Friday Night Live from Bangkok, Thailand

Introduction and Current Plans

0:21 Hey everybody, I thought I'd just load up a live stream for Friday night here in Bangkok. I haven't really been doing much this week; I don't know, I just felt kind of tired and not the most energetic this week. But I've also been doing a lot of planning and trying to prepare for my next steps, doing research on accommodation.

0:50 I'm starting to lean more toward the 90 days in Vietnam. It just seems like there's a lot more to see there than maybe I initially anticipated. I'm starting to dig in more into some of what's on offer there, and yeah, it seems to be like there's a lot more going on there than I would have thought.

1:17 I know it takes more effort to get the visa there, which can be a detractor for some people looking for just an easy visa option. But, you know, that being said, it seems like it's developing really fast and it's going to have a really dynamic and exciting feeling.

1:40 I'm going to try to do more of these live streams too, just because I think a lot of people really enjoy them. I'm able to get through a lot more stuff on these live streams as well because they can serve as kind of a Q&A for the audience. There are certain interests that they have or certain topics that they want to cover, and we can discuss those more easily in this format.

Thoughts on Returning to the US and California

2:11 But yeah, feel free to chime in. I know it's Friday night here in Southeast Asia, Friday morning in the United States, Canada.

2:41 Are you still planning the move to California? You know, if I get the right job offer, I would go back just to stack that money. But currently, no offers. I've had a couple of interviews for companies based in California, but they haven't moved forward on those.

3:07 So, yeah, I'm sticking it out over here until something materializes back there. I'm not really in a rush to go back. The ideal would be going back to make more money and load up on some cryptocurrency and also some dividend stocks, growth stocks, that kind of thing.

3:31 But if I don't get that opportunity, the only reason for me to be in America is to make money. Other than making money and catching up with friends, I don't like living in America at all. I don't like the culture, I don't like the stress, I don't like the nasty attitudes.

3:55 Some of those issues are really pronounced in California. California is such a fast-paced place, and people are stressed out about bills and making money. They put their financial goals or their status goals above all else.

4:15 I think California was probably paradise like maybe 60, 70 years ago, maybe even 40 or 50 years ago. But now it's just awful. It's good for the money because you can live semi-cheaply, and I saved about 70% of my income in California, but it's a terrible quality of life.

4:43 You know, you're living around sketchballs. Everybody in California is either very poor or very wealthy, not much in between. You see that when you go out.

4:57 I remember coming out of a Michelin restaurant in San Francisco, and there were like homeless people partying in the base of the stairwell. This is in Japantown, San Francisco. I'll go ahead and pull that up because that's a decent starting point.

5:27 Yeah, so I was at this restaurant in San Francisco, a really, really nice place, fantastic. I think the meal was around $300. I used a bunch of credit card points I saved up and paid around $80.

5:46 But, you know, as soon as I come out of here, this was for my birthday two years ago. And yeah, so like I come out of here, and right around here, there's like several homeless people just hanging out and partying.

6:15 Yeah, it was just a stark contrast. I mean, you see that all over San Francisco, and it's not a good feeling.

Exploring Other US States: Vermont and Maine

6:30 Have you ever thought about visiting Vermont or Maine? I've heard some of the problems that plague the rest of the states are prevalent there. That I never visited that region? No, I never have.

6:41 I think part of the challenge with Vermont and Maine is a few things. One, the small population means that there's a really high tax burden. So if you live in Vermont or Maine, you're going to pay a large tax burden because the population being small, they've got to maintain a lot of stuff based on the output of that small group of people.

7:08 They're also some of the oldest states in the country; you've got tons of retired people up there. And they also tend to not be a lot of job opportunity up there. A lot of the de-industrialization hit those cities hard and really benefited cities like Boston and New York City.

7:27 The economy in America has swapped over, really since NAFTA passed, from a manufacturing economy to a financial economy. So there's all these financial service businesses that have popped out. Part of that was through deregulation of the credit industry by Jimmy Carter.

7:47 So, you know, those places have been hit. I mean, you look at Main Street, Maine or Main Street, Vermont, it's quite nice. But you go off Main Street, and they tend to be not too different from the rural South: a lot of substance issues, a lot of poverty.

8:01 There's just not a lot of opportunity up there, unfortunately. I know that they are relatively safer from what I've heard, but expensive with limited job opportunities. And those two alone would do it for me.

8:16 Because, you know, if I'm in the states, I want to go wherever I can maximize my income. Part of me is even thought, you know, like if and when I go back, moving to a place like North Dakota, working in oil and gas, and just doing something that's really well compensated.

8:34 Because, you know, at this point, I don't really care how I spend my time in the states, as long as I'm maximizing my income to save and invest and then take that currency somewhere else where it goes a lot farther and I enjoy living.

8:49 You know, I thought that living in California would make me happy. I'd always dreamed of living in California, and then when I lived out there, I realized California has its own set of problems.

8:59 The social life there is not so great because people work so long, so many hours. Then people just don't have the free time to socialize as much. And it also attracts a lot of superficial people, a lot of shallow people.

9:15 The nature is beautiful in California, and there's a lot of great work opportunities. But it's, yeah, I mean, it sucks. Not California sucks, but just it sucks that it's not what it used to be.

Van Life Considerations

9:33 But, um, yeah, van life, you know, that's a possibility. I'm not opposed to doing that. It's certainly a possibility.

9:44 But at the same time, it's like, you know, there's, I guess the challenge of van life for me is, if I'm working on a computer, you know, how do I power the laptop?

9:54 The internet consistency would be fixable through like Starlink, right? So if I got like Starlink or something, maybe, you know, I could get solar panels. But it seems like it would get quite complex to do it that way rather than living in a junky apartment.

10:20 And, you know, San Francisco is good in that way as far as opportunities. There's still jobs out there, not as much in tech right now. But so many people have left the state that there's still demand for certain industries.

10:36 But yeah, definitely not opposed to living in a van. I'd have to do a lot of research to figure out how I could best make work. But I think it's taking off, and more and more people are doing that. I think parking could be an issue, just because there's a homelessness epidemic in California.

Remote Work Abroad Challenges

10:56 Can you target remote US-based jobs and stay living in Thailand? Yeah, so that would be the ideal. There's a few challenges there, and it's not to say it's not doable. But one, everybody wants to do that, right? So a lot of people at this point have figured out, hey, living in America sucks, great place to make money, terrible place to live.

11:18 So a lot of people want to live abroad. I even brought it up at my last employer, hey, could I just like leave? And they were like, oh no, no, you can't do that because in my specific case with my team, my manager just didn't want that.

11:31 Some other divisions, they were like, look, you can do, you know, you can live three months abroad and stay here nine months because of tax reasons.

11:42 Yeah, so it's exactly. Dream thread says, in my experience, most remote jobs are domestic. It's harder to find international remote, and that's because of tax liability. So a lot of these companies, especially publicly traded companies, they don't want you to live outside the US because then it opens them up to tax obligations.

12:03 And they don't want to be dealing with trying to figure out how to handle these tax obligations. And so they would rather just stay in the US. It's disappointing, right? But yeah, international remote, typically from my observation, comes with a major reduction in compensation.

12:26 So if you were comfortable working like at a local rate, which would be much, much less, then it's doable. But for me, it's like you're kind of spinning the wheels. Yeah, you get to live abroad, but you're spending all your time at work and you're not getting compensated for the same skill set you'd be much more heavily compensated for back in the states.

12:45 So that's a kind of trade-off there. Not to say it's not doable, but it's one of those things that everybody wants to do, and companies have...

Global Economic Trends and Europe

12:53 Everybody wants to do and companies have I think more and more companies are realizing people don't like living in the United States. I mean, that's why they have to convince these people from really rough countries to come up there, places like Venezuela, because it's harder and harder to convince people to move to the United States from Europe or East Asia or other Western democracies. There's some, but there's not as many as you'd think, and I think that's why there's this border crisis is that you really have to make the offer to people who are really hard up.

13:35 What are your thoughts on life in Europe? Do you think it has similar issues as living in the US? I think the challenge with Europe is that it's kind of similar to other countries outside the states, for tech, right? Because I worked in tech back in the states, but you don't make as much money. Your cost of living, while it is less, it's not that much less. So let's say I can make $100k a year in California and spend $30k a year. Well, in London, I might make $50k a year and still spend like $30k a year. So the delta between your income versus your expenses is optimum in the US.

Western World Challenges and Financial Independence

14:18 I think the quality of life overall is better in Europe. Like you don't have to have a car in much of Europe. You've got public health services, you've got resources, you've got, in some cases, better weather. Like Southern Europe has wonderful weather. But I notice a lot of European digital nomad types as well, and I think it's just an issue throughout the Western world, including Australia, including the UK, including the United States, and especially including Canada. I mean, I've heard Canada has just gone in the toilet and a lot of Canadian people want to leave, and it's not what it used to be.

15:00 Yeah, I think the Western world in general is going through a rough time, and we'll see more and more in the future, people that can afford to leave, they will. They will pick up and leave. Not everybody, but it's going to be more and more popular because I think people are starting to realize you kind of have to just save yourself. Like I moved to California seven years ago because the compensation is so much higher for tech jobs. Well, at the time, now it's going through a little bit of a rough spot. California is kind of a boom and a bust economy.

15:38 But yeah, if you were financially independent, I think Europe would be great, right? If you could live in a country like Italy or Spain. Like I really, really like Spain. Have you ever visited China? No, I've had layovers in Xiamen and Shenzhen. I've done business with people in China. I used to sell a lot online and I'd procure my products from Chinese manufacturers.

Experiences with China and Visa Considerations

16:02 But the visa for China back then, it was like you had to buy a 10-year visa for $300. And I was like, do I really want to spend $300 to go to China for a week? It just doesn't seem like that creates a value proposition. And back then, I didn't know as much about China as I do now. Back then, I had a lot more fearmongering in my life, like, 'Ooh, don't go there, ooh, it's spooky,' you know, that kind of attitude you have in the US that people are programmed to believe all this crap from the media.

16:40 I'd be happy to go in the future. I definitely foresee myself going to China at some point in my life. It's not an immediate priority, but yeah, part of me has thought about trying to get into English teaching. But I've heard English teaching in China has gone down, like it's just not as viable these days. I've heard of people doing well over there, though, and like, working hard and then saving up money and doing trips to Southeast Asia.

17:07 Like, 'Hey, I work in China, teach English for 11 months a year, and then one month a year I go down to Thailand or the Philippines or Vietnam or Cambodia.' I think there's less of that right now, but you know, it may come back. It may be something that's temporary, and it may be possible that China offers great opportunity. I know Sabatical lived in Shanghai for a few years, but that was a while back.

17:34 I think that it's different right now. I need to do more research. You know, it can always change. Things can always change and opportunities can improve. Yeah, I'm not opposed to going to China.

Long-Term Southeast Asia Goals vs. US Earnings

17:49 Dream threat, are you thinking about moving back to the US? So I'm not, unless I get a job back in the states. Like I've got a decent runway as far as money. I could live here in Southeast Asia without even sweating for probably several more years. But the more time I spend here spending my money down, the more time I'll have to go and work and build my money back up.

18:14 So it's like I want the shortest path toward living in Southeast Asia long term as possible. So now, of course, the time that I have now, on one end, it's higher quality time that I'll have in five or six years, or 10 years, or 20 years, because I'm at peak condition, being 31. But on the other hand, going back and investing now gives me more time for that money to compound and grow. And so that's the trade-off I'm looking at.

18:51 The only reason I'd go back before, you know, a few years' time span is just to make money. If I got some kind of opportunity, like if I interviewed and got an offer for $100k or so, which is what I was offered last week. I didn't get that opportunity. I went on the second round, I don't think I passed the second round, but that was for around $100k a year in California.

19:15 And working that job for a year would have really helped to push me further along toward financial independence. That was with a real estate technology company in the sales department. But yeah, the main reason to go back to America is a good job opportunity. Other than a good job opportunity, I don't really want to go back because I just don't feel that I have much there. I do have some good friends there, but besides my good friends, I don't have any family there.

US Decline and Future Career Paths

19:45 And it's just such a stressful and kind of rundown place now. I mean, you've probably seen videos of the big cities in America, they're dangerous, they're crime-ridden, the people are just really frustrated because they were sold a bill of goods. And yeah, it's just the country in decline. I mean, is it going to collapse? I don't think it's going to collapse in my lifetime. I think it's just going to go backwards to where it's not really remarkable.

20:13 You see that, you know, social mobility is a lot lower. So I just think the American dream doesn't exist anymore. And the only reason to go there is if you're in a desperate situation and need to make money, or if you're already there and you have an established career. You know, one thing I would consider going back for is if I got like a full ride to law school or something, and became a lawyer and helped expats. Like I actually talked to Dr. Lee about that because I got my undergrad in pre-law.

