The Great Wall hike (Part One)

When I first heard that I had a lateral meniscus tear on my right knee back in October this year after doing an MRI scan, and the only apparent recommended remedial action was to do a surgery that could take well over 3 months to fully recover, the first thought that came to my mind then, was "Oh No! How on earth am I going to do my dream hike along the Great Wall now? Am I ever be able to do that hike again?"

I told the specialist that I was preparing for my hike in mid November and asked him if that would be alright for my knees. His answered without giving an answer! 

"You tell me." he replied. "Huh" I went on.

"You tell me. If it hurts so bad, then obviously, you are not going to or can do the trip. But, if the pain does not bother you that much, then you could do it...It's up to you..." he said nonchalantly...

Well, I was determined to do it because I reckon that if I do not get this done now, while the pain is bearable, I might never be able to do this if and when my knee situation deteriorates further. With that in mind, I rested my knee as much as I possibly can and bought myself a good sturdy knee protector to get ready for hike.

The night before the hike, I felt as if I was a teenager going for my first ever overseas trip. I was excited and kept checking my gear over and over again, making sure that I had all the necessary items packed, in particular, my camera equipment. I went over my memory cards and batteries several times, just to make sure that the memory cards were empty, ready for my highly anticipated pictures and that my camera batteries were fully charged to last my two days trip.

The driver finally came to pick me up around 10:30 in the morning. We had a pleasant 2 hours drive to Gubeikou, made one stop along the way for my hiking partner, Yuki to get her mandatory morning coffee fix before proceeding for lunch near the foot of the Crouching Tiger Section of the Great Wall. I made a request that we include that as part of our hike the following day.

I was not really hungry or maybe I was just too excited to eat. I was just too eager to get started. Besides excitement, there was also a element of fear, the fear that either my knees or my fitness will give way somewhere along the hike as I have not been doing any serious hiking nor exercise for ages.

After a hurried lunch and my bottle of Tsingtao to quench my thirst, we got back into our car and by 2:30pm, we were driving along a narrow dirty village road, passing by small local village houses, towards the foot of the hill where we were to commence our hike at Gubeikou.

The path up to the Great Wall took us past some local villages and houses of those who lived just beyond the Great Wall of China. Here, were dried corn plants, uprooted from the fields after being harvested in summer and autumn.

The car finally stopped at the end of the dirt road. "We go by foot from here" Andy, our tour guide said.

As I put on my backpack, I looked around for the sight of the wall but there was none to be seen. "Where is the wall?" I asked.

"Another 20 minutes hike up that way!" Andy said pointing towards a small muddy path that leads into some bushes some distance away.

Winter has started to kick in by the time we start our hike in November. Corns which were aplenty during the summer had mostly been harvested. What that was left were hard dried corn, stacked up as seen here, ready to be used as seedlings once the winter is over.

I have learnt from my many photography trips that there are always good photography opportunities everywhere, as long as your eyes are opened to observe and to appreciate them. With my trusty Nikon d90 ready, my eyes were peeled for any good picture. This might be my one and only hike, considering my age and my bad knee. I am not going to let this opportunity slipped by me.

Piles and piles of cut dried tree branches, neatly tied and bundled up and stacked along the walking path we took as we hike up to the Great Wall.

Soon, we leave behind the village and civilization, as it were, and began our climb up a hill towards our destination, the Great Wall of China. As we started our hike, I noticed that the clear blue skies that greeted us had slowly but surely turned grey and storm clouds were coming in fast. I was fearful that the weather will dampened any good photo opportunities that I was so looking forward to. Little did I realize until much later, that the storm clouds were a blessing in disguise, a special gift from the heavens above, to make every picture so much more interesting and captivating.

Our spirits were high as we marched on, hiking upwards. "This isn't so bad." I shouted.

"Of course NOT!" Andy replied. "We have not even started!"

Now that was comforting but we were determined to finish what we have started and conquered the Great Wall we will.

Leaving behind the villages, we started our hike uphill towards the Great Wall, as storm clouds started to form overhead.

After a 20 minutes or so hiking upwards, I could finally see the crumbled sections of the Great Wall. Words just cannot describe the excitement that welled up from within. All this while, after experiencing the Great Wall at Mutianyu and Jingshanling, I have been dying to see the wall in her natural state of despair. And there she was, just meters away, waiting for me. She was everything I envisioned her to be and more, much more majestic, much more enticing, beckoning me to climb on her back and take me places where I have never been. Yuki was feeling pretty much the same way.  I could tell because she was practically running the last few meters to get to the wall.

