floating village, siem reap, cambodia

still in cambodia, this is a series of photos i took of the floating village in siem reap. you can either scroll down to see the rest of the photos, or click on the first photo to launch a slide viewer.

i spotted a striped snake in the water, and one of the houses shown above keeps several alligators, and as you can see from one of the photos, they use the same water to bathe.  i had a coffee in the community shop, by the time it occured to me that they might have gotten the water from the same source, it was already too late to cancel it, i didn't want to embarass the shop owner.  anyway, it was safe, they must've used bottled water.

XXX

me in angkor wat

photo: charles george

charles took this photo in angkor wat, cambodia. (he did the post-processing too)


XXX

tourists watching the sunset from bakheng hill, cambodia

the highest elevation among the temple groups around angkor wat, this was the best place to watch the sunset


XXX

sunrise in angkor wat, cambodia

woke up extra early for this and it was truly beautiful, unfortunately there were scaffoldings (photoshopped out of this photo) so i didn't bother to do proper photos of it.


XXX

this is charles doing his best robert mitchum impression

he also did an impression of smoking marlene dietrich and bette davis, but let's stick to this one.

we spent the whole day walking about so we decided to do an evening dip in the pool.  prince d'angkor hotel in siem reap, cambodia.  the staff are sooooo nice (well, the cambodians in general) and helpful.


XXX

rice fields in siem reap, cambodia, devastated by flooding

this is the rice fields near siem reap in cambodia that should've been a blanket of vibrant green this time of the year but is instead submerged in flood water.

XXX

afternoon drinks

rene, ogie, benj, and josen (l-r) decided to come over for afternoon drinks at the rooftop of my apartment after we had dim sum in wanchai. the half-frozen dark bottle is hendricks.

XXX

more flowers

awwwwwww! another bunch. i hope i don't get used to this.


XXX

panoramic photo of halong bay

just another photo of beautiful halong bay, vietnam. you can click to see the full size of the image (you'll also probably have to maximize your browser window to see the entire image). can't remember how many shots i stitched to get this panoramic view, but it was all automated in photoshop, so no biggie.


XXX

scene from a cafe serving dog meat in hanoi, vietnam

i almost got robbed in hanoi. while walking around the lake near the historic district, a guy touted a cardboard sheet with some photos printed on it, offering something i didn't care to know. red flag! a cardboard with print, a newspaper, a menu, a petition list, or a photo being shoved in your face for attention is (almost) always a decoy. while you're struggling to see what's printed so you can vehemently say no, the guy's other hand is probably very busy picking your pocket already. if you're sitting in a cafe with your stuff on the table and someone shoves something on your face offering something, you can be sure that the guy's (or girl's) other hand is already swiping your things from the table. it bears repeating: anything being shoved in your face to grab your attention is ALWAYS a diversion so a thief can take your stuff. anyway, i saw the sign so i politely said no and walked on - but this one's pretty persistent. at one point, where there was a bigger crowd, he blocked my way so that i can't walk forward, still showing me his pictures. this was, i assumed right, step two. while he blocked my way, someone he works with was already busy trying to unzip my backpack. as i was aware of the play, i instantly noticed the guy behind me at work, yanked my bag, and walked away. at this point the guy with pictures walked even faster so he's still ahead of me, the other guy who was opening my bag ran a few meters ahead. when i saw that they haven't let go, i yelled and warned everyone to be careful because the guy's a pickpocket. at this point the thief closer to me stopped walking, so i just looked him in the eye and walked past. the other thief also stopped, stood with his back on the crowd, like he was looking at something from a distant, feigning innocence. when i walked passed him i felt the energy - conscious control of excitement, unnatural stillness.

so anyway, why let such an encounter ruin your trip, right?  the photo above has nothing to do with the failed robbery - other than that it was taken in hanoi on the same night.  this is supposed to be a popular cafe - on the menu, among other things, are grilled or boiled dog meat.  i read somewhere that dogs can smell whether or not you've eaten dog meat before.  is this true? if you know for sure and have an explanation for it, please drop me a line.


XXX

p.s.
i forgot to mention that the above warning isn't just for hanoi - it's for any city when you're travelling.  i remember once while in fisherman's wharf in san francisco (a tourist trap if there ever is one), amongst the thick crowd a youngish couple suddenly had a yelling row and a very public breakup.  only the whole thing was so fake and staged (they really should've taken acting lessons) - everybody's attention turned to them for a couple of minutes.  i wanted to yell "beware of pickpockets" but i was afraid there might be one near me holding a knife (they sometimes do, tho not usually)

XXX

halong bay, vietnam

wow. i really should travel more - halong bay is (relatively) close to hong kong and yet it took me all this time to visit.  so beautiful and peaceful and relaxing.

XXX

yim tin tsai island, hong kong

these are photos from yim tin tsai island in hong kong, a ghost town about 15-minutes boat ride from sai kung town in hong kong.

