My Vietnam eVisa was approved!

hey what's up everybody I'm gonna give it a little bit to let things get some more folks in here I got to approve for my Vietnam EA so that Visa start on July 8th which is a month and a day so a month from tomorrow uh I should be flying to Vietnam to dang from here in Bangkok um I'm I'm gonna book a hotel I haven't done it yet I'm going to book a hotel next to the airport for the night before and then I can catch a morning flight over to dang um yeah I'm looking forward to seeing something new it was really a good feeling to get that tonight get that approval tonight um I just had to add my middle name to my first name on that application and that's something to keep in mind when you are applying for your Vietnam Visa is that you need to include your middle name uh next to your first name in your application because Vietnam they look at your first name as the combination of your first and middle name and you'll need to do that if you fly domestically in Vietnam too so I'll probably be flying from Saigon or from daang to Saigon uh and flying out of Saigon to my next destination and so when I fly from daang to Saigon when I book that ticket I'm gonna have to book it with my first and middle name uh that way it's uh proved and yeah it's been a hot and muggy day in Bangkok today it rained a little bit and then it stopped but uh yeah I went out and while they were cleaning my room I went and just kind of walked around sat on uh visited the like the base of the mahanan tower which is the tall I think it's the tallest building in Bangkok right now and it's gorgeous I mean it's like my favorite building it's also a Ritz Carlton residence so really a luxury building way above my pay grade but really a beautiful building nonetheless I've been watching this uh interesting criminal defense attorney Filipino American guy based in Houston Texas called jom and I watched this YouTube channel Tyler Ola and so he interviewed jom or he did like a video with jom yesterday and it's just so interesting to see how that guy works and how he operates and um certainly controversial figure but also charismatic feel free to chime in anybody watching any thoughts or questions comments you have any travel plans you have coming up I've got another interview on Monday with a company and based back in California and I'm looking forward to it I don't you know in this job market I have low expectations but it's nice to get that interview practice and be kind of warmed up and uh you know get some practice in there even if it doesn't go my way then it'll be nice to just have uh yeah be be prepared for that but kind of a a slow week this week in Bangkok I've been hitting up the mango Steen trucks I found some mango Stein trucks in saton near my apartment and they have really high quality mango Steen at the same price uh as the Mango Steam vendors in at mahano Market market so that's really nice and the quality is really good um the best quality for fruit if you are buying fruit here in Bangkok don't hesitate to buy from the trucks they are typically direct from the farmer and the quality is great with mango scene it can be hit or miss if you go to uh like not the best markets you'll get some busted mango seene that are kind of like rotten yellow they got this yellow slimy kind of thing going on but the ones in the truck almost all of them are great condition one or two under rpe ones but yeah most of them are great I can eat so many of them in a row and it's uh yeah they're tasty I'm also doing some tentative planning like for uh after my time Vietnam if you haven't uh if you don't know already I am looking at going to the Philippines assuming I don't get a great job offer back in California while I'm in Vietnam then I am G to be flying to the Philippines and I'm really looking forward to that maybe even a bit more than Vietnam because I have a bunch of friends over there that want to meet up EF friends online friends people I've met through the internet uh people I don't know in person yet but that'll change hopefully on this trip and um I've already been talking to my buddy who's lives down there in mindal and he's wanting to introduce me to all of his friends and uh he's shown me a little bit about what they do just hanging out on their slow days they like to go fishing up in the mountains they like to um they go to like these farms and they pick fruit like it's just it's a beautiful paradise I'm a little bit nervous about Vietnam if I'm going to be honest I've read that like 95% of tourists don't return to Vietnam this isn't a slight Vietnam but I've heard that you really want a lot of travel experience before you go there so I'm glad that I've I'm fairly well traveled at this point it I wouldn't call it a place you should go for your first country abroad I think places like Thailand are going to be a lot easier for you but if you're somebody wow we've got four people all of a sudden welcome welcome to this stream um but yeah I'm looking you know I'm looking at Vietnam as a little bit um a little bit more of a challenge because it's you know of course English is not prevalent in Vietnam it's uh it's got some edges to it if that makes any sense hey solar transient welcome to the uh stream how are you doing tonight I'm just drinking some electrolyte uh an electrolyte bever bridge what's up how's it going in your world so yeah with Vietnam I've also you know I've also heard just from friends like hey you know be careful over there oh well thank you so much I recorded a video today I'm been kind of a u a down mood but you know just in terms of thinking about leaving Thailand I don't really want to leave Thailand but I'm also trying to be optimistic about what Vietnam will bring and what the Philippines will bring as well but uh with Vietnam uh you know it's a little bit it's got a bit of an edge of course there's some safety challenges and uh Saigon and in Hanoi as far as like theft go I've heard you really got to be careful about your property there um you also are going to want to be careful if you go to Vietnam about scams now I know some people feel like ah it's just a dollar it's Just5 dollar what is matter but it can really add up and it's also like discouraging it feels a little bit humiliating I don't know anybody that likes to be scammed so it's one of those places that I don't think it's as organic to go to Vietnam as say Thailand or even the Philippines it's a place where you have to do some work to get that Visa you have to put some work in to uh you know fill out that form correctly you of course you pay also for that in advance cool very cool you're going to dang soon well um May hey solo transing if you want to meet up you know if we're there at the same time happy to meet up I haven't actually I don't think I've met up with any of my subscribers yet um so you might be the first subscriber I get to meet up with which would be really cool I think Jake's over there too right now and I asked him about that he says he plans to be there for a couple more months so I hope to meet up with Jake as well if you're rewatching this Jake be cool to meet up grab some Vietnamese coffee or some bunme or something like that always uh blows my mind that 1500 people actually subscribe to my channel so um yeah I like I said you know I'm Not Afraid like I've been to places that I've perceived to be rougher than Vietnam if you want to talk about just share safety like in Colombia I did not feel safe um based on what my friends there told me I didn't have any issues but like when I started talking to my friends that are locals and Colombia they're like yeah you need to be careful around here uh and same in Mexico my friends in Mexico like hey you need to be careful around here I never had any issues um I don't know if that's it's that I blended in I had also several people tell me you look Colombian you look Mexican which was kind of funny to me I did get kick out of that um you know so I didn't have any issues in Latin America but uh you know so those are more over the top even like you know when I went to Cambodia I had some X friends mention hey it's not safe um but with Vietnam like it's a bit more over the top I mean it was you know a country involved in a war I know like my grandfather served in that war on the American side and that you know it's got like you know it's got some challenges Vietnam's got some challenges um so I'm looking forward to it though I think it'll be really interesting I think I'll learn a lot about the history the culture the uh the people like it's going to be well no technically it won't be it'll be another country in the sinosphere so like Thailand is more influenced by India you see that with a lot of Thai people having Sanskrit influence names but Vietnam is much more influenced by China so it'll be really interesting in that way I'm I'm looking forward to checking out some of the industry so there's a ton of industrial growth over there like I always I mentioned this a few times but these were actually assembled in Vietnam these are the Apple airpods I'm sure people have seen plenty of people wearing them I'm sure some of you even have a pair or two but yeah these were assembled in Vietnam apple is expanding their presence over there what else um of course they've got this there's like a vinfast is the automobile manufacturer they're doing EVS so getting to have some exposure to that will be really cool I don't know where these factories are I don't know if they're near Saigon near Hanoi um or if they're in like smaller industrial towns away from the population centers daang seems like more like a tourist town so I don't know if I'm going to see anything like that daang I'm sure I'll see like apple you know stores selling Apple products in dang and stores you know selling bin past vehicles um in dang but yeah as far as seeing the industry I don't know if I'll you know I'll get access to that just from being in the bigger cities I'm a city guy it's just what I'm used to so I don't spend as much time in rural areas I tend to just get kind of I don't know Stir Crazy is the word that's a phrase we use in the South but I think you know I think Vietnam will be really interesting and it's going to be very different from what I'm used to um I have some exposure to the Vietnamese American communities um but not a ton and and so and of course a lot of those folks FKS like they see themselves as American uh my friends that are Vietnamese American have not ever mentioned going back to visit um I think they feel you know some depending on the country that an American comes from uh they have different feelings like I know with India a lot of my Indian friends do go back to India not necessarily regularly but they've been back several time since moving whereas I never really heard about that sentiment from Vietnamese Americans so it may be less common I can't say for certain but uh yeah SOLO transient when when are you going to arrive in dang you said you're going to Embark to dang soon uh just curious like when you plan on Landing there I am looking forward to some beach Vibes again because like I I was in Krabby let's see when was I in Krabby I was in kbby in a yeah I was in kbby in for April for the month of April and it was nice to be like in the beach setting and just have the beauty of the ocean there and like it's there's something like humbling about it and there's also something relaxing about being by the ocean being by the beach and uh yeah I'm looking forward to that with da I've seen a lot of vloggers in daang showing like being at the ocean and it's just such a beautiful view um yeah it's just such a beautiful view probably late July or early August and why don't we pull up uh I'm g go ahead and pull up a map here because I think that's fun when I do that for you guys more fun than my background um okay so this is where I'm staying in Bangkok general area uh d here we go yeah so this is where I'm going to be headed in Vietnam solar transient says probably late July or early August well definitely send me an email solar transient or comment on uh the content I make over there I know I've been a little bit slow to upload I've had a lot of stuff to do just in terms of like getting caught up on my taxes um ordering some stuff I've been doing some recording but some of the stuff hasn't turned out as well as I would have liked just the audio is it can get you know Bangkok can be a loud City so sometimes it's kind of hard to make the con like record the content in the way that I want to record it because sometimes I find videos where I'm just sitting and here like it's just kind of sterile and I know you can intersperse Clips over it but it just doesn't feel as present in my mind is like me recording when I'm out in the city I think that's just like more fun for you guys and um yeah I think the numbers speak to that as well uh Christopher says congrats Alex what was the turnaround time on the EV say yeah so I wanted to do a stream earlier this week but like I said I just got caught up you know on being busy on some stuff but uh I actually got denied so my first uh application for it was denied and the reason being for that is I did not include my middle name on the application so uh I had to actually resubmit my application so I I got let's see I got my rejection email last Friday and then I think Tuesday uh I I immediately Googled it right I immediately looked it up I'm like why did I get denied and I looked it up and they're like yeah you got to include your middle name on there Reddit is super helpful for that by the way finding these kinds of weird Visa answers they're of course not a legal adviser or lawyer but some of the the Insight they provide is helpful so I resubmitted Tuesday Yeah Tuesday afternoon and I got the with the corrected name on there and then I got the notice this evening that um that they approved it and so that was really cool I was a little bit nervous because I've heard of some people getting it rejected like a couple times and so this time was great I opened up the email they're like your Visa has been approved so what I'll have to do uh so that took three days so 72 hours that may be increased a little bit like if you apply say like a Thursday I imagine then probably wouldn't be till Monday that you get it I don't know if they work weekends or not as far as the uh Visa processing people in Vietnam but that's for 90 days so I'm valid from July 8th until October 6th and my lease on this apartment runs up July 7th so when this lease runs up I'll go downstairs with my backpack all my bags packed I'll get my deposit back 12,900 bot about $350 and then I'm probably G to do a little bit of shopping I want to get some new shoes before I go to Vietnam and um I may I may get some other things just like pick up a few things before I head to Vietnam then I'll go get a hotel I haven't booked my flight to Vietnam yet because I just got that notice like a couple hours ago but I'll probably fly out of D Wong uh just because um yeah that that's just you know I'll just fly out of D Wong um and then I'll get a hotel though right beside it like right around it there's hotels and airbnbs all around dong and then uh stay there overnight and then just head over to the airport first thing in the morning I'll probably uh the flight I'm looking at will land in dang around 11:30 now I have heard Vietnam customs and all that can be timec consuming so I've heard of some people and this probably applies more to the bigger airports like hanaway and hoian city or Saigon but I've heard it can take like an hour and a half hour hour and a half to get through the airport security so I'll be there probably until like 100 p.m.

