randoms, from day 8.

01. lanterns up for buddha's birthday
02. jalgalchi-ro
03. 40 gyedan history and culture street 1
04. 40 gyedan history and culture street 2
05. main street, haeundae
06. little game shop, main street, haeundae
07. gwangalli beach at night

yep, it has taken me only two months to post up pictures of my first 8 days in korea in APRIL. i have another 8 more days to post and i am hoping that i won't need another two months to do so. so much so much to share, bali, bangkok, slices of life, i need to find some way to break the space-time-blog continuum!

busan harbour

i felt very at home in busan, maybe because it's a port city like singapore.

moving on to busan

quieter and more laidback than seoul, busan exudes a shabby-chic type charm. we spent the first morning, walking around the city centre, orientating ourselves to our new environment.

zoo coffee

zoo coffee is possibly the most elegant yet cute cafe ever! stuffed toy animals are scattered all over classic, streamlined furniture. so lovely.

arriving in anguk

good morning, it's sunday! do you have any exciting plans today? mine basically involves sitting at home, reading my latest books and maybe sneaking out for a couple of bars of chocolate to nibble on. somewhat boring but i do love to stay at home especially when i am scheduled to be working for the next few weekends.

some of my time has also been spent uploading the rest of my korea pictures to flickr. i am done with all my slr pictures and i am going to get to uploading the few rolls that i took with my toy cameras. it's rather nice being able to relieve all those lovely april days in korea. today (and for the rest of the week), these pictures i am sharing are from day 4 where we spent most of the day in the anguk area, walking around bukchon-ro, samcheong-dong and insa-dong. it's a lovely neighbourhood, where the traditional melds together with the modern rather seamlessly.

[cambodia 2010] the russian market

cambodia travel diary day five

our fifth and last day in cambodia was a lazy lazy day. i spent the morning reading by the pool, hoping to acquire some sort of tan. (i am suddenly struck by the thought of why didn't i bring down at least one camera to the poolside!) in the afternoon, we hit the russian market for some last minute souvenir shopping. the russian market had loads of souvenirs but it really was rather small (compared to thailand's chatuchak). you could easily cover that place in two hours. after a quick dinner in the hotel, we headed to the airport for our night flight.



it was an amazing trip and i look forward to going back with my friends, spending more time among the ruins, breathing in the history. this also finally concludes my cambodia travel diary. it has only taken me like four months to post up everything. why yes, procrastination is my middle name! :)



oh and if you haven't heard, i will be going back to korea next week! i am so excited, i have been planning and planning for this trip to happen and it's so so close. i can't wait. if you want to read more about this, visit my project blog for this trip our april adventure! i am co-writing it with my trip buddies and we have been posting our planning sessions and pre-trip preparations!



fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200

[cambodia 2010] independence monument and wat phnom

cambodia travel diary day four

as we travelled around phnom penh, we had a quick photo op at the independence movement built to commemorate cambodia's independence from the french. the style of the monument is meant to resemble angkor wat. so appropriate.

wat phnom is the founding spot of phnom penh. legend has is that a lady named daun penh found four bronzed buddha statues by the river banks, taking these statues to a small hill, she built a shrine on it and placed the statues in it. slowly, the city of phnom penh grew around it and the city flourished. well, legend or not, the wat phnom temple is a sacred place and is the largest religious building in the city. unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was twilight and the other pictures i took came out extremely under-exposed.

before wat phnom, we visited the killing fields and the S21 interrogation centre. i didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures of such sad places. even though the killing fields is currently a peaceful field, my heart felt really heavy and sad for the ones who died. the S21 interrogation was even worse, we walked through the interrogation rooms and cells, and it was just horrible. god bless the souls of the victims.

golden half, konica minolta vx 200

fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200

[cambodia 2010] national museum of cambodia

cambodia travel diary day 4

after touring the royal palace, it was time for the national museum of korea. now i am big museum-lover so i was really looking forward to the national museum. i was thoroughly enchanted by it. firstly, the building was gorgeous. it was built by the french but in a traditional khmer style. the museum is built with an open-air concept in mind which terrifies me to no end because i kept obsessing over the fact that there seems to be no museum standard climatic controls in place to preserve the largest collection of khmer art in the world. some of the statues were in glass cabinets but most of them were left out in the open! *shudders.



still it was wonderful being able to wander around the different rooms, examining each sculpture where there wasn't a didactic sort of museum narration in place. i like that i am able to walk around and just admire each piece as it is. the museum also has a wonderful courtyard where visitors are able to bask in the sun and being surrounded by such ancient works of art.



fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200

golden half, konica minolta vx 200

[cambodia 2010] royal palace, phnom penh

cambodia travel diary day 4

our first day in phnom penh began with exploring the royal palace. i love the khmer architecture, it's so unlike anything that i have ever seen. it was a beautiful day as well, the sky was a gorgeous blue, the perfect backdrop for the golden palace. and my oh my, the royal palace was filled with priceless treasures! the silver pagoda had all this rare buddhist treasures as well as the silver floor. and there was a small museum where royal artefacts were on display. i was a bit freaked out by how cavalier the cambodians are with displaying their royal treasures though.



holga 135bc, fuji sensia 200

fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200





p/s: i have a very exciting announcement coming up this week! :)

i have been a bad bad girl

in the last week or so, i purchased



4 x Solaris 100 (expired)

2 x Solaris 100

3 x Solaris 200 (expired)

1 x Kodak Max 400 (expired)

1 x Konica VX 200 Super (expired)

3 x Kodak Color Plus 200

3 x Sunny 100

2 x Agfa CT Precisa

2 x Fuji Sensia 100

1 x Instax Mini pack



AND...



a FUJI INSTAX MINI 7 in white!



AND...



i am thinking of getting more. omg, i have a problem. somebody help!

Holga 135BC 12: Grad Trippin' in South Korea

Today may be Wednesday but it's the second last day of the work week for me! Yay! Friday is Hari Raya, a Muslim holiday and an official public holiday for everybody. Thank you, Singapore Government! I am so excited to finally have another short work week. It's been rather boring these few days so I am glad to have a long weekend to do some exciting stuff. Plans for now include stuffing our faces with mussels for dinner on Thursday, shopping at Ikea with Mum and a bbq buffet dinner on Friday. Exciting, yes? :)



Camera: Holga 135BC

Film: Kodak Color Plus



Continuing on with the rolls. Roll 12 means we are reaching the end of the pictures from Korea. Even though it was about 4 months ago (seriously that long?!), uploading all this pictures onto the blog makes it feel like yesterday. I am missing Korea so much all over again.



Roll 12 contains more of Everland, where the setting sun gave me some brilliant colours, and the next day in Insadong, Korea's cultural street.

Roll 13 will showcase pictures from Seoul and Hong Kong. We did an extended transit in Hong Kong to take in some of that crazy HK atmosphere. Really glad we did it even though leaving Seoul was difficult but getting to experience another city's vibe was awesome!

Oh, and I developed a couple more rolls taken with my Golden Half, really happy with those shots I take. I will try to upload them this week to break up the monotony of all these Holga shots. See you then!