Waterfalls of Malaysia

Posted on November 28, 2012 by janstu

In my post about the Pisang waterfall I wrote that about 9 years ago I came in contact with Khong. He had started a website about Malaysian waterfalls, but had recently become more interested in birding. We became friends and I took over the maintenance of the waterfall site. On 28-10-2003, we registered the domain name waterfallsofmalaysia.com.

Khong had used several free web hosting services for his site, so my first task was to integrate all his material in this new site with a new design. In the beginning only falls in Peninsular Malaysia, later Sarawak and Sabah were added. Here is the original design.

In the past nine years the number of waterfall pages has increased from about 75 to more than 150. Also there have been many structural changes like a news section and the possibility to add comments. This is the present design

For more information about the history of the site and the members of my team, click here. The website is quite popular and attracts on average ~ 1000 visitors daily. Regularly I receive email from visitors, asking for more information, or with suggestions for new waterfalls. It is a nice hobby, some friends nickname me the Godfather of the Malaysian Waterfalls, LOL

One year ago I added a script to the site, that gives nice statistics about the website visitors and where they come from. Below is a screenshot, taken on November 16.

A total of 300.000 visitors coming from 160 different countries. It is interesting to see the geographical distribution. Not surprisingly most visitors come from Malaysia (75%) and Singapore (12%). USA is third (4%). But there have also been visitors from Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, the Aland Islands etc.

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.

Journal 12-11-2012

Posted on November 12, 2012 by janstu

It is now about two months ago that I started this blog. I am very happy with the concept, should have done it much earlier..:-).

Until now my posts all had a specific topic, science, a waterfall, a trip, etc. Today I have created a new category, Journal, for my posts with mixed news. Here is the first one.

Today during my walk in Kiara with BC, I spotted a lot of mushrooms on a slope. When I pointed them out to BC, he got very excited, they were delicious, he said. So we started collecting them, just in time, for more people had already discovered them. Forgot to take pictures of the picking, but here is our harvest:

There were other mushrooms as well, as it had been raining heavily the last two weeks. This one is a beauty, the Bridal Veil Stinkhorn, apparently edible too, but we did not try.

Later that day, doing my shopping at TESCO, I noticed this beautiful rangoli , you see these Indian decorations in many places these days, as it will be Deepavali tomorrow. This “Festival of Lights” is one of the most important Hindu festivals and a national holiday in Malaysia.

BC had given me a portion of the collected mushrooms, assuring me that they were not poisonous. I believed him, but of course also checked it on the Internet..:-) The Malay name is Cendawan Busut, meaning Termite’s Nest Mushroom. They can only be found near termite’s nests! They are edible and considered a delicacy. So I prepared and tasted them. Yummie, delicious indeed!

Thanks BC, for the treat.

To my followers: you will have noticed that I am adding posts quite often these days. If you do not like to get an email after each post, you can edit your profile here and choose for a weekly digest.

Pisang waterfall

Posted on November 11, 2012 by janstu

It was about 9 years ago that I visited this waterfall, near KL, for the first time. On a camping trip with Aric along the Gombak river I had noticed a sign to the Pisang waterfall. Searching the Internet I came across a web page by a guy, named Khong, about this and many other waterfalls.

I contacted him, we met and we found out that we shared many interests, so we became friends. Without him my life in Malaysia would have been very different…:-)

A few days ago I went back to this fall with my friends Rani and Grant.

A detailed report about the trip can be found here

I also used my iPhone to record an EveryTrail report about the trip.

Enjoy

Various faces of Bukit Kiara

Posted on November 8, 2012 by janstu

Bukit Kiara has many faces. Here I show a few.

First of all, for those readers not familiar with Bukit Kiara, it is one of the remaining green lungs of Kuala Lumpur, enclosed by residential areas. In the past it was a rubber plantation, later some tar roads were built for easier access, the grey lines in the map.

Most of the regular walkers limit themselves to these tar roads. That is the first, slightly boring, road face of Bukit Kiara

Related to this road face of KIara is the maintenance face. A landslide occurs, trees fall down during a storm, a drain has to be repaired.

Much more interesting is the maze of trails, created and maintained by TRAKS . They are doing a wonderful job. During weekends it can be busy with mountain bikers, but on weekdays you will hardly meet a living soul. Here is the trail face

Then there is the river face of Bukit Kiara. A river? Yes, the Sg Penchala has its source here. Along this budding stream runs one of the most attractive trails.