We finally made it to one of the crumbled watch tower of the Great Wall at Gubeikou. From here, we will start our 5 hours hike from Gubeikou to Jingshanling.

Sunrise over the Great Wall

The alarm on my iPhone finally rang at 5:30 am as set. Not that I was awaken by it. In fact, I have slept much the entire night. By the time, I finished shooting some night photography of the wall, it was already almost 3 am. The temperature by then was freezing and my fingers have already gone numb. The wind had picked up significantly and howling. Although we were camping inside the watch tower, our tents were still shaking quite a fair bit, blown by the wind that did not seemed to stop. Coupled with the fact that the ground was hard and my over sensitivity to every single noise that went on outside my tent through the night, each conjuring images of some ancient souls, going about their normal lives, keeping vigil on the watch tower centuries ago, it was rather hard to fall asleep.

As I crawled out from my tent, I could see through the broken openings of the watch tower that the sun was already preparing to make her grand entrance. There were traces of dull red and orange tinge on the horizon beyond the layers of grey and blueish mountains.

I popped a stick of chewing gum into my mouth, picked up my camera and tripod and took a walk on my wall. I checked the compass application on my iPhone to confirm the direction of which the sun was going to make her entrance, took note of it and proceeded to scan the horizon to savor and absorb the feel, the smell and the atmosphere of a fresh new morning on the Great Wall of China. I have always wondered what it would be like to wake up on the Great Wall and here, I was, standing on the wall itself, alone, serene, quiet and tranquil, with my eyes feasting upon the magnificent landscape before me.

As the sun prepares her grand entrance, the skies on the horizon appeared in a dull tinge of red, orange and turquoise, over the layers and layers of grey and blueish colored mountains.

I could still see the full moon on one side of the skies, slowly but surely making her graceful retreat, while on the complete opposite direction, the tinge of red, orange and yellow over the horizon has grown brighter and brighter as minutes ticked by.

On the opposite side of the skies, I could still see the bright full moon, slowly making her retreat.

Suddenly, I remembered that I had to wake up Yuki, my hiking partner for the sunrise. I ran back to the watch tower and called her. Apparently, she did not have much sleep either which was of no surprise.

Together, we walked up to the nearest and highest watch tower and scouted for the best position to wait for the grand entry of the sun.

Getting ready for the sun to rise beyond the horizon, behind the watch tower some distance away.

Have anyone told you that waiting for the sun to rise beyond the horizon can be quite agonizing yet exhilarating and exciting at times. You just sit there, eyes peeled towards the horizon, waiting in anticipation and time slows down. Every minute seems like eternity and colors on the horizon does not seemed to change much except a littler, yes, just a little brighter.

But when she arrives, the moment is nothing short of spectacular. Suddenly, after apparently almost hours of anticipating, the horizon seems to brighten quite significantly. And then, her rays of light appeared beyond the hills and behind the silhouette of the wall and the watch tower in the distance. 

Suddenly, the skies lightened up and the intensity grew. The SUN was making her grand entrance.

Such was the feel that morning. My heart rate increased just as intense as my excitement. The skies lightened up. Time seemed to flip on to the reverse at this juncture. Minutes which seemed like hours moments ago, now seemed like seconds because, at every tick of the second hand of the clock, the skies made a dramatic change in colour, hue, brightness, contrast and intensity.

The sun finally emerged from behind the hills and the watch tower and the Great Wall.

Shooting right into the SUN.....

My finger was busy clicking away, checking the picture taken on the LCD screen and the histogram, making slight adjustments to the camera settings and clicked again. Just as fast she arrives, suddenly, there I was, looking at the now, bright and fresh new morning of another great day. I could just think of one word, (not that I have a powerful grip of the rich English vocabulary) - BREATHTAKING!

I glanced at my watch and it was closed to 7 am. I packed up my tripod, took a few more shots around the watch tower and began making my way back to our camp site. By the time, we got there, to my relief, someone from the tour agency had already hiked up earlier while we were away, and help to pack up our tents and carried them down.

Yuki, my hiking partner, grabbing a few last shots before making our way down from our camp site....

Taking my own shadow ...

We quickly packed up and made our long hike down the way we came from the previous night. The scene was definitely a complete contrast of what we saw the night before, where everything was covered in darkness. I could see the path down, the waist high scrubs we had to push through last night and the next hill, we had to climb before reaching our transport, already there waiting for us. Although, both of us had not had much sleep the night before, our spirits were high and refreshed as we made our hike down.

