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Dan Simonds
One of our saddest days in our brief years in this world was saying goodbye to our new family, South Africans, Americans, Thais, Canadians, Chinese, Brits, people from all over the world whose lives happened to converge for a blink of the universal eye, and then just as fast everyone was gone, following their own paths which draw them all over our world. When my fiance Tara - girlfriend at the time I should add - and I left New York to teach in Thailand, it was terrible to leave the friends and family who we spent 26 years with, but there is always the reassurance that we all share a common home, one which will draw us all back, bring us together. We don't have that with the friends we made in Thailand, whose home bases draw them to all different parts of the world, yet the connections we made will never dissolve, even if we never encounter one another face to face again. Now we have left Thailand and are in the midst of 5 months through South East Asia - Penang, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar - a budget of only about $40 per day - minus some for plane tickets, bus tickets and visas. I hope I can share our adventures with other travelers and would be travelers as well as family and friends through my eyes as very best I can. I thank each and every one of you who takes the time to read my words and view our picture, and wish you all much peace, happiness and safe travels. jaiyen
As Tara and I both share photography and video duty, the pictures and video footage you see on this blog are a composite of our collective. You can view Tara's blog here
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/tarakenyon/2/tpod.html
and her blog from Thailand..
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/tarakenyon/1/tpod.html
Travel Blog Posts
That Which We Don't Have Time to Realize We've Lost - Sapa, Vietnam
Published: May 17th 2013Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Lao Cai » Sapa
May 13th 2013
If Sapa is the phantom presence you can never quite grasp, one whose impending absence haunts you even as you sit in the soft, quaint majesty of it's powerful mountains and sprawling valleys, then what hope is there for those of us who have come and left - can such longing ever be quenched? or will there always be a sense of emptiness for that which once was and may never be again. But that is now, sitting over the glistening lake at the entrance to the city, a lake which strangely enough we had been so busy that we had heretofore yet to acknowledge it's noble existence, now being only hours until our departure - our entrance five days earlier was much less triumphant, no great trumpeteers to mark our entrance as our somber parade ... read more
Calm Waters and those Intermittent Waves - Ao Nang, Krabi and Hat Yai, Thailand
Published: May 11th 2013Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Krabi
April 21st 2013
High a top the mountain that overlooks tiger temple - where no less than 50 years ago the wild unforgiving jungle spanned as far as the eye could see, a young monk set out through the wilderness to seek the solace of the mountain - the villagers warned him that at dusk a deafening roar echoed out from a tremendous cave at the foot of the monstrous structure where a great and terrifying tiger sought refuge in his own lush and tropical empire that stretched as far as he could likely have imagined. With the warnings from the villagers aside the venerable monk led a group of wisdom seekers to the foot of this very mountain to seek refuge in the Sangha and the Dharma and as they reached the foot of the mighty rock a ... read more
This was my Backyard - The Country Road to Khao Nor and Khao Kaeo, Nakhon Sawan
Published: March 20th 2013Asia » Thailand » Northern Thailand » Nakhon Sawan
March 15th 2013
'Ten Baht,' said the rugged, heavy-set Thai woman sitting inside the rusty, caged snack shop, holding a two-meter long bamboo switch which she pointed toward the raving mad crowd gathered outside of her office. She took the stick and jabbed at one of the Macaques as it tried to wedge it's way between the worn metal cage and the wretched tin roof, cackling with one eye open and one shut as the boorish beasts looked on with a healthy dose of respect and indifference alike. She opened up the door and emerged from her self-imposed prison and tapped the seat of my motorbike with her stick before tapping the seat of a motorbike next to the cage which looked as if some great and ancient demon had torn through it with jaws of steel and then ... read more
The Macaque Kingdom and the Sunflower Empire of Lop Buri
Published: January 19th 2013Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Lopburi
January 19th 2013
Right smack in the middle of a week full of midterm exams came Teacher's Day which is celebrated here as it rightfully should be with no work for the teachers and right in the middle of the week on a Wednesday too and since none of us were doing any work on account of midterms anyways it was decided that it would be a good day to drag our poor little motorbikes on a backroads day trip to a near-by province. Tara and I had been made aware on an occasion or two of the city of Lop Buri (lope - burr - ee), or Lopburi if you prefer, which has an interesting combination of sites including some nice and interesting shaped mountains and also some ancient ruins from the Ayutthaya Period, the Khmer Empire and ... read more
Hear the Birds Talkin' that Big Talk Down in Bung Boraphet, Nakhon Sawan
Published: January 18th 2013Asia » Thailand » Northern Thailand » Nakhon Sawan
January 18th 2013
The sun had yet to rise and in fact would not for quite some time as our motorbike convoy departed from the entrance to Sawan Park on our way to Thailand's grandest of swamps - Bung Boraphet as it's known among the locals - is the nation's largest wetlands and home to all sorts of migratory birds, endangered fish, beautiful plants and the lot. When my alarm went off at 5:30 am on a Saturday morning Tara and I were none too happy but I had only had a few beers the night before and felt alright so we drank down a liter or so of water along with some tea and oatmeal with some dried fruit and made our way out to meet with our friends. We felt none too wise for having lived in ... read more
1 Historical City - 100 Thai Students
Published: November 23rd 2012Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Ayutthaya
November 15th 2012
It was with great pleasure that I learned the Global English Program would be taking a field trip to the former capital city of Thailand - Ayutthaya. I had already travelled to Ayutthaya, well over 200 km from Nakhon Sawan on a Fino motorbike down Thailand's busiest highway. I had seen the ruins, ate the food, drank the beer, and survived the ride home - in the dark no less - to blog about it. This time I wasn't headed there as a tourist, but as a tour guide of sorts - well, actually more of a chaperone, to be honest. Nevertheless, I was very excited for my first field trip with the Thai students. I had been on many field trips as a kid in America, and had chaperoned a few as a teacher as ... read more
November 2nd 2012
Log-jammed in a sea of taxis, or crammed like a sardine in the BTS skytrain, many people overlook Bangkok's original means of transportation, one that brought it the designation The Venice of the East, like it's predecessor Ayutthaya before it. Perhaps in the modern world, it is impractical to expect even a tourist to have the time to meander about the city on Bangkok's waterways, known as Khlongs - though Khlong Saen Saeb still sees about 60,000 passengers / day, and can take you to a quite extraordinary variety of destinations - a more in depth list is provided in the link below: http://www.bangkok.com/attraction-waterway/khlongs-khlong-saen-saeb-boat-route-guide.htm However even if you are not in the market for alternative forms of transportation, ... read more
Human Zoos? The World's Greatest Traveler? Burmese Militias? Mae Hong Son, Thailand
Published: October 1st 2012Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Mae Hong Son
September 27th 2012
When we decided to take a trip around the Mae Hong Son loop in Northern Thailand, beginning in Chiang Mai, we weren't originally planning on stopping in the city bearing the province's name. We had heard a bit about Soppong, Mae Saraeong, and of course Pai, but there weren't many people singing the praises on Mae Hong Son. It kind of came down to a decision that, after two-nights in Pai, we were ready to move on. Don't get me wrong, Pai is absolutly beautiful countryside with a really laid back vibe and lots of chilled out places to, well, chill out. With a mean age of 27 years old, however, our group had become a bit weary of the literal hoards of backpackers who move from bar to bar, the shirtless guys with bathing suits ... read more
A Place to Level Out - Chiang Dao, Thailand
Published: June 28th 2012Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Dao
June 21st 2012
It began as all good trips in South-East Asia seem to, by word of mouth. I had never heard of Chiang Dao, and when I finally found it in some travel literature I learned that there was a big mountain, a big market and some birds, and I heard mention of a gourmet dinner menu at a place called Chiang Dao Nest. Sounds ok, but not jump out of your seat and catch a bus to Chiang Dao type of stuff. Thus, our trip itinerary included over a week in Chiang Mai following our trips to Sukhothai and Mae Salong, but Chiang Dao had not made the cut. While I was speaking about our travel plans to my friend Gary, he mentioned that we might stop in Chiang Dao on our way to Chiang Mai. But ... read more
April 18th 2012
Having lived in Thailand for about 7 months, we were blessed with the opportunity to have five of our childhood friends come to visit us during our April break from teaching. All of us had grown up together and had attended the same high school in a small rural town outside of Binghamton New York. They arrived on, of all days, Songkran Sunday in Chiang Mai. What a way to bring them into Thailand. And while we had an unforgettable afternoon of Chang Beers and water-fights, Thai family-style meals and late nights, what we had really flew them half-way across the world for was not just a drunken backpacker party in Chiang Mai and Pai. So after a few days in Chiang Mai we rented an SUV and began our first tour of the Mae Hong ... read more
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