After we drove for some time into FRIM, finally we reach a starting point of a jungle trekking path.

We walked up some stairs for a while, and we reached a platform, already we’re feeling the jungle is no joke. Leeches have started attacking me and Siewmei saw this huge millipede! It was very gross for me.

After some considerations, we decided it was too dangerous for us to continue. Haha. Because it rains also the night before, so leeches should be quite active.

On the way down back to where we park our car. Luckily this FRIM place is quite big, so we have somewhere else to shoot around. We’ll come back and conquer this trek next time.

Seems like FRIM itself is a community on it’s own. Houses are seen everywhere.

Yup, Siewmei and I wore our flip-flops for the jungle trekking.

Please notice there will be a lot of photos of plants and trees if you continue scrolling down.

We drove around and found this place. The Malay Tea House. So we walked into it and see if there are any nice stuffs for us to shoot.

Siewmei standing in front of a red house.

This is what she’s shooting in front of the red house.

The whole roof of this building is covered by plants.

A small hut for you to enjoy some Malay tea?

Shooting leaf on top of a brick with leaves carving.

Walking into the Malay Tea House itself.

Traditional lamps to light up the night.

We were starting to shoot stuffs around the inside of the Malay Tea House, but then one of the lady worker walked pass and told us no shooting. Because if we want to shoot, we’ll have to pay RM50. She was quite rude.

So we left the place and walked back outside and the sun shines on us just in time.

Looks like album cover or not? Hehe.

Looking up.

Stepped into our car again and drove to another jungle path. This one is more walkable for us because it was meant for mountain biking.

Once a while you’ll see people cycling out from the path. Should be quite fun cycling in the jungle.

Siewmei standing on a spot where the sun shines through.

More trees.

A river of sky.

Drove out car back out after that. We passed by this abandoned house along the way. We thought it looks quite nice so we went down and shoot again.

A big spider web behind the house.

Bamboo this time.

More trees.

And the last tree’s photo.

This time I’ve played with Adobe Lightroom a bit to edit my photos. Hope you like them as I do.

This is my second time going to Ulu Yam for shooting. The first time there was like 3 years ago. Kokwai brought us there also for shooting purposes. I was still using my little Fuji F30 that time. This time hopefully the photos are ok. enjoy~

At the end of the shoot, took an instant photo as a souvenir to bring back home.

So hopefully you guys like the photos. I still got tonnes and tonnes to learn. So please comment la.

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.

So we started walking towards the place for our lunch and along the way, we saw a lot of paddy fields (again), and the sky was very blue. How to not shoot?

The paddy fields was not like the one in Sekinchan, where it is very wide and endless. The paddy fields here in Yogyakarta is more like a backyard of someone’s house. That’s why you see a lot of different colour’s field cos different owners plant them different time.

Some house looking like prison.

Lines seperate your fields and my fields?

A very very old house. Seems dangerous, but there are actually people working inside!

Going-to-collapse-soon roof.

Very hot, somemore wearing black.

The same prison-like house I mentioned earlier. Look at the sky!

A path leading into more paddy fields and houses of the local.

The same path, further in, you can see the locals working on the field.

One of the rare lovely shot of Jook and Shyng.

Along the road side banana tree. This only happened in kampung lor.

This section/segment of paddy field belongs to another person.

More close-up shots of paddy. Yay~

A lof of bugs live here in the paddy field. I notice this is one of the difference between Sekinchan and Yogyakarta. At Sekinchan, there are bugs, but not that many, at Yogyakarta, whenever you walk close to the field, you can see a lot of bugs flying/jumping/fleeing away.

While me, Shyng, and Jook went further to take photos, YenC, Siewmei, and Hamyu were waiting under this hut.

The hut is located outside of the restaurant where we’re going to have our lunch with.

Here is it! Balinese food in Yogyakarta! Lol!

The drinks here were very authentic. Some are nice and some tasted weird. But they’re all fruit juices. While we were waiting for our food, we went behind the restaurant and took some pictures because there’s another paddy field back there.

Flowers behind the restaurant. Hardworking bee gathering honey.

Siewmei posing with the field.

This is how the restaurant looks like from outside the field.

Does this mean the restaurant does not need to buy their own rice?

Tiny white flowers growing along the path in the middle of the field.

Not sure what this is, maybe “street light”?

After this shot, I found out it is very dangerous to run on the path in between the paddy field. I almost PK-ed.

But jumping on the spot should be okie.

Left: Golden brown. Right: Greenish yellow.

Successful trip! Hooray~

Ok… the food is here already, need to walk back to grab our lunch.

There we are waiting for the flight at Yogyakarta airport.

