[Pakse, 6/4/23] Pakse has three Indian restaurants. Of these, Hasan is the best, Jasmin the most popular and Yummy not recommended by anybody. That’s why it’s often empty. Its owner, though, still makes money from a fleabag he barely operates. For less than $3, you can spend a night with bed bugs, mosquitoes and odors from many guests past, and you’ll even get a breakfast of toast, jam and coffee.
I can deeply relate to your tale of the dispossessed, Mr. Linh Dinh.
You brought to my attention what most of us look at every day but can not see; the rising tide of the dispossessed sweeping the world. It took me years to understand that I am among them.
I grew up in Connecticut, in the U.S.A. in a comfortable middle-class environment that FDR's New Deal had brought to my father's generation. Perhaps the most fortunate working-class generation in the history of the world.
My father died when I was a child thanks to the legalized decimation the tobacco industry inflicts upon the world in general and America in particular. My mother lost our house and then died from smoking herself and I moved to California to attend school. I made a meager living as a tutor in California for twenty years. I lost that job in the Financial Crisis of 2009 that the banksters had unleashed on the world. When Covid hit I moved south to Mexico where the rents were more affordable.
I found out the hard way that many Mexicans (perhaps often for good reasons) don't like "Gringos." So I moved back to as close as I could afford to get to my old home town in Connecticut, Bridgeport, a poor, abandoned, rust-belt wreck of a city on Long Island Sound where I can barely afford to rent a room in a vermin infested rooming house from where I write this.
My last hope in this life is to take my meager Social Security stipend and find a refuge somewhere, perhaps in south-east Asia or the Philippines, wherever they will put up with me, a defeated old American who no longer has a home.
I'm finding, through my research, that nobody wants Americans, unless they come for a short -- very short -- vacation and bring lots of money. Which I don't have.
So I, too, am among the enormous tide of the dispossessed sweeping around the planet. I keep asking myself, "couldn't we have done better than this?"
Yummy will likely love Portugal and only come back if forced out. I have never met a Thai or known anyone who knows a Thai living overseas, for example, who doesn't prefer living in a White country to living back in Thailand.
White countries, for the most part, seem like a dystopia with the Great Reset and all. However, even with all the financial shenanigans, anal revolution, endless wars and increasing censorship, it is much easier to earn a living in them than in a developing country.
In many ways the shrewdest move of the Jews was flooding the US with people from very disfunctional countries. Those immigrants have far lower expectations of a society and usually will, as the elite spreads disfunction, mainly compare the US to their old country not the old US.
These days, one driver of US emigration might be a search not for affordability but for sanity. But Thomas makes a good observation about the less-than-warm welcome that might await a US emigrant elsewhere in the world. In the past, the prototypical "ugly American" might have made his own bed in this respect, but now our government is "helping" us out by wearing out our welcome before we even have a chance to go there and misbehave ourselves!
The tragedy of Europe is that they simply gave up. No longer proud of their traditions, history or religion, they are giving it all away to dark strangers before committing euthanasia. Sometimes literally. In the Netherlands even 12-year old children with depression or obesity can apply (in Canada, the government may even force it on you).
As for those migrants, they have no idea of Europe of old was like, for them it is just an opportunity to be in a place where they can get some free money and benefits, and maybe a white whore. For many it doesn't work out and they end up on the streets or prison. But it works enough for a lot, for a while. They don't need much and have lower expectations than even the poorer white European. A brown, dying Europe is the future. Count Kalergi would be proud.
Linh, sometimes I suspect you may be an incarnation of Louis-Ferdinand Celine - restlessly wandering, distracting self in the observation of the mindless delusion and folly of others, finding momentary comfort in food and drink; but, as inevitable as dusk, being consumed by the saudade within us all. “Love One's Fate” indeed.
“Well the danger on the rocks is surely past/Still I remain tied to the mast/Could it be that I have found my home at last/Home at last"
"Having done it over and over, I’ve gotten fairly good at it. Still, I’m tired."
I can sympathize. At first moving from place to place was rejuvenating. After a point it just started feeling, like most other fun things, repetitious. However, after not leaving Thailand in over 5 years I am finally ready to branch out.
Linh, If you don't see yourself going back to Europe, what do you see yourself doing? Are you looking for a home base or will you just bop around Eastern Asia indefinitely? Or?
Looked up Yummy - there seems to be Yummy with green walls (probably old location) and Yummy with beige walls. Mixed reviews for the food but the main driver of sales is the price.
Looking at the hostel, I've stayed in worse places, excluding the likely insects residing in the room, while backpacking in Europe.
Hi Linh, good to hear you are in good spirits. I understand the feeling of not wanting to travel around much anymore. The longer we stay in one place the more we enjoy and appreciate it. Take care and looking forward to your return to Vũng Tàu where the waves never stop.
Linh, please avoid the fish larb, you might get severe kidney problems from it, the uncooked pork larb is perfectly safe. I'm loving your Pakse writing, I could probably live there happily, not so my American wife - she'd hate it. Thanks!
I can deeply relate to your tale of the dispossessed, Mr. Linh Dinh.
