I am coming back to this blog after a years-long hiatus, with renewed enthusiasm, stoked by a re-reading of one of my all-time favorite books, A Journey Home by Edward Abbey, and by the onslaught of AI rubbish being foisted upon us at every turn. I am far from anti-AI. The technology is unfathomable, fun, time-saving and it beats the hell out of feeding Google a series of keywords, then wading through the results. I am in the midst of a long, drawn-out fight with my medical insurance company. I use AI to keep track of this battle, my denied and appealed claims, and to write many of the emails, chat messages, and letters (which I suspect are being read and answered by AIs). It is the only way for me to come close to leveling the playing field. It has saved me weeks of time, and has enabled me to successfully fight off their worst denials. Frankly, without AI’s assistance, I would have thrown in the towel on this fight long ago.
But we cannot let AI take away our creativity. Content from a human brain, filtered through an AI’s writing, reeks of artificiality, and loses its humanity. I prefer human writing, Oxford commas and all. I have set myself a policy, subject to future changes, on the use of Artificial Intelligence (sometimes also known as Artificial Stupidity). Follow this link to read it. I would love to hear your thoughts via the comment box at the bottom of this page.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
Essays or observations from my life both past and present.
Covid-19 in Thailand, a Mystery
Something strange is going on in Thailand. By all measures, Thailand should have been devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic by now. In January and early February over 1 million Chinese landed in Thailand. As of mid-February, over 100,000 Chinese travelers were still in Thailand. Just walking around Chiang Mai in early 2020 felt like walking around a Chinatown. Most certainly, the SARS-CoV-2 virus landed in Thailand in late December, or early January. In fact, the first confirmed case outside of China was found in Thailand on January 13.
Thailand is a densely settled country. The overall density is 354 people per mi2 but this actually understates the reality in the urban areas; Bangkok has a population density of 13,700/ mi2. Thai’s love to hang out in large groups. The more the merry here.
Thailand would seem to have been fertile ground for a new virus that was seeded here early and often by traveling Chinese. But it never really took off. Why?
Today, there have been 2,579 document cases of Covid-19 in Thailand and 40 deaths. By comparison, New York State with a population less than 1/3 of Thailand has 189,415 cases, and 9,385 deaths. The disparity is getting larger by the day. Yes, I know we are probably comparing apples to oranges. There is a very large discrepancy in the testing rate. As measured per capita, New York tests 23 times more people than Thailand. But New York has 73 times more cases, so when corrected for the testing disparity, New York still has 3 times more cases as compared to Thailand. I would argue that the testing disparity is not that large; both New York and Thailand (at least at the beginning) had similar criteria for doing the tests – basically you had to be sick enough to be at the hospital. I think a significant part of this testing-disparity is because there were fewer people in Thailand sick with Covid-19. I would further argue that the number of deaths is not nearly as impacted by the testing disparity. Both New York and Thailand have likely undercounted deaths by counting only hospital fatalities. The reality is that if Thailand had a similar per capita death rate, there should be nearly 30,000 deaths here! But there are only 40 deaths in Thailand as of this writing. This huge difference cannot be caused by lack of testing or any effort at hiding the death toll in Thailand.
Thailand did not go into lock down until around March 20, and even now, the lockdown is not nearly as complete as in New York or California. Prior to mid-March that it was pretty much business as usual here. There was no early and aggressive intervention by the Thai government that kept Covid-19 at bay.
What is it that makes Thailand such infertile ground for the SARS-CoV-2 virus? Could it be climate? Perhaps the universal inoculation of the Thai population with the BCG vaccine gave them a large degree of immunity to Cover-19? Perhaps, it’s the Thai habit of “waiing” instead of shaking hands? Could it be some quick of genetics? Something in the food here? Why is this not big news, and why isn’t this discrepancy being widely studied? Sorry, I only have questions.
Dingboche
Written on March 17 USA time…
I had another miserable night last night, triggered I guess by the altitude gain and the urine productIon caused by the diamox. I think I only had about 2 hours of sleep. I also saw a return of the irregular breathing issue I had back in Namche Bazar. I was happy when dawn came, but I was exhausted. My appetite was gone too.
