The Island of Aphrodite....
well, Cyprus of course. Travelled to the Island for two weeks in September 2022. Initially wanted to check out apartments but managed only to have a look or option on two that might become available in 2023. The rest was spent with our friends, chilling on Governors Beach near Limassol or taking sojourns through the Troodos Mountains, enjoying good food and drinks. That is what a holiday is meant to be. Flying from Germany was as it used to be, the airport not too full but neither empty. The dreaded face masks had to be worn since the flight originated in Germany, also from yesterday it is fine not to wear them, makes no sense either way, but that is with so many things lately. Anyway, the flight attendants were quite relaxed with implementing this rule, so overall it was ok. In Cyprus hardly anyone was seen wearing a face mask; the few that did were probably Germans. Beats me. It was still hot during day time and sometimes quite sultry at night, even in Nicosia. The water along the coast was still nice and warm and it was enjoyable to swim in the sea. We went over the "Green Line" in Nicosia, i.e. visited the northern part that is under Turkish Occupation. This is relatively easy, just show your passport or ID card and off you go. The "northern" part feels more like the Middle East, and in fact, the whole Island belongs to the Middle East, geographically and culturally as it is part of Europe only politically and administratively. The Schengen Agreement on free movement does not apply, since the Island is divided and there is no real control over who crosses from the North to the South through the UN-controlled Buffer Zone. Many migrants that try to reach mainland Europe are now routing themselves via Cyprus, having travelled to Turkey and the northern part of Cyprus crossed through the buffer Zone to the south and then trying their luck to travel onwards. Menial jobs are now often performed by migrants from south Asia or West Africa and over recent years they have become more plentiful in the streets of towns and even villages of the southern part of the island (the north as well I guess).
They often come to houses, looking for odd jobs like gardening and other stuff, trying to make a living. Every time I see them, it can break my heart to realize the hardships they must have endured to reach this place, the dangers and how big the desperation in their home countries must have been to set out on these journeys into the unknown, with the hope of reaching distant shores and a better and more prosperous and safer life. Many are without their families, although a good number I observed to be having their families with them, which actually is good but not easy at all. One can only hope that they are all treated humane and fairly, but deep inside we know that this is not the case. We are all humans and nobody is better than the other. As humanity there are big challenges ahead of us, collectively, everyone.
I did not really continue with photographing the last divided capital in the world, somehow it did not seem right this time. As the political process looks, it will remain divided for longer than people on both sides hope for, so I might come back and continue with that project. This visit also made me feel that indeed Cyprus might be the place to settle for good when finally leaving Germany, i.e. going into Exile. I will see if that holds true, as my four-month-plus journey to the Philippines and South-East Asia is only two months away. Will be interesting if I still feel so strongly for Cyprus after that time. Time will tell. It always will.
Arriving back in Germany made me feel like leaving again immediately. In October we will be travelling to Vienna, the second time this year. I like this city, although the Austrians are not much different at all from Germans, especially the politics going on currently. Nevertheless, Vienna is a nice place and I hope to do some more street photography. I love the atmosphere of this city, one can feel it is a capital, many people from other countries abound, just different. In Cyprus, I used my Leica Cameras and the Ricoh GR 3, which seems like a good combination for the photography I am currently doing. Having too many cameras is probably a stupid first-world problem, but indeed it does not make it easier what to take on what trips. For the Philippines, I have not decided yet, on the Leica's, which are heavy, or the Pen F with the array of lenses that are much lighter. Oh well, I feel ashamed to even have to think about it.
So this is it for the time being on the trip to Cyprus. Could write much more, but not really relevant as it is holiday stuff. I do love Cyprus, and with any luck it will be our new home soon, maybe as early as next year. I keep on working on it. Peace love and light to you all.
