Manukan Island

I was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, recently. It was a business trip, but I did take some time off to visit Pulau Manukan, an island off the coast of Kota Kinabalu.

Pulau Manukan is actually part of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, which consists of 5 islands. The other four islands are Gaya, Sapi, Mamutuk and Sulug. Since I would fly back to Kuala Lumpur on the same evening, I had only enough time for one of the islands. I chose Manukan because of the availability of return boat ride.

Manukan was 15-minute boat ride from the mainland. Upon arriving at the island, I was surprised to find many tourists from China. (I will write more about this in another post.) There were also quite a few Koreans, and of course Western tourists.

Here are some pictures of the islands, all shot with my new Panasonic Lumix FH3…

Approaching the island…

The boat and the water…

A Chinese tourist looking at the fish near the jetty…

The clear water…

Snorkeling…

Bikini babes…

What is this?

Fish and my feet …

香港示威口號

很欣賞香港人的示威口號。。。

位於中國深圳，生產蘋果iPhone的富士康(Foxconn)工廠最近接二連三發生員工跳樓自殺事件。香港勞工維權人士到富士康的香港辦事處示威抗議，要求該廠商改善工人待遇和工作環境。他們在現場高舉『自殺非偶然，管理要改善』，『無量富士康，工人心慌慌』等標語牌。

香港人主要講粵語。以上的示威口號，若用粵語唸起來都有押韻，非常順口：

自殺非偶然 ji sat fei ngou yin

管理要改善 gun lei yu koi sin

無良富士康 mo liong fu si hong

工人心慌慌 gong yan sum fong fong

2008年美國雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破產，香港經濟大受創傷，當時港人也示威遊行。他們提出的口號，有一條是：

銀行家 ngen hong kar

正人渣 cheng yan char

香港的示威人士，文化修養還真是不賴的

Panasonic Lumix FH3

Prologue:

East Malaysians must be heavy meat eaters…

I ordered a bowl of wantan noodle （云吞面/馄饨面）in Kota Kinabalu recently. It came with eight pieces of meaty wantan, and no veggie. I swallowed six pieces of the wantan, then gave up.

This picture shown above was taken with my new Panasonic Lumix FH3 camera. I was on a business trip to Kota Kinabalu, and had my notebook computer with me. Bringing along my DSLR was not an option. Hence, I decided to purchase a pocket cam two days before my departure.

Highlights of the Lumix FH3 include, among others, 14 megapixels, 5x optical zoom, 28mm wide, Mega O.I.S. (optical image stabilizer), Intelligent Auto Mode, and 2.7” LCD. This is not the best from Panasonic, but at a price of RM699, I have no complaint. After all, the DSLR will still be my main camera.

Having used to DSLR, I find the image quality of the Lumix leaves something to be desired. The so-called Intelligent Auto Mode is also not as intelligent as I wish. But mediocre photo is still better than no photo, right?

Addicted to Cell Phone

Some people just couldn’t live without cell phone…

I was flying back from Sabah to Kuala Lumpur in the evening of May 23, 2010. Immediately after the plane touched down – but was still decelerating on the runway – another passenger had already switched on his/her mobile phone. (I do not know whether it was a he or a she, but I heard the tone of the phone.)

C’mon, the lives of over 200 passengers and crew are in your hand. Can you please be more considerate?

Mailing List

Is your e-mail Inbox flooded with mailing list messages? Mine is. Every week I receive about a dozen e-mails from Buddhist groups I join. I have applied filters based on senders, but this is not very effective as senders sometimes change their e-mail addresses.

Recently, I learned another method to filter mailing list messages, using Gmail’s ‘plus addressing’ feature. This is how it works:

Assuming that your Gmail address is supermario@gmail.com, and you have joined a Nintendo group. You can generate another e-mail address, say supermario+Nintendo@gmail.com, and give it to the group you join. Now you can set up filter to automatically archive or label the messages addressed to supermario+Nintendo.

But seriously, mailing list is sooooooo 2005. Today groups and organizations can provide updates to their members through Internet forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps the only time when e-mail is still necessary is for sending attachments other than pictures and video clips.

