MASA HARI RAYA

Kat kampung. All I saw were blurred faces coming and leaving the house. My in-laws' house that is. Some I hardly know. I had to put on fake smiles most times. And forced myself with some idle banters. Just nak jaga hati. Actually tak la semua. Most of them I kenal so those were nice sincere conversations. But the rest was not.

So I slipped away. Took my anak sedara yang baru je semalam saya tolong belikan new dslr camera. He was itching to try it anyway and to learn. Perfect opportunity for me to escape.. haha.

So we went to a nearby park for a couple of hours. I took pictures too with my compact camera.

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HARI TU

Just some observations and other stuff, in pictures...

Raya coming, so much stuff to be discarded... so much... surprising, considering I have all these unwanted stuff all this while.... shish...

Lately, kejap nice sunny day with blue sky and then the next minute downpour.... 

Like previous years, wife got raya hampers... lots of sweet stuff which I can't enjoy... bummer...:(

Wife nak makan ikan bakar pulak. So gi la restoran ayam penyet. New restaurant baru bukak kat Ampang ni. Wife said it was quite nice but very pedassss....

One day tu, on the way back from office, got stuck in traffic jam. Ramai orang tengah nak gi shopping. While mengesut-ngesut dalam jam tu nampak these adverts. So kalau tengah sesak nak belanja raya and tak der duit but got gold at home, call le these guys. On second thought, don't. Harga emas tengah naik, keep dulu.

Ok, masa Ramadhan and especialy raya jangan le melantak all those oily high carb foods. Makan gak greeneries ok.

Kononnya tak nak le get stuck in traffic jam, so naik LRT. LRT pun jam jugak dengan manusia.

Usual sights if go shopping. Why la do some wives make their husbands wait at lingerie sections?

Ni masa just a few days before the coming of Ramadhan. Inikah cara masyarakat kita membuat penyediaan menyambut kedatangan Ramadhan? Dengan menganjurkan pertandingan menyanyi? Astaghfirullah...

I'm having stuff like these nowadays. Plan toast and unsalted unpeppered scrambled eggs, tea [with no sugar] and tom yam. I'm getting used to it already sampai kalau tengok oily food I feel loya...

My wife had these.... saya tengok je la...

Temankan wife cari baju kurung. Saya tenggelam dalam rows and rows of baju kurung. Semuanya on sale. I see women making their ways among the rows with husband and kids in tow. Seriously how many baju kurung does a woman need?

And of course, pada masyarakat kita, kalau tak ke bazaar ramadhan macam tak lengkap Ramadhan. Dah macam satu culture pulak. Hari tu saya beli mee goreng. Itu je saya beli despite so many other food stuff yg nampak menarik. I was so proud of myself... hehe. Tapi yang sedihnya bila time buka mee tu dah dekat nak basi. And I bought it about just an hour ago. Macam mana la orang berniaga ni....

Anyway, keadaan dah mula agak lenggang dah. Ramai dah balik kampung gamaknya...

Then I saw them. My wife asked me a excellent question, 'Macam mana diaorg datang sini?'.

Anyway, selamat hari raya semua :)

No photograph may be reproduced, downloaded, copied, stored, manipulated, or used whole or in part of a derivative work, without written permission from Syed Amran. All rights reserved.

HARI TU

It's getting a bit of a nuisance looking for specific photos in my handphone. Sebab? Saya suka snap photos. Ended up ada hundreds in my phone. What can I say. I just love snapping moments. Time to unload and free my phone in order to snap more photos.. hehe.

They aren't anywhere near good, but they're definitely good enough to record my daily 'this and that'. Here are a few of them...

Of course mobile phone if nak ke mana-mana pun mesti bawak. Since beli groceries is our weekly thing, I thought hey, why not snap a few. After all it is one of the thing that I look forward to do with my wife. Entah kenapa I enjoyed tolak trolley tu. Stacking food and other stuff into it. And now ni Saturday tak der plastic bags, so saya jadik tukang isi barang-barang belian ke dalam beg-beg groceries. I must say that I had become so good that I think I pack em' better than my wife.. hehe.

Hmm.... fresh vegetables, fresh salmon dan udang.... yang salmon tu goreng and cecah dengan kicap bercili dan udang buat lemak nenas atau rencah goreng mee je. Actually tak kisah le apa pun yang my wife masak, mesti saya sapu habis punya lah...hehe. Tapi salmon tu kita orang beli cuma may be sebulan sekali jek cause mahal yg amat!

Ayam beli yg skinless. Ketam tak beli pun sebab lagi senang order makan kat restaurant. Leceh la nak masak sendiri, kesian nyusahkan wife. Saya pun tak le gemar sangat ketam ni. Yeah, I know some of you may be, like, gasping in disbelief... hehe. Ikan pari masak apa lagi, masak asam pedas le yg palinggggg saya suka :).

