On this

episode, we discuss what happens when you get bored of living in Bangkok and a few ways to get the love back. So if you've been here a while and your groove has turned into a rut, you'll love this episode of the Bangkok practiced. So what the crap and welcome to the Bangkok Broadcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Thailand in 2001 and who misses fresh, fluffy snow but not the gross dirty grey slush that coats everything for two months. While it melts, No doubt, and I'm Ed canoe with an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 17 years ago. I fell in love with the humidity, the tropical heat and all the weird skin problems to come with it, so I never left. All right, well, we want to say a quick thank you to one of our patrons,

dude, by the name of Tank Williams, who has the manliest patron name. I think we've had so far. Hey supports us at the show shoutout level a stick around under afterward on talking about neighborhoods that will help rekindle your curiosity about Bangkok to hear why Tank has to be careful seeing his name when he visits Thailand. Well, you can learn more about becoming a patron on our website. And, of course, one of the cool things our patrons get is an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we talk about current events in Thailand and basically whatever comes into our minds, we just finished recording this week's bonus show when we chatted about all of the strange things that happened to your body. When you spend any amount of time in Thailand's climates, we promise we didn't go into too much detail. But of course that depends on your subjective opinion of too much. But before we jump into the main show,

I do want to mentioned Ah, video that Greg put together. You could call it a behind the scenes video, which is basically a kind of how we make the Bangkok podcast on. I got to admit that Ah, Greg did all the work on this thing. I think he went a little bit overboard if he asked me. Ah, but the video is, ah, quite detailed. Look at what goes into how we produce this show every week kind of step by step, from the hardware to the software. Some pictures of Ah, uh, the equipment we have And ah,

to be honest, he might be into it just because your cares about this show, but it also could help you. Ah, if you have any interest in podcasting yourself, it's kind of it's a bit of ah, primer on how to do your own podcast, I think. Yeah, actually, I never thought about that. That's a good one, because you get a lot of questions for people who want to start a podcast. I say more the merrier. Um, and we get a lot of questions from people that are answered in that that video which was made just for patrons.

So, uh, yeah, if you want to see it, you got to become a patron. But if you do, it's there just waiting for your little eyes to check out. That's right. Wait. Here's a word question I have for you, Greg. All right. I hesitated a second there, I think in the state we say primer, but the British people say Primer, A primer on something.

Question. Well, the only time I've ever heard that word out of a guy I went to high school with. His last name was Primer Wars. On the movie, Khan was on the movie contact where a primer was a key to something like a key to a code or or something like that. So that's weird. Anyway, I'm sticking with primer. I'm sick with primaries. Well, yeah, thanks. Okay. I'm glad. I'm glad to have your support on Canadians and Americans getting along once again.

There we go. All right. Well, in this episode, we wanted to discuss something that a lot of expats here have probably go through a some point or another. And that is when you get bored of Bangkok. Now, we've always said that if you're bored of Bangkok, the problem eight Bangkok. But we get it like it's normal to want something new after awhile. And one of the ways you can do this is by moving to a new neighborhood. Seems a bit strasse stick. Maybe, but, um, there are several places in Bangkok that offer a really,

really cool sort of out of nowhere. You call it like a refresh, a reset on the Bangkok button. So we wanted to talk a little bit about this phenomenon of how you live here for a long time, and Bangkok sort of starts to grind on you and some of the ways that you can sort of refresh your your attitude and your outlook on Bangkok, which includes a few of these neighborhoods that Ed and I think are really cool spots to live in Bangkok. So what got me thinking about this was a random comment from my buddy Dom the other night who just moved to a very tiny neighborhood after years of living on sick of it. And he said something that made my ears perk up right away, and he put it so well. He said, The living in this new in this new neighborhood has reinvigorated my curiosity about Bangkok, and I thought that was a really interesting thing to talk about. So let's listen to my short interview with Dawn, which I recorded on my iPhone. I'd still think it sounds okay on then Ed and I will talk a little bit more about the issue when we come back from me talking with Dom.

