About me

Let me introduce myself.

I am a Dutch expat, living after my retirement in Malaysia under the MM2H program.

A few times a year I fly back to my native country to meet family and friends. Also to enjoy the Dutch food, like herring, Dutch cheese and strawberries…:-)

But after a few weeks I am happy to come back to Malaysia, the many friends I have here, the climate and of course the food.

I am interested in waterfalls, bird watching, the history of Malaysia and more…:-)

Here are a few of my websites

Waterfalls of Malaysia

I am “addicted” to (Malaysian) waterfalls, probably because we have no waterfalls in my native country…:-)

The website is popular. During the past five years more than 1.5 million visitors from all over the world have visited the website

The last few years I have become less active in updating the site

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Birding in Malaysia

Several of my friends are avid birders. I am only an accidental one..:-). But I accepted the challenge to create a website about Malaysian birds. Many Malaysian bird photographers are contributing to the site.

The website is in hibernation at the moment because I have no time to maintain it properly

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Stuif’s Adventures

Before I started a blog, I published my trip reports on Multiply, a social networking platform, launched in 2004. When they discontinued this service, I extracted all my data and put them in a kind of personal Multiply site.

I still add content regularly, mainly about longer holidays and generally outside Malaysia

 

If you want to contact me, you can email me: jan “at” stuif “dot” com

8 thoughts on “About me

  1. Thanks for the write-up. It brings back many fond memories, especially for those of us who grew up in Taiping. I am looking forward to revisiting again, now thar The Nest us in good hands!

  2. Dag Jan,

    Fijn je blog te lezen.
    Ikzelf ben hier niet lang geleden getrouwd en hier mijn leven aan het maken.
    Ik hou ook erg van hiken en vooral het bezoeken van watervallen :).

    Ik weet niet hoe actief je nu nog bent of hoeveel interesse je hebt om contact te hebben. Ik kan je wel zeggen dat ik al actief aan het zoeken ben (met een locale kennis hier van me) naar mogelijkheden om watervallen te exploreren vanaf februari. Misschien kunnen we wat meer uitwisselen? Ik woon in Sungai Buloh (KL), we kunnen zeker ook eens een keertje bellen.

    Groeten,

    Sven

  3. What a wonderful site! The effort and thought you put into your articles is worthy of such praise – I have to thank David from Malaysia Traveller for having ‘guided’ me to you. I intend to spend a lot of time in the next weeks, reading what you have written on your Second Home country, as a most welcome diversion from the sad news our media has been filled with in these Covid times.

    Your long article on Taiping rang so many bells for me – I first went in 1974 for three days, and I visited all the sites I could walk excepting Maxwell Hill (as Bukit Larut was then popularly called) and shot a few rolls rolls of color film in my Rolleiflex TLR. I still have some of those images (also the negatives, I must look for them and scan them to share) and they evoke such happy memories of my three days there, altho’ as a then 27 year old single traveler at that time, three days in Taiping proved to be a very long time indeed after my enjoyable weeks in Kuala Lumpur…

    Fast-track forty years (where did the time go?) and I finally went back, in August 2014, as a late sixties wanderer this time with a Nikon DSLR camera and several lenses. Amazed to find so many things were almost exactly as I remembered them from so long ago.

    I now hang out mostly in Indonesia (Surabaya not Bali) and I’ve been back to Taiping regularly as a must-see place during one of my two-month visa runs in and out of my new home country. Every time i go back to Taiping, a part of me wants to stay there and spend what times remains to me in the blissful C-O-O-L of the city, the Lake Gardens and surrounds – oddly, for all my efforts, I’ve not yet made it to the top of Maxwell Hill, and when the world finally unlocks from this regrettable pandemic it’s my next goal to somehow get to the top, on foot if I have to, before I’m too old to climb yet more hills.

    I have a plan in mind, to return to Taiping when the world finally unlocks from the current crisis, with my old Rolleiflex and the last of my color film in my freezer, and reshoot those old photos of the places as they are now. So many of them still are. Amazing, that, but there you are. Taiping remains as ever, Taiping.

    Like you and your partner I’m a foodie, and in that sense you’ve given me a new taste-treat, a place to enjoy good popiah! I oink out of that when I’m in Ipoh where it seems to be a specialty, but even with no end of searching I’ve yet to find a good place to enjoy a good local version of this delectable snack dish in Taiping. Thanks for that – I’ll be going to your favorite place to stuff my face with those luscious rolls – and afterwards a small Tiger beer at the 24 hour food court near the Lake Gardens.

    Who knows, we may end up meeting one day at The Furama – to me this is one of the ‘legend’ hotels of Taiping, in a way I’m sad you have blown its cover and made it public knowledge now, I have long hoped it would remain a well-kept secret, ‘tho I have to say I’ve not yet seen many foreign tourists hanging out there. The rooms are comfortable if you ask politely and see a view and select the best one, not facing the at times busy street, and the staff are one of the best plusses of that establishment. Kudos to us both for your and my good taste in finding budget hotels!

    You surely must know the small but busy Chinese kampong just down the street from the Furama, which I often walk through on my way to and from the Lake Gardens. I try to not intrude on the locals’ privacy, but I’ve been there often enough now that several know me by sight and greet me as I stroll quietly by.

    I could go on, but I much prefer reading about YOUR Taiping and not so much mine – it’s a happy thought to me that we share a mutual appreciation and like for many of the same places, especially food, at which Taiping truly excels.

    Enough writing for – I must get on to reading some of your enjoyable and so well researched as well as written, articles on Malaysia.

    Please be sure to visit and write something about another favorite place of mine, Kuala Kangsar, when you get the opportunity, that is if you haven’t already.

    All the best and my very good wishes to you and yours,

    JayDann in Melbourne (and asap I hope, back to Surabaya, and of course to Taiping)

  4. Dear sir,
    I am pleasantly surprised and feel proud that you have such an indepth historical knowledge of my beloved hometown, Taiping, where I was born and received my basic education till my secondary in Hua Lian Primary (Chinese) and Secondary (Chinese) School, Taiping, where I graduated in 1970.
    I must admit I know very little about the stories behind historical sites of my beautiful hometown other than feeling sorry for the dilapidated conditions they are now in.
    Thanks for your detailed research and writeups about this little beautiful Raintown. I have learnt much about my birthplace from you.
    Taiping is honored to have a Dutch expat who has make Malaysia his 2nd home and knew so much about her history many Taipingnites including myself not aware of.
    I got to read the many beautiful articles you have written about places you visited in Taiping.
    I salute you, sir!

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