Spring at Osaka & Kyoto, Japan

Posted on November 2, 2017 by ahevaeva

March/April 2017.

I’ve yet touched down this amazing land my whole life, and everyone who knew I’m heading there already warned me that once you did, you will fall in love. That’s true. That’s really true. I’m back with my heart so full.

Since parenthood hits me, I’ve always there, stand by for my daughter. It’s been a very tough period for us, as to cope with a new life, with all the new priorities. We felt that this vacation is really important for us, to have a good break, enjoy meal time slowly, walk slowly or to just staring at the river empty minded. In other words, to just feel the luxury of just being alone, the two of us. I’ve been always looking forward to this trip, yet missing our daughter back home. But everything is alright and I knew she’s in good hands. Turn out, she enjoyed herself so much that she never look for daddy or mummy for the whole 9 days. 🙂

Back to Japan, we touched down Osaka hoping to have Sakura welcome us, but…NONE. There isn’t any. Apparently, the forecasts are a bit off this year due to the extraordinary weather. It’s still raining hard and extremely cold! We aren’t preparing for this. It can go down to 3 degrees at night and extremely cold and windy when it’s rain. Anyway, we still hope for the best for at least a glimpse of the Sakura before we leave. And 2-3 days before we fly off back home, we finally catch a glimpse of it. 🙂

Tired from the overnight flight. But, hello Osaka!

Everything looks really appetizing in Japan!

Night at Dotonburi.

Long queue, always and forever.

We spent our days at two cities, Osaka and Kyoto. Needless to say, Kyoto is amazing. Osaka is pretty cool as a city, but to me, Kyoto indeed mesmerizing! We spent a day in Osaka once we touched down, then headed to Kyoto the next day. First stop, we went to the Suntory Yamazaki distillery. Amazingggg experience!

Let’sssss GO!

That’s me on the other side. With my luggage. We can’t wait for the whiskey tasting. No time to check in yet. Haha.

The whiskey lover. While I’m not a fan of alcoholic drinks myself, I find it worth every penny for it. I enjoyed myself very much. Do make a reservation here preferable weeks before for the tour.

While this located nearby our Airbnb, whenever we pass by it’s always a long queue. We checked online to find out it’s serving some fancy desserts.

Wrong focusing, but plenty of people taking wedding/couple/family portraits by dressing traditional kimono here.

Sakura oh sakura. Why aren’t you blooming yet.

All the yummy food at Nishiki market. We literally stop by there every day. To grab some Oden, snacks and some yummy sashimi.

And for cheap lunch, drop by these small udon place.

Good hot coffee is very much needed on this cooling spring weather.

My view.

His view.

Hello, Fushimi Inari Taisha. Ticked one off the bucket list.

We are up! Worth all the steps!

Golden hour.

The sunsets are particularly amazing that day. It’s so beautiful.

Next day we head up to Arashiyama.

The well-known bamboo groove. Despite the busy crowd, it’s actually pretty cooling walk around here.

It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited.

Connected from the bamboo groove, we walk over to this amazing view. It’s all sakura’s buds. Can’t wait for it to bloom. It’s going to be so mesmerizing.

I would definitely come back for a visit in the future for this view. Autumn season would be great as well.

Since it’s a peak season, it’s so crowded, but it’s still worth our visits. We spent almost the whole day there and we enjoyed to slowly stroll around and just enjoy the scenery.

% Arabica Arashiyama. It’s such a longggggg queue! We can’t get a chance to taste it because it’s raining soon. Maybe next time perhaps?

Hi handsome 😀

On our “romantic train ride”. The Sagano Scenic Railway.

My picture can’t justify the journey. It’s breathtaking.

Since it’s a romantic ride, we shall have a picture together. 😀

No planning for the day. We just explore the Kyoto town with our small bike!

One of the oldest coffee shops. The old couple owners are really friendly and cute too.

We sit down there, by the river. To day-dream.

Catch a glimpse of the Sakura finally! But sadly we are leaving Kyoto already.

The big man with a small bicycle.

We are so heavy hearted to leave Kyoto. I love this city. 🙂

And we are back to the busy Osaka city!

Good morning, Kuromon Market.

I can’t believe we visited this Instant Ramen Museum. HAHAHA. And we queue to DIY our own instant ramen! Hahaha. But that’s because it’s a rainy day, so we got no place to go. Hmm.

