20 Things I Realized About Bangkok (After Moving Here)

what's going on guys welcome to a very special Bangkok episode of the hot hop boys I just landed in Bangkok I've been here for about like 48 60 hours 2 days 2 days and a half and here are 20 things that I noticed about the hottest city in Asia and arguably one of the hottest cities in the entire world to travel to you know it's crazy cuz nobody talks about politics or really anything happening around the world here in Thailand so I just turned on the news and uh I mean there has been a lot of hey man listen man I hope peace for the world too but what am I going to do all right you guys this is it this is my very first Patti in Thailand like I said most people actually eat um Packa prow out here like so this is my very first Patti I got triple eggs on top ooh ooh ooh but uh yeah they actually eat a ton of pork out here they eat a lot of like they call it moo that's what uh pork is give you guys a review in a second woo all right you guys let's get into the list Point number one I think that everybody should learn some basic tie to open up for example you know they have gendered particles so you know you say sa kop if you're a guy sa K if you're a female uh Kung kab if you're a guy K Kung kab if you're a female and I think it's really interesting to have the gendered particle which is like the suffix at the end of the word because like there's a nearby country LA but they just say subid both for male and female I thought that was really interesting um also like I said I mean it matters like the type of like place you're for example I'm in a very like International mall right now in Tong lore people are not going to really react to differently CU everybody here has sort of traveled to different countries they're they're they're very worldly themselves maybe they studied abroad so I think meeting foreigners doesn't mean much to them but like there is a crowd that's more local that for sure they appreciate it when you open up with that and you also like took the respect to at least learn the gendered particle for hello and thank you and also you know do the why I think the why is pretty cool because it's also based in Buddhism right but it's like less hierarchical for example than the Japanese uh bowing which is like even based on hierarchy of who you're bowing to and stuff like that so yeah I think you know learn the why and learn you know at least s kop and kopun C you know what I mean um Point number two you're outside of the anglosphere and I just think that it's really interesting because Thailand is a country that's never been colonized um essentially I want to say it's like one of the only countries in Asia that has like truly never been colonized and that's why they still have a king and they have also have the Prime Minister system but uh you could see stuff like byd cars and like all this stuff that like obviously I mean this is like more of something I noticed but just like obviously you see a lot of uh brands that are banned in the West for example like Chinese EES I just rode in a byd seal as my grab car and it was pretty nice to be honest um I was at the main airport and I can't even pronounce the name right now I'm sorry guys you know I've only been here 48 hours I like can't remember it but I remember seeing an Arab lady that was in a full nicob and she was standing pretty much next to like a lady boy and I just remember being like man when would you ever see this like it goes to show you that like Thailand is just such a diverse place and you know you think that those are almost like identities that maybe are at odds maybe not direct odds with each other but just you wouldn't see them just theose but it goes to just goes to show you In tha land people just really accepting here man it's very Buddhist it's very like diverse people even the Thai people themselves look very very different they could look anything from obviously like um what we think of as more conventionally Southeast Asian to Chinese to almost like an Arab or like an Indian look but it's still all thae you know because it's just a place that's sort of the crossroads of like a lot of different places in the world and I think that that's why it's so dope Point number three there are the equivalent of American apps like uber for example Uber Eats door Dash but obviously it's mostly like grab and grab is sort of becoming this like allinone super app and I think it's going to start to like consolidate all the other apps that people are using like I'm not saying there's other apps that people don't use in Thailand but I'm noticing that grab is sort of the only one you really like if you only want to just just use grab as your super app you can do that and um I've been taking a lot of like grab scooters and I'll run some of those clips right now but I would definitely pay an extra 50 cents to get the Honda wind scooters cuz they're like more CC's it's more of a comfortable ride if you get the uh really small scooters that are cheaper for your grab uh to get around you it's just going to feel more dangerous you know what I mean like um but yeah obviously like to be honest I had uh grab scooter drivers that had sandals on even in the Honda win too but you know I think it's really interesting you know the grab app for example like we said I just think that a lot of things are moving towards this like overall like super app Trend um obviously it's a little bit different in America where we sort of like parse out our apps and I think there's like I don't know if it's a antitrust or like mon you know anti-monopoly type things but I don't think in America we'll ever have super apps that are all in one like Asia cuz grab you could do like groceries obviously food transportation and probably um Mobile Pay and stuff