In Search of Light

MyJourney started when I was driving back home. It was drizzling that late evening.

I did not like to use my wipers at this moment, mainly because of old wipers kept lines of water mark on the windscreen, and I did not like the wiping sound as well. Thirdly, I was almost home.

When I stopped before a traffic light, I made a few fast shots pointing close to my windscreen before the traffic light turned green again.

I want to know how different is the view with my naked eyes and that through a camera.

I observed water bubbles on my windscreen had absorbed the colour of street lights as well as those from surrounding. They had evolved into hundreds eyes of light, stared at me. This was only made noticeable through the interface of a camera.

And then, very soon, I reached my home sweet home. Anyhow, you know, once started, it was difficult to stop.

I continued to snap at the lamps inside my house.

I snapped at the warm white hanging lamps trying to assimilate to my friend Mickey.

Though it was not much a success, the photo of the lamps still exhibited the beauty of geometrical shapes.

But the excitement of the night came later when I turned myself to the cool white incandescent bulb.

And this was what I saw.

A face that hid inside the lampshade.

Was the bulb designer aware of what he had done?

Was he merely as normally as us, lost the eyes of a kid?

Did he intentionally hide the face code for us to explore?

Instead of drawing a face full of unknown, why did he not fill our eye sight with a smiling happy face?

Yes, too many questions are in the air.

Such a wonderful start of a new day

I love the feeling for morning sunlight passing through twigs and leaves, especially when it is misty. I can see traces of sunlight in the shape similar to a cone. It is indeed very appealing.

I always imagine this is the path our protector lands on earth.

That Saturday morning, during my mountain trekking, I thought I have captured a weak rainbow across the sunlight in my photo during preview . It happened to be not true later.

Yet, this was the first time I managed to snap a photo on morning sunlight. And it was well exposed. The reason might be due to the heavy rain at dawn. The resulted heavy mist filtered the sunlight to become softer and gentler.

In addition, I was at the right place and in the right time to witness it.

It was so good to be shined and bathed by this sunlight for the new start of a day.

Such a wonderful day.

My Neighbourhood, My Kampong

I always ask myself when I have reached home from work, "Anything happened along my way home?" Most of the times I cannot recall. We see but actually we have never seen. The driving and the journey is so routine. The instinct is there to guide us as when to avoid a bump and where to escape from a unattended pit hole.

We have lost the heart and eyes of a little kid.

Why not experiment it with a simple mind on my neighbourhood? I asked myself one evening.

My house is nearby a small village, or a "kampong". It rained earlier and should be around 28 degree C. Such a good weather!

So, rode on my bicycle, ready with my camera, my next journey started.



There are coconut trees everywhere in my country or in my kampong. Coconut will fall down from the tree once it is ripen. But if we want to drink fresh and sweet coconut water, someone has to climb up the tree which is normally 30m tall to pluck the green and young coconut. Not to be surprise if I tell you that monkeys are used in some places. They are trained to have the ability to differentiate between young and old coconut.





If you follow my blog regularly, I have mentioned that I go mountain climbing weekly. And it was only an arm length from me by now. If you cannot figure it out, Alice will tell you to look at the reflection in the water.


I was beside a paddy field which I should have told you. But harvest season was over. We were not able to see the whole paddy field being coloured into golden colour.



But the farmer had left some stalk of paddies for me to show you. I had to thank him when I'll meet him later. He was seen busy at work at the far side. I should not disturb him right now.

Yes, right now, this is the finding from my journey: I shall be able to find wonder in my neighbourhood as long as I do not refuse to see.

If there is high cost for outstation travel, your neighbourhood always welcomes you to explore her beauty, it is simply free of charge.

Pulau Aman, Penang (episode 2)

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

I believe that we need to explore during traveling, not only touch-and-go, in order to have a deep feeling about the place. To be a traveler, we need to be a littke kid, or we will end up as a tourist.

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”

My journey continued.

I saw pineapples that did not grow on ground, but on top of tall trees. Amazing and, again, amazing. Of course, they are not pineapples. Through conversation with the local elder,

I knew that these are “Pokok Mengkuang” (Mengkuang tree).

The word “Mengkuang” has long ago come into my mind, just blankly. It even appeared in my recent post “Mengkuang Dam”, but I had never bother to find out the real thing behind.

The Mengkuang leaves are first cut in long strips and dried in the sun. Once dried, it is boiled and dyed with vegetable colours for weaving into mats, baskets, and food containers.

There was a boarding platform at the end of the jetty. By taking a few more footsteps, it allowed me to have a different view on the jetty. The Principle of wandering around always brings wonder.

There were baby jelly fish struggling against the wave at the seaside. Some were found dead......

I saw some people carried bags of clam back from seaside. After understanding from them, I tried to go to the site where they dug these clams. Luck was not by my side this time, nobody was there. I were not disappointed.

Experience on not always getting something is actually another learning experience.

But finally, I had not went to Pulau Aman.

I had spent too much time seeing what I can see over here.

Its beauty is still not yet disclosed to me.

I promised, I shall be the one to be aboard on the ferry next time. I shall bring back tonnes of beautiful pictures and sharing, solely for you.

By the way, I was first at point B to decide on my next journey that day. And finally I followed the direction of arrow to reach the seaside and the jetty.

Pulau Aman, Penang (episode 1)

One day, out of curiosity, I chose to follow my instinct to head to a place that was new to me.
Remember? I have promised you to explore everything which is within my interest.

By that time, my car stopped at a traffic island. There was no traffic in this remote area.
It was Sunday morning. I was out of factory time zone.
Most important, my petrol tank was full.

Then, let’s start my journey.

The winding road cut across the swamp areas and it crossed a river. I had to make a left-turn before a dead end. Feeling a little bit fishy, I followed the road to go uphill, not too far up and I started to descend, by then, I realised that if it was not a Wonderland, it must be a place worth going.

First Penang Bridge and fishing village

Actually I had arrived at a jetty. Pulau Aman (Aman Island) is on the other side of the straits of Melaka.

Pulau Aman in the background

Arrival hall from different angles

I got to know the entrance to future second Penang Bridge is somewhere nearby from the local people.
By the way, this is a good place for family affair, I mean, you can picnic, swim, do fishing or just wander around.

seaside, white sand, coconut trees, fishing boat

Otherwise, you can choose to do nothing. Just sit down and tune your eye balls to the sea, to your left, right or to your back. Try to appreciate the surrounding with different perspectives.

As for me, I spent my whole afternoon snapping pictures. The return of a boat which took people to off shore fishing or the departure of the boat which carried passengers to Pulau Aman created chances for me to practise my photography skill.

And all these chances came in abundance, as long as they were at the right place and in the right time.

I enjoyed. Hopefully you are as well.