With that being said, we didn’t do too much exploring of Siem Reap. We did stay for a total of 3 days, but they were fairly busy with us seeing some of the local places and of course we spent 1.5 days at Angkor Wat itself.

We stayed at the Angkor Way Boutique Hotel. It was a fairly nice hotel and after Robyn slowly recovering from her food poisoning it was comfortable.

If we did decide to go off on our own, there were some local tuk-tuk drivers always waiting at the curbside of the hotel.

The day of our arrival in Siem Reap, after our lunch we went to Artisans Angkor and visited (free) some of the workshops where they do stone and wood carving, lacquering, silver plating and silk painting. You are taken around with a local guide .  It was amazing to see what some of these people can do with the tools and materials at hand.

For dinner that day we headed to Pub Street. From what a friend recently told us about her trip to Cambodia about 5 years ago, the bars would still do grenade checks at the doors. Crazy! Pub Street during the day it might not look like much, but it looks much better at night.

There are a lot of good places to eat on Pub Street, but there are also places to eat in the alleyways between the buildings too.

If your feet have had a long day, why not dip them into a pool of fish? Seems to be a big thing these days and I am surprised we don’t see them here in Vancouver. Yea, the fish will nibble at your feet and eat dead skin etc, kinda gross but people seem to like it.

When you’re done eating, there are 2 night markets nearby. So be sure to check either of them out. Though, be prepared to be harassed by the vendors if you’re walking around their wares. Some of them can be quite creative in getting you to buy something.

The following day we headed out to Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, but I won’t go into that here. That is probably going to be at least 2 blog posts.

On the last day we headed out to the Artisans Angkor’s Silk farm. It was actually pretty neat to see each stage of the farm. From the growing of the larva to the feeding of the worms, to collection of the silk cocoons to spinning it into thread and then the final weaving.

After the Silk Farm we headed over to the floating village. The floating village will be another post in the series for Cambodia. So much we did, in such little time. The sad thing was, once we left Siem Reap we know we would be heading back to Bangkok and then home. Our 2 month adventure was almost over.

I’ll leave you with a few more photos from that day; including one of myself eating a frog.

About to eat a frog

Cooked crickets by the bag

The waterway to Angkor Wat – Resting huts

Blooming Lotus Flower

We left Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) via a public bus loaded with a bunch of tourists and local people headed to Cambodia. This would be the first time we were using local transportation for such a long journey.

The bus travel itself, if I can recall was interesting at times. The border crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia was unique for us too. We got off at the Vietnam border, off the bus and went through immigration. We got back on to the bus and then drove for about 2 minutes to the next check-point where we got off again, this time it was for Cambodia’s border. Luckily the border crossing here was fairly quick and painless. We all piled back onto the bus drove for about 10 minutes and stopped off for lunch. After a quick 30 minute lunch, everyone piled back on to the bus and we headed for Phnom Phen. We even drove though our tour guide’s home town too along the way.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s capital city and located on the banks the Mekong River. We were to stay a total of 3 nights at the Cadaramon Hotel. We arrived at the hotel at around 2 PM, we were exhausted and starving. We were going to meet up with the rest of our group later in the evening for dinner so Robyn and I ordered some room service to tide us over until dinner. That was where the rest of our Phnom Penh experience took a dive for the worst. I ordered a rice dish of sorts, Robyn ordered a basic Pho soup. My food was right, but after a while Robyn mentioned that she wasn’t feeling good and that her Pho seemed “off”. I took a couple bites of it and agreed with her about it tasting “off”. It didn’t take too long but Robyn started not to feel good, I felt ok but not great. It got so bad that Robyn went to bed and essentially didn’t see any of Phnom Penh for the rest of the 3 days we were there. We concluded that we both had gotten food poisoning, but I was able to take the antibiotics we brought where she could not because of being pregnant. It was a horrible experience for both of us, but more so for her. We even had to move rooms because there was construction going on at a building next to where our room was located and Robyn couldn’t sleep. She was all achy, feverish and just overall not good.

