45. Being a Digital Nomad In Thailand, Is It Good or BS?

One of the things that elite athletes do, marathon runners, they go to Kenya and they go on these running camps where you're around other elite running people and you go for runs early in the morning. You're all together and you have that group mentality. You're all working together and you're inspired and motivated by each other and that's how you push yourself to get better. I'm not saying this is like, you know, marathon runners or elite Olympians here, but this is like working with other remote workers that have to earn a wage to keep their spot to, to be able to live remotely. Everyone's working. The co working space downstairs is packed from 7am to midnight every day. Everyone's hustling. Welcome back to Ben and Bergs where your favorite NBA and high school dropout speaking everything business, personal growth and crypto coming to you today from. I'm from Phuket Burgs in Perth as per usual. Bergs, how are you mate?

I'm feeling so good. Is recording, recording on a Saturday morning. It's amazing. I've enjoyed all of your stories for time. It's been wild. You've only been there what, like a week?

Yeah, dude, that's been a bit over a week now in Phuket. So today's episode is going to be working remote in Phuket. What it's like as a remote worker over here, some culture shock stuff. Some like I've never been here. There's been some pretty wild shit happen. Just some the pros and cons of working remote, traveling and if you want to or thinking about coming over to Thailand to maybe work remote, get some time off work. Gonna give you my, my thoughts after my first week in Phuket, man. And first of all must say dude, it was a wild start to the trip.

Okay, Ben was there for about 15 seconds and tell us what happened as soon as you landed, mate.

As soon as I landed. We're on the, on the old poo star. So on Jetstar Asia from Singapore we land and you know when you cop the cheap flights you don't get treated, you know, you don't get treated like a, you know, vip. So you know Jetstar don't have a terminal or gates where they can park in. That's actually anywhere near the terminal. They park over the other side of the airport basically in the car park where there's no one. So we went over there. We sort of had to wait like half an hour for like them to wheel this, you know, manual stairs over like from the from the airport to the car park to get us off the plane, get on a bus, go over the terminal. Anyway, get to immigration and it is packed, mate. Packed. And there is a shitload of international people there, especially Russian and Ukrainian people, obviously fleeing, you know, fleeing the war and fleeing everything that's going on there, you know. Must be awful for them. I actually didn't expect Phuket to be, you know, a choice of them because it's ages away from. From there. But honestly, like, it's. It's cheap, it's easy. Anyway, so there was a whole, like, immigration section just for Russian people. Like, it was heaps. This is like 9pm at night. Go in and it is chaos, mate. There's people flying around everywhere. There's people, like, there's bags, like 10 o' clock at night. There's basically barely any lanes. Like, no one speaks English. Finally gets through. I'm cooked. Haven't really slept. Get through immigration, get through, like, fuck, I've got no money. Like, I've only got Australian dollars. Didn't think of that. Don't have a phone. Like, I need a SIM card, Go to the atm, put in my card. Right, cool. Get out some. Get out some, you know, titles, right? Awesome. Get the titles out, Go downstairs, get a. Get my SIM card, get to go to. Get my card out. The ATM didn't give me card back. Where's my car? But lost. I've been here for 10 minutes, I've lost my card. Already's got me phone, trying to do a new SIM card. He's like, pay up, man. I'm like, oh, I got no money, mate. Like.

Take my phone, run back upstairs, where's my car? Look at the atm, there's nothing in there. People are using the atm, like, oh, someone sold my card. Oh, my God, Dave, our finance man's gonna kill me. I've been here for 10 minutes, lost my card. Already asked the lady, I said, like, did have you seen anyone, like, take my card? Or, like, is it. Swallowed it? Like, what's to go? Then she's like, making me fill out this form, like, the lost card form. Like, oh, like, I'm done, man. Like, this is not coming back. It's all over. She's like, wait there. But in, like, Thai, she's like, you know, gave me. She couldn't speak English. I was like, right, I'll just stand here.

