A bicycle race and the sacred number 313

Last Sunday I was on the way to Kuala Lumpur to attend the last day of the 2009 Kuala Lumpur International Book Fest when my wife insisted we stopped at a place in Rawang to photocopy a document of hers. Since she wanted to make 100 copies, it would take a bit of time. Thus we decided to have breakfast at a restaurant across the road. That's when we noticed the road was suddenly cleared.

What happened was the cyclists for the ongoing Jelajah Malaysia (exploring Malaysia) race were passing this way. Thus the road, at least this part of the road was closed for a good 10 minutes or so.

This reminded me of the time I followed the first Jelajah Malaysia, I can't remember properly was it in the year 2000 or 2001. Back then, the race which covered major roads all around the Peninsular was fully conducted by the police... thus it had a lot of backing from all quarters including five-star hotels which I believed wanted to be in the good books of the police.

I was then still a sports journalists with the major English daily The New Straits Times. Me and a few others were whisked all around the distance over a period of more than a week via a dedicated van manned by 2 or 3 dedicated police personnels. We stayed at the best hotels and treated like VIPs. Why, even operators of night-clubs we happened to visit at tried their best to please us... upon realising the identity of our entourage which included top police investigators and their likes as in the CID.

The memory made me wanted to take the pictures above and weave it into a story. As it turned out, this article is my 313rd posting in this blogspot and the number 313 has a lot of significances in Islamic history.

For the record 313 is the number of early Muslims who along with Prophet Muhammad SAW fought againts the unbelieving Quraish of Mecca in the battle of Badr, the first battle between the Muslims and their enemies. 313 is also said to be number of persons in the army of Talut against Jalut, or as written in the Bible, army of Saul againts that of Goliath, in the time of the Prophet Daud or David. In Islam, 313 is the total number of messengers God sent throughout the history of mankind while the prophets numbered 124,000. 313 is also the number of the main walis or saints and this number is maintained until the end of time with each deceased wali replaced by a newly appointed one. That's all! :]

Remembering the "A" Level college days. Drama night - Enter Johnderella!

Just a pix of a junior school drama night nicked from the Internet...

In the comments section of the article Remembering the "A" Level college days. My lecture class, group J , an old friend suggested that I write about our class play titled Johnderella for the college's drama night. Actually, I already have that in mind, it's just a matter of when. Now, I think it's a good time to try remembering our play. Here goes nothing...

OK. I'm having problems remembering when the drama night was actually conducted. So let me try to get some timelines clear, as much as I could remember ya. Why, I couldn't even remember the exact month when I first got into the PPP/ITM "A" Levels programme. But I could safely say this, it started sometime in the second-half of the year 1988 as we were chosen based on our good results for our SPM examinations which we took while in Form Five at secondary schools, end of 1987.

We received our SPM results sometime in February 1987 or so and only after that we got busy looking and applying for prospective universities to continue our studies at. But the system is such that there's no way we could go to university straight except through matriculation programmes or the "A" Levels, both considered intermediate level of studies or college level between secondary schooling and university. Since at this stage, students are taught to get ready for university level of study arrangements, we started following the semester system as opposed to the term system used during our schooldays. Thus the "A" Levels programmes must have started after the mid-year holidays and that must be after June or at the latest August or so I think.

The next batch of "A" Level students, that is Batch 8 (remember, mine is Batch 7) must have come at about the same time but in 1989 a year later. The drama night I'm trying to remember involved mainly my batch... there could have been involvement from our seniours in Batch 6 but I couldn't remember that very well. Whatever, it was too early to be conducted in 1988 itself as we students were barely gelling together in our groups. So I suppose it must have been conducted sometime early 1989, perhaps in March or so...

Anyway, there we were, some of us from Group J hanging out in class when someone mentioned about the upcoming drama night. Azmil @ Tonga already had a drama script brought from his schooldays titled Johnderella and we agreed to make it work.

Now, Johnderella (as the name might suggest) is sort of a male version of the classic fairytale Cinderella. The story is basically the same except for a different background mainly created to support a story which is more of a comedy. Without much further thought, in fact without any thought I think, the guys and girls elected for me to be the hero Johnderella. Why? Maybe because then I fit the stereotypical description of hunk that should be a hero, hehe! Well, it might seem like I'm just praising myself but those who knew me from those days would mostly agree except for the sour grapes, again hehehe! :]

Here's the basic storyline. Johnderella lived with his two step-brothers and a stepmother. Being the son of deceased mother which the stepmother despised (and being a better looking person too), he was often bullied and forced to do all the housework which he duly obliged.

OK. Now I'm having trouble remembering the script. Did we have a dancing ball just like in Cinderella? Was there any princess looking for a prospective suitor as is the case but for the opposite sex reflecting the famous fairy-tale? What I could remember is there was an event but Johnderella was prohibited from leaving the house. So a Godfather (instead of the fairy godmother in Cinderella) came to help him get a better life.

The two stepbrothers were played by Amin @ Mangor and... now I remember another class-mate from Group J, Bad or Badrul. I can't remember who played the stepmother but the Godfather was a cool Tonga. So Johnderella was left behind as the brothers attended the event which I couldn't remember exactly what except there was to be a boxing match (or rather a few boxing matches) in which the final winner will get to marry the princess.

