My Encounter With Kopi Luwak In Indonesia

It was around 3pm in the afternoon when we arrived at the Ijen National Park, East Java, Indonesia. We were passing through a coffee plantation when Wahid, the driver of our tour suddenly broke the silence.

"A cup of this coffee can make you wide awake at night," he said,

"But that's not because of its' caffeine, but it's because of its hefty price!"

Mount Bromo-Mount Ijen-Bali

It's been a while since I last blogged, and that's primarily because I was kinda busy with work and life and erm, preparing for this trip (my friends and I have been preparing for this trip since February, but we didn't actually prepare for it until a week before the trip).

So yeah, here's a brief summary of what to look out for in these three places.

印度--后记....India--An Epilogue

一时的冲动，一生的故事。

印度给你的印象是什么？

你对世界上最大的民主国，第九大经济体，十二亿人口国家了解有多少？

2013年七月二十七，我从新加坡飞往印度新德里，再从新德里飞往阿摩达巴，为期一个月。

Why Is The Elephant Tusk So Valuable?

New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman reported that in 2011, there were 38.8 tons of elephant tusks hacked off 4000 dead elephants worldwide.

That's a very frightening number--4000 dead elephants from an estimated 500,000 elephants left in the entire world today. Putting that into perspective, it's like 56,000,000 people getting killed for their teeth.

Image: treehugger.com

 Why on Earth would anyone want an animal's teeth? Elephants don't brush their teeth.

福州--月圆人团圆

我的贯藉是福州闽清。
我公公婆婆在战乱期间为寻求好日子不惜背弃家园远赴南洋。听说我婆婆当年才十几岁，从我祖屋到福州城需要走三天，然后坐船到香港一个月，再等下南洋两个月，全程三个月。
我老豆就是个念旧之人。这次回乡终于把我们全家人带回祖墓去扫墓，顺便与福州的亲戚共度中秋。

What Can We Buy With Human Lives?

Stanford economists estimate that the average value of a year of quality human life is close to about $129,000.
But for the people of Mosquito Coast in Cocobila, Honduras, a lobster is priced at 352 lives.

The Miskitos are a native American ethnic group in Central America, and most of them dive for lobsters to earn a living. These lobsters are no ordinary lobsters--they are considered luxury food for the European and American market, and the Miskitos literally risk their lives catching these sea critters for the rich and famous.

A Brief History Of Academic Dress

I was stalking my friend's facebook page this morning when I saw his graduation pictures. And, as always, a question popped up and I started googling on the history of academic dress, who designed it, and why is it designed that way.

University of Malaya Academic Dress. No the elephant is not part of it. Image: Tan Chin Seng.

According to students' best friend, Wikipedia, an academic dress is

移民，做模？

你有钱了吗？

中国近年来发展迅速，人民逐渐富有了起来。而中国也在去年正式取代日本成为世界第二大经济国。
最近一个由中国中央银行和胡润百富（一个位于上海的财富研究机构）进行的研究指出，在现今中国的九百八十名百万富翁中，有超过一半的人考虑移民。其中就有十五巴仙已移民或已开始移民程序。移民到的国家则是美国，加拿大和新加坡。

Discrimination

I really don't understand why Malaysian Chinese love to migrate to western countries just to be abused like fugitives.

Our politicians are egregious. But in fact every other politician on this planet is just as bad. At least in Malaysia I don't get mocked when I walk down the streets of PJ/KL.

The Less Intelligent More Likely To Accept Astrology As Scientific

Finally, a comprehensive study to prove that.....er.... I'd rather let the data speaks for itself.

No-Fathers Day

The Mosuo (摩梭) culture of the Chinese Himalaya thrives in a matrilineal society, which means men don't playing any significant role in the family. Here, women head the households, make business decisions, and own property, which they pass on to their matrilineal heirs, very much like our own Adat Pepatih in Negeri Sembilan.

And most importantly, they shun marriage.
Yes. No marriage at all. So where do the kids come from?
I guess some of you may be processing your sordid imagination by now but no, there is no incest involved.

Thaipusam 2011

Thaipusam, or sometimes known as Thaipooyam, is a Hindu festival celebrated by Hindus to commemorate the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel(a spear) to destroy the evil demon Soorapadman.

Batu Caves is the place where millions of Hindus in the Klang Valley converge to celebrate the event.
I woke up early in the morning, 3:15am to be exact, brushed up and went in Ivy's car. Btw I find her car extremely clean.

