A nice 6 foot ship I caught on the weekend just idling around a pond.

A

A Canon (one of two) protecting a temple from attack. This is on the small island of 金門 Kinmen (Jinmen), Taiwan, just off the coast of China. These canons have an open view of and are less than 2 km from the mainland. Now possibly misunderstood as being 'aimed at China', rather they were for the coastal defense of China.

Cement trucks a row.

From a Sunday morning walk.

From a Sunday morning walk.

Mountain Temple interior in Taoyuan Taiwan

Tiger Head Temple interior, near my house...for your pleasure.

From the hillside I caught this couple playfully kidding around.

A new pic of my Nico...

Another Thailand Picture. While I was there I made a deal with a local for a personal tour. So I got a personal driver and boat to take me any beach, island, or snorkeling place I wanted to go. I spent the better part of the day touring around.

Just a simple back street near downtown Taoyuan.

Walking along the beach on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand I jockeyed for position between the boats which were flowing back and forth with the tide. Trying not to get 'run over' and yet get a shot of the boats and their decoration.

A shot of us a couple years ago in the Philippines.

Ah....Those were the days.

The trio on the way out.

I came across a couple of older people that were spending the day nin the park. I thought Id try my hand at street portraits.

Enjoy

I got this picture of a monk doing a little exercise in a park. Here in Taiwan yesterday was Labour Day, so many people had the day off. Another guy meditating in the same park. He was there when i got there and was in the same position 45 minutes later. I suppose he may have fallen asleep.

A shot of a friend in Taiwan with some direct lighting.

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A shot of the Canadian Prairies near Saskatoon, in a random field, in the middle of nowhere . A very different place than where I am now.

This shot came about as I was watching the clouds here in Taiwan. I was in a park looking around and I noticed the clouds breaking apart. I saw the shape forming and scrambled to find 'a couple' .....found one.

The pic is altered a bit BUT mostly just the bottom half being black n white. and admittedly a tiny part of the cloud was moved on the upper left side...everything else including the red was there.

I got this couple in my sights near the fishing port near Juiwei. I could see the couple in the distance. She was dancing around him he was looking quite solemn indeed.

Looks like he lost a bet.This little monster was doing everything he could to get away from Mom n Dad. He was just learning to walk, and the parents were quite happy earlier when he walked on the beach and took 8 or 9 steps.
He just has this great look n his eye which I'm sure will stay with him for life. This sneaky sly look like he just found or did something he wasn't supposed to do.

It was funny to watch his face change between being with mom n dad and escaping.

Ah yes... the sleepy fisherman. Working hard to catch the monster off the pier. Eyes closed, making small snoring sounds so as to just trick the big fish into thinking he was sleeping.

It is all going to break loose any minute now.....any minute....any min.....any ....a...zzzzzzzzz.

I doubt that anyone knows this about me but my favorite writer/poet is Robert Frost.

#1 Poem
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Upon the great beast
the old warrior sat

waiting...waiting for the
perfect moment to make
the move that would change
the world for all eternity.

Another day in the smog, grog, and pollution. The pull to come home is never far, in fact it is a weekly feeling. The year is counting down.

5 years ago when we came to taiwan the feeling was one of fear, wonder, intrigue, and a general feeling of a new life. That was both a blessing and a hardship. It was never a curse.

Did I know what we were getting into...no ...there is no way to know unless you do it. As usual i did my homework on the industry, countries, etc, but you can never really prepare for a life abroad.

I think traveling is more important than most people realize. Of course its almost prohibitively expensive for most people, especially long term travel.

For most of you who have not had the opportunity to travel long term, or truly experience another culture that is vastly different than your own, I think you don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore.

There is good and bad in every society, and yes the grass is always greener on the other side. Its just human nature.

I suppose that's what Ive learned as well, you want what you cant have, and you need to work to appreciate the people, things, and life you have.

