Filming in KL — Day 4
Oct 9, 2008
KL (Malaysia) has so many beautiful grungy places. Although quite scary, they serve as exquisite backdrops for films and photoshoots.
I would love to go back to this place to do a fashion photoshoot.
Or maybe not.
It’s a big abandoned building with all kinds of crazy junk heaped around the compound. It’s like a rubbish warehouse.
And the mozzies had a field day when tourists came to visit.
The native mosquitoes rolled out the red carpet to welcome us.
Welcome! they cried, Please make yourselves at home while we drink your blood!
They huge, they’re enthusiastic and they’re hungry.
They’re also ninjas.
I swear.
Big as they are, you don’t feel them land on your skin. You don’t feel them feeding.
You’re minding your own business, looking around casually. And then you chance to glance at your arm, and there’s a teenage mutant ninja mozzie shaking salt and pepper on your hair follicles.
In alarm, you swing your arm violently to shake off the TMNM. But, with all the years of gruelling ninja training under its arthropodal belt, it is prepared for the assault.
It clings onto you with its hooks for feet, all the while laughing maniacally at the folly of homo sapiens. You consider thwapping it flat but you don’t want mozzie guts all over your arm.
So you scream at it.
“My blood is toxic and will kill you dead, you dumb shit!”
Miraculously, the mozzie flies off at that.
And then you realise that that’s only because it’s already had its fill. A pink welt develops instantly on your arm where the TMNM had last roosted.
And it’s itchy.
Beware of teenage mutant ninja mozzies.
We should have heeded the warning.
Luckily, I didn’t die of dengue fever after this encounter.
I wonder how the resident artists survived the TMNM attacks. They must have some kind of permit to stick around unmolested while they complete their artistic masterpieces.
We didn’t stay around for too long. Perhaps 40 minutes or so. I could feel my cells screaming in agony just being in this waste.
You might think that this building is in some remote no man’s land, 3,000 kilometres away from the nearest civillisation.
It’s not.
It’s just minutes away from civillisation. I don’t suppose the residents in neighbouring buildings take a leisurely walk to this dumpster every evening after dinner to dispose of their trash?
After doing our scenes in this building, we strolled over to another compound with even more abandoned buildings.
It was better this time. We didn’t have to enter any of the buildings. We shot everything outdoors.
And that’s the end of my shoot in KL!
We drove up to Penang on the same day. It was a nice journey that took us from daylight to nightfall. I can’t remember how many hours it was.
Along the way, Dean, who was at that time the driver, suddenly turned around and said to me, “You must take a photo of these buildings!!”
“Why?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Nuts!
He’s always saying things for no reason. So, Kan took over the wheel and made him be the cameraman.
It kept him occupied for a good while.
Every time we went through a toll booth, he had to hold up the sensor unit for access because someone couldn’t be bothered to stick it to the windscreen.
And then we were in Penang!
My first impression of Penang:
*lol*
I didn’t know Penang is a resort city. It took us more than an hour to find our hotel because Kan was looking for a specific hotel and we were led on a wild goose chase by well-meaning locals. Finally, one savvy local told us that the hotel we wanted had already closed down.
DOH.
We settled for this small resort hotel called The Lone Pine Hotel which is, frankly, a bit creepy because of the name and the way the sign looks.
It brings to mind B-grade horror flicks where unsuspecting backpackers get eaten by giant mutant bugs while being raped by bored psychopaths.
Okay, it’s not that bad.
It’s a cosy resort with friendly service. It also has a nice pool, which is a redundant fact because I don’t swim.
I don’t like wearing swimsuits. =>
Alright, then. That’s all for today. More adventures in Penang next time!
@Sheylara: Its been a long time coming, but thanks for sharing Day 4! Yay!:) Your shooting locales are really intriguing. I’m having difficulties imagining why a movie about 2 aspiring models would need such places. Are you ladies auditioning for homeless ads?:)
That place looks so weird.. :( But it attracted me, looks like I am curious to pay a visit.. :)
Sometimes, we don’t give a damn. We live with these itches for as long we can remember. Sometimes we scratch, sometimes we shrug it off. Then, there are times we get pissed, lockdown the room, and hunt every ‘mozzies’ until they’re lifeless. After my youngest brother and I went down with the D. Fever, we started collecting their carcass in a jam jar. It’s far from full though, I don’t suppose I’d get to see it full.
Toll thingy sensor, yea don’t bother sticking it because someone would smash your windscreen and take it. Might as well hide it.
Those places… abandoned building projects and what not, I suppose apart from mozzies, you gotta be careful for addicts. Then again, I didn’t know where was that, or how them addicts move about so… yea.
Where is WAPANG?!
oh man…
is tis post meant to scare?
scary ‘maybe’ haunted old house,
scary gaint mosquitoes,
scary ‘maybe’ huanted and not so new hotel.. 0.0″
WAPANG!!!!
