Syuanguang Temple (玄光寺) at Sun Moon Lake - Taiwan

Syuanguang Temple (N23.85179 E120.91359) was the First destination of the Sun Moon Lake cruise. It's located at about 800 meter above sea level.

Syuanguang Temple Pier

The entrance to Syuanguang Temple.

Once we stepped into the entrance, there were many peoples queuing for the Famous 'Herbal Egg' (茶叶蛋)! I told myself, I'll try it later when we back to the Pier....
Clear signage in front of us, and you will Never lost within the area...

"The Syuanguang Temple Pier is the starting point for the 850 meter Cinglong Mountain Hiking Trail. Follow the steps upward, you will reach the Syuanguang Temple; continue onward, and you will get to Syuanzang Temple. This trail is also called "Pilgrim's Trail" because of the large numbers of religious devotees who take boats to the pier to worship at the two temples."

Got to climb before the temple...

The Syuanguang Temple (玄光寺)

I didn't step into the temple, because it was small and many devotees around...there were many peoples queue up in front of the temple too, it was because of everyone want to take photo with the Landmark - Sun Moon Lake Stone Craft.

Outside of the temple

The Stone where every tourist like to take photo with it!

I found this part was somehow interesting!

Beside the temple, the place also is a Nice spot to view the Sun Moon Lake...sharing some photos around the area...

The Scenery view of Sun Moon lake, Lalu island in the middle of the lake...

After the temple, we saw the trail behind...it is the Cinlong Mountain Trail. We explored the trail and try to see any surprises...

Flowers before the trail...

The well maintained ascending trail...to Cinlong Mountain

Along the way, this were what we saw...

We stopped halfway and didn't continue the trail because of the Hot weather, and we decided to save our time to Ita-Thao Village in our next destination.

If you visit Sun Moon Lake in the tight schedule, you can actually skip this temple. For us, it was nothing much over here...

While we running down to the jetty to catch the ferry and...I forgot to buy the Famous Herbal Egg! Damn! What a miss!

Related post :-
*  My Taiwan Trip on May, 2011

Location map of Syuanguang Temple, Sun Moon Lake - Taiwan

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POV: Photo Assignment RAW FILE

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Through Twitter, I've noticed a post by RAW FILE, Wired magazine's blog, which is starting a new series of posts called Assignment Wired, where the magazine will hand out photo assignments to its readers, and then eventually choose some submissions to publish and critique.

WIRED's expertise and interest is in reportage and photojournalism, and it expects its participating readers to get quotes, do some writing, do some research and take emotive photos.

"We want gritty, real and human stories. We want to throw you into new situations and give you a chance to sink or swim."

It actually just launched its first assignment, and it's to feature the corner store where the participating photographer buys his/her daily Coke, milk, doughnuts...whatever. It wants the story of this local corner store through photos and reporting. The assignment "sheet" lists the skills required for such a project, and there's a deadline of July 7th.

I think the experiment (as they call it) is a damn good idea! It will provide an impetus to budding photojournalists (and others) to go out there and actually work on a local project. As it says, it's hardly sexy or glamorous, but it's an interesting project that will teach basic photojournalism skills to those interested. I only wish they included audio recordings, and even expand it to short audio-slideshows...but perhaps that will come in time.

As always, comments from naysayers, cynics and skeptics have come in fast and furious....some accusing WIRED magazine of using this experiment to get work for free. To those, I say you don't have to participate...or participate and don't send in your material. Just take the time to learn something new...or refresh your skills, and if you do a good job, you might get a critique from the magazine. It will surely be worth it.

POV: Photo Assignment RAW FILE

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

Through Twitter, I've noticed a post by RAW FILE, Wired magazine's blog, which is starting a new series of posts called Assignment Wired, where the magazine will hand out photo assignments to its readers, and then eventually choose some submissions to publish and critique.

WIRED's expertise and interest is in reportage and photojournalism, and it expects its participating readers to get quotes, do some writing, do some research and take emotive photos.

"We want gritty, real and human stories. We want to throw you into new situations and give you a chance to sink or swim."

