My Monaco Express

A short trip to a tiny but extremely wealthy country; also famous for its casino and race track – Monaco!

Cheers!

Faces OF Penang | Photography Workshop

I just spent a great weekend in Penang with my colleagues. We took part in AirAsia Photography Workshop. 

I love photography but never got a chance to learn from the professionals. This was a great opportunity and i'm so glad my schedule worked out well. 

Anyway, the theme for my assignment was "Faces of Penang". I went around the busy city looking for interesting faces to capture. 

Here it is:

My Bangkok Express

I went to Bangkok for a quick weekend getaway and visited some of the new places i have never been. 

Here's a short video:

Short Story : Myspace

I went out dinner with my best friends and while enjoying our dinner, somehow we talked about Myspace. (not sure who actually brought it up). 

I know I deleted my account couple of years ago, but none of my friends did. So, each one of them went to check if their account is still valid. And yes, their profiles are still there, including all sorts of funny pictures that was posted years ago. 

In case you don't know, Liena was a superstar on Myspace. She had over 10K friends and her posts were very popular with loads of likes. She perpetually had hundreds of friends requests. 

Liena : Take that guys, your current Facebook and Instagram friends combined still cant beat my number. Myspace was my moment!

Me : *_*

Liena : Well, they were mostly horny bastards. 

End. 

p/s: You might want to go check if your crazy/wild and embarrassing teenage photos are still there!

Let's Communicate

I'd like to share a tiny experience which is quite an eye-opener to me. 

It was during MH17 tragedy. As gesture of respect, the government announced all national flags to fly at half mast. 

My friend and I was driving around Ampang and we saw one flag was not at half mast. It was kinda hard not to notice, because it was one of the tallest flag in my area (belongs to a private company btw).

We thought it was very rude of them. My friend whip out his camera and said he's gonna share it on Facebook - which is a natural thing to do nowadays - name and shame them on social media for being so disrespectful. 

Just before he hit the share button, we took a step back and wondered if it was the right thing to do. Social media critics will certainly get their attention. But, is it worth spreading negativity in time of crisis? 

We didn't think so. 

We googled their contact number and called the company. The person who answered my call sounded like a foreigner (Pakistani). I explained to him and suggested for them to bring down the flag to half mast. 

He apologised and said they will get it done immediately. Within 15 minutes, the flag went down. 

I am not 100% sure, but I assume workers at the company are mostly foreign. They obviously work long hours, 7 days a week and have no clue of what's happening around them.

They simply don't know what they were suppose to do. And of course, they will never know if nobody bothers to communicate with them. 

Come to think about it, issues can be solved quite easily if we choose to confront and communicate. Yelling on social media fuels the fire, but does not solve it. 

From now on, I am going to make it habit to reach out to people before taking it to Facebook. 

So, let's communicate. 

~ Cheers! 

Aceh with Alyah

Earlier this year I had a chance to visit the beautiful Banda Aceh in Indonesia. The trip was pretty short; just 4 days but we had so much fun and there were so many beautiful places to visit! 

The best thing was, we had one of Malaysia's beloved songstress on the trip -- Alyah, who is super friendly and one of the most easy-going person I have ever met.  

In case you don't know, Banda Aceh is located in the island of Sumatra. It is the capital and largest city in the province of Aceh. The city is also dubbed to as the "porch of Mecca" (Serambi Mekkah). This is because during the days when the hajj pilgrims travelled by sea, hajj pilgrims from all over Indonesia would make a stop over in the city before continuing their journey to Mecca. 

Let's check out some of the places we visited:

Upon arrival, we visited the Kuburan Massal, where 46,718 bodies were buried after the 2004 Tsunami.

The local tourism body arranged for us to have our photoshoot at Masjid Raya Baiturrahman, which is the Icon of Aceh. It was built in 1400 and I love the architecture (reminds me of Masjid Zahir in my hometown, Alor Setar!). 

We were lucky, had the chance to perform Friday prayers in the beautiful mosque. 

A very colorful traditional Aceh house

Alyah checking out the interior of traditional Aceh house 

Some of the many delicious local cuisine! 

Totally unexpected : Aceh is an awesome place to fulfill your shopping needs! Quality fabrics at a very affordable price!! 

This is another historical place to visit - the old palace. The unique white building is literally a traditional spa. It was built for the queen. And the queen was a Princess from the state of Pahang, Malaysia. 

We also visited Masjid Rahmatullah, the only structure within that area that survived Tsunami

On our third day, we went to Iboih beach at Sabang island. 

The view was simply breathtaking! 

It's an awesome diving spot! 

White sandy beaches, great place to chill out for the entire family

And more shopping! 

Crystal clear water! 

A must : group photo by the beach!

This was one of the ship that landed on someone's house during Tsunami. I was told 26 people survived by holding on to this ship.

Banda Aceh is beautiful in so many ways. It was a great trip, and I will definitely go back there with my family. 

PS : AirAsia is the only airline that flies direct to Banda Aceh! 

Tianjin in Photos

Sometime at the beginning of March this year, a group of regional media and I embraced winter in Tianjin, China. 

It was freezing cold but the atmosphere was simply magical. 

Sunset in Tianjin 

Can't resist a selfie! 

Pick a face

We had dinner at a nice halal restaurant and they had this military vehicle parked at the entrance

Frozen river

Halal food in China is pretty easy to find. Whenever in doubt, go for veggie!