travel

After reading about the 10 most beautiful bridges in the world at the weekend through Digg I went to take some photos of Ironbridge, #7 on the list which happens to be about 20mins drive from where I live.

The bridge itself.

The power station overlooks Ironbridge, giving an interesting contrast between old and new industry.

A view from the bridge looking up the river.

The bridge in the distance.

The bridge and the village which takes it name from the bridge.

On the drive up to Ironbridge I took this picture of the river Severn.

 You can view all my HDR photos on Flickr.

Here are some of my best HDR photos from my travels. HDR is a technique of taking a photo over multiple exposures (or extracting them from a RAW file) then recombining them in a program such as Photomatix. By doing this you can bring out the detail from the multiple exposures creating a powerful image.

My first is of St Chads Church in Shrewsbury.

I really like how the HDR technique has brough out the detail in the stone work.

This next one was taken in Betws Y Coed last summer.

I like the brightness in the trees in comparison to the building and water in this one.

This one is of the B&B we stayed at in Betws Y Coed.

Again I love how the stone work is really brought out against the trees.

I took this next one in Egypt last summer.

The rich blue in the sea and sky really shines through in this picture.

This one was taken in the Cotswolds on my Birthday last year.

The contrast in the sky especially with the sun setting is very striking in this picture.

This is another of St Chads Church in Shrewsbury.

The way the cloud almost circles around the spire is especially apparent in this picture as it almost implies the power the building or church has over people.

This train track near Betws Y Coed almost has a rain forest feel about it with the luscious green.

This next one again is from Betws Y Coed.

All of my HDR photos can be found on Flickr.

I've had a few requests to turn some of my Hong Kong photos into desktop photos, here are three of the best:

Hong Kong Light Show

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Dual Screen

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Hong Kong From Peak (night)

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Hong Kong from Peak (Day)

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If there are any other sizes anyone wants then post a comment below and I can make them.

I've spent the past ten days in Hong Kong on holiday, here is my day to day account of what I did. Hong Kong used to be owned by the British but in 1997 we gave it back to China. The British influence is still clear from the predominant use of the English language, road signs, food and the economy.

(Hong Kong at Night- click any picture to enlarge)

Day 1 - Travel

The first day was long, we had two flights to catch, one to Dubai then on to Hong Kong. Fortunately both flights were on time and were as comfy as you can expect from economy class. I was quite impressed with the Emirates flights especially how they had a camera on the front and below the plane so that you could see where you were going.

We got into Hong Kong about 10pm at night where we got a train to the central district then a taxi to our hotel, all was very efficient and easy though it helped everything being in English.

Day 2 - Exploring / Shopping

(The worlds longest escalator.)

After breakfast we decided to explore the city. With seven million people living in such a small area you would think transport would be a big problem however the system is efficient and cheap. The tram spans the length of the built up area and costs about 7p to use. The buses and trains are also cheap to use and frequent making Hong Kong very easy to get around.The city is built on a hill with our hotel half way up it. To save getting a bus or walking they have built an escalator from bottom to top (featured left) which goes down in the morning and up the rest of the day, it made walking round very easy.

We spent most of the day walking around shopping centres and taking in the sites of the Central District, Wanchai and Causeway Bay. Laura and myself started a competition to see how many fat Chinese people we could spot. It was hard and often a fat person from behind ended up being an American. We managed to just get into double figures, we spotted 10 times that number in the same time for American and European fatties. It's not all gloom though there are a significant number of McDonald's, KFC's and Starbucks slowly fattening up the Chinese population.

(In Time Square these people hadn't realised what had crept up behind them)

(A tram in front of the very unique head quarters of the worlds local bank. The building was designed by Sir Normal Foster)

Day 3 - Visited Peak

To get to the peak there is a tram ride that takes about five minutes. From the top you have views to the North of Hong Kong, Kowloon and in the far distance China. To the south you can see the smaller towns of Stanley and Aberdeen with the ocean beyond.

(This is the view from the peak- our hotel is somewhere on the bottom right. Hong Kong is in the foreground with Kowloon beyond the water.)

(The view from the peak at night.)

Day 4 - Visited the Big Buddha and the Fishing Village of Tai O

(Buddha)

On Day 4 we visited the world biggest bronze Buddha on the island of Lantau. After walking up several million steps you get to see the Buddha in all its greatness. We didn't see any Monks though it was rumoured they were helping their brothers in Burma.

(The Buddha has a Swastika on it's chest though I do not think this is a relation to the Nazi's.)

(These Mobile Phone masts next to the Buddha ensure the Monks are never disconnected from their 3G Internet.)

