Remembering PRESTAGS

Sound Recording 2 - Some Sounds of Malaysia

I took three of my recorders to Malaysia in January. At the small end, a Zoom H2n (very small with alternate patterns, can place anywhere) and a Zoom F1 field recorder (my favourite little recorder for lavalier mics pinned to clothing, but can also use interchangeable microphone capsules with different patterns). At the medium end, a Tascam DR-100 Mk III, my favourite travel recorder which has two XLR slots and phantom power for external recorders. I took a small external Sony ECM-MS2 Stereo Electret Condenser Microphone with a windjammer.

Now that I'm more confident with the durability of my top end recorders and mics, I will take fancier gear overseas on my next trip (hoping for a next trip!).

A few different sounds.

We spent some pleasant mornings on the Indian Ocean at a resort on Batu Ferringhi beach (West side of Penang Island). Some people make sand castles but I make microphone castles. Here is a view of the beach, and a castle with the Zoom H2n.

My better equipment, the Tascam and Sony external mic, also came out. I used this on a beach chair facing the ocean, and I took long soundscapes of over an hour.

Here is a snippet of Indian Ocean Waves:

Batu Ferringhi Beach Malaysia Waves

One evening the Boss and I had a very pleasant pre-dinner drink at the resort, at a nice outdoor bar near a fountain. I placed the F1 with a stereo capsule on a rock next to the fountain.

Resort Fountain:

Malaysia Resort Fountain

I find the sound relaxing. The sound wave is distinctly water - loud and regular.

Back at the In-Laws family home in George Town I recorded early morning soundscapes through the back window. Lots of birds (different sounds to Australia), traffic (many motor bikes, being South East Asia) and dogs barking. The Tascam and Sony mic fitted nicely in the window. The view out the window was not spectacular, but the sounds were nice and will remind me of Penang.

Early Morning Birds:

Malaysian Early Morning Birds

Dogs Barking:

Malaysia Dogs Barking

 It's nice having these living memories of Malaysia. Sounds are evocative in a very different way to photographs.

 

Why Happy About Such An Ordinary Photograph

Why am I so happy about such an ordinary photograph?

Because the horrible black spots in the sky are gone!

In Malaysia I discovered nasty spots on the photos, even if I changed the lens. It was dust on the sensor, something that requires a professional to clean. Luckily I had taken two extra cameras on my trip.

The spots were worse on video. In total I counted 11 of these evil spots.

Thank you to Thygo for suggesting I take the camera to Georges to be cleaned, and thank you Georges for providing this service and a same day turn around.

So I will give Georges a plug.

 

Laksa

We had an awesome home made Malaysian Laksa last night.

Penang, Malaysia: Playing with the Zoom

My previous Nikon had an awesome zoom, but my new P610 is even better. It boasts an x60 optical zoom and an x120 digital zoom. Clarity is very high in the optical zoom range.

In the beach shot below, there is a tiny white shape on the horizon in the middle of the photo. This is actually two container ships. They are very close together and I imagined some kind of suspicious contraband activity was going on.

At Batu Ferringhi beach there was a lot of para gliding. It looked like fun, but appeared to be unregulated and I have been told it is very dangerous with fatalities on this same beach. We actually saw one crash into the ocean which looked bad although both riders were ok. The close up zoom photo is within the optical range and is crystal clear.

On our second day at the resort there was a beautiful daytime moon. Naturally I thought of Thygo. Zoom shot wasn't too bad.

All of the rooms at Shangri La's Rasa Sayang Resort & Spa had balconies with an ocean view. From my balcony late one afternoon I spotted the glow of a laptop screen on another balcony some distance away.

I zoomed in and got a good shot, but not at NSA standard where I could view the words on the laptop screen. The chap seemed to be looking at images anyway.

Penang, Malaysia: Photographic Challenge #3

The Chinese roast and BBQ meat sellers have the most amazing roast ducks, which glisten with the wonderful sauces they baste the ducks in. My challenge was to capture the 'glisten' on the roast ducks.

It was not possible to capture the correct look through glass, but I found a roast duck seller with an open side window, and using a little bit of zoom and the right angle I was able to capture a glistening and dripping roast duck. This is a view from inside the store looking out. I can testify that the roast duck here surpasses any duck I have eaten in Australia.

Penang, Malaysia: Religious Signs

I have seen some great signs in religious buildings.

In the Kek Lok Si Temple 'official shop' (as distinct from the myriad 'less than official' sellers) was the following sign. I'm glad to see the crusade against EMF extends around the world.

In the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Ghost (the same Church I was married in over 24 years ago, although it wasn't a Cathedral then) was a sign on the inside of the Church doors so it would be seen by those leaving Church:

 

Penang, Malaysia: Photographic Challenge #2

The satay man at Christmas dinner was so fast it was difficult to get a clear shot of him. He was a real live wire and never still for a moment. Most of my photos turned out like this:

In particular, his fan never stopped, although this shot with the fan blurred does capture the essence of his work:

In the end, by using sports mode I was able to get a clear shot but for some reason the images in sports mode were darker.

Penang, Malaysia: Huge Food Post

I promised Python a HUGE food post as soon as I obtained internet access. Penang has of course (at least in my opinion) the best food in the world.

Let's start at the beginning. Australian Charddy.

This is an odd beginning, but Python knows I love Charddy, especially with Asian food. When I arrived in Penang at the Better Half's family ancestral home, there was a bar fridge in my room with a dozen Aussie Charddys just for me. What a great start! Interestingly, some are 2012 and some are 2014.

