Trip to Kuching, Malaysia

Posted on 2011/06/16 by edgarchieng in Places, Videography | Leave a comment

I last visited Kuching back in 2004, and my trip to this time had shown me the drastic changes to the city from the last time I saw it. However the culture, the tradition and the local people remains the same, which is what I like about it. I filmed this video around the various street markets around the city, and also the waterfront.

I just have to film this as I might not be able to see these sort of scenes in my next trip as Kuching is rapid developing left right and centre to become a more modern city. I also went to Damai Beach Resort and stayed overnight with my family, it’s a 45-minutes drive from the city and is the nice getaway in the rather tropic and hot weather of Kuching.

I hope to visit Kuching again during my next trip and eagerly awaits to see the ever-changing city scape.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Posted on 2010/04/22 by edgarchieng in Photography, Places, Videography | Leave a comment

Kuala Lumpur is the capital city and also the face of Malaysia. KL as it is more commonly known by the famous Petronas Twin Towers, is more than just a city with fancy looking buildings. It has so much to keep tourist entertained days and nights non-stop.

In the morning, walk down the streets and you can go into a “coffee shops” and have coffee and toast as breakfast. By the time you finished, walk along Jalan Bukit Bintang and the shopping malls would have their doors opened and you should be able to spend a good first few hours in the mall. Why not when you have a 7-floor mall that sells only electrical and electronics (Cameras/Mobile Phones/Computers).

When it’s time for lunch, there are plenty of stalls in the food court with so many different variaties of food to choose from. When you are done, there is more shopping to do as the CBD itself is packed with a dozens of giant malls. And when you think you have visited all the shopping malls, there are even more outside of the CBD. Mid-Valley Mega Mall as it is called, has recently completed its expansion and is now one of the largest in Asia. If you are like my wife, and you like shopping very much, a day in the mall is not going to be enough.

For dinner, the back alley of Jalan Alor in parallel to Jalan Bukit Bintang has hundreds of food stalls with so many choices to spoil you. It opens in the evening till late and can be quite packed every single night. Don’t forget to walk at least half of the entire street to see a more variety of choices, as the few big ones at the start are always very busy.

There was a street drift demo show on one of the nights during our stay, the organiser literally blocked off the entire stretch of one of the busiest streets in the middle of KL. There was no safety barrier, and I was standing 2 feets away from the action when the Nissan Silvia S15 did a sliding u-turn in front of me. That was exciting, and you can see all of that in action on my video below.

I wished we had more time allocated for KL as there are several other places outside of KL I would like to go like Cameron Highlands and also the town of Melaka. I guess we will shall leave that for our next trip back to Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur

Jalan Alor

Berjaya Times Square

Suria KLCC

Penang, Malaysia

Posted on 2010/04/20 by edgarchieng in Photography, Places, Videography | Leave a comment

Penang was once known as the Pearl of the Orient. It is such a vibrant and exciting place with so much to offer and only time will let you explore the city to its extend. Penang is also the sister city to Adelaide, and both have very good relationships with each other. So it is no surprise that the name “Penang” is so well known to the locals, and famous Penang dishes are quite commonly served in local restaurants.

We were fortune enough to be given the contact number of a private charter mini-bus. We paid an agreed price and were taken on a tour of the entire island for 10 hours unlimited travel. The only thing that was not included was Penang Hill, because it is only accessible by privately-hired 4WDs.

We also met up with our couple friend who also happened to be in Penang at the time. They treated us with trishaw rides (all 10 of us) from our hotel entrance all the way to the entrance of the seafood restaurant where we were again treated for a fantastic all-seafood dinner with the family. It was certainly a great atmosphere and with good company, it was definitely a night to remember.

In this page, you will also see some very interesting places which we visited, to name a few, the temple with the longest sleeping buddha in the world, also the famous open food-court which starts in the evening. The Tropical Spice Garden has an extensive varieties of different spices with beautiful flora and fauna garden, we also spotted a giant swing (not pictured) which can sit 3 adults and hangs off the branch of a really old giant rain forest tree.

Trishaw Ride

Seafood

Dried Beef

Penang

Sleeping Buddha Temple

Sibu, Sarawak Malaysia

Posted on 2010/04/14 by edgarchieng in Photography, Places | Leave a comment

Sibu is a small town in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia. This is where I was born, a place where I grew up and spend most of my childhood time. This is a very unique town because it is such a culture-rich place where you will meet people of all kinds of background. You get to meet the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Iban and other minorities everyday and everywhere, in the shopping malls, in the food courts and even in the markets, and the best part is, everyone gets along just fine.

We were there to visit and catch up with my family whom I have not seen for many years. However, most importantly, we were there for my second wedding, following the one in Adelaide a week earlier. Everything went smoothly and as expected, being such a small town, words spread pretty quickly around town and the next thing we know, we were on the local newspaper from all the congratulatory messages by the nice people.

I have always taken Sibu for granted and I start to appreciate it more during this trip. I had the opportunity this time, to take my wife and her family to visit the famous indoor market, which is the largest of its kind in Malaysia. I have never stepped my foot in that market all my life, until now, and I was totally blown away by what it offers, partly because my previous memories of a market wasn’t quite a pleasant one (think wet, dirty, smelly market).

You get traders from all kinds of different background, with their produce, neatly arranged on top of their portable tables for sale at a ridiculously cheap price. Everything is clean, and dry (except for the seafood area), and the people are very nice and polite. Or maybe they were nice because I was carrying a DSLR camera and they thought I was doing a documentary on them, but the way some of the produce are being displayed were really amusing. Take a look at one of the pictures below where the live chickens were wrapped in newspaper and tied with a string for easier picking and carrying.

We also had the chance to visit the night street market, a car-parking compound during the day time and turned into a street-market after hours. It has been there since forever. As a kid I used to like this traditional Chinese cake (dipped with soy sauce) made by this family-owned business and my parents would to take me there once a week to have them take-away. When I went back this time, it seems like the family-owned business is no longer there, and by comparison, the number of traders have shrunk significantly compared to 20 years ago. I remembered the market being a really busy place at night, and they were a lot of pick-pockets because it is so packed, but these days, I would called it considerably safe.

My mom was also kind enough to drive us all the way out of town to the newly opened Chinese Buddhist campus. It is about an hour’s drive from town and it has the largest collection of Chinese temples in a compus in South East Asia. It has different kinds of temples, big and small, different buddhas, and it is built to the highest quality of the workmanship (Chinese labours were sent to work on the temples from China).