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Balloons! Balloons! Balloons! 飛波!

1st Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009. From 19th to 22nd March, balloonists from around the world come to Malaysia to... erm... fly their balloons! This is the first time Malaysia is organizing such hot air balloon event. We Malaysian seldom got the chance to see these balloons. So I've decided to go.

I woke up 6 something this morning just to go there hoping to take some nice pictures. Reached Putrajaya around 7:15am. Already saw 1 balloon setting up. And it's the Nescafe balloon. Talk about branding huh.


Flame shooting into the balloon's belly to warm the air inside.


Here's the 1st balloon i saw. "Become a morning person" and they're the earliest to setup their balloon. Good advertising!


Who did i met again during this photography session of mine? Is the lovely Fidella again. This is the second time I bumped into her during my photography sessions. First time was Sungai Lembing (scroll down to view the previous entry). We just love taking photos. :D


Although is quite early in the morning, but there's already crowd crowding over the fences near those balloons. And there are damn a lot of photographers there!


Still pumping flame into the nescafe mug to keep warm.


What's a fiesta without clown.


The full view of the Mug-shaped Nescafe balloon.


Looking into one of the balloon.


Team Netherlands.


All the teams are preparing their balloons for the short flight. Colourful!


The sun just came out and seems like Mr. Clown doesn't like it.


Photographer risking their camera getting so close to the flame.


Almost finished setting up!


The Netherlands.


And they started to lift off. :D Wish is can go up there.


Wonder how they steer the balloons.


This is the chopped-orange balloon from Belgium.


Oh no! It'll rain orange juice!


Team New Zealand started their journey.


Wonder what size is this mug. Super Venti?


Photographers busy shooting the balloons.


One by one they took off.




The clown still ain't happy after it started flying.


Pink elephant! This is the balloon Fidella was here to see. Haha...


Colouful~


There there after reaching some height, Mr. Clown started smiling. :)


Giant cock in Putrajaya! Peacock la.


This peacock got bling-bling.


Team Belgium.


Haha, the further balloon looks like it's still sleepy.


Dumbo flying away.


A picture for Fidella and Zeejay before the last balloon flew.


It's the CAT Zeppelin. You know why it's the last to fly? Cos it's Team Malaysia!


After all the hot air balloons flew away, para-gliders started to glide around the skies.


Looks like quite fun also.


A glider flew-by us.


The last balloon left here is for pay-per-ride. But you don't go anywhere, just go up, and then come back down.

Didn't bother to go to the fun fair and carnival sections cos I think it'll be the same as the others. So packed up and go home~

Friendly people, good food, fantastic sunrise, a small and colourful town call Sungai Lembing

On the 7th of March 2009, Clive organized a trip of 25 city dwellers, to this friendly little small town Sungai Lembing, 林明. Sungai Lembing is a town that used to mine Tin Ore (Bijih Timah). And now it's famous for it's sunrise view with sea of clouds below your feet! My closest gang of people is in one car, which is Andrew, Aivy, Siewmei, and me. The objectives of this trip for a few of us is to photographs the nice sunrise. We did the photographing, I'll leave you to judge. :P


First stop of the places to go when we reached Sg Lembing is Gua Charas. Is a big cave within a rock mountain, and there's an abandoned tin mine inside too.


The gang walking up the staircase towards the big cave.


Just before we want to go up, it rain a bit. But luckily it stopped after just a while. So be careful when going up, slippery.


Andrew posing.


This is the inner of the big cave itself.


Smoke gets in her eyes. :D Clive and his gf.


Another shot of the cave.


Looking out the cave shot.


Another shot looking out


After we finished going around inside the cave, while walking back down I took this shot. Gonna rain soon~

Day 1
When we first reached our place in Sungai Lembing, I was quite dissapointed with the place we're gonna stay in. It's a brick house inside a kampung, nothing wrong with that. But the place is actually a bit messy, 3 rooms for 25 people and only 1 toilet. Mattresses are put on the floor, and the roof was leaking.

Luckily Clive asked that aunty who's responsible for the place to find us another place to stay so we don't need to squeeze so many people in that house. So 12 of us was moved to another house, which i find quite satisfying. No doubt it's a wooden house, but it's clean, no leaking, nice bed, and got 4 toilets!


This is the picture of the room we gonna stay. Clean and spacious.


This house has actually been used to shoot a local movie before. Forgot about the title of the movie, but there's actually a script book lying on the table in the living room. This is the living room itself. Very old-skool and nice.


Framing Aivy and Andrew.


Window to see the kitchen.


Single clothe hanger hanging there. Asking for people to shoot la. Hehe...


A tea table outside the corridor of the house.


Looking in from outside, old-skool gate-type door. To keep dogs out?


Front of the house. We brush our teeth at the sink there, convenient.


Welcome stairs.


