Flamingoes on Lago Argentino

6 January 2011

El Calafate is the largest town here at Parc Nationale de Glacieriares but it is still a small town with tens of thousand inhabitants. It is named after Calafate berry that is close to blueberry and make very good jam and sorbet. I know because I’ll be on a lookout for it at every meal. This is where the airport is, a port of entry\ for most tourists to this region of Patagonia. As you would expect, tourist shops and fancy restaurants with Argentinian themes are all over the main street and once you step off one block away it dies down to the feeling of a small sleepy town. There is even a casino, just in case tourists are sick of the mountains and decided to go back to something more “exciting”.

Welcome to El Calafate, I guess.

The Casino

The drinking hole…

… and some local souvenirs…

Not to mention some shopping places.

Old trucks

Lago Argentino

Outside the western end of the city is a nature preserve with flamingoes standing on one leg. They looked pretty far away, even with a 600mm telephoto you’d probably get just a pink speck. The water is not deep at all and i don’t think it is worth wading in it to get close to the flamingoes. They would just fly away anyway. But there is probably nothing much more to do other than to look at the tourist shops and buy a fridge magnet or some artisanal chinese-made souvenir, so the best thing to do would be to take a good walk to the lake. It is, after all, a place for some R&R.

It is a pretty long walk. A few kilometers at least, and takes me through the heart of the tourist El Calafate. The main street is full of tourist memorabilia and outdoor shops, parilla-style and italian restaurants plus a casino smack in the middle of it all, clearly intended to be the centre of attraction. The prices of the restaurants on the main street is comparable to the ones that you find in Buenos Aires, which is normal I guess. Off the main street the prices seem to drop somewhat. There are pockets of area where the shops seem a little more upscale, kind of like the place where rich tourists would visit. I don’t get the idea of looking for a quaint shop in the middle of a town that is obviously not quaint. Its like looking for local hamburger in the provinces in China. It just doesn’t fit in, but you see that in every tourist town. Perhaps that’s how you tell a tourist town from a real functioning town with its own economy that doesn’t really bother with tourist dollars.

Parilla, how could I resist…

Saying the people here are carnivores is an understatement. This is a platter for 2. 2!

The cars here are a mix of old and new. The old cars here are pretty old and badly maintained. It’s probably not such a bad thing since this town is so small people don’t drive faster than what is required with a first gear anyway. I did see some speeding along a secondary road but most cars were going 20kmph at the most. Even at that speed it takes 15 minutes to get from one end of the town to the other end. Then on the other end of the spectrum are the fast cars, and I have no idea where they are planning to go in such a hurry.

We get to the nature preserve and noticed that while there is no man made barrier between us and the birds, one would have to go over marshes and mud to get close. And don’t let the distance fool you, it looks quite far away, but in actual fact it is even farther than that. So I’m happy enough to stay close to the main road and hope to get some shots of the flamingoes from there. There are some birds around closer to the main road as well, so I take those as easy prey. The flamingoes get to escape from my camera this time. I figured out if I could get close enough and getting mud all over me from doing so, there is no guarantee that it will not just decide to all fly off at the same time. I think flamingos could fly.

Generally there is not much to do here. But considering there are not too many towns in the vicinity, El Calafate would make a good base with Moreno glacier less than 2 hours to the west and Cerro Torre and Fitzroy 3-4 hours drive away around Lago Argentino and Viedma to the northwest. Next, bring on Chile!

Waking up to sheeps outside the hotel window!

Southern Lap Wing

Proceed to Torres del Paine National Park, Chile…

If you have followed this site quite a bit, you would have noticed that this is one of my favourite sites to shoot Mount Fuji. I could wake up early in the morning and walk 30 mins to the other side of Kawaguchiko across the bridge and set up my tripod before 6am. And in the last 3 times I have been here, Mount Fuji would always be visible in the morning along with a calm lake to catch some reflection. Kawaguchiko is large enough not to be perfectly calm, and the wind does kick in about 7-7:30am. So get there early. I will not detail too much how to get there, the easiest would be via the Keio Express bus line from Shinjuku just opposite Yodobashi Camera. And as a primer, Fuji 5 Lakes regions composes of… of course, 5 lakes. From the right to the left, there’s Yamakako, which I have never been, and since I have not heard too much about the view there, I have no plans to visit since it is also out of the way. Kawaguchiko is arguably the easiest one to access, as it is just situated by Fujikawaguchiko and the northern shore is littered with attractions like a monkey show and a music box museum. The views here are one of the best accessible without long hikes and a car, and Mount Fuji looks symmetrical from here. The only possible issue is that the town would be visible in your picture of the famous mountain. Only an issue if you’re after the mountain sans civilization. Just next to it would be Saiko, where Mount Fuji is not visible at all, obscured by a close by hill. News has it that Saiko is a good fishing place. Next to it, a little drive a way is Shojiko, which I think rivals Kawaguchiko. Cars could drive to the lake bank facing Mount Fuji, and you could get down to water level. What you would see on the opposite bank on the foot of the mountain is just pure nature. However, Shojiko is not that easy to reach without your own car. The public buses don’t run regularly, so you may have 1 hour there and if you do not get on the returning bus, the wait may be quite long. No buses at night the last time I checked, so night time shooting by bus would be impossible. One could camp by the lake side though. The last one is Motosuko, a relatively large lake, with an elevated vantage point at the far side of the lake. It is even more remote than Shojiko. This is also the view of Mount Fuji that could be found at the back of a 100 yen note.

