Friday, February 25, 2011

Flickr | Random Best Shots (09'-11')

Assalamualaikum,

I've been using flickr to store most of my pictures since mid 2009. And I've upgraded my account to PRO and after two years, it will expired this coming September. Since that, I've uploaded 2853 images and few video clips. Things that I like about flickr are the images didn't degrade much and (this is what I feel), it seemed like the contrast of the image has been increased lil bit after uploading process, make the pictures look much better.

Just now, I've been through the images from the latest upload until the earliest one. And since I don't have any idea so far to update this blog, I'm going to share with you guys on few of my best shots that I picked up randomly based on years. And hope you guys enjoy it :)

2009

Taupo's Swift Trip 061
Mr Tariq Mahmood

Taupo's Swift Trip 131
Huka Falls, Taupo

Shakespeare Regional Park
Shakespeare Regional Park. Captured this on the way to the north.

Sakura@IPC
The panoramic view of International Pacific College (IPC) lake. Captured during spring that year.

Randomise 099
Mr Faisal Rana playing cricket on weekly basis. Organised by MUPSA.

Sakura Fest-Kendo
Sakura Festival 2009.

Eid-ul-Fitri Prayer
Eid Prayer, Eid-ul-Fitri 2009.

Hockey-Malaysia vs New Zealand
Friendly match between Malaysia and New Zealand. Malaysia lost 3-0.

Rehlah Upalmy 2nd Sem 2009 018
Muslim can pray everywhere that is clean, not only in mosque.

Rugby Field
In New Zealand, you can see this kind of view almost everywhere.

Home sweet home.
Home Sweet Home. Summer Holidays 2009. Kuala Selangor.

ASiSKL
Tuan Haji Idrus, ASiS 1st Principal. Will retire next month. Jasamu dikenang.

Pantai Cenang,Langkawi
Pantai Cenang, Langkawi. Hard to find sunset though.


2010

Bunga Pisang
Bread feeds the body indeed, but flowers feed also the soul.

Kais Pagi Makan Pagi, Kais Petang Makan Petang
Tame silverleaf monkeys in front of my house.

CakLempong@ASiS
Posted this many times on this blog, but never feel bored looking on it.

Melbourne
Melbourne's alley.

Junior Massey
Diamonds.

Cathedral
Christchurch Cathedral. Now's no more.

Milford Sound - Stirling Falls.
I want to come again this year, hopefully. Milford Sound.

Elephant Rocks, Oamaru
Happy hour!

Nikkor Series.
Line up of my (ex-)lenses.

tamron-27
I like to shoot flowers. Can't deny that.

masa
Masa itu Emas.

Anzac 5
Summerhill Drive. Lovely place to take photos in Palmerston North.

Ed
It was first time I'm shooting model.

53
Pakistan hai tumhara. Pakistan hai hamara :)

Masjid Jamek
A-Must-Go destination for me when I'm going down to KL. Masjid Jamek.

Zoo Taiping - Bearded Pig
Zoo Taiping. Like shooting animals too, but never had chance to get closer to them in wild.

Grandma :)
My grandma.


2011

Esplanade
Penang City Hall. In HDR.

Soccer Field
Typical soccer field in Malaysia.

Kala Malam Bulan Mengambang.
Full Moon. Taken from my room's window.

Monorail Bridge (Abandoned)
Putrajaya. Taken from Presint 2.

Putrajaya Lake at Night
Long Exposure Test. 1 and half minute.

Din.
Playing with Nikon CLS. And also Noiseware to reduce noise level in this image.

The ants.
First try on macro (not so macro) photography.

esplanade-24
Rose. Rose Garden.

Church Street's Church
Usually, I prefer not to take any worship places pictures other than mosque. But, this church intriguing me as it has Star of David on the top of the church. Interesting, how can a Jewish symbol can placed a top of Christian's sacred place?


That's all for now. Since the classes commence next Monday, I won't take much pictures as I have other commitment that much important than these. Wish me luck, guys :)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Palmy 11'

Assalamualaikum w.b.t. and good evening to all,

Alhamdulillah after 3 days of journey from Malaysia, finally I reached Palmerston North last Sunday morning. The journey started on Friday afternoon from LCCT before arrived in Melbourne Airport in Saturday's morning. The transit took me around 10 hours before the next connecting flight in the afternoon. I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand around 5pm. From there, I took an express coach to Palmerston North and finally arrived in Sunday morning. So, as I said in the previous post, I spent most of the time on my bed. Huhu.

As I said before, this year I'm staying in the new flat ; 8/107A Ferguson Street. So, this is the flat.

8/107A, Ferguson St, Palmerston North

It's pretty spacious, and I'm living with another three of my friends.

nadly
My room. Ground floor.

