Bali – The Land of A Thousand Temples and A Million Smiles

Posted on August 2, 2014 by ahevaeva

Bali, my favourite place in Indonesia. I spent my 28th & 29th birthday on the exactly same place, with the same person, and it was beautiful.

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For those who never been to this place before, you can find almost everything here, from peaceful greenery paddy field to the superb happening kuta & legian street, from visiting the volcano as well as indulging into some extreme water sports. Oh, and and yes it’s a great spot for surfer! Aww, I’m in love. 🙂

My first trip to the island is on Nov 2012, and because it’s my first trip, I went to the whole island (ermmmm, maybe only half) for sight seeing. It’s crowded. Mostly all the tourist spots are so crowded with tourist. Except for the peaceful Ubud. Unfortunately, it’s raining season in Nov, so I was basically spent my first few days in car travelling from one place to another, or in a hotel, resting. Anyways, I manage to grab some really nice nasi campur with super romantic ambience around here in Ubud. I had a great 28th peaceful-birthday here. Then we head to Kuta and spent the rest of our days there. Kuta, it’s a whole different story! We hardly find someone around Ubud, even the resort we are staying are small and less crowded. It’s really really quiet. While on the other hand, Kuta, it’s a wonderful world! Hahaha! I’m stunned and shock for a little while once I step onto this town. It’s superb happening! There’s pubs and disco along the street with a lot of gwai zai and gwai mui (foreigner), whom mostly I guess are from Australia and at around age 18-21, whom dress up very little, ehem (both boys and girls :D) and walking by the street with a bottle of beer on hand. I’m impressed with the nightlife at this small but happening Kuta! We had night ride around this area and it can be really congested during the weekend, but fun! Other than that, it’s easy to find a good massage place around here too and we basically reward ourselves with balinese massage to end our night, every night. Well, we basically do nothing here in Kuta except surfing, sleep by the beach and make some new friends and that’s awesome!

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My second trip happen to be on the same period, in Nov 2013, during my 29th birthday. This time, we went nowhere except Kuta. No more sight-seeing, no more tourist spots, only for food and beach and that’s it. That’s all I want for my birthday. We basically do nothing everyday. Sleep by the beach, surf a little, make some new friends and meet up with the old friends we met last year. They remember us, and that feeling is pretty cool. 🙂 Went to search for good food and good coffee place, it’s really great to do nothing basically. 😀 Oh, and the best meal I ever had in Bali would still be at Warung Nuri’s Pork Rib. And another beautiful spot would be the place I spent my birthday eve; Rock Bar at Ayana Resort. It’s a beautiful night and I had a lot of fun. 🙂

I guess I might not going back to Bali anytime soon but I do miss Bali a lot. Till I see you again, Bali.

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This series taken by Lomo LC-A, Lomo LC-Wide, Fisheye Baby 110, Belair 6×12, Canon F1 loaded with various films.

Love,

Eva Eva

Darling Wong

Posted on May 15, 2014 by ahevaeva

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls.

Let me introduce you, my family latest addiction of the happy human being a.k.a the king of the family – Darling Wong Mun Lok. Yes, “Darling” is his english name as per created by his beloved mom – my sister – Lemoon Lai. Haha, no, just kidding. But we called him either “Darling” or “Lok Lok” or “Wong Mun Lok” or sometimes I will call him “Fan Shu” (sweet potato) hahaha, because he looks innocent all the time. My nephew is now at his 16 months old and growing tall, strong, big eater and naughty at the same time. He loves to smile and he’s really cheeky sometimes.

Darling Wong Mun Lok

Here I can sum up a 15 facts of this little potato boy as a yiyi (aunt) perspective:

1) He speak cantonese and english. “nggg moi” is his first spoken cantonese word which means “Don’t want” & “No”. He often “nggg moi” by turning his head left and right together with his hand. Haha, darn cute. And he know how to speak “ba”, “mummm mumm”, “ball” & “there” while pointing to the place he wanted to go as well. And he mumbles all the time. I bet he will be very talkative when he grows up.

2) His favourite toy is a soccer ball & balloons. He enjoy kicking the ball, and kissing balloons all the time. Other than this, he loves playing with car car and sometimes music instruments like piano, guitar and drum. I guess he might be growing up to be either an athlete or a musician. 😀

3) He loves eating. He eats all the time! He’s skinny, but he has very huge tummy. Whenever we eat, he will run towards and wanna have a bite. Or two, or until your plate is empty. Small kid, huge appetite.

4) He enjoys clapping hand. And he always invite everybody to do it together. Haha!

5) He had one smelly pillow where he can’t take his hand off that pillow and he enjoy biting it rigorously.

6) He enjoys listening to “Gangnam Style” by PSY.

7) He’s grumpy like his mom and naughty like his dad.

8) He’s pretty generous as he will feed us with his snacks when we asked for it.