After visiting the Buddha we took the bus to the fishing village Tai O. It was interesting to see a different side to Hong Kong which was not all wealthy high rise. Many of the houses are built on stilts along the estuary. There was a market here too though the village was lacking a Starbucks.

(We took a boat ride up here and to see Dolphins in the sea.)

(The people in Tai O live in these houses, some do not have running water.)

Day 5 - Visited Kowloon and Temple Street Night Market.

Kowloon is a boat ride across from the main island, one of the main attractions is a night market.

(In Hong Kong they do not have the strict rules for signs like we do in the UK.)

(I have no idea what these are but they look interesting.)

Day 6 - Grand Prix and Boat Ride to see the Festival of Lights

Day 6 was all about seeing Lewis Hamilton win the Formula 1 championship, unfortunately it didn't happen after he skidded off the track into gravel when trying to pit. We spent most of the day in a sports bar drinking but come early evening we headed to the harbour for a boat trip around the bay to see the Festival of Lights.

Every evening at 8pm for about 15mins various building in Hong Kong and Kowloon light up and flash to some Chinese music. The show is fascinating to watch and has won various world records.

(Buildings change colour and the sky is full of lights and lasers.)

We watched the show from a boat making it impossible to take pictures, I wouldn't recommend it.

Day 7 - Disney

On the seventh day we visited the magic place of Hong Kong Disney World. It's not as big as its American or European counterparts but we still had a great day. Fortunately it was not very busy so we did not have to wait more than a few minutes for any of the attractions.

(Even the train to Disney was themed.)

Disney was clearly aimed at Children though the rides and attractions were still good fun. I was looking forward to having a photo with a Johnny Depp look alike but we could only find Mickey and Goofy.

(Had Disney not brought Pixar then Disney World would have been a very empty place).

In places I felt they had diluted some of the Disney brands a little too much to an extent that made you cringe but on a whole it wasn't too bad.

(The toilets in the future land were for space men and disabled people only, I managed to blag the latter.)

Another thing that got my attention was all the staff having English names, it didn't seem too bad at first but when you see all these Chinese people with 'Kenneth', 'Keith' and 'Randy' name badges then you wish they had just kept their original names.

(I'm just faking here - Disney wasn't that bad.)

If you ever visit Disney in Hong Kong I recommend you don't eat any of the food, for lunch Laura and myself had a Burger and Fried Chicken, both were inedible. In the evening we tried what should have been Chinese food, again it was inedible. Otherwise Disney was a great day out.

Day 8 - Beach, Stanley and Lights

The sun was out on Day 8, it had been hot the other days but mainly cloudy. We were lucky it didn't rain considering we were in between two typhoons, one battering Vietnam and the other Taiwan and the Chinese main land. We took this opportunity to go to the beach and to visit the town of Stanley where we had lunch and visited yet another market.

(In China respect is given in proportion to the size of your Digital SLR Camera - everyone we saw carried one.)

In the evening we went back to Kowloon to watch the Festival of Lights, it was here I managed to capture the photo below. It's quite spectacular to watch and there are more photos on my Flickr account.

(The Hong Kong Skyline is one of the best in the world.)

Day 9 - Relaxation

We were tired from our adventures over the past 8 days so decided to relax around the pool. In the evening we had a nice meal in an Argentinian restaurant.

(I did some light philosophical reading around the pool. Much love to the FSM.)

Day 10- Cinema and travel home

We had to check out of the hotel at 12pm and our flight was not until 12am. In Hong Kong you can check your baggage in at the central train station, it will then find its way to the airport and onto your plane. This gave us the day baggage free to carry on our adventure, we decided however to go to the cinema, twice. Luckily the films were in English with Chinese subtitles. We finally took off just after midnight on our way to Dubai.

We were welcomed into Dubai airport with the 5am prayer. We had about three hours to kill and fortunately the airport is great but my only complaint is the lack of sinks in the toilets. I went to take a leak then naturally to wash my hands however the two sinks were crowded by Muslims insistent on washing their faces 50 times in 20 different ways each taking two minutes. If your going to cater for such people build some more sinks!

When landing back in the UK from looking at the forward camera I was worried the pilot might skid into the gravel, fortunately his tyres still had grip.

Overall we had an amazing time in Hong Kong and I would recommend it if you love big, busy, crowded, high rise cities and want to see some Chinese culture without having to learn the language.

*All pictures have been taken by either Laura or Myself view the whole set on Flickr.

ImAFish Blog Home

I'm away for the next 12 days in Hong Kong and will post my travel diaries when I return.

Have fun without me!

My most recent trip has been to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt for a week with Dave. Egypt has a population of around 65million most of which live around the Nile valley, our resort was six hours drive away at the edge of the Sinai peninsula on the Red Sea. The area is famous for all year sun and is one of the top ten diving locations in the world because of the coral reefs and diverse tropical fish.