uh and then around 1 pm I'll be able to grab a hire a grab taxi and head to uh my accommodation um so after I book my flight I'll probably book it after this stream then I'll book my accommodation in dang and then that'll I'll be sorted out for the first month I'll know how I'm getting there I'll know where I'm staying and I'll be able to worry about other things like making content and uh and all that great Vietnamese food I'm going to have and I I haven't been drinking coffee I actually quck coffee a few months ago but I'll probably have some in Vietnam because it's a coffee producer and they uh they're famous for their coffee including their egg coffee I'm wanting to pull up egg coffee here yeah so this is the Vietnamese egg coffee that I've been hearing about and it may seem a little bit strange like you know when I first heard about it I was like egg coffee I don't know how good that sounds but I like coffee and I like eggs but do I like them mixed together but I've heard it sweet um and normally I don't like choly sweet stuff but I'll try it once you know I'll see how it is I might like it I might not like it but it uh you know it looks artistic they've got got this I don't know if they that's you know grounds that they put a little grounds on top or maybe cocoa powder let's see the recipe here so let's see here uh okay so it came from France it's kind of a a a French Import in origin um they're not really talking about what the topping is on it but yeah it doesn't you know it does look like it's got the black coffee and then the uh and then the creamer or not it doesn't look like sorry it doesn't have creamer in it so that'll be interesting I'm normally not a fan of black coffee but I'm down to try something new your thoughts on slow travel accommodations in Southeast Asia do you prefer Airbnb or Agoda uh that's a great question Christopher um you know I kind of look at it like if it's for short term like less than a week I prefer hotels uh at the week to month range I feel that you do get discounts uh with Airbnb that are helpful to knock the price down a bit you also get a little bit more variety like with hotels there's some level of limitations on them like a few of the things I've noticed with hotels that can be challenging like for longer than just a few days is some of them in Southeast Asia they may not have a desk attendant I know like here at my condo building we have security here that's here like 20 hours a day but there's this time from like 3:00 a.m.

to 7: a.m.

or 6 Sam where it seems like there's a lapse maybe a few hours where there's nobody here so uh like my key my key card for uh my place here broke and fortunately you know it's nine o'cl well it's 10 o'clock around 10 p.m.

this happened an hour or two ago but I went downstairs and was able to get the key card replaced um so that that's kind of tricky you know when I stayed in Pome pen the hotel owner would like he would pull down the gate because they have these big heavy metal gates and he'd pull it down at like 1:00 a.m.

and then you know it wouldn't be he wouldn't open it up until he got up the next morning at like s or 8 AM uh and so if you're a night owl which sometimes like I'm not a real partier but I like to just go wander and do night walks it's kind of a nice uh you know comforting feeling to just go walk through a city in the middle of the night and that was kind of disconcerting like I did stay there for a week in penon pen or a couple weeks CU I I came back and stayed there again at a later date but uh you know to know like hey there might not be anybody here in this six or seven hour window that's stressful right if you want to go out and hang out meet up with friends or just go out and wander uh so that's where having an Airbnb where I've got a key access and I can come and go whatever hour I want I really like that flexibility and then at the month-long stay it's hotels can kind of wear on you like I've stayed in when I went to Latin America I lived in hotels for about six months and the transient nature of them having people constantly coming and going um not getting to really know your neighbors like I don't know I think hotels are great for like one to six days and then anywhere from seven to 30 days I prefer uh an Airbnb but really at the 30 days or more Mark if I can get a rented condo like I'm in right now in Bangkok that's really nice because then you're in a more of a long-term building you build up a bit of a rapport with people working there um you get a better rate you also get some amenities like your room's going to be a bit bigger uh you might have like a kitchenet you have some nice little things that can uh can make the experience better I've got a fridge here too which some of the hotels I've stayed in have not had H have not had fridges or they have like a mini fridge that maybe kind of low to the ground and maybe a little bit hard to work with but here I can show you my fridge is uh taller you know so it's more of a mediumsized fridge and that's really nice for having some like cold water when I get back from a hot day in Bangkok or even a hot evening in Bangkok and I can just walk over there grab a nice cold water and cool off but yeah I hope that answers your question Christopher Agoda is Awesome by the way I do like aoda a lot I'm actually starting to look at them more for pricing out flights and things like that because with a Goa I can actually pay with my ti Bank account and that's a really seamless experience I like it better than using my American cards because um I some of my cards have expired since I've been in Thailand I'm gonna need to sort out getting them mailed to me and knowing I have more of a local option is is super convenient solar transient says egg coffee is good but it's more of a dessert than a drink okay that's good to know it is a little bit confusing to hear it's a dessert though because I think of dessert as more of like an evening thing or a uh you know a midday thing and like coffee really wakes me up a lot so it might be one of those things I have to have with breakfast because the caffeine it has like a 24hour half life and I notice when I drink coffee like sometimes even in the morning if it's strong enough it will make it hard for me to sleep at night even if I go and work out like even if I get a hard workout in then uh coffee is just a really strong stimulant for me and I haven't been drinking it for several months either so yeah it might be one of those things I have in the morning with like a pastry some kind of bread not the healthiest but uh a nice treat ah Latin America I did a tour of laam back in late 21 Mexico Panama Colombia Peru and Uruguay how was that Christopher what was your favorite um what were some of your highlights want to hear more about your Latin America trip it's it's awesome I mean I I love it like I think Latin America is awesome it's certainly less of a culture shock coming from the United States than coming here to Southeast Asia the way the cities are lined up is super familiar to me of course Spanish I found to be very easy to learn coming from English it's um yeah I mean Latin America Is Awesome and Peru I think is probably my favorite of those places but I think they're all different flavors of the same awesome thing next time I go I'd like to make it down to Argentina it's just it's really far right so it's like almost like going to Asia because you got to fly to like you got to fly to Miami or Tex like Houston like Texas or Southern Florida and then do another like eight hour flight you're literally going from like the top of the continent to the bottom of the continent if you're going to like buenos Iris or um usua is even really much further south and then of course if I did a buenos ciris trip I'd make it over to Mont Vio and and Uruguay because you just take a ferry I think it's like a three or four hour Ferry and a lot of people it might not even be that long it may be only two hours but a lot of people do that as a day trip from buenos ciris and Mexico is always fun like Mexico to me is so convenient to me sometimes it doesn't even feel like going to another country because I actually last time I went to Mexico I drove down to the Border um in South San Diego like the OS Mesa area at tra Vista and then just like I took a bus uh well the parking had a shuttle to take you to the border and then you just like walk over and grab a cab um I would definitely P I overpaid on my cab a lot when I did that so if you can get like a AO or some kind of SIM card that activates automatically I didn't take it to the more populous part of that border I took it to the otai Mesa area where it looks kind of sketch and it's not readily there's not any businesses there so that was what threw me off whenever I crossed the border to Mexico was that I crossed over there's like nothing there there's like there was like a restaurant and like a clothing store but like there was no convenient store that could sell me a SIM card where I could activate and immediately be online so I got grabbed in a jumped in a random cab I found and uh he definitely overcharged me so yeah if you can help it try to go to the more if you go down to Mexico from the United States go to the more populated part of the Border uh rather than like the less populated part yes quite the Trek I was in mon videoo for a bit but it wasn't my favorite in laan yeah you know I've heard mixed stuff about it like I've heard it's not really a lot going on it's kind of a slower Pace it's not really a big city especially by latam standards I think the population of Monte pedo is like one and a half million I think the population at uguay is around three million so uh if you're used if you're coming from like a Mexico City or like a bulata or like a Lima then it may feel like a bit of a small town by comparison like I was shocked at how big Lima is because it's not readily apparent when you are there that it's such a large city like because the districts are so divided and like so different from one another it felt a lot like LA to me and the weather I mean the weather in Lima I I don't know how the weather is in Mont Vio the weather in Lima can be kind of a downer it's like overcast about half the year uh cloudy it's it's weird to be in Latin America where I think people think of it as tropical or like you know like Colombia is very sunny outside of bulat bulat is another one of those kind of cloudy and rainy cities but nonetheless like I enjoy Lima a lot if I go back to one city I've been to in Latin America it probably would be Lima because the food scene there is like the best in the world I I still think about the food in Lima like it was shocking to me to experience all the different things that I experienced there because you have kind of the overcast weather and you're reminded of Seattle and Seattle's like an okay Food City but then you get down to Lima and it just it's mindblowing like even there's this place I used to go for burgers and just your basic hamburger like I think it was 12 Solace around $3 and uh really enjoyed that spot not as much of a late night City and I it may have been because I went there also in 20 21 um but you know when I went to bogat I was talking to my local friends and they were like yeah normally bogat has like a wild party scene and back then I was more of a partyer uh but they were like right now it's just slow I mean it's you know there's not a whole lot going on uh so you'll have to come back to bogat if you want uh you want to have a party Christopher would you go back to Latin America I'm curious like if you go back in the future uh would you go back would you visit Brazil or Chile or Argentina um those are the three big ones that you didn't mention and I'm just kind of curious if you're interested in those places more graffiti and mon Vio than any other place I visited yeah graffiti can be kind of a downer I mean I get you know I get it's part of the the landscape and it's how people Express themselves but it can also give the city kind of any City a kind of a blighted look um I used to work in Oakland California and Oakland is covered in graffiti and it doesn't it doesn't help the reputation of Oakland at all uh to have so much graffiti there I understand there's greater issues of play and and you know there's a lot of young probably young men that have too much free time on their hands but uh it's not the most welcoming look if you're a traveler and you see lots of graffiti usually you don't get a great feeling about it actually I Christopher says actually I liked bogot a lot yeah bogot I liked it a lot too like the areas I stayed in in the north part of the city usak Ken what else there's a popular neighborhoods and we can pull up bulat here actually so I was staying up here usak and then also like around par El a lot of embassies around here and the embassies are just really cool looking like I've always thought of embassies as cool looking buildings but it was wild to see the Chinese Embassy there you know being so far away from China it was also uh I also thought the Japanese Embassy looked really cool I think I also saw the Ecuadorian Embassy there which was interesting