like that all in one app One login linked to one uh bank account or card or whatever Point number four I think a lot of cool stuff here in Bangkok after talking to my friends because I've been hanging out with people who live here that are expats some people who are uh Tai but maybe grew up in American School here in the past 48 hours and I do think some of the cool stuff is more available if you live here so for example I know like the main thing is like that that is going hyper viral in the west right now or America or Canada or North America is like obviously the $500 really cheap luxury condos those are a real thing but there's two caveats one those rooms are pretty small but number two that is that they're only available on six or 12 month leases so if you are like a tourist you're still going to be spending obviously a lot more for hotels that probably range anywhere from like 60 to 120 a night which is still a lot cheaper obviously than a major Metropolitan city in North America but it's not close to as cheap as what you would get if you are long-term renter um you can't get prompt pay which is like Mobile payment so I noticed that a lot of tourists like myself we are using a lot of cash and uh obviously a lot of our international cards depending on what spot we're at um you can't rent your own moped unless you're like probably um living here longer term and I actually tried to rent a uh well I was looking into renting a standup e scooter because that's what I ride around New York City but I kind of realized after examining the traffic here in a few different neighborhoods I I only been to a few you know let's just say Bangkok is made out of like 15 neighborhoods I probably only been to like two right like it's probably not that safe to have get the standing e scooter to be honest like you you just have to end up riding it on the sidewalk at a pretty slow pace and I don't know how people would feel about that but yeah I mean I did see a few people on them both Thai people and foreigners but it looked scary to be honest and obviously another thing that you wouldn't be able to access unless you were actually living here is like probably the healthcare you probably could do some medical tourism or Med spas and stuff like that but as far as like actual long-term healthare obviously logistically you would need to actually be living here anyway Point number five the fifth thing I noticed in my first 48 hours is that like foreign stuff is still relatively expensive but it's a lot cheaper than New York city so for example if you want to go to this uh I forgot what it's called like good guy barber shop it's about to be like a fade in a lineup and I'm about to go there today so maybe I'll run that footage right now but uh it's about to be like $18 USD which is like really expensive but obviously I think the quality stylistically in terms of trend wise they're really locked into like what's going on in the west and obviously if you look at the buildout I'll pop up some photos right here of the spot that I'm going to um it looks really cool you know what I mean like obviously that'd be like $60 $80 anywhere from like 50 to 80 in in NYC it's still 20 USD here though so it's not like uh I mean it's a lot cheaper but it's still not just not what I'm saying is like a lot of the stuff where it requires somebody who speaks English can be tapped into these um hyper Cutting Edge Global Trends it's still going to be pricey you know um for example like these uh super wavy like stylized coffees that would be about like $10 to $1 12 in NYC or about like $5 here so that's about like half price so like anything could be from like half price depending on what sector or what product we're comparing it to or service like to be like a quarter maybe a fifth of the price uh Point number six I realized that JDM car culture is still very much alive here I've been seeing a ton of cars that look like Initial D and um I think in the States you know Teslas and Exotics and German cars Porsches and stuff like that over took over the JDM scene I'm not saying there's not a JDM scene in America but it's just not as strong anymore and I feel like here you know maybe because we are in Asia there's a lot of Japanese influence there's still a lot of JDM whips that you see with the underlights and the badges and rebadging and you know trying to make it look like an initial decar essentially you know to to some variety uh Point number seven I think that that goes back to like there's a lot more Japanese influence than you would think and I don't know if it's because I'm in tongore and like eami which is more of like considered a that has like a Japan town but like even when you're at 7-Eleven and I understand the 7-Eleven is a is a company headquartered in Japan but it's like they got a ton of Japanese products like they might even have as much Japanese products in Thailand as like any 7-Eleven that I've seen outside of Japan at least from my experience you know shos and Gatsby for the hair and the makeup and all types of stuff that that they don't even have in the States you know what I mean like at mitsa or it's like mitsa type stuff at a random 7-Eleven obviously it's been rebadged and stuff for the Thai market so there was just like a ton of Japanese influence um in the products that I've seen here in in in uh Bangkok at least so far like I said just 48 hours guys I'm not saying I know everything I'm just giving you a raw uncut flow into like what I'm observing you know and you guys can like um you know supplement or augment whatever I said in the comment section below um I also noticed the Japanese food here is pretty like mimicked or like cooked at a pretty high tier and for a very good price and it's like you know you got all you can eat uh Japanese buffets and