travel theme: ripples

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Oman, South Korea, travel theme

Monday, June 24:  Ailsa Where’s my backpack? of challenges us this week to come up with Ripples.  Here’s my first choice, from a pond on top of Jebel Akhdar, a pond full of croaking and mating frogs.

ripples in a frog-filled pond on Jebel Akhdar

Wadi Arbiyyin is one of the most peaceful spots I have found in Oman.  I’m sorry I never got to swim in this gently-rippling pond.

ripples in Wadi Arbiyyin

And this was taken on an island in South Korea, Geoje-si, on a windy day at a place called Windy Hill.  I love what a breeze does to a body of water and ornamental grasses.  (Inspired by being mrscarmichael: Travel Theme (Ripples))

ripples of water and ornamental grasses in Geoje-si, South Korea (inspired by mrs. carmichael)

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weekly photo challenge: green

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postaweek2012, Travel, weekly photo challenge

Friday, November 16: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is Green. For some of you, in the northern hemisphere, you may not be seeing green for a while. Let’s celebrate all things green!

For a full-sized slide show, click on any image in the gallery below.

Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, USA

a green niche at the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi, UAE

green pomegranate at Wekan, Oman

green island near Geoje-do, South Korea

Misfat Al Abriyyen, Oman

Misfat Al Abriyyen, Oman

limes at BidBid, Oman

near Geoje-do, South Korea

the green lawn at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India

topiary at Geoje-do, South Korea

gardens near Geoje-do, South Korea

flowers in Wekan, Oman

green bananas at Misfat al Abriyyen, Oman

a privately owned island covered in gardens near Geoje-do, South Korea

a green door in Misfat Al Abriyyen, Oman

a green garden at one of the Meteora monasteries in Greece

more greenery near Geoje-do, South Korea

my world in five colors

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#capturethecolour, @travelsupermkt

Saturday, August 18: I was nominated a while ago by Madhu from The Urge to Wander for the Capture the Color photo competition run by TravelSupermarket.com.The rules entail that I publish a post with five original shots from my travels, each one representing the colours blue, green, yellow, white and red. I then need to tag five other bloggers and link back to TravelSupermarket on Facebook or Twitter (with the tags @travelsupermkt and #capturethecolour).

Here is my world in five colors.

BLUE: THE FAN, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, USA.

A blue house in The Fan district in Richmond, Virginia

Richmond’s Fan District is a lovely residential neighborhood that consists of late-nineteenth and early twentieth century homes. It has beautiful tree-lined avenues, historical monuments and row houses built in Victorian, Edwardian and Revival architectural styles. Many houses are also built in the American Craftsman style.  Many of the houses are painted in cheery colors with surprisingly delightful doors. (Richmond’s Fan District)

GREEN: OEDO BOTANIA, GEOJE-SI, SOUTH KOREA.

Oedo Botania

Oedo Botania is an island that’s been cultivated since 1963 by Korean couple Lee Changho and Choi Hosook; it’s the first island in Korea ever to be owned and developed by an individual.  Every inch of this island is abloom with gardens and punctuated by statues.  I walk along the pathways with hundreds of other Koreans who have taken boats from other locations in Geoje.  I check out the cactus garden, the Venus garden, the flower garden, the bamboo road, the Hope of the World garden, the Dreaming Heights, the Stairway to Heaven, and the Eden Garden.  It’s like a fairy-tale land bursting with beauty.  The island itself is gorgeous with gardens, but the view of the surrounding ocean doesn’t hurt it one bit.  Most definitely, Korea does nature right! (geoje: rough seas & caressing grasses (& random thoughts on memory, sensuality & friendship))

YELLOW: THE ROYAL PALACE, PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA.The Royal Palace is a complex of buildings that serves as the royal residence of the King of Cambodia. The Kings of Cambodia have occupied it since it was built in 1866, except during the tumultuous period of the Khmer Rouge.  The Royal Palace is lovely, all yellow buildings with curlicue roofs, in classic Khmer architecture. (phnom penh: wats, royal palaces, & killing fields)

WHITE:  OMANI MEN WITH RIFLES, NIZWA, OMAN.

Omani men at Nizwa souq

As I walk down toward Nizwa souq, I see a large group of older men affectionately handling, inspecting and playing around with rifles.  Some are sitting on a bench around a tree and I ask if I can take a picture of them.  They are friendly enough to let me do so.  But when I try to ask them questions about their rifles and what they are doing here, it becomes obvious that, first, no one speaks English, and second, I am an interloper among these men. Still.  They are an easy-going brotherhood, having a good time and laughing, a kind of Sunday social hour. (exploring the backroad to nizwa souq)

RED: TEMPLE OF LITERATURE, HANOI, VIETNAM.

