A MerdekaRaya Trip

So, what have you been up to during the special MerdekaRaya break? Frankly speaking, I didn't do anything extraordinary though. I just taken some initiative to drive all the way from Sibu to Bintangor which is located more than 40 kilometers away!

Sounds boring? Yeah... I believe it is. You can either stop reading from here or continue follow my story.

Bintangor (a.k.a Minatang) is actually a small town with not much happening and places to go. The reason for this trip was just to spend the leisure with family members and at the same time, we read from a local newspaper report about the Engkalak at Bintangor is rather cheap. As family members including me are Engkalak fanatic, thus we decided to see if we could find some "harvests" in the trip!

[Engkalak or Buah Tebuluh]

It took me about 45-50 mins to reach Bintangor town. Once we reached there, the first destination no doubt was the native market where Engkalak could be found! Better look for them early than been swept clean if too late! Yeap! spotted plenty of Engkalak at the dark and crowded market with the selling price much cheaper than in Sibu. With RM 2/kilogram, mom had bought quite a few kilos of Engkalak to be brought home!

After a round of "shopping" at the market, we then stopped at Lu's Biscuit Shop. This is an old branded shop you shouldn't miss if you visit Bintangor.

The shop is well-known for all kind of traditional Chinese biscuits and pastries such as the famous "Kom Piang (a.k.a. kompia)" and "Leh Piang" (foochow wedding biscuit with sweet fillings). Most of the pastries are freshly baked and sold instantly.

 

In fact you may ask these so called "biscuits" are available in Sibu, so what is the difference? From what I observed, the Kompia at Lu's Biscuit Shop is generally thicker and much filling than those in Sibu. This is actually the dimension of Kompia one could get in Sibu long time ago, but because of rise of costs and whatever reasons, Sibu Kompia now had reduced in size and its thickness.

[Kom Piang a.k.a. Kompia]

Beside Kompia, the Leh Piang you could find here are also nice to eat with "explosive" stuffing!

[Leh Piang]

Apart from the mentioned, there were a lot more pastries you could try out.

Spotted a very old petrol station just beside Bintangor wharf. Just look at the pump, I believe you will agree with me!

After some walk around, is time for breakfast! Randomly selected a coffee shop to dine on... but had been waited for almost one hours for a bowl of Foochow style noodle soup to reach my table! Frankly, this bowl of noodle not worth such a long waiting at all!

We then continue our journey to another small town called Sarikei which is about 20 minutes driving distance away using its new route. Nothing much had been done there, just had some walk around at the town area.

For those who may not know, Sarikei is a town famous of its pineapple. So, if you somehow visit to this town, don't forget to capture your memory in front of the giant pineapple sculpture which symbolize the town of Sarikei!

After stopped more than an hour in Sarikei, we then headed back home. I know the trip wasn't that existing, but it was the quality time you spent with your beloved family members that count.

2010 New Year BBQ

How you spent the first day of year 2010? I spent it by attending a barbecue organized by Sparkish at a rural area, near a private chalet owned by his relative. Those joined this BBQ session were mostly Otaku... well if you dunno what Otaku is, you can try to google it. ^ ^

All of us played our part by helping to buy necessities and foods for this BBQ session. We departed and headed to the place at around 4pm with 2 cars. It took about 20 minutes to reach the BBQ venue.

The route heading to the venue was a challenging one. We need to go through quite a distance of narrow and untarred road to reach the place. It certainly needs a good driving skill or else your car may end up in the mud!

Variation of foods but not the quantity that became Sparkish choice when preparing the foods. That's why, it was not just chicken wings for the BBQ. We had wide range of foods, besides chicken wings, there were pork, beef, fish, prawns, clams, fish balls, Japanese bean curds, sausages, sweet corns, sweet potatoes and pulut panggang. You can see the foods from the following photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual in a BBQ, burning up charcoal is one of the toughest task to perform. Realized of this, we prepared the charcoal fire starter to ease the process. Vincent had done a good job on this. He was working on the charcoal for more than half an hour. Finally his efforts paid off when the charcoal was ready for the barbecue!

