Memorable Seaside Town

The South West of the United Kingdom is famous for its beaches and seaside towns. A visit to St. Ives immediately became apparent, coupled with recommendations from friends who had visited the town.

The public car park was situated about 10 minutes walk away from the town, keeping traffic congestion in the town center at bay. Cobbled stone roads and pavements snaked around the hillside town with houses and shops closely built together. The path down to the seaside was littered with restaurants, souvenir shops and water sport shops, testament to its status as a vacation destination.

Different from the rocky seaside of Plymouth, one can actually run along the sandy beach on low tide. The weather was perfect throughout our one day visit here. This brought everyone out of the warmth of the living room and brought the chilly, breezy beach to life.

St. Ives has proven to be a relaxing and rejuvenating place to be in:- fresh seafood, cozy restaurants, active beach , warm cottages, fresh flowers, happy holiday-makers.

Castle in the Sea

St Michael's Mount in South Cornwall, bears resemblance to the one in France as they were both built by monks from the same monastery. Both were then expanded due to change of ownership and different parts were added on to diversify its usage. Had we arrived earlier, we would be able to walk on the pathway of stones laid out on the shallow seabed leading from the coast to the island. However the tide was high and we needed to take the boat instead.

The trip itself would have been plain if not for the fact that it was situated on top of the mount on an island, coupled with interesting viewpoints outside the castle. It took some effort to reach the castle, trekking up steep slopes of cobblestoned walkway after a light rain. The castle interior was littered with artifacts and corresponding articles, which kept us occupied only for a short while as we were not historical fanatics. Photos do the place no justice though: the castle, the viewpoint, the landscape, the sea, it all works perfectly to bring out the best of Mont St Michel's twin castle.

Reluctant photograph subject.

Who dares approach the island with all these cannons?

Princess of the castle

When the Shooter, is Shot...

This was the rare occasion when I am NOT short of photos with me in the frame. It always help when you are with another 2 SLRs and 4 compacts shooters lurking around, waiting for the perfect moment to depress the shutter release button. They would come gleefully up to you once they caught you in a compromising position x.O"

Ahhh... the sparks that fly when Nikon meets Canon, not the romantic kind though.

Caution! Lorries with logs up ahead!
The language was correct, however, I cannot seem to recall from past excursions to forests at home, the signs having yellow lorry drawn on them.

No lorries, only the tyres that once rolled with gargantuan mining trucks that excavated the site during construction of the Eden Project. Should've taken extra precaution to the warning on the caution sign...

Fully geared for a day's work of shooting. For the record, I was not sponsored by any companies for this shot, though I would not mind if that were true. ^.^

Sights in Eden

Green tyres... well, I'd found one, where are the rest then...

Emulating Nature's life-giving and nourishing atmosphere in an artificial environment.

The Malaysian gang (minus the photographer) that trampled Eden Project with their oohs, ahhs and never-ending comments. Just a few out of the back of my head...

" ... pineapples also can grow here ah... "
" ... where are the durians?
how to grow here lah... "
" WAH Pandan leaves! "
" TOSHIBA air cond and SHARP TV in the KAMPUNG HOUSE!!! " o.O"

Panoramic shot of Eden Project: -
Art, science, architecture and Nature,
coexisting in a same frame of time.

Garden of Eden

Eden Project consists of gigantic domes known as biomes which houses tropical and Mediterranean plants from all over the world. Seen from Google Earth's satellite imagery, the scale of this massive greenhouse becomes apparent.

The dome consists of hexagons and pentagons that holds them together at the very apex of the dome. The hexagonal cells are actually pockets of pressurized air, working together to insulate the interior of the biomes.

Looks familiar? A kampung house in Eden Project! Complete with sarongs hanging outside the wooden houses on stilts. The only giveaway that this setting was not natural was the presence of the lattices of the biomes.

To complete the image, there were even two Malaysians fanning 'Lemang'- bamboo cooked rice grilled over a coal fire. Talk about nostalgic colleagues working far from home...

A Visitor From London

Accommodation Woes ?

Friend or Foe ?

p/s : More accurately, a visitor from Newbury.

Adios 2008!

Link to YouTube Video used.Use arrow keys for volume control.

This is the last post of the year. Hopefully there will be more photo opportunities in the coming year.

Thanks to my colleague, I don't have to resort to taking self portraits.

They should have mentioned the word 'ruins'. I was expecting big castles which were mostly intact, not just broken walls...

Anyway it turned out to be a good getaway, a relaxing outing.

Happy New Year to all!!!

Castle? Which one? Where?

See, I wasn't making up the part about Tintagel Castle being the birthplace of King Arthur. See that building behind me, far away in the horizon? That's not the castle though. I wonder what that is, might be a church. It was only when we reach the island where the castle was located that I realized that I was expecting the wrong thing.

It should be named 'Tintagel Castle Ruins' ! What we saw on that island were only ruins of the castle that once overlooked the Atlantic. One part of the castle garden which was too near to the cliffs was claimed by the sea. What was left was the bottom part of the walls, an old well, an old storage tunnel and an old chapel altar rock.

This is Camelot. Camelot Hotel. Don't think that any of the Knights used to spend their nights here though. This is a modern hotel with a name from the past.

The wind at the top of the hill was extremely strong, with the temperature slightly above freezing temperature, I was only able to take a few shots before putting my hands back into the warmth of my jacket.

Talk about living on the edge... My friend has a strong appetite for stunning views and locations for photo shoots.

In Search of Arthur's Castle

I was invited by a colleague and his wife to visit the legendary birthplace of King Arthur - Tintagel Castle. I'd always thought it to be Camelot or Avalon. Setting out early in the morning, we arrived there just before noon. This was the first time I see a GPS unit in action, leading us to our destination.

This is the traditional afternoon snack called the Cornish Cream Tea. Anything from the county Cornwall, neighboring Plymouth, Devon, is hence named Cornish. The two muffin-like servings are known as scones, to be served with clotted cream and strawberry jam, spread across the scones. One then has to wash the devilishly delicious combination down with a cup of English tea, I however, broke the taboo and went ahead with coffee instead.

Apparently after looking at the whole album for that journey, this was the only one photo with all three of us in a photo.

The path to the castle wasn't accessible with vehicles, hence, we had to cross streams, walk downhill thread past some lightly frozen paths to the castle entrance.

My camera took the faster way down, however, using the same stream... whee..... swish swosh.... ARGH!!