US trip #2: New York

Welcome to New York! This is our second stop and since we spent up to a week in this magnificent city, you get to see not just the previously promised 10, but 20 photos of New York, handpicked by yours truly.

Wide angle view of the Port of New York – with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground, city of Manhattan New York in the background, and pretty clouds scattered all over the skies to make this a stunning image.

USS Intrepid showcased at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Pier 86, 46th Street West.

Lockheed A-12 displayed on the deck of USS Intrepid. The infamous SR-71 Blackbird was developed off the A-12.

Empire State Building’s main entrance deco.

Fluffy version of King Kong near the entrance of the Empire State Building.

View of Manhattan New York from the observatory deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building.

The Statue of Liberty. To get to the Liberty Island, we walked from our hotel on 52nd Street to Battery Place Park, then catch a ferry across. At the end of the day, we would have covered at least 16km on foot – yes, we walked back too.

View from the pedestal.

Internal view of the double helix stairs connecting the pedestal and the crown. That means quite a bit of work and exercise to get up to the top for a better view. In my opinion, the pedestal view was good enough.

Behind the scene – how columns and pillars of steel support the mega structure.

On our way back, and as part of the 16km walk, we stopped by Lombardi’s Pizza for dinner. Highly rated by food critics and the general public, it does do brilliant pizzas and has beautiful art deco throughout.

One thing in the US – if it says “large”, they mean it. Seriously.

A shot of Central Park’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir with the city skyline in the background.

Belvedere Castle, tucked away in a little corner of Central Park.

Lego store at Rockefeller Plaza.

In case you are wondering why I haven’t shown any photos from Times Square, here are a few shots of the mega billboards, tv screens and what have you at the location.

Next stop – Seattle!

Jun 13 2011

US trip #1: Las Vegas

The long awaited photos from my recent trip to the United States of America are finally here! I have taken about 700 photos throughout the three-week trip. Posting all of them on this site is near impossible, so the idea here is for me to handpick 10 photos from each city I have visited, and here they are…

First stop – Las Vegas.

The view from our room at MGM Grand.

The mini Brooklyn bridge in Vegas.

World of M&M’s on the strip.

Next door to M&M’s is the Coca Cola store.

The gold and glitter of Vegas will not be complete without some designer stores on the main strip. This shot is dedicated to Zoe.

Mini Eiffel at Vegas.

And since we’re at Vegas, why not fly to, over, and into the Grand Canyon? ^^

Our ride, the Eurocopter EC-130.

Back at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. Saw this bird taking off as I walked back to the reception from the chopper.

Next stop – New York!

Jun 12 2011

Newcastle

Quick snaps from my short visit to Newcastle, NSW back in late April 2011 (yes, I am working on the backlog! ^^).

Photos here are taken at Nobbys Breakwater, Newcastle East.

Clouds are great for landscape photography!

Sun setting…

Apr 24 2011

Byron Bay #3

The Byron Bay series is back with a few new photos!

FO Wong and Ci-man joins me on the Easter weekend for a sunrise shot in Byron Bay. Brilliant weather this time, but still very cloudy for a perfect sunrise.

Easily distracted, Wong points his camera into the wrong direction.

The egg yolk just above the horizon!

Ci-man plays model for Wong’s signature shot of the Cape Byron Lighthouse.

The Cape Byron Lighthouse with the pretty sun in the background. If you look closely, you will be able to spot the fading lens flare from the sun to the upper left corner of the photo.

This shot here shows why I prefer to have a bit of clouds in the sky than to having a plain blue sky as the background for sunrise shots.

Mar 27 2011

Musical performance at the Wieliczka salt mine church

Following my previous post about the Wieliczka salt mine in Krakow, this video here was taken inside the salt mine church during a light and sound performance arranged specially by our lovely tour guide.

PS: If you happen to know the title to the music in this video, please let me know by leaving a comment here. Thanks!

Mar 27 2011

Krakow in autumn

Back in October 2010, I visited Krakow for the second time. This autumn trip was much more enjoyable than the one in summer a few months ago. Perhaps 20 years of tropical weather makes the colder weather all of a sudden much more enjoyable!

Krakow is unbelievably, amazingly, extraordinarily beautiful in autumn! Blue skies, cool weather, colourful foliage, falling leaves, cool breeze… all just too perfect for outdoor photography!

