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Tag Archives: travel photography

on the way to Petra

There are a two ways to go to Petra from the Dead Sea area; via King’s Highway or the Dead Sea Highway. We took the route via the Dead Sea Highway. It’s a challenging route but also one that offers great scenery.We had a trusty and dependable local driver, and I recommend you to get one as well if you consider going. It saves the time of getting lost, avoid the GPS drama and the anxiety of driving in a tricky unfamiliar terrain. The were road signs, but they were somewhat unclear and easy to miss. Along the rocky cliffs, the road is winding, and the twists and turns are very steep and sharp.

The scenery throughout this route was spectacular. What I saw outside my car window was so different from anything that I’ve ever been before, that’s why I was so glad we decided to go along this path. Naturally colourful rocks were around us as we go up and up the mountain. I’ve never been surrounded by this much rock before.

Here was our first stop. We were still by the coastal line, the rocky hill on our left, and the sea on our right. The day was cool and very windy.

The Cliff, Dead Sea Highway, Petra - Jordan

 

Dead Sea Highway, Jordan

 

 

We passed some towns where square-shaped old houses/buildings dominated the area. Bedouin tents peppered the space where the buildings weren’t.

Bedouin Tent, Dead Sea Highway to Petra, Jordan

 

 

 

Half way up the mountain we took a tea break to stretch our legs, toilet run, and really, to take a break from all the twists and turns to get our heads cleared out and our spines straightened. A guy and his many cats in this tiny ‘shop’ welcomed us and served us some tea while we were absorbing the view. The temperature was significantly colder up there, and for the first time it really felt like winter in Jordan.

After this brief stop we were back in the car and set off straight to our destination. Next stop, Petra.

 

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  • yasmine ft dörr23/01/2014 - 9:29 am

    The pictures somehow brought back memories of the time we used to live in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Beautiful pictures, ‘Yu! :-)…ReplyCancel

    • [ayu]25/01/2014 - 1:43 am

      thanks Ming..I wish I could visit Oman in this trip..ah, sudahlah…ReplyCancel

  • Jojor24/01/2014 - 10:37 pm

    Keren!ReplyCancel

52 Portrait Project – 3/52

my boy in Madaba, Jordan

After our visit to St. George church in Madaba, I was surprised to find my son in a very good mood. He is a big games addict and a homebody who hates to be separated from his hand ‘device’ for too long. His pre-teen self gets a bit broody and sulky when the withdrawal kicks in. Anyhow, despite all the driving and playing tourist with us most of the day, he looked very happy and was being very playful on our walk back to the car. And he was also very co-operative and let me take some photos (and not running away from the camera like usual). That’s why I am very glad to be able to capture him like this. His expression showed his joyful mood from that day. The city of Madaba that was beautifully captured in the background makes this portrait even more special for me.

To see him and his very familiar face and looked almost ‘at home’ and so relax in such a new and unfamiliar surrounding, made these images something to behold.

my boy in Madaba 1, Jordan

….aaaand here his cheekiness is BACK.

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St George Church in Madaba, Jordan

The city of Madaba in Jordan is located about 30 km from Amman (the capital city). Madaba is widely known as the City of Mosaic. The first mosaics apparently were discovered purely by chance during the building of permanent housings using squared-up stones from the old monuments. Once the people were made aware of the importance of these mosaics they made sure to take care and preserve all the mosaics that came to light.

Madaba is home to the famous 6th century Mosaic Map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, the Madaba Mosaic Map. It’s made out of two million pieces of vividly coloured local stone that depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta. It covers the floor of the Greek Orthodox Church of St George, just northwest of the city centre. We visited the church right after our scrumptious lunch at Haret Jdoudna in Madaba. (Side note: Please go and enjoy some meals in this restaurant if you happen to be in the area. They serve great meal and the place is really unique. This is not a paid post, btw 😉 ).

St George church, which was built in 1896 AD, is not a very big church, but the amount of mosaics inside was quite impressive. The Mosaic Map was in the middle of the main floor of the church. The map was originally around 15.6 X 6m big,  but only about a quarter of that size is preserved.

Map of Madaba, Jordan

 

 

As it is with most of the other places of worships I’ve been to, the church of st George is adorned by many beautiful ornaments and decorations, which are intricate, old and very special.

 

St George, Madaba, Jordan

These are some shots from outside the church.

