The Flat Head 3001 World Tour

[justiz2]

This was on last Sunday.

One of my favourite places in town is this old train maintenance/repair yard called Sentul West. This huge plot of land was bought over by a developer a few years ago and a corner of it was converted into a park. There are still traces of what it was before though…

An old abandoned factory

Abandoned building

Some of the other buildings have been converted into sales/developer offices.

[justiz2]

There’s a nice Japanese restaurant located besides the man-made lake

Gardens around…

[justiz2]

And right behind the restaurant is a Koi breeding centre...

With some of the biggest kois I’ve ever seen

[justiz2]

But the best part of this park is the KL Performance Arts Centre (http://www.klpac.com/)

I’d come here every Saturday for gamelan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan) practices

Rehearsals are going to restart again in about a month’s time after a few weeks break. So just making sure I haven’t forgotten everything (I have....)

And of course, this time around to take pictures too…

[fallen angels]

great pics as usual, justiz!

[beatle]

Justiz does the project justice...

[ordo]

I can't wait to have some fun with these jeans - good job Justizzz

[Chicken]

^ hey no photoshopping, ordo.

[ordo]

WHAT?!!? No fair!

[Chicken]

okay, as long as you don't photoshop the jeans, i guess.

[ordo]

Deal!

.....

[Cameland]

wow, fantastic updates, I had really hoped to do the same but I think the jeans arrived at a bad time for me with school and everything happening. When are the jeans being passed on to the next in line? It's already 11 days into the next month?

[justiz2]

Thanks people. Just doing what I can.

Cameland, I'll be sending the jeans off in 1 week, which means they would have been in my hands a full 30 days.

I'll be out of town with no net access till next Tuesday so this weeks evolution pics will be a bit late...

[PG2G]

Awesome updates, gonna be hard for folks to follow up after that

[justiz2]

Was away for a family gathering at my grandparents over the last few days. They live a good 8 hours away from Kuala Lumpur, at a state called Kelantan in the east coast of West Malaysia thats bordering with Thailand. The drive up wasn't too eventful but decided to take the scenic route back. Passed by this beautiful lake in the middle of the hills and jungles at a place called Belum Valley: http://www.malaysiasite.nl/belumeng.htm

[justiz2]

There'll be a few more major picture sets that I will put up soon before sending them off this Thursday (if everything goes to plan). Just need to transfer the pictures, resize and upload it up.

Watch this space...:-)

[fallen angels]

beautiful pics, justiz. you did a real good job with the flatheads and a great contribution to the world tour.

[beatle]

I love the pics of the country side....makes me want to fly away....

[justiz2]

Managed to take some time off from the gathering at my grandparents to take these set of pictures

Kelantan is well known for it’s handicraft e,g, silver and gold ware, wood carvings, batiks and such and there is a well known bazaar in the middle of Kota Bharu (Kelantan’s state capital) that’s well known as a one-stop centre to get materials for a bargain. It’s a popular destination for local and foreign tourists…

[justiz2]

There are a lot of batiks around but what I really want to show are these:

These are called Songket (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songket ; http://www.bibahsongket.com.my/ ; http://www.ppak.kelantan.edu.my/culture/songket/songket.htm )

I could not take detailed pictures of the ones at the shop, so here’s one from a personal collection:

This is the back. The middle portion is called the spine and is the most intricate part

The front is just a repetition of the pattern at the sides of the spine. Here's a close up of it

A closer view of the spine

And how the threads are like

Songket is traditionally hand-woven on wooden looms which I think are not too different from the looms used in Japan to make our beloved denims. I wanted to go and visit the place where these are made to snap a few pictures but simply didn’t have the time to. Not even sure where those places are to be honest but it’ll be fun to hunt it down

Price depends on the material used as well as the complexity of the design. They can start from as low as USD30 and the highest I have personally seen and handled is USD5000. I’m sure they go higher than that…

[justiz2]

Here are some pictures especially dedicated to Cotton Duck – more pictures from various Ramadan food bazaars…

Not sure if there are any Malaysian restaurants over in Amsterdam but I know there are plenty of Thai and Indonesian ones. While not exactly the same, there are similarities…

[Charlie Delta]

Yummy!

Btw, is the guy in the last pic wearing Levi's with exposed selvedge backpockets?

YESSS!

[justiz2]

There's plenty of Thai fakes around here Cotton...

[justiz2]

I wouldn’t be much of a tourist guide if the FH3K1 comes to KL and I don’t bring it up the Petronas Twin Towers…

The skybride tour is very popular among the tourists. Tickets are free but limited. A few months ago I had to bring some Japanese colleagues up. I came to line up at 830 am and there was already a line of about 100+ people waiting for the ticket counter to open. Since I only needed 1 ticket this time around, managed to get the help of a friend to procure it.

Here’s the waiting gallery, with some display on the history and technology behind the Towers.

Lightning strike demonstration

[justiz2]

Took a high-speed lift up and here’s the skybridge connecting the 2 towers

The view

[justiz2]

Evolution pics - 1 day before they're off to Bangkok.

It's a bit cloudy today so the lighting in some of the pictures are awful. It's obvious that the colour of the jeans in those pictures are wrong but at least you can have a general idea what the wear is like

The spot is from football last week...

[justiz2]

They are currently being soaked in warm water with a little bit of detergent

Tomorrow I should be able to put up pictures of how they turn out...

[justiz2]

Sorry but I can’t put post-soaking pictures of the jeans. It’s been raining and it wouldn’t do the jeans justice if I can’t get proper pictures of it. Not much indigo loss. Largo, can you put up the pictures when they get to you?

Well, that’s my shift done and over with. The Flathead were very tight around the thighs to begin with – these were the marks left the first time I wore them out:

They’ve gradually stretched, I think by about an inch throughout the month. I guess I could’ve been ‘rougher’ with them and put more wear in, but I figured it’s better to treat it a sorta tourist and show the sights. I’m sure the guys after this will do a better job at trashing the jeans

[justiz2]

Everything has been packed:

By now, they should be on their way to Bangkok. Will gladly be part of another Sufu project after this. I’ll miss the Flathead but I’m glad I can go back to my Sorahiko

Hope I’ll make it to the project-end party in Self Edge next year…

[Aristo]

lovin the pics justiz