ok, so i've had it for a bit more than two months now, and finally post something substantial about it. i definitely like it a lot more than all the windows systems that i have to use, the file system is a million times better, and it does just seem to look and feel better. another good thing is that the os is based on unix, so it means i get to improve my command line skills as i go. software wise (with a couple exceptions), everything just feels better.
my gripes on the software side are a bit grey, first, eclipse seems to crash a bit, and also behave in a strange way when editing files sometimes, but that's more of an eclipse issue. the application menus can be a bit of a bother, for example with firefox, they don't have control over that, so middle and right clicks don't work properly. spotlight is very cool (i haven't tried quiksilver, don't see a need at the moment), as long as i can remember to use it. the other thing is that a lot of the free/open source apps that are available for windows aren't for mac, there are usually alternatives, but they're not always as good (or take a bit of time to get used to). my one real gripe has been installing php, partly because it's a 64bit system, partly because it's a mac, i still haven't been able to get it working the way i want. it means i have to have apache compile as a 64bit binary, mysql as a 64bit binary, php as a 64bit binary (or all as 32bit binaries). so far, i just haven't been able to crack the code to get it up and running, i'll get around to it eventually.
on the hardware side, just one minor quibble (and it may be because i haven't set it up properly), mouse actions (mostly in firefox) aren't quite the same as windows, i've got a fancy mouse with lots of buttons but half of them do the same thing.
on the plus side, it's got a lot better hardware than anything else i'm using at the moment (2.4ghz dual core intel, 4gb ram (installed myself)) which is good because some of the photo processing i'm doing definitely needs all that power, and the os can actually utilise all that ram, and other software will be able to as long as it is 64bit. it's dead quiet (except if playing a dvd), all passively cooled so i can leave it running over night next to me. i'll have to wait a while before i can see how it handles the hot weather of melbourne. i've never really tried running it in the most efficient mode possible, but it gets about three hours (non stop) running off the battery, doing some intensive stuff, like photo processing playing mp3's etc.
the wireless network was ridiculously easy, it detected the network when i started it for the first time, but one glitch, it does seem to hang a bit when the connection drops out (which is my netgear router's fault, not getting one of them again).
i've got a dual monitor setup with a 22" monitor to take care of all the multimedia stuff, but the 13.3" (1280x800) glossy monitor is very usable, but with a big monitor things are a lot easier. so in conclusion, i'm very happy with the macbook, and it will make a very useful companion when travelling i think, as well as being very capable on the desktop. so it's not as upgradeable as a pc (hardware wise), that's all right, i'm sure when the time comes, i'll be able to upgrade, and/or setup an additional server pc.
pic stolen from the apple site.
so i decided to get this monitor calibration device from datacolor, the spyder2 express, which is the bottom of the line model. basically you look at the back of the box, and everything is no, while the next model up has half yes, and the top of the line is all yes. anyway, i don't need anything fancy, i just want to make sure that the photos i want to print will look all right. it's a funny little thing (sensor) that you put over the monitor, then run the software which goes through a bunch of colour options to calibrate the monitor. i hope i did it right, i turned all the lights off, and let it go for about ten minutes.
my wallpapers look better, less of a green tint (when comparing the colour profiles) compared to the profile i did by squinting 
. too bad the cheapo version doesn't work with multiple monitors, so my macbook still has to use my squinty profile, but i'll get over it. all my pictures look pretty good, so that's a good thing, my squinty calibration isn't so bad, but obviously it's not good for the eyes.
of course i got it from adorama, cheaper and probably faster than ordering from australia. although i'm still confused by ups' shipping, it always says that it arrives in vic, then the next part says it's in sydney, then it says it's in victoria again, before it arrives. anyways, here's to having better colours in my pictures in the future, also i'll be getting my blurb book as soon as i've seen alf's one, and also getting my poster print in the next week or so too, so i'll post about those too (and some other stuff that i have been putting off).
pic taken from the datacolor web site.
just thought i'd post a snippet about the tour, i was watching last night, and originally was just going to watch to the top of the tourmalet, then it was already past midnight, so i thought i'd just stick it out and see what happened (and now i'm stuffed ). well, a bit more than an hour later, the two saunier duval riders came in first and second, followed by frank schleck, and then a few others, and cadel evans just over two minutes down, but it was enough to get him into the yellow jersey for the first time. i was a bit surprised to see valverde dropped on the tourmalet, but jens voight is a monster. i reckon he was riding blind (he had sunnies on so it was hard to tell), but someone was probably telling him which way to turn, cos the way he was riding i don't think it would be possible to concentrate on more than just pedalling. that was a monster ride, i've been up mount hotham, i don't know how they compare, but the tourmalet and hautacam climbs looked pretty ridiculous, once they crack, i don't know how they have the will to keep pedalling till they finish.
everyone says cadel shouldn't take the yellow cos his team isn't strong enough to defend it, but the way i see it, there's no real difference him being one second in front to him being one second behind. he still has to watch the other guys exactly the same way, having the yellow now is irrelevant either way, it's all about managing the time until the final time trial really. let's hope that he keeps it up, and doesn't have any more of those strange crashes, and is standing on the podium with the yellow jersey in paris.
pic taken from the age site.
not really a synopsis, as the film doesn't really warrant one, i have to say, i don't remember seeing a film this bad at the cinemas for a while. will smith plays hancock, an alcoholic superhero that costs more money when making a rescue/saving the day than he saves by doing the deed. his antics don't sit well with the public, but when he saves the life of the character played by jason bateman (i can't remember his name), things start to turn around. jason bateman's character is a pr dude, and so decides he wants to help hancock improve his image. things seem to be going well (or at least reasonably) at this point, but then the story sort of falls apart when bateman's wife, played by charlize theron (and she can't save it) turns out to be a super woman.
all in all, it was a ridiculous concept, which might have worked had they not decided to go for the odd twist. but i guess they had to try and put some drama into it. one line that stood out for it's silliness, when charlize theron is explaining the history of her and will smith, she says something like it's not fate, it's physics, that totally confused me.
anyway, i didn't have any real expectations of the film, i just presumed it was another will smith money spinner (which it may be), but it was even worse than the zombie film, i can't believe i paid to watch that, they should pay me back with interest!!
