Introducing Ko, a girl with an attitude! Well, maybe she looks like one la, but she’s a very friendly person.

Sherrina, I think if you follow my blog you’ll know who she is.

Nicole, first time meeting her. Hello.

She’s not outdated yet wearing that Argentina jersey while we were having this shoot. Because the shoot took place before World Cup 2010.

After our shoot, we started playing kick-the-wall-and-jump shots. This is Clive’s attempt.

Onnyee surfing the wall.

Sherrina dancing with the wall. I think she’s doing the Cha-Cha.

Nicole rushing back from the shoot cos she saw the sky was dark and it was going to rain.

Sherrina’s superb pose! Got the Michael Jackson feel! Aaoouuu~~

The 3 models involved in this themed shoot.

This shoot ended up very fun for all of us. Cos we have the location all for ourselves without other people disturbing us. Wanna say thank you to everyone involved in this.

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.

Fidella, Zeejay, Cliff, and gang were there already when we reached. They’re already choosing their bikes, and there are a lot of other people there too picking their bike. Luckily we got there in time, if not I think it’ll become a walking trip for us. So we picked our bike and headed to the right side of the park. We’ve already explored the left side when we were here the first time.

Paddy field, it is not call Agricultural Park if there wasn’t the paddy field.

Siewmei and YenC chose their bike and is ready to go!

Second timer also with us in cycling trip, Shyng.

First time joining, Jaemy.

Another first timer joining us also, Mr. Chokyan.

Shyng looking at the map to see where can we cycle while the Cliff gang was chatting behind there.

Fidella also ready to go with her towel matching her singlet’s colour.

Cliff ready to shoot.

Zeejay already shooting.

How come YenC already look so tired?

While waiting for some of them to get back from changing bikes.

Wearing white today.

For this trip, after the first part, I changed the lens of my camera to my new 50mm. Hopefully got to shoot some nice photos using it. Look at the bokeh behind Shyng.

There’s this sad animal section in Taman Pertanian Malaysia. Spotted one cute and fluffy rabbit.

Me got my towel too.

A map to guide.

There are a lot of stops in this cycling trip cos we don’t know where to go and we want to rest. Hehe. Here’s one stopping.

We followed this sign that says rabbit farm, so we parked out bikes at the road side and we walked up a small hill. There’s a big cage, but there isn’t any rabbit there anymore. Wonder where they went.

The only rabbit that’s left was under the hill of the rabbit farm, it’s a rabbit slides where you go in from the mouth and slide back out at the rear end of the rabbit. Shyng immitating the expression of the rabbit slides.

After the rabbit farm, there’s the fish farm where there’s nothing much to see also. But we stopped and take photos. Behind Siewmei is a small lake. Not sure if that’s part of the fish farm.

There’s this old chair on a small dock facing outwards. I guess people sit there and fish.

She said she wanna jump. Keke…

Taking chances to take photo.

A shot taken when i was cycling behind Siewmei. Not bad huh.

Colourful bike.

We passed by the 4 Seasons House. When we walked to the entrance there, we saw a ticket booth, we turn our way down the hill a bit to another small lake with a very nice wooden bridge.

YenC posing on the bridge.

Another one with reflexion.

After I took YenC’s photos, she asked me to go over there to see this nice view. A reflection of the sun on the water. The clouds covered/darkened the sun until you can see the outline of the sun.

They were playing with the reflection of the sun on water, and Jaemy shot some very very nice photos.

This is what I grabbed, you guys should check out what Jaemy shot in his blog (if he got upload).

Red ants (lower right) on the bridge with the reflection of the sun below.

Another not so nice looking bridge opposite.

While we were walking out from the lake, YenC saw a tree.

Cracked skin tree. Must be the hot weather. Damn hot ahh…

We stopped at a small shop an YenC advertise for 100 Plus.

After the rest, we continue our journey, and we saw mushroom farm, so we stopped. Inside there, again there was no mushrooms, only fake ones. After drinking 100 Plus, YenC hungry already.