That evening though, I went off with our group for a little tour of Phnom Penh. We saw how crowded the streets got with scooters and vehicles. We saw the variety temples that dot the Phnom Penh area. We even saw the presidential mansion which is massive. Bigger than anything I’ve seen here in BC. We even stopped off at the Royal Palace and saw hundreds of people congregated outside of the walls. According to our tour guide (Thou, pronounced “two”), the King of Cambodia died the week before or so and people were paying their respects. We wandered towards the river front and stopped off at a restaurant for dinner that evening.

The next day Robyn was still feeling quite ill. It got so bad that we were not sure if she would be able to travel to Siem Reap and see Angkor Wat in a few days. I was frantic looking at last minute flights out of Phnom Penh to Siem Reap or back to Thailand to come home earlier. Later in the event I went out again with our group and had dinner with a local family who our tour leader knew. They brought out it all for us at their home. I don’t think they normally eat what we had a great feast with the family. They even had some of their friends come over and eat with us. I opted not to bring my camera but the food was delicious and I enjoyed drinking rice whiskey from a bottle that had 2 tarantulas in it.

The next day Robyn was feeling a tad bit better, still not great though. Luckily, the night before with the help of our tour leader Thou, we managed to find some real Tylenol to help bring down her aches and fever. Robyn said she was fit enough for travelling again so we were a bit relieved that not only did we not have to fly out of Phnom Penh, but that we would both get to see Angkor Wat; one reason we wanted to go on this 28-day tour with Intrepid.

We left Phnom Penh and headed for Siem Reap. This time we did travel again by private bus and we made a few stops along the way.

Our first stop was for a bathroom break and some snacks. This is where you can pick up Cambodian specialties too, mainly BBQ’d tarantula. If it wasn’t for the food poisoning in Phnom Penh, I would have definitely wanted to try it. You could pick a live spider and have them BBQ it for you right there. They also had fried crickets among other local favourites.

Thou mentioned that this was the only place we would be able to get the BBQ’d tarantulas too as they are locally found in the area. If we ever return to Cambodia, we will have to make a special stop to that rest area so I can indulge in some fried critters. I’m always up for trying something new.

The next place we stopped off was an area known for their stone carvings. They would carve marble, sandstone, and other types of rock into beautiful statues and carvings. I bought a little stone elephant from one lady too. Some of the statues they were carving were 2 stories high! I tried to get Munal to stand in front of one to show the height, but she didn’t want to be in a photo.

The last stop on our journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was another little road side stand that sold a favourite of Robyn’s. That favourite through our entire trip was Sticky Rice. The cool thing about this sticky rice was that it was placed inside bamboo! They would cook the sticky rice inside the bamboo and then you would peel the bamboo like a banana. As you can see from Robyn’s expression, the LOVES sticky rice. The bamboo would keep the sticky rice warm for most of the day so you could eat it at a later time.

There we go, a quick recap of our experience in Phnom Penh and the journey up to Siem Reap. We didn’t really experience much of Phnom Penh due to our food poisoning but what we did see of it, I am sure there is much more to explore.

Painted Boat Resort and Spa

Painted Boat Resort and Spa is located on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia in Madeira Park, a short jump from Pender Harbour. With a short ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay and roughly a 50 minute drive up along the coast it is a great little getaway destination from the busyness of the Vancouver area.

Painted Boat offers not only the ability to book one of 31 luxurious vacation villas but also offer the opportunity to own one of them (partial or full) as well. With a large selection of amenities on the property it can easily become a home away from home.

They have their own marina with enough room for about 60 boats, a full-service restaurant with conference and wedding facilities, outdoor hot tub and infinity pool, fitness centre that over looks their harbour view as well as a full-service spa.

Valentine’s Weekend Getaway

Robyn and I have previously stayed at the Painted Boat Resort a few years ago as we attended a wedding nearby. We fell in love with the property when we first stayed there and thought it would be great to return one day. Well that day came up recently during a contest that the Painted Boat Resort had during Valentine’s day.