Lets see what we have here…

Shoji-ko: This is one of the first shot of this Autumn season for me. The EXIF reads 5:30pm and it was already dark. Exposure reads 30 secs at f5.6 on a 28-70mm. It was already dark when I got there, and the long exposure lights up the mountain a bit. I kept the foreground dark to convey the evening mood. You could see car lights on the right at the bottom of the mountain, and some faint lights at what could be the mountain 5th station. AT this time of the year, the snow cap is starting to grow, but obviously it is still early.

Shoji-ko: This is one of my favourite picture of the shoot. Exposure reads 4 minutes 30 seconds and f8. I did another one that was 20mins long but came up to almost a blank shot. I had a ND8 on the lens and I would have to stretched it to 1hour exposure if I was to get something like this. What I wanted to do with this shot was to have a long enough exposure to catch the star trail. You could also faintly notice a line of a passing aircraft. I would have wished to have more time here, I guess I will explore the possibility to camp here the next time. Would have been great to catch an hour long star trail.

Kawaguchiko: This was taken at very close to 6am. Note the vapour on the lake surface. This morning was not what I hoped for, with cloudy skies in the morning. When I got to the lakeside at 5:30am the mountain was covered in clouds, but almost always it clears at close to 6am when the faint trace of sunshine appears. You also notice that Fujikawaguchiko town is quite prominent in the foreground. This is a 4 sec exposure at f8, at about 40mm, and I cropped the top and bottom of the original frame. You also noticed that the view from Kawaguchiko is a little different, with the long gentle sloping sides of the mountain visible from here, while at Shojiko, the slope is quite strong.

Kawaguchiko: Looking at the east at the rising sun. The only good thing about a cloudy day is that the morning red sun glow is quite strong.

Kawaguchiko: With the sun starting to appear in the morning, Mount Fuji starts to glow a little shade of red. This scene only lasts not more than 10 mins. In fact I think it might have been shorter than that. So this is where an ergonomic camera comes in, when you switch from one scene and light type to another. The controls has to be easily found and you do not have the luxury of diving into the menus to change something.

Kawaguchiko: Looking towards the west, at the thin layer of fog on the surface of the lake early in the morning. We are at 6:20am now.

Kawaguchiko: Here’s a 1 minute exposure intended to give the lake a smooth appearance and to blur out the clouds. It has this mysterious look although it was not one of my favourite shots. Lacks drama. EXIF says 60 sec at f8 and so far all these were shot at ISO200.

Kawaguchiko: This is one of the opportunistic shot for the morning. A fisherman was just passing by in front of me and I waited for him to reach the middle in nice alignment with the mountain peak before I took the photo. Note the altocumulus clouds, as the lower level clouds start to be blown away.

Kawaguchiko: And with a little graduated ND filtering, here is a shot that starts to look different from the rest. This one is 6:48am. There is now enough light to do 1/30sec at f8. I’ve switched to a 17-35mm wide angle set at 22mm for this shot. All on tripods and remote trigger.

Saiko: One of the reason to come here at this time is to catch the Autumn leaves in Fuji 5 Lakes region. At the lower altitudes most of the trees are still between green and yellow while it has already started on the top of hills.

Saiko: Ok I lied a little bit. It is possible to catch Mount Fuji on the western end of Saiko, but only at an oblique angle like this. Since Saiko lies on the shadow side of a hill, it gets the sun later in the morning, and the fog on the surface of the water is still visible at 7:50am. The lake surface is relatively calm here, with reflection of the mountains quite well defined. The blue tint on the water surface was courtesy of a Singh-Ray Gold-n-Blue polarizer. The non filtered photo looks quite bland since I’m shooting more or less into the sun. EXIF reads 1/90s at f8 and I’m back to the 28-70mm.

Saiko: Morning fishing at the lake. This close crop isolates the scene from the messy mountains in the distance which would distract from the subject, in this case the boats. This was shot with a telephoto, one of my favourite lens, 70-180mm Micro. It looks sharper than this on the original file, almost pixel level sharpness. I just love the way the surface level fog stays on this lake surface longer than the other 4 lakes.

Saiko: On the same side as I am standing on, a fly fisherman prowls the banks.

