Pawan Blog

After returning back from Bali, my friends asked plenty of question about trip planning to Bali. Thought to share few tips which may help you if you are planning a trip to Bali -

• Bali is not a small island. From Kuta (South) to Singaraja (North), it takes 3 hrs of drive.
• Weather in South Bali is hot, but at highlands like Bedugul or Kintamani it is pleasant.
• Uluwatu temple (at cliff) is full of naughty monkeys, be careful if you are traveling with kids. Having any edible items or wearing any shiny objects like goggles, ring or chain is not recommended.
• Gunung Kawi Temple has very long downhill path of stairs, it will be tiring trip if alone and very tiring with young kids, note that its hot their.
• Road condition is good but mostly 2 lane roads one to for each way.
• If you can plan your trip in weekday it will come much cheaper. You can always keep an eye on airlines and hotel rates. I used www.tripadvisor.com for reviews and www.hotelclub.com to book hotel, while AirAsia for air ticket, its 2 and half hour away by air from Singapore.
• You need not worry about local transport, your hotel can arrange best option.
• If you love photography 3 days will not be sufficient, as there are plenty of panoramic natural landscape to shoot.
• Locals are friendly, cheerful and helpful.
• Food is good and you can get whatever you want. We had 3 very good North-Indian dinners.
• Over all its a very beautiful island for a long vacation.

Its very sad that such a beautiful place faces a couple of terrorist attacks.

• Will return back on Sunday evening, please don’t try to reach me on my phone, but you can keep on posting your messages and text.

• Was feeling heavy; so took MC.

• Still need to pack few things.

• Search for GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filter has taken a lot of time, have a 1 GIG, micro-SD with adaptor and it works with camera, but have only one battery.

• Battery is charged, shouldn’t be a problem if I am not unlucky.

• I have more camera accessory than my canon bag can keep, dreaming to have a bigger bag.

• Kept tickets, hotel booking, ICs, passport and re-entry permit, but need to double check before leaving.

• Have to look into kids’ belongings, especially their food and medicines, their pack their cloths and mine too.

• My ticket has flight timing as 8:30, while Changi website shows 8:00, not sure which is the correct, will be there at 6, its terminal 1.

• There will not be any mobile or laptop for coming 4 days, don’t get me wrong, being an addict of these I am not feeling happy .

• Got to go now… have to double check packing…

Keep rocking !!!

The most magnificent feeling for me is when I hug my kids and they lay their head on my shoulder, words are not enough to explain that, those who have kids especially young can understand. It’s just a matter of 2-3 years more and they will be busy in their schools and friends; probably not as available as they are these days. Though having 2 very young kids is a tough job . I must praise efforts of Anshu for taking care of them all the time. It’s a 24X7 job for her without any break, No Sick Leaves, No Annual Leave, nothing.

As far as this Sunday is concern, we were busy doing some shopping for Bali, only packing is remaining, we still have 2 nights, so won’t be a problem. Coming three are work days and I still need to go for cleaning of my camera, viewfinder has got a big particle , not sure how long cleaning will take, else I have to live with it for this trip.

Have to go to bed now, have to wake-up early.

Went to underwater world, kids have fun and I enjoyed shooting… , most of photograph were out of focus though…  have to plan for Bali tomorrow… please take a look of photographs.

Too tired… everything is paining… going to bed…

Japanese sea spider

Jellyfish

Leafy sea dragon

Pink dolphin

Sea lion

Sea lion

Sea lion

Apologies for not logging over last weekend, there was nothing special to log, but past was an eventful week.

To start with, went to watch movie Avatar second time, it was in 3-D this time. This was second time in my life when I watched a movie two times in cinema hall, first was Independence Day. It was little better experience than 2-D, unfortunately I have selected back row and screen was far away, anyways enjoyed second time also. Did some experiments with the 3-D glass and realized that both of glasses of pair are different in color and when I removed the glass every thing went blurred. I never noticed this in my childhood when I was reading 3-D comic books .

Aashis’ birthday was the main event, it was on 2nd of Feb and which was Tuesday. Thankfully everyone invited was present. I was on leave and taking care of arranging things, while Anshu was holding another important end cooking. Menu was “Mater-Paneer”, “Dam-Aaluoo”, “Chooley”, “Pualo”, “Pudina-Raita” and “Kachorian”… and what a excellent food it was… superb… I loved all of them especially “Pudina-Raita”. There were 6 families in total and 7 kids… Its up to you to imagine a house with 7 kids… and all very naughty

Could not take photographs, was busy arranging things

Here I am testing a Hindi line

फिर मिलेंगे…

(See you later)

Bottle Tree is a good place for live sea food lovers, unfortunately for us (especially me) this was not the place, I am here in Yishun (near Khatib MRT) from more than 2 years and almost daily watching the place, but never thought to visit it, may be because it is too near to my place.

It turns out a nice place to chill-out in evening. In our case the purpose was to discuss about our imminent trips in Asia Pacific region. There are many places still to visit, so far we only have confirmation of Bali trip.

• The agenda of the meeting was to explore possibility of Kota Kinabalu or KL and Genting as well as to finalize our trip to Desaru.
• Parties took part in the meeting were Rishi, Sunil and me with families.
• Outcome of “The Meeting” was that Rishi will proceed ahead with finalizing plan to Desaru, Sunil will study and sketch the plan of KL and Genting, while I have explore possible options for Kota Kinabalu trip. Sequences of these trips are as following -

1. Desaru coming weekend or next depends on comfort of a couple of other families (Rajeev and Dileep). Sunil is not coming in this trip .
2. Kota Kinabalu during 3 day off of Good Friday.
3. KL and Genting will be a weekend trip, any weekend but at least in a gap of 2 weeks other 3 trips (3 rd one is our Bali trip, unfortunately only me and Sunil are going to this).

Here are few photographs of Bottle Tree Park-

A Dead Tree near Khatib MRT

The Bottle Tree

Pond of Bottle Tree Park

Pond of Bottle Tree Park

Had two excellent dinners last week, one of traditional Chinese cuisine and one of Thai. Guys add my name in list of new Chinese cuisine fan .

Night life at Clarke Quay is fascinating. Posting few photographs of the place… more lately, I have to go Mustafa now…

Clarke Quay

Clarke Quay

Clarke Quay and Singapore River

This is addition of one more name in my list of outings… view from the marina barrage was breathtaking, so as the wind…  it was blowing too hard for my “Cheap” tripod , it was shivering like I use to shiver after taking bath in winters. I am definitely not going to buy a good and heavy tripod; it was just a rarest occasion and will not be often.

We must need to have a zero vibration of tripod while shooting for long exposure, what I consider as long is anything greater than 1/125 sec, most of us can take a hand held clean shot with 1/125 sec, though in my case the exposure was for 10-30 seconds… at one point of time my camera demanded more than 30 seconds and this was the time when packed it to my way back home.

Kites

Dusk at Marina Barrage

Defining building at dusk

Few seconds fused togather

I love this place, its very photogenic… though composition is little challenging

Singpost Fountain