For the whole drama, I could remember me, Mangor and Bad having to wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts with sports shoes to match. I must admit I am actually a bad actor. Not that I couldn't act at all. It's just I liked to soak up the attention that I couldn't help giggling and making faces while sweeping the floor as the guys and gals watching from down the stage made signals and returned the smiles.

OK, I think the Godfather came to release me from being stuck in the house and handed me a pair of magic gloves. With that, I attended the boxing matches and had to fight my stepbrothers Bad and then Mangor to claim the main prize. Hmm... I also remember Utoi playing the palace official who made the announcement for the fight. I remember the fight being staged in three different modes - normal, fast forward motion and slow motion - and that managed to extract plenty of laughter from the audience.

So came the time for me as Johnderella to claim the prize. Came the princess (played by the Chinese-looking Ipoh girl, her name was Lina or something like that) daintily walking with a veil or her face. The veil was opened. Lo and behold the princess giggling with plenty of large red spots on her face as Johnderella fainted, doomed with the fate of being stuck with such a 'looker'.

As it turned out, the Johnderella drama staged by Group J won a few prizes. If I remember correctly, we won either third or second in the overall category. That category was won by one of the law classes which staged a very serious drama hinging on the question of innocence, sin, life and death. The main person of that drama, and actress was Az, the first girl to get real close to me during the "A" Level days (see Remembering the "A" Level college days. Start of the disco fun and girls... ).

Az won the best actress for the whole drama night. Azmil @ Tonga the best supporting actor. Me, the main actor of the Group J play was nowhere within the polls. Nevertheless I totally enjoyed playing the male Cinderella and with that I end this installment of "Remembering the "A" Level college days". Cheers! :]

A collaboration of old collegemates - the book "Rumah Azan"

Peace be upon you all. Following recent feedbacks from old collegemates in the article Remembering the "A" Level college days. My lecture class, group J which was posted yesterday, I'd like to make this posting...

This is the cover of my fourth and latest book "Rumah Azan".

This is the picture I snapped of the actual book, when it first came out of the printing factory and sent to the Karnadya booth last Saturday, the second day of the Kuala Lumpur International Book Festival 2009 currently running at the PWTC.

This is an early page inside the book. For information "Rumah Azan" is a coffee-table book with the size of an A3 paper, that is twice the size of A4 papers.

The title "Rumah Azan" could be literally interpreted as "House (rumah) of the call to prayer (Azan)". It contains vivid pictures and stories about more than 30 selected mosques all around Peninsular Malaysia.

Besides talking about mosques, it highlights certain tombs said to belong to prominent Muslims of old especially those of saintly status. This is to relate the mosques to the spread of Islam across the Malay archipelago done mainly by such prominent personalities.

The book is published by Karnadya. I am both the writer and researcher. I get to decide which mosques should be selected and I am responsible for laying out the story.

An old collegemate from our "A" level days, former Malay Mail journalist Shamsul Yunos is the photographer. He is not only a collegemate but also a room-mate in 51 C.

The funny thing is I first got to know novelist Aina Emir, practically the owner of Karnadya during the last KL Book Fest in 2008. Then we often keep in touch and that's when I got to know that Atuk who is now a freelance writer and photographer have been doing some jobs for the company.

Not only that. I also found out another old collegemate and room-mate also in the fray. As it turned out our dear friend Taufiq Khalid @ Topeq is a lawyer for Karnadya. Well, he has his own firm which practically takes care of Karnadya's legal needs. What a small world...

So here I would to call out to readers especially old collegemates, particular those who have studied in the same class as me in Group J or/and stayed in the same room in 51C. If you have the time, do drop by at the KL Fest tomorrow Sunday and the next day Saturday. As I'm also promoting the trilogy of Malay novels under the title "Berpetualang ke Aceh", I would make it point to be around on these days, the last days of the fest.

If there is no problem, I would set up a stall at the inner walkway which connects the Pan Pacific Hotel to the halls inside PWTC. After all, I'm just "hitching a stall" by using the available tables to set up shop, should there still be available tables like I found on Monday and Wednesday. Otherwise, I'll be hanging around the Karnadya stall inside the lower hall meant for the book fest which is Dewan Tun Hussein. Whatever, you can find the "Berpetualang ke Aceh" books there and even better, they have "Rumah Azan", both offered at amazing price cuts for the fest. Good night...

p/s: Pictures taken from the article Buku "Rumah Azan" dan Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur 2009 di PWTC posted in the Malay blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU . Check also the article Pesta buku dan siri "Berpetualang ke Aceh" there.

Remembering the "A" Level college days. My lecture class, group J

Just a pix nicked from the Internet...

OK. Time to continue the remembering process. If the last article on the college days, Remembering the "A" Level college days. The disco circuit of those days... and the girls still talks about our extra-curricular activities off-campus, now its time to move back to the actual college. I will try to write as much as I could remember off-hand ya. As usual, I write straight into the blogspot, so there is no planning and afterthought.

