back from santavana

couple of shots during souvenir shopping with yipi..

then i went to a forest hermitage as a volunteer and stayed there for 19 days.. hence the dormancy of my blog..

the dorm.

table by the window... though i love reading there.. it gets a bit warm in the afternoon. plus towards the end of my stay.. people from all over the country (one even from hong kong) came for a 5 day course on Abhidhamma (some call it Buddhist Psychology).

the sun sets there are just spectacular. changes everyday, every minute, every second. you can see the sun going bit by bit and the sky starts to change its blend of color..

construction site.. (White Balance: Tungsten- hence the over saturated blue.. but not bad, i like the impact it gives)

so many kinds of bugs flying, crawling, swimming/ drowning? to be found there.. above is a species of praying mantis.. the moment one of the bikkhunis there showed it to me, i thot the piece of leaf was the bug and this was just a tree branch.. and she told me it looks like it is praying.. maybe it was? praying to its god not to let these curious humans harm it..

sze sze is form 1 but her skill of cutting vegetables is very pro! so thin and accurate. very "sze". then i commented, that's why her name is sze sze. they laughed.

blue skies... anything goes with it..

other volunteers at santavana.

came out of the bathroom after bathing and saw the light.. couldn't resist... went upstairs and grabbed my cam.. luckily the light was still there...

chan xiao shi fu with her dogs.. feeding their favorite food: raw cabbage.
i was a bit worried at first cos i know how much i am scared of dogs (and cats) and i know there are 100 dogs at santavana (okay, not exactly 100 but to me it feels like it). everytime i go to santavana i will get so tensed up and be so aware of every one of the dogs and not able to relax and enjoy the peacefulness there. but chan xiao shi fu kinda helped me overcome that phobia by showing her love for them.. telling me their stories and personality.. patting them affectionally.. so.. i did it.. i patted a dog (named tiger) who is always hanging out in the kitchen-(thats where i hang out most of the time to0) in a totally relaxed mood. it felt good.. but other dogs that guard the outside.. still a bit pa pa lah.. there are just too many of them to handle.. sometimes they fight among themselves to get your affection! goodness...

this is Power. the light was shining beautifully on him (/her- sorry, forgot its gender). squatted down in front of it and waited for it to turn its head over to me.. :)

fav.

the Abhidhamma students.

from what we observed, the hotter the afternoon gets, the more likely the sun appears like the salted egg yolk.. after i get a zoom lens, this is a must visit place! but another volunteer told me for so many years she was in santavana (on and off), these kind of sceneries are very rare..

construction site.. the clouds were like cotton candy.

i humbly thank everyone at Santavana from the bottom of my heart for making this experience so memorable and meaningful.. actually i'm on a weeks' off.. have something to do down here.. also to come home for awhile and see my family.. after a week, i hope to go up there again....

some black and whites..

mummy's happy reaction :)

i realize i like shooting in supermarkets...