踏上武来岸山的感觉超棒 (连鞋子也断了^^)
武来岸山（Broga Hill）也称茅草山，因为山顶上尽是茅草和一块块的大石头。
那天相约了Kok-Liang, Tracy, Meng-Hong, Lawrence, Hock-Hwee, Yi-Xian 和我到武来岸山一趟。听姐姐说那里的天空很漂亮、日出很美、空气特别清新，所以决定好要去。还是第一次天还没亮，就起床准备爬武来岸山。大家都兴致勃勃的，我想大家都很期待这一次爬山的旅程吧！
从蕉赖加影大道出发。之后再取加影SILK大道直接通往士毛月（Semenyih）。到了士毛月后，跟着武来岸路牌指示，只要顺着路牌指示，其实并不难找到武来岸。武来岸山入口处是一片油棕园，其对面是一间白兔园。
我们在40分钟完成攻顶任务。武来岸山虽然没有人造梯级，某些地方还得四肢并用。这次的爬山任务都很成功！大家互相帮忙等待对方，依我看，这次的爬山旅也可以成为友谊之旅咯!
my loving mom was wrapping the fillings to zongzi
Zongzi is traditionally eaten during the Duanwu Festival, falling on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. It has a long history dating back thousands of years. During Duan Wu Festival which has been held annually for more than 2000 years, many traditional customs and activities are practiced on the specified day by the Chinese people. Among these customs are dragon boat racing and eating zongzi.
fillings then wrapped to tetrahedral shape and ready to be boiled
Many legends circulate around the festival including eating zongzi, but the most common explanation given derives from the tale of Qu Yuan, a poet and also a patriot from the Zhou dynasty (1045 BC – 256 BC). During the seven warring states period of Zhou dynasty before Qin Dynastay, Qu Yuan was a minister in the State of Chu and did much to assist the ruler in governing the state. He was however banished from the kingdom by his ruler for treason as he opposed an alliance between the Chu and their rival state of Qin. During the days of his exile, Qu Yuan wrote many famous poems until he ended his life in great despair and distress by drowning in the river upon learning that the State of Chu had been defeated by Qin.
On hearing of Qu Yuan’s death, the local villagers who were extremely fond of Qu Yuan, were in great distress. Fishermen searched for his body by sailing their boats down the river, furiosly beating the drums onboard and other people threw zongzi into the river to keep away fish and evil spirits from destroying Qu Yuan’s body. Later, many people imitated these acts to show their respect for this great patriotic poet and this practice continues today and eating of zongzi is no exception.
Zongzi is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, then are cooked by steaming or boiling. There is no set fillings as it varies from province to province, though the most commonly used for this steamed delicacy are egg, beans, dates, sweet potato, walnuts, mushrooms, pork, or a combination of all of the above. Wrapping up the zongzi is sometimes a closely guarded family secret.
basic components of Nyonya zongzi: white glutinous rice, blue glutinous rice, and seasoned pork
In Melaka where Baba and Nyonya were orginated from, there is an unique type of zongzi called Nyonya zongzi. This Nyonya version features the intricate flavor depths of typical Nyonya cuisine with a hint of sweet, salty and spicy. Its recipe is also vary from Nyonya’s family to family. Despite the recipe of Nyonya zongzi is closely guarded by family, the most significant character of Melaka’s Nyonya zongzi is the blue colored glutinous rice stuffed inside.
Days before the coming Duan Wu Festival, my mom wrapped up Nyonya zongzi according to my granny’s recipe, due to popular requests from relatives and friends. Among the ingredients used were glutinous rice, seasoned pork, sugared white gourd, chestnut, natural blue coloring from flowers and others. Making of zongzi is not complicated but very time-consuming in preparing the ingredients, including soaking the rice overnight, mincing the pork and season to taste, finely chop sugared white gourd and chestnut, and last but not least, wrapping up all the ingredients with bamboo leaves. It took my mom’s two days with the help of my dad and sisters to prepare about a hundred of zongzi.
final product: delicious Nyonya zongzi
Most of the zongzi made by my mom were given to friends and relatives and I was lucky to have some. Special thanks to my mom, dad and sisters for the hard work and I really loved this yummy Chinese delicacy. Wishing everyone a happy Duanwu Festival.
