Just a few weeks ago, my friends and I went on a trip to Kanchanaburi, a province 2-3 hours away west of Bangkok. Our main goal was to go visit a temple that allows for an amazing tiger experience! The destination was “Wat Pa Luangta Bua- www.tigertemple.org” where we can spend our time with TIGERS up close, REALLY CLOSE! I mean, you can literally hug, pat, take pictures or anything with these tigers. I won’t get much into detail of it because… we were 15 minutes too late and the gate keeper wouldn’t let us in. Oh well, maybe next time.
And for that, we went to the Elephant Village nearby instead. The 30 minutes ride was very down to earth… it felt much longer than 30 minutes and we were glad that we didn’t take the 60 minutes tour ride. It wasn’t bad, but it was very tiring to hang on to the seat on the elephant back. The tour started of with a walk through a small jungle, then to the elephant rider’s village and to finish the tour off by a dip into the river near by. A very fun trip indeed!
There were days when I had buckets full of cherry tomatoes while watching a movie back in the States. Those days are gone because it is so hard to find fresh and sweet cherry tomatoes for a good deal here in Bangkok, until 2 days ago when I found them at Grossi!
I took the photo of these cherry tomatoes during a photo shoot of Guy Grossi, the famous chef from Melbourne. It was amazing to be at the set during the shoot because I got to learn so many photographing techniques. Anyway, I was carried away taking pictures of the props at the set but after looking thru all of my photos taken that day (2 days ago) I found this picture, the cherry tomatoes resting on a marble table of the Grossi Trattoria & Wine Bar at Intercontinental Bangkok to be very refreshing.
I got to admit that… half of those cherry tomatoes disappeared… but I really don’t know what happened to them!
Yumm… Sweet… Juicy… Refreshing!..
As much as I would like to try to describe the details of the wedding, I don’t think that I could get into many details. However, there is another blog by Richard Barrow of Thai Cultures Blog, that has information regarding the Thai wedding. The blog provides very detailed insights into the Thai wedding ceremony.
I guess it would make more sense to read his blog then come back to check out the photos that I have taken on the wedding date.
A story of a girl whom had ventured to do her internship far away from home. There, she had met her soul mate… Jo! Their story is one to remember… Jo, a man whom had been waiting for the one and Por, a woman whom has found her prince charming at the least expected place.
… to see more of their story, please visit http://www.por-jo.com/ there, you will find a collection of their wedding photos and a MUST SEE video of their story.
On March 14, 2010 I got the chance to take picture of the Thai wedding ceremony of Por and Jo. It was amazing; the room, the location and the moment…. felt magical. The feeling of someone that is committing their life to another is just unexplainable. Yet, the feeling of the parents letting go of their daughter, whom they raised since day one, was just too overwhelming for simple pictures, videos or any words can describe those moments.
I, a mere photographer, can only try to capture those moments to share with us all.
The guests must have gotten me confused, as for some reason, all the guest will ask me again right asking for their table and direction. Oh well, funny enough… I became a host, greeting all the guests and directed them to their assigning table.
Oh yes! This is about June and Paul’s wedding celebration. As I was occupied with greeting the guests, I didn’t have much of a chance to take pictures, but please do check the pictures out as it was a really amazing wedding. Allow me to try to describe the experience from the guest’s perspective.
Each guest will be greeted with a photos gallery archway where the guest can see June and Paul’s pre-wedding photos taken by PaHn and I. It was a really good feeling to see our photos hanging in the archway and even better when the guests stop to look at each photo.
After the photo gallery archway, was a table with presented pre-wedding photo albums taken by a professional photographing service. A really nice album that I wish someday to have a chance to do one for a couple. The guests will then meet with the bridesmaids that helping out the event. The bridesmaids then direct the guests to a flower archway where they will take group photo with June and Paul before they were then lead to their table.
The wedding day has finally arrived for June and Paul, but who would have known that the ceremony started at about 4:00 am!
The wedding tradition in Thailand involves the handover of the bride by her family to the groom and his family. The time of the handover, moving out from her house to move in to his house is really important. It is believed that there is a specific moment, the right time for this handover as when done properly will bring prosperity, good fortune and longevity for the couple.
The engagement ceremony for June and Paul is a Chinese one which involves a tea ceremony where June and Paul offer “tea” to the groom’s family members. This tradition is for the couple to show respect to the family and also for the family to show acceptance of the couple marriage.
The morning engagement ceremony lasted til about 11:00 am and then everyone was off to get ready for the evening’s wedding celebrations!
Having not written for a while… only means I am way too busy with work. No, I haven’t forgotten about twostepsbehind. As a matter of fact, I check the web’s stats everyday. Some of my friends and families are starting to wonder of what have I been doing here in Bangkok, Thailand.
