This weekend is gonna be a total blast!

Atmah (Action To Mobilize All Humanity), an organization that was set up at advocate for and educate the lower income communities is running a charity treasure hunt from the 14-15 August.

 

Starting point : PJ. Destination : Cameron Highland. Total distance travelled : 219km

Prizes : RM 3000, 2000, 1000

Why would I be that excited about a treasure hunt (besides the prize), you might ask? Could it be because it’s gonna be held in Cameron?

 

To be honest, I’m not all gungho about Cameron Highlands. There’s nothing to do there except drive up and down endless rows of tea trees and hunt for strawberries.

 

There’s also the legendary Cameron Highland Pasar Malam.

Contrary to popular belief, the Pasar Malam is NOT an attraction. It is a major Disaster… the main cause of daily traffic havoc from 4pm – 8pm.

 

The pasar malam is STRATEGICALLY located in Brinchang, smack in the center of the ONLY road that goes through all the towns in Cameron Highland.

 

 

How not to have traffic jam gila babi you tell me? How to treasure hunt there you tell me? By the end of the hunt, even cactus will fall asleep laa.

 

 

 

Anyway.

 

I’m still excited.

 

That’s because it is my first Motor Treasure Hunt ever. I’ve joined normal treasure hunts, but this is one that needs me to drive around woh. Best.

 

I received some even better news this evening, that we’ll be receiving petrol coupons. Free Petrol wei.

 

My car is gona get an orgasm when she finds out about it. Yeah baby.

 

And the Bestest part is this:

 

Out of 60 cars that will be participating in this event, there’s about 7 cars whose members are Salsa Kakis. Which means that when the treasure hunt part is over, it’s gona be Salsa All Night Long..!

 

And since we’re taking a night in Equatorial Resort, our salsa uncle Ganesh has arranged for us to crash the ballroom for the night. There is Nothing that can be better than that babeh.

 

I wonder if I’ll be able to revive the memories from the Salsa Cruise last year. Man. I think about it also I gatal liao. Feet moving and tapping around too. LOL.

 

This time, I will be joined by @NatC, @Andygts & @Rachelmeiq in our team of 4. We will fight to navigate our way through the treacherous roads of Cameron, dodging strawberry attacks and random road animals.

@Rachelmeiq                                                   @andygts                                         @NatC

 

And this 3 fellas in my team are super smangat. Siap dengan laptop, mobile broadband, thesaurus, dictionary, GPS etc.

 

It was all good…until last night when we were required to submit a team name.

 

After about 2 hours of major debate (over BBM chat), and coming out with an exhaustive arsenal of names, we finally rested on a final suggestion. But before I announce it, here are some of the ideas : LOL, OMG, WTF, OMG NOM NOM, Don’t Follow Me I’m Lost, Trailblazers, Hensem, Pirates…etc…

 

I personally liked ‘Team OMG’. But there was a 2 vs 2 vote against it, so it was taken off the list. And finally, we ended up with..

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Team Macho Divas.

Sigh.

 

I know, it sounds wrong on so many levels. To me, it initially sounded like we are a team of AH QUA running around Cameron Highlands. ‘Machos AND Divas’ is perfect, but it just sounded too long…So it was decided. We would remove the ‘AND’ to be ‘Macho Divas’ this weekend.

 

And seeing that we have such a mixed-up team name, it only makes sense to have a mixed up team banner as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh boy, I can’t wait. If you want to know what happens this weekend, make sure you follow me on Twitter at @euveng. There’ll be plenty of time to tweet when we inevitably get stuck in traffic jam haha.

 

Cheers!
EVo

 

I’m getting in the lazy-to-post habit again. Help! *slaps self*

 

Recently, I got into the habit of taking pics with my BB instead of the DSLR.

 

Food la..

 

People la..(taken with @Esther_N last week) 

Even a photo of a photo..(@Hye_di, @meiyingt, Psychkin during Gelatomio Ice cream review in Pavilion) 

I’ve become so lazy that I don’t even bring the DSLR to events anymore, even for the Relay for Life that happened in Bukit Jalil stadium last week.

 

@Ling_chan, me, @Kruel74, @loveykatz, @meiyingt, @smashpop, @nikicheong in my humble and modest opinion : probably the best looking people on the field. Out of a 4000-5000 crowd turnup that day…chehhh.

But I can’t help it lah. BB 9700 camera is too powderful. Even night shots turn out like this. Woh!

So you can understand my problem. Which is a good problem, since I don’t have to lug around a big-ass camera bag. And all that wading in the mud it made me kinda glad I left it at home. Hehe.

@spinzer shooting his own feet stuck in the mud…and from the looks of it, actually enjoying it. He stucked himself there for like 5 minutes. Sor lou.

 

 

During salsa parties, a picture taken with a DSLR actually looks mostly like this:

 

However, shooting with the BB during the salsa party last Saturday, even with flash fails. Like only 2 people dancing in the dark lol.

 

But still, DSLR comes in handy again, this time at the top of Broga Hill! (I know I complain about carrying a big bag around, so taking it all the way up a mountain kinda contradicts myself. But aiyah. That was a spontaneous climb on Wesak day lol)

 

@euveng, Psychkin, @BaldwinChua, Jarrel, @kMeiQ

 

 

 

Anyway, that was a summary of the weekend. I’m actually too lazy to write grandfather’s stories anymore..

