based on my own experience but uh yeah you know in that in the last year I've been able to travel around Thailand so technically I have to come back

to Bangkok to do myh extensions right so if I want to go live in the islands for six months understand part halfway through that you're going to have to come back and do your extension in Bangkok um um

and so budget for that as well budget to budget for the case that you may need to fly back and forth to Bangkok every few months and that's what I did and then for my final period I'm just

like ah you know what I'm just going to stay in Bangkok for the last few months because I've seen a lot in Thailand and um Bangkok has a lot of cool stuff that you can only really find in

Bangkok it's it's nice too to be in like a safe big city like Bang is a huge City feels really safe to me um and so that's something else that I love about it I don't want to leave

but um you know that's just part of traveling is unfortunately you know if you're traveling long enough you are going to have to go from a place that you're happy in to a different place that's part of the

unknown that I may be more happy in right or I may like uh just as much so we'll just have to give it a chance but yeah this fruit market really awesome spot I'm gonna have to go there

probably a couple more times before I leave Bangkok to pick up M durian and mango steine those are my two favorite fruits the king of fruits and the queen of fruits and then this dim smum spot is awesome

it's like these people are doing it out of the kitchen in their house and they've got this Alleyway and they've got like two tables um but it's fantastic these are the best the soup dumplings and then they also

do the Buns what else what else I do want to check out the green lung um so that's been a really big one on my mind I can show you guys where that's at here it is so s

n qu qu KH Park Botanical Garden I've been talking about this spot for months now but uh yeah I need to get down there during the day maybe in the morning before it heats up and explore because it

just looks beautiful yeah this this is a big one that I want to do best Urban Oasis of Asia yeah so this is the green lung and it's just this beautiful public park that you have in Bangkok apparently

you can rent bikes I've gone over this one before so I'm GNA just kind of move on quickly from here but definitely I'll be recording a video down there because it's looks very peaceful and very quiet compared to

the hustle and bustle of the city here we go so this is the next thing I want to check out uh this is a snake Farm they do education and based on what I read in the reviews it's

the uh reptiles are very very well taken care of and and looked after I'll do some additional research to uh confirm that you know I just want to make sure if I'm going to anything involving animals that it's

um it's done in an ethical manner because uh that's just really important to me but yeah it's a place where they educate people on reptiles and snakes and um I think it looks really cool it'll be really wait

oh one sec I think it looks really cool and it's um it's something that's really unique too to Southeast Asia because we have like zoos and reptiles and stuff in North America but certainly you get different uh many

different varieties here in this part of the world compared to what I'm used to and um yeah just something I'm really looking forward to these so these two are really high up there these are two two of the

probably the most important things I want to see in my remaining three weeks here um you know I still I think I've I haven't been to the Jim Thompson house so that's probably number three the Jim Thompson House

Museum it sounds crazy because I've stayed around here A bunch of times um but uh yeah it's it's definitely a healing and ton of History here I recently spoke to somebody from Japan and they were telling me they

came here for just a couple of days and they made it over here and they really enjoyed it it's supposed to be gorgeous and based on these pictures yeah I mean it looks really uh really beautiful traditional old

style house it's mind-blowing too they preserved it because it's right next to or basically in downtown uh you know really close to the central business district like this is huge especially for that area so that's number three um

what would be number four I wouldn't mind going back to Benji Kitty Park I've been there a couple of times and to lini park as well uh because in lumini in Benji Kitty I've been there in the past

but never really explored the whole park and I did that more recently but both are beautiful and especially the monitor lizards at lumini it's just such a quirky kind of a thing to check out and see as you

can tell I'm a fan of the different interesting kinds of reptiles I'll of course make trips back to Mah mahak Market to pick up some durian and some mango Stein uh what else do I want to do I

there's something I've been meaning to do uh I haven't really done much as far as getting on a boat in the river so uh I've done that in the canals like there's uh there's a canal boat you can

take through here I've taken it from the pier out here in banapi uh and then taking it all the way to CM like into the central area here um yeah you get you disembark right near the beoke sky

tower rer Pro station um but uh let's see but yeah doing like some kind of like a I don't know if you call it a cruise really I guess you could call it a a mini Cruise um on

the river would would be a lot of fun so I think I'm going to try to get fit one of those in as well and I'm not too far from uh the pier there's a pier across from icon

cm and uh you can of course cross you know to Icon CM but you can also depart from that pure and go like up and down the Chow pra also feel free to chime in with any questions you

guys have we got a few viewers and drink some of this electrolyte drink oh great to see Daniel F um hi how do you deal with your passport book as it gets full um I'm gonna assume you're an

American uh but this is probably a similar process for any country uh you probably want to reach out to your Embassy or your consulate and ask about getting a new book and then the second part is when you

order a new book and this is something I'm gonna have to do I'm glad oh you're Canadian so it's probably somewhat similar um of course I'm not from Canada so I can't speak to uh you know the way

they do things but when you go to renew it um then you'll you can select there's a box when you go to do the renewal for a big book they they do this for the US I have to

imagine Canada's probably similar many more Canadians have a passport than Americans so it's very popular for Canadians to have a passport but you'll want to select that that checkbox on the form if the form is the same uh

asking for a bigger book um but yeah before it gets totally full I would try to get a new one just because you don't want to have a full one and then be uh you know potentially having to

go back to Canada I'm not really sure what happens when you get a full passport book um that would be interesting actually what happens if my passport book gets full yeah okay so you may you know you will

reach a point from what I'm reading here on Kora uh where the passport basically it's full and you may be denied entry uh because they can't put a stamp in there right um so that that's definitely a risk

and it's good that you're thinking about that in advance but yeah I'm gonna elect to get the bigger book when I get when I renew my American passport this fall uh because it doesn't cost any extra and I'm

getting close to full on mine too like I'm I'm down to I'm down to like maybe five or six sides I need to double check but I don't have that many especially when you get some visas that are

one big page like the visa for Cambodia takes up an entire page um at least when I was there five years ago so definitely better to be proactive there um yeah I'll have to take a look at that

because I'm curious how many exactly how many sides I have left I'm not worried about it just because I'm not going to too many more countries this year I'll be going to Vietnam Next and uh yeah probably the

Philippines after that yeah I think it's uh definitely if you're traveling in a region like southeast Asia it's easy to rack up a bunch of stamps I've heard the Caribbean is the same way I didn't experience that in

Europe because when I went to Europe I you know I landed in Spain no I landed in Portugal I got stamped into Portugal I went to Spain but because I didn't fly it was the Visa wasn't ever checked

um so I know they're part of the EU and it's irrelevant but you know if you're somebody that's uh interested in getting some interesting stamps then definitely southeast Asia uh and the Caribbean seem to be two of the

places where you can get quite a few interesting ones I had a lot of fun showing people back home some of my stamps because it's uh it's just something something so different right I mean each stamp each country

has their own stamp and it represents you know different things that they want to represent and I don't have a stamp from Peru so when I went to Peru they suspended doing stamps because of covid and you uh

yeah you just have like a digital they call it a digital record so I guess they have a digital record that I was in Peru and uh you know authorized to be there for a while and I was

hoping to get one because I figured that one would be cool um I did get one from colia did get one from Morocco um I don't think I did I did get one from Finland so I I was

in Finland last summer and on the way here to Thailand I looked out I wish I would have booked a little bit more time in there so I could have made it down to Estonia because it's really close

you can take a ferry from Helsinki to Thailand in just a few hours so if I go fly back through Finland at some point that I'll take a short little trip down to down to talin Estonia talin is

supposed to be a really popular city for digital [Music] Nomads what else what else um what else to do in Bangkok um I wanted to go to the plane graveyard in Bap but they've closed that off I should

have done it last time there's so many things I should have done last time that are impossible to do now I'll probably make it back to Chinatown at some point it's not that far from mahak so I could

just walk down there uh I do want to do at least one more day trip out to tomur uh I was out there a few nights ago I went out there and had sushi at the mall life store

TOA at Sushi row conveyor belt Sushi whole lot of fun definitely recommend it if you come here to Thailand they it's a popular Japanese chain and they're opening up they've opened up a bunch of locations throughout Bangkok and

they're brand new um some of the locations maybe most of them are brand new and I've enjoyed it a lot Daniel F I plan to go to bogat soon thank you so much for the info yeah absolutely I

hope you enjoy bogat it's a lot of fun it's really an underrated City there's uh I I like the weather it reminds me a lot of the Pacific Northwest like Seattle or if you're Canadian you're familiar with the

city called Vancouver on the west coast of Canada and it has that kind of rainy overcast weather but on the sunny days it's super bright it's super super Sunny of course you're at a high altitude there we can

pull that up come back to Bangkok and you're really high up and so the sun really can make you feel like you're cooking um the architecture is gorgeous like it really shocked me it was I wasn't expecting this

when I went to bab um because anytime Colombia comes up in the US people are always of course talking about unfortunately Pablo Escobar and all that stuff but Columbia has come a long way since then and you see

that cities like Bogota that are super modern and like I mean this is this almost has like a little bit of the Blade Runner Vibe i' got a video I've recorded it but I need to actually sit down

and edit it talking about Bangkok being kind of a Blade Runner type of vibe and you have that to some extent in bulat with these just the futuristic um architecture and the yeah I I liked it a lot

I think you're going to have a great time and the mountains are this beautiful backdrop uh yeah it's it's a cool City hey Christopher welcome to the stream Daniel is planning on heading down to basa basa bogatas soon

and it's been just really a lot of fun uh we talked a bit about bogat in the last stream I talked a lot about bogat with Christopher uh and it's just such a beautiful city in the mountains I

liked it a lot and it's uh I wasn't expecting it to you know to blow me out of the water like that uh but yeah I I enjoyed it a lot uh when are you leaving again I'm considering

a trip back to Manila in July that's a great question Christopher so I'm flying out I'll pull up dang I'm pulling I'm flying out to dang 3 weeks from today so I've got my foot my foot I need

to drink some water I'm tripping over myself a bit here so I'm flying out to dang from Bangkok three weeks from today and uh you know I'm looking forward to it I've got a three-month Visa so I'm technically

good in in Vietnam until October 5th uh so I'll probably I imagine I'll like Vietnam a lot and I'll stay for the duration for three months so I'm looking at going to the Philippines probably in October as I

say you I'm I'm really missing the Philippines so I say maybe I'll be in Vietnam for a month but I really do think I'm going to enjoy Vietnam I've been watching a ton of videos on it the last

week trying to prepare trying to learn as much as I can learn about people's experiences and what they liked and what they didn't like what I should be aware of um you know popular activities to do um I've

heard dang is fairly chill it's not going to be as wild or exciting as cities like Hanoi or hoim Min City to the uh North and South respectively but uh you know that sounds good for me I need

a break from Bangkok I know that some may feel like Bangkok is uh very very developed and I would agree with that sentiment but it definitely is a really big city with big city Vibes and you can get

tired after a while I I feel like I can get tired after a while some may some people may feel different I know of people that have lived in Bangkok for 10 or more years that they never get

uh worn out they enjoy it a lot um but for me sometimes it just the crowds and and the sheer volume of the city it's just such a massive City you uh I can feel like I need a

little bit of a break from it so I'm going to dening for a few months I imagine it'll be great for decompressing I've heard it's much more laidback and much more chill than the big cities in Vietnam uh

