Once again we stayed at the wonderful Accord Metropolitan, ate at our favorite eatery: Murugan Idli Shop, finally visited the beach, and took a day trip to Mamallaburam.
Below are some of my favorite captures from our days in Chennai. You may also enjoy seeing my posts for our stay in Mumbai and Kerala.
We took a day trip to Mamallaburam in Tamil Nadu.
Below are some of my favorite captures from our days in Aluva, Kochi, Kerala. You may also enjoy seeing my posts for our stay in Mumbai and Chennai.
Below are some of my favorite captures from our day in Mumbai. You may also enjoy seeing my posts for our stay in Chennai and Kerala.
Below are some of my favorite captures from our day trip to Bruges. You may also enjoy seeing my posts for our stay in Brussels and Gent.
Below are some of my favorite captures from our day trip to Gent. You may also enjoy seeing my posts for day trip to Bruges and our stay in Brussels.
Below are some of my favorite captures from our time in Brussels. You may also enjoy seeing my posts for our day trips to Bruges and Gent.
Below are some of my favorite captures.
Upon crossing the border from Uganda to Rwanda, one can’t help but notice several differences. Rwanda puts more emphasis on ensuring their streets and public areas are clean and tidy. There is no trash in the streets. There are no vendors on the sides of the street. There are very few motor vehicles. People mostly ride bikes or walk. People on motorcycles are limited to a quantity of two, opposed to Uganda in which whole families ride on a single motorcycle. The roads are all paved, in contrast to Uganda’s mostly dirt roads. Rwanda is big on rules and they enforce them. These changes are no doubt related to, and appear to very intentionally seek to uphold an appearance of being put together, to be diametrically opposed to the Rwanda of the 90s. As a country, and as a community, they actively educate about the genocide and the events which led to its horrific climax: those 100 days between April and July of 1994. The Rwanda of today isn’t afraid to talk about and to educate about Rwanda’s history, in an effort to prevent history from ever repeating itself.
The Rizizi Tented Lodge was our favorite place we stayed throughout our entire Uganda and Rwanda trip. The tented lodges consist of 9 luxury tents. The front half living room/sleeping area consists of a permanent canvas tent and the back half, which houses the shower/bathroom, of each structure is constructed of concrete, tile, and stonework. All 9 tents are connected to the main lobby area and restaurant by a very long elevated boardwalk. Under the boardwalk, along one side, is an electrified wire. This wire prevents animals from getting too close to guests and staff. Because the tented lodges are inside of Akagera National Park, these wires are the only thing protecting us from hippos and other animals, which may cause us harm. Vervet monkeys are free to road all around the boardwalk and they are totally harmless to humans. They were a lot of fun to watch as they are mischievous and rather funny. Our evenings were filled with the wonderful sounds of hippos. I will never forget falling asleep to the sound of hippos. It was a truly magical and incredible place. If you go to Rwanda you have to stay at the Rizizi Tented Lodge. The staff are phenomenal, the food was delicious, and their house-made teas were fabulous. Throw all the incredible wildlife in the mix and you have basically heaven on earth.
We visited Rwanda in the off-season of coffee harvesting. It was still a wonderful experience to chat with the folks growing coffee for Akagera Coffee and learn about the stages of coffee production. We also got to plant our very own coffee tree. Maybe we’ll be able to find it when we go back to Rwanda someday.
While in Akagera, we saw monkeys, baboons, elephants, hippos, white rhinos, masai giraffes, water buffalo, topi, impalas, antelopes, zebras, crocodile, warthogs, and numerous beautiful birds. Akagera is not as flat and open as Queen Elizabeth National Park is, in Uganda. You have to drive quite far (an hour or so) through Akagera’s roads before you come across a lot of animals. Animals are also harder to spot, as there is much taller ground coverage and vegetation.