Motosuko: This is the only one that I liked from the banks of Motosuko. This is 8:30am and the sun is already quite high up in the sky. It looks like it over the mountain as at Motosuko you are looking from the west. The vantage point at the carpark is elevated, and I don’t think the lakeside view will be better because part of the right slopes of Mount Fuji is obscured by a hill. This view is very difficult to digest for me, mainly due to the lack of ability to capture a clean Mount Fuji like at Kawaguchiko. However, I met some Large format photographers at Motosuko, so there is obviously some with different opinions than me. The cloud day and the fact that most morning you would be shooting into the sun, makes Motosuko a better evening spot.

Shojiko: back at Shojiko, I noticed this opportunity to shoot a reflected bank at the western end of the lake. Mount Fuji would be on the right in this case. This was shot at a humble 35mm. ISO had to be cranked up to 560 due to the fact that most of the foreground is actually in the shadows. I had to use Lightroom to bring it out while keeping the skies controlled.

Shojiko: The rest of the lake looks quite normal. Nothing special in this view.

Shojiko: One of the boats you could rent for fishing. I’m not sure if a fishing permit would be required to rent it, but for fishing that’s for sure. For this shot I had to add +2/3 stops to the exposure as as the boat is relatively in the shadows compared to the background. But the resulting image was better than I expected when I first shot it.

Shojiko: This marks the second trip where I get ducks swimming past me. The first time I fumbled to switch my camera to the right setting to get the ducks and the mountain sharp and the right shutter speed. I ended with a blurred out ducks… motion ducks. This time I dialed in 1/250s and f11 right away and also managed to set the camera to continuous shot. I have about 10 shots of various duck positions, but I tend to like this one that is a little past the mountain in the middle. I also like the way the sun is partly obscured by the cloud and it is possible to see the god rays above the mountain. Focal length for this shot is 17mm on FX sensor. I’ve heard of people complaining about the Nikkor 17-35mm, but it is a fine lens for me.

Shojiko: Picnic by the lakeside. One day….

Fujikawaguchiko: Enough mountains… the other reason to come here is for the red leaves. There is an entire tourist attraction the week I was here based around a flea market and the sights of red leaves like these. This was shot just next to the road on the northern banks of Kawaguchiko, with many tourists passing behind me. 70-180mm Micro does its second purpose as a micro lens.

Fujikawaguchiko: More red leaves. This is at 1/180s f5.6, the only reason for the large aperture is that I was hand holding the lens set at 90mm and I really wanted something sharp. ISO is 450. For close up shots like this I would go for shutter speeds that are reciprocal of double the focal length (i.e. 1/180s)

Fujikawaguchiko: Trying something different here.

Fujikawaguchiko: I have no idea what this chair is doing here, but it is one of those test shots that made me go “hmm, not too bad looking” after importing it into LIghtroom. So it stays.

And one last shot to close this post. What a better way than to shoot a Japanese Maple leave, Japanese style with uncluttered background and lighter earthy toned overall picture. Over and out, till the next season at Kawaguchiko.

*end*

Chuzenji-no-taki: Chuzenji waterfall

You could say Tochigi is my playground. I just love the place. Take a long slow train over to Tobu-Nikko station and there are many options. Most tourists would spend the whole day at the temple complex, Toshogu, Rinnoji and of course, snap photos of the stable with 3 monkeys. But the hidden gem of Nikko is the many hiking opportunities like Chuzenji to the northwest and Kirifuri area to the northeast.I’ve been to Senjogahara and Kirifuri before, and the links are embedded in the two names in this sentence.

Senjogahara Plateau

Senjogahara is in the northwest just further up from Chuzenji. Chuzenji is, of course, synonymous with a waterfall, not just a normal waterfall, but one that drops hundreds of meters. The lake that feeds the waterfall, Chuzenji lake, is relatively large, and on a plateau in the highlands. On a summer day, there are anglers spaced evenly along its banks. I don’t have proof, but it does look like you need to have permit to fish there and you are probably assigned slots. They do look spaced out a little too evenly to be random!

Fly Fisherman on Yukawa River

... And more fly fishing...

According to all the information I have, after all, I ‘ve been here twice already, Chuzenji lake used to be a lot larger than what we have today. At one end, where the Yukawa river joins the lake, the dried lake bed makes up Senjogahara plateau. It is basically marshland today, with a habitat of its own and generally wet ground. The good thing about the place is that the air is fresh, and there is a long plank walkway for hikers.

Tobu-Nikko Station

From Yutaki waterfall, walk towards Akanuma

Going up towards Yumoto Hot Springs, you will enter a forest area before reaching Yutaki waterfall. Along the way, especially in the forested area, there will normally be fly fishermen (permits required again) along the Yukawa river. This is normally a nice area for plants and insect macros. People walk around with bells attached to their bag, and I was told that this was for scaring away bears. I have never seen one in the two times I have been here.

Station at Akanuma. Exit here and get your 150Y bottle of tea at the machine!

