As Seen by TV

After temple patrol and the Cam Nam Island adventure, we came back to the Hoi An old town for dinner, drinks and some more vespertine action…

We flew from Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) to Da Nang, and then a short 30min drive to the town of Hoi An…… a slightly touristy, but extrememly beauitful town.  The center of the village is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and thus historically preserved… the first night we took some bicycles into the town center, which is where I captured these.

Afterwards, we had some beers at Treat’s Bar for 10,000 VND a bottle… and if that isn’t a reason to come back, I don’t know what is.

During the Chinese New Year holiday we hit up Gao Qiao, located on the northern tip of Pudong, just over an hour north via subway from downtown Shanghai.   Our mission was “Holland Village,” a residential complex built by Dutch architects to reflect living in Holland which is part of the “1 City – 9 Towns” initiative.  On the 20min walk from the metro station to this new town, we were fortunate to follow along a picturesque, and relatively traditional Chinese street. 

Mines View Park & the Baguio Botanical Garden, can’t really elaborate much more than that…

Since I only spent a night and day in Manila I can’t say anything definitively, but at first glance it’s not my favorite place. Although I did enjoy (completely by accident) walking into a bar with a stage full of girls on it. In all honesty, I just wanted to grab a beer somewhere and my girl wanted a pool table, so we walked into the first place we spotted… and got a little more than we bargained for. Interestingly enough, my first beer in the Philippines was the most expensive of the entire trip (150 PHP / US$ 3.50), which is funny because the same thing happened upon arrival here in Shanghai.

Luckily the day after I arrived we took the +6hr bus up into the highlands towards Baguio City… ah, how I miss that fresh air. And being able to see the stars.

*UPDATE* Typhoon Magi, that hit the Philippines a couple days ago, wiped out most, if not all, the fields in the second-to-last image, the infamous strawberry fields of La Trinidad.

Just got back from 5 days of shooting a seminar in Hangzhou, a picturesque city just over an hours train from Shanghai.

We were staying in a hotel in the tea village of Meijiawu, where the seminar was taking place. Don’t let the night exposures fool you, it was dark as hell… all of these images were taken with 15-200sec exposures.

For lunch/dinner we had some interesting stuff, it was my first time to eat goat, pig heart + tongue, and bullfrog… not to mention the regular stuff like river eel, pig intestine, tree fungus (delicious!!), and cooked chicken blood.

On one of the last evenings we were treated to a… interesting show which was located on a piece of land that can only be described as a Chinese Disneyland.  Fake mountains, over-priced “authentic” food, and all the staff walking around in traditional wardrobe from the various dynasties.  The show was pretty ridiculous… although it was nice to see a whole stage filled with beautiful Chinese girls belly-dancing followed by Indian-style dancing in outrages costumes (everything from full-on warrior battle gear to girls dressed as butterflies and lily pads).  I will also never forgive my colleague Kevin (aka “King Jian Ren”) for telling me not to bring my camera along!  Thanks jian!

The post title comes from the Chinese saying: 上有天堂，下有苏杭 which translates to “Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below.”