caleb・khor

A starfish up close 🙂

Crustaceans.. Yep kinda of big though,  and they are pink or reddish, not grey or khaki as expected.

Shells. My dad used to collect lots of these.

And waiting for the bus amoung these sights was surreal :).

Penguin feeding time!! Penguins being fed by a man in a “penguin suit”. :). They appear quite lively and made quite a bit of noise, honking and squealing. They also could swim really fast, and they can surprisingly climb steep rocks by just hopping on them. This was a real fun event.

Cod enclosure. Turquoise, and beautiful. I didn’t know these were cod until my boss told me from watching the pictures. Now they look yummy.. hahaha.

Crab. There’s a thin legged one and a small cute pink one which seems to want to steal the show.

Dragonnet fish. It seems its sole purpose in life is jut to lie and ogle at folks.

Apart from the exhibitionist and playful penguins, the fishes here are beautiful, unique and inteteresting. But they move around very fast and try as I might to tweak my camera, I find it hard to capture them. And yes, my phone camera couldn’t do these things like aperture size, shutter speed etc… so.

Facts about the Norwegian sea eagle that intrigued me quite a bit.

I was told by my boss that this could actually be eaten. OMG! I don’t think I want to try… hahaha.

This is a 4 part photo series on the last day while I was in Ålesund. Since it was raining, and not much tours were available, I decided that I could go to visit the Atlanterhavspaken, or aquarium.  After a nice breakfast and an early checkout. I proceeded to the tourist information kiosk to get more information. I left my big backpack at the hotel luggage storeroom, a decision i came to regret because I realized later that I had also left my SD card in my laptop, which then means I had to use my very limited camera’s internal memory to take pictures. Fortunately, all is not lost because I still have my phone camera with me :p..

I took the first 30 mins trying to figure out where to take a bus from. To make matters more exciting, it was cold and rainy. The tour agent at the tourist info kiosk wasn’t very informative with directions, although she did gave me a map and a bus schedule. I should have asked her about the place and not assume that it’s nearby. Things are really different when you come from a small country to a big one as Norway. Paradigm shift required.

I decided to make my morning even more interesting by walking 3km to the aquarium. Since the bus only comes every 30 mins, and although I finally found the bus route, I decided that when in Norway, try to do as the Norwegians do. Just walk. It seems that is their preferred way of transport. The walk itself would be nice if it weren’t raining and although I would have much preferred an umbrella, I was thankful for my hood.  When I’m like 1/2 way there, the bus came to a nearby bus stop and I decided to take it for part of the way. The bus does not go to the aquarium during off peak season but stops at a stop still requiring about 15-20 min walk. 

If there are non-Singaporeans reading this post, yes, we Singaporeans do not walk often, because our country is probably too small to have some serious walking. That said, walking for 1-2 hours is something that takes quite a bit to get used to. If this is done in Singapore, the only place that this would probably happen is inside a shopping centre :).

After I got off the bus, I decided to tailgate a family, for the place seems quite bare of entertainment and stuff. Hence, in my mind then, any sane family with a kid to be in this spot at this time will only have one thing in mind. The aquarium. And sure enough they were heading there.

It was really a nice picturesque walk though from the pictures though the weather was a bit dreary.

Finally, reached the Atlanterhavspaken.  And I immediately headed to the cafe for kaffe (yeah pun intended) kaffe means coffee in Norwegian. And also some nice blueberry iskrem. Yeah, I’m becoming like them, having ice cream in cold weather. Heh…

I got to see quite a bit of things, from a dive in a big enclosure of cod, to penguins doing the backstroke, swimming and enjoying themselves. 

The view around the Atlanterhavspaken was just simply gorgeous.

Velkomen Til Ålesund!! Reached Ålesund around 7pm from Oslo.

This place is simply beautiful. It felt very very different from Oslo, definately more quaint, and has a certain dignified character yet mysterious and mischevious in a certain way. One could see water almost everywhere, since Ålesund is surrounded by the sea. The roads too, are hilly, not flat, which could makes walking a bit of a challenge at times, yet contributing to the mysterious excitement of not knowing what lies ahead of the hill as you stroll along.  The waterscapes were really beautiful and the sunset that evening was gorgeous.  I must say that the boats were really nice. Morden speedboats are seen alongside more antique looking ones. Truly a comparison between the old and the new.

Some of the interesting handicrafts I came across. They have quite a few good household stores. 

If I’m not wrong, This, is a cinema!! 🙂

And this is a rainbow. In all my life, I’ve never seen one as crisp and beautifully gorgeous as this. Ålesund seems to be a place to catch rainbows. I’ve already seen 2 so far… 🙂

Having a plate of piping fish and chips for dinner at this place in 10C weather is true bliss.