After 10 days in Borneo, the oldest rainforests of the world, am back!
It was an out-of-the-world and overwhelming experience to say the least and I need to take time to allow things to sink-in. I am bewitched by S.E.Asia! Perhaps, this is just the beginning.
(Please visit my flickr stream to see the large size version)
I intend to blog in detail about the trip (including how we planned, expenses, cheap travel options, etc). For now, this post is just a sneak preview of what we did.
Its travel time! In less than 12 hours from now!
Backpacking to Borneo this time!
Oldest rain forests on Earth, largest caves in the world, tall peaks such as Mt Kinabalu, amazing flora and fauna… Borneo has it all!
As I had tweeted earlier, my Leh-Ladakh trip went to the dogs courtesy the rain gods and the unfortunate devastation there. I had to quickly make alternative plans. I was thinking of either of these
However, Adarsh had other plans. Borneo! Initially I didn’t give it much thought, especially because I wasn’t interested in an expensive trip. But when he said he had applied for a visa, I started thinking about it seriously. The airfare on Air Asia for both domestic and international was surprisingly cheap. The fact that I could do this 10 day trip in less than 40-45K (INR) was another alluring carrot dangling in front of me. I gave in! Tickets were booked!
Borneo is the old name for the island comprising East Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. We are visiting only the Malaysian portion of it.
Here is my 10 day trip itinerary:
And just in case if you are interested, a total of 8 flights cost me 23.4K INR! Air Asia prices are awesome! I only hope the service is decent too. I hope to keep the expenses below 40k (backpacking, staying in dorms, sleeping for a night in the airport, eating cheap stuff, .. you get the picture), but at the same time, not compromise on things that could make for a good trip.
My backpack is packed. Almost all of it is camera equipment. The clothes don’t weigh as much as my lenses! I am carrying my 70-300, 10-24 and 105 VR micro lenses. Along with the SB600 flash and Gitzo tripod/Arca swiss ball head. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu with all this weight is going to be fun… will come back and tell you if I made it or not :-).
My internet access in the next few days is limited. Whenever possible, I might upload a picture or two and post an article maybe. For now… please allow me to drift into dreamland!
Wish me a good trip!!!
Update: Want to know how my trip went? Read the posts below.
The entire Borneo backpacking series is listed below.
- Backpacking in Borneo-1: Prologue (includes itinerary)
- Backpacking in Borneo-2: A sneak preview
- Backpacking in Borneo-3: Wild Wild Southeast (Uncle Tan’s wildlife adventures)
- Backpacking in Borneo-4: The Teksi scare
- Backpacking in Borneo-5: Cave and canopy magic (Gunung Mulu National park)
- Backpacking in Borneo-6: Photography equipment to carry
- Backpacking in Borneo-7: Trip expenses and tips to keep it low
- Backpacking in Borneo-8: Climbing Mt Kinabalu
- Backpacking in Borneo-9: Malaysian food
- Backpacking in Borneo-10: List of sightings
- Backpacking in Borneo-11: Epilogue
Am returning to India on July 11th.
Yes, I am excited to be back home and look forward to playing with my kid. But there is a tinge of sadness too. I had a great time here. Easily, it was one of the best trips of my life. I visited a lot of places and made a few friends too. Will miss them all. I will especially miss the wonderful national parks of US and those mammoth landscapes!
This post is a quick reflection on my trip in Twitter style. Few words. A photo or two, thats it.
My 3 favorite photos of the trip:
1. Tule elk shot at Limantour wilderness area
2. Antelope canyon
3. Tufa’s of Monolake
Places visited and a one line description of each
Most memorable moments
– Cycling in Marin in pitch dark of the night. Taking a detour on Conzelman road and photographing Golden Gate in pitch dark from an isolated area.
– Walking up the Sunset point in Bryce Canyon and being wowed by its beauty.
– First morning in Point Reyes HI hostel. Waking up early and seeing through the large window. Chilly morning. Rain drops. Dreamy mood!
– Driving through Toulemne meadows in Yosemite early in the morning.
– Driving through Point Reyes, esp the Pierce point ranch early in the morning.
– Being so close to a bear in Yosemite.
3 most admired things in US
– Amazon.com
– US national parks
– ownership of assigned tasks
Random thoughts from the trip
– Absolutely love Galen Rowell’s adventure photography and his go-light-on-gear attitude. A huge Galen fan now!
– David duChemin. I knew him before, but got hooked to his photography during this trip.
– Tenting is fun.
– Night photography is way too much fun.
– VR/IS/SR can never kill a tripod.
– US has as many problems as India does.
– US media is worse than Headlines Today in India.
– We Indians respect white folk more than we do our own folk. The spillover effect of a British raj!
– When you are in trouble, do nothing. Just wait until your head is clear. Most likely, the issue would clear by itself.
– Ghana deserved to win the game. Suarez snatched a goal and got away with a penalty. A sure goal != a chance for a goal.
Additions to my equipment during the trip
– Gitzo 3541LS tripod and Arca Swiss Z1 monoball head
– Nikon TC17E II
– Singh Ray 3 stop soft GND filter
– B+W Kaesemann polarizer
– Canon S90 pocket camera
– Eureka Nxt 2 man tent
Books purchased
– Mountain light by Galen Rowell
– Picture this: How pictures work by Molly Bang
– Photography and the art of seeing by Freeman Patterson
On July 4th, we had gone to see the fireworks display at Pier 39. It was pretty good, but personally, I was disappointed that it lasted only for 30 minutes.
Nevertheless, here are a few things that helped me photograph the event. Hope it is useful to you too.
