The road as we know it...An introduction.

April, 2011. (at the end of three and a half months in SE Asia) 


OK so I know that a travel blog is supposed to be done "as you go"... on a daily or at least weekly basis.  I get that... really.

That said, here I am... the last day of the trip and I'm just getting started. 

On so many levels just getting started is such an understatement, I can’t even begin to say. 

I'm a bit overwhelmed at the last three and a half months, I've met some really wonderful people and I've learned much about them and about myself.  People are people wherever you go  (Yah, profound,.. I know).   What I mean is that what ever the differences of circumstance, culture, race, religion etc... I think we are more alike than we are different.  We are capable of the greatest acts of humanity and inhumanity in every extreme. And this is most evidenced here ware extremes are the norm.  Asians, as a group, are some of the most committed people I have ever come into contact with.

Privet and closed, even shy at times and then beautifully, sometimes painfully, open and bare.  Hardened by circumstance, strong by experience, open in spirit and possessing a sometimes unexpected vulnerability  that is all at once beguiling and alluring at the same time.   It is no wonder that so many have fallen in love with this mystical and enchanting place. 

Wednesday January 4, 2012

So that is the way this blog started back in April of 2011, and then I was back in the states and got distracted and well... here I am ten months later back in SE Asia and starting again. 

It all started a year ago today January 4th 2011, I had packed up my studio and my house and put everything into storage and was officially free from the obligations of residency.  I was looking forward to being on the road and was exited to get on the plane and head for Asia. Little did I know what a life changing experience it would be.

A road less defined:

How much of life can we really plan?  I’ve spent a great deal of time effort and money making plans, working out strategies, holding meetings, going to seminars, attending churches, pursuing diplomas and generally agonizing over the best approach to take in this life, and while I have had my share of successes and failures I’m not sure how much of any of it has actually led to any particular degree of happiness.  Don’t get me wrong... I regard everything that I’ve done including and maybe especially the mistakes and failures as fundamentally valuable experiences in my life. I am a firm believer in reasoned thinking and a strong work ethic.  But somewhere in all that “nose to the grind stone” “plan for the future” approach to life I found myself, admittedly, in an agreeable place fiscally but not necessarily in a great place in terms of happiness. Ultimately it took my fathers death two years ago to make me stop and reconsider what I was doing, who my friends were, and what I was working so fervently for. All the planning and hard work in the world will not change our ultimate destination.  We all end up in the same place.  We can not change our end but we can change the process of how we get there.

Which brings me to what this blog is all about. I love photography and I love to travel.  Fifteen years ago if you had asked me what I wanted to do I would have said Take photos and travel.  So that is what I’m doing. And while I’ve given myself a general sketch of a plan for this trip, I’ve left the road map intentionally undefined and open to change. 

So here goes...I'll pick things up as they started this last December and add in anecdotes as they seem applicable from the first leg of this odyssey that started last year.