Back in Chicago Again

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Mark

Yes, after my first experience travelling to Chicago back in 2009, I was back there again but this time for only a week and most of the time I was located at the Q Center. This time travelling there was a little bit more pleasant but I had to take a horrendously long route. Kuala Lumpur to London and then to Chicago. 23 hours in total and 2 hours of transit at Heathrow Terminal 3.

Since I was mostly held up at the Q Center, I decided to walk around the area to capture a bit more of the scenery in the area whilst I was waiting for the shuttle bus to bring me to the Premium Shopping Outlets. Damn, stuff there are very cheap. Managed to get a new suitcase (after Air Asia broke my old one) from Samsonite as well as sunnies from Oakleys there.

If there are 4 people travelling from the airport to the training center, the taxi service will send you a limo. I kid you not!

The training center used to be a golf course and near the entrance lies the 18th hole which is a par 3.

At this distance, I don’t think I can hit it straight to the green let alone cross the lake thanks to the damn lake and how I am afraid of hitting the ball into the water.

Tallest building in the whole area, that was where I was housed which was conveniently above the dining hall where there are 3 buffet lines available for all 3 meals!

Located next to the training center is a river, its called Fox River and I am not too sure if this is the same Fox River from Prison Break. Of course after a quick Google, Fox River Penitentiary was actually a fictitious place but it was located in Illinois.

The weather there was fantastic in July with temperatures hitting 28 degrees on a high and averaging around 23-25 degrees.

The flight back however from Chicago was less than entertaining. I had to travel for 28 hours, door-to-door, meaning from the Q Center till my apartment door. This included a nice 6 hour transit in India which I think they should revamp their system allow transit passengers to roam in the departure hall where all the lounges and shops are while we wait for our tickets to be processed.

Maldives – Male Town

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Mark

During my recent travels to the Maldivian islands (read my earlier post here about where I was), I took a tour around the main city of Male. The city is extremely small but it is the most populous city in the Republic of Maldives and it is also it’s capital.

We were provided with a personal guide to walk us through the city and explain to us about it’s rich culture.

Male itself seemed to be a nice and quiet city, filled mainly with motorbikes and a couple of cars about. The streets were busy with children coming back from school and people just going about their daily lives.

One of the cars that I first saw in the city was this little Toyota IQ or what Aston Martin would have called a Cygnet. Was rather surprised that they had a car there in the middle of the ocean.

The citizens of Male are mainly muslims and hence we were brought about to the many mosques here on this island.

I think this was the president’s house or home or home office. Can’t remember exactly but yeah, these are one of those places that we were guided through.

Then there is the Sultan’s Gardens which was a nice patch of garden in the middle of Male.

Last place of visit was the mosque, the largest mosque in Male located very close to the sea front. Then again, because Male is so small, everything is close to the seafront.

Center square located right next to the harbour. One thing about Maldives is that, the country is made up of thousands of islands. Because of that, you can pretty much guess that the fishery industry should be one of it’s key. And you aren’t wrong.

The harbour was filled with huge boats like these. They aren’t the type that trawls along the sea with huge nets behind. No, they are actually huge fishing boats with 20-30 crew members on board who fish using fishing rods. That’s right, FISHING RODS!

Apparently fishing with fishing rods are a better way to sustain the environment and to also prevent them from catching the young fishes hence sustaining the cycle of man catching fish. But according to my guide, they catch fishes with rods almost as effectively as catching with nets.

From the fishes above, I can really believe him. Look at the size of the TUNA! It’s almost as large as the guy squatting by them. If in a weird bizarre world, I would have guessed the guy was bait for the fish instead.

Right next to the harbour was the market which was filled with fruits. So you must be thinking, where do they plant their fruits or are these imported? Well since Maldives is made up of a gazillion islands, some of these islands are used to be agriculture islands where just fruits and vegetables are grown there.

Well lots of bananas and mangoes though. There were these little chilli stuff as well sold there.

And right outside the fruit market was the fish market. Boy, you could actually smell it a mile away.

It was packed, surprisingly with people just staring at the fishes that were sold there. Heck even the guy above was carrying a fish around like his pet.

But the one thing I wasn’t prepared for is that they sold all their fishes on the floors. Huge tunas and marlins were displayed on the floors which I can say doesn’t look too clean but then again they cut the fishes and descale them all on the floor.

Notice the guy wearing his shoes on the same floor where the fishes are sold?

Still, fish there was extremely fresh and I ate raw fish and fresh steamed fish on a daily basis. It was absolutely the bomb.

The guy selling fish above looked like a bouncer, probably pissed off that I was there just taking photos and not buying any fish.

This guy decided to sell his stuff by the entrance of the market instead of being in the market. I could say that is a smart choice considering the stench coming from within the market.

