Antipodean @ Bangsar

One fine day, suddenly I'm craving for a big breakfast, and the usual route to McDonald seems routine and I'm longing for something different. Remember my sister and friends told me about this big breakfast place named Antipodean in Bangsar, I decided to bring my wife over for a leisure morning.

Antipodean Coffee-Cafe-Culture, located along the shoplots in the famous Bangsar clubbing area, corner shop with a good black and white colour scheme and lots of windows.

As you step into the cafe, you will be greeted by some sleek dark brown tables & chairs arranged closely to each other. The menu are drawn over the wall along the restaurant, but it's not fun for me as I'm facing the window, where I will need to twist my body half way to read it.

Photography: Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2012

My last post is 20th April 2012 and today is 11th July 2012, I've been missing in action for months, and I sincerely apologise for it. Personal life has been hectic and whoever say maintaining a blog needs only a little commitment, he/she is lying or he/she has no life.

I'm trying to pull myself together and update this more often, as this blog still serve the reason why I live my life to fullest. Lots has been accomplished recently, and I will update it one by one. Here I will go with the earlier photoshooting session I done for the 4th Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2012 event. I travelled with my best friend over in the dark morning, and both of us are happy with the results. It's great that Malaysia organise this kind of international event, really successful one. Enjoy.

As it's still early, we stop by a good spot and start shooting. Very nice architectural, proud of it.

Warning: this post is very photos heavy, so might take up your broadband quota and might be a bit slow to load.

Super Responsive New iPad!

Today 20th April 2012 is the official launch date of the new iPad (a.k.a. iPad 3rd generation). I've been eyeing for a tablet since the lost of my Galaxy Tab 10.1" and nothing is able grab my attention. I'm not really Apple fans and in fact I'm agains't it because of the control that Apple impose on their system. Pro and cons, but I'm not in favour of it. However, the retina display in iPhone 4 win everything else hands down, and I bought it on the spot earlier.

Same decision is drawing me to look at the new iPad with similar feelings 2 years ago. I've been scanning all the forums to check if there are lots of crowds and where got available stocks. I even thought of taking a day off to line up for it. Luckily I didn't, because there are no queue at certain area and there are plenty of stocks available. Right after my working hours, I make my way to Mac Studio in Bangsar Shopping Center!

Good day, not much traffic and I arrived in BSC within minutes. Made my way up to the 1st floor and there's the Mac Studio. There was a small crowd but there was no queue, nice. Made my order, signed the credit card bill, and the box was then given to me. Staff instructed me to move to the corner for inspection. Opened up, powered on and checked for screen pixelation damage. How it's done? Check this out. Everything was good, and off I went. I spent less than 15minutes there, and that was the faster way of me spending RM1,799.

Rush home and first thing to do, is mop floor =P Yea, chief commander instruction, got to do before can play =P After finish, then unboxing time!!


When the box is passed to me, I keep checking around to make sure it's the new iPad, because it's not stated anywhere! How I know if they make mistake and given me the iPad 1? No label or whatsoever, the usual minimalist design. That's how Apple do it.

I'm in love with the new iPad

If you are Apple worshipper, then you will definitely know that the new iPad is officially launching in Malaysia tomorrow. I'm not really a fans of Apple and also not a keen user for tablet, but I do have an appetite for latest shiny gadget to satisfy my envy eyes. Nothing in the market actually attract me to go get one, but the new iPad is pounding on my heart. With the iPad 2 discounted at only RM1,199 for 16GB WIFI model, should I be buying the iPad 2 instead?



Let's look at the improvement of the new iPad over the iPad 2.

1. 2048x1536 pixels Retina Display. I love the retina display in the iPhone 4, and that's the only reason that makes me buy one. The screen is incredible, and the same incredible screen on a 9.7" new iPad, of course I'm all into it! No gorilla glass here, but it got 44% wider colour gamut that the iPad 2. Also it features fingerprint resistant oleophobic coating. Don't really know what's that, but it's good to have.

