Melaka & Machap

As familiar as Melaka is to me, so unknown is Machap. Aric suggested a mini-trip to both places with our UK friend Rodney, staying overnight in Melaka. He had booked rooms in the Puri Hotel, where we arrived late afternoon on Friday, 17 January. The hotel is located in Heeren Street, now unfortunately renamed after a Malaysian politician. . In Dutch colonial times, the Heerenstraat was the most important street, where the rich people lived. Opposite the hotel the impressive Chee ancestral mansion (not open to the public).

The Puri Hotel is a nice Peranakan house, much extended and more expensive than when we stayed there the first time, more than 10 years ago.

After a short rest, we went out for dinner to the Kapitol Satay Chelup restaurant, no longer in the town center, we took a Grab car. Still has nice food, but not many customers, I hope they can survive.

We took another Grab back to Jonker Street. The famous Jonker Walk is not so interesting anymore, but of course you have to visit it when you are in Melaka.

The (food) stalls are quite mediocre, but Jonker Street was almost as important in Dutch times as Heeren Street, so there are nice facades and clan houses to admire.

We passed a small square with a very strange statue of a bodybuilder. Actually, it is a memorial statue for Dr Gan Boon Leong, a Malaysian politician, and native of Melaka, instrumental in the creation of the Jonker Walk, but in his younger years also a bodybuilding Mr Universe!

We stopped at Koong Woh Tong for a refreshing Herbal Jelly. One of my favourite desserts, not sure if Rodney really liked it.

Arriving at the main square, also called the Dutch Square, we admired the many trishaws decorated with colorful LED lights and loud music.

We walked for a short distance along the Melaka river. Left a view from the bridge, right many of the bars on the left bank.

Before going back to our hotel we had a few drinks in the Geographer, a landmark bar in Jonker Street.

The next morning, we had a pleasant breakfast in the hotel garden and admired the interior.

We checked out and walked around the town. Here are two photos of the Eng Choon Association in Heeren Street.

More buildings, some beautifully restored, others still waiting for an upgrade.

We entered Goldsmith Street, now often called Harmony Street because along the street many houses of worship are located. Here is a view of the street, In the foreground a Chinese temple, further on a mosque. The Indian temple, a bit further down the street , is not visible.

The Cheng Hoon Teng Temple is the oldest functioning Chinese temple in Malaysia, founded in 1645 during the Dutch era.The main prayer hall is dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy.

The Kampung Kling Mosque was originally built in 1748 by Indian Muslim traders. The Sri Poyatha Moorthi Temple was built in 1781 and is dedicated to Ganesha. It is one of the oldest functioning Hindu temples in Maritime Southeast Asia. Pity that it seems to be closed all the time.

We didn’t see many murals in Melaka, which makes me happy, but of course, we spent only a little time in the town. The first mural is nice but nothing special. The second one is bizarre. It depicts the Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, famous but no connection at all with Malaysia. Why her? Because she has been appointed Melaka’s tourism ambassador. Apparently, to attract more mainland Chinese tourists. Melaka boleh haha.

You don’t see Buddhist monks often in Malaysia. On the facade of the shop there is a mural of an orang utan, a bit faded as murals should be. And the other pic shows Rodney and me in front of the Dutch windmill.

Melaka is a “museum” town with artifacts from the past everywhere.

We had Chendol near the river. And then climbed up the St Paul’s hill for a view. The straits of Melaka far away.

The Church of Saint Paul with the statue of St Francis Xavier. The hill has an extended cemetery with Dutch and British graves.

The remains of the church contain many tombstones.

We climbed down the hill to the Porta de Santiago, one of the few remains of the A Famosa fortress, built by the Portuguese in 1512. The other pic shows Rodney and a dinosaur.

We were planning to have lunch in the famous Kedai Kopi Chung Wah near the bridge, but it was closed. So we went to another one. Also nice Hainanese Chicken Rice.

It was already getting a bit late in the afternoon when we arrived in Machap. Here is a Google Earth map of the region. There are two villages, about 6 km apart, Machap Baru and Machap Umboo. Machap Baru is a “New Village” created during the Malayan Emergency as part of the Briggs plan. I am very interested in these new villages, but it was not our target this time. We went to Machap Umboo, an even newer village but in a different way! In the 1970s the Durian Tunggal reservoir was created, one of the main water supplies for Melaka, and the original Machap had to be relocated. I guess that its original location was near the Old Mosque of Machap, not far from Machap Baru.

