Smart vs not smart - which one do you prefer?

Was having a chat with my friend and both of us share the same thoughts, that although we are both from the first two classes (the smart one, according to Malaysia school system) in high school, we love to mingle with those from the last few classes (the lazy or not smart one).

Why?

Because they value friendship more than those smart ass, although a number of them do not end up with a great occupation like lawyer or doctor. It doesn't have to be a favour or help or whatever, it just have to be little things that nobody notice.

Seeing “Melbournes” through Arts

By Tan May Ling

Updated by 23th October, 2012

Photo by Candlelight Productions

Indulge yourself in the aromatic scent of freshly brewed coffee beans from The Café at Beer DeLuxe and let your senses guide you down the flight of stairs, leading you into the Atrium. There you will be greeted with colourful models of buildings, delicious looking food replicas and many other items, spread across four customized tables and some placed next to the greenery. This surreal view is what greets visitors upon entering the Atrium.

Inspired by the title “A Tale of Two Cities”, one of the novels written by Charles Dickens, the Candlelight Productions has brought to life “A Tale of Two Melbournes” at the Melbourne Fringe Festival this September. The event, which spans across ten days, from Thursday to Sunday (27^th September to 14^th October) takes place at the Atrium, opposite The Café at Beer DeLuxe, Federation Square.

There are four main tables, one for questionnaires, another for display, and the another two for visitors to express “what you love of Melbourne” and “your vision of Melbourne”. A Tale of Two Melbournes is all about using unconventional art materials to express their thoughts by building 3D communal artworks.

From afar, a gathering of people of both young and old is visible. They surround the tables with glue sticks, paperboards and other crafting materials used to create their replicas. Young children are seen to be having fun, fluttering from table to table, eagerly searching for the materials needed to craft out their vision of Melbourne. Once their ideas are solidified into tangible objects, they carry their work carefully around the event, enthusiastically sharing their ideas with the volunteers.

A Paradise behind the Mountain

Written by May Ling Tan on 16 September, 2012

Photography by May Ling Tan

Pantai Kerachut, Penang National Park – by May Ling

Apart from its world-class heritage sites, local gastronomical delights such as char koay teow, and asam laksa have become a necessity to many when visiting Penang Island. However, what remains undiscovered to many visitors is the existence of a hidden paradise located at the north-west corner of this busy island – Pantai Kerachut.

The dock for people arriving by boat – 

by May Ling

Pantai Kerachut is part of the recently declared Penang National Park. Instead of lazing around on over commercialized beaches, where pollution is adamant and left-over charcoals are a norm, Pantai Kerachut offers an experience that varies from the typical Penang beach, and allows you to grow closer to nature.

Surrounded by small fishing villages, the beach is well-preserved with a turtle reservation centre and a rare meromictic lake that exists only during the wettest months in Penang.

Trekkers like me can sign up for an approximately hour-long jungle trek up and down the hill that separates the beach from the fishing villages. The beach is also accessible via boat, but costs around RM80-RM100 per boat.

I was advised to leave the beach earlier because it is dangerous to travel by foot after nightfall. Hiking to the beach in the middle of afternoon is not a major problem as it is shady and cool once you enter the forest.

It can be quite challenging to travel by foot, especially for children. However, the reward is brilliant. The fresh air, small river streams and colourful butterflies astound you all along the way.

Turtle Reservation Centre in Pantai Kerachut – by May Ling

As the journey nears its end, the air changes into the salty scent of sea breeze with a bridge that connects the forest to the beach.

 Hidden among the bushes at the end of the finest beach is the Pantai Kerachut Turtle Reservation Centre. It is one of the few places in Malaysia where green turtles come in and lay eggs. Here, you can observe the hatching of turtle eggs and baby turtles swimming in the small pool.

Melbourne Fringe’s Big Three-0

By Tan May Ling on 9th September, 2012

Celebrating its 30 years birthday in independent arts, Melbourne Fringe Festival is back in the city.

Since 1982, Melbourne Fringe Festival was established after the closure of Carlton’s legendary Pram Factory. The arts festival has supported more than fifty thousand artists. The festivals also presented various forms of arts genres, from circus, dance, design, visual art, comedy, music, and sideshow. All held in several hundreds of venues all across Melbourne.

People attending the 30 Years of Independence 

and Arts party posing for 

photo-shoot in the photo booth – 

Photo by Melbourne Fringe Festival Facebook

Melbourne Fringe Festival began with parades in Brunswick Street and rapidly evolved into a significant cultural event, attracting hundreds of thousands of audiences. People from all around Melbourne or Victoria would come and gather at the arts festival, to celebrate arts, exclusively independent arts.

“Melbourne Fringe used to be very well-known in the past but it had toned down a bit if you compare the current Melbourne Fringe to the past Melbourne Fringe,” said Eugene Wong, who is one of the organizers for A Tale of Two Melbournes.

Despite the decrease of popularity in comparison with the past, Melbourne Fringe Festival still attracts many locals and a number of travellers or tourists. It is the second largest Fringe Festival held in Australia after Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Running from 26 September to 14 October 2012, Melbourne Fringe has provided a space for local artists to come out with wild, bold and creative art ideas and presenting them to everyone in Melbourne.

