云南之旅 ：东川红土地和元阳梯田

I am back this morning at 2 am from a 8-day wonderful trip to the Red Land and Yuan Yang in Yunnan, China. It was a formal landscape photography trip organised by Nature Photographic Society, Singapore led by Tony Png. There were altogether 12 of us.

(Group photo taken at Yang Yuan's Rice Terrace)

The Red Land (东川红土地)

Yuan Yang's Rice Terrace (元阳梯田)

Blogging in progress ...

Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon - 5 Dec 2010

Unlike previous years where the starting point of the 10km, half & full marathon run was at Esplanade, the organiser decided to have different distance run at different locations.  Orchard Road was the starting point for the full marathon this year.  A nice change in my opinion as I especially like the colourful lightings decoration at Orchard Road.

(Starting point at Orchard Road)

Although I trained 50% lesser than last year, I was still looking forward for this annual event.  Unfortunately, a super hot mee siam that I ate 2 weeks before forced me to quit the run on 5 Dec 2010!  I was disappointed but I was still at the starting point at Orchard road to support my 2 running buddies and to be their driver cum photographer.  I purposely brought my BIB tag so that I could join my friends at the starting point to take some pictures.  I ran about 100m with them before I exited from the right near Centre Point.

(My 2 running buddies, also my army friends)

Blogging in progress, please come back for more update ...

Not feeling Well ...

I hardly fall sick and the last time when I did was probably more than a year ago.  I had a minor sore throat 2 days ago.  I didn't think it was serious enough to see a doctor, so I took only panadol, Strepsils and drank more water than normal.  However, it doesn't seem to work and I went to see a doctor this morning.

I told the doctor my condition, he checked my temperature, my throat & place a stethoscope on my back to examine my body.  Afterwhich, he advised me to drink lots of water.  I asked him whether I had fever and he replied yes without elaborating further and told me I can go now.  The consultation lasted in less than 5 minutes.  Personally, I would expect him to briefly explain the condition of my sickness even though it may not be serious.

Although it is only a minor sickness, I was given 4 medicines as follows:

• Zecuf Cough Lozenges - for sore throat
• Anarex Tablet - for muscle pain
• Dhasedyl Cough Mixture - for cough
• Serrazyme Table - for swelling or inflammation of the throat

With a consultation fee of $20, the total cost was $46.20.  Quite expensive for a minor illness, in my opinion.

没有信仰的人生是一场空虚 。。。

I don't feel good when I saw someone that I know posted in his facebook this remarks "Those who do not have a religion, do not have a life!".  I got offended too when I saw an advertisement in a local newspaper recently where this guy was promoting his religious talk on "The Power of Faith" - the headline read "没有信仰的人生是一场空虚"!  Such insensitive comments are similar to one religion insulting another religion beliefs.  I am sure a religious believer would be annoyed when someone says "You are wasting your valuable time in believing in something that does not exist!"

大舅母

My mother called me this afternoon asking me whether I could go down to the hospital to visit 大舅母 as she was in critical condition.   I could not leave the shop as I was short of staff.  I told my mun that I would visit her tomorrow.  About 2 hours later, I was sad to hear from my mum that 大舅母 had passed away ... 

一个关于等待的故事 ...

一个是可以把人唱得心乱的林慧萍，一个是可以把人说得滴泪的黄舒骏，一个关于等待的故事，一段伤感的歌声。驿，值得安安静静坐下来好好地听。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHgd-ZW8S2c

BBQ @ Sembawang Park

Photography @ Merlion Park

(Merlion - 10 Sep 2010, 6.38 am)

(Merlion - 10 Sep 2010, 6.33 am)

(Merlion - 10 Sep 2010, 6.31 am)

Car Accident

As usual, I drove along Jalan Boon Lay towards AYE to work this morning at 8.25am.  About 20m from the junction between Jalan Boon Lay & Boon Lay Way, a motorist from lane 3 suddenly filtered to my lane at lane 2 without checking his blind spot.  I stepped on the brake slightly harder than normal to slow down the car to avoid hitting him.  The next thing I knew was I heard a loud noise.  I knew immediately that the car behind me must have banged to my car.  I went down to check and noticed that there was a small dent at the lower left hand corner of the bumper.  A few seconds later, a young lady in her 20s, came out from her car too.  Before I could question her, she said to me softly that I should not jam my blake.  I got a little angry and told her off that had I not slowed down, I would have knocked down the motorist.  She inspected her car and pointed to me that her left hand corner of her front bumper was also damaged.  Knowing that she is at fault, she said that since both our cars are only slightly damaged and that she was late for work, could I not pursued the matter.  I reluctantly agreed and she said thank you.  I did not take down her particulars or her car plate number.  When she droved passed my car, my wife quickly took down her car plate no. as SJM3340 just to play safe.

