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136 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And today we're going to Ramblan. We're going to ram
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Blan right now. What happened next in China? Next in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: China was well, I did mention Chinese people don't like
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Trump and they're quite against him like everybody else in
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the world, because they don't like being attacked. They still
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: like money. And one thing that was brought up twice
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to me by two different people was yeah, he's super unreliable,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: but at least you're making a lot of money your country.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: And I was like, what are you talking about and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: they're like, well, because all the tariffs so and they
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: brought this up the exact same way. It was almost
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the exact same conversation. Both times it went like that,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and I said, what are you talking about it? And
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: they said, well, because all of the tariffs. When I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: read the articles and I watch Trump's speeches, he's imposing
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: those tariffs, and he says the US is going to
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: make so much money because it costs more for people
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: to sell goods to the US. And both times I
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: had to be like, no, tariffs, don't it doesn't cost
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: more money to sell to the country inflicting tariffs. It
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: means that the people of that country pay more for
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: those goods. So the other countries are making just as
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: much money. It's just that the US Americans inside their
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: country are paying way more for goods than usual. And
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: both times they were like what, And then they looked
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: up what a tariff was. They're like, wait, why why
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: would anyone do that? That doesn't make any sense. That
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: means that for every country in the world, Trump is
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: making US Americans pay more money for oil and whatever
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: else meat yep. And they were very surprised. They're like,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: but he said that the US would be making money
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: from the tariffs. And I was like, this is why
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you shouldn't listen to anything he says, because he doesn't
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: understand the words coming out of his mouth. To quote
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Chris Tucker, do you understand the words that are coming
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: out of my mouth? Is that Rush Hour? I'm sure
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: that holds up. Well. I saw that movie more than
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: any other movie in the movie theater. I'm pretty sure.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: So tariffs terrorists did come up twice, and the exact
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: same conversation, and then they found out what a tariff was,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and that was the only thing. They were like, well,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: at least he's making a bunch of money for the US,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And then they found out that he was costing the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: US way more money. Because there's no manufacturing base in
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the US. There's no choice but for US Americans to
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: buy imports or exports of other countries. So they're not
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: gonna start buying American they can't. There's very few American
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: manufactured products. They have to purchase these things that now
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: cost ten thirty fifty one hundred percent more, one hundred
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and twenty five percent more because Trump doesn't know what
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a tariff is. And I'm telling this to Chinese people
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: who can buy the newest SUV with higher safety standards
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: than any other vehicle on the planet for eight thousand
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: US dollars or a new bed for ten US dollars
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: like the US. They know is really expensive, but they're
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: bewildered when I tell them the price of a microwave
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: in the US versus the three dollars. Maybe they are
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: in China. But it was interesting because I didn't talk
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to a bunch of people about Trump or politics because
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: at this point there's no like debate anymore. Everybody in
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: every country's just like, wow, that's an embarrassing world leader.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: In the US, that must be terrible. It is, but
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that the tariffs were brought
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: up twice. He must have given so many broad cast
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: on tariffs that even in China they they believe in
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Trump's misunderstanding of what a tariff is. Oh, the programmer
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: that I mentioned in the last episode, So there's a
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: programmer living at this hostel and the cops came and
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: asked him questions and he this is like his third
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: day in China or something, or a week whatever, but
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: he can speak zero Chinese. I actually taught him. I
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: gave him his first Chinese lesson. He was only in
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: China his third day, second whatever when he met me,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and I taught a bunch of foreigners Chinese before, so
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I gave him his first Mandarin lesson. But these cops
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: came in and started interrogating him, and so other people
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: had to translate for him, and he had to show
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: his ID to show here's the kicker to show. I'm
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: pretty sure that he is not Weiger. If you don't know,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Wiger is the ethnic minority in Shinjiong that China has
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: sent about half of the entire pop over a million
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: people to concentration camps, but they're they're not Nazi concentration camps.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: There is a difference, but they are re education camps
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: is probably a better way to put it. They do
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: have to do some physical labor reportedly, and they do
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: have to actually some of them are tortured reportedly by
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: prison former prison guards. But China is obviously very close,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: so there's little confirmed stuff except hundreds of thousands or
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: millions of Wigers went to these re education camps to
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: reunify with China. Really, Xijen Ping doesn't want them to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: become a separate country. Wigers want to be separate or
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: at least get like a Hong Kong status, so they're
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: part of one China, but they are a distinctly separate province,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: and Huijin Ping does not want that. He just wants
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: more territory and a bigger country. So half the population