All in all, this is a nice place to spend the day out of Tokyo. Take the train from Asakusa early in the morning, the slow train takes about three hours to get there, and best thing to do is to take the second train out (first is an express that cost more) at 6:30 in the morning and sleep there. When arriving at Tobu-Nikko station, jump on a bus that goes to Yumoto Springs and get off almost an hour later at Yudaki-iriguchi station and walk down towards Akanuma. Walking slow to enjoy the sights and nature, it should take 4-5 hours to get there. Then take the bus back towards Chuzenji and stop at the midway station to enjoy sights of the waterfall. Then back to Tobu-Nikko station and back to Tokyo and you’ll be really tired, and end the day with a nice bowl of soba!

Enjoy the photos. I’m sure I will be back to Senjogahara again in the future. I have heard that the marshes are starting to dry up. Next trip will hopefully be during winter.

Izumiyado Pond

Marshland...

... more marshland...

.... and more, but this time a little more trees...

... and ending with plenty of trees. This is close to Yudaki waterfall.

And here's a little close up shot with the amazing Leica Summilux 50mm ASPH lens...

...

Tourists at Chuzenji Waterfall viewing station

And on the way back to Tokyo... at Tobu Nikko Station

Gears: All pictures in this post shot with a Leica M6 Classic with Leica’s excellent Summilux 50mm f1.4 ASPH and with Kodak’s new Ektar 100 film. Scans are a little cool, and I blame my lack of calibration with vuescan before really scanning it.

*end of post*

Pavillion at Guyi Garden, Nanxiang

Shanghai is famous for this little dumpling with thin skin and soup inside. Bite it and if still hot off the steamer, it guarantees a scalding where it hurts.

The most famous restaurant in shanghai that sells them by the bucketloads, figuratively speaking, is Nanxiang Restaurant over by that tourist hole, Yuyuan Garden right in the middle of the city. Its not too far from where I stay and on weekends, I sometimes take the walk over, and stand in the half and hour queue (if I’m lucky). Its not the best in Shanghai though and its quite obvious it’s famous because it’s famous, no more. Nanxiang Restaurant also starts to expand with branches overseas.

Shanghai Bus, encountered on the way looking for that bus that will take me to Nanxiang

So not to dwell too much in stories, I found out during a chat with a colleague that the xiao loong bao, what this tasty dumpling is called, was first invented in a town called Nanxiang. Just tens of kilometre from downtown Shanghai so close that a public bus (actually many from all points) runs there from the Shanghai railway station, so we found out after browsing the chinese languaged internet. So quickly this became my mission for the coming weekend.

Guyi Garden Pavillion from another angle

Based on a copied and pasted list of public bus that goes there on my phone, I went out looking for this place that strangely most of my colleagues have never been to. The bus from Jing-an temple metro stop doesn’t seem to exist. I’ve checked the locations of bus stops and list of buses that stops nearby at the metro station and couldn’t match the number. What I’m sure is, if there’s a bus that goes somewhere in Shanghai, its bound to stop near the Train Station.

After a long time searching, the bus I took was bus 517 at exit 6 of the Shanghai Train Station metro line 1. This is misleading because the bus stop is not exactly AT the train station. You have to make it to the north exit square and the follow signs pointing to bus 517 and this is a 20 minutes walk at least. At every junction look out for the signs that points to the direction of the bus stop for 517.

On the bus: This is funny. I use the Shanghai Transport card, aka the Jiaotong, and there is a conductor in the bus sitting next to the rear exit folding doors and has a console in front of him. This where he controls the pricing and has a comm system to talk to the driver. The price for the trip seems to be 4 RMB although I’m not too sure about it. Whatever it is, it’s not too expensive compared to the price of taxis.

Sunset at Guyi Garden

Guyi Garden: Now, in the bus you have to be quite careful where to stop. I have a GPS map of Shanghai on my Nokia E71 and managed to get a window seat all the way there. Was able to track my location all the way to a town called Nanxiang. Unfortunately, I have no idea where the central attraction is, but I thought that a lake with green gardens should signify something tourists would want to go to. Not true. The easiest way is to look out for a signboard above the road that says Guyi Garden, and it exists in English as well. Its ok if you missed the stop and realised it after you passed it as the next stop is just across the corner after turning left.

Guyi Garden

Guyi Garden

First thing I noticed was that Guyi Garden has a restaurant in front of the main entrance. This restaurant looked oldish, and from the menu, looks like THE place to come for the xiao loong bao. But since it was only 4pm, I decided to have a look at the garden. It is not free, as usual, and 12 RMB gets you in.

