Visakha bucha

Visakha Bucha Day is the most important Buddhist Holiday to commemorate the Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death.  Although the celebration starts one week before and may go on for another week, this important Buddhist event is commemorated on the 4th of June 2555BE Thai Buddhist year.  The official calendar of Thailand is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era, meaning that years are counted since the birth of Buddha. Thus, the Christian year 2012 is year 2555BE in Thailand.  Here in Thailand there were many places.

I will post on the upcoming entry the pictures I took in Sanamluang, I place just in front of the Grand Palace.

Old photo...

This is a photo taken 4 years ago in Lisberg, a small town close to Frankfurt in Germany. To go to Lisberg, I took a train in the Bonn central train station to Frankfurt . After 45 minutes I got Frankfurt, and there I took another train to a village closest to Lisberg. At this last station, my best friend's father -whom the first time I met was in Chile the year before- was waiting for me. The great conditions of german roads and his Audi allowed us to be in Lisberg in less than 20 minutes. On our way to home my friend's papa told me that  some months before my arrival in Germany he moved to the black forest for one month just to lear spanish: what a great host!!!
Once at home I met another Argentinean friend, we spent together one week at home of my German family... It was a wonderful intercultural experience!  And the most important I gained a family and two good friends.
How can I show my gratitude to my German family?...
You can see more pictures of my trip to Germany here and here

Angels

History will record

that among us

walked certain angels

whose wings

wove patterns

of laughter

in the air

whose songs

salted

the humdrum

of our days

whose dance 

lifted us

made our

lives lighter

History will record

too late

our indifference: 

all these strange

odd, eccentric

ethereal angels 

who once walked among us...

Cecil Rajendra

Rainfall, BKK

There had been heavy rain during the afternoon yesterday although it was not so cloudy.  After raining around the area I live, a sudden downpour hit the south of the city.

After 20 minutes the rainfall went, the sunshine and dark clouds looming above Bangkok drew a wonderful view!!!  

The Rule of Third

In the photographic art there are some rules that anyone has to known to make compelling snapshots.  The rule I used to make the photography of this entry is called the rules of third.  It is one of the most popular 'rules' in photograph; it is also popular amongst artists as well. It works like this: Imaginary lines are drawn dividing the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically. You place important elements of your composition where these lines intersect.  This rule help the photographer to stress what he/she wants to stress on his/her photography. 

In this case an afternoon before downpour I wanted to stress the colors of clouds above Bangkok that made me feel for a while I am living in the Eden.  To do so, I allotted two-thirds of the image to the sky and one-third to the land.

Glance at King River!!

It seems that the rainy season has already started here in Thailand. Dark clouds coming from the horizon loomed above the city the whole week. In fact, it rained during two afternoons and three nights. I saw many young children were terrified of thunderstorms, it seems that for these children those quiet and peaceful nights have already gone.

However, this afternoon is sunny, the atmosphere is so clean that I can see the King River from my balcony; It is a nice view!!  By the way, if you want to see photos of the King River click here, here and here.  Well, the weather forecast for this week is not so good; around 60% precipitation coverage the whole week, and Thunder during THE WHOLE WEEK : (  

The Golden Mount, BKK

Just days after my arrival in Thailand in 2010, the golden Mount is one of the first places I visited.  If you want to read a short description of this touristic place, please click here.  Last week I was close to it, that day was so hot, I think hot enough to melt the hell, so I decided to come into it again...  it was the best way to be protected from the infernal sunshine. While going up through the long and narrow stairs, I came across this small and artificial waterfall.  Just I wanted to make a creative picture!!! My goal was to show motion-filled scene, thus Handholding my camera, I set the shutter speed to 1.6 seconds and adjust the aperture until f/11 indicated a correct exposure and then fired away!!

The picture is a little blur; to make this kind of photographic effect we need to mount the camera on a tripod to avoid -due to the slow shutter speed- any small shake spoils the snapshot.  ... but that day I left my tripod at home!

A costume made up of lottery tickets

The day of The Royal Ploughing Ceremony I came upon a Thai man wearing a costume made up of the lottery tickets which he bought during many years.  By wearing this costume, this man tries to warm people about the danger of falling into the vice of gambling.  He said that he spent more than USD 25,000 buying lottery tickets but he scarcely earned money... the times he was lucky we earned just a little amount of money.