photography by wasim.

Category: Adventures

A Series of Portland Japanese Garden Zen Moments – August 1, 2015

Last weekend, I was lucky enough to have the Portland Japanese Garden’s former Director of Development Wendy Mitchell, who is now the current Director of Stewardship at the World Forestry Center, serve as my personal guide for a morning at the Garden and I wanted to share some of that experience, so this is a straightforward one.

Not many words.

A series of images.

A photo essay if you will.

Click through to enjoy a Saturday morning at the Portland Japanese Garden.

And if you’re craving more thingathingalings:
instagram: @wasimofnazareth
ello: @wasimofnazareth
google+: +WasimMuklashy

If you enjoy these posts, please feel free to subscribe to my mailing list at top right of this page, and I’ll deliver each post to you as I publish them, and if you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

All images were shot using a Samsung NX1.

August 3, 2015
A Whirlwind Summer 2015 Trip Up The Coast Of Maine And Through Acadia National Park

As I mentioned in the previous post, I just got back from a few weeks in Maine. The main purpose of the trip was to work on a video for Camp Skylemar, one of the most beautiful, efficiently run sleep away summer camps in the country. I’ll post much more about this insanely incredible experience once we’re done with the video in a few weeks, but this post is a quick focus on the 5 days after we were done. Since I had never been to Maine before, I tacked on some extra time at the end of the job to explore the State for a few days.

I had reservations at an inn just outside Acadia National Park, about a 3 hour drive from Portland, Maine, and the idea was to immediately drive up the coast to fire a few shots of lighthouses and coastlines. While circumstances prevented me from driving up the first night, this offered me the opportunity to explore the “most photographed lighthouse in the world,” the Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, just outside downtown Portland. I entered Fort Williams Park, the property upon which the lighthouse stands, just as the fog was rolling in and the sun began to make its descent. Unfortunately, they kicked everyone out of the park before the proper sunset, but I was still able to set up the tripod and capture a few shots of the lighthouse as the beam cut through the increasingly dense fog. The header to this post is that image, which is actually two exposures. I took one at 1/80s (samsung nx1 | 16mm | f2.2 | 1/80s | iso500), fast enough to freeze the light beam, and then another at 6 full seconds (samsung nx1 | 16mm | f22 | 6s | iso500} in order to capture a smooth milky water.

The next morning, I grabbed a cup of coffee and got on the road. Acadia National Park, here I come. While it added an extra couple of hours to the drive, I opted to take the Highway 1, which tended to stay close to shore, rather than the 95, which would have had me on a highway through the center of the state. Well worth it. I was able to roll through towns like Rockland and Camden, stopping along the way to appreciate the classic New England architecture, feel, ice cream (yeah, I said it), and vibes of these classic New England towns. Not to mention my second lighthouse of the trip, Owls Head, just outside of Rockport.

I ended up pulling into Trenton, the town just at the tip of Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park, where my room was, around 6pm. I checked in and had just enough time to try to capture my first sunset in Maine. When I realized that I was within striking distance of Bass Harbor, just 20 minutes away, I knew that’s where it had to be. I picked up a delicious pesto chicken sandwich at the Cafe Drydock & Inn in Southwest Harbor, about 10 minutes from Bass Harbor, and continued on my way.

The Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse is one of the most popular lighthouses in Maine. It sits right outside Acadia National Park and is situated along a steep rocky outcropping right on the coast. It’s absolutely beautiful and, although it’s one of those token iconic images, I knew I had to capture it to get it out of my system. And for good reason. Just as I made my way down the trail to the shoreline, I saw about 8 or 9 photographers already set up. And there wasn’t much room to maneuver. So I had to settle for perching on the top of a rock overlooking the other photographers as well as sharing the space with a family vacationing in the area. In the end, this turned out perfectly OK, especially since, as the sun broke through the early evening clouds, we were treated to a perfectly stunning cotton candy sky. The colors ran the gamut from purple to pink to orange to magenta to red to yellow. And the streaks couldn’t have been more perfect, as they mimicked what would normally have been radiating beams of lighthouse light.

Now that I had my ‘lighthouses’ out of my system, I had the next 2 days to completely explore with absolutely no agenda, and Acadia National Park to do it in. Those 48 hours included driving around the park on Park Loop Road to get acquainted with the premises. Spent about 90 minutes hiking a part of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the North Atlantic seaboard and the first place in the U.S. to see the sunrise (sadly I did not get the chance to capture a sunrise there this time around) before heading into various parts of the park including a walk around a sizable portion of Jordan Pond, a trip down to the Wildwood Stables where I began a 3 hour hike on the old Rockefeller Carriage Roads – a 57 mile network of stone gravel roads designed especially for hikers, walkers, and horse drawn carriages by John D. Rockefeller in the early 1900s, a drive down the bayside Sergeant Road, snaking through the various harbors, from Northwest Harbor to Southwest Harbor to Fremont, and a final sunset in Maine which I enjoyed and captured at the end of the Wonderland Trail at the southernmost tip of the island.