After the whole guided tour, we decided to walk around the place to check out some stores about. Nothing really special, sundry shops and coffee houses littered the place. Till I chanced upon the shop below.

Yes it was a shop selling the iPad! This was the time when the iPad wasn’t even launched in Malaysia. Speaking of which, most of the stuff that we saw at Male was imported from Malaysia. Furniture, computers and heck, even souveniers. If you are there, just look at the souveniers and you can see a price tag behind them in RM.

Anyhow, it was a great 4 hours spent at the capital city of Male. Lovely place and I would say the fish market was one of the highlights of the tour for me. Never seen such huge fishes up close before.

Maldives – Travel Photos

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Mark

A couple months back I was in Maldives and it was absolutely amazing. I will leave the activities and the location where I stayed for another post here. Anyway one of the key things which I realize, one, I should have planned my stay to be longer and two, I really do need a tripod especially when shooting landscape photos.

Here are some of the landscape photos I took at the various times of the day.

One thing which still mesmerizes me is that the water is so clear here. No teh tarik colours which we get from Port Dickson. You could just see the seabed through the water.

Another amazing point is how blue the sky was. Shooting during the day was an absolute joy with the exception of the heat and humidity.

Throughout my stay there, I was really fortunate to have great weather. It didn’t rain a single day but the week before I arrived, it was raining almost everyday. I checked the weather forecast and was really praying for good weather when I arrived there.

Below are some of the chalets where they are built on stilts above the water. One of the best things about staying there is that you can just jump out from your room and into the water. If you could see closely at the image, you might be able to see two specks in the water, who happen to be two guests who were staying at the chalet and enjoying the water.

The next couple of shots were taken during sunset which provides a warmer feel to the images.

As mentioned earlier, because I didn’t have a tripod, it was tough finding a flat rock where I could balance my camera and capture the images below at long exposure values.

Throughout my stay there, it was extremely windy and because it the winds were blowing at such a high speed, the clouds are blurred out due to it’s movement.

The last photo shows the air taxi landing. Because the Maldives are made out of thousands of small islands, the only way to travel about is to travel via speedboat or air taxis.

Watch out for more posts about Maldives!

Greetings from Bangladesh!

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Mark

It’s currently day two now here at Bangladesh and although I really wanted to write a blog post whilst I was in the airport yesterday, the internet connection at LCCT was horrendous. Anyway its the same here in Bangladesh as well, I hardly get any internet connection so it will be brief posts and updates.

Anyhow, the experience here is a real eye opener! I have never seen so many mosquitoes before in my life. My first encounter with the swarm (yes, thats how many there were) was at the airport. I could literally feel them flying onto me and hitting me whilst I was walking about. Same goes for the place I was staying as well and my left hand alone had more than 10 bites. No worries, we bought (we meaning Andrew and I) a mosquito repellant as well as a diffuser to run whilst we are sleeping. The repellant was excellent, Mortein to the rescue! I sprayed the room earlier and I already see 13 dead mosquitoes lying on the floor.

So much for those bloodsuckers!

Anyhow, the shoot is gonna start soon so I better best prepare myself

Travels and Supercars

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Mark

After a nice relaxing weekend two weeks ago, I was hammered with a long and busy week. Firstly I attended a two day seminar at the Renaissance Hotel where I checked in there on Wednesday night till Friday then followed with a quick flight up north to Langkawi with the Stories team for a wedding shoot on Saturday.

It was the first time I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel here in KL. I’ve shot there a couple of times and have seen the rooms there but my stay there throughout the two nights was a pleasant one. I had two beds to myself in the room (until now I have no idea why the firm books those rooms) and the room was fairly large. Still they can’t compare to the rooms where I stayed in the Marriot in Putrajaya.

After the 1st day at the seminar, a group of us decided to walk over to the Asian Heritage Row (located next to Sheraton along Sultan Ismail) only to be greeted on a Thursday night, a completely empty street. A lot of the bars were being renovated and those that were open, were completely empty, lest for a few tourists and our group. Apparently everyone has decided to party at Changkat Bukit Bintang according to one of my mates.

On Friday evening, I flew off to Langkawi only to be greeted by a delayed flight but at least the delay was only an hours delay. The shoot started on Saturday morning at The Westin in Langkawi. The resort looked stunning, one of the best looking resorts in Langkawi. I shall leave the details of the wedding for another blog post

On Sunday, the sky was very clear as we were flying back to KL and I managed to take a couple of shots of the scenery with my iPhone.

Thats one of the islands around Langkawi in the photo above.

I managed to capture a shot of the Penang bridge when we flew over Penang Island and Butterworth.

After a couple of rounds of playing “Flight Control”, I noticed that we were flying over PJ and I could actually see my apartment from the plane! Wo0t!