The villagers of Machap Umboo decorate their village during the Chinese New Year and are so successful that it generates publicity and attracts visitors. Leaflets with the various attractions are freely available. In the other picture I am taking a phoyo of Aric admiring a persimmon tree.

It’s a fake tree, as are all the flowers and trees used as decoration. Very colorful,

This year will be the year of the Snake, so you can see (fake) snakes all over the place.

The villagers have used as much as possible recycled items for the decorations. Empty cans, old tires etc .

Maybe the Dutch square in Melaka has inspired them to create this attraction. And yes, the tulips are also artificial. The drizzle had become rain, time to go home.

At the entrance of the village a Snake Kung Fu master invited us to a fight.

In spite of the rain we decided to have a look at the Old Mosque. In 2019 Aric and I had made a Trip down South, and one target was this mosque. But it was closed and now it was closed again. It was raining so heavily that I didn’t even take a picture. Here is a drone picture, taken by Aric during our 2019 visit. Looks interesting, we have to come back another time.

It was a nice, short trip. Want to see more pictures of Melaka? Have a look at my report Revisiting Melaka, August 2023.

Winter Solstice 2024

Celebrating Dongzhi (the Winter Solstice) is a Chinese tradition that goes back to the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE). The Winter Solstice falls on 21 or 22 December, this year on Saturday 21 December. We went to Parit Baru, Aric’s hometown, to celebrate.

Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is a time for families to meet and eat together. One activity that occurs during these get-togethers is the making and eating of tangyuan, balls of glutinous rice, that symbolize reunion. When we arrived in Parit Baru, a large number of these rice balls had already been prepared in various colors.

We went out for dinner to a local seafood restaurant.

Prayers for the ancestors are part of the celebration. An offering table is prepared with all kinds of food and drinks. Parents, grandparents, the table was set for nine ancestors.

Hell Money (joss paper) has to be folded into a roll, so it will burn easier.

Praying for the ancestors.

Here Aric and his brother are making the pyre.

And lighting it.

Aric makes sure that everything burns.

The rice balls are served warm in syrup. The bigger ones are filled.

Before going back home we had our tangyuan.

Zhang Jia Jie: Tian Men Mountain

Recently Aric and I made a trip to China. I wrote a general report about our trip, China trip, Novenber 2024 , followed by detailed reports Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park , Zhang Jia Jie, the Grand Canyon, Fu Rong Ancient Town and Feng Huang Ancient Town . This will be the final report about our trip. Actually the Tian Men mountain was the main reason that Aric chose Zhang Jia JIe as a destination. But there was much more to see, so we kept the Gate to Heaven for the last day. Here is a photo taken from the Internet. The Tian character means sky or heaven, and the Men character means door or gate.

After breakfast and a morning walk in the old town of Feng Huang, we took the train back to Zhang Jia Jie. A bit more than one hour, just time enough to have lunch. Of course a bit expensive, but good quality.

This time Aric had not booked a hotel with a spectacular view, but with another advantage. It was in walking distance from the cable car station to the mountain. Here is the hotel, or to be more precise, a few floors , because the building houses several hotels. The other pic shows a map of the Tian Men mountain. There are basically two ways to do the Tian Men hike, clockwise or anticlockwise. Our plan was to hike counterclockwise, starting with the cable car we could see from our hotel. Our room was comfortable.

View from our hotel room. The building in the center is the station where the cable car starts and also the main ticket office. Although off-season, there was an amazing number of tour buses parked next to the station. At the horizon the Tian Men mountains.

Aric had planned a surprise for the evening, a visit to the 72 Qilou, often named 72 Strange Buildings. And strange it was, a kind of monumental folly. I could not find much reliable information about it. It has a Guinness world record for being the highest stilted building in the world, but the building is not stilted, only has many overhanging balconies. It must be a modern construction, although some web pages suggest that it is old.

It has become very popular with local tourists, especially in the evening when the lights are on. There are shows and many eateries. We had snack food there. The central hole in the building refers of course to the Tian Men gate.

