Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

Photo Gallery

I have placed photos here - those I could not fit on the respective webpages.

Schwedagon
Big Stuba at night

Mandalay
Mandalay facing east

Marionet
Puppet Show 1

Volleyball

Created: 3 Nov 2001

I initially made plans to explore Burma and then make my way across the border into western China at Burma's only border crossing up north. I had not made any definite plans wanted to play it by ear... but in the end my trip consisted of Thailand, Cambodia and restricted areas to Burma.

I was away for a total of 5 weeks and must admit that parts of my trip really frustrated me - there were many restrictions in Burma and being in Bangkok at times stressed me because of all the tourists and crowds. I really only went to Cambodia to see the magnificent Angkor Wat - actually I really did enjoy being there. I think my most enjoyable part of the trip was the days I had climbing on the secluded areas of Krabi.


Burma (23 Jul ~ 5 Aug)	Cambodia (6 ~ 10 Aug)	Thailand

There were quite a lot of monkeys at Mt Popa.

Mother & Baby Monkey

The photo above in the middle, shows monkeys that look like they are playing around. They are actually fighting monkeys and can be very dangerous because they bite and also snatch things from you.

They were rather oblivious to me being there, until the flash on my camera went off. Then their attention was on me and they were ready to attack.

I adopted the “monkey mentality” - avoid eye contact and move away backwards - the only way to stop the monkeys from attacking is to not look at them.

Monkey 1

Whilst I was up north, I watched a rather interesting game of volleyball.

I have never seen such dexterity and agility amongst the players!

It was amazing to see how flexible these guys were.

Volleyball Player Photo 2

There is a monastry on Mt Popa - a hill located 50km away from Bagan.

When I was there, it was a cloudy day.

Woman selling petrified wood at Mt Popa

I ran into a woman selling petrified wood - quite silly really, considering the place was covered with it.

Road sign

They must think tourists are stupid! *laugh* I managed to pick up a couple of small pieces to take back with me.

As you can see, there are stacks of them around.

And no... this is not a tombstone.
This is actually a road sign.

Example of petrified wood

You would be surprised how big some of these pieces are - this piece below was actually about a metre long and 40cm wide.

Toilet in Burma

Actually what I found interesting were the toilets in Burma.

My girlfriend tells me that squatting over a toilet is quite common in Asia.

In many of the city areas, they would have toilets as we know them, and they would also have a carved hole in the ground, on which either side, one places their feet on.

Toilets in the rural area are more crude than that - a hole leading into a gaping pit.

However, what I found interesting about these toilets were that recycled running water was used to wash away any excrement. The water is first used for washing one self and then used in the toilets.

As there were a few toilet cubicles a row, sometimes you would see the excrement from a toilet uphill go beneath you! *laugh*

Very clever and environmental system, I think!

Me at Mt Popa

Trying to grab a snooze... *smile*

Like Schweddagon, most of this is real gold as well.

And yes, there is a monkey sitting near my head.

If you click to the next page, you will see that I have taken a series of photos of the monkeys.

I saw the most interesting puppet show, known as the “Mandalay Marionettes”

There were 2 or 3 puppeteers out the front, with a live band of musicians.

Unfortunately, it was more of a show for the tourists, rather than the locals.

It cost 1,000 chats or US$2 per show.

I decided take a 20-hour train-ride to Myitkyinã *laugh* it took 20-hours to get there by train because there was only one track.

It was definitely faster to run next to the train than to travel in it!

We had to wait for the oncoming train to return before we could travel north.

At one point, we crossed a bridge that was so rickety that I thought it would collapse any moment!

Working in the rice fields

Locals working in the rice fields.

Locals using water-buffaloes to plough rice fields.

Jrrawaddy River

The train travelled along the Jrrawaddy River.

It would have been nice if I was able to travel to Mandalay via a riverboat down the Jrrawaddy River.

People living on lake

It was amazing to find out that people live “on” these lakes, by building houses on stilts.

