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What an amazing world we live in...to watch an audio slideshow introducing my website, please click here.
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One reason I love living in North Thailand (apart from the super-friendly people, benign climate and scrumptious food) is the chance to go wandering along trails in the foothills of the Himalaya. In the last three decades, I've hiked many of them, and now I've curated six of the best for Nikkei Asia. Enjoy walking with Nature! 
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The English language can be confusing. Take the word ‘retreat’, for example. While the basic meaning is to go backwards—a negative concept—it is also used to escape the hectic pace of life, as in a wellness or meditation retreat—a positive concept. So, in a sense it is true that we have to retreat to advance or enhance our spiritual condition. I recently spent a few days at such a wellness retreat—the Aleenta Resort, following a course called “monk-level” Vipassana (insight) meditation. After a wellness consultation to identify my physical and spiritual abilities and aspirations, I was given a schedule of activities I had never tried before. During my stay, I participated in sound healing, qigong, yoga, spa treatments and bamboo exercise, which involved using a bamboo pole to improve posture and flexibility. I found all of them useful to focus my mind on the present moment, which made it easier when it came to sitting and walking meditation under the guidance of a monk.
The monk, Phra Tawatchai, lived at Wat Umong, a forest monastery near the resort, and he guided my breathing as I sat or walked beside him. After a few days, I could detach myself for brief periods from the thoughts and emotions that constantly rushed through me, which was a liberating sensation. However, when Phra Tawatchai told me about Phra Thera Chan, a monk who lived here in the 14th century, I realised that my meditative achievements were insignificant. Phra Thera Chan was an advisor to King Kuena, but he would often disappear into the forest for days or weeks on end, meditating so deeply that he lost all sense of time and could not be found when his king needed his advice. As a result, the king had meditation tunnels built and decorated with jungle motifs, and forbade his advisor from wandering off again. These tunnels (‘umong’ in Thai) gave the temple its name, and since this is the only Thai temple with such a feature, hundreds of tourists now arrive daily to explore the tunnels with their serene Buddha images. Though most visitors explore no further, the ‘talking trees’ (trees tagged with wise sayings) and Spiritual Theatre at Wat Umong also provide plenty of food for thought for hungry minds looking for inspiration.  September has been a busy month for publications. First came A tour of Vietnam's World Heritage Sites, with a bumper 20 images, including a welcome contribution from photographer friend David Henley in the form of images of the Yen Tu Monuments, inscribed on UNESCO's list in July 2025. Then came On the Road to Hell, a description of a wacky garden of hell in a temple near Chiang Mai, and finally The Great Grain, which delves into Thai rice culture and is now probably my best-selling story ever, having been published in various forms over the years.
I'm really pleased to see my work featured in Mongabay, a highly respected website that focuses exclusively on the environment. If you're in Chiang Mai, check out Changthong Heritage Park; you won't be disappointed. The story is here. I've just completed an interesting assignment for an inflight magazine – writing a story about Thai tea culture. As a photographer, my favourite subject is nature, so I was only too happy to take on the task. I was even happier when perplexity.ai provided all the background I needed about the tea-making process as well as a short list of tea plantations in North Thailand that are accessible and welcoming. I set off on my travels and was delighted to find that all the plantations I visited have won prestigious international awards in recent years for new varieties of tea. The story will appear in September, but in the meantime, here's a sneak preview of images from my research trip. 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.
 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! ...(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!  My first self-published book was Searching for Shangri-La, a collection of a dozen travelogues that are more about myself than the locations they describe. Occasionally I have changed the story that features on my website, and now it’s time for another change. Since we’re deep into the smog season in Chiang Mai, when the city frequently ranks as the most polluted on Earth, I thought it would be a good time to share the title story. There’s an audio version too, so to read about or listen to a lifetime of Searching for Shangri-La in just 15 minutes, just go here.
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.  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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Ron Emmonsis a British writer and photographer based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Categories
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