After going on the Dugong spotting tour in Koh Libong, I had an opportunity to talk to one of the tour guides from Trang who had reasonable facility with English. When I told him that we had sighted four individual dugongs, he said that we were very lucky as from his experience, only 10% of such tours are successful in seeing a dugong. When I asked about the social behavior of the dugongs, he told me that dugongs usually travel in a herd of up to 8 individuals.

Doing some further investigation on my own, I learned that the dugong herd typically consists of females and their calves; the males - for the most part - are solitary, only getting together with the females to mate. Furthermore, during the day the dugongs stay (resting quietly) in the deep sea coming to the shallow coastal areas, inlets and mangroves at night to feed eat on sea grass.

That could explain, why there are so few dugong sightings on these day tours as the herds are active mostly at night. I surmise that the individuals that we saw were solitary males patrolling their territory, but who I am to know!

As sort of a gag, I produced an impromptu video where I am seen swimming in the open seas impersonating a female dugong, in the hope of attracting a male dugong. Bret, the young and affable Canadian, provided the humorous narration

The following tale is about special chickens in Thailand which lay yolkless eggs. Strange but true!

It was my first full day on Koh Libong, a relatively remote island in Southern Thailand. As I had signed up for a sightseeing tour which was scheduled for 8:30AM, I decided to have an early morning breakfast in the hotel’s outdoor restaurant.

It was 7:40AM, when I walked up to the young man by the hotel kitchen to order my breakfast. I knew the young man’s understanding of English was minimal, so using the menu which had the entrees in both Thai and English, I pointed to the items which I wanted – toast and jam and scrambled eggs. There was one small wrinkle to my order - I wanted scrambled eggs without the egg yolk (in other words, an egg white scramble).

With the aid of Thai-English dictionary and by drawing a picture, I believe that I was finally able to get the message across – it took about 5-6 minutes.

While sipping on some hot tea at my table, I waited for my breakfast as other hotel guests gradually filtered in; the regular waitress took their orders. About 30 minutes elapsed and still no food; in the meantime, other hotel guests were getting their breakfast - some with scrambled eggs. I remarked to a fellow guest who had just been served, “I guess they’re still waiting for my chicken to lay her eggs.”

Finally 8:30AM rolled around and still no breakfast; I had run out of patience and confronted the young man who took my order – In broken English, he said “We are still trying to find a chicken that lays eggs without the yellow (egg yolk).” Just kidding… Actually with a look of complete shock in his face, he said “I forgot. I’m sorry, sir.”

Because I was so upset, I decided not to go on the tour. Finally my breakfast with the egg white scramble arrived about 10 minutes later. Another hour later, my bad feelings dissipated and it turned out to be another sabai sabai day in paradise.

I had just boarded a songthaew in the city of Loei to Chiang Khan, a hip tourist town located along the Mekong River in Northeastern Thailand. Especially popular with the younger professional crowd from Bangkok, Chiang Khan has often been called the Thai version of Pai, a popular retreat and hangout with western tourists in Northern Thailand.

Just as the songthaew was about to take off, an elderly couple – backpacker types - walked briskly to the retrofitted truck and hopped on board. Like your typical backpacker, this pair was outfitted with a huge backpack on their back and a smaller daypack on their chest.

As I traded stories with this rather feisty couple (Joe and Judy), I discovered that they were from Western Canada and were in the middle of a 6-month journey that would take them to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar. Seasoned travelers, they had traveled numerous times to Southeast Asia, South America and around the world.

Typical of backpackers, they had only a generalized travel plan but not a concrete itinerary nor did they ever book a guesthouse or hotel in advance. They did things strictly on the fly - only upon arriving at their next destination, would they look for lodging. In addition, they had a very strict budget which they adhered to. In Thailand, the maximum expense for accommodation was 500 baht per night ($17USD). According to Joe, they always traveled like this and never had a problem finding a decent place to stay.

As it was the King’s Birthday Holiday weekend (Dec. 3-5), perhaps the busiest holiday weekend for Thai people, it would be extremely difficult finding a place to stay in this small tourist town. Shortly before I arriving in Chiang Khan, I cautioned the couple about the shortage of guestrooms. I had called at least 10 places in advance without any luck - I was fortunate to have reserved “a room” a couple of blocks from the river, albeit for only one night for 400 baht. Alas, I was a prepared for a very brief visit in Chiang Khan.

Undaunted about the prospects of finding a place to stay, the backpacker couple were last seen knocking on the doors of all the guesthouses and homestays located along the river. One thing I forget to mention - these backpackers were 80 years old!

Funny Thing – When I told a good friend of mine in Bangkok that I had decided to spend Christmas week in Koh Libong - a small island resort in Southern Thailand - she warned me that I might want to reconsider my plans.

According to my friend, a prominent Thai psychic predicted that a catastrophic tsunami would obliterate the Andaman Seaboard, sometime late December, wreaking havoc on the many islands and popular tourist resorts in the area. Undoubtedly a tsunami of this magnitude would cause complete destruction of all buildings and structures, as well as drowning virtually all residents and vacationing tourists.

