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.
It is surprisingly how time can pass from days to months to years. I wonder, would a lifetime be enough for people to enjoy all the amazing things out there in this little planet.
Feeling as if it was yesterday, the time that I took this photo was more than a month ago! It was so isolated, calm, and the most important is… very peaceful.
Time sure can fly! And it isn’t going to slowdown. We can only try to catch up and do our best on the little time that we have to enjoy the most out of this little blue planet.
Sitting next to a table full of “Pla Sa-Lid,” a type of fish, that when deep-fried is very crunchy and delicious. One of many traditional Thai foods which I love to eat ever since I was a kid. I am currently looking at the pile of fish on table wondering how many fish we bought from shopping at the fish market in Phra Pra Daeng, Wat Bang Narm Phung, Bangkok. Here are a quick estimate… 8 Kilo of the fish, average at about 25 fish per kilo. So that would be the sum of about 200+ fish on this table! We sure love fish!
While I was at the fish shop buying (obviously) the 8 kilo of the fish, I asked the vendor how did they catch all of these fish? The answer was fish farming. It is amazing how we can farm about everything that we, human, consume. I wonder what have happened to the lifestyle in the past where we had to go hunt in the jungle for meat or the sea for fish. Those days may have not been very easy but it was sure simple.
That was how I was reminded of the photo selected today of a group of fisherman catching fish in the sea.
In celebration of the 1 year anniversary of TwoStepsBehind… I chose this Panorama that was taken in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand. The island also known as the Nail Island. The picture was taken on Christmas of 2009; the same day that I was reunited and met many of my long lost family members. It was the family trip that I must have mentioned on previous posts.
Looking back a year to date… there are many changes in the way I process pictures, which hopefully have improved greatly. A year ago, I believed that there would be a day that I could take a nice landscape shot, a panorama of some sort… as my very first post at TwoStepsBehind, Hello Planet Earth, Welcome to Two Steps Behind!, was a panorama of the Vancouver Bridge, Canada. That belief… brought me to where I am today… with the photo which I am really proud of. To me it’s a really big step that was made of many small steps.
A year has passed and I couldn’t believe how much things have changed… or at least just me.
There was so much to learn in a year, and I can say for certain that life is…
to Live and Learn…
to keep going forward…
to give and to love unconditionally
and most important of it all…
to never lose hope.
because I do still believe strongly that, hope achieves the impossible.
In celebration of 1 year anniversary of TwoStepsBehind… I am going to make a slide show, when I have time, to see where has TwoStepsBehind has visited. I know that Apple has those cool programs, iMovie, iDvd… etc to make the globe spin from one place to the next. Let us see how would that turn out!
But first things first… I must thank you everyone for visiting this website…
First of all, my mother for making me realize that I should write a blog so that she could keep up with my where abouts.
Secondly, Qi for gifted me with “HALF” of the Canon Rebel XSI for my Bachelor of Architecture graduation present.
Thirdly, SCI_Arc for exposing me to the world of APPLE and MACBOOK PRO
Forth, Wordpress + Flickr + Facebook + iPhoto… for making it so easy to blog.
Last but not least… is Trey, the god of HDR for sharing his tutorial at www.StuckInCustoms.com which became a great inspiration for me. Thank you to all of my reader to continuing reading many if not most of my non-sense posts!
THANK YOU!!!
Cheers… on to the next and many more year to come!
Photos taken at Phang Nga Bay, Nail Island, Thailand on December 25, 2009
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.
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.
After the storm…
where the sky are clear…
The sea are calm…
… for the New Beginning
Woke up in the morning,
Turn on the computer,
Youtube… “new beginning”
and Found the song, Cafe Del Mar: New Beginning – Another Day
The song… bringsme the thought of this calm sea in San Francisco, where Hans and Heather were about to left me behind because they were starving and couldn’t wait any longer to find food!
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
This was taken… 24 hours ago at the balcony of the Holiday Inn in Pattaya, Thailand. It was a trip that wasn’t definite until really late in the evening when everyone finally agreed on the location! And that was… Pattaya City, Thailand!
Booking got me a little worried because it was really a last minute reservation… however it was taken care of by a colleague who had booked us in rooms with an amazing view!
I mean… what do you think? Isn’t it amazing? or Beyond words!
