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yen's scribblings
                                               
latest travel                    photography                    latest artwork                      music   

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~ new ! ~

Art Trip Blog: Mornington Peninsula ~ 2008
Beaches, golf, wineries beckon..
but we're here to paint!

6-Part Travelblog: France & Scandinavia ~ 2006
My 8 weeks in Europe, from no-english France
to fish-soup Scandinavia.
( p.s. any opinions expressed are personal and
oft, on the spur of the moment... )

~ asia ~

Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon ~ 2003
Bhutan ~ The Druk Path Saga ~ 2003

"...Going to Bhutan this Oct. Your pictures and descriptions are beautiful..."
Bhutan ~ Sojourn to Punakha & Wangdue ~ 2003
A Dose of Nepalese Warmth ~ 1996

"...Good morning from South Africa. I enjoyed browsing through your site. Lovely photos. How do you manage to travel so often?"

~ africa ~

Beyond the Pyramids ~ 1997

"...Awesome site! Ancient Egypt is the BEST :)..."
The Beautiful Cape ~ 2002
"...Thank you for sharing your pics with us. My husband and I will be spending Christmas this year in Cape Town so these pics made me all the more excited..."

Behold the Drakensberg! ~ 2002
"...Spent a year in Lesotho in 1965/6 but was not lucky enough to get to this area. Very good site..."
Kruger Safari ~ 2002
"...Sure sounds like you had a great time at the safari. Someday..."
foto memoirs ~ victoria falls ~ 2002
"...I have always dream of Africa and you have given a sweet dream to remember. Someday I will visit these wonderful falls..."

~ europe ~

Exhilarating Highlands ~ 1998/1999
"...Thank you for a very pleasant trip round part of my native land. I used to climb and ski in Glen Coe when I was younger. Now 77yrs and living in Ontario, Canada..."
Beautiful Orkney ~ 1999
"...Great site! Your photos make me want to go to the Orkneys myself..."
Tale of 3 Scottish Isles ~ 1999
"...I hope someday to see Scotland, maybe a visit or maybe for a lifetime. In my heart it has always been home. I am American but my roots and heart are buried deep in Scotland..."
Elegant Edinburgh ~ 1998/1999
"... I love Edinburgh! Lovely way of portraying the most beautiful city in the world..."
Gaudi - Barcelona's Famous Son ~ 1998

"...Nice work and the story you told of Gaudi is very heart-warming and touching. The graphics you used to frame each of the Gaudi photo adds a lot to the whole presentation..."
Charming Geneva ~ 2000

~ north america ~

Canadian Rockies, the Hiking Paradise ~ 1996
"...Your site on the Rockies is great, and true to the core. I was there in the Spring of 2001, and the experience with mother-nature was simply breathtaking, exhilarating and priceless..."
Mont Tremblant's Autumn Splendour ~ 2000
"...Thanks for your great essay and pix of Mont Tremblant, am going to Montreal this Sep, think I must make a sidetrip there..."
foto memoirs ~ montréal & québec city ~ 2000
foto memoirs ~ niagara falls ~ 2000
"...We have been to the falls and we loved it, but we moved too fast to get any really good pics like you did, they are great. hope you loved it in Niagara falls..."
Alaskan Sojourn ~ The Inside Passage ~ 2002
"...Wonderful website especially the black and white photos..."
Alaskan Sojourn ~ Ketchikan & Sitka ~ 2002
"...what a wonderful story, and good photos. I am heading up to Sitka for Whalefest, and to teach at the U of Alaska. it is good to be informed before i get there..."
Alaskan Sojourn ~ Juneau & Tracy Arm Fjord
~ 2002
Alaskan Sojourn ~ Skagway & White Pass/Yukon Route ~ 2002
"...Enjoyed everything about the Mascot Saloon as I lived there about 1938 as it was then a Drug store owned and occupied by Perry Hern, my
father-in-law..."
Alaskan Sojourn ~ Whitehorse & Klondike Highway ~ 2002
An American Tale Part I: Amtrak-ing in the West
~ 1995
"...Planning a trip from Oklahoma City, OK USA. Enjoyed your site..."
An American Tale Part II: Tribute to the East ~ 2000

~ down under ~

foto memoirs ~ cairns & its surroundings ~ 2001

"...Beautiful collection with informative commentaries from a seasoned traveller, great for sharing them with others. Missing are beautiful places from China..."