As we negotiated our way down, only then did we realized how high up and how far we have come the night before. As I have mentioned in our previous post, it was a blessing in disguise that we did not really see or know where we were climbing and hence, we just went on and on. If we have known how high up the camping site was, given the fact that we were already so tired after the 5 hours hike we had earlier and with the volume of camping gear we have to carry ourselves, I must admit that it would have been a much tougher quest.

By 8:30 am, we were already making our way for our breakfast and getting ready for our next hike for the day, the wild and crumbled walls at a section known as the CROUCHING TIGER.

Overnight on the Great Wall

Our car drove into a small path and the only light I could see was the headlight of our vehicle. After about 10 minutes, the car stopped and our guide told us that we have arrived near the place (somewhere in Gubeikou) where we were to set up camp for the night. We got out, put on our winter jacket as the temperature was freezing. We were given our tent for the night, a sleeping mat and our sleeping bags. To be honest, I was not really expecting that we have to carry our tents and sleeping bags ourselves and was actually expecting those to be set up , ready for us when we finished our 5 hours hike in the afternoon, especially with the price we were paying. Maybe I was expecting too much and maybe the website selling this adventure tour was not clear enough. Anyway, this is after all, an adventure tour. We gamely took up our gear which were quite a handful besides our own backpack with our cameras. My hiking partner, was actually carrying 7 cans of 500ml beer plus a bottle of single malt whisky, ready to party for the night on the wall.

I was hoping for more stars but the light from the bright full moon made it almost impossible. Set at 20 seconds exposure and taken with a self timer. There was a faint orange light in a distance, which I presumed came from a village nearby.

As we left the path of which we came, darkness surrounded us. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness around us, I could see that we were hiking through some secondary forests, heading uphill. The moon was full that night and the entire landscape was eerie to say the least. We took out our torch lights to shine the path in front of us as the path became steeper, narrower and more treacherous. After our 5 hours hike in the afternoon, where almost every part of our body was already aching, every step became slightly more difficult than the last, especially with us carrying so much more gear over our shoulders. The temperature was freezing cold and the air we breath in, chilly. As we huff and puff up the hill, we really could not see where we were going except keeping our eyes fixed on our guide in front lest we loose sight of him. Soon, the trees gave way and we find ourselves hiking uphill among waist high bushes. Suddenly, at a distance, there she was, the silhouette of our destination, the watch tower of the Great Wall where we were to set camp. We have been hiking for over 20 minutes now and the watch tower does not really look that far, or so it seemed. 

"Another 30 minutes at least, at the speed you guys are walking." Andy, our tour guide replied when he was asked how much further. Every part of my leg and thigh hurts as I take another step.

"My 'piku' (backside) is killing me!" my half Japanese hiking partner puffed as she pushed herself up another small rock, and our laughter broke the eerie silence of the night.

Looking back, the darkness of the night did us a big favor and hid the sight of the steep and long climb from us. Because we could not see where we were really going, we just kept on going and going and going. 

Glad that we finally made it the camp site, here we were, with our empty beer cans and a bottle of single malt whisky.

After closed to an hour hike, we were finally there, on the watch tower where we were to set camp. It was close to 11pm by the time we got there. We quickly set up our tents and our sleeping bags and settled in. Out came our beers and our whisky, and as we sat around our tents, we had a little celebration of sorts, proud that we had to an extend `conquer' a small section of the wild side of the Great Wall of China.

The temperature had drop even further by midnight to almost zero degrees by now and my fingers were numb from the chilly air. We quickly finished our remaining beer and prepared ourselves for some night photography. Walking along the wall in the bright full moon was both eerie and exhilarating. I could see the distant watch towers and the crumbled wall slowly vanishes into the darkness. Beyond the hill where we set camp, I could see the silhouette of layers and layers of grey mountain and valleys. Some distance away, I could see some faint lights of a village. 

The watch tower where we set camp for the night. Taken at around 2:30 in the morning when the air was chilly and the temperature freezing.

The skies were clear but the moon was full and bright, and that is bad news for far as star gazing and photography is concerned. There were hardly any stars to be seen and all my initial hopes to capture some amazing pictures of a star filled sky with the great wall in the foreground, disappeared. If only we timed our hike 3 nights later, it would have been a perfect night.

However, I was not prepare to go back empty handed. I wanted to try my hands on a new technique known as light painting, which was why I brought along my torch in the first place. I set up up tripod along the wall, set the camera to her full manual mode, adjusted the necessary aperture, a 20 seconds exposure at low ISO (to hopefully reduce as much noise as I could), set on the self timer and there I was, painting the wall and the distant watch tower with the light from my torch.

