by any other name, it won't be as cute

Olympus Evolt DSLR shutter count information

2008-07-26T17:52:00.006+08:00

What is the shutter count of an Olympus Evolt camera?

In case you want to buy 2nd hand piece, you might want to check if the seller has been a machine gunner off-loading a DSLR camera with almost exhaustive shutter count to you. This is a very important risk to consider - together with the price, cost of repair - just-in-case and warranty availability, since each camera model has their max shutter count reliability information. It is like buying a car and seeing the pedometer/odometer. This is one way of measuring how honest the seller is, when he/she said that it is infrequently used, while the shutter count is very high, for a piece he/she declared 1 year old for example.

Olympus E-1 / E-500 DSLR
1) power on
2) open CF door
3) press both "->" & "OK" together.
4) press shutter once, follow by up, dwn, left, right
5) repeat step 4 again..reading on "R" is the shutter counts

Olympus E-3 / E-510 DSLR
1) power on
2) open CF door
3) press both "menu" & "ok" together.
4) press shutter once, follow by up, dwn, left, right
5) repeat step 4 again..reading on "R" is the shutter counts

Note: The steps for E-3 is definitely confirmed as I have one and I have tried it.

Now what is a high shutter count? For a 1 year old camera, if the shutter count is less than 10,000 that is quite low. This is just over 27 pictures per day, or slightly more than once every hour.

If the shutter count is < 50,000 that is pretty high for 1 year old camera.
This is very close to 137 images per day, or about 5-6 images per hour.

If the shutter count is near 100,000 for a one year old camera, that is like the camera took over 270 pictures per day. That is about 11 pictures per hour. It is up to you which number you consider high, but to me for 1 year old camera, 100,000 shutter count is extremely high up there.

A mid range DSLR usually has about 50,000 max shutter count, but it does not mean the camera will break apart after 50,000 shutter count. It just means the is enough wear and tear, and at any time, the shutter (a very important part of DSLR) will fail.

A pro-range DSLR usually has about 150,000 or more max shutter count.

Die-Cast Tachikoma: GoodSmileCompany v.s. ArtStorm

2008-07-13T17:16:00.014+08:00

I am an avid tachikoma collector and I have collected lots of it.
Recently a new breed has been manufactured, which is die cast tachikoma.
I have been aching to get a die cast version because you can play with them longer and they are more durable than the plastic ones.

So there is two die cast tachikoma so far.
First is the forever delaying release manufacturer, GoodSmileCompany (GSC), which choose Tachikoma from Stand Alone Complex (SAC), the first TV series.
Second is the ArtStorm, which has striked a deal with Fewture to sculpt Tachikoma from Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig (SAC 2nd Gig), the second TV series.

Not knowing which to choose, I end up buying both. One good thing of ever delaying is that even though I know about it rather late, I still manage to get one piece. For ArtStorm, I can only get the so called Naked Version, which is a silver coloured alternative of the oringally blue coloured Tachikoma.

So how do they stack up?

Note: click on the small picture if you want to see larger picture.

First lets compare the boxes: GSC box is smaller (left).

Front view

Front/Top view

Bottom view (ArtStorm is pretty minimalistic in its approach)

Side and bottom

Enough with the packaging, lets unwrap and see the content.

Tada...
GSC SAC original colour Tachikoma on the left and ArtStorm SAC 2nd Gig "naked colour" Tachikoma on the right. Sorry I forgot to attach the side weapon of GSC tachikoma, fret not, it is in the box.

Lets see more.
Rear view and all the openings. GSC version wins hands down, in terms of revealing internal details, and it comes with Major Motoko Kusanagi, which is articulated!

She reached to her Seburo M-5 handgun

After being persuaded to dismount the tachikoma, she grudgingly stand beside it.
You can see the cockpit, and the steering wheel (not so clear). There is two hole where the legs goes in.

Tachikoma obliged to give a more revealing shot much to the disapproval of Motoko.
You can see on the top, there is the night vision goggle or something like that, or may be that is the visual display which the "pilot" of the tachikoma see outside from tachikoma visual sensors.

ArtStorm only have one opening on top. That is the top hatch where the pilot can pop his/her head out, but not the entire body. So it is not like tank.

GSC tachikoma is much more articulated and both arm can be extended. The claw fingers are fully articulated at the joints as well. ArtStorm tachikoma on the other hand only allow the right one to be extended while the left one can only open the claws, as you can see from the picture below.

These are the remaining extra pieces which comes with GSC Tachikoma. They are so nice , they even throw in those senior citizen decal.

As you can see above, and in previous shots, Makoto figure is articulated despite a small size, and it comes with standard hands, and 2 alternatives (holding Seburo M-5 handgun and Seburo C-26 assault gun).

Other 4 pieces showing prominently are the 4 alternative tachikoma feet (I guess you can call it feet, or paw if you must) with moving wheels. The body comes with the retracted wheel, which is good for display.

ArtStorm on the other hand is pretty un-exciting. No mini figure, and nothing much extra, only the choice of replacing the main weapon between machine gun vs grenade launcher (with cover and safety pin).

Now lets see what ArtStorm give you with this version, by sacrificing so much in terms of interior details... Tada... the battery compartment. You cannot be any more hentai for tachikoma, first it is "naked" and upside down (can be considered as a pansu shot of tachikoma), and here showing an opened hole where you insert 2 AAA batteries.

What does those batteries do? No, it will not vibrate, only red LED lights will turn on when I put the cover and screw it back in. Yes, it is screw in and out to open/close the cover, and there is no switch!

Here it is in almost total darkness (my bedroom with door open)

And here it is in total darkness (my bedroom with door closed - yep I sleep in total darkness, muahahaha). Looks a bit eerie.

But wait... to try to entice buyer more, ArtStorm decide not to tell you with a notice on the box (so you guys who has thrown away the box, curse them and cry) is that at the bottom of the styrofoam, they included a printed cloth banner.

If you want to know how it looks like (sorry I got no photo of the banner, too lazy to do that), you can go to http://artstorm.co.jp/ex_gokin_tachikoma_nakedcolor.htm , and click on the first orange colour link (with text: タチコマの特製手拭い付!!!). It was a javascript popup link where I could not right click and copy the image location or see the html source-code. Seesh, they are overly protective. It is white in colour with dark blue prints, about 1 meter in width (or less) and about 40 cm in height (roughly - I got no measuring tool).

So far I have mentioned many of the goodness of GSC version of tachikoma, but it has one drawbacks. If you notice, GSC tachikoma look shorter (torso height from ground).

In fact, it has same lenght (practically same scale) despite GSC is SAC version and ArtStorm is SAC 2nd GIG version design. If you look more closely, it is a bit droopy. Yep, the joints is more loose, and it is harder to pose than ArtStorm version.

The hatch at the back also has a problem. It is made of plastic instead of die cast like the body and legs. Well ArtStorm version is also made of plastic, but GSC version is initially packed separately which you have to join with the body, and when I tried to separate it back, instead of coming off like it was, it took the connector which was initially at the body with it. It is not a visible problem, but re-packing it could be a problem.

Another problem is personal. I like the design of Tachikoma from SAC 2nd GIG better than SAC, the feet or paw is much better designed and more realistic (as it is looks like it is made of rubber or synthetic rubber) than metal.

So what is the conclusion? GSC is my choice for play. ArtStorm for display.

If you only want to buy one, I say buy the GSC version if you can get a hand on one. Just advance warning: it is damn hard to get.

Good Smile Company webpage for its DieCast Tachikoma
Normal/Original colour version, blue colour SAC Tachikoma

ArtStorm webpage for its DieCast Tachikoma:
Normal/Original colour version, blue colour SAC 2nd GIG Tachikoma
Naked colour version SAC 2nd GIG Tachikoma

I bought both at LaTendo Shop. Unfortunately they have run out of stock as they are only bringing from Japan for their regular customers who has ordered ahead. However do look around, may be you find something you like. :-)

Boooo Singtel Boooooo, Booooo Sony Booooooo

2008-06-20T22:18:00.002+08:00

Well it started with my contact with Singtel Mio package ended and I received an SMS from Singtel that I have $100 free credit for new handset (meaning I got to choose any handset they offer, and for up to $100, it is free for me - being cheapo of course I would choose anything less than $100), plus free 3 month of MIO (3 month of free phonebill) in exchange of signing up with them for 24 months.

OK not a bad deal I guess, plus I am lazy to wait for another contractor to come to my flat to install stuff when I switch provider.

So I went to ComCenter (Singtel HQ) and got myself a new FREE sony ericsson K770i to upgrade my old K610i (I get to keep it, or in my case sell it off to recover some residual money of the old equipment although I do not think it will fecth any amount higher than $30.00).

I know the problem will start when the girl who handle my re-contract rush thru and told me that this is my new phone, with my existing SIM card transfered, and she turned-on the bluetooth and handed me over my old phone. She said I can transfer all the phonebook entries using bluetooth. Since I went there on lunch time, I have to rush back to office and I just left without trying.

That is my fault. It turns out that SONY being a smart ass decide that their phone will not show anything other than DEMO without SIM card inserted. And I happen to have just one SIM card.

The new phone also misbehave the same way. VERY SMART sony, NOT!

DUH!

OK so Sony Ericcson has something called PC Suite. I have never used it successfully in synchronising my phonebook, so I guess the new version that comes with K770i will probably fix the bug the old version that comes with K610i.

NOT!

Second DUH!

That CD is actually a free coaster given by Sony. It just drop halfway every time I tried to synch my phonebook on my old K619i with it.

So much for Sony software. I guess I will not going to trust any software that comes with any Sony hardware. It failed me 2x. The hardware is OK, it is the software that is really really a waste of time.

So that necessitate a second trip to ComCenter (Singtel HQ). After queueing endlessly the guy who spoke to me told me he cannot help me as they do not provide phonebook transfer service. One solution he offered is to save the phonebook entry into SIM card, which I do not want as I know Sony Ericsson phonebook entry is much more sophisticated than SIM card and I will have duplicate entry when I have saved more than one number e.g.: office number, mobilephone number and email from a contact. I might even miss the email entry, so I do not want that. So much for a service. Small phone shop does that (help me transfer using bluetooth). I guess Singtel is too big to care.

I do now even bother going to Sony (NO) service center at Wisma Atria (Orchard) because I know a lot of people are complaining with the kind of service the staff gives there.

Third DUH!

So a worldwide corporation Sony failed me. And the big fish in tiny aquarium Singtel failed me.

May be I should try google. Restraining myself from entering any expletives with my search query, I stumble upon a freeware called MyPhoneExplorer. I downloaded and installed this app recommended by others to replace Sony PC [Un]Suit[able].

First try failed, giving me OBEX problem. So I tried exploring menu to find if there is any setting I need to do. So there is "File" -> "Options F2" form Menubar. There I could set which COM port and which baud rate the connection between my PC and my mobile phone should talk to each other, etc and there is a buttton "Search for Device". My K610i connects at COM3 port (yours may be different, may be the same, who knows, this is arcane USB magic).

Man! This button should be right there in front rather than being buried in a dialog box. I click the button and the software runs and tested my phone, adjust everything form me and done. Click "OK" button.

Then before you do anything else, you want to again go thru "File" -> "Connect F1" from Menu. That will initiate connection with the mobile phone, and both my PC and old K610i are connected happily ever after.

Time to synch. Click the blue round button with 2 arrows going round. Then I can now Browse. I can see my contact (address book), my SMS (received, sent and even draft), my appointments, tasks, even the calls I have received, missed or called. Now it is time to do some exporting (before that, select the ones you want and then right click -> Export/Import -> Export Selected Messages... and a dialog box popped up for me to specify the filename. I exported my SMSes into different files, just in case it simply overwrites the files and not append. The same goes with Appointments, Task, but shame, I cannot save my Notes. There is add new note button but no browsing of notes or exporting notes. Oh well this is freeware, and so far so good, cannot complain too much.

