10 Reasons I Disabled My Contact Form (Blog)

[Savage]

Originally Posted by escapeplan

Maybe the reason travelling outside of western countries doesn't appeal to you right now, is that you are not open to, or aware of, the benefits of leaving the west behind for a while.

I'd say it has more to do with the way many non-Western countries are often presented in the media here: dirty, disease-ridden, impoverished, filled with street hustlers, dangerous, bad roads, corrupt governments, overcrowded, etc.

Hmmm... kinda sounds like L.A. when I think about it.

[Angela]

Well, this post certainly seems to be a lightning rod for people to sign up and make their first post about how disappointing Steve is!

"I'm disappointed" -- seems like a new category for the list!

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by Angela

Well, this post certainly seems to be a lightning rod for people to sign up and make their first post about how disappointing Steve is!

That's because they have no other way to contact him now!

I think the smartest thing to do, if you don't like what some blogger has to say anymore, is to examine why, and possibly just to stop reading them. There are plenty of other good PD bloggers. But I guess if they've been a long time reader, and now find themselves disappointed, they want to let Steve know, even if they know it will be disregarded. Oh well...

[munish]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I wonder what Easterners gain when they travel to Western countries.

They go there for technology and science.

[James81]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Hmmm... kinda sounds like L.A. when I think about it.

LOL!

You know what I thought about LA when I was there?

I thought..."Huh...somebody took my small little town where I'm from and just copy/pasted it like a thousand times beside each other."

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I'd say it has more to do with the way many non-Western countries are often presented in the media here: dirty, disease-ridden, impoverished, filled with street hustlers, dangerous, bad roads, corrupt governments, overcrowded, etc.

Hmmm... kinda sounds like L.A. when I think about it.

Lol.


Actually that description isn't too far off of the truth.

In Thailand it's very true that nearly every store owner is trying to rip off every white person that buys from him, or at least that is what I experienced. The only exception is big-name stores or hotels and such, which ironically are usually Western in origin and thus have strict employee conduct rules and stuff like that.

Also, cab drivers try to hustle you and get you to pay more money than their service is worth or even charge you more at the end of the trip than they quoted you at the beginning. Although because of the currency difference, if you get "ripped off" by a cab driver in Thailand you end up paying $6 US to drive across town instead of $3 US lol.

I would say if you ever travel to a poor country, definitely try to get a travel guide and maybe go with a group at least for part of the journey. My group did have a great time but mostly because we had a professional travel guide take us to all the best restaurants and best things to see. Without a guide we probably would have ended up lost or having no idea what is available around the city/countries we visited.

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I'd say it has more to do with the way many non-Western countries are often presented in the media here: dirty, disease-ridden, impoverished, filled with street hustlers, dangerous, bad roads, corrupt governments, overcrowded, etc.

Hmmm... kinda sounds like L.A. when I think about it.

Japan is significantly cleaner and more technologically advanced than the US. No one will try to hustle you either, at least in Tokyo.

India, on the other hand, is exactly as you described (I was born in India).

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I wonder what Easterners gain when they travel to Western countries.

A different perspective. The cultural differences are quite significant and you can pick what you like and absorb it. Of course, this is my personal take and not everyone will do the same. Many of the Easterners cling too tightly to their traditions. I have seen people who have traveled all over the world and they are exactly the same, no change whatsoever.

[Weena]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

dirty, disease-ridden, impoverished, filled with street hustlers, dangerous, bad roads, corrupt governments, overcrowded, etc.

Dirty: not all of them

Impoverished: well they were poor to begin with but depending on which country some poor people are very happy

Street hustlers: depends where. Apparently in Vietnam or India, yeah you can't take a step without being harassed. In Thailand people don't do that, if they sometimes offer, you can politely decline and it's all good.

Dangerous: USA scares me much more than poor countries. Really. I would not visit some parts of the US for the danger factor, and just to think of airports security guards makes me shiver.

Bad roads: possibly

Corrupt governments: ?? was your former president actually elected by the people?

overcrowded: some. Not all.

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

In Thailand it's very true that nearly every store owner is trying to rip off every white person that buys from him, or at least that is what I experienced.

