Monday, November 29, 2010

That’s a lot of concrete :)

DSC0228h3

The composition was kind a obvious, I just wished there were more cars beneath it, to balance it out a little more. This is Siam BTS station (aka Sky Train), probably the busiest station in the whole of the kingdom :)

Not quite sure how the structure is lit at night, but it could be an interesting shot, with less cars and display lights coming from the various stores.

Good to be back…


It has already been three months since we’ve moved, but for the past few weeks we have been going back and staying over the weekend at the old place, your mother loves it because she is into making soap at the moment, and so she needs as much room as the Space Shuttle needs before she takes off for the stars.

DSC02389
I think you love it as well, with all that space to run around, and a garden with 5 taps all connected to a huge water pump meaning you can be totally soaked in about 5 seconds, it also gives us opportunities to be back to Putthamonthon…

All in all it is certainly good to be back… :)


 
DSC02538
DSC02683














DSC02608




DSC02629 








Saturday, November 27, 2010

Loy Kratong 2010

 
“Loi Krathong
takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional
Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November.”

Wikipedia

DSC02702-001The moon was certainly full that night :)

Here was an attempt to capture the bright full moon with no tripod, not too bad, well it helped having the camera jammed up against the wall.

To be honest here baby, I think you have the view out of all of us, not that you care of course, being only two and a half, you are now more interested in jumping fully clothes into the bath full of water.

Anyway, this was your only second loy-kratong and there was no way we were going to stay in, we had to go and ‘loy’ the ‘kratong’ (a direct translation would probably be ‘float-basket’). Usually the place to go would be the riverside temples, so that the kratong can be floated down the river. However, another popular place is ‘Suan Lum’s (huge) lake’.

We decided to head for Suan Lum, simply because we wanted to take you on the sky train…  (and it was close to our house)
 
 
  
DSC02716-005DSC02711-002DSC02712-003















Somehow you have forgotten how to walk, you now come in two modes, ‘sit’ or ‘run’, both are really tiring for both your mother and I, because we ended up either carrying you everywhere or chasing after you at full pelt (running towards moving cars seems to be your specialty).

The one station BTS (aka Sky Train) ride was a hoot, the crowd was not that bad and you were all bright eyed and bushy tailed :)
     
   
  
DSC02721-006
It was a good walk from the BTS Silom station to the main entrance of Suan Lum (there is large statue of King Rama VI), the street hawkers were out en mass, the delicious smell of food cooking filled the cool night air, while the colourful kratong added eye candy to the normally peaceful but plain square.







    
  
  
DSC02738-008Not to repeat the same mistake we made last year, this time we bought our kratong early, we basically stopped at the very first hawker we saw, you chose the kratong, then we made our way through the gates.

It was a mistake letting you carry the kratong, no need to go into detail here, (after a minute most of the flowers were on the floor :) )

 




 
 
  
DSC02726-007The organiser decided to re-create old bangkok, with people dressing like the olden days, there were also stalls selling traditional food, I quite liked the display boards explaining the past.

By far the stall with the longest queue was the ‘fortune teller’s’, anyway, after a couple of minutes we decided to ‘loy’ the ‘kratong’ so that we would have more hands to look after you :) Of course I no longer carry a lighter, so we had to borrow it from a ‘farang’ (a polite slang for caucasian foreigners) to light the candle and the joss sticks.

  
   

DSC02740-009After the kratong peacefully floated away (we totally forgot to put some coins in the kratong… aaahhhggghhh). Your mother and I decided to have a walk around, there was quite a lot to be seen, but you were having none of it… so we decided to call it a night.









 
 
 
DSC02743-010
Before going home we decided to stop by Chester Grill (Thailand own QSR), then you decide to drop your special #2… haa haa haa, without a spare nappy, it was the correct decision to make a quick exit :)











 
  
In stead of going back by BTS, we decided to catch a ‘tuk-tuk’ instead, I never haggle (because I am just terrible at it), so in no time we were sprinting through Silom and Narathiwas. Luckily the traffic was very light, with all that fresh air it really helped us to forget that you were totally filled up with #2 :)

DSC02762-012

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Bangkok’s BRT

First was the BTS (aka skytrain), then came the MRT (undergrounds), now comes the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit). Although the first (and only) BRT line runs right in front of our place, we have never thought of actually using it… until now (before going on any further, BRT is simply a bus with a dedicated lane all to itself (although on some part of the route they do share the road with the rest)).

This mass transport has caused a bit of a stir, because in some area they took away one lane of the road and gave it to BRT, just imagine that you’ve been stuck in traffic for the last 45 minutes without moving an inch (a very common occurrence in BKK), then as you glance to your right and see this empty oasis lane (as far as the eyes could see) but you can’t just get to it… :)

Anyway, right now there is a promotion, 10 THB for the whole route… as this was a weekend the road was pretty empty, so it took us only 30 minutes to travel 12.5 Kms, very good for BKK standard.

DSC02180-003

DSC02185-005


























DSC02183-004DSC02178-002

























DSC02190-007

DSC02186-006

DSC02196-008

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

First Book is coming (end)… in my very hands :)

IMG_1978Very pleased  with it (since I don’t have any other experience with the other vendors), but just for this first time order for the quality check, I shall definitely be going back to Blurb :)

Now, I can see myself slaving over thousands of photo, trying to group them into stories, then painstakingly put them in a book… :) I wonder how long this fad would last :)