Argentina

Bangkok shows much more of the Thai culture than the tourist bubble of Phuket. This was not a surprise, which is why we included both destinations in order to have a blend of vacation and travel. Vacation is when you relax and get massages, and travel is when you learn about new cultures, food, and language. First a little orientation on Thailand.  History: Thailand is the only SE Asian country not to have been colonized. That's pretty impressive. Did they manage it with a massive army? According to my new German boss who lived in Thailand for 10 years, Thai people are unsuspectingly sneaky. On the surface they are very kind and friendly and unthreatening, but he says they are very clever. This is demonstrated by how Thailand avoided being colonized. They played the colonial rivalries and tensions against each other, mostly the British, French, and Germans in such a way as to avoid being colonized. Pretty impressive. Politically, Thailand became a democracy in 1973 with br...

It was already clear on the drive from the Phuket airport ("Poo-ket" not "Fu-ket") that we were not in Singapore anymore. The drive was actually similar to how Puerto Vallarta, Mexico looks. An okay highway with few street lights, tropical vegetation, concrete buildings some incomplete with metal rebar rods going up into the air another 6 feet, and white-knuckle taxi driving. We landed to Phuket fairly late due to a flight delay and we were all exhausted. About 60% into our trip, our taxi driver pulled off the main freeway and into a dark alleyway. My first thought was that we were about to be robbed, but before I could prepare an attack on the driver, we pulled into a travel agency. A cheery woman rushed out of the store and opened the sliding van door "HELLO, and welcome to Phuket." Our bleary tired eyes stared at her in confusion and anger. She continued "So you where are you from? You have hotel? You want go on boat trip?" My mom was too pol...

We landed in Singapore and took a Grab (Singapore equivalent and cheaper version of Uber) to our "hotel." Good thing we stayed in a "hotel" because we soon found out that AirBnb is illegal in Singapore and that the housing authorities sometimes raid suspect AirBnb residences. If we had stayed in an AirBnb, the host probably would have told us not to open the door for anyone and to keep a low profile. All hypothetical of course. In December 2017, two AirBnb hosts were arrested and if convicted would face fines of $200,000 Sinagporean dollars, about USD$140,000. Despite it being illegal though, AirBnb still has 8,000 listings in Singapore and you wouldn't know it is illegal based on the AirBnb website. I'm sure buried in the terms and conditions of AirBnb it says that I am responsible for understanding the local laws blah blah blah. Here's a BBC article on it:  http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42247968 Anyway, here's a picture of Singapore: Ju...