Thailand: Personal Safety, Politesse and the Impermanent Vacation.
19 November 2016 [link youtube]
Youtube Automatic Transcription
um so one of the questions people ask me
is both Thailand about going to Thailand in theory people could also ask for my advice about Cambodia or Laos or Taiwan Taiwan is also very interesting place to go if you're vegan you know especially for vegan um I get asked this kind of advice for good reason I have more than 10 years of experience with Thailand with traveling there with working there with living there on the right person ask especially if you're vegan especially if we have some interest in common if you're going to tie line for some of the same reasons that I have gone to tell into the past or may go to Thailand again in the future um so it's not stupid and the other thing is I'm not a cheerleader for Thailand there are a lot of people out here I think including durianrider who just say that Thailand is the most wonderful country in the world you'll be so happy if you go there it doesn't have any social problems there's no poverty there's no crime there's no danger I've heard during writers say many many times including in his interviews with younger woman oh it's really safe here isn't it like don't you feel safe you know it's not a problem there's no danger here in Thailand but it was so every so often people asked me for advice and I remember you guys may know Hannah Chloe I remember I think it's about two and a half years ago getting closer to three years ago now but in more than two years ago I remember Hannah Chloe asking me for advice boat on before she moved there and I advised her actually not to move the tie was interesting conversation time anyway so someone recently was asking me for advice about Thailand and this is another vegan and her parents were concerned that Thailand was too dangerous and I her parents unlike me are not extras on the Grands ever been to Thailand but her parents were really saying to her no you shouldn't go you know you're you're putting yourself in harm's way now I think at the end of this message I mentioned the contrast to Egypt and if you've been watching my channel for a long time you may recall I raised this point just in questioning the permanent vacation lifestyle more generally many times have said to people well is this really a meaningful vacation let's just admit first of all let's admit it's a vacation you're not going to do research you're not going to do humanitarian work not going for your own education it's a vacation so admit that to yourself it's a lot of money it's a short amount of time is this more meaningful than going to see the pyramids in Egypt is this more meaningful than going to see the ancient archaeological sites in Greece in athens greece or something anywhere in greece greece is full of ancient ruins um hey let's give a sh 0 2 bath england there are some you know ancient sites even within the UK is this really the most meaningful vacation you could go on you know um if we're talking about this vacation because I don't think vacations are meaningless I think a vacation can change your life who could change your life in a profound way it could change your life in a shell away whatever but just talking about as a vacation and I think though under that heading also it's worth reflecting on so right now I'm going to be intentionally vague right now Thailand is going through a period of political transition no comment um I think it's fair to say that Egypt also is politically shall we say unstable if you were to ask me you know is it safe to go on vacation in Thailand no is it safe to go on vacation in Egypt no but maybe it's worth well anyway you know maybe it's the right decision for you to make is to acknowledge the danger understand the danger and say okay I'm going to go to Egypt and see the pyramids or I'm going to go to Greece and see the ancient sites see the museums or I'm going to go to Thailand for this reason this reason this reason you should know what your reasons are it shouldn't be to write a bicycle up a hill that's just ridiculous I'm asked come on okay if you want to write a bicycle go to the go to the Nevada desert man I mean you know if you're in the US the deserts of the United States or fabulous places to do long-distance cycling but anyway so I'm just going to read out this this email I sent to someone that's actually not the first team on the conversation we had couple of messages back and forth but I said so this is kind of in the middle of the converses conversation say look it's sort of strange to preface a statement of this kind with quote I really don't care but the point is I'm just trying to help and I really don't care two things that don't always go together I thought about this more just because this part of Asia has been such a big part of my life and it still is yes when durianrider says that chiang mai is totally safe that's conversely i honestly do believe that chiang mai is much safer than San Francisco infinitely safer just pause I think San Francisco is a really interesting contrast just a couple days ago here by complete coincidence after I wrote this email there was a guy here from San Francisco telling funny stories about his friends getting mugged and held at gunpoint and the last time i was