Hello friends! Here we have 9 very similar photos. Other than the inescapable human error of not taking 9 photos at the exact same position without the use of a tripod, the only other difference is the lighting.
The change in lighting is an affected by the shutter speed. The shutter speed refers to how fast the lens captures the photo. The faster the shutter speed the less light is let in, thus the photo is darker!
Stay tuned for more tips!
Located at Sepanggar, Sabah, Butik Botak is a moderate hiking trail that is well known. It goes by many names such as Bukit Gundul, Bukit Gentisan and Bukit Bonduk (which is the name located on Google Maps). They all bring the meaning of ‘Bald Hill.’
We started our hike at 0500. We used the entrance near the tunnels. We had to make a U-turn to get to the other side. There’s no streetlights on this road, thus we couldn’t see the starting point until we were at the parking lot! Naturally, as the craziest people to be at 5AM on a Sunday, we were the pioneer hikers of that day.
There is no lights there obviously, so we brought our own headlamps. Very useful! I recommend to download a trail map beforehand. We had some trouble finding the starting point from the entrance. Later, we discovered we just had to follow the sticks that were marking the trail!
The trail is fairly easy. The track is frequently used. It is roughly 1.5km to the peak! Your biggest struggle may be the endurance or the steepness at certain parts. It’s nothing that is too difficult for a determined person to handle! As the track is made of clay, please do not try to hike after a night of rainfall as it will be too slippery.
Sabah is well known for it’s amazing sky. The atmosphere at dawn was peaceful.
And here we have the culprit of this hill’s name! There are markings along the trail every 250m. The summit can be seen from about 1250m. You’re near the top!
The last stretch is mostly uphill, so push through you’re nearly there! The scenery is grassy and looking down at KK you’ll see bright orange lights and lost of mist surrounding the town!
At 6AM we reached! The view is absolutely worth all the sweat and near-tears. The sun rises near Mount Kinabalu. This hill overlooks the port! The view is excellent. At the top you will find other trails leading to various locations! Feel free to try them. They go as far as 8km.
It was nice to have the hill to ourselves for a few minutes until other hikers started showing up after 6.
The trail down was much easier! Relaxing. I slipped and slid down the remaining 4 feet of one slope! My family and I burst into laughs. Visibility was obviously much better! And the sun was not too harsh. We passed A LOT hikers on our way down. We were grateful that we went early.
Bukit Botak was a great workout! Will definitely go again 🙂
These shots were taken at an art exhibit I visited in between lockdown 1 & 2. Thus, it was fitting for the exhibit to be entitled MASKED. The exihibit displayed the works of local artists throughout the lockdown period.
The photos above are of 2 different artists, whom are tagged on my instagram profile @_travelcamera
Raw, unedited and so so gorgeous. My favourite flower.
I thought these would be nice pictures to start the blog off with this year!! Here is Taska’s first boat ride. As you can tell, she really enjoyed it. She absolutely loves to feel the wind on her face.
She sat very comfortably on the boat throughout the 5 minute journey on blue waters to the resort on the cove.
She also got a chance to set paw on the dive ship, which is much bigger than this small motorboat. The day following when this photo was taken, my family and I experienced open water diving for the first time (a story I will tell more about very soon). Taska, unfortunately, could not join us underwater but instead had to wait patiently on the boat in the middle of the South China Sea for us.
At Tamsui, my grandfather was very fascinated with these mannequins pre-cautioning citizens about the roadworks in work.
2 weeks before my country announced a movement control order due to the Covid-19 outbreak, my family and I took a trip to Labuan Island. It was a 2 hour drive from our home to the jetty in a small town and then another 2 hour ferry ride to Labuan Island. It was not my first trip to this island but it was a first for my grandfather. He had visited all the states in Malaysia except Labuan Federal Territory. He had always planned to visit with my grandmother but unfortunately she passed away before he had the chance to. To fulfill my grandfather’s adventure across the country, we took him there on the weekend before his birthday. We spent one night there. It was a lot of fun to visit the small shops in town, the botanical garden, the beach and the Labuan War Memorial for the soldiers of WW2.
This photo is of lanterns outside of a Chinese shop open at 10pm. My family and I were headed to the shop next door to buy some snacks. These lanterns caught my eye as I was looking away from the glances of the tipsy men at the shop.
My family and I preferred walking around Taiwan and only took Uber when necessary. It was almost winter and the weather was lovely. We often found ourselves walking through back roads that were known only to those living around that area. Ever so often, we would stumble upon quaint shops that you can’t find in the main city area, such as a shop that was solely selling everything to do with postage stamps.
I took this photo because I was attracted to the simplicity of this flower shop. This shops on this street mainly sold souvenirs for tourist. This dark flower shop really stood out among all the brightly lit shops. It showed a small part of the town’s everyday life. The gorgeous flowers caught my attention from across the street.
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