 

Everyone had put in efforts in order to make the BBQ a success. Some prepared and burnt the charcoal, while others helped to prepare the foods. When the barbecue started, everyone played their role to help. Some busy flipping the foods to avoid charring, some applied butter and honey onto the BBQ foods. Nonetheless, still quite a lot of them were over burnt! Perhaps we were lack of experience in controlling the fire.

 

That's why we appointed a person to be the quality assurance (QA). His job is to make sure the charred part of the food being cut off or removed as the chemical may cause cancer. Well, I think he talked and made fun around more than doing the work, at the end of the day, we had to remove the char by ourselves. ^ ^

We also appointed a guy whose responsibility is to keep the flies away from the fresh foods. He's the pities one sitting alone at one side taking care of the flies. Anyway, I guess he had done a good job there!

The BBQ continued till the sky was dark. Our aim was to grill all the foods we prepared and we successfully done it at around 8pm. Everyone had done a great job!

 

We awarded ourselves by enjoying the foods in the air-cond chalet while watching Transformers with laptop.

 

 

 

Now, can you guess what is shown in the picture below? Are they rats? Are they charcoals? No!! They are "sweet potato's charcoal"!! This is the result when you over burnt the sweet potatoes. We wrapped the potatoes with aluminum foil and then put them into the burning charcoal.

I guess we had extremely over-burnt the sweet potatoes, when we were about to eat them, the potatoes became very light in weight and when we opened the foil, this is the thing that really shocked us and became the biggest laughter of all night!!

 

The event ended at about 9pm and after the clearing and cleaning jobs, we left the place with a lot of fun and satisfaction. It was a great event in the first day of 2010. Special thanks to Sparkish for his effort to get this good place for us and made the event a success!

"Professional" Photographers?

In metropolis like KL, it is not too hard to see "professional" photographers. Everywhere you go, you will see people carrying DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera. It is a trend. Just like our hand phone, it was once only affordable by business person or taukeh. But can you see the trend now? Even a secondary student can have a hand phone in their school bag.

["Professional" photographers in KL]

This is the trend I was talking about. DSLR now already become a trend in big city like KL. Fully automatic camera like my Canon IXUS is almost fade out already. Those carrying a DSLR camera will be considered as "professional" photographers and they have a special and most strategic place reserved for them in an event like fashion show. Even pretty girls proudly posing in front of their camera no matter they are true professional photographers or amatuer bloggers like me. The main concern is "show your DSLR camera"!

["Professional" photographers usually have special platform for them to shot the event]

However if you are using an automatic camera like I do, then the story will be different. You have to make your own effort to get the best angle and shot. Pretty girls may keep avoiding your camera because they may thought you are just another "ham sap lou" (sex-maniac) or taiwanese prefer to call it as "weird uncle". Of course there is exception! Just like the pc fair show girls, I salute them for their professionalism and that makes them even prettier than they actually are!

Ok, forget about the story on what type of camera you are carrying. Now lets talk about KL "professional" photographers. Hereafter, the phrase "professional photographers" would mean those carrying DSLR camera no matter they are true professional or just an amatuer.

It is certainly not easy to be a professional photographer in KL. The EFFORTS should be take into account at all time. First you have to go to the scene earlier so that you can standby and get the best postition to make the shot. Although most of the time the best angle is reserved for them, yet they still need to fight for best of the best position to capture the best shots!

[Arrived at the scene early to get the best of the best position]

[Prepare your own ladder to prevent blocking]

You know what? If you are not confident that you won't get blocked when you are taking photo, or you prefer to take shots at a higher angle, then better bring your own ladder or stool. This was the situation I saw in a shopping complex when those professional photographers were busy shooting on a fashion show.

[No ladder? Just bring stool to make yourself "taller"]

Are they really professional? I am not sure. But what you can see is, they all having a DSLR camera with long lens. Even if they are a blogger like me or a "weird uncle", you will never know as well. At least, the camera and their posture while taking the photos make them look like a professional!

[Bunch of "professional" photographers busy shooting on a model on stage]

Although it is hard, but I guess the efforts they put on and the result of their shots will return to them tonnes of satisfaction.

[See who stand higher and have longer lens!]

I wish one day I can be one of them as well and not just carrying a Canon IXUS and hard to find a good angle to make my shots!