My first foray into New England will absolutely not be my last. Maine was everything I imagined it to be and more. Beautiful. Charming. Quaint. Comfortable. Spacious. Green. Perfect. The uniquely vibrant aquatic architecture, the fenceless neighborhoods where you could rarely tell where one grassy property ended and the next began, the creamy home-churned ice cream on every corner, the stacks of lobster traps and buoys dotting the driveways, the random 5 minute outbursts of rain, the village-like atmosphere and old-school red-roofed Post Office on every Main Street up and down the coast, the smell of fresh seafood everywhere you stepped, and the wide smiles of those well out of the throughs of the winter months happily serving it all to you.

Maine, you had me at hello. I can’t wait to get back.

Below is a set of images from those 5 days, all of which were taken on Samsung NX1 and Samsung NX500 cameras. Click on any of them and it’ll open up a lightbox slideshow.

And if you’re looking for yet more instagoogastuffs:
instagram: @wasimofnazareth
ello: @wasimofnazareth
google+: +WasimMuklashy

If you enjoy these posts, please feel free to subscribe to my mailing list at top right of this page, and I’ll deliver each post to you as I publish them, and if you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

July 26, 2015
A Gift From Maine To Me To You – Background Wallpaper Images From Acadia National Park

I just returned from 2 weeks in Maine. 2 amazing weeks in Maine. It was my first time in the State, and I know already that it won’t be my last. The first 8 days of the trip were spent working at a summer camp in Naples, where we were hired to shoot a video for the camp, which I will share here once we’re done editing, and I will talk more about in a coming post in the next few days, but in the meantime, I just wanted to pass along an image I shot at the iconic Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse just outside Acadia National Park a few nights ago. After the job in Naples, I drove up the coast for a few days of image-making and on the first night, I got super lucky as the clouds parted just about an hour before sunset to reveal this fantastic scene. Click here for a high resolution version for your phones and tablets if you’d like. And if you’d like an alternate version for your desktop, click here .

Anyhow, I’m currently preparing a blog post that will explain more about what I was doing in Maine and will have many more pictures, but just wanted to share this one while it was still fresh.

And for the rest of my thingy whatnots:
ello: www.ello.co/wasimofnazareth
instagram: @wasimofnazareth
google+: +WasimMuklashy

July 20, 2015
It’s Finally Here! The Ello App Just Might Be The Answer To The Facebook Crap! Simple. Elegant. Minimal. Enlightened.

If you remember several months back, Ello came onto our radars with a vengeance. It seemed like within a 2 week period, it went from no one every hearing of it, to everyone clamoring to try to secure a coveted invite code.

The ad-free, anti-Facebook, social network.

Then, seemingly, it died off – not surprising in our Idiocracy-esque culture of impatience for the latest insightful Kanye meme or cop-clobber-video. Through that whole thing, I was still curious and became a regular user of Ello despite so many thinking that it was just another passing fad.

Well, it turned out to be much more than I ever expected it to be. Yes, many people disappeared, but what disappeared with them was the meaningless snack-size bites of empty-calorie consumption. All that stuff already had a home. Facebook. What was left in Ello was a community of artists using the platform in ever-inventive ways to be as creative and expressive as possible. It started to cultivate a niche of artists and creatives and intellectuals actually sharing stuff that had more than a hint of cerebral quality to it. While Facebook remained where the jocks and ‘cool kids’ hung out, Ello was becoming the online home for the artists and the nerds. I like artists and nerds. So I stayed.

About a month ago, all of a sudden, I started getting more and more chatter on my Ello page, more likes, more adds, more comments, more engagement, and I was wondering what was going on. Then, about a week after that, I was being engaged by some of the developers of Ello and some of the community groups, which I didn’t even know existed at this point. And the closer I looked, the more I started to realize that they had subtly and quietly added a SLEW of new features and functionality, remaining true to form to their overall vibe of elegant minimalism.

Now we could directly reply to comments, we can like posts, it was easier to discover new people and subjects, and there was even a way to keep track of your ‘likes.’ The search function was overhauled, and, ‘HALLELUIAH!, there was a separate intuitive tab for notifications, making it ever easier to reply to comments and posts, as well as streamline who and what was adding you and/or engaging with you on your posts. Not to mention, their FAQ page is literally called WTF. I mean, c’mon…

As if this wasn’t enough, just as I was getting more and more excited about posting more on Ello (my god did I mention how beautiful photos look!???), I got an email asking if I wanted to test out the one thing that was glaringly missing from the Ello experience – a dedicated mobile app.

YES!

Within 24 hours, the beta version of the app was on my phone, and now that I’ve had almost two weeks to play with it, I’ve got to say, it’s nice.

Very VERY nice.

The Ello app retains the clean intuitive and minimal interface of the desktop version of Ello, yet, the functionality runs surprisingly deep. Not an easy feat to overcome, but it’s very evident that they’ve put in maximum effort to make it happen. And it’s worked very well. So well in fact, that about a week in, I actually started finding myself opening it more than the Facebook app, checking in on my Ello stream, liking and sharing posts, and, eventually, taking its place on my phone’s home screen. The caliber of content was just blowing me away.