Law School and International Legal Work

20:52 And I asked him about it. I was like, he's an American lawyer, he lives in D.C., but he's got a firm back in Nashville, my hometown. I was like, 'Hey, you know, what do you think about the idea of somebody going to law school and then doing remote legal work?' Right? You're not going to make what you'd make back in the states, but that's one of those things where you have the credential, the license, you have some protections.

21:15 Now, I think AI will has the potential to impact the legal industry. Now, lawyers are a sneaky bunch, and they, I doubt that they will give up that guild-based system very easily. I think that they like the control that they have on society as a group, and they're not going to just give it up to AI very easily. I mean, they build tons of money. You look at big law firms, they're billing $1,100 an hour, and that amount of money is a lot of money to give up to technology or to software.

21:59 I think lawyers will be amplified by software. I think some of the sharp lawyers will figure out a way to use AI to streamline their process or to make it more efficient. But yeah, that's a thought because I think the reason I mentioned the legal field is one, I did my undergrad in pre-law, but two, I think you're going to see more and more guys wanting to marry women overseas, and there's going to be legal work associated with that, right?

22:24 Many will want to bring their significant other to the states. Others will, some may unfortunately, may not work out, they may need to get a divorce. But I think you're going to just see more and more need for lawyers with an international focus to help all these guys who want to marry a woman overseas because it's becoming more and more commonplace.

Dating Overseas and Cultural Acceptance

22:44 Well, like two-thirds of the young men in the US are single, and I don't think a lot of these guys are going to want to be single for the rest of their lives. That just seems like a lonely proposition. And you know, most guys, that's the reason they work, is they want to be able to support a family, they want to be able to provide for a significant other, they want to build a life. They don't want to just make money just for the sake of making money.

23:18 And so I think that's where the need for attorneys that understand, right, lawyers that they understand what these guys are going through, they understand why these guys are going overseas. They have a vested interest in making it happen because I've had great experiences dating overseas, and I know a lot of other men have had positive experiences dating overseas as well. And it's just going to become more and more commonplace. I mean, my grandfather, you know, he married a...

23:48 My grandfather married a woman from Japan 70 years ago. What was looked at then was, I don't know how to describe it, but it was kind of outside the boundaries of the norm. If you're a young American man and you want to marry a woman from another country, people aren't going to be shocked. You may get some judgment from some bitter, resentful, angry people, but a large chunk of people are going to be like, 'Sounds good to me.'

China Visa and Future Travel Plans

24:25 There's just more and more acceptance of people living different kinds of lifestyles. A lot of those people need support. A visa to China is $140 now, which is very reasonable. It's definitely worth considering.

24:43 It's not an immediate priority. I think the next step for me is going to be Vietnam, and after that, I'm looking at the Philippines. Certainly, China is a beautiful country. I have friends from China and I've definitely met some interesting people from China online, but I got to prioritize one country at a time.

25:05 That's a downside of being a traveler: you can only be in one place at one time, and you'd like to be everywhere at once. But you have to pick and choose according to top priorities.

Vietnam Travel Plans and Thailand Expenses

25:20 Vietnam is a place I've never been before, so that'll be a new country I can add to the list. Also, some places I've been interested in for a while, like my grandfather served in Vietnam. I've had a number of friends who have been to Vietnam and loved it. They told me, 'Hey man, you gotta go.'

25:39 My buddy who introduced me to Thailand loves Vietnam. He's told me he doesn't feel pressure to go back to Thailand; he lived there for a year and got a lot out of his experience. But he was like, 'No man, you got to go to Vietnam. If you like Thailand, you're going to enjoy Vietnam.'

25:55 How much are your monthly expenses in US dollars in Thailand? Has there been inflation there since COVID? I would say I spend around $1,200 per month here in Thailand, including visas and one-off costs for my channel.

26:14 I undershot it, so I came over here with the expectation to spend $1,500 per month. I haven't felt like I needed to spend $1,500 per month. Some months are less, some months are more. Months in Bangkok tend to be more expensive, while months in smaller cities tend to be less expensive.

26:35 My rent tends to be more here in Bangkok, and my food tends to be more expensive. My transportation also tends to be more expensive here in Bangkok. Does that mean everybody could live here on $1,200? I don't think so.

26:49 I'm a fairly minimalistic guy. I don't do a lot of shopping, I don't eat at a lot of fancy restaurants, and I don't need to take cabs because I know the city really well and I'm comfortable with the public transportation. I also have some Thai friends here in Bangkok that help me moderate expenses because they can speak Thai.

27:06 If we go out, they can help negotiate transportation, like if we're getting a Tuk Tuk, or they know some good restaurants to suggest that are reasonably priced. It helps to have Thai friends, for sure.

Budgeting and Living Expenses in Thailand

27:18 Could I live on less? Yeah, I think I could live on less if I had to be bare minimum about it. If I wanted to go below the $1,200 mark, I know some places on the outskirts of Bangkok. I could rent a studio apartment for a hundred bucks a month equivalent, and I could spend maybe three or $400 on food and maybe one or $200 on transportation.

27:51 So I could get it down a lot lower, but that would be making some sacrifices in terms of location. It would also be a much more Spartan lifestyle. I'd also have to be more diligent about it, very specific about the way I operate.

28:13 I'm comfortable at that point. There were months in Chiang Mai where I spent $800, but I just don't like having to limit myself to that point. I can do it, but at the same time, I don't have to.

US Economic Outlook and Interest Rates

28:27 You know, if I go on and I don't find another job in the States for like two years, maybe I'll drop my expenses down a bit more. But I don't anticipate it taking that long. I think what's going to happen is by early next year, I suspect they will start to drop interest rates because there's already so much damage to the US economy.

28:54 You're seeing a rapid increase in homelessness, you're seeing consumer credit debt through the roof, you're seeing people defaulting on their credit card debt. That damage is cumulative. If somebody loses their house and then they lose their job, you can't just go back to the way it was a year prior.

29:19 That's going to continue to be an issue until they start to drop the interest rates and businesses feel comfortable investing. The technology sector is not worried about profitability as much; they can spend a little bit more on recruiting people.

29:32 I know of a number of companies that have gotten rid of California staff and hired in cheaper countries or hired in cheaper parts of the US. It's unfortunate, but I don't expect it getting to that point.

29:50 And yeah, I just don't expect to get to that point. One thing that might help me as well is I have a small amount of student loan debt, around $4,000, and I think Biden's talking about forgiving it. So that's why I haven't paid it off.

30:04 I know some people will be triggered by that, but if he's going to pay it off, I'm not going to pay it off. I'm going to let somebody else pay it off. I spend more than that on food alone here in the US.

Cost of Living Comparison: US vs. Thailand

30:16 Yeah, I know that feeling. I mean, I've spent a grand a month on food in California just to eat healthy, eat salads, eat high-quality meat. So I totally get it. My rent in California was more than what I can spend here.

30:37 Part of that too is just not having to drive around. In the US, you have to have a car. I think the majority of Americans have cars, and they expect they're going to pay for oil changes, tire rotations, gasoline, of course. They've got a lot of maintenance and upkeep costs.

30:54 It's not just the cost of purchase, but also the cost of ownership. What does it cost to own and maintain this thing?

31:09 Yeah, $2,000 a month. I mean, I could live on $2,000 here. I know I mentioned living on $1,200, but $2,000 is totally doable if I was looking at a $2,000 per month budget. If I was more optimistic about the state of the economy, like if I assumed I was going to go back and get that $100k job next month.

31:25 Or let's say two or three months from now, $2,000 a month. What I would do in Bangkok, instead of renting this modest studio in a great location, I'd rent probably a nicer, newer studio, maybe closer to public transportation. Here, I'm like a 10-minute walk from the BTS system.

31:55 I would probably eat at nicer restaurants, a little bit nicer restaurants. I'd probably take more cabs, but I just don't feel like I have to. Part of that is because I'm in a research phase where I'm trying to research my next destination.

32:11 So I could be going out every day right now in Bangkok and having fun and doing stuff, even on that lower budget, because I can have fun with very small amounts of money. But I don't like, I feel like my time right now is better off spent researching my next destination and then occasionally doing some applying for new roles.

32:35 But yeah, it's just the insane cost of living in the US. It's a great place to make money, a terrible place to moderate your expenses.

Remote Tech Jobs and AI Impact

32:45 Lex Vex, any advice for those looking for remote work in the tech field? Is the next best stable job in tech only AI-related?

32:51 Ironically, I think the AI field, of course, is getting a lot of investment. You're seeing a lot of capital flow into the artificial intelligence field. Of course, Nvidia stock, I made some money off of that, that has performed really well. Some other companies that are using AI or AI-focused: Amazon, Google, Facebook, all have substantial investments in AI.

33:16 I'm sure Netflix does as well, although it's not as readily apparent with Netflix. But there are companies that are not as impacted by the recession that still need tech folks. I would say banks have been doing really well, setting aside the banks that have had issues. The big banks are doing well.

33:40 There's other types of companies that need tech talent that before they couldn't compete with the tech companies for the top talent because those tech companies were throwing massive compensation packages at people. But some of those employers are still doing well and still looking to hire talented people.

34:01 You want a baseline skill set, right? Like you want some kind of skill set that is transferable from company to company. So you want to build with each role on your previous skill set and get better and better.

34:17 I'm not as worried about AI taking all the jobs. This is kind of a dark line of thinking, but if AI replaces a ton of people's jobs, you're going to have a lot of social unrest. Wealthy people tend to like a stable society because it's much easier to make money in a stable society.

34:36 So if you have tons and tons of unemployed people that are going hungry, that's going to make it really hard for people to predictably make money. So they're going to have to do something to integrate AI technology in such a way that also creates new opportunities for people.

34:53 That also creates new opportunities for people. If you look at the advent of electricity, it eliminated a bunch of jobs. There used to be a job where people would knock on windows to wake people up, and guys would drive people around in carriages. Those jobs have been replaced, and new jobs have replaced them, like taxi drivers or alarm clocks.

35:28 But yeah, I think there's just going to be a necessity to create opportunities for people such that they can feed themselves. You don't want a ton of hungry people with too much time on their hands.

Job Market Trends and Economic Recovery

35:51 AI is a good start, not a bad start at all. I've applied to some AI sales jobs selling AI software. Of course, right now with the industry recession, those are going to be in demand. A lot of talented people have been laid off, and the people with the strongest resumes are the most likely to get picked up.

36:13 My rent in San Francisco is $2,000 for a studio. That's not bad. Of course, I guess it depends on the size of the studio and if it's convenient to your office. But yeah, that's not bad at all. I've definitely seen some crazy prices in San Francisco for rentals.

36:39 Some people have also suggested applying to city jobs, like jobs with the city in San Francisco. I don't know how viable those are. I know they're super in demand, and everybody wants a city job in SF. Once you get in, most people don't leave because you've got a pension and reasonable hours compared to working in private industry. You've got job security; you're probably not going to lose your job once you get it.

37:13 But yeah, I still think there's opportunity for money to be made. When the interest rates start to drop, that's when we'll start to see industry pick up. I'm hoping I can pick up a role before then, but that should be when these companies start to pick up hiring again.

Startups, Cloud Engineering, and Layoffs

37:36 I spoke with a recruiter a few nights ago, and she said that there are a lot of startups that are hiring right now. I'm not quite at a director or VP level of experience, so I'm looking more for the lower-level roles that are more competitive and do have more potential candidates.

38:00 I asked because I'm thinking of going into cloud engineering, but with all the recent layoffs in tech and AI blowing up, I'm not sure if cloud engineering is the best route. That's a great question. I don't know as much about cloud engineering. I know the last company I worked for was cloud-based.

38:23 If it's something that interests you and you feel like it's something that you enjoy doing, I think you will learn transferable skills. A lot of companies would prefer to hire somebody else to host their data, so that's really the advantage of the cloud technology industry. A lot of these companies don't want to be responsible for all the hosting, storage, and distribution.

38:56 Cloud engineering could be conceptualized as the data distribution business. Think about oil companies; they're not always the same companies that are in the pipeline business or the gas station business. Chevron and Exxon are the two big ones that are vertically integrated, where they pull the oil, distribute it, and sell it at gas stations.

39:31 The layoffs are disappointing. It is unfortunate that these companies are doing that. I really feel bad for the people with families who are trying to support them. I've seen it in a lot of sales groups online because I was on the sales side, and a lot of sales reps are struggling. They've got mortgage payments and car payments; it's very easy to live above your means during good economic times.

39:58 When the times are not so good, you can really be struggling because you made all these financial commitments that you can no longer keep up because the economy is not as good. That's part of why I lived minimalistic in the Bay Area. I figured this is a boom-and-bust town, and I may be making six figures right now, but next year, I might not be.

40:20 I'd rather stack this cash and invest as much as I can, max out my 401k, max out my IRA, because it might be lean times for a while. And I was right; as soon as they raised the interest rates and Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, I was on my way out the door. A few months later, sales, marketing, and HR were the first to go in tech.