January 09, 2010 was the first time that I get the opportunity to take photos of the lovely couple for their pre-wedding photo. It was really fun and I really enjoy seeing the couple’s love that they are sharing and caring for each other. It’s proof that… love exists!
And that was how my interest in portrait photographing began.
To construct something takes researching, understanding, planning, designing, engineering, refining,… the list goes on! To construct anything will definitely take time. Lots of time. However, the end result will definitely pay off nicely. IE, these men are spending days and nights to build a bridge for train tracks. Once the bridge is complete, the train then can go to many more places that it could before because of the river that prevented it.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it! Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.’” –W.H. Murray, of the Scottish Himalayan Expedition
Dreams… are no different from the trains on tracks moving forward… Never backward.
photo taken during a boat trip at Chachoengsao, Thailand.
A one day family trip (about 120 of us!) last week was truly exhausting from simply eating, taking nasp on the bus and taking photos from time to time. For this trip, we went to Chaochoengsao, a city about an hours drive east of Bangkok.
We went to so many places in the city that by the end of the day I thought it was a 5 day trip! As for today’s post, one of the most interesting places that our family visit is at the Temple, Wat Pho because it is where theses flying foxes have resided for years.
I vaguely remember some of this information provided by our tour guide.
Full grown flying foxes can weight up to 800 grams and will fly for miles to find food, particularly fruit. The legend goes that these flying foxes are really intelligent and sensitive (or so they say that these flying foxes can understand human language) as there was one time that the temple were trying to hold a 9 days festival. The villager kept saying that who would come to this temple with all these flying foxes since their smell is unbearable! For some unexplainable reason, these flying foxes flew away a day before the festival began, allowing the temple to clean up the place and returned to the temple a day after the festival ended. Not one of them was present during the festival time.
Another story is that, the flying foxes are very emotionally sensitive and attached to the abbot of the temple. During and after the funeral of the abbot, these flying foxes start to drop dead without cause. The story was told that the abbot invited these flying foxes to reside here in the temple years ago. So they believe that the cause of death could be… grieving to death.
When I heard that we are going to see the flying foxes, I thought of just a few of them hanging around the tree. But I couldn’t be more wrong, there were hundreds of them! Another interesting phenomena is that, these flying foxes will only reside within the walls of the temple. This place is just so cool!
It’s must have been a few days since I had uploaded this picture, but I hardly had the time to post anything. Oh well, here I am with my 5 minutes of time to post this picture.
I ran into a field of sunflowers the other day when I went with my grandmother for her regular health check up. Taking pictures of flowers sure is hard. The hardest part is to make the flower come “alive” on the photo. Fortunately I was with my Canon 85 mm lens, hence the resulting pictures were taken. The bees… bring everything to life in this picture! The picture shown below is actually cropped from the other picture.
It is confirmed that Zen, a section of the Central World Shopping Mall, has collapsed due to fire. The building was set on fire today by the anti-government protesters. This building is only one of many buildings that they set on fire!
Bangkok will never be the same after today. Many significant places and buildings were destroyed by terrorists. Hence, the curfew is being enforced between 8:00 PM – 6:00 AM until further notice.
The picture was taken on May 13, 2010 just days before the civil unrest evolved into a full force military crash between the Thai government and the anti-government protesters. I don’t want to get into much detail about the issue. Please search online for more information regarding the event or you can try to check it out at http://www.nationmultimedia.com, a website that I often check for updates about the situation to know if it is safe or not to travel to certain parts of the city.
Oh well, I do believe that PEACE will prosper in Thailand once again.
In Bangkok, people don’t really get to drive their car because of the tremendous amount of traffic. Sitting behind the steering wheel and pressing – releasing the break paddle can’t be considered as “driving”. It’s rare that we would go above 20 km/h in the city. Ironically, without traffic, people don’t know how to drive their car and often cause accidents; hence, more traffic occurs. That is simply the cycle of the Bangkok’s traffic.
This photo was taken while I was “not driving” but stuck in traffic on a hot day here in Bangkok. Having air conditioning on in the car helps mitigate the irritating and unbearable heat. However, this doesn’t seem to affect that maintenance man in the city’s service truck. I envy him, to be able to endure the heat, the sun, the traffic and the air/noise pollution. He should get a medal of honor or something.
The temperature has reached 43 C in Bangkok during the past few days. One of the places I wish that I could go for a cool down would be at Aum Pha Wa. There are many resorts and home-stays provided for all kinds of tourists. If you are a luxurious or a simple ECO traveler… there will be place for you.
A little suggestion is to arrive early in the day to check out all the best rates and offers for staying along the Aum Pha Wa floating market which will also let you get the place of your choice.
