Taiwan trip - Yilan

Curious Taiwan Fact : The days in Taiwan during autumn is fairly short. The sun starts to set around 5pm and is gone by 6pm. Coming from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the sky is still bright at 7pm, I find that I like longer days.

Back to our trip - After walking among the rocks in Yehliu, we headed for Yilan. Our stop for the night is at the Shangrila Leisure Farm. The drive there is quite a long one and along the way we passed through a lot of tunnels.

One of the tunnels is 13.7km long! It is the longest tunnel in Sheh-shan. When we arrived in the Yilan county, the sun was already setting and that's when I snapped the picture below from the bus.

Yilan presents quite a stark contrast to Taipei. While Taipei is all modern with high rise buildings, Yilan is all rice fields with few tall buildings.

The bus then wound its way up some hill. Frankly I find Taiwanese roads to be much too narrow for my liking. Looking out the window to see the bus inches away from the sides of a downhill slope is not my idea of a nice ride. Fortunately the tour bus driver is very skillful and we reached our destination safely.

The picture above shows the block where our rooms are located. It was quite a distance away from the main building where we are supposed to have dinner. We were given half an hour to freshen up after our bus ride and meet at the dinner hall shown below.

To get there we passed by some other blocks shown in the pic below. The place had a wooden theme that goes with the concept of a farm much better than concrete I guess.

Once dinner was over and done with, the Farm had some programs arranged for us to keep us entertained. Part of it was a top spinning competition.

They had small ones and big ones like the one shown in the pic above. The workers there gave a demo on how it's done and then the competition was started.

This young lady in the picture above was from another tour group which was from Malaysia also while the elderly gentleman in the pic below is from a tour group from Hong Kong. Despite being 77 years of age, he is very sprightly and competitive.

Apart from spinning tops, we were also giving 'Kung Min' lanterns. You write your wish on the lantern and then let it fly away to the heavens. It's claimed that your wishes will come true. I don't know if any of the wishes did come true but the lantern did take to the skies quite easily. Some shots of the lanterns floating away:

Below :Ducklings race about to start - yet another program at the Leisure Farm.

There were also fireworks and below are some of my shots. If you're wondering why the pics are so narrowly frame it's because all shots taken with a 50mm lens and handheld -Now isn't it obvious why it's recommended that a wide angle lens mounted on a tripod be used for fireworks? Since I did not have any prior notice that fireworks was in the itinerary the 50mm will have to do. Besides it was the only lens I had with me at the time.

After the fireworks, we were left to our own designs and some of my tour mates tried their hands at this peculiar bowl. I don't know what it's called but if you rub the handles the right way, the water in the bowl will jump out like shown in the pic below. It has something to do with resonance but I do not know how it works exactly.

It was fun seeing all those who attempted to get the water 'jumping'. Some can easily do it while some fail to even create a ripple! No matter what, it's guaranteed to create laughter.

After mingling around for a while, I thought it was quite late into the night already but when I checked the time, it was just about 9pm. Since the sun went down before 6pm, the long hours of darkness created the illusion that it was late into the night.

The next morning, we were scheduled to leave the farm and head for Hualien after breakfast. Before we got on the bus however, we got a brief tour of the farm/orchard there. Below are some shots from the walkabout:

Above and below : What the place looked like in daylight. The above is the main building where we had dinner the night we arrived.

The Forest House - just opposite the main building, across the road that led to the farm. Below: What the Forest House looked like as seen from the main building.

Above : The path leading to the orchards from the Forest House. Below: A view of the plants in the orchard. No fruits at the time unfortunately.

Below: A view of the town from the hill slope where the orchard is located.

And finally - steps leading to a hut in the orchard. Since there were no fruits on the trees, we did not spend much time there.

After the tour, we were once again herded onto the bus and off we go again to Hualien. On the way, we stopped by a temple - coming up in the next post!

Taiwan Trip Day 1 - Yehliu

Taiwan Curious Fact : There's a lot, and I mean A LOT of 7-11 outlets in Taiwan. You'll see one at the start of a block and another at the end. Just like Hong Kong has its Watson's stores, Taiwanese have their 7-11's!

Once we leave Jiu-Fen, our next stop is the Yehliu Geopark in the Wanli district. This geopark is located on a beach filled not with sand but with peculiar shaped rocks. Known as hoodoo rocks, their odd shape is the result of erosion from the wind and sea.

