Malaysia is a bird watcher’s paradise with its great diversity of landscapes such as montane forests, lowland forests, wetlands and mangrove.

The mountain ranges, plains and wetlands of Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo are home to over 600 species of birds which thrive in the tropical environment.

There are two main regions for bird watching, peninsular Malaysia and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Many birds are common to both geographic areas though some species are endemic to certain areas.

These include the Malayan Whistling Thrush is found in the peninsula and the Bornean Blue Flycatcher and Yellow-rumped Flower-pecker inSabah.

Bird activities are concentrated in three distinctive habitats the montane forests, lowland rainforests and mangrove. In the cool montane forests which are above an elevation of 900m, species such as the Mountain Peacock-Pheasant and Mountain Blackeye thrive.

Lowland rainforests , which include freshwater swamp, peat and hill dipterocarp forests are the most extensive habitat for over 200 species of birds.

There are three good bird watching sites a few hours drive away from Kuala Lumpur. These sites are easily accessible by bus or car and have all categories of accommodation.

The nearest is the Kuala Selangor Nature Park, a mangrove swamp along the west coast that supports some 130 bird species and migratory birds.

Two other favorite places away from Kuala Lumpur and requiring at least two to three days stay are Fraser’s Hill and Cameron Highlands which have lush green surroundings and good hiking trails to catch sight of the birds.

Further inland and requiring more than a three-day excursion is Taman Negara National Park which has dense lowland forests that support over 200 bird species.

Most tour operators will make special arrangements for those who wish to include bird watching in their itinerary.

See you soon..

Today I would like to discover how clever you are.

Below are four questions and a bonus question. You have to answer them instantly. You can’t take your time, answer all of them immediately. OK?

Let’s find out just how clever you really are….

Ready? GO!!!

First Question:

You are participating in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you now in?

Answer Below…

Answer: If you answered that you are first, then you are
Absolutely wrong! If you overtake the second person, you take his place, so you are second!

Try not to screw up next time.

Now answer the second question, but don’t take as much time as you took for the first one, OK?

Second Question:

If you overtake the last person, then you are…?

Answer Below…

Answer: If you answered that you are second to last, then you are wrong again. Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST Person?

Third Question:

Note: This must be done in your head only.
Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator.

Take 1000 and add 40 to it.. Now add another 1000. Now add 30.
Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000
Now add 10. What is the total?

Answer Below…

Answer: Did you get 5000?

The correct answer is actually 4100.

If you don’t believe it, check it with a calculator!
Today is definitely not your day, is it?

Fourth Question:

Mary’s father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3, Nini, 4. Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter?

Answer Below…

Did you Answer Nunu?
NO! Of course it isn’t.
Her name is Mary. Read the question again!

Okay, now the bonus round:

A mute person goes into a shop and wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing his teeth he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.

Next, into the shop comes a blind man who wants to buy a pair of sunglasses; how does he indicate what he wants?

Answer Below…

Answer: He just has to open his mouth and ask…
It’s really very simple…

How many did you get correct out of 5?

So, How do you fell now?

Hi everybody. See you again. I just come back from Chinese Year Year public holiday. And I have something to tell you here. If you’re blur..and don’t know what to do in Kuala Lumpur especially at night, let me show you.

Kuala Lumpur has the most upbeat night life scene in Malaysia. Dining out and a night at the pubs or discotheques is normal activity for city residents and entertainment venues are virtually around every street corner.

There are also concentrated pockets which can almost be classified as entertainment districts. These are around the hotels in the Golden Triangle area of Jalan P. Ramlee, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Bukit Bintang. Out of the city centre a thriving nightlife area is located in Bangsar Baru.

Satellite towns in adjoining Selangor such as Petaling Jaya and Subang also have entertainment districts. In Petaling Jaya the largest number of entertainment outlets is located in the SS2 residential cum commercial district while in the Subang Jaya township the Taipan Triangle in the USJ district is the most popular.

So, if you’re planning a vacation to Kuala Lumpur, don’t miss to visit all these amazing places. Kuala lumpur is a city that NEVER sleep!

See you then..

Today, the weather in Kuala Lumpur is so hot after two days raining. I’m not going anywhere. Just stay at home. watching tv, read newspaper and play with my 2 years old daughter.

At night, Me and my family went out for dinner at one of my favorite restaurant close to KLCC. Then, I drive a car around the city. Then, my daughter was shouting with her hand knock the car window.

Me and my wife look outside. I saw a group of people gathering. Looks like a big event is going on.

I parked a car and we saw a Lion Dance. Actually, today is Chinese New Year. This celebration was so happening. My daughter is so happy. She followed dancing together with them.

