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The host is weighing the pros and cons of returning to Asia for travel versus exploring new destinations like Turkey and Georgia, considering factors like cost of living, cultural fit, convenience, and personal happiness.
The host is planning a trip for the upcoming year and is debating between returning to Asia, which offers a distinct cultural experience and a more relaxed pace, or exploring new destinations like Turkey and Georgia. He notes that while Asia is appealing for its cultural differences and affordability, the US provides greater conveniences and infrastructure. This internal debate highlights the trade-offs between cultural immersion and practical comforts that many travelers and expats consider.
The discussion delves into the economic realities and future concerns, particularly the potential for inflation and the impact of aging populations in Western countries, contrasting them with the perceived economic growth in many Asian nations. The host emphasizes the importance of financial planning, living below one's means, and building passive income as strategies to ensure long-term security, especially in light of potential economic instability.
Ultimately, the decision of where to travel or live is presented as a personal journey of self-discovery, weighing factors like social atmosphere, personal happiness, and lifestyle preferences against convenience and economic considerations. The host reflects on past experiences, the lessons learned from them, and the importance of finding a place that aligns with one's values and aspirations for a fulfilling life.
When deciding where to travel next year, consider the distinct cultural experiences and affordability of Asia versus the conveniences of the US. New destinations like Turkey and Georgia also offer unique opportunities for exploration.
Asia offers a more distinct cultural immersion and often a lower cost of living, contributing to a relaxed atmosphere. In contrast, the US provides superior conveniences, infrastructure, and personal space, presenting a trade-off between social engagement and practical comforts.
Future travel plans are significantly influenced by economic trends such as inflation, potential declines in living standards in Western countries, and the impact of aging populations. These factors highlight the importance of financial planning and self-sufficiency.
While not explicitly detailed in the video, the discussion touches on destinations like Asia, Turkey, and Georgia as potential places for extended stays or travel. These locations are often considered for their cultural appeal and affordability, key factors for digital nomads.
To navigate economic uncertainty, focus on self-sufficiency, living below your means, and wise investing. Building passive income streams is also a crucial strategy for ensuring long-term financial security and independence.
The decision on where to travel or live ultimately involves a personal assessment of priorities, including cultural immersion, lifestyle preferences, and overall happiness. Finding a place that aligns with your values and aspirations is key to a fulfilling experience.
The host is currently paying $750 in rent. This is part of the discussion around the cost of living in different locations. The specific location is being kept private.
The host prefers to keep their current employer private. This is in response to a viewer's question about their work situation. The focus of the video is on travel destinations and lifestyle choices.
0:06 Okay guys, I am here for a Saturday's live stream. We'll just give it a bit for people to be able to come on here. And the purpose of this stream is trying to figure out where I should go next year. I've gotten some traction on the job hunt and I have a sense of what I'm going to be doing, so that should open up some time next year for me to travel. I'm just kind of undecided where I want to go. I thought I'd do a stream to try to get some ideas.
0:50 Yeah, we'll just give it a minute to let people hop on here. Just let folks hop on here and chat. I'm kind of tired. Maybe I should make another cup of coffee.
2:08 Yeah, this timing is probably not the best because most of my subscribers are in Asia. Let's see here. May not be the best time. I may have to try to do a stream at another time because this may not be the most convenient time for you guys.
3:32 But if it is, let me know. I'll try to drop a note in case things get going. Probably give it a bit. Uh, I just, yeah, okay. Looks like the mic's going well. Oh, hey. Good. Good to see you, James. It's late there. I hope you're doing well. I just thought I'd hop on here for a bit.
3:50 And I'm thinking about doing some traveling next year, and I just can't decide. Do I want to go back to Asia? Or do I want to try something new? I've kind of been wanting to try something new because it's nice for me to kind of alternate between somewhere I've already been and then somewhere new because I like to go back to the places I've already been, but also I just really enjoy traveling.
4:17 So, I've kind of been thinking about doing something like Turkey and Georgia, which are in, I don't know what you call, like not really Eastern Europe. I guess Georgia would be a Balkan, one of the Balkans. Let me look it up actually. Is Georgia a? No, okay, so it would be a Caucasus country. Um, I guess that would be where the original Caucasian people are from. But yeah, that's one of the places that I'm looking at for my next adventure.
4:56 I should have like a month off next year to travel. So, that's what I'm targeting is trying to do something new, but I may end up just going back to Asia because it's kind of hard to beat and it's very different from here compared to Europe.
5:13 And of course the friendly people and the laid-back atmosphere where I imagine, well, no, I don't have to imagine. I know Europe is more faster. It tends to be faster paced, especially in like non-southern Europe. So, southern Europe, yeah, it's more relaxed, but if you're in, you're talking about central or eastern or western, then it's a much faster-paced kind of atmosphere.
5:39 But, uh, what are you guys up to this weekend? I'm I'm thinking about taking a trip to uh Nevada next weekend and maybe like once a month or every other month, I'll go to Nevada, which is a state that neighbors California.
6:38 And I'd like to make some content over there because it's got a different atmosphere, kind of still that more of a western feeling as opposed to West Coast or what you might call mountain west feeling.
6:51 We're going to Liba Aklan to the Fiesta and ride the balsa boats down the Aclan River. That sounds like a lot of fun. I hope you and Karen have a great time.
7:02 And that that just sounds like a lot of fun, James. I wish I were there. I'm sure that that'll be a really enjoyable experience for you all.
7:55 I'm definitely looking forward to the videos or video content you make about that, you and Karen, because that's one of the coolest things I think in the Philippines is the boats and the just like being able to interact more with the water versus, I feel like in the US, you can, but it's no, you know, it's expensive, it's time-consuming, it's more kind of like there's more oversight, you feel like you're worried about, you know, you're kind of looking over your shoulder where there, I feel like it's more of a community kind of feeling and more relaxed atmosphere. So, that sounds like a lot of fun.
8:44 I may just end up coming back to Asia and doing something different from Thailand and Philippines because I lived in both for about a year. Well, yeah, roughly about a year each. I was thinking about doing mixing up next trip and doing like a Cambodia, Malaysia trip just to kind of try something different.
8:59 I haven't been back to Cambodia in about almost 6 years and same with Malaysia. So I'm a fan of both of those countries and it'd be nice to see different areas. So both of those cities I've just been to the capital Phnom Penh for Cambodia and then Kuala Lumpur for Malaysia, but I'd like to see something like Siem Reap in Cambodia and then maybe like Penang in Malaysia.
9:27 I may just end up going back to Asia. It's kind of hard to go wrong and it's safe and it's beautiful and yeah.
9:43 How are your trips, Stoic? That sounds great.
