“Fear is your best friend or your worst enemy. It’s like fire. If you can control it, it can cook for you; it can heat your house.
If you can’t control it, it will burn everything around you and destroy you. If you can control your fear, it makes you more alert, like a deer coming across the lawn” ~ Mike Tyson
I had an ‘adrenaline burst’ moment with my PPG or powered paraglider pilot friends a few weeks back. A cross-country (XC) flight from Kuala Besut to Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu.
The distance from Kuala Besut to Kuala Terengganu is approximately 1 hour 10 minutes drive along the seaside road.
We were on a slow-mo mode that morning as we want to enjoy our morning ride as it is. And up there, on the zero highway route … every direction is our highway. Amazing feeling … fear and survival instinct blend together with the most awesome view. And … the salty air smells FREEDOM.
Sharing some snapshot photos from my gopro videos with all of you.
It was a great pleasure to be able to take part in this mind-blowing adventurous way of exploring the world ;-).
PPG pilot needs to acquire an adequate engine, glider and thermal handling skill to be able to do cross-country flight here at the Terengganu coastal area.
At 10 am onwards the heat was unbearable. If you are flying closer to the ground/ shore you might experience some turbulence due to thermal heating. Yeah … I know that I am just a passenger to my PPG pilot but after spending hours flying with them I couldn’t help but noticed the character of the wind too.
I used to fly early in the morning and late afternoon when the wind a bit calmer and colder. Not used to fly at odd hours like this time around , I was a bit shaken by the unpredictable wind and the turbulence caused by the heat or thermal energy.
My advice to you before you decide to try riding with PPG tandem is to know your pilot skill level first (to be able to trust him with your life), study their equipment (engine/ glider) and to TRUST them with their skills. Extreme sport requires great skills to be able to execute each activity safely.
Yes … I do have fear and no, it’s not acrophobia (fear of height) 😉 .
Cheers
MM
P.S – Well … I am scared of the dark 🙂 . I used to have fear of being alone or monophobia but through photography I managed to divert my fear to my advantage. And, I noticed that I am more focus and creative when I am alone … guess that my survival instinct would start to kick-off whenever I feel lonely.
I still can’t believe that I survived India and surprisingly wanting more of India. 10 days playing with awesome lights and colours in Delhi- Pushkar- Jaipur- Mathura- Agra, amid by the smelly and dirty open toilet attitude of its people or by the rubbish friendly life( people and rubbish live in harmony side by side) and surprisingly I am still longing for more of India.
Argh … I want more …
Light overdose at Taj Mahal
I was nervous to the bone when we started our journey.
Our bus broke down on our way from New Delhi to Pushkar and we were stranded for hours at a local back-lane Tata workshop. And, I had my first hand experienced being weirdly “stared” by the male workers at the workshop. That head to toe kinda weird stare as if I am a ‘thing’ and not a ‘human’ kinda stare. Or I might be exaggerating more than I should here 😉 … ya lah after all those news about rape and ill-treated women in India, any sane woman should be worried.
I was blessed with a great travel companions again this time around … alhamdullilah and walking on the street with a good travel companion made my journey here in India felt safe and easy peasy.
P/S: I am recommending Yes India Photo Travel by Yamin Ibrahim to all of you who wanted to explore India through the photographer eyes ( … Cik Rita Aziz kena bayar I commission 🙂 )
Chasing colors during Holi festival celebration at Shri Banke Bihari Temple, Varindavan, Mathura, India
We were here to experience the colourful Holi festival celebration at the ancient Shri Banke Bihari Temple in Mathura district, India.
A festival of colors and loves celebrated by the Hindus and to mark the beginning of spring. There are more hinduism spiritual story behind this festival of love and I think uncle Google could explain it way better than me. Being a photographer, I was drawn more towards the colourful images of holi than understanding the full details about the festival.
Devotees crowding the temple floor
Color powders of yellow, blue, green and red were playfully thrown to the air, wiped onto faces on the street and coloured waters were splashed across the road onto just anybody on the street. Colours of all sorts filled the air and I was surrounded and was overdosed by all sort of colours around me.