This sort of housing is quite common in many parts of Asia, especially areas where monsoons quite frequently flood an area.

It is also very environmentally-sound, I think, and hurts the Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

Home

24. December 2013 05:05
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Christmas Family Photos 2013

24. December 2013 05:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Every year I do a family photo. This year we decided to use the gingerbread village and the tree as a backdrop.

Merry Christmas.

23. December 2013 05:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Gingerbread Village

23. December 2013 05:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Over the Christmas period Aiden and I have been building a Gingerbread village.

It has been good fun for me to put the houses together and for Aiden to help with sticking on the kandy.

16. December 2013 12:56
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

More Christmas Photos 2013

16. December 2013 12:56 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Tonight I did some more photos...

The plan was to get a photo of Lucas and Aiden together wrapped in christmas lights. It turned out to be impossible to get especially Lucas to sit still, so we eventually gave up and tried to do some individual shots...the photos below are the best of the lot...not great but will have to do. To be honest the best shot of the evening is the one above of Aiden which I took after we gave up with the chain.

16. December 2013 05:01
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Boys best mates

16. December 2013 05:01 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Lucas is growing up really fast and him and Aiden are now best mates doing almost everything together (including fighting).

16. December 2013 04:57
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Garage Lizard

16. December 2013 04:57 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The other day I found this in our garage.

I had to look it up...but it turned up to be a blue tongue lizard but without the stumpy tail we normally see.

I asked Kim if the kids could keep it...but she screamed and said no, so I released it into our garden.

16. December 2013 04:55
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Christmas Banana

16. December 2013 04:55 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

You can tell that Christmas is approaching when Banana's in Pyjamas is wearing a Christmas hat...oh and then there is the cute Santa's helper.

15. December 2013 07:42
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Kims dads birthday 2013

15. December 2013 07:42 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Yesterday it was Kims dads Birthday and we celebrated with a big lunch party with cake and good food.

And Kim was beautiful as ever and Lucas was very handsome...

10. December 2013 12:11
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Christmas Photos 2013 - Candles

10. December 2013 12:11 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Christmas is approaching fast. The Christmas tree is up and Kim is busy shopping for presents for the various people.

The other night I managed to slot in 10 minutes for the first set of Christmas photos of Aiden and Lucas.

I was shooting these with a 50mm f1.4 lens to get the nice blurry Christmas tree lights. This also meant that I didn't have much room to play with when it came to focus...almost impossible with two moving kids whily trying to get the right mood with facial expressions, tantrums etc. Aiden couldn't sit still and Lucas refused to wear his hat. What do they say...never photograph wild animals and children!

7. December 2013 07:54
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Christmas Concert 2013

7. December 2013 07:54 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The other day it was Aiden and Lucas Christmas concert with their daycare centre.

This year they were supposed to dress up in some country's national clothes.

We borrowed some Chinese clothes from KC and they looked very cute in it.

The concert went very well. We were especially impressed how well Aiden was able to follow the instructions and the moves to the various dances.

It was especially funny when they were singing this song with Konitchiwa...Namaste....BULA!!!!

Lucas was also in the first part of the concert sitting down the front with one of the carers.

6. December 2013 07:18
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Big foot playing soccer

6. December 2013 07:18 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Aiden is still playing soccer once a week. Last week he insisted on wearing my shoes instead of his own.

Maybe he was hinting that his old shoes are getting too small.

Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

Home

27. March 2019 14:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Nikko - Japan

27. March 2019 14:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

27. March 2019 14:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Kanasawa Samurai District - Japan

27. March 2019 14:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

25. March 2019 10:03
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Australian Formula 1 grand prix

25. March 2019 10:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

On the weekend I went to the Formula 1 grand prix in Melbourne. It was a work sponsored event with one of our vendors and great access to see the race and the pits.

Here is some of the photos from the event.