pic taken from the wikipedia site.
tipped off by alf about this company (blurb booksmart) that takes your photos and prints them into a book, i've got another project to work on for my mexico photos. i'll probably wait to see what his (new zealand) book looks like before i order, but i would think that it will look pretty good. all the photos have to be converted to very square like dimensions (depending on the book you choose), or wide panoramas for two page spreads, but i should manage. the only problem is finding enough good photos (though i will have about 140 photos in my mexico gallery, nothing close to that amount are print-worthy). it may be a small book, but that's all right, if i'm paying, i should take quality over quantity. one good thing, alf mentioned that the booksmart app compresses your picture files before it uploads them to the server, meaning a potentially massive upload won't take as long as you'd think.
i've also pretty much decided to go with teds for my poster print, probably a 20"x32" printout of my holy light picture, that's a beast, i'll have to make sure that it looks good at that size before i go ahead (i know i pumped the brightness and contrast on that one), if not, i'll have to find another one or print smaller. i might ask about that soon, cos i want to have it hanging in my room soon. displaying photos online is cool and all, but sometimes you need some decorations for the real world.
pic taken from the blurb site.
finally, i've managed to set up my development environment for my site. so i can actually test stuff locally before uploading, instead of just uploading and hoping for the best. i'm not sure how effective it will be in reality though, as i don't really like to leave that computer on all the time, and not logged into the fedora os all the time as well, but i'll just have to be disciplined i guess. the problem i was having was that the apache install didn't have suexec configured properly, and i was trying to set it up to run similar to what i have on dreamhost. finally worked out that i needed to recompile apache and modify the suexec settings a bit to get it running. i still had to change a heap of other local settings, but hopefully i won't have to do it again, but i'll try to make notes of what i did in case i do.
this could very well mean that there will no longer be any bugs on this site . with this update, i will probably put off trying to install php on my macbook for a while (as it has not been a very productive exercise), and i will post a review of my mac next week probably.
pic stolen from the fedora project page, while i'm not using fedora 9, i am using fedora, so good enough (these projects all have such shit logos, although i shouldn't talk 
).
just a minor update, have to do these since i've finished processing my photos (still forty-odd to upload at this point). nothing of any real note in terms of technical accomplishment, especially not anything new since the last update two days ago (or whatever it was). just wanted to post about my record month of june 2008, i smashed my previous record of unique visitors for a month (which was last month, may 2008) by over 200 uniques. ok, so the numbers may be underwhelming for anyone else, but it's quite amusing to me, especially some of the referrals i get from google.
windows live seems to get a fair number of referrals as well (as does yahoo), but the windows live keywords don't seem to be captured properly by awstats, they're all just single words that seemingly could get billions of results. anyway, with an extra day, and a lot more mexico photos to post, i think it's possible to break the record again in july, just as long as i keep posting content (quantity vs quality, we'll see ).
and yes, i will be posting a macbook review soon, but i'm having some issues that i want to sort out one way or another before i say anything on that front, possibly sometime in the next week.
so it's been out for a couple of weeks, and i've been playing with it since the beta releases for a couple of months now, i thought i'd post some of my thoughts on it. having used it on mac, windows, but not linux (there's some kind of big furore going on there, so that's best left at ff2 for now), i haven't used all the new stuff, but i've definitely liked a few of the obvious changes.
the url search thingie, where you just type into the address (awesome) bar and it starts showing results from your history and bookmarks, very nice. at first i wasn't too sure about it, but now, i don't even need to remember url's anymore . the simple but effective changes for remembering passwords, etc, not using a modal window was a welcome change.
the default gui looks much nicer too, i haven't even bothered finding a new theme, it looks fine to me. one annoying thing on mac though, you can't right (or middle) click anything in the application menu, it just treats them like left clicks.
of course, the main reason anyone uses firefox, the extensions are all still there. although firebug (the version i'm using anyway 1.2b) is more buggy (dynamically changing css and that kind of stuff), it is beta after all i guess, but stick to 1.0 if you can. web developer toolbar works about the same (though i don't have to use it as much anymore), but definitely no issues there.
apparently it's a lot faster and less of a memory hog now, i haven't really noticed, which is probably a good thing, it does feel very snappy and clean though. so i just want to say that i've been advocate of firefox for a very long time, well before it was even called firefox, even before it was called firebird, back in the old phoenix days of 0.4b, it's always good to bring up how long i've been using the coolest browser on the block, just to prove how with it i am .
recommended!!
also, picture stolen from mozillalinks.org.
decided to finally work on the multiple categories for news items this morning, and have got it working to some degree, i'm sure there will be many bugs and errors, but it is in some working order at the moment. i will need to polish it up a bit, but now something that is related to travel and photography no longer has to sit in only one category. i've made some other backend changes that are probably not noticeable to the end user, though there should be more caching on the client side, meaning less data transfer, and faster loading times (as long as you look at something again). i still need to fix that up properly too, as the cached files don't seem to last more than a session.
on another bright note, i've already broken my record for unique visitors for a month with a few days left. i'll post again with the full numbers once the month is over, i'm such a marketing genius . i've also finished processing my photos (unless on review i notice glitches that need to be fixed), that's why i had so much time to do some of these site updates. back to taking more photos i guess, i definitely need to learn how to use my flash, i was taking pictures the other day and had absolutely no idea what was wrong, but the pictures were way too dark.
that's it for now, no photo with this post, i haven't got nothing (no tengo nada), gotta love spanish.
