Bangkok '06: Wat Vistas

Bangkok is a diverse and cosmopolitan city like no other. Modern skyscrapers share the skyline with majestic Buddhist temples. Tucked away in hidden corners are tranquil spas and boutiques hotels while their brazen sister establishments, the massage parlours and all-night pubs, hog the limelight on main shopping thouroughfares. Ordinary Thais in the smart western suits share the same BTS (subway) carriage as saffron-yellow robed monks and wide-eyed foreign tourists in sweaty t-shirts and baggy pants.

In the old city area, Wat Poh is one of the largest temples in Bangkok and boasts the largest reclining Buddha in the world. Hmmm ... and I thought that claim belongs to Penang's Reclining Buddha temple.

Regardless, I have to admit that it really was very, very long. Even the toes (all ten of them stacked up together) were at least as high as a two storey building. As life-like as it was, it wasn't anatomically correct though.They're of the same size and shape. I guess the sculptors figured nobody would be too bothered with the feet as most would have dropped their jaws at the head and torso - because it's completely covered in GOLD. Opulent, gaudy and strangely beguiling.

In the main bot (main hall) a group of monks were holding their daily prayer session. No shoes were allowed, and cameras also weren't encouraged, but everybody were busily snapping away, at times distracting the monks from their trance-like meditation.

Employing a cornucopia of strong earthy colours, and inspiringly imaginative motifs, traditional Thai architecture spares no expense to impress, eg. the antelope-like chofahs on the roofs. Jes says they look more like birds' wings.


These strange structures are chedis, bell shaped towers that
actually house the remains of monks, or kings. Some may even contain relics of the Buddha. And I thought they were merely to provide shade for us poor tourists. haha.







A lot of the treasures recovered from ships that sink in the Gulf of Thailand are given to the temple authorities. Because most of the ships are chinese junks, a lot of medieval chinese sculptures are recovered as well, like this pair of dragons that stand guard at the entrance to a small wiharn (small prayer hall).

Bangkok '06 : Day One

"Sawadee kha...." went the petite hotel receptionist with her palms closed together in a prayer-like gesture. We sawadee-khrap'ed back, at once relieved and excited on arriving at the hotel that was to be our home for the next four days. The jasmine scent wafted through the air bestowing us with a strangely calming sensation. Yes, I could already sense that this trip to Bangkok was going to be a pleasant one, not that a trip to Thailand was ever anything less than pleasant.

Our travel company on this trip included Fai, KK, Jes and yours truly, with Jes' mom joining us over the weekend. As soon as Fai was done checking us in, the four of us troopped up to the sixth floor to room 608 or as the thais would say hok-suun-paet. After a short rest and freshening up, we hit the streets of Bangkok en route to our first destination of the trip - Mae Nam Chao Phraya for a river cruise.

The Chao Phraya is the lifeline of Bangkok. People still use it to commute to and from work, partly because it is quite reliable and cheap (about 20 baht to anywhere one way). I can't help but feel that there is a certain romantic value to it despite its perpetual 'kopi susu' colour and run down jetties that dot the river bank.

It can get quite crowded especially during rush hour and the boat conductor seems oblivious to the amount of people he lets into the boat. Yet, no matter how crowded, the passengers will never fail to give up their seat for a monk should he come aboard. In fact, they even put up a sign that says "Seat reserved for monks". That's nice.

As the boat slowly makes its way up (or down) the river, we, the tourists, are given a glimpse into authentic life in Bangkok, warts and all. Yes, there are people still living in makeshift houses on stilts and clothes flap away on the clothesline in the backyards that open out into the river.

Sharing the riverside vista are majestic temples (wat) that are at once awe inspiring and serene in its tranquility. That's what's so magical about Bangkok - a busy cosmopolitan city that is still very much in touch with its own spirituality. I can't help but smile whenever I see ordinary Bangkok folk who, while busily jostle ahead on their way, would pause and say a short prayer whenever they pass by a shrine or temple.

By far the most beautiful sight on the river cruise is the temple complex of Wat Arun. Named after the Indian deity Aruna, this temple is one of the largest in Thailand and truly a magnificent example of Indochinese architecture and civilisation.

Layang Layang Pics 4: Fish

South East Asia boasts of an enormous variety of fish, corals and other sea creatures due to its unique geography of warm, shallow waters and countless island archipelagoes which form coral havens and mangrove swamps that act as shelters for various species of juvenile fish from predators.

Everywhere you look, there are a multitude of fish, soft corals, hard corals, crustasceans, sponges.... the list goes on and on. If you know where to look for them. The name of the game here is camouflage for beneath the deceivingly tranquil blue waters lies a world as vicious as the gladiatorial arena of ancient Rome - kill or be killed.

