Qing Xin Ling 清心嶺 @ Ipoh

Qing Xin Ling at Ipoh

So, over the weekend the photography gang decided to throw a farewell for one of the gang who is leaving for the states in a month's time. After much deliberation, we decided to head to Ipoh for the weekend, for food and for photography as requested by Bee. As she is the queen of the gang and also the one that we were celebrating, we booked two rooms at Sekeping Kong Heng which is smacked in the middle of the Ipoh old town complete with food and plenty of photography opportunities.

Initially, we did not have any idea for photography until I saw some photos from my friend who went to this place called Qing Xin Ling near to the Gunung Rapat. It's actually located quite near to a few famous temples such as Sam Poh Tong and Kek lok Tong and not too far away from the Simpang Pulai toll plaza.

Models of the day

Mirror lake

I can see a bit of Krabi plus Gui Lin 

Qing Xin Ling is located in the middle of some taman perumahan and hence it's a bit difficult to find without the GPS. We managed to reach the place at noon after stopping in Bidor for breakfast. Seriously, the food in Pun Chun restaurant is getting more expensive with the amount of mee that they gave. I would not go back and pay RM 7 for a fraction of the wan tan mee and it's not even like the best mee in the town.

The entrance fee to Qing Xin Ling cost RM 4 and they have chalets in the village which can be stayed overnight. Qing Xin Ling is more like a cultural village with lots of old antique stuff dated years back and the whole place is not very big but there's plenty of things to explore and take photo. And hence started the craze of flipping hair and turn around portrait shots. Haha. Trick that I learned in Hanoi.

Reenactment of a shop scene from the 60s

Bee basking in the attention given 

Love this shot of the gang.
Too bad I am not in the picture

We spent about 2 hours in a place taking numerous ridiculous shots and stopping at each corner, haha. The whole village is very vintage and there is even an old juke box playing oldies. We spotted so many vintage things along the way. Oh, do walk up the hill which displays most of the vintage stuff along the hill. Although it' kind of creepy some parts but it's a very good view. There's even an antique place for washing clothes.

Kind of glad that we manage to see this place and enjoyed it so much even for my non photography friend who tagged along. Most of the time, she had to be the model of the day, haha. The cultural village looks a lot like a scenery from China.  With the limestone as the background, it does have a bit of Gui Lin's vibe in it.

Those colourful houses are actually chalets

If you stayed inside the cultural village, entrance fees is free

After Qing Xin Ling, we went to the old town to check in and time for makan makan. That will be another post in another day.

Ulu Yam Photo Trip

It's been a tradition for the photography gang to have at least once a year a photography trip together with a makan trip. This time, the photography trail leads us to Ulu Yam, also the place where I took my pre wedding photos previously.

We first went to the Ulu Yam waterfall and photographed on the waterfall, exercising our skills of slow shutter speed to capture the silky smooth waterfall. And not forgetting picnic with all the leftover cookies from Chinese New Year.

Then we headed for the famous Ulu Yam Loh Mee and fish cake. After that, a short trip to the palm oil plantation where I took my nerdy pre wedding shoots.

Top of South East Asia - Mount Kinabalu

I am back from my climb to mount Kinabalu just over the weekend and the trip is definitely awesome.

The 8 of us managed to climb all the way to the peak and the weather was on our side as we made our way up to the peak 2.30 in the morning holding our dear lives on the rope.

What I did not expect was that the descend down from Laban Rata to Kinabalu Park is worst than the ascend up to the peak. I can't even bend my knees now and am walking like a penguin.

Anyway, it's a once in a lifetime experience that everyone should try once and it's more like mentally challenging than physical challenging I would say.

Some advice though,

• Wear Adidas Kampung to ascend to the peak. It's ok to wear normal sports shoes for the hike up to Laban Rata but the Adidas Kampung does make a huge difference from Laban Rata to the peak and back down. Many people actually slip and fall during the descend from the peak to Laban Rata. 
• Hire a porter. Do not save on the money. Afterall it's only RM8 per kilo for both ways.
• Pack lots and lots of high calories chocolate bars. I brought 9 bars of Sneakers chocolate bars up. 
• Bring headlights and spare batteries.
• Remember to cut your toe nails and I mean super short!
• Rent a walking stick from the office. It's RM10 and it helps a lot during the descend.
• Descend early from Laban Rata as I took longer time going down than going up.
• Bring lots of wet tissues as there's no hot shower in Laban Rata and you might not want to shower in icy cold water.
• Stay in Laban Rata even if it's more expensive and not some hut which you need to hike a few more metres. Check out from the guesthouse if you think you can't make it back to check out by 10.30am as they charge extra RM100 for each 1 hour late checkout. I barely make it back by 9.40am. 
• Wear extra clothing, especially those with fleece. And not forgetting raincoat. 
• Drink lots of water. 
• And most important, take one step at a time. You will be able to reach the top. Up there, it's all about mental strength. 

