TRAVEL IDEAS: September 2010

Breaking News: 2011 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Eric Beecroft has just announced that the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will take place in mid July 2011 in beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina!

The tuition is $500 for regional students (Mexico, and all countries south to Tierra del Fuego; including Caribbean nationals, and $975 for non-regional students. Early registration is available for a non-refundable $100 via Paypal only. The early registration guarantees a spot and places the payer in the front of the line for class choice. Scholarships will be announced shortly.

The instructors' line up include:

Kael Alford
Walter Astrada
Andrea Bruce
Michael Robinson Chavez
Tewfic El-Sawy
Ashley Gilbertson
Ron Haviv
Henrik Kastenskov & Poul Madsen (Bombay Flying Club)
Jared Moosy
Maggie Steber
Ami Vitale
Adriana Zehbrauskas

The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island.

We had 2 days to choose for the Cable Car ride on this trip to Langkawi, because it's to avoid the bad weather. Fortunately, the 2nd day was a bright sunny day! So we decided to ride on the Gondola! :)

The Langkawi Cable Car Station (N6 22.273 E99 40.296) is located in the Oriental Village of Langkawi. The distance is approximately 26km from Langkawi Grand Continental Hotel, Kuah town, the journey took about 30-40 minutes. Vehicles parking and admission is free.

The street of Oriental Village, Langkawi Island.

After about 100 meters walking from the entrance, we saw the Cable Car Station just situated on the left. Wah! It was a Long Queue!

The Langkawi Cable Car Station

The admission fees of the Langkawi Cable Car :-

Adults - MYR30.00 (Malaysian - MYR15.00), Children - MYR20.00 (Malaysian - MYR5.00)

(But the signage never stated the admission fee for Malaysian)
Operating Hour :-

Monday – Thursday * 10:00am - 06:00pm

Wednesday * 12:00pm - 06:00pm

Friday – Sunday & Public Holiday ** 09:30am - 07:00pm

* Last admission at 6:00pm and last trip down at 7:00pm
** Last admission at 7:00pm and last trip down at 7:45pm

Visitors are advise to call before visiting to avoid disappointment.
Tel : +604-9594225

There will be a Middle Station for you to stop for panoramic view on the platform and continue to the Top Station of Mount Machinchang.

Well, despite the hot weather and the long queue, we bought the tickets and queue! Although the queue was long, but it only took about 10 minutes for us to got into the Gondola! That was Fast! Great!

The queue at the Langkawi Cable Car Station

Queuing for the Gondolas.

The gondolas slow down when it arrive to the station, it's more than enough time for the passengers to step out slowly and even enter! Before the gondolas getting our of the station, there was a photographer to take photos of the passengers, but you can refuse it!

Passengers get into the gondola...

The sophisticated mechanism of the Langkawi Cable Car

The Middle Station was on the top on the mountain

We were in the gondola and hike up to the Mount Machinchang of Langkawi Island! It was a pleasant journey and it only took 10 minutes to reached the Middle Station. The Seven Well Waterfall was clearly appeared during the journey...

The Seven Wells Waterfall of Langkawi Island

Beautiful scenery from the Cable Car.
Do you notice the climbing degree of the cable car?! :)

Dramatic View from the Cable Car Station

We had a stop at the Middle Station for photography and continue to the Top Station.

The Middle Station of Langkawi Cable Car

The Middle Station. View from Top Station

The Top Station of Langkawi Cable Car

It was an Exciting ride for the total of 2.2km in 17 minutes!! Especially when the gondola approaching the Middle Station, the gondola was facing the Limestone Mountain! And it being pulled up almost Vertically with high speed to reached the station! Wah! Unforgettable experience! (You can refer from the photos above after we got into the gondola)

We walked to the 360 viewing platform on the left of the station after a small rest...the weather was extremely hot that day! Luckily there was a Ice-Cream stall at the platform.

