TravelStream™ news feed for member nealinthailand on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nealinthailand en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:42:08 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1256722623/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1256722623/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1256722623/tpod.html Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:42:08 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Ban Khao Lak, Phangnga, Thailand

I feel the need to write but I don't have anything particular on my mind. I’m not sure if that makes much sense but at the moment I sit alone in my bungalow and now that my life has slowed down a bit post IDC, I find myself missing IM quite a bit and feeling alone.  Pretty sucky I must say but there is not anything else that I can do on that front……all options have been expended and I am left without recourse.  I really need to start avoiding relationships because they really drag me down when they end.  I used to be impervious to this sort of shit but I have grown weak in my old age and find that my heart has become more brittle.  How the hell did this happen?  I’m supposed to be the guy who doesn’t care about much of anything as he traipses across Asia and yet somewhere along the line the emotional involvement with these crazy girls became too much for me.  I definitely need to take a year off from relationships because my current method of dating doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.I finally got into the water for recreational purposes and had 2 nice dives on an old wreck that is about 30 minutes off the coast here.  It’s more of a debris field because it was completely torn apart by the tsunami but there is so much life in this area it is absolutely amazing.  I came across a few cuttle fish that were actually more curious then frightened so they were quite photogenic.  I think one out of my 15 pictures turned out pretty decent but that is the average ratio for underwater photography.  Thank god for digital cameras because I could not imagine being confined to only 24 exposures underwater.  Technology is great but they still need to work on the giant bulky scuba gear because I’m tired of lugging all of this stuff into the water…..it weighs a friggin ton.  At the end of the dive we ended up being surrounded by GIANT jelly fish and that was a little disconcerting but with a little care we were able to avoid any serious painful contact.All of you who sent out congratulations to me on my IDC, I thank you and appreciate the well wishes.  I will have to wait until my return to the states for any sort of celebratory dinner or toast with the family but I am used to these sort of delays by now.  I am really hoping to skip Alaska this upcoming summer because I am just burnt out on the whole scene and I cannot see myself working for my last employer anytime soon.  You ever come across these people who see themselves as saintly but in reality they are just assholes and don’t realize it?  That is pretty much my last employer and I don’t want to go through another summer of that bullshit.  Maybe I can just ride out the low season in Indonesia or something.  I found a pretty awesome diving place in Indonesia and am starting to look into that option.  Man, if I could completely cut the states out of my life then I would be ecstatic.  I never look forward to re-entering that world and every year I have to spend 1/3 of my life engulfed in bullshit.  To be free of this would be an amazingly heavy weight off of my shoulders.It’s strange, as I read over this blog over the years I realize that this is a sort of testimony of my life as I pass through this world both on the physical plane and on the temporal level as well.  I’m glad that people have the opportunity to get to know me on what I consider to be an intimate level.  My blog doesn’t always make sense as I have come to realize as I reread over the past years but I do make a valiant attempt at being as candid as possible.  It’s funny, I am online friends with one of the main administrators of this blog site and I was asking her why I am never on the "featured blog" section of the site and she asked the guy in charge of that particular part and he said that I swear too much and I’m kind of depressing.  Well I suppose that everything is not always happy go lucky in my blog but that is a true reflection of life in general and if I watered it down for mass consumption, what the hell would be the point in writing in the first place?The world desires the happy ending or the chipper story that will lead directly into a happy ending but that is not true to life.  Let’s face it, most of us go through quite a bit of uncertainty, pain, guilt and even depression as we move forward in our lives.  Yes these emotions are interspaced by joy and love and unabashed happiness but to completely gloss over all of the negatives would be bullshitting ourselves and each other and to what point?  To put up the front that life is grand?  