Big changes afoot

Feels like a big week. After 3 incredible years and 17 hours of cable documentary programming, I'm leaving my job as a TV Producer/Writer at a Bay Area production company.

Some highlights:

I've spent countless days and nights shooting re-creations on Alcatraz...



I've interviewed Joey Pallotta, the man who caught the world record white sturgeon...


I interviewed Sitting Bull's great grandson...


Helped direct some Crow Native Americans in a re-enactment of the Battle of Little Big Horn...


And met some fanatic re-enactors...


I directed a group of actors in the Battle of Little Big Horn...


Including one guy who did a great Teddy Roosevelt...


And perhaps best of all, I was the Greek general Miltiades in the Battle of Marathon...


I've done 7 shows for the National Geographic Channel:

-Alcatraz: Defying the Rock (2004):
-Thrill Zone: Extreme Powerboats (2005)
-Megastructures: The Berlin Wall (also known as The Berlin Wall: Great Escapes or The Berlin Wall: Escape to Freedom) (2005)
-Hooked: Monster Fish! (2006)
-Alcatraz: Living Hell (2007)
-Surviving Alcatraz (2007)
-Megastructures: The Golden Gate Bridge (2007)

You may notice an Alcatraz theme there...

I also was part of a team that wrote and produced a 20 part series about historic battles on the History Channel called Command Decisions. I wrote 9 of the shows:
-Battle of the Bulge
-Battle of Midway
-Battle of Stalingrad
-Battle of Little Big Horn
-Battle of San Juan Hill
-The Six Day War
-Battle of Inchon
-Battle of Saratoga
-Battle of Iwo Jima

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...

On to Laos...

(To go straight to my Laos photos, go here. Ashley's Laos photos are here.)

So after Ashley and I found Boonrian, our plan was to check out the Gibbon Experience, a jungle trek run by a conservation organization in Laos. To help preserve the Bokeo rainforest in Laos, this group built a bunch of treehouses for eco-tourists to be near wild Gibbon monkeys, accessible only by trekking and taking long zip lines through the jungle. For a mere $140, visitors can spend 3 days and 2 nights in the jungle, zip lining about, and sleeping in treehouses perched a few hundred feet in the air. With luck, we might even see a Gibbon or two.

Sounded amazing, so we crossed the Mekong River and headed north into the one-horse Laotian town of Huay Xai (pronounced "Way Sigh"):


First, a 3 hour car ride on one of the world's bumpiest roads, arriving at a small Hmong village:


Then a 3 hour hike into the jungle. We arrived at a small hut where a volunteer named Marianne welcomed us and introduced us to 3 monkeys - including 1 small sick Gibbon she was carrying...(this turned out to be the only Gibbon we saw)...

and 2 very energetic macaques:


Here's 2 videos of the monkeys having their way with our group of 12 tourists:





Then, it was on to the zip lines. With just a climbing harness and a wheeled contraption, we attached ourselves to thick cables and just jumped. Off we went, whizzing through the jungle canopy, sometimes hundreds of feet in the air, and for what seemed like miles. It was definitely one of the most fun and intense things I've ever done. Ashley, who is a bit scared of heights, was not so sure:


I was into it, however...and tried taking a video as I zipped...


Our last zip line led directly to our treehouse, where we'd be sleeping...




All 6 of us (2 Belgians, 2 Swiss, myself and Ashley) were blown away by how beautiful the spot was:



Guides cooked us our meals...



and we watched the sun go down. With no lights for many many miles, we were about as far from civilization as I've ever been. And the stars were amazing.

One issue...the bathroom was basically a squat toilet perched right next to the edge. So it took some nerve to use it while looking 200 feet down...


Next morning, it was off to our next treehouse, starting off with more zipping. Here's the Swiss members of our group, Oliver and Carine, zipping off in the morning...




Then 3 more hours of tough up and down hiking. Then a dip in the coldest (and smallest) waterfall on the planet:



Here's our second treehouse. You can see the rather slim trunk of this tree does not inspire confidence:


Nor does the toilet...


But the incredible views made it all worthwhile...


Although Ashley didn't enjoy the last zip line out of the treehouse:


Then it was back to the Hmong village, where Ashley played a little catch with some local girls...

Desperately Seeking Boonrian

So after I was finished diving in the Thai islands of Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, I headed up to the north. My friend and coworker, Ashley Adams, was coming to Thailand to learn how to train elephants, and she invited me to meet her in the north and go on a trip to the Laos jungle. Sounded like fun, so I went.

We met up in Chiang Khong, which coincidentally, is where she was nine months ago to film interviews for my recent show "Hooked: Monster Fish!" We decided to track down one Mr. Boonrian Jinarad, the man who caught the world-record freshwater fish - a 646 pound Mekong Giant Catfish. When she was in Thailand doing interviews a few months before, Ashley interviewed Boonrian. But she had only a vague memory of where he lived - so we had to use our investigative sleuthing skills (second nature to a documentary producer) to find him.

We walked from Chiang Khong to Ban Hat Khrai, Boonrian's village. We found the big fish statue, and we knew we were on the right track:


We went and had lunch at a nearby restaurant, supposedly they knew about big fish:



They had a few dishes that we didn't try, like the Fish Bowel Salad:


and Frog in Jungle Curry:


Not sure what Lungle Curry is, but we both skipped that one, too. After lunch, we spotted another clue down by the river - the canoes that they used to catch the Mekong Giant Catfish. And I discovered the floating buoys that hold up the nets:



Back on the road again, Ashley's sixth sense is on alert. Suddenly, we see a man sitting in front of his house doing paperwork. On a hunch, we decide to ask him if he is Boonrian:


Well folks...it was Boonrian. But I'll let the videos tell it from here. (Note that neither of us speak any Thai, and Boonrian speaks not a word of English.











We spent about 30 or so minutes with the man, yet I don't think Boonrian had literally any idea who either of us were, the entire time.

Elephants

Here's some photos I took of elephants in the north of Thailand:

http://picasaweb.google.com/debris7/Thailand4Elephants

Here's some videos I took of elephants from the north of Thailand: