Updates will be sparse these few days as I am traveling on assignment at Ho Chi Minh City again. This time around I surely will try more interesting food. So far I’ve tried fried bee larva (will post on that soon), lets see what I manage to get in the next few days!
Stim.
The reason this blog hasn’t been updated for the past few days is a sound one. I was at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam again, and the hotel wanted to charge something like US $17 per day for internet access, I guess I could live without going online for a few days. I had the chance to walk around the city a bit and take a few pictures from the street.
not going to school
There are still many under privileged children in this city, selling various items such as chewing gums, or like in this case, providing a shoe shining service.
buy from me?
This lady kept asking me to buy a coconut from her. I had no idea how much one would cost, and she doesn’t speak English either.
i want a bike
It seems like this guy, who appears to be a rat trapper, would very much love to be able to own a motorbike one day. Ho Chi Minh City has a very high concentration of motorbikes, pretty much like Penang in the 80s, except maybe 5x as busy.
breakfast?
A white lady is trying to figure out what’s for breakfast. I guess it wasn’t too attractive as she just walked past the mobile restaurant. You can find these sort of hawkers all over HCMC.
Since my very short business tripto Kota Kinabalu would not allow me to visit anywhere, I thought it’d be a good time to sneak in a session of photo taking instead. I reached this East Malaysian city at around 5 something in the evening, and went straight to the Philippine’s market after checking into the hotel just directly opposite it.
You can find a few more photos from my flickr set
kid by the harbor
As I were taking pictures with the somewhat big camera, quite a few people were pretty intrigued by the activity and actually posed for the camera. This particular kid by the harbor was a little shy and would not stare straight to the camera.
intrigued
This trader was a little intrigued by me snapping a picture of him. This image is quite a contrast to the busy pace of the market.
puffer fish on the block
I had never seen puffer fish being sold in wet markets at Peninsular Malaysia. The box shaped fish looks almost unreal if not for the fish monger in the background.
big eyes
sunset by the harbor
As Kota Kinabalu faces west with nothing but the vast span of South China Sea and a few small islands, the sunset can be quite a sight.
This is my second working trip to Yangon, Myanmar. The pictures from last trip was taken with my now retired Nokia 7610. I have, however, decided to jumped onto the DSLR bandwagon and got myself a brand spanking new Canon 400D as an excuse that I need a better camera to document the stay at the former capitol of Myanmar. Furthermore, I will be traveling to a couple other interesting locations within Myanmar as well.
Dyna bus, only 100 kyats to board
Nothing much has changed since I last visited this place about 2 years ago, with the exception of the new Yangon airport that was opened just 3 days prior to our arrival. The city still looks the same, I haven’t spotted any new big buildings, Dyna buses are still roaming the busy streets, carrying at least 5x more passangers than those trucks are designed to.
the day market, bustling with people
The main street outside Traders Hotel are still bustling with people and merchants, some of them more energetic than others. Here you can find anything from
a high energy merchant selling cloths
a tired shop keeper
Myanmar’s very own satey celup?
The scene at downtown Yangon at night is similar to day time, but with more food stalls selling variety of local delights that I haven’t find the chance (or courage) to try yet. Among the usual offerings such as food, cloths, and watches, I changed upon this street artist who employed a pretty unique style of painting by using a brush and a knife to draw up beautiful landscape pictures, very impressive.
an artist at work
one of the many pagodas in Yangon
These are among the first pictures taken using the new gear, many more shall come, stay tuned!
my new gear, Canon EOS 400D
