... : Episode 01

Chiang Mai city, Thailand - June 10, 2015 - Once on holiday in Chiang Mai after an exam I took random photos of three completely different things  noticed.

Songthaews.

A woman who was feeding some birds in a fallen nest.

A pink curtain in a bus.

Gauntlet - Episode 3: Mae Sot

Mae Sot township, Tak province, Thailand - July 3-5, 2014 - Having acquired a Burmese visa in Bangkok, we travelled up to the town of Mae Sot as a stop off on the way to doing a border crossing into Myanmar - one which we would prove to bungle for one reason or another, and would send us scarpering back to Bangkok to catch a flight in our uncertainty of whether Cambodians could get vis-exempt entry over land crossing or was it only at airports and it was the weekend so there was no one we could possibly call to find out, the Internet had no solid information whatsoever, and Neng's bank card wasn't working, blah blah blah you get the idea. Anyway Mae Sot was nice. All we did there was rent a motorcycle and drive through the hills and rice fields for a couple of days.

The legendary and mysterious Kickapoo. Only to be found in remote Thai villages.

The Mae Kasa hot springs. The are currently under renovation, channeling five steams of volcanic water into a kind of park. 

The springs are very hot. The only purpose for them at the moment is to soft-boil eggs.

Oops.

A snake had perished in the boiling, mineral-rich waters.

This is what happens when you accidentally smash an egg into their egg borling basin.

The final, less-than-culinarily-satisfactory result.

See the rest of the our Cambodia/Thailand/Burma/Laos trip:
Episode 1: Pailin, Cambodia
Episode 2: Bangkok, Thailand
Episode 4: Yangon, Myanmar
Episode 5: Bagan, Myanmar
Episode 6: Mandalay, Myanmar
Episode 7: Vientiane and Vang Vieng, Laos
Coda: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Gauntlet - Episode 2: Bangkok

Bangkok city, Thailand - June 26-July 2, 2014 - Big city cats.

Curry and chili paste.

The best thing we did was tour around the canals of Western Bangkok with Pandan Tours. I usually don't do tours or tour guides or any of that, but this was really good, and Tao our guide was great. Check them out at www.thaicanaltour.com

It is pleasant riding around the khlongs.

A temple was ahead, and I had never seen any temple like this before.

Then Tao told me it was this big white building across the way.

Inside lay extravagant riches, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loot.

Notice the fruit in the upper corners, that ripens (upper middle) every 1000 years into a beautiful woman (lower).

The fruit ripening.

When the fruit is fully ripe it is time for the male angels to eat it.

This is another temple from a different sect of the Sangha; the forest sect.As you can see the interior of this sect seems much less materialistic.

Monks study.

At another temple we were lucky enough to witness these two massive turtles shagging.

Second take! How sacrilegious!

Thai-style noodles.

Pandan farm. 

It returns!

See the rest of the our Cambodia/Thailand/Burma/Laos trip:
Episode 1: Pailin, Cambodia
Episode 3: Mae Sot, Thailand
Episode 4: Yangon, Myanmar
Episode 5: Bagan, Myanmar
Episode 6: Mandalay, Myanmar
Episode 7: Vientiane and Vang Vieng, Laos
Coda: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Concrete Cabin Fever

Thailand, Bangkok city - May 1, 2014 - Bacterial infection in the gut had me stuck in a hotel room in BKK for nearly a week, no drinks allowed. So it goes.

Great old school Thai guesthouse actual, reasonably priced, clean, excellent location, wifi in the lobby and second floor rooms. Pranee Building, next to National Stadium BTS.

Consolation.

A man reeled drunkenly in the bar of a swanky hotel high above me.

Kinda crap you gotta put up with round these parts.

Did get one nice, practiced, Thai smile when I was buying trinkets (to use), however.

Then it was a bus and a van to the border, and a motorbike through the hills home.