莲花池
莲花（英文名：Lotus flower）是多年生水生植物。根茎（藕）肥大多节，横生于水底泥中。叶盾状圆形，表面深绿色，被蜡质白粉覆盖，背面灰绿色，全缘并呈波状。叶柄圆柱形，密生倒刺。花单生于花梗顶端、高托水面之上，有单瓣、复瓣、重瓣及重台等花型；花色有白、粉、深红、淡紫色或间色等变化。
还是第一次那么近距离接触到莲花。
五月的某天，是突然的安排和决定要去靠近Merlimau莲花池一趟。觉说莲花盛放的时候是很漂亮的。虽然不知道莲花的花语是什么，也不知道莲花代表什么，但是那鲜粉红的花瓣，黄黄的中心，给我的感觉是活跃、满足、快乐。但愿在看着这篇文章的你们也一样。幸福，快乐。
五月的莲花照：
五月。天空
莲花池隔壁的河流
五月莲花
专注的觉
觉： 人生似如莲花般吧？
一直和我一起在马六甲摄影的觉，谢谢你让我看到很多很美好的画面
谢谢觉，谢谢那天载我们去的 Wee-Peng 和 Meng-Hong。
Meng-Hong at a coffee shop in Ipoh (photo credit: Cinda)
巴刹楼上的食肆都各自为政，就连桌椅都形形色色，务必要让客人一眼认出，仅此一家，别无分号的吸引力。当我们选择了要吃的食物后，就必须坐在有该档子记号的位子，否则，他是不会帮你把食物送到别的“地盘”去。
公公爱坐在一间点心档享用早餐。偶尔我和妈妈去巴刹，就会遇到公公一盅两件，手舞足蹈地和朋友们聊天。然后他会唤我们过去，说是要请我们，免费吃早餐。有免费的早餐吃我固然开心，所以刚开始遇到公公时，心里都很雀跃。但后来渐渐发现，那间点心档附近没有我爱吃的面，跑到老远去叫了食物，老板却摇手拧头地不愿送去那里，害我只能闷着吃糯米鸡，喝着不搭配的普洱。
自此之后，我都在心里偷偷默许着，希望下次再去巴刹时，不会和公公碰上。这样，我就能坐在那些面摊前，吃着我要吃的食物。荏苒，我逐渐长大，鲜少陪妈妈去巴刹，也没碰上公公，直到公公去世，我想到再也没机会和他吃早餐，心里不免悲戚。
而今早，我和外子到久违的巴刹去，踏上楼梯的那一刻，仿佛瞥见一个熟悉的老人恣意地喝着普洱，高谈阔论，然后唤我过去，情切如故。
瞬间，眼泪婆娑。
文：刘美君（芙蓉），刊登于星洲日报副刊
踏上武来岸山的感觉超棒 (连鞋子也断了^^)
武来岸山（Broga Hill）也称茅草山，因为山顶上尽是茅草和一块块的大石头。
那天相约了Kok-Liang, Tracy, Meng-Hong, Lawrence, Hock-Hwee, Yi-Xian 和我到武来岸山一趟。听姐姐说那里的天空很漂亮、日出很美、空气特别清新，所以决定好要去。还是第一次天还没亮，就起床准备爬武来岸山。大家都兴致勃勃的，我想大家都很期待这一次爬山的旅程吧！
从蕉赖加影大道出发。之后再取加影SILK大道直接通往士毛月（Semenyih）。到了士毛月后，跟着武来岸路牌指示，只要顺着路牌指示，其实并不难找到武来岸。武来岸山入口处是一片油棕园，其对面是一间白兔园。
我们在40分钟完成攻顶任务。武来岸山虽然没有人造梯级，某些地方还得四肢并用。这次的爬山任务都很成功！大家互相帮忙等待对方，依我看，这次的爬山旅也可以成为友谊之旅咯!
The street of Chinatown of Bangkok
The last day in Bangkok before we departed to Krabi, Boon-Huat and Wei-Seong left us back to Malaysia in the morning and didn’t join us to Krabi. Wee-Peng, Meng-Hong and I would not want to waste our last morning in Bangkok, so we decided to get to the Chinatown of Bangkok, one of earliest Chinese community’s areas in Thailand.
Meng-Hong (left) and Wee-Peng at a Chinese lanterns stall in the Chinatown of Bangkok.
