A Taoist temple and a festival

Posted on July 28, 2013 by janstu

Last week, on our way to Aric’s hometown, we had planned to visit Bukit Melawati in Kuala Selangor, but it was quite hazy that day, so we decided to cancel that plan. What to do instead? According to Aric there was an interesting Chinese temple, somewhere in the paddy fields near Sekinchan. How to find its location?

Nowadays that is easy, just take your smartphone, go to the Internet , Google for “temple Sekinchan” and hey presto, you even get a map..:-) Plus lots of extra information, for example that in 1953 (during the Emergency!) the Sekinchan farmers were relocated in three new villages, still named site A, B and C.

Here is a GE screenshot of this small Teochew village and the paddy fields. The fishing village (Bagan) in the lower left and Site A at the upper right. This image was taken in Februart 2012, when the paddy fields were barren. Interesting pattern, almost art…:-) During our visit, the seedlings had been planted, but many fields did not look healthy, the irrigation channels almost dry.

The Nan Tian temple in Site A is also called the Nine Emperor Gods temple, and attracts lots of visitors, especially during the 9th month of the Chinese calendar. Even now there was a bus from KL with devotees. From far away the temple complex is visible already.

The location is very attractive. You can climb the towers in front of the main hall, from where you have a nice view of the surrounding paddy fields, although this time it was quite hazy.

Here are a few more pictures of the temple interior.

We have to come back on a clear day…:-). There are also good seafood restaurants in Sekinchan.

The reason to visit Aric’s hometown, was that there was a Taoist temple festival in the nearby fishing village of Bagan Parit Baru. Once a year in these Teochew villages the anniversary of the temple god is celebrated. A group of actors is invited to perform Chinese opera, there are prayers and offerings. Here you see the huge joss sticks outside the temple, with the Bernam river in the background.

During the past years I have attended several of these temple festivals and slowly learned to appreciate Chinese opera…:-) I understand that in the past these performances attracted big crowds, but now many (young) people have left the villages, so the audience mostly consists of senior citizens and kids.

We came back the next morning, for the offering and praying.

Even in the morning, the opera was going on. When I was walking around the stage, one of the actors noticed me and asked me to come backstage. I felt a bit shy, so I took only a few pictures. Some actors waiting their turn to go on stage, others are working on their make-up, or putting on their costume. During the festivities, the group is camping next to the theater. How I would love to stay with them a few days and make a picture report! But there would be a insurmountable language barrier.

As a part of the praying ceremony, also the actors took part, walking in a procession to the temple. Fascinating

Journal 23-7-2013

Posted on July 23, 2013 by janstu

For Aric’s birthday, two weeks ago, I decided to surprise him with a birthday cake made by myself instead of buying one. A simple one, with his favourite strawberries and lots of cream. Note the subtle detail of crushed rose petals for decoration!

A few days later I had a routine check with my urologist. Everything was ok for a man of my age…:-) Somewhat shy I show you here a ultrasound scan of my interior, don’t ask me what it all means.

After a few weeks rest to let my knee heal, I am walking again in Kiara. Here two “green” pictures, a beautiful (harmless) tree snake and nice green flowers, name unknown.

Breakfast in IKEA after my walk. The Kiara Bunch is falling apart a bit, but here we are welcoming back Robert (at the left) after he had been several months in Melbourne. Babysitting, a common predicament for Chinese grandparents…:-)

We are just back from a few days in Sabak Bernam, Aric’s hometown. His mother had been staying with his sister for a while, and we brought her home. I am more a cat person than a dog lover, but the cute dog in the sisters house was so adorable that I had to take a picture. The haze had come back, so we cancelled our planned visit of Bukit Melawati. Instead we drove through the paddy fields, which did not look very healthy, not enough rain?

We visited a famous temple near Sekinchan, surrounded by paddy fields, see separate post. And we had dinner in Sg Besar in a restaurant famous for its chicken feet, prepared in a special way, really delicious.

