Thursday, March 25, 2010
D-DAY!
It struck us how time flies. 18 days seemed barely like a week. We are about to leave this beautiful city, Danang. But before leaving, we still have an important task to perform - Our presentation to DTB, showcasing our webpage and panoramic work.We would have a couple more guests, Mr Hoi Anh (Dean of International School), Miss Nga (translator) to join our presentation. Our hosts are also interested in the showcase.
0830. We started our setup in the conference room. I think only the presenters were sweating at this point in time since everyone else was laughing and chatting away about their last 3 weeks.
0845. Our guests arrived. Gary kicked off the presentation, introducing our project, aims and objectives. Shashni covered the Dien Ha Museum and Monkey Mountain. Shirley took down the Chan museum. Gary returned for Marble mountain and concluded the presentation with a brief overview on how to use the website appropriately. Totally.. Clutch.
Our guests… LOVED THE PRESENTATION! WOOOOOOHOOO!!!!! DTU was hooked! They wanna do a pano project for their own Universities and are seeking out advice and expertise for future projects.
DTB will be linking this site onto theirs for the word to see. They will be using our project to promote their new focus: Eco-Tourism.
Most importantly, Mr Foo loved the presentation as well. GOOD GRADES!!!!! LOL.
We are thankful to Duy Tan University and the Danang Tourism Board. We are very pleased about to see the smiles with satisfaction and praise from our guests. It gives us a sense of accomplishment. This is the greatest achievement and the target of this Danang trip. Our trip ended with a farewell party at night with Vice President of DTU, Miss Nga and Dean of Tourism and Hospitality.
Preparation before presentation started
Discussing the sequence of the presentation
Introduction of the presentation
Presenter No. 2
Translator, Miss Nga
Guest of honor from DTB, Mr Hoi Anh and Mr Foo
Speech given by spokesman from DTB
Homepage of our website
Photo taking session
Reported at 10:25 PM
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A DAY LEFT TO OUR PRESENTATION!! Much was to be done. A simple breakfast nearby and off to work we went. First the blog needed updating. Second was the most important -getting the web pages done, combining the stitches and converting the stitches to quick time format. Creating the web pages was definitely a surprise because it was unplanned. The original plan was to use PMVR to create hotspot maps but it was changed due to licensing problems - DTB would need to purchase one to prevent the “unlicensed copy” from popping up.
After a hectic morning and afternoon, we finally finished the web pages for Heritage building, Cham Museum and Monkey Mountain. The constant munching of butter cookies, coffee, milo kept our stomachs going whilst jokes and laughter maintained our morale through the frustration as we figured out how to use the new programs.
Looking at the development of our websites provided us with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. 3 days left and we will be back home to our beloved hawker food.
HOME SWEET HOME!!
One last hurdle remains. The presentation to DTB on Wednesday.
Checking our webpage
Discussing seriously
Going through the webpage
Reported at 5:16 PM
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Two more days to our presentation. There is much work to be done - problems to solve, bugs to work out but pressure remains on the presentation team who will represent.
Marble Mountain team:
More last minute changes to the website layout and dimensioning… Some panos didn’t look good after converting it to Quicktime. We changed what we could, but ended up losing 2 non-important sites. Just as well… it made the map look too cluttered.
Monkey Mountain team:
Our uploaded video keeps getting lost. We aren’t IT geniuses… Fortunately, our continuous brutal uploading of the video made it stick on the website…. Or so we thought. We realized it was a Quicktime player version 3 hours later when our presentation team ran into the same wall. Easily solved with a simple update. At least this much of geek tech.. we knew.
We did a final check of our end product, running through all the links, inspecting the videos and most importantly admiring our work. Final check… Perfect.
Presentation team:
Two days to the big day. Shirly and Shashni are knocking out their speech, I’m running through mine mentally. We preloaded selected panos to be used for the presentation and breezed through our rehearsals.
Easy as pie, smooth as silk. I know I’m ready.
DSC03103 Preparing the presentation
DSC03104 “This is my part”
DSC03105
DSC03106 thinking how to do the presentation
Reported at 11:49 PM
Monday, March 22, 2010
Everything is so hectic right now. There has and is a lot of changes going on. All the teams are struggling to get their work done on time. Here’s a list of what’s been going on…
1st: Software change. Time solution: Saturday.
PMVR is no longer in use. We are going to create webpages.
Saturday: We prepare our maps, marking our hotspots and descriptions to be quickly uploaded when the appropriate web creator/hosting portal has been determined. Work progresses till Sunday 3am.
