If you have had the chance to see this news, you probably by now what this post means ans what is it about.
Well, if you did not catch up with this, I recently took over the good ol' camera from my father ; almost 30 years old and awfully fully manual !
Here are the results of the first two rolls. There are not much pictures (21 out of 24+36 !) as I had to discover a few tricks of the machine : manual focus, the 50mm lens is crap at f/1.8 (all blurred !), how to prevent uncalled shots, etc.... However, I find myself not unhappy with the results ; tinted like only the film can do and with good bokeh !
Most of the pictures feature my wife, most of them taken by myself as well. The #14 is one of my favorite portrait (of me) and I really like the #5.
#21, #23 & #24 are friends from Victoria.
Most of the pictures were taken in Saigon, Bangkok and Ayuthaya.
Now you may take a look.
You can check the pictures library to see these larger
** I comment some of these pictures here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexhh82/tags/ae1/
Version francaise dessous !
Lots of water
I arrived Monday 12th November of 2007 in Danang Airport ; the plane did not land I understood already something was wrong : water were usually there is not... Heavy rain, sea turned crazy... Visions of a disaster...
Below is the front page of the English speaking daily newspaper of Vietnam : Vietnam News. For those of you who knows the ancient town of Hoi An, you understand what the pictures means.
If you do not know Hoi An, it looks like this : !!Click! (The river is at the left hand side of the frame)... Now you know.
Other pictures below were taken by a security officer of the Victoria Hoi An Resort (excellent hotel, which stayed dry by the way) ; you understand these were taken from the roof !
Que de flotte !
Ci-dessus la une du journal anglophone du Vietnam : Vietnam News. Si vous connaissez Hoi An, vous comprenez le niveau atteint par l'eau tres aisement.
Si vous ne connaissez pas, au sec ca ressemble a ca :!!Click! (La rivier est au fond, sur la gauche du cadre)...
Les photos ci-dessous ont ete prises depuis le toit d'une maison d'Hoi An, par son proprietaire, un agent de securite du Victoria Hoi An Resort (excellent hotel, reste au sec d'ailleurs).
Quid de l'etat des maisons en bois, qui ont fait de Hoi An un site protege par l'UNESCO ?!
Avec beaucoup de retard....
English version along the test, in italics....
C'est ou & quand ?
En France pardi ! Petit resume du programme :
Depart de Saigon, Vietnam le 20 Septembre. Pour ceux qui ne connaisse pas ca ressemble a ca : !Click!
Arrivee a Paris...
- "Bienvenue a Paris - Charles de Gaulle, la temperature exterieure est de 8 degres...."
- Vous rigolez ?
- Non...
Apres un gelage de miches en bonne et due forme a la gare, depart puis arrivee a Lille ! Youpi ! Le Nord, les frites, les briques rouges... et le soleil ! J'y suis reste quelques jours, ce qui m'a donne l'occasion de bien voir ma famille, grand-mere, grand-tante et quelques autres en particulier. Que du bonheur.
Petit passage obligatoire avant de repartir : chez Lydie et Florent.
Encore bravo, mes jeunes maries preferes, je regrette de ne pas avoir pu rester jusqu'a la date fatidique... Mais merci pour la montee du terril.
Bref Florent, c'est un bon copain depuis des annees, on a passe le bac ensemble et commence nos etudes ensemble aussi ; nous aussi on etait libre (Yannick Noah comprendra). Il est quand meme beaucoup plus malin que moi, il a vite compris que l'informatique, c'est nul. Bref, Florent, c'est lui :
Florent and I met back in 1998 or something like this and we stayed in touched since. He just got married so let's welcome to the club of the "I know.... me too..." men.
Direction : le Sud ! (en TGV ; encore) a Aix puis vers le village du Castellet. Retour chez les parents et coucou a memere Kenzo.
Back in my birthplace, with my parents, we had some good time around, including a visit to a balloon show.
Vacances quelques peu ludiques, donc !
Sinon derniers jours a Paris - avec Guillaume, un autre pote pseudo-vietnamien qui penche entre le rouge et le rose - sous les auspices d'une longue reunion de travail et decollage direction Saigon le 9 Octobre.
