But seriously have to thank Hamyu for bringing us there. I really really didn’t expect to see what I was going to see… and feel. Never knew Cameron Highlands got such beautiful sunrise. I tot the only place was in Sungai Lembing.

It was 5:15am when we started our journey. Not all of us went, so there are only 2 cars going.

When we reached there, we didn’t expect it to be that cold. Some of them wearing jeans just longer than knee-length, some of them wearing those thin long pants bought from Bangkok. Before we climb up the tower to see the view, it was very cold, Hamyu lead us to a lower tower next to the communication tower as seen from the photo above. After we climbed up the tower, it was speechlessly super very ultra cold! I think it was like less than 10 Celsius, and the wind is like constantly attacking us. Our fingers were hardening and our body was shaking like mad.

But what we see from the top of the tower, made it damn worth it for us to be staying up there freezing our asses off.

Sea of clouds like cotton candy.

Lights from buildings which operate the communication towers.

Feels like you can walk on them.

The people that successfully conquered Cameron Highlands’ sunrise. All smiling in the photo, but is all fake! Hahaha. Look at the refugee Shyng with her blanket covering herself. Respect Hamyu the most. He was wearing a football jersey and shorts!

After we took the group photo, Dawn spotted the real dawn! We faster aim our cameras and started snapping.

Windy Siewmei and Shyng.

From the tower looking down. They all can’t stand the wind blowing constantly so they went down. I was trying to snap some more.

The sun lighting up the land!

So pretty.

View from the top of Cameron Highlands.

This is the tower we went up to. The stairs was one of the steepest I’ve climb before.

The Olympus Pen photographer of the trip, admiring the sunrise.

After the top, we drove down lower to this place where it has path way like this built for people to walk.

From the path, we can see the tower that we went up just now. The tower under the tallest communication tower is the one we climbed.

Also can see some other nice views from here.

The path leads us back to nature.

Dawn exploring Cameron’s flora with her red hoody and her white Diana.

Yippie the Eskimo still finds it cold up at Cameron’s peak.

Siewmei leaning against nature.

Me and my surfing Brands on top of Cameron Highlands.

Brian the Olympus Pen explorer.

Sue-ann is lost.

Shoot another shot of the tea plantation on the way out. Magnificent scene.

After the sunrise, we went and have our breakfast and tapau-ed some food for those who didn’t went out with us. While we were driving up to the tower, Hamyu noticed the car’s brakes got some problem. So we went to the workshop after sending the people back to the apartment.

While waiting, what can we do? Shoot la!

Want to fix your car?

Jook’s garage – your car’s best friend.

A review from a customer Mr Ham: “The price ah… veli afordable lor. If you don’t come here, rugilah.”

Across the workshop got this nice wall.

Siewmei hitch-hiking on the back of a Nissan pickup.

In Cameron Highlands, you can see a lot of trucks with my initial on them.

After the car fixed, went back the apartment, packed up and checked out. We to the pasar pagi.

Happy morning shopper.

Justine trying the honey comb. The uncle told us if you eat the whole thing, it’s good for preventing asthma.

Sweet or not?

Strawberries: “Me, me, me, buy me! Buy me!”

Siewmei bought some nice flowers to bring back home.

Yippie with a strawberry umbrella… with lace. But she didn’t buy it.

Brian and Sue-ann shopping for their whole week’s food.

After the pasar pagi shopping, we wanted to go try some strawberry juice at this place where you can pluck your own strawberries. Too bad the juice stall wasn’t open. But we still had fun plucking the strawberries.

Siewmei trying to pluck all the perfect strawberries.

Hamyu trying to find all the perfectly red ones… but the shape… erm…

A perfect shape strawberry waiting to be plucked.

So big!

Hamyu still aiming for the colour… only…

Deformed! Someone told me it looks like a-hole. Hahaha.

Finally! Hamyu managed to find a perfectly coloured and shaped strawberry.

Arranged so nicely and almost same size strawberries. Done by the pro of cos. Hahaha.

Lunch time at Old Frenz restaurant. This is at Tringkap.

The food there was very nice. Just that the fly is a bit too much.

Along the way of the restaurant there’s this Rose Valley. RM4 per entry.

All sorts of plants can be found. But I don’t think all are for sale.

A tree that produce some kind of bean. I think i remember seeing these when i was young.

A small snail searching for food.

Brian and Sue-ann. Looks like they’re in China. Hahaha.

Siewmei found this weird fern. It is emboss on one side! The theory was it was eaten by worms to create this effect.

Natural unbrella.

Under the tree~

The jungle people.

Very very nice coloured flower!

Mini canopy.

Quite like this shot.

Fat tomatoes in Rose Valley.

This is how they plant tomatoes. Using strings for the tomato plants to climb.

Sue relaxing after some walking.

Erm… I think inside these dried plants can carry water.

Another huge hibiscus.

That concluded my 2 days 1 night Cameron Highlands trip. It was fun and eye opening. I’ve been to Cameron before when I was young. But I’ve kinda forgot how it looks like. So this trip is also a refresher for me. The sunrise itself is worth the whole trip for me. Will never forgot the experience we had on that tower.

After some stops and makans, we reached Tanah Rata at around 11:30am. Went to find the owner of our apartment, took the key, put our stuffs in the apartment, off we go to explore Cameron Highlands for our first day trip.

Went to look for this Bala’s place cos we heard it’s quite nice. The houses in the picture are not Bala’s place, we took a wrong turn and ended up at someone’s porch, manage to snap some shots of the view from their porch.

Found! Bala’s place. It’s a hotel that looks like those old British houses.

A lot of plants around and over surrounding the hotel.

Old-skool swing at the little garden.