Sometimes people baffle me….I just don’t comprehend what peoples motivations are sometimes and I stand back amazed at the vanity.     I’ll have to take some pictures of my current hacienda because it’s not too shabby.  Of course we have quite the animal collection out here what with all the chickens, dogs, bats, frogs and various creepy crawlies that I have yet to identify but these all just add to the atmosphere.  My bungalow is elevated about one story above the ground so I get a nice bird’s eye view of the goings on and when there is a tropical down pour I have a nice dry place to relax and listen to the rain.  The only complaint is that the ceiling beams are a little too high for a hammock and to be perfectly frank, hammocks are an integral part of my lifestyle.  Something must be done.Well I think I may have run out of random things to talk about at the moment.  I sit here at 10:30 at night, hunched over my glowing laptop while in bed and nothing is coming to me.  I want to write but I am without direction or material.  I need to go have an adventure sometime soon and get myself into one of my patented crazy situations just to spice up the blog a bit.  The only downside to working here in khao lak is that you are a hostage to the season.  If you leave for a brief little vacation and are not available for work then the shops stop calling you and you don’t get any employment upon your return.  There are worse fates then to be at the beck and call of the dive shops I suppose but one of the only bright spots about not having IM around anymore is that traveling and moving around is a lot easier and I don’t have to worry about too many logistics but now that she is gone, I have planted my seasonal roots in khao lak.  All things considered, I would rather have IM hanging around and being a pain in my side but those days have passed me by.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1256280374/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1256280374/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1256280374/tpod.html Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:06:36 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Ban Khao Lak, Phangnga, Thailand

Hello dear friends and neighbors (in a purely international, trans world web sort of way).  The rain has stopped, the sun is shining and I have finally finished my IDC and completed the IE (instructors examination) with somewhat flying colors.  there were 28 people taking the test  and apparently me and my two co conspirators from sea dragon scored at or near the top in all the categories so thats a pretty good thing.  The testing itself was not too hard truth be told but there was a bit of stress involved and the chance that you may just not notice a students "problem" while teaching the confined or open water sections of the test.  if you dont see the problem, correct the problem and then have the student redo the skill then its pretty much impossible to pass the damn test.......stressssss.  after the testing we came back to khao lak and proceeded to get drunk in the pool off of the champagne that the shop had bought for us.  i couldnt hang with them until they finally called it a night but i'm sort of glad because everyone blacked out and dont remember how they got home....with their motorbikes no less.I'm really happy to have this out of the way finally and be a little farther down the path of actually making this a quasi lucrative career and not just a hobby.  truth be told, the whole endeavor has been pretty expensive but its a one off sort of thing and i wont have to put up that sort of money again....now i can just start making some real money which is a good thing.  I think the real question that should be asked is how many of you ever envisioned me as a teacher?  yes i know its only scuba diving and not exactly teaching molecular gentetics at university but still......me.....teaching?  what the fuck has this world come to?  next thing you know you will see the pope turning hasidic (which is just a fantastic mental picture).so the IE is finished and i just have to wait a couple of days for the paperwork to go through before i can officially begin teaching courses.  dont want to break those standards and practices that i learned so much about so i'm just going to chill out for a few days and pick up a few specialty instructor courses to make myself more hireable.  things in khao lak are starting to pick up finally and the dive shops are almost all open and ready for business.  when it is the slow season in khao lak it is the SLOW SEASON, with almost all the stores shuttered for 6 months at a time....its like an old west town but without the gunfights.well I truly hope if any of you are ever interested in getting certified in diving you will come and pay me a visit  because shit, we're almost family right (for those of you who are my family you should just come and visit me on general priciples you lazy bastards :)   )
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1255313340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1255313340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1255313340/tpod.html Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:16:52 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Ban Khao Lak, Phangnga, Thailand

