Tuesday 29 September 2009

Eye Sore – Bogus Monk

Lately, I been driving in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur and I frequently spotted men in monk robe begging for money. I knew these men are bogus monk (even if they are real monks, they have broke the Buddhist code of ethics).

Let me tell you the modus operandi of these fake monks. They shaved they head bald, wearing monk robe, with or without an alms bowl walking on the street. Usually, they will ignore the normal Malaysian as many knew that they are fake. They target foreigners, especially tourists. The bogus monk will walk towards their target(s) and beg for money. Sometimes, the target(s) generously and willingly “donates” money to them. Sometimes, the target(s) simply not willing to donate and the fake monk will persuade or even follow the target(s) until the target give the donation.

I read some articles reporting on the issues of bogus monks in Malaysia. A report also stated that that a true monk is to reject any offering in terms of monetary. Even if a monk offer blessing string in return of a monetary offer is inappropriate. When a monk collects alms it should be in terms of food. Those who offer food should give pure vegetarian food.

Maybe Malaysians and those who are visiting Malaysia are too generous in giving blindly. Some greedy people abuse the ignorant & generosity of these people to satisfy their own greed.

I want to urge all generous people to be careful and not to give out money blindly. Make sure the donations are fall into the use of people in need. Of course, stop giving to these bogus monks!

Thursday 24 September 2009

No X in Forest, Please

In one of my previous blog, I’ve share some tips (without any evidence or its existence and effectiveness of methods shared... hehe) now I gonna “luan bai” even more about survival tips in forest (by avoiding the X).

The foremost important thing when inside forest/ jungle is never ever calls the real name of another person. The rationale behind is, if the X heard the name of the person and the X will learn and call the name of the person. What happened when someone answer to his or her name? The person soul would be called out from it physical body. Dangerous ler… That’s why don’t use real name, if the X call the fake name and you answer to the X’s call, nothing will happened. Safe la. Remember, never call people real name, use substitute name like Big Stone, Wolf, etc, up to your imagination. And never answer to anyone who is calling your real name when you are inside the jungle / forest. Never!

So you think you are pretty safe by just ignoring name calling. No really, those X are quite resourceful. They don’t rely to only one method in getting the mortals. I heard that they also make people lost in the jungle / forest. I don’t know they use illusion techniques or what other techniques, somehow, the people being targeted by them would not be able to come out from the jungle. They will find themselves walking in the same location, no matter how hard they try. So, if you so “shui” (bad luck) and encounter such situation, no fear. An old rubber taper lady told me her “petua” (secret know how) to escape from this kind of danger. No matter you are a guy or lady, as soon as you realized you are lost and walking in the same spot, undress you pant and PEE! Yes, pee and then, gather all your angers & frustrations in your daily life and start scolding in 4 letter words. Whatever foul language that come to your mind, scold it out as fierce as you can lo. She said with this you will able to see the path clearer and eventually find your way out. Miracle!

Ok, I did mentioned pee for survival, but do not think that you can pee as you like lo when you are inside jungle / forest. And pee will make you safe. No way! If not under critical circumstances like what I describe just now, never simply pee here and there. I’ve heard that sometimes, you can get yourself into trouble because you pee at the host’s land without permission. Have to have manners la. Ask permission before you answer your call of nature. Say something like, “Excuse me please. I need to pxx / sxxt at your place because I have no choice.” Then only you do your business there.

Well, that’s all I know about X and forest. I want to state that I really no idea how true is all these story and practice flowing around the folks here. So never never takes it too serious. Read for fun only, k?

Tuesday 22 September 2009

No money No Pee...

While I was doing window shopping at The Gardens, MidValley, I urgently felt the call of nature. Immediately I look for the sign of the washroom. I rush to the washroom and found that it is a premium washroom.

Guess the charges for per entry... RM5 per entry. My God! It takes RM5 for a shopper to pee? Of course I am not willing to pay that much for toilet entry. I thought the shopping management must be doing some gimmicky thing about this particular washroom, like what the Lot 10 did many years back, where it imposed premium charge for the toilet entry.

So, I quicky rush to another washroom inside the mall. To my horror and dismay - It's the premium toilet again! With a staff smartly dress in blazer and pant at the entry of the toilet. Yes, the ticket seller of the toilet entry. Well, I guess it look like a musuem inside. But I'm too stingy to pay for a visit to the toilet!! Ark!!

I dare not to look at the other floor of the toilet in The Gardens. I quicky rushed to the main entrance, ran across the road to MidValley Mega Mall. Finally... the toilet (that doesn't need to pay), I'm glad.

Well, lesson of the story -No money, No Pee!

Saturday 19 September 2009

The Hunt is On

Calling all Treasure Hunt Fans.

On the 3rd Oct 2009, there are 2 hunts on in Kuala Lumpur.

