Recent Comments

Feeds

quiet

Posted on September 30, 2006 @ 5:26 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, people, travel, wordpress

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

kampong penang fishing village aynaku illustration adobe

Malay fishing villages (kampong nelayan) are usually found in peninsular Malaysia along the banks of mangrove-fringed tidal rivers. The houses are not so widely spaced and atap is commonly used as a roofing material; in villages located some distance from the rivers, raised boardwalks lead to the jetties where the fishing boats are docked. The occupants are mainly traditional fishers who confine their fishing activities to river estuaries and during unfavourable weather spend their time repairing their boats and nets. In Penang the Chinese fishermen along the ferry terminal have chosen to live in houses built on pilings over the water. Penang’s beautiful fishing village looked absolutely quiet and peaceful to me and fascinated me at first. Yet the inhabitants scarcely lodge an occasional traveller. I really wished to experience for a while that peculiar kind of dwelling, between sea and sky… As soon as I got Kuala Terengganu -a month later- and heard of Awi’s Yellow House, I headed there. Awi’s is a unique guest house built on stilts over the river, in the boat building village of Pulau Duyung; the guest house is a fantastic and relaxed place, highly recommended only when not overcrowded…

Illustration Friday’s topic is: quiet

claustrophobia

Posted on September 24, 2006 @ 4:57 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, diving, people, philippines, wordpress

dive claustrophobia decompression sickness aynaku illustration adobe

In clear water at 30 meters, everything is blue-grey; in murky water at the same depth, there maybe no light at all. Here divers consume air rapidly and usually experience nitrogen narcosis that tends to deteriorate mental processes and judgement. The lack of colour and light, may also cause the abnormal fear of confined paces called claustrophobia. Despite the demanding nature of deep dives, they have become a popular activity for a variety of reasons. Basically, the ability to dive deep broadens the realm in which divers enjoy… It happens that Andreas -a skilful German diver master- and I decided to go deep to the little cave located along the underwater cliff side that run nearly vertical in Boracay’s dive spot of Yapak. The cave, at a depth of about 35 meters, is supposed to be a good spot to stay while doing fish watching. Due to the strong currents along the cliff and the physical exertion I did, when I got the cave I find out that my air supply had gone almost completely and had not auxiliary air for decompression! I felt lost and showed quickly my air gauge to Andreas. The man was truly an exceptional diver: he invariably had such a low air consumption and his cylinder was always magically full. No wonder if he rescued me simply by let me breathing trough his regulator all the way back…and -according to his plan- we rested a while, side by side within that small and claustrophobic hole, enjoying the underwater realm…

Illustration Friday’s topic is : phobia

change

Posted on September 16, 2006 @ 10:54 pm by massimo | Filed under: blog, india, people, travel, wordpress

sadhu pushkar rajastan aynaku illustration adobe

Madness and Holiness change our lives deeply. The Indian concept of holiness is quite different from that in the West and it is not necessarily associated with the “good.” Actually there is a long tradition of ‘divine madness’ in Hinduism; it may come as no surprise that people who became holy and got spiritual enlightenment, must firstly go through lunacy. Since spiritual enlightenment (a state of being attainable by everybody) always represents the highest goal in life -the very thing that gives it meaning and purpose-, the one who is desperately searching for it does absolutely care nothing of material needs. And this makes a change very hard to allow! In Pushkar, a holy city in Rajastan, famous for its Brahma temple, winding narrow streets, old buildings and ghats all centered around a beautiful lake that is one of Hinduism’s holiest sites, I was definitely stunned by the vision of a holy man who perpetually sat in the same place by the lake, meditating and contemplating. I spend a month in town and the man was always there, surrounded by the crowd of visitors, pilgrims, beggars and supposed priests trying to lure me down to the lake to take part in some sort of blessing ceremony…I do some yoga since ten years and have an interest in meditation but I’m hopelessly not strong enough to overcome my multiplicity: and everybody knows that holiness can’ t be even duality.

Illustration Friday’s topic is: change

carabao

Posted on September 9, 2006 @ 5:08 pm by massimo | Filed under: animals, blog, food, people, philippines, wordpress

…plowing the field by the carabao, native water buffalo of the Philippines…
In many regions of the Philippines time is measured by the growth of the rice …

mosquito net

Posted on September 3, 2006 @ 8:39 am by massimo | Filed under: blog, travel, wordpress

In tropical climates mosquitoes are of the sort that spread malaria and dengue fever, so keeping away from them is simply a must. …