Here comes the buzzer beater. This video is a summary of the best scenes of the last trip. I doubt life can get any better than that from this level on. I have never seen any other video where I saw something that I liked more than what I am doing here. For me personally I am living my dream for this moment : it is my life, my money, my time. My values might change over time and then I simply do something else later on, but right now I am very happy that I can do just that…
“Take me to the chopper” : Aerial photography helicopter flight from Bangkok to Pattaya
This 15min video got shot during a 2 hours helicopter flight from Peninsula hotel Bangkok to Bangkok Pattaya hospital. I didn’t knew it before but according to Advance Aviation the Peninsula hotel is having the best helipad across whole South East Asia. So we were lucky. We started flying from sunrise which was a good idea because it gives the city a special appearance. Sights like Wat Arun are also most spectacular to visit at sunrise.
I won’t list now everything that you might notice in the video, mostly I don’t know it anyway. Just enjoy the eye candy :
This Big Mango in my eyes is the world’s best city. When I visited Bangkok for the first time in 2005, I already had the feeling that this would become a love-affair. It just felt right to be there and things didn’t change since that.
When we explored the city by helicopter I recognized how little I know of the city. I don’t think it is really important to know every angel there, but there is plenty I still want to learn and explore. The heart of Bangkok are its natural friendly, Buddhistic people who are strongly connected with the king. I don’t think it is correct/fair to say that everything went downhill and that it just became a touristic, idiot hub. It depends on the areas and tell me any other place that’s better taking it all together. Jakarta has more diverse characters, it feels more grown-up, but they don’t have that open, free feeling : too much is happening just inside buildings there.
One of the most frequented questions I get is how much money you need to enjoy it the way I present it in my videos. I thought a long time about it and experienced the very luxury but also the budget end. I didn’t start staying in Bangkok at the Jim Thompson suite. My first hotel was the President Solitaire. I payed for my first room and first stay THB 2200/day. Let me tell you what : I was so extremely happy with this room, I could not believe that I was now able to afford a room that has such a nice marble bathroom. I was blasted away from the Thai hospitality and got the chills when I entered my room. I think the first time Jim Thompson didn’t make me happier, although I still consider it to be the best room of a hotel in Bangkok and Bangkok is No.1 worldwide in my eyes.
The point is that at a certain level, the extra luxury doesn’t bring you proportional extra fun.
Interesting is that according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the normal, average tourist spends around THB 4000 per day, a little more than USD 100. And I believe that this for a tourist is just about right to do everything without real limitations if you are smart. Of course there always is no open end. But I would never go in below THB 4000 per day, it won’t be fun. As an expat or resident the budget could be decreased a lot. Beware that taken into assumption that your currency might inflate at a rate of 2.5%, your fixed money value will decrease by half after 2 decades.
Honestly speaking you can basically fuck all my guides if you search there for eventually having the ultimate day. They can help you for getting an impression, give you ideas and a better overview. Everyone has a different taste, I prefer to structure here everything as an authority because in first priority I am doing this site for myself, it is a collection database of my own travel memories.
Do you really need to pay THB 5000 for having the best massage experience of Thailand ? Hell no, you only pay that if you want to be secluded/safe from the real world, housing in pure luxury while getting the treatment. Some of my most memorable massages were THB 250, 90 min Thai massages in some dingy parlors, located in small Sois.
The picture is very similar for Thai food. My best Tom Yum Goong I also didn’t had a 5-star Thai restaurant. Does this now all mean that I reverse back and only stay at the budget places ? No, I will continue visiting the whole spectrum because I think I experience most that way. The point I want to explain is that even if you cannot afford the luxury places, just be happy with what you have and that you found Bangkok instead of dieing in ignorance without knowing heaven.
I want to thank a few people who helped and supported me on the last trip to make this video and following happening : Jakob, Thomas, Vann, Em, Twopee, Michael, Jah, Tar, Cherry, Fai, Nadia, Kat, Dream, Ann, Lookpad, Michaela, Patrick, Advance Aviation, Peninsula hotel Bangkok, Four Seasons hotel Bangkok, Dusit D2, BKcoolclub, The Pent, Funky Villa, Bangkok Pattaya hospital, Baccara, Rainbow 4. Many thanks for letting me keep the memories inside this video and I hope it enjoys/motivates/inspires other people as well :
Mandarin Oriental hotel, Chiang Mai : Lanna Renaissance
The Dhara Devi actually got built by Suchet Suwanmongkol with a budget of around USD 200 million. Rachen Intawong was the conceptual designer.
