Global Nanpa

Supercars in Bangkok : Thailands very own everyday Gumball racers :

Ok, here we go, check out this action-packed video by PhilTetu :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrd9ClKTV7A&feature=related

The most remarkable thing for me are actually not the cars itself, but the guys driving it : Looking at the median age in several videos and what I saw in Bangkok in reality, a lot of the guys driving these cars are around early 30s.
I remember well when a Thai friend brought me with her new Mercedes SLK to RCA, there was this Lamborghini Gallardo parking next to us. I had to laugh hard when I saw the guy climbing out of his car. That was a sight, he must have been below age 20 ! Maybe it was a birthday present to his 18th ?
In the USA and especially in Europe it is very proscribed to show and enable young people such a degree of luxury lifestyle. Not so in many parts of Asia : Thailand and China probably being on top of that habit. I have nothing against it. After all these sportscars were originally meant to be driven by younger bodies. In the western world the median age would be around 50 when you see someone on the street in such a car – many of those people will have a back pain and are very cautious driving it because they have a family or other responsability. You see, it makes sense to enjoy such cars in early age.

i think Thailand does not need the Gumball. This is the everyday real shit. LOL. Ferrari vs. Gallardo :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSBI-ivy7M&feature=related

I do however see a huge problem in terms of career motivation for those spoilt guys. They have everything they want already, often don’t show the best behavior and they lack skills, a personal commitment for a professional development. Never mind, it is not always the case.
That girl I talked about before with the SLK at least „worked“ for the car. She had to „trick“ a stupid young farang emotionally and invested maybe some physical and psychological pain into this to get it. She deserves the car and learned from this experience how to deal with people, knowing which buttons she need to push for her own good.
I might come up with a more in depths report after my next SEA trip, writing about and videotaping the spoilt young generation of wealthy families : Ferrari & Louis Vuitton for youngsters !

Lamborghini Reventon Inspection by Matthew Hill :
http://www.vimeo.com/1469987

Sex, lies, and videotape : What happens with your reputation/career if doing morally questionable things ?

Nothing happens if you are not Eliot Spitzer and are not standing in the public all the time or have a position that is somehow connected to the state and stands in correlation with the honor/pride of powerful institutions.

Paris Hilton is a good example that in our times, escapades can boost a celebrity career in a significant way – that’s what the people want to see and get entertained by. For the average Joe, his personal escapades don’t mean a thing to the world, so there is really not much to fear.
Although most western (and probably eastern too) companies prefer their employees to behave well for their own good, i.e. keeping face and a clean image, the reality is that people involved in escapades are mostly very popular guys inside of companies and climb the ladder faster. Many studies exist that give proof that people who regular go out with their colleagues for a beer (or 5…) and socialize a lot become much more successfull than the boring type clerks who just function.
How about going one step further, not only „abusing“ alcohol, but maybe also proXtitutes and even dXugs ?
Having/Enjoying proXitutes among bankers for example is the common thing around NYC and London. Nobody makes a big deal about it. Guys like top investment bankers from Goldman Sachs or people in private equity, hedge funds simply work all the time. It is just natural and good for the company also if they can let off some steam and get back some „mental energy“ – the girls will be happy to make some easy money from heavy pocketed customers in return.
My Thai ex-girl friend is now in a relation with the pride of the MIT/Harvard Business School circle, the most wanted company of Vault being involved : THE former McKinsey asia expat superstar himself ! Does the public like to see that his new wife will become Thai : NO (the fear of western women getting replaced…). So do you believe he will leave her only because of what some old-fashioned double moral guys think ? NO, and he won’t be making worse business, maybe he even becomes stronger because of a better mental support by a caring girl.

Let’s check out the situation for soldiers : Whenever the US is fighting a new war, they need to charter some extra planes full of proXtitutes only for „entertaining“ their men and keeping them satisfied and focused on the mission. Makes sense to me and no complain on my behalf. Let’s just not try to hide that fact.

For myself, nobody gives a damn that I am doing this site. Some friends know my site, other’s don’t. Nobody was shocked yet or thought he had to talk seriously with me untill now.
Our lives have changed. It is not like 20 years ago. Hell, porn stars can become famous TV hosts in the western world. Ladyboys can get respected state official positions in the eastern world.
Gays become mayor in Berlin. Who the hell cares if nobody gets hurt and they do a decent job ?
FuXk the double moral. The people fighting most against this moral decadence are often the worst type of people, groups who would kill other humans because of religion, ethical standards and so on. Those people are the menace to society : They should get locked away.