In order to protect itself from predators, a lot of sea creatures resort to camouflage using biology and tricks of light resulting in a wonderous and spectacular array of body shapes, behaviour and physiology that one would previously think belongs to the world of science fiction.

One of my favourite activites while diving is snapping pictures of fish that I've never seen before and then referring to the fish charts and pictorials to find out what group and species they belong to. Like this one. Usually more common in Carribean waters, this is a juvenile Picasso Trigger fish and is one of the most aggressive types of fish. Trigger fish is very territorial and will not hesitate to attack anything or anyone who wanders too close to its nesting grounds.

Usually most of the fish can be found in the shallow sun drenched waters between 5 - 15 feet deep. Here one can see colourful coral gardens as far as the eyes can see and where there's corals, there will be fish, seeking food and shelter. Like this very common sight - a lone racoon anglefish, probably looking for its mate.

Sometimes, you need to just stop at seemingly featureless coral mounds for a while before your eyes triumphs over this leaf fishes' attempt at camouflage.

Perhaps one of the most unsightly fishes you could ever find in these waters is the puffer fish aka blowfish aka fugu on the sushi table. Whether its in its puffed-up spine ridden form or in this unprovoked mild mannered disguise, it still is one really ugly fish.

Ah, looks can be so deceiving. This beautiful red lionfish is as beguiling to hold as it is poisonous. While it probably won't kill a human being, the poison found in its long flowing tentacle-like fins is strong enough to immobalise predators twice as large as itself within a matter of seconds... giving it time to plot an course of escape.

The scorpionfish pictured above doesn't really move much. It doesn't have to. Like the lionfish , it too has poison up its fins and after creating a false sense of security by blending perfectly into its surroundings, the scorpionfish uses it to stun its prey in lightning fast strikes. Blink and you'll miss it.

Layang Layang Pics 3

I can never forget the first time I saw a tornado - the term used to describe the way certain types of fish 'hover' together usually as a protection mechanism from their predators. There must have been close to a million jackfish in the formation just swimming round and round while a school of sharks waited nearby for their meal to be 'served'.

Corals too comes in all shapes and sizes. Like this one, of the Sinularia family. It's a soft coral (meaning it doesn't have a hard calcium shell) and often feeds on the rich soup of microorganisms within the sea, eg. phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish fry, larvae etc.

Ok, the next time you tuck into your ikan pari bakar at the local seafood restaurant, remember that the stingray once looked quite regal with its green 'cape' and was actually very hip because it sported iridescent blue tatoos all over its body.


Ok, to me, this looks like a cushion that my aunt would make for my cousin's housewarming. Hahaha. It's actually a type of starfish (Choriaster granulatus) and can grow to a maximum size of 3 feet.

This has got to be one of my favourite lucky shots of all time. I was trailing a box fish that was proving to be very elusive. As I was moving my camera from left to right trying to compose a decent shot, this little critter just burst into view on my viewfinder. Hope it hasn't ended up on somebody's dinner plate.

Forest of the sea. A collection of hard and soft corals perched on top of a rocky mound. Usually there will be lots of fish within this underwater maze but I think our presence kinda proved too distracting for them.

This is me getting bored and trying to act out my Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon pose. Hehehe. Looks more like Floating Octopus Flapping Turtle.
And yes, that's my trusty S80 that I am using in place of a stinging needle to throw at my opponent.








Everytime I look at this picture of a spotted morey eel, I can't help but think of that scene from "The Little Mermaid" where the hapless Ariel is lured by her evil aunt Ursula's two flunkey eels , Flotsam and Jetsam. It is so amazing the way the Disney animators capture the eel's facial expressions so accurately.

Awww.... don'tcha just wanna reach out and give the guy a hug? This shy little fishy is a juvenile blenny that is trying to hide from the evil clutches of Mr. Photographer. Mwahahahaha.

Just like in Sipadan, there are lots of turtles in the waters off Layang Layang. This is an adult green turtle making a meal out of some hard corals. I'll bet he's wondering why there's this wierdo staring at him chewing a mouthful of his delicious afternoon snack. Mmmmm.... looks yummy....NOT.

Ok, final picture for this instalment. You know I can't just leave without a pic of a nudibranch. Hehehe. This is a common nudibranch found all across South East Asia. It's of the chromodoris sp. and is easily identifiable because of the spiky tentacles at the top of its head which looks like it has punk leanings. :-)

Layang Layang 2

Layang-layang is famous for its pellagics (big fish) as well as sharks and manta rays. There is a 70% chance that you'll get to see at least a shark or a ray on each dive... or so the divemasters there told us.

