Houston we have a problem…

Living in Europe, one gets quite used to small. Estate agents call it quaint or charming, when really all it means is cramped. What with little apartments, little cars and narrow roads, one forgets what space feels like. So, you can imagine the non culture shock of a trip to Texas.

The Lone Star State: big, huge, open, sprawling. There is one thing they aren’t short of, and that’s land. Another thing in plentiful supply is gas. No, I don’t mean from the black beans I mean gas for the trucks. No, not trucks like 18 wheelers, I mean trucks for you, your woman, lil'uns and shopping bags. I have no idea why the Europeans are worried about the emissions from their little 1.4 diesels, and giving green incentives etc…. The US of A must be home of global warming, you can almost feel the desert forming behind the monstrous 5.4 gas slurping pick up trucks as they make their way across Texas, probably about 5 Frances worth of expanse. Everyone is whinging about the all-time high gas price; three and a halfish dollars a gallon. Yeah right, you get no sympathy here, how about scraping your trucks and buying a normal car?

A new theory; humans fill what space is available. I don’t mean spread out either. You see, Paris is cramped, little cute roads small shops and elbow bumping restaurants. Houston is huge, just keeps going, 6 lane highways with four lane service roads, front yards, back yards, shopping malls and trucks. Just like each of the cities; the French are thin and Americans are huge. I guess it doesn’t help having food everywhere. Every company we visited had a food preoccupation, and no ways do you have a meeting without first feeding your face.

What a stark contrast, but something about the states works. People are open and friendly, if you would like to consume it you can find it, and wait for it… clients actually get service, now that’s something the French could try.

If you are looking for charm you may as well give Texas a skip, but if you want some great food, and lots of it, big cars and don’t care about global warming then you can find your headquarters in Houston.

Just up the road, only a dirt cheap tank of fuel away, is Austin. Now here you find charm. Small enough to understand and big enough to have everything, what a great town.





















View of Austin from the Capitol.





















A view of Texas from the capitol.





















And, a view of the capitol itself. Another version of the same can be seen at my flickr page.

Wishing you dirt cheap fuel and great fajitas.

bunnies and chocolate

So what does a chateau, a medieval tower and a huge garden have in common?

They are all within an Easter long weekend's drive from one another. These are Fontainebleau, well a corner of it, the old tower of Provins (a little town where guys still dress up in tights) and Vaux-le-Vicomte's historically important garden. More photos when I get down to serious blogging. Just imagine trying to find your Easter eggs in a garden like that!

One week in Bangkok...

Bangkok, what an interesting place, it seems to never sleep. Not that I can comment on the wee hours though, some of us had to try work. I am also convinced that without the women, the place would not happen, it seems that there are 53 women to every man. Well, on reflection, I know where the men are; in their cars, in the traffic... and what traffic! It's chaos in the streets. More than three wheels, and you will not be getting there in a rush. To combat this, lose a wheel and the tuk-tuk is born.

Given the traffic it is no surprise that they build the giant moving air conditioner, aka the skytrain. It's not a pretty structure, nasty concrete beam that slices up the city mid skyline, but what a bonus if you want to go anywhere. And ooooh, it's like a fridge inside. If you're early for your meeting, take in a few more stops, it's a whole lot better then being outside. The high 30's with humidity, not suit wearing weather!

Like I found in Malaysia as well, Bangkok is big on shopping. Here is the one extreme:

The Siam Paragon centre with all the labels and trendy chic one could ask for. Not much cheaper than elsewhere though. On the other extreme, you could rather go get your dried squid from the stall alongside the river, this is a lot cheaper than dried squid in your average Paris shop.

In search of some peculiar Thai experience, we landed up at an evening of Muay Thai. It was fun to see, soak up some atmosphere, but I won't rush back. From the spectators' seats it seems quite mild, although I can imagine that the competitors don't have the same feeling.

OK, that hurt!

There is also quite a bit of ceremony that is involved. I understood diddly, but I like ceremony.

It seems screaming is the thing to do when your man makes contact.

The before match concentration. 500 baht on the guy with the blue thingy...

The next morning was Buddhist temple day. The river bus to the temples afforded great views and a good sense of the contradiction that is Bangkok.

