




My most current blog entry:
Ever changing. Timeless.
Squid fishermen return from a night's netting.
April 13, 2011, Hua Hin, Thailand. First light over the Gulf of Siam.
The sun approaches the horizon.
The sun rising over the Gulf of Siam.
The first morning rays reflect off the sea.
A beautiful day ahead.
Good Morning Hua Hin!
The day has begun.
No two sunrises are the same. This was the following day.
Yet another morning's sunrise.
Yes, of course, I found new flowers to photograph over the week-end.
We played golf at the Black Hills Golf & Resort. It was very nicely landscaped with a variety flowering plants.
All the flower beds were in full bloom.
I have lived 25 years in the Tropics and there has always been Frangipani. Sweet smelling and symetrical beauty.
It is not only the Frangipani flower that is interesting. The plant morphs out it leaves.
Break open a Frangipani leaf and a sticky white milk oozes out.
The Frangipani flower unfurls.
The unfurling reveals the flower.
The Hibiscus flower also unfurls, but not in symetrical way.
Of course Thailand is famous for its Orchids, which grow outside everywhere. This orchid beetle has adapted very well to his environment.
Excellent camouflage
While my wife was playing golf at the Fabulous Black Hills PGA Golf Course, I explored the small back roads in the hills above Hua Hin.
It is the time of the annual Water Festival, Songkran, in Thailand and a wonderful pilgrimage temple had decorations in abundance.
The temple had giant dragons protecting the entry . . . .
. . . with a long Dragon-Snake tails.
These pilgrim temples are full of large Buddha statues in the landscape.
The Wat had a strong Chinese influence: all the zodiacal animal symbols were represented.
To honor the spirit of revered and venerable monks, pilgrims affix gold leaf to the statues.
Honor to the memory of a respected teacher of the Dhamma (variously, Dharma).
It was a living Wat with many monks in residence.
An ordinary evening on the streets of Hua Hin. The food hawkers are out with their carts.
Some food carts are mobile -- they move about the town all night.
Some carts seem to move about and never stop. Car batteries and lamps illuminate the product.
Some hawkers seem to own a corner. Here dried, pressed squid strips arrayed on Hua Hin Main Street.
Our favorite ginger soup and soy milk sweet dessert cart seems to have found a permanent home on a side street. We are very glad to have found it again!
Most carts seem to come out in early evening and set up "food courts" in the same location every night.
There is a stark beauty about the actuality of these night hawker markets.
The lighting seems to highlight the human endeavour to stay alive, as well as to eat.
The carts are wheeled in and tables and stools are brought out for the customers.
Late at night, this man seemed so lonely making his hot noodle soup.
Late night, Hua Hin back streets.
Some night hawkers walk the streets trying to sell their "hill tribe" mementos to the diminishing number of tourists . . .
Tailor shops and tourist tuk-tuks sit empty, their touts listless.
At some point every night, a decision is made to beak camp and head home through the night streets of Hua Hin.
The famous Thai tolerence allows the cheap and the tawdry in.
A hard way to make a living. A hard way to live.
Week-ends in Hua Hin are always filled with new vistas and fascinating things to see.
I was surprised by migrating birds over the sea.
The sunset sea had a moody sparkle.
The sunrise sea was starkly mysterious. I am continually surprised by the changing face of the Gulf of Siam.
The next sunset revealed yet another seascape identity.
The Gulf of Siam is rarely this clear green and blue.
Sunset over the Thai-Burmese boarder.
Flowers anew. Bird of Paradise.
A new bud.
I loved these yellow stamens.
This painting of the King of Thailand humg in an Italian restaurent. It made me sad to think that he is in poor health. I fear for my beloved Thailand, my adopted home.