the tracing

Definition of Tracing:

1. To follow the course of
2. To discover 
3. To draw (a line or figure)
4. To form (letters) 
5. To follow closely 
6. To imprint (a design) 
7. To record (a variable)

about

larah moravek is an interior designer creating and living in new york city.

the tracing was conceptualized in 2010 when larah took a sojourn to india and asia. today, the tracing continues  documenting the visual inspirations found in the world around her.

 

all photography by larah v moravek.

 

© 2012, larah v moravek inc. | LVMinc
all rights reserved

Entries from September 1, 2010 - September 30, 2010

Wednesday
Sep222010

--- in a flash ---




















































































vietnam would happen in a flash ---

and what a fantastic way to go out - more time is necessary to take in all of the country's splendor so for now, my appetite has been appeased with a tasting; a tasting that will draw me back for more, i am sure...

unknown to me, my arrival into hanoi landed on it's independence day. i flew in from phnom penh, cambodia and i was expecting about an hour and half ride to get to my friend's house at 46 pham ngoc thach.. but i was not ready for the sheer chocker block stand still in the city streets for the independence day celebration. the streets were flooded. flooded to the amount, you could just not get by and many, many turn-arounds and switch-backs were necessary to navigate through allies to get to the destination. what a way to greet this city... hello vietnam. i was lucky enough to get my feet wet in this bustling city by having a home base at this seven bedroom house, inhabited by mostly french and by my friend, being a six year hanoian to date. and there was no trying to ride a motorbike here. the streets are buzzing with a number of commotion and bikes that i had not seen prior in other cities. hanoi is all of it's own. crossing the street is a skill to master - slow and steady, to allow the bikes to buzz by you, swerve by you, sometimes brisking you but they know what they are doing and all i had to do was keep my eye on the prize (my eye on the other side of the street, that is) a good way to get around here was with motorbike taxi. by day, i partaked in it much more frequently here and by night, it was my friend's bikes. much of the populated area is in the old quarter surrounding hoan kiem lake. buildings here are slender with narrow footprints and level upon level spiraling upward. the advantage point is always on the higher levels at restaurants so you can enjoy all that buzz from afar. some places of interest were the memorial house; l'espace; temple of literature; phan nhu tho area; bach ma temple; west lake; goethe museum and definitely the museum of ethnology. not only is the exhibition layout well thought out, there is an garden path traditional vietnamese dwellings. the museum itself has these great vertical slot windows encasing staircases at various points and a scalloped formed courtyard. for eateries - koto; bar 69; the cart; le place and tadioto is a must! tadioto is a multi-use space with galleries, bar, and private dining. one afternoon, i spent the time driving all around the various lakes and came to cafe mau which is a friends & family run gallery/teahouse overlooking one of the many lakes. we tried to venture and find horseback riding close to the flood lines along the red river bank but we had no luck. back along there, it is countryside and in a matter of minutes you leave the hectic streets behind you and get immersed in true rural life. we found ourselves invited by some locals to cross the river via row boat to a snake village. for nights out - we frequented a few bars that all have a large expat community, enjoying until the early hours (although formally, bars close by midnight and appear to be closed but with a nod of a head and a quick usher, you are brought into a lively gathering) - places such as cinematheque; cheeky quarter; roots reggae bar and the infamous change-over name disco located along the red river, stills has a strong foothold in hanoi nightlife. a good source of what's in is thenewhanoian website. the streets of hanoi have as much to take in as to avoid... bai noi is a good, easy, breezy way to collect up with friends. it is a home brewed light pilsner first brought over from the czechs and is so light, that you want to drink the pilsner quite quickly before it loses it's hold. even better, bai noi is cheap as chips. street life, bike life is what is it all about... transport of goods is a skill here - whether it is mounds of cargo, pig carcasses, fishing poles, construction materials or families of five all on one agile bike. by bike, you get to see a glimpse of all the faces and characters that make up hanoi and let's not forget the skill of keeping 'face' -

next, i went north - up, up, up in the hills is sapa.