On Facebook, they were offering a chance for a couple to win a romantic getaway packaged called the ‘Love Boat‘. I did not think I would have won, but I found out the day after Valentine’s day through my little sister that I had won! There were about 160 entries in their contest and I was quite excited to win. It would also be a great surprise for Robyn too!  At first I thought it was just a 2-night accommodation which we were perfectly happy with, but as we arrived we found out it was a bit more than that. I should have re-read the contest as I somehow missed the “Love Boat Package” portion.

So what does their ‘Love Boat’ package entail? Well, here is what we arrived to late on the Friday night:

• Sparkling wine for two
• Fresh fruit basket
• Chocolates from a local chocolatier
• Fresh ingredents to make a romantic breakfast each morning
• A couples massage with a bento lunch at their spa

After catching a late ferry from Horseshoe Bay and managed to arrive at about 9:10PM to which we were happily welcomed from their office staff. We were given the keys to villa #15 which was  2 bedroom, 2 bathroom with loft. Very spacious. When we opened the door to the villa we were welcomed with music softly playing, the fire place flickering away and a trail of rose petals to the main bedroom. The ensuite bathroom was adorned with candles inviting us to have a romantic tub in their soaker tub for two. They even supplied bath bombs! There was sparkling wine chilled on the counter top for us as well as a greeting card from the staff. We were totally blown away!

The villa it self was quite spacious. With 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with the loft there is a lot of room for a few friends too. Granted, this was just a romantic getaway for Robyn and I and it was perfect. We were totally pampered and we both really needed it. Okay, Robyn really needed to be pampered as she hasn’t really been enjoying her pregnancy. Either way, it was a great way to spend a weekend together. Romantic and Relaxing.

The Spa

As I mentioned, this ‘Love Boat’ package also included a couples massage. Though, because Robyn is pregnant she required a prenatal massage. They were more than happy to accommodate Robyn and even though we could not be in the same room we both did enjoy our massages. I’ve never had a massage (I don’t count that Thai leg massage I had in Bangkok) but it was relaxing. Like one of the office girls said, we were marshmallows afterwards.

For my first experience in a Spa it was quite relaxing. We filled out our forms before being shown to where we would get into our robes and wait in the inner waiting room. They had a detox-water as well as some tea we could have while we waited for our registered massage therapists. I don’t know about the women’s change room but what surprised me about the men’s changing room they had shaving items. I’ve never seen that before but then again as I’ve mentioned I’ve never been to a spa.

They also have a secluded outdoor area. We didn’t partake in the outdoor pools but it was quiet and looked relaxing too.

Other Photos of the Property

Going to try something a bit new to me with my photos in a post. Instead of loading the 800 pix wide photos I’m going to see if I can make the little ones show up so you can just click on them to see them in a lightbox sort of style. Let me know if you like the little photos which expand to larger ones, or just seeing the larger ones.

We highly enjoyed our relaxing and romantic getaway with the Painted Boat Resort and Spa. We would recommend anyone travelling up the Sunshine Coast to stop and check in for a couple of nights. If you’re looking for a little getaway from the everyday, we would recommend doing the little trip like we did.

Disclaimer: I won this 2-night stay at the Painted Boat Resort and Spa via their Facebook page. I do also believe we had to book before the end of February (might have that wrong) so it was the off-season for the resort. The prize’s value is approximately worth $956 per couple. We still had to pay for ferry transportation etc. I was not paid to write this review but since we enjoyed our stay with Painted Boat Resort and Spa, I thought it would be nice for others to read about our experience with them!

On the work front

Now that we have come back from our adventures over seas it was time for me to look for a career. I managed to find a great place to work and I am employed now as a Firmware Engineer. For those who don’t know what firmware is, essentially it is the software that talks to electronic devices’ hardware. This is one reason why I haven’t been able to update my blog as much as I’ve been learning their internal systems and getting a better understanding of their code. I’ll be dabbling with their devices’ user interface as well as getting down into the nitty gritty of it with C/C++.

