Tag Archives: Malaysia

20th November picture of the day…

20 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Religion, Travel

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After the excitement of breaking free from the office on a sunny day yesterday, and the chance to get some interesting and historical pictures to boot – today’s been back to the usual pattern in more ways than one. The glorious sunshine was a flash in the pan and here for one day only. Today we reverted to heavy grey skies, rain and the light levels that would make a troglodyte feel at ease.

This has meant I’ve worked from home all day, juggling the mundanities of everyday life with editing and scanning pictures and arranging a couple of commissions, so my times been well spent – if a little frustrating at times as I watch the latest political shenanigans on the news. That the Home Secretary’s found to have been bullying her staff is (obviously) a resigning matter. Only it’s not the perma-smirking Priti Patel that resigns – it’s the Senior Civil Servant who conducted the investigation into the allegation and who was hung out to dry by Johnson! So, no change there then. The old film adage about “who do I have to f**k to get a part in this movie” has turned into “what do I have to f**k-up to get the sack around here”? Nothing, apparently – unless you count making up a derogatory nickname for the Prime Minister’s latest squeeze! Honestly, how this country ever managed to rule 1/3 of the planet is beyond me…

Still, I did manage to get out for a long walk in the drizzle and murk, which was good. After being in self-imposed isolation its lovely to be building up the exercise again. This weekend Dee’s on another ‘virtual retreat’ as part of an online group she really enjoys being part of – so it’s a good excuse to get out from underneath her feet and get a few more miles walking under my belt. Admittedly, I have other plans too as I’ve still loads of stuff to get onto eBay. Methinks this will be a productive weekend because of it. After all, it’s not like we’ve got much else to do during this lockdown – and I’d much rather feel the time was being spent doing something useful rather than sat on a sofa watching TV…

Today’s picture of the day is one of the latest batch of slide scans. I’m slowly working my way through an album of pictures from Malaysia and Indonesia. 95% of them have never made it onto my picture websites before, so it’s great to finally bring them to a wider audience. Today’s image was taken in the Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the first week of July 1998. The caves are an important site for Malaysia’s Hindu community and well worth a visit, both to enjoy the caves themselves but also some of the shrines to Gods in the Hindu pantheon.

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18th November picture of the day…

18 Wednesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Today’s been another wild and windy one here in the Pennines, so I’ve spent most of the day cooped up at home scanning old slides from Malaysia whilst catching up on emails, eBay and sending off pictures to magazine. Work’s picking up, which is good, and tomorrow the weather’s meant to be rather good, so I’m having a day out to record more changes to our railways – you’ll be able to see what I’m up to in a rare opportunity for a rolling blog!

As it’s late I’ll now go straight to the picture of the day which is one of the batch I scanned earlier. Taken in Melaka, Malaysia at the end of June 1998 it shows a sigh at a Chinese temple which caused me to do a double-take!

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17th November picture of the day…

17 Tuesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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All in all it’s not been a bad day – if one ignores the world falling apart around one that is! But from a personal perspective it’s been rather productive. Having been cooped-up for the past couple of weeks I was happy to escape the confines of the house for long enough to meet my exercise targets for the first time since we had to self-isolate. The weather may not have been great as we’ve had gloomy, gloomy skies and threats of rain all day, but even a stroll down into Sowerby Bridge was enjoyable – even if there was nothing to do there other than pick up some shopping! Simple pleasures…

Admittedly, the walk back along the canal was lovely. There’s something special about being able to walk alongside water and the stillness of the canal where the only interruptions are Ducks is very therapeutic. The exercise was a lovely break from staring at screens – although I’m back to that now as I trawl through emails whilst scanning old slides. Mind you, some emails are welcome, such as the one I received earlier telling me that a commission regarding some new train conversions is back on. I’ll be blogging about that another time but it’s a welcome return to a semblance of normalcy. As well as dealing with the present I’ve still been scanning old slides from the past – which has provided me with the picture of the day – which is very much a moment in time.

I took this on the 10th June 1998 in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia. This is people of all nationalities (including a solitary Scot!) gathered around a TV in a restaurant to watch the opening match of the 1998 World Cup which was between Scotland and Brazil. Neither Lynn nor I were great football fans, but what struck me about this night was how international it was. There were people from dozens of countries who’d pitched up in the Perhentians who just wanted to watch the footy! There’s another twist too. These two islands are mostly ‘dry’. Alcohol’s hard to come by (or expensive when you can get it) so it was probably one of the most sober group of football supporters I’ve ever seen – hence the absence of beer bottles on the tables. Even so, looking back at this picture I remember it as a cracking night in a place I’ll always remember.

