Out of Norm Travels

I had a beautiful evening joining fellow foodies (and alcoholics) on the O'ngo Night Dining Tour organised by O'ngo Food Communications . My guide Amy was new but peppered her tour guiding with little walks around town area and showing us snippets of Korean life such as where to get the dog meat (if you are into such things), customary way of drinking different types of Korean wine (rice wine, filtered rice wine, plum wine and beer with coke and shoju).  We started the evening binge with traditional Korean BBQ with pork pancreas along the back alley of Seoul. That got my attention as i usually eat that with beef or normal parts of the pork. Worth a try and a super Sumptuous start to the tour nevertheless since Amy paired the BBQ meal with beer with coke and shoju which we had to down in 1 gulp. My Hong Kong companion commented that it reminded her of the old 'Tai Pai Dong' or street food stalls in old Hong Kong. Indeed she was spot on for that. 

My quick snap reviews of the things done in my short visit to Seoul - this is part 1 which will cover:  (1) Seoul Airport Transit Tour - 5 hour Seoul Culture Tour This is a literally a hop-skip-jump type of tour in a bus - after you make your way to the transit tour desk, you are gathered to travel to Dongdaemun Design Plaza to get your record shots before heading to Gyeongbokgung ( 경복궁 ), also known as Gyeongbokgung Palace or Gyeongbok Palace , is a royal palace located in Seoul. The name means "Palace" [ Gung ] "Greatly Blessed by Heaven" [ Gyeongbok ]- h ere's some record shots of this transit tour: Dongdaemun Design Plaza Pano of Gyeongbokgung Palace Gyeongbokgung Palace (2) Hanok Stay at WWOOF Guesthouse  A hanok stay came highly recommended by friends familiar with Korea so I took the plunge to get into WWOOF , a Hanok traditional Korean house stay for the 3 nights I was in Seoul. Mind you, it's an e

1. Go during summer season (ends around Sep) if you are unused to the cold like me   2.    Clothing/ Winterwear:  ·        Buy cold winterwear when you reach cos (1) you never know what you lack until you arrive (2) winter wear is generally cheaper than back in the tropics - wind proof, GoreTex, ski pants, sweat proof, jackets with side zips to release too much heat are good, and for longer jackets, get those with double zips so that you can unzip bottom up if you need to have a waist pouch or sit down.  ·        Pack 1 set of overcoat, fleece, 2 pairs of good inner wear (Woolite or wool preferably not white cos of color transfer), turtle necks or pashmina silk scarves to protect your neck/chest area for maximum warmth. If you do come often, a down jacket is great for chic looking warm clothing.  ·        For head, must haves include buff or beanie and woolen hat on top of beanie; Gloves for hands include at least 1 thin lining glove, 1 external glove that is wind

Started on this entry whilst traveling on the Alaska Airlines plane flying away from Fairbanks on my return leg after spending 5 nights at Bettles Lodge , near the Arctic Circle .  Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that I will be adding Arctic Circle to my "have been" places! To think photography was the reason for me spending several nights out in the bitter cold with temperatures that felt like -14 degrees at times. Bettles coldest is -60 I think - there is a sign somewhere. Having my fingers and toes frozen stiff from braving the bitter howling winds and low temperature (alien to someone who lives in the tropics) in the hope of catch lights in my cameras.  It certainly has been a truly amazing and wonderful experience to have bundled myself to shoot the auroras. The trip has been nothing short of spectacular with sighting of the auroras  4 out of the 5 nights spent at the Bettles Lodge, which sits just next to the airfield.  After spending

I was reminded of my long outstanding India blog entry when I was recently faced with the question of "What would be the personality of India through my lens?" That got me thinking....  Out of the thousands of photos taken during that trip, I vividly recalled the spectacular colors of Rajasthan as I traversed her lands from Jaipur  (Pink City of India) ,  Junagarh Fort at Jaisalmer  (built with distinctive Yellowstone of that area),  Jodhpur (The Blue City) with its  impressive Mehrangarh fort,  and its special places like Karni Mata temple (aka Rat Temple where I had my personal up and  close encounter with the small creatures),  Jaisalmer Fort (with its  intricate hand-carved sand stone latticed balconies and archways)  and last but not least, the  Pushkar Camel Fair (one of India’s unique spectacle that  attracts some 300,000 people and up to 20,000 camels, cattle and horses) .  I also had my first taste of Camel milk (full bodied) with coffee and recalled  the warm

