Florian Kriechbaumer 4/11/24 Florian Kriechbaumer 4/11/24

Mongolia - Vast Steppes & Nomadic Cultures

Mongolia’s vast landscapes, rugged mountains, beautiful deserts, and nomadic people have long been on my list for exploration

Mongolia’s vast landscapes, rugged mountains, beautiful deserts, and nomadic people have long been on my list for exploration (although that list is long, frankly). In August 2023 that opportunity came when I spent a couple of months in Asia and there was an open slot on Daniel Kordan’s Mongolia tour. I rarely go on guided group photography tours during my travels, as I often find them limiting in flexibility and scope, but the dates fit, and this tour definitely had some great aspects to it that are more difficult to achieve solo. In addition, it was led by my good friend from Dubai, Andy Marty, and also allowed me to fit in a short stopover in Beijing.

Mongolian Moments - Watch this to get an Overview

The White Stupa

We started our tour from the capital and by far the country’s largest city, Ulaanbaatar, but immediately went south for several hundred kilometers, with the first goal being Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa) - an eroded cliff that was once the floor of an ocean.

The ancient seabed is now a limestone escarpment covered with minerals. Oxygen exposure over millions of years then created this colourful scenery.

We continued our way onwards to the south and further west, with the final destination being the sand dunes of the Gobi desert, getting ever closer to the borders with China, one of Mongolia’s two mighty neighbors - the other being Russia in the north. Together, they make it the world’s largest landlocked country. As we approached our camp for the night, we got the chance to stop for a beautiful sunset…

… which quickly turned into a heavy storm, with rainclouds approaching in the distance.

As we arrived at our “hotel” for the night - one of the many ger (a traditional yurt-like tent still commonly used by the locals) camps that are dotted around the landscape, the rain clouds turned into thunder and lightning. Of course I couldn’t resist, threw the luggage into the ger, and set up the camera before the rain arrived. Using Olympus’ amazing Pro Capture feature makes catching lighting relatively easy in many situations, without having to set up triggers or even a tripod - these were handheld at 1/5s exposure!

Highways

Distances are vast with very little infrastructure - understandable, given that it’s the most sparsely populated country on earth (just over 2 people per sq km.) Although, the country’s road network has been increasing rapidly, the majority of the roads that do exist are not yet paved, making driving a bit of an adventure.

It’s not unusual to drive for dozens of kilometers through empty steppe, with nothing more than a few animals to see. The layers of diverse landscapes make up for it, such as here as we slowly approached the tall dunes of the Gobi desert.

The Gobi Desert - Dunes for Days

The Gobi Desert is one of the world’s largest. The majority of its landscape is not actually characterized by sandy areas, but instead features dry steppe and exposed rock. Having said that, the tall dunes, for example here around Khongoryn Els, make up some of its most beautiful scenery and we spent a few nights here to capture their shapes around sunset and sunrise.

Bactrian Camel Herders

A local family with their herd of bactrian camels joined us in the dunes to add a human element, and bring some scale to the photos. Bactrian camels have been domesticated in Mongolia for thousands of years - today, only very few truly wild individuals of a separate species survive, and these are critically endangered.

The endless shapes and flowing patterns of these dunes make for countless compositions and different abstract motives, especially as the light slowly illuminates their sharp edges.

The camels have been essential for providing clothing, sustenance from milk, and transportation for many nomadic people of the region for centuries. They are well adapted to the climate, with a long fur coat during the -40C winters, which they shed during summers when the temperature can reach 50C.

As the sun set and darkness creeped in, we had a short window to capture the Milky Way over the dunes before the moon rose.

Greenery in the Desert

Aside from the Bactrian camels, horses are also often kept by the nomadic people of the region. A river runs at the foot of the dunes in the north, creating green pockets of grass and scrubs for them to graze on.

The Flaming Cliffs

Home to the world’s first discovery of Dinosaur eggs.

As we left the dunes of the Gobi Desert, our route back to Ulaanbaatar had another stop in the plan, which was not only interesting to me from a photographic point of view, but also due to its geological and archeological history 🦖.

After a small break at a local well in the steppe of the desert, where the nomadic families raise drinking water for their horses and camels, we arrived at the so-called Flaming Cliffs: A geological locality from the Cretaceous period, deriving its name from the red glow the rock formations exhibit, especially during sunset - luckily the time when we were there.

Beyond their obvious beauty, this area is where some of the most significant fossil artifacts in the world were discovered: The very first finds of several dinosaur species, as well as the first-ever fossilized dinosaur nest, including the matching Oviraptor eggs. Another incredible paleontological find includes a pair of fighting dinosaurs, now immortalized as a statue on the small museum built on the site.

Nightly Exploration

After discovering these beautiful nearby rock formations during the day, an idea for some nightly adventure emerged: The result was some drone light painting as the Milky Way rose, with the odd meteor and a nice green airglow adding a little bit of extra interest.

It meant the night before our final drive to the capital was short (very short), but we got some fun images to take away.

The Bayan-Ölgii Province - Home of the Eagle Hunters

After a night in Ulaanbaatar, the next destination was the very western region of Mongolia close to Kazakhstan (although the two countries do not share a border): a two hour flight brought us to the province of Bayan-Ölgii. The reason? To spend time with the infamous Eagle Hunters of the local nomadic tribes that once settled here after leaving the east of Kazakhstan for political reasons. Even today, the vast majority of the population is Kazakh, Mongolian is not the primary language, and Islam is strongly represented here.

While the city is small and life is quiet and traditional, during summer time people still gather and go out. The winter tells a different story (from what I heard), as temperatures drop to -30C, running water becomes an exception, and power cuts occur regularly.

The city centre is home to a few abandoned structures from the former Soviet era, like this one, which was once seemingly a high school.

The outskirts of Ölgii feature a common sight in Mongolia, very different from traditional city structures: small houses with gerts owned (and sometimes occupied) by the local families, dotted in the yards. Even today, 30% of the population falls under the “nomadic” category, regularly and seasonally moving between locations.

Our primary purpose here was found a little bit outside the city, in the endless hilly landscapes of the area, where nomadic people live with their animal herds - and in some cases, with their eagles.

Golden Eagles

About 250 such Eagle Hunters are said to live in the area and still practice a tradition that goes back thousands of years: utilizing Golden Eagles for hunting foxes, hares, and other animals in the winter months, primarily for fur to make clothing items.

For the last 25 years, a festival takes place every year in October, where participants show off their skills and get judged on agility, speed, accuracy, and also style and dresses. While this has created a new income stream for the local population, especially after media coverage over the last 10 years, it is said that over the years the eagles utilized for the festival have been raised, trained, and kept differently than the ones actually used for real hunting in the winter, for example by ensuring they are accustomed to crowds. Even among the human component of the equation, the emergence of the festival and its associated tourism industry has changed the perception and purpose of eagle hunting, reducing the focus on its original purpose in exchange for winning competitions and gaining recognition.

Entrance

Aside from being able to take these portrait photographs here, the experience of spending time with the family in their gert and sharing a meal with them was a special privilege.

While the practice of eagle hunting is male-dominated, women can be found among the Eagle Hunters, and kids start learning to ride horses and care and interact with the large birds (their wingspan reaches 2 meters) at a very young age, albeit often beginning their journey with a falcon instead. Daiynbek Ay Moldir is one of the most famous Eagle Hunters of her generation, having won prizes at just 13 years old - and she definitely has the skill (and humor) of a champion.

We had plenty of opportunities to observe the Eagle Hunters in action, skillfully managing both horse and eagle in a coordinated union.

Smiling Faces

This got a little messy at times, but everyone still clearly enjoyed themselves. Although I can’t vouch for how the horses and eagles felt, there was clear evidence that it’s a respectful and caring relationship between animal and human.

In Action

Seeing these Eagle Hunters practicing their craft was impressive, and I wanted to try and convey the sense of power and energy in my photos from a new perspective. Using a remote controlled camera on the ground allowed me to get much closer to the action for a new angle.

Unfortunately time was not on my side and as a result I only had a couple of attempts to get these photos - while not exactly as good as I think they could be, I’m still happy to have been able to document this sight in a way that has not been done before. Take a look at the video below to get an idea of the behind the scenes!

Serik Jenisbek

One of the most well-known champion eagle hunters of the area.

We visited a few different locations in the beautiful Altai mountains ranges, which created a perfect backdrop straight from a movie set.

Before making our way back, the opportunity to once more capture some Milky Way photos in the dark skies of the small city’s outskirts could not be missed.

Impressions from Ulaanbaatar

The capital is also by far the largest city in the country. With 1.6m inhabitants, over half of the population lives here. It’s a relatively modern and clean city with a mix of traditional vibes, paired with modern architecture, and remnants of soviet influences.

While August is quite an enjoyable time to visit Ulaanbaatar - or most of the country for that matter - it does hold the title of the coldest capital in the world, with temperatures regularly dropping to 40C below 0 in the winter months.

Parliament of Mongolia

The building is adorned with a huge statue of Genghis Khan in the centre, the first Mongol Emperor and responsible for making it the largest land empire in the world in the 13th century.

While I didn’t explore much of the city, I did want to visit the Natural History Museum of Mongolia and get a few more glimpses at its paleontological treasures, of which there are quite a few, including the fossilized dinosaur eggs and many well preserved skeletons. Unfortunately the museum itself doesn’t have a lot of English descriptions and background information.

And that was the end of my time in Mongolia - but it’s another country that has so much to offer (and much of it unexplored) that I definitely want to see more: finding snow leopards, experiencing the gobi desert covered in snow, exploring more amazing geological features, and witnessing the nomadic culture are all reasons to come back.

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The “Wonders of the Globe” App

Creating a digital version of my photo book “Wonders of the Globe” as a native iOS app.

As some of you may have seen, I recently self-published a photo book called “Wonders of the Globe”, documenting some of the amazing places I had the privilege to see and photograph, and - as is often the case with my projects - just to see “what it’s like” to design, compile, write, print, and sell your own photo book.

The Book

It was an interesting experience, with quite a bit of trial and error, a few learnings, and also a look at the economic realities. I did everything in house, including building the website and ordering capability, which nowadays is pretty straight forward thanks to places like Squarespace, and Stripe (which this page is built on).
I’ve been making and selling prints for a long time and have always enjoyed seeing photography in physical form, rather than just on screens. At the same time, there are many things that a print or book just can’t represent the same way as digital art - something I’ve been toying with as part of my NFT series.
For Wonders of the Globe, creating a digital version was on the agenda from the beginning, but what exactly it would look like only evolved out of my desire to finally get my hands dirty writing code, and the fact there are now AI tools to help you make that a little easier.

For most of my “regular” career I’ve been really involved in software development, be it apps for hospitality, or energy management systems for buildings, always managing or working closely with engineers. That gave me a lot of insight into everything from UI and UX designs, databases, App stores, embedded development, architecture for cloud platforms, etc, and I’ve picked up a fair bit of knowledge in the process.

But I always had the urge to start creating a piece of software from scratch myself (aside from making a few websites) and this was the opportunity to do just that. Having been a follower of Apple and user of their products for a long time, the only real option for me was to start with their platform, and getting to know Swift UI, the latest programming language for its products (and one of the easier ones out there, also thanks to Apple’s ecosystem).

Main Goals

My primary idea behind creating a digital version included the following:
Be able to update the content regularly, so that owners of the physical copy can also get access to new photos
Include some interactive features like Maps for each spot, and a table of contents
Be able to link to relevant blog entries for some of the photos
Add some behind the scenes and supporting videos
Make it work on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the Apple Vision Pro
For the App to work offline

The Journey

So in October 2023 I started teaching myself Swift UI using Apple’s Swift Playground App, a simple playful way to learn basic concepts on business logic and layout. It also includes a few examples on building grids and image-based layouts, which was very helpful.
From there, I soon moved over to Xcode, Apple’s integrated development environment, and started building the structure of the app. My goal was to build a completely native app, not using any third party tools.

The basic structure of the app was built relatively quickly, including a homepage, some supplementary pages, and the main book section. Over time I added a map view, table of content function, and a favorite function for the user to mark and recall interesting pages quickly.

My past experience came in handy in designing a scalable, flexible, and maintainable system that would allow me to manage the book content in one place (I chose a simple JSON file) and minimizing the number of layouts for individual “pages” of the book. I built generic layout views depending on the number of images on each page and their aspect ratio (I ended up with 11 for 54 pages, which probably could have been reduced further with some optimization), and rendered all other common elements such as the buttons and text overlay separately.

iPhone 15 Pro Max - Natural Titanium - Portrait.png

A few things that stood out to me: It was quite simple to add basic animations and effects such as blurs and backgrounds to create a bit more visual interest. A lot of built in tools like navigation links, sheets, and tab views simplify creating the main structural elements and views significantly.

On the other hand, there were several things that proved to be more of a headache than I anticipated, for example managing performance of image loading and thumbnails, and particularly gestures for zooming, panning, swiping, and their interaction / conflicts - this took way more time than I had expected, just to replicate what the built in Photos app can do. Making simple image layouts that scale and resize nicely was also more challenging than on many common web platforms. There are still a few aspects in the app around these features that are not ideal.

The biggest initial hurdle for me was understanding how to build the data model out of the JSON file, i.e. the piece of code that holds all the book information and images, and can be accessed and updated by different parts of the app. Once that was figured out though, it became quite easy to add new pieces and create a flexible infrastructure.

AI Help

ChatGTP also proved to be incredibly helpful in fixing issues or suggesting minor improvements to my code. As of December 2023, version 3.5 often produced more helpful output than ChatGTP 4 for specific code level requests, while generic questions produced better answers with version 4, partly owing to its more recent training data set.
While it was 100% necessary to have an understanding of the architecture, code, best practices, and an overall vision of the app, it definitely saved me dozens of hours in debugging and researching certain features of the programming language.

A draft version of the App was finished in early January, when I asked a few friends to beta test them using Apple’s TestFlight App (a simple way to get feedback and allow others to access your app without making it public). I also used the Xcode simulator to run it on older devices and different screen sizes, including iPad and Mac, to see how the layouts would work.

I fixed a few minor issues and submitted the app to the AppStore shortly after, just needing to add promotional text, screenshots, privacy policy and manage some administrative aspects, plus setting the price. As my main goal was to create the app as a companion for the physical book, I chose to make it free for owners of the book, and have everyone else who wants it pay $2.99 - whether anyone will do so remains to be seen, but art should have value.

After an initial rejection based on rule 4.2 (the app should serve a purpose that is more advanced than a simple website), I explained to App review some of the features of the app that cannot be replicated on a website easily (favorite function, offline caching, etc), and they accepted the next revision.

As a result, the app is now live on the App Store - tap on the image above to see and download it. If you’re an owner of Wonders of the Globe, you should receive a code that enables a free download, if not, please contact me.

While this is a first version of the app and it is admittedly quite simple, I have a few more features in mind for upcoming releases:

Landscape mode support (for now the App works only in Portrait orientation)
A better layout for iPad and larger screens (I really want to test it on Apple Vision Pro as well)
A home screen widget with a random new photo from the portfolio every day
Being able to add new content without needing a new version of the app (this will require me to build a server side interface, let’s see if that’s something I want to tackle!)

For now, it’s been a nice project the hopefully brings some enjoyment to a few of you.

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The Ghost of the Mountain

In search for one of the most elusive cats on the planet in the mountain ranges of northern India - with some incredible sights.

In March 2023 I finally took a trip I had already planned previously, but our old spiked friend Covid-19 had a different idea at the time. The good thing is that on my next attempt I was able to combine my time in the mountain ranges of Ladakh with a few extra days in other parts of India - more on that in a future blog.

For today’s episode, the focus is on an area of the world’s most populous nation that in some ways is very different than the (already diverse) rest of the country: The union territory of Ladakh in the very north, bordering China and Pakistan, and sitting entirely above 2500m in the Himalayan and Kunlun mountain ranges. Why did I come here? To find the ghost of the mountain…

After a short flight from Delhi, my trip started in Leh, the historic capital of the ancient Kingdom of Ladakh at an elevation of 3500m. I spent two days here to acclimate, highly recommended to avoid altitude sickness before making your way further up into the mountain ranges up to 5000m.

The view over the river valley from our hotel, and the historical sites of Namgyal Tsemo Monastery and Tsemo Castle on the right side.

Influences

Tibetan influences are evident all around in the area, starting with its people (40% buddhist) and the temples. The region has a very distinct culture, which also includes a Ladakhi language spoken by almost half the population of around 300,000.

Leh was once an important trade route along the Indus Valley. Today it has become a tourist destination during the summer months, but the winter time (I visited in March) are generally very quiet.

First Sights

Our time to acclimate was cut short - on the day after arrival, we got a call in the morning that told us some spotters had seen a snow leopard about 1h drive away. When you hear this, you jump and get moving. While Ladakh is one of the best places in the world to see these elusive cats, it is believed they number around 300 at best, in an area of almost 60,000 sqkm - good luck! There’s a snow leopard in the photo on the left, and I guarantee you you’d never see it with your bare eyes alone.

Can you spot it?

Here’s a zoomed version of the panorama above, a small portion almost exactly in the middle. Look closely… hint, it’s lying flat in the lower centre of the photo.

And here’s the answer below. At a focal length of 1200mm, you can finally see this amazing creature sunbathing and yawning after its mid-morning nap. Scroll up again to see if you can make out where it is in the panoramic view from our viewpoint.

Snow leopards are mostly active around dawn and dusk, and exhibit many characteristic behaviors that we observe with the feline friends that live in our houses, such as the typical cleaning poses, scent rubbing, and yawning. They also cannot roar, but have been observed purring at times.

After about 3 hours of napping and cleaning, the snow leopard slowly made its way to the left, transversing the richly coloured mountain ranges, which were already free of snow in early March - that was gonna change a few days later at higher altitudes. If you scroll back up to the first panoramic image of this landscape, you’ll be able to make out where the cat was heading…

In the photos above, you can see the large tail, very thick due to its purpose as fat storage, and covered in a layer of fur, allowing snow leopards to use it as a blanket when asleep. Sleeping wasn’t on this individual’s mind anymore though. It was headed for three urial that has been peacefully eating on the slopes on the left, and was carefully approaching them, taking cover behind rocks and ridges from time to time. This is when we got excited - there was a definitive chance to see a hunt now, something that is almost never observed in the wild.

The Hunt

Things were in place. This photo features both the snow leopard approaching in hunting mode, and two urial, native wild sheep, not yet realizing the danger they are in.

Need some help finding either of the two parties? Take a look at these two images, zoomed in to the bottom left, and right, respectively.

The urial have been making their way down the cliff to feed on grass and bushes that grew between the cracks, while the snow leopard had managed to approach them from above without being seen - the whole process took almost an hour. After another few minutes of deliberation, the cat decided the moment had come and made its way down the slope.

One jump, and the three urial realized what was about to happen and scattered down the slope. For a split second the snow leopard wasn’t sure which one to follow, but once it had made its decision, there was no going back.

At this point, the speed at which everything happened and the athleticism of both animals as they raced down the cliff was completely overwhelming - I thought I was prepared to get the shots I was hoping for, but things happened way faster, in a much wider field of view, and a darker environment than I had anticipated, making my photos mediocre at best. This might be the topic of another blog post or a talk some day, as I learnt quite a few lessons for situations like this, even though I had been photographing a lot of action-packed wildlife before. For those interested in the photographic details, in short, shifting away from continuous autofocus, sticking to a very long focal length at the expense of light, and getting greedy with shutter speed, are all mistakes to avoid.

Dramatic

Here’s an iPhone video of the hunt taken by one of the spotters (and copyright and credit to him) next to me almost from start to finish. It doesn’t do justice to the steepness of this cliff, which was the reason the urial ended up stumbling and falling to its death into the canyon road that passes below (where we drove a few hours earlier).

The hunt ended with the snow leopard killing the urial with a bite at its neck, and the cat dragged the large sheep a few meters back up the cliff.

Pose of Success

This was also the closest we had come to the animal, still at least 500m away I’d say but enough to see the beautiful details of this incredible cat.

Post-Hunt Rest

With the kill a few dozen meters below, the snow leopard retreated under a huge outcrop to rest a bit, observing its surroundings and probably waiting for darkness to creep in before it would go back to eat - we left it alone at this point.

Despite the excitement of having witnessed this incredible sight, for the next days (and even while writing this 9 months later) I couldn’t quite shake the little disappointing voice in the back of my head telling me I had missed some once in a lifetime photos. Once in a lifetime sounds a bit dramatic, you say?

Our main spotter, who worked for the BBC and other wildlife documentaries being filmed in the region, told us he had not once seen a hunt from start to finish in his 15 year career. With this perspective in mind, the fact I got lucky enough to experience it at all started to overshadow the lack of a perfect photo.

Ulley

It’s difficult to deny that we had already witnesses the highlight of the week here as we made our way from Leh further into the mountains on Day 3. The destination was the small village of Ulley, a group of around 10 houses in a valley at over 4000 meters, which offers a cozy small lodge as a home base for people looking to get a glimpse at the ghost of the mountain. On the way, we passed the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers, seen above.

