My pictures
I got a digital camera in January 2004. I've been taking lots of
pictures since then. I've put many of them into yahoo photo albums.
There are 2 ways to navigate through them. One can go to the yahoo index page
which looks nice graphically. Or one can navigate via my descriptions
below. This has the advantage of being a little bit more customized
and descriptive. I also have links to other people's pages with
pictures of interest, which are not on my yahoo page.
Janaury 2004
Slava & Jane's Baby Shower (19 pics)
Trip to Asia (February 5 - March 12, 2004)
Highlights (70 pics)
Japan (48 pics)
Sangklhaburi, Thailand & Myanmar (104 pics)
The Road to Sandakan (10 pics)
Eastern Sabah (88 pics)
Mt. Kinabalu (48 pics)
Central Sabah (29 pics)
Kota Kinabalu to Labuan (73 pics)
Brunei (66 pics)
Bangkok & Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Thailand (136 pics)
Museum of Forensic Medicine (15 pics)
Spring 2004
Gibbon Sanctuary in
Santa Clarita (13 pics)
Jason's 33 1/3 birthday
party (19 pics)
Passover (27 pics)
Florida (82 pics)
Space & Missle Museum (103 pics)
Jen & Jeff's housewarming
party (7 pics)
Hike to Echo Mountain &
Inspiration Point (27 pics)
Annie & Thang's party (14 pics)
My dad's surprise 60th Birthday
party (8 pics)
Miami (44 pics)
Andi's housewarming party (8 pics)
Mark, Rowena, & their 15
month old son Ryan (10 pics)
My parents square
dancing (4 pics)
Ronald Reagan lying in
repose (15 pics)
Kennedy Space Center (59 pics)
Hikes in Malibu (6 pics)
Summer 2004
Raymond & Haruna's wedding (59 pics)
Trailer Canyon hike (5 pics)
San Pedro/PV hike (7 pics)
Los Liones hike (5 pics)
Company picnic (9 pics)
Hank & Rhoda visit (4 pics)
August hikes in
the Santa Monica Mountains (6 pics)
Maryl's 30th birthday
party (8 pics)
Anthony & Jen's visit
to Southern California (7 pics)
Mike & Truc's wedding (18 pics)
Kim & Steve's wedding (40 pics)
Fall 2004
Visit with Sai, Bindu,
Jayati, & Debu in San Jose (14 pics)
June & Jason's wedding (26 pics)
Sushien's LA visit (3 pics)
Whiting Ranch hike (11 pics)
Halloween (11 pics)
Sandstone Peak hike (16 pics)
Palos Verdes
hiking, geocaching, and sunset (26 pics)
Winter 2005
Alexander's Bar Mitzvah
in Buffalo, NY (64 pics)
Niagara Falls (20 pics)
visiting Eric (2nd cousin)
at Columbia University in New York City (37 pics)
Pics of LA from
airplane (21 pics)
February hikes (6 pics)
Spring 2005
Nicaragua (33 pics)
Costa Rica (25 pics)
Panama (60 pics)
Boston & Rochester (45 pics)
Fall 2005
Spain (71 pics)
Gibraltar (19 pics)
Morocco (22 pics)
Spring 2006
Turkey (46 pics)
Greece (7 pics)
Israel (42 pics)
Jordan (20 pics)
London (7 pics)
Fall 2006
French Guiana and Surinam (41 pics)
January 2004
On January 31, 2004, Slava & Jane had a baby
shower (19 pics) for their soon to be born son Julian. In this album, I
have pictures from the baby shower, as well as pictures of Julian
at 1 and 3 months.
Trip to Asia (February 5 - March 12, 2004)
I took a 36 day, 5 country trip to Asia from February 5 - March 12, 2004.
This album shows
highlights (70 pics) from the trip. It's about 70 of my favorite
pictures.
I also have 9 other albums from the trip.
