Park Ile Bizard 21 Nov 2009

Well this week's shoot took me to Ile Bizard. It is amazing what is out there if we only look.
Today's learning was around capturing texture and light when everything is going to sleep in preparation for winter. Enjoy and feel free to comment. These are non altered photos.
Camera: Canon G6

Park Ile Bizard

Biodome November 2009

A little photo trip to test inside photography skills. I have a long way to go - never mind the camera.

Rene Levesque Park Lachine Photoshoot

So now back to a cool autumn day in Canada and continuing in my new found passion of photography. Sharing a few unedited shots of the day. Critiques are welcomed.

Final words on our trip

Firstly, Ted & I would like to thank all of you who followed our trip. It was an amazing vacation and cultural experience. I have come back with over 1400 stills and 37 minutes of video clip. Needless to say I will not bore you with all of them. I am making some 10 minute clips of each town which still gives over 90 minutes in total.

As a closing, I would like to share a few more shots with you.

Luv you guys.

Cambodia - Ha Noi cont'd 1

Cambodia - Ha Noi cont'd

Cambodia - Ha Noi

Well it is 4:25 p.m. VN time. Ted & I are sipping local wine in our room awaiting dinner. We have bought an extra suitcase due to all the shopping we have done. This is a shopping mecca especially if you like asian style like myself.

We leave our hotel for the airport at 8 p.m. then arrive in Montreal on Thursday, 2 p.m. if all goes according to plan.

So the honey moon holiday is now coming to an end but the honey moon will continue long after we are back.

Cheers and hope to see you all soon. Thanks for following our trip and posting comments or sending emails if you could not post.

Jean - I look forward to our December get together.

Last Comments from Cambodia

Hi All,

Ted & I are now awaiting our flight to Hanoi where we close this incredible trip. It has been a great learning experience and has even made me requestion some of my beliefs.

Everywhere we went there were 'western facilities' which were even cleaner than back home. The only areas I did not use facilities was on a cheap train, the boat where waste just went directly to the river and one other place I do not remember.

People are extremely clean, warm and friendly. The culture shock is more with the bargaining. For someone like myself who prefers to deal on a one on one basis, quietly and reflectfully it was quite the experience. Of course Ted was in his element and I have to say I have benefitted from his skills and his generosity with lots of personal& household gifts.

Ted has also amazed me in eating the local food with me. Only rarely did he order western food. Now he is in for a surprise back home.

Some of the foods I have enjoyed are banaa flower chicken salad, lotus seed coconut soup & many a varied stir fry.

Tonight in Hanoi I will spend some time sorting some pictures while I sip on local wine so that I can post some shots for you all to see.

Love you guys. Wish you could be here to enjoy first hand what we did.

M&T

Cambodia - Angor Wat

Well we are both still alive, happy and extremely hot. This has been the longest trip Ted & I have spent alone and it's been terrific.

We are finding Cambodia, at least Phnom Penh and Angor Wat much cleaner than places we visited in VN. That is to say there have been no stains on table clothes,etc. Although in both places people are always washing.

I'm not sure how clean they are though as the water is dirty, rubbish on one side, toilet waste on another side and washing on the next side of the house.

Yesterday we visited Angor Wat temples. There was flooding in this regions just before we arrived and children were washing in this water off the roads. Not sure how all other life activities operate here. There are also a lot of dogs. Did I tell you we were offered dog and snake dinner in VN?

Anyway my friends, we leave Cambodia for Hanoi tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll be able to post a couple more pictures there before we head home.

We are off with our Tuk Tuk driver for a 5 hour tour of more temples. Ted has been terrific doing all this for me. He even waited 45 minutes while I climbed the top of a temple (3" wide steep steps) on my hands and feet then waited for the sun to set. Unfortunately it was too hazy to get any good colours.

Cheers and love to all from 2 converted tourists. We've decided we are now backpacking in the future trips to similar locations with only 2 articles of clothing.

M&T

HCMC - Cu Chi Tunnels - Can Tho - Chau doc - Phnom Penh

Hi all,

We are back on line. When earlier I had mentioned that we were back packing with suitcases I was not kidding. We've just finished a 3 day 2 night tour by boat from HCMC all the way to Phnom Penh. We are learning that there are surprises along the way that we did not expect - such as coming down and 18" wide gang plank from the boat with our luggage and trekking it through the mud and rain forest type areas. Sorry Terry - I'll have to clean up your suitcase before returning it.

We also threw our safety out the window, not only with the trip but we actually ate some local food from candy farms where the women & men were making candy while the dog ran around and lifted its leg on one of the pillars in the work area. Candies were delicious though! Then we actually had a swig of snake wine. It is quite potent and tastes like whisky. It wasn't until I went up to the jar to take a picture that I realised in this particular jar they had also put a dead whole chicken - and I mean whole, feathers, guts, head. I just hope the alcoholic killed any bacteria I was consuming.

We are now in Phnom Penh and head out tomorrow to Siem Reap.

A few pictures for you to savour.........

HoChi Minh City - Saigon

Well today we flew in to Sai Gon from Nha Trang. We were fortunate as we were ahead of the Typhoon that hit Hoi An. There were flight cancellations but these had no effect on our plans.

I have to say that I love the smaller towns of Viet Nam and the country side much more than their cities which are chaotic and dirty. Today we dined in a little restaurant at the corner of our street. A cochroah ran across the floor. Ted did not want to look at it. We still ate our dinner though.

We visited the Reunification Palace/Independance Palace today and were a little shocked to read about the other side of the story.

I cannot post pictures today as we are technologically limited. We head out the day after tomorrow to Can Tho, Chau Doc and then on to Phnom Penh. I don't think I'll be able to post until Phnom Penh as we'll be sleeping in "unstarred" hotels as well as a floating hotel.

So as soon as I can, I'll be back up with news.

Cheers

Nha Trang Mud Baths & Spa

Nha Trang Continued

More info on Nha Trang- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nha_Trang

Today we had our really first burn by a person stating that she was a student and wanted to sell cards. In the end when you convert everything we are paying into our money it is peanuts however when you realise you just got ripped off for the equivalent of a full meal with wine for 2 it still iritates you.

Anyway, that said, today was a day to visit the big white buddha and have a mud bath. Yes you heard right. We wallowed in the baths and pretended we were water buffaloes, maybe I bathed with a whale - not sure. So we spent 20 minutes in the double mud bath tub, then hot water bath, then onto hot (38) pool followed by cool pool. This was a fabulous way to relax. I do have to admit that I started a little short as I am so conscious of contracting some disease. Once I was able to get over this issue, I was able to relax and enjoy. Ted, well he just loves to play in the mud and doesn't give a s... to anything else. The only thing missing was of course our glass of wine.

After, we came back to town for lunch and of course wine. I had a delicious glass of red and mentioned to Ted that we had to upgrade our Viet Namese wine only to find out that I was drinking Australian (Mathew Lang Shiraz Cabernet - yummy yummy).

Tomorrow we head for Ho Chi Minh City.