To all my dear Sibu-ians

Please don't try too hard in getting people to visit our town. If there is nothing to see, there is nothing to see. Please don't come up with weird videos to show off our small beautiful town.

1. It is embarrassing.

2. It is a rip from the Beijing Huang Ying Ni song and I can still hear it in the background.

3. It just shows that if SMC actually Use this video, they support Piracy.

4. There is no originality.

5. The singing sucks.

6. People in facebook support.

So please.... Don't use it. AND never do it again... It makes Sibu-lang like me, VERY EMBARRASSED to say I come from here.

Here is the video... Laugh your butts off... Because I already did.

I love food!

Last week, I went down to a restaurant across the river for dinner. The special thing about this restaurant is that it serves some of the most traditional Foo-Chow home-cook dishes which can be found in Sibu. We usually call this places "Sam Bah" which means village in Sibu and the ride there will take around 30 minutes through very dark roads and passing many factories but in the end, it is all worth it because the food there is delicious and considerably cheap (for Sibu standards that is).

First we have, pork fried with plum sauce.


"Ang Jao" deep fried chicken.


Yam soup (Foo Chow style).


"Siew Mai" (meat dumpling)


Fried Cangkuk Manis with egg.


And "Da Tou Xia" (Big Head Prawns) omelet.

This is one of the reasons why I love coming back to my hometown every holiday. Well, anyone interested? Make your way down to Sibu and I will bring you down to the place because I totally forgotten the name of the place. Well, my holiday in Sibu is almost over because I am going back on Sunday. *sigh* Oh well... Hoping for the best... Hmmm... Seem to be forgetting about something.... I wonder what it is.

Red-light district....

Got tricked by the title above? Well, its true in a way, it's not the "Red Light District" like Chow Kit or anything; it was just that that part of town was lit with red lanterns which turned the whole street red for the night. The night before last was the opening ceremony of Sibu's mooncake festival at the Sibu Chinese pagoda.

There were many people that night.

While the Dato-Datins gave their opening speeches, I decided to walk around since the whole place was open to the public and there were many traditional lanterns which were lit and looked beautiful at night.

Wooden lanterns.


Paper lantern...


Loud drums to signal the turning on of the lights and the fireworks.



*Boom boom and sparkle*

I must say I am quite impressed by how many events we have to celebrate the traditional festivals in Sibu, no matter the race and religion. I MISSED THE HARI RAYA BAZAAR! Though the government here sucks (say a lot and do nothing), they love using these celebrations and events to grab people's attention and hopefully get people to vote for them. My only wish is that they do put the money into good use.

The opening ceremony involved lighting up this dragon.


Vibrant colours lighting up the town.

After hanging around the Pagoda area for awhile, decided to walk to the Sibu gateway where the lanterns led the people to where when one arrives, they will be greeted by even more lanterns.

The colours were just so beautiful but the only problem is.... The lanterns are not arranged properly so it looks kind of messy.




But overall, the colourful lights are delightful (though it made the place look like a red-light distict). But who can blame them? It is still a tradition we uphold but due to the modern Oops, red lanterns or a red lit area becomes something so negative.


Highlight of the festival might be this. The symbol of my hometown.

"I love my country (hometown) but I hate the people running it" AaronC 31/8/09

Model Shoot

Sorry guys if I kinda lack updates these few days. Class started and guess what, its only the end of the third day and it felt like it has been 2 weeks in college. Yes, that is how freakingly stressful just at the beginning of the final semester at Taylors. 4 assignments from 3 subjects will be due in 2+ weeks and time is really running short on us. So, forgive me if the updates slows down a tad.

On a different note, before I came back to K.L., I had a photo shoot with my friend Mary who graciously decided to help me in this style of photography. Model photography is not really what I want to pursue but it is good to practice and improve in it. And it is thanks to the first photo shoot which inspired me to do this one, *click*. However, this one is not a competition. Just having fun. As a new comer in this style of photography, I would like to ask anyone to comment so that I as a person can improve in my photography skills. All comments are welcomed, Positive Or Negative. Seriously, I don't mind.