So, I obviously had a lot of expectations for my first dive also known as the 'check-out' dive i.e. we check out our gear, required weights and refresh our diving skills.

This is a typical view of the divers descending, some faster, others slower depending on your ability to equalize. It doesn't matter how experienced you are; sometimes, you just need a bit of time to get reacquainted with the whole thing.



And this was what greeted us at the bottom: corals, corals and more corals. Its blue-ish hue is due to the filtration of the 'warmer' colours as we descend deeper. So the deeper you go, the more bluish (and darker) it gets.

Very often, in order to take more chromatically accurate pictures underwater, I have to adjust quite a bit of the parameters in my camera, eg. the white balance, ISO, aperture, and flash intensity. And it's quite cumbersome to do so underwater, when you also have to worry about all the stuff like your own air, equalizing, and buoyancy. Oh, and also lots of photoshop-ing afterwards.

The first thing we saw was this huge jellyfish. It was the size of a beachball and although you can't see it in this pic, there were a lot of fish fry seeking shelter and food within its tentacles.... or were they food / bait? Hmmm......

Manta ray! Yanni hit her pointer on her tank like crazy and signalled us to look up. This was what we saw. A school of manta rays gliding past us effortlessly and serenely.

I swum up to take a closer look. This is the underside of the manta. And no, there are no stinging barbs on its tail.

This is our beloved divemaster, Yanni aka Borneo Turtle. I met her on my diving trip to Southern Thailand two years ago and we've dived together lots of times since then.

This is Rich, our videographer. His job is to take video footage of us during our dive, and then compile the best footage into a DVD movie for us to take home as a momento. Fantastic diver in his own right and I truly admire his buoyancy skills.

There were not many fish partly because we had gone quite deep (hence the blue of most of the pics here). This is the exception: a school of jackfish in a tornado of feeding frenzy.

We also managed to see a school of pygmy devil rays as well as some reef shark. However the pics of them did turn out well, so sigh.... maybe the next divelah, hehehe.

Dive Pics: Layang Layang 1

Back in April, us three musketeers (Christopher, Terry and yours truly) went on another scuba diving holiday, this time to the South China Sea atoll of Layang Layang. It is approximately 300km north west off the coast of Sabah and is part of the Spratlys archipelago. This group of atolls are currently claimed by as many as five countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and China , either in part or whole. As such, the resort on Layang Layang shares the island with a Malaysian military base.


Anyway, we had to fly from KL to Kota Kinabalu, and then early the next morning, take another flight from KK to the island. The plane for the second leg of the journey was a rather suspicious looking Fokker Friendship - yes one of those small little flying vans with a propeller onm each wing.


Surprisingly, it was quite a comfortable flight and as it was still quite early, some of us on board the flying bone rattler managed to catch forty winks.... while others decided to catch (on film) those who were catching the said winks. Yanni commented that it's not good to take a picture of someone while he's asleep. Something to do with capturing his spirit. Well, since Terry's a Mat Salleh, these Asian superstitions don't apply to him. hehehe















The view outside was amazing and it's not everyday that one gets to see the sun rise over the horizon from 2000ft (or something like that) up in the air. Absolutely breathtaking.


Two hours later, we caught sight of the island lying serenly in the middle of the sea, beckoning us to taste of its rich and diverse offerings. From the air, it looked like an aeroplane landing pad and not much else. I guess looks can be deceiving.


As the plane descended, submerged parts of the atoll became visible and one could almost imagine the azure corals basking in the morning sun as the white foamy waves lapped over them like clouds in the sky.


Pretty soon, I could see the runway just in front of the plane and it dawned upon me that the runway extends right out towards the open sea and was quite short. I prayed a silent prayer for the pilot to land this ancient relic safely. I love diving, but I didn't want to dive into the water right there and then.


Oklah, so I was a bit over-dramatic. We landed safely of course and as we made our way into the hotel lobby, the receptionist was there to welcome us with a much needed glass of orange juice. Freshly squeezed, some more! Hehehe


While Yanni was sorting out the accomodation, I decided to take a walk around the resort grounds. As I made my way towards the eastern end of the island, I was warned by one of the workers not to take pictures of the military base beyond the resort. Unless of course I have a death wish. So this is as far as I could go before I would be noticed "innocently" taking pictures of the island.

See that giant windmill thing? Can anybody tell me what it's for? Electricity generation? Wind speed gauge? Mega expensive landscaping ornament?