Then there are the birds, the flowers, the fungi. An occasional snake, squirrel, tortoise. No deer or wild boar, so no leeches! The nature face

Is it therefore the garden of Eden? No, there are less pleasant faces. During the last year the authorities haven constructed a fence around the part of Bukit Kiara that has been designated to become a park. Ugly, expensive and useless. After protests of many people, the construction has been stopped, a discussion is now going on about the removal of this fence. Personally I am not optimistic if that will happen. Here is the fence face

And unfortunately there is also pollution. Where not in Malaysia…:-( The (illegal) rubber tappers leave behind, plastics, empty cans, etc. So there is a rubbish face too

All the pictures were taken during a 1.5 hour walk, a few days ago. You can follow the walk with a slideshow of the pictures on EveryTrail .

Here is one more face, personally I think it is a negative one. I had noticed in the center of the tar loop big sheets of plastic, and I was wondering what it might be, so during my walk I went down the slope and discovered a BMX playground! Must have been constructed recently and I understand that TRAKS is not involved.So here is the BMX face. At least the covering sheets should be given a camouflage colour!

Hairy Crab

Posted on November 7, 2012 by janstu

Tonight we had Hairy Crab at the Dragon-i restaurant in 1-Utama!

For a long time already Aric wanted to taste this Shanghai/Hongkong specialty and when we noticed that the Dragon-i restaurant had a Shanghai Hairy Crab promotion, we decided to have a big splurge. Because even as a promotion those critters are expensive.

Here they are, flown in directly from China. You can see why they are called hairy. Their size is quite small, each crab is on average ~180 grams

The menu started with dumplings, filled with crab meat. A Shanghai delicacy, the dumpling has some soup(!) inside, you must eat them very carefully, otherwise the (hot!) soup will spill on your clothes and /or burn your mouth..:-)

Next was a soup of chicken with fish maw. In general I don’t like this fish bladder (too fishy taste), but this was very nice, no fish taste at all.

Then it was time for the main dish. Four crabs were presented on our table with the accompanying tools. Would we like to dissect them ourselves, asked the waitress, or should she do it for us. We are both experienced crab eaters, but this time we thought it better to let her do it. And that was a good decision.

It’s a pity that I was too shy to take a picture while she, with surgical precision, dismembered the crabs, unshielded them, removed unedible parts, and finally arranged the rest in the form of a crab again. Amazing and already worth the money…:-)

The signature feature of these crabs is the roe inside. That’s why you will see them on the menu only in certain times of the year. Sinfully delicious.

The next two dishes were fried rice with, yes, crab meat and broccoli in a sauce of, sure, crab as well.

We could not finish the rice, so we asked to put what was left over, in a doggie bag. In Europe I would not dare to do it, but here in Asia is it very common,even in posh restaurants. The final dish was a desert with dumplings filled with sesame in a ginger soup.

For sure not a very healthy dinner, but extremely enjoyable!

Birdbrains?

Posted on October 21, 2012 by janstu

In two earlier posts I have written about my favourite walking ground, Bukit Kiara. About the ugly and useless fence that has been erected by DBKL/JLN this year. About the protests, organised by the Friends of Bukit Kiara and other groups, resulting in a stop-work order by the Ministry. Probably too late as much damage has been done already.

My album The Great Wall of Kiara gives a detailed report.

Here is a Google Earth map from this report. The existing (tar) roads in white, the fence in red, and in blue the recently constructed or widened roads.

The red lines are a bit wiggly, because they are the result of my attempts to follow the fence as closely as possible.

Not always easy, but fun.

Compare this with an (official?) map where I have marked the same parts of the fence in red, and the missing/unfinished parts in orange. The red and yellow lines basically enclose the future Bukit Kiara Park.

The shaded area is the bone of contention, claimed by Berjaya for development.

Note the two red arrows.

The left arrow points to a gap in the fence, not more than 30 meter wide. Why? Here is a possible explanation.

The image below shows an enlarged region of the map above, with my GPS-tracks next to it. The thin straight lines mark the location of the proposed fence. As you see, by mistake or planned, those lines intersect at the other side of the tar road!

Imaginary conversation by the construction workers and their supervisor:

“Boss, we have been building the fence along the lines on the map, but now we have a problem. We have to build the fence across the road, twice even, and that will block the tar road. What to do now, sir?”
“Hmm, I will have to discuss that with my superiors! Leave it for the time being.“

One day, on my usual Kiara walk, I came across a group of VIP’s at this exact spot, in apparently serious conversation. Could they be discussing this problem? LOL

The second arrow points to a part of the fence which I had not yet explored. Would they really have built the fence this way, first going south, then turning almost 180 degrees and going north again? Enclosing a part of Kiara, at the end less than one meter wide? Hard to believe.

