Travels after the crisis

[Archiver]

I was aiming to visit Hong Kong in 2019, but the riots made me shelve those plans. Things seemed to calm down by the end of the year, but then coronavirus hit, and that's banjaxed international travel from Australia until the end of this year.

Following up on this thread, the thread from the dead!

I still haven't been to Hong Kong as of January 2025, after missing the plan to go there in 2019.

Work trips had been planned for Canberra in January, but the bushfires put paid to that. Then coronavirus closed the state borders and I've been working through the backlog at a decent rate.

When border crossing is permitted, the Canberra trip should on again. I'll take the M9 with 28 Elmarit and 50 Cron, 5D Mark II with 35L, 70-200 f4 IS L, and the GH4 and G9 with Panasonic 12-35, 35-100, Voigtlander 17.5, 25 and 42.5. I don't travel light for work unless I have to.

The work trip to Canberra happened in Feb 2020, which was when we became aware of the emerging pandemic. This became a point of contention because we were working with athletes attempting to quality for the Tokyo Olympics at the time, and they eventually had to return to Australia with the wave of infection following them close behind. They arrived back in Australia in the nick of time, before the borders closed and airline travel went bananas expensive.

I also shot a wedding in Feb 2020 for friends, little did we know what was to come.

Most of the rest of 2020 was a wash for travel, as we know. Restrictions in Melbourne were reasonably lifted late in the year, at which point I shot another wedding for more friends.

In December, we made a trip to Canberra again for work.

If I get on a plane, I have to pare everything down, so it will be G9 + 12-35, 35-100, and Panasonic GM1 + Olympus 12, 17 and 25. This combination acts as a work camera and pocket camera, with the opportunity to share lenses across cameras, giving me a lot of flexibility.

Canberra was a blast, and I really pared down my gear. Instead of the micro four thirds Panasonic zooms and oodles of primes, I bought a Metabones Speedbooster in 2020, which allowed me to use all my Canon lenses.

For the December trip to Canberra, I only brought the Panasonic G9 with Speedbooster, Canon 24-105mm f4 L v1, Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f2 EF mount, and Leica M9 with Zeiss Biogon 21mm f2.8 and Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.4. It was so freeing to be able to just work with two cameras and three lenses, and mostly only the 24-105 on the G9 and Nokton with the M9.

As I look back at the photos from that trip, I'm still amazed by the brilliance and colour of the M9.

Hotel lobby in Canberra:

M9 - Stairs of Gold by Archiver, on Flickr

Hotel bar in Canberra:

M9 - A Bar to Remember by Archiver, on Flickr

Canberra airport after seeing off some friends:

M9 - Canberra Airport by Archiver, on Flickr

 

[Freakscene]

Following up on this thread, the thread from the dead!

I still haven't been to Hong Kong as of January 2025, after missing the plan to go there in 2019.

The work trip to Canberra happened in Feb 2020, which was when we became aware of the emerging pandemic. This became a point of contention because we were working with athletes attempting to quality for the Tokyo Olympics at the time, and they eventually had to return to Australia with the wave of infection following them close behind. They arrived back in Australia in the nick of time, before the borders closed and airline travel went bananas expensive.

I also shot a wedding in Feb 2020 for friends, little did we know what was to come.

Most of the rest of 2020 was a wash for travel, as we know. Restrictions in Melbourne were reasonably lifted late in the year, at which point I shot another wedding for more friends.

In December, we made a trip to Canberra again for work.

Canberra was a blast, and I really pared down my gear. Instead of the micro four thirds Panasonic zooms and oodles of primes, I bought a Metabones Speedbooster in 2020, which allowed me to use all my Canon lenses.

For the December trip to Canberra, I only brought the Panasonic G9 with Speedbooster, Canon 24-105mm f4 L v1, Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f2 EF mount, and Leica M9 with Zeiss Biogon 21mm f2.8 and Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.4. It was so freeing to be able to just work with two cameras and three lenses, and mostly only the 24-105 on the G9 and Nokton with the M9.

As I look back at the photos from that trip, I'm still amazed by the brilliance and colour of the M9.

Hotel lobby in Canberra:


Hotel bar in Canberra:

M9 - A Bar to Remember by Archiver, on Flickr

I like the East Hotel. They should use this on their socials (and pay you).

 

[DownUnder]

Many thanks, Archiver, for reviving this thread. I wrote it almost five years ago, and I had forgotten it. How long ago it seems, down the muddle-puddle hole of past history.

I was two years and four months in lockdown, until July 2022. Mostly at home - "mostly" as we in country Victoria state were at liberty to travel anywhere except to Melbourne, and I did. I revisited many smaller places, and being a gypsy as well as a photographer I took several thousand images of what I saw. So not really stuck in a cave.

My time in lockdown wasn't imprisonment inside four walls, frantically searching for things to do. I got a lot done, a few long-delayed photo projects were finished, especially scanning. So a few win-wins.

When the borders opened up again and flights in and out of Australia resumed, for a few months airfares were crazily expensive. My partner is Malaysian with a large family in Ipoh. In August (2022) we could finally see them, and from there I came back to Indonesia to continue my nomad life of photography and writing.

