Harold Stephens knows Southeast Asia about as well as any author we’ve read. He knows it by sea as well as by land, and has written two books based on the fascinating people he’s met in Asia over the years, At Home in Asia: Expatriates in Southeast Asia and Their Stories, and The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia. What makes his profiles exceptional is that “Steve” Stephens clearly loves people, especially those who are living their dreams.

We at WoWasis are providing a list of those people he’s profiled in each of these books, alphabetically, and with the book referenced in which he profiled them. We’re convinced future historians and writers on Asian topics will one day want to discover more about these fascinating people. But before we get to the list, here’s what Stephens has to say about them, in general:

Given the chance, we all like to travel, to go beyond the sea, to visit foreign places. And oftentimes when we do travel, we try to imagine what it would be like to live there. How would it be to live in Singapore, the busiest seaport in the East, or maybe Bangkok, with its palaces and thousands of temples. And what about Kathmandu, high in the Himalayas, or Bali, where artists and poets go to live. Now that’s a place we have all dreamed about. And how many other such places are there whose names ring with romance? Can you picture your own Thai house, made of polished teak, with a high sloping roof and carved eaves and lintels, with tiny brass bells that tinkle in the breeze? Or perhaps a Malay house overlooking the Malacca Strait with a pandanas roof to keep it cool. And can you imagine having your own boat and diving beneath the sea for sunken treasure, or hacking through primeval jungle in search of lost cities? Or perhaps owning a plane and flying around Southeast Asia as simply as one takes to the freeways back home in Los Angeles?

There are people who live this way and do these things, people who have gone beyond the sea and taken up residence in foreign lands. These are the people I would like to tell you about.

And here they are:

BARBARA ADAMS: Every Woman’s Dream (At Home in Asia)

ZIENA AMARA: Travels with a belly dancer (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

DELLA BUTCHER: Singapore s Grand Dame of the Arts (At Home in Asia)

LISA CHOEGYAL: At Home in the Himalayas (At Home in Asia)

ROBIN DANNHORN: Breaking Barriers (At Home in Asia)

JOHN EVERINGHAM: From Laos with Love (At Home in Asia)

COLONEL L.T. FIRBANKS: A tale from the British Raj (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

AXEL GOERLACH: The General Managers (At Home in Asia)

BILL HEINECKE: Call to Adventure (At Home in Asia)

HOMER HICKS: The old man from Zamboanga (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

HANS HOEFER: From Rugs to Riches (At Home in Asia)

BRIAN AND ZAHARA HUGHES: The expatriate and the princess (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

JEFF AND ROBIN: Two sailors who may be kings (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

TRISTAN JONES: Sailor Extraordinaire (At Home in Asia)

BORIS LISSANEVITCH of Kathmandu: A kingdom of his own (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

INGER LISSONEVITCH: Mrs. Boris of Kathmandu (At Home in Asia)

BILL MATHERS: Treasures Beneath the Sea (At Home in Asia)

THEO MEIER: The private world of a South Seas painter (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

R.V. PERKINS: The last of the great planters (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

KURT ROLFES: The happy life of Tuan Kurt (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

FRANS SCHUTZMAN:  The General Managers (At Home in Asia)

FRANS SCHUTZMAN: Twenty years at the Raffles and Manila hotels (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

HAN SNEL: Life Among the Gods (At Home in Asia)

CONNIE STRICKLAND: Lady doctor from the jungles (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

JESSIE TAKAMIYAMA: The kid from Hawaii who became a sumo wrestler (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

JIM THOMPSON: The strange disappearance of the Thai silk king (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

DOUG TIFFANY: Treasures beneath Southeast Asian seas (The Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson and Stories of Other Expats in Southeast Asia)

KAREL VAN WOLFEREN: Mightier Than the Sword (At Home in Asia)

KURT WACHTVEITL: The General Managers (At Home in Asia)