Inside the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Vietnam

The Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucius in 1070 by Emperor Ly Thanh Tong, was later established as a university for the education of mandarins.  It has 5 courtyards, with a serene reflecting pool in the front courtyard, roofed gateways, and low-eaved buildings. (hanoi: city of motorbikes, enthusiastic buddhists & ho chi minh)

And here are my 5 nominees.  I know time is running out, as the contest ends August 29, but I hope they’ll still participate.

tahira’s: shenanigans from the edge of the world

blueberrie journal

Miranda from My Own Horizons

Finola of travelola.org

Lynne of On the Go with Lynne

a-z archive: q! challenge (quintessential [q]orea!!)

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a-z photo challenge

Tuesday, April 24:  I have to admit I’ve been a little stymied trying to find an interesting Q picture for this week’s a-z photo challenge.  If I had time, I would go down the east coast of Oman to photograph a town called Quriyat or to Muscat, where I could photograph the Qurum beach area.  The problem is, I don’t have time to do that in the next week.  I have other plans and they don’t involve anything with a Q… 🙂

This is my neighborhood in Daegu; it's the QUINTESSENTIAL Korean city block....

Besides, I started looking over my catbird in korea blog this week because that blog got nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award.  I have to admit, after looking through many of my pictures, a wave of nostalgia swept over me.  I discovered I miss Korea a bit, although everyone who knows me knows I didn’t care for it at all while I was there.  There was a lot of good about Korea though.  At least two weekends out of every month, just as I do in Oman, I went on adventures exploring all that Korea had to offer.  And looking back, it actually was quite a lot.  So, for this challenge, I’m posting a few pictures that capture Quintessential [Q]orea…. Don’t worry, I do know it’s really spelled with a “K.”  But hey, it’s the same sound, right?  Quintessential means: most typically representative of a quality, state, etc.; perfect; most typical…..

There’s no way I can really capture Korea in four photos, but that’s my goal and I’m stickin’ to it!

Donghae Yonggung-Sa Temple in Busan, South Korea ~ the quintessential temple in Korea

The thing I loved the most in Busan was Donghae Yonggung-Sa, a temple set on the rocky coast.  For some reason it was totally packed, possibly some Buddhist holiday we didn’t know about.  Though usually crowds like that would detract from a place’s appeal, I didn’t find it offensive.  I actually thought the crowd gave the spot a  “pilgrimage” ambiance.  The entrance is lined with large carved stone zodiac figures and stone lanterns punctuate the steps leading to the temple.  It’s such a pleasant setting all around, set on a rocky coast overlooking the East Sea with a pine-covered hillside behind it.  Buddha and bodhisattva statues abound and a huge pot-bellied smiling Buddha sits near the top.  Korea has hundreds of temples, but I see this one as the quintessential one!

Korea is known for its bright colors verging sometimes on the point of garishness. However, I loved the colorful lanterns at a lantern festival in Seoul.

one of many colorful lanterns at the Lantern Festival in Seoul, Korea

Finally, I can’t ignore the food.  I have to admit I didn’t care much for Korean food.  It seems among expats that we either love it or hate it.  There were some things I enjoyed, like bibimbap, and a few other dishes, but generally speaking, I dreaded any meal where I was forced to sit at a table with other Koreans who spooned huge helpings of bizarre chewy meats and seafood or heaps of kimchi onto my plate. Every time they loaded up my plate with food I didn’t like, they told me one health benefit or another.  According to Koreans, every single food in Korea has a health benefit.

One thing I generally did enjoy, however, was street food.  These are steamy hot accordion-shaped dumplings on a stick, made of some fish product (I think!).  It actually is quite tasty on one of Korea’s icy cold winter days.

Korean street food

Quintessential Qorea… in 4 little pictures…. 🙂

weekly photo challenge: distorted

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postaweek2012

Distorted: deformed, bent, twisted, crooked, contorted, misshapen….

Many trees in the desert climate of Oman are gnarly and twisted, distorted; they’re like bony fingers reaching and reaching for a drop of water, and failing miserably.  They seem to be crying out for sustenance, yearning for a bit of sympathy.

a tree distorted by the forces of nature in Oman

On Jebel Akhdar, a small village in Wadi Bani Habib has been distorted by the forces of nature after its abandonment.

an abandoned village distorted by the forces of nature

Sometimes, man and nature work together to create topiary gardens, bushes or trees distorted from their true essence and formed into something artistic.  Where distorted usually has a negative connotation, in this case, the distorted plant becomes beautiful and fascinating.  This was taken on an island in South Korea, Geoje-si. (geoje: rough seas and caressing grasses)

nature distorted by gardeners' hands

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. ~ Herman Hesse