The thing is this…rather than people cliquing and grouping themselves together based on how similar they are and what similar pages they’ve liked and all that fuckery, Ello is much more focused on just giving its users the space to be as unique and expressive as they choose, without having to be voluntary guinea pigs for marketers the world over. And because of that, I’ve managed to discover a ridiculously thoughtful and insanely creative populace on this thing, one that I’m sure I would have never been exposed to before. Hitting the ‘Discover’ tab and seeing the variety of artistic madness is not only beautiful, but inspiring.

Poets. Artists. Photographers. Writers. Musicians. Designers. Architects. Scientists.

It’s nuts.

The simple Friends/Noise categorization of who you add to your network is brilliant in its simplicity. No more sponsored posts, no more ads. At all. No more man-nipple-mirror selfies if you don’t want ‘em. No more posts of ‘friends’ complaining about what a crappy day they had. You can still be friends with them, but throw them into the ‘Noise’ category and rather than be forced to see it scroll past your stream, you can check in on all that self-serving non-contributing narcissism on your own schedule. And its the small simple things that make the experience so enjoyable – for example, if you’re checking your ‘Friends’ stream, it’s one column, edge to edge, so you can see that trusted material in large and glorious fashion, but if you choose to scroll through your ‘Noise’ stream, it’s broken into two columns, so you can scroll through it much more quickly and efficiently to find the stuff you want to stop at. Completely non-intrusive and buzz-kill proof.

In an age where people are quick to write off anything that doesn’t catch fire within seconds of its launch, Ello might just prove the vitality and value of patience. That whole slow and steady wins the race thing? They’re taking advantage of that quite methodically. They’ve managed to make a splash several months back, got themselves a loyal user base, have responded to the suggestions and comments from that base, have tweaked and updated the desktop experience to reflect that, and now, finally, the mobile app, which, so far, has proven to be a slam dunk as far as I’m concerned.

Yup, I’m going to be spending much more time on Ello. If you want to do the thing, you can download the thing by clicking here and then ‘friend’ or ‘noise’ me at www.ello.co/wasimofnazareth

And I also started an outside community for anything that has to do with the outdoors – pictures, tips, trips, tricks, adventures – if it’s outside, it belongs at www.ello.co/ellooutside

And while you’re in a giving mood…find me at:
instagram: @wasimofnazareth
google+: +WasimMuklashy

And if you enjoy these posts, please feel free to subscribe to my mailing list at top right of this page, and I’ll deliver each post to you as I publish them.

If you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

June 18, 2015
The Not So Subtle Surprises Of Los Angeles’ Best Kept Secret – The Santa Monica Mountains

Although I’ve called these hills home for 7 years, there hasn’t been a single time that I’ve headed out into the Santa Monica Mountains without being pleasantly surprised by what I come across. While the terrain and the topography may prove familiar, the aesthetics are rarely a constant…the same hillside, or the same oak grove, or even the same sandstone rock will look different from hour to hour, day to day, week to week. Much of this has to do with the extremely colorful myriad of climate zones that take residence in this range due to its proximity to both the crisp coastal climate of Pacific Ocean, and the much warmer San Fernando Valley inland. The constant interplay between these various zones provides an ever-changing landscape, especially from the visual perspective.

This was never as evident to me as it was last week.

Due to work and other personal obligations, It had been a few weeks since I’ve been able to get regular dose of self-imposed outdoor therapy, so when I finally got a few hours to hike out into the hills and drive around through some of the familiar winding roads that snake through this magical mountain range, I jumped on it. Over the two days that I spent out there, these are just some of the scenes that I ran across. The sunset scenes come from various points and lookouts along Stunt Road, while the park scenes are all form within Malibu Creek State Park, where I enjoy spending time volunteering from time to time, so I’ve become quite familiar with that gem. The only disturbing thing I saw…just another sign and testament of how bad our drought has become…was the Malibu Creek bed:

In the 8 years I’ve been coming here, I’ve never been able to walk directly in the middle of the creek like this, especially this time of year. Not a drop of water was to be found. The driest I’ve seen it is usually around August, and even then, there’s still some water creeping through and ducks taking advantage of whatever is left. In any case, it was just another reminder of how everything is in a constant state of change and evolution, and there was a certain comforting beauty to be found in that as well.

Anyhow, below is a gallery of images from those few days in various points along that mountain range. It’s hard to believe these were all taken a mere 25 minutes from Los Angeles. If click on any of them, it will show them larger in a slideshow lightbox. Hope you enjoy.

And if you’re not sick of me yet, and you want some more visual stuffamabobs…git it:
instagram: @wasimofnazareth
ello: @wasimofnazareth
google+: +WasimMuklashy

And if you enjoy these posts, please feel free to subscribe to my mailing list at top right of this page, and I’ll deliver each post to you as I publish them.