The pictures below will show you some of the scenes in Yehliu but before we visit the park, we stopped for lunch. During our walk to the restaurant, I took this shot of the harbour where the fishermen dock their ships.

This is the entrance to the Yehliu Geopark.

After a little stroll through the nicely landscaped garden, you will be met with the sight of the 'Mushroom Rocks'. As per their namesake, the rocks do look like mushrooms with a somewhat rounded top. Mind you these rocks are big - taller than an average human for the most part.

Below is a shot with some people standing beside some of these mushroom rocks to give you some comparison scale. The top of the rocks that are darker colored are dotted with honeycomb shaped holes.

The light yellow colored ground is not sand. It is also of a hard rock like substance and you can see shapes like the one in the pic below scattered across the area. The place is like a big canvas where Mother Nature lays out her artwork.

Another interesting sight are the Candle Rocks pictured below. The waves has shaped these rocks to resemble small candles with a round rock jutting out on top as the wick.

Another shot showing how the waves relentlessly throw themselves against the rocks.

A wide shot to show how how big the place is. Of course this is just one small portion of the whole park.

Another major attraction of the Yehliu Geopark - the Queen's head rock. Her majesty is a no doubt a royalty in the place because the people that you see in the pic are lining up for their turn to have their picture taken with it!

Another shot of the a different area of the park.

The best shot I could manage with my tele lens of the Queen's head. Can you make out the profile?

The sea and the rocks - you can see some formation similar to the 'Candle Rocks' here also.

A rock with a hole in the middle and what's that you see beyond the hole? It's this bridge in the picture below.

Due to our schedule, we could not visit all of the areas in the Yehliu Geopark. We only managed to cover a rather small area before we were ushered back onto the bus for a long drive to Yilan where we are to stay at the Shangrila Leisure Farm.

What did we do there? The next post will reveal our activities!

Taiwan Trip Day 1 - Jiu Fen

So, this is the first part of my recent Taiwan trip. How many parts to follow, I am also not sure but there are sure a lot of pics taken and it will last a while.

The first day is practically just fly in to Taiwan and that's it. The flight was at 6pm from LCCT and the day was already at an end when we landed in Taipei. The flight is 4.5 hours and being on an AirAsia flight, the hours seemed even longer. Budget airlines have nothing for you on board that you don't need to pay for. The seats can't even recline! Movies need to be rented for RM30 and since I have seen most of the titles being offered (and also being a cheapskate) I passed on that.

Any of you planning to fly long distance on AirAsia had best get a good book before boarding or else you'll be bored stiff!

We landed in Taiwan at about 10.45pm and by the time we claimed our luggage and headed to our tour bus, it was past 11pm. It took around 45 minutes to get into Taipei city from the airport. The itinerary for the day was supper at a local restaurant and then to the hotel to crash for the night.

As we neared the restaurant, I took my first pic of Taipei city. It's just a shot of the street with some construction work going on in the middle. It's nothing to look at but I like the colours so here it is:

After that it's off the bus for 'supper' or rather a very, very early breakfast (tehnically it was morning the next day). On the menu was porridge. Plain white porridge but with some dishes to go with it. It seemed more like a proper meal as we had 7 or 8 dishes to go with the porridge. We dug in as we were hungry. The nasi lemak served or rather bought, on the flight don't last you very long. Here's a shot of some of the dishes:

After that we had 'Portugese egg tarts' as dessert.

From the looks it was not so 'Portugese' but they were fresh out of the oven and thus tasted nice. With our belly full, we headed to the hotel and that marked the end of our first day in Taiwan.

A few hours later, we awoke and hauled our bags and ourselves up the bus once again. The tour has finally started. First stop for the day - Jiu Fen or 'Nine Portions' in english direct translation. It's a famous street bazaar in Taiwan located in the town of Jing Shan. What's unique about this bazaar is that the town is located on a face of a steep hill and the Jiu Fen tourist area is spread across a few levels of the hills. Small lanes and steep stairs weave their way across the face of the hills overlooking a harbour with shops selling all kinds or trinkets and curiosities dotting them. I'll let the pics do the talking:

Above: Entrance to the Jiu-Fen Old Street - the most fomous of the streets there.

