what its really like living in Thailand after 1 year

Hello, welcome back to a new video.

So I've been living in Thailand for nearly

1 year now, and I wanted to make a video

talking about what it's really really like

living in Thailand. So if you ask

basically anyone who's never been to

Thailand before or who's only been here

for a quick trip, what is Thailand famous

for, they'll basically answer you with—

probably answer you a few things like the

LADY boys and the adult entertainment kind

of nightlife, which for some reason

Thailand seems to be very famous for.

Famous for having this kind of degenerate

culture. And it's just kind of weird

because you can find this stuff in

basically any other country, but other

countries are not famous for it in the

same that Thailand is. And as someone

who's been living here for almost a year

now, I really don't think Thailand is like

that. That's only like a very small slice

of the pie. Bangkok is a very normal city

home to millions of people, and there are

a few streets where it is kind of like

adult entertainment and degen stuff. And

you can find those places in places like

Nana Plaza and Soi Cowboy, but those are

just 2 streets in the entire city. People

think that 2% of the city is what

represents the entire country as a whole,

which is really bizarre to me. And the

reason why I started thinking a lot about

this recently is because recently, as some

of you may know, a fairly popular American

livestreamer got himself into some trouble

in Thailand. He's in Thailand now, and he

did a livestream where he took off his

clothing and gave his girlfriend a very

salacious dance in a very prestigious and

high-end hotel slash restaurant in

Bangkok. He was taken to jail and held

there for a few days and then released on

bail. And now he's stuck in Thailand with

his passport revoked until he has to go to

some kind of court hearing to sort out

this mess. And I think the reason why he

acted that way is because he also had this

misconception of Thailand just being a

degen country when it clearly isn't.

And I think he found out the hard way that

there's other aspects of Thai culture that

you have to respect. He probably also

thought, oh, Thailand is this country

where it's all about degeneracy and adult

entertainment, and I can just do whatever

I want to because everyone else is doing

it. But because he doesn't really

understand what Thailand is about and what

the culture is about, he made that mistake

and he let his guard down, and he thought

this country is a place where you can do

things like that when obviously it's not.

You can do stuff like that, but only in

certain places like Nana Plaza or Soi

Cowboy. I admit that before I came to

Thailand, I also had no idea what this

country was going to be about, and the

only things I heard about Thailand were

the same things that you probably heard,

you know, like the LADY boys and, you

know, the weird stuff. But living here for

a while now, I realized that I don't

really encounter any of that stuff on a

day-to-day basis. I go to school and I go

shopping and I come home. I go on the

train. I go around the main areas of

Bangkok to do shopping and sightseeing.

And I don't see any of this degeneracy

that people think Thailand is so famous

for. Now, to understand Thailand properly,

you kind of have to know a bit about

Chinese history as well, because it goes

back hundreds of years. Actually,

Thailand is home to the biggest community

of Chinese people outside of China.

That's if you don't count Taiwan, I guess.

But apart from Taiwan, it has the largest

amount of Chinese people outside of China.