When I told my friend about this accident, he advised me that even though I agreed not to pursed the matter, it is best to report the incident to my insurance company as a record which I did at Toyota Centre located at 2 Pandan Crescent.  This is because we would never know what the other party would do.  She may report to her insurance company and twisted the accident to her advantage and claim against me.

In future, I would make it a point to take down at least the particulars and the car plate number of the other driver.

SAFRA Half Marathon Run 2010 - 12 Sep 2010

This will be my 7th competitive run. After resting for almost 2 months since the 25km passion run in May, it is time to start training again.

I shall set a higher target this year i.e. to go below 2hr 5 min. My previous timings were:

2008 - 2 hr, 8 min
2009 - 2 hr, 18 min

Hope that I am not over estimating myself.

Afternote: Yes! I had over estimated myself.  My net timing was 2h:10m:10s.

During Trip to Tangkak (4 Jul 10)

I joined 9 friends from Nature Photography Society on a durian trip in Tangkak.  Tangkak is about 180km from Tuas Checkpoint (about 2hrs drive).  Our meeting point was at the first petrol kiosk, Malaysia side of the Second Link at 7.30 am.  We drove to the nearby kulairaya town to have our breakfast.  The tau sa pau and big ba pau were very nice.

While taking a break at a toilet point, we spotted a bird nesting. SC & Yixiong got excited and took out their heavy gears to shoot.  Allan & Tony also joined in the fun later on.  What was supposed to be a 5 minutes break became one hour of shooting.

Tony, the organiser, had arranged 2 places at Tangkak to eat durian.  One of which was at a small village house near a roadside.  The owner is a friendly malay lady who prepared many varieties of durian such as D2, D3, D4, D24, D101, Kim Hong, etc.  After tasted all, I got confused and now I could not remember which was which.  I could only remember D2 which was more "sticky" and I like this the best.

We did not eat alot (about 8 pieces on average) as we knew that the durian plantation that we would visiting was only about 10 mins drive from here.  We ate more than 10 durians which cost us just $90 ringgit!  It was about 11 am when we finally reached the durian plantation.

Tony had pre-ordered $820 ringgit worth of durians here!  Most of the varieties were similar to those that we tasted earlier except that it had "Maosanwang" which I liked alot.  I wanted to order 5kg of D2 & Maosanwang but there was no stock.  According to the owner, there wasn't many durians this season when compared with previous years. 

We took a casual walk around the plantation and the owner told us that we can eat whatever fruits that  can find there.  Beside durian trees, there were many rambutan trees but only a few bear fruit.  We plucked some but they were not very sweet.   Other fruit trees found include jackfruit, custard apple, etc.

FIFA World Cup 2010 (South Africa)

The world's biggest football show finally commences today. I am not a football fan but started watching it since 1986 when Maradona almost single-handledly won the World Cup for Argentina.

For the past 20 over years, I always hope either Brazil or England to win. I like Brazil because they are the only team that plays attractive football consistently. I like England because I am familar with most of the players and each year they have someone that I like in the team such as Gary lineker, Paul Gasoline, Michael Owen, etc. However, I am not in favour of both teams this year. Under coach Dunga, Brazil has become more conversative and their style of playing is more of a defensive now. Yes, they have Kaka & Robinho but I have never considered them in the same class of Ronaldo or Romario. The biggest joke was that Dunga left out Ronaldinho, someone who could turn a match in their favour. I am not impressed by England Team too, beside Rooney, Frank Lampard, & Steven Gerard, the rest are just mediocre players.

So which team do you think should win? My guess is:

1st - Argentina (because of Messi, I like him too)

2nd - Holland (they play attacking football)

3rd - Spain

4th - Brazil

How about you?

Family Outing - Kukup (29/30 May 2010)

Last weekend, my family (18 of us) spent a 2 day 1 night outing to Kukup. Only my niece Melissa & nephew Shawn could not make it for this gathering.