Last days in Paris and its surburbs ; visit some friends and relatives there. Goold time ;) and then back home !
Et alors ?
Ben je suis pas alle en Suisee... Pas trop le temps, en fait, promis une prochaine fois.
I do love Angkor, and I will not present it here ; check the Wikipedia or the pictures... and let me know when you get there !
All the pictures (well, a selection of some of them) on http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexhh82/tags/siemreap/
Some useful info for the folks visiting sooner or later :
Where to stay (ok, I know, those are expensive) :
Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa to revive the 'explorator' & colonial style
Hotel de la Paix for its stylish environment
Relax after the days at the temples :
Lotus Blanc Spa
Bodia Spa
Transportation :
Call Mr. Vuthy, 012 214 467. He is very kind but unfortunately has a limited knowledge of the temples. Also, he has difficulties to talk. Well, whatever, he is the best driver I ever had : does not take risks, do not offer you 'lady bang bang' each 5 minutes, will not try to make you pay more & finally, will but water for you along the way.
Guides & Books :
What a good time we had !
Oh I almost forgot, Da Lat was built by the French, for the French. That's old good/bad time, but just because of that, I'd like to post in French for once...
More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexhh82/tags/dalat
La nuit a Da Lat
D'abord, c'est quoi "Da Lat" ?
C'est le lieu de villegiature des cadres francais du Sud Vietnam, durant la colonie... C'est un peu resume vite mais en gros on y est.
Il y fait bon vivre, c'est calme, pas trop de 2 roues, 3 roues, et autres 4, 6 et 8 roues. C'est vrai, en fait, vivifiant. Tout vert de verdure et tout bleu du ciel (voir golf ci-dessous)
Et la nuit, le lac devient le tour a faire des habitants, en tous cas des plus jeunes, qui louent des tandems et pedalent en couple, a trois voire a 4 parfois.
Et les habitants, dans tout ca ?
Un peu partout, en tous cas plus qu'ailleurs au Vietnam, on entend parler francais. Ce qui ne veut pas dire que les indigenes continuent de pratiquer la langue de Moliere, plusieurs decennies apres la fin de l'annexion. Le premier groups d'hotellerie a Dalat (Accor) est francais. Ca aide probablement a avoir une bonne proportion de touristes francophones, melanges aux riverains de moins en moins meduses de se voir de moins en moins isoles.
Car Dalat, c'est les montagnes. Perchee a 1500m d'altitude, la ville s'etend sur les collines environnantes, sans vraiment connaitre de limites. Le bon plan etait de louer une "motorbike" et sortir un peu de la ville. Julie, ca lui va bien, d'ailleurs la photo "Julie the Rider" ci-dessous a ete prise au bord de la route, a quelques 10km du centre-ville.
Sortir de la ville, c'est aussi aller a la rencontre des villageois et de la nature. On ne compte plus les cascades d'eau (meme marron ca reste jolie) et les villages des minorites. Signe d'une certaine ouverture au tourisme ? Oui, certainement et dans cette region, il est particulierement bien organise : des activites tels que randonnee, golf, pedalo sont faciles d'acces et bien sur, tres bon marche... D'ailleurs, les habitants de la region en profitent aussi...
Le marche municipal
Tous les jours, tous les soirs - en fait tout le temps ? - Dalat heberge un enorme marche. Autour du marche lui-meme mais aussi dans les ruelles adjacentes et le long de la rue qui mene au batiment principal.
La taille de la ville, probablement le climat aussi, rend les gens plus faciles d'acces et la sortie du soir au marche et l'occasion de voir une multitude de visages se cherchant, a l'affut du client, ou se promenant.
Dalat prie !
Tout particulierement, dans un village voisin (au passage, seule destination du seul train de la gare) une pagode assez particuliere se montre : deuxieme photo ici a droite. Elle n'a pas l'air d'etre comme les autres et pourtant : la tres grande majorite des murs sont recouverts, soit de peinture bouddhistes, on ne va pas leur reprocher, soit de bris de vases, de bouteilles (biere en particulier), de tasses et tout ce qui peut ressembler a du verre ou de la porcelaine...
