心愿 - A Wish

湖水是你的眼神

梦想满天星辰心情是一个传说

亘古不变的等候

成长是一扇树叶的门

童年有一群亲爱的人

春天是一段路程沧海桑田的拥有

那些我爱的人

那些离逝的风那些永远的誓言一遍一遍

那些爱我的人

那些沉淀的泪那些永远的誓言一遍一遍

湖水是你的眼神梦想满天星辰

心情是一个传说亘古不变的等候

成长是一扇树叶的门

童年有一群亲爱的人

春天是一段路程沧海桑田的拥有

我们都有过一张天真而忧伤的脸

手握阳光我们望着遥远

轻轻的一天天一年又一年

长大间我们是否还会再唱起心愿

Living by the River

The 20-hour bus journey from Penang did not put off the spirit of the photo enthusiasts. We woke up fresh and departed to the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market as early as 8:00 am on the next day morning of arrival. The floating market, situated 110 km west of Bangkok, is a very attractive place for tourists to see the old style and traditional way of selling and buying fruits, vegetables, handicrafts and etc., from small boats. It was a peaceful morning as the sellers just started off the day when we reached there. As the sun rises high, it was started to be flooded by the tourists and picturing a busy market place on the river.

The ever smiling people - friendly and soft-spoken, althought there have been language barriers in many occasions, but one can feel their warmth and friendliness.

The river is getting congested and filled with vistors. Scene of boats rubbing boats. Paddles clashing paddles.

Who cares? Despite the busy surroundings, one boat operator was deep in his dream land.

穿梭红树林 At The Heart of Mangroves Forest

吡叻州渔村十八丁（Kuala Sepatang）的马当（Matang）红树林区，是一片人们都敬而远之的沼泽泥泞地，只有红树，情有独钟这个地方。棵棵高瘦笔直的红树相依林立，交织出一片棕绿色的林阴地。
十八丁森林局的管理得法， 红树林成为了国际保护得最好的红树林之一。政府再把它辟成旅游区，用红树刨成木板，在林中架起一道弯弯曲曲的红树板搭桥。板桥是红树林中唯一的“人行道”，让访客轻易深入林亲近自然生态，发掘沼泽红树的奥妙，也好让一群“好摄之徒”，拍个痛快！


红树以红为名，是因为它的内心树干深红如褐，可是树皮却是白中带棕斑。 当树儿越长越高时，树根也跟着长高，这可是红树盘踞泥泞地的秘诀，红树树根裸露地面上，是为了巩固树身，如此一来，任海水、河水长期无情拍打冲击，它们都稳扒泥地，不会被冲走。红树的大根都深入泥里，而在根部的四周泥地，则冒出许多小根，这就是红树的生命之根了。 　


由于红树是制造火柴、火炭的原料，具有商业价值，也是国家经济收入来源，它之所以受到保护，，固然是因为它维持海岸边特别的生态环境，最重要的原因，是政府必须确保红树产量足够应付市场需求，也避免它成为非法伐木的“受害者”。这片沼泽地是教育和趣味性并兼的地方，有空不妨前来探索，你肯定会爱上它！

这儿是淡淡的河水进入波涛汹涌大海前必经之路，咸水与淡水相互交融，一片供红树茁壮成长的温床自然诞生。

A Date with Charcoal 木碳香

炭，过去我们的日常生活常用的燃料，几经物换星移，当人们有了更为简便的烹煮方式，嫌它费时费事而唾弃它。从而被石油气取代后，炭与人们的生活渐渐脱离。而今，只有在烧烤会上，或华人新年前烘制Kuih Kapet时，它才惊鸿一瞥。它也勾起我小时老家与“南成火炭店” 相以为邻的丝丝回忆。

车子在十八丁(Kuala Sepetang)停下后，便闻到一阵炭香扑鼻，原來已经抵达炭窑。一幢幢简破的木棚排立眼前，烧制火炭的大炉子- 炭窑，就藏身在这些大木棚内。古老烧炭行業，在此延续百年。砍伐的树干，用船载來，剝掉綠色的树皮，露出紅色的內层，切割成标准的长度，层层整齐排列在半圓形的窟炉中，用黃泥將窟口密封，日夜要人看守火势，一個月后开窟，紅色的树干，变成了巨大的黑炭。 炭在日韓等国非常受到重视，有些日韓商家，在此收炭加工，制成炭精，除臭剂和除潮剂等产品，销回国內。十八丁人爱把炭块放在家里，公司的傻大姐Samantha 也在其桌上摆放几片，据说可以減轻电器和电脑的輻射。

