Monkey Magic

One of the things I was looking forward to when we went to The Datai, was a meeting with the famous monkeys! Unfortunately, we were on the "wrong" side of the hotel and so whilst most of our friends were receiving daily visits, it took until Day 5 for us to see any monkey action.

We had seen them in the trees and on other balconies, but never on our own. However, one lunchtime we spied one close by. He looked rather cute from afar :
and even played a touch of hide and seek:

However, when he got closer we realised that, just our luck, he was scabby and not very cute after all - possibly an outcast who had had a recent fight, which might suggest why he was on his own:
Now, we had heard about them stealing food if you left your doors open, but thought that we would be ok if we were in the room. Probably our fault for walking around eating when he arrived because suddenly he spied the fruit bowl:
and before we knew it, he helped himself:
salivating at the thought of more banana:

When it seemed that he was starting to make plans for another raid, I tried to shoo him away, but I think he took that as a challenge and started to mock charge me with his teeth bared:
Eventually we got rid of him, and he skipped away to find some new friends:
I guess the lesson learned was to hide the food when he appeared - as with all animals in "public places", once they know food is available they will keep coming back. The situation is only exacerbated by us making it easy for them.

Still, on the whole, they are really cute and this encounter was another tick in the box for me!
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The Frog Blog a.k.a "bom, Bom, BOM ... aah-ee-aa!"

Those who know me well will know that I have a real keen interest in animals and nature . That's really where my serious photography began. Our trip to Malaysia, therefore, treated us to so much more than just wedding photography.

To set the scene, the entrance to the Datai is rather impressive indeed - it's hard to get a good understanding from this small image, but to give you a good idea, the horses are pretty much life sized:
Just beyond those three slim pillars at the end of the path is a lily pond, something like 20 foot square. By day, it's a beautiful green and pink pond, with the occasional dragonfly buzzing by and a few small frogs (see the post for day 1). The beautiful flowers would open and close a various stages of the day:
During the night, however, the place would come alive with frogs! They were everywhere ... up the walls, down the stairs ... and the noise is amazing! Now, don't get me wrong - it's not like they run (hop?) around in packs terrorising the guests - but we were, to all intents and purposes, in a rainforest, and so you have to expect wierd and wonderful things when it comes to the animal life.

Given that I have such a fascination with the wildlife, and many of these amphibians seemed tame enough, and I always had my camera to hand, I figured it would be a great opportunity to get some shots that I would not normally have the chance to shoot.

Strangely enough, many of these little rubbery fellows seemed to have their own characters too ...

The "Standing to Attention" Frog:


The "reminds me of Bagpuss" Frog:


The "free ride home" Frog:


The regular "Rebbit" Frog:


The "talk to the hand" Frog:


The "eyeing up your dinner" Frog:


The "thinks he's Spiderman" Frog:


... and my favourite of all, just because of the gorgeous green-ness:


A truly amazing variety of sizes, colours and characters ... to be able to get so close was just marvellous. A bottle of champagne to anyone who can tell me all the latin names for the different species here !

Tijen & Neal's Wedding - Day 1

After an exhausting 12 hour flight, followed very closely by a second one hour flight, we have arrived safe and sound.

Once the aircraft doors opened on the Langkawi Airport tarmac, we were hit with a wave of intense heat and humidity - the short walk to the terminal was an indication of what was to come, and the terminal air conditioning was rather welcome. We were met by several drivers from The Datai, who had luggage labels prepared for us. Each bag was tagged and whisked away to be loaded onto the waiting vehicles. We all jumped in too, and 25 minutes later we arrived at the hotel to a warm welcome from Tijen and Neal.

Without a doubt The Datai has to be one of the most amazing hotels I have ever seen. The staff are well presented, very polite and exceptionally attentive - every guest is made to feel like royalty, which serves to ease you nicely into a comfortable and relaxing stay.

After 20 minutes relaxing in the bar, with ice cold drinks and cold face towels to cool us down, we made our way to our rooms - which are simply exquisite:

This is the view from our bedroom window:

We all had a shower at that point and then several of the party shot straight down to the beach, whilst the rest of us hit the sack for a few hours. After some well earned rest, Regan and I went to meet a few of the locals:

We took a stroll down to the beach and then along a jungle path where two enormous wild boar ran out in front of us and darted off into the bush - i was far too stunned to even think about taking a photograph of those two, choosing instead to just stand there, mouth agape, in total wonderment!

After another shower we all met up in the bar for our first evening meal together - the sudden thunderstorm meant that we were unable to eat under the stars, although the covered area where we sat was just perfect in any case.