Thaipusam is celebrated on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai(January/February). So the moon was really pretty that night-captured using 55-200mm zoom lens.

On route to the cave, we walked pass this building and I was kinda disturbed upon seeing the number of air conditioning unit for this single building. Imagine the amount of electricity required to power up those machines and more importantly, the amount of pollutants such as CFC released into the air(though not many modern air conditioning unit still uses the CFC, but it's still disheartening.

Look at the wave of devotees flocking into the cave! Btw I guess the big statue there is the statue of Murugan, as he is holding a spear in his right hand. There are 272 stairs leading to the cave.

This dude has got pots of milk hooking on his body. This form of self-sacrifice requires the devotee to undergo a 48-days fasting as well as performing elaborate ceremonies before the Thaipusam. Staggering stamina. We could hear people calling out velvel! velvel! along the way. It's a form of encouragement for the devotees, and it literally means "spear", which was given by Parvati to Murugan.

Upon reaching the cave, there is a priest waiting to take off the hooks from their body. They would then pray and do some ceremony. Oh btw the guy just fainted.

There are various forms of Kavadi, the easiest being carrying a pot of milk. Heavier or larger kavadis involve hooks stuck into the back and either pulled by another walking behind or being hung from a decorated bullock, with the point of incisions of the hooks varying the level of pain. The greater the pain, the more god-earned merit.

Alright I didn't know that Theirry Henry is a Hindu, and that Batu Caves has got his attention.

The people are burning plastic bags. Sorry to say but it's really sickening to see the bags going up in flame and no one seems to be bothered at all, except perhaps Ivy and myself.

There is no stick. Don't worry, I understand what you're trying to convey dude XD

Stalactite hanging above us. I could sense droplets of water in the cave. Imagine if one actually falls...

Night view of KL city from the entrance to the cave. Panoramic view-thanks to the photographer.

This explains why cows are exalted by Hindus. But I couldn't find the name of the goddess.

This is funny. I saw something rising upward in the sky, and I thought it was a lantern or something, so I took out my zoom lens and snapped a shot, and zoomed in... EPIC FAIL TWEETY.

Outside the cave there is temple dedicated to the Monkey King Hanuman. He appeared in the Rayamana, helping Rama to defeat the demon king Ravana. Awesome statue.

The girls went to had their hands tatoo-ed. RM 5 per hand.

Ahhh... so this is the right way of using a tripod huh? How do you know it's snapping the right target?

This is another sickening view besides the plastic-burning incident. A stall was giving away free roti canai and the people discarded the polystyrene everywhere. It shows that we haven't really evolve.

This river I think acts like the Ganges River. Devotees go in the river and clean themselves. Just like her Indian counterpart, this river isn't really clean though..

 This man of god has a spear through his mouth. He is deciphering the man's fate for the coming year.

 I had my arm tattoo-ed as well. Great muscle, I know =P... oh and fair skin XD

 They had their tattoos modified cuz they weren't happy with the first tatoo.

 Saman is the way of Malaysian. Love it. RM 300 gone on the day of Thaipusam.

Nikon D7000. If only I have sufficient cash to convert my D60 to a D5000...cheaper than D90 but it has video recording ability.

All in all, it was a great experience really. I saw for the first time people actually puncture their mouth and tongue with a spear, and according to them it boasts no scar. o.O unbelievable? I know.

Experiencing a new form of culture is really cool. I don't mind coming back for another Thaipusam next year because in every kavadi I sensed the spirit and dedication of Hindu devotees to their gods, and that is worth a thousand rounds of applause.