In the article Remembering the "A" Level college days. Damansara Utama where the cool days started! made a year ago, I did mention about how we were divided into lecture classes according to our courses. This could mainly be grouped into the engineering classes, business studies classes and law classes. Among these were a few students who took the 'odd' courses like acturial science and if I remember correctly dentistry. I can't remember where the dentistry students were grouped at but I'm sure they were around during the "A" Level days as years later a few of my old college mates did become dentists after graduating from England. Ah, now I remember another 'odd' course, architecture. By 'odd' I mean courses which only a few took. They were so few that they can't have their own niche classes. Not during the "A" Levels at least. Thus at this level, they must be assimilated into the main groups of engineering, business studies and law classes.

I myself was one of the 'odd' ones. I was slated to take a degree in mathematics, pure mathematics that is and as far as I could remember there's probably another 2 or 3 students who took the same course out of the total of 200 plus students from our batch. Hmm... come to think of it, I was probably the only mathematics student in the whole batch. Whatever, I think I might as well include this. Actually after the SPM examinations result in secondary school was announced and I applied for university through the government's central agency called UPU (Unit Pengajian Universiti or something) if I remember correctly, I was opting to study computer science as my first choice. I can't remember the second but I believe mathematics was the third and last choice. And for all choices, I asked to study at a university in America.

Instead months later I was called to attend a BTU (British Top University) interview. While I failed to make the cut, being called to that interview meant that I had automatically made the cut for a British programme... except the "A" Levels had to be done locally as opposed to overseas in a British boarding school if I got into BTU. Soon enough I was called to the local college PPP/ITM for a place to prepare for studies in mathematics. As I was among the 'odd' ones, I had to share a class with the engineering students.

So there I was in a class called Group J with some 20 students or so. They were mainly civil and electrical engineering students. Then again we were there for the "A" Levels, not actual mathematics or engineering courses. So for the British-sanctioned exams, we would be taking the subjects of modern mathematics, pure maths and physics.

Now in the article Remembering the "A" Level college days. Damansara Utama where the cool days started! I had also stated that apart from the study or lecture classes the students were divided into rooms or dormitories. My 51C room-mates who were in the same Group J were (let me call them by the nicknames ya...) Tonga, Mangor... hmm... there should be another one, who is he? Oh, its Jim... we like to call him Jim Bates because of some sentences in our English text book. Perhaps someone can refresh me what were the actual sentences because I remember it was very funny everytime the sentences were recited in class. So that makes 4 from 51C including me.

Other members of the class included Lan Bagak, Utoi, Bob. Hmm... my memory is failing me. That is one of the main reasons I'm writing this "Remembering the "A" Level college days" series of articles... I'm writing so that I can remember. OK, don't force it. As for the girls I remember Nini, and one Chinese looking Ipoh Malay girl, I think her name is Lina or something.

Drats! That word just came out. Must be from watching all the cartoon shows when I was small. For God's sake, I could remember only 9 classmates including me. Hmm... was it a total of 20 or was it 15 pupils in Group J? Even that I couldn't properly remember.

I can remember these though. Lan Bagak, a Kuala Lumpur local and former Victoria Institution student was made the class head. Tonga was from Petaling Jaya, ex-Bukit Bintang Boys School I think. Mangor was from Batu Pahat, Johor... Utoi is also a Johorean but I can't remember from which part.

I remember Nini as this cute girl with a large mole on her face who likes to sway her feet (rather violently I thought) under the table. I remember that I was so fond of teasing the girls, not only from Group J but other classes as well especially from the more vocal law classes. Suddenly old girlfriends like Az and Ann (not her real name or nickname ya) came to mind. For the record, I have to adjust the nicknames of the girls who were involved with me. Otherwise I will continue the story-telling with the nicks or their known names in college ya. Hmm... the relationship with Ann deserves its own story. That I would do one day. Sweet dear Ann, one of the girls I've failed to realise their true worth. Sheesssh....

OK. Somehow I remembered this about Utoi and I like to relate it. I hope you don't mind if you happen to read this ya. Utoi's real name is Shukor. Or Shukur... I think it's spelled Shukor. While some of us started the first week in class with nicknames already installed either from our orientation days or from the schooldays, Shukor was only known by that name... Shukor. One day someone unintentionally intercepted his letter from home. As the usual college day practice, sometimes we read someone's letters, not out of malice or any bad intention but only to tease. That's when Utoi's roomates (I can't remember which room he came from) found out that Shukor is called Utoi by his family! So the classmates came to know about this and started to call him Utoi. At first he can't accept this. Soon enough however it became the name known to us until this very day.

Another thing I remember about Group J is our class lecturer Miss Shana. Now, she was something. Among all the lecturers in our college, she was probably the most attractive and well-dressed female... and she' teaching English in our class. Sad to say I can't remember the other lecturers that well. There's a Chinese woman wearing spectacles and long wavy hair who likes to swing her big bulging plastic pen tied to a rope when talking about centrifugal force. Hmm, there's a Mr Mazlan or something who taught physics a few months later or so, a conservative-looking Malay teacher which I liked to tease a lot because of his less than proficient English.