Sorry for the lack of communication as of late. I have been up to my elbows in my scuba instructor class and haven't had much time for anything other then studying, sleeping and sitting at the bottom of a pool doing my "skill circuit". Its funny, in this course I think I have my scuba regulator out of my mouth more then I actually have it in….there are so many “skills” where you have to take your reg out of your mouth (which you use to breath).  I will be very happy when this thing is finally finished and I can get on with a normal life and not have to think of phrases like “diver diver are you ok? Diver inflate your bcd and drop your weights.  I have an unconscious diver who is not breathing, please call for help” LOL oh the joys of scenario based learning.  Luckily I only have 4 days left in the course and then its off to phuket (2 hour drive) to take the 3 day test……yes a 3 day test. Sigh.There isn’t much new on the news front  over here really.  It is still very much the rainy season so it has been pissing down rain continuously since I arrived.  I never thought it could rain so much in one place but apparently I was wrong.  It kinda sucks because everything is so moist in my bungalow.  My clothes will grow mold on them if I don’t hang them up so I actually had to go and buy hangers the other day.  The bungalow itself is pretty sweet and is one of the few buildings I’ve been in Thailand where they have installed screens in the windows so there is ALMOST no bugs penetrating my outer defense’s.  the only down side is the huge population of chickens and roosters that cluck around the courtyard…..they aren’t that big of a hassle but at 5 am 20 roosters all start crowing and that sucks something terrible but that is life in Thailand I suppose.For those of you who find great humor in my love life, yes I have talked to IM and tried working things out but her mom is proving to be quite the bitch and it all seems dead on arrival.  IM asked me to come up to the village for a big pow wow between her mom and dad and me and I was game for such shenanigans but when I picked IM’s brain over the whole thing it came down to her mom wants me to buy IM a house…….lol.  Now a house where she lives only runs about $4000 but there is just now way I am buying a house in the middle of nowhere Thailand.  Poor IM is stuck in the middle of the whole thing and you can tell she is embarrassed by the situation but she is at the whim of mom and it seems that until I buy a house, I don’t have access to IM.  I’ll miss her.I have a deep affection for thai girls……they are just the greatest thing since sliced bread if the truth be told but sooner or later you are going to get below the surface layer and niceities and are going to hit a vein of thai beliefs, customs or thoughts that will just blow everything straight to hell.  The horrible part is that you know that this event is going to arise in some form sooner or later but you know neither the time nor the shape its going to take….its kinda like the lord and the thief in the night bit.  You don’t know when he’s comin but you better believe he’s coming.  A smart man would throw in the towel and call it a day but no one ever said I was smart and to be perfectly honest, there isn’t much thinking being done when a cute little brown girl walks by so there should be quite a few more of these stories in my future but at the moment I have given up on relationships and am taking some time off from the drama and the stress so you’ll have to get your kicks elsewhere.Well that is all from here for now folks.  I have to get to bed so I can go and give my prescriptive teaching lesson in the morning.  At least it’s a dry day where we neither go in the pool or in the ocean (strong currents and NO visibility makes the ocean no fun right now).  Hopefully I have enlightened you all on my current situation and you feel relieved and happy to know that I am still trudging along this path of mine no matter what bumps and pitfalls I may come across.  Stay alert for further escapades but until then………
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1254122444/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1254122444/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1254122444/tpod.html Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:36:41 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Ban Khao Lak, Phangnga, Thailand