in san francisco just walking the streets the number of drug addicts on the streets is astounding san francisco looks like a dangerous place and feels like a dangerous place and there's a really sharp contrast between the rich and the poor in san francisco obviously you can look up the crime statistics etc but i do believe you know chiang mai thailand is safer than san francisco if I were if I lived in San Francisco I would want to own a gun I would want to carry a gun I'm just being honest with you I'm a Canadian in Canada we don't have gun laws like that but you know so this is a real caveat although i think that during writer is bullshitting you and saying that this is totally safe i do think that a city like chiang mai is safer than dead san francisco okay if i continue reading here does my opinion matter ? does taking a vacation in Thailand matter ? if you want to explore Asia if you want to consider the option of teaching english as a second language in asia somewhere on the continent of asia whether talent otherwise then yes it matters that it's worthwhile so just pause this again I mean it's another issue if you're going to Egypt but there's no possibility that mod Egypt is going to be a meaningful part of your life like your interest is only ancient Egypt that's a little bit sad and dead-ended but maybe if you're going to Thailand you know maybe weather for work or otherwise maybe modern Thailand is a meaningful part of your life right maybe in the next 10 years this can be some where you work and live and visit maybe this is not just a vacation and again there are also cultural and historical they're all kinds of reasons but you know if you really do not think you're ever going to pick up a newspaper and want to follow what's going on in Modern Egypt that's different from going to Thailand but really remaining involved with what's going to town picking up the Bangkok posts and being involved with being interested in engaged with Thailand or Thailand maybe being a place you have a job maybe a place you study the language etc etc ok um I have more than 10 years of experience in the region tons of experience with Chiang Mai itself all the way north to you nan all the way cells to Cambodia all the way east to Laos etc I'll just mention I have experienced all those places I have experienced with transportation by bus between those places and I have experience translate with transportation by bicycle I've done a lot of long-distance cycling there back in the day um if your parents wanted to talk to me about this I could talk to them so I just have a little thing saying look like if your parents actually want to talk to me about talk to me by Skype about how safer how dangerous Thailand is imma do it um conversely of course I can just give advice to you and conversely i can just shut up which is not exactly my forte however the nature the advice I can give it in relation to your safety in danger is a bit bizarre the truth is that most tourists are in danger only because they put themselves in danger most tourists want to go to nightclubs and they don't want to go to normal night clubs they only want to go to the most dangerous night clubs and 24-hour rave parties etc the truth is in Chiang Mai I know as an example a live music venue where schulte I university students go and it's really safe and it's really somewhat boring of course it's safer than a nightclub in Toronto or San Francisco and it's mostly people sitting at wooden tables listening to live music they also have a separate room where they actually teach dancing lessons you can actually take lessons in like Samba dancing and different types of dancing I think like pop music dancing like you know like Britney Spears tight formation dancing whatever it's extremely tame but that's not what most tourists want so just to pause you know the particular nightclub I'm describing here which again I really do believe is a very safe place very safe and boring you can sit there and listen to you know a live band play music and nobody's even going to talk to you and there's just nothing nothing dangerous about nothing exciting about it you're not going to make any new friends if you go with a group of friends you know you can you can spend time with a nightclub you can drink alcohol or listen to music but nobody's even going to talk to you there and one reason for that is although I said they're university students the reality is they are the social elite those particular university students there are either members of the money delete or they are actually aspiring to join that elite and imitating the behaviour of that elite so they won't even talk to you you know this is part of Thai culture the it's a very hierarchical culture in some ways it's a very futile culture both in terms the language used in the culture you know that's who they are so you know if you're an American that's very hard to imagine um I think American University students in a night club like that would be especially open to maybe especially interested in making new friends and meeting strangers and so on but in some more hierarchical more elitist cultures there's a sense of if a stranger talks to you sorry who are you who do you think you are why are you talking to me you go sit at your own table I'll go sit at