2. Dual Core A5X CPU with Quad Core GPU APX comparing to the old Dual Core A5 CPU with 543MP2 GPU. Other than that, the RAM also increase from the pathetic 512MB to 1GB. Lots of people claimed that the iPad 2 is fast enough for daily usage, but with the technology moving in such a fast pace, evolution of apps to cater for more sophisticated users are inevitable. With higher performance, better and more complicated apps will be launch. It's up to budget seriously, but when owning a piece of tech, being on the up-front is important, or else why be a techie? Just watch the idiot box at home better.

3. 5MP rear camera that can also shoots 1080p HD video @ 30fps. Big improvement with features such as auto-focus, auto-exposure, stabilisation, hybrid infrared filter, and face detection. It's kind of weird to have such good camera on the new iPad because you will rarely use it as it looks awkward. But for the same price, it's good to have. Who knows what those apps developer might come out with?

Other than that, others are mainly same. Same size, same design, same factor. It's heavier by almost 50gram weighing 652g now, and also thicker by 0.6mm at 9.4mm now. There are still no memory slots, and the 4G LTE is useless for us. WIFI is standard features, and the Bluetooth is upgraded to 4.0 type with faster connection than the 2.1 in iPad 2.

New iPad 16GB WIFI is priced at RM1,499 and RM300 increment for double memory space of the previous version. 16GB might be enough for iPad 2, but for higher storage requirements to run the faster and higher resolution apps, 32GB is the only way to go. 4G model is not required, as it doesn't work in Malaysia, also 3G is available through tethering from my iPhone 4. Now I need a reason to tell my boss that I'm taking leave tomorrow =P

Kong Heng Coffee Shop @ Ipoh

This is one of the Ipoh folks all-time favourite place for food, and it's been here forever, older than myself. I don't know how old is this building, but my dad used to frequent this shop when he is still a kid. So go figure, and according to my dad, it maintained exactly the same on how they serve their food, the table, chair and etc. It's really a better place to visit if you are interested with history rather than visiting Ipoh's museum, as it's actually quite crap. Let's take a closer look at the Kong Heng Coffee Shop located in the old town.


The forever standing Kong Heng Coffee Shop lcoated in the old town part of the Ipoh and it's one of the most important nostalgic icon for Ipoh town.


How it looks like within Kong Heng, high ceiling, big column, old floor tiles, steel & wooden window, marble table and wooden chair. Amazing. You just need to take a closer look around the entire shop, it's like that since many many years ago, before I'm even born. No changes, everything is the same. Incredible.

So what's the highlight of this place? Why they can maintain the flow of crowd until today? Let's look at the food, it taste exactly same since I'm kid, and it's wonderful.

Da Tuan Yuan Restaurant @ Klang

This time around, I would like to introduce some good food in Klang town, other than Bak Kut Teh of course. Being a large town with a good number of chinese (majority hokkien), there are always good food to be found. We chinese always love foods and restaurant will just follow wherever we go.

Introducing Da Tuan Yuan restaurant located in Bandar Baru Klang. This post actually a year late, just misplace the photos until digging it out recently. I hope it's still open because it's a very nice restaurant in Klang. This place is a typical chinese restaurant that serve almost any chinese foods you can think of, and we normally call it "Tai Chow" in Malaysia. It opened up last few years ago and it's quite new.


Da Tuan Yuan restaurant is located in the commercial shoplots in Bandar Baru Klang (BBK) and it's on the 2nd phase of the shoplots development (new shoplots) area.


In good weather, they also open up more tables along the walkway and it's truly breezing with good food under the stars. Lots of table around with 2 shoplots and outdoor, but it will be packed on weekends, so go early if you don't like to wait. Let's go to food now.

Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon 2012 is coming ...

The once in a year Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon is here again and it's scheduled to held from 15th till 18th March 2012. It's a great event for families and friends, but also importantly, it's one of the major event marked in most photographer's calendar, either professional or newbie. Whoever holding a semi-pro or dSLR camera, don't miss the chance to snap some nice colourful hot air baloon photographs as part of your collection. Shame to say that I never been to this event before, going to participate this time.

The location is in Monumem Alaf Baru in Presinct 2, Putrajaya. For those that's not familiar with Putrajaya, look at the location map in their website http://www.myballoonfiesta.com/index.html. The website is rich in content, covering all the itinerary, activities, location, and etc. I copied some of it for sharing here.


