Media Invite: World Press Photo 11 Press Conference

After attending the Press Launch for the 4th Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta on Saturday, I received another media invite:

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Malaysia and TNT Express Malaysia presents the World’s largest and most anticipated photo exhibition!

The World Press Photo Exhibition, the largest and one of the most anticipated photo exhibitions in the world, has reached our shores, Malaysia, presenting a striking collection of over 160 award-winning press photographs from all over the world.

A culmination of press photographs, the exhibition is a result of a worldwide annual contest on press photography. This year’s competition attracted 5,691 photographers from 125 countries including Malaysia and in total; a record number of 108,059 images were entered in the contest. 55 photographers representing 23 nationalities in 9 themed categories – Portrait, People in the News, General News, Spot News, Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Nature, Arts & Entertainment, as well as Sports; were awarded with prize recognitions.

And I am honored to be one of those invited to cover the event. I can't wait to attend the event, see the world's best press photography.

Please watch out for my blog post after the event. I will sure be asking my photographer-cum-husband to take a lot of shots. Will also try to sneak some shots when I have a chance. :D

Excited much?

You bet!

Cameron Highlands

It's been a long time since we didn't visit Cameron Highlands. But glad we had a chance to do so this week. We drove up to Cameron Highlands sans the kids. :D

It's the first time we did a spontaneous trip. We didn't book any hotel rooms for us. But we went anyway. It's good to be adventurous sometimes. It's exciting.

The first thing we did was check out hotels in Tanah Rata. That's the center of Cameron Highlands. We usually dine at Rosemary's. But sad to say they're no longer there. But we saw there was another western restaurant, Belle's Cafe, right below Planter's hotel. We had an early dinner there.

Checked out some hotels and finally settled on staying at Bala's Chalet Hotel and Restaurant. Amid the lush greenery lies this beautiful and cozy chalet. It's quite worth staying there, knowing it's peak season and yet we were charged for only 180RM per night. If you are tight in the pocket, though, just skip having meals there.

The next day we went to have breakfast at the Cameron Valley Tea house. Had a nice hot cup of masala tea with ham sandwich plus a gorgeous view of the Cameron Valley (Bharat) Tea Plantation.

Drive to Cameron Highlands

It was a spur of the moment decision. Kids were supposed to be with their grandparents for a few days. So we decided to pack our bags and drive up to Cameron Highlands. On the way up, it started raining heavily. It was almost 0 visibility so we took a really slow drive.

I wanted to listen to the radio only to learn our car stereo was spoiled. And so I thought of using my hand phone that has an fm feature. But again, I didn't bring the head phone. It only works when I put the head phone on. LOL.

I think the next time, I have to invest on a music phone that will have sennheiser hd 202 ii headphones so I can listen to music when I want to. I am a music sucker. What can I say?

Anyways, it was a long and slow drive but glad the rain stopped when we reached Cameron Highlands. Will post more about my trip later.

My Family's Celebration of Chinese New Year

One thing I love about Malaysia is that we have so many holidays. Malaysia is so culturally and ethnically diverse. We have at least 3 major groups living here: Malays, Indian and Chinese. Amazing how inspite of the long years of mixture with other cultures, each group still maintain its tradition, culture, language, etc.

My family is not Chinese but when my son knew we would have school holidays because of Chinese New Year, he suggested we celebrate the holidays, too.

And so today, we decided to have a party. I tell you, my family loves to party. You should know that by now. LOL!

Schenker said he would be in charge of the party. So he decided who to invite and what to prepare for food. So he invited our Brazilian friends and his best friend and his family who are living in our area to join us for barbecue.

I cooked some fried chicken and nuggets, bought some frankfurters to grill and bought some ready-to-eat satay from the outside shop. My son's friend's family brought a couple of pizzas and some firecrackers. My kids were so excited to play with the firecrackers! We usually don't allow them to play firecrackers but since we're celebrating Chinese New Year, we let them.

Chinese New Year won't be until Monday. But we did the party today. I am telling you, I even prepared ang pows (red envelopes with money inside) for the kids! Really a Chinese-y night we had. I guess this is going to be a tradition from this year onwards. LOL.

To all friends and family celebrating Chinese New Year 2012, Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Holiday Plans for 2012

I know I have been talking a lot about going for holidays these days. I guess one feel that way when one feels stuck (stuck at work, stuck at family commitments, etc). But really, I have always been a holiday planner. I love to do it, knowing that most of the time, when I plan on going somewhere, somehow, it becomes a reality.

And so that is why I have been talking a lot about going for holidays. Actually, I’ve been planning for a holiday for 2012. Turkey, Korea, India, New Zealand and Barbados are in the radar!

Barbados offers a wide range of activities to fill up our holiday itinerary. There is just simply so much you can do. I am pretty sure barbados holidays will be fun, whether its tranquility or thrills, you will enjoy the country.

We all have heard of Barbados, but where exactly is Barbados? Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea.

The hubs and I both enjoy adventures. We found out that Barbados is known for its fascinating submarine adventure and beaches. I think if we can save enough money we might even be able to spend a day on a luxury catamaran. We have always wanted to go for a luxury holiday, and I think this could be the one. One of our dreams is to feed and swim with sea turtles. Imagine swimming with them! Scary thought, but I think they are really beautiful creation.

Yes, we would definitely go snorkeling. What is a holiday at the beach without going snorkerling. We might even try windsurfing. Like I said, we are on an adventure trip, and are so game to trying new beach activities.

So the Barbados holidays is something we are really looking forward to. I am going to do a bit more search and see what other adventure awaits us.