Time constrain is a bitch. Although I wish to blog more often but blogging just take too much time off my hands. So instead of taking the time to put up all my thoughts, pictures and videos on my blog, I turned to micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram instead.

Until recently, when I received the domain renewal notice from my hosting company, I decided not to renew my hosting and shutdown this blog for good.

Ok I was just kidding. Hahaha… Did I surprise you? Just trying to pull a belated April-fool joke :p I will never throw this 5-year-old baby out the window just like that.

The blog is here to stay, but what should I do with it next? Keep it vacant as it is and update 3 times a year and making promises to update more often which I know I can never keep?

Well, I have no idea either. I was thinking to turn this blog into something else maybe a Tumblr blog or something more advanced like an automated tweets and Instagram compilation blog. But I guess that will take quite a lot of time to implement too. Oh well.

So until I figure out what to do next, there will be nothing much to see here. Or you have better ideas? Do let me know.

Till next time, ciao.

Oh ya, there’s one more thing. Do follow me on Twitter or Instagram for more updates. Just search for my username “denslee”

But man I was proven so wrong after the 5-day trip to Ho Chi Minh City (the capital of Vietnam) in early November 2011 with Peter and Sophea.

This post is about my first impression of Vietnam in general, I’ll post my travelogue soon.

HCMC (short for Ho Chi Minh City) is a big city which I didn’t expect it to be that big with so many skyscrapers.

There are several things I found it interesting in HCMC and the first thing that had us jaw-dropped when we arrived at the city was of course, the infamous traffic situation.

The amount of motorcycles on the road was just incredible. How they dishonour the traffic lights, criss-crossing among each other while honking all the way was really an eye-opening scene.

Another interesting phenomenon is how Vietnamese love their coffee.

Drinking coffee is like their culture, their identity and their only reason to continue living. Okay maybe not to that extend.

But their love for coffee is definitely undeniable. You will see people selling and drinking coffee at every sidewalk all day long. When Vietnamese talk about their coffee, their eyes sparkle. If they can put coffee beans on their national flag, I bet they would.

So what is so special about their coffee? The coffee has some special roasted taste and it tastes really really kao (thick) it’s almost like the espresso of the espresso.

When added with some condensed milk and lots and lots of ice (usually how they drink it), the taste is just superb and satisfying!

It took me a few try to get used to the taste of the coffee and the sweetness they used to drink, but once you get used to it, you will definitely ask for more.

Another thing that caught me by surprise in HCMC is the number of luxury brand stores they have there.

Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Versace, Jimmy Choo and Burberry just to mention a few. And surprisingly, their prices are so much cheaper than Malaysia, almost by half! Too bad even cheaper by half I still can’t afford a single item from those places.

So this is it, my initial impression of Vietnam in general. The city is developing and the people are progressing.

I’ll post my travelogue from day 1 to 5 soon where we found out the painful history of the Vietnamese people and a number of incidents that caught us off guard including how I lost and found my precious belonging.

Stay tuned.

I know… I know… I’ve been gone for a very long time. And for those who have been chasing me for updates, I’m really sorry about that.

I stopped blogging 8 months ago because there were some changes in my life.

But due to some personal reasons, I can’t write about them. If I can’t write about them, my blog is not “up-to-date”. If my blog is not up-to-date, I better off not writing anything.

Execuses I know.

But time flies, I didn’t realise that stopping for a while would be 8 months long.

Many things have happened and many things have changed.

First and foremost, I quitted my full-time job!!!

Ok maybe this is not a breaking news anymore for those who know me in person since it happened months ago.

In a nutshell, I resigned from my position as a Senior Web Designer from a globalised local university and started freelancing web design and development jobs.

It was a big step for me and it was life changing.

It’s not easy at first especially when money is running low and clients refuse to pay. But that’s the price I need to pay for freedom and lifestyle. I’ll leave the details for another post (if there is another post :p).

Okay, so what else happened? Actually I can’t really remember after so many months. I have bad memories.

For now, I will leave you with a picture from the trip to Vietnam early this month. Full story coming soon (I hope).

Cityscape view of Ho Chi Minh City from the Bitexco Financial Tower’s observation deck at level 47.

Things won’t go smoothly. Things will be broken.

There will be no sign nor sound.

Once broken, it’s hard to be fixed.

But there’s no point of fixing something that can’t be fixed.

So it’s time to wake up from the long nap.

Move on to a whole new level.

There’s no room for regret, no place for sympathy.

Life must go on.

To a place that no one has ever been.

To a place we call a newlife.

He told me that it will be published in a magazine, but what he didn’t tell me was that, the pictures going to appear on 11 pages!

You can find them in the latest iN DESIGN Magazine issue 28 both English/Malay version and English/Chinese version.

Happy to see my own pictures printed on a magazine. But compare my pictures with the others in the magazine, there’s definitely a big big room for me to improve.

Here are some of my favourite shots, just a small portion.

All in all, learned a lot about interior photography and the conclusion is, interior photography, not easy.

