Making Photos Day 1

Well am set up in a wonderful apartment at a very reasonable rate. I had a nice sleep and now I am going to go to an area I photographed in last year. I have a number of free photos I want to hand out from the Sex Worker series to people that still might be around. Fourteen months is a long time in the world I am entering so many people might be gone now but I hope to see many of the friends I made last trip and to hand out photos and re photograph some of those same people.

The last few days I have been at a Thai Buddhist funeral. This is the first time I have seen and been apart of (making a video for the family) a Buddhist Funeral. It is both sad and beautiful in different ways. This particular funeral will be 5 days (it can run 3,5 or 7 days depending on the families wishes), tonight is night 4 which will be followed by the cremation on Saturday (no cremations are done on Fridays). After making my first photographs tonight I will take the bus back to witness the cremating of the body and the other Buddhist ceremonies connected with the last parts of the funeral. The degree of respect givin the person who has died is really quite amazing. I would like to at some future date learn more about Buddhism and possibly become a monk for a short time.

My first day in a sex worker area has such a different feel than rural Thailand. It is like night and day. I have already seen around 10 older farang (western) men with younger Thai (sex worker)girlfriends. I was having some Thai food today and watched 2couples that sat across from each other and barely spoke, they were living in different worlds. This place I am in now is not the real Thailand.