In this world you tried,
Not leaving me alone behind.
There’s no other way,
I pray to the gods let him stay.
The memories ease the pain inside,
And now I know why.
All of my memories keep you near.
In silent moments,
Imagine you being here.
All of my memories keep you near,
In silent whispers, silent tears
Made me promise I’d try,
To find my way back in this life.
Hope there is a way,
To give me a sign you’re okay.
Reminds me again it’s worth it all,
So I can go home.
All of my memories keep you near.
In silent moments,
Imagine you being here.
All of my memories keep you near.
In silent whispers, silent tears.
Together in all these memories,
I see your smile.
All of the memories I hold dear.
Darling you know I’ll love you,
Til the end of time.
All of my memories keep you near
In silent moments,
Imagine you being here.
All of my memories keep you near,
In silent whispers, silent tears.
“The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow.
Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show.”
Author Unknown
I had this picture processed for few day before I have it posted here today. I was thinking of how to explain or what to write for this picture. And then… today while searching for an inspirational quote (as usual) I came across this quote and I find that to be the best fit for picture.
The picture was taken minutes after arriving at Vancouver, Canada… on late December 2008 during the road trip to 2009′s New Year countdown in Vancouver. Hans choose to show us a short cut to our hotel… what a great idea… NOT! Our car almost stuck in the snow because we had no tire chains on it. Fortunately, Hans gots skills and drove us out of there and back to the road.
This picture was taken on the pedestrian bridge between the Central World mall and the Gaysorn Plaza a few nights ago. Normally, the street would be filled with cars so badly with traffic, that in order to get from the pedestrian bridge where I took the picture to the next pedestrian bridge that is about 400 meters away could take up to 50 minutes! That was from my own personal experience on a night where my co-workers and I were trying to go out for a game of tennis. That was the only time that I would ever go out for a tennis again because we must have stuck in the car for more than an hour for what could have been a 15 minutes trip.
That was one of the many dreadful experiences I had with Bangkok’s traffic.
By simply looking at this photo, I am reminded of the moment I was taking the picture. Grabbing onto the rail while leaning out to the side just so that I can take this picture. Just to think about it, gives me the chills and I get weak in the knees! This was taken at Wat Rat Burana, Ayutthaya, Thailand. I came up to this location by the stepping stone outside of the temple. I was hoping to find another way down that perhaps would be less scary than on the way up. This stair way was my option, no thank you!
After walking for so long, I have finally stopped to rest by the stepping pool in front of Siam Paragon, Bangkok, Thailand where all the lighting were fully decorated, ready for Christmas. The walkways were full of locals and tourists alike, taking pictures with each other for the other or taking pictures of themselves… by extending out one hand and turning the camera back, posing… and just take the picture. It was very enjoyable to be able to relax and just let everything become white noise and just let the time and space take over the mind.
While I was resting there, it reminded me of the time that I took the picture of a standing tree in the middle of the frozen lake in Northern Vancouver, Canada last year. Hum… It’s that time again already?
Santa Claus is coming to town!!! I am not worried if Santa would visit Canada, but I am concern if he would be able to make it thru Bangkok traffic! Good luck Santa. Here’s a few tips for Santa; learn how to take a BTS or MRT train.
According to this gigantic Christmas tree in front of the Zen mall (aka Central World, Bangkok) that is across the street from my wor place, apparently, Christmas is here already… Even thought I don’t get to see the sunset, I am able to enjoy the night simply enough with only 5 minutes walking. Listening to music and just relaxing at the water fountain was a very pleasing experience and peaceful.
Well, better start getting your hands on the tree… or it won’t be ready and nicely decorated, as if it wasn’t enough time, by Christmas!
Amazing… that’s all I got to say for the great Chedi! I am always amazed by how the local people hundreds of years ago could build a structure this big that last for hundreds of years!
As much as I love taking aerial photos, one of the problem could be the height issue, as I really don’t like hanging out at the edge of a step to snap a photo at all but it wasn’t to the extents of Acrophobia, as someone might believe. Walking up the Chedi was fine, but walking down was a very scary experience. After 2 steps of walking down facing out, I realized that it would be wiser for me to turn around and climb down one step at a time with me facing into structure and grab on to those steps, hoping I won’t fall off! Slowly but surely I arrive safely on the ground. Phewwww. I made it!
After all those light-headed sensations that day, I think it was all worth it to have finally explored the city, Ayutthaya, which once upon a time was the capital of Thailand.
