.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

If you've been reading my blog for some time you might know I'm a fan of Tiesto - I went to see him last time he was here which was back in 2006 at Sepang (DJ Tiesto - Live at Sepang Malaysia!) so I definitely won't miss the chance to see him head over here for his Elements of Life tour.

He was here for Freedom 08 at Admiral Marina in Port Dickson - the same place I went for that crappy Recharge 3: R3velation - The Aftermath in 2005.

I didn't meet any blog reading fans this time but I did see Adeline and Nadia from MDG!

Yes yes...3 years isn't been long I went to my first rave in 1994 for my 16 birthday so yeah work that out.

We reached the front gate around 10:15pm....omg look at the queue, lucky we pre-bought our tickets weeks ago at Axcess in 1-U.

We got inside around 10:45pm - not tooooo bad. Seen as though it was quite late the German duo of DJ Bossi & Nic Chagall commonly known as Cosmic Gate were already rocking the show and the place was pretty packed.

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Just reached Kinabalu Pine Lodge, had a shower and backed up the days pictures to my nifty Nexto Di PSD. It's pretty cool here, literally not figuratively speaking. There's no need for aircon and the small fan isn't switched on.

Looking forwards to some nice steamboat for dinner to warm me up! The lodge is good, the mountain peak is just right outside the window towering above us.

It's good to remeber Malaysia has world class beauty and wildlife too. Don't always go looking abroad. Flying back to KL tomorrow evening tho, then it's back to reality.

Will definitely visit this region again for white water rafting and to climb the mountain.

A little while ago a bunch of us took a trip down to Kampung Baru to do a little street photography and take in some of the excitement over the elections in one of the remaining Kampung settlements in KL.

It was Kim's first street photography trip and she did really well! Dree also joined us.

The light wasn't great as it was overcast - meaning fairly flat light giving a natural lack of contrast and saturation. It was ok though, just warming up for many more great street photo journeys into our city of Kuala Lumpur.

Hoping to get to know the city better, and document it to share with others around the world.

BN over PAS

There was two parties dominant in Kampung Baru, BN and PAS - didn't see anything from any of the others.

KLCC Backdrop

This fellas face was plastered everywhere, even this decrepit old table had no escape.

There was some interesting details around Kampung Baru showing the urban decay.

And the lawless motorcyclists with no helmets...nonchalantly driving past police cars.

PAS or Sun? I like the juxtaposition of the symbols in this one.

Time for some delicious Malay food in the middle of the shoot - I kena tourist price of course..

No Go

PAS goodies

There were also some normal shops operating as usual.

And a stark contrast between the old and the new.

Shortly after we finished eating a torrential downpour occurred...which cut our outing short. We then buggered off to Starbucks where we spent the rest of the night pissing in the wind

You can find the others pics here:

KY pictures - Streets of Kampung Baru with Election Colors
Photography trip to Kampung Baru

Not the best place to eat in the world..

More here:

Restaurant One Noodle - Dim Sum & La Mein (Ramen) SS2

Please comment over at We Ate This!

This is a much discussed issue, especially with the recent tragedy at Slim River and the deaths of 3 young bright citizens (20, 21 and 23) of Malaysia.

I often wonder if having a system like we do in the UK would make much difference, in UK it's know as the MOT or Ministry of Transport test.

It's a test that EVERY vehicle has to go through every year after it's 3 years old or more, if you don't pass the test you can't get your roadtax - if you can't get your roadtax you can't renew your insurance. Everything is linked together.

If there's any failures on your test you have 10 days to retest, if not your vehicle is marked as unfit for the road, it's a fairly cheap test at £50.35 for a regular car but I think it really helps.

Australia has a similar scheme and so does the US I believe.

Some may say the developing economy of Malaysia can't support such a scheme as many people can't afford to keep their cars or buses in safe working conditions.

But is it really worth risking people's lives for? Surely these deathtrap cars shouldn't be on the road.

Buses and public service vehicles should be strictly monitored for safety along with the drivers, 13 outstanding summons? For someone that is essentially in charge of 30 peoples lives?

Any cars without roadtax that are parked on public property (note you don't even have to be DRIVING the car) can be towed away and crushed, yes not impounded but destroyed.

This is not the first incident with a bus in Malaysia, and it surely won't be the last until things start to change. Drivers must be paid and trained properly, they must be responsible and not overworked.

The buses and vehicles used to transport people around the country must be well maintained.

I have to say personally I feel quite safe on the LRT, but the buses in Malaysia in general are horrible. The only ones I feel safe on are those luxury buses which are very well maintained and have well trained and rested drivers (Plusliner, Aerobus etc).

