Merry Christmas To All My Readers

The whole year 2017 has come and gone. In just a week's time, we would usher the New Year 2018 after a jolly Christmas weekend. Time flies very fast for me and so many wonderful things have happened. 

I am shy to say that I have just written 61 posts for my blog this whole year yet I had many regular and silent readers who come from far and near. I am fortunate to be able to make friends with several silent readers through emails too. I am always grateful for several regular readers who dropped by to read every single day!! There's 2 in particular in the FeedJit Live that showed they come from Mountain View in California and Sheung Wan in Hong Kong. I must confess that I am very curious yet appreciate these 2 and many others who dropped by. Please continue to drop by and support me. I will try my best not to be lazy to write more posts!

I went to Sapporo during its 2017 Snow Festival in Japan.

It was so bloody cold and happy for me to eat the 6 flavoured Ice Cream. 

It's Yummy!

My wife and I went to Gili Islands after her amazing hike up the Mount Rinjani in Indonesia. We have a happy life with many Ups & Downs like everyone else. I will always forgive and forget all the people who had wronged, betrayed and hurt me. I only wish to keep the happiest memories!

I have not even finished posting my trips to Kelantan, Terengganu & Hong Kong!

Maybe I should post them all in January 2018. Wishing you all a very

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 2018!

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When you are dying......

Last Sunday night, we attended a wedding dinner in Kajang which was a 1 hour drive from my home. While eating the course dinner, my wife looked at her Facebook and had a terrible shock that her childhood friend from school had passed away from lung cancer just 4 hours earlier. It was posted by the deceased's family. That friend was a Chinese but had married a Muslim man so her body was taken to the mosque for overnight prayers and early burial the next morning. My wife was too shocked and notified all the school mates. They were all saddened that the deceased died of Stage 4 lung cancer in less than 3 months but didn't inform anyone of her illness while she still had time.

 Now this topic became a debate for me to ponder. Would you inform your friends when you have been suddenly diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer?? My wife and I could not even answer this if it happened to us. So I started to review the cases of my mum and other relatives & friends. None of them actually wanted anyone to visit them, so they preferred to lie low...

What would you do if you know that your days are numbered? Invite friends for karaoke and sing for the last time? Have a big farewell dinner and wefie many photos for their memories? My head was dizzy after thinking for so long...

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My Christmas Wish

It is 16 days to Christmas! Have you made your wishes for Santa Claus to deliver your goodies? Every Christmas, I only have one wish for World's Peace and Food for all the hungry people. This may sound rather impossible but if everyone out there could spare some thoughts and time, together we could all help out to reach them in a small way.
Over the months, we both have been collecting leftovers and unsold breads, cakes & pies from a cafe and bakeries.

When the bakery has closed for the day, we both would be armed with bags & plastic containers to transfer all the unsold items on the shelves to bring home.

We have to coordinate this collection about 3 times a week. It may not be easy and time sacrifices have to be made for me, my wife, Bruce and his wife too. When we think of the less fortunate and hungry friends who are homeless, our hearts would weep and hope our little collections would bring them some energy and joy that they are not forgotten.

Back to our humble home, my wife would sort them out nicely and pack them all into bigger boxes. We would pass them all to the team leader Mr Jonathan who leads a team of volunteers from the church at Kelana Jaya.

Photo Credit: Street Shepard

This team of Street Shepard are very dedicated and caring people who would pack all the various food into nice bags for the hungry people.

Photo Credit: Street Shepard

The crowd of hungry and homeless people have multiplied from time to time.

Photo Credit: Street Shepard

The distributions are done during the day and night. The food collected will never be enough and may run out but the kind volunteers would go all out to buy whatever is suitable and available so that no one would be left hungry.

Photo Credit: Street Shepard

May God always bless all the team of volunteers to have continued strengths and care towards the less fortunate friends on the streets.

***

Grocery Shopping

Just a random posting in between my many sad and gory posts lining up. I cannot be pleasing all readers like this Singaporean CK who only loves to hear spooky & paranormal stuffs. Not all readers are brave and crazy like CK who used to go all out to find ghosts around Singapore! Muahahaha I am sharing my top favourite place for grocery shopping as the energy inside is always very good.

