Day 235 in Beijing: Love and Marriage…and Pedicabs.

First time I've done a wedding day photo.

First time I’ve done a wedding day photo.

Jill and I were walking around Melaka, Malaysia and noticed all the gorgeous pedicabs.

During the day, they are pretty to look at but, at night, they are a sight to behold!

As we started taking pictures, a camera crew and this couple walked up holding hands.

As you can see, he is wearing a very nice suit and she is wearing an immaculate hijab.

I doubt I’d want to wear one all the time, but I’ve found that the hijab seems to really compliments a person’s face and highlight the person’s eyes.

In the pictures, you can see how it truly focuses the viewers eyes towards the person’s face.

This may not be noticed by some but the hijab allows most women to have their own way of showing off and drawing attraction to themselves.

The colors, the designs and the jewels that are added to the hijab make them very personal and very descriptive of the person wearing them.

This was the only time we saw a woman in a hijab that was only orange.  Usually they are mixed and sometime they are even paisley.

They hopped into a pedicab and the crew started taking pictures.

I asked permission to take a couple and they agreed.

They told me they were just married and this is the photo shoot.

I think you can see in their eyes, and their smiles, how happy they are together.

Love is beautiful.

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Day 234 in Beijing: The Melaka Sultanate Waterwheel.

The beautiful Sultanate waterwheel.

The beautiful Sultanate waterwheel.

As Jill and I continued to explore Melaka, we left the Flor de la Mar museum and headed over to the Melaka Sultanate Water Wheel and took some time relaxing by this beautiful recreation of a waterwheel.

It was built in 2007, using ancient Islamic technology, and is the first and largest waterwheel in Malaysia.

It stands 13 meters tall, or about 36 feel, and cost about 1.5 million ringgit to build.  That equates to about $500,000 USD.

It supposedly represents the wheel of life and humanity’s evolution.

I found that to quite fitting and relished the chance to just let the water flow and move at its own pace.

 

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Day 233 in Beijing: Flor de la Mar Museum.

My favorite shot of the day.

My favorite shot of the day.

Jill and I decided to explore some of Melaka’s museums today.

One of the most famous museums, and there are 34 museums in Melake presently, is the Flor de la Mar Museum.

It is located inside the replica of the Flor de la Mar ship that helped the Portugese conquer Melake in 1511.

The ship seems to have been the largest ship in the fleet and, because of that reason, was able to carry lots of cargo and treasure.

It also wasn’t particularly seaworthy and it was very difficult to manage her in the waters.

On the day of November 20th, she sailed into a storm and was lost.  She had been sailing home with a large trove of treasure and a full crew.  Much of it was lost and many of the crew died because of this wreck.

The museum houses a large collection of arms, statues of famous people, and information on different ships and why they were important.

We spent about 1 hour or so in it and had fun seeing how the world was “discovered” and thinking about how difficult it would have been to live a life of a sailor during that time.

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Day 230 in Beijing: Menara Taming Sari.

The Melaka Malay Sultanate Water Wheel.

The Melaka Malay Sultanate Water Wheel.

Jill, our friend Dipesh, who flew down from San Francisco and I started to check out the historic city of Melaka in Malaysia.

We had been in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Singapore but this was our first time see the sights of Melaka.

Melaka used to be a massive trading town and there were, at one time, 84 different languages spoken in the ports since traders from all over the world would come and do business here.

We’d done a bit of sightseeing already and wanted to see what Melaka would look like from the sky.

So, we paid our ringgit and hopped in the Menara Taming Sari right when they opened for the day at 10 A.M.

We were about the only people in it and it was quiet, beautiful and moving.

The ride took about 7 minutes and we were able to see many of the sights of Melaka and off into the Straits of Melaka which is the busiest waterway for transport in the world.

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