Wushu national championship 2007

So here comes the photo blog about Wushu. Went there as a ticket buyer but bring along my entire photography gear i look much more like the pers than regular audience. As expected meet some of my friends who are actually pers themself. After a small talk figured out that it was actually quite easy to get a crew/pers pass from the organiser, should have make a few call before. Browsing the hall and seeing how sitting with the crowd wont be a good option for taking photograph as you cant stand up or risk being thrown object at your head by people behind you.

We end up going behind the crew only area anyway, all you need is a photographer look, which i certainly got since I AM a photographer, prob just hold your camera in front of your chest where the pass should be, and seeing that I carry a big lense they wont suspect a thing.

So, the event run late as predicted, official start time was 7.30 but not untill 8.10 that the show start rolling, so here is the reportage of the show in photos

Opening act: Traditional dancer from Nias picking up all the honorable guest to their seat

Display of the contestant starting

One of the cuter contestant

North Sumatera!!!! accompany by a roaring applauses from the entire hall (and a very sexy sign girl)

Our fighters

(my) main attraction of the night

sexy lady

Fireworks along with the opening drums played by honorable guests

The fireworks actually was a pretty stupid move from the organiser, as it filled the indoor hall with smoke, audiences fan their face with whatever they got right after the fireworks and it didnt disappear complete untill very late into the show. The smoke-and some poor lighting- gave photographers an almost nightmarish condition to shoot. So you have to pardon my lack of sharpness in the action shots.

One more look at the sexy lady

The all chinese dancer that has won some international competition and will represent indo in some int bla3 competition soon

in action


Demo from the Chinese Wushu team, very impressive

Some of the duel action was breathtaking,and funny (because they were suppose to be a comedic fight like jackie chan, not because they were stupid)

syncronised side jump

the picking up dandruff from the back of someone's head move

triple back somersault

Hyatttttttt!!!!!

The Barongsai from Malaysia, equally impressive

Misjudged the step and fall, see that the guy behind already on the ground, pretty dangerous stuff

The crowd were pretty sportive, they broke into applauses to give support after the Barongsai fell, they got up again and repeat the jump and succeded, and after that they were just showing off by doing some intentional "almost fall down" move, well, they manage to make the crowd gasp anyway.

Mr.Lion

The co-MC from china which is a singer herself put on some show for us. Unfortunately that was right after the end of the Wushu and Lion dance show, some of the crowd probably didn't realise there were going to be second session of Wushu action started to leave the hall, that probably explain the look on her face

The Wushu artist from N.Sumatera team got the honor the do some demo

they even fight with a shovel

grab the enemy by his feet and throw him over head, just like in a movie

Bye bye Medan

Yuni shara, if you dont know her then "big sis of Krisdayanti"

celebrity hogging time with Mr.Edo Kondologit (damn u ali, not sharp!!!)

Thats it folks, the competition still going on for another 3days, see if i will feel challenged and go take some more action shots or not. But with no demo from Chinese Team prob wont be much fun anymore. Now if you excuse, I m going to track down that sexy lady that hold the N.Sumatera sign............

blogger material.........not

its been..........errrrrr.....long (i dun even care to see whats the date) since i last post stuff here. Guess im not a blogger material at all. since last post tons and tons of exciting were happening, but i dun feel the urge to post.

or isit because im just too damn busy enjoying those days, well there is "my best friends wedding" yeap friends, plural, as its 2 of my best friend marrying each other, couldn't be more happy for them. So for the event few of our non indo friends make the trips to the equator shit hole. so days before the big day was fill by going out from house early morning and get home really2 late. And the aftermath was fill by trips to Parapat/Lake Toba.