The missing years...
are the ones since 2018. I have not been active in updating the blog anymore. As an interim, I wrote a short blog post about Purok Masingayahon, which was a copy of a small book I made and I only had to copy and paste it into the website. So what happened? Well, I was around of course and the year 2018 became very hectic as I finally managed to retire from my job and I had to move from my place where I lived in Lebanon. I ended up in my home country Germany because for family reasons. Family is family, of course, however since I had not lived in Germany more or less since 1983, I was not too happy to return. Not at all. With all the ongoing obligations at home, I had no desire to write about the same. In these missing years, I did manage to travel a bit, in and outside of Germany. Vienna, Cyprus, Singapore and the Philippines, as well as Belgium, Strasburg and The Netherlands were places visited. In Germany, it was the Baltic coast, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart of course, with a short visit to Poland as well. Since the dreaded Covid crap started, with all its restrictions, lock-downs and other nonsense, it became even more problematic, but we managed to do a few of the above trips. After the passing of my father in early 2020, I decided that I was not going to stay in Germany and made plans to sell the property and move to Asia or maybe Cyprus, just not staying here. The "pandemic" did not make this easier, on the contrary, with all its restrictions, quarantine etc. and travel bans it made it much more difficult to plan so we are now at the end of 2021 and I am still here. I did manage to contract a realtor and have the house checked by an architect. The German buerocarcy does not make it easier to sell the house because of its location in a so-called 'green' zone, however, it can be done but it is this much more complicated. So the plan is to finalize the sale in 2022 and move the hell out of Germany.
The year 2020 started like any other previous year. I was travelling to the far east, this time via Taiwan with China Airlines and I enjoyed the trip and experience of flying with China Airlines. After landing in Manila and connecting with friends and family I was off for a week in the province in the southern Philippines. This was followed by a week in Singapore and another week in Manila, where I started applying for my permanent residence. While waiting for the process, I went back to the province and continued on my project concerning the plight and hardship of the sugar cane and general farm workers that often live in bad conditions and are treated not nicely by their Haciendero employers. I wrote about this already in a short form last year under the title Purok Masingyahon. While doing so, already reports emerged of the virus that had been discovered in China in January, and where while in Singapore more concrete information transpired so much so that a case was discovered in Singapore on Sentosa Island and the Hotel I was staying in implemented temperature checks for anyone entering the building.
In the province, I continued with one of my projects of photographing the people that harvest the sugar cane. These are often migratory workers that move around from province to province and often live under appalling conditions. In Negros Occidental, the part I was living in, much of this work will be performed by labourers of the various haciendas, that, often equally live in squalid conditions and are not treated very well by the big landowners, i.e.hacienderos as they are referred to to locally in a Spanish term. News reached me that my father had been hospitalized with a mild stroke, so I decided to travel home as soon as possible. Passing through Taipeh airport on my way back to Frankfurt had already a bad foreboding, it was nearly empty. When I had transmitted through it seven weeks earlier, it was as full as it could be. In Frankfurt, the same picture, the always full and busy airport was nearly empty as well. My father passed away three weeks after my return, his condition worsening by the day, with other ailments adding to the mild stroke. In the end, the doctors informed me that there was nothing that could be done for him anymore. Because of the 'pandemic', it was only possible to bury him six weeks later. After that, all the bureaucracy of the inheritance of the property and related issues took my energy and I felt I had nothing to write about that was really of interest and so I forgot that I even had this page and blog. I was reminded once the payment became due, but again had no energy to write or display any of the photos that I had been taking in the meantime.
Well what to say, even this is now taking me forever to complete this blog entry. To make it shorter, during the so-called Pandemic we travelled to Cyprus, Austria, Belgium, Poland as well as Paris and in 2019 also to Lebanon. I continued photographing and bought new equipment along the way. In the Philippines I damaged my Olympus OMD, it fell from my shoulder and cracked the sensor. I replaced it with an Olympus Pen F which is a very nice camera that I cherish very much. Currently, my activities only include posting sometimes photos to Instagram @monsoonlight00 and making yearbooks for 2019 to 2021. I have ideas for several publications but have not come around to working on them seriously, although some drafts exist in the publishing software. If all goes well, we will be going to Cyprus again and I want to continue my photo series on the last "divided capital", i.e. Nicosia, in the world. The latter from the end of November planning to go to Asia, via Singapore to the Philippines, Malaysia and maybe Indonesia. In the Philippines, I want to continue to photograph the sugar cane workers and poor landless Campesinos. I hopefully will also make it to the rice terraces of Banaue, one of the Asian wonders of the world. I will try to update this blog from now on a more regular basis hopefully. for now, this shall be all for this intermediate text. Peace, love and light.
