On to Bhutan!

What a roller coaster ride 2008 has been so far. Tewfic El-Sawy, www.thetravelphotographer.blogspot.com, announced that he would be traveling back to Bhutan in October, 2008. Having traveled with Tewfic to Bhutan in 2006, I immediately signed up for the trip but was worried because work in 2008 was supposed to be very hectic from June until the end of September.

The work kept getting delayed and after a great deal of thought, I notified Tewfic that I would have to cancel. Two days later, the work was delayed yet another time and I received authorization to go to Bhutan this year! The scramble was on. Tewfic was able to re-instate my reservations and I have secured airfare at the last minute.

And now, as with any trip, the lists start!

- Clothing
- Equipment
- Luggage
- Trip insurance

And many more hikes with a full load of camera gear.

This will be my fourth trip with Tewfic and my photography experience grows with each trip I take with him. Several photographers from our earlier trips to Cambodia, Bhutan, and Bali will be traveling again and it will be good to see old friends.

The countdown clock is ticking! 30 days to liftoff. This trip will see me flying from Chicago to Shanghai and then to Bangkok for a few days. From Thailand to India to Bhutan. The approach is magnificent as you wind through the mountains to the only location in the entire country that has a flat enough parcel of land to construct an airport.

I can't wait to see old friends and make new ones.

On to Bhutan!

Wheelchair Racers

I had the fortune to shoot the Chicago Marathon in 2006 and 2007 at the FrontRunners water table location. It is always an enjoyable shoot but the weather can be quite unpredictable in October. In 2006 it was snowing when we arrived. In 2007, the race was halted due to the extreme heat.

There is a group of marathoners that always impresses me. They are the wheelchair racers. The dedication shown by these athletes is an inspiration to me and I always enjoy photographing them. One athlete in particular, Joshua George, was recently featured in a New York Times article entitled A Blur of Hands, Spokes and Determination written by Alan Schwarz.

The article highlights George who will be participating in the 2008 Paralympic Games to be held in Beijing two weeks after the Olympics. I have been fortunate to photograph George and other wheelchair racers at the Chicago Marathon. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I have enjoyed taking them.

Sunset at Borobudur

We took a day off from Bali and flew to Yogyakarta to visit the Buddhist monument, Borobudur.

We arrived at Borobudur late morning when the sun was high and photography was difficult. After climbing to the top of the monument and being enlightened with the history of Borobudur, we departed for the Saraswati Hotel for lunch. Lunch was wonderful in the cool refreshing dining room and we decided that poolside at the hotel would be our home until late afternoon when we would return to the monument for that golden hour of photography. These photographs were taken during this time and are some of my favorites.

Our journey to Borobudur was a day filled with surprises and I am glad to have had the opportunity to see this magnificent monument.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the following:

“Borobudur is a ninth century Buddhist Mahayana monument in Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome is located at the center of the top platform, and is surrounded by seventy-two Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa.”

“The Buddha statues are in niches at the Rupadhatu level, arranged in rows on the outer sides of the balustrades. At the Arupadhatu level (or the three circular platforms), Buddha statues are placed inside perforated stupas. Of the total 504 Buddha statues, over 300 are mutilated (mostly headless) and 43 are completely missing.”

“At glance, all Buddha statues are equal, but there is subtle difference between them in the mudras or the position of the hands. There are 5 groups of mudra: North, East, South, West and Zenith, which represent the five cardinal compass according to Mahayana.”

Read more about Borobudur.

Back in the US

Almost home! After about 26 hours of travel time we have landed in Washington, DC and I am awaiting my final flight to Chicago. Because of the free ticket, I am doing a little backtracking but being able to fly business class made the extra flight worth it.

It is good to almost be back home again and it is definitely good to be back in the US.

It was after my trip to Turkey in the 90s that I realized just how good we have it in the US and when the US Customs official says "Welcome home, Mr. Childs" I really do mean it when I say "Thanks, it's good to be home again."

Off to the gate. The last leg is here.

The Long Road Home

Bali is in the history books and it was a fantastic trip. I saw many new things and experienced the charm of the people of Bali over the past two weeks. I can only hope that my photos have captured some of the emotion and vibrancy of the island and its culture.

Now it is time to journey home. It will take about 28 hours including the layovers in Tokyo and Washington, DC. My travel companions have departed for various locations including London, New York, Florida, and Viet Nam. Photos from the trip will start to be posted after I get settled back at home. I have taken almost 4,000 photos and they became somewhat difficult to sort through on a daily basis. I have seen some that I am very happy with and there are a couple of shots that I particularly like, especially the sunset shots at Borobodur.

My first leg home was on Thai Airways and Thuchawate and the staff made the flight very pleasant. Next up is the long leg from Tokyo to Washington, D.C. on ANA and the final jump is from Washington, D.C. to Chicago. It will be interesting to compare the service on all the different airlines.

