Ron Emmons          Writer & Photographer
  • Blog
    • Introduction
  • Teaklord
    • Description and buying options
    • News of Teak Lord
    • The Making of a Book Cover
    • Tracking the Teak Lord 1
    • Tracking the Teak Lord 2
    • Tracking the Teak Lord 3
    • Review of Teak Lord
    • Teak Talk
    • Audiobook launch
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Periodicals >
      • Motoring by the Mekong
      • Vietnam war sites
      • Thailand's wild west
      • Koh Mak BBC
      • Thailand's world heritage sites
      • Thai elephant camps
      • Floating Festivals
      • Thailand's 'Lost Kingdom'
      • Teak of the Town
      • Delve into Thai rice culture
      • Book review: The Social Life of Teak
      • Conquering Doi Luang Chiang Dao
      • Teak Trails
      • A Culture Blossoms
      • Black, White and Blue
      • Deep in the Delta
      • Strange Town
      • Blissful Bloom
      • The Wonder of Water
      • Striking Signs
      • A Hike up Chiang Dao Mountain
      • Quirky Chiang Mai
      • Trailblazer
      • On the Road to Rio
    • Digital content
  • Portfolio
    • Searching for Shangri-La
    • Travel
    • Biography
    • Nature
    • Buddhism
    • Photography
    • Article List
  • Short Stories
    • Beyond the End of the Road
    • The Green Monkey's Tale
    • The Red Lion's Tale
    • Eruption in Ethiopia
    • First Flight
    • As Dawn Breaks over Choroni
    • The Hungry Eye
    • On Spirit Mountain
  • Biography
    • Ron's CV

Welcome!

What an amazing world we live in...to watch an audio slideshow introducing my website, please click here.
Open slideshow

On a roll...

2/5/2025

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I've been on a roll lately with stories on Thailand's Wild West, Vietnam's War Sites and a Mekong Road Trip published in the New Zealand Herald and Nikkei Asia. You can see the complete stories here.
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Homage to Uncle Ho

29/3/2025

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Portrait of Ho Chi Minh
30 April 2025 is a huge day in the history of Vietnam, as it marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the American War (or American War to the Vietnamese), when tanks of the People's Army of Vietnam from the north smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon.

The man who was largely responsible for the reunification of his country was Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's national hero, who died in 1969 and thus never lived to see his dream realised in 1975. 

To mark this occasion, I've changed the story posted on my Searching for Shangri-La page, which now recounts a visit to see Uncle Ho in his mausoleum in Hanoi. Quite a moving experience.

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Teak Treat for Christmas

12/12/2024

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How about throwing a log on the fire and snuggling up with a gripping tale of a teak boom this Christmas, all for FREE?


For 5 DAYS ONLY, from 12 to 16 DECEMBER (Pacific Standard Time), the ebook of TEAK LORD is completely free on Amazon. So don't delay – download today!

If you prefer to listen to audiobooks, please email me to request a redemption code for a FREE COPY of the TEAK LORD audiobook on Spotify.

If you’d rather read the hugely popular paperback version (over 500 copies sold in Thailand alone), go here for buying and reviewing options.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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It never rains...

23/7/2024

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...(yes, you know the rest)...but it pours. After months of few publications, suddenly it's all happening, so I'm catching up by posting PDFs of three recently published stories on my publications page. They are:
– Delve into Thai rice culture
– Teak of the town
– Thailand's 'Lost Kingdom' (of Wiang Kum Kam)
Enjoy!
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Want a Better Book Experience? Try Whispersync, with Teak Lord!

1/12/2023

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If you’re someone who gets through a lot of books, chances are you a) read printed books, b) read ebooks, or c) listen to audiobooks. Yet these days we can tailor our requirements to suit our routine, by using Whispersync for Voice. 
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And here is how it's typically used:
And now a tempting offer for you to try it out. For FIVE DAYS ONLY, from 1–5 December 2023 (PST), the ebook of TEAK LORD will be completely FREE on Amazon, and once you’ve downloaded that, click on the audiobook version and you should find it at a greatly reduced price.
This offer is only for Amazon, but if it seems too complicated and you'd rather just try the audiobook experience for free, email me to request a code to download the audiobook on SPOTIFY, and I'll send a link to nearly 10 hours of exciting adventures in the teak forests of Lanna.
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Picking up the Pieces

27/11/2023

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The Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2022 not only wiped out millions of lives but it also brought an abrupt halt to the livelihoods of many people, myself included. Suddenly, during global lockdown, there was no demand for a travel writer, quite simply because nobody was travelling.
 
