The Photography of Dr. Jeff Harper

A 'photo ramble' blog entry in four parts: The Old Town of Petchaburi, The Buddhist Temples (Wats) of Petchaburi Town, Two Old Fishing Ports in Petchaburi Province, and Salt Pan Workers in Petchaburi Province. 

PART 1: THE OLD TOWN

Petchaburi is a provincial capital located between Bangkok and the beach towns of Cha Am and Hua Hin.  It is a very small city that I pass by whenever I go to Hua Hin for a beach getaway from the pace of urban Bangkok . . . but I never stop to see what is there . . . until my old friend, John Stiles, and I decided to take a "photo ramble" there last week. [The 11th century Wat Mahathat Worawihan in the background.]

Petchaburi is only two hours away on good divided highway from home . . . and seemingly in a different decade.

We arrived and parked, as we planned to spend the day on foot.  At first look, Petchaburi looks like a lot of old Thai market towns. An old, somewhat worn out downtown area with lots of 'street life' - civic culture.  In Thai, Phetchaburi means "city of diamonds". 

There are some interesting old buildings with a lot of character . . .

 . . . and ample material for one of my favorite photographic subjects: old door portraits.

A magnificent old door with its life story written all over it.

Old Thai market towns have a special dilapidated charm I really enjoy.

A corner coffee shop. We stopped here for iced coffee with milk.  Very good.

The Petchaburi clothing shops spill right out onto the sidewalks.

Buddhist votive offerings shops near the main city center Wat (temple).

These old wooden shop houses are slowly disappearing in Thailand's larger towns and cities.

Our casual stroll brought us into an area of old alleys and a wet market.

We were literally stopped in our tracks when we rounded a corner into this narrow alley . . . and found a street full of art. Fantastic!

This was such a whimsical painting, made more so by the actual, real door knob that had been mounted in the wall!

The wall art was wonderfully integrated into the structures of the alley.

Dragon art . . .

A drayman starting his rounds in front of a fish mural.  Wonderful!

There was a 'missing building' in the art alley . . . no problem: paint the revered former King of Thailand on the exposed end . . .

There seemed to be a "pet" theme across much of the alley art work.

Scrumptious and stylish . . .

A wall of sweet kitties.

None of this Petchaburi alley art was signed, but we guessed that these two lovely people were the artists.

Refreshed with Art, we walked on through the alleys of old Petchaburi town.

There were many very old shops in Peetchaburi . . . from a time before big box franchises and bar code stock control.

I had the feeling that this woman has been sitting in this auto parts shop for a very, very long time.

A city fabric shop . . . with cushions and plastic door mats.

My friend John among the basketry taking candid street photos.

Our wanderings brought us to the Petchaburi River, which bisects the city.

We stopped here for a delicious lunch of noodle soup.  Gotta love Thai street food!

We left the old town and its interesting old alleys to explore the many Wats.

PART 2: THE BUDDHIST TEMPLES

Wat Khoi on the outskirts of Petchaburi, near the hilltop Wat.

Wat Khoi is a very special and architecturally unique Wat.

Wat Khoi is in the shadow of the Petchaburi hilltop Phra Nakhon Khiri (Khao Wang).

There is a very beautiful Kuan Yin statue in the garden of Wat Khoi.

Wat Khoi had these amazing. worked metal bas reliefs of Thai people across a wall.

The 500 year old Wat Sa-Bua was once a center of Buddhist evangelism in southern Thailand.

Two kind Wat Sa-Bua monks opened up the ancient Wat for us to take photos.  Thank you. 

This black Buddha statue is said to be even older than the Wat, +500 years old.

An amazing tree on the Wat grounds . . . and a monkey!

Wat Sa-Bua is built up against a wooded hill with many monkeys scampering all over!

This ornery fellow let me know I was getting close enough.

The rocky hillside behind Wat Sa-Bua haad fantastic old chedis.

A beautiful and highly revered chedi.

We enjoyed our time at Wat Sa-Bua, but walked on up the road to see more Wats nearby . . .