Likir Monastery

Another highlight as we moved along the dirt roads was this monastery built in the 14th century and, according to Buddhist mythology, the first construction by the Tibetan monks.

Historical Evidence

Petroglyps that have been found around the region, such as here in a small collection along the Indus River, are over 5000 years old. Ladakh has been populated since the Neolithic times.

Once we arrived in Ulley, these were the views into the valley we got to enjoy from the observation area at the lodge. The spotters set up their scopes and binoculars here each morning to look for animals roaming on the slopes.

Ghost Spotting

The spotting crew is what makes it possible to see snow leopards - or really any animals at all - in this area. Their experience and skill at observing the surrounding mountain ridges is incredible to observe. Most of the spotters here have been working in this field for over 10 years and often support film crews for wildlife documentaries or researchers. Some of them have installed their own camera traps to help document the animals in the region.

(I believe) a Himalayan vulture and a bearded vulture - one of the various birds we found in this area, alongside snowcocks and partridges.

The Return of Winter

Winter had arrived after a few days, and the valley was suddenly covered in snow and fog. While March signals the end of the very cold season, occasional snowfall happens until April.

Those conditions weren’t the best for spotting animals, but they were even worse for some local workers and their families, who were hired by the government to improve road access to the village. Their tents suffered from the weight of the snow, and heating (using dried cow dung) became essential.

Day to day life was impacted as well - it becomes difficult to dry your laundry when it freezes in the snow instead. During the winter months, there is no running water in the village, and availability of electricity is temporary at best.

A small collection of buddhist chorten, a type of stupa, at the top of the mountain road, serving as depositories for Buddha relics.

400 Years

Is the age of this local house, which we saw while exploring the valley above the lodge on foot. The couple who lives here are the parents of one of the girls working in the lodge, and they kindly invited us for tea. A beautiful way to warm up - it was -15C outside. The cat had to do the same, can you spot it in the photos below?

Seeing the interior of the structure and the many artifacts that have been in use here for centuries was really interesting: Pots that have been passed down generations, skillfully brewed local Kahwa tea, and the traditional wedding belt worn by the couple’s daughter.

Couple in the Snow

I don’t often take portraits, but sometimes moments present themselves where you can capture an unfiltered natural scene. One of my favorite photos from the trip.

Nightfall

The stars rising over the mountain ranges and the weather cleared up.

Exploring

Prayer flags are commonly seen in this area when driving from village to village, as we did the next day. They’re, meant to bless the surrounding countryside and usually come in five colors: blue for the sky, white for air, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth.

Yak Cow Mix

It’s rare to see wild yaks in the area, but the domestic cow type mix is commonly seen.

On the Lookout

Regular stopping and scanning while traversing the mountain roads along the many cliffs and valleys is the way to see animals here.

Aside from the elusive snow leopards, the mountain ranges of Ladakh are home to other fascinating animals that adapted to the harsh and cold environment, such as the vulnerable Urial, with only 1500 of the Ladakhi subspecies left.

As well as Ibex, such as this female looking for food under a large boulder and the group of males on the right.

Another highlight of Ladakh that is rare to see can be found in the photo above. In fact, there are at least seven of them. Take a close look…🐺 Himalayan wolf are an endangered species generally found above 4000m, with just a few hundred individuals usually moving in packs of a dozen or more individuals. We had the chance to see a distant pack quickly moving along through the rocky landscapes for a few minutes.

A Day of Sightings

As the weather cleared up and the half moon rose over the Himalayan mountain ranges, our second snow leopard sighting for the week happened to occur in the valley of the village, just a very short drive away.

That drive however was followed by a hike through a nearby canyon - which at 4000m elevation with a dropping blood oxygen and a lot of equipment becomes a bit tougher than normally. In the end, this sighting showed us some remains of a previous meal the cat enjoyed, and a very brief distant glimpse of a snow leopard’s head at the ridge after waiting for several hours. That’s a much more common snow leopard expedition sight - can’t always expect a hunt!

Sighting 3

On a late afternoon on the same day we got another call - a snow leopard was sighted not too far from one of the roads through the local villages. Our guides made the call to give up on the lazy cat on the ridge, and go for this one instead. A good decision.

While still relatively far if you are used to African safaris (which are nothing like this), it was probably the closest sighting we had. And what a beautiful individual, with a big furry head, showing us its teeth as well.

Snow leopards are generally solitary, with each individual occupying a home range of over 100 square km with little overlap. There are less than 10,000 estimated to remain in the wild, with almost half of them in China alone. The rest is spread over the mountain regions of Central Asia, from northern Mongolia down to the Himalayas and westwards to Afghanistan. In Ladakh, they are the state animal.

Tired Eyes

After that day, our spotters deserved some rest time, that’s for sure.

In Movement

A few clips of the sightings we had during the week - overall, with a total of 3 snow leopard encounters plus ibex, urial, and a pack of wolf, it was definitely an above average week (let alone seeing a hunt!).

On the last day we visited another local village residence a little bit higher up on the cliff. The main house was built using traditional methods, where the animals are kept on the lowest floor to provide natural heating for the first floor above, where the family lived.

The animal enclosure has been expanded to a separate house with a netted roof to avoid predators.

The interior features a similar style as the previous house we visited, with the typical oven and pots, a traditional oven for heating, and centuries-old wooden beams supporting the upper floor.

Women of the Family

A feature of Ladakhi society that distinguishes it is the high status and relative emancipation enjoyed by women, compared to other rural parts of India.

Former Days

Another interesting house in the village was this former local school, which was closed down recently. The few children that live here now head to a nearby village instead. Many of the family members work or study in Leh or elsewhere during the winter, but come back to their villages in the summer.

Monastery of Alchi

As our time in Ulley came to an end, we stopped at this 1000-year-old monastery on our way back to Leh, featuring 1000s of prayer wheels (which you should always turn clockwise for good luck!)

Kind people all around, incredible mountain ranges, and the most amazing cats in the world. Ladakh was a special and unexpected side of India. And that was it before heading back to Delhi - more on that soon!

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A First Glimpse of Thailand

Some impressions from Phuket and Bangkok - from rare apes, to temples, and trains through tree tunnels and markets.

Although I spent a few weeks in Thailand in July and August of 2023, they happened to be less focused on exploring and travel. Nevertheless, both Phuket (where I mainly worked on my doctorate application, about which I might write at some point here) and Bangkok (which was more of a transit stop to recover from two previous trips I have yet to write about) had a few sights to offer that I did want to make time for and document. Read on to find out what they are…

Phuket

While Phuket is famous for many things - some more questionable than others (I did visit Patong but couldn’t get myself to take photos there. It does have a nice German restaurant though…) - one of its main attractions are the nearby islands of Phi Phi. Didn’t visit those either, but whenever I’m in a destination during full moon I try to look for some possible compositions. In this case, the rise of our lunar companion happened to be aligned pretty well with the Phi Phi islands in the distance, which meant I was out in the humidity to capture it rising over the Andaman sea just after sunset.

Phuket is home to a few more famous islands, among them the so-called James Bond island, locally called Khao Phing Kan, a limestone formation featured in The Man with the Golden Gun.

The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project

Another famous sight of Phuket are its many animal attractions. Sadly, they originate from a sad past that is still not fully eradicated, namely monkeys, apes, snakes, elephants, and other animals serving as tourist entertainment with very little care for their welfare. The situation has improved drastically over the last decade, for instance its much criticized zoo hosting tigers and bears in small concrete cages and charging tourists (who were stupid enough to pay) to pose with them, was finally closed down in 2022. Elephant riding and half-drugged loris are still things that exist on the island though - on the other end of the spectrum, a place that is countering and trying to reverse some of the effects of this issue is the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project.

A visit to this place (a maximum of 10 people are allowed per day) is really interesting, with a personal small group tour that involves making food and actually delivering it to the apes, helped by our very knowledgeable guide called Thanaphat (who’s been amazing, and his story is worth listening to). Gibbons have been extinct in the wild on the island, and are now, through great and lengthy efforts, slowly being re-introduced into the last remaining rainforests that still exist here. In the past, they were home to tigers, leopards, and more species, whose habitat has made way for human development.

There’s no direct contact with the animals, and feeding is accomplished via a rope pulled up to the cage. At the same time, visitors are asked to fill out the daily observation sheets for “their” gibbon, which helps the local volunteers and members of the project to assess the ape’s development and readiness for release. Often, that readiness is never reached, the amount of time these gibbons spent in human captivity for the benefit of tourists makes them completely dependent and they come back from their release sites.

While gibbons are apes and thus part of the same family as humans, they are classified as “Lesser” apes, as opposed to the Great Apes like Gorillas. Nevertheless most of the species are now endangered, some of them critically so, making it worthwhile to support organizations like this one - adopt a gibbon!

A Sanctuary for Giants

Phuket is also home to countless elephant attractions - many of them designate themselves as “sanctuaries” for the many elephants that have spent their lives as tourist attractions or were chained and beaten to perform work in the forests and farms of the island. There are still black sheep, but it seems many of those establishments are now run in a reasonable way, do not allow elephant riding, don’t chain them, and provide food of sufficient quality and amount (an elephant eats up to 150kg a day), and space for their elephants. Given the rapid decline of elephants in Thailand (from 50,000 in the middle of last century to 3,500 nowadays, with less than 500 truly wild ones) they arguably do a necessary job.

I went to visit the Green Elephant Sanctuary Park, established by a Swiss national, and while it’s a tourist destination with groups, it doesn’t feel crowded and there’s room for personal interaction and some education. The owners have also established a clinic for elephants, which they are trying to get more funding for.

Ever since my encounters in Kenya I’ve developed a much deeper appreciation for these animals, and while the Asian elephant is different from their African counterparts, their intelligence and social bonds shine the same way.

Care Quarters

The employees and mahouts (carers) live on site with the animals, spending the whole day with their elephants, allowing two tourist interactions daily.

Bath time

The visit ends in the big water pond of the site, where you can help the elephants cool down from the island’s hot and humid weather. Watch your camera…

Majestic

Not many animals make you feel the same way when you stand in front of them.
Elephants are the national animal of Thailand and prominently feature across many cultural aspects in the country - more on that later.

I might be back in Phuket one day to explore its islands and take more photos of the old town, which features a beautiful collection of sino-portuguese mansions and several buildings dating back to the time of European and Chinese influence. For now, let’s continue with the capital.

The (Temple) Capital

Home to over 10 million people (and much more in the metro region), Bangkok has endless sights: Its street life, museums, temples, and skyline definitely mean you can spend countless hours exploring and looking for photos. On the other hand, its insane traffic, disorganized urban planing (it lacked proper zoning until very recently), and hot humid weather (coupled with my exhaustion from a few previous trips) meant I didn’t quite have the urge to see or take photos of it all. Nevertheless, below are some of my favorites, with the best (for me anyway) saved for last.

It’s impossible to miss the many amazing temples in the city, and some of the most beautiful ones were also on my list to visit. Wat Arun (above) was one of them, although I only photographed it from opposite the Chao Phraya river. This temple with its beautiful porcelain encrusted pagoda is almost 400 years old.

Wat Suthat Thepwararam Ratchaworamahawihan

Don’t ask me to pronounce it, but this was maybe my favorite temple in the Phra Nakhon area, where many of them can be found.

The temple is famous for its interior featuring beautiful murals and drawings depicting various scenes from Buddhist narratives and history. It is designated as a royal temple of the first grade, one of ten such temples in Bangkok.

Wat Ratchabophit

Another beautiful temple close by with its 43m tall golden chedi, and beautiful tiled exterior walls.

*Wat Pho*

A temple with an easier name and one of the oldest and largest complexes in Bangkok was the last I visited (although there are another half a dozen beautiful ones to be explored in the area).

The temple was originally completed in the 16th century, before the city was the capital.

It’s home to over 1000 buddha images, but none are as well known as the huge reclining version, situated in its own chapel. Added in 1832, it’s 15m high and 46m long, and was made of brick, which was then plastered and covered in gold. The toes visible on the right are in-laid with mother of pearl.

It was time to leave the city for a day trip, trying to see two of its (potential) photographic points of interests to the west. Honestly speaking, neither of them quite fulfilled that promise, as both spots lost a lot of their natural charm and origins, having turned into a pure tourist destination.

Mae Klong Railway Market

The first destination was a village in the province of Samut Songkhram, about 1,5h drive. It's famous for its railway which literally runs through the local market for the last 500m before reaching the station and going back.

Arriving very early (before the first train) means you get to see the locals going about their business, buying and selling vegetables, meat, fish, and a few other random items. Many of the tables and goods are literally placed on top of the train track - as you’ll soon discover, in a manner that’s very flexible if required…

Coming Through

Shortly before the train arrives, the speakers announce it to the merchants (and the sightseers), who within a couple of minutes fold their sunroofs backwards, pull in the tables (which are mounted on wheels) and position their trays and plates in a way that the train will just have enough clearance to avoid dragging a few veggies along to the station.

Tight Spaces

The photos barely do justice to how tight the spots left and right of the track can become, as sun shades, tables, tourists, seller, buyers, and goods get squeezed into small stalls. While the train moves slowly, I did see one or the other anxious person and a few sellers shouting at people (they seemed to have an eye for which tourist was prone to get run over by a train).

The Aftermath

Once the train passed, you’ll see the hundreds of tourists that squeezed into the stalls either side coming out on the tracks, which just an hour earlier were home to a calm local market. I can’t blame them, it’s definitely an interesting spectacle to observe, and I was one of them, but I can’t say it was particularly enjoyable at this point.

Hence it was time to leave, and move on to another type of special market - a floating one. Called Damnoen Saduak, it’s probably the most famous of its type, and thus admittedly most likely to be touristy as well.

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

Not far from the train spectacle lies another spot that was once only a way for locals to sell their goods. This time from a boat, moving along the channels and selling to people on other boats or on the shoreline. While the Mae Klong Railway market does preserve some of the original spirit (until the train arrives), this one has become nothing more than a tourist attraction by now.

This “market” is also still home to the aforementioned animal attractions that are still common in Thailand, with large snakes meant to attract tourists who are asked to pay to have them draped around their necks (and plenty did…), and I also spotted a loris being offered to visitors for posing. While for the snake and loris it’s definitely abuse, it didn’t seem to bother this cat luckily.

There is very little left of what I can imagine was once a very interesting genuine market experience, but by walking along the canals I did manage to capture a few impressions of vendors that probably offered their goods to people other than tourists many years ago, and still make and sell their local dishes.

From what I gathered through my guide, the other markets of similar nature in Bangkok aren’t very different, but I did hear that some of them still have days where local trade takes precedence over tourism - need to find them on the next visit! I definitely didn’t spend too much time at Damnoen Saduak and would recommend a quick stop at best, if you happen to visit the train market (which somehow is still worth it).

Back in Bangkok, the usual rain clouds decided to unleash some torrential rains over part of the city, but stopped before sunset, giving me the opportunity to get some cityscape photos from the rooftop of the Banyan Tree hotel (including the endless traffic below)

*Erewan Museum*

A very different kind of temple awaits on the southern outskirts of the city. The 250 ton, 29m tall, three headed bronze elephant statue on its roof ensures you can’t miss it, but also holds a surprise inside…

… which is that you can take a small spiral staircase up one of the elephant legs, leading to the actual chapel in the belly, adorned with various art pieces, Buddha images, and representations of the solar system.

Below this world of the heavens lie the human and the underworld. While the Erewan museum was privately built to house an art and antique collection, the three-headed elephant also acts as a symbol of the cosmography in Hindu mythology. Its gardens are also worth a stroll, with plenty of small rivers, waterfalls, sculpted plants, and - you guessed it - a lot more elephant representations.

*Chinatown*

Yaowarat Road, the centre of Bangkok's Chinatown. Chinese immigrants historically formed the majority of the city's population.

The history of the city since it became Thailand’s capital in 1782 (then still the Siamese Kingdom) is filled with immigrant populations from different parts of Asia, including large Vietnamese and Malay communities, and it remains a cosmopolitan city today. Fun fact: The city changed its name several times throughout the course of history, and its full ceremonial Thai name features a mind-boggling 168 letters, earning it a place in the Guiness World Record as the longest place name.

Into the Night

Bangkok’s nightlife is meant to be legendary - for better or worse - and has earned it the nickname “Sin City of Asia”. I wouldn’t be able to judge that 😇 but I did enjoy a walk around after sunset to capture some of the neon lights and rain puddles.

The neon sign forest seen from one of the elevated train stations, which can provide interesting photo opportunities of the streets below, and is also a good option to make your way through the city and (partly) escape the traffic.

Infrastructure

Bangkok now has four different mass transit systems, the first of which started operating in 1999 - most of it runs above ground, often built on top of major roads like here, and some of the transfer station hubs are 4 or 5 floors tall.

Biggest Buddha

After 5 years of construction in between the network of canals in the oldest part the city, there now stands a giant Buddha in glowing gold. 69m tall and costing more than 3m USD, it was completed in 2021.

It’s part of the 400 year-old Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple. Large buddha images have remained a popular attraction in Thailand, and often bring significant income for a temple or even revive a whole district.

Please take a moment to spot the cat in the image on the left below ;)

Train Tree Tunnels

My favorite place in the city was a little away from its hustle and bustle, in the outskirts around the Chom Thong area. Here, the early morning hours see people get ready for work, kids preparing for school, merchants opening their shops, and monks heading to the temples, in a somewhat quieter and greener atmosphere than most of the rest of the city.

The main attraction for me though was the local train line running through the area and past the dispersed shops and little stations along its track. During the morning hours, a few commuter trains slowly make their way through, and you can catch some great compositions.

In several places along the few kilometers of tracks I followed, trees have formed their own little tunnels (probably with some human encouragement to make way for the train). Either way, this is maybe my favorite photo from Bangkok.

Out of the way!

People got used to life along the tracks, and so did the conductors and operators.

There’s definitely more to see in Thailand, but for now this is all I had to show you!

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Taiwan & The World’s Most Dangerous Festival

Moon landscapes, fireworks shot at you, UFO houses, and a 500m tall building on an earthquake fault line - there’s a lot to see in this blog post!

Earlier this year I had the chance to spend a week in Taiwan (or the Republic of China, as it is officially called), starting in the south and making my way way north on the westerly, more populated, side (the east with its beautiful countryside is still on my list). What drew me to Taiwan was the Beehive festival - which has nothing to do with our striped flying friends at all. Read on to find out what this insanity is all about!

Start here with a few video impressions from some of the experiences that you can have in just a few days on the island.

Southern Sights

I arrived to Taiwan from Palawan, one of the Philippines’ most beautiful islands, flying to the country’s largest city on the southern tip, Kaohsiung, with a plan to experience some of its sights and festivals while making my way north to Taipei, the capital.

On my arrival I first wanted to visit the landscape of badlands in this area, often called Moon World due to their interesting rock formations.

There are different areas with these mudstone formations sculpted by years of wind and erosion, the most famous and easily accessible one is in Tianlao, seen above.

Colorful Nights of Tainan

After that, I spent an evening in the city of Tainan, exploring some of its famous old streets from the Qing Dynasty with their picturesque shops and lantern-lined streets. Especially around the time after Chinese New Year, decorations were in full swing - even extending to our furry companions.

Pastime

Like every Taiwanese city, Tainan is home to plenty of these little stores. Claw machines and their similar variants can be found everywhere, and took over a little less than 10 years ago. The craze has died down a bit since then, but they still act as a source of income for their owners and the landlords renting the space to them. Guess who needed a lot of coins during his stay in the country…

On the next day, I visited the Wushantou Reservoir, the largest of its kind in Asia when it was completed in 1930. Its interesting shoreline patterns gave it the nickname Coral Lake, and it’s a popular recreational spot today. The hazy weather made photography a little tricky, but I could still see where it got its name from.

Madou Daitian Temple

Not far from the reservoir lies this rather unusual temple with its beautiful colored roof ornaments, originally constructed in the 17th century, but rebuilt and expanded several times.

🐉

Its most recognizable feature is arguably this large dragon, with a 76m long tunnel leading up to the head through different heaven and hell worlds (shown in rather detailed questionable animatronic presentations) before spitting you out at the mouth, where stairs lead back down.

A small ceremony was being filmed while I was there, which allowed me to get a few traditional casual portraits.

In the afternoon, it was time to prepare for the main event, and what really drew me to visit the south of Taiwan during this time of the year. A tiny town in the Yanshui province, about 30km north of Tainan, turns into one of the most insane festivals on the planet. Let’s start from the beginning: As the story goes, in 1885 the area suffered from a cholera outbreak that couldn’t be contained. The solution people turned to - as they often do in times of despair - is a higher power: The god of war, Guandi. To appease him to help drive out the disease, his palanquin (little carts with the statues inside seen on the top right and in some of the photos below) were paraded through the streets, with firecrackers set off to rid the town of the plague.

Preparation

Since then, local residents prepare for this yearly celebration far in advance, setting up the firework displays, mainly in square clusters full of bottle rockets: the so-called Beehives. The largest ones are the size of a truck, and people try to outdo themselves every year, storing the precious creations in their garages and living rooms - literally! - hidden from view until the big day. Millions of crackers are attached by hand to the metal and wooden frames that later get pulled out on the streets.

Living with Fire

One can only hope that smoking is banned in this house until the big day, but from what I saw in terms of safety, this assumption is questionable.

Lined Up

Guandi's palanquins are ready to go in front of the Wumiao temple, where the procession starts.

Judging from what I experienced a few hours later, my guess is that this futile attempt to protect the car parked on this street with a few card boxes would not prove to be a very successful strategy.

The world’s most dangerous festival

Having seen the preparations, it was time to ensure our own safety with a little bit more seriousness than I had in mind a few hours earlier. It’s not surprising that every year people get injured, suffer burns, or lose their hearing when attending these celebrations. Full body cover, helmet, ear protection, and ensuring there are no gaps where a rouge cracker could enter and explore next to your eardrum, are mandatory. I was still wondering how my camera would fare in this mess, but at the least I had a UV filter to protect the front lens.

Warm Up

As a little introduction you could get yourself draped in chains of crackers and then literally be set on fire. I’d rather watch from a distance. For now that was still an option.

The Main Event

And then it started. The palanquins got in line, the crowds gathered, and we were off - at this point I didn’t quite know what to expect yet…

I soon had a better idea. As the parade started to make its way through the streets, occupant of the nearby houses were throwing chains of crackers onto the carts, dancing and jumping while people ignite them under their feet. In the background, fireworks are shot into the sky and the spectacle turns into a constant stream of noise, smoke, and flashes - and your own attempts to escape the worst of it while you admire the proceedings (and in my case, try to get some photos).

As we moved through the streets with dozens of carts and thousands of people split into a few groups, we occasionally reached a small open space, such as the front yard of a temple, and things came to a halt. This is when I realized it was the moment the big guns would come out - it was time for a beehive.

The Signal

After praying and burning joss paper in front of the deity, the rocket tower is ignited, and the blasting begins. For a few minutes, thousands of bottle rockets shoot out into the crowds from either side. Getting hit is considered a charm of good luck, so the bravest of the onlookers position themselves just in front of the tower, bearing the brunt of the explosives.

The spectacle is a deafening scene of shrieking angry rockets looking for a target, low, high, wide, and far, while the smoke slowly penetrates your helmet and makes your eyes water as you look to escape the crowd into a safer spot.

Take a look at this little clip to get a feeling for how these moments look like in action.

Dark Souls

At times being part of this procession through the streets felt like a mixture of joining a cult, being part of a video game, a war zone, or a post-apocalyptic movie scene. It’s surreal.

The parade of carts with the venerable Guandi moves through the entire town, before the celebrations settled in the town centre, where more beehives are brought out, and more rockets are shot into the sky (you get the theme by now).

Into the Night

Some of the firework displays here eclipsed anything I had ever seen before in size, color, variety, frequency, and noise.

Through the Neighborhood

A pit fire for joss paper was ignited by these onlookers as the procession passed their home.

Side Entertainment

If you needed a break from fireworks, the small public square had a DJ booth and dancing girls to round up the celebrations - don’t ask me how that relates to the traditional cultural background of the festival 😉

Do you think all of this was a little much? Well, I should tell you, this was the “slower” day - the next day is the actual original traditional event date, with more people, bigger beehives, and growing craziness. The main reason I didn’t stay for that was due to the fact it traditionally coincides with Lantern Release Day in the north of Taiwan, which I wanted to see as well. In hindsight, it was probably a good idea to start gradually - but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back for the full extravaganza… It becomes a little addictive after you overcome the first shock (and survive the first bottle rockets hurling towards you).

Clean Up

Water and shovels were always on hand to extinguish the occasional fire that broke out among the leftover unexploded fireworks, street side shrubs, or pieces of clothing.

Saved

Kyle, my trusty companion, was happy to have his protective equipment. Despite that, we still left with some bruises, comparable to a few proper paintball hits.

Time for some Peace and Quiet

We left Yanshui a little after midnight towards the mountain regions of Alishan, feeling relieved to be alive, counting bruises, desperate to clear the smoke from our clothes and bodies, and give our ears and eyes some respite. The next day was going to be a long one, as we made our way straight to the very northern tip of the island for Pingxi’s Sky Lantern Festival.

Before that though, I wanted to enjoy a quiet sunrise among the beautiful tea plantations of the highlands of Alishan, a picturesque area in the centre of Taiwan.

A pleasing contrast to the previous night, the central mountain ranges and eastern coasts (which I didn’t see much of) are very different than the highly populated west side, and full of natural beauty and a calmer life.

Cheery Blossom

The season was upon us, and we discovered the occasional hint of color on our way.

Forest Railway

Not far from this area is one of Taiwan’s amazing narrow gauge forest railway tracks. We walked along these tracks near the Erwanping scenic area for a bit, looking for a very special tree…

Namely, this amazing giant cypress, growing around a huge boulder into the sky. I couldn’t find out how old it is, but it must be several hundred years, and is truly a special sight. We spent a few minutes here, and then had to move on quickly, to make it north in time for the lantern festival.

Taiwan loves lanterns - they’re everywhere - and on one special day of the year many of them get released into the sky at this lantern festival in the small town of Pingxi.

Busy Affair

Although there are several rounds of releases with dozens of lanterns each, and each lantern often with a group of several people, the festival always sells out its permits way in advance, with only a few tickets available on site. This leads to many people buying and releasing their lanterns “unofficially” in the surroundings.

A Good Spot

Access to the releases is quite strictly organized by slot numbers, and my last minute plan to go to Taiwan didn’t do me any favors. Visiting the organizer’s office and begging for a way to take photos did help though - being one of the only Westerners I spotted around may also have played a role 📸.

The idea of the festival is for wishes of good luck and prosperity to be written on the lanterns by their respective owners before sending them into the sky.

Singers and other artists perform in between the releases, making it quite an entertaining evening. They get to release the large primary lantern in each round.

Year of the Rabbit

Each group of lanterns uses different colors and follows its own theme, but the evening culminates in the final release, representing that year’s animal in the Chinese zodiac calendar with a huge lantern.

Rain isn’t ideal when releasing lanterns made of thin film meant to fly in the sky based on the buoyant force of hot air, so one or the other didn’t quite make it, and came crashing down in a rain of burning pieces - I almost felt transported back to the Beehive festival …

The Aftermath

The next morning shows the real consequence of the festival, with colorful remains all around the nearby forests. Even though the majority of the lantern material is biodegradable, the frame and other pieces linger in nature for a long time, something the organizers should find a better solution for.

Divine Trees of Qilan

The next morning had one more destination in store before heading to Taipei, and it was the only time I had a chance to visit the eastern coast. The road up the hilly landscapes makes for a motion sickness inducing drive, but the idea of seeing some of the few remaining Taiwan red and yellow cypress giants was worth it. A lot of these trees have been logged during the Japanese occupation, and only very few aged 1000 years or more (which gives them the “Divine” status) remain. Over 50 of them can be found in this area alone.

Shortly after we arrived for the small hike through the tree garden, clouds started to reach us at an altitude of around 1700m, making for a beautiful soft atmosphere. The largest of these trees have sign posts on them and are named after Chinese people of historic significance. They often reach more than 30m into the sky, with diameters as wide as a human is tall. The longest standing tree here is over 2500 years old.

The path is about 2 kilometers long and passes almost all the divine trees. It’s a beautiful forest trail, which we had all to ourselves until a small bus with a guide sporting a megaphone arrived (yep, that happened - so try and avoid it).

The Male Tree

No need to explain this naming methodology any further. Let’s move on.

Tapei

Arrival in Taiwan’s capital city, which, going by municipal boundaries, is actually not its largest with a population of 2.5m. That title goes to New Taipei City, with 4m people, more or less surrounding Taipei itself.

Tapei 101

As a skyscraper geek, visiting the former world’s tallest building was obviously on my list, but the 508m tall tower decided to hide in a blanket of low clouds most days.

Blossoming between the Clouds

As my time in Taipei was slowly coming to an end, I had to try my luck and made my way to the tower on a somewhat overcast day - and ended up having just a few moments in between the clouds.

The view from the bottom shows the curled ruyi figures above the entrance and at each of the stacked repeating sequences, often said to resemble the bamboo stalk (or a stack of Chinese take out food boxes, your pick).

Balance

The most special aspect of Taipei101 is its structural design. The tower literally sits on a major earthquake fault line and in a typhoon zone, so aside from its extremely deep foundation and heavy interior columns, this 660 ton tuned mass damper counters the building’s motion. In 2015 heavy winds caused the damper to sway by a full meter, its largest ever movement. The damper has become a tourist attraction in itself.

While the panoramic photo at the beginning of this section was taken from Fuzhou Shan Park to the south, another nice and easily accessible (through a small hike) viewpoint of the skyline is the Elephant Peak in the lower hills a bit further east of the city centre.

Ciyou Temple

One of my favorite temples in the city was this one at the entrance of the Raohe Night Market, originally built in 1753.

While the temple features a lot of intricate ancient details, another more modern architectural gem can be found in proximity to Taipei 101. The Agora Garden tower resembles the structure of a DNA helix and features 20,000 shrubs and trees.

Taipei is a great city to explore, with many beautiful alleys, neon-lit streets, bustling markets, intricate buddhist and taoist temples, architecture blending the old and the new, and a mix of north-Asian cultures that altogether result in its own heritage and atmosphere.

Northern Sights

I had time for one more rainy day trip, making my way to the very northern coast of the island, passing by the colorful houses of Zhengbin near the port city of Keeling.

My primary target was a visit to the retro-futuristic remains of the Futuro houses at Wanli village. About a dozen of these, together with several Venturo style houses, were once built here. Their story online is inconsistent, but most likely this happened in the 1980s, before they were abandoned some 10 years later.

The original style was developed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, but the whimsical flying saucers never quite became the reality of the future. Nevertheless I could have spent hours here, but the pouring rain got the better of me quite quickly.

Futuro

The state of the houses is a far cry from the techno-utopian promise they once carried, although I did spot one or two examples that were in a more habitable state - in fact, one looked like it was restored and occupied.

Yehliu Geopark

The last destination for the trip was this mile long cape stretching into the East China See, which features a curious assembly of hoodoo style rock formations that have slowly emerged through limestone erosion.

Nature has done some great work here, creating everything from oddly shaped holes in the coastline to a flip-flop style shoe outcrop, as well as beautiful colored patterns in the sandstone, and a human sized formation that is said to resemble a woman’s head: the famous “Queens Head’, standing like a sentinel with the dozens of tourists wanting to take their photo next to it.

Until Next Time

I think my story in Taiwan isn’t quite over yet - exploring the east coast and another visit to the Yanshui Beehive Festival are still buzzing in the back of my head.

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Java’s Volcano Heaven - Indonesia Part 2

The world's most populous island is full of amazing places - some of which I managed to visit.

Java is - unbeknownst to many - the world's most populous island and - maybe more well known - full of amazing places. I spent around 10 days here during my time in Indonesia (see also my blogs on Flores Island & Komodo, and subscribe for more upcoming ones, including a trip to the Orangutan’s of Borneo) and was visited some of the sights this home to over 150 million people has to offer.

Start here for a few aerial impressions, and read on to learn (and see) more about each of those incredible spots, and a few more…

I came to Java by car ferry from Bali, and had a short night before a 3am alarm to make it to the starting point of the trail that takes you up an amazing volcano formation, on the very eastern edge of the looooong island.

The Ijen Volcano Complex

Blue fire and an acidic lake await

This may be unsurprising to some of you, but I was the first tourist that day to complete the 2h hike and still got to witness a bit of starry night above the smoke filled caldera. After a few minutes though I started the 45min hike down into the dark crater to find the infamous blue fire and see the acidic lake up close.

The way down is not that simple if you arrive before blue hour, because it’s completely dark in the crater, there is hardly a recognizable path, and you scramble over rocks and slippery steep sections. The photo below was taken after I had already arrived at the bottom and the sky slowly developed a purple hue. You’ll notice a few flash lights on the edge at the top just starting to make their way down - arriving early has the benefit of a few undisturbed moments to take in the bizarre scenery, before the very small space at the bottom of the lake gets a little crowded.

Equipped

This last part of the adventure also requires you to wear a proper gas mask, as the sulfuric gases make it almost impossible to breathe otherwise once you get close to the lake - trust me, I tried.

Blue Flames

Ijen volcano is famous for its blue fire - one of only two places in the world where such a phenomenon occurs permanently. The blue flames originate from sulfuric gas that escapes from the cracks at very high temperatures. A rumor told me that the blue fire isn’t very active these days, so better check before you go (and if it is, go soon to witness it in case it’s too late some day).

The same gas is actually channeled through pipes at this spot to support sulfur mining, which has happened here for many decades. The yellow bricks that develop after the molten sulfur hardens are then transported by workers up the crater and down the mountain. While - from what I heard - this work is paid comparatively well, it’s also dangerous and very strenuous. The laborers fill the baskets with 70kg or more of hardened sulfur, and then complete the entire journey to deliver it at the foot of the mountain to get paid. Most of them do it twice a day.

The workers and various researches sometimes cross the crater lake that developed here in these kind of self-made barrages - a dangerous affair, given that the lake is considered the largest highly acidic crater lake in the world, with a ph of <0.5.

When you arrive in the darkness it’s actually difficult to understand the scenery around you and how this otherworldly environment really looks - only as I walked back up was it bright enough to grasp the scale of the crater, the lake, and the amount of smoke escaping from the cracks and pipes where the sulfur is mined. Look closely and you see the small barrage from above at the shore of the lake.

Abstract

Once I made it back up the sun had come out and I had a moment to fly the drone, capturing this abstract top down view of the crater’s edge, with the mountain on the left and the path towards the lake on the right. The small colorful dots at the top centre are the carts of the workers. Look closely and you’ll see some yellow spots, showing the sulfur rocks they had carried up already.

Shadow

Our home star was still low, so the nearby Merapi volcano, part of the Geopark Ijen is situated in, cast its huge shadow over us.

Straight after climbing down from Ijen a long drive westwards took me to Java’s most famous volcanic landscape: The National Park of Bromo Tengger Semeru. I arrived just after this beautiful sunset, and would go explore this area the next morning before sunrise.

Volcano-ception

This place is home to five volcanos (four of which are active) that have developed inside the caldera of another huge ancient volcano, with another volcano - Semeru - towering above them in the distance. Yup.

While I wasn’t lucky enough to experience the beautiful sight of the ancient caldera filled with a layer of fog (it wasn’t the right season), the conditions up there are always incredible, making for some very atmospheric photos around sunrise.

Semeru in Action

The tallest of the volcanoes in this area at over 3600m had just started to erupt in December 2022 a few days before I was there, and huge ash clouds developed from its crater in the distance that morning. If by now you are thinking “there are a lot of volcanoes here”, you are right - the entire island of Java is of volcanic origin, and there are no less than 45 active ones.

While Semeru is about 20km further south, Bromo is the most active of the volcanoes inside the actual caldera, and depending on the wind conditions you’ll need to watch out for the smoke and gases that emit from the crater - access to Bromo closes regularly due to safety concerns.

It is a relatively easy climb up a few hundred stairs (visible on the right photo in the corner on the bottom right) once you make it through the so-called “Sea of Sand” - the sand filled caldera - in one of the dozens of modified Jeeps the locals use to transport tourists. It can get busy here, but as always, arriving early and taking an extra little hike along the crater rim will bring you some peace and quiet - can you spot me (and my shadow) in the left photo?

The base of Bromo is also home to a rather interesting Hindu temple built in 2000, visible on the bottom in this photo - who thought it would be a good idea put a temple there I wonder? The Tengger people in this area are one of the last remaining Hindus in Java, which is overwhelmingly muslim. There is a small offering installed at the edge of the crater to please their sacred mountain.

Two of the aforementioned Jeeps making their way through the Sea of Sands in the distance, with the rugged slopes of Bromo in the foreground, seen from the crater’s edge.

For a touch of color after all that brown and grey around the volcano these four wonderful ladies posed happily in the sand canyon as I was leaving.

A Splash

Speaking of colours, I then made my way to the city of Malang, which is home to an interesting set of villages, namely Kampung Tridi (left), Warna Warni (top), and Biru Arema (bottom right), which have turned their districts into a little paradise of colours.

Pioneers

As the story goes, Kampung Warna Warni was the original of the colorful villages in Indonesia. While one might dismiss it as a tourism stunt, the idea actually came from a few students who wanted to revitalize this community, which had fallen into disarray, poverty, and pollution, alongside the nearby river. In 2015 they partnered with a local painting company and the resulting work didn’t just bring in tourists (who pay a small entrance fee) but also revitalized the surrounding community and created a social obligation to beautify and maintain the environment. It became a successful role model for the village across the river, and another one across the bridge, as well as a few others in the country.

Kampung Tridi is connected to Warna-Warni by a small footbridge. Both of the village are full of small whimsical details, murals, and friendly locals.

It’s an interesting thought to imagine how the world would look if all our cities were so colorful, considering the sea of brown and grey surrounding these villages. I happened to get another glimpse at the colorful roofs when I left Malang by train (excellent way to travel in Java!) on my way westwards towards the Special Administrative Region of Yogyakarta.

Tumpak Sewu

Before moving on though I got to experience what is probably the most incredible waterfall I’ve ever been to, about 3 hours south east of Malang. The active Semeru volcano mentioned earlier providing a beautiful backdrop.

The way down to the falls is a tough affair - it takes at least 30 minutes over muddy semi-paths, climbing long rope assisted vertical ladders, stepping on metal brackets fixed into the side of the canyon, crossing the river by jumping from stone to stone, and then being totally soaked by the waterfall’s wind induced layer of rains and fog at the bottom. But the views are worth it (I still thought so after the way up, but was less convinced then). Pro tip: It seems the descent on the eastern side is a little easier than the one I took, but who wants that?

My guide posing in the rain for scale here.

The views from above are equally amazing though, even more so with a drone, but the viewing platform on the side of the canyon also provides some nice angles and opportunities to set up a tripod for long exposures.

The conditions changed quite a bit during the few hours I spent here, depending on the wind direction and the flow of the river. On top of that, as the sun moves across the horizon, the angle of the omnipresent rainbows shift as well, creating ever so slightly different compositions. A place you could come back to many times. An extra bonus - I was there on a regular weekday morning (not even that early) with almost no people - a very different picture compared to some of the (comparably boring) waterfalls in Bali.

What’s in a Name

Tumpak Sewu loosely translated means "a thousand waterfalls" in the Javanese language - an apt description.

What a place. Just missing some dinosaurs!

Back in Malang I took the aforementioned train onwards to the west into Central Java, more specifically the Special Region of Yogyakarta. A kind of unique autonomous province of Indonesia, the Sultanate has a few distinct administrative powers owing to its former status is an independent kingdom before it joined the Indonesian independence movement after the Second World War.

Prambanan

Three religious sights were on my mind for this part of the island, starting with the 9th century Prambanan temple, the largest Hindu temple in ancient Java and the second largest in the world. It’s dedicated to the Hindu trinity of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). My hopes for some good photos were slightly destroyed by the weather, as I only had a few minutes before the pouring rain kicked in.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

The temple and its many beautiful reliefs have been inscribed since 1991. The pattern of lion in niche flanked by kalpataru trees is one of the most common panels in the temple.

The temple compound lay more or less abandoned for over 1000 years and lost a lot of its individual temples - there were 240 in total - as people used the stones for other construction or collected them. Only in the 1930s an effort to properly reconstruct it started, which is ongoing until today. An earthquake caused significant damage in 2006, and various volcano eruptions pose a constant danger to the site.

Standing Out

I once again had the chance to add a dash of color when I came across another group of four ladies that were happily swinging their umbrellas to pose for me.

Last Moments

The rain took over shortly after, and although I’m not one to shy away from some water, this storm was a bit too much for my camera to handle, and marked the end of my time here.

Borobudur

Next on my list was the world’s largest Buddhist temple, another UNESCO World Heritage Site and situated a bit further north near the city of Magelang.
Just like Prambanan, Borobudur was also lost to civilization and abandoned for hundreds of years in the jungle under volcanic ash. It was in fairly poor condition when re-discovered, to the extent that it was suggested to simply transfer the remains into a museum and rebuild them there. Followed by decades of looting the temple was finally restored in the early 20th century, but deteriorated quickly again, necessitating a more permanent in-depth restoration in the late 1970s.

It’s rather difficult to get nice photos of the temple from a distance, owing to the thick and high vegetation around it, and while beautiful drone shots exist, getting a permit proved difficult, and I tend to avoid breaking the local rules, especially around religious sites.
On top of that, climbing the temple was not allowed, owing to several restoration and cleaning projects. This used to be possible in the past, and from what I know, was allowed again shortly after my visit.

Procession

Despite those disappointments, I did get lucky with something else: Shortly after my arrival early morning, a procession of Buddhist monks made their way to the temple as part of their ordination ceremony. It made for a pretty extraordinary sight with the traditional buddhist dresses of 100s of pilgrims contrasting the temple.

