Tag Archives: Thailand

Asian adventure day 21. Bangkok day 4.

30 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Architecture, Bangkok, Food and drink, Photography, Thailand, Travel

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Having spent several hours this morning immersed in paperwork and picture editing my stomach reminded me what time it was and encouraged me to go eat. In Bangkok Monday is the day when all the street stalls have an enforced day off due to local ordnances. This means the streets are deathly compared to the reat of the week. It also forced me to find a new place to eat. I found a little cafe on Chakrabongse Rd away from the usual tourist hustle and bustle which looked quite inviting. It served the usual Thai staples including a signature dish I haven’t sampled on this trip (Pad Thai) so that’s what I plumped for, only with prawns. It was both delicious and filling.

Pad Thai, well it’d have been rude not to!

Having stuffed myself my plan was to walk across town to Hualamphong station in order to book a train ticket. It’s a 50 minute walk but you get to sample a lot of Bangkok. Plus, the weather’s warm, but it’s not sticky the way it gets in a few months time. So, I set off, with the idea of getting pictures on the way. Then it all went a bit ‘Pete Tong’. I dug the camera out to get a shot and found the thing was dead as a Dodo. Problem was, I didn’t have my spare battery with me as that was recharging, back at the room. There was no option but to hoof it back to the hotel and pray that the problem really was the battery and not something more serious. I’d been taking pictures last night and thought I still had a few bars life left in this battery. Once I swapped them over the camera sprang back to life – much to my relief! Now I’m hoping the second battery will recharge. By then it was too late to head to the station so I’m having another day exploring locally. I’ll try to get out to Hualamphong early tomorrow as I have a ‘teams’ call with the UK later in the day regarding some work.

Anyways, I’m out with Chris tonight, so pottering locally isn’t a problem. In the meantime, here’s a couple of phone pictures.

It’s a dogs life! These ‘strays’ are actually well looked after by the shopkeepers in this particular Soi – as are their puppies…
Living in a gilded cage? Sometimes local architecture makes you do a double-take…
At least this hotel around the corner from where I’m staying has tried to go for green. I must admit, I’m envious of the swimming pool…

I’ll add a blog update later.

What a lovely evening. I met up with Chrissorn and the two of us spent several hours catching up after so many years that were interrupted by Covid. As usual, I learned a heck of a lot about life in Thailand and Bangkok. It certainly won’t be our last meeting of the trip.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Asian adventure day 20. Bangkok day 3.

29 Sunday Jan 2023

Posted by in Railways, Travel, Thailand, Bangkok, Photography

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I’ve had another fairly relaxed day here in Bangkok, insofar as I’ve not really moved out of the local area where I’m staying. I’m still exploring and trying to reorientate myself in an area I knew well but that’s undergone a lot of changes due to the pandemic. Tourism was such a vital part of the Thai economy it’s hardly surprising that the world shutting down for so long would have a major impact. The good news is that now tourists are starting to return it’s having a positive impact on economic activity. Even so, it’s sad to see what’s been lost. I spent several hours just wandering the streets earlier and found that an upmarket hotel on the river which I stayed in several times is now derelict. The Navalai was a great place to stay because it had a rooftop swimming pool and was right next door to one of the water taxi piers. Hopefully, it will reopen under a new guise. Today I wandered down the Khao Sarn Road for the first time. This was the original backpackers street which I first stayed on in 1992. It’s changed a bit since then. I wouldn’t dream of staying there now as it’s got far too hedonistic and crowded – and that was 10 years ago. It’s a lot quieter now. Even so, I prefer the Soi’s to the West where I’ve been staying these past few years as they’re much more relaxed.

In between wanderings I’ve been holed up in my hotel, busily editing pictures. I’ve now got all my Malaysian pictures online. You can find the travel ones here and the railway ones here. I’ve still got to edit all my Thai pictures, but you’ll find railways here and travel shots here. One little project I have planned whilst I’m out here is to rationalise the galleries on my Zenfolio website. I’ve far too many from previous travels which are a mix of rail and travel shots, which makes finding stuff messy. Maybe when I find a beach somewhere next month…

It won’t be soon because some work came in on Friday and it looks like I’m going to have to change plans slightly in order to deal with some UK stuff. I’ll know more at the beginning of next week. Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day sorting out bits and rejigging my trip, but in the evening I’m meeting up with an old Thai friend. I’ve not seen Chrissorn since 2017. I’d been planning to come out this way again but then Covid put the mockers on that idea. Where does the time go?