[update]didn't take long, the categories weren't showing up in the rss, d'oh.
yeah, i'm a little disappointed, not so much with the output, cos it's probably user error, but more so with not being able to get this picture into my gallery. it was composed of fifteen shots (though only 12 were used here, original resolution 6352x4864), but glitches in the bottom part (around the REFORMA section) finally did me in, and i won't continue to try and get it to work. i want to post it here, just so that people can see it though, cos it is a pretty cool piece of art, painted by jose clemente orozco, it is a mural covering the domed ceiling at the governor's palace in guadalajara. i do have a picture of one of the other massive murals (not a panorama) that he painted, that i will be posting later, but it doesn't look as good as what this would have. anyway, a couple of questions, if anyone knows the answers, feel free to let me know.
is more control points better or worse? with twelve pictures, i created 663 control points, is that too many, not enough?
and probably more importantly, how important is staying in one position to take all the pictures? i think one of my problems was that i moved around to take some pictures, creating some different angles where the control points might have not matched very well, and had different sizes and shapes of the same sections.
live and learn i guess, hopefully my next panorama turns out a bit better than this one (which would've been pretty sweet had i pulled it off).
review/synopsis: the incredible hulk
went and saw the incredible hulk starring ed norton, liv tyler, tim roth, and william hurt. another marvel comics film (they seem to be coming out with heaps of them at the moment) about a superhero with problems. this one i have to say is much better than the spiderman series, and at least on par with x-men (i haven't seen iron man yet), and probably better than the last hulk film (i only saw parts of that and can't really remember it). from what i've read, it appears they tried to move away from the last hulk film a bit, and more towards the comic books, either way, this film was pretty good. though it is a little confusing because they changed the origin story (i guess they may have been forced to because of the generation gap) to something different from the comics.
basically, ed norton is bruce banner, and he is on the run from the military, while trying to find a cure for the hulk inside. eventually, the military finds him and hunts him down, but he manages to escape, and finds someone that may be able to help him. the rest of the film is the military trying to capture him while he tries to find a cure. the final battle scene is pretty cool, imagine if you were in the city one night, and these giant monsters appeared out of nowhere and started fighting .
though i'm not a big fan of special effects, they were pretty good in this film, starting with the hulk (although his feet looked very flat at times), the fight scenes, and the military attacks. i'm sure there will be a sequel, as well as some crossover film(s) with other marvel comics characters involved, let's just hope it doesn't get too corny. i like the hulk as a superhero, big, brawny, no brains, lots of destruction, and he's green!!
picture taken from the wikipedia site.
get the fuck off the road, please!!
rant time, for the second time in little more than a week, i was almost run over by some moron in a car. last week it was some tradie who didn't check before turning out of a side street. today it was some moron in their pussy red hatch back (i like hatch backs normally, don't get me wrong) that almost killed me. i was riding up canterbury rd (with my bike lights on), when this guy coming from the other direction tries to turn right (into the side street) right in front of me. fortunately, i was awake to the situation, and it was a slow stretch of road (going towards an uphill), i managed to slow down and turn into the street and avoid an accident. i just don't understand how shit drivers like this can get their licence, and be driving on the road, it's pathetic.
picture i took last year of some tradie talking on his phone while driving (i was practising pan with continuous auto focus), this guy is representative of the problem we all face today, what happens when he hits someone else talking on their phone while driving?.
no that is not my dog (read bottom), haven't posted any news in a week or so, so i thought i better post some of the updates going on around here. i've been busy processing my photos from mexico, and uploading them here, and to various other locations (panoramio, facebook, not flickr yet). i've updated the tagging on pictures, it uses an autocompleter from yahoo, this eliminates the possibility of similar tags. i also updated the way the gallery works a bit, which caused some issues but which are hopefully all fixed now, making it more flickr-like (without the geo-mapping). other than that, there isn't a lot going on the technical side, i'm looking at some other fancy js gui things, but nothing is in the works.
i probably should allow posting to multiple news categories for each news item (i will look at that next probably), as this is a personal/site related post. i got a new macbook , especially to process the photos from my k200d (mainly panoramas which hog system resources), but also i was in need of a new computer. a 22" asus monitor which is especially so that i can get my photos looking excellent. to carry my macbook, i got a colcasac from applesac. it hasn't left the house yet, but it is a cool little macbook case. i'm really happy with it so far, so much faster and snappier than the old pc. it's good to get away from the windows file system.
not a lot else going on, just a lot of photo processing going on, which when i'm done posting here (prolly a couple months), i'll post a few on flickr and other sites to get some more exposure (got some i hope to get into the pentax photo gallery, just waiting till i finish and i'll put them all in at once). i actually broke my unique visitors record last month, and i'm edging ever closer to the 1 000 mark, that seo is really working .
this is a picture of a big, fluffy dog (looks kinda like a chow chow) we saw in oaxaca, just down the street from our hostel, it's good to post random pictures with items that don't otherwise have pictures associated 
, it was quite friendly, though i didn't pat it.
review/synopsis: indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull
went and saw the latest (hopefully the last) of the indiana jones films, and i have to say i'll be keeping this short. i didn't like the film particularly (and after the fact got recommended ironman ). it starts off ok, pretty much like any indiana jones film, he's been kidnapped by the enemy and forced to divulge what he knows. they go to south america to find a friend and work out what's going on, but that's when it starts to get seriously outrageous. never mind the totally unbelievable thrills and spills, i can live with that, that's part of the fun. but the ending cannot be believed even after seeing it.
i said it after the film, and i'll say it again, it just kind of deteriorated at the end, it went from something interesting into something completely ridiculous, and i'll leave it at that (i'm actually very surprised steven spielberg directed it). cate blanchett as the baddie has a funny accent.
picture taken from the indiana jones page on wikipedia.
mexico 2008: jalisco - guadalajara and tequila
we arrived in guadalajara on a monday in the evening, and went to the main hostel in town, right in the middle of peak hour. back to the haze of a big mexican city, this was our last stop before heading back home, we had three nights in town. from all accounts, guadalajara is famous for having the prettiest girls in mexico, and true to what others had said, the girls were prettier and they seemed to appear in a higher ratio than other mexican cities (though i didn't get any photos 
) . anyways, back to the locale, we had two full days and one half day to see the area, and do whatever last minute shopping was necessary. the plan, wander around guadalajara, go to tequila, and do some shopping at the market (though i had had my fill of shopping by this point).
we spent our first full day wandering around town and seeing the local sites. the cathedral, the murals at the governor's palace of miguel hidalgo by jose clemente orozco, and also got a bus up to tlaquepaque, and checked out the shops there (a bit pricey i think).