you've got all this Shabu Shabu restaurants and yakit Tori and stuff that's really high rank and really well priced and um I don't know it reminds me a little bit of Shanghai Shanghai is a little bit like that I remember 15 years ago I I haven't been but I heard Jakarta has a really really good Japanese food scene as well and I just thought that was really interesting because sometimes even like in my opinion like even when you're in Korea or China I I don't even know if the Japanese food is mimicked as as closely at a one toone level as it is here in Bangkok to be honest like it was it was like uh it's just something I noticed uh Point number eight there is a lot of American Products on the Shelf too I mean I think obviously it goes to show you how ubiquitous American consumer culture is I guess I shouldn't really be surprised I'll just like pop up some of the photos that of uh the American brands that I saw uh Toasties are big that's almost like a uh I don't know some sort of Corner area is a little bit more heavy so that's like skewing my perspective you know there's always that uh analogy of the Blind and the Elephant where it's like we only know what we've seen so I'm I'm not going to say like I know everything I'm just giving you guys the raw observation of essentially tongue lore and like eami but I would imagine that um it's not like going to be 180 degrees completely different I I definitely could see you know some of the Japanese influence being less in other districts but it just you know it's a Baseline uh Point number nine I noticed that people here eat pad caprow and barbecued cart Meats like a lot for example like anytime you ask like a local server like what I should get on a a large menu they're always going to tell you the pad caprow and I had heard that because obviously in America people are really into Pad Thai and Pad cuu but uh pad Tha here is not even it's they have it on the menu but that's really more for the foreigners like the the local people what I seen eat Packa prow and even if they don't eat Packa prow they're eating some sort of spicy pork dish like the the moo which is uh Pig like the the spicy pork slices that have been stir fried in a walk or even moo moo ping skewers on the street there's just like endless barbecue everywhere um and I definitely noticed that uh you kind of got to go to like a Ean restaurant to get Ean food here whereas like I think because in America a lot of the Thai restaurants or like a half of them or for whatever like are owned by like Lao families like you you're going to see like a larger like Ean menu sometimes with the lop and the sa Croy Sai you know like the isan sausages versus like here you kind of got to go to a Ean spot but obviously they're around as well and uh just to say number 10 stay on food uh I noticed the pad cuu here generally has less soy sauce than the American version it's way less dark and actually this you guys correct me if I'm wrong it looks like how you're supposed to flavor it is you're supposed to put a collection of these four different sauces and sometimes Sugar's in there too like on afterwards so that's how you flavor it the pad CU here doesn't come with all the flavor built in I mean there is a baseline default flavor but it's like you're really using the sauces to augment it to your taste and it reminds me a little bit like how when you get ngiti or like sushi in Japan they actually glaze it with the show you or the soy sauce already on it whereas in America we take the soy SAU and we Dow it later like basically it just goes to show you that there's a gap between how we eat it in America even though it's still cooked by Tha people originally or but and then like the way we consume it they consume it natively in Asia um Point number 11 things can move slow like I'm serious like sometimes uh you know it's just it's not too slow it's still a big city but for sure like if you're at like a coffee shop and you order some food the food might come out in like uh 20 minutes maybe maybe even 25 minutes depending on what you order so I think that that was like maybe a little bit shocking um not really shocking I mean it's just something that I noticed obviously compared to like New York City or something like that um I noticed even the Cockroaches to be honest there is a few cockroaches on the street it's still a big city just like New York but it's like even the Cockroaches are slow like you could you can stomp on the Cockroaches if you want people don't because they're more Buddhist here I don't think they just think like that aggressively and that like you know ah cockroach just like got to kill him or whatever like that but you could because they're like just out Milling around at night like until you try to Stomp and near them and then they'll scatter or whatever um it's very Like lowii Instrumental type Vibes and you know everybody knows that famous like cartoon girl of the hay Miyazaki type girl with the cat in a window like I feel like that's how Bangkok feels it's like it's like very lowf yeah I had to get in the shade real quick it was getting way too hot uh that's another thing here it is hot it is humid but I actually like it cuz I have dry eyes and my eyes I haven't really got dry here my skin is moist so anyway I digress Point number 12 the English level here is very high or it's like higher than you would think considering we're in Asian I heard it's because actually in the Bangkok school system if you are like a locally born like Thai resident to Bangkok like they do stress English education because they know that so much of their um I guess the economic flow or the capital foreign capital inflow is due to tourism so they do have very strong English uh much stronger than you would think like sometimes I was uh trying to like use a