In the meantime, here’s a couple of pictures from todays explorations. Expect more tomorrow…

Here’s something I’ve neglected to mention. Cannabis is now legal in Thailand. Well – ‘ish’. The law’s actually rather confused as it was meant to be about medicinal use rather than recreational use. But that hasn’t stopped an awful lot of places springing up to bring dope to the masses!
There’s also some excellent and imaginative pop-up street bars if alcohol’s still your poison.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Asian adventure day 19. One night in Bangkok…

28 Saturday Jan 2023

Posted by in Bangkok, Food and drink, Photography, Railways, Thailand, Travel

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Well, it’s one night of several really, but the old Murray Head song sprung to mind as I was thinking about a title for todays blog!

After travelling all this way I’ve given myself a day off today and just enjoyed being back in the city. There’s certainly been some changes due to Covid but what I realised today is that a lot of it has been a shuffle, Places I knew are (mostly) still here, they’ve just moved around the area a bit! A bit like me today. I moved hotel this morning, but literally just moved next door. There was nothing wrong with the old place – it’s somewhere I’ve stayed many times under its different names but the crucial factor for me was the fact the wifi was so slow it didn’t allow me to do what I needed to. This place is far better. That I had to move was another reason for giving myself a day off, along with the fact that I’ve been so busy it’s been really nice just to chill, drink a few beers and reacquaint myself with Bangkok after all this time. Oh, and enjoy the food. There’s a wonderful street food vendor at the for end of Rambutri which is still here, despite everything. Rice and two main dishes costs 50 baht (£1.25), the demon chili pickle is free – and not for the faint-hearted!

Anyway, here’s a couple of pictures that show the changing face of the railways which I took when I first arrived. Here’s how Hualamphong station looked yesterday now that it’s lost most of its long-distance services. Just the other week this place would have been buzzing.

However, the new station at Bang Sue, with the catchy name of Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, opened on the 19th January. It’s impressive – and vast, but also quite empty and it lacks the character of the original. However, it’s far more suited to the future of rail transport in Thailand.

Tomorrow I’ll have all the pictures I took on the way up here edited and online. Plus some new ones. I’m probably going to have another easy day tomorrow (well, it is the weekend after all) as I’ve lots of stuff to catch up on now I’m sort of stationary again. Even so, there’s plenty to blog about!

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

Asian adventure day 17. From Kuala Lumpur into Thailand…

26 Thursday Jan 2023

Posted by in Malaysia, Photography, Railways, Thailand, Travel, Uncategorized

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This isn’t going to be a magnum opus. It’s 18:45 here in Thailand and i’m settled in on the overnight sleeper train from Padang Besar in Malaysia to Bangkok. There’s no wifi, these 1988 built sleeper cars only have a few shared plug sockets and my laptop couldn’t charge on the Malaysian train even though we had plugs as they weren’t working. That means this is being typed on my phone (so forgive any glaring typos).

I’ll blog about the trip at greater length when I have time. It’s certainly been an interesting trip. KTMs Electric Train Service (ETS) left KL at 09:50 this morning. The train was sold out and busy almost all the way to the border. It was only after Alor Setar, the penultimate stop before Padang Besar that the numbers thinned. The ETS sets are pretty good. Mine was one of the later 2018 batch from CRRC that were assembled in Malaysia. Apart from the plug socket problem I’d no grumbles and the staff were very good.

Bowling along on meter-gauge track at 140kph is a rare experience but the quality of the rebuilt railway means the ride quality’s really good. We even arrived on time at Padang Besar. I’d not got an onward ticket but I suspected I’d be able to buy one on the day without a problem. True enough the Thai ticket office sold me a lower berth on the 18:00 departure for 918 baht. They don’t take credit cards but I’d a large stash of cash from previous trips so I used some of that. It’s a good job I wasn’t trying to get Southwards to KL, the next door KTM ticket office had a notice saying all trains were fully booked until the 30th January!

