...the journey continues

My SA Tourism photo gig

Forgot to mention that in June I had a fantastic opportunity to work on a project for SA Tourism which involved being part of a film crew assigned to an American couple from New York. They were one of four couples recruited for the campaign. Each couple had a 10 day itinerary that took them to various cities/towns/provinces.  The aim of the campaign was to record the couple's experiences in a 'real' way and to get first hand impressions from them at the end of each day.  Of course these couples were treated 5 star all the way from the moment they left their respective countries, business class flights, 5 star hotels and restaurants -  so in fact it is 'real' for a certain income group only.  I felt really lucky to be able to experience some of the things that the couple's were experiencing.  It was my first job of this kind and took some getting used to to working with a film crew.

The first few days were based in and around JHB. Below are some of the experiences that stand out for me  - Umoja at the Victory theatre, visit to Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind, Roots restaurant at the Forum Homini Hotel situated on a stunning game farm just outside Johannesburg.  High Tea at the Westcliff Hotel was also great.

From Johannesburg we travelled by car to Limpopo to Entabeni part of the Legends Golf and Safari resorts. It was here that we had our only adrenaline rush activity. This was to be experienced in a helicopter operated by a 'cowboy' pilot who takes you to the top of a mountain where you tee off for the 'extreme 19th hole'!  

The following day we departed for Hoedspruit to probably one of the nicest accommodations that we had during the trip - Kampama Private Game reserve actually situated just outside of Hoedspruit in the lowveld region.  This was my first time to the lowveld area which is mostly flat in contrast to the more hilly grassy highveld region.  The crew had rooms at the 5 star Kampama River Lodge with rates of about ZAR1950 per person sharing and the guest couple stayed at Camp Jabulani a private luxury safari lodge within the Kampama Game Reserve with rates of about ZAR8000 per person sharing.  The highlight of staying at Kampama was the game drives.  My first game drive. One of the film camera guys and myself were in a game drive car with our own ranger basically tracking down animals in the reserve for about 5 or 6 hours to film and photograph.  

We flew out from the tiny airport of Hoedspruit all the way to Cape Town. The new international airport in CPT is quite an upgrade from what it used to be.  The accommodation was at the Sun International Waterfront hotel.  The French Rugby team and many many Mexican soccer fans were also staying at the hotel. There was quite a great vibe.

Highlights of our stay in the western cape were visiting the beautiful Vergelegen winery in Somerset West, spending an evening at the Lanzerac hotel & spa in Stellenbosch, having dinner in Franschoek at Reuben's and photographing chef Reuben himself in his kitchen.

Not to forget being at the FIFA FAN Park for the opening match between Bafana Bafana and Mexico!!! What an awesome feeling when Bafana Bafana scored their first goal - wow!

Sho! owning and living in...

Sho! owning and living in a house sure has it's cons, especially in SA. Namely security. We moved in at the beginning of May and already have had 2 incidents that I am aware of of our property being breached.  The first was my ipod was stolen from my car. The second and hopefully the last was in the early hours of this morning, our gate motor stolen.

A lot of money needs to be invested in securing your property... and even that... is only a deterrent. If there are people who want to break-in... they usually find a way.

----

 Prayer from my childhood memories of my grandfather

Universal Prayer by SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

O Adorable Lord of Mercy and Love !
Salutations and prostrations unto Thee.
Thou art Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Omniscient.
Thou art Existence-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute.
Thou art the Indweller of all beings.

Grant us an understanding heart, 
Equal vision, balanced mind, 
Faith, devotion and wisdom. 
Grant us inner spiritual strength
To resist temptation and to control the mind.
Free us from egoism, lust, greed, hatred, anger and jealousy. 
Fill our hearts with divine virtues.

Let us behold Thee in all these names and forms. 
Let us serve Thee in all these names and forms. 
Let us ever remember Thee. 
Let us ever sing Thy glories. 
Let Thy Name be ever on our lips. 
Let us abide in Thee for ever and ever.

May is almost over. The...

May is almost over. The house has been successfully upgraded. Work on the studio has started. 

I am in possession of my new car which is a Kia Cerato. She isn't what I was going for initially in a car but.. I wanted one that was more fuel efficient. Her fuel economy is good on the open road, but in-town driving is not great at all. For the price, she came with almost all the bells and whistles and a 4 year service plan.

