Hey folks, long time no see. I have not posted for almost two weeks, but the reason is very simple: I’ve been super busy prepping for my first proper photo exhibition coming up in the first week of August. Some of you got the invites already, some of you are 15000 km away so getting here would be rather tricky, but never the less, so far it’s been a very exciting process.
Finding the right gallery, selecting what to put up from over 25’000 photos taken, deciding how to print (matte or gloss, border on no border) and how to frame (glass, wood, foam board, clip board, pegs, anything I could think of) etc.
2 months to go and I think I’m in a good place. TAP gallery has been booked, final 100 photos have been selected, will print majority as A4 and 20 best ones on A2, to really get the impact. Finish will be matte and presented on quality foam boards to allow for various framing options, quite happy with the decision, but if you believe I’m making a terrible mistake and you have a better suggestion, please let me know, as stuff has not been printed yet.
Forgot about the final teeny weeny thing, I finally have a hefty budget estimate of 2000 dollars, what it will cost me to put up this show, so any suggestions on potential sponsors and partners that could help cover the costs are very welcome! Have a few ideas lined up already, but the more the merrier, wish me luck and for those who will be in Sydney in August, please do come down to TAP Gallery and say Hi!
Posts Tagged 'Travel'
Preparing for the exhibition
Published May 24, 2012 Photography , Life 1 CommentTags: Travel, Photography, photo, exhibition, sydney, tap gallery, 100 countries under 30
Peek-a-boo
Published April 11, 2012 Life , Travel 1 CommentTags: byron bay, easter, gold coast, kangaroos, koalas, long weekend, Peek-a-boo, surfers paradise, Travel
Finally I got a chance to get close and personal with the most Aussie of all Aussie animals – koalas. We spent Easter weekend on the Gold Coast and Byron Bay, catching up on some beach time, family time and wildlife. Among the fun and games was a visit to wildlife sanctuary. It made me 49 dollars poorer, but it was well worth it, so much better than the zoos. I got to hang out with plenty of koalas (who were not too entertaining as they mostly sleep during daytime) and also lots of roos who were doing all kinds of weird stuff. Being used to visitors and no fences, they were blocking pretty much most of the walkways, just laying on their backs with legs up (like cats do, but just imagine 60 kg kangaroo doing it), eating from hands (like this dude), doing yoga (and this dude) etc. In short, plenty of fun.
Got some pretty sick aerial shots of Surfers Paradise beach, too. From the top of tallest building in the area – Q1. 21 dollars well spent,especially if you have a sunny day and zoom lens with you.
There’s nothing like a nice old long weekend away to recharge your batteries, hope you had a good one, too.
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SYD-SIN-CMB-BAH-DOH-KWI-DXB-MCT-DXB-MLE-SIN-SYD
Published April 1, 2012 Photography , Travel 2 CommentsTags: 100 country challenge, 99, maldives, middle east, Sri Lanka, Travel
Yay, I’m back down under, with 99 countries under belt. Only one left to go, and I still have 3 months to do it, magic.
As you can see from the title, the last mammoth trip was a biggie, 7 countries and lots of flights.
Some of the highlights: checking out some leopards from 5 meters away (in the wild) in Yala National Park, get mesmerized by Burj Khalifa (at 828m tallest building in the world) and getting lost in Dubai Mall (yes, you guessed it, largest in the world), snorkeling with sharks in Maldives, seeing green sea turtles hatch eggs in Oman, smoking shisha and drinking lots of tea in Qatar, lots and lots of elephants in Sri Lanka, hanging out for hours in Kuwait Souks (traditional markets).
Here is a quick photo journey from the trip to share with you. Have a good day.
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Why you come to my country?
Published March 13, 2012 Travel 1 CommentTags: airport, arrival, Bahrain, tourism, Travel
Conversation taking place between me and immigration officer of Bahrain upon arrival.
Officer: “Why you come to my country?”
Me: “Tourism, as per landing card”
Officer: “Yes, but why you come to my country?
Me: “Just visiting, seeing sites, eating local food, spending dollars, you know”
Officer: “…(long pause, i.e. The tourist box on the landing card is there, but you’re not really supposed to tick it)”
He proceeded to check on computer if I’m blacklisted as a known operative of social disturbance or other unwanted activities. After nothing checked out and there was no reason to detain me, he was forced to let me through (with the grunt).
So much for a warm welcome. You see, Bahrain is not known to be a tourist destination. So if you’re curious and still want to see places off the beaten track, places like Bahrain, you’re in for a pickle. 99.9% of foreigners are her for work (banking, oil, construction) or just transit. If you’re neither of them, nothing works – there is no public transport to speak of (not only from the airport, but anywhere in the city, no buses, trains, trams or tuk tuks, even taxis are hard to get and expencive. There are no budget hotels or hostels as everything is built for business. There are no pedestrian walkways along most of the roads, as you’re not supposed to walk, you’re supposed to drive. There is no culture either, just shopping malls with high end Western brands, shopping is a main form of entertainment for most people.
