Recently in Travel Category

Well, as you can see, I was very busy working on photos this weekend.  It all started when I found out that people were not only viewing but also comments on my photos on Flickr.  And I had posted very few photos there.  So, I decided to update those with several thousand new photos and tackle coming up to date with my official photo gallery here at tt.us.

I enjoyed working on the photos from Page, Arizona, and from Ireland.  Doing so always brings back great memories from the trips.

So now I need to work on the photos from my fairly recent trip to Thailand and Vietnam.  Hopefully that will happen soon, though I will be spending a lot more time this month traveling and writing for my book project (before my publisher starts to yell at me).

I've included over 600 pictures from my November, 2009, trip to Ireland, in the Ireland Gallery.  Click the image below to enjoy!

My trip to Page, Arizona, back in January, 2010, was filled with amazing places to photograph.  I've finally published the Page Gallery of albums.  This gallery contains my first HDR gallery.  You will want to be sure to check it out!

Click the image below to visit it, and don't forget to view the pictures in full screen mode!

Every image tells a story.  So, I've decided I should share some of the stories around the images that rotate through the banner images at the top of my blog.  [If you're reading this at blog.timtyson.us, you will not see these rotating banner images.  You have to go to the mirror site at timtyson.us/weblog to see the rotating images.]

I shot this particular image at Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona, in January, 2010.  Perhaps in the larger image (click to enlarge) you can see the snow in the distant mountains.  While it was cool enough to wear a jacket, it was not at all cold.

You have to walk about a mile in the desert from the parking area to get to this location.  The view is very, very flat and you simply can't see the Colorado River winding through the desert until you are very close to the edge.  Speaking of the edge...

Taking this shot was terrifying!  I slowly and "intrepidly" inched my way to the edge of the sheer drop off holding my opened tripod out in front of me as if it were a senior citizen's walker.  Though I'm certain I looked ridiculous, I could have cared less!  The air was rather still while we were there which at least reduced my fear of being blown over the edge.

The view is gorgeous.  Photos can't capture this type of grandeur.

This photo was among my first experiments with HDR that has "gone public."  This picture is actually three shots, each at a different exposure.  I then took the three pictures and merged the detail information into one photograph, which gives the photo its distinctive look and level of detail in the brighter as well as darker areas of the scene.

Finally, I have to tell you about the guys, three of them, that were walking up to the edge and shooting--literally within inches.  One guy, twenty-something, just squatted down within 2 - 3 inches of the edge on a slope (downward!) and was shooting away as if there were no way he could possible fall to his death if the sand slid or crumbled.  I simply couldn't stand to watch him!  My knees were about to turn to rubber!

An amazing, beautiful view.  The scale is astounding.

Related articles:

• Beauty of Arizona (slideshare.net)

Back on April 2nd, I wrote about the trip down to Halong Bay, Vietnam, when we stopped at a sewing factory and purchased a tapestry for the house.  Well, it is finally framed and now hanging on the wall in the living room.  As you can see, it's very large!  Though these pictures have a great deal of reflection because of the bright sun at the time of day I shot them, I'm posting them so you can get a sense of the tapestry.  The piece is actually double framed.   (Click on each photo to see the larger version.)

When you click on the two pictures below, you can see some of the detailed sewing work.  (You see the reflection on the flowers through the front window.)

Related articles:

• Vietnam: Day Three - Halong Bay (timtyson.us)

Seems that lately I've been grousing around about everything. I tend to be a fairly happy-go-lucky sort of guy, but when things annoy me, especially when my shoulder hurts, I vent about them. I don't hold them in.

So, when something good happens, I try to be equally as quick to share the love. Well, tonight, I want to share the love. I'm in the Mile High City and had to rent a car.

Car rental is car rental to me, usually just dealing with people who are indifferently just doing their job, sometimes feeling ripped off by absurd prices. But this afternoon's experience was unexpected and unprecedented!

The shuttle driver who picked up the 3 of us waiting on Island 4 to be taken to the car rental office was probably a good bit older than I, yet he insisted on taking my suitcase and placing it in the bin. Little did he know how much I appreciated that as my arthritic shoulder had been killing me all day.

He was a pleasant and outgoing fellow who told us he was glad to answer any questions we might have in the 5 - 6 minutes it would take us to get to the rental agency. He explained how to get to the major interstates when leaving the car rental place.

When we walked in to the rental office I was in shock. They were very busy but three agents welcomed each one of us to his counter area with a warm smile and, "Let me help you right here." None of us waited even a second.

