From February to April this year we wandered afar, to Thailand and Australia

We didn't take a laptop, and we got back with well over 7K photos from the trip. It's taking a while to get through them all and sort out what's for printing, what's for blogging or putting in the galleries on this site or otherwise sharing.

This isn't going to be a pic-a-day-every-day, just some highlights in the blog, and more stuff in the galleries (so look there too while you're here)

But here's a start.

It's Day 1, Feb 10th 2015. First real night away (the night in Dubai airport and on planes does not count) was in Bangkok. And almost the first place we found ourselves was in the grounds of Wat Yannawa. As the sun went down, lights came on to illuminate this, on the river side of the way compound...

Wat YannawaWat Yannawa means the Temple of Junk: specifically, the temple of the concrete Chinese junk put in place by King Rama III. This monument is named Samphao Chedi (Junk and Chedi). The interpretation board in the Wat has this to say:

• This Temple is an old one dating back to the Ayutthaya period, the founder is unknown, commonly called Wat Khok Khwai (Stable for Buffaoles). King Rama I ... made it a Royal Temple. In the reign of King Rama III, trade connection with China was bloomed and the Chinese Junks were used to carry all kinds of cargo, with concern to the vanishing of this junk, King Rma III ordered to build a monumentally imitating Chinese junk.

Two Chedis take the place of poles in the architecture of the junk. The monument is 43 metres in length and is said to be the only one of its kind in existence.

In fact the temple takes its name from this concrete Chinese junk. See here for more info