In Aric’s family house you still take a bath in the traditional way, refreshing but quite cold in the morning. So you are really awake after your “mandi” and in the mood to enjoy the beautiful orchids in the garden.

There was a celebration in a nearby temple, with Chinese opera, and offerings by the villagers. See separate post .

Enchanting Chiling

Posted on July 22, 2013 by janstu

When we arrived at the entrance of the Chiling Fish Sanctuary and saw the crazy number of parked cars, we wanted to turn back and go home!

It had been a last minute decision to visit the Chiling waterfall. My last waterfall was Berdebu, more than one month ago. I had hurt my knee on that trip and had been lying low for several weeks, only starting last week my regular Kiara walk. An easy waterfall trip would be a good test for the condition of my knee. I chose Chiling, although I realised that we would not be the only visitors, as this is the most popular waterfall in Malaysia, and only open during weekends.

After some discussion (shall we go to Fraser’s hill instead?), we decided to accept the crowd…:-). A good decision, as the crowd was still acceptable and the reward formidable. It was many years ago that I had visited Chiling for the last time, and I had forgotten how beautiful the falls are. Here they are, from left to right the lower (main) fall, the middle fall and the upper fall.

The access to the waterfalls is an adventure in itself, as you have to cross the river six times. After heavy rain, that can be a bit problematic, but this time it was very easy. We skipped the main fall first, a steep scramble brings you to the impressive but inaccessible middle fall and then to the upper fall, much less crowded, as expected.

A good place to relax and prepare coffee. You can go (carefully!) to the top of the middle fall, from where you can look down to the bottom of the lower fall. Not advisable when you have fear of height…:-)

Here are more pictures of the trip. We started at 11:30 and were out at 14:30, still in time for lunch in Ulu Yam, famous for its loh mee and fish cakes.

: Entrance. Note the many cars!

: Six river crossings

: The river was very quiet

: Easy river crossings

: The upper fall, more quiet

: Only slim people can pass 🙂

: Last river crossing

: The main Chiling fall

: More crowded than it seems here

: Beautiful Straits Rhododendron

: Very low water levels at Selangor Dam

: Late lunch at Ulu Yam

A nice trip. And my knee did not give any problems!

Here are two YouTube video clips of the Middle fall and the Upper fall

Penarikan recce

Posted on July 11, 2013 by janstu

It must have been about five years ago that I heard or read for the first time about the Bahau Penarikan. Bahau is a small town in Negeri Sembilan and a penarikan is the Malay word for a portage. A portage is the process where a boat is “carried” overland from one waterway to another. In my native country, with its many separate canals and rivers it was a common procedure.

In Bahau it is a portage over a distance of less than 1 km between the Serting river and the Jempol river. Or better, it was, because we are talking about the past, many centuries ago!

The Bahau penarikan is unique in that it basically connects the West Coast of Malaysia (the Straits of Melaka) with the East Coast (the South China Sea)!

Because the Serting river flows into the Bera river, which flows into the Pahang river, which reaches the South China Sea at Pekan.

And the Jempol river connects, close to Bahau, with the Muar river, which reaches the Straits of Melaka at Muar.

In the 14th century merchants discovered this connection as an alternative to the long and dangerous route around the Malay peninsula.

When I read about this, I wanted of course to have a look myself, so we went to Bahau. We found a road sign in the form of a boat and a rundown small memorial park. The Bahau penarikan predates the Malay sultanate of Melaka, so unfortunately there is not much official interest in it. We also had a look at the Serting and Jempol rivers, both small streams. Of course no trace anymore of the portage.

That was five years ago. I more or less forgot about the Bahau penarikan, until Chadel, a friend of mine, told me recently that he was planning to paddle by canoe or kayak from Muar to Pekan, using the Bahau portage! For this ambitious project he wanted to do a recce first, checking the portage region, finding a suitable “put in” location in Muar, and a “take out” location in Pekan. Of course I was eager to join him in this recce..:-)

Chadel decided that we would first do a recce from Bahau to Muar, then later a second one from Bahau to Pekan.

