Back in Bangkok

After two and half weeks of traveling, I was ready to be back in Bangkok. And ready for a little fishing. In a bizarre turn of events, Jean-Francois Helias, the expert guide who appeared in my show "Hooked: Monster Fish!" and who I was hiring to take me fishing, had a stroke two weeks before we were to meet. He was feeling better by the day of our fishing excursion, but was still in the hospital, and not able to join me.

So Jean-Francois' wife, Lek, and his assistants, Nok and Kik, took me out for 10 straight hours of fishing. Basically, fishing was once described to me as hours of boredom punctuated by 30 seconds of sheer terror. This was close, but instead of sheer terror, it was just arm wrenching.

Basically, we sat in bungalows around a reservoir stocked with fish. No real skill is needed to hook these fish, rather, it was like the old saying of shooting them in a barrel. Still, once these monster fish were hooked, I had to wrestle the damn things to shore. Nearly tearing my arm muscles, I managed to reel in 5 striped catfish, 4 Mekong giant catfish (including this 50 pound bruiser)...





and the grand prize for my day, a Siamese Giant Carp...



The next day, I took a cooking class and just wrapped up the trip...