I was so excited when I hop on the boat only to be tormented by hour long of bounciness during the boat ride. But unlike the other whom seated in the boat as they suppose to, I was on the roof of the boat. So aside from getting dizzy, I also get sun burn!
After reading about all of my nagging, I guess it was worth it because how else would I have the opportunity to take pictures with 360 degree of clean view, no roof, no post, no beam and no water splashing.
There I was, resting after my very first friendly pre-wedding photo. The Mall that we took the photo, unfortunately I couldn’t remember the name of the place, is opposite of the Crystal Park, Bangkok. Here, I felt as if I were in the U.S.A. again because, to be more exact, it’s reminded me of the Arcadia shopping mall, Arcadia, CA.
But anyway, what I love the most about this shopping center is… the light-up wall and semi transparent wall. It’s reminded me of SCI_Arc, Southern California Institute of Architecture, administration office and the design of the place is quite simple and modern. Make me want to start designing again, but perhaps not yet.
For now, taking it easy… slowly but surely, for once
Today post may sound a bit serious and very personal, but it is part of who I am and could and would affect the way I see and do things that may be different from others.
I truly believe that everything happens for a reason… that is simply because of John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life…” said Jesus Christ.
Before I became a Christian, I always needed proof or some sort of evidence to verify each life events that happen to the point that… I always asked myself, “why on earth would this have to happen to me?”
No matter how many “because dot dot dot” for the answer of “why dot dot dot happened?” the question can NEVER be answered in full or totally acceptable to me.
But that has changed
After having put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ… my heart and my mind is at peace because I have stop asking myself “why dot dot dot?” because “everything happen for a reason” or reasons that has already been set by Jesus Christ, after all he is “the way” and “the truth” and “the life”
How could I say that I trust you, Jesus… but to always doubt in him when anything bad happen or when things doesn’t happen the way I – expected – it to be.
By having faith and trusting him, I simply believe that anything that happened is for the greater good and that it was from his best interest in my well being.
I mean… to think about it how heavy it would be if I were to have the burden of carrying all of the problems (or I thought that it was the problems) and try to solve them (maybe it doesn’t even need to be solve in the first place)
The way we do anything is the way we do everything – another phrase that I do live my life by.
I give the same trust and faith that I have in Jesus to all those around me. When I said I trust in Jesus, I meant it and that I would not doubt his method of how my life would turn out because… I simply trust in him.
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..
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But we all know that everyone is different and I guess I was wrong to assume that everyone would have the same mentality as I am, hence I create an expectation when someone said “I trust you.” I know that everyone is different because no matter how many reasons explained… it sound like excuses to them.
Elbert Hubbard once said “never explain – your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.”
I think he got the point.
But the point is really, why would you ever doubt the person you said, “I trust you” to?
Exactly 2 years ago, on January 11 2008 I had a thought of coming to Thailand to work.
2 years later, I am in Bangkok, Thailand working!
It is amazing how things can turn out… unexpectedly.
Below is the photo I took while I was on the roof of the boat during the trip to Nail Island in Phang Nga, Thailand. To only realize later that, I have been here before… but perhaps it was 15 years ago. Not much have change about the place, but I am certainly getting old!
15 years ago, I visited the island with my mother… as for this year I visited the island with my grand mother! Well, there was no scuba diving this time
While I was taking picture, its remind me of the song “somewhere only we know” by Keane.
Back in the junior high school, I was taught to paint a picturesque landscape. Every time that the teacher show us an example, he would start of the with the blue sky (infinity), then mountains (far), followed by a wall of dense trees (semi-medium), then a river bed that has boats here and there (medium) and finally a resting boat as the close up object.
After I saw this view… the DEJAVU feeling came rushing back to me, I had a goosebumps all over as if I have seen and been here before. Or perhaps the goosebumps came from simply having too much breakfast. Which ever the reason(s), the moment itself was very calm and relaxing. So much that… I sat there for hours simply waiting for time to pass and the boat to depart.
