In 1998 I went to Thailand and Laos. It was a strange trip, a mixture of the thriving if slightly sleazy urban sprawl of Bangkok, a few days hiking in the jungle and the 'not really ready for tourists' difficulties of Laos. Of course the biggest thing about Thailand is Buddhas. They are everywhere. There are Golden Buddhas, Silver Buddhas, Jade Buddhas and wooden Buddhas. There are big ones, medium ones and tiny ones. There are standing Buddhas, seated Buddhas and reclining Buddhas. Everyone of them if the guides are to be belived has its own unique superlative. It is either the biggest or the most valuable or the heaviest or the oldest. By they time you have seen a few thousand of them (on about day two) you don't care if you never see one again. Fortunately there are plenty of other things to see.
There is no danger of getting bored with the country.
From the riverside dwellings where the washing, cooking and cleaning are all done with the water that also acts as a latrine...
...to the crowded and vibrant markets full of strangely unidentifiable vegetables...
...and the elaborate and ornate temples, there is no danger of boredom in Bangkok.
While out in the sticks you can of course always photograph the livestock although what the local farmers make of tourists coming half way round the world to take a picture of their pig is anybody's guess.
A Thai temple is called a 'Wat', a reliquery is called a 'That'.
I had this constant impression that it was begging for an Abbott and Costello Routine.
Lou: What are doing today, Bud ?
Bud: We're going to see a Wat.
Lou: What are we going to see ?
Bud: I told you, we're going to see a Wat.
Lou: That's what I'm trying to find out.
Bud: What is ?
Lou: What we're gonna see.
Bud: That's right and inside it there's a That.
Lou: There's a Wat ?
Bud: No the Wat's outside, the That's inside.

and so on until the audience starts eating their own liver in an effort to escape the the film by dying.
At least the local children are likely to be spared the ordeal of Abbott and Costello movies. If they'd been born American they might not have been so lucky.
Not everyone feels the same way though. These Buddhist monks are busily crowding round the sunglasses and watches stalls at the market trying on Raybans and Rolex. Isn't Buddhism supposed to be the very antithesis of consumerism ? Or am I missing something?
I'd always imagined that sunset over the Mekomg needed helicopter gunships and a soundtrack by the Doors. I was wrong. It's much better without them.
Even more than in Thailand there are stark contrasts in Laos, from the poverty of the hill villages to temples with the kind of decoration seen below.
Whether walking down the road at the end of the day or sitting in the midday sun there is no escaping the Safron robed monks.
Laos has temples every bit as elaborate and beautiful as Thailand even if at times the decoration can seem a little odd, as the pogoing clowns on the door on the right bear witness.