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: strongly disecrease with Sigene Ping's viewpoint, so he built prisons
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: for a million of them and threw them all in
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: prison until they agreed to be part of China. Basically
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: until they agreed to stop being activists or posting messages
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: about a free Shinjiang on social media. And that's according
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to Chinese newspapers. This is not a Western perspective. That's
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: what the government and their newspapers in China are reporting
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that they are re educating activist wigurs, hundreds of thousands
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of them so that they become part of China. Oh.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I brought this up because that, I think is why
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the cops showed up. Because this guy is ethnically Central
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: South American, Central American actually, but he looks like a Wager.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: He's just the exact right mix, which you probably don't
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: know I'm talking about. A Wiger looks like a Middle
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Eastern slash Western European person. They don't look like the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: stereotypical Chinese person, and they do have a distinctive pattern
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of their face. Their nose bridges are larger, whereas the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Chinese Han ethnicity, the majority ethnicity, the nose bridges very
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: flat against the face. They have rounder cheekbones wigers, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: their hair is a different color it can be brown naturally.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Their eyes are rounder like you would see in Western
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Europe or a lot of the Middle East, so they
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: look noticeably different like if you had a room with
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Chinese people and Weiger people, you would be able to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: pick them out of the crab most of the you'd
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: be able to separate that room most of the time
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: because they look so distinctly not Chinese in the same
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: way that I and most Western Europeans are going to
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: look not Chinese. And this dude, this programmer, looks weager.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: He looks more weager than many Wigers. He has the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: exact nose and eyes spacing. Especially in China, you'll notice
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: it more because there's not there are many ethnic minorities.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: There's fifty different fifty two something like that different ethnic
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: minorities in China. But they most of them look similar
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to Han Chinese. The bridges the bridges of their nose
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: is not pronounced, their eyes are not much rounder, their
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: jawline is the same, so they're not noticeably different. You
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: gotta Shinjiang noticeably different. Many of them. They look more
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Western European and Middle Eastern. And that was the only
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: time cops went into that place, and he's the only
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: person they asked about. They went straight to him. They
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: ignored the other foreigners, and they ignored all of the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Chinese people they just asked him for proof of identification.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So what probably happened is a Chinese person saw him
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: said uh, oh, there's a Wiger here and called the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: police on him. That is what I would guess, because
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: every Chinese person that met him asked if he was
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: from Chinjiong in Chinese when they met him, like, that
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: was the first thing they asked him. Wigers speak Arabic
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and English and Mandarin Chinese usually as a minimum, So
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Chinese people who only speak Mandarin can speak to the Wigers,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: even though it's separated. It's a very geographically separated province,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: isolated province, but they can speak Mandarin Chinese perfectly. So
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: so I've saw it while I hung out with this
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: programmer several days while I was at the hostel, and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know five times at least I can remember
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: off the top of my head a Chinese person walking
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: up or talking with us for a second and then
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: turning to him and being like, so you're from Cincio.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And he would look at me like what did he say?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Because he didn't speak any Mandarin. I say, nope, he's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: from Mexico. They'd be like, wow, must she go cham
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: because yeah, he at that point after a few times,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: he's like, is he saying that I look Yeah, everybody
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: everybody thought that, So that's probably what happened. He probably
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: got b he was probably reported for being an ethnic
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: minority in China, which is the state of China. It's
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: kind of like all those YouTube videos you see of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the US where a black guy is walking around his
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: neighborhood and a Karen shows up and tries to call
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the cops on him for walking around in his neighborhood
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: because most of the neighborhood's white, or what they say
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: is you just look different. I'm not going to say
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it out loud, but I felt to have to call
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the cops because you weren't familiar to me, or really
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the one percent of the population that is black was
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: unfamiliar to you the ninety nine percent white people in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: your neighborhood. Anyway, programmer, it was nice to meet you.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Best wishes. He's planning out working there in China for
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: a long time for uh. I think he has like
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: a two year contract with ten Cent. Great, he's gonna
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: make a bunch of money in the first few months
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: or whatever. But yeah, that's gonna be tough. With all
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Chinese people thinking that you're an ethnic minority that they're
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: not particularly warmed up to because the government just spreads
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: an enormous amount of propaganda about weager citizens being particularly
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: violent because that sort of message helps them put them
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: in the re education camp and the people in the hostel.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: When when a Chinese person meets someone, it's normal and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: they're so practical. What I like about Chinese people is
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: they are incredibly practical. So they're not one of the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: major religions. They're very superstitious, but being non religious tends
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: to make them a very practical people. They don't spend
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: any time worshiping a single deity, although they'll pray to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: like the money God or the river God or whatever,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: or an ancestor, but they don't spend a lot of