You could critize that everything there is not natural and got built by plan : Every fucking tree you see there got moved from somewhere else. But the whole complex : villas, rice terraces, garden, common facilities are absolutely amazing. You feel like a king inside a Lanna fortress for very few people.
It is more fun walking around the complex than at the Four Seasons, especially the common facilites are better. The pool that overlooks a rice paddy is simply incredible and became my favorite spot of the Dhara Devi. One day i was just lounging for about an hour at the right edge of the infinity pool looking at the windmill and farmers on the rice paddy. Damn fucking nice ! The pool is also a great networking place. The guests of the Dhara Devi are very friendly and mostly interested in chatting with other folks. People I spoke with had time and most were doing some sort of interesting stuff. In Bangkok such chats usually don’t happen in such a relaxed way. One middle-aged person from Brazil saw me running in the gym and lounged around there till I finished. Seemed like he just wanted to share some thoughts. Nice dude. This example simply shows you how much they score on the guest side. On the staff side they are good too, but the Four Seasons is better. The people from the Four Seasons simply appeared more natural friendly to me.
The villa you see is Nr. 21, grand deluxe villa with plunge pool, costs around THB 40k ++. I have a booking running for villa Nr.99 next time which costs about THB 60k++.
I am writing very positive in general. But the places also have to deal with criticism from me. The Four Seasons Bangkok and the Peninsula Bangkok were the only hotels that scored 100% without anything to complain about. The Philippines, damn, it is a different world, they play in a much lower league in terms of hospitality, I will have plenty of updates in the hotel section soon.
Things didn’t start fully smooth with my arrival at the Dhara Devi. The keys of the villa got placed in the upper area, when the baggage came, the person closed the doors which locked me out because I was still downstairs. The complex is big, so I walked to the main reception, explained the situation, waited to get new keys and went back. 1 hour loss on a 2 days stay can be annoying. More annoying was that the staff person who gave me the new keys reminded me that I shall not lose them instead of apologizing. What the fuck ? More of such staff behavior later. It is just a general problem of the Mandarin Oriental staff across South East Asia. I saw it in Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta before : the staff there likes to hide behind their prestigious name and glitzy rooms. They pretty much focus on show and big spenders who are often (the majority of inherited ones) not the smartest. I have a really ridiculous video of the Mandarin Oriental in Manila…
We go on : Most annoying was what happened at the spa which is truely overrated. They wanted to sell a 90 minutes massage for a 60 minute one because it fitted better into their therapist schedule. When I asked them about why it is only 60 minutes, while I read in the menu it was 90 minutes, she replied that I am wrong and this massage type is a 60 minutes one at the waiting area of the spa. I said that I probably also only pay for 60 minutes and not for 90. She jumped from one lie to the next, telling me that this price doesn’t include tax and service fee. Well even with this fee, the pricing would also not have been correct, so I asked the lady to show me the treatment menu, the one I also read in my villa beforehand. She went into the spa reception area, came out again after a few seconds and apologized that I am correct and I can have 90 minutes if I would like to. My mood for getting a massage was close to 0 at that point. The only right decision would have been to cancel the massage but I didn’t. What followed was one of the worst massages I ever got in Thailand. A THB 250, 90min Thai massage on Sukhumvit would have been way better….They have all the utilities in the spa, employ almost 20 therapists there, but still they fucked it up. I won’t visit the spa again. The complete opposite experience I had at the Four Seasons but the Four Seasons didn’t deliver in terms of food.
Another big negative factor is water pressure and temperature inside the villas. They need to fix this, it cannot remain like that.
Speaking so negative now at the end, there are still many positive aspects about the place. For me I see it as a great place to re-energize in the middle of a stressful trip. It is peaceful, the views are great, I love the garden, trees and especially the pool. I mean, I don’t use all the things that could cause problems anyway. I just need the cool villa, the pool, gym – that’s all. For that I cannot go wrong with the Dhara Devi : to indulge for a few days in Lanna heaven.