But those aren't exactly affordable for the average student and are privately run, so not really considered as public transport.

If you feel that this is an important issue there's an online petition you can sign here which is going to be presented to the Ministry of Transport.

Bus Crash No More

You can also read more about the issues here:

http://buscrashnomore.blogspot.com

Sadlly it's most likely the bright young students of Malaysia that are going to be endangered as they take the cheap buses from city to city during festive seasons and study breaks.

This is something which can and must be addressed.

You might remember I went to M-IFW a while ago, I posted one set TIAMO (Sylvia Lim) Presents Jonathan Cheng at M-IFW 2007 and promptly forgot I had stayed for another show after that.

The favourite of photographers, Triumph presents Justin Yap, Jimmy Lin & Ken Wong.

Somehow Triumph shows always tend to be the most heavily popular by photographers, I wonder why that is..perhaps it's indicative of the quality of their models? Or it's just something else. Due to that there's always a lot of heads, lenses and flashes popping into your frame, which makes it even harder.

This show was even harder technically speaking than the previous as the main lights were off and it was pretty dim, I had to bust out the flash for some fill. I tried shooting with the 85mm f/1.8 without flash, but it just wasn't happening.

I would have loved to catch Carven Ong a couple over the weekend, but I was busy on that day.

They started out with minimal clothing right away - always a good sign

I blame the cropped foot on using a prime lens..

Shooting with the 85mm did give fantastic depth of field though.

The models were definitely a class above what I've seen in Malaysia normally.

After that was some stuff from Sloggi, which you couldn't see as all the models were wearing boxes..no not boxers - BOXES!

Following on was some kinda sporty, casual theme with the lingerie integrated somehow.

There were all kinds of accessories like inflatable rubber ducks, raincoats, balloons and vinyl umbrellas.

Big hats were definitely in too.

The last set was a bit more kinky, black and red, lacy and more dressy.

Accidental Strobist

And that was the end of Triumph at M-IFW 2007, that's all I shot - maybe I'll do more next year if I win the lottery and get a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR!

Goodbye!

You can see the full set here:

M-IFW Triumph - Nov 2007

Mudah.com.my is the new kid on the block when it comes to online classifieds in Malaysia, no longer are we stuck with having to advertise in the free paper or on sites like Lelong or Ebay.

Personally I've found forums to be the best places to sell stuff so far, places like Lowyat are great as they have a wide variety of users and plenty of traffic.

Mudah.com.my is touting itself as 'The Marketplace of Malaysia'.

Mudah is more of a classifieds style site than an auction site though (which has it's up and downs).

On the positive side:

• It's Easy to Use
• Fast Loading
• Simple Navigation and Search
• Fast and Straight Forward to Post a Listing

On the negative side:

• There's no reputation system
• It's harder to trust users
• Design is a bit dated - could be more web2.0

I'm glad they have a report abuse link on every posting and I hope they take it seriously.

It's dividied geographically by region within Malaysia and has various categories for goods. It's also split by company/private (although I'm not sure how reliable that is), it also has Wanted as well as For Sale.

Mudah is definitely an interesting site to check out if you are looking for some bargains or have something you want to sell off.

Long time since I went there to shoot...I think I should go back sometime soon.

I love super-wide - 10mm ftw!

View Large on Black.

The most exciting act of the night other than Whitney herself was Shaggy (Orville Richard Burrell) - the main man! He was rocking the floors back in the day when I myself was a youngster hopping in the clubs to classics like Oh Carolina and In The Summertime, and of course the ever classic Boombastic!

He burst on to the stage with a huge amount of energy and rocked the crowd from start to finish, definitely 100% the most exciting and entertaining act of the night. He was on stage with his regular partners in crime Rikrok (famous for 'It wasn't me') and Rayvon (The voice on 'Summertime' & 'Angel').

The crowd was absolutely jammed in by the time Shaggy came on.

He straight away got the crowd pumping with his energy and ragga stylin hip thrusting.

Just look at his expression and the mic position, caused quite some shaking of heads amongst the more conservative party attendees apparently.

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Next up when it was getting dark before the big guns of Shaggy and Whitney were a few local acts. Namely Joe Flizzow (of Too Phat fame) and M8 with Jaclyn Victor, Noryn Aziz, Nikki and a bunch of others (Yes both of the pictures on Wikipedia of Joe and Jaclyn are mine!).

Joe Flizzow came out first with his crew and performed for quite some time.

He had this cool shirt on which emulated a thick gold chain - and of course his trademark KL Cap.

It was a fairly energetic performance with hats thrown to the crowd and some break-dancing.

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