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Wet Visitors since 1st Dec 2005!
I find it incredibly peaceful to be on a river and here's wishing everyone happiness, good health, wealth, joy, love and peace in 2007. May you find in on land or ... on the waters!Labels: Life
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photo title 'Miss Chernobyl 2004' taken from http://www.tonyrogers.comLabels: Blogging
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So on Monday morning the three of us excitedly headed to Kuala Salak; in anticipation of both.
The weather was fine but the tide time was not exactly ideal for dolphins spotting but I was just happy to be out on the waters in a double kayak. They are leaving back for Brunei tomorrow, so its today or until their next visit to Kuching. CJ sat in the middle of the 'Perception Synchro' kayak in between me and his dad.
The sea was calm and the weather was perfect and pretty soon CJ was enjoying the water and being out in the quiet bay with only the fishermen and us about. We didn't spot any dolphins and after a while we decided to check out the fishermen's catch for the day.
And the friendly fishermen were more than happy to show us their catch so far. We had brought along a cooler box on the chance that we could buy some fresh prawns back but it was still early in the day for much of a catch. CJ was fascinated with but at the same time frightened by the strange looking but delicious tasting 'udang lipan'. The taste is closer to lobster than the name 'udang' (prawn in malay) would suggest. It's a type of crayfish I think.
After about an hour and still not sighting any dolphins , my brother-in-law complained that it was too hot (for me it was just nice and warm, not to mention peaceful) and so we decided to head back.
Although CJ didn’t get to see the dolphins he was quite happy that he got to see strange sea creatures and to go kayaking with unker as he rocked the kayak from side to side and dragging his feet in the waters as we paddled back to shore!
Since he was so happy already I didn't have the heart to tell him that the dolphins were probably frightened away (temporarily only I hoped) by the activities of the sand dredgers and barges out at the mouth of the river. When would we humans ever learn to respect and care for the natural environment and the inhabitants in them? Sadly it could be never; with our greed and when we define our existence with ego, material possessions and too little of anything that is of true value and meaning. I pray that CJ's generation would be a better one than ours now is, in this regards.
Labels: Kayaking, Kuching Kayaking, Kuching Skies, Life, Rantings
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As we celebrated Christmas holiday, it was just another working day for these fishermen at Kuala Salak near Santubong in Kuching.
Labels: Kuching Kayaking, Kuching Skies, Rantings
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So 'another' Christmas is here again and I couldn't help but reflect on how fast the time seemed to have passed and I had to fight the tinge of depression I felt on how miserable the past year had been for Malaysia; what with the increase in the costs of living, racism, bailouts, corruption and hypocrisy from our political leaders (RM30M yatch anyone?) and a decline in the standards of living, morals and the hopes and dreams for a better Malaysia. I think I'd better go back to enjoying my durians the smell (or stench to others) of which is a lot more palatable and less prickly than any issues you care to address concerning the sad state of our economy and nation. *sigh*
Labels: Rantings
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After an adventurous and exciting day of kayaking at Sg. Abang yesterday, I was glad to take it easy today by just hanging around the house (and eating durians!) but I need to go out to run some errands and when I got outside I noticed these interesting clouds formations in the skies which I promptly snapped; which is timely as I had not been doing so regularly for a while now I think.Labels: Kuching Skies
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But first we have to bring our kayaks down from the track up above and down a steep incline. That’s Azmi and Kelvin with the kayak while I’m carrying the heavy camera and paddles … *ahem*
We brought along two kayaks (one double and one single) since there were three of us. You can’t see Azmi in this picture below as he’s carrying the bow of the kayak over his head. He’s also short as well; compared to me anyway (as most people are, angmohs included).
Finally we got the kayaks and our gear down and we eagerly get ready to set out!
We got on the waters, went past under a rickety old bridge and we entered another realm ...
We heard noises and as we round the bend we saw some children whom we thought were smoking as we saw smoke but were instead playing with fire crackers! Its funny how the playing of fire crackers normally associated with Chinese New Year is now ‘adopted’ by other races celebrating all festivals!
Kelvin successfully going through the rapids and happily taking photos of us after that.