The area near the hill attracted many monkeys . . . some ventured out into the nearby neighborhood on a monkey elevated highway!

Yep, just a monkey hanging out on your roof.

We drove up a small drive along the hillside hoping it would take us to the uppermost temples, but the road did not go all the way up.  No problem, we found Wat Rattana Trai on the way.  

There was a marvelous old Wat at this hillside Buddhist compound.

The beautiful arches and lighting made for perfect portraits. [Your humble photographer.]

John and I took turns posing for portraits.

I appreciate old doors, but this one was very special . . .

Exquisitely inlaid door panels.

There were many chedis up the hillside behind Wat Rattana Trai. So interesting.

We walked back out through the beautiful arches to move on to the city center . . . and the big Wat there.

Near the center of the old city we found the gate to the 11th century Wat Mahathat Worawihan.

This ancient Wat had amazing old structures as well as new buildings, like this one.  These are living, contemporary places of devotion, not abandoned museums.

And we were not disappointed in the ancient temples still in perfect repair.  So beautiful.

Lovely artistry.

A large Buddha image in one of the many small temple buildings within the grounds of Wat Mahathat Worawihan. 

The Wat temples were very crowed that day with devotees on Makha Bucha Day, a celebration of the ideal Buddhist community started by Buddha Gotama.

This temple entry . . . . stunning artistry.

Gorgeous Buddhist art.

There were many monks around the Wat on this special day conducting blessings to the followers.

This monk arrived at the temple and asked the 20 or so devotees to leave for a few minutes while he vacuumed.

A 1000 year old window. Magnificent.

An ancient founders' marker stone tablet.

In our wanderings a round the Wat we came across this interesting building.

Inside we found the monk meeting hall where the monks would gather every morning to take teachings from the Abbot.

PART 3: THE FISHING PORTS

Rather than drive back to Bangkok, we spent the night just outside of Hua Hin.  We woke up early to catch the sunrise along the road home. We stopped on this bridge over a canal for wonderful sunrise photos.

Looking west along the same canal in the hot and humid misty Thai morning.

The next morning heading back to Bangkok along the tiny local farm roads, we happened upon two fishing ports, the first of which was very small.

I love these colorful Thai wooden fishing/squid boats.

The first roadside fishing port was very small and seemingly very poor.

These fishermen festoon their fishing boats' bows with colorful streamers for good luck.

Where you have fishing boats and fish . . . you have cats.

There was a primitive charm to this old, unnamed fishing port.

The second port we 'discovered', Moo 2 (Bang Tabun, Ban Laem District, Petchaburi Province), was an industrial fishing port. Bigger boats, lots of warehouses and clean, orderly docks.

A very busy port with boats coming and going all the time.

A delightful nautical scene.

Industrial squid boats with their outrigger bright light booms folded in. They catch squid by putting out very bright amber or green lights to lure the squid to the surface where the deck crew scoops them up with net scoops on long poles.

There were only a few of these small boats here.

I could have stood on this bridge watching the fishing boats come and go all day.  But we needed to move on.

Before leaving the Moo 2 fishing port we explored a nearby Wat with amazing carvings on the roof ends.

PART 4: SALT PAN WORKERS

Back on the small coastal road we drove into a salt pan area with many white egrets.

We saw many of these old salt warehouses bursting at the seams out in the salt pans as we drove along . . . and wondered if there would be salt harvesting.

It wasn't long before we found the salt workers toiling in the heat to remove the salt, two baskets-full at a time.

Damp salt cones, raked by a previous crew, await portage.

Hard work: scooping damp salt into your baskets and lugging it out to the road . . . but still a friendly spirit.

The 'salt boss' keeping track of basket loads . . . many Thais wear these masks when working in the sun . . . they do not want their skin to become dark.

There was a steady line of salt porters delivering their loads from the pans.

No reason to not be colorful and stylish . . . .

Reflecting on our experience, we had a wonder-full 36 hours in Petchaburi city and province.  Did I really just say that?