I cannot be bothered with caller number logs, so I don't do anything about that. And now time to do something about the address book. Again select the entries that I want to transfer (shame there is no select all), right click -> Export/Import -> Export Selected Entries... and a dialog popped up for me to enter the filename. Save.

Backing up is done. Disconnect the USB connection, unplug the K60i, turn it off, transfer the SIM card to K770i, turn it on, and plug it to the PC (with its own USB cable, different from K660i).

The same ritual is done, you first need to make it "Search for Device", then "Connect". My K770i connects at COM7 port (yours may be different, may be the same, who knows, this is arcane USB magic).

Being a new phone, when I browsed, there is nothing in Phonebook (OK I lied, there are some new numbers copied over via SIM card which comes standard like Police, Ambulance, Fireman, Customer Hotline (aka Customer Abuse number), Toto, 4D, Horoscope, etc), no SMS etc.

Now I need to copy from the files into the new phone. I can import address book entries directly, on Address Book entries, right click -> Export/Import -> Import... a dialog popped up and I can then select the file which I have just created earlier for address book. Twiddle the thumb for some seconds and they are there! My old address book! In my new phone (well, almost). Not so fast, not all done yet. For SMS apparently I first need to click on archive link on the left, and import my old SMS from files to archive, and then from archieve, I can directly copy to my phone (weird). I would have tought it will first go from archieve to proper category such as received, sent, or draft, and then I need to synch. Anyway, never mind, so long they are there. So after each category sent to phone, I need to delete the archieve entry and import the next category.

Then not so fast, for the address book I need to Synch, so click on the blue round button and wait for a few seconds. Then all are done. Disconnect USB, disconnect phone and test it. All my phonebook entries selected are there, all my old SMSes selected are there in my new phone. The same goes for Appointments and Task. I just need to retype the few notes that I have and that's it (in fact I do not retype via phone, I add new notes using MyPhoneExplorer and it adds it in directly into the phone via the program - no synch necessary again).

All in all, this nifty MyPhoneExplorer is a life saver, especially if you are transferring the obvious from one Sony Ericsson mobile phone to another. It might not work for all models. It might not work for other brand of mobile phone. UI choices may not be very consistent but it does 90% of what I want and does it well.

So, BOOOOOOOO sony ericsson, for that PC [Un]Suit[able].
BOOOOOOOOOO Singtel, for that so called top class service. I bet if I am from other phone company and I insist that my phonebook entries are transferred before I sign the document, the guy will do it for me.

Real Seiyuu v.s. Digitized Seiyuu, Round2: Lucky Start Opening Song

2008-04-30T22:36:00.003+08:00

The one sung by digitial seiyuu Miku Hatsune

The real one sung by seiyuu

Winner: Still the real seiyuu.

Real Seiyuu v.s. Digitized Seiyuu: Hare Hare Yukai. Fight!

2008-04-22T21:10:00.006+08:00

Thanks to blazin who posted the nyan nyan song on figurakuen, I end up browsing youtube for 3 hours and hearing all kind of music, and these two video strikes me as a very good comparison or human vs computer.

If you might have known already, in Japan there is this digitized seiyuu called Volcanoid and the first version is Miku Hatsune which is female voice version, tuned to sing japanese songs, digitally. It is really advance and it has been able to sing some songs really well. It is intended for aspiring song writers who cannot afford to hire really good seiyuu to sing his/her song but would like to showcase his/her composition.

How is that compared to the real seiyuu, I asked. A bit difficult when we do not have the same songs to compare with, but here I found it!

OK if you want to hear the real version, watch this one.
This is performed at a concert by the real seiyuu and it is the encore version.

Now compare that with the Volcanoid's Miku Hatsune version, who is a digitized vocal recording of a seiyuu, which is used by a computer program to create an artificial seiyuu.

My verdict is, Volcanoid is sure very advance already but it still has quite some time before it catches up with the real seiyuu. However, it probably only need a couple of year to sound really nice.

Anyway, if you want to listen to all of almost all of the seiyuu (main characters and minor characters, thanks to ShiningSeraph), who sings Hare Hare Yukai, here are all the versions. Enjoy!

By the way, for Pokemon fan zoom right to the end to watch a different Hare Hare Yukai performed by Pikachu & gang.

Aya Hirano (seiyuu of Haruhi Suzumiya) version:

Yuko Goto (seiyuu of Mikuru Asahina) version, which somehow I like the most (she has that "soft" voice):

Minori Chihara (seiyuu of Yuki Nagato), which I called "Supposedly Robotic But Actually Very Human Sounding" version:

Tomokazu Sugita (seiyuu of Kyon) version, the slow version, or I called "Melanchony of Kyon" version:

Daisuke Ono (seiyuu of Itsuki Koizumi) version:

Yuri Shiratori (seiyuu of Emiri Kimidori) version:

Natsuko Kuwatani (seiyuu of Ryoko Asakura) version:

Yuki Matsuoka (seiyuu of Tsuruya-san) version:

Sayaka Aoki (seiyuu of Kyon's younger sister) version, which I called "Chibi Hare Hare Forced-Kawaii" version:

Update! Hare Hare Yukai Pokemon version! Hahaha. Wait for the surprise ending.

Scratch made Miku Hatsune

2008-04-12T23:43:00.004+08:00

This guys is super crafty and manage to scratch made a small Miku Hatsune (see the scale hint with the SD Card casing towards the end of the video).

The face is a bit odd, but considering it is scratch made, it is really a good effort.
Unfortunately there is not much hint on the material used, but I suspect some are scrap plastic from kits and some clay. The face seems to have clay as a base for the shape and later may be some kind of plastic polymer.

If you do not know who is Miku Hatsune, she is the first installment of Vocaloid, a human voice synthesizer for songs, where the composer only need to provide the lyrics and melody. It is developed by Yamaha Corporation.

You can read more about it on Vocaloid Wikipedia entry

Super Otaku or a shop pretending to be an Otaku

2008-04-12T23:38:00.003+08:00

I found this YouTube video by browsing other blog (http://coeliandjeff.blogspot.com/).

This is so crazy it is unbelievable. Either this is a Otaku Convention where everybody bring their collection and showcase all to take video, or this is a video from a shop.
I suspect more of the latter because normally otaku will put theirs in shelves and not tables.

Anyway, watch this totally amazing display of PVC.
Can you name them all?

The making of a perfect (looking) woman

2008-03-22T13:37:00.005+08:00

See all the processes involved in making the perfect woman.

Unfortunately photoshop cannot be installed into our bodies yet.
The next best thing you can do is to use Dove (hahaha ... the above is dove advertisement).

The next video is more extreme and it has been flagged as inappropriate by some YouTuber, so just confirm your age if you want to see.
There is no sex or violence involved, only extreme photoshop alteration shown to body shape.

Minamike, the 3 sisters

2008-03-21T11:05:00.004+08:00

There seems like a lot of anime with "slice of life" as the theme, and this is another one, and it looks promising.

Introducing Minami-ke, a story about 3 Minami sisters: Haruka, Kana, and Chiaki.

Minami, the level headed elder sister who sometimes behaves like a mother to the two, despite she is a second year student in Senior High School.

Kana, the energy ball of the family whose act defy all logic, is the second sister in the family. She is in second year in Junior High School.

Chiaki, is the resident cynics of the family, who adores Minami and hates Kana. She speaks like an old woman and often make Kana do crazy things just because Kana is so easily manipulated.

I have no idea where their parents are, as it is not shown or explained in the YouTube hosted episode.

See episode 1 of this Anime (fansub) on YouTube.

2008-03-19T23:26:00.002+08:00

This song is worth listening just to wonder how the guys manage to sing without any noticeable pause to breathe...

The cute drawings are from Chocobo (onion head) created by a Taiwanese and hugely popular there (so popular their website is normally down).

3D colour printer from Japan

2008-03-08T00:17:00.002+08:00

English advertisement video (printing a 3D CAD model)

Japanese advertisement video (printing a Melon???)

Imagine this in the hand of otaku.

Custom made roller coaster, and it is a toy!

2007-12-21T21:55:00.000+08:00

Cool roller coaster made using toy construction.

Holiday Travel Memory: 9 Days Guizhou & Henan Natural Wonder Tour

2007-11-14T23:22:00.000+08:00

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan. 27 October to 5 November 2007.

The tour is organised by ASA Holidays, Singapore.

This is mostly a tour featuring natural wonders, so be prepared to walk. Long walk.

There are plenty of waterfalls and hills in Guizhou. More cliffs and hills in Henan.

More pictures and stories about this holiday travel covered in daily accounts.

Here are the highlights:

A sleeping dog in old town TianXing

A view behind the waterfall curtain in Huangguoshu. I knocked my head on one of the rock around this place.

A bird? A bee? It should be insect as birds don't have antenna.

Tour guide ladies at hill temple in Guizhou

A beautiful dancer in forgotten where

The bridge at Beipan River

And the cliffs of Beipan River

A young boy carrying his baby brother near Beipan River Bridge

The crowd outside shopping center (SunPlaza) in Shenzhen

The landscape, yes, ... some watefalls, hills and some cliffs

Not to mention this one that looks like, well, yeah you are thinking what I am thinking: how much cotton is required to make a bra for these pair.

For those who are eager to see the photo, which I will upload periodically, without having to wait for the holiday blog to be updated, you can see them (without meaningful caption) at my picasaweb public gallery

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 10 of 9

2007-11-05T14:52:00.000+08:00

Uh.. what do I mean by day 10 of 9?

Oh well, you see, it seems like late is the in thing. Not the fault of Silkair this time. It seems like what is written in the brochure differ slightly from reality.

After flying from Shuzhou, w finally landed at Changi Airport, Singapore at 2 AM. That is officially counted as day 10 as it crossed midnight.

No photo of course. Crashed to bed almost immediately.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 9 of 9

2007-11-04T23:40:00.000+08:00

TODO: insert more photo

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 9: Shenzhen

We left the hotel. It was a nice hotel, very nice by China's standard, and possibly nicest room of the entire trip. Well, Shenzhen is a bigger city anyway, so if it is not nice it would be embarassing.

After breakfast, I went down and took some street shots.

There is a bank around the corner near our hotel, and this is the guard. Wow. Is that a shotgun? And body armour?

A beggar near traffic light.

Bicyclist are probably a dying breed in China, not that they are involved in a lot of deadly traffic accident but more due to lifestyle changes. More people want to appear wealthy, and owning a car is a status symbol. So here are some pictures of the cyclist.

Um... what!?! No bicycle!?!

That sign is near the miniature world park in ShenZhen, the place where you can find the all of these in one place:
The Golden Bridge (we went pass it, so this has to be taken from inside a moving bus, good thing it was sunny)

A mixed style building

I am terribly sorry, the lamp post decided that it needs to be in the picture.

On the left side of the park, there is something that looks like the pillars of the The Phanteon build by the Romans or The Parthenon build by the Greeks with Eiffel Tower behind it. You can go up the stairs and reached a ticketing booth to go inside. We did not go up.

And here is the view of the right side of the park, where you find the jumble of different style buildings.

And this is the Pyramid of Subway Station, in front of the park.

And at the center of the foyer, there are nice water fountain, and if you notice in the background, there is a KFC outlet.

Along the fence you can also marvel at the copy of the famous statues from left to right, possibly statue from the Ancient Greek (I am not sure the name, it is a female statue, so may be Venus), followed by David (by Michael Angelo, from Italy), two Asian looking bronze statue (may be Indian and Tibetan), a statue of Pharaoh from Egypt, and faintly on the rightmost looks like a Persian or Babylonian style statue. Going downhill next to the man-made waterfall (or water staircase) are two tribal looking statue which is either South East Asian origin or Pacific Islander origin.