A shot of a temple there. I find the Taiwanese temples to be quite elaborate no matter where they are. Basically the town is situated like what you see in the shot. One level after another - all built on the steep hillside.
Some shops selling souvenirs in Jui-Fen area. It's a highly commercialized tourist spot but still worth a visit.
Things for sale range from the usual trinkets to some more 'kinky' stuff (below).

A shot of the harbour in the background from one of the many vantage points as you explore the area. The weather is not so good as you can see and makes for a rather drabby shot.
Also dotting the landscape are numerous restaurants, the one in the pic below is one of the more elaborate ones.
You will find many a stairs like this one seen in the pic below, leading you to the different levels of the town.
Another shot of the habour and parts of the town from the end of the 'Old Street'
The end of the 'Old Street' as seen if you turn around from the vista above.
Shops line both sides of the Street and sells various kinds of food and other stuff.
You can have a sample before you buy. In the above shot, the open containers in the foreground are free samples that you can help yourself to. Almost 99% of shops selling food will have samples for you. If you take a sample from each and every shop selling food and/or drinks, you can literally fill your stomach and you won't have to pay a single cent!
Apart from food, you can also find clothes and stuff. As the street twist and turn, you can easily lose track of where you are, just like the kid in the shot below.
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey...
Little cloth owls of various sizes. Perfect for souvenirs. The seller claims that all the owls have a different motif on them. I did not check to see if it was true.
Lots of drinks and tea - alcoholic or otherwise for sale also.
More fancy sweets.
You can find many restaurants with fancy themes like this one that has a fancy window display as shown in the following pics.

And a final shot of the crowd in Jiu-Fen. Many Taiwanese come here too.

That's all for our Jiu-Fen stop. Up next is the Geopark in Yehliu. Stay tuned!

Taiwan Trip

A couple of days ago, I got back from a holiday trip to Taiwan. After spending about a week there, I am back in Malaysia and now have a better idea what Taiwan is about. Well, the northern to northeast quadrant of Taiwan, at least.

Overall, Taiwan is a beautiful country with nice weather - apart from the occasional typhoon that comes in and wreaks havoc. It has numerous scenic places where nature shows it's beauty at its finest. The mountains that line the middle of the country from tip to toe hosts many a natural park. One such is the Taroko National Park where the beautiful Taroko Gorge lies. The park ranges from one of the highest peaks in Taiwan right up to the coast where the cliffs drops down to the blue-green waters of the Pacific Ocean. In between, the Liwu river carves it way through the limestone and marble mountains to give us the unique vistas of the Taroko gorge.

There is also the Yehliu Geopark where one can see some hoodoo rocks that gives the seaside location an out of this world landscape appearance.

Taipei offers you all the sights and sound of a modern metropolitan city and is home to one of the world's tallest towers, the Taipei 101. Apart from that it is also the host to some famous night markets such as those in Xi Men Ding and Shi Ling. The night markets are where you can find a vast variety of hawker's food to tempt your tastebuds.

From the modern city to the laid back farmstays. From man-made wonders to the grand beauty of nature, Taiwan has it all and is worth a visit. In my following posts, I will break down the trip and include some of the pics that I have taken there. Stay tuned.

Exams and Their Results

I am sure that most of you know that academic examination results ranks very high on the typical Malaysian parent's list. They use it as a benchmark of how 'clever' their offsprings are.

Some have even gone as far as to make it the sole reason for their offspring's existence!
You know the drill - go to school, come back home and it's tuition, tuition and tuition some more. Then it's homework, homework and more homework both from the school and the tuitions.

I think all that obsession with good results is really unneccessary. Yes, it's well and good to have a good education but are good results in examinations the only yardstick to measure that?

In the end it's just a piece of paper with a bunch of alphabets corresponding to some subjects. Nothing more than that. Our education system is not the best in the world. There's too much 'spoon-feeding' going on and one known formula to get good results is to 'regurgitate' all the facts from the textbooks. 'Regurgitating' does not need understanding. All it needs is a good memory.

So in essence a mediocre student with a good memory can obtain fantastic results in examinations if he/she can master the art of 'regurgitating'. So what does the result tell us? Can we really say having a string of A's means we have a good student? Not really.

Also, we must know that in life there are days when you are up and days when you are down. If it so happens that an examination is held on a day when you are down and you get poor results, does that mean you're a bad student? For all we know the student might just be having a bad week or month for whatever reasons.

