A day on the river

Enough of those sad, monochrome pictures... Although the one published yesterday actually took me back to Thailand and then I found this one.

The river in Bangkok is a very interesting place. Where an inattentive tourist can spend a hundred bucks on a cool trip that otherwise would cost him maybe 100 baht if he paid for the tickets on the boat and at the temples. It is also a place when you get out of the heat, sort of. I mean, it is better to feel the water breeze on your face than sit in a park in the full sun...

One thing in Bangkok never changes though - the river is as busy as the roads.

Sony RX100M3, 35mm, 1/250s @ f/11, iso 125

Stairway to sky(train)

To complete the series of monochrome images I'd like to include this one, from Bangkok, that I always wanted to publish, but never was in a mood too. Thailand is a land of many colours and to make a black&white frame felt almost like a sacrilege...

I am not 100% sure, but I believe this is the view from the entrance to Terminal 21 on one of the exits from the sky train (BTS) at the Asok station. What I liked about this frame was how the stairs compose with the rest of surrounding architectural elements.

Of course, it being Thailand, I could not resist to add some warmth to the monochrome image. Though - give the recent Mad Max hype - maybe it would have looked better in chrome?

Sony RX100M3, 34mm, 1/13s @ f/11, iso 80

When the lights go out...

The evening view form one of the restaurants - even though I've already covered the sunset experience, it is something you can go back over and over again. The sky is different every day and you can experiment with angles and lenses.

Now that I'm back to Montreal, I not only remember this beautiful sight, but also lying on a mat, sipping a fresh watermelon smoothie and enjoying the cooling breeze from the water.

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 8s @ f/11, iso 80

Low-hanging fruit

Another very typical view from Vang Vieng: mountain ridges in the background, hint of a river in the foreground, afternoon golden time and some kind of activity the visitors love to try there. This time it is a hot-air balloon allowing to admire all the beauty from above.

I did not try it personally - was too busy kayaking and hiking, but I've heard the view was indeed breathtaking. 

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/80s @ f/16, iso 400

Morning rush

Back to Laos...

I exhausted the pictures from the Kong Lor Cave area already, but there is so many more from the other places. Vang Vieng was already mentioned once, so I will not repeat myself telling why this place was so awesome.

But it only takes one look at the picture below to see why it was an ideal spot for a photographer: water, mountains and amazing colours. It is hard to take a "peaceful river" kind of shot in this area though - the people are getting busy quite early. Most of them rushing to do "sunrise cruises", but also setting up their nets or just going up river with some supplies.

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1.3s @ f/11, iso 80

Crops

And the last (at least for now) picture from the Kong Lor area. Less related to the cave, more how do people live there. It seems like not everybody is into lodging and transport business.

I saw photos of those fields when the crops are fully grown. I wish I could be there at that time...

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/8s @ f/11, iso 80

Morning on Mekong

This is the same longboat as in this picture. The morning was chilly, it was hard to wake up, especially after a long ride from the Thai border in a cold bus. But when I look at the shots taken, I could probably post one daily for another month. Beautiful river.

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 0.8s @ f/11, iso 80

Going places

Maybe not the best quality pictures of them all, but I like the framing and the story behind them.

Unable to get a bus in Kong Lor, which is a very small village in the mouth of the famous cave, and having a lot of distance to cover to get to Si Phan Don as quickly as possible, I got a songthaew (truck taxi) to ride me to Thakek. Later on, on the junction with north-south Route 13, I had to switch to a more crowder taxi, but this one I had only to myself!

Instead of sitting on a bench, I took the floor, my back against the cab. I had lots of fun listening to the music and watching the landscape pass by...

Sony RX100M3, 57mm, 1/60s @ f/11, iso 125

Sony RX100M3, 60mm, 1/80s @ f/11, iso 160

Mouth of the cave

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 30s @ f/11, iso 80

And back to Laos, to a marvellous place called the Kong Lor Cave with a wide long-exposed shot of the entrance.

The night and the city

Fujifilm X100S, 1/25s @ f/2, iso 3200

This year, save for 2 weeks in Laos, I did not travel that much. But I still have a lot of pictures from the previous winter which were not processed to their full potential. The Hong Kong skyline seen from the mainland is one of them.

Path to enlightenment

Sony RX100M3, 54mm, 1.3s @ f/11, iso 80

Back to Laos. The Kong Lor Cave was nice, but so were the surroundings. The forest path leading to the cave was especially welcoming in the early morning.

Postcard from Krabi

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/40s @ f/11, iso 125

If I wanted to send a postcard from Krabi, it would probably be this picture.