Part 2 of the Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival:   Throughout the evening of the day before the actual parade, the floats from all over the district make their way down to the main grouping area - driven by tractors/ trucks giving both locals and tourists many chances to take photos with the floats throughout the night. The main grouping area was arranged along some 4-5 streets  of Ubon Ratchathani with  many many floats lining the streets - I have never seen so many floats up close and personal.  The floats came in many shapes and sizes and can be done using the traditional or block work ways. There were also a few intricately decorated smaller floats gently made out of  palm and banana leaves  hammered into places to form  intricate  3d designs in the shapes of  Nagas  (aka  Deity ) and the Lord  Buddha . 1 massive float stood out from the rest as it was made out of aromatic fragrant soaps. As part of the festivities included  a judging contest (for the best float  - categorised a

One of the most important festivals in the Thai   Calendar and celebrated in a big way at the northern region of   Ubon Ratchathani .  Accessible via air, it took just about 1 hour for me to get away from the Bangkok city set-up to an unforgettable experience of a traditional festival in the thick of things.  I went down to Ubon a day earlier so that I could spend some time to go around town and head to the temples to see the work in progress before seeing all the candles / floats in all their glory. This is my account of Day 1 (day before the Festival).... Imagine you have spent 8 years in apprenticeship and having the honor of creating a 2m-sometimes 4m tall candle sculpture for one of the biggest candle parade of the Buddhist country. This festival celebrates the start of  Buddhist Lent  where the  monks  will mediate for 30 days in the mountains and only to descend from the mountain top at the end of Buddhist lent.  From what I understand, there are a few ways  to construc

Astro or Star gazing is a new genre of photography for me and frankly quite intimidating and foreign territory for a city girl like me.  Stars are something present but unseen in many parts of the little island city due to the vast amounts of light pollution. However, the first impression of astro following a pre trip workshop is how complicated the entire process is with different considerations for the taking a decent photograph.  Naturally, my expectations of getting something decent from my first astro photography trip to mount Bromo is understandably on the low side. What I got out of the trip is definitely more than I expected.  The amazement of seeing the millions of stars clearly for the first time reminded me of the many reasons I took up this amazing art form. It helps when it takes some 4 hours by van to reach Bromo from Surabaya and although it is near to some villages, the level of light pollution is low. Justin our pro was aware of the daunting nature of this gen

Let's put it out there.....I am TERRIFIED of Rats. The mere squeak can drive me far away in another direction. yet I put my fears aside when I was told that we will be visiting a rat temple in India. why? Well, simply for the sake of photography.  The temple is none other than the Hindu temple more commonly known as the Temple of the Rats (aka Karni Mata Hari Temple) in the region of Rajasthan, just outside Bikarner.  It is interesting to find out facts like some 20,000 rats live in this temple. The rats are believed to be holy and allowed to free roam. I was told that if you don't disturb them, they won't disturb you. So I went along with some other brave souls and bared our feet to walk the grounds. I was also trying my best to spot a white rat, believed to be the most holy out of all the thousands of black/ grey rats scurrying around. And I am glad to say that not only I survived the little walk around but also saw some 3 white rats (most auspicious indeed as guide to

After reading a recent article covering Hong Kong Heritage Buildings, I was gladdened to see that Tai O Heritage Hotel was mentioned as one of the Heritage successes of Hong Kong (info from hk-magazine.com ) and also reminded of my trip down this last remaining fishing village of Hong Kong called "Tai O". It was a nice contrast to the bustling metropolitan city of Hong Kong and on the way to the famous Lantau island (where the big Buddha is).  This lovely Heritage hotel was of course a beautiful respite from the extreme heat felt on that sunny July day back in 2012 (reputedly one of the hottest day of that year right before Hong Kong experienced its 1st Hurricane Signal no. 10 since 1999 (BTW it's the highest tropical cyclone warning signal in Hong Kong where an estimated maximum sustained winds of 155 km/hr was recorded near its centre).  For 100 years, the Tai O Police Station served the quiet West Lantau fishing community of Tai O, combating smuggling and piracy