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I haven’t upgraded my photo gears for 5 years. I feel expecially constrained when a telephoto len is required, because my current 75-300 f/4-5.6L len can only do f/5.6 at the long end. So I finally decided to buy a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM len as an upgrade.

This is the first L-serial len I have. Besides the glass quality, the fastness and the USM driven auto-focus, Canon’s IS feature give you 3-stop stability for hand-hold shoting. The only downside would be its weight. I took some pictures with this len and switched my previous len for comparision, then I realized how heavy this powerhouse is.

Here are some ramdom snaps to compared these two telephoto zoom lenes, (although it maybe unfair to compare a $200 piece with a $1800 one) . The one on the left or top were taken by 70-200 F/2.8L; the other is by 75-300 F/4-5.6.

I was speechless and felt so sad when I heard Michael Jackson passed away. The first time I listened to his song, ‘Bad’, was when I went to Xiangshan (香山) Park. A couple of 20-something youths played his cassette through the tape recorder. It’s like nothing I’d ever heard. It’s almost subversive. At that time of China, his songs were often linked with hippies or rogues, something unconstructive to the society. Later when I worked part-time for my teacher’s software company, I heard his song, “Beat it”, first time from a CD player. The sound had never been cleaner or more striking, the music resonated through the long corridor and it is still hovering in my head today.

To western audience, Michael Jackson is King of Pop; to many Chinese, he opened a new world. Whatever controversies he has, no matter if they are true or not, in music, he is a legend and he is my hero.

We are trying to clean up some areas to plant vegetables. Here is to remove the Potato Vine to give space for green beans. As seen in the picutres, some patao vines grow through the AC fan.

You must have seen this (Burj Al Arab Hotel),

You probably also watched splendid fireworks of Atlandis the Palm Hotel’s opening ceremony,

And supposely, you would see these in a few years,

Dubai, the most rapidly developing metropolis, is an ideal platform for architects experimenting their futuristic design. Most of these buildings bear the name, the tallest, the largest or most luxurious of the world.

However, Dubai is not immuned to the global economic slowdown, real-estate crashes and especially the credit crunch. Trump Tower project has been concelled. While Burj Dubai is still in construction, the rent of office space has dropped significantly. Constructors fleed away, and Dubai itself is on the verge of bankruptcy. After all, these spetacular building, resorts and shopping malls are built by the poor for the rich. When the bubble breaks, the fantacy is not going to sustain.

Terminator: Salvation

No Schwarzenegger, no soul.

Up

Imaginative and sentimental. Pixar can do no wrong.

Angels and Demons:

Doesn’t feel as long as a 150 minutes movie.

Star Trek:

You have to accept it before you like it.

Everyone comes to Maui has to drive to Hana - How can you miss the highway of the paradise?

We tried our best to get up early. We had the breakfast at MacDonald, so we managed to pass Kahului before 9AM. The guidebook marks all attractions by their position to the mile markers, but I forgot the marker starts counting at Pa’ia on highway 36. It restarts from 0 on highway 360. While driving on highway 36, I was confused because I couldn’t see anything at the mile marker of the first attraction, and there was nothing on the 2nd either. This never happened to this guidebook, so I started getting panic and drove back and forth on highway 36. It took us almost an hour to get highway 360 then I realized this was where the highway of paradise starts.

The road is not as crowded as I thought. Before reaching the first waterfall, we were already impressed by the lush tropic plants, intense color of green and the humid air that can almost condense to water. It reminded me a lot of my trip to Mount Emei (峨嵋山) in Sichuan long time ago. Before long, we saw the first waterfall, Upper Puohokamoa Falls. Back up a little bit, there is a path that allows you to access the much bigger Lower Puohokamoa Falls. I walked down about 100 feet before it got to steep and slippery, then I took some pictures and gave up.

