A new day … in a new year … has begun …
A little wild yellow flower in the old city of Jakobstad (also known as Pietarsaari in Finnish) on the coast of Finland. June 2011. Taken with a Nikon D600 with 24-120mm lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
Here’s wishing everyone a fantastic year ahead in 2015.
In addition of making overseas calls from your home country, you can also use Skype to call family, friends and colleagues who back in your home country on their landline or mobile – when you are travelling overseas. All you need is Wi-Fi access or mobile broadband on your smartphone, and some Skype credits.
Check out Skype as an additional affordable means of voice/SMS communication when you travel overseas.
When I first arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, while waiting at the customs, I logged on to the free Wi-Fi network in the airport and used Skype to call a local sight to make enquiries and make reservations for a day trip to a wildlife rescue centre in Petchaburi.
I found out when writing this article that the AOT Wi-Fi network at Suvarnabhumi Airport is provided by True Move and is available at the main internaltional airports in Thailand.
These include the airports at Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phuket and Hat Yai.
The Suvarnabhumi Airport serving Bangkok provides a pretty decent free Wi-Fi to travellers in its terminals – good enough to make VoIP calls using Skype.
First you need to register in the login page for the AOT network in the airport and you get to use the network for free for up to 2 hours a day.
Don’t bother to memorise the complicated userid and password they issue you, the next time you use the network – which is probably when you leave Thailand – you can register as a new user again and use a new set of userid and password.
A dual-SIM phone allows you to stay contactable to your regular contacts yet enables you to take advantage of more affordable local data/voice rates to avoid expensive overseas roaming charges – without having to carry two separate mobile phones.
The Motorola Moto G (2nd Generation) is one of the increasing number of smartphones that support a dual-SIM capability.
Nowadays, it is increasingly easy to get a local SIM card when one travels overseas for work or leisure.
The local SIM allows you to make/receive calls at affordable local rates and more significantly, to stay connected via mobile broadband – without chalking out a huge bill.
But most mobile phones allow only one SIM card to be installed – so if you put in the local SIM card, you’ll have to remove your regular SIM card and become uncontactable to those who call you on your regular number, unless you forward those calls to your local number.
Otherwise, you’d carry a second single-SIM card phone, which is a hassle.
I remember in the early days of smartphones, people were selling dual-SIM card adaptors the size of regular sized SIM cards that you could place two micro SIM cards in.
You’d have to cut your regular sized SIM card yourself into micro SIM card size and it was a daunting proposition for most people to risk damaging your SIM card in the process.
These adaptors only worked for certain models of mobile phones, and you need to switch off and on the phone to switch between the SIM cards.
Fortunately, smartphones have evolved and nowadays, you have dual-SIM card phones that enable you use both SIM cards at the same time.
I brought along a Motorola Moto G (2nd Generation) dual-SIM card phone during my short break to Thailand and it was such a blessing.
There are two micro-SIM card slots so I could keep my regular SIM card in one slot and plug in the prepaid local SIM card that I bought at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the other.
The guy at the True Move counter did all the set up for me.
So after five minutes of queueing and five minutes of installation and payment, I was as connected in Thailand as I was at home back in Singapore.
I could receive roaming calls on my regular number from my friends back in Singapore and other parts of the world, while at the same stay connected on email and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram via the mobile broadband on the local SIM card.
It’s the year-end school holidays and the family decided to take an impromptu short break to Thailand for a week.
Welcome to the Land of Smiles. Here the welcoming facade of our hotel in Hua Hin, Thailand.
We’d initially thought about going to Krabi but it looked so crowded in photos on the Web that we decided to choose somewhere that’s more “off the beaten track”.
So we settled on Hua Hin, a popular weekend getaway for the local Thais in Bangkok.
Time for relaxation. Laidback sculpture in the gardens of our hotel in Hua Hin.
It’s a two-and-a-half hour drive from Bangkok and four-plus-hour journey by train or bus.
Photo of the Day: St Peter’s Abbey is a Benedictine monastery next to the Salzurger Dom in Salzburg, Austria. It is one of the oldest monasteries in the German-speaking world.
The grand interior of St Peter’s Abbey, which was raised to the status of an Archabbey in 1927. This photo was taken at ISO 1250.
* All photos in this article were taken with a Sony A7 full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, with Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS full-frame E-mount zoom lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
The elaborate altar of St Peter’s Abbey. Photo taken at ISO 2500.
St Peter’s Abbey was founded in 696 AD by Saint Rupert, at the site of a church from the early days of Christianity.
Until 987, the abbot of the Abbey was also the Archbishop of Salzburg.
The current building was built in the Romanesque period in the 13th century, and completely renovated in the Baroque style in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The monastery also houses the oldest library in Austria, with some 800 manuscripts and 100,000 volumes.
The light within the Abbey was rather dim and I didn’t want to use any flash – so it was a good opportunity to put the reputed low-light prowess of the Sony A7 to the test.
We found this beautiful statue of the Holy Mother and Child within St Peter’s Abbey and I looked it up on the Web afterwards.
Photo of the Day: The Salzburger Dom overlooks the Residenzplatz in the centre of Salzburg Altstadt (old town). It contains the baptismal font in which Mozart was baptised.
