lotus pond

I always come back to this lotus pond near my home. One time I almost got into trouble because everyone was jittery about security and they thought I was taking pictures of sensitive installations, when all I was interested are the lotus flowers in full bloom early in the morning. I promptly removed myself from the place before I get into any more trouble. But when I went back last January, I limited myself to where there can be no mistake in my intentions, that is to take the pictures of the lotus flowers in full bloom. To my surprise, one woman told be to go further in because she said, I might even find small turtles in there. I did not find them, only more of the lovely bright pink flowers lit brightly by the morning sun. © 2006, Bangkok, Thailand, daddywasabi, all rights reserved.

luang prabang trees

It was not an original idea but there were a lot of bare trees reaching up like fingers to the sky. So I could not help myself and used up a lot of memory space in my cf card. It was also a good way of easing up on my back because of the long motorcycle ride. © 2006, Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, daddywasabi, all rights reserved.

royal barges

I found it by accident. I did not even realize that the barges were located somewhere in Samsen. I just decided to go back to this soi we entered by mistake during the Holy Week when I was visiting the old churches of Bangkok. After taking pictures using my Holga, I went to the river and found black boats and beyond were some of the Royal Barges. I saw the sign in the piers that on certain days, the express boats will not be passing by some piers because of the rehearsals of the Royal Barges to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the ascension to the throne of HM the King. The minders of the place allowed me to take pictures. But then he commented why I was taking pictures when the sun is going down. I took his advise and came back the next day with my Canon 30V and a roll of film. It was a bit cloudy with light being diffused but bright enough and I went and took as many picture that my roll would allow without me falling into the water. These are just scans of the negatives. I will be definitely be making hand prints of these pictures. © 2006 Bangkok, Thailand, daddywasabi, all rights reserved.

erawan revisited

A few weeks ago, a crazed man went to the Erawan shrine at the corner where the Grand Hyatt Erawan is located and smashed the revered image. People were shocked to learn of the news the following morning. Now the Fine Arts department is makinga new statue which is made of metal and cement which will include the smashed plaster statue. In another few months the new statue will be ready. When I visited the place, pictures of the old statue were placed in the shrine. Last week, as I was taking pictures of the walkways under the BTS line, I notices that they had erected white scaffolding around the old shrine with the picture of the original statue outside. I read in the papers that when they were building the old Erawan Hotel, so many accidents had been happening during the construction. The place was being declared as cursed. Erawan is the Hindu elephant god. So a shrine to the Hindu god Bhrama was constructed. After this was done, all he accidents stopped. I never saw the old Erawan Hotel. When I moved to Bangkok in 1990, the Grand Hyatt Erawan was already being constructed. With all the changes the old Erawan shrine was left untouched. Many people from different countries visit the shrine and make their wish as the shrine is well known to make some wishes to come true. I took the pictures using Leica M5 with a 50mm summicron lens. #&169 2006, Bangkok, Thailand, daddywasabi, all rights reserved.

erawan vendors

I visited the shrine again a few weeks ago to see what had happened to the shrine. I also took pictures of the vendors around the shrine. The lottery ticket has been there forever. I posted his picture last year. Along the road are the sellers of the garlands, incense stick, bananas and the elephant statues that are usually offered in the shrine. I will be posting pictures of te shrine as I saw it in a few days from now. © 2006, daddywasabi, April 2006, Bangkok, Thailand, all rights reserved.