If you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

June 12, 2015
3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 7 : The Solo Journey Continues – The Elephants, The Elements, & The Shoulder Of Buddha

Today…was going to be a long one! My host had a whole day planned out for me based on what I told him I wanted to see and do, and the first thing on that list was the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. The driver met me at the house at about 7am for the hour-long drive to the orphanage. I was a bit concerned after reading a few reviews the night before about the treatment of the elephants, and this was something I had to see for myself. As we entered the grounds, the first thing on the schedule was to accompany them during a feeding. This took place in a large open field that was part of the expansive forested grounds. For about an hour, we were able to view the elephants and, if we wanted, to take pictures with them. Something felt way too amusement park-ish for me about the whole charade, as handlers would aggressively reign you in to take a picture, after which they’d ask for a ‘donation,’ so I refrained from the novelties, electing to stand back a bit and just observe what was happening.

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For the most part, it all seemed ok, until I started walking around the grounds on my own. That’s when I noticed an elephant that was chained up behind some trees, hidden from obvious view, and it was extremely apparent the elephant was distraught. I didn’t know what to make of it, and asked one of the english-speaking guides, and they explained to me that that was a particularly unruly elephant that was kept away from the rest of the pack because of aggressive behavior. While the explanation certainly made sense, seeing as how I’m no elephant expert, it was still disturbing to see this and to this day, I’m still at odds of what to make of it.

After the feeding, they marched the elephants down to the river for their daily washing. Here, the difference in the elephants demeanor was quite obvious. They were happy. They frolicked and wandered and danced and posed while they bathed themselves and each other in the warm tropical waters of the Maha Oya river. No kidding, if you looked closely enough, them buggers were smiling! It was a gorgeous and majestic site to behold and be a part of. This went on for close to 90 minutes. I had time to take some pictures, grab lunch on the terrace overlooking the river, and then take some more pictures before they marched them back to the orphanage grounds, which marked the end of our visit. Here’s a few moments from this elephant experience:

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On the drive back through the mountains to Kandy, the driver was pointing out various spice gardens, and asked if I’d like to visit one. I was certain he had some sort of arrangements with some of these establishments, but honestly, I didn’t care – yes, I was here, and I wanted to see a spice garden. So he pulled off into the Saffron Spice & Herbal Garden just outside the elephant orphanage in Kegalle, and it was well worth it. The guide spent a solid hour walking me through the grounds, showing me various spices and herbs they were organically growing, from cardamom to cinnamon to aloe, cocoa, and ginger, as well as the various tonics and lotions made from these very spices. I got a sandlewood lotion face and head massage, and then a solid 15 minute back and neck massage in an outdoor gazebo before drowsily making my way back out to my waiting driver.

One of the things that was on the way back to town were 3 temples that were apparently a must see. Each of them was built from a different material and each of these mixed Hindu/Buddhist ‘devales’ was built in honor of a different god whose job it was to protect the city. First on the list was stone temple of Gadaradeniya Viharaya, then the brick temple, Lankatilake Viharaya, and finally, the temple of wood the Embekka Devale. There was no denying the historical significance of these structures. Once you hopped around to sufficiently allow your bare feet to acclimate to the hot concrete of the grounds (you’re required to remove your shoes), once you stepped into each temple, you can’t help but notice the details that remained after almost 700 years of weather and war and general wear and tear. The wood carvings – the stone sculptures – it was mind-boggling. And it was hard not to feel the calming effect of being in the presence of revered deities that have been worshipped on these grounds for centuries – a mood that was completely ruined by the one one extremely off-putting aspect of these Devale visits – the constant hounding for ‘donations.’

Every step of the way, from the moment you walked in to the moment you left, you were trailed by a different ‘tour guide’ or ‘temple keeper’ or whatever title they decided to throw on the un-assuming tourist at the time. It was truly a shame because the more it happened, the more irritating it became, and the less I wanted to visit the next temple. It proved to be an extreme detriment to actually enjoying and fully absorbing the weight and significance of these beautiful structures. I understand that this is an impoverished nation, and people need to make a buck, and as a tourist, I have no problem with it, but the irony of this particular situation was, if I wasn’t hounded, and there was a simple box at the front, I would have voluntarily left more than I actually ended up giving these self appointed ‘guides.’

Anyhow, not to be deterred, I was determined to hit up one more landmark that was on my list before we began to lose sun on my final day in Kandy, and, well, my final full day in Sri Lanka, as I was scheduled to be on a plane the following night to begin my journey back home. So I had the driver take me to the Bahiravokanda Vihara, a towering 85 foot concrete Buddha statue that stands on a hill over the city, offering one of the best vantage points to take in the landscape and topography of Kandy. After watching monks run up and down the stairs entering and leaving the temple at the base of the statue, I made my way up the stairs alongside the statue that lead you to the shoulder of Buddha, from where you have an unbelievable panoramic view of the city. This is where I spent the final waning moments of the day. I was completely alone…watching…breathing…seeing…reflecting…just me and Buddha and the vibes of Kandy, “The Cultural Center of Sri Lanka.”

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Just as the sun was setting a couple of girls visiting from Germany made their way to the shoulder. After trading stories of how we ended up on the top of a Buddha in the midst of the Sri Lankan highlands together, we quietly watched the sun set behind the hills as the lights around the city began to twinkle. It was perfect.