mine and you know also a lot of Thai culture is just very sweet and childish like taking dancing lessons that nothing wrong with it but you know I think like in Tehran now everyone want to act cool everyone will be too cool to take dancing lessons that there are no you know I'm saying um okay uh so I continue here in my letter whether they do it intentionally or not it seems that most foreigners are really seeking out the most dangerous corners of Thailand they don't want to sit and listen to live music with normal type people so just as very true I remember there was another nightclub in the Northeast so not in Chiang Mai Jay Mieses the northwestern in the northeast and it was a really authentic local club I guess you'd call it a country music club where they had some rock and roll music too but local country music local people farmers and farmers daughters and some of the local university students to you know just doing their thing but you know and the there were a couple foreigners some of the local English teachers and some of the local humanitarian workers some of the people working with charities would go there those are the only white people you meet there but that's not what foreigners what most of the most of the tourists they want something edgy and dangerous they don't want something sweet and wholesome and authentic they want danger and they go out and find it and then they get into trouble you know they wanna they want to feel like they're on the edge so anyway I but you know even a nightclub I mean I know a nightclub is a slightly dangerous activity anywhere in the world but even with in Thailand if if you just do what local people consider safe it's pretty safe you know and you're not going to find other tourists there you're going to be going to places where they're either all local people or there were just a couple of tourists normally like I say some something like humanitarian work or maybe local English teacher who got married and settled down there or something like that um you know I don't mention it here in the message but another example I had in mind when I was writing this was even swimming foreigners want to go swimming in the most dangerous places to go to avec you know even even something like that it's not enough for them to swim in the ocean no no they gotta pay a boat to drag them on water skis in the ocean no no that's not enough they gotta pay an airplane to drag them on the water skis on the ocean so they're going really fast so there really could break their neck they want to see coral reefs they want to go diving well that can be safe no no no you gotta pick a helicopter to lift you and drop you in the coral reef they've got to make it more dangerous they've got to make it more edgy otherwise they feel like they're not a vacation meanwhile local people are swimming at a normal beach or something that's totally safe no no this tendency to really want to push the edge now I mention you know in Laos Laos is a landlocked country Laos doesn't have an ocean it as a river has some lakes but even there we kept having tourists dying because they wouldn't go swimming like local people in that River the Mekong River can really kill you it's a tremendously powerful River just the water itself can kill you and I've experienced that you have to be extremely careful where you swim in that river and you ask local people where it's safe to swim and they'll know people who died like if they're local and they live on the river of the be like yeah my uncle died over there like that's life on the river you know those people who really do it um but you can get swept away you can get killed in that River pretty easily and tourists do because they're not satisfied to enjoy the local culture the local environment the way local people do okay I continue with this letter there are other aspects that are just symbolic and irrational in northern Thailand and Laos if you wear a tank top so this kind of strap if you are a tank top exposing your shoulders and theoretically your armpits you're regarded as trash if you were a t-shirt covering the shoulder then you're regarded as very respectable you can attend a wedding or a funeral or a t-shirt in a t-shirt in this culture sorry to get in this culture you can actually go to weddings and funerals just wearing a t-shirt if there's a respectable t-shirt like a solid color t-shirt that's like formal wear but if you were a tank top you're regarded as you regarded as trash okay it doesn't make sense but a culture never does I remember my girlfriend a blond Canadian not the French woman later became my wife trying to stop two female European tourists from entering a Buddhist monastery wearing tank tops you know she was thought she was doing a good deed these young women these two European tourists their bra straps were visible their bra straps digital were visible under the tank top but the tutors didn't actually speak in English it turned out they were they were Russian or some kind of Eastern European tourists I remember so this is a minor enter but my girlfriend you know who lived there with me and she understood this with the local culture that in the local culture it's totally acceptable for a woman to go into a Buddhist monastery wearing a t-shirt but not a tank top it's cultural