Sidenote: if I could make all the people look in the same direction the boats do, it would be a great photo. Now it's just a nice one.

Green portal

Sony RX100M3, 70mm, 1/80s @ f/11, iso 400

Interesting tree pattern on the natural rubber plantation in Krabi.

Isaan morning

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/50s @ f/16, iso 500

Something always has drawn me to Isaan, the eastern part of Thailand, where people speak a mix of Thai and Lao. Maybe it was the influence of my first Thai teacher? Maybe it is because possibly every Isaan-born person I met was extremely nice and always cheerful?

Indeed, when I was planning my trip around Laos, my first idea was to cross from Vientiane to Udon Thani and explore this part of the country from there. Well, it turned out I enjoyed Laos so much that I ended up going all the way to the south. And that's where I crossed back to Thailand, only not to Udon, but Ubon.

And Isaan did not disappoint me. Great people, awesome food and sights like this one. Next year I may be working from there!

Za sałatą

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/200s @ f/4, iso 2000

A loose allusion to a commercial popular in Poland. An expression (the English translation would be: behind the lettuce) that was repeated then in various social contexts. Not as big of a hit as "kopytko", but still...

The picture was taken at the Municipal Food Market in Ubon. Very nice and a very busy place in the morning. Vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, cooked food to eat there or take away, but also some clothes and toys. Lots of friendly and genuinely interesting people.

And they had the most spicy papaya salad I have ever eaten.

Shameless autopromotion

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/160s @ f/5.6, iso 100

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/50s @ f/16, iso 720

I'm not really into selfies, but sometimes I get asked for a (good!) photo of myself and you can use pics from 10 years ago only for so long...

These portraits were actually taken by a friend and then post-processed by me. She did a good job - now I have photos to use for the next 10 years or so! :)

The reason I was asked for these: I was interviewed by Elyse Lévesque for her article on digital nomads. As we weren't able to meet, the pictures had to be taken by myself. The bottom one ended in the article. For the full version you need a tablet (iPad or Android) and the LaPresse+ app. You can read the full text (in French) here (warmly recommend, it is very well written), but there is no photo of me there, just my words.

Buddha Park

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/30s @ f/11, iso 200

If you ask me, Vientiane is not the most interesting place to visit. Night market, Patuxai, Pha That Luang. In the evening few drinks near the fountain and that would be all.

The actual place to go lies 30km from Vientiane and is called Buddha Park. Wonderful spot to chill in the afternoon, provided you paid your song thaew driver to wait.

And of course the widest lens I had was 24mm. Too bad...

It's time

Nikon 7100, 450mm, 1/40s @ f/16, iso 100

I added sunset on a river in Vang Vieng recently, but it seems like people like sunsets. So here's another one - a sea sunset at Ao Nang Beach in Thailand.

I must admit, I had (and still have) mixed feelings about Krabi. It is a nice place, with multitude of good sights and landscape spots. It is not as crazy as Phuket (Patong especially). But it is still a tourist trap. Not many ways to meet and befriend locals. Also - and I am writing this from -20℃ Montreal - a bit too hot for my taste. Granted, I did not go to Koh Lanta, which everybody recommends. Well, there is always the next year.

But back to the picture. Unlike many others, I took this one using a telephoto lens (70-300mm, effectively 105-450mm on my DX Nikon). This gave a bigger than usual sun circle with a nice cloud pattern. You can also see some of the sunspots. I must try it again soon...

Postcard from Mekong

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/50s @ f/11, iso 125

The Mekong River around Luang Prabang is so photogenic that it can be photographed almost at any time of the day. Morning shots yield a veil of mystery, while in the afternoon you can find your ideal postcard shot.

Just lie down and watch... "Friends"

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/80s @ f/16, iso 640

iPhone 5s, auto, VSCOCam

Vang Vieng was the place where we stopped to "refuel" after the cold of Luang Prabang. Not so long ago this spot was a serious drug scene, now cleaned up (within reason), is for partying in the night and doing cool stuff during the day. The activities include: hiking, mountain biking, swimming in ponds, kayaking, tubing, rock climbing.

The activity, which seems quite popular there is watching Friends (as in TV series). You go to a restaurant, order food and drinks, lie down on a mat and enjoy the show.

For obvious reasons I was more interested in the view "outside". So I chose to go to restaurants on the river, hunting the sunset. And - oh my gosh - it was a beautiful sight!

We spent total four days in Vang Vieng and - when every restaurant felt the same and the next day wasn't particularly different from the previous one - we left for Vientiane.