because Ecuador is a neighbor of um of Colombia but yeah I liked it a lot I mean the parks are beautiful the I found the people in batat to be most of them to be pretty friendly more so the medine like I felt felt like the people were nicer in bogat overall maybe just because I had local friends in bogot that I didn't have in meí that could introduce me to other local people but uh yeah I liked bot a lot it's just uh it reminded me of Seattle a lot I would go back to bogat great food and I found that people were mostly warm and friendly I stayed in La condar near El Centro okay so we'll pull up uh we can just scroll down here well I'll just type it in yeah so this area it's really close to Monta Sarat um think mon monat here here it is um yeah super convenient area touristic uh I had a great meal down there there was I think it was like a a pork dish that was really it may have been a be dish but it was really tasty it was huge and I liked it a lot they also have a lot of like different vendors down there so you can get clothing and yeah really convenient area for sure yeah when I went down there we just uh we took cabs because my buddy said they've just been having some challenges with uh I think the bus drivers Union has pushed back on some of the public transportation development in bulas but the architecture is gorgeous like bogot to me had such underrated architecture I saw some really cool skysc there I can't think of the name but there's one like not too far from L condaria that I walked around the base and got some great shots take get us show people a sense of the city yeah it's uh got the beautiful Colonial architecture that's one thing I've gotten a little bit tired of of traveling in big traveling and living in big cities is the pigeons I saw him a lot in San Francisco I see him a lot here in Bangkok and then as you could see they're prevalent in parts of bogat I had uh this reminds me I was doing some filming and a I had a police officer stop a couple of police officers stop and question me a bit when I was in bogat and I asked my friend about it later because I I even showed him like Hey just you know doing some stuff for YouTube I think buildings here are beautiful they're like oh that's cool and uh I showed them they were like can we see your YouTube and so I showed them like the the front of my Channel or the uh the top of my channel and they're like oh okay whatever and so I asked my friend about it later he's like oh yeah you were over by some military uh buildings and that's why they came up and stopped you but uh of course I know I'm not doing anything wrong so they were they were super friendly like all the stuff I've heard is like ah don't talk to them and this and that but then was super nice to me how did you uh how did you feel about the altitude Christopher did you uh was the altitude hard for you to adjust to going to bogatov because it's pretty high up there I think it's at like is it 8,600 feet um almost 3,000 meters it was mindblowing when we when I flew from medine to bulata because you're flying like through the mountains I mean I remember looking out the left side of the plane and seeing like the mountains were really close uh much closer than I would have thought is place close to Plaza bouar and The Walking Street yeah the I agree the photos don't do it justice it's a gorgeous City and you don't get the full sense of it unless you are actually down there in the city okay so this is one of those Towers I was talking about right here and you can't see it super well but like they L this one up like the Colombian flag and yeah beautiful city the altitude hit me the first few days but I still did a lot of walking around what a trooper yeah that's um it's it's something you got to adapt to but after you get used to it it's it's an incredible City I was super impressed by it just wandering around around I was wored about safety I didn't have any safety issues I don't know if it's because I dressed down or if I look like a local but I export a lot like from the north of the city to the South and felt less sketched out than medine I mean I enjoyed both of these a lot I wish I'd spend more time in bulat I stayed at a hostel in a private room and this was the Selena I can pull that up after we look at some more of these photos but yeah it's stunning I mean it just really threw me off because I wasn't expecting overcast weather but I got used to it the malls are super convenient in bulat as well I got a hard drive at one of the local malls help my buddy helped negotiate the price of it which was nice pull up uh Selena yeah I think this is the one I stayed at that actually looks like identical that may have been the room I stayed in it looks just like the room I stayed in super comfortable super cozy the temperatures were perfect like I don't remember them needing to run a heater or an air conditioner because the blankets were thick and then you know it's kind of a cool other their City not cold but just kind of chill chilly and I loved it I felt great in bogat we had I had a great time and having a local friend there made it that much better and staying here and at the park de 93 like you're close to a whole lot of stuff I remember seeing a lot of cool cars up here in usen as well like when I W I'd walk North from my place and really enjoyed it a lot here's the unity Centro Mall super modern upscale love the architecture north of the Dorado huh very cool I didn't go bowling I wish wish I knew about the bowling see I'm gonna back up though a little bit you mentioned El Dorado oh okay this might have been it um this is near law condaria and it does have a little bit of that old western Vibe or even maybe that Mexico Vibe with the brown and red brick the red brick Motif is super common throughout the city so like up uh where I was staying in usen you see these red brick buildings everywhere and it's it's utilitarian and it also looks cool I did see tons of security like when I in the nice area I was in I think uh due to some past challenges they have they still have a lot of security but I thought it looked really cool and at the time I was like not a nightowl at all and so I didn't get as many of these City Lights views as I would have liked um compared to when I was in medine I was staying up a bit later in Medan and when you come down you like from the um from the airport you're like winding through the hills and you see the city in front of you there's a famous video too if you ever get the chance to look up of medine people they actually close these like highways these elevated highways and people go like rollerblading uh through the uh over the hills and stuff it's really a beautiful look and I know you're in Indonesia right now Christopher have you thought about um you know are you have any plans coming up to travel elsewhere in Southeast Asia are you more in a a chill time right now my buddy from Colombia is in Portugal right now he actually when I was uh there when I was in Colombia a few years ago he was like man I gotta get to I gotta get to Portugal uh and so he's actually there right now I don't know where he's at in Portugal I should ask him about that I did reach out to him like how's it going he's like oh man I'm loving it you know getting used to it he had plans back then to move to Portugal so he felt like uh there were opportunities for him unique opportunities as a yoga teacher to go and work up there and so I think that's his plan is to teach yoga in Portugal he's done some yoga retreats in like barania and other parts of Colombia uh but he just felt like he would have some unique opportunities in Portugal uh Christopher says I love the cafes and the transient guys squatted and went to the restroom in front of us the lady told us that happens a lot in that area oh that's unfortunate um I love the cafes too in bulot I felt like they were super underrated I would actually just go out wandering in the city and find cafes um so I would look for places that locals were eating and those were my favorite places to eat in bogot when I would just happen upon a local spot that they serve like coffee and some meat and uh some kind of bread for breakfast fantastic can't go wrong there I was super impressed by the coffee uh the cafe scene there and the coffee was good too they grow a lot of coffee beans to medine or around medine in the coffee region and a lot of that coffee gets transported straight to Bata uh so yeah I'm so glad you enjoyed that and sorry about that negative experience I've definitely I'm fortunately common in other cities in the Americas as well like in San Francisco near where I used to live and yeah I've heard that the that area can be challenging like um laand deia can have some uh can have some issues at nighttime um my buddy said it's a whole city at night you know I he's a local and he warned me he was living He let's say he was living near here and I was staying like over here it was like six blocks and he warned me man be careful even just walking like you could get uh you know taking advantage of just going just walking that far your things taking it from you against your will and I'm like oh man it's six blocks like I've lived in some terrible places some awful neighborhoods before and never heard you can't walk six blocks but I didn't have issues but now if I was living there I'd probably be more interested in following his advice um Christopher says actually yes I am considering a trip to Manila next month for a week very cool yeah Manila you know is a huge city um really uh I think it's the most densely populated city in the world so if you're a city person I need to turn my aircon down a bit guys sorry about this if you're a big city person like I don't think you can go wrong with uh checking out Manila and seeing if it's right for you I watched I watched a channel called Fugal Travelers and they they released their videos like six months after the fact but they're in they're releasing videos from Manila or that they recorded in Manila right now and I like their perspective they're just easygoing and they talk about the economics of visiting wherever they go and I yeah I'm interested in Manila I didn't have the best experience in Manila airport I will warn you Manila airport is super crowded when I was there I just got this kind of a stressed out Vibe due to passenger volume it's just so packed and crowded but um yeah it's you know obviously English is super prevalent there you're not going to have any challenges communicating in English it's it's a mega City I like I said I've only tra transited through there but a lot of people really seem to like it especially the touristic areas like bonao Global city maati um I was at a company where I could have potentially transferred to Manila but I ended up going to a different job for more money but sometimes I wonder if I'd taken that job this was with the tech company that had teams uh in Manila so what a a friend of a friend actually manages some tech sales teams in Manila and she enjoys it like she went over with a plan to go for like a year she sublet her place and she's still there five years later so there's a lot of opportunity um in Manila I think for uh you know some Tech rated opportunity I get a bit bored here so my wife and I take trips around southeast Asia every three or four months yeah I mean I think southeast Asia is fantastic for that where let's we can pull out Manila I'm not I don't know if I'll be flying into Manila uh after Vietnam um because well there's a few things like one more of the people that I plan to do interviews with are based in dumag Getti and then two where I plan to stay longer term is in mind now uh but you know I'm also considering doing like a test for graduate school application either the GMAT or the elsat and Manila is the only place in the country where you can take the American versions of those tests so I may end up being in Manila for like a month or so and if I get a job back in the States like let's just assume I Vietnam goes well I go to the Philippines I stay in the Philippines for six months I end up needing to go back to the States then I'm thinking about spending my last month in Manila so this is super helpful as far as knowing about what you guys like what you're interested in what you guys are going to be doing but yeah the airport is just I don't know it's just it's tough too if you need to I've heard if you need to transfer to a domestic flight then the terminals are really like spread apart where they encourage you to take a cab and like that just seems convoluted to me for a domestic flight why You' need to transfer from an international to a domestic flight I can't imagine what that would be like coming from the states where you're jet lagged and you've sat on a plane for 12 hours it's not so bad coming from Southeast Asia but that is something I love about southeast Asia is you have so much Variety in the region that if you want to do something different if you want a different vibe you're a few hour flight away from you know eight different countries maybe 10 different countries and you can get a totally different experience than what you're used to and it's strange to me