See the video below..more about the lion dance and dragon dance:

Stop with that. I want to share with you some interesting facts about this Chinese celebration.Chinese New Year is celebrated over a period of 15 days beginning from the 1st day of the Chinese lunar calendar.

It is a joyous occasion marked by family reunions, giving of red packets or ‘ang pows’ by parents to their children or among relatives and well wishers.

This practice coupled with the giving away of mandarin oranges is intended as a symbol of prosperity and good luck for the recipients. Another feature is the traditional lion dance.

Chinese New Year is celebrated by the Chinese around the world so that in Malaysia.

Gong Xi Fa Cai.

TOURISM Malaysia’s “The Time Is Now, The Place Is Malaysia” campaign won the prestigious Asean Tourism Association (Aseanta) Awards for Excellence in Tourism 2008 for the Best Asean Marketing and Promotional Campaign category.

I read a local newspaper yesterday. I’m so proud after reading this great news. My heart said “WOW!!”. Congratulations Malaysia. Then, I smile by myself. Someone looking at me and then..he also smiling with no reason. Today I want to share this news with you. Here is the full article:

The award was presented during the opening ceremony of the 27th Asean Tourism Forum on Jan 22 at the Impact International Exhibition and Convention Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.

Receiving the award for Malaysia was Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor who gave credit to the creativity of the teams in Tourism Malaysia and its advertising agencies.

The campaign was promoted widely all over the world, enticing potential tourists to come to Malaysia and discover all its attractions.

The organisers presented five awards including Best Asean Travel Article, Best Asean Poster, Best Asean New Tourist Attraction and Best Asean Airline Programme.

Aseanta received 48 entries for the various categories this year. Its president Felix Cruz said there were many good entries but only the best were chosen. He hoped that there would be winners for next year’s Best Asean Tourism Photo, Best Asean Tour Package, Best Asean Conservation Effort and Best Asean Cultural Preservation Effort categories.

The Aseanta Awards for Excellence in Tourism is granted to organisations and individuals that have excelled in their contribution to the development and promotion of tourism in Asean.

This year marked the 22nd time that the Aseanta awards were held. The awards presentation ceremony host country is rotated on annual basis.

Formed in 1981, Aseanta is the umbrella organisation for national airlines, travel agencies and hotel associations of the 10 Asean countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

Once again..congratulations Malaysia. “Malaysia Boleh”.

I have two BIG questions for you..

1. YOU want to be an expert in Malaysian customs in just a few minutes?
2. You want to learn something about it before traveling to Malaysia? Then, keep on reading..

Ok..when visiting Malaysia, the visitors (I mean YOU) should observe local customs and practices.

Some common courtesies and customs are as follows:

• Although handshakes generally suffice for both men and women, some Muslim ladies may acknowledge an introduction to a gentleman with a nod of her head and smile. A handshake is only to be reciprocated if the lady offers her hand first. The traditional greeting or ’salam’ resembles a handshake with both hands but without the grasp. The man offers both hands, lightly touches his friend’s outstretched hands, then bring his hands to his chest to mean, “I greet you from my heart”. The visitor should reciprocate the salam.

• It is polite to call before visiting a home.

• Shoes must always be removed when entering a Malaysian home.

• Drinks are generally offered to guests. It would be polite to accept.

• The right hand is always used when eating with one’s hand or when giving and receiving objects.

• The right forefinger is not used to point at places objects or persons. Instead, the thumb of the right hand with the four fingers folded under is the preferred usage.

• Shoes must be removed when entering places of worship such as mosques and temples. Some mosques provide robes and scarves for female visitors. Taking photographs at places of worship is usually permitted but always ask permission first.

• Toasting is not a common practice in Malaysia. The country’s large Muslim population does not drink alcohol.

By applying all these when you’re holiday to Malaysia, then..you’ll become apart of Malaysian even in a short period.

However, don’t worry..if you forgot that, it’s ok. No punishment! he..he!! How you looks like, we as a Malaysian will treat you like a king and queen.

I think, this is the best place you must visit when you’re on holiday in Malaysia especially if you come to Kuala Lumpur. This is my strong recommendation!

Located just outside Kuala Selangor town is the quiet town of Kampung Kuantan, site of one of the largest firefly colonies in the world.

The fireflies which are found in abundance along the estuarine river system can be observed on river cruises at night.

These nocturnal tours are extremely popular and small boats are easily hired at the jetty which is also a handicraft complex.

By visiting this place, your honeymoon to Malaysia become absolutely memorable!

It’s also called ‘China Town’. When you’re on holiday in Kuala Lumpur, don’t forget to go to this place. If not, you will regret for the whole of your life. Fuyyo!!

This small place has too many shops offer a variety of textiles, clothes, shoes and handbags at bargain price.

If you were there before, you know that, right?

