Port Weld

We organised a short trip to Port Weld (Kuala Sepetang) on 18 April 2009 to visit the popular mangrove sanctuary, a large coastal forest reserve near Taiping.  It is part of our family photographic activities which we seldom had the chance as Alif (elder son a.k.a Jar Jar Binks) is always busy with his final year in USM. But today, is different as he finished his last few papers and can spend time away

The Matang mangrove swamp is south of Penang, a short one hour leisure ride. Seen below is a small pontoon and I guess it is where the forest rangers would start their boat rides to inspect the coastal reserve which span 40,000 hectares of prime mangroves' land. 

A charcoal factory is situated near this reserve too, operating with traditional charcoal igloo-shaped burners which opportunity we enjoyed pretty much. A humble owner Ah Ching gave us a guided tour, while listening to his narrations we snapped many pictures. A picture below is a small canal network where mangrove logs are being feed to the factory for charcoal making

The Light - Penang Premier Waterfront

Land reclamation work has ceased indefinitely for the new development of The Light - Penang Premier waterfront which is designed to be a new elite commercial hub. I heard that this stoppage was due to insufficient impact study on the coastal ecosystem.

At least this give me the opportunity to keep visiting this area as it present good photography subject of a bowing fisherman shack. It reminded me somewhat of the Leaning Tower of Pisa... and, it keeps on bowing by the day. I figure that I would be able to image update once it is horizontally flat in months to come!

Earth Hour

We joined the Earth Hour (60mins) thingy on 28 March 2009 to express ourselves to world leaders that we, earth citizens can play a part in the reduction of global warming.

We enjoyed ourselves in the dark for 1hr from 8.30pm to 9.30pm (+8hrs GMT). Nothing much we could do but choreographed some 'light' photographing as the scene above. Obviously we sweated (and toiled) towards the end of one hour, and did a favor to TNB in reducing several kilowatt hours of our electricity consumption. See ya again, next year, same time!