Great Day

Had a great day in Bangkok today kind of surprising considering how late it got started. At around 2pm got out on the street and headed out to get a bite, ended up having pork cutlet Hungarian style (gravy and mushrooms) along with a milk ice tea for $5. I then took a taxi down to the Klong Toey market. I visited the market two days ago so this trip was not as intimidating. I got up close with people talking and making photographs. After the market I wandered into a more residential area and made some photographs of children and people living their daily lives. I think the best images of the bunch are some made of families who were living in slum shacks in a truck repair yards. I photographed a man repairing a large tire as well as a group of men playing dra-groh(foot volleyball). Even photographed some cats playing and rolling around in the waterish oil covered ground.

It is strange how the poorest of the poor are usually the nicest folks where as the rich people can often be snobbish and selfish. I met some wonderful people today, even had a girl shyly ask if I had a girlfriend or not. The children here are really adorable and friendly, had four come up to me and get all excited when I spoke to them in Thai and took photos. There is so much potential in the children but they are so poor, what futures will they have?

I met some wonderful people today in Klong Toey, but I think I have not seen the poorest areas, the areas I have read about. Father Joe Maier is right, this is the real Thailand and these are the real people of Thailand.

Today was my 3rd day in Thailand and the first I felt comfortable speaking Thai and interacting with locals. I felt like less of an outsider today, more comfortable, more at peace with what I was doing. Thai people are so outgoing and friendly and today I was able to see that first hand and not be intimidated making photographs in that environment. I shot with a Leica M6 and 28mm lens and also a Hasselblad Xpan with 45mm lens.

Today was the first day that I felt ( have not tried it yet!) I could make photos with my 4x5 camera. The 4x5 is an entirely new way to shoot for me, I have shot it in the studio but not in public, today I felt "hey I can do this, I can make the 4x5 work in public place" Will have to see how it goes but love shooting the 35mm cameras (maybe shooting to much film to fast), hopefully can shoot the 4x5 as enthusiastically.

In the evening I went to the Golden Mountain Temple for the loy khratong festival. The temple was filled with thousands of Thais, ended up spending about 2 hours there and only saw 3 other farang (Westerners) the whole time, sort of an oddity for Bangkok. The temple was quite beautiful sort of like a old time country temple with fire works and loy comb (floating candle lights, that rise into the sky). At the end of the evening you could see many loy khratong (floating banana leaf boats with lighted candles and incense) floating down the canals next to the temple.

A great day with hopefully more to come. Tomorrow I head to Pattaya to make some color ring flash heads and environmental portraits. Pattaya will be a different world than I visited today, a world of drunken farang of prostitution and sex.