Malaysia Series: Tapah.

Nestled amongst the hills, close to the junction to Cameron Highlands is the small, but full of character town of Tapah. Birth town of my mother in law, we stopped by one day, took some photos and enjoyed a nice Teh Tarik at Yat Sin, a corner cafe. This is a nice example of the real Malaysia, buildings with history, where nothing has changed over the years, and the older residents walk around in the stifling heat with a beaming smile on their faces.

Malaysia Series: The National Monument.

The first part of the monument.

On the same day we arrived on our last trip to Malaysia, we decided to stop at the National Monument. For those who don't know what it is, and as per Wikipedia states, and I quote: "The National Monument is a sculpture that commemorates those who died in Malaysia's struggle for freedom, principally against the Japanese occupation during World War II and the Malayan Emergency, which lasted from 1948 until 1960. It is located in the Federal capital, Kuala Lumpur."

Almost at the main statue.

At first, we were there to search for my uncle's name, although I might have confused the fact that he was a ranking Major in the English army during their time in Malaysia, and headed up the Penang Police force. So, apart from my lovely wife, I had other ties to Malaysia before! 

One thing about this last photo, as we were coming from Melbourne, Australia, it was relatively cold that evening. I think it was pushing 5 degrees celsius or colder, and as always, the air conditioning is on in the plane, so you always end up being cold. Then you arrive in Malaysia, and the humidity hits you like a wall! So here I am, in jeans and a polo and I'm dripping sweat all over. It was worth it though, the National Monument is well maintained and is a great example of Malaysia's history. 

The main statue.

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Malaysia Series: Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad.

First things first. I love Malaysia, and it's truly my second home, being that my lovely wife is Malaysian! Through the various upcoming posts I'll be writing about a particular photo and it's significance.

On my third trip over, I decided that I needed to catch up on some sight seeing, that I'd not done before. In this photo, we see my wife taking a photo of the imposing and beautiful Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, the KL Hight Court. It was under some prep for a festival, which is why you can see various pavilion structures popping up.

You may ask why did I want to see this area? The wife asked the same question, and it's because of this: Jackie Chan's Police Story III - Super Cop. When he and Malaysia's own Michelle Yeo attempt a risky break out of a mobsters wife from her court appearance. So, I literally wanted to see where they had filmed this sequence, and here it is.

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The Little Pleasures Of Life.

I am certain, that a vast majority of my generation went through the Snake phase. I was on the crest of the mobile phone wave, when the Nokia 3010 or something, I can't remember exactly, became popular and actually owning a mobile phone was becoming more and more common. I was going through a box of old computer gear and I sat down with a pile of unmarked CDs and went through them to determine wether or not I should bin them. One one CD I found some old photos from back when I was still in Tasmania. The above photo was a humorous find! Look at that score, I must have been beside myself with excitement for producing such an effort. I wager there are better scores out there in the world, but for me, this was an achievement worth taking a photo of. It reminds me of a simple time, when we had green and black screens and it suited us fine, and batteries lasted for a week, and not a single day, and when we had maybe 10 contacts in our phone and pretty much only called our parents. Simple times. Ah, the memories.