Vic Levitin Talks About Starting From Scratch in Thailand [S8.E60]

Greg 00:00:03 On this episode, we chat with a fella who packed up his family and left his home on very short notice. Where? A new life on Samui.

Ed 00:00:11 So if you ever wondered what ups and downs you'd face and things you need to think about, if you want to make a big change, you'll dig this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Greg 00:00:27 Saw what crap. And welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, Canadian who came to Bangkok in 2001 and never went home because I couldn't bear the thought of being involved in another annual maple tree sacrifice.

Ed 00:00:42 And I'm Ed Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 26 years ago, fell in love with vaguely telling Thais that I'm old when they ask me how old I am because they almost always respond. You're not old. I never left.

Greg 00:00:57 I'd like to see the subtext to that thought hanging above them in like the invisible word balloon. Like dot, dot dot for a mountain.

Ed 00:01:03 I don't want to see that. You know what I, what I learned is, if, you know, if you tell them your actual age, then they're not going to say, oh, you're not.

Ed 00:01:11 You know, because I'm about to turn 60. You know, if I, if I tell them I'm 60, they're not going to go. You're not 60. But but if I say if I just say I'm old, then that then you get to automatically get the compliment. You're not old.

Greg 00:01:26 It's much preferable to be like, yeah.

Ed 00:01:29 Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are all right. We want to give a big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, a heads up to send questions to upcoming guests, and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world. But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week wherever you find current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we chatted about the role culture plays when your maid leaves for vacation but never comes back. As well as Greg's post-show task of cleaning up his place before his maid comes back from holiday, she's apparently got a pretty good deal.

Ed 00:02:11 Some thoughts on how your brain can often trick you into remembering things that never happened. As sharp listeners picked up on something I said on last week's bonus show and a discussion on getting older, which includes Greg taking an epic fall into a pothole and the use of e-bikes instead of regular bikes to learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 800 bonus and regular back episodes, click the support button at the top of our website.

Greg 00:02:41 I wonder we're still going to be doing this show when we're like 80, and then we're talking about which place has the best adult diapers and stuff.

Ed 00:02:47 Hey, as long as we got listeners out there, someone out there because our listeners are getting older as we get older.

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Greg 00:03:13 All right, well, in this episode, we talked to a young fella by the name of Vic Levitin, who packed up his life and with his wife and two kids, moved to Thailand with very little preparation to start a new life. Now Vic lives on Cat Samui, and given that we have more than a few listeners who are or are thinking about moving to Thailand with their families, we thought it'd be an interesting chat to see just what types of challenges this presents, and how Vic and his brood managed to navigate the speed bumps to turn uncertainty and trepidation in an unfamiliar place into a happy and rewarding life on a tropical island. So here is our very fun discussion with Vic Levitin. All right. Well, we are happy to have on the show our new friend Vic Levitan, who has an interesting story to tell that I know is going to be very, very relevant to some of our listeners. And that is how did a dude with a family who didn't necessarily want to live in Thailand full time, end up living in Thailand full time with his family? Vic, welcome to the Bangkok Podcast.

Vic 00:04:19 Thank you for having me.

Greg 00:04:20 So what, what is what is your story? You're based on, on, Koh Samui, and, you are living the island dream. A lot of people dream of coming to Thailand and living on an island. But I have a feeling that you've probably got a lot to say on the realities of that. So take us back to the beginning a little bit. Talk a little bit about where you're from and how the idea of moving to Thailand eventually turned into the reality of moving to Thailand.

Vic 00:04:48 Yeah, sure. So I'm originally from Israel a few years before moving to Thailand, I actually brought up the idea to my wife I wanted. I did not call it a relocation. I told her that I just want to go on an experience. Okay? Somewhere in the east, in Asia.

Ed 00:05:06 I like that. I like that idea.

Vic 00:05:08 After discussing this amongst us, we decided that it's a complete no go because I wanted this as a as an experience and my wife was completely against she wanted an Israeli childhood for the kids.

Vic 00:05:22 She loved her life in Israel. She loved the friends. She wants her family close to her. And I realized that if we do this now, if I force this on my family, it will be a nightmare. So I kind of gave up of my dream of living for a year or two in Asia for for the experience.

Greg 00:05:45 Did she hit you with the classic, like, am I not enough for you?

Vic 00:05:49 Of course, Of course. So I kind of, you know, came to terms with the idea that it's a dream that I'll have to not fulfill. and then the 7th of October happened. Basically, war broke in Israel, and it was like an instinct. We we opened the TV, we saw what we saw on the news. And I remember turning to little my wife and I was like, how about we just pack immediately and, spend the next like two weeks in Thailand just to take the. We have two small kids there, six and seven. Just take them away from the situation until because usually these these conflicts they they're over within a few weeks in Israel.