too because like I love the Philippines and the Philippines is an awesome country so it is kind of strange to me the Manila airport um is the way it is and when I was flying out I looked out I got on one of the last flights out of the city so last time I flew through Manila airport the I think it was the tall volcano erupted and you could already uh I don't know if you could see smoke but like when I landed I can't remember where I was going it might have been I think I was going to Japan when I landed in Japan like I saw over the news that uh that the tall had erupted and a few hours after or within like an hour maybe of my flight leaving they shut down the airport they interrupted all the flights they're like ah no we got to wait until this thing stops to let air traffic resume so I imagine that was a huge headache for all the people working there and I had a American buddy a guy I went to college with who was living at the mil in Manila at the time with his wife and I think that they you know they were somewhat impacted by not extreme but you know traffic and and the stress and all that can can be a headache let's see if it's still yeah so I I can show you this is I think this is the um that this is the company and uh I enjoyed working there but I think this is one of their offices the let's see if it's still um yeah okay no this was so they didn't change the name in the Philippines so this company was acquired by an American company but this is actually their office in BGC and I didn't know they they had a view of a helicopter pad anyway uh very very modern very cool like I've thought about reaching out to my old manager at this company uh to see if there's opportunities there because if I could go back to the States work for a couple years and transfer to uh BGC that would be that would be awesome because that would be I'd be earning a western income living in the Philippines in like a great part of the Philippines right BGC very convenient it's like one foot in the west I often say this one foot in the west one foot in the Philippines uh and it would I'd be moving I'd be moving forward in my career I'd be making career advancements learning a lot and uh a great City too if you want to be a content creator there's a number of really big bloggers that are based there it's also super orderly from what I've heard I haven't been to BGC but it uh that's that's something I've thought about so you know might be something I do like might reach out to him he he and I are still on great terms like he vouched for me when I was in an interview process back in February I was interviewing at a company I didn't get the offer got to the last round but um didn't get the offer unfortunately but yeah I mean it would be really cool to be working for like that's the dream right to to be doing this kind of work but in a country that I prefer to living back in the States at least Manila has some places like Denny's Roadhouse yeah that would be a huge appeal of being in Manila is that you get these American businesses that you're familiar with where you can go and have what you're used to and you can enjoy like you can just enjoy there's less friction there that's the best way I can put it is there's less friction when you have these businesses like I love Texas Roadhouse back in the States I ate there for my birthday a couple years ago um I also like Denny's I've eaten a Denny's quite a few times in the middle of the night and when I lived in Denver I used to live down the street from a Denny's so if I was hungry in the middle of the night didn't feel like cooking didn't have anything else going on I'd go down to Denny's BGC is pretty nice reminds me of nicer parts of Manhattan or Chicago very clean and walkable yeah and you know there's security everywhere so I've heard it's very safe like it's a place you can walk around in the middle of the night and not feel unsafe it's well lit so you can see where you're going I think they have some really nice Parks here too like I'm seeing some really nice Parks here it's also got uh the Golf Club Polo Club and then you've got this and oh so the Manila American cemetery cemeteries can be kind of a sad place but if they have it in a set up like a beautiful Park then um you know it can be a pleasant open air kind of a green space and such a densely populated city I think you need to have those parks to up a bit and this is something I want to see really bad this Venice Grand Canal mall I haven't actually been to the real Venice in Italy but I've heard about this that they have these canals and it yeah it looks stunning I mean the art here it just looks super cool very very modern I'm look here we go okay you can get a sense of the canals guess they have these paddle boats and here you you can see they've got I guess it's it's kind of mirroring what the experience would be somewhat like in Italy but a very very cool looking it reminds me too of the uh some of the this hotel I've been to in Las Vegas I was there for a work conference about a year and a half ago and uh I really like the design of that spot yes and McKinley nearby is nice I stayed at a conduit at Venice so you've actually stayed here that's awesome Christopher I'm so glad that you could confirm it's as nice as it looks because I've been wanting to check it out for a while and uh yeah I I like it a lot I I like the vibe like from what I can tell it looks beautiful very clean very wellmaintained and I love the open air Vibe too like that's something I liked a lot about the Philippines is there you know I didn't I'll be honest I didn't like it at first until I spent more time traveling and realized there's elements of this that remind me of where I'm from in in a physical way and culturally it's Filipino right like in a lot of way I mean it's it's Western but it's also there's a lot of course many Filipinos there so you get the friendliness of the Philippines but you get the layout that you're used to coming from the United States I went to a number of outlet malls in the Philippines I'm like this feels just like America and so this is something that would remind me of some of the outlet or outdoor malls I've been to In Like Los Angeles for example and it's I love the fresh air I love going from inside the air conditioned store to being out and seeing the beautiful sunset and uh you get a better sense of time like the transition of time in an outdoor mall where sometimes when you're in an indoor mall you feel like you could be there for hours and hours and like you're in a casino or something and you you lose a sense of what time it is okay so this is where Texas Roadhouse is rented a place on a go to homes connected to that mall yeah I'll be sure to check out AG Goa homes I've only ever no I've booked I've booked accommodation quite a few times through Agoda but uh I'll have to look it up and I'm glad to hear Texas Roadhouse is in there I'll you know I'll definitely be considering it because I miss eating at Texas Roadhouse back home I mean it's just such a good steak restaurant the quality control is mindblowing the fact that they're able to do the volume of business that they do while still putting out a great product um I like Texas Roadhouse a lot Christopher says it's a great mall we went there every day yeah it's it's awesome to be able to walk around there too because in some parts of the Philippines you you may not feel like you can just go out walking uh I never felt unsafe in the Philippines but the infrastructure doesn't necessarily lend itself like to you walking from point A to point B so I think that's an appeal of being in a BGC right is that you got wide sidewalks and you've got large storefronts and things are more catered to like a western audience but um yeah I'll be right back I G hit the restroom e but yeah um yeah it looks really really cool and so there is that level of comfort right so after a while of traveling in Asia um part of me does Miss some aspects of living in the states I mean I mentioned in a video before I miss my friends back home but the other thing that I miss is just the general layout and one of my buddies who's Malaysian he he told me he's like when know when I went to the Philippines I was like I was back in America he went to college in America and it's just kind of a humorous thing to um to hear from somebody that's you know they lived in America they're not American but that being here reminded them a lot of America and uh yeah the English is a something I'm really looking forward to because if I had to say there's one sort of Downer or challenge in Thailand is that you know the lack of English can be a bit of a barrier at times to connecting love the tie people but when you can't communicate as effectively as you'd like then um you know there's just that piece missing and you don't have that in the Philippines right you can communicate with everybody really effectively you can get to know people you can talk about things like basketball or American food or culture and yeah there's a really great great place to connect with the locals I love the Christmas too the um Christmas starts early in the Philippines and so you really uh yeah you can really enjoy it there but yeah we got a few folks on here feel free to chime in or throw any questions I greatly appreciate uh Christopher for sharing a lot about his experience in the in Manila with me but I curious if anybody else has been to the Philippines what their thoughts are I know I'm going to Vietnam Next but the Philippines stole a piece of my heart the last time I went and it's a country that I've looked forward to going back to potentially more than any other country it's yeah there's just so much to love about it and it's such a it's this place that for me perfectly straddles the line between mystery and familiar it's not too mysterious that I feel out of my element um like I have in some countries but it's not but it's familiar enough like it's mysterious enough to be interesting it's familiar enough to be comfortable and here you guys can get a sense like super developed I mean this looks like it could be any City uh in the western democracies with the skyscrapers and the development W Hotel it's like a much bigger version of SIU it Park yes I can see how the Philippines is an easy transition for Western expats we were there in early December and Filipinos love Christmas for sure yeah I think they started celebrating in like October and um it's it's really cool to see them have that Christmas spirit uh sometimes like back in the States you feel like people don't have as much Christmas spirit maybe more so in cnia californ like it's still popular back in my hometown uh but you know a little bit less so in urban California I think because you have more people that are secular or they're uh Jewish or they're Muslim or they you know may not observe the holiday like my the manager of my building in Berkeley she didn't observe uh the Christmas holiday so um that's something that's just like refreshing it kind of it takes me back to my childhood when it seemed like everybody celebrated where gra and it was very po like a very important holiday for a lot of people and you know it it's yeah I think for somebody that likes walking like I like walking a lot I mean this looks really nice like i' love to go walk around this park and enjoy it I think you also could be a runner here it doesn't have Cemetery Vibes like I understand it's a cemetery and we got to pay our ass show our respects but the greenery is beautiful and yeah it's really a beautiful country I love the kind of the wave design that they've got there oh okay so you're from Indiana Christopher yeah I totally so I can relate you know being from Tennessee very similar to Indiana in a lot of ways ways and it's uh it's definitely comforting right to to have that experience something that you're very familiar with that you feel like wow like even though I'm from halfway around the world we have this really important holiday in common and they yeah they love it I love it my probably the best Christmas I've ever had was in the Philippines when I was in the Philippines uh Christmas 2019 uh my buddy picked me up from my hotel in this truck he borrowed from his cousin and we went with his wife and a son to his mother-in-law's place in kagay and deoro and had Christmas there I got to meet all of his extended family and we uh we had some cakes and stuff like that it was really really nice I think over like 30 or 40 people came so many people came we couldn't fit in the house um so some folks are hanging out outside and we kind of cycle and Shuffle in it was Christmas is really special in the Philippines and I'm hoping I can spend this upcoming Christmas in the Philippines because it's just such a special holiday yeah it has this Central Park Vibe um where I know Christopher you've been to New York City but you see the skyscrapers and you see the urban landscape but then you have this green space where you get fresh air and you can decompress you feel like you're in a forest I think that's so important for our mental health to spend time in Parks if even if we're in a concrete jungle I two of my favorite places in Bangkok are