When you want a piece of Disneyland in Bolehland, you have got to brave the jams, the kayas & the teh tarik rivers that threaten to overflow its banks every time it rains, to get to a place where it’s set to be capital city of Malaysia. Putrajaya had a name-change from Perang Besar back in 1995 when the government acquired the land to build the megalomania of structures which turned out to be rather phenomenal as the place is shaping to be the new city. The members of Chiaroscuro, an Olympus Users Club, set out to meet at the lake opposite the event proper but none of us got to meet up because of the traffic congestion. So each of us had to make do by planting ourselves in whatever ground with a view to capture the magnificent pyrotechnics display.
Getting by a 2-hour jam from KLCC wasn’t my idea of a fun night but I got there in time to squeeze Pammobile into a tight spot, clamour my gear & tripod & dashed to the field adjacent to the lake which was about 500m away & fired away. Everyone was for themselves that night. Long live the Olympians! Blu was at the ferris wheel watching with his kids, Superman was anchored somewhere down the lake, Ciklee & LKM were caught somewhere in between, and I was positioned in a housing area!!! Team Australia performed a spectacular show with their fireworks & I will be heading out there to watch Team Japan on the eve of Merdeka. Well, hope you like my rendition of what you might feel when you live in a world full of jam & chaos & relive your childhood by being in a place that resembles your memory of Disney in your homeland.
More pictures here.
For something that we so take for granted, having a cow come up to you & gently head butt your legs to throw you off balance while you are seated on a fallen palm tree was totally unexpected. Touching a cow was far from my list of to-dos but since I couldn’t escape from this enthusiastic & adorable calf, I thought I should pat it anyway. And pat it, I did. He felt good & started to lick my ankles while I felt good for having touched my first cow!!! And I had the armed forces, government officials, police & kampung folks watching with amusement as they witnessed the conversation I had with the juvenile.
pummkin: “Hello??? Whatchu doing???”
Cow: *push push nudge nudge*
pummkin: “Oh! You want to go under my legs???”
Cow: *pauses, looks at me with big, big eyes & continues to nudge*
pummkin: “Ok, ok, I have a camera here, see?? This is an Olympus E510! With live preview! You want me to take your picture???” *attempting to stop the cow from throwing me overboard…”
Cow: *stares……at me & camera*
pummkin: “Ok, good. Now say cheese….!”
The whole event was an experience that I would have etched forever. Sibu island is beautiful. A lawn mowed by cows. Hundreds of them. And this cow here with crocs has not even seen a meadow this size with coconut trees. Let alone touch a cow. I wonder what’s next……ducks, maybe??? 
I got back from four days of hopping the islands of Johor & covered five islands in that duration, making friends & absorbing the culture of the people of the south while fulfilling my quest to cover the event both on land & underwater. The article will be published in Virtual Malaysia magazine. Before I can settle into work, I have to depart again for another marathon week of diving & will only surface after the 12th. I will not elaborate much here yet because I haven’t got the time to attend to my other articles but here’s what I took at a fishing bay in Mersing last week…..
