Following the launch of their great East West: South Africans Zabroad YouTube travel show, the husband and wife team of Retha and Miguel Sanchez have since followed up their initial South Korea exploration with a move of focus to Thailand, where they interviewed South Africans living and working in both Phuket and Bangkok.
As per usual, it’s pretty interesting to hear how fellow South Africans are adapting to and enjoying the new culture and norms, but of course it is the stunning visuals accompanying these interviews that are the real stars of this show!
Episode 4 jumps to Phuket, where property owner Gert Loubser, holiday makers Nox & Fumane, and Justin & Reinhardt share their impressions and tips on making your Thailand experience unforgettable.
Next up, episode 5 then concludes the Phuket leg of the show, featuring interviews with Louis Baartman, Paul & Nadia, and Tieka van Rensburg. There are also beach excursions and a visit to rural Phuket – as well as a braai!
Leaving the beaches of Phuket behind, episode 6 next explores Bangkok’s temples and floating markets, with South Africans Sally, Matt & Dan thrown in the mix:
Finally, episode 7 sees the second part of the team’s Bangkok visit, interviewing Marce, Mandi & Krige in the process. They take a stroll down Khao San Road, see 1600 pandas and enjoy fancy cocktails at the Sky Bar!
Thailand is a pretty popular holiday destination for South Africans given our relatively weak currency (in other words, it is a more affordable overseas holiday than most!), but having seen all this, I have to say, I wouldn’t mind going for a break there either!
The team has since taken a short break to walk the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain (which went very well based on their Instagram account – and Chantelle’s Whatsapp chats with Retha!), and with East West now based in Spain for the next short while, we can definitely look forward to some “South Africans in Europe” tales hitting YouTube pretty soon!
On Sunday we enjoyed a brilliant braai at the Montgomery Clan Stronghold, welcoming back Rob and Tarryn who had just returned from their 3 week long honeymoon holiday in Thailand! It was brilliant to hear all about the sights and sounds that they had encountered, leaving both Chantelle and myself super jealous in the process!
The best part of the day was however dessert time, when out of the blue, Chantelle came strolling out carrying a rainbow cake of all things! What I didn’t know was that it was a surprise cake for me in celebration of my birthday that had fallen earlier in the week, which meant that I got the Full Monty in terms of having Happy Birthday sung to me and blowing out the candles (which of course, Jessica did on my behalf).
I love rainbow cakes in general – how can one not like this happy clappy cake! – and this particular one from The Velvet Cake Co. (situated in Rosenpark, Bellville) was delicious, tasting as good as what it looks!
It has been well documented over the years, this weird acceptance of Hitler and Nazi imagery in Thailand. In fact, it is quite often seen as cool, a fashion trend that I guess could only be labelled as Nazi chic.
I don’t quite get it, but in the same breath it kind of makes sense – if you’re not exposed to a story then you tend to borrow just the bits and pieces that you see of it that seems cool: you know, like adoring beautiful WW2 bomber planes without giving a thought to the fact that they actually indiscriminately rained down death wherever they were tasked to fly over.
Needless to say, World War II, Hitler and his Nazis are pretty much glossed over when it comes to Thai history books – which makes sense because they’ve got more than enough history of their own to get through without having to worry about all the other countries’ problems!
