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Just a quick post today of a panoramic shot of the Yeosu Expo area, taken from the causeway on Odong Island. It’s a series of 11 shots that I “stitched” together in Canon’s Photostitch software. It’s not as sharp as can be, since there was a fairly stiff wind blowing at times. I might go to Odong again this weekend, but will try to get there early in the morning, when the sun will be at my back.
You should definitely click on the small photo a couple of times to get a close up view, but, be warned–the final size is almost 2 megabytes, so it might take some time to load! (But I think it’s worth it.)
 Panoramic photo of Yeosu Expo 2012
Lately I’ve been busier than expected with work, that unwelcome intrusion into my life; thus it’s been a while since I’ve posted, so, sorry about that. I and a couple of other teachers have been given a new course to teach, the Yeosu Tour Guide course, in which some of the citizens of Yeosu who are volunteering at the Expo want to improve their English speaking skills. Most of them are not bad English speakers, but we’ve been given the task of increasing their fluency. I’ve also spent many more hours than I had expected proofreading the paper that I mentioned in a previous post. We’ve also had a few teacher/admin meetings to endure, and, of course, daily living intrudes. Hopefully, I’ll be posting more often, especially now that the opening of the Expo nears.
I took a walk around the Expo site last Saturday and there have been some small, but interesting additions to the area. Work seems to be proceeding well at the site, and it appears that on May 12th, the opening day, everything will be good to go. Here, then, are a few photos of the progress.
Here are a few shots from the back entrance to the Expo from a bit higher vantage. The first is of the Big O, the centerpiece of the Expo, followed by a view of the hotel, which now sports its name on the upper floors, the MVL Hotel. I’ll write another post about the hotel soon.
 The Big O  MVL Hotel Here’s a shot of the Theme Pavilion taken from near the railway station.
 Theme Pavilion I love how many of the buildings and their surroundings reflect the oceanic theme of the Expo. You can see how the Theme Pavilion mimics ocean waves, and other areas bring to mind the sailing ships of yore that made Yeosu a port of call.
 Railway Station Entrance to the International Pavilion  Expo Shelter Areas One of the last venues to be constructed has been the Corporate Pavilion (I think–the map I have doesn’t quite match up with the area). Here is some front and back construction on the the building, which is located near the railway station, behind the Sky Tower.
 Rear of Expo Corporate Pavilion  Work on the front side of the Corporate Pavilion I finally managed to be in the right place at the right time to capture an image of the KTX “bullet” train at the Expo railway station. Here it is, waiting to zoom its way to Seoul and destinations in between.
 KTX Bullet Train As I walked down the road near the railway station, I couldn’t help notice my Favorite Expo Lady, gazing out to sea with her spyglass.
 Spyglass Lady A shot from near, I believe, the Korea pavilion.
 Korea Pavilion Sculpture And another shot of the Big O.
 The Big O and the Theme Pavilion at Expo 2012 Here’s a close up panorama shot of the area around the Big O showing the floating stage and the seating areas. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Discerning viewers may be able to make out the seam where I “stitched” a couple of photos together to make this shot. I used the Canon Photo Stitch software to do this and I was quite surprised that the result turned out so well, especially since I didn’t take the two photos with the intention of making a panorama shot. I took the shots from the side of the Jasan Park hill and zeroed in on the area at 200mm with my 55-250 Canon zoom lens.
 Big O Panorama Finally, taken from the same Jasan Park area, an overview of the Expo site, a view that I always try to get when I’m in the area. If you want, you can go back through some of my older posts and check out the differences since construction began.
 Expo 2012 March 17 Overview In my next post, hopefully coming tomorrow, I’ll comment on and try to offer some solutions to The Big Problem associated with the Expo (in my opinion) –accomodations in Yeosu. Stay tuned for that.
That is the headline from a Yonhap News Agency article.
An exhibition center at the site of the upcoming Yeosu Expo caught fire Wednesday, but no casualties were reported, police said.
The fire destroyed 500 square meters of a vegetation mat covering the roof of the three-story building under construction for completion at the end of this month, the police said.
The article also stated that it was probably caused by welding work, and Expo officials said there should be no disruptions in the Expo preparations.
If you read the article, you’ll see this image.
