Archive for 'Travels'
More photos of Europe from the hubby
Posted on November 9, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
Y has started his own photo blog for all the pictures he took in Europe. There will be more to come but for now, he’s got the London ones up - now those are what I call really nice photos. Check them out here:
http://postcardpictures.wordpress.com
Stay tuned also for his photos of Paris and Rome, he’s got some really great ones.
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Snapshots from Paris and Rome
Posted on November 7, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
I didn’t realise until after I’d arrived in Rome how few pictures I’d taken in Paris. The City of Light is called that for a reason - for me, it’s because it’s far more beautiful by night. Unfortunately, that also means my point-and-shoot simply couldn’t cut it, especially when it came to capturing all those stunning, light-bathed monuments. So I only took 19 photographs in all. Preposterous, I know.
Rome was a slightly different story, but by then I was already used to not snapping away on a camera. I find that when I’m busy taking photos, I fail to truly absorb the beauty and magnificence of what is before me because I’m so busy concentrating on the small square of my camera viewfinder. No matter how good the camera, it simply cannot capture the awesomeness, my awe, of those buildings and places, and so I determined instead to spend more time breathing in the sights and sounds. If I couldn’t adequately capture something in megapixels, then I wanted to remember my wonder as I beheld it, and there were many moments of those.
For the rest of my photos from Paris and Rome, go here.
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London in pictures
Posted on November 3, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
This is why we were in London - Y’s sister, Liwan, graduated from Imperial College. It was a beautful day, all sunshine and blue skies. Liwan, pictured here with her boyfriend, really looks like Y!
While there, we did all the touristy things, like visit Tower Bridge. This is one of my favourite London snaps:
We also took in some not-so-well-known sights, like this shrine in Harrods dedicated to the late Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed:
Of course, a fair bit of our time was spent doing things like this:
Y has tons more photos than I do, but for the rest of my point-and-shoot collection of London, go here.
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Back.
Posted on November 2, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
Where do you start when you have seen and experienced so much? How do you begin after being away for two whole weeks? I have pages and pages of scribbled notes, some scrawled under the stars of an Italian night sky while waiting for Y to take yet another photo of the Colosseum, but for now, it is all I can do to go through my pictures, gather my thoughts and wonder how is it that Rome feels so far away when we were eating honey and fig and pomegranate gelato by the Fontana Di Trevi less than two days ago.
Everywhere we went, I watched elderly tourists take photographs, watched old beggar women hold up pictures of the Pope in pitiful hope that it would jerk just one more heartstring, and I could not help but think how utterly fortunate I am that I was travelling foreign lands, that I could take a 12-hour flight across oceans, at just 26, while others emptied bank accounts for a trip of a lifetime and yet others begged for a dollar that could see them through another day.
I watched as the crowds, myself included, averted our eyes as we scurried past so we would not have to see the homeless and feel guilty for not helping. If one out of every ten people gave just ten cents, the beggars would have been able to eat for a day. Y says I cannot help everybody, which is true; surely there must be hundreds more for every beggar we came across, millions more surviving in poverty around the world. But I believe in helping those that I can. I only wish I could have given every single one of them something.
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Off to Europe
Posted on October 17, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
I’m off to Europe for the first time in my life. Be back on the 1 November. Till then, it’ll just be a camera, my Moleskine, a couple of black pens and me. Can’t wait.
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Mulu, Sarawak
Posted on April 25, 2008, by soph, under Celebrities, Travels.
I never thought I’d be able to walk some 7 to 10km, half of it in pouring rain, get back, clean up, put on four inch heels and really dress up for the evening (for me, that means two coats of mascara), then get up before 7 the next morning to climb 200 steps and do some more walking. It’s practically a weight-loss expedition. But it was so totally worth it. Mulu is stunning.
The Mulu Canopy Skywalk is 480m long and the longest tree-based walkway in the world. It hangs 15m to 20m above ground and only two people are allowed to get on any one section (ie. between trees) at a time.
Some places get a bit wobbly, which only adds to the fun.
You can’t really tell, but I’m dripping wet because it had been raining. It was the first of four sometimes-really-heavy showers that afternoon. The rainforest was living up to its name.