In case you got lost.

Loving the bokeh in this photo. We stayed for a while to do some shooting outside the hotel, saw the clouds and thought it might rain, so hurry to our next destination to get some strawberries!

Raju’s Hill Strawberry, a place we had our first taste of strawberries, the fat style! Haha.

There’s a little strawberry farm here for people to visit.

Strawberries with icing sugar on top. Leslie is enjoying it.

More strawberries with icing sugar! Shyng promoting it.

Justine is holding the strawberries with whipped cream. She just re-dyed her hair days before coming up to Cameron Highlands, just to blend in.

If strawberries with whipped cream is not enough, you can always add honey on top. Yummy~

After having those special strawberries, we moved to our next location, we always heard people visiting butterfly farm / garden, so we decided to visit the neglected bee farm. Siewmei and Shyng on the way down to the bee farm.

Worker bee busy gathering honey… just to be sold in pasar malam! I’ve supported the colony by buying them to eat later that night.

Artificial beehives fore honey gathering. As you can see one of the bee at the top right of the photo is working happily gathering honey.

A lot of flowers around the bee farm so the bees doesn’t have to fly too far to gather their honey.

Steps going back up to the exit of the bee farm.

After the bee farm visit, our next stop will be the famous ‘BOH’ Tea Centre at Sungei Palas. This tea plantation destination is one of the must visits in Cameron Highlands. On the way going to the ‘BOH’ Tea Centre, you’ll see hills and more hills of tea plants. Very very beautiful. In the photo is the common transport they use to transport goods such as tea leaves in within Cameron Highlands, very very cool. Can you spot the car’s number plate?

Reached. The ‘BOH” Tea Centre. There’s a factory here where you can visit and the cafe.

Here’s how the cafe looks like. A bit hanging over the hill.

So you’ll have your tea and scones while having a very nice view looking at the tea plantation.

This is the view looking out the balcony of the cafe.

Rows and rows of tea leaves. Respect those tea farmers / pluckers that go through here and pluck those tea leaves.

Trying to shoot some Microsoft Windows default wallpaper here.

A funny shot of Siewmei and Shyng shooting their own shoes.

Done shooting their shoes.

Strawberry in a tea plantation.

The couple enjoying the view out here after Jook had his tea and “scones”.

Tea and flowers.

Sue-ann and Jacque.

After the drinking and eating session at the cafe, we walked down the the tea plantation to snap some close-ups with the tea themselves. In the photo Hamyu and Siewmei’s random poses.

Solo time! Siewmei very happy to be with the tea.

Jacque and Leslie. ‘BOH’, ada Ummph…

Sue and Brian. In search of the Ummph-est tea leaves.

Yippie or tea?

Shyng popping out from the leaves.

Shyng’s fashion is in tune with the nature!

Jook is not prepared. But this photo is cool.

Dawn trying to blend in. I think her face expression trying to imitate the newly grow tea leaves.

Sue: “Ummph-est tea leaves, are you there?”

Spokesperson for ‘BOH’ Tea. Just ignore the t-shirt’s “Canon Expo 2007″.

Finally, me.

The path to where we park our car after the tea plantation.

Along the way there are bushes and there are a lot of spiders there. Can’t imagine if you fell in.

On the way out, found a spot for shooting, but ended up this shot I like the most. Volvo, reliable.

Cactus Point. A place where you can see and buy a lot of different kinda cactus and plants here.

Assorted cactuses.

This plant looks like those communication tower.

Have you been to Pandora lately?

This hibiscus is bigger than Justine’s face!

Some kinda cactus. Looks damn cute.

I named this the bloody flower.

Not sure if this is some desert type of plant or what.

Yippie communicating with the flowers.

Got strawberries there too. 3 different colour straberries here. S, M, and L size.

The word is “vibrant”.

Very complicated small cactus, but very nice.

Cactus shooting. Look at the cactus behind Siewmei, damn tall!

After Cactus Point. We went dinner! How can a visit to Cameron Highlands without Steamboat! Kapal Berstim!

The gang dinnering! The price here is quite reasonable. The vegetables are like unlimited!

After dinner we went walking at the Cameron’s pasar malam. Waihoong mentioned to use there’s the Beer Ice-cream somewhere here. But it’s no where to be seen. Some of them quite disappointed.

First time see-ing this kinda fruit! Actually it’s guava, just that the skin is peeled and it’s marinated. The colour looks very artificial.

Chocolate coated strawberries.

Cut Comb. My throat was having some problem that few days before i went up Cameron. Leslie recommended me to have this as it is very good for the throat. So I bought and ate it. Very very sweet. But it works!

Souvenirs for tourists.

Bought some Apam Balek back to the apartment just in case. To our surprise a lot of malay people in Cameron Highlands know how to speak mandarin.

Back to the crib after waking up too early in the morning and walked whole day. All lazying around and it’s only 9:15pm. But we have to rest early for the night, because some of us will be going sunrise shooting the next morning which we have to wake up at 4am.

Stay tune for day 2 of the trip.

So we reach Taman Pertanian / Bukit Cahaya, Shah Alam around 9a.m. Gathered at the entrance there then took the shuttle to go into the jungle! All was quite excited about it because some of them are first timer and I can’t wait to go on to the Extreme Challenge itself.

The bus stopped and we got down. Some of them already shaken up looking at the ladder going up the tree.
Aivee: “Can I go on the Big Thrill one instead? Why did I signed up for this?!”

At the gearing up section waiting to grab our gears. Gloves are sold for RM3 a pair, recommended for Extreme Challenge.

Aivee still can open her mouth so big and laugh. Didn’t know what’s coming up.

