20 minutes . . .

. . . that's all it took to change the sea from dark blue, and through an ever lightening sky to a pale blue rippling water to an almost flame red.


I was pleased that a visiting old friend (and occasional Flickr buddy, Maxsimus) was able to join me on an early morning shoot today to the back and beyond of Thailand, as we used to do on many prior pre dawn excursions, always for the same reason, to shoot sunrise.

However, today we got it way wrong. We arrived too early for sunrise and once our eyes had adjusted to the light (or lack of) we had to wait through an amazing 30 minute light show of colour. I'm sure Richard's camera later showed exactly what I had captured as well - even 10 minutes after sunrise we couldn't see the ruddy (a well chosen word) thing (sun) as the fog and mist were at low level, and the sun's light was being reflected off much higher clouds, colouring the sea, but obscuring the sun itself at horizon level (but now we could at least see the horizon).

No probs, we snapped happily away, despite the frequent interruptions of early morning elderly Thai exercisers who came across to us, venting their curiosity as to what the two farangs* were doing staring into the mist and distance from 5:30am. (* white foreigner)



Having exhausted ourselves at this, our first spot of the day at Don Hoi Lot, we moved onto one of Thailand's most famous floating markets - but that's another story. And "ruddy"? Yup, had we waited just another five minutes, we would have captured the big blazing red ball of a sun as it bit through the upper layers of our fog. Blast.

Suwannaphoom, at night

In the last few months I have found myself on several occasions walking through Bangkok's international airport, Suvarnabhumi (Thai: ท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิ, pronounced: Suwannaphoom, meaning "Golden Land"), late at night en route to diverse locations such as LA, Washington and Seoul. All part of the job, sadly, as it takes me away from family.


However, the trips provide an opportunity to get out one or other of my cameras and start snapping, although for convenience I pack away the tripod in the suitcase, and the images here have been handheld. Somehow airports feel different at night, there is less noise, and the hustle and bustle usually much less, as if people are just quietly and patiently waiting to continue their journeys, to get on their airplane seat, take the welcome drink and snack or dinner, then crash out. Even with the amount of lighting, at first one thinks the airport is bright, but in reality there are many dark corners, although in our transitory mood, I doubt many of us notice.


So, about the airport: Suvarnabhumi is Bangkok's international airport and was officially opened for limited domestic flight service on 15 September 2006, and opened for most domestic and all international commercial flights on 28 September. It is currently the main hub for Thai Airways International, Bangkok Airways, Orient Thai Airlines, Thai AirAsia and will be a hub for the new Thai Tiger Airways. It is located in Racha Thewa in Bang Phli district, about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of downtown Bangkok. The name Suvarnabhumi was chosen by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and refers to the golden kingdom hypothesised to have been located somewhere in Southeast Asia. The airport has the world's tallest control tower (132.2 metres / 434 feet), and the world's third largest single-building airport terminal (563,000 square metres / 6,060,000 square feet); its also the 5th busiest airport in Asia, having handled 40.5 million passengers in 2009, and is also a major air cargo hub.


On 26 November 2008, the airport suffered from an illegal occupancy by protestors of the P.A.D, the People's Alliance for Democracy, closing the departure lounge and blocking exits, and causing almost three thousand passengers to be stranded within the main terminal. Another 350,000 travellers were stranded inside the country as all flights were grounded for a short while. On the 2nd December 2008 the protesters agreed to leave the airport to permit the resumption of flights, but security checks, clean-ups and recertification once the illegal occupation ended delayed the airport from being fully functional until 5 December 2008.


In 2009, Ireland warned its citizens to be on guard while browsing in the airport's shops. "We have received reports that innocent shoppers have been the subject of allegations of suspected theft and threatened that their cases will not be heard for several months unless they plead guilty and pay substantial fines," the Irish government wrote in a travel advisory, which also advised shoppers to retain all receipts to "avoid great distress". Britain and Denmark also posted online advisories about hard-to-detect demarcation lines between shops in Suvarnabhumi's sprawling duty-free zone and warned shoppers to be alert about carrying unpaid merchandise across the lines.

On October 1, 2010, two hundred armed men occupied the airport's parking lot for an hour, blocking the building's entrances and seizing ticket booths in order to collect fares from motorists. Airport security personnel failed to respond to the incident, which is reported to have resulted from an internal dispute within Parking Management Co., a firm contracted by the airport to run its parking facilities. That aside, it is rather a nice airport, albeit not the best in the region, if you like the spartan feel of exposed steel and bare concrete.

