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Project 365 – Week 39

Week two of our holiday came and went. We spent a good few more days snorkelling in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (not to be confused with East Malaysia, which is part of Borneo) before we returned to my hometown for yet another family event. The questions that were hovering on everyone’s lips upon seeing me were (1) “Why did you get yourself so tanned?” (Uhmm, there’s no why, just how, and I was enjoying the outdoors for a good bit in the last 2 weeks!”) and (2) “When are you getting married?” (“Honestly, I’m not in any hurry to.”) Nobody seemed to take me seriously on either in any case.

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Ceiling

23 Sep: I have been to Kek Lok Si on multiple occassions and yet somehow, I have never noticed these crystal ceiling lamps before. Not only that, I have also been missing the vibrant colours behind the chandeliers, along with the cobwebs of course. Could it be the (lack of) expectation for decorated ceilings in Asian structures that tend to be unadorned, unlike European palaces and halls that come kitted with extravagant frescoes and decorative elements? If so, I’ve been remissed.


Sunbathing

24 Sep: I’m not a sunbathing kind of girl. If I happen to be sunbathing, it’s usually because I need to keep an eye on the bags on the beach while F snorkels and chances are, my main activity apart from playing bag guard is reading. Sunbathing is the optional extra that just naturally takes place given the circumstances. That is why I come home from holidays with funny tan line, and it shows when I put on fancy-ish dresses to attend special occassions such as weddings. A person intending to work on his/her tan would never allow such atrocity to even develop in the first place!


Sunset

25 Sep: The weather had been foggy at best since we arrived in Perhentian Besar yesterday. We could barely make out the outlines of many islands not too far away (it was not a problem seeing Perhentian Kecil though) and the anticipated romantic sunset at dinner time just didn’t materialise. All these holiday time is pushing my imagination to a whole new level that when reality fails to match the little images in my head, I get disappointed. Or maybe, just maybe, because I’m now on day 3 sans internet that my brain is confused?


Perhentian Island

26 Sep: For a non-swimmer, I am rather proud of myself to have been out three days in a row to snorkel. With the aid of an inflatable buoy meant for beginner snorkeller, of course. And F. He has been a really reassuring figure by my side while we explore the sea from the surface. The underwater world here is so colourful (at one point this week, we dropped into the water only to be completely surrounded by fish!) and the unknowns exciting yet scary. My highlight of the day was floating calmly above a sea turtle that’s bigger than me!


Street art

27 Sep: We rejoined my brother in Penang and this afternoon, we checked out the street art scene in Georgetown. In the last few years, much effort has been put in to enliven the former Colonial town which was, together with Malacca, designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. The street art walk is a recent addition, commissioned in 2012 by the Penang Municipal Council. Entitled “Mirrors George Town”, a Lithunian artist called Ernest Zacharevic created a series of scenes and characters of the locals that evokes much nostalgia among the Malaysians and became instant hits!


Sunrise

28 Sep: Another shot from my brother’s apartment, this time, at sunrise. The intense colour over the Penang Bridge was simply breath-taking, and I actually did not do the scene full justice by photographing it “incorrectly”. F thinks I’ve committed multiple beginner’s error, including the failure to illuminate the houses in the bottom of the photo clearer and brighter… Well, I admit I still have a lot to learn but for now, I think this is a relatively decent attempt.


Double happiness

29 Sep: The entire household has been busy in the last couple of days, finalising all the little details for Andy and Ding Ding’s wedding today, such as affixing the character of “double happiness” to everything required for the ceremony and prayer. Last night, the family hosted a buffet dinner for over a hundred people, and this evening, some 350 had been expected to attend the actual wedding dinner. Comparing the scale between a typical Chinese wedding and a typical European one, I must admit that the Chinese version is a whole lot scarier to manage. And trust me when I said this is already “reasonable” when compared to my brother’s wedding last year…




Category: Project 365

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6 scribbles & notes

  1. med says:

    That’s a very nice sunrise photo! ;) and u went to check out the wall murals eh….these days his work is getting not quite the right attention from the local authority though…sigh…stupid govn

  2. […] her blog, Lil & Destinations, where she posts phenomenal weekly photographs (a series called Project 365), as well as writing in her clean, informative prose on all sorts of travel – most recently […]

  3. Bellanda ® says:

    Thank you for sharing… lovely photos with interesting bits of information.

    Oh, and on a side note: I totally get where you are coming from with the whole, “When are you getting married?” question. I’m two kids in and have been with my partner for over 10 years. Apparently, that question never gets old. France has a lovely thing that is called a PACS… it is a legal joining of ANY two people. We think it is a lovely solution. ;)

    Warm regards,
    Bellanda

    • Lil says:

      Thanks Bellanda, and yes, F and I are PACSed actually. Just that most people I’ve tried explaining the PACS to found it confusing and a good few ended up treating it as marriage, then wondered why we didn’t invite them… ><

  4. […] her blog, Lil & Destinations, where she posts phenomenal weekly photographs (a series called Project 365), as well as writing in her clean, informative prose on all sorts of travel – most recently […]

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