You may recall that a very powerful tsunami happened in this region on December 26, 2004. Coincidentally I was vacationing in Kamala Beach on Phuket Island up until December 21 before returning to the USA from Bangkok on December 23 – the Kamala Beach resort area was probably the most severely impacted area in Thailand. I just missed the Tsunami by a couple of days - I guess I was lucky!

Now I am not the sort of person who is going to jump onto the railroad tracks while a train is coming; at the same time, I am not going to be scared by the dire predictions of a Thai Psychic. In fact, these sort of predictions are made all the time in Thailand.

Well in the unlikely event that the Tsunami prediction comes true and claims my life, I shall consider it as my destiny. I will have absolutely no regrets about spending the last hours of my life in paradise before I meet my maker. Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be. The future is not ours to see, Que Sera, sera.

Believe it or not, I made a little wager with my friend in Bangkok. If the Tsunami prediction does not come true, she will have to take me out to dinner to the restaurant of my choice in Bangkok on December 31. And if I lose the wager, I have left instructions with my sister in America, to wire $40,000 to my friend’s bank account in Thailand. I think I like my odds……HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

On my most recent trip to Bolivia, I had a very bad experience with some very inconsiderate and vulgar tourists at my hostel.

I was staying in Samaipata, a small mountain town located on the backpacker tourist trail in southern Bolivia. The town becomes very quiet after 9:00PM as there are very few bars or nightspots for tourists to congregate. With nowhere else to get together, parties among backpackers often happen spontaneously at their hostel. Sometimes these parties last until the wee hours of the morning.

I had returned to my hostel about 11:00PM. Walking to my room, I passed by a group of young backpackers – both males and females - who were having a little party outside on the patio. Quite rowdy and loud - as evidenced by the number of empty beer bottles on the table, they were obviously somewhat inebriated. I greeted them goodnight, sort of an indirect way of telling them to keep the noise down.

Obviously they didn’t get the message as they continued on with their loud chatter and laughter. As I was trying to sleep as were some other hotel guests, I really thought these people were out of line. As the noise escalated, I bolted out of bed, went outside and told them very politely to keep their voices down.

I guess that was like adding fuel to the fire – as they got even louder and more raucous. Another 30 minutes elapsed (it was now close to midnight) before I bolted out my bed again, ran outside and told the young merrymakers to shut up already.

One of the young men - I recognized his voice as being Nate, the American guy from San Jose, California - retorted “Hey Old Man, Why don’t you go back to bed and put in your earplugs”. As he made his snide remark, the young British gals laughed hysterically like hyenas. Funny, huh? I wanted to shove my fist up his mouth but common sense prevailed as I returned to my room.

Well, the group did not break up their party until shortly before 1:00AM but not before singing in unison, Johnny Cash’s classic song “Ring of Fire”. Oh well, at least they sang it in tune!

As a traveler, I meet many different people – of many different nationalities and ages (young and old) during the course of my travels. I have met people from all over the world – from Sudan to Korea to Kazakhstan. Of course, despite our diverse backgrounds, the common denominator is that we are all travelers.

As travelers, we share our experiences of travel on the road – the highs and the lows - and sometimes we lose all our inhibitions and go completely wild. While I was staying in Bolivia’s Amazon Basin far away from civilization, I met a small group of young travelers at San Miguel de Bala Lodge – a young couple from England and from Switzerland/Spain as well as a young lady from Korea.

As sort of tribute to yours truly, the two young blokes – Henri (from England) and Eunico (from Andalusia) went off the deep end and created an outrageous new dance style called “Do the Papa Mono”. The Papa Mono dance promises to be the biggest thing to hit the dance floors since the Lambada. Check it out and pretty soon, I guarantee that you will soon be going ape too. PURA VIDA

P.S. I would like to apologize to all our loyal subscribers for our disappearance during the last 3 months. However as you can see, we have returned bigger (and better) than ever!

When I attended the local Carnival in the rural village of Boklua located in Northern Thailand’s Nan Province, it brought back wonderful memories of my childhood and I had terrific time.

The Carnival was a fundraiser for the local medical clinic, so all the monies went to a good cause. A variety of novel games were going on, including one which involved tossing rings on coke bottles. I played one game but failed miserably as my throws were way off the mark.

Another game was drawing quite a crowd and generating a lot of excitement (and noise) so I moved in that direction. Moving closer to the scene, I could see many people gathered around a small makeshift ring with chutes around the circumference. Suddenly, a young lady appeared and jumped into the ring, collecting bets from the frenzied spectators. The bets were in denomination of 5 baht. Not knowing what was going on, at first, I thought it was some version of the old crab race game.

Boy, I was way off base. I finally realized what was happening, when a young man let loose a small furry critter out ofa thick bamboo tube – the critter was a mouse. The little mouse scurried around the pit for a bit, accompanied by banging sticks and the clamor of the crowd, before dodging into one of the marked chutes. I had never seen anything like this before and I had good laugh.