A chili shaped post box. Which already turned into a dustbin. Shyng still stick her face on to it. Yer…

Sitting on top of the fake mushroom.

YenC said look like a scene from Alice In Wonderland where the big worm sitting on top of a mushroom smoking pipe.

Walk further in and you can see this tower next to another lake.

This is where the tower is facing.

When we were there, a lot of primary students were there also.

Chopped bamboos.

We spotted this weirdly shaped tree next to the tower. Not sure what Shyng is trying to do in this picture. Hahaha…

Posing?

Asked SiewMei to help me shoot this. Like it a lot.

YenC also want a shot like that. Hehe…

And lastly SiewMei.

Going up the tower. There are 3 different levels on the tower.

2nd level with the lake behind her.

Wah hair very shiny ah!

Lotus leaves and stuffs in the lake.

So happy. Funny face Shyng.

Another shot of them.

My turn.

Me trying to shoot more portraits. Free models. Hehehe…

Wedding shoot practicing.

Secret garden opposite the lake.

Top roof of the tower.

A very hard decision for this Italy football player to take the next step.

Nice?

Mo Budget in Taman Pertanian yo.

Using back the same staircase.

Jaemy acted like the movie poster of Winter Sonata. LOLz

Shyng’s cycling shoes.

Will Jook be angry?

Chokyan got a lot to think.

Eunice, Chokyan and YenC used to worked in Slipknot.

Jaemy wrapping his head with his towel and posing for Shyng to shoot.

The pirate with his telescope which can see 100+ meters.

Walking down.

Uphill are very difficult to cycle. So everyone started pushing.

The last place in the map, the dam. No fishing on the way in. Barped wires as security.

Fish farm moved here from the old place? This place got more fishes that the previous fish farm.

All exhausted from the ride uphill.

That’s the dam.

A chair for people to sit while fishing.

The walkway on top of the dam.

Do you dare to climb down to the water?

I think this is to control the water level of the dam.

Grass growing on the face of the wall.

People fishing from the dam.

I think we had a better cycling trip this time compare to the last. Maybe because of the journey was not as hard as the 1st time. For whoever wanted to live a healthier life or just to enjoy a little adventure from your daily chores, you can come to Taman Pertanian, Shah Alam to rent a bike and ride.

Advertising put outside the shop.

Choose the oil that’s gonna be rub on you. But I think they didn’t really used what we’ve asked for. Cos it all smell the same.

It was a nice massage experience. Very different from Thai massage. I still prefer Thai style massage as you’ll feel more relax afterwards. Balinese massage leaves you a very oily body. Haha…

After the massage, Abang Made reached our hotel to pick us up for the day. The place we going next is this, Pura Taman Ayun (based on what Andrew said. For more information about the place, visit Andrew’s blog). So here we are under the hot sun again.

I think this is one of the guard house.

Look-out tower, can oversea the front side of the whole garden from top.

This is what you can see from the top, the inner part of the garden (left) is block by trees, so you can’t really see the temple inside.

Next to the entrance, there’s this art shop man by 1 artist. Some drawings in there are really nice, the details are excellent. Photo are eggs with painting for sell. Not cheap and hard to carry around. So we didn’t buy any.

The main entrance to the temple part.

The temple (left side of the photo) is surrounded by this river/drain? So we can just walk around it, outside the fence (behind the wall on the right of the photo).

Multi-layered roof temple known as Merus. As famous as Bali’s multi-layered cake.

Me cam-whoring with the Merus.

A whole stretch o f Merus form the temple/shrine inside. Nice blue sky.

After Pura Taman Ayun, we headed to Berdugul, where the Ulun Danu Temple was built on the Bratan Lake. I was not feeling quite well because of all the travelling already. Cos this place is a highland and we’ve drove for around 1 hour+ to reach here on winding roads. For those who knows me knew that I’ve got this motion sickness problem. But the place was very nice and cooling. So no matter how unwell I am, still got photos to take. Hehe.