Vic 00:06:40 and within. And it was clear to me that we have a small window of opportunity, like 24 hours maximum before they close the skies. This is usually the case. we were on a plane within nine hours. We packed for two weeks. Oh, wow. Yes. and these two weeks are now turning into three years already.

Ed 00:07:04 Oh, so you never. You never went back after after that?

Vic 00:07:07 We we actually went back for the first time after two and a half years. a few months ago. Yeah. We visited Israel for, like, two weeks.

Ed 00:07:17 Oh. That's crazy. So when you, so maybe talk about that. So. So the plan was to stay in Thailand for a couple of weeks. And so what was your thinking like? Did you extend it? A couple months. Like, really? Like, how did it end up getting stretched out?

Vic 00:07:34 Frankly, it was horrible. It was a, it was a very bad experience because we we were living between two worlds.

Vic 00:07:42 So we've got home. We've got everything back home in Israel. Life is happening in Israel. We're just here as a temporary getaway. You know, just to save the kids from what was going on with, you know, missiles coming over. and the the fact that you're living between two worlds, not knowing when you're going back. it means that you're not, you're not rooting yourself. You're not starting to build life in the new place. We did not treat Thailand as as. As our new life. As our new home. We were on this extended vacation that we were forced to be in. We did not enjoy it. We were just waiting, you know, on our backs, essentially wanting to to go home. and it was a very one of the, the, the major pains was the loneliness. Because as somebody who's here as, as, as a tourist, nobody wants to be your friend, right? Because you're soon to leave.

Ed 00:08:46 Your temporary.

Vic 00:08:47 And we're temporary.

Greg 00:08:49 No, you're right, you're right.

Greg 00:08:51 And I see stuff like that on, on on Reddit a lot. People who are living in Bangkok and they're like, how do you make friends? Like long term friends? Because everyone I make friends with, they leave after a few months and then I'm lonely again.

Ed 00:09:03 Right, right.

Vic 00:09:03 Yes. It's a real thing. Most of my time I was focused on just, you know, on the basic, on the basics of life, like, registering the kids to school, how to handle finance, visas, all the burdens of, you know, even being here temporarily when you cross, you know, 30, 60 days. Okay, we're here for from for another month or two. We need to take care of renting out our house in Israel. So there were a lot of basics to take care of. And during this time, I clearly remember my wife sitting outside of, of our home. basically smoking her life away. Scrolling. Doom scrolling. Lonely. Sad.

Vic 00:09:55 Oh, man. This was pretty much the the vast majority of our first year in Thailand. This is how it looked like I was under huge stress. Taking care of the basics of life and vitality. A complete mess.

Ed 00:10:10 Now, at this time, I'm just curious. Were you like, how? How did. I don't know how you guys actually hooked up. Like, did you. Did you stumble upon the podcast at some point?

Vic 00:10:21 Yes, I did.

Ed 00:10:24 Okay. Just for the listeners, you can say. Then I found the Bangkok Podcast and the sun. The sun came out and, like, changed or changed my life forever.

Greg 00:10:37 It's a it's an interesting story because I've talked about this on the show before a lot to my first year in Bangkok. Sucked like, Oh, really? Yeah. I didn't have any friends. I didn't have any money. I was living in, like, my boss's extra condo, which was totally empty. I had done the book and I couldn't even afford to buy like a CD Discman, which back then was cool.

Greg 00:11:00 You know. Oh, geez. And every time I went out, I was like, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna learn about Bangkok. I'm going to become the Bangkok guy. And I was just utterly defeated. I was lost, I was broke, and I didn't know how to order any food. So my first year here just was terrible, and.

Ed 00:11:17 Mine was good. Mine was good. I, I started working for a company and I just immediately met a group of Americans. And so like I remember my first week in Thailand, I had a blast. So sorry, sorry, I.

Ed 00:11:32 I had a great time.

Greg 00:11:33 So so what what began to turn things around then for you and your wife?

Vic 00:11:38 We bought a couch and it changed everything.

Ed 00:11:42 You bought a couch.

Vic 00:11:43 And it changed everything because it's it's a symbol that tells people that, okay, you're serious about staying here? You bought a couch. You're not a.

Vic 00:11:56 So you got the couch. People saw that. Okay, we're for real. We're here to stay. And what? The couch was basically the, the result of of of me changing my mindset and realizing, okay, we're not going back home to Israel anytime soon. The world is becoming worse and worse. Let's be realistic about it. Let's start building a new life in Thailand. And from that shift, like the couch was just the first expression of this, new mindset. and once we started kind of to direct the family into this new reality, El Estado came to terms with this idea as well, and she started to go and, I think that the very first thing that that happened was that she started to go and learn Thai. Oh. And, and and really open her up to the Thai, you know, Thai people, Thai culture. She started hanging out with with, Thai friends. She, she started training Muay Thai and she fell in love with it.