This security guard has 4 legs and fur plus fangs but it was very tame and friendly. So much that she just laid there chilling by the entrance to the temple. At first, it wasn’t sitting there, instead it was sleeping near the door keeper. But once I took out the camera and start taking pictures at the temple, she suddenly woke up… walked to the entrance steps… and just laid there. I didn’t want to have to vaccinate due to rabies so I kept my distance from her and just snap away the pictures, quietly.
Pomelos, I used to think that it was a giant orange when I was a kid. But it does look and taste very similar to an orange and I do still believe that it is a giant orange! One thing I love about Thailand is the convenience in finding fruit anywhere you go either by the street or even by the river! The fruits are fresh unlike like those we have in the States where most of the tropical fruits are frozen for transportation to (try to) preserve its freshness.
Pomelo from Nakorn Prathom, a province north-west with an hour drive from Bangkok, is well known for it sweetness that they registered their special pomelo as “copyright” knowledge by the local. After months of staying in Thailand, I have yet to try a pomelo from Nakorn Prathom but when I do… I’ll be sure to update with its flavor, taste and texture.
Ohh, about the picture… this was taken at the Pattaya Floating market. They said that there is a real floating market call “Aum Pha Wa” that is south-west with an hour drive from Bangkok. Hopefully I have sometime to visit and to take pictures sometime this month because the weather is so nice.
The winter is here butI wonder how long would the winter would last in Bangkok!
I sure love spending time watching the sunset because I can’t wake up in time to watch the sunrise, right… Last weekend was the first time in month that I got to see the sunset and to see how fast the sun drops out of the horizon.
This picture was taken from the balcony of the Great Chedi Chaya Mongkhol at the temple.
The Great Chedi Chaya Mongkhol was built by the command of King Naresuan the Great, to commemorate his decisive victory over the Burmese invasion in A.D. 1592. The event was climaxed in the momentous elephant combat between the King and the Burmese crown prince Maha Uparaja, in the province of Suparnburi the renown of King Naresuan was such that there was no more outside invasion for the following two hundred years.
The reason that I love sunsets is that… it is the sign for… the day being over and that a NEW day is beginning. And for that, I get to have a fresh start tomorrow. Anything that was done wrong today, gets another chance to make it right tomorrow. There are days that the sky may be filled with rain and storm, but the sun still keeps moving forward, knowing that the very bright, clear and blue sky is waiting for it ahead…
for it… to shine, the light fills the sky with happiness and joy.
This picture was taken just hours ago while (really) visiting and (actually) exploring Ayutthaya city for the first time in years! Normally, I would only visit the city for food, Ro Tree Sai Mai – kindna like cotton candy wraped with a tortilla. Yeah, you should try that at home! haha! It’s true that I love driving to places just for “food”!
Yea, I have notice myself been quite busy that I only get the chance to upload most of the picture to Flickr but have yet to blog them here. Why so slow?… because I’m taking one “solid” step at a time. Wow, I just use my new slogan as an excuse for not being able to blog for the last few days. Well, I think it is a good reason. Don’t you?
After hours of walking at the Pattaya Floating market, we were so exhausted that a bottle of cola wouldn’t cut it! So we went on looking for food and found a small little Pad Thai shop by the pool. I was too busy on concentrating on what to eat to see the surrounding. Not until I finished my Pad Thai, a glass of coke and a glass of Lod Chong, did I see this beautiful scenery that was there all along.
I guess, sometimes or many times in our lives where we are “only focusing” on what is in front of us and keep taking and taking the thing we want that we unconsciously ignored or simply overlooked those around us to see and enjoy what’s life is all about and what it has to offer.
As Winston Churchill once said “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” And Albert Einstein has confirmed that “only a life lived for others is a life worth while.”
I mean, come on… If Einstein and Churchill said it then it better be right!
The choice is yours.
After looking for pictures for hours in my thousands of images archived that I have taken over the past 2 years, ever since I got the camera, I found this picture that I took at a friend house in Orgiva, Spain to be very inspiring for me….
… I must have wrote pages for this post but chose to erase it because I couldn’t really explain why I choose this photo for today, November 11, 2009 – my 26th birthday.
Why?
Just because.
A day, a night, a year… with hope that achieves the impossible.