L'ancien couvent vaut le detour aussi, pour son architecture et pour finir, la cathedrale de Dalat, achevee en 1942, et parfois appelee l'Eglise du Poulet/Coq est un bon test pour les yeux : la statue d'un coq est posee la ou il pourrait y avoir des gargouilles, mais sa taille et la hauteur a laquelle il est place ne le rend pas facile a apercevoir !
Dernier mot : on aime Dalat vraiment beaucoup et y retournerons c'est certain !
Plus de photos sur http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexhh82/tags/dalat
I love this picture. From the foreground to the background everything is blurred. How to achieve such results ? Isn't that amazing ? Well, hand a camera (film of course) to my mother and everything can happen.
What is that on the left hand side ? No, it is not a mysterious appearance of some alien. Probably the camera case... And how come it is that bright ? Was there any flash ? Oh no, we just cannot tell.
The background, you may guess is a castle. Actually a Hotel, the Gstaad Palace. We always loved this place and will always be wandering it.
You understood on the picture it's myself closely followed by my wife.
Ahhh... Good old times !
Hell no, don't agree with that, this picture was taken in 2005 !
Just got back from Honk Kong - amazing place. I had the opportunity to stay a little after a conference there. Take some pictures, open my eyes and here are some results !
The first thing that can be noticed, when arriving in Hong Kong for the very first time - and it is actually famous for that - is the huge amount of skyscrapers. They are just everywhere. You go out of the Airport with an Express train and from the first station (Tsing Yi, which is still kind of far from the city itself) you understand what concrete really is.
And it never stops.
Of course, many of these buildings are famous throughout the world, but in my opinion the night landscape of Hong Kong at night is just the best to see. Crazy. Even the clouds seem 'turning on' themselves to participate to the show (Symphony of Lights) and actually, they do participating in the show (top picture on the left).
**** Must do : Hong Kong's from sunset till' night @ the Peak (grab the Tram to get there)
**** Must see : Symphony of Lights show. From the Avenue of Stars
Obviously, the hotel I stayed was a tall building. Actually not tall at all : 20 floors. It was a great hotel for the price and I would strongly recommend you to go there if you look for something clean and tidy : Garden View International House
Markets and shopping
If there is a place, only one place, for shopping, this is it ! Hong Kong has many aspects of a giant super mall/shopping center. I am wondering how many square meters of commercial space there are for each inhabitants. Everywhere you go you can buy everything (well, almost everything).
Hong Kong is famous for its consumer electronics shops : from the Wii to the little 65 inches LCD - HD bla blah blah TV... Heard it is cheaper than everywhere else but I did not verify that, since I just bought a flashlight for probably the same price as it would cost elsewhere...
However, you always fall on the same products. And most of them are luxury products. Where does average people go shopping ? I'd like to know... What's nice is the specialized markets, the goldfish street is surprising.
**** Must do : get lost !
**** Must see : Goldfish Market and markets in the mini streets (almost everywhere)
**** Must avoid : Nathan Road's Indian Tailors
True : the subway works well ; taxis are not really expensive ; ferries are a must take.
False : bus are running frequently and easy to access (at least they're cheap)
Definitely, the old tram to the Victoria Peak is something to do. You pay the price for it (about 4 times the price of other trams) but the experience worths it. Then, from the Peak the view is amazing, particularly at night.
**** Must do : Tram to the Peak
**** Must see : All other transportations except :
**** Must avoid : Buses...
Most of the [hopefully good] pictures I took there are on this page as well as on my Flickr page.
What I know I missed :
- Night Horse Races
- Bus # 6 to the beach, South of Hong Kong Island
- Some museums
- Some temples
- Some galleries
- Many nice restaurants...
For more info about Hong Kong :
Take a look at C Ray Dancer's photos on Flickr, surely much better than mine !
- http://www.discoveryhongkong.com/
- Wikipedia page
Night is here, good time for shooting large...
This is a set of 6 pictures I took in Phan Thiet last week... out of 7 pictures...
Some say I am getting good with the thing :))
So, just drop a comment ;)
Thanks............................................................
Oh la belle nuit... Non ?!
Quelques photos recentes de Phan Thiet, sud-Vietnam. Elles me plaisent bien en fait et parfois je ne suis plus le seul a le penser.
Le vrai debut
It finally starts... for real !
