Personally as a European I never thought of Asia as crappy place, most people either think of China or Japan, for me it was a continent with people working more hours than European, hard workers and fast workers is what I could picture first.
Anyway first country in Asia I visited was Indonesia (Bali) as a tourist and first impression was not very good with the locals at the airport carrying your luggage and then begging for tips. But I was never going to generalize this to the whole continent.
What is Western Asia, Russia ?
Depends on your point of reference. From Asia, youād refer to it as Western Asia. Americans call it the Middle East.
Back in his day??
Heās an FNG, all that collateral damage happened long before he got here.
Lived like a fucking prince since he got here, he has.
OK, OKā¦your day.
I mean itās not like the entire place. Itās just funny they happen to be from tiny dying villages with only 3 shops left open.
In the old country we had Korean neighbors, Japanese students, teachers and JETRO volunteers, Malaysian passengers, Cantonese families. Taiwanese were my classmates, my coworkers. That was what we knew of Asia, the people.
As to what idea I had in mind:
Korea: MASH
Japan: travel booklets, Mount Fuji, ikebana classes. And lots of anime. I was wrong about rice balls.
China: countryside, artsy, Farewell my concubine
Taiwan: what?
No idea Filipinas or SEA existed beyond Flying Tigers.
Oh but Hong Kong, was God of Gamblers and Chunking Express. Bruce Lee and gangster movies.No one told me the bay was really fragrant. It did not live to the hype, it went beyond.
In the old country they think Asia in general and Taiwan in particular is a sh*****e. And the feeling is mutual. My family has never wanted to come here and honestly, I know not only they would not like it but rather it would be very uncomfortable for all parties involved. So better them stay in the little valley.
where?
Mostly I took LSD.
So you saw like Hindu temples and stuff?
Pad thai!
You sir, are enlightened.
Yeah it was awesome. Bit disappointing when I got here.
Well, we have temples, but no bhang smoothies. 
A mushroom omelette would be nice.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiitake.
Comments like this twinned with Greta Thunberg profile picture is quite comical. Impressive.
I definitely wasnāt expecting to like living here as much as I have. I was picturing highly industrialized & not too clean. Surprised to see most of the island is green and mountainous. However I think most folks back home donāt believe me and wonāt even consider visiting 
I remember thinking everything is cheap and convenient, and there are lots of people.
I went to China and discovered you can burn through money surprisingly quickly but can live quite cheaply compared to in Australia if you know what you are doing.
Then I went to Indonesia and found I barely even had to try to save money. Itās so cheap there outside of major tourist destinations.
That still largely holds true.
