MikeKan Malaysia: February 2006

Temple series -2 Siamese Temple Ulu Yam Selangor

The Stupas

The founder This temple run by Siamese monks. It has been upgraded from donations from pilgrims and devotees from time to time. Every year you can see new structure put up. In fact during our recent visit they are building an arch or something. Should be ready by year end 2006. The stupas are new I think you can buy a unit to keep your ash..............

Surprisingly you can see other taoism deities like the Kuan Kong & Kuan Yin on the altar. There is a mixed of every thing. A bit rojak don't you think so................You have the Tibetan chanting rotating drum which you are suppose to chant O Mi Pek Mi Hum as you push it around to cleanse you of bad vibes and ward off evil ..........I think the debitor got to go more often

They have now the 12 chinese horoscope animals for visitors to snap photos with.............then there is the wishing tree like you watch those HongKee shows where you throw your offering sachet on the tree. That is new. The higher the better......... this family were trying hard to get it as high on the tree but in the end caught the low branch and the father got a scolding ..........moral of the story........aim high and hoping high are 2 different path Fate can be change but destiny is marked for each and everyone. JUST DO GOOD BE CHARITABLE, & BE FORGIVING BUT DO NO EVIL .......EVENTUALLY YOUR PRESENT KARMA SHALL BRING YOU A BETTER LIFE NEXT TIME

3 monkeys - See No Evil Hear No Evil Speak No Evil holds water.

Birdie in the Wild Series 14 - White Great Heron & Water fowl

It was about 6 pm while waitng for Sim to call ..........went out exploring to the monsoon drain across the office in Asiajaya LRT Petaling Jaya.. The mosquitos were a nuisance in the bushes. Caught a glimpse of a white bird about 100m way and quickly snapped some wild shots and run like hell out of the bushes before I am bitten by aedes mosquitos........they bite during this time remember

Later on the other side I surprised a water fowl which was so elusive in Ipoh .........just manage one photo shot about 30m and it was gone from sight. Photo was a bit better.

Digiscoping - photographing birds

Proud to know that a Malaysian .......the late Lawrence Poh was the pioneer in digiscoping in 1991! Stumble upon digiscoping photography when I joined http://groups.yahoo.com/group/birders . In a nutshell Laurence pioneered the technique now known as digiscoping which basically involves the attachment of a digital camera to the eyepiece of a spotting scope, using a homemade adapter or mount and shooting through the lens of the spotting scope. Of course people have been using attachment adapter for their slr camera which cost a bomb.

I may join the league of birders using digiscoping once they can have an adapter for my Minolta Dimage Hi7 whcih have a 49mm. At the moment only certain compact digital camera are being used until today. The common ones are Nikon 4500, 990 & 995 which have swivel LCD screen. You can go to http://www.digiscoped.com/DigiscopingInfo.html to read on the equipments available for your camera.

I got to be patient to get hold of a second-hand spotting scope. Must look for 77mm and above ie brighter images. the bigger the diameter of the front lens the better as more lights enters. Better still with ED/APO multicoated lens

Swarovski 80, 80HD scope use 80mm objective lenses. One of the most popular spotting scopes for digiscoping, due to the excellent 20-60x zoom eyepiece.

Will be in PD for the Raptor Watch event this 4th March 2006. Will have a first hand look into digiscoping there. If you miss it there will be next year.

Temple series -1 Pekan Ampang fairy temple

I am fascinated with temple and the people that come to worship and pray for divine intervention. So I am starting a series on temples and places of worship.

While the misses & children went to the open backroad market in Ampang I popped into this taoist temple along the main road. I was attracted by the spiral joysticks at the internal court yard of the temple. The day was about noon time and sunny.The temple is just across the pasar pekan Ampang if you need to know.

