Photo TR of Asia (1/22 - a favor to ask!)

[JDo217]

I've tried so many times to use the TPR server but my files are more than double the limit. Most of mine are around 5.5 MB as jpegs. I think some of the flickr photos are gone because I deleted some of the less satisfactory ones a few days ago from my account.

 

I will check and try to re-upload though.

 

Also, for the TPR trip if anyone is into hiking there are nice spots in Tsing Yi and Lok Fu with great views of the city, but they're a bit off trail. Also, you can hike up to the top of Victoria Peak if you want. It's pretty tiring but very satisfying when you reach the top.

 

And the light show is indeed very disappointing. It's cool for the first few seconds but then you realize it's just the same hting over and over. I'm assuming you went to Victoria Harbour, which has a pretty nice view of Hong Kong Island but you have to go either before 7 or after 9, since it gets packed for the show.

[gisco]

I checked your photos and none of them seem to be that large, at least not the ones coming from Flickr. All you have to do is resize them to around 800x600, the prefered size, and that should shrink them enough in size.

 

When you deleted some of your photos, it caused the white box to appear. This is why we do not feature reports in the park index or the front page if they are not on the TPR server.

[JDo217]

Some testing to see if this works. Hopefully it will. Anyway, the first three are just some holdover pictures untill my next trip.

 

My trips are finalized now! Here's the list:

 

-Taiwan in two weeks

-Guilin + Yangshuo (!!!!!! so f***ing excited for this you have no idea) in early December

-Seoul/Korea, Tokyo/Japan, and Singapore at the end of December into early January

 

I was hoping to go to Cambodia as well but looks as if I won't have time.

some night time street candids

Central

Kowloon with mountains in the background

Central as seen from the peak

An actual clear night in the fall, which is very rare.

Bank of China building

[coasterer]

This whole TR is just wonderful. Your pictures are stunning and I, for one, am a sucker for reports that include a little more than just the coasters. It seems as though you're having an incredible time and I can't wait to see the rest!!

Thanks for uploading!

-Danny

[JDo217]

Thanks, it means a lot

 

Anyway, here are two photos I've taken in the past week that I'm really proud of. I'm normally very critical of myself so this is a big deal for me I guess.

 

Also: would anyone who's been to HK Disneyland say it's worth it to go for a night just to soak in the atmosphere and take some pictures? And ride space mountain of course, but if I go for serious pictures, I'll rpobably have a tripod with me and it'll be difficult to do stuff

Lai King stacks in Kowloon, Hong Kong. This is actually a 2x3 pano

Bank of China building with a bit of a different perspective?

[netdvn]

Could you post a link to your Flickr page?

 

Those city shots are fantastic! I'd love to see more.

[JDo217]

Sure. Sorry, I thought clicking the pics would go through to flickr but I guess not. Here it is

[JDo217]

Bringing this up to say that I've finally started a blog on my travels. There are a million blogs out there where people blog about their day and include relevant pictures splattered throughout the post. I figured that instead of doing that - because let's face it, it's really boring anyway - I would try to post one meaningful photo that I've taken each day. I'll include a few paragraphs about the image as well and maybe a few relevant facts about Hong Kong. I'll also give layman's reviews on equipment that I own or have used

 

I think this will really help me think more about what pictures I take too.

 

http://asianinasia.wordpress.com/ (hope this is allowed since I have more than 50 posts!)

 

I'm going to Taiwan in two days time. I'm hoping to get back to Macau to actually get decent pictures too, since it's not terribly expensive.

[Groteslurf]

This is one amazing report. I love the pictures. Hope to go there one day.

[JDo217]

I submitted my blog to this travel website and they actually accepted it and posted it on their website! Hopefully that will get me some more hits their website here I'm on the very bottom, but hey, you have to start somewhere!

 

anyway, not much going on in the way of pictures right now i've been diligently touching up pictures for my blog, but since the originals of those pictures were already posted here I won't bother again. however, there are a couple of new ones I'll post soon.