That’s it. That’s my trip to Yogyakarta. Overall the trip was fun. The gang was fun to travel with (all like taking photos of anything). Schedule was not tight, although need to wake up early sometimes, but we took our time slumberly at all the places we visited. Didn’t manage to visit Mount Bromo (which Behn and Sherrina recommended) because need to travel 9 hours by bus or too expensive by flight from Yogyakarta, so it didn’t fulfilled the requirement of our trip which is “relax”. But, we’ll go visit Mount Bromo one day.

Spend less than RM1k this whole trip including flight and accomodations for 4 days 3 nights. No, I didn’t buy a lot of things there but if you like to take photos and see different things, not a bad deal.

So we woke up early in the morning to catch our Guest House’s breakfast which was included in the rates. Discovered that the area behind where we had our breakfast was very nice. It was just a small area, but decorated/landscaped very nicely. So after we eat, we did some early morning shooting.

A path from the breakfast place to the garden at the back. The taller building behind the pondok is actually the “house” next door!

Leaf-less trees – probably the gardener plucked all the leaves down so no work for him.

A closer look at the small hut. This is the small hut we chilled in later tonight.

A wooden house further back with a small pond fill with fishes. Look like some house in those chinese kung fu novel.

Hamyu, the kung fu master who stays there!

The gardener haven’t got time to clear the leaves of this tree yet.

A shot from the house towards the hut.

Flowers in the morning is always good.

A ladder up to the erm… top of the bamboo?

Path leading the the hut passing by a basin.

Siewmei standing in front of the nice hut.

Early morning model shooting.

This area is behind the wooden house. A lot of bamboos and it’s quite nice to shoot.

Early morning jog?

YenC in the morning.

Not enough sleep.

Nice color combination.

After a while, Shyng finished her breakfast and join the shoot.

Flowers everywhere!

Based on her shadow, it’s 9:42am.

Asked her to went into the house, apparently is a store room. What a cool store room.

Old-skool photos hanging along the wall.

After we ended our early morning photo session, we called 2 cabs to get us to Bird Market. It’s a place where they don’t just sell birds, but a lot of other pets as well.

“Fighting fish”? That’s what I used to call it during I’m very young. I’m still using the same term to address these kinda fish. Natural born fighter.

Fishy for the fish lovers.

Turtles are selling for quite a cheap price here based on Shyng. All camera shy. Hehe.

The look of the street around Bird Market.

Besides pet food, you can also find human food here.

One of the pet food for your pet bird I guess. Red ants and red ants eggs! The whole thing is alive!

Crickets. Damn a lot of crickets.

Very gross worms.

Geckos are sold here too.

It is not call Bird Market for nothing.

Walking inside the market makes me feel like I’m gonna catch a bird flu.

We were walking towards the back of the market. Because from far we can see there’s some kinda monument there.

The small road of Bird Market.

Even Obama visited the Bird Market. This is how famous it is.

This is the monument we were heading to. It’s the Water Castle… well… what’s left of the Water Castle.

Taking photos inside the damaged structure.

Look at Hamyu and Jook’s pose!

From on top of the Castle, you can see  almost the whole Yogyakarta.

Me walking to find a nice spot to shoot.

But where the heck is my camera?

Shyng a bit off in this picture.

Based on the shadow, it’s 11:43am.

Top down view.

/Jook-ing around.

Heroes.

Another shot of the inside of the structure. Maybe it collapse due to the earthquake. If you wanna know the truth, please Wiki it yourself.

Behind the Water Castle, is where people live.

Looks normal on top, but there are actually underground tunnel below the houses.

Siewmei posing behind one of the entrance to the underground tunnel. Very nice structure.

Roof of the entrance.

A house further down the street.

Siewmei plucked a flower from the ground.

Further in, you can see how the housing area of Yogyakarta people looks like. A cute kid still wearing his pyjamas. Siewmei didn’t let the chance ranwaway. Haha.

Hanging the clothes very high to catch maximum sunlight.

In front of one of the houses there’s a nice bench.

The local kids showing his ability.

Thsi is another roof of another building that lead to another tunnel. Looks like fish scale.

We’re underground.

Looking up at the opening of the tunnel.

Jook trying to get a good shot.

This platform is where i looked up and shot the 2nd previous shot. Very nice place, like a maze.

After walking for quite some time, we got hungry. And heard from the friends that came back from Yogyakarta, this place, the Water Castle Cafe, is the nice place to hang out and chill.

Portraits and a lot of photos were hanging on the wall.

Portfolio of one of the owner I think.

A home feel cafe. Nice~

Siewmei pretend to read something.

The entrance to the toilet.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the toilet. Very nicely decorated.

They even got a wardrobe inside the toilet.