Borobudur’s architecture consists of six square and three circular pyramid layers with originally 504 buddha statues. Its design is closely aligned with Buddhist beliefs and cosmology.

Climbing to the Top

The monks of course were allowed to take the steps up the temple, seen here from the mouth of the Chicken Church I visited later (yes, you read that right, just continue below…)

Gereja Ayam

That brings us to the last of the temple trio on my route - and while the above is its official name, calling it the Chicken Church is just inevitable, although the real design intent was to resemble a dove with a crown as a symbol of peace and coexistence.

The story of this poultry shaped religious institution goes back to a dream of a man called Daniel Alamsjah, whose divine visions made it his mission to establish a cross-cultural sanctuary for anybody seeking some spiritual guidance. The mission proved difficult, first due to protests by the locals who assumed he wanted to build a Christian church in a muslim neighborhood, then the complexity of permits, the need for money, and his general lack of experience with building projects.

It took 20 years until his idea become an avian inspired reality. Then international media attention and the shooting of a famous Indonesian movie started to draw in more tourists and he could charge a small entrance fees and complete his dream, including a visitor cafe (the food quality of which is luckily in stark contrast to its location at the butt of the chicken rear of the building).

From the Chicken’s Mouth

The interior is fully built up from basement to the top with various exhibits and prayer rooms, and you can climb inside the head for a view down the hill. If look really closely you can see a small hint of Borobudur on the middle right - this is where the above photo of the temple was taken from.

Once I had found my spiritual home here, I concluded my time in Java with a night in Semarang, where I got to just briefly glimpse at some of its remaining colonial Dutch architecture, before making my way to Borneo via a short flight over the Java Sea.

The Capital

While I didn’t end up in Jakarta on this part of the trip, I had a short layover a few weeks later. I didn’t find the time (and energy) to take a lot more photos of the city then, other than some snaps from the pool level of my hotel - including them for sake of completeness 😉

Indonesia is incredible, and the amount of natural and cultural variety is enormous - I spent more than 6 weeks here, literally on the road every day, and definitely want to come back.

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Pacific Island Wonders - Palau

Prepare to see some of the most intense blue and green colours your eyes have ever feasted on in this post! The unknown Republic of Palau in the Pacific about 700km eastwards from the coast of the Philippines is truly home to some of the most beautiful island formations I’ve ever seen…

Start here - a short clip of some of the most beautiful locations of the Rock Islands in the southern lagoon of the country , starting with the nature reserve of Ngerukewid… more on that below!

What I came for

My hero shot, and what I wanted to document during this trip: The incredible islands of Ngerukewid are definitely one of the most beautiful island formations I’ve ever seen and have been declared a nature reserve as far back as 1956, owing to their amazing biodiversity.

15min after the shot!

Getting this photo was one of the main reasons I visited the tiny hardly known island nation in the Pacific, and making it happen proved to be challenging: Difficult and fluctuating weather conditions, having to charter a boat, getting close enough to the reserve boundaries, flying my drone in strong winds and waves, and landing it on the boat‘s sunroof. Of course, I had to get a drone permit as well.
The rain clouds you see in the distance in the final result caught up on us shortly after, and the captain and myself looked for shelter of the waves and rain on a small nearby beach.

The southern lagoon is full of amazing places, often best seen from the air. Virtually unpopulated, the whole 42 sqkm site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.

The islands are largely made from coral and limestone, often in beautiful mushroom like formations due to tidal erosion, which also caused this arch.

Goomba Island?

Does anyone else feel like this is straight out of Super Mario? Look at “Goomba” if you don’t believe me…

Underwater Wonders

Of course, an ocean paradise like this offers a whole different view when looking underwater - which admittedly wasn’t such a big focus for me on this trip (I have yet to do my PADI, but on the other hand I finally got an underwater camera case - these photos are shot on iPhone though). Nevertheless, some snorkeling is always on the cards.

Blacktip reef sharks frequent some of the beach areas in the rock lagoon, allowing you to swim among them. A school of fish found some shelter below our boat, letting me capture these photos.

Palau is also famous for its many marine lakes such as this one - the most well known one is 12,000 year old aptly named Jellyfish lake. It’s home to millions of Jellyfish, specifically the stingless golden and moon jellyfish species - or so it has been for the last years. Unfortunately, the population of golden jellyfish died out almost completely in late 2022, likely due to a rise in water temperatures. This had happened before and they luckily recovered within a few years, but no one knows if this will be the case again.
As a result, snorkeling in the lake was a lot less exciting that it might have been, but I did get to see a few beautiful moon jellyfish individuals, pictured above.

Remnants

Palau’s underwater world is also home to a lot of man-made attractions, albeit unintentional ones. The country was home to fierce battles during the Second World War - this is the coral covered fuselage of a Japanese war plane. The cockpit wasn’t far either.

Lunch spot

This wreck was just a few meters from a small beach where we had our lunch that day - with the backdrop of this beautiful tree slowly shedding some of its orange leaves, creating a beautiful kaleidoscope of colours.

More evidence of the fierce battles that took place here in form of a sunken transport ship, and cannons that were abandoned in small limestone caves on the lagoon entrances. The largest battle that took place here was the US - Japan encounters on Peleliu, which reshaped the geography of the island significantly.

White Rock Lily

The national flower of the country and one of the many endemic plants that occur here.

Back on Land

Palau does have more to offer than its oceanic beauty - the country consists of over 300 islands, while its population of less than 20,000 (!) lives spread out on just a few of them. Koror is the largest city and used to be the capital until 2006, when it was replaced by Ngerulmud on the largest island of Babeldaob in a somewhat odd government plan - more on that below.

Koror–Babeldaob Bridge

The bridge linking Kotor with the main island of the country, built in 2002 with Japanse aid after the previous bridge collapsed unexpectedly 1996.

While the last few hundred years of the country have been shaped by Spanish, German, Japanese, and then US colonialism and influences, traces of the native population go back much further than that, and some of it is preserved around the main island of Babeldaob. The most significant evidence dates back over 2000 years ago in form of the Stone Monoliths of Ngarchelong, a collection of stones in the north of the island, not far from the shoreline.

Basalt Monoliths

The stones have been dubbed the “Easter Island of Micronesia” - although I suspect the original is a little more impressive. Their use has not conclusively ascertained, but one theory is that they served as the base for a very large Bai, the traditional meeting house for the locals. Some of the stones have distinctly anthropomorphic shapes, suggesting a different purpose.

A hidden Stone Coffin

The stone coffin of Tet el Bad is located in the village of Ollei - it is on the tentative list as a UNESCO site, but there is literally no information about it available anywhere that I could find - I could barely find the coffin itself. A deserved addition to the list of oddities I discovered during my travels.

Local Traditions

Until today, some local traditions remain active, such as the building of the traditional canoe like war boats. One can be found near Airai, where it is maintained for festivals and races, although it is a dying art today. Luckily even the most obscure topics are often documented nowadays, such as in this paper describing the building process in great detail.

Airai is also home to the oldest Bai ai in Palau, which is still maintained and in use by the local villages, seen on the left here. The right one is located at (interesting) Belau National Museum (Belau is the historic name of the country). Although the Bai is a meeting place for men, Palau’s culture is highly dominated by matrilineal tendencies, evident in practices such as inheritance.

Although there remains a traditional government structure that still influences the country's affairs through its federation of clans, Palau today has a federal government structure that takes the form of a democratic republic. It’s an independent country, but still holds close ties to the US, which provides funding and military support in exchange for its own military rights. The US dollar is the country’s currency and English is widely spoken, although there are still Palauan and other official traditional languages, even Japanese remains an official language in one of the districts.

On the way to Airai lies this abandoned World War II Japanese Communications Center. While there’s a small signboard outside (and an entrance fee to be paid), it is more suitable for an abandoned places exploration than a tourist attraction, offering a few cannons and not much in terms of narrative, but a good chance of getting buried under a crumbling ceiling.

Capital Strangeness

While Koror is the commercial centre (and deserves to be called a city), Palau’s capital Ngerulmud is anything but that - in fact, it is the least-populous capital city of a sovereign nation in the world. Arguably, not one person actually lives in the city boundaries, although the surrounding state is home to a total of just over 300 people. It was created on the basis of the constitution established in 1979, which called for a capital to be established on the main island to avoid concentration of power in Koror. That took way longer than outlined in the constitution, and finally was completed in 2006 at a cost of $45m, through the help of a $20m loan by the Taiwanese government. Brace yourself for what these funds were used for, keeping in mind that the whole country has a population of less than 20,000…

National Capital

Inspired by the Washington Capital building, this complex houses all three pillars of the democratic process.

The parliament is called Olbiil Era Kelulau, which means “House of Whispered Decisions.” It derives from the aforementioned Bais, where the traditional chiefs met to discuss critical topics. During those meetings, no communication that is louder than a whisper is permitted, instead quiet messages are used to negotiate on important topics. Smart approach, although I don’t know if congress functions the same.

The building is in fact not made of massive stone and concrete - it’s publicly accessible and you can walk around in many of the buildings, where I noticed a lot of hollow walls and pillars. It’s also not really suitable for the local tropical climate, mould and ventilation issues have been plaguing it since opening.

More Aerial Glory

I was determined to get more aerial views of the Rock Islands, and have been holding out to get on a plane due to the ever-changing weather conditions. Towards the end of my stay, I took the plunge to fly on a small Cessna with an open door (there are no operating civilian helicopters in the whole of Palau) to get some angles that a drone won’t allow.

Palau’s environmental governance is extremely strong, it created the world’s first shark sanctuary, and makes visitors sign a “pledge” into the passport stamp upon arrival, vowing to protect the environment during their time in the country. It shows - the beaches and rock island areas are one of the least polluted ocean patches I’ve ever seen. Some top down photos from my flight, showcasing the incredible green and blue hues that make up most of the landscape in the country.

A different kind of galaxy

The turquoise waters above show another one of Palau’s attractions: the so-called Milky Way lagoon. It’s a shallow lagoon where limestone mud has settled on the ground, which can be retrieved with a small dive. The locals use this paste for skincare.

German Channel

This artificial channel was dug while Palau was under German administration in the early 20th century to ease access into the lagoon. Today it’s a popular dive site.

Shapes

A reef lagoon in the shape of a ray.

Reality?

Some of the formations look like they have been artificially rendered, but I assure you this is a barley edited real photo.

More images of the underwater world, taken on iPhone while snorkeling among some of the reefs in the rock lagoon during a kayak trip.

One of the many limestone caves that get carved into the rock formations.

Also came across this incredibly tiny jellyfish, the species of which I cannot determine, with an even tinier fish companion.

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Enlaps Tikee 3 - Installation & Configuration (Part 2)

After my previous article giving an overview of the product, I have now created a second video on the Installation & Configuration of the solution, which you can watch below - however, it’s in German, so either use Youtube’s built in translate function for the subtitles, or you can continue reading to get an idea!

In its essence, the Tikee is a time-lapse camera, but it's really an ecosystem for all kinds of long-term projects, monitoring, and analytics. So if you want to document, for example, a construction site, or the set-up and dismantling of an event, or snow conditions in the mountains over longer periods, the Tikee is the right choice. It should be briefly mentioned that I use a Tikee 3 Pro Plus, there is also the normal Tikee, and I have a myTikee unlimited account. There are also the Storytelling or Reporting or a free account on mytikee.io. The differences are particularly evident in the configuration options for recording and editing; the commissioning remains basically the same. So let's take a closer look at it all.

Configuration

The configuration of the Tikee can basically be divided into three steps:
1) Preparing the Tikee:
First of all the Tikee itself, which you have to charge via Micro USB with a standard USB charger. Then you usually insert the micro SD card, which can be up to 512GB in the Tikee 3 Pro Plus. How much space you need obviously depends on the project you want to configure. There is a table from Enlaps to give a rough estimate. Even if you only send the images to the cloud, you still need a micro SD card, in this case of course with minimal space requirements.
The next step is to insert the Micro SIM. Of course, this doesn't apply if there is sufficient WiFi at the location that you can use, or if you only want to save the images locally. However, even if you only want to save the images locally, it can be a good idea to establish a data connection, for example to be able to call up the status of the Tikee on the cloud platform and to know whether the recording sequence is working ideally or there are problems. Two small points about the SIM: First of all, the data volume you need depends on how you configure the camera. Enlaps also has a calculator to estimate this, and it can really do anything from one gigabyte to 50 GB per month, depending on the configuration. The second point: It is advisable to insert a SIM card with your own telephone number; there are also micro SIM cards that only offer data volume, for example as an extension of your primary smartphone SIM card, but myTikee has a function that relies on the SIM card having its own phone number. The function is not necessarily critical but can be an advantage, more on that later, and that is why you should make sure that you have your own phone number when buying the micro SIM card.

2) myTikee Account and Connection

The second step in configuring the Tikee involves creating an account on myTikee. As already mentioned, there are different types of accounts with different costs and different functions, but you can of course also start with the free version. Then you need the myTikee Remote app for iOS or Android, where you can then log in with the same account.

Next, the Tikee has to be nearby and switched on and is then recognized via Bluetooth, and you can see various information about your Tikee in the menu and also format the SD card. You should then set the data connection, as already mentioned, this can be done via WLAN, but also via the SIM card. With the SIM card you usually only need the PIN number and the APN server. You can often find this online and it varies from provider to provider. I haven't had any problems here with T-Mobile. Next you should also test the data connection, you can do this directly in the app and it is of course possible to do the same on site - we know, especially in Germany, that the mobile data network is not always the best and of course it would be very annoying when the Tikee is installed and cannot always reliably send images to the cloud.

I would like to make a few points about connecting the Tikee with the myTikee Cloud platform that might be useful. Normally, the Tikee sends a current status (battery, connection quality, etc.) at least every 24 hours, and at the same time also gets the configuration from the cloud platform, for example if you have configured a new recording frequency for your timelapse. However, this 24h interval also depends on some other parameters. For example, you can configure how often the Tikee sends the images to the cloud, every single image that is taken, or only after (for instance) 25 images have accumulated - the latter is of course much more efficient for battery life. The Tikee has some intelligence built in here: You can then also set that below a certain battery percentage, this interval is automatically increased in order to preserve battery until the battery is sufficiently charged again by sunlight.

Another exciting feature is the ability to bypass this interval. If you want to immediately force a new configuration from the cloud platform without waiting, you can also do this, but you need a SIM card with a phone number as I mentioned before, since this phone number is used internally to wake up the Tikee and upload the configuration, query the status, get a picture, etc. without having to wait for the interval that has been configured to elapse. It is therefore a good idea to familiarize yourself with these small functions in order to find the best compromise for your setup.

3) Setting up an Image Sequence

So, now that we have the whole connection issue out of the way, let's move on to the third part of the configuration, which in my opinion is also the most exciting, namely entering a recording sequence. The Tikee offers 3 different options here:
a) First of all, there is a so-called burst mode; That's 200 images maximum, at short intervals, in JPEG format saved, either to the SD card or sent to the cloud.
b) The second option is event mode, which is a maximum of 24 hours with a flexible interval. The images are only saved on myTikee, and only in JPG format.
c) The third mode is the most exciting and probably the one you will use most often, namely the long-term mode. You have a lot of flexibility here, you can set intervals from 30 seconds to 24 hours, you can configure endless recording sequences and the images are saved either as JPG or as a raw file in DNG format or both, whereby you can send the JPG files to the cloud and the raw format files can be saved on the memory card.

You can also set that, for example, you only take pictures on certain days of the week, for example working days, and only between certain times, for example working hours on a construction site, or you don't need any pictures at night. So you have a lot of flexibility here, but I would still like there to be even more flexibility. For example, you can combine a long-term recording with a burst recording, for example for a day or a few hours where there is a lot going on at a construction site and you would like to have an extra short sequence in addition to the long-term recording. But, for example, you can't configure two long-term recordings at the same time and that can be exciting. For example, you want a long-term recording with quite short ones intervals but low image quality that is sent to the cloud, and also wants one image per day in high quality that is saved to the memory card as a DNG file. This is currently not possible, hopefully such functions will be available in the future.

Installation

With that we have actually completed the configuration part of the Tikee and we come to the installation. In my case, I installed the Tikee on a construction site for two single-family homes and I'll now briefly show you how I did it and what needs to be taken into account.

The Tikee is quite easy to install, it has a quarter inch screw thread at the bottom that can be combined with a ball head or other tripod products to install it. However, for a solid and long-lasting installation, I would recommend the stainless steel arm from Enlaps, which is very flexible and can be installed both horizontally and vertically, and also has a built-in ball head so that the camera position can be adjusted. My Tikee was attached to the wooden slats of the roof terrace of the adjacent house using the stainless steel arm, of course with permission. I simply used four stainless steel screws to fix it horizontally via the recesses on the stainless steel arm, and then adjust the ball head, so that you can place the Tikee on top and then rotate and tilt it so that it captures the construction site perfectly.

I noticed that the wide perspective of 220 degrees can really cover the entire property, even though the Tikee is positioned directly on the property boundary and not slightly set back. This is actually impossible with a normal wide-angle camera, but it would only be possible with a fisheye lens at best.

The next thing you should do is align the solar panel, of course towards the south. This can actually be determined quite easily using the compass app on your smartphone, but of course you don't know what the angle of inclination should be, as the compass app obviously doesn't show the position of the sun exactly, but only the azimuth. To get the altitude, as a photographer I am using an app like Photopills, which uses the augmented reality functions to see exactly how the sun moves across the sky and thus allows me to optimally adjust the angle of inclination. After you've done that, you can simply use the included Allen key to fix the solar panel and ensure that the battery is being charged efficiently.

When aligning the Tikee in a situation like this, it is advisable to mount the camera approximately halfway up the composition to be filmed, this avoids having to tilt the camera up or down. This can be done quite easily with the ball head on the stainless steel arm, but it has the disadvantage that buildings etc. with straight lines will then appear to be angled in the footage. This can be compensated for somewhat in post-processing, but it is time-consuming and should therefore be avoided. Of course, if you're filming landscapes or events from above, this whole aspect isn't really a problem.

For long-term outdoor use, I would also recommend installing an anti-theft device. The Tikee does have GPS, but I would still prefer to avoid running after the thieves - Enlaps has a solution for this, but you can also use any standard theft chain, such as for laptops etc use. One last note about the positioning of the camera - if it is possible, you should avoid important parts of the image section being more than five meters away in front of the tikee in the middle - why - because due to the parallax effect of the two lenses, this part of the image The most difficult part for the algorithm is when combining the final panoramic image. In my experience, the Tikee algorithm does this pretty well, but if you can avoid it, it can of course be an advantage.

A second point about the panoramic image algorithm: It uses the first 100 images that are taken to zero in on the composition and what is happening in this scenery - this means you should make sure that the sequence only begins when the camera is installed in the final position, and ideally start the sequence in good weather and not at night so that the algorithm can work best. After everything has been considered, you can take your first test image. You can do this directly using the preview function of the app, but you have to keep in mind that it can take a few minutes for the image to arrive on the app, so bring some patience. Personally, I would recommend that you try to have a laptop on site where you can check the whole thing on the myTikee platform as well. You can then not only view the test image on a larger screen, but also ensure that all other functions and communication of the Tikee are working before you leave the site.

Finally, make sure that you have entered a sequence or, if a sequence has already been entered, make sure that you press the start button. One more point about this: If you enter a sequence on the app, it may of course take a while, as already explained before, until the sequence is displayed on the cloud platform, so be patient and don't try to enter a sequence on the cloud platform right away, otherwise it can happen that conflicts may arise.

I already have several hundred photos of my construction site sequence on the myTikee platform and can create the first time lapses here. Next time we'll take a look at what functions there are and what you can do with your material. For this article, I can conclude that the installation and configuration are quite well thought out, the whole process is relatively simple. There are a few things to consider, such as the size of the SD card, depending on what you want to achieve with your sequence and what settings you use. It can also be an advantage to familiarize yourself with the instructions that are available online, for example to find the best compromise between battery life and the optimal result.

All in all, it worked well and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or contact me. If you plan to buy a Tikee, you can use FLOENLAPS50 on www.enlaps.com to save 50 EUR at checkout!

Florian Kriechbaumer 9/24/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 9/24/23

Beijing & The Great Wall

A look at Beijing’s architectural highlights, and China’s World Wonder.

During my last trip through Asia (lots of blogs to come), I didn’t really have Beijing (or China) on the cards yet, partly because you need a visa, and because there is just so much to see it needs a lot of planning and time. But sometimes opportunities present themselves, so when my return flight from Mongolia had to stop in Beijing, and I discovered there’s a 144h on arrival transit visa for EU passports, I had to take advantage. As a result, I can now show you this blog containing my impressions from a total of 5 days in Beijing and one of the most beautiful sections of the Great Wall.

My agenda was to spend a bit of time around the central parts and Forbidden City, as well as a few of the traditional Hutong areas, and explore a few of the architectural highlights the city has to offer, including some designed by the legendary late Zaha Hadid. Lastly, a sunset and sunrise at the Great Wall was also on the cards, and if time allowed, a visit to Beijing zoo - something I normally don’t really do, but this one is famous for its Panda bears.

