rimowa - now that's what i call service

my rimowa suitcase          © Joselito Briones

i've had this rimowa suitcase for 5 years now and it's been with me everywhere.  it's supposed to be a carry-on, but there's been a couple of times when i had to check it in.  the last time it happened, i noticed a missing screw-on foot (stand).  i brought it to rimowa's new york shop , and they repaired it for me even tho i bought this one in hong kong.  they even checked the locks and found that they are a bit shaky, so they repaired that too.  at no cost! (and look at that, they even decorated it with a ribbon)

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found one of my stock photos on a wall poster for cotton:on in jakarta

..with some others also from stocksy. norie and irma happily posed in front of it for scale.  the poster is for fashion company cotton:on.

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running theme

© Joselito Briones

let's get literal, shall we?  i thought i should have a series of photos with a running theme, and i was too lazy to think of one, so i just did one of friends running, everywhere we travelled. pictured above are marco and gau , the photo was somewhere in tuscany.

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

© Joselito Briones

and photo above was the last one, in birmingham, uk.

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liquid landscape

on the way to a floating village in cambodia, the ripples caused by the boat made interesting patterns

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weta cave

 
these are photos are from the weta cave, from when i visited wellington.  just posting now because they're doing a new movie, "The Hobbit".  weta is the production company co-founded by Peter Jackson, famous for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "King Kong", "District 9",  and weta cave is a mini-museum at the corner of the workshop.  it's actually quite small, a sort of mom-and-pop gallery/store with a video room.  it would've been much more fun to see their actual production room and meet the people who do the awesome visual effects and characters. photo above is of the life-size model of gollum, from "lord of the rings", displayed in the mini-museum.  don't know which character or from which movie is the one below, but he sure is scary.

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floating village, siem reap, cambodia

still in cambodia, this is a series of photos i took of the floating village in siem reap. you can either scroll down to see the rest of the photos, or click on the first photo to launch a slide viewer.

i spotted a striped snake in the water, and one of the houses shown above keeps several alligators, and as you can see from one of the photos, they use the same water to bathe.  i had a coffee in the community shop, by the time it occured to me that they might have gotten the water from the same source, it was already too late to cancel it, i didn't want to embarass the shop owner.  anyway, it was safe, they must've used bottled water.

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me in angkor wat

photo: charles george

charles took this photo in angkor wat, cambodia. (he did the post-processing too)


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tourists watching the sunset from bakheng hill, cambodia

the highest elevation among the temple groups around angkor wat, this was the best place to watch the sunset


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sunrise in angkor wat, cambodia

woke up extra early for this and it was truly beautiful, unfortunately there were scaffoldings (photoshopped out of this photo) so i didn't bother to do proper photos of it.


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this is charles doing his best robert mitchum impression

he also did an impression of smoking marlene dietrich and bette davis, but let's stick to this one.

we spent the whole day walking about so we decided to do an evening dip in the pool.  prince d'angkor hotel in siem reap, cambodia.  the staff are sooooo nice (well, the cambodians in general) and helpful.


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panoramic photo of halong bay

just another photo of beautiful halong bay, vietnam. you can click to see the full size of the image (you'll also probably have to maximize your browser window to see the entire image). can't remember how many shots i stitched to get this panoramic view, but it was all automated in photoshop, so no biggie.


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scene from a cafe serving dog meat in hanoi, vietnam

i almost got robbed in hanoi. while walking around the lake near the historic district, a guy touted a cardboard sheet with some photos printed on it, offering something i didn't care to know. red flag! a cardboard with print, a newspaper, a menu, a petition list, or a photo being shoved in your face for attention is (almost) always a decoy. while you're struggling to see what's printed so you can vehemently say no, the guy's other hand is probably very busy picking your pocket already. if you're sitting in a cafe with your stuff on the table and someone shoves something on your face offering something, you can be sure that the guy's (or girl's) other hand is already swiping your things from the table. it bears repeating: anything being shoved in your face to grab your attention is ALWAYS a diversion so a thief can take your stuff. anyway, i saw the sign so i politely said no and walked on - but this one's pretty persistent. at one point, where there was a bigger crowd, he blocked my way so that i can't walk forward, still showing me his pictures. this was, i assumed right, step two. while he blocked my way, someone he works with was already busy trying to unzip my backpack. as i was aware of the play, i instantly noticed the guy behind me at work, yanked my bag, and walked away. at this point the guy with pictures walked even faster so he's still ahead of me, the other guy who was opening my bag ran a few meters ahead. when i saw that they haven't let go, i yelled and warned everyone to be careful because the guy's a pickpocket. at this point the thief closer to me stopped walking, so i just looked him in the eye and walked past. the other thief also stopped, stood with his back on the crowd, like he was looking at something from a distant, feigning innocence. when i walked passed him i felt the energy - conscious control of excitement, unnatural stillness.

so anyway, why let such an encounter ruin your trip, right?  the photo above has nothing to do with the failed robbery - other than that it was taken in hanoi on the same night.  this is supposed to be a popular cafe - on the menu, among other things, are grilled or boiled dog meat.  i read somewhere that dogs can smell whether or not you've eaten dog meat before.  is this true? if you know for sure and have an explanation for it, please drop me a line.