Light painting in photography involves using a light to `paint' an object while the camera is set on long exposure mode in night photography. Here, I have used the light from my torchlight to `paint' the watch towers and the path, with the camera set on a 20 second exposure.

By 2 in the morning, everyone has already turned in and there I was, alone, standing on the wall, looking out over the valleys and dark mountains as far as my eyes could see. There was not a sound to be heard. Just dead silence and your mind tend to play tricks on you in such a situation. Every 20 seconds I took for another picture seemed longer. As the faint light of my torch glided over the watch tower, making sure that I covered every inch, I was dreading that the light would fall on `something' that was not part of the wall structure. Every time I bent down to check on my camera settings, I was imagining `someone' else from centuries ago, peeping over my shoulders, wondering what on earth was I doing in the wee hours of the morning. Coupled with the chilly near freezing air, I could feel goose bumps beneath my thick winter jacket.

The watch tower where we set camp, captured with the bright moon directly overhead, bad news for star gazing and stars photography. As the light from my torchlight glided over the tower, I was apprehensive of what else I would ended up 'painting'.......eerie..

Soon, contended that I have had all the shots that I could possibly take for the night, not to mention an accelerated heart beat, a result of my imagination which by this time was as wild as the wall herself, I decided to wrap up for the night, crawled into my tent, carefully zipping it up to prevent the wind, which has picked up quite significantly by this time and curled myself up in my sleeping bag.

Inside the watch tower where we set camp.

I did not catch much sleep that night, mainly due to the freezing temperatures, the howling wind in the night and the supposedly imaginary noises and shadows outside my tent. When my alarm finally went off at 5:30 a.m. I was only too glad that soon, the sun will be up.

Yet, this is one night that I will remember for a long time to come, and very likely, forever. This is something that I have dreamed about when I first heard that camping overnight on the Great Wall was possible and here I was, experiencing it first hand, an experience that not many would ever have the opportunity I had.

Let the Picture Speaks

The moment you got out from the car, the beauty before you overwhelms you completely. The excitement and the expectations that had been building up throughout the journey getting there is just waiting to burst forth. Your mind goes through the numerous images that you have seen before from postcards. Without wasting a second, with camera in hand, you jumped straight into the scene and shooting wildly, taking hundreds of pictures within minutes, burst after burst.

Yet, when you got home and downloaded the pictures into your laptop, only to realise that you have taken hundred of pictures of the same thing or location, some from a slightly different angle but many that looks exactly the same. Then a sense of regret or disappointment sets in and you wanted to hit yourself in the head for being so stupid and wasting so much time capturing the same scene and you wondered if there were more to the place than what you have captured, and you knew deep within, that being there was probably once in a lifetime opportunity.

I have been in this situation far too many times than I can remember, especially earlier on when I first got my camera, not that I am not guilty of it even now. One possible reason could be that I was so fearful that I would miss out that perfect angle that I ended up spending so much time taking shots after shots of the same scene.

But as time goes by, I am learning, yes, learning to remind myself to remember to look at the bigger picture and also to pay attention to all the supporting casts. 

Besides frantically shooting the main cast of a particular location, which I still do (after all, that was the main reason that I was there in the first place), I am learning to spent more time looking at the surroundings, allowing the image captured within the frame of my view finder speaks to me. There are times when I have to close my eyes to break my tunnel vision, so that I could view the entire scene from hopefully a different perspective.

When I was at the National Cathedral at Washington DC, I was busy photographing the cathedral itself but at the same time, I was glad that I actually took the time to walk around the grounds of the cathedral and stumbled upon a small quiet garden and gave me shots that spoke to me even today as I looked back at them, still reminding me of the feeling that I actually felt when I was wandering through the small little path among the bushes, trees and scrubs.

 

Let the picture speaks.

Autumn In Korea

There is something magical and romantic about autumn. I do not know exactly what it is but even a boring and simple place can be magically transformed into an interesting scene with a touch of romance in the air amidst the amber, orange, yellow and green leaves turning red.

 

I have seen pictures of beautiful autumn from pictures of my friends who had the opportunity to visit New Zealand. The colours of the trees and hills were amazing and breathtaking. Ever since then, I harbor this deep desire and hope that I would have an opportunity to experience autumn in all her colours and grandeur.