Mind the genie in the lamp - by CJ
There once was a very poor man, who woke up hungry with only 1 rupee left in his pocket. He decides to go to the market and see if his rupee can buy him some left over fruit. At the market he meets a fancy clothed man behind a table with a beautiful oil lamp on it, and a sign that reads “1 rupee”.
The poor man can’t believe his eyes, and asks the man what the catch is.
“It’s true, the lamp only costs 1 rupee,” the man says.
And he explains that in the lamp there lives a genie, who fulfills all your desires.
“Then why do you sell it?”, the poor man wants to know.
“Well, the genie is always active and rather impatient”, it is explained. “And if you don’t pay attention to him, he’ll start taking things away again”.
“Well OK”, the poor man says. “Since I don’t have much to lose I will buy it from you”.
When he arrives back home, he rubs the lamp and the genie appears. “How can I serve you, master?”, he asks.
“Prepare me a meal worthy of a king”, the poor man commands.
Within a second the genie serves an opulous meal with 87 courses.
The poor man is delighted, but when he wants to start eating, the genie asks again – “And how can I serve you master?”
Keeping in mind that the genie can also take away all the goodies, the poor man commands: “Build me a beautiful castle, suitable for a maharadja!”
Only a few seconds pass by, and the man now finds himself in a beautiful palace. He likes to explore it, but there comes the genie again, asking “How can I serve you, master?”
Every wish is immediately fulfilled, and when ignored, the genie takes away everything.
The poor man is annoyed and goes to the village sage, where he explains his problem.
After a silent conversation, the poor man steps to the genie and says: ‘Genie, build me a large pole and stick it in the ground”.
The genie immediately builds a pole and sticks it in the ground.
“Now genie, I want you to climb up and down the pole, over and over again”.
The genie starts climbing right away.
And now the man has time to eat his meal, explore his palace and do other things.
When he and the sage go to see what the genie is doing, they see that he has fallen asleep next to the pole.
“And so it is with the thinking genie of every man”, explains the sage.
“It is restless in its desire to satisfy every desire, and fragments our being.
The pole is a tool called a ‘mantra’.
“By repeating it over and over again, our restless mind is kept busy until it gets so bored that it falls asleep.
And this way our true self can enjoy the world.”
Wesak Day is considered to be very important for Buddhists around the world. On Wesak Day, Buddhists all over the world celebrate events of significance to Buddhists of all traditions: The birth, enlightenment and the passing away of Gautama Buddha. Celebrations and grand processions are also held here in most parts of Malaysia.
Seck Kia Eenh's colorful float of Wesak Day 2010 parade in Melaka
After our class at Seng Cheong Society of Heeren Street last Thursday we heard lots of voice from outside the building. It was Wesak Day on the next day so people were gathered and line the street to witness the grand procession of Wesak. Dylan and I knew that it was too late to leave the place as the street was already closed temporarily for the procession. Feeling excited and thrilled however, we took out our camera and joined in the crowds.
It wasn’t long waited when the Wesak parade arrived on Heeren Street where we were. The parade was spledid and grand as there were 15 colourful floats and a total of more than 40 Buddhist associations, schools, societies and clubs taking part. Each of these floats was nicely decoratingwith flowers and lights into patterns, and Buddhas were placed on the floats. The participants really put in a lot of effort in designing the floats.
Thousands of people witnessed the grand parade and showed respect to the Buddha. Hundreds of Buddhist devotees also walked the route with candles or flowers in their hands while various groups were chanting along the way or singing Buddhist songs. There were also reverends on the floats sprinkling blessing water to the crowds in the hope that people live a peaceful and happy life. In addition, marching bands from various schools in Melaka, lion and dragon dancers, Sri Lankan dancers were doing performances during the march which cheered up the public.
