Penang, Malaysia (part 2)

Here are the rest of the photos from Penang, Malaysia. We had a great weekend there!

Busy streets. It wasn't an easy walking town, sort of had some places where there wasn't much of a sidewalk or even shoulder of the road to walk on. We did what we saw everyone else do and just walk as close to the side of the street as possible. Sort of had to pay attention all the time where you were walking because there are open drainage ditches at times between the street and the buildings.

Red Penang Culture House. It was on the edge of Chinatown. Wonder if the building is still in use? It was closed while we were there.

I kept stopping at the corners of the streets to take photos. I love the old buildings, they are so interesting to me. I hope they never change them.

You know you've found Little India when you see cows in the alley. Why are they there are why are his horns painted red and green?

Came across a group of men trying to move this large heavy....whatchamacallit. 

Stopping to discuss the best way to move the heavy whatchamacallit into the storage space.

A very loud animated discussion on how to move the thingy.

Walking on....too bad the Dragon Ball Biscuit shop is closed. I bet they are spicy :)

Passed this temple. Hard to shoot with such contrasting bright light and shadows. I need to learn how to best handle this type of photo. I think mostly I have read that its best to come back at a later time of day. Sometimes it just isn't possible to do that. I bet there is a way to edit in photoshop to brighten the shadows.

This is the alley right next to the temple. I love it! Great neighbors.

Beautiful mosque.

Scooter riding on the sidewalk. 

This is another of my absolute favorite photos. This alley has so much character and color and texture. Love it.

Just a random street but it sort of shows the walking issues I tried to explain earlier. Motorcycles and scooters park on the sidewalk and the ramps in front are over the drainage ditches that are sometimes just open and ready for you to fall into. Didn't seem to be a problem to walk in the street, everyone was doing it but it is something that I am not used to so it was a little strange to me. Not a big deal and it was so fun walking around exploring the island.

Another beautiful street. Wouldn't it have been so cool to see a row of old cars or bicycles lined up here instead of new cars? 

This was the view from our hotel, I could look out the window all day.

This was right across the street from our hotel.

More street art. 

Some refurbished shophouses.

Bikes and trucks and walkers in the street.

Another gorgeous temple, there are no shortage of interesting temples in South East Asia.

This is another of my absolute absolute favorite photos. I think I will print this, where to hang it?

Older buildings and....

Newer buildings. Our hotel was right next door to this mall. Its always nice to have an air conditioned mall to spend a few hours in :)

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Friday!!!

Penang, Malaysia

Here are a few photos from our recent trip to Penang. It was a great weekend and I took lots of photos but my computer is currently in the sick bay and so I wasn't able to look at all of them and really post the ones I love. Maybe by next week?

We went to Chew Jetty and walked around a bit. It was a super hot day outside, very humid.

Interesting that they are using buckets to hold up the building. Maybe we will leave Chew Jetty now.

Lots of street art in Penang. 

This is a popular mural. The bike is real and secured in place and the children are painted on the wall. Hard to get a shot with so many tourists out on the weekend. Too hot to stand around and wait for too long.

Shopping in Chinatown. People using umbrellas to keep the sun off of them.

A bit crowded but not bad. Plenty of opportunity to duck inside a shop with air con, lots of vendors selling ice cream and frozen treats on the street.

Street in Chinatown Penang.

Pretty temple!

Next to the temple was a restored colonial building, the Yap Temple.

Another shopping street in Chinatown.

Smiling husband. He is so fun to travel with. This photo was taken a few hours after he completed a full marathon, 42.2km race, the Penang Bridge Marathon. Race started at 1:30am and he finished with a great time of 4:46. So he gets up in the middle of the night, runs all night, takes a nap and then walks around with me in the hot afternoon sun to check out the city. I don't think I could be that nice if I were him. Of course he is at a hawker center eating his favorite Char Koay Teow so maybe that helps.

This is the hawker center where we had our yummy lunch. Food was very good. 

Happy Friday!!!

Rain on my Window

I wasn't really ready to share a blog on rain just yet. I wanted to wait and get more shots but I had a hard time getting any shots that I felt like sharing this week. So I hope to have another post with rain as the main subject, especially since I love a good rainfall and also we have begun the monsoon season. It normally rains hard and more often for most of November, December and January, sometimes February. The air is much cleaner now as well and that is so nice!

We have a great view from our condo on the 35th floor. I love watching the rain from home. 

Manual focus to get the camera to focus on the raindrops instead of anything else. 

Looking down at traffic but focused on the rain drops on the window.

I like this, you can almost see the rain drops falling. I used a slower-ish shutter speed setting for this effect. 

We are going to Penang, Malaysia for the weekend so I am really hoping to get great photos there. 

Happy Friday!!!

Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay

I could seriously take photos of flowers every day and never get tired of them. Lately our air quality in Singapore has not been so great making it hard to get out and take photos. It seems like we have been getting a break almost every day with a few hours of clean air so I run out then. Wish I new in advance when that clean air was coming! Monsoon season has started and that should bring an end to the haze. Its such a nice city and a nice place to live except for those 3 H's, haze, humidity and heat! None of that exists in the Flower Dome. It is cool enough to make you wish you had brought a light sweater. The air is crisp and clean and the flowers are gorgeous! Hope you enjoy these photos.

Just outside the dome. This is a nice stretch of park area with no cars nearby making it the perfect spot for biking, running and a nice walk. 

Inside the Flower Dome, when you enter you are on the upper level and the dome itself is so interesting. Loving the lines and the shadows. 

Nice class photo! Seems like every time I go there is a group of kids visiting. They are so cute!

Quite a few people were standing here, all looking at this one spot. Must really like the art sculpture in the planter. Hope I didn't miss anything...

Hard to find a good selfie angle!

Its a huge space inside the dome. 

Elephants for the Deepavali decorations. The elephant is a symbol for power, dignity, intelligence and peace.

Can't help myself. I have to include just a few flower photos. This one is sooo pretty! 

     

 This is probably the coolest flower I have ever seen, the Passion Fruit flowering vine.

Stems from the bottom left moving diagonally to the flower heads in the top right with a blurred background. Maybe I should photoshop out the flower with only two petals? Its mucking up my shot! I am really not good enough at editing to do it. If it were my garden I could just snip it :)

I love a yellow daisy - sunflowery flower :)

I wanted the greenery to be blurred but I was too close to the subject. Kind of glad it was all in focus, sort of like it.

Orchid I think? Beautiful for sure!

Happy Friday!!!