Temple on the lake.

The temple, guarded by frog statues on 4 sides. The feeling it gives from the photo feels very Japanese. Haha. Wonder how they go pray though. Swim?

Couple shot again.

Wedding shot.

Wedded shot.

What was Steven’s expression?

Sweetest photo from Bali. Hahaha. Now really look like wedding shoot.

After Ulun Danu Temple, we went to this market place around the same area to grab our lunch. Look at the sign, Deluxe Western Toilets! The font size is same as the name of the restaurant! Must be one of the attraction. Hahaha.

This is the market where we bought some strawberries, and some souvenirs. Dom, Bird, and Andrew couldn’t resist the look of those nice jagung (corn) that was carried by those women sellers on their head. So they went and bought some, but it ended up the jagung was very hard, and 1 even got worm inside! Ewww~

Final tourist spot for us to go, Tanah Lot. We reached there around 5.30pm. Need to walk fast to catch the sunset.

When we walked through the markets outside, we saw these crowds of people there. Look at it man, damn a lot of people la.

This is the famous Temple of Tanah Lot. When the tide is high, you can’t actually walk to the temple cos of the treacherous sea below it.

People standing on the rock waiting for sun the set. But the sunset today was not good. Cos there’s a lot of clouds blocking the view. A lot of dissapointed tourists. Including me.

Waves hitting the wall of the rock creating high splashes of water. Look at this couple risking themselves to take a nice picture.

Girl: “Oh no, the wave is so big, I’m scare!”
Guy: ” Nothing one la, just some shower only.”

Girl: “Ahhhh~~~~”
Guy: “Aiyak!”
Wave: “Yum”

Such a nice scene.

Proof of visit.

Getting late, the waves getting higher and more dangerous. Tourists were asked to fall back to inner beach to avoid being swipe away.

We’ve stepped foot in Tanah Lot.

We’ve told Abang Made that we need to grab some famous Balinese kuih to bring back. So, Abang Made brought us to this place, Pasar Badung. This market is like 7-11, it opens 24/7 non-stop. It was around 8pm that time, and I didn’t see any tourist in sight besides us. So this is a local local market.

The market was quite big, and it’s next to a river.

The aunty that we bought Kuih Lapis from. She told us that the Kuih Lapis can last for some time. She lied. I bought 2 and bring back to office, and 1 of them fungus-ed within a week.

Not sure whether that’s cow or pig’s intentines. Gross…

Stall selling Canang Sari and other stuffs for praying purposes.

After Pasar Badung, dinner time. Because there was not many interesting stuffs to eat, so we decided to get ourselves one last bowl of Bakso before we leave Bali. Abang Made brought us to this Warung Ayu Minantri I where we witness the incredible huge meat ball.

The gang waiting for our food to arrive. From time to time, you can see Balinese couples coming in here to eat. Based on Abang Made, this apparently is a popular place for young couples to come and dine.

The bowl closer is the normal Bakso. The second bowl is the Bakso Urat. Huge meat ball!

After the dinner, the plan is to get 1 hotel room for all of us to put our bags and lepak until morning. Because our flight back is 7.50am the next day, means that we need to get to the airport around 6. So it’ll be a waste if we rent 3 rooms for all of us.

But we’ve got some bad news from Abang Made, he told us we can’t get 1 room for 7 of us, so he offered us a stay at his office, so nice of him. Since we don’t quite care about where to stay as long as we can shower, we agreed. So we went to his office around Denpasar area.

After all of us showered, we’ve got nothing to do but just chit-chat. Dom managed to grab a jagung from a bicycle seller going passed. So I’ve setup my tripod, and took some group photos. Dom enjoying his corn.

Ip Man!… since Andrew’s last name is same as Ip Man. Hahaha…

We asked Abang Made to join us in our group photo. In this photo, he’s our dai-lou.