The whole parade was cheerful and lively yet the atmosphere was calm and peaceful. Routing through 5.5km of Melaka town’s busiest streets, Heeren Street was probably the last street the parade travelled before reaching the finishing line at the Seck Kia Eenh temple. We were lucky to be at Heeren Street and witness this grand event. Wishing everyone a happy belated Wesak Day and may all beings be happy.
Sharing some photos I took:
"Hi there. May I take your order please?"
It had been a while since I had an outing with photonian. Two weeks ago on a Sunday, Max invited me to join a street photography outing at the Jonker Street of Melaka. There were 15 of us taking part in this event and each was required to shoot with only 50mm lens which was a challenge to shoot with a fixed range lens.
Angel Wee (left) and Angela Gan - street photography outing
We started at 4pm, a hot afternoon and spent about 3 hours at Jonker Street and the other streets near to it, such as Tukang Besi Street, Heeren Street, Tokong Street and others. It was amazing and interesting to see how fellow friends could use a variety of different angles of a subject and created unique and creative pictures. Everyone could be a teacher for me.
This photography outing was a great fun experience seeing that we had spent a precious time together and could share our photography experience with each other. Some of the shots I took of the photonians:
Boiling frog - by CJ
A frog will try to jump out if it is dropped into hot water, however it will stay eventually cooked to death if it is put in a pot of cool water and gradually bring it to a boil. This story is a widespread anecdote, yet will we react like boiling frogs when come to confronting global warming?
Highly regarded scientific organizations worldwide have speculated that there is no longer any credible doubt about the environmental destruction of global warming. We are stoking global warming that may cause colossal damage to nature if, like the doomed frog, we ignore rising temperatures.
Based on the data from Natural Resources and Environment Ministry of Malaysia, our nation’s average temperature has risen by 1.1 degree Celsius in the past 50 years, consistent with the warming of global temperature. The ministry also showed that the sea level in our country is on the increase, at the rate of 1.25mm a year. These factors resulted in changes in the rainfall patterns thus causing more floods in our country.
Based on the climate modeling for the next 100 years, the temperature is expected to rise between 0.7 degree and 2.6 degrees Celsius. The changes are very crucial as the increase of 1-2 degrees Celsius would lead to 30% of flora and fauna to go extinct and threaten our survival.
Furthermore, the ministry stressed that warmer temperatures and greater moisture will favor extensions of the geographical range and season for vector organisms such as insects, rodents, and snails. This in turn might also increase the occurrence of vector-borne diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue.
In another recent research, Malaysia scientists have discovered that climate change and air pollution are killing off the scent of flowers around the world. Some bees don’t seem to be pollinating flower seeds because of the missing scent trail of flowers. Flowers in colder climates are able to hold onto their essential oils longer, thus insects and bird are also reported as heading to the jungles where the weather is cooler, for their fair share of nectar.
Already we can see the changes of our environment and nature: storms are becoming fiercer and extreme weather conditions like cold becoming colder and hot becoming hotter. Will we stand by and watch while droughts, floods, and famine take over our country? Or will we deteriorate into territorial species struggling for power, land, and survival? It is matter of survival and it is solely up to the people of this generation to decide.
Now we’re like the frog in water slowly heated up to boiling that doesn’t know to escape. However, unlike the frogs, we have the ability, the knowledge, the technology, and the power to save ourselves and respond to global warming. We simply need to find the cohesive willingness to take action and not to contribute to global warming.
Hi! I am CJ, blogger of Juesatta and photographer of CJ Photography.
I love and enjoy photography, thus make me a lifestyle wedding photojournalist and portrait photographer based in Melaka, a lovely town full of history and characters in Malaysia.
Wedding is the sweetest thing of one’s life because it celebrates love, therefore I have always been passionate for capturing beautiful, natural and romantic wedding day images of moments for couples to be cherished a lifetime.
Drop me an email cj@cjfen.com and will be great to hear from you!