Company Restructuring and AI Investment

40:51 Absolutely. A lot of companies are product-driven, so they're most concerned about delivering a good product. Some of those roles can be consolidated. I have seen a number of companies that are overstaffed. I'm not going to specify which company, but I've definitely seen where there were just too many people in these roles relative to what was needed.

41:21 You saw this with Twitter, right? I'm not a Twitter user, but Elon Musk came in and got rid of tons of people. I have mixed feelings about Elon Musk; I'm not here to congratulate him or put him down, but we see that Twitter is still functioning on a skeleton crew.

41:45 Yeah, Nvidia is doing really well. Jensen Huang, the CEO, went all in on AI and invested really big in it, and it turned out to be a huge payoff. Hey, how are you doing? Yeah, Nvidia is doing really well right now. I made some money and then sold out stupidly because I was like, 'What goes up's got to come down.' I should have held.

Investment Decisions and AI's Role

42:13 I made a lot of bad investing decisions, but I've learned a lot from my mistakes. I think they're really revolutionary and providing another stage of growth in the economy. Well, thanks so much, I really appreciate your subscription. But yeah, it's... oh wow, you sold? Okay, well that makes me feel better because sometimes I kicked myself. I got in around $100 a share and got out around six or $700.

42:52 So it I had at least another 50% or so over the price point that I sold at, where it's at now. But even so, I think there's still opportunity moving forward. I think people will eventually pull capital out of Nvidia and put it into other AI bets.

43:14 I think also in the venture capital space, some of that Nvidia money will flow into AI startups and companies that want to utilize its technology to build more nuanced technology. You're going to see a lot of changes in customer service because, as it stands, it's frustrating on both ends.

43:32 I just had to deal with Amazon customer service yesterday, and they spent an hour of my time telling me things I already knew and giving me information I already had. If there's a company that figures out customer service, they're going to do really well because it's not a good experience on the customer end, and it's not a good experience on the representative end because people just treat them terribly and don't respect them.

43:58 I have a family member who, you know, they take out their frustration on customer service reps, and these people deserve to just shout and frustration at AI because AI doesn't care. You can be as rude as you want to AI; it's just going to figure out that people are frustrated with it, but it doesn't have the emotions that a customer service rep has.

Customer Service and Scalability

44:33 Plus, customer service is one of those things that doesn't scale. For every hour you put into customer service, you get an hour out. This is different from programming and sales, where the inputs are not tied to the output. If you sell a really big deal, it's a huge result. If you program a piece of technology that is super efficient, like a fintech app, it serves millions of people.

45:07 You put in X, and the results were really big. Well, customer service is not like that; it's one-to-one. For every hour in, you get an hour out.

Reasons for Returning to the US and English Teaching Viability

45:23 I have a buddy living in Bangkok right now; he's looking to return to the States. I think it's common because a lot of younger guys just run low on funds. They come over with a certain amount of dollars and spend that money down over the course of their trip, and many are not going to have the capability to earn what they'd earn back in the States. So, financial reasons are a big factor for young guys.

45:47 The biggest reason guys go back after spending an extended period in Southeast Asia is also somewhat of a risk if you push it too long and you're not financially independent. If you stay in Southeast Asia for two or three years, your experience may not be relevant, and your job experience won't be super up-to-date. Also, health issues can factor into that; maybe the food doesn't agree with them, or the weather doesn't agree with them.

46:23 So yeah, I think it's common and it's nothing to be ashamed about. It's just part of the experience, and I'm sure they learned a lot. If you're teaching English, teaching English is not...

46:38 Teaching English is not a long-term strategy in terms of viability. It's great for a short time, like if you need to make money for six months or a year, but you're not going to make a career out of it. There are some guys that try, but they get to an age where they can't really learn something new. Maybe they teach English for say 20 years and end up 50 years old, their skill set not relevant back home.

47:14 Unless you have a bachelor's or master's in English, you're probably not going to be teaching English. They get frustrated because they may want to go back home, miss their friends and family, but they don't have relevant experience. They don't have much savings because you can't really save a lot on an English teacher's salary. Most English teachers aren't able to save any money and are just living paycheck to paycheck.

English Teaching Career Prospects and AI Disruption

47:46 I don't see it as a viable career. Is it a hustle, a way to make some money in the short term? Sure. But living in Bangkok on $875 a month is just not a great lifestyle. Thailand is probably the least optimal for teaching English because everybody wants to live there, so schools don't have to pay as much as other countries might. It's also not the cheapest country in Southeast Asia.

48:17 You're dealing with a place where there's tons of demand to work there, and schools can pick from potential workers. But Bangkok is also very developed, and there's a price that comes with living in a really developed city. There's a price that comes with having access to public transportation and healthy, clean food.

48:42 I think it's an in-between thing. If you're in your 20s or early to mid-30s and want to try living overseas, teaching English can be great. I just think for most people, it's not going to be viable as a long-term career. I think it's one of those spaces where AI is going to make headway, similar to customer service, where there's a lot of opportunity for disruption.

49:16 Robots can be programmed with the English language and will be more cost-effective. People will pay a monthly subscription fee to an AI bot teacher and get as much English as they want, as opposed to paying an English teacher by the hour. The wages for English teaching have been stagnant.

49:44 Even in places like Saudi Arabia, considered top places to make money as an English teacher, wages have reportedly come down. Saudi has also become a more expensive country. So, the viability of teaching English long-term is just not there.

Future of Trades and AI Automation

50:05 I think something with tech will come back; it's not a permanent rough spot. There are also the trades. Trades aren't something you can do in Southeast Asia, but for some, they can make so much money in trades back home that they invest it and then come over to enjoy the fruits of that. Some would say won't those be automated? I think those will actually be later to be automated.

50:40 Those won't be the first to be automated because it's not as cost-effective. The opportunities most on the chopping block are one-to-one roles like customer service, where you put an hour in and get an hour out. Accounting is also going to be one where you can program rules into it.

51:11 The ones that will be harder will be CPAs. Certified public accountants and other guild-based jobs will likely legislate and hire lawyers to make it harder for people to use AI to eliminate those roles because they don't want to give up their business.

Vietnam Travel Plans and Development

51:33 Regarding country plans, I would like to go to Vietnam next. I'm debating between a 30-day visa for $25 or a 90-day visa for $50. It's supposed to be awesome. It's not as far along in development as Thailand, but there's still a lot to enjoy and see. There's a lot of beauty in it.

52:24 I remember being in Phnom Penh about four or five years ago, and it was definitely in a rapid stage of development and growth. It is now, but it was then as well, and it was exciting. It's vibrant; you drive or walk around the city, and there are new buildings going up everywhere. A lot of companies have built manufacturing facilities in Vietnam; there's a big textile industry there.

Bangkok Experiences and Video Content Ideas

52:49 These AirPods, for example, were actually made in Vietnam. It'll be kind of funny to take them back to where they were born. Lex Vex Vietnam videos are coming soon, probably mid-July for the trip, with videos starting in late July.

53:41 I need to do more stuff here in Bangkok. I just felt kind of tired and run down the last week; I don't know if I've had COVID. A friend of mine tested positive and has been ill, so I think COVID might be going around Bangkok right now. I need to get back out there and start making more videos.

54:02 It's been challenging to find quiet corners in the city to film. Maybe I need to just go out and record, then do the audio here in my apartment and edit the audio over the video. I want to do some stuff here in Bangkok, like a $10 challenge.

Bangkok Budget Challenge and Food Costs

54:25 Let's see what $10 buys me here in Bangkok. Try to see if I could do a $10 day, which is very doable. I could do a $10 day no problem. There's so much value for money here in Thailand. For $10, I could get $2 for lunch, $3 for dinner, maybe $3 for public transportation, and $2 for dessert or a smoothie. That's a $10 day I'd be perfectly happy with.

55:04 That's not the day I'd want to live every day, and it's not realistic, but it can certainly be a very budget-friendly city. I think it would shock people because they're so used to paying through the nose for everything in the US and aren't accustomed to being able to go out and enjoy themselves for $10.

55:36 What can you get in the US for $10? In San Francisco, you can't even get a burrito for that anymore; you'd probably spend about $12, plus transportation, which is very expensive in the US. So, people would get a lot out of seeing a decent meal for $2, not the fanciest, but certainly chicken on rice or some kind of seafood on rice, maybe a mango smoothie.

56:16 There are so many things because, in the US, a lot of products are priced at an international rate. People from around the world can bid on those products. Whereas in Thailand, they produce a ton of food domestically, and the Thai market gets first dibs on it. Unlike the US, Thailand doesn't allow everybody to just come in and buy up all the food before the local people have a chance.

56:54 That's part of how the financial system works: other countries buy American debt, and in turn, they have the opportunity to sell their goods at a favorable exchange rate to Americans. But in Thailand, I looked at importing shirts, and the duties to import clothes are like 100%. So, shirts that cost $20 would be $40 with import duties.

57:25 America doesn't have that. That's part of what makes food so cheap here relative to the United States. They don't allow everybody to just come in and buy up all the food before the local people have a chance. That's wonderful; they're looking out for their people.

Thailand's Focus on Local People and Vietnam's Optimism

57:51 That's what I love about Thailand: they just look out for their people. Their people aren't struggling in the same ways that American people are struggling with broadly speaking.

58:13 Feel free to chime in with any questions or thoughts. Just enjoying my Friday night here in Bangkok. Kind of wondering if my laptop was made in Vietnam as well.

58:32 I think Apple's doing a lot of manufacturing in Vietnam, and I think it's great; they're giving a...

58:39 I think it's great that they're providing a lot of great opportunities for people to get good quality jobs. There's just enthusiasm. I've talked to some people in Vietnam recently, and there's just this optimism about the future of industry there and the opportunities. I even recently spoke with a Japanese lawyer living in Ho Chi Minh City, and he said Japan's doing good business in Vietnam. So I'm here to help out with the efforts of my company, and it just seems like a place on the up and up. The economy is growing, people are optimistic, and there's going to be more and more opportunity there.

Vietnam's English Teaching Market and Travel Costs

59:27 Vietnam for English teaching seems to have the best pay-to-expense ratio right now, or one of the best. You can make okay money, but your costs are modest there. Lex says a burrito and a drink can run $10 to $15 depending on where you go. You'd be hard-pressed to find that included in a $10 price point. And definitely, if you're taking public transit or driving your car, that pushes your cost up.

1:00:04 Where I don't have a car here in Southeast Asia, so that really moderates my expenses because I'm able to take public transit or occasionally, if I need to go somewhere like the hospital, I hired a cab. But that's cumulatively much cheaper than owning a car. Even flights within the country or shorter cross-border flights are more affordable. To fly to Vietnam is going to cost like $60 one way, where to fly to Mexico from the United States is easily $200, maybe more, because the peso is doing so well right now. But it's just so expensive to travel because it's harder to distribute the cost among your fellow travelers.

Transportation Costs: Thailand vs. US

1:00:55 Where if you're riding on a bus, the non-air-conditioned bus here in Bangkok is like 25 cents for a one-way ride. Where in San Francisco, the bus was like $2, maybe $2.25 for a one-way ride. And if you have a transfer because the systems are kind of mishmashed, you might have to pay double that. I know for me to go from the East Bay to parts of San Francisco, I can spend $12 just for one way because I'll take the BART train from the East Bay and then I'll get on the Muni system. I'll have to transfer a different system to take it out to Ocean Beach, for example.

1:02:04 That doesn't make any sense because you can't. Anyway, I could just be not putting it in right, but even at $8, if you're on a $10 budget, most of your $10 budget, you're not really getting a lot out of that $10. Where here in Bangkok, $10 is by no means a luxury budget. You can certainly make a day out of it.

Thailand Travel History: Bangkok and Pattaya

1:02:39 I've been in Thailand for about a year. I got to Thailand last summer. I came to Bangkok 11 months ago, well, 11 months and one week ago. I came here to 10 months and three weeks ago, I came here to Bangkok. I stayed in Victory Monument, so I stayed here not at the monument, but at a building very close to here. Stayed there for a month, then I went down to Pattaya. I stayed in Pattaya for about a month and found that Pattaya wasn't really for me.

1:03:28 Bangkok, like last summer, it was kind of overwhelming because when I was here last time, I was here four years ago, and this was at the start of COVID. The city emptied out, and Bangkok was empty. You could get around easily, there were no crowds, you could just walk around like no issues at all. Many of the restaurants were still open, so it was like the perfect time to be in Bangkok as a tourist.

Chiang Mai Experiences: City Life and Amenities

1:03:56 But yeah, so I spent the first month in Bangkok, came down to Pattaya, spent a month here in Jomtien. I was right off this road. I'm not seeing the condo building that I or the apartment building I stayed in, but stayed here for about a month. And then I was just sorting out my visa to stay here for a year. And then I came up to my favorite city in the world, Chiang Mai, and I was in Chiang Mai for six months.

