A Decade in Thailand, Surviving My 50s in the Land of Smiles

A Decade in Thailand: Surviving My 50s in the Land of Smiles is a raw, rollicking memoir of one man's escape from corporate misery into a life he never saw coming. After losing a 13-year career in the Pacific Northwest natural foods' industry, the author takes a leap that lands him in Bangkok—and straight into eleven years of chaos, beauty, heartbreak, reinvention, and unforgettable trouble across Southeast Asia.

What follows is a decade-long journey through Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Bali—complete with the 2014 Soulshine Festival, slow boats up the Mekong, a Thai military coup, the passing of a beloved king, and days (and nights) spent teaching English and History in schools that were equal parts inspiring and harrowing. Along the way are drug busts, Immigration jail, hospital beds, improbable romances, two deaf women, one maybe-post-op lady boy, two deaf women, and a parade of characters that could only exist in the tropics.

More than beaches and temples, this is a story of survival—with grit, dark humor, and a surprising dose of heart. It's about cheap sex and deep morality, broken families and new loyalties, friendships that don't make it and students who do, the strange dignity of starting over at fifty, and the good Thai weed that sometimes makes all of it make sense.

Honest, outrageous, and unapologetically human, A Decade in Thailand is for anyone who's ever dreamed of running away, starting fresh, or simply laughing at the beautiful folly of being alive.