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p.s.
i forgot to mention that the above warning isn't just for hanoi - it's for any city when you're travelling.  i remember once while in fisherman's wharf in san francisco (a tourist trap if there ever is one), amongst the thick crowd a youngish couple suddenly had a yelling row and a very public breakup.  only the whole thing was so fake and staged (they really should've taken acting lessons) - everybody's attention turned to them for a couple of minutes.  i wanted to yell "beware of pickpockets" but i was afraid there might be one near me holding a knife (they sometimes do, tho not usually)

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halong bay, vietnam

wow. i really should travel more - halong bay is (relatively) close to hong kong and yet it took me all this time to visit.  so beautiful and peaceful and relaxing.

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daybreak

random pics time... two of my sisters norie and uding in a beach in batangas, early morning.  we walked towards the fishermen's boats to see about the day's catch, for family lunch.  no luck, they caught just enough for their own use.

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long ke wan, sai kung

i had a great time in long ke wan (photo above - click for full size, a panoramic view taken from the hill as we walked from east dam of high island reservoir).  it was peaceful, weather was cooperative, water was clear, sand was fine, company was most agreeable. perfect weekend getaway. and right here in hong kong!

ok, so let me back track.  after visiting sai kung town, we took a taxi to the east dam roundabout of high island reservoir, passing by west dam (we asked the taxi to stop so i can snap the photo above and below).  in most websites you'll come across, the trip is usually described as a bus ride plus a three-hour hike. but we didn't go for the hike, we went there for the beach.  HK$ 6 for the bus plus a three-hour walk in this heat, or a HK$110 (including tip) taxi ride? was really a no-brainer (although we did see health nuts who did the hike).

photo above is the east dam of the reservoir where the taxi dropped us off.  from there it was another 20-30 minutes of walk (steep climb and descent) to get to the beach.  considering we were carrying our camping stuff and photo stuff and 16ltrs of water between us (ok, we over estimated. we were able to use up just more than half of that), it wasn't exactly easy.  no wonder there were so many boats there - it's still the easiest way to get there.

when we finally saw the place (photo, top) from the hill, and heard the voices of people having fun, the effort was really nothing.  first thing we did was look for a nice place to set up the tent (i bought one instead of sleeping bag - turned out to be a good decision). photo above is also a panoramic view from where we stayed - click image to enlarge.

by late afternoon most of the boats have left and we shared the whole beach with only two other groups of campers.  the water was nice and warm. it was most relaxing and i just couldn't get away from it. it was already very late when i dried off.

by sunset we already had a nice fire going (we brought our own charcoal, huh!) although it was really only for effect, as it was really warm, with only very gentle breeze. we didn't cook anything either.  we had bread and fruits and nuts and german sausages. 

we stayed out most of the night, lying down on the straw mattresses, watching stars and chatting and listening to iTunes.  was surprised how long the battery lasted when the screen was off, even if the speaker is on full volume.  there was no signal from my phone service provider ("3") so i didn't mind just using it as a radio.  the tent on the photo above was the one i bought in mong kok. 

all images taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II  and panoramas stitched with Adobe Photoshop Extended CS5.

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hotel room drama

this photo was taken spring last year, in villa sassolini, in italy's tuscany.  i'm showing this because i liked this room so much (this is actually a huge living room adjoining wil's bedroom - this was the only unit with such a room, with a long communal table in the middle which we used as our very own hq in the hotel) that it inspired me to write a short story that the divas are helping me turn into a short film.  they will play themselves, of course, and hopefully we'll be able to find someone to play a character that michael would've been able to do (he has since moved to thailand).  anyway, knowing these strong-willed divas who'd insist on what they want, i won't be surprised if this ends up nowhere.  the least i can do is finish the script, then i can at least declare that i did something.

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a little boat trip to picton, new zealand

this is what you see when you take the ferry (huge, more like a ship) from wellington to the south island. amazingly beautiful. the color of the water was just insane.

oni and libs (above, posing as honeymooners) took me on a ferry ride (their treat, yay!) that day to show me the beauty of their adopted homeland.  oni's brother-in-law, ronald works for the ferry company, food on board was his treat (double yay!). he also gave us a tour of the bridge.

 the small town of picton, gateway to the south island of new zealand and the ferry's destination.




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the libunaos

 © Joselito Brionesyep. that's a roasted pig's head right there. there was another pork dish (inihaw) and pancit. all made by libs, yummy food from the heart (and in the pork fat's case, straight to the heart) - libs said he woke up early to prepare all of it, he had to, as i arrived in wellington airport from sydney late morning and he volunteered to pick me up. i had not seen him for a few years but it felt like just a few months since i saw him and oni.  all this time i assumed it was oni who was in charge of the kitchen, tho in hindsight i can see how it turned out to be libs (tomador - necessity of pulutan, makes sense).

  © Joselito Briones

 the occasion? marielle's birthday, and oni and lib's wedding anniversary.  the whole family was there.

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fine dining by the quay

 

on top of marco's list of "splash out" restaurants - harvey and i went to one of sydney's finest dining places - "quay restaurant".  great-tasting innovative food (and so pretty!), great service, awesome view.  we had a 4-course meal. well worth the price tag :)

either harvey was already very drunk (they also had an excellent selection of wines) when these photos were taken or he really didn't want me in the pictures, but i guess it worked out for the best :)

Quay Restaurant
Upper Level Overseas Passengers Terminal Circular Quay West
Sydney 2000, Australia

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