I finally make it to Thailand after six years of moving to Sydney. It is a bit of culture shock for me. The new international airport, Suvarnabhumi, is so huge that it takes 40 minutes to walk to the immigration. The duplicated paintings of famous Thai artists’ artworks are enjoyable. Anyway, the selection is quite narrow, just representing the beauty of old Thai lifestyles and values and losing the touch of modern Thai culture. But you cannot win a tourist propaganda, no doubt. They will see the chaos and fall in love with it when they pass these posters anyway.

I stay at my brother’s house which is not far where I grew up. The morning sunlight beam from the back into the house intrigues me. It is an empty marshland behind the wall in the back. There are still places like this in the working class suburb even though the area is more occupied by people. I actually hear birds that I did not notice before making photographs in Sydney. Photography does not just teach us to see but also to listen as well.
When the evening falls, old friend of mine gather at the place for a few drink but we decide to move on because another party is singing Thai karaoke country-pop songs and sharing it to the entire neibourhood. No one seems to mind except us.
At a beer garden, I have to try this new invention. It is a 3-litre Singha decanter, keeping the beer cool with an ice tube in the centre of the cylinder. We do not have to put ice in the beer anymore. Have I mentioned we put ice in the beer? 7 hours drinking is the way to go on the first night in Bangkok.
This trip was the first time I visited Thailand since I moved to Sydney in 2001. That was a very long time for an ex-pat to return to homeland.
One the other hand, my perspective changed around the medium at the time—photography. And I also started to use it as video projects.
Bangkok, I still love this fucking city.
- Bangkok Connection
- Thai Election Kicks Off
- Mochit 2
- Rayong Birds
- Bangkok Express
- Talad Thep Chinda
- 9 Days in the Kingdom
- 10 November 2007
- Paul’s Birthday
- Sticky Tuk Tuk
- FAT Festival
- FAT Concert
- Birthday Merit
- Feed the Fish
- Step – Stylish Nonsense
- Vanishing Marshland
- Likay Portraits
- The Long Lost Babies
- Error Ferris Wheel
- Happy Loy Krathong
- Loy Krathong in Pak Kred
- Demolishing Old House
- The Lost Three Gems in the City of Gods
- Not Far from Home
- Trading Buddhas
- Grand Palace
- Talk to the Other Side
- Moonlight with DH
- Residencies of Gods
- Go with the Flow
- Day and Night at Siam Square
- Market Afternoon Nap
- Bangkok Daybreak
- Mochit 2 Revisit
- 10 Years Tom Yum Goong Disease
- Watch Your Step
- Clashing Views on Skytrain
- Constructing Bangkok
- Trap Doors
- Patpong for the King
- Mobility of Faith
- Lost in Transportation
- Thailand Random Symmetry
- The Miscellaneous Memories of Bangkok
- The Departure



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