One of my first shot using the Telephoto Sigma 50-500 f/4.5 – 6.3

• Distance : ~376’351 km away
• Speed :1/250
• Aperture : f/8
• ISO100
• Post treatment : Crop + S curve in Lightroom 1.4

Tags: 500mm, Bangkok, full moon, moon, photo, planet, sigma, space, telephoto

After 133 years of service, the Bang Rak Post office in Bangkok sent its last telegram on Wednesday.

Introduced by Samuel Morse in 1835, the telegraph came into Thailand in 1875. However, the service only came within the reach of the ordinary person in 1883.

Its heyday was between the 1980s and early 1990s – before the widespread use of telefaxes and mobile phones.

Telegraphy reached its peak in 1985, with 8.32 million telegrams sent each year. There were 987,984 telegrams sent in March 1995.

The complete article is in Bangkok "The Nation" newspapers.

Only one thing comes to my mind : 

- …. .- -. -.- … / .- -. -.. / –. — — -.. -… -.– .

++++

Tags: 133 years, 1844, Bangkok, morse, post, Telecommunications, telegram, telegraph, Thailand

According "The Nation" Bangkok newspaper, the railway link between Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok International Airport, and the City Air Terminal located in Makkasan area should be available as from December 2008.

Passengers will have the opportunity of checking in their luggage at the City Air Terminal, before boarding the rapid train to Bangkok airport. The 29 kms journey will take 15 minutes (express train) or 27 minutes (commuter train).

Interconnection with existing transport systems will take place at Phetchaburi station for MRT (subway) Blue line and at Phayathai Station for BTS (skytrain) Sukhumvit line.

About 80% of the overall work is now completed.

Tags: airport, Bangkok, bts, city terminal, link, mrt, passengers, rail, railway, Suvarnabhumi Airport, train, transportation

Bangkok has already turned into 2008

Tags: 2008, Bangkok, blog, im, new year, nomadcom.net, Thailand, wp

As part of the various and numerous initiatives taking place in Thailand this year, a multimedia event names "Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom" marking the 80th birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 5 December has now been revealed to public.

‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’ project invited in January 2007, 55 of the world’s leading photographers for a photo shoot throughout Thailand over a nine-day period. Result of captured images shows different facets of Thailand: its peoples, traditions, landscapes and cityscapes, commerce and industry.

‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’ is now completed and released to public in three parts:

• A wonderful 304 pages large-format pictorial book which portrays Thailand today (50 USD).
• A multimedia exhibition of photographs taken during the shoot held at CentralWorld Event Gallery.
• Two documentary films on the project.

‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’ includes seven photos-essays made by some of world famous photographers on various themes:

• reverence for the King (Anuchai Secharunputong, Thailand)
• the ongoing events in the south (Abbas, France; Charoon Thongnual, Thailand)
• Thai boxing (Greg Gorman, USA)
• the harvesting of birds’ nests (Éric Valli, France)
• the care and treatment of AIDS patients by a Catholic priest (James Nachtwey, USA)
• and the country’s colourful cabaret scene (Greg Gorman, USA)
• aerial views of Thailand (Yann Arthus-Bertrand).

In short, if pass by Bangkok before the 5th of December, don't miss the exhibition. For the others, if you like Thailand, the book and its DVD is a must have (available in English and French).

More : 9 days in the Kingdom, A glimpse of the exhibition

Tags: 2007, 9 days in Thailand, art, Bangkok, Bhumibol Adulyadej, blog, book, event, exhibition, Flickr, HP, ia, ict, im, industry, King, lan, launch, LED, nomadcom.net, photo, photographers, Photography, project, public, release, Thailand, Thailand: 9 days in the Kingdom, theme, upa, USA, world, wp, www

ITU Telecom ASIA 2008 will encompass an Exhibition, featuring the latest technologies and innovations and an extensive Forum which will explore the key technologies, policies and applications which are driving Asia's ICT sector.

This major ICT event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from the 2nd to the 5th of September 2008.

Venue: IMPACT near Don Muang Airport (former BKK Intl. Airport)

Tags: 2007, 2008, air, airport, asia, Asia 2008, Bangkok, blog, event, exhibition, ia, ict, im, Impact, IT World, ITU, lan, location, Mobile Communications, nomadcom.net, telecom, Telecommunications, Thailand, wp, www, XP

At 15h35 local time (08h35 GMT), flight OG/OX269 crashed during landing at Phuket Airport. Apparently landing took place under heavy rain and the Boeing MD-80 went out of the runway, crashing into the jungle near by breaking in tow parts before bursting into flames.

123 passengers (70 foreigners) and 5 aircrew were on board and according last official report, 87 of them have perished. Wounded have been transfered to Bangkok's Phuket Hospital. 

Bangkok Pundit is live blogging information about this crash as they are released from thai and international media.

One Two Go airlines has released additional phone numbers for enquiries regarding this accident 

085-155-4622
085-911-5092
085-918-3422
02-535-7662
02-504-3227
02-504-3641

Tags: 2007, air, airlines, airport, art, Bangkok, blog, Boeing, crash, flight, google, ia, im, International, King, lan, landing, light, live, md 82, nomadcom.net, OG OX269, one two go, OX269, passengers, phone, phuket, post, release, space, Thailand, uk, wp, www

I went yesterday to the "Thailand Mobile Expo 07" with hope to discover some "real" new products. Instead I found the Expo 07 to be more a fair than an exhibition where you can find at least 2-3 salespersons per visitor, but no real new innovations.

