Saturday 18 April 2015

Night Photography in Singapore

Singapore is one of the best places in the world for night photography for a number of reasons. First of all its a beautiful country with amazing architecture, you have the old buildings from the British colonial era and then in total contrast you have the modern architectural marvels like Marina Bay Sands and the more traditional Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Also Singapore is extremely safe and you can carry around expensive camera gear any time of the night and not be worried about getting mugged.
Clarke Quay Singapore, Singapore Night Photography


I started shooting at Clarke Quay at around 9:00 pm on a Tuesday and then walked down to Fulletron hotel and ended the night at Merlion Park shooting Marina Bay. The route was not planned and I started at Clarke because my hotel was rite next to it and I just kept following interesting buildings and this took me all the way till Merlion Park. By the time I got back to my room 3 hours had gone by, I burnt a few calories carrying around the camera gear and ended up with a bunch of nice photos.

Clarke Quay Travel Blog

clarke quay travel guide

clarke quay nightlife

clarke quay central
Singapore Business District 
Singapore Night Photography
Asian Civilizations Museum 
Asian Civilizations Museum Singapore,Singapore Night Photography
Fullerton Hotel 
Fullerton Hotel Singapore
Esplanade - Theatres  by the Bay 
Esplanade - Theatres  by the Bay
Esplanade Bridge 
Esplanade Singapore
Marina Bay Sands
Marina Bay Sands Singapore
Underneath the Esplanade Bridge 

Merlion Park
Merlion Park Singapore
Shooting Marina Bay from Merlion Park 

marina bay sands casino

Esplanade Theatre 
Esplanade Theatre Singapore

Equipment Used 
  • Canon 50D 
  • Tokina 11-16 mm F2.8
  • Tamron 18-50 mm F2.8
  • Dolica Tripod

Saturday 11 April 2015

Christmas In Goa

Christmas 2013 we went to Goa on a family vacation, there were 25 of us in total arriving in Goa from various parts of India. We rented out 3 villas at White Square Nirvana located in Guirim. White Square Nirvana has about 10 villas which can be taken on rent, they also have a nice pool and a restaurant serving Goan food. 
Goa Travel Blog
Guirim is tucked away between the town of Mapusa and Porvorim and is a good place to escape the maddening crowd yet stay close to all the famous beaches of GOA like  Calangute, Baga & Candolim. We hired a mini bus to get us around and headed to one of the beaches every day after breakfast and returned late evening.
calangute beach
Day one we headed out to Calangute beach, hit the shacks and had a awesome lunch at Souza Lobo. The food was amazing definitely would recommend this place for good Goan delicacies.
vagator beach
Day 2 we went to Vagator, the beach at Vagator is located next to a rocky cliff and the view from up there is amazing ! Our bus dropped us at the top of the cliff and we had to walk down several stone steps to get to the beach. 
vagator beach goa


vagator beach goa
The day we spent at Vagator was a lot of fun, the beach was clean the water was not too rough and most importantly not many people. The kids had a wonderful time making sand castles and we all got into the water.

Anjuna Beach


We spent the rest of the evening chilling at a shack called Fish Tail. Like most shacks in Goa the drinks were cheap the sea food was good and we had a perfect view of the sunset.
vagator beach shack


Long Island Ice Tea Goa

Curleys Goa

Goa Sunset


sunset Goa
We had dinner that night at the very famous restaurant Thalassa known for its Greek food. The restaurant is nested in the cliff overlooking Vagator beach and the perfect time to go there would be around late evening to view the sunset. The restaurant had a lot of character , the food was exquisite and the staff was very entertaining. By nightfall they were they were doing the traditional Greek dance called the “Sirtaki” entails people huddling up in a circle and dancing to the tunes and steps of Zorba the Greek and is also accompanied by the smashing of plates on the floor and showering of flowers on those partaking in the celebrations.
thalassa goa

thalassa
Day 3 was Christmas and we went for holy mass at a beautiful old church in Guirim. The Christmas service was really nice but I was more fascinated with the architecture of the church.
Old Church Goa




Day 4 our last day in Goa we visited a very interesting boutique called Le Roi Arthur Cafe. The boutique was actually the home of Chef Romain and his family and they run the place. Unfortunately on that day the kitchen was closed so we just did a little window shopping .The boutique is old Portuguese mansion that has been restored and the decor is done up beautifully. 
le roi arthur cafe goa


le roi arthur cafe goa


le roi arthur cafe goa




le roi arthur cafe goa

Before boarding the train back to Bangalore we had dinner at Panjim Inn a beautiful heritage hotel in the heart of Panjim city. The hotel had a old world charm to it and the rooms were done up in colonial style with really nice furniture. It was the perfect end to a fun trip with the family.

Panaji Inn Goa