You know, sometimes its a joy to live in a foreign culture that you dont understand all that well....makes life exciting and interesting and keeps you on your toes quite a bit because you dont know what crazy shit these people will do at any given moment but at other times you find yourself in this culture and you want to strangle someone.  i suppose that the premium that the thais put on family is to be commended to some degree.  the respect that they show their elders really is astonishing coming from the west and its nice to see but this also can be pushed to a level that is maddening.  as an example, the world famous thai sex industry is mostly populated by girls who are trying to make money for mom and dad and the parents are fully aware of this decision and though admittedly not a preferable situation, are ok with it and live with it because the results speak for themselves.  Thais and their families can be maddening (just ask anyone married to a thai girl) and IM's is no different unfortunately since they (her mother) has pushed her to leaving me and going back home to serve mom and the grandparents hand and foot. you cant really call the mother lazy because i've seen her working in the corn fields but she has completely ruined and decapitated my relationship with IM which sucks the big fat one my friends. i gotta tell you, the dating thing kinda is a pain in the ass and i'm starting to seriously consider going back to my old modus operandi of just enjoying the physical aspect of this place instead of getting emotionally involved. oh well, live and learn and move on and experience life i suppose.other then my love life troubles nothing new and exciting is going on over here.  a lot of my friends from last season are starting to trickle in from the four corners of the globe in preperation for the season which kicks off here in a week or two.  the waves are still pretty fucking big out there so i'm pretty happy i'll be doing my IDC for the first bit of the season because living on a boat in 14ft seas is no fun but this is also prime time to see a bunch of sharks because there havent been any divers around for 6 months so they come back and hang out until the season starts and all the people kinda scare them off.....oh well, it will be a long season and i'm sure i will get my share of leopard sharks and hopefully some mantas.....should be fun
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1253865894/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1253865894/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1253865894/tpod.html Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:27:28 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Bangkok, Thailand

oh man do i have a cold. it figures that i stay healthy as can be in the shitty climes of Alaska but once i get to the tropics i get the chest cold from hell.  of course taking 3 separate 14 hour bus rides in a 4 day period probably didn't help.  the last bus was the most comfortable with giant seats and plenty of leg room but this is the bus that i caught my cold on so i will cast a disparaging look in its direction and just leave it at that.I have finally settled down in khao lak after having spent a week in Bangkok awaiting a friends arrival so i could mooch his instructor manual off of him before he went back to Canada.  having done the mooching i then went to Laos for 2 days to obtain the proper visas to keep my ass in the country legally for an extended period of time.  i wont delve into the intricacies of the Thai visa regulations but to say that i have been jumping through hoops would put it mildly.  the only positive of the Laos trip (other then the visas) was the discovery of a great bakery cafe in Vientiane which makes some great food.....drop me a line before you go and I'll give you directions.so things on the IM front have been rocky to say the least.  She showed up at my door about 4 hours after my arrival in country and she was just all squeals and happiness which did wonders for my heart but it turns out that her mom REALLY does not like me....to the point that her daily phone calls home are filled with demands that she leave me and go back home.  the reasons are two fold....the first is that i am farang (western) and not Thai and therefore one step below an actual person.  this attitude is pretty prevalent in Thai society, especially up north and so it comes as no major shock.  the second problem is that mom had grown used to IM being home for the last 4 months and now that she is gone she has to go back to cooking and cleaning and doing laundry....mom is none too pleased about this.  if this were America this situation would almost be laughable.  I mean how many parents really like the guy who is putting it to their daughter?  but in Thailand family is first and foremost and things are not going well.....i have a nagging suspicion that I am going to lose this battle with her mom which sucks to say the least.  I have pretty strong feelings for IM but if her mom doesn't let up then I will lose her for good......I'm back in Thailand,yay!!i start my IDC (scuba instructor course) on Oct 1 so that should be pretty challenging and I'm looking forward to getting it out of the way finally after having put it off for a few years.  its still ass deep in the rainy season here in khao lak so there are daily DOWNPOURS and i have not seen the sun shine here yet.  I'm starting to doubt there is a sun to be perfectly frank with you.  most of the shops here in khao lak are shuttered until mid October when the diving season starts so this sleepy town is even sleepier...it kinda reminds me of my university town during summer break which is depressing.my trip from the states was pretty straight forward and non demanding.  