It was a very pleasant trip. In Bahau I showed him the memorial park, but I could not find the sign board anymore, maybe it has been removed. Near the confluence of the Jempol and Muar rivers they were doing construction work for the nearby water treatment plant, but according to Chadel that would be no problem. We checked the rivers at several places to find a place where taking out a canoe would not be too difficult. Have a look at the Google Map.

The green markers are where we had a look at the rivers. Clicking on a marker gives a picture of the river. The two red ones are probably the most suitable ones for the actual portage. When you zoom out, you will find a few more green markers, on our way too Muar we crossed the Muar river a few times. You will also see a number of blue markers, where the Serting and Bera rivers are accessible from the road. That is something for our next recce.

Here is a series of pictures taken during the trip

: Ready to go!

: Bahau, Portage Lane!

: What is left of the memorial

: Bridge to the park

: Construction going on

: Muar river, a bit downstream

: Sg Jempol, portage “take out” place?

: Sg Serting, portage “put in” place?

: Sg Muar, on our way to Muar

: Sg Muar, passable according to Chadel

: Suitable “put in” in Muar

: Or here

After lunch in Bahau we drove to Muar, choosing our route so that we would cross the Muar river a few times. When you zoom out in the Google map, you will see the extensive meandering of the rivers. Chadel estimates that he has to paddle about 540 (!) km and is planning to do that in about three weeks. In Muar we found two suitable start locations.

I had been in Muar only once before, quite long ago. I was pleasantly surprised by the town. Characteristic Chinese shop lots, a beautiful mosque, I must come back here soon. A few more pictures.

: River view from Muar town

: The iconic clock tower

: Nice facades

: Another one

: Typical Chinese shop lot

: Chinese association building

: Covered walkways

: The Old Street Cafe

: Time for a rest and coffee

: View from the other side of the river

: The Sultan Ismail mosque

: Impressive

It was a long day, but very rewarding as we met all our objectives.

Looking forward to part two!

Journal 5-7-2013

Posted on July 6, 2013 by janstu

Some mixed news

I bought a new camera. Again?, you may ask. Yes. I am not very careful with cameras and I also use them often under difficult conditions, near waterfalls, crossing rivers, etc.Here is a collage of the cameras I have been using the last ~10 years. Most of them are no more. Only the Nikon 5100 DSLR is still ok. Nice camera, but bulky, not suitable for jungle trekking.

The last addition is the Olympus Tough TG2. A water- and shockproof camera. I am still testing it. It has a nice Macro option. Here are two examples

Last week our friend Rani invited us for dinner. He recently bought a “big” bike. Here I am posing as the owner..:-) And Aric of course has to try the helmet.

We had our dinner in an Ikan Bakar restaurant at the seaside, in Jeram. You first had to choose the seafood you would like to have. The restaurant is popular and can be crowded. Rani had booked in advance, so we had a “private” dining room! Here is a collection of pictures

: Aroma restaurant in Jeram

: Near the sea

: A nice place

: Choosing our food

: Our selection, fish, prawns, sotong

: Our private dining room

: Butter prawns and flower crab

: Enjoying our food

: Relaxing after a nice dinner

As I have mentioned in an earlier email, I monitor the traffic on my waterfall website, since November 2011. A few days ago the visitor count reached 500.000, on average 800-900 visitors daily. Half a million visitors from 173 different countries (of course mainly from Malaysia and Singapore).

In another post I mentioned the Malaysian way of parking in a crowded area: far away from the curb, to avoid that you will be blocked by double-parked cars. Here is a crazy example of such a double-parked car, a big one, blocking more than half of the road. Malaysia boleh!

Trip with Pat and Roger

Posted on June 30, 2013 by janstu

Our English friends Pat and Roger live in Melbourne, but visit Malaysia regularly. It has become a tradition to organise a trip during their stay. We have been to Gunung Jerai, to Fraser’s hill, to Pulau Ketam and more.

