Brain Ooze

Anand dragged me out for an early  morning photoshoot walkabout in Georgetown this morning. Appreciate it a lot since it give me some time to get some fresh air, which otherwise I would spend sleeping and rolling on the bed.

What I realised though, it was too early in the morning. Well, the sun is up and we get good lights and shadow.. sunday morning is always too early for man and beast alike. I let this photo journal do the talking.

This guy is sleeping in the “island” at the junction of penang road and chulia street. The sun on his face but he does not seem to mind an extra few minutes of snooze time.

Chowrasta market is starting to bustle. Locals are out early to get the best morsels. For this guard dog, the day.. or more like the night shift, is over. Sleepiness kicks in and under the stall is a good place to sleep assuming the customers do not kick him.

Some people are early.. they got the papers already. Hope it was not yesterday’s news.. or his bed for the night?

Coffee shop.. still not open.

Doggie found a nice spot under the trishaw. The trishaw is not going anywhere. The market (at the end of Campbell Street) is just starting business. A few minutes of shut eye not a bad idea.

The odd cat under the car. Most creatures I saw were dogs.

This has got to be his bed. He is sleeping on the wrong side of the bed. He is sleeping UNDER the bed, not on top of it.

Never said dogs were smart.

Trishaw man waiting for business, too early, taking a longer shut eye.

So folks, regardless what time it is, as long as it is morning.. sunday mornings are just too early to wake up. As the evidence around town has shown.

I am going to get some shut eye now.

Thanks Anand and Eu Jeen for dragging me out of the house. The fresh air, the little walk and some sweat was what I needed. Who needs Wii.

These are the night shots of the goddess of mercy at Kek Lok Si Temple. Getting there is a challenge. The road up to the temple is mighty steep and because of the traffic jam, I need to stop the car on a slope and get it going again. A lot of handbrakes. When I arrived, the car smells of burning rubber. In fact, most cars smells of burning rubber. When I smelled burning rubber, I thought there goes my clutch plate. But when I smell burning rubber on most cars, then I am a little bit more relieved. A little bit because there is the challenge of going down after the shoot.

We arrived around 7.30pm and the jam was still tolerable. We were able to drive into the temple compound before the jam starts. When we left around 9.30, the traffic heading up starts from Air Itam town itself.

Took the chance to pray there too. Stick a few josstick and light a candle for world peace.

And I can say, the place is magnificent.

Talk a walk around Georgetown and like me, you will find a lot of sights that are interesting. I have always liked to walk around town, since my form 3 history project taught me that I see more when I walk. Still up to this day, I see a lot more things when I walk around town then when I drive.

Here are some pictures as I walk across little india (King Street) from Esplanade to Chulia Street for the Chinese New Year Open House.

I never knew there was an indian butcher around. Wife saw the meat hanging and quickly an animal came to mind.. pork.. nope.. beef.. indians don’t eat beef.. lamb.. close.. mutton! Yup. Goat..

Typical indian sundry shop BUT a lot more cleaner, more open and easier to see the goods on display

A house that is going to crumble at any time.

shopping at little india

drying out the tnee kueh. Not too sure why they dry it though. Maybe it fries better after drying.

Georgetown.. take a walk down history.. literally.

If you are new to English idioms, upping the ante means that you are increasing your “bet” and the value of something especially when there are risk involved (http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/up+the+ante.html). The idiom is taken from poker game.

Have you heard of the 24 chinese drums? A team of 24 people will beat 24 chinese drums, those used in lion dance, to create a loud beat. The trick is that all 24 people need to have some semblance of syncronization.

Now up that 4 times, make it 88 drums. 88 is a good number according to chinese and 88 drums takes up a lot of space. 88 drums will be what they played in the Georgetown Chinese New year celebrations yesterday. I missed the show, but I would assume it is awesome.

Look at the amount of drums.. you will know why.

