Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

[Tibet Trip 18] Journey towards Midui Glacier, Tibet

Posted by danielctw On August - 26 - 2010

Last few more posts upcoming and this time Tibet is finally gonna rest it’s head. Well, I meant the post though. This time journey is what I am looking forward to show to you people out there. It’s time to head towards the Midui Glacier. If you’ve missed all the travel post about Tibet, the links to the respective places will be at the bottom of this post.

Along the way there, we are met with few animals that would like to greet us whenever they can. For example the Yak, famous animal around Tibet.

Yak Crossing The Road

Moooooooo…… this is my road and I can do what I like, I am the lone ranger here. Of course there are other animals there, say, the horse.

Tibetan Horse Walking Over

Snorts….

We see a lot of animals along the way on the road, sometimes on mountain roads where we’re like far from civilizations. Anyway we were given a shock though when we saw Tibetans on the road doing their pilgrimage and will lie on the floor and up after a few steps. I kid you not!!

Tibetan on Road Praying

See… is like something after that we’ve grown accustomed to. Amazed right? Of course the road is so wide, sometimes no vehicle goes along the path at times. So much that we even have someone on the road.

Shanghai girl on the road

Jeng Jeng Jeng, another Shanghai girl on the road. Yes, imagine posing on the road. Too bad I wasn’t the proper photographer, or I would try to capture the scene against the scenery backdrop.

Well, sitting in the jeep has got it’s use though, we can take scenery shots from inside the jeep as long as the windows are clean though. Imagine how many wipes we’ve done.

Rocky Hills

The rocky mountains are such a wonder. I suddenly miss these kind of scenery with blue sky.

Water Scenery With Sunray

Of course these are part of what is nice about traveling overseas. Well, it always has been. Though there’s always no place like home but traveling to see the world is also what I would love to do. Even when we hardly get to eat, walked and hiked and near the brink of danger.

3 Tibet Travelers Again

So much we have gone through, we would love to travel again as a group, taking photos and showing to people how wide and wonderful is the world out there. Well, as usual the usual 3. Yes, Bae Yong Joon *cough… Ek Wei* is with us again.

It was during that time, we were stalled from continuing our journey due to a fallen tree. So we took the liberty to take a photo against the jeep door. Now and then we would stop by at some restaurant along the road and order our meal. I dare say, I definitely prefer Malaysian food, but sometimes we just have to stomach what we’re given.

Boiled Soup in Hot Pot

Herbal Chicken Soup in Hot Pot. Well, shared amongst 6 people. Well, it looks tasty, and yes, it definitely taste so good, I would love to have another bowl. Well, what are the ingredients for this soup? Wait till you see what they thrown into this soup for the delicate taste.

Chicken Remains in Soup

Amazingly weird. All parts of the chicken were used. Even the head wasn’t spared. Ginger, herbs and some other parts. Well, I guessed not everyone would love to think that a chicken head is in their soup.

Finally the moment to move to what this post is actually all about, The Midui Glacier.

Cannot Resist to Take Photos

Just look at Ek Wei can’t wait to get his photo taken amongst the lake and the glacier at the back. Hehehe…

Well, the destination is the glacier which takes about 30 to 40 minutes of walking. Yes, we have to walked all the way in. No food, no lunch yet. It’s about 1030am.

Destination Midui Glacier Ice Peak

Hard to get the right exposure with the yak being all too dark in order to capture the sky and the snow. Of course another way to go to the Midui Glacier is by riding a horse there.

Horse Ride to Midui Glacier

Simple and faster way to the next stop which is about 20 minutes away on foot, but with a horse it’s only 8 – 10 minutes. Of course it all comes with a price though say 40 Yuan?

Riding on the Horse with an Umbrella

Of course, one can also travel with style. You can bring along your umbrella to protect from the scorching sun but on a cool weather. Look at how the leaves are turning yellow. Autumn is arriving and definitely a sight to behold. There aren’t 4 seasons in Malaysia, thus having a look at the changing of leaves in another country is fascinating for me.