Purok Masingyahon
Purok Masingyahon
Driving south on the Negros National Highway, right after the bridge over the Bago River is the left turn towards the Maao Township and the Kanlaoon Volcano National Park. As mostly on Negros Island and especially in the province of Negros Occidental, the countryside is predominantly covered by Sugar cane or Tubo as it is called in the local language. The roads are often clogged by the slow moving “Tubo Trucks” that move day and night from the sugar cane fields and haciendas to the sugar mills that are located all over the island. Often the trucks move in convoys at night and are halted on the side of the road before dawn in order not to move through the rush hour traffic in Bacolod.
Once you take the turn from the Negros National Highway South on to the road to Maao, after a few hundred meters, one comes to the locality of “Crossing Bago”. Until the 1970, this was the point where the old highway crossed the Bago River and a bridge had been built before World War II and hence this hamlet was called Crossing Bago. The bridge was decomishend in the late 1980 and completely destroyed in one of the violent Taifuns in the early 2000’s and Crossing Bago has hence descended into a little known locality on the road side to Maao and Kanlaon Volcano National Park. Today it consists of a few dozen small houses and a church of the local parish. The road to Maao is dotted all the way with similar locations, small villages that house the people and families of the workers that labour on the various ‘Haciendas’ along the road. Sugar Cane is the predominant crop with rice now also making a larger appearance. If one drives along any of these country roads on the island, there is always some Tubo harvesting going on.
Purok Masingyahon is located in one of these Tubo plantations, off to the side of the Bago-Maao road. One reaches it via a rough dirt road, with turn off from the main road nearly invisible. Only people in the know see where the turn off is, marked by a light pole and a stick with an empty ‘sprite can’. At night, often a light is burning on that light pole so the people who get off their Jeepneys or buses know where to go. There is no road sign or other to point in the direction of the hamlet. The rough road leads into another world. On both sides usually high grass and sugar cane grows, and at night it is advisable to have a flashlight handy to shine in front of you on the track as there are snakes and monitor lizards crossing sometime from the water canal to the sugar cane or vice-versa. Purok Masingyahon consists of rather well built traditional houses, i.e. a combination of stones, bamboo and other wood or of stone bungalows. Many of the inhabitants of the Purok work either on the Hacienda, with the dominant haciendero being, for now, still the Javellana family. Others have progressed and work in the capital manila in various occupations or as Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW). Many of them have lived all their lives in this location, gone away and have come back, to settle on their ancestral land and live with their extended family. Many are interrelated to one another, which makes them one, mostly happy, big family.
There are many things that are plenty in the Purok, like plenty of dogs, plenty of children, plenty of chicken and often also plenty of happiness, which by the way is the meaning of Masingyahon. I, have been travelling to visit Purok Masingyahon for more than 20 years and have enjoyed each and every stay with the friendly people of 'my family' and in extension the larger ‘family’ in general. Known to each and many as ‘Tito Achim’ I have been running around and taking photos with my cameras all these years. Initially with my analog cameras and later with my digital cameras, all of various makes. To my disgrace I have shared very little of those images and will now try to make up for this through creating various forms of publications that I will distribute to my family for keepsake. I am starting with this one, wholy in black and white as this is a photography field I feel strongly connected to. Hopefully people will enjoy watching these images of real life in Purok Masingyahon as much as I enjoyed photographing them. Thank you to all for accepting me into your life and let me run around and take photos of you guys all the time. I love you all!!!!
Tito Achim :)
A new beginning...
For a year, this time 2018, has arrived. The year is still fresh or can one say innocent? Is it really as events have already taken place that led to death and destruction during the first day(s) of the year. So from this, we will see what this year will bring.
Here in the eastern Levant, the year ended with rain and started with the same, which, indeed is good news. Although it dampened the new year celebrations in downtown Beirut a bit, nevertheless, considering that so far little rain has fallen in this winter, the rain is very welcome. As forecasted, more is to come towards the end of the first week of the year. This really is good news.