10:07 What did you think about KL? I think it's underrated. I'm not really a partyer. So, I feel like with KL, then you get a lot of the nice aspects of living in Southeast Asia, but you don't really have the distraction of the party scene, and the infrastructure is great. It's easy to get around. You've got a great subway system. You've got nice shopping malls just like you would elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
10:35 Yeah, and it's not overpopulated. You know, with Malaysia, you've got 30 million people. So, it doesn't have that kind of crowded feeling some other parts of Southeast Asia have. It's not so much like a critique, it's just an observation that Malaysia has a more kind of modestized population. So, even in KL, even though it's a big city, you still have, I think, more personal space. You've got more of a sense of space between you and others.
11:06 You want to go out to a restaurant, you don't feel like you don't like in Malaysia, you don't really see as much of the sitting on stools hunched over a small plastic table, which I like that. I think it's kind of fun and exciting, but sometimes I want something different.
11:23 I've heard Malaysia is kind of described, and this is something I saw a Nomad Capitalist. It's like the US of Asia, so it's diverse. You got a lot of different cultures there. It's pretty, I felt pretty free there. It's the infrastructure I felt was great. Definitely, it's a former British colony and the shopping was great.
11:43 I don't know if it's in here. Yeah, I don't think it's in here, but I've got a backpack in my car that I bought in Malaysia. And what else? Um,
12:02 Yeah, just uh and the food is fantastic. What kind of stuff did you eat, Stoic? By the way, guys, I'm going to grab a water. I thought I brought it with me. I'll be right back. But yeah, describe what you ate in Malaysia, Stoic.
12:39 This is one of those products that I miss a lot when I'm in Southeast Asia. I find it's really hard to find salts or water when I'm over there. It's you could probably find it like definitely in Malaysia where they have they import a lot. Malaysia imports a lot. They probably probably a lot of the beef in Malaysia. Let me look this up real quick.
13:10 Okay, yeah. So, most of the beef is imported from Australia. Um, but yeah, it's it's definitely saucy and spicy, flavorful. I like that you can get such variety there, too. You can have Chinese food there. Not American Chinese. Well, probably somewhere you can find in America, but you can have like more pork-based dishes. Uh, but then you can also have halal. So, if you want like shawarma, like one guy that I used to buy from his vendor all the time, he was from Iran. So, he moved to Malaysia from Iran and his food was fantastic.
13:48 It was like $2 for a shawarma. And the quality was great and the portion was great and it uh yeah, I got to get back to Malaysia at some point. It's just such a cool atmosphere.
14:08 Maybe I could do like two weeks in Siem Reap and two weeks in maybe like a week in Penang and like a week and Hey Mike, good to see you. Thanks so much. Mike is such a kind supporter of this channel, guys. Go check his channel out. He and Venus do a great channel and I watch it when I have time going to and from work.
14:28 I wish I had I could engage more, but it's like a kind of a hands, you know, I got to focus on the road, but that's a that's a time when I have a lot of free time to enjoy. They're in the Philippines, so they're actually in the Manila area and they have a lot of fun with their channel.
14:46 You I think you get like with their channel what you're getting is often more light-hearted content and more chill and it's you know, some channels I find over the last couple years and even when I was there in the Philippines can be a little bit too dramatic and I don't feel like that's the case with them. I think the Philippines is at its best when people have a more light-hearted mood or light-hearted atmosphere.
15:15 So yeah, good to see you, Mike. And everybody check check out Mike and Venus when you have the chance.
15:49 Yeah, I'm just uh thinking about next year. Loner from Sack Town. Hey, good to see you, Loner. Yeah, I think next year I'll probably end up going back. I mean, I want to do something different and something new, but the challenge with Europe, it's more there, it's more similar to the US.
16:10 And I feel like if you're going to spend the money on an international flight and you're going to deal with jet lag and you're going to, you know, you're just going to deal with the hassles and stresses of traveling, I think it's kind of better to go to Asia. Uh, I also just generally like to support.
16:30 Yeah, I'm in California now, Stoic. So, I'm hoping you're having a good time in Asia. I enjoyed my time over there a lot. Definitely want to go back and spend some more time there.
16:44 Uh, are you able to work remotely over there, Stoic? Because Yeah, I'm I've been curious about that.
17:00 Oh, fantastic. Are you still doing like sales? You had told me you had gotten a sales job.
17:19 Yeah, I'm in Northern California, which for me is hard to beat because um Oh, very cool.
17:57 That's awesome, man. You're really an entrepreneurial guy. I wish I had more risk in me. I think what I'm going to try to do, this is like my long-term goal is to build up my passive income and then go back.
18:16 Cuz there's a lot I like about life in California, but there's certain elements that just can't beat Asia. But I like the nature here a lot and I like the fresh air and I like of.
18:31 I like the fresh air and I'm fortunate because in California it's very different from most of the rest of the country. I've got a lot of things that I like to do here as far as outdoor activities. I can hop in my car and go wherever I want. I've got friends in California.
18:47 I'm also going to see everybody next weekend in Nevada. I kind of see California as America's America. New York is excellent as well, but in other parts of America I've lived in, I feel isolated and kind of lonely. So that's something I like about being out here.
19:14 There are lots of Asian culture and different social scenes that I really enjoy being a part of.
19:32 But now that I've traveled all over Asia, I have a stronger sense of what I want and don't want. I do think there are some challenges with living over there that people don't talk about. A big one would be crowds.
19:44 For me, going back to Asia is primarily a cultural thing. I don't know, there are parts of living in America that are just kind of awkward culturally. It's just not the best culture fit. I find people here can be confrontational.
20:06 The country is becoming poorer, and so people are frustrated with a declining standard of living. I don't know if it will come back around in my lifetime, but I find a lot of people are seeing Asia as a rising power right now. You're seeing increases in the standard of living in many Asian countries.
20:35 And I feel like in the Western world, you're seeing the opposite of that. It's also very divisive, where people seem addicted to bad news. I've noticed a lot of people get way too enveloped or engaged in the news.
20:55 I'm just kind of frustrated too with some of the tax scene here, where it's like constant layoffs. I see people get a job, and the job lasts a year, and they've got to find another job. That gets to be tedious after a while.
21:13 Having to constantly be on the lookout for a new job just gets really old. So you can find those roles here and there, but I don't have much of a safety net as far as family. So that's part of why I'm looking at a career change.
21:31 I need something more reliable, something that I can count on long term. I just felt like tech is super volatile and there's a lot of outsourcing. With working in Singapore, you're having to try to get a visa, and then the income is not quite as good as in the Bay Area.
21:57 Like for me, it would just be a big leap. And I think I've seen enough of Asia too, to kind of sense where I'd want to go and where I don't want to go. For me, the places that I'd want to live tend to be the more expensive ones.
22:15 The standard of living I want when I live in Asia tends to be higher than the places I could afford at the current time. And especially when it comes to visas, a lot of people would say just do a circle, right? Go Thailand for 60-70 days, Vietnam for 90 days, Philippines. But I'd rather just find a place and stick it out.
