Week of Wesak

Last one week was a religious week for me where I attended an international Buddhist conference, discussion with a string of Buddhist clerics and scholars, interviewed in a Buddhist satellite tv channel, participated in the Wesak Day celebration in my family regular temple and chaired the committee election of a Buddhist society I formed some years ago.

The United Nations Day of Vesak was held from 4 - 6 May 2009 at Maha Chulalongkorn Buddhist University in Ayuthaya, Buddhamonthon Temple and UN ESCAP office in Bangkok. This year's theme was "Buddhist Approach to Global Crisis". The sub-theme deliberated on pollitical, environmental and economic situation affecting the world today.

With the conclusion of the conference, a Bangkok Declaration was issued. It will be more productive if the organisers will follow through with the relevant international agencies to present the results of the conference for further actions.

While in Bangkok I was invited by the Dharmakaya Temple as a guest in their satellite TV station Dhamma Media Channel to share on my role in the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth particularly as director of the organisation development unit. I was also asked to comment on the recent UN Day of Vesak Conference and it's probable impact to the community.

During Wesak Day my family and I were at a local temple situated near my house to pay respect to the Lord Buddha and participated in programs arranged by the temple. This is also the temple where my children attended their weekly Dhamma school. The temple was crowded with devotees coming in droves and Puja service was carried out in spread out sessions to enable all devotees to attend it inside the main shrine.

The UKM Buddhist Association had their annual general meeting one day after Wesak. I chaired the election session which elected a new team comprising many new faces lead by Leow Hoay Hoay. With so many fresh faces, hoped it will also develop fresh ideas to uplift the organisation. - Loka

Ox Year and PS

Still in time to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Ox Year. Hope the Ox will be a very strong one to pull through the slowing down market by giving an unexpected bull run.

Whatever the economic reasons, during this festive season there is the high spirited celebration of family ties, cultural practices, sumptous of good food and not forgetting the blast of fire crackers even though it has banned in Malaysia years ago. But the sound of fire crackers are heard less this year compared to previous years. This is one of the sign that people are spending only on the necessity only.

This jotting was done at my wife's hometown which is in the state of Pahang. The house is situated in a Chinese new village. Most of the single storey houses in the village are built from wood with zinc roofing although there are some which are already rebuilt with bricks and cement tiles roofing. It is no more a laid back village as expected because town center is just a short walk away. The bus station is also situated nearby.

The usual fast food - KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds - are at the town center since few years ago. The old cinema, where an autographed poster of Jackie Chan's movie " Who Am I" was pinned on the board, was teared down about two years ago. Part of the movie was filmed at a nearby primary jungle. On the site now is a block of three storeys shop houses and Guardian Pharmacy already opened it's latest branch in one of the shops.

Whatever it is, what is Chinese New Year minus the "balik kampung" feeling? My kids are having fun re-connecting with their cousins - not through chasing the neighbours chickens but going after the "enemy" with the Play station games. Hmm.... sign of change in the way kids are engaged nowadays. - Loka

To school with heavy burden

New school term begins today. Many parents has been visiting the shopping complexes and shops for the past few weeks to purchase school items for their school going kids. With the slowing down of the economy, every cent counts and parents are always on the look out for the best bargains. It will totalled up to few hundred bucks to a thousand if a family have four school going kids especially if they are buying those branded items.

For those kids who don't mind having non branded school shoes, a pair of canvas and rubber white shoes can be bought as low as RM3.99. Buying a pair of a local made popular brand because other kids having it too, it will cost at least RM 20.00 to RM40.00 a pair. Each kids will need at least two pairs each.

When it's time to pack the bags for school, it is normal if the school bags with the books (textbook, work book, exercise books, dictionary etc), color pencils, pencil case and a filled water tumbler slotted into the bag's side pocket - with the total weight of between 7 - 10 kgs. No wonder those trolley bags is an hot item not to be left out in any school items shopping spree. Those sturdy and popular ones comes with a price tag of between RM69 - RM 109 but we will be happy if it lasts one year of schooling!

Those kids with classrooms at the ground floor will be lucky but for those at the 2nd or 3rd floors, just imagine these poor kids have to carry the 10 kilos school bags up on the stairs. If the kids weighted just about 20 kgs, they will be carrying half of their weight on 2 - 6 flights of stairs!

My elder son's bag with everything loaded weighted about 9 kilos and his classroom is situated at the 2nd floor. To spread out the weight, all his exercise books were placed in a separate hand carry document bag. My son told me his teacher advised his class not to carry school bags with contents weighted more than 15% of their own weight. Most of the kids would have failed in this school bag test. Based on the advise, a 30kgs kid cannot carry more than 4.5kgs loaded bag but most loaded school bags are more than 4.5kgs!

