Air Putih Kemaman

My brother came to stay with me for the month as he has an instrumentation project in Gebeng Kuantan area. He mentioned to me about our uncle who came to build a bridge at the entrance of the Kampung Air Putih in the late 70's. He was then the sub-contractor working under a French company for the bridge projects that lasted for almost a year. That bridge spanned over a river and linked towards the Cheneh direction. The source of the river water comes from a distant mountainous region further to the West and I was told the river used to have green Arowana or Kelisa fish.

Air Putih is about 28 km from Cukai and driven by curiosity on seeing how does the bridge look like, my brother and I took a slow drive and finally reached there before the sunset and took some photos as posted above. We would like to show our uncle these photos during the Chinese New Year home trip to remind him of his work done almost 30 years ago.

During those earlier years, there were only narrow jungle roads or paths that could lead to the bridge building site before the current tarmac roads were built many years later. Basically it was an area used to be covered with thick primary jungles filled with vibrant wild lives. And now because of housing development projects and land clearing for palm oil estates, the landscape was changed entirely and their natural habitat had been destroyed by the encroachment of humans and the boundary was shifted further in towards Taman Negara direction. My brother related to me a story about a group of wild boars was chased all the way by a tiger and found their refuge in the company warehouse despite the presence of humans. They were trembling inside the warehouse but managed to keep the fiery beast at bay, perhaps because it was a place dwelled by the humans. And its natural instinct might have forbidded the beast to trespass that boundary despite hunger and reluctance; it had to give up the chase, and thus forego its meal for the day. The big footprints of a tiger probably in the region of 200Kg were found near the warehouse the next morning.

We took a look at the surrounding area by driving through the Kampung Air Putih, it was a nice and quiet place with good scenery and river. Some of the old shop lots, wooden houses and one particular Chinese shop along the main road reminded my brother of the good old early years of this village.

My favorite insect - Cricket

Cricket is a fascinating insect. The chirping sound in a serene night was something that had accompanied me for years before I moved to the big cities. Strange enough, I remember certain period of time that I really missed the sound so much that a night without hearing this soothing noise from this creature is never a night for me. Whenever a night was filled with such chirping sound that originates from far and near colonies, coupled with the distant calls from the night jar bird, I would always have a very deep and sound sleep. It functioned like a time machine and my sub-conscious mind then brought me back to my childhood good old days, peaceful and without worries! Perhaps because of this, my entire being was totally relaxed by this background sound effect, I was able to sleep very well for the night!

One of those moon lit nights, my father had brought my younger brother and I to the sweet potatoes field right in front of my grandpa's house. He used a torch to shine on one of the chirping male cricket. All I could remember was seeing a big cricket for the very first time, undeterred by the torch light, crouching at the entrance of a small hole in a little pit, with its wings flared up and flipped in high speed motion, where one of the wings rubbed against the teeth like structure of another wing that created the loud and jarring sound. I had the earlier misconception that the sound was created by the rubbing of its hind legs.

My village is within the Kinta valley where it owes its existence to tin ore mining. Kinta valley was once the biggest and richest tin ore producing region in the world. The ex-mining land with its fine white sand and desert like vegetation formed a good habitat for such crickets. This big brown cricket is a different species compared to the black type, which makes a more gentle chirping sound and used to be the favorite fighting species in ancient China. If you watch the movie on the "Last Emperor of China", you would be able to remember how the last emperor had placed that black cricket under his throne seat. And after many years when he suddenly remembered it and then retrieved the container again, the cricket inside it was amazingly still alive but the color had turned grey!

I used to gather all my brothers and friends from the village and went for cricket digging in the ex-mining land. We brought along a little short handle "changkul" digging tool and a wooden container with wire mesh that allowed ventilation for the caught insects to be kept inside, started out early in the morning and came back just shortly before lunch time. Catching the insect needs some skillful digging; just before reaching the end of its nest, one has to dig more carefully so as not to snap the insect into half. One has to use finger to dig the last portion of the nest, and you could even feel the kicking of its hind legs upon reaching the furthest end of the hole and that was the greatest excitement and joy of cricket catching! Sometimes centipede was inside the hole because it had eaten the cricket, therefore extra care has to be exercised. It was really enjoyable and also money earning pass time for the kids.

This big brown cricket fetched a high price of roughly 5 cents each many years ago. This is because raising Magpie Robin was a trend and this insect is the favorite and most nutritious food for these birds. The cricket collector would come to the village around 11pm under a big tree and we sold him our crickets. We could easily earn 3-5 dollars per digging trip.

Cricket is still my favorite insect and if ever I have a chance again, I would want to go for such cricket digging trip just for the fun of it!

My father's traditional medicine

My father is a person of all trades. When he was younger, he learned the trick of Chinese Sinseh of curing sprains or dislocation of joints, application of herbal medicine with the formula of which passed down from his distant uncle. The herbal medicine was a combination of the Chinese traditional medical herbs plus one kind of leaves from the tropical forest. We went to the forest once to locate some of those leaves from a creeper plant and he taught us to tear apart those leaves and learn to distingush by the tissue structure of the specie.

Many village folks came to our home for that magical cure and my father is well known in the village then. To me the herbal medicine was a very good formulation that relieved pain of most of the patients. So much so that one of my father's buddies had learned that formula and built a name of his own as sinseh of bones and marketed the medication under his own brand. The news about him was that his house in Kampar was burnt down by a fire and subsequently he and his family moved to Kuala Lumpur. Other than some occasional visits to my fathers in those earlier years, heard that he passed away and never to be seen anymore. That brand of medication is forever lost!

