记得要影番张大合照先，咪迟啲点upload上Facebook啊！

间“荣达海鲜餐室”相当不起眼，为一列数间铺头的首间角头，地段昏暗。间餐馆有冷气，约莫可以摆十零二十围。但係冇俾佢嘅外表蒙骗咗，呢间嘢真係禾秆盖珍珠，食材极新鲜，煮工冇得顶，再加上价钱合理，值得帮衬！虽然此店远不及附近的椰花园出名，但是各位如果要吃好嘢，不作他想肯定要试一试哩度啦！

一于等我写番个blog entry，upload啲相片同大家分享吓！

• 店名：荣达海鲜餐室（Kedai Makanan Laut Yong Tat)
• Lot 9185, Kampung Telok Gong,
  42000, Perlabuhan Klang, Selangor, Malaysia
• 电话：03－31341167
• GPS： N 02° 56.897′  E 101° 22.860′

鱼虾蟹大餐，埋单盛惠RM40蚊一位，平到笑啦！

1.

仲有几日就过年，边道可以少得例牌嘅”捞生“噃。祝大家捞得盘满钵满，风生水起！

2.

猪油啦啦炒米一上桌就俾班饿鬼扫晒咁滞。哩碟都係值得推荐！

3.

豆腐羹同帝王苗不过不失。兄弟，分羹至紧要分得匀！

4.

清蒸草虾依然保持一贯的靓仔卖相，味够虾甜，兼且份量十足。

5.

我都係第一次吃“顺风”鱼，一个字，正！

6.

上汤大啦啦，卖相不错但肉质有啲韧。

7.

甘香膏蟹，蟹肉细腻只只有膏，1kg约莫RM27，都算平嘅啦。

8.

成尺长的濑尿虾我都係第一次吃，肉质鲜甜弹口连龙虾都要靠边站！毫无保留五星推荐。一条RM25蚊。

9.

濑尿虾尾，睇番都食指大动。

10.

打完牙祭后，一片狼藉的桌面。。。

11.

条正到无伦嘅清蒸“顺风”鱼俾我哋狂风扫落叶般吃剩条骨。再扮吓摄影专家搞吓景深，死未？

12.

哩度连黄梨都与众不同，色水偏浅但劲甜兼且冇渣，记得要试。

13.

成20条友埋单，两围大餐竟然RM720蚊仲有得找！

Hot Air Balloons Flying Over Putrajaya

Never heard about this event until some hot air balloon photos showed up in the newspaper on Friday morning. Maybe there are more ‘interesting’ news in the Malaysian political front as well as on the world economic crisis that overshadowed it.

Anyway, I was there on the evening of the last day of the event (22nd March 2009). Reaching Putrajaya Percint 2 at 5:30pm, the traffic is already in really bad jam – I thought I am the only one that haven’t seen a hot air balloon, but apparently not. Took me like 15 minutes to get a parking. The preparation for flying the hot air balloons, of a total about 20 of them, was already underway.

While shooting away with my Canon 400D, I used my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to capture some photos too – not to prove that the camera feature on it really sucked, but to try on the geotagging. It turns out to be working great, all the photos taken with the phone have registered the correct GPS location, as show here in iPhoto:

Geotagging photo (with Nokia 5800)

Most of the balloons are standard ones, but a few of them are in special shapes like elephant, peacock and clowns. The balloons look great in the clear blue sky. One after another the balloons ascend and fly towards the mosque’s direction, and by 7pm the crowd disappeared as fast – if not faster – as they conjugated a couple of hours ago.

And Putrajaya reverted back to its original form by 8pm – grand, expensive, quiet, deserted, and probably unnecessary. At least the hot air balloon fiesta stirs some liveliness into the city built on oil, even if it is a short-lived one.

More photos from Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in the Photo Album page, or direct link here: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/HotAirBalloonFiesta2009/

This is my first time listening live to Kitaro after start following his music many years ago, and it sure did not disappoint. Our seats are at Price Scale 3 (PS3), in the middle of the hall but 3rd row from the last, so it was about 25-30m to the stage. I’d prefer front seats but it was not a big issue – the music is just as sweet over here.

Kitaro Live @ Genting 2009 - my best effort using 100mm F2.8 from way back

Kitaro @ Genting2009 - Official Poster

The 2 1/2-hour show has some new musics that Kitaro said hasn’t been recorded yet, coupled with total light-out with just 2 screens showing sun, moon, nature and planetary objects. This is Kitaro’s message to us on Save The Earth. The music is good but it is a bit too long for me, it probably runs about 45mins or more.

The classic ones received the most applause from the audience, like Silk Road, Oasis, Heaven and Earth, and of course, one of my very favorites, Matsuri.