Coming from Malaysia, a tropical country with only two seasons, namely the dry or the rainy season, the only way I could see or experience the four seasons is to get out from the country and that I did three years ago, when I had to opportunity to visit South Korea in October. I was all excited yet at the same time, worried that I would miss the beauty of autumn as I was told that the period of which the leaves actually changed colours before dropping off as winter approaches is rather short, namely only a couple of weeks. I had to be there at exactly the right moment.

 Taken at a park at the heart of Seoul

When I touched down in Seoul, the leaves was just about to change but most were still green, slowly turning yellow. The time was not yet right. I was a little disappointed and I was worried that I would miss it as I would be traveling to Jeju Island next and then back to Malaysia.

 A spring at the foot of Mount Seoraksan

My dream came true when I made a day trip to the magical Mount Seoraksan. The higher attitude meant that autumn reached this part of the country a little earlier than Seoul and hence, the leaves were already changing. Luck was with me as I was there right in the middle of it all and I must said that I struck with awe, seeing these yellow, orange and red leaves with my own eyes. The scene looked so surreal to me and likened to one that has just came out from a post card that I have seen years before. Yet, there I was, absorbing the atmosphere, touching the leaves and breathing in the fresh autumn air.

That was my first autumn and was three years ago. Autumn is now in Beijing and I was told that the leaves would change colours in the next couple of weeks. I will be heading to the wild side of the Great Wall for a 2 days hike and an overnight camping trip and I was told that the leaves should be changing colours around this time. 

 A serene and quiet walking path at Mount Seoraksan

Just like a little kid looking forward to visit the circus for the very first time, my excitement is building by the day as the weekend approaches. I have checked and rechecked my camera gear for the umpteen time to make sure that I have everything ready and even bought myself an additional 16GB memory card for this trip.

I have a date with autumn!  

I am not the only one mesmerized by the beauty of autumn. I caught this very talented man capturing the beauty of autumn, the way he sees it on his canvas, as I captured him in mine. He was not too happy when he found out but this remains one of my favorite shot. Hahahaha

Rides and Performances

Mentioned Universal Studio and images of adrenalin pumping and death defying rides come to mind. And yes, you are right. There are plenty of those and I just cannot fathom myself sitting in any one of these life threatening thrill rides. I would have if I was in my early twenties but not when I am in my late forties and with a phobia of heights that high. I am not even sure if my heart will take the pounding or my body could recover with all those adrenalin pumping.

If you are game for rides, I am sure you will have the best  time in the world. I visited Universal Studio Singapore in 2011. Now, there is the new Transformer Ride which I heard which is simply awesome.

However, if you are not into rides like yours truly, there are still the various street performances to keep you entertained and engaged. There are normally held at specific times during the day at various location. Hence, keep an eye out and you would not be disappointed. 

 Lively dances by a group of voluptuous beautiful ladies

 or the fantastic harmony of these group of dashing gentlemen that will surely make you weak at the knees....

enjoy the pure youthful energy of these guys performing their street dance.

Characters at Universal Studio

I first visited Universal Studio at Los Angeles in 2008. I was not back into photography yet and hence had very little pictures to really remember the trip by. 2 years ago, when my wife has having a conference in the Sentosa Island in Singapore, I had to opportunity to stay on the island. I made it a point to spent an entire day at the Universal Studio Singapore and this time, with my trusty Nikon d90.

Knowing that there would be lots to see and experience and since I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel on the Sentosa Island, which is within walking distance to the Universal Studio, I was one of the very first early few to make my way there. It was indeed pleasant with the cool morning air before the hot and humid Singapore’s weather kicked in and with lesser crowd.

I remembered the rides when I was in Universal Studio LA years ago but with my camera now, I start to notice that there were a dozen characters from the various Universal Studio movies that will pop up here and there when you least expect it. And there I was, hunting these characters to catch a picture to remember them by and I was certainly not disappointed.

The evergreen and famous Charlie Chaplin making his appearance ...

 and there was Marilyn Monroe of course in white with her famous wind blowing up her skirt pose 

and then there was this character - BeatleJuice, scary but colorful

How can we missed out the lovable characters from Madagascar ....

 

 One of the characters that I grew up with ...Beep Beep the Road Runner

Besides characters from movies, there were also a host of other colorful characters from the different the themes ....

  From the movie THE MUMMY

 Ladies from different time zones ....

 

Well, one thing is for sure, there is never a dull moment at the Universal Studio and if you keep your eye out, there are bound to be different characters popping out here and there. So, keep that camera ready because you just might not know who you would meet next .....