This is the bigger photo of the statue which I have no clear idea from where (may be ancient greek origin). Behind as you can see, the mini Eiffel Tower has been decked with some Christmas looking ornament, and possibly at night it doubles up as a Christmas tree lookalike.

From there we were taken to shop for silk produce, and again some more tea. Then we are taken to another exhibition center where we can roam around freely, and I did.

I took more street shots, at nearby the wet market. And here some example of good environmental practice done in China.
Recycle your plastic mineral water bottle. Carry them, lots of them, with bicycle.

Use LNG or LPG. They have less pollution. Deliver them by bicycle. If you want one, call that number:

Amazing skill. He carried 4 tubes at one go, and look at the road condition.

And climbing uphill.

And I saw a pink bicycle! Apology for the excitement, it is just that pink bicycles are quite rare, if you notice.

At noon, we were taken to this shopping center to spend the rest of the time, eat lunch at own expense, till it was close to dinner time.

Look at the crowd.

It is prohibited to take picture in the shopping mall and in the supermarket, but I have a swivel LCD on my Olympus E-330 so I can still take candid shots without alarming the people around me. Hehe.

Yeah, wrong white balance. I will fix it later.

This is taken from inside a lift in another shopping mall.

This old man is dead, but he still watches over the people.

We went some more time around the city and was shown the sky scraper of Shenzhen.
This is Shun Hing Square (the one in the middle, greenish colour) tallest completed building in Shenzhen.

After going around by bus in the city, it is time for dinner. The arranged dinner (with additional payment) is at a restaurant serving goose meal. I opted out and eat food sold at the stalls near supermarket and my mum scour the supermarket for bargains to bring back home.

We then transported to the airport, and that is the almost the end of our journey.

Oh by the way, in the plane, the same incident happened again. Want food fast? Order special food. That is the tips for flying with Silkair.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 8 of 9

2007-11-03T23:48:00.000+08:00

TODO: insert more photo

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 7: Hunan province attractions: ThienMengShan (part of JiangJiaJie), travel to Shenzhen.

That day for a free and easy day, so the local tour guides have some chance to make some money by charging us RMB 400 (SG$80) per person to go to ThienMengShan. For your information, if you go to JiangJiaJie and you do not visit ThienMengShan, it is like missing the Forbidden City when you go to Beijing. This itinerary is supposed to be in the main tour package but the local tour operator obviously has made some clever arrangement. A big disappointed with the Singapore tour operator side for missing out on this detail.

We left the hotel and passed thru. Instead of travelling to the same gate again, that day we were going to another direction.

Another big disappointment for me in the morning. Remember above I mentioned that we paid extra? After rushing, we found out that we have to stop and visit a knife shop. What a #@#$@ important about German technology brought by a Taiwanese, and making an investment in JiangJiaJie. I paid for extra and they are wasting the golden-hour sunshine sitting and listen to a sales presentation about ... gasp... knife. Kitchen knife.

I protested violently. The local guide told my mum to tell me that they are not going to get any money if not all the people from the bus went in. Well tough luck. I was not going to pity them and let them earn that money after I spent extra. I can be understanding and patient if it was an arranged itinerary, but not this time.

I refused to go inside, and I stayed out and took some street shots.

After that stupid knife shopping stop, we rushed to the actual destination.
First we need to take a cable car. This is the miniature they have inside the cable car building. The black hole in the mountain is called the ThienMengDong.

Here is a shot of the peak (backlit) from the cablecar.

Can you see the hole now? And that thing that looks like some castle wall, is not. It is a road, an extremely winding road to go up tho the hole.

Here is what I mean.

I have no idea if it is a freak of nature or it has been arranged. That particular peak we passed is the only one that was covered with red coloured leaves vegetation in autumn. The rest is simply dull green or yellow, unlike the cliffs at HwangShan.

We have to stop half way, and take a bus. A special bus with dare-devil driver, whose skill is so special they have a special license. You don't want a suicidal driver driving you on this road.

After the 99-turns (not recommended by people suffering from motion-sickness), we finally reached the "foot" of ThienMengDong. We then have to climb 999 steps to reach the hole on the wall of the mountain.

Well, if you want to see how wide is the wall of the mountain, nothing beats a shot from below. It is probably just about 100 meters wide.

I huffed and puffed with a DSLR camera and a videocam climbing the 999 stairs. And found out that some local drama serial was shot up there. The girl in pink jacket is the lead actress. I have no idea how famous she is.

And you can spend RMB10 for these two nice young ladies to model for you. Not much, but there are so many people going up there taking photo they are making quite a bit of money within 1 day I guess, by local Chinese earning standard, just by looking pretty and climb up/down the 999 steps once a day (A good exercise to keep you slim).

Going down was more scary, because it was very steep.
Finally when we almost reached the bottom, where vertigo was over, I met these two cute children having their snack on the staircase.

Isn't she cute. Not camera shy at all.

From there we then make our way to Shenzhen, stopping at ... to have dinner.
It was at some fancy restaurant built to look like a mini castle, complete with fake city wall and castle garden. In the main hall, you can eat and see some dance entertainment. Guess where we ate? Not there. Fortunately, I managed to sneak into the main hall and took some pictures. Here they are:

I like this one best. Isn't she very sweet?

Same girl different costume.

Different girl, more mature looking or may be it is just her facial expression.

That is all for day 8. We stayed overnight at Shenzhen. We arrived really late and it was raining so no chance for night shopping.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 7 of 9

2007-11-02T13:37:00.000+08:00

TODO: insert more photo

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 7: Hunan province attractions: YenJiaJie (part of JiangJiaJie)

We left the hotel and passed thru the same gate again, going to another direction.
We spend the entire day at YenJiaJie

Here is an man-made lake. I guess they need some source of electricity to power the town and all the tourism related industry. Coal power electric plant would not be good, so they build a dam.
All these shot are taken from inside a moving bus on a winding road. Apologies for the blurriness and the tilt.

There is another main grouse on that day. We had to take a mini tram ride. Goodness me. It vibrates so much it is so difficult to take photo. Damn. If I know, I would have walked and it is not that far either. Nothing is explained inside by the guide. And guess what, they left a couple behind (from bus B) on this spot. Lucky for the couple, they manage to catch our bus (bus A).

Old man carrying his grandchild.

The three sisters. The leftmost is pregnant. No I am not joking, the recorded tape on the stupid vibrating electric mini-train mentioned that, translated by my mum.

View in the valley inside.

Then we were taken to another place, this one is higher up and we can look down to marvel at the cliffs. Vertigo inducing.

That is all for day 7. We stayed overnight at JiangJiaJie and again we went out to nearby shops at night.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 6 of 9

2007-11-01T13:21:00.000+08:00

TODO: insert more photo

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 6: Hunan province attractions: JingYenGu ancient town, YenJiaJie (part of JiangJiaJie)

We left AngShun and made our way to JingYenGu ancient town. I was a disappointed because according to the itinerary, we are supposed to visit FengHuang ancient town again in the morning.
May be the next time I should travel by a smaller tour operator which will be hopefully less chaotic because they have less people travelling as tour group.

Here are some shots taken along the way.
This one is really stylish pedestrian overhead bridge. Really nice and colourful.

You will only notice the fast growth when you see rows of mobile cranes parked.

And here is our toilet break, at petrol station. After all guys are done, the ladies use the gents too.

A lucky fruit seller stopped at the petrol station and we bought about half of his fruits.

Teapot/cup factory? I am glad we did not stop.

We entered a few tunnels, this is one of them

And another

We spent some time at JingYenGu ancient town. Again I am annoyed because from the bus I realize that if I go down on the other side of the river, I could take some pictures of the ancient town by the river with old wooden planks etc and the morning sun will make a good contrast.
Unfortunately it was not meant to be. We we dropped on the opposite side of the river where the ancient town is located.

Here are some shot from the ancient town.
Bee wax, and apparently, preserved bees too.

Salted fish and shrimps.

My mum pretending to sell the preserved pork bellies

One uncle from our tour model for this wine shop.

And I make my mum do the same too.

Ginger Sweet Candies being made, fresh from the candy shop.

Brass and non-brass pipes. Opium pipes probably.

Portable baby crib?

Some tourist screams "Tofu mien" and run to this shop. I guess it is popular.

Old man outside a VCD/DVD/CD shop.

Red HOT dried chili. Yum yum.

Then it was time to go for lunch. After lunch we went to YenJiaJie.

The attraction is located in a valley surrounded by magnificent towering cliffs.

Yeah I cheated. This one use gradual blue tint filter. Otherwise the sky will looked flat and overexposed.

There is a river near the path into the forest.

And here are some stuff you can buy if you don't mind it being sold at roadside:
Some things that looked like wild gingseng

and whatever these thing is... which I have no idea if it is some kind of edible goods or ornaments.

And for RMB 2 (yep that is right, SG 40 cents) you can see this water salamander, which is pretty large. It is more than 1 meter long, and supposedly only live in caves. However in the name of conservation, this guy need to earn some tourist money. At least he is kept in clean water.

Outside, there were plenty of eateries and there are many Korean and Japanese tourist.

That is all for day 6. We stayed overnight at JiangJiaJie and went out to nearby shops at night.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 5 of 9

2007-10-31T23:16:00.000+08:00

TODO: Insert more photo

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 5: Shopping, travel from Guiyang, Guizhou province to FengHuang, Hunan province

We first visited a tea and herbal shop, then went to a traditional craft shop selling Guizhou embroidery, traditional clothing, and jade and crystal ornaments.

This is the sample tea served to us. The background is the brand and the name of the tea shop.

Here is a photo of the god of wealth at one corner of the craft shop.

And this is the mythical animal which is believed to help in attracting and retaining wealth. I guess it worked for the shop that sells them, if you believe in that.

For the ladies, and for the gentlemen to avoid.

Sleep in style with this jade head pillow. Fortunately for my bank account, I prefer mine soft, regular pillow.

Noooo... not another waterfall.

And if you like it more natural, this crystal may be for you.

Or if you prefer it to be processed (carved) then this may be it? Still no?

I like this one the best, very local. But I resist the call of the cash register, so I took a photo only.

Later we visited a Baoshutang outlet, which was famous (some people consider notorius) for selling Baufuling, the medicine which was made from golden centipede plus other ingredients to treat burns and scalding.

In my first trip in China (1998 - Guiling/Beijing/Xian) I remembered it was a guy who demonstrated by scalding his hand holding a burning iron chains. After applying Baofuling and waited for 10 minutes or so, he can clap his hand and we can see that there is no scaliding injuries on his hand.
In my second last trip in China (2005 - ChengDu/JiuZhaiGuo/HwangLong) I remembered it was a young lady who demonstrated the same thing. So they have upped the stake. May be that was a response to a skeptical audience who made a remark about men's hand have thicker skin? I have no idea but I do not want to see that demonstration again.

To our reliefs, there was no more demonstration of holding hot burning chains by the shop attendant.

We went for lunch and served Beijing GaoYa (Beijing Roast Duck). It was delicious.
Sorry there is no photo. I was busy eating.

After lunch we shopped for some fruits from enterprising locals selling their mandarin oranges and persimons to tourist who had lunch at restaurants in the city.

Just 5 minutes after we board the bus, our Singapore tour guide lady asked the bus to go back to the restaurant because she left her jacket there. She was lucky that she can still find her jacket.

Then the rest of the trip was a boring bus ride, where most of us catch up with our sleep. I was really bored as I cannot sleep in bus. My only excitement is when we came across these two chimneys that looks like those of nuclear reactors. However, I was puzzled why it is so close to the highway and residential area. I mean this is not Springfield (The Simpson), so it could not be a nuclear reactor. So what is it? Please let me know if you know, by leaving a comment below.

