Taiping Lake Garden

Taman Tasik is a beautiful garden created in 1880 on the site of old tin mining ponds and thier spoils. It is one of the oldest gardens in Malaysia.

 Photo by Gek

Quite beautiful and much visited by the people of Taiping. A real treasure.

Taiping has some amazing trees which defy the laws of mechanics!!!

Maxwell Hill.

 Maxwell hill, or Bukit Larut, Disolving Hill in Malay, I assume aluding to to the rolling mists.  The top is at 1300 mts above sea level (ASL),  but we came up to 1100 mt where the bungalows are.  That is Taiping in the picture,  the sea in the distance.

So that is ascending 1 km by traversing 4 km horizontally, having traveled 10 km on the road, taking 25, 360 deg hairpin bends in 30 minutes.

In an ancient Land Rover, 8 of us in the back and Chris in the pucker seat in the cab.

Looks so relaxed.

The views have to make you smile.  And the coolness.  This trip up the hill as also a bit of a reckie to see if would be a nice place to spend a few nights away,  perhaps with a painting easel?

Cooling off in the Burma pool.

Staying cool in the mountain water.

Bicycle Man

An easy going place indeed.

Taiping - The New Club.

 Taiping is such a lovely, laid back sort of a place, as can be judged by The New Club logo.

 Chris and Ranu's membership of the Penang Club give them reciprocal rights at the Taiping New Club.  A good place to have a beer while waitng for our hotel rooms to be readied.

The Club was very quiet on our 4 visits in 2 days.  The food was excellent and included such things as venison,  done stirfry style of course.  Very nice.

Relau Indah, N ,E , S & W

Been on the roof with a wide angled lens that Jo lent me.  Had been waiting for a clear day to get some shots off.

 North.  Penang Hill is just visible in the dip in the hill line on the right.  The railway is still not up and running.  when it is, it is reportedly going to take 5 mins to make the 1 km journey as opposed to 30 mins on the old line.  Wow......must try!!!!!

 East.  Looking towards Queens Bay and the Pulau Jerejak.  The green bit in the middle distance is part of the golf course.

 South.  Penang International Sports Arena.  Today host to an IT fair and a property fair.  Cars everywhere.

 West.  Not much of interest in this direction except that in the next few years this view will be much less green.

And one of the reasons for the building going on around here is the Second Link,  a second bridge linking the south of Penang Island with the mainland.  Well underway now.  It looks as though they have started bridging the piers.

Relau Indah 11-03 update.

Today our black rattan furniture was delivered.  Goes really well in the studio and will not get in the way of Gek's easel to pallet walk way!!!   So,  with the new fridge delivered earlier this week, 11-03 is ready for our first guests!!!!

Best piece has to be this "Singapore Chair".  Very comfortable.

Bedroom sorted too,  with two singles that can be lashed together to make a king size.

I keep moving the B & W house around to see which is the best place in the gallery for it,  given that this is still only half the complete model.

And my workshop is well on the way to being functional too.  All I need now is to find a wood supplier who can accurately cut the ply pieces for me.  The search goes on!!

Two of the grandsons.

Noah on left and Isaac on the right!!  Angelic?

Pattaya reunion.

Ray and I have been in contact by email for the last 9 years,  but this is the first time we have met since we left school in 1965.  Three days to revisit the old times and revive an old friendship for the future.

Relau Night Sky

Some nights the evening light is very strange.

Sort of an  iridescent yellow or orange,  as tonight.  And the sky is amazing to see. 

30 mins later.....electric rain storm coming in over the Hotel Equatorial where we had dinner the other night.

Chris and Ranu's 47th Wedding Aniversary Dinner.

Celebration dinner at The View restaurant in the Hotel Equatorial.  Great company and excellent food made for a memorable evening.  The whole experience, from the fellow dinner guests, to the hotel staff who became part of the evening, to the food,  is why I love being in Penang.

Flim - Black Swan

Prepare to be  disturbed.    A truly involving film about paranoia heightened by an obsession.  I had my eyes closed several times!!!!!  4 for pure power.  The way reality gets increasingly distorted draws you in.  As I said,  be perpared to be disturbed.

Lotus Memories

Put together by Alice, one of the Singaporean girls seen in the photos who stay with the Lotus children in thier summer camp. As Alice says,  a life changing experience.

Film - King's Speech.

As good as the hype.  Bertie and Adolf.  Some contrast. We all know the story but it is powerfully told here.  Has to be a 5 on the Palace Gate.

Time Tramp.

Photo by Jo

Need say no more.

House of Mirrors.

Photo by Gek or Jo????

 The Green Paranakan house in Georgetown I have visited three times already,  and I am still fascinated by it.
.

 On this visit,  tried to make something of the numerous mirrors in the place,  particularly the many infinity mirrors.

 The house is home to a large collection of  Stourbridge Glass,  all displayed in mirrored  cabinets.

 Not,  posing, honest.

And another happy accident.

Jo's Visit

Jo came to Penang as a Hawker Food Hunter.

 Char Kway Teow, Penang style

 Lam Mee

and Nasi Kandar food,  to name but a few of the many successes of the hunt.

Of course, Ice Cream.  Not seen in Singapore,  but no time to try!!!!!!!  Oh noooooooo.  Will have to return.

Happy Valentines Day

The Orange Lions

 An annual dinner in the car park.

and orange lions to greet the guests.  Lions come in all colours in Penang,  including black.  The dancers are not just Chinese young men either.  Young Indian guys strut their stuff too.

Malay House model

Malay houses are disappearing under concrete.  But some individuals are keeping the style alive.  This lovely house is just outside Balik Pulau on Penang island.



Even to the extent of keeping the traditional methods of construction.  No nails.  This one is on Langkawi.

A Perak house,  also on Langkawi. Each state or region has it's own style,  based upon a common structure. 

In some early 20th contury houses you can see a fusion of Malay, British Indian colonial style.  So what to model?  Think I will go back to the basic Malay house of the type you could have seen in Penang.

Development.

15 years ago, Relau, the area where we live, was a farming community with houses similar to this one.  This house can still be seen below our balcony, together with its unfenced fruit plots.

 

Things have already changed dramatically in that 15 years but not as dramatically as they are about to.

 

In 3/4 years, this will be standing in place of the crops in the previous photo. This is just 1 of 4 major mixed residential/commerce projects within a 1 km radius of our apartment.