MIFC - 30 August (31 August) 2007

Another night again at the MIFC. This time around the event is held on the eve of Hari Merdeka, many people will be there to see the fireworks competition. I took a days leave not because of the wanting to be there but my children are also having their school holiday.

We started our journey to Putrajaya very early.. 6.30 p.m. and by the time we reach PICC at 7.00 p.m there were already photographers placed their tripods at the Mezzanine floor getting ready to photo shoot the fireworks event which starts at 12.00 p.m. Yeah.. you read right 12.00 p.m. 5 hours of waiting before we can start to shoot the fireworks.

The waiting finally ended when the countdown to Merdeka by the DJ and then the fireworks from Team Japan started to fire off. I did not like the photos that were captured, there was too much smoke where it interfered with the colours of the fireworks. At the same time, the fireworks pattern were too constant where the same design were fired off many many times.

After show was over we did not take off strait away home because we knew that there will be a terrible terrible jam ahead of us. So we sat in the leather sofa in PICC for almost 1 hour to rest our legs after standing for more than four hours straight.

In the end we managed to reached home at 2.00 a.m. and I woke up at 9.30 a,m. this morning but the night's (morning's) sleep was not enough I ended having afternoon naps.

Here are some of the shots I took for events.

Two shots taken before the sun sets

Happy Independence Day.. MALAYSIA!!

Merdeka!Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Happy Merdeka Wish to ALL Malaysian!!!

Flickriver - My Photos

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MIFC - 25 August 2007

I was at the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition again on Saturday. It was the turn of the Italian to show what fire power they have. This time around my children were also during the show. We left home at 7.45 p.m. , I have the feeling there will be many people flocking to Putrajaya to see the fireworks since it was a Saturday and the news of how spectacular the fireworks has been effectively been publicized. True enough, there were so many cars on the road leading to Putrajaya.

I went up to the Putrajaya International Convention Centre by paying RM10 for the parking. The car [ark was full and I knew that I have to quickly get on to the Mezzanine floor to grab a place to put my tripod and also get a good view for my children. Even though there are already many people there, we were lucky to have a spot where we can get a good view overlooking the bridge and the firing area of fireworks.

The fireworks started at exactly 10.00 p.m. The Italian have a spectacular fireworks that managed to become heart and star shape when it burst in the skies. The ending was an explosive one where all hell broke loose. The fireworks managed to light up the whole sky and the photo captured was only a plain white patch (due to the bright fireworks and long exposure time).

As usual, the traffic jam was another nightmare. This time, the jam was worse. We managed to reach home at 2.00 a.m. after supper at a nearby mamak shop.

The next big bang will be the Japanese Team on 30 August where the fireworks will start at 12.00 midnight to coincide with Hari Merdeka. I would expect a much bigger crowd then.

Here are some of the photos of the show. See many more photos are my Flickr Album.

Foreign Cows in Putrajaya

It was the worse traffic jam that I have ever experienced in Putrajaya last night (25 August) after Team Italy's fireworks display. Tried going to Dengkil.. long queue jam, turned backed to try Kajang way.. again the same result. It was almost one hour of circling around that me and my children finally ended back at the PICC and was driving towards the Government offices. Suddenly we saw a bunch of aliens.. alien cows.

Colourful painted cows at the Ministry of Agriculture. It turned out that there were 28 beautifully coloured "European" fiberglass cows that were part of a tour of Malaysia starting at the Putrajaya.

The cows – known as the European Union Herd of Cows – are painted by artists and school children using typical national symbols for each country in the union. Each cow weighs around 300kg.

We could not help ourselves and stopped at the place for snap shots.

Look into my eyes

One of the shots taken during my trip to the KL Bird Park on 19 August 2007.

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition - 22 August 2007

The Australian Team took the stage on 22 August 2007 for the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition. This time around I bought a ticket which entitled me to be at the Ground Floor of the PICC which is one floor above where I stood during the first night of the competition on 18 August 2007. There were many people who came to Putrajaya to see the fireworks. Many of them were at PICC but most of them were scattered all over the Putrajaya grounds.

The nice thing about being on the ground floor is that I am able to listen to the soundtrack that accompany the fireworks where the sound and the fireworks would synchronize with each other. The full fireworks show lasted 20 minutes. The Australian team's fireworks was spectacular. I would say that it is better than the Malaysian Team. But there are still 2 other teams (Japan and Italy) to compete when the final results would be known.

Here are 15 of the best shots taken during the event.

The finale of the show where all hell (fireworks) broke loose!!!

The bird which love to pose

This was the bird which was not camera shy at all and love to pose when I was shooting at it. See the different way it head and eyes were:

Fire at Red Dragon Hostel (formerly Rex Cinema)

I was on my way to have breakfast at Petaling Street when we saw smoke coming out of the roof of the former Rex cinema in Jalan Sultan. Within minute, a fire and rescue truck has arrived. My son who have not witness a building fire was curious about the incident. At the same time, I have my camera with me, it would be interesting to take some photos of the incident.

The Red Dragon Hostel which was once the landmark of the Rex cinema in Jalan Sultan is the place of accommodation for backpackers. All of them managed to flee the place with their items and most of them were seen at the side of the place when the fire occurred.

I can still remember and have told my son that the former Rex cinema was a frequent place that I go to watch shows after school. But the original Rex cinemawas operated by the Shaw Brothers was burnt down in early 1970s. At the time during the incident, the last show that the cinema was showing was "Gone in 60 seconds". The Rex cinema was then really burnt down within 60 seconds. The cinema was then rebuilt and commence for business in 1976 where it was equipped with the best cinema equipment in town and once again there were many patrons to the cinema. However, with the video boom back in the 80's, the number of patrons started to lessen, the cinema was closed in 2002. The Rex cinema was then turned into a hostel instead.

The fire was brought down within an hour and there were many on lookers there which include me and my son.

Here are some of the photos taken during the incident.