Butter Tea

Getting ready to distribute butter tea; at a festival in Jambay Lakhang, Jakar, Bhutan.

Bhutan is very welcoming to the visitor. At this busy local religious festival (with just a minor sprinkling of tourists) I was offered some butter tea and chili rice, just like all pilgrims and locals that were there for religious reasons.

I must admit that the butter tea can be an acquired taste. This one was - very pungent, creamy, and salty. The chili rice is just that: white rice spiced up with some chili, served in your bare hand.

Making Tarmac

Manual Roadwork, near Mongar, Bhutan.

These guys are making tarmac by mixing hot molten asphalt with grit. All day long. Roadwork is quite hard, slow, manual work in those quarters. But quite photogenic too...

To get this, I moved around them go get the smoke to be backlit by the sun. Then it was a matter of waiting until the smoke, their bodies and the shovels created a nice composition - I wanted those diagonals.

Monk in Punakha Dzong

This is in a 1000 Buddhas temple in the monastery that is part of Punakha Dzong, Punakha, Bhutan. The photo-gods were with me that afternoon.

I was walking down a corridor soaking up the atmosphere and gorgeous architecture of the Dzong (a fortress, combining a monastery and government quarters) when I heard 'come' out of a room I passed. This monk was waiting for me there. I put my camera down and had him explain me how to pay my respects to the Buddha. He explained a bit about the room and the 1000 buddhas. I was just beginning to wonder how to bring up the subject of a picture - always a bit difficult when it comes to religion - when he pointed to my camera, still sitting on the floor, and simply said - 'camera'. I snapped this portrait.

One that should not have been, as ISO 800 was not good enough: 1/5th of a second is a tad slow at 127mm... But as said, the photo gods were with me. Good karma. It's not critically sharp but I doubt you'll notice on the web. Love this shot anyway.

(I took two more almost identical shots, seconds later, at more reasonable shutter speeds, but you can see his smile slowly drop. Expression over perfection, for me.)

When I was about to say my goodbye to him, he referred to me as father. A touching end to a brief meeting I will remember for a long time.

All lined up

Rangjung Woesel Choeling Monastery, East Bhutan.

I had taken a shot of this group before, reflected in this same flooded courtyard. I'd even shown them the shot (to little reaction). But when I saw them coming along the wall, next to the water, I dashed like a madman to get the water between them and me. I guess you can see why. One of my favourite shots from the trip.
(About 50ft behind me, Mark Stennett was doing the same, but the extra distance gave him a cleaner shot: head-on, and all six of them evenly spaced. Ah well:-)

Hanoi

Sword lake.


Last week, we spent a few days in Hanoi, Vietnam's capital. More dignified, stylish, charming, and less frenetic than Saigon. Though not nearly as tranquil as this shot may make it appear. And traffic may be less busy than Saigon, that is compensated for by a more aggressive driving style. Less busy, but in the end, scarier.

I did not spend as much time looking around as I wanted to, distracted as I was by some offerings to the porcelain god. So for now only a few superficial impressions and comparisons to Ho Chi Minh City.

First and foremost, Hanoi is a lot better in maintaining its history. The old town still has many French colonial buildings, and the entire district is still laid out as before - organised by guild (Cotton Street, Bamboo Street, Fish Street, etc.) with really narrow and long 'tube houses'. Nice to see that not everything is being torn down for yet another gleaming highrise.

Hanoi is almost 2 hours flying north. It is less sunny and a lot colder at this time of year (18°C vs. 34°C ‐- or 65F vs. 94F).

Finally, a little opinion: the people in HCMC seem a little friendlier and laid back, while the food is heartier up north (more meat, more deep fried, a little less fruit and veg).

Spiritual Bali: Tirta Empul

We caught little glimpses of the spiritual side of Bali everywhere. The most visually clear example was the ritual bathing of the faithful before entering Pura Tirta Empul (the Clear Water Spring Temple).



In the foreground you can see the heads of some people in the long line for the spouts.

Quiet Bali: Rice Fields

Once you get off the road, Bali is quiet and beautiful. This was down a little alley and a fifteen minute walk through the rice paddies from the centre of Ubud (with its 80,000 shops).



And this is one of the (somewhat rare) places where you have a view from the road, in Tegalagang:

Beautiful Bali: Damselfly

I took this in the pool in Bali. It wasn't as hard as it may seem. These flowers dropped in the pool all the time, and they attracted the little damselfly (it's about an inch long). The pool had a slight current towards the drain, so all I had to do is be ready with my camera in the pool, downstream, and wait till they drift by. That way I did not startle them and got quite close.

Minor disadvantage: without sun screen, you get a nasty sunburn when you spend a lot of time in the pool. Especially when you start out as pasty white as I was. (I turned a beautiful crimson red afterwards.)

UPDATE: I believe this is a Blue Tailed Damselfly, and it sits on a Frangipani flower.

Bali

Overdue post! We're back from Bali - the long Tết holiday is over.



On a bike tour, in the rice fields, this happy fellow elaborately welcomed us to Bali, making a point of mentioning that we were welcome irrespective of our faith. When I asked to take a picture, he insisted that my wife be in it too. When seeing the result, he exclaimed "I am handsome" and welcomed us once more. That's when I snapped this.

Bali was not quite what we expected. Gorgeous luxury hotels, check. Beautiful, quiet and spiritual, kind of.

Beautiful whenever you get away from the road - it seems pretty much all significant roads are lined with shops. The 40km (25mi) drive from Jimbaran to Ubud was at least 80% lined with shop after shop. Half of the rest was other buildings. Leaving little view of the landscape.

Quiet, not so much. What do you want with a population of about 4 million on 5633 square km (2175 sq mi) that derives 60% of its income in tourism? (That's more densely populated than the Netherlands, the UK, or any US state by a good margin.)

Spiritual, yes. Bali is Hindu, and every compound has its little shrine, every village has three temples, and religion and rituals pervade every action. Just don't expect to find 'Eat, Love, Pray' on your holiday:-)

Decay

Piazza Pretoria in Palermo, opposite City Hall. And a nice dramatic sky in the late afternoon.

Philadelphia

A nightly view of City Hall.

Very minimal processing: just white balance, a little noise reduction, and sharpening.

Sicily unplanned

Fast forward to last year. Two of the shots I liked best, both in Sicily, and both with an unplanned element. On the first one, this kid walks into the frame when it was too late to do anything about it (had to chimp to even known whether he was in or not). And he really completes the composition:-)

This is in the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento (which, confusingly, is a ridge).

The second one is the opposite - I was waiting for the last person to leave, but when I saw him in the doorway, I knew that that was the shot.

This is the Duomo in Siracusa.