She is adorable, isn’t she? Her name is Fo2Yuan2. She is the dog who lives at Fa Yuan Vihara. This picture was taken when she was still a puppy. Now, she has grown a lot and has become a mother to 9 little puppies recently! It was her first pregnancy and we were all very surprised and excited that she could give birth to so many puppies! There were 10 puppies actually but one of her puppy had gone … few days after it was born.

She came to the vihara last year. It was a sad story. FoYuan and her siblings were abandoned in a box at a car park area. Her siblings were knocked by cars and died on the spot. She survived with a hairless tail. Perhaps the hair at the end of her tail got ripped off during the accident. One of our friend at the vihara brought her there and she was in a frightened state when she arrived. But after a while, she felt our love and care and she began to interact with us. When she was a puppy, she often puts her hind legs out like that whenever she lies down.

I still remember that she likes to bite our legs during her younger days as puppies. She wouldn’t let your legs go no matter how hard you try. She just wants to bite them. Maybe her teeth was growing, that’s why she needed something to bite on. I bought her a ball but that didn’t work out very well though. Haha… And her favourite food is egg. She can eat anything edible as long as you mix them with eggs.

She had another accident again when she has grown bigger. Her front and hind legs were injured but luckily it wasn’t very serious. She recovered quite smoothly and the next thing we know, she was pregnant!

Time flies. When we look at this picture, it brings back lots of memories of her and the moments that all of us at the vihara had with her. She is very busy now as she has nine babies to look after. I noticed that she is more alert nowadays as she needs to protect her child. FoYuan is a part of the family at the vihara now and we are so happy that she is here!

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting…Orange…in his amusing frightened postures and gestures. From his gesture, he is surprised by us taking his pictures, perhaps feeling a little bit anxious and tensed too. He is sort of like frozen and was not able to move. From some research done on the Internet, these are some of the symptoms of a frightened cat.

Another one of his frightened but amusing gesture. He is tougher compared to the Siameses when he is in a frightened or surprised condition. He would sit very still and sense what is happening around him. I believe this is also what his life experience has taught him. We have a Chinese saying that goes, Jing4Guan1Qi2Bian4, which means we must keep calm should something happen and notice its changes and developments before taking further actions.

Another one of his frightened shot. He was surprised and awaken from his nap the other day. I think this is funny because his posture and his gesture matches the situation. Perhaps he was thinking why do the humans always use this black thingy to point at me. ‘What do they want from me?’ ‘Can’t they see that I am trying to get some rest here?’ Haha…

Well, that did not persist for too long. He didn’t pay much attention on us after a short while and continued his nap.

This was taken on top of the van where the Siamese practised their height exercise. Orange didn’t need that training because he is already well-trained. He can get to the top and get down as he likes. But here, he was once again surprised by our photo shooting and bent closer to see what was going on. Orange is alert, quick and a steady little fellow. However, he needed to be taught on how to share his food with the Siamese. He learned that fast and now the Siamese is having his regular portion.

Look at him! What do you think he is trying to do? He looks as if he is getting ready to launch some sort of attack. These cats are really wacky and funny when they are in action. I can’t remember what happened during the photo shoot that caused him to present himself like that. Perhaps it was just one of those lucky shots again.

Nowadays, whenever we are back from somewhere, he would be either waiting somewhere near the house or inside the house for us. When we have stopped the car inside the porch and opened the door, he would approach us and ‘collaspe’ near our feet, roll to the left and right, presenting his tummy to be rubbed or wanting a pat on the head or a touch under his chin. And he will purr. Haha… We once read about this from a book and it says that if the cat does that, it means the cat trusts us. But once we shake his food container, he can get up faster than you can say ‘IT’S MEAL TIME!’

This is what you’ll see when he is targetting at something.

This is when he’s trying to listen. Take a look at his ears. Funny guy!

Day by day we see them grow. They have become an important part of us now. If we are back from outside and don’t see them, we will worry about them. Are they safe? Are they being bullied by stray cats who are undeniable stronger than them because they have developed self protecting skills as they are always on their own? When they were kittens, we were afraid to let them out because we have seen too many dead kittens or even cats lying flat on the road. When they have grown into beautiful cats, we are still worry about them. I believe they can feel our love towards them. We hope that we can grow old together with them.

It’s our lucky day again to be able to capture some funny post of cats. This time it is Orange. He likes to lie down on the ground when there are no cars in the porch. There he was, doing the classical cat action, scratching himself and feeling so enjoyable just because he was able to do that without any interruptions. Of course, after he noticed us spying on him and taking his pictures, he stood up and approached us…for food.

After a light meal, Orange began to clean himself by licking using his tongue. And we caught that moment too…in a funny way. What would you have in mind when you look at this picture if I hadn’t told you that he just had a meal?

This one is great. I like this one. It brings light and hope. The future is bright and the road ahead is smooth and steady. A very positive post.

Well, we also went for up close and personal with Orange that day. Strange, he also has this dirt like my Mr. Yellow. Could it really be a sign of aging because I don’t find the dirt on the Siamese.

We were moving around trying to have fun with him but he seemed to be too lazy to play. Perhaps he is not into playing anymore. This picture feels like he wanted more pampering and love because he has been out there all by himself. Who knows what he has been through? Maybe he was bullied? No one knows and nobody will ever understand how he feels.

This one is trying to be firm. Yesterday, I talked about our Siamese and how he was trying to be firm but turned out funny instead. Well, Orange really did it. I mean he really look firm and not funny. Sounds like, can I have a word with you? Haha Enjoy your day!

Everytime we look at this picture, we would laugh to ourselves. His expression is just too hard to resist. I still remember that it was a hot afternoon and we were trying to train the cats to find a way to get down from high places. So, we put them on top of a van and observed how they will manage this.

After some trials and failures to get to the ground, this Siamese sat down and had a break instead. It was indeed a very hot day so the cats were constantly opening their mouth and licking with their tongues. It must have been one of those lucky days as we were able to catch this moment with the camera. It’s like he was trying to make a funny face and telling you to get lost. Haha…

Then, he turned away from the camera ignoring us who were so busy catching his moves and expressions.

Haha! I personally think that this is an extremely funny one. I couldn’t stop laughing too everytime I see the picture above. He was like very much attracted to something and don’t want any disturbance yet his facial expression tickles you to laugh at him. He’s firm and…funny.

The fact that the weather was burning was really an issue as it also made them tired and sleepy easily. I like his stripes. They are well balanced and that makes him a handsome little fellow…

Oh well, cats will always be cats! The slightest thing will draw their attention. But too bad that curiousity kills the cat. So it is better to stay put sometimes. I wonder if they know about this.