1:04:29 So I got to Chiang Mai in September of last year and stayed until early March. By early March, the burning season was in full effect, and Chiang Mai was great. I stayed at the Trio building. I'm not here anymore, but the Trio building. You have access to this like Chiang Mai University, the Ang Kaew Reservoir, a beautiful place to go walking. I used to come here and go walking a lot. It's a well, this was a rainy day, but yeah, beautiful park here, really nice space, especially when it cools off in the afternoon. Perfect place to enjoy sunset. They also have the Huay Kaew Reservoir or the waterfall here, really a beautiful place.

1:05:38 And what else? You know, if I wanted to go to the old city, I'd just hop on a scooter. I started off a lot of mornings, I'd go to Maya Mall and get a coffee, and then I'd come here to Gold's Gym Hillside. And I'd come and work out here. This was running about because I paid for six months about $27 a month. And you can see they've got like nice weights, they've got some cardio machines over there. And then I'd go back to my apartment and just read, watch videos, work on making videos, trying to learn how to get this channel up and going.

1:06:37 Sometimes, you know, I'd meet my friends. Like I have some friends that work around Nimmanhaemin, so I'd come down here, we'd have lunch. It's a nice city as far as walkability goes, like maybe in some areas even more so than Bangkok because Bangkok does have a fair amount of walkable areas. It's also traffic can be pretty busy, even compared to Chiang Mai. But like the old city, you've got a ton of places that are walkable. There's a fruit market. This is a club I went to when I was here six years ago, Zoe and Yellow. It's a popular nightclub. Quite a few beautiful temples in Chiang Mai as well, like this is one of my favorites. It's got the black and white motif.

1:07:29 Also, there was like a flower festival that I enjoyed. You've got over here, there's like a fruit, I think this is the fruit market, maybe not. This is Chiang Mai Chinatown. Might have been the Anan Market here. I get a little bit mixed up because there's so many markets. I do want to go back over to the area that I was showing you before.

Chiang Mai Markets and Community

1:08:03 So, across the street from Chiang Mai University, there's the Kad Nam Mo Market, and I would come here for dinner every night. They have all these different stalls set up, and the food is really good. There's like dozens of them. Here you've got, there's like a kebab spot, there's some Japanese restaurants, there's some Thai restaurants, there's a smoothie vendor. I don't see a photo of him, but there's a smoothie vendor I'd always come to. I get a smoothie every single day. Really nice.

1:08:47 What is your community experience? That's a good question. You know, I prefer to hang out with locals mostly. I try to find English-speaking locals, and those are the people I get along with best because they have their local culture, but then they can also communicate well with me. Like, I don't know, they're just kind of a mixed bag.

Expat Community Dynamics and Cultural Appreciation

1:09:09 And some of them can be really not very good. Like, okay, so as an example, this was in February. I was at Gold's Gym. I was where is it? It's not popping up for me. I think we're further up. Here we go. So I was here and I was working out. It was literally like in this room that you're looking at, and this older expat, and I'm not picking on him for his age, just describing what happened. This younger expat comes and sits and starts using a piece of equipment this older expat had been using previously.

1:09:53 Well, this older expat starts cursing him out and screaming, 'Elf you and this and that, and you're so this and you're so that.' Ended up going and getting the staff. 'Ah, it's the end of the world, he's using this piece of equipment!' And so you see these guys that just act like nuts. I don't know, from what I could tell, he was making a big deal out of nothing. The gym equipment is fine. If it takes you an extra five minutes to work out, who cares? You're supposed to be retired. He was definitely the guy making the scene. He was definitely retirement age.

1:10:28 So I mostly only go for expats that I know through the internet. If I've taken some time to vet them through online, like seeing their online presence, I can gauge what kind of attitude they have. Because to me, some expats are over here just to save money. It's only a cost of living factor as to why they are in Southeast Asia, and otherwise they wouldn't be here. And to me, it's not that at all. The cost of living is an advantage, it's not the only thing that I like about over here. To me, it's the icing on the cake.

Thai Culture and Architecture: Doi Suthep

1:11:04 Like Lex was saying, temple architecture in Thailand is insane. Yeah, it's gorgeous. I mean, you're talking about like some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, some of the most beautiful architecture in the world, some of the strongest culture in the world. Like when you're in Thailand, you know you're in Thailand. You're constantly reminded that this is Thailand, and the culture is extremely important to these people. And they deserve a lot of respect for avoiding colonization.

1:11:37 Not to say that people who were colonized don't deserve respect, but that's they've been able to preserve this culture over a really long time and maintain this tourism industry. Like Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, one of the most beautiful temples I've ever seen in the world.

1:11:56 Seen in the world, just like the way that it shines, the amount of people that it attracts. Tens and tens of thousands of people come here every single month, and you can see the city below from up here. I tried to hike up to it, and then I just gave up and caught a songthaew. I just hopped on a red truck and rode the rest of the way up because last time I came up to Doi Suthep when I was in Chiang Mai six years ago, I rode a motorbike. So I actually rented a motorbike and followed my friend up the mountain.

Learning Thai Language and Local Friendships

1:12:37 It's a beautiful temple. It's just so, like, I think the history here is 700 or 800 years old, something like that. So you get this timeless feeling, like it was here far before I came about, and it will be here far after my time. And it's a humbling experience for sure. I've never been up here at night, so I don't know. It's so beautiful, like it looks like it's made out of gold.

1:13:14 Can everybody hear me? Okay, great to see you, Lex. That's a mistake my friend made. He didn't put any effort into making any friends with locals and didn't try to learn beginner Thai, which I've heard can get you ahead of many expats. Yeah, I think learning some basic Thai can really help you out a lot to connect with people.

1:13:34 I've got a few. I can kind of understand some of what they're talking about in basic conversation, but it's a difficult language. To be fair to a lot of expats, Thai is very, very different from any languages. It's a tonal language. So, typically in English, for example, changing your tone doesn't change the meaning, whereas in Thai, it does change the meaning. So you could say the same thing for different things.

Making Friends in Thailand: Pattaya and Bangkok

1:14:09 But yeah, the locals are very, very friendly. It's not necessarily easy to make friends with local people. Like in this sense, well, it depends on the types of local people you want to meet. Like if you're the type of expat that's here just to party, meeting local friends through the party scene may not net you the... I don't know how to explain it. Like I struggled to make friends in Pattaya, for example, because a lot of the local people there are working in the tourism industry, not so much to make friends.

1:14:49 I did connect with some of the older Thai people that came to Pattaya to work from other parts of the country, not just in the industry that Pattaya is notorious for, but also adjacent. People come to Pattaya from the north to work in restaurants, to work in normal massage shops. There's a lot of different economic opportunities in Pattaya. I met my friends through some of my Western friends that were living in Thailand six years ago.

1:15:14 And then I branched out from there. So I asked those friends, 'Hey, can you introduce me to some of your friends in Bangkok?' And so they introduced me to their friends in Bangkok. I became friends with those people, they introduced me to their friends, and it spidered out from there. So I think the hard part is making that first step where you meet somebody and you get to know somebody, and then asking them politely, 'Hey, do you have any friends you could introduce me to?'

1:15:44 And now, some of the times when I go out in Bangkok, I go out with a couple of ladies. So definitely makes me look like a ladies' man. We're just platonic friends, never been anything more than that with those two ladies, but they're sweet and they're fun, and they're actually interested in me sharing my experiences. And I feel that I have a lot to learn about Thailand from them.

Cultural Exchange and Perceptions of America

1:16:06 One thing that can be helpful, and as an English teacher, I could see why an English teacher wouldn't want to do this, but a lot of Thai people want to practice their English. So if you can sort of make the offer to them, 'Hey, let's hang out, and I want you to teach me about Thailand, and in turn, I can help you practice some of your English. I can help you with your pronunciation. I can help you with talking about what life in the United States is like.'

1:16:31 I try to be neutral, although, of course, just by nature of my channel and lifestyle, it's obvious I'm not the most positive on America. I don't try to be totally negative either, but some of my Thai friends, they're not necessarily as positive on America because they're seeing the news, they're hearing about the crime. And there's no Thai person that I've met that's like a pro-crime kind of person or whatever.

Personal Growth and Happiness in Thailand

1:17:06 Yeah, Lex, that expat didn't blow up over nothing. You see some people that are just carrying this frustration from their past experiences in life, and they've bottled it up and feel like coming over here was supposed to fix all their problems. And it doesn't. Can it be helpful? Yeah, I think where you live is the most important decision a person can make, but it's not a cure-all. If you're an unhappy person, happiness is a skill that people have to practice, and they need to practice it ideally before they come here.

1:17:38 Because then the experience here will be that much better if they're happy coming into a place where people are happy. They're going to be that much better off. I admit I wasn't super happy when I came to Thailand last summer. I was stressed out and burned out from my life in the US, from working in the tech industry. I was in a hurry all the time. I walked really fast because at work, you're constantly getting told to hurry up and do it perfect.

1:18:04 And so you're bouncing back and forth, but trying to do things right and trying to do things fast. And you don't have that here. People are more tolerant and more warm, and it took me some time to come around to that. But I am much happier here, especially after a year over here. Just dealing with Thai people has had a way of mellowing me out. I feel very mellow compared to a year ago. I just enjoy the place so much.

Interactions and Shared Experiences in Thailand

1:18:30 And I like it that, you know, sometimes when you smile at people here, if they're not thinking about something else, they'll smile back at you. And if you greet people, they'll greet you back. I have that experience even in Bangkok a lot, where I make eye contact with somebody, and they can be a little bit shy about their English. But then I'll crack a small joke, or if I see some Thai people laughing, I'll start laughing too.

1:18:58 I'll even pretend like I know what they're laughing about, but I'm just in such a good mood that I'll laugh spontaneously with them, and they start laughing, and we're sharing this. We're having this shared experience, and it's a life-affirming experience for me because in the West, I feel like unless you're doing something for somebody, or unless you can do something for somebody, you're invisible. It's just kind of turned into a transactional culture or society.

1:19:21 And you don't have that experience here in Thailand. At least I don't have that perception. Like, people are hustling, they are trying to work hard. You are going to have people like, 'Hey man, you need a ride? Hey, you want to check out my restaurant?' But it's not over the top, it's not aggressive. A lot of the times when I take him up on it, I'm happy. I'm like, 'Oh man, it's so hot, I'm thrilled just to be in some air conditioning.'

Thailand's Enduring Appeal and Need for Change

1:19:44 Or, 'Man, you know, I really, to be honest, I was getting hungry. I think I am going to try that your restaurant.' Like, even though I wasn't thinking about it, now that I smell your food, I think I'm going to have some of that. That smells really good, that looks really tasty. And I have those experiences all the time in Thailand, especially when I'm out exploring.

1:20:03 Because it's one of those countries where you could just go out exploring, and you meet people, and you have these encounters and situations. But yeah, like, I think it's just such a wonderful place, and I'll never get tired of it. I want to do something different, in part because I'm so comfortable here. I'm just so very comfortable in Thailand that I need to mix it up and introduce some healthy stress into my life.

Reasons for Leaving Thailand and Gap Years

1:20:31 And yeah, but I'm always going to be happy to return in the future. I don't think this is it, but it's a beautiful temple anyway. Have you seen cases like the one of my friend in your state? After one or two years, he had an English teaching contract for two years and just said that was it.

1:20:56 Yeah, I mean, my buddy Jesse, he's back in Washington state, back in the Seattle area where he's from. Great guy. He's the one that convinced me to come to Thailand. He stayed in Thailand for a year teaching English online, and then he went back. And I talked to him near the end of his year, and he's like, 'I'm Thailand-ed out. Like, I've seen everything I wanted to see in Thailand. I've done everything I wanted to do in Thailand, and enough for me.'

1:21:25 So yeah, certainly some people will come over here and feel like, 'Hey, a year is enough. I don't need to experience more of it. I got to see everything I wanted to see, I got to do everything I wanted to do, and I'm happy with it.' Loved it, but I missed my home country. In his case, his parents are still around, and so part of it is like, 'Hey, I want to go spend time with my folks back in Washington.' And I can't do that if I'm in Thailand, right?

1:21:53 It's a lot longer, it's a long flight, it's time-consuming, it's expensive. International travel is always stressful. So there's plenty of people that this is like a gap year for them, or maybe a gap two years for them, because they're at an in-between space in their life. They have some time, they want to do something different, but they want to go back.

Personal Reasons for Returning to the US and Travel Preferences

1:22:14 In my case, the only reason to go back is to maximize earnings because I don't really have family. My mom passed away when I was eight, my dad passed away when I was 10 years old. I'm not close to any of my other family, and so there's no real reason for me to go back other than to make money and to see.