The area is also known for its jewellery shops with a variety of fine jewellery crafted in gold and set with gemstones. Nepalese traders offer exotic ethnic jewellery, wall hangings, ornaments, curios and teapots from India and Myanmar.

Make-shift and mobile stalls jam the streets with offerings of dried foodstuff, herbs, fruits, flowers and herbal remedies.

This unusually busy street becomes a shopping carnival at night with stalls presenting a range of products from ethnic goods, clothing and cosmetics to watches and leather goods.

This place is like a shopping heaven to the locals and tourists. Don’t miss it! Don’t spoil your holiday. Come and buy something as a special souvenir from Malaysia.

Langkawi Island has many faces and even more islands. But whether you’re looking for thrills and spills or a quiet holiday, I have advises setting aside some time to commune with Nature

JUST 10 years ago, a holiday in Pulau Langkawi would have been very simple, with lots of time to hang out on the beach, swim, shop for duty-free items, drive around the island with stops at Mahsuri Tomb, Craft Complex, Crocodile Farm, Black Sand Beach and batik factory, and then gawk at the man-made eagle at Dataran Lang or Eagle Square — all done quite nicely over a 2D/1N stay.

This was a favourite laid-back island for many people and it still is today.

But now Langkawi has become more sophisticated with new roads, designer cafes and shopping malls bearing duty-free shopping neon signs sprouting up in its main town Kuah.

Hip joints have mushroomed along the popular Pantai Cenang stretch and are now creeping into Pantai Tengah.

Luxurious resorts dominate prime bays and beaches while hotels and chalets get whatever vantage points available.

Still, the beauty of the island remains largely untouched despite the increase in the number of visitors and more buildings popping up everywhere.

Certainly it’s more vibrant than before and tourists now have more places to visit and more things to do. You’d definitely need to stay longer now to enjoy all that the island has to offer.

But whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to include a quiet moment to appreciate the tranquility. There’s no lack of it — if you know where to look. It can be found in the other smaller islands where the waters shimmer under the sun and stunning geological formations command the seascape. Or on cruises along the mangrove-fringed river to catch a sight of soaring eagles and a breath-taking cable car ride that offers views of waterfalls and verdant jungle canopies below.

Langkawi is still where time stands still and where you can seek solace from Nature.

Sea & Islands

All around Langkawi, you can find long stretches of fine white sand and a vast expanse of sea. Swimming and sunbathing are tame options but water sports like sailing and jet-skiing as well as snorkelling and diving offer thrills.

Plan for an island-hopping trip. Langkawi is actually made up of a cluster of 99 islands (104 at low tide and only about 50 per cent have been named).

Except for the main island of Langkawi and Tuba, the rest are unoccupied, including the popular Pulau Dayang Bunting (Island Of The Pregnant Maiden) where operators at a lake on the island offer boating facilities.

As you approach Dayang Bunting, there’s no mistaking the silhouette of a pregnant woman lying on her back. According to local folklore, it is believed that barren women will be able to conceive after they bathe in the lake or drink its water.

One wonders if the alkaline properties of the limestone bedrock underneath the water have anything to do with it? While you ponder on the mystery, let your eyes take in the stunning karst landscape with the deep green waters of the lake. It’s a marvel because just outside the karst walls is the salty sea.

The lake is a shallow depression formed by continuous dissolution of limestone bedrock. The formation of a doline followed due to the collapse of an underground cave ceiling several thousand years ago. It filled with rainwater and eventually the lake was formed with a depth about the height of a four-storey building! Another special feature of the island is the fine quality limestone marble found here. Its unique geology has earned the island the name Marble Geoforest Park, part of the protected, Unesco-recognised Langkawi Geopark.

Spend some time too at other islands like Lima, Tuba, Bumbun, Singa Besar, Singa Kecil and Jong which looks like a ship. You can also liken the rock faces and shapes of most of the islands to things, people and animals and marvel at all the geological landscapes and formations that date back to more than 220 million years ago.

Show Of The Eagles

Hire a boat to cruise Sungai Kilim and its maze of mangroves. As the boat moves slowly along, watch out for playful otters or monitor lizards. If you are lucky, you’ll see frolicking dolphins.

Look up when you hear the cries of Brahminy Kites or White-Bellied Sea Eagles. Drawn by chicken skin thrown by boat operators or tourists, the eagles would swoop down, catch the feed and then fly away majestically. Langkawi is named after the Brahminy Kite eagle (helang or lang in short, while kawi refers to batu kawi, the brown stone found abundantly on the island).

The only drawback to eagle watching here is seeing tourists-laden boats with loud engines zipping fast along the river. Some boatmen make their engines roar loudly to get the attention of the eagles towards the chicken skin.

Try and use the services of registered nature guides who would coax boat operators to be mindful of the natural surroundings and to ply the river at a more leisurely pace.