During those days, I like to tease a lot of people. Whenever there's chance, I would try to distort every sentences coming out of lectures or discussions especially during the English classes into something that I thought was really funny just to get laughs. I would find opportunities to do stupid practical jokes and such because I felt bored. You see, since Form Four or so, I hardly studied for anything yet managed to get by in exams and scored big in my favourite subjects especially mathematics. This has made many regard me as a genius. But now when I look back to those days, I realised I was just seeking attention. I was having problems especially with my dad and that led to a certain feeling of hate against authority. This in turn was translated into defiance in college which I turned into matters for laugh. I forgot what I did then was very selfish and disruptive to others. I was lucky enough to be born naturally smart and thus able to get by without studying... in fact I missed a lot of classes but still managed to score well in tests and exams. But I forgot that others genuinely wanted to learn while I was just filling the days because of an education system which I used to really look down on.

With that thought, let me end this installment of "Remembering the "A" Level college days" ya. Cheers! :]

The rumah Kutai and old articles regarding the happenings around the Pangkor Treaty of 1874

Greeting all. Above is a replica of the rumah Kutai, the olden Perak Malay house at the Pasir Salak Historical Complex. I was doing a research on rumah Kutai today when I felt like digging into my old files. That made me realise that after a trip last year going around Perak to visit certain places related to the happenings around the famous Pangkor Treaty of 1874 and telling the story according to my perspective for a video, I never did any proper summing up of the story-telling although I've posted a number of articles on the subject matter. Here let me take the opportunity to present the links to the articles and a few others for posterity and easy viewing for readers. Here it is...

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... Opening the 'act' at Tanjung Malim

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... Batak Rabit in Teluk Intan, a major ground where the story unfolds...

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... From the tomb of Keramat Kuala Bidor to that of Raja Ahmad...

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... From Kampung Gajah to Pasir Salak

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak...Pasir Salak historical complex

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak...Foraying into Beruas

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... The fort of Ngah Ibrahim

Exploring the happenings around the 1874 Pangkor Treaty in Perak... To Kuala Kangsar and 'beyond'

And these are articles containing the Malay video clips as featured in the blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU ...

Teluk Intan dan masalah video yang sudah selesai!

Sultan Abdullah I, Laksamana Tok Janggut dan Tok PutihKeramat Kuala Bidor

Masjid lama misteri, makam Sultan Abdul Malik dan kubur Birch - Petanda bandar Melayu yang hilang

Makam Raja Ahmad... Sekali lagi sampai waktu malam!Sultan Jaafar dan Bandar Tua

Apa ada di Pasir Salak?Beruas dan suasana misterinya

Ke Taiping untuk mendengar cerita di Kota Ngah Ibrahim

Menutup cerita di Bukit Chandan

Dream of a lil' Luke Skywalker...

Look at the above picture. Can you see anything interesting?

Tell you what. Let me zoom in on the same picture. Can you see it now?

What happened was one morning, I went to Kuala Lumpur from Kajang. As I got closer to the city centre, there looms in the horizon the Telekom Tower at Bukit Nenas and the Petronas Twin Towers at Jalan Ampang with a major part of the buildings hidden under the clouds.

Now, it is not often you get to see the buildings this way. The previous day it has been raining cats and dogs the whole day and this could explain why the clouds appeared in such a manner the following morning.

What is interesting is how the top of the buildings look like it is on clouds. That sort of reminded me of the giant's castle in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk and the old Malay folklore of the kayangan, kingdoms up there on the clouds.

Hmm... suddenly I remembered mum telling the story in bed when I was about 2 years old or so. And everytime I would ask for the same story on Jack to be repeated. I learned about kayangan a bit later when I'm able to read. It is an oft repeated theme in many ancient folklores that I often wished one day I would get whisked away to the land above the clouds, maybe by riding one of the winged horses.

Here's a zoom in of the previous picture. For those who don't know, the Telekom Tower is at the centre and the Petronas Towers on the right, slightly hidden also by the blue signboard. Now I know the Telekom Tower stood at a height of 421 metres, the Petronas Towers at 452 metres. Both heights include slender telecommunications towers. Still both buildings appeared to be of the same height as the slightly shorter Telekom Tower actually stood on top of Bukit (hill of) Nenas which should add another 20-30 metres to its overall elevation.

OK, I understand that normally the lowest rain cloud should be at 1,000 metres above sea level. That should be way above the towers. But since the observation deck, the lowest part of the diamond-like section which could accomodate people (the rest of the tower are practically parts of a tall hollow column with elevator shafts) at the Telekom Tower stood at around 276 metres high, then this picture shows the clouds must be at most that high and at its lowest parts perhaps under 100 metres off the ground.

So this cloud might actualy be a fog on its way up. That could explain why it is so low from the sky. Then again how do you actually define a fog and differentiate in from a cloud? Up there in the sky you can call it a cloud but down there on the ground it is just a fog.

I remembered when the myth inside me regarding clouds was first broken when I was a small boy. Before that, I used to believe that the clouds are solid enough for humans to walk on it and that I got from reading many fairytales and watching cartoon shows. I remembered watching cartoons which show little clouds appearing in one's room before letting out rain along with thunderbolts of lightning. Thus I used to dream of two things - one, I would one day walk and play on the clouds and second, I would catch a small cloud to keep in my house, perhaps as some sort of 'pet'.