XXX

charles and dog

© Joselito Briones

charles, a good friend from way back, visiting from new york.  crazy about them dogs.

XXX

you can do anything but lay off of my...

as if wearing a pair of blue suede shoes isn't enough, am also wearing cord pants in burgundy.  hmn.

XXX

alteration shop

Photo:  Joselito Briones

this here is the alteration shop where i bring my trousers for length alteration.  it's on the same street where i live, on a narrow alley.



XXX

oh and look!

awwwwwww.... and chocolates too!


XXX

look!

somebody gave me flowers. hihi.

XXX

frank sinatra had a cold and i am now a gay talese fan

image from esquire

came across this brilliant piece of writing from gay talese from the mid 60's in esquire. now if only they could make this a movie with sting as frank sinatra.

XXX

absolut hannibal

Photo: Joselito Briones

more random gallery shop window. this one's in 3d - those chopped up parts of the mannequin are sticking out of the canvas.


XXX

free outdoor dining space at IFC

Photo:  Joselito Briones

one of hong kong's well-kept secret:  free outdoor dining space at IFC.  unobstructed view of kowloon island.  clean space under tree shade.  it's open to the public, bring your own lunch (i usually buy from city super). use the lift near city super, and go to rooftop of the podium (P4).  the rooftop is actually a small park so you can just hang around, or take photos.


XXX

dim sum @ treasure lake seafood restaurant

Photo:  Joselito Briones

i think the restaurant itself occupies 3 floors, but the dimsum place is on the second floor.  anyway, this is the dim sum place in my neighborhood where you'll find me most sundays at about noon.   neighborhood is actually not the right word to use, as it is in the city center and there's nothing neighborhoody about it. anyway this is right around the block where i live.

if you're ever in the area and you go to this restaurant, you must try the yam cake in XO sauce, dumplings with sharksfin soup (for the price that they charge, i doubt if it's really shark's fin, but it's delicious anyway) and egg yolk custard bun. this is a very basic no-frills dim sum restaurant but the food is good and the staff is friendly.


XXX

fairy

Photo:  Joselito Briones

this one's from yet another gallery in hollywood road. so far the kitsch-iest one among them.

XXX

pop portraits

Photo:  Joselito Briones

yet another random gallery window showcase.


XXX

halloween costume shopping in hong kong

Photo: Joselito Briones

the place to buy halloween costumes here in hong kong is a stairs/alley connecting lyndhurst terrace and wellington street to stanley street, a block from where i live.


XXX

window showcase

Photo:  Joselito Briones

just been walking around and taking photos of window displays, mostly of galleries in the area where i live.  this one's in hollywood road.  can't even remember the names of the shops nor the artists, and often think it unwise that they display these artworks exposed in full daylight.  maybe they're just unaware of what it could do to the artwork.


XXX

legalize gay cupcakes!

© Joselito Briones

cute, no?  can't remember the name of the cupcake shop i bought it from, tho.


XXX

didier restaurant and cassoulet

© Joselito Briones

the chef of a restaurant i've been to several times made cassoulet especially for me (it's not in the menu).  isn't that nice?  was sooooooo good.  butter beans, duck leg, sausage, and lamb shank in one pot.  supper yummy.

i had lunch there the other day because the weather in hong kong was so gorgeous and i just had to go to a restaurant with outdoor seating and this is very close to where i work and so i had provencal sausages and mash and chef didier came over and told me how he also makes cassoulet with all the goodies including the same sausage so i asked him when he's gonna make cassoulet and he said anytime so i said can he make it the following night and he said sure so i said great so i came back the following night and can you believe it he actually made it and he explained how complicated it is to make it and the diners on the next table were soooo jealous because as i said it wasn't in the menu and finally i ate it and it was EXCELLENT! ha ha!

XXX

family portraits

© Joselito Briones

i realized i've posted this album just about everywhere but i haven't shared it with you. pictures from family reunion

XXX

daybreak

random pics time... two of my sisters norie and uding in a beach in batangas, early morning.  we walked towards the fishermen's boats to see about the day's catch, for family lunch.  no luck, they caught just enough for their own use.

XXX

what's with the post-it's and the sad faces?

two years ago i took this photo as part of a series

and this

and i'm posting these for no other reason than that i was reminded of these photos when i took this:

above photo is of eric and was taken in front of apple store, post-it messages are for steve jobs.

XXX

adobe photoshop will soon let you unblur photos

how cool is that?

XXX

going to california

well, not yet. just found the vid and thought i'd share it.
XXX

i spy

i spy
with my little eye...
something beginning with L and V

hmmm... i wonder who's the gonna be the lucky one.