Along the way almost reaching FengHuang, we were trapped in a traffic jam where vehicles are queueing to buy petrol.
Anyway, the best story of that incident is the tour group having sit in the bus too long and drank a bit too much liquid, would like to have a toilet break. Unfortunately there is no public toilet nearby.
It was dark and the nearest covered place without much vegetation (for the fear of snake and other insect) is a shed where broken down trucks are being repaired. So armed with torchlight we made a pilgrimage there and take turn to relief ourself.
After the relief, the traffic start moving slightly. It took about 90 minutes for us to clear the jam. I am not sure if the local tour guides called police to manage the traffic, because I saw some policemen directing traffic because practically there is only 1 lane open due to the queue to buy petrol which is about 1 km long.

We then hurried for dinner, and then rushed to FengHuang. It was closing time already. In fact, most shops except a few are open. Most that are open are bar and karaoke kind, which we were not interested in.
Here are some night shots I manage to take.

Finally, we then went to the hotel in AngShun to recuperate and recharge our batteries (not the picture above). In fact, this hotel is the worst hotel we ever stayed during the entire travel. The bathroom leaked, the air conditioner dripped, and the bathroom looked like half renovated. But we were dog tired, and slept anyway, despite the grumble.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 4 of 9

2007-10-30T22:08:00.000+08:00

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 4: BuYi tribe dance performance, WangFong lake (10 Thousands peak lakes), DuPhoThang waterfall and a visit to a night market.

We stayed not at a usual hotel this time. It is more of a resort style. The lights are dim and it is difficult to read your room number pasted on the door.
I woke up and take a picture of a mosquito like insect on the wall outside my room.

The hotel has only 2 floors and is surrounded by gardens and pools. It is a shame we stayed only for 1 night in this hotel.

Guizhou is well known for its rocky lands, and here is an example of large, beautiful in its own, natural rock, unearthed and turn into a monumental art piece near the entrace of the hotel.

Talking about this rocks, in fact, many buildings in Guizhou has this kind of rocks as ornaments, and along the way traveling here and there we went pass quarry and some shops selling these rocks, that comes in many sizes. Here is the relatively larger one.

The smaller ones are usually found next to a bonsai collections.

Anyway after breakfast, we left the hotel and ready for more traveling.

This was the so called free and easy day, well ... mostly, where optional tour was being offered. Our local (Chinese) tour leader, Yuan Yuan put on her maximum charm and manage to get most of us agree to part SGD$80 or RMB400 per person for 3 additional itineraries: BuYi tribe dance troupee performance in the morning, a short cruise around WangFong lake (10 Thousands peak lakes) plus lunch of especially cooked fish with a special green chili grown in Guizhou, and a visit to a night market.
The was only one planned itinerary, DuPhoThang waterfall to cover afternoon travel time.

So here we were, at the entrance of an old family house of BuYi tribe.
I am not sure if the colourful flags are part of their culture or that is simply a decoration.

As you can see, most of the tour group members are senior citizen, which is a surprise as this trip requires a lot of walking and going up/down staircases.

First we are greeted by cute and cuddly puppies.

After playing with them, we were then ushered into a dimly lit room of a wooden house where the dance performance began. Similar to Miao tribe, BuYi tribe is also known for their singing ability. You will be able to listen to them when I have time to upload the video to YouTube, for now I can only offer these photos.

The dance below depicted the traditional courtship method where during festivals a group of young women will barter songs with a group of young men. When a lady is interested to a particular man, she will throw a decorated red pouch, and when the man reciprocates the initiation, he will catch the red pouch.

The dance below demonstrate how the women folded their traditional head dress which is made from a piece of long cloth.

Men of BuYi tribe has special dance in traditional celebration to scare evil spirits. Probably they will scare off more kids.

This musician is particularly fond of his picture to be taken. He constantly smiled and probably the most photogenic of all.

While this old man, possibly the senior of the dance troupe, does not want to smile at all.

Buyi tribes is also known for their ability to make music using a leaf.

And with that we bid farewell to the dance troupe, while some other members hanged a banner on the roadside, beside their home.

We then made our way to WangFong lake.

Yuan Yuan is in the picture (bottom right, wearing orange sweater.

Here are some shots around the lake.

There is no shot of the fish. It was over in a minute. It was HOT, and I do mean hot as I am quite a chili eater, but very yummy too.

We said good bye to WangFong lake and head to DuPhoThang waterfall.

Along the way I took quite interesting photo of the villages and villagers but I have no time to post them yet. However this photo is a representative of them:

Finally we reached DuPhoThang waterfall. It was almost dusk, so there is quite heavy editing done on this photo.

There are plenty of water fowls such as mandarin ducks and black swans as well as herons feeding in the river. I will post their picture later.

After dinner, we then make our way to the night market. It was drizzling and the night market was not that great at all. The only highlight was a long queue for rice crackers (BiPan) which was made from a mixture of rice, nuts, sesame seeds (black and white) and caramels. Locals queued up for it and we followed the crowd. No regrets on that. It was hot from the oven and really yummy.

I took this photo of the shutter of a shop after it is closed.

Thats all for day 4.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 3 of 9

2007-10-29T23:00:00.000+08:00

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 3: Beipan River & Bridge / Xuanrufong hills / Maling valley / Wangfongling hills

We woke up early, and after breakfast started a long bus ride to Beipan River.

The Beipan river is set deep in the valley and local government has build a suspension bridge due to the width of the bridge required.

The wind is strong and cold. We stopped and cross the bridge on foot, not due to safety reason but we just want to take a look and marvel at the steep cliff of Beipan river.

After than we went to look for Xuanrufong hills. The pair of hills looks like breasts complete with nipples. Everybody giggles and take plenty of pictures there. The locals believed that the water from the hills helped their crops to grow better and produce better harvest.

After lunch we went straight to Maling valley. Again our legs are put to a test. It is a deep valley, possibly as deep as Beipan river valley but not as wide. In fact, to cross the valley the local government simply build a concrete arch bridge.
This photo was taken from the bottom of the valley near the river, so before reaching here we have to go down hundreds of steps of staircases.

Here is the old bridge which has broken. Imagine earlier days before the new bridge was build the locals has to walk down the cliffs on one side, cross the bridge and walk up the cliffs on the other side to cross.

As you can see the abundance of water, even in autumn, cause a mini waterfall to form at the foot of one side of the new bridge.

Maling valley has numerous waterfalls and possibly in spring/summer water trickles on the whole cliff because it is all covered with ferns and moss and other climbing vegetations.

You can go to the other side of the bridge by crossing via suspension bridges build for tourist like this couple but we do not have the time to explore further.

Furthermore, the other side is more wet as well. I preferred to stay dry so that I can take pictures.

So here are more pictures of the valley (of the side we were walking) and its numerous waterfalls.

Ah, our final destination, the lift which will bring us from the bottom of the cliff to the top. Thank goodness we have technology.

However, before reaching to the lift, we had to go behind a waterfall.
Here is the entrance.

And when inside, I have a chance to take this picture from one of the "window".

And at the exit after climbing down a few steps, I took this picture.

I paid RMB 30 for the privilege of not having to climb up the stairs. Well you still have to climb up a few steps to the lift door.

We then head to Wangfongling hills. This is the second main attraction of Guizhou.

There are thousands of hills rising on the flatland. It is comparable to Guilin. However in Guilin the hills are rising around the rivers, whereas Guizhou is hills on flatland.

The town folks of Wangfongling hills are especially proud this year because they have a chance to play host to President Hui Jin Dao in Chinese New Year in 2007.

Here are some shots of the hills. Almost all of them has unique names but there are so many that I lost track very fast.
This was one stop near a viewing pavilion and the locals believes that the 6 peaks behind bestow them luck.

This small hill is called The General, despite its tiny size compared to surrounding hills. However, probably despite its size, it stands up grandly and thus the title.

This is called the fish hill. I was on a moving car so the aiming is not so good.
As you can see it looked like a humping carp, with the tail at the center of the photo and the humping back on the right of the photo.

I was a bit upset because that day was cloudy. It would have been great if it is sunny and it will be best if we started off at Wangfongling hills in the morning rather than leave it as the last destination of the day.
My only conciliation are these shots of our tour guide ladies in traditional clothing posing with my mum:

And finally, while it is almost dark, among the flowers surrounding the car park where our bus is parked, I notice there is something flying around the flowers. It was oblivious to the presence of human and it busily flew from one flower to the next, gathering nectars. First I thought it was a humming bird, but this is a tad smaller, and after analyzing the picture on a larger computer screen, I came to a conclusion that this is an insect. I just don't know the name so if you do, please let me know.

We head back to hotel to rest our tired legs and recharge our batteries (after more that 2 dozen of rapid flashing trying to photograph an insect).

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 2 of 9

2007-10-28T23:10:00.000+08:00

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 2: Guiyang / Huangguoshu waterfall / Tianxingqiao Stone Forest Scenic Area

We woke up early and started queueing for breakfast. This is China. Lots of people. Come late and you get table scraps for in-hotel breakfast.
We then travelled to Huangguoshu waterfall. Along the way we stop for toilets and I took some photo near the market there.

From there we first visited a temple above a hill (not listed in ASA brochure).
Thien Chong Zhi Thien (Temple Between Skies) is located outside Guiyang along the way to Huangguoshu waterfall.
The forest on the hill is nicely preserved and quite beautiful.

Locals tied red charms on branches of trees and wishes good luck.

Here are the shots around the temple compound:

Or course the beautiful flowers and tour leaders are captured too:

From there we went to an ancient town named Tian Long. It was the base of a general Wu San Gui from the end of Ming Dynasty who rebel again the Ching Dynasty (the last dynasty of Imperial China).

The town folks make a living from making and selling wood carvings handicraft and silver craft, and some embroidery.

Here are some shots of the ancient town:

I also took the picture of this sleeping dog there. This breed is called Pekingese and it is one of the local breed in China.

We watched a shot show of cultural performance from the town dance troupe depicting the staple story of romance of The Three Kingdoms.

The mask worn by the dancer is very similar to the wooden masks you find in some parts of bali.
Here is the picture of some wooden masks sold in the shops in Tian Long ancient town.

This little girl helped her grandparents to sell roasted melon and sunflower seeds. She is very smart for her age and she can already count cash and hand over correct change.

This is an old man who just passed by.

And this is a street-side fortune teller who called for customers to come.

The next attraction of the day were Tianxingqiao Stone Forest and Huangguoshu waterfall. There was a lot of walking.

We first visited the source of the waterfall which is some kind of pool. There is nothing that spectacular there.

Here are some photo:

We crossed a natural bridge stone arch bridge, which key stone (the large stone in the middle) has some pattern which looks like a lion's head.

Here is a closer shot of the bridge's key stone

The forest are well preserved and I took a shot of the sun shining through the leaves.

Further downstream the Baishui river (white water river) becomes more rapid, and we came to the first waterfall.

Then some more walking thru the Tianxingqiao Stone Forest...

And a cable car ride above the river...

And this is a photo take from the cable car.

Then we have to travel by bus to reach the main attraction: Huangguoshu waterfall.
Still there were a lot of walking. If you like trekking then is good for you.

Here are some photo:

We were taken to walk in the natural cave behind the waterfall. This is walkway to the left-side entrance to the cave. It was wet due to the drizzle from the wind blowing at the waterfall. Lucky for me I brought a long the jumbo ziploc bags to keep my camera relatively dry.

And here is one shot behind the water curtain. I knocked my head at the low ceiling around there.

And here is the right-side exit of the cave.

Some more walking and you can see the waterfall from the valley. It is more spectacular here as you really see the size of Huangguoshu waterfall, the largest in Asia.

We crossed the river via a suspension bridge and then went up on possibly the longest escalator in China, which building is shown here.

That concludes day 2 of 9 day trip.

China holiday: Guizhou & Henan, Day 1 of 9

2007-10-27T23:14:00.000+08:00

I went to china for a tour holiday and travel within Guizhou and Hunan, mainly visiting the scenic hills and waterfalls of Guizhou and going to Zhangjiajie in Hunan.

