Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Siem Reap, Cambodia (Part 1)

Tags

18-55, 28-80, angkor wat, cambodia, Nikkor, nikon, nikon d70, photography, siem reap, travel

Sunrise At Angkor Wat

I was very lucky to be able to visit Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the infamous Angkor Wat. As usual, i have very limited time and budget so before arrive I did a lot of research. I found a very cheap hotel room (USD25 per day) and the good thing is I can book via email, no need for credit card or down payment. The hotel can also provide private tour, and I book the mid priced one (USD100 one day). I don’t usually take private tour, but I realize there is too much place to visit, I might miss the best spots if I roam around myself.

The tour start very early in the morning, at 5.00 am. After purchased the 3 day pass for USD40 (needed to enter the temples around Siem Reap), we first visit Angkor Wat and waited for the sun to come up. The tour guide find me very good spot so I can take quite nice pictures.

Another Sunrise At Angkor Wat

One thing i notice, the place is very crowded! There were hundred tourist already, even at early morning. One the sun shone, most of them start to roam at the temple building. The tour guide suggested that we just go directly to Angkor Thom, before it become crowded. I’ll feature photos from Angkor Thom on part 2.

So were returned to Angkor Wat at the noon, when most of the tourists take their break. I would say the tour guide plan is very good, made me possible to take pictures without much distraction.

Here are some more photos I took at the Angkor Wat temple:

Bass Relief

Angkor Pathway

Antique Statues

Gear used:
Nikon D70
Nikkor 28-80G, plastic kit lens from film era
Nikkor 18-55G, plastic kit lens from DSLR era
(I feel that the combination of D70 and 28-80 is very magical, there is something very organic about the pictures the produced)

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy it.

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Singapore Photos – Part 2

Tags

d7000, nikon, photography, singapore, temple, travel

Hi whats up? Currently I have *almost* no internet connection, but today I have the chance to stop at shop with free wifi (woohooo,,, bless you wifi free shop!!!!111!!one1)

So because internet is hard for me now, this will be the last part of Singapore Photos. I was planning at least 3 parts, but well, nobody read this blog anyway hahaha.

Singapore is a country with a great culture diversity. You’ll easily find at least one of Chinese, Malay, or Indian culture signature on every corner of the country. On my last visit, I went to Chinatown and took some photographs at Buddha Tooth Relic temple (Chinese culture) and and Sri Mirriaman temple (Indian culture). I did not take any photos of Malay cultural signature simply because I don’t have the chance. So here are some of the photos.

Photographs taken with:
– Nikon D7000
– Nikkor 105mm AF-D Defocus Control
– Tokina 11-16mm ATX-Pro

Singapore Photos – Part 1

Tags

architecture, cityscape, marina, night photography, nikon d7000, photography, singapore, tokina 11-16mm, travel

Marina Bay

Singapore is an aesthetically excellent city. So you can have a lot of good “cityscape” photography, especially at night. It so easy to get decent photos, I ended up overdoing it. So here you’ll find some generic night photography of Singapore.

Marina bay is one of the most popular photo spot there. Being a poor traveler, visiting Marina is a very logical choice for me. Its free to visit (outside of transport cost to get there) and you can hop from one point to another by just walking.

Helix Bridge

Move a bit to get different framing:

No Title

Another good spot is on the Skypark, but it’s not free. Entrance fee is SGD20 and tripod is not allowed. From Skypark, you have a very good view of the city.

View From Skypark (1)

View From Skypark (2)

There are a lot more good spot for night photography. They are too many to mention (read: I’m too lazy to write them) so here some night photographs at some random spot:

Decoration Light

Christmas Decoration

Universal Studio

Photo gears used:

– Nikon D7000
– Tokina 11-16mm
– Nikkor 105mm DC

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Laos (Part 6)

Tags

defocus control, laos, nikkor 105mm, nikon d7000, photography, travel

Flower Vendor

In this last installment of Laos “adventure” I’ll feature some photos with human as subject.

