We're just past the small village of Myitnaban, about 20 miles from our destination for the evening of Shwebo, when Connor's motorbike gets a flat tire. Stranded and alone in a foreign country ? Well, no, but it sounds more interesting. We all pull over, regroup, and Sam takes the injured motorbike back to Myitnaban to find a repair shop. In the meanwhile, the 3 of us are roadside, hanging out under a tree away from the sun as much as possible. Trucks an...

NOTE: It doesn't appear that the notification went out 2 days ago for my previous blog story "Fish like stinky feet". If you didn't read it yet, just click on the yellow/orange "Blog" button above, and you can see all of the blog stories. There are about 80 new photos to view. Minga-la-ba ! Roughly translated as "auspiciousness to you", it is widely used as their greeting -- but they also love saying "HALLO !", with a big smile of course. We are no...

Minga-la-ba from Mandalay, Myanmar (also known as Burma). With a short and pleasant flight from Chiang Mai, we arrived in Mandalay late afternoon for our next phase of the journey - a 5 day motorcycle trek through several regions of Myanmar. Much more to come, but first, a little about our last couple days in Chiang Mai: After recovering from the tedious silversmithing work and the pretzel contortion and UFC tap out at the Thai massage, we hit the streets fo...

(Note: If you click on a photo or the album, it will open and allow you to view all the photos in that album). Sà wàt dee khrap (the Thai greeting) from Chiang Mai, Thailand. The largest city in Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai means "new city" and was so named because it became the new capital of the Lan Na kingdom when it was founded in 1296. The Off the Face Journey of Epic Proportions began with a 43 hour jaunt, filled with the luxuries of business class...

Welcome to the "Off the Face : A Journey of Epic Proportions" Travel Blog. For 6 years now I've been exploring new regions around the world, at times pushing myself out of the comfort zone for sure. The sights and sounds and smells, the historical places and structures, the beautiful and interesting people, and the religions and cultures that I've learned about during this time has been phenomenal. It has been a great experience to expose our children to some of...