Nevertheless, I geared myself for the morning acclimatization hike, up the adjacent mountain about 250 m. I joined the procession of a couple of hundred trekkers snaking up the mount under a bright sun and stiff frigid wind. I forced myself to keep going, resting every one hundred steps. Counting my steps kept my mind off my misery. After reaching the turn-around point marked by a cairn supporting a prayer flag, we turned around and had an incredible view of Lhotse, Makalu (over 8000 m), and Ama Dablam towered over us across the village of Dingboche.
Here are some pictures from our view point:
After the brief photo op, our decent was quick. I sat in the dining room of the lodge in near total exhaustion. My lunch came, but I had little appetite. Still, I forced my self to eat the entire bowl of Sherpa stew. It took me nearly an hour to finish it, then I staggered back to my room, which had warmed in the sun, and crawled beneath my sleeping bag. I fell asleep within minutes, and slept soundly for 2 hours. That was my longest sleep since Namche, and also the longest I have gone without peeing. I felt much better after the nap. I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the lodge dining room in front of the yak poop oven, talking with the other trekkers.
If I can get a decent sleep tonight, I will move up the trail, otherwise I will spend an extra day here. Everest base camp is only a two days march from here, but the air gets thinner. Tomorrow morning will be decision time.
Hiking in the Jungle
Almost to the date, 32 years ago, I set out on a 3+ week trek around Annapurna, in the Himalayas Mountains of Nepal. Next week, I will return to Nepal to begin a 3+ week trek to Everest Base Camp, with a side trip to Gokyo Lakes. To make this new trek even more fun, I will begin my walk from Jiri instead of flying into Lukla. This will add an additional week to the trek as I hike the original approach to Namche Bazaar, the gateway to the Everest region.
During that first trek so long ago, I trained by lying in the sun, drinking beer, and otherwise cavorting around Thailand for three weeks before arriving in Kathmandu. My now 62 year old lungs and legs would have little chance in Nepal if I followed the same training regime this time around. So, for the last few weeks, I have been hiking the jungle trails up and down Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep – Doi Pui Mountain.
From Chiang Mai city, Doi Suthep Mountain appears as a large completely forested hulk, with the famous Doi Suthep Temple perched on a promontory about 2000 feet up. The temple is serviced by a well-travelled, paved road plied by fleets of buses, fans, and songtaews that ferries 1000’s of tourists up to the temple every day. Only a handful of people take the direct route, up the walking trail. The first part of the trail, known as the monk’s trail, begins at the mountain’s base, and proceeds up to a lesser known temple, Wat Pha Lat, perched about 700 ft above the trailhead.
From there, the “trail” makes a direct beeline for Doi Suthep temple sans switchbacks. This being the dry season in Thailand, the trail consists of a series of steps stomped into the hard clayey soil. During the rainy season, I imagine that the trail would make a great muddy waterslide; temple to trailhead to hospital in 5 minutes!
I have now been up and down this trail many times – I know every root and rock along the way – I’m pretty sure I could navigate the trail blindfolded.
Yesterday, as an alternative, I chose a very lightly used trail that diagonals up the mountain toward the northwest to the small hill-tribe village of Ban Khun Chang Kian (บ้านขุนช่างเคี่ยน) a small settlement spilled across a high ridge about 3000 ft above the City.
The trail is mostly used by mountain bikers who get hauled up the mountain in the back of pick-up trucks, and then come tearing down the trail, hikers beware. I also saw a couple of crazy farang trail runners – not many hikers though, mostly the trail is empty and quiet.
From the village, I traversed about 9 km south to Doi Suthep temple, following a four-wheel drive road that led eventually to a poorly maintained trail. The first part of the traverse passed by numerous strawberry fields that thrive in the cooler mountain-top environment. Trail finding was a bit of a challenge – the jungle hides a spider’s web of jeep trails and walking paths going every-which-way. After climbing over what seems like 100s of fallen trees, I arrived at the bustle of Doi Suthep and descended the steep trail to just above Wat Pha Lat, where I finished the 20 km long hike with a 3 km traverse back to my parking spot along the Doi Suthep road.
