Archive for December, 2008
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
The other evening, I saw what sounded like a young German man sporting a mullet which can only be described as magnificent. This is in addition to several other mullets I've spotted on this trip, always on the heads of Europeans.
If Europe is really "five years ahead" of us on ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Today, I finished dives three and four in my open water certification.
Highlight of dive 1: chasing an octopus. They're really impressively fast. But then, apparently, they get lazy, and decide to smoosh themselves into gaps in the coral. They're pretty well disguised until you float by, they get all pissy, ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Monday, December 29th, 2008
After wandering around, talking to three shops, and getting freaked out by the weird high-volume approach of the shops near the pier, I settled on an SSI course at Princess Divers.
Prices are all fixed on the island. Ostensibly, this is... Well, actually, nobody ever gives a reason why, neither plausible ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Kelly, who hosted the mostly-Peace Corps X-Mas dinner, has a nice house in Nakhon Si Tammarat Province. That's on the east side of the southern Thai peninsula, if you care. Well, while drinking on Christmas evening, we heard a loud noise like a fat, fat moth flying into one of ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Alec and I went for an hour long elephant ride. This was thoroughly badass. Impressively, the elephants smelled no worse than, say, cows, and were much more fun to ride.
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
One other thing about Thai toilets: they have small doors. Initially, I thought this was a fluke, a unique characteristic of the cheap room I was in. But after visiting Alec's place (which, by the way, is basically a garage...), his friend's house, and a new room, I realize that ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Pit toilets are old news. I broke myself in on those within my first hour on the ground in Japan. They`re quite easy to use, provided you have reasonably good balance. Thai toilets, however, are a whole new adventure.
As you probably realize, toilet paper is used very rarely outside the ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Last night, Alec taught me how to say the numbers one through seven, ten, and a hundred. So if something costs 1, 5, 13, or 47 baht, I`ll understand. But if it costs 7, 80, or 98 baht, I`ll have absolutely no idea what they`re talking about.
I should probably go ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Now that it's Thursday (well, entering Friday in Bangkok), this welcome news has arrived:
Bangkok airports to be fully operational by Friday
Thai officials say Bangkok's main international airport will be fully operational again by Friday, offering hope to tens of thousands of tourists left stranded by the country's political crisis. ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
On December 2nd, things begin to look simultaneously better, and worse:
Thailand's government has been disbanded and the Prime Minister barred from politics for five years in a court ruling that has prompted fears of a slide into civil war.
However, fears of violent clashes, or worse, are growing. "It now seems ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Monday, December 1st, 2008
While I was shopping for tickets, I began to see some worrying news about Thailand:
Governments have warned their citizens about traveling to Thailand during the current wave of protests and blockade of international airports.
And while few governments have explicitly told their citizens not to go to Thailand, many warn it ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »
Monday, December 1st, 2008
I've wanted to go to Thailand for several years now. The warm weather, world-renowned climbing, beautiful beaches, and unlimited mango sticky rice have been calling to me. But with a nearly 24 hour flight time over, it's just not worth it when you've only got a week of ...
Posted in Travel | No Comments »