As we speak, I'm sitting at my laptop to reply some emails and doing some workies as usual, but tonight, is a very special night indeed.

Lo and behold, what did I see? 

I was in awe, while gazing at view of the ethereal Supermoon from my window!

It was magnificent. I quickly whipped out my camera gear without thinking. 

Out comes my DSLR and 200mm telephoto lens!

How could I resist?

7 May 2012 Supermoon 

7 May 2012 Supermoon 

7 May 2012 Supermoon 

Oh and.. here's a HDR shot I did of tonight's Supermoon. Enjoy!

Supermoon from my window

As of tonight, the 7th May 2012, the biggest full moon of the year peaked and shone 30% brighter than usual due to its close passing to the Earth. 

Lovely. I'm really glad I managed to catch the significance of tonight!

Because of a fluke of orbital timing, the full moon of May peaked

just as the moon was passing its perigee, the closest point to Earth of its orbit.

The result was the biggest full moon of the year, which NASA and

other scientists nicknamed the supermoon of 2012

- news.discovery.com

 

You could say I'm quite a fan of giant full moons, here's my previous blogpost about the moon I shot one Autumn night last year back in Australia.

Should probably lay a rug in the middle of your lawn right now and admire the moon in all its splendour when you still have the chance! 

Alright, back to work now

Have a great week ahead lovelies! 

Throughout the past month, I've been playing host to many caucasian buddies of mine here in Malaysia.

December felt like a month of not only sharing & introducing Malaysia, my culture, my lifestyle, my food and my people to friends from abroad but also getting more in touch with my own country on a totally different level.

Believe it or not, being a constant tour guide does have its profound impacts on a local. 

I can vouch for that in its entirety. 

But to be honest, being a tour guide/host is not an easy streak as constantly going out and about to never-ending places of interest is more than likely to render me strapped for cash; draining my wallet of its dosh. $$$$$$$

En route to Batu Caves!

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy it regardless – well proven with my 1st Australian guest I hosted last month.

So…. bring on round #4 of bringing foreigners around in a month! 

Batu Caves, the 400 million year old sacred Indian hilltop temple of worship

was one of the touristy destinations I took 'em all to

That 140 feet Lord Muruga statue we have is the tallest statue of its kind in the world! *proud*

Currently it's not so pretty as they are re-doing paintworks – hence construction scaffoldings around it.

Birds will flock together in unbelievable amounts! 

I've seen the entire walkway covered with a sea of birds on certain evenings

Oooh tiny boy chasing pengui – - wait, I totally meant pigeons.

Honest mistake there. Unbackspaced for shits and giggles 

Anyway, I've been frequenting Batu Caves so many times in a month that I think I could totally climb up the stairs in under 5 minutes now. It's not exactly that tough, trust me 

300 steps all in all – 272 steps to get up there and another 20ish steps inside the cave.

But seriously, please, what can 300 do to you?

Oh wait…. right. 

*gulp*

Right, so…. the next time I pay a visit to Batu Caves will be to bring le boyfie for the (much dreaded) staircase hike, the Ramayana cave, the Dark Cave tour, the Indian blessings and to simply witness the picturesque sights of KL & the Klang Valley from up above

Only a halfway mark? I kid you not.

What's also wonderful at Batu Caves is the fact that you will see so many tourists/foreigners/expatriates flock from all over the world; curious to know the ongoings within the walls of our sacred cave. 

My Aussieguests Allyce & Lauren attempting the climb!

Armed with their cameras of all sorts, maps and escalated enthusiasm, people of different races and religion come to this limestone hill which bears home to arguably the most popular Hindu shrine in South East Asia. 

Incidentally, I made few new friends up on the steps too

This is Anamika. She hails from India and is in Malaysia for a holiday & to pay her respects to Hindu Lord Murugan

Finally arrived the peak! Batu Caves beckons us

Amazing view of nature from waaaaay up here!

And part of the Klang Valley from the look out spot

inside the main cave of Batu Caves – the Cathedral/Temple cave!

Stalactites and stalagmites come in abundance!

So much more to see inside! Ancient Indian paintings line the walls of this enclosure 

Intricate statues and devotees getting their blessings by the Indian monks as they murmur spiritual incantations and sprinkle by holy water onto them are not to be missed! I watched closely too 

Not gonna show you anymore – you have to see for yourself!

So here's a photo of the staircase as we head back down to the foot of the hill again

David – my Swede buddy and I having a refreshing coconut drink after the climb

Insane amount of pigeons were still around!

Cave visitors and devotees often buy food to offer these pigeons

I shall now award this t-shirt to a specific someone

TO THE PIGEON WHISPERER

Amongst the flock was a rather aggressive – AND HUNGRY – monkey

Who I felt was rather indignant that they get all the food and he doesn't

He took some for himself

Correction : took ALL the food to himself

And the birds soon surrounded him. Hah! You're outnumbered now, lil monkey

It was quite the spectacle, if I do say so myself. A funny sight to see although eventually, more visitors started to bear them more food. That certainly put an end to the food wars LOL!

Batu Caves has never failed to be an experience for me.

Neither will it ever be for anyone – both believers or non-believers! 

Here's to hoping that the paintworks on the Lord Murugan statue will be finished and the scaffoldings will be taken away by the time I bring le boyfie to visit. He arrives Malaysia in 3 days!! *eggcited*

I've always loved being on a ship/boat/ferry/yacht whatever you call it.