1. Klang Valley Food Hunt 2009
Summary of the hunt: It is a hunt about foods. Hunters are to use the sms based location finder directory by Maxis.
Fee: RM 90 (non Maxis user); RM 70 (Maxis user)
Registration: Before 28 Sep, first come first serve, max 120 teams.
Flag off location: National Sciene Centre, Bukit Kiara, KL
Team Register In: 6.30am
Flag off time: 8.30 am
Prize: Total 20K worth of prize, including cash prize. Goodie bags for each team
More Info/ Contact: 03-5621 4818

2. Walk KL Treasure Hunt by The Podium @Menara Hap Seng
Summary of the hunt: Promote people to support green activites by walking to places in short distance instead of driving.
Fee: RM 150/ team (min 2 person, max 4 person)
Closing date: 25 Sep 09
Flag off location: The podium, Menara Hap Seng
Flag off time: 3pm
Finished Time: 6.30pm
Prize: Teams will receive a RM75/team cash voucher to be use for dinner at participating F&B outlets at The Podium. Valid on hunt day dinner only.
More Info/ Contact: http://www.thepodium.com.my; Michael Pang. 012-2899782

Happy Hunting & Selamat Hari Raya!

Maaf Zahir & Batin.

Thursday 17 September 2009

No X, Please.

When traveling to a new place, some will worried that they have additional unwanted company – ghost. Personally, I heard many these so call tips that we can do to avoid bumping into these “sui” (bad omen in Cantonese) thingy.

Before I go into the core subject of this blog, let me clarify a term - “X”. Here it means the ghost/ spirit/ soul or any other unknown similar subject to ghost.

HOTEL
One of the most talked about subject about traveling and ghost encounter is in the hotel / any accommodation type where we spend the night. What are the common believes? And what are the “do” and “don’t”?

I have encountered situation where single female traveling and the make sure the room they book is a single bedroom with only 1 bed. Why? They said if there is any additional bed vacant, you might seem inviting companionship. Double bed is always worse than the twin bed situation, as the X might just sleep beside you.

There is also another common believes among the Malaysian Chinese that the last room in the roll is always not clean (meaning contain X(s)). So beware next time you check in the both extreme corner rooms. ^-^

Do’s
1. Knock or ring the doll bell trice before you enter the room for the first time. When you check in an unoccupied room and before you stepping in for the first time, you may want to consider knocking on the door or ringing on the door bell trice. Then, you may put your key in and open the door. The reason is to inform those X who might be having vacation in the same room that you are coming to the room and spending your night(s) here.

2. Well, some people just feel ain’t secure and courteous enough just informing them that you are coming in and staying here. They will open the door and stand at the side for awhile, and they will say “jie meh” (meaning excuse me in Cantonese) before entering the premise. And I must tell you I hate traveling with such superstitious person. It always gives me a goose bump when they do so. It seems like you are really waiting for the X to come out from the room. And telling them excuse me please, because I have paid for the room, so I’m spending my night here.

3. There are also people who tell me that I shouldn’t left my shoe at the bedside nicely when I go to sleep at a hotel. Here’s the answer why you should not. If you left your shoe nicely placed bedside your bed, when the X wandering around after you slept and sees your nice shoes lying there. They are tempted to wear you shoes and wander around in your shoes. What happened if the X really wore your shoes? Aiyo, easy la… you’ll get bad luck! I don’t want bad luck, so I do practice this one- making one of my shoe flip facing down, so that none can wear my shoes. You can do anything that you think they can’t wear your shoe without rearranging your shoe will just do the trick. I know it sounds silly and doesn’t make any sense, yet, I did it every time I go travel. Oh… Please stop laughing at me la.

4. If you go into a room and found that there is mirror facing the bed(s). Take a cloth / bath towel/ anything to cover the mirror before you go to bed. The rationale behind? Hehe... I’m not too sure. Anyone knows the reason, please let me know. The only thing I know is that in Feng Shui perspective, no mirror should face to bed. It is consider bad and will make a person less energetic and less confident.

Don’t
1. If you found that the room you check in has a Bible or Quran open at a certain page. Please do not close or move the Bible/ Quran. I’m being told that there’s a reason why the Bible / Quran is open at a certain page. It serves the function of guarding the traveler from the unwanted company.


2. Don’t sing or play “Wo deng zhe ni hui la” 我等着你回來 (I’m waiting for you to come back) a Mandarin oldies. I don’t think this has to do with any superstitious believes. Instead, it is because quite some years ago, there was a famous Chinese horror movie that relate playing this song and the appearance of the ghost. Haha…

Having fun reading the silly practice and believes about the X while traveling? I have another part which I gonna share in my coming blog. No X in forest please. Enjoy!

