Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

I was rather lucky to be able to go on two trips to Langkawi in 2009 and both of them were complementary. This time round, I stayed at the Sheraton and I was quite surprised by how nice it looked. Instead of flying using AirAsia, this time we decided on flying by Firefly which was a bit more convenient for me because it flys off from Subang Airport.

Langkawi Day1 001 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 002 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Because they were propeller planes and do not have jet engines, the flight takes longer as compared to Air Asia or MAS flights and the one thing that was quite unbearable for me was that our flight was the very first flight of the day and the airplane was extremely hot and stuffy inside. I was literally sweating bullets throughout the flight and it was the most uncomfortable flight.

Thank God the moment I arrived at Sheraton in Langkawi, the atmosphere was totally different. I was literally blown away by the service we received and the size of the chalet rooms we had.

Langkawi Day1 008 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in LangkawiThe chalet’s were a little different than usual, it was located a bit of a distant away from the lobby so everytime you needed to go back to the lobby, you can either walk or call a buggy to pick you up. But of course, being a little bit further away from the lobby meant that you get a little bit more privacy and you also get larger rooms.

Langkawi Day1 004 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 003 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 005 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 006 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

The view outside the chalet was quite nice as well.

Langkawi Day1 007 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Langkawi Day1 009 Staying at the Sheraton Hotel in Langkawi

Definitely one of the nicer hotels to be at in Langkawi. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend staying in Sheraton hotel.

New York Trip – Part 1

December 7, 2009

I previously blogged about my trip to Chicago here and here. Actually I was on training for a week before spending the weekend in Chicago. Right after spending a couple of days in the windy city, I journeyed towards east together with my mate, Jamie. I learned a lot about flying in the US. First of all, when it is stated that you need to be at the airport an hour earlier before your flight, that really means you need to actually check-in at the counter an hour earlier. This doesn’t include the time it takes you to line up (it took us about 45minutes, so we kinda missed out flight).

Anyway, by the time we landed in New York, we both took a cab towards Manhattan Island only to be greeted by what some people might call a New York cab experience. We didn’t get conned but the experience was somewhat disheartening. The cab driver did get cut off but he didn’t have to wind down his window and started cursing non-stop for 15 minutes. He didn’t get a tip from me.

By the time we reached our hotel (we stayed at Sheraton Manhattan), there was a street fair going on.

NewYorkPart1 001 New York Trip   Part 1

From all of the movies I have seen, I always had the mental image of how New York would look in either sephia or black and white.

The fair was in full force with plenty of vendors selling trinkets and souveniers as well as plenty of food.

NewYorkPart1 002 New York Trip   Part 1

NewYorkPart1 003 New York Trip   Part 1

This was my lunch, a mixed version of a kebab with plenty of filling and vegetables. It tasted fantastic, maybe because I was a little hungry at that time hence that could have been an added bonus factor.

NewYorkPart1 004 New York Trip   Part 1

The corn dog was really calling out to me and they had like 1 foot sausages. Jamie could tell that I was drooling all over them!

NewYorkPart1 005 New York Trip   Part 1

And what is New York without the guys handing out flyers or street baskers.

NewYorkPart1 006 New York Trip   Part 1

Times Square was extremely packed. The queue to get theater tickets were extremely long. We wanted to catch the new play called “Shrek”. The hotel wanted to sell us tickets at USD$175 but if we spent about 2 hours queuing up,  we could have bought it at a much cheaper price.

After walking about for a bit and enjoying the view of the city, the two of us felt sick and it probably was that we might have been too worned out. But with the current crisis of swine flu, we were a little paranoid and after checking into the hospital, we ended up all bandaged up as shown below.

NewYorkPart1 008 New York Trip   Part 1

Ok, I was lying about the bandage thing.