All right, Well, first of all, apologies for any any sound degradation here. I'm recording this on my iPhone because this was a last minute opportunity to interview one of my friends, so I figured I'd better take it and we're now sitting on a little child sofa. It's the top floor off of Central Embassy. So I was talking to my friend Dom, who I've known for years and years, who was a longtime bank, our president, much like myself. Perhaps too much like you. Just for a few minutes. I wanted t to have our intro to the show be a little conversation with Dom about where he moved and why this sort of opened up sort of renewed his romance with Bangkok. Is that a way to put it romance way? All have a romance with Bangkok at some level.

Yeah, I have a very mixed relationship with Bangkok. I've lived here for a long time, is you know, right on Over the years, we've had lots of different adventures around the plant. Sure had lice, but I've always been into now, right? You travel a lot, travel a lot on earlier last year, down place down in Genoa, which was one of these random places we've been out looking for an apartment to live in and this place we keep coming back to down there on 10 on. Yeah, for anyone who doesn't know, this is sort of,

I guess, sort of southeast of sat on sort of north of Ram, a three kind of above What I Hello. Quickly call the nut sack of Bangkok just for Dang there. But it's I get to see the Nutsack every morning. Nice. Well, it's a very cool area, and there's there's no Starbucks where there might be a couple, but there's not a lot. There's no huge development. There's no huge office towers. What was it like moving from Sukhumvit, where you were for many years? To this area? Well,

there's no signal living within 300 meters. Oh, my stars and garters. There's lots of mom and pop stores right on in the morning. You see the the old routine's where the monks are coming around doing the morning outs on the sides toys. You're seeing the guys doing the morning breakfast food across from my street across from out of my condo. I can see all the guys lining up for the job with the local lady down there who sells it. And my maid tells me that this is the best job. Nice. 10 rice porridge, The rice barge. It's so good. Uh, nothing is. I'm having to reboot my tie, which was enthusiastic to begin with.

But now I'm having to use it all the time, right? Right. Yeah. Living on Sukhumvit. You hardly need it if you use it. It's like a bonus. Exactly. But you don't need it. They you need it. And my wife is just laughing at me the whole time watching me do this. But they're really fun. Thing is being now that I've bean here and into the neighborhood of it more really seeing a bit of Bangkok, frankly, robe has moved into Sukhumvit back in 2005 was fading and here it's still exists, right?

And I think that when you talk about the part of Bangkok that was fading I mean, you mean the physical part of it the buildings in the neighborhoods and the culture and stuff like that. But it's also I think it also says a lot about our love of Bangkok as foreigners because a lot of time, especially if you live in Sukhumvit or C Longmore Ari or some of these places we've talked about on the show previously. You can lose a little bit of you could fall out of love with Bangkok very quickly. And I made this for me is being one of the wake up things with being back in this part of town. You see all the neat stuff. You really see the Thai communities on the street. Uh, you you see the on the floor? I was talking with Chris earlier over dinner about her. I've now been mapping out the song tower routes to get right around the neighborhood making your own song. Tell Matt I haven't quite a sum town. Bloody Tim. You have never had to. Right,

right, right. And that kind of that kind of cool. A little old school connection to old bank off and and finding things. I mean, I think I know Bangkok pretty well of being here a long time, but I was literally looking on Google maps, a sort of big park nearby and down. I went down on Sunday morning for a run and we go in there. It's a old Chinese cemetery which is obviously known by the local community, and you can see a ll the old school exercise gear. You've got all the little running clubs like your heaven Lumpini or the dude's having the cups of tea and doing their their exercise stuff. And it's very obviously being there for a long, long, long time and then coming back through the neighborhoods, you see the morning markets happening,

you see all the food. And what was the word you told me that you learned you had to learn because you had to sort of take on some home repairs by yourself? Yeah, well, this is the other thinking about buying a place, right? You actually have to own the the stuff you do, apparently. What is that again on? So that's the degree you wanna buy a part The degree of bend in the elbow of the pipe. They say on saw Sam sit degree or something. Exactly like, you know, as a jersey, that's a whole other aspect of it is because it busts open this whole area of tie that you never needed to know at old. Yeah,

and then this is big. The hilarious part about maybe there is rediscovering that tie that I learned years ago in the back of the book. It was never gonna be useful, right? And now it's all coming back. Yeah, and he said it was also easier to get a grab like a grab a taxi or grab a cart with us. Think living in a room ready? You could never get a grab. And now, down there, getting grabs regularly either to the office in the morning or home at night. I don't know whether it's the distance. Makes it worth while for these guys or we're on a good read for them. Yeah, maybe they just don't want to deal with foreigners.

