Summer training projects started May 21st when we flew from San Francisco to Singapore (17 Hours) to Bangkok (6 hours) on Singapore Air A350XLR. We spent several days in Bangkok to recover from Jet Lag and then flew on to Chiang Mai for our first workshop at Thai Lanna Church. The local sponsor was Manop Moonsri of Watchman Productions. We had a small group there here is the link to the two final productions. Here are some workshop images.
Ajmer City, India – On June 2nd we flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Jaipur, India arriving at 10pm to be picked up by our host, Nishikant Jacob, and the 90 minute drive to Ajmer City. This is the first time to meet Nishikant – we had planned to come to Rajasthan but the COVID clamp down in India made us postpone. We have a good time with Nishikant and his wife Loreena and children. The projects completed are at this link. Here are some workshop images.
Dehradun, India – From Ajmer we flew to Dehradun north of New Delhi. We did a workshop in Dehradun in 2015 – See this page. In any case, we were hosted by Chandan and the workshop was held at the Torchbearers Conference Center. We a good group of students and will return in 2024 for an advanced workshop. By the end of this workshop in all the heat were packed up and flew to Mumbai the afternoon of June 17th to stay overnight at the airport hotel for the 4am check in for our flight to Istanbul, Turkey. At this point in time we had spent $1200 in excess baggage! Here are some workshop images.
Istanbul, Turkey is a great place to take a break. Weather in the 70s, a nice hotel. It was a good break and we took advantage of the low cost dental care, Dan with four implants and Chris a crown. In 2024 we will return for the actual crowns. Here are some shots on a ferry across the Dardanelles Strait which is part of a seaway that connects the Aegean Sea with the Black Sea. Istanbul was known as Constantinople until 1930 is the largest city in Turkey, serving as the country’s economic, cultural and historic hub. The city straddles the Bosporus strait, lying in both Europe and Asia, and has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey.
Alexandria, Egypt – On June 23rd we arrived at the Villa Dreams Conference Center and started the first of our last three workshops on June 27th. They were interesting groups and we had some good projects. Workshop 1 Videos, Workshop 2 Videos, and Workshop 3 Videos. Here are some workshop images.
During this 25 day trip to Egypt we were able to visit the famed Library of Alexandria. In 1984 we lived in Cairo and the five of us took a train to Alexandria and tried to fine the Library. We were unable to locate it but did take Caren, Sam and Michael to the Mediterranean Sea. We remember the tar on the sand and the kids feet!
Summary – The summer of 2023 was the largest number of workshops we have ever done. We were out of Jacksonville, Florida from May 16 until July 19th (63 days) traveling 26,550 by airplane plus internal driving in India and Egypt. In general it looks like the only unexpected expense was the $1,200.00 for overweight luggage between Thailand and India, flights in India and India to Turkey and Egypt.
Dan and Chris Henrich
