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The title of this video is probably somewhat confusing to those who watch this channel with any regularity but I will tell you why I am naming it this. I was watching an episode of 1883. It is a show that has come out in the United States. I think it is made by a guy named Taylor Sheridan, he's great writer by the way and it is sort of in this Yellowstone Universe. I thought it was great because look I am from Kansas originally. Kansas history is fascinating to me; I have read a lot about Kansas history over the years; my family has been in Kansas for a hundred odd over years, 150 years, 160 years now, I can't remember how many at this point when the first guy got there. They have been there a while, let's just say my family has been there a while. I was watching this show 1883 and there is this great moment, there are a ton of great moments in this, very poignant, very insightful but there is this scene where they are putting together a wagon train and it is wagon train filled with primarily European immigrants who had really no experience either with America, to say nothing of the frontier. I mean East coast, everything east of the Mississippi in 1883 it was pretty wild too. Compared to Europe for example it was not completely settled. I mean by that point it was fairly well settled but not completely; even on the Eastern side of Mississippi. On the western side of the Mississippi between roughly call it Texas, Kansas, western border all the way out to California, man that was still the wild west as they show in that film, in that series and I really can't urge folks enough who are watching this to go check that out.

There is a line in that, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought it was hilarious to begin with but then I got to thinking about it. It is really, really insightful and poignant. There is a scene where Sam Elliott's character is recruiting guys for this wagon train. He is recruiting cowboys basically, folks that know the West, know the range, that had ridden the trail sort of know what they are about when it comes to the journey with the train going out, their mission is to get to Oregon. This one guy that he is interviewing for this job he says: "you know I have got to be honest with you, I have been running cattle up to Omaha for 15 years and I have seen some of these immigrant wagon trains and it's like these SOBs are trying to die." I am not doing justice to the line but man is that not insightful? The reason I bring this up, there is another scene in that I believe that same episode where Sam Elliott basically calls out these immigrants and says: "you have no skills and you are just expecting to get on this wagon train and to just sort of be whisked to the American West. That's a foolish thing to think that that can just happen." I am not calling anybody foolish or anything; I am not saying anybody is going to die, not my point.

My point is the underlying thesis which sort of underlies both of these great quotes which is "if you are looking to come move, if you are looking to be an expat, if you're looking to engage in the expat lifestyle, if you are living in the United States for example, and you are looking for to come to Thailand and you have been here a couple of times, do your research. Figure out what it means to live here. It is not like the wagon train by any stretch of the imagination, by any stretch of the imagination but that line is really on point because those folks did not do the real research. Now back then, 1883, how do you do the research? I mean you probably could, reading newspapers or something and figuring out exactly what was going on but at the same time it would have been more difficult, no internet, no telephones, none of that good stuff; I think they had telephone and radio by then but it was in its early days but and more importantly and not to belabour the point, it was more about folks not understanding what they were getting into and when you are going to look to expatriate, if you are looking to come here to Thailand or greater Southeast Asia for that matter do your research, do your homework. Don't just jump up and make a move kind of fast and we see this a lot with new guys who come here immediately off the plane.  They expect services and things like that to be very much akin to America or the West. It is not going to be that way. In some ways it might but in many others it won't, it is going to be different. So again, I am not saying anybody is going to die; not saying anybody is making a mistake but if you are coming out to Asia, do your research.