Monday 14 September 2009

Mini Exhibition of Animal

Two weekend ago, I went to Jaya 1 for lunch with friends. And we found that at the centre of Jaya One-Palm Square, there was a mini exhibition of rabbits and genuine pigs.

There is no fee for viewing and petting the little cuddly creature outside the area they fenced up. The organiser sell feed for those who would like to have up close encounter with the nibbling creatures. Watch out for your little kids. My friend's kids are being given the feed three times, so the dad had to pay for it.

I've taken down the schedule of the animal exhibition @ palm square.

18 Oct 09 - Fun with snake

31 Oct & 1 Nov 09 - Rabbits!

6Dec 09 - Pets day out

12& 13 Dec 09 - More RABBITS

Thursday 10 September 2009

Is Getting Married in the Hungry Ghost Month a Taboo?

I can still vividly recall the way my mum told me to stay home at night time during the hungry ghost festival each year when I was still schooling. I also used to hear how mysterious things happened during the hungry ghost festival.

What is Hungry Ghost Festival? It is known as Zhong Yuan Jie 中元节 or more commonly known as Gui Jie 鬼节. I’m sure the Chinese community and the Malaysian are familiar with this special month of seven in the lunar Calendar. Ghost Festival is on the 14th night of the seventh lunar month. It is believed that during this month, the souls of the unborn for all deceased are released from hell to wander the earth for 30 days. As ghosts are dominating events in this month, it is consider a month of inauspicious for most of the Chinese community.

If you asks around , I’m sure you’ll hear different stories and views about Hungry Ghost Festival. Some consider it as the Feast for the wandering souls, some think that it is some sort of Chinese Halloween, etc. Well, generally, the Chinese believes that it is “bad” or inauspicious. And that’s the reason why, in the past the Chinese avoid holding any happy or significant events during this month. Older people will not be happy if someone wants to get marry, open new business, renovate house, move in to new premises, or even to travel during the seventh month of the lunar calendar.

As we exposed more to the science and our tradition is diluted slowly to a more Western style, people in Malaysia are getting less “pantang” (taboo) about all these believes. Press and media highlight the overwhelming high figures of Chinese couples booked the date of 09/09/09 to tie their knots with their loves one. And this has break the traditions of the low numbers of Chinese getting marry during the ghost month in the past.

Instead of the beliefs that getting married in the ghost month is inauspicious, the Chinese community in Malaysia believes that this particular date 090909 which read as jiu, jiu, jiu a rare auspicious event. The number nine is read as jiu 九sound the same as 久“jiu” which means eternity. So many loving couples choose this special date which happens only once every 10 years to tie their knots.

Well, I really don’t know whether to say that the Malaysian Chinese community is getting modernized and less “pantang” about the old superstitious beliefs or it is that the 090909 which symbolized eternity simply sounds too good for those who hope for an everlasting love between them…


P/S: Since I am writing on the hungry ghost month, in my next blog I’ll share some fun facts and believes of the Malaysian about traveling & ghost. Stay tune!!

Monday 7 September 2009

Restoran Loke Yun Ampang 安邦樂園海南雞飯

Once again we were tempted by the food introduced by Taste with Jason, hosted by Axian 阿賢 on Astro channel. We decided to try out the Hainanese chicken rice shop at Pekan Ampang. Loke Yun here we come!

The shop is located nearby the balai polis Ampang. Finding a car park is not easy at the area. When we finally got to the shop, we found that the queue were long. The staff had to take down the name and the number of people for the queue. After waited about half and hour, finally we got a small table to squeeze in the six of us.


The staff took our order and busied off with thousand other things. I took a good look at the shop. The renovation is quite simple, with big menu board displaying the price clearly. Of course, the banner of Axian is displayed. Another big printout displays the endorsement of another food TV show by Hong Kong Artist, Sik Kar Yin, naming it the best Hainanse Chicken Rice. And a big photo frame caught my attention. I walked nearer to the photos and take a good look at it. It has photos of many famous and celebrity who came to this shop, like Chui Ling (host), Kar Yin (HK artist), Datuk Ong Tee Keat (minister), etc.

About 5 - 10 minutes later, finally the tea we ordered is served. When I take a sip of the tea I find that the pu-er we order has a unique bitter-sweet (甘甜) which usually pu-er don’t have. I took a look into the teapot and found that they put some extra leaves inside the teapot. I don’t know what leaves was it. I guess it is probably is a type of spice called “tim kuk” 甜菊I forgot the English name of it.

While waiting, I started to try out their ginger sauce (姜茸) and the chili sauce. The aunty sat beside our table is the regular customer here recommends us to try the special blend of chili sauce here. Even Axian also recommend the chili sauce, I’m looking forward to taste it, because sometimes, for Malaysian like me, the sauce is equally important as the main dish, and I knew how a good sauce can differentiate a chicken rice from good to moderate or bad. First, I try it ginger sauce, but it is disappointing, as it is sourly, taste like vinegar ginger (酸姜). Then I try the chili sauce, it is not exceptionally tasty to me, but it is still consider as not bad. What I would say is that it is unlike the usual chili sauce (for chicken rice) we get outside.


