I’m bored. Melaka is a place that I go to almost every time I go back to Sagil. Photographically speaking, I have also taken almost everything there is to be taken in Melaka. So I have decided to do something really drastic.

High Dynamic Range imaging, or HDR as it is commonly known, is a very exciting process where you can expect to see images with a very wide range of exposure information, commonly from direct sunlit areas of the cloud to the shadowy areas under the tree, in one picture. Imagine this scenario. You are taking a picture of a building. Unfortunately the sun is directly behind the building. Chances are, your picture is likely to get either over or under-exposed, depending on where you are pointing your camera at that time.

Shot taken in RAW and tweaked to bring out the details in the cathedral in Singapore. If taken under JPEG, I doubt this image will turn out well.

If you have a camera that is capable of storing the images in RAW (not necessarily a DSLR, and there are plenty from Panasonic and Fuji), you may even push the range a little higher by processing in the computer. But nothing beats a proper multiple-exposure HDR.

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Went back to Sagil for the Mooncake Festival. We were already planning for a Melaka trip long time ago and this Mooncake celebration was a bonus for us. We were surprised that my parents agreed to tag along with us. Normally my mum will complain that it’s too far or too tiring.

It was also the second time that I used the Wira NGV to drive back to Sagil. It’s damn cheap, but the car itself is not holding itself. Half-way through the journey, the left headlights fell off without a warning!

The darn Wira is falling apart!

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Melaka is not only famous for its centuries-old buildings and historical city. It also has one of the most famous food haven in Malaysia. There are a lot of things that you can try in Melaka. Here I present to you, in chronological order.

Nyonya food

Place: Any nyonya restaurant will do. The exact place that I went to was a place called Ole Sayang in Melaka Raya.

Restoran Ole Sayang, Melaka Raya

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Can you guess, what can this weird looking box is?

What can this be? A pen holder? A stationary set?

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…… is that Malaysia’s fuel price is not dependant on the price of oil in the world, but rather, on how much the people hates the government!

Of late, oil prices in the world has actually increased instead of decreasing as what Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shahrir Samad has wanted us to believe. So why the decrease? I can only think of it as a way to mellow down the sentiment of the rakyat against BN nowadays. So when the BN gets lesser and lesser popular, prices of fuel actually goes down!

That’s Malaysia for you folks!

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I thought I’d tell you what it feels like to be an NGV user, apart from the obvious decrease in monthly expenditure on vehicle fuel. Especially my experience in the many refueling stations that I have patroned over the duration of my NGV usage.

As I mentioned previously, I work in Cyberjaya. Therefore I frequent the Petronas in Cyberjaya the most. Most of the stations are the same, they employ some foreign worker (most likely a Bangladeshi) to do the work. They do most of the manual labour of attaching the hose to your car, turning on and off the valve, and getting the money from us customers.

Since the range of one full tank of refueling is only about 190 km, I almost always have to go refuel at very regular intervals, sometimes once a day if I go to a lot of places. Let me share with you how a normal refueling process go.

A typical NGV pump. Note the pressure indicator at the top

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In a perfect world, a car would only cost as much as the materials used to produce it. No other excise duty is imposed upon it.

In a perfect world, I only work from 9 am to 5 pm daily, without worrying whether or not I will need to work extra hours.

In a perfect world, everybody who did wrong will get their due. This includes corrupt politicians who murders young Mongolian ladies.

In a perfect world, people of all races live in harmony. Nobody will be judged by their colour of their skin, or the language that they speak, or the religion that they preach. This will also mean no special privileges for any race. Everyone shall be judged by their virtue and their ability.

In a perfect world, there would be no corruption, no misuse of power, no swindling of the tax payer’s money, and no wastage of fund.

In a perfect world, nobody gets sick, and nobody dies in pain. The population of the world will not increase, and human will not need to destroy the earth in order to survive.

In a perfect world, all animals and their natural habitat co-exists peacefully alongside human.

In a perfect world, there will be no suffering at all in this world. Everyone will have proper food and clothings, and everyone will have their own freedom.

In a perfect world, the leaders are elected in the interest of the people, not by favouritism or handed-down from a previous leader.

….. but then again, we do not live in a perfect world, do we?

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I needed a break. All these work in the office is burning me out. Despite a tight schedule requesting me to stay back in the office on a non-working Saturday and Monday last week (30th August and 1st September over the National Holiday), I went outstation anyway.

It was a much-needed holiday that I could not forget. There was a lot of adventure for us. First was the fact that it was only us three on the road. As usual, poor Hui Yan was left in KL again.

We initially planned to stay overnight in Au’s place on Saturday night. Then both my family and his will go together to Damai Laut on Sunday morning. The fella last minute fong fei kei. So sudden change of plan again. The two rooms were converted to one room with 2 nights.

We started our journey to Perak at about 10 am. We were pleasantly surprised that there was not a hint of traffic jam anywhere. Finally, the 3-lane highway must have worked!

Since we were not rushing for time, we decided to go where we have never went before. There was this hot spring near Sungkai that Mei Fen has heard of. We went to check it out. The RM10 entry ticket was quite expensive for such an ulu place, but it was still okay.

Fun in Sungai Klah

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