Reached home on the 2nd October 08

Been back from Sarawak for a few days now and I had some time to select some good looking pictures and do some HDR shots to post in my blog. I'm still new in this HDR imaging and these are some of the first pictures. Basically HDR imaging is photographing the same scene many times with a wide range of exposure settings (e.g -2EV, 0EV & +2EV) and combining those separate exposures into one HDR image. This will make the dark shadows all the way up to bright lights or reflected highlights properly exposed. If you want to read more, click HERE.

No HDR here. Was going to cross the river heading towards Kuching from Sibu. Stopped at the roadside and took pictures of my GPS navigation device and the bridge itself.

View from our hotel in Sibu. HDR image.

Sibu town. HDR image.

Sibu town. HDR image.

HDR image of a building from Waterfront, Kuching.

Calm before the storm. HDR image.

Waterfront, Kuching. HDR image.

Waterfront, Kuching. HDR image.

Waiting for the rain perhaps? HDR image.

HDR image.

This picture and the following pictures are shots of 'Sarawak Layered Cake' or Kuih Lapis Sarawak. Looks wonderfully yummy ain't it?

A long drive

To Sibu. We went to Sibu from Kuching today to visit my father's elder brother, Pak Long. The drive took about 6 hours of 460km non-stop driving with the help of my GPS navigation system. Strangely the drive didn't tire me very much. I guess my mind was absorbed in memories of me when I was a 10 year old kid with my 4 family members travelling in my father's Mitsu Pajero on mostly gravel road from Brunei's Kuala Belait border to Kuching. That was year 1988. Now, the road condition has very much improved (tarmac), travelling in a much refined late model Toyota Prado with me(!) as the driver and with only 1 familiar face from the 1988 trip. It has been 20 years...

One of the low cost hotels in Kuching

View of Sibu town during the day

Sibu town at night

Grilled fish being cooked at one of the Ramadhan bazaar around Sibu

And some grilled calamari

Honey roasted whole chickens mmmm

Some of the grilled foods being sold

I ordered 20 beef & 20 chicken satays

My Pak Long with my father at the background

Some of the food that we bought to break the fast with Pak Long. Chicken with tomato paste, satay, grilled fish & cuttlefish, Briyani rice and some appetizers. We had a wonderful dinner with Pak Long :)

Significant other checking out graduation pictures on the wall after breaking fast. I'm in one of the pictures

Satok

My father had a meeting today at about 4 and unfortunately ended close to break fast time. We went to a few restaurants to try our luck but all of them are full. I suggested Secret Recipe in Satok. Luckily there is a table for 4 pax and its the only one left.Wheww... We then had carrot cheese cakes and some drinks before having our proper dinner at Saddat's located nearby.

I prefer blueberry cheesecake or apple pie cheesecake but this one is ok

Some of the festive cookies being sold by street vendors of Satok

Also the famous Sarawak Layered Cake or locally known as Kek Lapis Sarawak are available here in Satok

We've arrived Kuching on the 25th!

Reached Kuching close to midday after an hour plus flight from KL by MAS. Met my father at the airport and later sent me and other half to his home to relax before before picking us up and his wife later to break fast. Went to Grand Continental at Kuching for a 38++ buffet dinner (which is considerably very cheap compared to KL).

Surprisingly the hall is still noticibly empty 30 mins before breaking fast.

Hotel staff standing by a tray Nasi Arab on a grill and what looks like really nice portions of roasted lamb. mmmm

The Nasi Arab and grilled leg of lamb closeup.

Other dishes ready to go!

My plate. From top, clockwise; mixed vege in oyster sauce, deep fried calamari, grilled lamb with bbq sauce, spiced cockels (center) & Nasi Arab underneath the cockels. Yummy

Pre-Merdeka Celebrations

Our club, Satria GTi Club was invited to join the Merdeka countdown on the 30th August 2008. We were also invited to open up a booth to display our convoy equipments and achievements.

Our R&R Head entertaining a visitor to our booth

My car got a special parking in front of the showroom

A Lotus Elise S on display being sold by Proton. Proton owns 63.75% share in Lotus Group International Limited

Fins to smooth out the airflow coming from the very flat undercarriage

A Sikorsky S-61A-4 (Nuri) doing a flyby rehearsal

And followed by other helis from other braches of the armed forces

A closeup of one of the helis

The flight home

The short break for Faridah and her son is over. She got the flight departed at 10:25am to Singapore for a 1 hour transit before continuing her journey to Zürich flughafen. Zul, Faridah's husband must be delighted to see Faridah and especially Firdaus again as he can now walk on his own!

Getting ready to board the car.

That's a sheep alright hehe

Sadly we have to say Selamat Tinggal or Auf Wiedersehen to her. Hopefully to see her whole family again in Christmas

Had dinner later that night with my wife at Uptown Damansara. I had Kuey Tiow and my wife had some roasted cockels with some sauce and some roasted tofu.

Back to my page

Firdaus having fun

My sister, Faridah and her son, Firdaus came to Malaysia for a short break last week. I had a chance to bring Firdaus who has started to walk on his own to a playground near my house. Firdaus had a lot of fun today!

The playground is there, Firdaus :)

That looks like fun

Now somebody get me up there, now!

Peek-a-boo!

Its more stable walking like this

Relaxing in front of the TV with Mak Long at the background

Went to Abg Lan's house at about 8pm for some dinner. Hannah being comforted by her father