Sukhothai Historical Park

From the Sanskrit meaning of “Dawn of Happiness”

Buddha in sukhothai park duirng sunset.
Buddha in sukhothai park during sunset.

Thailand’s most impressive World Heritage Sites constructed during the Kingdom of Sukhothai era from 1235-1438 AD. Spreading over an area of 5 km, this ruin is too big for you to walk within a few hours. Having your own transport is the most convenient and comfortable to get around. Your transport can drop you near the entrance where you can walk and explore on your own the nearby ruins. There are many scattered over a large area, some are quite well restored while some are just pile of bricks. Quite a number of the Buddha statures are said to be original.

An early morning tour or late afternoon is the best time to be there as it’s cooler and give you more choice of photo opportunities.

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by kelvchan

Cruising on the wild side in Botswana

Chobe National Park

River cruise at Chobe National Park, Botswana
Evening river cruise at Chobe National Park, Botswana

There was a loud thud at the back of the boat follow by a loud splash of something big hitting the water. Almost at the same time we all turned our attention away from the group of hippopotamus less than 5 meters in front of us. We throw a questioning look at Innocent, our local guide but he gave us an equally innocent look and says “oh it just crocodile chasing fishes and hit our boat.” Oh great, in front of us a group of hippos lying half submerge and doesn’t look too happy at being disturb from their afternoon nap and beneath our tiny boat crocodiles are chasing fishes in wild abandon. Welcome to the Chobe River cruise.

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by kelvchan

Zimbabwe

Somewhere over the rainbow

rainbow over Victoria Falls
rainbow over Victoria Falls

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high,

There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.


Somewhere over the rainbow

Skies are blue,
and the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

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by kelvchan

Namibia

Explore the rugged and wild parks, or take roller coaster ride on a 4×4 at the multiple story tall sand dunes..

NamV1_DSC7051 …The sound of the crashing wave from the Atlantic Ocean against the sand dune, the rustlings of shifting sand in the desert to the calls of the wild in the National Parks are just some of the excitement you will find in Namibia. The diversity is there. The effect of colonization by the Germany is still evident in the building especially in Swakopmund with its German like township.

And a visit to the Himba tribe will take you back to the future. Or the a visit the huge Etosha National Park will brings you face to face with the wild side of Africa. Self drive into the park with Zebras and deer running by the side as the Giraffe and elephant move ever so slowly and occasional keeping an eye on you.

As for the king of the savannah, it will depend on your luck. We only saw a family of them sleeping lazily under the tall bushes sheltering themselves from the hot afternoon sun.

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by kelvchan

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Flying over Kuala Lumpur

 

KL city skyline
A morning  hazy view of KL city skyline

An aerial view of Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding area to Petaling Jaya. This was shot one morning flying in a helicopter over Kuala Lumpur. Taking off at the Subang Airport it takes about 30 mins to reach the city centre. As the assignment was to capture the city area of  KLCC and its surrounding. The weather in the morning was hazy thus making it difficult to shoot from a far distant as visibility was bad. Continue reading “Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia”

by kelvchan

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg, Russia
Saint Petersburg, Russia

At the end of our Trans-Siberian Railway journey at Moscow we spend a day in Saint Petersburg before flying back to Kuala Lumpur. It is Russia’s 2nd largest city after Moscow. Getting to Saint Petersburg is quite enjoyable as the comfortable train took only 3 hrs. from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. We took a light breakfast and coffee at the restaurant coach and soon we were at Saint Petersburg. We took a taxi to our guesthouse located near the Bronzeman Statue in a block of old apartment. The rooms are small but at least are clean and comfortable and it come with a good breakfast.

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by kelvchan

The Moscow Metro

Exploring the artistic interior of Moscow Metro

moscow metro

It was opened in 1935 with 13 station and now is has 196 station with a total route length of 327.5km. It has one of the world deepest station at 74 metres underground. Some of the stations have very classic art deco, scultpures, elaborate design and lightings. It’s worth going on a station tour just to enjoy the interior.

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by kelvchan

Trans-Siberian Railway – Moscow stopover

Day 14, 15 & 16     5-7 oct

Saint Basil’s Cathedral at blue hour
Saint Basil’s Cathedral at blue hour

Arrived Moscow in the morning. Directly transfer to hotel but was still too early to Check in. It was raining but was not too heavy for us to go out and look for places for a early lunch. After the last 5 days in the train I was looking forward to some proper food. There is not much choice of restaurants near our hotel. After walking for awhile, we saw a Italian Restaurant across the street and the few of us decided to have lunch there. After a hearty lunch we went back to hotel to check in.

Then we were off to the Red Square and stayed till after dinner when we return to hotel. Visited Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the surrounding area of Red Square. We had dinner at the GUM State Departmental Store at the food court which served a variety of food including Asian and Japanese . GUM is a luxurious mall with up market products and the prices to match.

The next 2 days, we catch up with some local landmarks, tourist spots and spend a whole morning ‘touring’ the station in the Moscow Metro and spend the evening back at Red Square for sunset and blue hours shooting. Continue reading “Trans-Siberian Railway – Moscow stopover”

by kelvchan

Trans-Siberian Railway : Irkutsk to Moscow

Day 1  Thu  2 Oct  Irkutsh – Moscow Train depart 1.45am. Mid night check out go to train station.

5 Days & Nights on the Train from Irkutsk to Moscow

TSDF-11390

This is the longest section of our Tran-Siberian Rail journey and also the most boring 5 days/nights. The weather was either raining or snowing, other time it was just too cloudy and dull to take picture from the moving train. To make matter worst, the windows on the train was lock and was too dirty to shot thru them. And the woman who looked after our coach was a gruppy Russian woman who doesn’t wash the toilet daily.

Most of the powerpoint in our coach has no power supply, or the power supply was too weak to even charged my iPhone.

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by kelvchan