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Entries in Samut Songkran (7)
Samut Songkhran & Amphawa Village - A Good Day Out and About in Thailand
Sunday, May 26, 2019 at 2:16PM 
Up and out the door at 4:30am to catch the sun rise over the salt pans of Samut Songkhran with a couple of buddies . . . and for a day of photography.
Roadside salt sales before sunset.
A workman is a blur in first light.
At 5:45am the ambient temperature was already 89f . . with a heat index of 105f!
Early morning salt pan. The salt is raked up into cones by one crew, and picked up and hauled by wheelbarrow to a large pile near the highway for transportation.
The salt workers were working hard at first light to get as much done before the blistering heat to come.
Scooping heavy, damp salt.
Loading the wheelbarrow for another trip to the highway.
Another load full to wheel out . . .
. . . and then back again in an endless loop of scoop, haul, return, scoop . . .
Marvelous patterns of salt cones in the morning magic hour light.
A kindly looking salt worker on a hammock.
Obey. Indeed.
Meanwhile, in another salt pan down the road . . .
After an hour at the sunrise pans, we drove a kilometer up the road and found a big crew out in a damp pan raking the salt into the cones. Hard work in the morning sun.
Hard at work while standing in supersaturated salt water.
Such a photogenic scene . . . especially when the salt workers pose for you!!!
Windmills, salt, humanity, reflections . . .
Having a chat while working . . . 
The salt workers seemed to know each other well . . . it's more enjoyable to work while sharing a joke with your friends.
Home made crude scrapers for piling the salt into cones.
Moving and placing heavy planks for the wheelbarrows that will come to remove the salt from the pans.
Protection from the sun . . . .
Extreme sun protection . . . it must be very hot under that hood in this oppressive heat and humidity.
The is much to see in the area, so we moved on . . .
Rural roads are few and far between - valuable land is not used up for roads. As such, the roads that do exist serve for arterials for power, phone, and water. This is Thai local highway 2001.
In the next salt pan, baskets were used to collect a special salt from the surface.
Ongoing salt harvesting.
I love these amazing contraptions . . . used to flatten the pans after the salt has been removed.
This is a rare (and valuable) form of flake salt favored by chefs . . . it floats on top of the supersaturated pans and is harvested in baskets (above).
A beautiful Chinese-style Buddhist temple reflected in the salt pans.
Light and flakey salt -- very valuable and sought after.
Directly across from the flake salt gathering was the Buddhist Wat I came to see after 5 years . . . . Wat Lat Yai with the Buddha colossus. 
I had such wonderful memories of the spirituality of this Wat when I last visited. There are always interesting and unexpected things to see in a Wat. Some of what you see are what the monks themselves have arranged (like this small altar), but most of what is seen in a Wat are the results of what the big, rich donors want there to be.
The surviving old monk quarters. I am always amazed to see a satellite dish in a Buddhist temple . . . 
Always beautiful flowers to be seen in a Wat.
Wat Lat Yai has some of the strangest 'grottos' I have ever seen. From the outside they are just plain weird . . .
What exactly is going on here? Remember, these things are placed in temples by the doners, not by the monks, who renounce material things. But still . . . .
Although the outside of this man-made grotto was a little strange, the inside was magic.
The banana leaf origami on this altar piece was stunningly beautiful. I felt a little like Indiana Jones discovering a lost tomb or ancient temple never seen before. These are Hindu religious items revered in Thailand along side The Buddha.
Remarkable fine detailing.
Even the cobwebs seem to belong; adding to the spiritual power of this votive object.
Bikkus, listeners of the Buddha teaching the dharma.
Another Hindu reference . . . a four face sadhu.
Sadhu and Buddha images in the grotto. I loved being in that space . . .
There were also a series of enclave altars around the outside and back of the grotto structure.
These are living altars. As can be seen, people bring offerings, usually wishing or hoping for good luck. Notice that someone has left the address plate from their house on the altar . . .
Slung here and there, votive charms festoon the temple trees.
The reason I wanted to return to this Wat and bring friends, was because there used to be a tropical pine grove with old Buddha images in it . . . covered in pine needles. The pine forest is gone: slashed because they did not fit the plan of a doner with a new vision for this temple. The old Buddhas were still there, but looking like they have been 'mothballed' . . .