Jook, Tay, Faris, Zaheer, and me covering our vital part because after wearing those harnesses, the “package” really “comes out”.

Instructor giving safety briefing.

Aivee thinking: “Why did I signed up for this again?”

Can’t wait to go up!

Siewmei carefully locking her carabiners one by one.

Aivee climbing up the ladder with doubt.

Hamyu: “Don’t think! Just do it!”
Aivee: “Did I really signed up for this?”

The first flying fox to start the Extreme Challenge course.

Woooo~ hoooo~

Me after the first flying fox. Siewmei took this photo for me! I didn’t camwhore!

Prepare for the 2nd flying fox! Already sweating.

Spot Siewmei in the photo!

Fun gliding through~

Our first non-flying fox challenge. Erm… what do you call this? Floating Logs?

This monkey bar is one of the hardest for the whole challege. For me la.

Swinging Tubes. Instructor behind Siewmei telling her how to do it.

A shot of Lay completing the Floating Logs.

The first Rope Walking. It’s quite hard to aim for the rope in front when you’re shaking.

Mr. Ham on Swinging Tubes.

2nd Rope Walking. This time the handle is lower thus easier.

Me on the 2nd Rope Walking. Half way through. Like I’m walking on air.

Resting before going for the next challenge.

A very easy task for Hamyu. Look at him! Like walking on the ground!

Another killer ladder climb. But Mr. Ham still keeps the cool.

Siewmei: “Looks like very hard wor.”

Walking on the Tightrope. First time on my life.

Eh… not that hard only~

Completed jor.

Hamyu coming through the Tightrope.

Easy job for him too. Not much of a challenge.

3rd Flying Fox.

Hamyu clearing the way by kicking the branches sticking out.

2nd Tightrope. This time with 2 cables for you to hold.

Balancing is the key.

Rope Bridge. Not much of a challenge for us also.

This one is another variant for the Tightrope walking. Instead of one rope, there are 2 now.

Going through this challenge is not quite a pretty scene. Me wallking kangkang.

Siewmei completing it with ease.

Floating Planks.

Feels like a character in Avatar. Ho ho…

The Yellow Man in the jungle! Got line lor… look at those he’s holding and walking.

One by one finishing the challenges.

Got some kind of liquid on the cable.

Hamyu’s turn to learn the way of the Na’vi.

Ladder climbing down. Finally no need to climb up again.

A lot a lot easier than climbing up.

Check your harnesses before attempting any challenge.

For this challenge, the stepping wooden planks are quite solid and non-shaky.

This one is even easier. Just like walking on a hanging bridge which will sway from front and back.

The location of this challenge actually kinda intersect the Big Thrill Challenge. So we can actually see the Big Thrill group playing.

Walk walk walk, shoot shoot shoot.

Done.

This is the final challenge. It’s also the Tightrope walking, but this time you’ll be holding those handles like you would hold in a train or bus. So no problem for those who always took public transportation la.

Justine performing some “high” fashion pose during one of the challenge.

Za and Faris waiting for their turn.

*Super Mario Bros music playing in the background*

Tay is not impressed.

Zarzan. OoooOOOooooOOoooo~

That’s it! The Extreme Challenge ended with no big finale. Just a path like how they use for their “Chicken Exit”. Am quite dissapointed. You’ll see how the Big Thrill challenge ends with the longest Flying Fox.

Yippie got stuck on one of the Flying Fox and the instructor went and help her out. Failed.

Jook locking himself to the big rope before jumping onto the big net.

Is he using his feet to hook onto the net? Weird pose. Like Cirque de Soleil performer.

Spiderman Tay.

The people who finished all the challenges waiting for the rest to finish.

You see… this is how it’s suppose to end!

After SkyTrex it was already 1 something pm. The gang went back to Subang and stuffed their faces.

Ben and Syam. Ben was in the picnic / chicken gang.

Leslie and Jacque.

Mr. Ham and Tay.

Eli and Waihoong didn’t bring Joey out for this adventerous trip.

Jook and Shyng.

Aivee and Siewmei.

Yippie, Justine, and Dawn.

Ending the entry with Karen and Lay with his signature pose.

Overall this trip was quite a fun trip. But some didn’t like the challenges cos it’s too hard or too tiring. But hey, once a while coming out to do these kinda outdoor stuffs is good for you!

For more information about SkyTrex Adventure click HERE.

Sorry again for the late updates. Been busying and lazying . On the 12th of December 2009, Siewmei suggested to go Pulau Ketam for a short shooting trip, so we had an impromptu mini shooting trip of this small group (Siewmei, Angeline, and me), to this little island call Pulau Ketam.

We started our journey from Subang LRT station, took the train to Port Klang (around half an hour), and from the jetty took a ferry to Pulau Ketam (another half an hour). Reached Pulau Ketam around 1pm. At first we were thinking of renting bicycles as our transport, but then ended up we thought maybe we walk walk first and see if we need to rent the bike. It was a good decision for us because the island itself wasn’t too big and we wasn’t in a rush.

Basically just me and Siewmei brought our camera there, Angeline just wanna walk walk around to see some kampung life. So here are the photos. Enjoy~

On the train reaching Port Klang station.

Reached Pulau Ketam at 1pm. I think I’ve been to Pulau Ketam before, but I don’t remember how is it like. Maybe I was too young.

Bicycles are the main transportation here. Villagers from 3 to 80 year old ride their bicycles here.

Main source of income for the villagers? Fishing of course. Their secondary source is tourism maybe?

Tools of trade.

Matching colour! The whole village was filled with colourful buildings.

Pane-less window looking through the garden of someone.

The main street of Pulau Ketam. Luckily that day wasn’t packed with tourists.