I will rank the Dhara Devi slightly above the Four Seasons in Chiang Mai, mainly because of the closer city location, just 5km outside the city, and because of an overall better structured resort.
Those 3 about 35min total videos give you a pretty good insight how you have to imagine a stay at Bumrungrad hospital, the largest private hospital in South East Asia. This hospital impresses me in many ways : you have around 20% of the costs of what you would pay in the USA, they have a very pleasent environment with friendly people, they use advanced technological systems and have almost no waiting lists. Even when you come up with plenty of cash to the USA or Germany, it is mostly almost impossible to get an appointment within 2-4 weeks. At Bumrungrad it is possible ! Most of the doctors are Thai but they have international training experience and I have the feeling that the standard already is very good. I would rather stay at Bumrungrad than at Raffles hospital in Singapore I honestly have to say. If you exclude the diagnosis and therapy, Bumrungrad should be ranked #1 hospital in the entire world : no other place will make you feel better…
Part 1 :
Part 2 :
Part 3 :
The battery was empty at the plastic surgery center in part 3, so I wasn’t able to pay my respect and say a final thank you word inside the video to the friendly Bumrungrad representative who guided me around. Because of her, we now got the most useful Bumrungrad video out there in the internet. I am happy to support a little such a great facility which won the award “Thailand’s most innovative company” in 2009 from Chulalongkorn university by the way.
Global Nanpa Pool Party @ Dusit D2 Pattaya : Friday, February 4th – 12 to 6pm
Global Nanpa and the Dusit D2 Baraquda Pattaya invite you to join a sexy pool party with cool music. Entrance is free and drink prices are as usual ! Enjoy an uncommon, rare event at Pattaya’s most stylish pool area. Check it out if you are in the area that time…
I have to say that I became really happy with my life in Berlin, Germany. I just work all the time anyway here and I don’t want it to be different. It’s a pleasent feeling to work hard on something and seeing the reward in return – entrepreneurship forever… We have a cool team now and everyone benefits. I am the first one who comes to work and the last one who leaves, waking up at 5:30 am, being back home at 8 pm and going to bed at midnight – every day except Sundays when I work on videos for Global Nanpa or do some research. From 8 pm to 9 pm I go 10km (in 45-50 min) jogging, then I eat and do Email-routines another hour, then showering and body care which leaves me 1 hour per day for myself, reflecting the day and checking to be on track.
I just moved into my new, owned apartment. Location is optimal in Mitte, next to the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) and the new BND (the “German CIA”) which has construction costs of around EUR 2 billion and shall be finished by end of 2013. The area can be considered to be one of the safest and greenest inner city places of whole Germany. The apartment is on the top flor and has a balcony. It is not huge but it is just me. The apartment is modern equipped, for the full interior I need a few more months – I just never have time…I just checked the new apartment of my younger brother, 27, which is simply fantastic and double my size. It is directly opposite to Charlottenburg Palace, on the top flor, about 6 meter high ceilings in the living room with a breathtaking view, equipped with a EUR 80k Bulthaup kitchen and with an own EUR 150k private elevator. My own apartment is a joke compared with that. In late August I shoot a video of both apartments, damn it…
I am leaving for a longer time again to South East Asia keeping the blog inactive for an unusual long time. I won’t be able to release most videos this time before the next one already starts. I am happy that I am doing this as a hobby, not being forced to feel any pressure from it.
Above you see Golden Bar which is just opposite to the Nana Plaza entrance. Golden Bar is one of the most frequented public beer bars of entire Bangkok. The attraction is clearly watching the people going in and out.
A sexy bargirl on the first flor of NEP.
Above is Cherry with a sweet bargirl from Baccara. And below you see Patrick and me. The “rat race” video starts with scenes from the lower Sukhumvit, Soi 7+Soi5, the beergarden and “Tunnel” area :
It’s finally time again to dive into the bargirl world, Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza. The picture above got taken with permission inside of Tilac bar, the largest bar of Soi Cowboy.
Above you see Cherry from Baccara on the right. I really like her and we always have a good time chatting.
This girl is waiting in a short-time room building. Too many people were “checking in” at that moment.
Here are two friendly employees from the Rainbow bars.