Our time in Rwanda was the perfect amount of time for this trip. Kigali, as a major city, was nice to visit, but we were happy to spend most of our time away from the city, surrounded by wilderness and wildlife. If you were to ask my spouse and I which country we preferred more, we would say Uganda. It’s more of what we’re accustomed to and prefer. We couldn’t help but to draw some comparisons to India and Asia, in general. There are more people in India, of course, and there is much more activity going on all the time, in comparison to Uganda. Uganda is quiet. Rwanda is even more quiet. In India, there are fewer people sitting around doing nothing outside. People are selling things, talking to people, walking around, and working on projects/items to sell. Uganda is filled with folks sitting in front of their homes, seemingly doing little. People sit around outside as if they’re waiting for something. Maybe they are, or maybe it simply makes socializing easier. Whatever the reason, it’s wonderful to see people outside, compared to Rwanda where people are doing things, but not with the same volume as Uganda. In Rwanda, you can’t sell things along the sides of the street. As a result, there is little happening as you drive down the road. It’s a clean, smooth, scenic drive, but not nearly as visually stimulating as Uganda. That may sum up Rwanda well. People are very friendly and it’s a beautiful country. Akagera is an incredible park.
]]>This post highlights some of my favorite photo captures of our trip. In total, I captured 7,000 images. Of those, they were culled down to only the best 731 images. Our East Africa trip is divided into two posts, one for each country we visited.
If I were to go on a safari trip again, and one which includes significant portions in very dense forests, I would rent or purchase a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. The 2.8 would have let in more light and kept my ISO down to more favorable levels. The Fujifilm 16-80 f/4 was almost perfect for dense forest with limited light, however, the X-T3’s autofocus is not close to Canon’s and when you’ve been hiking for over an hour, mostly up hill with uneven terrain, and you finally come across gorillas, but you’re a sweaty mess; Canon’s ability to see better than you can is invaluable. What isn’t so awesome is the EOS R7’s high ISO (12800) noise level. Had I not had foggy glasses (due to hiking, wearing a mask and it being humid) the entire time we were with gorillas, the Fujifilm would have been perfect adequate, as my ISO never went above 6400. So, again, for gorilla tracking, if I were to do it again, I would put a 70-200mm 2.8 on the Canon, but still bring the 100-400mm for birds and for tighter wildlife portraits. Overall, I am very happy with my captures. I have yet to use de-noise software, but maybe staring at some of these 12800 ISO images for a while will make me reconsider.
While in Uganda, we traveled around a lot. In total, we stayed at 5 different hotels/lodges. We tracked chimpanzees in Kibale National Forest, visited Queen Elizabeth National Park for game drives, took several boat rides to view hippos, elephants, water buffalo, and, perhaps the central highlight of the trip: tracked gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.
Our trip was unforgettable and one we’ll carry with us for the rest of our lives.
The following images were either captured while in motion, traveling between locations in our guide’s Land Cruiser, or they were captured while walking around near wherever we were staying.
The following images were mostly captured from the lodges in which we stayed. Others were captured while in motion, moving between locations, in our guide’s Land Cruiser.
We saw so many colorful, interesting, or just plain weird looking birds.
Our chimpanzee tracking experience was wonderful. Unfortunately, on our outing the chimpanzees refused to come down from the trees they were sleeping in, but I was still able to get some decent shots. The hike through the Kibale National Park was fairly easy and mostly over flat terrain.
Hippos everywhere! We absolutely couldn’t get enough hippos on this trip. Most of the captures below were taken from a boat while in the Kazinga Channel.
Elephants are the best. I will never get tired of watching elephants. Many of the captures below were taken while in a boat on the Kazinga Channel or while in a vehicle at Queen Elizabeth National Park.
We saw a couple lions while in Queen Elizabeth National Park. We were fortunate enough to see one in a Euphorbia candelabrum, however, unfortunately, it was quite far from our vehicle and at the end of my lens’ focal range (600mm). I’m happy to have captured some photos, but do wish the lion was a bit clearer/less noisy.
We learned about “loser” buffalos. A loser buffalo is an older buffalo who is too slow to keep living with the herd. Loser buffalo are kicked out of the herd and must live their remaining days alone or with other losers. It’s sad, but I suppose it’s a necessary part of the life of water buffalo.