All I had to do then was wait. Immigration doesn’t open until around 30 mins before the 18:00 leaves, so there’s a fair bit of hanging around to do and not a lot of amusements. You can’t get back on the platforms so you just hang around upstairs. When immigration did open it was a breeze. Both sets were efficient and there were no questions asked before getting my Thai visa. You used to get a shorter one if you arrived by land rather than air (14 days instead of 30) but now you get 45 days whichever way you arrive.

Before the sleeper arrived the local train to Hat Yai departed. Four third class coaches hauled by an old Alsthom diesel. There’s plenty of freight to observe as intermodals arrive/depart on a regular basis, there’s just nowhere to get a decent shot of them.

The State Railway of Thailand are still an oasis of (mostly) vintage diesel traction.

This being SRT the sleeper was late! Eventually, a loud Hitachi built diesel of the 45xx number series backed 2 sleeper cars and a 3rd class coach into the station. The couple of dozen of us waiting soon boarded it and we were off with the Hitachi making lots of noise despite the light load.

On arrival at Hat Yai our two sleepers were detached by the station pilot, a battered old ‘Shovelnose’ which deposited us on the rear of the Bangkok train. There’s no buffet car anymore but hawkers came through the train selling water or chicken with sticky rice (40b) so hunger and dehydration aren’t a problem. Within 15 minutes we were off – Bangkok bound, where we’re due to arrive at midday. I’ll be amazed if we’re on time! Now the crew have made all the beds up and I’m laid out on my lower bunk relaxing. An early night beckons methinks.

See you tomorrow!

2nd January picture of the day…

02 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by in Malaysia, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Thailand, Travel

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Welcome to my first (but very definitely not the last) blog of 2023. New Years day was a quiet one here at Bigland Towers, although we popped out for drinks with friends ‘early doors’ on New Years eve we were back at home well before the year rolled on and had a quiet night counting down to midnight. Just the two of us, plus ‘Bernie’, a miniature cockapoo dog that we’re looking after for friends whilst they’re away on holiday.

New year’s day was in very much the same vein although Dawn couldn’t keep herself out of the kitchen despite having spent much of Christmas down in Surrey cooking for her family. I can’t complain as Dee prepared a fantastic Flemish beef stew and roast vegetables which made a fantastically tasty start to the year. In the meantime, I’ve begun to plan my Far-Eastern adventure in earnest which has involved a lot of research into seeing what’s changed since I was last out there in 2017. Well, Covid’s had a huge impact obviously and some places still have restrictions that we (perhaps foolishly) gave up on in 2021, but it’s the logistics of travel that have changed too as (for example) Malaysia’s redeveloped a lot of its rail network and Thailand is following suit. A few days before I arrive in Bangkok their massive new multi-level station at Bang Sue (now renamed Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal) will start receiving long-distance rail services instead of the old Hualamphong station. The full changeover isn’t expected to happen for several years but first services will run on the 19th February after a delay of several years.

Researching the changes meant I spent a lot of time digging through archive photos on my Zenfolio website only to realise that some pictures are missing. This is due to the fact I’d originally used the free hosting site ‘Photopic’. Sadly, the people who bought photopic off its creator were financial and business incompetents who pulled the plug on it in 2010. These idiots had no idea what a rich historical resource that contained millions of pictures from 10s of 1000s of worldwide contributors they were trashing. Many people lost entire collections. I didn’t as I only used it as a shop window. I’d kept the originals on hard-drives, but it took me several years to migrate my old pictures to my new Zenfolio website. Unfortunately, when I first went digital in 2004 I made a cardinal error. Rather than keeping one archive I divided it up into different folders (railways, travel etc.) which made it much harder to keep track of individual pictures. Some folders got filed away and never saw the light of day for years. In 2010 I learned from my mistake and kept a yearly folder containing everything I’d taken that year – no matter what the subject.

I found one ‘lost’ folder today which contains some of those missing pictures. They’re from Malaysia in 2009 and one of them is today’s picture as it reflects the changes I’ll be seeing in that country’s rail transport. The only thing in this picture that I believe still exists today are the two coaches.