As amusing as he can be, he is still as normal as any other ordinary cats.

Was he sniffing? I am not too sure about that. Or maybe examining the material of the roof? Or maybe he was beginning to give up and just wanted to stay on top because it was definitely cooler there.

But you’ll never know what is playing on a cat’s mind. He stood up. Stretched his muscles. And was ready to give another try. And tell you what? They made it!

We call it ginger flower.  I didn’t know that it is actually edible until I googled about this flower.  I thought that it is one of the beautiful flowers in my garden for decoration only.  But I don’t think I dare to eat it, because I am not sure the species mention on a website (Little Chi) is same as mine.

The scientific name of this plant is called Etlingera elatior.  It is also known as Torch Ginger, Red Ginger Lily, Torch Lily, Wild Ginger, Combrang, Bunga Siantan, Philippine Wax Flower, Xiang Bao Jiaing, Indonesian Tall Ginger, Boca de Dragon, Rose de Porcelaine, Porcelain Rose.  - info from Wikipedia.

I like its colours, its shape especially the white border of each petal.  The petals looks like many people wearing red and white clothings and come together surrounding a center point and formed a harmonized-coloured circle.

The middle part of the flower is not fully come out yet.  If I have a video camera that can record the flower for long hours, and I play the video in fast forward speed, it will be a beautiful dance.  Let me call it the “Real Flower Dance“.

You may not agree with me and tell me there are other flowers which are prettier, but each flower has its uniqueness.  What I can say is this is one of the prettiest flower in our garden.

Do you dare to eat it?

We found a few small boats parking along the river coast.  They are really great subjects to be photographed.  Some of them are colourful, and things around them are naturally forming good pictures into my camera.  I did not cropped them in Photoshop, but I have practised my composition skills on the spot.

 Wow…  A tiny jetty.  Do you dare to step on it?

I have learned about golden ratio in photography.  I can’t remember how much is the ratio, but I only remember that do not put things in the middle.  That’s how I apply.  …  Next come the question, where should I put the things at?  Up, bottom, left or right?

For potraid, it depends on the eye direction.  If the person is looking to the left, leave more space on the left and vise versa.  I learn this rules from my first job working in a bridal photography company.  But at some early stage while I start apply this rules, I found that I have overly done which cause imbalance.  Then I slowly forgot all the rules, and try the way whichever I like.  May be I should try lomo.  Can I use my semi-pro high power zoom camera to take lomo pictures?

Which picture is better?  Vertical (above) or Horizontal (above above)?  They give different message.

A small jetty and a big city.

Another things that I can easily overly do is zooming, because I have a high power zoom 28-560mm.  Sometimes, I can overly zoom while composing the pictures without notice it on the spot, and it is too late because it can’t be corrected in photoshop.

SLR usually has only 92 or 95% viewfinder which means the things that you see from the viewfinder is only the said percentage (92 or 95 or some good camera can reach 100%) of the picture taken.  The disadvantage for not having 100% viewfinder is you may taken something you don’t want into the picture, but the advantage is it allow you to crop and save you from overly zoom.  Sometimes this “feature” does help a bit.

Zooming allow me to see detail of a far object.  I can tell if a photo is either zoomed or cropped in PS, can you?  They are different.  Look at the background, and you will know about it.

Depth of field control is a good feature in SLR, but sometimes I found that it can be overly used as well.  I have seen someone taking pictures of flower but only a small part of the flower was in focus, the whole flower mostly blurred.  What’s the point?  I suggest that the apeature size should be reduced.

These 3 medium-sized boats wear some colour T-shirts, but different colour pants.

Zoomed out and you see more things.

Sometimes I found that a zoomed or cropped photo should put together with a wide angle to tell better how a place or a thing look like.

I always have a feeling that the objects outside a picture either they have been cropped or zoomed will not show in the final outcome and it will become the imagination of the person who look at the photo.

This place is quite high, therefore we can see the buildings across the river.

- Kampung Gersik (right across Kuching Waterfront).

- This is somewhere not far from “Fort Margherita” but our car cannot reach there. Here is a no through road.

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Exploring and Driving through Villages

We explored around and discovered a way to bypass the Tun Salahuddin Bridge (Formerly Tanah Puteh Bridge) toll plaza, and we found quite a number of villages across the Sarawak River along Jalan Brooke (Brooke Road).

I drove towards the toll bridge from Bintawa, and was expecting to pay the toll, but I found that there is a junction after we crossed the river but before we reached the toll gates, I turned into that junction and here started our adventurous tour exploring the “kampung road”.

In Malay, the word “kampung” means village. The entire journey was on the Brooke Road, but we striked through 5 villages named Kampung Pulo Hilir, Kampung Semarang, Kampung Panglima Seman, Kampung Surabaya, and Kampung Gersik. It took us 20 minutes for 5 kilometers only because I have to drive slowly in the villages.

We saw some villagers setup mini stalls right in front of their houses selling food, we saw kids playing and hanging around. Little boys were playing with little boys and girls were playing with girls. Some of them walked along the road. We saw schools, clinics and other infrastructures.

We were taking risk actually because we were not sure if one of the village were a dead end, then we have to turn our head back to get out. We didn’t know where we were. We just continued moving forward without looking back. 20 minutes seemed like an hour. SiewPeng looked a bit worried. What happen if the village road is hundreds of kilometers, and where were we going to get out to??? Finally and luckily we reached the area where we can see the Kuching Waterfront from across the river at Kampung Gersik. After taking these photos, we went back to the Kuching city using the “normal” road that we usually take.

We have been to Jalan Gersik before, that’s why we know the way to go back to Kuching using a faster road instead of kampung road, and we do not have to pay any toll even we get across the bridge :p . Thanks to Wilson who brought us here months ago to see the night view of Kuching city. It is a nice place to view the Kuching city especially at night.

Should I call this a planned trip or non-planned trip? We did not plan which direction we should take, but we planned to explore.

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Beside the river, we can see this. Let me zoom in for you.

The houses are just next to the river.

Can you guess which of the following is correct?
A. Kite in the city.
B. Kite in the village.

It look like an abandoned or uncompleted structure in a mini park somewhere at Kampung Gersik.

Since Kuching is the city of cats, we can see cats everywhere. This is a black and white cat at Kampung Gersik.

…

…

…

OK, let me tell you the answer now. The answer is B. But I have a better answer than that, C. Kite on a tree. :p

It was about 3 weeks ago while SiewPeng has her mid year school holidays for 1 week, we continued our journey to become tourist in our own hometown.  We went to Kampung Gersik, right opposite the Kuching Waterfront across the Sarawak River.  It is a good place to take photos of the city from the other side of the river.

-  The River Bank Suite had its reflection on the river.

