Home...Made Easy

Home, Where we long to be.

There is something special about Thailand; a persistent yearning that calls us back. Bangkok City, is one that will both captivate and infuriate you within seconds of arrival. There is nothing comforting about the place, oddly, it has a “Homecoming” feel, each time we return.













You can be on a street corner, lost in a city of millions,

and not feel misplaced amongst them.
The larger cities around Thailand are like most cities in the world with large buildings, pollution and congestion, but what makes it different is the way they/we exist together. Everyone seems to have an equal place, whether it be in a shiny Mercedes, or pushing a dilapidated cart. Somehow there is room in the swarming streets for the whole mix of society. The people smile and make way for the old woman pushing her noodle stand and the legless panhandler dropped on the swarming sidewalk. The roving handicapped musician and the displaced elephant, pound the pavement working for their next meal. We all manage to live in harmony in the heat, in the crowds and in the diversity of an overcrowded city but at the same time, long to escape it.

Time for family
As you find your way out of the grips of shopping, night life and growing commerce, you will find a world that cultivates relationships and family. With the concrete left behind, the highway out of town becomes dotted with small huts and homes on spacious plots of land. School children skip over dirt mounds in their pressed white and blue uniforms on their way home, to ramshackle sheds with tin roofs and chicken coops. You won’t find the internet or electronic games in these homes. The realm for a child’s play extends into fields and over canals, dangling fishing rods, and herding cows.

The warm climate brings the family together outdoors, helping with the wash, walking to the market or hammocking in the shade. Evenings cool down and grandparents join, for meals cooked on fires and served over the dirt floor. Content around an old rickety table, eating chicken and rice in fresh palm leaves, there is nothing but conversation to fill the time.
We call it camping, when we have a chance to slow down the every day tasks and spend time with our family and friends. Without over stimulation , there is time to keep account of everyday life in a family.
I compare their simple existence and think about rewinding my life to take in the ordinary, average, everyday life that I struggled to escape at home in Portland. There is much to learn from this culture and I watch intently.


A few days hanging out with locals, and you become a guest in a Thai family’s home,
as friends are easily made, and life long relationships built in hours. Seated awkwardly on the floor in a wooden hut passing sticky rice, dried fish and bowls of soup is far from a traditional dinner party, but it’s easy to become candid and casual in this relaxed atmosphere. Trust quickly becomes second nature and we find ourselves becoming part of a self sustaining family unit with people we‘ve only just met. This is true all over Thailand witnessed in the way people take care of each other, as coins are dropped into the mangled hands of the handicap and the humbled poor share their food on the bus with the needy. These proud people have a common goal to survive and have learned to exist without government assistance or free hand outs. Supporting one another is common and it’s hard to see discrimination or segregation for the poor, rich, political, powerful, gay or strait and the average person pays little attention to racial background.
It’s a society that supports the people by encouraging talents and embracing differences while overlooking shortcomings.

Finally, it’s the beautiful beaches and tropical jungles that initially draw most travelers from all over the world to Thailand. They come to swim in a warm seas with colorful ocean life and trek the lush rain forests in search of monkeys and cascading waterfalls. Our destination always leads us back to a turquoise bay lined with hills providing hiking, snorkeling, fishing or simply sinking into the lapping surf . The busy person can do everything as the activity is all here,

yet we get nothing done.

The true beauty of this country is not the landscape, or activities as there are places all over the world with great tourist attractions.
The reason we return is the leisure of daily life. No one is in a rush, there is always time for you, and it’s easy to exist, completely effortlessly in this county.
Thailand has the best aspects of
"All that we long for at home... "
but “Home, made easy.“




As the Thai's would say, "Mai pen Rai" .... "Don't worry about it"