Location: Ku-Tian Gong Yuan (Ku-Tian Garden), Sibu
Model: Mary
Photographer: Aaron C
Camera: Fujifilm Finepix S9500

I promised I will only put the 3 of my favourite shots for this session. So hopefully she likes it too.

So, What do you think?

P.S.: Thanks Mary for the help.

In the Garden 2

The sun is shining, I feel happier because somehow, nature is smiling back at me. Today, went to grandmas house again to pick up some bananas she grew. Thank goodness I brought my camera because some of the lotus bloomed for me. When I saw all these beauty in life, it cheered me up. Don't ask me why.. See for yourself....

White lotus





And purple lilies... The pond was full of life and colour.


Lavender flowers....



With lavender butterflies on it... Beautiful....


A field of yellow....


Even the lonely white looks so beautiful under the sun...


I love the garden....
It makes me just want to stay in Sibu....

Haih... But class starts in a few days so bohoo.... Final semester. Stress stress stress.. Need to apply for university, need to write training report, Studio 4, environmental studies, making visa to where ever I am going... Bla bla bla... Thats why I love home... No need to think so much. HAHA....

Well, I went back to my old Kindi today to see my aunt. Well, I didn't study here when I was a kid. But I did spend my afternoons there after my first kindi and came here for play.

And you know what I miss most about my Childhood?


The carefree days when I went to the old playground to play......

Those were the days......

Pictures of the pitchers

Some random fun facts before I start the post.

Yesterday afternoon, I met up with 3 photographers in Sibu to head out to a jungle, some 25 km away from Sibu town at Rantau Panjang to hunt for some pitcher plants. This is not the first time the three photographers went to the place and you can read this at, *click*. Thanks to Philips planning and Bowison Hii ("Bowison Hii is a Fellow with the Royal Photographic Society of London (FRPS) and his prestigious fellowhip was obtained 7 years ago with an outstanding series of 15 pictures of different species of the pitcher plant taken throughout Borneo.") for guiding us to the spot with all this pitcher plants, I got some amazing shots of the jungle life.

How many of you know that Pitcher plants are endangered? How many of you know that Sarawak houses one of the most species of Pitcher plants in the world? When I got there, I was not intrigued only by the numbers of the plants but also, the size....

There were so many types of Pitcher plants everywhere we stepped. So many that we had to watch our steps. Didn't want to step on any of the plants. It was so amazing to see so many in just one spot.

The biggest surprise was this...

The biggest Pitcher plant we found was almost the size of my head.


Adrian (my cousin) also joined us.

Joining photographers like Philip, Steve and Bowison gave me the insight on lighting and ways to "cheat" during photography like bringing a mirror and use it to reflect light to the object you want to take a picture of due to lack of light. It works much better than the flash.

All of the Pitcher plants were unique in its own way. By its shape and size and length.
And sometimes, how they grew is clusters...



We had to be very careful where we stepped because it was everywhere. And I had to keep reminding myself that these plants are endangered. So had to pay attention where I walked and also be alert to spot the interesting ones.


We also had to pay attention to the ones which hung from the trees. Not many, but still when you find some,


It is so worth it. This shot was taught by Bowison. As soon as the sun shined on it, he called out to us to quickly take a shot of this Pitcher Plant. It was moments after we took it, the sun beam shining on these two slowly moved away. Timing is crucial. One moment you got a shot, the next moment, it is lost. So one lesson learned; act fast, snap fast.

After an hour or so in the jungle, we got out to a path and entered another zone to look for wild orchids.

Philip (left) and Steve (right), searching for orchids.



We didn't find many flowering wild orchids but we found some wild berries growing from the trees. It was so dark there that I had no choice but to use my flash.


The only orchid that I found was this one. Which grew on rocky lands. how beautifully it bloomed under the radiant sun.

We left around 430 p.m. with a beautiful sky ahead of us.

The rays were shining through the clouds. Just amazing and beautiful.


These are not photoshop-ped. The rays are real.

The day ended with me having around 300 pictures, dirty shoes and tired feet. But I am really glad to be able too.

If you are interested, please come and visit Sarawak!

Next aim.... Hornbill hunting (photography hunting la), another endangered species. Next holiday perhaps. Anyone have any idea where I can find some? HAHA....