Japan
The first of these covers the
Japan (48 pics) leg of my trip. I left LAX for Japan
on February 5. The plane flew over Alaska and landed in Tokyo on
February 6.
While in Japan, I visited my sister, as well as some friends. I went to
Tokyo, Yokohama, and
Osaka. While in Tokyo, I went to the controversial Yasukuni
Shrine.
Sangklhaburi, Thailand & Myanmar
The next album covers
Sangklhaburi, Thailand, and it's surrounding areas, including part of Myanmar.
(104 pics)
On February 15, 2004, I flew from Osaka to Bangkok. The next day, Leah
(my sister) and her boyfriend Josh flew to Korea. We would all meet up in
Bangkok in a few days. In the interim, I
took a trip deep into Kanchanaburi province. I spent most of my time in
and around the town of Sangklhaburi. But the highlight of this leg of the
trip was, without
question, crossing the border into Myanmar and spending a few hours there.
In the entire town, it we me and an Irish girl, Aisling, and we were the
only non-locals there.
This was the most
off-the-beaten-track place I got in my trip. Crossing the border itself
was an interesting experience. The border crossing at 3-Pagoda Pass is not
a normal border crossing. You can't fully enter the country. You can only
get a day pass to "go to the market". To do this, you have to go to the
immigration office in Sangklhaburi, which is 45 minutes from the border.
Once there, you give them your passport and they give you some papers which
are now your travel documents. So, you go to the border without your
passport. Once there, you exchange your papers for a laminated plastic
card with a number on it. This is the only travel document you have with
you on the Myanmar side of the border. I met Aisling on the transportation
from Sangkhlaburi to the Myanmar border. As we were the only non-locals,
we stuck together. At the border, they would only give us 1 laminated card
with a number. Thus, we had to cross back into Thailand at the same time
to get our respective travel documents back.
This was quite alright, as I think
we were both more comfortable not being completely on our own in Myanmar.
We only spent a few hours
there, but it was a great experience.
Once back on the Thai side, we went
to a Mon village. The Mon are, as I understand it, an ethnic minority from
Myanmar (formerly Burma). Due to political reasons, they can't return to
Myanmar, and so they live in Thailand. There are other similar minority
groups, and apparently, not too far in the past, many of these groups have
had armed comflicts with each other. I'll stop here with the history
lesson, since I don't remember all the details.
Another highlight from
this region was taking a boat trip on the lake. In the early 80's, a dam
was built which caused the (planned) flooding of a village. But there are
structures and trees that still stick up above the water. I actually went
swimming in one of these structrues.
The Road to Sandakan
I returned to Bangkok on February 19, and met up with Leah and Josh the
next day. (I only had a few pics from this short Bangkok leg of the trip,
so I included them in a
future album.) On February 20, we decided that we'd
leave for the island of Borneo the next day. Our primary destination there
was the Malaysian state of Sabah. But how to get there? There were many
options. Josh and I agreed that it made sense to fly to the country of
Brunei, and then travel by boat to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah via Labuan. Leah
thought this was a bad idea and she was right, but it was 2 to 1. We got
an early flight to Brunei. We didn't realize that we had to take 3
different buses to get to the port (not to mention 2 different boats after
that). We waited at the airport for over an hour for a bus that we thought
would take us directly to the port to
come. But no such bus came.
Leah thought we should have taken a taxi from the
beginning, and again, she was right, but it was 2 to 1 the other way. We
finally took a taxi to the port, missed the boat that we wanted, got on a
later boat, but managed to get stuck on Labuan island overnight. The next
morning, we took the first boat to Kota Kinabalu. But this was only the
major city of Sabah, not yet our ultimate destination.
We next travelled by bus for 6
hours to Sandakan, where there was lots of outdoorsy touristy stuff to do.
Does this
not sound like an episode of
The Amazing Race?
