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The Thai temple in Penang with the 4th largest reclining buddha in the world…

One of the buddha statues with golden paper pasted on it.

One of the many golden statues with golden paper pasted onto by devotees. Behind the golden statue lies the reclining buddha.

The flooring: beautifully coloured lotus leafs with a green background. That’s what I like about this temple.

This was taken in Sime Hall where the TALL Lord Buddha’s statue was. Glad I had an ultra wide angle lens. Even though there are distortions but I am not really bothered. What I wanted was to capture the details inside. = )

A shot of Lord Buddha’s fingers and the beautiful ceiling above. If I had a F1.2 lens… probably the bokeh would look even more fantastic. HAHA…

A shot of Lord Buddha and his follower… Now you can gauge the size of Lord Buddha.. = )

This was a shot of another faithful follower offering his prayers to Lord Buddha.

I loved this image (its cropped, as I only have a 50mm with me)

This was a silhouette shot of the statues in a Indian temple up on Penang Hill.

This is an overview of GeorgeTown up from Penang Hill… Skies were dull and lack of colours so I did an exposure blend in black and white. Shot with my UWA lens.. = )

Next set of images would be from 1/2 of my culture: Peranakan! My mum’s dad was a Peranakan, so was my dad’s mum. Whao! haha! These were taken at the Peranakan Museum. FYI, Some scenes from “Little Nonya” chinese tv series aired in Singapore were taken here!

I loved the colours of the house. So refreshing!

This was one of the many different interiors they had in the mansion. The mansion displayed Peranakan cultures spanning across several generations, thus the different design.

Peranakans were so rich last time that they can even have customised Candles Holder…. Its a Dragon Candle Holder.. Beautiful isn’t it?

Some of the many precious furniture of the Peranakan culture.

Even the stairs leading to the 2nd level needs to be lavish… Check out the design.

This was featured in a protected glass display in the mansion. I think its beautiful, the dull yet metallic black tones of the material made it look good I thought and probably also because of the nice pink cloth the jewellery was resting upon… = )

This were used in the olden days to pack food (Don’t think this is solely a Peranakan style, probably just the design). I used to see my grandmothers carrying this around when we were younger. Food taste especially good with em. Déjà vu!

Now you see me camwhoring with my camera. HAHA!
OKAY, this is my 2nd last set for Penang’s trip. I will update the last series soon!

Here’s one before we retire for day 1… Look clearly and you can see the Indian man on the left of frame doing a peace sign~ hee so cute~

View large

Day 2:
We took a private van ride to the Snake temple, one of the popular attractions in Penang.

A popular scene of “The snakes, the blind and the sleeping dog”?  The blind man was rather interesting… When he heard footsteps, he would knock on the bowl he was holding, to ask for alms. To his disappointment, I didn’t gave him any money…   = (

This is one of the snakes residing by the altar. It seems the snakes were all very tamed… I wonder are they defanged? I wouldn’t want to take the risk…

Next, we proceeded to Kek Lo Si (the biggest buddhist temple in Malaysia), another very popular attractions in Penang. The sad thing is, the Goddess of Mercy statue was under construction again, thus can’t capture it. We only had like 20 mins to hang around in this huge temple and I was like running about so I can have a brief view of the entire place as well as some snaps.

View overlooking Penang as well… its high up in the hills… 1000+ steps to reach the temple…. We got UP there via a van…         = )

A shot of the temple main hall’s interior, with the intricate carvings on the walls. That’s the beauty of such temples; everything up to the ceiling are customized. Maybe that’s where MiniCooper gets its inspiration to fully customise their vehicles?        = )

   
These are around the temple… on four sides of the temple (in the other hall, not the main hall)

This was taken in the oldest Chinese temple in Penang. Candice or Carolyn captured this shot of me and Feli while I cropped it into black and white to elongate the shot. I was burnt by the incense throughout the entire praying because there was too many joss sticks to light and put in each altar… I shld be ashamed that I did not know what I was doing exactly. Kudos to Feli who brought me around to put the joss.

These are some of the artistes who would be performing for an opera play right outside the temple. Some locals told me that it was for the Goddess Guan Yin’s Birthday… Was it? I seriously don’t know. This was taken on the 6th August 2009 but I can’t find any information on the goddess birthday thou. I enjoyed the shot through the furnace most. I was so worried my lens would spoil or melt because of the heat from the furnace. Silly me I guess!