Imagine I would get supported by the biggest dXug lords of SEA, I don’t think it actually would matter much. „Simply“ get rich, make sure everyone gets a piece of the cake, is happy and doesn’t want to fuXk with you.
Once you are rich enough, set up some charity foundations for children in need, for education, world hunger and green energy. Organize charity events and invite (pay them or fly them in) some celebrities.
Et voila : you are on the guest list of every major party in town, you get invited to TV shows and are one of the most respected individuals. Deny your past once – nobody will ask again and they tend to forget everything after 1 year anyway. So here we are : Living your personal dream lifestyle from early on still qualifies you to become president/chancellor of your country or to get the medal of honor (Bundesverdienstkreuz). Don’t waste your time/life because of fear a society might want to inflict on you.
Welcome to the real world ! Welcome to Global Nanpa !

Bart, 29, from Belgium is a talented professional photographer who was and is travelling around in Asia a lot recently. Check out his blog, picture galleries and especially interesting for me : these 2 videos.
He just released a cool video of his time at the Beijing Olympics :
http://www.dailymotion.com/bartdotla/video/x6jb9f_my-beijing-2008-olympic-games_travel

This video is a summery of his 7 months Asia trip – what a wonderful video :
http://www.dailymotion.com/bartdotla/video/x5uibz_asia-2008_travel

Bart like me and others know to appreciate the art of nanpa, travelling in style, checking out interesting restaurants, clubs and other places/events. We got in touch a few months ago via email because of this website – the power of the internet bringing together like-minded people… Bart, would be cool if you could make it to my 30th birthday party end of September. Maybe we could discuss a joint trip in 2009, combining nanpa forces ?.
I am actually planning to include myself (face+voice) in the next travel videos too. I believe I can create much more trust when not appearing as an anonymous ghost. Thanks Bart for letting me realize this.

Dear readers please email me once you have produced or seen a cool nanpa related video. It will get featured here. Guys (and girls too), please help me to create a trend here that we initiate. Together as a powerful group, we can cause some serious nanpa damage and be a part of a special and cool community.
Let’s try to roll out as many cool nanpa related videos as possible all around the world.
Once Global Nanpa 2.0 gets launched around October, it will be much more fun to visit and use this site. Thanks for your support. Let’s get the party started !
Contact cspielberger :
info(at)globalnanpa.com

My very best friend told me yesterday that he proposed to his girl-friend on his current trip in Hungary. Yep, he is going to get married. A bit shocked for a second how fast things developed, I think they are a very good match. They had been together for 3 years, know each other from university. She is a Latin American. I have a good feeling about it, this is something which has real value in life.
Some other buddies also already got married this year or are planning to do so next year. Everyone of them is aware of the common break-up rates, but still most of us try it.

Since a few weeks I came to the conclusion that I probably might want to get married too at a later stage in my life. I don’t want to be a butterfly man anymore in around 10 years. My current plan is to get married around age 39. I probably do it like the women who get married in panic around age 29.

From my point of view, women have their highest value on the „market“ around age 20 and it rapidly goes down at age 30. Very understandable why they are all horrified of reaching that age.
A man got its highest value at age 35 in my eyes, going down fast once reached age 40. These numbers are based on real „love“ relations, not money focused and trying to match the most optimal of all possible worlds.

My personal favorite women in terms of nationality are Japanese and Indonesian women. Once you think you have found the right one, I believe it is hard to make a time planning for yourself anyway. Still, I am someone who always wrote down his goals and plans years before and mostly I sticked to it and achieved the original plan. So feel welcome to come to my wedding in 2018, when I am aged 39 ?
It goes without saying that I will have a marriage contract (Guetertrennung it is called in German).

I recently also got some big time news from my ex Thai girl-friend A. You might have seen her in some of my videos.
She really hit the jackpot. I knew this girl was up for something. Her new boyfriend seems to be a more than capable guy. The only negative thing I could find is that he had been married before, got a son and is not the youngest anymore (49). This Dutch person bought her a house (in her name of course) in central Bangkok, Sukhumvit Soi 31, after being just 6 months together. I hope she lets me visit this place one day when he is not around. I would like to have a look.
They are getting married early next year with a traditional Thai ceremony in Sukhothai and a big party in Bangkok with their friends around in SEA. I really like the traditional Thai style wedding ceremony.
The background of her future husband is impressive. Check it out :
He worked for 13 years at McKinsey & Company, a global consultancy firm. Until 2002, he was a partner in their Amsterdam office and one of the leaders of the European Utility Practice. Between 2002 and 2005, he led the Manila office and also the Asian Utility Practice, working mostly in China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines. Early 2005, he was moved to the Middle East, where he set up the office in Bahrain and established the Utility Practice in the GCC. Within the GCC, he worked extensively in Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and worked during 1993 and 1995 in the Math Department at MIT in Cambridge, US, after obtaining his PhD.