9) He kissed each and everyone of us on the cheek when we request him to “kiss kiss”. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

10) His favourite pastime is dancing and singing. He move his hand, and shake his head and body when he listen to music and he “sing” when we pass him the mic!

11) He nod when he wants something or when he mean “yes”.

12) He have almost a complete set of teeth now 😀

13) He put his toy-phone or our smartphone under his neck nearby his ear and say “arrrlowww”.

14) He enjoys companion. He’s happy when there’s visitor visiting him and unwilling to sleep when he know there’s visitors around. Oh and he say “ooi” (his version of hi) with one hand raised to everyone he saw, the security guards, his neighbour and the laundry aunty too! 😀

15) He enjoys stealing people’s smartphone and sometimes accidentally invite the contact of the phone for some Facetime session. He once called sis’s boss for that. Haha, laugh die me. And he knows how to unlock your phone. Don’t play play.

I guess I can keep this list running really long. Maybe I will updated this again few months later when he grew bigger, when he learned more words. He’s less grumpy now and very friendly. He brought tremendous joy to our Wong-Lai (Pineapple!!!?hahaha) family! And in a blink of an eye, he’s so big now. 🙂

Look alike 😀 Small version of Lemoon! The happy popo 🙂 I’m not sure is there any underage readers here so, I have to masked the private part. Haha!Opps! Don’t hate yiyi ah, darling. You look so sexy 🙂 Happy darling playing hide and seek with us! 😀 Darling Wong Mun Lok Me and my smelly. Yummmms. Darling Wong Mun Lok & popo Aiyoooooo! Ok! What do you want darling? We will buy that for you because of this smile!Munch munch munch. Enjoy eating his snacks before his supper is served.“Hou yeh!” Finished my snacks. Clap hand please.

Had this spontaneous photo-shooting session with this kid last weekend and it’s such a joy capturing him! 🙂

I love you, Darling Wong. Please grow up healthy and be a “darling” always and forever.

Photo taken by Canon MkIII with 50mm f1.4.

Love,

Your “yiyi” Eva.

This Sums Up My MARCH 14′

Posted on April 2, 2014 by ahevaeva

This basically sums up my March. I spend some time at home, done some unfinished clutter and task. I enjoyed it pretty much, and April is going to be more challenging. I shall follow my heart, and work towards my dream. 😉

Love,

Eva Eva

Slower Steps in Taiwan

Posted on March 27, 2014 by ahevaeva

April 2013: I spent 14 days, 14 rolls of films, 4 analogue cameras, 5 cities, some savings, in return I came home with priceless moments & few extra scars!

I’ve been delaying this blogpost for nearly a year, too much to express. Haha! 😀

It was yet another spontaneous trip and it’s the longest trip for me by far. Bought the air ticket 2 weeks before the trip and booked only the first night room to stay. I’m not flying there alone, I will be with 5 other friends for one week, then another week all by myself.

2013 been a really tough year for me. As in everything I did, nothing went smooth. I need a “get-away”, to get away. Was really wanted to experience a journey to Thailand by train, but realised it’s a little bit dangerous to do it alone as I need to spent a lot of time on the train. Friends not really recommend it to do it alone as I need to overnight all by myself on the train. Then, Taiwan seems like a pretty good venue for my little get-away this time. Ok, packed my backpack. I’m excited.

I’m flying to Taipei, and overnight at Taipei on my first night at Taiwan. Taipei greets me with the rain. It’s April and it’s the raining season at Taipei. I packed some shorts, light weighted clothes as I checked the weather forecast the night before I fly here, it’d be around 24-28 degrees which make no difference on Malaysia weather. But who knows, it rains. It rains almost everyday in Taipei. And I freezing with my shorts and light clothes. Lucky I did bring along my polka dots sweater, I wore that almost everyday on this trip! Haha. Taipei is a great city. I love it despite the rain that pour down almost everyday when I’m there. I love the food as well. I enjoyed it very much. I had Taiwanese famous “Pearl Milk Tea” almost EVERYDAY! It’s selling everywhere! And it’s superb cheap. RM3 for a large size milk tea with pearl. I did not shop much even thought I visited a lot of night market, I’m with backpack this trip, it makes no extra room for shopping and I’m on a tight budget too. It’s ok Taiwan, I will be back soon with my extra huge luggage next time, with my girls perhaps. But somehow, those stuff at night market were really affordable, something very similar with Bangkok, and those street food were really delicious. Then the next day, we will be start travelling around Taiwan! With Terence Tan, a friend who travels to Taiwan 2-3 times a year consecutively for 2-3 years, he’s knowledgeable enough to bring us around without the help of travel guide.

Taipei greets me with rainy and wet weather.

First stop, Ximending (西門町)

Coffee first?

Or maybe load up some films first?

Good night 🙂

Good Morning!

Slow.

Slow slow, boy.