Can the Education Ministry comes out with a practical solution to lessen the burden of the kids. - Loka

Stranded in a Ferris Wheel

View from carriage of Eye on Malaysia

Carriage of Eye On Malaysia

Eye On Malaysia

Rescue mission for the stranded passengers of the Singapore Flyer

My family and I were on a large ferris wheel yesterday afternoon, in carriage 28 to be exact.

It went for six rounds under the afternoon sun at about 5.00pm. At that moment the Singapore Flyer went kaput and 173 people were stranded on the 165 metre high Ferris Wheel.

Well, lucky for us. We were riding a Ferris Wheel during that time alright but in a different one. We were in carriage 28 of the Eye On Malaysia in Melaka, not the one in Singapore.

There was a Singaporean family on carriage 29 and they must be thankful that they were in a Malaysian Ferris Wheel rather than the faulty Singaporean wheel. - Loka

Makan makan angin

The kids and myself were having a good time relaxing on the double tube floating on the Adventure River. Reaching a bend of the man made river or more like a monsoon drain at the Lost World of Tambun themepark there was a sudden burst of water which creates waves on the so-called river. It felt like as though we were at the midst of a mini Perfect Storm. The double tubes were swaying like nobody business. Wow! that was fun and exciting!

There were two agenda on our family weekend trip to Ipoh; firstly to visit the long overdue water themepark and secondly to fulfill our gastronomical needs with the popular hawker food of Ipoh. Our troop includes mom-in-law and my wife's sister family.

My first impression on the Lost World - it was so small in comparison with its elder brother Sunway Lagoon. Anyhow, there is not much to complain since the promotional entrance fees was RM18.90 for adult and RM14.90 for children which is a fraction of the fees at Sunway Lagoon. I even received some complimentary tickets from a friend who was performing at the themepark.

The themepark was in a valley surrounded by limestones hill with greens and trees all over. Within the park was a 80 metres high free standing rocks formation known as Needle of tambun in a 400 million years old limestones valley. It was an interesting sight but since it was within the park area, it allows only those that purchased the entrance tickets to enjoy this gift of nature. What a pity!

The food galore was great. Cowan Street bean sprout chicken near the Excelsior Hotel was a yummy dinner for all of us. All the plates were wiped clean and the "hor fun" or flat rice noodles was so smooth. Early morning the next day all were geared up to fill up their load again. We headed to old town Jalan Bandar Timah and lucky to managed to secure two tables at Sin Yoon Loong coffeeshop. I waited for about about 30 minutes for a seat during my previous visit last year. The tables were soon filled with the crunchy "siew yoke"(barbecue pork), fish balls, yam cakes, hor fun soup, fried kueh tiaw, chee cheong fun, yin yong toast bread and white coffee of course! The practice here is that patrons can even order food from neighbouring coffeeshops. This enable the customers to enjoy the popular food from nearby shops without having to move from coffeeshop to coffeeshop.

After breakfast we proceed to the D.R. Seenivasagam public park. It's good to burn some calories after a heavy breakfast. The park management provides complimantary bicycle rides for kids. The kids were happy to take a bicycle each and had a good time cycling around the bicycle route. The caretaker was a nice Indian man who allows the choosy kids to change the bicycles without complain. He told me as a father of two he understands childrens fussy attitude and the job is not for those who are hot temper and easily gets angry with kids.

We went back to the hotel to wash up before checking out. The Regalodge hotel rooms is decently clean and it even provides complimentary broadband wi-fi service. The interesting part is that even though the room is small, it comes with an 32" LCD TV and cable tv channels. The only thing which I am particular was that parking was very limited and I had to park my car at the main road public parking. This hotel will be over shadowed once the now under construction immediate neighbour 15 floors Regency Hotel ready for business next year.

Lunch was a hot stuff. We had Sin Seng Fatt curry noodles and sui kau ( dumplings with pork fillings). Even my sons loved the curry with mint leaves and prawns.

The guy who sold us the "otak-otak" Penang styled dropped by again. I prefers this otak-otak to the Muar style otak-otak. He solicit his business by holding a A4-sized placard announcing his otak-otak for sale. He did not say a single word unless approach and he will pick up the banana leafs from the tables once the customers finishes. It seems this approach works well for him as the shops within his sales route did not object of him selling his stuff to the shops patrons. The patrons are not harrassed and the tables are kept clean. Very thoughtful of him indeed.

It was a "makan" trip indeed and everyone were satisfied with this short weekend trip. Maybe next year end we will be there again. It's really Makan makan angin ? - Loka