At one point, Tijen was concerned she had spinach in her teeth, but Albert did his best to reassure her with a positive gurgle:

One by one, the party gave in to the exhaustion and the group petered out - Alison and Teresa, the obvious lightweights in the party :o) headed up first, whilst Tijen continued to practise for future motherhood:

So, at the end of the first day full of sun, heat and wonderful new friends we all finally went our own separate ways and got a much needed full night's sleep.

More tomorrow when some of us take a cable car up to 710m above sea level ... and some of us wish we hadn't ...

Langkawi, here we come ...

Well, the last few weeks have just flown by, and all of a sudden here we are packing for our destination wedding in Langkawi! As the wind picks up in the UK and the the rain starts to fall sideways, my thoughts turn to luggage. (OK, I lied - my thoughts turn to sun, sand and beautiful beaches, but luggage does come first!)

For some, the headache now may be, "Which clothes to pack?" I am not sure Regan has the problem, given that I have noticed a pile of beachy-looking-clothes in the spare room, steadily increasing in height over the last week or so.

No, for me the clothes will be the last thing I think about - Sunday, probably, as I start to fill my suitcase. The biggest issue I have is trying to work out just how on earth to transport all the photography gear. When we went on a Photographic Safari to Africa a couple of years back, the camera gear alone weighed in at 20Kg. Given that the internal flights allowed us a combined weight (hand luggage & hold luggage) of just 15Kg, it was a miracle we made it there and back without any complications.

As I write this, I am awaiting delivery of a Think Tank Airport International 2.0 carry-on camera bag, which should do the trick. After much research and a long chat with Helen at Snapper Stuff, she agreed to loan me the bag for a real life field test, in return for some "bag in action" shots throughout the trip. I am sure the gear will all fit, it's more a problem of how heavy the bag will be once full. With the wild variation in luggage allowances (read "restrictions") from airport to airport and airline to airline, planning this trip has been a challenge. Whilst Heathrow Airport allows 2 items of hand luggage through security, Malaysia Airlines restricts you to one piece only, and that must not weigh more than 5Kg ! The bag alone weighs more than that ... thankfully, we're travelling in a party of 22 people - "Hi, pleased to meeet you, we're photographing the wedding ... er, can you carry this for me please ?"
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Well, isn't it a small world ? I recently discovered that Debbie, a good friend of mine who runs a wonderful luxury travel / honeymoon company Travel By Design, actually knows Jamie, the General Manager of the Datai. It seems that Jamie is one of the most friendly hotel managers around, so I am sure he'll be able to point out the best spots for some promotional shots of the hotel and surrounding locations, which Debbie hopes to use to promote the venue back here in the UK.
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This will probably be the last post until we get to Langkawi on Tuesday morning, so please keep your fingers crossed that our party of 22 get there safe and sound, and with all our baggage too! Thankfully we're flying Malaysian Airlines from Terminal 3 and not BA from Terminal 5! Can you imagine ... no, actually, let's not even go there ...

Shot of the day
I'd like to try and make sure that every post has a photograph, so whilst the rain hammers the window panes and makes you feel like staying indoors all day long, take a step back and see the art :

Selamat Datang!

There comes a time in your life when lovely things happen, which make all the hard work and perseverance worthwhile.

Exhibiting at the National Wedding Show was hard work - very hard work. The preparation alone is exhausting, as is the setup and breakdown of your stand. At the end of each day all you want to do is collapse into a hot jacuzzi and then sleep until the next day!

Despite this, however, the exhilaration of meeting prospective couples and sharing ideas and thoughts about upcoming wedding plans can't be beaten ... well, actually it can - by being there on the day itself and being chosen to document and share the wonderful occasion.

In the case of Tijen and Neal, who we met at the show, it's going to be less 'on the day itself' and more 'for the week itself'. Tijen and Neal have chosen to celebrate their wedding on the amazing island of Langkawi, Malaysia and we are thrilled to have been asked to document their week away. We will be staying with a small intimate group of 20 friends and family at The Datai, "Situated on the northwestern tip of the Langkawi Island, The Datai is nestled inside an ancient tropical rainforest, with a secluded white sandy beach facing the calm Andaman Sea."

A few days ago I received a small package in the post, and had no idea what it was. Even after opening the outer wrapping, I was still intrigued:



On opening the box however, a wonderful surprise awaited me!



Still somewhat bemused though, I opened the "Message in a Bottle" to reveal all ..



What a brilliant touch - our Official Wedding Invitation!



Complete with a sprinkle of golden hearts ...

We'll be blogging whilst we're out there, to keep friends and family updated with our amazing week, so make sure you check back each day to see what we're all up to.

We are very excited, as you can imagine, and our clothes shopping and packing plans have already started.

We leave in less than three weeks (31st March), which doesn't give us much time to get beach fit, but I think we can live with that, don't you ?