My agent, I think his name was Kyle, totally blew me away -- and that's really hard to do. Not only was he pleasantly conversational during our entire transaction, he was fast, thorough, and efficient. He suggested that the less expensive option for where I was going was not to prepay for the gas but to top it off when I returned it. (What?! Saving ME money???) He double checked the GPS to make sure it worked and was connected to the satellites before we ever went out to the lot. (In the past, I've had so many that didn't work. Thank god for my iPhone!)

He walked around with me in the lot showing me the cars from which I got to pick. Once I selected the Toyota Camery, he showed me where the gas tank was, opened the trunk and put my luggage in, and (since he had already asked me at the counter in general conversation where I was going) asked me if I was in a hurry.

I told him I really wasn't. He then suggested I might want to avoid the private toll road because they didn't take cash and required a later online registration and complex payment process. He said it was the fastest route and that the GPS would probably take me that way. If I wasn't in a hurry, he would be glad to program the GPS to avoid that route.

What?! Jeeze! Am I dreaming?!

He then programmed my destination address with the toll road avoided. This guy could not have been any nicer or any more helpful. The only other thing he could have done would have been to drive me to my destination. I was completely impressed. He told me that the return address for the car was already accurately programmed into the GPS. (That's rare!)

With the GPS ready to guide me, the car cranked, and the AC on, he wished me well as he shook my hand.

I told him that Enterprise was really working it and that I was totally impressed. He smiled as we waved goodbye with a great big smile.

Now that's totally awesome customer service! I highly recommend the Enterprise Car Rental at the Denver International Airport. They treat their customers the best I've ever seen, and those that know me know that I travel all the time and am slow to make recommendations! By the way, their rates were great too!

Comprised of over 6,000 still images, each shot every 20 seconds from the hotel room window overlooking the river below, this time lapse represents almost 2 days of the heat and hazy humidity of Bangkok.  I used my old Canon 30D.  The original project is 1080HD and is filled with interesting detail; but, to be useful for web deployment, this much smaller version is shared.

Alila Villas Uluwatu, in Bali, is  sustainable resort on Bali's southern coast.  The pictures depict a gorgeous resort selling for $800 a night and touting luxury combined with ecology.  (I'm not too sure such a thing can exist.)  But the place is gorgeous.  [Source:  CoolHunting—sited below the pictures]

I love the infinity pool pictured above.

Related articles:

• Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali (coolhunting.com)
• Best of the year 2009 : Resort Hotel Design - Alila Villas Uluwatu, Bali (chictip.com)

I never cease to be amazed at how powerful fear is. Today, going through security from Canada to the US was the most astoundingly absurd security process I've ever experienced. It took an entire hour just for security, not including immigration.

Each individual person went through the metal detector. But why? They were going to screen each individual person with a handheld metal detector wand anyway? They checked each person's boarding pass a total of three times. Why? Are their inspectors that incompetent?

Then, after the wand detector was waved over every part of each person's body, they had each person empty all pockets, be patted down over every part of your body, pulled around on your pants at your belt buckle and your shirt collar, and then everything that was in your pockets was inspected piece by piece in detail--looking at every single page of my passport, for example.

They had females working with women and males working with men. Each worker did nothing until all of the workers working on that side, man or woman, had finished inspecting the person in the que. This was without doubt the slowest and most dysfunctional screening process I've ever experienced in my life. The number of TSA workers was huge, and most of the time they were just standing there waiting for the one person being inspected to go through the line before they did their small part of the inspection process for the next person.

And here's what made me madder that hell itself: they did this to all of the children in the security line as well. These kids today do not know a world of travel and exploration without fear and invasive scrutiny that treats decent human beings as if they are all terror suspects. This is despicable!

In just a few more years people will have completely forgotten what living in a free society really is. It has been redefined by fear. It has been repurposed by governments wanting to control their masses. If we must live our lives this way, at least we should call it what it is: tyranny. The bad guy won. They will always defeat the tyranny of our ever increasingly invasive security measures that have killed freedom of travel, probably forever.

And we tolerate this as if this is how life should be in a "free" society. If I could never travel again, I would stop today.

-- Posted From My iPad

Location:Los Angeles,United States

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Reflecting back about my recent trip to south Asia...

As I've mentioned before, Bangkok especially and central and south Vietnam were terribly hot and humid. Shorts and short sleeved shirts were always in order.