Kitaro also displays his well-verse in musical instrument through the show, where he not only creates magical tunes by finger-dancing on the keyboard, but also jams bass guitar with the guitarist, plays the big horn, flute, harmonica, 太鼓 (the big drum), and a few other that I can’t name. He is really an amazing musician!

There are total 6 of them: 2 keyboards, 1 electrical guitarist, 1 violinist, a drummer, and Kitaro, but the music that they play sounds like from an orchestra. Seats are about 90% full, indicates Kitaro’s popularity among Malaysians.

The last 2 songs, “The Light of the Spirit” and “Free Flight” ended the live performance. I particularly like the former one. What a way to end the show.

Kitaro looked aged for 56, but the performance is marvelous. The bass from the his big drum hits the bottom chord of the heart every time. Let’s hope Kitaro will continue to create great music that intrigues us as well as convey the message of Love and Peace to the world for a long long time to come!

Was at Sepang Circuit last Sunday for the Japan GT Racing leg #4. Entrance ticket costs RM150 for free-seating grandstand area, and we opted not to go for the pit walkabout which costs another RM100, and thus missing the chance to get up close (and personal) with the GT Girls . What an opportunity missed! We're there from 12noon till 4:30pm, and it was a really hot day – I am still recovering from sunburn as of this writing! Anyway just want to share some photos (some cars and some Japanese gals):

http://travelgaia.com/gallery/GT/

which requires Flash plug-in installed in browser. 

My buddy Hiu got 2 Mall Area tickets at Ruby section for RM150 each on Saturday and off we went to F1 Sepang just before 2:30pm. The qualifying was already going on since 2pm and we managed to catch the actions of the 2nd half of the hour. We were happy to see Massa grabbed the pole position, trailed by Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton, and thought Ferrari will have a great Sunday. How wrong can we be!

F1 Sepang 2007 Photos (included some Miss F1 photos took place on 5th Apr at Berjaya Times Square):
http://travelgaia.com/gallery/F1_LR/

McLaren-Mercedes is just too good in Sunday, where Alonso and Hamilton scored the 1-2 podium finish in F1 Sepang. Kimi has to settle for 3rd place finish while Felipe a humble fifth. I am Ferrari supporter but a salute to Alonso and Hamilton to run a perfect race.

Both Saturday and Sunday were mostly very hot and humid and almost unbearable. Sunday is super pack in the Mall Area & grandstands. I went down to the Jade section with an additional ticket (spared by my boss) for some close ups of the race cars (and Alex Wurz) before the race starts, and attempted more panning shots. F1 Sepang has almost become the holy event for me as I come annually to revere (except a couple of years where I can’t get cheap tickets ). The sights and sounds of the whole event are unforgetable, and top that with all the pretty (and not so pretty) chics from don’t-know-where. And a nice sun tan is something to brag about in the workplace the next day .

Food/Beverage Price: [everything is so expesive!]
- hot dog: RM15
- hot dog set: RM25 [with mineral water]
- can beer: RM16
- can Coke: RM5

Tips:
- belongings will be checked upon entering the Grandstand area for outside food/beverage which will be confiscated, so keep the water bottle/food inside the shirt or pants’ pockets, or put it into children’s belongings. The guards are not checking the kids!

- Noticed that the Canon 70-200mm F4L was not sharp at F4 when I was back home reviewing photos. It became very sharp from F5.6 onwards. I learned this the hard way — quite a number of chic shots/race cars shots were taken at F4 and they are just not sharp!

- Go early to avoid the traffic jam, preferably arriving before 11am. We’re stucked in the traffic jam for at least 40mins while arriving near the toll ~12 noon.

- use ear plug unless if you have heard enough the sounds of this world.

<–Alexander Wurz!

I joined the company treasure hunt with 3 other guys (Gan, CW, KP), it was a no-brainer decision as it costs only RM50/person for the event, which includes the treasure hunt (from PJ to Simpang Pulai R&R Area), a night at Equatorial Cameron Highlands (twin sharing), a dinner and a breakfast. It was my car again for the trip. I've just done the 20k km service and changed the 2 rear tyres 2 days ago (costs me RM1140 ) as both tyres are getting 'botak'.

More photos from Cameron Highlands: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Cameron/

It was a fun trip. We started at 7:53am and arriving at Simpang Pulai R&R at 2:30pm, and then started to drive up Cameron Highlands. This is my first time driving up CH and it is quite fun going thru all those winding roads and twists and turns. We visited the Brinchang Pasar Malam twice (6:30pm and 10pm), before and after the dinner-cum-gift-giving-ceremony at the Equatorial Ballroom. It was disappointing that we didn't get ourselves into the top 3 (#3 team scored 78 points, and we were 74 points), but we were really having some fun there. It was also Gan's birthday and we had a small celebration in the hotel lobby for him with some cakes purchased from Secret Recipe at Brinchang.