-  Can you see the reflection?  I have a deep thought while looking at this photo.

-  Sarawak Plaza becomes left to the River Bank Suite, instead of on the right as usual we see in the Kuching city.

-  A green boat and Sarawak Plaza.

-  Does it look classical?  This photo was photoshoped.  What is your comment about the sticks at the foreground?  The tall building is a condominium some where near Petanak Road.

-  I am sure no one will deny that this is the most colourful building visible from across the river.

-  The Habour View Hotel beside the colourful Ala Cart Food Court (Cineplex on the top floor).

Kuching Waterfront view from the other side of the river.

We will post more about Sarawak River, stay tuned.

We went up these longhouse stairs and reached the Iban Longhouse. We don’t have the specific name for the stairs so we have decided to call them the longhouse stairs. Before that, you will be welcomed by planks of wood again. They have even made the handle grip to assist with the stairs climbing.

There is a common area before entering the longhouse. This common area is usually used to lay out the crops under the sun.

Upon entering the longhouse, we met two beautiful ladies dressed in the traditional Iban constume. I had a picture with them.

In every longhouse visit, there’s traditional costume for rental and that includes the Iban Longhouse of course. The friendly staff there explained that there are costume for both man and woman and she kept persuading us to rent a costume but we didn’t take up the offer because it was a hot and sweaty that day. Maybe next time. Wonder how we look like in those traditional costumes. Hehe… :p

- This is the counter for the costume rental.

From this angle, we can see some interior decorations hanging from the ceiling. We also noticed that this longhouse has an upper floor which we can’t find in Bidayuh’s longhouse. We asked the staff and found that those rooms are for the stay of guests who wants to experience the Iban’s life. We have learned that actually we can stay overnight in the  cultural village with extra charges. Would you like to try?

Bidayuh and Iban’s longhouse both look very similar, but there are some differences. From our observation, this area is the main difference between Bidayuh’s and Iban’s longhouse. Iban’s longhouse has one big common covered area outside each room at lower floor, and from here we can see the upper floor’s windows.

Iban’s Musical instrument.

There is a piece of weaving on the wall. According to the staff, the Iban ladies who perform the weaving must have had a dream about the design the night before and the weaving usually comes with special meanings. These Iban ladies are specially trained and the higher their skills are, the more tatoo they have from their fingers up to their arms.

The making of Iban’s delicacies.

We did not try them because the food was fried with oil and the weather was very hot. We could feel the heat.

- They store things in big ceramic pots.

- Their doors and walls are decorated with artistic wooden carving.

- Iban’s long house from side view.

We missed the chance to see the traditionnal musical performance at Iban long house, do you know why? Read the previous post and you will know about it.

We would like to know the name of the internal and external common area, the musical instrument, the ceramic pot. If you know them in Iban’s language, please let us know.

At the entrance of the Bidayuh Longhouse, there is a sign with the longhouse’s name with explanation of the tribe’s culture and also a path that leads to a pavilion-like circular structure which is made of mostly bamboos. It is called a Baruk, a congregation place for the Bidayuh warriors. It is connected to the longhouse by a wooden plank.

Actually, we have already spotted this structure when were visiting the longhouse and we met two ladies during the visit. One of them told us about the costume rental when we were venturing inside the longhouse. We talked to the other one when we got out. She pointed at this round building and told us that it is called a Baruk. She said that the one in the Sarawak Cultural Village is just a simple one. The real ones are twice the size of this one!

She added further that the Baruk is for the stay of single men of the Bidayuh tribe. Women and children will remain at the longhouse. The men will only be at the longhouse for meals. Men gathered at the Baruk to be trained as warriors and to have secret meetings on strategies to defeat their enemies.

This is the entrance to the Baruk. According to the lady, boys under age of 13 stay in the longhouse with their family. Once they have reached the age of 13, they will be sent to the Baruk to be trained as warriors. However, if they are married, they will move back to the longhouse again and start a family of his own by extending the longhouse.

Inside the Baruk, there is a raised platform in the middle. As we took a look straight up from the platform, we saw some human skulls hanging from the roof top. It is somewhat eerie and frightening and the lady told us that the human skulls were once the enemies killed by the Bidayuh warriors.

Inside the Baruk, we can see gongs, weapons, plank of woods and other things.

The gongs.

Interior look of the Baruk.

View at the entrance. Remember the palm leaves that act as a welcomer at the Ulu’s Longhouse? They have it here at the Baruk too.

There are straw mats on the plank of woods. I think this is the place where the men rest at the end of the day.

We are not sure what this is. Could it be something to spot the enemies from far?

A fire place in the middle of the Baruk.

Before we went into the Baruk, the lady told us that things have changed a lot and nowadays, the longhouses are built using concrete. And Baruks are not as important as before. However, we must never forget our history. Although our ancestor’s culture might not be applicable in this new and mordern age but the values of their teachings are very precious and useful because they are accumulated from life experience. If we can once again adapt the good values, I think we can still be able to make the world a better place to live. Let’s hope that all the catastrophe will be over soon.

When we reached Bidayuh house, there was no one showing us around.  There were two ladies having their lunch nearby.  We walked around and took a lot of photos.  After one of the ladies finished her lunch, she started telling us about Bidayuh long house.

I told myself,  next time we should choose a good time to visit SCV (Sarawak Cultural Village).  If there is only a few people, they are not going to play any of their traditional musical instruments.  We experienced it because not long after we left Iban’s house and go to Orang Ulu’s house, they started playing music.  We were not sure whether the music is from Iban’s house or Bidayuh house, but we were sure that we missed to see them playing the music.

Traditional Bidayuh costume for rent.  There are all colourful.

Bidayuh also know as “Land Dayak”.  The name “Bidayuh” means ‘inhabitants of land’.

Bidayuh’s Gong.

The Shields were decorated with drawings.

Their weapons.

A collection of woods used for lighting up fire.

A big bunch of shell.

-  A the back of the longhouse, there is a small corridor.

The design of the house is very simple.  There is a big commonly shared corridor in from of each doors where the inner part is shaded but not the outter part.   And there is a big room space inside each door where Bidayuhs do their cooking, and other daily activities.  At the back of the house, there would be a small corridor as shown on photo above.

This is outsides of the room where they have a commonly shared shaded area.

We don’t know what are these items called.  If you know please let us know.

We guess these are the things used to catch fish or birds.  Are we right?

Rice processing device #1.

Rice processing device #2.

Common cooking area.

We have forgotten what is this device used for.  There were too many things to learn, and we can’t remember all.

We arrived SCV at about 1:30pm, and until 5pm, we still haven’t finished visited all the houses.  As I told you, I took a lot of photos until my 8GB memory cards full.  The main reason it became full was because I took photos in bracketing mode which reduce the capacity to only one third.

