Archers Post Thank you thank you thank you. My Son is in the army and going over to Archers Post on 14th Feb 2010, to help biuld a barracks out there. I found your pictures and words very interesting and moving. And now I can picture my son David, in the environment he will be staying and all the wonderful people he may have a chance to meet. The unknown is always scary but this has put my mind at rest a bit. I will make sure he takes some toys and sweets, just on the off chance he will meet some of the villagers. Hopefully he will and have many special memories to bring back home. Thank you again
115 Degrees Hey John. I just had to comment on your 115 degrees in Death Valley... On our 3rd day of our cross country bicycle tour we were riding through Hells Canyon in Idaho at 112 degrees. We were out of shape still and couldn't make the steep grades so we had to walk, pushing our triple bicycle and BOB trailer. We had to make our way down the embankment to a creek (a couple of times) just to bring our core body temperature down and we draped bandanas over our heads then put on our bike helmets just to keep the sun off. There was virtually no shade and if we came across even a sliver we would huddle together under the shade to get just a bit of relief. Mike and I were wondering what we were thinking and I'm sure our 9-year old was also!!
Wind I'm so glad you gave me your blog site. I'm enjoying your story and photos. I can relate to the wind...now just imagine what it was like for us on a triple bicycle with a BOB trailer (approximately 600 lbs. with our weight and all gear) being pushed all over Kansas by those winds!! We had winds from every direction and at one point were blown back to 0 mph! We never were blown over but came close!! We tried to sit out a wind storm once but alas we would have been sleeping on the side of the road if we didn't keep going so we pedaled on. Wind is demoralizing! Thanks for sharing.
I wish there where more people like yourself who are very helpful, thank you. The way you have laid out this helpful page on a visa run is very very good.
Thank you,
Brian Smith.
hello read your etry-seen the photos-im gobsmacked .i will be in bangkok in september and hope to see the slums of klong toey myself.what small gifts cold i bring for the local children??
appreciation That was a really good work you did there at that children's home and be blessed for your youir work and support for the destitute. Next time you come to Kenya invite me to help im your activities
gospel music in Nairobi I enjoyed your story very much. It brought back wonderful memories of my two weeks in Nairobi in 2000. My favorite experience was going to the Nairobi Chapel. The joy that the people exuded and the beautiful music brought tears to my eyes.
I bought a tape of the music at a local store but unfortunately, I left it in my hot car one day and it got ruined. I am now searching for the same music on-line... by any chance have you found anything that sounds like the music you heard?
Andaman Club-The easy way for a Visa ! Forget about Victoria Point. Just go to the Andaman Club pier in Ranong. Take the air conditioned Jetcat over to the Casino, pay 850 Baht all up, get duty free shopping, a first class meal, in a 5 star hotel, and if you need to stay in Ranong, check out mistymountainsresort.com
WOW Keep following your heart! It will alwasy lead you where you'r meant to be!!! Great trip and happy trails wherever you go- see you in Thailand soon I hope!!
Remarkable! It was great to meet you and I hope you had an enjoyable time with us in Florida for a couple of days. It was very precious to find the what great outreach you are doing for these poor little children, Travis. It is very wonderful what you are trying to accomplish and my prayers and thoughts are with you in your future trips to Kenya.
Johnny You look like Neil Pert on that motorcycle. I can't believe you were comping at fallen leaf and didn't come by for some spirits. Next time you better make it happen. The mailman must of lost the invitaion to your wedding.
Our friend, Terry Snipe
I very much enjoyed reading about your experiences in Thailand, especially since they included remembrances of Terry.
As you know, Terry was such an extraordinary man. It's almost ironic that he died of an enlarged heart when his heart and his capacity to help others was indeed quite large.
Terry and I were together for over 2 years. In those 2 years I saw the most AMAZING person that I've ever been privileged to witness in my entire life. His selflessness and generosity were totally incalculable.
It was I who first told Terry of the tsunami that hit his beloved Thailand.......and his reaction was totally predictable. "I've got to go," was his first thought and "of course you do" was my response.
He had around 10 days off to be there and when he was due back for work in New York he said to me, "I'm not ready to come back yet.....there's still soooo much for me to do here!" I told him, "Call in sick. Make up SOMETHING! ANYTHING! There's nothing at Delta Air Lines that is more important than what you are doing there." He then came up with a lie that confused people after his death.........he told Delta that he had been hit by a board during rebuilding homes and that he had a concusion. (erroneously, some people thought that this may have caused his death 5 months later....)
