Greg, Author at Greg to Differ

Three Things You Will Always Find in a Thai Office

In my time in Thailand, I’ve worked in a lot of offices, and they’ve all been very different – from a small family-run operation to a huge, multi-cultural office spread across multiple floors and buildings. In formulating my previous ~~rant~~ post about working in an office, I thought a lot about what it meant to work in an office in Thailand, and made a stray observation that I thought was interesting – in every Thai office you’re in, you will almost always find the same […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:45+00:00Culture, Thailand|0 Comments

What is a Digital Nomad? And Why Don’t I Want to be One?

Back before everyone had a supercomputer in their pocket, only a very few people were able to finance their travels by working from the road. This was usually done by writing, and meant long stretches of lonely research and a bag of handwritten notes you had to turn into a book. People like legendary travel writer Joe Cummings paint a colorful picture of what it was like (especially when he was a guest on the Bangkok Podcast), but things have changed so drastically that an entire new classification of travelers has arisen – the ‘location independent entrepreneur’ or digital nomad. […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:45+00:00Bangkok, Thailand|9 Comments

When NOT to Help the Needy in Bangkok?

In a previous post about beggars in Bangkok, I wrote about how not all of them are completely honest about their situation, and what a minefield it is trying to decide who is worthy and who’s just out to make a quick buck. I was reminded of this today when I was approached by a woman at a BTS station, and realized that it was the third time this same woman had asked me for money, using the same story, over three years. Maybe just a matter of me being in the right place, right time? […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:46+00:00Bangkok|0 Comments

Out With the Old, In With the New: Expat Turnover in Bangkok

After years of roaming around Bangkok and its surrounds, meeting people, and trying to familiarize myself with the vibe of the city, I’ve been very lucky to have built up a pretty good selection of solid, trustworthy friends. In a city full of some very eccentric and strange people, that’s no easy task. However, the other night at a very crowded event, it hit me that “my time” in Bangkok – that is, when I was at ‘peak social’ and knew a goodly chunk of the expat population by name – was over. At 39 and 13 years into my […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:46+00:00Bangkok, Culture|0 Comments

Pondering Thai Politics…Have We Been Here Before?

This post will only really be understandable to those who are familiar with Thailand’s recent political past. I’m not going to try to weigh in either way on the political problems that the country is dealing with (there are plenty of others who do it far better than I), but I did read something the other day that struck me as incredibly interesting, and it was too thought-provoking for me not to post about. […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:47+00:00Asia, Culture, History, Politics|0 Comments

Dungeons & Dragons & Bangkok: An Alignment Cheat Sheet for the Whole City

Alert: This post is ultra-geeky. In my younger years, I used to play a bit of Dungeons & Dragons, the iconic role playing game with wizards and orcs and warriors and trolls and all that jazz. In the game, players can decide the ethical and moral makeup of their created characters, which guides their actions throughout the game. This is called a character alignment. These can be very good, very evil, or something in between. In fact, there are nine official alignments in the D&D universe, and I got to wondering – how would Bangkok’s disparate elements […]

Greg2021-10-11T09:30:42+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Pop Culture|9 Comments

‘Greg’s Bangkok’ – My Very Own Walking Tour App

Update: The app below is now discontinued, but my tours are now available via the VoiceMap app, for iPhone and Android. Check them out here.

Well, it’s taken the better part of 18 months, but the Bangkok walking tour app that I’ve helped put together is finally available for download! As of launch, there are 4 tours available that take you on foot through some of Bangkok’s most interesting areas, from a quick food walk through Chinatown to a half-day route that takes you clear across the city (don’t worry – part of it […]

Greg2016-11-21T04:28:35+00:00Bangkok, Tips on Visiting, Travel|12 Comments

Expat Survey: When Did You Realize Thailand was Home?

On July 25, 2014, I celebrated my 13th anniversary in Thailand. Not too bad considering I originally came here for a 4 month vacation. By the time I passed the ten year threshold, I was solidly comfortable with my life in Thailand, and I wrote a post about what it felt like. But as I reflected on 13 years, I started wondering when, exactly, Thailand went from being “the place I’m living right now” to “the place that I call home.” […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:48+00:00Asia, Culture, Thailand, Travel|0 Comments

Talk Travel Asia: Being Interviewed on a New Travel Podcast

Podcasts have so completely taken over my iPhone that it’s almost sad. The thousands and thousands of songs that I’ve worked hard to collect over the years are sitting neglected, covered in digital spiderwebs, as I load up on podcasts about history, movies, art, comedy, and science. I may be biased, of course, as I co-hosted the Bangkok Podcast for nearly 2 years, but I really think that this format is an underrated game-changer. […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:48+00:00Asia, Audio, Technology, Travel|0 Comments

What are People Googling about Thailand?

I never really knew much about the power of data until I started working in my current job, where we analyze data to find patterns and trends. It’s kind of like the global financial system – you don’t really notice it until you’re exposed to it, and then the rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper. Some find this manipulation of data creepy, some don’t care, but it’s interesting either way. So just for fun, I wanted to see what people were searching for when they wanted information on Thailand, so I started typing half-sentences into the search box to […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:49+00:00Fun Stuff, Thailand|0 Comments

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