Malcolm.
info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam

中国人 VS 马来西亚人

中国人：冰箱里的剩菜还有吗？ 马来西亚人：昨天雪柜的菜还有咩？
中国人：我忍无可忍拉！！ 马来西亚人：我behtahan料拉 ！！
中国人：蔡依琳很风骚！！ 马来西亚人：蔡依琳很hiao！！
中国人：孙悟空 。 马来西亚人：苏母空
中国人：你为什么没出席？。 马来西亚人：你做莫没有来？
中国人：我中罚单。  马来西亚人：我中SAMAN
中国人：我要上大号。  马来西亚人：我要大便。
中国人：很恶心～。 马来西亚人：很 geli~
中国人：不要来挠痒我，我怕痒！ 马来西亚人：不要 kuci 我，我怕 geli!
中国人：明天还得去上学，很闷！ 马来西亚人：明天还要去读书，够力sien！！
中国人：我不能拿了。。 马来西亚人：我没有手料！！
中国人: 有警察 。 马来西亚人: 有MATA
中国人：你太牛了～ 马来西亚人：你西北厉害下。。。
中国人: 今晚你有空吗？我没空！ 马来西亚人：今晚你得不得空？我不得空！
中国人: 饼干受潮了。 马来西亚人: 饼干漏风了。
中国人：从上海去苏州要多少个小时？马来西亚人：从上海去苏州要几粒钟？
中国人：周杰伦不喜欢穿内裤。 马来西亚人：周杰伦不喜欢穿底裤。
中国人：我一向都是这样的。 马来西亚人：我一路来都是这样的啦
中国人：我的手机掉进沟渠了。 马来西亚人：我的电话掉进龙沟了。
中国人: 这样你不是很不值得吗？ 马来西亚人：这样你马很不歹?
中国人：你真是 聪明！ 马来西亚人：你真是pan nai ！
中国人：你安静！ 马来西亚人：你 diam diam ！
中国人：我要去银行取款。 马来西亚人：我要去银行按钱
中国人: 为什么？ 马来西亚人：做莫？
中国人：你很 强！ 马来西亚人：你很够力
中国人：明天也叫他一起去吧！ 马来西亚人：明天叫 买 他一起去！
中国人：我很郁 闷 ！ 马来西亚人：我很 显 啊
中国人：你再说我就打你！ 马来西亚人：你再说我就 hood 你！（有点粗俗的）
中国人：你在说什么？ 马来西亚人：你在说 sommok ？

我爱马来西亚~~

Image : "Only in Malaysia";facebook.com

Malcolm
info:
http://cforum.cari.com.my/viewthread.php?tid=2031870&extra=page%3D1&page=1

Discrimination Against Muslims in European Job Market.

We all know about discrimination, and everyone's effort to curb the problem. In football, for example, FIFA is trying hard to bring the racial element out of the game. Europeans are trying to cover up their racism problem but to no avail, we could still see cases of people being displaced in Europe and ironically the human rights groups in Europe are blaming the Chinese government for being biased towards the minority Uyghur in Xinjiang. Clean your own ass before you laugh at others.

Horoscopes

Ancient people used the position of the sun, the moon and the stars in the sky as a guide for agricultural activities. Nomadic tribes used the constellations of the night skies for navigation, a practice which was later used by many civilizations. This led to the study of astrology (note that astrology is different from astronomy).

Why would they care about a planet trillions of miles away with mass less than 100 times the mass of our sun? We are so pathetically minute and incapable within our own solar system that we couldn't even land a man on Venus.

Deepavali -- The Festival of Lights

Deepavali, or Diwali is an important five-day festival in Hinduism and Jainism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For Hindus, Diwali is the most important festival of the year.

Image: malaysiasite.nl

Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (divas) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. Some Indian business communities begin the financial year on the first day of Diwali, hoping for prosperity the following year.

Shaking someone's belief makes them stronger advocates.

It's like when you kill a baby girl in ancient China, you wouldn't feel the guilt because everyone is doing it. So why not? It becomes a norm, something so common and simple.

I read a post by Ed Yong on shaking some people's beliefs and it backfires-- instead of discouraging them, we are actually encouraging them into becoming stronger advocates of their ideas.

It's easy to find examples of people holding on to their beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Thousands still hold to the idea that all life was created a few thousand years ago, that turning on your mobile phone at petrol kiosks could induce fire, and even that drinking industrial bleach is a good idea. Look at comment threads across the internet and you’ll inevitably find legions of people who boldly support for these ideas in the face of any rational argument.

Stigmata

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet.

Confusing?

I remember watching the program "Is It Real:Stigmata" on National Geographic Channel while I was having my vacation in Pangkor Island two years back. It was something so new to me back then I felt an instant disgust at Catholicism. Call me stereotype =P

What Happens if You(women) Leave Afghanistan.

First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. The pain was unbearable that Aisha eventually passed out--but awoke soon after, choking on her own blood. The men had left her on the mountainside to die.
Caution: this entry contains graphic images which some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.

The Sun

All too often we take our sun for granted. The sun provides plenty of sunlight and warmth, and the plants use the sunlight for photosynthesis, which then feeds the hungry mouths of herbivores and omnivores alike. The animals are then devoured by predators, the predators die and return back to nature. It all comes from the sun, and even ancient philosophers recognized this fact, and they adorned the sun with tales and names and myths and throned it as god.