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: communal time believing in one deity as many cultures do.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: And this is a billion and a half people in China.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: That's a lot of people. So instead it seems like
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: they're humans. So they still take lead. We have this
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: need to look for a leader. So they believe in
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: their government, and all of their news is coming from
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: their government, and what the government tells them. Often they
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: believe because there's no alternative stories anyway, Good luck programmer.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: My friend, Oh, I met another foreigner while I was
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: staying at this hostel, and he was real bummed. The
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: first day I showed up and real drunk, and he
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: just looked He just looked chemically and personally depressed. But
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: he was listening. He couldn't really put two sentences together,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: but he was listening to me while I was talking
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: about traveling with a few other people around the pool table,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: and he was like, that's cool a couple times. And
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: then a couple days later he came up and said, hey, man,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: I just want to tell you I found your stories
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: really inspiring and I feel like I made the right
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: choice now. And he explained to me that he used
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to teach English in China, but he didn't he didn't
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: save any of his money. He just kind of partied
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the whole time. And then he went back to the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: States and he didn't have any money. But he lived
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: in China for several years. So he went back to
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the States thinking like, all right, well, I'll just get
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a job here and i'll like recoup my losses and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: all like recharge and all that. But as soon as
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: he got back to the States, he remembered, Oh my god,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: just getting an apartment is such an ordeal. I have
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to provide first and last month's rent, which you often
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: have to do in China, except first and last month's
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: rent is two hundred US dollars instead of three thousand
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: US dollars in the US. And he can't find a
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: job that fits his major. The only thing he can
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: find is, you know, making a sandwich for people that
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: pays whatever, nine dollars US an hour. He has to
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: get a car because he can't walk anywhere in the US.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: You have to drive to pretty much everywhere in the US.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So there's insurance for that, and he has to register it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And he just became overwhelmed. And so he was talking
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: with his friends, and he was telling his US American friends,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: I think I have to go back to China because
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: this is if I work at this pace, even if
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I did get a job in my field and I
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: was making sixty thousand a year, I'm going to be
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: saving so much less than if I was in China
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: making twenty five thousand a year, which is true. If
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: you're in China, you make twenty five thousand a year. Easily,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: you can save fifteen thousand. I'll say easily, you can
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: save ten thousand. Easy, easy, easy, pretty easy. You can
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: save fifteen thousand. You can spend ten thousand a year
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in China and live very comfortably in the US. If
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: you're making sixty thousand, that's about twenty thousand gone. So
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: now you have forty thousand that you can save. You'll
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: need a car, You'll need to pay insurance, you will
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: need your homeowner's insurance. Any groceries you buy are going
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: to be about eight times the cost of what they
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: are in China. So if your grocery bill right now
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: is one thousand dollars per month, if you have a family,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I guess if you're let's say just a single person,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and you're spending three to four hundred dollars in the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: US on food, you can spend fifty dollars in China
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: getting all the same food and probably fresher produce and meat.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Let's say you don't get a car. You have to
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: ride the bus twice a day going to and from work,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and that's five dollars a day, two fifty each ride.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: It's I don't know, maybe sixteen cents in China for
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the equivalent ride, I guess that's more like five percent
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: of the cost, but it is. It's one yu one
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to take a bus across the city, whereas in the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: US it's like two dollars. I don't know what the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: average is now, let me check. It looks like about
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: two bucks per ride, so ninety plus percent more expensive
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: than in China. So everything he's paying for in the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: States for a few months back there, or I think
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: it was six months or something, everything costs literally ten
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: times as much as he's used to paying in China,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and he's not even working at the job he wants
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to work at. I think maybe he was a journalist,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: which obviously right now would be an incredibly difficult job
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to get, first of all, but also to hold or
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: maintain in this sort of political climate where objective news
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: is attacked in the US almost deprecated. So he talked
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: to a few of his closest friends when he went back,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and they told him, like, no, man, the only thing
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: I can tell you for sure is don't go to China.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: And they had never been to China, and he lived
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: there for years, but he didn't want to go through
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the struggle anymore. The grind that apparently ended with him
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: at sixty five, retiring with none of his health or youth,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: left with some money in the bank, probably enough to
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: survive until he died versus he remembered making money teaching
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: English in China, and every month he could have saved
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a ton of money and basically just didn't, and then
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: used a lot of his savings up when he went
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: back to the States, and then I was talking to