Hope for the best. She starts going back to work. I'm just standing like an absolute idiot, like, looking around, like, is anything happening or am I Just standing here like, I filled out this form, don't have a phone number. Anyway, 15 minutes later, manager rolls up, he's like, gets his keys out. He's like, you know, what's your car look like? It's like, it's a blue. Wise man undoes the atm. He's like looking, yeah, he's like, got a wire looking in there, like taking it apart. Puts like, sticks his hand right through this like atm, like, pulls this thing out. He's like, is this it?

Legend.

Legend. Finally get out of there. Get my, I get my, get my, get my phone. And then old mate's been waiting there because I'm staying at like a hotel resort thing for the first few days. I might spend there for like an hour and a half waiting for me like, of like, sorry, dude, poor guy, poor guy. Get out front of the terminal, mate. And it is just chaos. There's no road rules, there's no lanes, cars going everywhere. Old mates in this like Toyota Camry. He's parked in the middle of this four lane, like busy ass intersection of like where he's not in there. He's got his boot open and he just walks off. So everyone's just on the horns.

In the middle of the road with the boot open and no one in it, and no one can move because his camera's there and he just sits there. So good, so good.

Oh, man. Anyway, I finally got to the hotel, passed out, man. And that was, that was my first sort of 15 minutes.

Amazing, mate. Even before you got to Phuket, you were saying when you went to Singapore, you got to the airport, had a few hours there, you got lost. You asked him, you're like, is that a desk? Can I work there? You're like, sweet.

Singapore Airport, man. He's so wild. I was like, you know, different gates, different terminals, letters, numbers. I'm like, man, this is. I just saw like this, yeah, this desk, like, right, I'm going in there, mate.

You've been there just over a week.

Been there for over a week. Was at a hotel for the first few days. Was awesome. Stayed at a resort, at Amatar Resort. Super nice. It was like south, the island. Very.

Secluded, not very busy, just a wicked place up by the pool, Red. Read a whole book, dude. In three days, I've never read a whole book in my life. And I'd smash it in three days. Cracking book, by the way.

You're sending me all these photos, mate. Where you're watching sun, you have sunset at the beach, you got your meal you got your laptop, you're having this giant beer. It just looks incredible.

It was the happiest I've ever. Here we go again. Me being exaggerated, just context everyone Bergs has called me out on me being the bet like exaggerating everything. So I'm just like pulling it back a touch. I realize I do tend out a bit of mail in it sometimes.

Bit of sauce. Possibly some of the most happiest like days I've had. Just like on my own, got out of Australia, could just do my own thing, relaxing by the pool. Read my book. Like it was just a stress free few days. It was absolutely epic. And I read this book called the Happiest man on Earth by Eddie Jacu was about a survivor of the Holocaust. A Jew that lost all of his family and survived six years of torture in the concentration camps and he then escaped to Australia. He's now 100 years old and tells his story. Unbelievable man. I had to put the book down a few times because it was. I was getting teary man. It is wild this guy's story.

It sounds hectic but. Oh, and when you called me up and because you came to Perth before that you had a couple of days here, did a lot of work, like an incredible amount.

And then you got on the plane and went to Thailand and you've been going hard, you've been doing a lot, you're quite stressed and to get that, I think it was a voice message or something from you just saying how happy and relaxed you were was just so awesome. Like getting out of an environment that you knew and routines and going somewhere new and all that falls away and it's just you focusing on this new area, new experiences, new sights, new sounds, new food and how that just changed your mental state. I was just so happy to receive that message from you, man.

Yeah, I appreciate it man. It was, it was, it's been the best change I've made to come over here. Like it's something about being new environment, traveling, freedom is a big value of mine. Like just being able to go and do what I want on my own time. It's really been a game changer for now. Getting back in work as well and even like getting on a scooter, man, you know, driving around did it. Got it.

You sent me that. So Ben's been in Thailand for 15 minutes and he drops a video in the chat and it's him on a scooter. He's like. And he like flips a camera around and there's just like scooters everywhere. The busiest intersection you've ever seen. I'm like, he gonna die.

Tell it.

Tell him. Tell him about your scooter lesson, mate.

So, yeah, when did you get a scooter? 10 bucks a day to drive a scooter. I've never driven a scooter before, let alone the middle of, you know, Phuket, where it's just complete chaos. He gives me a driving lesson, though, so it's all good. He sits on the scooter, he said, this is go. This is break. Off you go.