And they think that area's doesn't have any. You're one of the first wave. You're like a picture of what's coming, you know. You know, when you're on your morning jog, some old Chinese do is ring around like Oh, God, here they come. Sure, though Bangkok being bank up with the long history here with the firm community is down to be some old German guy living around there somewhere. Yeah, just a matter of time. Well, thanks, man.

That's a really similarly interesting insight and Ed and I are going to continue talking now about some other areas in Bangkok where you could get the same experience. But thanks for liking my interest in giving us the impetus to do a whole show on it. Very happy to play. Enjoy your neighborhood. Thanks, man.

You know, I like this topic because, ah, as an ex pats, we all go through phases where we get bored or I don't want the right word is we just get tired of Bangkok. This is something you need to expect because terrorists and maybe even re terrorists they don't really go through. They don't really go through this because they're here for a couple weeks or a couple weeks a year, and they're jam packed with new fresh stuff, you know? Or maybe they're going back there going back to something that they love. And they're here because Bangkok is something special. But for us, like we wake up to Bangkok every day and so it's it's hard to remember the special stuff and especially you and I have been here like almost two decades. It's like you just go through phases where here, like bored with Bangkok Yeah, it always struck me as kind of interesting, too,

because no one back home gets this like, I mean, I grew up in the same town and live there for 15 years, and no one ever said, like, I'm being bored of this town. I'm gonna move somewhere new, like a new country or new city or something like that. It's just that's just where you were. And that's where you state unless you went for college or something like that. But you never moved just to move, You know what I mean? Yeah, I agree. I agree. Now,

I think you know, I like the topic of the show. We are gonna focus on this idea of, you know, if you are a long term expat, like if you've been here a long time But you're in one of these ruts we are going to suggest in this show that uninterested thing to do is just moved one of these very tie neighborhoods. They're not just tie. They're also kind of unique and different. So we're gonna talk about that that way to get out of a rut. But we also just want to talk about just in general what you could do even if you don't actually move somewhere Like what you could do, Just get yourself out of the road and kind of remind yourself of what a, uh, complex city this is because because I think, you know, I mean, Greg said it perfectly.

Like if you're bored with Bangkok, it's really something going on with you because you're right. But you're right, though, because Bangkok is so big and it's so complex. That e I mean, I know we said it on the show many times, but I just keep One of the reasons I stay here is that I keep discovering new stuff, right? Yeah, This is what I say to my friends back home. And I say to my family just this year, I went to this whole neighborhood, didn't even know existed on, you know, it's in general,

I'm not bored of Bangkok. Although I have gone through these phases that were that we're talking about, right? I'm saying saying you're in a rut is a good way to put it, because as expats here, we sort of want to find a new existence that cushions us a little bit. That protects us a little bit that makes us feel comfortable and insulated a little bit. And once you find that it's not easy to get out of it, Um and you can, I think, get bored of that. Like, you know, like I've lived in been here 17 years I've lived in for four different places, which I think is a pretty, pretty low number of places to live 20 years as an expat.

But, um what? What? What? I first lived here. I've lived on peppery by Tong Law, And then I lived. I have lived in Ari and, um, I've lived where I do now, which is, I would say, I don't do now is on the low end of the Ferrand comfort scale, but it's still not as sort of far wrong foreign expat friendly as Chinatown, which is where I got a kick in the ass and I moved to and I was like, Oh my God,

there's so much cool stuff that I know nothing about. That part of Chinatown that you moved to kind of the Talon Noi district is so unique. And that is that's the perfect example of that later on in the show I'll mention like my example of getting getting blown away by some place in Bangkok. But your neighborhood in Chinatown is so different from the rest of the city. That is just the perfect example of you know you could You could be living in Thailand or Bangkok for a decade and feel like you've been everywhere. But if you haven't been to Tallinn oi like you don't know Bangkok. That's right. That's right. And it was It was eye opening experience for me, and at the time I moved there, I had been living in the same little crappy one bedroom apartment for almost five years, and it was getting a bit stagnant, you know? And I liked it, but I was. I knew the neighborhood so well and I knew my little places to stop and he'd get coffee and the motorcycles knew me.