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: people about investing in index funds and real estate trusts
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and specifically how much money just as an English teacher
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: you can save in China. And so he was depressed
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the first week. It was his first week back in Beijing, apparently,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and he was depressed because he was like, oh my god,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: did I do the right thing. All of his friends
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: were telling him, no, come home, this is crazy. You
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: won't save any money. It's dangerous out there. And okay,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: by the way, for what the government is doing to
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the wigers, municipal life, for non wagers, for all the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: other one point five billion Chinese people and any tourist,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: it's incredibly safe in Beijing and in China in general.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: They are generally a very relaxed, non violent, non aggressive people,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and it's a very very safe country. But all these
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: people who had never been there were telling him he
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: should come back, and he wouldn't say have any money
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: because they there's no good jobs there. But he perked
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: up after that first night that I was talking to
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: everybody in the hostel around the pool table, and Yeah,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: told me a couple days later that he was really happy,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and then we talked for thirty minutes. After that. He
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: just asked me about jobs and stuff, and he told
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: me after that day he actually got a teaching job
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: and was going to move down to one of the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: southern provinces. I can't remember which one now, but he
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: was going was it Ningboo, I can't remember. He was
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: going down to some city in more southern China because
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: there was a job waiting for him. And even though
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: now English has taken out of schools, there are still
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: private training centers all around everywhere, like, there's still a
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: lot of private training centers and hundreds of free jobs
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: because after they canceled, anybody can open up a training
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: center in China. A ton of the teachers left, and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: so even though there are reduced numbers of postings, there's
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: also not as many English teachers, there's like less than
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: half of what there was five years ago when they
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: canceled English in all government schools, So you don't have
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: to study English anymore. So there are still tons of
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: available jobs out there in China. Oh yeah, so that's
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: why I'm making this pocket. I couldn't remember why I
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: say that's why I'm making this podcast. I am happy
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to share this information, and really it just takes looking
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: at it from a different angle. If you are from
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the US or from not China and you think you
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: don't have any skills, but you speak English, guess what,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: you have a skill that you can use to retire
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in several years. Take it plane, go to a country
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that cost ninety percent less than the one you're living in.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: You'll be saving ninety percent more per month. That's how
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: it worked for me. That's how it worked for a
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: bunch of teachers that I worked with. That's that's it.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: If you're if you're making three thousand and you're saving
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: two thousand a month, you have twenty four thousand dollars
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: a year to invest, and that passive income comes right
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: back to you. And regardless of how much you're making
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: in another country. Are you saving that equivalent amount, Are
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: you saving twenty four thousand or are you saving forty
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: thousand USD per year at that job? And is that
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: your goal? That was my goal. I want to save
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the most money with the least amount of work, And
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: so I decided to live in low cost countries for
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a decade and then keep living just because they're more chill.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: But it really is nice thinking. Boy, I could use
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: an air fryer and then I can order one and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: get it on the same day for five US dollars.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Or man, I really want an electric scooter and the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: cost of it doesn't even enter my mind, because there's
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: no it's going to last for a year, probably even
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: no matter how it's made. There are standards of manufacture
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in Beijing, and if it doesn't work, you can send
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: it back for free and they will give you a
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: new one. But this thing, for as long as it's
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: guaranteed it's going to work for a year or two
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: years or three years, gonna cost you maybe thirty US
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: dollars for a transportation thing that can get you across
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the city for years. It's just a completely different way
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of living. Even not very rich people in China all
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: have personal vehicles. They all have like motor scooters or
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: electric scooters. Tons of them have electric cars that again
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: are if you're getting the sedan and not like the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: newest Shuv. They're only three four thousand US dollars new.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I don't know how much the used ones are used.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Those used electric scooters are only thirty US dollars. You
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: can get a used refurbished electric mopad with one hundred
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: kilometer range for thirty US dollars. You just plug it
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: into all the local charging ports. Man, I know, I
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: get sidetracked on this a lot, but it is remarkable
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: living in a low cost country, especially for me coming
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: from the US. So that guy was very happy. He
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: said hearing my stories helped him make the right choice.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: That we talked a little more, and he seemed really
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: excited about being back in China, and he said it
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: was the first time he felt that since he got back,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: because he was so confused with all the people telling
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: All the people back from the US who had never
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: traveled abroad were telling him things that are culturally appropriate