More photos on Bidayuh Baruk in the next post.

This is a Bidayuh traditional bamboo footbridge. A bamboo stick may not be strong enough to support the humans’ weight, but when dozens of bamboos are arrange in an artistic shape, they can.

There are only 2 long bamboo sticks for us to step our feet on the bridge. We cannot run on the bridge because we can fall down easily especially when it is slippery. The rest of the bamboos were arranged in a way that they can support the 2 long bamboos (the feet steps) in a shape of inverted ‘y’. They become the handle of the bridge as well.

We have to hold both sides on the handle with our hands to prevent us from falling down. When I took the following video clip, I only use one hand to hold the handle. It was an interesting and risky experience.

We have to watch our steps when we get across the bridge otherwise we may have fallen down.

It may not be the best bridge but it is a valuable cultural element, which we should keep in musuem / cultural village.

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Modern vs Nature

Nowadays nobody is going to build a bamboo bridge like this for daily use (except in longhouse), everything is in concrete (even some of the modern longhouses are in concrete). We can hardly see any modern bulding structure made of nature elements. Why not let us combine the modern design and the natural elements together. We may create something that will be added on to the cultural village hundreds years later.

If bricks and concrete were to be replace by some other material, let us guess that if we can find the flat and condomimium in the musuem / cultural village thousands years in the future.

The visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village was an exciting and enjoyable trip indeed. During the visit, we saw different designs and building structures of longhouses. These longhouses resembles those that are built by the different tribes and ethnic groups. They share some similarities but still differ quite a lot from each other.

The picture above shows the longhouse of the Orang Ulu (the upriver people). When I first saw it, I feel that it is bold and stands strong against everything.

This type of longhouse is taller and supporting it underneath are wood shaped into poles. They are properly shaped and aligned and work together with a cement cube to act as the piling of the whole house. We are not sure but we don’t think that they actually have a piling like the buildings nowadays.

We got a good view of the Sarawak Cultural Village here because the longhouse is tall and therefore we could see further. And only then we realized that we have actually climbed a long staircase before we got up here! But we didn’t feel anything at all! The urge to visit another house to learn more took away the tiredness and the sweat!

We stopped to take a snap of ourselves after we have climbed up the stairs and reached the main entrance of the longhouse.

This is me posting before we climbled up a type of narrower longhouse stair. We are not sure what or how they made them but these stairs are similar at all the other longhouses. They are not easy to climb but they are unique and it was such a great experience to us.

Special carving patterns or murals on woods as well as on clothes can always be seen in longhouses. The one in the picture above is just near the staircase. The bigger woods that support the longhouse all have this special murals on them.

They have decorated the staircases with palm leaves. The leaves are as tall as a person. It feels like a person is welcoming you to the longhouse. It looks even more real if the wind blows and the leaves move because it is as though the person is bowing and saying welcome to you.

However, we have to be careful as the longhouse can only support 50 people at a time. I wonder how they manage the amount of tourists who come to visit during the peak season of the year.

Another one of those narrow staircase at the main entrance. It is also needed when you want to enter the rooms of the longhouse! We are really fascinated by the design of the longhouses!

They are display items inside the longhouse. These items show the culture of the Orang Ulu and give us some idea of what they do to make a living. However, I am not too sure what are those baskets for. My guess is they used them to catch fish. Please correct me or tell us the real answer if you happen to know.

A good view from the longhouse. This is the Sarawak Cultural Village. We like it because it is well preserved and everything is so green and natural.

This item was found in an open space in front of the rooms of the longhouse. It is previously used as a commonly shared source of fire.

As we were educating ourselves inside the longhouse, we smelt some cooking. When we entered this room, we met this friendly lady sitting on a bench on the ground. She was frying some tapioca cookies and asked if we want to buy some. We talked to her for a while and continued our journey.

Like the front, they also have a corridor at the back of the longhouse.

The floors are made of the wooden sticks.

Among all the longhouses we like Orang Ulu’s house the most, mainly because it is tall enough to view the scenery.  :)  and not forgeting the Sape’.

We have a week of Gawai and school holiday, and we had planned to become tourists in our own hometown again.  We visited the Sarawak Cultural Village on Wednesday afternoon.

SiewPeng stepped her feet here for the first time after staying in Kuching for about 4 years, and this is my second visit since 15 years ago.  Is it too far from Kuching?  Or the entrance ticket is too expensive?  Or we were too busy?  Non of the reasons above are reasonable, and finally we just make it.

First, let me show you the part that I like the most - The Orang Ulu’s Music.

The lady performed a beautiful dance while the funny guy was playing nice music on the Sape’. The sound of the Sape’ is very special. It is similar to guitar, but I don’t think guitar can produce that special tone of music.

This musical instrument is made of natural material and was decorated with drawing of natural elements. The shortest wood has highest pitch whereas the longest wood has lowest pitch. It is same as piano. Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do… I wish I can have one.

The guy was wearing only a piece a cloth to cover his “important part”.  It is nothing wrong and it actually suit our hot climate here.  He has a tanned skin as well. He is the closest to the nature.

The Orang Ulu guy was holding a Sape’.  We are not sure which tribe does he come from.

“Orang Ulu” actually means remote / upriver people, [an ethnic designation politically coined to group together roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in Sarawak.]  Kenyah, Kayan, Kelabit, Lun Bawang, Penan etc are all categorized under Orang Ulu.  [The Orang Ulu tribes can be identified by their unique music - distinctive sounds from their sape’, a plucked boat-shaped lute, formerly with two strings, nowadays usually with four strings.] - {Info from Wikipedia}

SiewPeng was holding a Sape’.

I was holding a Sape’ too but I don’t know how to play with it.

The making of Sape’. - These Sapes’ were not painted yet.

Do you believe that any natural things can become a musical instrument? I like this one, but I don’t know its name. If you know please tell me.

These traditional Orang Ulu costumes are for rent at RM10 per try.

If you would like to learn more about the unique cultural of Sarawak, the Sarawak Cultural village is a good place for you. I can feel that our culture are colourful, wonderful and beautiful.

The street decorated lights are up again.  Now it is with the Gawai Dayak theme.  After taking the photos of the big white cat, we went to 3rd miles and Ban Hock Road to take the photos of decorated street light.  There are 4 types of street light that show the activities of Dayaks, and about 6 types or more that show the shape of the shield of Dayaks in different colours.

-  Dancing with sword and shield.

-  Lady dance in traditionnal costume.

-  The process of hulling rice.

Shield #1 - Yellow + Green + Blue.

Shield #2 - Green + Yellow + Red.

