......Previous blog post from Penang.....
As many will know by now (hopefully our friends aren't sick of us banging on about it!), we were in
Penang to obtain some more work
as extras on the second series of the BBC series
Indian Summers, having enjoyed the short spell we did
last year.
We
weren't allowed to upload any photos last year, with the "hush hush"
approach to the then new series, so here's a few highlights from then......
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| We'll never look this elegant again!! |
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| Rich with leading lady Julie Walters |
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| Looking glamorous (not!!) in between takes |
It was amusing when we saw the finished series, that all that
preparation, work and time ended up as a few seconds of us in the
background, hardly seen! Well, lucky we're doing it for the money, not
the fame!!
This time around we had put aside the next 6 months as a break from traveling
to earn a bit of extra money for our (hopefully) big trip next year to
UK/Europe, so we were keen to get going. But the "movie" business being what it is,
we were in for a bit of a wait while the filming
schedule was sorted out. Finally things got going, and we thoroughly enjoyed the work, and although it wasn't quite as much as we'd hoped for (the odd days here and there over several months), it was enough to serve it's purpose of topping up the coffers, with the added bonus of meeting loads of new and interesting people- fellow extras and crew included.
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| The Clubhouse, Penang Hill |
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| A dapper (and hairy!) British gentleman! |
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| A lot of waiting around on set |
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| In our evening wear |
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| Sal given a 1930's length haircut care of Indian Summers! |
Staying in one place did become a bit tedious, as lovely as
Georgetown (and our room) is- we do tend to get itchy feet very quickly these days! But because there's always so much going on in
Penang, we were able to keep reasonably busy with various activities- the International Dragon Boat meet, with teams from as far away as
China and
Dubai competing in the races; the usual art exhibitions and movies; the stunning Botanic Gardens (we are such suckers for a good garden!); a trip to
Balik Pulau on the other side of
Penang during the famous (and smelly!) durian season; and were also lucky enough to have several good friends visiting from other places while we were there.
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| Dragon Boat Races, Teluk Bahang Dam, Penang |
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| Street art, Georgetown, Penang |
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| Cafe sign, Georgetown, Penang |
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| Posing dragonfly, Botanic Gardens, Penang |
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| Guesthouse, Georgetown, Penang |
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| Reflective Rich on lovely wall, Georgetown, Penang |
We also had a surprise offer of a day as extras on a Singaporean crime show- Mata Mata- a hilariously casual experience for us after the meticulous, slow and repetitive production of Indian Summers. The friendly
Singapore team were on a rather small budget, and we raced around the streets of
Georgetown, filming about 10 scenes in 5 hours! We were encouraged to say whatever we wanted ("We all just ad lib"!) and wore our own clothes! We felt lucky to basically be playing ourselves (we were identified as "middle aged tourists" on the call sheet!), as a friend working as an extra the following day played a corpse who was set alight!!
When the "European" extras weren't needed on Indian Summers we managed to get away on a few short trips.We used some of the the time to do a visa run, and thought it was high time we visited our long time friend, Claire, who is living in
Singapore. We met Claire and her then boyfriend Dan, while traveling in the
Philippines 10 years ago, and although we have been in contact since, we've never met up again. She's an amazing documentary filmmaker now, shooting the unexpectedly prolific wildlife (especially otters) around
Singapore island.
We were lucky to stay in Claire's roomy apartment with a pool and the fastest internet on earth, and take advantage of cooking in a kitchen (always a treat!). We walked the nearby Singapore River walk and marveled at how the other half live (
Singapore's huge expat and Chinese communities seem to have a lot of money to burn on entertainment, bars, cafes etc), and to the close by and outstanding Botanic Gardens. Evenings were spent cruising the river to
Marina Bay, an eye poppingly over the top flashy area full of bars, restaurants, street art, iconic buildings, parks and lights everywhere; meeting Claire's many expat and local friends and getting a small taste of their very active and drama filled lifestyles; attending an evening on a rooftop watching excellent documentaries about the uniqueness of
Singapore; and combining a visit to historic Fort Caning with some unbelievably delicious cake at Claire's friend's cafe. I have to mention the expense here- we knew
Singapore would be pricey after so long in other
South East Asia countries, but the high costs for everything rival
Melbourne- especially in the alcohol department. At a minimum of S$10 (roughly the same as the Aussie dollar) for a beer, we abstained from grog until our return to
Malaysia!
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| Enjoying the frangipani swing in Botanic Gardens, Singapore |
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| Supertree Grove, Marina Bay, Singapore |
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| REALLY good cake! |
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| Pinacotheque de Paris Museum, Fort Canning, Singapore |
After
Singapore (and so long in
Penang) arriving back in
Kuala Lumpur was a blast in the face of dirt, rubbish, poverty, migrant workers and noise. We found our reaction interesting as usually, upon arriving back from
India or
Indonesia, we find the city a calm and clean haven!! It's all about perspective! We'd decided to spend the extremely busy period of Hari Raya (the end of Ramadan) in
KL, and avoid the traffic jams, price hikes and crowds elsewhere, although the amount of people (mainly migrant workers) milling around on the
KL streets was enough to see us hanging out inside at the hostel for a couple of days for some peace.
Another change of scene was our train trip to
Taiping, only a couple of hours from
Penang. A relatively quiet and understated town,
Taiping had enough eroding old colonial and Chinese heritage buildings (plus the absolutely gorgeous Lake Gardens) to warrant a stop over for a couple of days. It's famous for being a wet place, which for us meant waiting out a morning under cover, then enjoying the incredibly green and lush gardens for the day. The suitably decrepit, but full of character Peking Hotel was the place to stay, and the hawker center around the corner was one of the biggest we've seen- the choice was huge!
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| Busy lunchtime at the Taiping hawker center |
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| A lot of Chinese influence around town, Taiping |
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| A seedy beauty, Taiping |
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| Tile detail, hotel, Taiping |
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| Don't jump! Taiping Lake Gardens |
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| Wonderfully lush gardens, Taiping |
And so, back to
Penang, to filming, and to see what will happen next........
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| Happy, Penang National Park |
....our fun in Brunei up next......