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: in the US but are factually incorrect. As soon as
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: you've traveled, you can see like, well, no that's wrong.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: It's safe here for me. There are plenty of jobs
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: for me. I can save more money here. I like
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: this podcast, like hearing from you guys when you write in.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: And I like it when people like that tell me
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: that my practical view of the world helps them feel
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: more comfortable where they are in their life. I like that.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: It felt good. Next Tight I'm on the list is
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: something gross. I was in a restaurant and a guy
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: turned to his left and sneezed into the main aisle
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: of the restaurant. There's only it's a small restaurant. There's
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: two rows of tables against the walls, and this guy
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: sneezed into the middle toward me on the other side.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: And then a guy on my side turned into the
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: middle and sneezed into it again the other way. So
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: that's still gross. I want to say, it's much less
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: than I remember. There's not as much finger picking up
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the nose, and there's not as much sneezing and coughing.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: And if you go to China, you'll be like, oh
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: my god, it's everywhere, and it is, but it's so
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: much better than when I got there. When I arrived
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: in China, it was just constant. You could not walk
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: down an alley or road without someone hawking and spitting
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and digging there nose or ear and then wiping it
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: like on their clothing or like sneezing and then looking
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: at their hand. That was That was just that's how
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: everyone did it. Now things are changing, I think because
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of social media. I think that more than anything else,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: is letting Chinese people know like this is how people
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: see you if you sneeze in public without covering your mouth,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: or if you dig your nose. It seems much less
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: frequent than what I am used to, although there are
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: those habits are certainly still happening. It's such a monoculture,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: such a huge monoculture. It's so crazy, and it was
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: completely standardized by Mao, so they all think the same.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: So if you grew up in a family and they
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: were like, well, you only have to wash your hair
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: twice a week, the whole family, because they live in
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: one house together. That's their culture, so they'll only washed
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: their hair twice a week. Sing goes for China. If
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: something became normal, like not covering your mouth when you sneezed,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the whole one point five billion people do that. Habit.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: They all have the same habit. It's it's pretty wild
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and it's pretty crazy how much it has changed in
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the past fifteen years. I mean social media is There's
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: going to be tomes on how social media affected behavior globally,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: but that's one of them. I think Chinese people are
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: becoming more courteous in public, although there's still some ways
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: to go. Okay. I met up with my friend and
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: he showed me the first Coca Cola factory in China,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: the first ever one. It was in the south west
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: of Beijing, and the site is still there, although they
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: took down half of the factory and now it's just
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: used as a warehouse. But that was cool. I got
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to see the first ever Coca cola factory site in China,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: which is kind of a big thing. Coca Cola is
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: huge in that country, and this is where they that
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: was their first step into the country fifty years ago.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Actually it's still in Beijing, they just moved locations. Pg
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: kah Yah okay, pg O kah Ya beer fried roast duck.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: So they marinate duck in beer and then they fry
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: it in oil and then they air dry it on
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: a not a rotisserie like a rotary wheel what do
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: you call those convection ovens things, So it's like a
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: very low heat convection oven, and the duck is hanging
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: on a rotary wheel. They'll be like eight of them
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: on a wheels, just spinning around in a circle. And
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: for some reason, I still don't understand that costs four
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: dollars to buy a duck. I guess closer to what
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I saw was like five dollars, but four to five
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: US dollars you can get a whole duck with that
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: much preparation and complexity of cooking method going into it,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: and it's so delicious, and I couldn't find a good one.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I really think my neighborhood that I was staying in
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: that hostel was not a great area for food in general,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and Beijing, because I had to look around a lot.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Whenever I wanted a specific thing I liked, I had
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to try several of them before I found a good one.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I never found good noodles. I don't know what they
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: were serving in the middle of Beijing, but they were
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: all like fat, crappy, like spaghetti. They almost tasted like
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: spaghetti noodles, which is gross. Compared to like chaw maane
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: noodles or egg noodles, the big fat floppy spaghetti noodles
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: are not They don't have the same bite to them.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: It was really weird. I couldn't find any good rug
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: on me end. But I think it was because of
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood I was in, and they just bought the
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: cheapest noodles because I don't know, maybe like everyone's new
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: to Beijing, so they don't know what good noodles are. Like.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm very confused. But it was difficult
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to find good food. And I found a couple pgo
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Kaya places, but one of them was like eight dollars
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: for the duck or eight fifty US, which is double
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: what I'm used to paying. And it didn't look very good.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: It looked kind of corporate. It looked a little too fancy,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: so I didn't trust them anyway. And it was twice
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: as much. I was like nah, and I just kept
