Category: History & heritage

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History & heritage Personal Photography Sports

[771] Of Malayan Railway HQ, Kuala Lumpur

More photos!

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

This onion-shaped dome belongs to the Malayan Railway Headquarters building. It’s just across the street from the old railway station of Kuala Lumpur . I’ll show you:

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

The dome in the first picture is the farther one of the latter photo, close to the national mosque. Sorry for the street lights. Such ugly structures are creatures of omnipresence in Kuala Lumpur. Even the gods, possibly, are jealous of it.God asides, that road is Jalan Hishamuddin. If a person drives or walks straight for a good kilometer or so, that person will hit the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Trust me, there are street lights over there too!

A piece of history; the headquarters which is the darker structure in front of the lighter colored old railway station was designed in 1913 by A.B. Hubback. Hubback was also the architect of Jamek Mosque in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Constrcution began in the following year only to be interrupted by the First World War. With the cost of $780,422, it was completed in November 1917. During the Second World War, unlike its cousin the old railway station, it suffered heavy damage though without further need of explanation, you can see that it still stands proudly today.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – Malaysia won’t make it to the Hockey World Cup. Today, Malaysia lost to France 4 – 1. France! What an embarrassment this is since France isn’t a proper hockey nation to start with. The score line makes the loss harder to swallow. This failed outing is all the more disappointing especially because Malaysia managed to grab bronze at the Commonwealth Games only several weeks back.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

pp/s – Mike Ng, a fellow Malaysian and a friend of mine at Michigan got his first solo exhibit. Go pay him a visit and shout congratulations now!

Categories
Environment History & heritage Photography Travels

[729] Of Kuala Terengganu and raging South China Sea

I’m not in the mood of blogging but I still wanted to post something nonetheless. So, photo time!

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

I caught this at Kuala Terengganu . Batu Burok beach if I’m not mistaken. The wind there was so strong that there were small waves forming in a pothole filled with water. Nevermind the sea waves!

I had great expectation for this photo when I first shot it. I actually invested more or less 15 minutes to shoot that particular wave. Yet, once I got back to my desktop, it’s hard not to feel disappointed with the result. Too much noise; dull colors. Sigh…

Despite that disappointment, Kuala Terengganu is a cool little city. Not quite large, enough people and has a pretty slow lifestyle. More importantly, it’s way more walkable than Kuala Lumpur.

A lot has changed since I last visited Terengganu more than a decade ago. A turtle sculpture that used to symbolize the town has been replaced with a giant replica of batu bersurat. What is batu bersurat?

I’m not sure what its equivalent English noun for it (inscripted stone?) but I have a picture of it. I saw it at a museum here in Kuala Lumpur a couple of months back. It’s the oldest artifact with Jawi writing on it.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Suffice to say, it’s an important historical artifact. But I still miss the giant turtle sculpture.

New development projects are also in place. I strongly feel that some of the projects should have been done years ago. But PAS government that controlled the state apparently didn’t do their job when they had the chance to prove themselves. Despite my reservation for Barisan Nasional, at least, BN is doing their job to promote economic growth.

Also, huge barriers are being constructed at the mouth of Terengganu River. I had a chat with a local about it and he said the project is essential to protect the city from sea surgepp/s. I was so interested in the barriers that I climbed up to Bukit Puteri, a hill near the river mouth and observed it from above.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Though it can’t be seen from the photo, the barriers are in great length. The river mouth right now is almost completely covered. I think there is a better way to protect the city but since I lack knowledge in hydrology as well as civil engineering, I shall refrain from criticizing. I’d sound like a fool if I were to comment too much on it.

But in all, I like Kuala Terengganu, especially the wind. The people there are a bit conservative for my liking but I’m convinced the wind could blow the conservatives away from me.

p/s – Newmont gets its way.

JAKARTA, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The world’s biggest gold miner, Newmont Mining Corp., is paying Indonesia $30 million to settle a civil suit over pollution, but will still face criminal charges in a case closely watched by foreign investors.

The episode first started way back in 2004.

pp/s – I might have meant tidal or storm surge. (Back)

Categories
History & heritage Society

[669] Of Stanczyk by Jan Matejko

I’ve been in love with Jan Matejko’s Stanczyk for several months now. I first came across it on Wikipedia possibly last year and I can’t seem to shake it out of my head at the moment.

Public domain.

The painting doesn’t look too special at first glance. Indeed, if wasn’t for the story behind the painting, I wouldn’t chance a second look.

The person on sitting the chair is Stanczyk, a Polish court jester. He, according to Wikipedia, “is the only person at a royal ball to become worried after the news that the city of Smolensk was captured by the Russians reaches the court.”

I don’t know about you but that’s the wow factor for me – it definately captures human’s foolishness and life’s irony.

Any parallel to Malaysia? I hope not.

Categories
History & heritage Personal Photography Travels

[658] Of wildflowers by the road

I love flowers but I don’t quite go ga-ga (and wah piang! Boy, that exclamation left a deep impression on me) like girls do. Why do I like them? It’s just they’re part of green behavior kind of stuff. By they, I mean, the flowers, of course. Live flowers, not dead fresh flowers to be precise – I have a slight irritation with people that love to pick flowers. Hey, I’m a mad treehugger. What do you expect?

I paid Malacca a visit yesterday. While I was there, I noticed a few species of wildflowers which I can’t name. They grow near some bushes by some road near the town of Tampin.

I also learned that the Malaysian Prime Minister is due to visit that part of Malacca today (Alor Gajah if you’re wondering) while the Durbar is set to be held in the state later this year. There’s a better article about the Durbar at Malay Wikipedia. Maybe I’ll transwiki it later.

Back to the topic:

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

The focus is off by noticeable degree. In fact, I had no choice since my camera is unable to focus properly while the object is too close to the lense – yet, another reason why should get a new cam. The reason that I had wanted to get the object as close as possible to camera is, I wanted to fill the photo with the four clusters.

Much to my surprise, it was quite hard to manage. So, I settled with what I think the next best thing – focusing on the second nearest cluster of flowers and then fill available space with the nearest cluster.

Finally, could somebody identify the flower? Each cluster is as large as one’s thumb. My thumb anyway.

And yeah, Buck the Fuckeyes!

p/s – added a fellow Malaysian Wolverine into my blogroll. Poke her!

pp/s – Roni, one of the guys that I used to play hockey with at Michigan, writes songs!

ppp/s – Australia made it to the 2006 World Cup. What’s next? Penn State winning the Big Ten title? Wait a minute…

p4/s – Malaysia and Singapore might squabble like kids, but Mexico and Venezuela have refined the benchmark.

Categories
Environment History & heritage Photography Society

[647] Of traditional Malay lamp

With Eid coming up, many Muslim Malays are taking the initiative to lighten up their home compound. My family is no exception – they’re placing traditional Malay lamps at the edges of our compound. Pretty but I rather not have them. To me, it’s a waste of energy and serves no practical purpose.

Not to mention, unnecessary release of carbon dioxide too. And climate change and the sky is falling. Run!

Still, I can only object but its my parents’ money and they may choose however they want to spend it.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

I like the blurring of the background but I somewhat had hoped that the whole lamp would have been sharper.p/s – pyramid in Bosnia? (via)

pp/s – Greenpeace fined for reef damage. Oh, the irony.

p3/s – by spaghetti monster in the sky’s name, this DDOI’s is indescribable. No word can do justice to this picture. Any word uttered to even praise this photo will be an understatement. Even more remarkable, the photo was taken from a moving platform. Impressed? I know I am.

This kind of photo is why DDOI is my favorite – numero uno – right since the beginning of the photoblog.