The Fifa world cup is in 14 days! The temperature is dropping but the sky is mostly sunny.

March 2010

It is March 2010! Less than a hundred days to the Fifa World Cup hosted by South Africa.  It feels like the entire country has been waiting for this forever and now it is almost here.  The gautrain, the BRT bus system and the never-ending roadworks is finally all coming together and taking shape.  The energy this year feels different. More of the positive is happening and I trust will continue to happen. My photography business is building up slowly but steadily.  I am getting more photographer work opportunities, expanding my network and building a name for myself. I am so appreciative of the time, support and feedback from friends, family and people who like my work.

I have decided to buy a car. I always felt that I would drive my car till it couldn't drive anymore. But I feel a need for a change - a car change. Hopefully the car that I choose will serve me well and that we will have a good happy time together (just as my toyota has).

Next month we start on upgrading the house we bought and hopefully get to move in by May.

I am looking forward to watch the new Alice and Wonderland movie! 

old faithful

transformation game

Played an amazing game a couple weeks ago.  The Transformation Game. Played it with Alison, Sher and Nevanya. Carol was facilitating the game which really added value to the whole experience. The game mirrors your life, the patterns of your life or at least how things are at the moment. It is eerily accurate. Felt like our angels and guides were  communicating with us directly. Best to play with people who are open and generous with their feelings/comments/feedback.  I learned more about my sister during that game than I all these years we've been sisters.

New home

When I arrived back in JHB from Thailand I realised that the transfer of my apartment had gone through in December. I didn't want to pay rent so I decided to give myself a week to move out.  The first step was to move the boys to Carol's and integrate them with her girl cats. They were amazing. For indoor cats who had not interacted with other cats before- they did great and were so chilled with their new environment. After a few hours they were completely at ease. The trouble was with the resident girl cats. It took about 2 weeks for them to adjust and allow the boys to roam freely. By the 3rd week Charlie and Igby were ready to go outside and decided to push a window open. 

I was a nervous wreck as I wanted to let them out in a more controlled way or at least be apart of it instead of them sneaking out in the middle of the night.  When I went out to look for them, Igby ran inside the house straight away. Charlie took his time and even went into the neighbours yard. Over the next few days I let them out during the day and now they go out all by themselves through the flap in the front door.

Something amazing happened last weekend. We found a house in Greenside at a really good price and our offer was accepted. Yay! Finances are in order. Hoping to upgrade the house during April and move in by May.

Exciting times.

Day 7 to 14

Have not been too good in posting updates

We left Krabi on the 23rd of December.  Almost a whole day of travelling. Arrived in Koh Samui airport at 3pm, took a airport shuttle bus to the Big Buddha pier where we then waited till 5:30pm for the Lomprahya catamaran to take us to Thong Sala on Koh Phangan.  From there the hotel shuttle picked us up at the pier.  It was a good 45min slow bumpy ride across the island to Thong Nai Pan Noi beach where we're staying at the Panviman resort.

It turns out that I've been to this beach before. In 5 years not much has changed in terms of the roads or lack of them.  The village though has grown a bit with a more restaurants, bungalows and some 5 star resorts such as Ra Sa Nan Da.

During the last few days in Koh Phangan we've been doing as little as possible which isn't hard to do. we're staying in one of the remotest parts of the island - it's quite hard to get around here without a 4x4 vehicle. Luckily the village is just a short walk from the resort. We found a great local spa called Tanaporn Spa (named after the owner) and have had a few really awesome massages at a fraction of the cost of a JHB spa.  Also discovered a nice little local restaurant called 'Again and Again'. Best food in the village so far.

On Christmas eve, the hotel had a big buffet supper and had some local entertainment. Met up with the Chundras afterward who are staying in a really amazing hotel called Santhiya.  Didn't do much on Christmas day, spent it on the beach and went swimming mostly.

