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.

Adopt a waterfall!

Posted on January 30, 2013 by janstu

A few years ago I visited the Sg Liam waterfall, near Ulu Yam with my friends Joe and Rahim. I published a report about this fall titled Most polluted waterfall in Malaysia! Here is a picture of what we found:

At that time Joe was organising waterfall cleaning operations with her group of Waterfall Survivors. These Save Our Waterfalls projects were a success, but it was disappointing that after a few months, the rubbish was there again. How to ensure that a waterfall after cleaning, remains clean? Of course the best solution would be to educate the visitors that they should take their rubbish home, but will that ever happen?

Two weeks ago I was back at Sg Liam, invited by friends who are active in a recently established NGO, the Waterfall Lovers Association of Selangor The occasion was the launch of a Sustainable Waterfall Adoption program, where a Company, a School, a Kampong, etc adopt a waterfall, regularly check the cleanliness, take action when needed, etc.

The event was well organised, hundreds of school children took part in the cleaning, there were speeches, there was food. Let’s hope the program will be a success!

Here is a pictorial report.

: Launch of the adoption program

: The VIP’s

: The audience

: Opening speech

: Handing over a memento

: Rubbish enough

: Young volunteers

: Ready to go

: On their way

: Collecting rubbish

: Almost clean.

: The result of hard work

: Of course there is food

: Nice vegetarian lunch

: Part of the collected rubbish

: The satisfied organisers

A Secret Waterfall

Posted on January 20, 2013 by janstu

After my recovery from jet lag and the germs I had taken with me from the Netherlands, I felt the urge coming up to visit a waterfall. Where to go and with whom?

‘Shall I bring you to a Secret Waterfall?’ my friend Siang Hui asked. He is an expert in discovering unknown waterfalls. ‘But you must promise not to divulge the location on your website or blog! The villagers from a nearby kampong are using the water of the stream and are concerned about pollution.’

Of course I accepted the condition. Aric and Rani were interested too, so on a Saturday morning we met at a mamak stall for breakfast and drove to the trail head. Not a real trail actually, traces here and there and river trekking. As was to be expected the waterfalls (many tiers) were pristine.

Here is a picture report about the Secret Waterfall.

: Breakfast with roti canai

: Ready to go

: Start of the trek

: Testing the walkie-talkies

: River trekking

: I have to loose weight!

: Forest giant

: Another one

: The first waterfall

: Another one

: Going gets more difficult

: The main fall

: Measuring the height of the fall

: Dare-devils in action

: Taking a shower

: Refreshing bath

And here is a picture of the main fall in all its glory. Recently I have bought a hypsometer to measure the height of an object. For this fall I found 15 meter.

Journal 14-12-2012

Posted on December 15, 2012 by janstu

As usual I am suffering from jet lag, waking up in the middle of the night, feeling sleepy in broad daylight. Sniffy too, and coughing a lot. Cold! But no snow.
On Tuesday I was invited for dinner by Inez. I found a fleece and an old winter jacket in a cupboard, gloves, and a head cap. I went on my bike to Inez, where I arrived half-frozen.

But the company of Inez and the nice, typical Dutch dinner (and a few glasses of wine) brought me back to life soon…:-)

The next morning it was raining, and I seriously considered to stay in bed the whole day…:-) Here is the view from my bedroom window.

But in the afternoon the rain stopped, fortunately, because I had planned to go to the University, where an ex-colleague of me was giving a farewell/retirement party. It was nice to meet many people I had been working with, ten years ago.

I could not stay long because I had invited Yolanda, Paul’s sister for dinner.

And the next day my brother Pim came to my place, also for dinner. As I wrote in an earlier post, I will gain weight during these few weeks…:-)

Today I have visited the recently re-opened Stedelijk (Municipal) Museum of Amsterdam, my favourite Modern Art Museum. It was closed for renovation for about nine years. What a pleasure to see again many of the famous paintings of this museum, for example this Mondriaan. Click here for a detailed report

I will end this post with a bit of Malaysian news. Just before I came back to Amsterdam, I realised that my road tax and car insurance were about to expire. So I asked Aric to renew it for me. He came back to me with a shocking discovery!

Do you know that you have not renewed it December last year? So for one full year you have been driving without insurance and without road tax. Quite a miracle that you have not been caught by the police!

Here is the old sticker, expiry date December 2011!

Back in Amsterdam

Posted on December 9, 2012 by janstu

Today I flew back from Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam. It is a 12 hour direct flight by KLM, usually leaving KL around midnight and arriving at Schiphol airport early next morning (time difference is 6-7 hours). Always a long tiring night for me, because I am unable to sleep in a plane.

Recently KLM started another option, leaving KL around 10am and arriving in Amsterdam the same day at 4 pm. I tried it and my first impression is positive.

This morning Aric sent me to the airport where we had our breakfast at McDonald’s.

The last few days the weather conditions in the Netherlands had been bad with lots of snow, causing delays and cancellations of quite a few flights, so I was relieved to see that my flight had only a 45 minutes delay.

During the flight I watched three movies, played many games of Tetris, and had a short afternoon nap. At Schiphol two of my brothers were waiting for me, the temperature was 8 ºC, hardly any snow left.

When I arrived at my condo, a surprise was waiting for me…:-). Yolanda, Paul’s sister, who had visited Malaysia a few months earlier had come to my place and left some Christmas presents for me. And switched on the central heating. So sweet…;-)

After a cup of coffee, I went out to the supermarket for my traditional first-day shopping. Herring, cheese, strawberries, bacon, bread. Delicious Dutch food…:-)

The last few weeks I have gained weight, a few kg, and I am afraid that these three weeks in Holland will add another 1-2 kg. When I am back in Malaysia I will have to start dieting!

Journal 8-12-2012

Posted on December 8, 2012 by janstu

A few months ago, in August, when the health of Aric’s father was still quite good, we have been thinking about celebrating Christmas and New Year in Holland. It’s not my favourite season, but it might be interesting for Aric. Maybe even a White Christmas?

When the condition of his father became worse, we cancelled that plan of course and now that his father has passed away, Aric is quite busy with sorting out his fathers papers etc, staying often in Sabak Bernam. Why don’t you go to Holland to visit your family, he suggested, last weekend. At first I was reluctant to go alone, but a few days later, chatting with my brother, I changed my mind.

So, tomorrow 9-12 I will fly to Holland, where I will stay until 1-12013! And where it is winter at the moment. Here is a picture, sent by my sister, a view from her living room of her garden. Quite unusual, as officially winter starts only on 21-12 and generally January and February are the winter months.

The weather here in Malaysia is also unusual with lots of heavy rain, landslides etc. Global climate change! As a contrast here a picture taken from our living room of the hill opposite our condo. When we moved in it was a beautiful forested slope, now it is a noisy construction site..:-(

To end this post, a few food pictures, as this is Malaysia. Last weekend we were invited by friends for a “real” Chinese dinner. And a delicious dinner it was!

And here I have lunch with IKEA friends. Location: Jalan Bellamy near the old Palace. A simple Malay shop, famous for its Mee Rebus.

It is durian season and these days they are very cheap. Even supermarket Tesco sells them, and for the first time in my life I decided to buy two, although I have no idea how to pick the good ones..:-). Later Aric’s cousin brought more, so we had a durian feast today.

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A Secret Waterfall

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