The more I become comfortable at this new job the more time I can set aside (of course outside of work hours) to getting back into writing more blog posts and uploading new photos on a more timely basis. I still have to write a couple posts about our experiences in Cambodia too!

On the family front

Some people have wondered why we came back from our trip a bit earlier than we planned. We did plan to spend about 10 weeks on our over seas adventure but had to call it off short due (about 2 weeks short)  to something we didn’t quite expect would happen so quickly. It seems that Robyn and I will have a new addition to our family! Poor Robyn had to deal with nausea from the beginning of Vietnam down through into Cambodia and back to Thailand. The 14 hour flight home wasn’t very fun for her either.

As of this post, Robyn is currently 22 weeks along in her pregnancy. Last week we had an ultrasound done and this was the result of it:

We’re both really excited about this. The baby is healthy and moving around (making Robyn more and more uncomfortable). We’re past the half-way mark too. Robyn will be a bit more relieved once she’s past the 24 week period though, but hopes the weeks past buy quicker.

So not only is my new career have great timing, our lives are going to change a little bit. There is so much to do in order to prepare for the arrival of our first child and then so much to do from that point onward.

Things we’ll be looking into:

• Baby Furniture
• Strollers + Car seats
• Carriers (such as ErgoBaby)
• Diapers
• Infant clothing (though people say you tend to get them from other people etc)
• Toys (what I am most looking forward too haha)
• and more

I doubt I’ll personally talk about baby stuff here, but perhaps I can talk about enjoying photography if I have a baby strapped to me. Who knows! Though I will continue to write about my experiences with photography as well as any travels we get up to.

That is what has been going on, we both are looking forward to what the future has in store too!

On the blog front itself

I noticed a few things I need to take care of here on my blog. Firstly, my contact form was not working and I have no idea for how long it was not working for. It seems my webhost changed something and I wasn’t informed. Though, I wouldn’t expect them to notify me of it either. Anyway, the script I wrote for dealing with my Contact page was making use of the PHP mail() function. I wrote a custom class that would allow me to send mail with HTML and attachments etc. Though, with the way it was sending these messages, PHP would say it was sent, but the webhost was configured to not relay the message properly and throw it away without notifying me or PHP. I fixed this by using a PHP class that utilizes SMTP and now I can receive messages properly. Who knows how many missed messages I failed to receive.

Another item I just noticed is that I need to set up a proper WordPress category page. That way I can link to the category of Travel and it would show any posts that are categorized under travel. I would hope this might make it easier to find more posts of various topics. Mainly, might help people see all of our SE Asia travel posts.

I’m sure there are other little things I need to clean up and add but I’ll eventually find time for that too. I really enjoy working with the backend code as well as WordPress.

A good quality and sturdy tripod should be able to handle the weight of your camera gear you intend to use with it. A tripod should not sway in a gentle breeze or accidentally collapse on you. It should be made of decent material and hopefully last you a long long time. I do believe that people will need to invest a bit more money into a good quality tripod if they want to ensure it can handle their equipment and have it last for a while. I’ve seen prices of tripods start in the $30 range all the way up to roughly $2,000 range. For the longest time I had a $30 tripod, for the longest time also, I’ve dreamt the day where I would have a good tripod that I would not be embarrassed to bring outside.

“They Came From Stagsden!”

What does Stagsden have to do with Tripods? Well, other than the phrase being a slogan, Stagsden is a small village in Bedfordshire within England; home to the tripod manufacturer 3 Legged Thing. Yes, perhaps a bizarre name for a company but I have found that 3 Legged Thing really know their stuff when it comes to tripods and what photographers want. For more information about the company itself, you can head over to their about page to check them out.

In this particular review, I managed to get my hands on one of their tripods over the Christmas season; the Adrian. One thing that is unique to 3 Legged Thing is how they name their tripod systems. Each name, in my case Adrian, is named after a rock musician. Adrian was named after Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden. The Adrian is part of 3 Legged Thing’s travel tripods series.