I was, however, astonished to see so many of the local people in those areas wearing long sleeved shirts, sweaters, and jackets. How could they possibly be cool?!

Most of the women also wore masks around their faces. I was a bit shocked to learn why this was so customary: these people, with gorgeous olive complexions, want to avoid tanning their skin at all costs. The women even purchase expensive skin whitening creams from Japan. The lighter the skin, the more beautiful you are considered.

Here in the US, white people are just the opposite.

Why are we humans never content with what we have? Sometimes I guess this compels us to achieve better things. Sometimes it is not in our best interest.

This trip, unlike any of my other travels around the world, was not without some rather anxious moments. I'm glad to be home. I think.

I read in CNN this morning that Thailand has declared a state of emergency after the protesters stormed parliament yesterday. While I was in Bangkok, the protests were peaceful. I really have no idea what their internal politics are all about and wasn't even aware of the current political unrest when I went to Thailand.

I left Bangkok on March 31st to spend about a week in Vietnam. (I still haven't had time to post pictures from my time in Bangkok. I was busy working. But I found the people in Bangkok to be so incredibly gracious and friendly.)

While in Vietnam, the mood of the people there was also hospitable. However, I felt the people were a little bit more rigid—not at all in the way they treated me, but just in their general approach to life. Life in Vietnam seemed more difficult for common people.

Their food is amazing. They smile easily. They have very, very different customs and culture. Their driving is frightening. Maybe I was infusing some of my own guilt for what the United States did in Vietnam into my perceptions of my time there. Maybe it was just the constant horn honking...

When I began to leave Da Nang to return home via Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok and Narita, I was stopped by a woman working for the airport. She said my carry on bag was too large if it didn't fit in this little "size thing." When it did fit, as I knew it would, she then said it was too heavy. It was. It contains my expensive camera equipment. She insisted I check it. I refused.*

Vietnam Airlines is in the process of becoming a member of the SkyTeam Alliance. With my being a charter member of the Diamond Club with SkyTeam, which means I travel way too much, Delta allows free oversized and overweight bags. Not Vietnam Airlines--yet, anyway. After some ridiculous wrangling I got my stuff on board without having to check it.

So the return already was getting off to a bad start. Upon arriving in Bangkok, I was staying at Novatel, the very nice hotel at the airport. A shuttle picks everyone up and takes you to the hotel as it is not easily accessed by walking, and Bangkok is hotter than hell anyway.

We had to go through a security check point to enter the hotel property. The Mercedes in front of us was thoroughly inspected for explosives. I could immediately tell things were much more serious. In my room in this modern, gorgeous hotel, the air conditioning wasn't working well! I didn't sleep well.

When we were all boarding the airplane in Narita, the gate agent told us that everyone had to be weighed by order of the United States Federal Aviation Administration. They brought out 5 scales or so and everyone had to be weighed and our weights recorded. What I weigh is none of the US governments damned business!

I don't sleep well on planes either. After spending virtually two days on airplanes, I was dead dog tired and very irritable. I was glad to land at LAX. So I thought. US Immigration asked me an unusual number of questions. What was that all about?! I was soon to find out.

Apparently I am now, like millions of other law abiding Americans I've read about in the news, being confused with some idiot from another state who must be in some kind of trouble with the government. I had to go through additional screening. I was so irritated. To make matters worse, their is no due process. They will not tell you anything about why this is being done. This is the American way?!

I must say that the customs agent was very professional, even cordial. Thank God! My shoulder was hurting terribly; I hadn't slept for two days; I was in a really bad mood. I won't go into any details about the extra screening so I won't be arrested, as was the journalist (or photographer, I don't recall now) who blogged about a similar experience with Immigration through Seattle a few months ago.

I was given a web site to use to redress this issue, but, according to the news, this rarely even works. I have to travel out of the country again next week. Will I be able to get out? Will I be able to get back in? This is so absurd.

Our world is getting uglier and uglier. Freedom in the US died with the Patriot Act. We sold our national birthright for fear. Soon, our children will never have know the US I was born in as it will never have existed in their lifetime. Weird how things change.

I worry that, as the divide between the super wealthy and the poor widens and the number of poor continue to grow, we will see very bad times ahead. I guess this is nothing new. What will be new is how technology will be wielded in this conflict of interests.

At any rate, I hate traveling now. It's just so terribly unpleasant: badly behaving children, cramming too many people into too little space, and now airlines want to start charging to use the overhead storage and to use the bathrooms?! One airline will be reducing the number of toilets on board so they can cram even more seats on the plane. What the hell?!!!