Guyi Garden

After the entrance to the park, the first thing that caught my eye was a big basket of the famous dumpling. It was starting to get quite cold here and sun is starting to set. I walked quickly around the park. There’s a lake with a zig-zag bridge and a pavillion, quite standard in most Chinese garden. The walk in the park was quite pleasant, but since it was getting dark I didn’t have too much time to remember all the sights. The park is medium in size, probably 1km square , maybe a little bigger since its area we’re talking about. The most interesting architecture in there was a pavillion that’s suppose remind the Shanghainese of the Japanese occupation and what’s special about it is that usually Chinese roofs have edges with accents of dragons, or mythical animals. This one has curled up fists. Looked like an ancient joke, but too bad I don’t have photographic proof as it was in the shodow of trees and I couldn’t get adequate exposure with the 2 film cameras I have loaded with ISO 125 and ISO 160 films respectively.

Guyi Garden

So by 5pm the sun was starting to set, and it was getting to low single digit Celcius, and it was time to go to the restaurant. Strangely, this park seems to be the confluence point of newly-weds, and the firecrackers attest to this. Even at the restaurant, there are many wedding limousines arriving and hurriedly leaving.

Guyi Garden

However, my attention was affixed by going for a basket of speciality steamed dumplings from the place that originally invented it (according to my news). Cheap, 15 RMB buys you a basket of 10. Cheaper than the one in Shanghai, but not by much. Since I wanted to go back to Shanghai before 7:30pm and drop the roll of Kodak 160VC I’m shooting today at the developers before they close, I decided to buy it to go. 10 dumplings and plenty of vinegar no it, I walked to the bus station diagonally across the road and past the traffic junction, savouring on a rather good set of dumplings, from the place that started it all. And it was good…

Dumpling Restaurant at Guyi Garden

Dumplings!!!

*end of post*

Cotton-like plants are found all over Jiuzhaigou Park, with one of the colourful lakes forming the perfect backdrop

Jiuzhaigou is one of those places in china where it is said you can never miss and you have not been to a certain place if you have never seen it. It has definitely appeared many many times in pictures. First time I heard of it was a few years back when it was said it was very difficult to get to. I don’t know when they went or heard about it, but I see there are airports near the park, and there are official tourist buses going from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou with daily bus (yes, singular) and in the parks are roads going to all sights and mini buses plying the route. Surely not in accessible, but nevertheless, still a place not to be missed. We shall see if this is a boast or truth.

16 November 2008: Taking the 8 am bus to Jiuzhaigou from Chengdu’s Xinnanmen station. The bus station looks like a special station for tourist areas, but on the inside other than the metal detectors and xray machines, it looks like any other station. The buses look newer and the windows are fixed, so naturally I was afraid of the species known as the smoking chinese. But looks like the locals going to tourist places are a special type. During the whole trip, the guy in front of me had a half burnt cigarette in his fingers for hours but kept the urge to light it. In fact, no one smoked on this trip in the bus. Amazing show of patience. The only two things that irritated me were some passengers playing their songs on their mobile phone speakers and a guy eating process meat that smelled like coffee flavored chicken and a hint of chloroform. Smells nauseous. Overall, the trip was a lot nicer than the 12hrs bus to Xiaojing in part 2. Bearable.

Reflection on Arrow Bamboo Lake

How long? 10 full hours. We would get to see all sort of terrain. Highways first, boring and time for the ipod to keep company. Then valleys with slow flowing river, which is nothing like the ones from Xiaojing or Rilong last week, so it was about awe inspiring as cooking instant noodles to me. Then we started climbing and that’s when it started to get interesting, soon we were up in the clouds and it started to look white. Snow were everywhere, trees, ground, everywhere. The GPS was not acquiring any signals so I had no idea where we were, and afraid that Jiuzhaigou is on top of the plateau, meaning that I will have some problem with my plan since I didn’t bring any thermos. The view up there were quite spooky, and I was tempted to get the driver to stop the bus so I can set up my gitzo and take some photos up there.

Before long the road started to go down from 3200m altitude to just around 2000m. Some mountain range to cross, the snow started thinning down and soon it was back to normal terrain. Normal except the trees look redder signalling autumn time. The river at the bottom of the valley seems to be flowing faster probably meaning there is some more climb to come, long but a climb nonetheless.

Throughout the trip it was possible to see the effect of the recent earthquake here in Sichuan province. There are many tents along the way, some with Chinese Red Cross emblazoned on it, and others normal. In the town of Pingwu, there was a small area of the town made of temporarily materials with schools and sport facilities, I’m guessing for the victims of the disaster.

At 6 pm we arrived at Jiuzhaigou bus station. First thing first, bought the ticket back on wednesday right away, and there is only one bus in the morning. 7 am I believe. On the way, I saw the hotel I booked and walked there, a total of 400m or a little more in the darkening skies and cold weather.

Cheated this time and used my SPG points to stay at the Sheraton Jiuzhaigou. Since I have a platinum card which forces them to upgrade me if possible, I am staying with my backpack in a suite. Its nice to very pampered for a night before going to look for a local family to bunk tomorrow in the park. Ordered room service and just sat down to type this blog out. Will go for a nice long warm shower and long sleep in the nice Sheraton bed and will wake up tomorrow at first light to beat the standard tourists going into the park.