MIFF 2012: A Letter to Momo – Review

By May Ling Tan on 19 August, 2012

“Dear Momo…”

11 year old Momo finds an unfinished letter by her late father before he was killed in a work-related accident. As she had a fight with her late-father just before he died, she clings to this letter and the feelings of guilt for not able to apologize to his father. Momo and her mother, Ikuko move to an old house of their family on a remote island in Hiroshima - Shio Island, where she 

Women, Men & Money

3rd May 2012

written by May Ling

There is this common understanding that women loves shopping but men don't, all they want is just to grab the stuff they want and leave. But how far is this the truth?

Anyway, I'm not going to argue about is it true or not about the statement above. Today, I'm going to BS something else.

To be frankly, I'm a woman but I don't like shopping in the mall whole day, or with most of my female friends at all, to a certain extend that there are times where I don't like going out shopping with my mother also!

Sometimes I wonder am I abnormal. Although I don't enjoy going out to the mall and spend more than 4 hours at there, I do enjoy trying out certain style of clothing (except shoes).

Yup. Conclusion, I'm weird. I would rather got stuck in bookstores or DVD shops than spending hours in shoe or clothing shop.

Things you usually sees in malls

With one shopping mall sitting behind my apartment, I noticed quite a few things:-

Data analysis on Tourist Arrivals in Malaysia for 2011

By Tan May Ling

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25 – In last year, Malaysia had recorded a total of 25 million of tourist arrivals, which is 0.6% higher than then number recorded in year 2010.

Majority of the tourists arrived in Malaysia during that year can be categorized in the Asia continent. Neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei are the main visitors coming into Malaysia. The Singaporeans are still the main tourists in Malaysia because of the close distances between both countries despite the rise and drop of the number throughout the year.

The stable climate of Malaysia has also prompted many foreigners to come in every year, especially in the middle of the year where it is the peak season. June and July had recorded the highest number of tourist arrivals in 2011.

Majority of the countries that is located on the north continent, such as the USA, UK and even in the West Asia has a radical rise during mid-year (July) in 2011. This is because of the hot weather during summer and tourists from these nations will come to Malaysia to escape the hot weather. However, the opposite pattern can be seen in Australia where the peak season is during January, which is also a summer season in Australia.

From the map also we can see that there is a rise during the end of the year and beginning of the year in certain nations such as the Norway, Sweden and Finland. Tourists from these countries come to Malaysia during their winter season to escape the cold weather.

Things you see in Bersih 3.0

28th April 2012

Written by May Ling

Photo by May Ling

The crowd marching from KLCC to Dataran Merdeka

Although this wasn't my first time to a protest, it was my first time to a Bersih protest and to be honest, I was pretty excited and scare at the same time.

When I depart from Sunway at 9.30pm, there wasn't much to see but once the bus headed to Kelana Jaya LRT station drive into Petaling Jaya, I started seeing some cars with passengers and drivers dressing up in YELLOW or GREEN. When I saw this, immediately I knew I wasn't alone anymore.

I took the LRT to KLCC quite often during the weekends and usually it wasn't that pack but today, it is all yellow and green. I notice a lot of youngsters are going as well.

Today everyone is everybody's friends. 

I had a short conversation with one uncle around the age of 50 plus in the LRT. Although he didn't join the rally, he wishes me good luck and stay safe when I exit the LRT. *personally after the rally I think it is a good thing the uncle didn't join the rally because it was very difficult to breath for a youth like me when the FRU throw the tear gas at us.*

People in GREEN, YELLOW and even RED had gathered along Jalan Ampang at KLCC this morning and started marching towards Dataran Merdeka around 11 something. I didn't notice many police traffic except in a few places. However, the protesters still manage to march safely with volunteers wearing in red guiding the traffics and the march. 

Drivers honk when they saw the group march by, and the crowd cheer back to them. Everyone was so unite and doing the same thing, which you don't see this often in here.

We managed to get in front of the barrier during the rally and saw quite a few things like a few people throwing water bottle or hitting the police truck when it pass by. But luckily things didn't go wrong when I was there because there are people from behind shouting to the crowd not to throw things towards the police.

"Don't throw! Don't give the police an excuse to arrest you!" a guy shouted.

The rally changed me in some way.

All these time, I heard a lot of people saying things you will see in the rally but this are all just from listening. But  after experiencing Bersih 3.0, I strongly agreed with what they said.

Strangers become friends in the protest. You can just talk to any strangers and they are friendly.

Everyone help and care for everyone despite race, age, or religion. There are people offering water, salt, mask and ice to people who seems to be having difficulty after experiencing the tear gas. *I had not experience the water cannon so I can't comment much about that.*

I felt so touch by their actions. People are asking anyone who pass by whether they need salt or not. some even offer us (I went with my classmate) water after the tear gas were shoot towards our direction. There are also people comforting others "it is alright, don't worry".

For the first time, I felt really lucky that I'm a girl, because the people were like, "ladies first." in the 7-11 when everyone is trying to get a drink or refreshment from there.

A young guy approached me for some salt and after some time while I was sitting by the roadside with my classmate, he saw us and came to thank us for the salt. I was a bit shock to see this. That in the mist of chaos, he still can recognise us.

Although it wasn't comfortable at all to get hit by tear gas and so on. I will never regret deciding to go for the rally and I will never forget how I felt and see in this event. The burning I felt in my nose and throat, the pain that caused my tears to drop, it is all worth it because of what I had seen.

Everyone is so unite in the rally. Somehow from here, I began to believe there are actually still a lot of polite people like this in Malaysia.