Trip to Bukit Tinggi Part Deux (Two)

A continuation of my trip...

After a hearty lunch, we could not get into our room as housekeeping didn't have it ready yet. So, we decided to visit some of the attractions around Bukit Tinggi.

There are a few ways to get around the attractions, you either drive or take the shuttle or.... if you're really really up to it.. walk. We both decided to wait for the shuttle.

Being the school/public holidays, the resort was just filled to capacity with day trippers. There were not enough shuttles to go around and we had to wait 20-30 minutes before we can get on board one. AND... as usual, with typical Malaysian KIASU gusto, you will see throngs of people rushing to the shuttles to get on board with total disregard for safety... (imagine, seeing people jump up into the shuttle when the shuttle has not stopped properly...)

We took the shuttle to the Japanese garden and really looked forward enjoying the scenery there.

When we reached the signboard, I noticed something very interesting...

Me: *sniff sniff*... Uggghhh.. What is that smell?
EV: Toilet-la...
Me: o_0

Yes, there were so many people that you can smell the toilet as you walk towards the Botanical Garden as you pass the souvenir shop. Ugghh..

Within the Botanical Garden, lies a small Japanese restaurant. I looked at the prices and it is pricey to eat Japanese food in the "mountains". However, due to the big crowds, the restaurant was pretty packed with some patrons enjoying a late lunch or some dessert.

It was a relief to walk around the garden as it had been quite hot and humid after the showers which came down during lunch.

I did not go down the hill due to my knee problems and so, stopped halfway to enjoy the cool breeze and scenery around.

Besides the Botanical garden, there was a small Japanese garden at the other side of this "village".

The Japanese garden is designed in the manner of the Japanese style, using a lot of natural elements of water, wood, stone and earth in order to beautify the surroundings. The feeling you get as you walk around the garden with the tea house is one of being "united with nature".

I wanted to take a photo where I could "freeze" the movement of water and was glad that I experimented with the shutter speed settings of my camera. It is still not quite perfect but I understand the concept of using the shutter speeds to capture movement.

It is a joy to photograph in these gardens and I did wish that I had some macro lens or a superzoom to capture some of the more detailed elements. Oh well...

We left the Japanese village at around 5:30pm as we wanted to catch the last few shuttles back to the resort to rest in our room. Again, we had to face the mayhem of getting a seat on the shuttle when it came...

Now... what was there to do at night in Bukit Tinggi...

Clouds...

I looked up this morning and found the cloud formation to be really interesting...

Have a look at this series of shots.

The two antennas are not exactly working now. One of it is the regular television antenna, while the other one used to be the antenna used to receive the now defunct Metrovision; which has now been revived as 8TV.

These photos were taken before 8:00am...

I only managed to take these photos because:

1. Rusty the JRT woke me up at 6:00am so that he can go play/pee... (-__-)
2. I was on the late shift.
3. It has been dry for the past few days.

Anyway, I've still got a looonggg way to go to improve my skills...

Here's to a cool blue-sky weekend folks!! :-)

What I Did During Raya - KL Butterfly Park

It has been a long time since we had some holidays and so, I took the opportunity to go to some of the sights around KL. Actually, I was cajoled by EV as she complained that she was bored with the usual activities of going to shopping malls or just jalan-jalan to cari makan.

I decided to bring her to the sights around the National Mosque or Bukit Aman to visit the Butterfly and Bird Parks. She didn't know the area and so, I asked her to drive. Hehehe...

Anyway, going to the parks would give me an opportunity to practice my photography skills. I wished I got the DSLR first but then, skills are more important. Without the skills, any photos taken even with the best camera can turn out to be crap.

EV needed to be fed and so, on such a rare occassion where she didn't needed to feast on blood, we went to the local Mackers (McDonald's) for some brekky...

I like to sprinkle lots of pepper on my eggs. No salt, it is salty enough.

Mackers didn't have any strawberry jam but they had grape jelly; which tasted sweet with a hint of artificial grape flavouring... Might as well have used sugar on those muffins.

We made our way to KL and EV realized that the park was quite near her office! When we got down, I decided to test my camera settings first since the sky is a bit overcast with enough sunlight that morning.

The view of the city from Bukit Aman. You can see two landmarks - KL Tower and KLCC. Hidden behind the tree is the large flagpole at Merdeka Square.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, 4 other cars loaded with passengers went to visit the park as well. It was the school holidays and so, many families brought their kids to visit these places.

I started snapping away as soon as I got there. I've decided to post the following photos which I deemed were the best of the lot.

Paku Pakis Unfurls

Hanging orchids - I had to wait until the wind died down so that I can take this shot of the orchids hanging from an arch.

This was my second dragonfly shot for the day. The first one was quite blurry. EV was trying to hurry me to take a look at some yellow-coloured butterfly. I'm glad I ignored her.

I also managed to take a few good butterfly shots too. Of course, it would have been better if I had a DSLR with zoom lens but my little compact camera did well too.

We spent a long time at the park as I wanted to take some photos with varying degrees of light. I converted this photo using some photo-editing software. It's quite hard to find a good black and white shot while at the park.

The park costs RM8 per entry for Malaysians with an additional RM1 for your camera. I found it weird that the park should charge people for bringing their camera. Hmmmm.. Probably a policy they had since it first opened.

Needless to say, it was a good learning experience. I didn't manage to learn a single butterfly name but I learned to take some good shots. :-)