Actually, one of the best
episodes of that show was in Sabah, Borneo, and we went to a few of the
same places they went. I have an album I called
"The Road to
Sandakan" (10 pics) which is the oh so fun leg of the trip from Bangkok to Sandakan.
Eastern Sabah
The next album covers
Eastern Sabah (88 pics). This includes the Gomantong caves (an
Amazing Race destination), a jungle river cruise on the Kinabatangan
River, the Sepilok Orangutan
Rehabilitation Centre (another
Amazing Race destination),
Sandakan Memorial Park (a former POW camp in WWII), and a bunch of cute
monkeys.
Mt. Kinabalu
The next album covers the hike up to the highest point in SE Asia
(sort of).
Mt. Kinabalu (48 pics), at just under 4100 meters (about 13,500
feet) is known as the highest point in SE Asia. But there are some
caveats. This assumes that SE Asia does not include Eastern Indonesia.
Also, Mt. Kinabalu contains a handful of
peaks, all about the same
height, give or take a hundred meters or maybe less.
The highest one isn't the most accessible. Everyone climbs
up to the 2nd highest peak, which is like 3 meters lower than the
highest. So I made it up to the 2nd highest peak in SE Asia.
It was a pretty awesome hike, with rain forest at the bottom and no life at
all at the top.
We went up to the
2/3 point the first day, got up well before the sun on the 2nd day and were
up to the top around sunrise.
Central Sabah
After this, Leah & Josh split off from me and went to some island
near Kota Kinabalu. I stayed in
Central Sabah (29 pics) and went to the Poring Hot Springs resort, not
far from Mt. Kinabalu. This place was awesome. A dorm bed was
only about $3 and admission into the resort was maybe $10. And this
included the use of hot springs, lots of swimming pools, more hiking,
and lots more. Just over 24 hours from returning from Mt. Kinabalu,
I took a significant hike to a 120 meter high waterfall. The
pictures don't do it justice. It was awesome. I was there by
myself, under this super tall waterfall. And then I went swimming
in a pool not far below it. After leaving Poring Hot Springs, I
went to the Kundasang War Memorial, another WWII memorial.
Kota Kinabalu to Labuan
The next album covers
Kota Kinabalu, Tenom, and Labuan island (73 pics).
After spending time in Central Sabah, I took a bus back to Kota
Kinabalu, the big city of Sabah, Malaysia. I had some nice food and
then I went to see what my guidebook described as a water village.
People living on houses built on stilts over the water. It was
presented as a tourist attraction. Well, I was the only tourist
there, and all the kids were very excited to see me, surrounding me
and begging for money. The only way they would back off is when I
pulled out my camera to take a picture. They were so excited to
be in my pictures. I went to see some other city sights and then
I decided to get off the beaten track again. I went to the city/town
of Tenom. Not a lot of tourists there. Not a lot going on. But
they have Kentucky Fried Chicken there. I mean this is Borneo.
200 years ago, everyone was headhunters. Now they eat dinner at
KFC. I went on a hike near Tenom and saw lots of interesting
flowers. I also went to a Murut (one of the ethnicities common
there) cultural center. I then took the train to Beaufort. My
guidebook said that the scenery was great from the train and it
was. But the train was the most low class train I've ever been on.
It went very slow, and people were smoking and throwing trash out
the window. From Beaufort, I took a taxi to the port at Menumbok
to try and get a boat to Labuan island. Most of the scheduled boats
are in the early part of the day and it was already dinner time.
So they would only go if they got enough people. I waited like 3
hours with the other people there. We never got enough people.
Finally, there was a car ferry we could take at 9pm. Labuan was
an interesting place. Lots of WWII history there. They have a Peace
Park at the location that the Japanese surrendered there. And it's
right across the street from a nice beach, and I had yet to go to
the beach on this trip, so I went swimming in the ocean there. Then
I went to the Labuan War Cemetary, where most of the Allied war
dead who died on Borneo are buried.