Terry and I were in love and were making plans to live together. A few weeks before he died, and while we were solidifying all of our plans, he took me out to dinner and told me that he had something very important to tell me. I had absolutely NO idea where he was going with this so.......I went with much trepidation. Finally the time came that he had to tell me and he said, "You know how much it meant to me to go to Thailand and help out with the tsunami relief, right? and I have to say, I feel that I'm not here in this world to just take but rather to give back.........I feel a really calling for that. So...........there are going to months that I am going to fly as much as possible so that the next month I can go and help out wherever I am needed. I just wanted you to know that before we moved in together because I thought it would be unfair to you if I didn't tell you that upfront." and my response? "Oh my God, Terry..........that only makes me love you more! and hopefully I'll be able to do the exact same thing and be able to go with you and help out too!"
And ironically, the city where we were first together, where "Terry and Jaycey" took root, was in New Orleans. I know, without a doubt, that he would have been the first one there helping out after hurricane Katrina.
And THAT is.........was...........Terry Snipe. The most incredible man that I have ever known..........and in all likelihood, WILL ever know.
Nothing can prepare you for what happened. If anyone cares to know, this is how his last days went............ I was at a relative's on Saturday, May 14th. I called him at midnight and he told me that he didn't feel well..........that he thought he had the flu. I knew that I had woken him up so I told him to go back to sleep and I would call him the next day. That was followed by a "barrage" of "I love you's" (as was our "custom"..........and let me just say.........THANK GOD FOR THAT!.........I know that the last words Terry ever said to me was "I love you"..........). Around noon the next day I called and got no response. He had a trip (to Paris) that day so I just assumed that he felt better and was on his way to the airport. I left a message saying that I guess he felt better and was on his way to JFK......and for him to call me and leave the Paris layover phone number so that I could call him on his layover (which we always.....ALWAYS......did for each other). Well, on Monday morning I was dropped off at the airport and I turned on my phone, TOTALLY expecting a message from Terry yet...........there was none. Oh my God, I STILL remember that feeling because he had NEVER gone more than 2 days without him leaving me some kind of a message.................ever!! But..........as upset as I was, in my mind I was totally making excuses for him. When I got home to Dallas I thought, I'll call him a little before his pick-up time in Paris..........which will be around midnight here. I got on the computer and looked at his schedule to get the phone number in Paris and...........I saw that he had called in sick! I IMMEDIATELY called him but...........no answer. I said, "Terry...........I see that you called in sick for your trip today so..........wow.............you're not there so...........I guess you've gone out with your friends so............CALL ME!.............I don't care WHAT time it is! I just need to know that you're okay............" and then I went to bed. The next morning, when I woke up and he hadn't called, I went into a panic. I waited until noon and then started calling him. No answer. I was friggin' OUT OF MY MIND but............of course I started making excuses for him. His mom had died in May (and, ironically, in the very same apartment!!) and he made a "pilgrimage" each year to her gravesite in upstate New York.............and I told myself, "Okay...........he's gone to see his mom............he forgot his cell phone and he doesn't have my numbers memorized so he can't call.........." I must have left over 200 voicemails on his answering machine over the next 3 days and then on Thursday, May 19th, I knew that he had reserve days. I had a Paris trip and went up to NY. I checked his schedule throughout the morning but they hadn't given him anything. By the time I got to NY, I went in to talk to one of the supervisors and he pulled up Terry's schedule. In the time that I had last checked his schedule and now, they had assigned him a trip and had no response.
That was it. I got on the computer and found the closest police station and asked them to check it. Less than an hour later a NY dectective called me back and said that they had gone to the apartment and, yes, they found a body. !!!!! TRULY I never expected there to be a body there............I only called NYPD to rule OUT that possibility. and at first, I tried to fool myself by saying "It could be somebody else...........it may not be him!............" yet..............I knew otherwise. There is just NO WAY that he would have gone that long (4 days!) without contacting me............no way.
The detective called me throughout the evening requesting "identifying marks" and such. It just KILLED ME when he would respond with, "Well yeah, we really can't tell............."
And then there really wasn't any "next of kin". Terry's mom had died 5 years earlier, one of his brothers had been killed over 10 years prior, his other brother was in prison, his dad, well, had never been a dad to him and so.............his only "blood" relative was his brother's daughter.
So............I had to go to the morgue and identify the body. I have to say that this was something that I TOTALLY wanted to do............ I never understood what "closure" meant until I truly
TRULY needed it............wanted it...............NEEDED it. But..............my girlfriends wouldn't let me see him............ they felt that that would have been much too much for me. and then the girl from the coroner's said that she didn't think that ANYONE should see him...........that he was in "really bad shape"............ !!!!! my two girlfriends went and looked at pictures that were taken of him in his apartment and came back and said, yes, that was him. I KNEW it was him but at the same time, it just seemed so impossible. He was only 30!!!! As we went to leave the coroner's, I found that my feet just couldn't move. I "knew" that that wasn't "Terry" in there but yet, I found that I just couldn't walk out that door and leave him all alone........ my heart was shattered into a million pieces and I just couldn't leave him all alone.