My special thanks to Tewfic El-Sawy for setting up a trip that was as enjoyable as my trips with him to Cambodia and Bhutan in 2006. You can visit his site at www.tesimages.com to see more of his travels. I learn more from him on each trip that I take and look forward to the next one, wherever it will take us.

If there is a lan connection on the ANA flight I will add some parting thoughts. If not, I will be studying a presentation that I am to give on 01 August at work.

It will be good to be home again.

Free Friday

It is Friday morning in Ubud and we have a free day!

Well, it might not be totally free since this is to be a shopping day and if there is one thing that abounds in Ubud, it is shopping. If it is art or craft related, it can be found in Ubud. There are very few shops that will not bargain, so how much you actually spend is somewhat dependent on your negotiation skills. Our general rule of thumb has been to start off at something around 60% of listed price and then you are off and running.

There are several restaurants and shops that we have frequented that we have particularly enjoyed. Nomads is a restaurant that was founded a number of years ago and serves the most delicious food and desserts. For lunchtime, Café Moka can hardly be surpassed for its fresh French baguette sandwiches. The Dirty Duck restaurant is very popular and got its unusual name because just as the restaurant was completing construction, a family of muddy ducks walked through and left muddy foot prints on the floor. The workers all exclaimed “those dirty ducks” or words to that effect and the name stuck. They are famous for, of all things, fried crispy duck.

We have also been a number of times to Dragonfly, a restaurant and wireless internet café. The breakfasts are wonderful, the staff is truly helpful to internet neophytes like me, and you are always welcomed back. Located on Jalan Dewi Sita road, I highly recommend it when you want to connect.

The Agung Raka Bungalows have gone out of their way to make our stay pleasant and to provide us with guides and drivers that are both knowledgeable and helpful. I would return to stay here anytime.

We went to see the Buddhist monument, Borobodur, yesterday in Yogyakarta. Imagine a temple that took 100 years to build, was actively used for 100 years, and then covered in volcanic ash for 800 years. It was re-discovered by Sir Thomas Raffles, the Governor of Java, and the volcanic ash was painstakingly removed from the entire site. Over 2,000,000 stones were then catalogued and moved to a staging site so that a firm foundation could be built on the site and the monument re-built, stone by stone. It was very impressive to see and as the golden hour of sunset approached, we went into high gear taking photos. A long day, we didn’t get back to Bali until 1:00 AM.

http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/borobudur/boro_main.html

Thus, Friday off.

Bali Time

It is the 22nd of July, Sunday and we have the morning off for a change. We have just had breakfast at Dragonfly, one of the internet hotspots in Ubud. It is nice to have a morning off for a change. Usually we are having breakfast early and then off for a shoot.

There are more than 15,000 temples on the island and we have attended a number of the festivals. It is imperative that you have a sarong if you are to be admitted onto temple grounds. I have been impressed with not only the number of festivals at this time of the year but also with the friendliness of the Balinese people that we have met and who have welcomed us. The festivals take a great deal of preparation by the villagers and we have had lots of fun seeing the villagers at work and at play.

Work time for the festival starts at about 4:00 in the morning for the men who are preparing most of the food that will be used in the festival. To see twenty men sitting around wooden blocks chopping meat into a paste like consistency that will be used for satay is a sight. All of them carry two knives for the preparation of the meat. We are very careful not to offend any of them! Never, never, offend a man with a well used, razor sharp set of knives! Lots of chilies, garlic, shallots, and bamboo spikes and you are ready for cooking. We also have seen several suckling pigs being roasted over open fires, on long stakes turned by hand.

When all is ready, the people get dressed in the most beautiful sarongs and finest clothing. I have been very moved by the interaction between the fathers and young sons as prayers are said and blessings received. The traditions are being passed along from generation to generation.

The Balinese calendar is based upon a 210 day calendar year and the festivals are timed for that calendar. July is a big month for festivals and there are many each day. On two occasions we have been driving and have seen festival goers and actually stopped the cars to see where the festival was taking place. Imagine a busy highway (busy for Bali), and walking at the side of the road are approximately 1,000 people carrying banners, food, with a band and all dressed and headed to the temple grounds. Two cars pulled off to the side of the road and 8 doors flew open with 7 crazy photographers with cameras in hand trying to get to the head of the procession. It was approximately a mile walk to the temple grounds and we were allowed only into the outer courtyard because we were not wearing our sarongs. We shot for about ten minutes and when our drivers caught up with us we immediately got into proper dress. Tewfic had told us to always have our sarongs in the cars. Showing the respect to the Balinese people, we were allowed into the temple grounds to photograph the ceremony.

Today, Sunday, we will be photographing Balinese dancers who will be performing for us in a private shoot.

I will have some photographs posted soon! I promise!

I am learning Balinese time very quickly.