explorenation.net : Diary Notes

Diary Notes

Updates continued in Blog

30 August 2007

Happy Merdeka to all our Malaysian readers!

I am back in KL for a week, soft proofing the 512 odd pages for book. Coincidentally, tomorrow is Merdeka Day, the Malaysian day of Independence from Great Britain. The nation gained its Independence from British Colonial Rule in 1957, so tomorrow is the 50th Golden Anniversary. The day will be commemorated with marching bands, cultural shows and flyovers by fighter jets, with a symbolic re-enactment of the raising of the Malaysian flag, in Kuala Lumpur and the major cities across the nation.

Being an independent publisher with a small budget, I have to be on-hand to proof read and set the layout with my graphic designer. It is mind-numbing to go through each and every page to check for mistakes. make amendments etc. I don't envy the role of the proof reader!

The next step is to go through the digital proofs once more and then sign it off to print. Now its time to put the feet up and have some teh tarik!

31 July 2007

Alas, since the last post, a lot of meticulous research and captioning had been going on, re-worked, and re-written countless times, and finally I am glad to say that we are there. Ready to sign off to Lee Leong our graphic artist in Kuala Lumpur to do his magic.

Selecting and editing down the portraits have been the hardest task for me, as there are so many other photographs that I would have like to be included. This is going to be a monster of a book, with over 240 portraits and a total of +500 pages, it would certainly weigh like a brick! We would like to thank everyone who helped with the checking of names and captions to date, etc. We also have our sponsors on-board whom we would like to thank sincerely.

More soon...

28 May 2007

Happy 100th Birthday! Marthinho de Rozario! I met and photographed Marthinho at the Portuguese Settlement in Malacca in March and again with Haliza in May at the same location, by a roadside foodstall.

I just learnt that he speaks 5 languages, including Japanese and Hokkien! Congratulations and many more Happy Returns.

22 May 2007

Just had feedback from my publisher that the mock-up looks great(!) and a copy will be on its way to me soon. We are about to finish the captioning also.

15 May 2007

I am now back at base, in London. The heat and humidity in KL in recent days was pretty unbearable and it makes a pleasant change being back.

The layout of the book is being worked on as I write. We still need to complete the captioning and sequencing of portraits. Its decision time also as to which portrait to include and which to leave out.

Meanwhile, below is a brief excerpt from our photo-diary as kept by Haliza :

February 2007

Flying from Miri to Bario Highlands (Sarawak) in a twin-engine Otter plane was a fantastic experience to us.

In Bario, we could have spent many more hours talking to Henri Jala Tamalai, the Chief of the village about the history and folk tales of the Kelabit tribe. They are just fascinating.

Sinah Nuuh Ulun was very accommodating. She insisted to pose for us wearing the heirloom beaded hat, necklace and of course her heavy brass earrings.

Also who would have thought of visiting Steven Baya’s Jungle Blues Dream art gallery in the middle of an unfinished long house in Ulung Palang.

The Kelabits are extremely friendly and helpful. They smile and greet you by the side of the road or at the coffee shops. By the end of the day probably the whole village would have known about the arrival of the new visitors.

David Lian Labang has been our great source of information, guide and driver in Bario. We tried our best to help him when our pick-up truck was stuck in the mud on the way to Pak Umor village.We also approached some Penan children at the local scool grounds, but they are far too shy to speak to anyone.

Thank you to Marilyn Raja-Wright and Lynda Bala for their hospitality both in Bario and in Miri. Maggi Mee never tasted so good at Bario Airport.

We photographed many interesting faces at Kota Belud tamu market, in Sabah. It was definitely a place to be on Sunday morning. The setting was a delightful combination of sounds, smells and colourful sights of Kadazan ladies selling, handicraft, fruit and vegetables while the Bajau men selling fish and parangs and samurai swords. Their metalwork is well sought after, we were told.

At one end of the market, there were rows of tobacco sellers sitting on open-sided wooden stalls and their customers all huddled together smoking hand-rolled local tobacco. What a sight and aroma!

(Just as we were about to depart, Steven was particularly attracted to a pretty Kadazan girl wearing a batik sarong as her headgear. She is on our shortlist as a cover girl for the book)

April 2007

We both loved Penang. Georgetown, the food, the history, the heritage buildings and most of all, the people. We are so grateful to get so much assistance even from those that we just met.

We had back-to-back appointments at all different locations and must have met up with most of Penang’s heritage and knowledgeable individuals! Abdur-Razzaq Lubis and wife Khoo Salma provided us with plenty of contacts, including Joe Sidek. They are among those who are well versed with the history of the island and its people and work tirelessly for the preservation of Penang's cultural heritage - not for tourists or locals, but for the generations to come.

Michael Cheah tooked us on a special tour around the charming Peranakan Mansion, a painstakingly restored private residence in Lebuh Gereja. He would be a living and talking encyclopaedia of everything Baba Nyonya, and has lots of stories to tell.