Back in the hotel, Aric tried to buy tickets online for the following day, but could not. So we decided to wake up very early to be sure that tickets (they use time slots) would be available. It worked. There was a light drizzle, we bought rain coats, just in case . Then we went nack to bed, because we had bought tickets for the 10-11 am time slot. The weather looked a bit gloomy, we could not see the mountains from our hotel room.

We had simple breakfast in one of the several eateries on the ground floor of our hotel.

The cable car is with 7455 m the world’s longest passenger cable car in a high mountain. A trip takes 28 minutes anc ascends 1279m m.

Soon we were in the clouds, no views of the town and the mountains. The first day that we were not lucky with the weather.

Arrival at the upper station where our hike started. Above us blue sky, but we were most of the time in t he clouds.

The hike is spectacular. Cliff trails have been built with solid railings. Not scary, because most of the time we had no view. Also quite flat, not much up and down. Notice that often we could see blue sky above us.

One of the highlights of the hike is the glass walkway. We had to wear shoe covers. Because of the clouds it was not so scary, although sometimes we could look down.

This is the glass cliff walk (Internet photo probably taken by a drone). Building these cliff walks must have been very difficult.

After returning the shoe covers, we continued our walk.

Not always a cliff walk. Here a location with many wishing ribbons.

Then cliffs again. We kept taking pictures, and it was often possible to take photos without other people in it. An advantage of traveling off-season.

There was also a suspension bridge.

And a place with hundreds of love locks.

Halfway on the plateau there is a restaurant, where we had lunch. Aric used the toilet to warm his hands!

Next we visited the huge complex of the Tian Men Mountain Temple Dating back to AD 870 (Tang dynasty) it was destroyed during the Chinese Civil War and rebuilt in 1949.

It is a Buddhist temple with guardians, many halls and statues. Interesting but we were only halfway on our hike, so we did not stay very long.

The second half of our hike was similar to the first half. There was another glass cliff walk, but we skipped it.

We were still on the plateau, how to go down? The answer was : by escalator! Since 2015 there are two mountain escalators. The first one contains 7 segments and brought us down to the Tian Men gate. The second one, 5 segments, brings you down to the Tian Men square.

After this escalator you have to walk down to reach the bottom of the gate

We did it! Standing at the Gate of Heaven.

Here I am looking down the infamous 999 steps between the gate and the Tian Men square. No way that I was going down here. Hardly anybody did. Fortunately there was the second elevator.

Here we are at the square. Aric with his thumb down, because we could not see the gate. I with my thumb up, because there was coffee.

It was almost 5 pm and our plan was to stay until the evening, hoping that the lights would be switched on after dark. We sat down and walked around. Sometimes the gate was a bit visible for a short while. And there were nice tress with autumn leaves.

Many people were doing the same.

At exactly 6 pm, the lights came on. First simple white lights, but soon a light show started.

We are very happy with this picture. For a while the gate was visible. so scenic.

Around 7 pm we left the square, still had to walk some distance to another cable car which brough us down, followed by a bus back to where we started. Mission accomplished, we hiked more than 10 km, more than 15000 steps. But only 11 flights climbed. I was very happy that I could mange it

We rewarded ourselves with a sumptuous dinner. Cauliflower with Pork, Dry meat and Sausage fried and Fried Prawns.

Next morning we had breakfast with local noodles and checked out.

At the airport we noticed a local KFC. We had to try it of course.

Ready to board. End of a fantastic holiday trip.

Feng Huang Ancient Town

The next destination on our China Trip 2024 was Feng Huang, one of the most famous old towns in China. Feng Huang means Phoenix. After breakfast in Fu Rong we took a taxi to the station and boarded the train to Phoenix, where we arrived 43 minutes later. Nice countryside with padi fields.

We took a taxi to the entrance gate of the old town, where a lady from the hotel staff was waiting for us. She brought us to the hotel, only a short walk away.

Another room with a view! On the 7th floor, no lift, the lady asked me if climbing the stairs was no problem for me ;-). I managed 😉 .

The lady gave advice how to spend our time, there is a lot to see and we had only one day. We went out for food, instead of going to a restaurant, we bought snack food. Delicious prawn crackers and later very nice corn cakes

We followed the road along the river, admiring the houses on stilts that are chacteristic for the Tuija architecture. The Tuija are a recognised minority in China, living in this region. More information about them can be found here.

A pleasant walk, beautiful weather

A statue of a running man (not a phoenix) and a decorative water wheel.

