Kyoto confection

I love candies from Kyoto, Japan. Here is a painting composed of all the candies from Kyoto. I painted them and then I ate them. Click on the picture to open a larger version, so you can read some of the names of the candies. Some of the other ones has only Japanese text, so I need to work on the translation before I can name them all.

Indonesian Batik

Luxury Hotels

Taman Harum Cottages, Ubud, Bali


Hotel Salak, the Heritage in Bogor.
Puncak Pass Resort in Cianjur.


Savoy Homann Hotel in Bandung.Grand Mecure Yogyakarta.
Hotel Manohara in Borobudur, Yogyakarta.

Vancouver garden

This is in my own garden in Vancouver, Canada. Akebia quinata, originally from China and Japan.
I have Akebia quinata purple flower, and white flower. Then I also have Akebia trifoliata.

2008 new travel dates

March 27-31 Bogor, Kebun Raya Bogor


April 1-4 Puncak Pass, Kebun Raya Cibodas, Gede Pangrango National Park

April 4-5 Bandung


April 5-9 Yogyakarta, Borobudur, Taman Sari


April 9-11 Bali, Ubud


April 12-15 Kyoto


April 16-18 Tokyo

Mucuna and Mucuna sempervirens

This huge vine was bearing flowers hanging down.

More Hardy Aristolochia

This is Aristolochia westlandii! It is hardy in Kyoto, Japan. This is the only temperate kind that has big flowers.

Aristolochia peruviana

Aristolochia tricaudata

Aristolochia cauliflora

Aristolochia brasiliensis

Tropical Highland Plants

This is the tropical highland plant house in the glasshouse complex. A lot of light but relatively cool and very high humidity.

Aristolochia grandiflora in detail

This is the inside of the flower and my botanical illustration of it.

Aristolochia grandiflora

Native to Brazil, in tropical condition only, Aristolochia grandiflora has huge flowers, the tail is about 1 to 2 m in length.

Alsomitra macrocarpa

This climber from the cucumber family is native to Java. In Nov it will bear big balloon-like fruits with an opening on the bottom to release the falling seeds that will be transported by the wind to far away places.

Thunbergia mysorensis

This vine is from Bengal. It is beautiful. The picture showed the best way to grow it, so the flowers hang down at eye level.

Kyoto Botanical Garden

Kyoto Botanical Garden is in Kyoto, Japan. Everytime I visit Japan, I will go there. Let's explore the glasshouse first in detail.

Title Illustrations

I got a request to see the title illustrations, actually the concept is about the cabinet of curiosity. The front is all alive and the back is all dead.

Mystery vine

I still don't know what this is. The leaves look like passiflora's but the flowers look like cucumber's.

Aristolochia gigantea

One of my favourites. I can stay there for hours just to paint the flower!

Mucuna gigantea and Argyrea mollis

I love this greenish white mucuna. It makes a good complimentary plant to Argyrea mollis.

Afgekia mahidolae

This vine of the peas family is native to Thailand.

Petraeovitex bambusitrum

This is called the Nong Nooch Vine. Beautiful.

international landscape

There are different garden styles in Nong Nooch. The thai people are so creative. Every place in this huge garden makes a great picture. You can stay there the whole day and easily snap away a few hundreds of photos!

Orchid Garden

Most people start with the orchid garden and then the elephant show. So here are the two attractions.