Prubangboy

Def book your visa well in advance. We were promised a four day turnaround, it took eight and we had to write off a flight. Have heard 3 reports of Han Long Bay being mobbed with cruise ships and video's bare that out. Def worth a trip to the Obama/Bourdain noodle place (unless you are politically opposed). You can't toss a rock without hitting good noodles, but that one was worth a special trip.

If like Woodford, try Bookers. Best high end: Four Roses single vat, Blanton's (of Kentucky Derby mint julep fame). Best mid-range: Old Grand Dad. Best cheapies: George Dickel and Rebel Yell (from which the song derives). Best artistic label on a cheapie bottle: Old Crow. Best celebrity bourbon for 20 minutes: Whiskey River by Willie Nelson. Best use of bourbon: Whiskey Sour. Best irritating nitpick: pointing out that Jack Daniels is not bourbon.

Good chat but was hoping for more about the predicament of trying to spend a lot of money in Thailand. I was excited when I got here about the prospect of staying a 5 star hotel of $200. But that's really more like $450. And when I did, it was not like staying in an upscale hotel in the west: passable buffet, decent, not great, in-house restaurant. Very slow service. $200 gets you a luxury hotel for Chinese people, which is fine, but if I'm going down that route, I'd prefer to be among the Japanese, if only for the dining. Always ultra-strict check in times with the J's, tho. I've found $100 a night in BKK to be the best luxury to comfort ratio. I like The Icon and The Bless Residence along Suk Road. Beyond that level, the headache factor outweighs the luxury factor. I don't need a bathtub in my room with a picture window so I can wave to people laying on the bed on the other side.

Laos business visa is very iffy to get. Prob have to pay under the table. I had a cultural visa there for six months. It required a donation. Also, in Laos, if they are unhappy with you, they just drive you to a border and send you on your way. No hearing, no nothing. 2 Christians were handing out Jesus DVD's in Vientiane. They were relieved of their dvd's, allowed to collect their luggage, and dropped at The Friendship Bridge. So a little insecure as a residence. Rent's in Sakanavet? Prob not a lot of places to rent.

My building gets a ton of them air BNB-ing (Chiang Mai). Mostly couples. They def love their weed. I see more and more weed stores with some Chinese lettering out front. Pai now has more Chinese signs too. They can fly direct to Chiang Mai, so a lot of them skip Bangkok. There's an old famous Chinese comedy where 2 idiots chase each other for the valuable whatever in various Chiang Mai locals and it still motivates people to come. If I look at a Google Map, 80% of the Chinese restaurant in CM are in Nimman. To me, Chinese is the heaviest, oiliest, most blah of Asian cuisines. I really only like the Manhattan kind.

I helped write environmental impact reports for NYC Subway. Mostly, those reports were never seen by even a single human eye. But stuff like old oil from buses storage and lead paint removal is important. At a certain point, oil storage depot relocations and old paint chipping off of a bridge becomes interesting. Gov analysts are the most cynical people alive, so a joy to work among. Left and right are united in 100% hatred of the grandstanding politicians slowing down important bus stop signage changes, just to put their stupid thumb on the scale.

Had some apple fritters at Chiang Mai Ram Hospital today, the only thing that was open. Like tempura mushy apples. A one and done, but very satisfying (90 baht for four small ones).

I did two 90 day, one 60 day, a couple of 30's. And a dozen 10's in meditation retreats all over the world. Truthfully? Unless you are naturally gifted as a meditator, it's diminishing returns, just as it would be if you were a bog standard average player who keeps going back to tennis camp. I like where I've gotten to, I don't expect to move the dial much more pre-death without a serious time commitment that I would not make. Anyone who puts in 2 years+ is in the ballpark of a famous in the west meditation teacher. It would be like having a BA in meditation. And then also have the ability to really compel people AND be an effective teacher. That's about .0002% of all meditators. Prob 50 of them on earth. I've been with 3 who really, really had it.

Not getting the clothing complaints. An Izod polo shirt costs the same as in America. A Central Dept Store one costs the same as Walmart (and is a little better). Muji is my go-to for everything else. I find it hard to spend fifty bucks a day here out of pocket, and that's factoring in a Starbucks brekkie and a sushi dinner. For two. AND there's a few $30-40 days in the week when we just order in vegan or pad thai from the good place (Ging Gri in Nimman). For me, the biggest luxury letdown in Thailand has been upscale dining. Unless you're going for the higher end of seafood in a nice place, you really top out quality/value-wise at 3-500 baht. There's a limit to how creatively they can do up those Khao Soi Noodles (Khao Soi Nimman is worth the extra dollar). I don't pretend my sushi lunches are moving the Thai economy. Every last whitie dollar spent by every last whitie amounts to a rounding error in an economy this size. I'm the opposite of the OP: I will never buy a property, a car, or possess any household goods totaling even $1,000. Money is piling up back home. To have every last thing I want, good medical care, lots of personal services, and still see my bank account rise every month means that I have hit the ceiling of what I can materially absorb in life. Whatever % that puts me in is meaningless. Buddha was asked what should wealthy householders who have given to their families, servants, and the monkhood do next. Buddha said, "Abide". Which I take to mean chill. I'm on it, B-man.

