ANAS CHAO

2019

Shot with Ricoh GR1.

2019

Shot on iPhone, edited with Snapseed.

2019

Shot on iPhone Xs, edited with Snapseed.

2019

Shot on iPhone Xs, edited with Snapseed

2019

Shot on iPhone Xs, edited with Snapseed.

2019

Some random and some not so random people of Lebanon.

Shot with iPhone Xs, edited with Snapseed.

2019

Random shots of Lebanon’s city and rural landscape.

Shot with iPhone Xs, edited with Snapseed.

2019

Jerash is about an hour drive north of Amman, supposedly home to the largest and most complete Roman ruin site, which truly is quite impressive, especially how visitors are allowed complete access to every inch of the actual ruin site, you may touch or even lie down at the same place where some random Roman dude did few thousand years ago. The modern town built around the ruin site provides some extra contrast, and a little ironic how the whole town now seems to be living off a site built centuries ago.

2019

Amman is a friendly city, people may seem ice cold but easily melt down once you strike a conversation, though few people would have an RBF even when they’re joking. Film cameras and friendly people work great magic, the tone and texture of film photos both add a more dramatic and welcoming touch. Now I just need to figure out how to send these people their pictures as I promised.

Shot with Olympus O-Product.

2019

It just seemed appropriate to walk around Petra with a film camera, where time-worn objects and people are interestingly integrated with flocks of “modern” tourists, not to mention countless visitors that seem to be totally misplaced in their Instagram-perfect outfits, film photos seem to subtly bring out that contradiction.

Shot with Olympus O-Product.

2019

Probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in Jordan, and indeed is spectacularly fulfilling after touring the main spots. The ancient sites certainly are fascinating, but what was more interesting to me was how the local Bedouins still live and work there, same place where their ancestors lived thousand years ago. Flocks of tourists make it almost impossible to take any natural-looking photos, the landscape and pleasant weather does make up for that though.

2018

Few snaps of getting out and about Muscat, the Omani capital. Including the Al-Alam Palace, the Mutrah Souq, and the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque.

Shot with Leica Minilux Zoom.

2018

Nizwa is mostly known for its fort, built in the 1650’s, though the history may be interesting, but it’s pretty much what you’d expect a fort to be. The drive from Muscat is more interesting though, few stops along the way to check out quiet towns and some breathtaking views of the Omani nature.

Shot with Leica Minilux Zoom.

2018

Unlike most of its neighbors, Oman has a surprisingly complex natural environment, apart from the obvious desert and sea, its countless valleys and oasis offer spectacular natural sceneries. A few hours drive from the capital Muscat can take you through numerous changes in landscape, a light hike through any valleys will leave you in awe of what this country has to offer.

Shot with Leica Minilux Zoom.

2017

Islamabad is the Pakistani capital city, completely manmade with perfectly planned roads, generally has a less hectic vibe than Lahore (or the rest of Pakistan), locals enjoy and are proud of the city's quietness, the fresh air, and the slower paced lifestyle, but I must say it could get a little boring for a tourist, as besides a few popular spots, this city lacks the excitement of a stereotypical Pakistani city, but then again, it can be found in other cities, so Islamabad, please stay Islamabad.

2017

GB stands for Gilgit-Baltistan, the northern-most province of Pakistan. Although I knew a fair share of information on Pakistan prior to my visit, thanks to my Pakistani classmates back in the days, but this visit to GB has totally changed my perception of Pakistan. What you experience in GB is totally not what you'd expect to see and feel in Pakistan, and definitely not what you see in the media. The landscape, the weather, the people, the language, the culture are all very different from their neighbouring provinces. But by the end of the trip, I was left in a dilemma, on one hand I'm hoping that everyone can see how beautiful this place is, but on the other I'm worried that the local culture would gradually fade away with the increase of outside influence, so I'm just hoping that no one would actually browse through what I post here.

2017

The first and last stop of my Pakistan trip. I was told it's the city of great food and culture, and "if you haven't seen Lahore, then you haven't been born yet". I'm glad to say that I'm now born, and still alive after visiting Lahore and witnessing its crazy traffic and pollution, though locals blame the latter to the Chinese-aided metro construction project. Food was great, but most of the "cultural attractions" like museum and palaces looked rather run-down, and are in very desperate conditions for repair and maintenance. I sincerely hope they figure some way out to restore its former glory, besides waiting for another wave of NGO-backed projects.

2016

I opted not to carry an actual camera on my trip to Europe in 2016, as I wanted to see how far can iPhone photos go when paired with Instagram, while it's no comparison to the technical quality of a DSLR camera, but it seemed alright for simple personal memories (and anticipating all the likes on Instagram), and I liked how they turned out, so I've decided to post them here as well. I only stayed in Amsterdam during this visit, hence the title is of Amsterdam city instead of The Netherlands. And I didn't visit any of the coffee houses so no crazy pictures of people getting high.

Photos from Paris and Germany are also available on other pages.

2016

I opted not to carry an actual camera on my trip to Europe in 2016, as I wanted to see how far can iPhone photos go when paired with Instagram, while it's no comparison to the technical quality of a DSLR camera, but it seemed alright for simple personal memories (and anticipating all the likes on Instagram), and I liked how they turned out, so I've decided to post them here as well. I only stayed in Paris during this visit, hence the title is of Paris city instead of France.

Photos from Amsterdam and Germany are also available on other pages.

