Retouristing with Jim Cirillo: Using Thailand to Reinvent Yourself [S6.E44]

Ed interviews his old friend Jim Cirillo, a good example of a repeat tourist (or re-tourist) to Thailand, the sizeable population of people all over the world who keep coming back to Thailand but for a variety of reasons have decided not to live here. A global Thailand fan club, if you will. 

The guys begin by recounting Jim’s first visit to Thailand in 2002, when traffic was even more chaotic and elephants roamed the streets of Bangkok. Fast forward to 2016, and Jim returned to get a break from his high stress corporate lifestyle, and he more or less fell in love with the openness and relaxed nature of Thai society. It helped that Jim is a musician that he found the Bangkok music scene welcoming and savvy to western music such as jazz and blues. 

His return also turned him on to the digital nomads working in Chiang Mai, a discovery that would eventually lead Jim to starting his own podcast about reinventing yourself in the digital age. Check out Jim Jim’s Reinvention Revolution here. 

Thailand thus became a place for Jim to connect with interesting people who were hip to how technology was changing careers and the economy. Further, Jim explains how Bangkok is a fantastic hub for travel to other destinations, from Cambodia to the Philippines to Bali. The long and short of it: a re-tourist to Thailand was born. :)

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