We walked until the water wheel and took pictures of two bridges. There are many more across the river. The first picture, looking backwards, shows the bridge we passed on arrival. The other picture shows two bridges we were planning to visit later, after sunset. Notice in front of the bridges there are two stepping-stones crossings!

Nore pictures, walking back to pur hotel. No wonder that Phoemix is a very popular tourist destination in China. The many cruising boats let visitors explore the town in an easy way.

We wanted to be back in our hotel not too late, so we could look at the scenery when it got darker, hoping that the lights would come on. Our room had the luxury of a private balcony.

Another bridge.Zoom photo from our balcony.

The sun sets early and it gets dark fast. Two photos one at 5:57 pm, the othet one at 6:27 pm. At 6 pm the lights came on, so beautiful.

Around 7 pm we went out again for another walk

Also here in Phoenix there were many people who rented a traditional costume. The package often included a photographer who instructed the ladies hwo to pose elegantly 😉 .

Again we had snack food as dinner. The restaurant fare (pork and more pork) got boring. These are potato cakes, so tasty that we took two.

The bridge we had photogtaphed earlier was now brightly lit. On a platform in the river a lady was dancing and singing.

The second bridge, for motorised traffic gave us a nice vier of river and town.

We walked back, using one of the stepping-stone crossings.

Delicious pork sausages for me and smelly taufu for Aric.

The next morning we had time enough to visit the old town at the other side of the bridge. It was still quiet except when a tour group was passing.

Looking for a breakfast place, Aric found a beef noodle stall. Nice after so much pork.

Here are some photos of the old town.

We visited the Thean Hou temple. An impressive complex. Many phoenix sumbols

The Queen of Heaven and Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Taoism and Buddhism.

We continued until we reached the main signboard of the town,

Many nice houses.

Embroidery and needle work are a speciality of the region.

Walking back to our hotel.

Crossing the bridge from the other side.

Checking out with a last look of the view we had.

After checking out and leaving the hotel we came across this wedding procession. Not real, a show for tourists, but quite interesting,

Fu Rong Ancient Town

The third day of our China Trip we took a train to Fu Rong. But first we had breakfast in our hotel. A nice hotel, friendly staff, but the breakfast was a bit simple. After two times noodles, we had a few equally simple plain pau with a glass of soy milk and an egg.

A taxi took us to the Zhang Jia Jie railway station. A big, modern station, with a McDonald’s, where we had coffee and snacks to supplement the meager hotel breakfast.

There was a large number of massage chairs and we had time enough to try one out. The massage was strong, sometimes almost painful.

The high-speed train (300 km/h) took us in 23 minutes to Fu Rong, a distance of 80 km. You have to book seats in advance.

From the station we took a taxi to Fu Rong Ancient Town. where we had booked our hotel. You have to pay an entrace fee for this town, even when you stay there. A hotel staff took us from the entrance on a short walk to the hotel and showed us our room. A room with a view! Aric had found the only room in town with a spectacular view of the waterfalls that made the town famous.

Imagine, I took this video from our hotel room window. I was stunned and almost got a bit emotional.

Here is Aric enjoying the room with a well-deserved cup of tea.

But we went out soon, because the weather was nice. The waterfalls are the main attraction of the town, but the town itself is also very attractive. It was founded in 202 BC by the Tujia people. Fu Rong Ancient Town has a charcteristic architecture and it would be easy to spend more time than we had..

The left picture shows our hotel. We walked down to the river. No lunch, just bought some snacks here and there. Still relatively quiet, it became more crowded in the afternoon. Visitors like to stay until it gets dark and the lights are on.

A lower view if the waterfalls. We followed a path behind the waterfalls.

I have marked with a red cross the location of our room (top left corner)

Some locations are very popular, especially for tour groups. These two photos are taken from about the same location. One a bit lower, with many people, the other one higher up.

We continued walking the path quite far, before we returned the same way.

Here is the Tujia Shelter Bridge. The lady is not a local, but a tourist dressed in a traditional Tijia costume! Hundreds of them visit Fu Rong and rent a costume. includint make up etc tp parade in the streets. Nice, but also a bit funny.

We didn’t use the bridge but crossed the shallow stream on stepping stones.

Back in our room we relaxed with a drink. Aric with the local wine, I had my fire water.

Watching the village and the waterfalls while the sun was setting and the lights came on..

