There are more than 41,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand, of which more than 33,000 are actively in use. The term “wat” is a Thai word for enclosure, and now refers to any Buddhist or Brahminical temple. 95% of the 70 million people in Thailand are Buddhists. In 2019, we were “templed out” on our last […]
Asian Eye Candy
As we looked back over the past few months, we were struck by how many great photos we had of street art in Malaysia and Singapore. We decided they deserved a blog post of their own. Street art in Penang became famous in 2012 when Ernest Zacharevicm, a Lithuanian artist, painted six murals as part […]
Singapore
After completing our travels to Indonesia and Malaysia, we spent a few days in Singapore. We’ve been intrigued by Singapore’s opportunities for night photography of their modern skyline. We were fortunate that we met John Fong in Malacca when photographing the sunset at the Floating Mosque. He offered to share his secret photo spots in […]
Malaysia 4 – Penang 1 – George Town
Our last stop in Malaysia was Penang Island, and George Town. Most people in the West just refer to this as Penang, Malaysia. Above is the Chaiya Mangalaram Thai Buddhist Temple, which is home to the third largest reclining Buddha in the world, measuring 108 feet long, as seen above. The many influences of Europe […]
Malaysia 3 – Malacca
The photographic highlight of Malacca (aka Malaka) is the “Floating Mosque,” which first opened in 2006. It sits out over the Straits of Malacca on stilts. It is an interesting structure during the day (see below), but it really comes to life at night. The image above was one we captured at sundown, as the […]
Cuenca – Bienal and Urban Street Art
The Biennial is an international art event held worldwide every two years. It is held in 50 cities, including Venice, Havana, Singapore, Prague, Beijing, Sao Paulo, Barcelona, plus others. Due to Covid, the 15th Bienal de Cuenca was postponed from 2020 and instead runs from December 10, 2021 through February 28, 2022. This year’s Biennial […]
Hawaii – Enroute
We are now fully vaccinated and ready for travel. We have waited the required 10 days after our second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, tested negative on our PCR test and are now finally ready to vacation in Hawaii. For this time period, we were originally scheduled to travel to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Java, Borneo […]
Cuenca Day 20 Lockdown
Along with much of the world, we have been put under “Shelter In Place” restrictions since March 17th, 2020. Today is Day 20 of the lockdown for us in Cuenca, and the current projection is for this to continue through April 30th. Ecuador has taken this very seriously, and has put the entire country under […]
Vietnam – Should Have Stayed in the South
Hanoi – evening of Oct 19: We are not really fans of big cities, so that has to be taken into account for our reaction. We only stayed in Hanoi for a little over a day, and were glad to leave it behind. For starters, we arrived to find nobody waiting for us. Our last […]