One day my parents brought me and the brothers up to the Cameron Highlands. At a height of over 6,000 feet, the top is often concealed by the clouds and as we started climbing by car up the winding road, I set up a plastic bag which I often used to catch bugs and grasshoppers. But as we neared the top, the clouds that I saw earlier have all disapperead. Instead I only saw patches of fogs and that's when I learned that, one... there's no such things as solid clouds, two... since there's no solid clouds, you could never catch a 'small' cloud as seen in the cartoon shows and three... fogs and clouds are practically the same... just a collection of small droplets of water hanging in the air.

Anyway, looking at the top of the Telekom Tower and Petronas Towers set up the fertile imagination back on fire. For one, it reminds me of an episode from the epic film series Star Wars where there was a city in the clouds. Second it made me think again about the origin of the name of the place Rembau in Negeri Sembilan.

You see, the story goes that the name Rembau came from the word Merbau, a type of local tree which could grow up to gigantic proportions. The story added that there used to exist a huge and high Merbau tree which reaches the clouds.

All this while I thought this was an exaggeration. But looking at the clouds covering the Kuala Lumpur skyline, I realised this is quite possible after all. It is no exaggeration that some local timber trees can rise up to a height of 100 metres. Since the clouds (or fog? depends on your perception really) in the picture do go down to that height, why must it be impossible for the Merbau tree to touch the clouds? That's all... :]

Remembering the "A" Level college days. The disco circuit of those days... and the girls

Back to the remembering process. The last article on the matter Remembering the "A" Level college days. Start of the disco fun and girls... talks about my first disco day in that college. It was in the first weekend after we moved to Damansara and it immediately became a regular fixture for us youngsters. Every weekend night practically became disco night. In fact every Saturday and Sunday nights plus any night before and during public holidays, we would rush to our favourite discos.

If in the the last article, I only talked about the one called Scandals at KL Plaza, soon the list included such celebrated places like Faces in Jalan Ampang and then the newly-opened (new in 1988 or 1989 that is) Phase II at Jalan Tun Razak, which is practically Faces phase II. While I couldn't remember if I have ever been to the Tin Mine, a well-known upper-class disco inside a hotel, I don't think I ever really need to check it out it as I understand the patrons where mostly middle-age VIPS looking to chase sweet-young-things especially local celebrities actresses and singers, fashion models and stewardess. Never mind, I had my fair share of encounter with such SYTs in other discos especially in Scandals. But let me just continue this piece with what I can recall from the disco days ya.

OK. In Remembering the "A" Level college days. Start of the disco fun and girls... , my first disco day was started with a girl called Az. While she continued to be a close girlfriend who accompanied me to many places for at least another month, I began to develop (again) the appetite for having many partners. Now, I can't remember everything off the cuff but I do remember having a number of liasons with other girls from the same college. Sometimes I would go the discos accompanied by any of these girls. Sometime I would practically go alone and meet the college girls at the discos where we normally hit on immediately after a game of deep staring from across the floor to get us up in the mood.

The supply of girls increased dramatically when our juniors entered college sometime in 1989. You see my batch totalled about 200 only while the next batch, Batch 8 had more than 400 students and majority of them were girls... sweet young things who tends to come to class fully attired with high heels and matching hand-bags. By then I already had a rather huge reputation for getting my way with girls. Having the juniors around just upped the stakes to a whole new level.

God Lord, it's been a long time since I tried to remember this. For many years I was so proud that I could simply pick a SYT from across the floor just by playing with eye signals and body language. Then some time later all these memories became something I would like to forget and burn out of my skull because of what happened during a later relationship. You see despite the fact that I was succesful in getting many SYTs to lodge cosily under my armpit, the fact is when it comes to actual love relationship, I was a total failure. Maybe because I was not disciplined enough to last the actual mile of developing a real meaningful relationship.

Yes, I was shallow in wanting only things of beauty which would last only for a little while before I got bored, before the thirst for the next conquest developed. But never mind, I'm digressing. Let's just say, judged in terms of having fun like what most youngsters would want, I had a hell of a good time. Like I said, I had my fair share of encountering SYTs who were local celebrities, models and such. And by the word encounter, I mean it's not just me admiring them from afar, but us getting close enough to fit the description of a scandal. Again I digress, between trying to remember what happened then as a way of opening up certain parts of me that seemed to be lost over the last two decades, against the more conservative me now who have realised and felt really bad for the amount of mistake and sins I've made.

OK, for the sake of writing this article and keeping up to the sub-title "The disco circuit of those days...", let me just add a few more memories. So I've mentioned Scandals, Faces and then the later opened Phase II. Then there's DV8 in Petaling Jaya, I've forgotten where it was and the house disco at PJ Hilton. Later there's also 11 LA in Lebuh Ampang and the few discos which I have forgotten the names in Jalan Pinang. Back then, the area known as Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) was still a horse racing track.

