Stuif's Adventures

wrote on Jul 23, 2012: need to do some of letupan pada trektor dalam tuh.... it's a good idea haahaha.... bukit gasing hancur... govermen senyap... (KL area) kiara hancur.... govermen senyap? old Buildiing in KL hancur... govermen senyap... y? pembanggunan poket sendiri yang cemerlang... heehehee.... to be good... rampas KL pulak selapas selangor selamat.... ngeh ngeh ngeh

Dan wrote on Jul 23, 2012: These pictures got me feeling very angry .... anyone know who is the evil master mind behind it? Expose him .... !

wrote on Jul 23, 2012: One of the very very few who bothers to express concern leave alone document the happenings.

Kwai Loh wrote on Jul 23, 2012: I know that this Bridal Veil fungus is a delicacy in China, but do they also eat it in Malaysia?

wrote on Jul 23, 2012: We do harvest those lattice fungi for comsumption le

Dan wrote on Jul 23, 2012: woahhh ....

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Another big project by .... haihzz....

Dan wrote on Jul 24, 2012: That is not enough ... we need names, and let the opposition parties do that bombing...

Kwai Loh wrote on Jul 24, 2012: As far as I know Jabatan Landskap Negara or the Jabatan Landskap dan Rekreasi of Kuala Lumpur.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Nice /narrow/ trail. The narrower the better, to get in touch with Nature. Please stay on established trails, and avoid side paths, that might devegetate the area or lead to erosion. And never cut live branches or those roots. It damages the trees and is vandalism against the public assets, and we love the obstacles, not smooth featureless, wide gravel lanes.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Twin Peaks trail, the ridgeline access way to many other parts of Kiara. Here the blown down deadfall trees are left in place as a natural tunnel.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This the be beginning of the Snakes&Ladders trail. It was once densely vegetated on both sides, narrow singletrack, but once the upper arboretum (a collection of trees) was cleared out several years ago it is more a plantation and clear and not natural. With the thinning out of the forest, the feeling of wilderness and peace and quiet is killed, once you can see the tarmac road below, see the street lamps, see joggers head up the other direction, construction vehicles coming down. It destroys the feeling. Appeal to JLN to stop all deforestation projects. For example it's been said that for each expensive name-brand sapling they replant, 14,000 at last claim, they cut upto 10 - 20 existing natural free ones already existing. Yes, this lets in the sun and helps their chosen tree survive, at the expense of the existing perfectly fine trees. So ask how many trees they killed to plant those 14,000, is it 140,000 killed? And you may have noticed, about 60% of those 14,000 are busy right now shrivling and dieing on there own accord. Will they re-replant a 2nd time? or re-re-replant? So what is the net additional trees? half, a third, negative? You know the exising trees are thriving, free, and natural, so why bother, JLN?

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Trees and rocks, carefully interleaved to add obstacles to the trail, so that synchronized pedalling is needed to get through this section of Snakes & Ladders Trail.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Magic Carpet trail, blocked Dec 2011. Rerouted in Jan 2012 with a few hundred hours of biker volunteer labor. The new Magic Carpet is next doomed by a proposed road on top of it. Can we ever win? Yes, if we get a immediate stop-works order. Let's vote for whomever will preserve Kiara as a forest, stopped converting it to another Lake Gardens.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: It's a massive overkill of a fence. Can you think of any type of animal that can get through? Wouldn't a simple boundary marker be sufficient to alert of encroachment? Or a no-people-leaving-plastic-bags-on-tree signs have been sufficient, and about 100% less expensive and destructive. This 3.5m galvanized steel iron curtain might be equally ineffective to those who really want to use the entire forest, they will bypass any fence. Govt could have tried the simple solution first, before turning the peaceful forest into Malaysian Guantanamo. Only loosers would be to the multimillion dollar steel and construction firms, like Berkat Prestasi Sdn Bhd whose owner is . . . ?