and then I'll probably go to one of the big cities in Vietnam if I don't yet have my new passport by that point then I'll probably go to one of those for the final month in Vietnam uh and

get that done because I've heard it's a pain to transfer your Visa in the Philippines yeah buat sounded awesome Christopher based on what you were saying and I think Daniel's gonna enjoy it a lot um there you know

it's got an edge and I'm can't deny that bat definitely has an edge it's one of the edgier cities that I've been in um I never had any seriously bad stuff happen to me um I did have kind

of a punk rocker looking guy uh try to hassle me to buy something um so if somebody tries to put something in your hand or get you to buy it you know take something for free you know that's

a type of a petty scam that they'll do and then they'll ask you for money they they'll try to put like a wristband on your wrist um so be be aware of that I just shake my hand no

anybody tries to give me anything uh unless it's a friend of mine there then I I don't know him and I'm not going to fall for that um but yeah so back to dang um yeah I'm looking forward

to it a lot I think it's going to be a really nice place to um nice place to spend time and then have a little bit of a break from the big city uh it's you know apparently there's

limited activities some people call it boring this is similar I think a similar phenomena uh to changmai so a lot of people do call changai one of my favorite cities boring and I would agree with that about changai

and I love it I mean it's to me boring is perfect for day-to-day living do I like exciting cities like wild crazy cities like Bangkok yeah I do but it's for a limited duration um I enjoy it in

bursts I I find that I enjoy it the most when I'm spending like a week there sometimes when I'm there for longer than a week it just I don't know you just have to be more you can't really

zone out as much like here in Bangkok when I zone out I'll bump my head on something or I'll narrowly avoid um you know stepping in the way of a scooter or um you know maybe I'll drop something

or uh you know if I I don't know there's just uh like if well tonight actually I was out walking in my neighborhood in saton and all of a sudden a rainstorm came in and so I was crowded

with a bunch of other people into 7-Eleven while the rain you know passed over um and some people might not like that you know I don't mind that so much but there's just U I don't know it's just

it's more people than what I'm used to being around so that's why cities like to ner so appealing to me for day-to-day life because I feel like I'm not as likely to get stuck in a traffic jam I'm

not as likely to get stuck uh or get you know lost or um I don't know like it's just the smaller City I feel like they're a little bit easier to navigate um you don't have this public transportation

but you also don't have um you don't have so many different arteries and small streets and Alleyways and it's taking me some time just to learn my neighborhood it's I would say at least a month to fully learn

my way around the neighborhood and like how to go to where I need to go efficiently I think that's going to be less of an issue in daang because if it's anything like changmai you've got a lot of

self self-serving I don't know if self- serving as a word self-sufficient neighborhoods so you've got neighborhoods where you've got everything you need and I feel like sometimes that's less the case in Bangkok because even though my neighborhood has

what I need there's some other things that are just harder to find and I need to go across the city to get them for some reason in changai maybe it was just getting across the city was a lot

faster right being in a city of one to two million people you're not trying to cross a metropolis of 15 million people where there's traffic and congestion and um it's obviously more costly to travel in a big City

compared to a smaller city um overall because you're just you know if you're the more trips you need to make and I'm not going to get a car here right I'm not going to get a motorbike here so

and not in Vietnam either but yeah Christopher says no door papaya and Colombia yeah I agree don't show off your valuables dressed down you don't need to show off you know one of the things because I've talked to

some people online who got robbed in Colombia and I asked him you know do you dress up like are you dressed nicely oh well I'm just wearing a t-shirt it's like no like people can tell when you've got

uh and that's why sometimes I get you know some crap for looking at Haggard but uh I part of the reason I dress down is that I don't want to look like a high status individual anywhere I go

there's plenty of American neighborhoods where I don't want to stand out I don't want to be driving a fancy car I don't want to be having uh some high like a high-end Apple product visible right I don't W

to be a magnet for uh people who are of ill repute people who are looking to take advantage and uh so that goes for any country but in Colombia the difference is it can actually be a safety issue

so some countries you'll just get your stuff still and no big deal in Colombia some of the theft can be very very dangerous um there's been a number of Stories on the news about it that uh people are

having some really tragic and extreme circumstances there like I said I didn't have issues there but I dress down I don't have an Apple Watch I have a cheap iPhone um I people some people told me I look

Colombian so that might be part of it too um but I was not trying to stand out at all I didn't show a bunch of money off um yeah I mean I I and I tried to pay by

card when I could so that reduced the amount I needed to hit the ATM but I you know people are super friendly down there I mean people are very very friendly in Columbia I visited several different skate parks

in the city which was a ton of fun I'm not a but I like to watch and so much fun to watch these really talented young people have these really um awesome displays right of like expertise you could

tell they practiced a lot yeah I'm definitely a fan of checking out some of those skate parks in Colombia medine more specifically I didn't really see him in bogot I don't know if it was just where I was

staying but they're very popular in medine it was also shocking to me how different uh why don't I pull up medine here it was also shocking to me how different medine and bulata are so they don't look like

that far apart by we'll see uh how far they are like so it's like an eight hour trip that doesn't seem that bad but there are very very different cities medine has public like a big public rail transit

system although I didn't take it because I was warned about it I should have at some I regret not doing is not taking that public transit more I walked a lot in medine because the weather is perfect the

neighborhoods are gorgeous it's perfect weather to go walking around but I would be mindful uh just about what you you know about carrying valuables at nighttime and this some of this stuff I'm talking about not from personal experience

but through anecdotes I've read online and then I've also had local friends in Colombia warn me as well uh so so not speaking from my own experience but um whatever I did part of it was luck but I

managed to get through without anything extreme but uh yeah very very interesting country I think it's the most biodiverse country in the world there's so much variety there um I hope to go back at some point eventually like

and I don't know if I would cap off a trip but I want to do something like uh starting like maybe starting Cancun and work my way down to through Biz Guatemala El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Costa Rica and

Panama so i' I've heard of people doing that in like I don't know like a month i' maybe want to stretch it to two months just because I like to go a little bit slow more slowly but uh

certainly that's an interesting one I'd like to do I've been to Cancun several times uh but I haven't been south of there so I um in Central America I've been to South America so that would be really cool

like maybe take a bus down to B and then go from there I'd want to be careful because of course there are some really challenged areas in Central America and it's not an extreme priority for me right now

because there's there's some other stuff that's higher priority for me if I'm just being honest uh but uh eventually it's going to happen eventually it will happen and yeah finish you know after Panama finish in like medine or

something go back and check out some of the neighborhoods I lived in before visit some of the places and people I met um because the people are so friendly and hospitable uh but yeah that's that's on the radar

eventually but yeah thank you for calling that out Daniel very very cool to talk about Colombia Daniel F sounds like a good Adventure thank you so much Daniel yeah it's um it's really interesting I mean like it's not

that far from the United States uh but it's still quite different down there I was surprised at how different it was um honestly like surprised at both how different it was and how similar it was I wasn't expecting

the similarities and I wasn't expecting the differences um how do you deal with countries with proof of on W flight that's a great question so there's a couple of things I'll mention here uh some some people book an

onward flight a throwaway ticket I've never used that method but a lot of people swear by it they pay1 or $20 equivalent uh for Canadian dollars maybe $30 equivalent it varies by website and for whatever reason like it

shows up in the system I don't know exactly how it works and people will show that to the airline and basically say hey look I've got an onward flight so that way because I think what happens is if

for whatever reason you're abandoned in whatever country or you run out of money or whatever happens then the airline can be partially liable um for not making sure you're capable of leaving um like they're getting you there and

for I don't fully understand it they have some level of responsibility to make sure that you leave on time and I'm sure to for the cases that's that that rule came up because people abused it right they'd fly

into a country with no money they'd run out of money and then the country is trying to figure out how do we repatriate them how do we get them back to their home country who's going to pay for

that uh you know who's going to be responsible for that bill because it's not cheap to buy a last minute ticket halfway around the world or to a different continent uh and so part of how they avoid uh

avoid that situation of having a broke X pad in limbo is that they require that so this is the other thing now I don't think this applies to Canadians although your uh your travel provider may have special like

you can pay extra for this but what I do is I use Chase so I'm a JP Morgan Chase customer and I use their online portal and I book a flight that has free 24-hour cancellation and I do

that at the airport um so they'll if they ask me if they don't ask me which I didn't get asked coming here to Thailand I didn't get asked on the way to Finland and I didn't get asked on

the way to Bangkok for an onward ticket now I'm may have been just luck of the draw maybe they just pick random people to ask about an onward flight so I didn't even get asked about it now my

plan was if I did get asked I would log into Chase on my cell phone um or if my cell phone was having issues I'd pull out my laptop and access the chase website and then book one of

those flights out of the country with free 24hour cancellation show that to the uh flight attendant I've never had to show Customs that it's always been the airlines responsibility for whatever reason so I'll show that that person at

the airline check in hey look I've got this flight and then go through and then once I get through once she prints out the ticket I've got the ticket I go through security I go through customs whatever else

I need well no Customs is on the way in I go through security and I show my passport and all that then I cancel it so I'm on my way to the next country and I've got an indeterminate

exit Point um because yeah for me I if I don't like a place I want to leave early and if I really like a place maybe I want to stay longer uh so there's no reason in my mind

to I get it from their perspective they're trying to reduce liability they've got a lot of risk from my perspective I'd rather just get one of those 24-hour cancellation pre cancellation flights I think some websites will offer you

that service separately like hey the ticket's 300 bucks but if you pay us 350 then you'll be able to alter the ticket for No Charge uh you'll be able to cancel the ticket at no charge um and so

I would look into that but like I said it's it's random I have had it I can't remember where it was um I can't remember where it was but I have had them ask me for an allare ticket

and I had to book it on this mot uh that was kind of annoying um just because you know you're like trying to get through I think I had two and a half hours to get through security uh

and fly and so that's plenty of time but still you're just in a rush like okay okay does is it going to allow me to cancel because I don't want to book some $500 flight that have to just

throw away like that's a huge waste and I think you should it depends on the country you're going to one thing I thought about if I couldn't access a free 24-hour cancellation deal which is guaranteed in the US

can't speak for other countries but any country originating from the US and I think maybe also Landing in the US then there's that requirement that the flight is refundable within you know 24 hours of booking uh so I

wouldn't try it you know day before your flight or anything like that but um yeah that what was I talking about I lost my train of thought on proof of onward flight um but oh yeah the thing that

