JUNE THOUGHTS

Normally, whenever I post on Facebook there’s always a photo attached to it. A photo that inspired me to create lines and share them with you. This time, I thought of just putting them on to my Facebook page.

I’ve been thinking a lot last night. I’ve been missing him. I miss those times when we sit together, have our coffee, he lights his cigar then he starts to educate me about life. I was thinking, how many days, months or years left for me to live, to enjoy this life? Tricky question isn’t it?

Just the other day when I was inside the temple. I had a sudden thought of giving blogging another try. I will re-start my blog and share stories that I may encounter or freshly a story of my own. The thing that drew me to share my Life’s stories was the idea of writing a story that shows the way Father God is at work in my daily life.

However, as I look at some of my stories these past few years, I began to wonder whether I had any interesting stories to share. I had been a stay-at-home Lorna since I became a widow, (sorry I don’t like to mention his name as it’s my deliberate choice) I wanted to try to convey that something was missing in the story. In this case, I’ll just share what comes to mind. So…what could I write about? Did or do I have any stories that anyone would want to read? Most of the time, when you share blogs or stories some may appreciate it, some will even love it or some may just tell you, “great share” or some may say.. "move on..." After a while I decided to come back to the vision of traveling. Yeah, I have been traveling and seeing places and it feels pretty good. It felt good especially when I’m driving and discovering places that I've heard of but never been or never seen. 

Then again, I might as well share some of my reflections of faith from my everyday life. I began to think about the things Father God taught me when I lost my husband. I thought I was left all alone and emotionally drained. Drained by so many things then finding how to calm this busy mind. Fortunately, it will naturally settle down, then you will come back to senses. I say Amen to that!

At the time, I wasn’t sure how I was going to survive, but by God’s grace. I did and still continue surviving. God has a way of letting me understand that we all have a purpose in life and He used those years of my feeling alone to change me, my heart and my attitude to situations. Everyday, God’s faithfulness in our everyday struggles, I love to share that prayer is very powerful.

Sometimes, when I am overwhelmed I tend to forget things. Normal, perhaps? But I am very grateful for all the blessings that God gave me and the blessings I receive every day.

I remember blogging about stories of those times when I was fortunate. Ha! Yeah, I was there too long time ago. I shared a lot of photos. Having the chance to wear fancy dresses, being in a high society parties and cocktails, eating expensive meals and drinking expensive wines and champagnes. I was taught how to open a champagne using a sword, yes, that was really something. I learned how to communicate properly with people… Wow! What a life, ha… but in the end, I also have a heart for helping people. That’s where my photography came in. I took photos and exhibited them for a cause. It worked surprisingly well. I was able to expand my creativity as an artist and learned a lot from that experience. 

Those years of being totally independent in life taught me a lot, so much lessons that I simply can’t name them all because there was always something going on every day. I am sure there are people who can relate with my experiences but sometimes, I am craving for words to define life when the situation gets complicated or tricky.

Sometimes, we start to see the goodness in a person once they’re gone. We start to appreciate their good deeds and their good intentions when we don’t see them anymore. I mean, I do appreciate and grateful to people when they are nice to me or when they do good to me. Thing is, I just don’t want you to become a candidate of someone feeling so guilty about something that you wished you could have done before. Some people post stuff on Facebook like a snap of a pose because they were standing for a minute in the suburbs and sometimes I can’t help but wonder, did they really feel it? Did they sleep there, interacted with the community and talked about their daily lives? Yeah, because at one stage, I did. We did! Somewhat felt like a tourist and whatever you do, you don’t actually fit in, so just pack your things and leave. 

In a way, I started blogging everywhere I go, taking any opportunity, about any thoughts, when I’m in a typing mood, in my laptop which I actually find entertaining and relaxing. Although, sometimes, I am quick to start then I find myself having a difficult time ending it, lol, sort of what writer’s refer to as writer’s block.

I feel like there is something fitting about (continuing to share) my blogging. I’m so thankful for all the blessings that is coming to my life. I love adventures because whenever I am driving all by myself or all alone, it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the daily gifts God has given me and the way He uses difficult circumstances to teach us lessons of patience, humility and love. And for that, I am thankful. 

I will still try to continue to reflect on my life’s events and try to share them on my Facebook page. It might not be all the time but when I can, I will use words and photos as a mirror of life. 