The motorcycle drivers knew me, you know, like, but when I moved away, I moved the Chinatown. It was back then. There was very few other foreigners living down there, and it really sort of opened my eyes. Was walking on, going my guy, like there's so much new food to try There's so many new areas to explore. There's so many new temples to see in coffee shops and stuff. So that was my experience, and I I could definitely report back that giving yourself a kick in the ass to get out of that rut that you might be in living on Sukhumvit or see long or something. It's I don't think it's ever a bad thing if you find a nice little neighborhood to go to. Yeah,

I would say I would say, Take risks and move somewhere. That is, is Maur tie with fewer foreigners, Even if it's a place that ends up being boring, you can always move again like it's you know, it's funny when, ah, you know, when you're young, the idea of doing something for a year seems insane, Right? Right, right. You know, you're like,

you're like for a year. I'm gonna be stuck here, but as you get older, you're like, Well, I could leave there a year or two. It's like, you know, time goes time just goes by faster now. So it's like I could live here for two years there for two years, you know, like you, I I was just calculating. I've only lived in four different places in Bangkok as well. So that means I've averaged four years. Five average four years at every place that I've lived,

right? What was your experience? Moving to a sort of off the radar kind of thing. Ah, well, actually, every new place I've moved thio None of them, I would say, have been totally off the radar. Ah, but but but moving definitely did reinvigorate my interest in Bangkok like it's no doubt just just moving to a different place. When I lived on Sukhumvit soI one for five years when it first came here. Then I moved down so soon which I which is near Bangkok Hospital and that was totally different that soon we chai neighborhood. Yes, Um it's much more tie over there. But then from there I moved to Rajat Ah,

near Fortune town, which was kind of a different type of chaos. And I lived in that European town on the Europe. That European town is totally different. That was a weird place. It was like a square block of Vienna in the middle of bank. Yeah, I don't know if we've talked about the show before. But there's a soy near Raja and Rama nine that they just generally referred to as European town. And it's ah, it's a soy of European architecture, and it's just it's just an odd little place. It's just an odd little neighborhood, and there's a lot of, ah, there's some business.

Is there some shops there and a lot of condos, And it's just a weird little place. And they also film a lot of movies and commercials on that soy because like that, if they need somebody that looks like Europe, they film it on that street. So I had weird experiences there where I would wake up and hear noise outside and I would look out the window and there'd be like a massive film crew on my soy. And I remember one of the weird things I saw was I never saw the commercial they were filming, but they're filming some commercial that involved all types of diverse characters, like charging down the soy so, you know. So it was probably about 30 people, but dressed in totally diverse costume, so they had, like, a samurai guy, like a medieval knight.

Um, like just charging down the soy like all these like strange characters, you know, And that's weird. I mean, that part of town has been growing a lot like that. So I was there just when Central Rama nine was opening. And he has all kinds of there's all kinds of construction around there. That's where I fell in love with Fatties Bar and Diner, which we talked about previously on the show. From there I moved out to tone Marie, where I am now. And as I mentioned on the show before and now I'm in kind of like a quiet neighborhood that feels very suburban, even though I'm right in the middle of the city. Yeah, yeah,

and that's another thing to like what I'm going. I've got three neighborhoods here that I thought about that I thought I could recommend for people. And, of course, like if you get sick of living in downtown Bangkok, I want to change like, of course, you could move out into the outskirts of Tom Burke here, out by Sue Wanna boom or north over up to Don Juan or something like that? Like, of course, it's easy to do that, but you're so far out of the city that it becomes kind of inconvenient. So the three neighborhoods that I thought of is like, Where can you go where you're still close enough to downtown Bangkok, that you still have the option of continuing on with your social life and your work office and things like that without disturbing it too much,

but still find, like these sort of old school more charming, laidback neighborhoods. So, like, I started thinking a little bit about it now, just thinking of various friends that I visited over the past few years and places I've driven through and taxis. Or maybe you have to go and pick something up like Go go to this neighborhood and pick up a package from the post office and you find yourself in this really interesting place. The 1st 1 that came to my mind was a long John Road. It's spelled C H A N in English, which a lot of people say Chan, but it's actually done. I read the street sign on Google Street View. Yeah, I'm pretty proud myself. So John Road goes sort of.

