The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

While Sun Moon Lake is a scenic area with a fair amount of development, Taroko Gorge, Taiwan’s most well-known natural attraction, has been protected as a National Park since 1986. The day before my visit, I traveled by rail to Hualien. From the station, I walked to the Amigos hotel, only to find out that [...]

Taiwan’s cities (including Taipei and Lukang) lie on the Western part of the island, which is a plain. I was surprised to find out that the other two-thirds of Taiwan is covered by mountains. Sun Moon Lake is considered to be one of the most scenic areas in Taiwan. My wife, who had never been [...]

Taichung is linked to Taipei by a High Speed Rail line, whereas there is no train station in Lukang because in the past the city refused to allow railroads to pass through. This, combined with the silting of its port, led to Lukang’s economic decline. However, that economic decline averted the modernization that demolished historical [...]

After the Vietnam photo tour, I took advantage of the fact that Eva Air was making a transit in Taipei to spend a week in Taiwan. Before the trip, I did not know much about the country besides its separatist history and the label “made in Taiwan”. I had planned to read my guidebook during [...]

Rudyard Kipling described Burma (now Myanmar) as “unlike any land you know about.” Having visited all the countries in continental South-East Asia, some several times, I have indeed found Myanmar to be the most fascinating of them. The sites by themselves would be compelling enough. They have a magical quality which defies the imagination and [...]

DAY 10: Before breakfast, a few early rising photographers took a walk around Hoang Kiem Lake, the heart of Hanoi, just five minutes from our hotel, to see early rising residents exercising on the shores of peaceful lake in front of Turtle Tower. Our highway stop on the way to Halong Bay included a embroidery [...]

DAY 8: Since we skipped visits last afternoon, this morning we were heading to the Hue Citadel, rain or shine, to start a busy day. As it rained, our first stop was under the Ngo Mon Gate – looking respectively at the Flag Pole (Vietnam’s tallest) and the Palace of Supreme Harmony. The soft light [...]

DAY 6: The day started in Hoi An with a nice sunrise over the river, caught just a few minutes walk from our riverfront hotel. After breakfast, we boarded a small boat to observe the river life. After navigating a narrow river channel, we came to the small pier of the Cam Kim Village. We [...]

DAY 4: The previous evening, we saw some Saigon landmarks. In the early morning, we saw a more authentic Saigon by walking in narrow streets, checking out the so-called old Saigon market (a street market), and then the Ben Thanh market before proceeding to the airport. After landing in Da Nang, the pace changed. We [...]

Since I am currently in Vietnam for the holidays, that’s as good a time as any to start a series of postings about the 2012 Vietnam photo tour. Those postings will illustrate all the sites that we visited during the tour, using images I took during the tour, with the goal of providing past participants [...]