Heavy Rains but very welcome
Looking out the window onto the Mediterranean Sea, I notice Seagulls cruising by, circling and coming back and forth, patrolling the shoreline, which does not happen to often. It is a pair of gulls, which was joined by a flock of Cormorants flying south. The usual gang of Indian Myna birds, which seem to have multiplied a lot since I first noticed them a couple of years ago, also is roosting temporarily and noisily on the tree outside my window. They seem to have some great group dynamics, always on the move, never alone, at least a duo of two hopping around somewhere and calling each other. In addition to those, there is also at least a pair of Palestine Sunbirds that frequents the Hibiscus flowers outside the window on a daily basis, absent only if it is raining heavily or when to windy, which prevents them from flying due to their delicate and light weight.
Palestine Sunbird
The new year will start with some travelling, first to SE Asia for three weeks, then shortly after that to Germany and Cyprus, but those dates are not fixed yet but will most likely happen in February or maybe March.
The Sulu Sea after Sunset
Photos that I will take during the cause of the year, I guess, will be mostly with the smartphone, the Olympus cameras, the X100s and maybe the Canon G-10. It really varies on what I am looking for and whether I remember to bring a camera along. In reality, the smartphone is a great substitute camera that one more or less has always around, which a totally acceptable image quality, especially in good light. An App like Snapseed then will perform the rest to create a pleasing image out of it.
So, with the travels to begin next week, I will post more after I return, also about the experiences that I have made with the cameras on the trip, most likely the OMD, G-10 and my new drone, the DJI Spark. I am excited to go and engage in the Photography and filming, but I dread the long flight to the Far East, it is just to long to sit around in an aircraft cabin. But what to do. So bye for now, it is a new year and a new beginning, more later.
Good Bye 2017...
Another year has passed, where did the time go. The new year is merely a day away and as always one ponders what it brings. The option are plentiful, it can go either way, I think all options are on the table as certain people used to say. It has been unusually warm this year, the winter as we know it has yet to come. Only little rain has been received and the mercury is every day close to or above 20 Celsius, way to much. If it continues like this, with little rain, then the next crisis in the country is already programmed, i.e. the electricity crises will be joined by the water crises, which combined with a lurking trash crises could make for a lethal mix. So please let it rain and lots of it.
Early Morning drive - southern Highway
What to say about the past year, in retrospective, it passed fast and remembering last years new year’s eve in Germany, hard to believe it is twelve months later now. It had brought some travels to south-east Asia, Germany or course, Cyprus as well, one could say the usual suspects. Nothing extraordinary happened during the year, some illnesses that were overcome, getting a bit older every day, feeling a bit more tired more so often. With regard to photography, two new lenses were acquired, first the 7-14 Olympus and then later the 30 Macro lens, also from Olympus. Both are superb lenses and I am very happy to have acquired them. Another purchase was a drone, the DJI Spark which is a recent acquisition. It gave me a bit of a headache to figure out how to set it up properly, attributable to my impatience and lack of resolve to read lengthy explanations on how to do things. Thanks to the help of YouTube and various DJI forums I finally figured it out and made my maiden flight in the apartment as my present location is not the most conducive for drone flying. The real test will be soon in SE Asia where I will take it into outdoor action and hope it can add some more interesting perspectives to my little movies I am making.
Afterglow - Five Palms
So, 2018 is coming soon, what will it bring, what to expect. Well I am uncertain yet on how it might go, since of course I don’t know how it will go, as I can not see into the future. I have my eye on early retirement, in summer of the year, no exact date yet. Analyzing the possible scenarios, sometimes I am not so sure if it will be the right decision as I sometimes believe that I may not achieve what I want to do. If indications prevail that early retirement maybe counterproductive at this time, I might, as hard as it will be, decide to push it a bit backwards until the time is right and pieces have been put in places to make it a success. Also I am looking forward to jump ship, the water must be right to jump, no sharks or similar around so I can make it safely to shore, sort to say. Will be travelling to SE Asia soon, then on to Germany and possibly again to Cyprus in order to canvas for apartments that would offer me the place for a retirement retreat. We’ll see how it goes
Back from the future - I'll be back
Next year could get hot politically, internal and external. To much is happening in the region, some dangerous developments in the last days and months that may have tremendous repercussions. As always time will tell and despite all the negative signs one has to remain positive, despite it is not always easy. I still have to do some photo assignments to do for my own projects, like ‘Rue Hamra’ and some others for my photo book on the place here.