These are guides who would go out of their way to point out the different mangrove species along the river and talk about their importance to the eco-system. They’ll also show you wild exotic orchids, blue and orange crabs on mud-banks, kingfishers perched on trees and even stop to watch colonies of monkeys and monitor lizards.

Along the river are several kelongs and one also serves as a floating seafood restaurant. Called Hole In The Wall, this is where you can have some of the freshest seafood on the island.

Sungai Kilim and the Kilim mangrove area are part of the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park with sea-caves, sea-notches, sea-stacks, arches and wangs as well as untouched freshwater and seawater lakes.

The river opens up to the sea where islands — home to ancient limestone rocks with exotic cycads, slipper orchids and colourful begonias — fringe the shores.

Nearby Pulau Langgun has a camping site and a lovely lake (Tasik Langgun) formed through years of accumulation of rainwater in a limestone sinkhole.

Opposite Pulau Langgun is a lovely unnamed bay in an isolated part of the main Pulau Langkawi. A small opening in the karst wall on the bay allows seawater to flow into a sinkhole on the other side. The sinkhole is surrounded by almost vertical karst walls and the trapped water forms a hauntingly beautiful blue-green lake called Tasik Langsuir (Banshee Lake).

The scenery is so breathtaking that your hair will stand on ends. From a walkway on stilts on one side of the lake, you will be able to see exposed fossils and several species of mangroves including kurap, minyak, berembang and nyireh. The bay is not far from the Kilim rivermouth.

Just across the river from the Sungai Kilim Jetty is Gua Kelawar (Bats Cave). Walking to the cave will take you through a boardwalk fringed by mangrove forests where myriad birds thrive. Look up and you’d see hundreds and hundreds of bats clinging on to the cave ceiling.

Dating back to more than 400 million years, Gua Kelawar has spectacular limestone formations and ancient oyster shells attached to parts of the wall just above the sea level.

Above The Fray

Imagine soaring in a gondola hanging precariously to cables over ancient ridges and forests. You hear the wind whistling through the small opening of the fibre-glass bubble and feel the air getting cooler as your gondola makes an almost vertical ascend to the peak of Gunung Machinchang.

The Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park is where you can find the country’s oldest geological formation (550 million years old) with unique sandstone ripples.

The cable car ride from the base station in Oriental Village near Burau Bay to the peak takes 15 to 20 minutes, a 2.2km route that is absolutely thrilling especially when you pass over the seven-tier Telaga Tujuh waterfalls. You will feel the tingling, dizzying sensation once more when you stand on the highest platform (about the height of a 180-storey building!) and extend your arms to embrace tiny islands, green lowlands and the vast expanse of tranquil ocean against the blue sky. That’s the magical, mystical Langkawi that you’ll never want to let go.

THE reason why Malaysia has succeeded as a tourist destination is because it is truly Asia. Our culture comprises all the Asian elements be it Indian, Chinese, Arab, Indo Chinese or indigenous Malaysians. You will find pieces of Asia in this beautiful land and they meld into each other with ease.

Therefore, I feel that the Tourism Minister should not remove a piece of our Malaysia Truly Asia element by stopping barongan and endang dances in its promotions simply because Indonesians claim these “belong” to Indonesia. I also hope the Chinese lion dance and the vibrant Indian dances don’t suffer a similar fate for “fear” that they have originated from other countries.

Of late, Indonesia has been quite vocal in its claims that we have been using its culture, especially music and dance, for tourism promotion activities. Reog Ponorogo (barongan in Malaysia) activists even demonstrated outside the Malaysian Embassy in Indonesia against the performance of Barongan.

The Tourism Minister has been pressured to strike out these performances, which I think is not a really wise thing to do.

Culture is one thing which is never original and never will be. Go Japan and you will hear Chinese elements in its music, songs and dances. Go to Indo-China and you will experience Indian or Chinese elements in their culture. Go Latin America or even The Philippines and you will see Spanish elements in their culture.

All over the world, people influence one another and there is no one culture that is truly original. Should we all give up our cultures then?

The English language that we use, sometimes to promote our culture, is not ours too. Should we stop using it then?

If we start striking out performances or music with foreign-perceived roots, then we will have to strike out lion dances, the zapin, bharata natyam and so forth. How then are we going to justify our promotion tagline of Malaysia Truly Asia?

Even if certain performances had their roots in Indonesian culture, I am sure these would have evolved to acquire a Malaysian identity, especially in the costumes as well as the way they are presented.

Moreover, haven’t historians on both sides of the Straits tell us both Indonesia and Malaysia grew out of the same mother — the Johore Empire?

Culture is something reflective of a country’s people. As we are a multi-racial country, our culture will always reflect elements of Asia.