So in short, would I want to live here or come visit again soon? Hell no. Do I regret coming here for a couple of days? No way, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into (well, kind of).
P.s. Leaving the country proved to be exceptionally easy, pre-booked taxi to airport took 15mins, check in with no queues another 5mins, security and immigration no queues again another 5mins, and that is at busy 8am. All in from hotel to my gate in half an hour. Go figure! Have time for brekkie before heading to Doha.
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Crying elephant tears
Published March 7, 2012 Travel 1 CommentTags: elephants, Sri Lanka, Travel, truth
Yesterday I went to elephant ophranage near Kandy, where dozens, may be even a hundred Sri lankan elephants reside, most of them babies or young adults. It is one of the biggest in the world of it’s kind.
As the masses of tourists got off their air conditioned busses and descended towards the closest herd, I had to think to myself, who was the real elephant in the room.
First we restrict their natural habbitat, then we poach the adults for their ivory treasures and sell them to Chinese, then we put the few suriving todlers in enclave for western tourists to come and see for 20 dollars a pop. And we chain a few of them up close, so that everyone can pat them or take a picture, that’s exactly what every elephant would want at 35 degrees heat in the middle of the day.
I am not questioning the good deeds that may be behind the orphanege, but the sad truth is out there for everyone to see. There is no win for elephants in this fight, no matter which way you look at it, it’s the circus or death.
P.s. No pictures only stories whilst travelling, will upload proper ones once back, was relying on my old IPhone camera, but it can’t tell monkey from the elephant, so not really worth sharing.
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If the road is not challenging, it’s not worth going
Published January 24, 2012 Life , Travel 4 CommentsTags: Travel, middle east, challange, 100 countries, big trip
I’m preparing for my last big trip of 100 country challenge coming up in March, a trip that will cover 7 countries and take me to the total of 99, I can smell the finish line, but I’m not there yet.
I knew it will not be easy or cheap when approaching the end, what I did not know was that I’ll be living in Australia, upss.
In march I plan to go to Sri Lanka, several Middle East countries, such as Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and on the way back finish up in Maldives. This trip will be by far the most expensive short term (less than a month) trip I’ve ever taken, not only flights are ridiculously expensive, I have no close by countries left, and those who are left are not only far but also require visas, which unfortunately are needed for Latvians in most Middle Eastern countries, even UAE (Dubai). There was a point when I regretted not getting UK citizenship and staying proud Latvian, after having that opportunity living 5 years in London. But that weakness is over, you’ve got work with what you got.
So now my focus for next month is to get 4 tourist visas via quite complex requirements to ensure the trip runs smoothly. Wish me luck, I will definitely need it. Will keep you posted how my preparation goes. And keep traveling, world is such a beautiful place.
Tasmania without the Devil
Published January 4, 2012 Travel Leave a CommentTags: australia, devil, island, Tasmania, Travel
Prior to going to Tasmania, a tiny island (actually Tasmania is slightly bigger than Latvia, 68k vs. 64k square km, so not that tiny) off Southern Coast of Australia, the only thing I knew about was the famous little animal – Tasmanian Devil, that only lives on this island. After 7 days on the island that remained the only thing we did not see in the whole trip. Funny how it works. But here is what we did see:
Amazing beaches – Wineglass Bay, Binalong Bay and many others, white sand and deserted most Tasmanian beaches are as good as they come, with a little bit of sunshine they are the perfect place to be.
Amazing wineries – we visited 3 or 4 of them, most offer up to 8 wines for tasting free of charge, my favorite was Bay of Fires winery. Also I totally changed my opinion about Riesling. In Tasmanian cooler climate they do it very fresh and dry, nothing in comparison to sweet stuff you’d normally expect from German/Austrian ones.
Lots of animals – dead and alive. There is so much road kill in Tasmania that it makes me sad, but that is just a further proof how healthy the eco system of this island is, as animals are everywhere. On our hikes and early drives, we saw plenty of wombats, wallabies, opossums and other random things, crawling, jumping and just sitting lazily around in the wild, its definitely their territory and we are just the visitors.
Art – MONA art gallery in Hobart is privately owned and definitely in my top 3 in the world, probably only Saatchi gallery in London would come close. If you like modern art, this alone is worth a visit to Tassie.
Food – there are some top notch eateries for foodies. We had steak from Black Cow in Launceston and it honestly is as good as any top NY or London eatery.
So that’s that, I can highly recommend visit to this far out place, if you get a chance to come to Australia. Here are a few pics for the trip. Hope you’re having good start of the year!
