a wedding in bali

went to bali to take pictures for a wedding. it was the perfect place and weather for bas & helsa. congratulations you two! may you live happily ever after :)

more pictures and the album

destination: london, united kingdom

i really need to catch up on my blogging, just like i need to catch up with everything else that i have been putting off because of work.

well, i am starting with a few shots from my winter vacation to london. needless to say, i instantly fell in love with the city

destination: the gilis, nusa tenggara barat, indonesia

my friend laura came to visit from sydney and we went on a 4-day trip to the gilis, a group of islands on the northwest coast of lombok (the island east of bali).

we flew from jakarta to mataram (or sometimes listed as ampenan) which took about one and a half hours. we then took a taxi from mataram to bangsal to catch our boat to the gilis. i must say that being at the bangsal harbor is a little uncomfortable as there were people agressively offering us boat tickets as soon as we entered the premises. not to mention luggage porters that will snatch your bags and overcharge you for bringing it on to the boat. but anyway, if you are ever in bangsal, make sure you 1. buy your ticket the counter and 2. hang on to your own bag, and if your luggage is too heavy, you need to agree on the fee first, before you give your luggage to the porter to carry. no need to worry, the people in the harbor are harmless, they are just desperate for some work (and money). you can also catch a private boat from another harbor, but that will cost up to $35. considering our budget, laura and i settled with going by the public boat and we only had to pay less than US$ 1 per person. we got to gili trawangan, safe and in one piece =).

the gilis (gili means island) consist of 3 little islands, gili trawangan, gili meno, and gili air. gili trawangan is the biggest of the 3 and that's where we stayed. there are no motor vehicles in this island, so you either walk, cycle or take the horse carriage (or rickshaws?). how's that? clean air, soft sand, blue sky and crystal clear water. days in the sun do not get much better than this =)

my full set of pictures is here

i have created a new site for a selection of my photographs. please come by and visit chare takes pictures =)

paulinho moska

it's another sleepless night while i'm trying to fall asleep listening to some music. my iTunes is playing my collection of brazilian numbers and i just listen to a voice that i really adore. it belongs to paulinho moska.

i really don't know much about his works, other than the fact that i enjoy listening to his voice on a few songs from the soundtrack of women on top (sabor da paixao). to me it's one of my top 5 favorite movie soundtracks (note: soundtracks, not movies). i haven't gotten tired of the entire album even after 6 years! tune to falsa baiana, nos bracos de isabel, sonho meu and cinzas, and tell me if you think his voice is incredibly soothing and sexy. i don't understand what the songs actually say (they may as well be sad and depressing), but for all i know his voice on these numbers just makes me think of a relaxed, happy, and carefree day. perhaps portuguese also adds to its allure...;) considering how much i love brazilian music and how extremely i romanticize brazil, i wonder why i have not attempted to learn portuguese!

so tonight... or actually... this morning.. i google paulinho moska. i try to find out more about his other works, but then i run into his collection of photos he had taken. i must say that that they are quite original. an artist with a beautiful voice and an edge for photography.

have a moska day!