A huge gate stating “Pu Ti Men” facing a temple.

This is the temple the gate was facing. On the top of the roof you’ll see some ornaments, but if you see clearly, they are actually prawns, crabs, and fishes. I guess they worship the god of the sea, to protect the fishermen from harm.

Walking towards the inner part of Pulau Ketam, their residential area. No car is driving on this road cos the road is just too narrow for cars.

Angeline and Siewmei sitting in front of a house posing. I think most of the houses in Pulau Ketam have their own bench built outside their house so they can chill outside when the sun is not that hot.

Along the main road and behind the houses was a river leading out to the sea. A fishing vessels’ garage? Hehe.

Drying their clothes in the hot sun.

A red house with a fenced red front porch.

They park their red bike inside? Hehe. No need to lock too, cos there are no where to run in the island.

I think this is fish fillets that their are drying. Not really sure, but the meat looks clean fresh.

A whole string of them.

Walking further in.

Siewmei and Angeline posing at a “parking lot”.

Homemade pondok. Can have a small party next to the river yo.

Abandoned little jetty.

Chilling inside the pondok because got shade!

Hot sun call for drying. But wonder why is the shoe laces still on the shoes. Wash without taking them off? Hmm… lazy i guess.

A very nice looking leafless tree.

The tree was very nice for photo taking.

Angeline’s turn.

A family was processing these prawns, peeling off their skins.

The house of a boat mechanic. Damn a lot of accessories inside, including this Boeing plane that will -10 to the wind resistance of cruising if installed.

White old sofa thrown outside.

Wondering why all the flags are thorn. Very very strong wind?

One of our group photo.

目面真山廬.

Marshmallows!

Found a very bright green wall. At first when we saw the wall we thought the colour looks quite bad. But for photograph, it was not bad.

Siewmei’s turn.

We’ve reached the end of the “main road” and ended up on a big wooden platform. Angeline’s modeling instinct took over. Hahaha.

Photographer at the crime scene.

It was freaking hot and lying down on the wooden platform is not joke. Siewmei so professional still can smile. Hehe.

Together now.

Sitting the plank.

Tiny sea shell on the floor. “See Ham”?

The river leads to the more inner part of the island which we can’t access by foot.

Angeline almost fell into the river while posing. Haha.

PK for Pulau Ketam, or…

A very basic designed tokong.

Blue wall!

The kid got driver.

Red wall!

The colour enhances the feeling of heat from the sun.

COKE… ahh~

First time using my SB900 in daylight shooting. End up quite happy with some of the reuslts.

SB900 flash to fill in the shadow and to avoid back light.

Yellow wall!

More SB900 in action.

The house’s colour is like the colour of police station.

Still learning how to use the flash.

While we were busy shooting in front of the wall, these 2 local kids was riding 1 bike rounding the area. After a while, they stopped and wanna see what are we taking. Of cos we didn’t let this chance go.

The 2 kids are just sooo cute. At first the tall one not shy, then after a while she’s the one hiding behind the shorter kid.

Siewmei wanted to test the small bike, then she told the shorter kid to hop on. The kid hop on to the bicycle so fast and ready for me to snap.

3 persons on a small bicycle. Hehe.

Angeline kick the taller kid out. Hahaha.

Turn for the kid trying to fetch Siewmei.

A bridge leading to another part of the village.

Hamyu!

A church.

Our “tour guides” for the bridge.

We almost finished our walk around the island, came back out and to a bridge over-seeing the jetty.

“Tour Guide” abandoning us and walking back to their crib.

The dog also know how to pose for a photo.

Green house.

Beige colour wall!

Angeline looking at the red spot on the wall.

Fun trip, fun photo session with fun people.

It was a very nice and lovely photo shooting  session to a place I forgot. Anyone knows of any place that are quite near and can go on day trip please contact me. Would like to go more on these kinda trip.

The ferry’s schedule for Pulau Ketam can be found here.

Some weird sculpture displayed at the entrance of the cave.

Main entrance to the cave.

The very cool thing about this cave is that this is on the other side! It’s really like in some Wu Xia novel.

Very nice wall of the rock mountain.

A place for people to walk and scream in pain.

Very nice weather that day.

Spot Siewmei and Andrew.

Siewmei with her very red hair. Nice~

After some walking we went to Andrew parent’s coffee shop. Kokwai here trying to show us how to make coffee.

A cup of coffee outside the shop under the sun.

Curry mee was close due to Deepavali.

Cat taking shelter inside the shop to avoid the heat outside.

Opposite the coffee shop is this field, and Andrew’s dad fed some noodles to the pigeons. Eddy here trying to get a good shot of the pigeons up close. Sacrificing his image. Haha.

A lot of pigeons came and fed on the noodles.

Kokwai trying to “shoot” some pigeons, Rambo style.

After the stop, we continue out shooting in a more secluded place call Papan (Wood) located further from Ipoh town.

A lot of abandoned houses can be found there.

Written on the pillar “be careful”. Spooky.

Dogs were checking us out and we were checking the dogs out.

Sekolah Papan.

Old-skool yo! An aunty barber in action. A few uncles were queuing waiting for their turn.

Our newly met friend, Kylie Chah, a local.

Walk into a “dilarang masuk” place to get some shots of an big and old house inside.

Dilarang Masuk was ignored.

Siewmei and Kokwai called their ex-colleague out, which is another local. Sorry but i forgot her name.

Very cool trash can with stencil on it.

Kellie’s Castle was out next destination. Apparently this place is haunted but it’s open for visitation.

Eddy trying to get a good spot to shoot.

Somebody taking picture of Siewmei and Kylie. Fly!

View from the top.