Smacks you on the bum. There you go, see you later.

Start taking off. Literally nearly come off at the first, like. I absolutely read the. Out of it accidentally, like, just did the old wobbles, like, across the road. I was like, right, take it easy, man. Didn't know where the indicators were. I had to just figure it out and then just go. Went straight in the heart of the Phuket town and just got involved.

Mate, mate, that. That actually frightened me. My heart went, oh, that, like when you were on that. Because first of all, I've been in the car with you while you're driving. Ben's driving. Not the best, mate. Not the best at all. Gets very distracted, gets into a chat, stares at you for a bit too long, runs over a few pedestrians, honestly. And now he's on a scooter. I'm like, oh, Lord. Like, how's that keyman insurance? I hope we up that a bit.

Well, I've got a pook at you about the keyman insurance, but honestly, like, I think, like, my. I'm not sure at what scale I've got adhd, but this is, like, really, really awesome for it because I'm like, I'm. So you mentioned, I'm so stimulated. There's so much going on and, like, I'm just wired in. But honestly, man, driving on a scooter here in Phuket, like, you have to be tapped in, man. You just gotta go, like, no one's gonna wait for you, but they will swerve around you. You just got to drive with confidence and just get after it. If you. If you drive, like, you know, a bit of a weak mind, you know, like, sort of scared you're gonna die. You need. Let's get after it.

It's all about confidence, right?

Yeah.

Like, it's. It's about signaling to other people. I'm going here. And then if you make that decision and you commit, then great. They'll. They'll go, they'll see that. And then they'll make their decision the moment you flound. It's like that thing where you two people walking and you meet and you do that weird little dance. Yeah, it's like, no, I'm just going this way. If you crash into me, so be it, I'm gone.

Yeah. So anyway, so did that for the weekend and then I've been working, man. So I'm staying at a place in old Phuket town where it's a co working, co living, co living space with a bunch of other remote workers, solo entrepreneurs, hustlers. And honestly, dude, it is game changer. You know, one of the things that elite athletes do, marathon runners, they go to Kenya and they go on these running camps where you're around other elite running people and you go for runs early in the morning, you're all together and you have that group mentality. You're all working together and you're inspired and motivated by each other and that's how you push yourself to get better. I'm not saying this is like, you know, marathon runners or elite Olympians here, but this is like working with other remote workers that have to earn a wage to keep their spot to be able to live remotely. Everyone's working. The co working space downstairs is packed from 7am to midnight every day. Everyone's hustling. I get in there at like 7:38 after gym meditation in there to like 8, 8:30. And that place is moving like it is just. Everyone's just hustling. Like there's developers, there's designers, there's business owners, there's, there's copywriters, there's mobile app designers and everyone's just going at it, mate. And you're like, you're looking to your right, looking your left and you're like, it's like 8:30, haven't eaten. You're like, you're like, we're wide. Like, I can't leave. Everyone else is smashing. So you just stay like another hour to smash out more work, man.

How good is it like when you surround yourself with people like that? They even speaking of camps, like when I used to train in Krav Maga, tactical self defense guys used to go to Israel for a week or two, go and train over there in those camps and they come back different humans, like they will just level up so much. Like being around those people, eating, sleeping and then doing the things that they do and pushing yourself so hard to their level, man, you just escalate.

You do. I found that being surrounded by other people that are actually just, you know, because there's a difference between working at home on your own. You've got to, you've got to self motivate yourself, right? You've got to be pushing to the level that you want to that. But you can finish any time. You can go for a war. You do whatever here, man. You're looking like. And I'm competitive. I'm like, I can fucking leave this guy. He's been here longer than me. Look at these fucking code. Like, fuck, what's the next thing I do? And just crushing like email sequences. You know, marketing strategy, strategy calls like website design, product development, you know, getting the analytics. You know, I'm just like, I would just keep doing my to do list and honestly really have been so productive and efficient and smashing through so much work because I'm working longer hours, but also being more productive because I'm being competitive. This, the guy to my right is Rush. He doesn't even speak English. I'm like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna beat this guy. I've got to work hard at this guy.

Yeah.

So good.

Can't understand you, but I'm gonna beat.