* I've had international "security" go through and steal things from my checked luggage in the past and, since we can't lock our checked bags, will not allow my expensive items to be checked ever again.

Related articles

• Vietnam: Day Six - Rest and Relax in Hoi An (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day One (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day Five - The Ancient City of Hoi An (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day Two - My Life Is Quirky That Way... (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day Four - Driving (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day Two - Hanoi (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day One - Dinner (timtyson.us)

Today the long journey home begins—in about 45 minutes. Amazingly, the couple in the bungalow next door here at the Palm Garden Resort in Hoi An are from Atlanta, Georgia! In fact, they live in Morningside.

Can we say: small world!

Every morning in Manhattan Beach, a large truck pulls a huge raking mechanism along the beach to pick up all of the trash* the tide and beach goers left behind. In the past I've actually posted a picture of what that looks like.

This morning I got up early to photograph the sunrise. The thick layer of fog over the water precluded that endeavor, but I was greeted with a water buffalo and his owner raking the beach front here in front of the bungalow. He really is more flattening the beach than raking it as their is no trash in the sand, only sea shells.

The water buffalo would dutifully follow his owner back and forth pulling this weighted log behind him. At one point the owner left the water buffalo along the beach while he went to the boathouse for a moment.

Then, the fishermen started working along the beachfront. Next the sun began to appear above the fog layer and horizon. I snapped several pictures, but in my rush I bumped he camera settings and didn't realize it. All of the sunrise pictures were almost completely overexposed. I'll have to hope for a repeat or even better tomorrow.

I'm now sitting outside for a little while, blogging. The humidity is probably 100%. Photographing the morning events was a challenge as the camera had been inside the room for most of the night and the lenses immediately fogged up. I realized I would face this dilemma and placed the camera and lenses in the outdoor garden to adjust to the temperature and humidity difference for about 3 hours, but that didn't prove adequate. Even my computer screen is completely fogged up as I type this!

* I've shown the trash that washes up from the ocean: massive amounts of styrofoam and plastic that somehow manage to find their way out to sea only to be washed in from the tides. The amount of non-biodegradable trash is revolting!

Today is a chill out day before the long trek home begins tomorrow via Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok. Nothing specific is planned. I do hope to catch up on all of the blogging and post some pictures. Even now the computer is importing photos from the camera's flash card. I've probably shot over 10,000 photos this trip, but 7,000 - 8,000 of those are from the time lapse experiments in Bangkok.

The grounds here at the Palm Garden Resort in Hoi An are very beautiful. Before breakfast, I went on a flower shooting spree. The Hibuscus flowers here are vivid, large, and in colors I've never seen before.

I tried using my macro lens extension tube for the first time with some of these shots. Shooting flowers in the wild is more difficult than one would think. Pulling focus is the devil itself when zooming way in to the parts of the flower. Then, add a gentle breeze to the formula. Impossible!

The water lilies in the pond at the entry area of the hotel are also gorgeous.

Related articles

• Vietnam: Day One (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day One - Dinner (timtyson.us)

Mien, the guide for the day, is from Da Nang, a city just a few miles from Hoi An—which was founded about 400 years ago as a major trading post from East to West. I'm staying on the outskirts of Hoi An in a unique oceanside bungalow about 50 feet from the ocean. Nothing else is here at the water as far as you can see in either direction. This is amazing.

The room itself is really unique. The bathroom is attached to the sleeping quarters but is basically outside in a private garden. The shower, toilet, and sink area have a roof over them; however, the tub resides as a central feature of the private garden. It's beautiful but exceedingly hot and humid.

Here are some pictures from around the ancient city of Hoi An during the day and then again at night.

Night time in the ancient city.

Driving in Vietnam is just dangerous, absolutely very, very dangerous! Today I drove from Dalong Bay to the Hanoi airport (about 3 hours). Flew from Hanoi to Da Nang, and drove from Da Nang to Hoi An (about 30 minutes).

Before leaving the US, my doctor told me I would more likely be injured in a car accident or hit by a car than get malaria from a mosquito bite (though she insisted I take a medication to help prevent contracting the drug-resistant strains that thrive in this part of the world). She told me to always sit where the seat belt is in a car or taxi no matter what and never even use the water for brushing my teeth!