After we had our shower, we drove back to the previous house to have our dinner. Because it's catering. The food is not to say very good, but not bad also.


After dinner resting.


Watching TVB series.


After the meal and a while of sitting, we decided to get out and go for a walk. After that we went back to the place where we suppose to spend the night and rest. Need to sleep early because we need to go sunrise hunting tomorrow morning. Have to wake up at 4am!

Day 2
The big day for us!
8th of March 2009, we woke up at 4am had some light breakfast, and went to the leg of the mountain. We reached there around 5:15, but the place is already crawling with people. But our luck didn't ran out because although there's a lot of people going up there, there's not many photographers. Thus, we found some nice spot to shoot our sunrise.


Reached the top around 6am, already a lot of people waiting for the sunrise. Even got some people actually setup camps there.


The whole sky was covered with stars, very nice.


A moment between night and dawn.


Just before the sun came up.


There you go, waited for an hour plus for this moment. But it's all worth it. Breathtaking view. People there watching actually cheered for the sunrise view.


Here's a shot of the whole thing up.


Look at the clouds under us~ It's like we're damn high in the mountain.


You have to go there yourself to be able to feel the moment for yourself. How nice and magnificent it is.


Could never asked for a better spot for the sun to came out. Directly behind the mountain, thanks for cooperating Mr. Sun.


Like the natural gradient.


Andrew and Clive. This is the second time Clive is here, he still enjoy every moment of it.


Watching sunrise with his gf. :D how sweet.


Aivy and Siewmei's face got the early golden ray shower from the sun.


Cliff's gang including Fidella and Zeejay was also there. They had some nice captures too, saw them in facebook.


A cute shot of Behn. Like Mario jumping. Haha...


The other side of the mountain, was not bad also! The clouds was a bit too much! Haha. How can I see such a scene in Malaysia! Where else?


Huge spider with a huge web. It's enjoying the morning sun~ just like us.


Not lying to you about it is huge!


Somebody put dried ice under there somewhere~


A mountain island.


A lot of branches and leaves.


More clouds.


Too much of clouds. Hehe...


Stairway to heaven?


Proof of visit for andrew. :D


Traffic jam! From this shot you can see there are really a lot of people on the top just now.


Andrew and Aivy. Finally reached the bottom. Tired, but very worth it.


Siewmei's speechless expression tells you how nice the view was just now!

After we came back down to earth, we went looking for breakfast in the Pasar. And it's a Sunday morning, they actually having a Pasar Pagi there. Cool~


Java street, the street towards the pasar.


Look at the crowd waiting for the famous "Sister's Noodles".


After the breakfast, we went walking around the small little town to do some shooting. The town is really colourful. Siewmei became my model for the day. Haha.


Blue and yellow combination.


Big tree in the middle of the main road. Not sure if it got a name.


The kampung of Sungai Lembing. They still having the lanterns from Chinese New Year. :D


Shop gates.


Green gate Siewmei.


Tailor Yap Wai Hing.


Now is yellow gate.


Rusty building.


Abandoned old houses.


Riding a bike the kampung style.


Met these 2 young girls running around in front of the shops.


Aivy asked to take a picture of them. Haha. So cute.


Nicely coloured wooden houses.


Motorcyclists can pump petrol from this fuel pump which is like quite not safe.


Andrew's name was on the window. So he went posing next to it.


Cracked floor.


One of the main transport of small town, bicycles.

After all the eating and walking, we went back to the house. But that didn't stopped us from shooting. Haha. I took Andrew's 50mm to play.


Siewmei and Clive sitting at the front corridor of the house.


Nice and sharp.


Don't know what kinda flower is this. A bit weird, but nice.


Tractor.


Busy-ness


Hope.


This is Clive's new car! A V8 Twin Turbo.


Kampung must have ducks lor. Hehe.

Done shooting the surroundings of the house, we need to pack and move again. Why? Because when Clive planned, everywhere was quite packed already, so he has to book 2 places. Although I really like this wooden house, but still have to go.


Packed everything in the car, and went for lunch first, because it's not the time yet to check in.


Waiting for food to arrive.


Also waiting for the food. Hehe.


This is Ah Fai, Clive's friend. Hello~


The couple.


The Yin Yeung Milk of the coffee shop is not bad.


Viewing out the window behind me.

After the meal, the plan was to go to this place called the Crystal House, 水晶屋. The house is not built from crystal, it's just that the uncle and aunty that stays here collect a lot of crystals and some other stuffs.


Entrance to the Crystal House. RM2 per head will be charged.


Disco ball? What the...


Sleeping guard doggy.


1 of the 2 tunnels that the uncle dig himself.


The wall is filled with coins that visitors stick on.


This is another project of the uncle, he already dug for 8 months on this one. He is trying to replicate the mining scene from last time.


