Cat & Cha Bohs Had a Blast in Saigon

5-9 Nov 2008

The last jimui trip we went together was Bali in Apr '08. This round instead of the usual trips to Hanoi, it was to the southern tip of Vietnam (the land of super motorcyclists). It was an economical trip for us, low flight fares and very attractive "private" package from a Malaysian tour company (ha, there's always a catch to these promos).

As usual we started off with our good fren being 15mins late for taxi, not that we've not gotten used to it, but the taxi driver was driving like as if there was a time bomb in the car. Niways, we managed to arrive airport on time. Arrival at Tan Son Nhat (relatively new airport compared to Noi Bai) was smooth. The same old slow immigration check..it's some sort of Vietnamese experience that the immigation officers will sit in groups and chat while processing our passports despite the long queue.

Our guide Hao greeted us and brought us to Quan An Ngon, Saigon branch (OK it's supposed to be the primary outlet) to taste the local food. Hao turned out to be quite talkative and friendly. Then checked in the hotel and our 1st activity....drumroll please, shopping. The hotel is walking distance to Ben Thanh, so we walked to the pasar malam. On the way back, noticed that there was a branch of Pho24 along the street where our hotel was located. Yay!!!! I love Pho Bo from Pho24, sedap giler..of course Ah Ba's Pork Rib is still second to none..(Ah Ba, miss you soooooooo......much......), oh 2nd place should be the BBQ porkribchickenwingcroissant combi on Thuy Khue - they should add this place in Lonely Planet - on 2nd tot, albeit a very selfish tot, nahh...hidden secret. Ok, ok, diversion to Hanoi pulak, apa lah...

The very next morning, was our trip to Cu Chi tunnels. Here's where our "economy" tour cost unravels, we were basically picked up by a small van making stops at every budget hotel around Dist 1. The van dropped us at Sinhcafe at the backpacker area (Pham Ngu Lao). From there we were taken by a bus (yes a bus fully loaded with 30 other budget tourists) to Cu Chi. Our guide was a temperamental guy who was telling the history of Vietnam war and Cu Chi's importance during the guerilla resistance. We stopped at a craft centre and he shouted at me when I was late to get up on the bus. Since then, he was on my black book of least favourite guides of all time. We didn't get much time in the tunnels coz too big group (sigh, we should have paid more for private tour), it was dark and narrow and Cheng managed to only take video of Lee's backside..haha.

Afternoon, Hao picked us up and we went for city tour. The usual tourist itinerary, I would say that it was kinda pity that we arrived at the War Museum when it was about to close. It contained many Pulitzer prize winning photographs in black n white of Vietnam war. Those photogs were the real deal, may of whom perished in the war. Imagine film photography with not many equipment (how to run with the whole gadget crammed in the bag?) and not much time to assess the lighting, exposure, and bombs, and bullets everywhere? The photos came out perfectly exposed, and it's right when you see a good photograph, you feel the emotion of the subjects, the message the photog tried to convey.

The next morning, we were supposed to go on another "budget" tour to Mekong River. However, the Sinhcafe van actually forgot to pick us up....initially we were disappointed, but when we got our private tour with Hao as our guide as replacement , it was wooo hooo!! At least my pictures won't display 30 other butts of ppl trying to listen to the guide. That was the last day we enrolled on paid tours, next day will be free n easy shopping day!

That night we went on clubbing spree. 1st we went on the rooftop of Rex Hotel (Hao's recommendation - "safe place"), well, let's put it this way, uncle's lounge...aiya spoiler, next on we went to Sheraton's Level 23, umm not bad they have a Canadian live band with very cute guitarist, but the atmosphere was too posh and there was this family entourage there, umm, not the right feel. So we left for Saigon Saigon in Caravelle, another uncle place. Hallo? It's hard to believe Saigon is an uncle clubbing scene, cannot be la. So we decided to take a cab to Q Bar, not noticing Q Bar was exactly facing Caravelle, duhhh...Q Bar was dull and more of drinking than dancing place. The cocktail was good though. So 4 disappointed gals went crawling back to Level 23, Sheraton - they closed at 12am, hahaha biggest joke ever we haven't warm our seats when they switched on the lights. A waiter told us to check out Apocalypse Now - out of desperation we took a cab there, that place was sure lively with throbbing music and ahem, a lot of cari makan girls - mission accomplished though.

