In the quest of searching some mangoes during this Harumanis season, I took the chance of capturing some of the scenes around Perlis. Our journey that day started at around 3 pm and we went for a all around tour in Perlis from North to South. One of my favourite stop was at the Sungai Berembang Beach during sunset. I had the chance to experiment with many different shots. Plus with the help from my sisters and cousin as my models for that day.

So this is a little bit of what I had seen through the lens around this week in Perlis. I’m not really satisfied. There’s only a few that can be chosen as the best. Something is different about digital photography that you can’t achieve compared to the manual one. Lame excuses?

True. I’m still getting the hang of it. It’s like a jet-lag or a hangover from something different. I’ve been reading manuals and tutorials on the internet, asking some friends, browsing through some great collections of picture for inspiration lately. A few different techniques really took my attention. I’ve been practicing in my backyard and around town. The first moment of taking the camera out in front of strangers in the middle of the busy streets really freaks me out. It’s soo awkward. 

About my life, I also went to see the dentist, which is the the most terrifying thing for me. I get my front cavities fixed, and I’ll have to come again later for some other treatments. It’s not that bad except for some little pain I felt during the ‘drilling’. But it’s nothing I can’t handle.

I know. Pathetic right? Don’t get me started on needles.

After for about a year and a half now I was practicing with manual film SLRs and lomography, this week I took a big step in this interests of mine. I am now an owner of  a Nikon D90 camera with 18-105mm VR kitlens. To be frank, I have never gotten this excited. All I wanted to do now  is to go for a photography outing and the good news  is I am in my hometown Perlis right now. There is so much thing to shoot. I already have a whole lot of ideas in my mind. But planning won’t help much because you’ll never know when a good moment is in front of you.

I bought this camera at Foto Selangor, Pertama Complex with a very good deal. Together I grabbed a Nissin Di622 speedlight for flash photography, which is something else to learn. I haven’t explore all the settings yet but so far I am totally satisfied with this one. Even the built-in flash is good for extra lighting. Moreover, it also has a movie-capture features in HD, one of the firsts in DSLRs. I have no regret at all for changing my minds from Canon to this Nikon. Good thing I made a detailed survey based on reviews on the internet before this.

After this, maybe this blog will be updated more frequently with more photo sets than before!

Firstly, I would like to apologise about the bad image quality. It was taken really quick with my 2MP phone camera one day only because the lecturer asked for some pictures to be put in a CD. Then only I realized that I haven’t taken any pictures of my project. Even during the presentation and portfolio day. Rugi je pakai cantik-cantik. 

So this final project is about a living space that can occupy 7 dwellers (parent, 4 kids, 1 maid, and maybe 2 cats lol) together with a working space suitable for the client. Oh I hate telling all this stuff all over again because for the past 2 months this is what I have been working on. And, my concept is Urban Villa blablabla and so on lah.

The best thing is that for the first time ever I managed to get the grade that is higher than previous semester and during my matriculation days. So my self-esteem is back on top and I’m really looking forward to maintain this form until the day I graduate. yay. 

I currently have a 2 weeks break now before Short Semester 3 starts and I’m spending it in KL this time. Sadly here I am sitting at home stealing my neighbours Wi-Fi on a cold Sunday. WTF is my friends? Or do I have any? Reality check. hmm.

So here I am, on the balcony (not really, just saying) studying Building Construction and Materials 2 on a beautiful Thursday evening. Where everyone could relax because tommorow is only Friday and in my previous school MRSM Langkawi,  Friday means holiday.

Talking about school, I’ve just realized something interesting today;

I’ve always admire Yuna, the independant singer who is currently becoming quite well known all over Malaysia with her songs on the radio. She is really really talented. The first time I heard her voice a while ago I thought she was from outside of this world. OK that was a bit hyperbole, I meant I thought she was not from Malaysia. In my opinion her music got the style of Colbie Caillat with a touch of Corinne Bailey Rae. She is a good composer too. So today I was listening to her nice songs while studying, and suddenly it occured to me to open her Facebook page (yeah I’m in Facebook too, add me LOL). I’ve never thought of checking out her Facebook before. But today I did.

In her notes written in the page, I found out that Yuna or her real name, Yunalis once schooled in Kangar, Perlis. In fact in the same school as mine, SMK Derma. Then old memories kept coming to me and I realized that I’ve actually met and known her before. No wonder she looks really familiar. In fact, her mum was a Chemistry teacher in the same school and a friend of my mum. I was only a small little boy in lower form back then. I remembered watching her with the bowling team practicing in Alor Star because we don’t have a bowling alley in Perlis. But I think I’ve never actually talked to her in school.

Come to think of it, it is actually interesting to find out that a person you’ve met before have become a well-known person today. I don’t know about you but I really do think that way. Anyway, do check out Yuna’s songs and buy her original EP (which is currently sold out, yeah).

I am really not in the mood to study right now. And I hate Chelsea.

It took me nearly two months to complete this travelogue. Nothing really happened in between. It’s just that I just managed to find the right time to finished this up tonight. Hopefully the next one about Jakarta is coming not so long after this. Warning: This post contains many pictures.

On Wednesday, 10th December 2008 our flight departed from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) and arrived at Soekarno Hatta International Airport (CGK). We flew with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from Amsterdam which stopped at KLIA before continuing its journey to Jakarta.  It has been a while since I flew with a 747. The last time was back in 2004. The flight attendants seem to me like a little bit older compared to Malaysia Airline’s. And they’re fierce too. Now I know why we still have the best cabin crew title.

Soekarno Hatta is a very small for an airport, but I really like it. It’s not too crowded and at least you don’t have to walk a distance to go around. After dinner, we went straight to Bandung, which took more than 3 hours of travel by road.

