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PremiumLooking for young children wanting to learn to act between ages of 8-10. Must be sporting and willing to jump over small drains etc like kids of yesteryears.Ability to speak hokkien is a plus.Need 5 boys,two girls.For a short film by Linus Chung.Also looking for people too free willing to work on this project for experience.call me.012 9331415
to enlarge photo montage click on image
On a holiday trip back to Sarawak with pixie…my 21st birthday present to her, she remarked that she wants more adventure, walking halfway around the circumference of Redang barefoot at night wasn’t enough(more on this anthr blog) …so I decided to head out to Bako National Park.
The trip start with first a drive out to Bako village where you jump on a 15minute boat ride…the boat cost RM 40 but it can be shared out by 5-6 people. It’s a very serene boat trip, hardly bumpy and the blue scenery-scape is awesome, Mount Santubong fuzzy on the distant horizon with an endless blue calm sea with a little drama, fishing posts
sticking out of the ocean breaking the silence of the image. Then as we arrive at the mangrove swamp where we jump off onto a jetty…the familiar creaks of the wooden planks lining the jetty and the walkway welcomes you on your holiday. The walkways leads to the park HQ where you have your simple sovernir shop, the administration, the canteen and not forgetting the various accommodation chalets. It’s like a little village and I ran through the trees like a kid to mine…honestly, I was expecting much much more rustic that what I got upon arrival. Though the Holiday Inn regular may complain, those for the adventure will find facilities on Bako more than adequate…luxurious even. An added plus is that you don’t have to pay holiday inn prices…coke is RM 2 lunch is RM 5
“Oh my!” pixie says to me as a wild boar walks pass us. Yes, just outside our quarters, semi detached lodge A, a wild boar happily roams free as if a resident jester while camera click away. Nature is close by…we saw silver leaf monkeys, proboscis monkeys, kingfishers and monitor lizards barely a hundred steps from our quarters too.
A moments rest and then it’s time to go on one of many trails that makes bako…well bako. A map provided upon check in is quickly referred to and off we go. There is no need for a guide as the park ranger did say that Bako is one of the hardest National park to get lost in though one season pro did get lost for four days as he tried to be clever going off trail. So off on our walk…we chose to go to the Tajor waterfalls, starting on the lintang traile we walked up to a point where we connected to the tajor trail. The walk wasn’t through beautiful greenery all the way…to challenge you it consists of rugged terrain, steep climbs and generous patches of ‘padang api’. Literally translated as fire fields, these padang api are literally sandstone walks with little or no plant covering overhead so the sun bakes down directly at you from above, its ray also hitting the white sand and bounces back at you from below. I guess you can say even cooking. Some of the people who joined us for our journey, gave up an hour in. But the ‘Padang Api’ did remind me a lot of my neighbourhood where I was growing up, its white sand that compacted to a sort of clay hold little ditches of water with ‘water boatmen’ and other little critters. The padang api did make you very grateful once you’ve reach the trees again though and serve to teach an important message that trees are much required before our planet turns into a massive toaster. Remember Global Warming people! Do your part!! . However, the relieve is short and the long path still ahead will quickly get your legs complaining.
After an hour and a half walk, we are at the waterfall. It isn’t all that big a dip and initially, I was slightly disappointed. This is it? And the water’s black too so it doesn’t really entices you to jump in. But as I sat at the edge with my biscuit and crumbs fell in the water, fighting fishes appeared. They were much bigger but more plainly coloured than the variety you’d find in fish shops but nonetheless it peaked my curiosity. Soon after cooling off sweat…into the waters I go. The black water is not dirty…it’s more or less nature’s tea as it was probably the result of soaked shedding jungle leaves. Soon, I became more adventurous and began exploring the small crevices between rocks and plants…beauty IS in the details. I was more preoccupied photographing than swimming all in all. But, as I was just getting the pleasures of the dip…it’s time to go as pixie was getting worried. It’s already five fifteen pm, and the one and a half hour walk back means it’ll be dark before we finish the trail as it. Having only about 20 minutes in the water, I reluctantly peeled away from it. Along the trail back, rejuvenated from the dip, we took time out to take a classical trick photo couples of the past often did. “Look I found a pixie!” Back to HQ, I was calm with the satisfaction from a good walk. At night bako offers a night walk and fireflies.
Only that night looking through the picture of the waterfall and other pictures I realize nature’s generous beauty. The walk suddenly seemed worth it and I wondered how I’d get pixie to agree to walk in the morning to the waterfall again; she was reluctant only because she wanted to try another trail and also we started late as the fresh chilly forest air was sooooo good to be asleep in…
Post Note. We do well to conserve nature for ourselves and our future. A note from the park ranger said that while Europeans help keep bako really clean, locals are still often caught littering along the trails…sigh… when will we ever learn.
