6 Things to Do in Scotland

1. Try Haggis, a traditional Scottish food only available in Scotland and not other parts of the UK.

Haggis (photo credit to dinnerdiary.org)

2. Watch a Royal Military Tatoo performance. Sadly, this remains one of things I did not manage to do last time as I miss my flight back to Edinburgh from Budapest and thus missed out one of the best show in town. It is usually held in August towards the end of the summer.

Military Tatoo held in front of the Edinburgh castle every August  
(photo credit to phamiegow.com)

3. Ask a men in skirt a.k.a kilts what he wear underneath. I once ask that question to my Highland tour guide and you don't want to know the answer, haha.


4. Listen to Scottish music from the bagpipes. One of the place to spot man in kilts with his bagpipe is along The Royal Mile in Edinburgh.



5. Tour the Highlands; Isle of Skye, go Nessie spotting in Loch Ness, and to the end of the Scottish Isle and feel yourself inmmense in the Highlander movie! I can never describe the experience here as I still think Scottish Highlands are still THE Best place I ever been and Edinburgh, the best place I ever been. I think I am a bit bias but I had the best time of my life over there.

Feel like a highlander here

6. Visit a castle. I literally castle hopping every weekend. Highly recommend Edinburgh castle and Linlithgow castle for the history of Queen Mary of Scots.

Try watching Brave and Stardust and you will know what I mean.

Top Destinations for Photography

I was reading about this top 5 destinations for photography in Lonely Planet website the other day. The article mentioned that Rajasthan, India, Yellowstone National Park, USA, Venice, Italy, Hong Kong and Ladakh, India as the top 5. It's amazing that India has two destinations in the top 5 and it's a country that I always wanted to travel to, for her amazing colourful culture and of course Taj Mahal.

After reading that, I decided to name my very own top 5 destinations for photography. Photography here does not only reflect landscape photography but street and portrait photography. I find that getting a good shot at people is tougher than taking a shot of the non moving subject such as buildings and landscape.

My lists would be as follows:

The crowd during Gai Jatra festival in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, Nepal
I was lucky to be in Kathmandu during the Gai Jatra festival, which I had so much fun taking many shots of the people in colourful costume and unique culture. Do not be fooled by the chaotic and dusty environment as beneath all those, lies a very vibrant and friendly city.

One of the market streets in Hong Kong during a rainy day

Hong Kong
I agree with the list by Lonely Planet that Hong Kong indeed is suited for street photography especially when she is lit up at night with colouful neon lights. Visits to the Peak, Victoria Harbour and the famous streets in Mongkok during the night are a must.

Made in Peru stuff against the snow capped mountain

Basically anywhere in Peru
Haha, I am tempted to write Lake Titicaca as one destination but after that I realized the whole of Peru is very 'photogenic' and plus it's unfair not to include Machu Picchu as one of the destinations for photography.

Another side of Potala Palace, once a home to the Dalai Lama

 Lhasa, Tibet
When I first arrived in this city, my guide told me that we can't take photos around Lhasa especially those with army personnel in them. So I kept my camera in my bag until I climbed the Potala Palace. I watched 7 Years in Tibet acted by Brad Pitt recently, a real story based on the life of Dalai Lama and his friendship with this Austrian hiker/mountain climber and many of the scenes reminded me of Tibet. Tibetans are generally very religious people and you can see many of them circling 3 rounds around the Potala Palace for blessing. Oh, and it got to be in clockwise.

Looks like something out from the fairy tale books

The Highlands, Scotland
Just for the landscape, this got to be the most photogenic. You are basically transported back to Highlander movies, Lord of the Rings, Stardust (the real filming locations are in Scottish highlands) and any movies with witches, lords, knights, kings in them. And not forgetting men in skirts..ops..kilts. They are very accommodating for photos, haha.

Fairytale Castles Around the World

Bran castle, Translyvania Romania (the famous Dracula castle)

Peles castle, Sinaia Romania

What makes castle so intriguing to most people?

Perhaps, it is always associated with prince and princess living happily ever after in fairytales.

Perhaps, it is the grandeur.

Or perhaps, it is the symbol for most ancient cities.

Of all the castle I have visited before, Neuschwanstein remains my favourite and the most fairytale like castle. No wonder even Disney 'borrowed' the idea of their theme parks castle from this one.

Some of the famous castles from the places I visited so far..

Hmm.. I shall write another one of palaces next time.

Linlithgow castle, Scotland (birthplace of Queen of Mary Scots)

Edinburgh castle, Scotland

Alnwick castle, England (one of the famous Hogwarts filming location)

Kronborg castle, Denmark (the setting for Hamlet)

Frederiksberg castle, Copenhagen Denmark

Segovia alcazar, Spain (one of the Disney's castle inspiration)

Cordoba alcazar, Spain

Seville alcazar, Spain

Palais of Pena, Portugal (not exactly a castle)

Prague castle, Prague

Neuschwanstein castle, Germany (the famous castle of them all)

Wawel castle, Krakow Poland

Colours of Autumn in Benmore Botanic Garden

floor of autumn leaves

I always love the autumn colours with her bright yellow, red and orange colours. The temperature will be just nice for a stroll in the park during autumn to admire the colours of nature. Somehow, autumn always give me a feeling of romantic and laid back feeling. And it is always one season that I love most while many Malaysians would argue that they would like to experience winter the most.

A day trip to the Benmore Botanic Garden located near Dunoon and Loch Eck when I was studying in Scotland, had deepened my love for autumn. Mother nature works her best during this time of the year and awarded plenty of photograhy opportunities.

spotted a lone bench at the garden






one of the castle inside the garden

Isle of Skye

My favourite. Mount Quiraing

There must be a solid reason why I keep raving about Scotland and how beautiful the place is. In my opinion, if you are planning for a visit to the UK for some countryside scenary, put Scotland as the main priority. And if there's only one place you can go for scenary, go to Isle of Skye, the island is stunningly beautiful and almost a ripped off from the movie Lord of the Rings. I remembered a friend once told me that she almost cried when she saw Scotland. And also because of what she say, I applied to do my masters at Edinburgh Uni the last time.

If you are travelling alone, there's plenty of backpackers tour that one can follow. I took a 3 day tour with Mac Backpackers around the Scottish countryside which includes the famous Loch Ness for the Nessie monster. We had a very funny Scottish tour guide which half of the time I did not understand what he said and he told us many stories and history of Scotland.

Apparently, dip your face here three times for luck








Portree. The main town in Skye




Old Man Storr.. there's a story behind it














it's so windy




Faerie Glen, a place to spot fairies?




Autumn colours