Desmocrat
living two lifetimes in the span of one.
Howdy y'all. I'm Stephen, originally from Kentucky, but have lived all over and have been living in Loei, Thailand for the last three years. I was originally trained as a photographer/photojournalist by the U.S. Air Force back in the 1970s, but pursued fine arts after that, bailed on school after two years and went to work in the sculpture foundries in New York, learning the process in one of the smallest foundries, then moved to the world's largest foundry, Tallix Art Foundry. After 20 years of working in metal sculpture production, including my own work which included solo shows in NYC, New York, Georgia, Kentucky, and California, I took a break to become certified as a scuba instructor and cave diver. I then worked on a 60' sloop-rigged live aboard dive boat in the Bahamas for a while before switching to a new career doing CAD design for architectural and civil engineering firms. This was right about the time that 3D modeling was coming on the scene and I jumped in head first starting small but advancing to large scale +$300M projects (hospitals, Yum! Brands Arena in Louisville, KY, multi-use facilities, bio-med, etc.)
Alongside doing the design work, I resurrected my training in photography and published two books on temple architecture in Kyoto, Japan and Angkor, Cambodia. While working on the book of Angkor, part of my research was next door in Thailand. It was here that I met my wife as she was my fixer. The joke is that after riding all over Isaan, Thailand with her in a sub-compact car for three weeks and not killing her, that I'd best hang onto her. A year later we were married on the same day as the coup against PM Thaksin Shinawatra. A year later she gained her green card and came to the U.S. where she "Americanized" for 16 years.
Also, about the same time I was doing the two books I traveled to India for the first time to have a musical instrument built, as I had been studying Indian classical music for four years and had outgrown the student-grade surbahar I had been practicing with. So I first did a four month Hindi language program in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and then another four months in Varanasi spending every day witnessing the creation of my surbahar, which is like a larger bass sitar. I was back the Indian Himalaya for my fourth visit last year where on the next to the last day of a 16 day motorcycle trip across some of the world's highest roadways, I was hit head on by a pickup the came around a blind curve in my lane. Fucked both shoulders and both feet. Still recovering, but have been back on the bikes a few times. "Get back on the horse that throws you. Don't let them win" was something I heard often growing up on a working thoroughbred horse farm in Kentucky. Horses and motorcycles are about the same thing.
Finally, after selling the house and just about everything else we owned, we went on a three month road trip around the U.S. so that my wife could bag all of the lower 48, then on the last hour of 2020 (11:20pm) we landed in Bangkok to start a new life in Thailand.
Thoroughly enjoying my life here and have traveling all over South and Southeast Asia, and especially all over Thailand. The map shows all of the roads I have covered in Thailand represented by black lines. Mostly by motorcycle, but by pickup when the wife tags along (I still don't want to kill her). If you have questions about traveling around Thailand, I'd be glad to give any insight I can render.
Alongside doing the design work, I resurrected my training in photography and published two books on temple architecture in Kyoto, Japan and Angkor, Cambodia. While working on the book of Angkor, part of my research was next door in Thailand. It was here that I met my wife as she was my fixer. The joke is that after riding all over Isaan, Thailand with her in a sub-compact car for three weeks and not killing her, that I'd best hang onto her. A year later we were married on the same day as the coup against PM Thaksin Shinawatra. A year later she gained her green card and came to the U.S. where she "Americanized" for 16 years.
Also, about the same time I was doing the two books I traveled to India for the first time to have a musical instrument built, as I had been studying Indian classical music for four years and had outgrown the student-grade surbahar I had been practicing with. So I first did a four month Hindi language program in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand and then another four months in Varanasi spending every day witnessing the creation of my surbahar, which is like a larger bass sitar. I was back the Indian Himalaya for my fourth visit last year where on the next to the last day of a 16 day motorcycle trip across some of the world's highest roadways, I was hit head on by a pickup the came around a blind curve in my lane. Fucked both shoulders and both feet. Still recovering, but have been back on the bikes a few times. "Get back on the horse that throws you. Don't let them win" was something I heard often growing up on a working thoroughbred horse farm in Kentucky. Horses and motorcycles are about the same thing.
Finally, after selling the house and just about everything else we owned, we went on a three month road trip around the U.S. so that my wife could bag all of the lower 48, then on the last hour of 2020 (11:20pm) we landed in Bangkok to start a new life in Thailand.
Thoroughly enjoying my life here and have traveling all over South and Southeast Asia, and especially all over Thailand. The map shows all of the roads I have covered in Thailand represented by black lines. Mostly by motorcycle, but by pickup when the wife tags along (I still don't want to kill her). If you have questions about traveling around Thailand, I'd be glad to give any insight I can render.