I was thinking about is like what if you you know if you couldn't book The 24-hour flight then uh the flight and then with 24-hour free cancellation could you book a bus ticket right so like if I wanted

to leave Vietnam because my Visa is expiring but for whatever reason I don't want to go to the Philippines can I just book book a bus ticket from hoim City to penom pen uh so that's something to think

about as well as like if the neighboring country is not too far away by bus um it's it's something worth considering I will say I did not use bus the bus in Latin America things look deceptively like close

but the distances are super long like when I was down in Peru it's like a 17-hour bus ride from Lima to Cusco um from the coast to the mountains and that's like an hour hour and a half flight

um so it's such a short flight it's like okay do I want to be sitting on a bus driving through really tall mountains and you know having to probably take a nap on that bus or do I want

to just fly and maybe take a nap and then I'm there um so that's kind of the counter to to our counterargument to the bus um some routes are just super expensive like there's certain routes that for whatever

reason there's just a lock down on them they're costly relative to what they are but you're paying for time right like when you do the short flight instead of the bus ride then you're saying okay do I want

to spend an hour or two on this uh trip and you know 60 bucks or do I want to save 30 bucks but then I'm sitting on a or 20 bucks but then I'm sitting on a bus for

like 12 14 hours like to me it's worth it to pay the extra because I can make that money back but I know that I'm just going to be really tired the day after um tired the day of

may not be in a great mood depending on how comfortable the bus R is but yeah um I think that could also come in handy if your fake onward ticket doesn't work and if uh you don't have the

free 24hour cancellation policy I mentioned before I'm hoping I don't get asked about it um when I leave Vietnam to go to the Philippines so my hope is to go to the Philippines and stay for a while and

you know I I don't know I'm just hoping to not have to think about it because um you know I get it there's they do have some homeless Americans in the Philippines that they are trying to prevent that

circumstance from happening it is very unfortunate I'm not going to be one of those people but uh you know it's they're fair right I mean they're they they see it all right whereas we as tourists if we're on

our best behavior we tend to see a lot of good in the places that we go and I I don't think that's the same for the people that have to deal with us on the other end the worst

of us on the other end yeah let's pull let's go back to Vietnam here so yeah I'll be in uh I'll be in dang here in dang um and I'll stay in dang for a month and I'll do

like a day trip up here to hou um see how far it is the name oh so it's longer than that so it's a couple hours I thought it would just be like an hour it distances are definitely

deceiving in Southeast Asia uh but yeah so I'll take uh I'll take some kind of Transportation up to away maybe I'll do it for a weekend it's I've heard it's kind of hard to do like long the weekend

it gets a little bit small feeling compared to janang maybe I'll go up there on a Friday stay until Monday morning and then come back down uh to dang and then I want to um of course I want

to visit hoan and there's a famous shop that Anthony Bourdain apparently ate at uh I don't know if this was with President Obama but I'm gonna look it up really quick um uh let's see H Bon myong thank

you so much Daniel I really appreciate that um that's very kind of you to say I I just have had so much fun interacting with all of you guys and uh meeting different people and learning about their experiences

what their goals are and what brings them to this part of the world or that part of the world have you been to Columbia before Daniel I oh here we go f here we go so this is apparently

uh the spot so this is where president uh Obama and Andy Bourdain had that Bon me here we go 11,600 reviews um so spot's famous I'm sure they get tons of business yeah they that's places packed with workers

I mean I see at least probably eight people that are helping to serve these hot and tasty sandwiches and yeah I can't wait this looks excellent I like the paper bags to it's um definitely eco-friendly and the IT

pairs well with the freshness of the ingredients I think the whole thing is just a really wild I'm looking forward to it I'm really looking forward to Vietnam it's uh it's going to be wonderful and very different from

anything I've experienced it for the spring rolls look Super Fresh look at all those carbs like the lanterns too the presentation is beautiful I've been really impressed by a lot of the presentation I've seen in pictures and videos

of Vietnam I think before I ever resarch going to Vietnam I expected oh it's going to be like Thailand and Cambodia um which I know is considered disrespectful for whatever reason um they're very different from one another they're

very very different from one another and it's taken me a long time to appreciate the differences learn about the history learn about the uh culture and it's I'm super looking forward to it people often ask me which one

is the best I think they're all awesome different flavors of the the same awesome experience that uh that draws so many people to Southeast Asia uh Daniel says no I went to Mexico gual laara for six months first

time to Colombia um excellent yeah guadalahara seems awesome I have not been there myself I've always wanted to go I've only been to the uh super touristy parts of Mexico so I've been to Cancun of course East Coast

Area and then I've been to Tijana West Coast area but I haven't been to guadalahara or to Mexico City but yeah for Americans the fact you can get six months is so convenient um I don't know if they're

still doing that I've heard you have to push for it or ask for it show proof of funds to get the six months I've also heard it vares by airport in Mexico but I think there's so many people

going down there now that there is increased scrutiny on Americans looking to live in Mexico uh which is kind of ironic but uh yeah yeah it's um I think if you enjoyed Mexico I think you'll like Colombia I

will say like the weather is cooler um for whatever reason I mean I know Colombia gets very hot by the coast but I didn't go there to the coastal areas um so it's I found the weather to be

much cooler than Mexico East Coast um probably warmer or comparable to the West Coast so like Baja California area but yeah this spot should be really cool uh not trying to get political At All by the way with

the reference to the uh president or anything like that it to me it's you know it's just an interesting like part of history and Vietnam seems to be quite full of history but something I can maybe appreciate more

in like the sense of living in the modern world as opposed to the more traditional world that people lived in for very long time until the Advent of the internet and all this technology that allows us to research

awesome places like Vietnam Daniel says I wish the beas were better in Thailand it's fairly complex I I readily admit that in Thailand the Visa system is complex um and you know it's yeah it's it's definitely complex I

think that it pushes a lot of guys in gals over to the Philippines or to Mexico uh because they feel like it's just going to be easier for them to uh you know to just think about a long-term

stay to be able to be there for an indeterminate amount of time which is is why I'm going to the Philippines after Vietnam if everything goes to plan uh because in the Philippines as an American I can stay

up to three years and then I can leave for a day and then come right back um Thailand that's not the case the the future becomes cloudier if I don't look at getting married to a local person which

I you know I don't think it's I don't think it's practical to go to Thailand for a year and say I'm going to spend this year finding a significant other because could take you longer than that so yeah

I think it's um it's definitely something to think about I you know it may change the bees are starting to loosen or lighten up in some way in the sense that we get 60 days on arrival and then

we can extend for 30 days um I don't know yeah like that's it used to be 30 days and then you get 30 days uh if you extend so um yeah I mean it could be that there I

know there's a lot of interest in increasing tourism in Thailand right now so in the future things could uh change I'm not certain about it I do know the Philippines though is super appealing for that reason and also

the English uh but people know if they go there that it's like hey I can just stay here for indefinitely on tourist visas if with the current rules they may change some people have talked about how they may

shift downshift it where you need to leave the Philippines every two years as opposed to every three years I'm not at that point I don't see myself staying in the Philippines for three years I'd like to spend maybe

six months or so there before I go back to us to start working again um and so that's kind of where I'm at is just uh trying to plan out the rest of my time in Southeast Asia for

this trip Chris says the US citizens get 60 days on arrival by default or is it taking time taking the time to file for the tourist visa worth the time uh so it's changed I can pull up um

see here how many days you know it's I'm trying to find um I'm not finding a clear article about it unfortunately Chris um it they were supposed to have changed it recently I don't know if there's a certain

date which those go that goes into effect they opened it up from like something like 50 or 60 countries they moved it up to 90 countries get 60 days on arrival uh if you come for 60 days if

you plan to come for 60 days you will be able to get 30 and an additional 30 and uh you know so that's in you know based on the way things were before now it should be you get

60 on arrival uh and then get 30 you can get the the mult the longer tourist visa in advance um I think it's worth it to get in advance if you're planning to come for three months and I

don't know if they would just when you stamp in they just say okay here you got three months but uh sleeping elephant says yeah I just need 60 days don't want to leave country yeah uh 60 days I

mean you'll be able to get that as an American like I've gotten 60 days on my last trip here to uh Thailand and um yeah but like I said I think it's worthwhile if you want 90 um to

file in advance because that might save you a trip to immigration and having having to just like wait there um it is possible they have some services that help exhibit your trip to immigration um and those are at

the building um something to think about as well yeah dang will be great um I need to find a way to turn off the uh color adjuster I have I'm in sleep mode and uh guess we could put

it on driving mode huh ah most like will be in Chang Rai next month thanks for the info well enjoy your time in Chen Rai sleeping elephant I had didn't make it up there I don't know why I

didn't uh my time in changai just flew by so quickly but uh I definitely want to get up to Chang Rai next time I come to Thailand it's just uh it's supposed to be really cool small town Vibes

one of my good friends here in Bangkok is actually from Chang and she misses it a lot and when she goes back she gets to see a lot of her friends and family it's a really good time uh

for her because it's you know it's home for her I mean I think Bangkok is home for her now but uh she grew up there in changai yeah I think the small towns are really like where it's at

in Thailand my favorite uh my best experiences have been in the smaller less travel parts of Thailand because you know in the more heavily touristed parts of Thailand people like you know they're they're on the job and they

know that tourism really helps Thailand a lot and so they want to be especially helpful and kind but also people get worn out right they get worn out from dealing with tourists they get worn out uh from just

the velocity of work I mean if you're in Bangkok and you working at a restaurant you're serving often serving tons of people unless it's a really high-end restaurant with fewer customers um then you're going to be uh you're

going to be really really busy and so it does you do get a benefit in the smaller cities of having more Chill Vibes I mean hot Yi blew my mind I was so shocked by hot yai I did

not expect hot yai to be as awesome as it was I was just looking for somewhere to get away from The Burning Season and uh we can pull that up actually really quick see here yeah so I spent

a month down here this was the month of March and I didn't know what to expect nobody had ever told me about highi we're near the border of Malaysia so it's you know it's pretty far south further south

than it's one of the furthest south points you can go in Thailand not far at all from the border like if you go south you're headed toward uh oh sorry uh you're headed toward Langkawi so really close to

Malaysia and uh I loved it I mean I came up here to s claw uh which was beautiful it's really a chill place like out of the way hardly any Western tourist I would see maybe one or two

Western tourists a day um really very few it was almost all Malaysian tourists and it was so interesting and the English was great like I was expecting to not get as much English here because it's not like Bangkok

right big International City but no there's plenty of English in Hai uh so lots of cool small Charming cities out there that are not as well known um or maybe don't get as much tourism as Bangkok or changmai

or the islands or puket or islands like puket and um yeah definitely definitely a lot of cool Variety in Thailand uh solo transient says hey Alex I'll be in dang on August 6 okay great solo um so I

should see you there I land on July 8th and I'm gonna book a place I lean toward we'll pivot back to the D really quick I lean toward booking a place for a week in dang and then just

walking around town until I find a building that I like and booking a month from there um because I've heard that there's a lot of construction in D and my concern is if I book a place for a

month and then you know I don't find out that there's construction nearby until I get there that could be kind of a headache filled month right being next to construction site so I'm leaning toward getting place for a

week and using that week uh to just run around the city uh check out all you know see what all is out there and then find a place and then book that place for a month uh and then

go from there D dang downtown yeah always happy to meet up um solo transient just uh definitely reach out close to that date of arrival and once you get town and s in and you know be happy to

meet up and have some coffee or um you know just see what's up it's it'll be interesting it's my first time in Vietnam first time in dang like I said I've heard it compared to changai a lot and

