Ortisei, February 2012

Hi all,

As the 11 City Skating tour fever in Holland slowly gets to its climax ( will it go on or not!), I am enjoying my yearly wintersport vacation in the beautiful area of Val Gerdena. The start of the week was freezingly cold with daily temparatures of -15C, but now (Wednesday 8 Feb) the temperature in the mountains dropped to only -7 and it is sunny all day. Although the cold we were almost all the week able to have our lunch on the mountain in the outside, just keep out of the wind and in the sunshine!
Tomorrow is Seela Ronda time. A ski tour of about 65 km around the Sella Massive. Mostly it is done clockwise, but this time we go the other way around.

On the picture both routes of the Ronda are signed. Red and Green. We will start in the left upper corner of the picture and go counterclockwise around the Sella Massive (following the green line).
Saturday will be the day of my trip back to Holland.

CU soon,
Arjan

Urban Photo Collective – Utrecht (Papendorp)

Almere, 29 January 2012

 

Hi all,

 

Yesterday afternoon I spent some hours with the Urban Photo Collective in Utrecht. We went to a new part of the town with lots of office buildings and as it was Saturday there were not many people and traffic around. Lots of time to look around and make some nice pictures. Theme of this afternoon was High Contrast. With a little sun and some clouds around lots of apportunities to create some nice shots. If you have time please have a look at my website: http://urban.iamnotsimple.nl/#18.0

 

 

Crosscup Almere 11th December 2011

In wintertime 3 times a crossrun is organized by the Athletics Club of Almere. The photoclub of which I am a member is asked by the organisation to make a photoshoot of these runs. Although it was very cold it was great fun to participate in this shoot. The results are published on this link:
crossloop

You can check who made the pictures in the right corner.

Have fun,
Arjan

28/11/2011 Kovalam - Almere

Hi all,

The last few days in India were very relaxing.

We spend a full day and night at a houseboat on the Backwaters. a 900km network of waterways that fringe the coast and trickle far inland. Long before the advent of roads, these waters were the slippery highways of Kerala and many villagers still use paddle-power as their main form of transport.

And furthermore 2 days at Kovalam. A small beachresort where really nothing was going on. You could do some swimming in the ocean or buy your last souvenirs, visit the lighthouse and that was it. One good thing about Kovalam I must admit: the seafood dishes were absolute delicious!

Well that was about it for this trip. Tine (our tourleader) mailed that India was weeping after we left the country. Or in other words: It rained cats and dogs.

During my stay in India I had much pleasure in creating a special serie of pictures. This serie is named: Betweeen +8 and -6. My first selection consists of 18 pictures of portrets of Indian people, all with glasses. Please have a look at my website via this link

More pictures will be published in due course.

Have fun,
Arjan

21-11-2011 Thekkady

This Hi All.,

Exact one week ago was my last post, so here is another update.

Afte Mysore we went to the mountains of Wayanad, where we spend two days at an eco resort in the middle of coffee, rubber and pepper plantations. Usually you have a room with a view, but I had a room with a mango tree. The tree was growing in the middle of my room and going out through the roof. I wouldn't like be there in the rainy season :-)
Furthermore there was unfortunately very little to do. We had some walks with a guide through the plantations and a visit to some local people to have a (I must admit) very good lunch. The evenings and night were very pleasant as the temperature dropped till about 20C.


Next to the west: Fort Cochin. A city along the coast, bloody hot and humid. Temperature went far above the 30C, probably going to the 40C. I had a look at the coast in the morning to see the Chenese fishingnets, wandered around the Dutch palace with some nice wall paintings and had a very nice lunch at the Kashi Art Cafe. The only place so far I have seen where modern art was exhibited. Although the pieces shown were a bit macabre.And in the evening a late dinner with grilled fresh fish.

Today I am in Thekkady and it is a bit of a cloudy and cool day. Nevertheless I am still wearing only t-hirt and shorts. Yesterday at Fort Cochin we had a bus change, because the old one was broken. Something with the compression which could not be fixed in a day and was serious enough to get us another bus. Without the compression the old bus would not be able to take us up into the mountains were we now are.
This morning we made a nature walk through the bush and saw some monkeys, birds, a frog which looked like a leave. In the afternoon I made a tour by boat on the lake and saw lots of birds, some deer and monkeys again..
Now I am killing some time till dinner and then I have to pack for our trip into the Backlands on a houseboat.

CU,
Arjan

November 14, Mysore

Dear all,

It has been some time since my last post so here is some follow up.
We left Pondicherry to Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) where we visited one of the largest templecomplexes of India (the Sirangam). In the narrow alleys of this complex live nearly 20.000 people. 7 walls and gates surround the temple which has a roof of pure gold. After this visit we went on to Madurai.
Madurai is well known because of the Sri Meenaksi temple. The temple gates are beautiful coloured towers and  also build conform the Dravidian architecture.
In the evening around 21:00 I returned to the temple to see the ceremony of bringing the god Shiva  with lots of noise (trumpets and drums) to the bedroom of his wife Meenaksi.

During the second day in Madurai I brought a visit to a Bramanschool. Of each family of a Braman (wholy man) one son is allowed to go to this school and get an education to Braman. I was allowed to make some pictures and I received the e-mailaddresses of some boys to send them the pictures.
I also visited the Ghandi museum which gave an overview of the struggle for independence of India and the life of Ghandi.

Early in the evening we went to the trainstation to get on the nightservice to Bangalore. After arrival in Bangalore we had a quick breakfast and some time to freshen up for the departure by bus to Hassan.
In the afternoon some of us went to the movies to see a Bollywood film, but after 45 minutes, a lot of noise and people talking in their cellphones during the movie we decided to leave.
In Hassan is not much to see or to do. so the second day we stayed there I made an excursion to the Shravanabelagora, which is  a pelgrimage destination for Jains in India. The Shravanbelagola is famous for a behemoth statue of Bahubali, which is the tallest monolithic statue in the world.
I climbed all 700 steps to see the morning ceremony of the washing of the feet of the Bahubali.
Furthermore the Jains is a religion of the most strict vegetarians. They do not eat any meat or fish or anything that comes out of the ground (like carrots or unions). Some of them live completely naked and they have some kind of broom to whipe away small animals before they put down their feet. A hard way of living if you ask me.
In the afternoon I visited Halebid and Belur.
Halebid was founded in the early 11th century as Dvarasamudra, This ancient capital of the Hoysala Empire was destroyed by the armies of the Dehli Sultanate in 1311 and 1327. The famous Hoysaleswara temple is still there however the construction of this temples has never been completed.
Belur was the first capital of the Hoysala dynasty. The Channekeshava Temple here is one of the three major Hoysala sites still in daily use.


This morning I arrived in Mysore. Now going to visit the palace of the Maharadja and the Devaraja Market. This is the most beuatiful market of India with lots of fruits, vegetables and herbs.

CU,
Arjan

Punducherry 7/11

In the afternoon I visited the local market with lots of colourfull spices, nice smells and many friendly salesman. Afterwards I made a long walk which made me pass the statue of Ghandi, Sri Aurabinda Ashram (also visited) and the French quarters.
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