***update: finally server is up and running!!! yes!!
Today… the dreamhost server seemed to have problems, hence I couldn’t blog normally on my website. However, my alternative is… HERE! I am at flickr blogging. Haha!!!
I wouldn’t want to try too much time fixing the problem on the server as it was stated that the error was cause by the server itself, not by me. So I’ll just wait for the server to get back up and just not stress over it!
It has been awhile since I’ve gotten to just sit by the sea, watch the sunset and do nothing but just watch the SUN set! This was taken in San Diego, I don’t remember the name of the island at this location, but it is well hidden. The sunset was amazing, but I couldn’t stay outside for long because it was getting chilly and I wasn’t wearing proper clothing. C’mon I was wearing beachwear, so I wasn’t prepared for a cold night! San Diego… it’s the one place I love to go, except Santa Monica, California. San Diego has everything from beaches to mountains, zoos to amusement parks, street vendors to high luxury restaurants and … onnn and onnnnnnn.
Oh well, it a great place to visit, but to live there? I don’t know… a lot of my friend would still prefer Los Angeles over San Diego. But I just prefer somewhere calm and quiet to relax and enjoy the day.
At Rayong Resort, that daydreaming could be a reality. Bungalows are rested in the national reserve forest along the beach. This is such an ideal place for a quiet get away… I bloged about this resort once, that it is just 3 hours away from Bangkok, however I haven’t had the chance to revisit the resort ever since the training began.
I woke up today… really late (11:00 am!) wishing that I could just walk out the door and down to a beach… and just woosssh!! into the sea. That would be a way to wake up huh?
I really got to try that someday!
Here are some pictures that I have posted previously from Rayong… wanna come join me? Anyone???
Oh yes… another weekend! Time is really flying by! This is a view at the Rayong Resort while it was raining the last time I visited, about a month or so ago. I didn’t get to enjoy much of the sea due to the rain, but I got to spend sometime under the balcony that was absolutely empty! So there, I was listening to music and just singing along with it in the rain.
I need another “I do absolutely nothing” day by a beach somewhere in the sun. It has been raining in Bangkok day after day that I haven’t seen anysunlight and am starting to feel down… just like SUPERMAN needs to recharge his “Superpower” with the SOLAR energy!
That is it for today… until I get the solar energy… then I’ll have enough energy to write more!
After weeks of hearing “ahh I am going beach”, “Going to the beach now”, “the beach was nice”… and seeing photos of beaches on facebook around the world that my friends are visiting, I told myself… I am going to a beach too! Then I went online, typed “Beach, Thailand” and then found a few beaches to visit. However the closest ones are Bangsaen and Pattaya in Chonburi, which are very touristy which I am trying to avoid. So my chosen location is the province after… Rayong which is an extra hour of driving from Chonburi. There are few beaches there however, now I go to Google and start browsing the coastline of Rayong and found one big green mountain that is very isolated from the main coastline. Google image also helps in showing the image of the area. That is how I came to find… Rayong Resort!
And that is a brief story of how I found my get away spot… the next time I need to get away from the city life. The surrounding is amazing and the view is beyond my expectation!
There’s no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart
Our dreams, and they are made out of real things
Like a, shoebox of photographs
With sepiatone loving
Love is the answer,
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Like why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it’s so hard?
It’s not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I’ll tell you one thing it’s always better when we’re together
[Chorus:]
MMM it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, we’ll look at the stars when we’re together
Well, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, it’s always better when we’re together
And all of these moments
Just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they’ll be gone
When the morning light sings
And brings new things
For tomorrow night you see
That they’ll be gone too
Too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I’d be under the impression
I was somewhere in between
With only two
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be
We’ll Sit beneath the mango tree now
It’s always better when we’re together
Mmmm, we’re somewhere in between together
Well, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, it’s always better when we’re together
MMmmmm MMMmmmm Mmmmmm
I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no, combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We’re better together.
Tonight, I would like to dedicate this photo to the one and only “Matilde Paixão Morgado” with the song “Better Together” by Jack Johnson. I’ll let the lyrics speak for itself.
That is one long bridge! To be able to hold my breath all the way from beginning to the end of the bridge was a real challenge. When I was young, my parents told me that if we make a wish while crossing a BIG river with a very long bridge then the wish will come true!
