New Toys
July 31, 2009
Oh yes… We love the toys. In fact, Jenn is loving photography so much, we (she) decided we’d better get her a camera for herself. Now I’m going to be showed up, because really she takes better pictures than I do! Of course, I always jump at the chance to get new gear. So, along with a new camera for her, we had to get a new lens (for us), and a new bag that holds everything. Here is our new setup! Drool away!
Jenn’s new Canon 50D with EF 70-200 F4 IS.
Effective range of 112mm to 320mm.
Clockwise from bottom left: Canon 5D Mii body, EF 100mm F2.8 Macro, Canon SD850 P&S, Canon EX270 flash, EF 24-105 F4 IS (hood reversed), EF 14mm F2.8
Center: Canon 50D with 70-200 and hood reversed, EF 50mm F1.8 II;
Bottom Center: CPL filters 67mm and 72mm
Right attached: Tripod. woot.
Cool factor: My 5D with the 24-105 and Jenn’s 50D with the 70-200 give us a nice range of 24-320mm without swapping lenses.
More Mulu – Racer Cave
July 29, 2009
So we have one more adventure in Mulu National Park that we forgot to write about – our crazy spelunking in Racer Cave! Now this is not your typical don a flashlight and walk 50 meters along a concrete walkway into a cave. This involved climbing ropes, sliding down mudslides, jumping over underwater pools, squeezing through small passages and watching out for cave snakes (Racer Snakes – hence the cave’s name), giant cave crickets, and of course… bats!
The whole journey took about three hours to complete and by the end of it we were energized but unbelievably filthy. It just make me want to get out there and do more spelunking!
Check out the size of this cricket! Our friend Ryan is holding him up by one of his antennae. Totally crazy stuff huh?!? I can’t believe they can find enough food in the cave to get this big, freakin’ monsters!
Here’s the cave’s namesake – a Racer Snake! They hang out in a crevice near a cave exit area and dangle themselves down through the passage as the bats are moving through. The original fast food joint!
Millions (?) of years ago this cave was formed by saltwater currents. And here’s a fossilized seashell to prove it. To us it kind of looked like one of the guides just super glued a shell up there, but we’ll take their word for it!
One of the many slick rock ways we hand to climb hand over fist. Doesn’t Lucas look pleased with himself? Ha!
This particular stalagmite had a perfect frame shape cut out of it. Makes a great photo spot!
Now who do you think enjoyed climbing through the dirty cave more, Lucas or Jenn… the proof is in the smile.
At the end of the cave there were two small freshwater pools, one right on top of each other. Supposedly if you wash your face with the water you become unbelievably beautiful. No one tested our guide on his folklore though. Beauty is only skin deep anyway, yeah.
Mulu National Park
July 28, 2009
Spelunking, anyone? No, I’m not offering up ice cream from The Spaghetti Factory. Cave exploration, complete with headlamps and lots of mud is what we’ve been up to these last four days, and it’s absolutely fabulous fun!
Mulu National Park is located deep in the heart of Borneo and is only accessible by a prop airplane (our transportation of choice!) or a three day journey along the mythical headhunter trail. Who am I kidding, the Headhunter trail is really our transportation of choice – but we didn’t know that route was feasible until we got there. Bummer!
Mulu is famous for having the longest underground cave system in the world. It’s something like 167 km from mouth to tail; though our guide assured us that they’ll discover it’s actually longer once they have the manpower to explore all of the tributaries. If the park contained just one monster cave there would have been enough to draw us to Mulu, but the park also has smaller adventure caves to explore (think underground rock climbing), an amazing thirty minute bat exodus occurring nightly and their crown jewel – the Pinnacles!
Surprisingly enough, this rough and dirty park has a four star resort (now remember, four stars in Borneo is not the same as in the states!). But since we’re planning everything last minute, that of course was booked. So we ended up at a super convenient home stay with a local family where we met some great travel buddies. Did I mention it was only $3 a night and has its own river swimming spot? Score!
Lucas taking photos in one of the Show Caves at Mulu National Park.