The next day we went up the Sungai Palas BOH tea house, where the road leading to the factory is damn narrow where in some place it's only a car's width. We then went to the market near Equatorial, and also visited a strawberry farm. We had steamboat at Brinchang before going down to Tapah, and dropped by a bee farm along the way.

From Tapah, it was traffic jam (due to 'Ching Ming' and Muslim's holy day) almost all the way to Rawang. It took us almost 5 hours (4pm to 9pm) to reach Rawang, where we had dinner. We reached Freescale around 11pm exhausted, but for me, it was a really great weekend and a very memorable one.

More photos from Cameron Highlands:
http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Cameron/

After lunch I zoomed back home to pick up my gears, went to Puchong to fetch a friend and off we go the the Sepang F1 track. Reaching ~2:45pm, it starts to rain a little, and only William BMW is running. The rain soon ceased and more cars coming out on the tracks. Renault seems in bad condition as one of their cars needs to be craned back to the pit, and Ferrari finally sent one car out of their garage after 4pm for a few laps, but it went thru the pit lane each and every time and bypassing the Mall Area straights, damn!

More photos of the event: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Lightroom/

Related F1 Links:
Official F1 Website: http://www.formula1.com/
Sepang International Circuit Website: http://malaysiangp.com.my/

This is probably the most crowded day ever in Putrajaya. It was reported in the next day's newspaper that over 100 thousand throng of people attended the Parade. I have doubts about the figure — I don't know how do they come out with that count, but it was no doubt really crowded there. I stayed for over 2 hours taking photos inside the temporary fence, and was yelled at for a couple of times as all us photographers were blocking the view of the spectators. Well I am OK to be yelled at, this is not the first time anyway. And it certainly won't be the last .

 I startd using the 400D kit lens (Canon 18-55mm II) but was quickly changed to the 'cheapest Canon L Lens': 70-200mm F4, as I would love to get more close-up and detail shots. The draw back, of course, was that I can't frame most of the parade's floral decorated vehicles fully in the photo.

There were about 18 parade vehicles and some of them are really nice. I particularly like the Penang State's and the Sabah ones. There are military band from different schools and bodies between the parade cars as well as groups of presenters wearing the traditional clothes of different ethnic groups.

All in all this is an event that I love to come take photographs every single time. I just wish the Tourism Department of Malaysia will organize this again in 2008!

Photo Album is here: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Flora%20Parade (it is Flash thingy so it might take a while to load).

More photos here: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Florathon2007/

This was actually my first fireworks shoots with a tripod. I’ve taken some fireworks hand-held previously but they sucked. The tripod is filmsy and not up to eye level when fully extended – I have to bend my knees quite a bit to be able to view thru the viewfinder and compose. Also, adjusting and locking the camera in certain position is non-trivial in the dark, as I have to feel the adjustment knobs/stick and screw them tight. I was using Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 initially for composing, and decided to change to Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 for the wider view to include the Eye On Malaysia and most of the skies.

Fireworks started at 9:30pm and lasted about 10mins.

Lesson from this photoshoot:

1. To get a stable and tall enough tripod with ball head.
2. To arrive much earlier to get better position.
3. To bring the tripod bag along with me instead of throw it somewhere under a tree – someone had taken the tripod bag when I finished the shootin yesterday!

More photos here: eye_ii

My second time visiting this temple at Jenjarung (first time being a few years back), it now has a new tower near one of the side entrances. It is a pay-per-visit thingy that cost RM10/person to go up and have a bird eye's view. The temple is decorated with lots of red lanterns and small yellowish lightbulbs, and it is quite crowded when we were there around 7:30-9pm. There is also flowers display at the 1st floor of one of the buildings. At the ground floor of the building there are some small but very interesting buddha statues on display.

See more photos here.

Pole decorated with Dragon Red Lanterns and Fireworks

Arriving just before midnight, temple is already 'people mountain people sea'. We got lucky to get a parking at the foot of the hill. Most of the lanterns/lights were not switched on, waiting for turning to Year of the Pig at 12 midnight. 林祥才 was there addressing to the crowd beside the temple entrance. There was also a fireworks show at 12 midnight for about 10 minutes.

More photos at thean_hou_temple album. 

Hot Pursuit	Wrong Way!	The Leading 3

More photos here: 2007-tour-de-langkawi-stage-10

ISO 800!	30s Long Exposure	What can I say? My skills have much more room to improve!!

And few more photos here: eye_on_malaysia

Rosy Back	Young Devotee	Trance

Few more photos here: thaipusam_2007