10 Rookie Mistakes to AVOID in Bangkok!

what are some things that I would not do in Thailand joining me today is my New York actor friend mattar um Matt I know that this is something that me and you would maybe debate about because I I would just not stay in air andb airbnbs and hotels for like more than months at a time cuz it it really adds up yeah so I think it's actually way cheaper like it could be even as cheap as getting like a 6-month lease if you stay in a hotel for like two and a half months yeah well the thing is I every week that I stayed here I had no idea it was going to be another week and then another week my initial stay was going to be like a week right right right so so cuz you have been doing this right you've been staying in air airbnbs hotels hosts yeah I i' I've stayed in luxury hotels I've stayed in the worst hosts I stayed the whole gamut so so so just for the people watching out there what has been the an insight into cuz you you lived in luxury hotels all the way to grimy hosts in your in the past couple months what's the final word on it final word is there's something for everyone and um you're going to find something pretty good around that the threshold where you want your own private space bathroom and stuff will be around you know 800 to 1,000 bot which is like yeah a little under around $20 my recommendation is look around and get one that's a th000 bot a month I mean I'm sorry a th000 bot a day which is about $33 us yeah so I'm saying that's how you get something valid in my opion and like you find out you don't have to stay in the city center I'm staying at a place in Rashida which is like kind of a little bit more Suburban not as like happening but you know I have that you know there's time for living in Thailand versus being a visitor and really wanting to hit all those like amazing spots and I did both so I'm happy with it a useful tip yeah um what do you think about high-end versions of low-end foods cow Moon Guy chicken rice uh essentially high on chicken rice right you could get it for 4 bot or you can get it for 400 bot where's The Sweet Spot in your opinion I think the sweet spot is the 60 bot location I think when you're in Thailand I know you're not on the same page maybe but street food is still or like adjacent street food where it's like you're going I you know I would push back a little bit I would essentially agree with you I'd say 80 bot 80 bot is where my cow Moon guy recommendation is where you're getting a little bit cleaner a little bit better chicken bigger chicken pieces maybe the rice is is a little less oily at the 80 bot but yeah I'm sure the 400 bot one is really good but it's probably just not worth it uh-huh uh moving on man I would say listen guys this goes without saying do not find yourself in Thai prison Thailand actually has one of the highest incarceration rates in Southeast Asia so just don't do it and I'm pretty sure Tha prison is not good so don't break the law to that point don't be like that guy who was whing out at the puket airport the British guy let the stuff fall out of his pocket I I just thr a photo of that okay I'll do some quick hitters now so like this is you know General tips for traveling and especially for Bok or Thailand you know when you first land uh just understand the currency you know super rich will always offer the best exchange rate if you bring big US dollar bills um you know avoid the ATMs there I I would say guys an easy way to understand things though cuz generally the the currency exchange rate fluctuates between 31 to 1 USD to maybe even 30 5 is just divide this by three so this is $4 us and there's going to be no tax on it but there potentially could be a 7% bat or like service charge at a restaurant but like this one's not going to have it this is going to be $4 us just divide it by three yeah and some other quick hitters are when you're ordering avoid ordering spicy unless you're taii or Korean then could handle that level of spicy the level of spicy is just another level yeah I would say if you're Fong they give you a whole different grading scale that starts off like 1 to three stars but then for Asian looking people or obviously local ties it's like one to five yeah um if you grab if you grab a grab or like the Uber here motorcycle that me and David grabb I recommend wearing some glasses you I a couple times they had stuff flying my eye messed me up yo that's a good point I didn't even think about that yeah I wear helmets you know I know David likes to uh you know raw doggy here straight you have your own helmet because a lot of times they're grabbing the pole drivers do not have helmet I asked them they always have one really yeah you go like in underneath their seat yeah I never or or in front of the seat yeah that is true the helmet could save your life guys yeah I don't know so Thailand's very cheap for a lot of things but one thing is expensive sunscreen for some reason all the sunscreen imported they could be it's even more expensive in the US here for sunscreen so bring your own here um avoid ice that isn't like the large manufactured ice cubes you could tell if it has the little hole in the middle a little bigger what is your take on elephant sanctuaries and tiger sanctuaries where you can take photos with these like great apex predators or like top of the food chain animals obviously they could kill you a tiger can kill you but it's heavily sedated and an elephant recently accidentally killed an American Tourist yeah I you know you have the moral level and then you have the you know your own satisfaction I I you know happen to be you know sensitive about animal treatment a little bit so uh I I don't I'm not a fan of tigers being sedated at all I mean they are that just doesn't look normal like just the the way they have no energy uh elephants is a little bit more has a little bit more leeway You could argue some elephant sories are better than others certainly I don't support the riding ones where you ride the elephants no um but but if you want a quick photo op you know maybe do a quick research find out if the elephants aren't overworked um what do you think yeah let's be honest man and I'm