17 November 2008: Woke up well before first light, but as I love Sheraton’s bed, I left the hotel well after first light. Seems it makes no difference as there are no fog in the morning and being on a valley floor, Jiuzhaigou’s sights are not bathed in morning light till around 11am. Stacked on powerbars and snickers for breakfast and soon boarded a taxi for the 5 minute ride to the entrance.

This week is the first week of the off season. Tickets cost 80RMB and for 20RMB more you get a second day included. That and 80RMB shuttle bus ticket puts the day’s damage at 180. Everyone had to take the shuttle bus as some of the roads are not for walkers although it should be possible to walk on it anyway. There is a reason why they call it off season, that’s when they close some of the paths for fire hazard, they say… I guess its more for crowd control during off season. So it is not possible to walk all the way from one attraction to another in the forests, though it is possible to see path, they are sealed.

The tourist buses today goes directly up to Rize Valley right away and drop all passengers there at the end of Arrow Bamboo Lake. There is a pickup point just a walk away, and there is a shuttle there every once in a while so there is no need to rush.

Arrow Bamboo Lake

Arrow Bamboo Lake: Seems that during off season it is not possible to go farther to Swan Lake and the forests. I got off the bus at about 830am, and it was still close to 0C at that time. So cold the security guard had to run in circles to keep warm. Funny guy, we would chat for a while. The lake is blue green and tree trunks are visible in it. When I was there there was just shadows so the pictures were not too saturated. Polarizers are very useful here, and not anything that casts colours as the lake is already very colourful. Must have spent 30 minutes there.

Panda Lake: This lake has a walkway built along the cliff that surrounds one side. But off season, so it is closed. It is possible to be a contortionist and get thru but I asked a chinese man getting out of it if there is anything worthwhile and he said no. Panda Lake has some nice photo opportunities, again due to the multicoloured lake bed. Locals hang around the bus stop end of this lake to rent out traditional clothes for couples to take photos. I don’t bother.

There are three types of photographers there at Jiuzhaigou. There’s the serious ones. Then there’s the point and shooter, and third category are the boyfriends that go all the way there to shoot their girlfriend posing. I suggest they either get into the first two categories and shoot their girlfriends at home and do some photoshop masking tricks.

Again, there is a path downhill where it winds from Panda Lake past some waterfalls to the next lake, but they are closed for winter, time to hit the bus then,

Five Flower Lake

Five Flower Lake: This one is more colourful, probably because it is shallower than the other 2 and thus, it is possible to see the whole lake contents and the transition between blue and green that is the hallmark of water features in this park. There is adequate paths to find different photo vantage points and again polarizers are essential to get the most of this lake. When I was shooting this lake around 11am, the sun starts to fill the valley.

View from top of hill over looking Five Flower Lake

Five Flower Lake

I would then notice a vantage point uphill between this lake and the previous Panda Lake, and walked on the main road for half hour uphill to get there. Was hoping to see a nice view from there, and although it was ok, was missable. Loaded my 105mm and started shooting crop shots.

Taking the bus next, we would have to skip Peacock Riverbed and Golden Bell Lake as the paths are closed and there are no bus stops. Next stop, Pearl Shoal.

Pearl Shoals

Pearl Shoals

Pearl Shoal & Waterfall: Here the bus would tell you to all get off and walk. Actually in every bus there will be a driver and a girl whose job it would be to tell passengers what’s next. More often than not they will be shouting to see whether they should be stopping next.

But at Pearl Shoal, everyone gets off. It starts off as an oversized dam. Water is slowing on the surface of a slope and there are small trees and round rocks breaking the smooth flow of water, giving the look of a slope with sound of crashing water. There are two walkways, one goes straight down and the other branches left. Take left which cuts across the shoal itself. Tried to take some photos there but nothing dramatic. The path drops by way of stairs and I realised this is the famous waterfall. There is almost no way for the sun to be shining on the waterfall, always in the shadows and when I was there, there was a strong backlight and the wide waterfall was in the shadows. Saw in the distance a mountain covered in snow and whipped out my gitzo to do a hard core 5 stops HDR. The waterfall would deposit the water into a fast flowing stream, by which the path then continues all the way to a car park a few hundred metres away where the park buses would be waiting to go to next destination.

Mirror Lake: To tell the truth this one is a disappointment, it is late at noon by the time I got there and noon is not the time to look for mirror reflections. I got off the bus anyway, and snapped a few as creative I can. Next…

Nuorilang Waterfall

Nuorilang Waterfall: The bus stops at the Nuorilang terminus, which is nothing more than a glorified bus stop with some buildings near it. I was hoping there are buses to go to Zechawa Valley but seems that section of the park is closed too. A path leads under the road and into the forest, and soon after a few minutes walk past toilets and a junction, I’m at the Nuorilang Waterfall. Almost like the Pearl Waterfall, this is a long waterfall about 2 storeys high and you are very close to the waterfall. Again we are in the shadow of the sun, so any pictures that includes the sun will have blown up skies. I took a few pictures sans the skies and to add some warmth by using my Singh-ray gold and blue polarizer. It was not that easy as it is easy to get water sprayed onto the filter and bright sunlight made water droplets visible at small aperture openings.