1:22:33 Back other than to make money and to see friends I do miss and care about my friends. Friends can function as family for you, but people are living their own lives. I don't like the idea of, 'Hey, you know what, I would go travel the world,' but friends like I like my friends, I love my friends, and they can travel with me to some extent. They can go with me, they can go to the places that I like to go, or they can join on these streams or watch my videos that I put up on YouTube.

1:23:13 Yeah, that's understandable from his point of view. My friend thought he'd be living there forever; he actually tried to convince me to go there. I'm more interested in Vietnam. I'm curious, what sticks out to you more about Vietnam over Thailand? Can you share a bit more about what you've heard or seen about Vietnam that is interesting to you?

Southeast Asia Travel and Cambodia's Appeal

1:23:38 By the way, I think all these countries are wonderful. I don't think there's this one is best; they're different flavors of the same thing. They have some similar cultural similarities, of course. The weather is similar, they have beaches, they have mountains, they have friendly people. You've got a lot of variety in country; the whole region is awesome. I've also been to Cambodia and loved Cambodia. I feel like Cambodia is underrated; it's someplace I'd like to go back to in the future.

1:24:12 If I hadn't been there and wasn't prioritizing Vietnam, I would definitely be going back to Cambodia. I hope to go back there in the future. I think one of my friends that was living there for a while, he may have moved on; he was there for about five years working in a bank there.

Work Permits and Career Limitations Abroad

1:24:27 But yeah, I think it's just a career thing. For a lot of people, one, they don't have a work permit, or if they have one, it's attached to their job, so they can't easily just switch jobs. It becomes like a career opportunity thing. It can be fairly limiting if you try to stay here long-term in your working years because, one, the wages are not as high as the wages in the United States, Australia, Canada, or the UK.

1:24:57 But two, if you don't speak the local language, like in the case of Thailand, that's also going to limit how far up you can go. There are kind of limited opportunities compared to your home country because of things like work permits. The governments in these countries prioritize their own people. So, basically, some of the rules—this isn't legal advice, by the way—one of the rules is that the jobs are reserved for local people only, if the skill is hard to find in the local population.

1:25:29 Is it something that they're going to be welcoming for foreigners to come in and do? They just arrested somebody from Jordan that was working as a barber in Phuket. They were like, 'No, only Thai people can be barbers here.' So that's the other side of it: they're trying to protect these opportunities for their own people, which I totally respect.

Vietnam Visa and Travel Research

1:26:14 But yeah, feel free to share just more about Vietnam because I'm still learning a lot about it. I'm still researching a lot about it. I've just begun to really dig into it. I've watched some videos over the course of the last year, but nothing as substantial as what I'm looking at now.

1:26:35 And that's something I'm going to get on after this stream is I need to just go ahead and grind through the visa application. The visa application is a little bit long and it's very detailed. You have to let them know the port of entry, the port of exit, and you have to make a determination of the amount of time that you want to stay there. Do I want 30 days or 90 days?

1:26:56 I need to find out if I choose the 30-day visa, can I extend to 90 days if I decide to stay longer? Because I've never been there, so I don't know how much I'll enjoy it or not enjoy it. It's like I want to dip my toes in the water, but if I like it, I also don't want to be in a hurry out. So that's kind of where I'm at with Vietnam right now.

Vietnam vs. Thailand: Friendliness and Party Culture

1:27:18 It is less chaotic, although the traffic seems more chaotic. I'm not much of a party guy, and the expat community, I hear locals are more keen on making friends. Yeah, I've heard that too, and I actually had some Vietnamese friends back in the States and got along well with them. I enjoyed their company and thought they were just really interesting and warm people.

1:27:38 So I could see that because in Thailand, you have mass tourism and so many foreigners coming through that it's not really that exciting for a local person to encounter a foreigner, especially in Bangkok or Pattaya. Millions of foreigners come through every year, so how do they differentiate between you and any other foreigner? I had some of the most interesting interactions in Hat Yai.

1:28:07 Hat Yai is probably the least visited by Western tourists in Thailand. It's down here near the Malaysia border, near Langkawi, and it's a cool city; it's a beautiful city, but it's just not as well known among Western tourists. So as far as dating goes, it was definitely a lot of fun.

Divergent Travel Styles: Party vs. Exploration

1:28:35 I'm not much of a party guy either, and I think that's part of the interest of Vietnam for me. There are towns or cities in Thailand, Pattaya comes to mind, parts of Bangkok come to mind, that are totally oriented around partying and making people have the time of their lives with great drinks and beautiful women. I fully support that; I think people need to come here and let loose and have a good time, de-stress, relax.

1:29:06 But that's not for everybody all the time. And it's not necessarily something people want to do for a long time either. A lot of people come on holiday here, they enjoy it, they live it up for a few weeks, maybe a month, and then they go back to their home country and resume their normal day-to-day. But Vietnam, not having that as much, certainly could be intriguing.

1:29:30 I'm looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to it a lot. I'm hearing the government wants to push English to help retain and attract tourism. That would help them a ton.

Improving English in Thailand and Vietnam's Potential

1:29:38 Yeah, I think that's something that I struggled with when I came to Chiang Mai six years ago. I remember going up to a woman in a coffee shop and trying to talk to her in English because this was my first time in Southeast Asia. I had been in Thailand for like a week and just went full force talking to her in English, and she, after a few sentences, was like, 'I'm sorry, I just can't understand you.' It was so funny; I was so embarrassed.

English Proficiency Growth in Thailand and Vietnam's Language Barrier

1:32:29 I'm like, of course, I'm in Thailand right now. Of course, she can't understand me; she speaks Thai. But English keeps improving year over year in Thailand. So I've been coming to Thailand like every other year now for six years, and every year I notice it just gets better and better, especially in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. More and more people have English; their friends are learning English.

1:32:53 I even have a Thai friend that teaches English in Chiang Mai. He's ethnically Thai, grew up in Bangkok, but he's been exposed so much to Western culture. His girlfriend is from the United States, so he speaks great English. We can communicate and talk about anything, and I think that's just going to improve in time. But Vietnam, I think they're taking a tip from Thailand, like, 'Oh wow, if we have more English,' there are a lot of people that are curious about Vietnam, but they just don't know how to get around.

1:33:20 So I had that experience in some more remote parts of Thailand where I walk into a restaurant and have no idea what they're serving. It looks and smells great, but I just don't know what they're serving.

1:33:31 Great, but I just don't know what they're serving. That's changed, but I think in Vietnam, you're going to have the same thing where people are like, 'That looks really cool, this place looks really cool.' But, uh, I just don't know how to communicate in Vietnamese. Vietnamese is considered a very difficult language to learn, and so having that will really open up the doors for not only return people but also new tourists, and they won't have to rely on the translate app as much.

Chiang Mai Burning Season Impact

1:34:08 Burning season end? Heard it lasted longer than normal. Yeah, I think it lasted until like, maybe 10 days ago. It seemed like it lasted until mid-May, and that was a little bit disappointing because I wanted to fly back up to Chiang Mai to finish out my trip up there. Like I said, it's one of my favorite cities, if not my favorite city in the world.

1:34:38 But I tested Burning Season out a little bit. Like I was there until maybe March 7th, and I just didn't feel it. I was coughing, not feeling very good, the visibility was poor. I remember going on top of my roof and looking out over the city, and it was hazy. Burning Season was not for me.

1:35:01 Some people, it doesn't bother them. They live there through the Burning Season, and it's a non-issue for them. But for me personally, if I were to live in Chiang Mai long-term, assuming I had the proper visa, then I'd be leaving probably the last week of February, maybe even mid-February, and then come back two or three months later, like early to mid-May. It's just not something that's for me.

Pattaya's Culture and Consensual Relationships

1:35:32 It's not something that I'm comfortable with. Now that I've given it a shot, I recognize that the Burning Season is just not something that I'm open to.

1:36:01 In your opinion, how much does the trade in Thailand have to do with the 50 to 60% return rate? You know, there's no way to tell. It's not something I participated in here in Thailand. When I went down to Pattaya, it definitely is very apparent in Pattaya. We can pull out Pattaya here.

1:36:25 It's very much apparent in Pattaya, but there's, you know, I think part of it is that maybe you could call it apologetics, but one, it's not as stigmatized in Eastern cultures like it is in the West. There's certain observations of Christianity or certain denominations of Christianity that look down upon enjoying that at all, and in Buddhist culture, they seem to be more tolerant and more open-minded about it.

1:37:05 So people don't, I'm not saying it's like I'm not pro that, but just kind of explaining that it's not something that people, I personally don't think people should feel bad about it, assuming it's all consensual. You know, there's so much harshness in the world that love is not the worst thing that could happen.

Pattaya Attractions and Japanese Businesses in Si Racha

1:37:28 There's also, like here in Pattaya, a lot of families. Like I noticed when I was in Jomtien, a lot of families. There's like a water park here, for example. There's, um, where is the water park? It's somewhere down here. No, that's another hotel. There's a ton of Russian families here in Pattaya or here in Jomtien.

1:37:54 I mean, it's the most visited country in the world, and to me, Thailand has everything. So, like, for a lot of people, it's a combination of things. I definitely think that can be one thing. Like if you go to Pattaya, you'll see there's a lot of people that are in Pattaya Express.

1:38:11 But there's also, you know, you also have like shopping malls. You've got Terminal 21, you've got some great outlet malls in Pattaya, like so great discount shopping. Some of the best prices for shoes I've seen in the country. You've got the Sanctuary of Truth.

1:38:31 You've got, like, well, this one channel, I'll throw the name down in the description, Greeny Travels. I don't get the impression that's what brought Greeny here. I could be wrong about that, but he's a channel that I'm a fan of. I don't get that vibe from him.

1:38:47 But, you know, in Pattaya, you're like two hours away from Bangkok. So, like, you can hop on a bus and be in Bangkok in two hours. They also have, like, just north of Pattaya here, they have some Japanese businesses in this city called, um, where is it? It's, uh, Si Racha.

Thailand's Appeal: People, Culture, and Food

1:39:04 So we'll pull that up. This is also, I think, this is where the famous sauce comes from. So this is an industrial city. Some of the best Japanese food in the country can be found. And I didn't make it up here because it's hard to get to here unless you're riding a motorbike. It's just difficult to get to Si Racha.

1:39:29 But yeah, beautiful place. For me, the combination that I'm after in Thailand is the people. I love the people. They're so much fun, they're so warm, they're so kind. The culture is interesting, it's very deep, there's a lot to learn and observe there. And then three, the food. Thai food is some of my favorite, and Thailand, you can't beat the Thai food in Thailand.

1:39:56 It's some of the best food in the world. You have all kinds of different price points. So if you want economical Thai food, you can get that like street food. Fine dining, you've got that here as well. It's also very modern. I find Thailand to be more advanced than the United States and safer in a lot of ways.

Bangkok's Social Scene and Wildlife Encounters

1:40:22 The social, um, what's the word I'm looking for? The social scene is better. Like people are smiling and laughing a lot more. It's, yeah, it's a special country. I think there's a lot of different reasons.

1:40:40 And I also say it depends like where you go in Thailand will heavily impact your experience. So, like, that will be very much in your face, very much obvious if you go to Nana. Let's see where's Nana.

1:41:16 Very much, you know what these districts are about. But you go to other places, then you have no idea about that stuff, right? So, like, I'm in Sathorn, this neighborhood in the south of Sathorn. There's like, mostly like, once again, a combination of Muslim neighborhoods and Chinese neighborhoods.

1:41:39 Toward the north of Sathorn, you've got these BTS stations: St. Louis, BTS Chong Nonsi. There's also Surasak and Saphan Taksin. And there's like shopping malls like Robinson. What else? There's over on this side of, well, we're getting into it, but there's Lumphini.

1:42:02 So you're at the edge of Lumphini Park, the largest park in Bangkok. You have, let's see, I'm curious if they have any pictures of monitor lizards. There we go. You have these guys that are kind of, they're not aggressive, but they don't like to be messed with their tail. And I've heard they can even bite.

Si Chang Monkeys and Wildlife Encounters

1:42:30 They definitely have signs to not mess with the monitor lizards. You know, they're part of the park. I did see like a couple of Western tourists come up and try to, you know, shuffle away and jump in the water. They look formidable, but they are not, in my experience. Of course, I don't want to mess with them, just because I just try to respect the wildlife here in Thailand.

1:43:01 The monkeys that I ran into in Si Chang, those were not nice. Let's pull up Si Chang, so the far other end of the country. I was here because I was in Hua Hin and I wanted to see what this was about. There's, I don't know if, yeah, so here this should show the monkeys. Where are the monkeys?

1:43:27 Because when I was here, they did not have pictures of the monkeys. There are tons of monkeys that like run between the beach and this park, and they take your stuff and they demand fruit in return. But they're not friendly. They did not like me or any of the other people. They like show you their teeth.

1:43:51 And this was at Chaloklum, I think it was Thap Phae Beach. I'm still wondering, they don't have, I'm looking for the monkeys, I'm not seeing the monkeys. Oh, here we go. That looks like one right there. Is it? No, that's just a rock. Okay, I thought that might be a monkey. That's crazy.