The Viewing Platform

It was a double storey platform and I took my Ice-cream and enjoyed the Dramatic View of Langkawi Island on the 2nd level! That was a Great Enjoyment! (710 meter above sea level, reading from my GPS) Too bad the North platform was closed for maintenance during our visit....

The North Platform was under maintenance...

You can imagine the weather that day from the face of the poor little boy above. He was queuing for the Ice-cream for more than 30 minutes until a lady help him to get his ice-cream. He was being push out from the queue all the time! Very bad attitude of the tourists!

The Cable Car of Langkawi Island

Another view of the Top Station. I spotted the Lighthouse (N6 21.838 E99 40.996) of Perdana Quay, Langkawi Island.

The Lighthouse of Perdana Quay, Langkawi Island.

We spent an hour at the viewing platform and continue our journey to the Famous Sky Bridge (Hanging Bridge) of Langkawi Island!! Bye Mount Machinchang, and we will Never forget you!

The Langkawi Cable Car was awarded for ‘The Longest Free Span Single Rope Cable Car – Total In Length – 919.5 meter’ (One of the Steepest Gradient in the World – 42 degree.) and endorsed by The Malaysia Book Of Records. Beside that, it was also received the ‘Outstanding construction, architectural quality & technical proficiency of steel works’ from PRIX ACIER AWARDS 2005.

Related post :
* My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
* Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
* Underwater World of Langkawi Island
* Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
* The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
* The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island.
* Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island
* The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island
* Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island

Location map of Langkawi Cable Car Station

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NYT's One In 8 Million Gets An Emmy

I was very glad to read that The New York Times’ multimedia series One in 8 Million won an Emmy Award in the “new approaches to documentary” category a few days ago, and that its producers and all those involved were deservedly recognized and honored.

For those who don't know, the series is a collection of stories told with audio and photography that portray everyday New Yorkers. Unfortunately, it was only featured for 12 months...presumably because the creators didn't want it to go on any further, but I never found out the reason behind that.

Why would I devote a post on this, instead of just a Tweet? Well, apart from thinking it was extremely well produced, I used One in 8 Million as a teaching tool during my Introduction To Multimedia class with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Manali (India) and in Istanbul.

I used the series as an example to stress to my classes the need for simplicity (the "keep it simple" doctrine), the need to humanize the story and the need for brevity. Whichever one of the series that the class attendees watched, they unanimously agreed that these were inspirational.

From reading the interview conducted by James Estrin with the staff photographer Todd Heisler, the senior multimedia producer Sarah Kramer, and the photo editor Meaghan Looram, I learned that the audio was recorded before the photography took place..I didn't know that, and I am certain to share this interview with my future classes.

A very well deserved recognition!

Candace Feit: Orissa's Tribals


Photo © Candace Feit -All Rights Reserved

Candace Feit is a photojournalist currently residing in New Delhi, and was featured on the pages of The Travel Photographer blog a number of times.

Her photographs of West Africa (she was based earlier in Dakar, Senegal) appeared in the The New York Times, Le Monde, Le Figaro, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and Time magazine, among others.

Candace has recently published more Indian photo stories, including this one on the Adivasis of Orissa. Orissa has one of the largest concentrations of tribal population in India, and according to a government census, they number around 7 million.They are neglected by the central government, and suffer from extreme poverty.

This has given rise to a fertile environment for the Naxalite anti-government movement, which exploits the vulnerability of the tribals, and forces then to take sides. In turn, the Indian government is battling this separatist movement, and the Adivasis find themselves in the middle of the conflict.

The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island

The Lighthouse Restaurant (N6 16.887 E99 43.794) is located at the Tengah Beach which is about 200 meters from the intersection of Jalan Pantai Tengah and Jalan Pantai Cenang. This was where we took our dinner on the day 1 of Langkawi trip. (This restaurant was rated as one of the expensive restaurant in Langkawi).

The Lighthouse Restaurant of Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island.

It was a 2 storey Mediterranean-style building. The environment was perfect! Beside the beach and cozy decoration. You can choose to dine in the restaurant or on the beach. We definitely choose the beach...