As you can see from the photo below, which I posted on Dec. 4, 2011, the area that caught fire is part of the International Pavilion, though I didn’t identify it as such. Following the photo is a map of the site, and you can make out the “troughs” in the pavilion roof. (#10 on the map)
 International Pavilion Roof  Expo 2012 Map Let’s hope there are no other mishaps.
OK, one final post with photos from my vacation in Laos and Thailand back in December. I put up some children’s photos last time, so this one has a few photos of adults.
Most of these were taken around the New Year holiday, but the Lao people like to start celebrating several days before and continue for a few days after New Year’s Day. Here’s lunch at Nai’s house on Dec. 31st, eaten by about 7-8 family members and friends. Let’s see, what do we have here? Looks like the remains of some fish, deep-fried chicken feet, various greens, a veggie salad and, of course, Beer Lao.
 Lunch at Nai's House While some of us were eating and talking (with me pretending to listen–I don’t speak or understand the Lao language, yet), other folks, including Nai, were playing cards. It looks like a Lao version of gin rummy, I guess, with small wagers included.
 Afternoon card game These are a few of Nai’s brother’s friends, who are working on a good-sized platter of semi-congealed cow blood soup. Various herbs are thrown into the soup, along with a couple of hands full of peanuts. Yummmm! Nai’s sister Nui is on the left.
Next are Nai’s brother Pui (Poo-ee), in the center, flanked on the right by cousin Mot (Maht) and on the left by another lovely cousin, whose name I’ve forgotten. Mot’s mother (one of Nai’s sisters) and father live and work in Thailand, but he was visiting the homestead for a few weeks. I mentioned to Nai that Mot didn’t appear too happy to be here, but Nai told me he wasn’t happy to be going back to Thailand (and to school) soon. The young lady asked me, through Nai, to find her a Western boyfriend. I told her I’d put her photo on the internet, so here it is.
 Laos friends The day before, on the 30th, Nai and I were in Vientiane visiting a Lao friend’s pub. While shooting pool, Nai introduced me to a friend of his from Nai’s village. He’s a policeman in Vientiane, I believe, and a very friendly fellow. Here he is, posing with Nai.
 Nai and Friend I really love this guy’s expressive face. To me, he looks like one of the characters in the early-60s hit TV comedy “Car 54, Where Are You?” Actor Joe E. Ross played my favorite character on the series, Officer Gunther Toody. Mr. Ross is on the right. On the left is Fred Gwynne as Officer Francis Muldoon. Gwynne was also famous for the Herman Munster character on “The Munsters.”
 Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross What do you think–resemblance or not? To help you decide, here’s another photo of Nai’s friend with me, an obligatory shot, I suppose. Nai took the photo, but he did such a lousy job. It makes me look too fat! Where’s my chin? I DO have a chin. (I must have had my head tucked into my neck on this one!)
 Ron and Nai's Friend We also took a walk along the Chao Anouvong Park along the Mekong. One of the signature features of the park is a larger than life statue of King Anouvong, the last ruler of the Lan Xang (Million Elephants) Kingdom. The Vientiane Times of June 15, 2010 (by way of LaoVoices) states that:
“Since Chao Anouvong is remembered for reuniting the country, his statue will depict the strength of his leadership, and should be as close to lifelike as possible,” said Head of the Ministry of Information and Culture’s Fine Arts Department, Dr Bounthieng Siripaphanh.
The statue, which is costing about 5 billion kip to make, will stand about 8 metres high and 3 metres wide. The king will be represented holding a sword in his left hand while gesturing with his right.
One of the greatest achievements of Chao Anouvong’s reign was the construction of Vat Sisaket, Vientiane’s oldest standing temple today.
This Wikipedia article, however, is not so kind to the king:
Modern Lao nationalist movements, on the other hand, have turned Anouvong into a hero, even though his strategic and tactical mistakes combined with his hot temper led to the end of the kingdom of Lan Xang (Million Elephants) destruction of Vientiane, and a permanent division of the Lao people between the country of Laos and the Lao-speaking provinces of northeastern Thailand.
Hero or not, it’s still an impressive statue.
 King Anouvong Statue That wraps up my vacation to Thailand and Laos, so we’ll be goodnight and adieu, until next time.