Less is more… a phrase that I first heard it in 2006 at SCI_Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) during a weekly lecture on Wednesday night. We were like, please not another cliche phrase, I guess the idea of less is more doesn’t really make sense at first in the state where everything get “super size” and that “more is better”!
Not until the class of Philosophy of Technology did I start to agree with the once thought of silly phrase, less is more. The class was offered at SCI_Arc during a summer by Marcos Sanchez, an amazing professor, that brought up the topic of hot media and cold media by Marshall McLuhan
Hot and cold mediaFor McLuhan there are two different kinds of media: hot and cold media. The hot media are those, which have a large influence on humans and its sensous perception. According to McLuhan these media even possess a “destructive strength” (for example “stone axes” see the point “the medium is the message”). The pioneer of the media ranks the writing, the phon-etic alphabet, the book, the photography and also the radio among this kind of medium. These ob-jects of communication place much data and de-tailed informations at the users disposal, which are mainly concentrate on one sense of the recipient.
It is affected by this, but remains rather passive in the behavior. The cold media have a small influence strength on humans. The reason for this is, that they offer little details and information, and are not optically delightful for humans. To use and understand these media humans must actively deal with these media. McLuhan calls the televi-sion, the telephone or the caricature as example for it. Finally we mention the fact that a medium is not only hot or cold, but must be regarded always standing in a relationship to another medium.
To my understanding, the cold media is the one that is “LESS” informative but allow for “MORE” interactivity with the media. I guess that is why I choose to do the black and white version for this photo, to allow interactive with the moment, the space and the time that the picture was taken rather than the hundreds of colors that were in the picture.
Yesterday’s photo couldn’t have been taken if I were simply just sitting in the boat along with everyone else. Everyone wants to be in their comfort zone and take pictures but I just can’t get the picture I wanted by simply sitting in the boat.
So I climbed the roof and just spent the rest of my 3 hour boat trip on the roof taking photos.
The sun was shining,
the boat… rocking,
the wave… crashing,
the wind… weaving,
I have been wanting to visit southern Thailand ever since my last visit, must have been when I was 9 years old. Back then, my mother let me use one of her compact cameras, the kind that you still have to advance the film manually and also bought me 4 rolls of 36-shots films that lasted only for a day. I took pictures of pretty much everything! But when we developed the film, half of them were either over or under exposed! Oh well… I repeated the same mistake again 2 years ago when I tried my mother’s Nikon F3 with 4 rolls but this time it only lasted for 2 hours!!! That was the last time I ever used film for photography, but I do wish that I would get to learn how to develop the film traditionally when I have the budget and the time to do so.
As for the post today it was while we were heading toward Koh Tapuu (Nail Island) about 30 minutes away from the Phang Nga’s pier. While everyone was looking to the front or the sides of the boat… I looked behind and captured this moment,
The moment where everything was left behind… There were nothing to think about except to just point my camera and shoot at everything. It was fun!
Who would have known that this roughly built, patched together wooden bridge would be able to withstand the load of people that walk on it, the wind that blows thru or the storms that come crashing upon it from time to time. I guess we just can’t simply judge its capabilities simply from the way it looks. It looks like a bridge and works like a bridge with its purpose to transport one from one side to the other of this path by crossing the obstacle below… therefore it is a bridge.
It is common for some to doubt the capabilities of the bridge because it does not look trustworthy, but for those who believe in it… get to walk and board the boat that take them to many amazing places that those who choose to stay behind would have never experienced!
I was simply trying to metaphor this with the idea of “LOVE” between 2 persons. Having love as a bridge for the couple to walk; it is important for them to TRUST in the LOVE so that both can surpass any obstacle that would get in the way to finally board the love boat where they get to share their life together.
So it seems that the most important part of this journey is that… one must TRUST in the bridge in order to find a bit of happiness. There is no way that we can test the stability of the bridge; even if we do… we won’t have the time to because the boat is leaving.