Smaller waterfalls are everywhere at Nuorilang Falls

The waterfall runs about a hundred metres, then the path leads into the woods along the river for a few hundred metres of nice cool walk before reaching the bus stop again, and the routine continues. Its 4pm but the time I got to the bus stop.

Little waterfalls connect different lakes in the Shuzheng valley

Rhinoceros Lake: Next stop on the way to the entrance of the park, is this lake, large as is, starts to look like any other lakes in this park. Next to it is Tiger Lake. These two are connected together by series of mini waterfalls and overflows with trees growing out of it, creating a nice sound of water rushing thru obstacles. Getting sick of taking yet another lake shot, I switched to micro lenses and started shooting plants with colourful lake backdrops. This seems to work!

On the periphery of Rhino Lake

Before long it seems its getting late and the wardens are starting to clear the park. Not having time to look for park accommodation, and not really sure they exist now in off season, I took the shuttle back down to the entrance and looked for a hotel near the exit.

Flowers are everywhere on the banks of the lakes

For dinner, walked into a bright local restaurant in an evening of blackout in town (restaurant runs their own generator!) and ordered rice with Sichuan chilli yak and a dish of local vegetable that looks like black twigs. The yak dish was really good, as was the vegetable. This is china so expect it to be oily, but the cheap tea is free flow to compensate.

Will be an early night tonight while I make it back to Jiuzhaigou tomorrow morning to continue my adventure.

18 November 2008: There is not a reason to start off early today. Got out of the hotel at 8 am, and proceeded procedurally to Jiuzhaigou gate and bought a bus ticket only. I already have the second day ticket from yesterday. The crowd seems to be thicker than yesterday but maybe it is because it is now later than when I started.

Zechawa Gully: Now this trip to Zechawa valley is what I really wanted to do today. I tried listening attentively this time but didn’t hear anything about the gully being closed. The 3 valleys are Zechawa, Shuzheng and Rize valley/gully. I have done Rize yesterday and top part of Shuzheng. To get to Zechawa, take the tourist bus to Nuorilang terminal and get off and hang around the police booth on the road up, first bus seems to be at 9:30am and I waited 30 minutes for it. It should be possible to ask at the gate and get omitted board the bus that goes only to Zechawa valley. Most buses goes to Rize as this is where most of the attractions are.

Long Lake at the end of Zechawa Valley

Long Lake: This is the last stop on the road to Zechawa and is a full 15 minutes away uphill. When we got there, we were probably the first bus of the morning and there were again locals with local costumes for hire. But my attention was fixed on the lake. The sun has not really affected the lake and the wind has not blown hard yet. There was cold morning water vapours rising, I ran to the viewing gallery above the lake next to the carpark and started shooting with wide angles and short telephoto.

Long Lake is just that. Largest lake in this park and perched on top as remains of a glacial lake. The path to the next lake closeby is closed, so I am forced to take the shuttle to it.

Multi-coloured lake bed

Multi-coloured Lake: This little lake is no bigger than a large fat swimming pool and is not too far downhill from Long Lake, but is the most cozy and colourful lake in the park. There are shades of blue and green in high saturation here, and before the wind started to come in, I shot with polarizers with minimal ripples. Very nice place.

The path leads the herd of tourists into the forest downhill to a pick up area a few hundred meters away. Efficient and relatively quick if not for those noisy and slow Hong Kong tourists.

The other lakes in Zechawa are all empty of water so the bus do not stop there. The next stop will be the Nuorilang stop at the centre of the Y shaped park valley. It comes to around 11 am by the time I get to the Nuorilang Centre, lunch time.

I didn’t see the size of the Nuorilang complex yesterday. The bus would stop close to the center and I would have to walk right through it to get to the bus going through the Shuzheng valley to the other sights I want to go to on the way to the entrance. Outside are the cattle class restaurant, chinese eating instant noodles. Inside, there are many stalls selling souvenirs though I don’t think most are made in this place. They just look too manufactured. I don’t bother. I then saw the restaurant and the scale of the place. One would buy a ticket for 50 RMB and then go through a turnstile into the restaurant, I believe serving buffet style meal. Looks like everyone in this park has to eat here. I took out my soy joy and mars bar and decided to continue my trip while the masses chow.

Nuorilang Waterfall: Oh yes. I have been here yesterday buy I was hoping to get a better view from the road viewing platform today. A wide angle nicely frames half the waterfall without taking the road. I don’t know if I took a better shot but surely today’s muted weather was making it a little easier than yesterday’s strong backlight.