Next day we went shopping. Turned out Ben Thanh is a place to kecek tourist dollars. We found much better deals at the shops outside and better quality too. That night was Lee's birthday eve. We wanted to surprise her by getting her a birthday cake, since I was her roommate, had to create a diversion while the 2 cha bohs went to search for a cake. They managed to find 4 slices of cake of 2 different flavours from Highlands Coffee, ok la as long as it's cake and edible ;-)

Surprisingly Hao turned up with a proper birthday cake (coz we told him the day before but it was his own initiative), and we all took a cab to karaoke to celebrate Lee's birthday. Next stop to Go2Bar where Hao used to work as bartender, cis, he didn't tell us about this cool place instead advised us to go Rex Hotel the day before, duhh....Lee got her birthday dance of honour. We had a great time dancing (and looking very touristy, slippers and short pants - caya lah)

All good things must come to an end, next day we flew back to KL. Here's hoping for more girls-just-wanna-have-fun trips!!

Tôi yêu Việt Nam !!!

Cat's Trip to Cambodia

26-29 Jan 2009

I'm really going backwards here in reporting my travel tales...hope I can still remember the details, haha. 1st day of Chinese New Year this year, we started the Year of the Rat with family trip to Siem Reap.

It was a busy period beginning of the year and I wasn't really looking forward to the trip considering there were lots of open issues on hand and that the boss' boss is coming over for visit after CNY. For most Malaysians, Cambodia's just a next door country and well, 3rd world so what can be that interesting? I've developed a soft spot for 3rd world country by now since the 1st trip up to numerous trips to Hanoi. Thinking that it would somehow be similar to Vietnam.

The arrival was pretty much what was expected. The airport is small but newly refurbished, Siem Reap is after all the tourism cash cow for the whole of Cambodia. I've been in contact with Panha Ou of Amazing Angkor Tours for months. Started out as an inquiry which I did not take up (coz Ben & I went to Manado on Raya hols instead). I promised Panha that I'll contact him if I eventually firmed up on visiting Cambodia - which I did when the Tans decided to visit. He's so nice as to allow us to pay in full upon arrival, which is a risk if we didn't turn up. It actually saved us on the bank charges to TT the deposit.

We were greeted by Narin our tour guide at the airport. I couldn't spot him at 1st, he looked kinda mean, the Ku Wak Chai look. But once he speaks, it totally different - fluent English and good historical knowledge like a walking Angkor encyclopedia. So like Susan Boyle, what do we learn here ha?

When we reached the hotel (Casa Angkor), we were greeted by 2 ladies who were very hospitable. Well, obviously it's time to pay so I settled the bill. To my surprise they stayed on and gave us our tour "kit" - which includes maps and a Cambodian scarf each, aww...that's nice.

We settled in the rooms & Ernzi (kiddo) and I became roomies and the best part? Between us we've got 3 days supply of snack in the room. She was so happy coz her mommy won't be there 24/7 to nag her junking on the snacks..Hi-5!! The not so good part? well I gotta bring her to toilet and luckily mom saved the day by coming over to bathe her..

Before entering the Angkor sites, the authorities required our pictures be taken and printed on our 3 days visit card. Hence the days of displaying our not so flattering mugshots around the sites of Angkor. To my surprise, this trip was an eye opener. Not only the temples are sights to behold, the people especially the children are truly endearing. The place that got me to start my interest (again) to snap people. The last time I felt like snapping the locals were in Sapa.

The food is not really my favourite, lots of coconut juice and sweet. And most of our meals are fusion of Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai food. I did enjoy the tangerine sugarcane drink, ada oomph!!!

