Family Trip To Melaka 2010

When I was a kid, me and my family always travelled to Singapore and Thailand. I still remember when we travelled to Thailand, it was always by bus. The bus ride is always late at night. We will sleep in the bus and when the bus stop for toilet break, my mom will wake us up in the middle of the night to use the toilet. After that we will stop by the burger stall to buy burgers. I miss those days.

Now we are all grown up, living our own lives. It has been ages since we went on a family trip.

One day, my sis and I decided to travel down to Melaka to take pictures, since it was a long weekend. So we decided to make this our family trip and asked everyone if they wanted to come along. Everyone agreed. I was so excited because this time round, we have an additional family member, my hubby. :D

When I was in Melaka, I was amazed. There were so many people with DSLRs. Almost everyone has one. Melaka has a lot of nice old architectures. It is a place that photographers would love to take pictures of. Me and my sis were happily snapping away. Even though the weather was extremely hot on that day. But we didn't mind. What surprised me the most was my younger bro, who cant stand heat, didn't complain at all. I am proud of him.

When we reached Melaka, we stopped by Tzu Chi, Melaka. My mom really wanted to visit that place. When we were there, I noticed that my parents were enjoying themselves, especially my dad.

Tzu Chi, Melaka

Then we went to the famous, Jonker Street. It was a shame that we couldn't eat in Nancy's Restaurant. I miss the belacan there. Instead, we had chicken rice which does not taste good at all. Thank god for the yummy cendol, that made my hubby happier.

Jonker Street & A Famosa

It is important to me to spend time with my family. I only see them once a week. So to me, this trip was important and I appreciate every moment we had in Melaka.

Colours of Malaysia

Malaysia is filled with diverse culture and great food. Last Saturday, I went to an event called Colours of Malaysia. The festival which was held at one of Malaysia's historical place, Dataran Merdeka, showed Malaysia's heritage and culture of Malaysians from all states. Various delicacies of different ethnic groups can be found there. There were performances by local artists as well as cultural dance. The best part of the cultural dance performances was the performers are not professionals. They are normal people like students and working adults. It was a good event but I didnt get to stay till the main event. However, I managed to take some pictures.

While I was touching up the pictures that I took, I realised that Malaysia is actually a beautiful country. When I was younger, I was like most people, doesnt like their own country. I always dreamed of leaving the country and move to another country such as Australia. But my perception of Malaysia changed. I realised that Malaysia is a peaceful country. There is no hurricane or volcanoes. We have different races and all of us are united. Although once in awhile you will bump into some racists but generally Malaysians are nice and friendly.

Muay Thai

When I was a kid, sports to me is taboo. It was not my favourite activity when I was in school. I always skip P.E classes and I dread to go to sports day. My parents brought me and my siblings to learn Judo when I was very young. I can honestly say that I hated it and never looked forward to it. The highest that I have achieved in Judo is yellow belt. In Judo, we were thought how to fall in a proper way and also techniques. We always partnered up and practise on each other. I love making my opponent fall. :D But I hate the falling part.

After our Judo class, my parents will bring us to eat in Petaling Street. The Judo centre is located very near to Petaling Street, walking distance. So we will always use the back road to walk to Petaling Street. I hated the back road because I always for some reason stepped on snails. It has become a phobia to me...till today I am afraid of snails.

As I grow older, I learn to like martial arts. This started when I learnt boxing in Allied Gym Combat Sports in Hartamas. The purpose at first was to lose weight. Slowly I started to enjoy boxing. I love the training, techniques, sparing and of course the result of losing weight. The boxing trainer was from New Zealand and has been training for boxing for many years. He used to train us like mad with all his drills. After every class, my hands and legs will be shaking. I felt like I was training like a pro but the trainer told us that it was a quarter of what the professional boxers train. Well, it was sad that after a year of training, the trainer left. After that, I went on to learn Muay Thai till today.

Muay Thai, also called Thai Boxing and The Art of Eight Limbs or "The Science of Eight Limbs", is a martial art where the fighter strikes with the fists, the shins and feet, the knees, and the elbows. The aggressive striking style, focusing on doing maximum damage to an opponent, heavy emphasis on knees and elbows. It is said to be the most lethal martial art.

I am of course not a professional Muay Thai fighter, but I do train twice a week. The extensive training makes me stronger and gives me a lot of confident especially when I am sparing in the ring. This is a clip of me sparing with one of my friend in the class. Letch has been training for a long time. She is very fast and her stamina is crazy. My strength is I have powerful kicks. My weakness is my kicks are not high. But it is good when it comes to sparing with Letch coz she likes to catch my leg when I kick high. Have a look at how the old timer and a newbie like me spar. :)

Tugu Negara Part 2

Here are more pictures of Tugu Negara that I took yesterday. The sun was blasting and it was quite hard to get a good shot. Most of the pictures are more sillhoutte. But it is a good practice as I get to learn more about the camera and application of ISO, shutter and apperture.