Later we went out again for dinner. There are numerous eateries in the ancient town, but the hotel reception had warned us that they were touristy and pricey. Better go to the modern town. So that’s what we did.

We found an acceptable restaurant. With different preparations of pork, tofu and a mixed mushroom dish. Not bad.

After dinner we walked around in the old town. The bridge was brightly lit and crowded with visitors. Many of them dressed in local costumes.

My Chinese Zodiac sign is Monkey and I am reading at the moment the Monky King novel, so when I saw Pigsy, my companion on my Journey to the West, I wanted my picture taken with him. He was willing, but asked for a donation, via a QR code 😉

The next morning we went out for breakfast. The streets were now deserted, but one restaurant was already open, serving nice rice tofu, a speciality of Fu Rong.

Back in our hotel we had a last view of our room and the waterfalls, before checking out and going to our next destination.

Another interesting day.

Zhang Jia Jie, the Grand Canyon

Our second day was a bit less strenuous. Still a lot of walking but less up and down. Our target was the famous Zhang Jia Jie Glass Bridge. We had breakfast again in our hotel, same as the day before, simple noodles with some condiments. Cloudy, less cold.

We took a taxi to the entrance, were surprised how quiet it was, bought tickets and took a shuttle bus to the beginning of the bridge.

Here is a scale model of the bridge. The bridge was opened in 2016 as a tourist attraction and at that time it was the longest and tallest glass bottomed bridge in the world, 430 meters long, 6 meters wide, and suspended about 300 meters above the ground.

We had to wear shoe covers to protect the glass.

Here is the bridge.

Before crossing the bridge we first had a cup of coffee.

The bridge was designed to carry up to 800 visitors at a time. But the crowd was so enormous (see the Internet photo) that after two weeks the bridge was closed so the authorities could take measures to control the crowd. Probably it will still be unpleasantly crowded during peak season, but during our visit it was perfect.

The first steps on the glass are scary, but you get used to it fast. It helps that the glass is slightly opaque.

From the center of the bridge you have a spectacular view of the canyon, 300 meter below. After crossing the bridge, you can just walk back to the entrance. Or you can take the elevator down to the canyon. The more adventurous option is to use a zipline (flying fox) to the other side. You can see the ziplines in the picture next to the elevator.

After you get used to the glass bottom, it becomes very enjoyable. The river below is clearly visible.

After crossing the bridge we returned the shoe covers. Then it was time for a snack and a drink.

Then we walked down to the zipline station.

The real daredevils can bungee jump from the bridge. If you look carefully you may notice a cable hanging under the center of the bridge. We did not see any action during our visit.

I was a bit concerned wether they would allow me to use the zipline at my age. But they didn’t even ask me how old I was, just helped me in my seat and fastened the safety belts. I went first, Aric took a picture of me.

There are six parallel ziplines, we didn’t even have to queue. Everything is very well organised.

Cameras take pictures of the trip. So here we are, ready to go. Look at our faces.

And here we have almost arrived. Click on the picture to see the video taken. What an experience!

To descend to the canyon there is a series of slides. Gloves are given and a protective cover for your bum.

I found on the Internet a YouTube video of the zipline and the slide Worth watching.

After we had arrived at the bottom, we looked up and saw the bridge, high above us.

The last part is a relaxing mix of a boat ride and a walk back to the entrance.

A well kept walkway, but mind your head!

Very scenic. Beautiful colors of the water.

There is even a small cave we had to walk through.

We kept taking pictures.

A second boat ride tbrought us to the entrance from where we took a bus back to the town.

We deserved another nice dinner and tried this restaurant.

I tried the local fire water. Very strong (52 %) , not bad.

Enjoying our food. Young bamboo shoots and a wok with pork, chicken abd veggie.

Another spectacular day.

Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park

In my blog China trip, November 2024, I gave some background information about our trip with a selection of the many pictures we took during that 8D7N trip. In this post I will be more detailed.

On 6 November we took a Grab to KLIA, where we checked it with Batik Air, because they have a direct flight to Zhang Jia Jie. Immigration now has a special gate for MM2H, no queue. There was time enough to have breakfast.

The flight took about 5 hours. When we booked, we had ordered lunch, which was quite good

Aric had booked a hotel in Wi Ling Yuan town, near to the main entrance of the Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park, our destination for the next day. A taxi was waiting for us, arranged by the hotel. China is quite advanced nowadays, with an almost cashless economy.