Exams results can only tell us so much. It's not the only factor to consider. I would want my children to first of all understand the lessons taught. I would want to have critical thinking skills rather than just getting good results from 'regurgitating' facts. And I wouldn't mind them failing one or two exams along the way either. Failure is a part of life whether we like it or not. Learning how to deal with failure and learning from your failure and moving on from there is much more important than scoring a string of A's at the price that one is unprepared to face failure of any kind.

Also, apart from academics, children also need to learn other essential skills. Skills such as communication skills, social skills like how to mix and deal with people. They are never going to learn these things if we keep them locked up in the house or academic institutions with all sorts of tuitions most of the time.

So give the children a break. Let them be children sometimes and encourage them to go out and play with other children. Studying, classrooms,books and exams are not all they have to deal with when they grow up. As parents we must equip them with all the necessary skills that they need to face the world on their own. That is not limited to just getting A's in examinations.

What I Have Learned Taking Up Photography.

It has been 2 years plus since I first bought my very first DSLR. In fact my very first camera. Along the way, I have taken around 20k worth of pictures, gobbled up almost 100GB on my HDD and most of the pics are now just sitting in the hard disk taking up space.

I admit that the number of pics is not really high. Some photography enthusiast can knock up that amount in about 3 months. Nevertheless, it has given me lessons that I will not have come across otherwise. Lessons that many a casual camera users may never realise.

Below are some of the things I have learned:

1. Photography is an expensive hobby!

That's the first thing that will strike you. Photography is expensive! Digital camera bodies are expensive! Lenses are expensive! The only comforting thought is that digital allows you to ditch the processing costs of film. Imagine developing over 20k worth of pictures! What's even more mortifying is that you will end up throwing most of those pictures!

On the other hand, most hobbies will rack up considerable costs if you're serious about it. Take cycling for example. The bicycle and it's equipment can cost quite a lot if you want decent gears! Fishing don't come cheap either. Good rods can cost up to four figures. And you have hooks and lures and lines and what not to consider. That's all BEFORE you even set one foot in a river to actually start fishing.

Heck! Even collecting toy figurines is not cheap! Do you know what a limited edition 'Gundam' mecha action figure can cost you?

2. There are 2 types of users out there.

In photography, you will come across 2 types of users - the gearhead and the photography enthusiast. The most obvious indicator is their pictures. Gearheads are obssessed with gears and their specs and what not. By just listening to them talk you can easily mistake them for being a guru in photography! That notion is quickly dispelled when you look at their pictures. Most will not have many for you to see. That's because they are more interested in discussing specs and functionality rather than taking pics.

The photography enthusiast can seem a little lost when asked about technical specs of cameras and lenses but when you see their pics, it's clear where they spend most of their time - out there taking pictures and improving their shots.

Of course there is the small percentage of users that are both gearheads and photography enthusiast. These are the people you would want to be close with as they are a source of technical and technique knowledge.

3. Taking nice pictures is hard work.

It is rare for a viewer of a pic to realise the amount of work that has been put into a particular shot. Even if the shots look like they were taken with minimal effort, looks can be deceiving. The amount of preparation needed for each shot may not be apparent in the final product but you can bet that it's nothing like taking a casual shot.

For most people, taking a picture means whipping out the camera, pointing it in the general direction of the subject and clicking the shutter button.

The photography enthusiast does way more work. He first have to acertain the correct settings for each location. The settings are NOT the same indoors as compared to outdoors. Heck, the settings are different when you're under shade as opposed to under sunlight even when you're outdoors and the locations are mere meters apart!

Then he has to frame the subjects in a nice way. He has to ensure that the background is pleasant and not distracting. He has to give instructions to pose the subjects (if they are humans) properly. Lock focus to ensure a sharp picture and then only click the shutter button. And he has to do all the above WITHOUT taking too much time that the human subjects begin to tire of the whole process. How long will it take you to start feeling impatient with a person pointing a camera at you trying to take your picture? 5 seconds? 10 seconds? That's the time frame the photo enthusiast has to work with.

You start to realise that every shot becomes very deliberate. Do you want to include the background? Do you want a full body shot or half body shot or a close-up? Which angle will be better? How would you light the subjects? Will you use artificial lighting with flashes or just use the available light? How do you want to pose them? All these questions and more will race through your mind as you are taking the pictures. You will need to be always on your toes to get good shots during a session especially if you're dealing with normal people and not models who are used to being photographed and knows the process somewhat.

