You have to be sly when photographing monks. Posed monk shots just don’t do it. So you need to sneak up on them. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Monks are supposed to be apart from the secular world, but those little bastards are in tune with all that is happening around them. Just try and point your camera in their direction. They’ll quickly turn away.

Sometimes it seems as if the entire nation is working to protect their monks from being photographed. Line up a good shot on a street in Bangkok and just as you are about to click, a bus will pull in between you and the monk. And the monk disappears by the time your view is no longer blocked. If a bus isn’t handy, some local will step in between you and the monk. Monk hunting is not an easy sport.

But sometimes you have to just bite the bullet, smile, and ask for the shot. Especially with the young ones. It doesn’t seem fair to sneak up on the youngsters; they haven’t yet learned how to properly flee from touri. This duo willingly posed for me motoring up the Chao Phraya one morning. Good thing I asked for the shot. On a small boat I’d hate to see what Buddha would throw in the path to otherwise ruin the shot.

(So for the record, the flooding is not my fault.)