Can you see where Sri Hartamas is in the image above?

Anyway when I arrived back, I noticed this array of supercars parked in front of Tropicana City Mall. There were a huge number of Ferrari’s, Porsches, Lotus Elites, a couple of Audi R8s and a few Lambos.

Everyone was crowding around the cars, taking photos with a couple of the models there as well as with the cars themselves.

Then something caught the eye of everyone’s attention. I was also struck with shock, everyone just turned around and started looking at a car which drove by. It was the first time for me seeing this car on the road, the license plate showed that it was totally newly registered, probably a day or two ago. The driver inside had a wide smile because his car caught the attention of all the passers by amongst all of the super cars. Heck, it even made me turn and capture it on camera.

It was the brand new Proton Inspira!!! First time seeing it on the road leh….

A relaxing weekend

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Mark

Okay, I was just kidding myself. Yes, we had a long 3-day weekend and after two weeks of hectic living, it was good that I managed to get some rest. Note that I just said “some” instead of a good rest. Anyway, Friday itself wasn’t exactly a rest day. I was supposed to collect my car on Friday and then head down to Malacca with the peeps for a day trip but alas, I was utterly disappointed when the dealer messed up my registration hence there is yet another delay.

Nevertheless, the trip must go on so we headed down to Malacca for some great food (although I hardly know the various spots for eating even though I was born in Malacca and have traveled there countless of times). The trip down there was eventful as it is, especially if you like travelling in a moving sauna

First stop of the day, Seremban for some good ole beef noodles and loads of sugar cane with lemon (yes, that is my new favourite drink!). The beef noodles were good as well and it was starchy as hell.

Traffic there was totally insane, everyone in Singapore decided to check out what Malacca has to offer as well. The meals started with the coconut shake off Klebang, then for some chicken rice balls in Jonker, loads of cookies and pineapple tarts and ending it with some crepe from Nadeje. So much for my dieting plans.

Saturday itself was relaxing with loads of sleep and SC2 and ending it with dinner with some old uni mates.

Spent more time in Ikea finding stuff for the new place, I am constantly finding new things to buy, or basically more things to get such as a wall clock and a dish drainer and other smaller items which we might have missed out initially. Also it was MW’s birthday as well so we had a drink with her as well at Sid’s TTDI.

I realised that a snake bite black can definitely keep me awake because I couldn’t sleep till 3am this morning. Was busy fiddling with the new Sim City Deluxe game which I bought on iTunes. Although the game was meant for the iPhone but because unlike my mum who has the new iPhone 4, I am still using my older one, hence it gets slow but playing the game on the iPad is just fantastic!

Here’s to a great week to everyone out there!

Greetings from Cebu, Philippines!

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Mark

Its day 2 here in Cebu, feels very different here because the sun sets very early. It feels like 8pm in Malaysia when it is only 6pm here where the sun is almost completely set. But I definitely love the food here! Today has been a hectic day for me as Ian and I have been shooting Nick and Sharon’s wedding here in Cebu.

I will be here till Sunday and I hardly get much access to the internet. So far things here have been fantastic, just came back from eating one of the best scallops in town as well as finger licking roast pork knuckles and suckling pig and to top it off, a huge barbequed tuna jaw (really huge, larger than my head!). I am completely stuffed from dinner.

The flight here wasn’t that comfortable, traveled via Cebu Air but the flight was through the night and I had a 3 hour lay over at Manila which I will have another on Sunday as well.

Wished I could post a picture as well but since my Macbook Pro is in the hospital and I shot mostly in RAW today, I don’t have the necessary software to convert them over. Only way is to get the image imported onto my iPad and use my iPad to email the image to my PC. But first, I need to get the camera connection kit!

Will post up more pictures when I get back.

Cameron Highlands Trip – Day 2

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Mark

One of the places you must visit when you are at Cameron Highlands is the Boh’ Tea Centre. Getting there is not an easy task and I would really advice against driving cars which are really huge as you might have to squeeze through oncoming traffic on a horrendous narrow path. Also car pool if necessary and try to use a 4 wheel drive just to feel a little bit more at ease.

But once you drive through the horrible stretch of road (don’t forget to honk when you are approaching corners!), you reach the Boh Tea Centre which is surrounded by hills covered with tea leaf plantations. The sight itself was magnificent and you should be catching a couple of glimpses of the scenery on your way to the centre.

The moment you arrive at the parking lot, you get a view of the tea centre where you get to enjoy a nice cup of lovely tea as well as scones and strawberry jam.

Although the walk up there wasn’t exactly an easy one, ok, maybe I was just out of shape. But the climb is definitely bearable and the cool air up there does help a lot.