5. February 2019 11:02
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Japan - Tokyo fish market

5. February 2019 11:02 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

After Lake Como it was our last day and Italy and was time to go home. We had to return to Milan that evening to fly back to Sydney next morning.

We decided to detour around the lake and possibly stop at some of the villages along the way. At the top end of the lake we came to a T intersection. I told kim that Switzerland was one hour if we turned left and Milan was 2 hours to the right. I asked her if she felt like a quick dash across the border before returning.

Most of the borders to Switzerland (and Austria) are located on the top of the mountain passes since the Mountains was what defined the borders the old days. The road up to this mountain pass was very narrow and full of blind corners. Kim developed stomach cramps on a number of occations on the trip and we eventually came to the conclusion that it was the tension when driving on these roads.

The scenery on the way up there was stunning. It was nice and cool climate and we were soon above the tree line and could see patches of snow on the mountains surrounding up.

The style of houses changed from being traditional italian to be more swiss looking.

Eventually we got to the border. Unfortunately the officer at the post didn't have a stamp to stamp Kims passport.

We had lunch at the border and then returned toward Milan. We had dinner at the southern end of Lake Como and arrived at our airport hotel at 10pm.

I had to return the car to the rental company at the Airport. Fortunately the hotel had an efficient shuttle bus service that made it easy to come back to the hotel. Unfortunately I forgot the cover for my phone in the car so I had to make the trip twice and was pretty knackered (and grumpy) when I eventually got back.

At 6am next morning we were back at the airport returning to Sydney.

Fairly recently we started the boys on Karate.

We thought it would be a good activity for them to build strength, motor skills and discipline.

Especially Aiden is really enjoying it and putting in the hard work at home practicing. He has become stronger throughout the classes which is great. Before we started he had almost no core strength and now he is able to do sit-ups and pushups.

This weekend both Aiden and Lucas were pulled up for their first proper graduation from the white belts to the red belts and they both passed.

Photos from out trip to Bali with a couple of friends and kids.

The Osaka aquarium is massive and very impressive. The centre piece is the massive tank in the middle with two large whale sharks and which is also full of other sharks such as hammerheads.

Tontonburi is know as the chefs/kitchen area. Here you can buy everything needed for a japanese restaurant.

It is also full of actual restaurants and other oddities such as more exotic places. It has what is known as Osaka's best Ramen restaurant (the one with the long counter in the photos below) - and Yes, the Ramen was very good.

Here it is also possible to eat specialties such as the Puffa fish.

It was also one of the few places where I saw real Samurai swords for sale.

Below the Osaka tower is a restaurant area with lots of yummi food.

The area was once a very modern part of Osaka, and worth a visit during the night.

Osaka castle is a beautiful multi story pagoda like castle inside these massive moats and ramparts with several layers of defense.

In Osaka we went to the Toei Film Studio.

This is an area where they have filmed lots of traditional Japanese movies and where they have all the old houses and also some theaters.

It is also used as a bit of an entertainment and cultural area to teach the Japanese about their culture. Surprisingly we seemed to be the only foreign tourists there and it was definitely worth the visit even though we didn't understand a word of what they were saying.

While in Japan we had to try a traditional Japanese bathhouse. We found a small one in the suburbs of Osaka that had good reviews and was also suited for the boys.

As most of the bath houses men and women are in different sections, so I took the boys with me which was a fun experience for them.

The bath house had a section that was full of yellow rubber ducks, and the boys spent a fair amount of time playing with them.

It also had a lot of other pools that varied from really hot to freezing cold pools as well a various mineral baths with water pumped up from deep underground.

It is difficult to describe the feeling, but both Kim and I felt amazing afterwards. No photos allowed inside, so the outside and the poster at the local trans station will have to do.

In Osaka we went to the Universal Studios theme park. It was just before Halloween, so everywhere in the park people were dressed up in 'scary' costumes.

After dark the park put on the most amazing zombie show with hundreds of actors and dancers dressed up as zombies - No One celebrates Halloween like the Japanese - amazing!!!!