You and I'm gonna win in a competition that you're not involved in and don't know about.

Do you think it's. It's also that you don't have all the distractions you would have, let's say, in Tassie or Melbourne or somewhere. You got your family, you got your friends, you got commitments and other stuff. It's like literally I can just work, focus on me. And when I've had enough, I can go outside, five steps, I'm by the beach, I can have a beer, I can relax and I, I can come back, dude, 100%.

This is a, this is a business boot camp. But without like people telling you what to do. I get up at 5:30, 6:00am, I meditate, journal. I go to the gym for an hour. By 7:30, I get a quick breakfast upstairs, eggs, coffee, nine bucks. Bang, done. Go downstairs, co working space, work from like 8, 8:30, go for. I usually go for a drive or just get out. Go for a walk at lunchtime, right through to like 8, 8:30. Or when I'm literally so tired or I start to be. I'm unproductive. 8:30, get dinner, go upstairs, come down, watch an episode of Netflix. Man, I'm crashed out. By 9:30 I'm so cooked, like I can't even open my eyes on 30, sleep for eight hours, get up, do the same thing again. No distractions, nothing else, no bullshit grinding day after day after. That's what this last week's been.

That's amazing, man. And how much does this place cost you? So you live upstairs, there's a bunch of people that are there. And downstairs you've got your co working space and it sounds like there's like a rooftop kind of thing going on as well. How much does it cost you per month? Mate?

This Setup is unbelievable. 900 Australian dollars a month for a, for a one bedroom apartment that has a lounge room, kitchen, bathroom, apartment.

Wow.

It's like I would call this apartment, like it's not a hotel room. You know, it's, it's decent. You know, it's got a lounge room, 900 bucks a month, includes everything. Got a rooftop restaurant, rooftop pool, gym, co working space, and a mobile app that you can call in. It's like a hotel you can call in to, to, you know, clean the room for like 10, 15 bucks. Room service if you want it.

It's like they've, they've literally honed down to we're targeting in the world. We're targeting Ben's. This is what Ben's want. We will attract them. It's literally you can outsource everything in your life and just focus on your business and work. You want foods there, great gyms there, pools there. You got your tv, you got your own little space and you got a co working space.

Everything you need. And then you got a scooter. You can go for a drive. It's like eight minutes to the heart of old Phuket town where they've got a bunch of awesome restaurants. I've eaten some amazing food. It's so cheap, you know, like you can go to a pub, like whatever you want. It's, it's really good. I'm trying to think of the cons, the downside. What are the downsides? I mean even Wi Fi is good. There's not that many downsides. The chicken burgers aren't great. That's a downside.

The Thai food's amazing. Like I'm trying, I'm trying to avoid the, you know, Westerners food because it's like, you know, you don't come to Phuket Western food like you come to, you know, Phuket Thailand food.

Hey, you got attacked by chili yet? Mate, has you asked for something?

You're like, mate, had. I had a. What I have, I had noodles the other day.

With some, with some prawns and they had like this chili on the side made just sort of chili powder. I was like, yeah, I'm not gonna have that. Had a mouthful like third or fourth mouthful in and they must have like, like just dropped a bit.

Took a mouthful of this noodles, man. Absolutely like hit me physiques. My eyes were like watering. I was like, I daughter another like iced coffee. I was like, smack. Get some more milk in me. Like this thing was, it was hot.

Yeah, they don't muck around, mate.

They do not muck around. But anyway, so that's the working side. And then you know, in terms of being on your own for all those single, you know, listens out there that maybe want to just get after it and go traveling, like the alone time, you get to have your own thoughts and just do your own stuff. Like I, I'm not in. That's the heart of Thailand. How to Phuket is Patong. I went to Patong the other weekend. That place is crazy. Like it is wild. A lot more Aussies over there. I haven't met a lot of Aussies here, honestly. But like I went to a sports bar the other day. I was just sitting on the remote on my own having a beer and there's this, this old, a British guy next to me. He was there on his own and I was like, mate, you want to play eight ball? He's like, yeah, let's play eight ball. And then we played eight ball. We played like, his name's Kevin. He's like a 60 year old guy that moved here 16 years ago. And dude, this guy has a wilder story. So 16 years ago he moved from London. Sorry, 16 years ago he was living in London with 10 of his mates. Seven of them were married, right? They come over to Phuket on a golf trip. All the lads, they've never been to Phuket before, you know, 40, 45 years old. Ten of them come over to Phuket, stay in Patong, have the wildest week. He said, he said, shit, you wouldn't even like, you wouldn't even want to know, mate. Went on playing golf, beers, baton. You could just imagine, right? They had such a good time that they all went back to London. Seven of them got rid of their wives, divorced their wives.