I think it's going to be enjoyable the ferris wheel looks really cool with this Dragon too I love the dragon um Dragon artwork throughout the city they even have the Dragon Bridge and apparently on the weekends it breathes

fire um see so apparently this thing will breathe fire on the weekends that is so intense and a lot of people looks like a lot of people gather around to check it out it's uh it's beautiful I'm looking

forward to it a lot it'll be interesting too to talk to friends in the United States that are from Vietnam or their parents are from Vietnam uh because it's always interesting to me to talk to uh uh you

know Asian-American friends about their home countries because they have a different perspective on a lot of these places and me as a tourist me as a tourist I'm just there enjoying the town having a good time but for

a lot of people it represents um tragedy and Triumph uh and you know some of both so yeah super interested to check out dang I think it's going to be a really chill City and I think it's surprise

well I don't think it's going to surprise me at this point because I'm more well travel but it's uh it's going to feel very comfortable like changai I think that's also solo transient says that's also my plan spend

a week in a hotel and then find an apartment yeah that sounds like a great idea um solar transient and I'm looking as well like I'll pull pull the map back up I'm looking a little bit further away

so I was initially looking over here uh in the Mayan area um monai area because these are super popular among Western tourists or foreign tourists but I've also heard there's a lot more construction going along going on through

here there's a lot more population density of course you've got a lot of people coming to the beach um so I've heard it's not always the quietest so I am looking more uh in the mainland kind of area

here not on the penin because I've heard it's more chill it's more local not as many tourists in this part of the city and hopefully less construction less you know building going on just so I can have a

a chill place to rest and recuperate after exploring the city what made you pick D Nang solo trans and I'm just curious I'm always like wondering what about the place like um kind of specifically appealed to you uh

I think my Intrigue about Vietnam came from learning about my grandfather serving in the military and then growing up and having Vietnamese American friends uh and learning about a little bit about it from them but not not in

tons of detail but maybe a little bit about the culture uh and then uh also my mom when she worked as an accountant she had a cooworker who from whose family was from Vietnam and so I've had glimpses

and pieces um you know then in college I'd always take my ex-girlfriend girlfriend at the time uh out to this Vietnamese restaurant in Nashville called Miss Saigon and we'd go there a lot like once a week we'd go

and have F and yeah also there's some other spots in Nashville too that have really good f um but yeah so I I tried the food a lot the southern food especially and I've had different uh Connections in

my life come from Vietnam um so that was kind of the journey there and then I've been meaning to go there for years uh I wanted to on my last trip but you know the borders closed down and

it was really difficult to get around in Southeast Asia um but now the window has opened um here in Thailand I've got my flight booked I've got my Visa just need to um pick a place to crash for

a week and then go find my apartment and I think I'll settle in really comfortably after I find that place I'll stay for a month and I won't be thinking about where I'm G to spend time that's something

that's been maybe more challenging on this trip as I realized wow if you travel for a long period of time like this trip in Thailand has been a year you might spend more time than you than you are

accustomed to and finding a new place to live so back in the US you get a lease for a year you stay in the same place for a year you're not worried about where you're going to live for

the year um here if I'm going from City to City I may only stay in the city a certain city or place for a month and then I'm going on to the next one so that does tend to

take more time than I realized um sorting out like the neighborhoods what I like about certain neighborhoods what I don't like what I'm seeking what I'm not seeking the size of the cities that I like there's just so

much to think about there um solo transient says well I want a chill Vibe not much of a city guy I live in Suburban California so I wanted to stay in dang dang reminds me of Huntington Beach and

obiously what a Small World um yeah I get what you mean it's um I think too like in Vietnam I've heard the cities are a lot to adjust to like uh you don't it's not as uh Advanced development

Wise It's they're Vietnam's an awesome country but you don't have the BTS system in hoim Min City or Hanoi which is an MRT system those two systems make it very easy to get around Bangkok um so it can

be a little bit I think rough around the edges and I think that adds to it where I've heard like it's not exactly easy to walk around to a Chan city or a Hanoi which in California it's very

easy to walk around I found California to be very pedestrian friendly throughout the state um whether you're in Huntington Beach or you're in you know you're in Morrow Bay an interesting town that I like to visit uh you're

in Santa Cruz uh wherever you are like there's solid Urban Development where you can just go out for a walk and there's parts of Vietnam where that's just not as doable I've heard that in some cities um people

do ride on the sidewalks and you have to be cautious about that uh this isn't to disparage anybody this isn't to put anybody down but it's a valid thing to want right is like hey I want a chill

Vibe and if I go to a super super densely populated city regardless of where that city is it's not going to be a chill Vibe like New York City is not chill um I like New York I think

it's an interesting place but it's a very fast-paced Vibe and if you want to chill out you know have an experience more in line with what you're used to then yeah I think that's a great uh a great

plan solo transan thank you for that great comment hey Tony good to see you how are you doing today Tony we're just talking about Denay solar transan is headed to dang in about six weeks and really looking forward

to uh seeing how his experience goes and his likes and dislikes and uh oh I'm glad to hear that Tony I'm glad you're doing good it's uh yeah it's summer back in in the states and in Canada a

really nice time of year I'm sure the weather is gorgeous and very comfortable and I miss that because it has been hot um it has been super hot here in Thailand this week especially today today it rained a

lot it was very hot and humid uh but that's to be expected in the tropics it's been an adjustment for me it's been very confusing for me because the weather hasn't really changed that much over the last year

and it reminds me of the first time I lived in California uh for a year and I was like man like I'm used to Tennessee where we have four seasons it's very they're very distinct and different from one

another you have summer fall winter spring and here the weather is very similar year round um so that's I I found it to cause me to lose track of time a bit um because you're like wow it's been

a month but it's not you know it's not that much different um Tony says sounds like Thailand is really a place for you you know Thailand is definitely up there for me um to me if I don't find

anywhere else I want to live Thailand is very easy default slot uh you've had you know Western people living here for decades you have a lot of uh Asian expats living here as well second largest population of Japanese

abroad um after Los Angeles so ton Bangkok that is has I think 100,000 Japanese people so it's just so easy I mean it's it's very comfortable to live in Thailand the people are very polite um most of the

people are very polite uh the food is delicious the healthare is solid the expenses are reasonable I feel like there's great value for money here um but the the one barrier is learning thae I think if I put

more effort into learning thae and learn more tie uh it would really open up a lot for me here um so that's why I'm checking out some other places but uh yeah it's um Thailand doesn't have as many

like there's some but I feel like it's they have some mountainous areas but the English is not there and that's why I'm curious about the mountainous parts of the Philippines because you get cooler weather like cities like bagio

you get cooler weather um but you also get English and that's something that if I was learning Tai at 20 uh it'd be much easier than now in my 30s right um so that's something that's appealing to me

about other places is the hot weather it wears on me to some degree it's not it's tolerable like I can deal with it but psychologically sometimes you just want to be outside and for it to not be super

hot and you don't really have that option as much not in Bangkok anyway it's just is what it is I love a lot of things about Bangkok but um the heat can be like over overbearing at times we've

had a heat Dome here in Alabama above 90 degrees Fahrenheit so probably about the same yeah you I know what you're going through Isaac that hot sticky H Southern summer where it just feels like feels like a sauna

outside I mean when I get off the BTS here my glasses will fog up and um I know you know I know where I'm at um because the BTS you've got the airon running it cools and dries the

air uh and so then when you get off then um yeah you're just your glasses will my glasses fog up anyway Tony says I don't do well with bad heat that's why my fire plan will be in a

Highland area with a more moderate climate that's a great Point Tony like you know for me it may be it may come down to rotation I may like set up to do a rotation where I look at southeast

Asia um specifically outside the mountainous areas where you have hotter weather most of the Year from say November until like February and catch the high season the peak you know comfortable weather and then check out some other places

uh the rest of the year because I don't know it just it just takes something out of you like I I sweat plenty but like it just coming back all the time like covered in sweat and having to

immediately um change clothes having to shower several times a day um it tends to kind of dry my skin out um and that's where there's a lot of appeal of places like you know Cusco or other Highland places

like you mentioned uh I think that's a great plan Tony that um you're going to you know you're looking at more of a more moderate climate and that could be in my future as well because you know that

part of what I was trying to figure out on this test run is can I handle yearround extraordinary heat and physically I can but to me it's become more of a psychological thing like physically I just sweat a

lot I drink plenty of water um but there are days where I find myself stepping into 7-Eleven every few blocks um and I uh you know I need to cool off and I'm drinking water and then I'm worried

did I drink enough water when's the last time I drink water um and if I carry water with me it's going to warm up really fast so I like cool water even though it's technically not the most biologically

efficient I like having some ice cold water to cool off and um and so then now I'm drinking you know it's a paranoia thing but I'm getting exposed to the microplastics that I'm having to throw away this single

use water bottle uh and it just I don't know it's comp complex it's more complex than some other places I've lived that the temperature is milder and so I'm not as worried about like getting dizzy from the heat

which has happened to me in Bangkok like it happened a few months ago I had to go and sit down in a 7-Eleven for a good 15 minutes chugging Gatorade uh because I just wasn't thinking about hydration because

um in California where I lived before I came to Thailand it's just not something you have to think about as much um Tony asks have you ever watched big world cinema channel he's a Brit living in the Philippines

I'll take a look at it I that name sounds familiar but I I'll give him a watch um I have been watching uh this guy Marshall Butters Vlog uh I don't know if anybody else has watched him he's

got 37,000 Subs um but some of his stuff like in Pagan was interesting he's going to some parts of into now that I'm kind of cautious or concerned maybe concerned about going but he's willing to check it out

so I you know I think it's interesting for sure hey Michael Michael Johnson says hello buddy from the Philippines good to see you Michael I hope you're doing well this evening it's uh it's getting late there in in

the Philippines it's I guess it's past midnight but um it's nice part of the day when it cools off and you can enjoy the outdoors and have some ice cold uh red horse or nice mixed beverage like yeah

because like I don't know to me there's just something about having that kind of warm uh Warm Glow and the days cooled off you've gotten what you needed to get done done and you just want to chill out

um Tony says yes I respond to heat like you it also drains my energy makes me sleepy and cranky can't focus mentally Etc yeah Tony and sometimes I just don't want to be inside like sometimes for me I

want to just get outside and like being outside the US is part of contributes to that right so in the US in the West in general I think it's the same for people a lot of people in the

UK or Australia uh Canada Western democracies in general ener we spend a lot of time indoors um I've heard it called the Box life and I would agree with that sentiment I live in the Box my house I

get in the Box my car to go to the box my office after work I go to the box the grocery store and so you're spending all your time inside and for me I like being outside I like

having fresh air I like feeling the nice Cool Breeze um so sometimes it is against my nature to not go out much and especially in Southeast Asia um but the converse of that is okay now I've got to

address the heat so that's what's appealing to me about living in the mountains um is that you know you definitely get a drop in temperature ideally of about 10 degrees Fahrenheit not sure what it would be in Celsius

but that's what I'm hoping for by looking at the mountains Michael says I sleep during the hot part of the day and I'm up at night that's how I found works best for me you know that's not a

bad idea Michael and actually that's what I did today that's what it's been switching to for me and part of it is exacerbated by not working out I haven't been exercising aside from my really long walks but I

haven't been lifting weights the last I'd say month or so just because of scheduling and timing and moving around and I'm moving toward where I'm like sleeping from 8:00 am to 400 PM which is not good uh but

it happens because of the heat so I look because this happens this has happened to be a multiple trips to Thailand and I looked it up why is it that I can't sleep at night and they're saying it's

because of the heat that uh people end up um you know throws off their sleep schedule so I get really bad insomnia here if I'm not working out I do need to do some more body weight exercises um

but you know the challenge with that Michael is that if I am awake during the hottest part of the day then I'm not really doing much right like you don't really want to go out you don't really want

to do anything uh so you're just kind of sitting there anyway so I think you've got it down pat where you sleep through the hottest part of the day where you don't really want to do anything and you're

awake at night when you can go out and enjoy yourself or uh you can you know be outside in your porch and uh just you know enjoy the fresh air without the sun beating down and uh yeah because

the sun it can just be oppressive in Southeast Asia for sure it's just so hot and bright that uh we I take it for granted right because coming from the US especially if you're from a place with Winters

or Canada where much most of the country the entire country deals with winter then you're like I just want some sun but then you get the sun because you go to somewhere else on vacation and you're like ah