getting there and back is a trek. we went via local bus, overnight bus each way with a 14 hour drive. either way you look at it, an afternoon nap is definitely required after this ride. sapa is something special. as it is now, the town has many many hmong villagers intermixing with sapa folk and the hmong women are the hawkers - out to make a deal, make a barter with new transients. the eldery hmong women are incredible - strong, vivid spirit, wise. it was hard to take my eyes off of them - and their dress, their handmade clothes are exquisite... patterns, stitches, forms layering up upon one another.. it was inspiration in the making. the married women wore their hair in a certain hairstyle. it was like an upturn french twist at the crown of the head, secured in position with a decorative comb. sapa is all about trekking. and trekking we did. the treks went from 3km to 12km - this may not sound that long of the distance but it is not the distance but the route that is challenging. steep up, down hills cascading rice paddy fields soaring upwards. the vistas are incredible. the endurance needed is incredible too. we visited the villages of catcat (hmong tribe), laichai (hmong tribe), tavan (dzay tribe) and giang tachi (red dzao). they move with such agility and ease traversing the hillsides. it does really do you in and by day's end, a tea and pastry is very much welcome. the air is cool and crisp with morning rains. the dance here, is the dance between the mist and mountains - that mist moves in an out and all around the town and mountains and that mist moves fast. most of the guesthouses are perched at the edge to get bountiful views. sometimes looking out, it is hard to discern face of mountain or sky with the mist closing in on you.. what a dilemma to be in.. the town is oriented around a central square with meandering streets stretching out beyond. there are two pit stops that i adored - Baguette & Chocolat and Sapa Rooms. Sapa Rooms is actually a boutique hotel but the lounge is nicely situated with good light, good food and good space. sapa would be wonderful in the winter months - all bundled, in the mountains, with wood fires in most rooms -- hmmm... it is quite tempting to go back for this.

then from hanoi - it was a quick, skip and a jump to the majestic halong bay.
i must say, i was a bit hesitant to go because of all the "talk" about this place but wow... my breathe stood still looking out at that velveteen jade water with islands after islands cropping up one after the other to greet you - it is as if the islands were sprinkled ever so delicately. done in a fashion, to seduce you time and time again. the islands here are made of jagged rocks with quite a vertical climb causing the palms and vegetation to really reach for the sun for survival. i did a three day getaway which was a good amount of time to stay on the boat. the boat was called the amigo - done up in beautiful woodwork inside and out, it looked like something a pirate of long ago would call home. the sleeping cabins were so well done, everything had it's place - smart and handsome. on the first afternoon, we took a visit to an enormous cave and all i kept thinking as we traveling deeper was what a incredible space this would be for a music performance. a cocoon formed in its own undulating ins and outs. the evenings, at dusk, were some of the most beautiful moments in halong bay. i felt very lucky to star gaze and sky gaze amongst the islands. pretty, pretty. maybe too pretty. and to sit and wait and watch the moon come up on the earth - it will be hard to find something better to live up to. i cannot forget the bathing, swimming, jumping in the waters - the water was saltier than i had expected. halong bay is an absolute jewel. i hope it keeps it's beauty without being overrun by us.