Shield #3 - Red + Yellow + Blue.

Shield #4 - Yellow + Red.

Shield #5 - Yellow + Blue.

There are all hung on the lamp posts along the roads lighting up the street in festive mood.  All of the lights above have repetitions, we found different colours of shields which we do not show it here, there are too many combinations.

This is the first time I use my new camera to take Light in the Night photos.  All the previous LITN photos were taken using the old camera.  I used ISO 200 for all the photos and are satisfied with the camera’s capabilities.

My previous Light in the Night series can be found here.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Q&A.

“Selamat Ari Gawai Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai” (long life, health and prosperity) to all Dayak (Native in Sarawak, Borneo) especially to my friend Samuel and his wife.

During this festive season, our big white cat statue is decorated with Gawai Dayak Day theme!!! We can’t wait to take its photo in Dayak’s costume and holding a Dayak’s Shield.

We went to take photo yesterday evening (Gawai eve). Wow, it was not crowded but we have to take turns!!! When it was our turn, I quickly setup the tripod. Before I had done with the tripod, another group came, and we let them take their photos first. Finally, before we finished shooting our photos, another group came again.

My right hand was on SiewPeng’s shoulder, can you see it? I was actually holding a remote control of my camera on my right hand. I did not use the timer mode, but I used wireless remote control mode with 2 seconds delay instead. Since the shutter speed was 1/2 seconds, we tried not to move our body when taking the photo. I used ISO 200 but not higher to reduce the photo noise. I like my new camera.

Next to the cat statue, there are also lights and shields hanging on the poles.

Hello to all tourists who plan to visit Kuching, this is a really good place to take photos and tell that you have been to Kuching. You may know that “Kucing” means cat in Malay. Yes, Kuching is also known as cat city.

Many people who come here just simply park their car in front of the cat statue. Sometimes it can be dangerous to the traffic, because it is just in the middle of a roundabout. Therefore I suggest you to park your car at the parking space near the shops or make sure that it is safe if you want to park in the middle of the roundabout.

After the photo session with the big white cat, we went to 3rd miles, and Ban Hock Road to take the decorated lights. We will show you in the coming post.

My sister gave us a bracelet each before she took off to Perth to further her studies. The bracelet is specialy made with customized wordings on it. The words are our names. Mine has a dog’s paw next to the alphabet G. These are not just ordinary gifts because they are very meaningful to us. It is something carefully chosen and not just a pick at random from the shelves. The bracelets are light in weight but heavy in the sense of the thoughts involved when they are made.

Every single bit of the bracelet was taken into great consideration before it became the final product. My sister knows I like adorable stuff so she has chosen a cute looking font for the wordings with an additional dog’s paw shape. And the blue strap is just a perfect match! She also knows that Colin would like something more plain and natural so she has bought that for him instead of a fancy one.

These bracelets are very special because they represent us. And when I say they represent us, it doesn’t mean because they have our names on them. Yes, that is part of it but each of them has a very deep meaning and a feeling that is really difficult to express using words. When I see the bracelet, I miss my sister. But when I know she is doing fine and working hard for her future, I feel very happy for her because she is persuing what she is aiming for. Looking at this special gift, I am reminded to always treasure the people around me. And even though I feel devastated when I miss her, I’ll feel better when I look at it. It looks nice, stylish and goes well with all the clothings that I usually wear. She has made a good choice indeed. Haha…

It is not easy to choose a gift, especially a gift that you want to be certained that the other person will like and appreciate. I think she must have spent the whole day at that shop. And from the final product, I can sense the considerations taken and the thoughts deep down her heart when she was standing in front of those million choices, trying to make the best decision. Thank you my beloved sister! Take care!

We can’t bring food items into Australia, but we can bring food out of it!

In our short trip to Perth, we have also found a few yummy food to share. First of all is the famous Ferrero Rocher chocolate, except that the ones that we found were called Ferrero Garden because it came in different flavours and colours as their wrappings.

That was the first time we have ever seen Ferrero chocolate in a different theme. We were so surprised and we decided to buy it and share it with our friends. Unfortunately, there was only one left. We searched high and low but we couldn’t find another one.

At the end, we still decided to buy it. But wait…we suddenly spotted some cracks on its container. There were cracks on top of it and at the corner too. That led us to the counter to ask if they would have kept anymore in stock by any chance. Well, something quite shocking happened, but maybe because we were not used to it. The cashier at the counter immediately picked up the phone and called out for customer service! And her voice travelled to the entire supermarket!

Soon, a friendly customer service lady came to the counter and she took over our case while the cashier continued serving other customers. She went away with that box of Ferrero chocolate and came back with a sticker in the picture above! Yes! We got a reduce from approximately AUD10 to AUD4.80. And we were two happy customers! Haha… And she explained that they didn’t have any left because this batch of Ferrero chocolate was the last bit of the stock that the supermarket had for last year’s Christmas celebration.

And we also found a huge mountain of Weet-Bix at the supermarket too. And I really mean a huge mountain of it. We want to bring all of them back if we could. We can actually get them here in Malaysia but they are much cheaper there.

They look and taste delicious, especially with chocolate milk.

They are healthy too!

Well, let’s not forget to mention the yogurt that we bought. It was the Vanilla Black Cherry flavour. We just couldn’t resist the temptation of the taste and also the price. We wouldn’t buy it in Malaysia because it is just too expensive.

A cup of yogurt a day keeps the doctor away! Hehe…

The yogurt also came with fruit bits! Absolutely yummy!

As vegetarians, we really encountered quite a lot of challenges when it came to food during our trip to Perth. We ate a lot of hash browns and chips. We tried to ask for vegetarian cookings but it wasn’t easy. Fortunately, they have sandwiches and pizzas on order and we got to decide what we wanted in our sandwiches and pizzas. However, the price for eating out is rather expensive. Therefore, we bought a loaf of bread and a chocolate with hazelnut spread back to the motor inn. Don’t worry. We didn’t eat that for every single meal. Have a nice day and take care of what you eat!

Once I entered our motor inn room, I noticed that the smell of this room was same as my hostel years ago in another part of Australia. I guess Australians use some sort of similar or same detergent, which make me have the feeling of going back to my hostel in Toowoomba. Yes, my nose is very sensitive.

The room is equipped with a fridge, and anything that we needed (except forks, spoons and kitchen). Most importantly, the concept of the motor inn is interesting.

- Although the room is not really big, but there are chairs and a table.

- Soon it became like this where SiewPeng and I put some stuff on the table and chairs. :p

- We had a window next to the cupboard.

- Looking through the windows, we could see our neighbour. Did you notice the dried plant? You can find the detail of it here.