Ok, ok. I know the 1st photo uploaded is a bit small. here's a better photo of the mouth watering "bak zam"chicken.



And we waited about 10 minutes or so, finally, they served the rice followed by the chicken, chicken parts (雞什) , soup, and the vegi. Hhhmm… all look nice and yummy. I take a spoon of the rice. Yummy, the rice is nicely cooked, smooth and not too soft, a bit salty and very fragrant. Now the chicken. We ordered the “pak zham chai yuan” chicken. The skin of the chicken look yellowish and shinning with the oil, it looks tempting. Take a bite of it, and found that the chicken is tender, juicy and sweet. The soy sauce and sesame seed oil blend that pour on the chicken give the chicken a taste of sesame aroma and the saltiness of the soy sauce brings out the natural sweetness of the chicken. Great! It is worth all the hassle of beating the traffic to Ampang, hunting for car park and the long queue and waiting. I then try to dip the chicken with the chili sauce. Unfortunately, I personally think that I like it without the chili sauce. Just the soy sauce blend pour on the chicken works the magic best.

Now, another highlight of the must try dishes of the shop, the chicken parts. I know many people would turn their head on animal spare parts. Well, actually, I ‘m also very skeptical to those food. But since it is very famous here, I might five it a try. For the first time in my life, I eat the chicken intestine. The white and transparent little thingy, I took a bite and surprisingly it is quite good. Munchy and springy feel. The “kai chan” 雞胗 and the “kai gone” 雞肝 also taste quite ok and it do not have any weird taste around. Well, that’s a good try though.

Overall, I would rate this chicken rice shop a “GOOD”. The setbacks are that it is too crowded and it is a bit too salty. When I take the dishes separately, the seasoning of the food appear to be ok, but when all the food tend to has salty taste, gradually, when taking the rice and the chicken and other dishes in, I feel that it is a bit too salty. The price is ok. It is priced higher than those normal chicken rice shops, but it is still consider ok la… Six person, 1 whole chai yuan chicken, 6 big rice, one small chicken parts mix, one small vegetable, plus a pot of tea amounting to RM 83++

Below I add in a summary of my tasting experience in Chinese version for those prefer to read in Chinese.
白嶄菜園雞- 雞皮看起來鮮黃﹐脆口。肉滑而有嚼勁。麻油與醬油調配的醬汁剛好帶出肉的鮮甜味。難得的是雞肉是熟透的﹐許多雞飯商為了要保持雞肉滑的口感﹐常常都有點還是生的。
雞飯 - 香﹐軟而不綿。帶着淡淡的咸味。
雞什- 雞肝﹐雞胗和雞腸。雞腸和雞胗非常爽脆。沒有任何的異味。總結: 值得一嘗。難得的海南雞飯享受。

Additional Info:
Restaurant name: Restoran Loke Yun Ampang / 樂園海南雞飯
Address: 158, Jalan Besar, Ampang, Selangor.
Tel: 03-4291 9884
Business hour: Business hour: 10.30am - 3pm & 5.30pm-8.30pm

Thursday 3 September 2009

Evolution: From 555 to The Plastic Card

I remembered those days when I was a young kid, my mum used to buy things from a sundry store nearby my house. They also made deliveries for big items like cooking oil, gas for stove, etc. The tauke (boss) would take his 555 book out and record the total purchases. Mum would only pay the total bill at the end of the month. During those days, using 555 as credit purchases are common. People use the 555 at the mamak, sundry shop, Chinese medicine hall et cetera.

As time passes, I don’t know whether is the trust between people has deteriorated or is the modern economy doesn’t allow this type of trading. The month end bill clearing from the 555 book is no longer in practice.

Now a new type of credit purchases take place – swipe the credit card. Yes, the easy application for credit card. Most urban folks have at least a piece of this credit card in hand. Unlike the 555, the little plastic card has wider usage.

Undeniable, the credit card gives many flexibility for the card holder in credit purchaser. Unlike the traditional 555 “hutang” (credit) method, the person much gain trust from the tauke to the credit facility. Bill must be clear each month or else the boss wouldn’t give more credit out.

In today competitive business world, getting a credit card is relatively easy. Once your card is approved, a person just need to pay the minimum amount per month and the credit continues to roll. Many youngest today falls into the pit of credit card, where the loan amount is too big, beyond their capacity to repay the loan. Rate of bankruptcy due to unpayable credit card loan is on the rise. Many people become the slave of the card, with income that barely enough to cover the minimum payment of the card(s) each month. And that’s the negative side of the new hutang method.