After this quick stop revisiting the waterfall, I backtracked to Nuorilang centre and took the bus back down Shuzheng valley.

Tiger Lake on the second day

One of the many waterfalls interconnecting the lakes together

Shuzheng Village: Took the bus to Tiger lake where I left off but again looks like other lakes I saw yesterday. Took the broadwalk down the lakes and shoals with trees growing out of it. Took some photos but nothing to shout about once you have seen the rest. Soon I would be at the village, looking around realising that in this down season, nothing is opened. Wondering if I really wanted to look for a place to stay here if it was possible. It looks as though either everyone here are working for the park and minimal agriculture happens in this village, or the real villagers have been removed and only some or only workers live here. I believe it is a combination of the two. Definitely sparse and probably difficult to find accommodation in here. I spent 10 minutes here.

Shuzheng Lakes

Shuzheng Lakes: Just at the front door of the village are a series of small lakes. It looks to me like a large area with natural dams and barriers making it look like many lakes. Water flow from one lake to another downhill. Maybe it can be easily said to be a flat looking rice terrace with trees growing on the barriers. At this time the trees are in autumn configuration, yellow and red colour, while blue transparent water filled the lakes with gradients. Wide angles do not do too well here, but short telephotos do. The platform is elevated and one side of the lakes so telephoto lens helps to isolate the autumn leaves and just enough transparent blue water to make scene. The area is so vast it is possible to stay on the platform and shoot telephoto and normal lenses the whole day if you are into that sort of thing.

Shuzheng Lakes

Shuzheng Lakes

The lakes are so clear, they make good backdrops for tree shots!

After this would be the Shuzheng waterfalls, denser groups of trees and small waterfalls rotting the landscape.

Reeds on the banks of reed lake

Reed Lake

Other Lakes: I continued walking down the park towards the entrance all the way to the reed river. There are many macro opportunities shooting plants and small fruits and cotton plants. The reed river is now brown waiting foe winter, and photo taking into account the brightly coloured reeds with the dark coloured blue water. Anyway, I took a couple more shots and noticed my D300 battery is below 10% with more than 600 shots in 2 days. As it is approaching 4 pm and already tired, I then took the next available bus to the entrance of the park, ending my 2 day trip before winter arrives.

After checking into Sheraton (again, free nights based on my SPG point exchange) its time to go out to the restaurant I went yesterday. Arriving there the owner recognised me right away and came to me without the menu. I then told him, ok I want local chilli chicken today, a plate of mountain mushrooms whatever that is and an ordinary plate of vegetable knowing here in Sichuan everything comes with dried chilli and Sichuan peppercorns. Asked also for a small portion of their self roasted peanuts. Since I did not have a proper lunch, thought it was appropriate to eat more for dinner! The meal was excellent as usual, and I have the GPS coordinates for this restaurant and once I finished and paid for the meal, we chatted a little about cooking and when is the best time to visit. Incidentally it was this year during summer when Jiuzhaigou is a little cooler than the coastal areas, and because of the earthquake, not many tourists were here. Too bad I missed it and coming at the border of autumn and winter.

In terms of purity I would prefer Siguniang shan, but Jiuzhaigou has a different feel to it. The part is run like a machine, and I can see how amusement park it can get in summer. It is possible to walk the whole park but I don’t see how to do it in 3-4 days to cover the whole park. Taking a combination of walking some part and taking buses where there are no attractions, 2 full days would be required. 1 day is enough if you stop on every stop, take the obligatory photo and bus to the next stop. It should be. I took the slow, take my time approach, taking time to setup tripod and photo and walk when needed and it took 2 days to finish the 3 valleys. But seriously why rush it? If a triage is required, I suggest doing a quick Rize and Shuzheng Valley. Actually Zechawa and Shuzheng Valley is ok too. Obviously you down miss Shuzheng Valley as you will see what is essentially Jiuzhaigou if you visit only this area. Start uphill and go downhill. Unfortunately this is what most people do. At high altitude don’t bother being a hero and move uphill.

Whatever it is, it’s a one of a kind scenery here. Very graceful the way water flows up from the mountains to the lower rivers. I’m guessing from zero geological knowledge that this is because of the high mineral contents causing the water to be colorful and calcify easily. But I leave the explanations and all the myths of naming the attracting to wikipedia.

Tomorrow I will take the slow 10 hrs bus back to Chengdu at 7am. My trip starts to get easier as it goes on! Soon it will be a panda trip in Chengdu. Unless there are anything interesting along the way, its over and out from Sheraton Jiuzhaigou tonight.

19 November 2008: After a nice American breakfast before 6 am, it is time to go to the bus station just next to the Sheraton before the sun comes up. Like most days, sleep early and wake up early. This time I get seat number 3 right in front to the right of the driver. In 10 hours I will be back in Chengdu.

Verdict: when in Sichuan, never miss Jiuzhaigou, but come with plenty of money!

Next part: Guilin, China