Chris

I never realise how long I leave it between posts sometimes!! Over the past couple of weeks I've been really busy at work so the photography has taken a back seat. I'd been hoping to catch up over the past weekend but rain stopped play (as it will do in the rainy season of a tropical country!). So this is a collection of photos from a couple of weekends ago, when an afternoon by the pool turned all zoological!

A couple of Fantails came down to the pool...diving in for a bit of a bath

And having a good old show-off

Then the Scaly Breasted Munia showed up. We'd known they had a nest in the tree for some time, and even heard the young as the adults nipped inside. But this time we caught them in the act. Two of the male standing watch and one of the female about to enter the nest...

And to finish off today's short blog...I finally got a few photos of some of the squirrels here. They vary in colour (this one is a red morph) and they remind me more of the north American grey squirrels than the european squirrels. The photos are heavily cropped (300mm lens taken across a pool and a road!) but at least I got something

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A beautiful ride home

Sunday, September 5, 2010 6:29:49 AM

Just a quick post today. This was the state of the weather on our ride home on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. We cross a bridge that leads from an estuary out to the sea in the Gulf of Thailand and, every now and then, it produces the most beautiful sunsets and skies. I'll leave the photos to talk for themselves.

This was my first ever attempt at lightening photography. It wasn't the most successful venture (the photo has had a heavy crop) but at least I managed to pick up something...I'm quite proud of it

Then just some lights over the water as we were leaving...

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Praying and Floating

Friday, September 3, 2010 3:36:32 AM

Having just written an incredibly long blog and lost the entire thing I will attempt a replication as best I can.

Two weekends ago a we set off on an exploratory trip to show some of the new teachers around the area. After a great breakfast we set off and our first stop was Big Buddha on the hill between Hat Pattaya and Hat Jom Tien. I had already been there in my last trip to Thailand on the day of Buddha's birthday/enlightenment/death but had not had my camera with me! This time I was prepared.

Big Buddha from below...

One of the many "Siamese" cats around (took us a while to figure out why they all looked Siamese!)

Big Buddha from half way up...

Big Buddha's hand...

The hand on one of the other 'days of the week' Buddha statues (that I mentioned in my previous blog)

The following photos are a series of people praying in the little temple at the top of the hill.

With Buddha watching over as always...

We then, after a small detour, went on to find the floating market. It was very interesting with all kinds of things available...

Even the boat vendors are never without their cell phones...

Even here the religion is all around you (note: the monks are actually scarily life-like wax models)

From there we went on to meet more friends for dinner at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. It's a not for profit restaurant that was started up to help prevent HIV/AIDS in Thailand. There are now restaurants all over the country helping out in many different projects, currently building a school in a northern province. We arrived just in time for sunset...