In Thailand, every shop owner is being scammed by tourists, especially Americans. I have had only good experiences with Thai retailers. even got some extra discounts when i was not asking for some.

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

Also, cab drivers try to hustle you and get you to pay more money than their service is worth or even charge you more at the end of the trip than they quoted you at the beginning.

The taxi fees are determined by their local council. Trying to haggle is useless, and rude. The only thing i experienced is someone recommending a taxi trip "for safety reasons", we declined and rented a moped and visited the region and it was safe. Don't buy into the fear speech.

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I would say if you ever travel to a poor country, definitely try to get a travel guide and maybe go with a group at least for part of the journey. My group did have a great time but mostly because we had a professional travel guide take us to all the best restaurants and best things to see. Without a guide we probably would have ended up lost or having no idea what is available around the city/countries we visited.

In my experience, unplanned traveling is much more fun and much cheaper too. Just turn up to a resort and be delighted to find out you can have a hut for ten bucks a night. And a fancy meal for a few bucks. Just melt into the local culture and enjoy.

[ellie]

I have to say I am not a fan of visiting eastern countries. I've done it, but wouldn't rush back. I knew that would be the case even before I visited Eastern countries. Maybe that was the problem my mindset.

I am more a europe girl.

But I am a libran, we like everything to be pretty. Not saying eastern countries aren't pretty, but they just are not as clean.

[aelle]

Originally Posted by munish

They go there for technology and science.

Ahahahah. Ha.
I'm from the West and went to East Asia for technology and science. That's where it's at today.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I'd say it has more to do with the way many non-Western countries are often presented in the media here: dirty, disease-ridden, impoverished, filled with street hustlers, dangerous, bad roads, corrupt governments, overcrowded, etc.

Hmmm... kinda sounds like L.A. when I think about it.

Originally Posted by ellie

But I am a libran, we like everything to be pretty. Not saying eastern countries aren't pretty, but they just are not as clean.

Okay, I'm confused as hell. When you say "non Western countries" do you think of South East Asia and India? Slavic countries? The Middle East? North Africa? Black Africa? East Asia? Oceania? Because they're all pretty damn different. For a lot of them, these clichés don't apply at all. For some, it's the opposite - by comparison, the West looks poor, chaotic, dangerous and dirty.

[Weena]

Originally Posted by ellie

I have to say I am not a fan of visiting eastern countries. I've done it, but wouldn't rush back. I knew that would be the case even before I visited Eastern countries. Maybe that was the problem my mindset.

I am more a europe girl.

But I am a libran, we like everything to be pretty. Not saying eastern countries aren't pretty, but they just are not as clean.

I had this with Senegal. Did not really want to go but got lots of "why don't want to go, it's a one in lifetime experience, blahblahblah". And although living in village in the desert was great, all the city experience was awful and I'll never go back there. I learned and appreciated some part but overall the bad spoiled the good. I know people who love Africa, but to an unprepared teenager it was yuk.

About being a Libra, my husband is Libra and backpacked six months in South America and an other backpack trip was South-East Asian countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia) and he LOVED it. But I see why you would love Europe...if you like beautiful cities Europe is the way to go for fanciness .

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by Weena

In Thailand, every shop owner is being scammed by tourists, especially Americans. I have had only good experiences with Thai retailers. even got some extra discounts when i was not asking for some.

^ this is my "wtf?" face.


I guess you didn't visit the same country named Thailand that I visited. Because in the country I went to, every shop owner was trying to charge every tourist incredibly high prices for every single item there, especially the shops where you can tell they bought the crap they are selling from a Chinese sweat shop for 1/20th the price they are trying to fetch for it.

A friend of mine had been to Vietnam I believe right before he came with us to Thailand, and he said all the shops there sell the same exact crap items at about 1/5 or even 1/10 of the price, so he KNEW that they were marked up exorbitantly.


I have no freakin clue how you got the idea that it is the tourists doing the scamming. In my experience, tourists only haggle with shop keepers because the tourist knows that the shop owner is trying to rip him off, and it is obvious.

Oh and as for taxi prices being set by the government. Well, that might sound all nice and fluffy on paper, but in reality we only haggled with taxi drivers because they would actually start bidding their prices lower to us to compete with one another. We would walk out of a night club at midnight and instantly be surrounded by a group of literally 10 or more taxi drivers all trying to grab us and literally pull us towards their cab because they wanted our business.