Here are the highlights of day 1, flying from Singapore to Guiyang.

In fact this should not be counted as day one as we did not do any touring at all. Only flying and taken a bus ride to hotel. The flight was scheduled at 6:35 pm.
There is no direct flight yet established between Singapore and Guiyang and thus we took a chartered flight using Silkair.

The flight was 're-timed', a new word to call 'delayed', by about 2 hours. By any other name, it still sucks. One bad event turn to another. Airline meals for those who did not arrange for special meals arrived late. Why? Because about 50% of the passengers asked for special meal. Next time I know how to get in-flight meals fast: ORDER SPECIAL FOOD. Not only that, the air stewardess offered drinks to those who asked for special meals first. So those who did not ordered special meals ate only after all who ordered special meals. At 9 PM.

Silkair unwound me the wrong way. Even if that was a chartered flight, I did not expect service become that bad. Arrival at Guiyang airport is smooth, baggage arrived fast as we are the last flight in the city, arriving at 11 pm. The poor local tour guides must be bored waiting for us.

The final strain is late arrival in the hotel where no porter on duty. They have all gone home. Not a good start at all.

Owl seems to like football (soccer for some)

2007-06-10T19:16:00.000+08:00

I received an email from wildbirdsingapore@yahoogroups.com, with a unique link. This one must be shared, even for non-birdwatchers (I am a wannabe only. :P)

Check it out!

An owl visited a qualifying match between Finland and Belgium at Helsinki Olympic Stadium, 6 June 2007. The game was suspended for eight minutes.

The owl flew from one goal post to another, and finally allow the game to continue after landing behind one of the cameraman.

What is the number of this plumber?

2007-04-08T13:11:00.000+08:00

At basement, Raffles City, Singapore, there is a jewelry shop named mio with this really cute adv.

I don't mind if my plumber look like that, especially with the jewelry he takes out from the sink and his hot assistant. :P

So, do anybody know the number of this plumber, or rather, his assistant?

MacDonalds Careers Image Upgrade

2007-04-08T12:51:00.000+08:00

In America working at MacDonald's is considered at the lower end of the glamorous career. To snip that image at the bud, at least in Singapore, MacDonald's has launched a new career at MacDonalds advertisement. Look at these posters at City Hall MRT.

Especially attractive is this ad. I am wondering at which outlet she is working, and if that outlet are popular with the boys. Cute girl, huh? :D

And the rest are below.

Police working hard

2007-04-07T13:22:00.000+08:00

It is quite rare to see police around in Singapore, especially when they are making an arrest. I manage to take a snap from far far away.

I have no idea for what offence the guy in brown t-shirt is arrested for, but he co-operate and got handcuffed easily, without any struggle at all.

It is just amazing. I marvel at their efficiency.

Traffic Chaos at Upper Serangoon Road

2007-04-05T20:32:00.000+08:00

The traffic is appaling in the morning at Upper Serangoon Road. So bad, some driver decided to break the rule and use the bus lane.

So, traffice police, please use this photo as proof if you want to issue these driver a ticket. Date and time of the offence is 5 April 2007, 8:23 AM.

At Disaster Recovery site

2007-04-02T21:24:00.000+08:00

My office expanded too fast, it has outgrown its capacity. So meanwhile they re-arrange the cubicles, we have to move to some "industrial zone" site where we have our Disaster Recovery facility. It is quite inaccessible, with very few amenities in terms of Food and Beverage and shopping. Well, our office cannot do anything about the shopping, but it can do something about the food.

Here is the picture of fruit basket we have every morning on weekdays.

And other than the catered food, which is mostly indian vegetarian dishes, we also have Bratwurst Sandwitches. Our office must have given them quite a lot of business, they decided to lend us one of their industrial grade sandwitch warmer.

I have been there since early Feb 2007, and we will be back in original address on 4th week April 2007. Another 3 weeks and we will be back to the civilisation, but I will miss the free food.

A really useless Sony Ericcson Customer Support

2007-03-26T21:07:00.000+08:00

After a long delay (11 days) Sony Ericcson Customer Center comes back with a solution. YES! Finally,... but is is for a wrong phone model. I would like to extract out the addressbook entries from my old phone, model is T290i. My new phone is K610i. The given link in the mail is for T610 model.

I am wondering if these people are concentrating while they are working.

By the way, I have found a solution myself. Here is the link.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Sony Ericsson Call Center.

With regards to your inquiry,
Thank you for your patience towards the matter, as such we have to direct you to the following page to download the synchronization drivers

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=sg&lc=en&ver=4000&template=ps1_1_3_1&zone=ps&lm=ps1&pid=10055

Kindly download the software under the synchronization segment

Thank you and very sorry for the very long wait

Best regards,
Andy zeng
Sony Ericsson Call Center

If we can be of further assistance, please email to us at questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com

For the latest news and further product information,kindly visit our website at www.sonyericsson.com

For software downloads and user guides,kindly visit our website at www.sonyericsson.com/support

For content downloads, kindly visit our website at www.sonyericsson.com/fun.

Question:
Email:
To: questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com
From: [my email address]
Subject: Re: Case : 70867368
Hi,
My problem is transferring address book!

Please read my original email attached below carefully
and make sure solution offered is suitable.

I did all the steps and here is what I meant by image
editors only:

==============================================
Software downloads

Software for your T290i is available in the following
categories: Imaging . Click a link below to see
details and installation instructions for the
software.

Imaging

Organise and edit your pictures. Make them ready to
use in picture messages, themes and more.
Adobe® Photoshop® Album Starter Edition 3.0
Sony Ericsson Image Editor 2.11.6b
Sony Ericsson MMS Home Studio 1.1.0.380c
==============================================

--- questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com wrote:

---------------------------------

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Sony Ericsson Call Center.

With regards to your inquiry,
Kindly do download the necessary software off our
website to transfer your contacts from your T290i.

Proceed to the sony ericsson page
www.sonyericsson.com

Select singapore
Select Support
Select your phone
Select Software downloads

Thank you for your inquiry

Best regards,
Andy zeng
Sony Ericsson Call Center

If we can be of further assistance, please email to us
at questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com

For the latest news and further product
information,kindly visit our website at
www.sonyericsson.com

For software downloads and user guides,kindly visit
our website at www.sonyericsson.com/support

For content downloads, kindly visit our website at
www.sonyericsson.com/fun.

Question:
Email:
To: questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com
From: [my email address]
Subject: Phones
Product: K610i

Opinion: Hi, I would like to transfer phonebook
entries from T290i to K610i, but the supplied software
from K610i cannot synch phonebook with T290i (there is
no synch software in CD for T290i - only photo
editors). Phonebook entries to transfer is from phone
to phone and not from sim card.
Country: Singapore
[Personal detail undisclosed]
City / Region: Singapore
Agree Legal Terms: Yes.
Sign up for enews: No.

Solution to transfer addressbook from Sony Ericcson T290i

2007-03-15T23:36:00.000+08:00

Without useful customer service replies from Sony Ericcson Customer support, I have to end up supporting myself.

I dig up sourceforge.net, found floAt Mobile Agent. There is version 2.0 (stable). Installation has a hitch. Do not install with full installation as links for software downloads from microsoft is no longer correct, and installation will fail. Instead install minimum (or custom - excluding all those extras).

Then luckily I have the data cable for T290i (DCU-11), bought it last time to play with MMS (using sony software).

It takes me 2 nights to figure out (with google help) that to connect correctly, the setup is as follows: Menu=>Tools=>Options:
General tab, choose serial port, Port=whichever com port you are connected to, baud rate=default=9600, RTS=handshake, DTR=handshake. Click OK.

That will connect the phone with floAt's Mobile Agent 2.0

It will think that your phone is T230, but it got all my SMS, address book synch (Menu=>Sync=>Phone Contacts) has a problem. It hangs. Back to google.

It seems like people has been trying to synch with outlook, but outlook is not the only address book, there is this free apps called "Address Book" at Start=>Programs=>Accessories=>Address Book. If you dont have it, whip out your XP installation disk and add that.

Back to floAt's Mobile Agent 2.0, you have to change another setting: Menu=>Tools=>Options: OBEX tab.

Max Packet Size = default = 1024 bytes, and disable IRMC Sync. It will prompt you that it is required for Outlook Sync but you are not going to sync with outlook so who cares!
But make sure you do not disable OBEX. You need obex. Click OK.

Try again: Menu=>Sync=>Phone Contacts, and it is happier, started downloading all my contacs from phone memory to PC, displaying them in floAt's Mobile Agent 2.0 apps. Now select all those contacts, right click, select Export as VCard.
It will ask to save as what name, fret not, call it T290, and it will pre-pend all the VCards files with T290. Click SAVE.

Wham... all are at 'My Document' folder. GREAT.

Close floAt's Mobile Agent 2.0 apps (or window if you insist), on tray bar icon, right click and 'Toggle Disconnect'. Then safely remove hardware -- stop your data cable, unplug that from USB. Then restart the PC to be safe.

Once started, you need to do some work. Open 'My Document' using Windows Explorer, see all those vcard? Sort by type if they got mixed up with other files.

Go to: Start=>Programs=>Accessories=>Address Book to run it.

Select all those v-cards and dump them (drag-and-drop) to Address Book, and assuming you do not have duplicates, it will be seamless. If you have entered more than one number eg: office phone and mobile phone, of the same person, you will have 2 vcard. Just open the one that complains with duplication, select and copy the number. Double click the address book entry from Address Book app, and paste the copied number in appropriate box. Repeat as necessary.

There you have it.
Now I can use floAt to Synch the Windows Address Book, but I want to try Sony Ericcson PC suit.

I hook up my K610i with the PC link cable (this one is supplied with the phone) and connect the USB to PC. It will prompt for you to make a selection and select "Phone" mode.
Click the 'sync manager' button.

My K610i address book is empty, so it is safe for me to do Advance Sync, choosing Overwrite Device (if you have some entries, may be Merge is a better choice but NEVER choose Overwrite PC).

Click button 'Start Synchronisation', and wait until it is finished. Done!

Sony Support? What support?

2007-03-15T23:02:00.000+08:00

Update to this can be found here.

Enclosed is the email conversation I have with Sony Support:

Basically despite me telling them that there is no other software for sychronizing addressbook from my old SonyEriccson T290i mobilephone to my new K610i mobilephone, they slap me a standard reply -- go download software from our website!

grr....

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting Sony Ericsson Call Center.

With regards to your inquiry,
Kindly do download the necessary software off our website to transfer your contacts from your T290i.

Proceed to the sony ericsson page
www.sonyericsson.com

Select singapore
Select Support
Select your phone
Select Software downloads

Thank you for your inquiry

Best regards,
Andy zeng
Sony Ericsson Call Center

If we can be of further assistance, please email to us at questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com

For the latest news and further product information,kindly visit our website at www.sonyericsson.com

For software downloads and user guides,kindly visit our website at www.sonyericsson.com/support

For content downloads, kindly visit our website at www.sonyericsson.com/fun.

Question:
Email:
To: questions.sg@support.sonyericsson.com
From: my-email-address
Subject: Phones
Product: K610i

Opinion: Hi, I would like to transfer phonebook entries from T290i to K610i, but the supplied software from K610i cannot synch phonebook with T290i (there is no synch software in CD for T290i - only photo editors). Phonebook entries to transfer is from phone to phone and not from sim card.
Country: Singapore
Personal details retained

Sony Ericcson Customer Service Center at Wisma Atria, Orchard does not fare better.

The girl there just told me that they could only help if it is both supporting blue tooth. DUH! I don't need a to go to service center, queue up for 1 hour just for that! OK fine, they offered to contact me after asking their engineer who are not on site (may be they are at Jurong East?).