 

I'm headed to Taiwan today so I should have some nice stuff

[JDo217]

Here is a massive update from Taiwan:

 

Stayed in Taipei for the weekend but had to cut short my trip since my professor scheduled a last minute test for this Tuesday. So I went back alone while my friends stayed another day. I ordinarily wouldn't care but this professor is easily the worst teacher I've had in all my years of schooling, and this is coming from someone who never complains about teachers.

 

Please leave feedback and post comments. This is actually the first place I'm posting these photos. They'll be posted on my blog soon too so I'd love if you could check that out! I'm uploading via the TPR server this time and I swear to god this better work because I just spent more than 30 minutes doing all this..

 

My two cents on Taiwan: I enjoyed it MUCH more than anywhere in China so far, and I was only here for 2 days! By western standards, the city is pretty densely populated even though the population is only like 3 million. But you actually have personal space compared to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, etc. The people very incredibly friendly - all of them, the random people on the streets, the small shop owners, everyone. Also much more orderly compared to the mainland...

 

Anyway, we did lots of touristy stuff on day 1 - chiang kai-shek memorial hall, taipei 101, etc. Highlight of the day: dropping my entire camera setup and really expensive lens onto the sidewalk in the rain because Nikon's camera straps are s***. My camera is in perfect condition, but the lens filter got impacted on the fall and it basically stuck on my lens. I wouldn't care except that moisture got trapped in there and it got really foggy. This was my best lens (and most practical one too) so for most of the night I couldn't get usable pictures of Taipei 101. Anyway, lens was fine next day but I'm getting the camera and lens serviced by Nikon soon to be sure

 

day 2 we went to Wulai village during the day. It's a really beautiful and scenic village in the mountains along a river. We went to a hot spring as well, and all I'll say is...it was a nude experience. That night we went to Shilin Night Market, which was really cool at chaotic. The food was AMAZING. Not bragging, but I think I'm definitely improving my picture-taking skills. I'm cutting down on how many pictures I take and a bigger percentage of them turn out to be keepers now

Japanese colonial building

Liberty Square

Liberty Square as seen from the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Soldiers putting on a show in the memorial hall

It rained...

...all day long.

Ran into the middle of the street for this...didn't realize it was two-ways and got honked down pretty badly.

Nice little coffee shop we ducked into to ride out the rain (fyi it never stopped).

Crappy picture from the top of Taipei 101. Reflections and dirty windows ruin everything

If you're wondering how to get this "special effect," just drop your 5-pound camera and most expensive lens on the sidewalk in heavy rain. Make sure the lens filter gets jammed on the lens. Also make sure you get tons of moisture trapped between the filter and front element.

A street corner in Ximen, which is a pretty crowded shopping area

Taipei MRT. Not as nice or efficient as Hong Kong's, but it works and is way better than the crappy MTA we have in NYC so I can't complain. The people are also really orderly and actually queue up (compare to the mainland..)

Wulai village streets by day. It was mostly dead despite being a Sunday

The church on the hill is actually part of an Ulay village further along the road. We walked through it but there wasn't too much to see.

Follow the road to...

A village in the mountains. It was really quite beautiful...

This is HDR, but the water was actually more or less that color. It was "tropical," but it was an odd opaque aqua color.

Very scenic

again

shenanigans

Streets of Wulai at night really come alive with color. You can't see from this picture but it got much more crowded later on as well.

Some noodle dish I don't know the name of

A candid of my friend. She didn't really know that I was taking a picture, she just happened to be smiling to herself haha

On the way to the Shilin night market

Here it is: the Shilin night market in all it's glory. The food was FANTASTIC.

Since I had to leave the next day, my friends agreed to go to a beef noodle shop that night. SUpposedly very good in Taiwan. I liked it...

Edited November 23, 2011 by JDo217

[RoCo]

These photos are jaw-dropping. They all make me want to get right up, drive to LAX and get on a plane. Just fantastic.

 

Please keep them coming! And thanks!

[JDo217]

I was just browsing this thread and realized I didn't upload a few oldies that I finally touched up, so here they are.