it doesn't make sense doesn't have to make sense that's the culture t-shirt okay tank top not okay okay so yes it's an extremely permissive culture but people will treat you better if you were a t-shirt like the tree with more respect and yes wearing a blouse makes you royalty then you're treated extremely well you know if you wear something with buttons you really are treated better in this culture um and if you go into a formal setting like a Buddhist monastery wearing a tank top then you're despised is that dangerous would anyone rob you or rape you because you wore a tank top I doubt it but these are the sort of factors you learn to manage with in any culture people treated me very very differently when they regarded me as a scholar of Buddhism which I was as opposed to an off-duty US Army officer or US Army servicemen which I wasn't although my appearance and clothing might have been exactly the same so I'm say exactly same way sometimes people thought I was in the US Army which I'm not never been in the American army and sometimes people thought you know some people knew or they learned about me that I was actually there studying Buddhism history politics blah blah blah um but their attitude towards me even wearing the same clothes the way they treated me the level of respect Evan was very different so this is all stuff that's invisible to a guy like durianrider right a guy like durianrider lives his whole life in a tank top and the women around him wearing tank tops editor unlike durianrider etc I'm not a fan of Thai culture I'm not trying to sell anyone on that's why at the beginning I said I don't really care i'm just trying to be helpful you know so mentioned here again when Hannah Khloe asked for my advice about teaching english as a second language in Asia I actually told her that Thailand was the worst choice and because of durianrider etc because of that scene in Chiang Mai she chose to go to Thailand anyway I nail wonder if she regrets that decision like I wonder if she looks back and thinks her life would be better if she'd taken my advice instead of moving to Thailand moving to chi mai I don't know though I don't know that much I mean Hannah khlo and I don't know anything about her personal life we're not close but you know I know her I know of her we had like I say oddly you know I knew her via Facebook before she or I you know we're well known on YouTube but back then both of us were already making YouTube videos we just had very few viewers okay however is the status of women bad in Thailand is the status of white women bad in Thailand no so to be clear my answer is no as with the status of homosexuals the status of women generally is much better in Thailand than in most of the Eastern world and it's better than most of the Western world too okay so let me just be um let me just be blunt here if we're comparing Thailand to Malaysia for comparing Thailand Indonesia if we're comparing Thailand to Saudi Arabia what are we comparing Thailand to are we comparing Thailand to Cambodia it's one of the best places in the world are we comparing Thailand to the Ukraine are we comparing Thailand to Poland like a lot of Eastern Europe is a pretty terrible place we are weak a very talented Spain I don't think only the status of women is very good in Spain keeping it all the way real they write just saying a lot of these countries the status of women is not that great so yes Thailand is actually one of the best places not one of the worst and that's vaguely parallel I think the same thing you can stable the status of homosexuals you know in Thailand it's probably the single best country to be homosexual in the whole world and this kind of correlates some of the cultures where the status of women is really bad often also the status of homosexual but not all the time but I wouldn't want to be homosexual in a muslim-majority country I wouldn't want to be homosexual in a strictly Catholic country like Spain admittedly some people will now say to me off anus and Catholic at all anymore you're living in the past well Spain is still to Catholic for my tastes but yeah if you're in a strictly Catholic country as a woman like Latin America if you're in Colombia Brazil being a woman in Colombia Brazil is pretty pretty rough and that cat in that case legacy together all right so that's my digression here um but yes actually the status of women in Thailand is better than most of the Eastern world it's even better than most of the Western world but as I said at the top of this message there's a sense in which I just don't care I'm not trying to convince you of anything I'm just offering to help if I can't help I've said before that taking a vacation to visit the pyramids in Egypt may be vastly more meaningful than going to Thailand what's the status of women in Egypt abominable will you be safe in Egypt as a white woman in Egypt no not at all is it still worthwhile to visit Egypt probably so if you're interested in spending time in Asia in the future whether for your work or studies or whatever then yes starting off by spending a few weeks in Asia you know I don't know how much time in Thailand as opposed to time in Japan or wherever spending that time and Asia is probably worth it that's my advice of course a lot of time people want much more specific advice like which train they should take I can also give advice of that kind