 The Moon and Venus at Dusk From Nai's House
If you have clear skies this evening (Feb. 26th), look towards the west after the sun sets, when the sky is just starting to darken. You’ll see a beautiful formation of Jupiter, Venus and the crescent Moon. Here’s what it looked like from Yeosu just a short while ago. Definitely click on the photo a couple of times to get the large view. Not one of my better shots, but I hope you enjoy anyway.
 Moon, Venus and Jupiter
One of the fun subjects of travel photos is taking shots of kids. Children everywhere are ingenuous and innocent, and don’t seem to mind when some strange, old foreigner sticks a camera in their face. Most of the time, I’ve found, they like to ham it up for the lens. As usual when visiting Nai and his family in Laos, I had plenty of opportunities to take some shots of all the kids in the family area–sons and daughters of Nai’s brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews, as well as assorted neighborhood children.
While I was there, a couple of the families had birthday parties for their young daughters. Some of the photos, then, are from the parties.
Here, everyone’s getting ready for one of the parties, blowing up the balloons, preparing some of the food, with the bamboo baskets filled with sticky rice.
 Laos Birthday Party Earlier, the wife of Won (Wahn), one of Nai’s brothers, prepared the sticky rice. Sticky rice is eaten with your hands, generally out of a bamboo basket, and can be dipped into a hot (spicy) sauce, or can be used to grab a handful of really hot papaya salad.
 Preparing the Sticky Rice Some of the kids chowed down on a few appetizers.
 Chowing Down on a Few Appetizers So, what exactly are they eating? Deep fried chicken feet, of course. (Never tried ‘em myself)
 Deep Fried Chicken Feet Here’s one of the birthday girls, Took, who was 8 year old, if I’m not mistaken. Notice the money wrapped around her wrists with string–birthday gifts from the people attending the party. Most of it will probably go to her parents, to help with the party expenses, but she’ll get some of it, I’m sure.
 Birthday Girl, Took Here’s Nai with his brother Guay’s (Gway) daughter.
 Nai with baby Here’s a few shots of one of Won’s kids, just a cute, adorable little guy. I’d guess he’s about 4.
 Cute Guy  Cute Young Guy Hey, let’s see what those shades look like on you. Cool!
 Cool Kid And a few more shots. Looks like somebody got banged up. Guay’s daughter with Nui, one of Nai’s sisters.
 Banged Up Nap time?
 Nap Time And finally, here’s Kim, never camera shy, the son of Nai’s sister Lot.
 Kim I’ll try to get the final photos of my trip posted soon, so, as always, more later.
So, if you read my previous posts about Wat Traimit and Bangkok, you probably know that I took the overnight train to Nong Khai, in northeast Thailand, just across the Mekong River from Laos. If I recall, this train used to run, more or less, on time; perhaps it was late, but usually no more than 30 minutes or so. However, the last couple of times I’ve taken it, it’s been 2 HOURS late pulling into Nong Khai. It departs from Bangkok’s Hualamphong Station at 8:30 p.m., but this trip, it didn’t pull into Nong Khai until 10:30 a.m. Hmmm, don’t know why it was so late, but perhaps the railway authorities were being cautious and slowed the train down because of possible damage done to the tracks due to the widespread flooding a few weeks before.
Anyway, I made it to Nong Khai OK and was met at the station by Nai. We checked into the Pantawee Hotel and stayed a few days there. The Pantawee had hung some new, attractive lanterns in the trees at the hotel since I’d last been there. I don’t know if they’ll be permanent decorations or if they were only seasonal, but they added a nice ambience to the property.
 Christmas Lanterns at Pantawee Hotel Detracting from the usual peaceful ambience, however, was street construction going on right in front of the hotel. I usually like to sit at the outdoor patio in the morning to eat breakfast or just have a cup of coffee or two. The extreme noise and dust made it impossible to enjoy a quiet morning outside; sitting inside wasn’t too bad, though, and, occasionally work would halt for a short while, with the temporary silence standing in sharp contrast to the noise.
