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Travel

Miscellaneous Pictures, 2003

Like most people I take the majority of my pictures while on holiday. But that’s not the only time. Here you’ll find some odds and ends, places I’ve been where I was only there for a short time or where there are only a few reasonable ones!

The first batch are from my month-long stint at my companies Malta office (actually at the tail-end of 2002). There would have been more pictures, but it rained for much of the time I was there! Not encouraging weather for sight-seeing!

Next are pictures from closer to home. One from a friends wedding in sleepy Southwold, the next few from my “flight” on the London Eye, then a couple from Norfolk and the last two of the UK are in the Peak District. The last few are from my time in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Click the small pictures below for a full size version.

The bay near St Julians Looking over Valetta View of Malta from Mdina This tower is visible almost anywhere on the whole isla
Beach huts in Southwold, Suffolk London Eye pod View of Charing Cross from the London Eye View from the London Eye
View from the London Eye View of the London Eye Near Burnham Deepdale, Norfolk Seals on the Norfolk coast
The Peak District near Edale The Peak District near Edale Charlotte at dusk Charlotee from just out of the centre
Charlotte sky-scrapers Charlotte sky-scrapers A park in uptown Charlotte Classy Christmas Decorations

The last few pictures (the colour ones of Charlotte) are taken on my D300. All the others here have been taken on my EOS300 using Fuji Sensia II ISO100 film.

Travel

Turkey, 2003

Turkey is a big country. Opinions you’ve heard about Ankara or Istanbul do not necessarily apply. But that’s fair, smaller towns in a country are rarely anything like their capital city. We stayed hundreds of Kilometres away from either of Turkeys major cities, instead we hung in or around the Mediterranean Sea. We flew into Dalaman airport, moved to Fethiye, across to Antalya and back to Dalaman more-or-less along the coast.

This makes somewhere like Bodrum a fairer comparison. But even there, the tales of “in your face” sales techniques make it sound very different.

Even in the tiny part of Turkey that we saw, there was immense variety. On the trip there was everything from thriving local towns (where we felt like we were the only sight-seers) to tourist centres (where the first language appeared to be German) to “wilderness” that felt like it was hundreds of miles from any form of civilisation. In-between there were vast amount of Roman and Greek ruins, statues and busts of Atat?rk, lovely bays that reminded me of Italy and snow-capped mountains.

Few countries can claim to much variety in such a small area. If you can’t tell, I was impressed and I haven’t even spoken about the locals hospitality.

Click the small pictures below for a full size version.

The obligatory Atatürk statue in Fethiye. Early morning in Fethiye. An amphitheatre near Termessos. The sight on our walk from Olympos to the Chimaera
The partial roof of the theatre in Aspendos. The aqueduct at Aspendos. The landscape in southern Turkey is greener than you mi The harbour in Antalya.
The fluted minaret in Antalya Mosque in Elmali On the way to Kas. On the way to Kas.
View over Kas as we approached from the surrounding hil Kas A view from Kekova Island and how we got there. The bay A view from Kekova Island.

All pictures here have been taken on my EOS300 using Fuji Sensia II ISO100 slide film. Most of the outdoor pictures were taken using a polarising filter.

If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few resources that you might want to have a look out for:

  • I read Jeremy Seal’s “A Fez of the Heart”(Amazon UK/US) to get the feel of the place before I got there. Unfortunately the area I went to was barely mentioned, but it’s a good book and well worth reading.
  • Turkey.com has lots of interesting stuff including city guides and travel tips.
Travel

Norway, 2001

Only a fool would go to Norway as the winter approaches. I was told this by just about everyone that I spoke to.

Even the Norwegians said that Autumn was the worst time to visit. In the summer it’s comfortably warm and there’s beautiful country-side you can appreciate in any number of ways. In winter, it’s sharp, bright, covered in snow and beautifully clear. Autumn is just grey, dull and rainy.

In my eight months there I saw Autumn, which was much more beautiful than they claimed, winter, which wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I expected, and the start of summer. I took a mass of film of all seasons, and these are the highlights.

Click the small pictures below for a full size version.

All these pictures have been taken on my EOS300. The first few pictures were taken on Kodak Royal Gold ISO100, then there are a few on Fuji Superia ISO100, the black and white ones are on Ilford XP2 ISO400 and all those from Tromsø onwards are on Sensia II 100 slide film.

If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web Sites that you might want to visit:

  • Norwegian Tourist Board. Lots of interesting stuff.
  • Norwegian State Railways. Check timetables on-line.
  • You’re going to need a guide while travelling around Norway. As always, there’s a Lonely Planet guide. You can buy a copy from Amazon (UK or US).
  • I also used the Insight Guide to Scandinavia (mainly for my trip to Stockholm), but the Lonely Planet guide was better. If I’ve not put you off, you can buy a copy from Amazon UK (not available at Amazon.com). Oddly enough, this book was cheaper to buy in Norway than back in London.
Travel

Thailand, 2000

Thailand is such a beautiful country that I could help but take a huge number of pictures. What you can see here represents the good fraction of those taken!

We started in Bangkok, got the night-train up to Chang Mai and a boat up to Chiang Rai. From there we mini-bused and walked through some Hill Tribe villages back to Chiang Mai, Bangkok and then flew home. A tiring couple of weeks, but well worth it for the scenery alone.

Note that the spelling of many Thai places are not strictly standardised. I’ve used the spellings that our tour-guide or my Lonely Planet guide used, but you may well see others.

Click the small pictures below for a full size version.

A temple viewed from a boat trip down the Chao Phraya R Another view from the river, Bangkok Wat Po, Bangkok Wat Po, Bangkok
Wat Po, Bangkok Wat Po, Bangkok Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, near Chiang Mai Chiang Mai from a taxi
Traditional Thai dancing View of River Fang from near Tha Ton View from the River Fang on the way to Chiang Rai View from an elephant
A Chinese temple in Myanmar, near the Thai border In Myanmar, just across the border from Thailand On the trek The first Hilltribe village we stayed at
First thing in the morning at Huayrai A little later at Huayrai The second village we stayed at On the way to the third village
On the way to the third village Mixture and high- and low-tech at Ahka Makamporm, the t Near Ahka Makamporm Near Ahka Makamporm

If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web sites that you might want to visit:

  • Lonely Planet have a useful guide to Thailand, including a large number of interesting links.
  • If you prefer hard-copy (much more portable than your laptop!), you can buy a copy from Amazon (UK or US).
  • Some of the above pictures were taken in some of the northern Hilltribe villages. This web site gives some useful information about them.