I have been to Muka Head countless time. I can say that I hiked up there at least once a year. Everytime, I tell myself that I have to visit the lighthouse at the Muka Head. It is one of the more prominent feature of visiting muka head. The beach was certainly a let down. But the light house, everyone talks about it but I never had the chance to visit it.

When I hike up to monkey beach, I am normally too tired to climb anymore. This time around, I had friends. Adamant determined friends who will die to reach the top. None of us has been there so we don’t know what to expect. We did expect a lot of pain though.

The lighthouse keeper was at the bottom of the hill, in front of his residents talking to a bunch of friends when we got to the starting point. He asked if we were going up and said that they lighthouse closes at 2. He has locked up the place but he will open it for us.

Touching dude.. friendly chatty guy. He walked behind us all the way up. We were all tired when we got up there but the view was fantastic!

This is batu ferringhi. You can see the lighthouse from there at night

this is kerachut side.

the light is only turned on at night. Once sun down, the light will automatically turn on.

a picture for posterity, as a proof that I actually made it up there.

The trip up there was suffering, but all worth it. Fantastic view. Nice breeze.

The place is open from 9am – 2pm. Not too sure if it is open at the same time on weekends.

A point to note. We took 35 mins to get up there but according to the lighthouse keeper, it normally takes an average of 1 hour to go up there. So budget wisely.

Wesak Day – The day buddhist commemorate the Birth, Enlightenment and the Death of Buddha. Well I use the word death of Buddha but the more civilized people call it the event when buddha attained or ascended to nirvana. Also, I use the word birth of buddha, well he was not born buddha but was born a prince. Also he attained the status of buddha after enlightenment.

It is all too confusing for me. I like to keep it simple.

It is a full day for me and most buddhist in Penang. Mornings are spend in temples. My family which is normally includes grandma, will visit 3 temples. Yes 3.

First stop is always Malaysian Buddhist Association, Burmah Road. Going there early, we are assured of a place to park the car and the crowd is still bearable.

Grandma walks slow. She is old. What do you expect. So she always needs help walking up the few steps into the MBA. There are the usual aunties will always be more than helpful to help my grandma. But there is this one lady, middle age lady, seeing my grandma trying to get up the steps, she was trying to push her way down. The place is crowded. It is the entrance after all. Can’t she wait for the old lady.. and some old men in the stairs to clear out first before squeezing her way? Lucky I was ahead of grandma and she was holding me. I manage to push her away, quite violently I guess. Next thing I saw her she was 2 lines of queue away.

I guess I am as guilty as her. But no one messes with grandma when I am around

MBA had racks for candles in the hall. Apparently some foreigners think that lotus candles are cute and the buy it for souvenir.

This is the main float for the procession on Wesak Day. The will be the last float. The RCS members will hold a rope surrounding the float that night. Behind the float, would be throngs of people following the procession. People walking, people in triashws and in chartered busses. The rope we hold, is said to be blessed and those holding the rope, gets some of the blessing. Whether it is true.. is another story. What I know was before they had forklifts, this float was pulled along by people and that rope is supposed to be blessed. Now a fork lift does that work and we are basically providing crowd control. Does that make the forklife blessed?

It is all confusing for me.

But I do know that after the procession is over, the flowers will be stripped from the float by people. Anyone can take the flowers. Since we follow the float, we get first dips. The gates will be locked until the take down the statue and move it into the hall.

The flowers, will be used to bath and it is supposed to be blessed. Put the flowers in the water you use to bath. If you use a shower like me.. improvise!

My body is aching, I may be breaking, I am not that young anymore.

I think I have just recovered from the Thaipusam duty. Or perhaps, I still need my sleep if the weather was not so hot. I feel like a preserved meat!

However, it has been a good experience in humility for me and what I am capable of doing.

Lets start from the beginning.

Everyone feels that this duty was too much for RCS to take on our own. In the past, the Red Crescent Society works with the St John Ambulance in this duty. The St Johns will take the medical basses near the temples and the RCS will take care of Jalan Utama, away from the medical basses. This year, RCS have to handle the whole thing.