Hiking this trail gave me a great workout – the distance and elevation gain probably equals or exceeds any day-long segment I will encounter in Nepal (albeit at low altitude). The trails are pleasant enough, although quite steep in places. During the dry relatively cool season (temps in the upper 80s- low 90s F) the cooler temperatures up high are pleasant. There were only two real downsides to this hike. One was the constant cloud of kamikaze gnats that enveloped my head. These terrorists had a penchant for exploring any orifice of mine they could find, and apparently they thought my eyes were portals to a bug’s paradise. I spent much of the hike wondering if the swarm consisted of the same 200 bugs who found me at the trailhead and followed me for 20 km, or whether they were a tag-team outfit that each had their own designated section of trail. I imagined attaching a nano GPS transmitter to a few of the gnats to answer this question. Such are the thoughts that occupy my feeble brain when my legs and lungs are on autopilot.
The second downside was the 20-30 inevitable spider-web-face-plants. A face-first meeting with this guy will get your attention!
I am hopeful that these forays into the Thai jungle will amply prepare me for the hiking in Nepal. My next post will likely be next week from Nepal….
The Great Cultural Divide
There is no better way to experience the chasm that exists between Thai and American culture than to witness some of the rituals surrounding a visit to a Thai temple. Recently, I visited Wat Chai Mongkhon with my SO on the occasion of her birthday. Wat Chai Mongkhon lies on the banks of Chiang Mai’s main river, the Mae Ping. To my pagan eyes, it seems like a fairly ordinary temple, although its riverside setting is lovely. That same setting, though does allow for a peculiar ritual that I observed there for the first time.
On this propitious day, our first stop was a small shop tucked back in a corner of the temple grounds that sells all manner of live fish ranging from guppy-sized up to small-trout-sized. The same shop also sells various birds in tiny wooden cages – most of these seemed to be some kind of dove. They also sold live snails, by the bucketful. This was no pet store though. The express purpose of this shop is to sell the animals to merit makers, who then make merit by releasing them. Hmmmm, more on this in a minute….
From the shop we proceeded directly to the temple’s interior where a quick prayer was said accompanied by a few bows and wais to buddha. This part of the ritual I am quite familiar with and lasted only a few minutes. From the temple we proceeded to the river bank, where amidst a few more bows and the recitation of a long prayer read from one of the laminated sheets picked from a basket on the pier, both the snails and fish were released. Their release was followed by a nearly instant eruption from the river – a vicious feeding frenzy of huge carp-like river fish. As far as I could tell, the newly freed snails and small fish experienced a few nanoseconds of freedom before becoming dinner to these exceedingly well-fed riverine scavengers.
Ok. To the American mind, this seems very strange indeed. So let me get this straight, someone goes out and catches some wild critters, keeps them in tanks, buckets and cages, and then someone else comes along, buys these unfortunate critters, and makes merit by releasing them to the freedom of the river, only for them to become instant dinner to some lucky fish. One would guess that the freed birds might have a better chance to enjoy their freedom – at least you could enjoy watching them fly away to meet their fate, but alas, their cost is quite a bit more. The American mind cannot help wondering if the merit made by the purchaser sufficiently cancels the merit lost by the animals’ capturers, keepers and sellers.
Now. Here is how the Thai mind sees it……
Sorry, but I have no clue how the Thai mind thinks about this ritual, in spite of numerous conversations with Thais about this very subject. I do know that each kind of fish/bird/invertebrate has a particular kind of merit that is gained by their release. Some impart good health, others will bring good luck with finances, still others will impart a long life. You get the idea.
When I asked who decides which animal imparts which kind of merit, my SO replied that that is like asking who decided the meaning of a word. Wow, that was a very revealing answer! Apparently this ritual goes far back into antiquity, and involves deep beliefs that have been passed down through so many generations that their origins have been lost. These beliefs run gut-deep and no manner of western logic will unseat them. My guess is that if you brought a Thai into the Catholic Church of my youth, they would be equally mystified.
The third and last stop in our merit-making was a ritual that I have experienced on numerous occasions – one of my favorites. The merit-maker grabs an open-ended cylinder containing about 30-40 joss sticks with each stick bearing a number. While kneeling in front of a particularly plump and happy buddha, the merit maker gently shakes the container until a single stick falls out. The number on the stick is then matched to a set of fortunes posted on a nearby bulletin board. Here’s the fortune we got:
I don’t think you can do much better than that! All in all it was a very educational visit to the Wat Chai Mongkhon. Please if any of my Thai friends read this, please leave a comment with your explanation of this interesting and (to a western mind) contradictory ritual.
