Tag Sunset
The water is a nearly perfect navy blue topped by a faint streak of orange from the warm glowing ball of the setting sun. I lie in the water after my run over the soggy grey sand, letting it cool me down. A wave comes rolling lazily along, slowly lifting me up then gently dropping me down as it passes. I take in the beauty of the sunset and just drift, total relaxation.
The dreariness of my evening commute has been instantly dispelled by a marvelous sky. A pale blue background, bordering on yellow, richly strewn with tufts of cloud like pieces of cotton on a blue tablecloth. The clouds lie in shadow but are lit from underneath by the setting sun, painting them dark grey on one side and a brilliant hue of pinkish orange on the other. The contrasting colors make every little wisp of vapor stand out against the background, making the clouds seem bigger and fuller, while at the same accentuating the orange light, making it look as if the entire sky is filled with a brilliantly shining fire. It is little moments like this that make the drudgery of every day life bearable.
The sun has just started to set, it's noticeably lower in the sky but still bright and warm, shining right at me. My hat shields my face from its rays but I can feel its warmth on my bare chest. It paints a broad streak of silver on the water's surface, like a glimmering road across the tops of the waves, from the ever shifting waterline on the wet sand all the way out to the horizon. I stand a few feet out in the water with the waves washing over my ankles, watching that strip of silver as if mesmerized by the way it sparkles, drawing in my eyes until I see nothing else. I feel the cool breeze one my back, I feel the sand being washed out from under my feet as I sink down into it, I hear the wooshing of the waves that, though not loud, drowns out the sounds from the people around me. It is a strange thing this, this urge that makes me kick off my shoes and go stand in the water, this instinctive need for meditation that only the ocean can fulfill.
The surrounding landscape is not of much interest, just the outskirts of a small town, a few houses and the odd restaurant giving way to low forests and scrub lands. The sky however is worth paying attention to and we are moving far too fast to take a photograph. In front and to the right, the sky is ablaze with two horizontal bands of cloud glowing in yellow and orange that hang just above the undulating profile of distant hills. To the left are thin veils of clouds colored a brilliant pink bordering on orange against the pale blue sky, … Read the rest
Except for ziplines there are plenty of watetfalls on the Bolaven plateau and the area around Pakse. Normally I would want to visit all of them but the next stop on the way to Cambodia, Four Thousand Islands, had such an interesting name I wanted to go there earlier. The main island that travelers visit is Don Det which can be reached by a small ferry from Nakasong. When I reached the ferry terminal I was excited to see that the ferry was actually just a small catamaran built by two narrow boats connected by a wooden platform with a … Read the rest
The light is fading fast; the sky, though free of clouds, is not as bright blue as it was a few minutes ago, and the road lays in shadow. I take a quick glance in the rear view mirror, see the road unfold behind me and in the distance, the hazy outline of the city with the mountains behind it. And there, over the silhouetted peaks, the sky is blazing orange, shifting into pink at the edges. It’s only a glimpse, I have to turn my eyes back to the road, but for a moment I feel a kind of … Read the rest
When we go on this kind of short trip we usually don’t do much research or planning before hand. This means we’re always taking a bit of a chance with the places we go to, normally it works out just fine but sometimes It doesn’t; today things didn’t go as well as we hoped. We were planning to hike the Spi Spi trail to a place called Titanic Rock. When we got to the trailhead however, a sign informed us it would take two and a half hours to hike there which we felt would demand better preparation, so we … Read the rest
Me and my colleagues are in the chartered car heading back towards our hotel; speeding through the Indian landscape, low bushes and dusty yellow grass on both sides, the setting sun hanging like a glowing orange ball in front of us. I’m in the passenger seat, relaxed, leaning my arm on the door handle, a black market beer in my hand watching the landscape flow past – bloody brilliant!… Read the rest
Thursday morning was spent preparing for our departure at a leisurely pace. We also rowed out to the little island nearby, and as we were landing I told Yini to take the bow line and jump ashore. From where I was sitting I didn’t see how far it was but apparently it was too far because poor Yini lost her balance trying to get over and fell in the water. Luckily neither her camera or her phone were damaged.
After lunch we packed up the last things, got in the car and drove to Västerås. There we split up, my … Read the rest
We are rolling down a road that snakes down the mountain, bamboo forests on both sides. Lances of warm yellow light from the low hanging sun cut through the forest, gilding the slender stalks of the bamboo and making the leaves glow golden. An insignificant moment of beauty but precious all the same.… Read the rest