Vic 00:13:07 Oh, really? Kind of got into this, you know, the the group of the fighters and their, and their wives, and they were going to to these fights and, then slowly, step by step, we, we made friends, which I think is the, the most important thing. Like when we, when we call a place home, it's not the building, it's not the, it's not even the, the job. It's the people, the the, the, the people that surround you every day. And once we found our group of people, which took about a year or so. This is when we switched and started calling Thailand our home. But for real?

Greg 00:13:53 Oh man, that's that's fantastic. And it's such a good endorsement of that anti bubble mindset. You know, it's it's very easy and I'm guilty of it. Considering my terrible answer to one of Ed's trivia questions a few weeks ago. But you know, we're all guilty of living in somewhat of a bubble. But the people who just refuse to get out of the bubble, I think that can really be corrosive to your to your mental health here.

Greg 00:14:17 But forcing yourself into these things is is key. And Ed, you met your group of friends right away. Took me about 6 or 8 months really to sort of start meeting people through my job. And then things started to slowly turn around. So your story, Vic, is similar. You got to get out there and meet not just other expats, but other locals.

Ed 00:14:38 Where were these friends through? Like, you know, on the podcast we've talked about, you know, Bangkok subcultures and, so were you were you connected to, like, the Muay Thai group or. Like what? Like what was what was the key to your friends? Like what? What did you guys have in common?

Vic 00:14:56 There's the the core group, which are Israelis or ex Israelis like us. We did surround ourselves with people, with neighbors who really liked, you know, people from China, England, Italy, whatever. And it's really cool. It's really fascinating. you know, just to, to sit down, share a beer and hear about their lives in other countries, other cultures.

Vic 00:15:20 But at the end of the day, when it takes a lot of, at least for for me and for Italy, we feel like it takes a lot of, like, mental effort to Even now on this podcast, like I'm speaking English. It's not my native language, right? I don't dream in English. I dream in Hebrew.

Vic 00:15:43 And I'm speaking to you in I'm translating. Right. So I'm it's an effort for me and and and most of the times like it's fascinating. It's interesting. But most of the times you just want to relax. And when you want to relax, you want to speak your native language to people who understand and share your culture, where you don't need the effort. You just sit down, relax and understand where you're coming from. So the the native group of friends that we have here, that we literally became families for each other because we don't have our families here. they're all Israelis. and then we have these groups of, Thai friends and, you know, people from other countries which had a lot of, interest to our life.

Vic 00:16:28 I'm really, you know, fascinated about their lives.

Ed 00:16:34 Yeah, yeah. My core, you know, after after 26 years, my core group of friends are are Americans and Canadians. You know, so, you know, English is our first language. America and Canada are not that different. And it's just easier. Like you said, it's just easier to feel totally natural communicating in your first language. And they have a roughly similar, you know, yeah, roughly similar background.

Vic 00:16:54 I'm curious about what will it be for my kids because they're growing up. I mean, when we arrived, they were three and four. They're growing up in international school with with, children from all over the world. they did not go through the, you know, the the Israeli factor did not go through the high school then, army and, you know, they're living this multicultural life. And, I'm just curious who will their tribe be, if at all? Who will they feel this? You know what you're describing about Americans and Canadians.

Vic 00:17:35 Who will it be for them?

Greg 00:17:37 Yeah, that's. That's the question I ask because my son is 11. and my life growing up in Canada is so different from his life growing up here. And I see a lot of people giving shit to Thailand on, on Reddit and other places about. It's a terrible place to raise kids. I think it's a really interesting place to raise kids because like yours, mine has this exposure to all of these cultures and we can quickly zip in and out of the country in Vietnam and Bali and Japan, whatever. You know, in Canada, there's the US, and then there's the rest of the world, which is a 15 hour plane flight away. So so it's a much more interesting lifestyle for him. But let's let's talk about your kids so that they were very young. How did you break the news to them? And were they just like, okay, whatever.

Vic 00:18:20 I think we were lucky in this regard because they were young enough that they did not feel any loss from the sudden migration.

Vic 00:18:29 I mean, yeah, they asked about their Great grandparents, obviously, but it's not like they had, you know, this close relationship with friends. They were too small for this, and they were not afraid by the fact that they don't understand what people around them are speaking, because when we arrived here, they did not know a single word in English.

Ed 00:18:49 Really?

Vic 00:18:50 But they were small enough not to be intimidated by it. So they picked it up. And and if at first I was, you know, I was doing a, an effort in order to, to help them with their English. So I was correcting them and teaching them word by word. Now it's the other way around there for them. I mean, after three years here, it's easier for them to talk among themselves in English.

Vic 00:19:17 Well, guys, you're forgetting Hebrew. How do you say a horse in Hebrew?

Ed 00:19:21 Oh, funny.