Kukup is a century old small fishing village built entirely on stilts on the sea surrounded by water. It is located about 40km southwest of Johor Bahru. For a reasonable $75 per person, it included a 2-way land transport from Singapore to Kukup, a night stay, 2 seafood lunches, 1 high tea, 1 seafood BBQ dinner, 1 breakfast and free usage of the facilities such as DVD karaoke set, majong set, cards, caram, etc.

Our meeting point was at my mother’s house on 29 May at 9am. The driver came punctually but there was some delay as my sister, Irene, had a hard fall. Luckily, it was not that serious. She just needed some cleaning up and changed to a clean clothing. After custom clearance at causeway checkpoint, it took us another 1.5 hr to reach Kukup Town. It was almost 12 pm and we had seafood lunch there.

From here, we needed to walk more than 10 mins to reach the house that we rented. It was almost at the extreme end but we liked it as it meant lesser disruption due to fewer people passing by the house. The house is huge and fully air-conditioned. There are 3 bedrooms, each could accommodate 10 people. There are 3 toilets, a kitchen and a spacious service balcony where it can be used for BBQ, dinner area and fishing there.

After we had settled down, my sisters (Cyndi & Janice) gathered all of us to play some games.

The game of stepping balloons was fun but also the most aggressive and tiring one. All of us were really exhaused and we took a break. High tea was a simple greenbean with sweet potato soup, pandan cake & prawn crackers.

At about 5pm, we took a short boat trip to a nearby fishing farm where they showed us the various fishes that they have. Nothing really interesting here and we left when the next boat came at about 20 mins later.

Thereafter, we went to the town area for a short evening stroll and shopping. By then, the sky started to turn cloudy. Although it did not rain, my wish of shooting nice sunset was not fulfilled. Dinner was BBQ seafood. The Otah & chicken wings were particularly yummy! At about 8.30 pm, what surprised us was that, from our service balcony where we had our dinner, we saw a beautiful golden moon rising from the west. I quickly setup my camera to take some shots.

After dinner, my brother-in-law, Allan enjoyed his favourite hobby - fishing, some played majong, the ladies sang karaoke, the kids tried out fire crackers while the rest watched Ironman II, a pirated DVD I bought from the town at $5 ringget. Most of us slept after mid-night. I set my alarm clock at 6.45 am tomorrow hoping to catch the sunrise.

Luckily, I did not oversleep as the sunrise was quite lovely. Allan woke up early too and he joined me to appreciate the cool and beautiful morning. Breakfast was just nasi lemak, fried beehoon, some kuehs with black coffee. Not fantastic but good enough to fill our stomach.

Standard Chartered Marathon (5 Dec 2010) - Registration

After achieving my 1st full marathon with a good timing of 4hr, 38m last December, I told my family, friends and running buddies that, that was my last marathon too as I do not wish to go through the same kind of gruesome training again. I took up long distance running 2 years ago for the purpose of keeping fit and healthy. It was fun and I enjoyed casual running of about 6 to 10 km with my army friends, KP & William, regularly. It was only later that we decided to challenge ourselves and take on the marathon dreams. We believe that if others can do it, so can we! Now that I have achieved it, there isn't any motivation for me to try again especially when it is unlikely that I would be able to improve my timing. I am more comfortable to run the half marathon. I want to run for enjoyment not suffering.

Vincent, my brother-in-law, told me during mother's day that he also did his 1st marathon last year. He was proud that he completed it in less than 6 hrs. He sounded very motivated and he said that he would train much harder to improve his timing this year. He encouraged me to sign up with him.

KP Tan who did very well last year is certain that he will run the full marathon this year. He is confident and determined to improve his already very good timing of 4hr, 19m. He was disappointed when William & I told him last Saturday that we had decided to sign up for half marathon instead. He called me this morning hopping that we would change our mind.

Pang, another army friend of mine and running buddy, will be doing his 6th or 7th marathon this year also urged us to reconsider.

Under my dear friends' pressure, I have decided to do it one more time! I signed up this morning for a registration fee of $45. For those who sign up after 4 Jun, it will be much costly at $75/$85. Pang & KP already signed up. William is still undecided.

25km Passion Run 2010 - The Race

This was my 6th race but first time where it started late in the afternoon at 4.30 pm. I was a little worried as it would be very hot from 4.30 to 6 pm. Fortunately, it rained this morning to early afternoon and when the race started, it was not as hot as I feared.

