This is the panoramic view from one of Penang’s most happening shopping mall, Queensbay mall.

Happy belated christmas and a happy new year~

Other than chasing for morning flight, I would almost definitely wake up after 7:30 in the morning during these days. It was really a fruitful day for waking up at 6 in the morning that day.

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Overlooking the Ho Hoan Kiem lake from the top level of Golden Sun Hotel, that’s where we take our breakfast daily while enjoying a splendid view of the lake. Here’s bit of info on the lake courtesy of Wikipedia.

Hoan Kiem Lake (Vietnamese: Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, meaning “Lake of the Returned Sword” or “Lake of the Restored Sword”, also known as Hồ Gươm – Sword Lake) is a lake in the historical center of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. The lake is one of the major scenic spots in the city and serves as a focal point for its public life.

According to the legend, emperor Le Loi handed a magic sword called Heaven’s Will which brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) in the lake and hence gave it its present name (the lake was formerly known as “Luc Thuy” meaning “Green Water”). The Tortoise Tower (Thap Rua) standing on a small island near the center of lake is linked to the legend.

Large soft-shell turtles, either of the species Rafetus swinhoei or a separate species named Rafetus leloii in honor of the emperor, have been sighted in the lake. The species is critically endangered and the number of individuals in the lake is unclear.

Near the northern shore of the lake lies Jade Island on which the Ngoc Son Temple (Jade Mountain Temple) stands. The temple was erected in the 18th century. It honors the 13-century military leader Tran Hung Dao who distinguished himself in the fight against the Yuan Dynasty, Van Xuong, a scholar, and Nguyen Van Sieu, a Confucian master and famous writer in charge of repairs made to the temple in 1864. Jade Island is connected to the shore by the wooden red-painted Huc Bridge (The Huc, meaning Morning Sunlight Bridge).

(Click on the photo above to enlarge it (4000×680 pixels))

The landscape of Penang’s south west region changed drastically over the decades. Developers sway away to Bayan Lepas over the last decade from the capital city, Georgetown, as there’s very little space left for development.

Bayan Lepas looks decent in overall as it’s relatively a new town with modern city planning applied to it.

In the center of the panoramic photo (as marked in the map below), it is the island’s largest sports complex known as PISA (Penang International Sports Arena). Behind it, it is the new D’Plaza which is yet to accepts its occupants. On the left of D’Plaza, it is the tallest building around the area, SUNTECH.

In the background, that’s the shoreline in the mainland.Between the island and mainland, it is the Jerejak island.

We can see piling works being carried out on the right of the photo for the new Penang second bridge which is scheduled to be completed in May 2012.

On how this image is captured: This shot is taken up the hill somewhere along the route connecting Balik Pulau and Relau. The weather is quite hazy and blurry so I resorted to use exposure bracketing to capture the most details and to process them later on.

Accelerated growth over the years sees the uprising of Bayan Baru township. SUNTECH, the tallest building dominates the skyline, PISA on the foreground plays an important role to the city.

Being part of Penang’s Cybercity, Suntech building (being the tallest) dominates the skyline around Bayan Baru area. PISA (Penang International Sports Areana) can be seen in the foreground too.

The island seen behind is Pulau Jerejak.

We may see the piling work being carried out far behind the photo. It is for the construction of Penang’s second bridge.

Location plotted on the map is Suntech.

Larger Photo

The Silver Pagoda is a compound located on the North side of the palace complex. It features a royal temple officially called Preah Vihear Preah Keo Morakot but is commonly referred to as Wat Preah Keo. Its main building houses many national treasures such as gold and jeweled Buddha statues. Most notable is a small 17th century baccarat crystal Buddha (the “Emerald Buddha” of Cambodia) and a near-life-size, Maitreya Buddha encrusted with 9,584 diamonds dressed in royal regalia commissioned by King Sisowath. During King Sihanouk’s pre-Khmer Rouge reign, the Silver Pagoda was inlaid with more than 5,000 silver tiles and some of its outer facade was remodeled with Italian marble. (Quoted from Wikipedia)

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After being an abandoned building in Georgetown for many years, it finally got its makeover and shines once more. Officially opens its door to its customers on April 2009, it is the fifth and largest hotel so far by Air Asia affiliate company, Tune Hotels.com.

Hotel Official Website

(Click on the picture to access it’s full  resolution image (3000 x 1304px) )

One of the many tea plantation fields in Cameron Highlands, Boh Tea Plantation field offers breath-taking view of its tea field.

Technical Note:

This piece of work is composed from over 12 exposures combined together. 3 exposures are taken at each frame to develop HDR image and they are stitched together as one panoramic photo in the end. Camera is mounted on tripod and leveled properly before shooting begins.

More pictures:

See more photos at hugolim.com

KOMTAR (Malay: Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak), or more accurately KOMTAR Tower (Menara KOMTAR in Malay) is Penang’s tallest building and the sixth tallest building in Malaysia. It is located in the heart of George Town. When the skyscraper topped out it was the tallest building in Asia, by the time construction was completed it had however been surpassed by Seoul’s Korean Life Insurance Building (KLI 63 Building). The 65-storey tower is a 12-sided geometric block, 760ft (232m) tall, sitting atop a 4-storey podium. The complex comprises office and retail commercial space as well as public and recreational facilities. It was designed by Architects Team 3 (AT3) of Singapore.

Read more about KOMTAR at Wikipedia

Technical Note: This shot is taken using Canon 400D with Sigma 18-200 (non-OS) using exposure-bracketing at -2, 0 and +2. They are then further processed using Lightroom 2 and Photomatix Pro 3.1.

Pulau Betong is fishing village situated on the south-west of Penang island. It is named after a nearby island. It is hit by Tsunami in 2004.