MY FIRST THREE WEEKS IN NHA TRANG!

This week was another wonderful week! It’s my third week and now settling is becoming easier. My first two weeks was a bit uneasy but thank God for the beautiful scenery that whenever I open the blinds in the morning, an uplifting beauty is always waiting to be seen and appreciated.

Coffee taste good every morning and I must say that my stamina for many things is going pretty well. Nature is playing its role for this. Good example would be the part that I can go to the city alone and was able to find the grocery store and have an idea of what to buy.


Yesterday was really fantastic because me and my husband were able to find the store where they have most of the stuff or groceries we wanted. Like in Bangkok, they have also huge BIG C department store here, what made me smile was, when I saw Jollibee, yes. there is Jollibee inside the store. Im not a big fan of Jollibee but it certainly reminds me of where I came from, Pilipinas!


This time, I can find my way to few places nearby without asking for help. Nha Trang's transportation is pretty easy, (easier as I expected.) They only have two-lane and the moment you arrived at the city, you can easily navigate where you are. Getting a taxi is easy as well as most taxi drivers speak good English. This three weeks, to me, was more on settling in and being able to decide on things and places to visit. Socially, I continuously receiving invitations but I thought i'd better take it easy for a while. Socializing will come later.

(Maybe) this coming week, I will go and explore Nha Trang. Not going for shopping but getting to know their cultures by visiting their touristic places. Perhaps, locating the places to visit twice a week would probably help. I will not take the tour as its a bit pricy but going for an adventure and discovering the place would be nice.


Whilst typing this, it reminded me when I just arrived here in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Our journey from Thailand to Ho Chi Minh started very well. The moment we arrived at the Nha Trang airport, we were welcome by the hotel rep with her big smile wearing their Vietnamese traditional attire and accompanied us to our transport for Vinpearl.

Twas really a good trip. A bit tiring as we have to fly twice from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh then to Nah Trang. 

Along the way, I never thought about how different it would be. Before coming to Nah Trang, I browse online and check the place and I complain a lot but the moment I arrived, my perspectives changed completely.

From Nha Trang airport to our destination, the scenery along the way was really beautiful and there was NO TRAFFIC! Don't get me wrong, I have been living to cities where I had to use the BTS (trains), subway, taxi, tuktuk and moto and t'was pretty a good experience. But driving on a street where there's no traffic, is really something! At one point, I asked the driver if its possible to stop and to enjoy the scenery but in the end, we choose to keep moving on. We then arrived at our destination before 6pm.


Back to the story; my three weeks here in Nha Trang is going really smoothly. The local people are amazing, they're friendly at least to me. I was honestly stunned. This fresh three weeks experience taught me a lot. I am slowly adopting the culture and continuously learning.

Lastly, I have no advice for now but its always good to check on google the things you wanted to do in Nha Trang: I say, stop thinking too much, stop planning too much and just live. As cheesy as that is, if you constantly plan and think you’ll miss out. I'm sure Nha Trang has a lot to offer.

A Visit at the Kyaik Pun Pagoda, Myanmar

Buddha hand gesture which means: "BHUMISPARSA - Calling the Earth To Witness the Truth"

What an experience! Here's another photo taken at "The Kyaik Pun Pagoda is a small Buddhist monastery near the town of Bago, known for its four towering images of the Buddha visible from far away.

The impressive 27 meter high images are out in the open, without shelter from the elements by any covering temple structure. The Kyaik Pun Pagoda was built in 1476 by Dhammazedi, a devout Buddhist and King of the Mon Kingdom of Hanthawaddy (Pegu).

The Kyaik Pun Pagoda or Kyaikpun Paya is an active place of worship; the images are highly revered by Laotian Buddhists who come to pay their respect."

Loved my personalized Bo Sang Umbrella!

I had like a day left before leaving for Bangkok. Suggested place to see was the Umbrella Village, Bor Sang!

I remember it was midday when we went to visit the place, seems that all went for their lunch break. Only few staff were there so I thought to walk around and do some photos.

It's really an interesting village to see when in Chiang Mai. Here, you will see handcraft umbrellas that was beautifully coloured works of art, as well as fans (Chinese-style hand fans that is). The artwork is beautiful and fascinating to watch. I would plan to spend 1-2 hours here, watching and learning.