Beni Kitty Park and also lini Park yeah Filipinos are so sweet and family oriented I very very much agree with that I'm shocked by the kindness of the Filipinos like whenever I talk to Filipino my Filipino friends and it's like even though I haven't been there in about four and a half years it's like I was there yesterday and um I felt this connection with my buddy from the Philippines that like we're going to be friends for forever and you don't often get that feeling right like people come in and out of your lives people move people change people uh you know they develop different kinds of priorities and yet uh unless he's super busy with work we've still been able to be in touch and um yeah I feel a really great connection there I think with the Philippines I it's the place I've had the easiest time connecting with the local people and uh it's something that you know I keep going to new countries but that's something that always stands out in my mind is how kind people were to me and it was really surprising because you experience people that don't have a whole whole lot and you're not really sure what to make of things but you feel very much welcomed there and uh it's it's a feeling I'll never forget now I imagine in Manila it may be a little bit more challenging because people are so busy it's such a big city it's such an important business Hub a tourism Hub but uh yeah I I really look forward to to going back so this is the High Street this must be like the most important shopping street and I love these uh these Billboards this immediately reminds me of Bangkok beautiful Billboards and uh Blade Runner Vibes not as much as Bangkok though because it seems maybe a little more subdued than Bangkok where Bangkok ads are like over the top I mean it's uh they're very much in your face which I like and is quirky and interesting but this looks nice as well and yeah the deli looks great I think it'll be interesting I mean I know people pay a premium for it but I think there's going to be more Western food in the Philippines uh compared to Thailand which is something I miss from time to time I do order pizza here in Bangkok couple times a month and uh being able to have that more readily available just because you know Philippines former American colony a lot of service members military bases so I think that even though like it's arguably harder to produce some Western Foods in the Philippines there's going to be more interest to import a lot of those goods the meats the cheeses um and then of course local Filipino food like some of it reminds me a lot of the food from where uh where I'm from like dishes like chicken adobo um remind me a lot of where I'm from what a sweet cat and they've got a ry's Donuts I remember going to ry's Donuts like the first time I went to LA was about 15 years ago and we went to ry's in Englewood you see a TGI Fridays yeah it's just a beautiful city oh Raging Bull okay I'll have to make a note of that to check out the Burger Bar Raging Bull Burger Bar I had a great burger in SIU I was seriously impressed by it I was like this is like the best burger I've had in Southeast Asia it was a spot that it's not open late night anymore but it was open at like 1 o'clock in the morning I was hungry and uh maybe it was 10 p.m.

maybe it wasn't quite 1 but it was late and it was like packed like it was like more of a almost a drive-in style but you almost like a Sonic Drive-In kind of and you had all these people around it super popular super crowded with locals amazing Burger and Fries that I got there and it's Lively you know going to the Philippines a country with a rapidly growing economy uh it's just such a lively place but I'll probably wind down shortly Christopher just because um you I've been been rolling for about an hour and 15 now and uh have some some stuff to do to prepare for my next trip um but I really appreciate you chiming in and talking about your experiences in the Philippines and confirming a lot of what uh what I'm excit about and and sharing your experiences that are so interesting to hear about and like I think shared experiences are just one of the most fun parts of traveling it'll be fun to walk around the malls and look at the interesting stuff they have I want to check out um I want to check out the SM for sure SMS are always really really nice and beautiful it's in a different part of town it looks like it's it looks like they position them uh I'll probably stay on a bit longer for Tony hey Tony how are you doing no worries I I think I'm gonna keep rolling I I thought maybe folks might be getting tired of dropping off but I'm GNA keep rolling on the stream uh Tony we're talking a bit about Christopher's experience in Manila and talking about the Philippines I know this dream is supposed to be about Vietnam but my plan is to go to the Philippines after Vietnam and uh a lot of folks like just love the Philippines I love the Philippines and I think for English speakers like us the Philippines has so much to offer in terms of connecting with local people and having like I always I use this phrase way too much but one foot in the west and then one foot in another country and I think I think you have that feeling at times in the Philippines because the language barrier is not there right you can communicate effectively with people um I recently hopped on Mike's Philippine retirement did a stream and I jumped on because he was just testing his equipment out and I was able to immediately have a conversation with Janet his wife and that was just surprising because I'm used to just not being able to connect with these significant others of expats right because they may not have you know tons of English but Jenna of course she has great English as a Filipino so SM Mall you know super modern so it looks like they SM does this because it's similar in SIU where they built the mall and the Reclamation area so I don't know if this is this looks like it may be Reclamation area as well but in Manila instead of SIU so that may be where they position them just because I don't know that may be where the development the growth some of the development growth is happening in the city but it's nice to spread them out you know it's nice to have you know if you're staying in a different part of the city like maybe you're in more of the downtown area you don't quite want to go across the city to uh BGC then you're able to just you know come down here to the Reclamation area and hit up a super nice modern Mall see you later Chris have a good one it was nice to chat uh but how are you doing Tony uh the one foot and Two Worlds principle of living abroad appeals to me as well I'm leaning toward finding a place that's culturally economically 30% Western 70% non-western yeah I think it's uh I think it's a great a great idea Tony I think that you have more comfort in that way right you have some of the things that you like from back home but you are in a little bit slower Pace right like that's one of the things I love about being abroad is that the pace is just a little bit more moderate and you feel like you can think through things not be so reactive at least I I feel that way of course you won't have the pressure of your career uh when you're living outside of Canada um so yeah I think that's that's you're going to enjoy it a lot and I think in your I I hope I wish you the best in your search for the right place for you uh the right place that you want to enjoy and um yeah there's so many wonderful places out there that you can discover and check out and the Philippines is definitely up there for me but uh there's just tons of great choices and yeah I agree that's why I like the Indian countries you can feel like you're outside the West totally agree I wasn't sure about that um because I wasn't was n sure if I should refer to Latin America as the west or not and I was doing some digging online and people were saying no andyan countries in Latin America they're not you shouldn't consider we shouldn't consider them Western countries and yeah it it just the pace is so much more relaxed and people have different priorities they're not stressing out as much like to the same extreme uh to pay bills people still worry about paying bills but it didn't seem so like hyperfocused on that right I mean seems like when we meet folks in the west one of the first questions we ask each other is what do you do for work and I never got those questions much um in Latin America or here in Southeast Asia eventually it comes up but it's not really the priority like it is in the west where people are trying to like figure out you where you are in the hierarchy um but yeah yeah I liked that a lot it's it's I love the colors too like in the Indian countries the colors are just so different The Pastels the the sunsets but also the buildings are very colorful San Francisco is a colorful town for what it's worth but um certainly San Francisco is an exception in the United States we're talking about Manila um but you know I don't know like I I looked at some Airbnb some Manila it may be something where I go for a month I've got to renew my passport something I didn't bring up earlier but my passport expires next summer and I want to renew it this fall and uh I may do it in Vietnam but if I don't get around to it in Vietnam I'll definitely need to do it in the Philippines and you can only do that in Manila or in SIU I have heard you can mail it into the embassy and you can pay the fee online uh and they'll mail it back to you but uh you know getting it done in person would make me feel a bit more secure at least doing some of the process in person because a passport is like your Lifeline right when you're it's one of your lifelines aside from just money uh and when you're traveling abroad is having that exit pass um but yeah Tony says the strong indigenous culture of parts of Peru Bolivia and Ecuador really makes you feel like you are outside the West which appeals to me it it does right like I was surprised um when I met up with this provan girl in Cusco uh she opened a popup restaurant in her mom's restaurant so her mom owned a restaurant and then she would do her like on the days her mom's restaurant was closed she would pop up in there and she served Sushi and um and local drinks and she had a couple of younger sister I think she maybe had one younger sister but uh really a family kind of warm environment and a community feeling I met her friends and I met uh this local band she had a band come and play uh for everybody and um yeah really really really warm Vibe Mexico City feels very us Western yeah you know what Tony that makes a lot of sense I've heard it's become super popular with digital Nomads and Western tourists and a lot of people looking to go somewhere close to home but somewhat different and unfortunately I think that can influence the vibe to such an extent where you're like H I still feel like I'm in the US I felt like that to some extent in Cancun because there's so many Western tourists in Cancun like so many and my friend that lives down there he and his significant other they work in the tourism industry he's lived there for like well he's from the West Coast of Mexico south of Tijuana but he moved to Cancun maybe 30 40 years ago and he um you know he he he has a t-shirt business he also owns some restaurants and you definitely feel like you get the sense in parts of Mexico that the economy does cater a lot to Western tourists I felt like that in Tijuana when I went to get a wisdom tooth out uh the dentist spoke great English and the facility was super modern very clean very very nice but there was an element and there was a Walmart like his his dental office was like a block or two away from like a Walmart uh so he do feel a little bit like you're you're back in in the west and um that can be nice for short periods of time but for longer periods of time it's like I'd rather just be back in my home country where I know every body I know plenty of people and I speak the language and I'm able to connect with people uh that I'm already familiar with um where when I go abroad I want something different right I want something that's taking me out of my element to some degree and giving me a variety of experiences that I couldn't have back home La looks interesting yeah you know La is we can pull why don't we pull up L if I had gotten a multiple entry Visa which I didn't I applied for single entry Visa I would do a run to Laos um it's it's interesting to me there's a sizable leosan population in my hometown of Nashville uh and it's got a more of a country Vibe like you notice it doesn't have a coastline like its neighbors Thailand Vietnam Cambodia um I've heard it's more country like uh it's got more of a how do I explain it like it's just laidback and slow paced I did hear from one guy that I when I first went to changai about six years ago I a mutual friend went up there for about a week and he said it's the people are super super nice but that there's uh there's not much to spend money on so if you're a person that you want to like have some modc cons modern conveniences then you may have a bit less of those than LA but it's still a nice place