This dead small tree has fallen across the river creating an obstruction hazard so we decided to clear it.
But little do we know that more obstructions await us along the way! And this time it was bamboos – but we haven’t seen bamboos yet! More on this later ...
Though pretty to look at, bamboo can be a real hazard on the waters if one is not careful. The least of which is that you can get 'whipped' by the small overhanging ones as the water pushes your kayak through them or at the worst you can get yourself impaled by the larger jutting ones that may had snapped off. Nasty! As you can understand now, we have a lot of respect for the bamboos!
As I said, bamboos are really pretty and so I took a few snaps before we pushed off again.
End of Part 1. Adventures to be continued ... (when the author gets over the holiday seasons lethargy)
Labels: Kuching Kayaking
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I came home earlier than usual yesterday as I wanted to go for a quick paddle before dinner knowing that it would be easy to launch from the jetty as it was king tide and the high water is at 1838. Buddy was tailing me all the while as I was getting ready and I decided to use the double kayak in case he wanted to join me kayaking; and he did much to the delight of my wife and daughter who were watching us from the timber deck!
Here are some snaps of buddy enjoying the short but delightful paddle with me.
Labels: Kuching Kayaking
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Time flies! It seems like it was only yesterday that I posted on ‘Tung Chieh’ or the Winter solstice but it had been exactly a year since and today it’s the Winter Solstice again! As you’re probably aware of it already (or not), today marks the “arrival of winter” and is celebrated as a festival that falls six weeks before Chinese New Year. As is the customary practice in our family, my brothers and I together with our families will gather at our parent’s house at lunch time to make offerings (and have a nice lunch later). I look forward to this and the other Chinese festivals as it gives me a chance to catch up with them and their families. My wife and children are making the the marble-shaped ‘tang yuan’ or glutinous rice ball later this morning at home – a traditional dessert, which is a ‘must-have’ for ‘Tung Chieh’. Perhaps they could make them into fruit shapes like the desserts we saw in Bangkok. So go and enjoy your ‘marbles’ today whatever shapes they may be in!
Labels: Life
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We felt quite safe as tourists walking around the streets of 
Labels: Vacation
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The new blogger is ‘out of beta’ with new stuff like labels, drag-and-drop template editing, and privacy controls and I made the switch over yesterday evening. You can take a tour here to find out if it’s worth the trouble to make the switch as you can still sign in to use Blogger with either the New Blogger (using your Google account) or the Old Blogger (using your Blogger account).I found out that it was no trouble at all provided you have a Google account already but you can always sign up for one anyway. The only trouble I had was that all my previous postings at www.fh2o.blogspot.com was gone now which I had expected anyway when I made the switch to publish at an external ftp instead of on the free blogspot.com. They are actually not 'gone' but were transferred, photos and all over to www.fh2o.kuchingkayak.com! And if you want to publish to an external FTP server, you will need to Set 'Blog Readers' to 'Anybody' and use a "Classic Template". I suppose this effectively means that you would not be able to use the new features like labels (categories) that I was looking forward to using the classic template. Darn! Maybe someone can let me know how to include 'labels' in the classic template format that I'm currently using? I had 'played' around with the various new features and it's really much easier to use and customise the templates now compared to the old blogger. A 'no-brainer' - I like it.
And I could now leave a notice at www.fh2o.blogspot.com to inform people of my migration to www.fh2o.kuchingkayak.com when I couldn't previously. Maybe I can get some of my old readership back now. Hmm.
We’ll see how things go. *sigh*
Labels: Blogging
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The thais seem to be able to make beautiful craft objects out of anything - even soaps! I snapped the above photos at Suan Lum night bazaar, a most pleasant place for night shopping in Bangkok which unfortunately would close in April 2007 to make way for a new commercial development. I doubt if we'll ever use the 'flowers' we bought as soap! Stumble It!
We tried feeding the durians to some of the little fishes at the spot where we normally take our swimming break and pretty soon we had schools of them arriving to feast! Good news spread fast even in the rivers ...
We found this big fat and juicy worm inside one of the durians which 
Different people react differently to durians but rest assured that you'll get a reaction!
