Sunday, 9 November 2014

Venezuela - Going Up By Balloons To Angel Falls


In the Pixar movie Up, Carl Frederikson strings up a massive array of balloons to loft his house on a quest to find his boyhood hero, presumed lost in the jungles of South America. In a nod to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, the centerpiece of the story is Paradise Falls, a legendary waterfall which cascades a staggering 9700 feet from cloud-enshrouded cliffs to the jungle below.

Carl Frederikson' Paradise Falls...

This place is REAL.

Named after Jimmy Angel, an adventurous pilot from Missouri, Angel Falls is located in the Guayana highlands. Falling 979 metres off the edge of the "Auyantepuy" Tepuy (table mountain), the largest in Canaima Venezuela, it is the tallest waterfall in the world.

Constantly shrouded in mist and clouds...

The three rivers join to created an awesome display of torrential fall...

These table-top mountains are the remains of a large sandstone plateau that once covered the granite basement complex between the north border of the Amazon Basin and the Orinoco, between the Atlantic coast and the Rio Negro. Throughout the course of the history of Earth, the plateau was eroded, and the tepuis were formed from the remaining monadnocks.

Odd-shaped mountains similar to the shape of a human' incisor teeth...

The water plummets down, even in the dry season...

Rainbows are created from the spray...

A dazzling display even in the twilight...

Sources

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Miyajima - The Mystical Floating Red Torii

In the middle of the waters lie the mysterious huge red torii gates of the Itsukushima Shrine. Located round the island at Itsukushima, the bright crimson gates symbolize the peace and sacredness of the waters nearby.

The Itsukushima Shrine at Miyajima is a daiwa torii whose pillars are reinforced on both sides by square posts. The name derives from its long association with Ryōbu Shintō, a school of thought within Shingon Buddhism. Located behind the torii is a Shingon Buddhist temple with a still-standing pagoda. The shrine complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Japanese government has designated several buildings and possessions as National Treasures.

At Low Tide


At low tide, you can walk right up the torii and touch the gates...

View from the torii at low tide...

At High Tide


At high tide, the gates appear to float on the blue of the water...

The buildings in the shrine are built on stilts and have a similar floating look...
  

At Sunrise

At the break of dawn, from behind the misty hills, the sun breaks through the clouds...



At Sunset

At sunset, the reverse happens, the sun descends over back into the horizon from the hills on the other side of the island...




Sources

Miyajima - The Nearness Of Iwaso Inn

Staying in the nearby Iwaso Inn, the gigantic red gates could be seen all the way from my window sill. Wow! I know when's the best time to visit it during my stay...

View from Room 515 with the dark, stormy clouds and a peek at the torii...

I found Iwaso Inn after viewing the photos through a travel forum, and was attracted by the unobstructed view of the torii gates from the room. It was unbelievable that you can be so near to the gates such that you can visit any time of the day just by walking over. Better still, the Inn is so full of nice surprises...

The view from the other side of the hotel...

Autumn - the saturated intensity of red-orange-yellow maple leaves... 

Tame deer you can pat and feed wandering in the inn grounds...

Mouthwatering cuisine with seasonal oysters (from December to February) each year, lightly-seared Hiroshima beef, and delicacies from the Seto Inland Sea...

Sources

Friday, 7 November 2014

A Seat On The Train

It was peak hour on a train heading to the business district.
   

Back-to-back, ass-to-ass, arm-to-arm packed cabins 
from the beginning of the train right to the very end...

The Ideal... 

 
A cosy seat in the midst of the standing crowd - Perfect place to be on a crowded train...


A seat is where you can be comfy and still people-watch. A train is a very good place for people-watching - what do people do with their commuting time, how do they commute, what they put into their heads during this period of time, getting the latest news from their outspread newspapers and their uber-big tablets...

  

What Came True...

 
An empty seat on the train near the door...

Time Taken : <2 minutes

Sunday, 19 October 2014

About Keep Going

In this section, I post what keeps me going when the road seems a bit bumpy. When you pursue your dreams, there will be 101 naysayers with 1001 reasons to say no to you.

Just because they don’t have the balls to pursue their own dreams. 

Heck them. 



About Aye Dreamer

This is a blog about the future. At a time when times are tough, when work is not going well, family is not going well, when everyone around me seemed to be living such perfect lives, everything else seems really bleak.

I started this blog because I needed to believe - Believe that there is a future out there created specially for me to exercise my talents to serve and help fellow human beings and the world we all live in.

So do not ever believe that all these stories are true - yet. But believe that they will come true - one day.

Fortune favours the brave, who believe in the power of their dreams.

One day, when this blog ceases, you will know that me, the author of the blog, is living the ideal life every day of my life.