Brunei
Next, I took a boat to
Brunei (66 pics), an oil rich Muslim country on the island of
Borneo. I spent 2 days and 1 night there. Brunei is known as the Venice
of the east. People get around and live on the water. Highlights were
seeing the expensive palaces and mosques.
Bangkok & Prachuap Khiri Khan province, Thailand
From Brunei, I flew back to Bangkok. In this album I have pictures from
Bangkok from when I flew into there from Osaka as well as from after I
arrived back from Borneo.
From Bangkok, I went down to Prachuap Khiri Khan
province (136 pics). This was about a 5 or 6 hour bus ride SW of Bangkok. I first
went to the too-touristy Hua Hin. From there, I went to the nearby
Summer Palace built for the King
of Thailand in the 1920s. There's a newer version now, so tourists get to
walk around the older one.
I then went to the less touristy provincial
capital Prachuap and then to Ao Manao. The scenery was great. There
were bays seperated by small peninsulas with 1000 foot high mountains at
the ends of the peninsulas. I hiked to the top of 2 of these small
mountains. The view was awesome. These bays are one of the 7 locations
that the Japanese landed in Thailand in WWII. The top of these mountains
provided an amazing view of the area. You could also see the Thai Air
Force Base nearby.
In getting to the beach at Ao Manao, you have to travel
through the Air Force Base. Supposedly, you need to show your passport.
But I walked through many times and was never asked for my passport. One
time, though, they did offer me a beer. Another interesting thing about
this Air Force Base is that there is a public road that intersects the
runway. And they just have a guy their who stops traffic if a plane needs
to land or take off.
Also in this album are pictures from a Science Museum I went to nearby. It
was quite good, though very poorly maintained.
This album also contains the cutest monkey pictures.
Museum of Forensic Medicine
The Museum of Forensic Medicine (15 pics) (a.k.a. the Dead Body Museum)
at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand is
my last album from my big trip.
: This link
contains pictures of preserved dead bodies and may be disturbing to some.
Spring 2004
On March 27, 2004, I went to the
Gibbon
Sanctuary (13 pics) in Santa Clarita, California.
On April 3, 2004, Jason has a
33 1/3 years old birthday party (19 pics).
April 5 and 6, 2004 family
Passover pics (27 pics).
I was in
Florida (82 pics) in April 2004. This album contanis pictures of the sunrise,
sunset, the liftoff of an Atlas rocket carrying a Japanese communications
satellite, Cape Canaveral, wildlife, and relatives.
This album contains pictures from the
Space & Missle Museum (103 pics).
On April 24, 2004, Jen & Jeff had a
housewarming party (7 pics).
May 1, 2004 pictures from hike
to Echo Mountain & Inspiration Point (27 pics) near Altadena.
May 1, 2004 pictures from
Annie & Thang's party (14 pics). They also posted an
album of their own.
We had a
surprise 60th birthday party (8 pics) for my dad on May 2, 2004.
I was in
Miami (44 pics) May 7 - 10, 2004. I spent most of my time in South Beach. I have
pictures from the nightlife, of the beach, the Jewish Museum of
Florida, the Holocaust Memorial, Little Havana, and
Liberty City.
My cousin Andi had a
housewarming party (8 pics) in San Diego on May 15, 2004.
I saw my good friend
Mark and his wife Rowena and their 15 month old son Ryan (10 pics) on May 16, 2004.
See also an album Mark put up with pictures of Ryan (34 pics).
This album has pictures of my
parents square dancing (4 pics) on June 5, 2004.
Pictures
from Reagan's lying in repose (15 pics) on June 8, 2004.
Kennedy
Space Center (59 pics) on June 13, 2004.
Malibu
hikes (6 pics) May 30 and June 27, 2004.
Summer 2004
Raymond
& Haruna's wedding (59 pics) on July 4, 2004.
Also see pictures from the
professional photographer (267 pics) from the wedding.
John
Ngai (12 pics) also has some pics posted.
