Do You Have to be a Weirdo to Thrive in Bangkok? [S7.E43]

The Bangkok Podcast

Greg and Ed revisit an old topic from Season 2, Episode 48: Do you have to be weird to live in Bangkok/Thaiand as a foreigner? Ed begins by noting that the question depends on exactly why an expat has chosen to live here. Are they in the military? Are they on a corporate package? Are they here for a significant other? These options leave room for fairly ‘normal’ people. But what about expats such as Greg and Ed, who seem to live in Thailand without an outside force making it necessary? And of course, what does ‘weird’ even mean, exactly? It’s subjective, but leaving all that is familiar to live in a chaotic city with no guarantees of success seems like a good place to begin.

Greg contends that in some basic ways it IS weird to leave your hometown and your country to live on the other side of the world. The simple fact is that the majority of people live close to where they were born for their entire lives. Ed notes that during his recent trip home for a high school reunion, his classmates treated his living in Thailand as something somewhat shocking and extreme.

Ed mentions that even among ‘expats of choice’ there is a lot of variety, but that it’s also true that expats tend to rarely be boring: they are either interesting in a good way, or interesting in a bad way. There is something about choosing to be an extreme minority in a foreign land that attracts a particular type of personality: perhaps one that craves new experiences or that enjoys the challenge of deciphering everyday interactions.

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