22:45 Cars, good morning. Good to see you. Stoic, yeah, I'm keeping my next career on the DL just because I don't think there are some real wackos out there that watch my channel, so I want to keep that on the download.
22:59 But yeah, it'll make me enough money and give me enough flexibility to do up to three trips every year internationally, and that should be sufficient for me to get enough of the travel experience without some of the hassles.
23:20 Like there were elements of living in Asia, and I think it'd be fine if I'm retirement age because part of what I didn't understand is it's not just about the financial, it's also about pacing. So when you're retired, it's kind of nice to be in Asia because you tend to be older.
23:37 Let's say you're in your 50s or your 60s, you've slowed down, and so you're not counting on being able to do everything fast. Where I'm at, I like to get a lot of things done quickly.
23:51 A few weeks ago, I drove to the nearest largest city. I got a haircut, went to the Apple store, got an oil change, saw a friend, hung out for a while, went to Costco. I got like a bunch of things done in like four or five hours.
24:11 But I found often in Asia, even in places like Singapore, you're not getting four or five things done in that amount of time. There's going to be slowdowns or hangups. You're going to have to take a day to go deal with your visa.
24:28 It's not comfortable to just hop in your car. A lot of people say, 'I'll just buy a car,' but you're dealing with more traffic, it's harder to find parking, and in some cases, things running out in the road. So you have to be extra cautious here.
24:45 It's a very relaxing experience to drive. It's a very relaxing experience to go shopping. I talked about it with a buddy of mine who's from Australia and his wife is from a country in Asia.
24:58 I asked him why don't you move over there? He said, 'Well, there's certain elements of my life in the West I find to be very relaxing. One of those is just going shopping. Like I like going at a leisurely pace. I like shopping in an uncrowded store.'
25:12 I like being able to go. I think in his city there are places that are open late night or early morning, so he could go at off-peak hours. There are just certain conveniences and comforts of living here that I underestimated.
25:28 It's not to say I won't live in Asia. My long-term plan is to actually live over there, but it's... let's see. I haven't been to Iloilo, James. I would like to go next time though.
25:47 Next time I come to the Philippines, you know you're in proximity to Iloilo being in Aklan. Also, several other friends of mine have mentioned they loved Ilo. It was a fantastic city, so that's high on my list.
26:01 I'd like to do Iloilo and Davao next time. So those two are priority. Maybe Baguio, maybe. But yeah, one of the best parts of living in the province is not needing a car. Yeah, I would agree with that.
26:15 If you're in more of a small town Philippines, you don't necessarily need a car because you've got trikes and you've got farmers, and you're closer to neighbors. You can lean on each other more versus being in a city where people tend to not know their neighbors as well.
26:49 Yeah, I think that's a good point about cars. Yeah, I think that's a good way to do it where you get the best of both worlds. That's part of what I'm trying to figure out now.
27:10 If I want to just bounce back and forth because I feel like, I don't know, it's tough because I'd have to do a side-by-side graph. One of my biggest challenges here in the US is just the social atmosphere. It's just not that good.
27:27 It's not dynamic. People don't really talk to each other. People aren't really that social. Vice versa, I like the comforts of here. It's like, which is more important to me? Is it the social atmosphere or is it the comforts?
27:51 I think when you move to Asia, you're trading your conveniences for freedom. So, it's not as convenient in my opinion to live in Asia. Here I can get Amazon to deliver whatever I want in two days. I can get in the car and drive to several different cities within anywhere from like two to four hours.
28:11 I've got a selection of several large cities, and so it's... you know, that's kind of the debate that's going on in my head.
28:39 Yeah, my let's see here. I use a trike or hire a driver for longer trips. Yeah, that's the key to it. Mike, that's a yeah, that's not a bad idea.
29:09 I found shopping in Lazada. My challenge is, depending on the country you're in, they can have a lot of scams. So, I dealt with scams, and I have friends that have been scammed on those platforms because throughout Asia, it's buyer beware as opposed to the US where you have customer service legislation.
29:27 So you have laws that protect you from basically faulty products, where in Asia, it's just basically too bad. You know, if you buy a faulty product, it's on you to try to recoup. And even when you try to get your money back, you get a store credit or it's...
30:02 I think the challenge, cars, is like for the younger generations, there's a lot of younger people who sense that delayed gratification isn't going to pay off.
30:19 Basically, I've talked to a lot of people that have told me, 'Yeah, I saved up for a house. By the time I saved up the down payment, the house had skyrocketed in price.' So, another one would be, 'Well, I tried to work really hard at my job, and they laid a bunch of people off, including me.'
30:37 So now I've got to go back and try to find a new job. And so I found that America has devolved into a low-trust society where people don't, especially young people, don't trust businesses to look after them.
30:48 They don't trust, frankly, the boomer generation to vote in policies that would help young people to move forward. And in turn, businesses don't trust employees to do a good job. And so there it's kind of at this crossroads where people don't really have faith in the system, and the system doesn't really have faith in people.
31:17 I'm still a fan of delayed gratification. I invest. I try to live below my means. I save. With this latest job I've got, it's probably 30-35%...
31:43 Yeah, 30-35% of my income. And so, yeah, that's kind of the big thing for me, cars, is living below your means.
32:00 If I assume, like I went into my last job before I had this job, assuming I was going to get laid off, and I lived on a fraction of my income, and I had people try to tell me, 'You need to spend more money, you're making good money, you need to have a family member tell me, you need to go out and buy a new car.' And I refused to do that.
32:21 And so, that's kind of where we're at is it's like we don't trust businesses.
32:27 Businesses don't trust us, and in turn, businesses don't trust us. For me, if I don't plan to have children, why do I need a promotion? Well, you need to make more money. If I don't intend to have children, I can save a smaller percentage of my income and still cover my retirement. I'm not going to be paying for college, I'm not going to be buying a new car, I don't need a big home.
32:58 But then also, who am I going to leave my resources to? In the past, you had multigenerational wealth or multigenerational homes. Nowadays, it's like if that's not what I'm looking at, my target doesn't need to be quite so high.
33:21 Now, some people would say, "What about when you're seriously ill?" I'm personally biased. I think that the government will allow people to handle that situation due to economics. I think because we have an inverse population pyramid, where you've got much more older people than young people, it's going to cause more severe economic problems in the coming years.
33:45 It's going to make social security insolvent. It's going to affect the economy. The economy may not be able to grow in the way that it did in years past because there's just simply not enough people engaging with the economy.
34:04 One thing they're dealing with now is it because like two-thirds of young men are single? Like, I'm not buying a wedding ring. I'm not buying a large home. I don't need to buy an SUV. My car is about 10 years old, and I intend to own it for at least another 10 years.
34:24 So, with so many young men being single and not engaging with the system, it could cause more economic problems in the coming years where people simply don't engage with the economy in the way that it needs. In the past, people would spend a lot. Now, there's just less incentive to be a big spender.