i flew from homer to anchorage which was pretty sweet but truth be told, i do enjoy that drive along coast going into anchorage, just really beautiful.  my carry on bag was absolutely jammed full of stuff because i did not want to put valuables in my check in.  the xray screener actually put the bag through 3 different times and then asked me to explain what was in there.  they then wiped down the bag with a piece of cloth and tested the cloth for bomb making chemicals which of course came up negative but Jesus man, just open the bag and you will see the complete lack of bomb stuff. well this isn't the most exciting post in the world but hey, it cant be all sunshine and roses everyday right?  hope u all are having a mighty fine fall season and hope to hear from you sometime
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1251876966/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1251876966/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1251876966/tpod.html Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:13:12 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Homer, Alaska, United States

hey there, hi there, ho there my fellow travellers and vicarious readers from abroad.  well here we are once again at yet another summers end where my servitude comes to an end and the ability to enjoy life is once again bestowed upon me.  I'm heading out of homer on sunday (6th) and back to asia once again.  I will be working until 4pm and then clocking out, taking a quick shower at a friends house and then on a plane at 6pm to anchorage and then a 4am flight to bangkok.  i'll be with my girlfriend before the devil even knows i'm gone to paraphrase an old saying.things have gone pretty well over here and I will be leaving with more money made and in hand then ever before which is a good thing.  tourism has suffered quite a bit up here due to the economic slowdown so business has been off a bit and thus my hours have been cut here and there which sucks but i can't complain too much.  i have to look at it as I'm lucky to have this oppurtunity year after year to live up here and work and have such a steady source of employment where i dont even have to worry about it come march or april.  despite the exhaustion and the constant haggling for hours, tonight i will look at my ordeal in a glass half full sort of way.so on a funny note.....I got sort of bored over the summer and since I was neither looking for female companionship nor had the time for such shenannigans i decided to grow out a monsterous beard which after a month or two became such a beast that i had to break down and make the worlds largest mutton chops out of it.  I have photos which I'm sure you are probably looking at right now and laughing your ass off but let this be said....I have had my picture taken with so many tourists its ridiculous.  its as if i'm some sort of tourist attraction in and of myself.  just building another layer on my monster ego which is never a good thing.on another note.....as many of my readers already know, my mother passed away this past spring.  it was strange because me and my sister did not have the best relationship with her to say the least.  in fact i had stopped talking to her for about 10 years and my sister for about 5 or 6.  the strange part is that without consulting each other, my sister and i both began to look for her through internet seaches and after a little effort my sister found her and gave me her information.  My mom died about 6 months after we both started talking to her again and it makes me wonder about what exactly ignited that desire to search her out and make peace at that specific time.  I just find it unusual that both my sister and I would have the same desire to bring about a resolution just 6 months before her death.  did we know somehow that time was short?  It is a bit sad that i find myself thinking about my mother more in death then when she was alive.  I have sat and reminisced about various meaningless scraps of my childhood many times over the last 5 or 6 months and this is something that i never did before her death.  I bring all of this up because my sister has just sent me a portion of my mothers ashes.  I suppose it may sound sort of morbid but you have to understand that upon reconnecting with our mom the one thing she said over and over was how proud she was that we got out and saw the world and how she wished she could have done it, how she would have liked to have seen the wonders and peculararities of other cultures and other continents but was satisfied that we, her two estranged children were able to make these treks in her absence and this was enough for her or so it had to be since she was already speaking of her life in the past tense.  with this in mind, my sister and i have agreed to take our mothers ashes on our travels and leave a small part of her throughout the world.  what she could not do for herself in life we will do our best to do for her in death.  its not much but its something.......