I dig in a bit about the Bo Sang's umbrella and I found that the traditional umbrellas are made from Saa paper (processed from mulberry bark) and the only information I could find on the history of Bo Sang’s umbrella making indicates that a wandering Thai monk brought the process to his town (Bo Sang) from Burma and the locals embraced the art, making umbrellas in the fall once field work is done for the season. The umbrellas are used as parasols in the sun and even as rain umbrellas because they’re coated with special oils to protect the paper.

This area of Chiang Mai is famous for handcrafted and painted umbrellas and fans, as well as the making of a handmade paper called saa paper. According to our tour guide, this factory was visited by HRH Princess Diana in 1988 alongside the famous Shinawatra Thai Silk factory nearby.

Just after walking around the area of designing the umbrellas. I went to approached one artist who's doing the paint designs. I was so amazed by the skill of the artist - he painted an intricate butterfly with blue flowers design on my umbrella and it took him for about 15 minutes.

Awesome, isn't? Now, im looking forward to join their festival.

A VISIT AT THE SEVEN COLOURED EARTHS - MAURITIUS

"...when your life feels black and white... make sure that you dream in color..." -- unknown

It was the GM of the Centara Grand Azuri Hotel who insisted that i must go to Chamerel to see the seven coloured earths. I didn't believe the way he described the colours of the sand. At first, i thought he was just joking... after few rounds of convincing, my husband was able to convince me to go and visit as they are busy working during the entire trip.

So i went to see the place, to my surprise. It was really wonderful and even better because the rain just stopped and perhaps its was a perfect timing for photo opportunity.

This tourist attraction is found in the Riviere Noire District in the south-western part of Mauritius. Seven distinct colours of sand can be seen in this area: red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow. I like the contrast between the uncovered sands and the dense forest area that surrounds the dunes. This place reminds me of Iceland. The earths formed by volcanic activity. When you look closely, We could see the different hues and the almost striped effect of the sands, this is actually a visual reminder of the power of a volcano uneven cooling of the molten rock.

Enjoy the view as much as i enjoyed taking them.

according to wikipedia: (and i quote)

"The Seven Coloured Earth(s)[1] (Terres des Sept Couleurs in French) are a geological formation and prominent tourist attraction found in the Chamarel plain of the Rivière Noire District in south-western Mauritius. It is a relatively small area of sand dunes comprising sand of seven distinct colours (approximately red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow). The main feature of the place is that since these differently coloured sands spontaneously settle in different layers, dunes acquire a surrealistic, striped colouring. This phenomenon can also be observed, on a smaller scale, if one takes a handful of sands of different colours and mixes them together, as they'll eventually separate into a layered spectrum.[2] Another interesting feature of Chamarel's Coloured Earths is that the dunes seemingly never erode, in spite of Mauritius' torrential, tropical rains.

The sands have formed from the decomposition of volcanic rock (basalt) gullies into clay, further transformed into ferralitic soil by total hydrolysis; the two main elements of the resulting soil, iron and aluminium, are responsible for red/anthracite and blue/purplish colours respectively. The different shades of colour are believed to be a consequence of the molten volcanic rock cooling down at different external temperatures (hence rates), but the causes of their consistent spontaneous separation are yet to be fully clarified.[3]

The place has become one of Mauritius' main tourist attractions since the 1960s. Nowadays, the dunes are protected by a wooden fence and visitors are not allowed to climb on them, although they can look at the scenery from observation outposts placed along the fence. Curio shops in the area sell small test-tubes filled up with the coloured earths."

A WEEK TRIP TO BALI INDONESIA

My Bali adventure, where to begin? This is my third time to visit Bali and my  Bali experience is something that can’t be explained, it’s a cultural and spiritual journey that needs to be experienced in order to be understood. Bali is called “The Island of The Gods,” and appropriately so.

This trip, I was lucky enough to experience some of the most beautiful locations and resorts the island has to offer, beginning in Nusa Dua, then to Sanur and Uluwatu.

When I wasn’t shooting I was enjoying the luxury of Centara Grand Villa  There we had our own swimming pool. I also went for a walk near the shopping center. The thing I love most about Bali is that it offers something for everyone, amazing wave breaks, unique shopping, some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and for the foodie, fantastic restaurants.

I feel as though Bali is also a reminder of how important kindness and generosity are: the locals are so lovely and cheerful that it would be hard to have a bad day, someone was always putting a smile on my face.