Here is a list of the worlds Top 15 most expensive divorces from Wikipedia. Keep this in mind and don’t be a fool !

1. Rupert Murdoch’s divorce from Anna Murdoch; at $1.7 billion
2. Adnan Khashoggi’s divorce from Soraya Khashoggi; estimated at $874 million
3. Craig McCaw’s divorce from Wendy McCaw; estimated to exceed $460 million
4. Michael Jordan’s divorce from Juanita Jordan; estimated to exceed $150 million
5. Neil Diamond’s divorce from Marcia Murphey; estimated at $150 million
6. Harrison Ford’s divorce from Melissa Mathison; estimated at $118 million
7. Steven Spielberg’s divorce from Amy Irving; estimated at $100 million
8. Kevin Costner’s divorce from Cindy Silva; estimated at $80 million
9. Kenny Rogers divorce from Marianne Rogers; estimated at $60 million
10. James Cameron’s divorce from Linda Hamilton; estimated to exceed $50 million
11. Paul McCartney’s divorce from Heather Mills; estimated at $48.6 million
12. Michael Douglas’ divorce from Diandra Douglas; estimated at $45 million
13. Ted Danson’s divorce from Casey Coats; estimated at $30 million
14. Lionel Richie’s divorce from Diane Richie; estimated at $20 million
15. Mick Jagger’s divorce from Jerry Hall; estimated between $15 and $25 million

Reply to Bkk Dan - Absolutely Bangkok’s Nishita Shah article, 28, Thailand’s third richest woman.

I commented on the post “Bangkok’s Nishita Shah, Thailand’s third richest woman” by Dan from Absolutely Bangkok better known as “Absolute Bullshit”.

Did you write this Dan ?

“Nishita was born to be a business woman. To follow her father’s steps, she had graduated from Boston University with a degree in business and finance. “My dad said I could study anything I wanted,” she once said, “as long as it was business.”

Think again : The role her dad imagines for her is “to be a good shareholder” (citation from Forbes).
A business degree from BU isn’t even worth the paper printed on. It is the ultimate rich daddies favorite university for their girls who don’t have the skills to get into Harvard. I know that pretty well, having lived in the Cambridge/Boston area and knowing Thai students who studied in both worlds.

You really believe she reads business reports with passion every day ? Come on… She hangs out in the luxury hotels like the Four Seasons and Hyatt and probably spends most of her time crunching her mind how to look more attractive or managing the schedule for partying/meeting up with her friends.

I would be very very surprised if her label “Nsha” is becoming a success.

If you look for a sexy Thai girl, a “Bangkok siren”, a successfull female entrepreneur who started from 0, then maybe you should check out Benjaporn Karoonkornsakul from Absolute Yoga Bangkok. She got real skills…and looks Thai…and maybe you even “borrowed” the name Absolute from her or was it just bad luck ?

Regards

Dan let’s compare our different views on Nishita Shah in 3 years (2011) again and see who made the right bet. I place my cards on Benjaporn Karoonkornsakul. I love the internet and blogging : the truth and intelligence can easily be compared my friend.

Learn how to live like a rockstar with a western upper middle class budget by making smart decisons :
Check out my compilation video „Global Nanpa’s escapades – Therefore I travel“. It contains some of my sweetest travel memories of the past 3 years. I put quiet some work into it, also to let it fit with the sound. A lot of the music I am using for my current videos is developed by my older brother, a DJ – so, video and sound is self-made using Final Cut Pro 6. As I started out with a Casio pocket cam in 2006 for the videos, this compilation video I was not able to produce above 640X480 resolution. However since my last trip, I am only shooting in full HD and no more with drunk camera flips…like promised last April steadily improving…

I started to the right time with the video guides : Pocket-sized HD cameras are brand new like mine from Panasonic (they offer the world’s smallest HD camcorder) and the HD video channel Vimeo started end of 2007 with a resolution of 1280X720, the highest you can currently find in the net as a shared platform. September, next month, they release the billable premium account named Vimeo plus with plenty of wicked features (Unicorn) for which I will be one of the first ones to sign up. Great timing. Soon more about my new Vimeo account :

http://www.vimeo.com/globalnanpaTV

Back to Global Nanpa escapades : Think about it, I am convinced that my life is much better than that of the often cited Playboy Hugh Hefner for example. I didn’t realize in the past years how important health and age is, but it does matter a lot, more even than money. US college girl blondines are not my taste anyway. Sounds arrogant but I can have more girls than him, paid AND for free. Nanpa makes it possible. I also don’t have to pop any pills before the „magic happens“, LOL. My honest ratio for paid/unpaid female companionship on my recent trips was around 75% paid, 25% for free. I plan to hold it like this for the next decade, turning now 30 years-old end of September. The freebies in retroperspective were actually often the more painful memories, that’s why I try to keep a balanced ratio : I don’t want to inflict too much emotional pain on others and on myself. Like regular readers know, I have the idea of finding the true girl-friend experience (GFE) during my trips.