XXX

frei aber froh

no, my german has not improved at all.  it's got something to do with the music accompanying this letter (you'll have to play the music above).  johannes brahm's musical motto for this symphony Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90  (3rd movement, poco allegreto) consisted of the notes F-A(flat)-F, the first letters of frei aber froh.  and no, i have not suddenly become a music expert either, i just read it somewhere else.  why frei "aber" froh (free "but" happy), you might ask, not frei "und" froh (free "and" happy)?  supposedly it's in response to the composer's friend's motto of frei aber einsam (free but lonely).

what about this music then?   not sure.  i think this is supposed to be meadows and creeks and flowers of spring, but somehow it gives me all sorts of feelings - at times confused and indecisive, bouts of resolve and brief periods of peace, sometimes hopeful but nothing more. it stops short of a conclusion, as if happiness or whatever resolution there is to be had lies after the last note.  i was listening to this when i was thinking of my last year in berlin and somehow it just fits and i couldn't get it out of my head.

i read somewhere that real happiness is that moment when you are faced with the promise of being happy.  i'm hoping the same is true about not being happy - that the worst one can feel is when one fears the possibility of not being happy - because if it's true, then the worst is over.

anyway, i should hear from my lawyer anytime soon. today is the court hearing for my divorce.


XXX

riding for the feeling

,

"in conclusion... leaving is easy
when you've got someplace you need to be..."
- bill callahan

hmmm.  lately these letters seem to be like a countdown of some sort, don't you think?  give me until first week of september and i promise i'll snap out of it. in the meantime here's some more depressing sad music.


XXX

doctor who is back!

yay!  new doctor who episodes are here, finally.  the first one's called "let's kill hitler" and picks up where it left off, it's a sci-fi soap actually. someone who was called something before now has a different name and character, someone's killer turns out to be someone's lover. someone's best friend turns out to be her mother, someone who died in one episode turns out to be alive after all.  see what i mean?  this episode belongs to alex kingston.

XXX

antony and the johnsons

another charlie - well, this one's a "charles", a friend who lives near you actually, says a lot of the music i listen to are very depressing, sad music.  i guess it's true. here's an example. antony and the johnsons.  again, not my favorite among their songs but the only one they have with a proper video.

XXX

meet charlie

in case you've been wondering who this "charlie" is who's been leaving comments here, well, here she is :)

***

hi joey,

hindi ko alam kung anong pic ang i-aattached ko kaya i2ng best pictures ko na lang.

thank you...pinky

So, this picture was taken last July 1 CANADA DAY...i live close to this beach in Lakeshore,Toronto.

It was already past 8:00pm but during peak summer here it is still sunny around 9:00pm.

We are waiting for the fireworks,very far from HongKong Fireworks. But because it is getting late we just went home because it is not worth the wait.

The funny thing is instead of having fresh air here in Toronto,the smell of marijuana is always in the air.The same thing during canada day,so we went home before we get addicted to it.

***

XXX

dylan leblanc

this isn't my favorite among his songs, but this is the only one with a proper video... so here you go. dylan leblanc

XXX

ice candy

as promised, here's the ice candy that woke me up so early yesterday.  i bought these from muji, where they come in 100% apple juice and grape juice flavors. i like the grape juice better.

i remember we used to sell the home-made type when i was a child.  or maybe it was my nanny (meding?) who made and sold them and i just watched her make them and helped tying the end to a knot which was difficult because there was always very little of the plastic left to tie.  there were two basic flavors that i can remember - buko (young coconut meat, coconut water, water, sugar) and red mung beans (boiled red beans, with sugar).  am sure there were other flavors but i can't remember them.  there might have been chocolate (cocoa, water, sugar?) and melons, but not so sure anymore. i think we also sold ice, so i can only assume that not every household in our neighborhood had a freezer then.  i can't imagine now how it might have made sense, because with what we could've charged for ice candy and ice at that time, and the cost of electricity, i doubt if she made any money. back then of course, it was always hot and there was always ice candy in the freezer and that's all that mattered.


XXX

wisdom of dick

record early wake up time of 2:30am.  dick once told me that old people always wake up early because they're afraid they might not wake up at all anymore.  i don't know about that, because i know i woke up remembering that i have ice candy (you know, frozen flavored liquid in plastic container - bah, i'll show you photo tomorrow) in the freezer, and i wanted some right at that moment. and anyway he's in his mid-30's, what does he know about being old.

well, one can only have so much ice candy so early, so after a few i decided to run. it was already 4am by the time i got there.  i saw a few old chinese men in their standard gear of white vest, khaki shorts, black shoes and high socks - , doing their tai-chi thing, some carrying radio, walking the path alone - but they kept disappearing.  i mean, like, one would say "good morning" in cantonese to me and i'd say the same as i pass him, but if i look back he's gone.  what's weird about it is that one side of the path is high retaining wall and the other side is a steep fall.  and this happened a few times.  creepy, no?  i decided either they fell and rolled down all the way to causeway bay or, more likely, they can walk through solid concrete retaining walls.

