Wolfgang Lonien

After returning to paklong and maklong (my brother-in-law and his family) on Wednesday, the first thing I noticed was how fast these workers outside were building that new “Elmina Valley” – the first of the roofs were about to get ready:

Our adik and family also joined us again, and together we visited iCity:

Aqilah and her mum Zu on a train carousel:

On Saturday, Mitchie was invited to visit some of her former classmates and alumni and friends/husbands, but I didn’t take the camera there. It was nonetheless very interesting, and for the second time in my life I also ate Durian, this time in form of a cake. Nice, but not that easy to digest.

In the evening, both our families brought us back to KLIA – the header image is from a short stop on the motorway, not too far off the airport. At 2am on Sunday morning, our plane was to leave, so we had to say goodbye and terima kasih (= thanks) at around 1 o’clock. It was great to see them all again, and 6 years in between was way too long – so we hope to meet them again soon. My joke from yesterday: for my next birthday I said I’d wish for nothing special – just a cake, like the one maklong had. Available at Secret Recipe (in Malaysia only) 😉

Other things to try, should you visit Malaysia: Nasi Lemak and/or Roti Canai for breakfast, and Laksa, like Zu made it. Delicious like the whole Malaysian cuisine. One request of my brother was to write down the recipe of my favourite dish there – we bought him a book instead…

Thanks for reading, and for viewing.

On Monday, 25th of July, our abang gave us his Perodua Alza to visit my father-in-law’s. And one of the first photos I took there was this one of “Belang” (= striped):

Suadi, my father-in-law, had hired some people to help him harvesting some of his palm oil, so this time my help wasn’t required, except to take some photos of it:

Each of these fruits weighs approximately 20kg, so considered the Malaysian sun and temperatures, this is really hard work:

Here’s another of Suadi’s cats, “Tompok” (= patches):

Except cats, I mainly took portraits and snapshots of Mitchie’s greater family, often on request – Malaysians are mostly not camera shy, and willingly group and pose together as soon as they see a camera, or a smart phone (which everyone has). Here for instance are Comel (= cute) with her son and her husband:

Her sister Siti is also married by now, but her husband was involved in an accident and broke his leg, so he couldn’t come. Here’s Siti with Zuleikha instead (both smiling for a smart phone beside me):

Last not least, my father-in-law again, together with his wife Sakdiah:

I have a lot more of these family snapshots and group photos, some of which Zuleikha took with my camera. To see some more, please check my “Malaysia 2016” album on Flickr.

During our time there, we’ve got both Suadi’s Honda EX5 and Skadiah’s Yamaha SS110 (formerly Mitchie’s) motorcycles repaired and maintained a bit. Here are Zuleikha and her atuk (= grandfather in Javanese) coming back from a short test ride (and another visit to some relatives):

These motorcycles with 100 to about 150ccm are very popular in Malaysia, and make about 50% of all registered vehicles in the country. And for the kampungs (= villages) they are really all you’d need, and also really useful in denser areas with heavier traffic – our abang takes his 135cc Yamaha to work and back each day. Dangerous, yes, but also a lot faster than using the car and being stuck in those traffic jams. Means: while driving in Malaysia (and I drove at least 1.500 km again this time), be careful and very alert – these will overtake you on each side, no matter which lane you’re in.

Oh, some last ones for our dad’s neighbour. Here’s his youngest son Aimee:

And that neighbour is also a smoker, and like me he rolls his own cigarettes. So he tried my tobacco, and I tried his local “Domingo” brand, available at the 7/11 shops which are around everywhere:

Nice, tho only half as strong as mine. With about RM17 (= Ringgit, the current exchange rate is about 4.5/1), it’s not that much cheaper than what we have here.

After about 9 days, we had to go back North to Shah Alam. I’ll write about that next time.

Thanks for reading, and for viewing.

We’ve had 3 weeks in Malaysia this year, and we started on Sunday, July 17th with a route taking us from FRA (Frankfurt) over DXB (Dubai) to KUL (Kuala Lumpur), where we arrived late Monday evening. Our abang (the older one of my brothers-in-law) and his youngest daughter Aleesa picked us up and drove us all the way to their home at Bukit Subang, near Subang airport and Shah Alam, which is some 56km North-Northwest of KL International Airport, close to the capitol Kuala Lumpur:

And Aleesa was also amongst the first of whom I took a photograph on the following evening:

Our adik (the younger one of my brothers-in-law) and his family also joined us the next day, and here’s a photo of his youngest daughter, Aqilah:

I also tried one photo using my compact flash off-camera and bounced over the ceiling – so here’s the result, showing Aleesa and Zuleikha:

Zuleikha told a joke, asking why a cow wants to cross a road (“Because she’s going to the mooohviiiees”), so that became one of the running gags – and the kids really wanted to go and see a film afterwards. So this is what we did, except Aqilah who stayed with us instead:

She looked pretty cool even outside in the sun on her Mama’s arms:

During the following days, we did a lot and also ate out, like at this restaurant on the sea. This is the Straits of Malacca, famous shipping route from Asia to Europe (and with pirates around as I’ve heard):

For all you travellers who want to find that, it’s here:

After eating, the kids went to collect some sea shells, some of which they still have:

Except Aqilah, here on the arms of her kakak (= older sister) Aisya, who is about Zuleikha’s age:

We also visited Putrajaya, the seat of the government and also the king’s residence. Here’s a view from one of the bridges which lead there:

Aiman and Aleesa on that same bridge:

Except of the palaces and government buildings, Putrajaya looks like a giant amusement/recreational park, and you can do lots of stuff there – even try yourself on your cross-country motorcycle like this guy did:

On Sunday, our adik and his family as well as our abang’s eldest son Fariz had to go back – there were no public school holidays in Malaysia during the time we were there. The plan was that we’d take one of our abang’s cars to visit my father-in-law for a bit over a week, and to come back and meet everyone again afterwards, so that is what we did. I’ll write about that next time.

Thanks for reading and viewing.

We’re back from a 3 week trip to Malaysia, which is where Mitchie comes from, so it’s kind of home for us. And we’ve visited almost all of the family and friends’ houses; after 6 years it was about time to do this.

I selected a few images which were taken with my camera, either by Zuleikha or by myself, but I still have to consult Mitchie about how to write some of the names. So for today I’ll show you just one “featured image” here, of my father-in-law, En. Suadi bin Sumadi. He allowed me to take this photo at his home, close to two windows.

I converted this one to black and white with the film simulation built into RawTherapee, using Tri-X as the simulated film. Looks better than with using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 which gives more artificial grain. As usual, the image comes from Flickr where you can see or download a bigger version for prints.

More to come, but I still need a bit of time for them.

Thanks for reading.