It actually just launched its first assignment, and it's to feature the corner store where the participating photographer buys his/her daily Coke, milk, doughnuts...whatever. It wants the story of this local corner store through photos and reporting. The assignment "sheet" lists the skills required for such a project, and there's a deadline of July 7th.

I think the experiment (as they call it) is a damn good idea! It will provide an impetus to budding photojournalists (and others) to go out there and actually work on a local project. As it says, it's hardly sexy or glamorous, but it's an interesting project that will teach basic photojournalism skills to those interested. I only wish they included audio recordings, and even expand it to short audio-slideshows...but perhaps that will come in time.

As always, comments from naysayers, cynics and skeptics have come in fast and furious....some accusing WIRED magazine of using this experiment to get work for free. To those, I say you don't have to participate...or participate and don't send in your material. Just take the time to learn something new...or refresh your skills, and if you do a good job, you might get a critique from the magazine. It will surely be worth it.

Theyyam: The Living Gods

Here's a trailer of The Living Gods, a film by Rupesh Tillu, which depicts the story of a father and a 6 year old son, and their hope to find new opportunities for the survival of a form of art. The young boy wants to become a Theyyam artist just like his father Rajesh, who performs a thousand year old ritual from Kerala, India.

"Theyyam is on the verge of extinction, since very few children are learning it."

Theyyam is a unique ritual which is performed only in Northern Kerala. After a complex preparatory ritual involving elaborate make-up and meditation, the performers are incarnated as deities, and dispense advice and counseling to the throngs of devotees who attend these rituals. It's a living cult of several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, and is observed by all the castes and classes in this region.

I have used the Theyyam tradition as the core focus of my Theyyam of Malabar photo~expedition in 2009, and I (and its participants) was rewarded with incredible proximity to these living deities, and their traditional religious practices. The resulting photographs are possibly some of the most colorful of religious rituals I've made so far.

The gallery Theyyam: Incarnate Deities is one of my favorites.

Theyyam: The Living Gods

Here's a trailer of The Living Gods, a film by Rupesh Tillu, which depicts the story of a father and a 6 year old son, and their hope to find new opportunities for the survival of a form of art. The young boy wants to become a Theyyam artist just like his father Rajesh, who performs a thousand year old ritual from Kerala, India.

"Theyyam is on the verge of extinction, since very few children are learning it."

Theyyam is a unique ritual which is performed only in Northern Kerala. After a complex preparatory ritual involving elaborate make-up and meditation, the performers are incarnated as deities, and dispense advice and counseling to the throngs of devotees who attend these rituals. It's a living cult of several thousand-year-old traditions, rituals and customs, and is observed by all the castes and classes in this region.

I have used the Theyyam tradition as the core focus of my Theyyam of Malabar photo~expedition in 2009, and I (and its participants) was rewarded with incredible proximity to these living deities, and their traditional religious practices. The resulting photographs are possibly some of the most colorful of religious rituals I've made so far.

The gallery Theyyam: Incarnate Deities is one of my favorites.

Mugur Vărzariu: Egypt Adrift

Photo © Mugur Vărzariu-All Rights Reserved

Mugur Vărzariu is a photojournalist based in Romania whom I met at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul. I discovered he started as a photographer less than four months ago before attending the workshop, and it seems he has been extremely busy since then.

He traveled to India, Syria, Libya as well as Cairo, where he documented facets of the Egyptian Revolution in a photo essay titled Egypt Adrift, which is perhaps an apt description of the current development. I hope he's wrong, but so far it does appear that the ideals and values of the youth of Tahrir may be tossed to the side by the current "transitory" authorities.

One of the photographs in his Egypt Adrift essay is of a red car, with hood open...presumably stalled and needing fixing. It made me laugh, since the graffiti on the left of the frame says "The Central Security Forces robbed this store" with an arrow pointing to the shuttered store. The Central Security was the much hated entity used in suppressing any dissent, and was used to brutalize those who didn't toe the ex-regime's line.

I wonder what Mugur, being from Romania which suffered greatly under Nicolae Ceaușescu, felt documenting the Egyptian Revolution, which has some parallels to his country's December 1989 overthrow of its own dictator.