These may simply be ramblings, from a guy at Starbucks, but then again...they may be word of wisdom passed on to you from someone far away in a distant land. Anyway my coffee is getting cold.

Here is a couple of pics I've been working one lately. My model is a friend, who has been very gracious and been willing to try many different ideas. Thus Ive been learning both Photoshop and portraits.
A little up close n personal.

This last one was made with commercial photography in mind.


Tell me what you think.

One shot from Kinmen just for fun.

Canon 400D
18-55mm F3.5-5.6
1/200s @ F11
ISO 200
PP in CS3 Raw
Grunge look by reduced saturation, over sharpen adding a few layers with various blend modes, and of course my signature.

I found the tortoise brothers the other day.

Here they are.

A couple more to oogle at.

Altered State

I used up some creativity this weekend, and added some 'art' to my portfolio.
All made with an incense stick.


Enjoy!

Thailand Part 3

Where did i leave off...oh yes the boat came back. As scary as it was it all worked out, and i had one of the best times of my life.

After this we went to another location and did it again. This time i decided to follow the scuba divers. I followed them from above. Quite an interesting view watching people way below you, but I had good visibility and could see almost everything they did. Once again very good.

Here is a picture of the first place we went. ( Here now that I'm back in the boat you can see more boats...go figure)

The next day I made a deal with a local to take me out sightseeing around the islands.
We went out and he showed me a number of hidden beaches. Hidden not really secretive, but you'd never know if you just drove by...but small openings in the rocks leads to an inner cove.

Like this:Here is a quick snap of my local guide hard at work.That night we went into Phi Phi Town and had some supper and went to a Muay Thai Boxing Stadium to watch some action. There were 8 exciting bouts and it is something hard to explain but loads of fun and you can really see the respect the fighters have for each other. The Stadium was filler about 80 % locals and 20% foreigners. It was very authentic and not merely a simple show for tourists.

A Sunset view:

We went to Phucket a couple days later for one full day so I could get my flight home the next day. We went to Patong Beach. Wow what an experience. It was .... very safe, clean, and secure, and out of this world wild just around the corner.
The sex trade is obvious, but not overbearing. Id say its still a very comfortable area for couples and even children.
The wild places that show oodles of skin are fairly obvious, and you will not accidentally stumble into them. The rest is quite modern, will loads of nice coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, and bars.

It was quite a night.

The next day on the way home I tried out KLM again, this time the plane was there. As I was about to board, I gave the ground staff my boarding card and the computer beeped. He stopped and said something quick to another one, and they nodded. He said...oh its ok...marked out my seat number which was row 33 and wrote row 72. I was minorly concerned as to why i just got booted to the far back corner of the plane, but i didn't say anything cuz i was just happy to get on.

Then i showed the flight attendant my number and she said oh thats upstairs. Well heck I know whats upstairs, so my heart jumped. Yee Haw ...FREE business class upgrade!! Peerrffeecct.

I had a very nice flight with KLM. With my champagne, free ceramic Amsterdam model house, and I spent the 15 Euro's they gave me for free on-board duty-free merchandise, not to mention the travel kit all business class passengers get to 'freshen up'.

My flight concluded on time and as i left the plane with a smile, I was greeted by the same freezing cold, can see your breath Taiwan airport I had so happily left 10 days earlier.

The only silver lining at the end is that I was one step closer to my seeing my dogs, and eventually in a couple of weeks my beloved wife.

Thailand trip part 2

After leaving the bar, I met up with my travel partner Paddy. We work together and so we had decided to take the trip together, but due to the busy season we couldn't get the same flights.

I showed him where the hotel was and we grabbed a small bite to eat and called it a night.

Next morning we got up and had bout 4 hours to get to the airport. so we decided to take the adventurous route. We hailed a tuk tuk, which is a motorcycle-ish taxi. Its open in the back with one bench seat. We took that to the train station, and thought we could take the train, but after the 45 minute ride through the winding streets of old bangkok, we got to the train station. Then we were greeted by some nuns (or Islamic women hard to remember) who help answer some questions. The train was an hour wait and minimum 45 minute ride.