Water dripping from a stalactite to a stalagmite in one of the show caves. Over time these slow drips have made amazing formations!
Abraham Lincoln’s profile. Crazy huh? The Chinese on our tour didn’t really get why this particular cave formation was so cool, which made it even cooler.
Oh so beautiful reflecting pond at Mulu National Park.
Us just before we check out Clearwater Cave – the longest cave in the world! We only saw about 600m of it though…
This river runs through Clear Water Cave. I SO wanted to swim in it. For $10 you can do an adventure caving experience where you schlep through the river and then climb out one of the smaller cave exits. There is also an underwater exit that requires scuba gear and special permits… National Geographic here we come!
Temples of Chiang Mai
July 23, 2009
Lucas, being the good sport that he is, agreed to spend a full day Christmas shopping. Yes, it’s only July, but I’m a planner! The next day though, we cleansed our anti-consumerism conscious by spending a full day visiting the temples of Chiang Mai. How can you spend a full day visiting temples you might ask? Is it is boring as a full day at museums? Well, Chiang Mai has over three hundred temples (or Wat’s) We visited only six; lazy I know!
Three Highlights:
Wat Chiang Man: the oldest temple in Chiang Mai dating from the 13th century. This temple houses two very important and venerated Buddha figures – Phra Sila (a marble Buddha) and Phra Satang Man (a crystal Buddha). This place had amazing gilded murals throughout the temple – one of a Caucasian ship wreck. Can anyone explain that to me?
Wat Chedi Luang: founded in 1401 and dominated by the large Lanna style chedi which dates from the same time, but took many years to finish. An earthquake damaged the chedi in the 16th century and now only two-thirds of it remains.
Wat Phra Singh: located within the city walls, dates from 1345 and offers an example of classic northern Thai style architecture. It houses the Phra Singh Buddha, a highly venerated figure, and is one of the most important temples in the city.
Toothy statue outside Wat Pra Sing
Another at Wat Pra Sing, but covered in gold flakes. The gold flakes constantly come off, but worshipers continue to press new flakes of hammered gold onto the ‘skin’ of the statue.
This guy had a very green eye, and guarded the steps up to this temple. I liked the scale from this wide angle view. The guardian was really quite small compared to the size of the temple, but this shot makes it look the opposite!
Me standing in front of the partially crumbled Wat Chedi Luang
Chiang Mai
July 20, 2009
- Day Two -
Off to the Chiang Mai Zoo! I love zoos in third world countries. You can get so much closer to even the dangerous animals. And the types of animals they include in the exhibits are totally unique: about 12 different types of primates were at this zoo including pig tail monkeys, gibbons, and orangutans to name a few. They had a baby panda – though it was sleeping when we visited, and a whole “Snow Dome.” From what we could gather, this was like the indoor ski hill in Dubai. They issue you goulashes and parkas at the door! The line for the dome was at least a 45 minute wait in the brutal heat – you’d be dying for snow after standing in that slop for so long – so we skipped it and opted to feed the giraffes and elephants instead.
One car sick inducing taxi ride later we’d left the zoo and were at Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Story goes, a king was looking for the perfect place to build a temple (or wat) and went off on a search. At the top of this major mountain, the white elephant he was riding trumpeted three times and then keeled over. I wanted to keel over and we got there by taxi, so I can only imagine how the poor elephant felt! Regardless – the elephants demise was a ‘sign’ and construction on the wat began.
We’d planned our visit to coincide with sunset, so we could watch all of the guild work reflect nights’ auburn colors. Alas, there wasn’t anything but clouds this evening. We still enjoyed the sights and the 300 steps up and down the temple!
Hungry Hungry Hippos!
This guy has shows such contempt!
Such a long tongue you have my dear!
Orange, Lucas’ favorite color!
Isn’t this about the ugliest bird you’ve ever seen?
Ok, maybe this one is equal in ugliness… but I can’t help but laugh every time I look at this picture!
Guardian Naga snakes at the bottom of the temple stairs.
Temple bells
Monks trying to save the Durian fruit from splattering all over the temple.
Emerald Buddha
