Living in Asia makes you feel like a giant

I haven't just gotten to this part of the world. I have been here for a while and originally moved to Thailand all the way back in 2004. For the most part my experiences here have been positive and the things that I would complain about probably seem like first-world-problems and are merely inconveniences rather than actual problems.

One of the things that has followed me everywhere around in every one of the South East Asian countries that I visit is that I am significantly larger than your average native and this can be problematic at times.

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_{This isn't me, but this guy's blog features similar problems that I experience at being "big"}

Let's get one thing straight; I am not fat. I might be a little bit pudgy like most people that are in their 40's but I'm not fat. I am around 6 feet tall and 185 lbs (83kg or so) and this is not even that big where I come from. This would land me in the normal sized dude category back in the USA. However, here in Vietnam and it was also true in Thailand, this puts me in the Shaquille O'Neil category when I am shopping for clothes and it gets a bit frustrating.

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For one thing, finding shoes is damn near impossible. I wear a size 12 (EU size 45) and when I go into a shoe store there is virtually zero chance they are going to have something that big. I can't really order anything either because they don't even have one for me to try on and see if I like the way it feels. The cutoff point seems to be a size 10 but I have been in some places where they didn't really have anything over a size 8. I don't even know any western men that wear size 8's.

Shirts are tough to find my size as well and I frequently find myself in the men's section mumbling to myself and inquiring if they have anything for adults in here or perhaps I accidentally wandered into the toddler section of the clothing store.

I would say the worst part is probably underpants. For whatever reason, the South East Asian audience is primarily interested in what I call "nut huggers"

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If this style of underpants is a global phenomenon for men and I just didn't get the memo because of where I live, I'm gonna go on record and say that I am opposed to this notion entirely. It is uncomfortable and just why would you do this to yourself?

Anyway, combine this with the fact that I have ordered the largest sizes of this that they have and barely fit into them and you could say that I am a little big angry about these. I am not a 3XL kind of guy, but that is what I have to order and even then they barely fit me at all.

All right, enough about me in my underpants. It just gets me grouchy though.

Then there is the basketball court, and this is one of the advantages I suppose.

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6 feet tall is not very tall and there are very few people that height that have ever made it in the NBA. I am not a great basketball player and I am also in my 40's, yet when i go to the pick up courts in Vietnam at night I am always a highly sought after commodity because I am a rebounding machine. This is almost exclusively because I am 6 inches taller than everyone else and can box out any Vietnamese person in the paint. This doesn't mean that I am a great addition to the team, I am virtually useless on offense outside of the paint but it does feel kind of nice being the tallest and most likely to get a bunch of rebounds.

Now if it just weren't for the super-tight underpants and worn out shoes that I have to wear at the basketball courts.

I didn't realize how dependent I was on certain things that I would pick up on my annual trips to USA until a couple of years happened and I wasn't able to visit. I feel so big over here and when I return to USA on these trips I realize very quickly that I am average size at best. Still to tall to be in Tom Cruise films but probably not tall enough to play pick-up basketball.