Roti jarang sangat beli cause selalunya sempat habis dah expire. Ground beef tu once in a while. Tak pernah jugak beli ikan-ikan hidup dari dalam akuarium tu. Gamaknya fresh bebenor la ya.

Nasi goreng yang sedap dihidang dalam plate bentuk sampan. Sedap dan banyak sampai kembang lobang hidung nak habiskan. Mencungap2... hehe.

Nampak pulak asap besar berkepul-kepul one day tu. Gelap asap tu. Macam orang bakar tayar atau bakar industrial waste. It lasted for almost 2 hours like that. Talk about pencemaran alam sekitar. Unless of course it is an unfortunate event like rumah terbakar. Tapi kan, tak kan le sampai 2 jam. I'm sure our bomba is efficient.

Phone android ni boleh download macam-macam nifty cool stuff and application. Ni kononnya nak buat style artsy gitu. I like :)

Masa balik ke KL dari kampung di Perak, dah nak dekat sampai KL, tetiba macam kereta terhoyong hayang. Angin lintang ke? Still after that macam ok je. Wife pun kata ok gak. Then dah dekat nak sampai Ampang, ada pemandu lain dok hon-hon. Bila berselisih, dia bagi isyarat tuding-tuding kat tayar kereta kami. Saya fikir masa tu sah le tayar dah bocor. Aduhh... duit lagi. Terus le pegi park kat Ampang Point mall. Call AAM and changed tayar dengan tayar spare. Good thing la cukup angin tayar spare tu. Lepas makan dan sikit shopping kat mall tu, kami pegi le ke kedai tayar. Alhamdulillah ada yang bukan masa hari Ahad.

Lepas check, mechanic kata ok dia boleh tukar tapi kena tukar both sebab bunga dah botak. Then dia kata jenis bunga tayar saya tu dah tak der stock. Then tayar saya dah expire. Then absorber pulak dah leaking. MasyaAllah, banyak betul masalahnya. Namun saya bersyukur at least found out all of that hari tu. Pulak tu hari Ahad so leh le settle cepat dan bukan waktu kerja terpaksa ambik cuti emergency.

Kosnya? Aduhh... lebih seribu! Baru je renew insurance dan road tax seribu ringgit. Then bayar bulanan kereta seribu ringgit lagi. Then ada la satu hal tu, seribu ringgit lagi. Bulan ni kena la mintak belas ikhsan bini... :).

Balik kampung gi rumah sedara. Masa nak balik nampak ayam dia dok silently kat rak kasut. Terus selok poket, keluarkan talifon bimbit dan shot ayam ni.... haha. Sedara semua gelak.. hehe. Pelik gamaknya.

Other scenes at some other sedara's house. Lembu jalan depan rumah adalah kejadian biasa....

Nowadays, wedding can take place anytime. Tak lagi just masa cuti sekolah. Ni photos taken quite recently. What's interesting about these photos? I know, kiranya the husband very gentleman sebab tolong angkat kain pengantin perempuan. I don't like it. 

Macam biasa saya suka ambik gambar gelagat photographers... hehe...

Fav magazine. My car hit 58,888. Nak cari alat fitness konon... hahaha..

Ramai sungguh orang kat Malaysia ni nak jadi penyanyi. Yang menganjurkan pulak ader je...

- Gambar ambik kat KLIA masa hantar wife ke KK.

- Gambar boss punya mobile phone yang in my opinion should be kept in a place where bus loads of school children would come visit and marvel at the antiquity i.e at a museum.. haha.

- Gambar masa orang tengah shooting drama. Ke filem? Entah la. Panas terik masa tu. Dedicated betul diaorg tu.

- Rakyat didahulukan, Pencapaian diutamakan. 

No photograph may be reproduced, downloaded, copied, stored, manipulated, or used whole or in part of a derivative work, without written permission from Syed Amran. All rights reserved.

HANOI

This year we picked Hanoi. Well, actually Hanoi was not even in our shortlist. Planned nak ke Taiwan, yg dah pun kami fully paid tapi terpaksa dibatalkan oleh agensi pelancungan kerana tak cukup org. Sebenarnya dah cukup but 4 had to pull out cause one of diaorg punya family member ada major surgery. So, we asked our travel agent to find other interesting destinations for our considerations. And we chose Hanoi. Additionally, since kos ke Hanoi lebih murah dari Taiwan, we decided instead of refunding us the money, we opted to upgrade to a personal tour package, upgrade our hotels, full muslim meals and cover some of the other expenses.

Photographically, I was like a kid in a candy shop :). Every which way I turned, there were always subjects worth capturing. So much, I was forced to be selective to ensure I won't run out of memory cards.. hehe...

And so here are the photos.