Erm…

After dinner we went to a temple. The festival of “Gau Wong Yeh” is happening that night, so there are some celebration going on.

Iron maiden?

The next morning, we went to this place opposite the famous back alley called “Yee Nai Hong” (Second Wife Alley) to have our breakfast. The custard which I was looking forward was sold out. But they still have this, tea with egg.

After breakfast we walk to the alley and started shooting.

Siewmei posing in front of an abandoned house.

The main train station in Ipoh. Look very British.

Siewmei and Andrew waiting for train.

Finally I reached.

One of the tallest flats in Ipoh. Famous for it’s suicidal rate. But now it’s secured with grill.

Had our last coffee, head to buy some sourvenirs and headed back to KL. Thanks Andrew for the place to stay, again.

On the 7th of March 2009, Clive organized a trip of 25 city dwellers, to this friendly little small town Sungai Lembing, 林明. Sungai Lembing is a town that used to mine Tin Ore (Bijih Timah). And now it’s famous for it’s sunrise view with sea of clouds below your feet! My closest gang of people is in one car, which is Andrew, Aivy, Siewmei, and me. The objectives of this trip for a few of us is to photographs the nice sunrise. We did the photographing, I’ll leave you to judge.

First stop of the places to go when we reached Sg Lembing is Gua Charas. Is a big cave within a rock mountain, and there’s an abandoned tin mine inside too.

The gang walking up the staircase towards the big cave.

Just before we want to go up, it rain a bit. But luckily it stopped after just a while. So be careful when going up, slippery.

Andrew posing.

This is the inner of the big cave itself.

Smoke gets in her eyes. Clive and his gf.

Another shot of the cave.

Looking out the cave shot.

Another shot looking out

After we finished going around inside the cave, while walking back down I took this shot. Gonna rain soon~

Day 1

When we first reached our place in Sungai Lembing, I was quite dissapointed with the place we’re gonna stay in. It’s a brick house inside a kampung, nothing wrong with that. But the place is actually a bit messy, 3 rooms for 25 people and only 1 toilet. Mattresses are put on the floor, and the roof was leaking.

Luckily Clive asked that aunty who’s responsible for the place to find us another place to stay so we don’t need to squeeze so many people in that house. So 12 of us was moved to another house, which i find quite satisfying. No doubt it’s a wooden house, but it’s clean, no leaking, nice bed, and got 4 toilets!

This is the picture of the room we gonna stay. Clean and spacious.

This house has actually been used to shoot a local movie before. Forgot about the title of the movie, but there’s actually a script book lying on the table in the living room. This is the living room itself. Very old-skool and nice.

Framing Aivy and Andrew.

Window to see the kitchen.

Single clothe hanger hanging there. Asking for people to shoot la. Hehe…

A tea table outside the corridor of the house.

Looking in from outside, old-skool gate-type door. To keep dogs out?

Front of the house. We brush our teeth at the sink there, convenient.

Welcome stairs.

After we had our shower, we drove back to the previous house to have our dinner. Because it’s catering. The food is not to say very good, but not bad also.

After dinner resting.

Watching TVB series.

After the meal and a while of sitting, we decided to get out and go for a walk. After that we went back to the place where we suppose to spend the night and rest. Need to sleep early because we need to go sunrise hunting tomorrow morning. Have to wake up at 4am!

Day 2

The big day for us!

8th of March 2009, we woke up at 4am had some light breakfast, and went to the leg of the mountain. We reached there around 5:15, but the place is already crawling with people. But our luck didn’t ran out because although there’s a lot of people going up there, there’s not many photographers. Thus, we found some nice spot to shoot our sunrise.

Reached the top around 6am, already a lot of people waiting for the sunrise. Even got some people actually setup camps there.

The whole sky was covered with stars, very nice.

>

A moment between night and dawn.

Just before the sun came up.

There you go, waited for an hour plus for this moment. But it’s all worth it. Breathtaking view. People there watching actually cheered for the sunrise view.

Here’s a shot of the whole thing up.

Look at the clouds under us~ It’s like we’re damn high in the mountain.

You have to go there yourself to be able to feel the moment for yourself. How nice and magnificent it is.

Could never asked for a better spot for the sun to came out. Directly behind the mountain, thanks for cooperating Mr. Sun.

Like the natural gradient.

Andrew and Clive. This is the second time Clive is here, he still enjoy every moment of it.

Watching sunrise with his gf. how sweet.

Aivy and Siewmei’s face got the early golden ray shower from the sun.

Cliff’s gang including Fidella and Zeejay was also there. They had some nice captures too, saw them in facebook.

A cute shot of Behn. Like Mario jumping. Haha…

The other side of the mountain, was not bad also! The clouds was a bit too much! Haha. How can I see such a scene in Malaysia! Where else?

Huge spider with a huge web. It’s enjoying the morning sun~ just like us.

Not lying to you about it is huge!

Somebody put dried ice under there somewhere~

A mountain island.

A lot of branches and leaves.

More clouds.

Too much of clouds. Hehe…

Stairway to heaven?

Proof of visit for andrew.

Traffic jam! From this shot you can see there are really a lot of people on the top just now.

Andrew and Aivy. Finally reached the bottom. Tired, but very worth it.

Siewmei’s speechless expression tells you how nice the view was just now!

After we came back down to earth, we went looking for breakfast in the Pasar. And it’s a Sunday morning, they actually having a Pasar Pagi there. Cool~

Java street, the street towards the pasar.

Look at the crowd waiting for the famous “Sister’s Noodles”.

After the breakfast, we went walking around the small little town to do some shooting. The town is really colourful. Siewmei became my model for the day. Haha.

