As we soar off into the sunset, we thought we should take one last look back at our home away from home, Bangkok. Although the city may have a rather questionable reputation for some, we love Bangkok with its glistening temples, markets full of street food, funky back-alleys, super-glam malls crowded with trendy teens, spontaneous street concerts, crazy weekend events, mammoth Buddhas, and festivals, festivals, festivals.

To celebrate our home in Southeast Asia, we’ve finally put together a pictorial of Thailand’s bustling capital.

I love the amazing architecture at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. A couple of the side wings are seriously photogenic. I think I spent an hour just staring at the roof and the exterior support structure.

Am I the only one to see a serious shortcoming in the name of this men’s clothing store? Five centimeters or two inches, really?

Now that Lisa and Garrett are safely back in the U.S., we thought we would share one last picture of the four of us hanging out at the giant reclining Buddha at the Wat Lokaya Sutha in Ayutthaya.

While nomadic living can be somewhat isolating, we haven’t done too badly over the last twelve months. 2010 saw visits from German friends Michaela and Stephan, British friend Mark, American friends Lisa, Garrett, Beverly and Brian as well as my mother Freda. In addition, we spent Christmas with our American friends Ali and Courtney and a motley crew of Bangkok expats. In addition, we made dozens of new friends along the way.

Over the last 52 weeks, we spent a whopping 15 weeks traveling with friends and family. Wow, that’s quite a social life for two homeless nomads. 🙂

The Red Shirts were protesting at Central World again today blocking the intersection at Rama I and Ratchadamri Roads. Tens of thousands of supporters of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship chanted in protest challenging the current government in the run up to elections this year. The mood was Continue…

Locals and expats flock to Bangkok’s Lumpini Park in the evening when the sun sets behind the high-rises and the temperatures become more bearable. Most don’t go there to relax, however, but to get active. As you stroll through the park, joggers outrun each other, senior citizens practice tai chi and large groups of people hop, skip and jump in unison to the aerobic beat of a sidewalk boom box.

The 20-minute walk from our apartment to the park always ends at the floating island in the middle of the lake. Unlike all the athletic health nuts, Tony and I go there for one reason and one reason only: Continue…

Riding an elephant was at the top of Lisa’s must-do-list. Since busy downtown Bangkok was not particularly suited for playing mahout and we needed a break from the big city, an elephant-friendly location in a quieter setting had to be found. Quickly, we decided on a 2-day trip to Ayutthaya, the former royal capital ninety minutes north of Bangkok.

Although Ayutthaya was sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century and many of the large monasteries and prangs were destroyed, there are still plenty of buildings and artifacts left to make it a worthwhile trip for temple lovers. Clearly, UNESCO thought so too, declaring Ayutthaya a World Heritage Site in 1991.

I have to admit that I’m not the architecture buff Tony is, but walking through this historical town, I could clearly see influences from Continue…

While walking past Siam Paragon last night, we stumbled across this incredible show of enormous hot-air sea creatures gliding between the buildings. The presentation was titled “Siam Paragon the Flying Fantasy” and it was the work of the world-famous French street artists Plasticiens Volants.

We really thought we had seen everything in Bangkok, but this display of dirigible puppet theater has proven that presumption wrong. Bangkok just never stops. One week it’s a manga festival, the next it’s balloon art, and now a dance of mammoth air-born sea creatures.

For more information on Plasticiens Volants and to view their calendar of upcoming performances, visit their website here.

We’ve finally finished converting our 360 panoramic views to Flash. Our collection now includes 20 panoramas, so start spinning your way around Asia. We’ve even added three new views, including: a cave temple at Ajanta in India, Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia, and the Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Myanmar.

Our good friends Lisa and Garrett are back. You might remember them from our adventures together in Cambodia last January. They’re here to experience life with us in Bangkok as well as to collect additional footage for a follow-up to Lisa’s film Excluded, which details our experiences as a gay binational couple and how that contributed to our “going nomadic.” Lisa has had a great response to the film and she even presented Excluded at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association last summer in Atlanta. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the film yet, you can view it online at www.ExcludedTheMovie.com.