Whichever disco we go to, and we do go up to 7 discos in one night, it tends to end at the basement disco in the Merlin Hotel (now Concorde where the Hard Rock Cafe is situated years later). Hah, now I remember another favourite disco, the Traxx inside a certain building at Jalan Ampang. Anyway, the basement disco in Merlin was called Reflections if I remember correctly. We tend to end the day (or rather the night) there because as far as we know, it is the only respectable disco in town which opens up to 7am, sometimes 8am.

Now on the favourite spots inside the discos. I can't remember much except the favourite spots at Phase II and the one in Scandals. Hmm... let me start with Scandals. Oh, by the way our (me and my guys) like to go to discos known for its middle and upper-class patronage and the music tends to be soulful, RnB with a tinge of jazz and the discos mentioned so far met the criteria.

Scandals had this winding staircase inside leading to a platform where the DJ plays his music. It is among the darkest area providing room for 'private' matters. On the platform were a few chairs and this is a favourite place for me to spend 'quality' time with the girls.

Phase II had a similar staircase connecting it to a sister pub called Patio if I remember correctly. While other parts of the disco and the pub tend to be sardine-packed, the area under the stairs provided relief and enough space for me to enjoy proper liasons.

I think that should be enough details spilled out. Oh, forgot to tell, my favourite activity at the discos was to dance, at the dance-floor of course. Being students, we don't spend much on drinks. As we already had to pay a cover charge of between RM15 to RM20 per head at each disco (except when there's special occasion or the night is late enough and there's no need to pay for entry anymore) entitling us to a drink, we tend to just hang on to that drink for hours. A normal routine I remembered was to hang at the tables with the drinks as we eyed the crowd. This was normally when I look for potential 'victims'. Upon the slightest opportunity, I would try to lock my eyes on the eyes of the sweet thing of the moment. If she is available, then we exchanged signals before getting near and actual conversation ensued. Then it's time to pull them to the dance-floor for the mating ritual to fully kick in before we head for the more private spots, in the disco or later outside.

With that I end this piece. Cheers all. If any of you remember me from those days, please forgive whatever bad thing's I've done. Thanks! :]

The birds at Bandar Tasik Puteri

Look at this picture. Can you see the white spots all over the green? I bet you can. It's just perhaps you are not sure what it is. For information the white spots are birds, plenty of birds. I took this picture just about a week ago at the highway leading to the residential area of Bandar Tasik Puteri where I haven been staying for the last 4 months.

The area is situated between the Selangor small towns of Kundang and Batu Arang. Bandar Tasik Puteri was opened just under 10 years ago and now has a population of about 20,000 people I'm told. One thing I like about this area is its vast expanse of land. Unlike most residential areas of the same class I've been at, it is not congested and is full of green.

One of the most notable green is the one seen in this picture. Covering a few acres, it is practically a wetland with tracks of swamps or marsh. It happens that this particular area is a favourite for several species of migratory birds to stop and converge at. I don't know the names of the birds but you should see it for yourself.

I bet there's not many area in Malaysia which has this number of population of birds. And this one happened to be on the way to where I now live. That's all...

Interesting number this is...

OK. This is the number at the hits counter when I entered this blogspot just under a minute ago. In terms of how big the number is, it might not be that great. For information this is the first blogspot I started among three more than two years ago. While my second blogspot, the Malay-language CATATAN SI MERAH SILU have already passed 173,000 hits and my third, the bi-lingual SENI LAMA MELAYU (MALAY OLDEN ART) is going to 96,000 at the last count, this one is still languishing in the 40,000 + mark.

Never mind. I find it amusing that I entered the blogspot just under a minute ago to make the 44,444th hit. Otherwise I could have missed the number as despite its low-traffic, it is still often visited and that's enough to move the numbers quite a bit. And I just happened to come in when the counter moved to such a symmetrical number, in fact 5 identical numbers. Hope this augurs well for the future. Cheers! :]

p/s: Later, I was looking for some pictures of Janda Baik when I came across this old article titled My latest trip to Janda Baik and the number 22222! Then I realised, it was written in the same mold as this... except there's a number of pictures. Do have a look...

Remembering the "A" Level college days. Start of the disco fun and girls...

KL Plaza in Bukit Bintang. Behind in the building, there used to exist a very famous disco called Scandals, considered to be the most 'in-thing' if not among the most 'in-thing' disco in the whole of the Klang Valley, at least in the late 1980s...

Greetings all. I think it's time to start remembering the "A' Level college days again. In the last posting on the matter titled Remembering the "A" Level college days. Damansara Utama where the cool days started! made almost over a year ago, I talked about how the Damansara Utama days started with the college boys and girls arranged in a certain manner, by hostel rooms and classes. Then I ended the article with this paragraph...

With that I end this second installment (or is it third?) of "Remembering the 'A' Level college days". For the next one, I think we will talk about the out-of-college exploits including those at the discos and what happened with the girls... as and whenever I feel like it ya, cheers! :]

Just to turn the wheel of time behind a bit. With that, you can refer to the previous related article, Remembering the "A" Level college days. How I got the nickname Fly! OK, I started getting the attention of the girls since day one in orientation, that was in Shah Alam. Particular of note was a certain group of girls which some would say were the most popular of our batch... they tried to get in touch with me for whatever reasons, I just returned with a polite hi! With a bit of a naughty wink... hehe! While I was flattered by the attention, at the time I felt that I should limit my response to a current girlfriend which I met during the last days of my schooling.