~ prologue ~

7 years ago, i wrote:

"what does a single woman like to do? travel, of course, and absolutely no qualms about it!  so married folks, go green with envy.

not that the trips are any easy... not for me the hassle-free (i prefer the thrill of getting lost), relaxing (backpacking's more authentic, albeit also backbreaking, aargh), guided (or should i say, cattle-herded?) tours; i'm simply too lazy to rush from place to place and a languishing pace suits me better where i can take my own sweet time and, if i'm lucky, get to really SEE a place.

for you see, i'm a traveller, not a tourist, or so i like to think. can't beat those aussies who take a year off but a decent couple of weeks off work can still do wonders. after all, how many people have hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, witnessed the beauty of a snow fall up in the lovely Canadian Rockies, experienced the harsh yet surrealistic landscape of the Scottish Highlands, not to mention being relieved of my beloved camera on one cold Christmas Day in Madrid, or an unfortunate first-hand encounter with the "Pharoah's Curse" (aka food poisoning) on the Egyptian Nile...

good or bad, the experiences are unforgettable. so i certainly hope you'll enjoy these travel pieces, most of which are meant to be informative, and to lure you into fishing out that rustic cam and heading for the "wilderness"..."


wow! i think i can safely say i've seen much of the world now, more than most people do anyway.. although the more i see, the less i see. for the earth is just too big and you cannot never say you've been to a place and know it unless you have been living there for maybe a good 10 years and experience all its seasons, flavours, trials and tribulations..

i am just grateful to have the privilege of experiencing what i have, the adrenalin sky-highs, the end-of-the-world lows, and still come home in 1 piece to live again for yet another trip.. although i may be less-inclined to backbreaking stuff nowadays haha..

i have also learned to appreciate home.. the place called Singapore that we Singaporeans love to complain about (incidentally there are not many of us left nowadays with all the foreign talent ;p) but this is home. where my family and most of my friends (still) are, and the food of course. a place where i find it weird to take photos as it is just too darn familiar. but if people are flooding here, there must be something good about it.

at this point, i am almost tempted to break into a chest-thumping Majullah Singapura.. ahem, maybe not. i still do hate our hot humid weather, and let's not start on the.. oops, it just comes so naturally ;p

this is my webpage. i never did get into this blogging thingee although people are calling my webpage that. so maybe i better start pretending to keep up with the times. and i will endeavour to improve my sterling record of 1 blog posting every 7 years..



~ a wannabe artist's ramblings ~

besides photography which helps me to remember the images of my travels, the one creative outlet that really allows me to vent my feelings is art. it sounds cliche but i had vague thoughts of being an artist as a kid. i also knew it would freak my parents out big-time haha.. anyway that was that. so now that i have done my dues earning my keep the conventional way, it is time to go back to my (drama pause) true artistic roots..

but seriously, art is fun. the story my friends like to tell me about why they can't draw goes that some stupid art teacher in their primary school gave them a D and sentenced them permanently to the Can't Draw to Save Their Lives group. i say shoot the artless teacher.

anybody can draw. in fact, the beautiful thing about art is nobody can with 100% certainty pronounce your work to be lousy; you are just misunderstood. like van gogh who only sold 1 painting in his life. at least that's what i tell myself. and man, it's so cool to be called a painter ;p

so here it is, ladies and gentlemen, my art page: . and my lofty artistic ambition is to go 1 better than van gogh ;p



~ music interlude ~

as you can see, i have a pretty strong need for creative outlets..

once upon a time, there was a group of idealistic music-makers called

Intersection Music Lab. yes, we were the (unknowns) of xinyao (local Singapore compositions movement) which is incidentally enjoying a renaissance of sorts today with all the run-of-the-mill stinging, i mean singing, competitions.

luckily we were ahead of our times and didn't have to subject ourselves to the sadistic survivor-style yet strangely-popular music contests of today's world where the once-almighty record companies are falling like bowling pins (when will they ever learn?)

so before the CD becomes a dinosaur relic from the past, let's give 1 last hurrah to the last album effort of the acclaimed Intersection Mahjong (sic)

Lab: . hey, we did hit a favourable review with
You Weekly review :) :) :)



~ other musings ~

these doodlings are probably the closest i come to blogging. okay i am a pretender. but hey the label shouldn't matter and, cross my heart, i will endeavour to post more of these.. er.. blogs.

Watch Out Before You Use That Zebra Crossing
The Cinema Strikes Back !
Confessions of a 30-Year-Old-To-Be, Come Y2K
Free Orchestra Music, Anyone ?
Singapore "Myths"
"...Read your article. Love it. 100% agree to your points..."
Of Shooting Condors and Red Snow





© Ong Hwee Yen 2001~2009

! travels ! photography ! art journey ! guestbook !


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