Photos and the Reasons Why

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Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Going back a few weeks to the Chinese New Year weekend I spent in Bangkok. The Chinese New Year Bangkok Chinatown festivities included a 7 block series of booths and entertainment, like any other fair.

This trash can here was the only one I saw. Occasionally people would try to balance something on top, but they would mostly just drop their garbage into the ever growing pile.

The roads were patrolled by a team of people with large dustbins and brooms. They kept the streets clean and the more responsible people just dropped their garbage directly into their little bins.

I find this photo interesting because the reason for the photo is the Garbage, but the subject is the Chinese man in the foreground. I wish I had done a better job of capturing him. If I had waiting just long enough for him to be in the light, or maybe even used a fill light, I think this would be a much more solid photo. As it was, I took the shot at the end of the day and I was just trying to frame the garbage in an interesting way. I suppose I would have been best off waiting for someone to drop some garbage right in front of me.

Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 80 mm
ISO Speed: 800

This man was found in the back corner of a little market on an island just north of Bangkok. Koh Kret used to be a cape jutting out into Chao Phraya, but some enterprising people decided they wanted a shortcut and built a canal past the thinnest part of the cape creating a little artificial Island. As the canal widened, the Island became more isolated.

The island is populated by the Mon. The Mon people were the first to inhabit Southeast asia and were largely responsible for the spread of the kind of Buddhism worshiped in Thailand, Therevada Buddhism. The Mon people have largely assimilated into Thai, but Koh Kret is one of the few remaining places where the people struggle to retain their culture. The Mon are more populous and less assimilated in Burma/Myanmar to the west and near the Malaysian border to the south.

The Mon that live on the Island, and the cape before that, were always well known for their pottery. Elsewhere on the island there is a small building with a few pots and a couple other artifacts laying haphazardly about in what passes for a museum. Outside the museum is a large pot bearing a sign that claims that it is the World’s Largest Pot of its kind.

The Island is also home to a unique type of ginger that only grows only there. I couldn’t tell the difference between it and any other ginger.

Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 640

This is the worlds most intrinsically valuable sacred artifact although it used to be thought of as nearly useless.
Years ago, in the old capital of Ayutthya, armies were invading and the shiny Buddha you can see in this picture was quickly covered in plaster.
Eventually, long after anyone knew about the subterfuge, the buddha was relocated to Chinatown.
At the time, it was just a 10 foot 5 ton rather ugly representation of Buddha.

Eventually a new temple was built and a pulley system was devised to lift the buddha up to the top. In the pouring rain, the system broken, letting the Buddha crash into the mud.

This was thought to be a bad tiding and everyone ran home. That night, a monk had a image in his sleep that there was a light inside his statue.

Upon waking, he went to the statue and found that some plaster had chipped off. Underneath the plaster was proof that this was not 5 tons of plaster and rigging, but 5 tons of solid 12 carat gold.

The Buddha now sits atop a rather beautiful 3 story temple. The second floor is a museum showing the path the Chinese immigrants to arrive in Bangkok. It was really well made and the scenery changed smoothly from room to room. You began in a field in China then walked into the hold of a wooden sailboat with videos playing in such a way that it looked like you could see immigrants when you looked up through the hatches. You left the boat onto the docks, then over a bridge into a night scene with a scale model of what the city looked like back at the time.

The entire thing would have been overwhelmingly beautiful if the accompanying information said anything other than saccharine sweet portrayal of how everything was always great for poor immigrants once they left miserable old China and came to beautiful plentiful Thailand where no one ever goes hungry.

Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 1600

The Chao Praya River runs directly through Bangkok. Temples and other important buildings line the banks creating a series of beautiful sights.

When night falls, the lights change these temples into even more exotic views.

This temple is Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn. The intricate layers are indicative of it’s Khmer (Cambodian) style, which is fairly unusual in the area.

The central spire is representative of the Hindu mythological Mount Meru. The hindu’s believe that Mount Meru is the center of the universe and everything revolves around it.

Mt. Meru is hidden in the center of the earth and is 1.082 million km tall. It’s hidden well.

Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO: 1600

The Grand Palace is gorgeous from any point of view, but I particularly enjoy seeing at night from the river. The palace has been the home to the current dynasty since Rama I built it in the late 18th century. The current King, Rama IX, no longer officially lives in the palace, his official residence is elsewhere in the city. He doesn’t live in his official residence, he has been living in a hospital since September.

Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 1600

The first 5 of so images I will post on here come from a river cruise I took the night before the Chinese New Year. It was a fairly large boat, holding a couple hundred people. It started with a international buffet which was, as usual, mostly Thai with something silly like fried rice from China and stew from America. Shortly after dinner, a band took the stage and I headed upstairs. There was another band on the top deck, but I found a relatively uncrowded place, put on my fastest lens, and got ready to take some pictures.

There is something magical about

Camera: Nikon D300S
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 1600

Rama VIII is the current King’s predecessor and brother. Rama VIII’s real name was Ananda Mahidol or Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramentharamaha Ananda Mahidol Phra Atthama Ramathibodindara, but we’ll stick with Rama VIII.
Rama the VIII ascended to the throne when he was only 9, studying abroad in Switzerland. The government was under a constitution at the time, and the prime minister was running the government. When he was 13, visiting home before returning to Switzerland, he was shot. The conclusion came that he was playing with a gun which fired accidentally.

He had never been crowned king, but when his brother ascended to the crown as Rama IX, he gave full honors to his predecessor.

This bridge was built in his memory. Building bridges is an interesting and somewhat more useful way to honor past monarchy than the pyramids.

This is a nice full size profile view of the bridge.