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: walking around. And then a few days before I left Beijing,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I found it. I found Pgo Kaya and it was
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: this lady down an alley, little sign pgo Kaya, and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I saw them and I saw the way the skin
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: was dried and the brown of the skin from being
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: marinated and fried and then air dry. And I was like,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that's it, That's exactly what I'm looking for. And I
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: got one, even though I was already full, and it
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: was my second dinner with some beer, and I think
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I watched more of that video game High School series,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: and it was very satisfying that I was able to
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: find one, even in this dearth of high cuisine that
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I was living in. That was a great Pgo kaw
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: ya man. So much good food in China. I was like,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: it would be worth it living here again just for
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the food if I could just eat this food all
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the time. But that's a trap because I have to
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: keep learning and exploring. Can't rest on my laurels. I
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: already did that for six years. Gandhi and Dojiao. I
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: found a good Gandhian Dojiao, but I never found the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: perfect one. And it's why I mentioned what I mentioned before.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: They just cooked it wet, so you have to demoisturize.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: You have to dry the beans first, and you have
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: to throw in the meat afterwards, or they just get
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: oily and soggy instead of crispy, crunchy, salty, tasty. What else, oh,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: ragan Man, I just mentioned that. So that's like hot
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: dry noodles, So it's like stir fried. It's kind of
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: what the US chow main is like a little bit,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: but it has different spices and it's a lot drier,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: not so oily. So that stuff is great, but I
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: could not find that. Also. I think that was again
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I was in the middle of the city. If I
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: go back to Beijing again, I will be living on
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the outskirts, it was, so that's where I found that
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: amazing frog restaurant, and the people were chill and the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: whole everything was so much more relaxed on the outskirts.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: So when I do go back to Beijing, I'll be
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: living out there on the edge. And they still have
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a subway line so you can get back into the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: city if you want to. Oh no, The next thing
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: on the list is bai Geo. Okay, So bai Geo
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: is white liquor. It's the rice wine made in China
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: that is terrible and disgusting and tastes terrible and as
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: gross and is forty percent up to sixty percent, usually
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: closer to forty and it just tastes like robbing alcoholics.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: It's so gross, so I don't drink it generally generally.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: But the thing is, I wasn't planning on drinking any
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: but I went back to this place that sells craft seltzers.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: It's like a mini bar. There's a bar inside that
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: you can sit at, and they have like eight different
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: eight different craft beers and then six different craft seltzers.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: And I was excited about the seltzers and excited just
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: about the craft brewing scene in Beijing, which apparently is
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: popped up in the last five years, and they're really
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: popular these days. I definitely don't remember seeing them when
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I arrived in China, or even five years ago when
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I was there, but apparently they're around the city now.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: So I went in and I got a celtzer because
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I had already been there, and they had a great
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: other seltzer and a good beer. But this time I
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: went in and talked to the lady, same bartender as before.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: After I don't know, five minutes of me drinking a
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: seltzer and very much enjoying it. I think it was
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: a passion fruit seltzer, this very not sober guy stumbled
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: in and I was like, oh man, and maybe I'll
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: just go. But then he turned to the bartendress that
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I was familiar with, and he was like blah blah,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh no, because it sounded like
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: he was her husband. And then he saw me and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: he got really excited, and she was like, this is
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: my husband, and she's stone cold sober, and he's literally
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: falling down and only being held up by other people.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: So I could have left, I could have said thank
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: you so much, but instead, I like to see where
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: things go, so I just let this guy talk and
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: he was very excited. But after like ten minutes he
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: wanted to drink some by Jeo, and long story short,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: I ended up drinking by Jio with him, much more
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: than I thought I was going to drink, and I
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: got shwiggedy schwasted, and I hated the taste every time.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: But I wasn't doing anything that week, and I was like, hey,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I'm in China. And they were all very nice. He
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: was with his friends. He was by far the drunkest
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: person so and I could speak Mandarin, so it was
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: fun talking to them, and it was just it was
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: a nice time. And they took out snacks like chicken feet,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: which are very popular bar snacks to eat with beer,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: just like nibbling the cartilage off the chicken feed. I
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: know that doesn't sound appetizing, and it's not high cuisine,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: but it's fine. It's salted cured meat, it's salted pickled meat,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: so it's still pretty tasty to eat salt when you're
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: drinking beer or by jo Oh my gosh. And I
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: got shwiggedy schwsted and then I had a great time.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I was like thanks guys, and we closed out the bar.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I think I must have been there for like four hours,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: just talking with everybody and being a dummy. But they
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: were just excited to talk to a foreigner. It wasn't
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: dangerous or anything like that. They just love it when
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: a foreigner shows up, especially one who can speak Mandarin,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: so they can ask me all the same questions. You