Then we arrived at the hotel. It is nothing fancy. But just good enough for a place to stay. Oh, I watched the telly before that. Got to love Indonesian commercials. They’re funny!

Early morning the next day, we were taken up to Tangkuban Perahu volcano where the big crater is and we can go right by the edge of it. It was my first experience in being so close to a volcano crater. 

It is called Tangkuban Parahu (in Sundanese) because from far it looks like an upside down (tangkuban) boat (perahu). There is also a legend besides the name but I don’t really know about it. Go google.

We were among the first to be there and waiting for us, were the salesmen. They also helped you as a ‘guide’ to that place hoping that you will buy their goods in return. From keychains, necklaces to woodcrafts, I can say that they sell almost everything. The guy who followed me around all the time definitely picked the wrong guy. I was penniless at that time, I swear if I have any money I would’ve bought the keychains he sold, out of pity. It’s cheap anyway.

Look at the pictures above, see how many of them were there. But don’t worry, they won’t do anything harm or bad to you. At least not to us.

Then we go back down to the capital of Bandung -to the Grande factory outlet. The outlet’s appearance is quite decent. My expectation was it is going to be full of unknown boring clothes and expensive like most factory outlets in Malaysia, but I was wrong. There were tons of great t-shirts and jeans at a reasonable price. I mean, RM12-15 for a branded t-shirt? Good enough for me. FYI, Bandung is actually famous for its factory outlets. There are so many of this outlets along the streets. We just went to one of them. We also saw Nabil the Raja Lawak fellow there. Hey, where do you think our celebrities get their branded clothes from?

After lunch and several stops at the shops, we went to the Saung Angklung Udjo. I was told that this visit is not included in most of the tourist’s itineraries here but my mom had arranged it earlier because she already went here years ago and claimed that they are worth seeing for.

This place is like an academy of angklung, for children from as small as 1 year old up to grown ups established by a master, named Udjo a while ago. The kids will go here every evening after school and they will conduct a performance. The idea of this place is brilliant, resulting in preserving their culture plus getting the children in the neighbourhood something useful to do.

If you like music and cultural performances, then I guarantee that this show will not disappoint. What I like about it is that, the children really look like they were having fun while being good at angklung -of course. The Arumba (Alunan Rumpun Bambu) band sounded good and the angklung orchestra played classical and folks tunes perfectly.

They also have an interactive way of involving the audience. Each one of us is given one part of numbered angklung. Then the MC created a sign language for every number and when it was given, we must shake ours. Amazingly, we all combined together to play several songs very nicely.

The last session was a dance-along session. One children will pick up one audience and we all hit the dancefloor and dance to the folks music played with guidance from the children. With our culture being almost the same, I already know most of the moves. LOL. After that we retreated back to the hotel.

The next day, we just went to Pasar Baru for shopping.

That is all I would like to write about Bandung, next stop -Jakarta!

Always like the idea of it. Finally had the chance. But it’s very amateur and quickly done. No proper lighting or setup were used. This is my roomate, Mukhlis. In case you didn’t notice, the same person had appeared before in my photo series. We were going back home because it’s the weekend and suddenly I had the idea of taking some photos before returning the camera. Thanks to Omar again for lending his DSLR. Comments and critics please.

New studio projects had assigned us to pick a profession and to interview a real life client about their workspace. This time, we’re focused on the interior. My groups had chosen to do a chef’s workspace and thus I asked my friend, who happened to know one, to arranged a meeting with the well-known Chef Ismail. So last Thursday evening we went to Rebung Restaurant located in Bangsar. Chef Ismail is a very very friendly person and easy to talk to. He answered on every question that we asked and gives us many details about what he wants in his workspace, making our task easier. We spent almost 3 hours there including a tour of the place which is eye pleasing. I had the chance to snap pictures using Omar’s DSLR this time. The pictures turns out to be not that great though. It is quite reddish and yellowish because of the surrounding wall colours. I’m clueless about the white balance and stuffs. Anyhow, here are several pictures of our visit that day.

The holiday fiesta I was talking about in previous post has only 3 days left. As of many holidays before, at the end of it I will regret about things I didn’t get to do or wasting days of it by sleeping. Aisyah said she refuse to sleep tonight so that she won’t waste any time of her holiday. Sounds great but I can’t afford to have heavy eyes tomorrow because I will be my mom’s driver since my dad was admitted into the hospital ward because of a retinal detachment problem today. He is scheduled to undergo a minor surgery this Sunday or Monday. Let’s pray everything will go well.

By the way, I just got back from Bandung and Jakarta trip last Saturday. On the way back to Perlis, I had my first driving experience under rainy condition at night. I just realized it was very terrifying. Especially on the hilly areas from Ipoh to Bukit Gantang. Controlling the wheels, the speed, and the braking. Thank god, I managed to handle it well with help from my dad. He made it looks easy all this years. The best experience in driving I had so far.

I’m currently working on the trip travelogue so stay tuned OK.

It’s been 1 month since my holiday started. Many things happened between that. I purposedly refused to post any entry to make way for the lomography guide. Haha. You don’t buy that? I don’t blame you.

During these past month, my daily schedule were almost the same. I woke up, took a bath, watched movie or surfed the internet then at night, I would hang out with my friends at Maicafe. We’ve become the most frequent customers there. I don’t even need to order my drink when I get there. LOL.

The exam result were also out. Not quite at my expectation. It turned out higher, to be frank. I’m grateful but it’s still not enough. Studio subject has the most credit hour. I failed to score that subject. Definitely need to improve the next semester. And they’re due to start on this 21st December. Shoot. My holiday is almost over.

Happy Aidiladha by the way.