Caught in the Spirit of the Carnival, I decided to make some bets on the next contest. First go-around, I selected only two chutes and I lost; 2nd time around, I selected 8 out of the 12 possible chutes. Pretty good odds, if you ask me! Needless to say, the little mouse dashed into chute #6 – which was one of the many that I bet on, so I came up a big winner.

My prize? It was a bag of sunflower chips which I later gave to a young lad who worked at my hotel. Who said that “an old fart” like me couldn’t have any fun in Thailand?

The best place to shop for T-shirts in Thailand is the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. There is no other place in Thailand that has the variety that is offered here. The designs range from the sexually explicit (naughty) to the comically inane; in between, you can find a variety of very elegant and stylish T-shirts with some very aesthetically pleasing designs.

The most outrageous T-Shirts that I have seen in recent memory has to be a toss up between the T-shirt that lambasted our former President George W Bush and the x-rated “Blowjob is better than No Job” T-shirt. The Blowjob T-Shirt in particular was executed very well with very bold white lettering against a black background – very simple and to the point, elegant and classy in its own vulgar way.

I was walking through the Night Bazaar last year when I saw the Blowjob T-shirt. I did a double take as it was so outrageous and I had the sales clerk hold it up for me so I could take a picture. Walking away from the outdoor shop, I suddenly reversed directions and headed back to the shop. I had decided to to buy the T-shirt as a collector’s item.

Most Thai people cannot read or understand English very well; those that are well versed in English – like my ladyfriend, Khun Moongmink – do not know what the expression blow job means anyhow. Even the Thai people who understand the meaning of Blow Job might chuckle when looking at the T-Shirt or look the other way. You must understand that as a Buddhist country, Thailand is a very tolerant country. There is an expression in Thai, “Mai Pen Rai”. Literally it means Never Mind or Who Cares which really describes Thai mentality to a tee.

Back in the USA, I have to be very careful where and when I wear this Blowjob T-shirt as I would be inviting a lot of stares, and I can imagine that many ladies would be very disgusted. Who knows, some very prude lady might make a complaint to the local police!

I’m sure you’ve heard of the famous proverb of the Three Wise Monkeys – “Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil.”

With a little choreography, I recreated the Three Wise Monkeys famous pose in Ban Na Tong, a small rural village located about 30 KM from Phrae in Northern Thailand. I chose three kids from the local school there, had them place some Bua Tong - Wild Mexican Sunflower – on top of their heads and placed the children in front of a monkey shrine.

I’m sure they had no clue, what the significance of this pose – but then again, I could be wrong. Westerners probably are not aware of the origins of “The Three Monkeys” proverb as well – it is based on a 17th century carving over a door of a famous shrine in Japan, but apparently the philosophy has deeper roots – from a Buddhist legend in 8th century China.

All I know, it makes for a classical – somewhat hilarious picture.

In United States and many Western countries, it is customary to leave a tip for the waiter/waitress at a restaurant or bar. The amount of the tip varies depending on the quality of the service. The exact tip amount is of course at the discretion of the customer. In the USA for average service, the acceptable tip percentage is 15%.

Things are far different in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia, where tipping is not the standard practice among the locals and in general, tips are not expected by most of the local restaurants. However in high-end restaurants - or those that cater exclusively to oversea tourists - tipping is more commonplace, and in many instances the gratuity - normally 10-15% - is included in the bill.

I have experienced the built-in gratuity myself at high-end restaurants like the Rang Mahal, the most prestigious Indian restaurant in Bangkok. At the more humble Raan Derm, a Thai restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 22 which caters both to middle class locals and tourists, they add 7% gratuity to the bill.

To give you an idea about the prevailing attitude towards Tipping in Southeast Asia, I have two relatively comical stories that I will share with you – both experiences took place in Malaysia.

While I was in Taiping, a very lovely city located in Perak State (Northwest Malaysia), I patronized Su Hean , a Vegan Chinese restaurant which had recommended to me by a local. The restaurant was very proper but not flashy by any means and catered primarily to the relatively affluent Chinese community in Taiping.

On my 2nd visit there, I ordered a couple of veggie plates. The total bill came to roughly 14.00RM (or $4.30USD). Very cheap for me! Since the service was fairly good , the waitress was very nice (and the food was delicious), I left a tip of 4.00RM (or about $1.20USD). Upon leaving the restaurant, the young girl came running after me with a very concerned look on her face and said to me “Sir, you forgot some monies on the table”. Smiling, I said to her “Young lady, that is your tip.”

Several days later I traveled to Penang, the most popular tourist destination in Malaysia, and well known for its excellent restaurants. On my last night there, my Taxi driver took to me Luk Yea Yan, a well-regarded Vegan Chinese restaurant. Again this was a proper restaurant, not a greasy spoon affair. Upon hearing my story about my experience in Taiping, he laughed and told me that only Americans tips - most Europeans do not!

So after the meal, since the service was better than average, I left a tip which represented about 22% of the bill. Upon leaving, the taxi driver told me that the restaurant owner said to him “Your customer forgot some monies at the table”. We both had a good laugh!