translator app and they're like no use English please thank you I can speak English you know English is better I was like oh yeah okay cool cool cool cuz you know I I wasn't sure you know I almost bought like a separate translator uh to come here but obviously if you can speak Tai it's going to open up a lot more personal interactions and stuff like that and if I was to spend more time out here I definitely would want to pick up more uh Point number 13 there are quite a few Asians from other Asian countries here I've uh at least in District like Tong you know you're going to hear like Japanese Korean Hong Kong Kanto Taiwanese Mandarin you know people from Singapore speaking Singlish um people from Indonesia Malaysia you know I've heard everything even just in 48 hours literally like um if you're like a pretty I guess if you're just keeping your ear tuned to it and it's kind of crazy because I can understand um a lot of basic words from those cultures just due to you know our career on YouTube and things like that and just traveling around a lot around Asia I think I just pick up a lot of like few phrases from a lot of languages so it's just like constantly in my ear obviously New York is like that too but New York you hear a lot of other languages Beyond just um Asia as well which is but here it's more uh Centric on Asia um another thing I notic is that actually some Thai words sound similar to Cantonese or CH Joo CH Joo is like another southern Chinese dialect and Chou people from tzo specifically were the group that I believe I want to say 100 to 200 years ago really came to Bangkok in a huge number and essentially became Thai and mixed with a lot of Thai people and I heard a lot of food uh vocabulary specifically food family and business like economic terms are often times rooted in either cha or Cantonese so I thought that that was uh pretty cool I had no idea that there was that much I guess like in a weird way like copher influence in Bangkok like people had told me that but like when you're here you're like whoa there's a lot there's a lot of Chinese characters everywhere like and chains and things like that like um yeah and yeah I just think that right now Bangkok is a little bit like a hub hot spot like Vegas is like a hub hot spot in America where it's just like pulling from a lot of different places like if you go go to Las Vegas you'll meet people from all around the country and Canada and things like that and that's like the same way Bangkok is right now but for just the entire southeast Asia but even Beyond southeast Asia East Asia Asia in general I mean there was a lot of people from um I'd say a lot of people from India as well as like brunai and uh stuff like D or I would say even more definitely more people than the Middle East too uh Point number 14 people are pretty trendy and um yeah like just the coffee shops the drinks the fashion everything is a lot more Cutting Edge probably even in a way man just it's like I'm not saying stuff is like created here that's Global but in terms of people like following the trends and really being on it and making sure every aspect of their outfit is like fitting with what's like Cutting Edge right now I've been super impressed not that that's the most important thing in the world or anything like that that but obviously you can use it as a marker of like clearly people here are spending a lot of time on Instagram and like various apps to like stay up on things you know I saw all the newest as6 collabs that you would see in like no leader or Soho and people are really dressed up for real um I was just at this uh place called the office in Tong lore which is like a trendy coffee shop to be fair like I said it is for High Society I'm not talking about like it's not necessarily like your your average person but the ties there are like decked out like I don't even know if there's a place in America where you can find that many fly Asians in that small of a concentrated Geographic Zone um Point number 15 there are a ton of super modern malls like uh they're opening ones like every week it seems like I don't know I mean it just when I just got here one Bangkok just opened um obviously I went to Mere or M cordier and stuff like that and there's just like a ton of new skyscrapers I noticed that architecturally they take a lot of uh risks with their architecture it reminds me of New York City and it's like much more um I guess hyper unique spaceship like uh you know and that's not true in every city like I love Toronto as a city but the architecture there is super uninspiring like I said again I'm not saying that like architecture is the most important thing in life or anything like that uh Point number 16 copyrights are not as enforced you know and in a way it makes it like a little bit wavier because that means any uh Commercial Business can play any music they want any movie they want any sort of of content they want like in America there's a lot of Licensing that takes place like obviously the sports bars out in Bangkok for that you know cater to both more foreigners but probably a mix they could play pay-per-view UFC or UFC boxing here and uh they could play YouTube videos and stuff like that and I'm not saying that it's better to enforce IP and content laws to make sure people get their publishing and stuff like that but as a consumer makes things more open because even a mom and pop can now do like wildly creative stuff cuz they're not as constricted by laws and stuff like that to be honest I mean uh Point number 17 I noticed that there are worldclass amenities here that are hyper modern but then there's also the really gritty and Untamed side of Bangkok and sometimes they're just supposed literally right next to each other like there's a hyper modern bakery or something like that