Home Bound

As much as I wanted to make every single weekend a blast, certain weekend meant to be, well, being at home. Time to write letter, words by words, on reading table. Time to clean ceiling fan, sweep and mop the tiles watching it dried slowly. Time to put the recipe book I bought some time ago into good use. Time to change the bed sheets, rearrange wardrobe. Time to do nothing and everything.

Nowadays being out of town (home) for most weekends usually ends up with thousand of pictures (combination of others, of course) left to be processed, ‘folderize’ while wondering the sequence of each event. It’s truly joyful to recapitulate all occurrences through the eyes of each individual people, of different country, different camera, different time and thought. It’s like looking out of your same-old balcony through some other’s eyes. There’s always a twin tower, JUSCO hypermarket, half-cut mountain with exposed soils surface, low-laying old single storey house next to new medium-rise apartment and cars driving against the direction of road marking arrows. Now, look again.

I always thought that camera which limits the angles, shutter, aperture will eventually has great influence on the outcome result. Most guide book would say camera do not have subjective lenses like we do, that it’s best try to think how, camera thinks! True enough, certain object or landscape shot looks better if, say, correctly proportionate. Vanishing points and viewpoint affect the sense of distance, emphasizing the dimensional quality. How about texture, colour contrast, pattern, line and shape…? Hell with it, it’s just a picture. Snap a stray cat if you like, moments that you cherish, peoples you met, durian (smell) that you hate, worse and best place on earth. Like a proverb in Chinese, ‘尽信书不如无书’ (jin4 xin1 shu1 bu3 ru2 wu2 shu1) – you will suffer trying to follow everything in books.

It’s good to hear someone said “hey, good pictures!” but at the end it’s best to satisfied yourself first, not like we are on assignment. That’s probably the greatest initial obstacle photographer will face, if they are going to make a living out of it. You thought you’ve found the best picture essay but too aggressive for the editor. You couldn’t perform in front of assertive newly-wed couple, when they interrupted as they like. It’s not like I know so much of being a professional photographer, just trying to understand I would say. In many ways we are learning when we try to understand -- "学无止境" (xue2 wu2 zhi3 jing4), lifelong learning, indeed!

Alright then, enough of my rants and nonsense. Let’s see some photos for a change.


We just can’t have enough of river, waterfalls, swim and picnic. If can’t get your feet out of the cold running stream, then don’t. It’s amazing that these places are just 15 minutes away from where we stay, but that’s the privilege of most Perakian (people of Silver State, Perak). I spent countless trips to similar water, this photo summarize it well. I suppose everyone knew which is Inge’s (IngE the sinGER, this is how we remember her Dutch name, haha) feet. Clue? Diagonally opposite Jisu’s feet. He wears his anti-slip shoes everywhere, even into the water!


We were playing Mastermind, Belgium’s national game? Of course, it’s a portable piece from Inge and she is good at it. At a glance it seems unfair to have Maria, Helen, Jyuri, and Mary against Jisu, Kyungsam and me, epic battle of opposite sex? No gender issue here, though. We manage to finish the game but not ahead of the girls. Most of us played the game while we are still a kid, while Kyungsam totally hates it. You need only one Mastermind, huh?

Anyway Kyungsam can’t wait for his turn to play Halli Galli, a classic party game for a, hmm, party boy? Kyungsam truly bring joy and laughter to the camp, feeding us with his endless ideas of dance, song and cracking joke. He can be even better, if we can understand some Korean language! And the Halli Galli box will never be too far away from Kyungsam. In this case, right underneath the table and his wary eyes. We’re going to rupture something, later. Ironically, Inge would run away from this game, hehe…


Almost overwhelm by the dominating green but how could one ignore the beetle? It’s not always bad to have two extreme objects together as there’s always a balance, a win-win situation. The most striking shot from Inge, to perfection – just like her confident self, with beautiful eyes (I mean eyes), elegant nose and strong character. Oh, and freedom! This is something she will not trade anything, for. I know who to look for in Antwerp. But now, I almost finish my melkchocolade, help!