The Egyptian flag.

Day 1

Our first day mainly consisted of the flight which was uneventful. When getting off the plane you really notice the heat for the first time, at first I thought it was from the jet engine but you then realise that the normal temperature. When we got to the hotel we noticed it was in the centre of the resort - Naama bay, we thought Jackpot and hit the local bars.

Food was very cheap compared to the UK, even at the more commercial places like KFC, Pizza Hut and the Hard Rock Cafe a meal would be about half what you would expect in the UK. Alcoholic drinks on the other hand were very similar in price to the UK mainly because they have to import all their alcohol and they can rip us tourists off.

Day 2

The second day was Dave's birthday and we started by booking some excursions for later in the week. The rest of the day we burnt round the pool before heading out for food and drink.

Keeping in with Egyptian culture we ate in the Hard Rock Cafe, here we are with a couple of the staff.

The majority of the locals were from Cairo as most of the area around Sharm is just desert. It was in the Hard Rock Cafe that I made my finest achievement on the holiday. I met a couple from Kazakhstan, after some small talk about the slow service we started to discuss the major cultural achievements of Kazakhstan, the main one of course being Borat. They did not seem amused however we came to the amicable conclusion that the joke was on the Americans in the film. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a picture with them.

We visited one bar called Little Budda which seemed a little ironic considering Egypt is an Islamic state. It had a giant Budda and played chilled out music and served cocktails.

Day 3

With a relatively small hangover we went on our first excursion Camel riding! We had been speaking to various people the day before about it and were told that it was not a nice experience however this was not going to stop us on our grand adventure into the desert!

Some of the locals guided our Camels, I found it interesting how they dressed like sand people. It's amazing how far some people go to be like their favourite Star Wars characters, I would have brought my light saber if I had of known.

I managed to fit right in with my dress sense. After riding the camel for about 30minutes my balls turned into sultanas they have still not yet recovered.

Some of the locals prepared some food for us, they cooked the bread on an open fire and the rest of the food in a microwave.

After dinner they did some light entertainment, this man squeezed one out while the others cheered and clapped him on. Not wanting to be put off by this strange culture I joined in.

While I couldn't understand what they were singing they mentioned the Allah after most words. We danced until late with our new found brothers before going to bed.

Day 4

On day four we got to go snorkelling, I had never done this before so was excited about seeing lots of fish.

We went snorkelling somewhere here, unfortunately I did not have an underwater camera :-(.

In the evening we went for drinks in a bar half way up the hill, they couldn't afford proper chairs so we sat on the floor. I hadn't done this since infant school so decided to meditate on it.

Day 5

In Pizza Hut in Egypt you have to arm wrestle the staff for food, Dave lost.

Fortunately he won the boxing match.

I wish they did this in the U.K.

Day 6

On the evening on the sixth day we went Quadbiking into the desert. This was not a normal track and we literally drove out into the desert to watch the sunset. It was a great experience and well worth doing!

Derka Derka.

This was taken while I was driving and trying to steer with one hand.

Day 7

This friendly man was the pharmacist and helped Dave with his sun burn. He was a strict Muslim and we spent a couple of hours chatting to him about our different cultures.

Outside our hotel was a KFC, Pizza Hut, Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Fridays. We made sure we sampled each one. KFC and Pizza Hut food tasted better over there. In KFC the chicken was less salty and in Pizza Hut the Pizza's seemed less greasy.

This was the temperature at midnight!

Day 8

On the final day we packed up and went home but not without doing some shopping.

We went into one shop and half the staff were asleep (well at least I think they were staff and I think they were asleep). We were told the bottle on the right had the Arabic sign for CK One on - strange I thought it was the sign for piss in a bottle. We didn't buy anything and moved on.

I really enjoyed Egypt and would go back again while it is still a cheap destination. I think May time was the perfect time to go as it was hot but not too hot and the resort was not over busy.

All the photos taken from my trip can be found on Flickr.

Last week I went on holiday to Rhodes with Laura, here is my diary. We stayed in the Oceanis hotel in Ixia, a few miles from Rhodes Town.

Day 1: Saturday

Saturday isn’t really worth mentioning as it was just the flight and as it went on time there is not much to moan about. The meal was not too bad; I think it was shepherds pie.

Day 2: Sunday

We got to the hotel early Sunday morning so it was dark when we arrived. When we awoke about 11 I saw we had a nice view, without admiring it for too long we had to go to the reps welcome meeting.

Here we made the stupid mistake of signing up for one of their organised activities – a trip to Lindos costing €33 each. It wasn’t until we were walking outside our hotel the following day we saw the exact same boat trip for €20 each.

