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A few more photos of Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai to tempt you with:
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17 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
in≈ Comments Off on Bonus Shot: Wat Phra Singh
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A few more photos of Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai to tempt you with:
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13 Friday Jul 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
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09 Monday Jul 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
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Dual pricing tends to get a lot of farang hot under the collar. Especially expats. Half the time that you are being charged a higher fee than locals are you don’t even realize it; the signs cluing Thais into the cheaper prices are written in their language. This one at Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai – a mountain top temple that most touri make a pilgrimage to – is quite blatant about it. Entry to the wat is free for Thais. And if you are too lazy to walk up the long flight of steps, the elevator ride costs twice as much for farang too.
Maybe it’s not fair, but then a buck to see the incredible sights within the temple’s grounds is well worth it in my book. My friend Noom, to whom 30 baht has more meaning, always tries to buy me a Thai-priced ticket whenever there is a dual-pricing scheme in effect, and is seldom successful. It bugs him more than me. But then to Noom it’s not the fairness of dual pricing that upsets him but rather that his wallet that just happens to be in pocket ends up a few baht lighter.
I took this shot, however, not because of the dual pricing in effect but because my travelling companion Cheap Chris had asked since no one seemed to be collecting tickets if he could get away without paying the fee. I told him there were ticket collectors inside the wat, so he paid his admission. There are not. He was livid. Considering the laugh I got out of it, that was the best $1 he ever spent!
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07 Saturday Jul 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
in≈ Comments Off on Bonus Shot: Tip Meeeeeeee!
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Wikipedia say there are three types of elephants in the world: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Indian or Asian elephant. Asian elephants have smaller, um, ears. The Wiki folks obviously forgot about the Thai elephant, the pachyderm with a taste for baht instead of bananas.
This is one of those shots you just can’t plan for. It’s a case of being in the right place, at the right time, with your camera at the ready. We were at one of the elephant training camps in Chiang Mai; the show was over and the mahouts brought their mounts into the crowd to perform a new trick – putting their trainer’s straw hat on touri heads. One taught his beast an additional trick: how to close the sale.
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23 Saturday Jun 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Monk Shot!, Travel Photography
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It’s always cool to run across a monk or two when you are visiting a temple in Thailand. It’s even better stumbling upon a whole gaggle of them. If the wat is one of those that includes a school for novice monks you can increase you chances of hitting an orgy of monks by visiting at feeding time.
I hadn’t planned my visit to Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai that way, I’d been out wandering from wat to wat for the day and just happened upon this saffron colored feeding frenzy by luck. One of the more important and well-known temples in the city, it has a large school attached and is one of the best to hit if you want to find large numbers of monks at a wat. Lunch time, which due to the number of mouths being fed runs in shifts, is even better. It’s also one of the few times you can point your camera at a monk and not be noticed. Their entire state of consciousness is directed toward the food being ladled out of large pots.
I’d guess from the looks of the not-so-little guy in the foreground of this shot that grabbing seconds, or even thirds, is permitted.
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08 Friday Jun 2012
Posted Cambodia, Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
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Framing shots with a window is a photographic cliche. But then since I’m not a professional photographer, who cares? Besides the views windows provide at wats in SE Asia are often too choice to let pass, so this type of picture is a standard for me.
Sometimes the best view is looking in, sometimes it’s looking out. The shot above is the former, a view of the temple’s monks gathered for evening chants at Wat Hosian Voravihane in Luang Prabang. I took several photos of the gathering – the bald heads really caught my eye – some without the window frame, but ended up liking this one the best. Peeking in on the proceedings adds an element to the shot that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
The photo below is from the Baan Ping Temple just inside the ancient city walls of Chiang Mai. It’s a small wat, with rather ornate exteriors but quite plain and unspectacular inside the wiharn. The shutters, like at many temples in Thailand, are gilded scenes of Buddhist imagery; it was the monk robes hanging to dry outside though that really set this shot apart.
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31 Thursday May 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Thailand Travel Tips and Tales, Travel Photography, Wats of Thailand
in≈ Comments Off on Bonus Shot: A Little Head @ Wat U-Mong
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If you are in Chiang Mai and checking out the local wats, before you scream, “Enough!” you really need to pay a visit to Wat U-Mong. The temple is spread out in a jungle-like setting and offers a tranquil spot to get away from the hustle and bustle of Thailand’s second largest city. There’s even a large lake on the grounds where you can waste an afternoon feeding fish and enjoying a shady spot under the trees.
The wat has the requisite chedi, but otherwise looks completely different than other Thai temples. A good portion of it is built underground. The tunnels are well lit from natural skylights, paved with bricks, and hold several altar areas. Just outside the entrance to the tunnels is a graveyard for old and broken piece of Buddhist imagery. When people tire of or damage their Buddha statue, they drop it off at this strange little graveyard.
This is one of those ‘one too many’ photographs. The short post I did on the wat only allowed for a few and while I’m sure this Buddha head made that cut I took numerous shots of it from different angles. So here’s one more. I’d like to visit the wat again around the rainy time of the year. I’ve seen shots filled with greenery, some winding its way up this Buddha’s head and would love to capture that image too.
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28 Monday May 2012
Posted Chiang Mai, Travel Photography
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I’m a well-centered individual. There’s not much that gets me flustered. Generally, I’m as calm as a python digesting a valium addict. But when I come across a great shot that is about to get away and my damn camera is packed in my bag I start fumbling about like an epileptic break dancing. It’s not a pretty sight. But it always makes my friend Noom giggle. So there is that.
Walking down the street in Chiang Mai one day, having just hit one wat and facing a bit of a stroll before the next, I put my camera back in my bag. And then this guy came peddling out of a side street. It wasn’t quite the shot I wanted, but I was quick enough to catch an acceptable image. I don’t know what his story was, and don’t know that I would have really wanted to find out. Crazy people are best enjoyed at a distance. But he seemed to have found his purpose in life, and really, what more can any of us ask for?
I don’t know if the rifle is real or a toy. He did a pretty good job with his ‘uniform’ though. But it’s that sling shot that worries me!
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