Here’s the ‘international train’ that ran between Butterworth in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand. This view was taken at Butterworth (the station for Penang Island) on the 9th February 2009. The two sleeper coaches belong to the State Railways of Thailand whilst the engine is Malaysian. Well – sort of! It was one of 39 ex-Indian Railways Class YDM4s that were leased to KTMB for many years to cover a motive power shortage. Surplus to requirements in their home country due to the conversion of the meter-gauge network to broad gauge some pitched up here.

The coaches would be hauled by the KTMB loco from Butterworth to the border station of Padang Besar where there would be a customs check)and a loco change. An SRT loco would then take the coaches and passengers forward to Hat Yai where they’d be attached to the rear of an overnight sleeper train to Bangkok which would arrive in the Thai Capital the next morning. It was a fantastic (and cheap) way to travel between the two countries as well as a superb way to enjoy the scenery.

Nowadays you get an electric train from Butterworth to Padange Besar. After a wait you catch an SRT day train to Hat Yai where you join a sleeper service to the capital. I’ll be doing this trip in February so I’ll key you know what it’s like now.

If you want to see more of my old pictures of Malaysian railways check out these galleries.

1992 – 2009

2011 (includes Thailand)

2012 (includes Thailand)

2015 (includes Thailand)

2017 (includes Thailand and Indonesia)

One thing I’ve promised myself is that whilst I’m away these next few months I’ll rationalise these galleries by country and separate out the railways, travel and other transport images. It’s one of those classic ‘when I get around to it’ jobs that never seem to happen! In the meantime, expect a lot of new pictures and blogs from that neck of the woods over the next couple of months – starting very soon…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

11th September picture of the day…

11 Sunday Sep 2022

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Politics, Railways, Thailand, Travel

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Talk about life comes at you fast! There’s been no lazy Sunday here at Bigland Towers as the maelstrom of events in the real world have kept me occupied most of the day. Planning stuff at the moment is proving to be difficult due to what the late Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously replied to a question in an interview when asked about what would determine his governments course “Events, dear boy, events.”

I know exactly how he felt – although I’m not facing my own personal Suez crisis. Instead, I’m responding to the events of others. The death of the Queen is the one that’s having the biggest impact on my own life due to the way it’s affecting the rail industry. Outside of that I’m looking at worldwide events and the situation in the Ukraine where the Russian invaders are suffering a humiliating defeat right now. The Ukrainian offensive has recaptured 1000s of Kms of territory and inflicted a rout on the Russian army the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941 – but with one huge difference. Now the Russians are the aggressor. Twitter has proved to be invaluable when it comes to accurate and up to date information and accounts like ‘Ukraine Weapons Tracker’ @UAWeapons which documents losses on both sides is well worth following. My hope it that the Ukrainians continue to be supported by the West (including the UK) and that the Russian people begin to wake up from the fantasy they’ve been fed by their leader before more people on all sides have to die.

What I find fascinating about how the internet age and the way various social media platforms are disseminating (often real-time) experiences from the frontline is how it’s made control of the media impossible. In the Vietnam war the Americans learned how a free media was damaging their ability to control the narrative. The public swung against the war because of the scenes they were seeing played out on their TVs most nights. Both the British and the American governments learned from that in future conflicts by ’embedding’ journalists into military units as a way of controlling (and therefore censoring) their outputs. The internet age has destroyed that level of control. Now you can see cameraphone footage as it happens. Troops record and broadcast their experiences (even sometimes their last experiences). The genie is out of the bottle once more and the war in Ukraine is playing out in real-time in a way no other war has. Add in the drone footage of actual strikes and it’s a million miles away from grainy gun camera footage from world war 2 fighter planes.

Meanwhile, remember Covid? It’s still here – even if it’s no longer considered newsworthy. Thankfully, it’s on the decline worldwide, so I’m looking forward to being able resume my international travels soon. But before that I’ve an awful lot of pictures to edit and words to write – and events to attend if I possibly can.