My father's interest in medicine had driven him to learn from some qualified Chinese medical hall practitioner on traditional medicine. One of the guys he always liked to talk to was from this so-called "Dongfong or Oriental" medical hall in the village. This guy had a lot of medical books written both for traditional Chinese and western medicine related to topics such as vitamins etc. This person subsequently migrated to USA and I have also never seen him anymore.

That time there was no photocopy machines and my father diligently hand copied many of those manuels for his studying. Later part he was so particular and fussy about the handwriting that he paid someone living on the western side of the village by the name of Wong Ngen to copy on his behalf. I still remember the look of that man, he wore a square dark spectacle, riding on a big ancient bicycle, passing many of the handcopied medical notes to my father. His handwriting was good and it also happened that his son of my age was from the same primary school.

Time flies and that herbal medicine was never used anymore and at one time I asked my father for the formula and he said it is no more useful with the advances of modern day western medicine. Anyway I am still curious on the formula of this good old traditional medicine, it is very effective and useful. I personally feel that this medicine did a lot of goods for the patients compared to the actual skill of my father in twisting and making good of those dislocated joints!

Dragon Boat Tragedy

After the Kampar waterfall incident, now I read about the news on the dragon boat strategy in George town Penang, and I really feel very sad because of the loss of young lives and also my empathy on their grieving parents. Just imagine the pain of losing a child after all the time, effort and love of raising from toddler to become a teenager. How much hope, joy and future days we want to anticipate from them as we see them grow, and this is all suddenly dashed by the mishap. As parents, we wanted our sons and daughters to be healthy, safe and happy, all the rest is simply immaterial! May God's consoling spirit move over these grieving parents, only God one day will be able to tell them the answer why this should ever happen to their beloved children!

There is always a Chinese saying which could be translated as: "You many want to adventure freely in the mountains, but never and never underestimate the danger of the water". Indeed this is very true! I had heard many stories and incidents in my village that ex-mining ponds had drown and taken away lives of many young kids when their parents were busy engaging themselves to earn a living outside and are not around at home to keep a watchful eye over them. I myself had, in numerous occasions, sneaked out of the house for such swimming trips without the knowledge of my parents. Come to think of it, it is simply too dangerous, and I am really glad that I am still alive till this day!

Water is a place, even if you are a good swimmer and equipped with proper life jacket, the undercurrent could be so strong that one could easily be sucked and drawn in, carried by the current, splashed and in the process knock against some rocks underneath the water that you could be injured and lose your consciousness. This is how life is lost even in a seemingly calm sea around Penang island in this dragon boat tragedy! And I always caution people who wanted to swim or fish in the East coast of Peninsula Malaysia especially near Cherating and Terengganu beaches. Those beaches are facing the open and much rougher South China sea compared to the strait of Malacca, where somehow Indonesia has cushioned off the strong waves from the Indian ocean.

Therefore all water sport events must be well planned and thoughtfully anticipate all these possible consequences. If possible, have all your swimming and water sport of young children done in artificial pools or water theme parks!

Sea is always dangerous whether for young and old! Just be very careful when you opt to plan your recreation there!

My Mountain Bike - Scott Aspen

This is the mountain bike that I use it to cycle every morning and evening near the beach. It is a good form of exercise and I need that to improve my overall health condition.

Hope to do more with the machine after more training is done. The road condition along the beach line is asphalt paved and is simply too good for a mountain bike. The tire thread pattern is some sort of hybrid type, with the central portion of fine pattern while the edge is more knobby.

Life in Terengganu

After moving into my Geliga house, I started real living in Terengganu. I feel like I am just one of the Terengganu folks and even bought some small stickers with the sea turtle logo of the state to stick on my vehicles; this indeed made me feel very Terengganu!

The bungalow house rented by the company is simply good; what I mean is location wise, convenience and is also walking distance away from the Monica Bay beach. During this monsoon season, sea is rough and the wind is strong, but it is airy and fresh to live in this area. The Samajaya mini-market is nearby and I could just take a stroll to buy my groceries there without having to drive all the way to town. My family and my brother visited me in this new home, and I just told them to watch out for the very 1st traffic after they entered the Terengganu state, turned on the left and waited for me at the Esso gas station. It is so easy to locate. The only complaint about this place is the black striped mosquitos, likely to be Aedes and they are simply abundant and hungry. When you walk out to lock the gate, you would be bitten at least once or twice! I burn some mosquito coils outside the house, just to deter these creatures from getting near to the entrance of the house.

After settling in for about 2 weeks, I had brought in my Scott Aspen mountain bike, wiped and greased it clean with WD40 and some bicycle lubricant, put the rear wheel on a RM30 stand as it does not have a kickstand. Every evening and morning, I take the bike for a ride as a form of exercise along the seaside beach area. I fixed up some of the lights, reflectors and blinkers, lubricated the key components etc. And it is fun to put up some of the accessories onto the bike. In the process of biking, it also taught me the different kinds of Schrader and Presta valves for the tires, and also the nomenclature of those bicycle components.

I put up two aquarium tanks, one medium and one small size tanks in the hall. Tried on the old pump brought from my KL home, tested and it is still working fine. Cleaning up the tanks and setting up the stand for the the tanks in place kept me busy a few evenings. Now the tanks are well aerated, perhaps after installing the filters bought from aquarium shops, then it is ready for me to start the new phase of my aquarium fish rearing hobby!

