a few years ago the tourist authority of thailand decided to help establish ampawa as a tourist destination. located in samutsongkram province about 90km south of bangkok, it may be the last city in thailand that has been able to resist getting a 7/11 or mcdonalds. the city looks much like thailand (bangkok included) did 50+ years ago, houses are built along a network of canals and people do their primary shopping and transportation using the canals. there are roads now, but the canals are still very much used as part of daily life. in the evenings there is a floating market, which unlike the more touristy floating markets this one primarily sells food items used by the locals.

zak and i went down friday afternoon and came back up sat evening … we rented a room in a small guest house right on a canal and pretty much just chilled, read, took pictures, relaxed. in the evening (especially this time of the year) there are zillions of fireflies, we took a boat out friday night and saw trees lit up like christmas time …. here’s the first batch of pictures all shot with the holga (highlights are below but many more in the gallery), many of them shot with the fisheye lens zak gave me for my birthday. i have loads more digital pictures that i’ll probably put up soon.