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: The cement bridge was installed by DBKL in 2008 when they cut 21km of doubletrack horse trails, through public and private land. This picture is taken near the bike singletrack trail Bar-a-Kuda. Here the JLN fence crosses the still-prestine Ulu Penchala, but as the metal and cement will be place directly in the stream, either it will lead to erosion or blockage of the stream. But maybe block the migration of aquatic life, There are several such stream crossings, non-ecologically sounds, cause by the stupid fence project.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: See how much earth is dug and flatten to accommodate the destruction. The twin water tanks near the Berjaya-leased land is uphill and the yet-unpolluted Ulu Penchala the the bottom of the slope here. Soon it will be full of sand and muddy, thanks to this construction. Thanks tons, stupid JLN.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This is the Bar-a-Kuda highway, and 11m wide swath of sterile dirt, thank's to JLN master plan to maximize profits heading their way. It which cuts the single track trail Bar-a-Kuda up hill a bit from this pictured spot. The cement block in the foreground is a bridge abutment at a once-clear stream. The bridge was damaged, destroyed and now being rebricked by JLN's workers. The stream is under that pile of dirty near the banana leaf and is now basically a drain. Downstream it is muddied and silted in due to the dirty plowed in. This is Ulu Penchala, before it enters the Berjaya-leased wasted land, where it flows next to Berjaya's squatter quarters, who toss endless domestic waste into it, and raw horse sewerage flows into the stream. Then it's used to water the golf course, yum, where pesticide and fertilizer placed to please rich-ass golfers, further contaminates things.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This photo is of the Bar-a-Kuda highway, an 11meter wide crushed gravel road build so some unknown reason by JLN. Well I guess the reason for any road it to drive on it. Not at all what we want in the Kiara Permanent Forest Reserve is it. We already have 100,000km of roads, can't we leave a few KM free of smoke and noise and just walk. Here we see fence posts being hauled to the work site on the fence. They could have been hand carried to site, about 100m downhill, on a 2 foot wide singletrack trail, for which zero trees need have been cut. JLN, or more properly Berkat Prestati Sdn Bhd, easily could have hired more workers and hand-carried all the materials as promised, as the do so for the final few meters to install them. But no, they went and plowed, perhaps with no authorisation to destroy our forest, and drive up and down with their tractor. In some place (Pure Quill) the temporary haulage road was used less than one week and then abandon, treeless and muddy.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This shot is along the Northern boundary, nearing the lookout. The water now flows along the fence built straight up the failline and has caused more that 1m of soil to be stripped of in 2 months time. Note how dense and shady the fence is on the right side. Your small finger can not penetrate it. Also note, the corner in the fence here and a few other places along the Northern boundary. But if you look at the maps from JLN the Northern boundary is totally straight. So is this surveying errors, correction of alignment mistakes, future encroachment or public lands given away? JLN has to answer what is going on, preferable 1-2 years before the construction, not after their Minister gets voted out at GE13.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: It may be natures revenge, but that would be better taken by calling 03-4045-2416 for Jabatan Landskap Negara Tingkat 7 Plaza IGB Jalan Kampar Off Jalan Tun Razak. This photo is along the Northern boundary, where a rubber tree broke off and fell on the fence. The tree is large size, but only dented the top 1/2 of the fence, ripping the mesh fabric. As Berkat Prestasi Sdn Bhd said there is no maintenance arrangement, yet, they didn't know what so say about tree falling on it. I mean what do they expect, so naive. And want good is a fence or a dike with even one hole in it, not matter if it us cost RM5,000,000. By rainy season, we might expect 5-10 such accidents per week, so the fence could be destroyed within a year. Unless the current ruling government is able to award a high-cost maintanence tender.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Here we see JLN has be so kind to graciously provide a gate to the horse club, the riders will be ever so grateful. But the signs below forbid trespassing and bicycles, on the government land, currently leased to Berjaya, who's stripped it of all trees and pollute the Ulu Penchala, beyond this gate. Lucky the affluent horse riders can enter the public land at Kiara, while the public is forbidden from trespassing out. Membership has it's privileges, at least until they get voted out.