Posted on 08/19/2003 11:07:55 PM PDT by natewill
Expatriates. You see them in back-street bars of Bangkok, Manila, Guadalajara, along third-world waterfronts, in up-country Thailand, anywhere living is cheap and rules scarce.
Some are old guys in their sixties and seventies with fading tattoos from other lives, lives that also fade into fewer and fewer living memories. Some are in their thirties and run little businesses, often legitimate. They are a bit rough-looking or maybe just eccentric, congenitally what they are and not concerned about what you think of them. You find them heisting a brewski in out-of-the-way spots, chaffing with the barmaids who maybe or may not have a sideline. They are the dropouts of the earth-the interesting expats, not the middle-management retirees who really belong in some dismal retirement colony in Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at fredoneverything.net ...
So, which FReepers have any experience with being an expat? Are you currently an expat? Does this option satiate any needs one may have for the original American experience (frontier-lovin', no surveillance, small unobtrusive government, etc)?
I don't hang out in bars, so can't give any report on rowdier guys in seedier places.
In a few years, you will find me in Cebu, not Manila.
The idea is, to stay away from the muslim areas. I don't like the idea of walking the streets of New York, Chicago or Detroit either, but I know a lot about the place, and I will be careful as well.
Explain.
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