So we would ask what price and they would pretty much start under-cutting each other, so we just played the game until we got the lowest price possible.

Don't know what Thailand you went to, but the one I went to was a cesspool of non-integrity aside from a few good people that we met. We did have a good time experiencing the different culture though.

[Asmoday]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you think it would be a good idea to pay someone $ to process the emails like the ones I listed, then I highly recommend that you check out Bob Proctor's products.

ROFLMFAO!!!!

My favorite is when people PM my account on YOUR forums to ask me about MY blog posts...

....this makes me vibrate with frustration....

...especially when I have my own forums AND contact form....

MEGA-UBER-HELLA-WTF???

And if I get one more spam email, written in bad bangli-english, wanting to "put you site in top 10 now"....nevermind, I'm just going to drop what I'm doing right now and set up the spam filter so that stops.

THIRD LAW IN ACTION PEOPLE.

[Weena]

I got some brand sport shoes (don't ask me if the were counterfeit, maybe maybe not?) for like 10$ a pair... we bought a whole heap of stuff, not haggling (it's so cheap already) and when the lady added all the stuff she offered us even more discounts.

Did you stay in Bangkok? I avoided Bangkok, Phuket and more especially Pattaya and Koh Chang because I would have been really mad to have to see the prostitution situation. I have been more-so in the south (Krabi, Ao Nong, Ao Railay...) and on the island of Koh Taoh on the other side. I had the most gorgeous time and absolutely loved Thai people. Maybe there's a difference between the places i stayed at and the places you stayed at?

My experience of Bangkok is fairly limited, basically went around with a family who lives in the rich suburbs there (father is a politician).

I'm not calling you a liar Curtis, we just had vastly different experience. Your experience of Thailand might be my experience of Senegal .

[ellie]

Originally Posted by aelle

Ahahahah. Ha.
I'm from the West and went to East Asia for technology and science. That's where it's at today.





Okay, I'm confused as hell. When you say "non Western countries" do you think of South East Asia and India? Slavic countries? The Middle East? North Africa? Black Africa? East Asia? Oceania? Because they're all pretty damn different. For a lot of them, these clichés don't apply at all. For some, it's the opposite - by comparison, the West looks poor, chaotic, dangerous and dirty.

Yeah actually I should of said South East Asia.

But then again my geography is not the best, at the best of times

Fair enough, I guess it's all to do with ones perception. For some reason I do not have an affinity with South Eastern countries. I remember when I first got off the plane to Malaysia (saba and bornio), and I didn't enjoy the "air, the humid weather, the smells, the polluted streets, the dingy buildings. It's just something that didn't resonate with me.

[lasti]

Oh, wow, now I'm getting interested in seeing eastern countries - and before this thread I wasn't even interested in travelling at all (at least not in the near future)...

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by munish

They go there for technology and science.

Seriously, no.

Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore .... These are all technologically very advanced countries. At least generally on par with the US, and in various ways probably more advanced.

As for India (that's where you're from, Munish), the thing is, it's a big country lacking infrastructure, but the standard of science and engineering taught in your institutes of technology beat the average American university by miles.

Actually, the standards of math and science in the US are not difficult to surpass. I've seen international comparative research on this - eg there was one study on average maths standards of 12-year-olds in different countries. The US was way down in the rankings.

Top countries were countries like Singapore, Finland, Korea, Japan, Sweden.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by SatvikBeri

Japan is significantly cleaner and more technologically advanced than the US. No one will try to hustle you either, at least in Tokyo.

India).

If anything, japan takes technology too seriously.

It has the world's most technologically advanced toilets. I remember one of my hotel rooms in Tokyo. It had this very interesting toilet bowl, with a tech gizmo by the side, with various touchscreen controls.

Depending on what you pressed, the toilet bowl would spray water differently, to clean your anus after you finished your poo-ing. For the ladies, who pee differently from men, you could opt for the spray to come from a different direction.

You could adjust everything. Angle of spray; temperature of water; pressure; you could choose the water to spray in one direction, or to oscillate, or to massage. The machine was designed to cater for buttocks of every size and shape.