The "khoom fai"

Sky lanterns are traditionally found in some Asian cultures and are airborne paper lanterns usually constructed from oiled rice paper on a bamboo frame, and containing a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material. In Thailand they are called khoom loi (Thai: โคมลอย, literally: "floating lanterns") or khoom fai (Thai: โคมไฟ). When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density and causing the lantern to rise into the air.


Thais use khoom fai all year round, for celebrations, to make merit and other special occasions. One very important festival in which sky lanterns are used is the Lanna festival known as "Yi Peng" (Thai: ยี่เป็ง) which is held on a full moon of the 2nd month of the Lanna calendar ("Yi" meaning "2nd" and "Peng" meaning "month" in the Lanna language). Due to a difference between the old Lanna calendar and the traditional central Thai calendar it coincides with Loi Krathong which is held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar.


It is considered good luck to release a khoom fai, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away. In recent times, khoom fai have become so popular with all Thai people that it has become an integrated in to the Loi Krathong festival in the rest of country. With three young kids I can never escape releasing khoom fai whenever sellers come near, and that is usually on one of our favourite beaches on Samui. The kids love writing their names on the lantern, my eldest doing it for the youngest, and then assisting the seller hold the lantern until it fills with air and gently floats away.

In a Thai village

Some scenes of every day life in a typical Isaan village.

The "High Street"


"Rush Hour"


The local "Starbucks"


Prayer time


The prayer "hall"

Paulaner

Not that far from Bangkok's city centre is a gem of a restaurant: the Paulaner Garden. In a Bavarian style German beer garden, the ambience is lovely and the setting beautiful, especially when the sun is setting in the late afternoon and early evening. In the gardens there is a colonial-style house, built at the turn of the last century on Rajvithi road, Samsen, where the house stood for over 100 years before it was moved to the present site.


The menu is a large mix of German, International and Thai foods, and you will always find something you like. The service is good, but not exceptional, after all this is not a 5 star hotel.


On the drinks side, however, a full drinks list 0f non and alcoholic beverages is complemented by the selection of house beers available, including Hefe – Weizen, Hefe – Weizen Dunkel, Paulaner Original Munich Premium Lager, Paulaner Original Muncher Dunkel and Paulaner Oktoberfestbier.


Paulaner is a German beer, brewed since the early 17th century in Munich by the Minim friars of the Neudeck ob der Au cloister. The order and the brewery are named after Francis of Paola, the founder of the order, the monks having originally brewed the beer for their own use since 1634.


Paulaner ranks number 8 among Germany's best selling breweries, and the brand can now be found in outlets throughout Thailand.


The restaurant can be found on New Samakhee Road, just off Chaeng Wattana Road.

Humility

A Thai monk, in his saffron robes, between sermons in an old Thai wooden house.

The special dress of ordained people, the robes, comes from the idea of wearing cheap clothes simply as protection against the elements, and of course for modesty, not made from one piece of cloth, but sewn from several pieces. Since dark red was the cheapest colour in Kashmir, the Tibetan tradition has red robes, elsewhere in Asia the colours of the robes vary from yellow to saffron which had had cultural associations in India, and particularly in east Asia to grey or black.

Dynasty of Kings

On display at the Thailand Human Imagery Museum, King's Rama I through VIII of the Chakri Dynasty (also known as the House of Chakri) (Thai: ราชวงศ์จักรี: Rajawongse Chakri), the current ruling royal house of the Kingdom of Thailand.

The dynasty has ruled Thailand since the founding of the Ratthanakosin era and the city of Bangkok in 1782. The Kings are:

Phrabat Somdet Phra Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke - (centre, at back)
the Great
(Rama I)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Buddha Loetla Nabhalai - (3rd from left)
(Rama II)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha - (4th from right)
Jessadabodindra
Phra Nangklao Chao Yu Hua
(Rama III)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha - (2nd from right)
Mongkut
Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua
(Rama IV)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha - (Far left)
Chulalongkorn
the Great
Phra Chunla Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua
(Rama V)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha - (2nd from left)
Vajiravudh
Phra Mongkut Klao Chao Yu Hua
(Rama VI)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha - (3rd from right)
Prajadhipok
Phra Pok Klao Chao Yu Hua
(Rama VII)

Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha - (Far right)
Ananda Mahidol
Phra Atthama Ramathibodindhorn
(Rama VIII)

Not shown in this tableau of the Kings is His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Great, Phrabat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha, Rama IX, who at 82 years of age, has reigned since 9 June 1946 and is the world's longest-serving current head of state as well as the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history.

Island living

The view from a residential condo on Samui island. Big Buddha temple can be seen in the distance . . and zoomed in looks like this:

Back to reality

After yesterday's HDR's, I thought I'd get back to simple photography.

