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Lopburi, Thailand is about a three hour train ride from Bangkok’s central train station. I was there to see the collection of antique beads in the museum, as well as to visit the Khmer-era ruins. I stayed at the funky Noom Guest House; cheap, centrally located and with plenty of character. The place is family run and has an excellent restaurant. The town is famous for being overrun with rhesus monkeys. I… Read More
In late June of 2019 I was up in Chiang Mai, Thailand looking for ancient beads. I had several contacts I had made while attending the Asian Bead Exhibition in Bangkok earlier in the month. READ MORE…
October 2019 –Mae Sot, on the Thai/Burmese border, makes for an interesting adventure. The main reason I was in town was to look for old beads and any other antique or curiosities that might have drifted across the border. Alongside the Mae Nam Moei River on the Thai side of the border is an expansive market that sells a mixture of imports from Burma, black-market clothes, cheap Chinese electronics, food, carved wood,… Read More
I’ll be heading to the US next week, and one of the things I’m looking forward to is attending the Oregon Country Fair. It’s one of the biggest craft shows in the US, and my son has a booth there. Over the last forty years I’ve always made it a point to look for antique beads wherever I travel, and I travel quite extensively. It wasn’t hard to put together a couple… Read More
In early January 2017 I traveled to Koh Phayam again. It was still one of my favorite obscure islands in Thailand, and it hadn’t changed much in the intervening nine months. No cars allowed and I stayed at PP Land once more. It’s quite isolated, even by Koh Phayam standards, and I appreciated it even more after I had a chance to see the more populated beaches. READ MORE…
(1977)
THE ARDENT ENTHUSIAST 