Mugur Vărzariu: Egypt Adrift

Photo © Mugur Vărzariu-All Rights Reserved

Mugur Vărzariu is a photojournalist based in Romania whom I met at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul. I discovered he started as a photographer less than four months ago before attending the workshop, and it seems he has been extremely busy since then.

He traveled to India, Syria, Libya as well as Cairo, where he documented facets of the Egyptian Revolution in a photo essay titled Egypt Adrift, which is perhaps an apt description of the current development. I hope he's wrong, but so far it does appear that the ideals and values of the youth of Tahrir may be tossed to the side by the current "transitory" authorities.

One of the photographs in his Egypt Adrift essay is of a red car, with hood open...presumably stalled and needing fixing. It made me laugh, since the graffiti on the left of the frame says "The Central Security Forces robbed this store" with an arrow pointing to the shuttered store. The Central Security was the much hated entity used in suppressing any dissent, and was used to brutalize those who didn't toe the ex-regime's line.

I wonder what Mugur, being from Romania which suffered greatly under Nicolae Ceaușescu, felt documenting the Egyptian Revolution, which has some parallels to his country's December 1989 overthrow of its own dictator.

Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Palermo is an Italian town, the capital of Sicily. It is completely surrounded by walls: the mountains of Palermo. It is a busy town. There are a couple of areas that it's not safe to walk in.

Massimo theater is the largest theater building opera in Italy, and the third largest opera in Europe after the Opera National de Paris and the Staatsoper in Vienna. The theater was the scene of some of the film The Godfather-Part 3 in 1990.

Piazza Pretoria is known as the Square of Shame for the nudity of the statues.

Palermo Cathedral.

Ancient tree of Palermo.

Antique market in Palermo.

Just a nice building.

There are plenty of horse carriages for tourists. Most of the horses have a cute hat on.

This is the seventeenth century Facade of the Shrine and is leaning against the rock at the peak of Monte Pellegrino mountain. There were very beautiful views of the city on the way from the center of the city up to the mountain by car.

A nice view from Monte Pellergrino mountain to Mondello.

Mondello is a seaside town at the foot of Monte Pellergrino. It is a nice bay with sandy tropical colors, restaurants, little shops, yacht clubs, and a beach. Its clear blue water is so beautiful and reminds me of the clear blue water and nice beaches in St John, US Virgin Islands.

Have a wonderful day ahead to you all!xo...Hanh :)

Shuishe Pier at Sun Moon Lake - Taiwan (水社碼頭, 日月潭)

If you travel with tourist package, I believe the Sun Moon Lake Ferry ticket is included. If not, you can refer the list below...

The ticket price.

The standard ticket is TWD300.00 which is about MYR31.50. And with no time limit, the boats will drop and pickup passengers every 30 minutes from each jetty. There are many company operating the Ferry business here, so make sure you aboard the right ferry. :)

All of us got a Red stamp in our hand before we get into the ferry. That was the pass. :)

Red stamp in our hand. (That was not my hand!)

We leaded to the correct jetty by the boat man, and this was it! The boat was waiting...

It had 2 sessions in the ferry which are indoor and outdoor area...we chose the outdoor area for better view.

The indoor sitting area

The outdoor area

Too bad we were not allow to access to the roof...
I captured the beautiful scene of Shuishe town before the boat leave...

Shuishe town of Sun Moon Lake - Taiwan

After a while, the 6 stars (they claimed) hotels appeared in front of us...and it was not One but Two...does it looks like one of the Famous building in the familiar place?! According to the boatman, the minimum room rate per night is TWD15,000.00.

The ferry passed by A Small island in the lake called - Lalu Island. It's really small, and tourists are Not allow to step in, do you notice the Golden Owl? That was the Lucky Bird for Ita Thao peoples...

Lalu Island of Sun Moon Lake

Notice the Golden Owl? :)

It was Only about 15 minutes, we dropped by the 1st tourist attraction called - Syuan Guang Temple. And everyone can take their sweet time to visit it, just remember the pier number to get back to the ferry which stop by every 30 minutes...

Related post :-
*  My Taiwan Trip on May, 2011