Staying in Focus Balinese Memories

Well, another grand adventure is underway.  

I am in the ANA lounge at Narita in Tokyo sitting at a very large bank of windows watching all the traffic.  What a change from the Red Carpet Club in Chicago.  Light, open, clean, and they have real food here!  Now if I don't fall asleep and miss my plane to Bangkok, I will be in good shape.  I did sleep for about 6 hours out of the 12 hours from Chicago to Tokyo.  Another six and a half hours and I will be in Bangkok, arriving at 11:30 PM on a Saturday night.  Not a bad arrival time when you are visiting Bangkok.

It is great to be back on the road again.  2009 was taken up with the big proposal and I was grounded for the year.  

Logistically, this trip looks like this:

Six days in Bangkok visiting with old friends and meeting some new ones.  I will be getting some shirts embroidered at MBK and there are two river trips planned for photography opportunities and possibly a trip to Siam Water Park.  One of the river trips will be a half day into the back klongs and I am excited because I have long wanted to do that.  Tashi, one of our guides from Bhutan, will be coming over to see me and we will go shooting .  He is a great photographer and I am now godfather to his first son.  I am sure we will be talking about that when he arrives on the 27th.

On the 30th, I fly to Bali before the arrival of the other photographers and will be on the beach.  It will be the calm before the storm since we get pretty hardcore once the actual trip starts.  Everyone is to meet at the pool at the Agung Raka Bungalows where we stayed in 2007.  Tewfic and I have stayed in touch with our friends at Agung Raka over the years and they are excited about our return.  I will see Suadnyana, one of our guides, and deliver his fishing line to him.  He asked for 400 yards of 40 pound test line for surf fishing with his sons.  The 1700 yard spool wasn't much bigger and I think he will be happy with the extra 1300 yards.

After two weeks photographing the festivals, temples, fishing villages, and people in Bali, it is back to Bangkok on the 15th for about 18 hours and then wheels up at 2355 hours on the 16th with an arrival back in Chicago on the 17th at 0820 hours.  Back to work (at least in body) on the 18th.

I may be posting to my blog (www.RNCphotography.blogspot.com) or possibly to the World Nomads blog site for the rest of the trip.  And there is always Facebook.

It is 92 degrees in Tokyo.  I can't wait to get to Bangkok where it is supposed to be really warm!  

I hope that you will enjoy my ramblings on this my fifth trip to Asia with Tewfic.  If you get bored, send me an email and I will forever take you off the mailing list.  

Time to double check what time it is.  My watch says that it is 1:30 AM Chicago time and that should be about 3:30 PM local.  Boarding is at 5:45 PM.

Ralph