1:44:16 They managed to omit the monkeys somehow. Maybe they're only there for part of the day or something. But it's a very Thai area. I don't think I saw any Western tourists in Si Chang. And what else? Is it Tangen Hill? Maybe this.

1:44:58 Still not seeing the monkeys. Well, if I find some photos, well, I guess you can see the signage there kind of shows them. But if I, oh, here we go. This is what I'm talking about. So they make me kind of nervous because they're just like they're aggressive. They're definitely not tame, they're definitely not pets.

1:45:13 I did see some Thai people feeding them bananas and like there's a fruit vendor, there's several fruit vendors set up. You could buy fruit from the fruit vendors and then give them the monkeys. But if you don't want to do that, sometimes the monkeys will like take your glasses and they'll make you give them fruit to get your glasses back.

Bang Saphan and Ko Yo Exploration

1:45:31 But they are neat to look at. Of course, you wouldn't see anything like this outside of the setting of a zoo where they're kept in captivity. So it's kind of cool to see them just like more free roam or free range.

1:45:50 XYZ says, 'Loving these weekly streams, making work bearable.' Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that, XYZ Media. That really makes me feel great. I appreciate you enjoying these streams and that they're providing value for you. I hope your workday goes by fast and it's not too bad.

1:46:09 The monkeys are wild over there. Yeah, the monkeys are just like they are. They are wild. They are so wild.

1:46:31 You think they would be friendly because they look kind of cuddly from their soft fur and they got the long tails, but no. They are definitely wild animals. But it was underrated. You know, this part of Thailand just didn't see any tourists. It was about a 45-minute ride from Hua Hin, so I was here in Hua Hin, rode up here, got to explore around Bang Saphan and the old town.

1:47:08 And then when I rode back down, you drive by, there's like shrimp farms over here. That makes sense, seafood wholesaler. So this may be part of where some of the shrimp in Thailand is produced. This is a lake, Ko or Si Chang Lake. And there's actually like a treehouse on Ko Yo that I wanted to stay in, but I didn't make it up there.

1:47:34 But might be something to do next time. There's just so much to see and so many.

Thailand's Geography and Safety Concerns

1:47:38 There's just so much to see and so many cool experiences to have. Wow, but there is kind of this feeling between the big bodies of water here because you see the peninsula here is right on the edge of the Gulf of Thailand. You have the gulf on the right and then you have this big lake on the left, and it's just an interesting effect.

1:48:19 There must be a temple, very beautiful. They've got deer, they look beautiful. They've got deer, they look like the Nar.

1:48:41 Now, there are some safety concerns in this part of Thailand. If you do come down to Hat Yai, I recommend keeping it to Hat Yai and Songkhla, like up here. I've heard there's some challenges in Pattani and Narathiwat and Yala. So, not necessarily a place you want to just go out and explore down here, there's just some challenges.

1:49:02 I will say down there, my road from Hat Yai to Krabi, so I took a bus from Hat Yai to Krabi. There were several military personnel on the bus, made me feel safer, but it's certainly, you know, something to think about.

Krabi Tourism and a Grand Buddha Temple

1:49:20 Then I was in Krabi for about a month, and that was okay. Krabi is probably the most touristic part of Thailand I've been to. It's very popular among foreign tourists, like my roommate was this guy who moved to Thailand from Japan. He came on a business visa, so he's got some business interests there, and he's a really interesting guy, but yeah, Krabi, very touristic.

1:49:51 I'm trying to get my sense about where, no, so I was over here, so that I think that's Krabi town. So I was more down here, you've got Ao Nang, which is like this beach. I enjoyed this night market, it's a huge night market, and beautiful, beautiful decorations, beautiful ladies. They really go all out on these decorations, it's just such a lively atmosphere.

1:50:23 The positive of being in such a touristy area is you've got a lot of English. Anywhere you've got a lot of tourists in Thailand, people definitely have more English and they're solid at communicating. They got the mochi, I'm a fan of the mochi for sure.

1:50:53 Krabi is well-known for this. Well, there's a few things, but I'll show you the Buddha temple. This is like one of the most epic Buddha temples I've seen in Thailand. And I wish they'd give a zoomed-out picture, but yeah, you see that in the distance, right?

1:51:11 So it's epic. There's like a dragon, it's got an amazing view from the top. It's definitely a trek to go up high there, but the view from it is really intense. It's just a dramatic landscape, even by Thailand standards.

1:51:28 There we go. That's so you can get the full sense of it from the ground level all the way up to the top. I don't know how many stairs there are, but it was a workout. It was definitely a workout to go up there.

Railay Beach and Ao Nang Night Market

1:51:37 And this is free, like this, you know, going to seeing a temple like this, totally free.

1:51:52 Like there's the dragon, so this is the dragon that they have up there. And there you get a sense of the mountains, and it's just so gorgeous. It's so green.

1:52:24 land here. Like they have Railay Beach. So Railay Beach is very popular for tourists. It's like you take like a 10, 15, maybe 20-minute boat ride from Ao Nang, and they have these longtail boats that you ride, and it's just so beautiful.

1:52:50 You know, I didn't see the monkeys on Railay when I was there. These monkeys look tired, they've had probably a lot of fruit to eat.

1:53:03 That market, we can go back to that market. The market's super nice. Oh, look at the monkey.

1:53:12 But yeah, you've probably seen pictures. Like if you ever looked out photos of Thailand, this is one of the most, I think, popular places that people show off.

1:53:39 Mangroves. Yeah, we can go back up here. The night market's really nice, really convenient location. It's open like every night from 4 to 11, so it opens pretty late.

Thai Markets and Culinary Exploration

1:53:48 Like, I've been to a lot of markets in Thailand that close around 10 PM, so 11 is, yeah, really convenient. A lot of variety too, like they have Muslim vendors, they have Chinese vendors, they have all kinds of variety there.

1:54:04 They have some, they don't have Indian food vendors there too much. Like they have a couple, but they do have Indian, a lot of Indian restaurants in Ao Nang.

1:54:12 I did miss out on this Portuguese restaurant. I wish I would have gone to it. There's a Portuguese restaurant somewhere around here, I can't think of the name, but I was just in Portugal last year and had such a great time and was kind of wanting to have a throwback to that.

Portuguese Cuisine and National Parks

1:54:33 And then they've got these beaches. This is a national park. I did a stream here, but I think my signal was a little bit rough, but just kind of viewing this island.

Weekend Plans and Sleep Schedule Adjustments

1:55:12 place. But what is everybody getting into this weekend? Any weekend plans? I'm gonna be going out. I may even go out after the stream if I, depends on how quick I get through that Vietnam visa application.

1:55:27 But I may go out and just like do some wandering because my sleep schedule's been a little bit off. I haven't been able to work out as much as I would have liked.

1:55:34 And when I don't work out as much as I'd like in Thailand, I tend to stay awake later and later. I've read online it's something that happens in hot and humid places where I'll start going to sleep, I won't be able to sleep until like 3 or 4 AM, and then I'll wake up at like noon. And that really throws off my schedule.

1:55:50 It makes it a little bit hard to do some things in the mornings. I'd like to join Philippines Antics tomorrow morning. I'll throw their channel down below. I'd like to be part of their stream in the morning, but if I wake up too late, I may miss it.

1:56:08 I've been a guest on their channel in the past and enjoyed it a lot, but they are early risers over there. Plus, I think they're an hour ahead, so if they start at 8:30 AM, that means they're getting started at 7:30 AM here. So they are quite early there.

1:56:24 But yeah, Krabi, you know, very touristic, but also very... Bangkok, short flight. I want to say it was like an hour 15 minutes, hour and a half to fly to Suvarnabhumi, and then I hopped on the MRT and rode into town.

Bangkok Exploration: Thonburi and ICONSIAM

1:56:59 That's a reminder I need to get over to the West Side more. So I want to spend some more time exploring Thonburi. I did get over last week to ICONSIAM. That's where I filmed my video on narcissistic expats.

1:57:10 This is one of the newest and nicest shopping malls in Thailand. It's just gorgeous, like so artistic. And I don't know how they do it, but it's an incredible sight to behold.

1:57:27 They have a nice little Japanese grocery store in the bottom too, which I thought was a neat touch, and a great view of the river. I didn't see the river views last time I was at ICONSIAM, but this time I made it a point, and you get such a cool view of the skyline.

1:57:43 You can see here the King Power Mahanakhon building right here, tallest building in Bangkok. Looks kind of like a Jenga look to it. And then you can see the Lebua Estate Tower here.

1:57:59 And they don't have this picture, but there's the Sathorn Ghost Tower, which was modeled after the Lebua Estate Tower. It must be like, I don't know if it's behind it or if it's off to the right over here, but there's a great view of the skyline from...

US Cookouts and Campfire Traditions

1:58:20 ICONSIAM. Hey, good to see you, Isaac. Welcome to the stream. Cookouts for you, first one of the year. I miss so much about the US is one of my favorite things that I do with my friends is get together and do cookouts.

1:58:33 And like campfires and cooking different things like sausages and different kinds of vegetables. And that's something I'll have to do depending on the time of year. Like when I go back to the States, I'm not sure what time of the year it will be, but if it's one of the warmer months, maybe like April to October.

1:58:54 I'm jealous of you, Lex. I think you're gonna have a great time doing a cookout. And yeah, they do have barbecues here in Thailand. That's something I haven't done as much.

1:59:07 Typically, when I get together with my Thai friends, it seems like we're more often going to a restaurant, which can be a great experience too, but there's something special about cooking your own food.

1:59:18 And there's something almost primal about getting together with friends around a campfire. Maybe it's because it just doesn't get as cold here, the appeal of a campfire is not as much as back home, but that's just a really special feeling. I hope you have a wonderful time cooking out.

ICONSIAM Amenities and Bangkok Views

1:59:37 But what are you up to, Isaac? Feel free to chime in. We've got a half dozen folks here. Like, anything you guys want to talk about? I'm definitely open to discussing. I'm just showing some stuff from ICONSIAM.

2:00:00 I don't think they have a movie theater here. I think that's the one thing ICONSIAM doesn't have. They have like H&M, big department store. Looks like the H&M is three stories.

2:00:14 I don't know what this building is. I've been wondering because I see this building all the time and I've been wondering what it is. It might be a hotel, but I'm not about...

Bangkok Skyline and the Sathorn Ghost Tower

2:00:32 that. And this is a view of the Chao Phraya River, looking North. Okay, so here we go. So this is the Sathorn Ghost Tower.

2:00:45 Is it the tallest building in the world? And my apartment is about a 30-minute walk from here, and it's off-limits. They destroyed the first two levels of stairs. It's definitely not allowed, it's definitely not encouraged.

2:01:07 Used to, you'd be able to pay the guards at the gate and they'd let you in. It's definitely a trap, but I don't know, there's just something super dystopian about it. That's the best way for me to put it.

2:01:20 It's always got these gigantic iPhone ads on it for whatever reason. I guess Apple is one to overlook the historical significance of this building. It is kind of a sad sight.

2:01:31 It's a holdover from the Asian financial crisis, so it went bankrupt after they got, I think they covered 80% of the construction costs with deposits, but then it went bankrupt. They couldn't get financing for it, and it got stuck in legal limbo.

2:01:50 And it's been in legal limbo for almost 30 years now, and there's no signs of it coming out of legal limbo. It's a sore spot, I think, for a lot of people. It's a really unfortunate circumstance.

2:02:04 It was supposed to look very similar to this. So this building right here is called the Lebua Estate Tower, probably the nicest hotel in Bangkok, or one of the nicest hotels in Bangkok. They also have a two-star Michelin restaurant here called Mesaluna, right about 8,000 baht for a dinner there.

2:02:22 So really a primo space, and I think the Sathorn Ghost Tower...

2:02:28 And I think the Saton Ghost Tower was supposed to be complimentary, but uh, yeah, it's just such a dichotomy, right? Because you see here the nicest tower, potentially the nicest hotel in the city, and it's like a kilometer away from this relic. I think the original name was the Saton Unique Tower, but a lot of people call it the Ghost Tower because it's supposed to be haunted. There have been some tragedies there, unfortunately.

Chao Phraya River Exploration in Bangkok

2:03:00 But you know, you have this beautiful river access. That's something I need to do probably tomorrow. I'll hop on one of these river boats. I guess it's not a canal boat, it's just a river boat, and ride it just to see where it takes me. That's something that if you're not sure what to do in Bangkok, you have some time, just like hopping on public transportation and going with the flow and seeing where it takes you. Have some money for a cab to get back if you're struggling a little bit with how to retrace your steps, but there's just so much to see in this city.

2:03:40 It's a living and breathing city, and it's such a vibrant place, and it's still got that magical feeling for me. I've spent a lot of time here, probably a total of six months now, and it just doesn't get old to me. There are days where I need to take a breather because it's overwhelming, and I just hang out at the hotel or at my condo.