 Street construction in front of the Pantawee Hotel Another peaceful spot in Nong Khai is the promenade along the Mekong River. It’s quite pleasant to take a stroll, to sit in the shade of one of the gazebos, or to eat in one of the many restaurants. We usually have lunch and/or supper along here. Below are a few food photos of tom yam (tohm yahm), a spicy and sour soup, with fish, and fried rice with chicken. Nai and I shared the tom yam, and I had the fried rice. Both were delicious and cheap.
 Tom yam with fish  Thai fried rice with chicken You could also take a short excursion on the Mekong. Below are a couple of photos of boating leisure. The first was taken in Nong Khai and the second was taken last summer in Yeosu, looking down from the Dolsan Bridge. Which one would you prefer? I like both of them.
 Taking a boat ride on the Mekong River  Lazy Day Fishing in Yeosu, South Korea Probably the biggest highlight of the whole vacation was the chance to attend a live concert of Isaan music. Nai and I did just that on the evening of December 23rd. We enjoyed a 3 to 3 1/2 hour concert featuring traditional and modern Isaan music. Isaan is a region of northeast Thailand that features various aspects of Lao and Thai culture, including language, music and cuisine. I didn’t take any photos, but I did take about 50 minutes of video with my point-and-shoot camera. (I didn’t take the big DSLR with me on this trip.) The area in front of the stage was too crowded to get close, and I was handholding the camera in low light, so the videos aren’t all that great. But, I’m going to try to piece together the best bits into one video and get it posted here eventually. So, tune in for that and for a few photos of my visit to Laos. More later.
OK, here’s the update I promised. There really hasn’t been a lot of progress in exterior construction, except for a few notable exceptions, because much of it has been finished or nearly so. I think most of the work is taking place inside the buildings, and a lot of landscaping is being done. The most striking new progress, however, is that the Big O, the centerpiece of the Expo, has finally gone up. In the photo below, you can see the framework is mostly completed, so installation of the outside paneling should be starting soon.
 The Big O, Jan 28th, 2012 Elsewhere, down by the Sky Tower and next to the railway station, new construction has begun on the Corporate Pavilion and Energy Park.
 Corporate Pavilion and Energy Park Construction, Yeosu 2012 Expo, Jan 28, 2012 The Sky Tower itself has had some new additions, seen in this view from near what will be the main entrance.
 New Sky Tower additions So, what is that reddish-orange contraption on the right hand side of the structure? From a brochure I have, here’s a description of the Sky Tower.
The Sky Tower is a monumental piece of art, recycled and redesigned from a pair of abandoned 55-meter cement silos on the Expo site. The harp-shaped exterior is an embodiment of the giant waves of the coastal waters of Yeosu. Moreover, the tower is a fully-functional pipe organ that will play the tunes related to the sea for the enjoyment of visitors.
If it works as intended, it should be pretty impressive. Next, a shot of the Expo City apartments, which are quite colorful.
 2012 Expo Apartments The hotel hasn’t shown much change, but the land around it is being landscaped and smoothed over to make way for walking and (perhaps) parking areas.
 Expo 2012 Landscaping Here’s an enlarged shot of the construction taking place around the Big O. (As usual, click on the image for larger versions.)
 Closeup of Big O Area Construction Here’s what the brochure says about the Big O.
The Expo is jam-packed with cultural programs, with 40 performances and events taking place every day for the entire period of 93 days; that is, 3,700 in total! It features large-scale events, such as the state-of-the-art Night Multi-media Show taking place at the Big-O, world-class performances, and concerts of popular singers from Korea and around the world.
The brochure goes on to mention The Fountain Show (“. . . on a stage constructed on the sea. It will be shown through the world’s first Living Screen at night, creating an awe-inspiring, dreamlike atmosphere.”), The Big Ocean Show (“. . . a performance utilizing the seas, the beach and ships . . . staged on a weekly basis”) and The World Ocean Performance (“featuring performances of artists from Korea and beyond, will take place on the floating stage and utilize the sea as a platform for cultural activities.”), all of which take place on or near the Big O.
Here are a couple of overview shots taken from different vantage points.
 Overview of Expo 2012  Expo Jan2012 Overview from Jasan Park Also in preparation for the Expo, Yeosu has been installing quite a few bicycle stations, from where you can rent one of these “hot” blue bikes to get around. I’m not sure if they’re coin-operated or bank/credit card. Probably both.
