A Trip Down Memory Lane

I was in Sungai Wang Plaza the other day. PuiSee Chu took me to Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts. I was excited at first. I have not tried them before, knowing it is a mega hipster rage even without duck egg yolk in it. I first saw them in a Ramadan bazaar in Singapore last year. Pui See knows her way around Sungai Wang Plaza. She knows the outlets, the corridors, the pink ladies parking and the lift location. Which was a good thing as we found our way around rapidly. I never understood the layout of this old and giant mall. All I know is one wrong turn, I will end up in a row of hair dressing saloons that emanate the most horrific rotten egg odour because Chinese people were perming their straight hair.

That’s Sungai Wang for you. I asked Pui See about her familiarity and she confessed she was a bohsia (or a female teen mall rat) during her Form 4 or Form 5 days. She’ll take a bus here after school. It was the only mall with a cineplex and an ice skating rink during its time. Also the only mall with a filthy food court in the rooftop car park. Tony Warren won’t like this but I met the other Tom Jones of Malaysia working at the garbage incinerator next to the food court. I think it was Mark Sylvester. Would you believe Sungai Wang Plaza is now buying a Harley and getting a man bun? It is now 40 years old, as it opened in 1977. I first met DJ Kenneth MC Zap here too. I think he was spinning at the concourse.

Pui See bought a box of tarts and left me to myself at the table because she needed to get her power bank from her car. Maybe I don’t have enough hipster DNA in my blood. My excitement turned to dismay when I accidentally crushed the tart with my fingers. An ugly mess of disgusting molten cheese spilled into my fingers. How can anyone eat this and not feel jelak? Jelak is a local word to describe over satiation or disgust with certain food that makes you want to puke or burp. Happens when Asians binge eat creamy stuff. This single piece made me want avoid Hokkaido for good!

Not Pui See’s fault though as I wanted to try it. One woman’s cheese is another man’s shit. YMMV. Now Sex Bomb is playing in my mind. All because I checked Mark’s FB and saw a video of him singing the Tom Jones hit. I first saw the Tom Jones of Malaysia Tony Warren when I was a kid when he was singing at Weld Supermarket. It was in a standalone building with a spacious open air car park opposite Weld Swimming Pool. Remember that area? There was Eden too. For hotels around Sungai Wang and the Golden Triangle, see Hotels In Kuala Lumpur. #cheesetarts #tarts #sungaiwangplaza #hokkaido #tomjones #nolstagia #review

Cholon Is Saigon’s Oldest Surviving Chinatown

It was the Thean Hou Temple in Cholon Chinatown, Saigon I photographed and its history dates back to 1778. Loved the spiral incense coils inside the temple.

It was a bittersweet experience when I met an elderly and kindly local Chinese man outside the temple. We conversed in Cantonese. Finding out that I am from Malaysia, he asked me whether the Chinese are treated fairly. Surprised by the question, I didn’t really know how to reply to it and I told him: “We will survive, just like how your community did in Vietnam” He smiled and nodded his head in agreement. Coincidentally, an old Chinese man in Jakarta asked me the same thing. So did a Chinese man in Manila Chinatown.

For a lone traveler, it was a comforting yet an awkward experience meeting a concerned member of the far flung diaspora.

#temple #saigon #hcmc #vietnam #chinesetemple #chinese #diaspora

Lean On Me

Saw a post from Teluk Intan native Chong See Ming and decided to try out Facebook’s improved search of old posts. Found the image surprisingly quick. That it works will save me much time in finding the captions for my book. The original pic is in high quality PSD format.

If you are a Photoshop user, you may like to know that the free Faststone Viewer is the only image viewer or simple app that can display PSD files in a gallery. Even Photoshop can’t do that. Heh.

The Leaning Tower Of Teluk Intan.

The iconic landmark at the former colonial town previously renamed Anson Bay. Built in 1885 by a Chinese contractor, the pagoda functioned as a water tank and clock tower. According to tourist info, the clock was originally crafted by highly-regarded London watch and clock makers J.W. Benson of Ludgate Hill.

Photography Notes: If you want good light, you have to wait for the correct time, bad weather notwithstanding. No other way, really. With a little luck, the sky was a perfect blue the day I was there.

I didn’t just wait for good light but waited also for a cyclist to come along to include some foreground activity. Quite a long wait too, as it was an exceptionally hot day and everyone else stayed indoors. Coincidentally, the scrap cardboard collector’s cargo was also leaning and was going to topple.

The use of an ultra-wide angle lens here presented two challenges. I have to be very careful in keeping the horizon level so as to preserve the natural tilt of the tower. With a very wide lens, it is easy to tilt the camera instead.

With so much sky in frame, the foreground exposure was a little overwhelmed. A little kick from the camera’s DRO smoothened out the harsh dynamic range and preserved some details in the shadow areas of the structure.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 320, f11, 1/400 sec.

#streetphotography #landscape #landmark #telukintan #leaningtower #pagoda #menaracondong #telukanson #perak #sonyalpha #a7r #samyang

There Is No Smoke Without Fire

This candle stand is the start of the smoke chain in the temple. The devotees light their joss sticks and incense papers here, spreading smoke as they move from the altar to the urn outside.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f2, 1/3200 sec.

#streetphotography #temple #flame #candles #smoke #chinatown #chinesenewyear #cny #sonyalpha #a7r #zeiss

One Moment In Time.

Through the doorway: the skywell, sun rays, smoke, spiral joss sticks and ancient Chinese architecture appear like art. It can happen only in that one moment in time when the light, smoke and objects combined perfectly.

Photography Tip: Use a tele lens not just for reach. Here; I used the compression effect of the Sony FE 70-200mm lens to reduce the perceived distance between objects. I wanted the roof to appear nearer to the spiral coils than it actually was.

Exercise extra care when changing lens in a temple environment. There is a lot of fine ash that can get into the rear element and sensor.

Sony Alpha a7R, ISO 100, f4, 1/1000 sec.

#streetphotography #temple #chinesetemple #architecture #smoke #art #josssticks #chinatown #chinesenewyear #cny #sonyalpha #a7r #sonyg