Once the show was over, we walked back down the stairs together and decided to accompany each other to the Muslim Hotel for a highly anticipated kottu dinner, a version of Sri Lankan street vendor food. The rhythmic beat of the blades on the iron skillets, chopping up the noodles and the chicken and the beef and the vegetables across the town center are impossible to ignore, and according to just about everyone we asked, the Muslim hotel had some of the city’s best. And they were right. We indulged in various shared dishes and drinks, while we laughed and joked both at and with each other. I couldn’t have asked for a better last Sri Lankan supper.

This was the point where we had to bid farewell to each other. They had to get back to their group and I had to get back to the apartment to get my stuff together to begin the journey back home to Los Angeles, California the following morning.

Below is a gallery of images from this fine day, from beginning to end. Click on any of the images and it’ll pull up a lightbox slideshow.

Be sure to check back in a few days for the conclusion and final throughts of this life-altering trip. If you’ve missed the first parts and would like to start from the beginning on this multi-faceted Sri Lankan adventure, click here for 3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 1 : The Most Meaningful Work I’ve Ever Done.

And if more gimme gimme I wanna have-a’s are desired, find them at:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Ello: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: +WasimMuklashy

All images and videos for this series of blog posts were shot with a Samsung NX1.

If you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

June 3, 2015
A Feel Good Day In L.A. – Volunteering For P.S.Arts

So yesterday was one of those ‘feel good’ days. As a freelancer, there’s nothing worse for your psyche than not being booked and shooting, so when I was presented with the opportunity to volunteer for P.S.Arts at Billy Mitchell Elementary School, a school in Lawndale, a small underserved community in Los Angeles between Inglewood, Gardena and Compton, I jumped on it. P.S.Arts is an organization that was started 25 years ago by legendary jazz-man and the ‘A’ in A&M Records, “The” Herb Alpert, along with his partner Paul Cummings, to help promote arts in schools.

As we all know, budgets continue to get cut for the arts, especially in public schools, so this is where these guys step in and help bring some programs back to these schools. And just from looking at their faces, It’s so obvious the kids love it. While they organize arts programs in all the different genres of arts, this particular one was a dance program in which kids from Kindergarten up to 3rd grade performed multi-cultural dances they had been practicing all semeseter. They were so happy.

P.S. Arts is a non-profit organization, so as you can imagine, they rely a lot on volunteers to help them with things they need and they’re looking to gather some assets for a marketing campaign for their 25th anniversary, so when Angeleno Artistry passed along this opportunity, I signed up right away. Love doing stuff like this, especially after my experience in Sri Lanka, so figured why not. Below is a gallery of some of my favorite images from that dance recital yesterday, all of which were shot on the Samsung NX1 with a combo of the 16-50 S and the 50-150 S lenses. If you click on any of the images, it’ll open up a lightbox to view larger versions.

Side note: School cafeteria lunches still smell EXACTLY the same as I remember them…

If you want to learn more about P.S.Arts, visit PSArts.org. And if you want to help them out as well (they work throughout Southern & Central California), contact me about it, and I’ll be more than happy to connect you.

For other stuffnot and whatthings, feel free to cyber stalk me at:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Ello: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: +WasimMuklashy

And if you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

June 3, 2015
3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 6 : The Solo Journey Continues. Next Stop: Kandy – The Cultural Capital Of Sri Lanka

So this was it. I had 3 more days left before I had to make my way back to Colombo and begin my 36 hour journey back to U.S. soil. I had two choices…I can head down to the beach and just marinate for a few days, or I can continue the cerebral stimulation and head to Kandy, “The Cultural Capital of Sri Lanka.” Against most of humanity’s better judgement, I chose the latter.

To get there from Nuwara Eliya, I had to bid farewell to the gorgeous valley of the tea, tuk-tuk down to the Nanuoya train station 8 miles down the road, and find myself a seat. This turned out to be one of the most beautiful train rides I’ve ever been on. We started and ended by slowly snaking our way through 90 miles of the same lush green tea-infused hillsides we drove up to get here, only this time, we were away from the people and the commerce-driven hustle bustle of the road that led up and down the mountain. This time, we hugged the mountainsides as we periodically rolled through tiny track-side villages, many of which consisted of nothing more than 5 or 6 small structures and a store. This is a train ride I think should be added to just about everyone’s bucket list. It was that stunning.

Kandy is quite significant on so many levels to the history and present of Sri Lanka. It served as the last capital of the ancient kings era in Sri Lanka, and, among some of Buddhism and Hindu’s holiest sites, houses the Temple of the Tooth, an enormous and religiously significant temple in the Buddhist faith. Additionally, Kandy, the second largest city in Sri Lanka behind Colombo, serves as a major and important commerce route linking all quadrants of the country, not surprisingly, playing a major role and hub for operations during the 3- year civil war I spoke of in the first few parts of this series. Since then, they’ve put a major focus on tolerance and integration amongst populations, from the Buddhist population to the Hindu population to the Muslim population, Singhalese and Tamil alike, with wonderfully vibrant charming results. While the population of Kandy is listed at about 120,000, it truly feels like a much smaller, quaint town, much of which has to do with its topography – pockets hidden and tucked into hillsides and valleys.