I stayed in the CBD in the easter part of Beijing, just beyond the second ring road - it’s a nice modern area, very clean, organized, and - something I noticed throughout the city - it’s quiet, not by the number of people, but in terms of noise levels, especially compared to many south-east Asian cities. This is because there are no motorized bikes and scooters. They are all electric! Tons of electric bikes too, and of course many electric cars. This makes a huge difference, the environment becomes a lot more pleasant.

My first architectural target was the CCTV HQ building, an iconic skyscraper that in 2013 was awarded Best Tall Building Worldwide by the CTBUH - it’s easy to see why, given its unique loop style design.

Of course, you will also find traditional Chinese architecture, such as this pavilion in Lotus lake at Ritan park. But I was on the lookout for something else next…

Galaxy Soho

The building was completed in 2012 and is one of three "Soho" buildings by the Iraqi architect in Beijing.

As with almost all Zaha Hadid designs, the complex features primarily irregular soft shapes, more or less completely devoid of straight lines and corners. It consists of four individual but connected domed buildings - I was lucky enough to sneak into one of them to capture the cylindrical interior you see below, one of the few symmetrical aspects of the structure. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to get a full exterior view (let alone aerial perspective) of the complete complex, so you’ll have to trust me when I say - it’s cool and worth a quick look on Google!

Temple of Heaven

This 15th century temple is a UNESCO World Heritage site, representing the relationship between heaven and earth, which played a vital role for the emperors at the time.

The temple is surrounded by a beautiful large park, where the seniors from the surrounding neighborhoods come together every morning to stay active in fitness classes, sports, stretching, and running - it’s been remarkable how often one could observe elderly people taking care of their physical wellbeing all around the city.

The original structure was built at the same time as the Forbidden City, a bit south of Beijing’s centre. Nowadays the complex is home to over 90 buildings, with the Imperial Sacrificial Altar being the most distinct and largest.

The Forbidden City

Beijing’s most well known attraction! And boy, was it busy, August being the time of Chinese summer holiday. The booking process also proved interesting, as tickets are sold only at least a day in advance, and through channels that are basically impossible to use for foreigners. As it happens, the solution is to send an E-Mail with your passport details to their tourist office to be allowed to buy a ticket. Unlike with many other popular spots, the early morning is not the best time to visit, as that’s when school groups and everyone else lines up for when the gates open. I got my photos in the late afternoon, just as everyone left (or was being ushered out) shortly before closing, giving me 30 minutes of peace and relative quiet in this amazing complex - not nearly enough to see everything, but a nice window for some impressions away from crowds.

Panoramic View

The palace complex seen from nearby Jingshan hill in the early morning hours.

Even without entering the actual Palace Museum, the hill and the walkways around the northern perimeter provide some beautiful views of the corner towers and the northern main entrance, especially around sunrise.

Gate of Divine Prowess

One of the four main entrances, the primary one being the southern entrance from Tian’anmen Square.

Colored Wood

One of the taller of the 980 buildings with a total of 9999 rooms. The wooden elements are clearly visible, and the complex is one of the best-preserved wooden structures in the world. The contrasting modern steel and glass architecture of the National Centre for Performing Arts in the background.

These kids were posing on the eastern moat bridges for some traditional photos with their families, who allowed me to get a few snaps.

The outer court with the Meridian Gate and the Inner Golden Water River, crossed by 5 beautiful stone bridges over the canal that has been protecting the complex from fire and flooding for almost 600 years.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony

It contains the throne of the emperor. This is the biggest building of the complex, and the largest surviving wooden structure in China.

The Tower of State Benevolence on Tianhedian Square

Details

I could have spent days in this place, just wandering around and capturing all the intricate architectural details.

South of the Forbidden City lies Qianmen Street, one of the city’s most famous pedestrian streets and one of the last remnants of the commercial centres of the old Beijing, dating back almost 700 years. Its gate frames the Zhengyangmen Tower just south of Tianmen square.

Of course, it’s now a modern shopping street and western influences can be found all around. Can’t deny that this is a pretty cool Starbucks though.

Hutong Scenes

One of my favorite parts of Beijing are its Hutongs, the low rise neighborhoods characterized by alleys formed between the siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences with their distinct roof structures. A walk here evokes a very local village feeling and masks some of the big city atmosphere. There are dozens of such quarters all around the centre, and while some are more famous than others, I just spent half a day in the area around Lama temple, wandering aimlessly.

Hutong Roofs - the traditional courtyard houses.

It may have been a seasonal factor, but I did not encounter many foreigners during my time in Beijing. That didn’t have any impact on my comfort level though, in fact, the organized and safe impression and generally polite demeanor of people make you feel quite welcome, despite language, technology and cultural barriers. This couple was very happy to pose for me once I smiled at them with a little “Nǐ hǎo” - the woman is 98 years old, as I found out during a conversation with the (excellent) Apple Translate app.

The Hutongs also frequently feature public toilets, partly a relict from the times where the community used shared bathrooms, but generally a common sight in Beijing. They are often shared, and occasionally (I only heard of this) without stalls, meaning you might have the chance for a nice chat while doing your business.

An evening view over one of the busier Hutong districts near Houhai lake, with the wooden Drum tower on the left. Together with its Bell tower sibling it was used for timekeeping via musical instruments since it was built almost 800 years ago (they've been converted to museums now).

The second Zaha Hadid building consists if three towers that interplay with each other in the architect's signature curvilinear style. — Wangjing Soho

Moving back to modernity. The second Zaha Hadid building I had on my mind to see consists if three towers that interplay with each other in the architect's signature curvilinear style. This time, I managed to find a good viewpoint to capture the entire complex.

Soho is one of China's largest real estate developers, responsible for many of Shanghai's and Beijing's most well known buildings. Its CEO has been dubbed the "the woman who built Beijing". There's an interesting backstory to this design, which was allegedly copied by another architect for a building in Chongqing that looks strikingly similar, resulting in a lengthy legal battle, in which Zaha Hadid herself only took limited interest.

Panda Craze

I was torn whether to make my way to Beijing’s zoo in the eastern part of the city on my last morning: Firstly, I’m - broadly speaking - not a huge fan of zoos, and secondly, during the Chinese summer holidays, it was bound to be a crowded affair. And that turned out to be an understatement. Of course I arrived 30 min before the zoo opened and with tickets in hand already, but there was already a 200 people queue. And they all wanted to see one thing: 🐼. Which meant that as soon as the gates opened, this crowd, which had grown further, started sprinting (I don’t think “running” would sufficiently describe it) towards the Panda house, which was only going to open 30min later, for more queuing. Once you were past that, there was another short extra queue specifically for those who wanted to see China’s most famous Panda “Meng Lan”, a social media sensation due to some of his funny behaviors.

Panda Livestream

The Subject

Breakfast

The queue during the day is said to shrink, but this is also because Pandas are no longer active after 10am, usually hiding and sleeping, whereas I did get to see some eating and playful behavior.

Life of a panda bear in Beijing’s zoo doesn’t have many private moments.

The Bird’s Nest

Beijing's National Stadium was built for the 2008 Olympics and was also used during the 2022 Winter Olympics.

While originally inspired by the patterns of Chinese ceramics, the steel frame later inspired the nickname “Birds’ Nest”. The exterior is not actually connected to the stadium, essentially just acting as a decorative shell for the inner bowl. During the initial design, the stadium had a retractable roof which was meant to be hidden within the steel frame, but the feature was then removed during the early construction phase.

Shapes

Speaking of bird related architecture, Beijing is also home to what’s colloquially described “The Giant Egg” - its National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Then building is the largest theatre complex in Asia and has an incredible construction story: The actual theatre hall sits up to 32m under the surface, meaning the groundwater would make the entire structure float. As a result a huge concrete tub was built around it. A few more interesting tidbits on Wikipedia.

The Great (& Endless) Wall

When going to Beijing, it is impossible to not consider visiting China’s World Wonder. Frankly, my imagination did the Great Wall a disservice (and some of the images I had seen didn’t help either) - I had a few bricks and towers in mind, with a lot of tourists, and not actually that much to see. How wrong I was, take a look at this video…

The first choice to make is where to go, as there are several options within reasonable distance from the city (the Beijing section alone stretches over 500km). The most well known is Badaling, and it is a real tourist destination which can be reached by a dedicated bus and offers all kinds of facilities, including a toboggan slide. It’s very crowded, especially during holidays. Needless to say, that’s not where I went. There are lesser-known but well developed and restored sections, and after looking at photos I opted for Jinshanling. Without having seen any other section, I’m confident to say this was a great choice. I had a sunset and a sunrise, stayed over night in a small tourist hotel close by, and encountered probably 20 people over a stretch of 3 kilometers, and was literally alone most of the time. Amazing feeling.

Jinshanling

This section features beautifully restored dense watch towers, but retains a lot of its wild surrounding landscape and original features with endless layers of mountains as the backdrop.

This part was constructed in 1368 has over 60 towers on its 10 km zig zag course through the mountains, with many beautiful architectural details and endless views over the sloping hills. It’s difficult to grasp that the entire wall network of China exceeds 21,000 km (!) in length over different dynasties, with the most visible Ming section alone reaching almost 9,000 km. There are several “wild” sections of the wall, which are technically off limits (as they’re often crumbling and run through dangerous landscapes) but popular with hikers and adventurers.

Although the views are beautiful from the ground, getting permission to fly a drone here gives you an even more impressive perspective.

Sunrise from the drone

Sunset from the ground

Staying over night at the Wall is not allowed, so I left shortly before darkness. As blue hour fades some distant parts are illuminated, seen on the top right here.

China, I’ll be back!

This was definitely not my last time here, there are too many amazing landscapes and cities still waiting to be explored. Also, this photo is a selfie, can you spot me?

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Jordan - From Salty Seas and Dramatic Deserts

A rich history, natural attractions, and dark night skies - what’s not to like?

I’ve wanted to visit Jordan for many years, and despite its proximity to Dubai it took until now - when I’m not actually living in Dubai - to make it happen. Its rich history and natural attractions didn’t disappoint, and on top of that, the dark skies of its deserts meant some Milky Way photography was on the cards. What’s not to like?

Petra - The Ancient Capital

The first part of my trip lead me to the capital of the Nabateans - the historic Kingdom that ruled this area more than 2000 years ago until the Romans took over. Their centre was the famous city of Petra. My time here (and in Wadi Rum) was spent in a small group as part of a trip organized by Benjamin Barakat, which really helped to get access to some of the best spots, with great local guides.

First Glimpses

Petra's most well known site is without a doubt the Treasury, or Al Khazneh. In fact, many people don't realise that the complex is part of what was once a huge city.

Through the Canyon

After a long walk through a beautiful canyon called the Siq, you get a first look at this mesmerising place.

Al-Khazneh

The most famous monument of the ancient city is a mausoleum, believed to have been carved into the rock in the first century AD.

With the right timing - such as being the first one to arrive in the morning when the gates open at 6am (in the summer) - you can experience this place in peace and quiet, which adds to the awe-inspiring grandeur of the sandstone carved structure built 2000 years ago.

More than the Treasury

As I’ve alluded to, there’s more to experience in Petra than just the Treasury, which admittedly got a lot of the attention in popular culture, such as being featured in the original Indiana Jones movie. In fact, there’s a lot more to see, and if you want to soak it all in, you better be prepared to hike. I did 32km in one day, but it was worth it to explore the many Hellenistic facades, the tombs, and the amazing theatre, for instance.

Rest

Luckily there are plenty of small tea and coffee shops around, often run by the local bedouins, to escape the summer heat.

Not Just Eyeliner

Our guide applying Kohl, which helps to protect the eyes from the glaring sun.

Layers

The underlying sandstone is exposed as the man-made walls of the structures slowly broke away over hundreds of years and several earthquakes.

Tree

One of the many amazing sandstone patterns you can encounter.

The Monastery

Maybe it’s simply the feeling of reward after the two hour journey to reach this place, but the Monastery might be my favorite structure in Petra. It was carved in the mid first century AD and follows the mixed architectural style that was characteristic for the Nabateans.

Cat Kingdom

I don't think I've encountered as many cats in any other country, and this one was willing to pose too!

We were lucky to spend the sunset and early night here, allowing us to capture the structure in its best light and get a few star trails as well. It also meant that there were barely any other people left except us and the Bedouins… which couldn’t resist showing us their daring climbing skills.

I couldn’t help but join them, and being up on the roof of the Monastery was an incredible feeling, but also one that reminded me that I have a healthy respect for heights - while I sat on the edge, you bet I didn’t follow that jump. Take a look at the video below and decide for yourself…

Wadi Rum - Mars on Earth

Another two hours further south of Petra lies one more of Jordan’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Petra being one as well), and another one that has been featured in quite a few famous movies, such as Dune and The Martian. The original legendary appeal of Wadi Rum comes from the tales of Lawrence of Arabia though, which kick-started the tourism industry here.

Layers

It's frankly not a surprise this landscape played host to so many movies - it's without a doubt one of the most incredible deserts I've ever seen. Find the camel on the right for scale...

Shapes and Colours

The variety of geological features around the 720 sqkm is amazing.

Greenery

I have a thing for trees, and these two identically growing ones in a canyon were definitely a highlight as well.

Views

We got to stay in one of the many typical “bubble” hotels that are dotted around the landscape, making for a nice view to wake up to - that is, if you sleep, which frankly I didn’t do much, at least not at night.

Not Quite Seethrough

The dirty windows became the bane of my existence in trying to capture this photo!

The first night took us out to a beautiful arch (one of many) not too far from the camp, and it was time for the first Milky Way session (also one of many)!

Another arch was on the cards for the following night, in fact, there are two different ones in this spot just a hundred meters apart. Paradise of rock formations!

Inside

Milky Way Panorama from one side of the arch…

Outside

And star trails from the other side.

Luckily there were a few cats around for company while one waits for the camera to finish taking 3 hours of exposures…

Our last night here was spent heading out to a few nearby dunes for sunset, joining our guides and their camels for dinner. The camel is a favorite animal of the Zalabieh bedouins that are resident here, and a symbol for male pride.

Layers

People have walked among these sandstone formations since prehistoric times, with petroglyphs and ruins dotted around the area.

Guided by the Moon

After the sun had set, the faint crescent moon slowly started to glow in the night sky.

Last Light

Our beduin guide and his camel watching our celestial companion gradually set behind the mountain ridges.

Dinner in the Dunes

Luckily I don't mind chicken, rice, and hummous...staple foods of desert culture.

Mushroom!

My buddy Andrei discovered this really cool rock not far from the camp one morning.

Revisited

Of course I couldn't help it and had to come back at night to take another photo of this awesome formation, shaped by erosion over thousands of years.

Desert Decay

Camel skulls make for beautiful Milky Way foregrounds.

While I was off to take these photos, I set up another camera on my star tracker (the Benro Polaris) to take a timelapse sequence while the tracker was counteracting the rotation of the earth, effectively canceling it out and showing how our home planet makes its way through the galaxy.

The Final Morning in Wadi Rum

While drones are not allowed without a (very difficult to get) permit from the government, luckily there are other ways to see places from above, which I took advantage of before having to leave this incredible landscape.

Up

None of those ways is more calming and pleasant than a hot air balloon - of course I couldn’t pass on this chance, although it meant sacrificing the last few hours of sleep I could have gotten after a long night…

Take Off

We started from a mud flat with beautiful broken earth patches.

Sunrise

Before crossing over some of the mountain ranges as the sun rose, with another balloon in the distance.

Pickup

The trusty balloon support team following us to the landing spot.

Mars Settlement

Looking westwards over one of the villages bordering the protected area.

Back to the North

At this point I said goodbye to Benjamin and the group and continued the journey back into the northern parts of the country on my own, hoping to explore the ancient historic and a few more natural sites.

Colonnaded Street

One of Jordan's most impressive archeological site is the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, in what is today Jerash.

Remains

Of course, no such city could exist without an amphitheatre, but the remains also include beautiful temples for Artemis and Zeus and an amazing oval forum.

Ajloun Castle

I also stopped at this 12th century Muslim castle, built during the time of Saladin on an olive tree filled hill. While small, the castle features few beautiful mosaics from Byzantine times.

Sea of Galilee

Further north towards the border with Syria likes the town of Umm Qais, with the ruins of an ancient Hellenistic city, and a beautiful view over Lake Tiberias, as the water body is also called.

Jesus Cave

This spot is also home to a lesser known religious site - a small cave, which the locals believed has been a resting place for Jesus during his time in the area.

Coincidences

Unbelievably, an older man I encountered at the ruins of Gadara who likes to guide tourists around (and is told off by the police for doing so due to his age and lack of license, and hence wasn't keen on photos), has spent a big part of his life in Germany, in fact living and working in my (tiny) hometown in Bavaria for some time.

The Salty Sea

Heading back south, my next destination was the Dead Sea - one of the world’s saltiest water bodies and the lowest point on earth, at almost 450m below actual sea level. The water level falls at an alarming rate, dropping around 1 meter per year. Its high level of salinity (more than 10 times of a normal ocean) means there is no life to be found in and around it, and that swimming is more like floating - you can’t sink here.

Dried

Some parts of the shoreline towards the south feature a lot of beautiful salt formations, which aren't easy to reach as the coastline is steep and rocky.

Under Water

A windless late afternoon combined with a polariser on my lens meant it was possible to make out the salt shapes that are slowly building up underwater, defining how the shoreline will look like once they are exposed in a few years from now.

While originally a single body of water until the 1970s, the southern section of the Dead Sea (which is in fact a lake) is now completely separated from the northern part, and divided into commercially used evaporation pools to extract and produce chloride. The future of the northern part is not clear, some say it will eventually dry up completely, others believe this is unlikely due to the continued inflow of water, and the reducing evaporation rate that will eventually match the inflow. Commercial projects to save the lake at its current levels, such as a canal from the Red Sea, have been announced but never actually made significant progress.

Salty Remains

The salt structures on the shoreline create beautiful pebble like formations.

Evidence

Sadly, the only signs of life around here are whatever humans left behind.

Black & White

The older salt deposits were covered with a near black layer of sediment, but I wasn't able to figure out why this happens.

Playing with Mud

I spent a night at one of the many hotels on the north eastern shoreline, and of course couldn’t resist a traditional mud pack followed by floating in the mineral rich waters - got to ensure I maintain the look of a 20 year old… 😛

Wadi Mujib

On the shores of the Dead Sea lies a beautiful biosphere reserve around a river that empties into the lake, with options for hiking and canyoning.

Entrance

The tours change depending on the season, but I started my trek into the Wadi from the visitor centre down this canyon.

Into the Deep

The wadi led through waist deep waters along amazingly colored rock formations, with canyons up to 100 metres high, and only a few metres wide.

Stuck Cube

One of the strangest rock formations I've ever seen - only noticed it once I had passed underneath, maybe for the better.

Not a Dry Walk

The hike - while not dangerous or particularly tough - turned out a lot wetter than I thought. There was one or the other waterfall like this to traverse, using ropes and a few hooks in the rocks. Luckily my camera bag didn't let too much water in...

Ma'in Hot Springs

Driving east into the mountains from the Dead Sea brings you to this thermal bath, with several public hot springs.

Cave Sauna

Including this natural cave sauna, where the spring water reaches 65C - too hot to touch.

Madaba

A bit further into the hills lies Madaba, which is most well known for its mosaic art, the most famous one of which can be found in this Orthodox church.

It's this 6th century map of the Holy Land, which represents the oldest surviving overview of the area, including old Jerusalem seen above. The representation was shown to be very accurate, occasionally even guiding excavations and research in certain areas.

Glimpses of Amman

I didn’t spend all that much time in Jordan’s capital, but of course had explore the citadel towering over the slopes that Amman has evolved on - originally, the city was built on seven hills. Excavations in the area found evidence of settlements dating back all the way to the Bronze Age, 4000 years ago.

Umayyad Palace

The interior of this 8th century palace with its reconstructed dome.

Temple of Hercules

The unfinished temple is one of the citadel's most important roman artifacts - all that's left other than these columns are a few fingers of a large Hercules statue. The temple itself was larger than any similar ones in Rome.

Keeper of the Ruins

Making sure no one tampers with any of the contents here.

King Abdullah I Mosque

The interior of the city's largest mosque, able to house more than 3000 worshippers, with no pillars supporting its blue mosaic dome.

Call

I was lucky to be inside while the Imam was about to begin the call to prayer, the Adhan.

The Duke's Diwan

This gem can be found in one of the oldest buildings in downtown Amman - it was the city's first post office until the 1940s, and later a ministry and hotel before being earmarked for demolition. A local businessman rented it at a signficant premium and turned it into a place for artists, performances, and antiques museum.

Final Stop

As Salt

My last stop of the trip before heading to the airport was another one Jordan's Unesco World Heritage Sites, and its most recent addition (2021): The city of As-Salt.