I just missed the overcast you know less uh or more chill kind of weather uh like here I'm always having to carry sunglasses where in the US depending on where I'm at I don't have to worry about sunglasses

um so that's definitely something to think about Tony says man I struggle with insomnia and poor sleeping patterns too it's tough Tony like exercise is one thing that's helped me a lot to um sleep better but you know

it is a tradeoff you know scheduling it um making sure that you're hydrated for it making sure that you've got maybe something light on your stomach um make making sure you're stretched and warmed up that's I've definitely found

as I get a little bit older I need to stretch and warm up more and uh you know take like not just kind of go in there and go all out like when I was younger um but even

then even with working out my insomnia can still be an issue um I just it's something that's definitely I've notice more of as I've gotten older and some of it is stress to be fair Tony like some of

it I found back home was stress related where I'd stay up thinking about my job and what I needed to be doing tomorrow and uh drinking coffee to like be more energetic during the day uh so that was

some of it too so in some ways I do sleep better over here and other ways I don't sleep as well uh I would say overall it's better but it's definitely not perfect um and one thing that has

helped me is if I still haven't slept by morning like this morning I didn't get to sleep until 8: am. um then I'll ruin um then I'll uh then I'll run the air conditioning and for whatever reason I'm

so tired and uh the air conditioning is overriding the heat outside and that helps me to um to sleep but even then sleeping during the day for whatever reason maybe because I'm not fully adapted or adjusted to it

but I do wake up feeling kind of groggy in the afternoon uh it does kind of throw me off to be getting up and going outside when the sun's going down I think it's to the individual I think

everybody's body and brain is different and I benefit a lot from a lot of exposure to the sun I think just when your ancestors come from sunny places like Japan or India um you can become vitamin D deficient

more easily um so that's something that's also on my mind Tony says yes my bad anxiety about losing my job keeps me up I'm sorry to hear that Tony I definitely know what that feeling is um I felt

that for several months last year uh and it's it's an awful feeling because you just don't know like you you don't have that certainty right you just don't have that certainty and like humans like some degree of uncertainty

I think that's part of why we travel we like to go around the world and see these different places and have these Adventures but we also want some degree of certainty we want like some idea that the future

is going in the direction we want and when we have a negative experience or we have some stress like you know related to that unpredictable aspect then it feels like we're almost like we're like getting pushed backwards or

something like we're we're we're moving away from our goals rather than toward them and part of me has felt that way about spending this year over here I'm like what if I could just get some other job doing

something and I would just save more money but it's like ah you know I've got to I've got to balance thinking about the future with like relaxing for today but I think it is part of the human condition

anxiety like no matter who it is I've always like everybody I can think of no matter how successful or how accomplished still has that sense of like worrying about whether they're going to succeed or not yes my job

is actually pretty secure but the anxiety and reminition can take over your mind and convince you that c a catastrophe is Sur the corner yeah that's definitely I definitely can appreciate that perspective Tony I think that's unfortunately super

common like that a lot of us do struggle with is like we're worried about what could go wrong and I've had that thought before I came to Thailand for a year I'm like okay I've gone for a month

or two but like who knows what could happen over the course of a year I mean it's I don't speak Tai I don't know all the places I'll be going I don't know all the people I'll be meeting

um but back home it seems the anxiety seems to be worse because it's like it's almost existential to some degree like you I for me anyway I worry about what's going to go wrong and then I'm like oh

my gosh I'm wasting all this time worrying and then it's like okay why am I wasting time and then um do I you know appreciate that I'm I have time and like yeah I can get in that Circle

circular kind of reasoning where I'm worried about one thing and then that makes me worry about another thing and then I ruminate on what I could have done differently to avoid the situation entirely and um yeah it's it's

um it's tough Tony says you have the soul of an older experienced wise man Alex you are way ahead of the game in this respect well that's really kind of you to say Tony I really appreciate that that's

really very kind and um I'm very fortunate to be in touch with people like you who have a lot of insight to share a lot of wisdom to share uh you know I have some other friends as well

that are wiser and more experienced than myself and I just feel so grateful to have those people in my life that um that can really help me to to understand that I'm not alone in these struggles and some

of these struggles are like perennial and like lifelong and uh things that we have to overcome for sure like and and also accept meditation is interesting to me I should have spent well I sometimes think I should have

spent more time uh meditating being here in Thailand but I find you know sometimes just being in the culture naturally causes me to be able to enter a more reflective state but sometimes if you're prone to rumination or

anxiety like we are uh then that can be how you exp point it sometimes that can be caught up and overthinking and I lose my bias toward taking action like the last month I've had some other stuff I

needed to work on but I'm like ah you could have put out some Vlogs more Vlogs the last month and it's like uh but I was concerned about getting caught up on my taxes which that's almost done that

should be done this week and I'll have a nice refund that will help me to pay bills for a while longer um and yeah Tony says I recall the first video of yours that I found you were in

Cusco talking about certain places to go that are introvert friendly um thank you Tony yeah that I should I should do another VD some more videos on that topic actually because I think one that got um a fair

amount of interest and two I think there's a lot of solar Travelers out there that may not realize that they're introverts and and introvert Travelers out there that may not really think about things through the lens of solar

travel because people are always asking me why don't you go like with a group why don't you you know travel with friends and I found that uh I just enjoy my own company so much and it's a big

ask to ask people uh hey why don't you go why don't you get a passport and go to another country like I was shocked one of my buddies from high school uh he's actually going to be coming to

Thailand in about uh I'd say a few months he's going to be coming here with his wife and some of his friends and it just shocked me not because I didn't think that they uh I was I just

didn't realize they would be they would be interested in it right uh I know that I've had a lot of interesting stories to share with them um but to me the travel just seems like something like hey what

have you been up to lately hey this is what I'm doing uh what about you it's interesting but I don't I've learned to not expect other people to be as interested in it um so that's where solo travel

was awesome because I'm going wherever I want whenever I want for however long I want I'm doing whatever I want the whole time I'm there and I don't really have to think as much um for me I just

figure out okay what are the neighborhoods that are unsafe what are the neighborhoods that are safe and then uh I'm going to just go to the neighborhoods that are safe and wander around and just just see how people

live here see how people operate how they do things some of my favorite neighborhoods in Cusco were far away from the city center like few well maybe not far far but like a few miles away from the city

center and I would just walk around them and like look around at stuff and find different interesting markets and try local restaurants and H just get a really interesting experience different from um you know different from all the

popular SP and it's not better but it's certainly different and more you're more able to reflect as opposed to being like okay I'm going here here and here I've got to maximize my time and be fully engaged and

taking pictures and asking questions and so um with solar travel I find you can go slow more slowly or more quickly depending on your preference I like to go more slowly and uh not being worried about maximizing a

friend's time uh is really helpful and you know at some point the future if I meet a a nice lady a significant other then it would be nice to travel with them and um you know with her and

take her to different places I don't know when that'll come or if that'll come but it's certainly a possibility but yeah there's there's places that are more introvert friendly and places that are less introvert friendly I would describe

Mexico as being less introvert friendly um much of Mexico to me just has a really fun vibrant outgoing Scene It the weather is gorgeous like the people are super friendly you've got a lot of interesting culture um and

so you're like just going out and engaging and like when I when every time I go to Mexico there's always parties and we're going out at night and listening to music and dancing and drinking and all that um

and so I love it for a week or two but it does kind of tiar me out uh places that are more introvert friendly I would say Peru is like to near the top of the list there especially

in the mountainous region but I noticed that even in Lima uh people were more reserved more kind of kept to themselves um You didn't hear a lot of loud music uh going around like just really laidback I think

Thailand is introvert friendly Japan is probably the most introvert friendly place but for some people it's taken to an extreme there like where uh you know I was talking to a Japanese friend yesterday and he was saying people

even complain about kids playing in a park um so to to me that's taken to too much of an extreme because you know you need kids like any society needs kids I mean I don't have kids but yeah

you got to have more people to like do stuff and uh yeah you gotta have more people to do stuff that's a kind of a overly simplistic way to put it but uh you know that's to an extreme

but like I I still had a good time there I still enjoyed it um I'd happily go back to Japan I thought about uh you know going for um a few months um you know in the future it's

it's harder to prioritize because I know that they are maybe less open to Outsiders than some other countries I say that as a part Japanese person but um Tony great comments on introvert versus extrovert places well thank you

so much Tony for that super work chat um that's really very generous I really appreciate you Tony for uh your support helping support the channel and I've got um I've definitely got a video that I I shot it

today I need to edit it I'll probably edit it after this video after this live stream uh but yeah just talking about um in this one I did a video talking about YX patsco broke but this week I'll

make some more content on introvert versus extrovert places uh that's definitely going to come in the queue because uh yeah you're helping to support the channel and I want to make sure I have some more to add to

that and I think a lot of people will benefit from that too because you know prior to me getting into travel uh to this extent most of like what I watched was and heard about was like family travel

so people traveling with their families when I was growing up I traveled with my family uh in the US only but still like always in a group setting and you're trying to navigate okay how do we make everybody

happy okay we got to do some of what this person wants some what that person wants when I was really little you know I had no autonomy and so I was like oh you want to do that so

well we're not going to do that uh but when you're older and you have savings and you've invested and you're thinking about ways that you could enjoy some of your well your hard-earned um resources like how you can

enjoy some of them then yeah you think about solar travel and you think about like okay uh what are the places that would make me happy what are the places where I feel most comfortable the places where uh

I'm not going to feel pressured to um be super outgoing like I said I I like some of the more outgoing places but I like them in shorter bursts uh Colombia was like that I mean Colombia people were

very outgoing in my experience and I was surprised at like how much I was getting invited out like really quickly on like the owner of my hotel was like hey we have this land up in the mountains like

here was this picture of my family we're all grilling out and having fun you should come up sometime and my spinach was really weak back then but I wish I would have gone with him but do I be

want to be in that atmosphere all the time I don't know I think I maybe I have some social anxiety and I'm a little bit skeptical of people that are overly friendly uh I had this experience in the

Philippines so that's part of it is part of it is I am an introverted person but the other part of it is that I do have some costum when I'm traveling abroad I uh I often say like you're

going to a new place you don't have any friends there maybe you have some online friends you're going to meet up with people you've vetted you've engaged with them talked to them maybe had some chats like this with

them but if a random stranger comes up to me in the United States I'm definitely going to be on guard but even traveling outside the US I'm going to be somewhat on guard if it's not through the context

of a work meeting or we're meeting up over a hobby or there's some clear objective there I do have some sense of caution in my mind like are they gonna ask me for you know money or are they

gonna ask me for um you know to borrow my cell phone or some kind of O obvious overt over-the-top uh risky situation and um and so that's the other part of it I mean I remember when I was

in C funny enough because I do like Cusco a lot uh but this young punk rocker and for some reason in Colombia and Peru it's these punk rocker kids that like and that's the best way for me to

describe it but they have these these wristbands and they go and they try to put it on your hand and then ask you for money and so this guy and this girl came up to me and the guy

opens his mouth to start talking and I just look him and the I am like no and the girl started laughing at him and I was like oh wow I just embarrassed this guy so badly um in front

of his girl or I don't know if they were just friends or whatever it was but I didn't even let him start talking uh because no I don't you know I don't need stuff like to me you know