Home's cat
And we got our own cat too. (This is Hafiz Bakri's cat).

Currently, it is summer right now in Palmy, with the estimated temperature is around 17 to 28 degree celcius. Sun setting quite late, that's around 8pm.

The Square, Palmerston North
I spent the last afternoon in The Square.

That's all for now. Will update soon :P

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Towards the End..

Assalamualaikum w.b.t. and good day,

  • My three months summer holidays now finally come to the end. I will leaving for New Zealand on Friday next week.
  • Semester 1 2011 in Massey University commences on 28th February. It means, I will arrived a week earlier ; perfect timing to be prepared with everything necessary.
  • For your information, I'm moving to new house with new housemates. It is 8/107A Ferguson St. The place is quite far from the campus compared to my house last year, but it's closer to the nearest bus-stop. So, not a big problem either.
DSC_0069
View of the house from outside

DSC_0070
Inside. Messy huh? Baru pindah beb. Bese r.


Journey Back

  • This time, I will travelling alone, as usual. The flight is from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne with AirAsia X (Now Everyone Can Fly). I'm leaving at afternoon, and will arriving midnight.
  • There will be 8 hours gap to the next connecting flight so, I need to find somewhere else in the airport to sleep.
  • The next flight will leave in the morning all the way to Auckland. And as last time, I choose Emirates (gonna love this :D) Supposed that the flight arrived in Auckland that Saturday's afternoon.
  • Well, here's the thrill. All the flight's ticket to Palmerston North are already sold out, so I decided to take coach from the airport back to Palmy.
  • The journey usually will takes around 10 hours. So, if I'm leaving at 8pm, the bus will arrived in Palmy around 6am in the Sunday morning.
  • And for sure, I'll spend the whole Sunday on my bed :D

Problem

I have tried lodging my ETA application for transiting in Melbourne from yesterday, but something wrong happened where I cannot access the online payment's page. I have sent an email to the department and they replied and said, if it still happened, then I have to go myself to the embassy in Kuala Lumpur A.S.A.P. Without this, I won't be allowed aboard to Australia.

So, I'm coming to KL this weekend and probably drop by the embassy on Friday (tomorrow) or the next Monday.


P/s : I'm going to ASiS this Saturday.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Journey to Universal Studios, Singapore.

In the end of last January, I had a chance to go to Universal Studios, Singapore. I left on Sunday the 30th, and going back on Tuesday the 1st of February.

So, the only attraction this time was the Universal Studios (USS) only, since it is not possible to cover the whole main attractions and places in Singapore in a day. I booked almost everything online, from the admission ticket into USS, return bus tickets to and from Johor Bahru (JB), and also two-nights stay at Tune Hotel, Danga Bay JB. Altogether, all of this costs me around RM500.

Departure Day (30th January)

I left Putrajaya (I'm staying in my sister's house here for few days before that) to Johor Bahru at 10.30am (from Putrajaya Sentral) with Transnasional (You guys can buy your tickets HERE). It takes around 5-6 hours before arrived in Larkin Sentral Terminal. From there, I took a cab to the Tune Hotel which is around 5 minutes drive from Larkin. I checked in and took a rest before going down to the lobby to claim my shuttle's ticket to Universal Studios the next day (Altogether with the stay, I was offered to buy a voucher for the journey to USS with the shuttle organised by Odyssey Travel that departs daily from the hotel. This costs RM23 for return journey).

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Tune Hotel, Danga Bay

1
View inside my room.

Unfortunately, I was told that it is already full (since the service on first-come-first-serve basis) for the next day. So, I was refunded back on the spot. The receptionist told me that, she was nearly getting slapped by one of the emotional guy who staying there because he didn't get the ticket. She said that, it was not their fault since the complaints were many times posed on the travel agency and till now, they didn't manage to provide extra shuttles from the hotel. I didn't complaint anything since I've prepared for this earlier, and I know there are so many options of transport to go from JB to Sentosa Island :) I decided to take a bus from city, directly to Sentosa Island and going back later that day with MRT and a bus back to Larkin before taking a cab to the hotel.

Singapore (31st January)

5.00 am. I woke up already and getting prepared. Luckily, Subuh prayer is around 5.50 am so, I managed to do mine before going down to the lobby. I asked the receptionist there to get me a cab. I went out that morning to the Terminal Kota Raya 2, situated in the heart of the JB city :)

It was raining heavily that morning, that I hope and pray to God that it will stop soon. Anyway, I waited there for about one hour until the bus come and picked me up. For your information, there's plenty of bus services that going in and out of Singapore on daily basis. So, need not to worry. I'm taking the Transtar Cross-Border TS-8 service since it takes me directly to Sentosa Island. Any other services mostly will end up in Kranji MRT Station, Queen St and also Woodlands CIQ. This costs me RM 5 to go from JB to Sentosa.