One evening, we met up with Lim Gaik Siang from the Penang Heritage Trust at the Teo Chew Association, who kindly arranged several traditional Chinese opera performers for us to meet and photograph whilst putting on their stage make-up.

The next evening, we were taken by Siew Chen to witness a traditional Teo Chew hand marionette show somewhere off Jalan Jelutong. It coincided with a Chinese festival day with the villagers putting on a celebration at the local temple.

On our last day in Penang, we met ‘Baby’ the waitress at Nan Yang Restaurant and revealed to us her plan to work in Canada. Also there was Rosie, an elegant lady dressed in her lime green kebaya top and skirt, ever the quintessential Nyonya lady.

At Tanjung Bungah Beach Resort's Coffee House,we met up with Datuk Mary Ritchie, one of Penang's respected citizens, who filled us in about her Burmese background and ancestry.

We also had a drink at the Eurasian Association Clubhouse in Pulau Tikus and yes, met many Eurasians! Hello to Gerald, Rosaline and Doris!

Before we left the island, we visited Penang’s famous Bangsawan performance artist, Cikgu Baha at Ward C7 at the General Hospital. Despite not being well, he was in such a good spirit, we were sorry the visit was so brief. We hope we can see him performing his ‘Bibik Hitam’ role very soon.

After having lived in England for many years now, navigating around Malaysia with a ‘not-so-comprehensive-road-map’ was a bit of a challenge but nevertheless exciting!

In Kedah, Haji Mihat Awang kindly met us outside Kubang Pasu Police Station when we couldn’t find our way to Asun.

Heading to Kelantan from Kedah, we were intrigued with the number of vintage Vespas we saw on the road. We caught up with Aiman, Imran, Shahrul, Shaufiq, Anas and Zakaria on the Gerik-Jeli Highway. These 17 year old teens were on their way back to Kota Bahru from a Vespa Carnival in Kuala Kangsar, Perak. We shared our kueh bahulu (Malay cakes) with them. They skipped school that day.

We enjoyed our stay at Pasir Belanda, Kampung Banggol, Kota Bharu. The owners, Malay speaking Dutch couple Harry and Anne did a good job with the kampung stay style. (Thanks for pointing out the rabbit in your backyard..Harry!)

Napi Mat and Salina Ali helped us a lot in Kelantan.

Ali Awang showed us old maps and talked about the first landing of Japanese troops in the Peninsula (Malaya) in 1941. Again, we would have spent many hours listening to him.

We talked to a Kelantan Chinese that practises Malay culture and fluent in the Malay language. While he also reads and writes Jawi, his religion is Buddhism.

We got some help with translation when we talked to fishermen who told us stories in strong Kelantan accents. Travelling to many different states in Malaysia we are just in awe of all the different races, customs, cultures, languages and dialects that can change within a few miles of each other.

We took the scenic coastal route from Kelantan to Terengganu. At a police road check, they stopped our car and queried Steven on his UK driving license but let us off in the end! They were bewildered by his fold out paper licence!

8 year old Faiz is a Manchester United fan. We met him when he was playing football with his friends on the local beach in Kuala Terengganu. His brother Fitri, 7, was busy playing in the sand. They were all happy to be photographed in between kicking the ball and running into the sea.

Felix Noel was one of many that gave us an insight into life at the Portugese Settlement in Malacca. He speaks English and Papia Cristao, a Portugese dialect and impressed us with his Malay Dondang Sayang singing. Lawrence Stephens spent time walking us through his neighbourhood, introducing us to the locals that lived in the settlement. We also met Martin, a 100-year old Portuguese man. He looks absolutely in his prime with good eyesight and hearing. He spends his days at a food stall near his block of flat. He climbs up four flights of stairs back to his flat at the end of each day.

In Kuala Lumpur, Major Ajit Singh shared with us his invaluable experience fighting the communist in East Malaysia. There are some near deaths accounts as well as hilarious incidents.

We couldn’t resist talking to Emma Goh, fitness instructor/aspiring TV and film producer? when we saw her in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. Since then, she has been very helpful with our project. We like her tattoos!

6 May 2007

I have finally allowed myself some spare moments to write the first entry in this diary. Have been meaning to do so earlier but due to travelling commitments, editing my photographs and meeting with my publisher and graphic artist all in the last 4 weeks, I have not been able to put fingertips to keypad and write anything meaningful.

Haliza has returned to London about 2 weeks now. After spending 2 weeks travelling around West Malaysia and meeting so many helpful people, the project is finally in the design and layout stage.

Whilst she is busy finishing her writing, I am in Kuala Lumpur finalising and editing the hundreds of portraits taken over the last 4 months, condensing it to a usable 250 or so. It has proven difficult, to say the least, as I would have loved to include everyone I photographed, given unlimited constraints in printing pages and costs. But this is reality and I have to be brutal in editing and stay within the original briefs for the book.

I will be posting some notes over the next few weeks, on certain characters that we have met who have proved invaluable to us during our travels or deserves a special mention.

Steven