Melaka Part 2

Here comes the part 2, the part without the awful rain, the part with the sunshine (okay i admit there wasn't much of that either, the sky was overcast). Anyway, i got to where i wanted to be. After the rain, all the tourists were out on the streets again. The Dutch village was absolutely packed full of people. Finding parking nearby was impossible. So dad had to stop by the road and wait in the car, while me and my mum left for the photoshoot.

Melaka was founded by a Malay-Hindu prince from the Srivijaya empire. His name was Parameswara. Srivijaya was once a strong empire centered at Palembang of Sumatra. The 1000 year old empire was attacked and destroyed by the rise of a new empire, the Majapahit empire led by a man called Singhasari. The Srivijayans fled to Singapore and stayed for a couple of generations until their old nemesis from Majapahit empire came chasing again. The Srivijayan prince of that time Parameswara eventually fled to Melaka.  Back then, Melaka was a small fishing village. Parameswara was sitting under a tree one day and witnessed a fight between a dog and a tiny mousedeer (locals call mousedeer a Sang Kancil).  The mousedeer defeated the dog. Parameswara took it as a sign, an omen perhaps that Melaka was special. He started building his empire again and eventually turned Melaka into one of the busiest port of the region. One thing i must point out though.  I have read somewhere that the so called ferocious dog that fought  and was defeated by the mousedeer was actually a Chihuahua! I doubt the Chihuahua was any bigger than the mousedeer. Hell, i actually think Chihuahua looks more like a mouse deer than a dog anyway. Maybe the prince had a few too many Sauvignon Blanc the night before and has mistaken the second mousedeer for Paris Hilton's Tinker Bell. Let's face it, back in the old days they probably did not have a morning hang over pill, haha. I apologise for making fun of history. But i just can't help it when i read about the Chihuahua.

Back to the photos that i have shot...

 The famous Mousedeer that fought the Chihuahua. I wish it had been a Rottweiler, not a Chihuahua.

Tan Beng Swee clocktower.

Stadthuys, meaning Town Hall in Dutch.



Rickshaw (becak) men at work.

Christ Church, Melaka.

Melaka was ruled by the Portuguese from 1511 to 1641. In 1641, they were defeated by the Dutch, who ruled Melaka from 1641 to 1798. The British took over after that.  Not much of the Portuguese buildings are left these days.  The picture below shows where the old Portuguese wall was.

 

I was please i had a willing model for the photoshoot. Here are a few photos of mum...

I left Melaka, feeling tired after a day of running around and driving. But i felt satisfied. I can now cross one tourist spot off my list. I can say i have visited Melaka as a tourist, with a full set of awesome photos as proof. Til the next time my friends, cheerios and Merry X'mas.



Melaka Part 1

I was born and raised in Malaysia. The funny thing is when you grow up in a country, there is a fair chance you have toured half way around the world but have not thoroughly explored your own country. I have only been to a hand full of tourist spots in Malaysia. Yes, shame on me.  I am a busy man. For me, holidays are rather hard to come by. So now that i have over 3 weeks of holiday at home, i have decided i should venture out a little from Johor (the area i am living in). When tourists talk about Malaysia, they often talk about the world renowned diving paradise Sipadan, breathstaking view at Tioman island and Redang island, land of mouthwatering food Penang, and the monsterous sky scrapers from the Malaysian capital city Kuala Lumpur. But they also talk about the famous historic city of Melaka (also spelled as Malacca).  Melaka is a small state, 148Km from Kuala Lumpur and 95Km from Batu Pahat (where i live). More than 50% of its population is Malay, around 30% chinese (including the Babas and Nyonyas), with the rest comprising Indians and people of Portuguese and Dutch ancestry.

The main attractions of Melaka include the Stadthuys, St John's hill, Christ church of Melaka and Melaka maritime museum. I particularly like the red buildings left over by the Dutch. I have always wanted to photograph them as i think they look pretty. 

So i was all excited and geared up with my Nikon D90 heading towards the area. There was a bad traffic jam on the way. A short journey from the town center to the Dutch village turned into a 30 mins "snail race". I didn't waste time. I got the car window down and started snapping candid pass by shots of some old buildings. Here's what i got....