Looking at the gate from st George Church, Madaba, Jordan

 

Church Door, St George Church, Madaba, Jordan

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Gardens by the Bay – The Cloud Forest

Gardens by the Bay is my new favourite place in Singapore. As our taxi drove closer, my excitement grew just from the sight that was right in font of us.The domes, the Super Tree constructions, the sheer size of the place was impressive, and quite overwhelming. 

This is the Cloud Forest. The world’s tallest indoor waterfall welcomed you as soon as you entered the dome. The super fine mists in the air freshened and cooled you straight away. Coming from the sunny, hot and humid world outside, this felt super duper awesome. You could feel some cool wind when you stood close to the water fall from the sheer energy of the water that falls from the top of the 35 metre high ‘Cloud Mountain’. You couldn’t help but to look up and forget to close your mouth for a second of two. It was that awesome.

The Indoor Waterfall, Cloud Forest

The Cloud Forest boasts to feature plants from Tropica Montane regions between 1000 to 3500 above the sea level, and offers different experience on each level of elevation. You get to do the Cloud Walk at the top of the mountain, looking at some dripping wet flowers (because the continuous spraying of the mists), or going to the lowest ground to the Secret Garden to see some weird plants that looked unfamiliar and odd. There were also a lot of what I called ‘educational sections’, which equipped with interactive media to share information about the environments.

For me though, I couldn’t get over the dome and its construction. When you walked that catwalk at the top there was just so much to see. Through the thousands of glass panels in many sizes and shapes, you could see the beautiful view outside of the surrounding gardens and the cityscape. Look down and you could see tiny people walking far below you on the ground, all looking up like you did the first time you entered the dome, with their mouths hanging open. And of course, there’s that indoor mountain and that waterfall again.  Who knew that ‘walking in the clouds’ was so much fun.

view from the top, cloud forest

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  • lesleycarter25/11/2013 - 11:13 pm

    Wow! This is going on the list now; it’s amazing. Great photos!

    Lesley
    Bucket List PublicationsReplyCancel

    • [ayu]26/11/2013 - 1:43 pm

      Definitely, Lesley! Gardens by the Bay should definitely goes to the list. Thanks.

      AyuReplyCancel

  • Gardens by the Bay02/12/2013 - 2:11 pm

    We’re glad you enjoyed your visit to the Cloud Forest Ayu – as much as we enjoyed reading your post! 🙂 Hope to welcome you back to The Gardens again soon.ReplyCancel

Kampong Glam part 2

The next destination after I was done with visiting the Sultan Mosque was to check out Haji Lane. After passing the many textile shops who were already in business since 1950s, entering Haji Lane would take you to another time and place completely. The tiny streets were filled with arrays of hip shops, offering coolest stuff made by local designers and entrepreneurs; from clothes, shoes, accessories and cute knick knacks. The tiny colourful independent stores with eclectic designs reminded me of stores that line-up in Melbourne alleyways. Haji lane even had its own graffiti on many of its walls, which made the resemblance to Melbourne even stronger. This resemblance stopped as soon as you left the Haji lane. It was very peculiar.

Haji Lane, Singapore

I realised I had no method nor strategy in the way I explore the area of Kampong Glam, so I ended up sometimes going to the same lane again and again, but from a different direction. At times I found myself just circled around the same corner, because I was too busy shooting away and was not aware where I was going. The following is a series of photographs I shot in Bussorah Street and surroundings (included Baghdad and Kandahar St). The architecture of most of the buildings in Kampong Glam is from their original design (back from 1822) that has been restored, and now painted in vibrant colours.

I think you need more than just one day to explore the whole area. You can use one day just to browse and see what is offered, and spend the next day to actually explore the speciality shops (and do some targeted shopping), going inside the art galleries,  make your own perfumes, and enjoy scrumptious food at restaurants that really interest you.

See you next time, Kampong Glam!

Intersection - Haji Lane, Singapore

 

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  • Rachel Yeoh22/11/2013 - 12:43 pm

    Your photos are absolutely gorgeous! So glad that I happened to stumble across your blog. Thanks for sharing such lovely posts. XxReplyCancel

    • [ayu]22/11/2013 - 4:53 pm

      I love it when people ‘stumble’ across my blog and like what they see. Thanks Rachel! xReplyCancel

      • Rachel Yeoh23/11/2013 - 2:46 am

        It’s my pleasure! Keep it up 🙂 xx ReplyCancel

  • […] See you in part 2. […]ReplyCancel