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We arrived for a mandatory stop in Bangkok after 48 hours with no sleep due to the loudest flight of my life. The first stop in Shanghai, a day there and the second flight to destination. After 14 hours sleep (with a breakfast break) we recovered immediately from jet leg and we decided to take a walk around. The subway is brend new, super cheap but with just two lines. The other common way to go around Bkk is Grab, the risk is to be stucked in the traffic for a looooooong time.
Bangkok is hot and humid but most of all polluted, shamefully polluted, so bring a mask with carbon filters. The others are simply useless. The city is a real jungle, crowded, full of traffic and people everywhere, with a urban structure completely incomprehensible for europeans, but it's a personal opinion. There're no squares, but areas characterized by big shopping malls. They are used by many locals as meeting points, aggregation areas also for tourists curious to discover the consumer side of the city.
During the firsts walk from the early afternoon I learned that my camera would have been useless till 4pm. When the sun starts to go down the atmosphere gets better. On this side of the world, from 9am there's the worst light possible to take pictures. It's extremely strong, dazzling and annoying.
The next day we started to explore the city. Usually I'm always exited and fascinated about a new place or city that I visit but this time not too much. We decided to visit the Jim Thompson's house during the hottest hours, really nice stop to consider! Later we came back to the chaos and I took time to find interesting subjects, some modern architecture in particular like the King Power Mahanakhon. Bangkok is developing continuously and some new building are coming.
I needed more time to familiarize and get tuned with the context probably because I was also annoyed by the bad and strong smog. I have to admit that after a while I saw some nice glimpses. Actually with the right light Bangkok south east Asia icon, reveals itself as a pretty interesting place for urban photography with its lights and atmosphere.
Later we arrived in China Town and there things changed completely. The area, despite being a real mess, is definitely interesting and curious, an incredible place for street photography. Neons, banners, stands with several varieties of food, people everywhere, a crazy area.
We stayed away from street food, our stomach are not strong enough and the smell wasn't so good everywhere. I still don't understand this thing of a mandatory stop in Bangkok as a capital of street food. We chosen a place that was actually nice but...I spent the next 32 hours lying in my bed at the hotel walking just to the bathroom.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't the food (I was the only one sick) but probably the criminal air conditioning in the subway that blocked my digestion. Man A/C in Bkk is seriously crazy, don't try to be brave like me. Bring always something to cover you while inside there, taxis are well refrigerated as well, so be prepared!
While recovering we made a plan dedicating the next days to something topically touristic and something bit off the beaten track walking randomly. I'll tell you about this in the next chapter.
Cheers
#streetphotography #architecturelovers #urbanphotography #jungle #eosr #canonphotography #bangkok #thailand #asia #landscape #igersthailand #igersbangkok #igersbkk #bkk
New year, new adventures. Even if I was in Tokyo during the first week on 2020 I consider the one i'm doing the first trip of the year because I arrived in Japan for the NYE, anyway I'll tell you about that another time. But now back to Asia for the longest trip
I always wanted to visit Myanmar, it's a place that fascinated me for a long time. This year I decided to use part of my holidays to visit it. Going through China just for one day, some days in Bangkok to finally reach Yangon. The trip will continue first to Kuala Lumpur, Philippines and finally Bali.
My aim is to tell you about my trip throughout my pictures (I'm a photographer remember?) so even if I'm going to tell you something specific. I won't mention every hotel or bar or restaurant where I've been, anyway feel free to contact me about particular questions.
This time even if I was going back to Asia for the longest trip I left with the lightest luggage ever. Because of the warm places where I'm going and because of Air Asia. It requires strictly one baggage (your small bag inside the big one) for a maximum weight of 7kg....
My backpack with the camera and documents was bit lighter this year. I brought my new Canon EOS R, my Canon 24-70 f/2.8 II USM and obviously the control ring mount adapter. I know it's just one lens but I'm going to move often and I'm on holiday after all. Anyway that is the best combo for travel photography helping a lot also when the light is gone, especially for street.
Sometimes I missed a 70-200 but I would have needed another luggage for that. Anyway for the future i'm seriously considering to bring just a camera with a prime lens to be used quickly in every kind of situation. Usually I travelled with the 5D Mark 3 and it was very heavy, but anyway the Canon 24-70 is the heavier thing I got. So it will be necessary to sacrifice quality, hopefully not too much.
During this trip I brought also my iPad Pro to be able, while not moving, to edit my pictures and to save a lot of time once back home.
Yes, my holidays are in winter. I'm a photographer and a tour guide in Venice and in January/February nobody wants a photo tour or a tour around the city. Plus millions of people are scared for no reason about the high tide even if everything was ok after 10 days. Sooooo many many may cancellations and no work for me! Don't worry I will work a lot when you'll having fun in summer!
In the meanwhile feel free to check my websites to enjoy your favorite photo tour or photo shooting or if you want to discover Venice with me and get the most from your stay there!
Back to Asia for the longest trip, the first stop of our flight was by Shanghai. We stopped there on purpose to spend a day in a new city (coronavirus was still unknown! anyway I never got sick and I always felt pretty good). Even If we were super tired after a long noisy flight we decided to book a four hours walking tour. We wanted to enjoy a good introduction to Shanghai and visiting the most interesting spots.
It's a huge city with more than 29mln people and there so many different aspects. Aspects characterizing its urban structure able to offer endless street photography opportunities.
Since the beginning anyway, also according with the guide's information, the city should have been way more fascinating during the 30's. Now it's obviously ultramodern even if preserving a bit of that allure in some buildings.
We were there few days before the Chinese New Year so the atmosphere was pretty vibrant and nice. The city even if modern, is dirty, smelly and incredibly polluted. Even the most famous skyline of the city in the beginning was almost invisible due to the smog. The air was heavy and insane and unfortunately I didn't have a mask. The simple ones without carbon filters are completely useless in that case.
Then walking around we enjoy the traditional neighborhood with the celebrations for the Chinese New Year. We had some food in typical places and we enjoyed for a while the vibrant vibes of this huge city waiting for the dark.
We wanted to enjoy the amazing games of light of the skyline, so remember, wait there till 6pm, be patient, it's worth it!
After that we run to the first subway stop (ridiculously cheap) to take the Maglev to reach the airport, direction Bangkok.
Cheers
#shanghai #china #layover #streetphotography #urbanphotography #eosr #canon2470 #travel #architecturelover #skyline ##igersshanghai #igerschina #canonphotography #nightphotography #shanghai_highlights #asia