Paddy Fields @ Sekinchan

I still remember I told one of my friends this, "If it rains tomorrow morning when we going to Sekinchan, then change the plan and go to sing k instead". Luckily, we did not cancel our plan in the end. It was a sight to behold when the lush greenery of the paddy fields greeted us once we were in Sekinchan. It was cloudy and not the typical clear blue sky that we hoped for but the scene of the paddy fields was enough to tempt us to jump straight out from the car and start taking photos. We decided to go straight to the famous temple, Nine Emperor Gods Temple which is in the middle of the paddy fields. Signboards showing to the temple can be seen from the main road. 

Once our cameras were out from our bags, there were non stop of clicking and posing. After that, we seek for the wooden bridge which I saw on the way in and stopped for more photographs. The scene very much reminds me of the movie You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩)

Nine Emperor God Temple

The temple in the middle of the paddy field

Workers taking care of the field

perspective

between village and city

pretending to be enjoying, actually enjoying 

just to show the vast paddy field

point to note: must wear colouful clothing for the next photo shooting

so love this picture, lima sekawan

"那些年, 我們一起追的男孩"

Fishing Village @ Sekinchan

It's a plan trip to Sekinchan, something we had planned a year ago but never happened. We, the photographer gang decided to make this visit on the extra public holiday announced recently. The gang together with a pregnant mama decided to crash at my condo for the night before heading to Sekinchan.

We had so much fun during the shooting and I do wish that I could have my pre wedding photos to be taken here but too bad the man does not agree.

Anyway, the scenic photos at the paddy field will be posted later. This one will be on the fishing village that took us so long to locate. To get Sekinchan, you can get into the north south highway and exit from the Kuala Selangor exit. It took about an hour to reach Sekinchan where you will pass by Ijok and Latar. Just follow the signboard and you wont be lost. To get to the fishing village, look for the sign for Bagan Sekinchan which will be on the left side before the traffic light after you see the paddy fields on your right.

We just stop by the village for half an hour after lunch and head to McDs to get some ice cream. It's also the same day where I felt my first ever earthquake and I thought I was having dizziness again.

Thean Hou Temple 天后宫

Decided to write something on one of Malaysia's famous temple located in Kuala Lumpur known as Thean Hou. Believe it or not, I had never been in this temple before and the first time was during one of my 'sista' ROM on Chap Goh Meh. Thanks to her who made me waited for an hour for her, I managed to snap some of the very beautiful decorations in the temple. Thean Hou is located near Midvalley and easily accessible via Jalan Syed Putra. Turn into Jalan Robson and go up the hill. Parking here costs RM3.

 

The Ferry

The familiar icon of Penang

The Hunt @ Melaka (16 - 17 October 2010)

view from my hotel room

Treasure hunt has been an annual affair for my bank for the pass few years. I still remembered the first treasure hunt that I went for, my team got a third placing :) It has been 2 years since I last had my treasure hunt and hence when this time the hunt was all the way to Melaka, it was simply too irrestible to pass on.

This time my team comprised all girls and we gave the name of our team as Chicas Superpoderosas which in Spanish means Power Puff Girls ..XD It was fun to be reunited with the past members as well as bullying my new young fresh colleague to be our driver...hehe

We were flagged off around 830 am and hunt all the way from KL to Melaka passing by my hometown in Seremban. This time around, we were not that gungho to look for clues and answers as the weather was too hot to bear and I guess we were too old for this kind of hunt. Somehow, we managed to finish on time. As we were driving to Renaissance Hotel in Melaka, we decided to swing by Jonker street for some cold sweet cendol and to our surprise, we were not the only team who had such thought! Practically, every corner in Jonker street was full of hunters hunting for food and drinks.

our driver

For the dinner, it was full of fun and surprises. Chicas managed to score 21st out of 60 cars. We were so happy as we thought we never made it to the top 40 as we had half of the answers wrong. Another team, our alliance, got 19th. We were too happy to complain..haha

The next day, we loitered around Melaka town for some shooting and makan before driving back to KL.

inside the orang utan shop






nyonya laksa












A Famosa

We had the famous chicken rice ball in this less crowded shop A Famosa chicken rice ball. The interior of the shop is perfect for photography, full of nyonya character though the food was only so so. The following photos were taken inside of the shop.

Then we headed to the famous Donald and Lily Cendol for their cooling cendol with gula melaka. Highly recommended as the shop is located at a corner and quite hidden from the rest of the tourists in Jonker street.