And they all moved to Patongs. They went home, said, we're done, we're having a life here. This weather, you wife, we're not having fun here. This is miserable. I'm going to Patong, I'm going to Phuket. They all moved over here and they all still live Here to this day. He's been here for 16 years, married a new wife, lives in a condo that he paid £16,000 for that he owns and lives by the beach in Phuket. Man, what a story.

What an absolute bunch of loose units, mate. That is like, it's like, it's like you. It's like a version of the hangover or something where they just go back and change their lives, but they all stuck to it. That's exactly incredible.

And dude, this guy's like, you know, and that's, that's like. That's just what I love about traveling, man. And guess what? I'll probably never see Kevin again, who's a headset, you know, had a couple of beers with him, played three games of eight ball, shared some stories. See you later, mate. Have a good life. Like that's the best thing about it, man.

I'm so, man, traveling so good.

So, yeah, I think that's basically like the big stuff around.

Hang on, hang on. You got, you got one thing on the list I want to ask you about. What's. What's massage chair. Tell us about that.

Oh, doing the massage chair. So this was in the, this is in the taxi or the car that picked me up from the airport to the hotel. Staying up first at the first few days. This thing was like a minibus with four seats in there that were like recliner. Like the. You'd have in your lounge room. Recliner chairs. Yeah. Drinks in there waiting for me that had a. That massage. You in the car, man, in the, to the, to the. To the hotel.

Unbelievable.

Like I reclined all the way back and just had the massage on for like an hour. Dude, this is the best like taxi ride ever. That's incredible.

What a transfer. Amazing.

So if you're, if you're keen to, you know, come over to Phuket, I definitely recommend Old Phuket Town. If you're wanting to stay where I'm staying. This place is called Homer. H o m a 900 bucks a month. An awesome place to remote work. You got the co working space. I will admit there's not a lot of co working spaces here in Phuket. There might be more over Patong. It's more down. Bangkok, I think is where you get better co working spaces. But this one seems, you know, pretty good so far. It's super cheap and it's just good to get away. And the weather right now is, you know, super nice. Mid 30s. Every day it's hot. I'm going to play golf this afternoon Bergs I'll let you know. Yeah, super keen. So cracking place. Having so much fun. Get over Phuket if you want to get away and work remote mate.

That's amazing. I'm so glad you did that and you're there for another three or so weeks we'll have to definitely have some more stories and I'm just glad that you're happy mate. Sounds like a really good move.

Yeah dude, super cracking. Right. Oh you got a update mate on your dunking. So yeah man. For new listeners on our personal. So we do three episodes a week. On our personal growth episode this is where you get a bit of an insight on what we're up to, what we're doing week to week. You know I have a story, Bergs have a story and we also give you some updates on our. We're trying to you know improve ourselves. So Bergs is working on trying to dunk a basketball and I'm working on getting my mobile phone sort of usage down whilst also boosting my social media content. So Bergs dunking.

So I can actually now touch the ring consistently like all the time.

Right.

So I'm very happy with that and my training's going really well. Still lifting, doing plyo. I actually had dinner with a buddy of mine and he's a physio and he's like great, these are the things you need to do. So he's like obviously drop some weight. So I've been riding but he's like nah, you need to go a bit harder and you need to ride twice the amount that you're doing and also do some sprints and he's like you need to get a jump coach. And then so I'm going to get a jump coach. This is happening right?

