Hello from the Big Mango — Bangkok, Thailand! Well, this place isn’t at all what we expected. It’s a huge city — the 33rd largest in the world. Welcome to the Elliott Confidential podcast. To get the full Elliott Confidential experience, please subscribe to this newsletter. Before I forget, here’s this week’s question: Have you ever visited a place that defied your expectations? For example, we thought Bangkok would be small and provincial (maybe we watched “The King and I” once too often). Ever been to a place that wasn’t what you expected? The Thai word for Bangkok is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon. And that’s the shortened version. Thai is a complicated language. I’m struggling with “hello” (Sawatdee-krap) and “thank you” (Khoob-khun krab). Mostly, I just nod and smile. I promised I’d share photos of our trip along the canals of Bangkok. A special thanks to our friend Diamond who showed us this fascinating part of the city. We’ll have more on the canal tour in our next episode. I feel very lucky to get to explore Thailand with the boys. Aren has been taking excellent photos and Iden is our resident videographer. We’ve stayed at two Anantara hotels in Bangkok — the Anantara Siam and Anantara Riverside. Both properties have quiet rooms and fast Wi-Fi, so we’ve been able to work on our stories and podcasts. Plus, the hotels are really upscale without being pretentious. We’ll have more from Bangkok next week. Please don’t forget this week’s question: Have you ever visited a place that defied your expectations? We love getting your comments. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.elliottconfidential.com/subscribe