Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban

I was very excited to see this week’s photo challenge theme. I consider myself to be an urbanite. I love the traffic, the tall buildings, the noise and the modernity of the cities I’ve visited and lived in. Here are some photos of some of the cities I have been to and adored.

Helix Bridge in Singapore

A narrow street in Kuching, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Seoul as seen from 63 Building

 

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting Moment

This week’s photo challenge was one of my favorites. The challenge is to post a photo of a fleeting moment on a street. The reason why I like this challenge so much is because I love street photography. I can attribute that to being a city person. The busyness of a city provides countless opportunities to capture many fleeting moments. Here are a couple from my collection.

Wedding Procession in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Motorcycles on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

First of all, sorry for my absence. I was away last week at a conference, but I’m back with two photos for this week’s photo challenge on hands.

Our tour guide slicing open some fruit at the fruit farm in Penang, Malaysia.

My mother-in-law looking for some colored thread.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

This week was definitely a challenge for me because I usually delete any photos that are unfocused. I did manage to find a couple though that didn’t end up in my virtual trash bin.

This photo was taken in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

This photo was taken at the Semmegoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia. Can anybody guess what animal is making its way through the trees?

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

Taken at Incheon International Airport as we waited to board our last flight from South Korea.

Taken during a jungle trek in Borneo, Malaysia.

A boat taxi in Kuching, Malaysia.

The Ways We Get Around

As you travel the world you get to see many different modes of transportation. Here are some photos taken from different places I’ve visited of the different ways people get around.

A motorcycle/car. (Negombo Beach, Sri Lanka)

Elephant ride. (Sri Lanka)

Kia’s new electric car; Ray. (Bukchon, Seoul)

Boat (Marina Bay Sands Mall, Singapore)

Boat taxi (Kuching, Malaysia)

Triways (Seoul)

Zipline (Boracay, Philippines)

Buggy Car (Boracay, Philippines)

Sailboat (Busan, South Korea)

Junk ship (Ha Long Bay, Vietnam)

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The Places I’ve Been

I was recently checking out a blog and saw the person had listed the countries they had been to by showing each country’s flag. I thought it would be a good idea to do the same and add a photograph from each country. I do not have photographs from some places because I went there before the days of digital cameras (remember film?). I hope that in the years to come that this list becomes even longer.

Canada

 

Niagara Falls

My home and native land. This is the country I have lived most of my life in. I will be returning to my home country within in the next few months.

China

 

Dancers at a Dinner Show in Xian

I first went to China in the spring of 2000 on a missions trip. After moving to South Korea, my wife and I decided to go back and see Beijing, the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors. It’s definitely a country I could revisit and explore again and again.

USA

My first experience traveling in the USA was with a college buddy. We drove from Edmonton to the Toronto area in his loaded down car. Instead of staying in Canada, we cut down through some of the northern states. A year later I would go back to Minneapolis for training for a summer job I had. I’m sure I will be back in the States next year to visit friends and be a tourist.

Netherlands

My time in this country was very short. I had about a 24-hour layover here on my way to Ukraine for a missions trip. Amsterdam is a beautiful city with some great photo opportunities. Unfortunately, my photos of Amsterdam are in a photo album buried in a cardboard box back in Canada.

Ukraine 

My time in Ukraine was spent in a small town near the border with Belarus. I was there with a team helping out at a local church. It’s a great country with friendly people. I definitely want to visit eastern Europe again.

South Korea

Deoksu Palace

South Korea has become like a second home to me. I have been living here since 2006 and only intended to be here for two years. I have enjoyed my time here and I will be sad to leave this country in 2012. I know that because of the connections I’ve made here, I will be back and I’m already looking forward to it.

Guam

This small island in the Pacific is a territory of the USA. We headed here during our first year in Korea to enjoy the beach, shop and be in a place that was a little like home.

Sri Lanka

Negombo Beach

I went to Sri Lanka over Christmas one year on a missions trip. This picture was actually taken on Christmas Day. Not a bad want to spend the holiday. It’s a beautiful country with amazing people. I highly recommend visiting this country if you get a chance.

