"Electronica and Ozonation"

So a few years ago I made my grand entrance into Asia by blowing out the wiring in an entire Hong Kong hotel room trying to step down from the standard 220V outlet there to standard American 110V... with a surge protector. At the time I didn't really think through why it had happened, mostly because I was so jet lagged I could barely remember my first name. The passage of time apparently didn't add to my insight. Arriving in our Bangkok hostel after a gazillion miles in the air, I dutifully set about protecting my electronics by plugging in my surge protector before anything else. Like, anything else to step down the 220V source. This time I actually singed my hand and there was a pretty impressive bang. Good thing I was protecting my stuff against any surges, like, oh, maybe, the entire 220V circuitry grid in Thailand! The only small consolation was that this room was also the only hostel/hotel room I have ever seen that actually mounted the room's fuse box above the door. They must have suffered American visitors before us. Still, it sure was handy (and less embarassingly dumbass) to be able to get to the fuses and make the fix on my own. Handy fuse boxes above the door is only the beginning at Sivalai Place, the fantastic hostel we stayed in during our Bangkok layover. Oillie and the rest of the staff are fantastic and extremely personal and attentive to travel needs and questions, they have a great coffeeshop in the lobby, and their claim to have the best (ozonated) pool in Bangkok is probably well-founded. It was just the place to transition our jet-lagged, travel weary selves into our new 220V Asian lifestyles.