Some people say this is a good thing, that finally the Red Crescent is given such an honour.

Other say, it is suicide.

The medical base, where the hospital doctors and nurses are based, is nothing but a covered up tent. Having said that, the tent feels like an oven in the hot day and humid in the cool night. The good thing is that the doctors are there. The tent feels like a field hospital. They can treat anything here but we get mostly wounds from falls and medical conditions. I think most cases that the field hospital see are from kids falling down and having a nasty cut. Cuts that require suturing and a tetanus jab.

We have one station on top of the hill. I did a hike up the hill twice in 2 different day. The hike was not as bad as the one in Batu Caves.  The steps are wide and the path is winding. There are a lot of places for people to rest and railing all over the place. Temple volunteers are all along the path to help the elderly and the disabled climb up the stairs.

If all fails, the temple volunteers will carry the elderly up on a home-made sedan chair.. all for free. Not everything in Thaipusam is money money money.

We also have one station right in the middle of the stairs. I think they have a good view from this station. They see people going up with the kavadis and people coming down.

Also, thankfully, the Penang Thaipusam is not as crowded as the ones in Batu Caves. Even in the peak of the celebrations, there are plenty of space for people to move around. We hardly get any casualties, which is a good thing.

You guys read it. Georgetown and Melacca are now UNESCO World Heritage Site. A big celebration was held this weekend cummulating in a concert cum cultural show on Saturday evening. Yours truly was there. I was on duty, though I was told that I need not go. I went to HQ on Friday to hand up a cheque, met the guys who were supposed to go for the duty on Saturday and was told that they actually don’t have enough people.

We were there early, at 5pm. The concert only was supposed to start at 8.30pm. So I took one ambulance and went to Yap Kongsi. There was supposed to be some lion dances and cultural shows in all the chinese clan houses. The most happening has to be the Han Jiang Temple in Chulia Street.

A mural taken from the Tua Pek Kong Temple beside the Yap Kongsi

Preparation for lion dance outside the Cheah Kongsi

A lot of photographers because apparently there is a photography competition. I didn't know there were so many photographers in Penang.

This guy goes around giving candies to kids.

It is suposed to be good luck to pull the furs from the head of a lion. Well it won't be good for the lions cause they are expensive. This boy is just so fearful of the head.

The announcement only came 2 weeks ago and the state government manage to pull together a show like this. No pictures of the concerts though. We beat Melacca to the celebrations. This is a testement of the Penang Kiasuness. Cannot lose. The state government have big and generous sponsors for this event.

Couple held for khalwat two days before wedding

AN OVERZEALOUS couple who were due to be married in two days were nabbed by the Malacca Religious Department (Jaim) for committing khalwat (close proximity), reported Harian Metro.

The couple, both in their 30s, were caught in the bride-to-be’s home at around 2am following a tip-off.

According to Jaim enforcement officials, the couple took some 30 minutes to open the door when the premise was raided.

This is another case of religious department officer having too much time in their hands. Here are some questions I have that is not explained in the short news report. How did they know that the groom to be is at the bride to be’s house? ALONE! If someone had tipped them off, they must have acted fast. Since this didn’t take place in a hotel, obviously, it is not some raid that they are organising. All the effort of getting an arresting party together for just this guy, he must have pissed off a lot of people. Perhaps the girl is pretty and one of the religious boys was her former boyfriend or something.

So you caught him. He pays a fine and has to marry the girl.. Hello.. he pays the fine and was going to get married anyway. So what, you want to delay the marriage? Too late.

This is one of the wastage of human capital in Malaysia. Put these religious boys to good use. Make them till the paddy field. They are more useful that way.

We have booked out honeymoon for Kota Kinabalu next month. Wife says FINALLY! We took one of the hotel packages that includes stay, some honeymoon hotel service and 2 days of tour. Then we are left with 3 more nights in KK. We booked our flight weekend to weekend, for some reason we think it is more convenient. Since we have finally found time and money to fly there, we might as well say there longer.

