The weekend it was.... at Singapore GP 2014

It was my second time to Singapore GP.

Here is what I want to share for general public with walkabout tickets Zone 4.

1. Go early and enjoy the Padang activities

2. Go on a Friday or Saturday. Sunday's Final race is just for enjoying and less for photo clicking.

Entry at gate 3

Free standing bleacher at turn 7-8, almost empty on Saturday but no place to stand and peep even on Sunday

Esplanade bridge drive

3. Dont miss the concert, anyways it is crowded to approach the MRT just after the race. Soak in the atmosphere and have some dinner at the Padang.

4. I carried Canon 70-200mm f4L non-IS on Saturday and used 24-105 f4L IS on Race day.

The Saturday is the day when the place is less crowded. The cars come out in daylight for practice.
So you can get a decent shot in proper exposure.

The reach of 200mm was seldom used as there are very less straight line race track visible for walkabout tickets. Turn 10 has a limited straight line visibility. You may try your luck.

I realized that i shot 50% or more at 70 mm with my 70-200mm. At times I wished that I had a wider lens. So I took 24-100mm on Sunday. Decision well taken.

Turn 12, narrow turn, need a wider lens

Shooting locations, Turn seven Bleacher, Turn 11 bleacher, Turn 13 near Fullerton, Esplanade straight drive etc. None of them asked for a 200 mm zoom.

Courtesy:- http://www.f1nightrace.com

After the Saturday the hell broke loose and it started raining. I could not take a decent shot of Robbie Williams performing.

On Sunday it was a different night all together. Got nice #JLoBooty shots with the 200mm decent reach.

#JLoBooty

Enjoy the shots! Leave your comment or feedback down in the comments section.

Lantau Buddha

Lantau Buddha is the big Buddha Statue sitting on the Lantau Island in Hongkong.
It is also known as Tian Tan Buddha.
Easily reachable by public transport, this Buddha statue is at the top of a mountain peak.


That day Me and Prasha got up early by 7 AM and went for breakfast to the nearest McDonald.

Some breakfast places were serving some wierd looking food stuff.

I didnt dare to step in, preferred McDonald instead.

Converted some SGD to HKD at the Wing Lung Bank. The bank is exactly opposite to the McDonald Outlet.



View Larger Map

At left at around 9 AM.
We headed to the Tung Chung station MTR station from Central Station.

It was already afternoon by the time we reached there. We had packed our subway sandwich at the MTR station.
The bus terminal is just outside the station. Take the bus no 23 to Ngong Ping.
Below is the location where the bus stand on the inside of the terminal.


View Larger Map


It takes around an hour to reach the top by bus.
The road is windy and made me throw up, almost!

The weather was cool. We could see the gleaming and shining buddha at a distance.

 The bottom of the mountain, near the bus stop is a touristy Ngong Ping village setup with shops selling you touristy stuff, seven elevens and the Cable car final station.

Buddha as seen at the top of mountain.

That's the PO-Lin Monastry at the foot of the mountain.One needs to walk a fair amount of stairs and reach the top.

That's the Po-Lin monastry from the top. The view from the top is amazing. Green mountains all around and statues of goddesses around the Buddha. They add to the atmosphere.

One can also spot the cable car from far away.
By the time we felt content with the place, it was already 4 pm.
We started our descent. We were at the bus station for the second-last bus. It was filled completely.
The last bus was around 7 PM. So we didn't want to waste time, we started the journey as standing passengers. The bus ride back was thrilling, with we falling all over the fellow passengers.

That was a day well spent!
Next day we had plans to travel to Macau...

Date with Donald @ Hong Kong Disneyland!

On 2nd Jan, we got up early and headed to Hongkong Central Station for our MTR ride to Sunny bay.
This time time we took Tram from our hotel directly to Central....


From Central one needs to take the Tung Chung Line. Then Change over at Sunny bay for the Disney line.
Take a look at the MTR Map here.

