Bangkok has just had its name changed by YMOTG to “BlokeWorld”. Having The Bermanator here for the last month (my kidneys will never be the same) and watching him discover the craziness of this city has made me re-appreciate just how insanely brilliant this place is.

So why BlokeWorld? Maybe it’s something to do with how men are allowed to be men here. Men are expected to be the provider, and western modern-man notions like “it’s ok for a man to cry” are not on. Crying is one of the worst things a man can do in front of a woman here – it shows he’s weak and does nothing for his reputation in the eyes of his lady and her friends.

”...Caring Understanding Nurturing Types…”

There’s no pressure either to have the latest $300 haircut and trendy clothes. What is important to a woman here is how a man takes care of her and her family, not what he looks like and how much of a metrosexual “Caring Understanding Nurturing Type” he can be.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you can turn on cable TV at almost any hour of the day and watch Muay Thai martial arts madness and Japanese bare-knuckle boxers choke each other into submission. TV is full of sport, sport, and more sport. Or perhaps its the exhilaration of drag-racing helmetless at 120km’s an hour on the back of a motorcycle taxi at 3am, high on adrenalin and cheap booze after an all-night drinking marathon in dodgy, dimly-lit backstreet bars.

Thailand has to be one of the few places left in the modern world where men are allowed to be men and the women are truly feminine women. Except for the ladyboys of course…I’m not sure where they fit into the scheme of things, and frankly I don’t care to know. Either way, BlokeWorld is a Hemingway-inspired utopia for those of us not afraid to stand up and be what we were born to be – Blokes.