Absolutely getting one and I think like you know this is definitely gonna happen. I'm gonna just keep going until I get there. I'm gonna train like a mad dog and look I'm sore quite a lot of the time from training and I'm tired a lot but man my body just feels so well put together and there were two examples of this. One was when last Friday like I've been sitting down a lot during the week. We had a lot of work on and I'm like oh look f this grab the family. I'm like we're going to the beach. It was like 4:30 on a Friday. Went out to Fremantle, you know, had some food, had some ice cream. Then we go across the park for a place a little one can play and in Fremantle, next to the Ferris wheel, they've got like this 6 meter, 5, 6 meter tall structure and it's just all these interconnected ropes and it's like really deep at the bottom and then it goes up to the top and there's a slide. And I remember like maybe six months ago like trying to climb, climb on this thing and I was so unsteady and unsure and everything hurt. And this now it's like literally it starts at waist high. I just lift my leg up, it just goes on and I'm like, that's weird. Just pull myself up and I just feel like I can feel every muscle just in my body, right. And everything is just so well put together. I'm standing there without even holding on, just like, like a monkey to the top and I'm like, holy. This is like a completely different experience. Like all the training that I've been doing just consistently just adding and adding and adding and now I just feel like my body isn't broken or sore. It's just so well put together. And that was so eye opening for me. Marissa looked at me and she was like, holy. Like that is, that's unbelievable. She's like taking photos of us. Like it was just incredible.

That's awesome.

And the other moment was when you and I went out with a couple of, a couple of the lads and we played some golf while we were in Perth. And I've played golf a total of two times in my life. Last time was probably 10 years ago and just from you know, lifting, doing plyo and getting on the bike, like I actually hit some pretty decent shots.

Yeah man, you did some good shots. Like you, you were, we would do the opposite. I was sort of good at the start and turned to. And you were sort of bit scratchy at the start and then turned real good by the end.

I remember we had one of the lads with us and I hit this shot and he just turns around, goes, what the. Oh. Like he just looked at me like what mate? It was incredible. I expected to have like one good shot the whole time and I had quite a few and that was just like a really eye opening moment. And so not only I do have this goal of dunking. Like my, my goals are like to just to sleep better, feel put together, not be sore and not have back pain is essentially I've achieved all of those. But I want to wrap it up into like, you know, that big hairy, audacious goal into dunking. So yep, gonna up the training and get it done.

Coach Mate, nice work, dude. I'm really happy for you. And yeah, I'm very keen to see when you get done.

I just want that video, mate. Could you imagine a video of me? This like, fat bastard just gets up and dunks a basketball. You'd be like, what? That doesn't make sense. Yeah. Oh, it's gonna be incredible. I can't wait.

So my accountability updates. I've been working on reducing my phone time. So for. I think everyone can relate to this in some way shape before, you know, using phone time, you just get stuck into it. And I was, you know, just, just hooked too much. So I downloaded this app called Opal, which is helping me reduce my phone time and bergs from this time last month, I was averaging seven hours a day on my phone. I am now averaging two hours and 50 minutes.

Seven hours is close to 50% of your waking hours.

I've saved four hours and six minutes per day off my phone and in more productive things. So I'm super tough with that. I'm over the moon. I'm feeling really efficient. I'm feeling so productive. I really feel as though like I'm doing deep work. I'm not just doing shallow work. Like I'm crunching out proper strategy, like deep product stuff, deep, you know, thinking items that I, you know, and consistently that I haven't been able to do in the past. So, yeah, I'm over the moon, man. I feel as I'm really like getting some momentum.

That's incredible. Well done, mate. Like, that's a hard thing to do. And especially while you're doing all your social media stuff and you're even telling me like that app tells you how many years you save off your life. And it was like 10 years you've saved that would have been staring at your phone. You've now got that back to spend living your life.

Yeah, dude, that's wild. Super wild. And social media is going good. The only thing I've lacked the last week is we've started doing these free crypto strategy calls. So, you know, there's been a lot of those is I sort of dropped the ball a little bit on Twitter. LinkedIn's been going good. Still been posting five times a week on there, but Twitter, I've dropped the ball. I've been doing threads, you know, these like 10 to 15 tweet threads. I did three last week, but I want to get those to five a week plus tweets on top. So after the pod today, I'm going to be crushing those out for the next week.

That's awesome. I liked your shiny object one, mate. That was really good. Yeah, that was cracking awesome.