Blue and yellow combination.

Big tree in the middle of the main road. Not sure if it got a name.

The kampung of Sungai Lembing. They still having the lanterns from Chinese New Year.

Shop gates.

Green gate Siewmei.

Tailor Yap Wai Hing.

Now is yellow gate.

Rusty building.

Abandoned old houses.

Riding a bike the kampung style.

Met these 2 young girls running around in front of the shops.

Aivy asked to take a picture of them. Haha. So cute.

Nicely coloured wooden houses.

Motorcyclists can pump petrol from this fuel pump which is like quite not safe.

Andrew’s name was on the window. So he went posing next to it.

Cracked floor.

One of the main transport of small town, bicycles.

After all the eating and walking, we went back to the house. But that didn’t stopped us from shooting. Haha. I took Andrew’s 50mm to play.

Siewmei and Clive sitting at the front corridor of the house.

Nice and sharp.

Don’t know what kinda flower is this. A bit weird, but nice.

Tractor.

Busy-ness

Hope.

This is Clive’s new car! A V8 Twin Turbo.

Kampung must have ducks lor. Hehe.

Done shooting the surroundings of the house, we need to pack and move again. Why? Because when Clive planned, everywhere was quite packed already, so he has to book 2 places. Although I really like this wooden house, but still have to go.

Packed everything in the car, and went for lunch first, because it’s not the time yet to check in.

Waiting for food to arrive.

Also waiting for the food. Hehe.

This is Ah Fai, Clive’s friend. Hello~

The couple.

The Yin Yeung Milk of the coffee shop is not bad.

Viewing out the window behind me.

After the meal, the plan was to go to this place called the Crystal House, 水晶屋. The house is not built from crystal, it’s just that the uncle and aunty that stays here collect a lot of crystals and some other stuffs.

Entrance to the Crystal House. RM2 per head will be charged.

Disco ball? What the…

Sleeping guard doggy.

1 of the 2 tunnels that the uncle dig himself.

The wall is filled with coins that visitors stick on.

This is another project of the uncle, he already dug for 8 months on this one. He is trying to replicate the mining scene from last time.

This is the uncle/owner of the place. He was telling some interesting stories of himself about how last time when he was still mining.

Aivy holding a raw Tin Ore. It was quite heavy.

And here’s me holding a Bronze Ore I believe.

On the way out, we passed by this hanging bridge, so we went down and do some scene shooting. There are quite a few of these hanging bridges along the Lembing river for easy access to places. Motorcycles can actually use these bridges to cross to the other side.

Clive shooting some nice kampung scene.

Houses next to the river. One of the houses there is actually the manufacturing plant for the famous Mee Sungai Lembing. We didn’t went there today, but we’ll come back tomorrow.

Windy Siewmei.

Aivy and Andrew enjoying kampung life. Haha.

This is a funny shot. 3 of them actually trying to shoot a motorcycle coming towards them.

After the bridge, we headed for the Sungai Lembing Museum.

You can find a lot of history about Sungai Lembing town in here. How it started and how’s the mining industry.

A replicate version of the lift tunnel.

A lot of old-skool machinery can be seen here.

Calculator?

Have no idea what is this, and I’m lazy to read the explanation. Haha.

Found this photo very funny, so took a picture of it. It looks like the cover of a rock band’s album. Linkin’ Park of old times? Lembin’ Park?

It rain while we were visiting the museum, so we waited a while for the rain. Then was off to the new place we gonna stay. It’s a banglo modified to be a guests house. So there are a lot of rooms and a lot of showers. And it also has a stairway for us to walk up to the hill behind, so we can see a nice view. But I still like the wooden house more. Hahaha.

We went up the hill behind us.

Behn and his sister Sherrina.

Siewmei kena pulled by me to take this photo. Hehe.

This is the house we’ll be staying. Can say it’s quite big.

Went out of the house to wander and see got anything nice to shoot.

Sherrina posing in front of a wooden house.

Captured this while Andrew is in front capturing the shadow.

There’s a cage next to the house and inside got 2 peacocks.

This is how the house looks like from the inside.

Fully air-conditioned and Astro-ed.

Got to our room, washed up, rest, and it’s time for dinner! Haha. Went back to the Pasar, but this time is eating normal rice and dishes of nice food.

We were seated 3 tables. This is my table.

And this is Clive’s table.

We arrived at the place 20 minutes earlier, and the aunty wasn’t expecting us to be reaching earlier. So she rushingly started cooking to us. But she was quite fast.

This is the aunty who cooked for us.

After the dinner, we went back to the banglo with no place to go. Because the plan for day 3 is to the Rainbow Waterfall. Again is an early trip out, transport will reach us at 5am to send us to the waterfall. So at night we did sleep fairly early.

Day 3

We missed the transport to the Rainbor Waterfall! Actually we didn’t missed it… hehe… just that we woke up around 4am in the morning, I found out my feet was a bit sore from all the walking yesterday, so I told my gang I don’t feel like going, then they also cincai. So ended up we didn’t go. There was some other factors also that we don’t want to go, cos Clive and Sherinna described to us saying how hard and scary is it and how much leeches are there.

After we decided not to go and went back to sleep, the others people started waking up and preparing for their trip. Then it started raining. Heavily. It just lasted for a while, but that further support our decision of skipping the trip, cos of the journey will be harder, leeches will be more, and the cloudy sky means there won’t be any rainbow to see.

Because Clive and some of the others been to the Rainbow Waterfall before, they weren’t actually planning to go again, so they have some other plan. Ended up we followed their

plan.

Remember I told you about the famous Mee Sungai Lembing manufacturing plant opposite the river? We came here.

They both very happy. But what is Siewmei pointing?

