AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DRIVEL updated December 2005

I used to make claims as to what this website is meant to be. I no longer bother. It is what it is and you may interpret it anyway you see fit. Travelblabber, travelguide, arrogant western neo-colonialist drivel, as you like. I've kept this going for over five years and still it evolves. With luck you'll find something useful or entertaining (in any way you see fit) while you here, without luck you'll move on to another site and leave me alone.

I started this website in August 2000 primarily as a hobby. It was an opportunity for friends and family and anyone else interested to have a look at what I was doing over in Asia. It was a pre-blog blog before anyone even knew what a blog was, let alone create or read one. For over a year this website plodded along attracting but a few dozen visitors a day until October 2001 when the number of visitors began to grow rapidly and this growth continued unabated wtih total site activity doubling approximately every six to eight months until 2005 when things began to level off. If for anything because so much of the focus of the website is on Cambodia and I seem to have hit saturation point there - people researching the net on Cambodia are all finding me. Which means expansion is on the horizon, because five years of a website entitled talesofasia but in many respects functioning as talesofcambodia needs some new life and hopefully throughout 2006 I can effect changes to that end.

From a design perspective this is toa's second incarnation. The original design was a FrontPage disaster and if you head to the Way Back Machine at archive.org you can see for yourself. This present design is a Dreamweaver creation and debuted here in February 2003. Now some three years later I'm thinking about a design change again.

Can you contribute to this site? Yes you can. You can head to the Forum and join the Romper Room that exists over there, you can submit to the Readers' Submissions section (no, I won't pay you), you can submit travel reports to any of the numerous Travellers' Reports in the Cambodia Overland section, and finally, if you think you're good enough you can contact me about putting together some serious travel guides and for that I might even pay you.

So who am I anyway? My name is Gordon Sharpless, an American (you'll get over it) with residences in Siem Reap, Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand. I had for a time described myself as a freelance writer and photographer and do have a few legitimate credits to my name but over time I've come to find that there is no editor like no editor and most of my writing is sold to myself and put on to this website.

I also own and operate a guesthouse in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It's called Two Dragons Guesthouse and yes I accept bookings by e-mail.

I am married. Her name is Ning, she is Thai. We have one son, Piyapat Matthew Sharpless born May 25, 2005 and you can see more photos than you probably care to by clicking here.

[Photo: Peshawar, Pakistan. May 2003.]

What? You still want to know more? Okay, I'm originally from suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born in 1964. I graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1988 with a B.A. in something or other. I lived in Virginia until 1994 before returning to Philadelphia. I've lived in Southeast Asia since 1997 and have no intention of returning to the States other than to say hello to friends and family, eat real Philly cheese steaks, and catch a few Phillies baseball games.

Things I really like: Large dogs (especially friendly Rottweilers), any and all of the four major Philadelphia sports teams with particular emphasis on the Phillies and Eagles, Beer Lao, riding motorcycles, open roads, outspoken yet intelligent people with informed opinions, open-minded people, people who decline to pass judgement over the personal lives of others, moderate people who argue issues and not party platforms, an eclectic range of music - none of which is excessively loud.

Things I don't like: Small yappy dogs, most any New York sports team, Budweiser, crashing motorcycles, traffic jams, people who have no opinions, close-minded people, overly judgemental people, extremists on either end of the spectrum, an eclectic range of music - much of which is loud repetitive and annoying.

A note about e-mailing me:

Due to the large amounts of spam, viruses, and other crap that I'm receiving every day, be very sure that you place something in the subject line that indicates clearly that your e-mail is not spam, as I now delete every suspect e-mail directly off the server without even previewing it. Therefore, subject lines that are blank, say "Hi", "Hello", "Can you help me?", "Thanks", or anything else vague will never be read by me, and "this is not spam" I can guarantee will be deleted unseen. Please, insert a subject heading that is something specific to what you're e-mailing me about. Thanks.

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All text and photographs © 1998 - 2006 Gordon Sharpless. Commercial or editorial usage without written permission of the copyright holder is prohibited.