Of all the places you'd think you could avoid a Mormon it would be here, but no not so. Same outfit, same little plaques, same annoying sermon. Sorry no photos, but a video when we see you next ;-)
Ayuthaya
A large historical site and ancient capital about 2 hours out of Bangkok. More temples than you can poke a stick at, some still quite well preserved others less so. The majority of these temples were looted especially the heads of the Buddha images - so any of the ones that now have heads attached are those where the correct head has been found or recreated and reattached. Overall a very impressive site and one we definitely want to come back to and see more of. A couple of pics included here, but many more to show when we see you next.
ayuthaya photos 1, 3, 4
Grand Palace and nearby Temples
This day was an overload of oppulance, gilt and solid gold, jewels, colours and completely impressive structures.
The Emerald Buddha about 70cm tall (and alegedly not emerald) sits in a huge temple constructed especially to house him. He has three sets of clothing (Hot Season, Wet Season and Summer) which the King personally still dresses him in at the start of the season. No photos inside the temple, but allowed from outside - 10x zoom very useful though would be better with a tripod.
emerald budda and his house photos
Most of the structures are covered in old pottery which was apparently used as ballast by chinese sailing ships at that time.
old pottery photo
The reclining Buddha (at 15m tall and 46m long) is the largest in the world, and was quite impressive. The whole structure is covered in gold leaf and the feet (5m x 3m) are inlaid with mother of perl scenes. The actual temple that he is housed in was built after the Buddha image was cast on site. Around this temple there is a huge complex of temples which contain amongst other things the remaining Buddha images salvaged from Ayuthaya and other old sites around Thailand.
big budda and temple complex photos
Across the river is Wat Arun (temple of the dawn) - last temple photos (for now) ;-)
Again here is is probably more obvious that it's old plates etc... used for the decorations.
Wat Arun 1 and 2 photos
Koh Phangan
So after our flight (including unwanted detour to Phuket due to too much rain in Koh Samui) and a short boat ride from Koh Samui to Koh Phangan, we'd finally reached where we wanted to be. The usual port side mobbing by bungalow owners / hawkers followed by a "taxi" ride (more or less a ride in the back of a ute) through the flooded streets kinda set the scene.
After looking at a few bungalows we settled on one just a bit north of Thong Sala (the main port). Here are some photos - a typical day:
tropical rain
And when it's not raining
sea scene
They also have some cute, albeit noisy and hungry (read annoying) kittens that have taken to joining us for every meal - mainly cause they can spot a sucker when they see one and have been doing pretty well out of in terms of bits of food.
kittens
So that brings us more or less up to date in terms of photos too. We haven't really been doing much on this island. A bit of drinking and eating, a few moments of lying on the beach and a lot of sleeping.
Hope you are all well.
Cheers
Jack...
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