It runs from, uh, Karen Karen Road, which is kind of like near Asia teak, and it runs east up to Neurotic What road, which, which is the one that comes down from trauma non si BTS station and connects up with RAM a three. So there's like a whole little sort of square in there, And that is the neighborhood where Dom lived, who we just heard from on the show. And we're gonna all post a picture of this on the Web site so you can see these areas. I'm talking about more specifically, but, um, as he said, like he's had to learn new words like new tie vocabulary to help him get through the day.

He's starting to remember Song Tower roots like the old Red pickup trucks. It's still sort of circle around old neighborhoods now, so he's memorizing which numbers go to which their destinations that he can get on to, and that's always struck me as a really cool area. There's a lot of little shops, like old framing shops and TV repair shops and old school tie businesses, and there's very few Starbucks is and giant shopping malls and things like that. So Jan Jan Road, the area around John Road, has always struck me as a really cool place to explore and, as Dom said, a really cool place to live as well. Interesting. You know, I've been through that area, but I've never known anyone who lived over there.

But yeah, that's just the just Ah, it's It's kind of old school and it seems pretty tie, but it's it's right in the middle of city. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, easy, easy in and out. And the 2nd 1 I was thinking of. I remember my friend, my friend Lenka, who used to live here, and I was like, This is This is a little bit more out of the way, But it's such a weird,

sort of like area. And if you look on the little graphic that I made, it's the area by the Ram, a three bridge called Bomb Cold lamb. It's served on the foreign of ramen three road around Jared Groom Pressure Iraq Hospital, and there's a couple of tall condos there, right on the river that are popular with foreigners, and I visited her a couple times, and it's just it's just lots of street food. There's a couple of sort of high end Thai restaurants? No, like the ones we go sit on the balcony and look over the river. It just struck me as a really quiet, nice little It's almost like a peninsula. And again, it offers him us this sort of the same experience of John Road,

which is just like this quiet, forgotten corner of the city. That's not it's not really easy to get in and out of, but it's not super far away from downtown either. I don't know if you've ever been done there. Yeah, I actually don't know that area at all. Like I, you know, from your description, I know where you're talking. Yeah, but I literally know nothing about it. So that would be for me. That would be if I, for some reason,

was like, Okay, I gotta go somewhere new. That I don't know anything about. That would be a good example. I could just I don't know anything about that area. Yeah, it's easy. You just get basically Oh, get on Charing Cross Road, which runs along the river there through Chinatown and then keeps going, going, going by Asia teak. And they just follow that straight until you hit the river, and that's where you are. And,

uh, yeah, it's a really nice place, too. And I will quickly, the last one that I that I thought of was I wish I had moved to this neighborhood when I first got to Thailand, because this is where I used to teach. I used to teach at a high school up in this area, and I lived in tongue law at the time. I guess Adam Peppery and I think we talked about on the show before I used to get a motorcycle to the BTS, the BTS to a bus stop and then a bus tow this place every morning and it took me two hours and I think back brutal. Why didn't I just move to this place? Because a lot of other teachers I work with lived up here, and I always thought it was so the only word I could think it was quaint. And it is. It is the area called So a knack on Chae see and slash Deuce.

It sort of along the northern end of Samson Road shirt just a little bit further back from the river. But I was thought there was times of little tiny streets with nice overhanging trees and little cafes and Thai food stalls. I wish I had lived there when I first got here instead of staying in one stupid popular place for five years because it's really nice up there. Yeah, so I've driven through that area. But that's another area I don't know. Well, these air purely my sort of little mental notes of places I've driven through and said like this place looks interesting. I think I should check it out. Well, I gotta say, I think I think Greg has been far more adventurous than I have a CE faras bang got goes. I think it goes back to your bike riding days. And like here, I think you're naturally more of an adventure than I am. Bike riding is a key man.