I’m gradually scanning the rest of the pictures from this trip, so expect more from some off-the beat locations to feature over the next week or two…

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16th November picture of the day…

16 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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Apologies for the break in the daily picture. It wasn’t because I didn’t have any – exactly the opposite. I’ve had a very busy couple of days scanning old slides. So much so that I’ve finally finished the last album of old UK railway images which has left me elated as its taken donkey’s years! At least it’s a positive legacy from 2020 and Covid, as without lockdown 1 and 2 I’d never have found the time and I’d still be ploughing my way through them. Of course, it’s not quite the end of the story. I still have a couple of albums of foreign railway pictures which total several hundred pictures. Then there’s the thousands of old travel pictures – but I’ve already made a start on those today. The good thing about the travel shots is they’re simpler to caption and there’s an awful lot of duplicates in the later albums, so scanning them won’t take anywhere near as long (says he, optimistically).

I’ve added all the rail shots to various galleries on my Zenfolio website which you can find by following this link. The current batch of travel shots all be added to a single gallery as they’re from the ’round the world’ trip that Lynn and I embarked on between 1997-99. You can find that one here. I’ve set it up so that the most recent additions will appear at the front of the gallery and the oldest last – although I’ll change that when it’s complete.

With lockdown part 2 here and work sparse and sporadic, I should have time to get through quite a few old slides before the country starts reopening next month. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture. I took this in May 1998 at the indoor market in Kota Baru on the East Coast of Malaysia. I find Asian markets fascinating places because they’re so vibrant and colourful – stocked with an amazing array of produce and people. Kota market had the advantage of a circular balcony which made a great vantage point for photography – as you can see. It allowed me to get this candid shot as the two women were unaware of my being there.

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6th October picture of the day…

06 Tuesday Oct 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Picture of the day, Travel

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Today’s been another day spent working from home and grappling with the capricious nature of technologies such as the internet. I’d a Community Rail Awards Zoom meeting arranged for 10am, so that my fellow judge (Mark Barker) and I could talk to a station friends group. So, of course, my internet connection decides to play hard to get: Literally! I spent a good half hour rebooting stuff or tinkering with settings before the damn thing decided to behave again. Meanwhile I was trying to transfer hundreds of pictures from my round Britain trip to RAIL magazine, which had to be paused whilst I was having the meeting – just in case both got screwed up.

On the bright side (?) we’ve had a miserable day weather-wise, so being stuck at home was hardly a hardship and everything worked out in the end. Although it does feel slightly surreal to be talking to old friends who only live down the road on Zoom rather then just popping in to see them – such is the mad world we all currently inhabit, and one that doesn’t look like sanity will return to for quite some time – and I’ve not even touched on politics…

I’m taking a break from that form of madness and keeping my spleen unvented until the pressure becomes too much. I’m too busy trying to keep on top of my writing jobs and decluttering the house – hence more and more railway items ending up on my eBay account. Hopefully, once I’ve got this series of RAIL articles in the bag I’ll have the time to add some of the larger items of railway memorabilia as I’ve mostly been focusing on pictures as they’re easy and the P&P is simple.

OK, It’s time to cut the rambling and move on to the picture of the day, which is more about the harder side of life than the scenic side of travel. I took this picture in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 23rd February 2012. A homeless man is using water from a storm drain on the side of the Gombak River (which is enclosed in concrete at this point) to wash the only clothes he has, surrounded by the buildings of the cities banking and business district…

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Thank you!

22nd September picture of the day…

22 Tuesday Sep 2020

Posted by in Food and drink, Malaysia, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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The day started so well…

This morning the sun was shining and all seemed well with the word. OK, let’s qualify that – as well as can be expected in this mad time, despite all the crap and uncertainties facing us all right now. My mood was bouyant and I was looking forward to grabbing a short break away from the office to sit in the sun and do some reading. Then, in short order, it all fell apart for a variety of reasons – including the weather. Low cloud rolled into the valley, the sun disappered, the light became murky and the temperature dropped, taking my mood with it. The latest pronouncements from the Government on Covid were just another nail in the coffin.

So, today’s picture is of a happier place and a happier time. This was taken in Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 5th January 2012. I was touring through Asia at the time and ended up in KL (which I’ve visited many times) to have a look at their changing railway system and also to get a camera lens repaired as it had packed up a few days earlier. There was a Nikon dealership in KL so I thought it would be straightforward. There was only one problem. The spares for my lens were sourced from Nikon factories in Bangkok – and Thailand had only recently suffered the worst floods for decades so my couple of weeks turned into nearly two months! This was no problem as I was trying to secure an interview with the head of Malaysian railways at the time, and that wasn’t a quick process either – so I got to know KL very well. Many of my evenings would be spent sitting outside a particular Chinese cafe on Jalan Sultan which was a great place to enjoy a beer, a meal, and people watch for an hour or two. On the opposite side of the street were a couple of stalls, one of which was fascinating to watch as they sold Chicken and rice cooked in a claypot.

When all this crap is over I really need to do this again – although the cafe where I used to sit has closed now. It was shut as some businesses were needed to close for construction of the underground section of the new Klang Valley metro system, which I found out when I went back in 2017 – although the Clay Pot stall was still there. I’ll be curious to see how things look now…

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Thank you!