Can you see that there is a car right ourside our room?  This design is called a motor inn. Motor inn is a hotel for motorists, which provides direct access from rooms to parking area. I like this design. Compared to our normal hotel or house, we need to walk out from our room, walk along the corridor, take a lift or walk down the staircase, then we have to walk out from the main entrance, only then we can get ourselves out of the building. Whereas from our motor inn room, we can touch the sky once we open our door.

- Once we opened our door, we can see another motor inn room, and behind it there is a place that sells cars.

- Our bed.

- Red curtain, bed sheet, and the door.

- There were a fluorescence light above each of our beds. It was too bright, and we switch it off while we were sleeping.

- The tap water was not labelled with red and blue colours.

We can’t find a plain mineral water sold at the receptionist office. All of the bottled water are flavoured. The nice lady told us that the tap water is good, then I remembered years ago I did drink the tap water without boiling it which we can’t do that in Malaysia.

-Washroom.

There is a swimming pool, but we did not have time to swim there. Generally, the services provided was excellent except the receptionist working hours is too short. Our flight was early and I requested for an early checkin, we have waited for about one hour from 7am to 8am before we can check in. When we check out at midnight, we just put the key through the hole underneath the door of the receptionist room.

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Booking of the Motor inn

We went to travel agent to have our visa done, and we asked the travel agent to check the hotel as well. But most of them was above AUD$300 per night. Wow… We desided to find it ourselves.

I search the internet for the hotel and I called a the hotels in Perth using my mobile, and surpricingly the rate was only RM 0.18 per minutes. There was a special offer from my telco - the yellow guy :p.

First, I called to a hotel which the rate was only AUD$ 60 per night, the receptionist transfer the line to her manager, and the answer I got from him was that their hotel is not for international guess because it is very old, lack of maintenance, and will surely dissapointed us. He also told me that there is only 8 rooms. From this conversation, I relearned the Australian slang and started using it. I would pronounce ‘ai’pple instead of apple and ‘die’ instead of ‘day’. I believe MunYin (SiewPeng’s sister) will learn that.

Next I called this motor inn, and a friendly lady answered the phone, then I made a booking successfully through the phone without have to pay any deposit. It was easy and convenient. We may consider to stay there again if we go to Perth again.

Can you see a small white dot on the top left corner? It is the Venus - the second nearest planet to the Sun in our Solar System. In Chinese, it is called “Jin Xing” where “Jin” means golden, and “Xing” means star. It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun, the Moon and airplane’s flashing.

It is always called a morning star or evening star, because we cannot see it in noon and in midnight. Why? It is because Venus is one of the two inferior planets from the Earth which means whereever the Sun goes to, the two inferior planets (Mercury and Venus) will always follow the sun because they are orbiting the sun in a smaller and nearer path to the sun compared to the Earth.

From Earth, we can always see that the Venus is not far from the Sun (=< 47 degrees) :-

A) At noon time, it does exist just next to the Sun but we can’t see it because the sunlight is too bright.

B) At midnight, it is still surrounding the Sun but the Sun has set, therefore we can’t see it too.

C) We can either see it in the early morning (East) or in the evening (West) where the sunlight is not too strong, and the Venus is above the horizon.

It was a quiet morning in Perth, where we stayed in a motor inn. I woke up early and woke SiewPeng as well to see the Venus.

I like the sky in Australia because I can see the stars clearer compared to Malaysia. I have seen Milky Way in Toowoomba. But during our short trip to Perth last month, it was a bit cloudy at night, and we missed the Milky Way. I hope I can see the Milky Way again.

In Malaysia especially in the city, the light pollution from neon, street light, and building lights prevent us from seeing the Milky Way. May be we need to go to a undeveloped rural area in the country to find the Milky Way in a totally dark night sky.

After taking the pictures of the Venus, the sun slowly rised in the horizon. The Sky turned from black to dark blue, then orange to blue, and finally light blue. The night has gone and the new day is waiting for us.

“I like to see the sunrise.” - It is the sentense that I have repeated many times. You can find it in many of my previous posts if you are following my blog.

The macro modes on my camera are tricky.  There are  2 macro modes - macro (10cm above) and super macro (0 cm above).  But I use none of them for the above dandelion.  I found that zoom to max at 20X (560mm) under normal mode does better job.  And I am satisfied with the closest distance (1m).  The reason is I can only use widest angle at super macro mode, and need to get very close to the subject, the worst thing is there is distortion at 28mm, why not I use superzoom instead.  Compare to my old DSLR SLR has a 75 - 300mm lenses attached to it, when I zoom to 300mm, the closest shooting distance is 2 or 3 meters, which not allow me to do a macro shot.  I am satisfied with my new camera because it still allows macro at the longest focal point.

-  Christmas tree seed.

-  This Christmas tree produce a lot of seed in Autumn.

-  I am not sure what plant was this but I guess it was a dandelion because it was just next to the lovely dandelion.  Look at its green seed.  It was not totally dry and dead, there is a hope for new life.

-  Dried leaves and branches but not its seeds.

-  1.  White rose.

You may ask that why the white rose is not in the center of the picture.  I have cropped this picture and want to show you the seed of the rose.  After the flower drops all its petals, the lower part of the flower will sometimes grow bigger, it will become the fruit which has seeds inside.  If it does not turn into fruit successfully, it will dry very soon.  I like to collect the dried flower without petals long time ago from my garden.  I have a magenta rose in my garden, and it is very rare that the rose can produce fruit in my garden.

-  2.  Red Flowers.

-  3.  Yellow Flowers.

Well, can you match the above 3 flowers to the pictures below. :p

-  Plant A.

-  Plant B.

-  Plant C.

Years ago, I thought that Toowoomba is the only “Garden City” in Australia, but there are also other garden cities in Brisband and Perth (As I know).  That is nice because we are surrounded by gardens in Australia.

It was somewhere near a college during a noon time and I was shooting these trees.  They are members of a family, accompany each others for years.

Scroll to the top of this page, I am currently using a picture of a goup of trees as my blog header picture.  Does it look similar the picture above?  There were a nunbers of header pictures which were taking turn to appear on the top part of this blog, but now I fix it only to show that picture only.  If I have changed it in the future, you can still find it here (the first picture).

-  A tree can have an unchanged posture for years, and only move slowly if the nature has done something to it.  But human can destroy them in minutes.

-  Trees can have different types of hair styles.

I like to have the Albert Einstein hair style, but since Malaysia is a hot country, I wish I can have bald head instead, without have to worry how people look at me.  Is it possible?

Have you ever think of saying “thank you” to the shade tree that always cover your car from direct sun light?  I bet you will only discover it when the tree has gone.  The shade tree must be chosen properly so that it won’t drop it branches and hit the cars.

