Colors From My Wanderings

ORANGE and the monks of Chiang Rai, Thailand.  In a less popular temple in Chiang Rai, I chanced on these monks attending a meeting! Yes, they were discussing something, instead of doing their prayers or chanting.

Light is essential so people can discern the different hues that surround us. Colors make our surroundings vivid portions of our habitat, thus making our lives a little less boring. In this post, I am sharing lots of colors taken from different places all throughout the land. 

My blogger friend Ram - http://sankriti.blogspot.com/ - roped me into this contest, but I was unable to make it on time due to work, which was too bad. Nevertheless, I am posting my chosen photos.  This competition is organized by Travel Supermarket. The rules of the competition are given here: http://www.travelsupermarket.com/c/holidays/capture-the-colour/ . Now as per rules of the competition I am supposed to tag five other bloggers to do the honors. Unfortunately, since I am very late, tagging five others at this point would be useless since I didn't make the deadline. 

But here's hoping these photos would give someone a smile on his/her face.

This is the Eye in the Sky! 


RED

Taken at one of the ancient palaces in Hue, Vietnam.

A school of jelly fish at the Manila Ocean Park, Manila, Philippines

Steel sculptures  enshrined at the National Museum in Da Nang, Vietnam.

Young girls wearing a traditional dress in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal.

A temple along Jonker's street in Melaka, Malaysia.

A small Chinese Temple in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia.

Flowers called gumamelas arranged at the well in Eden Nature Park, Davao City, Philippines.

GREEN

A serenely beautiful tea plantation in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.

Children picking tamarind fruits in Beng Mealea, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Ruins and the trees in Beng Mealea, one of the sites where "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" was filmed, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Street delicacy (a version of the pancakes) in Bandung, Indonesia.

Ruins of the Prambanan Temples and the track leading to the woodlands in Prambanan, Indonesia.

PINK

A Catholic Church patterned after Paris' Sacre Couer right in the heart of Trichy, India.

A neglected roadside temple/altar in the bordertown of Gorakhpur, India enroute to Nepal.

A trike driver in Surakarta, Indonesia.

Horse drawn carriage at the desolate beach in Parangtritis, Indonesia.

YELLOWS & GOLDS

One of the gorgeous Khmer palaces in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Detail of the roof and ubosot of a temple in Chiang Saen, North Thailand.

A Vietnamese painting on display in Hue, Vietnam.

Sumptuous meal in Negombo, Sri Lanka.

India's version of the Big Mac called Maharaja Mac in New Delhi, India.

How do you pick a single color in Thanjavur, India?

Colors abound in Agra, India.

Painting for faith in Swayambhunath, Nepal.

A fruit stall in Pudokottai, India.

Colorful trinkets in Bhaktapur, Nepal.

BLUE

Taking the bus in Madurai, India.

One of God's most beautiful, natural creations in Pokhara, Nepal, the jump off point for travels to Everest.

YELLOWS

A quiet sidestreet in Kuala Terangganu, Malaysia.

A quiet residential lane - with colorful winding stairs - in Kuching, Malaysia.

SANDSTONE REDS

One of the sandstone-constructed edifices at the Lodhi Garden in New Delhi, India.

One of the stately tombs in Delhi, India.

A temple in Madurai, India.

Liuli Fountain at the Pavilion in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Delicious concoction a la halo halo in Jakarta, Indonesia.

A reveler at a festival in Solo, Indonesia.

GRAYS AND GREENS

Pool at the Goa Gajah Temple in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.

Concrete Angkorian soldiers in Siem Reap, Cambodia. 

Melting red candles at the Santo Nino Basilica in Cebu City, Philippines.

Once, opium products were openly sold here at the Golden Triangle where 3 countries meet: Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.

Crossing the waters in Sarawak River, Kuching, Malaysia.

WHITE 

Magnificent White Temple in at the fringes of Chiang Rai, Thailand.

A beautiful but mostly ignored temple in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand's shopping istrict.

BLACK

One of the several Black Temples some 30 minutes from Chiang Rai, Thailand - as designed and maintained by one of the country's National Artists.

YELLOW

Blooming flowers in Da Nang, Vietnam

A painting for sale in Kathmandu, Nepal. I was gonna buy this but negotiations bogged down when I was charged 3x the original price I was initially given.

Another Ordinary Day in Bukit Mertajam

Okay, I'm apologizing for the previous references to "bowel movement", but I couldn't resist the humor behind the acronym. BM - Bukit Mertajam. I'd be hip and start using neologisms like "The Jam" in reference to the city than "BM".

"Hey, Johnny, where you off to?"

"On my way to The Jam, mate."

Sounds rad, right? But anyway, that was just a thought (if a tad silly).

Bukit Mertajam is actually the capital of Central Seberang Perai in Penang Malaysia, some 300+ kilometers north of KL. Its English name is the cosmopolitan-sounding "Wellesley Province", but I doubt if the modern folks of Perai are even aware of this. Seberang Perai is a narrow hinterland opposite the island of Penang. The two constitute the Penang State, home to 815,767 people.

With Bukit Mertajam being the capital, Butterworth is its principal town. The Wellesley province was originally named after Richard Wellesley who was governor of Madras, India and governor general of Bengal. It was part of the State of Kedah but the then-sultan of Kedah ceded it to the British East India Company.

Presently, the province is home to several big malls that I saw while navigating around the place - AEON Seberang Prai City (in Bandar Perda, visible on your way to Bukit Mertajam), Sunway Carnival Mall, Megamall, Carrefour, Tesco, Giant Hypermarket. Public transportation is adequate along main routes but outside the main arterial line, like visiting Towbookong Temple along Jalan Raja Uda, it becomes a challenge.

This short sojourn in Bukit Mertajam gave me an idea of this capital. It can get alienatingly "remote" or desolate sometimes. But this is how people live - after all, we don't always ride on roller coasters and ferris wheels and planes to live our daily lives. The place looks clean enough, but on the whole, it tends to slumber under the sun.

This is the Eye in the Sky!

Care for a drink?

A DVD shop... and a lot of titles.

Hock Lee

A temple at the vicinity of a small market.

A bread and pastries shop.

The street leading to Summit Hotel, BM Mall and the bus terminal. I didn't have a map. Summit Hotel was my point of reference.

Brisk business

Chinese shops and rundown houses.

Lee Dispensary

Cheap textiles at 2.20 ringgit a meter.

Taxis await for passengers and there's almost none.

Drainage and back roads.

Ghostly?