But that would be getting close to the time to get to the plane .

So we went outside to get a taxi. This also proved more difficult than expected. There was a big line of people, and you had to fight to get a taxi. We tried many tactics and almost had one when we put our things in the trunk when someone else jumped in the car.

We quickly had to grab our stuff out before the bugger took off.
So our successful plan included one person to jump in and block the doors and the other to load the trunk. Then jump in and look tough. haha...It worked.

We got o the airport and had an uneventful flight to Phucket. then we grabbed the city bus to town and went to a tourist info shop for advice to get the ferry. It was 2:29pm...They said the last ferry leaves at 2:30pm. And its across town. In my defense the book I had said the last ferry left at 3pm. So i was unsure if this was a ploy for something else (like stay in our hotel etc) so we left and someone asked if we needed a taxi, we said yes and he said follow me. we did but he took us to his car. he said 100 baht each we said ok, and loaded our stuff. It was no a taxi..so this added to the confusion. Bu we got there....got ticket and rushed onto the overloaded boat...they pulled the ramp and we left. Just in time...it actually left 20 minutes late.

Got to the beautiful Phi Phi Island. Got off the boat and was told we'd hve someone waiting for us. we did eventually find him and he walked us along the beach and then to another boat?!?

I was confused but we got in. He pushed off and started the traditional long tail boat. We left the beach and cruised a long way out and to the far end of the island. We beached again and got out. We walked up a couple flights of stairs, to a trolley. We put our bags in and looked up. Way up at the top os a hill was out resort. So after an excruciating 10-15 flights almost straight up barefoot, and going on no food or water, dizzy, exhausted we made it to the top. Checked in and walked further to get to our cabin.

The cabin was spacious, airy, but sparse. no air con, but had hot water.

The place over all had the most amazing view but was very inconvenient, both for being at the top of the hill, and far from the action.
View:

Next day we hooked ourselves up with another place. Same price but with coupons for food daily and about 3 steps from the beach, 10 to the water. Cold water only and a little smaller but still 2 twin beds, and private bathroom......well kinda private. I had to share it with the wild...there were only 3/4 walls, so you had scenery when you showered and did your business. kind interesting, but a little scary at night.

I signed up to go snorkeling with Paddy's diving group. He signed up to get his Scuba diving certification. So I went with them and was dropped off in the ocean near some rocks and everyone else went diving below. I was a little concerned because I've never been snorkeling before...well not really. Never in the ocean, and never swimming over my head in the ocean. So here i was off he boat in the ocean by myself no life jacket. Well i looked down and instantly saw the bottom....way down.

Well i started looking at the fish...colors..oh my there were colorful fish...WOW. Then i saw the barracudas...then schools of them ...then schools of them circling me... Then the big fish were swimming by.

All this with the clear knowledge that I'm supposed to be looking for the sharks.

I don't think that I was in the best situation... 45 minutes later i was getting tired of swimming, so i started out into deeper water, as my boat had disappeared. Getting worried, looking around for divers, or a boat.... finally the boat rounded the corner and picked me up.




end of part 2

Thailand Trip

Thailand - Part One


My most recent adventure was to 'Amazing Thailand'.

My trip started a bit rough. I went to the airport 2.5 hours early, and get myself into the line up. I wait and the sign says counter will open 2 hours before departure (as usual). So i wait for 45 minutes, and well they were 15 minutes late. I see them but something is different. I'm supposed to be flying KLM, but these are China Airlines workers. They get ready and post Flight canceled posters.

But they are taking passengers bags etc. So i wait and i guess due to bad weather in China my plane is stranded there. So China Scarelines took over the flight...well part of it. Their plane comes in 5 hours later, and gets into Bangkok (BKK) at 1:40am...ugg
But not all passengers can get on...so i counted myself lucky.

