Kramer's News of the Orient

Greetings from the mysterious East! My name is Steve and I'm an American ex-pat, a retired university professor having taught  in the Kansai Region of Japan for 13 years. I  retired from the classroom podium eight years ago, and we left Japan in search of further adventures,  now devoting our time to new careers of photography and travel. (PLEASE NOTE:  Most of these photos were taken years before I really learned 'how to use' a camera, and turned professional! Only the few newest pages are what we've been doing lately. These photos were put up for family and friends, just to give an idea of what were were seeing and doing.) We've always spent a lot of time vacationing and traveling around S.E. Asia and the western Pacific Islands, and have seen some wonderful sights during these explorations, and so decided to make the Northern Thailand mountain regions of the "Golden Triangle" ( the Thai- Burma-Laos border area,) our new home base . We can still be reached there about six months a year, but we're hard to pin down!!

We moved to a new home in a beautifully small town that thinks it's a city. The foods are fantastic (if a bit hot,) the scenery is not to be believed (there was an elephant walking down the street the other day!) and the people friendly, helpful, and always smiling. I guess that's why they call this part of the word "The Land of Smiles!"  The Northern Thai people (known as the 'Lanna Thai,) are very relaxed and easy-going, (much more so than in the south,) and have a culture quite different from those in regions below Bangkok. There is a distinct mixture of Chinese, Burmese, and Laotian sounds, foods, and ideas, and the mix makes for a delightful lifestyle. Although I like it here, we've now expanded our living sphere, and are only in Thailand six months out of the year, spending more time in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. As much as I enjoyed teaching tourists how to use their cameras, new professional arenas called and I felt that I wanted to pursue more commercial photography and photojournalism rather than teaching. So now, instead of teaching photography full time,  you can find us wandering around Thailand, diving in Indonesia, eating great foods in Hong Kong and Singapore, then traveling on again! Thailand is nice, but all of Asia is home. 

But,  I have lots of hobbies and interests to keep me busy when not traveling though. I'm a certified Scuba divemaster, love to ride motorcycle through the mountains, forests and jungles all over the world, play guitar, enjoy classical, jazz, 'new age,' blues, and folk music. I love to cook foods from all over the world, go trekking through remote jungles, ride horses, read cheap novels, and grow potted plants. I'm an avid fencer, practice Chinese Martial arts, and study marine biology and Chinese Philosophy.

Along with my wife, Nobuko, I travel to remote islands off the coast of Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, as well as Micronesia and the islands of the Northern Marianna's in search of the perfect dive site and 'the perfect picture!' Over the years, we've managed to find quite a few. Exploration of our world helps keep us young, as do the PHOTO SAFARIS we've been taking all over South East Asia!! Come along and join us for a fantastic adventure!

EXTRA!!!  EXTRA!!!! EXTRA!!!!  

Photo Safari  in Thailand!!  

Spend the day sightseeing and learning to use your own camera to it's full potential!!

Photos of, and Links to, the Outside World

NEW!!! BURMA!!!!  Life in old Rangoon  (Yangon, Myanmar!)

 New Photos from Hong Kong, Thailand, and Japan

                                Flowers,  people,  places, and things. 

                         ART, and even some PHOTOJOURNALISM

If you have some comments or know of some sites that you think might help, you can contact me by e-mail by clicking . I hope that you enjoy these links.  Updated June, 2002

Visit "PhotoEnvisions" Gallery of Photography

 

Look here.