Tag

traveling Archives - juesatta (CJ Photography)

Travel photography

How the poor live? 什么叫做贫穷?

By Compassion, Photography
Travel photography

happy family near the beach of a fishing village in Vietnam

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

[source : http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/187629410.html]

 

一位亿万富豪想让他的儿子体验什么叫作“贫穷”,于是就把他送到乡下的穷亲戚家去亲身体验。他儿子在乡下住了三天三夜。

在回家的路上,他父亲在车里问他:“你觉得怎么样?”

“很不错”,儿子回答。

“乡下跟我们家有什么区别吗?”父亲又问。

儿子说,有许多不一样。​

1、我们家有一条狗;他们家有四条。

2、我们家院子里有个游泳池,里面是加工处理过的水;他们家有个大池塘,水很 清,里面还游着各种各样的鱼。​

3、我们的花园里有电灯照明;他们的院子里有星星和月亮照明。

4、我家的花园一直到围墙边;他们的院子一直延伸到天边。

5、我们买饭吃;他们做饭吃。​

6、我们听CD;他们听小鸟、青蛙和其它动物的音乐会,当他们在田里工作时,所有这些美妙的音乐都会伴随着他们。

7、我们使用微波炉做饭;可是他们的木材炊饭比我们好吃的多。​

8、我们家四周都是围墙;他们家任何时候门都是开着,迎接朋友们的到来。

9、我们与行动电话,电脑和电视紧密相连;他们与生活紧密相连,蓝天,碧水,绿草,树荫和家庭。

父亲对儿子的观点很吃惊,最后儿子总结说:“谢谢,爸爸!你让我看到我们有多么的贫穷!”

我们一天比一天更贫穷,因为我们已经感受不到上帝为我们创造的大自然。

我们每天想的都是拥有、拥有、拥有、更多的拥有,从来没有想到过存在与奉献。​

[source : http://longquanzs.org/articledetail.php?id=35077]

Bangkok: Chinatown

By My journey, Photography
The street of Chinatown of Bangkok

The street of Chinatown of Bangkok

The last day in Bangkok before we departed to Krabi, Boon-Huat and Wei-Seong left us back to Malaysia in the morning and didn’t join us to Krabi. Wee-Peng, Meng-Hong and I would not want to waste our last morning in Bangkok, so we decided to get to the Chinatown of Bangkok, one of earliest Chinese community’s areas in Thailand.

Meng-Hong (left) and Wee-Peng at a Chinese lanterns stall in the Chinatown of Bangkok.

Meng-Hong (left) and Wee-Peng at a Chinese lanterns stall in the Chinatown of Bangkok.

Originally a community of Chinese traders relocated and settled here in Chinatown from Rattanakosin (the old City) in the 1700’s, and continues their own traditions and religious practices. The area is quite unlike the rest of Bangkok, relatively untouched by modern development. To us, it seemed like a little Hong Kong with Chinese businesses and Chinese characters’ signboards everywhere and it was not difficult for us to shop for Chinese goods.

Jewelry and gold shops and pawnshops are very popular in today’s Chinatown and can be found almost anywhere. Besides, there are also morning markets with stalls selling garments, textiles, stationery, souvenirs, second-hand parts and equipment, electric goods, computer parts, antiques, imported musical instruments, and local delicacies at a bargain, often at wholesale prices. We had packed up our belongings and so we didn’t plan to buy anything, but to do a leisurely stroll through the morning market.

Another common sight in Chinatown is Chinese food stalls. These stalls set up by the roadside offer a wide variety of quick inexpensive meals or popular Chinese food from simple bowls of noodles and soup to grilled meat, fresh seafood, sweet cakes and the locals’ favourite roasted chestnuts. Though we had a very simple breakfast at one of these food stalls of bread with condensed milk and teh tarik (literally pulled tea), and they were really sweet. Thais are really strong-flavour lovers.

It was only a half day tour in Chinatown then we headed off to the airport and took a flight to our next destination, Krabi. The whole trip in Bangkok for 4 days was so fun and pleasurable to witness and experience the Thai’s culture and customs, Songkran water festival, the Red Shirts, shopping, nightlife and people-watching. May the people in Thailand find peace and be happy.  🙂

Some of the photos I took in Chinatown of Bangkok:

Read More

Bangkok: Chatuchak weekend market

By My journey, Photography
Chatuchak weekend market - a boy was doing double "teh tarik"

Chatuchak weekend market - a boy was doing double "teh tarik"

Taking a break from all the temples, we decided to do some shopping to the Chatuchak weekend market, the largest market in Thailand. The market is sprawling 35 acres and comprised of more than 15,000 shops stalls. It’s perhaps one of the largest weekend markets in the world too. Though it is not available everyday, Chatuchak weekend market opens on Saturday and Sunday, and it’s believed to attract over 20,000 of visitors each day. Fortunately we had a weekend in Bangkok when we could visit the market.