We were dressed accordingly (well prepared to be fully covered by colours) that morning and our cameras were well covered too. Amazing … amazing view when we first entered the temple. A big crowd of human chanting and dancing while facing the deity. Devotees were crowding the small temple ranting in loud prayers (or sort … I am not sure) before the festival start.
Devotees throwing color powder
Crowded places have never been my favorite and I am at my most creative moment when I am alone and at peace with my surrounding. That moment when I was at the temple was weirdly interesting to me. It was crowded, loud and wild way beyond my imagination.
Powdered colour was splashed all over the devotees on the floor and we were pushed either from the left and the right or from up and down around the temple. My mind went total blank … not sure what to shoot and what to look at.
It was weirdly wild … but very interesting.
The feeling?
Hmmm honestly I felt annoyed being pushed and shouted around but considering that I was a stranger in a strange land, tolerant was the best remedies for this moment. Yeay … the big word is TOLERANT.
This is what you learn when you travel to strange land other than your homeland, tolerant and understanding differences between us human. After all … we are sharing the earth, right?
Capturing moments around the temple
My camera was 80% covered by the color powders. Thank God my D800 is a weather prove camera body … but my lens is not (but I managed to wrapped my lens well)
Being in the middle of such places considered sacred or holy to a certain religion might looked alarming to some of my non-traveling muslim friends but experiencing all these spiritual moments from different perspective had enriched my soul and my personal belief.
Yeah … I had my weird ‘why oh why’ moments too whenever I encountered something that totally against my belief system, but understanding why people do what they do help me to understand my Al-Quran more than before.
Honestly, this trip has affected me a lot.
Here in India, not only the contrast of light and colours caught my eyes but also the contrast of life within its people made my heart ponder upon my own life. The poor and unwanted were piled up on the other side and the rich and powerful were up there on the ‘loft’.
A huge contrast of life here in India and it was so obvious, it makes my heart cringe.
I compared my life with them.
I have everything that I needed and I am surrounded by people who care for me, yet I still have that selfish need for more. Especially for love and affection. I was looking for it everywhere … and almost all the time I seek for love and affection from a wrong direction. Selfish need that wanting something that was not mine at the first place.
Do I need love or do I want love? Heart that bounce for a bit of thrills in life or was it love?
The confuse me, aduyaii … looking for an answer.
But honestly, I like the confused feeling that I had when I traveled to tough places. It encouraged me to re-evaluate my direction in life. It taught me to differentiate between joy and sorrow, the need to taste sorrow to truly understand joy.
And, when I am on the road alone with strangers and far away from all sort of life attachment (family, friends and materials), I tasted peace.
The peace of understanding and experiencing God’s presence.
That the Almighty will always be next to me in whatever situation that I was in … by protecting, guarding, loving and teaching me about the joy in life. And as I have tasted peace, I will recognise and understand anxiousness and worry in my life … better than before.
Enough ranting about complex thought. Life goes on and on.
I am packing up for my next adventure to Batanes Island, Phillipines next Tuesday … hunting for great landscapes and gorgeous milky-way shoots. Wish me luck …
Cheers
MM
p/s … aftermath of holi festival
Sharing a photo of us … looking like a rag after our holi adventure ;-). Photo credit to my friend …
Hear me roar … *r..o..a..s..squeak* *squeak* … oops
The after-effect of craziness during my last trip still left a tint of a smile on my face. A sign that I was having way too much fun with myself and my next scheduled trip in the next 2 weeks seemed dry to me now knowing that I would be left all alone again roaming the street. But being all alone is what photography is all about … at least for me lah.
Hear me roar … *r..o..a..s..squeak* *squeak* … oops
The after-effect of craziness during my last trip still left a tint of a smile on my face. A sign that I was having way too much fun with myself and my next scheduled trip in the next 2 weeks seemed dry to me now knowing that I would be left all alone again roaming the street. But being all alone is what photography is all about … at least for me lah.
MATSUDA MASHIMARU 