The hotel reception was very friendly and gave us suggestions about what to do the next day. We had a nice big room, the table on the left is a Mahjong table 😉 . The room had aircon that could be switched to cooling or heating. Very useful, we needed the heating 😉 .

From the roof terrace we had an impressive view of the mountains. The Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park is famous for its thousands of quartzite sandstone pillars, many of them hundreds of meters high. A real stone forest.

The local cuisine is mainly based on pork. The hotel suggested a suitable restaurant, where we had our dinner. Braised pork,  stir-fried young lotus roots and veggie. Not bad. Walking back to our hotel we did some shopping for our hike the next day.

Breakfast was included and served on the roof terrace. It was very cold, less than 10 degrees, but we were prepared, had brought fleece and jackets.

The park entrance was not very far from the hotel, but we took a taxi anyway, because we expected a lot more walking in the park. Although off-season there were still many visitors.

A ticket gives you four days access, because there is a lot to see. But we had only one day, so we could only visit a few highlights. Left the map given to us by the hotel with some of their markings, right a map near the park entrance.

The transport in the park is very well organised. From the entrance a bus brought us to the lower cable car station. Of course we started already taking picture from the cable car, although there were reflections. The first pillars!

A view of the cable car, taken from the upper station. Very impressive scenery.

There were many groups with their tour guide, armed with a flag and a noisy microphone, so it was not always easy to take pictures.

Here is a part of the stone forest

Aric was hoping that there might be autumn colors and we found some, around a pagoda..

More stone forest. We were very lucky with the weather. Aric chatted with a Taiwan guy who had visited the park a few years ago, and had not seen much because everything was in the mist.

We had to climb up and down a lot. Stunning views everywhere.

The park is very well organised, there are toilets and places where you can have food and drinks. Buses shuttle between places of interest. Sometimes we had to queue for a few minutes, but in many places there was no waiting time. That must be very different during peak season.

More pillars, more views

The picture below was taken from the Internet, you need a drone to take it. It is named the First Bridge under Heaven, 2 meter wide, 5 meter thick and about 400(!) . meter above ground level. It’s a natural rock bridge and we crossed it.

The bridge leads to a shrine, covered in red wishing ribbons. We bought two for our own roof garden 😉

Using the shuttle bus we visited another part of the park.

The rock pillar below apparently inspired the creator of the Avatar movie for the floating mountains in that iconic movie. The pillar has now been named the Avatar Hallelujah mountain.

More views, we kept taking pictures while it became slowly darker (sunset around 5:30 pm!)

At the end of our long hike we descended by elevator! The Bailong elevator brings you down 326 meter in 1 minute and 32 seconds. Opened in 2015 it was the tallest outdoor elevator in the world. A bus brought us back to the entrance, where the pagoda was now brighly lit.

We had walked 11 km, 16000 steps and climbed 44 flights. Time for a well-deserved dinner.

Pork again, tofu and long beans. I had a funny fruit as dessert. It is called Kiwano, I thought it was typical Chinese, but found out later that it is native to South Africa.

We could have walked home, but decided to take a taxi 😉 . What a day!

China trip, November 2024

In 2019 Aric and I traveled abroad several times, to China, France, Italy and Singapore. After that first came COVID and later Aric was busy with his laundry shop. So it was only after 5 years that we could make a (short) trip together, again to China. The trip was planned for the first week of September, but both of us got dengue and we had to cancel it last minute.

Now we booked again, for 6-13 Novenber, hoping that the weather would still be acceptable. Our destination this time was the North-Western part of Hunan province. The most famous attraction is the Tianmen Mountain, receiving about 4 million visitors annually. But there is much more to see. In this Google Earth map I have marked the places we visited.

We took many hundreds of photos. In this blog I will just give an impression. More detailed blogs will follow later.

We started with the Zhang Jia Jie National Forest Park, since 1992 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Famous for its quartzite sandstone pillars, many of them several hudred meters tall. Sometimes called a stone forest.

Fascinating landscape. One of the pillars is now named Avatar, apparently it inspired the makers of the Avatar movie to create the floating mountains in that movie.

A rewarding long hike. 10.6 km, 16000 steps, 44 flights climbed !