Many people asked me why did I create the website, or more specifically, why a website about performing arts?

The short answer is, well, very logical. Dennis creates websites for living. Dennis loves performing arts. Thus, Dennis created a website about performing arts.

Don’t buy the short answer? Okay here’s the long one. But before that, grab your coffee, sit down, relax and get ready because it’s going to take a few hours to finish.

Just kidding.

Well, I’ve always love performing arts ever since I was young. I choreographed a few dance performances during high school even though no one has ever taught me how.

I can still remember when I went to watch my first musical — Fame the Musical — exactly 10 years ago in 2001, I loved it so much I spent all my money to watch it twice. After watching it I wished I could leave everything behind and tour with the group to perform on stages all over the world.

But of course it didn’t happen. Those were the naive days.

However, my love for performing arts is still as strong as always. The only problem is, it’s hard to find a friend who actually would like to go to watch a show with me.

“I’m not a performing arts person.”

“Performing arts? Boring…”

“It’s so expensive lah…”

Those were the excuses I got from my friends all the time. And most of the time, they have never been to any good stage performance before.

But of course there were also friends who actually liked musicals once they attended their first show. And some even got shocked when I told them they could attend the orchestra at Dewan Filharmonic Petronas, KLCC for as low as RM20.

So I was thinking, it’s not that people don’t like performing arts, it’s just that they are lacking of exposure of what performing arts really is.

So one fine day during midnight, the idea of creating a website about performing arts suddenly strikes me. I was so excited then I started to think, plan and design.

Okay, fast forward till today. Tada…!!! There you have it, StageKL. A comprehensive website hopefully to increase people’s exposure and interest on our booming local performing arts industry.

There are more improvements to be done. If you still want to read more texts, head on to read my welcome note where I talked about my future plan for StageKL.

Before I end this long post, one small request, please help me to spread the word on Twitter. I’ve made it easy for you, just click here and you will see the following message ready for you to tweet.

Check out http://stagekl.com/ for latest musical, concert, theatre and dance around Kuala Lumpur @stagekl

You will never know if any of your friends will find the website useful. So thanks a lot! And don’t forget to check out http://stagekl.com/ because there are at least 5 good shows happening this weekend!

It’s incredible how time passes so fast. I can still remember clearly what I wrote for my 2010 new year post exactly 1 year ago.

2010 has been a year with ups and downs for me. But at least I have fulfilled my wish by travelling to 2 foreign countries — Hong Kong and Cambodia.

Now let’s summarise my 2010 in 4 quarters.

First quarter

Things were good during the first quarter. I was very much into landscape photography.

Botanical Garden at Japanese Village.

Taiping Lake Garden.

Harvested padi field at Sekinchan.

Lighting strikes somewhere around KLCC.

Beautiful sunset with blue and purple sky.

Lanterns on the highest tower.

The 2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2010.

Then I had the most wonderful birthday celebration with my closest friends at Hard Rock Cafe.

Celebrated my 27th birthday with a bunch of best friends.

And I also went for white water rafting for the first time. It was really fun.

White water rafting at Kampar River.

Second quarter

Things started to change during the second quarter. I started to be less passionate about life until a certain point I realised that my life was a total mess.

But I wasn’t feeling sad or down or anything. Yeah, I wasn’t feeling anything. Nothing will excite me during that time. Until one day I threw myself off my bed and tried to cleanup my mess.

Luckily things got better and that’s when I ran my 3rd 10km marathon.

Standard Charted KL Marathon 2010.

Third quarter

Things started to get better during the third quarter.

I started to take pictures again after I bought a new lens and speedlight.

My new Nikon SB-900 Speedlight and Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 DX.

Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and the fountain.

A picture taken at Putrajaya lake.

My first indoor photography with a teddy bear.

Starcraft II light painting.

My first interior shooting.

Another indoor photography shooting still object.

First pre-wedding shooting.

And I went to Hong Kong for the first time! It was such a wonderful time!

I visited Hong Kong for the first time.

And not forgetting to mention I won a brand new iPhone 4 from Maxis! See, things were getting better and better near the end of 2010.

I won a brand new iPhone 4 from the lucky draw.

Fourth quarter

When it came to the last quarter of the year, things got pretty busy. I was so busy until I didn’t have much time to blog.

First, I ran my fourth 10km marathon at Nike City 10K 2010.

Nike City 10K 2010.

Then I visited Cambodia for the first time. It was such a memorable and meaningful trip.

Angkor Wat at sunrise.

And one last thing which was one of the reasons I didn’t blog much and that’s my pet project StageKL.

I had the concept since early 2010 but not until the end of the year I decided it was time to make it a reality.

My pet project StageKL.

Happy New Year 2011

2010 has been a great year for me and I have a feeling that 2011 will be an even better one.

No new year resolutions again this time. But I will try my very best to make my 2011 the most awesome year ever.

Happy new year once again and wish you all have a prosperous and wonderful 2011!

So what is this StageKL thingy?