Following the welcome meeting we went to the dining hall for lunch. The food was a bit like you would get in school, some days it was like Jamie Oliver’s school dinners others it was not so good.

Our hotel, we were on the fourth floor - somewhere on the right.

Day 3: Monday

Monday we went on this boat trip we got ripped on. I enjoyed seeing more of the island and our destination – Lindos was lovely. The boat journey took about two hours then we had to walk up from the beach to the town/castle. We could have taken a donkey up the hill, if I was mayor I would have got a cable car for the town.

Not a bad place for a castle.

Day 4: Tuesday

Tuesday we just stayed around the pool but it was a bit cloudy. It was today I started to notice the place was full of old people, most were normal grumpy old people but some especially the French were quite rude especially in the dining hall.

This shirt caused some controversy; most people just gave me dirty looks however these people could not stand to look at it.

The hotels pool was very nice however all the old people liked to sit as close to it as possible then moan at any kids when they got splashed – they clearly didn’t get it.

In the evening we took a walk through Ixia, there wasn’t much there so we went to play bingo. We won, much to the hatred of the old people for the rest of the week.

England isn’t the only place with “safety cameras”.

Day 5: Wednesday

Wednesday we went into Rhodes town. First we went round the aquarium, it was pretty small and lame but gave me some ideas for dinner.

They didn’t look so scary with chips.

I tried to see if it was magnetic, it wasn’t.

Rhodes town is split into two areas, the old town that is encompassed by a castle and the new town that includes M&S and BHS. The old town is full of crappy gift shops that all sell the same stuff; I was dragged in to most of them.

The sign as the top says “Rhodes Hostel”, I kept reminding Laura the streets look like the same as in the film.

In Greece immigrants are made to walk the plank, it faces turkey.

We played bingo again tonight but didn’t win.

Day 6: Thursday

For most of Thursday we stayed around the hotel but ventured into Ixia for a bit of shopping, I brought some alcohol. It gave me time to read my book; “The World of Karl Pilkington” based on the Ricky Gervais Podcasts, its very funny and has inspired me to write a book sometime.

I didn’t notice until I got home that this ship is actually sinking, no wonder it had been there over a day, I would have taken more photos.

We watched the England vs. Croatia game in the evening, we lost so was crap. Laura had previously said she wanted to go on holiday to Croatia next year, I suggested we rethink our holiday plans.

Day 7: Friday

It was very hot on Friday so we stayed round the hotel for most of the afternoon, I got a bit burnt in the pool but I overlooked it as it was more fun to throw footballs in the pool to splash the old people stupid enough to sit so close the edge.

This man had just walked from the sea.

Friday night we went back to Rhodes town and tried to get into the casino however you have to be 23 to get in, I gave the woman my Kevin and Perry look of despair and took out my wallet but she didn’t look interested in a bribe.

We went home and played bingo again. We won; I made sure I was extra smug when looking at the old people that had been rude in the dinner hall. We won some crappy t-shirt and a copied CD; I gave them to some Dutch kids.

Day 8: Saturday

Saturday we had to be out of our room by 12, its stupid really when our flight wasn’t until 4:30 the following morning.

The bathroom door in our room did not close.

Day 9: Sunday

We arrived back in the UK at about 6:30am the flight was early. The meal was dreadful though, the beans looked like ketchup, the sausage looked like an egg and the egg looked like part of a road accident.

We returned to all the same headlines in the news, Iraq, Muslims and Blair quitting.

Was a good holiday overall. You can view the rest of the pictures on ImAFish photos.

Last Saturday Bill and myself went to London to save the whale, well……. Maybe we got a bit distracted and ended up going for a talk from the Community Channel about the possibility of getting any content we produce on a national TV network.

The idea is to produce some sort of sort TV show that can be aired in the summer on the community channel and be available online. There is a lot of work involved but being able to say we have had a show on a national network would be a nice achievement.

So far our ideas have been around the University (our community) and a show based on the people within the University. Similar ideas have been based around the radio station or more specifically our show.

Was an interesting day and we had talks about all the different areas involved in production from quality, editing, PR and legal requirements. Unfortunately with any TV production you need to get the permissions of the people involved (you would have thought that the sheer fact they don’t mind standing in front of the camera would be enough), it’s not an off-putting fact though an important consideration when going round the Uni.

I certainly learnt a lot about the channel, it’s available on Satellite and Cable 24/7 but only available for 3hours a day between 6 and 9 on Freeview, which in my view is a big downfall. The station is looking for more fact based programs rather than fiction and particularly look for documentaries telling some sort of story on a community or individual. Its quite charity and voluntary work led though I was fortunate to see it was not religion based.