Ulu Rening adventure

Posted on May 19, 2013 by janstu

The last waterfall I visited was the Upper Tebing Tinggi waterfall in Perak, see A Dream Come True , end of March. That is a long time ago for a waterfall addict like me, I was really craving for a waterfall. Siang Hui had given me info about a waterfall near Ulu Rening, quite remote and not known to many people. A perfect destination for a day trip.

After our usual breakfast in a mamak restaurant, we (Aric, Rani, Edwin and I) drove to Batang Kali, where we bought nasi lemak for our lunch. Siang Hui had provided me with GPS-data and that was very helpful. The beginning of the trail was very clear, later it became more vague, but no problem for experienced jungle trekkers like Rani and Edwin

It took us about two hours to reach the waterfall, about 4.5 km from where we had parked our car. At the end we had to cross the river a few times. The weather was perfect.

The waterfall was a nice surprise, because of the magnificent, very deep pool with crystal-clear water. In the picture you see the waterfall at the back, the water thundering down in a narrow gorge. To get there you have to swim and then scramble up the rocks to the right. Here, in a picture taken by Aric, you see Rani and Edwin trying to get closer to the waterfall in the background.

We spent a full two hours at the waterfall, having our lunch, making coffee, enjoying the peaceful surroundings. And of course playing with the water..:-) Before reaching the pool, the water went down one last step over smooth rocks, so you could slide down.Big fun!

As you can see, the water was very turbulent, not without danger as I experienced the second time I slid down. I was pulled down and back by the turbulence (see video) but I did not panic and managed to swim out. Scary moment for my friends, who were already prepared to come to my rescue! That is why the video stops so suddenly..:-)

Here are more pictures of this wonderful trip.

We were hungry when we came out and Edwin suggested a Thai shop near Serendah. Ky IKEA friends had mentioned this shop a few times, but I had never been there. You must really know where it is, otherwise you will overlook it…:-) We had nice Tom Yam noodles, Fried chicken, and Lok Mei (drink) for RM 41. A place to remember.
Here are two more video clips. The first one shows daredevils Rani and Edwin, conquering the current, so that Aric could take a picture (he is shouting “don’t move” to them, because the picture shown above is actually a HDR composite of three pictures)

And in this video Aric shows how to go down the slide without being caught in the turbulence…:-)

Chatting with my sister in the Netherlands after I came back home, I wondered if I was not getting too old for this kind of playing around.She sent me this cartoon.

The translation of the Dutch text is:

We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.

Thanks, sis…:-)!

Journal 1-5-2013

Posted on May 2, 2013 by janstu

The last week we had some unusually heavy downpours, sometimes with strong winds. On my daily walks in Bukit Kiara I encountered several uprooted trees. I also noticed these uncommon flowers, stemming directly from the tree trunk. Beautiful.

When I had my breakfast in IKEA, there was this big group of Malay ladies, probably on an outing, having a jolly good time. I asked permission to take their picture, no problem, and after that of course I had to be in the picture too.

Sunday May 5, the 13th General Election will be held in Malaysia. It will be a battle between Barisan Nasional, in power since the Independence of Malaysia and tainted with cronyism and corruption, and Pakatan Rakyat, a loose coalition of opposition parties. BN has spent a lot of (taxpayers?) money on flags and banners, many streets are colored blue. In Bangsar and also my neighbourhood the last few days, many small flags have appeared in bright colors, symbolising the “Malaysian Spring” which will hopefully begin this weekend.

In my native country on the 30st of April, the coronation took place of the new Dutch king, Willem Alexander, the first male Dutch monarch in more than 100 years. The Dutch population in Malaysia had received an invitation from the ambassador for a Coronation Party at his residence. Although basically more of a Republican than a Royalist I decided to attend the event. It was actually quite a nice happening, there was a large crowd, more than 400 people. Large TV screens with streaming video, so we could follow the ceremony live. After the speech by the ambassador, I even joined in the singing of the National Anthem! Good that the staff had distributed the text, because to be honest, I only know the first lines of the first verse….:-)

There was Heineken beer, herring, “bitterballen”, probably not only for me an important reason to attend the event…:-)

Here is the official photo taken after the coronation, with some of the royal guests. It is a tradition that ruling monarchs will not attend the coronation ceremony, only crown princes, so that after the coronation the new king is automatically the highest in rank! And an interesting detail: for Charles, the Prince of Wales, this is the second time that he attends a Dutch coronation ceremony, as he was already the crown prince when Beatrix became queen, 33 years ago..:-)

Taiping & Sabak Bernam

Posted on March 18, 2013 by janstu

As you may have noticed, Taiping is my favourite town in Malaysia, so you will not be surprised that I am a member of the Taiping Heritage Society. They are not (yet) very active, so when they announced their AGM with a talk and a dinner, I wanted to attend. But the same weekend Aric’s mother was celebrating her birthday! The solution was to make a combination trip.

In Taiping we stayed in the Furama hotel, as usual. Close to the Lake Gardens, beautiful and fascinating any time of the day. The famous Raintrees were flowering with pink flowers.