A less fortunate child and his mother at the Chatuchak weekend market

AA less fortunate child and his mother at the Chatuchak weekend market

Chatuchak weekend market is a shopping paradise! There is a huge range of products including household items, books, trendy clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and live animals. We were surprise to see how huge the market is and the varieties of merchandise sold there, nearly everything under the sun. Like a sea of infinite possibilities, we navigated through Chatuchak’s army of stalls and tried not to get ourselves disoriented. Sarcastically, almost all of what we had bought and had seen in our shopping for first few days in Bangkok and Pattaya could be found from the market and at good bargain too.

We would prefer to have cheap street food than classy and expensive restaurant’s meal. Hence Chatuchak weekend market would be our best choice to have our lunch. The foods offered are very variety and cheap. Thais are strong-flavor lovers which results their foods or drinks being usually sweeter, and more spicy, sour, and salty than other cuisine, yet delicious. So we started our feeding frenzy there. Within 2 hours, we had a bit of everything including fried chicken, spicy stir fried pork, meat and fish balls, satay, mango sticky rice, pineapple, coconut juice, teh tarik, iced blended coffee, durian ice-cream, snacks and much more.

Chatuchak weekend market is one must never missed in Bangkok. It was totally worth our time to discover that its wealth of culture provides for good opportunities to make wonderful finds. The market too attracts a colorful crowd of hawkers, tourists, beggars, street artists which provided me with interesting sights for photo taking:

Read More

Bangkok: Wats, the temples

By My journey, Photography

Gate to the Grand Palace

Being the capital city of a Buddhist country means that Bangkok is full of some of South East Asia’s finest temples. Therefore our visit to Bangkok would not be complete without seeing some of these famous temples (Wats in Thai). On the second day and fourth day in Bangkok, we visited a couples of temples:

  • Wat Traimit (Temple of Golden Buddha)
  • the unknown temple (we got blessing from a Luang Pu monk)
  • Wat Phra Kaew and Grand Palace (The Emerald Buddha)
  • Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)
  • Wat Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha)

Boon-Huat, Wei-Seong and Wee-Peng at the steep stair of Wat Arun's central prang

These temples we visited are the spiritual part of the capital’s heart and soul and each of the temples is unique like no other as the architecture and decoration are awe-inspiring. It would be good to share the story of each temple together with the photos I took after the jump:

Read More

Bangkok: Chao Praya River tour

By My journey, Photography

The scenic river, Chao Praya River

On the fourth day in Thailand, we went onboard for a river tour with an express boat along the Chao Phraya River tour from Grand Palace to our destination, Wat Arun. It was drizzling but it did not stop us from visiting the Chao Praya River of Thailand. We could feel the breeze, rainwater and river water on our face.

Boon-Huat (left) and Wee-Peng on the boat ride of Chao Praya River

Chao Phraya is a major river in Thailand and the largest river in Bangkok. Centuries ago, Bangkok waterways were the main routes of transportation, thus much of the Thai history can be traced along the banks of the river. Many canals have now been filled in to make ways for roads but the Chao Phraya River still runs through many Thai lives. Therefore, it became a must in our checklist to visit.

We were the only group on the small express boat. The boat driver could not speak English so we had to make our guess on the landmarks we saw. We had a great insight into a different perspective of Bangkok: hotels, temples, palaces, beautiful houses, run-down wooden houses and local line the banks. It was a very scenic ride.

The river itself is a hive of activities. We didn’t have the time to visit the real floating market of Damnoen Saduak which is located 110km from Bangkok, yet we could experience it right on this river: the traditional way of selling and buying fruits, vegetables, crafts, and other merchandises from small boats, and also the way people live and travel by boats. We purchased some jackfruit from a small boat which came to us, and enjoyed its sweetness on our journey.

There were boats going up and down the river and it was kind of interesting to see how the people reacted to us when they saw us: gazing, waving, and smiling. Likewise we enjoyed looking at the people interacting with each other and what they were doing.

Some photos I took on the boat ride:

Read More

Bangkok: Songkran festival of Khao San Road

By My journey, Photography
From left: Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, Wee-Peng, and Meng-Hong at the Khao San Road's Songkran Festival of Bangkok

From left: Wei-Seong, Boon-Huat, Wee-Peng, and Meng-Hong at the Khao San Road's Songkran Festival of Bangkok

On our arrival in Thailand, we went to the biggest celebration of Songkran Festival in Khao San Road, Bangkok. I didn’t bring my camera with me because I was afraid it getting splashed with water. However an email of photos I received from Wee-Peng yesterday, then reminded me that I did take some photos of the Khao San Road’s celebration with his camera phone, which carefully wrapped with the shower cap we took from the hotel. More shots after the jump:

Read More