btw how many of you absolutely love Lake Toba, well i know i am. I've been forever. and visiting it again after 7 years still broke my heart, how such a beautiful place can be so forgotten, the city of Parapat is..............flat as best, there arent anything happening in the town, unless u get yourself a nice hotel (which is like only Niagara and Hotel Parapat) and stay in there the whole trips there arent much to do about. And even those so called Parapat best hotel was way off standard, its a sad picture really. Samosir is better.....but still the locals could use some help from the Gov. anyway....prob blog about the whole thing next time i got the urge (dun hold thy breath)

Just got back from a National Wushu championship, doing photo shoot. Should post some up tomorrow

Operation Hello Kitty

one slow afternoon when PLN was doing their master work and i have absolutely nothing to do at home, and i was hitting a few ball on my pool table when i heard kittens noise from above, wondering how the hell kittens could get to my rooftop i go up en cant seem to find them anywhere. Then i followed the noise and tadaaaaaaa.....they were inside the roof!!!

my 1st thought was that they are trapped in there. thinking the worst (you know, they die and rot in there and the smell go absolutely all over my house) i called my tukang kayu. Prob we could open some wood from the roof and go inside.

have to go into slimming mode to slide my body pass this (its much lower than it looked)

fortunately it didnt take any major work, a slight nudge by the hammer and the tukang able to create small space enough for him to slide his body through. he circle the whole damn roof but find nothing. And I just heard them about 30min ago before the tukang get here, so i got inside too, and i did find them. it was pretty scary since my ceiling platform was made of gypsum board hang by a thin aluminium only, so you cant step on it. end up balancing myself on the few big woods that serve as the bone to the whole roof, and any miss step and i fall into the gypsum and i will pretty much go straight down to my living room.

After i found the kitties i send in the tukang for the dirty work

and there were 3 of them, small little baby kittens, weak and terrified. well, they werent trapped. and we figure their mum gave birth to them in there. But we still cant have them living in there. god knows the kind of food their mum brought them every night, it can get very dirty and smelly up there

call us small and weak one more time and we gonna scratch your head off

so we got them out, put them inside a nice little box, gave them milk, and since my sister in law is pregnant and cat is like only the biggest enemy to pregnant women. i got to put them to the empty house next door, hoping their mum will be able to find them.

Mum, pls find them before i start giving them names

There used to be mice invasion in my old house that have me ended up crawling inside a very small and dirty space too. Only that it wasnt for a rescue mission like this, but an evacuation. since my dad already poison the damn mouse, but he choose to die in a very remote place where his carcass will gave a terribly bad smell to my dad's room, his last revenge.....

Dead mouse give me artistic inspiration...im the devil...artistic devil that is

mice, kittens....what next?? horse trapped inside my roof??

anyway, this kittens is cute, anyone up for adoption??

everybody say whoOooOoreee......now say whore whore whore!!!

Heaven (0r hell....depends on how u view it) is indeed on earth, in Surabaya it is. Inside the little place known as Dolly. Ladies and gentlemen (but mostly gentlemen....or not so gentle men i should say) welcome to the largest prostitute concentration camp in South East Asia.

So on one lonely night me and jack...wait, not lonely night, just normal night. We cruised through what is one of the main attraction of Sby. It was a small street just fit 2 cars into it and some smaller labyrinth that cant fit car inside. There was whore house, massage centre, dangdut pub all over the place, and whats so great about it is that they have a "aquarium system", all the whore house is a glass front, like a showroom all the girls sat there waiting for walk by men to pick them up

yes, it wasn't an upscale place at all, infact they are so cheap jack commented "if you ever think of using them then better wear 3condom" still according to mr.jack. they will accept Rp.50.000 for a full service, no wonder the place is packed.