Aside: I was seeing my doctor for a bad shoulder. I can no longer even lift my luggage to place it in the overhead storage on the planes. I have an MRI scheduled when I return. She wanted to schedule the MRI that week, and I told her why I couldn't—my trip. We then had a marvelous conversation about South Asia. (I may have to have surgery if the problem is what she thinks it may be—a torn something or the other.)

She loves this part of the world. She talked about the traffic, the lovely people, the customs. She was right! She also said I would be foolish not to have medical evacuation insurance in case of unexpected illness or injury. It was cheap. I really like her. Aside from being amazingly sharp and sociable, she's on top of things!

I've been told that the number one cause of accidents in this country is driving under the influence of alcohol (about 60% of all accidents). The second greatest cause of accidents is driving on the wrong side of the road! They do! All over the place. They pull out directly in front of you without any hesitation. People on side streets never stop. They just go. Go, go, go!! Pedestrians literally just walk right out into 4 and 5 lanes of rush hour traffic. I have never!! Crazy. Insane! And the vietnamese honk their horns constantly—all the time! It's their way of saying "I'm here."

Today, on the way from Dalong Bay to Hoi An, making a left turn to pull in to the hotel, we almost killed two people on a scooter. Their driver was driving on the wrong side of an impassible highway divider going in the same direction we were traveling!! In other words, they were traveling against the traffic on a one way portion of the road with no chance of getting to the correct side of the road. Who ever would have thought they would even be there--traveling the wrong direction! Horns blew (more than usual). Brakes slammed. Drivers veered sharply. In a heartbeat, an accident was averted by inches at most!

A couple, from Australia, on the Halong Bay junk said they witnessed a terrible accident in Hanoi with multiple fatalities.

Never drive in South Asia.

Related articles

• Vietnam: Day Two - Hanoi (timtyson.us)
• Vietnam: Day One (timtyson.us)

Today I drove from Hanoi to Halong Bay. The drive was interesting. You can see a picture of the person riding the water buffalo we saw along the side of the road in the rice patties. Apparently this road was frequently heavily bombed by the US during the Vietnam war as it was used to transport munitions within the country.

Why the hell were we ever in this place, killing these people?!

Interestingly, Nam said the Vietnamese hold less of a grudge against the US or France for their war efforts. However, the Vietnamese, to this day, still dislike the Chinese, who were the first to dominate their country many years ago. The US dollar or the dong is commonly accepted for payment here.

Perhaps one reason so many of the Vietnamese have been willing to forgive and forget is that about 60% of the country was born after 1975—their version of a baby boom.

We stopped at a "factory" where the workers are handicapped children (mostly deaf or blind) and people who have suffered horrific war injury from agent orange. They make some spectacular embroidery work. A gorgeous large piece of it will be hanging on the living room wall when I return home.

I'm in a world I never knew existed. I'm currently sitting on the balcony of a wooden junk (boat) someplace in Halong Bay, Vietnam, looking at the view you see pictured in this post. This place is magical, unlike anything I've ever seen before, the land formations are peculiar other-worldly protrusions of limestone, covered with lush jungle foliage, from a placid, emerald-green sea. The thick cloud cover adds a special sense of mystery, almost a dream-like state.

Yesterday, those of us aboard the junk disembarked and walked through a large cave on one of the 2,000 islands. Only 900 of them have been named. But the end of the day was most spectacular. Everyone boarded tiny little boats and had teenagers paddle us through a fishing village floating in the sea. These people live here.

In my wildest imaginations, I would never have envisioned that people live like this: fishermen living in tiny houseboats floating in Halong Bay. We saw many, many young children. Even at age 2 and 3 they were adept at climbing up boat masts and running along the edges of very small bobbing boats with, of necessity, a flawless sense of balance.

My greatest shock was seeing a floating school in Halong Bay and realizing that I had seen a picture of this very school in 2008 and even posted it to my professional blog on May 8th, 2008, never imagining that just under 2 years later I would actually see the very thing with my own eyes.

Part of the World Heritage, Halong Bay is spectacular beyond belief!

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Back in July of 2006, I escaped the craziness of the hustle, bustle, and heat of Atlanta, Georgia, to head for the Arctic Circle, to walk on a glacier in Trømso, Norway. During my first meal that far north on our planet, I heard Ray Charles singing, "Georgia On My Mind." I was horrified. I had travelled thousands of miles to get Georgia off of my mind.

In March, 2008, I traveled to Ykaterinberg—the third largest city in Russia. At 4:00AM, when the bar across the street was closing its doors, with those doors wide open to push the patrons out on to the street, I heard Cher bellowing, "Do You Believe in Life After Love?" blaring night after night. I guess it was their theme song at closing time.