First stop, Luodong. Where? Luodong is such a beautiful country side of Taiwan, with less car, less traffics, beautiful paddy field and clean fresh air! I never heard of this place before, but it’s gonna be very very memorable for me. First it’s the beautiful scenery that captivates me, second is that I met a car accident and I admitted into Luodong’s Hospital Emergency Room. It’s not a major car accident, but it’s “great” enough to spoilt my journey in this beautiful country. I had stitches on my leg, hurt my knee and my head where I need to shaved a little hair for it, and throughout my whole journey on my next 13 days, I had to wear hat (to cover up my wound) and slippers along the way as my leg is pretty swollen for shoes. I had short memory loss where I asked Alex the moment I saw him when I’m at hospital, asking him “Where am I?” Just like what I saw via TVB drama. I totally can’t remember that I went to Taiwan, and everything I saw was really dull and almost in grey color. They said I shocked after the accident that’s why I loss some memory. But I appear to be very calm. Anyways, I discharge from the ER and we went to Hualien by taxi. It’s actually pretty “potong-stim”. I pretty much just spent my whole Hualien trip in the hotel room. That was pretty disastrous. I was wish I can take lots of photo and experience a lot of Taiwanese food/drinks/culture/hot spring/discover awesome stuff along the alley and after the accident, everything is different now, as I have to walk slowly now with my stitched leg and there’s a lot of “not-convenient” stuff happening. I need to cover up if it’s rain. Sigh. Anyway, things happen for a reason. Perhaps God wanted me to slow down my pace, to have a slower steps.

Beautiful. This place captivates me 🙂

Knot

On the way

It’s wet and cold!

So happy, so windy.

Travelled by train

After Hualien, we went to Kenting. That’s the place where I can rest but I can’t swim even though I went to the beach. Arghh! Anyways, my mood is getting better, my wound is still pain, but I can still walk around, visiting places, taking pictures. And I’m super thankful for Alex, to help me carry my backpack along the way. Thank you. 🙂

Pity Alex with two backpacks 😛

Sunny boy 😀

After Kenting, we went to Taichung. We visited some night markets and the beautiful Rainbow Village. Taichung is a busy city, but with lesser public transport compare to Taipei. We spent our night at Alex’s friend’s home. And thanks for the hospitality, we all had great rest that night.

Going to taichung 🙂

Accident overlap. First half, my injured leg. Second half, my face on Rainbow Village

Rainbow Village

Cute 😀

Leaving back to Taipei. 🙂

We went back to Taipei after this. And I spent the rest of my trip in Taipei. Alex and friends going back to Malaysia one by one. Then, I stay in a Japanese guesthouse in a dorm with other Japanese girls. (woohoo!) There, I start my own solo trip as well as met some new Japanese friends.

Terrence Tan is still around Taipei, so we kinda meet up for some sight-seeing too. I meet up with my Taiwanese friends as well. Shanti and Jeansman, my ex colleague back at Lomography whom based in Taiwan be my tour guide and bring me around, to take some pictures nearby Taichung and feed me with some nice local food. It’s a superb beautiful day, beautiful sunshine, beautiful place and great conversations. Thank you for everything, both of you. You guys indeed my fav couple!

The coastline is dotted with wind turbines, it’s beautiful!

❤

The coastline is dotted with wind turbines, it’s beautiful!

Thank you both 🙂 God bro and God sis! 😀

Besides, I manage to meet up with ccwu as well, (and his very cute and famous girlfriend – Yui) at Lomography Gallery Store Taipei together with my Malaysian friend Jeff whom happen to be at around Taipei by the time I visit Taiwan. I did meet up with Valence Sim as well, a lomo friend whom I met online (haha!) and he’s actually a Taiwanese but work and stay in Singapore. He went back to his homeland by the time I visit Taiwan, so it’s a good chance to meet up, to catch up and have a short photo-walk together. In this one week, I’ve conquer few tourists spots in Taipei as well. Some night markets, 9fen, 10fen, 101 tower, camera streets (where I manage to buy some cheap films there), old temples, beitou, Damshui Fisherman’s Wharf (oh, I enjoyed my silence moment there watching sunsets. beautiful!), some art center (somewhere similar with our very own KLPAC.) and others.

I’m glad that even though I met some obstacles in this trip but yet it ended up nicely, and (very very) memorable indeed. I definitely will be back again, there’s so many places and stuff I wanted to do but can’t do it this time, so perhaps next time?

The famous 101 Taipei.

Went to hospital for checkup on my wounds.

Finally meet you, ccwu! 🙂

Hello Jeff 😛

Hello ccwu & yui! 😀

Hello Valence!

Taiwan, I’ll see you again soon, alright?

Whole travelogue series is taken by film using Lomo LC-A, Lomo LC-Wide, Nikon FE2 (special thanks to Ronald borrowing me his camera for this trip) & Fisheye Baby 110.

*Check out my friend’s (Alex, Ahleong & Terence Cheong) blog and facebook page for our Taiwan expeditions.

Love,

Eva Eva