Suzanne Nam moved to Thailand in 2005 for a one-year stint as a newspaper reporter—and she hasn’t left since. Like all meaningful things, Suzanne’s career was more a product of evolution than of planning: She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, went to law school after college, and practiced law for five years—enough time to produce a rain forest’s worth of corporate paperwork—and then she gave it all up to work toward a journalism degree at Columbia.

Next the world pulled Suzanne east—first to London, then the Middle East, and finally Bangkok. She is now a reporter for Forbes magazine, a reformed corporate lawyer, and a dedicated travel writer.

Suzanne met her future husband during her first year in Bangkok. In 2009 they adopted a street dog named Sam; in 2011 their twins, Bix and Ella, were born. Raising children in a foreign country has plenty of adventure and challenge, but daily life in Thailand is surprisingly stable and comfortable. Suzanne couldn’t imagine doing it anywhere else.