I’m back with the requisite mainlander pink sunburn, 6 days in Hawaii did me good, we stayed in the North shore, which is mainly untouched, unlike the crowded skyrises of Japanese/tourist owned Honolulu.

To unplug was good, but I’m still going to slowly wade back to shore (aka reality). Mentally, I’m still floating in the blue azul sea, I guess the vacation wasn’t long enough.

I’m not the only one that’s distancing themselves from the conversation, so expect me to slowly return to normal, if at all.

But, in the meantime I wanted to share some of the photos I took from the vacation, all are untouched raw photos from the Nokia N95 camera phone. Please note that I test social media products, and this one was given to me from a fellow analyst, which I have since given away.

Update: We stayed at Gigi’s rentals, in these beach cottages, (specifically this one Gigi’s Ocean Paradise) very affordable, less than a hotel. See Google Map, it’s the cottage, not the large complex. It’s nice to shop for you own food at the local supermarkets, getting fresh seafood and wine/beer, and not spending ridiculous amounts of money on food.

View from Hau’ula, Oahu’s Quiet and Rural North Shore, this was my daily morning view….sigh

Gentle sway, rustles in the wind

Warm sunrises

Every morning, the sand crabs dug ‘fans’…

…and mounds

Seclusion

Clean morning air

Tracks of a giant sea turtle

Where we stayed, our private beach

Kayak

Private Beach

Surfboards in Kawailoa, the Surfing Capital of the World

Matsumoto’s famous shaved ice

Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck

The shrimp is raised in local shrimp farms, very fresh. We brought our own beer

Peacock in Waimea Valley

Lifeguard tower at Bonsai Pipeline

Bonzai Pipeline

Silhouette

Kailua Bay

Buoys

Fragrant

Beach Cottage

Having just returned from the airport a few hours ago (I was on 6 flights in 10 days) it’s good to be back. It’s rare I post a personal post, but I had such an amazing time in Barcelona, I feel compelled to share.

I was busy working most of the day at the conference, so I only had time to go out at night. Fortunately, Barcelona’s culture is designed for night life, after work, I have drinks and tapas, take a nap, get cleaned up, then headed out (such as the Barcelona Blogger Dinner). Coincidently, on my second night out we ended up at the same restaurant we were at the night before, although we sat outside.

The last time I visited Barcelona was on my honeymoon, so it was really great to be back, it’s always great to explore the old gothic old town, see the cathedrals and Gaudi architecture.

I’m often teased for the amount of pictures I take, as I recently broke the 20,000 mark in Flickr, I use images and video to record where I’ve been, and sharing with others brings us closer. Often, when I go to events, people will tel me “I saw your photos at X” and we’re instantly able to strike up a conversation as they share their own experience at the same place.

If I could go anywhere in the world next, I’d go to Dubai to visit my new friend Ahmed, that’s an amazing city, I could spend a month wandering around taking photos.

If you’ve been to Barcelona, leave a comment, or share a link to your photos or posts, I’d love to hear. Also, if you know of any ‘authentic’ Tapas places in the SF Bay area, I wanna know. There’s Iberia restaurant in Menlo Park, pretty good, although it’s on the expensive side.

Video: How to pour beer –German style
Although I’ve poured many a beers in my life, Axel my German friend, teaches me how to pour a beer the German way:

Click To Play

This is a personal post, so if you’re seeking web strategy content, access the archives.

Images help me to communicate experience, and yesterday was without exception.

I took the Acela train from Boston to New York, rode business class for 4 hours each way. Arrived at Penn Station at 11am, (that was the earliest train) and left at 7pm (the latest train) below are some of the hundreds of photos I took with my now $300 dollar camera. Having been on many of the world’s trains, I was impressed with the Acela high speed train, which reminded me of Japan’s high speed rail (here’s my video tour). The New York Subway, while effecient, was certainly showing it’s centennial age.

I hit: Madison Square, a Korean Parade, Times Square, Grand Central Station, South Street Seaport, The Bodies Exhibition, St Paul’s church, World Trade Center/Ground Zero, Wall Street, Battery Park, and back to Penn Station.

The bodies exhibition was morbidly fascinating, it wasn’t positioned as a freak show, but more like a look at our internal workings, to better understand who and why we are here. I witnessed one young college girl faint, the medical staff was on hand, and commented it was a common daily happening. The statues themselves had a rank stench to them, perhaps it was the resin that now populated the veins and tissue, excess rotting flesh, or my mind working at overdrive.

Not surprisingly, what you see on the internet about the 911 conspiracy theories was alive and well at Ground Zero, relatives of victims were still protesting, handing out pamphlets and demanding that a proper investigation be restarted. They want you to read to watch this 1 hour video, where many of the same topics were discussed, and argued, on site. I felt a mixture of emotions for them, their pain, their loss, in the whole experience of being on site. Fortunately, growth and reconstruction is occurring, and construction teams were working through the day, even on a Saturday.

Many of you were with me! I enjoy going to cities and moving quickly about taking pictures, it’s a great way to satisfy my stimuli craving. I was publishing my thoughts and observations on Twitter through the day, and received many direct messages, emails, and replies in response, although I was alone, it was like my network was with me, experiencing it alongside me.

And yes, my feet and back are sore from moving so quickly, I can see why many of the New York residents are fit and trim.

Click To Play

Update: I finally finished uploading this video of the debate at Ground Zero, the emotions ran very high, even several years later. That wasn’t real money they were handing out, they were pamphlets supporting their position.

Today, I took the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau, and spent a few hours taking photos –one of my favorite pastimes.

The new, looming over the old

Macau/Hong Kong Ferry

Portuegese/Chinese Garden

Unsung heroes

Acension

The individual

Tower of Macau

Ready for growth

Lunch break

The prideful duck

The birth of many casinos

Connections

Oasis

Macau’s Venetian Hotel: Vegas copies Venice, Macau copies Vegas

The climb

Steadfast

Symbols in the sky

Vertigo

Pedicab offers green transportation

Beverly Plaza

Macau’s famous tiled streets

Golden Tower

This post has nothing to do with web strategy, but I’m on vacation until Oct 1st. Today, I did one of my favorite activities: exploring and photographing a foreign city.

Macau is radically transitioning, there are construction cranes on every corner, it’s aiming to be the next Las Vegas (The Venetian is just like the one in Vegas), with the amount of casinos being built (over a dozen, I’m told) it will certainly be a major destination for global travelers.

Macau is one hour west of Hong Kong via hydrofoil, you can walk most of the island by foot (I walked at least for 6 hours), and only took a taxi twice –to change islands.

I use $300 dollar Canon camera, and some of the images get processed in photoshop, I have a shotgun type of photo strategy, I take a lot of photos, and a few turn out pretty decent. Storage is so cheap, that I’d rather take a lot of photos, and capture my experiences.

If you like these photos, see my posts from my China and Japan trips last year:

China Photos
Photoblog from Guangzhou
Visiting the family village
Kyoto’s beauty
Okayama and Tokyo

Update: I found a summary article from NYT on Macau’s Vegas aspirations.