 Bicycle Station Finally, not more than 10 seconds after I pulled my camera from my bag, one of the guys working on the Expo came over and pointed to himself and said “Picture, me.” I was only too happy to oblige.
 Expo Worker So, that’s about it for the Expo photos for now. I’ll probably get back down there in March or perhaps late this month to shoot some more. Stay tuned.
As I indicated in the previous Chinatown post, I did have enough time to tour Wat Traimit, one of the big attractions of Chinatown. According to the link on that post, the Golden Buddha in Traimit is the world’s largest solid gold Buddha image, weighing in at 5.5 tons and standing 15 feet tall (although the image is seated). So, at today’s gold prices, the image is worth quite a few millions of dollars!
 Wat Traimit Buddha There’s also an interesting history of the 13th century statue, a history involving deception and discovery. Again, check out the link to read about the image.
Here’s another smaller Buddha image that’s near the Golden Buddha.
 Wat Traimit Small Buddha Statue There’s also a detailed history of Chinatown located in a second-floor exhibition, which shows 3D life-sized scenes of daily living and which also includes a scale model of Chinatown as it looked in the mid 1950s or so. This was the only photo I got of the exhibition, since most museums and similar places don’t allow you to take photos. I didn’t see any signs forbidding it, but I didn’t want to offend anyone. At the final exhibit, the scale model of Chinatown, I saw someone else taking a shot, so I figured it was ok and took the one below. As with all the photos taken this vacation trip, I had only my pocket point-and-shoot with me. It’s a good camera, but it doesn’t do too well in dark lighting, so I had to crank up the ISO to capture this shot. In post-processing, I removed most of the digital noise that’s usually present with high ISO settings, but in doing so, the image lost some of its sharpness, as you can see in the photo below. I’ll have to bring along my small tripod next time.
 Wat Traimit Chinatown Exhibit And, of course, here are a few shots of the exterior of the wat. As you can see, Thailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej is honored everywhere.
 Wat Traimit  Wat Traimit Bell  Wat Traimit 3D Mosaic This one is looking up to the spire from a position close to one of the outside walls.
 Wat Traimit Directly next door to Wat Traimit is a smaller temple, sort of an annex. Here’s a detail shot of the roof of that area.
 Wat Traimit annex roof detail Also next to Traimit is a boys’ school (well, I didn’t see any girls, so I assume it’s a boys’ school). At the entrance to the school is a statue of a scholar (again, I assume) from days gone by. Here are the kids during what appears to be recess.
 Boys' School recess And the scholar.
 Boys' school scholar statue. Finally, I did have some time to go to the Siam Paragon shopping mall to buy some reading material. They usually have some kind of display outside the center, and this year’s set-up featured an Alice in Wonderland motif. (Pretty girls not included) Quite colorful.
 Alice in Wonderland at Siam Paragon shopping center OK, that’s about it for the Bangkok portion of the trip. It feels like I’ve kind of over-saturated the blog with too many photos of the trip already, so I’ll just post a few more from Nong Khai and Laos a bit later. In the meantime, I’ll process the new Expo 2012 photos I took this past Saturday and get those up soon. More later.
I’ll get the Wat Traimit photos up soon and I’ll also post some new photos of the Yeosu Expo 2012 site, since I took a walk down in that area yesterday. As usual, I hiked up to Jasan Park to get some shots and then walked down the other side of the hill to catch a bus back to my apartment. In Jasan, there’s a small kids’ playground area that is very colorful. I took a photo of it and played around a bit in Photoshop. Here’s the result.
 Jasan Park playground in Yeosu This took me quite a while to do in Photoshop. I added a new background layer and converted it to black and white. Then, with a layer mask, I brought out the colors in the underlying original photo using my mouse. Whew! It took quite a while to do (using a mouse) and it made me realize that if I want to do more of these types of “enhancements”, I’ll have to invest in a Wacom pen tablet, which makes things a bit easier and faster and which I think I can buy here in Yeosu.
So, be on the lookout for more of these types of shots. Next, though, I’ll get the Wat Traimit photos posted and then some updates on the Expo, followed by other shots of my recent trip to Thailand and Laos. (Maybe not necessarily in that order.)
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