is both Thailand about going to Thailand in theory people could also ask for my advice about Cambodia or Laos or Taiwan Taiwan is also very interesting place to go if you're vegan you know especially for vegan um I get asked this kind of advice for good reason I have more than 10 years of experience with Thailand with traveling there with working there with living there on the right person ask especially if you're vegan especially if we have some interest in common if you're going to tie line for some of the same reasons that I have gone to tell into the past or may go to Thailand again in the future um so it's not stupid and the other thing is I'm not a cheerleader for Thailand there are a lot of people out here I think including durianrider who just say that Thailand is the most wonderful country in the world you'll be so happy if you go there it doesn't have any social problems there's no poverty there's no crime there's no danger I've heard during writers say many many times including in his interviews with younger woman oh it's really safe here isn't it like don't you feel safe you know it's not a problem there's no danger here in Thailand but it was so every so often people asked me for advice and I remember you guys may know Hannah Chloe I remember I think it's about two and a half years ago getting closer to three years ago now but in more than two years ago I remember Hannah Chloe asking me for advice boat on before she moved there and I advised her actually not to move the tie was interesting conversation time anyway so someone recently was asking me for advice about Thailand and this is another vegan and her parents were concerned that Thailand was too dangerous and I her parents unlike me are not extras on the Grands ever been to Thailand but her parents were really saying to her no you shouldn't go you know you're you're putting yourself in harm's way now I think at the end of this message I mentioned the contrast to Egypt and if you've been watching my channel for a long time you may recall I raised this point just in questioning the permanent vacation lifestyle more generally many times have said to people well is this really a meaningful vacation let's just admit first of all let's admit it's a vacation you're not going to do research you're not going to do humanitarian work not going for your own education it's a vacation so admit that to yourself it's a lot of money it's a short amount of time is this more meaningful than going to see the pyramids in Egypt is this more meaningful than going to see the ancient archaeological sites in Greece in athens greece or something anywhere in greece greece is full of ancient ruins um hey let's give a sh 0 2 bath england there are some you know ancient sites even within the UK is this really the most meaningful vacation you could go on you know um if we're talking about this vacation because I don't think vacations are meaningless I think a vacation can change your life who could change your life in a profound way it could change your life in a shell away whatever but just talking about as a vacation and I think though under that heading also it's worth reflecting on so right now I'm going to be intentionally vague right now Thailand is going through a period of political transition no comment um I think it's fair to say that Egypt also is politically shall we say unstable if you were to ask me you know is it safe to go on vacation in Thailand no is it safe to go on vacation in Egypt no but maybe it's worth well anyway you know maybe it's the right decision for you to make is to acknowledge the danger understand the danger and say okay I'm going to go to Egypt and see the pyramids or I'm going to go to Greece and see the ancient sites see the museums or I'm going to go to Thailand for this reason this reason this reason you should know what your reasons are it shouldn't be to write a bicycle up a hill that's just ridiculous I'm asked come on okay if you want to write a bicycle go to the go to the Nevada desert man I mean you know if you're in the US the deserts of the United States or fabulous places to do long-distance cycling but anyway so I'm just going to read out this this email I sent to someone that's actually not the first team on the conversation we had couple of messages back and forth but I said so this is kind of in the middle of the converses conversation say look it's sort of strange to preface a statement of this kind with quote I really don't care but the point is I'm just trying to help and I really don't care two things that don't always go together I thought about this more just because this part of Asia has been such a big part of my life and it still is yes when durianrider says that chiang mai is totally safe that's conversely i honestly do believe that chiang mai is much safer than San Francisco infinitely safer just pause I think San Francisco is a really interesting contrast just a couple days ago here by complete coincidence after I wrote this email there was a guy here from San Francisco telling funny stories about his friends getting mugged and held at gunpoint and the last time i was in san francisco just walking the streets the number of drug addicts on the streets