Soft stuff.

Nemo.

The fist of the fish tank. I was forced to use the 100mm Macro which has a very shallow depth of field. It is not easy focusing with that when you are pressed up against the glass.

Oops.

Sorry about that. I forgot about this single flower image. Tomorrow will be a fish tank, no more BS.

Prambanan

I’m almost done with photo from my holiday. The next batch will be of a single little fish tank at Jakarta Airport and then it is on to Korea stuff.

This photo, however, is of Prambanan Temple close to Yogyakarta in Central Java.

Sunset Over Somewhere

One of the last things I saw out of the window when coming back to Korea

Awkward Dialogue

A: Is there anything wrong with you?
B: I just feel terrible every morning these days.
A: You’d better go see a doctor.
B: I agree. I need to make an appointment soon.

(Where does this fascination with “these days” come from? It’s a bit strange and I never see it in a text book. In this conversation you don’t need it, at all.

*****

A: Can I offer you advice?
B: Yes, please.
A: That colour doesn’t match you.

B: OK, and the advice you were going to give?
A: That was the advice.
B: Really? Question…if I was a Smurf, what colour would match me? I’m guessing…Blue?
A: That is silly and you are not a Smurf.
B: OK then, soooo… skin colour would match me. Don’t you think that will make me look a bit, well, naked?

Cheap Side

Almost done with Indonesia, we are.

After visiting Prambanan Temple many people go to watch the traditional dance performance. At the venues there is a buffet available at 65000 Rupiah. By this time I was starting to get a bit tired of being taken to tourist places where they charge you prices like these. Sure, 65000 Rupiah is about 6500 won, not bad of a full mean, but in Indonesia that is not cheap, at all!

Because of the price, and because I was just not hungry, I decided to skip the buffet. My guide never ate with me. He would usually go get something cheap while I was busy doing other things, so while we were waiting he asked if it was OK if he went to get dinner. “Go? Out of here? Sure! Do they have something to drink, because I am parched?”

We ended up going to this little place about 2 minutes away from the performance area. You know those really dodgy, very cheap little places you get in the back streets of Korea? Those places that don’t seem capable of making anything other than ramyan? This looked like one of those.

My guide ended up buying me noodles, which I didn’t finish because, really, I wasn’t hungry. He also told me stories and interesting things about Indonesia which I would never have had the chance to hear before.

Don’t sit! You’ll mess up my display.

The room in one of the hotels in Indonesia where I stayed had a glass wall with natural light coming in from outside. It made for an interesting image.

I have one photo where you an see more of the reflection in the floor, but for this shot I would really have preferred a gray or some other dark carpet.

Poo Coffee

Civets eat the fruit of the coffee plants and then poops the beans out. Someone obviously collects this and makes coffee with it. As the sign says, this is the rarest, and maybe the most expensive coffee in the world. (I’m surprised there is any left with the Japanese so close by.)

I was really tempted to get a little pot, but decided I just didn’t have the time and wanted to explore the town a bit more.

Watch the Moo go by.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the better shot, but this Moo with the shiny black legs on the back of the motor cycle was priceless. God bless my new camera and the 30mm F1.4 lens. Sure, there is a bit of noise on the image, but with my previous camera I would never have been able to take clear photos with so little light.

Move the F*** away!

When you get to Jakarta’s international airport you find people sitting everywhere. They are just in the bloody way and makes moving with baggage the most frustrating thing you will do in a long time?

Before you can actually get to the check-in counters there are people checking your passport and booking. Why this weird thing? Because they have to keep these squatters away from the check in counters. We can’t very well have them just sit there, right there where people are trying to check in, can we? No we can’t!

In their defence, they might be on their way to Mecca which is often done in large groups. Many of the people who go there save for years and don’t really have the money to go sit comfortably in a coffee shop, bloody well out of my way.

Hong Kong Airport in Miniature

[Click to see the larger version]

Going to Indonesia I had a nice window seat and plenty of daylight. It was ideal for taking a high angle photo of Hong Kong Airport and creating a Tilt Shift Effect.

Hard Rock FM, Bandung, Indonesia.

I was stationary and in Bandung for only about 3 hours when I found myself on a radio station. What exactly do you answer to: “When you come home late at night and you are tired, what will turn you on?” 

This is civilization? I like it.

I finally moved in to my new apartment and it only took four hour to do so. The first two hours were the worst because one of the reasons I wanted to move was because that the old apartment was freezing in winter and boiling in summer. I was sweating like a pig because of all the open windows and the AC was thus ineffective. Now I just have to sort the chaos and filth that is the new.

The new apartment is bigger, cooler and in a much better location. I am removed from the traffic, so it is relatively quiet. I fell asleep to the sound of summer insects last night. Because I am now next to other apartment blocks and not isolated like I used to me, I can go outside and actually see people. Children are playing, people are sitting in the pavilions and some are walking with small bags of things they bought at the small shops outside of the complex

Speaking of shops, I now have a whole street filled with life. There are neon signs just outside the gate. I have food when I need it, I have convenience stores when I need it and there are always people moving about. Is this what it is like to live closer to civilization then?

My Friendly Tour Guide

Thought I’d start things off with an image from my recent trip to Indonesia. This is an old online friend of mine whom I had a chance to meet while I was there. I captured this image with the camera in my lap, pointing up at her, hoping for the best. It turned out much better than I could have hoped for.

Time to start this again, don’t you think?

I’m back in Korea after a nice three week holiday that took me both home and to Java. The new year is waiting and hopefully it will be accompanied by as much travel as I can manage. There is so much of Korea that I haven’t done and so much that I still want to do.

As for the blog, this will have to either get going again or I will have to just give up. I’m not sure I want to give up just yet…

This blog was always mostly about “traveling” and describing the experience, but after about two year there wasn’t much that was extremely strange any more. Everything in Korea now seems normal in its own way, so I have decided to turn the blog more in to a Photo a Day type blog. That DLSR needs lots of practice. Sure, there might not be an actual photo a day, but I will try to keep the posts regular and often. I will also try to accompany the photos with story descriptions, mostly to keep things more interesting for myself.

Hope this works for you. If not, oh well, not much I can/want to do about that.