This, Siewmei is pointing at this. One of the shops there is selling 蛋散. Hahaha… funny la. Don’t ask me what is it, cos I didn’t bother to ask the shop owner.

This is the stairway to where they manufacture the famous Mee Sungai Lembing. Too bad our timing is a bit wrong, if not we’ll be able to see the aunties making the noodles.

The kitchen.

Natural light to brighten the inside.

What is so famous about the noodles here? It is because the water they used to manufacture these noodles are from the mountain. 100% pure mountain water, clean and pure.

The machine to make the noodles.

The flour ingredient.

Staircase outside the window. Emergency exit?

This is how the noodles packaging looks like. Remeber to recognize the logo before buying.

Aunty kindly explained to us how the stuffs work there.

This may be where they get their source of the mountain water.

Proof of visit, Siewmei.

Proof of visit, Me.

Proof of visit, Andrew.

This is the aunty’s son. Very cute kid running around scolding the dogs. Hehe.

The dog that got scolded.

The cross is used as a hanger in rural area. Hehe.

Very kampung’s texture.

Nicely toned colour house.

Overall, although we missed the Rainbow Waterfall, but the trip was well worth it for the magnificent sunrise itself. Anybody reading this post, you must go see for yourself! Highly recommended by me. Hopefully you enjoy the photos.

Contact details for Holiday Home D’Lemding:
Mobile: 013 – 988 1156 or 012 – 6251403
Home: 09 – 8710679

Disclaimer: Am not sure if all the numbers here works, you’ll have to try it. But last I know, the 013 number still works few months back.

We started our ascent from the foot of the hill around 6am(so can you imagine what time we woke up!). The path was slippery and very dark. Torch light is a must because it’s total darkness there. After the initial palm tree plantation, we were walking in the jungle itself. Luckily we were wearing our long pants because there’s a lot of tall grass and branches which can cut. Around 50 minutes later, we’ve finally arrived at the 1st stop point. A rock which indicate it is the 1st stop for us, we stopped(of cos) to rest, and prepare our cameras to wait for the sun to rise.

Unfortunately the weather of the day was not very nice. It was drizzling a bit on our way up, and it was cloudy when we reached there. So after some waiting, we figured that there’ll be no sunrise shooting that day. Too much clouds was blocking the sun. Damn it. So, we started shooting everything la, since there’s no focus already now.

1st stop, we were waiting for the sunrise, but dissapointed.

Clive bought McD for breakfast that day, and he really knows how to enjoy his McD.

The way up to another stop.

A view from the top.

Weirdly there’s some flies flying around at that high. Wonder that they’re up to.

After we reach the 2nd peak, we discovered that a lot of uncles and aunties, some bringing their family up there for morning walk! *Respect yo!*

Siewmei brought her brother’s camera there to play play.

Look at Clive, so happy.

Let’s go up there.

The grass does look like padi.

On the way up to the 2nd stop.

This is a higher view.

The rock there are quite nice as photography background.

Clive performing some flying kicks with his hand firmly gripped on the rock. But the image shows that he’s more like falling.

Sometimes photographer tends to ignore their own safety for a good shot.

3 photographers 1 model.

Everyone waiting, taking pictures, and chit-chatting there.

Looks at the lower clouds, not enough to make the whole scene nice. And look at the upper clouds, too much to be blocking the sun.

Tired and resting.

Getting a nice pair of climbing shoes are quite important.

Say “chiiiiizzz”~

Patriotic Clive.

It was my 1st experience going up this high for shooting. Although we didn’t manage to get a nice shot of the sunrise, but then it’s still a good experience for me.

Chicken porridge. Not bad for resort standard.

Designated area for our company.

Bumped into Sue-ann, so asked her to be my test subject for a while. Hehe.

Back to room, need to pack everything and prepare to leave already…

Zaheer, can said he’s in-charged of this whole trip (of cos with the help of Tiffany). He lost his slippers somewhere, so he had to wear the room’s slippers.

Waihoong, brought his laptop there to play World of Warcraft. He even missed the group photo just because he wanted to play game so much. Anti-social~

So here’s the committee of the Swingers. President: Eve, Vice President: Zaheer, and Treasurer: Tiffany. Thank you guys.

Group photo before leaving the place. Me and Aivee was not in this picture because both of us are shooting using our own camera. But we appeared in Sue-ann camera’s group photo. She got the most complete one.

Going through Custom before waiting at the jetty area. A lot of people doesn’t know that Tioman got duty-free shops also. So that’s why we need to pass through the Custom.

Sue-ann cut queue. Brian pissed. Sue-ann don’t care. Brian can’t do shit. Haha.

X-Women 1: Yippie

X-Women 2: Justine

Waiting for the ferry to load up before we can get in.

Tired smile from Tiffany.

Brian and Sue-ann sat next to me on the ferry ride.

Aivee and Jook sitting behind me.

Motion sickness pills. I’m not sure whether this actually works, or I’m better in dealing with motion sickness already.

Oopsie~ puke alert at “Kuantan 192″ road sign. Peishan suffering from motion sickness.

That’s it. 3 days 2 nights of Tioman trip. Of cos not enough. But better than nothing.

A very quiet morning at Tioman. I’m not sure whether is it normal with no people on the beach so early in the morning.

Of cos have to shoot some floral photos… hehe…

I think that’s the Clubhouse for those golfers.

This kinda small roads can bring you all around Berjaya Tioman. It’s their main road inside the resort.

Goal post waiting to be strike by footballs.

This pic gives me the feeling of a university field more than a sea side.

A nice shot of Tiffany posing with her “beach-ready” bag.

Silhouette of flowers.