just going to keep it brief on this point yeah cuz people always ask me and I'm going to skim over this what do you think about the ping pong shows man and we don't need to elaborate what that is have you been to one yeah I went to one I thought it was a little overrated honestly a little boring to me you were sitting in the front row I was not but I would avoid sitting in the front row you might get a little wet if you know what I mean okay okay uh what do you think about American food ordering American food in Thailand like cuz they they obviously have a lot a ton of Tourism here but also some T people are somewhat sometimes in at McDonald's and different things too uh I don't mind if you need a little break I mean personally I always like to go authentic whatever country I'm in oh these are good and I yeah if you need to eat it once a week if you your most cost effective option it's always going to be T food in Thailand because going to be potentially 20% of what it would cost for a similar dish in the US but I would say Western food would at most be half off possibly only like 30 to 40% off or maybe even like a salad stop would only be like 20 15% off from what the US cost to me when you're in Thailand and you're not getting Thai food it's like ordering chicken tenders at a steakhouse it's just not for me man what do you think about like Temple culture cuz I know you tours at a lot of Buddhist temples I've been to a lot of Buddhist temples as well in my time here or just in Southeast Asia in general what have you noticed oh well the first thing that I'll tell you to avoid since this is the topic is uh a lot of Buddhist temples when you go inside they make you take off your shoes and oh my God that what's that smell in there it's it's the smell of all the farang feet that are walking just touring just sweaty feet I would avoid that for sure right right people are not spraying their feet down with the numerous uh you know Gatsby deodorant sprays that they have out here here um yeah what else what else have you like noticed in your time here man cuz there's like there's a ton of stuff obviously you know we can't talk about everything but just like uh like stray dogs yeah versus Stray Cats obviously stray dogs that you see they do cause for more concern due to the threat of like rabies I do hear that Thai uh naturalization services or whatever like they do a good job of taking the ravies infected ones off the street but like what do you do when you find stray dogs on like B sidewalks well straight dogs when I first tried to like be friendly and and like almost want to pen it they were very territorial they were that's the only I never felt D in danger in Bangkok but with the dogs I felt like they were they could have went at me if I angered them the cats still are friendly just staying on topic of safety what about food safety I know you're a big fan of eating in y yarat old Chinatown which actually feels like a lot of chinatowns around the world that are like 100 200 years old I've gotten personally the runs in a hot stomach every time I ate there you're good no I get it sometimes but I avoid the obvious ones you know you could tell what's sitting out in the sun and a lot of times in my opinion it's actually not even about the meats or like what's sitting out in the sun sometimes it's just like the bowls yeah like what's their cleaning procedure for the metal bowls that the noodles are being served oh yeah sometimes you just see in the back alley it's not good uh not not Bangkok but I'd also recommend skipping bouet that's my opinion uh when my friends and I visited he sent me a text he stayed in patang which is the Lively Beach area he text me he was like yeah I'm not a huge fan of patang it reminds me of the Jersey Shore we're both from Jersey so it was just so grimy and I I it just didn't remind you of Thailand and if you want that kind of experience it's it's kind of overrun to the ground it's not as glamorous as it used to be all right guys you know like I said there's so much stuff to not do when you're here I think that that was just a short list let me know what you guys want to see in another video moving forward I think my top top thing that I would say to not do is probably fall in love with a bar girl right okay yeah that's a pretty good one that's that's a good more rated R one but I would say in terms of PG-13 the PG is I would say probably get some sort of account that doesn't have ATM fees and gives you a better exchange rate because it's very difficult to open up a Thai bank account unless you like find you know some Loc that has looser standards or whatever if you're were just on a tourist visa so I would say whether you know I don't even want to promote you know maybe Charles Schwab maybe whenever whatever uh Bank in America has no ATM fees in better exchange rates cuz cuz you're going to be like taking stuff out of ATM no I agree there's you kind of these are the kind of things that Thailand's a little bit different than the rest of Asia in terms of the currency there's not a much credit card involved here lot more cash based so there's a lot of ways to kind of smooth out your visit um getting around obviously is another thing um yeah there's just a lot of different things but uh yeah I would say uh the the most the probably the worst thing that could happen to you like like we said not a lot of violent crime if you're hang out in the red light district you might get scammed they might run up your drink tab a little bit that's not something to avoid and you just got to be smart about that but um and kind of know and be direct with what you do or do what you don't want so you know that's probably my my my thought on that all right guys let us know what are some other things to not do for sure in Thailand that was just our thoughts on it make sure you know you let us know if you want to supplement or complement or add anything on check out Matt you know you got a new movie coming out yeah Instagram last time Burly young I got Forge coming out March 9th South South by Southwest for distribution maybe streaming or Netflix theaters later all right you guys that's it until next time we're out peace