We were thinking, 3 nights, what are we going to do there for the next 3 more nights. Well we could hike the Mountain! The highest mountain in South East Asia, Mount Kinabalu.

So we decide to start this week. We decided to hike up Penang hill, once a week to prepare for the great hike. We think we can, cause a few of our not so fit friends hiked that mountain without any training.

This time, we went up using the Air Itam track. The entrance is a temple just beside the 7-11. Look at the picture below.the road you are seeing is the road that you will have to pass after coming from the Air Itam market, where the delicious laksa is.

You see the old chinese arch? That is where you head. You just keep walking along the granite stone steps. I did not count how many but this is the easiest part of the hike. There are rest areas where you can sit and catch your breathe on the way up the steps. Surprisingly today, I saw a monk hiking up this steps.

These steps will take you across some vegetable farms. Just keep following the steps.

Look to the left when you are hiking up and you can see where most of the beautiful vegetables that you eat in Penang comes from.

Ultimately, the granite tracks will lead you to this temple. I have not gone anywhere near this temple because you don’t have to. As soon as you can see this temple, there is a crossover path. Someone made a path from the granite rocks into the motorcycle track. You need to get on the motorcycle tracks. Too bad I totally forgot to take the picture of the cross over path. Too busy catching my breathe.

What took us by surprise was when we were passing one of the farms, a very friendly dalmatian came and join us on our hike. I was taking some pictures of the nice chickens they have in the farm. There as this mean dog tied up where the chickens are opposite the house. Winnie then heard this panting and before you know it, there was this dog running out from the farm house. We thought he was going to charge and bite us. Instead he had his talk all wagging and tongue all wet and dangling. He had this nice blue eyes, short fur, waggy tail and floppy ears. He just want to make friends.

There he is trying to lick up winnie

There he is leading the way.

Well, we kept trudging along the path. Just keep following the path. Occasionally there will be a few splits. Most of these splits will end up in someone’s farm house. So you follow the split that has the same cement pattern as what you are standing on. Ultimately, you will reach this new tar road that they are building. Pictured above.

I climbed penang hill using many of its path before. There were a few times where my hiking party saw a snake crossing the path. I was always relieved that I have never seen a snake along the way all the years. This is the first time I saw one on the way up.

Not too sure what snake it is but it is thin and small. I think it is poisonous, don’t want to prove otherwise. It has an orange head so that has to be a sign that it means business.

But.. wow.. first time I see a snake.

What do you do when you get up there? Take the canopy walkway of course. It is RM5 per person. Wonderful experience. The good thing about this path is that you reached the canopy walkway first. You can see a lot of people walking to the canopy walkway from the Penang Hill tourist center. They had to walk a bit more than 1KM and we were walking towards the Penang Hill Station.

We were hungry when we reached the Penang Hill. Only had light breakfast. You would imagined that the food in a tourist spot would be expensive and tasteless. Penang Hill does have a food court but it is relatively empty when we went. We ate the nasi lemak and the Singapore bihun from stall 6. It was delicious and only 50 cents more than what I would have paid for below the hill. It is a bit more expensive, because they obviously have to take the food up, but it is not typically pricey and tasteless stuff that you get in some of the other tourist spots.

I also took kopi peng and barli from the stall 5. The coffee is better than some of the kopi tiam downhill and both drinks only cost RM3. A little but more than you would pay for down hill.

I think the Asam laksa in stall 1 look delicious because people keep ordering them.

Lazy bums we are, we took the funicular ride down. We had to share coaches with school kids. We then walked back to where we parked out bike, outside the RHB bank opposite the Air Itam market. We locked our helmets to the bike and surprisingly it is still there when we got back. There have been off and on cases where people steal helmets and also motorbikes.

So Winnie did reach the top. I got sunburned. Next time need to remember to bring bug repellent. A lot of mozzies escorting us all the way up. Lucky we brought counterpain, which also helps to reduce the itchiness of mosquito bites.