is astounding san francisco looks like a dangerous place and feels like a dangerous place and there's a really sharp contrast between the rich and the poor in san francisco obviously you can look up the crime statistics etc but i do believe you know chiang mai thailand is safer than san francisco if I were if I lived in San Francisco I would want to own a gun I would want to carry a gun I'm just being honest with you I'm a Canadian in Canada we don't have gun laws like that but you know so this is a real caveat although i think that during writer is bullshitting you and saying that this is totally safe i do think that a city like chiang mai is safer than dead san francisco okay if i continue reading here does my opinion matter ? does taking a vacation in Thailand matter ? if you want to explore Asia if you want to consider the option of teaching english as a second language in asia somewhere on the continent of asia whether talent otherwise then yes it matters that it's worthwhile so just pause this again I mean it's another issue if you're going to Egypt but there's no possibility that mod Egypt is going to be a meaningful part of your life like your interest is only ancient Egypt that's a little bit sad and dead-ended but maybe if you're going to Thailand you know maybe weather for work or otherwise maybe modern Thailand is a meaningful part of your life right maybe in the next 10 years this can be some where you work and live and visit maybe this is not just a vacation and again there are also cultural and historical they're all kinds of reasons but you know if you really do not think you're ever going to pick up a newspaper and want to follow what's going on in Modern Egypt that's different from going to Thailand but really remaining involved with what's going to town picking up the Bangkok posts and being involved with being interested in engaged with Thailand or Thailand maybe being a place you have a job maybe a place you study the language etc etc ok um I have more than 10 years of experience in the region tons of experience with Chiang Mai itself all the way north to you nan all the way cells to Cambodia all the way east to Laos etc I'll just mention I have experienced all those places I have experienced with transportation by bus between those places and I have experience translate with transportation by bicycle I've done a lot of long-distance cycling there back in the day um if your parents wanted to talk to me about this I could talk to them so I just have a little thing saying look like if your parents actually want to talk to me about talk to me by Skype about how safer how dangerous Thailand is imma do it um conversely of course I can just give advice to you and conversely i can just shut up which is not exactly my forte however the nature the advice I can give it in relation to your safety in danger is a bit bizarre the truth is that most tourists are in danger only because they put themselves in danger most tourists want to go to nightclubs and they don't want to go to normal night clubs they only want to go to the most dangerous night clubs and 24-hour rave parties etc the truth is in Chiang Mai I know as an example a live music venue where schulte I university students go and it's really safe and it's really somewhat boring of course it's safer than a nightclub in Toronto or San Francisco and it's mostly people sitting at wooden tables listening to live music they also have a separate room where they actually teach dancing lessons you can actually take lessons in like Samba dancing and different types of dancing I think like pop music dancing like you know like Britney Spears tight formation dancing whatever it's extremely tame but that's not what most tourists want so just to pause you know the particular nightclub I'm describing here which again I really do believe is a very safe place very safe and boring you can sit there and listen to you know a live band play music and nobody's even going to talk to you and there's just nothing nothing dangerous about nothing exciting about it you're not going to make any new friends if you go with a group of friends you know you can you can spend time with a nightclub you can drink alcohol or listen to music but nobody's even going to talk to you there and one reason for that is although I said they're university students the reality is they are the social elite those particular university students there are either members of the money delete or they are actually aspiring to join that elite and imitating the behaviour of that elite so they won't even talk to you you know this is part of Thai culture the it's a very hierarchical culture in some ways it's a very futile culture both in terms the language used in the culture you know that's who they are so you know if you're an American that's very hard to imagine um I think American University students in a night club like that would be especially open to maybe especially interested in making new friends and meeting strangers and so on but in some more hierarchical more elitist cultures there's a sense of if a stranger talks to you sorry who are you who do you think you are why are you talking to me you go sit at your own table I'll go sit at mine and you know also a lot of Thai culture is just very sweet and childish like taking