Bukit Sekilau in Kuantan is rife with nature. Flowers, trees, plants are on show on every road and outside each house.
During the month of May I'm celebrating 6 years living in Kuantan with some of the things I particularly love about this town on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
People in Kuantan love gardening. There are myriad flower nurseries dotted around Kuantan, most notably on Jalan Beserah opposite M. S. Garden Hotel, Jalan Teluk Sisek on the way to Teluk Chempedak, and Jalan Tengku Muhammad near Alor Akar.
A neighbour has invested in a number of pots and placed a load of flowers outside our apartment block in Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan. This pink hibiscus was attractive, along with this white one:
The hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. I love photographing the hibiscus flowers on show in Kuantan.
I have been photographing nature in Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan for the entire 6 years we've been living here. If I put all of my images of flowers together in one blog post, it would take hours to get through!
Of course, when photographing the same area for so long, the challenge is always finding different angles, perspectives and views of nature. Sometimes that's hard, but pictures like the one above make it very satisfying.
Although it's the hottest part of the day, the afternoon is the best time I like to go out and photograph flowers. It illuminates the images and brings out all the colour.
Oftentimes I've gone out in the Malaysian heat to photograph nature in Bukit Sekilau, only for my wife to complain that I should be more careful under the sun. Heat headaches have hit me after some walks around Bukit Sekilau. I think the captured images are all worth it though!
Now I'm more clever and don't go out when it's too hot, like I did when I first moved here to Kuantan. (Remember, us Englishmen love the sun!) Nowadays I wait until the late afternoon to saunter around Bukit Sekilau. On the occasion I do go out in the heat of a Sunday afternoon, I'll wear my sunglasses and cap, and make sure it's 20-30 minutes maximum!
I love this yellow stunner growing outside somebody's house just around the corner.
It's great that I'm able to walk out around Bukit Sekilau, Kuantan and see these lovely images of nature, any time I want. It's something nice I can do when I have a bit of free time or feel bored (which doesn't occur too much anyway!)
6 years of these gorgeous sights around Kuantan has filled me with happiness and contentment. Nature like this was created to please the human eye and brain, and I'm extremely fortunate to have this "botanical garden" right at my doorstep. I love Kuantan!
