Tag Archives: photo

iPods, Jambiyas and BarCamps

21 Nov

Sana'a -- kids with ipod earphones (but no ipods) and jambiyas

BarCamp Singapore 4 is on tomorrow at Suntec Tower 3, 14th Floor, at IDA Singapore, from 9am to 6pm. Looks like there will be lots of interesting presentations.

I’m on at 1.30pm, with “How to hack your own travel channel life”. I’ll be sharing about travel, writing, photography, the internet, and well, stuff. Sorry I can’t be more specific (I’m still preparing the presentation). If you haven’t already registered, it looks like they’re over-subscribed. See you tomorrow if you are coming, and come say hi!

P.S. there’s an afterparty at Hackerspace, sponsored by Yahoo Southeast Asia. I hope we’ll have something like Hackerspace in Malaysia soon — I would love to have a co-working space there!

Random Chickens

9 Nov

Spotted on the way to Sunrise roast duck in Seapark (Petaling Jaya). (Which is very awesome. But go before noon or you’d have to queue for ages.)

Fortylove.tv Travel Photo Contest

30 Sep

fortylove travel photo contestHi, the fun is over here, where May Yee and I are running our first ever Fortylove.tv contest! (Yes, there are more up ahead…)

We don’t care what you shot it with. We just want to see interesting travel photos that preferably have cool stories behind them. We don’t care where you live. To enter, simply send us a handful (any number, within reason; just don’t send us an entire album) of photos via the form here, or send them as attachments to the email address listed there. We’ll post every picture we get on the submissions gallery.

The prizes: Vado pocket video cam, Mandarina Duck Flight Weekender Bag (worth US$175), and a set of Wallpaper City Guides courtesy of our partners Creative and wejetset.

P.S. Keeping this post sticky for a while, so be sure to look underneath… in case it hits me to post here more regularly than I currently do (or don’t).

Midnight in the Valley

28 May

Goreme, Turkey - Midnight around the Valley

Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey, was stunning at any time of the day, especially at the witching hour.

They Really Wanted a Photo

15 Apr

Three weeks ago, in Yemen, somewhere between Aden and Zabid and near Taiz — it could have been shortly after Lahj —

A small, fly-infested town. We were in a shared taxi driving near the Red Sea coast, and towards (I did not know yet) one of the hottest places in the world, Zabid. Hot and sweaty, just as you’d imagine any place called Tihama to be.

Toilet break. ‘Highway’ stop. Dusty town with no name. No one had ever seen an Oriental person before. Cue running amok and endless staring. It’s okay, I’m used to it.

Used too, I thought, to the things I did not want to see. Begging. Poverty. I see it everywhere; you learn to close your eyes to it, you learn to say no.

But here was a homeless family sitting by the sidewalk of a restaurant. Eating bread people threw out to them. The children were in various states of ill health, and so were the parents. They were all immaculately dressed, though, in that they were homeless and poor but still maintained their pride in the way they were clothed. Everyone wore hand-me-downs. Everyone had mismatched items on themselves. The younger daughter was dressed in a large mismatched frock that made her look vaguely clown-like. They were so happy that someone even looked at them, said hi, and took a picture. I told them their baby was beautiful. I did mean it, though it’s hard to see how. They were so happy. Then someone came to kick them away. They packed up their belongings, and went to sit in a corner. When I was leaving in the car they came ambling out to wave goodbye. I think my heart broke a little.

Lahj, Yemen -- They Really Wanted A Photo