Disney has its own separate line to take all us adults to the childhood dreamland, the land of Disney!

Once inside, make sure you chart your whole days plan! There are lots of parades, shows and rides to look out for.

The queue at the ticket counter was not that long considering it was holiday times.

We started off in the anticlockwise section once inside.... 

We did Tomorrow land ride and Space Mountain by lunch.

Space mountain was a stomach-churning, neck crunching ride in the black-void space like setup...

Beware ones with Migraines and neck ailments!  

It has option of Disney fast-pass. 

We had lunch at the food court near to the TomorrowLand! We later found an Indian outlet at the Adventure land.
There were few shows we took notice of while walking from one section to the other.

Post lunch, we moved towards the Grizzly Gulch..

 and then moved towards Toy Story land...

The Parachute ride was not that exciting, but may be fine to ride with your young ones. 
Since we were only 2 persons, we opted to ride single riders. The queue otherwise was expected to be 2 hours + long....

The RC Racer ride is worth the wait time.... more like a giant see-saw.

In the adventure land the river safari is highly recommended.

By the time we finished the Mystic point it was evening

We ran to catch the Disney's "The Golden Mickeys".

And now it was time for the famous Disney Fireworks. Fireworks were dreamlike.... Absolutely amazing! Exactly how we expected.

One day is never enough! It was too crowded on holidays and still more we wanted the dream to never end! 

The park closes shortly after fireworks!

After a tiring a day at Disney we headed back to Central. It was already too late and we headed to midlevel escalators to have a sumptuous dinner at a Turkish restaurant.



We called it a day after a short taxi ride to our hotel.

Tip:- 1. Always get your hotel name written down in Chinese by the  Tourism Board person at the Airport.
The Chinese name will help the local taxi driver decipher your hotel name.

        2. 7-Eleven near your hotel should be able to provide you with fresh milk and bread/butter for next day breakfast. If your hotel doesnt provide you free breakfast then you should stock the juices and milkshakes for next day.



Next Day... Macau....

The day we traveled to Hongkong

Hong Kong was on my minds for months and years...

Firstly I had a visited there before for a short 8 hours transit trip and had made up my mind to come back again. 

Secondly it was perfect location for celebrating my Marriage anniversary. 

Hong Kong is mildly cold in January and has a perfect festive atmosphere around New year. 

So we booked a Jetstar flight for 1st Jan, which I boarded from Singapore.

Indians dont need a visa for Hong Kong, so immigration was a like a breeze.

Once out of the terminal exit we bought the reliable octopus card from the Tourism Board queue.

The Tourism department at the exit provides you free maps and helpful advice of which airport bus to ride upon, and which is the nearest alighting/boarding point for the bus.

Shortly after that we bought a CMHK sim card with a week long data plan.
Airport is nice to spend 20-30 min.

The ride to the city by bus was comfortable. During my last visit I had used the airport express which is twice as costly as the bus journey. 

The bus journey took us over many tall bridges and also had a nice view of the ports scenery of Hong Kong

We had booked our stay at Hotel best Western and it was a sea facing room.  

MTR is the metro system of Hong Kong.

So we had to first travel by tram to nearest MTR station. The tram gives you the feeling of a century old mode of transport. The tram is not that spacious but its double decker in HK and you can pay using the trusty Octopus card.

Below is a video of our first encounter with a tram in real life. 

We took the MTR from Central station to the TST or Tsim sha Tsui east station. 
The Modi road was decorated with hugh christmas decorations.

 The air was cold and we opted for a hot coffee and a stroll around the Modi street.
Then we turned towards the Esplanade heading to Avenue of stars.

The laser show was a bit dull but it is ok if you are watching it for the first time.

The synchronized show of laser lights and music introduces you with the important tall skyscrapers of  Hk skyline and then keeps doing random flashing of lasers. We left just in time for dinner.

We had dinner at a Indian restaurant on Nathan road.

Was too excited to visit Disney Land the next day.......