The Wat Phra Prathom Chedi in Nakorn Phrathom is the house of the remains of the great Buddha since… I don’t really know when. After doing some research on the website, I am yet to find a solid history about the Temple (Wat). But I am certain that it was already build for at least 20 years because I remember visiting this place when I was about 7 years old. Then, I found this temple to be huge but now I found it to be amazingly ginormous.
I really wonder how long did it take and what method were used to build this temple. A curiosity that is best not to be understood by me… just so that I can keep my imagination going wild about it.
It was during a walk at Aum Pha Wa market some weeks ago that I found this little alley and this coffee shop. The use of space here is really amazing. As it seems, every inch of the space are use for one or more purpose!
Now imagine you are in the alley and were walking where there is everything imaginable to the left and right hand-side and even above of your head constantly everywhere you walk. Your eye will simply try to look at everything, but you won’t be able to unless you stop. The experience at the market was beyond explanation. I was there twice during the past few months, yet I couldn’t explore the entire market.
If you like to eat, here is the place for you
If you like to shop for souvenirs, here is the place for you
If you like to take photographs, here is the place for you
If you like to take a boat trip to see fire-flies, here is the place for you
If you like to “whatever it is”….
… Aum Pha Wa is the place for you
I Simply want to post the photo of the sunset at Wat Arun. Also, if you look closely at the temple, you can see the people that climbed up to (probably) take pictures.
I haven’t get the time to climb the temple yet. But when I do, I’ll be sure to share the picture of the view from the top of the the building.
A slight problem is… I suffer from a bit of acrophobia!
HOT… REALLY HOT! It’s 36 degree Celsius here in BANGKOK!
A day like this, makes me want to jump into the pool and just be cooled by the water. Or perhaps a nice boat trip in Chao Phra Ya river would be in order. A speed boat trip is one of the MUST DO thing in Bangkok. The trip normally includes visits to many different historical sites along the river. I, too, took the trip once a few years ago and was surprised by the amazing sites.
Really, anyone that comes to Bangkok must at least take a speed boat trip to experience the city!
Another visit to Aum Pha Wa months later. The street is busy, the temperature is hot, the river is lively… but what is up with that man?
I just wonder what was he thinking about? Whatever it was, it seemed that the children were wondering as well. This was taken after a break with a nice chicken kebab in Aum Pha Wa during the Thai New Year, Songkran holiday.
Sometime, a day off from the reality is all we need to recharge ourselves and get right back to the reality with a clear mind. Perhaps, that is what the man is doing. He simply just needed a break.
The event takes place during an afternoon tea at the Meaklong train station. (time 14:00hr)
Next train arrival at 14:15hr
Ring Ring Ring….(time 14:10hr)
The first announcement from the train station telling the awaiting passengers that their train is just minutes away.
Ring Ring Ring… (time 14:13hr)
The second announcement… the waiting passengers are still waiting patiently.
“But, wait a minute!” said me, “Where would the train come from? On the right hand side of the station is the Maeklong river while on the left hand side is a seafood market”
flip.. floop.. crank.. crink.. (time 14:14hr)
Sound of activities going on to the left side of the station. It seem that there are something going on inside the market.
“WHAT IS GOING ON?” I wondered
only to realize that…
The train is COMING THRU the market!!! (time 14:15hr)
It’s Aum Pha Wa Floating Market, one of the tourist attractions in Thailand. Finally I got to travel again during Songkran Festival (April 13, Traditional Thai New Year) It wasn’t anywhere far, it’s Aum Pha Wa… again! The last time we visited, we didn’t get to take many pictures, nor could we explore much of the market because it was already late.
Second times a charm! We were amazed at how many things were left unexplored the last time we visited. The picture selected today shows some of the interesting lifestyle that is hard to find elsewhere. Down to earth lifestyle or perhaps we can call it down to “canal” lifestyle!
Only later that I found out about the house in the picture is a home stay http://www.ruernsabay.com/ I guess the next time we visit, we should try to stay here. But my concern which is the loud noises in the area. On second thought, just a dinner in front of the house should be enough
Today, we have an honored guest, Dr Pahn Pintu-On to write today’s post. Dr Pahn always goes to Ratchburi, Thailand on the weekends to meet/see patients. She has been wanting to take pictures of this river after work, but due to the nature of her work she haven’t had the time to do so. I, on the other hand, accompanied her to the clinic and had a chance to take the pictures while I was waiting for her to get off work, but I really don’t know much about the place. So Dr Pahn would be the right person for it.
For all of my life, I hated “waiting”. I don’t want to wait for anyone or anything because I have too many things to handle in a day. So letting time fly without doing anything is not something for the type of the person I am. That why I always run out of patience when I cannot do anything but wait.
