From Saigon, Vietnam…
May all your blogging dreams come true for 2025!
Happy New Year!
Month: December 2024
Exploring Jim Thompson’s House: A Thai Heritage Journey
Dashing through snow-covered Christmas displays,
and crossing over treacherous boulevards…
to serene hideaways…
flowing into idyllic canals,
we finally arrived at Jim Thompson’s house–
his private residence-turned-heritage museum, replete with a gallery, restaurant, and boutique–
all dedicated to Jim Thompson’s love of ancient Siam.
The compulsory spirit house surrounded by lush gardens–situated according to Feng Shui principles–informed us that we were protected from the steel and glass towers that enveloped us.
An English-speaking docent guided us through gardens and living quarters, which showcased archetypal Thai tapestries,
ancient wood carvings,
Buddhist watercolors…
and fanciful porcelain tea sets, among a dazzling array of other riches…
which inspired Thompson’s line of patterned silk fabrics used in clothing, furnishing, and accessories,
such that he single-handedly revolutionized Thailand’s handicraft industry during the 1950s and 1960s, earning him the moniker of the “Silk King of Thailand.”
His home has become an amalgam of Southeast Asian cultures…
and museum-worthy artifacts that he collected throughout the years,
sprinkled with practical flourishes, while serving as de facto US Ambassador to Thailand and founding the Thai silk company that still bears his name.
His status as a raconteur and entertainer of celebrities and royalty was legendary, but abruptly came to an end on Easter Sunday, March 1967. He had visited a friend’s house in the Cameron Highlands of central Malaysia, and took an afternoon walk through the jungle that day, never to be seen again.
Despite a land and air search effort involving hundreds of full-time trackers across multiple agencies and governments, it seems Jim Thompson disappeared without a trace.
There are many who have traveled down the rabbit hole of theories and conspiracies, determined to unravel the truth and possible whereabouts of his remains.
Yet the legacy Jim Thompson left behind continues to this day, and Thailand’s prosperous silk industry remains his greatest contribution.
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Starting Over in Bangkok
With writing this sentence, my 6-month blogging hiatus is officially history.
All the while, I continued taking pictures, and I never stopped writing. I just got off the blogging merry-go-round for a time.
Instead, I took stock of nearly 25,000 images and analyzed 500 stories that I’ve shared with the WordPress community over the past eight years.
I soon realized after 3 years of blogging that I had already accomplished my mission of streaming through America!
That’s not to say that there’s nothing more to experience. But I can honestly say that since retiring, I’ve chronicled hundreds of visits to national and state parks and various landmarks and curiosities across the country, which amounts to the very best that America has to offer.
I’ve also begun to travel more internationally, and I’ve included many of those destinations in this blog. How could I not? Naturally, it wasn’t in an Airstream, and it wasn’t America. Although, in fairness, some of those destinations within Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America should count as “American” by nature.
I also realized that many of the stories I wanted to tell were not always supported by the photographs I had taken. And often times, the photographs I was most pleased with didn’t always match the story I was writing.
I found myself making arbitrary rules that impeded my writing, like thinking that my posts should be a linear account of my travels rather than a reflection of an arbitrary moment in time.
Managing StreamingThruAmerica.com has been a blessing, albeit it’s been challenging yet exhausting; nourishing while enervating; fulfilling but frustrating, and rewarding yet fickle.
Nevertheless, it’s also garnered over 100,000 views–for which I received a silly badge from WordPress, which makes me smile;
and it’s earned an Editors’ Discovery pick soon after launching this blog.
I don’t know if all of that is worthy of celebration or not, but I’m certainly grateful for the recognition and all the support from the blogosphere.
What started as a personal journal of sorts and a means of checking in with family and friends has morphed beyond its original intent, and I’m okay with that.
I’ve toyed with refreshing the style and revising the content to fit the times (and maybe that may happen on a rainy day), but for now, it’s status quo.
The journey continues…in Bangkok–the first stop of a 5-week adventure to Southeast Asia–where ancient kingdoms still shine as bright as the Buddhas that adorn his temples.
Streaming thru America 