going south to central vietnam, i landed in hoi an.
hoi an has many curiosities to satisfy your fancy. the town is built on years and years of craftsmanship in woodwork, pottery and tailoring. shop after shop, or should i say house after house, opens its doors to one of these trades and it is quite common to find artisans working away on the premises. it is very quaint and charming. many of the houses in the old quarter are wood with a mix of marigold buildings splashed in between. all of which, have lanterns hanging out front which makes for a scenic glow at evening. there is this warm amber glow spilling through the streets at night, letting everything appear a little softer. in and around hoi an are some pulls such as cua dai beach which is about a twenty minute bicycle ride away. on the ride, you pass through a river/bayou area with cafes built on stilts perching along the water's edge. a cafe i stopped in time and time again is the son river cafe. it is all decked out in white washed bamboo furniture and the best spring rolls in town. and it serves as a good halfway point between the old quarter of hoi an and cua dai beach stretch. here in central vietnam, the fields are golden unlike the green fields of the north and there is much corn harvesting. the terrain is more planar than the north too. cua dai beach spans for about 30km and at this time, it is quite quiet and we really had it mostly to ourselves. the mornings were cloudy with a light fog, clearing for the day, then rains each late afternoon that came down in a downpour for a couple hours each and every day. another bicycle ride away is the village of thanh ha - here it's specialty is pottery. first and foremost, tailoring is the attraction and i went for it for a couple items. the tailors are lined up and down the streets. the process is quick, done in a flash from me sketching a design to first fitting to final tweaks of stitching, lining, details... it was done in about a day and half from start to finish for both a coat and a pair of boots. the key is you really have to know exactly what you want and the prices are very, very affordable for custom tailoring. my son is also in close proximity to hoi an - however, it does shadow in comparison to the temple gazing in cambodia. you see painters spending afternoons on steps painting away, creating their vision of the picturesque place. and the nights, the nights with the amber lanterns guiding your path are very good indeed. the bon river divides the town from the an hoi peninsula across the way and a bit further, resides cam kim island, known for woodcarving. some great gastronomic experiences here - places like tamtam, hai cafe and the local wine bar where i had a smoky, yellow curry concoction with poached fish and turmeric. fragrant, pungent ginger teas were also a regular order for me. roaming the streets offers much discovery of historic houses, galleries and secret gardens.

september swept by in a flash...
i did not make it through the whole of vietnam as there was a calling i could not ignore, the time had come for me to return to NYC. nevertheless, this gives me a good excuse to come back and pick up where i left off.

what a kaleidoscope of exposure... what a reel this nomadic voyage has been. by now, i am so attuned to this rhythm... and now standing on the other side of the world, NYC seems very unknown to me.

the unknown is good.
actually, the unknown equals only possibility and in that, that is where the magic lies.

i welcome it once again.

Saturday
Sep112010

general wolf rules for life

01. Eat
02. Rest
03. Rove in between
04. Render loyalty
05. Love the children
06. Cavil in the moonlight
07. Tune your ears
08. Attend to the bones
09. Make love
10. Howl often

*** courtesy of Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

i would say, as far as rules go, these are good ones to live by and nevertheless, they hit the mark.

rove often -
rove up, down -
rove right, left -

whether it is within the world or within the heart... it is all about forward motion.
and that, i have had the chance to capture and hope to continue to capture...

*** next up, vietnam memoirs.

Wednesday
Sep012010

shadow play






































































it was definitely hard to leave laos... but as i've seen in life... life gives you choices and the continual motion of it allows for only more doors to open, for more experiences to discover.

the last morning in don dhet, we woke up at sunrise to take the walk up to the bakery to get some goods for the passage into cambodia. the row boat took me through the waters to the mainland, then to catch the 12 hour bus ride. the first 8 hours were luxury equipped with ac, dvd and plush seats. the border crossing was quite immediate upon boarding the bus - it took us to Stung Treng and then to Kampong Thon for formal crossover. i think this was the least visually intriguing border crossing but it did have it's moments. we got handed h1n1 pamphlets by the health inspector as well as laser temperature readings to ensure we were not coming into cambodia's shadows. the last 4 hours of the ride was the best by far - we were they only foreigners on board amongst a full busload of cambodians; all with dazzling eyes and curious, sheepish smiles peering at us, handing us exotic fruits and drinks to try to keep us nourished. the people struck me straight away - all very sweet and open and warm. passing the countryside, i could see the houses were much larger in footprint than laos dwellings and better constructed with wood siding and tiled roofs. the palms ascended much further into the skies and that first night descending on us in cambodia offered a sunset vivid in color... shattering against the never ending rice fields.