The interior was rustic, stain and dusty. The ambiance charmingly aged by the oil of the incense and candle through the decades the way I like it. I was wrong to think the older generation only visit the place. The colours of red and gold is everywhere giving it an authentic and mystic look. There is a young couple there to pray..............maybe for a baby

There is a corner where discarded statues of deities and fok lok sau.....i guess by visitors to be their resting place.

fok lok sau

Pomegranate - cancer cell killer

Here is an article on one of my childhood favorite fruit. Did not says the extract from the juice or the seed kills cancer cell. My guess is from the seed. so bite the seed and swallow like watermelon/ grapes seeds which are good for you

A new study by University of Wisconsin Medical School researchers states that pomegranate juice may fight against prostate cancer, which is the most common invasive cancer. Previous studies have shown that pomegranate is rich in anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activity and is effective against tumors in mouse skin. In fact, pomegranate juice has higher anti-oxidant activity than do red wine and green tea, both of which appear promising as anti-cancer agents. The UW research team aimed to find out if the extract from pomegranates would not only kill existing cancer, but help prevent cancer from starting or progressing. Using human prostate cancer cells, the team first evaluated the fruit extract's effect, at various doses, on those cells cultured in laboratory dishes. They found a 'dose-dependent' effect - in other words, the higher the dose of pomegranate extract the cells received, the more cells died. The research team then progressed to tests in mice that had been injected with prostate cancer cells from humans and developed malignancies. The 24 mice were randomly divided into three groups. The control group received normal drinking water, while the animals in the second and third groups had their drinking water supplemented with .1 percent and .2 percent pomegranate extract respectively. The doses for the mice were chosen to parallel how much pomegranate juice a typical healthy human might be willing to eat or drink daily. The mice receiving the higher concentration of pomegranate extract showed significant slowing of their cancer progression and a decrease in the levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a marker used to indicate the presence of prostate cancer in humans. The animals that received only water had tumors that grew much faster than those in the animals treated with pomegranate extract. "Our study, while early, adds to growing evidence that pomegranates contain very powerful agents against cancer, particularly prostate cancer. There is good reason now to test this fruit in humans - both for cancer prevention and for treatment," said lead researcher Dr Hasan Mukhtar.

Wedding 2006 - Chews and Cheongs

The beautiful sam po............ PoiYee
The happy and stylo sun leong kor SenGiap

Sim's cousin brother got married. Father side. The place....Restaurant On Pong Ampang town

The Inlaws

It was very odd day for a wedding on a Thursday. Actually to accommodate the AS people who have their off days on the day and Friday. I think so...........Anyway as usual the ceremony started at 8.45pm.

The first dish is the 4 seasons and followed by watery sharkfin soup and then suckling pig ................. surprisingly the lotus leave rice came out the best and the prawns were fresh. Ling ate the most prawns and complained later that she almost spew on the way back...

We have the tea ceremony halfway thru the dinner. Even myself got to be served tea.

Peng & Seong

Groom's sis in blue pic below and the proud mum of the groom. Some candid short of the bridemaids.

Pretty ehh...well if you need me to introduce these pretty lasses.........booking for the younger ones also can...... you got to just ask me nicely and don't forget my angpow if the deal is done...........

Tee and the Muns

The yam seng affair was rowdy and cheerie with the guests full attention and support. The In-laws looks young. Bride is 19 years old. Lucky fella

The 3 sisters and the guys browsing the photo album

on display

San Yee Striked Lottery

We have a dinner bash yesterday at HauKee again to celebrate the small win fallby 3 yee. This is her first time kena 4 ekor .............1st prize some more.
The food was good. This time round we order again the cod fish and new dishes were sotong in black sauce ........seong tong lala and the salted roe crab. The 4 bean vegie was just right

All in all RM370 for 9 dishes. They have yi chee for RM100........maybe next time.

Mum and the Soons were dining with us this time.Their first time there and their review on the food is 2 thumbs up.

Tee is into her 2nd semester so Mum says cannot eat crabs and its her favorite .........boohhhhoooooo

Look at my tiny tot digging into her food .............She getting to be quite independent with a temper to go

So when is my turn to strike lottery ..............

Birdie in the Wild series 13

Today went exploring into the undergrowth of the retention pond land near my office. It was a fruitful outing and I manage to photograph an exotic bird which looks like a wild pheasant. My friend say its a female koel.It sure havea beautiful tail. I only manage to snap one photo before it was attacked by a pair of Orioles ....territorial birds The overcast sky spoil it all but you can still see some details of the silhouette.

The other one is a heron or egret at the retention pond outcrop its wings span at least 5 ft when in flight and white in colour. but when it perch on banana leaf it back is brownish and the wings just fold inside just like a Tomcat F14 on an aircraft carrier. Photo taken at about 40m away so it is quite huge considering cropping and zooming in at 300mm