Elephants (love) in Chiang Mai...

 

I was something like 3-4 years old when my parents asked me the famous question one asks a kid of this age: what is your favourite animal. Imagine their suprised look when I answered (very proudly for an Eastern european kid): an elephant:-))) Nothing common or expected as: cat, dog or may be a donkey... Since then elephants are big love of mine. I have few of them as wooden carving, soft teddybears, etc. around me at home and even at my office. So when I arrived in Chiang Mai in december last year and I started seeing elephants everywhere this made me smile:-) There were elephant statues in most of the streets, sometimes just as simple stone decoration. There were flower pots in elephant shapes, there were wooden elephants and ceramic ones making temple gardens even more charming...Elephants are the inspiration of young Thai artist like Supachet Bhumikarn in the center of ChiangMai, his cute boutique (called ) even has foor handles in elephant shape. By the way did you know that "chaang" is the Thai word for elephant?

The light festival ChinaLight in Rotterdam

Last Sunday the new Chinese Year, the Year of the water snake, has started...
Meanwhile for the last 2, 5 months several Chinese lanterns had been transforming the Park next to the Euromast tower in Rotterdam into a fairy-tale place. This magic finished yesterday, however I managed to look at it (and to freeze) while I did visit the park few days ago with a friend.

 

I also took the challenge of taking night pictures of these fantastic masterpieces. Most of them  were put on water, however few of the ponds were ...frozen! As you may see great reflections were on display! At the end I enjoyed my combi-ticket allowing me to climb the Euromast (185 m high tower) and of course I documented how the light expo looks from above:-)) As of today all lanterns are on sale, so in case you need a human-size-panda or mushroom, have a look online!

 
...and the famous Erasmus-bridge:

Nudibranches in Andaman sea...

 
I am taking you one more time underwater, as I have to show still few wet beauties:-)) In the underwater kingdom of Similan Islands one may encounter several smaller and bigger nudibranches these colourful (and sometimes so tiny to spot) creatures are fascinating for photographing due to the different shapes, lines and unexpected flashy colours. The flashiness actually indicates that they contains poison, in case some of the other water inhabitants may think of eating them. So the colours is their own protection!

 
The picture with one of my finger is to help you realise the real size...and in order to show you how funny we look when taking picture of small fellows (invisible to the rest) is the pictures of Nico+myself taken by Tim, a fellow diver and uw-photographer:-)

About Thai people...

 

Thailand is often called "country of smiles"...and indeed one may encouter smiles at every corner! Of course not everyone is walking around with a big smile, but the people seem to love smiling for good mood, as a greeting or just when they see one is taking pictures. Another thing that striked me is the fact that you (almost) always see Thai people working, they are like tireless and hard-working nation, always busy.

Ice-skating in the Netherlands winter 2013/ Schaatsen op naturrijs in 2013

 

The last 2 weeks in the Netherlands have been extremely white! We had few snowfalls which are still visible due to the (almost all the time) minus temperatures outdoor. Of course with all of this cold the ice-skating fever started too and for around now one week one could skate on several frozen lakes and canals. Most of them are maintained and even cleaned by ice-skating clubs...With good skating buddies I had the pleasure to skate on few of the lakes aroudn the Hague (we went to Vogelplas next to Leitschendam, Rottemeren next to Bleiswijk with some windmills and last but not lest Reeuwijk, having 13 connected with eachother lakes)... As you can see from the pictures every day there were different conditions, sometimes ice like mirro with cloudy weather and freezing wind, sometime sblue sky and sunshines, or sky with white clouds and windmills in the background...Enjoy the winterland tour:-)))

 

And below is how a perfect sunny day ice-skating looks like! Reeuwijk on thursday 24.01.20013...