After seeing waterfalls one after another, Waikani Falls, Wailuaiki Falls, Hanawi Falls, we indeed started developing “waterfall fatigue”. Among all these waterfalls, Waikani Falls is the most beautiful one. The water volumn was just about right, three streams are arranged orderly (Waikani means 3 Bears) against the deep green plants created a highly contrasted image. If I had a partner, I’d climb down to the bottom of the fall. With only myself, it looked dangerous.

Blue Pool looks really gougerous in our guide book, so I decided to take off the highway to see it. It’s a unpaved road. We first stopped at Kahanu Garden. The garden was nice but nothing special. What I expected to see was the Pi’ilanihale Heiau, a ruin of temple. It’s disappointing. From the ground, I couldn’t feel anything mysterious about it. Leaving the garden, after about 10 minutes bumpy drive, we were stopped by road blocks. The local who put the blocks there reminded us repeatly that it’s a private land and shook his head while staring at us. We thought we’d better leave. We wasted almost an hour on this trail. It turned out to be decisive on our plan for the rest of the day. After that, we spent another hour at Wai’anapanapa Black Sand Beach. The black beach sand is formed by lava, which is not renewable. Eventually, ocean waves will sweep them away.

Finally at about 3PM, we arrived in Hana. It took us almost 6 hours. We faced a dilemma if we should go all the way around the island or go back the way we came. I calculated that if we kept going, we would stop at “7 Sacred Pools” and then continued on driving for some 30 miles that there is really nothing to see. By the time we reached Haleakala, it would be already dark or at least the best time for photography would be missed, then we’d lost the purpose of driving around. We decided to go back. For the first a couple of miles, I felt really frustrated not only because we had seen all these but also those scenes were all in the shade. They were not attractive at all.

I eventually calmed down. Driving back took us only 2 hours. In retrospect, I think we made a correct decision. If we went all the way, most likely we are still at somewhere up in the mountain, driving in the dark; instead, now we can sit in the Jacuzzi by the sea and reeeeeelax.

Maui island is made by two volcanos, Halemahina (House of the Sun) and Haleakalā (House of the Moon). Today, we were going to circle the West Maui. Halemahina is the older volcano of the two. The mountain is covered by heavy forest. Although there are many drainage caused by erosion, there is no path to reach the peak, Pu’u Kukui, which receives more than 400 inches of rainfall every year.

Our first stop was Papawai Point. The outlook is popular for whale watching. We did spot one in the far distance. One guy at the parking lot was making and selling the hand-made clay statues of island creatures, such as turtles, fishes and lizards. We almost bought one before we heard the famous Hawaii myth for the first time: you do not suppose to bring Hawaii rocks back home because it will bring you bad lucks. I’d believe the origin of the superstition is to preserve the nature of the island. Anyway, we left with the empty hand.

The West Maui was developed much earlier than the rest of the island because its easy access to the water. Lahaina is one of the oldest town and it is the only town that has a real ‘downtown’  of the whole Maui. It is quite similar to Carmel in terms of size and style. Many restaurants, jewelry shops, galleries and travel agents are crowded in the Front Street which is only one-mile long. My wife stopped at almost every jewelry stores; to me, the most amazing thing was the Banyan tree in front of the old courthouse. The tree covers a 200-foot area, and has 12 major trunks, but it is just one tree.

We spent almost 2 hours to talk with the travel agent to set up the snorkeling trip, which I should have planed earlier. The misstep not only wasted a lot of time on this day’s trip, but also made the snorkeling trip somewhat unpleasant. That’s two days later. We left Lahaina, stopped at a couple of beaches, missed a couple of “real gems” appointed by the guide book. As we reached the north side of the West Maui, the view kept getting better, but the road became tough to drive. It’s winding, narrow, most of time has only one-lane. It’s maybe the most difficult road I drove in clear day. (Driving in fog and on ice would be the worst).

Returned to room with the gorgerous view, sitting on the coach on the balcony, watching the sunset, what a life