ICONSIAM Markets and Chinatown

2:04:18 These are more shots of IconSiam. I didn't know they did the market at the ground level. That might be worth checking out. I might walk over there one night. I thought it was all up here in the building, but that's nice.

2:04:36 What else can I pull up that would be interesting? I kind of want to go back to Chinatown at some point. Chinatown is touristic, but they've got a lot of cool architecture and a lot of interesting little sois. I lived near Chinatown at the start of the pandemic, and it was really cool to experience it with very few people because it's normally packed with tourists.

2:05:19 They celebrate Chinese New Year. Very cool. Dim sum. These look like some dim sum pots. Could be wrong about that because that looks like some grill marks or like a grill grate or something at the bottom. But yeah, it's got, reminds me a bit of what I've seen in Singapore, like some parts of old-school Singapore that they haven't really changed much.

Outdoor Markets and Small Business Experience

2:05:57 Yeah, it's so much fun. The outdoor markets, being able to live outside is something that I love about over here. And at first, that was something I missed. Well, not at first, but this trip, when I started this trip off in Thailand, this is neat. This is a market we can take a look at this one where I was saying, you know what I missed from the West is being able to go to one place and get everything. But I didn't realize that was at the expense of having all these interesting individual vendors.

2:06:32 This can really provide a more unique and warm experience, right? Because you're interacting with the small business owner as opposed to like a faceless big box store.

Street Food Adventures: Scorpions and Atypical Foods

2:07:08 All these clothing vendors. Have you tried any of the street foods? The scorpion looks interesting. No, so I saw a scorpion on the ground in Hat Yai. So we can pull up Hat Yai again, real quick, because I want to show you.

2:07:27 So this was not in a market. I lived over here. Okay, that's not it. Okay, so I lived right here. So this is the building I stayed in, across the street from the university. And there's a market trying to get it to pull up. I can't think of the name of it. It's not wanting to pull up. There's like a market here, and I saw a black scorpion on the ground, just walking along, and it looks creepy.

2:08:09 I haven't tried that stuff because I'm not as adventurous. I'm a little bit, uh, what's the word? A little bit nervous about that kind of stuff. So yeah, not for me, but no judgment. That's something that you're interested in, or maybe have some friends that are a bit more adventurous.

2:08:31 I think it's neat. I mean, not for me, but I think it kind of destigmatizes some of the maybe scared feelings that we have about atypical foods, because you'd never see that in the West at all. I've never seen anything like that being served in the United States.

Prince of Songkla University and Agricultural Studies

2:08:56 I wish they, uh, let me pull up a photo because the Prince of Songkla University is really a beautiful campus. So here we could see the signage. Like that sign, it's such a cool artistic. This is a good picture of the university, but yeah, surrounded by these beautiful hills and then the lake there. So like, retro-futuristic, but there's also like a cornfield here. I filmed some videos in it, and I don't think it's going to pop up, but the agriculture department here has like a cornfield that they maintain.

2:09:43 So I guess this is like when they're planting, and this is pre-corn. But yeah, this is where they plant all this corn for, I guess, the students to study.

2:10:08 Yeah, I, it's just not for me, you know? It's not super appetizing. I also worry about my stomach having some kind of ill effect. And they're also not necessarily cheap. I know that's probably not the first thing that comes to mind when people look at bugs for sale for food, but you know, that's just not something I necessarily value a lot. I'd rather have like pork or some kind of like a chicken dish or maybe some beef or some veggie dish as well.

Hat Yai Dim Sum and City Landmarks

2:10:44 And we can go from here because I'd like to show a bit more of Hat Yai, just because I don't think it's as covered as much. There's the, well, this spot we could start off with a dim sum. Fantastic. This is like probably the most popular dim sum spot. It's confusing because you order the dim sum across the street. It's a kind of a strange feeling. You basically order the dim sum over here, tell them what you want, and then you go across the street and sit down in their lobby. You sit down in here, and then they bring it across the street after they've cooked it and bring it to your table.

2:11:25 Their air conditioning is awesome. This place was ice cold, frosty, super comfortable dining area. And that's kind of where I started off. But you can come over here to this area. This is like, I guess the fanciest hotel they have in Hat Yai, or one of them. Lee Gardens Plaza, probably the tallest building in Hat Yai, or one of the tallest. But yeah, I like the way that they all kind of like, it almost has like a dome shape with the buildings as they gradually get higher. And I love that they lit up the building this way. That's just so cool.

2:12:07 I didn't go inside, so that's something I might need to do next time. They've got the train station here, which is neat to look at. It's a pretty big train station. I think you can ride the train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and then Bangkok to Chiang Mai. So this is like one of the, this is probably the southernmost big city in Thailand, and Chiang Mai is the northernmost big city in Thailand. So it's kind of this almost anti-Chiang Mai feel in a way. It's quite different.

2:12:38 If Chiang Mai feels more like Myanmar or Laos, then Hat Yai feels more like Malaysia.

2:12:57 And what else? What else can we show here? There's a clock tower. You know the clock tower is really a beautiful spot. I like the way it kind of acts as a North Star. You can use it to figure out where you're at in this part of Hat Yai, like the city center of Hat Yai.

Central Mall Hat Yai and Camera Equipment

2:13:22 Oh, and I didn't show Central. So Central is the biggest mall in Hat Yai, massive. Centrals tend to be pretty big anyway, but really nice spot. You can tell it's popular in town for people to go and, uh, they've got a nice movie theater lobby. Super nice. I didn't see anything I wanted as far as on the reel, but also great restaurants. I went and had some ramen here. In the basement, they've got like McDonald's. They've got a bunch of Halal stalls too, if you're a person who eats Halal. So it's, yeah, great course. They got the ice cream shop, and it's, you know, it's a nice air-conditioned environment for during the day, because Hat Yai, I was joking around, they should change the name to Hot Yai, Hot T Yai, just because it was really hot.

2:14:24 But yeah, convenient place. Now I was looking around at some camera equipment. They didn't quite have the Osmo Pocket 3 here at the East Center. So that's something that hopefully Thailand will get more of in the coming months. It was maybe four or five months ago, they're easy to get a hold of. For some reason, here they've just been not quite so easy to get.

Hat Yai Gyms and Aggressive Dogs

2:14:50 Hey Tony, good to see you. Welcome to the stream. How are you doing today? Going. I'm just showing off Central Mall in Hat Yai.

2:15:21 But yeah, what else can we show? There's a nice gym I worked out at. Let's see if we can find it. It's, uh, should be on Punom Road. Well, I can't find it, but I will share this reservoir I went to check out. It's a beautiful reservoir, but there was nobody there when I went. Very different from the reservoir by Prince of Songkla University.

2:16:03 And, uh, I don't know if he was a groundskeeper, but he had like five dogs with him. And all of a sudden, one by one, the dogs come running out. They all surround me and they're barking at me. And he comes and gets them. That was a stressful moment. They definitely did not like me. And I didn't have immediate access to like pick up a rock to kind of scare them away. But that's something to be cautious about. Some areas you do have some aggressive dogs that you should be mindful of.

Appreciation and Positive Feedback

2:16:31 I think Bangkok Pat got bit in like a random soi in a less well-traveled corner of Bangkok some months back and had to get like a tetanus shot. So something to be aware of. But yeah, just part of it.

2:16:51 Yeah, part of it. I think this might be one of them. But it's a nice place to work out. You know, it's a nice. Wow, that looks beautiful. When I went, I didn't see the fog. Maybe this was taken in the morning. What a beautiful view. And when I was walking from here back to, uh, oh, that's so kind, Tony. I appreciate that.

2:17:18 As my late grandmother would say with an Italian accent, that Alex, he is such a nice boy. That's really kind, Tony. I really appreciate you saying that. That's very, very nice.

Rest and Content Creation Strategy

2:17:30 Lex Vex says, happy Friday. Yeah, happy Friday. Happy Friday. It's a good Friday. I feel very well-rested. I've been definitely getting better sleep and feeling more energetic.

2:17:46 I've taken some time off this week to just kind of chill out because I was going hard in Bangkok. I mean, I was out recording every day and trying to make more videos and stuff and get a lot of recording done to be able to go back and cover some topics after I leave Thailand. I'm also trying to stock up footage in the case that if I get a job back home at some point, I can still record some content and discuss my experiences even when I'm not over here. This is just because the editing is the most time-consuming part for me. Recording doesn't seem to take that long, and coming up with ideas is super fast for me, but editing is really the time-consuming thing.

Hat Yai Municipal Park and Tallest Buddha

2:18:28 If I'm back home and I don't have much to do after work or on the weekends, then knocking out some content to help all of you would be wonderful. Kohong City, but yeah, that's Kone Ren Reservoir. And what else can I share from here? Oh yeah, I can show you something else from Hat Yai. And after that, I'll get to your question, Tony. There's the Municipal Park.

2:19:03 This is probably one of the big highlights. There's like a golf course down here, a golf driving range. You walk by that and get up here to the Municipal Park, and there are a lot of different trails you can walk around here. I tried to go to this restaurant, but it was closed whenever I walked by it. I was like, 'Ah, it's perfect,' but you've got a beautiful view of the city.

2:19:35 They used to have a cable car, well, they have the cable car, but it's closed right now. Wouldn't that be so epic to be able to take the cable car to the top, like, and just see the beautiful views of the city from there? Incredible. But for whatever reason, it's closed. I think it closed during COVID. But then you get to the top, so I walked all the way to the top, and you have the Brahma Shrine, but there's also a Buddha up there. I'm trying to find the huge Buddha up here.

2:20:18 This is well, this is one of the spots. I'm looking for the big Buddha. Okay, this is the tallest Buddha in southern Thailand, and it is a sight to behold. It's super nice. I guess that's the cable car if they hopefully get it working. If some of you make it to Hat Yai at some point in the future, they get it working for your visit.

2:22:00 And the dragon that you go through, you start the walk up the hill through the mouth of the dragon. It's just like a really interesting visual effect to be walking around the tongue of the dragon. Then it gets into this winding kind of path up, and you see the gorgeous Buddha at the top. And then the view over the city, a really beautiful view. You can see the mountains in the distance, and you can spot a lot of the big buildings in Hat Yai as well. You can spot the university. Really a nice experience.

Hat Yai's Underrated Appeal and Local Culture

2:22:41 Tony asks, 'How is your journey to FIRE going?' It's going okay, Tony. I'm treading water, maybe going a little bit backwards by being over here. But I also look at it like, who knows what the future holds for me? Being laid off last summer, I wanted to jump on this opportunity to come to Thailand, and I'm glad I came. It might set me back a year as far as putting money away, but the tech industry being the way it is, I didn't have tons of opportunities to make money. And it being so expensive in the states, I was thinking my money would go a lot further over here.

2:23:27 I'll be able to see and do a lot of things that I've wanted to see and do in Thailand for a while. In the past, I've only been able to come for a month or two at a time. This way, I'll be able to really dig in deep and explore the country and see some stuff I never had time to see, like this temple in Hat Yai. It's really incredible.

FIRE Journey and US Tech Job Market

2:23:57 Hat Yai is not super popular or maybe not as well-known among Western tourists. When I was there, it was just me and some Thai folks. You can also see the mosque from there, so that was a neat experience. I didn't check out the mosque just because I think you have to be Muslim to visit. But it's a really stunning building. A lot of the Hat Yai Fried Chicken vendors are Muslim ladies, and that's something you have to have if you're a meat eater when you come to Hat Yai: the fried chicken. It's fantastic, and they serve it with fried garlic and rice.

2:25:04 Tony says, 'I thought the job market was good for tech jobs.' It was really good a couple of years ago. What's happened, Tony, is that in the US, they've raised the interest rate. It's up to maybe 5.5% or 6%. The result is that it's become much more expensive to borrow money. As the interest rate goes up, the interest rate on loans goes up, and a lot of these tech companies rely on being able to borrow money for cheap to rapidly accelerate growth.

2:25:44 When you had the artificially low interest rates in 2021, 0%, they could borrow like there was no tomorrow, and there wasn't a worry about profitability. They were totally focused on growth, so they hired and hired. But now that the interest rates are up, they have a lot of pressure from investors to reach profitability. If you're not profitable, you're not going to be able to borrow the money to grow. That's where a lot of the valuations were hit hard for the non-profitable tech companies.

Tech Layoffs, English Tutoring, and YouTube

2:26:19 Tech companies that are already profitable have been doing well, like Facebook. Their stock has been doing well. I own some Amazon and Google stock; they've been doing well because they've been profitable for a while. But companies that I like, the company I worked for, I won't name them out of respect, they're not profitable, and so they had to do a bunch of layoffs. A lot of companies that are not profitable, like startups and smaller companies, have had to lay off people.