(Pang, Willaim, Me, KP Tan)

It was a comfortable run as I was able to maintain a speed of 10km/hr almost throughout the race without much difficulty. It was only at 23km that I sensed slight pain at my groin area. I slowed down a little and when I reached the last 1km, the pain aggravated and I was in walking pace. I managed to complete the race in 2 hr, 31m, much better than my target of 3 to 3.5 hrs.

Photographing damselfly in flight

Libellago Stigmatizans (or Orange-faced Gem) is classified as “probably extinct” in Singapore. Two males species were spotted in a stream at Panti Forest where the water was quite muddy.

They were flying non-stop and engaged in territorial fights. Occasionally, one would perch near the water surface but the next moment, you would see the 2nd one attacking it and they started fighting in mid-air again. Under such situation, shooting them with a tripod proved to be near impossible. So, I released my camera from the tripod, set to full flash mode and my target was to get both males fighting in the air in a single frame.

As the stream water was at ¾ knee level high, I could not squat down as it would wet my backside. Standing would not be able to get close enough to the damsels, so I had to blend down quite a little like an old man. It was tiring shooting in this position as I had to move where the damsels moved. I had to take a break every 5 minutes or so. This went on for the next half an hour and despite my hard work I failed to get the shots I wanted. I could only manage some flight shots of an individual male as a consolation.

Initially, I tried using manual focus but my hands were not fast enough. Autofocus works better for me in this condition.

Nature Photography Outing - Panti Forest

Panti forest is in Johor and about 20 km from Kota Tinggi and about 60km from Singapore. It is a secondary forest and many Singaporean birders like to spend a day there for bird watching and photography. Other than birds, you could also find many macro subjects, particularly butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies.

(Macro shooters at a stream in Panti forest)

(A small hut near the visitor centre)

妈妈，我爱你！

很想在今天的母亲节跟妈妈说些心里话，但还是没有勇气和有点不好意。只好在这里默默的写 "妈妈，谢谢你这些多年来的照顾，你是我最好的妈妈，母亲节快乐，我爱你！"

Family Outing - Kelong @ Pengerang, JB (15 Mar 08)

Only stupid people call people stupid!

I have seen parents scolding their children stupid in public! I have seen superiors calling their workers stupid. I have heard and read about people calling other people stupid. When you call a person "stupid", it is a serious insulting remarks. The victims are likely to feel hurt, unhappy, angry, sad, etc. Even if the victims did not openly react negatively to you, you lose their respect regardless of whether you are the parents, bosses, head of state, ministers, etc. The extreme may happen especially when it involves racism.

Last Friday, thousands of workers at a shipyard in Indonesia torched more than 20 cars as part of a violent protest against a foreign manager who allegedly insulted local workers. It was reported that the workers were angry because they were repeatedly called "stupid" by an Indian manager.

Two weeks ago, a malay auntie M (in her forty) accidentally stepped on a chinese auntie C (in her fifty) in a bakery shop at Ang Mo Kio Central. M said "sorry" to C. C angrily called M "stupid". M was unhappy and raised her voice "I already said sorry to you, why do you have to call me stupid?!" C started the fight and she grabbed a chair nearby and hit hard on M. C even asked the bakery shop assistant whether they have a knief. M called 2 of her friends and 3 of them attacked C . Police was called in to resolve the dispute.

Glucosamine

Our body is able to produce Glucosamine which is needed to make and repair joint cartilage.  However, the production of glucosamine slows down when we age.  A lot of my friends and my wife have already started taking it as a nutritional supplement.

Since taking up distance running for the past 2 years, William & KP Tan (my running mates) have encouraged me to take glucosamine as our chances of damaging our joints are higher.  I didn't heal their advice as I thought it to be unnecessary.  Recently, I feel some pains near both of my knees whenever I run more than 5 km, so I started taking 3 tablets of Glucosamine a day with effect from today.  It costs about $30 for a box of 30 tablets which means that I have to invest $3 a day for healthier joints.

Exploring Pulau Ubin

Pulau Ubin is a small island but despite being there 3 times for the past 5 years, I am still not familar of this place.

Lau, William & I went to explore Pulau Ubin this morning. After having breakfast at Changi Village Hawker Centre, we took the bumboat at 9.30 am. It is about 15 mins ride and it costs $2.50 per person. Usually, the bumboat would leave when it has 12 passengers. Otherwise, one would have to wait a little while until enough people turn up. Alternative, you can pay $30 and go straight away.

