Thursday, February 22, 2007

Trengganu Kite !...Sightseeing Day

One thing that I noticed during this trip was that there were so many cars with Singaporean plate numbers. I was told by the hotel reception staff that the hotel was fully booked especially with the Singaporean Malays as they also took advantage of the long holidays in the republic. On Sunday morning after Subuh prayer, I was looking through the glass window overlooking the South China Sea and suddenly noticed that the sun was about to rise. I quickly gathered my camera and told my other half that I want to go to the beach immediately to capture the morning views. These are what I captured through my lenses.


As it was still very early in the morning, there was practically nobody on the beach except for the kampung folks and several local fishermen going about their business. I also brought along my tripod and set it up quickly for a quick photography session alone by the beach.


Our Sunday was quite hectic with visits to relatives and sight seeings around KT town with my sister in law acting as our tourist guide. Although we have been going to the Masjid Terapung near Ibai for so many times, this is one place that I never fail to visit each time we are in KT. I took many photos using this beautiful mosque as the main object and one of them was used as the background for Gondai Jr's photo on the run.


I also tried to snap some night photos of Masjid Terapung but accidentally I forgot to reset the exposure compensation of the 350D and hence result in slightly overexposed image.


The late evening photo of the masjid however, is quite OK and enough to compensate for the failure of its night scene taken earlier.



Another favorite place especially for my other half's shopping need is Pasar Payang. This is one place that I think all women especially of the Malay origin would love to patronize as many shops here carry latest design of silk fabrics way below the price offered in KL. A bit of bargaining and negotiating skills are required here if you want to get a good deal. Speaking the local dilect will definitely help but we left the bargaining work to my sister in law as she is very good at it. However please be warned that this place is always overcrowded especially during holidays and with such a poor ventilation system one can get exhausted and dehydrated pretty quickly, physically and financially :-))


We also spent sometimes at the newly open Trengganu Equestrian Club (TER) near Ibai about 3 minute walking distance from the Masjid Terapung. Near the entrance gate of the TER, many locals espscially kids were seen engaged in the 'miniaturised speed bike' race. I have seen this type of small motorbike in KL and I was totally awed at how fast this little bike can actually run. I also feel that the standard of living among the Trengganu folks has probably gone up in the last couple of years to allow them to engage with such an expensive recreational activity.




We visited the Muzium Negeri in Losong and enough said that although the museum is the largest in Malaysia as far as it floor coverage, there are not much artifacts on exhibit to live up to that status at present. Who knows, maybe in 2-3 years time, things could change for the better.


If anything that I find very encouraging about KT nowadays is on how well the keropok lekor business is doing. My sister in law took us to one of the delicious keropok lekor shop at Seberang Takir with the intention to buy some. Unfortunately, we were greeted with a big sign of the word 'Habis' at the entrance. I guessed the owner of the shop has in fact anticipated the rise in demand and quickly ordered a properly printed signage to get his message across to all customers !


There are so many images and memories from our latest homecoming to Trengganu that putting them in this blog would be impractical. But perhaps, the visit to my other half's ailing aunt at Seberang Takir was the most solemn but nonetheless very meaningful to us. We just hope and pray to Allah for her well being and perhaps we should be able to visit her again next time in much better health and condition...Alhamdullilah..Amin

1 comment:

  1. The slightly overexposed image of the mosque is to me an eye-catcher. I like that one. Sometimes it takes a number of mistakes and a series of blunders to make pictures that worth a thousand messages.

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