Itinerary of the event, the most interesting for me would be the Hot Air Balloon Flight and the Night Glow Show & Fireworks. But it's 8-9 hours apart, what I'm going to do there??


Event map for the day, and it clearly show where to do what and etc. Good information.

Some photos extracted from the website, just wish I can get shots like these ....

Sepang International Circuit with my Fiat Coupe 20VT+

Life is suppose to be great and I love living it. I believe human are suppose to live to enjoy life, and that has been my life philosophy ever since However, nothing is free in this world. As I grow older and started to climb the career ladder, everything slowly becoming more affordable and my dream life started to come true. One of my hobby is car and everything start from the ownership of Alfa Romeo 147. I've been eyeing to get a chance to drive in the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) since then, but it needs a very deep commitment and also expensive preparation.

I didn't have a chance until 4th of February 2012. RCA organised a Prosperity Track Day at entry fees of RM350 for each car & driver, I grab the chance and register myself with my Fiat Coupe.



Sepang International Circuit is the home of the car sport in Malaysia, and I think everyone should try it at least once in their lifetime. I did my 21km marathon here last year with Energiser Night Race, but it's totally different kind of adrenaline rush standing on the paddock with my driving shoe than my running shoe. The track day start from 4.00pm till 7.00pm and we got 3 hours to burn our tyres. Great.

Reaching the track, we are brought up to the media room in 1st floor for briefing and registration. Safety briefing is given and within minutes, we are done and ready to roll.

Foh Sam Dim Sum Restaurant @ Ipoh

Everyone know what Ipoh is famous of. Pretty girls, taugeh chicken and of course, the Dim Sum as well. Growing up in Ipoh, it's part of the culture to go eat Dim Sum in the morning with the whole family, and we did just that, but only with a new member, my baby boy =)

If you are from Ipoh, then you will know the Dim Sum in other town is really bad, not that they are not good, but not as good as Ipoh. Lots of people can't tell the difference, but it's quite obvious actually. However, I don't really like to visit the Dim Sum restaurant in Ipoh, because it's always packed, there are exemption though. We go nonetheless because it's been really long time since we gather for morning Dim Sum. Choice of restaurant, the new majestic Foh San restaurant in the town. It's the most recognised name for Dim Sum around Malaysia and it's also the most packed restaurant. Holiday season, just want to enjoy the crowd sometimes =) Let's see.


It's best to have a lot of people when eating dim sum, as that's when you can order a lot of variety and test every bit of the specialty they can offer. It's pointless to eat dim sum with just 2-3 person. With an army of us, we ordered the above. So beautiful, abundance of wealth (as chinese put food as wealth. the more you put, the more wealthy you are, hehe. that's why chinese like to put mirror opposite the dining table to double the food / wealth).

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 Registration

Since my last full marathon event, my body suffered and I got into fatigue mode. Within 2 months, I fall asick for more than 4 times, and that's why taking care of own body after full marathon event is very important. I'm recovering and to keep my ownself healthy, I registered for the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 that will be held on 24th June 2012.



Early bird promotion is up till end of this month at RM55 for 21km runners, and afterwards it's priced at RM65. No reason to pay more, so whoever interested, go register now. In addition to that, something new is that now the organiser charge for issuance and delivery of hard-copy certificate for RM3.00. That's absurd in my opinion, why charge?? Electronic copy is available online, but still, weird. I want to certificate, that's why my sum is RM58 instead. Not happy.

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012 is one of the formal event for runners and the half marathon distance is 21.178km, in accordance to distance set by the regulations. As shown below, starting point is Dataran Merdeka, run towards KL Sentral, turn into Federal Highway, turn into Loke Yew, turn in Jalan Cheras, Jalan Tun Razak, Bukit Bintang, KLCC, and finally to Jalan Raja and back to Dataran Merdeka.



As we used to travel these places in cars and with the traffic jam, it seems quite far away, but that's just 21km distance, and sounds incredible to cover almsot the entire KL. If you are impress by this, try look at the 42km route, it covered basically everywhere you can think of. It's crazy, cannot believe that I actually completed the 42km last year in Penang. Maybe later this year, but now still got nightmare on earlier experience =P