I travel in part to kind of get something different out of life um there's nothing wrong with having stuff buying stuff there's some stuff that I find crucial when I'm traveling right having a sturdy backpack having some airpods

that can help you know with noise cancellation um you know if you have dry skin having some of this stuff serve uh dry skin lotion um but I don't need the latest and greatest of everything uh and so

yeah there's nothing I'm going to find I'm GNA buy off a random stranger on the street and so that's part of what has me more cautious is like you know sometimes you'll have people coming up to you offering

tours and you're possibly going to get a much better price if you book online now that's not always the casee you can compare and contrast but with online typically I can look at customer testimonials I can look at

reviews I can get a stronger sense of hey is this a legit service or not and there's certain Parks like I've been reading reviews for different Parks uh where they're like hey this park is not safe this park

uh like in in Colombia people are telling me when I was going to walk back down this Mount uh this park in medine hey don't go back down the way you came up here it's getting closer to dark

you're potentially going to get uh stolen from so at for forcefully stolen from so um yeah that's the other part of it too Tony says most people don't understand us introverts especially when we travel you are here alone

you don't go to bars you don't want to hang out with a group but you get it Alex well thank you Tony that's a really great Point um I I have been asked all of those questions more times

than can count Tony every almost every single country I go to except for Thailand I think Thailand naturally does attract um a lot of single men uh for different reasons um but yeah definitely in the Philippines I mean

I'm getting asked that multiple times a day are you single are you married where's your wife is your wife with you is your wife back at the hotel will your wife be joining you for dinner tonight um you

know just it's flattering right it's flattering like oh you know you think um you know you think I'm I'm married to to a wonderful woman and um you know you you assume that she's going to be joining me

as well or you think I have this big social group I get asked you know every time I go out to dinner uh I'm always getting asked how many people and I'm always saying one one person um and

you definitely I don't think it's judgment I do think it's curiosity and I do think it's like people are not used to that because like when my high friends go out they're almost always going out with friends so

they're not going out on their own to them like whatever thing they're doing it's a group experience it's meant to be shared it's meant to be enjoyed with other people and seeing just a solo person is like uh

you know why aren't they with the group you don't get that in Japan Japan is awesome for that they have plenty of establishments to single people and you're not going to be looked at strangely there's ramen shops where

uh it's just you have like a booth next to a booth and Etc but um yeah and I get that a lot you don't go out to bars I don't go out to bars because they seem to be

one of those places where if something bad is going to happen it seems to always happen at a bar I I you know people have pushed back on me thinking that I'm judging people that frequent bars uh when

I warned people about bars in general but it's like I would be doing everybody a disservice if I didn't come out and warn people hey going to a bar in any country has has some level of risk I'm

not telling you not to go there I'm not telling you you don't have fun I'm not telling you what to do but whatever you do anywhere in the world you should always have some level of risk assessment right

so like if I'm going to go if I know I'm going to be going to a bar I might pull out that pull up that bar on Google Maps and look at the reviews are there uh tons of

bad reviews have people had issues with having their drink uh doctor which happens you know which happens in medine medine is notorious for that right now unfortunately what I go back to medine absolutely it's a gorgeous city with

a lot of cool things to go going on the weather is like my favorite weather in the world city of Eternal spring but I would have to be keeping that in the back of my mind that hey if

I go out and have drinks which I have I've gone out in bulat and had drinks with friends but I go with local friends that I've known for a while I can trust and um you know people that

are going to look out for my safety and my best interests and people that aren't going to pressure me to drink sometimes you want to go out to a bar but maybe you've got to be up early the

next day for a tour or you've got some pre-existing plans um so yeah I'm right there with you Tony no reason uh to feel bad about that but I totally get why you feel that kind of pressure because

I get that a lot um and then when it comes to you don't want to hang out with a group yeah I mean to me like I've had Group Travel interrupted by other group members uh you know having

some kind of personal challenge maybe they get homesick in some cases whatever the reason may be there's so many different reasons why uh Group Travel I found to be more difficult am I opposed to it not at all

I'm definitely open to it and whenever I go to any City I like to make local friends some of the time I have pre-existing local friends but if I don't I'll make them and then I'll hang out with

that uh small group so like one of the challenges that I found is that to some people group me needs the group needs to be as large as possible if we don't have the entire bar going to party

with us then it's not a good experience and when the group gets too big it's almost like working at a company with too many people people become numbers and it gets disjointed and it can just be kind of

hectic too in my mind to keep track of like 20 or 30 different conversations going on so I like to go out if I go decide to go out with a group or um you know a friend you

know like one or two people maybe two or three people uh but when it gets to be too big it's just too much to keep track of and um yeah I prefer like smaller groups if Poss possible or

just being solo because I can go at my own pace um I don't have anybody you know saying oh that sounds boring I don't feel bad if I want to crash early one night not be out vice versa

if I want to stay out one late one night I'm not coming back and interrupting somebody who's maybe been sleeping for a while maybe they wanted to go to bed earlier so you have a lot of flexibility in

solar travel um and also with Group Travel you also run the risk where uh you may not meet as many people um because I found sometimes during Group Travel the group is so focused on itself um that there's

this sort of consensus of like we're hanging out with each other we're doing this to spend time together and the experiencing the place may go on the back burner um and it may you know the other members of

the group may have different priorities like they may only want to go to museums they may only want to go to the beach or they may not want to try the local food and you may be a person

that's the opposite you don't want to go to the beach and you only want to have local food and so being a solar traveler is amazing um I think it's also it can also be more cost efficient because

when I was younger and I traveled my family they always insisted on staying in nice hotels um and I don't need that right like I stay in decent places but I'm just as happy staying in the $20 a

night hotel as I am in the $100 a night hotel is it gonna be as big no is it going to have the fancy service no but um when I'm traveling I'm there to engage with that place I'm

there to enjoy that place to uh go out and to spend time in that place and the hotel is not as much of a priority where if you're with people who have a higher expectation you may be think

thinking I don't need to spend $150 a night on a hotel like I don't want to split a $300 a night hotel room I'm fine with spending 20 bucks a night and also with dining you know you may

think I don't need to spend $100 on a meal nothing wrong with that by the way I've had some great find Ting experiences back in the States but uh you may you may be looking for quantity uh over

quality but I don't think that's a fair comparison because to me I've been to a lot of different places it's true in Thailand it's true in Peru parts of Peru like lima not so much the ingredients will be

different but like in Cusco if you go to a fancy restaurant versus a local restaurant they're often serving the exact same food like they're often serving the exact same fish the exact same vegetables but you're paying a premium

to dying in that fancy environment uh and so if you don't have that expectation if you're not like um you know if you don't feel like you have to have the best of the best and the people that

you travel with do feel like that which there's nothing wrong with that but if that's a fundamental difference then they may be let down by your budget Consciousness and you may not be able to keep up with their

um their vacation mode because that's one of the things that comes to mind is like I do have um you know friends coming here to Thailand in a few months unfortunately I'll be gone by then but I thought

in my mind would it be challenging because they're here on a vacation budget and I'm here on a day-to-day life budget so they're here for uh a month and they're trying to maximize their time right because it's their

first time uh it's going to be a wonderful experience for them they you know they're going to be in a big city with a whole lot of cool stuff to do and for me am I going to be

able to afford every time you know it's more efficient to hop in a cab uh TimeWise or more efficient to um maybe eat at a nicer restaurant for whatever it is you know am I going to be able

to keep up with that when I'm on long-term living mode so that's another difference between uh the group travel and the solar travel is that you may have different expectations as far as timeline and expenses go hey big

EXL energy um just joining but are you planning on sticking around Thailand moving from changai to somewhere else that's a great question big XL Energy so uh currently I'm in um Bangkok actually uh and I have been here

since um the 1 of May so I came back up from Krabby I'll pull that up actually I was in kbby I was in CB B uh here for a month the month of April and then I came

back up here to Bangkok to do my visa extension and I decided like okay do I want to go back up to shangai because the Burning Season ran late this year so the Burning Season actually ran until miday

and so I decid you know what why don't I just spend uh the rest of my time here in Bangkok um so I'm I'm here in Bangkok and I will be here for three more weeks and so there's

I think four or five things I want to do in the next three weeks I want to check out the green lung I want to check out the Jim Thompson House um and a couple of other things that

I I mentioned earlier in stream but I'll be going to Vietnam so that was kind of a long-winded way of answering your question but my plan is to head to Vietnam on uh July 8th um so that's three

weeks from today I'll uh fly out from D Wong Airport oh very cool you're familiar with the green lung um yeah it'll be my first time I'm going to take a bus uh down there to the pier and

then I'll take a boat over to the um the park and I'm really looking forward to it it's uh yeah it's it seems epic um and I've heard I've been hearing about green lung for a long time like

people have been telling me about it for years like you got to check out the green lung it's this perfect Oasis from the hustle and bustle of the big city and I think that's you know I think that's

what I'm in for um have fun in Vietnam which city you headed to thank you big XL Energy I I'm looking forward to it a lot I think Vietnam's going to be a blast I'll be headed to dang

um so we can pop back over there and I suspect um in relation to Tony's question you know talking about dang I suspect daang is going to and Vietnam will be um less introvert friendly uh because I hear

that it's it can be just a really noisy place so um it's developing so there's a lot of construction going on throughout Vietnam tons of development uh these these airpods were made in Vietnam for example so there's tons

of manufacturing coming to Vietnam Vietnam produces a lot of different uh physical Goods not just in electronics but also textiles also food um and so all that production can be noisy right you've got transport Goods being transported um

you've got ports you've got a lot of international businesses with a presence in Vietnam and uh so I suspect it'll be less introvert friendly I've also heard uh people are very social in Vietnam like you they have a

lot of karaoke going on there uh similar to the Philippines which some people like right like you've got some people that are really into singing really into uh going out to the bar and like trying out some tunes

and meeting up with their friends and you've got other people that maybe they're not as much of a fan of the singing uh maybe they you know feel like The Scene goes on too late uh maybe they feel

like the songs are not songs they want to hear they maybe they think your music sucks um and so you have the D there right of some people that love that and then other people that they may not

enjoy that as much I I have to gauge with my boots on the ground and that would be an interesting like book Tony or like ebook or some kind of like written thing that I could share uh with

the audience um is doing something where I talk about which countries or cities or places are more introvert friendly and then list my reasons why um do you have quiet accommodation uh do you have restaurants that are comfortable

with solo Travelers um how often do you get asked uh why are you alone where's your group who are you traveling with where's your wife um uh you know other things are there you know uh yeah how like

how basically a guy that talks about how I'm received as a solar traveler in each of the countries that I go to um because I think a lot of other solar Travelers are interested to find out hey what

are the places that are good for me I think Japan is awesome Portugal is awesome Peru that those that's probably my Trifecta maybe Thailand would and for a fifth one that I've been to um I can't think off

the top of my head probably Taiwan um I've had a layover there haven't really spent time there uh but having like five you know having five uh you know those five would probably be my top picks Portugal uh

