Like most folks, when I find and identify something that fits perfectly to my liking, I tend to get a little carried away with my enthusiasm. Not only indulging but also overindulge until I’m sick of it. Whenever I bought an LP/CD back in the day, I would play it back-to-back until I either knew […]
I get childishly excited whenever I’m at a Japanse restaurant where a Bento Box is a prominent menu option. It’s just such a convenient way to enjoy a few of my favorite dishes from the Japanese kitchen. At some point in my earliest school years at Rosewood Avenue Elementary, near Melrose Place, I remember having […]
We realized after just a few hours of walking around in our new neighborhood in Da Nang that we’d be staying in the midst of a building boom. Not that we’re not accustomed to sharing our immediate environment with cranes, bulldozers, jackhammers and every other imaginable site and sound related to construction sites. Our many years […]
As long as it’s not raining when I go to sleep, I usually get out of bed at around 5:15 am. First, I’ll check the weather on my weather app and then in realtime through the balcony overlooking the South China Sea. If it’s dry outside and doesn’t look like it’s going to pour down […]
I created this image some time ago and it is one of my most downloaded. I have no idea who buys it, such is the world of stock photography. I can only hope that it’s published in a context that jells with my initial conceptual intention. As much as I like the adjective “merry”, to […]
Here’s a simple Qigong Warmup for all of us Screen Warriors. A couple of years ago, I enlisted a Qigong instructor to teach me a few basic movements that could help relieve some of the stiffness I was feeling from arthritis. I’ve since spent many hours practicing and taking additional courses to learn other systems […]
This shot is a frame grab from a scene during the filming two years ago at Bamboo Yoga Retreat, a revered, beachfront yoga resort on the south end of Patnem Beach in Goa, India. I went to a yoga class today at my new sports club (where they offer 5 yoga classes/day!). It was me, […]
I said, “Strike a pose, just like in the Madonna video, Vogue. Remember?”. She looked at me in disbelief, as if I was completely insane and fitting perfectly into the narrative of a typical crazy-ass westerner in Da Nang. Then she surprised me and muttered, “Eh, which part of the video do you mean? Flabbergasted, […]
Met this colorfully synchronized fellowship of young Chinese ladies on the boardwalk tonight just before Charlotte and I enjoyed a noodle dinner on the beach.
The image above is from where these very words were typed a few minutes ago (depending, of course, on when you read this). For the second day in a row, I’m at Bread & Salt, a co-working space, cum café that Charlotte’s discovered near the beach in Da Nang, Vietnam. Not sure why it’s called […]
Groucho Marx once said to a tennis club representative when he wanted to cancel his membership, “I Don’t Want to Belong to Any Club That Will Accept Me as a Member”. I love that quote. And yet, I’ve just joined a club that without hesitation let me in. A club called My An Sport Center. […]
Shot this today during a break from working on a new project for a client in Sweden. The beauty with producing time lapses, especially when using your phone as I did for this video, is that you don’t have to oversee anything. Used to be much more cumbersome back in the day. Now it’s just […]
Here’s a 6o showreel I created for our local sports center in Malmö, Sweden a couple of months ago. Kockum Fritid is filled with both a wide range of physical activities and a unique depth of competence among those that work there. You can swim, play hockey, eat great food and even bring your infant […]
Here’s a brand new collage I’ve been working on for a while. It’s reasonable to assume that I would instinctively know when an abstract picture like this is finished. In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, there’s never a clear, concise path in my artistic process. It has always been […]
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes. If I look hard enough, I find there’s something interesting, often beautiful, in just about everything. It’s all about angles and perspectives. Take the gate above as an example. While passing by it the other day, the colors and shapes seemed to call […]
Shot these scenes over the last couple of days. I can’t explain it, but traffic in slow-mo continues to mesmerize me. Even after all these years of visiting Bangkok, I’m still just as fascinated with the staggeringly intense traffic here as I was the very first time I visited Bangkok back in 1988. That was […]
From the other day while still in Da Nang, Vietnam. We’re heading back to My Khe Beach soon where there seems to be no shortage of ridable waves and barely any local rivalry. Photo: Charlotte Raboff
I’ve been practicing Tai Chi in Lumpini for few days now together with the cheerful and competent instrcutor Claire Hu from Thailand. In her previous career, Claire was a Dean at a university here in Bangkok and after deciding to take early retirement, she received her Tai Chi education in Chen village in northern China, […]
