Thai street food is one of my favorite aspects of living in Thailand.  It is always available at a moments notice, everywhere you go.  It is always delicious and healthy and cooked by smiling thai faces who are full of fun and optimism.  I love seeing my friends in Thailand who cook street food.  I walk outside my apartment to get breakfast in the morning, and each day it’s the same people out there seeing “Big Farang” walk towards them down the street to buy some vegetable, chicken, and sticky rice.

Street food vendors are a lively bunch with an entreprenurial spirit.  They set up small carts and plastic tables with chairs to cook and sell their food from.  Essentially, they make tiny restaurants on the sidewalk or the shoulder of the road, anywhere you might be in Bangkok.  They usually hang out at the same spot each day with other street food vendor friends.  Many of the people who sell street food are from Esaan in the northeast where the most beautiful women in Thailand come from.  They like to laugh and joke, sometimes tease each other while working.  This makes for a great time, and is very entertaining.   I like to practice my Thai language skills with thai street food vendors.  This can be a hilarious experience when they all come together interested to see Farang (foreigner) try to speak thai.  I always use this as an opportunity to say thai words like “tickle” (jacka chee!) or Sab (special Esaan dialect for delicious) to make them laugh.

I swear Thai Street food vendors are so fun to interact with that it is one of the most pleasant and charming experiences of being in Thailand.  Not to  mention it’s so bodybuilding friendly!

Ever been stuck out of the house without meat?

In Thailand this will never happen. EVER!

At all times there is a street food vendor within a 2 to 3 minute walk cooking fresh grilled chicken and rice, they may even have spicy papaya salad “Som Tam” as well.

Is all food in Thailand spicy?  For the most part yes, but if you say “Mai Ped!” when you order it means “No Spicy” and they will make it without any peppers.  When I first got here I used to cry sometimes because the food was so spicy for me, but after about 4-6 months I got used to it, and at this point I have the same tolerance as the average Thai Girl who has been eating spicy her entire life.  Thai Man? That’s another story, those guys can eat so spicy it would blow my brains out.

Some of my favorite Thai Street Food dishes are “Kow Pakh Moo Khai Dow” which is stir fried pork rice with vegetable and a fried egg on the side.  I also love “Ga Pow Guy” which is spicy thai minced chicken with green beans over rice.  Aroi Mak! Sab! Sab!

Betagen Fermented Milk Drink

Don’t be afraid of the Thai Street Food Guys, if you are worried about getting an upset stomach or the runs just drink fermented milk from 7/11.  It contains all the enzymes needed to safely digest Thai food.  I’ve actually never had food poisoning from thai food and I eat thai street food 3 meals per day.  I’ve had an upset stomach a few times, but whenever I have had this I go directly to 7/11 to buy a fermented yogurt milk and within 24 hours my digestive system is back to normal.

Don’t Miss Out on This.  Thai Street Food is One of THE BEST parts of living in Thailand and is one of the aspects of the culture I find most charming.

-the bodybuilder in thailand

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Hey Man What’s Up?

Part of being a foreigner in Thailand is doing Thailand visa run s.  I use a tourist Visa here, and i’ve been using it for one year now.  Once every couple or few months I have to go back and forth across the border because you can only stay in Thailand for an alloted amount of time before you have to leave and reenter.

This is one of the only pains in the ass of living here.

Thailand Tourist Visa

There are several types of tourist visas.  When I first came here I was on a triple entry tourist visa I had got from the Thai Embassy in the United States.  While I still lived in California I mailed my passport with a money order for like $150 to the Thai Embassy in Portland Oregon.  They then mailed my Passport back to me with a nice Thai Visa inside that said that I could stay in thailand 3 seperate entries of 60 days within the next 9 months.

Thailand Visa Extension

Once you’ve got your Thai Visa you fly into Thailand and stay your 60 days.  At the end of 60 days instead of leaving you get a taxi to Thai Immigration in Chaeng Wattana Bangkok and pay 1900 THB ($60USD) to extend the visa for another 30 days.

So a  60 day Thai Tourist Visa is actually good for 90 days.

My Thailand Visa Run Situation Now

In order to get a new official tourist visa i’ve got to go to Laos or Malaysia and visit the Thai Embassy to get a new visa like the one I had from the USA.

You can only get Thailand Tourist Visa from outside Thailand.

