Auggie travelers ready to tour Thailand and Cambodia: Laureen Mathison and Renee Weaver, Jill Watson ’10 MBA, Arthur (Dan) Cherryhomes ’73 and Pat Collins, Sharon Carlson ’72 and Susan Carlson, Deborah Dehnhoff Krofa ’96 and Beth Daigle, Marcia Schneider ’65 and Joyce McGlaston, Ava Beilke ’14 and Laurie Powless, hosts Jack and Kathy Swanson. Not pictured: David Ishida ’12 & Kathryn Lawson Ishida.
Augsburg alumni, friends, family, and one li’l Auggie Eagle are on their way to Thailand and Cambodia today. The tour will be led by Augsburg English professor, Kathy Swanson, and her husband, Jack, who are both fluent in Thai and have hosted five trips to Thailand with Augsburg students.
This morning, alumni director Katie Koch ’06 met up with the happy travelers at MSP airport to wish them a safe and exciting trip! Alumni Board President Jill Watson ’10 MBA is carrying the same little Auggie that Katie Koch took on last fall’s alumni trip to Germany. Auggie Eagle will continue to share updates on Facebook.
Li’l Auggie Eagle, all tucked in for a Hong Kong-bound flight.
Jill Watson is carrying the same little Auggie that Katie Koch took on last fall’s Augsburg trip to Germany.
Dan Cherryhomes, class of ’73, and his wife, Pat, saw promotional material for the Augsburg trip to Thailand and Cambodia in January 2017 and decided to go to the on-campus information session.
Both Dan and Pat had thought about different ways to travel and tour in retirement, had looked at tours, but had never given serious thought to any group package.
“We had the opportunity to try out the idea in an orientation meeting with some of the people with whom we would likely travel. It was not so surprising to us that as part of the extended Augsburg family, we share the same values and hopes for the trip as a number of the participants. When we met the hosts, English professor Kathy Swanson, and her husband, Jack, we also learned they had spent time as Peace Corps volunteers in Thailand.”
Dan’s parents were missionaries, and he spent his first four years in Thailand. Jack talked with Dan about where he had lived and offered that they could make a brief side-trip one day in Bangkok to the place where Dan had lived.
Dan Cherryhomes ’73 in Prague, 2014.
“This was something we didn’t expect in a group tour—the willingness of our host to help make the experience more personally meaningful to us. We left the orientation and decided that the trip was not only something worthwhile, but that this was the best opportunity we would ever have to travel with people willing to share a similar experience.”
Tour host Kathy Swanson promises a trip that will be Uniquely Augsburg. Travelers will visit sites that appear on most trips to Thailand and Cambodia: the temples, the Grand Palace, the night markets, the floating market, Angkor Wat. The tour will, however, also include items that are uniquely Augsburg such as a visit to an orphanage for Hill Tribe children, Augsburg guides who know the country well and speak some Thai, and a group of travelers who share a common background and interest in being citizens of the world.
Swanson and her husband are already looking forward to the trip. “With all of our trips to Thailand, we most enjoy sharing our love and knowledge of the place with others who are interested in various cultures and new experiences. Each time, we see the familiar through the new eyes of our travelers,” she said.
Who should take this trip? “Anyone who values expanding a world view, learning about a new culture, experiencing beauty (and fun!),” said Kathy Swanson. As Mark Twain wrote:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” — from Innocents Abroad
Considering a uniquely Augsburg trip to Thailand and Cambodia in January 2017? Get in the mood to travel with fellow Auggies with these books, movies, and resources recommended by your Thailand/Cambodia tour guide Kathy Swanson. Learn more about this tour especially planned for Augsburg alumni, parents, and friends with this complete itinerary.
Books
A History of Thailand, by Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit
King Bhumibol Adulyadej: A Life’s Work, by Nicholas Grossman
The Thai Amulet, by Lyn Hamilton
Lonely Planet writer Isabel Albiston recommends the following “nine of the best books worth cramming into your carry-on”:
Bangkok Days, by Lawrence Osborne (2009)
Fieldwork, by Mischa Berlinski (2008)
Sightseeing, by Rattawut Lapcharoensap (2005)
Thailand Confidential, by Jerry Hopkins (2005)
Bangkok 8, by John Burdett (2004)
The Beach, by Alex Garland (1998)
Jasmine Nights, by SP Somtow (1995)
Touch the Dragon, by Karen Connelly (1992)
Mai Pen Rai Means Never Mind, by Carol Hollinger (1965)
