I agree with Haruki Murakami: The older we get, the busier we become. Maybe as I acquire wisdom and experience, more opportunities open up; maybe time is taking a chip off my efficiency, slowly but surely. It is a good and a bad problem at the same time. I enjoy writing pieces that are more personal. But my life is not that exciting on a day-to-day basis. And some pieces take time for a common theme to evolve. So, in between, I fill my writing diary with my thoughts on the things that I consume, like music, books, movies, and etc; things that I am passionate in. Reviews of these sorts usually generate a decent amount of web traffic but lack the readers’ interaction in the form of comments. Google thinks that both are important measures for relevancy. To me, I just wish to keep practicing my writing skill regardless of the topics of my choice, as often as I can. Either outcome is a nice-to-have but certainly not something to-die-for.
I still have tons of photos sitting inside my computer waiting to be selected and processed. To be honest, it doesn’t take long to compile and publish one photo album. It is just tedious and I always seem to have something better to do. I love Bandung and so does Cynthia (her birth town). And because of the recent infrastructure upgrades – a new highway connecting with the capital as well as the availability of more direct flights into the city – Bandung has suddenly become an attractive tourist spot. If you do visit Bandung one day, you should not miss the Taman Safari as one of your daily excursions. Into the valley of the tea plantations, you literally drive into the Safari Park and are up close and personal with the animals. If someone was crazy enough to get off the car and stroke the roaming tigers and lions, no one would care.
OK. Someone may care. Inside the confined area of the most ferocious animals on earth (beside us, humans, of course), there are guards watching over the visitors and the animals making sure that both us and them behave. There was a big sign asking us not to wind down the window. As I opened a tiny gap sticking my long camera lens out of the passenger seat window, I felt the guards intensively staring at me from their jeep. And as these ferocious animals moved towards our car, everyone inside the car would scream and I would quickly retreat and wind up the window. Everyone would laugh and the cycle continued.
Follow the link below if you wish to view a complete set of photos (50 in total) including my offbeat comments for each photo. I don’t run the Animal Planet cable channel here so do excuse me if I can’t get the names of the animals correct. Hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I risk my life making it.
CLICK HERE to view the complete photo album with captions (50 photos in high resolution)
Below is a sampler of my Taman Safari photo album (10 in total).
PS. Photos taken on December 13, 2008.
Related Tag: Bandung December 2008 Trip