The four day trip to Bali was really engaging. First, we went to visit the Uluwatu Temple which is one of the oldest temple in Bali. It is also located high on a cliff top at the edge of a plateau 250 feet above the waves of the Indian Ocean. One specular view.  There are also monkeys around the temple. These monkeys inhabit the temple and cliff face hoping for a banana or some peanuts from the visitors.

On the second day, I went to visit Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, or Pura Bratan, is the second most important temple in Bali after the mother temple Besakih. “The temple is found on the shores of Danau Bratan (Lake Bratan) in the mountains near Bedugul.  The temple was built in 1926 and is dedicated to Dewi Batari Ulun Danu, goddess of lakes and rivers.” – Here, I didn't really enjoy much because of the rain. Weather was not cooperative, my driver told me that.. weather in this area is unpredictable. Funny because when we left Nusa Dua, it was all blue skies but the time we are arriving to Pura Bratan, its all foggy, windy and raining non stop. When I went inside the temple there was a ceremonial happening. We are not allowed to go near the ceremony so I stayed inside the shed waiting for the rain to stop.

Third day, Tanah Lot Temple is probably the most famous of Bali's temples and mean "Land in the Middle of the sea".  The temple sits just off the coast on a rock, which is quite spectacular. The temple is visited quite often at sunset and provides great photos.  The temple is believed to be the work of 15th century priest Nirartha.”

I really had a great time those days. The experience that I carry with me during this travel allowed me to become more adventurous. I've seen few ceremonial activities before like the  “Ogoh-ogoh” performed with demonic statues and floats filling the streets which symbolize negativity and bad spirits. The statues are burned at the end of the night to cleanse them of all things “evil”.  That parade was really something. I should have stayed longer last year to witness but im looking forward to see that this year, perhaps?.

Something that i've learned in Bali was the part when they do the reflection and meditation. It was truly  a wonderful experience which I was so glad to be a part of it. Its more on  to focus on peace within ones self.

Anyways, please enjoy viewing the photos as much as i enjoyed taking them. Thank you too for reading all my long notes.. time to time.. lolz.

SECOND DAY - Akureyri to Egilsstaðir

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Mary Ritter Beard

I really agree with people saying that.. “The problem with driving around Iceland is that you’re basically confronted by a new soul-enriching, breath-taking, life-affirming natural sight every five goddamn minutes. It’s totally exhausting.”

Our journey out of Akureyri was looking pretty good. Blue skies plus sun was all shining! We were told that some areas are grim with very low cloud but weather improved as we go along and yes! We enjoyed all these wonderful views down the road. As were about to leave Akureyri. We stopped at the view point overlooking the city. Beautiful place. What I love about the hotel we stayed was that, our room was facing the mountain glaciers. Enjoyed so much.

Our destination today was Egilsstaðir in the Eastfjords. We were told that its another wonderful drive and outpost town.

HIGHLIGHTS TODAY includes: Goðafoss waterfalls, which was really good to see. Lovely waterfalls. It was just a perfect timing to stop over and enjoyed the sounds of the waterfall plus the cool breeze. We didn’t stay long because its gonna be another long journey for Egilsstaðir.

Along the way, we enjoyed the mountain glaciers. It was really really amazing! Like what I said last time, I have to remind my husband to focus on his wheels. I can’t blame him as well if he can’t resist looking at the left and right view of the road. just BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING views!

After two hours of driving, we stopped at Namaskard. Here, we also enjoyed the view but I didn’t enjoy the smell of the sulphur. The odor coming from the underground was really bad. It wasn’t pleasing at all but the view was one awesome landscape. Here, we’ve seen the sulphur steaming plus the red soil and bubbling mud of Namaskard.

The day is really wonderful. Another hour passed and here we arrived at the Hverfall, a gigantic tephra crater. According to Wikipedia, this is the so-called Tuff Ring, created 2,500 years ago. I kilometer in diameter and in the concave is 140 metres deep. Yes! We did climbed the mountain. The arrived on top, you’ll see the amazing view down there. We stayed a bit but didn’t walk around the crater because the wind was pretty strong and yeah, freezing cold.

Next, we are now heading to the hotel for our overnight stay at the Icelandair Hotel Herad. Cozy and lovely hotel. I must say that, the whole day driving was totally awesome.

That’s it for today and soon, I will share the photos from the 3rd to the 5th day of our trip to Iceland.  Enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.