The JimAnna Chronicles

As we lumbered along on our elephant, our guides slide by on a bamboo raft they had built (or at least lashed together) after we left. It was perhaps a more elegant way to travel the river. Don’t get me wrong, we loved the elephant, but were more than ready to get off when we [...]

This was without question, our favorite part of the trip. We certainly enjoyed all of it, but this was the most enlightening and unique. It offered a view into a different part of the world that we knew very little about (and quite honestly, still have only scratched the surface). We chose to go on [...]

The mountain that reminds Chang Mai that it’s in a mountainous region is Doi Suthep. The local legend goes that many centuries ago the local Buddhist temple was given a tiny portion of “the” Buddha’s ashes after he was cremated. This was then placed around the neck of a white elephant. It was released and [...]

Perhaps the most famous refugees in Thailand are the long neck woman of the Padaung tribe. Their tribe is a sect of the much larger Karen Tribe. They are native to Myanmar (AKA Burma), but several villages have fled persecution there to find a better life in Thailand. While they are not Thai citizens yet, [...]

After we left Wat Pho, we decided that the last tuk tuk ride was so much fun that we took another. This time, we went to Amulet Market. At this market, the main theme was religious amulets. Of course, there were plenty of other goods available. Even though we didn’t buy anything, the people watching [...]

Prologue–This trip was one that offered many excellent photographic opportunities, so if you have a slow connection, these pages may take a little while to load. For that, I apologize. All told, we selected 117 of the 450 we made to share with you. I’ve also included more commentary than normal. This is for a [...]

This weekend, our adventure de jour was a trip to Saipan for the highly touted XTerra off-road triathlon. I have to say, it did not disappoint in the adventure category! The one thing I will say this weekend taught me (before I launch into the story in earnest) is that I discovered, I am not [...]

Ok, here is the second batch of my favorite pictures. This next group of pictures is a SMALL sampling of pictures from my deployment to central and southwest Asia in 2003-04. The first picture is the view from a road in Afghanistan, about 30 miles away from Kabul at Bagram Air Base. As you can [...]