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Me talk long time
Published August 1, 2011 Life , Travel 2 CommentsTags: 100 countries, 2, birthday, second, Travel, two, years
2 years and counting, my blog just had a 2nd birthday, it was a quiet one, slowly chucking away, one step a time, no big announcements to make, but plenty of little actions on the list. I’m getting around 1000 monthly views, up from 6-7 hundred last year, which is not bad.
After 3 months not leaving a country (very unusual for me), I’ve finally booked in some trips, heading to Vanuatu in Pacific for a long weekend, and then hitting Europe in Oct, via South Korea, visiting Armenia and Georgia on the way, so exited. So I should be at 92 countries by end of this year. Will take plenty of snaps to keep you entertained. The coveted 100 is now in sight.
With Sydney’s winter at its best, lingering above 20C, I’m very exited doing more local shoots as well. I’ve had plenty of cancellations lately, but keeping the spirits high, in the long term it will all work out.
On the third point on my list, exploring and getting to know Sydney, I’m doing much better, in last week alone I’ve been to several cool bars had some amazing sushi, couple of great parties, visited Manly beach, Cronulla and Bundeena, sweet.
Mr Holiday and Mr Travel
Published April 26, 2011 Life , Travel Leave a CommentTags: caracas, holiday, mr, Travel, venezuela, worlds cheapest petrol
Meet Mr Holiday, he’s short on time, but flush with cash. He stays in 4 or 5 star hotels with roof-top pools and 7 kinds of cereal for breakfast. He takes taxis to get around and eats out in good restaurants. All in all the good life. It’s a self indulging break from reality, a getaway that feels nice, but can not last forever. Also the margin for error is very small as everything has to be perfect, things have to be on time and to his liking, after all he’s paying for it.
And now meet Mr Travel. His cash is short, but his mind is open. He does not mind waiting 30 minutes to catch a public bus from the airport. He stays in hostels with squeaky double beds or couch surfs to make new friends, he talks to locals, eats where the locals eat and goes where the locals go. Its not always pretty and its often downright difficult, but its damn interesting and definitely always a memorable experience.
Take my recent visit to Venezuela for example, with the worlds cheapest petrol, you pay so little that it is almost for free. The title photo shows that you can get 10 litres of petrol for 1 Bolivar, which is around 15 pence or 25 cents, meaning that you can fill a full tank of petrol for less than a pound. All petrol-heads should go to Venezuela and drive to their heart’s delight. Probably not tourist worthy per se, but definitely interesting.
Holidays are really nice and everyone should have them. I like holidays myself and have had plenty of them in the past. But I prefer travel over holidays. My travels in recent years have taken me to places that I would not have otherwise visited. Places like Kosovo, Albania, Burma, Honduras or Venezuela. They are not on the typical holidaymakers radar, but have offered me the most amazing experiences, I’ve met some very interesting people in authentic environments. If you get bored of your holidays, try out travelling.
Pachamama
Published March 27, 2011 Travel 1 CommentTags: bolivia, carnival, pachamama, rtw, salar de uyuni, salt lake, south america, Travel, trip
Mother earth has given a lot to Bolivians, highest peaks and largest lakes, all the minerals you can dream of and plenty of wildlife on top of that. As my adventure here ends and I get on the plane tomorrow morning for Paraguay, I am still trying to scan and compartment all the diverse things I’ve seen and done here, walking barefoot in wast salt lake of Uyuni, crawling through active silver mines in Potosi 100s of meters underground, mountain biking down the worlds (once) most dangerous road and so on.
It’s been the coldest so far in the 6 month trip, with temperatures dropping to zero at night due to altitude, also Bolivian hotels and restaurants are not familiar with the concept of heating. If it gets cold you just put the jacket on (inside), sitting in restaurant and eating dinner or breakfast with full winter jacket and gloves on is perceived quite normal, so I’ve been counting off the days till I hit warm weather again, Buenos Aires and Rio, here I come.
One thing Bolivians could do is to smile a little more, they are probably the most serious nation in South America, just look at the carnival pics, even there it looks like they are hard at work, must be the cold weather. They are also pretty crappy at service, especially in restaurants, if you sit and wait patiently as a regular westerner, you’d go hungry for a very long time. Once I run an experiment, and it took 10 minutes to get attention and menu, another 15 minutes to take an order, 45 minutes for the main to arrive and another 10 minutes to pay the bill, also the drinks normally arrive after the food, even if its just a coke, so you sit and wait by the empty table like a fool, if you follow the standard western etiquette. That is why I prefer local comedores (eateries) that serve you instantly menu of the day.
Overall verdict, Bolivia rocks, but Bolivians suck, but don’t let that deter you to visit this beautiful country.
Picture set from Bolivia adventures here.