Key it is. And thanks to your bike rides, you turn me on, too. This area notice bond Crisco and I think we've talked about it before, but it's definitely a place worth mentioning again, because essentially, it's almost like an island in the chopper by river in the middle of Bangkok that once you cross over to this area, you really feel like you're in a totally different city like once you get over there. It just has a different feeling, a different vibe. I remember when we went on a bike right there the first time, probably about five years ago. I was shocked because I think at that time I was probably in Bangkok for 13 years. And when I went over to that island, I felt like I was in a different city.

I felt like I was like in the South of Thailand or something. I don't know. It just has a different vibe, a different feeling. It's got a lot of tree cover, you know. So it's it's what it's. It's nicknamed the lungs of Bangkok. Is that correct? The green long? Yeah, yeah, it's called. It's called the Green Lung. So there's just tons of tree cover, um,

tons of trails and and, ah, narrow roads. Um, yes, it's It's weird. I I almost don't want to talk about it because I assume that everyone knows about it cause I've been riding my bike there for years, but I don't think so, man. It's It's for one thing. It's super tie, my buddy who's a re tourist. I took him there a couple months ago, and, of course there's there are some foreigners over there, but its time and its super tight.

But it's different. It's just it's got a different vibe. It's a different feeling. And did you mention to me that you actually know someone who lives there? Yeah, yeah, My buddy Paul. He was actually a guest on Season two Episode 22 of the Bank of Podcasts, and he rides his bike all the time. And we talked about how a lot of that green cover is actually disappearing because, he said, every time he goes out on his bike, he sees another big chunk of land that's been clear cut in another building going up. They're supposed to be some protections for that area, but you know, this is Thailand ID money speaks money talks.

Well, in my opinion, there's still a huge amount of green cover there. Even if it might be decreasing, there's still a huge amount, and it is it is a bike riders paradise. There's no doubt about that. Yeah, yeah, but I mean, moving to a new neighborhood just to sort of reset your Bangkok clock is a bit extreme anyway, but I think seeing moved to Bangkok Child, I think, is the at the extreme end of the extreme. And, you know,

like it's, I think I'd be a pretty big move. What Banker Chow it's It's fascinating because it's not actually far away if you look at it on a map, but it's kind of weirdly inaccessible, like there's kind of like one bridge and then the other of the way that you and I get. There's usually we take a boat there, so it's a little bit. It's an odd it's an odd thing. It's like it's right in the middle of Bangkok, but it's it's kind of inaccessible to Rhodes, right? I will. I drove there from my place, which is by tax and Bridge to see my buddy Paul a few months back, and it took almost an hour to get there. So it's so strange.

If you look at a map, it looks like it's a 10 minute drive. That is very weird. Well, you know, as we said before, if you're a long term expat, then actually moving to a new neighborhood is not such a crazy thing. It's not as extreme as it sounds like you for someone who's gonna be here six years, eight years, 10 years, 12 years, then then I think you should get out, Get out of the rut. And if you're bored with Bangkok, then moving is actually not extreme,

like it seems extreme. I mean, I guess not many people like moving. I don't like moving, but it's actually not a bad idea at all. Like it's just it's just a good idea, like if you're if you're a long term person and you just feel kind of bored. I think just moving that that's actually a good idea. I think so, too. And I think I think I've given this advice before. I think evil and I did a show once about like like three things. We would each do differently and we stayed away from the obvious ones like I would learn Tai with for the first got here because that's obvious. But I think one of them was I would force myself to move not to Tongue Law or Sukhumvit right Zach sat on or something like that. I forced myself to move a bit further out. Yeah,

but moving, moving, moving to a Thai neighborhood. I think it's just super good advice. Super good advice, you know. But, you know, before we finish, I just want to make this point because it just happened to meet today. Tonight, Um and it's this the alternative to something like moving to a new neighborhood. What I realized is that what happens when you're an ex pat is you become kind of like a local in that you start to lose your curiosity about where you live and you don't explore the way tourists explore. Yeah, right. I grew up on on the east Side of Cleveland in Ohio,

in the United States, and, you know, I had my life, had my family and my friends, and, you know, it's like you live kind of in a groove where you have your life and it's your home. But the weird thing about your home is a lot of times you don't pay attention to your own neighborhood or your own town like there's tons of stuff in Cleveland that I've never done. And like, you know, tourists come and they do all this cool shit in my town Yeah, you know, But but But then it's like I never do that stuff. It's it's a weird thing about becoming a local is you get close minded. It's odd.

