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.
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.
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
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.
how the cake would look, round – square – layer – cupcake ?
the arrangement of flower… the colors?
the color of the table cloth, red, green, blue, pink? or just plain white?
the location… Ballroom, island, beach, skydiving ?
the ice sculpture… oh yes, in Thailand it is very common to have an ice sculpture as part of the wedding decoration.!
the type of food that is served…
the guest of honor… dad, mom, … Mr President? ??? ??
the brides maid…?
the best man! ?
…
..
.
the list continues… on and on.
I too… have my dream… a dream to, one day, make others dreams come true.
One couple at a time.
In the end, I believe that that most important part of the wedding itself is not the wedding… but the one you love.
The answer to the previous post…
…the entrance to The InterContinental Bangkok.
Welcome to the InterContinental Bangkok!
Today is a very important day, at least for me because it is the last day of my training BUT… yes there is a BUT…. but it is not the last day that I will be coming to the hotel.
As for every ending… a new journey begins.
I’ll Be BaCk! (imitating the voice of Arnold from Terminator) which reminded me of a scene in the movie. Check the youtube.
He came back alright… with a BANG! And soon, will I… perhaps not the exact same way he did
After months of walking past what I thought was just a decorative statue, I came to realize that this is no ordinary simple statue. The realization came when I noticed people paying respect by “wai” to the statue
“The wai is the Thai greeting and show of respect, indicated by pressing your palms together near your chest and bowing…
The wai is a unique, graceful action practiced throughout Thailand. It plays a very important part in showing respect and is central to Thai etiquette. For the most part Thais do not want to touch your sweaty, grubby little hands, so it’s a good idea to learn how to wai. The European kiss-on-each-cheek-greeting will certainly alarm a Thai, especially if you are a man doing this to a woman who isn’t your wife or girlfriend!”
After much curiosity about this statue that everyone wai to every time they walk by, I asked around to find out that the statue is Narayana on garuda, aka Pra Narai Song Suban.
I have yet to find out about the historical significant of Pra Narai Song Suban, however, I will update with more details after a bit more research.
Problem: The majority of office employees rarely have the time or the capital to shop at the high-end luxury malls.
Solution: We bring the mall right down to you at very affordable price!
Many of the pavements along the street in Bangkok turn into a market from 5:00 pm to approximately 11:00 pm depending on the location and the foot traffic of each place. The market are filled with all sorts of things that you can imagine, from a pair of socks to a Rolax watch,.. no, it’s not a Rolex! It’s a Rolax! At certain point, the streets would be way too crowded for anyone to walk as everyone would be stopping at a vendor, buying their things. To some pedestrians, they see that as a problem because they can’t walk to where they want to, however to the vendor… the more the crowded, the more the foot traffic… the better because that give the vendor more chances to sell their product. How? Because heavily foot traffic – that come to a stop at some point – allow the pedestrians to notice the products more, hence a higher chance for the vendor to sell.
This picture was taken across the street from the Central World, Bangkok at 10:30 pm. You can notice the clock on the top right of the picture. Yup it’s late… but not for us, the Bangkokian.
“Bangkok, is trying to solve traffic problems by elevating all of its transportation routes above the original street.” a saying that I heard from many of my friends. The way they said it was more like sarcasm, as if it was a bad thing. In their understanding, which I also agree, that Bangkok should have solve traffic problem from the core of the problem which is… the way that people drive, the traffic lights, the law and regulation that should be enforced more strictly to keep Bangkok’s streets in order.
A taxi driver would stop their car anywhere to pick up a passenger,
a bus would stop anywhere and make a u-turn anywhere it see fits,
while a motorcycle-taxi and a tuk-tuk are trying to drive pass thru the gap between cars in traffic,
street vendor are taking up the space on the road, turning a lane into a street market.
Unbelievable ! It’s a good idea for us to solve from the core of the problem but how can we when what we perceive as a problem is the culture and the way of life on how people are living. We simply can’t tell them to re-live their life… but what we can do is, adapt to their culture… and renovate from with in.
“The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand is the supreme law of Thailand. Since the change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional democracy in 1932,
…
1932 Constitution of Thailand
The People’s Party, facing an internal power struggle and opposition from the King, promulgated a permanent constitution in 10 December 1932 that gave the monarchy a significant increase in authority compared to the temporary charter. The day is currently celebrated as Constitution Day.
The constitution continued to state that sovereign power belonged to the people of Siam. However, unlike the temporary charter, the monarchy would now be the direct exerciser of that power, rather than the branches of government. This royal power would be exercised by and with the advise and consent of the People’s Assembly, the State Council (the cabinet), and the Courts. However, the monarchy lacked any say in the composition of any of the branches of government and the royal veto could still be overruled. The monarchy was also made “sacred and inviolable”, in contrast to the temporary charter.”
I’m back… just for a little bit, before I got to get down (back to work) again.
So, for most of the time that I have been gone are to “learn how to” handle wedding after wedding. FUN FUN FUN!
I love this theme very much… crimson red!
“Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will”
a very inspiring quote that keep me going days after days!
Love make you blind but…
wedding will open your eyes…
It’s a saying that most, if not all, people find it to be true… absolutely not all people because, not all lovers have their wedding, not yet anyway.
The wedding day is the happiest day of the wedding couple. It is the day that the couple taking their first step together, to create and start a family. By announcing to the world that they will spend the rest of their life as husband and wife, together from this moment on.
Wedding is not end result of love, instead it is the beginning of their journey. It is a journey of two people that grow up from different places, had different experience in life, born from different family, believing and seeing the world from different point of views…
…two people that has absolutely nothing in common to begin with
to make a vowed that they would spend the rest of their life together because…
they… forgot about all the reasons why something may not work and found one good reason why it will,
whatever that reason may be…
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.