You brought to my attention what most of us look at every day but can not see; the rising tide of the dispossessed sweeping the world. It took me years to understand that I am among them.
I grew up in Connecticut, in the U.S.A. in a comfortable middle-class environment that FDR's New Deal had brought to my father's generation. Perhaps the most fortunate working-class generation in the history of the world.
My father died when I was a child thanks to the legalized decimation the tobacco industry inflicts upon the world in general and America in particular. My mother lost our house and then died from smoking herself and I moved to California to attend school. I made a meager living as a tutor in California for twenty years. I lost that job in the Financial Crisis of 2009 that the banksters had unleashed on the world. When Covid hit I moved south to Mexico where the rents were more affordable.
I found out the hard way that many Mexicans (perhaps often for good reasons) don't like "Gringos." So I moved back to as close as I could afford to get to my old home town in Connecticut, Bridgeport, a poor, abandoned, rust-belt wreck of a city on Long Island Sound where I can barely afford to rent a room in a vermin infested rooming house from where I write this.
My last hope in this life is to take my meager Social Security stipend and find a refuge somewhere, perhaps in south-east Asia or the Philippines, wherever they will put up with me, a defeated old American who no longer has a home.
I'm finding, through my research, that nobody wants Americans, unless they come for a short -- very short -- vacation and bring lots of money. Which I don't have.
So I, too, am among the enormous tide of the dispossessed sweeping around the planet. I keep asking myself, "couldn't we have done better than this?"
Yummy will likely love Portugal and only come back if forced out. I have never met a Thai or known anyone who knows a Thai living overseas, for example, who doesn't prefer living in a White country to living back in Thailand.
White countries, for the most part, seem like a dystopia with the Great Reset and all. However, even with all the financial shenanigans, anal revolution, endless wars and increasing censorship, it is much easier to earn a living in them than in a developing country.
In many ways the shrewdest move of the Jews was flooding the US with people from very disfunctional countries. Those immigrants have far lower expectations of a society and usually will, as the elite spreads disfunction, mainly compare the US to their old country not the old US.
These days, one driver of US emigration might be a search not for affordability but for sanity. But Thomas makes a good observation about the less-than-warm welcome that might await a US emigrant elsewhere in the world. In the past, the prototypical "ugly American" might have made his own bed in this respect, but now our government is "helping" us out by wearing out our welcome before we even have a chance to go there and misbehave ourselves!
The tragedy of Europe is that they simply gave up. No longer proud of their traditions, history or religion, they are giving it all away to dark strangers before committing euthanasia. Sometimes literally. In the Netherlands even 12-year old children with depression or obesity can apply (in Canada, the government may even force it on you).
As for those migrants, they have no idea of Europe of old was like, for them it is just an opportunity to be in a place where they can get some free money and benefits, and maybe a white whore. For many it doesn't work out and they end up on the streets or prison. But it works enough for a lot, for a while. They don't need much and have lower expectations than even the poorer white European. A brown, dying Europe is the future. Count Kalergi would be proud.
Linh, sometimes I suspect you may be an incarnation of Louis-Ferdinand Celine - restlessly wandering, distracting self in the observation of the mindless delusion and folly of others, finding momentary comfort in food and drink; but, as inevitable as dusk, being consumed by the saudade within us all. “Love One's Fate” indeed.
“Well the danger on the rocks is surely past/Still I remain tied to the mast/Could it be that I have found my home at last/Home at last"
- Steely Dan, "Home At Last"
"Having done it over and over, I’ve gotten fairly good at it. Still, I’m tired."
I can sympathize. At first moving from place to place was rejuvenating. After a point it just started feeling, like most other fun things, repetitious. However, after not leaving Thailand in over 5 years I am finally ready to branch out.
Linh, If you don't see yourself going back to Europe, what do you see yourself doing? Are you looking for a home base or will you just bop around Eastern Asia indefinitely? Or?
lol, Yummy's *best* shot at European residency is to cross the Mediterranean in a raft and wash up on the shores of Normandy.
Free 5-star hotels, personal physician with no wait, a free smartphone, a stipend, and zero accountability.
Looked up Yummy - there seems to be Yummy with green walls (probably old location) and Yummy with beige walls. Mixed reviews for the food but the main driver of sales is the price.
Looking at the hostel, I've stayed in worse places, excluding the likely insects residing in the room, while backpacking in Europe.
Hi Linh, good to hear you are in good spirits. I understand the feeling of not wanting to travel around much anymore. The longer we stay in one place the more we enjoy and appreciate it. Take care and looking forward to your return to Vũng Tàu where the waves never stop.
Great note.
All wonderful. Keep on. Was the dodgy Fuck from a few posts back with the baseball cap yer come from behind man?
Linh, please avoid the fish larb, you might get severe kidney problems from it, the uncooked pork larb is perfectly safe. I'm loving your Pakse writing, I could probably live there happily, not so my American wife - she'd hate it. Thanks!
A fun culinary journey with a sad note
And you believe Ian? Sounds his dick needs its own residence permit.