Peru uh Japan Taiwan Thailand um places where you're going to be more accepted as a solar traveler where people aren't going to be questioning as to like you know why um you know why you're traveling alone like what

your plans are there um how like I in the Philippines people looked at me like I was an alien like when I told them traveling alone people looked at me like I literally landed in the Philippines from Mars

and uh just just so confused I mean just totally uh totally surprised by that I'm not here judging that like Filipinos they're super social and so to them like why would you not be in a group like why

would you not uh be with your friends or your family like it's it's a place that gets me out of my shell for sure and the people they're just so hospitable and so warm that it's like it does

force him to be a bit more outgoing to engage because the people are so different than me it's hard toate how different the uh people are from me as far as personality goes like they tend toward being cheerful

and social and I tend toward being a bit neurotic and introverted uh and so there's an interesting dichotomy there I have yet to see I have yet to test out in the long term I will say at the

end of my trip last time to the Philippines I did feel like okay I need um I need to be in a place where I don't have to talk to people these people are really nice but I'm just

like so tired from having so many conversations with so many people and meeting so many people you're just constantly meeting people in the Philippines people are introducing you to their friends or their co-workers um it's comical right because

like a lot of these things are why people love the Phil Philippines um and I came to love it too but it was definitely tricky for me to like why are they being so nice to me why do

they want to hang out with me why do they want to talk why do they want me to try this food why why do they want me to do this and uh it really it really shifted my perspective

and and the people there are just gems and um so funny and and zany and um yeah a lot of kind-hearted people in the Philippines um Tony says yes Alex I think if you did an introvert focused Channel

ebook you could really find a niche yeah I think that's a great Point Tony because I don't hear or see introvert friendly travel stuff like a lot of the videos I see or couples traveling uh or you know

you also got a lot of family travel uh channels you don't get as much of like hey I'm just a solar traveler going by myself um this is my experience this this is what I like this is what

I didn't like this is what uh this was a positive sign to me this was an experience I wouldn't want to repeat um and yeah I could do that for every country I've been to uh Portugal you know

just as an example a brief rundown of the places that I've been Portugal is the mo third most peaceful country in the world based on a certain list I read and I can agree to it I was walking

around in the algar of course it was offseason but even then I was like man this place is so chill like it's developed you see plenty of nice condo apartment buildings um beautiful old homes but it's just quiet

like it was just so quiet and calming and I felt so recharged I was so confused when I was uh walking around in the Algarve 2 and I'd see these fishermen and they're talking in like a calm tone

of voice where they can hear each other they're not like shouting really far from each other um they're not like I don't using loudspeaker like this is by the docks where if I go to the docks in like

Berkeley there's you know dogs barking there's people running around like it's just kind of a hectic environment compared to Portugal Peru uh people would smile and engage and talk and um but they wouldn't be over the top about

it they wouldn't be pushy about it you could make some brief small talk and go about your day if you went to a restaurant you felt like the quality of the food there is so good people are having

to work really hard to make that awesome stuff so they're not like they're not trying to have distractions as much like perian work really hard uh and I saw that a lot when I was there and I think

anybody that goes there will appreciate that some of the stuff they do is super labor intensive they're doing things the old school way and the old school way can be more time consuming um it can just um you

know it's just is like press a button and it's done like some of the things that we have in the US and the Western democracies it's so convenient it's so comfortable we um we have too much time on

our hands sometimes I know that s antithetical when you consider the demands of the work culture but outside of the work culture uh most people are quite comfortable um even the culture of noise threshold introverts need to know

places like that City Central uh Mexico City can be overwhelming with the noise People Like Us need to know how to avoid it yeah that's a great Point Tony I've been warned about that too about Mexico City like

hey um you know people told me I know you like Mexico be prepared if you go to Mexico City it is a vibrant you know hustle and bustle kind of a place um very similar to at Bangkok for

example where or a hoochi Min City where it's Lively I mean people are working they're partying uh they've got you know family events they've got cultural events they've got a lot going on and it's a place where people

are trying to make it too like it's kind of like in LA or New York in America where you've got people moving there from all over trying to make their mark on the world and uh inevitably that's gonna

create Some Noise Matt says solo travel is the best yeah I definitely agree Matt I think um solo travel is fantastic and uh you have just so many opportunities as a Solo Traveler to meet different people to make

new friends like it's way easier to tack yourself onto a group uh for a short time if you're just like visiting and like hey let's go do this or hey let's go do that and so uh yeah that's

a great Point welcome to the stream by the way Matt uh also can you you can discuss dating abroad is an introvert lots of unique subjects you could cover yeah that's a great Point too um thank you so

much Tony because I I appreciate you sharing this with me because I have been going in different directions and not really sure what to cover uh but I think this is a really valuable thing and it could I

could cover traveling in the US as well like traveling uh you know whenever I eventually go back home to go back to work um there's a lot I could cover there there's uh the US is not in introvert

friendly um like well it depends on you go but I found overall because the need to hustle and grind is so high you naturally have to engage a lot more uh with other people than in Thailand where I

don't have to gauge with people much at all um and or I can depending on where I go in the city um I can engage with people not at all or almost not at all or I can engage

with people a lot um so there's a lot of choice or variety there also introverts especially if they don't know of the concept often feel guilty for being introverted so a channel that tells them it's okay might be

well received yeah that's a great Point Tony uh a channel where we talk about like um yeah covering those topics like how how to deal with being judged as an introvert trap man wow okay this is yeah this

is great uh thank you Matt I really appreciate that um yeah I think you know some of the stuff I'm trying to cover is stuff that I don't really see people talk about uh and I would say some

might perceive it in a negative way my issue is just the amount of like people telling you on YouTube telling you online just go travel that's going to solve all your problems like yeah where you live and where

you go has a major impact on your life and many of my most life affirming experiences have been outside the United States um as an adult I had a great time um a different points growing up in the

US but it's just changed so much and uh these life affirming experiences like they've changed who I am they've opened up my mind to a lot of different possibilities um they've showed me more of what's out there and

uh and I want people to I want people to be aware of some of the downsides because I think people feel like okay I'm traveling it should be awesome uh you know 247 it should be a blast but

sometimes we deal with stresses uh like one of the things that popped up in the digital Nomad channel is somebody said oh you travel the world or subreddit the digital Nomad subred oh you traveled the world it must

be just a constant life of luxury and you must be just happy all the time and it's like no like you see a lot of heavy stuff uh you travel long enough outside of the developed World outside of

uh Canada the United States um the UK then you're gonna see some stuff that weighs on you um it's different for everybody people may be bothered by different things uh what one person feels like ah it's not much

of a big deal somebody else might be really affected by that um and that's different for every person but like I feel like without making accusations without getting into specifics like extreme specifics to the point where it's disparaging

potentially disparaging uh potentially against the rules like talking about that like and talking about loneliness for example in my most recent video and I've done a few videos on that that people should be prepared for that like if

you're you know if you're used to um back home having the structure of your work environment where you don't feel lonely because because some people love their jobs they love their co-workers they find their work interesting and meaningful

and you go from that to now you're traveling abroad and presumably you're not working uh you know you don't I found it to be the case that I don't really make friends at work um I can get along

with people but there's just something where it's like we all agree oh yeah we'll talk after and we'll stay in touch but that has never been the case at any of the jobs I've worked uh it's we've stuck

to being professional that's fine like I don't expect to make friends at work but if you have a social outlet there uh and then you go abroad where you don't have that social outlet then uh yeah some people

can feel lonely and some of loneliness is self-derived I'm not saying all of it is but if you're the type of person I don't think any of my subscribers are this way but if you're the type of person

that's constantly judging the environment around you like oh why did they eat that oh why do they wear that oh why uh you know why are they doing that job this and that then that will isolate you from

people I don't think the people in my channel are like that I think we're all open-minded and considerate people we like the people and the places that we go to but other avenues to lonel to my loneliness in

my experience have been just language barrier right like what is it like to just not be able to go and have conversations at the level that you're used to on a consistent basis like in the US I can

just walk up to almost anybody and just talk to them and it's there's not going to be any communication barrier there um so not having that depth can add to loneliness um I think also seeing people uh in

groups where like you're watching you get the sense as an introvert traveler sometimes um that you're watching people live their lives and that can be isolating like walking by uh you know a graduation party or walking by uh

a wedding uh people doing their wedding photos or you see all kinds of stuff like this when you're traveling long term that you may not see back home because you're just focused on work you're not really thinking about

anything besides work you're moving too quickly to really think about the world around you and then you're traveling and you know you uh you see a woman like crying going through a tough breakup she just got dumped or

uh you see a guy uh you know picking his kid up from school and they um they're having to like sit in track you just see people living their lives and it can make you feel a bit dissociated

at times or a bit detached uh because you're life is on pause right you're doing this thing that most people don't really do that much uh and even if you do it nobody's taking your exact steps nobody's taking

your exact trip and uh and so it can feel isolating that way where it's like you're thinking you're back in your home country you're thinking about that one time you were in Peru or that one time you were

in Thailand or that one time you were in Mexico and uh you can only really talk to you have this you're in this third space there's the people who have never left their home country there's the people who

are living in that foreign country and from that foreign country but you're like neither one like I was talking to Pete from tyres times a few months back and he was saying you know I I've had to toughen

up coming back to the West I've had to develop a thicker skin I was used to being in Thailand where people were very like softspoken and non-confrontational and just you know laidback and then coming here back to where

he's from he's from Dublin Ireland uh being in Ireland people are kind of a little bit more Rough Around the Edges they're a little bit more stressed out they're a little bit less patient um and so that's part

of it too is that the travel kind of changes you and shifts your perspective and for me um part of it was hard because I realized I'm not going to be one of these people like in some of

the countries that I go to you know in America Americans come in all shapes colors sizes um languages religions ethnicities all the differences that you could think of uh differ from American to American but in some of these

other countries it's much more homogeneous it's a monoculture like uh when I was in Cusco seeing this Peruvian woman she would hang out with her friends that grew up in the same neighborhood they all went to the same

high school they listen to the same music they dressed similarly to one another um they had the same accent and like you know as an outsider like hey I'm I can't ever be Peruvian um maybe you can I