Vietnam 

Water Puppets

Vietnam was a country that I’ve wanted to visit for years. I was lucky to visit this beautiful country a few summers back. It ranks as one of my favorite trips. The puppets are used in the water puppet theater in Hanoi, which is a show featuring large puppets in a pool of water. A great show for children and adults alike.

Golden Pavilion

I hesitated to visit Japan for the first few years I lived here in North-east Asia, mostly because of how expensive it is compared the rest of Asia. We decided to suck it up and visit our neighbor and have not regretted it at all. We spent our entire time in Kyoto. It’s a beautiful city with a ton of sights to behold.

Philippines 

Boracay

Our trip to Boracay, Philippines was a vacation to just relax, sit on the beach, read a book, swim in the ocean, and eat delicious food. We reached all of these goals while there.

Malaysia

Kek Lok Si Temple

Our trip to Malaysia was spent jet-setting from one beautiful place to another. The island of Penang was one of the highlights of the trip with its colonial buildings, temples and delicious food.

Singapore 

This city-state is a beautiful and modern place. It is one of my favorite cities in Asia. What’s not to love? An amazing zoo, beautiful skyline, and fun activities.

I hope that in the years to come this list will grow. Where have you been?

 

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From the Jungle to the River in Borneo

There’s only way way to enjoy Borneo and that’s to get as close as possible to nature. You need to get out there, walk through her jungles, spy on her wildlife, cruise on her rivers and look at her beautiful scenery. That’s exactly what we did on our second day in the Demai Beach area.

We knew one of the things we had to do in Borneo was go on a jungle trek no matter how short it would be. Our second day staying at the Demai Beach Resort provided us with a great opportunity to take a short (yet sweaty) hike through one of Borneo’s amazing rain forests. The path was in walking distance from our resort along a small highway. Once we got there we had to pay a small fee, check in, and we received a small sticker.  I guess they were afraid you might get lost. Which you might have if you took the long hike up a large hill, but we decided to take the shorter route through the jungle along the rain forest floor, on walkways and along a canopy.

The path was well marked with markers indicating how far you had walked. There were trees with blue paint on them in between these markers, for you to follow to make sure you didn’t venture off into the wild. There weren’t a lot of obstacles to overcome, but once we had to duck under a fallen tree.

We didn’t see a lot of wildlife on our hike. There were no monkeys to be seen and no exotic birds. We saw one reptile and a few large insects. There were also many colonies of ants. At one point we saw a line of ants walking along the ground and then up into a very tall tree. There must have been thousands of them walking together.

We saw more wildlife that evening on our river cruise with CPH Travel. This tour company provides many opportunities to get out and enjoy the great outdoors of Borneo. The tour guide picked us up at our hotel and brought us to the boat where we met up with the rest of the tour group. There were more fellow Canadians there and people from Europe. As we made our way up the river, the guide gave us all great information on the area and on the animals that we would be seeing. The animals, of course, were the main event of this boat ride. The first animal that we spotted was an Irrawaddy dolphin. These dolphins are unlike other dolphins and it is difficult to get close enough for a decent picture. The picture below is the only proof I have that I actually saw one.

The second species of animal we saw was the proboscis monkey. These monkeys are famous for their long and floppy noses. The proboscis monkeys we saw were hanging out in the tall trees along the riverbank right before sunset.

After seeing the monkeys we made our way further up the river to see the last animal of the evening. We had to wait until it was pitch dark to see the fireflies. We sat in the boat beside the riverbank as the boat personnel flashed their lights on the trees in the nearby trees. Once they did this the fireflies lit up. One firefly made its way onto the boat and stayed on the ceiling of the boat all the way back to the dock.

We are proud to say we got to experience some of the beauty of Borneo. We got to stand in her rain forests and admire the tall trees and we got to travel up one of her rivers and spy on her wildlife.

What’s the most beautiful place you have been to?

Want to see more pictures and videos? Then go ahead and click here.

Disappointment at Demai Beach

Our trip to Malaysia was a fun-filled holiday. Each day was packed with sights to see, tours to take and streets to be strolled on. We knew that each day would be like this before we left home, so we specifically planned for a couple of days at the beach. A couple of days for sore muscles to recover, alarm clocks to rest and for our shoes to take a respite. However, the beach portion of our trip didn’t live up to our expectations.