As long as its a vessel capable of sailing atop deep waters, count me in!

I was kinda seeing a sailor quite some time back,

should've just married him and live in a ship

Kidding, obviously

If you remember my previous blogposts, my experiences above sea water was when I was aboard STAR Pisces Cruise Ship in 2010 and aboard the USS New Orleans ship in 2009! 

Anyway, it's great to know that Tiger has formed a collabo with the Regatta and threw a fab celebration last week and extended invitations to a few of us to be there to join the party onshore and offshore!

On the Guinness Anchor Berhad coach with my mates from the sphere!

Was a pretty long journey to Port Klang

At least I got to catch the beautiful sunset! 

My first step in Port Klang.

It looked marvellous at sunset. Pity photos never do justice!

I saw many boats docked by the pier

Inside, the party has just begun!

Here we are at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club for the presentation of the Tiger Challenge Trophy at the unveiling ceremony.

With Tiger rolling about free-flow and heaps of food to go around!

LOL I can see the satay still in your mouth Huai Bin!

Yummy local finger food

I was honoured to witness the launch of the Tiger Challenge Trophy for this premier offshore passage race in Malaysia! For the first time, all IRC yachts regardless of their classes can compete for ONE awesome trophy!

I saw this huge, shiny trophy and thought it might be it

But it turned out that it wasn't! The real one was kept for the handover

In case you didn't know, the challenging offshore passage race will begin on the 18th November and lasts for 8 days! It is run from throughout the Regatta passage: Port Klang to Pangkor, Pangkor to Penang and finally, Penang to Langkawi

A word from the Regatta representative

A word from Sean Koh of Tiger

We were ushered to adjourn to the habour to enjoy even more Tiger (and the refreshing Tiger Crystal!)

I had fun mingling on a windy night out there

A boat filled with Tiger original and Tiger Crystal beers for us to enjoy!

Simply delish

By the harbour with Sean!  Been a long time since we met up, the last time was during

Tiger's newly redesigned can's freebeer event before I headed off to Australia!

By the pier with Simon and Samantha

After lotsa chillaxing over ice-cold Tiger, all of us were ushered to get onboard the official vessel of the Regatta

Awesome! I was excited to get into the boat

Armed with my Tiger in hand, let's get going

All aboard, mateys!

Giggidy! There you have it, the Historic Sailing Vessel docked at 120 years old, VEGA, before my eyes

me gusta

And I haz boarded it  

Felt awesome to feel my hair blown by the wind above the sea on this magnificent VEGA

Upper deck!

Whoaaa. Even 120 year old Norwegian VEGA is keeping up with the times – a Macbook Pro!

Corridors of the upper deck

Unkempt hair due to the strong winds ahead!

Owner and Master of the  Captain Shane Granger was seen telling everyone stories of the histories, happenings and what he went through with VEGA It was great to hear stories straight from the horses mouth.

Just like history being recounted right in fronta you!

Storytime!

The vessel will make a grand sight as VEGA oversees this International Regatta from start to finish.

Official ship, so yeah. It's expected to be there to wow everyone too!

So glad I got to take a photo with him!

But LOL look at how high the tide was & how rough the waves were!

Better photo! Captain Shane Granger and I

He's sucha jolly good fellow. Very informational and jovial at the same time

For a significant amount of time, I was chilling with this lady of which I assumed was part of the VEGA

We were talking about heaps of stuff, ranging from how life was like constantly sailing and about ships in general. We even talked about pirates and commercialized life at sea portrayed by Hollywood movies and such. 

She never told me who she was, but I soon found out from Shane that she was………

Meggie, his wife!

Such a lovely, humble and fun person to talk to 

VEGA will be present during all races of the Regatta

Bumped into Ren! Long time no see

Chilling with the bunch on the upper deck

Ended up making friends onboard VEGA with Ash and Vincent from G2.

Very nice and friendly lads!

They asked if I wanted to check out the bottom deck, where the sailors (and sailorettes) of the VEGA, is that even a question dudes? Of course I'd be delighted to tour it all

So yeah, imma take you on a visual tour here. Ahoy, let's go!

When I first got down the steep steps

Wow! Must be their nautica table where they do all their bearings and such

Living room! So comfy and cosy…. with heaps and heaps of books!

Meggie told me that apart from duties, the sailors have nothing much to do but read

Wow. They must be gaining more and more intellectual points with each country they disembark on!

Anyways, Chris and I couldn't help but to camwhore on the mini "library" they had here

Woohoo! And these are not even half of the books I saw in the ship!

The kitchen! Meggie also told me that they cook their meals daily

Dining room!

Toilets…. so adorable LOL

Bedrooms…… AND MORE BOOKS!

See how they have all the time in the world to be knowledgeable and well-read whilst sailing around the world?

SO JEALOUS.

I am, actually. I miss my avid reading habits, to be honest.

One day, I see myself being a sailor girl and sailing with my nose in a book throughout the entire journey

I was joking.

I disembarked VEGA feeling slightly seasick due to the bobbing up and down and strong winds

But had an amazing time nevertheless, it was worthwhile!

Here's to wishing the participants the very best of luck for one of Asia's most distinguished Regattas, the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta in winning the Tiger Challenge Trophy.

Clear skies and fair wind ahead!!