2:26:52 So there are tons of people looking for work in the tech industry right now. When I'm applying to jobs, I'm seeing well over a hundred applicants very quickly. Do you have any interest in tutoring English abroad if the IT market dries up? That might be a backup plan. Well, you know, that is an option. It can be kind of a repetitive thought process. On one hand, I think English teaching will be impacted by AI. There are already platforms offering AI English lessons.

2:27:32 But on top of that, you can't save a lot of money. It would stop me from spending as much, like if I earned enough from teaching English to cover my expenses, that would stop my burn rate. But it wouldn't necessarily push me further toward FIRE, so it's been on my mind. It might be something I look into in Vietnam, maybe for three to six months or something like that.

2:28:01 The challenge is that in Thailand, everybody wants to live in Thailand, and the cost is not as cheap as some other places, so it's pretty competitive. I would have the advantage because I have a bachelor's, but it's not something I feel confident in doing long-term. I feel more comfortable about doing YouTube and trying to grow my YouTube channel. Of course, I'm not making much from my YouTube channel; it's still in its infancy, but there's a higher ceiling when it comes to YouTube.

2:28:36 I enjoy YouTube so much that even if I never made a dime from it, I'd still do it anyway because I like connecting with people. To me, it's more fun than a hobby. With English teaching, I've done it in the past, and it can be rewarding, but it can also be a bit more repetitive. With YouTube, I can go in all kinds of different directions, cover different topics. We have wonderful subscribers like you, Tony, that introduce new ideas and subjects to discuss.

Long-Term Career Aspirations

2:29:04 But with teaching English, you're often having somewhat repetitive discussions, like 'What's your name? What's your job? What are you studying?' That kind of thing over and over again. It can just be a little bit too repetitive for my style. No judgment against it, I'm not above doing it, but I don't know if it's something I could do long-term. With YouTube or with tech sales, I feel confident that I could do them for a long time until I hit that Financial Independence number.

2:29:43 So yeah, those are just my thoughts on it. I'm not opposed to doing it, not necessarily convinced that it's something I could do in the long term. What else in Hat Yai? Is there anything else that comes to mind in Hat Yai? I think that's most of what I wanted to cover in Hat Yai. There's, you know, I mentioned...

Bangkok Parks, Restaurants, and Shopping

2:30:33 I guess we could come back to Bangkok and talk a bit more about Bangkok. I haven't made it down there. I wanted to do this week, but the time just flew by. I really want to check this park out; it's just such a beautiful park. You can rent a bike here and ride it around over these beautiful paths and bridges.

2:31:01 I did try durian, and I got an overly ripe durian, and that was a strong smell. I want to check out this restaurant I want to try in Bangkok, Lamia. So it's like, I think it's...

2:31:22 Bangkok lamia, so it's like, I think it's attached or down the street from Bangkok Hospital, but it's this Portuguese restaurant. It's a Thai lady, and she does Portuguese food, so it's really interesting. I know I've been talking a lot about Portuguese food.

2:31:50 My Thai friends want to go check it out with me. I may be going to a cafe with them instead, but I did check out Samyan Midtown. I checked this out last week, I think, and it's another nice, modern shopping mall. They've got a lot of nice places to eat here, and the design, of course, is really cool to look at.

Jim Thompson House and Historical Preservation

2:32:34 In NBK, there's a lot of places to go. That's where I got my battery replaced on my phone. I want to check out the Jim Thompson House. Even with all the trips I've done to Bangkok, I don't think I've been to the Jim Thompson House. He built like the largest silk business in the region.

2:33:03 It's kind of like old-school Bangkok. He built this beautiful house and then he just disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to him, but his house was turned into a museum. You can see these beautiful koi fish that they have there, really well-maintained. They really put a lot of effort into maintaining this beautiful home.

2:33:27 I remember your interview with a fellow living in Portugal. I thought it was good. I can't recall who that was. Tony, if you could remind me. You've got all these artifacts that Jim Thompson had on display here. It's definitely one of those old-school Bangkok spots.

2:34:04 To be fair, it ain't going anywhere. I see this house as being very historically significant in Thailand, and I think they'll maintain it. They've done a great job of maintaining a lot of historically significant spaces in Thailand, and this is among the most famous.

Bangkok's Central Areas and Shopping Malls

2:34:27 I've got to get over there at some point. It's just easy to miss, and I know that sounds strange, being in the city center and being near the Siam area. But there's it's so, it can be kind of overload being in this area, this central area, the Phra Nakhon area because you've got malls, you're surrounded by malls and skyscrapers and delicious food and BTS stations.

2:34:58 Siam Square One, I've been in this one, but I just haven't been there in a while. Mostly, in my recent mall trips in Bangkok, I focused on MBK.

Portugal Travel Experiences: Faro and Tile Work

2:35:14 How many people have you interviewed? I've interviewed maybe a half dozen people, so I'll go back and check. Portugal is really interesting to me, and you may be thinking of another interviewer, but it's a very wonderful country. I'm happy to pull up Portugal because I've definitely covered the malls quite a bit.

2:35:38 I know some folks are probably getting tired of talking about the malls in Bangkok. So, I went to Portugal last spring and I landed here in Faro and I liked it a lot. Now, the Algarve is beautiful, like in terms of Portugal. I still enjoyed it. I went in winter, so it was kind of slow, but it's so peaceful.

2:36:02 If you're looking for a peaceful destination, I think Portugal is the most peaceful country I've ever been to. It's so quiet, even in this touristic area. It's very popular among tourists. You've got just low population density, not a lot of big buildings.

2:36:31 Sounds like it's raining, maybe a late-night rainstorm here in Bangkok. You've got this marina there. I wish I could find it. We'll zoom in a bit here. I don't know if that's it.

2:36:53 I don't think I saw this either. I'm trying to remember where I stayed. Maybe it was up here. I rented an Airbnb room in an apartment. So this is the Faro Marina and the beautiful sign. And yeah, this was in my video of Faro that I threw together. I recorded the video but just never got around editing it.

2:37:18 The tile work here is just stunning. It can be a little bit slippery in some areas, so it's so well-worn because Faro is such a popular place for tourists. You can see, you do want to be careful. It's a Mediterranean climate, so it's not going to get a lot of rain, but I imagine there's a rainy time of year you'll want to be cautious about.

Portugal's Charm and Porto's Appeal

2:37:39 But the architecture is stunning. It's just such a beautiful place. I'm trying to think if I think of it, I'll mention it to you in the next stream. Please remind me because I'll go back through my videos and try to find that.

2:38:06 That's really got me thinking because Portugal, I was surprised. I didn't really have much expectation. My first exposure to Portugal was I met this math professor. He's Portuguese, and he moved to, funny enough, he moved to Huntsville, Alabama. Isaac mentioned he's in Huntsville. It's raining in Huntsville.

2:38:29 So this Portuguese guy moved with his mom to Alabama from Portugal, got his math degree, then got his math PhD, and now he's teaching in Japan. Guy named Artur, really into tech music. But I met him and I asked him, like, oh, where are you from? Not in a rude way, but we were just talking about our backgrounds. He's like, oh, I'm from this country called Portugal.

2:38:51 And I'm like, I've never heard of Portugal at this point. Like, where is Portugal? Like, what is that? And he told me about Portugal being this small country on the Iberian Peninsula, next door to Spain. And it feels like an island in a weird way.

2:39:12 Portugal, even though it's not an island, it feels like an island to some extent. It's definitely not Spain, but you know, on two sides, you've got water. You've got water on the west coast, you've got water to the south. And then on the north and to the east, you've got Spain. So it's very distinct.

2:39:33 It feels much more distinct than I thought it would. And when I crossed into Spain, I'm like, okay, yeah, this is very different. Now, I was in the Algarve, so I focused down here. I did not make it up to Lisbon or to Porto.

2:39:48 So next time I go to Portugal, I want to go to Porto really bad. It's super high on my list because I love the Algarve, and I think Porto will be a tad less touristy than the Algarve. Still touristic because Portugal is super popular, but it's more of a city vibe.

Port Wine and Douro Valley Landscapes

2:40:08 We can take a look at some of these photos of Porto. Porto is not as popular as Lisbon because, I think, in the winter, it's colder, it's rainier, it's not quite as large of a city. If you're familiar with Port wine, then this is, you know, kind of the home of port wine.

2:40:29 I'm trying to find some of these so you see these buildings. Apparently, in the cellars, they have a lot of big barrels of this port wine. It's a sweet wine, like a dessert wine, something you'd have after dinner. But, you know, I'm not a big wine guy, but when I was in Spain, I had a few glasses because I'm like, okay, what am I getting a chance to try the wine at the source?

2:40:56 So it was a nice exception. It's just so stunning. Porto is known for this bridge and for, I don't know, you wouldn't really call it terraced, but an elevation there in the, I think it's called the Douro Valley.

2:41:22 But yeah, so funny enough, Isaac, I'm actually from Nashville, so I've definitely driven through Huntsville. And my one of my long-term ex-girlfriends, she was from a town, a suburb of Huntsville. I'll say, and never, you know, like, you know, always drove through there just because I feel like back in the US, we're always in such a rush.

2:41:42 But it seems like a nice, like a nice small town, and it's got like a nice vibe there. And then from what I'm hearing, like it's popular, a lot of people like to come to Matosinhos. I struggle a little bit with Portuguese pronunciation, but this is like a, I don't know if you call it the first ring suburb of Porto, but you've got the beach and you've got like this, I don't know if we call that a castle or a fort, but it's a really interesting vibe.

2:42:26 And I didn't realize they had cruise ships up here, but yeah, I guess they get cruise ships here. And I guess this would be a cave. Looks like a kind of a cave, maybe that's just the way that the flora is sculpted. But yeah, Portugal is a beautiful country. It's just got the challenge of a lot of, you know, they, a lot of Portuguese go abroad just because the wages are limited in Portugal compared to like Spain or, you know, places like it.

2:43:00 It's popular for Portuguese to work in France or to work in the UK or work in Germany. From what I'm hearing, Artur works in Japan. So yeah, it's tough. It's some of the best places to live are some of the more challenging places to make money.

2:43:33 And then the, I think it's Vila Nova de Gaia. I don't know exactly where it is in relation to, oh, here, so it's south. So this would be south Porto, basically. You've got the barrels. These are the barrels I was talking about. And then you've got the Douro here. I guess that's how they transport them up and down the river, maybe.

Winding Down the Stream and Community Engagement

2:44:05 Maybe some of the wine is produced in the hills and then they transport it down the river on these. The landscape, and it's an art. Like it's a super artistic place too, more so than maybe I imagined.

2:44:52 But yeah, we'll probably wind down the next 10, 15 minutes or so, as my voice is starting to go a bit. I really enjoy everybody joining today and everybody that's participated in the stream. It wouldn't be possible without all of you.

Future Travel Plans: Greece, Albania, and Turkey

2:45:17 Feel free to chime in with any thoughts or questions or anything you want me to cover. We're getting close to midnight here in Bangkok, so it's definitely getting late.

2:45:48 Yeah, Portugal is high on the list to go back to. I will say Greece over Portugal, Greece and Italy, because I have places and I've been wanting to go to both for a while. And Greece is supposed to be one of the top places in the world for people to go, right behind Thailand. A lot of people seem to really enjoy Greece.

2:46:10 I know Walters World recently put out a video on Athens that I watched when I was strolling through Bangkok. I actually have a buddy who lived in Greece for a while, so he's Greek American, but he just wanted a break from America, and so he went over there and lived there for maybe a year.

2:46:32 There and lived there for maybe a year or two, and he really enjoyed it. He think he ended up coming back to America to work, but it's, yeah, really a beautiful city, supposed to be super underrated.

2:46:44 I think JP and Amelia went to Greece as well on their trip of this part of Europe. They ended up in Albania, spending time in Tiran and Durrës.

2:47:05 I do want to do, like, maybe I don't know if it'll be this time because I'm focusing on Southeast Asia on this trip, but at some point, I want to do a trip and do Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, like these five in one trip.

2:47:25 That might be an extended trip. It'll probably take me a few months to do it, but I think that would be really interesting.

Concluding Remarks and Weekend Wishes

2:47:39 But yeah, feel free, guys, to toss up any last thoughts or questions or comments. Anything you guys want to talk about or cover before I wrap up, just because my voice is definitely starting to go and could use some rest.

2:48:07 My coworker went to Istanbul last year and he enjoyed it a lot. I think he went with his wife for a couple of weeks and was mostly in Istanbul.

2:48:50 Just the, this is the Grand Mosque. Oh, and on the water like that too is just incredible. I happen to love Turkish food as well, as you can tell, I'm a guy who travels for food.

2:49:20 I'm sure a lot of you guys are tired and you have some weekend plans to enjoy. Thank you so much, everybody, for joining. I think we're going to wrap it up here.

2:49:32 It's always great to see and interact with all of you. I greatly appreciate your support and your time, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you soon.