And a hot Orchid Garden

One of the neat thing with the new E-M1 was the bright and responsive electronic viewfinder. Coupled with the Pro standard zoom which I bought with it, manual focusing was a joy with the full-time zoom capability.

It was possible to get some really nice close-ups, and I felt that manual focussing trumped the autofocus in this situation, especially doing some still life macro works. And KL Orchid Garden provided me with ample targets to train my lens.

It's now freeThis used to be an awesome waterlilly pondNow the paths looked emptyThe orchids that were left didn't look freshThe hot weather and lack of rain however had changed the garden. They were clearly struggling to provide any nice spectacles. Even though orchids did not need much water, the lack of moisture in the air must've played havoc with them.

As a result, I spent most of my afternoon visit there snapping at other things but flowers. There were still plenty to snap at, though those colourful orchids would've been grand.

They must be really desperate that even the entrance fees were scrapped. We used to have to pay some token amount to get in during weekends. It was free last Sunday. And the place were empty as well. I used to remember that it used to be full of newlywed having their wedding photographs taken there.

How times had changed. Hopefully when the rain returns, the situation would improve. I wonder how the hot weather had affected the butterfly park .... maybe I should give that a go one of these days ....

Slideshow for the trip here.

Bird Park Slideshow

Taking the OM-D for a spin. The write-up here.

Visit to Muzium Negara

The last time we visited the Muzium Negara was when Idlan was still a toddler. 2008 if I wasn't mistaken. We didn't enter the building. We just lingered outside and Idlan remembered the locomotive parked outside the museum.

We went to the museum last Sunday afternoon and this time we entered the building and looked at the exhibits. The boys were quite interested and on the particular afternoon the place was relatively empty.

At the central hallway in between the two wingsI remembered this stairs from my schooldaysExhibit-wise, the museum was divided into four compartments over the couple of floors. Imaginatively named Hall A to D of course. Going from memory, we had the natural history exhibit, Malacca and history of early Tanah Melayu, Kesultanan Melayu and the latest one being the Merdeka exhibit.

The other exhibits were pretty standard - what you'd expect from a National Museum, but the Merdeka exhibit was rather good I thought, although I would've curated it slightly differently. They should've emphasised the actual struggle against the Malayan Union and what the real Merdeka struggle was all about rather than shoehorning and streamlining the history as if we were reading a textbook, prepared by Kementerian Pelajaran. I didn't discover anything new. There was no critical analysis. For example, what were the roles of Sir Tan Cheng Lock and Tun Sambanthan? Were they just there to make up the numbers? We would appreciate some anecdotes. Like when they stopped the negotiations to watch a football match at Wembley. Some juicy bits like that.

After all, you had to pay to see these exhibits. Please not them be propaganda instead. I knew it was only RM2 to enter, but still we had to pay.

It was definitely worth the visit, but it would take more to make me come back anytime soon.

Up KL Tower

This year, the boys' school trip would be up the KL Tower. And Idlan was afraid of heights. He had been up the tower a few times before, but always with us. Letting him loose alone next month may cause a bit of a worry, especially to Puan Anita. So, her brilliant idea today would be to take a trip there and familiarise Idlan, making sure he won't be creating a scene on his next trip.

How about Irfan? He preferred just to stay at home and play with his games. He was still recovering from the recent virus, so we wouldn't kind leaving him at home.

Apparently the restaurant up the tower had been renovated. It was now run by a different company. We didn't go to the restaurant this time, but from what vi saw on the leaflets things had changed. We went straight for the observation deck and lingered around there for almost half an hour.

The front line staffs were all Malay - not Malaysian but Malay. But the support staffs - those who manned the stores and security were all foreigners. Which defeats the purpose really as the high fees to get in put off most of the locals. Tourists being serviced by foreign workers at one of the main attraction at the capital? Should I be surprised?

Anyhow, the front line staffs were really helpful. There was a race being held there in the morning according to the posters. A race from the bottom up the tower using the stairs. Hmmm! Not my kind if race.....

At the walkways by the entrance, there was a mango exhibit taking place for the weekend. Unfortunately, there was not much left on the Sunday afternoon. After all, the Menteri and the likes had been and gone. No point showing their wares to the actual punters. Sad fact! But even the staffs there admitted to that.

After we were done walking around, we caught the sign that there would be a path leading up to the tower entrance through the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve. It was still being built, but I'm sure it would be grand once it was completed. I would definitely be giving it a visit, although Anita insisted on doing the path from the top of the hill downwards. Not the other way round.

It turned out to be a good day out actually. With the hot weather, we could do with a nice drink right after. So, we headed straight to Pavilion.