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Hoi An: The grand dame of Viet-nam
- Aperture: f/16
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000 s
- Focal Length: 14mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Vietnam, for reasons I’ll explain in my next blog post, was my least-favorite country of the 16 Him and I visited on our World Trip. Hoi An, despite the ridiculous lack of leg room provided on the JetStar flight we took to get there, was an exception. The former port trading town is located in…
Exceeding maximum wat-age
- Aperture: f/14
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/250 s
- Focal Length: 20mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
The name “Angkor,” tends to conjure up images of Angkor Wat, that massive, 200-hectacre Khmer temple and its lotus-like towers. But Angkor Wat is just one of the scores of temples within the ancient city of Angkor. Angkor Archaeological Park passes are issued in one ($20), two ($40) or three-day ($60) increments to allow time…
“Paging Mr. Petronas…”
- Aperture: f/6.3
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/80 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
In all honesty, I think we chose Kuala Lumpur as our next destination because the name sounded exotic. It didn’t matter anyway. We spent our first two days in the Malaysian capital in bed, recovering from Thailand’s parting gift to us: food poisoning. When we finally emerged from our hotel at the crossroads of Chinatown…
“Oh my Buddha!”
- Aperture: f/16
- ISO: 200
- Shutter Speed: 1/20 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
We had been hiking, single-file, through the bamboo jungle of Khao Sok National Park for about an hour when a dreadful notion suddenly teased my over-active imagination: This was an ideal scenario for tour guides with malicious intent to rob us and leave us to wander helplessly in the wild. Anticipating wading through the chilly…
Top-10 porter loads on the Everest Base Camp Trek
- Aperture: f/18
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/320 s
- Focal Length: 20mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Nepal’s Sherpa population has served as the backbone of the country’s tourism industry ever since the first westerners set their sights on Mount Everest’s summit. Despite the passage of more than 150 years, Everest and her base camp remain isolated, the rough terrain preventing construction of true roadways or railways. Crude “airports” dotting the region…
Why I’ll never look at my monopod the same way again
I’ve lived in Florida most of my life. Spiders generally don’t bother me. In fact, I keep a designated “spider cup” and junk mail envelopes handy for humanely relocating arachnid friends from our home to our garden. I like to imagine they appreciate my assistance reuniting them with their kin. Naked and dripping wet from…
…Lest you become a sticky rice
- Aperture: f/7.1
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/100 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
I wiggled out of my shoes and mounted the steps of the Wat Phra Singh temple, one of Chiang Mai’s most venerated sites. After a week in Thailand, I was well aware that Buddhist monks are not allowed to touch women — or even directly accept anything a female attempts to hand them. And as…
12 Craziest scooter cargo sightings
- Aperture: f/6.3
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/80 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
You might have heard scooters and motorbikes are a popular form of transportation in Southeast Asia. Wages are small and gasoline is expensive (the equivalent of $1.20 USD per liter in Vietnam, for example), so the majority of families that can afford motorized transportation opt for the two-wheeled variety. In Bangkok, designated moto taxis ferry…
Hanging with Buddha and Si Quey in Bangkok
- Aperture: f/13
- ISO: 200
- Shutter Speed: 1/160 s
- Focal Length: 10mm
- Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Our first impression of Bangkok was exceptionally positive. This was largely due to the fact that our room at Silom Art Hostel happened to be about eight times the size of our Singapore hostel — and half the price. Plus, it had character: colorful paint flicked haphazardly on the walls, a sewing table modified into…
As gold elephants gather dust…
Throughout Southeast Asia and India, something repeatedly bothered me, fogging my brain with a cloud of annoyance that grew in size with every temple, palace and shrine we visited. While walking through the Silver Pagoda within Cambodia’s Royal Palace complex in Phnom Penh, I couldn’t keep my big mouth shut any longer. “I don’t understand…