And here in April, 2010, in the park in central Hanoi, Vietnam, directly across from Lake Hoan Kiem, thousands of Vietnamese are beginning their day with their routine Tai Chi exercises with the speakers blaring "It Was an Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini."

Is nothing sacred?!

As this phenomenon seems to only happen once on even numbered years, perhaps I'm safe for another two years!

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The bustle of this city goes beyond that of NYC and Paris. In many ways, it exceeds Rome. I've simply never seen so many scooters flitting about, so many people on bicycles, so many cars and pedestrians scrunching into such cramped quarters. The horns blow nonstop, not in a rude, NYC sort of way, but in a "Don't squash me. I'm here!" sort of way.

Nam, my young guide, and the driver took me all over Hanoi today. I'm exhausted. I walked almost all of the 36 streets in the old French Quarter, toured the historic Hanoi Hilton prison, walked a "typical neighborhood," and walked through the Ho Chi Minh memorial area. The sights, the sounds, the smells were unlike anything I've experienced anywhere else in the world. I even shot a movie of a house being built. Totally unique!

Nam speaks English very well. He's from here. He seems to know the people and has shared several interesting stories about the area.

I'm including in this post a few shots of the magnificent Sofitel Metropole by Lake Hoan Kiem where I'm staying in the French Quarter as well as some from around the city.

And the pictures of the crazy busy city...

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• Vietnam: Day One (timtyson.us)

Tonight, for dinner, I went to the traditional Vietnamese restaurant here at the Sofitel Metropole by Lake Hoan Kiem in central Hanoi. I decided to live on the edge and ordered a 7 course meal of traditional dishes. I have no idea what I ate. The names were all in Vietnamese.

What I do know: this was the tastiest, most delicious meal I've ever eaten in my life. And the tastes were unlike anything I've experienced before: extremely light, very subtle but clearly defined, and fresh. A couple of the dishes were spicy, but not really hot spicy. I don't know how to describe them. Just divine! I could eat this stuff forever! It's so healthful and so tasty! No wonder these people are all thin and happy! Their diet comes from the gods!

Then, there was the restaurant space itself. I wished I had my camera with me. It is gorgeous: French Colonial. Spectacular lighting fixtures including the containers for the candles. The ornate ceiling design. The beautiful vases of large exotic flowers. The dining room opens to the outside terrace where large flaming pots lit the space. The attire of the wait staff was spectacular Vietnamese floor-length dress.

My meal alone cost 990,000 dong. With tax, it was over a million. What a bizarre currency.

This is a unique place.

Well, today I flew from Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam, for a couple of days. Thank goodness a driver and English-speaking guide picked me up at the airport. Some poor English-speaking chap at baggage claim asked how to get to the city, which is an hour's drive from the airport. I had no idea. I feel sorry for him!

Before we were even two blocks from the Hanoi International Airport we had to suddenly slam on brakes. A huge cow was crossing the main 4 lane road. The cow was then followed by an entire heard crossing from one rice patty to the other side! This place is a cacophony of extremes! Then, within another few blocks, we passed a small scooter with a huge live pig strapped across the seat behind the driver! I wished I had my camera, but I'm sure to get even more interesting shots.

The guide said that the traffic in Hanoi would be terrible. I've seen outrageous traffic before, Moscow being the worst. But, I think this place wins for the sheer terror of being run over. The land of the bicycle no more! There are literally thousands of small scooters everywhere and most have at least two people on them. Throngs of people everywhere, crowded beyond belief, and dusty/dirty, the city has about 5,000,000 people and almost every adult, according to the guide, has a scooter.

Oh, and completely the opposite of Bangkok*, people are constantly blowing their horns as if to say, "I'm over hear. Don't run over me." It's literally astoundingly much worse than New York City. People on scooters or in cars will turn out in front of oncoming traffic or pedestrians will walk out and cross a six lane road of oncoming traffic as if they are invincible. No right of ways--just go.

I'm staying in a very nice French Colonial hotel in the heart of town, by the lake. After a brief rest, I'll grab the camera and hit the streets. This will be a wild ride!

* My Bangkok guide said that, because of their religious beliefs, the people in Bangkok try to live more harmoniously and will rarely ever use their horn. (This reminded me of the Japanese culture, where I never heard a car horn.) The narrow Bangkok streets are far more crowded with cars than Hanoi, but I only heard 2 horn blows in Bangkok. Interestingly, it was my car service driver on the way to the airport when two cars almost turned in to my side of the vehicle on the interstate.