 

First, I TWEET like it’s my drug. I tweet so much so that when it’s time to blog, I sit and stare blankly at the screen. Then I fall asleep and blogging tak jadi.

 

And that brings the 2nd reason, that blogging takes too much time, and having a couple of projects in hand, I’d rather spend the time peacefully taking a dump in the toilet. Sides, when I have a shit, I can tweet. But I can’t blog while having a shit lol.

 

Oh, one more thing I’m real proud of.

 

I’ve successfully converted Mei Qin/Rachel, Natalie, Benghan, Pei Yi into Salsa-kaki! Oh yeaaaaah.

New Salseros and Salsaritas in my studio in Tmn Desa.

 

Salsa Nights will never be the same again….ow..!

 

Cheers!
EVo

In November, I had one of the most fun photography assignments I ever had since I started shooting.

The Salsa Cruise involved people, it involved a lot of females (definitely), and it involved a lot of body movement. None of which I was too interested in initially, so as I told many people, I ventured into it purely as a photographer. According to TimLow, he was looking for someone who was good at capturing emotions.

I think that maybe I should have warned him beforehand that the emotion that I capture the most was that of MY OWN. I don’t think he would’ve complained though. Camwhoring, after all, is an art ma *crazy laugh*

So, after Day #1 of the Salsa Cruise show at Singapore, came the most exciting part of the journey.

Jordan Frisbee of Jordan & Tatiana.

Kadu Pires & Larissa from Brazil.

It was sail-off day on the Legend of the Seas! Ain’t it grand?

I would have looooved to get a shot while on the pier standing next to the ship for a typical China-man shot but they simply wouldn’t let me get off the boarding passageway. What’s wrong with these security guards? So I could only take a photo of the tugboat instead. Damn.

And this is what you’d see on board. Feast your eyes, people…..

Actually, this is what you get if you board this ship as a regular cruise member.

But what you’re gona see next is what brought the whole thing to life. The Salsa part of the Cruise. Where over 300 guests from all over the world gathered…they came from different origins, practised different cultures, ate different food, but they all spoke one language : Dance.

Honestly, it all came as a shock to me. Here I was, standing with a camera, watching couples who barely knew each other, grinding each others bonbon dancing to music that I can only describe as songs that you hear in the movies. Like the very South American type, eg when James Bond visits Morocco.

I shot and shot like Rambo with an M-16 machinegun. And the more I shot, the happier the faces I got.

This artist Magna Gopal was originally also very happy, until I took such a LOW shot that she thought I was doing an upskirt. Oops..too artistic maybe.

Damn happy right these people! While wondering why…I put some facts together.

I don’t Salsa / Ballroom dance, but I do club. That’s technically dancing right? So because I do not smile as happily as these Salsa people while clubbing, I did some thinking and made this table to see a comparison between Salsa and Clubbing.

And get this. A regular Friday night Salsa party in KL costs me RM10 (including a Coke / mineral water). A regular Friday night Clubbing session costs me RM60 at least (assuming I don’t dun run into road blocks that I need to bribe).

Group shot after dinner aboard the ship

Tony Lara & Jaime Jesus

Ulysses McLaren and Lidia McMahon

The directors of the cruise were, not surprisingly, awesome people themselves.

TimLow, Audrey, James, Tamie.

Even though I was on board as a photographer, I was allowed to join the dance workshops, as long as I had done my share of shooting.

AT THIS POINT I TENSION LOR.

Part of me wanted to try. And part of me knew that if I did, I would look completely like a fool. And sure enough, I did, when I joined the Bachata workshop under Tony and Daniella.

Had I simply partnered with anyone, it wouldn’t be so bad. But guess who dragged me out to dance with.

It’s Zher from 8TV. And it was caught on tape also! *faints*

The only real consolation was that she was a noob like me. So it was a potato dancing with a potato, and that was still OK. Hehe. The best part is, no one laughed. So FAIL on the dancefloor is allowed! *yes*

The incredible Lidia McMahon that exists only in guys’ wildest dreams.

Salsa, Bachata and Zouk are considered street dances, and are the only dance (as far as I know) that can be brought to parties in clubs. You can’t do that with dances like Tango, Rhumba, Ballroom etc. Salsa is a social dance; a universal language that brings people together.

I must admit that after all these, I found myself very drawn in, and wanted to get involved if I could.

So I’ll share with you on how YOU can get right in. I got this invite from TimLow a few day ago, that I wanna share with y’all:

If you think that you dance like Barney, then this event will be perfect for you. It caters for newbies and experienced dancers alike. Organized by the same people who pulled off the successful Salsa Cruise 2009.

There’s food, dance workshops, games, performances, holidays, up for grabs. For free. And if you’re worried that you don’t know people there, that’s what I’m there for. I’ll make sure you get acquainted in no time

Once again, here’s details for ya:

Date : 30th January 2010

Time : 12:00pm to 6:00pm

Venue : Kuala Lumpur Dancers Association (KLDA)

Level 2, Indoor Sport Complex (near Hotel Grand Olympic / behind Stadium Negara)
Wisma OCM
Jalan Hang Jebat
50150 Kuala Lumpur

We’ll be waiting for you Join the revolution….the Salsa revolution!

Cheers!
EVo