Comments Posted By Brian
Displaying 1 To 30 Of 1,055 Comments
Re: the meme at the top of the page
I can’t turn water into beer, but I am pretty good about turning beer into water!Re: bar scene
Im sure that the weather has a definite impact, as well as the timing you head out. But, even taking that into account, things seem pretty dire. And yet, there always seems to be someone who thinks that they can make it work.Lots of news in Pattaya Thailand about the US aircraft carrier arriving in port for 5 days of R&R. 5000 sailors who have been on ship for 280 days. The bargirls and all the vendors are loving it. LOL
re: weather
hope it gets better soon. That type of weather sucks. Everything feels damp and moldy. Yuk» Posted By Brian On 05/September/2026 @ 12:57 am
Re: rain, rain everywhere but not a drop in your house. LOL
Sucks but at least you have options. How is Swan’s family doing? Are they in a flood zone?Re: video
I dont think it is supposed to be humorous. Just a mini-drama in five and a half minutes.» Posted By Brian On 31/August/2026 @ 1:49 am
Another circle on the carousel of life
Happy Birthday John. Looks like it was a good day and a good time was had by all! Here is to many more!!
» Posted By Brian On 29/August/2026 @ 4:34 am
Re: old bars closing and new ones opening
Fits the layman’s definition of insanity. Repeating the same thing expecting a different outcome.
“Oh, a bar is closing because they were losing money every month. Perfect buying opportunity for me!”
“Wow – sounds good. What are you going to open in its place?”
“A bar!”Re: Hospitals
Public hospitals throughout SE Asia pretty much suck. Money talks, which is unfortunate for the majority of citizens in the country.Re: Dolly Parton
Can’t say I was a fan, but did enjoy some of her songs. She is the rare celebrity that no-one seems to have ever had a bad thing to say about her. I think she truly was a good person. What you saw was what you got with her.» Posted By Brian On 27/August/2026 @ 2:46 am
Re: Metro’s comment
Yeah, kind of like that old “joke” ; Answer yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?
Hard to prove a negative.
» Posted By Brian On 27/August/2026 @ 2:31 am
I remember a teacher I had in school. His motto was:
If you’re early, you’re on time.
If you’re on time, you’re late
If you’re late, forget about it!!!That has always stuck with me.
One of the first jobs I had overseas, there was a meeting scheduled for (e.g.) 2 pm. At exactly 2 PM and one second, the meeting leader locked the door to the meeting room. People came up and were knocked and he told them to get lost. Only time those people were late was the first time. After that, they were on time or early. LOL
» Posted By Brian On 25/August/2026 @ 6:48 am
Re: Bars
Interesting that in one of your linked posts, you lament that bars are not doing well, tourism is down, etc. I guess that the more things change, the more they stay the same. LOLRe:Video
I think that the concept of being on time is common across all of SE Asia. In Indonesia, they call it “jam karet”, or rubber time. Same in Thailand. I can be sitting in our agents office; we have a meeting with some fairly high level execs from PTT at 2:30 for example, and here it is 2:20, and we haven’t even started to pack up to leave and head over to the PTT office, which is at least 10 minutes away. LOL» Posted By Brian On 24/August/2026 @ 2:37 am
Re: rental house
At least from the outside, that looks pretty nice, especially considering the price. But I hear that some of the neighbors are a pain in the ass…………. LOLre: Quora
Yeah, your comment was about as innocuous as can be. But here is a hypothetical. If the PI (and every other country in the world had open borders and people could move freely), do you think that the PI would have an increase or a decrease in population? I know we have discussed (and you agree) that being a foreigner with money really insulates a person from what is truly happening in a country. Nothing wrong with that – just that it is what it is.Re: picture of your brother
I had to laugh. I know it is the angle of the photo, but it looks like your brother in the front was abducted by some tribe and had his head shrunk.» Posted By Brian On 23/August/2026 @ 2:58 am
Re: hike
Are you a one trekking pole or two trekking pole person? I use two.Re: Video
Definitely would suck for that guy. I know that Canada is pretty strict on things like that also. Seen multiple stories about people being denied entry into the country because of past issues in the US.Re: misc
week or so, I mentioned that I think you needed to get out of the SE Asia bubble, and you asked if I had any suggestions. Thinking about it, Japan may be a good choice. 160 yen/dollar now, which makes Japan a more affordable place to visit. Hoping to go there next spring and do parts (or all) of the Shikoku 88 temple walk/hike.» Posted By Brian On 22/August/2026 @ 2:06 am
Dang, good luck on that rain stopping. With all that rain, nothing (even inside the house) seems to dry out. Everything starts to get that damp musty smell.
