Wadi Darbat Waterfalls, 6th November, 2011

Wadi Darbat Waterfall, 4th November, 2011

The heavy rains of Tropical Cyclone Keila have brought the biggest waterfalls in the Middle East to life again.

Corner View - By the Sea

Jeju-do, South Korea

Grand Harbour, Malta

Corner View - Wood

The wooden kampung house I lived in at the edge of the South China Sea, Terengganu

Wooden houses, Istanbul

Gol Stav wooden church, Norway

A wooden water wheel, Suwon, South Korea

Night & Day in the City

Busan

Bucharest

Grey morning. Scurrying, heads down, isolated together
A moment's eye contact with a stranger
Walls that move in and out
A moan, a whisper, a fearful cry, an angry shout

It's not all bad, it's not all bad
A madman muttering underground
Heads bury deeper into papers
Night descends, dark suits replaced by neon ravers.

Emotion-drained faces framed by windows
Shuddering pipes and throbbing floors
3am, the time for new love and old death
Is when I wake up and decide that tomorrow I will try to leave

The city

Corner View - Improvising

You will find this picture inside almost every home, shop and temple in Bhutan. It illustrates the story of Thuenpa puen shi, or the Four Cooperative Friends. The story tells how four very different creatures, an elephant, a monkey, a rabbit and a peacock, combined to find food. The peacock found the seed, the rabbit watered it, the monkey fertilised it, and the elephant guarded it. The problem was that the tree grew too high for any one of them to pick the fruit. So, they stood on each other's backs in order to reach it (obviously, the elephant was not on top). The Bhutanese are officially the happiest people in the world. Maybe this story helps to explain why.

Whilst you will find the Four Cooperative Friends inside, on the outside walls of their shops and houses the Bhutanese have painted a very different picture: it is of a giant penis with a ribbon tied round it. Whether this also has something to do with them being so happy, I really don't know.

Corner View - Rain

Photos:

1) On a mountain road from Kandy, Sri Lanka

2) The Darjeeling railway in the monsoon

3) Small town in Sikkim

Cambodian Portraits

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You might also like:

Senegalese Portraits

Iranian Portraits

Indonesian Portraits

Indian Portraits

Iranian Portraits

You might also like:

Senegalese Portraits

Yemeni Portraits

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Indian Portraits

Corner View - The End Of My Street

The theme of this week's Corner View, chosen by Daan, is The End of Your Street. My street is a fairly typical one here in the Salalah area, lined with coconut palm trees, with a view of the Dhofar Mountains in the distance. In the mornings I drive up this street and turn left to go to work, and in the evenings I jog up there and turn right. As I have done so, I have watched that house at the end of the street being built over the last few months. Now, as you can see, it's finished, and a family has moved in. Houses here tend to be big, as families typically have more than ten children. My own is somewhat more modest, and it's just behind the trees in the third photo. I have been here for two years, which is quite a long time for me to stay in one place. Time to move on soon. Where do you think I should go next?