Friday, April 03, 2009

SWF - 3 April

swf.jpg

I viewed the skies in two places this past week. In Vientiane, the hazy skies became more clear when washed by several thunderstorms. I arrived in Bangkok on Weds morning, just after a storm so the sky has been unusually clear here as well.

Last week, I went on one of my long walks. I was enjoying the shape of a palm against the intense blue sky when I saw something special in the tree.

Palm and sky

He was cutting ripe coconuts out of the tree and lowering them to the ground by a pulley system.

I also passed this temple entrance on one of my walks last weekend. At first, I though the shapes in the triangle were cut outs, revealing the sky behind. Then I looked closer and realized the illusion - often tiny mirrored tiles are used in the decoration.

reflective temple entry

Even in the closeup, it's hard to see the joints between the mirrors.

closeup

The weather in Bangkok has been nice the past few days - well hot, but not the painful kind of hot that comes with smog. This is a stitched together view of one of my favorite places, Lumphini Park in central Bangkok.

Lumphini2

And a view of the building craze still going on in Bangkok:

view of construction

I remember there used to be a great market here, plus several sleezy bars I enjoyed going to. One of the bars, the Cock and Bull, had a great Philippino country-western band. After working Saturdays at the refugee camp, we'd often take the late afternoon bus to Bangkok for the rest of the weekend and stayed in a rundown guest house near here.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world.

9 comments:

Jayne said...

Love the one of the little boy in the tree! Very well observed.

And you're right, it's almost impossible to tell the cut outs are mirrors.

Unknown said...

Ha! I love that first photo, so funny but a good photo for skywatch.

Bryan said...

Great photos. That first one is certainly unique.

DigitalShutterMania said...

Sawasdee,

Nice photos from BKK ^_^

DigitalShutterMania said...

Chanpheng,

You are right. This island is pretty close to Pattaya. We took 40 mins by a normal boat from shore to the island.

If I were you, I would like to wait for Canon EOS 500D because its function is pretty much Canon EOS 50D and you can record high dep videos as well. The price should be around 30,000 Bath Thai. ^_^

floreta said...

oh my goodness. how do you get up there?? i've always wondered how you climb palm trees..

Island Style said...

These are really interesting..love that one of Bangkok (building craze)- really captivating-

Arija said...

Nice shots, especially the second ast one.

Unknown said...

The temples look quite similar with the one we have here. Come take a look at my site..hehe