Generating worlds, exploring them, losing the thread.
This morning I had an interesting experience, one that I will now relate, sparing you any need to conduct your own field research.
… Read more
In short, don’t put namman muay (“Boxing Liniment”) in your eye.
I awoke with a sore shoulder and, in jockish high spirits, I splashed some of this fiery oil onto the offending muscles with such enthusiasm that quite a lot of it went instead into my eye. Both hands being already contaminated, I couldn’t rinse the eyeball
In my last post, I discussed the mindful appreciation of a novel tequila experience, one that might even be good for you. Who knows? Our test subjects felt better after taking it, at least, and they were all still alive the next morning.
My earlier “Magic potion revealed!” had for months been a leading magnet for visitors to this site; “T. Mockingbird” promises to be an even bigger draw, which leads one to wonder whether the therapeutic … Read more
Consider the following.
Terrestrial umbilicals. Scuba divers, e.g., carry bottled atmosphere underwater, taking a bit of our terrestrial environment with us.
Marine umbilicals. Whether on land or under the sea, meanwhile, we always bring along some of the marine environment from which, about 375 million years ago, we vertebrate land-dwellers first emerged. That’s right. We veteran fish-out-of-water types have internalized the seawater that gave us life in the first place. Our blood now comprises part of what is essentially a … Read more
Writers look for budget accommodation (Bangkok, 2027)
Here are some things that didn’t fit on the graph in my “Things fall apart redux” post.
The price of fish in Villa Supermarket is soaring, the Gulf of Thailand is getting fished out, China is behaving more aggressively as the superpower-in-waiting, I’ve lost my mother’s copy of Ben’s secret recipe for Montreal smoked meat and I now learn Ben’s deli closed two years ago. It’s as likely I’ll get to … Read more
“My girlfriend, the skipper’s wife and myself were standing atop a steep-sided limestone islet poking up just off a beach on Horseshoe Bay, Rinca Island, Komodo National Park. And more company was on its way. A hundred metres down the beach the way we had come, a 2.5m dragon was following hot upon the flick-flick-flick of its tongue, moving toward us as though it were very late for lunch indeed.”
Read the whole story: “Dragon’s Dinner Manque.”
Graham … Read more
I saw a letter to the editor in yesterday’s *Bangkok Post* that raised the question of whether exploration oil drilling could do any more harm to Samui’s natural environment than mass tourism has already accomplished. Same old story, wherever you go–the same scenes that are being “spoiled” for the old hand, are often “just wonderful, so natural!” to the first-time visitor.
Here’s a take I did on this notion years ago (first photo from www.phuket-trips.com):
The silence boomed. At … Read more
Okay, so it’s a stretch. But one has to think, given current sensibilities with respect to offshore oil drilling, Rak Aao Thai Network Group couldn’t have found a better time to protest oil exploration in the vicinity of Thailand’s third-largest tourist island.
Come July 31st, we can look forward to aerial coverage—with possible surprises for aerial viewers—of a 35,000-strong human chain standing hand-in-hand on the 52-kilometre road that encircles Koh Samui. Better still, we can hike on down … Read more
Leary here.
Adventure tourism? Gosh. It isn’t adventure if you know where you’re going to sleep that night. Or even if you’re going to get to sleep somewhere. When you think about it, though, none us knows for sure where we’re going to sleep tonight, or if we’ll still be alive to do this sleeping. Life itself is an adventure, forget about your diving holidays. It’s all in the mind. Darn it. Life is life, and it’s always what you … Read more
This is Jack Shackaway. I’ve been invited on another junket, a liveaboard dive trip in the Andaman Sea. We’re setting out from Phuket. I don’t make a lot of money but, hey, I’m a freelance writer, eh? I don’t need a lot of money.
I’m a writer and freelance journalist. Sometimes I’m a hack. A two-bit panderer to any passing proposition. But in my own head I’m a full-fledged author, never mind I never have time to write anything. Not … Read more
Haven’t signed up for Steve Van Beek’s canoeing trip to Laos and then Bhutan. Too much to do. Also not planning to go to Rome or Antarctica. Or Azilda, Ontario, come to that.… Read more