This is the coolest parking system I saw in Penang. If we had this in Singapore, I probably enjoy dunking coins into it and twist the knob OR I would enjoy dunking coins in when I see parking wardens coming by. HAHAHA!

This was the exterior view of Wisma Yeap Chor Ee (standing since the 1920s), which is going to be developed into a hotel soon, together with the Malayan Railway. However, we managed to take a peek inside, in its ORIGINAL form (unlike the Malayan Railway, which was renovated before). It was so undisturbed that it became abandoned till birds died there, to rot in its fullest form without being disturbed.
I wasn’t bold enough to go upstairs though. The emptiness that was in the building, restrained me well enough to proceed further to the next few levels.
Here are some snippets of it and to know more about Yeap Chor Ee, here goes:

http://www.tourismpenang.gov.my/heritage_wisma_kastam.html

http://library.wou.edu.my/newsclip/clip00609.pdf

These “Beggar and Cat” series are some of my favourite shots during the day. At little India, I saw this cat looking at the Beggar who was having one of his few meals a day. It looked like it wanted a share of the pie… so what I did was to snap a shot first (which is the B&W shot above) before slowly advancing, giving the beggar the perception that my focus was on the cat. I made the “meow meow” sound as means of distraction to the beggar while keeping both of them in my frame. Alas, the final shot didnt come out as expected… the Beggar looked at the Cat BUT the cat wasn’t looking at him or the packet of rice no more…

More to come!

Most of the pictures were not very sharp because all were handheld and mostly shot on a 50mm Wide open at F1.4. Well, the aim was to get the shot out and since I am not going to blow it up bigger than an A4 image or MAYBE not even printing it out, it doesnt really matter. = )

Enjoy.

History (Plugged from the web):
The Mitre was once a decent Chinese-run down-market hotel. The original owners built it in the 1920s or 1930s, and it might have then been a nice family place. There’s an overgrown badminton court in the garden. Spectators could have sat on a stone bench under a banyan tree. It was probably more raucous in the 1960s and 1970s, when it became the favorite temporary abode of commercial divers and other oil field workers. The mirror behind the bar is covered in stickers from oil companies from those days, and the backroom has a pile of suitcases left by divers who never returned – because of death or retirement, nobody can say.

Upstairs, tables in the common area are covered in old newspapers and plastic bottles, furniture is overturned, and windows are boarded. A few brave souls still rent out rooms. Maybe they have financial difficulties; maybe they like to mingle with the ghosts of another era. Downstairs, in the lobby and bar, broken down furniture still serves its intended use; canned or bottled beer runs S$4 a serving.

Uncle isn’t supposed to serve beer beyond midnight to non-residents, but if you go late, you can rattle the steel grate he closes at the Cinderella hour. A bit of wheedling and an extra Singapore dollar or two usually brings him round.

After the first owners died, surviving family members began fighting over the hectare or two of land that must now be worth hundreds of millions of Singapore dollars. The case is still held up in Singapore courts, while Uncle and the rest of the family wait for a resolution and windfall and the Mitre languishes in dusty history. Long may they wrangle. When they are done, the Mitre will be replaced with blocks of flats like the ones looking down on it now.

Need a leak?

The 2nd floor…

One of the unbroken mirrors in the hotel, lit by the faint window light…

Light that guided us through darkness…

Taps, Taps, Taps…

Anyone following you???

Jurong Mrt at 8.30pm

Jurong Mrt at 6pm

= )

A tribute to Kiasu fellow Singaporeans!
(Caveat: Crowd consists of other nationalities as well)

NEW BALANCE M410NOW Navy-Orange Trainers

I was having lunch at IMM this afternoon and popped by NewBalance’s factory outlet to see if there are any good buys!

Well, I closed my deal at 49 dollars. Very satisfied owner of a ORANGE pair of New Balance trainers here… =)

This will have to match my jeans, pants and berms… prolly very very strong when I wear it with my pants.. hahaa~

Anyway this is my sis’s Shih Tzu. Fierce expression it had but that was not what it was reflecting. It was having fun and that was a lick off her face only~

Shih Tzu’s have always in my mind, resemble like the Lion in the Lion dance, in particular the Northern Lion Dance (http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/Traditions/en/17T2865T8654.html). It was less in terms of how it looked but in fact, the way the Shih Tzu moves… reminds me of how to Northern Lion Dance.

Enjoy my friendly version of the Northern Lion Dance… 8 )