This is how a traditional Baba & Nyonya house will look like.

A drive by shot of a small lane.

An old window.

Yes a window again. I have a thing for window...

Just when we were getting close, guess what..........it started pouring down.  I couldn't believe my luck. Maybe it was a sign that i should wait for the evening sun (photographers call it the golden hour for photoshoots).  So we had no choice but to detour to a nearby shopping mall Jaya Jusco to wait the rain out. It gave mum opportunity to pick up some imported Kim Chi too. Apparently you can't get quality Kim Chi like that in Batu Pahat. Mum and dad are totally hooked to Kim Chi these days.  While i was entering the mall's carpark, i noted an interesting sighting. There were "No parking" signs along the entire stretch of the road we were travelling on and it was interesting to know how well Malaysians follow the rules. See the following photo. I thought it was hilarious and disappointing at the same time.

Please don't insist on Malaysia boleh. I am telling you TAK BOLEH PARKING!!



The shopping mall was decorated for X'mas with a gigantic snowman greeting us at the main entrance.  I did not think much of the snowman initially until i stepped closer and read the sign. Have a look at the first photo below without looking at the second. Can you spot anything unusual? Now look at the close up photo (second photo below).

The giant snowman was made of recycle bottles. How cool.

I did not give up on my photoshoot plan. I loitered at the mall for an hour and a half, the rain stopped. See part two of this blog.

Happy birthday dad!

My dad turns 62 today.  Like me, dad loves good food. I guess i got it from him.  There is a saying that says "the easiest way to get to a man's heart is to get to his stomach first". I think there is a lot of truth in that saying. So, as our little celebration, mum cooked a very traditional Malaysian lunch, Nasi Lemak served with Ayam goreng (fried chicken).

Nasi Lemak is a traditional dish sold widely in many parts of south east Asia such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.  The rice is soaked and cooked in coconut cream / coconut fat (hence the name Nasi Lemak, which literally means fatty rice in Malay). Some people add Pandan leaves (screwpine leaves) in the mix to add an extra fragrance. My mum usually throws in a few slices of ginger to give that extra kick.

The rice is then served with a variety of side dishes including fried chicken, beef Rendang, spicy sambal squid, hard boiled egg, roasted peanutes and deep fried Anchovies (ikan billis). Nasi Lemak is often sold at the road-side hawker stalls, wrapped in a large sheet of banana leaf.

I have included a few photos, taken just before i devoured everything on the table.

Fried Anchovies and roasted peanuts.



Spicy sambal squid.

Mum preparing the frangrant rice.

Nasi Lemak lunch, served!

Mum and dad digging in.

As delicious as the nasi Lemak is on its own, a special birthday lunch can never be complete without dessert. For dessert, mum has prepared another traditional chinese dessert called "Tang Yuan" (sweet dumpling soup). Basically, little balls of flour is rolled into balls with their cores containing crush sweetened peanuts. These are then cooked in boiling water spiced with ginger and with sugar added into it. The word "Yuan" means round. Chinese believes eating this will give one a "rounded" or complete year ahead.

Tang Yuan

Yummmm....just looking at these photos makes me hungry again.

Santa says Hohoho!

It is still my first week in Malaysia and i have been extremely busy with various social engagements the past few days.  I have been part of a two-days wedding event (Raymond's wedding) and have volunteered to be a backup photographer. I will be posting another blog in the next few days detailing that wedding (with extensive photos coverage of course).

I was hanging out with a few friends few hours ago. It was at a little pre-xmas party at Stephen's house.  Stephen has been my friend for a long time and i have only just found out that he has moved to a new residential area. His new house was super awesome, in a safe and secured neighbourhood with a fairly decent piece of land. 

There was carolling at Stephen's house but i missed the most part of it because i was busy running through and editing some 400 photos i shot at Ray's wedding. But i was pleased i have not missed the food and the beer.

Here are some of the snap shots i took....

