yikes!!!

Hmm. Karrin Allyson meets Summer Liew. In a multiverse with 11 dimensions , well perhaps , it woulda have happened. Looks like someone out there thinks like Papa. Papa just stumbled upon this album cover a few minutes ago so Papa doesn't know what to think here.....But Papa didn't copy nobody....

Lose a mountain, gain a volcano

Papa will make up for the loss of Kinabalu's standing.

Did you know there is a volcano in Malaysia?? An active one, no less?? [active in volcanologist 's definition anyway] As Mt Kinabalu, it is in Sabah, close to the Indonesian border. Only one in Borneo.

Bombalai Hill in Sabah is an active volcano! Also the only one in Malaysia.

Papa is not going to post any photos nor state its height. Its a ...little embarrassing..

malaysian geography textbooks

On the topic of remote places. Papa was taught, way back, that Mt Kinabalu was the highest mountain in South East Asia. Papa accepted that to be true. After all, one can lie about history and twist facts, but how can one lie about geography and quantifiable measurements right?

Uhm..Malaysia boleh?

Mt. Kinabalu -4094m. A tad over 4000m.

How do the other countries compare?? Indonesia, although an achipelago, has got lots of land mass (like in Irian Jaya-west of the Wallace line-[but Papa digresses]), so surely Malaysia tak-boleh right??

Ahh. the truth.

Puncak Jaya- 5030m
Trikora- 4751m
Mandala-4701m.

So, Malaysia textbooks are not very truthful. But this is not the end of the story. How about elsewhere???How about Burma, ranging up nearer to India and Tibet?

Taaadaaaa....

Hkakabo Razi- 5881m. Deserves a picture here.



Now THIS is a mountain. The highest mountain in SEA (really).

electro

Gpapa camera.

monsoon bahkutteh

In a bahkutteh shop on Main Street Kuantan (that would be Salt-Fish Road) a few weeks back. A cold and dreary morning.

Papa would post a morning shot from a dim-sum shop but there doesn't seem to be any dim-sum shops in Kuantan for the morning. [Papa has found one dim-sum shop open for the night though. Go figure.]

Papa post

Pict of Papa taken by Summer a few weeks ago. Summer wants a camera.

Mama done it again

1045am , sms to say not on. As a part of on going sms war this morning, she then lies by saying Summer wants to watch cartoons and doesn't want to go out. Huh.

Smses were about divorce. Papa ask her for proper resolution and then poof!! Papa is pretty depressed again today, but Papa has decided to do it in an organised way this time. Papa needs to move on as far as possible from Mama's madness. There is more spite and madness in one person than probably the whole of the lunatic ward in the Happy Hospital (formerly Bay of Rambutans) near Ipoh. As doctors go: the bleeding stops when the patient runs out of blood.

Everytime Mama says she agrees to divorce, then everything breaks down in the details. THEN Mama will cancel my day with you, Mergirl.

When you read this you will be much older, so hopefully then you will understand how much trouble Mama went to keeping you away from me. Papa will tell you one day.

sharp enough?

Feed me. Or else...

Kuantan morning

Papa was in Kuantan again this week. It grew from a supposed one day outing to a couple of days of work. So Papa ended up here Tuesday to Thursday. The bright spot was that Papa thinks the monsoon may have ended earlier (only maybe its taking a breather - Papa doesn't know right now yet). Papa hopes for sunlight and no rain- its about time to go to some remote places, which Papa wishes he could take you.

View just outside the hotel after check-out on Thursday morning. Blue skies...



The hotel is new and better than its surroundings suggest...Papa can walk to the various state departments and other POI. 5 minutes from the State SEDC, 8 from Sri Pahang, 3 to the surveyor, 1 minute to shops nearby...

Papa will be here again next week to shop for some land in nearby Gebeng to build a silica-manganese mill. (its sort of like a steel mill-except they use electric ovens/furnaces instead of coal furnaces of the usual steel mills. So lots of electric juice needed.) Silica-manganese mills are common in China but in South East Asia , Papa believes only Philiphines has got one. They seem to be a necessary and integral part of the steel industry, and so currently Malaysia exports raw manganese ore to China and then imports processed manganese back for use in its steel mills. Not too bright huh?

(Consequently Papa thinks for reasons of national interest, Malaysia should have one. Papa ihas been hinting and is going to promote this to the Pahang Government.)

