在天堂洞的步道上看到一對男女,蹲下來在昏暗的燈光下研究相機,我側身走過,瞄了一眼。
走了沒多久,再遇上。
男孩請我幫他們拍合照,我欣然答應,他們用的是我多年前用過的CANON300D,好不熟悉。
舉機準備拍攝,觀景器內顯示「FULL CF CARD」,於是我告訴他們"card is full",但他們英語不太好,可能不是很明白。
每到這個時侯,亮出場。
他先打開SD card槽,指示是card的問題,再打開LCD顯示屏,播放照片,然後指著數字"98/98",男孩應該是明白了,連聲多謝。
我覺得他也挺有意思的,應該是不知道為什麼相機不能拍,自己解決不了,想讓別人幫忙,索性請別人幫忙拍一張,自然水落石出!!
by: Jo
I pass a couple on the walkway of Paradise cave, they kneel down to fix their camera in the very dim lights.
After a while, came across them again.
The boy asked me to take a picture for them, yes, of course. They are using Canon 300D, which I used to have years ago, very familiar touch and feel.
I pointed the camera and ready to shoot, the view finder has an alert "FULL CF CARD", so, I told them that the "card is full". Apparently their English is not very good and cannot understand me.
At this point, Mat plays his role.
He first opened the SD card slot to show them that the problem is with the card.
Then, he turned on the LCD screen and played the photos. He then pointed at the numbers "98/98". Now the boy understood and thanked us for the help.
I think this is a good tactics. He could not figure out why the camera cannot shoot and needed help. To get help, what is better than asking something to take a picture with his camera!! Nice try!
by: Jo
2014年4月10日 星期四
2014年4月8日 星期二
宗教 Religions
分享兩個在越南的宗教小記
高台教是1925年12月25日在越南正式創立的新興宗教,總部在越南南部的西寧。還記得我們在胡志明市有一天的當地遊被攪錯了嗎?結果我們到不了西寧的高台廟參觀,只在下午去了古芝地道。
到了峴港,這裡有高台教的第二大的廟宇,自然去看了。
去之前,我們沒有做資料蒐集,這些資料都是事後讀的….廟的外表沒什麼,有點中西合璧的感覺,但進到內殿,被嚇一跳,因為廟的祭壇後方是一隻很大的眼睛,在一個大的藍色球體上…說實在的,我感覺很詭異,也立即想到二十世紀少年。
據維基百科所載,這是天眼,是象徵高台神的符號,是神的左眼。
我們知道六點會有祈禱 (每天0000, 0600,
1200 和1800會有祈禱),在那邊等著,信徒身穿白袍,赤腳走入廟內,過程也是諗經之類,站或跪。
其他教義我沒有看得很懂,就不搬字過紙了,有興趣的可請教谷歌老師。
*****
占婆
占婆族其實是很久以前在越南中部和柬埔寨一帶的民族,其宗教很接近我們之前在吳哥窟看的印度教。在會安附近有一景點「美山」,就有一建築群,但因去年已到過了偉大的吳哥窟,所以這次略過了。
也是在峴港,到了占婆博物館,這博物館不是很充實,我們唯一的發現是原來占婆的印度教,和柬埔寨看過的有些變化。
印度教主要的神話角色都差不多,但面貌不盡相同,好像占婆的比較圓潤可愛。另外,我們最大的發現是在柬埔寨的印度教,往往會出現「林伽」, 是男性的性徵; 而在占婆族的印度教裏,他們創造了很多女性的神,當中也包括了用女性的乳房所代表的女性神,照片中的眾多乳房就挺有趣的。
by: Jo
Sharing some observations on religions in
Vietnam
Cao Dai is a new region founded on 25 Dec
1925 in Tay Ninh, a city near HCMC. Remember our one day tour was screwed when we
were in HCMC? We miss the visit to the
HQ of Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh as a result, and ended up only to Cu Chi
tunnels.
When we arrived in Danang, we noticed that
the biggest Cao Dai temple outside of Tay Ninh is here, so we must not miss it
this time.
Again, we did not do any research before
going, all the information I have here is collected afterwards. The outlook of
the temple is a bit of a crossover of oriental and western architecture, but
nothing too special about it. But I was
a little bit shocked when I got inside the temple. There is a huge blue sphere behind altar with
a big eye on the sphere. Honestly, I
find this a bit scary and also made me think about the Japanese comics “20th
century boys”.
According to Wiki, this is the symbol of
Cao Dai, the left eye of God.
