Notes from a Nomad

Remarkable People, Memorable Events and Fascinating Destinations from Around the World.

Tag Archives: Thailand


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106 – 2025: My Favourite Images

I have been a passionate photographer all my life dating from when my parents gave me a second hand Zeiss Ikon Rangefinder camera in the early 1960s and both my enthusiasm and modest ability as a photographer is genuine and longstanding.

In 1972 after working as an assistant prospecting hand in the remote Kununurra area of Northwestern Australia I sold images I had taken to the Australian Journal of Photography to help finance future travels and from 1979 to 2011 it was my images which featured heavily in all the colour brochures and marketing material used by our International Educational Travel company Casterbridge Tours.

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105 – An Art Deco Showcase: Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, NSW, Australia. December 2 2025

I first discovered an interest in Art Deco in my late 30s and this has grown into a love of this genre which incorporates both Art and Design. And unlike other periods that have been defined by an artistic or architectural style, Art Deco is both short and easily identifiable as being very much defined and delineated by the period between the two World Wars 1918 to 1939, and in particular from the mid 1920s.

I started buying small pieces of Art Deco sculpture at auction in 1990 and even attended Antique Fairs as a seller with our eldest daughter Sarah, then 7 or 8, accompanying me as my assistant! I guess that could have been a formative influence as she now owns a successful Vintage and Collectibles store in Vancouver Canada (see here).

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96 – Where on earth is Sangkhla Buri? Thailand, January 4 -13 2025

Hands up if you know where Sangkhla Buri is located!

Not very many I suspect, and the answer is very close to the Thai Myanmar border about 210 miles or 375km northwest of Bangkok, and far from any of the well known destinations in Thailand that attract the bulk of the 30+ million international tourists who visit Thailand annually.

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95 – 2024: My Favourite Images

All my life I have had both a strong interest in photography and an interest to chronical my life, family and travels initially with photo albums and for the last 25 years with digital folders.

In 2024 I saved 11,489 images in 304 Folders (numbered 4128 to 4431), each folder titled with a date and description.

As the year progressed  I composed 27 thematic folders drawn from the 11,489 images above of family, friends and my travels.

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69 – The Mighty Mekong – A photographic Essay: Khong Chiam to Chiang Khan, Isaan, Thailand June 20 – July 3 2021

I do not have a ‘bucket list’ of things I want to do or see before I die.

I do have many books waiting to be read (far too many to list!) and I do keep lists of those books I read each year as I try and reach my target of 50 books per annum.

I have lists of TV series to watch and again of those I have watched. Continue reading →


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68 – Unexpected delights when travelling – Pak Chong, Nakon Ratchasima Province, Thailand. April 15 -16 2021

Remember when it was possible to travel almost at will? To go where we wanted to go and whenever we wanted? Finances and time permitting of course!

I always thought that one of the great delights when travelling was to stumble across somewhere or something which was totally unexpected and which, at the fear of sounding dated, totally blew my mind.

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67 – Quarantine – So what’s all the fuss about? Bangkok Thailand February 15 – March 2 2021

Preparations

After spending pretty much all of 2021 in Thailand I returned to the UK in mid-December so that I was able to spend Christmas with my wife Sharron and three kids Sarah (36), Lisa (34) and David (32) because ever since Sarah was born in 1984 the three, then four and then five of us had spent every Christmas together. This was in either the UK, Canada or Switzerland and once each in Australia when Lisa was completing her PhD and could not get away, and once in Staunton, Virginia in the USA where Sarah and I had friends. This was just after my mother died and we wanted to go somewhere that had no associations with her to remind us of our loss. Continue reading →


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64 – Ancient Cities and Temples: A Thai Road Trip. Oct 22 – Oct 30 2020

The most famous historic ruins in South East Asia are justifiably the magnificent and extensive ruins of more than three dozen often ornately decorated temples found amidst the dense jungle at Angkor Wat, near Siem Reap in Cambodia. And as a result Angkor Wat is a heavily visited destination, attracting visitors from all around the world. Indeed when I first visited Angkor Wat in 2006, I was also fortunate enough to visit the Great Pyramids in Egypt and Machu Pichu in Peru, also both for the first time the same year, and it was Angkor Wat that for me was by far the most impressive. Continue reading →


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63 – Locked down in Thailand-Pattaya Thailand. March – December 2020

This essay was partly written in August 2020 before a likely relocation to Switzerland and was intended to be an account of my previous 6 months in Thailand as the world faced the challenges of a global pandemic.

As it happened I remained in Pattaya a further two months where I was largely distracted by some work challenges in the UK, and in Thailand until mid December although much of my last seven weeks was spent on three road trips visiting different parts of ‘the Land of Smiles.’ Continue reading →