At the end of it, you could also elect for the hot air treatment. Like a hand dryer, but this one was meant to dry your ass for you.

[JSB]

The Japanese love cleanliness and they also love technology. Put the two together, and you get 23rd century toilets!

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

If anything, japan takes technology too seriously.

It has the world's most technologically advanced toilets. I remember one of my hotel rooms in Tokyo. It had this very interesting toilet bowl, with a tech gizmo by the side, with various touchscreen controls.

Depending on what you pressed, the toilet bowl would spray water differently, to clean your anus after you finished your poo-ing. For the ladies, who pee differently from men, you could opt for the spray to come from a different direction.

You could adjust everything. Angle of spray; temperature of water; pressure; you could choose the water to spray in one direction, or to oscillate, or to massage. The machine was designed to cater for buttocks of every size and shape.

At the end of it, you could also elect for the hot air treatment. Like a hand dryer, but this one was meant to dry your ass for you.

[Acting Like Godot]

Oh, I forgot .... It had this vacuum function as well.

If your poo smells really bad, just touch the screen and from the toilet bowl itself, a vacuum function is activated to suck the smell out of the toilet.

[Acting Like Godot]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I guess you didn't visit the same country named Thailand that I visited. Because in the country I went to, every shop owner was trying to charge every tourist incredibly high prices for every single item there, especially the shops where you can tell they bought the crap they are selling from a Chinese sweat shop for 1/20th the price they are trying to fetch for it.

It's the haggle culture.

It's common in Asia. When the store owner says, "This is $20", he does NOT want to sell it to you for $20.

He wants to sell it to you for $10.

You are supposed to enter into a charming conversation with him; flatter him; persuade him; cajole him; wish him a good day; ask him how old he is; tell him that he looks young for his age; say how beautiful his wife is, (if his wife is somewhere in the shop too);

and then finally he'll sigh and feign resignation and say, "Okay, okay, fine! How shall I afford to send my kids to school, I do not know, but since you are my new American friend, I shall sell it to you for $10."

Now if you did not haggle, and just paid him $20 straight off, he would think to himself, "WTF? This American is damned rude."

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Acting Like Godot

It's the haggle culture.

I do that in Orange County. I ask for a discount everywhere I go, and nine times out of ten, I get one!

[aelle]

Originally Posted by Angela

I do that in Orange County. I ask for a discount everywhere I go, and nine times out of ten, I get one!

My father looooves to haggle. He's the kind of person who, at the supermarket, will wait until his really big basket has been scanned, then asks the cashier: "Will you please get your manager? I'd like a 15% discount. You know it would cost you more to put it all back on the shelves and keep these other customers waiting "

I hated shopping with him as a kid. So embarassing.

[Weena]

Originally Posted by aelle

I hated shopping with him as a kid. So embarassing.

How about this one: you're in a jewelry shop, just found the perfect watch to offer to your husband on your anniversary, open your wallet ready to pay then your father-in-law steps between you and the seller and goes "no! she's not buying this. First we are going to go to all the other jewelry shops around to see if we cannot find the same one at a better price. Then "perhaps" we will return". F-word-ing embarrassing.

[Angela]

Oh, boy, those are my kinda guys!

[Weena]

Originally Posted by Angela

Oh, boy, those are my kinda guys!

I thought it was incredibly rude of him though... Plus i had to go back there by myself the day after to get the watch since they were the only ones carrying this particular model. and it was the exact same price at every shop, only all other shops had to order it, when the first one had it for sale straight away .

[Angela]

No more shopping with father in law, then! I've never known a jeweler who wouldn't haggle, though, except those big corporate-style chainstores. Those aren't really jewelers; those are clerks. Clerks don't haggle.

[st33med]

Originally Posted by Angela

No more shopping with father in law, then! I've never known a jeweler who wouldn't haggle, though, except those big corporate-style chainstores. Those aren't really jewelers; those are clerks. Clerks don't haggle.

I haven't seen any non corporate stores before... It's a bit weird for me. I would have thought haggling was dead and in the past.

[Weena]

yeah they were clerks. And i don't go to shop alone with them now...i make my hubby take the day off when they visit .