These old, and seemingly discarded, Buddha images seemed to me to be highly spiritual reminders of the project that the Buddha called us to try.
It seems like someone has taken a scraper to clean some of the moss of of this Buddha image.
Still bright and shiny . . . an overgrown mirror chedi.
By this time of the morning (9:00am) it was already devilishly hot: well over 40c. We went inside to the shaded hall where two nice old ladies (helpers) brought us bottled water. The hall seemed temporary, perhaps being used until some other structure was being built.
The altar was crowded with Buddha images. Fascinating.
There seemed to be many more Hindu symbols in this Wat than others I have visited. I want a hat like this!
"What, me worry?" Supreme detachment. We left the Wat and headed back to the highway where we saw a sign pointing to small road and the name of another Wat . . .
A short drive up a small rural road in search of another Buddhist temple to explore. We didn't find the temple, but we did find this wonderful village built on a canal not far from where it emptied into the Gulf of Thailand.
I love these canal side fishing villages . . . they are so picturesque . . . and visually complex.
Too hot to do anything other than to sit around with your friends and family and mend nets . . . unless you are a falang photographer, that is!
I'm not sure what the make of this V-2 long-tail boat engine is, but it was a beautiful scene.
There was a lovely roadside fish market just outside the hamlet.
Many different kinds, sizes, and colors of fish . . . all inviting visual exploration.
These small 'smelt' are very tasty when deep fat fried. One of my favorites.
Delicious-looking baby squid. My favorite.
Good looking fish.
The drying fish are meant to be used in soups and curries.
But, of course, the most visually interesting fish were the baskets with their intricately patterned fish on display.
While I was photographing these fish baskets, I was thinking that these would print and frame very beautifully as a set.
Perhaps I should come back here with a big tripod and reflectors for more professional, and better framed, shots . . .
I took many, many photos of these beautiful fish baskets, but only post a few here.
We asked one of the fish hawkers how to get to the seashore and they pointed to a small road. We passed this woman busily building a boat on the roadside in tremendous heat and humidity.
The small dirt road dumped us out at the foot of these mud flats . . . crawling with small crabs. These are the mud flats famous for a particular type of small clam that the Thais absolutely love to eat. 
The elaborate bamboo barrier works extended for miles and miles along these mud flats . . . and off into the horizon of the Gulf of Thailand.
At a point of a small canal entering the mud flats there were many kinds of barrier works.
A workman out doing maintenance on the bamboo works.
Fresh cut bamboo was being unloaded and made into rafts to bring out into the sea. This was a huge project . . .
A Samut bamboo wrangler.
Our next stop was at the village of Amphawa, a floating market. Too much tourism has changed the feeling of this place since I last visited it nearly 20 years ago. It is still very charming . . . and visually interesting.
There are many very nice, upscale coffee shops and nice restaurants . . . a big change from an authentic fishing and market village. 
With the ambient temperature above 105(f) with high humidity, it was little wonder there were few people out and about.
The repeating patterns of the klong access steps made for a fascinating study.
Life along the canal (klong) . . .
Swimming to beat the heat? No . . . fishing for bottom feeders with a long-handled net.
With few tourists around, and crushing heat, the boat vendors sat in quiet repose . . . waiting for a sale.
When the canal is full of tourists in their small boats, these floating restaurants serve the water traffic.
This was the only tourist boat we say all afternoon . . . and they looked HOT!
In some respects, this might be the best time of year to visit Amphawa . . . the rest of the year it is overcrowded with tourists. They had the place to themselves.
Standing on a bridge over the canal . . and a view one way . . . and . . .
. . . the view in the other direction toward a Buddhist temple (wat).
A tourist boat cruising for a fare . . . unsuccessfully.
That looks inviting. We went over to this marvelous Old Thai style coffee house for some ice coffee and cold water.
Such a beautiful place to rest, replenish, hydrate, and sit in front of some fans.
Old Thai style wood panels are so beautiful.
After a break we walked along he wooden boardwalks and secretly peaked into the houses. Such serene stillness in the oppressive heat and humidity.
We took our time meandering along the shops . . . and this nice museum of the history of canal life.
A spinning windmill behind the museum.
Antique canoes stacked along side the museum.
Even as hot as it was, the propeller still needed repairing.