This is the uncle/owner of the place. He was telling some interesting stories of himself about how last time when he was still mining.


Aivy holding a raw Tin Ore. It was quite heavy.


And here's me holding a Bronze Ore I believe.


On the way out, we passed by this hanging bridge, so we went down and do some scene shooting. There are quite a few of these hanging bridges along the Lembing river for easy access to places. Motorcycles can actually use these bridges to cross to the other side.


Clive shooting some nice kampung scene.


Houses next to the river. One of the houses there is actually the manufacturing plant for the famous Mee Sungai Lembing. We didn't went there today, but we'll come back tomorrow.


Windy Siewmei.


Aivy and Andrew enjoying kampung life. Haha.


This is a funny shot. 3 of them actually trying to shoot a motorcycle coming towards them.


After the bridge, we headed for the Sungai Lembing Museum.


You can find a lot of history about Sungai Lembing town in here. How it started and how's the mining industry.


A replicate version of the lift tunnel.


A lot of old-skool machinery can be seen here.


Calculator?


Have no idea what is this, and I'm lazy to read the explanation. Haha.


Found this photo very funny, so took a picture of it. It looks like the cover of a rock band's album. Linkin' Park of old times? Lembin' Park?

It rain while we were visiting the museum, so we waited a while for the rain. Then was off to the new place we gonna stay. It's a banglo modified to be a guests house. So there are a lot of rooms and a lot of showers. And it also has a stairway for us to walk up to the hill behind, so we can see a nice view. But I still like the wooden house more. Hahaha.


We went up the hill behind us.


Behn and his sister Sherrina.


Siewmei kena pulled by me to take this photo. Hehe.


This is the house we'll be staying. Can say it's quite big.


Went out of the house to wander and see got anything nice to shoot.


Sherrina posing in front of a wooden house.


Captured this while Andrew is in front capturing the shadow.


There's a cage next to the house and inside got 2 peacocks.


This is how the house looks like from the inside.


Fully air-conditioned and Astro-ed.

Got to our room, washed up, rest, and it's time for dinner! Haha. Went back to the Pasar, but this time is eating normal rice and dishes of nice food.


We were seated 3 tables. This is my table.


And this is Clive's table.


We arrived at the place 20 minutes earlier, and the aunty wasn't expecting us to be reaching earlier. So she rushingly started cooking to us. But she was quite fast.


This is the aunty who cooked for us.

After the dinner, we went back to the banglo with no place to go. Because the plan for day 3 is to the Rainbow Waterfall. Again is an early trip out, transport will reach us at 5am to send us to the waterfall. So at night we did sleep fairly early.

Day 3
We missed the transport to the Rainbor Waterfall! Actually we didn't missed it... hehe... just that we woke up around 4am in the morning, I found out my feet was a bit sore from all the walking yesterday, so I told my gang I don't feel like going, then they also cincai. So ended up we didn't go. There was some other factors also that we don't want to go, cos Clive and Sherinna described to us saying how hard and scary is it and how much leeches are there.

After we decided not to go and went back to sleep, the others people started waking up and preparing for their trip. Then it started raining. Heavily. It just lasted for a while, but that further support our decision of skipping the trip, cos of the journey will be harder, leeches will be more, and the cloudy sky means there won't be any rainbow to see.

Because Clive and some of the others been to the Rainbow Waterfall before, they weren't actually planning to go again, so they have some other plan. Ended up we followed their plan.


Remember I told you about the famous Mee Sungai Lembing manufacturing plant opposite the river? We came here.


They both very happy. But what is Siewmei pointing?


This, Siewmei is pointing at this. One of the shops there is selling 蛋散. Hahaha... funny la. Don't ask me what is it, cos I didn't bother to ask the shop owner.


This is the stairway to where they manufacture the famous Mee Sungai Lembing. Too bad our timing is a bit wrong, if not we'll be able to see the aunties making the noodles.


The kitchen.


Natural light to brighten the inside.


What is so famous about the noodles here? It is because the water they used to manufacture these noodles are from the mountain. 100% pure mountain water, clean and pure.


The machine to make the noodles.


The flour ingredient.


Staircase outside the window. Emergency exit?


This is how the noodles packaging looks like. Remeber to recognize the logo before buying.


Aunty kindly explained to us how the stuffs work there.


This may be where they get their source of the mountain water.


Proof of visit, Siewmei.


Proof of visit, Me.


Proof of visit, Andrew.


This is the aunty's son. Very cute kid running around scolding the dogs. Hehe.


The dog that got scolded.


The cross is used as a hanger in rural area. Hehe.


Very kampung's texture.


Nicely toned colour house.

Overall, although we missed the Rainbow Waterfall, but the trip was well worth it for the magnificent sunrise itself. Anybody reading this post, you must go see for yourself! Highly recommended by me. :) Hopefully you enjoy the photos.