dancing lessons that nothing wrong with it but you know I think like in Tehran now everyone want to act cool everyone will be too cool to take dancing lessons that there are no you know I'm saying um okay uh so I continue here in my letter whether they do it intentionally or not it seems that most foreigners are really seeking out the most dangerous corners of Thailand they don't want to sit and listen to live music with normal type people so just as very true I remember there was another nightclub in the Northeast so not in Chiang Mai Jay Mieses the northwestern in the northeast and it was a really authentic local club I guess you'd call it a country music club where they had some rock and roll music too but local country music local people farmers and farmers daughters and some of the local university students to you know just doing their thing but you know and the there were a couple foreigners some of the local English teachers and some of the local humanitarian workers some of the people working with charities would go there those are the only white people you meet there but that's not what foreigners what most of the most of the tourists they want something edgy and dangerous they don't want something sweet and wholesome and authentic they want danger and they go out and find it and then they get into trouble you know they wanna they want to feel like they're on the edge so anyway I but you know even a nightclub I mean I know a nightclub is a slightly dangerous activity anywhere in the world but even with in Thailand if if you just do what local people consider safe it's pretty safe you know and you're not going to find other tourists there you're going to be going to places where they're either all local people or there were just a couple of tourists normally like I say some something like humanitarian work or maybe local English teacher who got married and settled down there or something like that um you know I don't mention it here in the message but another example I had in mind when I was writing this was even swimming foreigners want to go swimming in the most dangerous places to go to avec you know even even something like that it's not enough for them to swim in the ocean no no they gotta pay a boat to drag them on water skis in the ocean no no that's not enough they gotta pay an airplane to drag them on the water skis on the ocean so they're going really fast so there really could break their neck they want to see coral reefs they want to go diving well that can be safe no no no you gotta pick a helicopter to lift you and drop you in the coral reef they've got to make it more dangerous they've got to make it more edgy otherwise they feel like they're not a vacation meanwhile local people are swimming at a normal beach or something that's totally safe no no this tendency to really want to push the edge now I mention you know in Laos Laos is a landlocked country Laos doesn't have an ocean it as a river has some lakes but even there we kept having tourists dying because they wouldn't go swimming like local people in that River the Mekong River can really kill you it's a tremendously powerful River just the water itself can kill you and I've experienced that you have to be extremely careful where you swim in that river and you ask local people where it's safe to swim and they'll know people who died like if they're local and they live on the river of the be like yeah my uncle died over there like that's life on the river you know those people who really do it um but you can get swept away you can get killed in that River pretty easily and tourists do because they're not satisfied to enjoy the local culture the local environment the way local people do okay I continue with this letter there are other aspects that are just symbolic and irrational in northern Thailand and Laos if you wear a tank top so this kind of strap if you are a tank top exposing your shoulders and theoretically your armpits you're regarded as trash if you were a t-shirt covering the shoulder then you're regarded as very respectable you can attend a wedding or a funeral or a t-shirt in a t-shirt in this culture sorry to get in this culture you can actually go to weddings and funerals just wearing a t-shirt if there's a respectable t-shirt like a solid color t-shirt that's like formal wear but if you were a tank top you're regarded as you regarded as trash okay it doesn't make sense but a culture never does I remember my girlfriend a blond Canadian not the French woman later became my wife trying to stop two female European tourists from entering a Buddhist monastery wearing tank tops you know she was thought she was doing a good deed these young women these two European tourists their bra straps were visible their bra straps digital were visible under the tank top but the tutors didn't actually speak in English it turned out they were they were Russian or some kind of Eastern European tourists I remember so this is a minor enter but my girlfriend you know who lived there with me and she understood this with the local culture that in the local culture it's totally acceptable for a woman to go into a Buddhist monastery wearing a t-shirt but not a tank top it's cultural it doesn't make sense doesn't have to make sense that's the culture t-shirt okay tank