Swee Ching Photography

"Easy to climb and nice scenery". That's what I was told by my colleague. This time, Jeff took the initiative to organize this trip. To catch the sunrise, we have to leave home from Petaling Jaya at 4:30am (yawn...) After driving and getting lost with Nokia GPS (map not so updated), we finally reached Broga just before 6am. But we don't know where's the exact location to hike the hill. Following the road, we reached a small (really small) town and luckily, the local kopitiam shop has already started business, so we asked for direction from the locals. By the time we reach the starting point and started hiking, it's already about 6:30am. No fun lugging around heavy tripod and camera bag and racing against time to reach the top of the hill. Took us about 30-45 minutes to reach a location high enough to take some descent photos. Never miss a group photo! Note: Lots of mosquitoes in the morning. So wear longs exercise pants and use repellents.

Day 1 and day 2 of our trip had been very interesting. On this 3rd and last day, we chose to visit the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, Pinang Peranankan Mansion and Fort Cornwallis in the morning, as we had to drive back to KL in the afternoon. Again, we were not able to visit Cheong Gatt Tze Mansion, as we were not aware that tourists are not allowed to enter without the tour guide, which is scheduled twice a day only, at 11am and 3pm. Entrance to Fort Cornwallis, built by Captain Francis Light for the East India Company. No trip is complete without a group photo, right? Gun barrel. Our last stop of the trip is the famouse Pinang Peranakan Mansion, townhouse and ancestral hall of Chung Keng Kwee. Admission is RM10, but it was well worth it. It is very huge, with plenty of rooms, more rooms at the back of the mansion, and a temple at the side. Each room is filled with lots of Chinese and Baba Nyonya antiques, from furnitures, clothing to dining sets and even a very old large format camera!

As the morning breaks (that's 8:30am by our standard), we get ourselves ready for this 2nd day of our Georgetown heritage photography trip. Yesterday we didn't manage to visit many places as we started off late, at around 3pm. So today we are not about to be slackers and come home without any good shots. Some sunlight coming through into the room. A view of Komtar from our hotel. Passing by old house. This time, we chose to drive and parked our car near Little India. Then we walk to Khoo Kongsi, established 1835, clan complex from 1851, present temple, 1906. It is the most renowned of Penang's Hokkien clan houses perpetuating Confucian practices. Upon entering the premises, there is a lot of empty unit of houses that are locked. Some even have "to let" signs for businesses. Going in further, we are greeted by the guard and asked to buy admission ticket of RM5 each. Khoo family can visit for free. As we walk closer to the temple, we are greeted with a fierce guard

With the car stopped and secured on deck, we went straight to the front of the ferry for the best view towards Georgetown, the historic capital of Penang island. For quite sometime, I have been planning to visit Penang for a photography trip. Taking opportunity of the long weekend, I've invited my friends in the "photographic department" to join me in this journey. Jeff whipped out his Ricoh GRD2 for a quick snap of the island. The sea breeze compensates the heat from the warm sunny day. From the right, the rain is slowly moving towards Georgetown. Hope it doesn't last too long throughout the day and spoil our outing. It was 2pm after checking in to our hotel (more like a hostel), we went to the New World Park Food Court for our lunch, and our first taste of Penang food. Yummy! Look at how many things Jeff ordered! After the satisfying meal, we started walking towards the heritage zone, which is about 0.5km away. While walking, we've spent quite some time snapping