However, sometimes we have to wait and something is worth looking forward to.
Have you ever heard “the right time” or “the perfect moment”? I believe that everything has its own perfect moment; not sooner, not later. You can’t rush, force or do anything else but to wait and wait with patience. Holding your breath and let it happen on its own.
Like the way Natt took these pictures; the perfect moment to see “the colored pencils” in the river is just after the sunsets. If you want to capture this moment, you have to wait for it, wait for the right time. That why I haven’t had a chance to take pictures like these. Always too early, too late or too tired.
After waiting for an entire day, Natt finally captured “the perfect moment”. Look at these pictures, do you think that it was worth waiting for?
and waiting…
and waiting…..
and waiting……..
and waiting………..
and waiting…………..
and waiting……………..
and waiting…………………
and waiting……………………..
and waiting………………………..
and waiting……………………………
DONE waiting!!!
TAXI!
Simply just want to share a moment while we were waiting for a boat that, after 20 minutes, never show up!
We were waiting at Tha Dian port across from Wat Arun (the glowing temple in the picture) after a full day trip in Bangkok.
It’s been days, weeks, or even months since I’ve posted a single picture! Life sure is busy here in Thailand. So many places to visit, so many foods to eat, and so many pictures left unprocessed
It took me a month before I got to work on this picture. This was at Aum Pha Wa, a night floating market just an hour from Bangkok!
Whoops time is up!
This picture was taken minutes after arriving at Aum Pha Wa floating market just right before the sunset. This framing was spotted while I was driving over a bridge, looking for a parking near by. After 30 minutes of finding parking, we found one! So we walked back to the bridge and snap this picture.
We would like to suggest anyone coming to the market to visit in the afternoon. Because that is when the vendors start to setup their shops. The market is often populated with the local and tourist in late afternoon as most of the people are waiting for the sun to set so the temperature would be lower. Trust me, it’s just that hot and humid here in Aum Pha Wa.
I wonder, where would this entrance lead us to? Perhaps it was to the secret hide out of “The Man With the Golden Gun”! I didn’t have the chance to find out because I wasn’t sure if I would made it out of there. Well, I actually was too busy checking out the shops on the island and also taking pictures as much as I could on this island, Phang Nga bay, Thailand, because we only had about 30 minutes for this stop.
Who would have known that googling the phrase “tying the knot” would bring so many interesting articles to read. The very first link that was provided by google was a link to a wedding photography service.
-One of the Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World.
www.tyingtheknot.net
So, I started to wonder, what does “tying the knot” have to do with “marriage” so I again… Googled for “tying the knot meaning” and was lead to a website explaining how nowadays wedding have their customs and traditions traced all the way back to ancient Egyptians!
- Tying The Knot. This comes from the days of the Roman empire when the Bride wore a girdle that was tied in knots.
The Groom untied the knots prior to the consummation of their marriage.
www.pibweddings.com/traditionsorigins.html
What was I thinking that made me took the picture when I saw the rope tied on the boat?
I guess the message was “commitment” because when tying the rope together it meant to have one “attached” to the other, to add length, to extend, to go beyond… what one rope can do. Meanwhile, there are tension that pulling the ropes away from the knot in opposite direction, proven by Newton’s 3rd law of motion “Whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force −F on the first body. F and −F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction”, therefore the only thing that will hold 2 ropes together is how strong would each rope would be able to withhold the tension that is being created with surrounding force.
The knot would never untied the itself, but the strength of the ropes is the key that hold them together… Maybe this is the reason why the phrase “tying the knot” has so many related article with wedding and marriage because it take 2 people’s commitment that the will provide a lifetime of support and cherish each other, as long as they can withhold the pressure from the surrounding and that one rope doesn’t snap before the other.
*a moment of photo taken on the rooftop of the long boat that was taking me and my family to the Nail Island, Phang Nga, Thailand.
Watching and seeing all the fuss about the Olympics in Vancouver, reminded me of the visit during the New Year of 2009 with Hans and Heather, where we drove up from Los Angeles, California and a few days later… here we were in Vancouver, British Columbia! Vancouver has so much to explore but our time was limited to only 2 days in Vancouver. I will be sure to revisit it again! Missing BC!
As a tribute to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic, here is the collection of some of my photos taken in Vancouver 2009
Also… check out the embeded youtube video by www.HelloBC.com
Another trip that I almost get to join with Hans and Heather. I just received this via Email from Hans, the view outside of his window in Lisbon. Enjoy the trip! If you still can, would you try Pastry de Nata and Bolas de Berlim and tell me how does it taste like, or even better if you could go learn how to bake one! Thank you very much!
Enjoy the trip ^_^
A lot more to go! And that’s look like a load of driving!
Oh well, maybe next time.