The procession making our way into Deer Cave. This is the world’s largest natural rock chamber, said to be able to contain 40 Boeing 747s side by side. We’re told that every day at 5pm, millions of bats fly out of the cave to look for food. Too bad we didn’t get to witness that famous spectacle, because - you guessed - it was absolutely pouring.
This is called the Abraham Lincoln. I have no pics of the interior of the cave because it was too dark and my point-and-shoot wasn’t good enough.
Taking the longboat out. Definitely one of my favourite bits of the trip. I love water more than I do rocks and forests.
The view along Sungai Melinau. This is around 8.34am and you can still see the mist over the mountaintops.
Limestone cliffs. Plenty of these in Mulu.
Climbing all those stairs to see this was worth it. Clearwater Cave is really spectacular.
You’re looking at part of Asia’s longest cave system, measuring some 107km at last count.
The water here is so clear you can see right to the bottom. I wished I’d brought my swimmers.
Meet three very wet but happy campers. That’s Doc, the boss, and his lovely wife, Nene. Check out the size of that tree.
And of course, the reason we were even in Mulu in the first place - HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco. All in all, His Highness was a pretty good sport, walking all that way in the rain (but with an umbrella) and even performing a cultural dance during dinner. I came away liking the guy, even though I didn’t so much as shake his hand. Royal protocol and media don’t exactly mix.
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Love, Tioman
Posted on March 26, 2008, by soph, under Sports, Travels.
The ferry that took us from Mersing to Tioman. The 4pm ferry back never arrived; we finally managed to squeeze onto another one at about 5.30pm.
Putting toothpaste onto our masks. It’s supposed to prevent them from fogging up but spitting works just as well.
All suited up and almost ready to go.
One before the dive.
Getting into gear - oxygen tanks and all.
One of six dive sites we visited.
Lunch at… I don’t remember where.
The dive centre. The corridor to the left leads to the dorms and the bathroom (note singular form). That’s me hiding behind Y.
Our first night dive. It was raining, super cold and freaking awesome!
One for the album.
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missing Phuket scuba diving
Posted on March 5, 2008, by soph, under Sports, Travels.
Patong is all about shops and tourists. We couldn’t even find ourselves an authentic Thai meal because everything is steak, seafood and non-spicy Asian!
Heaps of tourists rent motorbikes to get around Phuket. Check out the “petrol stations” - the gas “pumps” look like IV drips for Frankenstein!
The boat we went diving with. It was top notch!
At the err… head(?) of the boat. I forget what the proper term is. I love the sun.
One of our dive sites. The two black dots are divers on the surface, the dark spots are coral reefs.
Karon beach. There are, quite literally, miles and miles of deckchairs in Phuket.
Y and I, while waiting for our burgers by the beach.
Look who we found during a sunset stroll along Kata beach! No, we didn’t take him home.
For all 49 of our Phuket photos, go here.
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One more pic from Cambodia - thanks to G
Posted on January 19, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
I like this pic - for soppy reasons. These kids were trying to persuade me to buy their wares for “one dollar”, and the little girl on the left demonstrated much entrepreneurial potential when she changed her tune from “three for one dollar” to “four from one dollar” after about three minutes of trailing me.
The boy in the baseball cap gave up pretty quick, but the other boy with the recorder and the girl stuck on for ages! The boy was pretty cute too, he played the recorder to show me how it worked, and I was this close to reaching for my purse to give these kids a dollar each - just for being so cute and for trying so hard.
Then I remembered, Y had all the small notes.
These were the only two kids I seriously considered buying stuff from, firstly because they’d followed me so far off their beat there were no other kids around so no one would be disappointed, secondly because they were really persistent and cute, thirdly because I could always have given away the stuff I bought as souvenirs. Too bad Y had the foresight to only give me big notes. If there’s one regret I have from Cambodia, it’d be not buying from these two (forget the boy in the baseball cap).
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Siem Reap, Cambodia (Part V)
Posted on January 10, 2008, by soph, under Travels.
Who?
The boys…
and I.
There was this really cool half hour after Angkor Wat where we tried to climb a massive tree (and got seriously put to shame by the local kids) and actually managed to get up there without killing each other or ourselves, but only Y and G have the pics for that one. That was a cool one, but.