After the session, the photographer's job is not done yet! You will have to post process the pics. By post processing I do not mean subjecting the pics to 'photoshopping' like adding in captions or removing blemishes and such. It's the basic adjustment of the digital 'negatives' after the shoot. In film you will have to develop the film negatives in a darkroom. In digital, the workflow is still there. Only difference is that you work using a computer rather than in a darkroom.

After this 'darkroom' post processing is done, you will have to sift through the stack and throw out the bad shots before you can start putting in special effects or 'photoshopping' the pics.

Sounds like a lot of work? You bet! Then why is it that normal compact cameras users don't go through this process? That is because the normal compact cameras has automated all the steps. It gives you the most common settings for all your shots and the development is done in camera using also the most common methodology without any user inputs and gives you the end product straight away. That's why most people tend to get 'funny' results when pictures are not taken outdoors under bright sunlight.

4. You decide where your photography level lies. Not your gears.

It's common when a bunch of photography buffs sit down together and look at each other's gears, those with 'lesser' gears will lust after the better gears. Those with entry level models will wish they had higher end bodies. Those with normal lenses will wish that they had 'pro' or 'premium' lenses.

Although the higher end gears does play a part in the pictures, it is a small part. Lots of time, people have to be aware that no matter what gears you have, it is possible to get great pictures. Your skills are much more important than any gears available. So rather than lusting after 'better' gears, you should be working on your skills instead. Improve your composition. Improve your lighting techniques.

If your picture composition skill is not up to par, you will still take badly composed pictures with the most expensive and most technologically advanced gears. If your lighting technique is bad, you will still have a lot of under or overexposed shots. So if your skills are lacking, upgrading to better gears will not be of much help.

5. When you have a passion for it, you won't mind the hard work.

It's unfortunate that not many people recognise that taking beautiful pictures needs a lot of hard work. To get one beautiful sunrise pic, you may have woken up way before the crack of dawn on many a days and forced yourself to go out there and wait for the sun to rise. Some days, the sun just won't co-operate and you come home empty handed. Some days, the sky may be just too dull or empty. Just the sun and no clouds or just the clouds and not enough sun and you come home empty handed. But there will be a day when all your patience and discipline will pay off and you bag your picture.

What irks me the most is when people take one look and say something like, "Wow! That's one lucky shot!" or "No wonder! Just look at the camera you're using!" Waking up before the crack of dawn for countless days waiting and preparing for the conditions to be right is lucky? Or maybe just buying the most expensive camera gears will get you those shots? Hmph! I would like to see them try to be lucky with expensive equipment!

But then what pleases me the most is just the flip side of that same fine line. You have worked your butt off and someone takes a look and then comments, "That's a great picture! I love it!" That one comment will send me off to the heavens! All the hard work now seems justified. All the money spent on gears now seems worth it. And I'm raring to go out there again to get another shot that will garner similar comments.

But often times, comments like that are few and far in between. What keeps you going in the meantime is your passion for it.

So I have learned much and there is still much to learn but the biggest thing that photography has opened up for me is my eyes! I have begun to see things that I have overlooked. I can now see the beauty that lies hidden in the mundane and the familiar surroundings.

How many of us take the time to look up into the morning sky on your way to work? How many of us really notice the colors that the sunset brings, even in the city? There's beauty everywhere. All we need to do is look. We need to learn to let go of the ugly and take in the beauty. Forget that traffic jam and look at the beautiful sunrise. Don't mind the crowd and see how the sky changes its color when the sun goes down. Look out for the smiles in people faces rather than the frowns. The world is a beautiful place. Learn how to look out for it. For that I will be eternally grateful.

Wedding Shoot - Teaser

Late July, I was invited to a wedding of a former colleague. So I packed my camera and went there and shot some pics.

Below are some of the pics taken on that day. It was my first Malay wedding shoot and since I was not the official photographer, I just managed to get some shots in the Dewan where the reception was held.

Some shots of the decorative items in the hall:

Custom made chocolate bars where the bride and groom's pic are on the wrappers. Very nice!
What the goodie bags for the VIP table has inside:
And of course the bride herself.
There are some other pics but the bride herself has not even seen them yet so I am a bit reluctant to post them all here. Let's see if she will want to see the rest of it before I post them in future.