Breakfast comes in mysterious little packages.

Inside each package is Char Koay Teow, a Penang hawker classic and my all time favourite noodles. While there are some good versions in Sydney, they don't match the Malaysian original. I had this for my first 3 breakfasts, before venturing on to different noodles. The dish is fried flat rice noodles with dark soy sauce, eggs, prawns, cockles and Chinese sausage.

Another breakfast classic, to go with the noodles, is Chinese crumpets, also called Ban Cheng Kueh. This is a Malaysian crumpet made from flour and egg, with a filling of chopped peanuts and brown sugar. It's great. I think I'm going to have to say (to save typing) that all food and drinks in this post are awesome and delicious unless I say otherwise.

On our first restaurant dinner we went to a well known Chinese restaurant where the chef is famous for various original dishes of his own creation The restaurant was Foong Wei Heong Restaurant in Jalan Sri Bahari and my favourite dish was chicken and mangoes. This was fried battered chicken, with thin strips of green mango which was crunchy like apples, in a sticky sauce which also included honey or syrup. The dish was an amazing combination of sweet and sour in the one hit.

Another masterpiece at this restaurant was what I call a de-constructed pork bun. We actually had pork buns with breakfast on the same day (below).

The de-constructed version was pork belly in a wonderful sauce, served with plain dumplings similar to the pork bun dough.

Many of our lunches have been 'on the run' while out and about, but if at home we have been called to the kitchen to happily confront Chinese feasts. In this lunch there was an amazing array of food including BBQ pork, roast pork, soy chicken, roast duck, fried chinese sausages and other delights. The rice was chicken rice, which means the rice was cooked in a chicken broth rather than water.

Christmas dinner was another feast, and well over 25 relatives joined the festivities. I was particular impressed by the satay man, who was hired to come and set up his satay making kit, and he then proceeded to cook 500 chicken satays which we ate literally straight off the grill.

Other delights included garlic bread (yes - a western contribution which is really popular here. Qantas even served garlic bread on the flight to Singapore), Malaysian Chicken curry, roti canai and plenty more BBQ pork. In both of the photos below, there is a dish just above-right to the garlic bread and the chicken curry. This dish looks like rice with fried eggs on top. It is actually mashed potato that looks exactly like rice.

Christmas also included prawn crackers which were delivered to the house. I should say giant prawn crackers, and in quantity.

Out and about lunches have included Lor Bak, which is strips of pork, onion, garlic and water chestnuts deep fried in a beancurd skin. It is often served with fried beancurd or tau kwa chien which is also in the photo. I loved the Lor Bak and also a fried fish cake at the top of the plate.

Another lunch meal: claypot chicken rice, where the rice has bits of chinese sausage, chicken, soy sauce and a fried egg. The egg yolk breaks and oozes into the rice for added yumminess.

I never realized before that Penang is famous for nutmeg which is grown on the island. A really refreshing drink is nutmeg syrup which is added to iced water. I have drunk a lot of this, when I'm not drinking Charddy or the local Tiger beer from Singapore. Tiger beer is everywhere, and because of the humidity on the equator it seems like you can drink litres of the beer with no apparent adverse affects.

One evening we tried KFC just for comparative purposes. Two main differences: KFC includes prawns, and the pieces are all huge chunks of breast meat with no legs or wings like in Australia. We decided Aussie KFC was better, but the Asian food was way better than any KFC.

There are green tea Kit Kats. I like green tea, and Kit Kats, but I'm not a fan of this combination.

Time to leave KFC and Kit Kats, and return to more Penang delights.

More breakfast noodles. Wan Tan Mee, which is thin noodles served with pork wantans and BBQ pork (char siu) in a dark oyster sauce. I had this for breakfast this morning. Several helpings in fact.

For those on a tight budget, there are economy noodles, a vegetarian dish which is basically two kinds of fried noodles with soy sauce and a tiny bit of fried bean curd. It's very nice, although I prefer the other noodles.

More of a lunch noodle, Char Hor Fun, which is broad rice noodles mixed with thin rice noodles, in a starchy gravy of egg, meat, prawns and vegetables.

There is even Yum Cha here (which is really a Hong Kong speciality) but it was delicious with subtle flavour differences to Yum Cha in Sydney.

I think this is a big enough food post to keep Python happy. I'll finish with Teh Tarik, which means "pulled tea" in Malay, and is hot black tea and condensed milk poured back and forth between two containers. There is also a coffee version. Both are absolutely delicious.

 

Penang, Malaysia: Photographic Challenge #1

After a gruelling end of year work wise, we are finally on holiday in Penang and I have plenty of time to road test my new Nikon.

My first challenge, capture burning incense at the temples. I thought this would be difficult but I was pleasantly surprised.

I had success almost straight away at Beow Hiang Lim Buddhist Temple, although the incense smoke is faint.

Then, I took a better shot at Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple.

The Kek Lok Si Temple complex is reputedly the largest in South East Asia and is still growing. I took the photo below which captures some of the complex looking towards the seven story Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

There are actually more than 10,000 Buddhas in this complex, and many bear the swastika in its correct context, as a Buddhist symbol which represents the turning of the “Dharma wheel”, intended to promote goodwill, compassion, and generosity to all sentient beings.

Takeaway Malaysian Treats

Hainanese Chicken Rice:

Satay Chicken:

 Char Kway Teow: