A Better Trip!

I remember when I was totally gung ho for SCUBA diving. I get like that. I find something I like and then I go all out on it. I bought myself gear, including among everything else, flippers. For some reason I always hated the flippers. I just couldn’t get them to be comfortable and they would cut into the top of my feet.

They were uncomfortable, they felt too hard, and I couldn’t imagine why they kept cutting into my feet. Eventually, I used them less and less. Then after returning from my last SCUBA trip in Thailand, I was going through and cleaning my gear and I noticed something… I reached around inside the flipper and had an “Well, I’ll be darned!” moment. I pulled, and out popped a piece of plastic. Yep, the plastic they use to keep the flippers in shape so they look nice when you buy them.

What the heck? All those years and somehow I never thought to check for that. Boy, I’m an idiot!

I’m pretty fond of PacSafe gear, and use the bag protector and their wallet when I travel. Right now, there’s a great sale on the urban PacSafe bag, loaded with all the safety features that PacSafe has built it’s reputation on . Check it out by clicking on the photo!

I have to confess, I have quite a number of trip reports to catch up on and lots of videos and photos to process, but I’ve been quite distracted with the beginning of crab season this year. I’ve never gone crabbing before, but a friend of mine introduced me to it a week ago and I’ve been going great guns on it ever since.

I have been trying to be observant and learn as much as I can from the experienced guys on the pier. Going out at around 4AM when the pier opens I have a chance to talk to many crabbers before the pier is busy. One thing I noticed was that many people had carts in some form or another to keep organized. I was thinking that I would want to put something together like that when I ran across a heavy duty cart at Costco. It was marked down, from what an employee said from $40, to $30, and finally to $20.  Great deal!

It started looking like this:

Scrounging around the house, I found a cooler, my Maxpedition drop pouch, my trusty camp chair and some other things to pimp out cart. Then I picked up some 2″ and 1.5″ black ABS pipe and other fittings and put together the cart. Each item carefully considered for optimum useability. Last week, I had a chance to try out the car just dropping a few items in there and certain things I knew were good fits. The camp chair is as close a fit as you can get. Everything else I put just sat in the open bucket. Having had a trial run, I had a very good idea of where things needed to be. Now, this is an exercise in fishing geekdom, but I love gadgets, systems, and thinking or planning things through to make tasks efficient and more “fun”.

Here’s what I came up with: The Crabinator!

I’ll list what’s on the cart and then explain in further detail.

Continue reading "Winter Crabbing in California." »

One of the things that impressed me most on this last trip was not the flood itself, but the outpouring of care and assistance that the Thai people poured out to those in need. Many small shops were closed with simply written notes in Thai “gone to fight flood”. One sign said in English, “We cannot stand by and do nothing, we have closed to go help with flood relief.” Donation centers were everywhere. The news, for better or worse, was focused on the flood 24/7. In many of the shots, you could see volunteers from small business, from large corporations, the government, various parties, shirts of all colors, and the military.

What would it take for us to break the “I’ve got to work” way of thinking and drop everything to help our fellow countrymen?

If you felt a “hey dummy, I’ve got bills to pay” come to mind, then that’s exactly the button I was pushing. To be honest, I’m not sure what it would take for me to drop everything, but it’s a good question to wrestle with.

Have you ever stood in the lobby of a hotel and thought, “This was once a grand hotel”? There we stood in the lotus and the thought briefly crossed my mind. That thought returned once in the room. However, the place, if you can accept that it’s aging and due for a bit of sprucing up is quite interesting. Check out prices and room availability HERE and HERE.

From the moment you arrive you can see what it was, is, and was meant to be. It’s huge. Much like the the design of the Embassy Suites near San Francisco International Airport (for my local SF Bay Area Readers), it has a large central atrium surrounded by the rooms as the design flows skyward to the covered translucent roof. It’s impressive. There are six eating areas in the hotel. Continue reading "Lotus Hotel Pang Suan Kaew – Chiang Mai, Thailand" »

True Story

I had dropped a few memory cards under the table. As I reached around, i found memory cards and something bumpy. I thought it might be a blister pack for some pain reliever or something so I picked it up in the dimly lit corner.

I felt around it with the fingers of both hands. I felt the smooth, hard surface, the bumps, and there was a bump on the end. The end broke off in my fingers. “what?” I wondered. With one hand I fumbled around for the light switch.

Turning the light on I could now see clearly what I had been fondling with my fingers. An inch and a half long, and a bit over half an inch wide. Smooth, black, bumpy….and I held it’s head between my fingers.

Yes. Dead cockroach. I tossed it in the garbage thinking I’d just handle it calmly, no drama. It wasn’t until the smell hit me that I had to resist the slight urge to gag. Cockroaches smell pretty terrible. I had to wash my hands three times. If I had gasoline I would have washed with that first hah hah. Later, I found his friend too.

But don’t let that gross you out too much to read about this interesting hotel. In spite of my minor incident, I stayed at the Sabai Resort a total of nine days and found many positives to report.

Location

Although the Sabai Resort is not in the center of the Beach Road or near the Walking Street area, it is in a very convenient location on Second Road in Pattaya. The location next door to Big C shopping mall, a mall with  few restaurants, a department store, and a small cineplex.

It is also across the road from a few beer bars and small eateries. The hotel is also close to Alcazar, if you haven’t seen one of the world’s most famous ladyboy cabarets  yet, it’s a very short walk to the theater. It’s also right across the street from Pattaya International Hospital.

For the best prices for the Sabai Resort, Please take a look HERE  or HERE. Continue reading "Sabai Resort – Pattaya, Thailand" »

I don’t know if you can see what’s going on behind the sign, but I bet you can guess.