Looking forward to do more in this Geliga home!

What kind of bank?

I had taken an overdraft facility with one of the local banks many years ago in early 90s. I tested what an overdraft facility was all about and it was useful. Subsequently when I purchased one of the houses in Kulim of Kedah state, I applied through another bank, instead of giving me a term loan, they suggested me some sort of an overdraft housing loan. With my prior experience of an overdraft facility, I thought it was a good idea because if I have sufficient fund later on, then I could settle the borrowing much earlier. Only problem was that, EPF at that time would not allow anyone to withdraw and settle an overdraft housing loan, EPF will only permit settling of housing term loan only. That was the disadvantage!

One fine day, someone in the bank from the earlier overdraft facility account had given me a "windfall", they had by mistake credited my account in the region of RM10-11K, and I happily consumed most of the extra fund to furnish my new Kulim home. Then they later found out and admitted that they had made a mistake and charged me exorbitant interest rate for over the pre-set limit. How unreasonable banks could be!

My old school mate happened to be a EON bank manager, and I wanted to refinance my Kulim house to get cheaper interest rate at that time when the banks were engaging in this low interest financing war. When I took up the matter to the officer, and this lady oficer Ms Ho was very professional and she had convincingly persuaded me to stay on with the same bank and gave me an additional house renovation loan of RM30K instead. It happened that the overdraft housing loan bank and my earlier overdraft facility bank merged, and this RM30K was used to settle the mistakenly deposited money given to me and also there was some extra cash left for me to spend on. That seemed to be a good deal and I therefore decided to stay with the same bank without swapping the loan to EON bank.

Since it was an additional renovation loan through the same bank, therefore every month the instalment is settled through the account of the original overdraft housing loan by a standing instruction. That is to say, I deposit my money into one account, and the account will auto-debit to settle both the original housing loan and also the renovation loan at the same time. Was it not a brilliant idea?

Over the years, I had faithfully serviced all my loans regardless of good time or recession. And at the later part, when I worked overseas I managed to deposit a lot of cash into the housing loan account, and the outstanding was set to zero prior to its maturity date with positive balance.

The trouble started when the auto-debit action stopped, re-started and stopped again. And also my overdraft housing loan LIMIT suddenly became zero pre-maturely without any reason. It was before the expiry date of the housing loan agreement! How could a principal loan account finished off earlier before the renovation loan is fully settled, which is an additional and integral part of the package? The collection centers called me and I explained the matter many times to them, telling them it is their computer system problem that the auto-debit stopped. And the calls came from Prai and then KL offices etc over and over again for a few years. The bank utilized my extra fund from my overdraft and regularized the account in 2007 for all the mistake that they had made. Unfortuntely the trouble started again with their computerized auto-debit system even after that.

Because of their incompetency in this, they are going to charge me an accumulative interest of RM15K instead of the total amount of RM12K as stated in the agreement for a principal sum of RM30K to be settled over a period of 10 years. Adding to my anger is that, this is none of my problem. How could a bank did this at their whim and mercy? Nobody knows why a computerized standing instruction could start and stop, as a consumer we could probably guess or suspicious of some insider siphoning out the money to somewhere else without our knowledge!

Now I have to trace back all the old transactions to find out the truth by writing to the bank! If things do not turn out well after all that I had done, I might have no choice but to refer the matter to Bank Negara or the Bureau of Complaint.

The name of the bank is intentionally withheld to give them time to settle the matter.

When Malaysia runs out of petroleum and gas

It was at least almost 10 years ago that my friend from Shell had told us that the reserve of oil and gas in Malaysia will run out within the next 15-20 years. I did not take it seriously as at that time it was still quite early for us to think about the problem. But right now, it means to say for the next 5-10 years to come, we will be depleted with this non-recoverable resource that Malaysia is so much dependent on all this while. My insider friends from Petronas also confirm this threat subtlely!

Our government really has to think hard on how to generate the kind of revenue that could fund our country in terms of policies as well as our future plans on how to run this country more efficiently. We could not afford to blunder as before that much money was wasted and dumped to the drain because of corruption and poor governance.

Petronas has to work extra hard to find alternative ways to survive and they could not enjoy the same high growth and profit as before, top management could not sit on laurels and wait for things to happen while the odds are obviously against them. They have to diversify and also to explore oil somewhere else within a very short time frame. If Kelantan or Terengganu state was to get oil royalty money, then they have to get it fast before there is no more oil left.

Malaysia and its "rakyat" at large will be at a cross road, as we are no more competitive in manufacturing compared to China, we have almost given up agriculture and we even have to import rice from Thailand. We are also no good at IT and the Multimedia Super Corridor does not seem to score any mark to make any real progress. The time will come very soon, we all will have to pay a high price for gasoline because we will have to import petroleum, few would be able to afford to drive any vehicle bigger than 1500cc!

My God, what are we going to do with Malaysia if we do not start to think hard and work hard now? How could we ever achieve our vision 2020?

Home in Kemaman

After 5 months and 7 days stay in Homestay hotel of Jalan Jakar Cukai, finally the house rented by the company is in place for me to stay in. It is located at Taman Baiduri Geliga Besar, which is only walking distance from the Monica beach (Pantai Mak Nik). I find this place convenient as one could find Esso station and also mini market Samamaju nearby. It is away from the busy Cukai town and there is a lot of space that I could walk or cycle to the beach, exercise and jog. I think this is a great place to stay!

