Another round of monochrome...

And the precious sixty day visa is now on the verge of expiration. The obvious solution is a trip to Laos for a renewal, right? We're leaving this evening...

Some images from an afternoon at the Wararot Market in Chiang Mai...

Here's part two of my recent black and white stuff...

After 8 days, 866 kilometers and close to a dozen first-gear mountain passes I'm back in Chiang Mai for a bit.

I shot film the whole trip, so it'll be at least a few days before I see my shots. And you've all been patient while I was computerless. So here's some black and white stuff of Chiang Mai, with more to come soon...

Chiang Mai is inundated with places to eat in the street. Food and drink is so easy to come by, and so cheap, that many Thais don't have kitchens of their own. A rice cooker will often suffice, they'll simply eat from the stands or take home a bag of prepared food. Apparently they eat out an average of 13 times a week.

Groups of food carts can be found across town, often setting up at 6pm and tearing down around 6am. The options are plentiful and plates often cost less than $1 US. During the day there are plentiful markets with stands selling fruit shakes or deserts, may a kind of egg, whole chickens, some random black substance I've yet to identify, noodles galore, a huge range of skewers and satays, ice coffee, fresh fruit, all sorts of fish and even the occasional fried worm or cockroach. It's an enormous cottage industry and often feels like the main form of monetary exchange here is based on people feeding each other and eating together in public.

Tomorrow we're off to ride the Mae Hong Son Loop .... back in a week!

Hello all… So I had to take a couple weeks to work and make some money in order to afford the next few legs of this trip. Alas, this is now finished. Hurrah! Back to the more important things…

I've been rather fascinated with the headless Buddha statues I've found around town. Buddhas break at times, obviously, but they can't really be thrown away in any appropriate way. So they're left at wats and beside the sacred trees that are scattered about town. I find this rather intriguing. Here's a generally mass-produced consumer object - I found a rather large Buddha shop last week - that becomes imbued with enough cultural significance to transform into something sacred and undiscardable. They then fill in the landscape in a sense, living in cracks of old Wats and between the roots in ancient Banyans.

Plus, the imagery and symbolism is so poignent. The Buddha with literally no mind. I love it.

At 82 years old, King Bhumibol Adulyadej has reigned since 1946 and presided over 15 coups, 16 constitutions, and 27 changes of prime ministers. And while laws do forbid speaking ill of him in any way, he is near universally revered by the Thais. There's a sense of very genuine respect and even love for the man here. I've heard people say that he has the power to make it rain.

There are images of The King everywhere. Every shop, home or wat has his likeness somewhere. His face is on every Thai coin and banknote, he looks at you from banners in public spaces, and he peeks out from between liquor bottles at even the smallest street-side bar.

The King is also an avid photographer and is seldom seen without a camera. It's said his Buddhist preferences for simplicity make him prefer shooting black and white. In 1996 he had a gold-plated Leica M6 made in honor of his having reigned for 50 years.

His full official title is "Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Bhumibol Adulyadej Mahitalathibet Ramathibodi Chakkrinaruebodin Sayamminthrathirat Borommanatbophit." He must have such a weird life.

One of my favorite things about traveling internationally is being in places where I can't read all the posted information that I probably didn't want to know anyways. Likewise with not being able to understand all the conversations around that have nothing to do with me. We're over-saturated with information these days, getting to consume less of it can be relieving.

That said, the Thai language is stunning and I'm a sucker for typography. So here are some signs that I've enjoyed looking at for strictly visual reasons. I have no idea what any of them say...

Chiang Mai has at least three major night markets, and many more minor collections of street vendors, throughout the course of a week. This isn't including the dozen, at least, collections of food carts that I'll talk about later. There's the nightly "Night Bazaar", which strikes me as more of a way to part tourists from their money than an actual shopping destination. On the weekend, however, there are tons of vendors along "Walking Streets," where crafts-folk sell their creations, food, musical talent or other product of any sort to the locals and tourists alike. They shut down traffic on major streets in the old city which are then swarmed with people. I'm finding the weekend markets to be the best, as the prices tend to be marked already instead of inflated for foreigners. And I have to admit that they put Portland, which has the longest running artists' market in the US, to shame. Seven nights a week, multiple parts of town, all different sorts of themes. This place is as alive at night as during the day. Here's a quick look, I'll surely have more to come in time...

