Entries about sunrise

During my December break in 2021, I was in Phang Nga on my road trip around the province.

I had seen there was this huge beautiful Limestone park and wanted to visit it. About mid morning was actually a good time to go and visit, still cool enough , but also busy enough. I say busy, but actually most of the visitors were locals doing their morning exercise and jogging.

As we walked around the main pathway through the park, it became apparent why the locals stayed within the main pathway. There, are we found out for ourselves, in due course, two very large troupes of Macaque monkeys. With the lack of tourists and people they have made larger areas of the park their home.

We did narrowly avoid a major skirmish between the two alpha males and their harems. Along with about 20 offspring. Nearly finding ourselves with our backs up against the locked railings at the other end of the park we stayed absolutely still and made no sudden movements or noise that might attract their attention.
Thankfully they all ran like a river of water towards the limestone cliffs and disappeared into the trees. We carefully made our way back , keeping to the main paths.

I did manage before that to get some interesting views of the cliffs, and the surrounding area, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Music free under creative commons licence from Youtube music library
Title: Anomalous Hedges by The Mini Vandals

I've never been to Patong beach in the whole two years i have lived here. Expecting the worst of heaving numbers of people during what is now high season.

Imagine it like this, today, peak season, with only a few people here...…

Patong Beach, or Hat Patong as it is called in Thai, is the main beach in Patong and is a wide 2,85 km long stretch of white soft sand.
Patong's 3-km strip of golden sand is one of the most popular beaches in Phuket. The Beach has a row of coconut, palm and tropical almond trees separating the shore from the main road.

The northern part of Patong Beach hides a small sandy creek where the water is very shallow and clear during high season. The southern part is the mouth of a river, where several fishing boats anchor. The bridge over the river leads to a small fishing village and the various bays and beaches around the headland that separates Patong from Karon.

The best time to visit Patong Beach in Phuket is between November and April when the sea is very flat and calm. From May to October, the beach experiences large waves and dangerous swells.

One of the interesting places I visit during my summer break, down in Krabi. The walk up the stairs (1,237 steps) to the big Buddha footprint, was beyond me at the time of day we arrived, as it was beyond hot, pending the tropical storm heading our way some few hours later.

I am impressed with the Canon M5, considering the bright overhead cloud, and deep shadows from the casts, it managed the contrasts and managed to maintain details remarkably well. All images are pretty much as I took them, except for dropping the highlights in some of the brighter sky ones.

Living in the South of Phuket I get to visit some of the less touristy areas. Well maybe Chalong pier is not one of those, except just before the covid restrictions on movement came in in March 2020.

Which is when i had a chance to go and photograph this interesting and usually thriving /busy place.

Chalong Pier is located southeast of Phuket Island on the border with Rawai.
This pier is more and more frequented: sailboats are not the most numerous but motorboats for offshore fishing trips, diving trips, canoe trips and finally many speedboats that take you to the islands a little further away in a short time.

It is also a very active area with shops, restaurants, and a breathtaking beach. The pier offers many boat trips around all the nearby islands, including Racha Island and Koh Hae. In Chalong Bay, there is also a dive site for underwater enthusiasts and many activities like sailing and cruising among other fun endeavors.

It was completed in about 2002 and is around 700 meters long. Before this new pier, which was built to serve the countless tourist boats that depart from Chalong, there was only a rickety wooden jetty, barely wide enough for 2 people to pass each other. Now shored up as a concrete version of its bigger brother, I walked that too!

Music free under creative commons licence from Yo Tube Music Library:
Everything You wanted- by Dan Lebowitz

So as part of my ongoing self managing therapy, I photograph, a lot, and I have a lot of images from that. Some i make into what I hope are useful , “this is a nice place to visit and this is what you will see” slideshows on YouTube.

Then there are these, peaceful moments which I post for people who like me have worked out that we all need 5 minutes of the day just to stop and think of nothing else in this world, but to stop! and give our minds just a break at least once a day from all the things that push us too hard, Life! I weave them into these peaceful moments using images and appropriate music to help the mind switch off from the rest of the World.

I hope you find them as helpful as I do…. and the added bonus you see some beautiful places of where I have been.