Thursday, May 31, 2012

Sweet Potato Chips (Home Made)

Ingredients :
Sweet Potato
- Slice thin
- Heat wok with oil and deep fry till crispy
- Dish dry

Sprinkle with the following (all mixed together)
- 3 tablespoon of salt
- 2 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of chilli powder
- A pinch of cayenne pepper (available in most supermarkets - see sample below)




Happy Snacking!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Trekking in Royal Belum

6 of us bought the Groupon offer for Royal Belum Resort and went for a short break with some trekking in the "famed" Royal Belum / Temenggor area.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Temenggor area, here is a map that may help.


One will need to have a permit to enter into the Upper Temenggor, which is known as Royal Belum Forest Reserve. You may call Perhilitan Perak 05-7911164 for a Guide to be arranged. I called Zul at 019-5900144 whom introduced Azmi to be my guide for the trip. (I have misplaced Azmi's number) Typically a day trip around the Temenggor area would take one to :
1. Rafflesia sightings
2. Sg Kejar Orang Asli Settlement (bring some food, chocolates, clothes if you can)
3. Jenut Papan Salt Lick
4. Sg Mes Waterfall
5. Sg Ruok Waterfall

The cost would be approximately RM 550 for a boat which can fit upto 8 pax. Boat would be the only way to travel around the places at Royal Belum.

The Lower Temenggor is known as just Temenggor Dam or Temenggor Lake and from Wikipedia, this explains it:
Temenggor Lake is the second largest lake in Peninsula Malaysia after Kenyir Lake in Terengganu, Malaysia. This man-made lake is located south of 1,533 m high Ulu Titi Basah peak, in Hulu Perak district in the state of Perak. It was created after the construction of Temenggor Dam to generate electric power. The lake is located about 45 km from the Hulu Perak district capital, Gerik. There is a man-made island, Banding Island (Pulau Banding) and Lake Temenggor Bridge on the East-West Highway which crosses the lake.

Date of travel : 26-28 November 2011

26 Nov 2011, Saturday
6.00am Depart from KL (3.5 hours drive to Lenggong) Exit at Kuala Kangsar and drive towards Grik. Lenggong is a small town on the road towards Grik.
9.30am Arrive Lenggong for brunch (It's a odd hour to arrive at Lenggong as places which are selling breakfast would have sold out by then and places selling lunch is not open yet) Thankfully we found one place with some noodles and the famous fish ball at Lenggong.
10.30am Leave Lenggong to Pulau Banding jetty (1.5 hours drive)
12noon Arrive at Pulau Banding, Royal Belum Resort (One can drive up to the resort)

We checked in and in the Groupon package a Pulau Banding Island Cruise and Night Trail was included. So we did the island cruise in the afternoon. Basically its just a cruise round Pulau Banding with nothing much to see.
Some sights around the resort...



3.00pm We started the island cruise and then went for a kayaking session

Kayak towards the bridge



8.30pm We went for the Banding Forest Night Trek. Its just basically a simple night trek, nothing much to see nor hear. But for people who has not done any night treks (or even day treks), it may be quite an adventure :) The trek was only for about 30 minutes.... there was a slight shower and probably because of this, the trek ended faster than it should.

To keep ourselves occupied that night, we played Boggle and Uno! My all time favorite games..... (somehow I don't have my scrabble set anymore and I can't remember where I placed it!) - The next game that I would like to have is Taboo :) Yes, I am a board game lover.

27 November 2011, Sunday

We did the day trek - Estimate timings from 9.30 - 6pm 
The starting place for Rafflesia sightings
Sg Kejar Orang Asli Settlement



Sg Mes Waterfall




Sg Ruok Waterfall


28 November 2011, Monday
Our return day and on the way back, we stopped by another waterfall. This is on on the road from Kuala Kangsar to Grik. In fact along this road, there are a few waterfalls that one can go! This is Lata Kekabu and the signage is visible by the road. Just follow it. There is a path to the falls. Easily accessible.