Aivee, another DSLR bearer in the office. One of the most experience.

Pickers’ colour very contrast with the background.

She trying to be patriotic. Hehe…

Yippie waiting for the bus to go to the diving centre.

Ben acting cool with his snorkle gears on.

Sue-ann, afraid of water, but still want to take the challenge of going snorkeling. Respect.

Yippie acting cute with the snorkling gear.

Tiffany adjusting her snorkle gear very seriously.

David laughing at Brian on how he looks with the snorkling gear.

Waihoong been very pissed of all the waiting and people coming late.

The one with the official diving license going for a snorkling trip. Piece of cake.

The jetty to our rides. 12 people on one boat. Going out in 2 boats.

Quite a long ride, Yippie took a nap on the boat.

Latest fashion in town! Life jackets!

Waiting tired of waiting again before we got to our spot.

Everyone went down to snorkle except for me, I was just there to take some pictures. Hehe.

Pickers shooting waihoong swimming towards her using her Olympus water-proof camera.

A white beach near the place we snorkle.

See how clear is the water!

2 boats parked side by side.

One of a rare shot that Aivee actually look like a girl! Hahaha…

Jook was nicknamed Mer-Jook after this snorkeling trip.

Yippie, afraid of the fishes, screaming like mad when the fishes swim near her.

Those people on the boat was eating mixed-rice, they keep on throwing food down the sea, that’s why you see so many fishes here.

A shot of David creating a small scale Tsunami in Tioman.

Ben trying to fly without wings. Lol.

This is Jook with the pose of a bird after being struck by lighting. Hahaha…

John with a perfect backflip dive.

Next spot for snorkeling is near those rocks.

Tiffany resting on the rear of the boat.

An
other shot of Tiffany having a fish spa therapy.

Sue-ann and Ben enjoying themselves.

Going to the 3rd snorkeling spot. That’s the other boat.

Sue posing on the boat.

We asked Aivee to give us a pose. And this is her best.

Sue asked me to take a picture of her and Brian.

Group picture of my boat crew. Haha…

Reached the Jetty and damn hungry. So we headed for lunch at the foyer area.

Me cam whoring in front of the mirror with Chinling’s camera behind me.

After lunch, went back room to shower, then come back out again to go swimming. Before that, I heard some of the going shoot some hoops, so I walked to the basketball court to check it out.

Syam didn’t go out to snorkle with us, here she is renting a bike to ride around the resort.

After swimming, went back room again to shower and prepare for dinner, passed by the game room and guess who I saw. Hehe. Yippie, David and Meng there playing Mahjong la. Yippie said she didn’t know quite well how to play, but ended up she won. :

Dinner time! Steamboat! Didn’t manage to take many shots from the dinner because don’t have a flash gun and the lighting was too dim there.

After the dinner, there’s the bonfire session where everybody drinks again! haha… Here’s the 2 pile of wooden planks for our fire.

One of the pile of woods fell early, creating this unbalance fiery shot.

On the ground, there’s actually writings of “Arachnid” and “Slipknot”. Took this shot after the fire died out because you can really read it with the fire on.

People warming up. before they became crazy.

Some people chilling at the pondok there.

Tiffany didn’t get drunk tonight because she was moving around dancing and having fun.

Drinking on the beach. Nice.

Aivee trying to jump over the fire posing like Mario.

More people sitting on the beach drinking and chit-chatting…

Tiffany performing her fiery dance. She’s really a performer as you can see from her expression. Smiling all the way.

Jook the parkour lover. Jumping over fire? Not a problem.

Ben’s turn. Can’t imagine that he actually jumped quite far.

Hahaha. Sue-Ann acting fear. Quite bad acting! Lolz…

Aivee helped me shoot this one, but the timing was wrong.

There’s a lot of things happened on that night, which i didn’t manage to shoot. But Aivee got a lot of those not so proper shots.

Quite a bit of funny, gross, and new stuffs happened on the trip, adding to the experience of the whole trip. Took damn lots of pictures, but only can share so much here. hope you’ll enjoy them.

Bus depart from office around 6am in the morning, had some mamak breakfast on the way to Mersing jetty.

Reach Mersing around 12:30pm but missed the ferry. Stranded there for around 2 hours to catch another ferry.

A nice shot of Sue-Ann eating her burger while waiting for the ferry ride at the jetty. Quite a few of them bought the burger there. The taste was not bad.

Finally got into the ferry after hours of waiting. The air-conditioning system was blasting like crazy inside the cabin. Freaking cold.

A shot of the back of the ferry, a patriotic ferry ride.

Finally reach Tioman Island after around 1 and a half hour ride of the ferry.

In a bus, on the way to Berjaya Tioman resort.

10 minutes of ride, reach the foyer of the resort, where we had hour super late lunch. Food was not bad.

This is where we’ll be eating for the next 2 days.

Sharing room with Brian and this is how the room looks like. Quite comfy.

Before going out for the duty free shopping, manage to get some evening shots of the beach. After hours of rides, finally touch the beach. Haha.

Crazy shopping, cigarettes, alcohol, cigarettes and more alcohol, then cigarettes then alcohol again. Crazy!

Dinner time when the lunch still haven’t fully digested. Not much appetite to eat. So walk around and took some pictures.

Close-ups of the foods! Hehe

After dinner was drinking session, got my tripod ready, and shot some long exposures. This pictures looks a bit fake, more like a stage backdrop than a real photo. Weird.

Of cos there’s light trails playing time. Took a lof of tries to get this right, 2 copywriters work on this one. Hehe. Jook wrote the “arachnid” and Justine wrote the “tioman”.

End of day one, went back to room and slept early to prepare for the next day.