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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Wishing You A Joyous Kaaamatan and Gawai Festival

Harvest Festivals is celebrated everywhere around the world to celebrate at the end of the harvesting season. With the bountiful harvest, farmers all around the world celebrate it with their own ways.

We are lucky in Malaysia we have 2 such festivals celebrated in Sabah and Sarawak. The harvest festivals in Sabah is called “Pesta Kaamantan” and celebrated on 30^th May annually. In Sarawak, the harvest celebration is called “Ari Gawai” and celebrated on 1^st June annually.

The similarity of both celebration usually starts early with gala dinner and beauty pageant such as Kumang Gawai for Sarawak and Unduk Ngadau for Sabah. During this pageant, young maiden from different local ethnics will compete to win to be crown as the winners. It is an honour for the headman of the village and the villagers if one of their maiden which joins wins the competition.

I’m proud that I was born in a multi ethnics families which celebrating all kinds of celebration. On this, I would like to take the opportunity to wish my family and friend who celebrating this upcoming harvest festival have a joyful kaamatan and gawai festival. “Kotobian Tadau Tagazo Do Kaamatan” and “S’lamat Ari Gawai, Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai” from me.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

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Kuyat NangkaFood, Places

Kings of Fruits Buffet @ SS2

It’s the Durian aka Kings of Fruits season and there a lot of stalls mushrooming beside the road side selling it. There are plenty type of durians selling with weird name such as Musang King aka Elvis Presley, IOI, Udang Merah, D21, D24, VSOP and etc. to name a few. The price is quite differs with each other. The most expensive one and sought by most durians lover are the Musang King aka Elvis Presley (not sure how the legend rock’n’roll star can be relate to durian) with RM24 – RM28 per kilo.

Durian named Udang Merah which is sweet, less bitter taste, fleshy and small seeds.

Durian named asVSOP which is fleshy and bitter taste with small seeds.

It was my first time I went for a Durian Buffet at SS2 after how many years I’d been living in Klang Valley. Only heard from my friends and read from other people blog regarding durian buffet. On my first and second visit, I didn’t bring along my camera as it was unplanned together with some friend after hanging out for yamcha.

On my third visit, I only manage to bring my camera along. Some of the shop provides “Eat All You Can” just paying RM10 – RM15 per pax. Sound interesting right? But there is a catch with the price, the durians are just kampong durians and the size is quite small compare to the other durian with it fancy name. Sometime you can’t choose the durians in the basket as the workers will open up the durians and serve on your table. The taste is “so so” lor what I can say but no harm to eat.

One of the worker selecting and opening the durian for it customer.

If you want good durians, you may try some of the durians with it fancy name. You can ask the workers to choose and recommend which durian is good to eat. Different people got different taste, some like bitter, some like fleshy, some like sweet and etc.

So far I’d tested Musang King, IOI, D24, D21, D88 and VSOP. The price is vary with each other and depends on which shop you went. So, if you are around in KL during the durian season, drop by at any durian stall and enjoy feasting on durian. Here are some blog link you may refer to which is much more details than mine. (FeedMeLah.com and CalvinKong)

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Friday, April 1, 2011

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Kuyat NangkaEvents, Places

Earth Hour 2011 @ KLCC Malaysia

This year 2011, Earth Hours falls on Saturday 26th March 2011. As usual, most of the skyscrapers around the globe will switched off the lights for an hour from 8:30pm till 9:30pm. Earth Hour started way back in 2007 in Sydney when individuals and businesses turned off their lights to take a stand against climate change which we facing now. Since then, it has become a global movement with more than 50 million people from 35 countries taking part annually.

KLCC in monochrome mode.

We from Malaysia also took part for this good cause and I guess this is the 2^nd time I managed to capture Petronas Twin Towers turns to darkness last year. This year, I was joined by my cousin and fellow friend who also into photography. The biggest mistakes I made this time is I forgot to bring my SD cards and my camera tripod holder before I left the house. Since we were near to Suria KLCC, I decided to purchase new 8GB SDHC card at one of the camera outlets to be used in my DSLR 20 minutes before the countdown.

KLCC before 8:29pm

When the clock struck 8:30p.m, the light does not turn off systematically.

Both tower are totally turn off.

At 8:31pm, both tower were totally turn off for an hour.

The Maxis Tower clock also been swith off for an hour to show support for Earth Hour.

It was 4 minutes before the clock tick at 8:30p.m, we managed to find a spot to take the photo. Was quite impress with the speed of SDHC from a normal SD card as it stored the image quite faster than normal. When the clock struck 8:30p.m, the KLCC lights was turn off not as synchronize as last year. Seem like they simply switch it off randomly. My other friend which bring his new D7000 didn’t manage to capture the moments as he was busy mounting his camera to his tripod.

While we waiting for an hour before the skyscraper turn on back the lights, we chat and shared tips on taking picture at night. We decide the next outing will be night portrait photography.

Playing with slow shutter speed but my wife and her friend keep on walking in front the lens and cause ghostly effect.

Nice pic of KLCC in the background but with ghostly effect.

As we were chatting, my wife and her friends joins us waiting for KLCC to light up. It was fun hanging out with friends at KLCC park at night as it’s not as hot in noon or in the afternoon. When the clock strikes 9:30p.m, the KLCC light up again and it takes moments before the skyscraper were fully lighted up.