The place is easy to find, coming from Cherating direction, after reaching the border between the Pahang and Terengganu states, marked by an arch with "God bless the Sultan and Sultanah of Terengganu", upon reaching the 1st traffic light, turn right, where the Esso station is located, the house is stone throw distance away!

My wife and the children came for the visit, they cleaned and decorated the house for me. It looks more like a home for me now. There are 3 rooms and that could easily accomodate a number of friends and visitors who wanted accomodation for a stop-over, leisure or fishing trips.

How to come to Cukai Kemaman from KL

I attempt to write on how to get to Cukai if you do not have a GPS to guide you and I highlighted those dangerous stretches of roads and also those confusing cross roads in bold letters, where you have to exercise extra careful or make decision to make the right turn to get to your destiny:

If you are travelling along the Federal highway to KL city center direction, just at the end of the yellow lane specially reserved for taxi and buses, you have to turn immediately left up to Ipoh and Kuantan or KL Sentral direction, and this road will pass by the Muzium Negara. All the way keeping to the left on this road, you will cut in to Jalan Duta. If you miss this junction, drive straight on, you will go into Jalan Kuching instead. At the end of Jalan Kuching, there is also a side road where one could turn into DUKE again.

On the left of Jalan Duta, roughly in the direction opposite the Indian embassy, just after a traffic light for turning to the Damansara direction, there is a road leading to NKVE to Ipoh, that is the normal way whenever I head back home to Kampar; just follow that towards the NKVE toll direction. Just about reaching the NKVE toll but on the left hand side, there is a sign board on DUKE (Not very obvious as it always gives the impression that the road will only lead you to the NKVE toll and you get a little bit panic whether you are on the right direction to Kuantan).

Once you enter into the DUKE highway and I suppose you will travel along the Sri Hartamas and also the nearby Mont Kiara areas, and drive towards Kuantan direction. Just after Sentul along the way, you have to keep to the left to turn to Kuantan direction, if not that road will take you all the way to Zoo Negara. Pay Rm2 for the toll and go straight and you will pass by Batu Caves and then drive pass a flyover and join back into the normal road which lead you to Genting and Kuantan. You will see some petrol kiosks on your left hand side. Very soon you will be at the RM5 toll to Genting.

After that toll, you will head straight to Genting Sempah, after climbing a stretch of hill before reaching to the uphill road to Genting Highland. Just keep to the right to Kuantan (Do not go up the Genting road). After that you will pass by a tunnel, and then the Genting Sempah rest area with Petrol Kiosk and Mc Donald on your right hand side of the road, I normally do not stop there unless on the way back to KL. If you are not stopping over, before long you will be heading a downward slope, very steep and dangerous for 1st time driving to east coast. Just keep to the left and put on low gear to slow down the vehicle if you are driving a manuel vehicle.

You are about to pay another Rm3 toll before reaching Karak after passing Bentong. If there is no traffic jam, I normally reach this toll roughly within an hour or slightly more. This stretch of road is very winding especially after the 70.o Km milestone mark before reaching Kampung Sungai Dua. Be extra careful as this is an accident prone area especially on rainy days. Very soon after that you will be approaching the East Timur highway toll, and the road then is in much better condition to drive. Within 30 minutes of driving you will probably be reaching Temerloh rest area, where you could take a break or fill up your tank in the Shell station. And the next available gas station is Gambang, which is roughly about 60-70Km away from Temerloh. Gambang rest area is famous for its "nasi lemak" and in this place Petronas gas station is the last fueling station before you hit Jabor toll. From Gambang to Jabor toll, is roughly about 30 minutes and you have to pay RM21 for this east coast highway travel. Vehicles are few and it is nice to travel on this highway. This highway is supposed to connect all the way to Kuala Terengganu but is yet to be completed. Therefore there is a slight detour near to the toll but with clear direction indication for you to reach the Jabor toll, you will never miss!

Getting out from Jabor toll, short distance away, there will be a flyover, just go below the flyover and take the "Kuala Trengganu & Kemaman" direction on the right side of the lane. And you travel about 15 minutes after passing a small inverted U shape arch, and then climb onto a bridge and within 5 minutes, you will reach a direction pointing you to Kuantan or Kemaman. Just take the extreme left lane and turn slowly into the trunk road to Kemaman as this is almost a 90 degrees turn. From here, you will take 15 minutes to reach Cherating and also the famous Club Med. Another 15 minutes more you will reach Cukai town.


Have a safe journey and God bless.

Malaysians in common

Most of the Malaysians at large are not so keen on politics as they are just common citizens who would just like to feed and raise their families, earn a descent living and be happy with life. It really does not matter which party rules the country as long as their livelihood and basic needs or necessities are taken care of. Malaysia has a very small population of 26 millions and with rich natural resources, all of us should be well blessed enough to have a reasonable good life compared to other countries. Malaysians of different ethnic groups in general are friendly and nice people and we could mingle well with each other without much problem. Only some self interest unscrupulous politicians try to stir things up and inevitably polarize the situation and feeling towards other groups in order for them to gain their political ground. That is a very unfortunate thing that happens too rampant in this country.

Human beings always like to have something in common, they like to stick to people of same interest, same background, same language and same religion etc. It is a matter of convenience without having to go through the hassle of the process to learn, adjust and the necessity to explain at length to others of your peculiar hehavior and habits. And this is the common trait of all human beings. When I went into the university, most of my coursemates are speaking Hokkien dialect, and when I met someone from the Cantonese speaking group, I felt very much at ease and automatically joined them for more conversation and activities. It is not a discrimination of any sort, as we just want to choose the easier way out of doing things.

