After decades of misadventure, I decided to make a radical change, pare down my belongings to a single backpack, and walk away from it all. These pages are dispatches from the other side of that decision.
After a stint in Japan, eventually I caromed down to Thailand where I now wander rural local markets, roadside shops, old storefronts, and forgotten dusty corners with my wife Jit looking for useful things, beautiful oddities, and objects with history still clinging to them.
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Walking Away
by William Snyder Ban Kan Throm, Thailand April 23, 2026 Beyond the checkpoint, I’d settled into a seat along the wall where floor-to-ceiling windows stretched past the coffee shop before I noticed … before the weight of actually being there settled on my chest. Sunrise dancing off the tarmac. A faint smell of duty-free perfume.…
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The Corner Store
Inside this small border village in southern Isaan, at the far end of the main road, is a gathering place that serves as tavern, drugstore, temple, mercantile, and healer’s shrine. It is also home to a man named Yow. From six in the morning until eight at night, every day of the year, villagers come…
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The Night The Village Moved in Circles
April 9, 2026 Ban Kan Throm, Thailand by William Snyder Listening to the familiar sounds of daybreak over coffee, on the elevated covered porch of our stilted village home, I spotted her in the distance. Even from that range I could see the small bag in her left hand as she moved from house to…
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The Hermit: A Closer Look – WATCH!
Thirty years ago, he was a monk. Pulled from the monastery, he became army. Special operations. Something happened. He retreated deep into the jungle. The Cambodian border in plain view. He’s been there ever since. Decades. A hermit. His name is Li.
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VIDEO: A Village Delicacy
Click image or here to watch video. Filming and photography have as much to do with waiting as they do with the actual practice of the craft. Today was a great study in that truth. As the time of our scheduled visit to photograph and interview a subject for another project I’m working on approached,…
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WATCH! This Only Happens in Select Temples
Click image to watch video This Only Happens in Select Temples Before his enlightenment, after 6 years of asceticism, a woman named Suchata fed an emaciated Buddha a bowl of rich rice pudding containing milk, honey, butter, nuts, seeds, coconut and grains. That simple act is essentially what is being recreated here and in select…
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WATCH! What’s Kept in The Dark? Wat Ban Khun Han
Click image to play video What’s Kept in the Dark? Ban Wat Khun Han Khun Han, Thailand In a quiet corner of Khun Han Village, stands a temple known not only for its towering Buddhas and ornate structures, but for what sits in a sunken room behind a darkened doorway – Ban Wat Khun Han.…
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Documentary Photography: Commerce Inside a Small Village in Rural, Northeast Thailand
Gear: Fujifilm XT4 paired with a vintage 1968 Konica 57mm f/1.4 for the still images. iPhone 16 Pro for the wandering point-of-view video. Today we continue the documentary photography walk, this time through another small village in rural northeast Thailand. Population: somewhere around three hundred, give or take whoever happens to be visiting, working in…
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WATCH! Documentary Photography: Inside an Isaan Village
As much as I love producing films, there’s something especially magical about stopping on a single frame — holding it — and letting the moment reveal itself a little more slowly. Particularly with analog glass! There may be no better way to begin understanding rural, Northwest Thailand than through documentary photography. A still image has…
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WATCH! A Glass Tomb. An Unmarked Monastery.
Around here, you don’t have to go far to find something completely magical. Within just ten kilometers of our home, there are countless places like this—temples, historical sites, landmarks, lakes, forests, caves. The list never really ends. My wife is an explorer, and she’s spent her entire life here. And still, there are places practically…
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WATCH: 1,000,000 Bottles on The Wall
Throughout Thailand, there are more than forty-four thousand known temples — or wats — each unique in its own way. But on the edge of Khun Han, in the border province of Sisaket in southern Isaan, there’s one that stands apart. What makes it different? This particular temple chose beer bottles as its primary construction…
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WATCH! Dispatch 30: A Traditional Thai Healing Ritual and The Deeper Meaning it Carried
Last night, I was invited to film a ritual known locally as ram ma’moed. In Thai, the words themselves are unremarkable. Ram translates to “dance.” Ma’moed means “witch,” “sorceress,” “spirit woman.” Put together, here in this village, it simply translates to “Witch Dance.” But like many things here in South Isaan, the English language struggles…
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WATCH: Dispatch 29. Spiritual Medium or Myth?
January 18, 2025 In Isaan, especially near the Thai–Cambodian border, the spiritual world is not treated as distant or symbolic. It sits close. It moves through people, places, and memory. Consulting a medium here is no stranger than visiting a monk, asking advice from an elder, or sitting with someone who has simply lived long…
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LISTEN: Dispatch 28. An Ancient Memory
Click thumbnail to listen to the episode. An Ancient Memory Every now and then, a chapter surfaces that doesn’t feel written so much as remembered. An Ancient Memory — Scene Six from The Mostly True Tale of Getting Roofied in Tokyo and Waking Up Married in Rural Thailand — is one of those moments. It…
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Dispatch 27: Watch! Inside The Khun Han Ginger Factory. PART ONE.
Inside Northeast Thailand’s Fastest Growing Ginger Operation. Part 1. Sayam Brand: Sisaket. Isaan In the heart of Khun Han District, in Thailand’s Sisaket Province, there’s a striking body of water — a man-made lake known as the Huai Tha Reservoir. Looming over its western shore is an enormous yellow building that nearly everyone in this…
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PROMO: Live From The Margins RADIO SHOW is Back!
January 8, 2026 Live From the Margins RADIO SHOW is Back Radio Dispatch 7 — The Maria Incident PROMO After a short hiatus spent handling production work behind the scenes, Live From the Margins is back — and settling comfortably into its stride. The show has always lived somewhere between formats. Part talk radio. Part…
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LISTEN: Dispatch 26: Radio Dispatch 007. The Maria Incident
Your browser does not support the audio element. Listen to The Latest Episode: The Maria Incident Live From the Margins — Radio Dispatch 7 The Maria Incident There’s a song by Steely Dan called Any Major Dude Will Tell You that feels like it was written for moments like this. A quiet anthem for survival.…
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Dispatch 25: Watch! Isaan Bullfrogs and Asian Swamp Eels
Saturday Night in the Swamp No sense in letting a good swamp hole go to waste. Out here in deep Isaan, standing water is never just standing water. It’s a question. A temptation. A dare. And for young guys especially, it’s nearly impossible to walk past a muddy depression in the ground without wanting to…