the shadow play had begun.
cambodia's
shadow dance showed it's beauty in layers that would show me that things are more or sometimes less than they seem.

siem reap was my start. initially, cambodia was not in the plans but i am so happy i came to it. facing those temples head on, it does something to the soul. siem reap is a notch up in tourism than luang prabang and parts seemed a bit too developed for me. nevertheless, we found a gem of a guesthouse called golden banana with three properties (and three pools) to have full access too. lovely little bungalow villas with sharp red doors. i will say, so far, cambodia has been the most expensive - not sure if it has anything to do with them dealing in both riel and us$ currencies, but it is steeper for food and lodging than the other countries. we came to find a friend over the next week with our tuktuk driver, phanne - sweet as could be. we did the 3day admission into the angkor temples. shadow play in all its glory. we hit the sunrise at angkor wat but it was not my favorite. My #1 was East Mebon - 10thC, mountainlike temple dedicated to Shiva. the time of day may of had something to do with it. storms were rolling in and the sky created a landscape crusading against the darkness. the #2 would be Bayon - 12thC, 37 tower temple all adorned with carved heads in honor of Shiva once again. the repetition made it killer. my #3 is Pre Rup - 10thC, funerary temple for Shiva. Here, it had aqueducts that had spill off on the front end of the temple that turned into a waterfalls for the many cambodian children to splash and frolic in. the night markets are ok - not up to par with luang prabang (for both food and gifts). for actual food joints, a couple stand out - Khmer Kitchen and Blue Pumpkin which had excellent baked goods and homemade ice cream. for the magic, beng melea is it. it is a temple situated some 60km out from town. imagine peter pan meets secret garden. the temple is surrounded by a moat flooded with lilies and within the walls are ruins along with four libraries. the discover this temple, one must climb, jump and maneuver in between the broken boulders all blanketed in moss. donald judd would be awakened all over again here. in the village, there is an orphanage/sustainable farm where we spent the afternoon and played with the beautiful children. Harmony Farm overs volunteer programs and teaches the children agricultural skills as for them, this is a way of life, a livelihood they can be proud of. bamboo cakes were a treat we picked up on the way back. basically, they take a section of bamboo and steam coconut sticky rice with red bean in it. you just peel back the bamboo and enjoy. a building in town that took my attention was the children's hospital -- a long, linear mass with a 2nd facade sitting infront made up of a vertically placed bamboo partition. simple and impactful, especially at night, when the light would glow. i took another go at visiting a floating village -- and this one was superb. we took the tuktuk some 20km out to Tonle Sap lake and visited Chong Khneas. Everything, i mean everything was done on the waters... some 5,000 people live here with generators and tv's (of course). and soon, they will all upload there houses and migrate to the mountains to wait out the rainy season. talk about nature taking its course - as these waters fostered some 4,000 species of fish 30 years ago and today, 200 species remain and numbers are dwindling.

next up is phnom penh.
bustling, hot hub of a city. quite the opposite to the laid back feel of siem reap. it was quite full on here, both in the city's inner beat as well as the history of this survivor of the khmer rouge regime. boddhitree umma acted as our oasis to compose and replenish. the Tuol Song, S21 was something. S21 operated as an inhumane torture center between 1975-1979, killing 20,000 cambodians by the khmer rouge regime with only 7 survivors to walk through those gates. my heart weighed heavy that day.. and seeing the faces of men, women, children that were treated so poorly, it really was hard to swallow. it is fascinating to see, the strength of the human spirit though as the cambodians have been the most sweet natured and kind people i have met thus far. we also took the visit to the killing fields, a short one at that as it was a bit too much for me to take on really all in one day... switching gears, we did the national museum which was a nice set up - open air space filled with temple relics. the palace and pagoda were also on our list. the place to watch the sunset with a bit of relaxation from the streets was the quay hotel - rooftop terrace. we hit the russian market as well to stock up on some well bartered items to take home. it was quite claustrophobic in here, vendor after vendor, tucked in so close to one another. as i do enjoy cities, i did feel phnom penh lacked a certain luster i was hoping for. well, you cannot have it all, right...

