ShengDanKuaiLe |
Dec 24th 2007 |
Merry Christmas from Yangshuo in southern China, and what can I say? It's a big deal over here. People are digging their Christmas. And so are we!
Wishing you lots of merry making and joyous frolicking this late December.
With Love,
Bjorn (with brothers Mark and Tim)
Love
Love
Love
Love
Love |
| The Buddha and I on the day of Christmas Eve. Yangshuo, southern China |
| No further questions. Yangshuo, southern China |
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| And when he smiled, the sun rose; cold winter transformed into radiant spring |
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My Introduction to China |
Dec 12th 2007 |
| Turbulent ride on the long, windy roads of southern Yunnan, China |
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| In Kunming, it seems that 8 out of 10 scooters are electric. |
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"You're welcome, sir. Welcome to China, sir," said the inspector at the Laos-China border after stamping me through. "That's odd," I thought. "No inquiring into my profession, length of stay, travel destination, medical history... mother's eating habits, secret toenail collection?" Very odd - having just spent the past half hour interrogating the two Canadians and the Swiss elderly who were standing in line before me. Not a single query for the man with the UK passport. Good foreign relations? I wonder.
Welcome to China. The giant octopus. It has a body - that is the country itself - and a number of arms stretching around the globe, representing Chinese living abroad, culture, influence, etc. Today, all paths lead to this country. And I have finally traced one of them back to the mothership...
Go to: My Introduction to China for latest diary entry and a tower of photos. |
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Walking to China |
Dec 6th 2007 |
... I left Luang Prabang on foot, heading north for the small tribal village of Ban Houay Lo, my first check point on the 200 km stretch from LP to China. I knew nothing about this place, how big it was, or how it had even ended up on the dinky Jpeg map I'd printed out at the cyber joint only minutes before stomping off. How would I get there and how far was it? All I had to go by was the word of a Tuk Tuk driver - "about 30 kilometers, sir... no, 40 kilometres - that way!"), and an unconditional amount of blind faith (slash stupidity). Heck, I just really felt like walking. And so I walked. Through the rural townships of greater Luang Prabang, through the ever changing country side of northern Laos, carried by the smiles, well wishes and bewildered expressions of the local people; vendors, students, children, farmers, elderlies... I was walking to Ban Houay Lo, non-stop...
Go to: Walking to China for your bjornalistic update. |
| Still a baby in Luang Prabang, northern Laos. |
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Oranges and Smiles |
Dec 1st 2007 |
| Reminds me of family. |
| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Lens: |
Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 Asph |
| Exposure Time: |
1/2000sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
160 |
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... Unwrapped the sandwich, began peeling away at an orange, noticed a boy perching on a concrete ledge to my right. He was beaming at me - completely bug eyed, like a praying mantis, with a smile that was bright, penetrating and strangely spaced out, too. He was digging into a pack of sweet sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, and reminded me of...
Go to: Oranges and Smiles for little anecdote. |
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Monkey Travel |
Nov 22nd 2007 |
If you have a good idea and a few bucks to fuel it, you can go far in Cambodia. Whereas, to some subjective extent, the "West" feels like a finished painting, the East is like a white sheet of paper - and the paint is so cheap! It feels great, the energy of opportunity.
Go to: Monkey Travel for more general monkey thoughts from Vientiane, Laos. |
| ... just zipping through. |
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The River that Flows and Flows |
Nov 21st 2007 |
| Feisty restaurant and bungalow manager |
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| Daughter of a builder lady |
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From a few days in Sihanoukville in the south of Cambodia to the less frequented Ratanak Kiri province in the north. Pictures also include a few impressions from a lazy 4 days in the 4.000 Islands in the middle of the Mekong River in southern Laos. A humble collection taken with M8, Summilux 50 mm and Elmarit 28 mm. See captions.
Go to: The River that Flows and Flows for 36 pics. |
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River of Impoissons |
Nov 8th 2007 |
It's good to be moving on. Bus rides in Cambodia are so inspiring. I naturally pull out my notepad to jot down an idea, my sketch book to scribble a doodle, my camera to fish out a fresh impoisson from the passing river of Cambodian daily life. The window catches reflections, the bus rocks left and right - I'm feeling warm inside (naturally; the air con's busted), allowing my mind to surf the incoming waves and be carried to uncharted shores. The tinted window and the traveling motion are the filters through which the imagination trickles and unravels. I'm finding that very stimulating; knowing that I'll never be able to draw a perfect circle simply because the road is shite - there's great relief in that. The road to Banlung in Ratanak Kiri is said to be bad, the equivalent of a heavy wah-wah. Greetings from Kratchie.