Justin (29 pics), as well, posted
some pics.
Trailer
Canyon hike (5 pics) on July 7, 2004.
San
Pedro/PV hike (7 pics) on July 11, 2004.
Los
Liones hike (5 pics) on July 28, 2004.
Pictures my Company's
picnic (9 pics) on July 29, 2004.
Pictures from the August 8, 2004 visit of my dad's cousin
Rhoda & her husband Hank (4 pics).
Franklin Canyon (August 14, 2004) and Mandeville Canyon (August 18, 2004) (6 pics) hikes.
Maryl's
30th birthday party (8 pics) in Santa Barbara on August 19, 2004. Maryl also
has her own album from her birthday party (34 pics).
Anthony & Jen's visit to southern California (7 pics).
Mike
& Truc's wedding reception (18 pics) in Universal City on August 21, 2004.
Kim & Steve's wedding (40 pics)
at UCSB on September 11, 2004.
Fall 2004
On my way up to June & Jason's wedding (see just below), I stopped by
San Jose to
visit with Sai, Bindu,
Jayati, & Debu (14 pics).
June &
Jason's wedding (26 pics) in San Francisco on
September 25, 2004.
(This album includes a picture of Alex & Julie, who I had lunch with between
the wedding and the reception).
Also see pictures from the wedding posted by Erick.
Sushien was on her way from the Bay Area to Guatemala, but got stuck in LA
overnight. So, Dan, Shiela, and I had
dinner with her
(3 pics)
that night. (The pictures are taken from Sushien's album.)
Whiting Ranch hike (11 pics) on October 2, 2004.
Halloween (11 pics)
Sandstone Peak hike (16 pics) on November 6, 2004.
Also see pictures from this hike posted by Grace and by Mark.
Hiking, Geocaching, and checking out the sunset in Palos
Verdes in December 2004.
Winter 2005
I went to Buffalo, NY for my 2nd cousin
Alexander's Bar Mitzvah
(64 pics)
on January 15, 2004. Note that many of the pictures in this album were
taken by my mom's cousin David.
Niagara
Falls
(20 pics)
with my mom's cousins Linda and David on January 16, 2005. Note
that many of the pictures in this album were taken by David.
After Buffalo and Niagara Falls, I visited my 2nd cousin Eric at Columbia
University in
New York City
(37 pics).
I took a picture of Catalina Island on January 18, 2005 from the plane on
the trip back from New York. Then I took pictures
after take off from LAX
(21 pics)
on February 1, 2005 of Palos Verdes and surrounding areas, including
LAX, Redondo Beach, Torrance, Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Disneyland.
Hikes in
Temescal Canyon and Griffith Park
(6 pics)
in February 2005
Spring 2005
I went to Central America for 5 weeks. I spent 6 days in
Nicaragua
(33 pics), 9 days in
Costa Rica
(25 pics), and 20 days in
Panama
(60 pics). In Nicaragua, I spent time in
Managua, Granada, and Ometepe. In Costa Rica, I was in and around Canas,
Arenal, La Fortuna de San Carlos, San Jose, Palmar Norte, the Oso
Peninsula, and San Vito. In Panama, I was in Cerro Punta, Rio
Hato, Farallon, Penonome, El Valle, Panama City, the Panama Canal,
Boquette, Volcan Baru, the San Blas islands, Volcan, and Rio Serreno.
Pictures from Boston and Rochester
(45 pics) around Memorial Day.
Fall 2005
I went to
Spain
(71 pics),
Gibraltar
(19 pics), and
Morocco
(22 pics) in September and October 2005.
Spring 2006
I went to
Turkey
(46 pics),
Greece
(7 pics),
Israel
(42 pics),
Jordan
(20 pics),
and
London
(7 pics) in March and April 2006.
Fall 2006
I went to
French Guiana and Surinam
(41 pics) in September 2006.
Check back. There will be more to come.
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