See something you like?

we took all this photos from inside jack's moving car, i jumped to the back so i can freely choose from the right side and the left, jack didn't has the gut to go down and walk (which i wanted to) he said that we will be mobbed by the whore, offering themself, desperate for money. they don't do that jack, cant you see they all sitting nicely inside their own aquarium, you were chicken out

Sir!! i have you on camera, and im showing to your wife!! unless u gonna pay....big!!

yeah we were contemplating on taking up a job as a professional blackmailer at Dolly, equipt with camera we go about taking pictures of cheating husband and boyfriend and then sell those pictures to them sky high, but of course the job could only last for one day, seeing how we will be definately dead before dawn

Pijat plus plus....plus anything your money can buy

ohhh and a few meter outside this area is an ISLAMIC CENTRE, and there are lots of waroeng right outside the centre where the whore always have their meal. go figure

once upon a time when i was a tukang becak

once upon a time when i ride a becak.....

So, one sunny afternoon when i was at sby and wanna see more of it, i decided to take a ride on a becak, slowly exploring the city, seeing (both with my own eyes and with my camera's lenses)
different corner of the town. and then somewhere along the ride we (the tukang becak and me) change place, me on the saddle and he on the passenger seat, thats right, i was once a tukang becak.....

it was 3.30 in the afternoon and i walk on the street trying to find myself a ride and a tourguide, i know i need a good tukang becak, good personality and good knowledge of the town. I stop the 1st tukang becak i saw and i couldnt have pick any better...meet pak Supiyanto, a good man....

so i tell him i need him to bring me around the town for like 1.5hour and he only asked for Rp.20.000!!! in Medan going from A-B that take 15 minute only would have cost you Rp.10.000 already. I hopped on without bargaining of course, and here are some of the shots i got

the becak force of surabaya

one of the corner of sby

reflection of my becak

I know for Indonesian this stuff is not news to us, we know how some of the under privileged people live in this country, but looking at it with your own eyes still make you go wow and probably yucks too. Look at those kids bathing and playing while a few meters from them is this guy taking a dump, they literally soaking themself in shit water!!

another tukang becak

The gelora 10 nopember stadium, home of the Persebaya Surabaya. Once the champion of the indonesian football league, i'm pretty sure they won the league more than once, but i cant remember how many times. And they got the most hostile group of fans base in indonesian football, the so called Bonek or bondo nekad (modal nekad) and im just glad that it wasnt match day.

hotel sahid surabaya

Train cruising through

happy riders

Some other becak rider that was on their "station" waiting for passenger, we stop to ask them to take a few shot of me and pak supianto, and it wouldnt be right if i didnt offer to take a few of them either and they were very happy to, as you can see in the photo

Going againt the current and trying to cross, scary stuff

trying to be cool

the whole ride end up being much longer than what i planned, but all the while pak Supiyanto didnt make anything out of it, he was just happy to show me around and tell me stories, but midway through i ask him to stop at a waroeng to have a drink, 2hour of riding a becak must be tiring, and he was surprised that i actually want him to join me inside the waroeng for a drink, i guess there just never been a chinese guy who did this before, we all cruised in our sedan and when we actually take a becak ride we are too proud to be close to the rider.

about 15minute before we reach home i ask him to switch me with, that i wanted to ride it. So down he goes, pak Supiyanto sitting on the passenger seat and im up on his saddle. Let me tell you that it was actually not an easy thing to do at all, it was heavy and hard to control. Different from becak in Medan, here in Java its rider at the back and passenger in the front, so the becak is actually wider in the front than the back, and you need a real strong arm to keep the front balance, especially when you are going fast.
All the time my heart was pumping, not because just about everybody that we passed look at me all weird and some even laugh but with my rookie skill in controlling e becak i might just crashed into something, or someone.



Pak Supiyanto told me that for the 23 years he ride a becak never once he is the passenger, he keep saying that this was god given gift to him that he was to meet me on that day, he was just so happy.

A hero (just the one in the yellow shirt, the one in blue is just your standard loser)

after we reach jack's place i ask him to take a few photos of us, i would kill myself if i don't have the picture of me as a tukang becak. The whole ride took 3 hour, and i pay pak Supiyanto Rp.100.000. He took it without even looking at it, he never think about the money, he was just having a blast and shared a genuine good time with me, a truly nice guy. And he make me see tukang becak differently now