kuching!

this is just something to fill in the time. decided to go through some of my pictures from kuching. so here are some photos of the rainfirest world music festival 2008 and other pictures from running around kuching.

there are 2 batches of pics. one from the first half of my trip when my sister was there and the other half when she left. these pics are those of the second half which also contains the rainforest world music festival pics. the first half are yet to be uploaded.


firstly the one and only group picture in this post.


from left to right. me, ayu, denise, cletus, sid and lorraine.

i mostly hung out with ayu, cletus and lorraine during the rainforest event.

this one is a picture of the kuching waterfront. it was supposed to be a panorama shot, but i was too lazy to stitch it together. stay tuned for the full panorama picture.


this next picture is taken on the beach of damai puri resort. this is the resort which i "sort of" stayed at during the rainforest event.


here is a random shot i took. on the right side would be some rocks which would lead down to the beach. i had to crop it out as when i took the picture the horizon wasn't straight, and it looked awefull.


so from here on the pictures are from the rainforest world music festival 2008.


this is the main stage where most of the better music comes from during the night.


as you can see, the grass is all nice and green. little would you know that on that exact same night, it would eventually become a mud hole.

this is a photo of a dude making a sape. i think that the white partition board on the left of the picture really ruined the shot. dammit....


this is the view from the same house i took the picture of the man making the sape. what a great view.


and this here is the picture of the house i was on when i took the photo of the man making the sape which i afterwards took the photo of the great view. i know, i'm trying to confuse you on purpose.


this is of a totem pole. carved out of a tree and it was about 7 meters high. sadly it was plagued with a few nails popping out from its side. had to photoshop it out. can you spot the changes?

quite hard i think...


this band is one of the coolest bands in the whole festival. each member can play about 3 instruments. coolest stuff and most fun music.


more pictures of the band. i think its called bezentine or something like that.


i quite like this one. i even cought the broken hair of the bow.

yet again, another editing mistake. the colours of the picture doesnt seem that nice. i forgot to bump up the colours after changing the white balance. was kinda in a hurry when i was editing them.

this band was kinda cool. their first song went "SMOKE WEED EVERY DAY!"


this is one of a sape player.

yeah man!! electric sape!!! behold how modern technology has effected traditional instruments. then again, isn't all instruments so called traditional to a certian culture?

oh well...

anyway, if you would like to see a bigger version of the photo, just click on them. more should be yet to come.

last week end i went down to singapore. why? well its cause my dear sister was heading over to the land of the roos. what is a roo? its a kangaroo.

so looks like its me the oldest kido in the house now. sigh....

more on kuching when i have the time.

rainforest!!

well the time for the rainforest world music festival 2008 is almost at hand!

tomorrow ill be heading down to the cultural village which is in damai for the event. whats cool is that there are actually a few people that i know from KL thats attending the event.

so enough about the damn concert. bet you are wondering about kuching.

been in kuching for a little more then a week now, and how is it you ask? well its actually not bad. its great to be away from the hustle and bustle of the freggin city. it only takes 10 minutes to get anywhere! im not kidding. no traffic jams, no serious noise polution, and also no light polution. that means that you can actually see the stars when you are in the middle of the city!

how cool is that?!

more of the trip when i get home.

noel out...

Slack Line and Cats

as said in a post before, camp5 now has a slackline!

here are some pictures taken yesterday.


here is one of me.



this is one of kammy



and a last one of andrew



cool eh? it isn't as easy as it looks. actually takes loads of practice. the pros can even do summersaults and land right on the slackline. but sadly noone in camp5 has reached that level yet. its only been what? a week since it was first set up?

for those of you who are interested in trying out the slackline, camp5 sets them up around the end of the day if people want to do it. but they will soon set up a set time when they will set it up.

next up, is about cats. well more of kuching. i leave for kuching in another 6 hours time. and will only be back on the 15th of july.

i'll be going for the rainforest world music festival!!

besides the music festival, ill also be going to kuching to visit people and get intouch with my roots... lol! i like the sound of that. well its cuase i haven't been back in like what? 7 years? around that i think. so its about time i went back for a visit. for those of you who didnt know, i was born in kuching and lived there for about 6 years before i moved to KL.

anyway, im also hoping to do some climbing there. managed to get a contact from a friend of a climber in kuching. hope all goes well and i can go climbing.

gotta start packing now. till the next time i post! hopefully with more pictures and more photos.

p.s. my sister will be leaving for perth on the 20th of july. she will be the first bird leaving the nest. hope all goes well...

you want tuk tuk?

so this post has been pretty much outdated.

does it even matter?

i dont think so.

anyway, i don't quite fancy typing so much anymore, so i'm just going to post more pictures.


here are some pictures that i took when i went to phuket before christmas.


this is a picture that i took while sitting on patong beach having a beer. the thai people here seem to love having dogs, and they take them everywhere!



this is a picture of bangla road in patong. yes, you read it right, its called bangla. its quite a cool place at night. this is the street where all the bars are located, lady man and pole dancers live. there is even a muai thai (kick boxing) stadium at the end of the street. at night they close this street off to traffic, thats why there is a huge amount of people on this street.