You would think locals would be the experts in where they live, but they're not too bright like locals are not experts. I know Thailand are Bangkok way better than most guys I know, and it goes the other way. There's a many, many tourists that no Calgary, where I grew up way better than I ever did. Yeah, so anyway well, my point was gonna be this. So I learned this lesson tonight because so I've now been over here in Tom Berry for I'm thinking about three and 1/2 years over here. And so I feel like I know the neighborhood, you know, reasonably well, but I just I was just kind of randomly in the mood for Indian food and, ah,

what I normally do is order Indian food. But since I'm over, the river takes a long time to come like it's like an hour. Okay, so I just did the Google thing. Basically, Just ask Google. Where's the nearest Indian restaurant? And it popped up and there is this Indian restaurant. It's not super close, but it's it's like about a you know, I walk there and I just under 15 minutes, probably like a 13 minute walk or something like that. And I just had no idea there was this little Indian kind of slash Chinese, and it was, But it was on Google maps.

There were some reviews for people like the food here is really good, and it's probably been there the whole time I've been living here, but I think I just got in my groove, you know, I just really I started. I started thinking like a local, and I stopped being curious. And I'm like, a lot of times I think we think we know our own neighborhood. But we don't You know, maybe the lesson of this podcast for expats is you should probably move to a new neighborhood, but if you're not ready to do that, you know E Ah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of things in your own neighborhood that you don't know. You just you just think you do. Yeah,

it's easy to get comfortable. Like I said, you got for you. Find your groove and you settle in you like I'm good. And then when you say I'm bored and I think I should leave Thailand, maybe all you need to do is move to a new neighborhood. Yeah, a great a great out out. Well, all right, well, let's get into some love loader leave. And that's where one of us surprises the other guy with a particular aspect of living in Bangkok, which we then discuss and decide if it's something that we love about living here, loathe about living here or hate so much it makes us monthly forever. This week it's my turn.

So and I'm gonna say one thing to you and you don't have to tell me if you love it, love it or leave it. Alright, here we go. 1,001,000. Do you see what I'm getting at 1,001,000? You mean like a 1,000,000,000? Exactly. When ties give you large numbers, they say them like 1,001,000. How many people or how many germs are on this thing? Oh, there's like at least 1,003,000 germs. They don't say the word 1,000,000,000. Ah, interesting.

You know, I think you're right about that. I think you're right about that. I bet. God, I wish my tie was better. You're You're Ty. I think it's a little bit better than mine. But, I mean, maybe it has something to do with the way ty numbers work, because when I try to say big numbers in Tai, I also screwed up. I'm like knowing san, and like I'm trying to keep it straight, like Right,

Right. So it is it Is it a translation issue? Well, I I don't think so. And it was interesting is, And again, if I stick my stick my foot in my mouth here, I apologize. But I don't have a full grasp of tie either. But they also that's flipped because we say, like, 10,000 which is the same thing as saying like 1000 million. It's the small number, followed by the huge number. But ties actually have a word that means 10,000 right? That's right,

Right? Right. It's moon like New Moon is 10,000. Song woman is 20,000. They say, you know, 1000 million where we say a 1,000,000,000 but they say moon and we say 10,000. You see, I get that. But anyway, when it just always struck me is weird. The first time I heard that it was someone said, Ah 1000 million. I was like, You mean a 1,000,000,000. But they don't use that.

You know, I think this one I don't think I can low that because I have so much sympathy for, like, cross language equivalency, ese, You know that. And I'm so bad it's that I think I'm gonna have to stick with love it just because I'm too sympathetic to say like I hate when they do it. But I know exactly what you're talking about. And it can be very confusing. Yeah, I don't know. It just it always always had to stop for a second. Think like 00 is there, Is there? Okay, so they made a 1,000,000,010 billion or seven billion or something like that.