2nd: Layout change. Time solution: Sunday.
Web creator/hosting logistics has been solved. We work to create the webpages. This… was a huge learning curve. A lot of confusing repetitions and sequences to figure out. We settle most of this before collapsing to bed.
Upon review, we are told the pano screen should be wider, some other amendments to be made. We are totally pissed since this could have been controlled in the beginning. We trashed our previous work (Spoilt 2) and began to hammer out another set of webpages. Progress is faster since we all became pretty fluent in clicking the mouse but it still takes time. The map needed some rework.
3rd: More changes. Time solution: Monday.
Kang Hao, Bearer of Bad News enters our room. Some panos aren’t up to standard. We get creative in our solutions and stumble upon a secret technique of stiching. Some panos could not be saved and had to be removed. Fortunately, they are non crucial points. Implication: More map reworks. It just involved reloading the maps on all the websites.
Everyone’s tired and grouchy. We decide no more red eyes. We are going to get a good night’s rest for the final stretch tomorrow.
P.S: SORRY!! NO PHOTOS ON THIS POST!!! Everyone’s been utilized and no one has time to snap photos. =) That is how busy we picture whores are.
Reported at 8:45 PM
Friday, March 19, 2010
As usual, we met up at the cang tin (canteen) of the Duy Tan University at 8am to continue with the panoramic project. Today we will cover the Cham Museum and Heritage Building.
The Cham Museum, with its Cham architecture houses an extensive collection of Cham art (stone sculptures). Our 3 teams started to work their magic, with the girls covering the external panoramas of the museum and the boys inside the museum. We had some difficulties mapping the statues because of its wide range and it affected the stitching. The solution was to map the statues in stages and combine them manually. The other major problem we faced was the constant movement of tourists. Moving people will create ghostly image in the stitching process. There was no way we could get the tourists to move aside to achieve a clear shot of the statues. Therefore, patience was the key to achieve a perfect panorama.
Entrance of cham museum
Some displaced cham art
Sculpture of god
GENESA- god of intelligence and luck
2nd floor
Next, we moved on to the Heritage Building. The Heritage Building is only a few blocks away from DTU. The interior of the museum was still under construction and we were not given access, therefore we just did an exterior panorama covering the grounds. This panoramic shooting was a quick one due to the wide space of the building. After finishing our job, we had a short rest and then we took the van back to the Monkey Mountain (Son Tra) again.
The reasons for the reshoot were the failure of our transitional panoramas to match each other and our stitching of the gigantic Guan Yin sculptures was incomplete. Our 3 teams headed for the mountain after lunch to complete our project. For the transitional part, we took pictures of the 18 ‘luo han’ linearly where each picture needs to overlap the previous picture. For the huge Guan Yin statue, we took the pictures in 2 layers. Several places were chosen so that we can create the hotspots for the Monkey Mountain temple. The photo shooting was running smooth today because there are only a few tourists in the temple.
Entrance of temple
Temple
18 luohan, 9 at the left
18 luohan, 9 at the right
Amazing scenery !!
"Fierce" Luohan
“Friendly” Luohan
We finished taking pictures at 4pm. Taking advantage of the remaining daylight, Mr Foo suggested we continue our ‘adventures’ from yesterday since there were lesser people in the van. We took the alternate way up to the mountain. In the van, all of us were excited and had high hopes to catch the monkeys in action, but alas, only one monkey ran across the road in a flash. The scenery from the peak of Monkey Mountain made up for the disappointment. Its cooling weather and spectacular view made our nerve wrecking trip totally worth it.
Such a narrow lane for two ways traffic
Our travelling route
High up at the mountain
Standing on the cliff overlooking the view of danang city
That’s the whole program for day 12. Hopefully our panoramic works!!
Reported at 8:14 PM
Thursday, March 18, 2010
D-day for Teams TMD and CSG!!! The assault on Marble Mountain began at 0900 hours. Their mission.. to map the attractions of Marble Mountain by creating a library of panoramic views.
Progress was slow at first. We tested all the photos and ‘stitchings’ to ensure good quality. The constant movement of tourists did not help the situation. After the first couple of hotspots, both teams established a smooth rhythm, leapfrogging each other to increase the pace, improve efficiency and to share the sole spirit level. These are the roles of our team members.
Team CSG
Caishi: Photographer, quality control.
Siewling: Hotspot advisor, quality control.