I basically got the places of our visit captured in the Photobook for this trip. It was a good photo experience for me. I've been hibernating for quite some time and my shots for HCMC, Manado, were so-so in my opinion so they were not my fav. So here's hoping for better and better snapshots to come.

Oh, just realized I skipped the whole chapter on the green label Hoya CPL purchase, anyway, it was purchased for purpose of this trip...adehh...

"Peace"

Cat Babbles on About Photography...

Ya ya, it's like once you start you can't stop (yes, very unoriginal indeed). Now, I did mention that I'd like to blab more on PS and photobook, let's put that to later ya, or you can just checkout Wikipedia..haha so much for broken promises.

I'm not some Mahaguru or Ken Rockwell (he's almost there..) in photography, in fact still one of the ones with minimal gadget considering the years since I've started. So basically the topic here will revolve around what photography did to me these years instead of tips & contributions & strong arguments on what's the best stuff to own - betcha can find much experienced, much knowledgeable si-fus out there.

I didn't own a point 'n shoot before I got my 1st SLR. Now what kind of an idiot who didn't have much experience snapping pictures in her life would plunge into buying a camera she'll need to read the manual like a textbook to operate? Well, at least it's the road less traveled (not a bad reason considering I'm slightly weird at times)

Anyway, it was my 2 running buddies in uni who introduced me to this hobby. One of them owned a manual (non-automatic) SLR. Imagine that he had to roll the film everytime he snapped. Not a big scorer on continuous shots, nevertheless, he actually learnt photography from square 1. Anyway, they managed to take very good pictures and I find that looking at the pictures and reviewing them after developing the negatives is quite interesting. Hence I started my 1st step into this "journey of light".

It was to my disappointment that recently, one of my si-fus, after all these years of exchanging views on photography, told me that videography is more interesting.

Pause....

More pause...

OK la, don't waste blog space... imagine my disappointment, I actually went silent (a-ha...this actually surprised you leh) for some time before I can speak up. Look, I have nothing against videography nor people who owns videocam, my BFF actually owns 1 and I happily "acted" in her videos when we travel.

It's also not because he 'alleged' that videography is better than photography (Personally, I don't agree with this though). This is really up to individual's opinion and I would not argue with this fella coz he's one of the best debaters around, and with piercing sarcasm.

The biggest disappointment is that the very same person who introduced me to photography actually lost grip of the whole idea of photography. That it's a snapshot frozen in time, that it's a painting with light, that a good picture tells a thousand words, that a good picture creates curiosity, explores our imagination, provoke our emotions, provide that moment of time to evaluate what we don't see when we are too absorbed with other "main" interests. The realization that no matter what gadget or tool human can make, no lens no camera can capture a picture a good as our eyes.

Videography in my opinion is a totally different playing field, as I'm not familiar I will not elaborate but I'm sure it has its own purpose and charms. But as a photographer professional or novice, never, ever, ever, never, eva, ever doubt the existence of taking that snapshot in a fraction of a second, is in any way inferior to any other ways of capturing light. Never....because when you start doubting, then your heart has never been there before. Which is why National Geographic photogs are still around and that camera shops are not fully replaced by the videocam shop, though videocams are getting cheaper and cheaper.

For me, I've had my share of getting my body positioned in an awkward angle just to capture a snapshot that I've envisioned the result to be. The times when I tried to protect the camera from cold, water, dirt, etc. The times when I was left behind on trips because I can't resist stopping and snapping something that caught my fancy. Then struggled to look for my friends and family who went way ahead... The times my models made funny faces for me to shoot. The times I had to get shoulder massage or rubs due to the friction inflicted by camera strap, weighed down by the camera. The times the camera freezes the motion and expressions on my models when they were eating, looking silly, serious, etc. Each time unique, each time memorable, each time enhances my life as I moved on.