Well, if you still remember, I’ve mentioned this before in my blog about me starting a personal project and I will announce what is it when the time is right.

And now the time has come.

Proudly present *drums roll* StageKL!

StageKL is a website where you can find all the performing arts events such as musicals, theatres, concerts and dances happening around Kuala Lumpur.

The website is now in final stage of development so stay tuned to http://stagekl.com because the real thing is coming very soon.

And I have to say that I love this set of pictures the most because we went to the beach!

A bridge on the beach.

After we went around Phnom Penh for a day, we drove all the way down to Sihanoukville to get some blue sky, white sandy beaches and clear water.

From Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville.

The weather was really on our side.

A jetty at a fishing village and crystal clear water.

We stayed at this Tranquility Guesthouse for 2 days. Everything was great but too bad something happened.

The government was doing some celebration thus drawing all the electricity to the city and we left we unstable electric and water supply.

Tranquility Guesthouse.

But the beautiful beach has already made up to it.

Blue sky, white sandy beach and clear water.

Besides, when we got to eat some delicious seafood, who cares about no electricity or water?!

Look at the golden scrumptious mouth-watering prawns and crabs, mmmh… don’t you just feel like licking your monitor now?

Mantis prawns, prawns and crabs.

A boat parked near the beach.

Given the beautiful sceneries, how can we resist from camwhoring right? Right, so we did.

Me walking on the beach.

Erin under the bridge.

More of us posing under the bridge.

The next day, we went island hopping and snorkelling.

We stopped at one of the islands and our tour guide prepared the lunch on the beach for us.

Grill fish and French bread for lunch on the beach.

Well, I have to say that snorkelling there wasn’t as good as some islands in Malaysia for example Redang. The reefs and fishes there were very limited.

All of us done with snorkelling.

So this is it, the end of our journey started from Siem Reap all the way to Sihanoukville.

Really wanna thank Sophea for all her effort in making all the arrangements, communication, food ordering, price arguing and tour guiding.

It was really a wonderful and meaningful trip.

All the things I saw, all the food I ate and all the experiences I had, will surely remain in my memory for many years to come.

All of us with Sophea’s family.

Cambodia Series

• Cambodia Part 1 — Siem Reap
• Cambodia Part 2 — Angkor
• Cambodia Part 3 — Tonle Sap
• Cambodia Trailer
• Cambodia Part 4 — Phnom Penh
• Cambodia Part 5 Finale — Sihanoukville (this)

The city of Phnom Penh viewed from the Mekong River.

We took an express bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The journey took us 6 hours. We departed at noon and we reached Phnom Penh in the evening.

From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.

We stayed at Sophea’s house for 3 days. Really appreciate the hospitality she and her family provided.

Her family was so accommodative they really made us felt at home.

Home-cook dinner by Sophea’s mother.

And not forgetting to mention that Sophea’s mother can really cook.

The dishes were so nice we finished everything till the last drop every meal.

Home-cooked Khmer food.

Phnom Penh City

The next day, we went around Phnom Penh and visited some popular tourist attractions.

Monks on the street and Cambodia’s tallest building.

Before I go further, I have to mention that the food in Phnom Penh was simply awesome!

Especially the beef noodle I had. No beef noodle in Malaysia can beat that.

Delicious beef noodles for breakfast.

Pagoda viewed through the gate.

Cambodia National Museum

We visited the National Museum. Not very big but it’s definitely a good place to know more about the history of Cambodia and the ancient Khmer Empire.

In front of the Cambodia National Museum.

Silver Pagoda

The Silver Pagoda is a temple which the entire floor is covered with over 5,000 silver tiles and each of them weighs over 1kg.

The Silver Pagoda.

Ah Miaow in action.

Food again. And it was as delicious as any other meals we had in Cambodia. Really miss the food there.

Cambodian “mixed rice” for lunch.

Choeung Ek the Killing Field

Ok this is a bit of a long story. In a nutshell, it’s a place to commemorate at least 1,386,734 victims being killed and buried at this place by the Khmer Rouge regime.

Read more about the story about the Killing Field at Wikipedia.

Choeung Ek the Killing Fields.

Saw a very nice scene while we were travelling and stopped to take pictures.

A girl carrying firewoods back to the house above water.

Mekong River Cruise

At evening, we went for river cruise at the Mekong River to enjoy the cool breeze and to see the city from far.

Camwhore on Mekong River during our river cruise.

It was definitely a good day trip. Experience is always better than listen. As the Chinese proverb says,

Rather to walk a thousand miles than to read a million books.

It means that it’s better to go out and see the world with your own eyes than to read about the world through the books.

This is very true because if I were to read about Cambodia through books or online only, I will never know how the fried crickets taste like in real.

Fried crickets for snacks.

Cambodia Series

• Cambodia Part 1 — Siem Reap
• Cambodia Part 2 — Angkor
• Cambodia Part 3 — Tonle Sap
• Cambodia Trailer
• Cambodia Part 4 — Phnom Penh (this)
• Cambodia Part 5 Finale — Sihanoukville