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| Sunday, 8-Mar-2009 05:29 |
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Chiang Mai, Thailand (4)
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A Young Dancer
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Traditional Dressed
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For A Rainy Day...
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Young Dancers
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The atmosphere within and around Doi Suthep temple is like a daily festival. A delight for the tourists, and an opportunity for donation collectors and small traders.
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| Sunday, 8-Mar-2009 05:16 |
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Chiang Mai, Thailand (3)
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Doi Suthep
This is one one the biggest Buddhist temple amongst hundreds found in Chiang Mai. It is situated in the mountains about one hour's drive from Chiang Mai city.
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| Tuesday, 3-Mar-2009 00:05 |
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Night Market Chiang Mai, Thailand (2)
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Riots of multicolour and patterns in the night market.
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| Monday, 2-Mar-2009 14:18 |
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Short Trip To Chiang Mai, Thailand (1)
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Chiang Mai is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand, and is the capital of Chiang Mai Province. It is located some 700 km (435 mi) north of Bangkok, among some of the highest mountains in the country. The city stands on the Ping river, a major tributary of the Chao Phraya river.
A city that comes alive at night, converting it into a city of 'night market'.
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| Friday, 30-Jan-2009 12:41 |
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Milford Sound, New Zealand (16)
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Milford Sound is a fjord in the south west of New Zealand's South Island, within Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site. It has been judged the world's top travel destination in an international survey, and is acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination. Rudyard Kipling had previously called it the eighth Wonder of the World.
Milford Sound runs 15 kilometres inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by sheer rock faces that rise 1,200 metres or more on either side. Lush rain forests cling precariously to these cliffs, while seals, penguins, and dolphins frequent the waters.
With a mean annual rainfall of 6,813 mm on 182 days a year, a high level even for the West Coast, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world. Rainfall can reach 250 mm during a span of 24 hours. The rainfall creates dozens of temporary waterfalls (as well as a number of major, more permanent ones) cascading down the cliff faces, some reaching a thousand metres in length. Smaller falls from such heights may never reach the bottom of the sound, drifting away in the wind. Fortunately or unfortunately, the day we arrived at Milford Sound the weather was sunny and beautiful, however, we missed the dozens of waterfalls except a few.
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| Tuesday, 27-Jan-2009 01:28 |
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Fiordland National Park, New Zealand (15)
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Fiordland National Park
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Fiordland National Park - Homer Camp
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Fiordland National Park - Homer Camp
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Along the way to Milton Sound, we travelled through the Fiordland National Park. The view was breath-taking with snow-capped mountains in the distance and mountain streams that flow down with very fresh water which came from the melted snow. There are areas that were covered by vast span of multi-coloured lupins.
Homer's Camp was a temporary settlement used while the Homer's Tunnel was being built going through the mountains to Milton Sound.
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| Tuesday, 20-Jan-2009 11:26 |
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Mirror Lake, New Zealand (14)
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We stayed 2 nights in Queenstown. The second day we took an optional tour to Milford Sound which is in the Fiordland National Park. Along the way we stopped at Mirror Lake.
The Mirror Lake is located on the South Island of New Zealand. As you can observe on the picture it reflects the beautiful surrounding, mainly the Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, that’s why it is called mirror lake. It is a beautiful lake quite popular which a lot people visit during their stay in Milford Sound. The lake is also known as Lake Matheson. The lake has been formed around 14,000 years ago by glaciation.
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| Tuesday, 13-Jan-2009 13:26 |
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Lake Pukaki, New Zealand (13)
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Lake Pukaki is a lake in New Zealand's South Island. It is the second-largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north-south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin (the others are Lakes Tekapo and Ohau). All three lakes were created by receding glaciers blocking their respective valleys with their terminal moraine (a moraine-dammed lake). The glacial feed to the lakes gives them a distinctive blue colour, created by glacial flour (extremely finely ground rock particles from the glaciers).
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| Sunday, 11-Jan-2009 05:10 |
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Queenstown, New Zealand (12)
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Queenstown is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand's South Island. It is built around an inlet on Lake Wakatipu, a long thin lake shaped like a staggered lightning bolt, and has spectactular views of nearby mountains.
There are various apocryphal accounts of how the town was named, the most popular suggesting that a local gold digger exclaimed that the town was "fit for Queen Victoria". It is now known for its commerce-oriented tourism, especially adventure and ski tourism. It is popular with young international and New Zealand travellers alike.
A resort town, Queenstown is a centre for adventure tourism. Skiing, jet boating, bungy jumping, mountain biking, tramping and fly fishing are all strong promotional themes.
Queenstown is a major centre for snow sports in New Zealand, with people from all over the country and many parts of the world travelling to ski at the four main mountain skifields (Cardrona Alpine Resort, Coronet Peak, The Remarkables and Treble Cone).
Queenstown also has a reputation for being the 'Adventure Capital of the World'.
Queenstown and the surrounding area contain many locations used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
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| Wednesday, 7-Jan-2009 13:26 |
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Mrs Jones' Fruit Stall, New Zealand (11)
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Enroute to Queenstown will not be complete without stopping at Mrs Jones' Fruit Stall. Apparently all tourist coaches will take a stop at this place as one of their itineraries.
It is situated in Central Otago along the highway from Cromwell to Queenstown. It is actually a fruit orchard belonging, I believe, to Mrs Jones' family who even runs tours into the orchard and has a stall that sells all kinds of fruits, fresh as well as dried ones.
It is interesting for an unsuspecting visitor to hear frequent irregular gun-shot sounds coming from various directions in the orchard apparently to chase away the birds that were trying to eat the fruits.
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