还没被启用的新窟，可以看到还没被熏黑的黄泥砖。

封窑后留下一个火门起火烧制。先是大火，接着用中火，再转小火，过程约十多天

即完完全全封死的炭窑，用来熄火，让原木在里头慢慢炭化，并自然冷却。

木船把砍伐下来的红树原木运至炭窑旁的露天空地。工人就铲去红树的皮以减少湿度，加快炭化的速度。

女工在小丘高的炭堆前忙着包装炭块，搬运上啰里。

女工在炭碎中筛选较大片的炭

乐业又健谈的老婆婆叫人心生欢喜

Temple & Opera

Shots from yesterday visit to the Nine Emperor Gods Temple of Butterworth (北海斗母宫) -- [will write more about this post when free...to be continued]

Fallen nest on the road side

We drove up the Penang famous “Thousand Two Stairs” temple (千二层) during this vegetarian festival in commemorates with the birthday of the Toism Gods – The Nine Emperors. It is believed that one can have his soul and sins cleaned by adopting a 9-day, 6-day, 3-day or even 1-day of strict vegetarian diet. I do follow suit for the diet because I would like to see this customarily practice which has already been blended in as part of the Chinese cultures continues.

After taking some photos and had the breakfast up in the temple, Don, Emma and I went ahead to draw the divination stick. How accurate of that thingy will depend on how you see it. On the way coming down the hill, we saw this bird nest lying on the road side, and there is still an egg in it! It must have been brought down by the storm. We tried to put it back to its original place but we did not know to which trees it belonged to. The trees branches were actually beyond our reach. Don volunteered to take custody of it by bringing it home for birds that come to his house for nestling to incubate the egg. Hopefully it hatches soon.

Azan

The planned trip of jalan-jalan and makan-makan to Pantai Kerachut and Balik Pulau on the first Raya day did not turn out to be a reality. There was a heavy down pour in that morning and we also learnt about the land slides in Balik Pulau; we had to call off the entire plan. That left me with whole of unoccupied day and I had the luxury of time to do photo shooting with my newly bought camera in the town.

Kapitan Keling Mosque - This is the largest historic mosque in town, built in the 19th century by Indian Muslim traders. It is situated on the corner of Buckingham Street and Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling (also more known as Pitt Street by most of the Penangites).

Kapitan Kelings is actually the equivalent words for Captains of the Kelings. As the Indians found it difficult to pronounce certain English words, the title "Captain" was somehow transformed into "Kapitan". Whereas the term 'Keling' (吉宁 or 吉宁人) derived from the ancient Hindu kingdom in the South India. It was generally used to denote all those who came from there.

The mosque is packed with the worshippers on Fridays and overflows during the Muslim celebrations of Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and Hari Raya Haji. The growing numbers of worshippers it’s an indication of strengthening of faith and searching the true Islamic teaching, and hopefully not politically propagandised.

向天使挥手

我遇上了天使
天使向我招手
我遇上了天使
幸福起点的开始

天使要带我一起走
无尽的根却深扎地里
拔不断 扛不起
羽翼伤了 力也穷了
我心痛
追逐黑色幸福的天使

我离开了天使
伤痛我克制
悲伤过去时
另一个起点的开始

我离开了天使
我向天使挥手…
我怀念
圣洁天堂 你的地方
带着微笑的天使

灯笼高高挂

路过社尾街，在一排破旧的店屋，看到了这间相信为槟城硕果仅存的灯笼制作店。小时候邻家也是制作灯笼的，每逢中秋节一到，就把大大小小鲜艳的彩灯挂在屋檐下，美不胜收，叫小小年纪的我，瞪得目不转睛。每一年，就只有期待这一晚的来临。后来，邻家搬迁了，总觉得中秋节的夜晚已铅华不再。

灯笼与华人生活无不相连，除了照明，也是一种象徵， 婚礼喜庆、丧葬场合、迎神盛会、元宵花灯等都有各式灯笼的陪衬。 但在时代洪流不断前进，人口变迁、需求减少、后续无人、复杂制作的种种因素下，这项荒凉的老行业只有在过着缓慢喘延的日子，直到消失在这一个时代。