Our gorilla tracking experience was intense. Our group hiked mostly uphill through the mountains for an hour and a half before finding the gorilla family we were tracking. Once we were with the gorillas we had to put on our face masks (to protect the gorillas from any possible diseases we may have and to protect us from any possible disease any gorilla may have). We were able to hang out with them for an hour before hiking back to where we started. The whole experience lasted around 4 hours. The most difficult aspect of capturing images of the gorillas, and one which I did not prepare for, was the fact that I’d be a sweaty mess, with foggy glasses, and unable to effectively see the gorillas through my camera’s viewfinder. Thankfully, my Canon’s autofocus could see better than I could and it captured some great images. I mentioned this at the top of the post, but I have to mention it here, too, that the noise levels in some of these images is less than ideal. I was shooting an ISO of 12800 due to lighting conditions in the dense jungle, coupled with not using a fast lens – one with an aperture lower than f5.6. If I were to go gorilla tracking today, I would rent a 70-200mm 2.8 lens and call it a day. So if you’re going gorilla tracking, please, learn from me and rent or purchase a 70-200mm 2.8 equivalent lens. I adore Fujifilm, but their autofocus can not match the Canon EOS R7. If I could have seen the gorillas well through my Fujifilm viewfinder, I think the 16-80 f4 would have been almost perfect. Having a bit more length would have been perfect, which is, again, why a 70-200mm 2.8 would have been perfect. Okay, end rant.
One other challenge to effectively capturing photographs of the gorillas is that where we had to stand/sit while with the gorillas was precarious at best – full of thick vegetation and tree roots.
Toward the end of our time with the gorillas, one of the trackers was clearing debris/vegetation between the male silverback shown below and the rest of the family who we couldn’t see from our vantage point. The tracker got a bit too close and the silverback wasn’t happy about it and charged the tracker. No one was hurt, thankfully, just scared. We left with a story to tell.
Uganda is an incredible place to visit. While driving across the country, one can observe so much activity. Every town is packed with activity and things to see. If I had to pick my two favorite parts of visiting Uganda, they would be: visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park and the entire experience gorilla tracking. If you were to ask me to name what our favorite lodge/sleeping accommodation was, I would tell you all about the fantastic Chimpanzee Forest Lodge, its good food, friendly staff, and its beautiful scenery.
At the end of my forthcoming post on Rwanda, I will post some thoughts about the differences we observed between Uganda and Rwanda.
]]>Culturally speaking, Hawaii feels much more Asian than it does American. In that respect, visiting Hawaii almost feels like visiting another country. The Hawaiian language is still spoken to this day and there is much culture to learn about and explore. The local foods are a unique combination of and/or inspired by Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Portuguese foods, to name some of the big ones. The plantation workers of the late 1800s shaped much of the Hawaiian staples still common to this day. From plate lunches to shave ice, Hawaii has a ton of deliciousness to consume.
For most of our trip we stayed near Waikiki Beach at the Coconut Waikiki Hotel. It was a great location and we wouldn’t hestitate to stay there again.
While reasearching things to do and foods to eat while in Oahu, we stumbled across one of our favorite YouTuber couples, Amanda and Felix Eats. Because of their videos we had a full list of foods to try and areas of Oahu to explore.
Below are my favorite photo captures from our trip.
I realized while assembling images for this post that we didn’t take that many pictures of the delicious food we ate. Below are photos of some of the food we enjoyed.
The North Shore on Oahu was our favorite place to be. On any future trip to Oahu we would look for a place to stay on the North Shore. I’m fairly certain I saw Jack Johnson at Turtle Beach as he was getting into his vehicle (Toyota Tacoma). I did not take a picture gallery of Jack Johnson, but we did get to observe and photograph a Green Sea Turtle snoozing on the beach and then slowly move back into the ocean.
Toward the end of our trip we stayed on the Kapolei side and drove north to the northwestern tip of Oahu. This was our favorite hike on Oahu and a must-do if you visit the island. The hike is 7-miles round trip. The final portion of the hike is a fenced-in area home to the Ka’ena Point Ecosytem Restoration Project. Here you will find monk seals, albatross, other native coastal species, along with native plants of Hawaii - restoring it to pre-colonization.
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