Vic 00:19:22 They start forgetting. Yeah.

Ed 00:19:23 And so they were.

Ed 00:19:25 So they didn't speak English. So? So like. So did you have to put them in English classes or how did they? Because obviously you're not going to teach them Thai. So how did you handle the their language situation?

Vic 00:19:40 so first of all, I think unlike many others here, we came here on planned, like we literally boarded a plane with nine hours notice. We did not know, that that you can actually leave long term on Samui. I thought it's a tourist destination. We actually landed in Phuket and just opened Facebook groups and started to to research. Okay, where do we go from here? And one family got, got on a video call with us, and they told us that they're international schools and go somewhere. I was like, wow, interesting. I was not aware of that. what language do you speak there? And, like, they go English. And for me, it's kind of my dream for me, for my kids to be able to speak English so they can communicate with anybody.

Vic 00:20:32 And I was like, yeah, that's cool, let's go build a life and go somewhere pretty much. And, so we, we, we get to this international school and there is this, amazing, Filipino teacher. And she taught them English. And within, like, six months, they were already communicating in basic English. And, here we are today. It's easier for them to speak English and Hebrew.

Greg 00:21:00 That's fast.

Vic 00:21:01 Yes.

Ed 00:21:03 Has talked on the podcast a lot about because your your son now has been to Canada. How many times? Like a few times.

Greg 00:21:11 Like four.

Ed 00:21:14 You you've talked about like his Canadian identity and how it's kind of, you know, it's kind of tenuous.

Greg 00:21:21 Yeah. It's it's funny, it's something that I struggle with is how much Canadian culture do I want to give slash force into my son. So, you know, sometimes I'll sit down and make him watch Bob and Doug McKenzie or these old Canadian commercials or, you know, teach him words like hoser and take off.

Greg 00:21:39 Hey, but I understand Canadian slang, but I understand that, you know, my mom is British, and to me, I've never been to the UK, so. Oh, to me, the UK is like, okay, mom was from there and it's I know what it is, it's over there. But I've never been there. I'm not really that interested in it. And I think Canada's going to be like that for my son if we end up staying here, which we probably will. which is difficult. It's difficult to, to, to come to terms with that because you realize that the big part of your identity is not going to be a big part of your kids identity. And you start to wonder, well, are we going to be able to connect when they're all right?

Ed 00:22:22 Vic, do you think you're. Do you think you guys are going to stay here? Have you have you now decided we're staying?

Vic 00:22:28 Oh, wow. I don't know about Bangkok. I never lived in Bangkok.

Greg 00:22:31 It's awesome.

Vic 00:22:32 But I can say my I. Yeah, I mean, as a tourist, I visitor. It's. It's got everything. It feels like the center of the world. but my observation about Kosovo is that it's a great place to start your life. It's great for children. It's a great place to end your life. I mean, if you don't need to provide for your family, you're just there to enjoy the beautiful sunsets.

Ed 00:22:59 You don't mean. You don't mean jumping off the balcony. You mean like retiring, right?

Vic 00:23:04 Again. Again. My my my English gap.

Ed 00:23:07 A great place to end your life.

Greg 00:23:10 It's a beautiful place to do that too. If that be your. That be your destiny.

Ed 00:23:16 Yeah, that's an interesting point. It's a great place to begin your life in Thailand and maybe spend, you know, your retirement.

Ed 00:23:24 What about the middle.

Vic 00:23:26 Yeah, the middle is very challenging.

Vic 00:23:28 And we're feeling it right now. it's very hard to, to make a living from a beautiful island where there's, like, for, for better or for worse, there's absolutely zero FOMO here. Like, you don't see, you know, in Israel, the effort is ten out of ten. You grind and you're always on, on, you know, in the rat race. here, it's like the pressure is, I don't know, one out of ten people just, you know, sipping coconuts on on the beach.

Ed 00:24:02 There's no rat race.

Vic 00:24:04 Yeah, yeah. You're like, I'm. I'm 42. I need to work. I need to provide for our family. What's happening with that? And, I it's a real challenge.

Ed 00:24:15 Mean, I agree, I mean, I don't know, I don't know which episodes of the podcast you've listened to, Vic, but it's been a while since we've gotten into this, but this is one of the first things I tell people when they're thinking of staying here long term is I think this is a very difficult place to make good money.

Ed 00:24:34 As a Westerner, you know, it's I think there's ways to survive. You know, Greg and I have survived. And, you know, after a long time, we we started to do. Okay. but I totally understand what you're saying. If you're in a situation where, hey, hey, like, I, I like right now, I need to make, like, pretty good money. This is not. I don't think Thailand is a great place to be for that.