• Samsung was presenting their Ultra Edition II series (U600, U300 and U100)
• LG came with the Prada
• Motorola was around with the Razr2 V8
• Sony Ericsson shown the new P1i & T650i
• HTC publicized the Touch and P3600i
• and Nokia with lots of different models with the N95 among them

Aside of mobile phones, they was a huge sale of different accessories such bluetooth headsets, car accessories, and all type of memory stuff such memory sticks, SD cards, MicroSD etc..

In resume, nothing different that you can already find in Bangkok IT shops and not a single word about incoming products such Apple iPhone, HTC Cavalier or Shift as per examples which is a bit pity in country where carrying the last mobile phone is still very trendy.

Let's see what next week 2nd Annual Asia IT will come with.

Tags: 2007, access, air, Annual, apple, asia, Bangkok, blog, card, Cavalier, ces, ericsson, example, exhibition, find, HP, htc, ia, im, iphone, lan, LG, memory, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobile phone, models, nokia, nomadcom.net, phone, phones, public, resume, samsung, sco, shift, sony, space, sun, Thailand, touch, trend, wp, www, XP

After receiving an email from Kpjas, an Ipernity member, who informed me that he took a photo of mine to illustrate "50 Places To See Before You Die" selected by BBC viewers in 2003 in his blog, I reviewed the list and noticed that I have already visited more than 50% of these places that BBC viewers dream about (lucky me).

This list raised some interrogation to me about why these places have chosen instead of other famous ones ?  I could not find any relevant explanations except perhaps a majority of places where the spoken language is (was) English (but it makes sense as enquiry took place in UK). One thing is sure, after reading names of these great location, you just feel to escape from your office, pack you stuff and go travel.

Personally I would definitively add some places to this list (Okavango delta, Yunnan mountains, Kalahari desert, Japan, etc..) and perhaps drop some but for sure, I'll not be able to keep it to only 50 locations.

BBC 2008 Viewers "Must See list"

Africa
La Digue, Seychelles

(visited)
The Pyramids, Egypt (1993)
Luxor, Egypt  (1993)
Abu Simbel, Egypt (1993)
Masai Mara, Kenya (1993/2002)
Victoria Falls, Zambia / Zimbabwe (1994)
Cape Town, South Africa – (1994/1998)

Americas
The Grand Canyon, USA
Yosemite National Park, USA
Las Vegas, USA
Hawaii, USA
Alaska, USA
San Francisco, USA
Niagara Falls, Canada / USA
Canadian Rockies, Canada
Chichen Itza, Mexico
Angel Falls, Venezuela
Barbados, Barbados

(visited)
New York, USA (1996/2000)
Florida, USA (2000)
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (1999)
Machu Picchu, Peru (2001/2004)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1989/2000)
Iguassu Falls, Argentina / Brazil (2001)

Asia
Singapore, Singapore
Golden Temple, India
Taj Mahal, India
Bali, Indonesia
Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
The Maldives, Maldives
Terracotta Army, China

(visited)
Bangkok, Thailand (1994/2002)
Great Wall, China (2005)
Angkor Wat, Cambodia (1995/2006)
Himalayas, Nepal (2006)
Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2006)

Europe
Rome, Italy

(visited)
Paris, France (1980/2007)
Venice, Italy (1977/1982)
Barcelona, Spain (2001/2007)
Iceland, Iceland (1992)
Zermatt, Switzerland (1992/2005)

Middle-East
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

(visited)
Petra, Jordan (2003)

Oceania
Bora Bora, French Polynesia
South Island, New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand

(visited)
Sydney, Australia (1996/2005)
Uluru, Australia (1996)
Great Barrier Reef, Australia (1996)   

Some pics are really crap, so good excuse to visit some of these places again  

Tags: 1994, 2003, 2007, 2008, 24, 914, arc, asia, ATT, Bangkok, BBC, before you die, best of, blog, ces, emirates, europe, find, Flickr, gap, himalaya, HP, ia, ict, im, japan, lan, language, list, location, MIT, must see, Nepal, nomadcom.net, paris, pet, photo, review, sco, space, switzerland, Thailand, Travel, uk, USA, viewers, wp, www, XP

Bangkok is already known for its pink taxi, it may soon also be known for its "Hello Kitty" cops.

Yesterday Chief Officer of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok as announced that police officers arriving late, parking in a prohibited area, littering among other petty crimes will be forced to stay in the division office and wear a pinky flashy "Hello Kitty" (the Japanese icon of cute) armband all day as a mark of shame.

Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan said the idea is part of zero tolerance anti-crime initiatives theory which argues that getting tough on petty crime leads to a reduction in more serious offences.

However, "Hello Kitty officers" will not wear the armband in public. Should the public visit police offices instead to make sure this new guidelines is enforced ? 

photo: AP 

Tags: 2007, 24, anti crime, armband, art, Bangkok, blog, ces, crime, flash, Flickr, hello kitty, ia, im, japan, King, lan, nomadcom.net, officer, pet, photo, pink, police, press, public, shame, space, suppression, tax, Thailand, uk, vision, wp, www