Trust is a matter of CHOICE.
Without trust… we stand still
By simply TRUSTING in that LOVE… we, then, start walking,
Koh Panyee, what an interesting name but what does it really mean? According to our tour guide Koh Panyee means “the Island of the Flag”. Getting interesting isn’t? What flag? We didn’t see any flag!
The story goes something like this… according our tour guide
A family from Indonesia was looking for a new beginning, a new home, a new place to start their new life. The family lead by Toh Baboo, along with 2 more families who had joined Toh Baboo on the quest. This new place they were searching for has a little requirement which is that it shall has full of fish and a place that everyone could live together. The 3 families promised to each other that once such place is found then they would raise a flag as high as possible so that the others could see and join them.
Later, Toh Baboo found the island and… to no surprise – raised the flag!
And that was how the Island got it name Koh Panyee – the Island of the Flag!
Last December has brought so much change into my life. The most intriguing part of the last December was a trip with my family, the Muangsiri to Phuket, Thailand. Because I was away for so long from Thailand and family, I couldn’t recognized half of the family members that were on the trip. Well, there were about 120 or so of us on 3 tour buses heading for a trip during Christmas break. The funny part is, Thai don’t celebrate Christmas, but I do! While the other see December 25, 2009 as another day, I see it as the best Christmas I ever had – to be among families (getting to know them and more of them)
This picture was taken at Phang Nga just hour after we have arrived from our 10 hours trip on the tour bus. It was our first stop for breakfast and to wash up, getting ready for the trip of the day – to the islands! before heading to Phuket in the evening.
Happy New Year 2010 to everyone. May this New Year brings everyone success in anything that you do with exuberant joy, health, wealth and most important of all… love!
P.S. Did anyone make a wish under the Blue Moon on New Year eve? Below is an interesting article about making wishes under the Blue Moon that I found just hours before the moonrise. Aside from it being the Blue Moon that only occur once in 20 years! It was also the most beautiful moons I have ever seen in years!
BLUE MOON MAGIC on New Year’s Eve 2009 by Ton Pascal
New Years Eve on December 31, 2009 will be more powerful than a super nova. This vibration will surpass space and time and will be in the seeds of ALL LIFE CREATIONS Be mindful of thoughts, they carry GREAT POWER. Take action, it has power & magic… Those into wishing, WISH BIG ~~~~ Know we are at the seat of our creations!!!
This super novas give us an energetic boost in whatever direction we are pointed…(rephrased by darlene)
Only once in every 20 years, the blue moon appears on New Year’s Eve, as it will this year. On a plain physical level what is happening is that the moon is out of phase with the days. For it to make its complete cycle it’s about 29.5 days. It doesn’t coincide with our month, and that’s why it is out of sync with our Julian calendar. It’s the occurrence of two full moons in one month, which happens every two years, hence the popular quotation “once in a Blue Moon” which means ‘not very often.’ On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.
On December 31, 2009, we have a Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse.
On a spiritual level it is as if it asks us to ‘flash forward’ into the next two years to see what we can see. This is the most important New Years Eve we have ever been gifted in a long time. No matter how much you do not believe prophecy from time and earth, it will still affect your energy field and your choices.
This December 31, 2009, Partial Lunar Eclipse is numerically a 7/11 (#9) vibration
Cosmic and personal completion! Entering the next level of love of heart, of soul and service to the planetary evolution through healing self. Free-falling from the height of the nine into the next level of Light. Entry and exits all in the same breath. A quantum leap into unknown gifts comes through the nine. Are you ready to see and be more than you are at this minute of time? Nine is the photo finish on the heavenly line of multiple choices. If you believe you have won, you have. Your New Years resolutions on 12/31/2009 will be more powerful than a super nova. Their vibration will surpass space and time and land at the feet of God.
Be careful what you pray for, as it will come to past.