nonetheless and you know for a break or to kind of do something different like definitely appealing I'd like to get to La I don't think I'll make it on this trip I hope to make it next time um I'd like to see long prang uh I learned about long prang in um in one of my courses in college and I'm interested in that there's another town I don't know if it's lacka um but this is where people do their Visa Run so if they're in Vietnam and they need to do a Visa Run I've heard it's popular for people to take a bus to here uh and then turn around and then go back you know after a few days or something like that um but yeah la is definitely interesting like different right different from uh these other countries in Southeast Asia that I don't know I just feel like La probably doesn't have quite the same level of international influence as some of the places that have the coasts and places with like Vietnam has unfortunate history uh Thailand of course International Hub destination um but yeah L is is certainly interesting there I'll be landing in dang so I haven't booked my flight yet I plan to do that after this stream but uh I'll be landing where's the airport here yeah this is the airport I'll be landing here and then I'll take a cab and I'll probably stay somewhere on this peninsula here probably the more of the northern part um that's where the airbnbs have been looking at are located and uh yeah I think it'll be I think it'll be really interesting it'll be a new country for me it'll be the H first new country of this year and really looking forward to it I have been eating Vietnamese food for like over 10 years and never been to Vietnam so I'm really looking forward to the bunme and the um the F and trying some other stuff right um there's a lot of uh most of the Vietnamese cuisine we have in the west is Southern Vietnamese food right and so trying some of the stuff that's more influenced by the north uh like and Hanoi will be really interesting I don't have plans to go to Hanoi um I plan to focus on dang because I'm more of a midsize City kind of guy uh just kind of what I've discovered over the last year I like Bangkok but it can be a bit overwhelming at times but I do plan if I do end up doing my passport renewal I do plan to go down to uh hoian City so Hanoi you know it may be a thing where on the next trip to Southeast Asia I visit Hanoi and long prang uh just to kind of check out the north more of the North in one trip and and have that experience great question Tony I'm gonna drink some more water here so I plan to go to Vietnam in one month so it's almost midnight so a month from tomorrow uh I'll be flying to Danang from Bangkok and I'll I'll be going there it's like an hour and a half flight yeah it's about an hour and a half flight maybe hour and 45 minutes not a not a long flight at all I'm really looking forward to uh something a little bit different I'm very very comfortable here in Thailand but uh I want to do something to kind of mix it up and change things up I could extend my time here in Thailand but I'm ready to do something different I'm I'm really ready to do something a little bit different and I think Vietnam is going to be the perfect fit for that and so I'll land in dong on July 8th and then yeah I'll be there I'll be there for probably about two months my my thought process right now is stay dang for about two months and then go down to hoim Min City for about a month uh and then I'll fly from hoian City to the Philippines but I don't know I don't know um I don't know how much I'm gonna love Vietnam like I I've heard mixed stuff about it and yeah yeah that's what I've uh I've heard Tony um so I have mixed feelings about Vietnam it's been high on my list for a lot of reasons I have you know have a Vietnamese American friend that I've connected well with uh back in the States but it's um you know it's chaotic you also have only 5% of visitors to Vietnam return so you have this ratio where 19 out of every 20 people that go don't come back and that's a little bit you know I don't know it's it's a little bit worrisome right or worrying right like you wonder you know what were their experiences and so I've done some research uh you know there are there's some petty theft issues in Vietnam there's also some scams I don't know how much I'm going to run into that um I've heard that the overcharging is common like the you know sometimes people won't give you your change back you have to really kind of push to get your change back uh I've heard too like just trying to take like at the airport try to call a grab and uh people will come up trying to cancel your ride or people will try to input a really big tip and that kind of behavior is not the most welcoming right like as a tourist I don't like getting scammed based on principle like I worked hard for my money and I don't want to part ways with it for no reason uh and so that's something that I'm H you know that's part of why I put off Vietnam for a while uh I could have gone to Vietnam a while ago uh but I'm running out of new countries in Southeast Asia and I thought well I'm pretty experienced now in Southeast Asia I've lived in Thailand now for a year why don't I give it a shot if I don't like it my plan is to leave early and go to the Philippines um so that's kind of the plan is like I could stay for up to three months based on the Visa I have for Vietnam but if for some reason I don't like it I feel like the touts or the scams or the petty theft is just too much for me to tolerate then I'll just hop on a flight and head over to the Philippines and I'm not assuming any of these things will happen I've heard of plenty of people say that they love Vietnam they had no issues they weren't dealing with any challenges that it's their favorite country they love to go back they plan to go back uh so I I go in with a little expectations and a cautious mindset but also a lot of intrigue hoochi Min City seems very loud chaotic fast not great for us introverts while ding is quieter still seems on the extrovert side no yeah you know I've heard that about hoian city as well like it's a grinder of a city that you've uh I've heard it described as more chaotic than Bangkok which is um impressive to me because Bangkok is a wild City it's like Miami yeah but yeah I've heard that about hoi Min City it's rapidly developing there's construction everywhere the economy is uh slowed down a little bit recently but it's still you know it's still rapidly developing place with a wild nightlife scene I've heard some people say like it's what Thailand was 10 20 years ago uh so uh I you know a month is pushing it but if I if I do my passport renewal I I worry a little bit about being far away in in dang when I do that and the airbn Beast I looked at are like five minute 10 minute walk away from the US Embassy or consulate actually in um in hoim Min City so if you know when I need to go drop it off I could just walk down there drop it off and if they if anything comes up I can just head back down there and sort out any issues that may arise um I also you know have some concerns that if I'm flying out to Manila I want to make sure I'm close by to pick that back up because what I've heard the challenge that I've heard when it comes to getting it done in uh the Philippines is that when you need to transfer your visa from your old passport to your new passport you actually have to make a trip to Manila um so if I'm in minda now or in dumag Getti I'd have to actually fly to Manila and hang out up there for a while to get the visa or like even a day or two to get the visa transferred from my old passport to my new passport and so I'm going in to Vietnam with a fresh passp or to into the Philippines with a fresh passport um that will save me that trip to Manila uh which yeah Manila can definitely be pricey and it's not out of budget but it does seem like an unnecessary expense if it's something I could tackle in Vietnam Anthony Bourdain sh liked Vietnam it was his favorite place I'm going to have to go you know what Tony thank you so much for mentioning that it's funny you know your name is Tony H then also Anthony Bain Bourdain's short for well Anthony Bourdain's name is short or long the longer version of Tony um but I'll go back and watch his content on Vietnam that's you know I a fan of all of his series of cooks tour was the I think the original and then Parts unnown is the more famous One but I'll I'll go back and watch his Vietnam content because he uh he really inspired a lot of people to travel including myself and I think he's you know he he's just definitely um totally missed by a lot of folks I wish he was still around making content about travel because he has such a unique perspective and down to earth and open-minded and uh what's the word like relatable in some ways and like he really respected the people because of his experience in the restaurant industry he could really relate to the people that were making the food and sometimes on travel shows you get the impression people are uh maybe a little bit out of touch um but I never got that impression from from Anthony Bourdain he talked about how much Vietnam touched his soul and really felt connected to the people very interesting that's something I'm going to load up um for after our stream okay yeah so all of his stuff is up on YouTube I'm gonna have to watch that and you know there's the famous uh F shop and hoim Min City where he and Barack Obama president former president Obama a at and so I'd like to go check it out uh I actually looked up the reviews for it a while ago just to see and I don't know if they let people sit at that table anymore but it would be cool to see right like a piece of history and uh a connection between you know two really really people that really impacted the world um two people that had a massive outsized impact on the world I'm yeah thank you for reminding me Tony because uh I'm getting excited about this about doing something new I love Thailand but I've seen so much and experienced so much in Thailand that I'm adjusting to it in some ways and it's becoming the norm or something that like um yeah I don't know like I I'm looking forward to Vietnam a lot it's going to be very different from here in Thailand Vietnam is much more influenced by China so Vietnam is part of what a lot of people call the sinosphere and so it's going to be very different culturally from here in Thailand and it's uh yeah I I think it's going to be really cool like I said a lot of people have said it's like Thailand was before the tourism boom or when tourism wasn't to the extent that it is now and so I think that that will really add a lot to the experience of um being in a country that's Thailand to me feels more middle of the road I don't call Thailand developing or developed it's if you could call it second world I don't really like the first or third first third world distinction think it's not always super helpful but I've heard Vietnam being compared more to Cambodia and I loved Cambodia I felt like Cambodia had such nice people I connected really well with them had some a lot of Life affirming experiences in Cambodia best partying I've ever had done in Southeast Asia was in Pome pen and I think Vietnam is gonna have more of that Vibe I don't have any local Connections in Vietnam so one of my subscribers Jake he is there right now he's living in ANG right now but aside from him well and one other person earlier in the Stream solo transient uh he's planning on going to Vietnam in about a month so I'll have a couple of subscribers that are actually going to be there um when I'm there and so that'll be really nice but aside from them I don't know anybody else uh so that'll be you know a little bit different um not having uh a long-term resident of Vietnam there but I can meet people right I can put myself out there and meet different people and connect with different people um that was something that helped me a lot in Cambodia as a friend convinced me to go there and took me out and showed me around town and we had a lot of fun and um so that's something that will take a little bit more leg work on my part I think but obviously I try toy up with Jake and also solo transient and that should help as far as having a better sense of delay of the land um I think Chris also loves Vietnam the redheaded vlogger yeah I've watched some of his stuff I like his stuff I'm gonna watch some more of that to prepare I like his Vlogs um he I like the way he like connects with people and talks to people and is he seems very respectful and considerate uh and like he's able to break down the language Bearer to some extent with the locals I think that's super valuable and um definitely deserves respect for that right like conscious traveler trying to honor the people but yeah that's funny we watch I think I have a feeling we watch a lot of the same vloggers Tony um you know some some say don't watch too many bloggers if you're making content it might influence it but no like a lot of these people are so good at what they do like it's it's mindblowing and they're inspiring and they're doing oneof a kind stuff that nobody could replicate and that's why they