Little Penang Street Market - Dec'07

Little Penang Street Market is held on every last sunday of the month at Upper Penang Road (behind City Bayview Hotel, and near to E&O Hotel), from 10am to 6pm. it is a non-profit project by Lestari Heritage Network, and aims to promote penang's arts and crafts. here, there are many stalls selling unique crafts, as well as various exhibition and performances lined up.

handphone holders, and also keychains/magnetic holders...

these are made from various seeds, beans, flowers and small twigs...

miniature kebaya, with matching handbag and footwear...

greeting cards with 3d-effects made from paper cuttings...

these are some kind of block printing? not quite sure here..

old-school cloth irons, and also a congkak board...

antique telephones...

small wooden chess set.

decorative items from coconut shells...

want to know your name in chinese? then visit this uncle. also sells various traditional chinese items...

a fascinating tale of penang botanical garden's waterfall, told by Himanshu Bhatt...

exhibition by Shamsul Bahari, artist of the month for December...

fancy getting your portrait painted?

small clay figurines...

little kid trying his hand at painting a paper fan...

kimono ladies on cards and bookmarks, made by folding colorful papers together...

and also, a glove-puppet performance by one of the PHT-HSBC Living Heritage Award recipient, Ooi Sew Kim with the Beng Geok Hong puppet troupe, depicting the tale of journey to the west...

> LittlePenang.com.my
> Little Penang Street Market @Tourism Penang
> Lestari Heritage Network

Merry Christmas 2007

photos taken in sunway carnival mall, mainland penang.

Dong Zhi (冬至) Festival

... eating the customary 汤圆 (tang yuan).

March of the Droplets

Penny Lin (林韋君)

thought she looked familiar when i saw her, but could not quite remember who she is... only realised later, oh.. i've seen her in Lavender (薰衣草) and also At The Dolphin Bay (海豚湾恋人).

> Lin Wei Jun's Ofiicial Website

Pantai Kamloon Recreational Park - The Sad State of Neglect

Pantai Kamloon Recreational Park is located in Bumbung Lima, Kepala Batas, in northern Seberang Perai, mainland Penang. it is accesible from the old Butterworth-Sungai Petani trunk road, located right beside the North-South highway at the Kedah-Penang border.

the name pantai (literally 'beach') is misleading, as it is not a beach, but a freshwater lake/wetland, with long, wooden walkways for visitors to take a stroll around the area. there are a few gazebos along the walkways for resting and enjoying the scenery.

however, the park appears to be anything but well-maintained. many of the wooden planks lining the walkways are broken or missing, leaving large gaps here and there. the decorative pots on both sides of the walkways are either damaged or altogether missing, and the contents are devoid of anything but weeds. the metal chains bordering the walkways are rusty and missing in most places, and there are litters on the ground, some appearing to have been discarded a long time ago.

the place itself is quite isolated. there are hardly any visitors around, adding to the lone, deserted atmosphere. birds are scarce, if any at all. the only sound in abundance came from the highway, of vehicles zooming past.

entrance under the highway, leading to the park.

the start of the wooden walkway.

available info list the total walkways' length as around 1800m, but i've ventured only less than 50m of it. the damage is quite extensive - many wooden planks are simply missing, with gaps more than enough to fall through; the rest, rickety and creaking, and not safe to step on. from the condition of the area, there's not much point to proceed any further.

there are siren system to warn visitors when the water level rises to a dangerous level, though i wonder if it's still working...

bright orange fungi growing on the wooden planks.

it seems that this place was built many years ago, judging from the condition. it's even visible in Google Earth - by comparison, butterworth outer ring road and jelutong expressway in penang do not even exist in Google Earth yet. For a unique recreational park that has been around for many years, there are surprisingly few info available on the web. Googling for "pantai kamloon" returned less than a hundred results, and less than 10 are direct reference to the park. another 'white elephant', apparently?

and no prize for guessing who is the elected parliamentary representative for this area. who else but the sleeping, see-no-evil, hear-no-evil prime minister?

overall, it is highly recommended to avoid from visiting this place at all.

> ofMalaysia.com's review

Jetty @Teluk Kumbar, Penang

jetty at teluk kumbar, penang. from bayan lepas, head towards teluk kumbar, and turn left into the road heading to gertak sanggul when you see the signboard. it's right after the police station, near the local library.

i guess this is supposed to be "dilarang menjala".

end of the jetty. notice the fallen-off railing. the rest of the railings are also wobbly, so don't lean on them. there are baby swordfishes down there waiting to target-practice on you.

looking back towards the land.

zzz....

Kek Lok Tong, Ipoh

Kek Lok Tong (Cave of Great Happiness?) is another limestone cave temple attraction in Ipoh, Perak. it is located on the same hill range as Sam Poh Tong - but unlike the more popular Sam Poh Tong which is accesible from the main road, one have to go through the Gunung Rapat housing area to reach Kek Lok Tong.

the limestone cave opens up to a beautiful lake garden at the other end. There's a quarry at the other end of the garden, which is partially hidden by some large trees (please excuse the poor quality of the photos - i always do poorly in landscape photography. sigh...).

playground under a large electricity pylon.

there's a lotus pond here, full of lotus plants and many pink flowers.

and also, a blue bird perched on sam-pah tong.