To me Indonesia is a second home. I've visited here since I discovered Bali in 1970. After I retired in 2012 I planned my life to stay half the year in East Java. I have the use of a car and driver and I travel often to remote places like the Bromo highlands, the south coast, and the old royal capital of Majapahit.

Usually I stay for two months and then travel to another Asian country (usually Malaysia) for R&R break and a new Indonesia tourist visa. of a few weeks. After that it's back to Indonesia for two months, another sojourn elsewhere in Asia, to Surabaya again for one month, and finally home to Australia for an extended stay.

This itinerary keeps me busy and stimulated. Usually This year for the first time, I was away from home for the end of year celebrations. later this month I'll join my partner in Malaysia for the Chinese New Year in Ipoh and a tour of the east coast of Malaysia.

In May or June we have vague (as yet unbooked) plans for ten days in Taiwan, which I've seen two times before (1974 and 2002). It's a mostly overlooked and very beautiful country, friends who've been recently say it's what China could have been but never quite achieved. Overlooking that it may eventually be back into mainland China, it's now well worth visiting, not as expensive as Japan, and small enough to be completely seen in two weeks. The National Taiwan Museum is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it alone requires an entire day to fully appreciate the wealth of cultural influences in that country and in the 'old' China. I've been to it two times, and the only other such experience I've had that affected me as it did, was in the Hermitage in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in Russia.

Later in the year I may go to Japan for a week or ten days, again with my partner. Or to Laos on my own to revisit Angkor Wat.

As for my travels, so far so good. And the future, well, this will depend on my health - I'm 77 and while I'm generally still in good nick, the passing of time has wearied me and I'm now less inclined to do the energy-draining activities and travels I've imposed on myself in the past.

At home we have been discussing my partner's early retirement and a permanent move for us to Malaysia, which appeals to me. I could happily finish what is left of my life there, even if we would miss so many good things about life in Australia. So the future for me is up in the air, and rather a conundrum if not a conflict. For now, a few holidays there every year will have to do.

Whatever happens, I've had a darn good life. Of course I want more of it, but time will tell and we will see.

 

[DownUnder]

Gorgeous photos of Canberra, Archiver! I was there for a long (too long) work stay in 2004, so twenty years ago. I liked some aspects of it and hated some others, but having seen your brilliant images, I now want to go back for what may well be a last sojourn there for me. Only for a brief visit, of course.

As for your photos, wonderful as always - I sure wish I could get those colors with my new (to me) Fuji Xpro2.

 

[Godfrey]

Looking through this thread; my last post was in 2020. Well, the "official lockdown" kind of ended here around the end of 2022, but enough other stuff has happened in the mean time that I've only been on a couple of short trips ... to Tijuana and the Guadalupe Valley in Mexico, to the eastern US 2x, and again to Tijuana and Mexicali just the past couple of weeks. I am hoping that enough of the calamities and intransigent diseases and other ... stuff ... are now behind me such that, five years older and more crotchedy, I'll get to go visit my friends in the UK and Isle of Man once more. My friend Boris in Israel is hoping that the current conflict there will resolve itself and maybe later in the year I can go visit him too.

A brand new year and a blank travel book ... And soon the Plaubel Makina 67 will be back from service so that will be a fun thing to learn and enjoy. 🙂

G

 

[DownUnder]

A brand new year and a blank travel book ... And soon the Plaubel Makina 67 will be back from service so that will be a fun thing to learn and enjoy. 🙂

G

A new year, new cameras, new travel plans. New everything. It's how we renew ourselves and (for many of us) find new courage to go on living in this crazy-insane-mad world.

I'm in Indonesia now, but I will likely be home again in late March as old friends are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and I'm the last one standing who was at their wedding in 1974.

We all often met up in Bali in the '80s when the going was so much better. Visits to temples and volcanoes for photography and with free alcohol parties at resort hotels. All past history. The temples and volcanoes are still there, but the resorts are now too expensive for my budget and my alcohol intake is sadly reduced. Alas, being in my 70s has done wonders for my sobriety. Someone clever once wrote that old age is mostly about giving up things and the lucky ones can do it before those things give them up. Truer words were never spoken.

Trip-wise, this year I will be visiting more of Indonesia, if more slowly than before and will fewer busy-busy days on the run, photographing this and that and everything I see.

We are planning a visit to Malaysia in June or July to see my partner's family, then a week or ten days in Taiwan, a little known but truly delightful destination I've been to two times (1974 and 2001), it's as one of my travel writer friends once described it, what China could have been like but somehow didn't quite make it.

We have also talked about a week's visit to Japan, basing ourselves in Kyoto and exploring some of the many cultural sites in that city and the region. Again this is something I did a long time ago but the years have passed much too quickly and for me it's probably a situation of now or never.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia is also high on my to see list but I doubt I will make it there in '25, too much other travel and also my travel budget will only extend so far.

With luck I will have at least two visits to Malaysia as I visit there for short stays and to get a new visa for Indonesia. As a perpetual tourist I can stay two months in Surabaya but I then have to leave for a short time and fly back in to renew my tourist visa and start the process all over again.

I do enjoy all this travel but as I'm now getting somewhat long in the tooth as the old saying goes, I realise I will soon have to slow down a little and plan my travels more carefully. Okay. Maybe from next year...