Laos is only very superficially communist. It's more of an oligarchy of descendants of the 4 families -who may or may not have been war hero's in the Vietnam War, since their stories are unverifiable. All Lao of all political persuasions happily accepted money from all sides, and at all times. And still do. The USA still tosses them $3M a year for landmine removal. Given these outlays for 50 years and that not that much of the country was bombed, it strains credibility. For all it's trouble and expense, Laos has consistently refused to sign on to the global no landmines effort. Nor were they were ever particularly ideologically aligned with the Vietnamese, who vie with China to control them. Nor did the Lao army fight much (beyond dodging bombs) during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam considered them to be unfit to fight. The Vietnam connection runs deep; 70% of the country is Lao Loum, which means of Vietnamese descent. I read The Little Green Book of Kheopethom, their home-grown Mao. It was clearly written in Moscow. It's page-long paragraphs of boiler plate marxism that would be just as at home in Latin America. It doesn't even mention Laos. To the Kremlin, indigenous people were and still are interchangeable. Moscow always had a racist relationship with it's SEA little brothers. When awe struck Ho Chi Minh managed to snag an autograph from Stalin, Stalin had a minder go and take it back from him, who he referred to as The Monkey-man.

As a person who has been an extreme helper in my life, I have found that the help-ee always resents you a little.

The OP seems to suffer from a lot of anxiety and depression. I hope he opts for some mood medicine. And I worked in a huge hospital at a stupid job for a while -truly soul-killing. And he's winding down in Australia and uncertain about his future. I have a lot of empathy for him. Thankfully, that empathy does not preclude pointing out what a plonker her is.

Northern Laos was the most wild-feeling place I ever went to. Devla Murphy had a good book about independent trekking there. No place is both so remote and so tourist-friendly as N. Laos. I want to go back, but I know it will be more China-fied than I would like. They are very implacable people. Communism tried to replace Buddhism; they shrugged it off. Actually, Buddhism tried to replace Animism and the largely shrugged that off too. It's the tribe, the moo ban, the family. Much more than here. The government barely touches most Lao people. Nothing does.

Laos is a kleptocratic basket case. It accepts aid from N. Korea. How broke do you have to be to do that? They have a mutual defense treaty too. Attack North Korea and feel the wrath of soldiers who get the uniform but no money.

My friend was looking for a hot date in Albania. He was told: Try Frankfurt. Prob more Ubon dating opportunities on Soi Diana than in downtown Ubon.

Next to the 4000 Islands, that little island in the Mekong town near Champasak, or a resort stay in the Bolivan Plateau, Pakse comes up a little short. S. Laos is pretty, but on average, less interesting than Issan. Since BigNok likes a bike trip, S. Laos could occupy 2 very thrifty weeks. I enjoyed such a trip, but wouldn't run back to do it again. From an archeological standpoint, it's still very untouched/dug up. People have been there thousands of years.

It's been a decade, but Pakse is mostly a stopover en route to the deeply hippy 4,000 islands. I watched a YouTube recently, not much new. Not even a one day town. You can prob still grab cab out to an Animist village where all the tree's have back strings on them. Ylang Ylang is available in the market for low $$$'s. Coffee from The Bolivan Plateau is some of the best I ever drank.

If you go to a tourist style, $20 a head restaurant, Luang Pubang was the best Asian-fusion food I ever ate, mixed in with all local river cuisine, and killer Chinese. Covid killed all that. It's like losing The French Quarter. I stayed at The Apsara, formerly Michelin-starred, still trying by making their own granola, unlikely to be a restaurant again. That article saying things are "bustling" was nuts. $400 RT from Chiang Mai is high, but if Luang Prubang was like it was, I'd go every other month.

Lao Aviation has some crazy prices. $198 OW to/from Chiang Mai. You need pristine currency, partic US $100's, to book anything. There's one travel agent open in Vientiane. I'll fish her card out. Or just ask where she is at your hotel. Vientiane was always small, but now it feels like only 4 short streets with so much closed. A lot of the old sun brick 60's buildings are being replaced with luxury hotels that will never see a guest. Unless they legalize casino gambling, which is prob only a couple of years away. Then when that train extends to Bangkok, it will be an improved version of the Cambodian Chinese resort model. In Laos the travel budget is that the room costs more, but they're practically giving the food away. 'Much nicer than Thai food. Imagine French-ified Issan food.

Laos has always been broke. Said Garnier, the first explorer, "be not fooled by the presence of a few brass beads, there is nothing here". It has always been a patron state, first from the French, then The American, now The Chinese. Went in June, barely 2 dozen tourists in Luang Prubang and maybe half a dozen restaurants open, including Obama coconut, where he had one. The new train was super narrow seats and squat toilets. 99% locals. You have to book it a day in advance.

I'm thinking about going to Bhutan during the smoke season. But they keep only offering me a private tour, just me and a Bhutanese guy in a Land Rover -for 10 days. Bhutan is very under-booked post-covid, so maybe not enough people to scare up a tour. I found the same thing trying to book Borneo -private tour only, which does knock up the price, but only about 20%. Anyone been there? I went in '99. Not a lot to see, but the un-deforested Himalaya's are still something I dream about. It's a pricey 5 hour flight from BKK, every other day. I'd do New Delhi on the come-back. In the 80's, most people who you met in Thailand had been to India first. These days, it's prob reversed.

What do you feel that you missed and still need to squeeze in? For me, nothing. I have been given and done enough. Anything more is a little absurd.

The nerve-striking is out of control here. Can't we finally put this AOL chatline-era cliche to death?

Are you 100% sold on Pattaya for retirement or is Phuket still in the mix too?

All probability for whom? Lumped in with you, a beer-drinking depressive who longs for a re-make of On The Buses, you're dragging the death age average down. Dragging things down is very you. Lumped in with Yoga/vegan types who I have more in common with, I'm on the short end of them, but still leaving you well behind in the dust. The diff: I feel a little bad about that. While you want to gloat over it to some ancient, penniless 3rd world janitor.