Peru is diverse they have like Chinese peruvians they have Japanese peruvians uh I think they even have Filipino peruvians I've been learning about that which has been super interesting about how they brought Filipinos to the uh Latin colonies

um and vice versa they brought some maybe not Filipinos and Peru they have peruvians in the Philippines um but that's been super interesting U but yeah thank you so much uh Matt for and Tony as well for enjoying

the topics and letting me know uh that they've been good want to get back into and grind out the next three weeks in Bangkok make as much content as I can before I head to Vietnam because it'll probably

be a minute before I'm back here uh Tony says I was going to get back to work 10 minutes ago but this topic has really engaged me and my mind is racing now so work can wait well thank

you so much Tony that's that's very thoughtful I appreciate your support um it really means a lot to me I still consider my channel very very early on i' like to eventually move to doing it full time um

you know being eventually hitting Financial Independence and then putting all of my energy into the channel uh because it's just so much fun it's so much fun to connect with people like you and to be able to share

insights and um hear about your perspective and hear about like what's on your mind and um what your thoughts are um Tony says Matt serber yes his loneliness video and the one about wherever you go there you are

really spoke to me yeah that's something that's been tough for for me because I expected to just press a happiness button when I got here to Thailand I expected as soon as I landed uh for everything to be

perfect and that wasn't the case um when I landed I was exhausted I'd come from Finland I didn't sleep even though I got like a place to stay in Helsinki because the sunlight the sun in the summer doesn't

really go down I didn't get any sleep so I show up in bangcock I get through immigration I'm exhausted I'm riding the train into the City and and I'm looking at all the people around me commuting and just

feeling super confused and um just kind of out of place and like where am I and like did I really sign up for this for a year am I really back here three years later uh it's yeah it's

been wild I'm so glad I did it by the way I'm so glad I committed to coming here for a year uh but it wasn't hot happiness automatically and then happiness came about because I met up with some

of my t friends I hadn't seen since before the pandemic um they were very generous it took me out to a nice meal um then I started like rediscovering parts of Bangkok that I hadn't spent time in in

you know in several years made it up to Chang my reconnected friends up there uh started to slow down like I didn't quit walking as fast when I first got here I was walking super fast oh got to

go here got to go there I got to get around I got to do stuff go go go go go because that's what I'm used to in the us is I've got to go and maximize every second of

every day because I work long hours just being in sales it naturally comes with long hours and then all my time after work I've got to do chores got to go to do the laundry I've got to go

get groceries oh if I want to eat healthy I need to get groceries every few days um if you know I've got to pay my taxes I've gotta do this that this that this that and you're constantly just

ping ponging from thing to thing to thing and so coming here I was still in that hyped up rush rush rush mode and I had to learn how to slow down and take things one day at a time

and like hey give them a second to bring your check like in the US everything is you know they're trying to turn the tables over as fast as possible to get the business um and here that's not always

the case I mean there's some restaurants that are very leisurely uh they're not expecting to serve tons of people or they're not expecting to turn out food super super fast on like just a random weekday and so all

these things are things to consider um in Bangkok I had to speed it up a bit to be honest because certain parts of Bangkok arei like the financial district near where I'm living uh you know other parts of

the city that are tourist heavy like you have to be cognizant that people are on their way to work similar to New York City but if you're not in those areas yeah it's it's important to slow down because

can I really be happy when I'm constantly like tapping my foot okay I got to walk around them or okay I hope they hurry up or okay I hope there's space for me on the BTS train and like

I'm not here working uh in a standard 9 to-5 so I've got to really just keep my patience and um I hope when I go back to the US I don't fully lose that ESS um because my mind

just feels so much more calm here and uh yeah I'm just um just a lot happier here Matt says traveling solo forces you to be more outgoing introversion lessons outside the USA for me that's been 100% the case

uh for me too Matt in the US like I feel just kind you're just I don't know if you're like this this has been my feeling I'm always worried about tomorrow I'm always worried about okay what if some

Bill comes up that I've got to pay okay what did I what chores did I put off this week that I need to go do um you know do I have uh you know do I have my schedule

packed am I maximizing my time this weekend if I want to go out to the beach I better do it on Saturday or Sunday I can't do it during the week and so I'm always trying to just like

Chase tomorrow and uh I'm I'm my mind is going so fast I can't really slow down enough to connect and socialize and a lot of my friends struggle with that I mean I have friends that you know they

apologize I'll reach out to them and they won't get back to me like man I'm sorry I've just been working so many hours this week uh this month this year that I just haven't had time to socialize and

I can empathize with that and appreciate that I've been in the same position and um it's uh yeah and so when I'm not focused on the grind I'm not trying to be maximum efficiency all the time I'm not

worried about permits and insurance and rent and paperwork and leases and job and call phone calls and emails and uh just the endless ping ponging like I do open up a bit more I do stop to talk to

people like in the US I've had people try to make conversation like n sorry Gotta Go Gotta Go do stuff like don't have time and that's more accepted in San Francisco area because everybody there is busy all the

time uh but in other parts of the country like you definitely hit some friction when you're trying to get through the thing as fast as possible U now it's it's changing I think America the pace keeps speeding up

and there small towns in the US that I've been to where things have picked up pace a lot like service has gotten a lot faster and more efficient um than it was in the past and some people like

it some people don't um but yeah I think when I'm outside the US I'm more open to talking to people I'm more open to stopping and kind of joking around with people typ people are so funny uh and

like to joke around and laugh a lot and uh I've have a lot of really nice moments of connection sometimes I'll have somebody staring at me um because I'm just like looking around scanning my environment and then I'll

say hi you know I'll say Sati cop and they break into a smile and warm up like oh wow he's trying some Tha even though he's clearly not Tha uh he's trying to use our language and relate to

us and so there's a lot of really special experiences like that where it forces me to be more social too um and I find too like in other countries and you may relate to this as well Matt um

with your upcoming move to Thailand but in some other places people aren't as judgmental so I feel like in the west uh people are often taught to be judgmental I don't know um if that's even throughout the country

I found it to be even I found people in California to be equally judgmental as people in Tennessee they're just different they're just judgmental about different things so in Tennessee they might be judgmental about the church that you

go to whereas in California they may be judgmental about the neighborhood you live in but there is this kind of status conscious or status driven environment in the United States and I think the Western democracies in general where

uh people are always trying to size each other up trying to figure out what they can get from them or how they can get ahead and I just don't experience that nearly as much in other parts of the

world does it exist to some extent sure that's going to be a thing everywhere everywhere that we have limited resources uh then people will struggle over resources but I just find that people have other things going on and

that they have more practice like I that's been a tough realization and I think Tony and Matt you may appreciate this I know some people in the US that they're not introverted they're just unpleasant to be around uh

so they complain a lot about not having much of a social life or not connecting with other people but they spend all their time putting people down judging people uh talking about what people should and shouldn't do what

people should and shouldn't believe uh how people should operate how people shouldn't operate and by the end of it there's nobody left to like listen to their judgments or their criticisms um and I just don't experience that as

much now some people will tell me oh you just can't understand what they're saying and it's like no I do it's if people um make a joke it's often more light-hearted it's not meant to humiliate um which does

seem more common in the US butan I just see people trying to humiliate each other on a fairly consistent basis um it's it's unfortunate um but it's just part of the culture the grind you know raw unfettered capitalism

uh where people do feel like they're competing at the highest levels for resources um there's this efficiency there that is not as common abroad which I like I don't necessarily need things to be ultra Ultra efficient every single

step of the way for what it's worth I find Thai people and Thailand to be pretty efficient um is it perfect no it's not perfect but um I do find that people are often very patient here with me

me being an outsider I think more patient at times than the same people would be received in the US um so yeah that's just my thoughts on it I I agree with you Matt that traveling abroad has made

me get out of my showell more or connect with people more um talk to people more and that's what I'm looking forward to about the Philippines is my buddy uh who I'm gonna go hang out with um in

minda now he's already introduced me to his co-workers on video chat like he'll call me up on video chat on a slow day at his work and he'll pass the phone around and now I'm meeting and now I'm

meeting these people before I even get there uh I'm already meeting different people and being forced to talk to different people and normally like you know my feeling back home is ah I don't want to talk to people

I have to talk to people all day at work uh but I'm like okay if you insist I'll talk to you and this guy this guy I met a buddy of my friends he's like I will introduce you

to some nice women here not gold diggers uh and I just thought that was so funny I'm like gold diggers are barking up the wrong tree they're talking to me but I appreciate your enthusiasm man because you know

some countries like the Philippines they have the perception that most foreigners that come there are very well Tod do right that they have a lot of excess resources they're able to buy an international plane ticket they are able

uh to pay rent on typically a nice place a place that's you know maybe have maybe brand new maybe have some Modern amenities that are less common in their area maybe the Foreigner can have meals at the nicest

restaurant in town on a regular basis I'm not in that by the way I'm when I go to the Philippines I'm getting a local style apartment I'm gon to be eating at karenderia I'm gonna be spending time Outdoors

I'm not going to be doing it on the high on the hog over there uh partly out of choice partly out of wanting to stretch my money but partly also because I want a different life you know than

what I'm used to and that's what you know that's what the Philippines has to offer um is just a very vibrant um I use that word too much but very vibrant lifestyle and yeah I I would agree Matt

100% the atmosphere in America creates the need for introversion yeah I mean uh and I I'll respond to Tony real quick and get back to this point um I have to get going thanks to the great talk Alex

well thank you so much Tony for the Super Chat and all the information your support Rings the world to me it's been so great to talk with you today and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your

day Tony um but yeah back to back to what Matt was talking about yeah I mean in America you have to be cautious um you have to be cautious you have to be skeptical um you've got people on

the street like if you're in certain areas approaching you asking you for money uh you've got people uh you know where I lived in California casing out your car trying to figure out they can break in what they're

going to get uh at your job not your job but like at jobs I've had in the past you have to figure out who's trying to um you know push you out so they get the promotion or who's

trying to take your credit for what you did at work and so America's really shifted uh from a high trust Society to more of a low trust soci now unfortunately I do get some of these uh out of

touch people that are like oh it's the Browns it's the brown people this and that it's like that's an overly simplistic thing to point at um do I think it could has caused some challenges in America I mean

naturally I've seen some people within my own family who um don't subscribe to the American ethos and um have brought their culture with them to America and uh but I think you know I think they're they're not the

majority um I think a lot of people come to America America that they want to make America even better they want to contribute they want to work hard they want to produce something of value uh they want to

have an they want to start a business of some kind and uh it's really just like an imbalance in the system you know America is just not a balanced place right now uh things have kind of swung to

the extremes and we're seeing a lot of different side effects from that um I think in America one of the things my a buddy of mine said to me a while back was nobody wants fix the problems anymore

we just want to make enough money that the problems don't apply to us and I think that's kind of where America is at is people are just trying to get theirs and it's tur in every person for themselves

kind of a place and when you get in this system where you think everybody is just looking out for themselves you naturally have to adopt some of that yourself just to survive just to make it so that you

don't get taken advantage of so that you don't get ripped off um and I just don't have that experience near to the same extent traveling abroad um it happens a bit but it's not like a daily occurrence where

I'm getting spam calls every single day about my car warranty um about some kind of crypto scam about who knows what it could be but you're not just having to feeli constant like um pressure and so you have

to have these ultra high hard High boundaries in the modern world and you go to a more old school kind of a place you don't have that to the same extent it's it's just not as easy for people

to bug you you can create more space between yourself and the outside world you can be more selective about the people that you deal with like if you go get a job you're in the US You' got to

work at that company with those people and you don't have that flexibility uh whereas if you're traveling you're financially independent if you don't like a town if you don't like a Condo building if you don't like a restaurant

just don't go back move to a different city move to a different building try some different food have a lot more flexibility um living this kind of Lifestyle outside the US but I'll probably wrap it up here in

the next 5 10 minutes because my I'm starting to lose my voice a bit um I've been talking for several hours with you all it's been so wonderful uh to chat with everybody tonight feel free to throw any

comments or questions or thoughts can't thank Tony and Matt enough for chiming in as well as some of the folks we had earlier in the Stream Isaac um Daniel Christopher and uh sleeping elephant and solar transient we had

quite a few people on here yeah it was it was great to um great to catch up Matt and I'm really looking forward to hearing more about your mov to Thailand and following that and um yeah I think

it's going to be wonderful for you but uh yeah well thanks so much everybody I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up here I think we've had a great stream covered a lot of ground I've got a

lot of creative inspiration uh from this conversation and um yeah I look forward to chatting soon I hope everybody has a great week ahead byebye