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This is a fortunate shot, of JLN in action, spoiling our environment. The location is downstream from the crystal clear waterbodies unique in Kuala Lumpur and the Sungai Runs Through It trail built in 2006 by Pat. But JLN, in it's infinite wisdom, uses the tractor to make the mud and stone dam you see on the center of the picture. Perhaps it so the can extract sand and water for mixing cement. The grey-brown pond was yesterday a transparent blue-green stream you could drink from, I have, with fish fry, fresh water prawns, crabs, dragon fly larva, tadpoles, a total ecosystem. Now it's a ecological nightmare and it's plain to see who did it - Jabatan Landscape Negara, headed by Director General Esa, who has remained silent all this while, 8 months now. These guys aren't Public Servants, they are Government Servants only, for the time being only.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This is the end of the line for the Bar-a-Kuda trail, originally called Waterfall trail. Ahead is the deadend of the fence and the 25 hectares given by lease to Berjaya to strip and spoil for the entertainment of a few posh horses. The fence panels, cost RM500 a piece, unless marked up by middle men for profit taking, or is that bribe taking. The boards are disposable cement forms, once perfectly good trees, which they seem to chopping as fast as the please. And JLN had the cheek to file a police report about a few of their wooden cement forms going missing. Maybe if enough iron mongers are invited, the entire fence will go missing within the year.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: It all started way back... such a long, long time back... Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean . . . This is the water tank at Magic Carpet Trail, where construction started about 12 Nov 2011. This used to be our trail down to the dense 4K valley and pond. The green watertank fence, topped with barbed wire and razor wire as sufficient to stop all but monkey. But now this 3.5m high galvanized steel anti-climb anti-cut prison fence has come to Kiara and all is not well. The Magic Carpet trail was the first to go, and the real guardians of Kiara came out in full force 7 Jan 2012 and routed a new trail inside the fence. But now many more trails and the public's right to access is under immediate threat. JLN should immediately stop-works and decamp permanently.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: This is the new Ini Ulu Damansara (I.U.D) trail, wide and not fun to walk or ride. The narrow singletrack I.U.D is in the bottom right near the drink plastic bag and straw, rubbish left by someone's (JLN workers?) lunch. A question remains at to whether this double track will be widened to match the 11m wide Bar-a-Kuda highway and rolled with crushed stone. JLN's map would indicate so. Please will they build a fancy suspension bridge across the river valley on the right, again as JLN's diagrams indicate.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: At Bar-a-kuda highway 1st stream crossing, I.U.D. road leading to upper left corner. Here is the cement bridge abutment block, broken in two, by JLN's digger and note the dirt plowed down into the stream. This stream now muddied, before it gets to the Ulu Penchala even.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: The lazy way to build a fence: cut down all the trees, bulldoze a path, roll it smooth and truck in all the parts to exactly where they are installed. The better way: cancel the tender, refund the taxpayers over payment, start VSS'ing excess workers and go out and enjoy Kiara, all 1500 acres of it. This is at Bar-a-kuda highway, JLN's road that bisects the bike trail Bar-a-Kuda. Do you see the old trail? It's huge by IMBA trail standards, doubletrack here as it passed along the lower arboretum. See that shady, leaf covered path on the left? Wish that was all you could see in the Kiara forest and not the prison-style Great Wall of Kiara.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: A big turn out and show of support to the effort to stop all construction works immediately within the forest, our last green lung. Really it is up to you. No committee, NGO, political party has a stronger voice or vote. A few hundred people experience their first taste of the wild side of Kiara on 15 July 2012 and hopefully found out that the cooling natural forest is better than cement and steel. carparks or quadbikes. Keep visiting, enjoying, protecting Kiara, and raise the alarm where and when you see anyone, private or government stealing our natural heritage away.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Nobody is sure how many attended 15 July 2012, but if there is a follow-on mass walk, it'd be nice to see all 10,000 signatories show up in person to stake their claim. There's only 1 square meter for each potential park user, will you speak up for yours?