Vic 00:24:57 Yeah. And you, you asked about our plans for the future. So, I'm like, for me, I'm. I've been an entrepreneur for 20 years, and, I've got the skills. I've got the network. I know what I'm doing. I can build yet another business from online. My kids don't have these skills when they will grow up, especially in Koh Samui. Not only that, they will not have these skills, but they are not legally allowed to work here. They they cannot go to work, you know, as waiters in restaurants.

Greg 00:25:37 Oh, wow. Yeah, that's very limiting.

Vic 00:25:41 I mean, how would they build their own lives? I will not be providing them all the way up to through their adulthood. It doesn't make sense.

Ed 00:25:53 Like, I mean, eventually. Couldn't they get a work permit like any other? As long as you're here legally, they they could potentially work for a Thai company. Right.

Vic 00:26:04 When? Well, I guess, yes. As grown ups, I guess they could. Yeah.

Ed 00:26:08 But you're. I guess you're right. As you know, they they they can't work the normal like, young person jobs.

Vic 00:26:14 As teenagers, they, they kind of go to McDonald's and work.

Greg 00:26:19 This is another interesting thing where it's a clash of cultures and I don't know what it's like in Israel. But for me, and I think for you to add, like I was working when I was 12 at a newspaper route and I worked in a grocery store, and then I worked in a car wash, you know.

Greg 00:26:31 That's what you do.

Ed 00:26:33 Especially over the summer. That's a very American thing. Like summer jobs.

Greg 00:26:37 It's not a thing in Thailand, but I think it's super valuable. And I'm lucky that my son, my son is, is Thai citizenship. So when he's 14, 15, 16, I'll be like, hey, there's a Starbucks across the street. Off you go, you know. Get a job, dude. Get a job.

Greg 00:26:51 But, you know that it's not impossible like you said it, but it does add a wrinkle, like, oh, now I've got to deal with all this paperwork and bullshit.

Ed 00:26:58 Oh, no doubt. Yeah.

Vic 00:27:00 I will add a small caveat to this. That that again, as an as a tech interpreter, I'm looking at what's where the world is heading. And my dad is constantly asking me about my plans for the future. And I'm telling him that I frankly don't know how will the world look like in five years.

Vic 00:27:18 I mean, we're going through such drastic changes in our relations to work. And, you know, especially given what's happening with the, with AI. I don't know. I, I really don't know what our kids will do.

Greg 00:27:33 Interesting that I always say that sounds like a them problem, not a me problem. But even when my son was, you know, he's 11 now. Even when he was six, seven, six, seven. Anyone who has kids would understand that.

Greg 00:27:50 you know, I was telling him you got to learn computers. You got to learn how to code. You got to learn how to build things like this in the digital world. And now I'm like, you got to learn how to make cabinets. You got to learn how to do plumbing. You got to do electricians stuff. You know, it's.

Greg 00:28:04 Flipped. It's totally flipped.

Ed 00:28:07 I mean, I agree. I mean, I don't I don't have kids, but I, I, you know, in class when I talk about this stuff, I, I feel like we're all on the same page.

Ed 00:28:15 I tell my students, like, I have no idea what's going to be valuable in five years because I'm supposed to be preparing my students for jobs. You know, they're college students, and they're in a couple of years they're going to have to get a job. And I don't know what. I don't know what skills they're going to need. So I just tell them, you know, work on communications like general stuff like, okay, communication, obviously English skills. It's very broad. So I tell my students, you want to be flexible. You know, you want to be a skills person. You know, a person with people skills with communication skills, like what else can you do? Because I don't know, in a few years. Like what? Like what's going to be the valuable thing.

Greg 00:28:59 Speaking of that family. So, like, how has your family dynamic evolved in your life as your kids are growing up, compared to your friends who are back in Israel or a traditional family life where you're from? Like, what is your family dynamic? Is it more? Are you more? Are you closer or are you more adventurous? Are you more introverted like? What does that look like?

Vic 00:29:17 So a typical day in Israel.

Vic 00:29:19 We wake up and it's. You're on fifth gear right from 7 a.m.. You need to prepare the kids to school. there's traffic on the way to. It's not school. It was kindergarten. Then you spend the next two hours in traffic on your way to to the office. you work until, five, six, seven, whatever. You spend two hours, going back home in traffic. You get back home on the better days, you get to see your kids and give them a good night case. Sometimes you miss that window. They're already asleep. Maybe spend the evening with your wife sitting on the porch, having a drink and going to sleep. You have almost no, time during the week to meet friends. It doesn't matter how successful you are, it's always high gear struggle.

Vic 00:30:14 Trying to to chase the the cost of life that's becoming more and more and more expensive. Right. The red phase.

Vic 00:30:22 A typical day on Cosimo. We drive the kids to school.

Vic 00:30:27 We then go and do some sort of sport training together with a big group of friends. I'm talking about that already.

Greg 00:30:35 Very different.