Everyone of us with our ride in Bali. A good experience.

DK 1750 YF. Our ride. After that night, we woke up damn early in the morning, head for the airport, and flew back to Malaysia.

Our first oversea trip. Success! Hope to do it again soon guys!

Let’s see, first stop we’re going to visit is to eat! The very famous Babi Guling Ibu Oka. But when we reached there, the waitress told us the babi haven’t guling yet. Hahaha. So we have some time to explore the town of Ubud a bit. The restaurant is quite near to the art and craft market, just 3-5 minutes walk. But in between the market and the restaurant, there’s this temple.

Not sure about the name of this temple, but if you’re at the Restaurant Babi Guling Ibu Oka, it’s just opposite it. So we don’t care, actually more like I don’t care about what temple it is, got nice temple, shoot la! Hehe…

Steven’s asked me to take a picture of him and the temple guardian.

Inner entrance of the temple. A lot of doors, don’t know which one will lead to where.

Sue and Dom with the stone wall carving.

After we came out of the temple, with a little walk, here’s the market of art and craft. Didn’t really captured the impression of how big this market is, it’s actually quite big, not just this front street. Behind these shops got a lot more stuffs to see. Be sure to check them out if you’re there.

Next to the market there’s this place for people to pray, kinda like a shrine. You can see stacks of Canang Sari on top of each others.

A woman behind the market place carrying super tall fruit basket walking towards the market place. Strong neck aunty!

Tourist walking in front of the temple mentioned earlier.

Here we are! Around 11am++, we’ve come back to the restaurant and the babi is guling-ed already! So we sit down and ordered ourselves a mix set with a little bit of this and that.

Here’s how the mix set looks like. Here you can see the sauce covering the meat, then on the left you have some vegetables, further up is the pork skin. Covered by the pork skin there’s some intestines (I think they fried those). Then there’s the rice also. Babi guling, it’s actually kinda like Siu Yok for chinese. After trying this, I still prefer the Siu Yok.

Look at Sue acting! Hahaha… she actually doesn’t like the babi guling that much also.

After the meal, we went up. Our destination is to Mount Batur. But on the way there, we stopped to look at some nice paddy field sceneries. The place we stopped is a cafe for people to sit and enjoy some Balinese coffee while enjoying the paddy field scenery. Then I saw this notice. I also saw the farmer there. So, better avoid shooting him la, so lansi, he should pay me for shooting him.

This is the nice paddy field scenery you can see from the cafe. So nice, not sure if Malaysia got this kinda paddy field or not.

Turning gold.

Ducks can be seen in the field. Yum~

Blue sky, green paddy.

Duck shooting? Hahaha.

Like this shot. The guys enjoying the paddy field. Dom downgraded to Sony compact while Bird upgraded to the Canon Professional 1Ds. Hahaha…

Evonne like rice.

Sue enjoying her coffee, Bali style~

After the paddy field, we continue our journey to Mount Batur. We were all shocked to see such beautiful scene of this Volcano. Breathtakingly nice~ The black coloured stuffs below the mountain is not shadow, those are actually lava!

Next to Mount Batur, there’s the Lake Batur. Very pretty looking also.

Here’s a panoramic view of the whole scene. One word… very nice~
Looking at Mount Batur, you can feel the cool breeze blowing towards you, something like Genting, but less moisture. I think the lava emits a not so welcoming smell around the area. But the view overcomed the smell.

Heard from Siewmei that there’s this restaurant which serves buffet here, you have your buffet while overseeing at the volcano. Abang Made didn’t bring us there. But then we were still quite full at that time.

Cam-whoring.

Dom helped me on this picture. Me standing between mountain and lake. Not that i don’t want to smile, blame the sun. Hehe…

After staying a while enjoying the view of the volcano, we went down the mountain. Stopping at this place, TBA. Hahaha… not “To Be Announced” but the place is call Trisna Bali Agrotourism. Here you can see the agricultural stuffs in Bali such as coffee, cocoa, spices, and fruits. They even have the Kopi Luwak (shitty coffee, one of the most expensive coffee in the world) here. In the photo above, coffee berries.