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: "I am the Lorax and I speak for the tres, for the trees have no tongues." Won't you help speak for the trees, the wildlife, the trails. If not you, who? If not now, when? Let JLN and Monster Chor Chee Heung answer to you, when asked to please stop development in Kiara immediately. Or let him not speak again if voted out. All 10,000 park users have expressed their wish to 'keep Kiara exactly as it is', or should that be 'as it was'.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Sorry if were causing a traffic jam, but people take precedence over vehicles today, 15 July 2012. What if everyone considerate started parking /as far away/ from Kiara as possible, walking a little more, and JLN decided to tear out some tarmac and let the carpark and road regrowth? Won't that be great for all?

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Bikers, walkers, joggers, concerned citizens listen to the inspirational words, and then follow up with action to save Bukit Kiara from development into a urban landscaped artificial theme park, termed Taman Awam Berskalar Besar (TABB). But we don't want a TABB, we want a Permanent Forest Reserve. Here, we see Henry of MNS speaking of Nature for Nature's sake, wild and free and ungroomed by JLN.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: All walks of life showed up to support the preservation of Bukit Kiara as a Permanent Forest Reserve, not a museum collection of crop trees, surrounded by grass, separated from the people. At Kiara, 15 July 2012, 10,000 people have voiced their desires. Zero 'no' votes were heard. Will the ruling government hear our 'yes, protect Kiara' votes, or just be hearing 'no' votes?

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: Coming out to Segambut Dalam by International School, on Penchala Baru (Kampung) trail. Another river ruined by massive earth cutting, make that total earth cutting. All perfectly legal somehow!

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: It's not saved yet. It has only just begun. Wear your t-shirt proudly, at the hill and around town. Be part of the solution to get what we all want, Kiara preserved in it's Natural state. While the powers-that-be have ignored the Rakyat and gone ahead with massive plans to destroy and convert it to a money-sucking venture. Donate an extra RM12 or 12hrs to see, enjoy and protect Kiara any way you can.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: With so many valleys and densely wooded knolls, Kiara's 4 square kilometers of forest have hosted 53 named, and carefully crafted mountain bike trails over the past 2 decades. Some are long gone thanks to that blob of destruction called Mont Kiara in the upper right of this picture, with bungalows on Malay Reserve land being snapped up by the highest bidder, denied to 1,000,000 potential users. This picture doesn't even capture all trails, especially the few newer ones in the South West corner and the trails farther north, up to Jalan Duta highway. With all this activity, you'd be surprised how unnoticed our 37km of narrow winding singletrack trails are, built to International Mountain Bike Association standards, of minimal environmental impact, whatever the cost and care needed to achieve, by all-volunteer effort lead by the Penghulu of Kiara, Pat. But it could all be demolished in the next couple of months, if you do nothing, risk nothing, give nothing back to Kiara, a place you can love.

wrote on Jul 24, 2012: There's still a few more trails you didn't hit yet, in the South West corner and North East corner of the fenced in area.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: This looks like Twin Peaks trail, the main artery up the spine of Bukit Kiara to the summit at 264m above sea level. Luckily you don't have to do the limbo as all trails are continuously patroled and maintained, not by some nameless govt department with power tools, but by the bikers who built them. We risk loosing Twin Peak Trail, if JLN continues its program and builds a road right on top of what you see above.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Also at Snakes & Laddes, here is a ladder bridge, made with several hundred ringgit donations to the TRAKS Trails & Timber fund, put in a several months back. It replaces the rail road sleeper that spanned the gap for many years and provided thrilling risk to thousands of bikers. The living tree overhead adds to the excitement. The thick sleeper seen recycled as the abutment you can see on the near side. Note these bridges are also of minimal impact design and you should provide minimal impact on them and not overlaod and jump on them, when running in a large group.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: As Kiara was a rubber plantation 4 or 5 decades ago, the diversity is returning and the oldest rubber trees expire and fall. Nothing wrong with rubber trees, just because they draw a few tappers, who leave bags, which collect water, which sustains larvae of mosquitoes, that bite and suck. Seems a very indirect reason to curse rubber trees or tappers if you insist to not use mozzie repellant.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: One of the longer ladder bridges in Kiara. All are built by bikers with donations from the same. This one uses large 5x3" beams of high quality wood, not cheap, but last longer. Located at the outflow stream of the 4K trail pond, still clean before the water goes to the golf course for their use and abuse.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Looking back to the Magic Carpet trail water tank, this was the first place to tbe fenced, and should have awoken everyone to trouble, when the trail suddenly blocked. The first week of construction no bull dozer was used, as promised. Then they got lazy in weeks 2-30 and cut and plowed whatever got in the way.