Ed 00:30:36 You mean you go to when you go to the gym? You go to the gym?

Vic 00:30:38 You mean we go to the gym? We go to classes, we go to play paddle. It's always with friends. So you meet your friends on a daily basis? through through the sports that we do. Then after the sports, we go back home, we have breakfast, and, then I would usually go to the office to work for like, 3 to 4 hours until I pick up the kids from school at around 3 p.m., and then we do something together. We either go, and we just jump into the the pool in the house or, go to the beach? or just, you know, spend a calm afternoon at home. It's a much, much calmer life with a lot more time to socialize with your friends. And you're meeting friends on a daily basis here.

Vic 00:31:31 It's really rare that a day goes by without us seeing any friends. and it's it feels like it's a much more healthier rhythm. And, the, the main struggle with this new life is how you sustain it financially.

Ed 00:31:52 Well, I mean, I, I mean, my first reaction was it, it just sounds like emotionally or mentally a healthier lifestyle.

Ed 00:32:05 You know, less stress, more time with friends. And, I mean, it sounds good for your kids too. The fact that now they're around parents with more time and you're you're probably less stressed. You know what I mean? You're not. You know, my dad was, you know, a workaholic. He I, you know, me and my sister joked, and my, my dad was, you know, my dad was always angry, you know. But but but it was because he was stressed out. You know, he was he had five kids, you know, so.

Ed 00:32:35 So sole income. You know, he's the only guy earning money. So he's he's out of the house early in the morning. And then when he comes back, he's like pissed off and tired.


Ed 00:32:46 You know, and then he just goes. And that's like how we that's how we saw the only way we saw him, you know, that was. That was the whole thing.

Vic 00:32:53 Sounds very familiar.

Greg 00:32:56 Well, I didn't even have a dad, so I can't wait on that. But, but as we're wrapping things up here, Vic. So can you talk a little bit about, like, if someone wanted to move to Thailand with their family. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the things that, they need to figure out before they buy a sofa, before they buy a couch? You know, like, what kind of stuff that surprised you? What didn't you think about that you needed to think about? Maybe not specifically Samui, but just more broadly.

Ed 00:33:27 Is there any is there anything now you realize if if we had done this, like the first year would have been better?

Vic 00:33:39 please avoid relocating within nine hours notice.

Vic 00:33:45 Bad idea.

Ed 00:33:46 Don't relocate in less than one day.

Vic 00:33:50 Give it at least 24 hours. no. But really, we experienced a lot of pain, a lot of nerves. Because we were unprepared. No documents, no visas, no. Didn't even know where we want to relocate to. What I, what I see from the, the group of people that we live amongst here. The, the biggest struggle comes from people who did not plan themselves well financially. And they were like, okay, we've got enough money for one year in Thailand. It's enough of a parachute and we will build ourselves going forward from from Thailand. This plan usually fails because, like you said, that it's very, very hard to make income. You know, just it's like trying to, make your parachute as you're diving down.

Vic 00:34:50 Oh, right. And, especially with a family and especially in, in Thailand, it is really, really, really hard. and so that's I would say that this is the, the major thing, another thing that completely surprised me at I was just unaware of. I never lived in a place like Thailand. Right. I was born in Ukraine, let's call it Europe, then migrated with my family. When I was six. We migrated to Israel. Let's call it somewhere between the US and Europe. And this is where I spent most of my life. And until we arrived to Asia. And the the most surprising observation for me was that Thailand is, a certain uncertainty. I mean, nothing here is certain. That's my experience. and as for, for good and and worse, like, you think that you understand how things work here, and then they just change within you, you understand how business works it, and then it changes. You think you understand the law, and then it changes.

Vic 00:36:05 And, it's not it's it's not a good fit for everybody. And, for me, as a serial entrepreneur, I'm kind of. It's it it doesn't frighten me. I'm used to making decisions without having all the information available. but, I'll share a quick story here. A friend who visited me from Israel, he spent, a week with me. And, you know, I showed them all the beautiful parts of, Kosovo in the surrounding areas. and his conclusion was your living in Paradise. But I would never be able to live here because of the certain uncertainty. Because he was terrified to rent a motorcycle. because he heard that, sometimes, you know, the the it can be problematic. Like, if there's even a small scratch it, it can delay. I mean, it may take time before you get your, passport back as a deposit. And you had a flight the next day, and it was terrified by the idea that it did not understand exactly what was going to happen, that it's all, you know, it's so fluid, like things are in Thailand.