when i reached the end (same as the beginning, it was a return run) and i stopped, i felt very woozy. woops. (uh-oh, the vanishing old men are after me!) feeling dizzy combined with being hot from running and soaked all over is really bad.  i sat down on a park bench, took deep breaths, and it took a while before i felt ok again to stand up.  went to the street (magazine gap road) and waited for a taxi. none came. strange because there's always taxi anywhere in hong kong at anytime. after waiting for sometime i got dizzy again, combined with some rumbling in my belly, so i went to the toilet in the park nearby and let one rip. or two. ok, a few. then i felt REALLY better.  how was i to know that this dizziness thing was just a massive case of fartiness?  i blame the ice candy.  well i can't really because they were good. when i went back to the street there were plenty of taxis but by then i'm pissed at them already for not being there when i needed one, so i walked home.

i usually go back by the central escalator, but this time i thought i'd go a different way.  down to garden road, by hong kong zoo and botanical, between government house and u.s. consulate, ice house street, then queens road. lined along the sidewalk of an entire block in queens road were people manually sorting freshly unloaded newspapers, literally doing inserts. (photo, above). 

XXX

al molo

very nice italian restaurant - the name's "al molo". saw it when i took photos of that yacht the other day and decided to go in.  ended up doing a 4-course meal.  :) (i was very hungry!) not cheap tho.  raw oysters for starters (french -  if anyone tries to make you feel guilty for not consuming locally-sourced food, carbon footprint and all that, take him to this restaurant and feed him french oysters), a glass of sauvignon blanc, hand-made pasta with mushrooms, sea bass fillets, some dessert with a name that i think translates to "granny's cake", and a double espresso, plus tip, amounts to HKD 950.  was yummy tho, and the staff were nice. i'll be back.


XXX

tûranor planet solar in hong kong

not sure what this was but it sure was more interesting than the light show yesterday. i googled it and turns out it's some solar-powered german-built yacht that intends to go around the world, currently in its hong kong stop.  tûranor planet solar. here's their own website.

XXX

hong kong's symphony of lights

i found an unused hong kong ferry token among my coins, probably from when jane visited, so i took the ferry to tsim sha tsui and watched the light show.  it was bleh.


XXX

eta: someone told me that this used to be much better, with a lot more buildings participating.  too bad i never saw that version.  still, i think it would've been much better had don dorsey done it.

what can you buy for $20

as an experiment, i invited my nephews and nieces (and kids) to submit a gift wish for the early christmas celebration - with the condition that it should cost US$20 or less, and that if i can't find it in the price limit, they'll automatically get PHP50 instead.  you should've seen the list they made:  lens for a digital camera, wrist watch, desktop speaker with subwoofer, and the one that takes the cake, a complete kitchen package from ikea. well that one's from my youngest sister, and of course she'd pay for it, but i'm in hong kong and she actually expects me to put the whole thing, cabinets and all, in one door-to-door box.  between her and my eldest sister who thought up the early christmas celebration, i wonder why i bother making up fictitious characters for stories.

anyway, kids today have a very grand idea of what a gift can be, and no idea of the value of money. no one asked for a certain book, or cd (i suspect they all just download anything they want), or any traditional toys, or some special food, or something really basic, like a new pair of socks. sign of the times? i remember when getting ANY sort of gift was a real treat - now it has to be branded products and electronics, and only the latest ones will do.  in a way i guess it's also a good indicator that all the basics are well provided for.  now that's really something to celebrate.


XXX

early christmas shopping

norie, my eldest sister who lives in california, decided she wants to celebrate christmas in september in the philippines (and why not, right?). so we'll have a reunion/christmas party.  i expect lots of food and noise and fun.  photo above is from last year's christmas eve party games.  there'll be a hired band for the party so there'll be lots of singing as well.  in the past it's my nephews and nieces who make up a band, but now two of them have moved to california. we'll also have an exchange of gifts, that's why i'm going christmas shopping this weekend, in the middle of august.


XXX

i'm stuck.

remember how i said i'm on to my next screenplay?  well i am. only i'm stuck.  how does one write dialogue for an old and grumpy italian-american male and a young black female? i've got the whole story  (another short one) and even camera set ups but i can't put words in my characters' voices.  most of my adult life i've taken pride in understanding most english accents to a point where i can actually ignore them and focus instead on the message, and now it's come back and bitten me in the behind.

hmm.  skip and move to another one?

XXX

eta: photo above has nothing to do with this, of course.  i just wanted something to link to my photography page and this is the only photo i have with an italian-ish and old-ish-looking guy (character i have in mind is older).

the next day

i know, it was photo overdose of this place from yesterday. i just thought i'd put this one up, taken early morning of the next day, because that lone figure in the water may or may not be me bathing in the buff.

XXX