I remember showing pictures of this girlfriend to my room-mates during the orientation days. Somehow she looks like a certain Malaysian celebrity by the name of Daphne Iking. Except Daphne hit the scene just under a decade ago or so while I'm talking about events happening some 20 years ago! Anyway let's call her Z ya. While she was probably the first girl I ever seriously thought about getting married to, there's a thing or two about our relationship that often got on my nerves. While her parents have accepted me to the extend that they have acknowledged we might actually get married later in life (I used to freqently bunk at her house, sleeping in her room whenever she's out to school... by then I've finished mine), I'm not happy with the way the mother always took her side whenever we had an argument. And we had argued quite a number of times because I didn't like the fact that a wall in her room was full with greeting cards and such from her admirers.

Yep, Z had plenty of admirers. When it comes to beauty and demeanour, she was probably the most famous girl in her all-girls school and news spread very well around as she became dearly noticed by the boys. I've often spotted her walking to school daintily in her own head-turning style but I would never have thought that we started hitting on each other after an encounter at the local roller-disco, teenage disco for those on skates and roller-blades. Wait a minute... was there any roller-blades during those days? Never mind. Whatever, I do remember enjoying the days going skating with the guys at the roller-disco.

Hmm... while I'm at it, might as well tell the story ya. So there I was at the roller-disco when Z appeared. I can't remember how we actually broke the ice but it started with some eye contact before I helped her skate. Yep, I was definitely the better skater while she had trouble just to keep her balance. In the conversation which ensued, I told her that I am good in mathematics and she asked if I could come to her house to teach her the subject.

A few days later, I came to her house. While I do like her, I was so straight in wanting to see her only to teach mathematics and nothing else as I like to keep my words, literally. Despite the fact that I tend to get naughty, I do believe any future hanky panky should come much later. But it soon became apparent, she wasn't that interested in learning. I mean just look at the way she takes sneak looks at me. I mean woow! Nice smile and nice eyes, plus dimples to boot! Suffice to say, we started talking about other things and soon enough became an item, a very serious item.

And so I went to college to do "A" Levels with Z very much in mind. By then it's been more than a year we were together... and I hardly see any other girl despite the fact that I always liked their attention, en masse! Then again she was still in school, in Form 5 and nearly 200 km down south in our native town of Muar. Oh, and the card thing, the cards from admirers on her wall. Whenever I voiced my discontent about it, she would protest. Then her mother would interject saying she was just being young... it's normal to enjoy the attention. Well, I was jealous. Being her man and officially that too, I couldn't bear the thought of her enjoying attention from other men. You see while I did enjoy getting attention from other girls, I was serious enough about her to actually make the effort of cutting myself off from others. Serious! But when I told her (and the mother...) about this, they would say who asked me to cut myself off? So after a week in Damansara not seeing her while stopping myself from seeing any other girl despite the attention I did get, I sort of flipped...

One weekend, hmm... come to think of it, it was our first weekend in Damansara. Some of the guys were planning on hitting the discos. Oh, by the way I've been to a few discos before, especially the famous Faces in Jalan Ampang (not in existence anymore). It started during the days I ran away from home after the SPM examinations where I bunked at a friend's place in Chow Kit. Back to the weekend in Damansara... the guys were planning on hitting Scandals, a disco I've never known about before. After all, I was not a native of Klang Valley and didn't knew its reputation as the place to be seen at. Whatever, I followed suit...

I remembered going in one car with 7 other guys and girls - 2 in front, the rest, 3 couples at the back. The driver and owner of car was Nash, next to him was another guy Paqua. Hmm, I still couldn't remember if Paqua was staying in same hostel room as me and Nash, that is in room 51C...

OK. I remember Din was with his girlfriend G, Mutt with Notts (now, when did they actually hit it?) and the remaining space was filled with me and... let's just call her Az ya. I can't remember how Az got into the fray but there she was sitting on me inside the car, just like the other girls, Notts and G sitting on the laps of their respective guys. At least Din and G were already couples from their school days while Mutt and Notts actually like each other and was in the process of mating. But me and Az? I seriously couldn't remember how it all started! Except that I was bored and tired trying to stay chaste for my then girlfriend Z who was in Muar... and tired and angry whenever I remember our little arguments before.

And so there we were in Nash's red Honda Accord plying the route to Bukit Bintang. We could have stopped elsewhere, we could have had some drinks first at the local mapley (the street-stalls right in front of our dorms). What I do remember is the car being stopped at a road-block at Jalan Syed Putra, perhaps because we were driving with 8 persons in one car, 6 being in pairs behind with the girls sitting on top of the guys... perhaps. But luckily Nash dealt well with the police and soon we continued on our way.

