Worldwide Photo Walk 2009 in Bangkok Chinatown

It has been almost a year since I brought myself into a photography. And it has become my main hobby nowadays. I have never ever thought that I can come this far. From a few of point and shoot cameras in 6 or 7 years ago, then the first DSLR camera, Canon 450D, in late last year and now I shoot a photograph with my second DSLR camera – Canon EOD 5D.  I have not even had an idea to join in any photography events. However, yeah… I finally did it recently.

Last two weeks, on 18 July 09, my friend (Leo) and I took part in the Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk. Briefly, the photo walk is a social photography event where photographers get together, usually in downtown areas, to walk around, take photos and generally have fun with other photographers. We joined in a group of the three groups of the Chinatown route in Bangkok this year.

My group photo, one of three teams of the Chinatown walking route

Chinatown walking street

Chinatown map

We spent about two hours from 4-6pm. Walked along the pathway from Wat Trai-mitr to a main business road, Yaowarat Road, and meandered to many alleyways till we finished the walk at a seafood local restaurant for gathering moment and grabbed some dishes to fill up our stomach.

Well, I have to say it was the first time and probably only once time in my life that I had a chance to roaming around and taking photos in Bangkok Chinatown like this occasion. It was really fun and I will keep looking forward to the next year event.

Here… they are some photos from my own viewfinder.

A vespa

A worker at back door

A motorbike in alley

A thirsty cat

Crumpler bag in comparison – “5 Million Dollar Home” vs “6 Million Dollar Home”

I did a couple reviews of my Five and Six Million Dollar Home Bags. Here are my two previous postings of them, 5MDH and 6MDH. Consequently, I got a few questions asked about the size different of these two bags and also their own capacity to contain photo gears. As you see the two bags are in same family, Million Dollar Home, thus the design of the bag is exactly the same. What differentiate these two bags are their dimensions and numbers of configurable padded dividers. The 5MDH comes with 2 padded dividers while the 6MDH does have 6 dividers.

Here are photos compared size by size of these two bags.

Front - 5MDH vs 6MDH

Side - 5MDH vs 6MDH

Like brother and sister

In addition, I also have a few photos to show you what photo gears the 5MDH can hold.

5MDH can hold all these gears

Size shape when the gears loaded

Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, Thailand

“Mountains of Three Hundred Peaks” –  I have been to Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park many times in the past years. However, apparently I have never made a destination to Phraya Nakhon Cave which is located in part of Limestone mountains of the National Park area. Well, I finally made a trip to there during the Songkarn holidays last week.

Taking a boat from the Laem Sala Beach is the easiest way to go to the cave. After 10-15 minutes riding a boat and landed on a beach, a short distant walking through the rainforest  leads you to a sign of another path to the cave. A 430m steep uphill mountain trek is the real way to take you to the cave. 

Approching a beach in front of the cave entrance

Phraya Nakhon Cave is actually two sinkholes whose roof has fallen in, letting in sunlight. If you could go through the rocky trek, there is the Subterranean sanctuary of the King Rama V’s pavilion which is well worth to your climbing effort to see. 

The Kuha Karuhas pavilion built for a visit by King Rama V in 1896.

 

The beautiful Thai-style Royal pavilion

Limestone wall in the cave

Songkran Festival 2009, unforgettable times in Thailand

The traditional Thai New Year is the Songkran Days, officially celebrated every year on 13-15 April and lasts between 3 to 10 days, depending on where you are in Thailand.  Though it seems to be well-known as the water-splashing festival for tourists nowadays, Thai people traditionally spend a time to visit and pay respect to the elders in their family, friends and neighbors. And also people go to a temple to pray and give food to monks.

In this year 2009, the Songkran festival had become notable periods for Thailand, not in a good way though. I will not go into details of the chaos in Bangkok and Pattaya. Those matters are not considered as the “Worth” in my own blog theme. 

None of Thai people would like to experience the Songkran celebration like what we just had either in Pattaya or Bangkok recently, I dare to say this!  The only war we are keen and looking forward to is a battle of water gunfires, not tear gas…

“Sawasdee Pi Mai Chao Thai” = Happy New Year to Thai People.

May the force be with you-

Distant Look in Black and White

A snapshot is one of my favorite photographs I like to do and still keep practising my own skill. When I snap people photos I always find myself pay attention to their eyes.  Looking at people eyes is such amazing moment especially when they are in thought.