jilting the tour ($300 pesos) provided at the hostel, we decided to head to tequila by ourselves the next day. we stuffed up the taxi ride to the bus station, then it took two hours to get to tequila (slowest bus ever, it's only 50km from guadalajara). we thought we'd missed our chance at the english tour of the distillery (12pm according to lp), but the friendly (and pretty ) girls at the mundo cuervo distillery told us that there was an english tour at 3pm. so we had lunch, wandered around checking out the tequila in the shops, then went back for the tour. it was a good tour ($150 pesos) lasting an hour and giving us a chance to sample a few different kinds of tequilas (and a weak margarita), and explaining the processes as well as the different types of tequila. so now we're connoisseurs of tequila and can tell you what's good and what's not. we didn't drink too much cos it was quite strong (especially the 55% unfinished shot), but a friendly american guy did offer some of his reserve of the family tequila (he paid more for that part of the tour), which was very smooth indeed. alf and ozzy got a big bottle of tequila each, with shot glasses, while i only got a small souvenir bottle and shot glass. so what was meant to be a half day thing turned into a whole day, and we had another long two hour trip (you can see all the agave plantations along the way) back to town. not only that, the whole trip definitely cost us more than if we had gone on the tour with the hostel, oh well, live and learn.
our last day in guadalajara (flight at 6pm) pretty much just consisted of more markets/shopping and ice cream . we left pretty early for the airport, about 3pm, and then just waited for our flight. it sort of seems like guadalajara wasn't as interesting as the other places from my post, but perhaps we were a bit tired and didn't have enough time to do some of the stuff outside the city, i'd definitely go back and do it properly given the chance.
and that's it for my mexico recap, i'm not going to do a final blah blah post to summarise the trip, i think i've said more than enough in the past week and a bit, so anything i've forgotten could very well possibly end up in the gallery anyway. i'll hopefully start posting some pictures there sometime next week, getting a new monitor to help with processing. will be back to regular programming soon, as i do have a few other things that i need to post . so now, just have to sit back, and plan the next break i think, i've already got a good idea of what i will be doing (shoul be different in some ways i think ), but i'll save that for another time.
picture of agave pinas at the muno cuervo distillery, they are quite massive.
mexico 2008: yucatan - valladolid, chichen itza, merida, uxmal, and more
yeah, busy time in yucatan state (obviously we've been in the yucatan peninsula for a while, this is specifically the state), we spent four nights total in the state, and had a great time. arriving in valladolid on a thursday afternoon, we went for the hi hostel (but it was closed for renovations), so we ended up at the hotel zaci which was a pretty nice place anyway. the next day, we got up real early so that we could get to chichen itza as it opened, it's a 45 minute bus ride, so don't bother having a shower . it was just opening when we got there, so not too many tourists and the hawkers weren't really set up yet either. entry was $98 pesos, which includes the cost of the night light show (which we didn't hang around for), so maybe coming in the afternoon is a better bet (though you'll definitely have to fight through the crowds).
one of the new wonders of the world, it is, once again, a terrific site, and definitely not one to be missed. el castillo is pretty much the first thing you see when you walk in, and there are plenty of different angles to get a photo of it (though not as many as there used to be, as you can't climb it, nor can you climb to top of the temple of chac mool (muy disappointing ). even still, there are so many things to see you won't be too disappointed, there are colourful birds, myriad other structures, statues, columns, and wildlife to catch. it's a big site, we spent almost four hours there, so plenty to keep yourself entertained (as long as you like this kind of stuff). also, beware when buying masks from the hawkers, alf got a big one that he thought was wooden, but it turned out to be plaster. the price was knocked down from $300 to $120 or something, so something fishy going on there.
after that, we went back to our hotel in a colectivo, checked out (checkout time was 1pm, very cool) and left our bags with reception, before heading out to cenote samula by colectivo taxi (about 20 minutes, $15 pesos). this cenote is underground, it is famous for having the roots of an alamo tree sucking moisture from it. we went for a short swim (water was surprisingly warm, not like tulum, but warmer than lorne for sure), i took some photos, and then we headed back. it is the smallest and possibly least popular of the cenotes near valladolid, but the tree roots attracted us. lots of fish in the water, and lots of sparrow-like birds flying about, they shit in the water too .
went back to town by colectivo taxi again, then got on our bus headed for merida, the state capital. the biggest city we'd been to since puebla, and probably the warmest place as well (similar to melbourne in summer, but it was spring in merida!!), merida was a most charming city. i really liked it, hard for me to decide which was my favourite place, but merida is definitely up there. the first full day there, we went shopping, and bought ourselves some hammocks (i still don't know what i'm going to do with mine). alf and ozzy got a heap of other stuff, i got some nice t-shirts and left it at that. it's a really nice city to wander around in, the zocalo is busy (at times) and there are lots of shops and markets. we also went to the governor's palace on the north side of the zocalo and looked at the murals by fernando castro pacheco, there are a lot of them, pretty much all about the mayan people before and after the spanish conquest. these were my favourite paintings of the whole trip, really well done, and the explanations really explained the paintings well.
onto uxmal (again, entry was $98 pesos including the cost of the night light show, again, we didn't hang around for it), the last site of ruins that we would see in mexico, certainly not the least though, from a quick glance, i think i've got some pretty nice pictures from here (which would've been better if we were able to get there earlier). it's a one and a half hour bus ride from merida, with the earlist bus leaving at 6am, we got the 8am one. the site opens at 8am, so it's not easy to get to without your own car or taxi (unless you want to wake up real early). it's a pretty large site, with pretty much everything concentrated in the central and southern areas, we covered it in about two hours. once again, the first thing you see when you get in, is a big pyramid (can't climb it though, nor anything else). i actually got in trouble for walking over ruins that i thought were just rocks (i guess the sign should've told me otherwise, of course i only did it cos other people did, but that's still my fault). the bus trip back was a bit dodgy though, there doesn't seem to be any colectivos servicing uxmal, so you have to go out to the highway and catch the bus back to merida (or campeche), just wait, one will come along.