According to Wikipedia, during the second World War, single bomb crashed through the central dome over the crossing. Repairs and restoration were only completed in 1959.
* All photos in this article were taken with a Sony A7 full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, with Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS full-frame E-mount zoom lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
The Salzburg Cathedral – called the Salzburger Dom in German – is dedicated to Saint Rupert and Saint Vergilius.
The interior of the Salzburger Dom.
Last Friday, I brought the two kids to the Alive Museum Singapore at the Suntec City Mall.
* All photos (apart from the first photo) were taken with the Sony A7R full-frame mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with Sonnar T* FE 35mm F2.8 ZA Full-frame E-mount Prime Lens.
Fun Friday night out at Alive Museum Singapore. Photo taken with Samsung GALAXY S5.
Although the estimated time needed to cover every exhibit was around one-and-a-half hours, we lingered for two-and-a-half and ended up with 250 photos.
More importantly, we had oodles of fun and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
“Can I join the ballerinas in the painting?”
The Alive Museum was opened in 2009 in South Korea and debuted in Singapore on 12 June this year.
Taken from the right perspective, this exhibit gives the illusion that sea water and penguins were flooding out of the painting.
The 3D visual illusion museum aims to serve as a fun and unique treat for the whole family, locals and tourists alike.
It offers a sensory experience that tricks one’s visual, physical and environmental perceptions, bringing fantasy to reality.
Not only can you touch and feel the exhibits, you can also hop into the frame and become a part of the art masterpieces that play on optical illusions.
Photo of the Day: Nonnberg Abbey (Stift Nonnberg) is a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg, Austria.
This was the convent where Maria served as a postulant before she was sent to look after the children of Captain von Trapp in the musical and movie “The Sound of Music”.
Graves within the compounds of the Nonnberg Abbey, just outside the Abbey Church. The entrance to the church can be seen in the background.
Maria Augusta Kutschera had joined Nonnberg Abbey as a postulant after graduating from college when she was eighteen.
My family and I took a stroll to Nonnberg Abbey after descending from the Hohensalzburg Fortress in the evening.
We wanted to visit the convent from which Maria came from before joining the von Trapp family.
It was really peaceful and tranquil – and free of other tourists.
As a postulant, she was requesting admission into the Abbey as a nun, which may or may not be granted.
The original plan was for her to look after one of Georg von Trapp’s daughters and return after 10 months to formally enter the nunnery.
She eventually went on to look after all of Georg’s seven children and agreed when the latter proposed to her, asking her to stay with him and become a second mother to his children.
TomTom today launched in Singapore three new TomTom GO GPS portable navigation devices – GO 50 (S$249), GO 500 (S$299) and GO 600 (S$349) – as well as new live Traffic updates feature for their use in Singapore.
TomTom GO 500. S$299
The new PNDs feature a completely fresh user interface with lifetime TomTom Traffic and map updates.
“Where navigation used to be about getting people to unfamiliar destinations, we are now empowering drivers with easy access to the information they need to make the smartest driving decisions, every day. The new TomTom GO is an essential daily driving tool, helping Singaporean drivers to get out of traffic, and get to their destinations faster,” says Chris Kearney, Vice President of TomTom Consumer, Asia Pacific.
They also ship with an interactive map featuring 3D buildings and landmarks, giving drivers the ability to know what is going on around them, as well as what lies ahead.
The new series of GO PNDs allow users to view traffic incidents in detail and receive traffic jam alerts, so that they can take the fastest detours available.
With a screen that easily zooms in and out, drivers can find, and explore places on the brand new interactive map, and tap on the map to get an instant route to their destination.
The new TomTom GO series comprises the following models and is currently available at retailers such as Challenger and Harvey Norman.
| TomTom | Key specs |
|---|---|
| GO 50
S$249 |
5.0” touch screen, Lifetime TomTom Traffic and Maps |
| GO 500
S$299 |
5.0” capacitive fully interactive touch screen, Lifetime TomTom Traffic and Maps |
| GO 600
S$349 |
6” capacitive fully interactive touch screen, Lifetime TomTom Traffic and Maps |
Lifetime TomTom Traffic
Did you know that there is an actual town in Austria which is called “Fucking”? And less than two hours’ drive to the east from Salzburg, you’ll hit the mountain named “Loser” which is also a popular ski resort.
Pit stop at Fucking, Austria. Photo taken with a Sony A7 with Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS full-frame E-mount zoom lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
Fucking is a tiny miniscule hamlet about 40km to the north of Salzburg. This Austrian town is about 40 minutes’ drive from Salzburg.
Located close to the border between Germany and Austria, the town comprises a cluster of houses on either side of the road.
I wonder what else is not allowed in this idyllic town. But seriously, that’s just a sign to tell you that you’re leaving Fucking behind you. Photo taken with a Sony A7 with Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS full-frame E-mount zoom lens. Photo credit: John Tan.
It is so tiny that less than 200m after passing the signboard that marks your entry into the town, you see the signboard that marks your exit from the town.
I’ve driven around Europe a fair bit and passed through many one-street towns – but Fucking is one of the tiniest we have driven through.