Oh. Being teenagers that we were, how do you expect us to behave? While Nash kept his eyes on the road, Paqua blushed as the couples started getting intimate. Din and G were an old couple, so they didn't need any cue... Mutt and Notts were getting to know each other, so there. That left me and Az. Well, seeing the others already on the move, I just couldn't help it... after all I was a young hot-blooded male and Az did have her eyes for me, so we hit on famously. With that we went on to Scandals really 'high' on life and that seemed to dictate my mood for the rest of the "A" Level college days. I think that's all for now! :]

p/s: Hmm... suddenly I remembered a late meal we had somewhere in mid KL. It was at an open stall. I remember Paqua's face was red all over upon realising that all the while me and Az have been playing footsie under the table. Was that in this outing our another? I can't remember. That's the thing... I forgot a lot of things. I'm doing this series of writings so that I could start to remember as I do believe it is within the tons of old memories there lies some missing pieces that could help me handle the future better or at least provide a proper closure. Cheers!

Of orchids and old college memories...

This is a picture of me, the wife, my dad and mum shopping for orchids at a farm near my house. Spending a full 3 nights and more days with them going around including to this farm refreshed my mind on the value of family ties. Except the articles on Batu Caves, the last few postings here directly or indirectly involved dad and mum... or at least thoughts of them as me and wife went to Jengka to attend a cousin's wedding. Then the four of us went to Bagan Datoh in the same car to attend the reception on the cousin husband's side.

In a way, the last few postings let off some sort of steam from my chest. Now it's time to return to some unfinished business, to let off plenty more steam from other parts of my inside.

OK. Sometime in June 2008, I started a writing which is supposed to make up a series in reliving the fond memories of my college days. But since then, I only managed to write a total of 3 pieces. And the last one was made in July.

Today, I felt I've released enough steam through other writings for me to be able to try again recalling what happened then. So here I would like to make a resolve... I would committ the next few writings at least to remembering the "A" level college days.

To be frank, I've forgotten a lot. That's why the act of remembering is important... for I believe therein lies a few missing pieces that could help me weather my future better and smarter. So I would continue writing the way I often do... by putting to paper (or rather the Net) what I could remember at any certain time. And this don't have to come in any particular order.

Anyway, down here are links to the 3 articles I've managed to write out so far. For the record, this is the 303rd posting in this blogspot. May it augur well for my effort. After all, I do like symmetrical numbers as this one I take as a good omen. Good night!

Remembering the "A" level college days some 20 years ago! Just to get the juices flowing...

Remembering the "A" Level college days. How I got the nickname Fly!

Remembering the "A" Level college days. Damansara Utama where the cool days started!

The Perak river mouth at Bagan Datoh

On Thursday 19th March, me, the wife, my dad and mum went to Selekoh in Bagan Datoh to attend a cousin's wedding reception. As the place was only 7 km away from the small town of Bagan Datoh, we decided to pay a visit afterwards, along with a few other relatives.

For Bagan Datoh is the closest town to the Perak river mouth...

Just look at the width of the river from here... it must be more than 1 km, perhaps 2-3 km across. For the record, the Perak river is the biggest and longest river on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. While the Pahang river on the east coast is longer, from my observation the Perak river is wider at least towards the river mouth.

A look from the jetty. There's some kids fishing here...

A look at the small town from the jetty. The town is so small, it probably have at most 4 rows of shophouse totalling some 20 shops or so...

What I do like is the view of the Perak river here. Seen here are my family members...

Actually it is still some 10km or so to the actual river mouth which could be seen in this picture, heading west from the jetty.

But the width and immensity of the river in Bagan Datoh is already huge enough to reflect on what's available at the actual river mouth. Just look at this picture... this is actually heading inland towards the east, opposite of the river mouth.

Here's another look across. That's all...

Inside Batu Caves...

Continuing from A climb up Batu Caves...


Here's a view at the entrance into the main cave of Batu Caves...

Here's a look going inside...

Above is small opening leading skywards.

A look at the entrance from inside...

There's set of staircase leading to the highest man-made platform inside the cave...

On the platform is a temple much respected by devotees...

Some of the staglamite and staglatite formation near the temple...

Above it is a huge opening allowing substantial amount of sunlight in.

Here is a view on the way down from the platform.

And one of the view going down from the main cave entrance. That's all! :]

A climb up Batu Caves...

Having stayed in Kuala Lumpur for almost two decades, I've climbed up the Batu Caves quite a number a times... if I remember correctly more then 10 times. But it's only recently I've made the latest climb after more than a year or so and this time I felt like sharing some pictures. Come! :]

OK. All city folks should know where Batu Caves is situated at. In fact it is quite reknowned internationally as the place were more than a million people annually converge to celebrate the major Hindu festival of Thaipusam, the biggest such event in the world outside of India...

Batu Caves houses perhaps the biggest concentration of Hindu temples outside of India...

Visits are often made not only by Hindus but also by tourist and locals, at least because it is the only limestone hill with caves easily accesible from the city...


Batu Caves is coveted by the Hindus such that they also have the biggest statue of a Hindu deity in the world outside of India.

Time to make a climb...

After a few steps, I felt like snapping a picture up. This couple happened to be in focus...

OK, a view over halfway up...

A look down from there...

And here, almost on top of the 272 steps. By the way this is the 300th posting in this blogspot. To be continued...