So with that in mind, I have to get a simple shot of myself in this lovely weather and season.

DanielCtw Pose Cool Sitting

Now if only there were more trees at the background, the whole thing would have been perfect. So perfect if the color of the background is like the one below.

Trail to the Midui Glacier

Yellow, green and the trail to the Midui Glacier. Huh? Wait!!!! Did I meant that I won’t be posting any photos on the Midui Glacier? Well, I kid you not, since this is post is about the journey to the Midui Glacier and not the Midui Glacier.

Well, of course I wouldn’t want to dash the hopes of having a glance of what’s around that area.So I’ll present to you a part of the Midui Glacier.

Big Chunk of Ice from Midui Glacier Tibet

The whole chunk of ice on which I will stand on it later.

I know that this post has lots of weird photos and not as surreal like the previous posts. I would post more pictures of the Midui Glacier in the upcoming post though. For those that missed other posts, here are the lists below.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep
[Tibet 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear

Altogether peace out and till the next post.

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[Tibet Trip 17] The Giant Tree and Tibet Tradition Wear

Posted by danielctw On August - 5 - 2010

Finally time to continue our journey towards Chengdu. For those that missed the last post, and to recap, we were actually taking photos of the rushing water resulted from melted ice. These are the rest of the chapters if you’ve missed them.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy
[Tibet 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep

Now it’s time to continue on and to visit the Giant Tree.

Our Journey Continues

Giant Tree? What Giant Tree? By the way, the oldest and highest tree is recorded here. Highest as in a high location. Of course, in order for us to do that, we all need our rest for the night as the sun sets and it’s still like 4000m above sea level. It’s gonna be cold, there’s no fan in our place. Dinner time we ate the local Chinese “Ma Lat” dishes and can tell you, I was starting to miss home and Malaysian food.

Our Tidy 3 men Room in Tibet

Rest for the night and no one bothered to fold their blankets. Of course at the far end, you can still spot Kenny there still sleeping. Ha ha ha..

So onward we go for our next stop.

Big Stone Marker for Tree

The World Cypress King Park. Here is the excerpt from the ticket being sold to us. Cost us 10 Yuan.

It is 13kms away from Linzhi county and the altitude is 3040m, there are 10 hecares precious cypress. It is 44m in average height, 1.58m in average diameter. Here you will see a cypress which has a history of 2600 years, it is 57m in height, 5.8m in diameter and was named “The King of Cypress in China“. It was said that the tree is regarded “Life Tree” by the founder of Ben Sect- Xinraomibao.

Now that was very good information about this place. Lucky I still kept the ticket. The stone marking the tree that is 2600 years old.

The Weird One and the 2600 Year Old Tree

Man vs Tree. 20+ years old vs 2600 years old. Young vs Old. Look at how wide the tree is compared to me. They barricaded the place so people would not step in.

Now who said I was old? I am not old.

Hercules Mimic at Giant Cypress Tree

Now see how big is one of the other trees. I used up most of my strength to tear out a hole in the tree. It was so hard to pry it open (yeah right~~~) that soon after that I became totally exhausted.

DanielCtw Exhausted at Giant Cypress Tree

Exhausted, The Weird One can’t take it anymore. Kenny thought I was posing, so he did something even better.

Kenny Overwhelmed by Cypress Tree

Whoa~~~Kenny! Nice expression. Priceless.

Finally it was time to go back to our respective jeeps and on the way out, peddlers are selling the specialty here. Ling zhi and mushrooms and other herbs.

Mushroom or Linzhi for Sale

Mushrooms?

Ling Zhi

Ling Zhi? Mushrooms? They both look the same to me.

Anyway, we didn’t buy any as we don’t know what we’re gonna do with it since we have like 8 days journey left. Yes, days passes by so fast and then we were asking how come it’s so fast coming to an end. There were many stories we talked amongst each another, about how the Mt Everest was superb. How the lake was magnificent in one of the days.