3
Transtar Cross Border bus service.

Basically, there are two checkpoints that need to be done before getting ourselves into Singapore. First, in our land, Bukit Chagar CIQ. This doesn't takes much time since I'm using e-Passport, the same like one in airport. And then, the bus took me across the causeway to Woodlands CIQ, the next checkpoint in Singapore. Here, we will be required to fill in the immigration form called, "White Card" which later to be handed to the officer. You will be given a portion of the card that need to be presented later on the way out of Singapore. Another things happen here in Woodlands was the X-Ray scan on your belongings, and that's it. Time estimated for both checkpoints are vary depends on whether it is the peak hours or not. It might take 10-15 minutes during off-peaks and might take up to 1 hours during peak hours.

After this was done, I was realised that the bus I took earlier has already left. I don't worry much since I know, if I still have the ticket I don't need to buy the new one on-board. Things that I only worry was the time constraint, since I know that it is the peak hours and it's also heavy raining. I planned to get to USS by 10 am. Luckily, the next bus arrived on time as I seen on the schedule. The journey from Woodlands to Sentosa took around one hour since most roads from there to Sentosa are all congested. Plus, it is raining heavily that time.

4
View from the Transtar's bus. There's a message I'm trying to tell through this picture. Can you guess? :P

Finally, the bus reached Sentosa Island at around 10.30 am. It stopped at the coach bay situated underground so, I have to go upstairs on escalator. It's still raining, but there's plenty of covered areas so I didn't get wet much.

Upon arriving, I didn't go directly into the USS since I want to go walking around first, looking for any photography opportunities. There's still a lot of constructions taking place around. For your information, USS is not the only attraction there. The place is actually a huge complex, comprising few hotels, a casino and convention centre (plus USS as well).

6
The Forum, walkway in front of the casino.

5
Bankruptcy starts from here.

Well, it's almost 11 am. So, I went to the turnstile, and scan my ticket that I printed earlier at home. Upon the admission, I was given two vouchers, one for food and another one for retail worth $5 each. It's a big place, consisting few sections and parts in it. The first part is Hollywood and New York City. It's covered so raining is not really a big problem.

8
New York City

New York City Library, Singapore
The library

There's shows going on schedule so you need to be aware what time they'll commence. Here, I saw few famous and glamour characters like Marilyn Monroe, Frankestein etc where you can go to them and take pictures. The assistants will help you for this.

7
Marilyn Monroe with the tourists.

9
I don't know who's this character in any Hollywood's films. Batman?

The next part or the next section is the Sci-Fi City. This is supposed to be the main attraction in USS. But, since the well-known Battlestar Galactica roller coaster is closed from last year for maintenance, so mostly people will just going across this part to the next section (also there's few of the Battlestar characters are there for you to take pictures.

10a
The gateway to Sci Fi City

11
Under testing.

10
There are two type of the coasters ; Human and Cylon

From there, I moved to the next section ; Ancient Egypt. Since it is already afternoon and I didn't eat anything from morning that day, I went to the Oasis Spice Cafe that situated in front of the Revenge of the Mummy's roller coaster. Using voucher I got earlier, a plate of biryani rice + roasted chicken + acar + fresh orange + bubur cha cha costs me $13.50.

Finished with lunch, I went for my first ride. The Revenge of The Mummy. The entrance is guarded by two huge Anubis figures with a representation of miniaturized Karnak Temple in front. There's a locker available near to the entrance where I put my backpack and tripod. The locker's system is unique. To rent a locker, firstly you need to type your date of birth and your favourite colour before you're assigned a locker. To retrieve your items back, you need to type again these two details and also the locker's number. Simple, right? The first 30 minutes is free, and minutes after that, you'll be charged $2. I rent two lockers for my backpack and tripod.

12
The Revenge of the Mummy's entrance.

The ride? Well, I can said it is superb. Much frightening than make a bungee jump I guess. Because I'm riding most of the time in dark. Feel like I'm jumping or going down out of nowhere. Huhu. The part that I remembered was when the coaster hit the "dead-end wall" with high speed where lotsa beetle's scurrying in the sides. And without warning, the coaster moves with high speed and goes into reverse, DOWNWARDS.

Finished with Egypt. I walked to the next part which is, Far Far Away Lang (I skipped the Jurassic Park's part since I don't want to get soaked in the last part of the ride). This is the place where I spent most of the time taking pictures. The view was superb! The Farquaad Castle is surreally huge and here, I went for the Shrek 4D show inside the castle.