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: eat rice, but do you eat spicy food? So it
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: was it was a fun little party. Bar closed. I'm
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: feeling like I'm floating on air even though I'm feeling
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: kind of sick, and I was like, I gotta get
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: this by Geo out of my system, and so I
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: decided to jog, and I'm jogging. I was like, man,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: this feels great, Bye Geo, And I was like, this
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: is amazing. I should run faster. And I ran faster
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: until I was like straight out sprinting down the sidewalk,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: and then I fell down and I scraped my knee
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: and the bottom part of my forearm. Not real bad,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: but it was really funny. I just like stood up.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: I wasn't disabled or anything. I just fell down and
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: then stood right back up. And I'm like alone on
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the street, sprinting down these massive Beijing sidewalks, just thinking,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: like just laughing at myself, thinking about how stupid I am.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: And of course I hurt myself because blood sacrifice. I'm
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: leaving Beijing soon, so I have to hurt myself. And
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: then by Jio. I drank by Gio every single time
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I can remember getting hurt or losing something or something
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: bad happening in China. It was from drinking. I definitely
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: drank too much every single time something bad happened. And
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: I had had beer, a bunch of beer with my
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: friends since I arrived, but I had Baye Geo, and
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: that was that was the red line that I crossed,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: and so I had these cuts on my hand, on
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: my arm and knee for the last few days in
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Beijing and for a weekend after, and I just was like, yeah, man,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: learn learn from this. Don't do don't take that much
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: by to have a shot with someone and then say
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: thank you and leave. Don't empty multiple bottles with somebody
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: just for fun. You know, it's poison. I went back
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: there the next day and had some beer with Terry,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and then the day after that and had some beer
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: with Sean there or seltzers and more yak jerky. By
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the way, everything in China the whole time I'm doing this.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: You can just imagine me eating yak jerky the entire time.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I asked my friend to buy me one bag and
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: they sent me six bags instead. And I only have
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: what thirteen days in China, so I had to eat
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: one bag, which is half a kilogram like a pound,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: every two days. It was a lot of jerky. So
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: I'm just snacking all day air day. What happened toiro
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: oh Toyro Hotpot with Sean? So I went with Shawn's
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: family and an old friend from the first school back
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: in Beijing. We went to hot Pot and by this
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: point they believed me that I was like picky and
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted good restaurants, and Sean still picked it, so
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I was wary. But when I showed up and saw it,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: I was like, Yep, that's gonna be really good. There's
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: people in it. The signs weren't too new, there's not
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: too many like waiters, and it wasn't too clean. It
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: was very clean, but they were clearly focusing on the
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: food more than trying to draw people in to their location.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And the food was good, and that's pretty much all
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: I have to say. The hot pot was amazing. I
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: did add more hot pot into it to make it
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: more spicy, and it was insane. It was even too
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: spicy for me. It was burning my mouth off. But
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the flavor is so good that me and Sean are
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: just both crying and staring at each other and smiling
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: and nodding. It's really good. Oh I got it's so good,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: but our mouths are like on fire. But you get
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: used to it. It's fine. It was great. That was a
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: very good meal. And you know what I found out
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: about toy Row, which is really funny. I wasn't really
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: into toy Row before, but they got some and I
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: didn't like the first bite I had, and then I
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: ate a bunch of it after that, but not as
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: much as Sean and everybody else. But the next day
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I got toyro at the traditional Siuan restaurant that I
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: like right around the corner from my hostel, and then
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: toyro is like one of my favorite things. Now, toy
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: ro is really interesting. Toyas means like crispy, and row
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: is meat, So it's like crispy meat, but it's it's
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: not because of the texture of the meat. It's because
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: of how they cut the meat. So when they cut
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: it off the bone, they cut off a small piece
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you know what. I'm going to explain this how it
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: was explained to me, and if I am wrong, tell me,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: because I still don't actually understand it. I'm just realizing
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: I thought it was bone, but that seems unlikely. How
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: it was explained to me is that the meat is
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: cut off the bone, but it includes a very small
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: sliver of bone with each piece of meat. So when
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: you bite through the meat, you get a it's not
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: hard like a bone. You're not chewing on it because
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: it's boiled first or cooked at a super high temperature first,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: so you can bite through it. There's just a little
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: more bite to it. It's like a maybe as difficult
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to bite through as like a fresh slice of radish.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: There's just a little more resistance than in the meat.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: So you get the meat and all the great flavor,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and then you also get this interesting crunchy texture. And
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's bone or cartilage now that
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about it, because I don't know if they can.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it is bone. Tell me. I
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: just looked it up, but it's not on the internet,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: which seems was crazy because it was in tons of