Never see a mangosteen tree before!

The guys enjoying some sample coffee and tobacco (have to roll yourself) here.
From left, Andrew, Bird, Evonne, Dom, Sue, Steven, and our guide Abang Made.

Tirta Empul, Holy Sping, is our next stop. I think everyone that comes to Bali, they’ll sure visit this place. At the entrance, statue guardian.

Walk passed this pone with many many Koi fishes.

Men and women, young and old Balinese come here to bath in the holy water for its curative and restorative power.

Cleaning in progress.

Their power got restored!

Crystal clear water. Canang sari can be seen everywhere.

Praying couple. Wish them luck.

Here we have 3 Balinese doing some traditional Balinese dance. Bali people are just so friendly, their smile so welcoming. Wonder why they carrying DSLR though. Hahaha…

It was evening already when we reached Jimibaran for our dinner. Based on sources, seafood here is a must try also. So Abang Made bring us to this restaurant, Dewata. Frankly speaking, the seafood here are not really that superb, I’ve tried better for a much cheaper price. But then if we didn’t try, we wouldn’t know.

After the dinner, we went around Kuta area looking for hotel again. We’ve finally found one called Grand Sinar Indah. Not bad a place, just renovated. So we took our luggage from the van to our room, then we went out again. Kuta beach revisit, at night. After some walking, we bought some SNACKS and drinks, took 2 cabs back to the hotel, and started chilling by the poolside again.

End of part 2.

A year later, Dominic and Sue, Bird and Evonne, Andrew, Steven, and me came to Bali thanks to our low fares airlines. It was kind of an adventurous trip for us cos we’ve only booked the hotel stay for the 1st night, the rest of the nights we’ll need to look for rooms there and then. What we’ve heard was there are plenty of places to stay in Bali, so none of us worried.

The trip was scheduled on 4th – 8th May, seems like 5 days, but the actual time we were there was only 3 full days because we’ve got the late afternoon flight (which was delayed) there and the freaking early flight (which was delayed also) back.

Our pre-booked tour guide for the trip, Abang Made, was waiting for us at the airport. He drove a Suzuki van, which he afraid was not big enough to fit us all cos there are 7 of us, therefore he asked a hotel guy to drive another van to pick us up from the airport. Me, Dom, Sue, and Andrew were sitting in Abang Made’s van while the rest was sitting in the other van. The distance between the airport and the hotel was only 5 minutes, but it took the hotel driver 15-20 minutes to reached there. Based on the victims, the driver banged a car while reversing, lost his parking tickets, and he GOT LOST! WTF! (we were thinking that that guy doesn’t even have a license to drive) LOLz. Welcome to Bali!

The view from our room from the hotel we stayed for the 1st night.

Pool area where we chilled and have beer for the 1st night.

A gate for a house? or a hotel? just down the road.

Introducing Bird

Introducing Evonne (Bird’s girlfriend)

Introducing Steven (single)

Introducing Sue (Dom’s wife)

Mr. Dominic

And the last contestant is Andrew.

First stop, Nusa Dua. A place where water sports are played like those banana boats and stuffs. None of us were interested. Hahaha… cos it’s freaking hot and the beach was not really nice.

So we just stood there and watch for a while then we cabut. I think Abang Made got a bit puzzled cos we came to Bali, but we not interested at the beach.

2nd stop, Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park located at Ungasan. The park is devoted to the Hindu god Vishnu, and his mount, Garuda.

This is a paper replica of god Vishnu and his mount Garuda.

A portion of the big statue displaying indoor.

Strange walkway with high walls from both sides.

The god’s ride, Garuda.

This is how Mr. Vishnu look like. What happened to his hands? Later you’ll find out.

Nice blue sky for us to shoot.