I think cycling is the best way to explore Ubin, so we rented 3 bicycles at $6 each (normal rental charges is $2/hr) where we can use it for the whole day.

To be continued ....

54 Lorong Mutu

Does this sound like a luxury private residential property? Certainly yes! It belonged to my grandparents.

It was a huge piece of land, easily the size of 10 football fields. There were 2 living rooms, 3 kitchens with spacious dinning areas, 8 bedrooms, 2 tiolets and a bathroom that was located more than 100m away. My grandparents owned more than 30 rambutan trees, 20+ durian trees, 10+ "ba-long-long" trees, a few lime & guava trees, hundreds of papaya trees, many pineapples & bananas, a handful of pomelos, soursop, mangos, jackfruits, starfruits, and a plantation of sweet potatos, tapiocas, various vegetables, etc. There was also a big playround in front of our house.

Behind the house was a quarry, we called it "swayteng" where we used to go there to fly kites. Next to the bathroom was a fish pond which belonged to our neighbour. We treated it as a swiming pool where my neightbours, cousins and I picked up some basic swimming skills there.

It was truely a wonderful place to live in and I am glad that I had spent 17 years of my childhood days there. It was unfortunate that my grandparents had to sell this piece of land to the government for redevelopment purposes, sometime in 1983. It was sold at a small amount of less than $50,000!

Qingming Festival (清明节）

清明节 is a traditional chinese festival where people would visit graves of departed family members to make offerings and to spring clean them. This year 清明节 falls on 5 Apr 2010. People usually do it 10 days before or 10 days after the actual day i.e. 26 Mar - 16 Apr 2010.

My family decided to head down to Choa Chu Kang Cemetery to visit my father's grave today. Huge crowds are expected on the actual day and the preceding 2 sundays which is today and 3 Apr. 2 Apr should also be very crowded as it was a public holiday (Good Friday). As in previous years, we left my mother's house punctually at 6.30 am. Surprisingly, it was not as crowed as I feared. Heavy traffic only occurred near the junction of Jalan Bahar & Choa Chu Kang. We reached our destination at 6.50am. Everything was done within 2 hrs and we returned home at 9 am, the earliest for the past 21 years!

COE prices soar sharply!

COE prices spiked sharply at yesterday tender. For cars up to 1,600 cc, an increase of 36.5% to $28,389. I was fortunate that I made the right decision to book my current Toyota Altis in Feb last year. At that time, COE price was only $1,020. I eventually bought my car at $52,000 with an COE value of $4,890. I think a Toyota Altis should cost more than $75,000 now.

I dropped my Tamron 180mm Macro Lens!

I went out with my friend to shoot macro at Wild Wild West (end corporation road) yesterday morning. We finished shooting at about 9.45 am. We found and sat at a comfortable bench trying to pack our camera equipment into our bags. I placed my tripod with my camera & lens affixed to it beside me. Out of a sudden, the tripod gave way and dropped to the concrete floor. There was a loud sound and I know the damage is severe. I would be sending it to JEL Corporation at Changi for repair tomorrow. I hope it is still servicable and not as serious as I thought it would be.

Nature Photography - Flower Abstract

I hardly take any flora shots during my 2 years of active macro shooting. I decided to try it out last October and the results were surprisingly encouraging.

This flower was taken at Singapore Botanical Gardens. I fixed on my 1.4 teleconvertor and positioned my camera as close to the flower as possible. My intention was to focus on the inner part and to bring out the beautiful colours of this flower. I tested using different apertures and the widest f3.5 gave me the best effect.

I received positive feedback from my friends at NPSS. I went back to the same place at SBG hoping to get an improvement shot. This time I chose a more purplish flower and I tilted my camera to get a diagonal composition. I also up the exposure a little to give it a more lively and brighter look.

This is a dorsal view of a common hibiscus flower taken at "Wild Wild West" near end Cooperation Road. The same technique was used and I am glad it did not disappoint me.

I am likely to do more on this sort of photography this year.

Car Insurance Premium up again!!

My car insurance will be expired on 30 Mar and I just renewed it for $1,041.84. This amount is after deduction of 50% No Claim Discount + an additional 5% Certificate of Merit Discount. Last year's premium was less than $900, an increase of about 18%! I have a clean record since I started driving in June 2001 and so, I got pissed off to see premium keeps going up!