Perfection

It helps that photography brings me towards achieving perfection (I still delete pictures that look blah..). E.g. cropping out bad distractions in pictures, adjusting exposure to meet the mood we want to set in the picture, framing subjects to make them stand out, learning to identify what we expect out of the picture before snapping. There's a sense of focus and the reward? Can look through the pictures again and again and have that silly lunatic grin on my face looking at the pictures.

Relaxation

If you are working middle class like me, our lives are basically entangled in the rat race (if you are ambitious). Politics, stress, guilt, dissatisfaction, envy - all part of our daily lives. But when it's just me looking though the lens, it's a different world. Eat your heart out Body Shop...about time to have more sales on those Ylang Ylang aroma oil eh?

Compassion

Children usually provides the strongest display of emotion or rather tug at our emotions. When I snapped the kids in Cambodia, it made me feel ashamed of complaining about work, or on having not enough pair of shoes to look like Carrie Bradshaw wannabe in office. These are kids and they are happily showing "peace" signs for tourists, no shoes, torn clothes, probably not having a proper bath since birth. My favourite picture of all time, is a snapshot of 3 Flower Hmong girls walking back from school with their bags (donated by a charity organization) facing us and greeted by one of the girls' brother along the red muddy track. When we approached them, all they asked for were, "do you have pens for us?"

Adventure

The toilet on Fansipan mountain, the mud track on Bach Ha market, the butt push in Railay, Krabi, the 007 pose in Phi Leh Lagoon, the cute pelicans in Bali Bird Park, the UFO looking lightning protectors of Shanghai, the rocks on Mt Kinabalu, the overloaded bikes of Vietnam, the temple palace of Bangkok, the volcanoes of Manado, the ruins of Angkor, skybridge of Langkawi, the darkness of Earth Hour, the food of south east asia, the monkeys of..err.. too many monkeys..

I think i'll just stop here for now..surely this topic will be continued...

Blabs from a light activist...

Cat (Oldskool) Ventures into Digital Photography

It's more than 1 year since the last entry. It's been a long hellish year if you ask me, but let's concentrate on the "Happy Thoughts". Since I'm well known to talk, and talk and talk, it's a surprise that I don't spend as much time writing. Maybe coz I sent my basic English Grammar back to my teachers..haha. Oops, almost lost focus on our subject here...again. It was 2 years ago when I started to convert to digital photography from the good ol' film photography , here's the story for saje-saje..

Been to great places with "Baby de 1st", nope, not the 1st guy I date, Baby de 1st is my Nikon F80. It was the 1st piece of solid gadget I ever owned with my own $$$. I spent my initial salaries of 2 months (OK, what's left of it after the monthly expediture) to purchase the black beauty in cash (coz typically if pay by card, there'll be some charges), every single dime from my own blood and sweat and dignity - I'll explain this later.

The Nikon F80 is a 35mm format SLR, and the kit came with a 28-100mm zoom lens. From the day it was taken out of the signature gold box, we were inseparable (che wah, must add in a little sentimentality) as it was the only valuable material item I wholly owned. Like most new photogs, I basically snapped everything from running water from a pipe to the ceiling fan. 1st experiment, shallow depth of field, something a point-n-shoot can't do. 2nd experiment continuous shooting mode, multiple exposure, and so on, if you take pictures you kinda know the drill, hehehe. The catch was, the films are not exactly 10sens a roll, nor the processing fee economical. So I started keeping a notebook on exposure and bracketing. And the framing? you betcha, it's not easy to find a film developer who knows how to crop to our wishes.

So I basically became a "stingy-pot" when it comes to taking snapshots. Unimportant, dull scenes? Nah, I'll give it a miss. Neighbourhood kids? Nah, they are other people's kids, no need to take. The greens on the way up Mt Kinabalu? Nah, can see the same sort of grass in Klang - no need to lift a muscle to take the camera outta the bag. So you see, eventually, I missed out on a lot of possibly good pictures. To pay for the film and processing, I couldn't afford to own a scanner so the pics are stored in photo albums or just stacked in the Kodak envelopes from the developers.