I usually take the train from Hua Lampoung Station in Bangkok to Aranyaprathet at the Thailand Cambodian Border for 45THB ($1.50USD LOL) yes one dollar and fifty cents for a 5-6 hour train ride.  Once I get to to Arayaprathet I hire a tuk tuk to take me across the border to Poi Pet Cambodia where I exit Thailand, get a cambodian visa, shotgun a beer, turn around, and reenter Thailand with a “Visa on Arrival”

Thailand Visa on Arrival

The rules are different depending on which country you are from, but you can get a free visa on arrival to Thailand if you are from the USA.  You just show up to immigration at the border or when you get off the airplane with your passport and ask for visa on arrival.  They will stamp you in and you get a nice free 30 day visa.  This is what I usually do now when coming in from Cambodia.  Then after 30 days are up I go to Chaeng Wattana, Bangkok Immigration and extend the Visa another 30 days for 1900 baht.  So a total of 60 days in Thailand for 1900 bath and then I have to peace out across the border for 5 minutes again.

Thailand Visa Run…Crazy Shit

– the bodybuilder in thailand

The post Thailand Visa Run appeared first on Dan the Bodybuilder in Thailand.

This is What I’m Listening to

10 Months, that’s how long i’ve been living in Thailand now.  Away from the USA.  Do I have any plan to go back?

No,

I still stand by my original decision and reasons for leaving the western world.  I don’t like living there and I don’t want to be there.  I don’t like the western way of life.

For the first 6 or 7 months in Thailand I was kind of in a honeymoon period with it.  You know that first 6 months with your ex girlfriend how awesome they were?  maybe you just smoked weed, ate delicious food, and had sex all day together.  That’s sort of how the first 6 months in Thailand were for me.  I was awestruck being in a world so much different from what I had seen before.  At the same time I was ecstatic to be away from the land I had called my home.

I speak Thai decently now.  Thanks to Ex-Thai Girlfriends.  I’ve been single for about 2 months now.  That gets a bit lonely.  Living in a foreign country it really helps make things more comfortable to have a girlfriend stay at your house with you every night and be your partner to go and have dinner with.

But alas,

You usually learn a lot about yourself and the world around you when you alternate between periods of companionship and isolation.

Negativity towards some aspects of life in thailand have inevitably creeped into my awareness.  I’m bothered by how crowded it is, insane traffic, and people have no sense of personal space.  It’s not uncommon for people to be walking towards me on the sidewalk as I walk towards them they will have their heads up but it’s as if I don’t exist in their field of vision and we will literally have a head on collision.  I used to be careful and move out of the way as I did in the western world.  If you run into someone on the street in the USA you’d better be prepared to defend yourself and fight, because that is not kosher.  After getting used to the fact that personal space and avoiding running into people is not a part of culture in Thailand i decided “fuck it i’m going to just keep walking and run straight into them like they do to me” resulting in some absolutely ballistic collisions where I could feel the mass of my larger than everyone else body trampoline the other person off of me.  It’s awkward as fuck, I don’t know why people in asia are this way but they dont move out of the way at all.  They just right straight into you.  I feel a bit bad about it though because since i’m more massive than them it’s sort of like they run into a brick wall.  I used to wonder what the hell they were thinking but then I realized that they Are Not thinking.

I’m still deciding how i’m going to handle this.

I speak thai well enough to get whatever I need, I have like a 5 year old child’s vocabulary level.  Thai is a pretty easy language, I dont know how to read it but just listening and asking questions to thais and my ex girlfriends goes a long way if you really try.  I usually would ask my girlfriend questions about new words and phrases and then go and practice during the day with taxi drivers, food people, and gym staff.

“FARANG” is a word you hear thais say alot. It means “White Man Foreigner”.  A lot of times i’ll walk by a group and then hear them say farang like 50 million times and utter some other stuff, sometimes i’ll look over and say “farang pasaa thai” which means “White Man Foreigner Understands Thai” lol.

Something I’ve become more and more aware of as I have just grown more mature from being isolated from my own culture and watching the mad poverty here is that pain is good.

I’m learning that what arnold said in pumping iron “Those who can go through the pain barrier, this divides 2nd place and the champion, this is what divides the winners from the losers.”  is fucking true.  In all worthwhile aspects of life.

Anything worthwhile is going to cause mad pain.  And you have to decide to enjoy voluntary pain or else you’re going to be a fucking loser. a failure.  I Have to learn to enjoy and voluntarily pursue this pain or else I am going to be a failure and a loser.  Not a champion.

It’s the cold hard truth.

Everyone wants to feel safe and comfortable and avoid pain as much as possible.  It’s biology.  It’s survival.

But Voluntary Pain.  That’s what creates the men who dominate.  I’m sure you’ve heard me say it before but my worst fear is being average.  I cannot accept that.  It’s a recurring nightmare I have.  Not getting ahead in life, not having the fortitude to make my dreams come true.  IT haunts me continually.  It scares me.

