 We spent 3 incredible weeks
in Thailand 'The Land of Smiles' in April. It's been pretty hard, almost cruel, to
decide on which pictures to select when you have over 1,200 to choose
from. I've divided the pages up into 5 logical groups based on our
travel itinerary. Ayutthaya, our first stop, is about an hour and a half north of the airport in Bangkok.
We went there straight after our arrival to save some time.
Although we only spent a day and a half in Ayutthaya
I took an incredible amount of pictures there. We hired a Tuk-tuk
family to be our guides and although it was rather expensive by Thai
standards ($50 US), we got our monies worth and then some. They were
wonderful guides giving us the full tour and then even took us out
of town the next day to get a local bus to Prachinburi.
Ida's homecoming in the
village of Si MahaPhot was awesome. I got some great shots of the
family and the new house being built for them. Si MahaPhot is a
semi-rural area of farmland 2 hours E-N-E of Bangkok in Prachinburi
Province. Here I am day-dreaming of
leaving the rat-race behind and becoming a Thai Farmer...
We then traveled with Ida's siblings, their spouses, nieces and nephew
to the Island of Ko Samet. We stayed the weekend at the Lima Coco
resort on the less populated West side of the island. The real kick for me on this side-trip was the Fish Market
on the mainland port town of Ban Phe. It was a great
opportunity for pictures and I got to really ham it up for the locals
to garnish a smile or two for the camera.
The beaches in Krabi are...
well stunning would be too bland a word. There are limestone cliffs
and monoliths jetting straight up to the sky from a beautiful
palm tree lined beach. The climb to the summit of a temple near
the Tiger Cave Temple is not for the faint of heart, especially
in the 95 degree noon time heat. The view though is incredible.
The Songkran Festival is the Thai New Years. While celebrating
it in Krabi I got some good pics of the festivities. Basically people
drive around and splash water on everyone. The people lining the
road splash water on everyone. I had to protect my camera but I
was determined to get some of the action and a few smiles from the
Locals. Phuket was our last stop and the beaches have recovered
considerably from the Tsunami, although there is still a fair amount
of repair construction going on. Lots to do and see there and really
enjoyed the FantaSea show not far from our hotel in Kamala Beach.
Photos were taken with
a Nikon D70s in RAW mode and then edited in Nikon Capture Editor
and PaintShop Pro. Also took additional photos with my small
portable Coolpix 885.
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