Right, meal the week.

All right, let's kick this off.

So this is my meal of the week, mate. This was absolutely incredible. So just while it loads here, this was when we went out to Fremantle on the Friday and this was a pizza and it was just insane. So it's a mushroom pizza, wood fired pizza, Beautiful thick crust, nice and burnt and you've got all different types of mushrooms, like you know, enoki, button, those little whatever. The oyster mushrooms, got some nice fresh chives over the top, got mozzarella and then they coated it with truffle oil. Mate, this was just the most decadent thing Friday night pizza and a beer. Absolutely incredible, man. Like I. This is a 10 out of 10. This was a Little Creatures. I could not wish for more in this pizza. And even though there's so much cheese and mushroom and truffle oil, didn't feel sick afterwards, didn't feel too greasy. It was just perfection. Mate, I, I want to spend every Friday like that, going to Little Creatures, having a beer and having a pizza. That'll be the perfect life for me.

Dude, that looks epic now, mate. Cracking spot, right? I've got two things because I couldn't choose. This was a traditional, I'm not sure actually. I don't have a Thai hot pot basically. So barbecue meat. I'm driving around on my scooter around Phuket, don't know where I am and like I went down this back street just like checking things out and I'm driving past and there's this like little, little restaurant on the corner of this like back road and it's packed with a heap of locals and I'm like, ah, I found it. This is a place to go to. Pulling. Don't even know what they do.

Walked in. I'm just seeing all this place just.

Roll up, place, roll up. Seeing everyone like cook their meats on this like this hot stove. They come out to your table like, oh mate, this is epic. Roll up, see the menu. Get this, just the biggest meat package you could get. You got like your wagyu beef, got bacon, pork, chicken, prawns, vegetables, but, and they, and they bring out with a bit of butter, a hot stove, a hot barbecue. Cook this thing up, man. It was so good. And for a drink I wanted a Coke and they either had a small or a large Coke and I was thinking like, it's like a can or you know like one of the, you know, 500 mil bottles, or it's a glass and all that. I'm like, yeah, I want a large Coke, so. You sure we want a large? Yeah, I'll grab a large, dude. He brings out a 1.25 liter Coke bottle.

So good.

Puts it on my table. He's like, you go, mate. I was like, oh, yep, that's what you mean by large. No worries. Anyway, this is like. This is. This is 10 out of 10, man. Cracking.

Cooking it in butter. Amazing.

Oh, man, that was so nice. And last but not least, I've never had one of these burgers. This was a. So steamed fish. Now, I'm not entirely sure what sort of fish it was. I just ordered it, like, this looked wicked. Never had a full fish before. Literally. Full banger, mate. Proper fish head still on it, tail on it, bang. Bring it out with a nice bit of rice. And this thing just, like, melts off the bone, mate. You put your fork in this and the fit and the sort of fish flesh is just, like, just oozes off, mate. Oh, in the mouth. Bit of lemon juice on top. So fresh. Cracking, mate. Like, no, straight fish rice. Bang. 10 out of 10 as well.

Man, that looks incredible, man. You could just tell, like, when you. When you flake it off and it's just steamed and it's just cooked enough in the middle and just.

Oh, incredible.

I'm. I'm very envious. You sent me a lot of photos of your food and, mate, it just looks incredible over there. I just. I'm flying out, mate. I'm flying out tomorrow.

Me. The way. Sorry. Meme of the week.

Meme of the week, mate. All right.

So did you hear about this balloon that they shot down, mate? So this is the photo. This is a picture of Tom Cruise, right? Original Top Gun. And he's like, yeah, when he gets out of his plane, everyone's cheering. And the caption is, when you shoot down a $12 balloon with a $400,000 missile.

America. So good. So good. And then there's another photo, and it's a guy in a hospital bed. He's just covered in bandages, his arms are bandaged up, his face is bad, his whole head, everything. And he's saying, anyway, there I was at 40,000ft, my own private balloon, not bothering anyone, and the poor bugger just got shot out of the sky.