Samui is an island in the south of Thailand that we try to take our 3 kids to a few times a year. We stay in the north of the island, rather than the more touristy west side, partially because its quieter, but more for the fact that we are right on the beach, and depending on the season, the wind is either blowing from north east or north west, keeping us cool and the pesky mosquitos down.

This image is from Bangpor beach, a few hundred metres away from where we stay.

Have a great weekend.

HDR chic (cheek), and all that jazz

Was surprised and pleased to find a comment from a good Flickr buddy on this blog, so early into its infancy. Vedd Edd is a not so rare animal these days, he's an HDR aficionado, but more than that, he's avid, an HDR connoiseur, teacher and expert, and d*mn good with his imagery. His work has consistently been of an amazingly high quality, it is highly popular and he's now in demand for his photographic workshops.

In light of his "finding" me here (and I know how that happened), I thought I'd post a couple of my own early HDR's. Above is nothing more than an early morning sojourn into the shrimp farms at the mouth of the Chao Phaya river, Bangkok's "River of Kings".

The below two images are from a sunrise taken at Wat Phai Wong Rua, a temple on the way to Suphanburi, and which houses a 26 metre high seated white Buddha image "Phra Putthakhodom". They were shot just as the sun come up, shining across a field with hundreds of small Buddhas.

Please do head on over to Vedd's blog.

Bangkok's Millenium Falcon

The Millennium Falcon was the spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo and his Wookie first mate, Chewbacca.

The highly modified YT-1300 light freighter first appeared in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and subsequently in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

On the surface, the Falcon looked like any other Corellian freighter, with a saucer-shaped primary hull, a pair of forward cargo-gripping mandibles, and a cylindrical cockpit mounted to the ship's side.

According to Star Wars creator George Lucas, the Falcon's design was inspired by a hamburger, with the cockpit being an olive on the side.

The Falcon flew point for the Alliance Fleet during the decisive Battle of Endor, and as it soared into the heart of the incomplete Death Star to deliver a missile volley which would help seal the Empire's fate it was damaged beyond all repair . . . . . .

Or so they thought!

As this photographic evidence shows the Falcon has been completely renovated and refurbished, and in the 21st century has been transformed into the luxury 5* hotel, the Millennium Hilton, on the banks of Bangkok's Chao Phya river.

May the Force be with you.

Likay, Thailand's comic opera

With thanks to Scott Crouse, and a comment he made to me on another blog, I've decided to create this new one, and with this first post.

Scott had simply asked me whether it was possible to leave comments on that blog, and the answer was: no, one of the faults of that blogging system (Tumblr), among others that I had become frustrated with.

I had started that original blog at the beginning of August (2010) with the idea to post an image per day of Thailand, a way of showing the thousands of images I had accumulated over the years of Thailand and its many places, familiar and unfamiliar, and its people, all from different angles, viewpoints and perspectives.

I was successful in being able to maintain a daily rate of imagery, and soon found I had a number of followers; many images were being reblogged on Tumblr (one gets notified) and a number were seen on non-Tumblr blogs (un-notified, but soon found).

With this switch to Blogger, I'm not sure I can maintain a daily rate of posting (I will try) as there is more space for text "description", and I hadn't intended the blog to be wordy at all, wanting all focus on the images themselves. But the absence of viewer's ability to comment (thanks, Scott) forced my hand to the change.

Let's see how we go . . .

Drum roll . . . . kicking off with these images of a Likay performance taken at a village party in Surin province.

Likay is a theatrical derivative of Thai Dance (Ram Thai), which is Thailand's main form of dramatic art with two forms: classical and folk. Likay is considered more on the folk side, and it has been said to be Thailand's comic opera for the masses.

Costumes are based on elements of classical Thai dress, highly colorful and often comical. Akin to Shakespeare, men normally play the female roles, usually heavily made up, and wearing clothes clearly not fitted for them.

Likay has been described as "drama of the people, for the people and by the people", with storylines being traditional, serious, lewd and bawdy.

Drawn from a number of sources, whether traditional tales or to meet current social needs, it is all bound together by the performers's skills and improvisations, the songs and the fast-paced action.

Many Likay stars have been as famous as the western celebrity of today, drawing huge crowds and a fan base that would be the envy of actors and movie stars.

The popularity of Likay is understandable, it "speaks" the language of the people, it is usually improvised on the spot using local dialects and anecdotes which the audience can instantly relate to, and it frequently contains innuendo and hidden messages with every statement conveying two or more messages which all "sophisticated" likay audiences instantly grasp with bursts and hoots of laughter.

If anyone is interested, here is the link to the now "deceased" Tumblr blog.