Travel tips

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Are you ready for summer holidays?

By irma

Shake the city dust off your shoulders, drop your everyday routines and head out towards summer adventures!

Imagine how relaxed you will be when the only thing to do is to shoot pictures, finish all those books that have been collecting dust on your bedside table, eat great food and listen to waves hitting the beach or water splashing against the side of the swimming pool.

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All you have to do is to follow these five tips for traveling photographers to come home with breathtaking pictures of all of those great moments to share with your family and friends:

  1. Learn to handle your digital camera before you go on holidays. Check the manual and find all about the settings you would like to use and take some practice pictures. This way you will not be stressed out or miss any photo opportunity because you had to fiddle with your camera.
  2. Put everything you need to bring including accessories in one place (camera, spare batteries, charger, power adapters, memory cards, camera bag).
  3. Pack your camera in a way that will allow you to have it with you at all times ready for use.
  4. Use the work of others for inspiration. There is very little that cannot be found on Google.
  5. Plan to shoot at only one or two main locations per day. If you use a top of the line SLR, think about what lenses you will need to bring, that way you will not be tired from carrying a heavy bag around all day.

Next time we will bring you more tips on taking pictures on the road so make sure to come back soon.

How to use the public transport in Bangkok?

By irma

Bangkok is a vast and at times chaotic city plagued by traffic jams, smog and lack of traffic signs. Exploring it on foot is really not advisable – not only can it be physically demanding, it can be downright health-threatening.

Bangkok

If renting a car is not an option, you can try local buses, taxies or the traditional Thai Tuk-Tuk, but the most reliable mode of transport around the city is the metro. The first two lines run aboveground, the rest underground. The metro is clean, safe and in many ways more modern that for example the London Tube.

Before embarking from point to A to point B, you need to find your location and destination on the map because the price of the metro ticket depends on where you are going. This is easy because all names are written in Thai and English. You can either use an automatic ticket machine to buy your ticket or ask the station staff and they will give you a token with a magnetic reader confirming your payment. Tickets cost a couple dozen Baht, which is comparable to ticket prices in European cities. It is possible to buy rechargeable travel cards, but they are not the best option for tourists.

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At the metro entrance place your token on the turnstile reader, which will register your location on the token and off you go. At the exist station simply insert the token into the turnstile, which will verify your journey has been paid for and let you pass.

Because of the frequent protests in Bangkok, some metro stations have been fitted with security scanners, which are mostly ignored by travelers without any luggage. If the staff asks you to pass through the scanner they will ask you to do so with everything you have, giving the scanner a beeping fit, which the guards just ignore.

Bangkok

The Bangkok metro is fast, reliable and traveling on it is very pleasant, which cannot be said about the remaining available modes of transportation. Thai people are generally nice, respectful of each other and quiet. Unlike in Europe, it is customary to offer your seat not only to pregnant women, but also to monks and children. On the other hand, the elderly largely ignored and left to stand — different countries, different customs.