Ed 00:37:22 I like that phrase, certain uncertainty. it's kind of like, you know, we sometimes I think it was. Was that our buddy Scott that where you see the one you used the phrase beautiful chaos, like the beautiful chaos of Bangkok? I can't remember, but, yeah, you're right. And to me, it's it's there's this lack of rule, you know, it's a rule of law thing that you can't count on in the States. It's big. It's a big, messy country. But there's kind of a structure of of government and police and courts that's always in the background, you know, and it's not it's not perfect and it's not always easy to deal with. But you have this security if, if if I get really screwed over, I have an alternative. I have a backup, I have, right? I might get compensation, but here, if something goes wrong, there is this feeling of, I don't know if I'm going to if I'm going to get help or, or get if there's going to be justice if stuff goes wrong, you know, there's just not not that much you can do, especially as a foreigner.

Vic 00:38:24 Yes. Especially as a foreigner.

Greg 00:38:27 Vic, really quickly, before we go, when you and I were talking previously, you mentioned that you're one of your previous, companies that you were involved with was doing something super cool with mosquitoes. And I want you to bring that to Thailand. Can you just really quickly talk about that?

Vic 00:38:45 Yeah, I wish I mean, the funny story there is that we so I was the CEO and co-founder of a company named Deep Terra AI, where the end product is, sterile male mosquitoes. And when you release them to the wild, then go in and mate with the females and you get a natural population suppression, because the eggs that the females lay are infertile. and the what got us all excited about this technology is that mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on Earth. They kill nearly a million humans from diseases like malaria, primarily dengue, Zika, chikungunya and so on. and the funny thing is that it was theoretical for me while building this company from Israel where, you know, mosquitoes are not a health care issue.

Vic 00:39:39 It's more of a, you know, it's just in each issue annoying.

Vic 00:39:45 And, and then we relocated to Thailand and I got dengue, and dengue is a shit show. I thought that I have a very bad case of, Covid or like, I was really feeling like shit. I was on the verge of being hospitalized, and, I find it ironic that I was the CEO of a company that was fighting mosquitoes with this, you know, breakthrough technology. And here I am, a small mosquito got me into a very bad shape.

Ed 00:40:21 I mean, is there is there anyone in Thailand trying trying to do that? Trying to do what you were doing?

Vic 00:40:27 Thailand? No, it's a very, very expensive technology. It's oh, it is experimental stages. And the world leaders in that are actually our neighbors. Singapore. They have a leading project in the in this space where it's a collaboration between a between Google and the governmental entities in Singapore. and they're they're actually very successful in fighting dengue using this exact technology.

Vic 00:40:55 So they.

Vic 00:40:57 They have, vehicles driving through the streets, releasing sterile male mosquitoes.

Vic 00:41:03 but it's really, really expensive.

Ed 00:41:06 Sounds like a Singapore. Sounds like a Singapore solution. Then, you know, if it's expensive.

Greg 00:41:12 Well, Vic, thanks very much. It's very insightful to hear your struggles and your your highs and lows and transitions, with the family and, you know, some members who didn't want to be here but now are happy here. I think there's a lot for a lot of people to identify their with. And I know a lot of our listeners, have families and, some of them are planning to move here, from other countries, too, and they're trying to sort of make sense of it all. So thanks for talking about it. It was interesting. And, I hope you stick around for a while.

Ed 00:41:43 You pick. You are proof. You are proof of success.

Vic 00:41:47 Thank you. thank you for having me.

Vic 00:41:50 I really enjoy sharing our story.

Greg 00:41:53 Yeah. And, if you want to reach out for personal advice from Vick. Email Vick at Mosquito com. Just kidding. Well, Vick, thanks very much, man. best of luck. And if we're down in Samui, I'll drop you a line.

Vic 00:42:09 Yeah, absolutely. Please do.

Greg 00:42:11 All right.

Multiple Speakers 00:42:11 Thanks. Thanks, Vick.

Vic 00:42:12 Take care. Guys.

Ed 00:42:17 Man, we got to do more shows like this. I feel like this was kind of down to earth, real life experience from a listener. And, I think that will connect to other people out there who are in a similar situation or or possibly considering moving to Thailand. And, you know, the funny thing is, it's almost like his experience was was a game show challenge. Like, okay, you have to move your whole family within 24 hours.

Greg 00:42:41 Yeah, exactly.

Ed 00:42:42 You know, and so it's like a little bit of a challenge, like he, you know, the way he describes it, it's like they show up and I think he said they landed in Phuket and it's like they don't really have a plan.

Ed 00:42:51 You know, they like as you said on the show, they left within nine hours of their decision, which is, like insane. Which is insane.

Ed 00:42:58 So. But it is. You know what I'm saying? It's a bit of just it sounds like a a game show challenge. Like, families are waiting, you know, they open up a letter, go to the airport you're moving to.

Ed 00:43:09 Wherever. And then, like, you have to get together, pack everything and, like, you know, get your kids. And then you show up at the airport in wherever, you know, in Phuket. And then and then there you are. You know, you're standing, you're standing in and it's like, oh, okay. What? Like, what do we do now? And, so I just like that aspect of it. It's a it's a good story.