It looks quite quaint. This is a typical example of why photos should not be trusted. It was at teh very best unsanitary and on the verge of collapse. It was beautiful though.

And apparently even able to support fish... I didn't see him catch anything, but then fishing isn't always about catching fish. Maybe his mother-in-law was visiting that weekend...

Above and below, more river dwellers, of varying types.

The river seems to host some pretty swish hotels, and temple looking buildings.

Alongside of which is the old and knakkered, or is that new and knakkered? Difficult to tell. So typical of towns with people of diverging wealth. Contrasting neighbours like this make me think of Brazil and Peru. Somehow the feeling in Bangkok is slightly different though. Even as someone who is obviously comparatively wealthy, one doesn't feel like even the most hard-up would wish you any harm, could it be a Buddhist influence?

We didn't have time to explore too much, but if you head up the canals of which there seem many, hence the nickname 'Venice of the East', you need to go in one of these longtails, narrow with shallow draught and pretty quick and noisy.

At the temple complexes, we took in the reclining Buddha first. Quite impressive in a good way (I say that because I learn this last week that in French one can be 'impressed' in a negative way, oh well there goes my literal translation technique ;))

On the feet are beautiful inlays in mother of pearl.

Onto the complex of the emerald Buddha and the Royal Palace. Lots of gold, and bright colours, things that sparkle in the sun, and lots of tourists, blah, they really are painful.

And for me one of the more beautiful things, a simple painting on a wall in a walkway.

The Royal Palace, with what seems to be Dr. Seuss topiary in the front garden. Still the Royal Palace, although the Royals, who seem much loved by the people, don't live here any more.

An all too brief an exploration before work started, although that in itself was interesting. If you have the chance be sure to take a day or two in Bangkok, it is a little mind blowing. Life there is different, the people are friendly and gentle, and yes, it's true they are all smiles.

Choc-tee! Wishing you warm climate, smiles and cold beer.

KL

Not a place I ever imagined I would visit. Although ever since the trips to Chile, the air hostesses on Malaysian airlines sure gave a good impression. Well last week I was lucky enough to get a brief taste of Kuala Lumpur, now I can tell you all the pretty ones are in the planes. Nah, the people are cool, and it is a great city, incredibly clean and organised, hot, green and the people are very gentle and helpful. It feels like a serious city where work is done, it is modern and feels quite happening, and good thing is that KL seems to lack the hustle and bustle of the big cities, the part that is normally responsible for just wearing you out. The city centre is all about tall buildings, although one doesn't feel like it since they are all dwarfed by the telecoms tower and the Petronas twins. Despite the tallth all around one, there is a lot of green. The climate makes one think that if you stood still long enough something may just sprout out of your shoes. Hmmm, or that may just be the joy of hotel showers. Here's a green tall building view from our very own tall hotel, you can see the monorail heading through the city.

Malaysia seems to be quite beeg on shopping. I have come across large sprawling malls in South Africa where space isn't at a premium, but large 15 storey malls is another story. These places are massive, and what do you do in that little open space in your mall void? You put in a roller coaster!

You can see some of the bottom shopping floors below as the ride goes by. It's a clever move, the screams of excitement drown out the screams of horror from credit card abuse.

One of the grotty corners of KL houses a prison and there is no confusion about their public relations.

It wouldn't be a blog about KL without some serious buildings, the Petronas towers, first the view from the base of the towers looking in the other direction.

Turn around and look up...

That's 88 occupied floors and 452 m of bling, there are two towers, that's probably were bling bling comes from. They used to be the tallest in the world until the Taipei 101 pipped them, though they are still the tallest twin towers.

This seems a more appropriate representation of the city, lush flowery KL along with the man-made.

We managed a quick visit to the skybridge, 170 m up on the 42nd. Things on the ground are quite small from up thar.

It's a cool city, and we had some great food, but the Asians really need to work on their desserts, that goo that they put colouring in just doesn't cut it.