At first we were quite excited about picking up the durians from the river which soon filled our kayaks and we were quite happy to let subsequent ones we saw just float past us! There were also plenty for sale for a 'dime a dozen' at Bengoh, Danu and Semadang where we take out. Ahhhh, so many durians and so little time! *burp*Labels: Durians
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As they say, this is the 'silly season' and in keeping with the season here's a silly (or as See-See a malaysian weekend kayaker living in London, Cynthia and ShuPing from 
Photo by See-See of FH2o's Silliness on a kayak
Photo by Robin Wong of jungle fruits induced silliness.
Photo taken from www.robinwong.blogspot.com.
Labels: Durians
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This is sad ...
Specialists prepare to examine Qi Qi, a Yangtze River dolphin in captivity, in an aquarium in Wuhan, capital city of China's Hubei province, in this June 13, 2002 file photo. An international expedition to search for a rare Chinese river dolphin has ended without a single sighting, and researchers said Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006 that the aquatic mammal is facing imminent extinction. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Hao Tongqian, File)
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To get the snow flake falling effect on your blog like you see here please go here to get the instructions and code. 
And if you prefer autumn leaves to snow effect, you can also get it there! Stumble It!
I was supposed to have joined Huey and JB on an overseas kayaking expedition trip in October but unfortunately I couldn't make it. And now of course I really wished I could have been with them ... *sigh*
Anyway, this is Huey's lively account of their epic 3-day 170km paddle down the River Kwai Noi, and ending at the historic death railway bridge. It's a wonderful read with lots of absolutely stunning photographs; some of which I'd taken the liberty to post here. You would enjoy reading it this weekend and wishing that your life could also have been just as adventurous - but actually of course, you could! Wishing you a wonderful and adventurous weekend!
Labels: Kayaking
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After busy and bustling Bangkok and the Thai Air Asia flight delay; I was really looking forward to a relaxing and tranquil float down the river on Sunday morning with Simon and friends. But when we reached the put-in at Krokong, the river has risen considerably due to rain on two consecutive days with the rain continuing the night before; I should have known better. But the water level was already going down then and the flow was not that fast and we decided to go ahead with the paddle - and I promptly capsized when we got tangled up in some branches in mid river half an hour into the paddle! And I did it again an hour's later! So much for Rivea trying to get a dry ride by being in the same boat with the 'captain'! *sigh*
And we saw ostriches and 
Photos taken from Simon's photo galleryLabels: Kuching Kayaking, River Trips
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I love glutinous rice and Thai glutinous rice is the best I had ever tasted. Together with fresh mangos, jackfruits and durians (with coconut milk) they are simply sublime. A simple and simply delicious combination. But a fair warning is in order - glutnous rice is harder to digest than normal rice; so do not over indulge or you're gonna suffer from uncomfortable indigestion - for hours! But it's unlikely that you'll over eat as you'll soon get a sickly feeling if you take too much.
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My nieces and nephew (from Brunei and Sabah) are staying with us for a short while during the school holidays and last night they were making a quite a racket laughing away at some old photographs; and the above is one of the source of their amusement. *sigh*Labels: About Life
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Ratchadamri Road - typical scene of congested road in the city center.
Taxi stand outside Siam Paragon. The concrete structure is the elevated BTS (Siam Station).
A group of 
Convoy of buzzing tuk-tuks in the early morning.
The tuk-tuk can take 4 passengers at a pinch. But 3 big-size 'angmohs' max!
Car insurance must be expensive in Bangkok! Stumble It!
These are a few of the interesting signs/notices I spotted in various places as I go about my business of playing tourist in Bangkok; ranging from the humourous, naughty to the practical. Most of the time I was just taking in the sights instead of taking photos; but I managed a few when I remembered so that I could share them. Too many sights too little time!
Even 'virgin hunters' need condoms which are readily available at dispensing machines in most public toilets in Bangkok everywhere.
The departmental store on level 5 in the mammoth MBK actually offers you free drinks since shopping can be thirsty work! The well chilled ice lemon tea is very nice. But I didn't see too many people taking up the offer as I was the only one there. I guess everyone else is too busy shopping to waste even a minute of their precious retail therapy time to hydrate. *sigh*
And no smart alec comment for yours truly on the last photo please ...