Now, over a year after the worst of the pandemic has passed, I’m finally beginning to pick up the pieces and get my stories published again. There are still lots of holes in my client list that used to be occupied by guidebook publishers, inflight magazines and the like, but a few have survived and I’m going to post some recently published stories on my ‘peridoicals’ page. These are:
 
Teak Trails (Fah Thai magazine, September 2023). An overview of the teak boom that took place around Chiang Mai in the late 19th century and buildings that date back to that era.
 
A Mindfulness Journey (South China Morning Post, October 2023). A tour of four temples in Chiang Mai that offer meditation courses ranging from one to 26 days.
 
Conquering Doi Luang Chiang Dao (Fah Thai magazine, November 2023). An account of a trek to the summit of Doi Luang Chiang Dao, arguably the most enjoyable hike in Thailand.
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Teak Talk for all

16/3/2023

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For anyone unable to attend my recent Teak Talks in Chiang Mai, I have prepared a YouTube presentation of the same content. Just click on the link below and enjoy!
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It's Teak Talk Time!

15/2/2023

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Upcoming talks in Chiang Mai
If you are going to be in Chiang Mai in the near future, please come along to my TEAK TALK at the Suriwong Bookstore (25 Feb) or at Payap Lifelong Learning Center (1 March). Details below. Also, here's a link to a short interview (7 mins) about the book TEAK LORD with Pim Kemasingki of Chiang Mai CityLife magazine: 
      
https://www.facebook.com/ron.emmons.56
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Tracking the Teak Lord

13/12/2022

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Now that my novel Teak Lord is flying off the shelves of bookshops and zipping sightlessly into Kindles and other e-readers, I feel it's time to offer a bit of insight to the background of the book. For that reason, I'll be posting a few short articles that go behind the scenes of the novel, beginning with Tracking the Teak Lord – Part one: the tree, the history and the characters.
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UK Government Chaos!

21/10/2022

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Photo by Paul Silvan on Unsplash
I've been watching heated arguments recently in the UK Houses of Parliament that remind me of kids squabbling over sweets in a school playground, and I'm thinking "These are the people that run my country!"

I'm reminded of a passage in a novel I'm re-reading at the moment – News from Nowhere by William Morris. Written in 1890, it's about a man named William Guest who falls asleep and wakes up in the 21st century to find the grimy, stinky, noisy London of the Victorian era transformed into a peaceful, friendly, unpolluted utopia, where society is so enlightened and advanced that there is no need for money, policemen, prisons, or – get this – government!

As Guest is walking around with Dick, his companion from the future, he says "Why, there are the Houses of Parliament! Do you still use them?" Dick answers, "Use them? Well, yes, they are used for a sort of subsidiary market, and a storage place for manure. "

Let's hope that the recent antics in this hallowed building are an indicator that we're well on the way to Morris' utopia, and that eventually this building will serve its rightful purpose – for storing manure.
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    Ron Emmons 

    is a British writer and photographer based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

    Categories

    All
    Buddhism
    Hiking
    Historical
    Myanmar
    Nature
    Personal
    Photography
    Post Apocalypse
    Publishing
    Reviews
    Social Issues
    Thailand
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    Writing

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Text and images copyright © Ron Emmons 2000-2025

Contact details:

Ron Emmons
122 Moo 7, San Pisua,
Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand.

Tel/Fax: (66-53) 115150
Mobile: +66-841758104
[email protected]

amazon.com/author/ronemmons
Contact Ron
  • Blog
    • Introduction
  • Teaklord
    • Description and buying options
    • News of Teak Lord
    • The Making of a Book Cover
    • Tracking the Teak Lord 1
    • Tracking the Teak Lord 2
    • Tracking the Teak Lord 3
    • Review of Teak Lord
    • Teak Talk
    • Audiobook launch
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Periodicals >
      • Motoring by the Mekong
      • Vietnam war sites
      • Thailand's wild west
      • Koh Mak BBC
      • Thailand's world heritage sites
      • Thai elephant camps
      • Floating Festivals
      • Thailand's 'Lost Kingdom'
      • Teak of the Town
      • Delve into Thai rice culture
      • Book review: The Social Life of Teak
      • Conquering Doi Luang Chiang Dao
      • Teak Trails
      • A Culture Blossoms
      • Black, White and Blue
      • Deep in the Delta
      • Strange Town
      • Blissful Bloom
      • The Wonder of Water
      • Striking Signs
      • A Hike up Chiang Dao Mountain
      • Quirky Chiang Mai
      • Trailblazer
      • On the Road to Rio
    • Digital content
  • Portfolio
    • Searching for Shangri-La
    • Travel
    • Biography
    • Nature
    • Buddhism
    • Photography
    • Article List
  • Short Stories
    • Beyond the End of the Road
    • The Green Monkey's Tale
    • The Red Lion's Tale
    • Eruption in Ethiopia
    • First Flight
    • As Dawn Breaks over Choroni
    • The Hungry Eye
    • On Spirit Mountain
  • Biography
    • Ron's CV