Southern Seas - Frigate and palms
Anyway, lets remain positive but lets keep an eye on developments and the monkeys with hand grenades in top positions.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!
The umbrellas may protect us in 2018!
Autumn has arrived...
or the year 2017, the time has been flying like nothing, good or bad, will only transpire once it has past. Finally the summer is finished in the Levant, the temperatures have dropped and the overnights are getting more pleasant by the day or night. Some trees have started to shed their leaves already, here in Germany and even in the eastern levante. The next months may show how the peace is holding, or if again, the area might descent into more war. It looks like the eastern neighbour is coming to a period where the fighting might subside, but not completely cease. This of course does not mean that the whole region will now decent into an eternal peace, it rather looks like it might disintegrate into pieces. With all the happenings in the wider region, one could believe that perpetual war is what the future might look like, on a greater or smaller scale, but I believe that peace will be a victim for a long time to come. As always, the people of the eastern levante take it day by day, what else to do they believe as in their conception there is only little control they can exercise and are used to react to events then believe they can really influence them. The day to day life goes on, people live, laugh and love, what else to do. Every moment still has it's beauty and it is worth living for that moment. Jani, we will see what the future will bring and all will be good, Inshallah.!
The first rain and thunder clouds of this autumn in Tyre
As in most years, went up to the Chouf Mountains a few time, up into the high passes and the cedars, the low valleys, enjoying the clean air and clean surroundings. Summer in the Chouf Mountains is pleasant, the humidity much lower than along the coast, the green of the trees and fields very pleasant to the eyes and the blue hour magical. This summer there seemed to be more tourists up in the mountains, maybe the relative stable situation in the region contributing to this. It seems that there are some Mediterranean cruises are doing port calls in Beirut, and frequently busses with tourists can be seen in Tyros, Saida and of course Beiteddine and Deir Al Omar in the Chouf Mountains. The other places visited are for sure, Jbeil (Byblos), Batroun and the Jeita Grotto. Up in the Chouf Mountains I can really recommend to visit the Beiteddine palace and the Mir Amin palace hotel, which has an excellent restaurant and a phantastic view over the mountains, even down to the sea. Deir Al Omar is another beautiful place that invites to walk around the small alleys, take photos and for food, I recommend the Al Midan restaurant that is located on the central square near the mosque. The grilled chicken over charcoal is phantastic. Highly recommended.
Beit Eddine Palace (Bath house)
Impressions from the Beirut to Tyre highway.
I have been writing on this for a while, and the above descend into chaos might actually happen after the events from November 4 and onwards. Everyone is sitting with suspension, awaiting further developments. The resurgence in the heat, politically and weather wise can be felt across the region. Ironically today, with the warmer temperatures, the wind has started blowing from the south-east, or the Saudi Arabian desert! May it subside and cooler sentiments settle in soon.
An evening stroll at the seaside
Autumn leaves in Germany
As previously, I mostly used the Olympus system as well as the Fuji X100s and most often my cell phone for photography. I added two lenses to the Olympus system, the 9 to 18mm and the 30mm Macro, which I find both very interesting to work with. I neither used the extreme end of the wide angle lenses, neither did I own a Macro lens before. Somehow this ignited my photography interest, at least for some while.
Upcoming travel plans are a journey to Cyprus at the beginning of December, hopefully I will be able to document some street life in the last divided capital city in the world and maybe some landscape photos from other parts of Cyprus. At the same time I am also looking into the possibility of moving residence to the island from some time next year, if, I find the right location and place at the right price. Further down the calendar, early next year, again a trip to the far east, possible with a stay in Hong Kong. Then the stage is set for departure from work, as early as end of April next year and latest by middle of August. Looking forward to that a lot, in order to hopefully be able to concentrate more on photography. I will try to post at least once more before the year 2017 ends. Bye!
Summer Equinox....
has arrived and we have halftime for the year 2017. Summer now has arrived in the eastern Levante, not that I have been looking forward to it, not really. Although the days and nights are still bearable, soon the humidity and the temperatures are going to rise to uncomfortable levels. My last post was about the trip to Siam, or really to Bangkok only for a few days, but as mentioned there, I really liked it a lot. The Philippines were good as well, different from Thailand, similar never the less.