Where to go this time? We decided for the coastal region, south of Klang, visit the Chinese temple in Jenjarom, a few historical places, Jugra Hill and of course have nice food.

Then came the haze, see my separate post Haze, haze, haze . A few days before our trip Klang recorded an air pollution index of ~500 (> 300 is considered hazardous), schools were closed, people were wearing face masks. Change our plan? We decided to take the risk. As you see Pat came well prepared..:-) We were lucky, of course it was hazy, but a lot less than the days before.

A detailed report of the trip can be found here. Some highlights:

The Fo Guan Shan Dong Zen temple in Jenjarom. This is the main hall

The Istana Bandar, former palace of the Sultan of Selangor, located in the middle of nowhere and recently renovated. It will become a museum.

Nearby, on the slopes of Jugra Hill, a mausoleum of the Selangor Sultans, a tranquil oasis, well maintained. We also went up the hill, the haze was not too bad, but of course the view was limited

We had planned to have lunch at the foot of Jugra Hill in the famous Beggar’s Chicken restaurant, but it had its weekly closing day. So we drove on along the coast, passing romantic fishing villages, to Kg Batu Laut, where we had a seafood lunch

After a short visit of Tanjung Sepat and the “iconic” but overrated Golden Palm Tree resort in Sepang, we returned via the highway. On our way back we had rain. Hurrah, everybody happy, because it meant the end of the haze, at least for the time being.

Haze, haze, haze

Posted on June 29, 2013 by janstu

It is a yearly ritual. During the Southwest monsoon season, June-August, Malaysia (and Singapore) suffer from the haze. Forest fires in Indonesia cause huge amounts of smoke, blown over the Straits of Melaka by the prevailing winds. Air quality, measured in Malaysia by the API (Air Pollution Index) drops, people run to the shops to buy face masks. The politicians start the blame game. After a few days/weeks it is over and people forget about it, until next year.

In 1997 it was very bad in Sarawak, with an API above 800. An emergency was declared, the airport was closed. I was on holidays in Kuching that time with my friend Paul and I remember that we could not even see the Istana across the river. In 2005 there was also a bad haze. As I said, it is a ritual.

This year was also bad. Last week especially Singapore was suffering and Johor, with an API of 746 in Muar (value below 50 is good, above 300 is hazardous). In the following days the haze moved northwards.Here is the view from my balcony on June 24, after sunrise. The smell of something burnt was everywhere.

The Department of Environment has a website, where every hour the values of the API are published for many locations in Malaysia. Here is the list for the morning of June 25 (Click to enlarge for details). Parts of Selangor are still bad, especially Klang (as usual). So bad that in the Klang district schools have been closed for several days.

I found another interesting website, maintained by NASA where hotspots all over the world are monitored. Data files can be downloaded free of charge, for example for Google Earth. Here is a screenshot of GE, situation on June 27, the hotspots in Riau are the culprits.

In this satellite view (taken a few days earlier), you can see the haze covering Singapore. Kuala Lumpur is not yet affected, but after a few days the wind direction changed to North-East.

Now the situation is back to normal. Here is a view from my balcony, taken June 28 in the afternoon

The haze season is not yet over, we will see what happens. If you think that there are many hotspots in Sumatra, have a look at this GE screenshot of Africa…;-) So it can be worse.

For people with asthma etc, the haze is of course a serious problem. In Muar the death of two people last week was directly related to the haze. For others it is best to take it easy, and accept that it will probably the same every year.

To end in a lighter vein, here is a song by a Singaporean guy about the haze

A Memorable Trip

Posted on June 23, 2013 by janstu

Some friends call me jokingly the godfather of the Malaysian waterfalls. And being a godfather, of course I have godsons…:-) Actually four of them: Siang Hui nr 1, Teoh nr 2, Harry Nian nr 3 and Nic nr 4.