I rolled into town in the early afternoon, got a hold of my host in Kandy, another Airbnb reservation, and another one that I got super lucky with. I landed a spot in Alex Home Stay. The reviews were off the charts, so I wasn’t sure I’d get in, but I was fortunate enough to catch him during an open window. Not only did I have my own entire apartment in the hills just above the town, but Alex, who lived upstairs, was also a certified tour guide in Sri Lanka, so he was able to put together an itinerary for me based on what I wanted to see and do. I got in early enough to have a full afternoon and night in which he led me right. I took a tuk-tuk downtown, had my driver find me a Muslim jewerly shop (apparently that’s where you’ll get the best currency exchange rates), and then drop me off right in front of The Temple of the Tooth. The Temple of the Tooth, a World Heritage Site, and one of the holiest places in the world for Buddhists, is perhaps best known for housing one of Buddhas teeth in a shrine in the center of the temple.

I walked onto the opulent grounds and as I crossed the bridge over the moat and into the compound, immediately felt a calmness come across me. I was instinctually possessed to be quiet, aware, and introspective, a feeling that was only magnified as I walked into the temple and up the stairs that led to the shrine. It was filled to the brim Buddhist devotees sitting on the ground throughout the room, all chanting in unison, led by a monk dressed in traditional orange robes at the center of the room facing the shrine, which was shroud with lotus flowers covering the color spectrum.

I was here.

This was happening.

I was part of it.

So for a few moments I could call my own, I sat down and just listened. It wasn’t long before I found myself entranced and almost hypnotically chanting along with them. I won’t lie, there was something there, an energy, something I wasn’t quite used to, and I know this might sound contradictory, but I don’t know how else to put it…I freaked out a bit at how calming it was. This struck me enough to get a sudden twinge of anxiety, leading me outside of the room. It was a bizarre feeling, one I still can’t describe, but I’m fairly certain it had a lot to do with the inexplainable discomfort of facing yourself upon finding yourself suddenly vulnerable in a completely unfamiliar environment. I wasn’t ready for that. And looking back, I now wish I had stayed and worked my way through those feelings to see what was on the other side.

In any case, I spent the next hour or so meandering through the rest of the grounds, which included everything from the Sri Dalada Museum, which explained the story of the tooth relic through pictures and ancient scrolls, imagery, and statues. Apparently he who holds the sacred tooth relic, which was fought over for centuries, holds the governance of the land. I also got to check out the outlying gardens which played host to a glass room full of prayer candles, in which an endless stream of devotees walked in, lit their candles, made their offerings, and quietly prayed before making their way out.

After this, I found myself walking on the other side of the temple, where I heard dancing and music and drums, and as I followed them, found an old Red Cross building that was hosting a Kandyan dance, essentially a traditional Sri Lankan dance recital. This I could not pass up. It had just started so I bought myself a ticket and walked in to a packed house and balcony watching this display, not unlike what you’d see at a traditional Hawaiian luau, but with the story, dance, costume, and garb illustrating Sri Lankan history. The recital is performed to percussion only, and through costumes depicting different animals, tells the story of shamans that came to cure the king of a mysterious illness caused by black magic of the king’s first wife.

After this 90 minute show, I figured it was time to call it a night as I had a long day ahead of me, for tomorrow, I’d be heading deeper into the hills to see something I could not leave Sri Lanka without seeing…elephants!

To see those magnificent beasts, click here for 3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 7 : The Solo Journey Continues – The Elephants & The Elements , & The Shoulder of Buddha. Or you can always sign up on the right with your email address and I’ll send each new post directly to your inbox.

For now, below is a gallery from that first day in Kandy. Click on any one of them and it’ll open a lightbox slideshow.

If you missed the beginnings of this journey, be sure to start off with 3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 1 : The Most Meaningful Work I’ve Ever Done.

And if you needs you some more wanna wannas, there’s always:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Ello: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: +WasimMuklashy

All images and videos for this series of blog posts were shot with a Samsung NX1.

If you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

May 27, 2015
PTTOW Gone Done Did It Again – Planning The Future From The Palos Verdes Peninsula

Like last year, I had the incredible opportunity of being a fly on the wall as a house photographer at this year’s PTTOW summit, once again taking place on the Southern California beachside Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. PTTOW, which stands for ‘Plan To Take On The World,’ brings together some of the world’s most influential marketing players from companies including Red Bull, Vice, Discovery Channel, ESPN, and GoPro with some of the planet’s most visionary thinkers, futurists, and entrepreneurs, including inventor of wireless charging and CEO and founder of UBeam Meredith Perry, Singularity University and X-Prize’s Peter Diamandis, who, at this very event last year revealed plans to mine near-earth asteroids, Dr. Astro Teller from Google X who gave compelling evidence no why allowing, and paying, employees to make mistakes, serves the best interests of the company, Nely Galan, founder of the Adelante Movement, who gave her take on the rise of the country’s largest growing market, minority women, and the one and only Quincy Jones, a guest of honor who certainly knows a thing or two about helping minorities rise.