In no other country in Asia, more tattoos can be seen than in Thailand. Sometimes I like them, often I don’t. But I do like a few Thai-style tattoos. I don’t understand why, especially in Pattaya, the girls get attracted from typical California or Australian-style tattoos; probably they are too heavy influenced from overpowering western stimulation. They should be more self-confident and proud of their own culture.
Thai ladyboy/katoey interview, Nana Plaza, Bangkok Sept. 2010 and Thailand’s >USD 6 billion medical tourism market
So here is a new ladyboy/katoey interview. I very much like the picture above, being taken at maybe the “world’s coolest short-time room”: a room with balcony overlooking the Nana Entertainment Plaza entrance, the Nana car park / Nana hotel and the Nana skytrain station.
I ask the ladyboys my usual questions. Both are from Bangkok, the smaller one is 22, the other one Thainee, 24. Main motivation for most men in Thailand to become ladyboys, next to “feeling like a woman inside”, is money and a more exciting job. It is not so difficult to understand why the younger one of them wanted to become a ladyboy when considering that she had a low salary + boring supermarket job before and now she really seems to enjoy her life. Thainee is very communicative and perfect for an entertainment or communicative function. She even went to university but chose to work in ladyboy bar when she got introduced to it by a friend.
We change topics in the end to sex reassignment surgery and the financial expenses of their transformation. Both of them paid THB 50.000 for their breast operation which I consider to be a general price for a fair hospital/doctor. Only the younger one had a sex reassignment operation for which she paid only THB 80.000. In general I hear more often that THB 100k is usual for the hospitals with a certain reputation.It is very important to inform yourself well about the physician and clinic in general. The risk is not that high but nobody wants to be the one where the operation doesn’t achieve its goal or even worse.
We play a litte around with numbers now : In the video we come to the conclusion that maybe 0.5% of the Thai male population turn into ladyboys and maybe 1% in Bangkok which already is a strong/high assumption. Thailand has a population of approximately 60 million and Bangkok of about 9 million. We drop out people below 18-years-old and over 60-years-old. This means we have for Thailand a population of around 45 million and for Bangkok 6.5 million in the target age range. In whole Thailand we would then have potentially 225.000 ladyboys and in Bangkok 65.000 ladyboys. Those numbers look about right from my experience and feeling. About 50.000 ladyboys in Bangkok could be really true.
Let’s assume of the about 50.000 Bangkok ladyboys that 10% get a sex reassignment surgery for THB 100k and maybe 20% take hormones and get a breast operation for maybe THB 50K. That would be THB 500 million revenues coming from sex change and THB 500 million coming from breast operation = THB 1 billion = about USD 33.3 million. That doesn’t include costs for maybe permanent hair removal, hormones and other additional cosmetic treatments. With my estimation I would get to a domestic beauty enhancement market caused by Thai ladyboys of approximately USD 50 million. I heard from people in the medical industry in Thailand that the number shall be around USD 100 million. Maybe that was exaggerated, who knows.
Thailand is Asia’s most popular medical hub. Believe it, it is true ! The market is growing 14% annually there, having a size of more than USD 6 billion (!), according to Research and Markets. In India the treatments might be cheaper but nobody can beat Thailand with the all-around package. Thailand is long accustomed of receiving foreign travellers, English is understood well and it is just a perfect tourist spot where a medical stay will feel like vacation when your time inside the hospital feels more like being in a hotel, getting treated by the most gentle people and being offered good meals too ! I had stayed 2 days at Bumrungrad myself in 2008 and was very impressed.
In 2009, 2 million tourists came to Thailand to take advantage of the healthcare services. Healthcare costs in Thailand are about 20% of what you would pay in the United States. People are often coming for general check-ups, dental and cosmetic surgery services.
Bumrungrad served about 400.000 international patients and Bangkok hospital about 200.000 international patients from what I heard. Bumrungrad generates a little more (55%) than half of their revenues with international patients, most of them coming from the United Arab Emirates and the Unites States. An international patient spends in average about USD 300 per visit. This explains how lucrative the field is : an average tourist in Thailand spends a little more than USD 100 per day during his vacation (non-medical). Bumrungrad is the leader of Thailand’s medical tourism with a market share of about 2.5% (USD 160 million coming from international tourists).
A great resource for Thailand’s medical tourism is provided from the Tourism Authority of Thailand :