The beach is beautiful. it has some waves unlike the beaches in Krabi, which makes it a little more interesting to swim in.  On Carol's birthday we went on an elephant trek in the forest. Our elephant was only interested in eating, peeing, and pooing. haha! so we didn't get very far in the 40min that we were on it.  After the elephant trek we went to the spa for a 2 hour body care package. my massage lady was a bit too 'thorough' for me... when she did the full body scrub :/

we went to a half-moon party at Haad Rin beach - across the island from where we're staying.  Didn't have such a great energy as it used to. There were a lot of young european teenagers who probably just finished high school on a school break. they have no respect for the place, the people. boys just lining up peeing on the beach, while just a little way from where they are peeing, people are swimming. it was disappointing and gross. Just didn't have the same feel as the last time... like the thai people have just rolled over for the tourists ... after the tsumani. Guess you do what you have to to survive.  The thai's rely almost purely on tourism to make a living.

the part of the island that we're staying at though is still a little more untouched by the young foreign folks.

3.5 days left on the island, then its back home to SA and it's heavy traffic and road construction.

I'm looking forward to the New Year, looking forward to 2010, to things going a little easier, to dreams becoming reality, to our new home, to my photography business expanding, to discovering new talents and nurturing the ones i'm aware of and making them work for me in the best positive way possible.

 

Day 4 & 5

Departed from Bangkok and arrived in Krabi in about 1hr30min.
Worst landing of a plane ever!

We're staying at the Krabi Resort in Aonang, which has the same feel
as Phuket did way back in the day. Our bungalow is 5 meters from the
beach. We wake up to stunning views.  The massages which are fantastic
cost 300 baht for an hour which is about R75!

Yesterday we took a long tail boat to Rei-Leh West beach to organise a
snorkelling day trip.  The entire area looks like it does in the
post-cards. It almost doesn't look real it's so beautiful. Truly
paradise. Went swimming in a cove, blue, calm, warm water.  Had dinner
twice at a great Indian restaurant across from the resort. We ate and
ate till our seams were bursting.

leaving on our snorkelling day trip in 10min

Later!

bangkok day 3

its our last night in bangkok. actually feeling a bit sad about
it.today we were on our own... just browsed around siam, bought a
couple t-shirts (that will probably end up shrinking in the wash), had
lunch
at a great food court.

Believe it or not, the highlight of today was watching the new Avatar
movie in 3D. What an amazing movie. James Cameron seriously has outdid
himself. A must see movie - and if you can see it in 3D at IMAX. its
amazing

how time flies when you're in those huge never-ending multi-level
shopping malls.

south africa can learn a thing or two from the thai people about service and
tourism.

the smell in the city is vile (the mix of the food being cooked by the
street hawkers and the stench of the drains/air pollution) the air
pollution is really bad. jhb air seems clean compared to here. it's
probably
the humidity that doesn't let the fumes rise but instead just lingers.
for some reason there are not many flies around despite the seafood
being cooked on the side of the streets. And litter is also minimum
with a very few public bins available. south africa has tons of
litter on the city streets with a lot of available public bins

at the cinema, just before the movie starts, everyone stands up and
pays homage to the king. its strange to us but cool - instilling this
feeling of oneness with your country people.. that's patriotism.

Got to th e hotel at 11:15pm. Gotta check out in the morning. Leaving
for Krabi. Watched a show on the History channel this morning about
the Tsunami in 2004. Scary stuff.

Bangkok Day 1 & 2

last night after we arrived and showered, carol and i walked from our
hotel about 2km to Chit Lom station, then caught the skytrain to Siam
square. from there we walked to MBK. Met up with the chundras at Siam
Paragon afterwards at about
9pm. they were having Burger King. Paragon is this really larney
shopping centre a lot like Harrods. Got to the hotel late, then
showered again Oh yes, took a tuktuk back (scary exciting fun)

we had a really good day today. had a good breakfast then met up with
jow wendy and shameme at about 11am. Took the skytrain to the Central
Pier then got a ferry taxi boat thing to the Grand Palace. Spent most
of the afternoon there. The best part was going to Wat Po where the
reclining buddha is and afterward going for massages. Best best ever.
Took the boat back, then skytrain to chundra's hotel (which is on the
other side of town from our hotel). We found a really nice local place
to eat and had an amazing supper. Even that whole deep fried fish with
chilli and lime like the one we had the first time with dad in Phuket.
The whole bill for 7 of us came to 2200 baht. food was better than
wang thai.
we just got a taxi back to the hotel now. its about 11pm.