In Progress

The city's claim to fame originates from its diverse architectural styles as a "Place of Tolerance and Urban Hospitality", mixing various cultures and historic styles. Much of it slowly decayed, but there is activity around a lot of the buildings to restore them to former glory.

Watchful

Always felt safe and well taken care of in Jordan!

And that was my trip to Jordan - as always, you can subscribe for the next updates here or take a look at some of my favorite photos in my Portfolio. If any of the images here catch your eye and you think they’d make for a good piece of art on your wall, I make custom signed prints, just get in touch!

Florian Kriechbaumer 7/12/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 7/12/23

Palawan - Gem of the Philippines

Earlier this year I spent a few weeks in the Philippines, exploring Manila, Siargao, Cebu, Bohol, and what was once voted the most beautiful island in the world: Palawan.

Earlier this year I spent a few weeks in the Philippines, exploring Manila, Siargao, Cebu, Bohol, and what was once voted the most beautiful island in the world: Palawan. This large island is home to around 1m people and lies on the very western border of the country.

Start with this short clip for an overview of some of the amazing spots around Palawan!

On the way to El Nido

I arrived from Cebu, landing at the airport of Puerta Princesa, which is also the capital and largest city on the island. The plan was to go north towards El Nido, the most well-known area. On the way, a visit to the island’s famous underground river was on the cards - which was cancelled by the coast guard due to high waves. This is not uncommon, keep it in mind and allow enough time to try again - which I managed to do, more on that later. Instead, we stopped in Barton Bay, on the western coast, for a small boat excursion, and got to witness an interesting local event: Racing homemade speed boats.

The Shame

One of the contestants had to be pulled back by the coast guard. From what I observed, this is the biggest shame a participant might possibly have to endure...

Serious Business

The boats are highly tuned, super light, and teams work until the last minute to adjust them according to the current water conditions.

Port Barton is also home to a small sandbank that frequently sees starfish washed on shore, making for some picturesque scenes, especially if - like me - you’re patient enough to await the right moment with no boats and people around.

Star Fish

These are called horned sea star or - my preferred name - chocolate chip sea star. They don't survive outside the water for very long, so generally it's not advisable to pick them up. This one made it back into the waters when the next wave of the rising tide arrived.

Beach Life

Another specimen getting washed onto the sand bank. They are often seen in the tourist trade, where they are sold as dried curio.

Island of Doom

The bay also has a few beautiful islands - one of which became the doom of my drone, which ended up with a low battery in the sea, as the heavy westerly winds didn't allow it to come back in time... Luckily my amazing tour company - more on that later - helped me get a rental for the rest of the trip. Palawan really needs to be seen from the air.

Beach Beach Beach

One of the longest beaches on the island is not too far from here - a small hilltop provides views along the coastline. The totel extent of the white sand here is almost 15km, and it's said to be the second longest in Asia. Your definitions may vary.

Bato ni Ningning

The hill is also home to this little stone, which was made famous by a TV show.

El Nido & The North

Some of the most beautiful land- and seascapes are in the northern parts of the main island, around El Nido. Having researched this area a bit, I knew that most of the very touristy trips follow standard routes, and you can pick A, B, C, or D. Obviously not what I wanted, because that means everyone going to the same places at roughly the same times, and those tours of course also start once people crawl out of their beds rather than at sunrise when the conditions are best and things quiet. So in my usual quest for something a bit more interesting I found a tour company priding themselves in organizing custom trips: Palaweña.

Palawan's landscape is famous for the almost 1800 islands scattered along the coast of the 450km long main island.

El Nido

A local Bankga boat on the shores of Barangay Corong Corong on a cloudy (as were most days when I visited unfortunately) morning.

The private custom tours paid off (and were super well organized), because we reached many of the best spots around Bacuit Bay, such as the Big Lagoon and its beaches pictured above, before any other boats.

Creative Naming

The so-called small lagoon, just across from the big lagoon to the left.

Quiet Times

On a late afternoon after everyone else had gone back to the shores. This place is usually filled with boats and kayaks.

The Hidden Lagoon

Joining the Small and Big Lagoons in the creative naming scheme is this gem - only reachable through a very narrow cave entrance.

Shimizu Island

Another of the beautiful limestone cliff islands with their white sandy beaches. Who wouldn't want to set up their umbrella here?

Matinloc Island

A bit further north-west you’ll find a curious man-made spot: An abandoned shrine, built in 1982 between the cliffs and the beach alongside a small villa, and now mainly used for lunch stops and apparently a yearly pilgrimage by the locals.

The Shrine

While this is a catholic site, its architecture looks more like a greek temple.

Island Statues

A small cave became the Shrine of Santo Nino (the man child) and one is asked to avoid speaking ongodly in its presence, for fear of divine justice coming down on you...

The scale of the limestone formations here is truly amazing, spot the kayak in the second shot!

Flora

The cliffs are home to a variety of plant life, such as these beautiful false yucca.

A Lonely Mushroom

Sometimes sitting in the wide open sea, with not much around.

Seven Commandos Beach

One of the many small beaches dotted along the islands.

Another One

It's difficult to get bored of these places...

Different

Geologically speaking, Palawan is very different from the rest of the country, as its rocky island landscape originated from the Eurasian plate, forming this spectacular karst terrain that isn’t found elsewhere in the Philippines.

Another place I was able to enjoy by myself was the Hidden Beach (again part of the creative naming scheme...) on the east side of Matinloc island.

Out of View

This beach is protected by large limestone formations, and the only way to reach it is with a small kayak.

Stormy

Another reason why I was alone here for a while may have been the somewhat wavy conditions, not ideal for taking a kayak along sharp limestone rocks...

Sunset over Bacuit Bay

El Nido had one signature sunset in store, despite the largely cloudy conditions during my stay. I used it to capture this fisherman returning from the sea in his Bangka.

Waxing Moon

Our celestial companion rising on a clearer evening.

Going Underground
I spent the last day going back to Puerta Princesa for my onward flight, and started very early in El Nido for another attempt to reach and tour the subterranean river. This UNESCO World Heritage Site was once said to be the world’s longest underground river - there seem to be different definitions of this record though.

Forests and Mountains

After all these photos, you’d be forgiven to think Palawan is mainly small karst islands, but in fact its main island is covered in hills with thick forests, reaching up to 2000m in height. As it happens, there is evidence the island was once home to tigers.

River Entrance

The entry point to the river lies directly on the beach with just a short walk through the forest, as the river itself flows into the sea.

The inside of the cave river becomes completely dark once you go a few hundred meters beyond the entrance, with only the light of the boat captain shining onto the amazing limestone formations. It’s over 8km long, although only the first few kilometers are navigable by boat. The cave network itself reaches even further at 24km length.

Formations

One of the many limestone formations - the river caves are home to dozens of incredible shapes, all more or less aptly named by the locals and researchers.

Life

It is also home to large populations of nine different species of bats, often hanging above you. Keep your mouth closed when you look up ;)

Wonder of the World

The sign board celebrating the attraction's inclusion in the 7 New Wonders of the World in a public voting process (that wasn't free of criticism...), while the other one describes the geological history of the area.

Palawan is home to a few special places, and the underground river as well as the limestone cliffs and their hidden beaches and lagoons are truly special. While it can be very touristy, and El Nido town definitely wasn’t my favorite, there are ways to make it a more enjoyable experience, and I can definitely recommend Palaweña to achieve that, one of the best operators I’ve worked with anywhere. Is it my favorite place in the Philippines? I think not, but more on that in another blog entry - subscribe here if you don’t want to miss it.

Florian Kriechbaumer 6/8/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 6/8/23

Chasing Orcas & Auroras - Northern Norway

A successful expedition to find and swim with Orca whales, and chase the Northern Lights.

In the quest to go through my backlog of images and stories, here’s another adventure from late 2022 - exploring the north of Norway on the lookout for Orca whales, and hoping to see some Northern Lights on the way.

We started our trip from Tromso, taking a bus to Skjervoy, a small town in the northernmost part of Norway, far beyond the Arctic circle, where we boarded our boat, the Bergsund - home for the next week. Organized by https://www.orcanorway.info, this expedition is focused on finding orca around the fjords, and if the conditions are right, get into dry suits (or wet ones if you’re experienced), jump into a small dhingy boat, and with a bit of luck, snorkel and swim next to these amazing creatures. The time on the boat also includes several sessions by Pierre Robert de Latour, the “Orca Whisperer”, which culminate in the USEA certification for participants and really helps understand the behavior of orca in the wild.

On the Lookout

The daily ritual is trying to spot pods of orca whales in the vast sea around the boat - not an easy task, as they can travel very quickly and spend long stretches under water. We had a lucky mascot though that seemed to have helped a bit.

Bergsund

Approaching our boat with the dhingy as darkness sets in after a day in the ocean.

Pink Tips

The last light hitting the cliffs of Skjervoy's surrounding hills as we approach our home harbour.

In the Fjords

A fishing boat leaving the harbour in the early morning hours.

Fishing

Another boat surrounded by thousands of birds looking to get a piece of the action a few hours later.

In the Wind

Almost 10% of Norway's power generation capacity comes from wind.

Humpbacks All Around

Aside from orcas, the area is home to a few groups of humpback whales during this time of the year. We had two great encounters, once from the boat and a bit of distance (the weather was not great) and once in the water, as they were feeding alongside the orca whales. The feeling of these creatures diving up a few meters away from you and whacking their flukes on the water is...intimidating to say the least.

Smile and Wave

A humpback whale lifting its pectoral flipper out of the water.

Formation

This large group was travelling through the fjords and occasioanally showing their flukes.

Fluke

The pattern on the fluke makes humpbacks unique and is a primary way to identify the individuals.

Humpbacks breach frequently, and throw their bodies out of the water. Impressive, considering they weigh 40 tons and grow around 15 meters in length. This juvenile had not quite reached those numbers yet though.

Topside

Their dorsal fins are relatively small. Their upper side is usually dark, whereas their underside is primarily white.

Orca Encounters

The excitement when seeing them from a distance and being lucky enough to get close is difficult to describe. Their elegance in the water, social interactions, curiosity, and just sheer size makes them one of my favorite animals - as is often the case with wildlife, experiencing it in its natural environment provides a very different perspective to documentaries or zoos and changes your relationship to these animals forever.

Orca Capital

Due to enormous amounts of herring present in these waters in the winter, the region sees the largest gathering of killer whales in the world.

Apex

Orca are apex predators. They have no enemies in the ocean, and sometimes attack species much larger than them using sophisticated group hunting technques.

Juvenile

A young orca sticking close to its mother.

Father & Son

Dorsal fine parade.

Landscapes of the North

Even on days without wildlife encounters, the stunning fjords all around make for amazing scenery, either bathing in the low sun - there are only a few hours of sunshine each day this far north in the winter - or covered in clouds and adorned by dramatic overcast skies.

On the Tip

Chasing the moon has been one of my favourite photographic endeavours for a long time, but this shot feels a little special... why? It was taken from a moving rocking ship in the Atlantic ocean.

The light hits different up here…

Green Nights

We docked in a few different harbors for the night during the expedition, and had a good chance to see some Northern Lights - of course I couldn’t resist and went out to capture some of the colorful magic in the sky when the conditions were right.

Under the Lights

The Aurora Borealis on the northern coast of Norway.

A short timelapse from the same spot. You’ll see my tiny self appear on the bottom right for a few frames at the end.

Night Sky Wonders

The Milky Way and the Aurora meet above us.

Jupiter over Skjervoy

The brightest planet in our night sky making an appearance.

In the Water - The Main Event

Of course, the highlight of this trip was jumping into the water, knowing (or hoping) that there are orca whales that pass you close enough to see them, or even stick around while they are feeding. That sounds simple in principle, but it's often hard to anticipate their movement, approaching carefully and always ensuring to not interrupt their behavior with the dhingy.

The encounters are unpredictable and often very short - by the time you move around in your (huge, buoyant) dry suit, the animals might have reached the coast of Alaska 😉 and you’re only worried that none of that ice cold (5C) water enters the suit you have to wear for the next five hours.

In the Water

Snorkellers in our group trying to get a glimpse at a passing pod of orca,, with a young one trailing behind.

I took all my under water footage with the iPhone in a case. This in principle delivers better results than a GoPro (and a more pleasant focal length) but it took me time to figure out how to avoid focus hunting and in general dealing with the new environment. Rest assured, next time I’ll know better and will have an underwater case for my trusty Olympus camera… Regardless of the photographic outcome, this was truly a privileged wildlife encounter, and ranks high up there for me, maybe only topped (if that) by my time with Craig, the elephant with the largest tusks in Africa.

We had a few amazing encounters, including a feeding where a pod of orca started to work the bait ball. They surround a school of herring and use tail slaps to stun them, then calmly feed. The orcas were joined by a number of humpbacks, and it became a frenzy that was difficult to grasp. This was also the only moment where our guides wisely decided we should leave the water, not due to any aggression, but because a humpback fluke isn’t something you want to be any closer to than necessary. Despite that, I never had the feeling of being in danger. The approach Orcanorway takes is full of respect and appreciation for these animals, and unlike many other such encounters around the world, sanctioned and licensed by the local government.

Catch them if you can...

.. but you cannot. An orca can reach speeds over 50km/h.

Behind You!

Someone missing out on a beautiful moment here...

Contrary to the reputation that’s associated with killer whales (it’s in the name already…), there has not been a single documented intentional attack of an orca on a human in the wild. Every incident occurred in captivity, and it’s not surprising given the conditions these jailed individuals have to live in for large parts of their lives.

Last Light in Tromsø

After a week on the boat it was time to head back to Tromso - which greeted us with a display of strong Northern Lights, easily outperforming the city’s light pollution. I spent one more day in the city before moving on to Finland (another blog in the backlog).

In Circles

I had initially planned to take the cable car up to the nearby hills with a great view over the city, but alas it was closed on the day.

Alternative Plans

Instead, I headed back to the city to try and find a good spot with some city lights and Tromso’s major bridge over the strait.

Arctic Cathedral

One of the most well known buildings in the city is its beautiful modern church - not in fact a cathedral though.

Polaria

Tromso's aquarium is the world's most northernly, and its architecture echoes the Arctic Cathedral across the strait.

Helmer Hanssen Statue

The first human to reach the South Pole, alongside four other men that were part of the expedition in 1911.

Troll Museum

One of the more obscure sights in Tromso - which I didn't visit, sorry.

Arctic Bear

Well, not quite.

Tromso Harbour

The harbour area is home to some beautiful architecture, walkways and restaurants.

As well as a sauna and an open air bath for the brave. It was around -5C, with the sea around 7C.

A Final Glimpse

This was taken at pretty much exactly at 12 noon on November 19th, 2022 - just 1 week later, the sun would no longer rise for another 6 weeks or so, only leaving a few hours of blue light during the day for Tromso’s population of 65,000.

The Chase

The evening consisted of another late night chase for darker skies surrounding the city, looking for more charged particles ejected by the sun and colliding with earth’s atmosphere.

Up in the Sky

A strong burst of colourful dancing lights appeared for a few minutes above us and was my goodbye greeting from Norway.

Florian Kriechbaumer 6/4/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 6/4/23

Flores Island & Komodo - Indonesia Part 1

Exploring Flores island and the bordering Komodo National Park, part of the Lesser Sunda Islands in eastern Indonesia.

The amount of photos and videos I took over my 6 weeks in Indonesia has been slightly overwhelming, which is one of the reasons this blog didn’t see any of them yet. There are just too many incredible places to experience and document in this amazing country! We’ll start with the western part of Flores island (my kind of name) and the bordering Komodo National Park, part of the Lesser Sunda Islands in eastern Indonesia. I spent 6 pretty packed days here, 3 of them on a boat around the islands - take a look!

The video below will give you a pretty good overview of some of the most interesting places you get to explore in this part of Indonesia.

Ende & Kelimutu

My flight took me to the town of Ende, pretty much in the southern center of Flores (and I didn’t go much further east). The goal was to start with hiking up the Kelimutu Volcano in the first night. On the way, we stopped at some of the beautiful typical rice terraces, and the local Saga and Wologai villages to see some of the traditional houses common to the island.

Saga

The traditional village of Saga lies on the slopes of the mountains with a beautiful backdrop.

The thatched roofs of Wologai village, one of the many traditional places where you can still observe the daily life of the locals. The houses follow the Lionese architectural style and the village is said to be 800 years old.

Kelimutu - Volcano of the Dead

An early start around 3am ensured that we’d reach the Kelimutu Volcano with its three lakes for sunrise. After an hour hike, the stairs along the last few hundred meters to the crater’s edge lead us into colorful clouds, which slowly faded away as the sun rose.

Colours

The hues of the three lakes change regularly, from blue to turquoise, all the way to green and reddish, depending on the underlying volcanic activity.

Triple Crater

According to the local Lio people, the souls of the dead migrate to the volcano's lakes. Young people's souls go to the warmth of Tiwu Koo Fai Nuwa Muri (Lake of Young Men and Maidens), old people's to the cold of Tiwu Ata Bupu (Lake of Old People), and those of the wicked to Tiwu Ata Polo (Bewitched or Enchanted Lake).

Lake of Old People

The westernmost of the three lakes - maybe my favourite, not only for its name. On the bottom left you can see the little viewing platform between the craters.

Close ups of the crater lakes, showing the smoke over the water and their different hues. Between January and November 2016, the colors of the crater lakes are said to have changed six times.

The way down leads through the Kelimutu National Park and its beautiful flora and fauna.

The Blue Stone Beach

We continued our journey in the morning after returning from the volcano. On the coastline in the south of the island lies another colorful phenomenon….

Blue Hues All Around

The road from Ende to Bajawa towards the west of the island passes a unique beach, filled with pebbles that could rival the colors of the Kelimutu crater lakes.

Coastline

In fact, it’s a stretch of coastline that spans several beaches.

Cliffs

The source of the rocks are the cliffs directly behind the shoreline. I suspect the colours originate from volcanic minerals, but haven't been able to find a real explanation.

Pebble Factory

The pebbles have also become a source of income for the locals, collecting and sorting them to be sold as decoration and building material.

Volcano Village

Near the town of Bajawa lies the the small traditional village of Bena, one of the primary remnants of the preserved Ngada culture in the region.

Mount Inerie

The tallest volcano on Flores at 2245m is not active.

Bena Village

The local tribes believed and worshiped the mountain as the place of the Gods, and placed their faith into the existence of the Yeta God, who had a throne on Mount Inerie and would protect the village.

Houses

The village consists of two parallel U-shaped rows of traditional Adat houses with high thatch-roofs.

The Ngada traditions date back 1200 years and can still be observed in the village, even though some of the locals now focus on selling souvenirs to tourists.

Megalith

A distinct feature of Ngada culture are the megalithic formations in the village center, meant to connect with the supernatural and to communicate with ancestors.

Farming

Cocoa is being dried as one of the sources of income for the local population.

Some of the local villagers in the town - arrive early morning to observe some of the daily rituals.

From Bajawa to Ruteng

The road westwards led us past a small local distillery making Arag and fresh palm juice. The owner insisted on showing me how they are harvesting the fruit from the palm trees, climbing up to the top with a cigarette permanently attached to his lips. Understandable I suppose, he needed his hands free.

Some of you might know that I don’t drink (or like) alcohol, but of course I couldn’t refuse a sip after I saw the effort that went into making it. Let’s say it won’t change my stance, but on the other hand it wasn’t the worst alcohol I tried in Indonesia. More on that in another blog (watch out for my time in Borneo).

The clay oven powering the distillery. The entire process is based on locally made tools and tricks passed down through generations, such as these bamboo pipes.

The rain forest lake of Ranamese was our next stop, and rainy it was indeed. A small dry window in the clouds allowed me to get some aerial photos of this beautiful calm spot along the hilly road.

Tree Formation

A beautiful group of trees arranged in a triangle sits at the top of the lake.

The Spider Web Rice Fields - Lingko

Heading west towards Labuan Bajo takes you past one of Flores’ most amazing attractions, the incredible rice fields shaped like spider webs. A visit during the right time of the year will allow you to see a green paradise full of rice plants, but the views during harvest as seen here are equally interesting.

Pie

The circular arrangement was once common on Flores, but now there are only very few such fields left. This one near the village of Cancar is the most famous and largest.

Origins

Lingko was the traditional way of land division carried out by the local village leader.

From the Hill

The best view is from a nearby hill at Cara Village, which you can climb for a small donation.

Island Life and Dragon Hunt

From Labuan Bajo the trip continued straight onwards, boarding the houseboat that would be my home for the next 3 days, sailing around the islands of the Komodo National Park.

Coastline Panorama

The western coast of Flores island.

Pink Beaches

The islands around Komodo feature many beautiful beaches, some of them with pinkish sand.

Padar Island

One of the larger islands in the archipelago is also one of the most beautiful. The views are worth the sunrise hike to the top - the earlier, the fewer people (as always).

Blue Hour

Taken from the ground…

Golden Hour

…taken from the air - a drone permit is required for the park, which is quite expensive (around 150 USD I think) but worth it.

