Ko Pha Ngan. July 27th to August 3rd, 1999.
Mr Tu and his wife Ni (right), who run the Coral Bay Bungalows at Hat Khom on the northern side of the island, were excellent hosts. The guy on the left took us to Bottle Beach, which was much more crowded but it had a beautiful sandy beach.
Ayuthaya Ruins. July 6th, 1999. Buddha, circa 1600?
We spent three days exploring the ancient capital Ayuthaya (well Sarah did - Josh spent one day recovering from a bottle of single malt scotch!) The ruins of the old city were very impressive and the beautiful weather meant photos turned out well.
Ayuthaya. July 6th, 1999.
A highlight of our time in Ayuthaya was going clubbing with a local. Leo(pictured above - standing, right) took Sarah and Josh, German Brigitta and a Canadian girl. The night club was in the new part of town and featured live dance music.
Lopburi. August 7th, 1999.
Lopburi was also once capital of Thailand. This image of Buddha with Naga (here Thai buddhism overlaps with Hinduism) was in the King's Palace gardens, along with topiary elephants!
Phitsanulok. August 8th, 1999.
On the train to Phitsanulok, we met Nicola and Andrew from Melbourne and Carlo from Holland, the three grinning people pictured above(in that order). We regularly see Nicola and Andrew in London.
Phitsanulok. August 9th, 1999.
While in Phitsanulok, we visited the Buranathai Buddha Image Foundry. Buddha images of all sizes and shapes are made using the lost wax method. The girl above was painting the images.