This life is so much better than being a real celebrity, because you don’t have to deal with the negative side effects like getting watched carefully by the public all the time and not being able to walk around freely in public places anymore. I would never trade my life with anyone. Once your skills, looks and budget reach a certain level, you can literally live the ultimate dream life in Asia. Trust me, it’s good….
Looking back, I am glad that I didn’t experience all those crazy, deeply life-changing moments before I turned 25 and finished my university degree with full determination in the old world. It might had screwed up my life path. Timing like I mentioned before was luckily optimal here again at age 26. First focussing and taking care of the academic career, winding up the professional career in its first steps and THEN going out and exploring the world big time. Young guys/newbies please take this as an advice : Keep your head down in the beginning and a low profile, keep your money to yourself, most important keep your dicX in your pants and build a solid ground first ! Don’t watch porn : Go travel when your time comes !

I still have many goals and challenges in my mind to work very hard for and which will keep me busy for some years. Dear readers, please don’t become a weak individual once you have tasted the sweet forbidden fruit like many other’s who toil their lives away for example as low paid expats in SEA, people whose addiction is taking them to absurd fantasies or like those who try to retire too early with not sufficient funds. Don’t lose the ability for objective self-reflection or you will be trapped in the jungle labyrinth forever.

I proved you were wrong Mr. Wheeler (Lonely Planet founder), it is NOT a lonely planet after all. You can be anything you want, enjoy life to the maximum if you are smart, make the right decisions, work hard and set yourself clear limits.
No fiction, nor dreams - it is a world full of real Global Nanpa ! Follow the adventures of cspielberger. Global Nanpa 2.0 will get released in a few weeks. Stay tuned. Thanks for the support.

Global Nanpa escapades 2008 :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvyKZOt0AgA

Easter Egg – not a lonely planet after all ? :

www.vimeo.com/lonelyplanet

Lonely Planet : the slow death of travel guide books ?

Since publishing Across Asia on the Cheap in 1973, Lonely Planet has grown to become the largest independent travel-guidebook publisher in the world.
Lonely Planet publishes over 600 titles, has over 400 employees and more than 6.5 million Lonely Planet books are sold annually.

However they have a huge debt and cashflow problems. They are profitable but the profit is small and margins are tiny too. I would estimate that they made revenues of around 80 to 100 million USD in 2007. There is no official number.

In October 2007 BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), has acquired Lonely Planet in a deal that will build the Lonely Planet franchise.
The privately owned business was being sold by Tony and Maureen Wheeler, who founded the company in 1972, and John Singleton who became a shareholder in 1999. They founders still remain 25% of the shares.

The Lonely Planet is currently aggressively building up video guides and since April/May 2008 offering $500 to buy the rights of short videos (under 10 min) from amateur travellers. That’s of course faster and easier than letting it shoot by their own staff. Quality is however an immense problem. Resolution of the videos are 640X480 and lower, no HD. Moreover I find almost all of the about 300 videos i watched so far not really interesting. They don’t portray the places well and there is no structure in it and certainly it is amateur style and not professional. Quiet a nice deal for the amateur selling it for $500.
Lonely Planet launched a youtube travel video channel on April 10th, 2008. Maybe my blog inspired them to this step and they were afraid of falling behind ? I was first worldwide. LOL.
They currently have around 1000 videos on their Lonely Planet TV channel.
1000 videos cost them half a million USD. That’s crazy. If they continue buying up videos like now, they will have spent 1 million USD on poor quality videos this year. This million will most likely also erase the whole profit of 2008.