my final word on the ruins, we did spend a lot of time there and stuff, and managed to get the best possible light for a couple of them, though i wonder now, what it might've been like to go in the afternoon as well, if you've got time and money, it's probably worth it, if you're looking for some really good photos. in terms of my favourites (taking everything into account), i'm not going to qualify my judgements here, but:
other than that, we had a lot of ice creams and sorbets in merida (yum ), did a fair bit of shopping, and generally chilled out for our last days in the yucatan and the east. it was really busy on our last night, sunday, at the zocalo, which was good, cos we hadn't really seen any liveliness from mexico (not that we looked that hard), stalls out, and stuff, lots of churros and ice creams for sale . alf and ozzy did some last minute shopping on our last morning, before we headed for the airport for our flight to guadalajara. just on that, make sure you check in your pocket knives, or swiss army knives before you try and get into the terminal. i forgot about my swiss army knife, and had to run in and out of the terminal (the long way of course) to get my backpack back just to check in my knife, fortunately we left enough time so that it wasn't a problem, though it was still a bit of a rush. with that, onto guadalajara to finish off this trek.
picture of a statue/sculpture on paseo de montejo in merida.
of course, whenever you go to a different country, one with it's own famous cuisine (and drinks), you must try as much as you can, mexico was no different for me. one thing to note though, tacos are probably not like the ones you are familiar with, they are simply small hot tortillas (flat) that you wrap your food in, even tacos el dorado (fried tacos) are rolled up, so you probably won't find your crunchy, easy to hold tacos in mexico. burritos are supposedly texan mexican, and nachos and fajitas as well, you may find them, but they probably will be different to what you expect. onto the food, a lot of the time we relied on the lp and rough guides to give us places to go, but at least as often, we just walked into a place that looked good. also note, that pretty much every meal comes with free tortillas (hot as in warm) or tostadas (toasted tortillas), or chilaquiles (nacho-like, broken tostadas), or all of the above, these can be eaten however you like, but i found best used as a wrap for the main. regarding salsa, usually, the green one is the hot one, the red is simply mild, and the further east you go, the hotter it tends to get. for example, in mexico city the green salsa was quite mild, while in merida, the green salsa would leave some heat on my lips (and cause a runny nose), very nice!!
with the exception of a couple places, most places we ate at were pretty good (or adequate in more secluded locales). i'll talk about the drinks afterwards, that's a good collection i have .
starting in mexico city, the only place that i can really remember is this little taqueria on the corner of rep. de chile and cinco de mayo near the zocalo, very tasty tacos and tortas (with chorizo), no english, cooked fresh on a pan visible to all. chicken and cheese (pollo con queso) tacos were ridiculously tasty, and the chorizo torta as well, very cheap too. the only other place i remember was from the lp, cafe el popular, i had an enchilada there, it was ok, nothing special.
moving on to papantla, we ate at a couple places, first two in the lp, plaza pardo and la hacienda (breakfast), both good places with good views of the zocalo, i was happy with both of them. supposedly, alf and ozzy got sick from eating chicken at the hotel restaurant (totonaca i think) with the set lunch (comida corrida), i reckon they were just a bit weak 
, i had the beef with no such reaction.
me and alf had one meal in xalapa, it was a hamburger at a little place near the hostel, it was pretty much like a typical hamburger (not mcdonalds, but like the ones you make yourself or get at the fish and chip shop), and cheap. i think alf might've got sick from his, though i had no issue, ozzy was still sick.
in puebla, we pretty much just ate down at the zocalo at random restaurants around the square. we went to a seafood restaurant, and i had a mystery meal (we didn't have the phrasebook), ostiones a la diabla, is in fact oysters with tomato sauce and cheese, as you can tell from the picture, it's a lot of oysters, about 25 in total, i got through about 20, the cheese made it edible i think . alf got prawns and rice and had about two bites 
. we also went to vittorio's, the italian place in the lp, had pizza (mexican of course (with frijoles)) , it was nice, but i have a suspicion that the altitude may have shrunk my stomach, as we couldn't even finish a medium and a small pizza between us.
on to oaxaca, we pretty much just ate around the zocalo (lots of hawkers and buskers), we had one meal at the taco inn (a franchise) where they had western style alambres (western style in terms of taste), which were good probably because they were salty or had msg in them or something. we also went to a pizza shop a bit north of the zocalo, it looked busy, but it wasn't, and service was slow (and we were in a rush). the meal was ok in the end, a margarita pizza for ozzy (i remember cos i had some), i had some kind of chicken dish. while i didn't try any of the funny flavoured ice creams here, i did have a choc chip ice cream that was very nice.
san cristobal, we had lunch and watched the champions league at a little place on guadalupe, then i had a big roll at the revolution bar north of the zocalo, which was good.
in palenque, we pretty much just ate at a couple places in the lp, they were fine, nothing special, maras, restaurant maya, and las tinajas.
we ate only at the restaurant calakmul at our hotel in xpujil, i half wanted to try one of the places down the road, but we didn't, i'm pretty sure the kids waiting on tables weren't also the ones cooking .
in tulum, the first night we ate at this place on the same block as the weary traveler, it was on the corner, the waiter we got was real friendly and chatty (supposedly his name was david as well), a little pricey, but the service was good. we went to charlies (which is in the lp), but we regretted it after about ten minutes of waiting for our menus (it started raining so we were stuck). the service was ridiculously slow, and though the food was well cooked, my chicken mole was quite difficult to consume. the chicken was fine, but it was soaked in this mole that had this real herby (oriental mediciny) taste, and was really not to my liking, alf liked his chili relleno, and ozzy was happy with his food. the service was atrociously slow though (possibly caused by a big group of americans that had come straight from las vegas or so it appeared).
valladolid had a couple of nice places we ate at, hosteria del marques, fancy but reasonably priced, and tasty, as well as the food court at the bazar municipal (both in the lp), had some very tasty and cheap dishes.
merida had my favourite dish for the whole trip i think, at marlin azul, i had the (special) fillet of fish, a creamy buttery, cheesy fish fillet baked with vegetables and rice, very filling and tasty. we also had pizza at vito corleone (mexican of course, no frijoles this time), good pizzas, and two big square medium pizzas will do for three (provided at least one person has some guts ). sorbets at el colon are ridiculously good, especially the peach (durazno) one, melon is also good. last and certainly least, cangrejito (as promoted by lp), was just plain crap, we wandered in, the guy told us to sit down, we sat there for about ten minutes (while the chef was making seafood tacos right in front of us) making eye contact with the guy that told us to sit down, and nothing. we never got a menu nor any service (it wasn't busy), so we got up and went to a western style restaurant at the square.