I think that rain is one of the main reason that buildings, in the looks department, seem to age so fast. After a few rainy seasons, a relatively new building will look like it is decades old.
» Posted By Brian On 20/August/2026 @ 2:37 am
Re: trash
If the PI government was serious about solving the problem, they could. Combination of carrot and stick. You mention about how the PI lags other SEA countries in tourism arrivals, and I think that the trash situation is part of it. It is pretty off putting and discourages people from doing a return visit, and maybe even a first visit. I would think that in a place like Thailand, a minimum of 35% (or more) of the visitors are return visitors. I am guessing that, unless you are an expat retiree or similar, there are not many return visitors to the PI.Re: Routines
read something about how if a person wants time to slow down, they need to do new things every day. Doing the same thing on a daily basis makes the days run into each other and makes time slip away faster than it should.» Posted By Brian On 17/August/2026 @ 4:05 am
John, when is the “normal” end of the rainy season?
Re: Reeky video
I mentioned before but the videos I have watched from him (mainly those linked by you) seemed to be filled with either generic photos/videos or AI generated photos. Some (a lot?) of those generic photos/videos may be copyrighted somewhere or other and that is what got him flagged. He doesn’t appear to have much original photo/video content on his site, other than the times he is just sitting talking to the camera.» Posted By Brian On 17/August/2026 @ 3:51 am
Sent you an email at the aol address. Is that still the correct one?
» Posted By Brian On 19/August/2026 @ 9:20 am
Did a hike of Camel’s Hump in VT. It was about 8 miles and took about 8 hours. Probably one of (if not the) most difficult hikes I have done. Included some video clips on the blog.
» Posted By Brian On 17/August/2026 @ 11:18 pm
I am currently doing a trip out to the east coast of the US. Upstate NY and Vermont.
Recommend both of them. LOL Tons of hiking also. 😛
» Posted By Brian On 15/August/2026 @ 9:03 am
Yeah, sounds like Pacifico is a place for a very specific type of short term visitor. However, glad you seem to have had a good time.
I still think you need some time out of the SE Asia bubble. Maybe next trip?
» Posted By Brian On 13/August/2026 @ 7:49 am
Re: residency
Seems like kind of a Catch-22. Your bank needs you to have a SC address (ie residency) for their business, and because of that, the tax authorities want to claim you as a resident. Good luck getting it sorted out. Didn’t @KevinKim go through something similar. Is he liable for state taxes where he has his “residence”?Re: Video
interesting to see. Puts locations to names and how they all fit in relation to others. And, got to see your humble town at night. Realize that the video is 7 months old, but seems to track what you have been saying about lack of business.» Posted By Brian On 03/August/2026 @ 11:41 pm
JOhn, Drain Snake verbalized better than I did.
I am glad you agree that COVID was deadly. LOL. However, just because you survived COVID and know another person who had COVID and neither of you died does not mean squat. One (or two) data points does not prove a point. That would be like someone saying, “I smoked for 30 years and have not developed lung cancer. Therefore, smoking is not bad for you.” Or, “I didn’t wear a seatbelt as a kid, and I am still here. Therefore, seatbelts do nothing to save lives.”
I dont want to beat a dead horse (but I guess I am doing it anyways…..). You wrote:
>the measures taken to prevent its spread were ridiculous and counter-productive.
Economically, and from a mental health perspective, I agree with you. From a medical perspective, I believe it was pretty much a net neutral. Didn’t help, but didn’t hurt.
You may want to check your data on Sweden. # of deaths 2019 = 88K. 2020 = 98K, 2021 = 92K. More than a 10% increase in 2020.Anyway, I will never be convinced that there was some concerted worldwide effort to F people over. Knee jerk reaction that, in hindsight, was overblown? Yes. Worldwide conspiracy? Not a chance. To what end? For example, I think Trump would have been re-elected in 2020 if COVID had not tanked the economy. So, if there was some sort of conspiracy, what was the benefit to him? And he was not the only leader of a country that was voted out of office as a result of COVID.
» Posted By Brian On 03/August/2026 @ 5:50 am
John, I think you are missing my (and maybe Drain Snake’s) point. I am not arguing the some deaths were mislabeled as COVID when they were actually something else.
