Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand. The flamboyant Wat Pho temple in Bangkok, part of the royal temple complex. It's a total sensory overload of gold, silver, mosaics, intricate carvings, bright colors, spirituality, and ... crowds. Buddhism is a big part of life in Thailand, and temples dot the landscape. This is one of the best. This is only a small part of the Wat Pho complex; it's so big that I'd allow at least several hours to do a decent tour of the place. By then you will be on bling overload.

Bangkok, Thailand. Scenes from around Wat Pho temple:

Above: A monk goes about his daily routine.

Right: Dieties by the dozen.

A monk in traditional robes, looking very peaceful and serene. He should - he's made of wax! This temple had several life-sized wax replicas of monks, so realistic that it was hard to tell the difference between these guys and the real thing.

Unlike the gentleman above, these are real monks. They start them young in this part of the world, and every family with a male child is expected to put at least one kid into monk-training. It brings cosmic merit to the whole family.

I'm a big fan of Thai architecture & design. It's just so elaborate; the closer you look the more detail comes out. These are various details around the Royal Palace.

Bangkok, Thailand. A few more photos from around Bangkok:

Left: The world's largest "reclining Buddha". It's 151 feet long by 49 feet high. And covered in real gold leaf. It's so big that it's hard to get a photo of the whole thing; the building squeezes too tight around it. This pic is just the head & shoulder parts.

Right: Eavesdropping on a private moment. I always feel slightly bad about taking photos like this. At least I try to be quiet and not disturb the event.

Phuket, Thailand. Bangkok is interesting and all, but it's also good to get out of the city and see the more remote parts of Thailand. This country has a LOT of coastline and some great scenery to go with it. This is the very remote fishing village of Ko Panyi, reachable only by boat. It's built entirely on pilings - one big dock really. And man can you get lost wandering around the many winding alleyways of this place! Houses, stores, schools, a few cafe's, a mosque -it's all here !

Khao Phing Kan, Thailand. This pinnacle of rock is better known by it's Hollywood name, "James Bond Island". It was the secret lair of the villain in the Bond movie "Man with the Golden Gun". It sure looked a lot bigger in the movie!

Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is the Blue Daily Elephant Care Sanctuary, located in the northern hills of Thailand a short and scenic drive from Chiang Mai. They rehab orphaned and abused elephants here. You get to feed them, walk them in the woods, give them a bath, then feed them some more. It's a pretty fun day-trip, highly recommended!

Bangkok, Thailand. I was gonna title this picture "booger farmer selling his best picks" or something like that. But of course I would never do that - it would be gross. The real story is almost as nauseating: this is a fish market along the Bangkok waterfront, and it's gotta be one of the smelliest places on earth. Just about every kind of marine creature that can be found in these waters is here in this market, dried, piled into boxes, and stinking to high heaven while they wait for some buyer with an iron stomach. And nose. None of this is helped by the fact that it's about 99 degrees and humid.

This happy-looking gentleman was one of my tuk-tuk drivers. Thai's are such easy-going, funloving people, and it shows.