Yala National Park Sri Lanka Travel Photography

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We decided to try a Taxi down the escarpment and onto the plains far below to Tissamaharama where most people spend the night before an early morning safari expedition into Yala National Park.  Yala has the highest density of leopard on the planet but is still a huge park (378 sq miles) and chances of a sighting were very slim.  We hired a private jeep and guide that would take us into the park arriving a little earlier than most to beet the crazy Sri Lankan queueing system.  We did manage to get near the front of the second queue of jeeps at the parks gate awaiting the 6am opening.  Once inside, jeeps raced by us trying to get prime positions for any wildlife viewing.  Luckily our driver was great and didn’t get sucked in to the mad rush.  Our luck was in as the first stop near a watering hole we managed to get prime viewing of a leopard (not the best shot sorry as we were a long way off).  The magic moment was soon spoiled however as jeeps were jockeying for position.  In the mayhem that followed we were soon totally hemmed in with jeeps all around us, the ones behind having no view at all with drivers and guides getting very agitated.  By this time the leopard had enough and slunk into the long grass for a nap – who can blame him?  About 30 minutes later we’re on our way to explore some other areas of the park.  Some of the animals we saw included Water Buffalo, Wild Boar, Monitor lizards, Chameleons, Mongoose, a lone Bull Elephant, strutting Peacocks, Dear, Crcodile and Monkeys – can anyone spot the Elephant shaped rock?  The bird life was amazing, with Owls, Eagles, Indian Rollers, Pelicans, Sunbirds etc.  We managed sightings of three of Sri Lankans 7 Kingfishers – the Common, Pied and White Throated and also 3 Bee Eaters which I’ve always wanted to photograph – the Green, Blue Tailed and Chestnut Headed.  The beautiful Orange bird with the long tail is an Indian Paradise Flycatcher, we also saw an Asian White version which was also stunning but couldn’t get a shot unfortunately!  The next stop on our tour is the coast and Tangalle………..

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Ancient Cities Sri Lanka Travel Photography

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We travel north of Kandy to the country’s cultural heartland, firstly to the ancient Sinhalese capital of Polonnaruwa, a small town siting on the edge of a large beautiful reservoir or tank as they are known locally.  We decide to brave the local bus instead of the tourist A/C bus and weirdly prefer it as the driving is not quite so crazy and with all the windows open it’s cool enough. We spent a memorable day cycling around the large archaeological park discovering the many ancient temples, tombs, statues and stupas, also some local wildlife including many monkeys and a few rather large monitor lizards.
We travel an hour West to Sigiriya, probably Sri Lankas most iconic sight.  The near vertical walls of the rock rise out of the surrounding jungle plains.  We climb/scramble up the neighbouring rock Pidurangala for a breathtaking evening sunset view.  Typically we are last off and have to climb down in the dark, good job we remembered the torch and lucky that our tuk tuk driver climbed with us and knows the way.  He is even more helpful the next day and takes us to a sunrise viewpoint and then offers to drive us back to Kandy, a 3 hour trip which proved more relaxing than the buses – apart from the Kandy traffic.
Our next adventure is our first Sri Lankan train ride into the Hill Country.

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Cua Dai Beach Vietnam

Cua Dai Beach Vietnam

After taking bicycles from Hoi An to Cua Dai Beach (literally means big sea mouth), we decide it would be a great place to spend a night on the way back to Da Nang.  Cua Dai Beach is a 2 mile stretch of palm fringed fine white sand and gently rolling breakers with the Cham Islands lying just offshore. Running parallel, about half a mile back from the beach is a gently winding estuary, a hangout for the local fishermen.  It’s a great place for photography, with sunsets on the estuary and sunrise at the beach!  It was still dark when I got down the beach pre sunrise and I was amazed to find so many people already there doing there morning exercise and Tai Chi!  The locals were so friendly, many coming up for a chat, particularly interested whether I liked their country.  I met an old man with a toothless grin who told me (by mime) that he shot down Americans during the war!  It was great to watch the local fisherman negotiating the surf with their early morning catch on their Coracles, slightly different to their Carmarthen cousins, they are made using interwoven bamboo and waterproofed using resin and coconut oil!

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Vietnamese Life

Vietnamese Life

The best time to experience Vietnamese life was to get up early and have a stroll around the local markets.  There is a real buzz in the hustle and bustle of the narrow streets and pavement vendors.  These local markets are a daily occurrence and the fresh produce gets recycled regularly.  When walking around you feel like you’re in a time warp, amongst century old traditions, such an amazing place to people watch.  After a few days of exploring you get to recognise some of the characters, especially some of the ladies who ferry people on the river – a hard life, but it appears to be a happy one!

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My Son Vietnam

My Son Vietnam

My Son, situated about an hours drive inland fro Hoi An was the ancient capitol of the Champa Dynasty.  It is a large complex of religious brick built ancient ruins dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.  Unfortunately most of the temples were obliterated by US carpet bombing during the Vietnam War, many of the bomb craters are still visible today.   We made the mistake of booking a day tour where all the buses and their respective guides arrive at the same time. Our guide was hilarious,  like a Vietnamese drill sergeant – we made the immediate decision to loose him and wonder round ourselves!  Top tip if you’re going to visit My Son, organise a driver and come  in the afternoon when all the buses are long gone!!

