Another take on Pulau Besar

Alright!
Now that I have done my part on the Pulau Besar Museum, I can relax. It's time to get some more insight on the mystery of Pulau Besar. It's like a teaser before the Museum are actually open to public. Be sure to check it out.

Batu Belah

We'll start with the mystery of this unique looking stone called Batu Belah. No, it's not from the folklore where the stone eats up human. This stone was located in the middle of Pulau Besar on its highest peak. It was a stone broken into two and the distance was not far between each other. The stone with its height of 3 metres had a width of 35 cm crack in the middle and 5 metres depth. There are 3 version of stories regarding the origin of this stone. But the most interesting was about a group of warriors and heroes showing off their own skills and talents. There was one who split the stone at one shot. A man named Panglima Hitam, took up the challenge by showing off his credibility by splitting the stone using his tongue. Ladies...^^.

Gua Yunus

Now we're going to a cave called Gua Yunus. From the local community sources, this cave was previously a living place of Syeikh Yunus. He was described as an aloof Sufi.Once a week,he would come to the local populated area to get his food supply. However, at some point, he was no longer seen on this island.

This situation raised a question mark amongst his friends and the local community. They finally went to the cave to search for him but found out that he was no longer around. It was interesting to note that the stone on which he used to sit had turned white. This was obvious because the stones found in the cave were all black. Various speculations had been made by the local people about his missing.

After he was gone, the cave was put up as a hermitage place for those who wished to learn certain knowledge. It was uncertain whether the knowledge learnt was based on Islamic laws or contrary to them. What captured our interest until now was the mystery and uniqueness of one particular white stone found in the cave.

Tempayan Pecah

This well was closely associated with the event of nenek kebayan who advised her seven children to water her flowery plants and herbs while she went out in search of roots. But it was only performed by her youngest child. Nenek Kebayan advised that the watering process should be performed by taking freshwater using pail from the well and collecting them in the crock. When the crock was full then only they can be used to water the plants.To make the task easier, the youngest child had disobeyed her mother.

As her youngest child was taking the water using the crock to water the plants,nenek kebayan arrived home. Thus, in her hurriedness, the crock that she was carrying crashed and she tried to hide it by digging a burrow in that area. Seeing the incident, nenek kebayan felt strange but her child told her she had found a spring. One strange incident was that the spring was spurting out water from the area which she dug. Until now, the well kept spurting out water and was never dry. This well is located across the tomb of Nenek Kebayan at the end of a golf course.


This one is interesting. Remember the tall tree in the middle of a golf course that cannot be taken down? It was believe that this busut (home of termite) that resembles an image of a little girl holding something is the guardian of this tree. That's why even a crane can't take this tree down. Niceeee.

So, that's all for now. Will update if anything interesting come across. Ciao.

Magical Mystery Tour - Pulau Besar, Melaka

Couple of years without entry in the art world is considered dealing with exclusivity. That's not the case for this blog. After nearly a year without anything up, it's called lameness. No excitement. Dead.

So lets get this thing started again Rejuvenate! Refresh! With this brand new entry! Magical Mystery Tour! (your comments makes me excited! Write anything)

Recently I was asked to shoot some historical monuments in this 'mystical island' called Pulau Besar (en: Big Island) in Melaka. This Island is believed to be sacred due to the amount of tomb of historical figure that was scattered all around this island. These come with a various versions of myth and the stories that has been spread is interesting enough to make anyone visit it. There is also a new museum on the way. So guys n gals, if you hate parties and love myth and mysteries, go to Pulau Besar.

Pulau Besar

The original tomb was relocated to this well maintained place to protect it from being worshipped by many who's seeking for wishes.


This pond was believed to be the pond of 'the invisible people'(read: orang bunian). What makes it interesting is that there's a school of cute little red fish that were said they never grow bigger.


This unique tree in the middle of the golf course is said to be 'protected'. Many attempts from the owner to bring it down even with heavy machines has come deadlock.


An encounter with an ascetic who's believed to stay put on this rock under this tree for 50 long years. Although he doesn't look comfortable sitting in between rocks, the shade of the tree keeps him going.

No Way Out

Sometimes luck is just beyond our will.

I need a JOB!!!

After a long time doing nothing with my Olympus E300, it's time to shoot again. But not with my camera. This time my cousin has asked me to show a thing or two on how to light with off-camera flash and play with lightings. So we're using his gear which is a Nikon D80 with a thing they called CLS (google it, i don't know what it stands for). So, after half an hour trying to figure out how to adjust his speedlight, we gave up and adjust the position instead.

Jali the Cousin

Then came an emerging Malaysian actor to the studio. Wan Raja!!! Actually it's my friend's painting studio and he came to visit him. He asked us to shoot him for his thing so Jali with the camera and I was the light stand.

Wan Raja the Actorrrr

And also something for myself of course. A sandwiched type lighting.

Arip the Great

Happy Eid ul Fitr 1430 (عيد فطر مبارك)

Wishing all Muslim a Happy Eid ul Fitr 1430. May we all get fat and happy.

Raja Lope

Singer/Illustrator

GELAGAT by ROHAIZAD SHAARI

Recently, I was asked to shoot a portrait of one of a few Malaysian watercolor artist, Rohaizad Shaari for his upcoming solo exhibition GELAGAT. I was pleased to do it and came up with outrageous idea in my head that happened to be a crap.

Rohaizad is a simple man and great watercolor artist. He has been making his living by doing watercolor paintings. His subject are mainly landscape of a Malaysian village with his favorite 'gerek' or an 'old bicycle' appeared in nearly every of his paintings. This is a continuance from his first solo exhibition, GEREK (2003), which was more of a reflection of his village life (living in Kedah), apparently became a huge success.

Bebanan
(2006)

With much and rapid 'happenings' in recent years, he couldn't turn away from being affected. In his recent paintings, he has injected his idea of contradiction that has been taken over his surroundings. With an old bicycle again as the main character in his works, the landscape has changed. Social criticism arise obviously as the new environment interjects. But he remains simple. We can see it in the title of his works. Mostly 1 word, the rest of it 2 words.

Krisis
(2008)

Enough of him, lets talk about me. Why did i said my outrageous idea turns into crap?

Most of his paintings are large scale watercolor. Nearly 2 meter width. So I think it would be cool if I can take a picture of him holding a mop soaked in rose syrup getting ready to bash his large paintings. Right? Right?!! wrong.... So I just took a low-key portrait of him for presumably his catalogue cover which end up in the inner page. It looks cool.

Anyway back to him...

Be sure you be there to check out Rohaizad's recent large scale watercolor paintings.
The details are as follows:

Date: 15th August 2009(Sat) | 5pm
Venue: Metro Fine Art, Legend Hotel (The Mall)
Exhibition runs until 29th August 2009