Photos: Cute Chiang Khan

After the festival, we beat the crowds out of town and managed to all the way north in Loei Province before the festival revelers wore themselves out in Dan Sai. We managed to find a room in a guesthouse in the cute resort village of Chiang Khan, which is on the Mekong River at the border with Lao. The town is favored as a spot for romantic getaways because the traditional houses on the town's main street have been preserved, many converted to guesthouses and decorated in a kitschy style. The evening we were there was very crowded with people, like us, who had spent the day in Dan Sai and then headed to Chiang Khan for the night.

Photos: Phi Ta Khon Festival

From the time we headed West from Khon Kaen into the mountains at the southeast of Loei Province, we saw many caravans of teenagers on motorbikes -- young guys driving with young girls riding behind -- apparently on their way to the festival. All the hotels and "resorts" (which is what Thai people call motels) were booked, so we spent the night in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store and slept in Samai's truck. We arrived in Dan Sai about an hour before the main event of the Phi Ta Khon Festival, a parade of traditional costumes down the middle of  the small town.

Photos: Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon

After running around Samai's village of Baan Na Thom in Roi Et Province, we set out for Loei Province to visit the Phi Ta Khon Festival in Dan Saion Saturday June 23 for the main event of the three-day celebration. We stopped along the way in the city of Roi Et to view the standing Buddha there -- the largest in the world. After sundown, we also stopped in Khon Kaen to see the Phra Mahathat Kaen Nakhon, a landmark pagoda, happening upon it for a rare moment when the monks threw on all the nighttime lights.

Photos: Village of Baan Na Thom

I managed to upload a large batch of new photos, covering the first couple of days of my roadtrip to Isarn in Northeastern Thailand. I'll address the batch in a few separate blog posts here for the sake of clarity.

First up is an afternoon running around the village where Samai lives. He took me out on a motorbike to see the farmland his family works, and we visited his brother and sister-in-law plowing and irrigating a rice plot.

Fascinating Sound Design Discussion

David Kurtz, one of the editors at pro-Democratic news site Talking Points Memo, has struck up a fascinating discussion of sound design in the major attack ad "Firms," released a few days ago by President Barack Obama's campaign. Whichever side you support in the presidential race, the posts are a great read about the subliminal ways the best political ads work.

Kurtz and and some reader respondents liken "Firms" to the landmark "Daisy" TV spot (video here and Wikipedia entry here) produced by the campaign of Lyndon Johnson in 1964. After a brief query about the effects used on Governor Mitt Romney's voice in the ad, the in-depth discussion begins in this followup post and continues here, and here.

Late July and August were once slack times for presidential campaigns -- until John Kerry got the "swift boat" treatment in early August 2004. Last time around, in 2008, John McCain successfully stole the limelight from Obama by announcing Sarah Palin as his candidate for vice-president and reversed the dynamic of the race (until the McCain-Palin campaign imploded two months later). The new summertime battles have nothing to do with policy. They're all about creating a feeling about the candidates, which has proven to be the most important determiner of the voting patterns of so-called independent voters, who I think are mostly idiots with zero interest in policy or national affairs.

Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol #2

Finished working up all the photos I like from a day touring around eastern Roi Et, Nakhon Phanom and Mukdahan provinces. The best images were from the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol. I shot many brackets for HDR processing, but many were wasted because of ghosting problems. My lesson: Never shoot HDR brackets without a tripod. Anyway, here's what I like:

View of the beautifully detailed interor of one of the lower levels of the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol. HDR created and tone-mapped in HDR Efex Pro. Post-processed in Photoshop.

Stained glass windows along one of the middle levels of the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol. HDR created and tone-mapped in HDR Efex Pro. Post-processed in Photoshop. 

A chandelier hanging in one of the mid levels at the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol, viewed from behind the decorated lattice fencing in the balcony.

View from the top of the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol, overlooking the gardens and the hills to the South, toward Nong Phok.

View of the pinnacle of the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol, with an image Buddha overlooking the expanse of Nong Phok below. HDR created and tone-mapped in HDR Efex Pro. Post-processed in Photoshop. 

Quarter view of the Phra That Phanom, including one of the corner pieces from the inner wall.

Detail of carvings on the facing of the Phra That Phanom.

Detail of carvings above a gate in the outer wall of the Phra That Phanom.

One-stop shopping outside the Phra That Phanom. Many Thais believe that releasing eels or small birds at the lake behind the temple will bring good luck. Here, believers can buy eels, birds and lottery tickets in one place.

At the top of the Mukdahan Tower sits a Buddha image with a panoramic view of Amphoe Mukdahan. HDR image create and tone-mapped in HDR Efex Pro.

Panaroma view of the Mukdahan Tower.

Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol #1

Finished up a bunch of photos from the beautiful Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol pagoda in the rural Roi Et Province of Northeastern Thailand. Another batch of photos from this shoot will follow as soon as I get done processing a few more HDRs -- a very time-consuming process.

Statues of a locally famous monk at the Phra Maha Chedi Mongkol.

A dragon and two dragon fish in a fountain among the gardens surrounding the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol.

Scaffolding on the facade of one of the entrances to the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol.

The lower level of the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol is centered around an altar venerating the monk who organized the drive to build the structure.

Interior details of upper levels at the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol.

Interior details of upper levels at the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol.

Interior details of upper levels at the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol.

The lower level of the Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol is centered around an altar venerating the monk who organized the drive to build the structure. This one is a tone-mapped HDR image from five exposures. Much post-processing in Photoshop, too.