Date: 07 March 2010

A special thanks to PSTAN82 from myphotocity forum (www.myphotocity.com) for organizing an outing to Pulau Ketam. At first I thought it was just a normal outing - a platform for members in the forum to know each other better as well as to take photos of the surrounding of Pulau Ketam. Later only I knew it was a portrait shooting session. My girlfriend, Valerie also asked me to snap a series of photos of her. To view the portrait photos that I've taken for her, please go to this post: Valerie @ Pulau Ketam

Besides Valerie and I, I've asked a few friends to tag along - Ray/Godsteal (http://thegodsteals.blogspot.com/), Eric and his girlfriend Connie as well as Ray/Sing Tat. The 6 of us gathered at my house at 7am and off we go, 6 of us squeezed in my Honda CRV to Port Klang to meet up with the rest of the forum members.

Traffic was smooth all the way along MRR2/KESAS from Ampang to Klang. It took us roughly 1 hour to reach the Jetty. The journey could be shorter if I hadn't missed the junction to Port Klang went went to Pulau Indah. Took a detour to make a U-turn and finally got the right way and reached the Jetty at around 8.15am. Parked my car  at the KTM station parking and met up with the rest of the people at the nearby mamak.

We took the 8.45am ferry to Pulau Ketam and it took roughly 30 minutes to reach the island. The ticket for the boar ride was RM7 per pax. The ride was comfortable. The windows are tinted and inside the ferry it was air-conditioned.

On our way to Pulau Ketam...

My dear and I...

A view of the island through the dirty tinted window...

From the jetty we went separate ways, the 6 of us walked around in our own group and the rest of the myphotocity members went on their way. It was drizzling so we decided to first have our breakfast in our of the coffee shop. After breakfast, it was sunny again it was time for us to walk around.

There's a regulation on the island stating that there should not be motorized vehicle on the ground, which includes motorcycles, motorized bicycles and of course cars (there just isn't road wide enough for cars). Good regulation IMO as this keeps the lifestyle simple and less air pollution. People travel around either by walking, bicycles or boats.

Uncle enjoying his cigaratte while cycling...

Villagers travelling around by speed boat

Animals that I see roaming around the islands are...

Dog... This one sure looks pity... and lazy...

Peek-a-boo, I see you...

The almighty-look cat...

The hungry rodent...

and fishes which can live and "walk" on land, amazing indeed...

Some countryside/village photos that I've taken on Pulau Ketam...

Although the roads on Pulau Ketam are cemented, still extra care need to be taken for city boy like me when walking on these "bridges"

Buildings and infrastructures on Pulau Ketam...

Public toilet... Make sure you watch your step when you're stepping out from the toilet or else you'd find yourself all wet in the river... drunkards please be-careful

Nails and staples on the wall of a house...

The "red-est" house I saw on Pulau Ketam...

It was sad to see the rubbish dump on Pulau Ketam. I think the government, or the local authority ought to clear the rubbish or set up regulation if to control waste disposal. Do it for the environment as well as the health of the villages...

Public phone booth without the phone...

The protected malfunction public phone booth???

The greens.... maybe not...

We were told by the villagers that these are "蜜瓜" (honey dew in Chinese" but they definitely don't look like it. More like a large green apple to me...

Drying salted fish...

It was wasted that we didn't have enough time to visit the place where most of the salted fishes are dried. Will definitely visit this place again to visit.

Old bicycle and kitchenware...

Foosball table which I believed to be made by the villagers...

Villagers enjoying themselves... They jokingly told me "RM2 for a photo"...

We had our lunch at around 1pm. Ordered the "拉拉煎" (panfried lala with egg) which is supposed to be famous on Pulau Ketam. It was yummy indeed. I was too hungry and busy eating, so no photos :D

While walking our way to the jetty, Valerie saw what she was looking for... Fried ice cream! Both of us got 1 portion for ourselves and photo taken in front of the Bomba...

While we're at the jetty, 1 group photo before we left the island...

To view the portrait photos that I've taken for her, please go to this post: Valerie @ Pulau Ketam

Date: 13 January 2010

Went for a day trip to Kuantan together with Mr. Yen, Ms. Chan and my dad just because we heard that there were a lot of Nepenthes plant (typically known as Tropical Pitcher Plant or Monkey Cups, in Chinese "猪笼草") planted there and they were blooming.