Flore and Fauna are abundant, from deer to wild boar, as well as dolphins, and a large coral variety. Seeing deer on the beach felt slightly odd to me at first, having always associated them with forests.

The Last Remaining Dinosaur

Of course, the primary wildlife people want to see in Komodo National Park are the namesake dragons. It’s an apt description for these animals. This is the only region where the largest lizard in the world can still be found on a handful of islands, with around 3000 endangered individuals still surviving in the wild, most of them on Komodo Island.

Young One

In fact, I got very lucky to see this little one running across the forest floor after a few minutes. It was probably less than half a metre long, and at this size they usually spend most of their time in the trees.

Once I made it to Komodo Island, your time is limited as you walk through the forest with a guide in search of some of these magnificent animals, but luckily I did get to spot a few…Nevertheless, I’d recommend two tours and possibly visiting another island such as Rinca to increase your chances for nice observations (and photos).

We found two very large individuals close to the beach, observing them at rest for a while, before one of them got up and moved into the forest. This was my chance to capture some photos of them in action, with their large tongue leading the way, and them to their prey - in fact, they can sense almost 10km away in good conditions.

Imposing

Komodo Dragons grow up to 3m in length, and this individual got very close to that maximum size.

Approaching

They can run extremely fast, and when one of these individuals comes towards you, you make sure you get the shot and then get out of its way quickly...or maybe skip getting the shot.

Strength

Most of their body is reinforced by armoured scales. Truly the last dinosaurs on earth.

Through the Island Maze

Onwards through the island maze of Komodo, landing on Kanawa island, which was once home to a beautiful small resort.

Paradise

This abandoned resort island was our place for today’s sunset, and it didn’t disappoint.

The resort is no longer operating and what must have been cute little villas are now decaying, but resourceful locals have turned the beach into a makeshift bar and lounge place.

Sunset

A small storm was brewing to the west while I took this selfie panorama on the island's pier.

A Floating Fishing Village

Pulau Mesa is one of the few inhabited islands in the park. In fact, it is almost completely built up and home to a population of around 1500, the Bajau people - all of them extremely friendly and curious. I spent half a day exploring here and would definitely recommend visiting.

The island life is simple but happy, and people were always curious and friendly. It was one of my favorite towns in Indonesia.

Solar Power

A solar plant was recently built on the little hill in the back of the island, helping to provide semi-permanet power to the locals. The large empty plot is the football pitch and a playground for the kids.

Kids these Days

Electricity is spare, and so is the phone network, but a smartphone is the pride of every teenager in town - some of them now have selfies with me saved on them.

Green Islands

The island of Pungu Besar dressed in green - depending on the season, the Komdo islands could be chocolate brown as well.

Sandbank

A stop on a lonely sandbank during low tide shows the colours of the reef. This was our last destination before heading back to Flores island, and get ready for my next destination in Indonesia.

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Florian Kriechbaumer 6/1/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 6/1/23

Enlaps Tikee 3 - Long Term Imaging Solution for Projects & Timelapse

My thoughts on the Tikee 3 Pro + long term imaging and Timelapse solution.

Over the years (many years in fact, my first ones were shot in 2011), I’ve enjoyed recording timelapse videos, compressing the progression of time and making resulting changes visible to the human observer.

One of my latest projects uses many different timelapse and recording techniques and combining them into a single video, documenting one of the many small Oktoberfest-like beer festivals in Germany, see below.

A few ago I was contacted by Enlaps, maker of a long term imaging solution ecosystem, including timelapse projects for construction, events, nature, weather, and similar scenes that can be interesting to observe, document, and analyze many hours, days, months, or even years.

They asked me if I’d be interested in having a go at using their camera and creating a small review. How could I say no to trying some new technology? See below the resulting (German with English subtitles) video, or read on for the English review.

Enlaps Tikee 3 Pro +

The product it's all about is a time-lapse camera called the Tikee 3 Pro +, which is the version I got from Enlaps. And this is a product that I find quite exciting, and would have liked to have had it myself a few years ago.

It didn't exist then, or rather I didn't know that the first versions already existed, so when Enlaps offered me this camera to test, I was immediately interested.

The Tikee is a time-lapse camera that can record all kinds of time-lapses, but is primarily designed for longer time-lapses, for example outdoors. That's a good thing, because my parents are currently building a new house here in Germany, and I intend to install the Tikee there on the construction site as well, to be able to test it in real life in a real operation.

Features & Cost

First, let's take a closer look at the camera - Enlaps provided me with a Tikee 3 Pro+, which is the more feature-rich and also slightly more expensive of the two available variations. The difference is particularly evident in the flexibility of the recording modes, more on that later, the exterior and the general principle of the two cameras as well as the quality is more or less identical.

The camera in this version costs 1800 euros. Also, Enlaps sent me a stainless steel mounting arm, which normally costs 180 EUR, and a mounting kit for 42 EUR. There are other useful accessories, such as an anti-theft chain and lens protectors, which I think would be particularly useful in the field.

Where we are on the subject of costs, the Tikee is available with a cloud platform. There's a free version, but the really interesting stuff starts at €59 per month per camera, or €35 per month if you buy a full year. More expensive variants for enterprise functions, such as access management and automatic person blurring can also be very useful, but are not absolutely necessary for everyone.

At first you might think that 1800 EUR plus accessories and monthly software costs is quite a handsome price, but that always depends on what you want to achieve and what you compare the whole thing to.

Personally, I don't know of any comparable product that seems so sophisticated in this simplicity, but let's take a closer look at why I think that: The Tikee itself is quite small and light, weighing less than 2kg, 20 square centimeters in size and 7cm high.

And it has some exciting built-in features: First of all, it has 2 built-in lenses with an aperture of 2.8 and a sensor of 16 MP each. This gives wide-angle panorama shots with a viewing angle of 220 degrees and a resolution of 6k.

The viewing angles of the two lenses will also be merged automatically, which means you don't have to do it manually, which can get really annoying. I've tried this before ;) With a resolution of 6k you can zoom and pan in the viewing angle and still have acceptable quality. In addition, the Tikee has a built-in directional solar panel that you can fold up and rotate and swivel here, and powers the built-in battery so that you can record your time-lapse in almost all configurations independent of a power source. Appropriately, it is also connected to the Internet either with WiFi or 4G LTE, which means you don’t necessarily need a wired Internet connection to load the pictures onto the cloud platform. The exception to this is DNG format images, if you want to use them to get more dynamic range and edit the images manually you have to save them internally and then download them from the camera, only JPGs are sent to the cloud.

On the back we find an SD card slot next to the SIM card, a power button and a manual trigger, as well as an input for an additional solar panel and a USB port that can also be used for charging. In addition, a fastening ring for the anti-theft device, as well as the possibility of screwing on the underside. The camera is IP66 ratedand also has built in GPS so you always know where it is even when you are out in the field.

MyTikee Cloud

On the myTikee Web Platform, you can view and configure the data from your Tikee camera, as well as create and group portfolios of multiple Tikees. By the way, there is also the possibility to add a normal IP camera, of course not with all the functions that the Tikee offers, but that can still be useful. If you want to generate timelapse videos, there is of course the option to only select certain days or times, such as only weekdays or working hours, but also functions with artificial intelligence, such as automatic selection of only sunny days.

Of course, this can be very exciting for long-term recordings, where you don't want to have the switch between sun and clouds all the time. The system also generates a kind of best of list of selected videos and photos of the best scenes or weather conditions, which lend themselves to further editing and direct sharing without much effort.

There are also somewhat more advanced functions such as a “before \ after” split image, i.e. different periods of time on the left and right of the image or automatic fade between different periods of time. usable eg for building site progress or winter/summer, good/bad weather, etc. For commercial purposes there is also the blur people or certain areas function to guarantee data protection. Since recently there are also AI-supported analysis functions such as recognizing people and counting them, and automatic recognition of construction equipment, vehicles, which can then be visualized etc.

The link to the feed can be shared privately and publicly and also in your own / others websites are integrated, as well as exported with up to 6k for further processing. Incidentally, the web app will soon also be available in German, says Enlaps, currently it is in English and French.

Summary

All in all, as far as I can tell, the Tikee is a very mature product, which is aimed at quite specific areas of application, but thanks to some flexibility it can be used very widely. Comparable results and functions for a similar price are difficult to find, or involve a lot of personal effort and handicraft work, even in post-processing. Of course, such options offer more flexibility, e.g. to choose a focal length, etc., but never the same simplicity and possibly more costs.

If you are looking for a camera that is easy to install and use to document projects such as construction site time-lapse, weather and wave conditions on the beach, snow in the mountains, setting up events, etc., I think you are in the right place. Little infrastructure requirements due to the built-in solar panel, battery and 4G LTE make it very easy.

If I had to criticize a few points, I would probably say that the camera delivers night shots of acceptable quality, but of course it is not suitable for things like the Milky Way etc. A small personal annoyance for me is the USB connection, which is a micro USB - most of my products have already been converted to USB-C and the extra cable is sometimes annoying, but not so dramatic as you rarely have to connect to the Tikee.

A theoretical problem that I could still see is that the lenses fog up when shooting in high humidity or frost. Some external solution with a kind of heating sleeve controlled by the Tikee, for example 10 minutes before the start of the recording, could be desirable. Of course, this has consequences for battery life, one would have to consider that.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, Enlaps has built a very exciting product that enables new recording scenarios and, above all, makes long-term time-lapse easier and more accessible. The many interesting aspects of the mytikee platform also make me positive that a lot of functions are still being developed here, so the options for data analysis are of course endless.

In any case, I am very positively impressed. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, I will definitely create more videos in the next few weeks, particularly on setting up and configuring the Tikee.

Florian Kriechbaumer 5/23/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 5/23/23

The Abode of Peace - Brunei

Welcome to one of the more obscure countries on this planet, one of its last remaining absolute monarchies, and a nation forging its own path on the island of Borneo: Brunei Darussalam.

Welcome to one of the more obscure countries on this planet, one of its last remaining absolute monarchies, and a nation forging its own path on the island of Borneo: Brunei Darussalam. Once a thriving empire, its influence has declined over the centuries, but natural resources meant its population of less than half a million people now enjoys a very high living standard. I spent a few days here, including New Years Eve, which in Brunei is just like any other evening - that may be an odd choice for some, but I had a burger for dinner and was in bed by 11pm, perfect start into 2023.

The Capital

My starting point was the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan (ever heard of it?). A walk the centre around reveals… not too much, but there are some interesting places and local life to observe.

Royal Regalia

Royal Regalia Museum

One of the more peculiar museums I've had the chance to visit, it holds a few interesting sights, including a lot of interesting gifts from visiting politicians….

Exhibits

...but also a lifesize replica of the coronation procession.

Grandeur

And this replica of the main stateroom in the Sultan's residential palace.

... which is in fact far form life-sized ;)

Welcome

The entrance hall features the carriage of the coronation, as well as many other of the regalia and a model of Royal Brunei's first aircraft.

The Main Sight

The city’s most recognisable landmark, and arguably its most beautiful, is the Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, serving as the symbol of the Islamic faith in Brunei.

In fact, a dedicated frame was set up for people to take photos with it in the nearby park on the shores of the Sungai Kedayan river.

Landmark of Brunei

Although it looks relatively modern and is well-maintained, it was completed in 1958 and is named after Omar Ali Saifuddien III, the father of the current ruler. The barge (Mahligai) on the lagoon surrounding the lake was added around 10 years later, resembling a ship of Sultan Bolkiah, the 16th century ruler of the empire.

Dome

Its golden dome reaches 52m in the air and is covered in gold.

In Sight

It's visible throughout the city, such as here from the market square in the courtyard of Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Shopping Complex.

Colours

When I arrived to the mosque the first time, I was greeted by this rainbow, which unfortunately faded within a few minutes, giving me only the chance to get one or two shots. The mosque’s architectural features carry Mughal influences.

Interior

The inside of the mosque can be visited and is dominated by the large chandeliers and Axminster carpets.

While Islam is the primary religion in the country, freedom of faith is permitted by the constitution, with some limitations. The buddhist temple of Teng Yun is one of the most prominent non-Muslim religious buildings.

Spot the Lizard

Local Bakery

Looking south over the Brunei river reveals a bridge called Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha Bridge - I’m glad they kept the name simple for every day directions. It is the second-longest single-pylon cable bridge in the world and 157m tall. I couldn’t help but notice that the golden dome closely resembled the one on Saifuddien Mosque.

The night market at Gadong with its variety of multicultural street food - Brunei has to import 60% of its needs. The biggest ethnic group is Malay, making up over 60% of the population, and only a very small portion of indigenous people. The balance is a mix of origins, including a large number of expats.

Jalan Roberts

The most photogenic street in downtown Bandar Seri Begawan they say - for better or worse, it seemed to be true.

Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka Mural

The 30m mural from 1965 higlights some of the country's history and culture.

The Big Wall

Made by local artists, this mural features the national flower Bunga Simpur and scenes from the floating village of Kampung Ayer, more on that below.

Moon & Star

The Department of Syariah Affairs, responsible for managing Sharia law in the country.

In Position

Can never resist when I spot our celestial friend up there!

Kampong Ayer

On the Shore

Walking along the Brunei river in Bandar Seri Begawan, one can always spot a large group of houses, seemingly on the opposite shores. In fact though, the settlement of Kampong Ayer is a water village said to have existed in one way or the other for over 500 years.

Transport

Unsurprisingly it is primarily reachable by boat, with many small operators crossing back and forth constantly. Once there, wooden walkways on stilts (without guardrails) serve as walkways.

Leftover

It's not uncommon that some parts of the town are abandoned or dismantled as the wooden foundations deterioate in the water, leaving behind an unusued boat bus station such as this one.

In fact though, a large portion of the village is as busy as ever, and includes floating mosques, schools, gyms and more.

In Good Shape

The infrastructure is constantly maintained and upgraded - running water, sewage, electricity etc are available.

Or Not

Although not everything is so well maintained. This house had collapsed in a storm a few weeks earlier - luckily the occupants were aware of the risk, left, and no one was injured.

Expansion

Nevertheless the water village is expanding. In some of its adminstrative areas new modern housing is being built.

Found

Obligatory (very very small) cat photo.

More City Sights

Trusty Driver

It's not so easy to find taxis in the city, and some parts of it are spread out quite a bit beyond the centre, so I had a driver for a day (who knew how to counter the humidity).

Jame 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque

Size

The largest mosque in the country, able to hold 5000 worshippers and named after the current Sultan, opened in 1994.

Golden

The mosque has 29 golden domes (dedicated to the 29th and current Sultan), regularly polished and refurbished (see the scaffolding on the earlier photo).

Patterns

It is surrounded by trees and small gardens.

Ash Shaliheen Mosque

Yet another mosque - they are some of the most interesting attractions in Brunei. This one is said to follow Moroccan style, and was designed by an Egyptian architect. It’s possible to visit, and the interior courtyard with its retractable roof is worth seeing. It’s also located in the government district, which featuring a number of peculiar architectural styles for the various ministries and offices.

Balai Khazanah Islam Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah

This rather unusual building is not in fact a mosque, despite its minaret-like towers. It is however a museum and gallery filled with islamic art.

Unfortunately I couldn’t make it in time to go inside and visit, but it houses a large collection of manuscripts and artworks, for instance. The exterior was likely equally fascinating to me though.

Palaces

A strange and seemingly abandoned building can be seen from certain angles in Brunei - this place was allegedly built for the Sultan's ex-wife, but stopped after the divorce. Its status is unclear, but it is said the interior is almost complete and follows similar architectural approach as the outside - a mix of classic European and Russian styles.

Record Breaking

The actual palace of the Sultan of Brunei, called Istana Nurul Iman or the Light of Faith, is on yet another level - it is considered the largest residential palace and single family building in the world. The cost at its completion in 1984 was USD 1.5Bn, with a floor space area of over 200,000 sqm - it contains 1,788 rooms, of which 257 are bathrooms. It also houses the banquet room seen as a model in the Royal Regalia museum. The palace is also home to the infamous car collection of the Sultan and his brother (a whole different character, worth reading up on). Most of those cars are said to slowly fall into decay due to the lack of care these days, but no one knows for sure.

In Front

The Palace is not open to the public, except during a few days on Eid ul Fitr at the end of Ramadan, when parts are made accessible. Other than on those days, the entrance gate is the only part you can see - shown here.

The Former Palace

This is especially interesting given that the royal palace in use until 1951 was this house, at a cost of 5000 USD at the time. Brunei's wealth stems from oil and gas, which are its largest (and almost only) exports.

And Further Around

Frankly, there isn’t toooo much to see beyond the city boundaries, but there are a few nice beaches and several rivers in the largely untapped forest. Unlike much of the rest of Borneo, which is part of Malaysia and Indonesia, Brunei’s portion hasn’t been tapped for Palm Oil and other plantations. These photos were taken from the shores of the The Empire Brunei hotel, the country’s only real high end luxury property, 20min from the city.

Proboscis Monkey

The rivers and forests are also where you can spot one of Borneo's most famous endemic species - the endangered Proboscis monkey.

Features

Their long noses make them look quite peculiar. I had seen them in the Indonesian parts of Borneo (blog upcoming), so didn't spend too much time exploring the rivers aside from a short morning boat ride where we spotted a few individuals.

Bye Brunei

And that's it from one of the world's smaller and stranger countries - which made it an all the more enjoyable visit.

Florian Kriechbaumer 5/20/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 5/20/23

Happy Days - HIPA Winner & Smithsonian Finalist 🥳

The award gods were kind to me this year, as my work has received a 1st place recognition at HIPA’s Worlds Coolest Winter Season 2 contest.

From time to time I submit my work to photography contests around the world. There are many sub-par money-grab competitions out there, so it’s important to be selective when choosing where to submit. HIPA of course is beyond such a doubt, running the world’s highest priced global photography competition, for instance. Their World’s Coolest Winter campaign doesn’t quite reach the same prestige (and price money) but it was still a competition of amazing images from all around the United Arab Emirates.

All the more exciting is it to be among the winners, and I managed to claim a 1st price this year with the five images below. Some of them happen to be among my favorite photographs ever, not only from the UAE, but in general, so I’m glad they’ve been recognized.

On this note, a shoutout to my friend Neelima Azad, who won the second price. She’s one of my favorite photographers in the UAE, so I’m very happy we’re sharing the stage on this one! Funnily enough it’s not the first time, as we also both had images featured at the RAK Fine Art Festival last year, and they happened to be exhibited next to each other.

If any of you feel like one of the photos would make your home a nicer place (or someone else’s - good gifts!), the works from this competition are available as signed prints with certificates. Just contact me and we will figure out which options work best. If prints on the wall are not your thing, some of these images are going to be part of my upcoming photo book “Wonders of the Globe” - more on that soon!

Here is each of the photos with its story for your viewing pleasure:

The Girl & the Galaxy

The human quest to explore the universe is reflected in this photo, combining earthly nature, humans, and the celestial in a single image as the Andromeda Galaxy sets over the Hajar mountains in the UAE.

The Gazelle and the Giant

The contrast and conflict of human development and natural beauty is evident in this photograph, requiring many visits to the location to finally find and document the conditions visualized here, as a group of gazelle graze peacefully in the soft rolling warm dunes, while the busy and loud cityscape with its sharp shapes and cold colors rise in the background.

Shadows in the Sand

Two people enjoying an afternoon walk on Saadiyat Beach, while I flew my drone to catch some of the beautiful waves on that day. The two women weren’t aware I was flying above them, and just played with their abayas and arms to create shadow figures in the sand, giving me an opportunity to capture this photo.

City in the Clouds

A panoramic view of Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, and the Sheikh Zayed Road skyline, as the beautiful blue hues of the morning light slowly turn orange and yellow from the rising sun in the east, illuminating the world's tallest building while thick fog rolling in from the desert covers the ground, creating the illusion of a city in the clouds.

The Confrontation

A journey of patience led me to this image, as it took many scouting trips to identify this spot, and even more visits to the location to finally find clear skies adorned by clouds, while a pair of oryx was engaging in their territorial rivalry. The resulting photograph is meant to represent both the confrontation of the animals, but also the contrast of harsh urban shapes of Dubai, with the natural soft outlines of the dunes of the UAE desert.

The Smithsonian & the Nature of Viral Posts

A few weeks earlier, I heard from the Smithsonian Magazine, which selected one of my submissions as a Finalist in the Drone category. “Suburban Dystopia” is a photograph I also took in the UAE, scouting the location on Google and Apple Maps, as I often do. Once it was published on the Smithsonian’s website, it quickly went viral on Facebook and Reddit with ten thousands of likes and comments. Sadly - as it often goes on social media and the wider internet - it’s mainly controversy that drives engagement. A bland suburban robotic copy-paste housing complex in a place like Dubai (which as a city itself is always a well-loved subject for online debate) seems to attract a lot of people feeling the need to voice their often less-than-qualified opinion, and this is seemingly what it takes for the algorithms to surface content high up in the feeds.

This villa complex is in Nad Al Sheba, Dubai, and one of the many master planned gated communities in the city, built to quickly and effectively counter the housing shortages resulting from the growing population.