White Flower in the Distance

Since it’s Autumn, many flowers started to wither but few remained and that’s where my cameras got moving. Going to places is not all about taking scenery, one have to pay to small minor details. Flowers (nature) is an important part of it.

Lonely Tree in the Middle

Along the way we came to a place where the stream was so calm and nice. I spot this lonely tree in the middle of such a vibrant and calm place. I just had to take a shot of this. This shot reminded me of how wide the world is, when you’re just a speck or in this case, you’re just a tree. Okay, wrong analogy, it could also meant I was lonely.

Hill Behind the Stream

This shot is strange. Felt that there’s something missing with it. Maybe the hills are too high and lack of water background. But still a picture I would show nonetheless. Could have been better.

Of course, every picture is not complete without the 3 of us showcasing what we do best. To pose in front of the camera. Well, we’ve reached to another stop for photo shooting and that’s where we all have our own picture being shot at about the same location.

3 Travelers in Tibet Kenny Ek Wei Danielctw

Meet the 3 Handsome Guys (pssst.. best one is the one on the right), Kenny Lim, Ek Wei, Daniel Chew.

Of course, have to thank our jeep driver, for driving us all along the way. Well, there were clothes for rent that day and we have to pay 10 or 20 Yuan for trying on the clothes. Well, our Jeep driver had his photo shot by me then.

Jeep Driver Custom Clothes

A Tibetan and if only I was using a 50mm portrait lens, the bokeh would have been better. Of course, it’s not everytime one would be going back to places that we’ve been to. So what the heck, I also paid 15 yuan (after figuring the price out) to get my whole self in the suit.

The Weird One DanielCtw in Local Tibet Wear

Fui yoh!!! Stylish, looks like a Tibetan Cowboy (whatever that is). If I am dark enough, people might have mistaken me for one though. I am sure some of you are dying to try this kind of things. I did, and I am glad I did.

By the way did you know that there are 3 jeeps on the same course and we’re all part of the driving group going towards Chengdu. There are 3 people from Shanghai there (2 girls and 1 guy). I had problem conversing as my Mandarin is totally no good.

Lovely Model Shoot Tibet

Here she is, one of the Shanghai girl in the traditional local costume. Pretty right? Wonders if she actually know about this photo. For guys out there, no… I don’t have her contact, you can stop wasting time asking for her contact.

But will we ever see her again in part of the journey? That depends. So come on and comment some.

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[Tibet Trip 16] Beginning the Journey to Chengdu in Jeep

Posted by danielctw On July - 24 - 2010

It’s time to leave Lhasa Town. Where are we going next? We’re on our way to Chengdu, basically a simple road trip with a Jeep and a driver and a guide. Now not bad. Sad to leave the town of Lhasa as we grew fond with it with each passing day. During the first few days of the trip we miss home, but as time goes by we dread to see our holidays coming to an end.

Tibet Road Trip from Jeep

This is the 16th installment of our trip in Tibet and it’s almost nearing the end with hopefully only another 2 to 3 more chapters. Then it’s time for some Bali post and other posts which have been outdated. I know I know.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains
[Tibet 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy

Sunlight on Lake Out of Lhasa

No more shots of Potala Palace. No more walking around on our own in the town of Lhasa. No more going anywhere we like during the day. Ahhh, so many things we missed. The funny poses we do in the city. The kids that came to us begging for 1 Yuan or 10 cents.

Okay, there are many more memories to note, but it’s now all a memory. What better way to document it than to blog about it. Anyway, along the way we took some scenes that we felt were breathtaking even when we were in the jeep.

Reflection of Autumn Leaves

The above photo is clickable and with a width of 1280px, it’s suitable to be a wallpaper with that resolution. Of course, those using 1400px and above resolutions will have a problem with it. If you would like a higher resolution for this photo, do drop me a comment or email me at my email stated on this site. As we’re traveling during September, the leaves started to change colors and thus one gets to see the wonderful work of nature getting ready for the next upcoming season which is Winter.