build such a large following and they're able to show people a different side of the country because sometimes you know something I like about Chris is he shows a lot of boots on the ground experiences and I feel like sometimes travel vloggers they show you vacation mode and there's a lot of value in that right like if you're doing just a discovery trip you're just exploring a little bit you just want to get a little taste of it see what it's about then it's super helpful to see those uh vacation videos but if you're thinking hey I might want to live here for a while or even just a few months then seeing those vloggers that are there for more long term that invest in uh invest the time in the learning some basics of the language um that try to connect with local people I think that's that's incredible and it's it's super helpful for people that uh they want that they want that deeper experience and they want to get a sense of like what's it like to actually live here right yes Chris's friend Max spends a lot of time in Vietnam okay I'll be sure to check out Max as well like this is super helpful thank you for letting me know about these guys Tony or reminding me about these well remind me about Chris and then let me know about Max because um it's kind of funny too like who knows I might run into to some of these guys like I ran into slide when I was in Peru um I'm I'll drop the name of his channel he's uh an American vlogger from Seattle and he's been everywhere I mean he he got he retired from the military and so he's got mil this military pension and he's gone all over Africa all over South America Europe and Asia and it's just uh it's incredible what these people do and like the courage they have to go up and approach people and talk to people and put them elves out there and then share the stories and let's see um dang I in a previous live stream I did Cover a lot of what I want to see in dang I may um yeah I'll plus us down to hyan City I covered it somewhat but I know a lot more about dang okay very cool Aon mall I didn't know they had an on Aon is the nicest well it was five years ago the nicest mall in Pome pen they have built a newer Mall since then but Aon is this Japanese chain and they do really really nice malls really like the layout and the modern construction really high ceilings they probably have this looks like a similar store in the ba in the Aon Mall in Pome pen where they've got a lot of imported goods so if you're like I remember they had sushi like they had this whole like sushi section at Aon and Pome pen so they may they may have that here as well at tan or ton Fu Celadon what else what else in Saigon I do want to see Landmark 81 this is the tallest building in the city and it looks so epic I'm a huge fan of architecture and uh reminds me a bit of the petronis towers in K lur now I'm wondering if they have like shopping or anything like that in the base um in qual lur they do have a really nice shopping mall in the base and there's a lot of uh a lot of conveniences to be had there there was a western style grocer there very very cool place you may not like him he's as he's controversial but there's a really famous Vlog vlogger from uh Nordic country who Vietnam videos goes really small communities non-touristic areas bald and bankrupt probably I am familiar with with bald and bankrupt and I've heard a lot about his controversy I have mixed feelings about him I I know he can get pretty controversial you know I think he's he's good at what he does as far as making engaging content uh sometimes I I don't like when some of these guys underplay the risks that they take on um you know I have some level of concern that they might Inspire some people to try to fall in their footsteps people that are not so prepared or Cavalier as them but uh you know I've also heard and from a buddy of mine back in my hometown he was telling me that he watches this tra this channel small brained American uh and a smallb brain American can sometimes be a bit abrasive as well and if it pops up Tony I'll be sure to let you know like uh who it is is and um yeah just like what I think about it how's it going Chris how are you doing tonight or today I'm not sure if you're where you're located ah I see in [Music] Colorado I lived in Colorado for several years Chris what a small world welcome to the channel it's interesting to to find out uh okay you were in Cusco very very cool Cusco is a town that or a city that Tony uh who's joining us tonight and myself as well both love a lot Cusco is a really cool City I love Cusco I can't say enough positive things about that City it's just a Charming really a Charming town and uh Harold Baler yeah I've watched Harold Baler off and on for a while he's he was recently in the United States uh and then I think he's most recently left let me look up really quick where he's at oh he's in Vietnam yeah okay um so he's actually in Vietnam right now um yeah I'll watch some of more of his Vietnam content that was really shocking to me of all the places for him to go he's actually in Vietnam Chris says last time I tuned into your stream I was in Cusco yeah um yeah Cusco is a cool Town it reminded me a lot of Colorado like with the mountains of course it's not nearly as cold uh but it's still got that mountain town vibe Salah Urban Park really I think I did take a look at this earlier but with a koifish or in a prior stream um what else emart this might be uh well it says supermarket and I'm wondering it whenever I think of eart I think about like Electronics malls but it looks like it's more of a standard super Market um but that's a really fun way to kind of learn about a different country is uh is hitting up the local grocery stores any um any travel plans Chris I know you said you were inco last time uh you have any plans for the second half of this year I know one of my Buddy's Joey like we met through the sound tribe sector and iron community so we used to follow the same band and he's in Italy right now and I've actually been talking to him about Thailand he's wanting to come to puket uh I think at the end of this year um so he works like 28 on 28 off he's in oil and gas and I've been just telling him about Thailand and like I'm I'm happy for him but I'm also a little bit jealous that he's in Italy because I've never been to Italy and um Italy just seems like really really a beautiful country with amazing food friendly people um of course not uh you know closer to home as far as like level of development but an interesting place nonetheless uh whatever you may think of I think he spells it Harold balder but his Vietnam and Cusco VDS go way out in the country goes to the homes of poor Farmers doesn't speak a lick of Vietnamese but gets by yeah he's Cavalier and you know I try not to judge these guys either people love to tear apart anybody that gets notoriety or fame online and oh look what this person did and look what that person did and it's like yeah well like you have to have I think it's important to have an open mind and we have to understand that these vloggers are there for our entertainment and for our enjoyment and it's not much different than like I don't know looking at a Hollywood actor and being like Oh can you believe they did this or that I'm not saying that we shouldn't have standards but it almost takes away from the value of their content and the risks that they're taking by going to these places um you know it's it can be dangerous to travel and like even in ways you wouldn't expect I mean going up to the mountains in roal Vietnam where you don't know anybody and you don't speak the language what if you forget water you know what if you get lost like innocuous stuff can be Danger dangerous so they deserve some level of credit I know they're getting paid well uh for the risk that they take on and the challenges that they overcome I'm sure there's a lot of different things that happen off camera that um are difficult in terms of logistics and visas and all of that so you know I I try to avoid getting too much in the controversy because I don't like to start conflict with other bloggers but I lean toward not being judgmental because to me like I'm not you know in the legal system I don't make the judgment on Vis Visa issuance if the country allows this individual to come in then that's on them right like they've you know clearly they can do some background on these popular vloggers and deter make a determination is this somebody that you know we want to come here and spend money and enjoy themselves or not like I'm not in the position to make that determination so I don't like the the mob you know when it comes to going after uh big vloggers I don't know that my channel will ever be that you know successful um but if I get there I hope that people have some level of mercy and Grace because uh I don't have a perfect pass I don't think any of us do I think we all have some things in our background that we're not proud of um I don't have anything extreme in my background but people are also very good at making small things into large things and uh people have you know people figure out troll types figure out a way to present things in a way that makes things worse than what they are um like you could jwalk and people would make that out to be oh you're causing traffic disturbances right so uh yeah I don't I don't like that and it seems to only amplify these vloggers right when people go after them it only seems to give more attention and build up their subscriber base more unless it's an extreme example like World Zoom that that's the only vlogger I could think of where people really turned on him but his background was extreme right I mean he um really did some really bad stuff that universally people don't like agree with or people agree that it was really bad um and so the more gray area stuff like you know I I overlook ITC I try to overlook it because it's um it's important also to give people a second chance I mean people do dumb stuff when they're young it's part of being young it's part of how young people learn is uh making mistakes and trying to uh move on from those and yeah we can't I mean you know it's one thing to expect like some like a judge or something to have like a spotless background but an Entertainer like I mean what do you expect even Anthony Bourdain right Tony like has a bit of a checkered past or had a bit of a checkered past I'm a huge fan of his but yeah I mean if you read his books or you listen to him talk about his younger days I mean he was uh he had some real issues and you know in spite of those issues anony Bourdain opened up a lot of people's minds right like people are seeing this guy who came from New York City one of the most developed cities in the world if not the most developed city in the world one of the most prosperous places in the world on the planet a place that millions of people dream about living and then goes to to some like godforsaken places right some some terrible places um and humanizes the people that live there and gives a window into their lives in a way that's non-judgmental and in a way that makes us it shows us the humanity in these people in these places and it it demystifies them it de stigmatizes them and I think it's great if it encourages tourism I think that that's one of the things that people can do that would benefit a lot of the developing world is actually going there and visiting there maybe even living there depending on the circumstances uh you know putting money into the local economy hiring locals for services eating at local restaurants staying with locals and accommodations these are all positive I know some people say oh over tourism is bad and it's like there's plenty of tourism in the Western World those people like people in the West World make tons of money from hotels and fancy restaurants and airplanes and all that stuff and spreading it around not the worst thing in the world U that's what I'm saying whenever when may think of balder his vids give us a glimpse into the lives and homes of poor people outside of expat and tourist areas and those are the people that need it the most right like it's easy to put money in the pocket of somebody that's got a fancy hotel in uh you know Singapore or something like that but it's arguably more impactful to go to places that are not as well known because the places that are not as well known may be the tourist hotpots of tomorrow I talked to my buddy down in Mexico about it he's like yeah when I got to this island he lives in Isla mueres we can pull that up actually Isla muz when he went to Isam muares he was like yeah it was you know not that developed not that many people here and now it's grown a lot and there's a lot of people that love to go there it's busier and busier every time I go there and the people benefit from that and so these places that are not well known thank you Tony I'm gonna get to that by the way I appreciate you saying that um but yeah thank you so much uh thank you so much for bringing this point up Tony the places that like are undiscovered today are pop potentially popular places of tomorrow um for for me I wanted to go to Cancun but I stayed with my