I went on this trip with a plan. Not only was I going to visit all the places Beata and I intended to see and experience, I was also going to document most of it and share it on this website. The weekly videos would highlight our adventures, while the entire collection of clips would be put together into a documentary of sorts; a full length travelogue film when we return.

That was the idea, the plan. The reality, after having done some time on the road, is unfortunately more than a little different. Trying to balance out filming with enjoying my stay here is unbelievably difficult. Every time something interesting happens I have to make the decision: do I film this? Even saying “no, I’ll just relax and enjoy what’s going on” isn’t making the dilemma go away because I constantly come back to the idea of how wonderful it would be to have beautiful video of what I’m looking at: unusually colorful streets, wide-eyed native kids running around, wonders of the world, even Beata and I commenting on how our trip is going so far.

I also realized that the reason I came up with the idea to film our journey is because I’m a workaholic and couldn’t imagine having to spend days not working on anything. Sure, it wouldn’t be the same as a regular job, but there would still be deadlines (don’t want to wait too long before posting), pressure to do great work, and daily lists of things to do like charge the batteries, sync the cameras, offload video, etc.

And speaking of offloading video, I made the rookie mistake of not getting video off the camera immediately after filming. Now the first part of the cooking class Beata took in Chiang Mai was accidentally deleted, making the rest of it seem a bit pointless to include on the website without the important introduction that put it all in context. (The sadness after having discovered I’m missing clips was painfully sharp)

The fact is, as much as I enjoy shooting, editing, prepping, & finally sharing the videos, I am also here to celebrate the months of hard work I put in to come here. I will still post here as often as I can, share highlights and news from the road, but they will be in the form of photographs and written stories more often than videos.

It’s time to relax, be here with all of my attention, and experience fleeting moments as they’re happening without trying to capture them. If I can learn to do that, then it will leave a bigger/better mark on me than any travelogue could…