Hutan Belum Fishing Trip

Mac 2009, Me and my friends from MPAJ went to Hutan Belum in Perak for a fishing trip. Hutan belum is quite secluded from tourists as it is not entirely open for eco tourism yet. But still there is a challet for those planning for a family trip. As for me and the gang, we prefer to camp it out. As we spend most of the time fishing, we only get back to the camp site for meals. Finding a good "lubok" is essential to find the winning fish, Kelah, the King of the river. From the Tasik Banding jetty, it took us one and a half hour by speed boat to reach Sg. Kejar, our campsite. After settling down with the campsite, I'm off for the early casting. No luck, we went ti the lake side to catch us Toman. I managed to reel in a 3 kilo size Toman, and my friend Sar, a 1 kilo Sebarau. Not bad for that evening. Night time its for the Ikan Baung. Quite plentiful, as many of us are relaxing by the river shore while fishing.

The next day, we start to trek upstream for one hour. There are lots of good "lubok" so we stop and cast along the way. My friend, Jasri, managed to catch the elusive Kelah, beginners luck, yup. This was his first fishing trip with us. As for me I have to be satisfied with another Toman. The trip was not as fullfiling as the trip to Hulu Tembeling, maybe we will be gong there next.

Me as a film crew.

December 2008, My friend Nizam offers me a job as a film crew. At first I'm a bit worried that having no experience what so ever, I'm not suitable for the job. Nizam assured me, under him, I will be briefly trained for the job. The job was for a television drama entitled "Aku Budak Minang". An adaptation from a book by the famous cartoonist, Ujang. My job description would be as an assistant cameraman. My friend Nizam is the cameraman, so I will be trained under him. It was such an eye-opening experience. The job has opened a new perspective of my perception of local television drama. Before this I was somewhat reluctant to watch local drama. But now when seeing local drama, I would understand the difficulties and hardships that the the entire crew and artist have to endure. Other perk, on the job is that you may end up acting as an extra. Yup, I got a small part as the village tug, Though might be my first time, acting, but still I enjoyed it.
The location was at Kampung Talang, Kuala Pilah in Negeri Sembilan. This is because the main character of the comic was supposed to be from Negeri Sembilan. kampung Talang was such a beautiful Malay kampung, I really enjoyed my stay there. It took us a full one month to shoot the entire drama, and 80% of the scene was at Kampung Talang. Only a few final scene were taken at Kuala Lumpur.

Me an the entire crew at the last scene. Shot somewhere in Kota Damansara. After the final shot, we head to the nearest mamak stall and celebrate, while our Production Manager distributes our extra pay for taking part as an extra in the drama.
As for me, I only did two scenes, so I get RM140, that RM70 per scene.






And as usual a photo to remember with the main character, Along cam from Raja Lawak with his to be wife, Zila.