有老伴相依的李师傅还是那么全神贯注，认真的用地一笔一划的给灯笼上色。 一生的青春，照亮了无数家户，迷失的孩子，你们可曾见到了回家的路？

较为普遍的有字姓灯，成双的悬挂在华人屋子的五脚基上，一方为此家庭的姓，另一方为家族的籍贯。 这也比较常见于宗伺。

大吉祥（The Great Auspicious）–- 一个退了色的招牌，逐渐成为了退色的记忆。

Beaded Shoes (Kasut Manek)

I was with my nieces on the Anak-anak Kota (Children of the City) art walkabout on the Nyonyas beaded shoes at Armenian Street, Georgetown yesterday. This is another activity of arts in heritage education program. It aims to raise awareness of the meaning and significance of heritage to the children, help them understand who they are and their role in the development of culture and heritage.

Beaded shoes - during the Peranakan days, it was a trend for the Nyonyas to wear beaded shoes. Most of them learnt to sew it themselves. They worked with the tiny colourful size beads aka “manek potong”. It required the nyonya to have a lot of patience and dexterity with her fingers in order to complete a pair of kasut manek. Not many people wear beaded shoes nowadays. The only person that I can remember that is fond of the make-to-order beaded shoes is my “fairy godmother” Mary Chee. I am sure a pair of well made beaded shoes matches her elegance.

Some of the semi-finished and finished product on display. It's all custome made! The colors of the beads must give a good match to the theme selected. That includes: flowers, birds, fish, butterfly and "YuanYang".

According to the shoes maker Mr. Tan, the sewing process is tedious, can be strenuous on the eyes and therefore time consuming. The price is typically range from RM 350- RM 1,000 per pair. Therefore the product is commonly sold to a niche market.

Children of different races showing interest on the processes involved in beaded shoes making, from choosing a design, colour of the beads, specified needles, threads and frames. Explanation was given by this multilingual guy - English, Malay and Mandarin, to make sure no one is made disadvantaged by their language comprehension.

The Anak-anak Kota surprised the shoe maker Mr. Tan by making him a gaint signboard for his business. Everyone passing by the road is easily attracted by this eyes catching signboard. Hopefully this will bring more businesses to him and make this industry shine again as in its yesteryears.

Cambodia: Pre Rup Temple

These pictures were taken in Pre Rup, a typical mountain-like temple. It is traditionally believed to be a funerary temple. Only on that particular day in our 5 days stay in Siem Reap that had a clear blue sky. We made some considerable shots here, especially on the centre prasat (pyramid temple).

Pre Rup: A girl awaits her customers to buy some souvenirs. I don't remember what she was selling, postcard I guess. Something worth buying, only $1 for 10 pieces of postcards.

Pre Rup: The towers are made of bricks. The central prasat stands on a two-tier planform, with axial stairways guarded by lions.

Cambodia: Tonle Sap Lake

Tonle Sap Lake – an eye opener visit. It’s one of the largest fresh water floodplain lake in the world. The size of the lake will increase in wet season and decrease in dry season. This annual flood cycle creates an incredibly productive environment for both wildlife and people. There are 170 floating villages on the lake itself with a population of 3.5 million. Fishing is the dominant activity of all the villagers. Over 70% of the protein consumed throughout Cambodia is estimated to come from fish from the Tonle Sap. The road to Tonle Sap is some paved, but mostly rough and extremely dusty. There is no electricity in the village. Naked or half-naked children running everywhere in the village.

Fishing is the most common job here for the villagers. But there are quite a number of “entrepreneurs” too, mostly seen were women and children. They sell fruits, drinks, tit-bits and souvenirs on their small boats. They are skillful and fearless rowing a boat in the middle of such a big lake. Some of them are using speed boat to easily approach and jump onto the tourist boats. Items are sold at $1 each.

A self-potrait of mine - Photo courtesy from Kok Sheng. As we were too immersed in photographing the scenaries of the places we stepped on, we did not make many photo of ourself. Like what Kok Sheng grumbled, it maybe more than a curse than a blessing to be entrusted as the photograher in many of his club events and activities. Your face simply appear no where when you review the "harvest" after the events.

We arrived at one of the villages around 6.30PM and “landed” on a floating souvenir shop. We did not buy much any souvenir on our first day there. This shop is 3 stories high, on top of it is an open space where tourists can relax and watch the sun set from the lake. It’s was a windy evening and when the clouds were blew off by the strong wind, and when the suns shines through the clouds it gives a spectacular view on the sky which is rarely seen. We call this the “Jesus Light”. I learnt this term from brother Albert during the Bukit Janing trip.