It is also important for Malaysians to live in this country to stress more on the common points rather than the differences. Differences always give the impression of unpredictable, exercise extra care to deal with someone you do not know thinking that you could unintentionally offend them. That has added to most of us the extra burden of having to put in the effort of getting to know the others, and unfortunately many of us are NOT that adventurous by nature!

In our daily life, we must always stress that we are all Malaysians regardless of our race, for any ill fate that befalls any of the ethnic groups, it will not do the others any good. We wish all of them to earn well, eat well and live well, then we will have a peaceful and harmonious society that we all enjoy together. We must even stress that the Muslims and the Christians are within the same category of Abrahamic faith, sharing a major portion of the common Holy Books. And they worship the same God of Abraham though with different interpretations! All the differences and interpretations should not deter us, instead that should further reinforce the fact that, such "rival" religious belief did not collaborate but rather collectively, and also not by mere coincidence that, they relate themselves to the same and common historical background and the God they worship.

May God bless us all!

Selection of DSLR

I had finally made a decision to purchase the Canon EOS 450D or XSi DSLR after reading much of the reviews in the internet. Basically it is a 12 mega pixels camera with superb photo quality at high ISO of 1600 without much noise. There are a lot of technical terms to describe the various parameters and characteristics of a camera and photos, which I am still trying to learn on them. Some of the salient selling points are the CMOS sensors, 3" live view, 3.5 fps, light weight and also the availability of a wide range of image stabilization lenses, 9 auto focus points etc. Basically the deal making deciding factor is because both my brother and sister own Canon brand DSLRs. It would be easier for us subsequently to swap lenses and exchange views. My younger brother KM Lee has been in this DSLR thing for a long long time, he is an avid photographer with great passion on nature and animals. I had chosen the convenient way of taking photos in the past without any thought that I will ever own one of these entry level DSLR; it was simply too bulky and also messy to play with those complicated parameters of light and optics.

For a long time, I had not been interested in knowing about the apertures, the ISO sensitivity, white balance, under exposure, shutter speed, raw files, focus lengths, dynamic range etc. Suddenly I started to dwell in reading this kind of details about those terms in the internet. Fortunately my mechanical engineering technical training background had given me much advantage in understanding those terms and their implication fast within a short period of time.

I do believe in the kind of peer influence after I had gone on a trip with some of my school mates and Singaporean friends to the Sichuan Jiuzhaigou resort; some had brought in the best in class equipment for the shooting and I envied at their expensive camera equipment. Also partly because in the past, thousand of photos were taken by the point & shoot cameras which I own and there seem to be no break through in the sharpness and quality after viewing them on the bigger LCD monitor screen. Perhaps it is time for me to go one step up for better and more professional photos quality.

I would also like to thank the Senheng store sales girl for telling me that I could redeem all my points gathered for years from the past usage of my Citibank credit cards and also Maybank credit card combined to get a total discount in the region of RM600. I am not in the habit of going through the messy procedure of redeeming points for those gifts. This time I had managed to clear all the points other than those forfeited because of expiry. This had quickened my decision and closed the deal in this particular store for the much desired and thought about DSLR !

Open the car door carefully!

Last week I went out together with Azman, the production executive of the factory to take a look at the new Alza MPV model. As there were many cars parked along the available space in front of the car show room, and I managed to squeeze in at a corner located at, after a slight bend from the service road. It was a rainy day and the road was muddy. When I got out from the car and opened the door to step out, suddently a motor cyclist carrying his wife and kid zoom passed me from behind and knocked on my door and he almost fell. He was screaming for pain because his eye hit the sharp part of the door and was bleeding. Azman and I quickly went over to check his condition, fortunately only his left eye corner was slightly scratched. And his motorbike plastic front panel and one of the front lights was broken. I had apologized to him and also because of our quick action to comfort him instead of looking at how badly damage my car door was, that had pacified him somehow. Azman was quick to use a tissue to rub off the blood from the side of his eye. And eventually we negotiated and compensated him by spending RM70 for the repair of the motorbike and RM30 for him to see a doctor in the clinic. That settled the whole accident amicably.

This accident had taught me good lesson that I must always be careful to look behind before opening any of the car doors. It is simply too dangerous just to open the door abruptly without watching behind whether there is any oncoming vehicle. In this particular case, it could cause severe injury to the oncoming motorist because the sharp part of the door could pierce his eye if not because of the protection of his helmet that had cushioned off part of the impact. Assuming that if this was not a motorbike but a lorry, one could imagine the entire door might just fly off by the knocking force. Was it not scary?

Another thing we have to remember is that if we are in the wrong, make sure to be humble, apologize and also show your concern to the opposite party instead of to your beloved vehicle.

I thank God for this and also the door of the car only suffered some slight dent and scratched paint work.