2016

I opted not to carry an actual camera on my trip to Europe in 2016, as I wanted to see how far can iPhone photos go when paired with Instagram, while it's no comparison to the technical quality of a DSLR camera, but it seemed alright for simple personal memories (and anticipating all the likes on Instagram), and I liked how they turned out, so I've decided to post them here as well. In order of appearance, the gallery contains photographs taken in Berlin, Potsdam, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Rüdesheim am Rhein, Köln, and Frankfurt.

Photos from Paris and Amsterdam are also available on other pages.

2014

Collection of random snapshots taken during trips to Saudi Arabia back in 2014.

2014

Sumatra is known for two things, coffee and volcano, and that's exactly why I was there, for a job that involved coffee and volcano. The photographs don't really show volcano because the one we visited was an inactive volcano, but hey, there's a picture with coffee, and the guy who took care of them.

2014

We came across these workers while walking around a rubber plantation in Sreemangal, eastern Bangladesh. The workers were mainly from India and make less than a dollar a day. We left after failing to understand each other, but they were still nice enough to let us take some photos.

2014

Random snaps taken during the five-day stay in Sreemangal, Bangladesh. It's a beautiful place, but could get boring if you stay for more than five days. A guide is strongly recommended, unless you enjoy getting lost and end up going nowhere. 

2014

Dhaka is a mad city, but only in the daytime, everything seems to calm down as the sun sets. People are nice, food is great, living is quite cheap for foreigners, sounds like heaven but there isn't much to do besides work and food. However, going through these pictures certainly make me want to visit again. Weird human. 

2012

The Camel Market, located on the outskirts of the Saudi capital Riyadh. It's more like a centralised camel camp, where city people each have a plot of land, and bedouins are hired by city people to look after their camels, which would eventually be sold, buyers range from camel racers to camel butchers. Most people reserve part of the space to raise goats as well, since camel and goat are amongst the top consumed meat types in the kingdom.

2012

When I visited Lebanon, I crashed at a friend's tiny flat in Zarif, Beirut. It's a small neighbourhood with shops of all kinds, some of them have become friends during my 10-day stay, while some didn't really care about my presence. The grocery guy first introduced me to the telecom shop, where I got my sim card, and the laundry was next to the telecom shop. The grocery was between the butcher and the food stand, though I never bought from the grocery or the butcher, they became familiar as I'd pass them by everyday, and bought them drinks a couple times when I was bored in the flat. I told them that I'd send them pictures after I'm back home, I still haven't sent them anything as I have no idea what their addresses are. Guess I'll have to hand them in person when I visit next time.

2012

I've read about Nada Debs on design magazines quite a long time ago, so I wrote to them asking for a studio visit when I was in Beirut, Lebanon, to which they happily accommodated. The visit started with a quick chat at the office studio, and then a tour of the actual workshop where all products are made, it was eye-opening to witness the amazing craftsmanship of traditional carpentry and furnitures. Unfortunately I wasn't able to bring anything back with me as they were either too big for check-in luggage, or too expensive for a cheap Asian tourist.

I know, going to the Taipei Fish Market is hardly traveling for someone living in Taipei, but considering it's the wholesale market, where only vendors and authorised personnel are allowed in, I'd like to think of it as a trip for me.

The market starts around 2 to 3 o'clock in the morning, when all stocks begin to arrive from all over Taiwan and abroad. I still don't get how the system works, but at some point, random stalls would lineup their stuff and start the bidding process, where the winning vendor then takes his batch to go through the rest of the formalities.

The entire market comes to a gradual stop around sunrise, as seafood are taken to smaller markets around Taipei city. A retail fish market is right next door, and becomes bustling with grocery shoppers as the morning begins. On one end of the retail market, there are a few food stalls, where workers from the wholesale market can be see digging into the likes of fish soup and squid noodle.

Of all the wholesale markets that I've visited, including livestock and flower markets, this one is the most pleasant and interesting. One honest advice, never visit the livestock market if you don't have to, unless you enjoy the smell of bad cheese lingering in your nostrils for three days after the visit.

2009

Zoo has always been a sad place for me, not just how animals are all caged inside, but also how people go there just to rub shoulders with each other. I didn't expect Libya to have a proper zoo at all, but to my surprise, the Tripoli Zoo was actually pretty well maintained.

It was quite big, complete with all the usual features of a zoo, along with small shops and canteen, it even had a clean toilet. Visitors included families and students on field trips, as one would expect, and a surprisingly large number of couples on dates, in a zoo, which does seem quite natural.

But of course this was before the war, and I wonder what happens to zoos and aquariums and other similar places, when wars strike out, are they left abandoned? Or do the animals get to move out as refugees?

2009

Kikla is a small town about 150km southwest of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. I knew Libya has all sorts of landscapes considering its location and climate, but was still quite amazed by the scenery, and how everything looks pretty much the same from afar, it's all dusty horizon over a blue and white backdrop of the sky, but upon closer inspection, you'd notice difference in tiny details, how the moving clouds create a non-stop shadow play on the plain, how different shapes of mountain interact with traces of human life, resulting in different roads, houses, and caves that are dotted over the landscape.

I was there in 2009, before the war broke out and when it actually seemed like a pretty nice place. Libya is one of the few places that I really miss and would love to visit again, not just to see these places again, but also to find out how the friends I met back then are doing now, or if they're still alive at all.

Yes, unlike other posts under "Travel", this is a sad post, I guess that's how life is.