I wait forever in the freezing cold terminal, and we take off 15 minutes late. We arrive in BKK and wait another 45 minutes in the plane because there is no gate available to park the big bird. Not very comfortable.

Get off the plane, get through immigration etc, and wait for my bags......wait forever.....my bags 2nd to last.

Go to find a taxi, and the chauffer people attack me, saying first this is a taxi. Then I say no and walk away, they ask how much you wanna pay, so i told them 1/4 of their asking price...they said oh ...and walked away. Then I saw the next set of doors had regular taxis, and a table to get the location for the driver. I go there, and as I am walking up to the drivers the only other guy wanting a taxi was going to the same general location as me...so I asked him if he wanted to share a taxi....so we did.

I went to Koh San Road in Bkk the backpacker/foreigners main spot. Tried to get a room...the time now is 3:30 am. Tired. And every place we try is booked. The guy I'm with place was sold out too. So I went to the last place i had researched online, and they said we will have a room at 5 am. someone will check out early. Si I took it and waited 1.5 hours to get a room. Luckily they charged me for only one night as i was staying the next night as well. It was clean and basic. Tiny bathr4ooms, but had air conditioning.

I had a nap from 6 till 10am and went out to check out the scene.
Koh San Rd. is pretty tame, and is full of foreign backpackers. There seemed to be a feeling of one-up-man-ship when it came to backpack sizes. Some people women included all had enormous backpacks. Some little women, I'm sure their backpack was 3/4 their size and probably heavier than they were.

I went for a small meal of Pad Thai. Since I was in Rome I had to eat Roman food.
Basically you can find Travel Agents, Silver shops, souvenir shops,t-shirt and bars n restaurants. This is about all...and they just repeat over n over. The place felt safe and easy to walk about. But for me.. the Thai Weather Gods had a different plan....so it rained most of the day with a couple of dry periods.

That evening i went out again to find a local fish n chips place that had received rave reviews. It called 'Oh My Cod' and Oh my cod it was good...Super tasty.

I waited for a while and had to meet a friend at midnight as his plane was getting in one day later than mine. So we had planned to meet at one pub named Gulliver's Travels as it was on the corner of a major intersection. I went in about 1130pm, sat down ordered a drink. No longer than 1 minute one Thai bar chic sits down and starts chatting to me. Basic little chit chat and i tell her I'm waiting for a friend.

She asks guy or girl, I say guy and look towards the door. As I look at the door she attaches herself to my arm and starts flirting as hard as she can. I know what her goal is but I'm not playing that game. I stayed until midnight and told her i had to check for my friend. So i used it as an excuse to leave. a couple minutes later Paddy a co worker arrived. So a valid excuse but I was there to kill time not hook up .

End of Part 1

A bunch of you are probably wondering how my arm is doing. the answer ....Not bad.

80% good 20% bad

Im out of any sort of cast now for about a week and half now.

I have a cool scar to show off, and the arm is becoming more usable by the day.

Total time in a cast 1 and a half weeks in hosp, then plastic cast for 2 weeks. Kinda short. But the freedom is nice.

20% bad ...one bone chip/piece has moved or lifted so its not in place now.

I was explained that this bone piece is very important in keeping the elbow stable in the first 3 weeks, now it is less important as the muscle and tendons do the job.

this because of th dislocation.

but since it has lifted it bay need to be taken out, or it may be left in. Depends. The bone chip... it's really bigger than a chip...now limits my range of motion. I can not bring my arm back to my shoulder, it is blocked and painful. This sucks.

But extending my arm outward , as in reaching for something, should be no problem soon.

I might know more later this week as i see ol' saw bones on thursday.

here is a scar pic for now.

I had some fun the other day... I got creative in the bathroom.

Enjoy my pictures...

electric water
Shower of lime...or slime
The Mirror of your Soul
The Lavender Swish
The Neon Wipe

And my pride and glory!!!!!

The Blueberry Throne!!