Author: melmalinowski

  • Transcontinental Road Trip

    On April 2, 2024, Pin and I embarked on a seven week long road trip circling the USA from south to north, covering over 9,000 miles.

    I wouldn’t attempt this without the assistance of Tesla’s Full Self Driving beta software. It makes the long freeway stretches relaxing and more fun. I’ll try to enter installments as we go along on the trip.

    Our Tesla Model Y LR 2023

    Last summer, we drove 6,000 miles in the Western USA using Autopilot. It was helpful, but not close to perfect. This summer, we’ll be using the new neural network-based FSD 12.3.2.1 initially. It is much better, and can drive long stretches by itself with no intervention. I’ve been testing it for a few days, and it does quite well even on our windy rural roads.

    Our grand expedition begins with a one day drive 700 miles from Amboy, Washington to Palo Alto, California.

    More to come as we go along!

    worth a visit

    Redding, California

    critters

  • Building a home in Thailand November 2019

    As a previous post explained, four years after the death of my wife Judy from cancer, I remarried. When you marry a Thai woman, as I did, you also marry her whole extended family. It is not uncommon for farang (foreigners) to not know this, and it leads to many eventual divorces. I had spent enough time in Thailand to understand this, and took it into account before proposing. The Thai people and culture have much appeal, and I decided to make the big cultural leap.

    As part of our premarital negotiations, we agreed to spend 6 months or more a year in the USA, and 4 to 5 months with my wife’s family in northeastern Thailand, with the rest in international travel. Covid disrupted the latter, and that continues to be on hold pending a normalization in travel risk.

    Thailand is quite a bit warmer than the Pacific Northwestern USA, so we have come up with a nice seasonal accommodation: we spend April through October in Washington State, which is (usually) a nice weather time, and November through March in Thailand. This is the (usually) cool season there (cool meaning as low as 60°F at night, highs in the low 80s), with little rain. Things are starting to heat up in March, and April is generally the hottest month in Thailand, reaching temperatures over 100°F

    Our first ‘winter’ in Thailand, we built a 2200 SF home adjacent to my wife’s mother’s house where she grew up, in our village of about 600 families set in the rice fields of Isaan, Surin Province

  • Getting married, June 15, 2019

    Two years ago, I met a beautiful woman in my travels abroad. I had not planned on marrying again, and was not dating anyone, anywhere. She changed my mind about that.

    At the Singapore National Orchid Garden

    After a wait of nearly a year to get USA permission, she accompanied me to the USA, and on June 15, 2019 we were married at our family farm in Amboy, Washington.

    Our wedding guests

    We are now embarking on a new part of our lives.

  • Vietnam March 2019

    In the Spring of 2019, Pin and I began her journey to the United States (to marry me) by touring Vietnam from south to north (after our Singapore February visit).

  • Singapore, February 2019

    Singapore has long been one of my favorite cities. Clean, lush and green, with lots of good Asian food, parks, ample buses and subways. I think it perhaps the best run large city in the world. I never tire of visiting Singapore.

    Merlion, the symbol of Singapore
    Marina Bay Sands Resort and Casino
    View from the top of Marina Bay Sands Resort Hotel. ‘Garden at the Bay’ in the foreground
    Nightime at Marina Bay
    Garden at the Bay
    Inside
    Towers at night

    Judy and I would often make ‘mileage runs’ from San Francisco to Singapore, and stay on Orchard Road within walking distance of the marvelous Singapore Botanic Garden.

    The National Orchid Garden is spectacular.

    Free concert in the park

    The Singapore Zoo is delightful. In a natural rain forest jungle setting are spacious open plan exhibits that give the zoo creatures good habitats without walls.