The dining area of Lighthouse Restaurant

This was really a nice place...enjoying our dinner and accompany with the Beautiful sunset! I ordered a glass of Tiger Beer and continued to snap the surrounding with the sunset. We were waited there until the sky getting dark then only inform the waitress to serve our meal...:)

The beer and the spectacular sunset

I ordered a Ayam Percik with rice and my wife had a Ikan Kukus Halia with rice. Both are Chef Recommended (on the Menu). My daughter just had a bites for both dishes, because she already had some foods before dinner...

Ayam Percik

Ikan Kukus Halia

Rice and some appetizers

The Chicken was a bit spicy with the Special Recipe's Curry, and the fish was fresh! We enjoyed the dinner especially at the beach with the sunset!
The Damage : MYR110.00 for 2 main course and the Tiger Beer.

Well, it was a bit pricey! I believe the ambience charge higher than the food. Haha!
Anyway, it was worth it because of the environment. :)

After about an hour hanging around, we gotta go to some others places and we have to say bye to the Restaurant and sunset!

Food rated : 4/5
Environment rated : 5/5

The sunset from The Lighthouse Restaurant

Related post :
* My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
* Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
* Underwater World of Langkawi Island
* Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
* The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island.
* The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island.
* Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island
* The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island
* Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island

The Lighthouse Restaurant - Langkawi

Lot 2161, Jalan Pantai Tengah Mukim Kedawang,

07000 Langkawi.

Tel : +604-9552586 Fax : +604-9552633

http;//www.thelighthouse-langkawi.com

Location map of The Lighthouse Restaurant at Langkawi Island

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David Myers: City of The Dead

The City of the Dead is produced by David Myers, a part-time photographer who lives in Maryland and works in Washington DC.

The City of the Dead is a four mile long cemetery (a necropolis would be a better word to describe it) which extends from the northern to southern part of Cairo. It's called el-arafa by Egyptians, and is an area of tombs and mausoleums where people live and works amongst the dead. Its foundation dates back to the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642 AD, and has grown with time until it reached the equivalent of a fully functioning residential suburb of Cairo.

I watched this short photo essay, and it brought back childhood memories when, once a year during the Eid festival, I had to accompany my father to pay respects to our ancestors and forebears who were interred in our family's mausoleum. I still recall it being as large as a couple of basketball courts, with two house-like structures sheltering a number of mausoleums, made of marble or alabaster, and intricately carved with verses of the Qur'an. It is under one of those that my father rests, alongside his forebears. The marble gateway to the mausoleums is carved with the name of my grandfather...which is like mine.

This brought back the smell of dust to my nostrils...the Egyptian dust that is tamped down by hosing it with water...the green-grey color of the palm tree leaves...and much more.

I've been to many Islamic countries and heard the adan in all of them...but few of them come close to beauty and purity of the Egyptian adan. Perhaps I am biased....

Esther Havens: Ethiopia

It's very easy to like and admire Esther Havens. She is a humanitarian documentary photographer who focuses on social-awareness campaigns with Non Profit Organizations around the world, and spent the past two years capturing stories on water projects in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Haiti and Central African Republic.

She traveled to over 40 countries and, as she says "...seeks to open hearts and minds to see the third world conditions in a way that might challenge them to make a difference".She's especially supportive of charity:water, which she urges everyone to support.

Her website has many galleries of her travels to Ethiopia, Uganda, CAR, Iraq, Rwanda, Mozambique, Jordan, Nicaragua, India and others in Asia and South America.

The above photograph is from Esther's Ethiopia gallery.

My Work: Bali: Ngaben (Cremation Ceremony)

Here's the first of a number of audio-slideshows of Balinese traditional events which I worked on following my return from my Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™

Ngaben: Cremation Ceremony is a thematic multimedia photo-essay of black and white stills and ambient sound of a cremation ceremony for 6 villagers held on August 11, 2010 in Blahbatuh. The actual cremation was almost a whole day event, and was preceded by a ceremony of remembrance at one of the villagers' homes during which food and drinks were partaken by the families, villagers, friends, neighbors and whoever else wanted to share in the occasion.