Beyond Greeneries

Going through the road along the hill, the view is amazing. Basically the sky made the photos simply spectacular. It’s so hard to get skies like this in Equator bound countries. Well, couldn’t complain, each has it’s own advantages.

Milha Mountain Entrance

Time for me to appear once again. Whoa… look at this big stone of a sign. We’re now stopping for a breather after a long jeep journey at MiLha Mountain Entrance which is like 5013.25m above sea level. Shouldn’t 5000m and above be very cold, why am I dressed like that? Well, it’s different compared to the 4000m mountain we have in Malaysia though. Don’t really need to have thick clothes.

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[Tibet Trip 15] Lhasa Town Free and Easy

Posted by danielctw On July - 19 - 2010

It’s the 15th chapter of the Tibet travel log and I am sure many people are slowly getting bored with the length of this post. Why is this trip super long and unable to finish?

Reason: I was on this trip for 23 days, that explains why that there are tonnes of photos and it doesn’t seem to finish. Of course I do select photos to be displayed here.

Here’s a recap for those who missed it, the last few posts showed that I was back at Lhasa, and for foodies, the last post was all about the food in Lhasa town, Tibet. Since it was practically 2 days free and easy in the town, Ek Wei, Kenny and me went on a stroll along town to capture the beauty of it. Well maybe to me, it’s the weirdness of it.

[Tibet 1] Hello from Lhasa, Tibet
[Tibet 2] The Rough Journey Tibet
[Tibet 3] Another Day in Lhasa
[Tibet 4] Visiting Drepung Monastery Tibet
[Tibet 5] Monastery Visitation Tibet
[Tibet 6] Moving Around Lhasa Tibet
[Tibet 7] The Day I Visited Temples at Lhasa
[Tibet 8] Weird Blue Lake Tibet
[Tibet 9] Randomness at China and Tibet
[Tibet 10] More Monasteries and Mt Everest
[Tibet 11] Journey to Mt Everest
[Tibet 12] Journey to Namtso Lake
[Tibet 13] Namtso Lake Scene
[Tibet 14] Return to Lhasa from Mountains

So what else can we see at the town. Didn’t I covered that part in the beginning of the post? Well, now we walked even further as we traveled on foot and on the occasion sat in the taxi.

Golden Yak Statue

As usual the only superb landmark in Tibet is the Potala Palace and once again we go to this favorite landmark trying to capture it in any way we find intriguing.

Potala Holy Palace Tibet

Currently all photos published for this post, none got Photoshopped except resize and blog link being added. The vivid function is an overkill but at times it gets the job done.

The above is another perspective looking from the road below towards the Potala Palace in Lhasa.Then up again we go to the shooting place and paid 3 Yuan to go again.

Potala Palace Perspective

Another shot, this time aiming at the structure on the right with the Potala Palace in the background. Weird shot if you ask me. But then when we thought we’re having a fun shooting and that we’ll be the only one shooting up there, wait till you see what’s next. Other than us, there are like 3  to 5 other people shooting and one person has one of the best equipment there is there.

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[Manila] Travel in Vigan

Posted by danielctw On July - 9 - 2010

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Hi there. This is live blogging coming all the way from Laoag, Philippines. Well DanielCtw is now in this country with a group of people known thru a chatbox called ShoutOut.

Along with us from Malaysia is Hannah from Flaircandy.com who will be our guide and also language person here. Well this is the 2nd day we’re here, and there was a slight mishap in our flight from Manila towards Vigan but we made it through with an alternate plan which is we took the grueling 8 hours bus trip there. Yes, freaking sleeping in the bus with super cold air from the air conditioner.

As I am using mobile now, I can only share a photo. I will be back with more post-dated posts after I am back from the trip.

Cya soon.

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About Me

Daniel Chew

Hello there. My name is Daniel Chew or known in the blogosphere as DanielCtw.

Well, I love to take photos and to write things so that you guys/gals will enjoy.the life stories here. I travel a lot and that's why this blog's a travel log and sometimes personal stories thrown into it. Wanna know more about me? Do read more about me at the ABOUT ME PAGE!

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