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1251011756/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1251011756/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1251011756/tpod.html Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:42:47 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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Homer, Alaska, United States

It's been a bit of time since I have written a blog and the only reason that I can give is that nothing of much interest has happened to me since I headed out to the midwest to see the phish shows.  Life here in homer has been trudging along at a steady rate and I find myself on the cusp of being finished with my summer season and am ready to go back to asia and enjoy my life once again.  Work has been work and I dont have much to say about it other then I am extremely tired of looking at halibut let alone cutting a 100lbs per morning.  I fucking hate fish and constantly find myself covered in fish slime which just isnt fair. on an interesting note I have packed up my tent and am living in the storeroom above the restaurant where I work.  It's a pretty good deal since I dont have a commute to work and I get free wi-fi and satellite tv.  on the downside I dont have the fresh air and the relative peace and tranquility that you get when camping in nature.  Tranquility is nice I suppose but after awhile you get tired of pulling nettles out of the crack of your ass so I guess its a good thing that I am indoors.Im is pretty pumped about me coming back and she is already packing her bags and getting ready to meet up with me in bangkok.  I talked to her last night and she said she can wait 4 months but 5 months is too much so i need to get back NOW.  she's a funny girl with her broken english and perverse sense of humor so i'm happy that she has waited around for my sorry ass.  I now only have 14 days left before I get on the plane back to asia and i cannot wait to be finished with alaska and get back with Im.Upon my arrival in Thailand I am finally undertaking my instructor course for scuba diving (IDC).  I have been putting this off for a few years both because of the cost and because I wasnt sure I was ready to make the commitment towards an actual career in scuba diving but I have sat down and figured out that this is the right move for me at this juncture in my life since I have the money and have the confidence and love of diving to make me a good instructor.  the course costs quite a bit of cash but I also get quite the pay boost and am much more hireable so it should pay itself off in a month or two and with any luck I may be able to skip my yearly trip to alaska in the near future and live a life of sun and scuba year around.  cross your fingers for me cuz i need all the luck i can get
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1247641519/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1247641519/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1247641519/tpod.html Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:30:52 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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East Troy, Wisconsin, United States

so what can i add about this trip that would be of any interest to to my reading public?  the two days of music at alpine was pretty awesome since the energy is just off the charts with the 40,000 people packed in on an extremely steep hill and are ready to dance the night away.  the second night fell upon fathers day and as the band came out to start the show the stage crew brought a metal tub and placed it at the front of the stage.  The guitarist then led his 4-5 year old daughter out on stage and placed her in the tub and then picked up the guitar and the band began the show as the little girl peered over the rim of this tub at the tidal wave of 40,000 people hovering over her.  as the song progressed another child would come from the side stage and climb into the tub until all of the bands children were packed into the tub.  it was a pretty cool little tribute to fathers day and the crowd cheered the kids on whole heartedly.  i am putting a link on here for a 2 minute youtube video that can give you some sort of idea of a show and  the fun. this was not one of the shows i went to but has good quality sound and video so i picked this one...anyway its only 2 minutes so give it a look  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3BZzXGfvE0on a cool side note, the town where our camp site was located was an old circus town....meaning what exactly?  well apparently 25 different circus's  would spend the winter or the "off season" in this town and unwind.  the idea for Ringling bros 3 ring circus was born here as was the idea of putting a circus on a train to travel cross country.  talk about a weird and cool little history!  the downtown area had a bunch of very large statues dedicated to their circus past and makes it an interesting place to walk around.all good things must come to an end unfortunately and the last of my 4 show run finally wound down and I was faced with returning to real life which is sometimes a depressing prospect.  I was able to squeeze in some more family time the next day since my plane didn't leave until 5pm so all in all i got almost a full 24 hours to hang out with the parents and my grandmother which is just an added bonus.  I soon had to bid farewell to the family homestead and was on the road to the airport and my flights back to Alaska. entering the airport i was struck by how many tie dye shirts and hippified people i saw walking about and going through security.  so many phish kids heading back to wherever they may call home now that tour was over.  i sauntered over to the digital check in booth where the computer screen told me that my flight had been over booked and was i willing to take a later flight in exchange for "compensation".  since i was not in any sort of hurry i figured "why not?" and volunteered.  the gnarly part of this story is that my compensation was a direct flight instead of a bunch of connecting flights (arriving 3 hours earlier) and a $400 voucher for my next flight.  talk about a sweet ass deal!  man i got a free flight pretty much for just leaving 45 minutes later and arriving 3 hours earlier...you can sign me up for that every time.so here i am back in Alaska and just trying to trudge through the summer.  