Lao’s people commonly are nice and friendly. Many does not mind being photographed and I encounter some that will automatically posing once I pointed my lens at them. Not much story I can gather from the photo subjects are most of them can’t speak English.

Prayers

These two monks chatting while waiting for the sunset at Mekong riverside:

Chat

This old man doing his evening walk, also at Mekong riverside:

Enjoy The Sun

Souvenir vendor at Pha That Luang:

Ten Dollar Shirt

Tuk-tuk driver having a nap:

Power Nap

Girls at full moon festival:

Smile For The Camera

A shameless poor tourist trying to looks cool but he just fooling himself actually:

Who is this loser? He does not belong here!

Gears used:

– Nikon D7000
– Nikkor 105mm f/2 DC

(except for the last one, I can’t remember what gear used)

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Laos (Part 5)

Tags

d7000, laos, nature, nikkor 50mm, nikon, photography, tokina 11-16mm, travel, u2 song

Sunset Over A Village

Okay, now I move away the focus to a remove place in Laos. Up to November 2011, I was working at a place far away from Laos capital and had the chance to witness a very beautiful place that soon will disappear. In the last 12 years, my job has sent me to many beautiful remote places almost unknown to outside world and they all have one similarities: they are in progress of destruction in the name of economy. And this place is no exception. I believe not more that 50 years, those mountains will be gone. Sentimental aside, that might be for greater good for the locals.

Anyway, I will not name the village because it will give away too much information of a company I worked with at that time. But this area is nearby Xaixomboune Special Area (conflict zone). Safety is not guaranteed, but majority of the local are nice people.

Hot September Morning

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Laos (Part 4)

Tags

18-55, buddha park, camera, d70, giant statue, laos, nikon, photography, reclining buddha, travel, xiang khuang

Reclining Buddha At Wat Xiang Khuang

Some half an hour ride from Vientiane (Lao’s capital), there is a bizarre park called “Wat Xiang Khuang” , translates as Buddha Park, which hosts too many to count statues combining Buddhism and Hinduism style.

Its very cheap to get there but the tricky one is to get back. I got there by hiring a car with the driver for around USD20 round trip (direct negotiation with the driver at bus terminal). Might sounds expensive, but the good thing is the driver wait patiently for three hours while I’m busy taking pictures at the park. Be careful when arranging transportation, because there is another place called “Xieng Khouang” which is also a beautiful place but takes 7 hours ride to get there.

Anyway, you have to pay to get inside the park. I forgot exactly how much is the entrance fee, but its around USD 2 and “camera fee” is around 50cents.

The Bizarre Statues

Like I mentioned above, the statues looks bizarre to me. I will not explain the history behind the design, wikipedia has a good articles on it.

Among the statues, there is one very big reclining Buddha one (the very first picture in above) which length approximately 40 meters. Without a doubt, it become tourist favorite. The are some photographers around this giant statue that offers to get you photographed for less than 2 bucks and you’ll have a rather nice 4R print.

Can You See Me?

I managed to get one of the photographer the take a photo of me using my D70. The man had never touch DSLR before, but the result turns out quite ok, aside from a serious horizon level error, lol.

One thing I noticed, you can have some funny pictures if you have someone to take your photo. So I suggest you to get your friend to accompany you, and you both will have some photos to smile about in future. Too bad I was traveling alone.

Here are some more picture from the park.

Snake God ?

No tripod with me, camera must lay on the ground.