X1.1a Adrian – Magnesium Alloy Travel Tripod

So how is a travel tripod different from a regular tripod? Well, usually travel tripods are lighter and more portable. In the case of the Adrian, it is made up of a light-weight magnesium alloy (there is a carbon fiber version called Brian) and can fold up to the small size of 420 mm or approximately 16.5 inches in length. Don’t let that fool you though, the range of the Adrian is from 120 cm (4.7-inches) to 150 cm (59-inches) tall when fully extended. Pretty impressive for something that can easily fit along side your carry-on equipment for airplane travel.

Another unique feature of the 3 Legged Tripods is that they include a handy carrying case for your tripod. There are D-rings that allow you to attach the included shoulder strap, though I am sure you can easily attach it to another camera bag for easier carrying. In the lid or top of the carry case, there is a zippered compartment that you can store things. This is where you will find the extension column as well as 3 included Allan keys for tripod maintenance. The material of the case is rugged and will easily survive most regular environments. A nice place for the tripod to sleep when not in use.

There is Adrian.

Each leg is made up of 5 sections and these leg sections can be easily extended by making use of the twist locks and then pulling down each section. I actually prefer twist locks as opposed to flip locks. I find that twist locks are easier to use and quicker to extend the legs with.

When fully extended, the legs still provide great stability to the tripod.  Of course, you would get more stability if you don’t raise the center column. I have also found that with less expensive tripods, the more sections the legs come in, the less sturdy the tripod. That is not the case with Adrian due to his magnesium alloy build. The tripod legs are rated for up to 8 kg (17 pounds) of weight. With this Adrian tripod, the AirHed (AH1) ball-head was included and the ball-head (which I will talk about in a bit) is rated for up to 35 kg (77 pounds). Nice to know the ball-head is rated for some heavy lifting and I find that the rated weight for the legs will be more then enough for me for now.

When you need to get low, the Adrian can go as low as 120mm (4.7-inches). This allows you to get down and low when wanting to do things like macro photography, or perhaps a unique perspective on a landscape. If I were to remove the ballhead from the tripod (above) the camera would be able to get even lower to the ground but then maneuvering the camera into a specific position would be tricky. Though, if you really need to get the lens as close to the ground as possible, you can reverse the ball-head with the center column, like I do below.

Another neat feature of a 3 Legged Tripod, such as this Adrian, is the ability to not only remove the center column, but also flip it upside down. Not all tripods brands allow the removal of their center column let alone being able to attach it upside down. This definitely makes the tripod much more versatile.

Moving the legs to the desired position is easy, especially with the use of their leg position locking tabs. You just slide the tab out, move the leg to the desired position and push the tab back in. Easy peasy!

If you need to make the tripod sturdier. There are a couple of options, one that comes included and another one you can purchase separately.

On the bottom of the center column is a small hook. This hook is connected to a spring for which you can hang something on. You can hang your camera bag (such as I did in the above photo with my Think Tank Photo Streetwalker Pro) or a sandbag or anything else that might add some more support to the tripod.

The other option, which you can purchase separately, are the feet spikes. These are screwed into the bottom of each of the 3 tripod legs. Just unscrew the rubber feet and screw in the spikes. The spikes can be used in surfaces such as dirt, snow, gravel and more. Since I don’t have the spikes, I just illustrate that you can unscrew the rubber feet.

One last thing I would like to mention about the features of the Adrian travel tripod from 3 Legged Thing is that you can actually unscrew one of the legs and use it as a monopod. I don’t know of any other tripod manufacturer who gives that additional bonus to a photographer. A monopod can be great to use when a tripod is too cumbersome to use, but you still need some stability when you shoot. Sports photography is a prime example where the use of a monopod can help greatly.

