My name is Beverly Hayden. In 2008 I adventured around Southeast Asia for – you guessed it – 7 months – hence, the name of this blog.  Instead of quenching my wanderlust, that experience merely fed it and “the monster” has grown.  I returned to SE Asia for an additional 3 months in 2009, but kept more of a photo journal on Facebook than a blog.

My time in Southeast Asia was richly rewarded and my experiences were vast. I spent considerable time in Bali, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  I learned to ride a motorbike and adventured to remote corners of those countries. During my time there, I spent the night at a minority village in Vietnam and ended up teaching an impromptu English lesson to about 15 boys and men until none of us could stay awake any longer (and then they knocked on my door at 7 am to start again); I brought food to and got to know children who live at a dump in Cambodia (like the one in Slumdog Millionaire); I befriended prostitutes and celebrated with them on my 39th birthday (No! Not THAT kind of celebrating!); I met and photographed a king in Bali; I played with tigers in Thailand and I climbed mountains in Ha Long Bay.

I bought a motorbike that was a Chinese knock-off of a Honda which required almost daily mechanical service for the 6 weeks that I drove it from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. I met a Vietnamese man who bought a dictionary so he could find the right English word to describe my smile; I was directed to people’s backyards in response to “Where’s the bathroom?”  Later in my hotel, I delighted in simple things like Western toilets. I ate tarantula legs, any number of fried insects, congealed goats’ blood and drank rice wine with goat penises floating in it.  I also at the most delicious Vietnamese food ever!

I was adopted as a sister, a daughter and a mother repeatedly; I posed for a photograph with a bride in her new bridal suite on the eve of her wedding and I was taught to row those little round woven fishing boats. On top of that, I was chased by wild dogs and bitten by a monkey in Bali, and I was included as “immediate family” for a front-and-center seat at a Balinese cremation ceremony.

Professionally, I’m an artist/photographer and emerging writer as well as a recovered attorney. You can see my work on www.beverlyhayden.com. I’m currently working on a book about my adventures motorbiking the length of Vietnam and am hoping the trip to India provides additional materials for another similar work. I’m sure I will also find great inspiration for new artwork. Other than that, I plan to spend my time in India doing some language & culinary studies, absorbing and participating in the culture and spending time with locals as well as other travel enthusiasts.

Other than traveling, art and photography are my main passions. Although I have actively incorporated various forms of art from music to welding into my life since I was a child, I resisted the urge to seriously create art until 2003. Prior to my metamorphosis as an artist, I spent seven years working as an attorney in Nashville, Tennessee practicing commercial bankruptcy & litigation. Despite many years and the equivalent of several small mortgages invested in that profession, I realized that it did not satisfy my inherent need to be creative. In January 2003, I terminated my legal practice and embarked on a tremendous adventure with my dream of uniting photography with my passion for travel.

I spent the first 3 months of my liberty in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, studying Spanish, beautiful light and the art of making margaritas. Upon my return to the United States, I spent the summer in Missoula, Montana at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography (RMSP). There, I participated in an intensive course in photography that compressed into three months what one would study in a two-year degreed photography course. While at RMSP, I discovered a passion for creating fine art photography and have been exhibiting my work at shows all over the United States for the past 5 years.

In 2007, I was inspired to move beyond photography to create mixed media assemblage art which I’ve been exhibiting and selling around the country for the past 4 years. You can see my art show schedule on the website listed above.

I would be delighted to have you join me on my adventure! You can subscribe to this blog on the main page either in a reader or by email if you prefer to receive update notifications.