And I think it's like 15% of the

population in Thailand is actually ethnic

Chinese and descendants of Chinese

immigrants. So if you go back to the

1700s, there were massive waves of Chinese

immigration, mainly coming from southern

China. And they came to Thailand probably

to escape hardships in China. And China

and Thailand had a shared enemy that was

Burma. Burma was a very strong military

threat to both China and Thailand, and

they teamed up to kick Burma's bum. And

China sent a lot of aid and wanted to do a

lot of trading with Thailand, and Thailand

was more than happy to accommodate. And

thousands, tens of thousands of Chinese

people immigrated to what is known as

Chinatown in Bangkok right now. The

history of Chinatown Bangkok is very

interesting, but I won't bore you with the

details. Basically, that's where Thailand

allowed the Chinese immigrants to set up

shop and set up homes and businesses. And

actually, basically all of Thailand's

economy and business is dominated by

Chinese businessmen. Well, they're not

actually Chinese, they're just descendants

of the Chinese immigrants that moved to

Thailand. So anyone who owns like some of

these big businesses, the big shopping

malls, the big companies and corporations,

if you Google who owns them, who is the

CEO, it's pretty very likely that they are

ethnically Chinese, or at least part

Chinese, but they identify as Thai. And

the point is that, um, Chinese culture is

heavily ingrained in Thai culture. So my

point is Thailand is really not all about

LADYBOYS and red light districts. If

anything, Thailand is— I would say it's

like a mishmash of original native Thai

culture and temples and religion

incorporated with Chinese culture and

traditional Chinese stuff. It's kind of

like a fusion of Chinese and Thai culture

coming together. And this is where I

believe the dichotomy of traditional

conservative Chinese values clashes with

this preconception, misconception of

Thailand being all about sleaze and LADY

boys and ping pong shows and I guess it

depends on where you go, where you shop,

where you live, but I don't really see any

sleaze anywhere I go. If you go searching

for sleaze, then yeah, yeah, you'll find

it. But I only go to very high-end and

classy places like Central World, Paragon

Shopping Center, or Central Siam, and I

don't see any of this degeneracy that

Thailand is so famous for. I just see very

well-educated, smartly dressed,

nice-looking very Chinese-looking people.

One interesting observation I made after

living in Thailand for almost a year is

that if you go to expensive, fancy luxury

shopping malls like Central World and

Paragon, basically 95% of the people there

look Chinese. But then if you go to other

places like Platinum Mall in Bangkok,

nearly everyone there is Muslim or Indian,

and they're wearing stuff like the hijab,

and they don't look Chinese. But, and then

if you go to places like markets or street

markets, street food markets, nearly

everyone there kind of looks Thai with

darker skin. So the kind of experience of

Thai culture in Thailand that you'll have

will heavily depend on the place and the

area you go to. If you only go to

Sukhumvit and Nana Plaza, then yeah,

you're going to experience the degeneracy

and the sleaze and the nightlife kind of

side of Bangkok. But then if you only go

to nice places, then you'll experience the

kind of Chinese-influenced part of

Thailand. Also, when people keep saying

Thailand is a third world country and it's

poor, it's really not. It's more of a

developing country, but Bangkok really

feels like a very advanced and modern city

in my opinion. And I've been to a lot of

cities. I've been in London, I went to

Tokyo, I've been to a lot of cities in

Europe, I've been to Seoul, and I have to

say Bangkok has been one of the most

impressive cities I've ever been in. The

Skytrain and the BTS Skytrain and elevated

highways and roads really look impressive,

and they have massive skyscrapers and

high-rise buildings that look way more

modern and luxurious and expensive than

anything we have in London or Europe, or

even anything I saw in Osaka. Central

Bangkok at night is really actually quite

beautiful with all the lights and the kind

of grungy cyberpunk feeling it has with

the monorails and the elevated trains

weaving in and out of the highways. It is

a bit of a concrete jungle, I guess you

could say, but at night it does look quite

impressive. And if you go out of Bangkok

and then come back into Bangkok using the

motorways and the highways. It always

blows me away when we drive back into

Bangkok and the massive skyscrapers start

coming into view, and you're on that

really high elevated motorway, and it's

like you're on an airplane runway coming

into Bangkok, and you see all the big

buildings coming into view and all the big

neon signs. It really doesn't feel like a

developed— I mean, it really doesn't feel

like a third world or developing country

at that point. It feels actually quite

first world. I find kind of insane that

the elevated highways and roads in Bangkok

actually way higher than 90% of the

buildings in England, in Maidstone, which

is the town near where I live, where I was

born. The elevated highways here in

Bangkok are higher than the entire skyline

of Maidstone. Maybe Bangkok is not as

clean and pristine as places like Tokyo,

but I definitely feel like it's a very

nice and vibrant, lively city. It doesn't

feel robotic and lifeless like Seoul in

South Korea does, and it doesn't feel like

it's just full of robots. It actually

feels like a real living, breathing

metropolis. And I do kind of like living

here. I do think it's kind of a shame that

a lot of people think Thailand is just all

about sleaze and degeneracy, and they come

here with that misconception and then they

get in trouble with the authorities. It's

kind of sad that people think the entire

country, an entire nation, is just based

off of some silly stereotype.