On Monday, anti-government protesters turned the streets of Bangkok red, white and blue.

Thousands  set out from nine meeting points across the city and headed towards Government House.

There was no shortage of people who like the sound of their own voice espousing dubious agendas, but the heat had been taken out of the demonstration by a police stand-down a few days earlier and by PM Yingluck announcing a date for an election, so the march was peaceful.

An hour further south of Hua Hin is Pranburi. If you are looking for a more secluded and relaxed escape, it’s a great destination. Although there are several resorts in the area, you can pretty much have the beach to yourself. I stayed at X2 Kui Buri, a chic beachfront resort comprised of luxurious private pool villas.

Friends Chris and Angela from the blog website Tieland to Thailand were also staying at the X2. During an outstanding dinner at the resort’s restaurant, 4K, and after showing little restraint where the freely flowing beers were concerned, I told them I was intending to be on the beach at 5.15 to photograph the sunrise if they would like to join me. And hats off to them, they did just that.

Fortunately, all we had to do was step outside our villas, set up tripods, fiddle with our settings and wait. Sunrise however, like sunset, is a hit and miss affair ranging from a non-event to spectacular. In this case it was definitely at the lower end of the scale but good or bad, all you can do is try and make the most of quickly changing available light.

The growth of Hua Hin and its popularity is closely associated with the railway.

In 1911 the then Royal State Railway of Siam opened a line to Hua Hin to allow ease of access for the Thai royal family. A beautiful railway station was also built and to this day remains one of the oldest and most well-preserved in Thailand. The design has much in common similar with Maruekhathaiyawan Palace which was constructed at the same time.

In 1922 Railway Hotel was built (currently part of Centara Grand Resort & Villas) and the also Royal Hua Hin Golf Course opened.  The advent of the railway and the building of the Railway Hotel were closely followed in 1926 by the construction of Klai Kangwon Palace.

Today, most visitors to the popular resort town arrive by car or shuttle bus but travel by rail is still the most relaxed option.

Trains leave Bangkok’s Hua Lampong station on a regular basis but it is advisable to book a seat in advance. The journey takes around four hours and is an excellent way to get a glimpse rural Thailand.

The carriages offer comfortable reclining seats, air-con and fans. Once seated, a hostess serves passengers a cold drink and a snack. And of course the journey ends at the historic Hua Hin railway station.

Phayao is a pleasant northern Thai town that should receive far more visitors than it does. Situated beside a large lake, it makes a lovely place to stop over for a two or three nights on the way further north to Nan.  I was last there earlier in the year on a motorcycle trip around the north. At Loy Kratong in November, Phayao is a great alternative to Chiang Mai where the annual celebration has become far too big and commercialised.

This  image of a fisherman laying his nets was captured at dusk and will feature in my latest commissioned book, Enchanting Chiang Mai & Northern Thailand which should be in the shops by October.

Another colourful Thai event to mark Khao Phansa, the start of the Buddhist rainy season retreat is tak bat dok mai, floral almsgiving which takes place at the beautiful Wat Phra Phutthabat in Saraburi.

The special annual event has become so popular that it is now held twice a day for two days in order to accommodate the huge crowds that come to make merit.

As the monks walk towards the temple, the faithful put flowers, candles and incense in the alms bowls and pour water on the monks’ feet.

The saffron robed monks continue their route, up the steps to the hilltop temple where they pay respects in the ornate mondop which houses a footprint of Buddha. It’s refreshing to see merit making that involves the simple giving of flowers rather than money which has become all too prevalent in Buddhism.

A must on any travel itinerary, the UNESCO World Heritage town of Ayutthaya is just 86 km (53 miles) north of Bangkok. In recent years, the town has flourished on the back of increased domestic tourism and there a great choice of small resorts and homestays plus excellent restaurants. If you are a bit of a culture vulture and looking for a couple of nights escape from Bangkok, it’s hard to beat.  

After Sukhothai, the town is considered Thailand’s second most important historical site and is scattered with ancient temple ruins and imposing Buddha images.

While in town for Khao Phansa, I had the opportunity to revisit a handful of temples including one of my favourites, Wat Yai Chai Mongkol.

Built in 1357, it features an enormous chedi and many enigmatic Buddha images.

I arrived just before dusk to catch the warm evening light and to photograph the candlelit procession.

Last week I was in Ayutthaya for Khao Phansa, the start of Buddhist Lent. Often referred to as the rainy season retreat, it is a period when monks remain within the temples and devote themselves to study and meditation.

This starts on the first day of the waning moon of the eighth lunar month in July until the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eleventh lunar month in October, known as Ok Phansa. This year that’s July 22 until 19th October.