Then Papa will be going to some other place to scout for land again, but for agriculture.

monsoon in the jungle

At the edge of the jungle. There is a hill in the short distance, which is part of a gazetted area of Chini. Papa hopes we can restore this plot of land to forest or jungle. Its was a drizzly day , very beautiful and dull at the same time. The denuded tree trunks hint at the richness that once was on this plot. Papa didn't do the clearing- it was cleared by illegal miners a couple of years ago.

Thou shalt not...

Coffee shop talk.

bacon and eggs-its too much!!

Mergirl had eggs and bacon on toast (adult portion) for size at teatime. Thanks to the power of positive thinking (or rather Papa fooling around with her), the little poppet (looks like one here,no?) managed to finish the meal (except for the toast and some of the egg which Papa stole). Unexpected side-effect, she got to be really active, and in fact skipped the customary nap on Papa. Normally she gets tired in the evening, so this aspect of her behavior with eggs and bacon needs to be explored. Possibly she doesn't get the best diet that she deserves.

On a side-note, this is what I suspect went through Summer's noggin at that time.

research people

Papa brought the people from the Rubber Research Institute on Thursday to inspect the minesites. It would seem they are interested in Papa's idea for regreening the sites, so they have come in a small convoy (3 4x4s, two theirs and one ours) to recce the areas. Both the federal and state RRI people were there, and we hope to commence some trials soon. It was a cold and dreary day, drizzling for the morning and most of the afternoon. Papa saw them off in the afternoon and then moved on to Kuantan to stay the night. Shoot, Papa only remembered to take the group photos after they had left.

It was raining the most of the night and the whole of the next day. Monsoon has set in so Papa had bahkutteh for lunch on Jalan Besar. Warms the stomach. Papa now has another idea, and Papa wants to look for dimsum in Kuantan town. Other than one porridge place, dimsum doesn't seem to exist in this town.

Friday was a productive day, since Papa has gotten a new idea, of preparing the roots for a new mining and forestry policy for Pahang. Papa will be back in Kuantan next week to further explore a germ of an idea.

Shoot, Papa

more summer

Papa discovered that you like pretty stuff. Walking with Papa you spot the jewelry shop from across the shopping complex. (Its is a small mall.) "Papa, we went to the shop before!?" [Ah- you want to go check it out...]

"Ok, girl, you can run over there to see the stuff inside while Papa goes to the ATM right next door. Ok?"

Zoom!!! Next thing Papa knows, Papa can see you standing right beside to the counter, you trying to peer over the tabletop. Since the counter is higher than you, its a bit hard but you make a good go at looking over the items at the bottom of the glass display cases. The salesgirl seems to be talking to you as you peep at the little trinklets. Papa gets some money ready , just in case you want to buy the shop down.
On closer inspection , we find out you like the yellow duckie and schinese lantern but still want the "S". Papa is going to bring you over to town to a nicer shop, to er , shop around. Despite Papa's request, Mama didn't let you wear your necklace so Papa wasn't sure of the next item to buy you. Next time ok?

summer smarts

After many weeks, Mama finally relents and I see you yesterday.

Almost the first thing you tell me with an earnest face..."I spoke to Mama already, Papa..."

Huh?? well, okey..."What did you tell Mama, mergirl?"
"I told Mama to talk properly to you, Papa."

Wow.

Then at the bookshop, you tell me all about Sleeping Beauty. I ask you, "Who taught you the story, girl? Mama?"

No answer so I ask you again.

"No. Mama never teach me. I teach myself."

So thats why you keep looking for the Sleeping Beauty books when we are in the bookshop. You look at the pictures and try to figure out the story. Because nobody reads fairy tales to you. Papa didn't read to you because he thought (mistakenly) that Mama would read to you and teach you the alphabet.

And so Papa understands why you are so anxious and proud to show your knowledge of the alphabets at lunch, when you had two forks and made out "L" , "y", "V". I know you are hungry for learning.

Papa will stop here for the time being.

premonsoon

One day before the year-end monsoon hits the East Coast. This is Beserah beach, Kuantan. Papa has a five minute stopover on the way to Kuantan port.

photos

Well Mama still won't let me see you. Papa sometimes think Mama is a little bit...nuts. Anyway Papa is not going to mention her again today, Papa just wants to put up some pictures of Tasik Chini when Papa went there for a short trip.

The lake is currently one messy place (although to Papa it seems it has always been messy), even the token canteen has closed down ("for renovation").
Papa went in the dead of the afternoon at 1pm yet the lighting seemed almost imperceptably to change from moment to moment. Presumably in the golden hours, the lake may actually be beautiful. It seems the orang asli kids used to swim in the lake. They no longer are allowed to, because inevitably the children fall sick after a dip in the waters.