Usually I celebrate my birthday privately, at home with a birthday cake or in a restaurant with a nice dinner. The exception was my 60th birthday, which I celebrated with a small group of friends at Maxwell Hill, here is the report: My 60th Birthday 17-4-2004 . In Chinese astrology there are 12 zodiac signs and 5 elements, after 5×12 year your life cycle is full and a new one starts. That’s why that birthday is an important one for Chinese. By the way, I am a Wood Monkey.

Of course, reaching eighty and becoming an octogenarian is considered a milestone by many. But statistically it is the last milestone I will pass and that gives me mixed feelings.

Therefore I wasn’t planning to have a special celebration this year. Aric and I had booked an overnight stay in Colmar Tropicale on 16 April. But Aric’s relatives consider me part of the family and insisted that I should at least have a birthday dinner with them.

We had this dinner in Sg Besar, not far fromParit Baru, Aric’s hometown. One week earlier, on 10 April. Interesting cultural difference, in many Western countries it is considered bad luck to celebrate a birthday BEFORE the actual date, but ih Chinese culture it is taboo to celebrate it AFTER the actual date ! So we followed the Chinese tradition 😉 .

Aric and I arrived early in Parit Baru and had enough time to relax and walk around a bit.

The family had booked a private room in a seafood restaurant in Sg Besar. Two tables, 18 pax.

Left the senior table, of course I was by far the oldest. Right the table with Aric’s nephews and nieces.

Aric had gone to the restaurant in the afternoon to discuss the menu. As he knows my food , preferences, it was a very delicious dinner, here are the dishes.

From left to right, top row: Seafood Noodles,Steamed Chicken (a restaurant speciality), Prawn Curry. Middle row: Deep Fried Cuttlefish, Steamed Pomfret. Vegetables with special Sauce. Bottom row: Tofu Soup with crabmeat, Fresh Clam Soup, Steamed Yam with Pumpkin and Ginkgo .

After the dinner there was the traditional birthday cake. Not just an odrinary cake, but a durian cake for Uncle Jan ;-). A real beauty.

Blowing out the candles (while doing a wish) and cutting the cake.

The traditional group photo.

One week later, on the eve of my birthday, we drove to Colmar Tropicale. When we checked in at the reception, they told us that we got an upgrade to a suite. Almost an apartment, with a separate livingroom.

We had a nice view of the surrounding forest and even got company from a family of Dusky Leaf Monkeys.

Colmar Tropicale is a kind of extravagant “folly”, based on the French town of Colmar in the Alsace. It is basically a hotel, where the rooms are located in the various French houses. There are a few restaurants but there is not much else to do. We walked around and took pictures.

We had dinner in one of the restaurants and walked a bit more. Romantic atmosphere.

This photo was taken 5 minutes after midnight. I am an octogenarian now

Breakfast was included in the room rate. They had made an attempt to make it Western/French, even with a variety of cheese. But hahal, no pork or bacon.

After breakfast we enjoyed the cool fresh atmosphere. It had rained during the night and was still foggy, very scenic.

Before driving back to KL, we visited the Japanese Garden. A popular tourist attaction, with many flowers, even an (artificial) waterfall. Visitors can rent Japanese clothes.

Our plan was to have lunch in the Wonderland Valley restaurant, but they had their weekly closing day. So instead we went home and in the evening had a sumptuous Korean BBQ dinner.

I had told my friends that I was not going to have a gathering for my birthday. However, a few of my waterfall friends called me that they wanted to drop by for a short while and give me a present. How could I refuse that 😉 ? Here is the present they gave, a waterfall puzzle. For me a symbolic gift, as I had decided some time ago that I would no longer take part in “real” waterfall exploration.

I may write another blog post later about getting old.