F80 was my constant companion on trips. It hung on on my neck like a necklace which probably explains why I seldom wear 1. I liked the sound of the exposure click, I like the feel of its solid body (ahh, this is beginning to sound like a corny exotica novel), and the sore it inflicted on my neck and shoulder after a day's trip is so much more tolerable than a mozzy bite.

I was holding on to F80 until 1 day, the mode dial failed to lock. The exposure mode went berserk, if you just slightly touched the dial, it will go from aperture priority to shutter speed priority and to manual, etc. Sent my baby to Nikon to get it fixed but the quote came as RM400++ (Nikon really sucks at servicing their products, they have limited service centre and the servicing fee is horrendous...so take care of your Nikons ya, the only reason we own Nikons is due to their lens). I thought, I'll just save that and be very careful with the exposure mode - managed to get around that after some time. The next pang of terror came went the coating of the F80 became so sticky, probably from poor storage condition and also I overlooked to clean the metal ring connecting the body and the lens, it was probably corroded by saltwater from one of the beach trips.

On one of the meetings with my photog sifu, he pointed out that it's about time I get a DSLR. It got me to thinking that maybe it's time to move on, to go into the digital era of the art of light. To throw my oldskool stubbornness, to embrace white balance, on-spot checking of picture taken, shots of everything that could turn out to be quite a masterpiece. Went hunting for a new DSLR, thought of giving Canon a chance but it's still familiarity the Nikon system that ended up with the choice of D80 - since I've got my old lens, went to get just the body.

Aiya, how come the pics doesn't seem to go as wide angle as it used to be? 28mm was pretty good with minimum distortion previously. Ahh, the discovery of "crop factor" of CMOS sensor against 35mm film. Dang...felt like a big sack of rice just fell on my head. Wide angle is one my my fave views, the little distortion that gives the oomph to a somewhat flat shot.

This year (2009) we planned family trip to Siem Reap. I would really knock my head against those laterite lime walls of the temples (and possibly land a spot in the tourist jail for smearing the artifacts with my blood) if I can't take wide angles and longer focal length. There might be tons of tourists swarming the attractions and the shortie here will have no chance at all. Thus my perfectly good excuse (Ben will definitely has something to say about this, well, too bad...keke) to get a zoom that can cover wider and further. Ta daa...my 18-200mm ED VR Nikkor. The motor is so silent the mozzies will be envious. The con part? The lens + D80 body = more pain to the shoulder. Before that, got to highlight that Ben is so sweet to get me a Lowepro bag for my birthday 2008 - my fav accessory as it's just nice for my size :->

My old accessory flash unit can no longer be used on the D80. I was advised to turn it into a secondary flash unit (some more $$$). Same with the old Hoya HMC CPL (62mm), in last minute desperate move (but very very bad move), I've purchased a green label Hoya CPL. Turned out it almost "burnt" my Siem Reap pictures as it softened the pictures, very bad, must always get at least a good coated filter.

On my to-have list:

a) Accessory flash unit - I think I'll go for 3rd party, there are some good ones in the market

b) CPL of good grade - Nikon's CPLs are quite good it seems but the pricetag also as eye-opening la..

c) Super wideangle zoom lens - As the Nikon super WA zoom is crazy mahal, I'll look for 3rd party maybe a Tamron

d) Prime lens - 50mm/f1.8 is the cheapest and with good review. This should be affordable.

I've got to come up with an entire chapter of stories dedicated to the ever life-saving PS and LR softwares (whether you hate or like them - but you can't ignore them) on digital photography. Also on home printing, photobooks, facebook, flickr, etc a.k.a. publishing tools. I'm getting a bit lazy for now so just leave it as is till I gather more strength to write about those.

Let me set my priorities 1st..too many topics to blog - even blogging is new to me. Maybe just realized I need to keep up with the younger gen ppl.

Cheers & Click!!