All In Ruins At Ayutthaya Sukhothai Phrae Nan and Bangkok, Thailand

Usually every post in this blog covers one town and one stop but in the case of Thailand this one post covers 15 days and five places: Ayutthaya and Sukhothai, Phrae, Nan and Bangkok which account for my entire stay in Thailand.

Everyone loves Thailand so why could I not wait to leave after 15 days spite having a total of 4 months of Visas already paid for? Yes, I know I am always the black sheep. But thank Buddha my plan B is pretty nice: a return to Vietnam!

To sum up the reasons for my early departure I must admit I am not a party animal, not a guided tour loving package tourist or a typical 40 year old visitor of Bangkok (hint: b@rgirl$, l@dyb0ys).
Also Thailand is more commercial than I would care for and I was not inclined to spend my time or my horribly weak US dollars to hunt down the last few non-touristy areas to maybe find idyllic places for photography.

The first photo on the top of this post taken at the Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai is a flipped over reflection shot which is a fun and nice effect to confuse the brain for a second (or a few seconds for some).

A blooming tree at Wihaan Phra Mongkhon in Ayutthaya. I would have liked to enjoy its beauty after capturing it but literally a few seconds later a tour group showed up, walked into the picture ignoring me and took over the scene; so I moved on, I got the shot already:

A sitting Buddha statue at Wat Phra Mahathat in Ayutthaya. It may sound absurd that this picture (and many other ruin photos) had to be carefully timed; statues do not move around after all.
The most challenging thing was to find those split seconds when there were no tourists in the frames.
It is funny that many times people are actually walking behind statues, walls and columns when the pictures were shot:

I found another mini statue cemetery at Wat Phra Mahathat in Ayutthaya. It is part of an ongoing experiment of separating interesting details from very busy sceneries:

This stone head which is one of the most photographed Buddha statues in Thailand can be found at Wat Phra Mahathat in Ayutthaya.
Notice the exquisite light! I waited for several hours until the late afternoon sun perfectly hit … OK, OK I just showed up, took advantage of a few seconds of shooting time between two Japanese tour groups:

I patiently waited over 10 minutes sitting in Buddha style for the tourist to clear away from this location at Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai:

Headless statues lined up at Wat Phra Mahathat in Ayutthaya.
The late afternoon side lighting and the back lit tree leaves work for me in this picture:

Photo of this magnificent complex was taken at Wihaan Phra Mongkhon Bophit in Ayutthaya.
It is often quite a tricky task to emphasize and separate the main subject from the surrounding clutter and from groups of tourists.
Sometimes the best way to do this is to get as close to the structure as possible and use the widest angle lens in the camera bag. In my case it is 12mm which acts as an 18mm on a digital SLR camera:

Since starting my trip this sitting Buddha statue at Wat Si Chum in Sukhothai has been the most memorable one. It almost completely “fills up” the structure around it. There is no roof so the statue is lit mostly from above and seems almost squeezed between the surrounding walls.
There is not much room to work with so even a 12mm lens is just barely wide enough.
The typical tourist would spend between 1-3 minutes with the statue, the typical tourist with photographic interests would hang around for about 2-5 minutes.
I know this because I spent one hour with this Buddha statue and could observe other tourists.
I have traveled far from home and it would be unthinkable to me not to spend an extended time on select very special locations. Towards the end of my hour it was getting near closing time so I decided to come back the next day.
My second visit lasted 2.5 hrs (seemed like 30 minutes) and was a great experience. Not being tied to any tour group, schedule or travel partner has its advantages:

Judging from the long shadows of the columns of Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai I actually managed to get up early enough on this morning:

Also at Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai, here are lots of sitting Buddha statues and a very large standing Buddha as well; many chances for photography around every corner.
As the day goes by and more and more tourists appear so the fun game of waiting for them to clear or “hiding” them behind structures starts:

Wat Sorasak in Sukhothai is decorated by elephant statues surrounding the base of the structure; very cool:

Ah, this looks like fun! Mommy, can I ride the elephants too?
Well, one thing is for sure, not a chance I will ever contribute any money to the elephant slavery business (which I consider as horrid as zoos, sea worlds and circuses).
These brief tours visit ruins most of the time walking through car parking lots and paved streets - how exotic!
Those elephant feet were not meant to be pounding the pavement all day long, if these intelligent animals are so treasured this is no way to treat them.
It takes 5 years to train (torture) elephants before their slavery begins and they work for 50 years before getting their retirement for about 25 more years:

After Ayutthaya and Sukhothai my third stop was Phrae, as I was searching for less touristy areas and inspiring photographic subjects.
Even tough there were chances for decent photography by this time I was less and less excited about Thailand travel photography … at least on my skinny budget. After Phrae I stopped by Nan which would conclude my Northern Vietnam travels.
Wat Phong Sunun in Phrae has several golden Buddhas and other statues which made this wat really special for me:

I visited Bangkok for the sole reason to get my visa for my much anticipated return to Vietnam.
I hardly took any photos in Bangkok, I am not really inspired by big cities even if guidebooks have their list of must see spots.
The wat on this photo is of course beautiful but I left in the air conditioning units on the right side of the picture on purpose just as a personal reminder:

Vietnam and Cambodia (I have not been to Laos or Burma) are definitely more my cup of rice than Thailand.
If I ever become a smarter or more experienced Thai traveler things may change but for now I am trusting my instinct, going with the flow and happily returning to Vietnam.