 AirHed I (AH1)

I briefly mentioned the AirHeadI or AH1. The AH1 is a ball-head that came supplied with my Adrian tripod. It’s the first time I’ve had a proper ball-head, well it’s the first time of having a proper tripod too, though I find it easy to use and position where I need it to be. Their are two knobs, one that controls the panning portion and allows you to swivel the head from 0 to 360 degrees, which is great for panoramics. The other knob allows you to loosen or lock the ball-head in the desired position. I haven’t quite got the knack down yet for the lock on the main knob. It allows you to fine tune the ball-head’s position without having it become to loose and flopping your camera down. I find that smaller turns allows me to make those smaller position adjustments. When trying out the panoramic swivel for the first few times, adjustment took some time to get worked in a bit, but once you use it a bit more, is swivels nicely.

I also found that at one point I could not detach the ball-head from the tripod collar plate. The only way I managed to get it off was but placing the ball-head into the freezer. This helped the two metal surfaces to contract a bit and then I was able to separate the two. This of course was after I loosened the little lock screw that keeps the head onto the plate. The reason for removing the ball-head? I wanted to mount the ball-head to the tripod without the use of the center column. This can give you more stability as it lowers the the ball-head’s center of gravity just that extra little bit.

Once you secure the base of the plate to your camera you can easily slide the plate into position and then lock it down. I found that the Adrian does not come with the proper sized Allan key for securing the plate to the base of your camera, but luckily I have 2 Allan key sets so I just took the appropriate one and added it to the 3 existing Allan keys that come with the Adrian tripod system. You will also notice the bubble level on the side. Small as it is, it can help keep your camera level if needed. When the top plate is removed, you will also see another little bubble level, again this can help level the ball-head prior to placing your camera onto the tripod. There is also another small bubble level on the tripod itself.

Extra Tidbits

There is the included column extension and the 3 included Allan keys. Which, as mentioned previously, can be stored in the top compartment of the tripod bag. The little compartment in the tripod bag can also hold a spare battery or some extra memory cards. It’s always nice to have some extra pockets right?

Other additional accesories you can purchase for a 3 Legged Thing are

• Steel Feet spikes
• Budgie Smuglaz Stonebag (think of it like a small hammock to put things in)

Conclusion

I’ve had the tripod for about probably about 2 months now and absolutely love it. It’s easy to take along, quick to set up and keeps my camera a lot steadier than the $30 tripod I had for years. I love how I can change it around and drop it a few inches off the ground if I want to shoot at a different perspective. The twist-lock feet are easy to use when extending the legs. When I need a little extra stability, just attaching whatever camera bag I currently have with me to the center column hook is awesome too. You can also perform maintenance on it (such as the leg sections), but I haven’t needed to. Nice to know that if I need to, I can get at some of the parts to clean etc.

One of the legs (on this particular tripod) seems to become loose when I fold the tripod out, though a quick tightening of the bolts that hold the legs fixes it. One of the stickers fell off the first day I opened the box that the tripod came out with. I doesn’t matter, as it just says which way to tighten and loosen the ball-head. Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey is all you have to remember. I found it odd that it did not include the proper Allan key for securing the plate to the base of my camera, but since I have two Allan key sets, it was easy to remedy.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend checking out 3 Legged Thing and their tripods if you’re in the market. They have a range of tripods that would easily suite any need. They have tripods for 4/3rd micro cameras, travel tripods such as my Adrian and more professional tripods with crazy weight load abilities. I myself would love to see one of their Erics living at my house one day.

**Disclaimer: I won my X1.1a Adrian tripod from 3 Legged Thing via a Faceook and Twitter contest they held before the Christmas holidays. I have not been paid in any way to write this review. I wanted to write about my experience with Adrian and how much I have enjoyed using it and how I would, in fact, recommend it to friends and colleagues who are looking for a good quality tripod system.

Pros

• Lightweight and Compact
• Easy to setup and use
• Can get low to the ground and reach high in the sky!
• Reversable and/or removable center column
• AirHed1 is a sturdy little ball-head
• Great price point (as of this post ~$200 for tripod and ball-head)
• Twist locks – love them!
• Hanging Hook – can add more stability
• Comes with a cool carrying bag!