Going home

I have just realised i have not had a real holiday in the past 3 years. All the so called "breaks from work" i had in the past three years were strictly speaking study breaks. To me those were hardly holiday break at all. But now i can finally have my well deserved holiday. I have officially signed the contract with Auckland district health board last week, taking up a Anatomical pathologist consultant position at Labplus, one of the biggest and busiest regional lab in the country.  I will not start until mid February 2011. Not only i can have a guilt free holiday now, i also get to spend half of it at home with my folks in Malaysia. It's a nice feeling.  To top it off, one of my best friends is getting married. I will have the opportunity to photograph at least part of his wedding. How exciting.

Here are a few shots taken prior to my departure at Auckland airport. Must say the kiwis have done a good job renovating and airport. It looks nice.

 Here i come Malaysia...!

This is a shot taken while i was waiting for my luggage at Changi airport.

I wish i had my tripod.

Chicken curry

Although this blog focuses more on my passion for photography, i would also like to talk about my other passion....passion for food.

I have recently attended a dinner party organised for my office.  I brought along a pot of home made chicken curry and i have received requests from a few colleagues to give out my recipe. It is very simple.

Ingredient:
Chicken thigh or drums, NOT chicken breast. Preferably keep the bone and skin on but trim away the excess fat. I like to chop my chicken into 4X3 inches pieces.
Potatoes, skin off and diced into 2 inches cubes.
Curry powder, available at most indian or asian groceries. Somewhere between 1/2 - 3/4 coffee cup of powder.
About 2 table spoons full of tumeric powder if you have (optional).
Dry chilli if you want extra kick.
Two sticks of lemon grass, fresh or frozen doesn't matter.
Two sticks of Cinnamon.
A few Anise stars.
1/2 a chopped onion.
Curry leaves optional.
One whole can of Coconut cream.
Salt.


Cooking:
Pan sear the chicken to brown the skin. Put aside.
Then sear the potatoes in the pan then put aside.
Then put Cinnamon stick, lemon grass, Anise star and onion into the pan and heat them just briefly.
Pour the spices above, chicken and potatoes all into a big pot of boiling water. The water in the pot should be just enough to submerge your meat and potatoes, not too much more than that.
After your water has reached a steady boiling state, turn the fire down to low-medium, let it "slow cook" for somewhere between 40-50mins (depending on how much chicken and potatoes you are cooking). After this time, check your potatoes and chicken with a chopstick or fork. They all should be fairly soft by now.

Add in the whole can of coconut cream and stir. Add salt (you will usually need quite a bit of salt to balance the curry spice). The coconut will equalise the temperature a bit, so you will need to boil a while longer to bring the content up to a boil again. Stir a few times and check the meat. Turn off the heat once the meat is starting to fall off the bone easily.

Optional: Sometimes i add in a handful of Mustard seeds just prior to turning off the fire, to add a little bit of crunch to the dish.

Malaysian Chicken Curry, served!

End of an era

It is the end of an era for me this week....my last week as a registrar. After this week, i will no longer be doing the boring jobs the superiors hate doing.  After this week i will no longer have someone telling me off because i have one minor spelling mistake in my histology report. After this week i will no longer be getting crappy registrar wages. The end of this week marks a new beginning, a future to look forward to but at the same time it also marks the end of a journey which i have shared with a few very close  colleagues of mine. With the never ending fellowship exams in the past three years, life has been a battlefield. I would not have survived if i have fought the battle alone. I am blessed to have supportive colleagues fighting the same battle with me. They are not just colleague, they are close friends, comrades, brothers and sisters. Sadly, one of them is leaving. Heinrich is heading to Australia for his fellowship. It is hard to say goodbye to somebody you have been spending almost every Saturdays of the past three years with.

We went out for a farewell dinner at Thai house, Ponsonby. The food was yummy. I brought along a bottle of Bandit (a red wine i got from Ascension Winery, Matakana). It was divine.

After dinner we took a short detour to Western Park on Ponsonby road.  Every year, the local Telco Telecom sets up a giant Xmas tree at the park.  This year, the xmas tree is as big as ever and there is a stage at the bottom of the tree with giant bean bags for people to sit.  Viewing the brightly lid xmas tree from afar was nice, but admiring the view from underneath the tree while snuggling into a giant bean bag was something else. We stayed for a little while and had to leave because it was a bit chilly and none of us was adequately dressed for the weather.