The final full day in Osaka. So we visited the castle.

Hanami.

SAKURASSSS!

The weather is great that day.

Thank you Osaka. You’ve been really great too.

Japan, we will definitely be back.

This series were taken by using Canon F-1, Canon AE1, Lomo LC-A+ and LC-Wide loaded with various films.

p/s: It’s been awhile since the last I shoot with films. It’s strange and unpredictable. I like this feeling. 😉

Love,

Eva Eva

The Lion City

Posted on April 3, 2015 by ahevaeva

As I remember, we went to Singapore January or February last year. Haha. Well, we took a long weekend break at Singapore and kinda do nothing but just walk around the city and chill.

It’s my first visit to Gardens by the Bay and it was spectacular. We just walk around the garden and snap some pictures. It was really windy that day. We kinda enjoy ourselves very much to just chill and relax by the garden.

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It’s polka dots kind of day 😀

We went to the colorful Haji Lane as well. I’ve always love this lane. It’s more or less like our Bangsar, with so many indie fashion brands as well as cafes. So we kinda just walk around and have a good cup of coffee.

We are the 1984 kid 🙂

Other than that, we went to Chinatown and it’s so crowded due to it’s before Chinese New Year. But pretty interesting, there’s so many snacks and decorations items as well as some street performance.

I manage to meet up with Hakimbo, my colleague during my Lomo days and we had a great conversation over the coffee near Orchard. Besides that, I’m glad that my brother is there to host us and bring us around for good food as well.

Open mouth 😀

This series of images taken by Canon F1 and LC-Wide.

Bye Singapore. See you soon.

Love,

Eva Eva

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

The Ancient Yogyakarta

Posted on May 8, 2014 by ahevaeva

I’ve never heard of this place before a friend of mine, whom an avid traveller and in love with all the ancient and historical places, Miss Ah Lin, told me so. She suggested that we should visit this city of tolerance. Therefore, 8 of us, head to the ancient city of Indonesia, Yogyakarta!

A short trip from 24th – 27th Oct 2012, it’s my very first visit to Indonesia. Everything seems to be overwhelming to me. The food, the places, the people, the culture, the language (even though I speak Melayu, but something is different from Bahasa Indonesia with our Bahasa Malaysia), the dim light, the street graffiti, the historical monument and everything else. It’s a beautiful town.

We went to Borobudur Temple, Prambanan, Merapi Volcano, Gua Pindul, stroll along at night at Malioboro street and few other city attractions. To me, nothing beats Borobudur in Yogyakarta. We are deeply regretted that we doesn’t wake up earlier to watch the sunrise at Borobudur. Anyways, I had fun in this trip with my bunch of friends and some new friends. 🙂 Oh, and in order to respect the temple, we should avoid short sleeves and shorts. They do provided some “kain batik” on the entrance anyway.

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Pictures taken by LC-Wide, LC-A, Fisheye Baby 110 and Canon AE-1. I basically wasted the 2 rolls I shoot using Canon AE-1 in this trip due to the wrong filter and the light that leaks the wrong way. Sigh.

Till then, see you again soon, Indonesia!

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Love,

Eva Eva

My Tungsten Affair (Film)

Posted on April 25, 2014 by ahevaeva

The calm after the storm, that’s how I feel today. It’s particularly hot today, perhaps it’s because of the pouring Thursday whole day yesterday. Anyways, here’s the series of my work using the amazing Tungsten film. The hot weather now remind me of the wonderful scene captured by the Tungsten film.

What the hell is Tungsten film? It’s a super fine grain film with ISO 64. You may achieve a very purplish and sometimes pink or blue(?!!) when you cross-processing the Tungsten film. And for more accurate explanations about the film, please check out this link.

I tried one roll on the expired Fuji T64 Tungsten (35mm, 64ISO) once before and it’s very very greenish! It’s not up to my liking and since then I never tried another roll. But, it’s rather a different story for Lomography x Tungsten film! I amaze by the beautiful shades of purple and pink. It’s rather sweet and work really awesome under the bright sunlight with LC-A or LC-Wide under ISO100. But sad case, it’s not producing anymore, and that means this gem will distinct anytime soon. 😦

Well, what remains, still beautiful. Here’s my Tungsten affair and cheers to the sweet shades of purple!