Last year August, Harry Nian went to Terengganu on a solo expedition, looking for new waterfalls. On August 17, coming back from the remote Berdebu waterfall, he was stung by a swarm of bees and died. His body was found in the Kelemin river only a week later.

Last weekend I have been back to Terengganu with Aric, Siang Hui, Teoh and Nic. We wanted to visit the waterfall where Harry had his fatal accident. A detailed report about this trip can be found here: Terengganu trip, June 2013

The Berdebu fall is located in the Kelemin river. To reach this river you have to follow a (good) logging road for more than 20(!) km to a big logging camp. Around here Harry’s car was found by the Search and Rescue team. It was Hari Raya, probably the camp was deserted at that time, nobody noticed that something was wrong.

We camped a few hundred meters past the logging camp, a perfect spot near the Kelemin river.

The next morning we started our hike around 9 am. First an old logging road, later a trail. We crossed the river twice, current was strong, so we had to be careful. After about two hours we reached a point where we could see the impressive Berdebu waterfall. From here we had to follow the river and the going got tough. Huge, often slippery boulders, difficult river crossings. After I had slipped from a boulder and bruised my thigh, I decided that I would go no further and leave it to the others to continue to the fall. There were quite a few sweat bees around, so Aric stayed with me to keep an eye on me, as I am allergic for bee stings. And of course I knew that Harry had probably died by (a lot of) bee stings. We had to wait almost two hours before the other three returned, which gave me time to create my usual marker. Actually I had already decided before we started the trip, that this marker would be for Harry.

We were quite relieved when we saw Siang Hui, Teoh and Nic return. They had managed to reach the bottom of the fall, it had been tough, they had to circumvent a huge boulder by climbing up a steep slope, reaching a mossy ridge, then finally scrambling down to the fall

Jeram Berdebu (picture by Siang Hui)

Before we went back, we took a group picture, with the waterfall and the marker.

It took us another three hours to get back to our camp. End of story? Almost.

Back home I saw for the first time the two pictures taken by Harry during his hike and retrieved from his mobile phone after his death.

Here is the picture taken by Harry, 17-8-2012 at 2:29 pm

Picture by Harry Nian

Take some time to compare the two pictures carefully. Notice the fallen tree, the big rock with some green plants, the smaller, lighter coloured rock left from it, and try to locate them in our group photo. Then guess where Harry must have been standing when he took his picture.

Harry took that picture on the spot where I, unknowingly, erected a marker for him!

When I pointed this out to friends, several got goosebumps. Of course the rational explanation is that the rock where I built my marker, is the obvious spot to take a picture of the waterfall. But I am really happy with the coincidence.

Harry also continued to the fall, same as my three “godsons”. Here is his last picture, taken on 3:18pm that fatal 17th of August 2012. An impressive picture!

Picture by Harry

Apparently Harry stayed on the left side of the Kelemin river, and he did not go down to the pool. Siang Hui took a picture when he was on the mossy ridge (to the right of the river) and indicated a possible location of Harry when he took his last picture

Picture by Siang Hui

What exactly happened after he took this last picture, we will never know for sure. He must have disturbed a bee nest, so it was probably not during the river trekking, but after he entered the jungle again. His body was found in the Kelemin river, not too far from his car.

A memorable trip.

Destruction Bukit Kiara – update

Posted on June 10, 2013 by janstu

End of April I have published a post about the Destruction of Bukit Kiara in which my friend Pola and I explored a part of Bukit Kiara, north of the Penchala tunnel. We saw a bulldozer at work and understood from the contractor that a plot of 3 acres would be cleared to build 3 VIP bungalows. Yesterday we went again to see if any “progress” had been made. This is what we saw.

The bulldozer had gone, the work was done. A large stretch of forest had been cleared, it may well be three acres. Here is a GE screenshot of our hike, with a rough indication (in red) of the cleared plot of forest. To the right are the Kiaramas condo’s

I have indicated the location from which I have taken the video below

After our first recce, Pola received by email a picture, taken from one of the Kiaramas condo’s, where a wide new “road” was visible.

