My most recent photography project from my visit to Wat Pa Lak Roi a Buddhist hell garden. Approx 17km from Nakhon Ratchasima this Garden aims to instruct the Buddhist believer in the ways of Karma and it’s consequences for the lack of. I hope you find this as interesting as I did!
During my “Silk Route” journey in 2012 I travelled through Iran and of course the route Alexander the Great took to Persepolis the ancient City of Persia. Now in ruins, this UNESCO World Heritage is one that you really need to see to understand and get a feel of. The area of the site is vast and seems to just keep going and going. It is pretty amazing to walk around and imagine how it would have looked in the 4th century.
Chiang Khan is a very old city with a unique culture and way of life. The most impressive scenes of Chiang Khan are the simple wooden houses adapted to be guest houses, coffee shops, and souvenir shops. On a beautiful day with nice weather, Chiang Khan provides a peaceful local life with a warm welcome for all visitors. Why not hire a bicycle and ride around Chiang Khan. Your ride can take you to all attractions because Chiang Khan is a small town. So, you can travel around easily by bicycle. Riding a bicycle is not only for travelling but is also healthy exercise and reduces pollution.
The park’s countless dazzling sculptures were the life’s work of Boun Leua Sulilat, a Lao man who spent much of his early life absorbing mystical knowledge from an ascetic hermit named Kaew Ku, who lived in a cave in Laos. Sala Kaew Ku is Sulilat’s impressive attempt to bring this knowledge to life. While the striking depictions draw from a wide range of ancient beliefs, including animist folklore, Hindu mythology and Buddhist traditionalism, the execution is all Sulilat.
Surrounded by well-groomed gardens and a large pond, the 100+ sculptures range from modest in size to way larger than life, with the tallest reaching 25 metres in height. Along with endless grinning Buddhas and animated Hindu gods, the park features several depictions of nagas, or mythical serpents that play a prominent role in South and Southeast Asian mythology. Sulilat himself strongly identified with snakes, believing them to be the purest of all creatures.
Moynaq was indeed once an important fishing town, but the water the city was once located on receded a long time ago. It was the ecological disaster of the Aral Sea, which turned this fishing port into a sunbaked town surrounded by the desert. The shrinking of the Aral Sea is considered one of the most severe anthropogenic ecological disasters of all time. Once one of the world’s four largest lakes, the Aral Sea has shrunk to 10 % of its former size since the 1960s.
No other city around the Aral Sea was affected by this disaster more severely than Moynaq. The water’s edge is now more than 150km away from the city, and the former fishing fleet of Moynaq sits in a surreal setting in the middle of the desert. It is a bizarre, almost post-apocalyptic experience to view bactrian camels roam around the rusting ships.
In 2016 just before y return to the UK I could not resist visiting the beautiful Country of Malaysia. On this occasion I spent some time in Pekan, where there are many traditional Malay wooden houses and some traditional wooden palaces, some are in great shape and some, well they are more like this one, how could i not fall in love with it and want to record it’s standing before it becomes so derelict that no one can see it’s former beauty.
In 2013 I was on my last leg of my year out in Central and South East Asia. Vietnam was my penultimate country on this epic journey. Today’s slideshow brings you a taste of Vinh Long in the southern Mekong Delta. It actually sits on the Cổ Chiên River,a branch of the Mekong. It is widely visited and quite famous for it’s Cai Be Floating Market , but it also has an amazing food market on Land, so here it is…
Bokor Hill Station in Preah Monivong National Park, Cambodia was built in the 1920s by French colonists wanting to escape the heat and humidity of the capital Phnom Penh. The main feature of the resort was the Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino. Because of the remote mountain location, building the resort was labour intensive and nearly 900 people lost their lives during construction. Besides the Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino there was a post office, shops, church and royal apartments. At the time of its operation it was known for its luxury and grandeur and was one of the crown jewels of France’s South East Asian colonies.
In 2016 I landed in Thailand after 5mths in India, for a rest, well I was far to intrigued with the natural beauty of Thailand to stand still and Phu Phra Bat Park was one of my favourite first visits to the North East of Thailand.
I hope you enjoy it too and venture far enough up North to visit! Phu Phra Bat historical park in Udon Thani province in the North East of Thailand is a forested hill with natural rock formations shaped as caves with large rocky overhangs. The caves were used by ancient man as shelter and as temples where Buddha images were enshrined. What makes this site unique, is that it contains traces of several different civilizations and cultures spanning thousands of years. The hill contains traces of prehistoric man, the Dvaravati period and Khmer presence. The sandstone rock on top of the hill has been cut out during many centuries by glacier movement, wind and rain.
Some of the rock formations provide natural shelter, others were carved into by man thousands of years ago creating cave like structures. Many of the rock formations harbour ancient Buddha images and served as ancient wats (Buddhist temples). A number of walking trails have been been made through the park and there are a number of view points, from where visitors will have great scenic views of the surrounding area. Phu Phra Bat is set in a beautiful, natural and relaxing environment.
In December 1964, a cyclonic storm destroyed a vast part of Danushkodi, a massive tidal wave toppled a passenger train carrying 116 passengers and the Pamban Bridge which connected the island of Rameswaram to India was also destroyed in the storm. Over 1800 residents were killed in act of nature and most buildings and structures in Danushkodi were destroyed. It is said that the tidal waves battered the region all the way down till the entrance of the Ramanathaswamy temple of Rameswaram which was a main shelter point for people during the storm.
After this massive destruction, the town of Danushkodi was declared a ghost town by the Government and all remaining settlements were moved away for the town was stated to be “unfit for living”. Today, Danushkodi is a jeep ride away from Rameswaram. Hundreds of people visit the place to pay tribute to the ghost town. The skeletal remains of the Church building, the old Railway Station and the Water tank are reminders of a prosperous town that was here once.
We took a shared jeep ride to enter Danushkodi; from there, another local jeep took us on a thrilling ride to Land’s End, the tip of the island where we could see traces of the old town. A small settlement of fishermen now occupies the land.
In 2016 I lived in Nong Khai in the North East of Thailand for 9 mths. One of the few historical buildings there is this beautiful Governers Mansion built in 1915 and used between 1929 1nd 2000. In now stands empty as a museum of sorts.
I have used photographic license to give this slideshow and it’s homage to the building some atmosphere,along with the music I hope you enjoy?!
The elegant Shwedagon Pagoda is Yangon’s most famous landmark. The massive 99 meter high gold plated pagoda with the diamond studded spire set on top of a small hill in downtown Yangon dominates the area and is visible from much of the city.
After dark there is a mystical atmosphere with the pagoda lit up by spotlights. The very impressive pagoda, also known as the Golden Pagoda, is Burma’s most important Buddhist pilgrimage site. The main stupa enshrines sacred relics of the Gautama Buddha as well as the three previous Buddhas.
I dedicate this slideshow to my dear photog friend- Fotoboy Burma Kyi Myint- Gee and the beautiful people of Myanmar
Journeys From A Small Room 