Gary: Hotspot mapper and coordinator
Team TMD
Tomoko: Photographer, quality control.
Marie: Hotspot advisor, quality control.
Donric: Logistics coordinator and setup.
Both teams were also supported by Keng Boon, Yonghao and Kanghao with their laptops and technical expertise. Dealing with tourists and terrain took plenty of skill. Most were quite accommodating to our requests for an unobstructed view. We felt if DTB could lend us an official to aid us in these matters, our panoramic quality would be much better; to DTB’s benefit. A 360 panoramic bird’s eye view of the scenic mountains and city would be much more spectacular and breathtaking without the obtrusive head of a tourist.
Some terrain spots were worth battling the steep climb, strong winds and perilous terrain to set up our tripod and capture the perfect view. Teams CSG and TMD completed their mission of 17 panoramic views covering all 5 spots in almost 4 hours. We returned to DTU for a short break to freshen up, recharge our equipment and most importantly, LUNCH!!!!
After lunch, all 18 of us squeezed into the usual tiny van and we headed up to Monkey Mountain located at the Northern tip of Danang. Little did we expect the surprise we were in for. We travelled up the narrow winding roads barely wide enough for a motorcycle to squeeze past without careening off the edge of the mountain. As we travelled higher, the weather was cooler and the mist surrounded us. Our little van sped through the mountain roads, turning it into a roller coaster ride. The guide (provided by DTB) failed to turn up. Needless to say, we got lost but decided to explore the mountain on our own. We reached a steep hill our van couldn’t climb and had to reverse all the way down. Some were bemused by the nervous look on the driver’s face. Others were even more terrified. The breaking point was the attempted 3 point turn on the single lane with a steep cliff by the side.
Some of the girls suggested alighting the van as it performed this dangerous maneuver but no attention was paid. Fortunately, all went well and we sped downhill to locate the alternate route. The smell of burnt clutch and brakes filled the van. We took a short break at a gas station to allow the engine to cool down and recover. As daylight was running short, we decided to conquer Monkey mountain tomorrow. We did take a panoramic view of a temple overlooking the sea. This five storey Goddess of Mercy was erected to protect the fishermen.
Tired and hungry, we headed back to prepare for D-Day2.
Goddess of Mercy at Marble Mountain
Cave entrance (Van Thong Cave) aka “Hell”
Temple overlooking sea
Giant Goddess of Mercy
View of the coast from the temple
Reported at 8:01 PM
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Up to the “heaven”, down to the “hell”!
Today we went to Marble mountain which is one of five mountains located 10km south of Da Nang that stretches westbound from the coast. Its five attractions are linked to the five elements which are metal, water, wood, earth and fire. As its name suggests, the mountain is a giant piece of marble. On the way up, we tested our panoramic shots at different sites.
One of the attractions is a cave called “Dong Huyen Khong”. We were lucky to witness the natural light streaming through cave entrance in the ceiling. It seemed like a beam of light shining down into the cave, making it seem very magnificent.
We headed up to a mountain peak called “Heaven”, climbing a stretch of steep rocky terrain before arriving at the summit. All of us squeezed into an undulating area no bigger then 4 square meters, hugging onto jutting rocks to take a group photo and to enjoy the view of the sea and the city. It was definitely worth the effort of the climb. The way down was through a cave known as “Hell”. We bouldered down to the entrance of the cave and squeezed through a tiny entrance to walk through pitch darkness before exiting.
A water fountain made from marble - even the spinning marble ball on top.
Natural light streaming through the ceiling of the cave.
Group photo at the peak as we perch precariously.
Squeezing through the cave entrance
Famished and tired, we headed for lunch at a restaurant in Hoi’an, sampling some of their local delicacies and Vietnamese dishes.
Hoi’an is famous for its tailoring and clothing. It is also a well preserved heritage site in Vietnam. Much of the preservation works were undertaken by a Polish architect when ties between Vietnam and Poland were strong.
Embroidery in hoi’an.
They make their products by hand.
Completed lanterns.
Some of their art paintings.
We headed back to DTU about 5pm to start work on our stitchings and to improve upon our various vantage points and techniques.
Reported at 7:34 PM
Introduction of the presentation
Translator, Miss Nga
Guest of honor from DTB, Mr Hoi Anh and Mr Foo
Speech given by spokesman from DTB
Homepage of our website
Going through the webpage
Our travelling route
Cave entrance (Van Thong Cave) aka “Hell” 