Mr. Yen is from Taiwan and is a member of one of the nature societies in Taiwan. He enjoys coming over to Malaysia and will always try to observe the habitat of the Nepenthes plants. Ms. Chan is the manager of the Japanese Garden at Bukit Tinggi Resort and she loves plants as well, in fact it was her friend who told us about the Nepenthes plant in Kuantan.

Mr. Yen, my dad and I left Kuala Lumpur at around 6.30am and arrived at Bukit Tinggi Resort at around 7.30am to pick up Ms. Chan and off our journey to Kuantan. The journey was smooth as there wasn't many cars on the Karak Highway. After around 2.5 hours of driving we exited the Gambang/Kuantan toll and head towards Kuantan town to meet up with Ms. Chan's friend, Anthony. On our way to the town, we stopped by at the road side because Mr. Yen wanted to have a closer look at the rubber trees. We were lucky that there were a few rubber tappers and collectors there and they were willing to explain and show us how latex is collected from the rubber tree.

Rubber tapper removing a thin layer of the rubber tree bark

Latex is collected in a cup

Different grades of rubber: (left to right) high to low. According to the workers, the collected latex lump is being graded based on the resilience of the latex.

Collected latex lump

Visiting the rubber plantation was never planned in our journey but it was indeed an eye opener to us. Mr. Yen has been in the rubber industry for more than 30 years but this is the first time he see the process right before his eyes. I'm in the rubber industry as well and I felt lucky and happy to be able to see this.

We continued our journey to Kuantan town and met up with Anthony for breakfast and he took us to a house and we were welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Tang. I supposed they are in their 70's but still look strong. They have spent a lot of time in nurturing different plants in their compound and recycled a lot of waste, especially tin cans to decorate their house. There will be a few photos showing these decoration later. They also collected lots of antiques in the house, but I didn't snap any photos of those.

As mentioned earlier, our main purpose was to see the Nepenthes plant and there were really a lot of different species from different countries, though I am not an expert in this and couldn't explain more. Photos are all I can show.

"Dracula", named by Mrs. Tang for its 2 "Dracula fangs"

I asked Mrs. Tang how she started her interest in planting Nepenthes and the answer was, she saw many gardeners threw them at the road side and she felt pity about it, brought back home, planted them and started falling in love with them. She then started buying a lot of different species. The reason behind was just that simple.

Nepenthes that was as huge as my fist

I never knew Nepenthes grows on the ground until I saw it with my own eyes. They are just like a bunch of little birds waiting to be fed.

Top view

Nepenthes at its "lid-close" stage

Notice how tightly the lid is sealed? No escape for insects

It was interesting to know that Nepenthes plant has gender - male and female. Mrs. Tang showed and explained to us on how to differentiate them. In the photo below, the one on top is the male flower and the one at the bottom is the female flower.

As mentioned earlier, Mr. and Mrs. Tang collected lots of antiques and unique items. For instance, in the photo below, it is a table made of a cross section of a tree bark. It may look like it is just a ordinary table top, but with some imagination the table top actually resembles Australia.

Decoration with empty bottles

Mr. and Mrs. Tang also make use of empty tin cans to make handicraft items to decorate the house. Some examples are:

Curtain with LED...

Mrs. Tang love to travel/backpacking and always collect cans from places that she had visited. She would buy beer, let others to finish it and only want the can back.

Not to forget the pair of cute doggies in their house. I've seen these puppies before but don't know the name of the breed.

Satisfied, we left the house at around 1pm, had our lunch at Kuantan and drove our way back to Bukit Tinngi Resort and Kuala Lumpur.

This was the first time for my dear Valerie and I to go on a vacation (literally). Since it was New Year Eve and Valerie was back in Seremban for her semester break, we decided to go to Malacca, which was the nearest tourist spot to Seremban, to celebrate the coming of year 2010.

