New toy... Canon SLR

Well, well, I have finally decided that it is time to invest in a SLR. The sheer size of the camera has put me off for quite some time, not the mention the cost. But after looking at the photos taken from my new camera, I wish I had got it earlier.

Please allow me to present, my first shots on Canon 400D! Pardon me, I am still an amateur and exploring the various settings in the camera. As a matter of fact, I only read the instruction manual for 15 mins before I left home to take these photos. Therefore, they ain't that great but... what does it matter? Life is imperfect!


Esplanade river view


Fullerton Hotel


Merlion

I feel silly carrying this huge camera around, taking photos while resting my camera on the road side railing (to minimise shaking). Many pros were around, shooting with a tripod. I have tried to act like a tourist as much as I can to avoid embarrasement.

Anyway, I am amazed at myself for the amount of effort I am willing to put in to get nicer photos from my upcoming trip. Oh, did I mention? I will be heading for Shanghai on 18 Oct and spending 14 days in China (thinking of going to the silkroad). However, I do not have an itinery yet for the 14 days... gosh! Have I gone crazy? No, I have not. I have in fact corresponded with some Chinese guy which I met online who has gone to silkroad before. He gave me some great tips and of course the best one is... "反正记住鼻子下面就是路. 多问就行了". Oh how true! My confidence has been boosted! I am excited!

Now's the time to be engaged

I read this article from the Straits Times after I finished the whole week's reports on the situation in Myanmar. I was so touched by it that I thought I should share this article with you all. Enjoy!

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3 October 2007

Now's the time to be engaged
By Keane Shum, For The Straits Times

SIX weeks ago, before the protests in Myanmar began, I was into the 14th hour of my train ride from Yangon to Mandalay when the compartment went dark. I stared at the light bulbs and fans swaying from the carriage ceiling several times during the day, wondering if they would be operational after dusk. They were not.

But it made for a glorious night skyscape, one of the few times in my city-bred life when I have looked up at the sky and seen stars so dense that it felt like I was looking at entire galaxies.

Late that night I headed into a town with no confirmed lodging reservations and not an English speaker for miles. Hungry from munching on only bananas all day, and my back aching from a reclining seat that could not un-recline, I felt slightly disorientated. In the dark and on my own, I could not remember why people do this travelling thing, this lonely dance to uncomfortable rhythms.

The next day, the monks of Mandalay reminded me, the same way they reminded the world that Myanmar exists.

U Bein's Bridge is why I travel. It is a 200-year-old teak pedestrian bridge that stretches across a lake in the former royal city of Amarapura, near Mandalay. And it blows away the bridges of Golden Gate, Sydney Harbour, Brooklyn, whatever.


BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS: U Bein's Bridge (above) provides the perfect backdrop to rural life in Myanmar. It is a stage for all, from monks taking time off from their religious duties to ordinary folk just going about their business.

You name any bridge, this one is more photogenic. Because more than just making a pretty picture, it is a stage, teeming with characters acting out parts cast just for them. Life is always a bit of a show, but sometimes it picks gorgeous backdrops, and this was one of those times.

Here was this postcard sunset over a gleaming bridge on a glittering lake, and everyone was happy to be there. People who were walking through just walked on. Couples and families were there together just to be together, picnicking on life.

And the monks - the very ones later protesting - were the happiest of them all, climbing up and jumping off trees, wrestling and bathing and posing for their spanking new Japanese digital cameras. There were a couple dozen of them, and in a comforting, telling reversal of the usual backpacker request, they asked me if I could take a picture with each of them, one by one.



The kids of Myanmar are why I travel. There are loads of kids in Myanmar. It sounds basic, but it is true. According to Unicef, more than a third of the population is under 18, and it is a generation that has grown up apart from the world most of us know.

They are not unhappy kids. They squeal and run and jump and laugh and cry like any other kids do. But right now, their lives, like their taxi drivers, are racing ahead in a beat-up car without seat belts.

Myanmar's military rulers have been in control for so long - longer than any other in the world - that they know how to suppress their people without resorting to absolute barbarity. And if you want to know how the next Darfur starts, this is how. The ingredients are all here.

A crippling dictatorship that keeps itself in power and in style by exploiting the country's natural resources; violently deep ethnic divisions that have raged for centuries; endemic poverty; a forced isolation from the outside world, one with which its rulers are only too happy to comply.

And when the US says its companies and tourists should not go to Myanmar, Myanmar says 'thank you, we do not want you here anyway'.

And so this generation of kids, like the past few (it has been 45 years since the country last saw civilian rule), will grow up thinking this is how things work. There are good intentions behind the suggested travel boycott, but at some point it becomes neglect too.

