Personally, being surrounded by a crowd of hungry pigeons is not my idea of a good time. But there were several people, this couple included, who had bought bags of seeds and were feeding big gatherings of pigeons. This small but rather elegant park in the southwest corner of Chiang Mai’s Old City is called Nong Bauk Hard Park. The place has a bit of the feel of the Public Garden in Boston.
Two monks are taking a good look at some cut flowers in the Warorot Market area of Chiang Mai, Thailand.
And if you stray from the Path, you get to listen to Eagles soundtracks for your entire stay at the Hotel California. A fate worse than …… well, I’m not coming up with anything off hand. Fortunately for them, these monks have nothing to worry about.
A hot, late afternoon sun is beating down on these Chiang Mai girls as they make their way home from school.
These women are taking it easy on a warm day at Wat Lam Chang in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Lunch time for a group of school girls in the Old City of Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Nanlouguxiang is a street designed for tourists in central Beijing. It features traditional looking buildings, which may or may not look like Beijing buildings used to look, pricey shops, bars, cafes, and a few restaurants, and lots of tourists, mostly Chinese. A local resident does some window shopping on a cold Beijing day that has kept most of the usual throng of visitors at home.
A cleaning crew is (sort of) at work in Beihai Park on a cold, sunny Beijing New Year’s Day.
I visited the Forbidden City on this snowy day because I figured that it would not be especially crowded and that the snow would create interesting opportunities to photograph the buildings and interior spaces. I was wrong on both counts. Although it was probably a bit less crowded than usual, there were plenty of people visiting in spite of the snow. As for photo opportunities, by the end of 2006 Beijing’s Olympic facelift was well underway and, disappointingly, I found most of the major buildings within the Forbidden City shrouded in scaffolding for renovations. The day was nonetheless not a loss photographically. Among other subjects, I encountered this tour group of rather disgruntled looking people from somewhere in greater China.
Winter swimming in Houhai is a cold weather pastime for a (very) small group of Beijing men. I cannot recall what prevented this small area of open water along the north side of the lake from freezing over. But there was more than enough room for a dip and the winter swimmers wasted no time taking advantage of it. I do recall this was a very cold Beijing Christmas day with temperatures below 0°/32°. My hands were freezing holding the camera.