I had to work on 31/12/2009 so after work at 5pm, I went straight to Valerie's house at Seremban. Surprisingly the traffic on the North South Highway was smooth on both directions. It took me only 45 minutes to reach Seremban from Balakong. I had dinner at her house and left for Malacca at around 8pm. Traffic was still smooth and we were in Malacca at 930pm. We spent a lot of time searching for the hotel that I've booked online - Hotel Seven, but ended up giving up and stayed in Aldy Hotel, China Town, which I had stayed in before and felt that it was OK. Luckily only my 10% deposit was forfeited.

Shower and we walked our way to Jonker Street. Not much crowd on the road. It was a 15 minute walk to Jonker Street. Jonker Street was as usual, but added some "snow" spray cans on people's hand. We walked along Jonker Street and I bought myself a PoPiah while Valerie got herself a Waffle Cheese Sausage - both were good.

We stopped in front of Geographer Cafe because we saw many people gathering in front of it so we guessed there should be a countdown here - we were right :)

Some DJ in Geographer Cafe started the countdown and the crowd was excitingly following him... 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!! People started popping the confetti and spraying foams.

Since both of us didn't like to be sprayed so we quickly left the place and walked our way to the Stadthuys (aka the Red House), and from there walked our way back to the Hotel along the Malacca River.

The very 1st day of year 2010...

First we went to the Tan Kim Hock shop to get some foodstuff for our parents. The shop was just across the street from our hotel. After that we decided to have lunch at 和记 ("he ji") along Jonker Street - yummy chicken rice balls. This was the shop I went to few months back and I like the food. To read more on my previous trip you can go to here. The queue was long, as expected. Weather was hot but luckily we brought umbrella and Valerie had this tiny fan with her which operates on batteries.

We were lucky that we got to "jump queue" because the we were able to join table with another pair of couple from Singapore. Lucky us. I estimate that saved us 30 minute of waiting time. We ordered the usual food - Chicken, rice balls and vegetables.

While waiting for the food...

Here comes our food

Sorry, Oakley Half Jacket was not in the menu =P

Photo first before the feast =D

Yummy yummy...

After lunch, the plan was to have chendol for dessert but since both of us were stuffed with our lunch. We decided to walked around first. So in short we were at St. Paul Church, A'Famosa Fort, Stadthuys as well as Dataran Pahlawan and Mahkota (yes both are shopping malls).

This trip really reminds me to train my muscle well so that next time we can take self portraits with my heavy DSLR... Here are some samples =)

Cheeky Valerie with different facial expression...

Enough of walking and we headed back to Jonker Street for our final target - chendol. I brought Valerie to the shop I went before and she loved her chendol so much. She ordered the Durian Chendol while I got myself a Mango flavour one.

For more photos please visit my flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mauinsons/sets/72157622994155709/

Date: 25 October 2009

This was my first visit to the Aquaria @ KLCC. Although KLCC is only a 5-10 minute drive (depending on traffic) from my house, I've never been there. This could be embarrasing to tell but I guess the reason behind is that I didn't have much expectation to it. Nevertheless, this time I had decided to pay a visit there so that next time when friends ask, I could tell them proudly that I've actually been there.

This time I was lucky enough to be able to invite Shueann to come along. She has been there once and still generous enough to accompany me there. A big thank you to her. My intention to go over was simple - as mentioned before, 1)to tell my friend proudly that I've been there and 2)want to see what kind of photos I could grab there.

Seems like I didn't take much good photos there. Was using my Canon EOS7D + Tokina 10-17mm fisheye + pop-up flash most of the time. I missed the convenience of pop-up flash so much ever since I got my Canon EOS 5D. Overall is was a good trip, a casual shooting session on a casual day out.

BTW, the entrance fee is RM28 for adult. And for those who doesn't know where this place is, it is right at the Lower Ground floor of Kuala Lumpur Convention Center (KLCC). You can walk over through a linked tunnel from Suria KLCC.

I'll first start off with some furry, creepy, 8 legged creatures...

Doing yoga???

Mysterious...

Here's Shueann at the Aquarium tunnel, claimed to be the longest in the region...

And this is me with my clumsy camera bag...

Mr/Mrs. stingray gave us a warm welcome

Kiss from a seahorse...

Here's my favourite shot of the day... This is not a sea snake but a long neck turtle

Finally, a few shots of us together... As usual, I look funny in photos...

For more information of the Aquaria you can visit their official homepage here.

For more photos please visit my flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mauinsons/sets/72157622591908311/