-  Trees can change their hair colours according to the 4 season in a year.  Oh no…  Are they going to become bald when the winter come?

-  It look like a haunted willow tree.  I wonder if a kid dare to stand underneath this tree.

I had a willow tree at my home garden but it was chopped by my father months ago, because he afraid that the root of the willow tree may damage our house building structure.  I felt sad and I can only had its photos as my memory.  It was once grown very tall up to about one and a half stories tall which was almost as tall as our house but I don’t have that photo.

-  The first moment I looked at these trees, the pictures of an elephant came to my mind.

-  It looked like an elephant trunk.   I don’t know the name of this tree, can I call it “elephant tree”?

-  A partially-leaveless tree always gives a lonely feeling.  The birds are its friends which accompany them most of the time.  If the tree can understand my words, I want to ask the tree if it feels thirsty.

-  This tree looks like a slim and tall girl which shows her beauty in front of me (as a natural beauty pageant judge).  :p  High score for her.

-  Can you find a father tree, mother tree and a kid tree?  They remind me about what the word “family” means.

F  -  Father
A  -  and
M  -  Mother
I  -  I
L  -  Love
Y   -  You

-  This is some kinds of seeds that I always see in Australia.  It is used as the top layer soil on ground to prevent the unwanted wild grass to grow on the ground surface.  In Malaysia, we used small pieces of unwanted / recycled plywood instead.

I like trees.  I wish to have a fruit garden where SiewPeng and I will be proud of it.  When our hair colour has turn into silver, we can sit on a bench under the trees, talk about our memories, enjoy our favorite fruits, listen to the bird songs and watch the sunset.

Wow, the plane was just right above my head!!! For kids, can you please tell me how many wheels are there?

We were walking on the street on a Sunday afternoon to the train station, and while I was photographing things on the streets, I found it and quickly zoom my camera to 560mm, and captured this, it’s not perfect because the left wing was not completely captured in the photo above. My camera was in exposure bracketing mode, I don’t have time to switch it into burst shooting mode. Within a few seconds, it was gone, and I can only take the picture below.

- There is a kangaroo on the plane.

I am always curious but not dare to try, what will happen to my mobile operator logo when I was on the airplane. When will it change from one operator to another if I fly from one place to another? Is there any border for the telco service provider in the middle of an ocean?

I have a customised operator logo which dissapeared when I reached Australia. I was using roaming service at first, and later I used phone card to call back Malaysia.

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Collecting as a Hobby

Two evenings ago (Monday evening) we were having a dinner and I talked to an uncle (the father of one of our friends) who like to collect old coins. I wonder if there is anyone collect the operator logo while he is using the roaming service of his local telco SIM card at other nations. The above operator logo is my first collection. :p Nowadays collectors can go crazy, and there will be endless things to collect. Many years ago I have a lecturer who collects different types of processors and RAM (Random Access Memory) of a computer. Anyone collect different model of mobile phones???

Do you still remember I have collected differents types of apples and brinjals/eggplants? I still have a few more posts about Perth, and later I will show you my new collection - different type of beans.

Just accoss the hotel that we stayed, not far from the bus stand, we found this road sign. We were surprised because the hospital doesn’t accept accident or emergency. We have question in our heads… Where should we go to if there is an accident or emergency?

I am not sure about the answer because I haven’t study the map of Perth in details, but what I can tell myself is that… … “Since Perth as a developed city, I believe there will be another hospital that accept accident and emergency cases not far away from this hospital.” Am I right?

It is a specially-designed curved-shaped overbridge that allow bicycle and trolley to get across the road. I have tried to push a trolley with the food we have bought in a trolley and got up to the bridge, it was not as heavy as I thought.

- Looking across the road from Westfield.

- Looking towards Westfield’s direction from across the road.

Can someone in Perth tell me if both sides of the bridge are symmetric? From where the design came from? Who designed it? And when was it built? I am very interested to know about these answers.

We found another pedestrian overbrigde which has same design as this one in somewhere not far away, but I have forgotten the road name and had not taken its photo because I was in a taxi and it passed too fast before I have time to switch on my camera. So I have found 2. I am sure there are more at other parts in WA (Western Australia) or even Perth. I just haven’t discovered them yet.

- Looking at the overbridge from different angles.

You may laugh at me and thought that I am from jungle and have never seen such a common thing in a city. I admit that this is the first time I see this design but I am not from the jungle. :p And before you laugh at me, you must think carefully if there is anything that you haven’t seen before, otherwise I will laugh at you too. :p

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This is a scheduled post, I did not wake up such early. HAVE A NICE DAY.

We are not shopaholic, therefore when we talk about shopping I can’t write much.  I will write less word in this post, but focus on an incident that I saw right in front of the McDonald at Westfield.

-Black, White, Red and Gray.  A Special design and colour combination.

-  Can you see the overbridge?  I will blog about it in the coming posts.

-  Another Entrance.

-  Car Park.

-  This board specify the Term of entry and exclution of liabilty.

-  ”Please come again.”  … …We had come again and again within 3 days while we were in Perth.

Here comes the stories.  Can you see a red-shirt kid standing in the middle of the road?  Do you know what was he doing?  Besides him, I found a few of other kids sitting beside the road holding something in their hands.  I asked myself what are they going to do?  Were they going to fight with each other?  The answer is not.  They are cleaning the glass on cars while the drivers were waiting for the red light to turn green.  The drivers pay some tips to the kids.  It is a method to earn a living as a kid.

Not to be racist, but the kids have a dark skin, can someone explain why?  Is there any white-skin kids doing this as well?  I am just curious.

-  This camera house is located across a strees beside the parking lots of Westfield.  We just passed by and don’t have enough time to pay it a visit.  If have time, I would like to check if they are selling the step up ring for my camera.

We went to a shop calls Australian Geographic in city that sells a lot of interesting things, including telescope, microscope, kangaroo, and fun games for kids and many about Australia.  We hope we can spend more time there.

We walked a lot along the Albany Highway (around Cannington) because that was the area where we stayed for 3 days.  We walked to the “nearest” shopping area  called Westfield or Carousel Shopping Centre several times within 3 days to have our stomach filled and bought the SIM card for SiewPeng’s sister.

As I mentioned in the last post, while we were walking compared to sitting in a vehicle, the scope of vision is limited but we can see a lot of the details.  I had taken a lot of photos along the road while we were walking - the bus stands, the street sign, trees, roads, buildings and even the traffic lights.  The photos will be the records of my eye sights.

-The bus stand was made of transparents glass to block the wind during the winter but allow the waiting passengers to see if the bus is coming.