This upscale De Market is inside Faber Towers at Taman Desa.

Nothing is cheap here but everything is the best & freshest!

Happiness is when I go shopping with this happy girl.

As the prices are tagged like the skies, yet there are so many

wealthy aunties & Japanese shopping here from as far as 

Seputeh, Gasing Hills, Bangsar and even Damansara Heights.
 

Their fruits and vegetables here are very fresh

compared to the Hero M in my own neighbourhood.

They are slightly smaller than Ben's but they have all the stuffs

that the expatriates need from their home country.

My Goodness! Look at the prices and yet they are very popular!

That's why it is "HOT BUYS" as displayed.

They are fully imported from Australia and I had to drink this

at their cafe to taste the difference. It tastes good & malty!

Their fruit trays are often snapped up very fast.

The staff are all very polite and hard working

to replenish. I have been shopping at their place

for almost 15 years since their earlier days

when they had another name.

  

She enjoyed going to supermarkets to pull the baskets.

Here she watched the Japanese TV Demo on cooking.

It is 20 days more to Christmas!

***

In Memory Of My Silent Reader

On 7th November, I received a surprise email from a silent reader CK from Singapore. The minute I read the first paragraph of his writing, something unseen jumped out of my phone through his email. My hair stood up very fiercely like Christmas trees on my head and I had the most terrible goosebumps ever. My skin all sprouted tiny lumps like a fresh chicken just being plucked all the feathers. Gosh! The mangled spirit just stood beside me and actually grabbed my leg while I was seated on the comfy chair alone in the office's conference room. I read on the email's message and CK was pouring out his grievances over the death of his childhood friend who was just killed in a car accident. In the wee hours, his friend navigated his own speeding Estima which hit the roadside and flipped over. The impact threw his friend out of the car and landed on the road for other cars to run over him to death. He was just 30 years old and this gory accident mangled his whole body. The victim's body had been cremated after the funeral but his badly mangled soul really came to find me. I had no choice but invited this poor wandering spirit to follow me home. I am not lunatic but I can swear that this is all true. The reasons CK got in touch was because he dreamt of his departed friend appearing in his vivid dream where he knew clearly his friend had passed away. He remembered I had a similar encounter when my dead friend came to inform me that he had passed away and had to sadly move on already.......(BLOG) I have been exchanging over 60 emails with CK ever since, from doing prayers and making merits for his departed friend besides talking all the paranormal stuffs and grandmother stories.

Now this recent incident of CK's friend reminded me of another case that happened exactly 4 years ago, in November too. One silent reader from Penang wrote to tell me that her very young son Adrian Lee had just died suddenly after complaining of a severe headache. Adrian's brother took him to see the doctor and was advised to be admitted for further observation. Adrian passed away at the hospital in less than 24 hours. I could imagine the terrible shock, painful loss, sadness and anguish a mother had to face on seeing her youngest child dying before her. She told me that my blog brought so much memories for her as it was like a daily ritual when her young son and her would check to see my blog updates in the morning while having breakfasts. They both enjoyed reading whatever nonsense or paranormal stuffs that I shared. Now that he had gone, the heart broken mother found it so hard to read my blog alone and decided to write to share her griefs with me. My tears flowed down unashamedly like Niagara Falls at my office table as I could feel her deepest sorrow. My office colleagues pretended not to notice me wiping tissues but they were stealing side glances. 

I thought over the matter very carefully on how to reply this very sad mother. I was going away for my vacation the next day and planned to do some prayers or merit making for her son Adrian after my trip. Nothing was certain but I was about to reply her email...... Suddenly, my computer's screen got jammed and the whole desktop vision turned haywire and twisted like kaleidoscope image in colours! I was damn shocked to experience this the first time and heard a soft voice calling my head. It was the boy Adrian himself and he tried to communicate. Again, all my hair from my head, my pubic areas till my toes all stood up like lighted Christmas Trees! I tried so hard to press my keyboard and banged my mouse but nothing happened. I kept mumbling to the boy not to scare me by sitting on my pc's monitor. His frequency actually caused all the distortions on the screen and when he slowly moved, the screen's image also moved. Whooooa!! That was so scary till my balls fell down and any old man could have died of heart attack on my table.

