The first day in the Phuket area of Thailand must have ranked near the top of the saddest days ever for a travel journalist.

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Since my arrival in Thailand, friends have been offering up suggested “soundtracks” for the visit. The most frequent, probably pretty obvious, “One Night In Bangkok.” But one friend dug a little deeper, back to the days of vinyl and mentioned “A Passage To Bangkok” by Canadian power trio Rush. I concur. Briefly, I quote Rush, […]

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On New Year’s Eve in Bangkok, my buddies and I felt a little more secure when we saw a huge police presence throughout the city, particularly in the downtown area, where — with a cast of hundreds of thousands — we would ring in 2012. Ha! We now know that there were terrorist rumblings about […]

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IF you know me or read the PingWi-Fi blog, you know “we luvs us some boba tea.”  Hmmm … it is pretty scarce here in Thailand … even more scarce than Wi-Fi. I finally found some boba vendors — in this case, maybe boba-teers — in Ayutthaya on the sidewalk, in the outdoor market the […]

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New Year’s Eve has never been a big deal for me, even back in the day when I was more fun. Ha … one year I decided to play it safe, and sat around a table with friends playing a board game. Then, all of the sudden, some guy kicked the door in at the […]

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When I signed up to help with flooding recovery in Thailand, my thoughts immediately went to the bright lights of Bangkok — the modern, international city and the well-known seamy dark side as well — an adventure … mystique. However, as I got more details, my assignment was actually in Ayutthaya City, an hour and […]

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The Dirty Gig is about to get a little less dirty. You may or may not know that this travel blog is funded by a second job in disaster recovery, affectionately referred to as the Dirty Gig. Accordingly, in this blog there have been detailed exploits involving 3 a.m. toilet disasters … flooded hospital basements […]

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Walking around lower Manhattan reminded me of my first few trips to NYC. Over the years, I have had big times in NYC. I met Spike Lee. One night my friend was stabbed on a subway. I met Dr. Ruth. One day my hotel was set afire by a pyromaniac. I met Dan Rather in […]

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“I’m not the owner, I just act like it,” said the ponytailed guy in the tie-dyed shirt behind the counter of Binghamton, New York’s Cyber Cafe West. So what if he wasn’t? He introduced himself and shook my hand, as if he owned the place. Nice guy. I hope he doesn’t mind if I refer […]

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“i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you don’t stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat “ something … something …. “…. hotel, motel, Holiday Inn …” “Rapper’s Delight” – Sugarhill Gang […]

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