Final Shots from Thailand

Looking back through a lot of the photos from the trip the past few weeks I've been struck by the fact that no matter where we visited, it was the people that I was traveling with that made the experience so amazing.  The following pictures were from an afternoon spent training at a park near Anan's house in Bangkok that was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  Not only because it was a great spot, but because of the playful atmosphere and general "fun" that was had that day (aside from me making a goose-egg on one of my shins).

Bruno, Annty, and Leon sizing up a jump.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Finding a new way to use some of the structures in "Anan's Park".  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Annty about to jump.  Photo courtesy of  Andy "Kiell" Day.

A great shot by Kiell capturing one of Anan's signature jumps.  Photo courtesy of  Andy "Kiell" Day.

Before moving on to the next adventures, I want to make sure to give a big shout-out to Andy and V for their photos of the trip.  Traveling with professional photographers was a pretty new experience for me, and I've found that it is much easier to include pictures in blog posts when they capture the context of the voyage better than I can in a few paragraphs. It also helps when the photographers that you are traveling with are awesome travel companions as well and well versed in bumming around foreign countries.

Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

I would also like to give a big shout-out to Annty Marais (known in some circles as "the Annty Marais of Parkour Generations"). Not only did she put up with eating, training, rooming and traveling with me for 3 weeks, but she also managed to make almost an outing into an adventure and is a ton of fun to train and hang out with.  Although we may have differed on the amount of time per day that is is appropriate to take pictures of animals and bugs, her pictures have been really great at showing our day-to-day life and adventures and she has already proven to be much better at visually chronicling her around the world trip than I have been.  You can follow her adventures on the PkGen site.

Annty breaking a jump in one of the Bangkok parks.  Photo taken by me for once.

"Lightness"

This video was recommended to me by a friend (thanks Sox!) and I found it to be one of the most thought-provoking and "different" parkour videos that I've seen in a long time.  While the fact that the traceuse does everything in a skirt is striking enough, I was even more impressed by the flow of the movement itself and the impression of lightness that she and the filmmaker managed to capture throughout the piece.

Training in Ayutthaya

One of my favorite training adventures in Bangkok involved a day-trip to the city of Ayutthaya, a 2 hour train-ride from the center of Bangkok but well worth the early wake-up.  The city is actually a UNESCO “World Heritage” site and was the capital city of the region for over 400 years before it was destroyed by the Burmese army toward the end of the 18^th century.  During our visit it was pretty easy to see that the “city” that is there today survives mainly due to the busloads of tourists that come through to see the numerous temples that are scattered around the “city limits”.

On the train out of Bangkok.  Kiell and I were still a bit groggy.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Annty and Leon were a bit more enthusiastic.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The train ride to Ayutthaya was pretty enjoyable (since we had to leave pretty early) and the first thing we did after getting off the train was to rent bikes and scooters to make our way around the city.  While we did have the specific objective of “getting good photos”, we hadn’t really planned much beside that and we decided to split up to better explore the city at our respective paces.  I headed off with the bicycle contingent and within 10 minutes of riding along one of the main road we had found our first temple.

Our first temple.  Still hesitating a bit before climbing all the way up.

In various states of disrepair, but not entirely forgotten.

Annty, the first one up.

Although the maps we had gotten at the bike shop seemed to be rather dominated by the temples, I hadn’t quite grasped the fact that apart from the small “modern area” near the train station at the south of the city, the “city of Ayutthaya” is pretty much made up of patches of ruins and clusters of houses spread amidst the huge grassy expanses that separate the enormous temples and complexes.  The temples themselves range along the entire spectrum of disrepair, with the larger and more popular tourist destinations usually in much better shape than the smaller and “forgotten” locations, sometimes no more than a small pile of bricks tucked into a corner.

Leon investigating another temple.

There are actually 2 pillars here...

Of course being curious and particularly gifted at moving around and exploring foreign landscapes, our group soon started getting a better look at the temples.  While some may argue that it is disrespectful to climb or jump around on another culture’s sacred monuments, it should be stated that we meant no disrespect in our movement, and from my perspective, I think that moving around in the temple complex was our form of paying homage and respect to the culture that had built these structures, currently lying in disrepair by the cultures that had originally built them.  We also followed the “leave no trace” creed of responsible traceurs, limiting our activities to the structures that were still in good shape (in the interest of historic preservation as well as self-preservation).  Cultural disclaimers aside, it should be noted that being “up close and personal” with the temples and complexes gives one a much greater appreciation for the workmanship that goes into these structures in order for them to last this long.  It also makes one think about what will be left in our own cities for people to climb around on in a few hundred years…

Bruno documenting the ascent with his GoPro.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Pondering life and the view.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

We ended the day at one of the largest complexes where our awesome photographers managed to snag a some good shots for a fitting end to a pretty awesome day.

One of Kiell's shots from the last temple complex.  Photo courtesy of Andy "Kiell" Day.

One of V's shots from earlier in the day.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

No comment.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral

Annty taking advantage of the fading light.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The whole gang.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.