Hanoi, a busy busy city. Yet tak der traffic jam macam kat Malaysia. Selama 5 hari di sana going in and out of the city, not once were we stuck in a jam. I find that rather amazing. Each road users macam dah ader this general understanding about being considerate to others. Among others, mesti diaorg make way if you want to cross atau nak memotong kenderaan di depan. One glance macam diaorg ni dah violate undang2 jalan raya. Aku siap geleng2 kepala. But then by the 2nd or 3rd day, I get it. It's the norm there. And it's nothing to scoff at, really.

One morning after breakfast I went for a morning walk. Our itinerary that morning starts at 9:00 am and thus I had about 2 hours to kill. With camera in hand, I walked to the market from our hotel. Saw 2 old friends walking together after a bit of shopping at the market [such a precious moment I had captured, in my humble opinion la], a man lounging on his motorbike picking at his teeth apparently after just had his breakfast, an auntie walking membawa barangan yg dibeli di pasar with covered nose [a bit berasap kat situ actually tapi tak la dusty sgt macam kat KL] and with cute hat yg berlobang2 and finally a Vietnam lady in her traditional frock complete with that tudung saji like hat/head gear.

Another set of everyday people shots. I just love love love capturing the inhabitants of the places I visited. To me it just 'tells' so much about the place. Sure, historical sites/building with their endless info bersejarah do get me excited. But not as excited as its people. I just find a peddler that much more interesting than a thousand year old building. Go figure, hahaha :D

Here's a lady who just mounted her bicycles lepas beli barang kat kedai, a couple of shots of workers at a construction area [yes, I photograph everything!! Well, almost everything.. hehe], a few teenagers dok mengorat a girl riding her bike [anywhere in the world, diaorg ni sama jek... hehe] and a guy lepaking at his motorbike tunggu apa aku tak tau.

Kat sana, diaorg punya favourite form of transportation is motorcycle. Mana toleh, mesti ader motorsikal. Here and there and everywhere. And the kargo, apa saja yg boleh muat from people to live stock.

Basikal juga ader. Not so much in the city. More in the outskirts. I just love these 3 photos. Love em' :)

And these next 2 sets of photos [that I filed under 'Other modes of transportations'] pulak show how creative the people of Vietnam is.



If you asked me what would be my favourite photography subject masa kat sana, ni la subjeknya :)... peddlers. I shot hundreds actually....

Orang sana paling suka makan kat tepi2 jalan. Lots of sajian noodles and bread among other food stuff. The one in the middle left tu, that lady tengah siang ayam. Right there kat tepi jalan tu. I admit I could not be more delighted. Weird I know... hahaha :D. Such an interesting subject matter la... ;)

So ok, practically everyone there has a mobile phone. And they use that telecommunication device anytime anywhere. Ni masa tgh ride motorcycles.

So masa tu lampu merah. Akak ni tgh guna phone dia. Macam very important call nampaknya. Bila lampu hijau, dia tak hirau. Terus remained stationary je engrossed in her conversation. Apa lagi kereta belakang dia pun horn le. She? Terus still berbual2. Tak bergerak. Like, seriously. At last after much honks from not only the car directly behind her, she finally was on her merry way....

Kecantikan sgt diberi penekanan. Demi menjaga kecantikan dan keputihan kulit, wanita2 di sana, especially yg muda dan belum kawin akan pakai macam dlm foto2 bawah ni. I imagine kalau jual skin product kat situ sure jadi jutawan, kan?

Saw an accident masa on the way to Halong Bay. Massive jam kat kawasan luar bandar tu. Fortunately were were in a car [which, by the way disediakan for all the travels plus a personal driver and tour guide]. The driver was so skilled that our journey's time wasn't that much extended. So kami pun sampai le ke destination kami awal [which is great cause managed to avoid the mobs of pelancung lain] dari tourists yg lain kerana mereka dah tersekat kat dalam jam tu.
Apart from the private car, we also had this boat all to ourself. I was shocked too. As we were leaving the dock, I asked out tour guide where are the other passangers. He said there will be no one else, just us. Wife and I looked at each other. I asked my wife, how much exactly was this so called 'personal tour' package? She said it was affordable without causing any dent in our bank account. Alhamdulillah.

And off we went to Halong Bay in our 'own' boat [which btw can accommodate 48 passengers]. The ride was so peaceful, calming and exciting. I spent most of the time on the boat on the top deck [below photo] and I think I may had used up about a quarter of my 4 GB memory card just during this boat ride.... hehe :)

Perniagaan mereka bukan saja di darat tapi juga di laut.

Chaotic, right? But they have a workable 'parking' system, it's just amazing.

And to be greeted with such a view made it all worth it.

Another memorable activity. A slow sampan ride through paddy fields, caves and lakes. Breathtaking views.

Noticed how they peddle? Hehe....

Yes, all of those animals were meant to be served as a dish. And yes, the dogs too.

No photograph may be reproduced, downloaded, copied, stored, manipulated, or used whole or in part of a derivative work, without written permission from Syed Amran. All rights reserved.