Rush hour in Hong Kong is a stampede to transfer trains

Rush hour again

The mob to get on the train

Goofing off on Sharp Island in Sai Kung, HK

Population explosion in Qibao, Shanghai

This guy was selling roasted chestnuts, but it looked like coal. Editing is blah

Jing'an temple is older than the city of Shanghai itself. It sits in the midst of modern skyscrapers. Editing job is horrible, but you should've seen the original shot...

Shanghai skyline. Edited a little because the lights were actually off on the buildings so I had to expose this for like a minute

[JDo217]

It's finally time for an update! I went to Yangshuo, China for 3 days. It's a medium/small town with really gorgeous scenery. Much much much nicer than any of the big cities in China. The only other place I think may be nicer is Zhangjiajie (nicknamed the "Avatar mountains" because it supposedly inspired the world of Pandora from Avatar).

 

I rode a night bus for the first time. it was a sleeper bus so everyone is crammed into beds which are very short. I'm like 5'5" and only just had enough room to stretch my whole body out. but overall, it was comfortable and not too bumpy.

 

We took a raft along the Li River and it seriously reminded me of the Jurassic park ride from universal, except without the dinosaurs and way nicer. It also reminded me of that kid's show The Land Before Time We went to the Rice terrace farms even though it's not really in season yet. They were still really nice and we met up with a bunch of other exchange students that were from the same school as us.

 

also, the last day we biked along a smaller river and rode through small chinese villages and it was increidbly scenic. some european friends said that the little kids threw rocks at them and asked for money but that never happened to us. everyone was actually really friendly, but that might be because 2/3 of us were asian. we hiked up a small mountain/hill with a view of the villages, went to a cave mud bath and hot spring (really lame), and made it back to Yangshuo in time to witness a sunset over the mountains and catch the night bus back to Hong Kong

 

I lost my tripod forever on this trip. i gave it to my friend to hang onto and she left it on the bus. half my fault i guess for not making sure she took it off the bus, but i'm still pretty pissed about it

 

Comments and shares appreciated btw, is there some multi-photo uploader i don't know about? because uploading one by one and having to have the page refresh after each photo is kinda tedious

Street corner in Yangshuo. The backdrop is incredible and the town has a very traditional feel

The illustration on the 20 RMB bank note is a scene from the Li River actually

Us being silly with the 20 RMB notes

skies, mountains, trees, river

bamboo rafts

most of the "bamboo" rafts on the Li River aren't really made of bamboo anymore. but here's a genuine one being rowed by a fisherman

nightlife in Yangshuo is actually quite vibrant

we went to a place called the long hair village, so named because the women there only cut their hair once in their lives and then let it grow out. they ask for 2 volunteers to get "married" to a woman from the village during this show, and one of the kids from my school volunteered

rice terraces in all their winter glory, aka no rice but also no snow

village in the terrace farms. i'm really not happy at all with the editing on this one. ill probably redo from scratch eventually

this idiot would be me

went back to the night market on day 2. this is west street, named because it attracts "many" foreigners

as I said, i lost my tripod. then i found this scene. ugh. i had to at least try though. it was hard. nothing to brace my camera on, too dark to see, couldn't get down to the riverbank because it was too steep. yay for fast lenses

the street leading to our hostel that we walked along every morning. it was so peaceful to just watch the locals go about their daily routine

this isn't yangshuo, but another village nearby. not satisfied with this edit either so i'll redo

on our last day, we biked along the countryside. it was beautiful. h1n1 anyone?

passing through a really small town

we got back to yangshuo in time to see the sunset. we tried to find this big hill to view it from but got lost, so we settled for a smaller one instead. the view was breath-taking

the lights came on a few minutes later

other side

once again, no tripod

just goofing around up top

there was this small temple-like structure at the top of the hill

bought this at the night market for 20 rmb. pretty sure it's called a hulusi in english

last night at the night market with a full moon in the background. really gonna miss this place :/

[JDo217]

btw, sorry for no coaster pics recently. my promise to TPR is to have at least one update featuring an amusement park before the end of my trip

 

-there's a good chance i'm going to ocean park to check out the new coaster next week

-slight chance i'm going to everland when i'm in korea

-probably at least stopping by tokyo dome city for pictures of that intamin

-slight chance i'm going to universal in singapore (my roommate gets some sort of discount on tickets apparently)

 

I feel like I'm talking to myself -_-

[Coastinmiller]

Wow. Stunning photos. Thanks for sharing.