Today, Myanmar is on the cusp. The military is either cracking down or breaking down. Now is not the time to antagonise the regime with more sanctions or more boycotts. Now is the time to engage Myanmar, to go there and see more, understand more and, with some luck, contribute more.

The writer is a law student at Georgetown University. He interned for the South-east Asia office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights this summer.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_163545.html

When I was away, something happened in Myanmar

When I travel, the picture of the world in my mind always becomes more beautiful. Being captivated by all the beautiful scenery througout my journey, it becomes somewhat easier to forget the other ugliness that exist in this same world. Obviously, it helps when I am tuning in to TV programs in a language that I do not understand and reading newspapers that contain nothing but trivial local news and reports about the stock exchanges.

While I was in Tokyo admiring the beauty of Tokyo Tower and the mountains of Hakone, the uproar and protest in Myanmar continue to rampant. When I returned home and flipped through the newspapers for the past week, I realised that the latest development of the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar hit headlines day after day.... how big scale the protests have become, how many were killed, what is ASEAN and UN doing to salvage the situation, etc. I had no idea that the country is in such dire conditions.

Myanmar came under military rule since the 1960s. It is an era synonymous with corruption, oppression and food shortage. Over the years, Myanmar's military junta did ridiculous things, including cold-blooded murder of student protestors, shooting at participants of peaceful demonstrations (for democracy), annullling results of democratic elections and putting leader of opposition party under house arrest.... One of the most significant event in recent history was the 8888 Uprising (8 Aug 1988), which was a protest led by university students in Myanmar against the military's decision to withdraw some of the Burmese currency. At that time, the General gave an order that "Guns were not to shoot upwards", implying that gun shots should be fired directly at the people. Thousands were killed as a result, pure cruelty.

Just like a hit movie will always have a sequal, the history of violence has repeated itself in Myanmar. Weeks ago, the military government in Myanmar raised the prices of fuel by 500%. This was not announced to the public, and was only discovered when car owners tried to top up petrol for their cars. Instantly, the people became alarmed and feared that escalating prices of food and other necessities will soon follow suit, thereby creating a frenzy amongst the people to stock up on daily supplies. Outraged by the military dictatorship, the monks of Myanmar started out on a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration, which subsequently developed into the bloodshed and violence we see today.

I find it hard to imagine that the Buddhist monks of Myanmar are the ones who are leading the fight against the military junta ("junta" is Spanish for committee). Buddhism is a religion that embraces compassion and tolerance. Throughout history, we have seen Christians' sacred battles, Muslims' radical activities, but violence associated with the Buddhists... I never thought this could be possible. Maybe the monks (as well as the people of Myanmar, majority of whom are Buddhists) have been suppressed too long and the anger which has built up inside their hearts just had to be released. As it is now, the familiar sights of serene Buddhist monks, clad in maroon coloured robes, were no longer visible on the streets of Myanmar, instead we see only their fury and their bodies covered with blood from being beaten and shot at by the military.

It pains me to think of what kind of life the people of Myanmar are going through now. The daily curfew and midnight arrests have instilled much fear in the people. People stay indoor most of the times not because they did not want to miss their favourite TV programs but because they were frightened. Each night, the chants of the monks, who are taken into captivity by the military, become terrifying to those who have heard. Ultimately, even the internet, international phone calls and other means of communication have been barred to stop the transmission of updates and photos of the protests within Myanmar to the outside world. Isolation seems to be the strategy adopted by the military.

Myanmar is a close neighbour of ours and it is hard to understand why the lives of people in the 2 countries are so different, when the distance is so near. While we spend all our time pursuing material pleasures, the Buddhist monks (and people) in Myanmar dedicate their lives to fight for democracy, human rights and some very basic freedom. Are we not, in relative, very fortunate? Maybe tonight is the time to say "Thank You" to our Gods above.

So what lies ahead for Myanmar? I only wish that peace will soon return to the country and that the chants of the Buddhist monks will once again be music to our ears.

The story behind 神的孩子都在跳舞

It's been 3 months since I started this blog, and I realised I have not give a proper introduction of why I chose a name like this for my blog.

神的孩子都在跳舞 (Children of God are dancing), my blog title. The first thought that must have crossed your mind is that this is the name of an album from my favourite band and as an ardent fan, I have named my blog as such. Well, yes and no.

神的孩子都在跳舞 is originally a book written by Japanese author, Haruki Murakami (村上春树). I read the Mandarin translated version. The book has got very little to do with what the name suggests, if you already start to picture everyone dancing to a tune by reading the title (and of course it has nothing to do with dancing to the tune of my favourite band). In fact, the author wrote this book after the Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995 to portrait the lives of some Japanese after the earthquake, in a rather poetic and literate manner.