The tourist boas were beautifully decorated . . . in hopes of attracting business . . . which never came on this scorching day.
The ladies in their food stall boats congregated to swat flies and swap lies, as they say. Not much else to do.
Back over the bridge toward the car. The hot day nearly over . . . the car air-conditioner is calling.
My friend John always on the look out for an amazing image.
We descended down into the sea of sun parasols and the tourist curios.
Our last act was to buy a 'croc-on-a-stick' brochet . . . Yes, it did taste like chicken, which makes a kind of sense since crocodiles are actually surviving dinosaurs . . . and birds are dinosaur descendants. We worried all the way back home that we could have eaten 'bad crocodile' . . . . but we were fine . . . no intestinal turmoil after all. Knowing the Ropes, Canals, Wats, and Alien Flesh (?) of Samut Songkhram
Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 4:51PM Rope Recycler
A couple of weeks ago Basil and I were driving up a country road on the way to re-shoot a Wat in Samut Songkhram when I saw this pile of roaps out of the side of my eye. We stopped to take a look. What we had stumbled upon was a back yard rope recycling operation. This part of Thailand is near a fishing port which apparently has enough used rope laying around to support this recycler.
The old ropes were sorted and separated for re-twisting.
There were all kinds of different ropes.
It looked like a complex procedure that required a high degree of exactness
Some of the rope looked quite new.
A boy learning the ropes . . . . holding the end of a set of ropes while a large flywheel at the other end twisted a new rope.
We continued on to The Boathouse Resort to shag a long-tail klong boat for some waterborne photography in the early morning.
We didn't have to go too far to find photogenic material.
The resort had recently pulled an old bicycle from the klong.
Beautiful tropical gardens everywhere.
Sometimes the backsides of tropical leafs are the most beautiful, like this . . .
. . . and this frond.
We hired a boat and headed into the swamps.
The klongs (canals) around these parts offer a mixture of dilapidated dock and commercial structures mixed with sublimely rustic beauty.
Life along the klongs looks very idyllic.
There are many old boats along the klongs, like this lovingly restored old river tug.
A relic of a bygone era: a Thai canal boat.
Lovely scenes of boats at dock.
This is my dream house. I may look to see if I can lease one of these. I would love to spend my week-ends here!
One could while away many hours in these klong houses.
Life along the canals is serene.
Maybe I can make a good deal on this "fix-er-upper."
I think my wife would prefer this old traditional Thai-style house.
Some people make their klong homes very special. I suspect many of these cool places are occupied by week-enders from Bangkok.
The old styles and weathered surfaces make for an atmosphere that calls to me. Why?
Many of these canal structures are only accessible by boat.
I have been up this particular klong many times, but I always take many photos of The Blue House (following).
Yep, me and this house have a connection. I don't know what it is.
Next time I'm in the area I will make an inquiry.
The shady side of The Blue Klong House.
I love how the use of pre painted used blue lumber creates it's own patterns and textures. Wonderful. I want to live here soooo badly!
As we putted along in our long-tail boat in the morning idyll, we happened upon an old woman hawking dried reeds from her little teak boat.
The same ancient commerce being plied along the same ancient klongs of Samut Songkhram.
This canal side boathouse was very charming.
I can see myself whiling away a day with a good book on this porch set deep in the palms.
Yep . . . I'm going to have to look into leasing one of these places . . . and soon.
Every now and then, around a bend, you fid someone doing commerce. You wouldn't go hungry if you lived in the canals . . . your lunch would come to you.
Around a bend we came upon a young man emptying a hollow log of it small crabs . . . perfect for sum-tam, a Thai favorite.
Live along the klongs is very attractive . . . and an ever more compelling force in my life.
OUT ALONG THE BANGKOK TO HUA HIN HIGHWAY.
The last time we visited this Wat out among the salt pans of Samut Songkhran it was covered i scaffolding and painted a gleaming white. Today it is completed in its gold leaf . . . and stunningly beautiful.
A beautiful day. The old Wat structure, what I believe to be the original teak temple, was being dismantled. Too bad, it was so fantastic, but a reminder that Buddhism Thailand is a living institution, not an historical novelty or a simple tourist attraction.
A 5m mold for building giant Buddhas was left behind t the Wat.