 The photo above was shot while i sat under the tree. Very cool view.

There were phone booths around the giant xmas tree. Here's Heinrich in one of them. Goodbye Heinrich. We will miss you.

Gentle beast

It's my last week as a registrar.  I am "secretly" feeling anxious.  I am 32 year old this year.  I have spent 6 years in Medical school, two years as an intern (they call it house surgeon in NZ eventhough we don't cut people up with scalpel like Dr McSteamy and McDreamy do in Grey's anatomy) and 5 years training in pathology. In other words, i have spent more than a third of my years alive achieving what i have now. And now i feel like i have gone back in time to be an intern all over again. I need to pick up new responsibilities, make decisions without people babysitting me. And this time, if i mess up and make the wrong call, it's all on me. You can understand where my anxiety is coming from.  That said, it is a very exciting time. At least i don't have to deal with exams anymore.

So i was driving home from work. In front of me was a Ferrari. I don't know much about Ferraris apart from the fact that they are fast and pricey. I think it was a F430. If i am right, this beast must have something like 500 horsepower and will go from 0-100km/hr in 4 seconds. I took this shot with my crappy Nokia just before the light turned green. I was expecting 430 angry italian stallions to disappear in front of my eyes, leaving my poor WRX with a plume of dust to chase.  I was wrong! The car turned slowly onto the motorway and then moved along the slow lane at the speed of 70km/hr.  I tailed the car for a while and gave up in the end. I overtook it and through the speckless driver's window i saw an old man in some fancy suit.  He must be in his early 60s.

The moral of the story is, when you are privileged enough to own a Ferrari, you can drive as slow as you want, whenever you want, anywhere you want and don't have to give a toss about what people think.  You certainly don't have to entertain a chinese boy racer in a WRX trying to race you at the lights :)

Endless summer

It's my birthday. I am turning 32. I know 32 is not a big number but somehow i just feel that much older.  I spent the whole morning cleaning the house. It has been a mess for a long time and i was so busy "unwinding" from all the exam stress i couldn't be bothered doing house chores until now. I vacuumed the carpet, threw out all my study notes and did some laundry. Went out to the mall and grabbed a copy of the New Zealand D-Photo magazine, Dec/Jan 2011 issue. I brought it to a nearby homestead/cafe by a park, sat on the sunny veranda and read it while i drank a glass of hot sugarless soy latte with a perfect layer of foam on top. In this issue of D-Photo, they did a side by side review of Canon 60D, Nikon D3100 and Sony A55 SLT. The Canon scored 92%, Sony 90% and Nikon 88%. I was quite surprised that Nikon lost the show down to Sony. Then again lets not forget Nikon gets all their sensors from Sony. I thought it was a bit unfair to throw the 60D into the game sine 60D is a much bigger and serious camera weighing 200g more than the other two in this comparo and costs almost $700 more than the A55 and D3100.  The D3100 was let down by the poor performance of its kit lens.

I must say the Sony A55 is a very interesting gear with a bag full of fancy features. Sweep panorama mode and GPS geotagging are two of the most useful features. I have to constantly fight the urge to buy this little piece of art. One day i may cave.

There is a photography gear fest in Auckland tomorrow. I will TRY to go if i can wake up. It will be a struggle i tell you.
Took a walk in my neighbourhood in the afternoon and got excited when i saw the evening sun shining through the clouds in the slightly overcast sky. Got my camera out and took a few shots and here's what i got.

The first photo is my favourite.  How did i do it....  Everything can be done with photoshop. First i adjusted the levels to make the shadows darker and the midtone also darker.  I thought the clouds weren't standing out enough, so i applied a gradient filter on them. Then i played with the colour balance.

Some Hydrangeas, flowering gloriously under the summer sun.

Treated a few friends to dinner at one of the top ten japanese restaurants in Auckland, Sakebar on Manukau road, Epsom.  I love the atmosphere there. Very authentic japanese, very cosy. Their food is great too.