Florian Kriechbaumer 1/13/23 Florian Kriechbaumer 1/13/23

Copenhagen - The world's most livable city?

this was a title given to Denmark’s capital in 2013 by Monocle owing to its urban, cultural, and environmental planning

Well, this was a title given to Denmark’s capital in 2013 by Monocle owing to its urban, cultural, and environmental planning and is often echoed in many other city rankings. I visited in November 2022 to gain my own impressions, and finally got around to documenting some of them here.

The visit started with a big disappointment, being that Tivoli, one of the world’s oldest and most famous theme parks, was closed during my time here. This wasn’t really evident at all from the website, Google entry, or anywhere else, and so finding the doors closed wasn’t a happy start to the trip - even a visit to the nearby Lego store (Denmark is where Lego was invented) couldn’t quite help.

Instead onwards to the city’s aptly named “Round Tower”.

The Way Up

More intriguing than its exterior shape is the inside though - a spiral ramp that has seen a German engineer drive a car up in 1902, and in 1716 the Russian Tsar rode his horse to the top. The Wikipedia entry is a worthwhile read on its story.

Some views from the top of the 1642 tower.

Church Galore

Copenhagen Cathedral

A stop at the 1829 neoclassical church.

Different kind of seating

A singer was performing while I visited, and it's also the first time I saw bean bags in a church - different vibe.

Interior

The inside is graced by the work of the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, with the most famous piece being the Jesus statue at the altar.

Church of Our Saviour

The Christianshavn district is home to this very peculiar church with a very narrow spiral staircase from 1752 leading 90m into the air. The last of the 150 outside stairs literally aren't wide enough to fit a normal person, but you can squeeze your way up sideways.

That is, if you are brave enough and once you pass the various stairs past church bells.

The Inside

Even if you do not make it to the top, the interior rewards visitors with this incredible chandelier and the 300 year old organ with its intricate wood carvings.

The Reward

On the outside though, a great view over Copenhagen is waiting - looking north in this case.

Multifunction

This area is home to CopenHill, an energy plant with a roof used as a sports hill in the summer, and for skiing in the winter.

Evening Impressions & Nyhavn

On the next morning, I had what is arguably the city’s most picturesque area on the agenda - as always, arriving before sunrise has its benefits, and I caught a quiet Nyhavn canal when it was still empty and with some nice reflections in the calm water.

Christmas Decorations

The 17th century waterfront had a small Chrismas market on the pedestrian side.

Lively

Nyhavn's colourful houses are full of cafes, bars and also a souvenier shop themed after Hans Christian Andersen, who lived here in the 19th century.

Westwards

The full moon was setting on the other side, and just peaked through the clouds at times.

Transformation

Interestingly, the area wasn't always so popular - only when it was pedestrianised in 1980 did these activities pick up. An example that many cities follow these days by reducing car traffic in their centers.

Contrasting

On the opposte side of the harbour a rather interesting complex is being built in a slot-in-module type construction method.

The Mermaids

Wait a minute, mermaids plural? Yes, because aside from the very famous The Little Mermaid bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen, there is indeed a second less famous modern interpretation of it not too far along Copenhagen’s waterfront.

The Original

The well known version (which at 7am is completley deserted) was created in 1913 based on the novel of the same name. It sadly has been vandalised many times - it even lost its head twice - and authorities are considering to move it further into the sea to prevent similar incidents.

The second version is the Genetically Modified Little Mermaid, a sculpture that’s part of a 2006 series by Danish professor Bjørn Nørgaard, with the intention to create a kind of postmodern look at the changes in society.

Luna

The full moon setting over the Center for Ledelse management school on my way towards the mermaids.

Quiet Morning

And our celestial companion behind the Frederik's Church, flanked by the royal palaces on this early morning.

The Altar

The interior of this incredible rococo church almost didn't get built. It stood unfinished for almost 150 years after construction began in 1749.

Frederik's Church

The largest dome in Scandinavia at a span of 31m.

Kastellet

Walking back towards the city you pass through a star shaped military fortress and its windmill.

As well as the long yellow houses of Nyboder, once used as naval accomodation and today being restored as regular housing.

Bike City

Copenhagen is known as the bicycling capital of the world, with 50% of Danes commuting to work by bike each day.

Not only Churches…

Land of Circles

While modern skyscrapers aren't a reason to visit Copenhagen, there's a very interesting complex I wanted to see, the Axel Towers.

The mixed use towers opened in 2016 and were designed by Lene Tranberg.

Rainbow

A lucky moment from the air as I was looking to find the best angles of the 5 buildings.

Mixed Styles

There is further modern architecture to be found on the waterside, such as The Playhouse pictured here.

...or the Danish architecture centre, next to the dedicated bicycle bridge over the canal.

Some of the architecture is a bit more brutalist in nature though.

Planetarium

An astronomy and space themed centre (with not so gloring reviews and hence I didn't visit).

Nordisk Film Biografer Palads

A movie theatre in unusual shape and colour.

Copenhagen City Hall

Basking in Light

The City Hall at the Rådhuspladsen main square is worth a visit for several reasons.

Aside from the views from above, another reason is the interesting interior…

… but primarily the amazing World Clock by Jens Olsen.

A Thing of Beauty

The 15,448 parts all play a role in telling time, but also other astronomical variables for thousands of years to come.

Precision

Got lucky and received an explanation by the Chief Watch Maker who maintains it, telling me that the fastest gear rotates every 10 seconds, but the slowest needs 25,753 years, aligning with the Earth’s axial precession (I had to look that up).

Rosenborg Castle and Christiansborg Palace

Another important historical spot is this Renaissance castle and its garden from the early 1600s, where you can sometimes spot the Royal Life Guards - although I'm not sure what these cars were lined up for.

Throne Chair

One of the many buildings constructed under Christian IV, it is home to many important state artifacts.

Among them also the Crown Regalia of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom still exists and is separate from the actual country, encompassing also Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

And this rather extravagant chess set.

Royal Palace

Another must visit is the Christiansborg Palace, the square in front of which with the statue of Frederik VII is shown here.

Royal Stables

It is also home to the stables, meaning you might get to see some horses in training on the interior courtyard.

A Message

The building is now home to the Danish parliament - and some of the consitutents clearly have something to say to their elected representatives.

Number 5

The most intrigung part of the castle is in fact underground though, showing the ruins of no less than four previous castles on the same spot.

Copenhagen Castle

Here is one of them, and arguably the prettiest: Copenhagen Castle was built in the late 14th century and demolished 250 years later to make room for the first Christiansborg.

Cats...

...messing up stuff for centuries.

Grundtvigs Church

One of the most spectacular places in the city lies a little outside, but is worth the journey: A rare expressionist church completed in 1940, designed by Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint.

Facade

The church seen from the main access road into the compound.

Aerial View

The church is embedded into a residential community with similar architecture designed and built at the same time.

Metaphor

The imposing front resembles an organ and reaches almost 50m in height.

The Other Side

The real organ on the western church wall.

Here’s a little Hyperlapse clip of the central interior path to the altar.

And that's the end of the journey, with one of Copenhagen's modern subway stations. Is it the world’s most livable city? I can see the appeal, but the dark winters alone would make me struggle a little!

Florian Kriechbaumer 12/10/22 Florian Kriechbaumer 12/10/22

Glimpses of Dubrovnik

After visiting another gem of the Adriatic, I took the chance to leave for the airport a little early to spend a few hours exploring Dubrovnik.

After visiting another gem of the Adriatic, I took the chance to leave for the airport a little early and spend a few hours exploring Dubrovnik, one of Croatia’s most famous coastal towns. It was just enough time to collect a few impressions - scroll down to see them!

Eastern Gate

The eastern entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage city, crossing a small bridge.

The view towards the small port from the bridge. Dubrovnik’s history dates back to the 7th century, and for over 500 years it ruled itself as a free state.

Stradun

The main road looking towards the Franciscan Church from the 1300s.

...and the same view from above.

Narrow passages with a loooot of stairs wind their way up to the right and left. You’ll find Europe’s oldest operating pharmacy and many other historic places while wandering around.

Dubrovnik Maskeron

Legend has it that if you manage to hop onto the head, keep your balance, and take off your shirt while still standing facing the wall, luck in love will follow you. Not worth the risk if you ask me.

A majority of the city’s Renaissance buildings were destroyed during a large earthquake in 1667, and a lot of damage was done during the siege of 1991 - signs of repair are the brightly colored roof tiles on some of the buildings.

Aerial Views

With the 18th century The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the crentre, the Church of St. Ignatius (featured in Game of Thrones) to the right, and St. Blaise's Church on the left.

Looking west over the old city with its prominent fortifications.

Today the city is very popular with tourists, helped by appearances in many movies and TV series - to the extent that the tourism board had to start staggering cruise ship arrivals in 2018.

Dominican Monastery

The tower of the closter, originally established in 1225, but completed in the following century.

And that’s one last flight over Dubrovnik, and my impressions after spending a few hours here come to an end!.

Florian Kriechbaumer 11/23/22 Florian Kriechbaumer 11/23/22

Montenegro - Hidden Gem of the Adriatic Sea

In a quest to get a few glimpses of sunshine and explore a rather unknown place without too having to travel too far from Germany, Montenegro turned out to be an excellent choice

In a quest to get a few glimpses of sunshine (before going faaaar north shortly after) and explore a rather unknown place without too having to travel too far from Germany, Montenegro turned out to be an excellent choice for myself and my dear mother, who joined me on this trip. A young country with a rich and turbulent history, Montenegro only gained its current independence in 2006.

One & Only Portonovi

Since a few days of quiet time was on the agenda, this gem was our residence of choice - and wow, it did not disappoint. Definitely one of the most beautiful resorts I’ve ever stayed at, and surprisingly, somewhat, relatively (yes, need those qualifiers), affordable, given the fact we went during off season (summer will be a very different story).

Portonovi

The property lies within the community of Portonovi, a newly developed residential and tourism district on the shoreline of Herceg-Novi at the entrance of Boka Bay.

Boka Bay

The historically significant entrance into the Bay of Kotor, today frequented by small sail boats, but also giant cruise ships, hides a few secrets as we discovered later.

Secrets of the Bay

Just across the hotel lie a few interesting tidbits of history, barely noticeable unless you look a little closer. The first one is a series of tunnels dug into the mountain by the Yugoslavian army, with the intention to hide submarines in them during times of war.

The entrance to the tunnls was covered by metal structures and nets with rocks and plants to make them indiscernible from the surrounding landscape - nowadays, those are no longer serving their original purpose.

Aerial View

Today it’s easy to see the cuts in the mountain from the air, but it must have been different when they were operational. There are a total of three such tunnel entrances within a few hundred metres.

But the submarine tunnels were not the only surprises the bay had in store. Exploring a bit further into the Adriatic Sea, a colorful wonder awaits…

Blue Grotto

Montenegro is home to its own version of a sea cave with strong blue iridescent hues.

Shining

As the sunlight enters from the west, it reflects on the sandy ground and causing the water to shine in strong blue colours.

Controversy

On the way back from the cave, we passed Mamula island with its 1853 fort. It also served as a prison and concentration camp during WWII, which means recent plans to turn it into a hotel and casino have not been received so well...

Islands in the Bay

Heading back into the bay towards the historical towns of Perast and Kotor, you pass two famous small islands, just off the coast, one of which is accessible.

Our Lady of the Rocks

The first island is artificial, and features a church that is over 500 years old in its origin, with an interesting backstory.

Sveti Juraj Island

Unlike its neighbor, this island and not open to the public. It's home to the 12th century Saint George Benedictine monastery.

Views

Truly a spectacular place.

The Town of Perast

The first settlements in this area were found to be from the Neolithic era, but Prerast itself was referenced from 1336. Today, the city only has about 300 inhabitants, but its touristic appeal makes it feel much busier most of the year.

Panoramic View

The city’s primary landmark is the Church of St Nicolas from 1616.

The entire area is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Kotor Region, due to its rich cultural past.

Kotor - Cat Kingdom

The namesake city at the end of the bay is also its most famous one. Its 2000 year history spans the Middle Ages, Venetian, Habsburg and Napoleonic rule. Today, its large population of cats has become a primary symbol for the town, and it indeed houses a cat museum (which unfortunately was closed) and a number of shops selling cat artefacts.

The Old City

With its fortified wall and the fortess on the hillside to the left.

Top Down Views

Houses and streets of Kotor, with St Nicholas church on the bottom centre.

In the Mountain

Reachable only by foot using steps from the city, the Church of our Lady of Remedy is also home to the oldest building found in Montenegro, a 6th century basilica found underneath it.

Cathedral of Saint Tryphon

The city's most famous building is this cathedral from 1166 - older than most well known chruches in the Mediterranean, and home to a rich treasury.

Gate

The southern entrace through the city walls, with its clock tower and Obelisk underneath.

Autumn Arriving

The summer slowly faded at the end of October, but the weather was beautiful, and the (more or less) lack of tourists make it a perfect time to visit this part of Montenegro - just watch out for big cruise ships arriving.

By the way, Croatia’s famous town of Dubrovnik is just an hour away and I had the chance to spend a few hours here - subscribe to be the first to hear more once I managed to go through the images.

Florian Kriechbaumer 11/5/22 Florian Kriechbaumer 11/5/22

Azerbaijan - Central Asia with a Few Surprises

Take a journey through incredible architecture, pink lakes, and rocks on fire with me in this central Asian country.

After visiting Tajikistan several years ago, exploring more of Central Asia was high on my list. When I started researching Azerbaijan’s sights, a few rather interesting spots came up - read on to find out what I mean and take a journey through incredible architecture, pink lakes, and rocks on fire with me.

The first stop on the way from Baku’s International Airport to the city was at the Atashgah Zoroastrianism Fire Temple. Azerbaijan is often referred to as the “Land of Fire’, and this site plays a small role, among others (read on..). It was built in the 17th century as a place of worship for Zoroastrians, whose belief includes fire as one of the tentpole elements. The natural flame on the site stopped burning in 1969 however.

Baku’s Old City

From here, we explored Baku’s Old Town, the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Inner City

A model of the old town in the Palace of the Shirvanshahs.

One of its primary attractions is the Maiden tower, dating back at least to the 12th century and featured on Azerbaijani bank notes. Its back story is an interesting one, and so are the views from the top, with the glass architecture of the Flame Towers in the background in stark contrast to the beige old city buildings..

A Bird for Birds

When the tower was renovated in 2011, many of the crevices used by Swifts as nesting sites were filled to avoid further detoriation, and instead these bird-shaped nesting boxes were attached to the neighbouring building to give the birds a home.

Another important building in the old city is the 15th century complex of the Shirvanshahs dynasty, with its palace, baths, mosque, and mausoleum. The palace contains a nicely curated museum.

The Old Town is full of pretty restaurants, historical sites, and interesting shops.

Bazar Square

One of the many historical sites spread all over the Walled City - this one was discovered during archeological excavations in 1962.

Baku’s Architectural Highlight

Despite its beautiful old city, one of the most intriguing buildings I was looking forward to photograph in Baku is much younger - it opened in 2012. The Heydar Aliyev Center was designed by Zaha Hadid and named after the country’s former president (as many things are in Azerbaijan).

Use

The complex is almost 60,000 sqm and primarily used for cultural exhibitions, as well as concerts and performances.

Shapes

The flowing Abaya of a local women along the flowing lines of the building's facade. The design was meant to break from the rigid forms prevalent in most of Baku's Soviet legacy architecture.

Winner

In 2014 the structure was recognised with London's Design Museum's Design of the Year Award, making Zaha Hadid the first woman to win the competition.

Heart

Lots of love for this building. Could have spent days here.

Pink Wonder

30km outside the city centre lies an attraction that only shows its true colours a few months of the year.

Approaching

From the ground and afar, one can only sense that there’s something unusual about this lake and its hues...

It's only when you get close that you start to suddenly realise the unique conditions present here, and the visual glory that comes with them. Having said that, nothing can beat the view from the top… ⬇️

This amazing sight is the pink lake of Masazir, north of Baku. Its color derives from the combination of algae and bacterial bloom in the highly salty water at the right temperatures. It's one of a few such lakes around the world, and the people living on its shorelines definitely get to witness an interesting spectacle.

Industry

As the summer passes, the lake dries and the salt is harvested for commerical use.

Inflow

Where the salty water mixes with the river feeding the lake, a delta of colour contrasts emerge.

Got very lucky to explore and see this phenomenon, and many thanks to Andre Jabali for the tips in making it happen!

The Mud Volcanoes - Otherworldly Landscapes

Next up in the list of unusual places in Azerbaijan is an area called Gobustan, home to many of the world’s 800 mud volcanoes, half of which are located in the country.

Mud Volcano Landscape

The craters are reachable by car - although if you like your suspension I'd recommend taking a local taxi.

Scale

This was one of the larger active volcanoes we visited - but they can build up to several hundred metres high.

The look from above provides a perspective of several volcanoes in the area - notice the darker shades of fresh mud slowly making its way down the slope. NASA geologists studying Mars concluded that Azerbaijan's mud volcanoes have a similar structure to the uplands of the planet.

While the bubbly craters might appear cute, particularly given the sounds that come out of the bubbles as they pop, the larger volcanoes can erupt fiercely with flames shooting into the sky if water, gas, and mud mix under the right circumstances. In fact, the gas emissions are mostly methane, and can be ignited with a lighter (as our trusty guide proudly showed us while we scattered in fear of a mud explosion).

The mud is roughly the same temperature as the surrounding air, and dries up quickly once it spills over the crater edge. Volcano clay and mud are sometimes used in the treatment of diseases.

Gobustan National Park

The area around the volcanoes is a national park, home to a - surprisingly impressive - museum owing to the many prehistoric rock carvings dating back up to 15,000 years. The park is walkable and also includes natural “musical stones” called Gaval Dash, and a Roman inscription from the 1st century.

Heydar Mosque

Opened in 2014, it’s the largest in the South Caucasus region and located slightly outside the city centre. It’s almost disproportionately tall compared to its footprint - the minarets reach 95m.

Faith

While Azerbaijan's population is almost 100% muslim, it's a secular country and many people do not identify strongly with Islam.

The Carpet Museum

Fitting into the city’s architectural gem collection is the carpet museum, which unsurprisingly looks like a carpet, and houses many of them in a nod to the regions carpet manufacturing heritage.

The Candy Cane Mountains

Azerbaijan is home to another colorful natural attraction: A small shale mountain range north-east of Baku full of pink, purple, orange, and brown shades.

Candy

Groundwater that alters the oxidation state of the iron compounds in the earth created this kaleidoscope of colours in the landscape.

Take a look from above!

Sitting in Candy

The mountains are not particularly high, so I couldn't resist a small hike.

Fossils

You can also find fossilized remains of belemnites in the colourful rocks if you look closely.

Yanar Dag - “Burning Mountain”

On our way back we stopped at another peculiar place. Remember Azerbaijan’s nickname? The “Land of Fire” has another appropriate sight: Yanar Dag is a natural gas fire said to have been continuously burning for more than 700 years, snow, wind and earthquakes notwithstanding.

Yanar Dag

About 10m of rock provide a natural outdoor fireplace, with flames sometimes reaching several metres high depending on the wind.

Performance

We witnessed a traditional Azerbaijani dance show by the cultural centre managing the site in the evening.

Got to Believe

Of course, people throw coins as modern sacrifices.

Baku Impressions

Baku’s Museum of Modern Art has an interesting collection, including private pieces of Picasso and Dali. Its curious cafe was unfortunately closed during the time of my visit.

Bibi-Heybat Mosque

The original mosque here was built in the 13th century over a tomb of a descendant of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, but then destroyed in 1934. The current one is from 1999 and was enlarged in 2005.

Oil Rigs

The outskirts of Baku are home to hundreds of these characteristic little rigs, slowly and endlessly turning and pumping. The country is rich in oil and gas reserves and exploitation goes back over 150 years ago.

Racing

Baku is home to a Formula 1 race, held as a street circuit - note the starting grid and the pit lane is visible in the background.

Flame Towers

One of Baku's most recognisable architectural landmarks. Its shape is in reference to the country's nickname, and occasionally illuminated accordingly, although here it showed the Azerbaijani flag.

Skyline

A view along Baku's shoreline from the observation area near the flame towers.

Baku Crystal Hall

Finished for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest.

Shahidlar Monument

Built in remembrance of the Ottoman soldiers killed during the World War, with the city's TV Tower, the tallest structure in Azerbaijan, in the centre.

A Final View...

...over the skyline, with the aptly named Crescent Hotel.

Mongolia - Vast Steppes & Nomadic Cultures

Mongolian Moments - Watch this to get an Overview

The White Stupa

Highways

The Gobi Desert - Dunes for Days

Bactrian Camel Herders

Greenery in the Desert

The Flaming Cliffs

Nightly Exploration

The Bayan-Ölgii Province - Home of the Eagle Hunters

Golden Eagles

Entrance

Smiling Faces

In Action

Serik Jenisbek

Impressions from Ulaanbaatar

Parliament of Mongolia

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