The next day we visited the Zhang Jia Jie Glass Bridge. This glass-bottomed bridge was opened to the public in 2016, It is 430 m long and suspended about 300 m above the ground.

First steps on the glass are scary, but you get used to it.

You can just walk back on the bridge but you can also continue in a more adventurous way. Using a zipline to cross back high above the canyon. Then use a slide to go further down. Quite an experience!

At the bottom of the canyon, you follow the river, partly by boat, the rest walking.

The next day we took a high-speed train (300 km/h) to Furong town. The old town is famous because of its location around a number of waterfalls. From our hotel room we had a perfect view.

Together with a crowd of (mostly local) tourists we walked down to the falls. You can even pass behind one of them.

We enjoyed our room, with the night view of the falls. Later we went out again for dinner. Still many day-trippers. The next morning it was very quiet.

Our next destination was Fenghuang ancient town (Phoenix), again by train. Phoenix is a traditional Chinese town, located on the banks of a river. Also here we had a room with a beautifull view.

Traditional houses on stilts, cruise boats on the river. We also enjoyed the view from our own balcony.

In the evening the town was brightly lit. We walked quite far along the river, crossing on one of the bridges and back using stepping stones. The next morning we walked in the old town to the iconic sign board of Phoenix.

The bext day we took the train back to Zhang Jia Jie. Our hotel was conveniently located at walking distance from the ticket office for the Tianmen Mountain. Although off-season, there was still an amazing number of tourist buses, so we were even a bit worried if we could get tickets.

In the evening we took a taxi to 72 Qilou, a bizarre “folly” of gigantic proportions. Imitating the Tianmen Mountain. Originally meant to be a hotel (?) it is now a popular tourist attraction with many eateries.

The next morning we woke up early to buy our tickets (7 am!) for the Tianmen Mpuntain . The weather had been excellent, but now it was cloudy with some drizzle. We started using the cable car, with more than 7 km one of the longest in the world.

We walked mostly in the clouds, above us there was often blue sky. One of the attractions is a glass walkway.

The clouds made it less scary.

The cliffside paths are also spectacular.

The Tianmen Mountain Temple on the top is a Buddhist temple.

It was another long hike. 10 km, more than 15000 steps, but relatively flat, only 11 flights climbed.

When we reached the Tianmen cave (a natural arch), we used escalators and stairs to reach the bottom of the cave.

From there you can descend 999 steps to the main square. But that would have been too much for me, instead we used another series of escalators.

We felt happy that we had made it. Sometimes the gate was visible for a short while.

We stayed there a couple of hours until at 6 pm the lights came on.

Mission accomplished!

The Secret Garden@1 Utama

What is the Secret Garden?

It is a 30.000 square feet rooftop garden, 35 metres above the ground in the 1 Utama shopping mall complex. It was opened for public viewing on 25th May 2009, but it was only a few days ago that Aric and I visited it, more than 15 years later 😉 .

Most of my Malaysian friends know about this Secret Garden, but not many have actually visited it. One reason may be that the garden is open only on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays, from 10 am to 10 pm. Another reason could be that it can only be reached by lift and only one of the many lifts in 1U goes to this garden.

We went on 31 October, Deepavali. The shopping mall was crowded, but in the garden there was almost nobody.

Of course we took many photos. Here is a selection, there are about 500 different species.

The garden is well-designed with many winding foot paths.

Here are flowers and general views. without comments.

There are benches where you can rest and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere.

A beautiful pond

There is even an (articial) waterfall. The other picture shows a marble statue, donated by Dr Francis S.P. Ng, a former Deputy Director-General of FRIM. He was engaged to design and manage the Secret Garden. More info here .

A very unusual growth. Aric managed to take a picture of it, pointing his camera upwards.

Some more pictures.

It was a very nice experience. We will come back soo, in the evening, when the garden lights are on.

The Sak Dato temple in Broga

Broga Hill is a popular hiking destination, but I had never heard about a Sak Dato temple in Broga , until Aric suggested to visit this temple, as it was famous for its monumental statue of the Monkey King.

It’s about a one hour drive from KL Broga Hill is located in Selangor, but the village and the temple are situated in Negri Sembilan.