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: restaurants in Beijing, and I know it always has been.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Let me look again. I don't know how it's not there. Weird.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe I'm getting the wrong thing. There's
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: tons of Chinese cooking channels and social media and everything.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: I don't see anything about towy row. Anyway, It's a
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: delicious row and the or delicious type of meat, kind
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: of meat. And the next day I got it when
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: I went to eat with Terriet another restaurant. He came
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: to the traditional Sichuan restaurant and it was almost it
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: was amazing. That was some of the best meat I've
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: ever had. It was the meat itself was made perfectly
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: and cooked perfectly dry, lots of flavor, not too dry,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: and then the crunchiness of the toy was really fun.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: And then the next day I had it again with
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Sean because it was so good. So Sean, thanks for
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: turning me on to Towey Row. I can't believe I
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: wasn't eating it the whole time I was in China.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: I was kind of picky when I showed up in China.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: That was my first extra national country, and I was
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: not used to so many foods and there are so
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: many foods to try in China, unlike anything I had
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: eaten before. But now maybe am I glad to be
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: back in the game. Okay, there's a brief note, I guess,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: so I'll close it out with these. These stories aren't
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: very long. I met this guy from England who seemed
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: very nice at first when he saw me, and he
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: was really excited. I could speak Mandarin, and I helped
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: him get some things from the shop, and then he
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: just followed me around while I ate dinner, and then
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: he kept following me around. We started drinking, and then
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: I drank with him for like ten hours straight because
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: he was so interested in me, and then he turned
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: really weird and was accusing me of being in the
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: CIA and got very angry, and so I left because
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: he was. He also said a lot of gross things
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: about Chinese women that I didn't like hearing, and homophobic
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: things and all sorts of weird things, gross things, and
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: so I was like, later, you suck. But I drank
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: all night with him because I was like, whatever I'm drinking,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I get to practice Chinese. This guy thinks I'm in
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: the CIA for some reason. He got way more drunk
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: than I did, and it was just interesting to watch
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: it happening. That's a lot. That's why I stay in
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: these conversations and situations a lot of the time. I
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: just feel like I'm watching a documentary half the time
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: when I'm interacting with another person, Like look, and then
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the human suddenly became aggressive. No cause to be seen
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: from once did his ire rise anyway? That guy sucked
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: And then I left. But then the next day I
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: was going to meet Terry, and I was planning to
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: go to bed eight hours earlier, and I was basically
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: just up the whole day and I got to go
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: to bed for three hours. I think I think I
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: made it back there like two PM, and then I
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: was going to meet Terry at six. So I decided
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: to just take a ride chair bike because they have
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: very nice bicycles for ride chair and it only costs
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: two room and be per hour, so like thirty cents
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: per hour, capped at ten cents per day. That's not right,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: capped at two dollars US per day, and you can
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: use the bike the whole day. So to get to
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: the restaurant to meet Terry, it was an hour and
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: a half away, ninety minutes maybe, and great. I thought,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I have so much beer in my system and just
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: crap in my system, and so I just casually rolled
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: my way and it was great. I listened to a podcast.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I felt so much better. I felt sick as crap
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: when I woke up, and I was like, okay, let's
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: go meet Terry and have a nice dinner. But after
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: I made the decision to ride, after I rode on
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: the bicycle for ninety minutes and got some good exercise
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: and I felt way better. But I was so full.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: And then we sat down and guess where we went.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: We went to that frog place that we discovered that
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: was so good. And they brought out another giant tray
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: of frog, and I was like, oh my god, dude,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if I can eat it. And
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: then I ate one bite and then I ate the
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: entire tray, and then I picked through it and looked
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: for more. I can't believe I ate the whole thing.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: I was so I ate a bunch of snacks and
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: I had like three dinners while I was drinking beer
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: for literally ten hours or whatever. It was crazy, But
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: that frog, that's how good it is. Just eat it.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Give me another tray. Got talking about it now. I
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: kind of regret not stopping back in Beijing another couple
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: of weeks. But I gotta get to the US full
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: of this wedding, and I'm curious about Jedju Korea, and
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I'm curious about Japan again. Don't go to Japan Hokkaido
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: right now if you're a camper, because there's triple the
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: amount of bear tax as usual. Thirteen people died last
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: year in two hundred and sixty two hundred something attacks.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: The bears are coming into Hokkaido and attacking and killing people.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: So if you're planning on camping in northern Japan be aware. Okay,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: that's good for now. When we get back, we'll wrap
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: up China and head on over to Mongo Lia, Mongolia.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. I hope you're having
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: a great day. My day's going pretty well. You can
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: talk to me a bit of a Rambler at gmail
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: dot com or bit of a Rambler on Bluski and
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: lemme have a great day. I will talk to you soon.