[pyrocoasterkid]

I feel like I'm talking to myself -_-

 

With pictures as amazing as that, trust me, people will notice and comment. While I don't post regularly, I do love to read the PTR's and yours has been one I've followed I've seen with every posting. I was lucky enough to see Europe a few years back and Central America 6 years ago, so I have had a "travel bug" to head to the Far East. I'm especially envious of all the trips TPR does over there. I now have some family in Tokyo and am hoping to get there within the next few years. Just know, that your pictures (along with the other PTR's) have me dying to go! Even the pictures where you aren't happy with the editing are beautiful.

 

Amazing pictures and entertaining reports and captions! I think I can speak for quite a few when I say keep 'em comin'!

[JDo217]

At long last, I have an update with a theme park. Went to Hong Kong Disneyland. I've been to Disneyworld before but this was my first time at a Disneyland. We were trying to decide between Ocean Park and HKDL, with the former having just opened Hair Raiser and the latter just opening Toy Story Land. I'm sad I didn't get to ride the B&M but honestly, HKDL was fantastic.

 

I wish I could've gotten more pictures of Toy Story Land but it was actually pretty difficult at night. My lens has no problem with super low-light situations but I found the lighting in HKDL to be really odd. Everything was just really unnaturally dark except for Main Street. I have a feeling TSL looks very different during the day but we didn't make it back there till after dark. the parachute ride looked interested but it was a 40 minute wait so no thanks

The carousel. There's some lens flare on the bottom right god dammit. I wouldn't normally care but this was a really expensive lens and advertised to cut down on flare. Thanks Nikon

Space Mountain

The exterior of Space Mountain at sunset

Buzz Lightyear ride was pretty lame

space cafe

it's a small world

it was themed rather nicely. the theme song was nice but gets on your nerve after the 7832596th time

Toy Story Land!

The line for RC Racer. It honestly would've only been a 25-30 min. wait max but it broke down, which is how I knew this is Intamin (I think...?)

the cars were pretty cool

Toy Story Land is lit pretty nicely at night

Tarzan's Jungle Treehouse was pretty nice. These pictures were really hard to get since there's very little ambient lighting in HKDL except at Main St

when jane met tarzan

i'm having some weird exposure issues with my camera, and these pictures aren't the easiest to fix...

Main Street was a dream at night, complete with fake snow

fireworks show...i wasn't the only one with a camera

wish this kid was wearing the mickey mouse ears correctly so you could actually tell what they are

magical

HK Disneyland seriously creates a 3rd rush hour on the MTR. it was PACKED heading back

Edited December 20, 2011 by JDo217

[Jew]

Glad to hear HKDL was busy! I really liked the park, but all you hear are reports of how dead it is (as it was during TPR's last visit).

[speedmetal]

I love your photos...they are amazing. I can't wait to see more.

[BDG]

Great photos. They really capture the atmosphere of the park.

[better_by_design]

SERIOUSLY great photos. I am super jealous. What are you shooting with? And especially the daytime shots, really silky smooth - camera settings, or processing?

 

Also really glad to see HKDL doing some business - when I visited a couple years ago it felt like I was on a private theme park tour. Which was cool, but saddening. If nothing else, I need to go back and see the 3 new mini-lands in a couple years - and they definitely look like they do seasonal events right!

[RoCo]

SERIOUSLY great photos.

 

Seconded. So many of these are just gorgeous; it's inspiring to look at your work. I may have already said this, but if you're not a pro, you should be. Do you use any particular Photoshop filters in your editing?

[xmichellex]

GORGEOUS pictures!! Thanks so much for sharing...

[gisco]

The expansion to the park is coming along nicely. Can't wait to see more pictures of the new addition.