Flying High

March 6, 2024

Sleep last night was amazing. I ordered breakfast by the pool and then the husband of the guesthouse owner showed and we got chatting.

He mentioned there were more Chinese guests coming. He said, "They're sure rude aren't they?" I told him, "Try living there and dealing with that every day. Then you'll start to get a picture how I feel" He said "Well it's really getting worse. I don't talk to them anymore." He is in fact correct. I don't mean to constantly trash the place but it becomes endlessly frustrating dealing with the same nonsense every day with no relief.

Maybe a better perspective could happen if I simply relocated somewhere else and made trips back to China. That is to say, don't burn bridges permanently but stop viewing it as a base because it's just not working out. For that to happen, I would start by re-editing this blog and others and taking out as many political references as possible. The same with my Facebook and other social media. Then later on, once established in another base, I would make trips to/from China again with the focus more on social visits and business.

This is also congruent with China's goal of signing more and more agreements with other countries for mutual visa exemption. My best guess is that the government wants to revive the economy through international tourism and business. This stands a very good chance to succeed in the short to medium term. Long term however, China's economic woes are structural. It makes no sense to continue working there full-time or heaven forbid even think about retiring there. If I continue to stay there, then I remain complicit in supporting a government that doesn't align with my values. As well, by default, I am being used as a propaganda piece: "Look at all these long-term expats how they love China and call it their home"

But for now there were more immediate concerns.

I went back to the bank nearby to try one last time to cut the electricity bill autodebit. This time they told me it was easier if I do this at the electricity office. They actually had a point, this option was overlooked on my part. Two words then: next trip.

I'll make a deal with the new owner that if he pays to replace the locks on the mailbox and keeps everything for me then I'll reimburse him by paying his electricity bill for the equivalent cost. Replacing the mailbox locks was something I had to do anyway but never got around to it. If you think I'm creating excuses for another trip to Pattaya then you're right.

The guesthouse owner's husband was correct about one thing. "Make sure you buy your wife a nice present"

That would be done at duty free since I was running out of time. After leaving the Montague behind and a quick taxi to the airport, I found the high quality perfume and bought her some. Then it was time for the flight.

While enjoying the flight I couldn't help but bask in the incredible success of this trip over the past 6 weeks. It beat every other trip hands down.

An idea came to mind on the flight that I could sharpen my street smarts by carrying around cash. A cashless society in China isn't all that great. You get way too complacent using the phone for everything and forget basic sense like how toguard against pickpockets. Also, when you have physical cash on hand you're a lot more careful about how you spend it. When it leaves your hand, this activates the pain centers in your body. The phone does none of that.

Thankfully I never carried much cash in Thailand or Cambodia and managed it well. Many Chinese visitors are prime targets for theft because they carry insane amounts of cash on their person. The locals know this and that they also lack streetsmarts due to how the cashless society took their brains away.

So I would then update my budget where I take out a portion of cash and use it for daily life. Not for all purchases but enough to keep my game on. It is after all against the law to refuse cash in China.

Tying this all together, China is well aware of the problem that international visitors and businesspeople don't have ACCESS to the cashless society. They arrive and find out they are fucked since they need bank accounts and phone numbers to register for the mobile payment apps. So they try using cash and find out it doesn't work despite being against the law to refuse it.

The truth of the matter is the cashless society more or less took off during the zero covid policy. Now that is dead in the water, China is facing a problem of its own making as it always does: how to get those international visitors to come when they feel unwelcome the whole time.

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