Pampeing Children is a bad idea

Parents always want to give the best to their children because children are God given asset and are usually few in number at this time compared to big families our parents used to have before. During my time, children of 6 was considered as few and most have 10 or a dozen especially in the village. Nowadays children are brought up in such a way that they are materialistically rich, pampered and living in great comfort zone. They are so used to spending money and also enjoying a lavish life style that does not seem to match with their potential future earning, I would say, at least the first few years when they graduate, come out to work and face the real world. This parental pampering act will not benefit them at all, but also to spoil them and reduce their competitivenss in the society. Young people nowadays yet to experience what real life is all about, already developed the bad habit to buy high end products and don on branded costumes and apparels, be selective on food and want to dine on reputable and high class restaurants. They do not realize how difficult it is to earn money in the real working world! Subsquently when they are so used to what they already have presently, they simply could not take a step backward to lead a more inferior and simple life. If there is any happening that turns against them in the future such as an economic recession, thus forcing them into a more humble and modest life style, they will suffer and will feel extremely miserable. Under such circumstances, they might attempt all kinds of method, both legal or illegal, just to satisfy their insatiable appetite on materialistic things that they are already so used to. How dangerous this could be, they could end up doing all kind of things in their pursuit of monetary gain or even go to jail!

When we were young, because of our parents had more children and therefore resources were thin, and every sibling was having only the bare minimum in order to make our ends meet. We started to grow and taste what poverty was all about, we appreciate life more as we work hard to achieve what we are today, earn and spend only what we can afford to spend. For that, we learned to be thrifty and respect our parents because they toiled for us so that we could have enough food and education. Just imagine how tough life was for our not so highly-educated parents in the setting of a village background to earn and support 6 children. Young people of this time tends to take thing for granted and they would not be able to appreciate how much their parents had done and sacrified for them.

The bible had taught us to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you". We, as parents have not heeded this and done our part enough and set the right examples for them. We work hard for material gain so that our children can enjoy lot of things but do not emphasize enough to them on this spiritual aspect of biblical teaching. We are at fault and this is really our big mistake!

I pray that God to help us all to become better parents and give us the wisdom to teach our children to be better persons in the future. We want our children to have discipline and work hard to gain what is proper and not to take any short cut and easy way out for their life in the future to come. Life is not meaned to be easy, and God uses the process of going through life to train us to be tough and be dependent on Him instead of blindly seeking material gain. May God bless us all!

Old age predicament

I met a new friend and he is 62, he is a friendly and also a very well educated person as he was once an English language teacher and also an editor in a famous newspaper. He is well exposed and had raised good children who got scholarships to study in UK. He loves his family and he taught them well when the children were young and they exceled in their studies with strings of distinctions in public examination results. It is a pity that with his son as medical doctor, and daughter as some high flying investment company senior officer, he is left alone to stay in Malaysia for the past 8 years. The wife left him to UK to take care of the sick mother-in-law of his daughter. Money is never a problem for him as he owns properties all over.

He told me that it was a mistake for him to teach his children too well, otherwise they would have remained in Malaysia. One could imagine his frustration when he uttered such words! He wanted his doctor son to marry a local but the son married a British girl instead. And he wanted him to become a specialist doctor in Kuantan hospital, even to the extent of buying a house nearby the hospital just for him, but the son opted to be a British and resides in UK and never wanted to come back. It seems all odds are against him!

Maybe his wife was right, son and daughter should have their own lives, and it is their lives! And they have choosen their destiny the way they wanted it, and parents should not interfere at all. Whatever the wish of parents to remain as wish only. Now he is a frustrated old man living in solitude. Thinking that all his good friends and buddies are in Kuantan and he shifted from Kemaman to live there. Unfortunately at the later part, most of his friends moved to Kuala Lumpur, probably just to follow their sons and daughters now working and staying in the capital city. This old man simply just has no one in Kuala Lumpur to go to. Should there be any one of his family members staying there, he might have followed suit and shifted there as well to be with his buddies.

It is definitely not the wish of parents having their children far away from home when they grow up. It is hard for a man after living many years in Malaysia and then is forced by circumstances to uproot himself and settle in another country or place. They might feel proud to have children capable of residing in advanced countries like US and UK, but this proudness is short-lived, and the yearning to see their children by their side becomes a more dominating factor as they grow older each day. It is not a question of selfishness that parents want to keep their children around, it is the kind of "lost and emptiness" feeling that cripple them after they had strived for the most part of their life to raise children, and eventually they are too remote to be seen. It is a sadness but sometime it is a fact of life that we all probably have to accept it one day.

It is only when our sons and daughters, they themselves become parents at later part, reaching a stage some day when their own children grow up and they would be able to feel and taste the same bitter medicine. Probably then they will realize how bitter life could be at that age.

Come to think of it, could I come to the same predicament like this friend of mine when I reach that stage? Well, I do not think of such problem when I was just a few years younger, is this really a sign of getting old now?

New hobbies - Bicycle and DSLR

One has to continue to explore new interests especially when you are getting old and living alone. You really have to do something you find it interesting and also enjoy doing it. The good thing about engineer is that he or she could easily understand all the technical stuff that is written in books or from the internet. It is really wonderful at this modern age of IT that one could easily google a lot of articles regarding a certain topic with just one click of your mouse.

I recently read about bicycles and came to understand how different high quality and reputable components of bicycle could cost a lot more than one could ever imagine. It surprises many people how a good bicycle could cost somewhere in the region of RM3-4K as against the China made unknown brands at just RM100-200. The use of Shimano gears and other pricy components could cost one a fortune! I finally decided to buy a used Scott bike at RM1K, hardly used by previous owner and the original price was RM2700.

Recently I also read more about DSLR. This comes to my mind after the trip to Jiuzhaigou because most of my friends are carrying along DSLR as they could shoot better pictures compared to my point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix camera. It is hard to discern the quality of pictures taken by using a normal camera and DSLR at the first glance, but the experts would be able to tell. There are a lot more one could do and play with a DSLR compared to the normal digital camera.