this is just some random picture that i took while walking around the area.


phuket is so cool, that they even sell guns in the open!!

hahah, you wish. those are BB guns. but they have a real good variety of real looking guns there.


a club that is located right opposite patong beach.


there are loads of these signs everywhere! at least we know where to go when there is a tsunami.


this is a picture of the gay street of phuket. loads of gay people there. went there by accident becuase the tuk tuk that was taking us back to the hotel was dropping some other people at this street. sorry the pics aren't that good, as i was taking the pictures in the wrong setting and was in quite a hurry while the tuk tuk drove along this street.



can you guess what you are looking at in the above picture?


how about this one?

still can't figure it out?

well you are actually looking at a balcony full of thai guys dressed up in skimpy black leather outfits. whats worst is that they were freaking dancing with all the spot lights right on them!!


this is a picture of 2 jeeps that look like army jeeps. it was the first time i saw one up close.

now this is a picture of a fishing boat.

when we were on a boat on the way to phi phi island, this green fishing boat passed us, and there was this thai guy which was so damn funny on that fishing boat. as their boat was passing by mine, he carried out this really long pole with fish or something hanging on both ends and did some weight lifting while giving that ARGH!!! sound.

it was one of those " you had to be there to see it for yourself" kinda things.


so next up, pictures of phi phi island!

when i do decide to make another post that is :D

and so the holiday begins

so today is tuesday. its just like any ordinary tuesday, only thing different is that its in december and that makes it another day closer to Christmas!

whats on the itinerary today?

today i'm going to watch i am legend for the SECOND TIME!!!

its such a freaking good movie man! every part of the movie i'm in suspense, wanting to know what happens next.

after the movie there would be more caroling!

and after caroling, its back home to start packing for phuket!

yes, i am leaving for a holiday for almost a week to phuket. will only be back on christmas eve. sigh... its actually quite sad. won't be able to spend christmas with friends.

oh btw, i got a new lens! its a zuiko 14-54mm f2.8-3.5, if you don't know what i mean with all those numbers, then you should just ignore it :D

so anyway will be back on christmas day!

last night in langkawi

today, i was finally able to get out of the house after being cooped up at home for 3 and a half freaking days!

so yeah, it was jazli and sam's birthday today. happy birthday guys!

oh btw, not that you guys are interested to know, but my foot is really swollen.


so back to my final part of the langkawi trip.


after having a great time listening to the music, having a couple of drinks, and chilling out, we headed back to the room for our final and last night of drinking!

this night we finally opened the keg of Heineken beer that we got on the first day. had to cool it in the sink with ice, cuase our room didn't have a fridge.

so yeah, we had our drinking session with the rest of the group. this was the night that i was supposed to get pissed drunk, as i hardly drank the night before due to having too much fun laughing at the others and getting them drunk, but sadly, we ran outa booze. so i only ended up a little tipsy.

after everyone went to bed, me, min ern, mabel, and the sam from penang, went to take a walk on the beach towards casa del mar. this hotel was some really cool hotel man. we sneaked in there, jumped into their pool, and didn't want to come out as it was freaking cold. eventually we stole some dinner hankies thinggy and used it as blankets, and made our way back. it was really funny tho, as me and min ern went there while we were still tipsy, but the alcohol wore out eventually.

the next day, we all woke up freaking late and had to rush to the duty free shop, then to the jetty. the penangites car ran outa petrol, so we kinda got cut off from them as we were in a hurry. but they managed to get a lift to the petrol station eventually.

on the last kilometer to the jetty there was this really steep bridge, min ern was driving, and the car stopped right on the slope! this was a funny sight. min ern tried to get the car going again but couldn't. after about 5 minutes of trying, and causing a huge jam behind us, i switched with him and drove the car over the slope towards the jetty.

here is the sucky part. as we were in a freaking hurry, i didn't bother to put on my seat belt and was speeding all the way. about 500 meters before the jetty, there was a road block!

i mean the the hell! of all the times to have a road block, they had it when we were rushing to catch our boat. in the end the typical lines came up, "macam mana kamu nak settle?". this line is probably the most well used line by police officers! so the bargaining began. but since we were in a freaking hurry, we just gave in.

when we arrived at the jetty, we were already late for the boat. so we had to wait another hour for the next boat to get us. just enough time to catch the bus which leaves 10 minutes after we land in kuala perlis.

here are some pictures of us on the boat.
everyone was all tired out after rushing so much.

good bye langkawi!


when we arrived in kl, kealeng's dad picked us up and brought us for some well needed chicken rice dinner. finally it was time to say good bye and we all got home.



for kealeng, one of the reasons this trip was planned out. have a good time in the USA. don't study too hard, have loads of fun, and most importantly do remember to come back. SCROTUM!!


for min ern, i've known you for too freaking long man. love the jokes, the fun times irritating you and all that other shit that happens. don't forget to eat your veggies. SCRATCH!!


for samantha, it was great meeting you. fun times playing taboo with the others, in front of starbucks in the jetty in langkawi, which is in malaysia, which is located in asia, which is on a planet called earth, in the milkyway galaxy. hmmm... what else? SMILE!



here is to the good times, the really bad lame jokes that we had to take, the weird drunken accents that we had a good laugh about, the loads and loads of chocolates eaten, the fun times on the beach body surfing, the prancing and skipping of a drunken person around the resort, and all the other stuff that shouldn't be said.

here is to friendship and all that other bull crap that people say when they want to close up a good story/speech.