I really don’t know how true that tale is, however… after all these time, I still hold my breath and make a wish every time I cross a BIG BIG Bridge. I did the same with the Golden Gate bridge when I visited in December 2008. I don’t quite remember what did I wish for… whatever it is, I think it came true because now I am happy. And don’t we all make a wish for something or someone to make us fully and truly happy.
Try it for yourself the next time you are on a bridge… MUSH A WISH!
So, I was on the Bridge to Vancouver, Canada, and there is this arch that provides an amazing view. The view, to me, looks like a giant door that will lead somewhere UP HIGH… but in reality it is gonna drop DOWN Below into the ice cold sea.
By Natt ( May 17, 2009 at 1:39 pm) · Filed under Review, Art, Beach
There is a saying that I have heard so much ever since I came to Les Roches that is “if we fail to plan then we plan to fail.” I can only partially agree with this statement because in reality there will be problems that came up despite the fact that the “plan” itself has taken month and month to make it flawless.
I, too, plan everything before I taken a step forward. But how much is it that we can actually plan, how much information do we need to gather to plan for something to happen and when are we suppose to stop planning and put that plan in action? If we think about it carefully the reason that we plan is because there are rules that apply to what we are planning. The rules say, you must do this and this for this to happen, you must not do this to prevent this, you must follow the direction carefully to achieve… this and that.But the only rule is that there are no rules!
Planning works for me but only to certain extend. The thing I don’t like about “planning” is that it bring “expectation” and if things failed to go as plan then we get disappointed.
Improvisation, on the other hand, is my best friend. Improvising has taken me to places I haven’t imagine myself to. It has bring so much fun, joy, activities, adventure and life itself. I could be wrong to say that “I plan everything” because the fact is I only set GOALS then start walking toward it. My plan is simple, it is to do whatever it take, be spontaneous and IMPROVISE my way to reach that goals. This way… I don’t have to plan everything in detail but to make sure that I enjoy what I do and keep walking forward to that goals and dreams… make it happen!
I sketched this back in 2003 and you see? I even planned on how to sketch the gravel before I actually sketched it. I was just bored one evening so I started to sketch the gravel photo that I bought from IKEA.
“Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise” said George Gershwin
Why, why why why why why why… it’s so hard to find the answer to the “why” question. Today, after getting up at 9 and having done some studies I have found the answer to “all of the why” questions and that is “PERHAPS”. I find the word perhaps to be very powerful as it actually turns around the mentality of confusion and loss of faith and believe that everything that happened, happen, or is happening… is for better. And there, the why why why why why… questions is gone.
It’s the sea, the beach, the wind, and the breeze of the fresh air that always stirs my head to ask all the questions that have no answers to it until now.
This picture was taken yesterday, at Aude’s Birthday party at a restaurant by the beach in Marbella, Spain There are much more pictures from the party that I will post later. For today I find this one to be interesting because it is a picture of a boy and 3 girls which reminded me of my cousins and I when we were little and went to the beach with family and we’d just sit by the beach eating seafood! Yum! Miss the old days.
Once again. Dear Aude, Happy 25th Birthday! and welcome to 25th+ club. ^_^
Day 7… According to our plan, we should be back in Marbella, after a long road-trip, to rest for half a day before the beginning of the end to this journey, at Les Roches.
A lighthouse is meant to guide a ship to arrive at the coast safely and preventing them from running a dangerous path. It will always be there, day and night, hot or cold, calm or windy, storm or clear… it will always shine its light, it will always stand strong and hold it ground to do its job at its best. We always look at things one way, and that way is how “that things” benefit us. We rarely look at how much “that things” has gone thru to provide what it is providing for us. Let’s reflect this back to our life, a very good metaphor of a lighthouse could be our parents. Our parents and families are always there for us, to guide and direct us safely to the shore, but really, how often do we really think about what they must have gone thru in their lives, how much have they suffered when we ignore them, how painful it is to be left behind and yet… they will stand there, waiting… Waiting for us to come back to them and just to be there, accompanying that lighthouse.
Dear Mother, and my Families… Happy (Thai) New Year. I love you and miss all of you. Thank you for never let me fall… and for always being there for me. And this song is for you, Don’t let me fall by Lenka
This is the last schedule post for this holiday, and from Monday on, I should be back on posting on regular basis and I will be sure to post all the pictures taken from the trip as well. It is not easy to schedule posts for days in a roll but hey, one post a day, as promised ^_^