Apropos of that, here’s today’s picture, which is another delve into my travel archives. Here’s a country I’m really looking forward to returning to – Thailand. It’s no paradise (where is?) as it has a military government, but the people are amazing, and the railway system is changing so much. This picture was taken at Hua Lamphong station in central Bangkok 10 years ago. Soon the station will be made redundant by a newer, vaster and more modern multi-level interchange at Bang Sue. It will be fit for the 21st century – but it won’t be the same…

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

29th April picture of the day…

29 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Thailand

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I’ve not had time to post one of these for a while as I was away all of last week, concentrating on getting new pictures whilst enjoying the freedoms granted due to the easement of lockdown. As this coincided with some wonderful weather I was kept pretty busy. I’ve been back in Yorkshire since Sunday trying to catch up with all sorts of stuff that took a backseat as I was on my travels.

Being back in the office and stuck in front a screen made me appreciate having had the chance to get away. I’ve done so little travelling this past year but I count myself lucky as I’ve done more than many but right now it’s time to knuckle down and get some writing done. I’ve an article to prepare for RAIL magazine but once that’s done I’m looking forward to getting out and about again. On the 17th March hotels and B&Bs reopen in England, so I’ve been busy preparing a ‘cunning plan’ that involves cycling around some of the High Speed 2 railway construction sites in the Chilterns. The project is really ramping up so I’m keen to be able to document the work at this early stage in the same way I did with High Speed 1 from London to the Channel tunnel. Plus, being on the bike will give me a bit of exercise. OK, it’s not as exotic as cycling around India for charity, but at least I’m not expected to do 75 miles a day!

Of course I’m still trying to get through scanning my old slide archive but that’s going to be taking more of a back seat now the weather’s improving. Plus, Dawn and I have plans to get out and about too. Now I’m concentrating on ‘banking’ the scans (which I can only do at home) so that I can edit them at my leisure from wherever I am. I’ve already added another 60 plus to this gallery of my 1991-92 travel odyssey in the past few days – which brings me on to the picture of the day. I took this picture of the beautiful Thai island of Ko Phi Phi on the 20th April 1992.

The island is essentially two massive outcrops of karst rock linked by a narrow, low-lying sandbar, which is where the majority of the islands accommodation could be found. As you can see from the colour of the sea, the right hand beach is shallower whilst the left hand is deep enough for yachts, long-tailed boats and ferries from Krabi on the mainland. I spent an idyllic few days here exploring the island (this picture was taken from the viewpoint, a hot sweaty climb from the beach) and snorkelling in some of the fabulous bays around the coast.

A few years later the island were made famous as the setting for the film ‘The Beach’ which was based on the Alex Garland book. This sparked controversy due to allegations that the film crew caused a lot of damage to one of the beaches, but far worse was to come. On Boxing Day 2004 the Tsunami that devastated parts of SE Asia hit the island, killing over 1000 people. There but for the grace of God…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

13th April picture of the day…

13 Tuesday Apr 2021

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Thailand

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Apologies for my absence over the past few days but I’ve been concentrating on other things. It’s the old story, there’s only so many balls a juggler can keep in the air at one time!

Like many people I’ve spent several days in awe at what the weather’s been throwing at us. It’s been bleeding ‘Baltic’ up here in the Pennines as the Mercury has dropped below freezing and we’ve been gifted with alternating show and hailstorms or bright sunshine. There’s certainly been some spectacular weather patterns but I’m hoping we can now have temperatures back in double figures – especially as we’re no longer in ‘Lockdown’ and the country is slowly returning to normal. To be honest, it’s made little difference to me as I’ve stayed away from those initial crowds as people queue to get back into shops or pub beer-gardens. I’m happy to wait a bit longer and let the novelty wear off again. I’ve still plenty to keep me occupied at home.

That said, I’m looking forward to being able to get out and about when the time’s right but in the meantime I’ve still several things to tick off my lists and until commissions start coming in I doubt I’ll be going far. Instead I’m still wading through work at home and trying to get another juggling ball in the air by beginning to scan old slides again and get as many done as I can before the summer months.

Here’s one from the latest batch of scans from my 1991-92 trip to Australia via SE Asia. I took this in the Khao San Rd in Bangkok, Thailand on the 12th April 1992 which was during the Thai festival of Songkran (Thai New Year) which is also a water festival.