In this book, the author talks about "Rhythm of the Earth" （地球的律动）. He wrote of this rhythm as the "movement beneath the feet". Though it may seem that he is only literally describing the conditions of an earthquake, I do believe that there are more profound messages hidden in the book. But then, it is left entirely up to you to interpret, which is what this author is really good at, stirring up the emotions and thoughts in your mind and yet not giving clear answers to what they meant.

From how I see it, the movement of the earth, the ebbs and tides of the sea, the warm summer breeze that blows in the air.... these works of nature create the ryhthm of the earth. And it is precisely through these that we are all connected.

Have you ever wondered how do people meet? Some may say it is fate, but I think it is through this rhythm of the earth. Imagine, people of different race, different colours and speaking different languages... we smile like an innocent child when we see a rainbow, we gasp at the first sight of a beautiful sunrise, we cry at the same sad movie... how could we have shared so many things in common if not for this rhythm which exist in our earth?

Therefore, be it the songs of 五月天 or the book by Murakami, 神的孩子都在跳舞 have inspired me in different ways. And I hope that this blog will always contain something we all love, something we can all identify with and something that will move you and I, as if we are all dancing to the rhythm of the earth. That is the reason for the name.

After thoughts: I often think that I can become way too emotional at times. My emotions are like marshmallow, easily crushed and easily exploded. But if you really open your eyes, you will become sensitive towards little things that happen around you. You will feel as much sadness as you will feel joy. And that is precisely why my life is so difficult yet fascinating at all times.

City of Glass 玻璃之城

I fell in love with riding on the monorail in Tokyo. I first took the ride one evening where the brightly lit city of Tokyo impressed me so much that I decided to take the monorail once more during the day time, just to admire a different set of scenery. And it was certainly a worthwhile journey.



A ride on the Yurikamome Line offers spectacular view of the bay front, the sea and the Rainbow Bridge. What I found particularly fascinating is that the rail tracks are built so close the skyscrappers that I felt like I was travelling through a valley, only there were different kinds of mountains.



A city of glass .... blue, green and white.... everything seems monotone and even the weather played along, as the sky was always gray. It is a kind of feeling hard to explain with words; it is as if all these existed inside a crystal ball, so real yet untouchable.





And the Rainbow Bridge of course! After admiring it's beauty during the night just the other day, I put my camera on standby all throughout the ride so that I can get a few shots of its magnificent beauty by day. So here they are...



Ring's Kiasu Tips: If you take the monorail from Shimbashi, towards the direction of Toyosu, you have got to sit on the left side of the train. It offers the best view of the Rainbow Bridge and sea view. Trust me, it's trial and tested! Naturally, on the return trip, grap the seats on the right side.

I alighted at Aomi（青海）station where the Toyota motor showroom is. Honestly I wasn't planning to go there but since I was on the monorail line going there, I thought there is no harm to drop by.


Why is it call 青海? The sea ain't green... strange.


The Toyota motor showroom. I don't know what is so great about it. Maybe only the guys will drool over it.


The Ferris Wheel. So colourful! Simply looking at it is already delightful.


Zepp Tokyo, a place for concerts.

Travelling tips: Mikey said that my blog is informative, sometimes. Sometimes only. Hmm.. when receive feedback, one should work on improving oneself. I thought I can share with you some travelling tips on the metro, rail and monorail system of Tokyo. Hopefully, this will be informative.

As a traveller, I like to purchase day tickets that can allow me to travel on the various modes of public transport.

(1) One day open ticket on Tokyo Metro only (Yen 710). This will allow you to travel on most of the subway lines in Tokyo. It is almost good enough to take you to most tourist attactions but I prefer option (2) below which I will explain why shortly.

(2) Common one-day ticket for Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway (Yen 1,000). For a couple of hundreds Yen more, I would prefer to invest in this type of day ticket. Though you could reach places like Asakusa and Shinjuku with the Tokyo metro lines, I think it is faster to use the Toei Subway. Furthermore, for a person like me, who doesn't plan my trip properly and like to hop onto subway from the nearest station I see, it is best to buy this kind of ticket that offers greater versatility.

(3) Tokyo Combination Ticket (Yen 1,580). With this ticket, you can take the metro and subway as well as the bus and Tokyo JR lines (the train). I see few reasons why a tourist would need this as I haven't found anywhere I'd like to visit that I cannot reach with the subway. Therefore, my 2 cents' worth is, if you really need to ride on a train, buy a separate ticket.

Unfortunately, there isn't a combo ticket that covers the monorail as well.

Many people think that the Tokyo subway system is so complicated that they become apprehensive about it. On the contrary, I think the subway system is comprehensive and the signs and routes are so clearly marked that it is hard to lost your way in it. What I found particularly useful is the estimated distances (30m, 50m, 100m, etc) to the destinations that are clearly marked on the direction signboards. They gave me assurance from time to time that I am walking towards the correction directions.