While Balinese Brahmins and its wealthier class cremate their dead as soon as death occurs, the poor need to accumulate funds to do the same for their dead...and frequently organize group cremations to spread the costs. This means that years can pass before their dead are finally cremated. The Balinese Hindu tradition calls for bodies to be cremated in order to free the soul from all worldly ties, and as such the cremations are usually bitter-sweet occasions, since it provides closure to families.

During this event, some bodies were exhumed just before the cremation, bones and skeletons were washed...and these remains were put in coffins placed in sarcophagi fashioned in the form of bulls. These are called wadah or lembu that are made of bamboo, papier mache and cotton fabric. The climax of Ngaben is the burning of the structures and the bodies.

During other cremations I've attended, fire accelerants were used to speed up the process. On this occasion, I didn't see any.

The audio slideshow is also iPad-compatible.

Sulawesi Surprise! : More Tongkonans

It rained quite frequently when I was in Sulawesi. It rained the first morning I woke up in Makassar and it rained when we were on the way to Tana Toraja. With such high ranges there in Tana Toraja , I suppose it would rain quite often there. It would not be very different from my hometown, Taiping, I suppose where it used to rain cats and dogs most afternoon what with the Bintang Range blocking the wind from going on further to the sea in the other side of the peninsular. The ranges in Tana Toraja perhaps would serve the same purpose as the Bintang Range and so, it should not be a surprise when after lunch, just as we were making our journey to our next place of interest, it started to drizzle. Our spirits could be easily dampened, but hey, we had come to a place with more Tongkonans. Tongkonan, if you remember, is the traditional ancestral house with the boat-shaped roof of the Torajan people. In the past, these houses could only be built by the nobles. The commoners live in smaller and less decorated homes called banua...

More Tongkonans...

Traveling Tip: Forget the rain!

Sunset Of Cenang Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island

After visited the Underwater World of Langkawi Island, we stop at the Cenang Beach (N6 16.884 E99 43.780) to enjoy sunset. There was a Restaurant named The Lighthouse Restaurant just situated beside, so we decided to have our dinner here.

I ordered a glass of Tiger Beer (MYR8.00) and started to snap the Beautiful sunset photos of the beach!

The Beautiful sunset accompany with Tiger Beer

7.18pm. The Red Ball still visible, in Red and Orange colour.

7.19pm. The sky remain small portion of Blue...

7.23pm. The sky was fully painted with colour!

7.25pm. The sky totally turned to Gold colour!

7.30pm. The colour started to changed from Gold to Pink, and the Blue came back...

7.32pm. It surrounding started to dark, and the Beautiful Sunset still continue to paint on the sky!

I was happy because be able to took the Breathtaking sunset scene from Cenang Beach of Langkawi Island. My beer was not as cold as it served because I was totally attracted my the sunset and forgot to drink...:)

Related post :
* My Trip to Langkawi Island on September 2010
* Grand Continental Hotel at Kuah, Langkawi Island
* Underwater World of Langkawi Island
* The Lighthouse Restaurant at Tengah Beach (Pantai), Langkawi Island
* The Langkawi Cable Car at Langkawi Island.
* The Famous Sky-Bridge of Mount Machinchang, Langkawi Island.
* Restoran Nasi Kandar Tomato at Cenang Beach, Langkawi Island
* The Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Eagles Feeding at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Fish Farm at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* The Bat Cave at Kilim Geoforest Park of Langkawi Island
* Wonderland Seafood Store at Kuah Town, Langkawi Island
* Hole In The Wall Floating Restaurant at Kilim Geoforest Park, Langkawi Island

Andreas Burgess: In The Courtyard of the Beloved

I am thrilled to have stumbled on Andrea Burgess' magnificent In The Courtyard of The Beloved, a visual and aural "portrait" of the Dargah of Nizam Uddin Auliyah, a Sufi shrine in Delhi. The shrine is for the revered Hazrat Nizam Uddin, a famous Sufi saint of the Chisti Sect in South Asia, whose main tenet is in drawing close to God through renunciation of the world and service to humanity.

