A Dream Come True

Posted on April 2, 2013 by janstu

A few years ago a waterfall friend of mine sent me a picture of the Upper Tebing Tinggi fall, taken from a helicopter. The fall looks impressive and is also clearly visible on Google Earth. Close to and a bit similar to the Lata Puteh waterfall, which is visible from the Lenggong-Bagan Serai road. But this Upper Tebing Tinggi is more remote, so the question was, is it accessible?

It became my dream, to visit this waterfall and see it with my own eyes…:-)

A few weeks ago I did a recce with my friends Paul and Rahim. Starting from the road, the slope is very steep, but fortunately there is a old water pipeline, leading to a water catchment. There are also old overgrown logging roads. We reached the river upstream of the (lower) Tebing Tinggi fall, about 600 m from the upper fall. It seemed doable! Our recce is the red track in the map. Locations of Lata Puteh and Upper Tebing Tinggi are also indicted.

Because of its remoteness and keeping in mind my mishaps of last year, I wanted to have a strong team, who could carry me out in case of emergency…:-). Siang Hui, Teoh, Rani and Aric were willing to join me. Here we are ready to start our adventure.

It was a tough hike, which took us in about three hours to the waterfall! I was really happy, that my dream had come true.

I have published a detailed report about our trip (nice food, more waterfalls) as a Stuif’s Adventure. And here is a YouTube video of the waterfall:

Berembum revisited

Posted on March 26, 2013 by janstu

Last year I have written a post Closure about the Berumbun waterfall in the Lolo river, where I was hit, a few months earlier, by a falling piece of rock. As I wanted to show Aric the place where it had happened, I decided to go there one more time. My friend Rani was willing to join, after my own two mishaps last year and the tragic death of another waterfall friend, I have decided that I will only go to the jungle with a group of at least three people.

Another reason to revisit these two waterfalls (for the fifth time !) was that another friend had told me that there was a nice trail to these falls, avoiding the slightly boring access road to Gunung Nuang. And a nice trail it turned out to be! Well marked with the usual yellow plastic ribbons. After you reach the Lolo river, you have to cross this stream several times. Here is our track on Google Earth. The access road to Nuang in green, with the location of the pondoks along the road. The trail is in yellow with the location of the two waterfalls. Trail length is 5.2 km, we reached the falls after about two hours

Here are the two falls. The Bomoh Ali fall (left) and the Berembun fall (right)

The weather was perfect, it was a very pleasant trip. We had lunch and coffee at Berembun. Access to Berembun is not that easy, you have to swim, then scramble up slippery rocks and cross the stream. Aric remarked that it is actually a dangerous waterfall, and he is right. NEVER do this when the weather is unstable, a flash flood would be lethal here.

Here is a picture report of the trip. We were not in a hurry and took time to take pictures. As soon as I reach a fall with a pool, I take a bath to remove the sweat from my clothes. I think it helps, but I still feel slightly ill at ease, always on the lookout for bees. Of course I always have my Epipen with me, but I hope I will never to use it. On our way back, Aric’s Adidas shoes started to fall apart rapidly, but he managed to reach the car, LOL.

: Entrance of the Nuang road

: Start of the waterfall trail

: Beautiful trail

: A spectacular bat lily

: Crossing the bamboo forest

: One of the many river crossings

: These berries look poisonous

: Aric admiring Bomoh Ali

: Tarzan Stuif

: Berembun

: Aric and Berembun

: Shoe repair

: In various stages…:-)

: Unusual fungus

: The beauty of nature

: Back along the “main” road

Here is a YouTube clip of Berembun

And here is Aric on its way back. Berembun fall is just behind him around the corner. Big fun, but not when there would be a flash flood…!

Minimal Music

Posted on March 24, 2013 by janstu

Minimal Music originated in the US during the sixties. It is tonal music, characterised by repetition and gradual transformation of musical phrases. In the late 20th century this minimalism became very influential, with composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Probably the most popular minimal art work is the film music written by Philip Glass for the movie Koyaanisqatsi. It can bring me easily in a kind of trance..:-)

Here is a trailer of the movie on YouTube . If you find it interesting, you should try the full score on Vimeo

In the Netherlands the most important minimalist composer has been Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012). His most popular work is Canto Ostinato (1976) The performers have a lot of freedom in the choice of instruments and how they combine the different themes.

I remember a magical performance in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam, many years ago, on one of those rare sensual summer nights, with four pianists and the audience sitting in the grass. Heaven!

Here is a YouTube version of Canto Ostinato, lasting almost three (!) hours. Sit down, relax and give it a try…:-)

Oh, and if you think that Glass only wrote “serious” classical music, try to get hold of his “Song from Liquid Days”. Here are Freezing, and Forgetting , sung by Linda Ronstadt

Computer migration

Posted on March 23, 2013 by janstu

You may have have been wondering if all was well with me, as I have not written any post for some time. Don’t worry, I am alive and kicking. Just busy migrating my data to a new computer.

