Malacca Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary

Selamat datang ke Melaka!

As part of my series on Melaka, my hometown, a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a historic city of the Straits of Malacca, I am sharing these photographs of the Malacca Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary. 


TAMAN RAMA-RAMA & REPTILIA MELAKA
Malacca Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary


First of all, I have to admit that my sole purpose of visiting this place was to photograph the butterflies. Secondly, I am not too keen on photographing reptiles. In fact, I sort of closed my eyes and ran past the snake collection area. I did brave myself enough to snap a few shots of the crocodiles, but one of them gave me a hungry look, so I walked hurriedly on. Hence, these photographs I am posting are only of pretty birds and butterflies, and harmless tortoises and koi. No snakes, my apologies.


At the entrance...

Pretty Polly welcomes the visitors.

 90% of these photos are straight out of the camera (SOOC)...including the parrot images and the peacock. For the peahen, I had to pop her colour a little as she is rather a Plain Jane.

Another Polly says hello. (No, she merely squawked )

   

He just wouldn't spread his wings for me...proud peacock!

Pouty Peahen is pretty proud too.

"Do you think we qualify for Mellow Yellow Monday? We are pretty yellow up-front!" 

"Oh! She wants a snapshot of us?  Why didn't she say so?"

Let's go inside, explore the grounds...

Reflections in the Koi Pond 

The Asian Brown Tortoise...largest in Asia (grows up to 25 kg!)

I can't figure out the significance of the giant eggs...this leads to the butterfly sanctuary!

THE BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY!!!

Stop me if keep on filling this post with the butterfly photos I took. I love them all...

However, I shall try my best to limit myself to publishing one of each variety...if I can. Oh, this is really hard for me.

A shadow shot...a 12 o'clock shadow, to be precise!

Alright, alright. I shall save some of the photographs for the next few write-ups on each individual species.



Linking to:
Weekend Reflections
Scenic Sunday
Shadow Shot
SOOC
Mosaic Monday
Macro Monday
Mellow Yellow Monday

Fremantle

To say that the port city of Fremantle has character is an understatement...it has a charming ambience that distinguishes it from the modern city of Perth. A mix of late Georgian, Victorian, Gothic architecture make the town of Fremantle most interesting to visit, and certainly unforgettable.


Much of the architecture in Fremantle was built by the convicts during the colonial era in the mid 1800s. The Gaol, now renamed the Round House is a well-known landmark. It was a jail until 1886.




Another landmark is the Fremantle Town Hall, representative of Victorian  architecture. It opened in 1887.






Gothic Architecture
St John's Church attracted my attention at first glance. Overlooking King's Square, it is said to be the true heart of Fremantle.






Just look at these ornate facades. Just lovely!









Gold Rush Architecture
Described as a 'rich' style as we can see from the examples below. The Gold Rush brought prosperity to Fremantle in the 1890s, and the architecture of that era reflects that.





I like this pretty shop window.

  

The people  we saw on the streets and park were busy and on the go on that day, though.


  

  





Linking to:
Skywatch Friday
Weekend Reflections
Scenic Sunday
Shadow Shot
SOOC

Flocking Together

I have often lamented my lack of luck where photographing birds are concerned. The only  opportunity I could boast of was the Siberian Seagulls at Green Lake where there were thousands of these seagulls in flight. It would have been impossible not to have captured these birds in flight...they were everywhere!


Going through some holiday photographs recently, I realised that I did have quite a few reasonably good captures of birds...especially of the species that cannot fly or do not fly! Just from my New Zealand holiday itself,  there were these birds I should proudly catalogue under "The ones which did not get away" in my collection entitled "Feathery Friends".  Of course, there are no other categories apart form "The ones which did not get away".

For Poery Potluck on the theme "Nature and Life" :

flocking together

birds of different feathers

nature's pulse of life

These could swim away from me, but I caught them before they dove into the water.

These were enjoying their morning paddle in the pond too much to mind my nosy camera.

This one loved the camera...so it came towards me.

This family is lovely, they allowed me to take this photograph even though Papa Duck wasn't around for a full family portrait. I wonder how Papa Duck looks like.

This is my favourite bird...the one that is in the centre of the town...the pukeko that could not run away from me.

Linking to:

Camera Critters 

Scenic Sunday

SOOC

Weekend Reflections

Shadow Shot

Haiku Heights

Haiku My Heart
Poetic Forms: Haiku

The Many Faces of Lake Wakatipu

This is part of my series on lakes renowned for their scenic beauty. Lake Wakatipu is not only renowned for its beauty, it has many attributes that make it worthy, in my humble opinion, of being a lake with many faces.

Firstly, it is New Zealand's longest lake and secondly, it is the third largest lake in the country. This accounts for the many different vistas of this lake that makes it beautiful in many different ways.

On another count, Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand is pristine. This is not just a descriptive adjective an enthusiastic writer would use for all lovely lakes, it is actually pristine in the true sense of the word, having its original purity. The lake water is said to be more than 90% pure. 


It is also a lake with a myth. An old Maori tale is that a giant's heart beats at the bottom of the lake which is below sea level. In fact Wakatipu means 'hollow of the giant'.


If you are a movie buff, you probably already know that Hollywood had used the lake for the location of "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" and "Vertical Limit". And who does not know that certain sequences from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" were filmed here?


And of course, the lake area is an area that attracts not only extreme sports but also boating, fishing and cruising.

View from Bob's Peak.

View of the lake with the Remarkables in the horizon.

Venture a little closer and you could hear the giant's heartbeat if you listen closely.

From the deck of a cruise boat on the lake.

From my window at the resort at break of day.

View from the Queenstown Botanic Garden.

View from the lake looking at the bank where the homes of the rich and famous are located.

When you have a lake like this, anywhere you turn, the scene is just perfect for a shot. All these photographs are posted here without even cropping. Nature is awfully kind to photographers here. I could go on and on posting more photographs, but that would take all night. 

Please take a trip to Scenic Sunday for more fabulous vistas, and to Weekend Reflections and SOOC for more fantastic shots.

              

Siberian Seagulls

The  proudest moment in my newly acquired interest in bird photography occurred when I was at Green Lake in Kunming, China. I had always admired my blogger friends who photographed birds apparently with ease, and obviously with great success, judging from the fantastic close-ups of all kinds of birds in their blogs. In my own garden I could only watch as some mynahs hopped on the ground. Each time I moved in to attempt to point and shoot some photos, they would have flown off at the slightest hint of movement.


I resorted to photographing birds that do not fly...I do not mean roosters and such, I mean yard art birds. However my big break came when I heard about the thousands of migratory seagulls which would be at Green Lake after flying over oceans, land and lakes from Siberia. I am of course referring to the birds; I'm not from Siberia. Surely out of the thousands of birds there, I would be able to capture one or two decent images of birds in flight. There were throngs of  photographers by the lake using the best in bird photography equipment no less. I wasn't the least daunted. Using my Sony Cyber-shot, I clicked deliriously away. Here are some of my favourite captures.

What a delightful day at Green Lake, the day I became a bird photographer.

This post is specially for Weekend Reflection, Straight Out Of The Camera, Camera Critters, Scenic Sunday.
Do go over and watch the action there.