On our departure from the lake, the sky gradually turned red and the sun was slowly “sinking” into the sea. This is the first and last most beautiful sun set scenery we had throughout our stay in Siem Reap.

Cambodia: Walk to flourished Civilisation

While wandering inside the Angkor temple, we met two friendly Cambodia monks few times in such a large temple. One of them is English speaking, by the name of Lorn Bunthouen. We chatted a while, and photographed with them and they also tell us what are the “must-see” temples in Angkor from the map. He keeps abreast with modern technology too, asking me to send him the photos we took to his email account upon my return.



This is another picture taken on Day 3. The local children were sharing their breakfast by the lake side. A kid was attracted by the beauty of the Angkor temple and making few eye connections to it. I believe we are somehow connected, for that reason we were there to witness this once flourished and collapsed empire.


At dawn on day 3, we woke up and left hotel as early as 5.30AM for sunrise in Angkor Wat. As warned by our travel coach, we shouldn’t be expecting high chances to see sunrise in May - the start of raining season. So, we proceed with the least hope, should there is any sun rise by chance, we are so much pampered and lucky then. Although we did not get to see the sun rise eventually, we made the best use of our effort to get up early to enjoy the morning breeze by the lake side in front of the temple. Many other people were enjoying their breakfast and hot coffee, posing for the camera, waiting for miracle and some just proceed with the next item in their itinerary.


These loving dancer couples are taking rest in the Bayon temple. The lady dancer is giving the man dancer a massage after their performance. A traditional Apsara dance show is an absolute must for the visitor to Cambodia.

Photo courtesy from Kok Sheng: Me and the "spoiled" guy Jason posing by the window of Angkor Wat temple. Black & Whilte gives a different feel.

Angkor Wat at night. The temple is open at night for tourist to make night visit at USD 25 on top on the day’s pass you have purchased. We were told that it is mainly visited by the Korean tourists for the night session. The lightened up Angkor Wat at night gives an entirely different feel to the beholders. It’s just like the legendary Apsara – the supernatural beings who appear as young women of great beauty and elegance who are proficient in the art of dancing and able to change their shapes at will.

Children selling souvenirs everywhere. Surprisingly, these children command good simple conversational English although do not formally go to school. Some can even speak few foreign languages, amazing!

Ta Prohm – another must see temple in the Angkor. It is only partially cleared of jungle overgrowth and intentionally left partially unrestored. Massive fig and silk-cotton trees grow from the temple towers and corridors giving some of the best “Tree in Temple” photo opportunity. Here, we witnessed the power of the nature.


I don’t recall the temple name where I had this child picture taken. I guess it’s Banteay Kdei. It’s the next temple we paid our visit to after the jungle temple, Ta Phrom. She is kind and generous enough for me to photograph her. I like her for being natural in front of the camera. No camera shy showed.


I particularly like this picture; it gives the feel of having a natural photo framing. The girl looked outside the window with anxiety as if searching for some answers. But the King Jayavarma resembled Buddha face give a great contrast, with calm and ever smiling face… “Look not from outside, the answer always lies within.”


On our way to Tonle Sap(The Great Lake), many boats were grounded on the river bed. Raining season just started and the water has not reached the sufficient level to provide a smooth travel along the river. Pictured our hired transportation coach cum guide helping t0 move the stucked boat.

I would like give a credit here to our coach, Sotheara (or Theara). He is a nice and honest man. He is well versed in English, explaining every single detail to your questions. Our trip wouldn’t be nice and pleasant without his guide. This man supported himself to complete a university degree in English Literature; volunteering teaching the local children in order to help them for better future. He has been urging donor for some simple stationary like pencil, eraser and sharpener to the students. We will buy some for the students should we have friends visiting Siem Reap. You may contact me if you would like to engage his service touring you around the Angkorian temples.

The Apsara – Also known as the heavenly nymphs are carved at the Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat’s main temple complex, decorating or safe guarding the temples. We watched the traditional Apsara dancing in the Jasmine Angkor Restaurant on our first day in Siem Reap. We did not know what “Apsara” meant, and often mispronounced it as “Aspara”. Only when we have visited few temples and saw the real carved image of them, we got the pronunciation correct.