the 4th of July weekend was crazier then shit with all the tourists but this was the only weekend so far where the business was on par with last year.....other then that the year is down by about 20% for most businesses.  this whole world economy thing is really bringing down a lot of people which kind of sucks...it has affected me a little bit because my hours have been cut back a bit so I'm not making quite as much as i was hoping but its not anything too drastic so I'm not too worried.  we'll see how it goes for next year though because i don't think many businesses can handle two years of this shit and keep their heads above water.the weather here has been phenomenal with nothing but sun.  we have had 2 days of extremely heavy fog this summer but other then that the weather has been ideal and the sun has been warming us in a spectacular fashion...complete polar opposite of last year when the summer just skipped by us on the way to parts unknown and handed all responsibilities to the fall season who promptly fucked us.on the wildlife front, the sea otters have suddenly appeared and have been hanging out right off the beach at the back of my work.  cute little fuckers for sure...i kinda want to keep one for a pet and feed him fresh crab as we hang out in the pool together.  is this feasible? probably not...but a man can dream and this is my dream. now make it happen people!!!!!!!!!!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1247022919/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1247022919/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nealinthailand/thailand2006/1247022919/tpod.html Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:58:37 -0400 There is no end in sight and oh what a sight it is

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East Troy, Wisconsin, United States

The last you heard from me oh intrepid reader, I was just surviving the end of the phish show at deer creek ( I still refuse to call it the god damn Verizon wireless center) and was leaving the show in a deluge of rain that felt as if someone was just pouring a bucket of water over my head in an endless wave of water that mixed with the sweat that had dried to my skin while dancing, thus creating a salty mixture that burned my eyes as i tried to wander back to the rough area where our car was parked (bum fuck Egypt).The plan had been for us to enjoy the holy hell out of the show and then high tale it up to the Chicago area where we could crash at my sisters condo in the city and actually have a roof over our heads and running water to shower (though the shower didn't seem so dire anymore after all the rain).  And although we indeed enjoyed the holy hell out of the show, the best laid plans are laid to waste and we were side tracked to a rest stop because of the weather and the delay we encountered in getting out of the lot after the show.  it really would have been a bit rude for us to show up at 4am, expecting a place to sleep and probably a bit of food....I'm sure her door man would have loved us.Upon missing out on our shower and relaxation in the city we quickly made our way to the parents house which is conveniently on the way to alpine valley.  we stopped and said hi to the folks and the grandmother who were enjoying a lazy Saturday morning.  we quickly showered and washed off whatever hippie funk had accumulated and survived the rain shower and then went out to breakfast at the worlds best pancake house.  The walker bros. pancake house puts IHOP to shame and i shall not mention that shameful organization again other then to say that they can not hold a candle to the magnificence that is the walker bros. apple pancake.  Try to imagine a heavily caramelized apple pie with a cinnamon breading for a crust that had mysteriously turned inside out and sat upon your plate in all of its gooey glory........i knew i should have taken a picture but i feel like such a dumb ass taking a picture of food.....oh well.  needless to say, this shit was great and was one of the foods that i missed while being banished in Asia.The breakfast was nice because it kinda turned out to be a fathers day sort of thing (the holiday being the next day).  I probably hadn't gone out to breakfast with my dad in 10 or 12 years so it was a nice change of pace before we bolted into the car and headed off the road and up into Wisconsin.  of course we had to endure at least one Chicago traffic jam because its pretty much mandatory that the city piss you off at least once while you visit and reminds you why you don't live there anymore but with that being said we made it across the border and into the land of the cheese heads with out too much trouble and we were soon in search of a campground that my friends had rented out for the weekend.  my plan was to camp with some old high school friends, one of which i had not seen in about 12 years but first we had to find this place......To make a long story short, we wandered the Wisconsin countryside (which was surprisingly scenic in a quaint way) for about 3 hours.  the directions had steered us into a town called delavan but in reality the campground was about 20 miles outside of town.  not a huge deal but took us a while to figure out just what the hell was going on.  we finally found the campsite which was really just the front yard of a B and B.  the piece of land was scenic enough, being on a smallish lake and all but i was not expecting to be camping in someones front yard.  I mean, i knew we were car camping but at least put me in some trees and give me a fire pit or something.  overall, the site was not that bad but i was a little disappointed with the proximity of all the other tents (ass to elbow) and the fact that we were pretty much camped in a sub division lol.It was nice to see some friends that i had not seen in a couple of years and of course there was Jim whom i had not seen since '98 which is a long time.  it took about 45 seconds before we fell back into our old conversations and idiotic ways which is what old friends do i suppose and why new wives probably hate them LOL.  luckily the girls were left at home and we were left to our own devices which included a BBQ and a cooler full of beer.   the only disappointing aspect was that because it took us so long to find the damn campsite, it was only a couple of hours before we had to get back in the car and drive the 15 minutes to the amphitheater.  no big deal though because the band was playing 2 nights at alpine and we were going to camp and hang around the next day so there was plenty of time to catch up and reminisce.