1. Use a tripod
Since you will be photographing primarily in the night and shutter speeds will drop to several seconds, you just cannot do without a sturdy tripod.
2. Use a low ISO value
Since you have a tripod, and since you need slightly longer shutter speed to capture the firework trails, use a low ISO value.
3. Aperture of f11-16 works best for me
Wider than F11, the light at the middle could be blown out. Narrower than F16, you could have diffusion issues depending on your lens. F11-16 works best for me.
4. Shoot manual
Go to manual mode. With the aperture mentioned above, you should be able to click at 4 seconds or so and get a decent light trail of the bursting cracker. Depending on the firework, you could get a very nice streak of light.
5. Focusing
Focusing in the dark could be an issue. Few like to focus on infinity and shoot. However, I waited for the first firework burst, when it turned bright, focussed on it and then turned auto-focus off. Until I changed my focal length, I used the same focus. However, you need to be careful not to accidentally turn the focus ring to offset it.
6. Compensate for the fluorescent colors of the crackers
You may perhaps like to use a warm flourescent light white balance if the crackers used tend to emit strong flourescent colors. Of course, shooting in raw will help you play with multiple white balance options.
7. Mirror lock-up mode with remote release
To avoid shutter release vibration, use the mirror lockup mode and trigger the shutter using the remote. You could also use the 2sec timed release option in your camera if you do not have a remote.
8. If light is too blown out even at low ISO and F16ish apertures, use neutral density filters
Use neutral density filters. If the burst happens in the top portion of the frame, perhaps a 2-3 stop gnd could help.
9. Time the burst
Note down how many seconds every burst and its light trail lasts. Try to match the full duration of the burst trail to get proper trail streaks.
10. Try to shoot when the wind is calm
When the wind is strong, clicking a picture could mean that the streak trails could be blown away by wind causing a fading light blur which you may or may not like. If you want a proper trail, try to click when the wind is calmer.
11. Turn off noise reduction in your camera
If your camera has noise reduction feature turned on, you could spend quite a bit of time between shots when the camera is busy working on the noise reduction (this is why clicking a long exposure could take a long time before camera is ready for next click).
Have fun!
Another week went by. Another trip etched into memory!
Mighty mountains that are a geologists wonder , snow capped peaks that glow like an orange ball in the early morning sun, freezing cold lakes that have just begun to come out of their long hibernation by shedding their icy coats, innocently clear water in the lakes that can chill your bones, American black bears that stare straight at you with stone-cold eyes within 500 metres of distance,… Yosemite is a wonder! This time, we avoided the usually visited and much crowded areas in and around Yosemite and went to the Le Vining side which was very beautiful.
Last weekend, I visited the Marin headlands area.
My plans were simple
But, my planning ended there. I had not thought about transport, food, maps, directions,… blah blah. The minimalistic planning either made for a great trip or screwed things up depending on how you view it.
Last week, from May 29-31, Adarsh and I had gone on a camping trip to the Canyon’s of the west – the Grand canyon, Bryce canyon, Monument valley and the Antelope canyon!
May 30th was Adarsh’s birthday. 31st was mine. Need I say that I had the best birthday till date!!!
On May 28th night, we flew down to Phoenix from San Jose and then drove to the places mentioned above. Well, we started on a shaky note at Phoenix when the car rental guy told that our already booked Nissan Sentra would be parked at J-8 and that this was the ONLY compact car available there. Upon reaching J-8, we were taken aback to see a totally worn out car with its bumpers and headlights literally falling off!!! We were for a minute unsure whether to take the only car or to cancel it, but decided to do the later. Just then, we noticed that we were looking at the wrong parking slot. The place had 2 numbers for some reason. And both the J-8’s had Nissan Sentra’s. One nice car from the car rental guys.. the other, a torn down car belonging to someone!!! Laughing at our blunder and the strange coincidence, relieved, we jumped in and quickly sped-off! The time was 12.15am on Saturday.
Tule elks are the smallest sub-species of North American Elks that are found only in the grasslands and wetlands of California. Having gotten their name from eating the Tule grass found only in these parts, these animals roamed across California in huge numbers, believed to be at least half a million before the 1850’s.
But the mad rush to hunt these wonderful creatures during the Gold rush and a decline in grazing land led to their count falling to as low as 28 in 1895 (source: wikipedia). They were even thought to be extinct, but for the effort of a good hearted California ranger called Henry Miller, who saved around 20 elks and reared their population towards recovery. Otherwise, these wonderful creatures would have been gone.. forever! Damning humans!!!
They are old. They are slow. And they are small. Yet…, they are extremely popular!
You can’t miss them when you are in Fisherman’s wharf or in Pier-39 (or anywhere on the F market & wharves route). The beautiful vintage street cars!
Having been sourced from all over the world, from places like Melbourne (Australia), Tokyo (Japan), Birmingham (UK), Milan (Italy), these street cars behold heritage status and have become an attraction by themselves!
After having served in their respective countries / cities for several years, after almost being written off as junk, it is heartening to see these old horses being put to test again in this amazing melting pot (of street cars, if you will :-)) called San Francisco!
Am starting a new series of posts covering my visit to the US of A. Blame it on my lack of imagination, I am plainly calling it “The US diaries”.
I was initially thinking of writing in the day report style covering each day of actual travel (usually weekend). But we do so many things in a day that a daily report post will be really long. Hence I intend to write short posts on just one subject area, for example, the Golden Gate and what we did there, etc. Maybe will link such reports together to stitch a timelined post. Let me see how it goes.
As the first in the series, this is just a prologue covering only a few details.
Destination: San Francisco (Emeryville actually)
Duration of visit: Apr-24 to July 11