I read through the top brands such as Nikon and Canon, their market share and also the availability of their lenses, support etc. Also learn about ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 etc which are to be used in low light condition without using a flash. And how the various sizes of CMOS or CCD sensors affect the quality of photos at high ISO. Understood the term "noise" is used to describe the grainy effect of those photos taken at high ISO numbers. There are other factors such as image stabilization built-in in the camera or lens so that one will not get blurr image without a tripod. Plus the so called Four-third size form factor which reduces weight and size of lenses used so that the camera could be easily carried to anywhere without feeling its bulkiness and weight.

I always have a budget in my mind as I could not afford the luxury that I had before when I worked overseas. I also anticipate the possibility of a new hobby could die of natural death or fade over time after investing a lot of money on the gears. For those reasons, choosing the entry level models and to read about all the reviews seem to be the right move. Currently for these entry level DSLR, Sony Alpha A230, Olympus E-450 or even a Pentax Kx are the choices in my mind. Sony is not so established in the DSLR business compared to Nikon and Canon, but they have Minolta/Konica as their backing and it is also easy for me to review photos taken in the Sony 40" Bravia LCD TV at my Kuala Lumpur home. As for Olympus, the lightest camera available in the market, its weight factor is something that intrigued me, nobody other than the professionals would like to carry a heavy camera with its protruding lens hanging on the neck for sightseeing and touring. Pentax is also very well known brand but Pentax Kx model is using AA batteries, heard that battery draining out problem is a big issue though AA batteries are supposed to be for convenience and they readily available everywhere.

Sometimes I just immerse myself in the quest of such new hobbies without actually making a decision to own them or going into it. Perhaps the fun of it is to go through the process of finding out. A typical example would be buying and reading the Motor Trader magazines, looking at some of the favorite Volvo and Mercedes cars which I intended to buy, but eventually ended up buying a Proton Exora.

Jiuzhaigou - Paradise on earth, a place not to be missed

Recently a group of my classmates and schoolmates organized a trekking trip all the way to the snow mountains of the Sichuan province in China this late autumn season. They had planned the trip about 3 months ahead. They bought all the gears and the necessary apparels and did some tall building climbing training before they embarked on the challenge. While I was taking on a new assignment here in Kemaman, I hesitated quite a while on whether to join them because it is a new job for me here and also the days to be away was about 15 days, a bit too long. It was really a "not to be missed" opportunity that after so many years we left school and we were able to gather so many of them and to do sight-seeing in a foreign land and have fun together.

Coincidently Air Asia airline announced the inaugural flight on 20th October 2009 to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. And the online booking of Air Asia was easy and quick, and most of all, to and fro air ticket was only Rm559. That was really a good deal and I finally made a compromise and firmed up my mind to join them only for the last 3 days of their trekking journey at the renowned resort of Jiuzhaigou.

Their trekking trip included camping in snowing mountains and also the need to go very natural as there are no amenities, toilets and hotels whatsoever along the most part of the track. They had to climb hills and wade through snow covered track, scaled up and down above 4000 m of high altitude snow mountains, experienced mountain sickness etc. The only consolation they had, should there be any emergency, was the presence of a medical specialist doctor as one of the team members. They probably entered the Jiuzhaigou resort through trekking in from the back entrance while I flew in and went in from the main entrance by taxi. One of our classmates opted to give up the trip and went home alone as the journey was proven to be just too much for him to endure. Surprisingly there were 3 Singaporean women and 1 Malaysian lady participated in the adventure. They managed to persevere through the entire gruesome journey, though the team had actually decided to deviate and cut short the last trekking portion and went straight in to the resort one day earlier than scheduled. I arrived at the right timing to catch up with them otherwise I would have to wait one whole day alone in the hotel for their arrival if they sticked on to the original schedule. This made the trip more interesting and we had more time to tour Jiuzhaigou more thoroughly.

Jiuzhaigou is almost a paradise on earth and is beyond words to describe its beauty. Photographs taken are so beautiful that one could think that they are just paintings, a place too good to be true. I had posed in some of the photos just to convince myself and others to look at those shots taken are real, and not some manipulation of the digital images.

This was really a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it very much!

Pictures paint a thousand words, these are the web albums for your viewing:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/mltvTE02#

http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/mltvTE#

Dangerous places and fire in the village

While I was staying in the village as small kid, there were some dangerous zones that our parents would never allow us to venture any nearer to those places. Kampar and Mambang Diawan, being in the Kinta valley where we were having one of the richest tin ore resources in the world, were filled with used tin mines, once discarded and started to form natural ponds of various sizes and depths. Those ponds were usually deep and blue in color, therefore they were enticing to the kids as most of us were attracted to the water, either to cool ourselves by taking a dip or try to catch some fishes. There was one place near to the northern entrance of the village, a place by the name of "Lingutik" and it means "the tip of the breast" because of its dome shape that became a favorite spot for children taking a jump from that high tip portion and splash into the crystal clear deep part of the pond. There was another pond near to the Indian settlement on the eastern side of the village, we called that the "shorty pond" because of its smaller in size, shallower water and also a big tree truck near to the middle of it that swimmers could swim all the way and then cling on to it to take a break or a rest and chat with the other swimmers. A few of us always told our tuition teacher that we went to see the Chinese opera but actually sneaked out for a dip and headed to the shorty pond! Thinking of it, if any one of us get drown, I wonder how the tuition teacher could ever answer to the parents. How dangerous it could be when children are not properly supervised!