There was a lot of rainfall in summer, so I didn’t get the chance to visit the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp on my first Poland trip. The extra bonus of visiting this UNESCO world heritage site in cold weather with chilly wind is that it gets really creepy at some point, and I really did feel the eeriness of the place especially when the tour guide reminded us of what happened in each building. Scary is an understatement. It is hard to imagine how anyone would have survived the camps.

The pics below are taken at Birkenau. In freight terms, I call it the gateway. This is where people’s fate are decided by the SS Doctors. Depending on which track the wagons are directed onto, it meant either life (with hard labour and poor living conditions) or death (gas chambers).

Another eye opening tour I joined was to the Wieliczka salt mine. Overall, it’s very well maintained and the guided tour was worth every zloty (Polish currency ). There are plenty of displays to do the story telling, but it’s so much easier to listen to stories than to read in the dark with the help of a ~~torch~~ mobile phone. Apparently the rock of salt on the right (pic below) is worth feeding an entire village for a month, and salt mine workers are given a bag of salt every time they are allowed to go back to their villages (much like annual leave). So you can imagine how much pride and honour there is to be able to work in the salt mine back in those days!

The little steps of rock on the left are the exact steps miners used to walk up and down the mines carrying heavy machineries or rocks. They were not well lit, and most of the time they were also wet and slippery. Accidents were very common back then. Pic on the right is the walkway purposely built for tourists since the mine was opened to public.

Pic on the left is a shot of the big church inside the salt mine. It was built by 3 different miners over the course of 67 years. Apparently the 3 miners did not know each other. One would build until he leaves the mine, and comes the other and so on. How 3 different sets of brains come together to build something so amazing is beyond our understanding today, which makes me wonder why we have so many meetings these days – pre-meeting meetings, the actual meetings, post-meeting meetings. Clearly the Polish miners must have done something that is not known to mankind today. Pics on the right are ceilings and walls in the mine that are formed by salt rocks.

I have enjoyed both my Krakow trips thoroughly. The city is relatively quiet and above all very safe and peaceful. The people are so kind and nice. They do sometimes see us as aliens, as we are after all foreigners, but even then they are very helpful. Perhaps religion has played a big part in shaping Krakow the way it is today. Oh, did I mention that the old 14th, 15th century churches here are breathtaking?

Krakow, till we meet again, do widzenia!

Feb 4 2011

Hong Kong #2

Hong Kong, like many other Asian cities, is a modern hub struggling to preserve its olden (golden) days’ culture. It wants to move forward in the worldwide rat race of being a world leader in just about anything, but has to be so careful as over-modernisation may risk the younger generations losing grip on its rich culture and history.

Left: Cruising along one of the many elevated highways in Hong Kong.
Right: Extra concrete blocks to remind pedestrians “you should not be here!”. Or is it some sort of publicly available foot massage tool for the overworked citizens?

Public transportation in Hong Kong is simply amazing. Brilliant connectivity and plenty of options to get from A to B. It is a luxury of smaller countries – think Singapore too – where dense population and small area of coverage makes it affordable to implement such an efficient logistical solution.

Left: Tsim Sha Tsui subway.
Right: Bus stop along Nathan Road, Mongkok.

Left: Still on the elevated highway…
Right: Fruit stall/wholesaler (果欄) in Mongkok.

Massive 小籠包 in one of the fashion boutique inside Ocean Terminal (海運大廈) shopping area. Hungry desu neh…

Left: Hong Kong IFC. Taken from the pedestrian bridge connecting the ferry piers (渡輪碼頭) to IFC.
Right: Massive LV and Gucci stores near the infamous Peninsula Hong Kong (半島酒店).

And being Asian, I’m always on the lookout for food.

Hotpot/Steamboat (生鍋/打邊爐) for supper at Mongkok’s 稻香. Small inset on far right is the final product better known as 混醬 made by mixing your favourite ingredients from the tray shown on the left.

Best Japanese Buffet dinner ever at Wanya (碗屋). Nicely tucked away in the New World Tower (新世界大廈) of Central (中環).
Top left: Abalone.
Bottom left: Mixed platter. Prawns, scallops, salmons etc…
Right: Compulsory shot of the table setting. ^^;

楊枝甘露 and mango mocchi of 許留山. HLS (許留山) is a famous dessert joint in Hong Kong.

There is so much more to explore in Hong Kong. I must revisit some time soon, perhaps during the colder season. Thanks again to Cyber and his family for being such wonderful hosts! See you next time!