How many people live in the world? Uh, you know, about about 1,006,000. In this case, you know my ties. So my tie is so bad, and I'm so I so I'm too sympathetic to say I loathe it. I I'm going to say I love it. but I don't know, because I love the tie element of it. I I loathe that there's no consistent number used worldwide, right forever, And it's related to my hatred of when you say Spell my name G R E G, and someone goes Ah ah, Gong road.

Elephants like those aren't the words. Those aren't the words that everyone's agreed. Uh huh. It should be a standard list of things to say. So agreed. I I would love it, but I loathe that there's the sort of international community hasn't put more work into making Everyone used state numbers. Dammit, There should be universal language. Where is Esperanza when you need it? C c. All right. So as we mentioned at the being of the show, we'd like to say thank you to Tank Williams for lending us his support at the show shadow level. And Greg, what did you find out about Tank?

Well, as it turns out, Tank is the same age as me Young a young buck like myself. But unlike me, he is blue crew with time mother and an African American father, he said in his email Samos, Tiger Woods. So there you go tank lives in the US but has visited Thailand a few times over the years, although he says his family used to insulate him from a lot of things on his trips. But he was recently here on his own for the first time and said the podcast helped him understand a lot of things about Thailand. So thanks, man. But Tank is considering a move here later this year. And I got to say, my friend, I would recommend you get the pronunciation of your name sorted out because I assume Tank comes from your manly size.

But ties don't say tank. They say, Dang bank and oh, that caused Syria to go off things, Greg. Thanks. Thank you, Scott Cereal. My phone to go off. Wait, Why? Siri says, I said, Hey, say bang bang. Then it said,

Greetings, Great stupidity. I Well, there you go. Thank you. You made us happy and you activated my artificial intelligence on my phone tank. You're a superstar. Well, they go sing ties. Don't say tank. They say dang and us mealy mouth foreigners. We often mix it up and we say, Dang, which means red. So tank, if you're not careful.

You will have a new nickname. Your tie Friends will start calling. You read Williams. But that's also kind of a cool name. Yeah, like when you say, what's your name and you and you say, Tank, they'll say, Oh, dang, dang. You know, if you pronounce it wrong, I think your name is Red Williams, which is cool,

But listen to this. F y. I only know this from playing with my son's toys. But you know how you say tank in Thai? No. Wrote. Thank, like a car, a car tank, like a vehicle tank. I think we have to be specific and used the road of it so that people know what you're talking about. Wrote. Thank. So there you go. There you go, Tank.

I think you need to decide which name you like better. Do you like being called Red Williams Or wrote Bank? I like Rough day. The problems that a cross cultural dude has to deal with that. Right? Thanks for your support, man. We do appreciate it. And I for one, I'm in favor of your move to Thailand. I hope you come here and, uh and we can buy you a beer or you could buy us a beer. We can all by a bunch of beers for each other for sure. You know, pretty much any time someone asked me. Should I move to Thailand?

I say yes, right? I mean, I can't remember ever saying no witches. It's worth checking out. If you're thinking of moving to Thailand, just do it. Just do it. It'll be an adventure, and you won't regret it. Yeah, It's like someone asking you from your wife. Do you think I should get married? Yeah. Great idea. Absolutely fantastic.

Okay, Before we wrap up, I'd like to give a special things to all of our lovely patrons. As you know, we don't run ads or have sponsors. So we really do appreciate the support we get from our patrons. If you want to learn more, just head to Bangkok podcast. That kind of forward slash support. And if you want to get in touch with us, it's easy. Bangkok podcast on social media. Bangkok podcast dot com on the Web or simply Bangkok podcast at gmail dot com were very polite. And if you're right, we will answer. Yeah.

You can also find us online, where we post

each episode and carry on. Conversations with listeners could also reach out to me directly on Twitter. Where am Bgk? Great. So thanks for listening, folks. And we'll see you back here next week. No doubt. That's my catchphrase. I'm just gonna keep repeating it. No doubt will be here next week. So what Deke wrappers make? Those are some very good. I like that. That's pretty funny. Saudi crabbers go to stick to the script.