in guadalajara, we tried a few places form the lp, mariscos galeana, i had a very nice camarones de ceviche (chilled prawns), goat stew (birria) at birrieria las nueve esquinas, which was nice, though the stew was a little confusing for me as i was eating the goat meat in tortillas (drink the stew i guess), and crazy tacos (and hot!!) at los faroles, i just got five normal ones first (thanks to the waiter speaking english ), then i tried one each with pig snout, tripe, and head meat. they weren't great, snout was very fatty, the head and tripe were pretty low in flavour, chorizo was best.
onto the drinks, which is what you've all been waiting for, i'm happy to say that i managed to sample every mexican beer i found (the brand anyway, not each individual different label) at least once. the one that i saw that i missed was bucanero (but that's cuban anyway), so here is the list of beers i tried, i won't list them in order of preference, as they are pretty similar for the most part.
i think the company that makes corona pretty much owns most of these other beers, but i have pictures of all of them . also learned that michelada is probably not the best order with beer (too much salt and lemon juice). i won't go on about tequila as that'll be expanded upon in the jalisco post, but i also tried a couple of margaritas and some straight tequila.
that's it, overall, very good impressions of mexican cuisine, it's much less salty than you expect (from the americanised version), and very fresh and tasty. the drinks are great, two dollar mexican beers, where else in the world could you get that?
picture of the massive plate of oysters that i couldn't quite get through, i don't think it's the type of dish that one person is meant to eat by themself.
after reading some of the posts i've made, it probably would've made more sense to post these reviews first, but anyway, today it is accommodation. i decided before the trip, that it was going to be most cost effective to stay in hostels and similar places, and as the majority of the time would be spent away anyway, it wasn't necessary to live in luxury. i don't regret that decision at all, i think pretty much all the places we stayed were fine, with a couple of partial exceptions. without further ado, here is my review:
) and toilets, and a great central location (with good views). there is pay internet, laundry, safe deposit boxes, and phone. you do have to wear a wrist strap though. good place, i'd probably stay there again if i went to mexico city, friendly and helpful staff too. they do lack some power points though., it came with cable tv, private bathroom (very nice), hi discount, helpful staff, pay internet, laundry service, they actually cleaned our room, free breakfast, and a pretty good location. the room was very hot though, it was cool outside and downstairs, but upstairs was warm. power points aplenty. very clean and i would stay there again if in puebla., power points, cool communal area, tours, cable tv (really depends who has the control though), free internet, showers for males are upstairs though, and there is a small charge to hold luggage after checkout.
. staff were very friendly and helpful, and it was located just a block from the bus station, and not far from the main square. a little english, should be enough for you to get by if you know no spanish. (sometimes), usually a laundry service, though wasn't in service when we were there, slightly pricier, and the bed arrangement in the dorm was a bit odd, they had only one bunk, and three other beds spaced quite closely together, leaving minimal space for luggage.. the showers were hot and had good pressure (one in particular), and security is good, they do charge to hold your luggage though.
there you have it, my accommodation review for the trip, hopefully helpful for someone, it's basically the same exact stuff that is in the lp, but actually coming from a real person, with some more specific details. apart from hostel guadalajara and hostal pochon, every place we asked were happy to hold our luggage fo free after we had checked out (we tipped some, and probably should've for all). the last post in this series will be all about the cuisine and the beautiful drinks of mexico.
picture of the entrance to hotel casa margarita in san cristobal de las casas, remember, my best night's sleep.
mexico 2008: quintana roo - tulum, coba, and the sian ka'an biosphere
after our two-legged bus trip from xpujil (which went perfectly smoothly), we arrived in tulum around sunset (7.30pm) on a monday. too late to go to the beach, so we just settled into our accommodation, conveniently located 100m from the bus station (more info later), and had dinner nearby. the plan for tulum was to see the ruins early the next day, and then pretty much spend the rest of the day at the beach. the second of our full days was to be decided, and we ended up going for the coba ruins in the morning, and a bird watching tour in the afternoon. our final day (half day) would be spent at the beach. we decided not to go up to playa del carmen thinking it might be like cancun (i've heard that it's not), i can't say one way or the other though having not been there.
according to lonely planet, the tulum ruins open at 7am, according to rough guides, they open at 7am in certain months (of which april was one of them), according to the sign at the entrance to the ruins, they open at 8am. i think it's better to ask someone before you go, we got there at 7am hoping for some kind of sunrise photos, and ended up having to wander around the beach for half an hour (it took a while to get there) taking photos before returning to the ruins at 8am.
the ruins aren't particularly special (not compared to pretty much everything else we saw), but the setting and the lighting made for some of my best (favourite) pictures i think. at 8am, there aren't that many tourists, so you can get some clear shots, but by 9am, they are packing them in. there is a little beach just past the palace where you can go down for a swim if you brought your bathers. also, don't be alarmed when you see lots and lots of iguanas, we were surprised, but i think as the day goes on, more and more come out, they're pretty friendly here (as in they will sit still for your pictures), and you get some pretty big ones. definitely a must see site for the photographer, not so much for the archaeologist in you. we spent about an hour and a half at the actual site before heading back to our hostel in a colectivo.
we had a bit of a rest before going back out to the beach. the others will blame me, but i thought we should go to the beach on rented bikes (no pictures ), they cost $50 pesos for 24 hours from the hostel (we should've got better bikes from somewhere else). anyway, we rode out for what was meant to be a short ride (5km), but we missed the public access entrance, and kept going until we hit the biosphere (about 7km further from the beach), and kept riding a bit further till we found some kind of public access. it wasn't a great beach, and there weren't any restaurants around, so we only stayed briefly before riding back. we found the right turn this time, and made our way to the same spot that we had used earlier in the day to get to the beach. we had lunch first, then headed down to the sea. it's a great beach, white sand, small waves, clear, warm, blue water, and not too many people. we spent a couple hours in there (not quite as warm as koh samui, but much better than lorne ). very refreshing, as tulum is quite a warm and humid place.