Kwai Loh wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Yes, you can say that. More suitable for a prison. Thanks for your many expert comments.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: This is the North West corner of the fenced area, and Janie's Addiction (west) trail. The fence descends down a 50 degree slope, which should never have been disturbed. It's a future landslide waiting to happen now. See that nice round boulder. It's held up but a rotting tree stump. And there's about 150 more further down just like it. Then see that white & red roof top peeking through the trees below. That's a 5-story bungalow, waiting to be smashed to smithereens. The unnatural drainage is just right to have muddy waterfalls going down along the fence now, worse in rainy season. What were they thinking here!

Kwai Loh wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Yes, it is the Eastern side, and it is Mount Kiara in the Background. But in between Mount Kiara and this residential complex, there is the Penchala Link. I think it is called Serene Kiara. Exclusive indeed.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: I think you mean, next to Mont Kiara. Looks like the Eastern side. Where many acres of Malay Reserve are becoming exclusive bungalows. To exclude you and I. To bury the crystal clear stream under housing and highway. To cut the earth right up to the Look Out, leaving a virtual cliff for the public until the fence cuts us off from that too. To paraphrase Jackie Chan, "when the buying stops, the construction can stop." Here was once the Boulder and Twin Peaks, The Creek, Berbola Rosak trails and a fine durian orchard.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Did you know you can safely walk up Kiara at all hours? It's lighted 7pm - 7am and manned by three guardposts, though it seems the only thing than need guarding is the forest from development. Did you know the yellow marking lines, indicate the side lanes for walkers, with bicyclists in the centre, for your safety? Did you know one estimate put the number of visitors at 7,000 unique visitors in a week. Did you know there is a safe and easy Park Connector nature trail linking Rokia's Pond with the hill slope parking area? Did you know the Natural forest used to be within reach from the tarmac lane, but JLN keeps killing, cutting, grooming and pushing Nature back, out of reach, out of mind, creating a desert of manicured grassland, hot and sunny and sterile.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: While there is a lot of diversity and good quantity of most species, please don't harvest anything from our forest. It belongs to all, with an estimate 1 square meter for each resident, so while you might think your just to take one bat orchid flower or one fish from the stream or one turtle, remember it's still theft. Please buy from the supermarket or nursery, and leave Kiara as a sound balanced ecosystem for the flora and fauna's benefit and maybe perhaps the humans too.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: If you keep looking close enough, you will find there is even more to see. All complements of Mother Nature, no departmental beauracracy intervention needed, no construction works welcome.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Even naturalist are surprised with how well the ecosystem in Kiara is regenerating. It's thriving, with a sustainable level of park users treading lightly, taking nothing but photos and leaving the place better than they found it. Please consider taking out your rubbish and that of less considered people, but leave the flora and fauna undisturbed. It's worth protecting, worth caring for like it is your back yard. More at http://henrygoh18.blogspot.com/2012/05/glimpses-of-bkt-kiara-forest.html.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Kiara has 5km of hilly tarmac roads, and 5km not so hilly, plenty for a workout, even just walking. Then there is the 37km of narrow winding singletrack MTB trails. Plus you can hike on over 20km of safe shaded doubletrack trails inside the forest. Or visit 5 pond, at least 18 streams, covering 3 catchment areas, once all Class 1, drinkable. There's dozens of species of native wildlife (see http://henrygoh18.blogspot.com/2012/05/glimpses-of-bkt-kiara-forest.html ) be found in this isolated island of green, perhaps unique in the world, in a capital city. Don't let anyone tell you condescendingly "for your kind information, it is just a rubber plantation". It is a gem, irreplaceable. Can't we leave this 1.63 square km of forest alone? Let KL develop the other 240 sqkm.

wrote on Jul 25, 2012: Theres more blue by now. All along the SPRINT highway on the East side. All on top of trails with names like Plan A, Plan C, we're going to hit Z by the time we list all the trails impacted. Easy to see how JLN could have walked a shorter distance from TTDI hills, Mont Kiara and Berjaya's horse club to build the fence, instead of cutting into the heart of the forest to truck their metal works to site.

Liz wrote on Jul 26, 2012: Wish I hadn't viewed this album ! I hate seeing photos of such destruction.

lightlingmk2 wrote on Jul 26, 2012: This is something. Good luck.

wrote on Jul 26, 2012: DPM lives here....Kiara is getting ugly, sad. We were shocked to see the fence too.

Liz wrote on Jul 26, 2012: wow !