Me, my brother and our grandpa one afternoon at the Ｓｔａｒ ｃｉｎｅｐｌｅｘ cinema in kuching after watching Mission Impossible 3 a couple months back. We moved the big cardboard standee into position to get the correct light to take this picture as bemused cinema attendants look on...it's as if we were posing to celebrate some grand premiere... quick...where's Tom Cruise? ahhh...but we've got a bigger star in our midst...who needs tom cruise when you've got... grandpa. My grandpa...from my mother's side is the man who first made me fall in love with cinema and set me on the course to being a filmmaker.
As I had a working mother, my grandpa and grandma was given the task of babysitting me. As I was an overactive kid capable of climbing chairs and an assortment of misbehaviours.Let me give you an example...I once trashed a 'longan'(whitish flesh thumbsized rounded succulent fruit with a brown thin skin) can about hammering it with furniture, throwing it about and kicking it until it leaked because my grandma won't open it for me as she says I have not had lunch. I guess saying was not easy to babysit is an understatement...
Then my grandfather discovered something...in the cinema, i sat stone still watching movies...so every afternoon...babysitting time...it was off to the cinema and hence I grew to love the cinema. Ticket prices were cheap...and he never paid for me as I was supposedly going to sit on his lap...this went on for many years. When VCD came out I watched it at home with kung kung. He was wowed by the special effects of films like titanic and vertical limits swearing that people has to have died to make the film.It's always 'kung-kung kwa he!' (hokkien for Grandpa,lets watch a movie!)
So now when I come home to kuching it's always...I want to bring grandpa to the cinema.But of late, grandpa has been becoming more and more reluctant to go to the cinema...because his hearing and eyesight is failing slowly being 82+...so he doesn't enjoy it as much anymore...he comes up with excuses not to go...i can't drive...I say I will...he says the theatre is cold...I say I'll bring him a jacket and buy him a hot milo...he says he can't hear properly...i say the cinema's very loud and I've already bought the ticket. And so...he comes along...
There is a special something for me when I sit in a dimly lit air-conditioned room with my grandpa watching Mission Impossible 3. I just hope he enjoys it as much...so as we walked out of the cinema...I asked him...how's the movie?...to which he replied...'We've seen it before!
In my heart...i said to myself 'Yes grandpa...we've seen it before!'
It's been at least two months I've been away from this blog...that's how fast life have been passing...anyway,as I return to writing my ongoings...I realised a half written blog that I left behind the last time I was here about two months back...at that time there seem to be such urgency in the issue and yet I didn't really remember to continue and post it...making it ' a post about remembering' all the more significant... being forgotten, being fazed...how life is an ever deepening layer of emotion,stories that were important being covered by layers of silt of everyday ...being eventually forgotten...but stories fading doesn't matter...at least not as much as life's importance fading...what I mean by life's importance's fading is how we tend to forget in the midst of our daily grind the life of those around us (especially those that made us who we are - our families) getting pushed aside due to modern time constraints,geographic logistic and plain old inconvenience.
Anyway...the half written blog...
A week ago I was contemplating not going home for my grandfather's birthday. I was really really up to my neck in work and would want anytime I had away to just crash and the idea of family wasn't on my mind as it takes quite abit to travel.
So I called my dad and asked him how much of a dissapointment it would be if I skipped kung-kung's birthday. My dad asked me if I knew where kung kung was. I said I didn't know. I heard the words kung kung collapsed this morning is now in the hospital's emergency ward. The mere words struck into me and I immediately told my dad I am going home. My dad said to me...no need the urgency...there's nothing we can do but pray...his solemn voice grinded guilt into my heart...
Having someone close to me fall sick really impacts me alot and I get this sudden surge of vulnerability and concern for human mortality/my own mortality that puts me in an immediate solemn and pensive mood. Life, which I often take for granted, will not always be there it seem and I should be screaming with joy that at this very moment that I am here breathing,thinking and writing...you should be screaming too for you are alive, a miraculous creation with breath and spirit reading this.
It's a wonder what we are, a single being formed by a zillion living cells capable of emotions, action, thought and through all these most importantly be an individual...my grandfather was one such individual and though he may not mean as much to many of you out there as he does to me being my grandfather, I do wonder what it really means to me..the words 'my grandfather'...I know I care and love my granfather but why do I? not because he carried the mere words of status 'grandfather' I hope.
So, a man who despite any misgivings or ordinariness is someone who has been directly been invovled in me being here? That would be unfair to my grandfather because he is so much more I am sure...so remember I am trying to do...remember what kung kung has done for me...
Even though I've grown past being a child, I was once held in his arms with great pride being his first grandchild, I remember him sending me postcards for overseas signed with love kung-kung, I remember angpows and presents, I remember his low toned voice of concern for me as I went through exams and with that I remember...my grandfather.
As I came home to be surrounded by family brought together by a time of difficulty, my Auntie Agnes rushed back from Australia and everyone were at their toes...it seems an irony,how family almost require disaster to remember,myself included...
shouldn't we remember on every ordinary day?
Fortunately,my grandfather did pull through this time...and managed to celebrate his birthday despite being weak and on a wheel chair...and as we celebrate...I remember.