we got up at the crack of dawn again the next day to go and see the ruins at coba, which has the tallest pyramid in the yucatan peninsula. we hired bikes to get around the site, but it probably wasn't necessary (although they were cheap anyway), the site i thought, was not as good as the others we saw, but it did have a few interesting strcutures, most notably, the ball court, and the two pyramids. we spent about an hour and a half there before heading back by bus.
after we got back to tulum, we had a quick lunch before our sunset, bird watching tour in the sian ka'an biosphere ($85 usd i think) started at 1.30pm. we basically got a private tour, as no one else had booked into this one. our guide, antonio, who was really good, told us about mangroves, the birds, the cenotes, and all the other biodiversity in the region. it made a big difference having a tour guide (as opposed to wandering around with guide books), they can point things out and answer questions . first, we went to a cenote for a swim (don't put sunscreen or anything else on to keep it pristine), the water is unbelievably clear (look hard in my picture and you can see some fish despite my poor metering), and these things are not all underground as i had previously thought. it's very deep though, so if you're not a good swimmer (like me), know your limitations and don't try to exceed them, stick to the shallow parts, and parts where you can hang onto something. we were in there for about 10-15 minutes before heading off to cesiak headquarters further into the biosphere (where they have accommodation, a restaurant, and other tour stuff i guess.
around 4pm, we headed through the mangroves to the lagoon, where we would get in a boat and speed around looking for birds. of course we saw many species of birds (i didn't have a bird watching lens), but seeing them is enough, pelicans, ospreys, herons (several species), egrets, frigates, vultures, terns (i think, or swallows), ibises, and probably several others which i forget. we didn't get a great sunset, as it clouded over, but the dinner was nice (if a bit small).
we got back to tulum between 8-9pm, and didn't do a lot from there. the last half day we spent at the beach, although we ran out of sunscreen, ozzy was the worst off, as he was last to apply. so we didn't spend too long in there, before heading back to town, and lunch, and then on the bus to valladolid for the next part of our journey. that's where i will continue next time.
picture of the temple of the wind god at tulum by the caribbean sea.
mexico 2008: campeche - xpujil, calakmul, and chicanna
we had a bit of an issue getting to xpujil (in the south of campeche), the bus we were meant to get on, never showed up, we got our tickets changed though, and got on the next bus. we arrived in xpujil about 4pm (on a saturday), which is pretty much just a town on the side of the highway. there are restaurants and hotels, but not much else, we didn't look too hard for a place to stay, and ended up spending the most for accommodation of the whole trip. that evening i went down and asked some taxi drivers about prices to get to calakmul (as this was the way i'd read to get there), they all quoted $800 pesos (even chatting amongst each other), so i'm not sure if any bargaining was possible. we didn't bother, we just wanted to get there.
the plan was to leave the hotel at 6.30am and get to the site by 8.30am. so a very early start (to get the best light and least tourists). up we got at the crack of dawn, and our taxi driver was waiting for us outside the hotel.
it's about a two hour drive from xpujil, about 45 minutes to the turnoff to the calakmul biosphere (west back towards escarcega), then another hour or so up the road to the entrance to the ruins (where you'll see dozens of wild turkeys, maybe some deer, a brown lemur-like animal, and other assorted birds). surprisingly, for such a big site, the entrance fee was only $39 pesos, unfortunately, there were no maps to be had there, and make sure to bring your own water, there weren't any hawkers either. only one other group of tourists showed up at the same time as us, a couple of small buses appeared about the time we were leaving, but otherwise we had the place to ourselves.
from what i could see, the site encompasses something like four sections (could be that that is all that has been uncovered), the main plaza (where structure ii is located), structure i, and two gran acropolises, of which we went to the one with structure xiv. it takes about twenty minutes to get from the entrance to the first site, the central plaza, walking on a cleared path, with trees to each side (and howler monkeys roaring, didn't see any though ). i decided that we should head straight for structure ii, the largest building at the site. a massive pyramid with tall trees growing all around it, it's hard to take a good picture of it (for someone with my skills). it's a tough climb too, you get up to a certain point, then realise, you have to go down a few metres, then climb up another flight of stairs to the actual top. once there though, it's an awesome feeling, the view, the breeze, the sense of grandeur, it's quite remarkable.
like the pyramid of the sun at teotihuacan, there is a very pleasant breeze at the top that totally relaxes you. we sat up there for about 15-20 minutes before heading down to explore the rest of the plaza. only one other structure there has a view above the trees, that would be structure vii (it's a good one though). other interesting artifacts include stelae, and carvings, and all the signs in front of the structures have a spanish, mayan?, and english description, so that's not a problem.
we headed for structure i next, about 10-15 minutes away, past structure iii (which is not particularly impressive (not to me anyway)) and on the way to the gran acropolis with structure xiv. the structure with the highest point at the site, the top had a surprisingly small platform. maybe enough room for ten people, lucky for us, we were there by ourselves. again, a very nice breeze, and a great view (supposedly on a clear day, you can see the ruins at el mirador in guatemala, it was clear for us, but perhaps you need binoculars), not as good as from structure ii, but not bad .
after that, we headed down, and decided to see the gran acropolis closest to us (it had a structure that we could see above the trees from structure i). i think it was about a twenty minute walk, but the view was well worth it. we did see some other tourists there, but they didn't bother us , be careful at structure xiv, there is monkey shit everywhere (as ozzy learned) . it actually provides great views of structure i and structure ii (which i'll post in my gallery), and was our last stop before leaving. there are other structures in the vicinity, and also a whole other acropolis to visit, but we didn't want to jerk the cabbie around too much, so we left it at that.
on the way back to xpujil, we decided to go to chicanna (for an extra $100 pesos), a smaller mayan ruin about 12km west of xpujil. it's a pretty small site ($39 pesos entry, no maps, hawkers, or tourists) with only about six buildings, one of which has a very cool monster mouth doorway.
we only spent about twenty minutes there, and decided not to go to becan (another 4km back toward xpujil) as well as we were just too stuffed by that point. becan are ruins that can be seen from the highway, but you'll obviously need to go inside to see them properly.