going south, to the coast - i came upon kep.
and kep, to me, was the luster i was looking for - pick of the litter. very cool, very in my rhythm of things. kep has all these fantastic 1960s villas, set amongst lush, overgrown vegetation scattered throughout town. the best way to discover them is by bicycle as is most of kep to be done by. it took a few hours, early one morning before that sun shone so brightly down on us. bicycle riding has been such a treat and the paths in kep, go up and down the seaside with lovely mangrove trees and mango trees peering out towards the water's edge. the crab markets in town serve up delicious fresh, plump seafood - crab and prawns, all tenderly cooked in ginger and kampot pepper. kimly's restaurant was by far the best in town. and for guesthouses, botanica and kimly fit quite nicely into my stay. kep being lovely, is quite small so i did not have enough cash on me and had to hitch a ride with a family on first day there to the neighboring town of kampot. in hindsight, this was a good excuse to check out the colonial, riverside town and take a afternoon to roam the streets. bicycle night riding was a regular pursuit too -- it really gave me a love for bicycles again. i know i must acquire one once back in nyc. another morning, we rented bikes and drove to find the secret lake. it is more like a reservoir and to get there we had about a 10km dirt, bumpy, pot hole path to dodge down - all in good fun and the ride back was much more fun than going. the secret lake has a few small communities sprouting up around it and we stopped for fresh sugar cane juice with lime. a quaint spot in town, perfect for sunsets is the sailing club. again, really well done, simple space with character. all in driftwood greys, lightest of blues, burnished whites - and offset with cognac wood furniture. my drink of choice here - gin & tonic. actually gin & tonic's have been the drink for cambodia and they are executed quite well at the sailing club. i tried to get up for sunrise viewing but was only able to do that on my last day, other than that the sailing club was a constant to watch the sun sneak in behind that horizon. Koh Tonsay is quick boat ride off the coast of kep. it is otherwise known as rabbit island. there are maybe 4 guesthouses to choose from, all in humble set up but very sufficient for a stay on the generator powered island. lights are out by 10pm and the darkness sets in. we did a walk about the island. it did not take too long either - just over an hour and a half and were back to the guesthouses and ready for some crab and grilled fish. the other walk about we did was in town, around the kep national park. it is a steep bicycle climb to get up to the starting point and from there it is about 2-3 hour walk around. beautiful views and vistas - out all along the coast. caves and waterfalls are also other excursions to ponder around in. on our last evening, we dropped in at the only italian owned place for a drink and we were in luck. the restaurant was closing next month so it seemed they were trying to clean out the bar so we had a few free cocktails as well as some lethal concoction that i could only take some sips of. kep is a lovely, lovely place - well appointed with lots to offer.. and those 60s villas, they took my breathe away.

last stop is sihanoukville.
3 hours from kep, i shared a bus seat with the loveliest elderly cambodian woman. we could not converse by spoken word but instead by eyes and her eyes were all knowing. to sit there and just be with her was a joy. it was moments like this, that i have had time and time again on the travels that will be the moments i hold dear to my heart. sihanoukville is a bit rowdy, a bit too lively for my liking but the seaside is stunning with blue waters and soft, sandy beaches. otres beach is the most chill part of town with a relaxed vibe all of its own. really great if that is what you are after. i found another spot right at the end where occheutal beach meets sokha beach and this is where i was held up for a few days of r&r. at night, the longer stretch of the beach comes alive with bars and such, with everything being offered up to you.. there are many, many islands off the coast and may trips to venture on.. we were only able to fit in a few but worthwhile all the same... they are quite pristine and well kept and serving up fresh grilled fish on coals for lunch. i would say, it's a good way to go out of cambodia..

the shadow play was mystical.
from the temple shadows to sky shadows to villa shadows and all else that lies in between...