After our fun-filled morning of seeing the orangutans (see previous post), we had lunch and then took a very long taxi ride to Demai Beach Resort. This resort was supposed to be a paradise of relaxation, but, it was a bit of a disappointment. It was in desperate need of moderation. The hair dryer below was a perfect example of this.

That's one old hair dryer.

The rest of the room was just as old. On the positive side, the rooms were fairly large and gave a great view of the ocean and the nearby forested hills.

The view from our balcony

The resort is very large. So large that you really need transportation to get around or even to get to the lobby. Luckily, the resort had a shuttle service that was fast and the drivers were very friendly. Once, we had settled into our room, we decided to explore the resort grounds and the beach. The tide on the beach was pretty far out when we walked on it. The sand was covered in small crabs and their handiwork of tunnels.

Can you spot the little guy?

The walk on the beach and the shuttle bus rides made us hungry. We decided to try one of the three restaurants at the resort. The one closest to the ocean was a seafood restaurant called Fisherman’s Catch. The restaurant boasted fresh seafood. Our meal was less than memorable and not worth the money we shelled out (no pun intended) for it. What I do remember the most about the restaurant was the cat that walked around the restaurant, under our table and through our legs. I’m not a huge fan of cats and I prefer not to have them in a restaurant where I am eating. It just doesn’t give you great mental images of the cleanliness of the kitchen. The view from our table did help, at times, to take our attention away from the creature lurking between our feet.

The view from our table.

The resort has a ton of potential and it looks like it must have been a great place to stay at one time. I still believe that with some renovations and an upgrade into the 21st century, it can be an awesome place for rest and relaxation. It just didn’t impress us.

We thought it was important to take a mini vacation within our vacation to actually rest. A short beach trip almost guarantees a restful experience. In this case though, it didn’t. We realized that night that we wouldn’t be spending the next day laying on the beach. We knew we had better get out and explore, so we did. Stay tuned!

Have you ever stayed at a hotel that didn’t live up to your expectations? Tell me about it…

See the beach photos here.

Orangutan Watching in Borneo

One of our goals in visiting Malaysia was to see wildlife. There’s no better place to do this than on Borneo. Borneo is home to vast rain forests with exotic plants and animals. One of species of animals is the orangutan. These red-haired apes are very large and extremely intelligent. Sadly, their habitats are shrinking because of development. It is now very difficult to find them in the wild. Fortunately for these long-armed creatures, there are a number of rehabilitation centres which try to help them and eventually release them back into the wild. We visited one of these centres called Semmengoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

The centre is located about a 30 minute drive from Kuching and we went there on a tour. We had booked the tour through the hotel the day before with the hope of getting there to see the early morning feeding at 9:00 AM. We waited in the lobby for our tour guide who was late by about 30 minutes. Then to further promote our lateness, he had to stop and get gas. While filling up, he neglected to turn off the engine (dangerous!). By the time we arrived, we were late and one of the staff was already calling the orangutans to their morning feeding. Luckily, we didn’t miss anything, as the red-haired giants were a little slow in coming. The centre does not force the animals to come to the feeding. They are free to come and go as they please. It really is a gamble if you will see any apes at all. We were lucky because we saw 4 altogether.

Coming for breakfast

There may have been 4 orangutans altogether but, there were only two stealing the show and they were the mother and baby. The mother and baby went to the feeding platform, grabbed a coconut, walked along the path toward us and climbed a nearby tree. Once they were situated, the mother took the coconut and began to hit it against the tree with one hand until it broke open.

That mother has one strong-arm

First, the mother and baby sucked out the coconut milk and after that, cracked the coconut open completely so , they could eat it.

Eating the fruit of their labour

Once they finished the coconut, they hung out in the tree for a bit.

They eventually tired of this and descended the tree, walked down the main path and then ascended up into the tall trees away from the prying eyes and camera clicks.

We wanted to see wildlife and we definitely wanted to see the red-haired natives of Borneo and we were successful. We didn’t get to see them in the wild per see, but we did get to see them hopefully, on their way back to the wild. Hopefully, in the years to come, these animals will be seen in the rain forests more often and development finds a way to cooperate with nature instead of destroying it.

More apes gone wild pics here.