We know that there will be prayer time (everyday,
prayer time at 0000, 0600, 1200, 1800), so we waited. The followers wear white robes and enter the
temple bare footed. They are praying,
standing and kneeling down.
I don’t think I can understand everything about
Cao Dai, if you find it interesting, learn more from Google.
Champa
Champa is the people who settled in Central
Vietnam and Cambodia many years ago. Their religion is very similar to the Hindu
religion we saw in Cambodia last year.
There is a tourist spot “My Son” near Hoi An which has a few Hindu
temples but we have skipped this since we already seen the Angkor Wat last year.
In Danang as well, we went to visit the
Cham museum, which is not too informative but we noticed something interesting
and different from what we saw in Cambodia.
We see most of
the familiar Hindu gods but their appearance are slightly different. Looks more rounded and cute in the Champa
world. In addition, with Hindu in
Cambodia, you see a lot of Linga (man’s sexual representation), while in the
Champa world, they created female version of some of the Hindu gods and in
particular, they uses the women’s breast to represent the female god. This is not something that exists in Hindu in
Cambodia.
by: Jo
2014年4月5日 星期六
風芽洞 天堂洞 Phong Nha Cave Paradise Cave
到了順化，下一個大站是河內。從順化到河內要坐最少16小時的巴士，對任何常人都是一大挑戰。
我們都是邊走邊做資料蒐集，結果發現差點被略過去的洞海。洞海如其名~~~就是洞!! 著名的風芽國家公園在離洞海市約一小時車程，但奇怪的是很多到風芽的團均是從順化出發，單程就是四個小時的車，6：30出發，回到順化已經最少20：00。再細問，原來很多人會選擇遊覽完不隨車回順化，索性留在風芽或洞海。
我們爬了很多文後決定先報一個往風芽洞的團，遊覽後直接留在風芽住一晚，第二天自行遊天堂洞....風芽鎮就在風芽洞景區，是一個極小的鎮，要再上路，必須回到洞海...到這刻為止，還未清楚下一步怎麼走。幸好亮天性聰敏，馬上就想到每天遊覽完風芽洞都會送客人到洞海的旅遊巴，結果我們花HK$55，坐一程順風車到洞海,再轉夜車直達河內。
回頭說風芽天堂。
看了很多人說這兩洞是整個越南遊最精彩的景點,所以我們也抱有相當的期望。
風芽洞曾經是世界上其中一個最大的岩洞,全長70公里,而且她是一個濕洞,擁有全世界最長的地下河流,因此參觀風芽洞都是坐船的。船到了洞口,會關掉引擎,打開船頂,讓我們安靜地欣賞這美景,對我們來說遊濕洞的確有別有一番感覺。船大約走800米,回頭,到了近洞口處,我們在小沙灘下船,步行參觀一小段,回到出口。
洞內的鐘乳石很大很漂亮,也沒有像國內那些浮誇的燈光,感覺十份宏大和平靜,用眼和心細細看,很是感動,人類無論如何努力和用心,也沒法營造出大自然的偉大奇觀!!
天堂洞隱藏在茂密的森林中,位處二百米高,是2005年才被當地人偶然發現,再由英國探洞隊由2005至2010年探勘到總長31公里的洞穴。洞穴的入口非常小,但只要進到洞內,看到第一個洞室已經是驚嘆的說不出話來,可以想像發現這洞時有多驚訝!!進洞口,要沿路往下走,洞大得讓人咋舌,如果要具體一點說,我想第一個洞室,大約有一個紅館的大小,我們一路沿著步道走,後面有更大的洞室,而且鐘乳也比風芽更大更宏偉!
唯一美中不足的是,洞內遊人極多,而且為了讓大家安全地在洞內參觀,有全長超過一公里的步道,整個觀感反而不如風芽洞。
兩個洞各有其獨特之處,風芽是恬靜淡淡然的,而天堂則宏偉壯麗,實在只能兩個都看!!
在這種大自然裡,用眼睛欣賞是最精彩,最感動。
用相機快門可稍為捕捉一下只可作紀錄,根本留不下那一剎的感動…
by: Jo
The next stop after Hue is Hanoi. However, for any normal people, a 16 hours bus
trip is a big challenge.
As usual, we did our research as we move
along, and realized we almost missed Dong Hoi.
Dong Hoi (in Chinese means sea of caves) by its name, has many caves!!
The famous Phong Nha / Ke Bang National Park is about an hour from Dong
Hoi. However, it is very strange that
most of the tours to Phong Nha departs from Hue. The tours have to depart at 6:30am and it
takes at least 4 hours one way and gets back to Hue at 20:00. When we asked for more options, we realized
many people like us choose to not go back to Hue after the tour and would stay
in Dong Hoi or Phong Nha.