Greg 00:43:28 No, I thought it was great. And it's it's funny, it was like, listen for me too, because we, we get emails occasionally from people and, you know, a lot of them are, hey, I've got a story.

Greg 00:43:38 I want to be on your show to talk about this. And, you know, to be honest, a lot of the time it's like, well, you know, that's not really unique. Everyone has that experience or or okay, that's interesting, but has nothing to do with Thailand. Right, right. you know, but so, so when Vic said that, I was like, I don't know. I mean, a lot of. I mean, everyone here has moved to Thailand.

Greg 00:43:57 He had the, the the unique insights of doing it with his family and especially about with his wife, who really didn't want to come here to begin with. and it was a very interesting, layered discussion, too, because it also touched on, like we said, that that unfamiliarity, that loneliness, that unhappiness that a lot of people go through that I went through when I first got here.

Ed 00:44:16 Yeah. You know.

Ed 00:44:18 The, the, the language thing was kind of blowing in my mind.

Ed 00:44:21 The fact that his kids didn't speak English at all, in a way, it's, you know, as as we as I kind of said at the end of the interview, it's a kind of cool success story in the sense that it just shows it's possible. I mean, like, as he said, it's probably not a good idea, like to combine.

Ed 00:44:38 On such short notice, but it kind of shows you that you could just show up here. You have kids that don't even speak English, and then, within six months they're ready to handle, you know, international program. And, so it has basically a happy ending, right?

Greg 00:44:55 Yeah, it did so very interesting. And man, I really wish he was working on that mosquito thing still, because dumping, several hundred million tons of infertile mosquitoes into Thailand would be A-okay in my books.

Ed 00:45:08 Sounds like a good idea to me.

Greg 00:45:10 Yeah, well, thanks for coming on, Vic and sharing your story. Very interesting. And like I said, we got we got several friends who are in the in the process of moving here or thinking about it and, a lot to think about, but ultimately I can't see a reason why.

Greg 00:45:24 Of course I can see a reason not to do it, but I think it's worth the risk moving, moving to Thailand or any other country for an adventure like that.

Ed 00:45:33 Yeah. And you know, you out. You you should prepare more than Victor. But he kind of proves that you don't have to have every, question answered. You don't have to have everything solved before you get here.

Greg 00:45:43 Right. Exactly. Yeah. All right, well, we ask our listeners to send us a voicemail using the little microphone button on our website if they have something to say. And this week we got a short and sweet message from Rick, and we might need the help of our listeners to come back with some answers to his message. So here we go. Take it away, Rick.

Ed 00:46:14 You know, I actually love this idea. I've mentioned before on the show that I really like subcultures.

Ed 00:46:20 I like subgroups of people that do some unusual thing, like like, for example, you're a, you're kendo thing. It's just cool. Like it's just a unique little subculture. And if you you've never done.

Greg 00:46:30 Kyudo.

Ed 00:46:30 Thing. I'm sorry, not Kendo Kudo. Yeah. You're not you're not using sorts.

Greg 00:46:35 But they also have kendo here.

Ed 00:46:36 You're you're kudo thing. yeah. So unique. Sports. I like the idea. you know, there's, like, pickleball is huge. Paddle is huge. there's all kinds of sports clubs. You're right. We we. We actually never talk about that.

Greg 00:46:50 Right? And I'm not a sports guy. You know, everyone knows that. But I am interested in these in these strange sports, too. And I know that there's an ultimate frisbee league here, or there used to be.

Greg 00:47:01 Of course, there's the flying frogs. The ice hockey.

Greg 00:47:05 Right here. you know, and even it doesn't have to be sports specifically, like our buddy Cliff.

Greg 00:47:11 He's a piper. Like he plays the bagpipes.

Greg 00:47:14 And they've they've got a whole group of people who play bagpipes.

Ed 00:47:17 I mean, it fits. It fits with our bluegrass episode.

Greg 00:47:20 Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, thanks for the for the email, Rick. And listeners, if you know of any sort of strange or lesser known or niche sports or pastimes in Bangkok, that people do send us a message and let us know what they are, because I only know a few. And to do a whole show on this would be quite interesting, I think.

Ed 00:47:38 Agreed. Agreed. Thanks, Rick.

Greg 00:47:40 Thanks, Rick.

Ed 00:47:41 A final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm fuzzy feeling, knowing that they're helping and are never ending. Quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online. We're Bangkok podcast on social media Bangkok podcast. Com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com.

Ed 00:48:03 We love hearing from our listeners and our reply to our messages. Unless, of course, you're a PR agent who pitches clients who have no connection to Bangkok.

Greg 00:48:11 That's right. You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. Send us a voicemail through our website that will feature on the show. Find me on blue Sky VK Greg. Thanks for listening everyone, and we'll see you back here next week for sure.