It is clear for me and also for the Lonely Planet management that video guides are the future and not travel books. Their books almost don’t have any pictures at all. Maybe that was cool 20 years ago but not today anymore.
Moreover you can almost get all the info of their guides for free in the net. The smart travellers simply print out the maps and info they need. Lonely Planet used to focus on budget travellers since its beginning and budget travellers are on a budget and prefer not to spend an extra 20 bucks for the book even if it is more convenient to have it summarized in a nice format.
That problem the Lonely Planet management also became aware of in the last years and suddenly started to integrate upscale hotels and accomodations for the more affluent travellers who might be more able and willing to buy their books because they don’t care about an extra 20 bucks anyway if the guidebook has a good reputation which is fitting to their needs.
Well, well, Lonely Planet shifting between 2 worlds and pissing off their own budget traveller base. From my point of view the Lonely Planet guides have a very poor reputation among „real“ travellers and everyone is getting mad seeing „wannabe’s“ with their Thailand and Cambodia guides running around.
I am certainly not a „real“ hardcore traveller like them but i do understand their worry and frustration.
I myself am the luxury, affluent, frequent traveller, the Lonely Planet would like to have as customers now. It won’t work. I stick to information I find myself in the net, I have my own opinions, find my own ways and continue producing video guides and get inspired by watching those of others.

I believe the Lonely Planet will have a hard time selling a lot of copies of their Thailand guide in about 10 years if things develop like now and they don’t come up with any brilliant, fresh innovation. The only very valuable thing they currently own is the Thorn Tree forum and the known brandname itself.

CEO Judo Slatyer’s farewell, 2 months ago who left to become the CEO of WWF

http://www.lonelyplanet.tv/Clip.aspx?key=8483E3211A920641

They still haven’t found a replacement for her…
Still wanna work for the Planet or buy a guide ? Better sell a crappy 500 bucks video to them to have your next flight ticket sponsored by some weird people. LOL.

The Skytrax World Airline Awards is the world’s most respected and recognised Airline Awards.

The worldwide survey totalled 15,442,605 respondents with over 95 different passenger nationalities participating in the survey.

I was able to fly myself with all airlines mentioned except Asiana Airlines, Ethiad Airways and LAN. I think the skytrax awards have a very good reputation and I also like the reviews on their website. The results are a bit weird, maybe a lot of the people in the survey didn’t fly a really good airline yet and that’s why they rate positive for their carrier of choice they fly all the time ? It is a mystery for me why Qantas and Thai Airways are so well rated and Emirates is still so far down ??

http://www.worldairlineawards.com/

2008 Skytrax World Airline Award rankings:

1. Singapore Airlines (1)
2. Cathay Pacific (3)
3. Qantas (5)
4 . Thai Airways (2)
5. Asiana Airlines (12)
6. Malaysia Airlines (6)
7. Qatar Airways (4)
8. Air New Zealand (7)
9. Emirates (9)
10. Etihad Airways (23)

AIRLINE OF THE YEAR :
Singapore Airlines

BEST LOW-COST AIRLINE :
EasyJet

BEST CABIN STAFF :
Asiana Airlines

BEST INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT :
Emirates

BEST FIRST CLASS LOUNGE :
Qantas

BEST BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE :
Virgin Atlantic

BEST ECONOMY CLASS :
Asiana Airlines

BEST FIRST CLASS :
Cathay Pacific

BEST BUSINESS CLASS :
Singapore Airlines

BEST AIRLINE : AFRICA :
South African Airways

BEST AIRLINE : EUROPE :
Lufthansa

BEST AIRLINE : MIDDLE EAST :
Qatar Airways

BEST AIRLINE : NORTH AMERICA :
Continental Airlines

BEST AIRLINE : SOUTH AMERICA :
LAN

BEST AIRLINE : AUSTRALASIA :
Qantas

BEST AIRLINE : ASIA :
Singapore Airlines

The greek born founder of Easyjet Stelios, 41, is a self made billionaire. He founded the company at age 28 and is living in London.
http://www.easy.com/stelios/index.html
I met Stelios in January 2006 in Boston at MIT Sloan. I was a member of the Sloan entrepreneurs club and the club invited him for giving a talk. He is an incredible smart and friendly person. Certainly my personal hero in the aviation and travel business. He told us many insights of this industry and about his new big venture to that time, the Easy Cruises (why the hell did he paint the ships orange?). The entire global airline industry has just a market volume of 40 billion USD. This tells you something about profitability in that sector… He gave me his business card and the title is really cool. He calls himself “serial entrepreneur”, not to be mistaken with serial killer, LOL. He himself admits that only maybe a third of his ventures will survive but he is trying many things and he is a very inspiring and a down-to-earth person.
Stelios was so honest to tell us in a funny way that he had a good venture capitalist when he started out : his dad. But he proved to everyone in many ways that the success came from him and nobody else. Congratulations Stelios !

Last weekend a drunk European jumped into the pool of Ocean Beach Club, Kuta, Bali, and died.

I was actually waiting for the news coming out the last days but there wasn’t any. I cannot find anything about it in the web. I got the info from a reliable source who had been there when it happened. It is a bit strange that the public sometimes does not seem to get to know such accidents.