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We were back on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday; I took Simon and friends for some exciting kayaking through some fast and furious river swollen with 2 consecutive days of rain. And the excitement continued this morning at the Dewan Undangan Negri Sarawak with the official launch of Sarawak Convention Bureau who are ‘drumming up’ business for Sarawak.
It was an exciting and creative launch with drums and the added participation of the guests who were given a drum and drumstick each for some drumming ‘lessons’ before the arrival of the VIP guest. Even the delicious 'brunch' refreshments after the launch were served in a refreshingly creative manner by ‘hibiscus girls and guys’! The only slight damper to the launch was the less than full 
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The 2 hours plus 
Unfortunately the originally announced 2 hours delay turned out to be a 4 hours plus delay and we missed our connecting flight to Kuching when we finally landed at Kota Kinabalu airport. Consequently AirAsia offered us the next day flight at 1.45 p.m. at no extra charge but would not compensate us for any other costs (budget airline remember?) and we had to look for a cheap accomodation at around 10.00 pm to spend the night and we decided to try a bed and breakfast place for a change.
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Kota Kinabalu's Airport at T2 is in the midst of undergoing massive upgrading works creating a chaotic situation of massive proportions with dust, noise, heat and overcrowding at the check-in and departure lounge; so we were glad to leave the terminal building and the discomfort to board our aircraft back to Kuching.
It was a relief when the airplane took off as we looked down on the beautiful waters and nearby islands of Kota Kinabalu below us bathed in the brilliant sunshine. The weather was brilliant with perfectly white puffy clouds gently floating admist deep cobalt skies.
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Today is the birthday of the King of Thailand, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch and all his royal subjects are wearing yellow (as a sign of respect and endearment which unlike in Brunei, everyone here can 'use' the royal colour) except for this comely violinist at Siam Paragon ...
And Siam Paragon is truly the 'paragon' of the materialistic world - the sell Maseratis, Lamboghinis, Hummers and Ferrari on Level 2. I'm not kidding! They must be for Thaksin's convenience for when he fancies a little bit of supercars shopping I suppose but I understand that he's out of the country at the moment. Anyway instead of admiring them, silly me was wondering instead how they manage to get them into the showrooms in the first place ...
I wanted to buy this little red number from Porsche but I was a little late being caught up in Bangkok's infamous traffic jam, and it was already sold when I got there. Darn! Stumble It!
We flew from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur and waited for about 2 hours plus at the airport before catching the connecting flight to Bangkok by which time it was almost evening allowing me to catch the beautiful sunset on the ground and in the air. And as we approach to land at Bangkok at night we were greeted by a million lights from the ground below. Nice.
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Miscellaneous snapshots of Bangkok taken on previous trips
I may or not blog while on holidays depending on how I feel and the convenient accessibility to a cyber place. The hotel would most likely have wireless facilities but I’m not bringing along my notebook as I want myself and my 2 boys to get away from the computer and enjoy all the things that Bangkok has to offer. The youngest boy has already asked to be taken to see a “Tiffany” show and don’t ask me where he gets such information and ideas from! *sigh* Stumble It!
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Then he called me back and said that his mum wanted to talk to me! Turned out that he’s 19 and the mum wanted to ask me a 'few' (it was a whole lot!) questions about the trip which I answered and after being duly reassured that this is not whitewater kayaking or rafting; I suggested that perhaps she and her husband or friend can join in as we have taken people from 6 to 66 on the trips without any problems. I could understand that as a mother, she's naturally concerned that the trip must be safe and not dangerous for her children. She said very polite and nice and said that she’ll call back to reconfirm as they want to discuss this amongst themselves first. She did and this time it was her husband on the line! Stumble It!
| This is a ‘must-do’ experience for nature lovers and the adventurous and outdoor person visiting Kuching. | 720x400 pixels (QuickTime required) |
If you don't have it or are too lazy to download and install QuickTime; you can also view this video clip at www.revver.com by clicking on the thumbnail on the left.Labels: Featured
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