Malaysia in Pictures - frogs, earthquakes and water villages.
My philosophy is this: if you want photos no one else has, you have to do things no one else does. Getting off the beaten track and just exploring is my favourite ways of doing things.
I have visited Malaysia twice in the last 6 months. It was holidays not photo expeditions so my time was divided between the more regular sightseeing and my mini expeditions. I've used two different cameras which forced me to shoot in two very different ways. One was a big DSLR with a pro photo-journalistic zoom lens. One of the big 3 of pro lenses. The other one was a small, light and inconspicuous with a fixed 35 mm lens.
Most of the pictures here were taken in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu (Borneo).
The first thing I have to say about Kuala Lumpur is that is has one of the best food in the world. I love street vendors and local delicacies served straight off the flaming grill.
Grilled frog does not taste like chicken. It's a very delicate meat with a slight seafoody undertone. The only problem is that they're quite small. A bit too much hassle for not a lot of meat. I'm pretty sure frog porridge is just an unfortunate translation.
Kota Kinabalu in Borneo was more like my cup of tea, still traditional in many ways. With the jungle on one side and so called water gypsies (Bajau people) on the other side.
I missed an earthquake while visiting a water village one day. The hotel shook for a minute but I couldn't feel a thing in the boat.
What looked to my like one big village turned out to be 3 separate ones, each with it's own mosque.
You need a very good sense of balance to get from one house to another and a bit of faith. Some planks are wobbly, other have massive nails sticking out. Kids go barefoot all the time of course :)
My big DSLR is a great camera but I liked the small one better. It's easier to gain people's trust and go unnoticed.
