Moving around Lhasa Tibet

Is my blog moving? Hmm… well, after like a few months and promising that I’ll update my blog frequently, I did for awhile but only to neglect posting about Lhasa Tibet backpacking trip. Well, here is Daniel once again, in the middle of the street of Lhasa. Though it was about 4000m above sea level, it was also very hot.

Come to think of it, it was hot as the sun was shining so brightly. The breeze was there though, but I wouldn’t want to risk any sunburn on my own hand, so I got myself a sweater. Photographers would know that there’s something wrong with this picture though. Don’t you feel awkward?

Anyway it was one of the days in Lhasa and here in Lhasa, one of the famous place is Potala Palace (the place where the Dalai Lama used to be). Well, since I can’t go in the palace yet, I took a picture with the stone with writings. Can’t read them though. Strange how it feels. I feel so short compared to the rock.

I think during this time, I was already down by a kg. Yes, the constant walking and carrying my bag full of camera gears which consist of a Nikon D300, 55-200mm VR, 50mm f/1.4D and a Sigma 10-20mm. Not to mention the extra weight from the SB-800 which I think was only used once during my visit to Tibet. Flash units are kinda rarely used when one is traveling. Now enough of my photos, let’s see what the Potala Palace looks like.

On the left, the Potala Palace was built on the hill. The original hill was actually part of the road that you see now. Or rather the road was part of the hill before it was destroyed and now became a big main road. Well, now what do I want you all to focus on. The sky is indeed magnificent and yes, the whole view in Tibet is definitely somewhere any photographer would want to be.

The life here is pretty safe. I could just walk out at night and there would be police everywhere guarding the streets. Anyway since there is a lot of free time in Lhasa Tibet, the gang (me, Ek Wei and Kenny) walked towards the artificial pond or lake to take scenery shots. There are lots of shot taken over here but here I wanted to show 2 shots taken straight from the camera without using any HDR or any doctored job on the photos itself other than resizing and putting my blog link on it.

If you would love to see the EXIF of the picture, just right click and save and look at the properties of the photo. This is the setting I used to shoot this photo. Imagine how clear the sky was, how the clouds reflect itself on the water. But where’s the Potala Palace? Here’s the next photo.

Yes, Potala Palace is just around the corner. Why are we still here? Well, practically, a few of us are waiting for the sunset to capture the sunset scenery across the lake. How did it turn out though? Seemingly we have too many photos of the scenery that we find that we shouldn’t neglect ourselves.

Then we do what we do best. We pose to the extreme. Some of you might have seen this photo before though.

Now who can beat the top 3 posers.

Though if you have the chance to see the Potala Palace at night, it’s definitely a breathtaking sight. Well, that’s what we did and we walked at least 20 minutes from the hotel to reach the palace and took the photo……..

….. with me in it. Yes, it was this dark, and I just use the internal flash on the camera to shoot this. Then of course, that’s what you get for just using the internal flash and with not so “powderful” focus and setting. Now how about if you use long shutter and make it sharp and crispy.

The Full View of Potala Palace with it’s reflection

Why is there water? Well, it’s basically a water fountain show running at the same time. Just so happens that I got this shot when the water fountain stopped for awhile. Exposure timeย  is 13 seconds. Too bad the lights around it are giving the orange feel.

Finally it’s time to sleep and the following day, it’s finally the day to go up the Potala Palace itself. Now wait….. how much does it cost? It’s RMB100 or 100Yuan which is equivalent to RM50 in Malaysia. Ahhhhhh…….. this has better be good. It’s way way expensive compared to the other temples.

See the big blue square thingy. That’s where we roughly were when we took the photo of the 3 Heroes of Tibet. So now we’re entering Potala Palace. What is in there that are in store for us. Sad to say, didn’t really take any photos in the Palace as it’s FORBIDDEN at certain areas and also you need to pay photographer fee if you would want to take some internal pictures of the rooms and statues.

So what other things did we do there? I might say, that it’s good if it’s continued on the next post.

ps : I am back~~~~

5 Comments

  1. AaronWoolala February 10, 2010
    • danielctw February 10, 2010
  2. Angeline February 10, 2010
    • danielctw February 11, 2010
  3. Amega Products February 24, 2010

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