34:53 I'm not going to say nobody does. I have plenty of friends that live anywhere from below their means to above their means, but it's just a hard sell to say go buy a big house when I'm a single guy and I don't see myself getting married here in the States. Why would I buy a big house? It's very expensive to maintain.
35:17 If I'm not going to have kids, why do I need a bunch of extra rooms? If I'm trying to work a lot of overtime, then I'm not going to be at home. One of my friends in my area works a ton of overtime. Why does he need a big house? He's not going to be at home a whole lot to enjoy it.
35:41 So, as the country becomes poorer, which is essentially what's happening, we can say GDP is up, but GDP is not the sole measure of wealth. If you look at actual things like human capital, a lot of Americans are overweight. I am not as effective as an overweight person as I was a physically fit person.
36:11 And James is making a great point. The 401k and social security may not be there. I tend to not think social security will be totally gutted. I think it will just be inflated to not have as much value. They'll just keep printing money and they may cut it by 20%.
36:31 So where, yeah, you used to be able to eke out a living on it if you had a paid-off home and a paid-off car. It'll drop to where you're not going to starve, but hope your car doesn't break down, hope you don't have any major repairs on your home.
36:49 So, I'm not necessarily so cynical. I think it'll just be weakened to not like Japan's social security pays roughly $700 a month. Japan is cheaper than the United States. It's not so much cheaper that $700 a month is a fantastic standard of living.
37:06 I'm not sure what Korea pays as far as their social security, but I know the UK's social security system is not as robust. So, I think it'll just be a function of the western countries becoming poorer and having an inverted population period.
37:25 Thank you so much, Cars. I really appreciate it. Release Jeff Epstein. Um, yeah, that's a great point. You know, I need to hit up a friend of mine because he recently went to Peru and he loved it. He had also been to Asia prior. This is a guy I didn't think would travel, not because he's a bad guy, just he seemed to be very content with his life in America.
37:52 But he's talking about wanting to do South America next year. So maybe I'll call him up this afternoon and check in with him and just say, "Hey, man." Because Argentina has been very high on my list. I've been wanting to go to Argentina for a long time, probably several years.
38:07 I know it's gotten more expensive due to the change in exchange rates, but I've heard the nature is incredible. I've heard Buenos Aires is like it's got European bones but in South America as far as just the structure and the layout of the city. It was designed similar to Paris, so a very cool suggestion.
38:35 Your name is cracking me up. But yeah, James and Karen, I think 401k, you know, maybe that's a great point. I mean, what do things look like when your population is just simply not as productive? And we've seen kind of a turn as far as immigration policy in the United States.
38:53 I'm not left, I'm not right, I'm politically homeless. But we've definitely on a national level seen a change in policy. Whether you're left or you're right, most people would agree policy's changed. Well, if that's the case, I think the economy may not be as robust in the future. It may not grow at the pace that it's grown in the past.
39:21 And if it's not growing as quickly, can you rely on investments? Let's say you're thinking, I'm going to be a real estate investor because with immigration policy, there's a lot of laws preventing new construction. Well, naturally, if the population keeps going up, but there's laws that prevent the construction of new housing, then real estate will keep going up.
39:45 But if the population shrinks, like you look at Japan for example, real estate isn't necessarily a great investment. Thailand is similar. Real estate, you're talking about countries with aging populations and in some cases shrinking populations.
40:04 And so you go thinking, well, I'll just buy some rental properties and I'll live off the proceeds. But then the demand shrinks. I know with young people, they're so frustrated at the state of the housing market, they're striking down some of these laws to prevent new construction.
40:22 So that's where investments, it's important to invest. I continue to invest, but I moderate my expectations as far as performance. Yeah, exactly. Older people don't buy new stuff or new housing very often. It's just simply not on the table.
40:43 And alongside that, like if you have a lot of older people that don't have kids, I look at most of the guys I graduated high school with. I grew up in a fairly well-to-do area. Houses there range from $600,000 to $2 million these days.
41:03 Almost none of them have kids. And so, it's like, okay, I'm not going to be taking the family on a vacation. I'm not going to be paying for family photographs. There's all these things that like when I was growing up were very common.
41:33 Pay for select soccer, right? The kids want to play soccer. Pay for football, an expensive sport to play. Even going out to the movie theater, let's take the kids out to the movie theater. Summer camp. What else? Dentists, right? Pediatricians. There's so many different industries or businesses that are going to be impacted by people not having children.
42:01 And the people I do know that have kids are struggling. Most of them are struggling really hard. Multiple people I know are involved in custody battles right now. They're having to deal with legal battles.
42:23 And like, you know, it's that's kind of a turnoff from the people without kids. It's like, oh wow, so if I have kids, that's what I have to look forward to. So you have all these, as the economy degrades, we also have the debt issue.
42:49 So, uh, and this isn't like I'm not trying to be alarmist. I think these are fairly mainstream viewpoints at this point. You see a lot of articles coming out about it. People feel differently about how these problems should be solved. I'm not necessarily convinced there is an immediate solution beyond robotics.
43:05 I think that's where you're seeing a lot of investment in robotics. That's, I don't give investment advice here, but that's one area I look at a lot is what companies do I think are going to be able to produce robots to, you know, prepare for the future.
43:26 That's going to be a big thing moving forward is how do we deal? Uh yeah, poor man. I mean, this may not be the topic for you. Feel free to check back in if you want to get back to the main topic. I just kind of meander. I start off with one and then once I feel that I've exhausted it, I want to try out some other ideas that people want to talk about.
43:52 But yeah, it's it to me part of it is also just trying to plan for the future. It's like, you know, one of my favorite countries, Thailand. I love Thailand. I don't think this is a controversial take, but it is an aging country.
44:14 I've had conversations with this with my Thai friends. For what it's worth, I have three Thai friends that I'd say I'm pretty close to. None have children, none are married.
44:27 have children. None are married, and many of their friends who are in relationships are not having children. They're concerned about the future of their economy, and that makes me think I should have a backup plan. If I want to go to Thailand, but then you go to Thailand and many of the services can't be performed because there are no people to perform them. The people that are there are much older, where they may be physically incapable of doing certain types of jobs, like farming, for example, and there are no kids to kind of follow in their footsteps.
45:00 That's the kind of world I think we have to be prepared for, and it very much runs hand-in-hand with travel because a lot of countries, I think, will shift in the coming years. I think you're just seeing where their economies are about as big as they'll be for many countries, or if they're growing, very small parts of them are growing, and other parts are kind of decaying. You see this throughout Japan with abandoned homes.
45:30 So, that's something that I'm thinking about is, okay, well, let's say I fully retire at 60. That's probably a bit later than what I thought, but let's just say that's the number. Well, 27 years from now, a number of the countries I consider living in will look very different from how they look today. They may be in pretty severe economic stagnation. They may be dealing with the problems today, but further down the line, because there's not really immediate solutions to some of these issues.
