2022 Goals and Outlook | Thailand Snake Notes

2022 Goals and Outlook | Thailand Snake Notes
It has been a while since I’ve written anything regarding snakes here in Thailand. Not much going on. I was in a place where there was no forest in the entire province. No national park. No hills. Too many dogs.

I didn’t do much herping at all because the roads where snakes were found had too many dogs and cars. It just wasn’t any fun. The province is Ang Thong.

If someone says let’s go herping there, just politely decline and go somewhere else. Anywhere else.

I did see some species I haven’t seen in the wild before. A couple of kukri, white-lipped pit vipers, the long-nosed vine snake (A. nasuta). The place was much better for birds. I saw owls every night if I looked for them.

Big monitors cruise through the canals that line the roads there. It’s a rice-farming province so there are water canals all over. I found lots of snakes crossing the roads between the canals. Snakes like monocled cobras, sunbeam, kukris, and white-lipped pit vipers.

The carnage was unbelievable. Every day or two I’d see a huge monitor hit and dead on the road. How Thais miss these 2-meter-long slow-walking lizards is bewildering to me.

Anyway, back in Krabi and so far not much happening. Snakes are around but I don’t have time to look much. I usually just do a road herp on the motorbike for 45 minutes and call it a night!

March is usually a time of no rain and very few snakes. We have had rain all year and no real dry season at all. It’s strange, but Krabi fluctuates from year to year and sometimes drastically. We’ve had a LOT of rain here this year already. Hoping there are no landslides on the way like we had in 2012 was it?

2022 Goals

Goals this year are mostly not snake related. We’ve had a shi* two years because of COVID and many online income streams drying up. Slowly getting back up to an income that will sustain us.

Goal #1 – The most important goal is to increase online income. Probably going to sell some of my websites and buy more, fix them up, and sell them too. This is probably where my greatest strength and opportunity lies. I’ve done SEO and e-commerce for 20+ years. Why stop now?

Goal #2 – Keep fitness up. Get more vertical elevation. Currently around 8,000 meters per month. I’d like to get 10,000 per month consistently. The body is not quite what it used to be, but not in the ground yet.

Goal #3 – Continue to spend a lot of time with my kids. The first one grew up so fast, we’re really focusing on our second little daughter who is almost two years now. The greatest joy ever in my life has been my kids.

Goal #4 – Continue to invest in crypto. It has been good. It’s only going to get better over the next few years. So excited to have this opportunity.

Goal #5 – Considering something to do with motorbike touring in Thailand and possibly elsewhere. I’ve rekindled my love for bigger bikes (had them in the States) and I may do a video channel and website about just taking trips and camping, fishing, etc.

Goal #6 – Continue offering snake internships, field trips, and shooting videos when I can about Thailand’s snakes and other reptiles. I don’t think we’re going to have enough people coming back to Thailand this year, but if that changes I’d like to hold a SNAKE STALK 2022 event in Krabi or possibly elsewhere. Let me know if you’re keen on attending. It has been a great time in the past and I think we’re due for one.

As you can see, doing anything with snakes is not high on the list. The reason is, there just isn’t money in it and I just don’t have free time to go have fun exploring the topic much anymore.

After 13 years of looking for snakes, learning about them, and teaching others about snakes, I haven’t burnt out but I have cut back considerably on what I consider interesting and fun about them.

I’ve been thinking about other topics to start websites about and to shoot videos for, but so far I haven’t been inspired to get anything going. I know what I want to do, but I’ll need more financial stability before I embark on it. I haven’t mentioned it above, but it’s wildlife related. If things go very well over the next 6 months, maybe I’ll move in that direction. If not, I’ll stick with the stuff listed above.

How about you?

What are you doing this year? COVID may be just a memory in a few months. I hope we don’t have any strong strain coming again anytime soon.

Is any snake hunting in your plans? Is anything else interesting? Comments are open…