16 October 2016

Family Trips

After the job, the company kindly allowed me to extend my stay in Thailand. So I had two short family trips.  



We visited Khao Sam Roi Yot.  My mother, without any knowledge about how to get there, asked if we could go to Phraya Nakhon Cave.  So we took off our shoes, waded in a-feet-high sea to get on a boat to get to a secret beach, from where we started to climb 430 metres.  
After the continuous climb for sometime, the path went down and soon I was facing a huge cliff.  I was in a cave but the sun was shining through the gap above.  It was a beautiful, magical place.

And it started to drizzle.  I could see the rain drops shining against the dark wall of the cave.  There was vegetation growing in the cave only where there was a big gap above, where rain and sunshine came through. 
I wish I could capture the moment somehow in my sketchbook.  But as with any family trips, I was rushed to move on. 
The rain got heavier and we got completely drenched on the way back.  It was nice though that I did not feel cold in wet clothes.



The back of the hotel where we stayed was an open space with shrubs.  Finding a Green Bee-eater perching on a fence in the evening, I decided to get up early next morning.



And this is what I saw, Hoopoes!   In fact, there were four of them.



ホテルの裏の何でもない空き地に生える枯れ木に、一時、ヤツガシラとミドリハチクイとアカモズが一緒に止まった。



コシジロヒヨドリ(Sooty-headed Bulbul)



水上マーケットにも立ち寄った。タイに来たら、一度は飲みたくなる、チャオ・クウェイという黒いゼリー入りの飲み物をゲット。仙草というシソ科の植物の葉や茎を作って作ったものだ。



中学の頃訪れたときの記憶では、もっと小さな水路にもお店があって、船がごった返しているようだったのに、今回行ってみたら、あちこちシャッター街だった。



This is what I made during the high school art class.  Damnoen Saduak in a shoe box. 



高校の授業で作った、靴箱の中のフローティングマーケット。まだ物置の一番上にのっていたので、ついひっぱり出してみた。あれ以来、ついぞ3次元には手を出していない気がする。



オオスズメフクロウ(Asian Barrd Owlet)
I knew it was an owl the minute I saw the perching silhouette during the morning birding at a nature resort.



アオショウビン(White-throated Kingfisher)
I thought we had enough of moving from one place to another, so I suggested we stayed at a resort for whole morning. 
At about 9:00 my mother spotted three hawks in the sky.  They were Oriental Honey-Buzzards.  A few minutes after, there was another hawk and more and more.  We counted 21 before 11:30. The place must have been on a migration route!  

A few days later, I was reading "The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling," the book I borrowed from my artist friend and I encountered this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh.
“We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.”
The 21 Honey Buzzards were the joy of the day for me.  

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