And final meme of the week. There's this. This cute little, like, cartoon guy, and it's a programmer, and he's like, I am creative. I'm A creative, irreplaceable worker. And then you got this big guy who's just made out of clay. He's just, like, yoked and he's laughing, big muscles going. And the caption is he's Chat GPT. And then the next one, you've got another bro that comes next to Chat GPT and his name's Massive layoffs.

You've just got these two guys, massive layers and Chat GPT. Just pummeling the poor programmer, beating the crap out of him. It was so good because it's just a huge reflection of how technology is shifting, how people think they're in a certain position, but they're not. And they get absolutely beaten over the head by technology, by layoffs. And this was just a reflection of where things are at, where the market is at, where technology is at. And I just had the biggest chuckle over this one. Absolutely crack me up, mate. Those are the memes of the week.

Good memes this week, man. Good memes. Okay, finally, moment of the week. My moment of the week this week was I was in Phuket. I got out of my scooter, I was going to get some lunch, and nearly got absolutely cleaned up. Proper hos, like, hospital or, you know, straight in the. Straight in the ground. I would have been dead for sure. This guy, Russian guy, driving a massive ass Pajero, like, comes off the road onto the path about 30, 40 kilometers an hour, and I'm probably like less than a meter away. I jump to the right. I don't get out of the way in time. He finally hits the brake and reverses back out. I'm shit scared because he would have literally killed me. Gets out of the car, he apologizes. He was. He didn't know how to break. He was pressing the wrong, like, pedal and come off the road onto the footpath. He'll claim it. And the restaurant owner was there. The Thai guy's like, man, I'm so sorry. Like, so many tourists die from people that don't know how to drive. And I was like, oh, my God. Thanks for telling me, man. So now I've just been, like, on, like, full edge since then.

Keep off the road.

Keep us the road. Well, that's. That was on the footpath.

Keep off everything. Yeah, dude, that was my moment of the week.

That is. That is so crazy. I've been a few Asian countries where that's happened. You just hear this huge, like, screech and a bang and you're like, oh, they're not going to make it. Like, Someone gets hit on a scooter or something. It's yeah, it's crazy, man. Absolutely crazy. My moment of the week was my dinner last night. So we've had a big few weeks. I was absolutely cooked. I was thinking about canceling dinner because I was so tired. I'm like, no, you know what, I'm gonna go out. And it was with a buddy of mine, I worked with him for like 16 years. An absolute champion. Went to the pub, comes up, gives me a massive hug and it's just like old times. We're talking about, you know, what he's doing now, what I'm doing. He's like, oh, your pod's awesome. You're like, you're a rock star. Remember when we did this? And like man, the beers are amazing. I had a paddle of all these beautiful beers. We had amazing food. It was incredible. And literally we just talked and we laughed and it was just, just feeds your soul. And we started at 6:30 and the first time I went to look at my like watch it was ten past ten at night. Like that's how quickly things went and we were just yakking away and it was the best time and man, I just, my soul was just full. I was just so happy at the end of it. It was incredible. And that was my moment of the week. Shout out to Dale, mate, you're a legend.

That's the best conversations, man. When you can, you can sit down with someone over dinner, over drink, whatever and you just at the same level you can go deep about the topics you want to talk about. It's so fulfilling and it really gives you energy, not saps energy. Get more of that in. Yeah, that's fucking great stuff.

Biggest battery charger talking about like the things we used to do, where we're at now, what we're achieving, how and like we're helping each other out. It was incredible, man. It was awesome.

Yeah, that's a top class Rodio. Let's wrap it up there for our personal growth episode. If you like these episodes, we'd love for you to give us some feedback. You can tweet at us at bensimpsonau or at Babyback Berg on Twitter. We'd love for you to leave a review or share it with a friend. If you like these episodes, please share it around. It definitely does help us. And if you're wanting to get started in crypto, we have an amazing product for you. Completely complimentary. You can actually book a one on one crypto strategy call. So if you're wanting to upgrade your portfolio. You have some questions? You're not sleeping well at night. You may not have the right security. Not sure if you set up for success, the bull runs imminent. You can book a free crypto strategy call over@CollectiveShiftIO just head to the member page and you can book a free one on one call there. And the feedback's been cracking burgs. People are loving these. So get over there and book one today.

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Catch the Champions.