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Bohol Philippines

The Island of Bohol Philippines

We met up with Christian, a friend from our Tao Philippines trip and had a great day trip discovering parts of Bohol.  We started at a statue commemorating a 16th century blood compact between the Spanish and Bohols.  Nearby is the Church of Immaculate Conception in Baclayon.  Completed in 1727 and made of coral stone it is considered one of the Philippines oldest churches.  We had a short stop at a butterfly farm before heading off to see the islands infamous Tarsier.  The tiny cute Tarsier is one of the worlds smallest primates.  They are nocturnal hunters feeding mostly on insects and apparently can jump between 3 and 5 metres!  We then travelled through forest, paddy fields and small villages to the Chocolate Hills, Bohol’s best known tourist attraction.  They are very uniform grass covered hills between 30 and 50 metres in height, geologists think they are a weathered Marine Limestone that sit on top of impermeable clay.  I prefer the legend that they came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted for days.  When they were finally exhausted they made friends, left the island and left behind the hills!  We decided not to wait at the main viewpoint for sunset as the direction of light wasn’t great so we headed off-road into the surrounding Paddy fields.  A very friendly local farmer guided us to a perfect spot to watch the sun go down, he even went off and got us some fresh coconuts for us to sip!  In the meantime Sacha had met all the local children and sent them out to make sure we weren’t lost, it was such a shame it was too dark by then to take any pictures.  Running alongside our taxi they gave us a great Philippine sendoff!!!

Panglao Island

Panglao Island Central Visayas Philippines

We flew from Puerto Princesa in Palawan to Cebu City, the second city of the Philippines.  We had an overnight stop here before getting a 2 hour ferry trip to Tagbilaran on the island of Bohol.  From here it was about a 40 minute transfer to Alona Beach on Panglao Island.  We had a great week staying at the Alona Northland Resort, highly recommended if anyone is going that way.  Alona Beach is another big diving centre of the Philippines.  We had a great daytrip to the nearby Balicasag Island, watching the sunrise and spotting some dolphins as we travelled out on the boat.  Balicasag had some of the best snorkeling we had seen in the Philippines, so many fish, it was like being inside a tropical fish tank!  We also stopped off at Virgin Island, a beautiful sandbar – shame about the hawkers selling shells, corals and urchins!  We had some great sunsets on Panglao, the best when we got a local tricycle driver to take us to the end of the island.  There is no way we would have found the spot if we went ourselves so it just goes to show you can’t beat local knowledge.

Palawan Adventure

Our 5 Day Voyage of Discovery through the beautiful Islands of Palawan

We joined 24 other intrepid explorers on a 5 day voyage through the totally unspoilt archipelago between Coron Town and El Nido organised by the amazing Tao Philippines.  The group consisted of nationalities from Wales, England, France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, USA, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Canada & the Philippines.  We were split into two outrigger style boats with A-Mazing crew on each headed by Johan and Jimboy.  We all had our main bags stowed on the boat and had daily access to a day bag which housed your essential items, including a change of swimwear and a toothbrush – what else do you need???  It was so refreshing not having access to any outside communication for 5 days, something we take for granted in our modern lifestyle.  This trip was not about first class travel and luxury accommodation, it was about sleeping on pristine beaches, adventure, deserted Islands, amazing snorkeling and swimming, drinking Rum and making new friends – not necessarily in that order!  We ate lots of bananas, rice and fresh fish which was expertly prepared by the onboard chefs.  The crews of both ships were superb, such good fun!  They did soooo much for us, nothing seemed a chore, always smiling – a huge Thank You goes to them!

Coron Town Busuanga

Coron Town Busuanga Island Philippines

The island of Busuanga is about an hour flight southwest of Manila and is the largest of the Calamian Archipelago in the Northern part of Palawan Provice.  The flight approach in gave us a glimpse of some of the beautiful tropical islands that we would be exploring, WOW!  From the tiny airport terminal (no carousel here!!!) everyone is shepherded into waiting minivans for the 40 minute transfer to Coron Town.  We were staying at the Luis Bay Travellers Lodge, a great position close to the busy harbour where all the island trips depart and just far enough away from the town centre for peace and quiet.  The place immediately had a good feel with the white Coron sign above the town aka Hollywood!  Coron is a real hub for divers and has a number of well preserved Japanese WWII underwater shipwrecks surrounded with coral reef.  We, however were here to relax before our 5 day boat trip to El Nido with Tao Philippines (blog coming soon).  We did organise a daytrip on a small Bangka with our captain Angelo to the nearby Coron Island.  We moored in a beautiful inlet among the sheer karst limestone cliffs and took a steep climb over a ridge to the crystal clear waters of Kayangan Lake a perfect spot for a swim!

Donsol Philippines

Donsol Philippines

We flew into Legazpi in the Bicol region of Luzon Island in the Philippines.  We had a great view of the majestic Mayon Volcano as we landed on the runway.  We were hoping to get some better shots before we flew back to Manila but unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate!  The hour van transfer down to Donsol on the South Coast went through beautiful palm fringed paddy fields and small villages.  The scenery reminded me of some of the Vietnam style war films which is hardly surprising as the Philippines was used in the filming of Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Born on the 4th of July and more recently, the Bourne Legacy.  Donsol is the main place in the Philippines where you can spot Whale Sharks or Butanding as they are known locally.  We stayed at the Vitton Beach Resort which is adjacent to the registration centre and boat departures for the whale watching.  The first evening we were treated to the most amazing sunset, one of the most colourful we have ever seen.  The next morning I went out with another 5 Europeans in search of the elusive whale shark.  It was an exciting trip out into the bay and we all ended up diving into the sea on three sightings and frantically snorkeling to where the shark was spotted.  A couple of people from our boat caught a sighting of the tail but unfortunately I didn’t see a thing so I’ll have to try again another day!