But, you can’t ignore the fact that in the US, there were more than 1MM deaths in 2020, 2021, and 2022 compared to previous years and succeeding years. (2019 = 2.8MM deaths, 2021 = increase 3.6 MM deaths, 2023 = decrease to 2.9 MM deaths).
The same for the PI. Pick any country, check the numbers and show one where 2020-2022 did not show an uptick in deaths that does not correlate to normal trends.
Something caused those extra deaths. If not COVID, what was it?
Again, I think mistakes were made, but to say that COVID is/was no big deal is a bit naïve. Interesting discussion, but I don’t think that you are going to change your mind, (even though you are wrong. LOL. Just joking!!).
Re: Filipina Pea video
Agree to an extent, but I mentioned before and I think you agreed, that western- Filipina relationships are no more likely to succeed vs. a western-western relationship.» Posted By Brian On 02/August/2026 @ 3:41 am
Re: COVID
I know you jokingly refer to it as the scamdemic, but what was the scam? What was the payoff for those who were supposedly doing the scam?What is your biggest beef with the whole COVID thing? Lockdowns don’t work? Vaccines don’t work? We weren’t given enough bleach to drink? LOL. Something else?
My general thoughts. I really don’t blame the initial message and the fact that it changed as time went on and we learned more. That is the nature of unknown things. Smoking, asbestos, etc. are prime examples of messaging that has changed over time. I also don’t think that the initial calls for lockdowns etc were any type of scam. Public health officials are by nature pretty conservative. Should views have evolved more quickly? Yes, definitely .
But, there were things that really hurt the overall credibility of health officials that could have been avoided.
1. The refusal to consider that the origins of COVID were from a lab leak. In fact, they seemed to actively discourage anything about it. (But, I don’t think anything really would have changed in the overall response if we knew for sure that it came from a Chinese lab rather than a food market.)
2. I think that there were lies told so that people would behave in a way they want you to. (eg early advice to not buy masks which they then reversed)
3. The exceptions to Covid restrictions granted for approved political purposes. For example, certain rallies were exempt from following distancing rules, etc. For me (and most people), that ruined credibility big time.
4. I think that there were some attempts to prioritize certain races in vaccine distribution even at the cost of net higher deaths as long as those deaths occurred among less favored races.
But, by any measurement, the number of deaths in the US jumped by millions in 2020 and 2021 vs previous years and the life expectancy decreased by a couple of years during that same timeframe. Something (COVID) was killing people at a much higher rate during those years.
tldr: mistakes were made, messaging was bad, there was quite a bit of misdirection. However, COVID was/is a bad motherfucker that has killed millions of people. The whole thing wasn’t a scam in the traditional sense.
Re; Video
I think that the guy nails it. Common sense, but a common mistake a lot of expats make. Come to a different country because cost of living is cheaper, but then get mad when the culture, people, etc. are not the same as where you came from.» Posted By Brian On 31/July/2026 @ 10:42 pm
Horsing around or monkeying around?
Re: SBMA
Is that a private “gated” area now? If not, why is it so much better maintained than other areas? Is it pretty much self contained with restaurants, stores, bars, etc. Mainly locals there or an expat community?Re: horse with mask
Not sure if that was a facetious question or not, but the mask is there to keep flies and other bugs away from its face and eyes. (my sister lives on a farm and has horses, so my answer is almost straight from the horses mouth! LOL)» Posted By Brian On 30/July/2026 @ 11:33 pm
Re: PI video
I don’t disagree with what the guy said in the video, but there were really only about three reason he gave; 1. things are cheaper (which were about 2/3 of his reasons) 2. good food. 3. friendly people LOLGot me thinking however. (Dangerous I know.). If a PI expat was pretty well off (not Bill Gates rich, but to the point of not really worrying about money), how many of them would still retire in the Philippines? When I talk to retirees in Thailand and ask why they picked Thailand, invariably the #1 answer is cost (and then women. LOL). If cost were not an issue and you could afford to live anywhere, would the PI have been your first choice? If not, where would be your “dream” destination?