Lata Kekabu
An overall experience that I think I would only do once. Unless maybe its to return for a camp. If you do a day trip for trekking into Royal Belum, there really isn't anything much to see.... not much wildlife can be seen. The resorts are also quite pricey here. A cheaper alternative is to stay in hostels available in Grik and food is easily available. If you stay at the resorts, you won't have many choices for food!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

From burgers to thosai, what is next?

After reading the articles on the above, I cannot refrain myself from writing this. The contents below are purely based on my personal view only and it is an expression of my thoughts..... happy reading :)
The quotes by people as below are taken from FMT site.

So DIG says :
It is not wrong to sit in front of anyone’s house provided they did not disturb the occupants of the dwelling.
There was nothing wrong with protesting outside a person’s house as long as the occupants are not disturbed.
“What offence? If you want to sit in front of her house without disrupting other people, there is no offence.
“As long as they don’t commit any offence such as trespassing on private property, we will not take action.”

My comment:
Very interesting. So now everyone is allowed to protest outside anyone's house?  If you are not happy with the person for whatever reason, you now have a right to protest and the key to remember is "as long as you do not disturb occupants of the dwelling"
Let's put things into perspective - I believe a lot of us have one reason or another to protest and the most recent cases would be Protest against brutality and violence? Protest for fair elections? Protest for freedom of press? Wala..... maybe someone can come up with 52 protests and every week we can all be "camping" outside a house that we choose.... hmmmm


What has the comment from DIG led to?
Free thosai for all!
When : After 10am, Sunday, 20 May 2012
Where : Jalan 2/7G, Taman Bukit Teratai, Ampang

It is said :
“We plan to promote thosai… Malaysians seems to have forgotten about the dish which had been classified as a heritage food by the Malaysian Heritage Department
“So, the event will be more of an awareness campaign… it is more to introduce the dish than a protest,”
Apart from a free thosai meal, the public would also be taught how to make good thosai.
“Since Khalid had said what he said, we chose his house. This is the assurance he gave. Moreover he is the number two cop in the country… it would be very safe outside his house."

My comment:
Becareful with your words is the only thing that I can say.... watch your words. It can be taken literally and used against you.


A lawyer said this:
According to lawyer K Shanmuga, the protesters violated the Licensing of Hawkers and Stalls (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) 1989 which was enacted under the Local Government Act.
He said the by-laws stipulated that hawkers are allowed to operate only at certain locations
“DBKL does not issue roving license. The business must operate at a fixed location,” he added, citing by-laws 11(1) and 22(2).

My comment:
I am no lawyer but I think I can contest this. The definition of hawker as defined in http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hawker is one who sells. What happened was there was a free burger distribution and what will happen next is free thosai distribution. Surely they are not bound by the Licensing of Hawkers Act? As they are not doing any business ie, there is no selling.


Another comment that I read:
As for the police’s justification for not acting against the “burger” protest, he suggested that stall owners whose premises were demolished by DBKL should set up stalls outside the houses of the mayor and DIG.
“This is wonderful news. Now everyone has the ‘licence to grill’ outside anyone’s house, including that of the mayor, police chief, prime minister and ministers."

My comment:
Well, surely this is not the case because then it will definitely violate the Licensing of Hawkers and Stalls Act as it will becomes a business place and can only be operated in "fixed location". So for all who read this, don't get any "funny ideas" 

 
Lastly, for those who don't know the reason for the free burger distribution, here's it:
Last Thursday, a group of burger stall operators from an NGO called Malaysia Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (Ikhlas) set up their stalls in front of Ambiga’s home and distributed free burgers.
They claimed to have suffered losses amounting to RM200,000 due to the Bersih 3.0 rally led by Ambiga on April 28.

My comment:
WOW, I hope the Income Tax department read this. One day loss = RM 200,000 (Some may say it's not even a day but for easy calculation, lets just say it is one day) A loss of RM 200,000 is to be interpreted by NET of all costs. 
So these traders (I am not sure how many) - lost RM 200,000 net in one day which MEANS the income for the year is RM 62.6m (Only counting 315 days giving one rest day a week) at 20% - that's a whopping RM 12.52m in taxes to be collected. This is ONLY for the traders which are effected on that day which I would assume would be only for those in the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka. We should then be very rich? Another food for thought....? Let the mind wander :)