Cons

• 5 sectioned legs. Less is better, but with a travel tripod it seems the norm
• No Allan key for the camera plate. If you want a tighter fit, you’ll need the proper sized one

To get to the area where the owls hang out in the winter months, you can either drive down 72nd Street or 64th Street south of Ladner Trunk Road in Delta. I am sure during busier times (like weekends) the parking can be a bit adventurous. Make sure you abide to the road signs as typically, you can only park on one side of the road. I am sure you’ll get towed quickly if you do not pay attention. There are private residencies nearby that I am sure pay attention. I parked at the end of 72nd street which is next to the Boundary Bay Municipal Airport.

The other great thing about Boundary Bay is that it is also home to a variety of birds. While I was there I managed to see Short-eared Owls, Northern Harrier Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles, a variety of smaller birds and water fowl, and of course the Snowy Owls.

Here are my photos from my recent outing, I am sure I will be heading back more often this season. Seeing the Short-eared owls was a new first for me as were the Snowy Owls.

What is needed for decent photos

So you want to get some photos of the Snowy Owls or other feathered residents of Boundary Bay? What you will need is a camera with telephoto capabilities. I shot all these photos with my Nikon D5100 with the Nikon AF-S 55-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR mounted on a 3 Legged Thing Adrian tripod. Ideally, I would like 400mm or greater for getting in close. Combinations of like a 300mm lens with a 2x teleconverter, 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter. I’ve read that there are even some people who have a 600mm lens with a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter when shooting birds. When you get up there, you’re going to be shelling out tens of thousands of dollars. If you know the weather will be decent, renting a big telephoto lens would do well too! I’m thinking of looking at the 200-400mm Nikon lens or even the 400mm with a 2x teleconverter. Either way the longer your lens can reach, the closer you can get without disturbing the birds!

I’m not saying you cannot get decent photos with a point and shoot camera either, you just need to ensure it has some good optical zoom capabilities.

You will want to ensure you shoot on a tripod as well. When you’re using a telephoto lens, even system such as VR (Vibration Reduction) or IS (Image Stabilization) will not be of much help at the longer focal lengths when you are hand-holding. Not saying they won’t work, but it is nicer to have a sturdy tripod. It is recommended to turn of VR or IS while on a tripod too, though some lenses will even auto-sense that they are on a tripod and disable it.

Your shutter speed should be at least 1/[focal length]. So, since I was shooting at 300mm I would try and ensure I was shooting at least 1/300th of a second. I actually liked keeping it higher 1/500 and faster in case the birds would take flight. Since the light was not changing all to much, I stuck with shooting on full manual if I was sitting in one spot. While I moved around, I switched to Shutter priority and let the camera work out the rest.

Have you seen the Snowy Owls in Boundary Bay yet? If not, this winter season try and get out to Boundary Bay and see the Snowy Owls!

So, my introduction to HCMC is our cyclo tour, which ended up disappointing me because both mine and Robyn’s cyclo drivers were constantly pestering me to pay them before we ended our tour. I didn’t appreciate being poked and jabbed with a finger for the last 15 minutes of our trip. Other than that, the tour was neat, especially being in the middle of the traffic on a small peddle bike contraption.

When it rains, motorists will pull over to the side and get out their rain gear before continuing on. It’s quite neat to see the entire section of traffic get off their bikes and gear up for the pouring rain.

Cyclos are a great way to see Ho Chi Minh City

My Cyclo Driver

Our tour leader, Thou, got to ride on the back of a scooter as we rode in Cyclos. I guess he had to make sure he got to the points of interest before we did.

That is all the photos I took while in Ho Chi Minh City. We were there for only 2 nights, but didn’t really do to much. The first evening I stayed in and worked on some reviews for TripAdvisor. Then the next day we went to the Mekong Delta (which wasn’t really the delta at all). After that, we left Vietnam and headed to Cambodia; the last country on our Great Indochina Loop tour with Intrepid Travel.