I am at a complete loss to explain or understand this Wat display. A big donor? A friend of the abbot? You tell me
Samut Songkhran to Hua Hin Giant Wat
I always drive past this huge Wat on the way to Hua Hin.
When you enter the grounds of a Wat, you enter a completely different reality . . . the possibilities change.
The interior of this Was was AWESOME . . . . there is no other word for it.
On our way back we decided to stop in at a giant Wat along the highway. I have been watching this mammoth structure being build over a ten year period, so time to an update. WOW!
Simply gorgeous.
The detail on the giant Buddhas included myriad smaller Buddha images. Opulence beyond imagination.
The Wat grounds held this giant chedi, over 100m tall.
Interestingly, the big chedi held a smaller and much older chedi within.
A memorial image of an old revered monk or abbot.
Unbeknownst to us, we arrived on a day when a ceremony involving wrapping the old chedi with golden drapes . . .
. . . accompanied by monks chanting and the banging of a large gong!
There was a Wat gift shop with the chedi (there always is) that had on display some Buddha images for "sale" (donation) for your home altar. The plastic wrapping with the accumulated dust created an eerie visage.
We walked all around the Wat grounds. It was a very beautiful and serene place to spend part of an afternoon.
Devotional remnants.
Self Portrait.
One of the ways the Thais like to show respect is by radical festooning with colorful bunting.
Roadside Attractions:
We stopped several time o the way back to Bangkok to take photos of the visually interesting. Salt bag pattern.
We pulled over at a roadside purveyor of dries fruit of the sea: squid . . .
. . . and still more dried squid . . . .
. . . . an array of fish snack from many an oceanic phylum . . .
. . . and, yes, blister-packed dries and smoked fish. There was another kind of dried sea food there that could only be described as . . .
ALIEN FLESH:
I was very tempted to post these "alien flesh" photos as a straight "I just got back from the UFO Convention and took these photos of alien flesh." . . . but I didn't. That's all the world needs is more UFO "evidence" finding it's way onto the Internet!
More "Alien Flesh," southeast view.
There have been a lot of UFO sightings around this part of Thailand lately . . . . could this be dried and pressed alien skin, as the vendor claimed?
The Thai guy I bought these from said that these emerged from a dead alien, but died soon after contact with the atmosphere. But for only 180 Thai baht for the four piece set, who could pass it up?
The same Thai vendor said this was part of the head structure of the alien. I don't know . . . it doesn't seem right . . . but he was asking too much for them.
Samut Salt Pans Revisited
Monday, March 26, 2012 at 5:10PM 
My friend and photography teacher, Basil, and his wife left Bangkok at 5:15am to reach the salt pans of Samut Songkhram at sunrise to take photos under the magical light of morning. We arrived at 6:30am to a driving tropical thunder and lightning storm. We bided our time taking photos of whatever was lit enough to shoot, like this frangipani flower . . .
. . . or this wet red morning flower.
The rain finally gave way to moody morning light reflected in the salt pans. Beautiful.
As the sunrise broke through the clouds a light shade of peach started to permeate the landscape. We got in my truck and raced down the road to see if there might be some salt harvesting between the storms.
Indeed! There was to be salt harvesting to be done . . . . interrupted by the rain.
We were in luck: there were cones of salt ready for porterage sitting in the light rain under the peachy morning light.
The light did not last long . . . but my-oh-my!
As we walked around the sunrise salt pan we noticed a dilapidated bamboo salt shed and went in for a look.
A soft, light rain fell on us as we stood transfixed within the beautiful mood invoked by the patterns and the light.
Why is dilapidation, a returning back to elemental substances, so beautiful?
Extraordinary textures.
The dampness of the morning rain and the soft light made the colors jump into your eye wherever you looked.
Basil was in Photographers' Heaven!
Cones of salt dissolving in the rain.
There had been terrible erosion of the salt cones in the rain. We spoke to one of the pan workers who said that 50% of the harvest had been lost because of the early rains. This is suppose to be the hot and dry season, not the rainy season.
We came back later in the morning and watched the salt laborers carry the salt out of the pans.
Scooping heavy wet salt is hard labor.
This crew worked very fast; perhaps they feared a resumption of the erosive rain.
The salt pan laborers ranged from the very old . . .
. . . to teenagers . . .
. . . all in a rush to stack (and cover) the newly harvested salt.