top not okay okay so yes it's an extremely permissive culture but people will treat you better if you were a t-shirt like the tree with more respect and yes wearing a blouse makes you royalty then you're treated extremely well you know if you wear something with buttons you really are treated better in this culture um and if you go into a formal setting like a Buddhist monastery wearing a tank top then you're despised is that dangerous would anyone rob you or rape you because you wore a tank top I doubt it but these are the sort of factors you learn to manage with in any culture people treated me very very differently when they regarded me as a scholar of Buddhism which I was as opposed to an off-duty US Army officer or US Army servicemen which I wasn't although my appearance and clothing might have been exactly the same so I'm say exactly same way sometimes people thought I was in the US Army which I'm not never been in the American army and sometimes people thought you know some people knew or they learned about me that I was actually there studying Buddhism history politics blah blah blah um but their attitude towards me even wearing the same clothes the way they treated me the level of respect Evan was very different so this is all stuff that's invisible to a guy like durianrider right a guy like durianrider lives his whole life in a tank top and the women around him wearing tank tops editor unlike durianrider etc I'm not a fan of Thai culture I'm not trying to sell anyone on that's why at the beginning I said I don't really care i'm just trying to be helpful you know so mentioned here again when Hannah Khloe asked for my advice about teaching english as a second language in Asia I actually told her that Thailand was the worst choice and because of durianrider etc because of that scene in Chiang Mai she chose to go to Thailand anyway I nail wonder if she regrets that decision like I wonder if she looks back and thinks her life would be better if she'd taken my advice instead of moving to Thailand moving to chi mai I don't know though I don't know that much I mean Hannah khlo and I don't know anything about her personal life we're not close but you know I know her I know of her we had like I say oddly you know I knew her via Facebook before she or I you know we're well known on YouTube but back then both of us were already making YouTube videos we just had very few viewers okay however is the status of women bad in Thailand is the status of white women bad in Thailand no so to be clear my answer is no as with the status of homosexuals the status of women generally is much better in Thailand than in most of the Eastern world and it's better than most of the Western world too okay so let me just be um let me just be blunt here if we're comparing Thailand to Malaysia for comparing Thailand Indonesia if we're comparing Thailand to Saudi Arabia what are we comparing Thailand to are we comparing Thailand to Cambodia it's one of the best places in the world are we comparing Thailand to the Ukraine are we comparing Thailand to Poland like a lot of Eastern Europe is a pretty terrible place we are weak a very talented Spain I don't think only the status of women is very good in Spain keeping it all the way real they write just saying a lot of these countries the status of women is not that great so yes Thailand is actually one of the best places not one of the worst and that's vaguely parallel I think the same thing you can stable the status of homosexuals you know in Thailand it's probably the single best country to be homosexual in the whole world and this kind of correlates some of the cultures where the status of women is really bad often also the status of homosexual but not all the time but I wouldn't want to be homosexual in a muslim-majority country I wouldn't want to be homosexual in a strictly Catholic country like Spain admittedly some people will now say to me off anus and Catholic at all anymore you're living in the past well Spain is still to Catholic for my tastes but yeah if you're in a strictly Catholic country as a woman like Latin America if you're in Colombia Brazil being a woman in Colombia Brazil is pretty pretty rough and that cat in that case legacy together all right so that's my digression here um but yes actually the status of women in Thailand is better than most of the Eastern world it's even better than most of the Western world but as I said at the top of this message there's a sense in which I just don't care I'm not trying to convince you of anything I'm just offering to help if I can't help I've said before that taking a vacation to visit the pyramids in Egypt may be vastly more meaningful than going to Thailand what's the status of women in Egypt abominable will you be safe in Egypt as a white woman in Egypt no not at all is it still worthwhile to visit Egypt probably so if you're interested in spending time in Asia in the future whether for your work or studies or whatever then yes starting off by spending a few weeks in Asia you know I don't know how much time in Thailand as opposed to time in Japan or wherever spending that time and Asia is probably worth it that's my advice of course a lot of time people want much more specific advice like which train they should take I can also give advice of that kind