Photowalk 13 May '10

I woke up this morning to find compost strewn over my porch. Apparently my mom brought back 20 plus kilos and one of my dog's ripped through the bags. After cleaning up the mess my brother and I stopped by the KTS building for some breakfast.

I wanted to try the capabilities of the jpeg again today this morning. Here it is at the default saturation setting..

..whereas on this image, I added +1 to the saturation value. It looks a little overcooked for my taste, hence I guess I will stick to the original settings.

The beef noodles are as spectacular as ever although their taste wasn't as intense as they usually were.

The kampua was an eye opener - its fantastic. For RM 2, You get a huge plate of noodles with some nicely cooked pork slices. Yumm!

Next to the canteen, several fishing ships still berth there bringing in fresh catch from the sea. Its unfortunate that our waterfronts are being gradually replaced by crappy designs from local developers who prefer to make a quick buck out of it. I'm not surprised that these rustic waterfronts will share a similar fate with the one at Gambier Road.

Fishing boats aren't the most hygienic workplaces, with plates of food and rubbish strewn everywhere. But the local fishermen are quite friendly, and thats what I admire about them.

The boat also has a resident cat, presumably to keep the rats away. It's a pity its on a leash.

The Dewan Undangan Negeri is visible from all around Kuching.

We then made our way to another wharf in front of Benson Seafood. At the end of the pier lies a disused fishing boat waiting for the time when it will eventually sink to the bottom of the river bed.

At its heydays, I'm sure this area was very busy and noisy with fishermen unloading their catch at the pier, while wheel barrows rock against the teak wood, bringing the fresh produce to the local markets along gambier street.

But right now, its silent. Not even a sound whispered. Kinda eerie, in a way.

We made our way to a chinese temple at the top of the hill at Muara Tebas.

The Ching San Yen temple, build about 200 years ago occupies an ancient site. Here travellers give thanks after safely crossing the South China Sea. The host deity of this temple is Buddha Shakyamuni. Other deities include Sea Goddess Macho. The shrine was renovated in 1903, major renovations were made in 1994-2000. Devotees occasionally hire boats to visit 'Lion Rock' on the adjacent Pulau Lakei.

At the top of the hill, you can view the whole township of Muara Tebas. Its indeed a sight to behold, and I'm sure it would've looked even better if the skies were blue.

In a small town like Muara Tebas, nothing much goes on. Yet, the kids here are perfectly happy although they lack large shopping malls, cyber cafes, nightclubs, etc. The lives of the city folk seems so busy in comparison!

The villagers are more than happy to reside in stilt houses. Unfortunately if they were built in Australia, these houses would fail the occupational health and safety requirements. The green mold at the corner of the yellow building on the right should give you a clue ;)

Similar to the boats in town, the fishermen here are also very friendly. They pass their time resting in their boats and playing card games.

Another view of the temple complex at the end of the jetty. As you can see, it is pretty expansive.

The houses here are also more liberal with their colour choices, sporting a mix of green, pink and light blue colours. I guess if we painted our houses as such in town, we'd be getting a frown from our neighbours.

We also wanted to stop by the Borneo Convention Center (which is beautifully landscaped by the way at the expense of taxpayers' money), but security was pretty tight, so we couldn't go near the building at all. So much for being a 'convention center for the people' :s

I also stopped by my alma matter just to see how things were going.

Yep, everything's pretty much the same ever since I left about 8 years ago.

Even the food tastes the same too. I wonder how I survived recess by having a small pack of white rice, fried egg, and belacan. Its still RM1 fortunately. I guess things would have been better if we had a kolo mee stall in school.

The indoor stadium's still as unventilated as far. No wonder we sweat like mad whenever the whole school had their assemblies here.

This is the school toilet block. Strangely it doesn't smell as bad as it used to be. Hmmm

Thats about it folks. I started this experiment by attempting to make Nikon jpegs look as good as Olympus ones when they're produced straight out of camera especially with regards to skin tones, and blue skies. After a week of testing, I can confidently tell you that its not going to happen, and one just has to accept Nikon colours as they are.

Hence I'm going to experiment with NEF files, and see if things turn out better. Wish me luck~  :)