I never had much interest in settling down. The idea of having a wife, two kids and a thirty year mortgage sounded more like a prison sentence than a source of happiness. Instead, I yearned to venture beyond comfortable suburbia. So starting in my late twenties, I began taking extended time off from work to travel abroad: England, Australia/New Zealand, a month in Europe. Then business trips to the Far East opened up that part of the world for me, casting such a spell that I set aside my IT career to teach English in Japan and South Korea in my mid-to-late thirties.

But the real fun began when thanks to a frugal lifestyle and fortuitous investing, I was able to exit the rat race at age forty-eight. Suddenly I had the means — along with the motivation — to fully indulge my adventure cravings. Two years later, after trips to Italy/Eastern Europe and South America, I did an ambitious six month journey around the world. The following fall and winter saw me in Asia. Along the way I “discovered” Thailand. Sunshine every day, tropical fruits, women that were not hard on the eye… Hell, why not live there? And so in October of 2010, I packed a half dozen t-shirts and a couple pairs of shorts, got on a plane and made the big move, with no idea how things would turn out. Almost a decade later I’m still here, with my sense of humor intact!