Why I Retired in Thailand
Why did I choose to retire here in Thailand? This is a question I am asked often by my American friends – especially those who think I actually live in Taiwan. Of course there are very many reasons; my decision to retire here was not taken lightly and took many years to formulate. But the story of my day today serves as a great illustration of why I retired half-way around the world from where I lived for 59 1/2 years.
Actually, the story of today began yesterday morning. As I was eating my green curry and rice for breakfast I had that familiar feeling of a foreign object in my mouth….a crown that covered an upper molar had dropped off into my soup (yeah it has happened before). I fished it out and placed into a baggy, finished by breakfast, then called the dental clinic at Bangkok Hospital (Chiang Mai branch).
Bangkok hospital is the nicest hospital I have ever been in – far better than any I have been in in the USA. The ambiance is that of a five star hotel. You are treated as an honored guest and the facilities (as far as I can tell) are world class. My call yesterday morning was answered promptly and in perfect English. They wanted me to come in straight away, but I opted for the next day (today). I wasn’t going to let a missing molar mess with my regular Thursday golf outing.
Back to today…I arrived at the appointed time at the hospital and entered their large parking lot where a uniformed attendant directed me to an open spot. As he guided me in, he noticed that my tire looked flat. He looked closer and noticed the bolt that I had picked up that was slowly but surely releasing the tire’s air. Shit… when things start going wrong you wonder where it will stop. I didn’t wonder long though, the attended said not to worry, he would see to it that my tire was changed while I was in seeing the dentist.
Up I went to the 4th floor dental clinic where I had to wait about 90 seconds before being ushered into the examination room. I ask my American friends: whens the last time you waited for only 90 seconds in a doctor’s office? The dentist happened to be the same as had just cleaned my teeth a few days before. She took one look and said “no problem”. Within 15 minutes my crown was glued back in place. I had to wait another 5 minutes while they tallied up the bill – the princely some of 1070 baht – about $34 US. My Thai friends would be shocked at this extravagant price – the same service might be half this much elsewhere. Such is the cost of luxury here.
When I returned to my car, the flat had been changed and the attendant rushed over to give me my keys. I asked “how much”, and he shook is head and waived his hands. I tried to force a tip on him, but he ran off saying helping me was part of the hospital security service. No need for AAA here. I still need to fix my tire because I only had a donut spare – fortunately there was a “Cockpit” tire store 200 m down the road. It took them 10 minutes to fix the flat with a plug and change out the spare. My cost? 120 baht or $3.80.
Thirty minutes later I was having lunch with my SO at small cafe – we like to try new restaurants whenever we can.
I awoke that day in dread of having to get a new crown (or worse) and having to spend a couple of hours in the dentist chair and the rest of the day with a numbed face. My dread increased when I saw the flat tire. What next? But the Thai’s have a wonderful way of making life easy. Days like this (i.e. most days) make me happy about my retirement choice.
Fullerton Loop
Friday afternoon I ran the Fullerton Loop trail, an informal concatenation of trails that meanders around the Coyote Hills of Fullerton. The “official” loop is about 11 miles. I started at my house in east Fullerton – so the loop was 18 grueling up-and-down miles. It took me over 3 hours to complete (not including stops to buy Gatorade and to enjoy the view along the way).
Getting ready for a run like this is not trivial. I have no pit crew – no one will be waiting along the way to hand me a drink or banana – I have to be self sufficient. The photo here shows and explains my critical gear.
Compared to running the Fullerton Loop solo, the actual marathon will be easy. At the Rock N Roll Marathon there will be drink tables every mile or so, rock bands playing along the route, helpful volunteers standing by with cotton swabs saturated in Vaseline to help with bodily lubrication, port-a-potties galore, and all manner of emergency medical staff and facilities standing by. I can’t wait!
Originally published on my Team In Training fundraising page in 2011. Archived here from a saved webarchive file.
Heat, Jet Lag, and Cold
Sorry for the long delay between posts here. Its been an epic 3-4 weeks. But first things first….Thanks to all the generous donation we have reached nearly 60% of our goal to raise $5000 to fight blood cancers! The goal is now within sight, but I need your help to reach it. Please forward a link to this page to all you friends and ask them to join our team!
