In a recent trip to Thailand with my family, we were more than excited for the anticipated out-of-town shoot, where four of us brought our own cameras.

Our first stop was Bangkok. A well-transformed metropolis from seven years ago, the city is often surrounded by buzzing pedestrians and a trance-like traffic jam. “It’s just like home,” my daughters jokingly uttered. We then reached the Centara World Hotel and I wasted no time to contact the person in charge of our tour in the next three days.

Bangkok is a city amalgamated with the east and west culture. We visited the Four Faced Buddha and offered flowers. According to our guide, there are about 3,200 Buddha shrines all over. Just as sacred is Thailand’s King where you can see his pictures and greetings posted in every small nook it can fit. Even in the Sau Long Night Market, we noticed his framed photos as we swooped the night street with the ‘tuk-tuk’ ride.

The next day, we visited a typical rural Thai family with their home-based coco-sugar processing facility. This is served as their backbone to sustain their simple home with minimal help from the government. We bade goodbye to the gracious host who proudly walked us through his self-sustaining cottage industry within his home.

We then rushed to the Damnoen Saduck Floating Market. This busy place is a flea market where all transactions are done in paddled wooden boats. Each one floats along the 300-km klong or canal. This is a government program that grew into a commercial district for tourists and locals. We left the place appreciating the indigenous, ingenious, and industrious Thai people who have maintained this lifestyle in their home-made floating vessels.

We went back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for the “Siam Niramit” show, a story of Siam in fantasy and in reality. The production was a Las Vegas type of professional performance complete with elaborate lights, costumes, and musicale in the world's highest stage I’ve ever seen. We had a full appreciation of the story of old and new Thailand as it was unreeled before us in real time.

We headed for Pattaya Beach on the third day where a speed boat sliced us through the wave to Coral Island. It’s like Boracay with all facilities such as banana ride, parasailing, water scooter, water ski, snorkeling, among others. We tested our skills in shooting scenes in bright sunny situation – where sand, sun, movements, color, and composition must be blended to catch a respectable image.

Back to the hotel, we reviewed our shots to find lots of photographic principles used correctly and some were violated. But most of all, we learned the right execution of our decision as we clicked our shutter.

As we reminisce, I am proud to say that we have better beaches here at home that can be potentially served as tourists' haven. I’m glad that at the pace our government is taking to see them as amazing tourist spots, there are also private companies exerting their effort to develop some of the coves in Batangas. It is with confidence that through them, we will see better usage of our natural resources to attract local and foreign visitors.