Sick, Tired, and Battling Addiction in Thailand...

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:02][snorts] >> Bit of a slow start to the day for me today. I've been sick as a dog for the last few days. I honestly haven't left the house in days.

[00:00:11]But today's Monday, I'm feeling a little better. I want to get out of the house and it's time to get back to work.

[00:00:17]>> [music] [music] >> So today I want to get out of the house, do some light exercise and talk about some important issues about living here that even I struggle with after living here for 5 years.

[00:00:37]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So I have just come to Silom. We're going to head to Lumpini Park. It is insanely hot today.

[00:01:00]But I love visiting Lumpini Park. I thought it'd be a nice place to take a walk.

[00:01:04]>> [music] [music] >> Ah, so as I mentioned at the beginning of this video, I have been sick as a dog and it comes as no real surprise. I've just I've just put myself through too much. I just came back from 2 weeks in Australia. I flew back literally 2 days before Songkran straight into Songkran where I was drinking the whole time.

[00:01:31]It's insanely hot here at the moment and people throw the freezing cold buckets of ice water on you. Add to that it's just days of getting all that water in your mouth, in your eyes, in your ears and it's not clean healthy water. Add in of course alcohol and probably not sleeping enough. All of this I've just been completely run down and I ended up getting sick.

[00:01:55]You got to see this.

[00:01:56]Look at the size of the ice.

[00:02:04]Taking care of yourself is really important here in Thailand and it's honestly something a lot of people neglect. So today I wanted to come here and take a walk and get some light exercise, get in some kind of fresh air and then this afternoon I'm going to catch up with a mate who's just moved out here and is right in the thick of finding his way here and I want to get his perspective on the challenges of what it's like living here versus when you come here on a holiday.

[00:02:34]>> [music] [music] >> Struggling with drinking is an ongoing issue here in Thailand. It's something I've talked about many times at length so I don't need to get too into it, but it is still an issue that can't be ignored. I like to take breaks from drinking from time to time. I don't love taking breaks from drinking. I love to drink, but I think it's important to stay on top of that and and take breaks and make sure that you are on top of your drinking. Last year I took two months off, two one-month blocks. It wasn't together. Did it early in the year and then towards the end of the year. I'm doing I'm going to be doing another one now. This has been a good start cuz I haven't had a drink for like 5 days cuz I've been unwell so this is a good start to that month. I think alcohol is where it often comes undone for people and here in Thailand something I've noticed is it can lead to other things and eventually lead down the road of addiction.

[00:03:34]>> [music] [music] >> It's interesting something I noticed walking around here in Lumpini Park is homeless people and I'm not just talking about Thai people. I'm talking about foreigners, too. I've been here for a little over an hour and I've seen three foreigners maybe two and a half, I'm not quite sure. One of them looked like he may have just not made it home after a big night out last night, but regardless this is a place where homeless people do come in the daytime and have a bit of a snooze. I don't think you're supposed to do it.

[00:04:13]Oh my god.

[00:04:15]I don't think you're supposed to do it, but I don't think it's that heavily policed during the daytime. At night they kick everyone out. They close this it's actually fenced off and they close it down in the evenings, but you can come here and have a rest and something that I've noticed particularly online lately is that there is an increase of homeless foreign people living here in Thailand. Thailand is seeing more foreign nationals fall into homelessness particularly in places such as Bangkok and Phuket where long stays can appear affordable and easy to manage. Some reportedly arrive without enough savings, insurance, or reliable support, then find themselves stranded after illness, scams, or other sudden setbacks. How you could not spend the last of your money on a flight home makes absolutely no sense to me, but this is where things like addiction, alcohol, partying, these are all major factors as to why these people end up in these situations.

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[00:06:38]>> [music] >> So Sam, you just moved here to live and work not to have a holiday. How often do you deal with FOMO and having the desire to go out drinking and socializing?

[00:06:53]Every two evenings I get FOMO. Uh 48 hours I reckon is my mark and uh this is how it usually goes.

[00:07:02]Cuz I work steadily throughout one day, right? I'm exhausted. I get up the next day. I work steadily through, you know, maybe the first half of that and then I'm like look out my window. All these other Westerners are having fun and out there they're on holidays and there's things going on in the street and I'm in here editing in this little tiny apartment and I won't lie I I get jealous man after after my 48 hours. And so this is what I wasn't able to do in in Jomtien. In Bangkok I'm far enough away from all those shenanigans that I can say, "You know what?

[00:07:45]Just finish your work, sit your bum on the couch, put on a Netflix video, eat some healthy food, and go to bed like a normal person." But it's taken me Adam 3 years to get to that point if I'm being completely honest. So taking care of yourself is obviously really important here and I'm talking about how I'm sick today and this is something that I've struggled with.

[00:08:06]Another factor is the weather.

[00:08:07]>> You never get sick. I I rarely rarely get sick. Um but but another factor is the weather and you need to, you know, be conscious of that here. You just experienced this, right? I'm okay today, but I want to reflect something and I I told you about this a couple of days ago. 3 days ago I came here to shoot something and it was raging hot and basically I think I got a bit of first tier heat exhaustion. I was doing a slow walk. I was talking on camera, but I was in the direct sun, right? And I guess I've spent 4 and a half months back in Australia and I thought, "Yep, yep. My body is adjusted to this heat, you know? I just did Songkran for you know, I spent 7 hours out out, you know, running around with a water pistol and my body felt fine.

[00:08:55]Why am I just quietly walking through Lumpini Park and all of a sudden I feel absolutely nauseous? I I got to tell you I I stopped filming. Like I finished my piece. I stumbled my way back onto the MRT, went home, almost threw up on the train, and just got into bed and lay there with the air con on for 3 hours.

[00:09:17]And that was unexpected. That was just 20 minutes of just heat exhaustion, man.

[00:09:26]>> [music] >> All right. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow, [music] mate.

[00:09:32]Ah, always fun to catch up with Sammy.

[00:09:34]So now I'm going to go a little bit more of a walk. I've got a podcast to finish and then I'm going to go home and get some more rest.

[00:09:40]>> [music] [music] >> So uh the key message of this video is everything in moderation, of course, but also I wanted to show an unfiltered look at what life's really like here.

[00:09:55]Sometimes I do get sick. Sometimes I'm not feeling well. It's not all perfect all the time here. This is a very realistic day for me. So, with all of that said, I'm going to go home, get some more rest so I can knock this over completely. So, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.

[00:10:11]>> [music]