We’ve now moved into a two-bedroom apartment with a decent view in the Sathorn district of Bangkok. So for just shy of a month, we’ll have our base camp in one of the city’s many, many unnamed neighborhoods where you’ll find just about everything needed for day-to-day existence within reasonable walking distance – including a […]
Shot this view of “My Khe Beach” late last night from the rooftop pool of Haian Hotel, just a few floors above our corner room in Da Nang. I think corner hotel rooms are preferable for the obvious reason that they offer a less claustrophobic room experience. As we book most of our hotel nights […]
Here’s the short film from our visit with Sue, Cat, Marie, Julian, Nori, Lola, India and the rest of the gang at the NGO Vietnam Pets and Vets outside of Hoi An, here in Central Vietnam. Publishing this video today coincides perfectly with our daughter Elle’s 19th birthday. After all, it’s thanks to her genuine […]
This is by far Hoi An’s best taco joint. We became frequent guests there after falling in love with their fish tacos, which taste superbly, possibly thanks to all the ingredients being homemade from scratch. We’ve been eating a ton of Vietnamese food here. But truth be told, as Pescatarians, it ain’t been as exciting […]
This is Julian, one of two pigs we met the other day at an energetically operated combo rescue and shelter organization called Vietnam Animal, Aid and Rescue This is Julian, one of two friendly pigs Charlotte and I met the other day at Vietnam Animal, Aid and Rescue which is housed in a tiny village […]
After a couple of days with an intense downpour, the sun is again shining. The rice paddies are soaked and brimming with fresh rainwater and as the level has risen so much, the landscape surrounding the flooded fields is now beautifully reflected in the drenched paddies. We took a long walk last night after dinner. […]
Like most red-blooded Americans that haven’t been completely brainwashed from having Fox News or CNN as their only source of information, I’m skeptical about every word a politician exudes. You have to be. It’s not so much about distrust as it is understanding the nature of the game. Politics, at least in a functioning democracy, […]
Last night we were at The Hub, a co-working place just down the road from our home in An My Village. Three local Hoi An entrepreneurs, two Vietnamese and one Brittish woman presented themselves and shared their business experiences with about 25 (mostly) expats. The first one up was Emma, who together with her Vietnamese […]
The strangest part of adjusting to slow life here in rural Vietnam, especially when coming from a country like Sweden – where new stuff is readily and rapidly adopted – is paying with paper money again. Not only do I barely recognize any of the Swedish bills or coins currently in circulation, the vast majority […]
When in Rome…I make Vietnamese drip coffee here in Hoi An at a couple of times a day. I find it an excellent way to lure my inner Zen into daily routines while we’re living here. Where back in Swedenland my caffeine fix was often blasphemously met with bleak instant coffee, here, it takes a […]
From yesterday’s assignment for Charlotte’s popular Swedish hotel web site hotelladdict.se While probably not the most eco-friendly adventure I’ve been on, oh boy, was it fun driving and riding the M72 (Dnepr/Ural) – a vehicle with a long-ass production life, from the original BMW R71 (1938) to current day Chinese (PRC) version: Chang Jiang CJ750. […]
Earliter today, Charlotte noticed a memory in one of her social channel news feeds. It was from way back in 2011 when we were still producing travel guides for Swedish daily newspapers like Aftonbladet and Allt om Resor. We created and delivered a ton of them over the course of about a decade. Up until […]
I was close to being run over last night on my way to dinner. No, I wasn’t drunk, high on shrooms or wearing clogs. I was simply walking along the sidewalk towards Bamboo, our favorite eatery here in Hoi An. Had my focus just slipped a little, or, if I’d misstepped ever-so slightly… BOOM!…I would of […]
The pictoresque Tam Quan Chua Ba Mu Chinese Temple with its reflecting pond in the ancient city of Hoi An, Vietnam. Shot yesterday evening with the Fuji XT3 and Fujinon XF 16mm F1.4 prime lens. The temple reminded me of visits to Phnom Phenh and Siem Reap in Cambodia.
From yesterday’s visit to our local Cam An Beach which is considered one of the best in Vietnam. Being in the ocean and letting wave after wave wash over me has been something I’ve loved doing ever since I was a kid. They aren’t big enough for surfing, at least not right now. But in […]
For the past two weeks, I’ve been eating a large, ripe avocado and a big carrot for lunch. That’s it. This “diet”, in combination with getting at least 5 km of walking or biking exercise a day, is helping me slowly burn off the flab around my waist. It also feels excellent to not eat […]
Be it S’pore, Delhi or Bangkok, whenever and wherever I visit Asia, it’s usually bustling and busy. Well, maybe not so much Singapore. But definitely Bangkok and Delhi. Here in the wild, wild east where water buffalo graze freely on monsoon drenched rice paddies and locals in pointy hats smile at you when you pass […]