There is a report in today's Straits Times "Insurance relief for motorists". It sounds like a good news for us but it was not. The General Insurance Asociation of Singapore (GIA) mentioned that "Any rise in premiums this year will be marginal". What is so good news about this? Still an increase, right? Personally I think GIA is not doing enough to stop the rising premium. All they did was to blame motor workshops, lawyers and doctors for fraudulent claims. I agree with the view that the insurers didn't study hard enough at their operations in particularly they way they investigate claims. As car insurance is compulsory, it is not unreasonable to assume that they are taking the easy way out by just increasing the premiums.

Next year, I will source around for a cheaper premium instead of extending it blindly with my current insurer, Chartis (formerly known as American Home Assurance Company).

Places (for food) that I patronise

I saw my friend posted a similar title at facebook sharing places which offer good food that she patronises. Thought it was a wonderful idea and I wish to do likewise here:

Fishball Noodle (鱼圆面)

潮州鱼圆粿条面
Blk 33, Dover Road
#01-113
鱼圆面 - $2
Comments : Cheap & good. Portion maybe a little small for most people but just nice for my breakfast. Pay $0.50 more for a bigger version.

Ice Kacang (红豆冰）

清天冷热甜品
Blk 115 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre
#01-299
Recommended : Ice Kacang - $0.80
Comments: The cheapest that I can find. The ice is very smooth and fine and it reminds me of those that I had eaten in the good old days.

Chicken Rice (鸡饭）

海南鸡饭
Blk 115 Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre
#01-305
Recommended : Black sauce chicken rice - $2.50
Comments: I particularly like the black sauce chicken rice

Mee Rebus & Mee Siam

食鲜熟食摊

Ang Mo Kio Ave 10

Around Blk 405 Hawker Centre

#01-16

Recommended : Mee Siam & Mee Rebus - $2 each

Comments: Cooked by chinese but surprisingly good and cheap.

Porriage (粥)

后港粥品

Blk 685 Hougang St 61

Recommended : 猪杂粥 - $3

Comments: Tasty with a generous ingradients.

Vegetarian Food

Bugis 如意素熟食

Blk 505, Jurong West St 52

#01-102

Recommended : 素米粉 - $2

Comments : Cheap and good

Updated as at 3 Apr 10 - to be continued ...

Photographing Morning Dews

After shooting macro regularly for a while, one may get bored especially when you have captured most of the common subjects such as ants, spiders, grasshoppers, damselflies, dragonflies, etc. Rare insects or creatures are hard to come by and it is not uncommon that you may return empty handed or only a handful of unimpressive shots despite spending a few hours in the field. Since we are seeing the common subjects most of the time, how do we make them looks more appealing in a image? Yes, dewdrop is the answer!

Dewdrop is a wonderful photographic subject by itself. Whenever possible, position in such a way that you get the sun reflected in the dews producing a sparking "starburst" effect.  Using a smaller aperture of say f16 or underexposing the image a little would have a higher chance of getting a "starburst" effect.

Dewdrop can also complement and very effective in making an original subject looks amazingly different. I always find it interesting to see water droplets clinging to a leaf, a flower, a spider web and I personally find insects cover in the morning dews most beautiful and attractive.  Also, it often gives me the nice feeling of the morning freshness.

When would you find heavy dews?
I used to have the impression that if it is raining today, it should be a dewy morning the next day which is not really the case. Basically, if it is warm at night, there will be little dew formation even if there was a heavy rain the day before. Yes, thing might get wet because of humidity but generally you would not find the little droplets of water you see in many photos posted in this forum. The conditions you want to find heavy dews is a warm humid day, followed by a clear cool night. From my experience, April & October are the best periods to find heavy dews.

What is the best time to photograph dews?

Generally, you need to be there at first light usually at 7.00 am. There are certain months such as October & November where the first light can be as early as 6.45 am. Singapore has a warm climate and therefore the dews do not last very long. It will only remain while the temperature is low and before the sun warms things up. Very often, dews are evaporated by 8.30 am. Most of my better dew photos were taken between 6.45 am to 8.15 am.

Where are the best places to find dews?

I read that there will be much fewer dew formation under tree cover than it is in the open. So, it is unlikely that you will find dews in forested areas. From my experience, Wild Wild West @ Cooperation Road End, the entrance of Kranji Nature Trail & Holland Woods have lots of bushes not under tree covers and these are some of the best places in Singapore to photograph dewy subjects.