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Noblesville, Indiana, United States

the last you heard from me oh vicarious reader, i was holed up in the car as we crossed through the fog and mountains of west Virginia after the first show.  we ended up finding the correct freeways and connecting roads and finally pulled into a rest stop and having fully reclined the seat into a near horizontal position, passed out until the heat of the morning roasted me into conciseness.we arrived at deer creek when the gates opened once again and parked the car.  having set up base camp for the afternoon i headed out into the crowds looking at all of the goods for sale and keeping an ear out for some concert enhancers or as other people refer to them "mushrooms".  Deer creek is always fun because the parking lot really is like a giant open air flea market and the security presence is pretty laid back so you aren't disturbed by kids running full speed past you with police in pursuit although that is sort of fun to watch....not because the kid is in deep shit (he is) but because the crowd will open like moses parting the red sea for this poor kid trying to get away from the cops and then after he passes it closes instantly usually with someone bending down to tie a shoe and a few beer coolers placed directly in the pursuing cops path......we all have to work together to combat these bastards.....enough said.again, i wont discuss the actual music here because i don't think most of you care that much about that aspect of my life but what i will say about this show is that about an hour into this show you could start to see flashes out on the horizon which could be nothing but a very large lightening storm coming towards us.  as the show progressed (and my ascent into full blown psychedelic insanity gained steam) the lighting creeped ever close.  this was not the usual thunderstorm lightning but the very special heat lighting that rolls in finger like protrusions under the clouds.  you have to understand that there are about 20,000 people at this show, most of whom are completely out of their minds on hallucinogens and then god decides to put on one of the best light shows ever.  it was without a doubt the most constant and intense lightning i have ever seen in my life and it totally blew me away as the music kept building to a higher and higher crescendo along with the ozone sizzling light show.finally the first set ends with one of the end all be all phish songs, bringing the crowd into a near frenzy as we danced and shook our bones until the last note rings out over the crowd.  the first set ends and we are faced with a 30 minute set break where everyone goes and buys a beer and uses the bathroom (except me....all the chaos and strange faces completely fucks with me so i just stay put and refuse to put myself through the mental torment.)  about halfway through he set break the keyboard player comes out on stage and says something to the effect of "they want me to read this to you guys.....there is a line of severe storms heading in this direction.  they are expecting heavy rain and 70mph winds"....with this there is a loud cheer because we are all obviously completely out of our minds at this point..."no no, guys this is serious....what we need is for everyone who is on the lawn (about 15,000 people) to please go back to your cars and wait for 1 hour and then we'll start up the show again.  everyone in pavilion can stay where you are"  well this shit is unprecedented and as Steve gets ready to head back to the car i grab his arm and push him towards the pavilion and we climb up and over into the seated section.  the security apparatus had completely broken down and had given up for the evening as the hordes began going over the back row of seats like lemmings going over the cliff.  when it was all said and done the show did indeed continue after being delayed by an hour and we kept our slightly improved seats throughout the second set.  not only that but the rain completely held out until the last 15 minutes of the show and then the heavens did indeed open and completely washed away all the hippie funk that had been accumulating over the day in that podunk town.  all in all i have to say that extreme lightning storm mixed with some seriously exploratory and crazy music AND  a very hefty mushroom chocolate can make for a religious experience.
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