Updating through social networking sites has some added advantages. First, the messages in forums and blogs can be easily searched using Google or tags. Second, rather than passive recipients of information, the members can drop comments and participate in discussion. (The second point is also true for Facebook.) Last but not least, every time an e-mail is forwarded, its format changes, e.g. character ‘>’ is inserted to the beginning of each line. There is no such problem with ‘new media’.

Mailing list is still required, much as we still surf Net with PC in the age of smart phone. However, I would like to see its role shrinking.

Disappointing Visit to KL Bird Park

KL Bird Park is one of my popular hangouts. Recently I visited the park again, hoping to photograph my favorite birds – the birds of paradise.

KL Bird Park was located at Jalan Cenderawasih. Cenderawasih is the Malay/Indonesia word for bird of paradise. Somehow, upon entering the park, I realized that the two birds which I had shot in my last visit were no longer there. Perhaps one of them had died?

Anyway, since I had driven all the way to the park, and paid entrance fee, I decided to spend some time there. Here are a few shots I had taken. Can you name the birds?

#1 No, this is not a dove…

#2 Two white birds and a black one…

It took me 20 minutes and quite a bit of patience to shoot the next two photos. Basically I stood at the same spot and waited for the birds to come.

#3

#4

#5 A big bird which cannot fly…

#6 This picture is shot with manual focusing…

Update May 16, 2010: Birds in the pictures

#1 - egret

#2 - flamingos and black swan

#3 & #4 - milky stork

#5 - cassowary

#6 - hornbill

Green Tea

Green tea has gained popularity in the last decade. It is widely believed that regularly green tea drinkers may have lower chances of developing cancer. While green tea is produced in many countries, Japanese green tea is most famous.

I have got a box of ‘tea bags’. As you can see from the packaging – shown above – the name of the product is Jasmine Green Tea. The two large Chinese characters 绿茶 mean ‘green tea’. The five smaller Chinese characters 茉莉花日本 mean ‘Jasmine flower Japan’. There is also a picture of Japanese cup.

However, when I read the label carefully, I soon realized that the tea was actually grown in Vietnam, not Japan. While Jasmine tea is considered a type of green tea, its color is actually more yellow than green, definitely not the same as what we see on the cover.

I can’t commend on the health benefits of Jasmine tea, but it is obvious that the producer is trying to cash in on the popularity of authentic Japanese green tea.

母亲节谈孝道

马来西亚华人有非常强烈的种族优越感，老爱以『五千年中华文化』自诩。当中国政府已经承认55个少数民族时，大马华人还总是强调『黑眼睛黑头发皮肤：龙的传人』。种种沙文主义的论调，只听得我呵欠连连。

五千年中华优秀文化以儒家思想为中心。孔夫子最注重孝道。相比之下，和孔子同时期的印度圣贤悉达多a.k.a.佛祖就很少谈到这个课题。不过悉达多有一回破例告诉我们该如何回报父母的恩惠。这是他的看法：

如果有人。。。能引导父母：破戒的，让他们学习良好德行；吝啬的，让他们学习慷慨助人；愚痴的，让他们学习用正确角度看世间。能如此，才是真正报答父母恩。

不可思议，对吧？传统上，我们被教导必须听从父母的话，哪有反过来引导双亲向善的？

儒家的孝道，不能说不好，但却落于肤浅。我们在奉养父母、成家立业、继承香火、光宗耀祖之余，是否也应该更上一层楼呢？

P/S 我在此祝大家母亲节快乐。

References:

Kataññu Sutta (Gratitude)

中文翻译

The Violinist

I had always wanted to photograph a beauty playing violin. I expressed my idea to Cruiser176, the ‘model shooting specialist’. Within a week he managed to organize such an event, which I happily joined.

This time, the model was Jenny, whom I also had a chance to shoot last year. She happened to play violin, and she brought her own set for use as prop.

Sadly, the lighting was harsh, and not many pictures turn out good. Here are two OK shots…

P/S Do anyone knows of any lenglui who play Chinese pipa （琵琶） or guzheng （古筝）?