I enjoyed the cool air while we were walking but when the tiredness come we had to find alternative transports.  The taxi fare is not cheep, but there is another option, we can take the bus.  Yes, these are how the bus stand looks like.

-  Each bus stop is labelled with a number, and there is a detail time table to tell that which bus and the time they are coming.  There is an SMS number to request the time of the next coming bus to the bus stop, we have tested the SMS and it worked .

-  I like to see this types of  slim and tall tree.

-  The divider between road was decorated with rocks and plants.

There was a type of smell on the street that I can’t describe using words.  It is similar to the smell I got in Toowoomba many years ago.  I guess it was the smell from certain trees or plants that I cannot get in Malaysia.  Yes, I have a sensitive nose.

I believe we were the only walker on the road because we did not see other people walking there but I did see a cyclist.

-  A brown road sign.  The stand is brown, its wording is also in brown, and the border of the board are in brown too.

-  Another type of road sign in blue and white with advertisements on it.

On Saturday evening, we had our first walk that took only 15 minutes because we walked quite fast.  When we see the overbridge, we know the shopping mall was not far ahead.

On Sunday morning, the traffic was not jam.  We walked again to McDonald to have our breakfast, and hash browns were our only choice.   There is a free wireless internet connection in the McDonalds, SiewPeng’s sister was using a laptop to get online and updating her blog, while it was my turn to check our blog, the laptop goes to hibernate mode because run out of battery power.  That’s why there was no update while we were in Perth.  The Carousel Shopping Centre was not openned on Sunday.  After having our breakfast in McDonald, we proceed to the train station to visit the Perth city.

Do you know what is the meaning of “Bus No. 11″?  It means walking on foot. :p

While we were walking on the street I was the slowest because I walked, stoped, snapped photos, run to catch up with them, and repeat the process again and again.  Luckily they did not walk too fast, otherwise I won’t be able to catch up.

-  On the way to the train station, we walked pass this building.  It looked like a combination of shop and residential house.

If I am not mistaken, the price of petrol in Australia keep on changing all the time, unlike we have a fixed rated for months in Malaysia.  Wow, AUD$1.17  is about RM3, the petrol price is quite expensive in Australia compare to Malaysia.  No wonder the taxi fare is so expensive there.

-  The blue, white and red mini flags combines to become a big flag look attractive.  It is a place that sell cars which is just next to our hotel.

-  There are a lot of car sellers along the Albany Highway.

We took quite a lot of taxi in Perth which means one of the major expenses was on transport.  Next time, we plan to rent a car, cheaper, no need to wait, and we can go freely to anywhere.  The roads in Perth are not as complicated  as I thought.  A GPS(Global Positioning System) will be enough to guide the direction.

These two pictures are taken while we were on a taxi, as you can see these is reflextion on the car windows.

-  I found a pole with an advertisement on it.  ”I buy houses CASH” and a telephone number.  Don’t you think this is a type of pollution?  I believe it is not serious in Australia.  In Malaysia, almost every electric box on the busy streets are sticked with loan shark promotion.

I did not expect that I revisited Australia again so soon after I came back from my study.  I don’t either know when will be the next time I will visit Australia agian.  May be I might reconsider to apply for PR?  I am still considering… …

One of the things that I like about Australia is their traffic system.  They take care of different types of transport including bicyclist and pedestrian.

Not all footpath is for bicycle in Australia.  I had an experience with a police who stopped my friend and me, and a group of primary school kids for cycling on footpath in CBD Tooowoomba 7 years ago.  I remembered I had read from somewhere that the bicycle is not allow on foot path in CBD and I told my friend, but my friend said, “The kids did it, why can’t we?”  Luckily the police just asked how old we were,where we came from, gave us warning and let us go.  The police shifted his attention to the kids, who not only cycled on the footpath, but they were not wearing helmets too.  I heard the police said to the kids while we start to step on the pedal and left, “where are your parents?” … …  I know I was lucky and wish the kids were lucky too.

-  Footpath with bicyclist and pedestrian sign.

“With different vehicles, we can have different scope of vision.  The faster and higher the vehicle is, the further we can see, but not the details, the slower we are, for example walking or cycling, we have limited our scope but we see everything we see in  more detail.”  - (c) 2009 colinjong :p

I wish I can ride bycicle in Kuching, but it is impossible.  It is too risky.  The footpath is not design for bicycle, and some of the roads here do not even have a footpath.  I never think about there will be a traffic light with bicycle sign in Kuching.

Let me tell you some poor traffic system in Kuching, the taxt drivers have to build a taxi stand themselves near a hospital in 3rd miles Kuching.   I am proud of the taxi drivers but feel shame of the authority who are responsible for the traffic system.

It was a Sunday, we took a “long” walk from the hotel we stayed and reached the train station.  We walked along the Albany Highway and we passed through the Carousel Shopping mall.  The weather was not really hot, we were not sweating but the low humidity dry air made us thirsty easily.

When we reached the train station, we did not know how to get the tickets.  We asked a helpful couple and discovered that the ticket selling machine was just behind the seat.  The helpful lady and her husband demonstrated how to buy the ticket from the machine.  She talked to us and told us the places of interest in Perth on our journey from the Cannington station to the Perth City.

This is another lady who wanted to get down from the train.  The button needs to be pressed to open the door when the train stops at each station.

The helpful lady has a strong accent, we could catch what she said but not every word.  I remember she told us many places of interest in Perth such as the Casino.  Surprisingly on our return trip on the train we met this couple again.  Again, the helpful lady told us more about Perth.  This couple take their bicycle with them onto the train.  When we reached the Cannington station they also get down from the train.  Before we had the chance to say bye bye and thank them, they went away toward the other direction because they use the path to allow their bicycle to get down the staircase.

-  This is the Cannington train station.

-  Looking to the left.

-  Looking to the right.  The train was coming but it was not at our side.

-  There is always a signboard to tell us how long the train will be coming.

-  The ticket selling machine.

-  The complete routes can be found in the train.

-  Before we get on the train on our return trip, we were not sure which platform should we go to.  This is the center where all different routes meet here.   We were lucky because the train started to move not long after we get on to it, otherwise we might have missed the train and have to wait for the next one.

-  This station is bigger and has more facility compare to the Cannington station.

-  A lot of people had just arrived and queuing to take the escalator to the upper floor.

-  There is another escalator and bridge at the otherside that allow passenger to get across the railway.

-  Crowded.  Some of them were wearing their uniform.  I guess they might have just finished their activities and came to the city to have their lunch.

Generally we are satisfied with the service of Transperth Train.

Trainsperth is a brand name of the public transport system in Perth, Western Australia which was launched in 1986 as part of a series of reforms integrating Perth’s public bus, ferry and rail services. — from Wikipedia.