serving just something you never even seen before maybe even America or as at least as Cutting Edge as any other city in the world and then there's right next to this there's like a old couple that still owns this like coconut stall and like the lady sleeping in a rocking chair like right there and like maybe she if the orders get busy like the husband will wake her up to go cut more coconuts and it's like very uh so that's reminds me of like Shanghai like 15 20 years ago I think that's really Dope by the way I do know that New York City of any American city has some of those uh Vibes as well Hong Kong you know Hong Kong still has it a little bit and things like that and other cities do but I just noticed it a lot in Bangkok um Point number 18 the Buddhist Good Vibes thing is real like I said earlier about the why and um it's just like man you I say they give good good vibes to people who don't even give it back but it's better to even give Good Vibes back to the the taii people and grow it even more you know especially you know and um you can just see it in the way that the mui Thai fights and one championship fights the way it is in Asia is completely different than UFC you know I'm not saying there's not Fighters that don't have respect for each other in UFC but I'd say it's like maybe 50/50 some of them are super hate and disrespectful 50% are respectful I would say I would guess about 95% of even the fighters out in Asia are like have respect for each other obviously even just social decorum they're not allowed to talk about each other's families in uh one Championship or mu Tha they're not allowed to talk about each other's religions they're definitely not allowed to like do low blows or like major macro signs of disrespect but other people you know they would say that that's what makes UFC hyper entertaining too because people are going you know on 10 you know OD and but you know just to show you I mean different societies the East operates differently for sure there's like more like lines about like decorum and behavior and politeness uh number 19 I think that Bangkok is actually uh cleaner than I might have guessed I mean I don't know how to say that like I didn't know you know what I mean like it's definitely like it's not uh Tokyo or Singapore but it's certainly like it gets clean quite often you know so I just that's dope it makes me want to keep keep it clean like I don't I probably could leave my stuff at this cop like I could leave this if I want to but I'm going to go inside and like throw it away I want to keep it clean too you know I would anyway but it just even reminds me more I'm like yo this place is clean like and then uh number 20 I just think it's a city in its golden era right now and I'm not saying for everybody every even in a golden era not everybody is having to you know what I mean because there's a lot of talks about inflation and foreigners coming in and are they like you know entitled to treatment and then the ties got to do uh serve them or whatever you know I I understand that aspect but I'm just talking about like where the city's at right now I'm feeling the vibe in the air it's like high vibration it's just Good Vibes and it's just uh every city has these moments and they don't last forever I I could see bkock lasting for another 5 10 15 years you know and uh you know you see higher highs higher lows and it's in an uptrend right now and I just think that you know I'm happy to come here I'm going to be here for a little bit like a couple weeks like I'm happy to be in a place that's in an uptrend obviously rainy season just ended we're entering dry season and I'm just like man I'm really glad to see I mean if I just noticed all these things in my first 48 Hours what else am I going to see so anyway guys let me know what you think of my 20 takeaways on Bangkok like I said I've been here about 48 60 hours 2 days just 2 and a half days these are just like different observations that I had from my lens on life obviously I can't live everybody's life and um you know I I think I'm a pretty observant person and obviously I want to start something out here in Asia so make sure you click to the link below for to sign up for the tiger club newsletter because I got a project out here that I'm really thinking about uh launching out here on top of everything else that we're doing you know with SMA with the channel we got some cool stuff coming up for that but let me know guys because these are my observations about Bangkok oh one last bonus one anything involved pineapples and mangoes on fire but I did notice the pineapples they're almost more like crisp and fresh and dry tasting and less like juicy and syrupy and then um but the mangoes absolutely I could think I could see the pineapples versus like Costa R and pineapples or something being like a 50/50 depending on what's your Vibe like different people like different things but mangoes absolutely hands down 10 out of 10 here in Bangkok so let me know guys hit me up uh if you guys are in Bangkok and you guys got a cool project for me I'm going to be here doing interviews checking different things out seeing different worlds you know obviously you guys see all the vi material on YouTube like hyper Modern Luxury high-rise for $500 $400 a month or whatever it is and um you know I'm not necessarily going to be making that type of content but I you know I want to go deeper our Channel's always been about cultural observation and you know just supporting Asia in general or the Asian identity but really not only exclusively for Asians obviously for anybody who just likes Asian culture so any anyway let us know let me know in the comment section below make sure you like subscribe turn your notifications and uh until next time guys I'm out in Bangkok for now peace