Finally they called me after 2 hours, and basically told me that it cannot be done because T290i is an old phone and phonebook synch is not supported. I told her that I have the datacable, if they dont have it they can use mine, if that is stopping them, but she insisted that it is not possible.

Thank you, hangup.

BAH! I dont buy that argument. Phonebook entries are files! Files can be tranferred!

I have to prove it can be done, and it is proven. Here is the solution.

Honda bicycle?!?

2007-03-06T23:41:00.000+08:00

From singapore_daily

Obviously a scrap assembly, this motorized bicycle parked outside Serangoon MRT station fancily showed a Honda motorbike seat. It will be more comfortable to ride I believe.

Kangaroo meat as dog food?!?

2007-03-05T21:28:00.000+08:00

This morning, while travelling to office on a bus, I saw an advertisement on top of taxi. It read: Kangaroo & Apple. I cannot remember the brand, but it was a surprise for me. After googling about that I realized that it was quite common now, since kangaroo is also a source of meat in australia. When I was studying in Australia 10 years ago, they have just started promoting kangaroo and emu meat. I guess it is a natural progression from human food to pet food. It is funny looking back, it felt like cultural shock to me.

Moving Flat Stress

2007-02-28T21:44:00.000+08:00

I finally finished moving all my things to my new rental flat. It was quite a shock to me and get some time to adjust to because I have lived in my previous flat for 6 years.

I have not moved in 6 years! Wow, that is the second longest time I stayed in an address, after my parents house. Too bad HDB decided to tear down the building. The city view from the common corridor and the breeze were really nice.

And on top of that, I guess staying put in a place too long, you get to accumulate too many things. I know that I have 1 shelf full of anime DVD/VCD. What I did not know is that actually they are close to 2 shelf! And I have accumulated plenty of art books by anime artists, and my collection of figurines is growing fast too.

I guess I have start throwing away my books and notes from my university study, since I have not opened them for quite some time. I have thrown away my old programming text books like those on Java 1.0.2!

So many to pack... sigh...

Anyway, the mover came and ask me $100 extra from the quote given of $180. OUTRAGEOUS! But it is a common practice here in Singapore. If your flat is not at lift-landing floor, they will use that as a reason. If your flat is at lift-landing floor, they will complain that you have many things to carry. If you don't have that many things, then they will complain that you do not pack properly.

I guess they can afford to do all this thing since they will know on the moving day, it is impossible to get a new mover and their victim is at their 'mercy', and they can do this all the time since they know highly unlikely you will be their repeat customer.

I am not talking those international movers. Those are very professional and you use them if you have large antiques or a piano to move. I am taking about local movers, typically a family business who employs ah beng and ah seng as workers and lau beng as the supervisor. I guess you get what you paid for, but still I do not like the way they conduct their business.
Do you have a good experience with a local mover? Let me know. Reply to this post.

Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 6: Mandalay, Heho, Inle lake

2006-12-20T07:59:00.000+08:00

Good bye Mandalay

On the way to the Mandalay airport, we saw monk crossing the highway

Overloaded transport

Public Bus

More traffic shot

Truck with flowers and leaves decoration, for safety and beauty

Roadside fruit sellers

People go to work and carry their lunch

We reached the airport and I sat across this stern-looking daddy.

Edward was sleeping on the plane

View from the window, on the way to Heho

We landed in Heho

Traffic shots, from Heho to Inle

Water buffalos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaung_Shwe
Nyaung Shwe
Shwe Yan Pyay Monastery & Cave Temple

Welcome to Inle

The boats were waiting

Our luggage went straight to the hotel while we were not.

This were the people who transport supplies to the residence of Inle Lake and to the hotels around the lake

Scenery of the lake

Fishermen

Seagull fighting for food

Seagull chasing a boat (like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Bird)

More scenery

Bathroom is in front of the house

Houses in Inle lake

Provision shop in Inle lake

We have lunch at Sampan Food Service Center -- sound so technical

Locals going to catch eels

And caching fish using nets

And here was our model

And he was getting paid

Myanmar belief - nail a coin and your business will be successfull

Boat repair hut?

Another fisherman

Poor houses

Electricity pylon

Festival boat

Carrying firewood

Grass for the roof of the house

People of Inle Lake

School boat ... not bus, powered by students

Floating vegetable plantation and flower garden

More people

School has ended

Students going back to their home

Macho man with tattoo, and green painted pedals

Old man

Young Kid

Floating wild flower

Goods transportation

Around the residential area

Grass getting dryed for the roof repairs

Two men repaired a boat

Tourists in Inle Lake

This man caught his dinner

It was a rat

More traffic

Rich houses, with floating garden

Middle class houses, with wooden wall, but not as nicely constructed

Baby

Temporary shelter around the floating vegetable plantation

Men taking bath, after a hard day work in the floating plantation

Almost sunset

Back in the hotel we quickly has shower -- very cold... and eat dinner.
The hotel was really nice, in fact it was actually a resort, by the lake (not in the lake). We stayed at Inle Princess Resort
At that night the full extent of the damage on my other two Kingston cards revealed itself.

Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 5: Mandalay

2006-12-19T20:09:00.000+08:00

Wake up call was at 6:00 AM! Are we were slacking already? I had just gotten used to the 5:00 AM wakeup call.
Well, waking up early means getting out from the hotel after breakfast and taking pictures of the locals.
We were lucky to stay at Sedona Hotel Mandalay because it is opposite the south-eastern corner of Mandalay Palace Wall.
We went out and found out that the locals were already up and there is an exercise corner at the road junction next to the moat, and it is very popular for the locals.

Monks were out as well. May be they were having their morning walk.

We found out that there were a lot people who use bicycle as a method of transport in Mandalay city.

We even met a group of cyclist who probably were training for some competition. As you can see in the picture, Mr.Ho was hiding behind the bushes to ambush them. A technique we commonly used in Myanmar.

After exercising our trigger fingers, we went back to the hotel for breakfast.
The sun was higher and now we can take a better picture of Mandalay Palace Wall (and the south-eastern corner tower). We did not go inside since it is not the real palace anymore. The real palace was destroyed in a fire during World War II, when British force bombard the palace, which was used as supply depot by Japanese force.

We then make our way to the next destination, but we stopped for a while to take pictures of monks lining up, performing pindapata (asking for alms from the commoners around their monastery), because bikkhu (Theravada Buddhist monks) are prohibited from having a job/career (work), owning money or property, and even cooking their own food. They have to beg for alms (food) and have to eat what is given to them.

Finally we reach the first destination of the day, Kuthodaw Pagoda. We were greeted by flower sellers and we responded by shooting them. This young girl was wearing a beautifully drawn tanaka powder, and has a nice smile.

The pagoda was surrounded by rows of shrines, each housing a slab of marble which was inscribed with pali text from Tipitaka, the holy book of Buddhism.

Inside the pagoda we found some puppies!

And the local kids performed some tricks and we were just happy to shoot them too.

Next to Kuthodaw Pagoda is Sanda Muni Pagoda which is basically an ancient backup plan of Kuthodaw Pagoda. Apparently they did not understand the concept of co-location yet at that time, and thus build it next to each other. (Sorry, that was a computer geek joke.)

Next destination was Maha Myat Muni Temple the wealthiest buddhist temple in Mandalay. First before we enter the temple, we have to went pass a shopping mall (well kind of) selling all sort of things from religious item, toys, and even decorative items and clothes.

The Maha Myat Muni temple does not allow female to the inner chamber, so donations by female worshipers has to be given to an old man, and he will hoist it on a stick and pass to the assistant inside the inner chamber to be put into donation box.

The Buddha statue in the temple is the oldest in Myanmar, and it was crowned with jewels. For hundreds of years, worshipers has been pasting gold leaf on the body of the buddha statue and now the body has been distorted by 15 cm layers of gold-leaf.

This temple is always crowded as it is popular with the locals. Monks from various monasteries come and worship here.

And this old woman (a Shan tribe) was praying and giving donation of 1000 kyat.

Almost all part of the inner chamber was either gilded with gold, or painted with golden colour.

The temple is popular not only to human, but it is also popular to birds. Here a pair of finch build a nest at one of the doorway.

On the way to the next destination, we saw some farmer ploughing the field, so we stopped and took their pictures.

We visited a school run by a monastery, providing basic primary education for free to the villagers. The children were wonderful. They were not shy at all. In fact, I was cornered by a few of them after taking their pictures because they want to see their photo. This photo was taken by Felicia, one of our tourgroup member.

I lost all the photograph I took there, other than the one below, because of a problem with my Kingston CF Card.

Next destination was Sagaing, to visit a temple on top of the hill, overlooking the Mandalay city. The temple was up the hill and we had to climb up many staircases.

We was shooting this monk, with the temple as the background when the resident dog went to her favorite spot to enjoy the warmth of the sun.

And she just sat there, ignoring the command from the monks and temple assistance.

Johnny had to go there and nudge the dog away, and grudgingly she went away.

And we can continue shooting again. This time without that dog in the background.

Outside the temple I found a shrine which is probably for the minor gods, or village gods, worshipped by the locals.

I was so excited that I forgot to wear my sandals when I went down. I only realised it when I reached the bus, so I had to run up the stairs to the temple again.
I got my sandals, I met this monk and took his picture, and run down the stairs.

It was quite an exercise, but somehow that running up and down the second time is not as tiring as the first time.
Time for lunch, and we are making our way to Ava
We have to cross a small river using a boat, but before reaching the boat, we were mobbed by these kids, trying to sell us something. Somehow I find them not as charming as those in Bagan and Mingun.

But we managed to pass thru without having to part with any kyat. Below is a photo of Johnny (from behind) on the boat.

And on the other side of the river, again, more kids!

We were hungry, so probably that affected our mood and none of us buy anything from them.
Finally, we reach Ava, as the sign below said.

We eat lunch at a Myanmar restaurant. The food was nice, and we eat it under a tree (and some umbrella), but I forgot to note down the name of the restaurant. However I did take a unique sign in the restaurant, directing us to the toilet.

We were fed, and happy. I believe Mr.Li bought a smoke pipe from one of the kids and they were finally happy.
Next, is the horsecart ride, which has been waiting for us.

Each cart is for a pair of passenger, plus the driver.

And even on bumpy road, we still acted as if we were paparazzi.

Finally we reached a wooden monastery (see a pattern here?) and take pictures of more monks.

I am bored, and shoot one of us, who is shooting something else that is not a monk.

Then we went back. Along the way I took picture of farmers cultivating the land,

and villagers working on a bamboo craft industry.

Time to say goodbye to the horse pulling the cart I was riding (felt a bit guilty as I was probably too heavy).

And realised that the cart I was riding has a picture of Tweety Bird, and one unrecognisable female superhero look-alike.

From there we make our way to Amarapura, to take a boat trip around the river until dusk. It was still about 3 PM, so we have plenty of time to take other pictures.
These rows of boat was very colourful and the reflection was great. Also, I found that the pedal has a star painted on it, which is unusual.

And I found this old mazda car by the river, which has been made a taxi. It was still shiny, so it was surely maintained well. May be it has just been cleaned and it was left there to dry.

We shot the locals catching some kind of fish.

And caught this boatman scooping water out of his boat. I made up my mind not wanting to take his boat.

Some of us shopped, while I took pictures of this family who has a small vegetable farm by the river.

The people there was so warm and the girls are pretty.

Even this little girl waved back at us from the top of the bridge.

This potrait was not straight, due to the shooting frenzy. Unfortunately this is the best picture of her. When I might fix the image later when I have time.

Finally, it was time to get into the boat.

We were going away, while other tourists are coming back.

On the boat we were busily shooting.

And I managed to take a picture of a crane in flight. It was a bit blur, but it is the best "crane in-flight" picture that I have.

We went under the bridge, and I took this picture to show you the age of the bridge, and notice the water level (now it is low). The difference between low and high is almost 2 meters if I am not wrong.

All kinds of people uses the old wooden bridge.