If I want to get ahead financially and have the access to resources I want, I am going to have to work my fucking ass off.  It’s going to be painful as fuck and i have to be my own whipping boy, forcing myself to go on when i “dont want to” I just have to reframe in my inner psyche that I “do want to” and that i do want to undergo that pain.  I don’t want to be a failure.  I want to win and if i’m ever going to meet my goals in my life and make my dreams come true i’m going to have to welcome psychological pain and discomfort with open arms.

Welcome rejection, welcome fuzzy mindedness, and welcome physical pain from training and dieting.  Welcome a tired brain from firing my creativity neurons farther than my body tells me they can handle being stimulated so that I can put out this content for you guys and open the other business endevours that are formulating in my mind and make them reality like i did with this website.

Bodybuilderinthailand.com used to not exist.  It was nothing. Then in december 2015 it became a thought in my head. in january 2016 it became a .com domain name. and by february 2016 it became a functioning existing website that was created out of thin air from the creative powers inside my mind and brought real physical Dollars $ to my hands that I could go down to the local ATM in Bangkok Thailand and take out and smell.  Really fucking weird.  You can create shit out of nothing and then have it produce real tangible product. cash.  I wish my mind could just spew out ideas like a fucking factory.  IT’s hard to come up with shit that actually works.  I’m sort of just continuing to expose myself to new information and new experiences and let my subconscious formulate new plans that eventually reach my consciousness while i’m watching  youtube or something and then i think about them and try to create something real, something tangible out of them.

anyway thats enough for today.  I need to buy a new computer and a new phone because, my macbook blew up and my Android had an energy suyrge last night and now the LCD screen is fucked.

peace out

-the bodybuilder in thailand

The post Reflections on Living Away From My Home Country for 10 Months appeared first on Dan the Bodybuilder in Thailand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQyfFSPnc9M

Hey Guys, Got a Story From My Past, That Was a Life Changing Experience For Me and Many Others.  Wanted To Share This With You To Remind Everybody To Do What They Love and Let The People You Care About Know You Love Them.  Because Any Day Any of Us Can Pass Away. How Do You Want To Live Your Last Day?

The post Life Changing Experience: How It Felt Watching My Buddy Die In My Arms appeared first on Dan the Bodybuilder in Thailand.

Thailand Story #1: Destination Bangkok

Flying out of America I knew I was going towards a place where I could find greater happiness.

The feeling of relief overwhelmed me as I lifted off from the San Francisco airport on the Boeing 747 and and left the land mass I’d always called home. Looking down all I could see was blue. Blue water that signified my escape from a society I knew i didn’t belong in. a society I no longer desired to be a part of.

Before takeoff I had taken a large dose of Kratom to calm my nerves for the 24 hour flight, as I sat crammed against my window seat, I focused on the warm waves of relaxation I felt running through my body from the Kratom and quickly drifted off to sleep.

About four hours later I woke up. Still 20 more hours to go. I got up from my seat to take a whizz and noticed most of the planes passengers were Chinese.

When I got back to my seat I tried to say hi and make small talk with the Chinese man but he just stared through me ignoring me with his blank stare.  I thought he must not be bilingual, so I asked slowly, “do you speak english” he then turned to me and made direct eye contact and said “Yes I speak perfect english” lol. Guess he just wanted to be left alone.

Soon the cute Chinese flight attendant came by to offer us drinks.

My flight first connected to taipai China and then I would switch planes and head to Bangkok on a different aircraft.

I had never experienced hospitality on an airline like the Chinese give. All the flight attendant were beautiful. It was amazing. I thought to myself “wow I could get used to this” she brought me a ginger ale and I sipped on it for the next 20 minutes.

I could still feel the Kratom which was pleasant. I get restless as fuck sitting in a tight confined space for long periods of time. Add to that being a bodybuilder and constantly feeling squished in normal people seats.

I turned on the TV and started watching Austin Powers. Ya baby, always been a favorite movie of mine ever since I was about 14 and saw alotta faginas tits float up in the hot tub.

Hours passed and I ate 2 or 3 meals provided again by the cute flight attendants.

Suddenly I started getting a burning behind my eyes. Jesus christ, for the first time in my life I was experiencing a migraine.  It was the first time I’d been 30000 feet above sea level and suddenly I was just closing my eyes thinking “FUCKKK” it was right at this moment that my nose started bleeding profusely. For the love of fucking god. I got up and walked down the aisle to the lavatory while holding my nose with blood all over my face. I fiddled around with my nose but I could not get the fucker to stop bleeding. It was pouring out blood and things just kept getting worse and worse. I was having some kind of bad reaction to the altitude.