we got back to the hotel around 3pm, and didn't do too much after that, there's not much to do in xpujil. i have to say, this was one of the things i really wanted to do, after reading about it in the lp, and on the web, and i have to say, despite being the most expensive part of the whole holiday, it was well worth it. i don't think i have the pictures to prove it, but it was my favourite site (possibly because there weren't any other tourists there), but also the setting is so serene. unfortunately, it's not the easiest place to get to (which probably helps keep the tourists away), and there isn't a lot to do in town, but don't let that hold you back, calakmul is very impressive. and on that note, i'll finish, and take off again in tulum, quintana roo.
pic of me (david tran) taking in the spectacle of structures i and ii from structure vii at calakmul.
this will include plants and animals, but only wild and free plants and animals, nothing tame, or caged up, non-macro bugs and plants will fit in here too. i wouldn't expect this gallery to expand very quickly, as wildlife is definitely not one of my specialities.
just going to post all my macro photos in this gallery from now on. that includes all types of bugs, plants, animals, inanimate objects, etc. i'm almost certain all pictures put in here will be taken using my dfa100mm lens, so i could also call it that gallery .
my favourite pictures taken when i went to mexico in april-may 2008. we started in mexico city, then headed north to papantla, el tajin, and xalapa, then back down to puebla, then further east to oaxaca, and chiapas (including san cristobal de las casas and palenque). we then went north east to calakmul near the guatemalan border, and the yucatan peninsula, including tulum, valladolid, chichen itza, merida, and uxmal. we finished by flying west to guadalajara and tequila. hopefully the pictures will take you on a journey through the beautiful country of mexico, and you will be inspired to visit mexico yourself one day (i know i want to go back ).
lorne - australia day weekend 2008
got an invite from ozzy to held down the coast to cumberland river, just past lorne, where his parents had booked a site at the camp ground. it's a busy time around asutralia day, and the beaches down there were pretty packed. most of the pictures i took were around the cumberland river area, which is just a bit past lorne towards apollo bay.
mount loch - mount hotham december 2007
with only half a day to do something, we decided to just take the short hike to mount loch. the starting point is a short drive from the lodge, and then a four km hike to the summit of mount loch. though it was short, carrying my heavy camera bag (at the altitude) certainly got me panting. the summit is 1860m, the hike starts at 1800m, but is up and down, so no real respite. there are nice 360 degree views from the summit, unfortunately, it was a bit hazy when we were there.
the lodge - mount hotham december 2007
a variety of pictures taken in and around the lodge where we stayed (austen bhp). it was a pretty nice situation, beds, kitchen, bathroom, lounge, heating, etc. there are seven rooms, and cos there were only six of us, we got one each (usually four to a room).
after a couple weeks of playing with my macro lens, i've managed to squeeze in some sample pics with the lens. they're pretty ordinary, but they do show the tiny dof, and some tiny/small things big . i think it's pretty obvious that i need a flash, but for now, i'll make do with bright daylight shots. also, for things that are really small, a tripod is absolutely vital, and you still need luck, wind is bad .
herald sun tour 2007 time trial
went to watch the herald sun tour individual time trial, and work on my action photography. they averaged about 45km/h, and being pretty close to the action, it was tough getting decent motion blur shots.
a selection of pics of some of the beers that me and alf sampled while in new zealand. a few of them were local brews from the south, while a couple were probably famous new zealand beers. these were taken with my f30, no flash, but it's not too hard to hold still on the table.
time to come home, so here are a couple of pictures on our last day, as we cleaned up the hotel room, and dropped the car off at the airport, on our way back to melbourne.
i had hoped to do the nevis highwire bungy the whole time we were planning this trip. finally, on our second last day, we got a place, i don't have any special photos, just a few that i should post anyway. my personal bungy video is also on youtube.
there are several jetboat companies working in and around queenstown, the first one we saw was the kawarau jetboat, which runs through lake wakatipu and the kawarau river. it leaves the pier every hour on the hour, so i got a few snaps of it. the one we actually rode was the shotover jetboat, i took those pictures with my f30. these pictures were taken over two days using both my cameras.
we planned to go to milford sound since before we left for new zealand, but weren't sure whether it would be worth it, but after asking some chick on a chairlift, alf was convinced . we stopped briefly at lake te anau on the way, and stopped for some sunset photos just past five rivers.
after four straight days of snow boarding, it was time to rest, and put the camera's to work. when we saw the view from treble cone, we decided that it would be good to drive around the area and take some photos of the surrounds. it was quite a successful day, although we probably mis-timed our arrival at lake wanaka though, having to wait around for a bit, we could've spent a bit longer at homestead bay.
these pictures are over a few days, the first few are taken by lake wakatipu, the second batch are up the gondola at the skyline complex, and the last couple at the lake side again, a bit further down than the first time. a couple are shorter exposures, but i also tried some longer exposures.
on our first full day in queenstown, we went to the snow, and cos we had to get our gear and stuff, we decided to just go to the nearest mountain. it was an overcast day, and even snowed a bit later in the day. the next day, we went to the next closest mountain range, the remarkables, it snowed a bit there too. then we went to the next closest, at cardrona, that was my favourite run. finally, we headed to the picturesque treble cone. all pictures here were taken with my fuji f30, there are some ca's, and over exposures, but what do you expect?
on our way to queenstown, we decided to stop at lake tekapo, which was near mt. cook. it had some nice views, and probably would've made a nice spot for a sunset (had we had more time), i wish i had stopped down a bit more, but i think the pictures (that i have posted) turned out ok.
we drove from christchurch to queenstown, with the exception of the stop at lake tekapo, this is the best of my selection of pics from that journey. a bunch were from inside the car, but we also mde stops at lake coleridge, raikuku gorge, lake pukaki, omarama, and one just by the side of the road. it was supposed to be a six hour drive, we managed to go for eleven .
we arrived in christchurch in the afternoon, and wandered toward the city centre to see what it was like. it's a pretty small city (compared to melbourne) and even at peak hour, not that busy on a wednesday.
took a day off today, to take dad to the hospital, and also, have a checkup on my back. while in the city (or close to it), i took some photos of st. patrick's cathedral on gisborne st, and some of the cyclists that kept riding by. i tried an hdr shot, but there was handshake (duh) and the program i use didn't get the colours great either. used my 16-45 cos i wanted to make sure if there were any wide angles i could get them, prolly shoulda used the fa 50.