RN1209: Hehe, well, the movie won’t actually be ready till maybe middle of next year, so there’s no hurry to blog about all the rest of the days. :P
As for the weird locations, that’s what makes people curious and want to watch the movie to find out how it all ties in, right? ;)
Horizon: Heh, Malaysia is full of cool places like that! :P
Yoi: Wow, you actually got dengue fever before? Was it really horrible? I’ve never had it. But I can’t believe you collect mozzie carcasses in a jar. That’s damn gross lah!! ‘
Are you from Malaysia? You seem to know a lot about things to avoid there. :P
heartless: Um… no lah. It’s meant to be interesting, not scary. :P
W: WAPANG! YOU ARE BACK!! :P
Wewt WAPANG is back.
Yea I’m from Malaysia and yes, went down with the fever before, right before some major exam of mine too. Warded in hospitals and uh… the carcass collection is some sort of a personal vendetta against those mozzies, tribute to all the times i need to have intravenous needles up my elbow and what not, OH and for the god awful horrible food in the hospital.
It’s not gross la. Sometimes we’d catch ‘live’ mozzies and throw it into the morgue. Sometimes we’d uh… well mozzies that got stunned gets beheaded, their body still move say … 8 hrs later. Just a rough estimation tho, they do move. You’d be surprised how many people got that fever before. No cure for the fever so it’s alot of rest and hope your body is strong enough. Otherwise you start bleeding all over everywhere, then you die. According to my dad, some poor man was so serious with the fever, whenever he wipes his hand against his shirt, it’s blood. Think of… wiping sweat off, but blood comes out instead.
Looking at the environment i live in, crazy ass crimes in broad day light, haphazard roads, foodstalls right hehind a trash dump (figuratively speaking), i’m surprised i’m still alive. Not that i hate this place, it’s still home.
@Sheylara: Did the music of Hotel California play in your head when you saw the Lone Pine Hotel sign?
“You can check in anytime, but you can never leave”…
“I don’t like wearing swimsuits.” Awww……
@Wapang: Alright! Hey thought you say you won’t be posting anymore due to web filters?
Monster,
Lone Pine looks pretty nice despite its name. Have been thinking of going to Penang for forever and with what you’ve written, maybe it’s time to finally visit.
That video camera on the dashboard looks really cool, like a passenger-side pintle-mounted heavy weapon of some kind…
@Sheylara: You know who’s still missing? MODCHIP. I wonder what happened?
As for the movie, yeah, my curiosity is definitely piqued:) If it doesn’t open here, I expect to see a Paypal button allowing me to order it from you:)
Those mosquito photos are creeeeeepy!
Yup, have to agree M’sia’s got interesting places. Your hotel looks weirdass with the pool and the neon lights.
tiger, will wapang reply to u?
and yahor where’s Modchip?
Yoi: OMG you mean dengue patients actually bleed blood out their pores? Eek, that’s horrible. Well, at least now you’re richer in experience for having survived dengue! Heh. I dunno how you catch live mozzies though. So easy to catch meh?
tiger4: Haha, yes, it did actually. lol.
Monster: Yeah, it’s quite a nice place really. The hotel and Penang. There’s a very trendy hotel we passed by called g hotel. It looks like a funky place for yuppies and executives to stay in. I wouldn’t mind trying that place out!
But then, Lone Pine is better if you wanna hang out at the beach cos it’s just beside the beach!
Mince Pye: Haha. Trust you to come up with something like that. But now that you mention it, it does look like some kind of weaponry, lol.
RN1209: Yeah, I’m wondering where modchip went EVERY DAY. :(
astrorainfall: Haha, I thought the photos are really good! But yeah the mosquitoes look creepy!
Er, it’s really rare when they bleed out of pores (when they do they can write their lives off).
And, yea it’s easier than you think, especially after you have a lifetime of experience dealing with them. Then again most of the time they end up flat and dead instead of being stunned.
MORNING!
QY, would u miss me too if i went missing? :P:P
Yoi: Haha, yes that’s what I was curious about. It’s easy enough killing a mosquito but I think it should be quite hard to capture one alive, unless you’re some superhero or Neo in the Matrix or something like that.
heartless: Of course I would. I’m not heartless! Hehe :P
do i sense a tinge of sarcasm in ur words?:P
You look like a princess who seldom venture out of your comfortable Singapore :P
One day u should try backpacking XD
heartless: Not sarcasm, just a pun! ;)
Relax: Not really into backpacking. If I had the time and money, there are many other interests and activities I would choose to pursue instead. :P
relax….
sheylara cant go backpacking..
on a normal day in Singapore she could carry the amount of stuff tat a backpacker brings for his trips…:P
imagine wat would she would carry on a backpacking trip:P