Pardon My Narcissism, I’m Just A Poor Traveler

I have’t acquired my wide lens at that that time, so this is the widest I can get:

View From The Top Of The Pumpkins Thingy

Camera gear used:

– A seriously beaten and almost dead Nikon D70 (bent CF pin and some sensor issues)
– Nikkor 18-55G (well I’m surprised about this, I reckon I used 28-80G and the contrast is typical to that particular lens but the exif suggest otherwise)

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Laos (Part 3)

Tags

105mm, asia, d7000, defocus control, laos, nikon, nikon d70, patuxay, photography, travel, vientiane

Patuxay

In the heart of Vientiane city, there is one really stand out monument. The name is Patuxay which translate to victory gate. The monument is located inside a quite big and nice park (Patuxay Park.) The park sometimes get a bit too crowded especially on weekend evening. So one needs to be a little bit patient to get a scene with less people in the frame.

Patuxay, view from the most popular spot

There is no entrance fee to get inside the park, but there is a small entrance fee if you want to go inside the monument building. The monument is closed at 6.00PM but the park stays open all the time.
Once you enters the monument, you have the access to use the stairways to go to the roof top. You can view a good portion of Vientiane city from there.

View From Patuxay Roof Top

For a poor traveler/photographer wannabe like me, Patuxay park is a really nice place to visit. Its almost free and got some nice views that can turn to some decent photographs.

Here some more photo I took at Patuxay (the photos looks shoft in some browsers, but if you click on it, you can view the bigger and sharper photo):

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Laos (Part 2)

Tags

105mm, 50mm, d7000, defocus control, laos, Mekong, Nikkor, nikon, souvenir, sunset, vientiane

Mekong Sunset

Still at Vientiane. In the evening, Mekong riverside is a popular place for the locals to gathers. The river itself is not that great, however if the sky is not cloudy then nice sunset view is to be expected.

The street along side Mekong is crowded with souvenir vendors. Most of them sells fabric products (t-shirt and hand bag are the most common things here). Some also offers quite nice but generic paintings of Laos views.

Souvenir Vendors

And of course the food vendors are there as well. The foods are somewhat strange to me, but some of them looks delicious. I had one not so nice experience with local food taste, so I tend to just order what I have know to be good for me (which is grass noodle with vegetable soup).

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Laos (Part 1)

Tags

105mm, 11-16mm, buddha, d7000, laos, nikon, photography, temples, tokina, vientiane

Morning Vientiane!

Not a real adventure, actually. I had to travel back and forth to Laos – Vientiane, to be exact – for the past two years for some reasons. Because of the tight schedule, I haven’t got the luxury of being in the right place at the right time to take photos. That is too bad, because Laos is such a nice place for photography.

I usually arrive at Vientiane around 9.00pm and at that time the scenes are not so attractive (except for street photography, which I don’t really like). So I use to start wandering around from 7.00am to 11.am before I continue my journey.

Pha That Luang

Pha That Luang is one of the most visited landmark at Vientiane, not only by foreigner, but also by domestics. It best visited morning, when the gold color really shine. It also less crowded at the morning.

Tour Group at Pha That Luang

Adventure Of A Poor Traveler : Ha Noi Tour (Part 2)

Tags

18-55, camera, d5000, ha noi, nikon, old quarter, photography, street photography, traditional market, travel, vietnam

Vietnamese Wedding

One thing I noticed of Old Quarter, It’s such a great place for street photography.

I don’t really fancy street photography. Well, as a matter of fact, I hate most of modern street photography – they’re more like “take a photo of anything you can find on the street”.  Only small percentage of photos under street photography category on Flickr that I found having a strong story. That being said, I also don’t have the talent to capture a good one.

However, the scenes were too good to ignore so I try to capture some of those moments. Not really successful I would say.

I took this one while wandering aimlessly. Wow, its is so generic haha, sepia effect is really overdone. Better photographer will capture that moment better. If you are into this kind of scene, you’ll be happy at Old Quarter.

Old Quarter – Your Average Street Photography Wannabe, Contains All The Cliche

The hotel I was staying at is located somewhat in the middle of a morning market. I was surprised when I walk outside and find all these people doing transaction. I was not expecting that because when I arrive for the first time, the place is so empty (well it was almost midnight).

At The Market