Having National Poetry Slam Champion IN-Q present the keynote with his spitfire anti-immoral-corporate rhymes to an audience full of corporate suits was a gutsy move and immediately set the tone for the conversations that would persist through the rest of the 2-day conference. Bringing together the young and brilliant minds that are envisioning and creating the future, with the minds that will bring those ideas to the masses, seemed like a no-brainer and I can only imagine what the partnerships that have been forged during these two days might bring about. Mix this with bonding experiences that included everything from golfing together to arts and crafts sessions to helicopter tours over Los Angeles, Navy SEAL training exercises, cigarette boat racing, and speed dating-style ‘Spark Sessions,’ throw in some entertainment provided by popular acts ranging from magician David Blaine to violin phenom Lindsey Stirling, soul vocalist extraordinaire Andra Day, young WARP-tour breakout act Echosmith, and the jazz, rhythm and blues of Jon Batiste, all set on a foundation of round the clock delicious catering and plenty of open bars, and you’ve got yourself a busy group of networking gotchas running around these Southern California bluffs.

Anyhow, here’s a gallery of some of my favorite images and moments from those whirlwind 48 hours (if you click on an image, a slideshow lightbox will pop up).

May 18, 2015
3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 5 : The Solo Journey Begins. First Stop: Nuwara Eliya – The Heart Of Tea Country

Not again. No way was I going to miss my ride this time. It was pseudo-palatable to eat the 10 bucks for ticket I bought for the missed train ride they day before, but after not being able to secure another ticket for the next 3 days, if I was to stand any chance of making it to Nuwara Eliya in the highlands, I would be forced to hire a private driver to take me the 100 miles up the mountain. And that, let me tell you, cost a wee bit more than 10 dollars. So yup, this time, I would NOT miss my ride.

I met my driver outside the Airbnb rental at 7am, bid farewell to my host and Pradeepa, who I wouldn’t see again until her return to the states a few months later, and hopped into the Prius to begin my solo journey through as much of the country as I can comfortably see in 10 days. What was so striking was how quickly everything around me changed. The difference of topography and climate within such a short distance in this country is uncanny. Within just a few miles of being in warm, humid, flat coastal lowlands, I found myself entering a colder, more temperate mountainous climate that I’m more used to seeing in the midst of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the midst of Spring than what I expected on an island 50 miles from the mainland of India. The one thing that didn’t change at all was the constant rush of people everywhere! You figure that when you’re heading into ‘the highlands,’ that the route there would be sparse and barely populated, but, no. Not here. The entire drive up was jam-packed with people and villages methodically going about their business, albeit it in a gorgeous natural setting.

This made much more sense the more I thought about it. Tea is the country’s biggest export and industry, and these mountains were jam-packed with tea plantations. Everywhere. Look left, right, up, down, everywhere…tea. It was beautiful! And it was where the work was. And since this was really the only road to and from the capital and port city of Colombo, business up and down the mountain revolved around the tea industry. This tight two lane winding mountain road was essentially a major corridor in the trade route that sent tea from these mountains to the rest of the world. And this tight two lane winding mountain road, chalk full of blind curves, did NOT stop the drivers, including those of big trucks, from adopting the same practices they did in the city, swerving in and out of each other’s lanes, into oncoming traffic, on blind curves, dodging tuk-tuks and pedestrians, it didn’t matter. Yet, somehow, everyone seemed to make it out unscathed…

My first taste of this tea took place about 2 hours into the ride. We were getting deeper into the mountain and pulled off to take my first sip at a roadside tea stop in Walawala, Sri Lanka. (How great is that name? Walawala!) Anyhow, that first taste gave me my first ever experience with what fresh, real, unprocessed, untreated, direct-from-the-source tea was. The flavor popped out of the cup and danced around on the palate like no other cup I’ve ever had. Now I get it. Heck, the leaves used to brew this cup, as I’d soon learn, were picked less than a handful of days before they arrived in front of me.

We continued on up the road for a bit before I got a glimpse of my first of what would be many waterfalls in the country and the next 90 minutes or so gave me a proper showing of what many call the most beautiful part of Sri Lanka, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The landscapes were blanketed by green rolling hills reminiscent of California wine country, however, instead of grapevines, here it was all covered in lush fields of tea with cascading waterfalls and rivers snaking their way between. It was gorgeous. While, for the past 2 weeks, I often wondered why I even bothered to bring a long sleeve shirt and hoodie with me, this was the moment I was glad to dig them out from the bottom of my bag. The climate was like night and day, easily dropping 15 degrees during the day and 20 degrees at night from what I’ve grown used to.We arrived into Nuwara Eliya in the late afternoon. The driver dropped me off at my hotel, the quaint, hillside Richmond Inn, where, after putting me in a gorgeous room overlooking the entirety of the town, 5 minutes later, they pulled me out of there and threw me in the small dark dingy windowless manager’s break room down the hall. They literally had to remove piles of clothes and quickly make up the bed for me as I stood on the sidelines waiting, but they more than made up for it the next morning, when they moved me into a spacious and comfortable corner suite with french doors opening up to a balcony that overlooked the entirety of the Nuwara Eliya valley. Apparently they had a mixup with my reservation, so they fed me and didn’t charge me for that night. Works for me…