Find out more in my next post :)

Langkawi – Day 2

August 7, 2009

To be honest, after being to islands like Phuket, Bali and even Singapore (no, I am not talking about people with an island mentality), I have come to realise the vast difference between Langkawi and these other tourist destinations. Seriously, the place could definitely use something to spruce it up but then, what does Langkawi really have to offer?

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, I don’t think the escaped Ian is always there in Langkawi as captured above!

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, there aren’t that many escaped jumping humans about. Perhaps you might catch a glimpse of some other interesting life forms there.

 Langkawi   Day 2

No, there aren’t that many beggars sitting by the sidewalk waiting for their other halves while they shop for 4 hours. (ok I was just kidding about the 4 hours).

 Langkawi   Day 2

I don’t think people usually come to visit the water bottle carrying man from Penang who hides in the deepest of alleys in the streets of Langkawi as well.

 Langkawi   Day 2

Like every other island, the relaxing sound of waves hitting the shores whilst the cool breeze skims through your hair is enough to melt away all of our tensions. Perhaps that is what people might head to Langkawi, to catch a little rest and relaxation. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Langkawi for a shoot and then for a little bit of R&R with the WeddingStory team. After a very very tiring first day, I totally overslept and skipped breakfast. That aside, I woke up definitely in time for lunch :)

After lunch, we all decided to walk along the beach and after several sessions of banana boat rides and watching Nigel and Lai Yeen defy gravity and got dragged across the ocean on a para-sail. It just took me 15 minutes standing under the bright sun to note that I was being cooked alive! Yes it was that hot so our time on the beach was cut short because we were heading out for our own photo shoot!

Yes, Grace and Alex planned that we needed to all dress up for a private shoot and did I really come unprepared. Whilst Munz brought a nice dress, I wore a polo shirt and shorts which she definitely made me change into something a little more formal. Oh well, I guess I had to suffer in the hot sun with slacks and a long sleeved shirt. After the whole fiasco with my clothes, we arrived at our destination.

 Langkawi   Day 2

We started off shooting and shooting and trying out various types of shots with various techniques. Personally, I was trying to utilize the natural lighting as much as I can and to use it to my advantage as well. Here are some of my shots from the session.

 Langkawi   Day 2

 Langkawi   Day 2

Took a couple of photos with Munz for a while whilst trying to figure out how to pose her for a couple of those shots. Not easy trying to pose your girlfriend especially when I am sweating like mad and my sweat was stinging my eyes! I must bring a towel on my next portrait shoots.

 Langkawi   Day 2

I liked this photo of both Alex and Grace because of Grace’s expression.

 Langkawi   Day 2

Now who says you can’t do some serious shots in padi fields?

After taking even more photos of the rest there, the sun was setting and we quickly headed back to our hotel (which was conveniently next to the beach). Since we were on the west coast of the island, we wanted to capture some sunset shots by the beach. This was when I could change back to my shirt and shorts which was much cooler!

 Langkawi   Day 2

 Langkawi   Day 2

Ok, we arrived there a little too early and it was still extremely bright. Good time to shoot a couple more portraits on the beach while waiting for light to diminish.

 Langkawi   Day 2

The sunset was totally awesome. One of the nicest I have seen around Malaysia. The other occasion was when I was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, atending Louis Pang’s workshop.

 Langkawi   Day 2

I even managed to get the sunset as well as the crescent moon as well. Was a tough shot to take because I had my 50mm attached with me at the moment.

After spending two days in Langkawi and eating overpriced food which was still good, I guess the main attraction over here was the statues on the beach. Some say that orcs erected them up to celebrate the crescent moon, or maybe elves wanted to erect landmarks to guide their ships correctly.

 Langkawi   Day 2

All I know is that, these statues have a story to tell.

Now try and guess what they are saying,

Before anyone asks where is Day 2 of the WeddingStory Langkawi trip, I decided that I definitely wanted to post up some other photos of my recent trip to the US. Back in May, I flew to the States to attend a training in Chicago for a week where I planned a short break after the training session. Since I was already at Chicago attending the training, I thought it would be great to stay a couple of nights in Chicago with a bunch of my colleagues over in the City whilst taking in the sights.