46:05 So, it's just something I think we have to consider, especially young people that want to retire in say, 20, 25, 30 years, that what we're looking at is a moving target, not just from the finances in our home country, but also the finances in some of these other countries. I don't think the world is ending, but I think that we'll continue to evolve and find solutions, but it's just important to be mindful of them.
46:33 I appreciate your support, Carter. It's complicated. All factors should be considered. Younger people aren't having enough children, so it's my job to provide for their future. Story of my life. Sorry to hear that, Carter.
46:56 K. James and Karen's Adventures say, "I like the Filipino farmers' method of retirement. Have eight kids and raise them right. When the stock market goes bye-bye and the monthly social security guys can't buy a loaf of bread, those what guys don't care." I think there's a lot of value in being self-sustaining, producing your own food. I tried to convince a relative of mine to do that, and they didn't want to do it, and it's not turning out well for them because they're complaining about rising grocery prices but also the quality of the food.
47:31 I think if you produce your own food, you know what you're putting into it. You know, I'm using these nutrients. Maybe some people have a preference for organic methods. I know what's going into this. I can list the ingredients. I know when I harvested it. All these things you can control for, where if you're buying groceries from the store, and of course, I live in an area where, let's just say farming is not practical, then I have to go to the grocery store.
47:59 But even then, I'm in California where the produce is great. But even then, there's some amount of risk. You're hoping, "Wow, I hope I'm buying the right food. I hope they're not using dangerous chemicals to produce this produce or the food that the animals are eating." And you have a lot of hope, where I feel like hope is not a strategy. We should plan more than just hope.
48:24 Hope is important, but it's not just, "Well, I, you know, maybe it will work someday." That's just how it will go. Maybe. No, it's like if you're a farmer and you produce your own food, that's one, it's something to be proud of that you're self-sufficient. I think it's a high agency kind of thing. Like, hey, I'm not relying on a store or a financial system to eat. I've got chickens and I've got vegetables.
48:50 And in the Philippines, if you're in proximity to the water, where much of the Philippines is, you could probably go fishing. So, you can supplement what you produce from your land with what you can get from the ocean. So, yeah, and I think having that family-oriented lifestyle is what makes that country so resilient and able to weather the storm or the coming economic storm because I think people are used to being more self-sufficient and more self-reliant.
49:28 What about Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka is high on my list, actually, for South Asia. I don't know how I would do it. I'd like to do like a Nepal, India, Sri Lanka visit, but I may do like an India and Sri Lanka. The challenge is with India, you have to apply for your visa in advance, so that's something I'd have to do. With Sri Lanka, it's visa on arrival. In Nepal, it's visa on arrival for Americans.
49:57 So that would take a bit more planning, and I think India can be stressful to travel in, but Sri Lanka should be quite not as over the top as far as population and intensity. But that's a great point, that's a great suggestion. Maybe I'll look more into Sri Lanka and India. Maybe that's something I could do. I've been wanting to go to India for a long time. I'm half Indian, but I've never been to India, and I've had a lot of friends from India suggest that I go at least once.
50:45 The Philippines is the best in the world. Young, Christian, tolerant. Yeah, I think the Philippines is all of those things. And you have a very lively atmosphere. It's just a fun-loving place. You have the sense that people think that things are getting better, and I don't feel that as much here in America, to be honest. I feel like a lot of people are skeptical about the future.
51:07 Versus the Philippines, it's like, wow. A lot of my Filipino friends, they just, I sense that they feel like things are on the up and up. Maybe other people feel differently, but that's just been my observation. You don't want to sign up for a 50-year mortgage. No, no, I don't, because I'm 33. That means I'll pay it off when I'm 83.
51:32 Unfriendly Stoic says inflation. Uh, yeah, I think inflation will continue to be an issue because, you know, in the currency system we have, that's the only real way to try to delay the problems is to just make the money worth less and to make the debt worth less because you print more money. So, you're paying back bigger debts with weaker money.
52:00 Back based on the title, back to Duma. That would be interesting. I wouldn't be opposed to going back to Dumaguete. I'm actually still in touch with some friends there. Some of my friends have left Dumaguete though. Some of my Filipino friends have actually moved to larger cities in the Philippines. They got like promotions, found new job opportunities in Manila and Cebu.
52:22 So that would be kind of a downside is some of my friends have actually moved away from Dumaguete in the last six months or so since I was last in Duma. I'm planning to ride motorcycle across India. That sounds awesome. I hope you vlog it, James. That would be really awesome to see.
52:41 Carter says, "I've invested in the Philippines by getting a 40-year leasehold property here in Subic Freeport Zone. It's a good idea to diversify your investments. Leasehold property can be rented out or sold." Very interesting. Yeah, Philippines, I think the population will continue to remain strong, and the demographics will continue to remain strong where it actually does make sense, right?
53:03 You have, I think the birth rate is roughly at maintenance levels right now. But even so, it's going to continue to be an attractive place for people to want to retire there. I think it's an interesting lifestyle that you can have in the Philippines. The weather's nice. It's, to me, it got some of the feeling of Latin America, but it feels much safer.
53:32 You have the warm-hearted culture, the relaxed culture. You, in at least in Subic, you're not too far from import stores. You get the comforts of home, but simultaneously, it's just less stressful than here. Like I said, it's not as, I don't think it's got the danger factor that we have in like Florida, for example. Parts of Florida can be quite dangerous. So, definitely it's, yeah, it's a good idea to diversify for sure.
54:11 But what's everybody getting into this weekend? I'm just enjoying. I'm probably going to go exercise while the sun's out here after a while. I'd like to get some more exercise in and get some sun on my skin. And it's chilly, but it's still sunny, so I got to enjoy it.
55:00 You have a strong disposition. I find it hard to be motivated in Southeast Asia, Stoic. That's just my bias. Like, just with the weather and the pace and the beautiful women and the tasty food, I find it easier to be productive here in America because a lot of those things aren't present. And so it's just a more kind of an industrial place where you feel like life is more oriented toward work.
55:24 Where in Southeast Asia, I see people chilling, and I'm chilling, and we're just having a good time, and it's much more laid-back. And often too, in Southeast Asia, because my social life is so vibrant, I want to touch on something that Carter mentioned earlier. That's a good trade-off. Like, I'd much rather be comfortable in Southeast Asia than trying to scrape by.
55:48 And I think, Carter, when you make that sacrifice, I'm going to stick with the same company for a long time. I'm going to, you know, build up that solid income stream. Then you mentioned also like wanting to plan to live to 100. Then you don't have to worry. That stress is gone. You're pretty much settled for life. You're set for life.
56:09 Where I do worry about the long-term implications of a lot of young people not necessarily being as...