I shot this time lapse from my hotel room. This is just a night time short from a full 24 hour time lapse that will be created in a couple of weeks. My laptop is just too taxed producing these to make the longer ones on the road.

Source: Link

Did the mountains in China's Zhangjiajie National Forest park inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountain Range in the movie Avatar? Our world has some of the most strangely gorgeous places.

I think I've mentioned before on my blog that I've fallen in love with Arizona. The desert is such a mysteriously beautiful place. As I recently tweeted, I visited Page, Arizona, for my New Year's celebration. Regrettably, my numerous tweets on this trip did not go out as, unlike Verizon, AT&T had no 3G coverage at all in Page, and their Edge network rarely worked for me anywhere.

I went to see and photograph Antelope Canyon.

The small Page airport was wonderful--like stepping back in time. They have one car rental company: Avis, which was closed on January 1st; so, a car couldn't be rented. But when we landed (all 6 of the people on the Great Lakes Airlines plane from Phoenix) a man was at the Avis counter. He said that, even though it was his day off, he came in to do some paperwork, and decided to come in when the flight arrived in case anyone needed to rent a car.

Wow! Now that's customer service.

The Page city council should do something nice for this guy. As a result of his extra effort, Page took in more revenue. Instead of being stranded at the hotel until the tour guide arrived the next day, having a rental car, I was able to get out, see the sights, and spend some money. This guy is Page's unofficial ambassador. He also recommended some great places to see!

Be sure to view the larger versions of the photos below. Simply click a photo to see the larger picture which has better color depth. From any large version, you can view all of the photos in this post by simply pressing the "n" key for "Next."

I shot several pictures at Horseshoe Bend (above and first two below). This place was magnificent! The air was completely still, so I timidly, slowly, haultingly inched up to the edge of the 1,500 foot precipice for several shots. (I also kept the tripod in front of me as if it would somehow magically keep me from plummeting to my death.) There's nothing to stop you, nothing to prevent you from falling over, nothing to catch you if you did. You would drop 1,500 feet straight down to the Colorado river bed below.

The view near the edge is astounding and terrifying at the same time--breath-taking in more ways than one. Just thinking about it makes my knees weak and my skin crawl again. Frankly, it was scary as hell! I'm including a shot or two of some young guys who just walked right up to the very edge as if falling to your death were an impossibility. They were crazy insane!

Carol Bigthumb's son and a friend of his were our tour guides through the Lower and the Upper Antelope Canyon as well as Owl and Rattlesnake Canyons. Carol was delightful, and I recommend her tour guides.

I just thought we would walk straight into this large canyon (sort of like Petra, Jordan), and, at the upper canyon, you do. But the lower canyon begins as a small crack in the ground. Her son hopped into the crack, barely wide enough for your feet. I didn't realize that he expected me to follow until it suddenly started going deeper into the ground.

There were a few places near the entrance where I had to squeeze through with my camera backpack on my back. One of the guides, a thin college student who runs 4.30 miles, then wore the backpack for me for the remainder of the day. They were incredibly helpful.

All of the canyons were different and astounding. The lower canyon had numerous steps and ended with a large number of stairs going back up out of the canyon. At that point you realize how deep into the ground you are. I'm not overly bothered by heights, but I couldn't look down. I just grabbed the rails and went: up, up, up... Dear god, would we ever get to the top?! My leg muscles are still killing me from the stairs, hiking up and down, and the constant squatting down to peer through the camera viewfinder!

Eleven young people (twenty-somethings), were killed in the canyon a few years back. They were told to leave the canyon as flash floods were on the way. Seeing no clouds in the sky, they went back in. (Only one body was ever recovered.) Astoundingly, the violent rushing water completely fills these deep canyons all the way up to the top. The flash floods are what carve the smooth, gorgeous walls of the canyon from the rock.

The photos are exceedingly long exposures (many well over 60 seconds) because of the interesting and ever changing lighting conditions in the canyon. I shot for HDR (3 to 5 exposures per shot), so you can expect to see an incredible HDR gallery as soon as I have the time. For now, enjoy just these few single exposure shots.

Our Navaho guides spoke of the canyons as sacred. I can understand why. These were etherial, mystical, enchanting places that were cathedrals to nature, energy, harmony, and the quiet balanced spirit.

I will be back.