Originally a community of Chinese traders relocated and settled here in Chinatown from Rattanakosin (the old City) in the 1700’s, and continues their own traditions and religious practices. The area is quite unlike the rest of Bangkok, relatively untouched by modern development. To us, it seemed like a little Hong Kong with Chinese businesses and Chinese characters’ signboards everywhere and it was not difficult for us to shop for Chinese goods.
Jewelry and gold shops and pawnshops are very popular in today’s Chinatown and can be found almost anywhere. Besides, there are also morning markets with stalls selling garments, textiles, stationery, souvenirs, second-hand parts and equipment, electric goods, computer parts, antiques, imported musical instruments, and local delicacies at a bargain, often at wholesale prices. We had packed up our belongings and so we didn’t plan to buy anything, but to do a leisurely stroll through the morning market.
Another common sight in Chinatown is Chinese food stalls. These stalls set up by the roadside offer a wide variety of quick inexpensive meals or popular Chinese food from simple bowls of noodles and soup to grilled meat, fresh seafood, sweet cakes and the locals’ favourite roasted chestnuts. Though we had a very simple breakfast at one of these food stalls of bread with condensed milk and teh tarik (literally pulled tea), and they were really sweet. Thais are really strong-flavour lovers.
It was only a half day tour in Chinatown then we headed off to the airport and took a flight to our next destination, Krabi. The whole trip in Bangkok for 4 days was so fun and pleasurable to witness and experience the Thai’s culture and customs, Songkran water festival, the Red Shirts, shopping, nightlife and people-watching. May the people in Thailand find peace and be happy. 🙂
Some of the photos I took in Chinatown of Bangkok:
Chatuchak weekend market - a boy was doing double "teh tarik"
Taking a break from all the temples, we decided to do some shopping to the Chatuchak weekend market, the largest market in Thailand. The market is sprawling 35 acres and comprised of more than 15,000 shops stalls. It’s perhaps one of the largest weekend markets in the world too. Though it is not available everyday, Chatuchak weekend market opens on Saturday and Sunday, and it’s believed to attract over 20,000 of visitors each day. Fortunately we had a weekend in Bangkok when we could visit the market.
AA less fortunate child and his mother at the Chatuchak weekend market
Chatuchak weekend market is a shopping paradise! There is a huge range of products including household items, books, trendy clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and live animals. We were surprise to see how huge the market is and the varieties of merchandise sold there, nearly everything under the sun. Like a sea of infinite possibilities, we navigated through Chatuchak’s army of stalls and tried not to get ourselves disoriented. Sarcastically, almost all of what we had bought and had seen in our shopping for first few days in Bangkok and Pattaya could be found from the market and at good bargain too.
We would prefer to have cheap street food than classy and expensive restaurant’s meal. Hence Chatuchak weekend market would be our best choice to have our lunch. The foods offered are very variety and cheap. Thais are strong-flavor lovers which results their foods or drinks being usually sweeter, and more spicy, sour, and salty than other cuisine, yet delicious. So we started our feeding frenzy there. Within 2 hours, we had a bit of everything including fried chicken, spicy stir fried pork, meat and fish balls, satay, mango sticky rice, pineapple, coconut juice, teh tarik, iced blended coffee, durian ice-cream, snacks and much more.
Chatuchak weekend market is one must never missed in Bangkok. It was totally worth our time to discover that its wealth of culture provides for good opportunities to make wonderful finds. The market too attracts a colorful crowd of hawkers, tourists, beggars, street artists which provided me with interesting sights for photo taking:
Gate to the Grand Palace
Being the capital city of a Buddhist country means that Bangkok is full of some of South East Asia’s finest temples. Therefore our visit to Bangkok would not be complete without seeing some of these famous temples (Wats in Thai). On the second day and fourth day in Bangkok, we visited a couples of temples:
Boon-Huat, Wei-Seong and Wee-Peng at the steep stair of Wat Arun's central prang
These temples we visited are the spiritual part of the capital’s heart and soul and each of the temples is unique like no other as the architecture and decoration are awe-inspiring. It would be good to share the story of each temple together with the photos I took after the jump:
Hi! I am CJ, blogger of Juesatta and photographer of CJ Photography.
I love and enjoy photography, thus make me a lifestyle wedding photojournalist and portrait photographer based in Melaka, a lovely town full of history and characters in Malaysia.
Wedding is the sweetest thing of one’s life because it celebrates love, therefore I have always been passionate for capturing beautiful, natural and romantic wedding day images of moments for couples to be cherished a lifetime.
Drop me an email cj@cjfen.com and will be great to hear from you!
