#128 - This is Thailand with Greg & Ed of The Bangkok Podcast

Language screw-ups, weird taxi driver stories, and warning signs we wish we could tell our younger selves are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this special cross-over episode between Talk Travel Asia and Bangkok Podcast. Scott and Trevor have each spent the majority of the past 20 years living in Bangkok, as have our guests, Greg and Ed, whom they’ve known nearly as long as they’ve been living in Asia. Over the past two decades, the City of Angels has changed nearly as much as the four have, and, while three of the four are still experiencing it as a home, there’s an old expression that continues to summarize this expat life: the good, the bad, and the things that can only be explained by saying, TIT, “This is Thailand.”

Trevor on discovering Thai food: I was lucky that the Soup Man was just up the street from my first apartment. Aside from the coagulated blood in the stewed chicken leg soup, everything Soupman made became my comfort food.

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Scott: Today, we’re mostly going to reminisce about our lives in Thailand, our individual experiences, and our collective ones. We’re four friends who have lived decades in a country we’ve apparently adopted, not quite on the same path, but still interwoven. Not always on the same page about Thai current events or hot fashion topics but great collective insight nonetheless! So here we are, Ed and Greg, in Bangkok, Scott in Hua Hin, and Trevor in Cambodian chatting about our lives that have become very deeply rooted in Bangkok and Thailand.

Greg on learning Thai: I once thought asking random girls in Starbucks a question about Thai would be a good in, but one time I asked this girl and she looked at me like I was 5 and said “that’s raw-rua” and turned away. Didn’t try that again.

In this special cross-over episode between Talk Travel Asia and Bangkok Podcast, Scott, Trevor, Ed, and Greg discuss some of the following:

What first brought us here.
How and when all met.
Awkward social interactions: then vs now.
Losing Face.
Dating.
How long before we ‘turned pro’.
When did we start to feel like we were Thai-ish.
How has Thailand changed us for good and/or for bad.
What have we learned that we might not have learned elsewhere?
Early experiences with food and how it evolved.
Thai Language ability: then vs now.

Greg met Scott when he first arrived in Thailand, as a guest of the travel company Scott founded after moving to Thailand not long before they met.

“How Thai are you?” rapid-fire quiz:

Something Thai you can’t live without?
Favorite food in the world?
Thai behavior you still cant conform to?
Thai things you do that you can’t stop doing when you’re home in the US or Canada:
How long does it take when you go to another country to miss Thai food?
Shoes on or off when going indoors?
Feet on a table or footstool to relax?
Showering before sex?
Blowing nose at a table?
Ordering for the table you’re with if you suggested the restaurant?

Stay tuned for a follow-up episode as we cut things short and agreed to meet again in a few months to pick up the conversation from there!