At the Movies

After breakfast, Anita hatched an idea that we should go out to watch a movie. The vote was 3 against 1. Irfan wasn't keen. For him, the whole idea of the holiday was to stay at the hotel and never having to go out ...

After much persuasion and bribe, he agreed and we went to watch Guardians of the Galaxy. It turned out to be much better than we thought, although the dialogue may not be really suitable for young children. Some ample use of swearword and sexual innuendos were about ....

We left the theatre rooting for Groot, the plant character in the movie.

The theatre was located at a shopping mall along Gurney Drive. Anita went to do some shopping afterwards, while Irfan demanded his bribe .... We ended up staying until about 6 pm, back in time for dinner.

First Impression

When it comes to hotels, first impression could mean everything. It could be the maker or the breaker. So, we were expecting great things from Eastern & Oriental when we landed there yesterday, and we were not disappointed. In fact, for Puan Anita, she was impressed the moment she first set foot. As for me, I needed some warming up. The reception lady looked at me with a certain look when I arrived, and I got the distinct feeling that she was sizing me up. Especially when I booked for four nights ....

We booked at the Heritage Wing, the older and more exclusive site. Not exactly the most expensive room, but all the rooms at that particular wing didn't come cheap. They were all suites, and the key word when I opened the room door - no, I did not open the door, the butler did - was opulence.

Where we sat at whil being checked into our roomThe grand old staircaseAnita exploring the room of course. Before things get messy!Everything screamed antiques and quality. The butler took time to explain the workings of the rooms and the services provided.

We then went for a late lunch at one of the cafe - named after the Armenian brothers who built the hotel - Sarkies. Idlan went straight for the sirloin and scones. My God, it was gorgeous. Me? I had some laksa .... Old school ....

Time for a late lunch at SarkiesIdlan in his elements after ordering his steakSnap courtesy of IrfanThen came the photography session. I had to compete with a couple of Chinese couples doing their wedding photography there. There was a small patch of grass where my boys duly ran on. We went combed through the hotel looking at all the decorations and and services.

There were a couple wings at the hotel, the traditional one which we stayed at - called The Heritage Wing - and a more recently built Victory Wing, six floors with a car park.

Time to explore the rest of the hotelMaking our way across the compoundAlong the marbled corridorAt our wing, we had our private pool on the ground floor. I sampled it yesterday evening while waiting for dinner - it was room service. Nice relaxing laps while enjoying the sea breeze and the sound of crashing waves.

We left the windows opened during sunset to listen to the waves. Unfortunately the hotel faces the north part of the island. One had to venture outside to see the sunset. But we did face the sunrise this morning. So, GoPro to the ready tomorrow morning .....

Setting Off

Finally, the packing was done. But not before realising that a few things were amiss - such as my pants. That meant a stop in Gombak before setting off proper.

We finally rearranged the seating in the MPV - losing the last row and pushing back the middle row - into a four seat configuration. The boys actually ended up sleeping on the floor!

The journey back to Penang was a smooth one, although the stops were still pretty packed. We decided against making any pit stops, a straight drive to Penang, via the new bridge. We were already at the hotel by 3.30.

The room was already ready, and before we knew it, we were already unpacking. More about the rooms later ...

The Track

I had still to use my Fenix 2 for fitness. With the combination of busy days and hazy weather, I had yet to take the watch out for a spin.

Maybe I would be using it a lot more when I walk in Penang. With my camera of course. Hopefully the weather there would be nice ....

So, once the watch record the walk, the data would be uploaded into the cloud and could later be shared using a GPX file format. That way, you could open it in Google Earth, or in this case, an app called ConnectStat. You can then track your activity at the click of a button.

Experiment!

The walk around Bukit Bintang this morning was a first for a couple of things. First it was the first proper walk with my brand new Fujinon lens, the amazing XF 56mm f1.2. On the X-T1, it translated into an 85mm on the 35mm full-frame conversion. Ideal for portrait, and in my case, a great length for street candid.

The wide aperture would help to isolate the subject while throwing some serious bokeh in the mix. I only managed around 50 snaps this time as I was out for some errands. I would definitely be using this a lot more during my Penang trip this weekend.

The second first was using my fenix 2 GPS watch for photo geotagging. It was a success.

As soon as I left Pavilion where I parked my car, I switched on the GPS tracking - after synchronising the time on the watch and the clock on the camera of course - and just fired away.

I left the GPS tagging on for more than an hour. It lost the signal every time I went indoor, but soon locked on again the moment I stepped out. No need to touch the watch at all. It did the hunting automatically.

At the end of the walk, I still got 92% power registered on the watch. I then downloaded the GPX data onto my laptop - can also be done through cloud synching - and booted up my usual geotagging program, Photolinker. Let the program pair the photos and location as registered on the time stamp together and everything was hunky dory.

Definitely useful if I was abroad, as the watch also used the satellite data to set the time. Again, more experimentation this weekend in Penang.