In the GE screenshot I have marked this “road” with a red line. We managed to climb up, not easy, really very steep, no way even a 4WD can go up here. Why was this clearing done? To make a ski slope later for the bungalow inhabitants ..haha?

Here are more pictures taken during the hike

: Rubbish at the start

: View back to Kiaramas

: More than one new road

: Destroyed trees

: The clearing

: View of the KL skyline

: The clearing is huge

: More destroyed trees

: One tree left

: This may become the access road

: Sad

: Why?

It was actually a depressing hike. How is it possible that a nice forest can be destroyed for the pleasure of a few rich people..:-(. I felt a bit better after noticing this beautiful inflorescence in the midst of all the destruction.

On our way back, we followed a few of the existing trails and came across two squatter settlements. Complete villages, with running water, electricity, toilets. Nice friendly people, Indonesians according to Pola. Here are a few pictures

: Squatter village

: Friendly people

: Nice house

: Walking down

: The condo’s in the background

: A “street” in the village

: A toilet

: Well maintained

Journal 8-6-2013

Posted on June 10, 2013 by janstu

A long post with a variety of topics.

One of Aric’s cousins got a baby recently and she and her husband invited us for lunch in the Fitou Brasserie (Desa Park city). Good Western food. Long time ago that I had a Rack of Lamb!

In my last post I have written already about my Wesak celebration in Taiping. As it had been some time ago since I visited my “hometown”, of course I had to enjoy the food! My friend George always knows new places to try out. This time we started with a dinner at the New Club, where the food is not that special, but the ambiance is nice. In the picture below you see also a dim sum breakfast, chicken/duck/pork rice and dumpling noodles.

We visited Kuala Sepetang, walked around in the fishing village, and went to the Matang mangrove forest, where we looked for birds, but we were not successful, as we were quite late.

And of course we visited the Lake Gardens. The most beautiful park of Malaysia. Early morning, in the afternoon, always fascinating. Here we saw more birds, a pair of hornbills, dollarbirds. Of course flowers. And quite a few couples, taking wedding pictures..:-)

: The lake gardens

: Always beautiful

: Flowers

: Fruits of the Cannonball tree

: Relaxing with a good book

: Afternoon atmosphere

: Hornbills and dollarbirds

: The famous crooked bridge

: Raintrees in the foreground

: Nice reflections

: A nice couple

: Another one

: getting lateBeautiful

: Taiping: it rains a lot!

George came with me on our way back home. After earlier “scary” adventures he had vowed never to go on waterfall trips with me. But I convinced him that a nice waterfall near Beruas was easy peasy…:-) A less than ten minute walk. After that I brought him home in Shah Akam, where we visited the shop recently opened by his daughter, and named after his wife Mary! I wish them good luck.

When my waterfall friend Teoh told me he could take a weekday off for a waterfall trip, it was no problem to suggest a nice destination: Ulu Rening, see my recent post. Edwin was also eager to go again, and another friend, Chadel, joined too. Again we had a fun time, beautiful weather! It was only when we took a picture “for the album” that we realised that we were all wearing a blue shirt! Four shades of Blue…:-)

During my earlier visit, I had a few anxious moments, when I was caught in the turbulence, sliding doen the last tier of the waterfall. So this time I did not take any risk, which gave me the opportunity to video my friends while they were sliding down.

When I was in Taiping, my friends Girlie and Yeoh told me that they were coming to KL. So I finally got my chance to invite them for lunch in my condo, after having enjoyed their hospitality so many times. As they did not know the way to my condo, but of course knew where IKEA was, I met them there for the free coffee, after which we had a Western style lunch at my place, soup, bread with salad and cheese, and tiramisu as desert.

Finally something quite different. For our dinner we often go the commercial district near to our condo. Many shops and eateries. Many cars as a result. Malaysian style many cars are double parked. Very annoying when you come back and your car is blocked. Solution? See the picture below. Even when you can park close to the curb, you do not. LOL

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