Point Alpha Memorial area - Uniforms of the Border Police (Bundesgrenzschutz) and the Customs (Zoll)
A quick trip to Germany in May, also for a longer period this time, three weeks to be precise. I travelled a little bit around, visited my old area I had been working in the Border Police on the German-German border in the late 70's and early 80's, which by now is nearly 40 years ago. Time does fly. The border is long gone, at some places they have left parts of it for museum purposes and for future generations to see what the border represented in physical terms. It was interesting to stand at the same places I had been when on active duty, now one can travel freely, and cross the old borderline, something we could not do in those days. Also we often thought how it would look after the curve in the road we could see, what was beyond the horizon. At those time, we all thought that none of us would ever experience the border to open and we could travel freely across it. When optimistic we said, that maybe our children would see that, but only maybe. Then one day in 1989, everything came down, borders opened and what we only two years before had thought would be impossible happened. The physical border came down, but the border in people’s heads remained much longer and I suspect is still prevalent in many people’s minds. However if shows and espcially showed me how fast things can change, from impossible to done, in the blink of an eye. Now that Border Police of those times is long gone, a new institution has been created on the foundations of those years, calling itself the Federal Police, which has now much more duties and tasks all over Germany. What was in essence a paramilitary police force with combatant status is now a civil police force like all the others.
Butterfly Garden in Mambukal Resort at Mt. Kanlaon vulcano
Back here nothing much has changed. Went to the Chouf (Shouf) mountains for a day, high up to the pass that connects to the Beqaa Valley at 1900m but we did not drive down to Kefraya. As always I enjoy the mountains, the clean and still crisp air, the green of the trees and other plants, with wildflowers still in full bloom in the higher elevations. Of course Beirut has been on the menu as well, but not as often as I used to go in the past. I bought a new lens in Germany for the Olympus, the 8-18 mm wide angle lens, which gives me really good results as indicated in all the reviews that I read beforehand. Very happy with that purchase. I am still working on the 'Rue Hamra' project but it is going much slower that I thought it would. Recently when walking around the area as I normally do, my vision was blurred in a sense that I did not see any worthwhile photos to take. There was some new graffiti on the walls, that was all. I found the plastic AK 47 in silver again in a shop window, this time together with some shoes, wigs and sunglasses. What a way of attracting attention to your display. I guess only in Beirut :)
Sipalay Beach in southern Negros Island on the Sulu Sea
While in Germany is used the x100s only, I just love that camera even with the restrictions of the 23mm (35mm) lens. I have the 50mm extension lens but not very often use it as, really, for most scenarios these days the 23 (35) mm lens is just fine. For a long time I have not photographed wildlife anymore, well, at least animals I mean. The is enough 'human wildlife' around, but for that the normal lens is just fine :).
The Sulu Sea near Sipalay in souther Negros Island
As always I have been thinking of a new camera to buy, GAS coming back occasionally. Since I am also attracted to make films for YouTube about my travels, I am looking for something that is usable for this on a more or less professional level. I did some research and found the Panasonic FZ 2000 (EU) that does 4K filming and has a lot of other features that I like. It is a so called 'Bridge Camera' the lens extending from 24 to 480mm, a one inch sensor and lots of other stuff. Or, do I dash out the money for the OMD MK1 II which fits all my Oly lenses or, this is the point I am currently at, face the withdrawal symptoms of GAS and work with the gear I have and try to master that before progressing and buying another piece of expensive gear that then, due to the limited time I have, sits in the cabinet and collects dust, like some other stuff.
