Our 1st angkasawan

I saw our first angkasawan (cosmonaut) blasting off to the ISS during the Hari Raya shopping at the Giant hypermarket. My feeling were a mixture of exited, proud, jealous, nervous and relief. I never took a serious attention about our space mission but once I saw it blast off, I took a look on www.angkasawan.com.my and other reading material about Soyuz space craft and the International Space Station ISS.


From the www.angkasawan.com.my I straight read through the blog entry made by the Dr SMS and Dr Faiz and all the comment made by the visitor (mostly Malaysian). Most of them saying farewell and other patriotic encouragement but toward the end there are a few condemning comment, something to do with space tourist or not truly Malaysia own space program and so on. Some said we spend like RM100 millions for this space program , which I don't know is it true or not. But for me, if I had the opportunity to be selected as one of the candidate I'll be damn proud. I mean this is a chance of a life time. Go for it.

The Adventure Begins

Last week, me and my Elegan buddies were successful completing a coastal cruising bike trip all the way to Port Dickson, Melaka and back to KL. I thought I'm too old for this kind of activity, but I'm not alone.



More trip photo here

Travellers Ride

Most people do not decide to make a big change out of the blue. As for me I never thought that I will ever ride a motorcycle again after the last accident 4 years ago (in 2003). At that time my wife was 4 months in pregnancy. Luckily the fall was not that bad, my wife and our baby unharmed.

But early this month we decided to ride a bike again due to some changes in our work place. We sold our old bike, the 1st edition Honda Wave and after looking for a while, we choose Modenas Elegan 150 CC maxi scooter (Originally branded as SYM Joyride) with analog RPM and speedo meters. It's bigger with a lot of storage space, comfy rider's and pillion's seat with back-rest and much more. However manuevering this bike in jam-packed Kuala Lumpur city road is a little bit tricky. All and all I feel lot's more adventurous owning this bike so I joined the Eleganeers club.



The Eleganeers member were originated from Malaysia Bikers Community forum (MBC). It's a good start for an Elegan newbie like myself to learn more about this bike. They discuss everything from service center to every detail parts. I occasionally meet them in a small TT gathering and was surprised how friendly they are. Most of them are married so we don't hangout so often.

We planned a coastal cruise trip (KL-PD-Melaka-KL) this weekend and hopefully everything goes well. I set this trip as a benchmark how well the Elegan scooter perform on a long trip.

Malaysia Flora Fest 2007

This is my long awaited event that I'd plan for month. It was really grand. The ceremony was held in Putrajaya at the front of Palace of Justice, Persiarana Putra street. I never had a chance to really take photo shoot in any parade before. I missed the launch of "Eye on Malaysia" and VMY 2007 so I can't afford to miss this one.

There are few things that I'd learn from this event photo shot. I never thought that the parade car would move so fast. I only managed to frame a few front shots, a single car element shot and again a few rear car shots. I need to think, react and relocate very fast before the car comes by.

This event attract a huge crowd and I swear this is the most number of photographer on single event that I ever saw. I wonder how their photo looks like.

Kuala Lumpur Sight

Wow, I actually had time to wander around Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and take several shots of the Sultan Abdul Samad building. I always admire the building since my early childhood. It stood there long before I even born into this world.


It was designed by A.C. Norman and built in 1894-1896 to house several important government departments during the British administration. A.C. Norman spent time in Africa and saw Muslim temples in India which led him to use Moorish architecture in the building's design, not realizing that the Malays already had a highly developed South-East Asian form of their own.

In 1971, Kuala Lumpur suffered a huge flood after a heavy rainfall. Part of the building was not spared. In 1978, a massive renovation was undertaken. The renovation took six years to complete with a total cost of RM 17.2 million. That's really big money during that time.