The sky was so blue, the clouds were scattered by the wind, the trees were waving along with the breeze of fresh air and I was just laying there, on the stepping stones. Letting the day drift away slowly and just simply staring at the clear blue sky wondering why… why do I think about “why” so much! And then I just kept on why”ing”.
It was then, when I captured the view while I was visiting the Retiro Park, as I laid down by the pool and waited for my friends to finishing rowing the boat.
One of the questions I had was… Who is this man?
After zooming at the picture, then googled the name… I found out that he was the King Alfonso XII of Spain reigning, from 1875 to 1885. The amazing thing is that he was born in1857 which mean that he became the king while he was only 18 years old.
The place was so surreal, so much so that I actually felt as if I was back in the time… the time… you know what I mean. There are so much food at the Pattaya Floating Market and so many varieties of food that are being cooked in traditional ways that are hardly seen anywhere else.
Well, how could I resist any of the food, I must have ate enough for an entire week! If I were to have the stomach of an elephant, I would have probably ate everything there!
Talking about food… I’m gonna find something to eat now ^_^
In today’s world, is marriage still relevant? Unlike a hundred years ago, a couple today can live together without getting married. What are they missing? (This is not a theoretical question for me…)
Answer:
Marriage is more relevant today than ever before in history. Marriage used to be a given. Now it is a choice. All the old arguments for marriage have fallen away, and we are left with only one true reason to get married. We can finally get married for the right reason.
What were once good reasons to get married are largely irrelevant today. Here are four classic reasons to get married:
So we can live together. As you pointed out in your question, this reason no longer applies to the many couples who live happily together without getting married.
So we can have children. Again, it is possible to have children and be wonderful parents without getting married.
To make a solid commitment. That’s a charming one. We are getting married to make it harder to walk away from each other. How romantic.
To make our relationship official. You could achieve that by placing an announcement in the newspaper saying, “We are now official.” You don’t need a caterer to serve gazpacho soup in a ballroom just to make it official.
So what are we left with? If not to live together, to start a family, to make a commitment or to make it official, why get married?
There’s only one reason.
Marriage makes a relationship divine. Getting married means that something bigger than both of you is bringing you together. A wedding achieves something that simply can’t happen otherwise — G-d is introduced into the relationship.
Until they are married, a couple’s commitment to each other is a human commitment, with all the limitations of being human. We can’t see the future, we can’t know what may change and what may eventuate, and we make mistakes. The chuppah elevates the commitment beyond human limitations. The blessings made under the chuppah invoke G-d’s name upon the couple, and bring G-d into the union as a partner. You are married not just because you chose to be, but because G-d has said so.
Without a chuppah you can have love, commitment and family — but it isn’t holy. Only by standing under a chuppah and marrying according to tradition does your union become sacred. Only after the wedding is your love blessed with the divine imprint of eternity.
I find it to be a very interesting perspective… to make the commitment holy and sacred. Why? So that your love blessed with the divine imprint of “ETERNITY”
But who would believe in this kind of idea anymore?
*Photo taken … yesterday while the couple were rehearsing for their ceremony that about to start in an hour! WHY DO WE NEED TO REHEARSE a WEDDING?????? I just don’t get it!
My car broke down. Well, it wasn’t really broken but it’s DEAD because I happened to have left the headlights on all day. Well, what can I do? TAXI!!! But the night was still young, so I spent the time walking around my work place. After 4 months of working here, with the Erawan shrine across the street, I must have passed this shrine hundreds of time but never really stop there, not until today.
At the shrine, it is full of energy vibes where people from around the world come here to pray, wishing for luck and success in business and LOVE. Once their “wishes” came true… they would come back to the shrine again to make offering (Thai Traditional dance) as a tribute to the shrine. The Legend start with an old lady asked for success in her business and promised to dance to the shrine in return if success. As time passed, her business went prosperous… so she returned and danced to the shrine.
The shrine is at the intersection of Ratchadamri Road and Ratchaprasong Road in Pathum Wan district. The nearby shopping plaza would be, Central World, Gay Sorn Plaza, Amarin Plaza… you can’t miss it!
Isn’t this amazing!!! This is a “normal” sight to be seen here at Yaowarat street, Bangkok.
I AM SPEECHLESS!
But isn’t it fun to look at these cables going EVERYWHERE from roof to roof, window to window, inside to outside, ground to roof,… well, really EVERYWHERE!