Malaysia does not have any kind of mines buried in war zone ground in countries such as Cambodia or the former Yugoslavakia states etc., but the used mining ponds are equally dangerous that stole the lives of many young children.

There were many incidents that young children were drown that caused so much sorrow to the village folks and parents would not hesitate to mete our severe caning if children were found to swim in any of the ponds or rivers. Children being children, always like to sneak out of the house and take a dip in those rivers or ponds. One of the tricks was to quickly clean our bodies in the running tap water so as to clear any muddy mark on the skin in order to avoid detection. In those days, tap water was not tapped directly into the house but rather at public places where young and old were to carry pails of water back home for consumption or even taking their bath. Those public taps became convenient places for us to erase those traces of mud.

Waterfalls and those natural ponds right after the falling water were another dangerous places. Even many adults were drown by the under current of these pools. There was one famous Chinese opera singer that came to perform in the area and was drown in the Bidor waterfall while he visited the place when taking a break during his performance. Expert swimmers were sometimes stucked in the roots or rocks that they were strangled and could not surface and therefore drowned. A few times in the Kampar waterfall, the heavy rain at the upper stream of the waterfall, somewhere deep inside the tropical jungle near the source or from the remote area of Kampar hill had caused the sudden accumulation of strong current that swept away picnickers and swimmers down stream. All Utar students not familiar with the background and the danger of waterfalls should be fore-warned of such danger. The slippery rock is another dangerous part, I got my forehead stitches in the Kampar hospital done because of my hand slipped while swiming from one end of the pool to the other when trying to cling and pull myself up onto a rock.

One fire that I observed that destroyed a house and killed a baby, that was the greatest tragedy that I knew of while I was still a young kid. That happened to the house next to my grandpa's cousin brother's home some 20 minutes walking distance away. The mother of that killed baby was one of the friends of my mum, I remember visited her together with my mum and saw the big egg of a long stick insect, which was kept as a pet in a glass tank, supposed to be German breed. I still remember this very vividly as I was really fascinated by the insect. It was a tragic ending for this woman, after losing her baby and after some time the husband took a second wife and she left the village and since then I have never seen her anymore.

Kuala Dipang Kampar Tragedy

It saddens me to read the incident on the collapse of a hanging bridge in Kuala Dipang that caused the drowning of 1 and the missing of 2 young school children. The missing 2 were from Mambang Diawan Tamil school, the village that I come from. The place of the incident is only a short distance up north from my home town Kampar near to the Malim Nawar junction. Kuala Dipang is famous for durian and also its crystal clear river. Used to be a place where we collected sands and small stones for aquariums and also a source of fresh water when the drinking of mineral water from nature became popular as a health tonic.

It was supposed to be a well intented "One Malaysia" education camp for selected children from school of different streams and ethnic groups. And it turned out to be a tragedy for the town and the country! Parents of the victims are heart broken. The public is angry and wandering why a brand new hanging bridge just built about a month ago could just collapse so easily! I had just returned from a China trip of Dujiangyan in Sichuan province, there are a few hanging bridges that swing and sway by the multitude of Chinese tourists that visited the place and yet they could withstand the load without any problem. Why this could happen in country like Malaysia, which is supposed to be a more well developed country?

I am glad to see Tan Sri Muhyiddeen, our deputy PM had quickly moved in and inspected the site to show his concern. His concern will definitely touch the hearts of many Malaysians. From this small incident, and also how he had dealt with the Sultan of Johore state in the past, he is destined to be one of the PMs of Malaysia for sure. There were incidents of disaster happened all over the world when a country leader did not react in time and caused great outcry from the public. If we could remember, that happened to President Bush and President Ma Ying Jiu of Taiwan, it was such a strong contrast when compared with how Premier Wen Jia Bao of China had done and handled the Sichuan earthquake. All leaders must put well beings of "rakyat" or citizens and not their self interest as their top priority, in that way they will get support in return.

I pray that God has mercy on the families of those victims, let your spirit move and console them and heal the pains in their hearts. Also bless our leaders so that they could have the wisdom to govern this country well!

Contemporary VIPs

Some of the famous people in Malaysia that we crossed path with, during certain part of our lives worth mentioning here just for the record.

During university days, I met briefly with some of these very ordinary guys but today they are the very successful people in the country:

Datuk Ong Tee Keat, President MCA and Transport minister - UM Engineering faculty

Datuk Mohamed Zaini Amran, Founder and CEO of BumiHiway - UM Engineering faculty. He was the senior doing the orientation in the 2nd college

Tan Sri Dr. Lim Wee Chai, Founder and CEO of Top Gloves - UM Science faculty and he told me about his MBA program in the US long long time ago

Mr. Voon Seng Chuan, CEO of IBM - UM Science faculty and we have common friends

At one time in 2nd college of University Malaya, I happened to get acquaintance with a Sains Asasi student, perhaps he was my room mate just for a couple of days during the orientatio week that I could not remember him so well. It was after many years while I tried to apply for a permit to run a small factory in a shop-lot that I bumped into him again. It is not easy to get the approval for even a few months as it was near to the residential area. He is a medical doctor and is also the Director of the environmental department of Majlis Perbandaran(City Council). I went to his office and he recognized me right away and gave me the approval for 2 years. From this we learned a good lesson that we have to be friendly to everyone and we would not know how in future certain people somehow does us a favor with just a stroke of his pen.