Wishing you some warmth with great food.

follow the sun

It's that time of year in the north when one can feel the sun heating up the ol' bones again. The Parisian cafés are enjoying the outside tables filled with baskers. Inadvertently, the blog is also following the sun. Well, The Sun King at least, moving from his one home to the next. The last blogging I did had a few shot of the Louvre, his city house, so to speak. Later in his days Louis XIV moved out to his country spot, the old hunting lodge that he transformed into what is today the Château of Versailles. A few weekends ago we decided to take in some of the Palace of Versailles. Surprisingly, all the rooms are black at the bottom though, maybe that's just from peeping over the top of the Japanese tourist ;)

The hall of mirrors, that faces the enormous gardens, has just been renovated, it is very beautiful, but an absolute nightmare for photographers... you try meter in that place.

Apart from his modest homes, Louis did his fair share in encouraging all of today's tourists. The much photographed Les Invalides was built during his reign to house the officers and soldiers of his army. Today one can find the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte beneath the characteristic gold dome. I'm sure if I were more knowledgable there would be a whole lot of other reasons I could blame all the tourists on Louis.

The second floor is the hall of mirrors. It actually used be open, but was closed in at some stage... quite useful since that's the queen bedroom of on that side, and the king's out of picture on this side, would have been a chilly visit in winters prior to the hall of mirrors.

The ornate hall, sun streaming in the windows on the right, mirrors shouting back on the left.

A rare moment where only a single tourist is in view. The mirrors are the real thing, a bit like good beer that isn't clear and a red that throws a sediment, these mercury backed mirrors are a little smoky.

The original hunting lodge portion that was expanded to make the château.

You have probably noticed that I'm no historian, but it is quite incredible being able to enjoy these magnificent buildings, and to marvel at the circumstances under which they were created.
Perhaps I should do some more following up on The Sun King, or at least the sun. In the meantime I wish you a modest little country 'house'.

One day in Paris

Paris isn't a huge city unlike many of the world's other capitals. When the weather cooperates, it is best to take to its streets by bike or foot. As much as it is an excellent system, much is missed by griming out in the Metro. This is a day of strolling around the city. Lots of photo clichés, but hey not my fault this place receives a gazillion tourist each year.

The apartmentbound head to bask like lizards in the public spaces, of the more popular basking spots are the gardens of Luxembourg Palace, which houses the French senate. The petanque court/field thingymabob is also a good spot to chill and watch the regulars do their thing.

So grab yourself a chair and soak up the sun. The next photo is rather normalish, so I tried out some post processing technique. Michael Orton applied this effect with slide film using two layers of an identical image, although the one layer is very sharp, and the other is quite soft. So an Orton effect to add some interest to the sun soaker uppers in Luxembourg gardens. It looks like it came out of granny's box of photos, well, except for the coloured bits ;)

Reflections in the gardens.

From Luxembourg it is a gentle stroll downhill towards Notre Dame. The best thing about here is perhaps the small garden market alongside metro Cité, the beautiful justice buildings and a hop across the bridge to Ile St Louis.

Instead of hopping across the bridge, we headed in the other direction past Pont Neuf towards the Louvre museum.

Pont des Arts is a pedestrian bridge the connects left and right alongside the Louvre. The place to meet up and hang out.















Into the courtyard at the Louvre and then to the pyramid. Love it or hate it, you have to admit it makes for some interesting pictures.

Below the view from the head of the gardens of the Tuileries. The most central of 'parks' in Paris, connecting Place de la Concorde with the Louvre. Not the first view I'll give you of the famous scaffolding.

And in the gardens of the Tuileries there are ponds, and in the ponds there are ducks. I like ducks.





















And because I like them a second one, or maybe it's the same one.... difficult to tell.





















Standing near Place de la Concorde, sun now gone, the beautiful Tour Eiffel begged a photo or two. The slightest waxing crescent moon being lit up by the spotlight on the tower (look at the large photo)





















and yes, another one of the tower, the same tower for sure. It's beautiful, I couldn't help it.





















Final one of Eiffel tower, I promise! Well actually it isn't. This is a photo of a UV lens filter in my hand, in which the tower is reflected. I think it's cool, has an old image-circle-on-the-film-plate kind of feel to it.





















Later that evening we returned to play with the lights of the Louvre... and then velib'ed home at some strange hour.




























There you have a day in Paris on foot and bike. Wishing you some beauty in your surrounds that can distract you from the exercise you're doing.