Got back from Bangkok late last night and all I could do was to download a tonne of pictures off the memory cards. Here is a preview of things that I have done during the rather interesting trip to Thailand from the few snapshots that I hastily processed late last night.

the ubiquitous tuk-tuk

We had our fair share of tuk-tuk experience across town. These little 3 wheelers are everywhere around the city. With total disregard of traffic pattern and sense of speed limitation, it was a ball of fun and excitement. One driver even did a wheely when we were on board! (perhaps due to the weight of Terence & Dree?)

the holy temples

We also visited a lot of temples around the city center as well as the outskirts. The particular picture above was captured when I purposely cleared my throat louder than usual, hee-hee.

the diver on Chao Phraya

At the various piers along Chao Phraya River, you can see kids whose job title are “divers”. Their job is to re-catch creatures (cat fish, frogs, turtles, etc) that were let go into the river by pilgrims to be re-sell at the various stalls along the pier. The kids did not let work gets in the way of having fun.

thai boxing!

Of course, I did a bit of practice on my Muay Thai on a proper rink at Pantip Mall (the King’s Cup competition was on)!

the red light district

What’s a trip to Bangkok without going to the red light district. I have a very good story on some 3 stupid fellas getting conned by a bar owner and a pimp. Stay tuned!

McWorms with a side of insects and the optional fried froggy

Last but not least, how can we forget about food? Weird and wonderful creatures that went into our mouth. I’ve had tomyam, pad Thai, pad see yew, pork dishes, and of course, the fried insects!

Full posts on the trip will be coming to your nearest computer monitor shortly.

Tags:  bangkok,  bugs,  photos,  temple,  tour,  trip,  weird

Posted by KY | 39 Comments »

Last weekend we headed to Kampung Baru in KL to capture some election colors. On the side note, election is this weekend, please do vote and vote wisely. The worse thing you can do is to give up the most basic of our democratic right. I am ashamed to say that this would be the first time I go to the ballet box due to being overseas and so on, but it’s a start. Assess the candidates and parties carefully, and make your choice, every vote counts.

As it turned out, I only managed to snap something like a roll of pictures before the rain pours, but here goes:

Color Imbalance

It was also one of Kim’s first photography trips and I must say she has an eye for this thing! Check out her post on the trip.

The whole area was filled with banners, mostly of the ruling party and some of the opposition. It is sad to say that in this country, we still have to resort to putting candidates of the same race (and sometimes same sex) against each other. But hopefully change to the better is on the way.

Stare Cock

If I vote for you, will you buy me a motorbike?

Kampung Baru is one of the very few real kampungs left in the city of KL. Located just a stone’s throw away from the bustling KLCC, here you find people living a much simpler life. With roosters still roaming the streets and houses built just good enough to have a shade under the sun and rain.

Welcome to my Home

For the old folks, evening is spent chilling with friends and having a good time. No sense of urgency, no rushing for deadlines, no hunting for more gold.

Relax and Laughters

In a city with more toll ways than rivers, many folks here still rely on motorcycles and bicycles as their primary transport, getting them from A to B. Of course, there is also an LRT station just around the corner transporting them to a very different world just a single station away. It is truly a time machine more than an underground tube.

Clinging On

Kampung folks are also usually a lot friendlier. I took the opportunity to snap a picture of this chubby kid at the restaurant. I think he was confused, this is the world he lives in, we are the visitors.

The boy will grow up to inherit the country from our generation, and it is us that must make a choice to give them what they deserve.

What’re you looking at?

I hope you enjoy this series. Thank you for viewing.

Tags:  b&w,  elections,  kampung baru,  KL,  klcc,  photos,  streets,  voting

Posted by KY | 24 Comments »

Happy Deepavali (or Diwali) to my Hindu friends.

I took the opportunity of the holiday to go down to KL and snap me some pictures. These shots were taken around Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, near the Maju Junction. The Canon 400D and Tamron SP90 were the gear used in this excursion, I was trying to see the effect of using a basically macro/portrait lens for streets photography.

anticipation

An old man anticipating the arrival of his bus as cars and bikes passes him in the reflection.

rejected

specks of gold

the spiral

In the older part of the city, you can find remnants of architecture from the bygone era. Do we still have dedicated fire escape routes in shop houses these days?

where do you want to go today?

There are a few more of these at my flickr set

Tags:  black-and-white,  KL,  kuala-lumpur,  life,  monochrome,  photos,  streets

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

The Petronas Twin Towers is perhaps one of the most photographed buildings in Malaysia. There are tonnes of photos taken from various angles, but can you guess where is this particular photo taken from?

note: I didn’t cut a hole from a cardboard.

where did I take this picture of the twin towers?

No prize for guessing right.

Tags:  klcc,  petronas-twin-towers,  photos,  weird-angle

Posted by KY | 9 Comments »

The reason this blog hasn’t been updated for the past few days is a sound one. I was at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam again, and the hotel wanted to charge something like US $17 per day for internet access, I guess I could live without going online for a few days. I had the chance to walk around the city a bit and take a few pictures from the street.

not going to school

There are still many under privileged children in this city, selling various items such as chewing gums, or like in this case, providing a shoe shining service.

buy from me?

This lady kept asking me to buy a coconut from her. I had no idea how much one would cost, and she doesn’t speak English either.

i want a bike

It seems like this guy, who appears to be a rat trapper, would very much love to be able to own a motorbike one day. Ho Chi Minh City has a very high concentration of motorbikes, pretty much like Penang in the 80s, except maybe 5x as busy.

breakfast?

A white lady is trying to figure out what’s for breakfast. I guess it wasn’t too attractive as she just walked past the mobile restaurant. You can find these sort of hawkers all over HCMC.

Tags:  b&w,  black-and-white,  hcmc,  ho-chi-minh-city,  photos,  streets,  Vietnam

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »