A delectable banana flower nourishing one of nature’s most beautiful and fragile creatures. Canon 20D with 100 mm f2.8 macro lens at Penang’s Butterfly Farm.

Father Time has a cruel sense of humor.

He usually makes things whiz by whenever I’m lost in my viewfinder photographing a pretty model, an exciting sporting event or just plain having a great time walking around making pictures.

Then he can torture me and make seconds seem like an eternity.

Without fail, it is usually when I’m in my car waiting for a traffic light to change.

Chances are, at that instance, I’m also illegally blocking a busy intersection that is equipped with multiple “photo radar” cameras.

Or I’ve “accidentally” clicked on a link and a pop-up window appears that won’t go away fast enough and my wife is bearing up on me.

You know the kind of pop-up window I mean–the kind that includes all expense paid stay in the doghouse.

I can’t believe it has been 2 years since my visit to Malaysia, so it has been a fun 2 years.

Prior to this trip, I had not been “home” for 11 years.

In those 11 years I was away, my birthplace, Georgetown, on Penang island has become even more congested.

Its narrow street have been widened to no avail. Now many have been turned into one-way thoroughfares.

I abandoned all thoughts of driving during the brief drive from the Bayan Lepas airport to my brother’s place.

How did I lose my nerve? America is to blame. She’s made me soft. Maybe it’s because I saw a bus take the side mirror off an oncoming car.

The Penang Butterfly Farm in Batu Ferringhi (Foreigner’s Rock) has always been a favorite of mine.

Other highlights from the trip were:

In Search of the Proboscis Monkey, Borneo

From a trip to Kota Kinabalu, capital of the state Sabah in East Malaysia, we went looking for the proboscis monkey. Found nowhere else but on the island of Borneo, these critters are very shy and difficult to take good pictures of in the wild. Imagine boat loads of tourists converging on a tree when a troop of these are spotted. I’m surprised the boatmen don’t get into fisticuffs jockeying their boats in position trying to get their passengers the best view possible.

A Visit to the Kek Lok Si Temple, Penang Malaysia

Penang’s famous Snake Temple is nowhere near what I remember it as a child. Development around this historic shrine has grown unchecked. I wonder how long before the snakes are artificially hatched or imported instead of found in the surrounding hills.

Cute Malaysian Bay Owls

From my first visit to Penang’s Bird Park located on the mainland on Peninsula Malaysia, I was captivated by these odd-looking but very cute creatures. They measured about 8 inches. Their oversized eyes just looked at you, hardly blinking.Read the original post.