I am now back in California after spending three weeks in Thailand. During the first half of this time I was on a research project in southern Thailand searching for evidence of prehistoric tsunamis. Sounds adventurous, but mostly it consisted of digging trenches in the tropical heat. I did find time for some training runs (see the previous post). One of my last runs in southern Thailand was an epic 12 mile round trip from Kamala Beach up and over a high headland to Pathong Beach on the resort island of Phuket. I left at 7 am, but still that was the hottest I have ever been in my life. I drank nearly 12 oz of fluid per mile and still spent the rest of the day trying to rehydrate.
Following the field work, I travelled to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand for some R&R which included daily runs in some unusually cool weather, including my longest run so far – 17 miles. I got a couple of rounds of golf in too.
The worst part about this trip, as usually, was the homecoming. For some reason, jet lag hits me much, much worse traveling east. I was completely worthless for over a week. To add to the misery, I picked up a UR virus – probably from the nasty recirculated air that I breathed for 15 hours on the return flight. Finally, over the last couple of days, I’ve begun to feel like my body and mind are in the same time zone. I’m looking forward to the next 6 weeks and some hard training!
Go Team!
Originally published on my Team In Training fundraising page in 2011. Archived here from a saved webarchive file.
Hello from the Land of Smiles!
A quick update from Thailand’s Andaman Coast. But first, I want to give a shout out to my buddies at the Anaheim Golf Association – they voted collectively to make a very generous donation to the LLS! Thanks to them and all of my donors I have surpassed the 50% milestone toward my goal of $5000!
I am now in southern Thailand for field work related to a National Geographic Society sponsored project to study ancient tsunami deposits. Long days in the field, temperatures in the upper 90s (with humidity to match) and some of the most intense rainstorms on the planet have not been conducive to marathon training. I did get in an 8-miler (captured in the photo by one of my co-researchers ) our second day here. The last 4 miles were through a deluge that flooded the streets. Our field work is now over so I should get back to some long runs later this week.
Go Team!
Originally published on my Team In Training fundraising page in 2011. Archived here from a saved webarchive file.
The Runner’s Malady No One Wants To Talk About
Runners are afflicted with all sorts of injuries, conditions and aches and pains. Shin splints, side stitches, muscle cramps, blisters, bleading nipples, jock rot, Achilles tendonitis, blood in the urine, and soreness in all the moving parts. I’ve suffered most of these, but none of them has really been a show-stopper. Except for one. This malady will be my greatest challenge as I train for, and compete in the 2011 San Diego Marathon.
Warning: If you are squeamish with blunt talk about bodily functions, stop reading and close your browser now!
Runners trots. Seems redundant, but it is aptly named. Running is the best laxative ever invented. I seem to have an especially bad case. Usually within the first mile, but sometime later, or at multiple times in the run, I MUST find a loo. Or bush. Or else. Both of these are in short supply along the most popular running routes in Orange County. I know every gas station, every fast-food outlet, and every possible bush, ravine, or patch of high grass in northern Orange County. Even with my photographic memory of all these spots, sometimes I am caught in-between. Shit. Literally.
Now that I have joined Team in Training, I have started running with my team every Saturday morning. On these runs its worse because I cannot plan on a known point of relief when I need it, and running bowlegged with a load risks significant embarrassment. After two weeks of this, something had to change. Either I was going to become the loneliest long-distance runner, or I was going to lick…errr beat the Runner’s Trots.
First stop Google. I found many remedies – eat this or that, don’t eat this or that, drink coffee before the run, don’t drink anything with caffeine. I quickly got the idea that there was no universally accepted cure.
I have never been particularly “regular”. My father used to disappear every morning with newspaper in hand, and come out ½ hour later with the day’s job done. I never recall him ever having to go #2 at any other time of day. I tried this. My legs went numb from the sitting, to no avail. The older I get, the worse it becomes. Now that I am training nearly every day, DURING a run is the ONLY time I go. My digestive track seems to shut off accept when I jar it awake during a run.
Finally I had enough – I went to the doctor. He sympathized (and probably snickered to himself when I was gone). He did prescribe some drugs. Lets say one was an “on” drug and one was an “off” drug. I had my first chance to use them this past weekend – so far so good – but we will see about the long term. My Plab B is Depends – do they have a fitness model?
Originally published on my Team In Training fundraising page in 2011. Archived here from a saved webarchive file.
BaldBrady’s Blog 