Go to: River of Impoissons 4 color images taken with with M8, 28 mm and natural filters for light and movement, on bus ride Phnom Penh to Kratchie. |
| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Exposure Time: |
1/4000sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
160 |
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| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Exposure Time: |
1/1000sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
160 |
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| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Exposure Time: |
1/1000sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
160 |
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| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Exposure Time: |
1/3000sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
160 |
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First-Hand Sicko |
Nov 6th 2007 |
| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Lens: |
Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 Asph. |
| Exposure Time: |
1/350sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
160 |
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Hello me bred'ren and sistren. How's tings at dee oda ends a' dee univas? All in good health, I hope. And if not, at least not suffering too much? Here's me wishing you peace and happiness. Me, I'm okay. Still in Phnom Penh after a rather violent interlude of what, at the time, felt like nothing short of amoebic dysentery - I mean, talking total pain in the rectum here. Toilet runs every 15 minutes for some, say, 24 odd hours? Got a real beating there. Meanwhile, been to the doc twice. It's "nothing serious". All's back to "normal". We movin' on north tmrw morning. And it's about blooming time. Phnom Penh is not an easy place to hang. With all due respect, it's a bit of a hell on earth. An everything-goes-kind of place: Want boom-boom? Want some smoke? Tuk-tuk, sir? I have machine gun! And like they say: when in Babylon, do as the Babylonians do. Well, at least a...
Go to: First-Hand Sicko for anecdote.. |
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Handsome Dude |
Oct 31st 2007 |
Portrait of the day. Tach Sarin, 28, waiter at Thai restaurant in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. Taken with Summilux 50 mm f/1.4 Asph. Want to know what that means?
Summilux is the name of the lens. 50 mm indicates the angle (breadth) of view. F/1.4 indicates the speed of the lens, or the maximum size of the hole inside the lens (max Aperture). This, in turn, affects the depth of field (DOF). If the lens hole is small (e.g., f/22), the focal plane will be large - i.e., the foreground and the background will be sharp in the photograph. If the lens hole is large (e.g., f/1.4), the focal plane will be very thin - only the focused object will be sharp.
Asph refers to aspherically cut lens elements inside the lens design. But that's a different story. |
| Fast lenses (f/1.4 is exceptionally fast) are more complicated to use than slower lenses, because you have to be clear about where you plant the focus. The results make it all worthwhile. |
| Camera: |
M8 Digital Camera (Leica Camera AG) |
| Lens: |
Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 Asph |
| Exposure Time: |
1/180sec. |
| Aperture: |
Auto aperture value transmission not possible |
| ISO: |
320 |
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| Close-up, almost 100% view. Thin f/1.4 focal plane planted on eye. |
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Angkor Wat, War Museum, Floating Village |
Oct 29th 2007 |
| High Dynamic Range Photography. Ferngully at the Angkor Archaeological Park. |
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| Floating Family. Floating Village, Siem Reap |
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| Novice with tattoo. Temple near Angkor Tom |
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| Guns and ammo transported in cow carts. War Museum, Siem Reap |
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Lots of pics from Siem Reap: Angkor Archeological Park, Floating Village, War Museum and general area. Taken with Leica M8, Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 Asph and Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 Asph. Tripod used for multiple exposures and high dynamic range imagery. Photos edited in Windows Paint and Notepad. Pff...
Next destination: Ratanakiri, northern Cambodia. Then following the Mekong River up through Laos and possibly into China for a Swedish Christmas buffet with brothers, Mark and Tim. Mission: to photograph the whole of Southeast Asia over an extended period of time; to keep y'all updated on my whereabouts, and, at my mother's request, to set the new record in landmine skipping through the expansive fields near the Cambodian-Vietnamese border. Sound like a blast? Please stay seated.
Go to: Angkor Wat, War Museum, Floating Village for 102 shots. |
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