So, in conclusion, thank you everyone who has beautiful memories of Terry. I can say from my personal experiences that I am SO MUCH MORE better of a person now because of him!
I love Terry Snipe. in both life and in death. I am SUCH a better person for having had him in my life. without ANY doubt.
Jaycey
17thSeptember2007 just read your blog. A good insight, just booked 17 days in khaolak and looking forward to it. Passed thru patong beach area some years ago whilst staying at the Pearl village resort, and was glad to be just passing Thru. hoping weather will be fine. Lastin Koh Samui 2 years ago in November had caught monsoon rain for 10days of our visit, lots of flooding and very depressing, but glad to be going back to Thailand, love the country and people.
Gorgeous!!! Hi everyone,
What's nice Pictures! I took almost this same Trip few Years ago .But with 4 Wheels... My dream was this to do again with a Bike!
Concratulations for You nice Wife!
Your Report is something verry special, i couldt'nt stop to read...
Hello from Germany, Peter and Angelika !
Terry Snipe-always in my heart I think I was the one who advised most, including Christine Creel of what had happened to Terry....He died May 15, 2005, not found until May 19 alone on 2 W 120 in Manhattan. Terry was truly my soulmate...the one true love of my life...I was with him in Atlanta just 7 days before he died...he was fine..but he was always on the go, always tired, working with Delta and the jet lag, and always thinking of others, never really of himself, a truly selfless man...Yes, Terry was born Feb 4, 1975...the good die young....his mother died young, his youngest brother died before him, then God took him home and that same July 2005, his oldest brother died, supposedly a drowning, but the coroner in Manhattan, Dr. Hayes and myself had become closely in contact with eachother...he said it probably was a heart defect and just happened that he was in a public swimming pool, not likely that a grown man truly just "drowned"....I put a blog out on the Tsunami guestbook, and I was getting so many emails from people who had been touched by Terry and his kindness, his concern for welfare of others...not a bad word was ever said...in all of it, I got some photos from the UK, then got some closure that I needed so badly in my time of being alone with just his memories...like so many other people who he had touched and they never forgot what a wonderfully kind, respectful, decent human being he was...then a girl in Thailand that he had a relationship with in the past contacted me...we have remaind email friends...she also sent me two pictures that I cherish, and Terry spoke to her of me, and she said to me, remember he loved you...I believe he did. I think of Terry almost daily still, his photo in a frame by my headboard before I go to sleep. Terry loved the Thai people, and said it was like his second home. Terry loved people, and loved life, and loved helping others.....always in my heart, the last man I will ever love....He would have continued to go back to help rebuild, but he was not given more time on this earth. Rest in peace, a big man with a big beautiful heart and soul. My email is lexseec@hotmail.....if anyone still cares to share a story of the goodness of this man. Thank you John for never forgetting him.
Nice report from Khao Lak It is still one of our favorite places and we revisited Khao Lak and stayed there 12 days in September last year. Search for sundstromtravel in Google and you find our travel stories from our Around The World in 365 Days which we ended in Khao Lak and the tsunami was one of the reasons why we decided to make a career break and travel for one year. Life is too short, you know!!! Best regards EvAnders
Khao Lak Thanks for the great photos. We will be in Khao Lak at Ayara Villas for the first time 8th May cannot wait really looks good. We also do not like Patong and estaying first at Kamala and then Krabi before Khao Lak
Wow Yeah, i've done this many times(phuket-ranong) by mini-bus, I've been there for a long period of time, and all this story is true.
If you want to experience that, join an organize tour, this is my suggestion. ;-) Have fun, and hope you have a good back because the ride is ruff.
J'ai aime.... Surprised to discover your blog today. I am living among the Samburu community since march 1996, speaking the language, sharing their daily lives and knowing all their traditions. I wish I could meet you the day you was in Maralal, where I'm living. Welcome to my blog http://lailasamburu.blogcenter.net
Thanks for your blog.
Hello all worldly people! My name is Johnny and I'm from Chico, California, USA. I haven't been adding to this blog in many years, but will be updating some of my travels soon. Hope you enjoy my writings and experiences. I welcome your comments and stories to tell, too!
My Thailand trip in 2005 changed my life completely. I've been joined with a wonderful wife and daughter since my trip and we continue to explore the world every chance we get!
Please forgive the following statement, but it needs to be said for those that are not so honest.
To all those that want to use my photos for p... full info
Carole Green
non-member comment
Archers Post
Thank you thank you thank you. My Son is in the army and going over to Archers Post on 14th Feb 2010, to help biuld a barracks out there. I found your pictures and words very interesting and moving. And now I can picture my son David, in the environment he will be staying and all the wonderful people he may have a chance to meet. The unknown is always scary but this has put my mind at rest a bit. I will make sure he takes some toys and sweets, just on the off chance he will meet some of the villagers. Hopefully he will and have many special memories to bring back home. Thank you again