We stayed a total of 3 nights in Hoi An and explored the streets typically on foot. Robyn, Munal and myself even took a cooking class one of the days we were there. Each place we’ve stopped off at in Vietnam has always been different from the last, this is the same for Hoi An. It doesn’t look like Hanoi or Hue or even Ho Chi Minh City. I guess that’s one reason I thought Vietnam was interesting, each place was different.

On to the photos (after all, that is why you probably visit here right?)

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Yaly – This is where we stopped to check out the tailors and their skills

Gioan Cooking Class – Hoi An, Vietnam

Robyn and Munal really wanted to take a cooking class and I thought it would be fun thing to do too. Our tour leader, Thou, recommended we waited until we reached Hoi An to take a cooking class. We’re glad we waited too as it was a lot of fun to cook with Vina at Gioan Cookery Class. They are also recommended on TripAdvisor and we would highly recommend checking out their class if you’re even in Hoi An. We made a 4-course meal consisting of Papaya Salad, Spring Rolls, Soup and some delicious BBQ’d river fish.

We were picked up at our hotel and driven to the local market where we browsed the items people were selling. It was neat to see the local market as opposed to a tourist market. So many fresh items! I would love it if we had more fresh items like this at home.

We then headed to the cooking class and started to prep our dishes. It was truly a fun experience!

Munal, myself and Robyn cooking away

We even did a bike ride tour to the beach. We rode around the backside of Hoi An amongst the residential area and then towards the ocean. It was a great little bike ride, but it was like 35 degrees out! The beach was beautiful though.

It was an enjoyable stay in Hoi An. Our hotel was nice, the pool allowed us to cool down during the high sun. You could walk from the hotel to the various shops, bars and restaurants. In the evening, the atmosphere of the town changed to a lively night scene. Lots of people were out and about enjoying themselves, they even close some of the roads down to vehicle traffic too. One thing we learned while in Hoi An was to always go with what our Tour Leader recommended for dinner. If we went against his recommendation, we were always disappointed in the food we ate at the restaurants we decided one. Guess that is why he would not join us when we wanted to try a different restaurant that what he suggested. Those that he did recommend and that we did eat at, we were always highly impressed.

We eventually left Hoi An to catch our flight to Hoi Chi Minh City and to continue on our Great Indochina Loop tour.

Anyway, on to the photos!

One entrance into the Citadel

Entrance into the Forbidden Purple City

Vietnamese Unicorn

A rain downspout between the two roof valleys

Many of the buildings within the Forbidden Purple City were destroyed in bombing runs by the US. There are a few buildings standing, and they are being restored to as much of the original design as possible.

We then went to the Thien Mu Pagoda on the Perfume River. On the 7th floor of the Pagoda houses an emerald buddha. There is only 1 monk who has access to the Pagoda’s interior as well. This was also home to the Bhuddist Monk Thich Quang Duc [wiki], who lit himself on fire in protest for Buddhist equality.

Next we went to visit a tomb of an Emperor who was Emperor for a very short time: Dong Khanh [wiki]. The temple nearby was being restored after being bombed horrendously.  It is also a UNESCO heritage site and because of that status, they are having to rebuild the temple with the materials that were originally used. The tomb area is rarely visited and there is a great sense of peace among the sandstone carvings and reliefs.

Our tour leader mentioned that below this burial place (exact location is unknown to anyone) there is said to be a tunnel that goes from his resting place to the temple complex a few kilometers away to his wife’s burial place. This allowed him to visit his wife in the afterlife.

On the way back to our accommodation we stopped off at one of many stands that were making incense by hand.

Later that night we checked out the night market in Hue’s new city, which was on the west side of the Perfume River.

Eventually, I’ll get around to uploading more of our photos. With over 5,000 from our 2 month trip, I am sure there are some decent ones in there that I have yet to share.

Here are some photos of our Hanoi portion of our Great Indochina Loop tour.

The next three photos are actually from Halong Bay, which is a 4-hour drive from Hanoi. Chances are, if you go to Hanoi, you’ll probably visit Halong Bay too.

Back to Hanoi now…