It didn't take long for this crew to empty the pan of its salt stacks.
We drove around on the small roads between the saalt pans and came upon a salt barge being unloded.
Hard physical labor in the stiffling heat and humidity.
A timeless scene under a cloudy sky.
We drove around on the farm roads between the salt pans and found an old Wat that was in the middle of a big building project . . . and I do mean BIG.
The building project involved putting the oldest wooden Wat on wheels and moving it to a new location.
The mundane and the spiritual exist side-by-side in the Wat.
Bangkok is a great city in which to live in its own right, but literally an hour from the great city are many marvels of rural life.
The old wooden Wat seemed very fragile; I did not go up the ladder to take a look, but Basil did.
Where the monks live.
The accidental aesthetics of the Wat is always surprising.
Although it is a place where the residents do not tend to the physical world, they make a beautiful place . . . perhaps because of it.
I love the textures of old spaces.
The deities that had been housed in the old wooden Wat had been removed, awaiting their placement in the new Wat under construction nearby.
Vestiges of earlier historical influences could be seen in much of the statuary, which were from the Hindu pantheon.
At the back of the Wat, in a stand of pine trees, there appeared a collection of very, very old Buddha statues.
The Buddhas were covered in a deep layer of pine needles. They looked as if they were emerging from beneath the ground.
Some of these Buddhas looked ancient.
Other Buddhas still showed remnants of their original coloration and adornment.
I could not tell if this collection of Buddhas were abandoned to this part of the Wat, were placed here in temporary storage awaiting the completion of the new Wat structure, or were intended to keep watch over the forest and the chedis that held the ashes of former monks and abbots interned nearby.
The forest chedis watched over by the ancient Buddha images.
The old chedis still revealed their carved Buddha embellishments.
Nearby, next to a stand of bamboo stood a large collection of spirit houses.
The tropical pole pine needles coated the spirit houses as well.
The pine needles, the stand of wispy trees and the golden spirit houses created a strange mood in the misty morning light.
Some spirit houses can be quite whimsical with their family of "inhabitants."
In the middle of the grove of spirit houses were the remnants of a blessing ceremony on a white table covered with pine needles.
The untended spaces of the Thai Wats allow for a stunning beauty to occur.
The monks at this Wat had a marvelous aesthetic sensibility . . .
. . . and a wacky architectural sense of humor! YOU tell me what's going on here!
We had had a wonderful day of discovery and wonder . . . and photography. As we drove home we noticed another crew of salt pan laborers clearing a pan in the distance, so, of course, we drove up a muddy road to take a look . . . .
. . . and more photos of this visually interesting process.
This second crew also worked at breakneck speed, and had the pan nearly cleared during the time we watched them.
It was a memorable day.
Dr. Jeff Harper
Back to the Wat and Colossal Buddha Image
Basil and I went back to this Wat we visited on March 26, 2012 (two months ago). The last time the Buddha image was wrapped in scaffolding and still painted white . . . and the old Wat structure was still intact. The had made some good "progress, althugh we wished they had saved the old teak wat building.
It is a gorgeous Buddha image. The reason we went back to this particular Wat was to properly photograph, with tri-pods and external flash guns, the old Buddhas in the forest, emerging from the pine straw . . . . but . . . .
The Tropics
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 8:59PM 
Took a soothing long-tail boat trip up the rural canals (klongs) of Samut Songkhram recently. Wish you were here.
Samut Songkhram Salt Pans
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 7:24PM 
If you have ever driven from Bangkok to the beaches of Hua Hin, you will have driven by the salt pans of Samut Songkhram.
Sometimes when you drive this road you see workers out in the salt pans preparing the salt for harvest.
The pans are flooded with sea water, from the nearby Gulf of Siam, and left to evaporate.
As more and more sea water evaporates, and more is added, the salt in solution becomes so saturated that it crystallizes.
To help the process, the salt crystals are raked up into rows and piles.
Working in that briny water all day in bare feet . . . . .
After all the salt has been removed, it is prepared for flooding again by a rolling machine.
These salt pan rolling machines are unique.
Wind mills are used to power the pumps that supply the sea water.
Dr. Jeff Harper
I took this photo eight years ago (2003) at the same salt pan during salt harvest time. The salt workers cover themselves against the harsh reflected sun and the ravages of the salt.
