Taiping - City of Downpour

Pictures courtesy of Daniel, Toby, Van Yenn. . . and more
Welcome to Taiping, a small and quiet town we which have been selected to be part of our Studio 3 site. The continuous rain for the past few days have made lives of us fellow Studio 3 people miserable as work progress was slow and unsatisfying.

Taiping; land of limitless rain

The journey was a rough three hours excluding all stops. As we traveled we kept entertained by performers. . .

. . . yup, performers

On the first day, we were given the choice to partake in a night safari which was around town. Pictures were scarce as flash photography would annoy the animals. . . and we wouldn't want that now would we.

Rare zoo night safari pictures

Probably the most fun we had was inside the hotel lobby itself. . . along the corridors.

Scaring the crap out of friends,

watching videos and pictures,

exercising,

. . . and setting up multiple tolls

The city itself was entertaining as we managed to

stalk the locals,

watch food eating food,

getting to know the chef's pets,

learn about the circle of life,

witness an accident just inches away,

and watch out for unwarned incoming dangers that lurk

A valuable lesson was taught on the trip; one of which is to NEVER mess with girls

Daniel taught us that lesson at the cost of his life. . . thanks man!

The girls. . . mess not with them fellow dudes

Lesson two is more visual. For those who are snacking now i suggest you stop for the meantime. It was unfortunate but it seemed that Daniel had made it his obligation to teach us lesson two as well.

He managed to convince us that hotel food will always remain yucks

We were lucky to be able to celebrate two very lovely lady's birthday as it fell on the day of the trip itself.

Birthday girl Yann Ee

Birthday girl Xe Wei

We had prior to the trip planned a self-initiated fun as well which included guitars and clothes.

What trip could do without a guitar

And the main event of the trip was a fashion show organized by yours truly.

Hosted by Chi Ming

Coming to the end of the trip, we had our final destination; Sasanarakkha Hill. A hill that allocates a meditation temple.

If we had more time I wouldn't mind dipping

Unfortunately, to reach the temple we had to hike a 30° angled hill. It was insane. . .

Some had needed help, some needed rest, while others needed more exercise

It was a long and tiring journey, but the fruits of our efforts paid off. . . i think.

We managed to experience meditation

I must have forgot to mention, but the journey up the hill was filled with weird mechanisms you would never imagine. . . like this.

Just bring along your laptop

With some of the rules of the temple stating we must remove our footwear. . . we were prone to leech attacks

Like this! Or is the rule some ingenious arrangement for some diabolic plan

The architects managed to place some fish eye mirrors much to our convenience.

Now we can have a proper group picture with everyone in it

It was by the end of the trip that our fellow studio mates FINALLY had pity on us DSLR users and decided to snap us in just one shot. Thanks!

Daniel and his weird hobby

It was further into the temple did we stumble upon a space perfect for mass meditation. . .

. . . and group picture

And what have our fellow studio mates have to say about the Sasanarakkha hike

Fun and somewhat bursting with joy

Our only organized mass group picture

Lets organize another trip Ms. V

PS: We did visit Gua Tempurung as well. . . but thats another complicated story to tell