Festival With The Nine Emperors

Pic by AP

Back in Ipoh last week, there was the famous 'Nine Emperor Gods Festival' which is held in October. The festival lasts for nine days before the Emperor Gods are sent back to the sea. This is the festival where many devotees would make their offerings and wishes to the gods.

In Ipoh, the festival is held at the Tow Boo Keong in Jalan Kampar.

While making my wishes to the deities, I had the chance to try shaking the 'chim', which gives you a number base and tells you what you encountered this year. I won't reveal here, but it is once a year thing that can be done. I must admit that the deities knew what I feel this year, given my focus is on health and career.

For foreign readers, offerings are made in the form of red turtle buns. It costs $1 each for a small size type. Some are left as offerings, while you can take some back to steam and eat it.

Am I Driving As In The Shining?

Last Monday, I was on leave as we had a 3 day family gathering at Cameron Highlands. My colleague William told me that instead of going via Tapah, I can access the new route to the other side of Cameron Highlands via Simpang Pulai.

After using the other road back to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, I finally realized that going from the new route is much more shorter than the conventional route. The conventional route is about 100 kms long, that is 52 kms from Ipoh to Tapah and another 47 km from exit at Tapah to the first town called Ringlet.



On the other side it's about 91 kilometers from Ipoh town to reaching the other side of Cameron, a village called Kampung Raja.

However, when I drove from Simpang Pulai to there, there was no petrol station all along the way so you need to have adequate fuel, at least a quarter tank or more to go there. It was raining that day, so....



I thought for one moment that driving through the wide roads on the mountain side is similar to the opening segment of The Shining. It is not as winding as the old route so I took my time and overtook some vehicles on the way up. I somehow loved the white skies on the pictures that I've took. This was taken using Neutral color settings of my Powershot camera.



So this is the crossroads between the East Coast and Cameron Highlands. Up ahead is the route that goes to Blue Valley and Gua Musang, a town at the western side of Kelantan. It's about another 43 kilometers from here to up there, which we would cross the state border. Turning right is going to Kampung Raja, that is about another 20-30 kilometers from the crossroad.

On the third day, I left early, thereby unable to join my other family members in visiting the Boh Plantation estate as to reach back in Kuala Lumpur before my half-day shift starts at 2 p.m. On the way from Ringlet back to Tapah, there had been 5 occasions of landslides, thanks to Tuesday's heavy rainfall. The first landslide forced motorists to wait for 30 minutes for the road workers to clear of the trees. The third landslide forced motorists to wait for 10 minutes as to let fellow drivers from Tapah go up before letting us ahead.

All, in all, on that third day, I managed to reach my office 10 minutes before 2 p.m, but I didn't feel like eating lunch so I had biscuits at office.

Further Reading:
1. English Ladies In The Making
2. Reminiscing the Past, 55 Years Later

Eye Of Malaysia

Late last night after meal, I took my friends out to have a look at the Eye of Malaysia - actually a ferris wheel which allows people to see the view of Kuala Lumpur from above.

For those of you who have yet to see this place:

It is located somewhere near my place of stay at Lake Titiwangsa. This landmark is here throughout the whole year of 2007 as part of the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 Tourism campaign.

It is best to take the ride at night, so hear are some of the shots of the landmark from far to close-up.

From far - on the road going into my house. By night you can see a lot of cars parking at the side. This is evident especially on weekends.

Taken from the main entrance of entering the lake. You can see by the number of arches and a big advertising box indicating the entrance and some details of Eye of Malaysia.

Closeup - this was taken from the queuing line on the way towards the structure

Do come there if you want to see it up close. Spread the word ppl.!
Here are a few things for info:

1. It opens daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. until New Year's Eve 2007.
2. It is advisable to come at night on weekdays to enjoy it while less crowd.
3. Tickets are at RM15 for adults, and RM8 for seniors and children under 12.

Sights and Sounds - St. John's

I went to visit another La Sallian school today - St. John's in K.L and I noticed that the architecture, despite being similar to what's in St. Michael's is totally different.

Few notices:

1) All buildings are interconnected to one another, especially the Brother's quarters.
2) Floor tiling is rather different. The main wing's floors are of ceramic instead of cement for our school's main wing.
3) The chapel is actively used unlike ours which is laid for a dormant time.

As I've said - ceramic floors on the main wing and the classroom.



If you look at the structures, it is quite close to each other and interestingly, a reserved forest is just ahead of the second picture.


There's a scout-built post at the rain-forest edge, but I didn't have time to take one.