56:15 Young people are not necessarily as effective at planning if the economy continues to grow as it has. On one hand, I'm cynical, but on the other hand, they'll find some way to make it keep growing because the US does attract a lot of really intelligent people from around the world. If it keeps growing, I'll be fine in retirement based on what I have now. But still, we're fighting inflation, so we have to figure out ways to get around that.
56:59 I've got a Philippine ham radio license. Gardening and cooking are my favorite hobbies. My one of my buddies from high school married a Vietnamese woman, and he's talking about how he's going to have to do a trip to Vietnam. That just was funny timing for that.
58:07 Where is the startup based? Is it based here in the US? I wouldn't mind getting into that. Feel free to send me an email. I'd love to hear more about that. With this new line of work, I found there's some amount of flexibility as to when I can start. I wouldn't mind doing that, but also I know it can be very demanding, and you do make a trade-off as far as living in Asia and trying to earn enough to continue to save and invest, but then also you want to have time to enjoy your life. So it's definitely tough to balance all that.
58:51 Flowers, trees, and vegetables. We have a little yard, plenty of sunshine, and lots of time. That sounds really relaxing and a great way to decompress from the grind in the US. I find that de-stressing can take a while, and we all have habits ingrained in us from working.
59:17 That's something that I shared with you. Oh, okay. You started it. Oh, you got funded? That's awesome, man. So when you got funded, that was okay. So it took you a while to get funding. I'd love to talk more about that at some point in the future, because that's really exciting.
59:43 If I could do things differently, I would have tried to pursue more of that realm, and I'd be back in Mai. I'm talking more about what I like about living in Asia.
59:59 I'm just gonna put this hat on, guys. It's a Boston Bruins hat from a hockey team. I found it at a thrift store for about $4. With living in Asia, I feel that the people are more introverted. In America, the people are a lot more outgoing and talkative, and that gets tiring to me after a while. I'm cool with not talking a lot.
1:00:31 If I could spend all of my waking hours just reading, that's what I would probably do. If I was rich, I'd probably do five to eight hours a day of just reading books about investing, history, mostly those two subjects, but a lot of different subjects.
1:00:58 Yes, man. I was doing Uber Eats, putting this together, then transitioned to tech sales, but now doing this full-time. That's awesome, man. You have a go-getter attitude and personality. I feel New York City creates a lot of people like that; it attracts a lot of ambitious and hardworking people.
1:01:42 And yeah, with Asia, you don't need a lot of money to be comfortable. In Chiang Mai, I could live on a grand amount, like a thousand US dollars per month pretty comfortably. My rent was about $250. At current exchange rates, it's probably $275 for a studio. My groceries and food were probably $350 to $400 a month, depending. My gym was like $20 to $25 a month, and visas were like another hundred a month, plus unexpected expenses might be $200 a month.
1:02:26 So I could focus on things a lot better there in some ways because here sometimes I feel like stress can distract us. Over there, the relaxed atmosphere can distract us. It kind of depends on which one the person prefers. I found that once I explored enough of Chiang Mai, then I kind of had a sense of what was out there, and I could spend more time at home just like reading.
1:02:54 So, I would just spend a lot of my time when I lived in Chiang Mai reading at home. Cars, great question. What happened to the idea of getting a nursing degree? So, I'm still thinking about doing that. I thought about working for about five years to save up to pay for that.
1:03:11 I think there's an opportunity cost there of not working for a couple of years while studying nursing because, as far as I know, in my area, there's no nighttime program, so I'd have to study during the day. It's also not something I could do remotely. People have talked about remote nursing jobs, but do I want to be working overnight in Asia? I don't know. That's not the healthiest way.
1:03:40 I still go back and forth on it, to be honest. Cars, the earliest I could start locally in the area I live in California would be fall of 2027. So, we're looking at probably about a year and a half. I got a pre-law degree, so I originally wanted to be a lawyer and I thought about going to law school, but I found out the outcomes aren't that great.
1:04:01 Actually, there's a lot of underemployed lawyers and a lot of predatory law schools. I had a lot of outdated information growing up. So, I was around people that gave a lot of advice, and I was too naive to know better.
1:04:28 In an area of the country, the southern US is not innovative. It's not an innovative part of the country. I don't think it will ever be an innovative part of the country. So, I got a lot of bad information and a lot of bad suggestions about what direction I wanted to go in, and a lot of pushback to pursuing the things I actually want.
1:04:49 I grew up around a lot of unhappy people, and when people are unhappy, they have a crabs in a bucket mentality and they want other people to be unhappy. So, I've had to distance myself and cut a lot of those people off. It's just not practical for us to spend time together when I'm not going to... I basically shouldn't have to explain myself to other people that claim to care about my best interest or what I want to do.
1:05:18 So, yeah, long story short, nursing, I go back and forth on it. I still think about doing it. There's a guy, Jay, who does the channel Jay's Philippines. I'll drop the name of the channel down below. He did his nursing degree in his late 30s, graduated at 40, and from 40 to 50, all he did was just work tons of hours and grind and put away a bunch of money, and that's what bought him a house and helped him support his children. That was a really great plan for him.
1:05:55 I'm thinking, do I want to go this other route that I haven't really talked about much, or do I want to go back to school? There's also some concern if there's Medicare reform, will nursing pay as much as it does now? Because if you have Medicare reform and the government is not as willing to pay for a lot of healthcare services, then you might have a flood of nurses on the market.
1:06:34 I also think education is a lifelong pursuit. I tried MBA programs in computer science. Basically, it keeps you growing in the right direction. I agree that's a great attitude to have: always evolving and always trying to develop your education, your skill set.
1:06:52 And I think it's I'm trying to figure out that balance now where I can get in a higher-paying opportunity to start putting away more money now.
1:07:13 Yeah, that might be my goal. James and Karen are just trying to work a lot of overtime, continuing to live below my means, keeping my 10-year-old vehicle, not going out and getting a big mortgage, and stacking a bunch of money. Getting to the point where it's like, okay, now I've got, say, $2,000 a month in passive income. That's kind of a rough target for me.
1:07:40 And then once I get to that point, and maybe once I get to a higher-paying job, I'd like to start documenting that. But then once I get that, say, $2,000 a month of passive income, I can start to re-evaluate. Is it time to move to Asia? How much of an emergency fund do I want?
1:07:58 There's also substantial opportunity cost. Vlogging, contrary to popular belief, is not nearly as well-paying as what it's made out to be. Are there vloggers that make great money? There are, but for a lot of people, they could make more money doing like even just my job now. My job now is not an incredible job, but I make far more than that enough to support myself versus vlogging where it's like, okay, you know, it's kind of like trying to make it in Hollywood or professional sports versus your standard 9-to-5.
1:08:36 It's much easier to support yourself with a standard 9-to-5 versus I'm going to be an entertainer. There are people that make it, but it's there's a lot of... I've had people try to tell me I failed. I'm like, I didn't really fail. I tried it out. To me, failure is often used as a bludgeon for people. Like, if you fail, you're still learning a lot from your failures. I didn't succeed in tech sales; that means I'm a failure? No, it just means it wasn't the right path for me.
