Hong Kong (Part II)

In this post, I'll share more landscape photos of Hong Kong. This time I had shot a couple of sunsets and sunrise as well.

In my opinion, the best sunrise view would be at Victoria Peak (太平山). I woke up early at 5:30 a.m. to get myself ready and also my equipment. The MTR services start at as early as 6:00 a.m. so I took a train to Central (中環) station and a taxi ride to Lugard Road (盧吉道). Along Lugard Road (盧吉道), the view is much better than the view from The Peak (香港山頂) and it's free of charge !

7:04 a.m.

7:24 a.m.

7:40 a.m.

7:45 a.m.

There were some others that early too...

After sunrise, let's enjoy some sunsets ! The following photo was taken in Mong Kok (旺角) which is near to the place I stayed.

I went up to sky100 Hong Kong Observation Deck capture some sunsets and night cityscape of Hong Kong. I purchased the ticket in advance so I can skip the queue and enjoy some online discount. The ticket costs HKD142 and HKD168 for online purchase and walk-in purchase respectively.

After the sunset...

There are a lot more night cityscape worth viewing and photographing in Hong Kong. I went to a few more other places around Central (中環) and Admiralty (金鐘) as there are a lot of beautiful skylines there.

And the last but not least, the best up-close view of Hong Kong city at Victoria Harbour (維多利亞港) !

Happy New Year 2015 !

Another year has gone and a great year has just started. Let's us all have an awesome year ahead and Happy New Year 2015 everyone !

Night Singapore II

Over the last 2 years, I've been taking a lot of night and long exposure shots around Singapore. There were a lot of events going on such as i Light Marina Bay, Sound of IKEBANA, Singapore Kite Festival and many more. Thankfully, I can see some improvement compared to my first post of Night Singapore 2 years ago. Hope you like the following photos which were taken quite recently and feel free to drop your comments !

Sound of IKEBANA

i Light Marina Bay

i Light Marina Bay

Singapore Kite Festival

Happy New Year 2014 !

This was my second time shooting fireworks which I think I had some improvement here in terms of composition, exposure and post processing skills compared to my first attempt two years ago. Similar settings on my camera and same tripod but different camera body, lens and angle. I would say the lens did a great job here because I was using an ultra wide angle lens (17mm) on a full frame body which enabled me to capture the entire length of fireworks plus some reflection at the bottom.

Looking forward to shoot fireworks again next year probably from a high rise building for aerial photography and new set of skills. Anyway, I wish all of you a Happy New Year 2014 and hope you like my photo !

九份 Jiufen, Taiwan

It's our 6th day in Taiwan so we planned to visit Jiufen (九份) since we were in Taipei (臺北). We headed to Wanhua Station (萬華車站) to get a train to Ruifang (瑞芳). The train ticket costs NT$53 per person and about an hour trip.

We took the public bus from the train station to Jiufen (九份). We were still too early to check in to the hotel so we took another bus to Gold Ecological Park (黃金博物園).

Nothing much to do here besides visiting to the museum and the gold mine tunnel.

You may also try experiencing the Gold Panning (淘金體驗) for NT$100 per person. It's quite a good experience and you can take the gold (more like gold dust to me) back with you as souvenir.

We had our lunch at a restaurant there. We tried their famous signature Miner's lunchbox. The lunchbox costs NT$220 each which includes stainless lunch box, a wrapping cloth designed with a map of the Park, chopsticks, rice, pork chop and pickled side dish.

We then went back to the homestay to check in and a short rest. We were staying at Sunny Room Minsu (陽光味宿民宿) for a night.

We continued to Jiufen Old Street (九份老街) for a short while as we were planning to go back there again the next morning. After that we took a bus to Keelung (基隆) night market which is about an hour away. I'll post more about Keelung (基隆) night market in my next post separately.

In the next morning, we woke up early for breakfast. It was a clear sunny day so I went out and took photos of the Sunny Room's surrounding while waiting for my breakfast. 

Our simple but very nice breakfast !

Before we left, I took a photo from inside my room to capture how beautiful the view was during day time !

We went back to Jiufen Old Street (九份老街) again to buy souvenirs and snacks before we left Jiufen (九份). You can find a lot of souvenirs here especially those Taiwan's specialty like Bamboo Charcoal Peanut, Sun Cake (太陽餅) and many more.

We bought quite a lot souvenirs here as the shopkeepers here were very friendly and there were a lot of samples to try before we buy. Finally, we went back to the same bus stop to take the same bus down to Ruifang (瑞芳) train station.

Last but not least, the best view of Jiufen (九份) in my opinion was from the bus stop we were waiting.

Click here for the full 8D7N itinerary.

臺北市 Taipei City, Taiwan (Part I)

Late in the afternoon, did our final shopping at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), we were ready to leave at around 5:00 p.m. Luck was at our side, we bumped into the same taxi driver who drove us to Cingjing (情境) again. He offered to send us to THSR Taichung Station (高鐵台中站) with another guy to share the fare. So we agreed and reached THSR Taichung Station (高鐵台中站) an hour later. 

We bought the train ticket at NT$700 per person to Taipei (臺北) and departed at 6:39 p.m. We had our dinner in the train eating 便當 (lunch box) which we conveniently bought from inside the train.

Around 50 minutes later, we finally reached Taipei Railway Station (台北火車站). It is an interchange station that links a few transportation services such as Taipei Metro, Taiwan Railway Administration, Taipei Bus Station, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT System, etc. We headed to Taipei Metro or Taipei Main Station to get a train to our hotel or inn to be exact. We took the Blue Line to Longshan Temple Station (龍山寺站) which is 2 stations away.

After we checked in, we walked around the surrounding streets as we were being told that there are a few night markets nearby. We were given a map too by the receptionist. Finally we found something to eat but all other night markets were already closed. So here ended the first night in Taipei (臺北).

The next morning, we woke up early to grab some bites. We went to Mei Er Mei (美而美) which was only a few minutes walk from the place we stayed.

After that we went to Ximending (西門町) doing some shopping at the underground shopping malls as well as hunting for foods. There are a lot of underground stores here and hours of shopping will not be enough for shopping enthusiast.

We didn't spend too much time there as we planned to visit Ximending (西門町) again two days later. So we made our way to Taipei 101 (台北101) after our early light dinner. We reached there quite early about 5:30 p.m. We spent sometime walking around that area while waiting for the blue hour to capture the bluish night view of Taipei 101 (台北101).

Here ends our day 5 in Taiwan. Hope you like the photo of Taipei 101 (台北101) during the blue hour below.

Click here for the full 8D7N itinerary.