Archive for the ‘Locations’ Category
Posted on November 16, 2011, 1:28 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The temples and pagodas of Ho Chi Minh city provide an oasis of calm and tradition in a sprawling metropolis with mostly nondescript architecture. In general, they are be quite dispersed, and best explored by motorbike-taxi. The exception is in Cholon, the Chinese district of the city. There, more than a dozen temples can found […]
Posted on November 9, 2011, 11:55 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
My previous trips to Vietnam have been during the dry winter season. Although the bulk of the monsoon season is in summer, during my last stay in November, there were a few days when in the late afternoon the sky would all of the sudden become ominously dark. This was a sure sign it was […]
Posted on October 28, 2011, 3:37 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Mount Hoffman (10,845 feet, 3,305 meters) is right in the center of Yosemite. For a (relatively) easy to access viewpoint which gives you spectacular bird-eye’s views of the Yosemite backcountry in all directions, it is hard to top this hike. If you do only one high-country summit hike in Yosemite, I would suggest this one. […]
Posted on September 29, 2011, 12:22 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Last December, I visited Phu Quoc Island for a few days. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, south of the mainland Vietnam, the island is the largest in Vietnam, measuring 31 mi (50 km) long and 16 mi (25 km) wide. It is famous through Vietnam for its fishing industry, and in particular fish sauce, […]
Posted on September 21, 2011, 9:34 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Kings Canyon National park was conceived by as a “wilderness park”, mostly free from development. There are only two sections accessible by car within the park, one around Grant Grove, the other in Cedar Grove. Both those sections are small: many visitors do not notice that shortly after Grant Grove, they exit the park, entering […]
Posted on September 14, 2011, 9:38 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The Na Pali Coast, on the North Shore of Kauai has some of the most spectacular coastal scenery anywhere, with the the grandest fluted coastal cliffs in all the Hawaiian Islands. Because of its steepness the Na Pali Coast is entirely roadless. Besides boat and helicopter, the only way to see the Na Pali Coast […]
Posted on August 29, 2011, 1:48 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Even more so than for landscapes, many photographers prefer to shoot seascapes at sunrise and sunset. I see two main reasons: to get more color (enhanced by the open horizon and water reflections) and to capture water motion through a longer exposure. Thinking about it, I saw no reason a beautifully flowing seascape could not […]
Posted on August 17, 2011, 10:01 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The weather system that produced interesting clouds over the crater summit continued to hang over the coast. I was hoping to do some night photography, but when I got up two hours before sunrise, it was pitch dark, with the stars totally obscured by dense cloud cover. I crawled down to the beach and set […]
Posted on July 26, 2011, 12:26 am, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
Most visitors to Haleakala National Park visit the Haleakala Crater, however the Park extends down from the summit to the ocean, reaching it in a small, but interesting area called Kipahulu. Instead of driving from the summit to Kipahulu through the Hana Coast, this time I tied the more direct, but seldom-traveled route through the […]
Posted on July 19, 2011, 6:48 pm, by QT Luong, under
Locations.
The Heleakala summit, at more than 10,000 feet high, is above the inversion layer separating lower maritime air from upper atmospheric air. On my previous visit to the crater, I always found myself above the clouds, in clear air. Last May, I arrived in Maui as storms were moving in and out. There were unusual […]
