You are correct that Whitey’s Plight in SE Asia is entirely his own fault. He cannot restrain himself.
We grow up watching documentarys aabout British Hooligans, and you say. I do not want to be a British Hooligan.
Twenty Years later the pendulum has swung way too much the other way. Now the Farangs in the social gutter find themselves with a queue of guilt-trippers lining up to offer pay-per-smile or rent-a-brother services.
To hell with that too,
Do you know how many Fat People have tried to guilt trip me out of cash this past 1-2 years?
Why should I give up a packet of Macadamia nuts so some glutton can buy a tray of pork chops?
When a fat dude is making that Sad Face and saying… “My Family No Have Rice, I Need Money Now” its really hard to bite your tongue. hahaha.
Your kids dont have food cos YOU Ate All The Pies, son.
So yeah, dont be a British Hooligan, but don’t a be a Frank Spencer either.
Ive learned Tenega Dalam for a few years, but I never focused on the external fighting, apart from conditioning… like pushups, planks etc.
There are villages all over Indonesia which are kind of Chen Village for Silat. Very talented. You just have to arrange a fair price, and have a strategy for when they guilty-guilty tap you for cash. The Taiwanese hardly ever do that, so it takes a week or two to get your shields up again.
“Saya tidak berjalan ATM” was a phrase I learnt early on.
And its not like I say it the first time to a random person selling sarongs on the street. I really respect their informal tourist industry. Its the lifeblood of the country.
If you’re sitting down with a “friendly local” who invites you for vodka… you might want to say that the seventh time they try and push you to buy a cap. No joke. They don’t back off, and then act all confused that no one comes to their shop. The parasitic tourist industry is in danger of killing the host, and they should be told, before they turn the island into a multi-storey car-park.
Sounds like doing business, kind of. It’s a simple life I guess, and people with simple priorities. I’d probably try to go with the flow, but different strokes. I respect you travelling around and talking with people
ha. I don’t walk round arguing with ppl. I know my place. I used that phrase once or twice in 6 months, for context. 99% of the time I just smile at them.
This is not some uptight down-and-out-whitey-in-Asia guy snarking back at the locals. I’m not one of those visa-runner-Xanax types. I sort of got invited there by certain groups cos they are getting close to their wits end.
Tourism has killed entire villages, swallowed up whole beaches, and erased rice fields from some towns in the South. The people involved don’t care, and won’t stop. Sanur could take 100 years to fix, as it is covered in concrete now.
Anyway, yes… learning how to balance niceness with standing up for yourself takes some huge mental tightrope walking in SEA.
Imagine you lived in Danshui, and there were twenty shops on the boardwalk, like now.
Plus 3 or 4 711/FamilyMart. Imagine the next year there was 40 shops, and 25% of the green had gone.
What about two years later, and 80% of the land by Danshui river has gone. There’s nowhere to sit anymore, cos the whole boardwalk park is full of tourist industry huts.
Or all that lush expanse of grass in Yuanshan disappears within 5-10 years. No more park, just hotels.
Or what if all the artists in Ximending are pushed out by fast food joints. No more street shows, just idiots selling BBQ food.
All that Laissez-Faire stuff is fine in most industries, apart from land and farming.
The locals are worried it might swallow the whole island.
I’ve never really been except Bali a few times. Never Philippines except Manila a few days. I know a lot of people who love both places though. I liked Thailand so I always wound up going back there
I suspect that much of most populations will try to take advantage of others, foreign or not.
that sucks.
You paid them for a service - at a price you consider a bargain. How’s that them taking advantage of you? Perhaps the other way around? (what they do with the money you paid them for work doesn’t make it a scam)
Not a SE thing, or SE Asian in the story, so…?
OK? You say dude is trying to drain cash off you, but the stories you’re telling here are just them being dumb, with not attempted cash drain. Focus, so we have a good taking advantage story to listen to!
I don’t mind paying for a service. I hire people off the street all the time. I’m talking about the ones who try and take more and more.
Focus…
OK I guess this is like that Chunk scene in the Goonies…
I was in East Timor and my teacher asked to borrow 500 USD casually over dinner, like he was asking me to pass the salt.
I saw the skinniest people in Oecusse queuing up to give money to the fattest f**ks in the village, for reasons unknown.
I saw a village elite, with access to the East Timor Oil fund who sat around and putrefyed, while stunted-growth children ate white rice with one cabbage leaf, and one bean.
In Kuta, on my layover, some chick talked to me for 3 hours and then tried to flog me her bosses bar.
Three weeks ago, a tuktuk driver quoted me 6USD per hour, then tried to collect 16USD when I paid.
A few weeks ago, that squatter asked me for 8 dollars. I said, why? And she said… “Cos I is be You FRIEND”. She really said that. There are enough dumbasses in SE Asia who will accept a pay-per-smile deal, so she tried her luck.
She and her husband stole a bunch of stuff off me. Including a phone. No wonder no one in SR likes them. They got booted out of that squat. He ran up to me like I was an old friend, 2 weeks ago… I took his hat and watch off him, and he had a meltdown in the street… hahaha. From Neo to Frank Spencer in 5 short weeks.
In Gili Trawangan there are fat people who stand at the pier collecting a “departure tax”. One of the locals told me it was a “blls**t tax” haha. For all that money they collect every day… ferries sail with only a third life jackets. Ours nearly sunk. I saw grown men and women losing it.
I know many of you have travelled all over, but we’re shielded from all of that in TW.
For context, my life here is good. For every bad experience, I have 19 good ones.