But there are those who decided they rather walked on the shallow water (a bit higher than knee deep).

I noticed that the bridge was also a good dating place.

And good for fishing too.

We took all kinds of photo of the bridge.

Here are the proof of how persistent the kids in chasing tourists money.

And finally, sunset.

We were still shooting till dusk. We did not manage to get that photo Steven was talking about. Felt a bit disappointed, we went stright back to the bus. We were waiting for Steven, the only missing person from the tour group when suddenly he came.
He told us that the sky colour he was talking about is there outside and was wondering where we were. We quickly jumped out from the bus armed with tripod. I took this with the highest ISO setting (ISO 1600) so it is quite noisy. I have some other pictures and I will see later what I can do with photoshop to enchance the picture.

We went for dinner. This time it was at Golden Duck (no website - so here is the google search link). It was really nice. Highly recommended.
Back in the hotel, I finally realized a problem. One of my Kingston CF card was acting up and while I downloaded the pictures to my harddrive, it hangs, and the pictures get corrupted. One card down, two to go. I was so annoyed.

Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 4: Bagan & Mandalay

2006-12-18T00:05:00.000+08:00

Today we were spared. The wake up call was at 6:00 pm, as we are taking a flight to Mandalay. After breakfast and coffee the trigger finger got itchy and some of us ventured out the hotel to take some pictures of the people. I had noticed there are horse carriages outside the hotel and I am happy to find them already on standby, waiting for passenger.
I saw one man let his horse to take some sand (or dust) bath, may be to get rid of the fleas.

After the sand bath, the horse looked more polished and happier, and brought to join the rest.

Time to go to the airport, but along the way, we met a group of monks marching from a monastery to the residential area of Bagan, looking for alms.
They walked bare feet and it was about 16 degree celcius. We quickly got down from bus and took pictures of them.

Goodbye Bagan, and welcome Mandalay!
The Mandalay Airport was the most modern airport we have encountered so far. Unfortunately, it looks very uncharacteristics, since there are fascilities but no decoration at all, which is the reason why probably I forgot to take a picture of it.
Myanmar goverment had assistance from China in building the airport. It was planned to be opened as an international airport, but it was not. May be some fortune teller has something to do with the cancellation, or may be the rulers were waiting for the completion of the new terminal for Yangon, since it would loose face if Mandalay has a grand international airport while the capital Yangon has an old run down airport.
This time round, we did not go to the hotel directly, as we are maximising our morning sunlight. First we went pass a village market and it was a market day. We were given 30 minutes to went in and take some pictures.
As a photographer you must have a sharp eye, and if you don't, at least sharp enough to see what other photographer are doing.
I spotted my room-mate, Mr.Ho with his usual ready-to-shoot stance.

I quickly ran to his side and found out that he had bribed a little boy with oreo cookies to be his model, and I tagged along for a free shooting.
Unfortunately the boy was not so co-operative, or may be he was just scared after some more of us joined in and he was suddenly surrounded by 6 people who furiously pressing their camera's shutter button.

Here are my crowd shots from the market.

And here are my portrait shots from the market.

Almost all of them are friendly and are not camera shy at all. Those not wanting to be photographed usually just hide their face with their hand and we understand and moved on.
We were about to go back to our bus, when I came across this bicycle repairman, who wore an old army steel helmet. May be he was in the army before.

Next, we made our way to an old monastery for nuns, to take their pictures.
This monastery was not so established and was undergoing some repair.

Somehow it does not look that strict because there was a samanera there, who are probably related to one of the nun (mother and son perhaps) and there are little girl and a baby.
The baby was not co-operative at first, probably scared seeing so many strangers with big cameras around. M&M does the trick again, and after some sweets, she calms down and we got our shots.

Here are some pictures of the nuns who become our models.

Again, our frenzy activity attracted some locals, but unlike the locals in Bagan who come near us, they keep their distance away, so tele-lense is an advantage.

We continued and along the way stop by to take pictures of the locals doing their activities. We met this family who were hunting for eels. The husband bring his wife and son to help him, while the younger daughter probably tagged along to watch and learn.

Mandalay was undergoing major infrastructure revamp when we were there, and these women were repairing the roads.

We went pass the grand train station of Mandalay. It was a huge building, bigger than the airport, and looks modern too. Looking at it, I think train ride could probably make a good alternative to flying if you are travelling from Yangon to Mandalay, if we were not rushed for time.

We arrived at Sedona Hotel Mandalay, which is facing Mandalay Fort, and this little girl was busily feeding the koi fishes at the hotel entrace.

After checking in and having a short rest, we went to a monastery, but our journey was interrupted by a procession. We first thought it was a celebration, but later found out that it was a funeral procession of quite a famous elderly monk.
It was grand and there are so many people who attended his funeral.

Some of us joked that while others learn to become a wedding photographer, here we were learning to be a funeral photographer.
After that, the journey was uneventful until we reached the monastery. They were still chanting when we came, and after that they will have lunch, so we go around and took some pictures around the monastery.

At the back of the monastery, we found one monk was taking a bath. Without respect of his privacy (it was an open bath, next to the well), we automatically encircled him and started shooting.
We were like a bunch of paparazzi. The fun lasted for more than 5 minutes and probably that was his most embarassing moment. His sacrifice was not in vain as some of us finally added a nice water splashing photograph, at least one of the best in my collection.

Our model finally finished from his daily chanting routine. He was probably one of the senior monk, and his wrinkled face was just perfect match with the wooden carvings.

Back in the bus, we realized that we faced the mortal enemy of DSLR cameras. DUST. Mandalay was really dusty. The sand in the monastery was very fine and really nice to walk on, but that also means there were a lot of dust (from our feet) and we had to be very careful when changing lenses. From there on, each time we get back to the bus, everybody was blowing dust from their cameras.
Time for lunch. We had a Myanmar food for lunch at Green Elephant Restaurant. It was really nice, unfortunately I did not have a photo and those who took photo told me that theirs are out of focus. So, no photo for Green Elephant, but I seriously recommend it. It was really nice.
After lunch, we made a half-day trip to Mingun, the home of the largest working bell (intact/uncracked and still rings).
Mingun was located at the western bank of Irrawaddy river, so we have to cross by boat, since the nearest bridge is too far away, and we have not got time to circle around. Along the way, we enjoyed observing the locals, and taking their pictures too.

When we arrived at Mingun, we were greeted by bullock carts. But instead of taking a ride, we shot them, and continued on foot.

We were right as we can take a lot of interesting photo opportunities along the way.
Mingun was probably the most touristy attraction in Mandalay, and you can probably find the best souvenir here. Here are samples of what you can buy, from the practical to the ornamental.

I noticed this very tall and old tree at the river banks. It should have some story, but I only have the picture for now.

We met some samanera and a nun, and they are happy to be our model.

We shoot them near Mingun Paya (Mingun Pahtodawgyi or Mingun Pagoda), an unfinished pagoda built under the instruction of King Bodawpaya.

And here is a picture of us, nicely framed inside a goal-post, while local kids watched with amazement of the dexterity of our trigger fingers. This was taken by Janet, one of our tour group member. It was perfectly framed.

I was separated from the group after stopping too many times to take candid shots of the locals, such as below.

I had to rushed after I rang the Migun bell three times. I forgot to take the picture of the huge bell.
A local girl has targetted me and was persistently asking me to buy a fan from her. It was rather expensive at 2000 kyat, and I was not interested in the fan at all.
I ran until I reached at Hsinbyume Pagoda. The girl followed me like a shadow. I actually arrived at another entrace and the girl guide me to another entrace where I finally met the tour group.
Luckily the photoshoot had just started.

I am not sure if this samanera was the same as the one in the cover of "Myanmar (Burma)" from Lonely Planet Travel Guide book

I was perspiring madly due to the running around, and the girl was so kind to fan me, while I was taking pictures. For a while, I felt like a king, and for that royal treatment, I parted with 2000 kyat, and also gave her M&M chocolate.
Seeing that the younger kids started to gather around so I have to quickly run away again.
We then rushed back to the boat, as it was getting dark, but I still managed to take a picture of Settawya Pagoda, which is near the riverbanks.

Although we were rushing, I stop to take a candid picture of this woman who is cooking dinner for her family, when we went pass her house while taking a shortcut to the jetty.

Hmm.. dinner... The journey back was uneventful, with beer on the boat, and a really nice sunset.

We have dinner (just so so) and got back to the hotel to download pictures to harddrive and recharge our batteries.
Silently, trouble was brewing. It started with me noticing that the first picture stored in all my 2 GB Kingston CF card are always corrupted. Little did I know until the next day, bigger problem cropped up.

Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 3: Bagan

2006-12-17T23:57:00.000+08:00

Wake up call was at 5:00 am. Well, we probably should get used to that routine. We had a quick coffee (2 cups for me), we rushed to the bus to catch the sunrise. Off we went.
The driver took us to a temple where we can climb up to the roof and take pictures, unfortunately we did not know that the area has been secured by the military due to some VIP visit.
It was quite a shock as it was pitch dark when we entered the temple, and armed with torch light we marched in, only to find some sleepy soldiers who were armed with riffles.
Luckily, they were sleepy and not so on-guard. Johnny, our local guide, quickly apologised for disturbing their sleep, and we run back to the bus, not only because we are afraid having awaken some sleeping soldiers (who has guns) but also we will be wasting time and the sun will not wait for us.
The driver then took us to one of a big stupa. Apparently temples are more heavily guarded and this stupa is not. It is quite a climb. We went up when it is still dark.
I was on the third storey, with the majority of the group while 3 others went up till the 5th storey, practically the top of the stupa.
Sighing with relief for finding some high ground, we quickly find the direction, and head to the east side of the stupa, and set up our tripod and camera.
Since it is still dark, while waiting, I went to the northern side and managed to take some picture of Ananda temple, the grandest in Bagan, while it is still dark.

I also manage to take the picture of either Thatbyinnyu Temple or Gawdawpalin Temple. From the shape, I believe it is Thatbyinnyu Temple, but I am not very sure, please help me identify.
We did not have time during this trip to go to these temple, so may be next time.

Again, there are young children pedalling souvenir. They are persistent, but not annoying and they are always polite. One young girl, may be aged 13 was targetting me particularly. She kept on pestering me to buy postcards, so to get rid of her, I relented and parted with 1000 kyat.
BIG mistake. Soon after, 5 more suddenly appear, some are trying to sell me more postcards, while some younger ones probably just came and understudy the big brother/sister on their enterprenurial skill.
To appease these persistent spirit, I had to take out my secret weapon, M&M chocolate.
I told them if they are quiet, I will give one each. But to make sure they are not calling for reinforcement, since I have limited supply of ammunitions (M&M chocolate), I told them I will give only to them. Unfortunately I was short of 1, so the eldest girl in the group decide not to take, preferring the young ones to enjoy the sweets.
They were so happy and they just sit down and watch us trying to spot the sun.
When the sun is finally arise, it was worth waiting for.

The temple on the left in the picture below is Dhammayangyi temple, which is the largest in Bagan, but it was not completed. It also has the bloodliest history.

After breakfast, we went to Shwezigon pagoda. We did not really enter the pagoda, but simply had a field day at the walkway of pagoda entrace.
The 2 samanera we had as models yesterday, came again with us and continued their modelling career.
They walked up and down the corridor, outside on the ground while a local women sweep the street creating that smoke-screen effect. We kept our trigger-happy fingers on the camera's shutter button all the time, until some of use yelled in vain "I have run out of bullet", referring to having filled up a 2GB memory card with jpeg pictures. These are the result.

The locals found amusing and started to gather and we were just happy to find others too shoot. This girl was selling some kind of noodle snack which the kids enjoy.

This young boy with red sweater is just so striking, and only while editing the picture I realized that the word FASHION was written on the sweater.