Picture essay, this one – Maxwell hill close to the sea, rainy town beneath, dreadful road leading uphill, calm and serenity. Good blend of everything, like Jisu, fellow Korean majoring Chinese language and business, having spent half his life (childhood) in South East Asia. Recently finished serving the army for two tough years, he is ready to fly again, I guess. Next, good luck, Kyungsam (and Jyuri)!


My best guess is this is somewhere around Taiping Lake Garden. It’s normal to see a 土地公 (tu3 di4 gong1) altar by the road side, or beside whole bunch of fig trees, but never with monkeys savaging offering served by worshipper! Most people think of Buddism when they think of Chinese, but the chinese folk religion has a fair share of our culture and believe. Recently our Prime Minister is furious about some NGOs openly talk and discuss about religions, one could not help but wondering why. Maybe we are not ready, just yet.


Marco had a good workcamp, made it memorable for everyone, too. There are so much we can do for a person with disabilities, making them felt accepted as one of normal us being the most diffucult. Stubborn sometimes, but generally Marco is an easy going person, even for newly met friend. He is not as self-protective or over-sensitive like I first thought, but I try to be careful with my words or when offering help anyway.

He smile but never laugh like this. Jisu, do you start a joke, like “Neal’s van left open but no one’s going to steal it anyway?” Marco can’t get this picture with his own old-fashioned camera so I’m going to send him this!


Stephen is a man of patience, warm open heart and has great virtue. If he meditate right next to a chinese temple under the moonlight I will think I saw Buddha. It’s amazing how he manage to balance everything in life, almost perfectly. Nothing more, nothing less. He showed me that in life, you can actually make your own choices, like taking picture of banana-leaf dish sitting or standing up, hehe…

I guess Bindira will feel just like home here, a treat we would want to give to her or any young courageous Nepali girl. They are probably in some old pre-war shop-housese, almost a typical landmark in all small town, throughout Malaysia. The giant fridge behind is definitely older than me, and turst me, solid and heavy as it seems to be. Empty glasses arranged next to tea, coffee and milo powder, ready for next cup of teh-tarik. The stairway leading up to upper floor has higher inclination than mordern structure -- I could only think of cost saving, maximize usable space while sacrificing the safety and comfortability factor. We are not as tough as our ancestors, are we?


I was relaxing on the birdge with Swami-ji (right) and, as Inge put it, “forest man”. Those cold water piping are covered with shrubs and crawlers before the MAN slash it clean. It is weird to work right next to a Tamil temple, where Swami-ji sometimes plays Tamil song/chanting in the middle of the forest but all good. Weird, to have a priest showing us the way to nearby waterfalls, calling me “hey Padang Rengas!” instead of my name! You see, Swami-ji used to serve in a small temple opposite my primary school, helped some of my Tamil friend before and now, helping us in the workcamp!

I don’t remember throwing stones at the temple (how many 10 years old kid can throw a stone across 30 feet road?) so it must a good Karma, haha! I will see you around, Swami-ji!


Picture from John, whos love for horticulture is no secret for everyone, espcially what most poeple regards as ordinary, fern. I don’t remember seeing anyone taking this angle – John probably wanted to have those fern tree in the back depicting a perfect working environment for him? Unfortunately he can’t “adopt” one of these! But if you insist, John, Rosalind will have to take a bus home! Hehe!


Maxwell hill is just a perfect place for John to “adopt” few more fern, like this one on the table, all ready to be wheeled downhill and head straight to Kajang, Kuala Lumpur.

I hope eveyone get something as the workcamp comes to an end. I hope everyone found new motivation to continue their journey, live life to the fullest. I hope this is just a beginning of good friendship, understanding and co-operation.

天下无不散之筵席 (tian1 xia3 wu2 bu2 shan4 zhi1 ting2 xi2) -- we shall meet again, somehow, sometime, somewhere!