buddy that lives on this island and um you know it's not the same builtup vibe that you have five or six years ago or seven years ago when I went there for the first time it was much uh it was even much less developed and so you could see the beauty of Cancun across the water but you're not in the hotel zone right where you're paying $500 a night to stay in an all-inclusive and you're in Mexico but you're really you still like you're not really in Mexico um you're in a very curated experience you've got the all you can drink the all you can eat the luxury pools and you don't really spend as much time with the local people you know you're not you're separate like in the hotel Zone you're quite literally separated from the local neighborhoods and so you don't really get that full-on experience that I think a lot of us uh more serious Travelers are looking for there's another Indo New York guy vlogger I just discovered who goes to poor and isolated communities some don't like it but you get to see what poor people in isolated Central America home lives look yeah I think that's so important because like you know the imig there's immigration crisis in the United States I've heard there's one in Canada as well and there's this interest on the part of some people they want to grift out they want to like grift up resentment and negative sentiment and anger and frustration and a lot of people are totally detached from the way that other people live um due to the extreme inequality in the United States people are very detached from the harsh realities of the lives of much of the developing World um and more so than the developing world the super Frontier so I think of you know there's develop developing and then Frontier and the frontier world is where the real challeng Es are the places where they may not have safe clean running water they may not have um you know uh they might not have access to a lot of the modern amen modern amenities that we're familiar with they might not have access to good jobs they might not have access to good education and understanding like no matter what your problems are in the developed world you can't imagine what some other people are struggling with and it's not to minimize problem we have in the developed world as there are many um but it's important to try to put things in perspective and I think it helps me especially to calm down and and not overthink my problems when I see wow these people are surviving on like nothing right these people are surviving on nothing so maybe I can sort out my problems um but yeah for the record I don't like mob ATT Tony says for the record I don't like mob attacks on these guys for their personal lives I don't care care about that these videos are real educational and realistic yeah and I feel the same way it's like if I go to watch a movie I'm not sitting there thinking like oh what like what did this guy like eat for breakfast oh like I don't like that like oh where does he live I can't believe he's so rich like who cares like they're doing a lot of work like I know that sometimes it may not be construed that way because we see such a nice end product with some of these vloggers they have such a well edited um well planned out thoughtful presentation their articulate on camera uh but people don't know how difficult vlogging is like some of my Vlogs I put a lot of work into and they didn't get any views and it takes a lot of effort to get to the point where you're you know you've got this big audience and people are willing to watch and engage on a consistent basis and you're you're Defying Gravity to have a success successful Travel Channel because there's so many good travel channels out there in 2024 uh and the fact that they still stay relevant that they're still able to put out compelling stuff in 2024 after all these years of them traveling and going to different places speaks a lot to their work ethic and to um yeah to just their ability to tell stories and you know these stories will be around forever like you can go back and watch years and years of their travels and get uh get a glimpse into another world I think it's also super educational like I've mentioned it before but there's only so many vacation videos I'm going to get benefits from whereas with these guys uh some of these guys you're it's more it's not vacation mode right if you're going into a remote part of Central America or Vietnam uh it's much more educational than is just pure entertainment or pure like oh that looks like a cool Resort or oh that looks like good food like it's it's it's somewhat it feels almost more real in a way but yeah great Point Tony I think I think the vloggers get way too much like critique and criticism I think some of it's jealousy right I think some people they're in their office job I've been there they s they're chained to a desk they're frustrated they don't get the respect they deserve they're not paid as well as they should be they've got some family issues um they may have some health issues may may have some um health issues upstairs health issues and they you know they see these Vlogs in of these they see these vloggers in these beautiful gorgeous countries that are they see like the I don't know the in social media is somewhat to blame for this they see the highlights they don't see like get the guy that gets locked out of his hotel the vlogger gets locked out of his hotel and he's trying to speak to somebody another language hey I'm locked out hey I'm you know so um they only see the nice bits and they can project or imagine uh the financial upside but they don't realize these guys are not taking the safe route you know you're an independent contractor on YouTube I Love YouTube but they have to do a lot of work to make sure their videos pass Muster that they bleep out uh in appropriate language that they uh edit out some negative experiences they also don't want to show the country in such a light that they're not welcome back right because uh you know some bloggers will just poo poo on a certain country or people or culture and you're you know you do that to at a certain extent you may not be able to go back and so uh there's a lot of work that goes into these vloggers behind the scenes like my favorite is probably best ever Food review show and I'm like oh man this guy has seen a lot I mean you just see it in his eyes uh the amount of countries he's been to the places he's been the amount of work that he's done coming from nothing in Minnesota to being the most popular vlogger ever uh travel vlogger food vlogger ever being on Joe Rogan's podcast mindblowing Paul Dilla is his name I think he's born in New York he's from an Indian background okay yeah i' have to um have to give him a shot see Paul oh wow okay so I'm gonna subscribe thank you for catching this Tony he's yeah he's definitely Indian I recognize that this is really interesting or he I should say South Asian he might be uh Bangladeshi but yeah I mean he's going to a lot of uh off the beaten path places a lot of places that most people would not go to I need to um yeah I need to watch some of this thank you for all these tips Tony you're catching these vloggers like I wouldn't be able to find on my own and um that's the beauty of social media is these rapid connections that you can make to people that you really get along with people that can teach you a lot share a lot with you um yeah that's really cool I'm I'm looking forward to it but I am probably going to start winding down here in the next I would say 10 minutes Tony as my voice is starting to go a little bit it's been such a great uh live stream with you and uh with Christopher as well who joined earlier it's uh it's so much fun to be able to do these with everybody I think I'm gonna order some dinner and uh eat and then oh I need to book my flight and that's that's the goals for uh for tonight but uh any weekend plans Tony we're here on Friday I'm curious if you have any plans this weekend or uh what you'll be what you have going on Tony says how many Americans going to Roman Norte and laesa do we need to see let's see real workingclass neighborhoods and living in smaller rural Villages yeah I agree with that Tony I mean you know easy mode is like fine but you know I'm almost more interested to see videos of like LA or New York City uh or Chicago or Toronto than I am uh laesa or Roman Norte uh because it's I don't know like I can relate more to the people living in LA or New York or Chicago than I can uh you know somebody that that's you know is treating Mexico City like a playground right like there's not as many people um Americans that are actually working and have to have a normal day-to-day life whereas if you go to these Villages these lesser own places you are seeing more you're it's like in the United States or like in Canada going to like a smaller town or a smaller City you're going to meet very different people than you would meet in a Vancouver or a Toronto maybe a Montreal nothing wrong with those big cities but you're going to get a different sense of what life is like there uh you may get more exposure to local culture right because in the fancy neighborhoods they're almost always International they're almost always catering to an international crowd because the majority of people in these countries cannot afford to be in those neighborhoods just the cost to get there right most people did not have the finances to go fly there to book a $100 a night hotel in the city center to eat at the Fancy Sushi restaurant um and so you see it's almost like when you go to the or you see the more small towns or rural areas you see people you might be able to relate to better um I didn't grow up in a big city I grew up in Nashville uh and I had times relate more to those workingclass people um more of those small town people that may have big city dreams uh but that are making the best of the opportunities they have at hand that uh we you know opportunities that may not exist there that we are fortunate to have in the western democracies historically speaking right I mean uh it's very common in the big cities and the United States um probably Canada as well to meet people from other places that have come there just to to work hard and to try to get ahead but you know in some countries it's harder to do that right like it's you know it's harder to get the requisite education it's harder to make the connections um it's just a much steeper climb and there are people that accept that they're not going to be able to make that climb and are gon to give it their all anyway and deserve respect and appreciation for doing things uh without the aid of as much of certain conveniences I mean seeing people that do their laundry by hand seeing people that have to prepare their own meat or grow their own vegetables things that we don't have to do in the big cities and the Western democracies I the first time I ever washed Clos by hands was here in Thailand um where I was living in Krab I was not very close to a lrat and so uh my roommate in Krabby he's actually washing his clothes by hand I'm like wow I didn't I'm so privileged just like in some ways that I didn't know this was the thing that people are still doing and um it gives you greater sense of gratitude right like like the fire movement doesn't seem to exist as much outside of the western democracies and I think that's for good reason I think we have to have some humility when we are traveling to appreciate the amount of work that goes into making these places that we like to go to uh work so well um I I learned some about that you know just in Cusco talking to tour guides and talking to people about like the work that goes into uh the cuisine right and like seeing construction sites and seeing I me you see construction sites here in Thailand people are using Machinery but there's some things people are doing by hand and people and like in the Philippines my buddy was explaining to me I I buy construction materials with each paycheck and so I'm building my house slowly but but surely but it's not an overnight process where I go stay in a nice rented house and these guys come to my H the construction site and do everything and I supervise a little bit and go back to my office job he's like no I'm doing this by hand I'm literally putting this house together Brick by Brick and uh it it's definitely humbling it's definitely humbling um but yeah thank you so much for everybody to everyone for joining uh the stream I really appreciate you Tony Chris Christopher um also solo transient for chiming in uh anybody watching this uh in the rerun thank you as well for supporting the channel feel free to join in I know I don't announce these I'm not the best at that um I'm still confused a little bit by the interface but uh yeah comment down below any you know plans to travel in the next year or so uh anything you're looking forward to is there anything like have you been to dang or Vietnam is there anything I should should check out you recommend um but yeah I hope everybody has a wonderful weekend and a safe weekend a relaxing weekend and um yeah safe travels and I look forward to seeing everybody again soon all right byebye