The title of the documentary refers to the title given to Nizzam Uddin by his followers; Mahboub Ilahi or beloved of God. In fact, the qawwali ( style of Sufi devotional music) songs performed at the shrine in his remembrance and praise address Nizzam Uddin as mahboob ilahi.

The "portrait" is made from over 18,000 still images and ambient sounds which were recorded on-site by Andreas... 18,000 still images!!!! Imagine the amount of editing that Andreas had to do!!! It was produced by Sadia Shepard.

The Dargah of Nizzam Uddin is one of my favorite places to photograph in Delhi, and I have a ton of images made in the area, and Andreas' work has given me fresh impetus to spend even more time there when I'm next in Delhi.

I guarantee you'll agree that this is high quality inspirational work, and I strongly recommend it to readers of The Travel Photographer blog, particularly to those who, like me, are interested in multimedia, South Asian Sufism and Indiaphiles. I already sent the link to participants of my forthcoming In Search of Sufis Photo~Expedition™

Very well done, Andreas and Sadia!

Kashmir: Will 2011 Be It ???

I read with interest that the Indian government announced it would start releasing jailed protesters, ease security in Kashmiri towns and cities, reopen schools and universities, and offering financial compensation to the families of those killed since the protests in June.

I've been keen to go to Kashmir for a number of years, but was stymied by political unrest in the region, by conflicting time constraints and other destinations. I certainly kick myself for not taking the opportunity of being in Manali with the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in 2009, and travel to Srinagar as some in the workshop did.

So the possibility of a solo-trip (or even a group photo-expedition) to Kashmir is once again rearing its head because of this announcement...only time will tell if the Indian government is serious with this new policy, or whether it's just a public relations stunt before the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

I'm eager to photograph in Kashmir...and its rich and unique Islamic traditions. In all my years of traveling in India, I have not made it yet. Something tells me that 2011 will be it... Inch' Allah.

Next Week on The Travel Photographer

I'm starting a Sunday feature in which I announce some of the posts in the pipeline for the rest of the week. Most of my posts are scheduled ahead of time but there are exceptions, which occur when I stumble on an interesting portfolio, website or issue..

I've also been frequently complimented on my POVs...and especially those containing rants. I will try my best to come up with those as soon as I can.

For the week starting Monday September 27, I have posts on:

1. A fantastic multimedia project involving Indian Sufis. You will NOT want to miss this one!
2. The work of a talented photographer involved in NGOs.
3. The work of another talented photojournalist featuring tribal life in Orissa.
4. A movie by a British journalist featuring prostitution in India.

I'm also going to release an audio slideshow of my work in Bali during the week. It documents a cremation ceremony.

Oh, and by the way...so far, I've written about 2000 posts for The Travel Photographer!

My Work: Balinese Dancers

As some participants in my photo~expeditions seek to return with a diverse portfolio, I try to organize alternative styles of photography events during the trip...and although the primary focus is always on merging travel photography with documentary photography, I provide such opportunities to those who join them...depending on the destination.

One of the pre-arranged photo shoots during my recent Bali: Island of Odalan Photo~Expedition ™ was held at the studio of a dance master specializing in the traditional dances of the island. I asked for three Legong dancing students, and one Baris dancer to be made up, costumed and willing to pose for us. Nothing photo-journalistic was intended from it, except perhaps during the make-up preparations, but the objective was fundamentally similar to a fashion photo-shoot.

Notwithstanding, I couldn't resist to make some non-posed photographs such as the one of the Baris dancer with the young daughter of the make-up artist. I always prefer shooting in a landscape format (to get more elements in the frame...and tell more of a story), but I also had to resort to a vertical format to shoot the Baris and Legong dancers in a traditional pose. Both of these images have their uses, and I'm not saying one is better than the other...but the landscape format lends itself better to my kind of shooting style.