Saturday, May 19, 2007

Life on a bike in Hanoi

Hello!

Last week I was in Hanoi for work. I love this city! I had some free time too. I was in Hanoi in January and took a lot of photos then. I posted some of them to my blog. You can still see all the photos I posted of Vietnam in the January and February postings.

So this time I concentrated on "Life on a bike in Hanoi" People on bikes and mopeds are a distinguishing feature of this wonderful place. I tried to capture it through the camera.

I hope you enjoy it

love

Alan




















Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Sonkran on Phi Phi

A warm welcome to the second posting of our holiday on Phi Phi

While we were there Thai people celebrated Songkran, the Thai new Year.
You may have experienced it yourself or seen pictures of the water fights that happen in Bangkok and other Thai cities. If you click on the link you can find more information about the true meaning of the holiday which lasts three days.

On Phi Phi the celebrations started early. I went for a walk on the beach about 8 am and the sea gypsy community that live between two resorts was already dancing and drinking Chang beer.

At our resort the hotel brought out a statue of the Buddha and the staff made offerings and covered themselves and each other in perfumed ash. According to the original meaning of offering water, the staff poured water into each others hands as a sign of respect. They also included those of us who were guests and who were watching.The sea gypsy children enjoyed spraying each other with water from the sea.!

It was a fun and happy event and I hope you get some of that feeling from the photos.

While we were on Phi Phi we met and quickly became friends with two very lovely Italians called Egisto and Lori and they feature in the photos.

The sunset was beautiful too!

I leave you with the photos.

Next week I am going back to Hanoi for a short work trip. I’ll take the camera in case I see anything new.

Love

Alan