Justine Joy (JJ) on the beach in Sipalay, southern Negros Island
Indeed, with my possible retirement soon, i.e. next year I also want to focus a bit more on my social media presence on YT and Flickr to present my photos to family, friends and a wider world if interested. I do have a Twitter account, but so far only to read news, but I might use it for photos as well. We will see. I have these accounts and will start publishing them on this blog as links just if someone is interested to see more photos. The next big event is the retirement from my current job sometimes around this time of the year. I can go as early as April, but for pension purposes I might stay until June or even August. I am looking forward to the time after, hopefully doing what I want to do since a long time, creating Art through photography and content and information through videos on travel and experiences, especially when finally living back in the Philippines. The house planning is going along, slowed down through the usual bureaucracy there, but one has to deal with it. An eye will have to be kept on the security situation in the country, especially if it will remain safe for foreigners. A concern could be the kidnapping for ransom and outselling to the terror organizations of these days to be used as hostages. Time will tell how it will go, I am hopeful that it will remain a viable option to retire in the islands. It is always good to have plan B and so on, for this case it would be Cyprus. Plan C and further will have to made up as the situations develops and be directed by immediate needs and developments. As for now I remain positive. What else to do :)
So, I think for this time I have said a lot. My back hurts, still from my fall, and I cannot sit for so long. Enough now of writing and until the next time. Bye!
Taking Aim - Near Bacolod City on Negros Island
Selfi Selfi - Bago City
For the ones interested, below are the links to my YouTube channel and also to my Flickr account. Copy and paste into browser windo.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnYYMjyuQiPeZT35MvmMmFg
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/achimvoss/
A taste of Siam
I got when recently visiting Thailand and the city of Bangkok. For a long time I had deferred to fly to Thailand, as I did not want to be considered one of those Europeans who goes there for one reason and for that one only.
Anyway, an old time friend of mine was in Bangkok looking to take up longtime residence there and so he had asked to come and visit him and support him in his endeavours. A short week in the city was not enough, but it for sure awoke my interest to see more of this facinating city and certainly more of the country as well. The people were very, very nice and beautiful, the food was great and even the weather, albeit hot, was endurable. The trafffic, even that one I did not find so bad but then I guess I did not see the worst one while there. The Grand Palace and the lying Budda were very impressive I must say, the downside was that the whole complex was very full because not only of tourists but also people from all cornes of the country to pay their respects to their beloved King that had recently passed away and was highly revered by the citizens. The predominant colour people wear right now was black or white, in another show of respect to the king.
Terminal 21 Mall
The food was fantastic, especially if one loves south east asian kitchen. Besides being very tasty, it also was very affordable, clean and plenty. We visited only one of the nightmarkets as the time was short and since it is very centraly located we went to Patpong. The girly bars are disgusting, just even looking from the outside and I can not understand what people, especially men would draw them to these establishments. All women are beautiful, to me especially asian women, but this is the pits. The rest of the market is interesting, with all its goods and characters milling about. There was nothing what really interested me but it was full of people buying and drinking and milling about. Chinatown was another interesting part of the city to visit. Again it is full of temples and has a wonderful atmosphere about. Thailand it was onwards to another south east asian country, the Philippines about which I will write later. In the meantime back in Lebanon after four weeks in Asia, not easy and technically this is also Asia, western Asia to be precise, but nevertheless. The weather has been good, a little bit warm but not hot yet, comfortable indeed. The country in the east is again errupting in violence and even close to home there is fighting in the palestinian camp in Saida, closing the major road through the city. For the whole South-East Asia trip I brought two cameras, the Olympus OMD and the EP2.
This time I not only took photos but also used them for filming, gathering some material, more than usual. Overall I am happy with the results, but the EP2 now shows its age, especially if I compare the film foottage from it with those from the OMD or even the Samsung S6. On the way back I bought a Gimbal in Dubai duty free, which in retrospective, I should have bought on the way out. The footage sometimes is really shaky but nothing to be done now. We learn from our mistakes, or so I hope. On the way back from the Philippines, for the first time, I experienced problems with my handluggage and the camera gear I was carrying in it. The ground staff of Emirates Airlines tried to insist that I was only allowed to carry up to 7kg in my handluggage. Only after I had showed them the ID of the German Photographers Association and after they had checked that indeed it was only camera gear in the bag, the reluctantly allowed me to carry it on board. First time ever and especially Emirates had always been very accommodating in the past. Guess I might have to try Qatar in the future.
Until next time, bye.
Patpong Night Market
Dog days in Bangkok - to hot to move.
Near the river
Lying Buddha in the Grand Palace
In the Grand Palace Garden - a vey peaceful place
Monk in the Grand Palace temple complex