FUN ALL THE WAY GUYS!

Langkawi, langkawi, langkawi...

well, before i continue on with my langkawi post, im going to post an update on the double x challenge.

WE GOT FREAKING SECOND PLACE!!!!

Thats 12k in our pockets!

its not 20k, but at least its as close as it gets. BUT ITS FREAKING SHITTY MAN! second place is sooooo close to first place! but what the heck.

oh btw i also got a free sprained ankle out of this competition. not bad eh?

so for those of you who didn't come support me and my team, you don't get ice cream. as for those of you who were there, come see me to get your ice cream.

more on the nutrilite double x challenge later on.


now back to the lake.


when we arrived at the lake, we were greeted by monkeys just hanging around the floating platforms which were the make shift land area on the lake. the floating platforms even comes together with a built in food store cum boat rental shop.

anyway, there was this little monkey which didn't seem to be scared of us humans. i managed to take it for a small walk holding its hands. hahaha! gosh, it sounds quite wrong.



i was even really tempted to push that little monkey over board into the lake. that would really be a funny sight. but i would probably need to jump in and save that little creature.

so anyway, besides taking little monkeys on walks, we took a dip in the lake. for your information, this is no ordinary lake. this lake looks like this:


so yeah, it was basically a super steep drop from where the water starts. min ern said he once tried to find the bottom, he swam down and down. after a while , he still had not found the bottom, and could not even see it. it was pitch black. finally he decided that even if he found it, he might nit like what he would find. i mean there could be monsters or even dead people down there!

so yeah, its that deep...

pretty scary actually. i never dared to put my head into the water and look down into the abyss. always had a fear of something coming out of dark places, especially water.

anyway! after awhile we decided it was time to rent some boats to go around the lake. everyone rented those slow solar powered leg paddler boats, while me and the other sam, samantha scully (there was 2 samanthas on our holiday) got a canoe.

after paddling awhile, me and sam met up with min ern's slow boat right i the middle of the lake. guess what min ern did. he jumped out of his boat, into the lake, swam to our canoe and sat at the back of the canoe.

this is what it looked like.


looks pretty funny. and he just sat there for hours as we took our tour around the lake.


so after playing around with the boats, we decided to head back. all that rowing in the huge lake was starting to get really boring.

but never the less, it was a really great place. a really great place to sit and just relax and enjoy nature. the lake was even surrounded by loads of limestone cliffs there that definitely has potential to be developed as a climbing site.


i await the day when people would start climbing at the lake.

anyway, we got onto the boat and set course for home. in other words the hotel!


after we got back, me, kea leng, min ern, and samantha(the one that came with us from KL) went to take a walk on cenang beach, which was the beach right opposite our hotel.

then we stumbled upon this really cool bar called chill out cafe. it was a hot day, and all of us desperately needed some cold beer and some shade. this place had everything we needed, a hammock, cool beer, and nice relaxing music from the 80s and 90s.



so yeah, we had nice cold beer and actually just sat and lazed around for about 2 hours and practically did nothing at all.



ok, so the name might be chill out cafe. i cant remember. notice the hut with a coconut tree growing out of it?

here are some picture of the place from my nice little hammock point of view.

so after our nice chill out time at chill out cafe/bar, me and kea leng went to do some body surfing! while min ern and sam took a nap. the waves weren't that big, but if you catch the right one at the right time, you can ride it. so i spent like 4 hours in the evening till it was dark body surfing. it was fun, especially when you manage to catch a wave. so anyway, after a while kea leng got tired of body surfing, so she left and i was joined by the others from penang shortly after. since i lived in a city which has no beaches nearby, i didn't mind swimming in the sea for a long time.

so after it got too dark to swim, i headed back to the room to get changed and the 4 of us from kl headed over to the reggae cafe for a drink.


it was a really cool place. it environment was real nice, the music was not really what i would listen to on a regular basis, but it was nevertheless relaxing.

here is a few pics of the place.

main entrance

the band that played reggae music. the guy on percussion, has freaking long dreads. its up to his knees!

can you spot anything unusual about the bar?

look again...

yes, what you see at the back of the bar is a notice board with bras stuck on to it. and on the top left hand corner there is a sign saying "let your breast breathe"

an australian flag, with a really weird caption saying "malaysia, australia jadi contoh toleransi masyarakat majmuk." i mean what the hell?! what kind of bull crap is that?

me and min ern having some drinks.

all of us. kea leng, sam, noel, and min ern.

so yeah, we had a really good time. seeing as this would be the last holiday that kealeng would be able to spend with us before she leaves for the US, it was good!



well this was one real long post. more on what happened after the reggae cafe on my next post.

here is a picture of kealeng for you to look at while you wait.