1:09:09 I find a lot of people can be overly critical if you're able to do things they couldn't do. I've had a number of people get angry that I was able to live in Asia for a couple of years. They're stuck in the rat race. They never took time for themselves, and life is so short.
1:09:36 But I just think it's important to consider the tradeoffs. But yeah, guys, I'll probably wind down here in the next few minutes. My voice is starting to go. I don't know, unless you guys want me to keep going. I worked seven days a week and swore off toxic women. Luckily, I met Karen. Yeah, there's I mean that's...
1:09:58 I met Karen. Yeah, there's I mean that's kind of where I'm at too is I don't foresee myself dating again in the United States. It's the very adversarial culture. I find a lot of people that are my age that are single tend to have baggage, and I have baggage. I'm not one of these, 'Oh, I'm such a catch, I'm the prize and they're all not.' I've got my own baggage, but I find that in other parts of the world, there may be more tolerance for my baggage, for my challenges, for my background or issues versus here where there's even though very few people, a limited number of people my age own a home and all that, the expectations are very high in this country.
1:10:50 In the United States, expectations across the board are very, very high for every aspect of life and for people in general. And so that's what I found appealing about Asia is people seem to be more content, whether it be Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia. They tend to be more comfortable with less.
1:11:14 I cut grass when I failed, but it was a good thing. I charged $25 a yard, $50 bucks an hour became my base wage plus benefits when I landed. Yeah, that's fantastic. And you probably learned a lot about entrepreneurship from that too, like how businesses work and skills like sales, how do I sell my services, collecting, how do I collect payment, how do I communicate with customers?
1:11:38 I think failure actually is a really good thing. And I feel like maybe it's just the state of the economy, people are more suspicious or skeptical of failure. For me, you know, people often tell me, 'Oh, you failed in the Philippines.' And it's like, well, I had the intention to go to the Philippines for one month. I did not intend to stay eight months. So, I was going to go for one month. I thought, 'Ah, it'll probably take me a month to get a job and I'll go back.'
1:12:02 Unfortunately, I didn't get a job. So, it's like I don't know, people that have envy, they want to say, 'No matter what you did, you failed.' It's like, okay, well, I failed at getting a job, so I stayed in the Philippines for eight months. It wasn't I failed in the Philippines after eight months, and now I have to go back home. I knew that if I couldn't find a job back in tech sales, I'd go find another career. I'm not going to just lay down in a ditch, 'Oh guys, I can't find work anymore, I'm just going to give up and just lay down and give up on life. This is all too much.' No, no, no.
1:12:35 It's like I prefer tech sales because the compensation is good, the quality of life is decent. If I can't find my way back into that, I just have to pivot. I just have to. And absolutely, freedom felt good. It was great to have free time to myself. It was the first time in my life between Thailand and Philippines, I had a real break to plan for the future, to think about the future, think about what I wanted to do, how I wanted to make my next steps.
1:13:04 I don't regret it. I'm not in a position where I'm I abandoned a family or I, you know, broke the law or anything like that. I learned a lot. I also was testing out what do I want my life to look like? I found a lot of people I grew up around, they didn't really effectively plan for their retirement years. Part of that is socially. They, the people I grew up around that were retirement age, tended to treat people badly over the course of their lives, and now they're in this position.
1:13:39 And this isn't just me saying this. I had an ex-girlfriend tell me this as well because she was in a similar position where she had these people at retirement age. They had all this, all these resources, all this money, but because they had used and manipulated other people in their lives, nobody wanted to be around them. So they spend all their time trying to beg other people for attention. 'Why doesn't anybody visit me? Why doesn't anybody come see me? Why am I so lonely? Why am I so unhappy? Why am I so isolated?'
1:14:09 And I was trying to figure out, okay, well, they're clearly unhappy. What they've done while they are materially wealthy, what they've done is not led them to happiness. And in fact, they seem quite unhappy. What can I do to change things up where I hit that target? When I'm retired, I'm supposed to enjoy life. I've finally done working. I've got enough money to last me the rest of my life. How can I set that time up to actually be happy, to have a sense of community, to have peace and quiet, to live in an area that I want to live, to be in a culture I want to be in?
1:14:44 And that was what living in Asia for a couple years was doing for me. Really, the initial plan was just a year. But can I do it? Is this something? Because visiting and vacationing there is not the same as living there. I'm sure you're familiar with that, Cars, that you, you know, you probably had visits to the Philippines prior to moving there. I I'm pretty sure that you've told me that. Maybe not. That's not the case. But a lot of us, we visit there before we move there and we think, 'Oh, this is vacation mode. It's awesome. It's everything's beautiful. The women are beautiful. The weather is nice. I get to go to the beach and do all these things.'
1:15:22 But when you live in a country, it's not the same. You're not in vacation mode anymore. You're having to do boring things like, I've got to go get my visa updated. I've got to go and print some documents. I've got to, you know, I've got to do errands for back home. I've got to log into this website. I've got to call up my bank and tell them I need to have my services continue. You have, I have to go exchange money. I have to do all the, I have to have a higher cleaning service. All these very boring things that if you don't know what that's like, you could be caught off guard. I figured I can live over there. That was ultimately the conclusion I came to is that some of the magic or the excitement did wear off, but it wasn't like, 'Oh no, I could never do this.'
1:16:10 Where some people, they do find that's the case. They go over there and they're like, 'You know what, vacation here is awesome. I can't live here. This is not the way I want to live every day.' Uh, it's great for having a good time. It's great for having fun, but I prefer my life in my home country. And there's nothing wrong with that. I don't think there's any, I think that's better than some of the guys I met in the Philippines that they no longer wanted to live in the Philippines. Maybe they had their relationship go south. Maybe they felt, 'Oh, I can't live on a king for a thousand a month.' Like they felt like their budget didn't give them the quality of life that maybe people talked about, say, 10 years ago.
1:16:52 Uh, and so but they're stuck, right? They didn't prepare financially. They didn't plan, 'What if this doesn't work out?' Now I know roughly what how I want to live and how much that costs. And I know how I don't want to live. And I know, yeah, I just have more of a sense of what that's going to look like for me. And I have a target. I'm even though it's a moving target due to inflation, due to geopolitical changes, I have a much stronger sense of what I'm working toward. And I think, you know, I just I didn't know what that was like. I was taught growing up, 'Make a bunch of money to buy a bunch of stuff and people will like you.' And I learned that that's not actually the case.