When you go to Wikipedia for the Taiping Lake Gardens you will read there about the “golden rain trees (Malay angsana) (Pterocarpus indicus)” Golden? They must be wrong. And they are. Yes, the angsana is also called raintree and has yellow flowers. And there are beautiful angsana in Taiping. But the trees along the Lake Gardens are NOT angsana but Albizia saman! Same family, but different species. Pink flowers. Click here for a detailed explanation.

The THS meeting was hold in the Flemington hotel. The talk, about Bukit Larut, was given by two speakers, Dr Chan Ah Lak and Ooi Beng Yean, both dedicated birders and nature lovers. They are contributing pictures to my Birding in Malaysia website, so it was a good opportunity to have our picture taken together.

The next day, on our way back to Sabak Bernam, I showed Aric a waterfall near Beruas, which I had visited with CNY. It is a nice curtain fall, easily accessible.

Here is Aric, enjoying a shower

In Sabak Bernam we celebrated the birthday of Aric’s mother. As usual some of his uncles were playing mahjong and although I can not play the game myself, I was of course willing for the picture to behave like a real Chinese Malaysian, and join them…:-)

Of course there was the traditional birthday cake and a delicious seafood dinner.

Journal 1-2-2013

Posted on February 1, 2013 by janstu

You could say that my life here in Malaysia is a continuous struggle between gaining weight (nice dinners) and loosing weight (my daily exercise in Bukit Kiara and jungle trips). Last week was a good example.

One week ago I had a nice dinner with friends in restaurant Thong Kee, in Seapark. Famous for its barbecued “dinosaur” pork ribs.

The food was good and the company pleasant…:-)!

A few days later I went for a waterfall trip. One of my friends, Edwin, had told me about nice waterfalls upstream of the Lepoh waterfall in Ulu Langat.
Here is a picture report of the trip.

: Start of the trek

: Following the pipeline. Notice the impact of the fallen tree

: Beautiful! Butterfly or moth?

: The Lepoh Fall

: Upstream of Lepoh

: River trekking

: The upper tiers

: Enjoying my jacuzzi

: They managed to climb up. And I followed!

: The beautiful top tier

: Enjoying our lunch

: We almost destroyed this bridge but repaired it

To reach the top tier, we had to scramble up the lower tiers. At first I decided that I was too old for that, but my friends convinced me I could do it. And I did. Here is a video clip of Edwin and Eng Hoe coming down from the top tier. It was really a fun experience.

Intermezzo: parking in a shopping center can be a problem when you forget where you parked your car. Solution is to take a picture of the location with your smartphone, LOL This is the 1 Utama parking in PJ.

On weekdays I walk in Kiara before having my 1 Ringgit breakfast in IKEA. There has been a lot of rain recently, causing several (minor) landslides in Bukit Kiara

IKEA has also become my alternative living room where I meet my friends..:-) Like today a (Malaysian!) friend from the Netherlands. We walked in the Curve and had lunch in the mamak restaurant near the Curve.

It was a nice week.

Journal 15-11-2012

Posted on November 16, 2012 by janstu

Malaysia is well know for its large number of holidays. This week had two. One is the Hindu celebration of Deepavali, the second one was yesterday, Awal Muharram. It is the beginning of the Muslim New Year. The Islamic calendar starts in 622, the year when Muhammad emigrated with his followers from Mecca to Medina (the Hijra). As the Islamic calendar is lunar, years are shorter than in the Gregorian calendar, so Awal Muharram moves forward by 11/12 days each year. The present year is 1434 AH (Anno Hijra)

I decided to revisit on this holiday the Kanching waterfalls with my hiking friend Rani. I have been there countless times, but for Rani it was long ago. He was surprised how beautiful these falls actually are. Falls yes, because there are many tiers. The lower ones are crowded on a day like this, but the higher you climb, the fewer people you meet.

The two falls at the bottom right of this collection are virtually unknown and require river trekking. Unfortunately, many of the popular tiers are quite polluted, Malaysian style..:-(

It is durian season now, and today the Kiara Bunch has been to a stall in Kepong where they sell Raja Musang, the “King of Durians” for a very reasonable price.

Each of us bought durians to take home and we also took a few to nearby restaurant Kah Hing in Taman Sri Sinar, where we had a lunch with their famous Pork Trotter Noodles and Vietnamese coffee.

Just now Aric and I had the ones, taken home. The taste was excellent. But the number of ‘biji’ inside was very disappointing. Here are the two (!) durians and their content

Aric said immediately, when he saw the durians, they are too small, the bigger ones contain a lot more seeds. Actually BC had told me that the shop owner also had warned him that the big ones (RM 14/kg) contained “twice as much” as the small ones (RM 12/kg. Still, BC had made a booking for the cheaper ones. Penny wise, pound foolish…:-)?

Thanks anyway, BC, for bringing us to this shop. But next time I will pay the few ringgits more.

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My adventures in Malaysia and other countries

Category Archives: Food

Ulu Rening adventure

Journal 1-5-2013

Journal 15-11-2012