She who must be obeyed decided we needed a shower in the garden, so that users of the pool could rinse themselves both before and after immersion. Seemed a little pointless to me, as I like to throw myself in for a cool down when I am hot, dirty and sweaty (that is what chlorine is for); and then head to the bathroom for an after-pool shower. But she had a design idea and I know better than to stand between my wife and a design idea.

The idea stemmed from a substantial surfeit of ceramic tiles we had left over from our bathroom projects, and the plan was to break them into little pieces and fashion the design of a cool surfboard on the wall of the garden. A few tiles were sacrificed to the hammer to test this idea before it was abandoned as being beyond our creative skills.

The next idea was to obtain a surfboard and have someone paint a design upon it. A trawl around the windsurfing club unearthed this:

It was a beaten-up board that had spent its working life on the extreme breaks of Indonesia and was now looking rather sad and neglected. Craig contacted the owner, Frank, who very kindly donated it to the cause.

The next step was to find someone to paint it, and who better than East Coast Choppers who do amazing graphic work on Harleys (remember the Snow Leopard?). We gave them an idea of the design, our contractor built a wall to stick it on; and today the surfboard shower was installed:

What a wat. Very different from the normal Thai temple; and tucked away in a complex of lakes and shrines such that it would be easy to miss it. When you find it, it frustrates you if you wish to photograph it because it is surrounded by trees and impossible to capture as a whole. Unless…

Anyway, we started inside the building where there were assorted noble monks adorning the walls:

It was with much joy that we found ourselves with six members of the extended family staying for the weekend. How to amuse the younger and more boisterous members?

The expensive answer was the recently opened and partially operating water park on the road south of Pattaya. The soft opening prices are wallet drainingly expensive, 1290 baht for an adult, and 890 baht for kids. If you are not Thai or cannot prove residence, you can add 300 baht to those prices. Food and drink are also very costly and a typical family is going to spend an average Thai’s monthly wage for a day at the park. So it was quite surprising to see how busy it was.

The trip to the north was in the company of Kevin; who has made the journey several times before with a bag full of lenses and a heart full of hope. On previous visits he has been denied the opportunity to see snakes and was hoping that this time he would be more lucky.

The portents were good. The locals said they had seen loads of snakes everywhere; but then, once we visited a location, they announced they had never ever seen the slightest hint of a snake in that vicinity. Obviously bribes were in order, and Kevin let it be known that he would pay 100 baht for a snake sighting.

Nothing.

So on the final evening, he doubled the bounty to 200 baht and, sure enough, a villager came struggling down the path with a large container the following morning. Must be a massive snake.

But although the container was large, the snake was tiny:

For the past five days I have been fiddling around in the forests and fields of Maha Sarakarm. Some photos ensued which I will work through once I have recovered from six hours of negotiating dickheads on the way home.

Here’s one to start things off, a cyberpunk beastie: