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.

The Prasats of Battambang, Part I - Phnom Banon

Battambang province, Cambodia - February 14, 2014 - This little series is not really to document the prasats, but rather just my trips to them. They can be seen in their full splendour in Cambodia.

Neng.

Small children follow people around with fans for 500 - 1000 riel.

What many people don't know about Phnom Banon is how dangerous it is.

A boy's reaction to my mum doing a drawing up there.

My mother's drawing.

It is on this tree, that by Cambodian legend, you shall ever climb naked if you commit adultery.

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.