We were saying that Bird hired us as photographers for him and his girlfriend cos we carried DSLR there. So expect more photos of them.

This photo looks familiar. Took something like this is my Sungai Lembing trip.

I guess this is Bali’s version of Lion Dance. Kinda scary looking for me especially with the hairy body. They look like real hair.

A mythical creature related to Hinduism.

There are many kinds of mythical creatures there.

One of the instrument they use in celebration.

The walls around the park have some cool carving on them.

Masks on the wall.

1 of the water feature in the park.

Holy water anyone?

My first bowl of Bakso and my first botol of Teh Botol Sosro.

Tadaa! Lower down the hill of the park, located the hands of the of god Vishnu. Not sure why they put them seperately, I was thinking the scaling was wrong, cannot fit, so put down here and don’t waste it.

My mortal hand.

Next stop, Uluwatu. A place where fearsome monkeys rule the land. Spectacles, shades, hat, cap, umbrella, earrings, and food must be kept very safe or don’t even bring these stuffs in. I was scared so I took out my earring.

Attire lower then knee length are required. If not, you’ll have to wear these sarungs like demonstrated here by Andrew and Steven.

Sawadikaa~… oh wait…

The sky was not as nice at that time, cloudy like gonna rain. But the view is still magnificent.

Looking down. Waves hitting rock faces of the cliff. Becareful, you can fall. Don’t look if you’re afraid of heights.

Bird and Evonne’s proof of visits.

Sawadikaap~… oh wait…

Andrew’s proof of visits.

Mini group photo. Look at the cliff, there’s no fence to protect you from climbing down.

Same pose from the couple.

I’m on the left side of the park looking towards the right side.

Staircase to the upper part. Guarded by monkeys (They’re hiding in the trees).

Nice brick wall.

One of the guardian.

Top part of the temple, can’t get into the left part because it’s only for praying people.

Another view from the top part looking towards the right side. Nice cliff and waves.

Mr. M chilling on the wall.

Temple overseeing the horizon.

Sue preparing to shoot a panoramic shot using the Horizon panoramic camera.

Dom trying to camwhore using his 1Ds. LOLz

Next stop, the most famous beach in Bali, Kuta Beach.

A lot of Guai Lowsss.

Hot sands.

Preparing to be Guling-ed.

It’s safe to swim out there.

Look at these 2 foreigners surrounded by the locals giving their whatever services to them. I bet they felt like Kings.

Although the beach is not as nice as Redang, but it’s still better than the earlier beach at Nusa Dua. Don’t have those parachutes and banana boats stuffs here. Here’s more like for people to surf.

The kid posed nicely for me to shoot while me waiting for them to finished their Balinese Rojak.

Opposite the beach.

McDonald’s without air-con. Hot~

Ronald McDonald surfing. He’s still so white under the burning sun.

Cafe opposite the beach.

The statue looks like a scout. Didn’t bother to go near and read. Hehe…

Another shot of the street.

Leaving Kuta Beach to Ubud, passed by the memorial park for the Bali bombing incident.

Reached Ubud around 6pm. Headed straight to the famous Dirty Duck Restaurant. It’s call the Bebek Bengil in Indonesian language.

People eating in huts next to lotus pond. We chose another one nearer to the paddy field.

Old-skool~

Not sure when can eat rice.

Close-up of the field.

Another shot of them.

Oil lamp to decorate the surrounding area.

The duck meat is nice in this dish.

The best food for me in Bali.

After Bebek Bengil, we went scouting for rooms. Found 1, the rate was ok and it’s got the pool.

The look of the hotel is very nice, just that the interior of the individual room was kinda sucky. But then again most of the hotels’ room are fully booked. We’ll have to settle with this la.

Another pool where we chill and drink Bintang the night before.

A lot of green, soothing.

Bird preparing himself to jump into the pool.

That’s it, end of part 1 .

Still doing some filtering on the photos I took from Bali to be blogged. Will do it as soon as possible.