The temple is a Datuk Kong temple, where Chinese devotees worship not a Taoist deity, but the “spirit of the land”. The tradition started in the 19th century when Chinese settlers arrived in the country. Often Datuks were once humans who were greatly respected by society. After their passing away, people started to worship their spirits for protection. Often they were Muslim Malays. Interesting about this temple is that Sak Dato was an Orang Asli. He supported the Chenese tin miners in the 1860s and probably became a Taoist himself. See also the appendix

Here is the entrance of the temple. Most Datuk Kong temples are smaller, often even just shrines. This is a large complex , apparently very popular, although it was quiet during our visit.

Climbing the steps, we soon reached the statue of Guan Yin, the goddess of Mercy.

A large hall is dedicated to her.

Climbing further we arrived at the Sak Dato hall.

The interior is simple without images. Inside the hall we noticed a picture of the former PM Mahathir, handing over a National Temple Beautification Award.

There is another Sak Dato shrine in a cave next to the hall. Probably the original one. There is also the grave of the Sak Dato. It was originally located inside the cave, but has been relocated to its present position..

Climbing highere there is a split.To the right leads to a hanging bridge, we first explored the left side which took us to a kind of park with an intriguing collection of art works and statues. A very enjoyable place.

A dragon-turtle is pulling a cart with treasures and a bit further on there are the animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

Of course we had to take pictures with our Zodiac signs,

The park must be a popularr destination for families. There is a wishing tree but you can also hang your wishes here. Everywhere benches donated by devotees. There is also a stall, but it was closed during our visit.

Finally we went to the suspension bridge and walked to the hill qwhere the statue of the Monkey King is located. Quite a steep climb up.

A warning sign for dogs, but the dogs we met were peaceful and sleepy.

I am sure all Chinese know about the Monkey King, one of the main characters in the 16th century novel Journey to the West. For those who don’t know this wonderful folk tale, you can download it here .The statue of the Monkey KIng is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Recirds as the tallest one in Malaysia. It is quite impressive. The other picture shows the monk Tripitaka and his other helpers.

Aric had brought his drone to take video and pictures. Here are a few.

In the hall inderneath the statue, walking around three times is supposed to bring luck.

After visiting the Monkey King, we had to walk down and cross the bridge again.

After our visit (about 1.5 hour) we drove to Semenyih for dinner.

Nice food, steamed cuttlefish with lemon and garlic, paku belacan and deep fried tilapia

Nice, relaxed atmosphere

And a beautiful sunset

A perfect outing.

Appendix

Although the Sak Dato temple in Broga is a popular destination, with numerous hits when you Google for it, it was not easy to find background information.

I found useful information about the Sak Dato temple in this scholarly publication ( page 209-211).

The Temuan, an Orang Asli group, were the earliest inhabitants of Broga. Because of rich tin ore, Broga was settled in the 1850s by Hakka miners from Huizhou, China.

Broga became prosperous, first because of tin, later rubber.

During the Japanese Occupation (1941–45), many shops in Broga were burned by the Japanese and many villagers fled. In 1950, the British colonial government resettled the Chinese in the area in Broga New Village.

The Sak Dato Temple in Broga is one of the oldest Datuk Gong temples in Malaysia.
The temple still holds many old plaques; the oldest one was offered by a devotee Li
Yuchang to Sak Dato in 1904

Since 1910 , the Sak Dato procession at Broga has been held annually, even during the Malayan Emergency. After the establishment of Broga New Village in 1950,entry and exit were strictly controlled, so the villagers brought the spirit tablet of Sak Dato to a small new shrine in the New Village. Following the end of the Emergency, the villagers returned the spirit tablet, and renovated the old temple in 1965. In 1991, the temple was renovated again, at a cost of MYR700,000.

Also useful is the inscription next to the grave of Sak Dato

.So the original shrine in the cave is old, the worship of Sak Dato started in 1868. His bones were relocated a few times (?) after the temple was rebuilt in 1991 and finally put in the present grave only last year (?)

Finally here is a very readable travelogue, written in 2013, where renovation of the Guan Yin timple is still going on.

So the Sak Datu temple is old , but the enlargement and extension are recent.

I found confirmation by looking at the historic imagery of Google Earth, This screenshot shows the sutuation in 2010. I have marked the places where I took pictures. There is not yet a park, and there is no suspension bridge. They are working on the Monkey King

Here the situation in 2022

The Sak Dato temple committee has been very successful in developing the temple to attract more visitors.