The bus ride from St. Charles all the way to the city was horrendous. We were stuck in traffic for about 3 over hours for what should have been a 45-min bus ride. By the time we arrived in Chicago, it was already 5pm in the evening and we had little time there to enjoy the sights.

Chicago Day1 002 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

Chicago City itself, home of the mafias and also known as the Windy City.

Chicago Day1 001 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

This is a view from my hotel room. The building next to the hotel had a very interesting concept, it was totally round and had built the parking lots below the rooms. Look at the parking spaces, there are no walls at all! I can’t imagine parking my car there overnight. I would probably be having nightmares about my car falling off from the building.

Chicago Day1 003 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

Chicago has a river running through the city where they have plenty of water taxis and Architecture tours available for tourists to ride up the Chicago River. Look how nice and clean the water is much compared to our own wonderful Klang River which runs through KL City. The secret to this is not only civic minded folks who don’t throw every single bit of rubbish into the river but they actually have a processing plant to clean the river’s water.

Chicago Day1 004 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

Before I went to Chicago, a friend of mine, CWCW, told me that I have to try a deep dish pizza. After checking out with some of my colleagues during my training session, I was told that I should check out Giordano’s for some of that awesome deep dish pizza. I guess Giordano‘s is sort of like those franchise type stores, much like Domino’s or Pizza Hut.

Chicago Day1 005 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

As it’s name suggests, this pizza is definitely a thick crust! The pizza is so thick that after 3 slices I was totally filled up to the brim, of course the extra added cheese did not help at all. The crust itself isn’t like the usual pizza crust you might get but it had a combination of pie crust in it. If you ever are in Chicago, I would highly recommend that you try out a deep dish pizza.

Chicago Day1 012 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

After stuffing ourselves crazy (with plenty of leftovers), we decided that a nice long walk would be suitable and since Grant Park was nearby we headed there for a walk. As light began to disappear, shooting in low light was going to be a tough challenge. The weather itself was just awesome, nice and cooling without any hint of humidity.

Chicago Day1 006 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

As we were walking, we chanced upon this interesting monument. I love the fact that it was rather stylish and interesting, mainly because it was totally reflective!

Chicago Day1 007 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

Which means I could take a photo of myself!

Chicago Day1 009 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

I loved how the syline of the buildings behind were also reflected on it the monument.

Chicago Day1 008 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

This was the skyline of buildings behind it.

After snapping a couple more photos, we headed towards the Sears Tower where the attraction there would be to head up to the upper decks or the “Sky Deck” to catch a 360 view of the Chicago City.

Chicago Day1 011 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

The one thing that caught my eye is how straight the roads were! Everything is so nicely planned out.

Chicago Day1 010 Chicago the Windy City   Day 1

The SkyDeck definitely showed us all how large Chicago is. By the time we got down (we stayed till it was closing time), we were totally wiped out and proceeded back to our hotel.

Day 2 of the Chicago trip to follow up!

Off to Langkawi

July 24, 2009

It is 7am here now in Kuala Lumpur and I am feeling extremely sleepy. Getting up at 5am is something I don’t do too often, of course sleeping at 5am doesn’t count. So the title probably gave me away. Here I am sitting at the newly refurbished Taste of Asia restaurant at the LCCT airport surfing the web (using my Maxis 3G line because the wi-fi here is near impossible to connect to!) whilst waiting for my flight at 7.30 together with the WeddingStory team.

The team is flying up to Langkawi to shoot a wedding later today as well as spend a little time to have a nice R&R. Personally, I do hope to catch up on my sleep as I have been having less than 5 hours of sleep for the past two nights. More photos to come of the trip as well as I have planned quite a number of posts to post up some of my photos as well.

Langkawi here I come!

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