So apparently, the wretched experience that is international travel just got even worse: no getting out of your seat for the last hour of flight, no electronics for the entire flight, and only one carry on bag, every passenger gets a full body pat down. Who the hell wants to put up with this! I'm sick of the hassle! It's time to stop international travel. Maybe that's what George W, I mean Orwell wanted all along.

What will the new restrictions be when someone does something else stupid?! Strap all passengers into straight jackets before boarding?? Traveling in the nude?? Body cavity search?? Where will it stop?!

Last night I was blasting through the TV channels here at the hotel trying to find something of interest to watch. I stumbled upon a reality TV show playing the surveillance video from a convenience store where a bat-wielding thief came toward the man at the cashier demanding money and threatening to kill him.

The cashier reached down and pulled up a double barrel shotgun aimed directly at the thief, who immediately dropped the bat, dropped to his knees, and began pleading for his life. The would-be thief said he just needed food.

Astonishingly, the cashier, shotgun in hand, took $40 out of the cash register, got a gallon of milk and a box of cereal, plopped them on the counter and told the would-be thief he had better never see him again in his store. The would-be thief took the money, grabbed his bat, thanking the cashier many times, and fled.

I was rather astounded by this: One human being whose life was being threatened as he was being robbed, and instead of blowing the thief to bits, in kindness, gives him money and allows him to leave without calling the police.

I was reminded of my father who, back when I was a teenager, gave two men $10 when they asked him for $1 while standing on the sidewalk at an outdoor shopping center. I was so aggravated with my father, because we always had to be so frugal to live simply. I challenged him, saying that he had just wasted that money because the men were just going to go buy booze at one of the two liquor stores a few blocks away.

Without any hesitation, my father simply replied, "But, maybe not." That was enough for my father, who was always a kind-hearted soul.

My sister understands that space that occupied my father's heart more than I do. She came to visit me in Atlanta about 10 years ago. I'd grown accustomed to the homeless problem in that city, the beggars that litter the streets panhandling. My sister, from a much smaller community, came upon someone begging at the stop light. She lowered the car window and gave the man some money.

I was appalled. As we drove off, I challenged her, saying he was just going to buy drugs or alcohol with that money. She was quick to reply, "Even so, maybe that's all it will take to get him through today."

I have grown more sympathetic and understanding as I've aged. I've shed much of the insensitivity that is the judgmental hatefulness of the extremist rightwing religious agenda. I'm not sure I will ever reach the point of compassionate understanding in my heart that my sister has and father practiced.

Yesterday, some poor man who was out collecting for the Salvation Army was killed by two attackers who wanted the money people had given. Face to face charity is still a challenge to me.

Ever wondered what keys to the castle actually look like? Well, here they are: full size scans of the key to the room at Ashford Castle and at Dromoland Castle.

Not exactly what I was thinking, either... Although the Ashford key is cool. And I do like "Distinction since 1543" on the Dromoland key.

A banker reminded me recently that capitalism creates more wealth than any other economic system. It just creates it very unevenly.

I think that it also treats disenfranchised people with little to no kindness at all--harkening back to that whole notion of "survival of the fittest." And as jobs have been outsourced abroad to those willing to work for wages well below what a typical American can sustain in the average American market, wage earning capacity is dropping to precipitous levels. I suspect that, rather than passing along cost savings to consumers, corporate execs have enhanced their own wealth aggregation with corporate jets, fat pensions and bonuses, etc.

I worry that the capitalist machinery of this nation has lost its moral compass, and the situation will only get worse. As markets explode in Asia, the fact that they are drying up here in the USA is of little concern to corporate America who sees a new cow fat for the slaughter house. Is it possible that, in time, America will in fact become the largest third world nation on earth as people lose their homes, their jobs, their spirit, their influence on democratic government, their voice, their access to news and critical information...

While in Ireland I noticed local villages took a very dim view of corporate ownership. "Buy local!" the signs read.

When you know the face of the wo/man who made/purchased the product or provided the service, it's more difficult to take advantage of her/him. You have an ancient social contract with them, as old as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Corporations have mastered the art of hiding their faces, have become inaccessible and unaccountable for their egregious conduct, are perpetuating a growing divide between those who have more than they will ever need and those who need just to survive.

I'm paying far more attention to my own purchasing habits. I want to "buy local" more than I want to support big box impersonal corporations whose first allegiance is to the bottom line. Doing so generally costs me a little more, but is this the price for taking better care of people, of attending to community?