17
View of the castle from the front

13
The gateway to the show

Inside the castle, there will be an opening show first before the 4D. Nothing much, just the excerpt from the movie I guess.

18
Movie before movie

19
The closest you sit to the front, the more effect you'll feel (that's what they told us)

20
The movie begin! You need to wear the 3d glasses to experience the "3d"ness of the movie. I think the another D that makes it 4D was the feeling of wind, feeling of rain and effect of spiders going around my feet being made up.

Finished with that, I'm still going around the castle to take pictures.

15
View from the side

16
There's a frog looking to the castle, 24/7 :P

14
My HDR seemed not working due to the rain.

When I'm about to going out from the castle, I meet with Faris Fikri. , one of my facebook's friends. What a coincidence :) It was first time that I meet him in person. He's in vacation with his family around Singapore that time.

with abg nadly aizat
The only picture of me.

Finally, I finished the first round which took me around three hours. I decided to spend the next couple of hours around the New York and Hollywood's part, looking for any shows that taking place.
21
Walk of the Fame, modelled after one in Kodak Theater, Hollywood

New York City, Singapore
U.S. Embassy I guees?

22
Madagascar's show. There's also a section and also Madagascar ride, which is still under construction and will be opened this year.

While waiting for the next show, I found an alley which leads to the Wharf. The alley is modelled after a Gotham City I guess. Or New York City around 1930s' . I managed to take some of the pictures there.

23
Archway to the alley

24
Where's the Batman?

25
View of the castle and Lost World's roller coaster from the Wharf.

Upon the exit, there's a show taking place. A break dance show.

26
Moonsault

27
Yeah!

28
Crowd of people watching their performance

The next show is one of the main attraction here in USS. Camera, Light, Action by Steven Spielberg. I didnt take any picture since it is advised to do so. Basically the show was how Steven Spielberg design the special effects in most of his film. It starts with the introduction movie by him before the audience being brought to the next stage. The theme is a terrific storm taking place in the boathouse. You can feel the strong wind struck you, things flying, water splash, oil spill where later ignites fire and the climax, a huge ship break the door and going directly to the audience! Huhu. Show ended with the platform shaking due to the collision with the ship and it managed to makes them shout. Hehe.

Finished with that, it is the nick of time for the next show ; The Musical Show. So many people inside the hall. Well, actually it's kinda boring for me though.

29
They're singing and dancing "I want nobody2 but you". Haha.

There's also another show is going on outside the hall. So many people over there, especially those who're watching the musical show earlier.

30
Dolls?

It's already 5pm. Rain has completely stopped before that. Time to go home. As I said earlier, I'm going back to JB via MRT and bus. So, I went out from USS and Sentosa to Vivocity across the strait via cable car.

31
Adios, USS :)

The cable car's station is situated not far from the entrance of USS. I walked from the entrance through the Festive Walk and then to the Imbiah Lookout. This place can be easily noticed from the huge Merlion tower there. A single ride of cable car costs $24 per person, while a return ride costs $26. The last station is at Mount Faber, but I decided to stop in VivoCity since it is nearer to the MRT station.

32
View of Keppel Harbour from the gondola. Keppel Harbour is one of the busiest port in the world.

34
Keppel Harbour and Tanjung Pagar Industrial Park

From ViVoCity, I went to the Harbour Front MRT station and buy a ticket to Kranji MRT. This costs me $3.20 (Which later you can claim the $1 deposit from the ticketing machine). The journey is pretty long, around one hour. I need to change to another line at Dhoby Ghout Station and then, change to another train at Yishun Station before arriving in Kranji. From there, I take a bus to Larkin (Causeway Link 2 - CW2), which costs me $1.30. As usual, I need to go through the two checkpoints first in Woodlands and Bukit Chagar before arriving in Larkin (Arrived around 8pm). Alhamdulillah, I managed to get to my room safely.

Later that night, I went out to Danga Bay. Well, not so many people that night as weekend. It's a place with waterfront, an amusement park and few seafood restaurants. Since I brought my tripod with me, I decided to play around with light trails :) Finished with that, I have my dinner at one of the restaurant there before going back to hotel.

35
Cruise. Dunno when it will leave.

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Light trails of a train inside the funfair.

37
Merry go round.

The Last Day (1st February)

I checked out around 10 am. Since the bus depart at 1.30pm, I went out to Larkin quite late, around 12pm. The journey back to Putrajaya takes around 6 hours, since most of the passengers dropped by the roadside altogether with those at Bukit Jalil, and Tesco Puchong before finally disembark at Putrajaya Sentral.

I spent a night at my sister's house for a night before heading back to Taiping the next day.


THE END.....