For some time my Dell laptop has been showing signs of old age. Time to look for a replacement. Another Dell? Windows 8 with a touchscreen?

Not so long ago Aric has bought a MacBook Air, but he hardly uses it, not even in the kitchen to cut an apple , as he prefers working with the big-screen iMac. He suggested that I could take over this small(!) notebook, make it dual-bootable with both Mac OS and Windows 7 and buy a (wireless) keyboard and mouse. When I travel I can just take the MacBook with me

That is what I have done. Not really complicated, but it took time.First I had to transfer all my data to a new backup HD, then install Windows 7 and software on the MacBook. Here you see my desk during migration. To the left is the MacBook Air, in the middle my 22 inch monitor and to the right my old Dell.

The intermediate mess

And the final result.

I have a backlog of posts, so be prepared…:-)

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.

Waterfalls in Perak

Posted on March 12, 2013 by janstu

A friend asked me yesterday on Skype if I was alright because I had not posted on my blog for a few weeks…:-) My answer was that I had been too busy to update my blog. The CNY celebration, meeting friends, a trip to Melaka, visiting waterfalls, etc.

Not chronologically, I will start my update with a trip, made with Paul and Rahim, last week. It has become a tradition to go waterfall hunting with them. For example in 2010 to Ulu Besut in Terengganu. This time I wanted to go to Kedah, but I realised that it would mean a lot of driving, so instead I decided to (re)visit a few lesser known waterfalls in Perak. We made it 3D3N trip, staying the first night in Taiping, the second night in Lenggong and the third night in Batu Gajah. As usual we were not only looking for waterfalls but also for nice food…:-) Here is a collage of the waterfalls we have visited.

A detailed report about the trip can be found here . The Kait waterfall, lower right in the picture, is quite spectacular and tall, about 45 meter! Here is a YouTube video of the fall

Nex post will be about Melaka, no waterfalls there…:-)

Journal 18-2-2013

Posted on February 18, 2013 by janstu

Let me start this journal with Bukit Lanjan. The construction/destruction of what once was a beautiful forested slope opposite our condominium, continues. Here is a view of the slope. Next to the ugliness a picture of beautiful fungus found along one of the few remaining trails.

I celebrated CNY with Aric’s family in Parit Baru. It was a nice family reunion, although of course the absence of Aric’s father was felt by all. .

Here are a few pictures I took during my stay. You may wonder what the pinkish “caviar” in the left picture is…:-) They are snail eggs! The flower in the middle picture is a kind of passion fruit flower. And in the right picture a couple of sun birds is building their nest in a tree just in front of the family house. It is less flimsy than it looks. Click here for a YouTube clip of the nest building activity.

On the third day of the CNY I drove to Teluk Intan, where I met Siang Hui for a waterfall trip. See the separate Ulu Licin blog.

Back home I was invited by my friend Khong for a CNY dinner cum karaoke party. The dinner was nice, the company pleasant, but karaoke is not my favourite pastime, so I left early…:-)

The next day I visited the Nyangung waterfall. Also a separate blog, Waterfall Adventure. During our scramble down the slope to the waterfall I noticed the beautiful “tube” in the right picture. It’s not a fungus but the nest of a colony of wasps/bees. Because of my allergy, I kept my distance, but had to take a picture. So beautiful.

I will end this blog with another hill, Bukit Kiara, where I have my regular morning walk. Also under threat, see my earlier posts about the infamous fence. During a walk with my friend Pola, we came across this recently made (illegal) opening in the fence. Strange that the person(s) who did this, kept the upper part intact. The right pic shows part of the foundation. The fence has been embedded in the cement and will be very difficult to remove.

Fortunately there is still much beauty to be found in Bukit Kiara. From left to right a Bat Lily, a tortoise and some unknown flowers(?) fallen down from a tree.

Ten days full of variety…:-)

Ulu Licin

Posted on February 18, 2013 by janstu

One year ago, on the third day of the CNY, I visited with my waterfall friends Siang Hui, Nick and Harry, an unknown waterfall in the Bubu Range, south of Kuala Kangsar. We gave it the name Lata Naga Air (Water Dragon Fall). Full report here . Sadly Harry died later last year, while on a (solo) waterfall exploration trip in Terengganu. Here is a picture of the waterfall with from left to right Nick, Siang Hui and Harry †

This year Siang Hui suggested a trip to another waterfall, also in the Bubu range, near Beruas. Again on the third day of the CNY. I met Siang Hui and Nick in Teluk Intan, we drove to Beruas where we met Faye. She is contributing to my Waterfalls of Malaysia website, but I had never met here. She often joined Harry’s trips and is now organising trips herself for her friends.

Access to the Ulu Licin falls is easy. From the place where we parked our cars, we could already see the first waterfall. A trail leads to the upper falls. There are three more tiers. The second tier is a beautiful curtain fall. I am posing in the pictures below, so you have an idea about the height of the falls…:-;

Quite surprising to find these relatively unknown falls so near the road. Their saving grace is that the access trail is steep. Here is pictorial report of our trip.