Jan 26 2011

Macau #2

As promised earlier this year, here’s part 2 of the Macau photos.

Walking along the old streets of Macau. These 3 shots were taken near the infamous Red Market (紅街市).
Top left: Jar of cookies.
Bottom left: Feather duster. Also a popular ‘weapon’ in Asia to handle naughty kids.
Right: This uncle has 2 trolleys for his stall – this one in the foreground is a mobile freezer he claimed to have invented himself about 30 years ago to keep the dessert cold.

A unique landmark – roundabout with a lamp post fitted with 3 lamps. Locally known as 三盞燈 for its physical appearance.

Left: Post Office building in Senado Square.
Right: Senado Square with Mid Autumn decorations.

View from the top of Colina da Guia (東望洋山, a.k.a. 松山).

The Colosseum at Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭).

Spotted this magnificent tree near the Ruins of St Paul (大三巴). Perfect sunset lighting!

The Sands Casino Macao.

New storefronts vs old storefront.

Final shot of the Macau trip, at Fisherman’s Wharf. Sands Macao in the background on left, glowing in purple.

This brings the Macau series to an end, for now. Hope you’ve enjoyed viewing the pics as much as I did taking and processing them. ^^; Look out for my next post – more pics from Hong Kong!

Jan 3 2011

Macau #1

Macau – Hong Kong’s good ol’ neighbour. Homeland of the infamous Portuguese custard tarts (葡撻).

If you ever watched HKTVB’s TV series, this will not be unfamiliar to your eyes.

Our first stop in Macau was The Venetian Macao. Opened in August 2007 and proudly owned by the Las Vegas Sands, this is the world’s 5th largest building by land area. I loved the interior to bits.

Joining the casino is the Grand Canal Shoppes. In here, we have the San Luca canal running in the middle of the mall, separating luxurious boutiques and shops on either sides of the canal and occasionally connected by a few bridges.

Ceiling art in the Grand Canal Shoppes. Very photogenic! ^^;

Gorgeous ceiling art in the casino. This is taken from the platform past the photography restricted area.

Spotted the leaning tower of Pisa somewhere in the mall.

More pics coming soon!

P.S.: One of my first few new year resolution for 2011 is to finish editing photos taken in 2010 and subsequently placed in backlog due to my ever increasing workload. I have set myself a March deadline for this task. Fingers crossed.

Nov 14 2010

Hong Kong #1

Hong Kong, the city that never sleeps. I was there in September for a brief 5 days with my parents. My first visit and I wish it could have been a little longer as the weather wasn’t on our side for almost 2 complete days. Tropical cyclone Fanapi was offcoast but the effects were unbelievably strong (maybe not for the locals, but at least for me they were). First we had a Red rainstorm signal, which was soon followed by a signal no. 3 typhoon warning in a matter of hours.

But anyway…

The first thing that had my attention on approach to Chek Lap Kok Airport is the buildings. Tall buildings everywhere! Then as I got closer to Mongkok, my attention shifted to the fact that there is no single wasted inch in this city. No matter how small the space is, there will be a shop or a stall selling something. Supposed it’s not difficult to imagine when land mass is so precious here – but seeing is believing, and it did amaze me even when I knew it as a fact.

Size matters in Hong Kong. Big companies fight for floorspace – the bigger the store, the more and better the ‘face’, the better the business can be. That’s not it though – the same concept applies to signboards too! Businesses go crazy with the size and brightness of signboards. You can tell by walking the streets that competition is tough, except for signboard makers, I think.

The corner shop in the 2nd pic from left below is apparently the shop that sells the most expensive fish ball noodles in Mongkok. Did not bother trying as there are many other choices – it’s Hong Kong, remember?

The shop in the 2nd pic from right below is usually packed and the queue goes all the way out onto the walkway at peak dining hours. Apparently also one of the very first few noodle houses that started up in Mongkok.

Another unique thing about Hong Kong – there’s people everywhere! On every street. In every corner. The only time the city is less lively is between 3-5am. I can finally appreciate the struggle my HK friends have when they came to Australia. It’s totally opposite to what they’re used to!

More pics of huge signboards and crowded streets. Not forgetting the infamous green top mini van and double decker.

And the night market, which is all over Mongkok every day of the week.

More pics to follow, so stay tuned. ^^;

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