Finally I had to just stick a bunch of tp up my nose and return to my seat with another wad to change the makeshift blood dam I had made.  Every 20 minutes or so I had to stuff new tissue up my nose on account of the last one being soaked with blood.  Finally after about another hour it stopped. Fuck I wasn’t expecting that. after making it across the Pacific we flew south and over Japan towards china. I couldn’t believe how beautiful Japan looked flying over it on the night skyline.  It was misty and there was so much tropical foliage I had never seen anything like it.  I actually couldn’t take my eyes anything way from my little window, Japan was this long thin island speckled with golden lights and with hills and greenery holding my fascination.  I’ve always been a fan of Japanese gardens and architecture. I thought to myself “this is asia, I’m in Asia now, this is where I want to be!”

After 19 hours we landed in taipei china. Wow my first time on the Asian continent. It felt cool walking off the aircraft and into the Taipei airport. Everyone was chinese! Haha I was the only white guy. And I was extra big in comparison to these people. I walked along the airport corridor and nearly every single person had a wtf look on their face lol.

As I was walking I noticed a Few cute Chinese girls just staring at me. They looked at me as if I was a unicorn. Haha. I looked back at them and smiled and they giggled and smiled back. I had the feeling they had never seen a white man in real life before.  The way they were looking at me was the way that you look at something like the golden gate bridge or the grand canyon, where you’ve always known it exists but you can’t believe it’s real when you finally see it in person with your own eyes.

I boarded my flight to Thailand and waited to take off. Jesus I’m almost there now. Only a short 3 hour flight and I’ll be at my destination, bangkok.

as we took off on the final leg of the journey I started to feel some butterflys. I’d never been to Thailand before let alone Asia or another continent.  I texted this sexy little Thai fox I’d met on the Thai dating website thaifriendly a couple of weeks ago.  Although I was arriving at 3am bangkok time, she had taken the following day off work and was going to be waiting for me at the airport to pick me up and drive me to the hotel I’d booked online.  I assumed she’d be staying the night lol.  Mena assured me she’d be waiting there when I arrived.

…touching down in Bangkok I was excited as hell. I was tired as duck from my journey but I just couldn’t believe I was here in bangkok thailand. “Fuck yes!” I thought.

I got my baggage and walked through the airport corridor. There she was, I spotted mena. She had chuck Taylor’s bootie length Jean shorts and beats headphones on. She was dancing a little bit while she listened to her music and waited for me. “Holy shit” this girl was beautiful as fuck, and damn sexy.  Lshe had this smooth dark creamy skin and this lean toned body. Goddamm all of a sudden I was wide awake.

I walked up to her and said “hi mena” she turned to me oblivious of my presence because of her headphones and smiled, immediately becoming shy. She could barely speak english. She had this sweet smile though and after a brief introduction we went to her car.

On the way to the hotel I was looking out at the streets and architecture. It looked run down. And much different than america. The roads were huge and wide and there didn’t seem to be any traffic rules. Go whatever speed you want and get from point a to point b. Semi trucks observing this Thai tradition forced us to hit the breaks several times pretty hard on the highway in order to save our lives lol. The first thing I noticed was 7-Eleven EVERYWHERE literally every corner. I said “wow they have 7-Eleven here?” Mena looked at me like I was crazy.

We got to the hotel I had booked and checked in. Mena pretty much handled the communication with the front desk. I was drained after my journey. The hotel was made entirely of hardwood. The walls the floor the ceiling everything.

We walked down the long wooden corridor to the room and shut the door. It was raining outside. Mena looked in the fridge and found a glass bottle of water to drink, she asked if I needed anything and I asked for a beer which she happily obliged. I told Mena I was going to take a shower. I left the door open to the bathroom to tempt her a little bit with the thought of how easy it would be to take a peek and a naked what she called “farang” or Thai for white man taking a shower.

I finished showering and came out into the room with a white towel around my waist. Mena was sitting on the bed and I sat down next to her and immediately started kissing her. She kissed back and I escalated quickly from there. Undressing her and experiencing her smooth brown skin and her long lean body. She was so sexy. It took no time at all before we were having sex. I was taking it all in, flying to asia, my first night in thailand, a beautiful girl picking me up from the airport and taking me to my hotel, and now experiencing this sexy exotic woman. It had been a hell of a day.

After a nice long session and thoroughly enjoying the hell out of each others bodies we finished and lied down to go to sleep.

Lying there in the dark in silence, I’ll never forget what Mena said next…

“Welcome To Thailand”

-the bodybuilder in thailand

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