Stones and Other Things

Chanthaburi province, Thailand - February 26 - January 1, 2014 - Chanthaburi lies not far from the Cambodian border in Southwestern Thailand, and the driving force behind this wealthy little countryside town is the gem trade. Chanthaburi is world-famous for its gem market - as a place that you can sell, manufacture, and buy large quantities of precious and semi-precious stones. In Thailand, it is famous for its durians and I also heard a rumour on the Internet that it is infamous for its high-quality assassins. It seemed very peaceful to me, if not somewhat inevitably characterised by the diverse and bizarre range of gem traders that frequent it.

Eleven people total in the car with us on the way to Pailin.

The driver had a raw chunk of gold.

This is a typical kind of protective grating you might see around Chanthaburi.

This was a birdshop - budgies to pigeons to chickens.

The was some French influence in the late nineteenth century, including a cathedral.

Typical Chanthaburi river scene.

What

This thing was really loud at night time. What it was will remain a mystery.

And frogs.

If you go to this place - Sam Nget, the Great Thaksin Shipyard, make sure you see the archaeological site, the most interesting thing. apparently, that we missed.

Thankyou to the Thai people who let me practically hitch hike around at their own expenses.!

This was the best Chanthaburi graffiti I saw. 

The light under the bridge is a man on the prow of a small boat hunting large prawns. He shines his headlight into their eyes where it is reflected to see them.

King Taksin is all over Chanthaburi. The town is historically famous as the place where
he built warships and formed an army which he used to reclaim Ayutayyah, then capitcal city, froming Burmese invaders in the mid-eighteenth century.

Gem appraisals occur on either side on the gem market in the street beyond.

A cheap gem dealer.

700 baht.

And a typical, morning market scene.

Phnom Sampov Revisited

Battambang province, Cambodia - January 30, 2014 - Phnom Sampov is well known as Battambang's most spectacular tourism site, what with the literally millions of bats that pour out of a cave near a giant Buddha's head carving, but also because of the historical massacre site at in the caves on top of the mountain. The bats have featured on my blog before, so for the sake of this article I only want to show some visions of the top of the mountain, and also three of the lesser-known Khmer Rouge sites up there as well.

A prison where 200 people were kept with snakes and scorpions, according to a boy who once guided me through this place.

This inside of the prison looks miserable.

But the water, however is very fresh, so us and other tourists and tuk tuk drivers wash our faces in it.

This cave, to the left of the main cave, is where the corpses of 2000 infants were found thrown, with their skulls ruthlessly smashed on the rock at the top of it.

Tragically, in this cave to the right of the main cave was found the corpses of 800 pregnant women, all with the fetuses cannibalised.

Pchum Ben - Wat Samraong Knong and Wat Gaio

Battambang province, Cambodia - September 24, 2013 - Pchum Ben is a Cambodian Buddhist festival that lasts for 15 days, and is intended to pay respects to the ghosts of the last seven generations. The monks are given a lot of food during the day, as they must stay up all night chanting, in order to open the gates of hell, at which time some of those in purgatory will be released from their trials, and other ghosts will be given time to wander before returning to further punishment. Pchum Ben generally honors all dead relatives, but the focus on the opening of hell is prominent. It's an eerie and interesting time, when everybody goes to the wat (pagoda).  So that's what we did.

This is one of the buildings in the Wat Samraong Knorng complex.

This is another. Inside monks, most of them children, are eating down plates of meat, fish, chicken and pork.

The oldest building in the complex is in ruins and it's over a hundred years old.

Behind the complex is a macabre shrine dedicated to the 10, 000 lives taken at a nearby killing field in 1979.

The reliefs depict gruesome murders and tortures.

Imprisoned children.

Small girls murdering with bayonets.

And other visions of Hell. 

My landlord's village was near this pagoda, and he told me in 1978, they'd put a bunch of people in a pit still alive and then thrown hand grenades into the pit. Everyone was killed, and my landlord, along with other children and people ran to look at the aftermath.

The children "shave rocks" in water to make them into a dull red paint.

Mysterious fruit.

More of those grapefruits..

These are long beans. They taste exactly like green beans, but they're longer.

Fish drying in the rain.

Betel nuts are so gross.

Never do the next thing I did, which was eat it.

Behind the doors of Wat Gaio the monks sleep during the daytime, to prepare for a night of rigorous chanting and meditation.

Pchum Ben is a really interesting festival that, unlike other festivals of the region, only happens in Cambodia! This year it runs from September 19 to October 4, so it's not over yet...