With all the wats and spirit houses in Chiang Mai there are alters of all types abundantly mixed into the cityscape. With these come the offerings which are left in front of a wide variety of statues (not just those of The Buddha) as well as in the spirit houses. There end up being gifts, flowers, food and incense placed in on surfaces nearly everywhere you go. Here are a few examples.

While Buddhism is the undisputed popular religion of Thailand, there is still a strong current of animism in the supernatural and superstitious beliefs of the Thais. This is most prominently seen the spirit houses (san phra phum) that occupy nearly every property in the country.

Building any new structure, whether a modest dwelling or a monstrous bank complex, has the risk of disturbing the spirits that live on the land. While spirits can be either good or bad, most are considered simply mischievous beings who would play pranks in the home or cause trouble in a business. Building them a house of their own, and offering gifts like food and incense, is an attempt to appease and dissuade their unpredictable natures.

When a spirit house is replaced a ceremony is performed to transfer spirits to the new dwelling and the old house can then be discarded, often with a number of others near a sacred tree or wat.

Chiang Mai is dominated by The Wat, and Thailand as a whole is often dubbed "The Land of Wats." They'll be a prominent setting and subject of many photos, so let's just consider this an introduction.

These sites are not simply Buddhist temples, but a combination of temple, monastery, school and community outreach. The spaces are open to the public and mixed into every kind of neighborhood. Since they're scattered all over the city I end up wandering through them a couple times a day and spending a bit of time like I would in a park. With the benches, grass and quiet demeanor of the people it's a welcome respite from the often chaotic streets. The dogs seem to have found them a nice place to spend time as well, but I'll get to that in another post. The monks I've seen tend to be doing simple chores around the wat and seem neither bothered nor interested much in visitors. The spaces feel less like the religious sites I've visited in the past and more like the coop houses you might find in Berkeley or Santa Cruz. But maybe I've just been on the West Coast too long...

On to the visuals:

I should probably deal with this early... we're going to be seeing a lot of power lines. I've used them in my photos plenty of times before. I think it's the designer in me that loves to have stark lines running through compositions. But here they are a completely different presence. It's common to find dozens of wires strewn in all directions, wrapping over and under banana trees, corners of houses, wats, shops or intersections. It feels like every building in Chiang Mai has it's own line coming from a single mysterious source on the outskirts of town. A few days ago I actually hit my head on one. They're hard to avoid here, and they'll inevitably be making appearances in my photographs. Here, have a look for yourselves...

Hello to everyone from Chiang Mai...

I've spent a good deal of time in the last couple days trying to write this update, but it's a rather overwhelming task to properly convey my impressions. If I only had two words I would call this place "idyllic chaos."

I tend to see things in details and piece the big picture together from there, so I want to post images here in that spirit. The formal photography project will develop slowly, in the meantime I want present a picture of this country as I experience it. Today I'll start with a few buildings and the view from my guest house to give a feel for the architecture. I've got plenty of themes and subjects brewing already, here are some of the more obvious ones to come:

Transportation
The Food
Temples and Monks
Street Dogs
Headless Buddhas
Powerlines
The concept of "sanook"
The King

So let's get to it then ... I'm a better photographer than I am a writer!

Hello everyone, and welcome to 2010. Cheers to new beginnings!

This project is about to kick into high gear – I'm leaving tomorrow, stopping briefly in Cairo and then arriving in Chiang Mai on Tuesday afternoon. I've never been to Asia. In fact I've not been further east than Finland, and only then for a single blizzardy afternoon. I'm wandering into the unknown a bit here. But that's the point, right?

Until then, If anyone has suggestions for places to visit in the North of the country please let me know. If you'd like to see a photo of something in particular, pass that on as well. I've got a good deal of time and I'm leaving details rather open until we're on the ground and get to feel out the terrain. Many a temple and festival will surely be visited, the night bazaars and city streets should also make appearances. Mountains, waterfalls, tuk-tuks and Buddhas likewise!

Interesting Thai fact of the day: The Kingdom of Thailand is the only country is Southeast Asia that has never been colonized. It is, however, a constitutional monarchy. King Bhumibol Adulyadej has reigned since 1946, making him the world’s longest reigning monarch and the world’s longest serving head of state.

Come next week I'll start posting photographs. Onward!