We read a lot of blogs and comments on the
web, and decided to join a tour to Phong Nha departing from Hue, and then have
the bus drop us in Phong Nha to spend the night. On the next day, we visit the Paradise cave on
our own … but then we must go back to Dong Hoi in order to go to Hanoi, and we
don’t know how. Well, Mat is so smart,
and he realized that all tour buses leave Phong Nha for Dong Hoi every
day. We end up paying HKD 55 for a lift
to Dong Hoi by one of the tour buses. We then took off to Hanoi by night bus.
Well, ok, back to the caves.
We sort of have
some expectations because many comments on trip advisors said that this is the
best they have seen in the whole of Vietnam.
Phong Nha cave was once the largest cave in
the world, 70km long, and it is a wet cave and has the longest underground
river in the world. As such, visits to
the Phong Nha cave are by boat. The boat
will turn off the engine and take off the roof of the boat when we arrive at
the entrance, so that we can fully enjoy the scenery inside the cave
peacefully. In fact, visiting a wet cave
on a boat is quite an unique experience. The boat goes inside the cave for
about 800m, returns to a small beach near the entrance and then we get to walk
inside the cave for a little bit and walks back to the entrance.
The limestone stalactites and stalagmites
are huge and very fascinating, and the caves are not lit with colourful lights
like those in China, it feels very grand and peaceful. You would be touched when you quietly enjoy
the scenery. It is amazing how the
nature creates such amazing things that human will never be able to replicate.
The Paradise cave is located in a thick
forest and elevated by 200m. It was
discovered accidentally by a local in 2005 and later on explored by the British
Cave Research Asso from 2005 to 2010 and found 31km of this cave. The entrance
of the cave is so small, and you have to descend once you get through the
entrance. When you enter and see the
first chamber, it is so huge that you will just hold your breath and don’t know
what to say. If I have to describe it in
a sort of quantitative manner, I would say this chamber is about the size of
the HK Coliseum. We followed the walkway
and saw even bigger chambers, and the stalactites and stalagmites are even
bigger than Phong Nha! The only downside
is there are way too many tourists and the walkway inside the huge cave makes
it a lot less natural.
The two caves have their own charm – Phong Nha
is calm and peaceful while Paradise is so huge and magnificent. I would recommend seeing both.
With such magnificent nature scenery, the
best and most touching is to quietly enjoy with your eyes and feel it.
The camera shutter is there for some
records, but it will never capture that real moment ….
by: Jo
2014年4月3日 星期四
大驚小怪
大學畢業幾年後，開始能儲到點錢，就習慣每年背個大包去一次大旅行，所謂“大”其實也不過是兩星期左右，香港人嘛！又不是公務員，老闆肯批連續兩星期假已是很難得！既然一年才一次，每次都會想去遠一點，心態是，近的很容易就可去得到，將來總有機會的… 結果十幾年下來，假期大部份都用了去長途旅行，去過了七大洲，非洲也去過四次，但很多香港人常到的地方卻沒去過，我常笑說我去過南極，但沒去過布吉、芭提雅之類的地方… 很多人都露出不太相信的表情！
這次旅行第一站選擇了越南，其中一個原因是她比較近而同時是我和jo也從沒到過的地方，而且心想: 一個點一個點玩下去的話，最終也會走得到很遠，不用一開始就花錢和時間坐飛機去。
到了越南兩個多星期，發現這個地方憑著超長的海岸線，造就無數渡假海灘，我倆也享受這種hea 的悠閒歡樂，我跟jo 說其實可能大部份香港人都習慣了得閒無事就去什麼pp島、kk灣…玩幾天，只是我倆從來沒hea 過陽光海灘，才特別覺得這裡很舒服！
前兩天到峴港五行山看一些洞窟和廟宇，有個洞中午時份幾條光柱直射洞內，我倆也看得津津樂道，這次到jo跟我說，這些可能到中國大陸多的是，只是我倆沒去過那些什麼大陸短線遊才 “大驚小怪”
所以說，一個地方好不好玩，其實很個人， 我聽過一個朋友說在人間天堂馬爾代夫待到第四日已經悶出鳥來… 喜好固然最重要，但經歷和期望也很決定性。
越南這個地方可能對很多人來說都很普通，但至少到這一刻，配對在我和jo旅遊經歷下，感覺非常好，唯一美中不足的，一個月簽證實在有點不夠，一算之下，行程被迫得不能太優悠了！只能希望在下個國家補回吧！
by: Mat
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