1:17:37 I, when I was in my early to mid-20s, that was my lifestyle. And I wasn't happy. Even though I was very successful in some ways, much happier in Asia. I, in the Philippines especially, guys, I use muscles in my face I forgot I had. I'm so used to hearing frowning a lot because it's you're just dealing with financial pressure, you're dealing with work pressure, you're dealing with relationship pressure. And I just started to smile and laugh a lot more. And I think the Philippines, I really credit the Philippines a lot for teaching me to be more light-hearted as a person. And I credit the Filipino people a lot for that. And I still joke around and talk with some of my Filipino friends now. Some are honestly quite busy where they just don't have the free time, but others do still have free time. And that's, yeah, that's been really rewarding. I appreciate you mentioning I'm a good communicator. That means a lot.
1:19:34 I agree, Cars. Yeah. And if you knew the Philippines was your destiny when you got there. Exactly. It fit like a glove and you realized, wow, I'm also prepared. You prepared yourself to live the way you want to live in the Philippines. I've had people tell me, 'It's my way or the highway. This is the only way to live.' Uh, for some people, living a certain way in the Philippines is fantastic. Other people would be unhappy and vice versa. Uh, there's so many different options you have there. Some people would insist Dumaguete is the only place to live in the Philippines. I don't agree with that at all. I think Dumaguete can be a great solution for a lot of people. Uh, but it's okay. I appreciate you engaging because, um, maybe other folks are just listening while they're driving or they're doing chores. They can't engage as much. But I appreciate it, Cars, for sure.
1:20:25 Um, but yeah, with Dumaguete, actually, I think I'll just keep going because I don't have to work until Monday, so I'll have tomorrow to let my voice rest and then next week for me is only a three-day week. I have Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving. Uh, so I won't have to worry about that as much. But yeah, so, you know, some people would tell me, 'Ah, Dumaguete, you're bust.' And if you don't like Dumaguete, you're a bad person. It's like, no, Dumaguete is a great option. Clark's a great option. Manila is a great option. Davao is a great option. Uh, Cagayan de Oro is a great option. People have to search for what's best for them. And I imagine there's people out there that all they did was visit Dumaguete and they found a city's not for me. Not...
1:21:11 found a city's not for me. Not understanding there's other options that are also fantastic. Some people, they could only live in Manila. Let's say you've got some major health concerns and you need a specialist that is only available in Makati, BGC, or Metro Manila. Basically, then you probably have to live in Manila, even though you think Dumaguete is great, it's relaxed, it's provincial, it's laid-back. You want to be able to have proximity to your healthcare provider, so you choose to stay in Manila.
1:21:47 Other people, you know, I couldn't live in a big city. It does, there's nothing wrong with Manila. It's just a big city and I don't want to live in a big city. So, I'd rather live in a more provincial town. I think there's so many options and it's important to withhold judgment for trying to find the place that's right for you.
1:22:10 And other people will find that they prefer to live in Vietnam. Vietnam is really up and coming right now. A lot of people are really having a great time in Vietnam. By the way, guys, there's 14 watching. Please give us a thumbs up. It helps with the algorithm. But a lot of people love Vietnam. They find, you know what, Vietnam is this dynamic, rapidly growing economy. It's seems to be growing their tourism industry. They seem to be building a lot of new hotels and infrastructure. The country is experiencing this boom, and so that's where they want to be.
1:22:51 It's just got a unique kind of feel. You could say that about every Southeast Asian country, but it definitely feels you can definitely see the presence of a lot of new stuff in Vietnam. You can see that the country was hard up not that long ago, but they're really continuing to improve things.
1:23:25 I enjoy certain elements of it. I don't know that Vietnam is for me, but that doesn't mean it's not for anyone. Actually, a lot of people really have a great time there. I want to go back to Indonesia at some point. That was that's kind of a sleeper for me anyway. I had heard criticisms that Bali is overcrowded, Bali is too touristic. One, I liked Bali a lot, but two, I also enjoyed my time elsewhere like in Yogyakarta and Jakarta was cool too.
1:23:58 I don't know why Jakarta, like people criticize, a lot of people seem to feel maybe intimidated by Jakarta, but I thought it was awesome. That was just my experience.
1:24:17 Yeah, I can't chat too much. I agree, Mike, for sure. Speaking of chatting, I'll probably try to get back into my Discord at some point. I need to put it on my list of things to do. I haven't been in there since I got back to the US.
1:24:48 Yeah, it's nice to mix it up. Those are very different from the Philippines, and you get to experience a different culture. You get to have a different scenery there, more Buddhist. So if you want to see Buddhist temples, there's a lot of Buddhist temples throughout Vietnam and Thailand. You want to try different food.
1:25:12 If you want to, I mean, the Philippines has great malls, but if you want to see different malls, if you want to see maybe some different product selection, like I think you can't go wrong. And most of the countries in Southeast Asia.
1:25:34 Mike says, Philippines is the only Asian country I've visited so far, but we may plan some short vacations to others. I think Thailand is an awesome option. I think you really get a different kind of flavor there as far as it's a, I think it's faster-paced.
1:25:52 The Philippines, to me, in my opinion, is more relaxed, more laid-back. Thailand is a bit faster-paced. I think you have, I don't know how, I don't know if it's just kind of it's different in that way. I feel like people drive a bit faster. People seem a little bit more in a hurry.
1:26:17 I don't know. I think the pace. Yeah, Yogyakarta is great. I would like to go back to Yogyakarta at some point. It's popular in that part of the world, but here I feel like most people know about Bali. They know about Padia, Bangkok, Dumaguete, but Yogyakarta is just one of those cities that's kind of off the beaten path, I think.
1:26:51 And it's you've got Borobudur north of the city. I'd like to go back. I liked it a lot. I felt like people were super friendly and down to earth. The food scene was great. It was just all around a cool scene.
1:27:31 But guys, I'll probably wind down in just a couple minutes just because I think things are slowing down a bit and I want to get some exercise in before it gets dark. It's getting dark early here. I want to look up the sunset time.
1:27:51 Sunset is at like 4:40, but I feel like it starts getting dark around 4 o'clock, so I'll probably head out to the local park here in a few minutes.
1:28:09 What's everybody doing for the rest of the weekend? Nice seeing you as well, Mike. I hope you and Venus have a wonderful rest of your weekend. I know it's early Sunday morning there and it's always great to catch up with you. Love to chat again soon and I'm happy to see you continue to make solid content on YouTube.
1:29:12 Guys, I'm going to wind down here. Any final words to share today before we wrap up here? I hope your paycheck is really big and I'll let you know if I make it to Sacramento. Would be happy to do a meetup at some point if you're in Sacramento. That'd be really cool. I met a few subscribers, it's always a lot of fun.
1:29:50 So, I'll probably be down there sometime in the next few months. So, we should try to coordinate because it's been a few years since I've been in Sacramento and I like the city. It actually reminds me of my hometown a lot.
1:30:10 But anyway, if you're watching this on repeat, guys, please give us a thumbs up. Comment down below. Was this content valuable or helpful? Maybe not if you disagree. Finally, if you want to see more content like this, please subscribe to the channel and we'll see you soon.
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