It’s a huge toilet. If you enjoy shitting, this place will enhance your experience!

The violin that the owner plays.

One of the owner having an afternoon snacks session.

Very relaxing place as after the owner finsihed with his tasks, he’ll play his violin there. He asked this foreign lady is she could play the violin, and she played some Irish stuffs. Very nice.

One of the youngest owner of the place. Look at him feeling the music.

The oldest, enjoying his afternoon and his life, playing the ukelele.

Old chair.

Siewmei taking pictures of the nice toilet.

We wrote, drew, and signed something for the owner. Hopefully he stick it somewhere in his shop.

Outside of the cafe, there’s this drink that looks like chendol in Malaysia. It’s kinda sweet.

Workers at the Bird Market trainig their pigeon.

After finished walking around the Bird Market, our next destination is the shopping street, Malioboro. We chose an alternative ways, well, at least for us, to travel. Horse cart! This is the horsie that pull our cart. The driver is an old man and 6 of us squeezed into the horse cart. Poor horsie. Hahaha…

Squeezing into the cart at the back there.

Off we go to Malioboro.

Horse carts in Yogyakarta are quite respected in the traffic. Although the cart was travelling quite a slow paste, but there are no honking from the people behind.

Looking down to the wheel.

Passed by a resting cart. Looks like some cowboy town.

And here we are! Jalan Malioboro. The famous shopping street in Yogyakarta.

The street looks not much different from Malaysia’s street.

A lot and a lof of locals and tourists.

Look outside of the street, it just looks like some small town street.

A shop selling some traditional snacks

There are “Petronas” snacks inside! Wonder what are the ingredients.

Jook holding an edible bowl made out of rice. Didn’t manage to try la cos nobody bought it.

While waiting for the taxi. All damn tired already.

Proof of visit for Siewmei.

Not sure what Jook trying to do here. Hahaha…

Group photo at Malioboro.

After we took the cab back to our guest house. Showered and took some rest. Then walk out around our guest house again to look for our food!

We actually passed by this restaurant the day before. And finally it’s time visit it. Remember I just went to Bali around 2 months ago, there’s a place there call Jimbaran and it’s famous for it’s seafood. So I think this restaurant brings in the food from Jimbaran. Just like in KL eating Penang Fried Kuey Teow.

The pond in front of the restaurant is actually a aquarium filled with prawns!

Fishes for you to choose.

Clams are one of the cheapest seafood there.

Calimari anyone?

Not sure if these prawns are from the pond.

Pointing down to the pond to indicate there are live prawns down there.

Price list.

Vicious fire ikan bakar.

Waiting for our food to come. They actually serve the food on banana leaves.

Quite a nice environment. One problem is that there are lizards on the roof. And one of it actually shit-ed! Luckily none of us were that lucky to kena.

We were quite early there and you can see the restaurant was quite empty. But later it’s kinda full with people.

Siewmei ordered the coconut juice which looks very delicious.

Chilis in Yogyakarta is no joke.

We ate using our hands! The waitress said is one of the tradition there. So we followed and it was quite weird to eat seafood with hands. You can feel the texture of the fish you are eating.

Hamyu praticing it.

YenC also not bad.

The most professional of us all. Shyng.

Hamyu spotted this girl behind me. Hahaha.

After the dinner, we did some exercise (walking back to our guest house) and prepared the snacks we bought from Jalan Malioboro to chill at the pondok I shot in the morning.

Having snacks and enjoying our teas kampung style, under the pondok!

That concludes our third day at Yogyakarta. One more part to come, our last day in Yogyakarta. Coming soon.

Like I said about the sun going down very early in the day, it also rises very early in the morning. We woke up 4am in the morning, prepared ourselves and took our ride to Bodobudur at 5am. All of us were thinking that we can catch a nice sunrise of the sacred Borobudur, but we think too soon. While we’re on our way there, we already saw light coming out at the horizon. Kinda disappointed, but can’t do anything. On our way there, we passed by the outskirt of Yogyakarta, what we saw impressed us. Although it was very early in the morning, but the streets were not quiet at all, we saw a lot of people actually jogging and having their exercise along the way to Borobudur. From old aunties to young boys and girls, they group together and jog their way to a healthy lifestyle.

Reached Borobudur at 6 something in the morning, and you can see that it’s already quite bright. Hamyu pulling a *nyan nyan* in the morning.

Siewmei spreading the culture of Asian poses to the people of Borobudur.

The girls taking picture in front of the almighty temple of Borobudur.

Official signage for the temple.

People came here very early in the morning.

Uncle having a nice view of the Candi (temple) under the tree.