Last week I went to explore this part. Difficult going, steep stretches, even swampy as it crosses a small stream. As I expected the last part is still unfinished, they worked on it when the stop-work order came. In the picture you see where the fence ends. Also you can see the road divider of the Sprint highway at the top of the picture

I could not believe my eyes, when I saw that, YES, they were planning to follow the lines on the map! The poles are already there. I was laughing out loud, all alone in the jungle!

Here is where the two parts of the fences are supposed to meet.To guide the eye, I have connected the poles with red lines.

When they would have continued the job, would they have been able to fix the actual fencing to the poles, near the end? I have serious doubts.

Where I was standing to take the picture, there is still some space between the two sides. But near the end, there is none.

Birdbrains at work?

Or could Polonius (Hamlet, Act 2) be right:

“Though this be madness, there is method in it”

Closure!

Posted on October 20, 2012 by janstu

On 8-7-2012 I visited with my friend Rani a “new” waterfall in the Ulu Langat region. This waterfall is located in a gorge with steep walls and can only be reached by swimming!

The waterfall is around the corner. When we had arrived there and took some rest, I was hit by a piece of rock,falling down from the steep cliff.

The wound was bleeding heavily, luckily I remained conscious. Of course we went back immediately, first a swim(!) and then a two hour walk to the village where in a clinic I got a total of 15 stitches.

Click here for a detailed report. Later in the hospital it was found after a C-T scan that I had a hairline fracture in my skull. It would heal itself, but I should keep quiet for a while. And I did, although I wanted absolutely to go back to this waterfall. For closure/redemption…:-)

But first, after my recovery, I went to Terengganu with Paul and Rahim for a camping trip to waterfalls. All went well, here is the report. And in September I visited, again with Rani, two “new” waterfalls in the Bentong region. This time another mishap occurred, I was stung by a bee, and I have become allergic to bee stings! I wrote about this incident in an earlier blog post.

Still I wanted to go back to the waterfall where I was hit! So I asked Rani if he would join me and he said, yes. I would have understood if he had declined the invitation, after all on our last two trips he had to think about an emergency procedure to get me out of the jungle, just in case…

To be honest, I did not sleep well, the night before the trip. I was not worried about another rock hitting me, but I am quite afraid now of bees and wasps!

But this time all went well. We visited the waterfall and the spot where I was hit.

Here I am standing at the location where I was hit. Symbolically I have a piece of rock in my hand, similar to the one that struck me.

Of course I looked up quite a few times, just to make sure, that nothing was coming down..:-)

You will also notice that I have been swimming with all my clothes on. That is one precaution I will take always, from now on, to reduce the risk of an encounter with a wasp.

During this visit actually I saw none.

I felt very relieved after this trip. And many thanks to Rani for his trust in me!

Here is the detailed report

About Kwai Loh’s, Ang Moh’s, Mat Salleh’s and more

Posted on October 9, 2012 by janstu

A Dutch friend asked me, why is your blog called “The life of a Kwai Loh”?
Some of my Chinese Malaysian friends are a bit shocked, and ask me the same question.

Shocked, because Kwai Loh is a “bad” word :-). It is Cantonese for “Ghost Man” and used for Caucasian people, maybe because of their often “white” complexion. It is generally considered to be a slightly racist word, although not as bad as the N-word in the USA.

But I liked the sound of it, and when I was looking for a suitable nickname for my Multiply website, I thought, why not Kwai Loh? That’s how it started and when I was in Beijing a few years ago and found a shop where an old man made traditional chops, I ordered one with the two characters for Kwai Loh. He was surprised, but did it..:-) A chop, by the way, is Malaysian/Singaporean English for a seal.

My “Kwai Loh” seal

In Malaysia two more “slang” words are used to describe Western foreigners. One is also Chinese, Hokkien dialect: Ang Moh, meaning Red Hair. Not really offensive, I would say.

Then there is Mat Salleh, which is Malay. Origin not clear, it might come from “Mad sailor”, referring to the wild colonial past of Penang ..:-) Quite common these days, not offensive.

I hope you will agree that Kwai Loh fits me best. Especially because, being a secular humanist, I do not believe in the existence of ghosts/spirits at all. Period. More about this topic in future posts..:-)

Talking about offensive, what do you think about this? This monkey is endemic to Borneo and you can find it in Sarawak. Official name is Proboscis Monkey.

Proboscis Monkey

Do you know how it is called in Malay language? Orang Belanda! The Dutch Man! That I call offensive.

And what about this. In Asia it is quite common to have a bolster on your bed. Nice to cuddle when you sleep alone. This is our own bolster.

Our bolster

Now, guess how this bolster is sometimes called in Malay and Indonesia language!

A Dutch wife!

I leave it to your imagination to give an explanation…:-)

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