At the small klong-side village of Lad Chado, a 40-minute drive from Ayutthaya, Khao Phansa is celebrated with a colourful floating procession in which candles and Buddha images are taken to the local temple.

There’s an air of celebration about the event and the entire village gets involved. This year it was promoted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand and attracted hundreds of visitors from Bangkok.

I also spent an evening at old temples in Ayutthaya photographing candlelit processions, and tak bat dok mai or floral almsgiving at a temple in Saraburi. More on those later in the week. I was at the events with Richard Barrow who is an invaluable source of information on events in Thailand.

I’ve recently returned from one of Issan’s most colourful annual events, the Phi Ta Kon ghost festival. It was my first visit for more than a decade so I was interested to see how it had changed. I was joined by Richard Barrow and we had a great snapping the event and eating good Thai food.

The festival is a celebration of the return of Prince Vessandorn, the penultimate incarnation of the Lord Buddha. The story goes that his prolonged absence had been taken as a sign that he had forsaken the people. When he eventually reappeared, they were overcome with emotion, and rushed into the streets to celebrate. Unable to contain their excitement, the noise from the cheering and laughter proved loud enough to rend the skies and waken the dead. Out of the forest came pi tam khon – the ‘ghosts that follow people’ – eager to join the festivities and show their respect to Prince Vessandorn.

Over the years, a little semantic shift has taken place and the phi tam khon have become phi ta kon or the ‘ghosts wearing masks’. Under the guidance of headman and shaman, Jao Paw Guan, the people don masks to conceal their identity and welcome the annual return of the spirits by joining them in a boisterous parade through the town. I recall interviewing Jao Paw Kuan years ago for an article I wrote on the festival and it was great to see him in good health and still leading the event.

Originally the masks were made from sticky rice baskets decorated with simple faces. Today, cheap throwaway masks are no longer in vogue. Members of the present-day ghostly cortege take their craft very seriously.

What were once almost childlike creations have evolved into an elaborate form of artistic expression. The sticky rice basket is still used but for the main elongated face a dried frond from a coconut palm is used and the features, particularly the nose, have become extremely exaggerated.

To even the most casual observer or armchair anthropologist the festival’s connection to fertility – of the land and no doubt the townsfolk – through attempts to provoke the clouds into unleashing the season’s rain, is obvious. The procession is led by the phi ta kon yai, a pair of enormous ghost effigies both of which stand, undeniably and shamelessly, stark naked.

In addition, many of the villagers carry with them wooden phallic symbols; the belief being that if a touch of good humoured vulgarity is brought to bear on the proceedings it will encourage fon tok fa pa – rain and thunder. To this end, irascible homemade rockets are also fired into the sky.

When the event is over, it is considered bad luck to keep the masks so they are discarded by throwing them into the river as part of a religious ceremony. However, some of Dan Sai’s renowned artists also sell the best ones for thousands of baht at the end of the festival.

As with most Thai festivals, there’s also plenty of beautiful young girls turning heads in the parade.

I was happy to discover that although the Phi Ta Kon festival had become a little more commercial, and less high spirited, that is, less fuelled by rice whisky and phallus waving than in the past, it’s still one of Issan’s most interesting events and highly recommended.

There’ll be more images over the next day or day about the religious parade led by Jao Paw Guan that also takes place at the Phi Ta Kon festival.

I’ve been hanging around with dodgy Buddhist cults again. Well, I have to do something to entertain myself. While in Chiang Mai I attended a gathering organised by the Dhammakaya Foundation which is said to be Thailand’s fastest growing religious movement.

They have a fondness for large scale events and an even greater liking for liberating members from their cash.

In Chiang Mai, attendees discovered that seeking the path to enlightenment costs 1,500 baht a head. The sermon to the faithful  also slipped in the line, ‘may you all become generous millionaires…and support Buddhism with your wealth’.

Of course, the blatant fleecing of the flock is not restricted to the Dhammakaya Foundation. Almost without exception, the focus at Buddhist temples is the collection of cash…and lots of it.

There was another mass monkathon in Bangkok on Saturday, once again organized by the distinctly dodgy Wat Phra Dhammakaya, a Bangkok temple known for its aggressive fundraising. The mantra seems to be, ‘give us your money and your good deed will be rewarded with personal riches in the future’. It’s a technique you’d expect from rabid TV evangelists in the USA and it is disturbing to see that it has become part of Buddhism too.

In the last few years Dhammakaya has managed to attain almost cult status but despite its high profile well attended events it is actually frowned upon by many Thai Buddhists. As Frank Zappa once said, ‘The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own”.

But I won’t get into a rant about religion here, tempting though it is. This is a photo-blog after all and my reason for getting up at 4.30 a.m. was to try and capture some striking images.

This time the event was held at the crossroads of Asoke and Sukhumvit roads in downtown Bangkok.