10th August picture of the day…

10 Monday Aug 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Musings, Picture of the day, Travel

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It’s late and it’s been a long day where I’ve spent most of my time writing and researching a magazine article but that’s been fun as I’ve learned a lot in the process, which is always a bonus. I’ll say more about it when I have a publication schedule. I’ve also been ‘zooming’ to talk to a station friends group who’ve entered the Community Rail awards. To say the limitations of the  technology let us down would be an understatement. Anyone who claims this is the future is talking out of a fundamental orifice! It’s a reasonable substitute for face to face meetings in these Covid times, but it will never replace them.

It wasn’t the best day to be stuck indoors as the weather here in West Yorkshire’s been hot and humid with a mix of sunshine and showers. The rest of the week’s weather is looking mixed too – which might supply some photographic opportunities after tomorrow when I’m free of the office as the article I’m writing will be submittted.

The theme of storms leads me neatly into the picture of the day, which was taken at Coral Bay on the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia on the 8th October 2009. These East coast islands close later that month as the Monsoon brings stormy weather that render them inaccesable to tourists. On this day we were given a taste of what that must look like as this particular storm approached and I managed to catch it on camera…

DG36861. Approaching storm. Coral Bay. Perhentian Islands. Malaysia. 8.10.09.crop

You can find more pictures of these beautiful Islands here. Perhaps I’ll get back there one day….

 

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30th July picture of the day…

30 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by in Malaysia, Picture of the day, Travel

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This has been a really shitty day for a whole host of reasons that I won’t go in to, so today’s picture is coming from a ‘happy place’ that I love to escape to where I feel very much at home and miss – especially now we’ve all had our wings clipped, metaphorically and literally.

DG36962.Street food. Lebuh Chulia. Georgetown. Penang. Malaysia. 15.10.09.crop

I took this picture of a hawkers food stall on Lebuh Chulia in Georgetown, Penang , Malaysia on the 15th October 2009. I first visited Georgetown in 1992 and fell in love with it then. I’ve been back many times since and never been disappointed. The old town is a wonderful mix of architecture and cultures and the food is sublime. This shot is of Lebuh Chulia, a street in the backpackers area, but it’s far more than that as the locals still hold sway. Each night the shops shut and foodstalls like this appear, serving Chinese, Indian Malaysian or Western foods. I love the local dishes, but one stall that always amuses me is a burger bar decked out in Manchester United banners! – but that’s for another picture…

 

 

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24th July picture of the day…

24 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by in Coronavirus, Malaysia, Picture of the day, Sowerby Bridge, Travel

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Another busy day today that’s seen us out shopping on the first official day of ‘wearing a mask in shops’ day. I’m relieved to report that most people seem to have got the message and are abiding by the instruction. We visited the Tesco in Sowerby Bridge and I only observed one person (a man) not wearing one. Our local Tescos had one or two more backsliders, but not many. Why did we have to go to two branches of Tescos I hear you ask? They’re on a couple of miles apart but the stock they carry is very different. No, I’ve no idea why either!

OK, here’s today’s picture of the day. If you’re squeamish, I suggest that you look away now….

I took this picture on the 8th February 2009 in Georgetown on Penang island, Malaysia during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam.

TD12441. Thaipusam. Penang. Malaysia. 8.2.2009.crop

Yes, those are hooks in the mans back. He was pulling a wheeled cart with them! Although it’s a Hindu festival other religions join in and I’ve seen Muslims and the Chinese community carrying out such acts of devotional sacrifice (which are frowned upon back in India, where the festival was banned). It’s quite an event to witness and the atmosphere’s anything but painful – even if sights like this do make you wince the first time you see them!

 

 

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July 9th picture of the day…

09 Thursday Jul 2020

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This is going to be a short blog as there’s been bugger-all of interest happening here today. I’ve been busy with work so didn’t even accompany Dawn on the weekly ‘escape from the valley’ shopping trip to Huddersfield. Instead I’ve been glued to a screen all day – apart from venturing out in the drizzle and murk to get the bare minimum of exercise and venture into Sowerby Bridge to stock up on coffee.

It’s the first time I’ve been there on foot since the breakdown of lockdown and I don’t know if to laugh or cry. I passed one of the re-opened men’s barbershops where I saw the barber cutting someone’s hair whilst sporting a baseball cap and disposable mask – which he was wearing below his nose! Have the past three months taught people nothing, or is it that some people have the attention-span of a Goldfish?

Needless to say, that’s not one establishment you’ll find me frequenting!

OK, time for something I’ve not seen for several days now sunshine. Let’s see what I can find in the archives…

Here’s the beautiful beach at Coral Bay on the larger of the two Perhentian Islands (off the East Coast of Malaysia) seen in February 2009. Feel free to pull up a sun lounger, only bring your own alcohol from the mainland as booze isn’t regularly available here. But with fantastic beaches, superb swimming and snorkeling and an abundance of sea-life, it’s not much of a hardship…

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