This is an example of simply something that I love about Bangkok. The beauty in these mess and the ability to make use of the SPACES are just UNBELIEVABLE
This is the playground where I learned how to Rollerblade when I was about 10 years old. After my last visit, months ago, not much has changed from 10 years ago except that they have elevated the playground to prevent flood during rain season. I remember there were times that the playground had totally turned into a pond full of fish! Good times.
As for the picture today, it was taken by my cousin Gift. Great capture isn’t it ^_^ I just handled the post production part. Well, I am hoping to visit Ayutthaya again sometime this week. With more pictures to come!
You may kiss the bride…
NOT!!! Not a part of the Thai Wedding Tradition.
The wedding season is officially here! However, I wonder what makes November and December the wedding season? Because of the cold weather or simply to cerebrate the years end and the start of the new year together. Thai Wedding Tradition is much more complicated than any of those I can imagine. It involves many steps and processes that the couple must go thru before they get to start their life together. Here are a rough outline of the processes.
ขันหมาก: Khan Makk
ขบวนขันหมาก: The Khan Makk Procession
พิธีกั้นประตู : Barring the Groom from Approaching the Bride
พิธีนับสินสอด : Counting the dowry
พิธีรับไหว้ : Paying respects to the Elders พิธีหลั่งน้ำพระพุทธมนต์ : Water Pouring สวมมงคล : Mong Kol
การเจิม : Scahet Powder
พิธีปูที่นอน – ส่งตัว : The Nuptial Bed
The picture today represent part of the Water Pouring process.
“The pouring of water is the most important part of the Thai wedding ceremony as it is during this part of the ceremony that the couple officially become husband and wife . Traditionally, this was all that was required to validate the marriage, but nowadays the couple are also required to obtain a marriage certificate from the Amphur or local registration office.
Before the water pouring can take place the couple must seat themselves at the traditional water pouring tables (Tung Rod Nam), with the bride to the left of the groom.”
Anyway… the “You may kiss the bride…” process is after the – “พิธีปูที่นอน – ส่งตัว : The Nuptial Bed”. An FYI, just in case you were wondering about when does the groom get to kiss the bride… ASSUMING that she is not to tired from the ceremony.
If you think, planning for a wedding is hard? Think again! Because the hardest part is for the bride and groom to actually try to survive thru the ceremony!
It must have been weeks ago that I went to this restaurant with my family for a relaxing lunch by the river. It was really confusing regarding how to get to this restaurant, left here, right there, u-turn here, left again there…….. OMG there were TONS of TURNS before I get to pull up to the parking lot of the restaurant.
Once stepping out from the car, walking to the table… I knew that it worth the hassle of getting there because it’s so nice and quiet with the breeze of fresh air, remote from the busy world.
It was the first time after 10 years that I got to enjoy the Loy Krathong Festival in Thailand.
Location… at the Chulalongkorn University, Thailand… the University that I probably would have went to if I were to continue my studies in Thailand. I have realized how much I have missed out by not staying in Thailand. The fun, the food, and the friendships that are everywhere here at CU. Everyone seem to know each other like brothers and sisters, they always look out for each other.
I was going to float the KraThong as well, but there are so many “urban legend” about the “circumstance” that would have happen if one, or a couple were to Loy (float) a KraThong together. Who am I to challenge the legend??? That is why I ended up NOT Loy any KraThong for the nigth.
Disappointed…? NOT AT ALL.
The time I spent there for an hour or so was a blast! It was very memorable just by simply eating, drinking and listening to musics from different bands of different faculties. However it was one band… the CU Band I enjoyed the most because they mixed the marching band instruments with pop music! Amazing!
Chilling by the pool, watching the fireworks, listening to musics… and just wasted the night away
After a long day at work, where else would be a better place to spend the money that you just earned, than at this night market in Bangkok. In the day, Bangkok is well known for its amazing traffic where walking is actually faster than driving. By night, the foot traffic pick up rapidly and markets are likely the place that they will go for food, shopping, drinking or simply just walking.
I, too, am one of the ordinary Bangkokians who likes to spend my nights exploring Bangkok (whenever I get the chance) as much as I can because there are so many surprises in EVERY CORNER in BANGKOK. Victory Point is one of the night markets that I ran into accidentally while photography the Victory Monument. I focued so much on the Monument that I didn’t notice the market just around the corner until later on. Later on meaning, just minutes before I left the area.
Seriously… Bangkok is full of surprises…
well hidden… awaiting to be explored.