But once you reach the top, you get welcomed with this incredible view of the valley surrounded with tea plantations.

When I was up there, I ended up taking loads of photos there that I completely forgotten about my tea and scones. Yes, I ate a bit but forgot to take the photos

The houses below are where the workers who worked at the tea plantation lived.

A quick group shot of us while we were still at the top of the tea centre.

Besides just the Boh Tea Plantation, there is another one which you will definitely pass by when you are driving up to Cameron Highlands, and that is the Cameronian Valley.

Personally I liked the view from here a little better and you get to walk through the tea plantation and can take really awesome portrait photos here as well. Make sure that you have good shoes on or else you might slip on the mud.

Frankly I am very proud of Cameron Highlands and it is indeed a great place to chill out, relax with friends and enjoy the cool breeze. Can’t wait to plan my next trip there again and hopefully shoot more of the scenery as well as organize some portrait shoots there.

Also I will be posting up some portrait photos that were taken during the trip there as well in my next post

Cameron Highlands Trip – Day 1

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Mark

I actually had this post sitting in my draft post section in this blog for almost more than a week already and I totally forgot to post this up. Anyway about a month ago, I took a trip to Cameron Highlands. Now I haven’t been there since 1999, so it has been almost 11 years since I last been there, I totally can’t remember how it looks like.

Some images I took at a local Strawberry Farm which also had plenty of cactus for sale as well.

Then we headed to another strawberry farm with the main goal of eating strawberry and scones and we found some waffels as well.

Here is a fun fact, aside from the British army, Cameron Highlands has the 2nd most highest number of Range Rovers in the world. They even use it as taxis and shuttles to ferry tourists about.

If you do not know, vegetables are very very cheap in Cameron Highlands.

Unfortunately at this time, strawberries were not in season so they weren’t very very sweet.

Nevertheless we still managed to get some yummy strawberry themed food, such as strawberry strudels.

Strawberry juice.

And strawberry white coffee. Yes, you heard that correct. Strawberry white coffee!

We got all of that wonderful food (including the strawberry white coffee) at Strawberry Moments.

After a heavy load of food, we decided to walk about our apartment area and I found some flowers and scenery about.

The drive up to Camerons was quite a tiring one with the single lane going up and down the hill and when there is a slow driver or a truck on those lanes, it tends to get really boring and slow.

Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Mark

I am sure many of you would have heard about this fantastic landmark situated in New York, off Manhattan Island. What a lot of people might not know about is Ellis Island. When I was traveling around in that region, there were many options to choose from and I always planned that I will head back to New York again in the future.

There are a couple of ways to actually see the Statue of Liberty, you can take a helicopter tour where the Statue would be extremely small. Of course that would cost you quite a fair bit but you get to enjoy the view of New York. If money is of a concern of you, then you can also take the Staten Island Ferry which is free! Only thing is that you need a 300mm lens to get a good view of the Statue of Liberty.

The last option, which was the option I took, was that I bought a City Pass (USD$79) that allows me to go to various tourist attractions around New York at a cheaper rate. The pass provided a tour which visits the Statue of Liberty as well as Ellis Island.

Statue of Liberty

Above were some of the shots that were taken from the ferry before docking on the island. I was amongst everyone else trying to get a view of the Statue and trust me, there were plenty of people pulling out their cameras and video cameras capturing the spectacular sight of a huge statue before us.

The first thing we did after we landed on the island was to get some lunch and walk around the park enjoying the cool New York breeze. It was a tad bit cold that day (I was wearing shorts at the time!) but it was still bearable thanks to my natural insulation

There is also a museum located at the back of the Statue of Liberty but note that the City Pass does not cover the cost of going into the museum nor does it allow you to enter the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately at that time we were there, they hadn’t open the entrance or the section which allowed visitors to climb all the way to the torch of the statue.

All we could do was to admire the statue from the base. Of course besides just the statue, there is a gift shop and a restaurant which serves fish and chips.

The park was also filled with mini statues of various guys, I think they were the architects who build the statue. I think.

After debarking from Liberty Island, the ferry wouldn’t head back to Manhattan Island but it brings everyone to Ellis Island. Now you might have heard about Ellis Island from one of the popular movies, Hitch, starring Will Smith. In the show, his first date with Sara Melas (played by Eva Mendes) was at Ellis Island. So it was pretty cool to actually walk around the huge museum.

There were many tours about including live shows where actors would act out the reenactment of the people who traveled from around the world to head to New York to find a better life.

Talking about the number of immigrants, it sort of also reminded me of the old show, Gangs of New York where there were plenty of Irish immigrants in New York at that time.

So if you are in the New York area, these are one of the must go to places.

Mark Leo Dot Net

Loving all things photography, tech, gadgets, Apple and cars

Category Archives: Travels