Went up the “Stairs of Morning Exercise For the City People” and this… this is what you’ll see. An amazingly big and detailed temple of Borobudur getting its morning shower of sun rays.

Proof of visits for Mr. Ham.

Proof of visits for the girls.

And proof of visits of me. My hair kinda resemble the tip of the temple.

Stone carving on most of the walls of the temple.

Stories are being tell on the wall.

One of the 72 Buddha statues surrounding the temple.

Shadow of me scaring the wall people.

Almost the top of the temple. All these stone “cages” ware shielding statues of Buddha. A lof of the head for the Buddha statues were unfortunately stolen for some Musuems as collection.

Sun rises early in the morning.

Bell shape “cages”.

This is the top of the temple. Breath-taking.

From the top you can actually see quite far down since there isn’t much high objects surrounding the temple.

One of the exposed statue.

All the Buddha status may appear the same, but they’re different in their “mudras” or the position of the hands

Giant tip with added lighting arrestor to protect the sacred temple.

YenC at the top.

YenC is actually posing here.

Another view of the Buddha statue. So calm.

Jook documenting his trip here in Borobudur with his newly bought LX-3.

The couple enjoying the stay.

Shyng’s shirt blending into the very blue sky of Yogyakarta.

A foreigner writing down his experience here. I think.

A nice shot of Shyng sitting on the ledge on the top.

YenC tired from all the walking.

Siewmei also enjoying her shooting session here.

Amazed by the works involved in building the temple.

Every carving has its own story.

Far out you can see mountains which is also quite amazing.

Walkway on one of the level.

One of the staircase passage.

So happy~

A stone marking the “officiality” of this sacred temple in this modern world.

A foreigner helped us take this picture in order for me to help them take theirs.

The sky is always blue in Yogya.

After our trip to Borobudur, Shyng requested we go to this silver crafting factory near to the temple. So we stopped by and have a look, since Yogya is kinda famous for their silver.

A silver crafter making some silver stuffs. His professionalism can be seen from his smoothly gel-ed hair.

Seems like this silver crafting factory can attract some foreigners too.

After the factory, we head to our next destination, Prambanan, one of the largest Hindu temple in South-East Asia. The distance from Borobudur to here was not a problem to us, because all of us were sleeping in the van. Hehe…

Reconstruction works are actually under way here. A lof of the smaller shrines as you can see from the photo collapsed due to an earthquake in 2006. So this is what’s left now.

From color to black and white? I don’t get it.

Photo time~

One of the still standing smaller shrine.

Very hot in the afternoon but still there are a lot of people. There are also a lot of locals picnicing outside the compound of the temple under trees.

Fallen shrines… what a pity.

Another photo in front of one of the big ones.

Hopefully all the shrines that are still standing will remain standing for millennia to come.

Tall and pointy compare to Candi Borobudur.

Very cute “fence”.

Going in to one of the shrine.

We spotted one of the local kid visiting the temple. Damn cute with the “tudung” shading him from the sun.

Siewmei posing in one of the still standing wall of one of the shrine.

Cute or not?!

Some colour green to spice up the overall look and feel.

As you can see, the reconstruction is on-going.

Accident happened. YenC stepped onto a barb wire while walking on the grass. Luckily she’s not hurt.

Jook “stoning”.

Flying Jook.

Stone platforms remain of the smaller shrine.

Head of a statue lying around the floor.

We spotted an smaller shrine with nobody there. So took the opportunities and took some photos.

Put my camera on the rock pile opposite the shrine to take this shot.

Jook imitating the stone carving.

Cute little stone carving on the floor.

After walking around seeing the Candi Prambanan, we started walking around the outer compound and spotted this guy.

Horses are very common thing in Yogyakarta.

Siewmei posing with the pony.

Another view of a road leading to the temple. It’s freaking huge!

After we got amazed by the temple of Prambanan, we still got some time left before our driver’s time is up, so on the way back, we asked him to suggest a place to visit for us. He brought us to this Museum of Yogyakarta. Stories of how Yogyakarta got to become like this is told here.

Jook spotted this sun scene outside of the museum.

Weapon to protect. Jook being patriotic protecting Yogyakarta… eh?

This is the museum building itself.

What’s inside the top floor of the building is this. A flag on a pole and a hole from the top letting in sunlight while there are some carving on the wall showing don’t know what.

After a whole day of walking and shooting, we’re back to our temporary crib. Rumah Palagan  Guest House. A quiet and cozy place to stay.

After the reception, this is the path leading to our rooms.

Corridor in front of the rooms.

Some decor at the reception area… old-skool~

This is the pool we chill in. Nice?

So this is the end of part 1 of my trip to Yogyakarta. The next part will be the visit to Yogyakarta town itself. More blue skies next entry.