» Posted By Brian On 28/July/2026 @ 11:36 pm
At the time, I was in Indonesia, not Thailand. I was a technical advisor at an oil facility. I was seconded to Pertamina from my company. (Pertamina is the national oil company in Indonesia.) We had done some design work at that facility, so I was there to make sure that they pushed the right buttons and turned the right valves. LOL
» Posted By Brian On 28/July/2026 @ 11:09 pm
Re:video
I experienced living out in the boonies in Indonesia. Really enjoyed it, but was definitely ready to leave after a year. This was roughly 25 years ago, and home internet was pretty much non-existent along with cell phone coverage. So, read a lot and read some more. LOL. I did have a semi-regular nighttime ritual of going down to the guard house at the entrance of the housing complex and practicing Indonesian with the guard. Indonesian is easy enough that by the end of the job, I was semi conversational.I had a car, but mainly used a bike to get to/from town. Never (at least knowingly) ran into the foreigner tax. But, being pretty much the only foreigner in town meant everybody knew who I was, even if I oftentimes had no clue who they were.
With connectivity being ubiquitous nowadays, I think it would be easier to do now. Who knows, maybe you would like it. LOL
» Posted By Brian On 28/July/2026 @ 2:48 am
Re: ……adultery is a crime in the Philippines.
Does this only apply to PI citizens who are married? Seems like it probably does. Is Swan worried at all?Re: Filipina Pea video
So John, which would you give up? Love, sex, or money? LOL» Posted By Brian On 27/July/2026 @ 12:04 am
Interesting comments over the past few days, and whichever way things fall, i hope that they are in the direction you want. Swan seems like a good woman, but……
At the risk of repeating myself, I think that this latest incident shows that all relationships are transactional. You are looking for, if not love, at least companionship. Swan is looking for………? I think that Swan is looking for security and safety. And maybe companionship, but as much as I hate to say this, i don’t think that is her first priority. If you are okay with that, then things can probably continue.
Given the pretty significant differences between the two of you (age, economics, cultural, educational, worldview, etc.), it would be very very rare both sides to be looking for the same thing.
That is not to say that things wont work out. Just have to be realistic. If you are looking for love, and the best she can do is companionship, then maybe no. If she is looking for security, and you expect her to help pay some portion of the bills by working, then may no. Etc etc.
I am sure that there is someway to test the above.
Best of luck!!
» Posted By Brian On 23/July/2026 @ 5:10 am
Looking down on my little town
Re:Blog title
Dang, I thought I knew for sure which song you would use, and I was wrong. I thought you were going to go with My Little Town by Simon and Garfunkelhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Ro3eGuznI
Re: Bar/restaurant traffic
if you were going to plot the expat population over the past 7 years, smoothing it out for seasonal adjustments, what would that look like? Slow steady downward trend? Peaks and valleys with 2026 being the lowest(?) valley? Something else?re: 3 ways foreigners go broke.
Related, but somewhat unrelated. If you haven’t read “Private Dancer” by Stephen Leather, give it a read. Fictional story about a young expat falling in love with a BKK bargirl.» Posted By Brian On 19/July/2026 @ 3:15 am
Re: Kokomos
>Well, they’ve lost my business. It’s off my list of places to go.
Seems petty on your part, but maybe I’m missing something and this has been a regular occurrence for you when you go there. You seem to not be remembering the Filipino way, “deep breath, etc”. Are there any convenience stores nearby where you could have gone (or sent the waitress) to buy a bottle of water or something similar to break the 500 peso note?Re: video of Barreto
Definitely not something that the PI tourism dept would want to post on their website. Doesn’t paint a very impressive picture of the town.» Posted By Brian On 18/July/2026 @ 12:09 am
re: walking through flood waters
I don’t envy you with that. Flood waters are nasty, and who knows what little bugs are percolating in the water. Had to wade through flooded streets a couple of times in BKK. One time, I was coming back from some meetings so had dress pants/dress shoes on. Rolled up my pants and took off my shoes/socks to make it across the street. Gave my legs and feet a thorough scrubbing when I made it back to the hotel.re: Video on giving an allowance
Yeah, the guy is pretty spot on. Gets back to my belief that all relationships are transactional on some level. And that is okay as long as both sides are cognizant of the fact. Nothing wrong with it. Both sides are getting what they want/need. Where it goes bad is if there is an 80 year old guy dating a 20 year old and claims she is doing it because she loves him. Well, ask her to start splitting expenses 50/50 and see how much she loves him then. LOL» Posted By Brian On 13/July/2026 @ 10:11 pm
«« Back To Stats PageSeems like quite an overreaction by Swan to what in my read is a pretty trivial thing. #shrug
All’s well that ends well I guess.
» Posted By Brian On 13/July/2026 @ 9:52 pm