Over the next 60 hours or so I found myself walking, hiking, and tuk-tuk’ing through this picturesque valley and city. I got a chance to tour the Pedro Tea Factory, seeing exactly how the process is carried out from field to cup before enjoying a tea tasting on a wooden deck that overlooked their tea-covered hillside. One thing that you can’t help but notice is the level of poverty that also existed in this area. While it was quite evident all throughout the country so far, I didn’t expect that when I’d walk into the estate, one of the region’s premiere tea plantations and factories, that I’d find shanty towns and corrugated housing for the workers all the way up until I reached the entrance gate. This is when I really got to see what a society looks like when there’s an upper class, a lower class, and a seeming complete absence of a middle class. Despite this, they all seemed to be in good spirits and extremely courteous and generous and warm, as evidenced by my trek up to Lover’s Leap, a relaxing moderate hike up a moderate incline through tea fields that led to small shrine and one of the region’s popular waterfalls. This is where I ran across a sweet family all working in the tea field. They curiously stopped me, we chatted (as well as we could), we took pictures, and they wouldn’t let me leave without a hug and a handshake.

The next day was spent walking around the town center, getting a feel for the local life. Nuwara Eliya is not a big city at all. The city itself is about 5 square miles with a population of about 25,000, while the total population of the entire region is about 50,000. But you could walk through the city itself in a day. The street scenes were vibrant and plentiful as it’s a bustling town with a never-ending turnover of visitors. The main market is located right next to the bus station and is the area I spent most of my time, soaking in the wares and fares. Everything from fresh tea to fresh fruits and vegetables to, well, fresh meat. Just hanging there. Meat.

During an afternoon stroll through the outskirts of town, I found a beautiful old church. I”m not much of a religious person but something drew me in. It was completely empty when I walked in, and just took a seat in the back pew. It wasn’t a particularly special church, but, admittedly, it was very soothing and relaxing to be sitting in such a quiet cavernous chunk of stone while random people sporadically came in to offer a quiet prayer, grant me a smile, and make their way out. As I was leaving about a half hour later, that’s when I was compelled to make the following image of this child, who had just got out of school and was holding onto the bars to the gate of the church. He just stood there, curiously looking at me, and as I snapped, he started to smile. It ended up being one of my favorite images of the trip.

One place that gave me the complete opposite feeling happened, perhaps not so ironically, right after leaving the church when I walked into The Grand Hotel just up the road. The structure was originally built in 1828 as a holiday home for Sir Edward Barnes, the fifth governor of Sri Lanka during the times of colonial rule, and I immediately felt the air change. It got SUPER stuffy. I mean, I understand history and all that, but, when you step outside the gates and see how tough life is for the indigenous inhabitants of this land, then step inside these gates and immediately run into the stiff upper lipped upper class…you know the type…polo shirts with sweaters tied around their necks, looking down at you from the bottom of their beady eyes as you can’t help but overhear their golf and tennis plans for the afternoon. This was all in an environment which also harkens back to the glory days of The Hill Club just up the road, now known for its daily high tea ritual, the grounds didn’t allow women or local native Sri Lankans on the property until 1967. Needless to say, I felt extremely uncomfortable and quickly made my way off the grounds back into the real Sri Lanka.

As I only had the afternoon left before embarking to Kandy, the ‘Cultural Capital of Sri Lanka,” the following morning, I figured it was a good time to find a vantage point for my final Nuwara Eliyan sunset. I grabbed my gear, stopped for a strawberry & whipped cream pancake at the Adma Agro Strawberry Farm (which was quite baffling in that despite the insanely delicious and gluttonous offerings, the beautiful view of Gregory Lake, and the high recommendations of everyone from our friends in Colombo to the hotelier in Nuwara Eliya, was completely empty except for me), and started trudging my tubby tummy up the hill into the tea fields to find a spot to marinate as the sun began its descent. Unfortunately, I miscalculated my timing and how long it would take to get to the sunny side of the hills. However, as I looked before me, it was hard not to where I was, what I was doing, and how fortunate I was to be in this position. So I just stopped, watched, and enjoyed. It wasn’t the view I had in my head, but, well, it was still a view I couldn’t have imagined.

After marinating in those moments, and the final bits of twilight began to disappear, I gathered up my gear, and quietly hiked back down the hill as the chimney smoke began dotting the hillsides and the pleasant aroma of dinner time spices filled the valley. Today…was another good day.

In the next part of this series, Part 6 : The Solo Journey Continues. Next Stop: Kandy – The Cultural Capital Of Sri Lanka, I make my way from Nuwara Eliya to Kandy, “the cultural capital of Sri Lanka” which I’ll be posting in a few days.

If you missed the beginnings of this journey, be sure to start off with 3 Weeks In Sri Lanka – Part 1 : The Most Meaningful Work I’ve Ever Done.

And if more wanna wanna gimme gimmes are desired, there’s always:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Ello: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: +WasimMuklashy

All images and videos for this series of blog posts were shot with a Samsung NX1.

If you support the kind of work I’m doing and the things I’m sharing, please consider ‘subscribing to me’ on Patreon.com. Yup, subscribing to ‘me.’ You can even set the price. Literally, $1 per month if you want. No joke, your little helps me a LOT.

April 28, 2015