The most interesting of all was this girl, who we nicknamed "watermelon queen". She carried sliced watermelon, for sale for course, which to us looked like her crown.

Then there was a woman who carry banana on top of her head, and holding vegetable as if it were a bouquet of flowers. It was really interesting.

Some monks from the temple also came. One of them become our accidental model, while others just content watching us.

We were so excited, but also tired. Because almost all of us used up our memory cards, we had to go back to our hotel to download, and to rest, as well as have lunch.
After resting, it is time to shoot again. While on the way to a temple to shoot monks with reclining Buddha statue, we came across locals cleaning the ground, preparing for a festival at Ananda Temple. They were cutting the dry grass and burning them. The smoke effect was great so we take some pictures of them too. I manage to get a candid picture of another guy, so please see my myanmar trip candid shot.

On the way to the Reclining Buddha Statue, we stopped by at a monastery, and the 2 samanera were again our model.

Above is the picture of us negociating their position and pose, and below are the results.

To our surprise, the Reclining Buddha Statue was just next to the stupa we went in the morning to take sunrise pictures. It was at Shinbinthalyaung temple. The temple was so narrow it is impossible to photograph the whole status without extreme distortion. So we end up separating our pair of monks, one at the head of the Buddha and another at the feet of the Buddha.

The kids whom I bribed M&M were around, apparently with their parents too. I did refill my ammunition (M&M Chocolates). I met the girl who did not have her share in the morning. Since it was truly her luck, I have to give her a packet. She had to wait, but she finally had her chocolate.

Since we had sunset on top of the pagoda yesterday, today it will be sunset at the river.
We went on a boat trip along Irrawaddy river and took pictures of the people doing their daily activities who lived along the riverbanks.

The picture below shows the size of the river. It is quite wide, and we were visiting during the dry season, where the water level was at the lowest. The people here are actually stay on a temporary makeshift building while they are looking for work during the dry season. During the wet season, the river will be filled up and what you see in the picture as dry riverside is filled with water.

We then went back and had dinner at the hotel, with some life music.

The bloodly history of uncompleted temple in Bagan

2006-12-17T23:51:00.000+08:00

On the bus, while travelling back to the hotel to get some breakfast (Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 3: Bagan), Johnny told us the bloodly history of
Dhammayangyi temple, the largest in Bagan, and why it was not completed.

Prince Narathu, second in line to the throne after his elder brother, is an ambitious person. His father, King Alaungsithu, was already old and sick. While accompanying his father to Shwegugyi temple, prince Narathu took his chance and kill his father by suffocating him with pillows while he asleep.
While the royal family were still mourning, he invited his elder brother for a lunch and put poison in his food, thus killing him too.
After claiming the throne, he took over his fathers wives by law, but was displeased with one of them, the daugher of Indian prince of Pateikkaya continual practice of Hindu rituals, so much so he had her executed.
Fearing for the reprise of bad karma, King Narathu ordered the construction of Dhammayangyi temple. He oversee the temple construction himself and was said to be a maniac perfectionist. If a mason laid the brick such that he can pushed a needle in between the gap, the mason was either has his hand chopped off, or executed.
When the news about the execution of his daugher reached Indian prince of Pateikkaya, he was enraged and send 8 officers to assasinate King Narathu. They disguised themselves as Brahmans, and went to visit King Narathu. When Narathu received them, they drew their secret swords, concealed in their walking sticks, and kill him. They then kill stab each other in an attempt to conceal their identity, but historians later find out about it.

Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 2: Yangon & Bagan

2006-12-16T21:49:00.000+08:00

Wakeup call was at ungodly hour of 5:00 am!

With sleepy eyes we ate breakfast, and whisked to the airport, to fly to Bagan, via internal flight.
I was almost grounded because the security officer found me carrying 8 AA rechargeable batteries for my flashlight in my pocket. Luckily, Johnny was around to solve my problem, by suggesting to pass the batteries to the airline crew, and to be returned to me again in Bagan. Phew... I never know rechargeable can be that dangerous. May be I could hijack a plane with that. Later, I understand that if it is in the cabin bag, there is no problem, but not in the pocket. Whatever the logic is until now I still don't know, but hey, I can put the batteries in my cabin bag, no problem. Comply with the rule, enjoy the trip.
Anyway, the allow me to board the plane after I parted with my batteries. Off we flew!
The food on the plane was bad, but again, it is the same as the food at some budget airline, and some of those don't even serve food.
After several rounds of coffee, some of us started to recover our itchy trigger finger and started shooting. Some did it on the plane, while others after the plane has landed.

First destination after we landed in Bagan, is the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised to arrive in a nice resort style hotel, named Tharabar Gate Hotel, which is named after one of the ancient gate in Bagan. Each bungalow is divided into 2 rooms, with high ceiling, and some wall painting. Pity I do not have any picture of the room.
After a short rest, off we go to the ruins, with 2 samanera in tow. We reached at one of the thousands of temples and pagodas in Bagan, and a local lady with her 2 sons waited. They were our first models!

And here is the closeup of the brothers.

We were blessed with beautiful weather and sunlight, and then a bullock cart pulled by a couple of ox passed by, followed by a sheppard hearding goats. So we shot them too, going left... going right... going away... and coming towards... until the oxes and the goats were tired.

Especially the goats, who moved here and there, and not getting any time to eat any grass. I was wondering if they are about to scream "MOVE HERE, MOVE THERE, MAKE UP YOUR MIND!

Then by some luck, 2 local ladies carrying firewood and freshly cut grass on top of their head walked to our direction and they become our second models. Not only that, the is a bonus where both of them were smoking cherut, a local version of cigar which is made of tobacco and the soft skin of corn. Click on the picture to take a closer look.

And then, the 2 samanera who came with us became our next target.

We shot them until it is 11:00 am and we have to ferry them so they can eat lunch before noon, else they will not be able to eat again for that entire day. One of the regulation that they have to follow is to eat 2 meals per day, breakfast and lunch, and nothing to be eaten after 12 noon. Lucky them.
Not ready for lunch, we then went to a nearby village to take pictures of the villagers and their children. They were so happy to see us and young mothers brought their babies. And this particular girl even brought out her skipping ropes and started skipping in front of us! There are more smoking elderly, and another bullock cart, but there is so little space here, thus I decided not to post their pictures.
We also met a young boy who just came back from fecthing fresh drinking water for his family. He could carry the 2 pails which in total probably weight more than 20 kilograms on his tiny shoulder.
From there we continue to a wooden monastery to take more picture of monks. But I think a more interesting picture for you is this young enterpreneurial young girl who managed to sell one of us some hand made decorative butterfly for 1000 kyat (US$1).

We were very hungry, but still we went on and on, this time to another temple, after fetching back the 2 samanera. They continued to be our models for the rest of the day.

Finally, LUNCH! It was at really nice restaurant by the side of Irrawaddy river. The picture below is not taken by me as I am inside. It is taken by Felicia Teh, a member of our tourgroup.

After filling our stomach with yummy food and cold myanmar beer, we are back shooting again. Again with the 2 samaneras we went inside a temple and took more pictures.

When it is near the time for sunset, we went to another temple and went up to take pictures of scenery with the sunset.

The shooting goes on even after sunset. We had our dinner at a puppet theatre cum restaurant.

However, if you are in Myanmar, don't especially go if you intend to watch a puppet theatre. You could probably be better of eating elsewhere (probably cheaper), and go watch the puppet theather in Yangon. See my post on day 8.
The only special thing we had there was this sugared banana, probably served with some local alcoholic beverage and lit up when served.

Finally we went back to hotel to download pictures from memory cards to our harddrives and recharge our batteries again.

Significance of white coloured stupas and temples

2006-12-16T06:22:00.000+08:00

Going around Bagan, you will notice that while the majority of them have exposed bricks or stones, a few of them are white coloured like the 2 pictures below.

So what are the difference? Accoding to Johnny, the temples and stupas which are near a monastery, are painted by the monks to mark that there are monastery with monks near this temple/stupa. The white colour is due to the usage of limestone powder, an economical means, to paint the temple/stupa.

The public can notice from far away, and will make pilgrimage to these white coloured temples and stupas, visited the monastery, and make donations to the monks.

The richer monastery gilded the tip of the stupas with gold-leaf, to make them more stand-out.

Why are there so many temples and stupas in Bagan?

2006-12-16T06:14:00.000+08:00

The old bagan is filled with hundreds of stupas and temples. This begs for an explanation.

So I asked why, and Johnny, our local tour guide, explained that the stupas and the temples were not build all at the same time, but throughout generations. They were built during the golden age of Pagan Kingdom.

The royal family initiated and funded the construction of the major temples. The ministers and the ultra-rich built stupas around the temples. Some of the ministers and the ultra-rich build temples near their residence. Sons followed the tradition of their fathers and built temples and stupas near the one built by their fathers.

Those who were richer, built temples (which has rooms/halls), while those who were rich enough, built stupas (solid structure).

This feverish temple and stupa building is fashionable for many generations, and as a result, the old Bagan is filled with so many of them.

The King, his elephant, and the temples in Bagan

2006-12-16T05:57:00.000+08:00

I heard this story from our tour guide, Johnny, about a king (forgot his name), his elephant (not sure about the colour - could be white), and he once made a promise to build temples.

One fine day, he asked the royal elephant trainer to take the beast out, the monks to perform some prayers, and set the elephant off for a day trip.

The king promised wherever the elephant sits down, he will build a temple. Luckily for him (and his subjects who did the actual construction) the elephant did not sit down so often. The royal beast wander around, and ended up sitting at 3 places, and the king ordered 3 temples to be constructed on those sites.

Please help me confirm this story. Who is the king? What is the colour of the elephant (is it white?) and exactly how many temples are there and what are the name of the temples.

Art of Seeing by PSS - Myanmar, Day 1: Yangon

2006-12-15T20:59:00.000+08:00

It started off with a wrong foot. Silkair flight from Singapore to Yangoon was late for 2 hours. I was mad, because I did not have coffee until lunchtime.
Finally we reached Yangoon. First destination, the hotel! Check in, and then off to the showroom of a Myanmar Photographer, named ... for some inspiration. His showroom is near Swhedagon Pagoda.

Along the way, we started shooting the people of Yangoon. Take it as warming up.

After that, we finally arrived to Swhedagon Pagoda, also known as the golden pagoda, which I think should actually be called gold pagoda since it is really made of gold, about 1 hour before sunset. We circled around the gold stupa, going clockwise, shooting monks and the people over there.

A few minutes after sunset, volunteers started preparing oil lamps around the pagoda.

Once the preparation was done, a wave of worshipers suddenly appeared and they lit up the oil candles.

Some time later, rows and rows of volunteers came with brooms and mops to clean the ground around the pagoda.

And once it is dark, take a look at the pagoda. It was quite a spectacular view.

Then it is time for dinner.

Time to call it a day, we went back to the hotel to recarge our batteries, literally, and to download the images from our memory cards into harddrive.

Weird Traffic Rule in Myanmar

2006-12-15T04:22:00.000+08:00

Upon arrival at Yangon, I noticed something weird. The cars in Myanmar are driven on the right side of the road, similar to US. But the majority of cars, including our tour bus, are all right-sided driver, which are supposed to be for the countries where people drive on the left side of the road.

I first thought that probably these cars are second hand cars from countries where people drive on the left side of the road, and being a third world country, plus the embargo by some countries, cause the supply of car to be limited. That, I thought, probably the main reason for this weird mixture.

The truth is only revealed when I ask Johnny, our local tour guide. He told me that the people in Myanmar tend to have a strong belief in mysticism and that the leader of the country is not excluded from that tendency. Apparently, a leader had been advised by a fortune teller to implement the this weird traffic rules: vehicle must be driven on the right side of the road, but the driver must also be on the right side of the vehicle (in this case cars & buses). The benefit of that apparently for stability, for those who are in power.

That advised has been followed until now.