Traditionally, Thai’s would pour water pouring on Buddha statues and the young and elderly is a traditional ritual, representing purification and the washing away of one’s sins and bad luck. But that’s been broadened out to Songkran being one glorious, nationwide water fight!

In the picture a couple on foot are unaware of what’s heading their way from a hotel balcony!

Back in 1992 the Khao San Rd wasn’t as big, bold and brash a tourist area. Many of the little hotels like this have given way to much bigger complexes as tourism to Thailand has grown massively in the intervening 30 years. Back then it was a real backpacker hub as Bangkok was a crossroads for people criss-crossing Asia. It still is, but now there’s many more less adventurous tourists too. I’d just flown in from Nepal and spent the first 48 hours as sick as a dog as I’d contracting food poisoning just before I left Kathmandu. I hadn’t known about Songkran (I didn’t buy a Thailand Lonely Planet guide till I arrived and could sell my Nepal copy) so it was quite an unexpected but welcome surprise and a real pick-me-up. To add to the fun, the local hoteliers association had set up strategic water dumps along the street – groups of 40 gallon oil drums that they kept filling up with a water tanker that sucked water up from the nearby Chao Praya river. People would hang around them with whatever water container they could find, waiting for victims. Tuk-Tuk drivers were especially prized as a way of getting your own back on people who’d been charging you extortionate fares, tio their credit, they took it in good spirit! For two days we had an absolute ball! Bangkok is so hot and sticky that time of the year it was bliss to be so wet. Mind you, the fun came at a price for me. I’d carried my camera around in a couple of plastic bags so that I could get shots of the fun without taking too many risks – or so I though. Sadly, I got caught in the same way as this and on the 2nd day my Nikon F801s (nice camera, not very waterproof) caught the full force of a soaking. Despite taking it into the Nikon dealers a couple of days later it was a right-off (the electronics were fused) and a new one cost me £358. Even so, I couldn’t be upset as the fun was worth it. You can find my other Songkran pictures here. I’ve always promised myself I’d get back to Thailand for Songkran – only with a proper waterproof housing for my camera. Of course, it’s Songkran in Thailand right now, so I hope my Thai friends are enjoying it, even if the atmosphere will be subdued because of Covid. Maybe next year…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

10th October picture of the day…

10 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by in Picture of the day, Thailand, Travel

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Funny old world, isn’t it, eh? You just think things are settling down and all of a sudden it all goes topsy-turvey again – for no adequately explained reason – and certainly not one that you have any control over.

The changeable weather meant that plans for a day out were cancelled. Instead we’ve both been busy at home sorting out this, that – and the other. I’ve managed to have more of a declutter, so lots more railway ephemera and old pictures will appear on eBay this weekend. Right now I’ve added lots more old slides, including one that relates to the last picture of the day – just from a different angle and 20 years earlier!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313253359380

So, here’s today’s picture, which was taken in Bangkok, Thailand on the 30th November 2013. This a a huge reclining Buddha at Wat Po. Now, normally, the Thai’s see exposing the soles of your feet to people as disrespectful – unless you’re the Buddha, obviously!

Joking aside, the statue is stunning and Wat Po’s well worth a visit. I love Asian temples as they’re very much community hubs in a way English churches can only aspire to. Religion’s so much more part of people’s everyday lives (for better or worse). It can still lead to sectarian conflicts but it adds a glue that perhaps we’ve lost in the West.

I’ve a favour to ask…
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27th July picture of the day…

27 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by in Picture of the day, Thailand, Travel

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I don’t know about where you are right now, but here in West Yorkshire its been a thoroughly miserable day weather-wise. We’ve had heavy rail and gales, with just the occasional glimpse of sun to tease us before the next downpour arrived.  So today’s picture is to break away from that. I took this at a beach on Ko Chang, Thailand on the 28th November 2011.

Enjoy a Chang on Ko Chang with me!

DG99372. A sunset beer Chang on Ko Chang. Thailand. 28.11.11. crop

Sadly, It may be some time before I get to quaff a sunset beer on an Asian beach again…

 

 

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If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us locked-down freelances need all the help that we can get…

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