I slowly picked up my balls and guts to compose myself. I spoke to the boy's spirit gently and told him that I would be replying his mother. He should not stop me as I had every good intentions to arrange prayers and merit making for him later. I told him that I was flying to Chengdu the next day and then hike up the beautiful Mount Emei in Sichuan Province of China. I told him that it was already winter and snowing beautifully in Sichuan. I invited him to follow me to visit Chengdu if he wished to. "Now please let me have my PC screen back to normal so that I could reply your mummy", I snorted back. The spirit let go and my computer was back to normal. I replied the mother that I was going overseas and offered my deepest condolence before asking for the boy's particulars and photo. She replied me quickly and attached his photo and details from the Obituary Ad placed in the newspaper. I was so sad to see his very handsome face and what a fate that he had to die so young. My heart was very touched that he was my silent reader for so long and we had never met up.

What happened next??.... 

This boy Adrian's spirit, really followed me up to the plane and flew to Chengdu with me & my wife. He was sitting inside my backpack all the way. My wife saw this little spirit but had no idea that I had invited him along. We stayed at a very huge suite room of the 5 star Rhombus Fantasia hotel which had a separate bedroom, living and walk in closet areas. I would not be able to afford this luxury hotel if not because of their Winter's low season that sent the prices knocking off 70% discounts. The young boy's spirit was happy and comfortable with so much privacy for him to hide himself esp the walk in closets. 

We boarded a bus to another town away from Chengdu to climb up the hill to see the famous Giant Buddha of Leshan which I have blogged HERE

In the above photo, there was a beautiful butterfly that followed me all the way up. I was swinging both hands to play with the butterfly which was at my eye level over the green plants. The boy's soul was happily sitting on it like a taxi so that he need not have to walk up in the winter cold.

I made merits for him by donating to sponsor the new temple's roof tiles. In the photo, I was writing his name on the roof tiles, besides donating cash to the donation boxes. I had to pray and mumble out the merits being dedicated to the soul of the boy. It is always very important that the family should always conduct proper prayers and lots of merit making for the deceased before the 49th day. This is the Law of the Universe and not mere superstitions.

Later, he followed us by bus to catch another bus at the Emei's terminal which was covered by heavy snow falls. There was so much snow everywhere covering the streets and vehicles around the Emei town. The boy's spirit was so excited and very happy to see snow for the first time.

The view atop was simply fabulous and very breathtaking. The heavens opened the clear skies for us to see the panoramic view of the mountain range in Tibet. You can read up from the post of Mount Emei and see the beautiful mountains above the clouds. We relaxed up there for many hours!

Back to the hotel in Chengdu, I wrote an email to inform the mother that her son's spirit had followed me overseas and I actually visited Chengdu and Mount Emei for our pilgrimage trip. I informed her of the merit making and shared all the photos. The mother was too surprised as she found it too hard to believe that her family members had also dreamt of the boy going to a foreign country in Winter. He was very happy and smiling to show he was boarding at the bus terminal with snow everywhere. They saw the dream of the mountains exactly like my above photo and thought that boy had probably gone to heavens. The dates of our trip matched precisely with the date of their dreams. They had no idea what the dreams was trying to tell them earlier.

My friend in KL who kept me in the loop of their email updates with HH The Dalai Lama and his Tibetan Rinpoches, had informed me that he was going to attend a big praying session in India. It was a very huge prayer session presided by HH The Dalai Lama where thousands of monks and devotees would gather in prayers together. The timing was just so perfect and I gave my friend Adrian's photo and particulars for them to bless and pray to deliver his soul to heavens. The parents were so touched and grateful to hear the good blessings and closure for their son. They made a trip to KL together with other family members and gave me a big dinner at Supertanker Restaurant. We met up for the first time and it was a touching & memorable evening.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama

***

Green Potted Plants

It has been a trend and craze nowadays to see many displays of fake potted plants at the shops and restaurants. They look cool and nice to liven up any dull corners to look chic & trendy. It got me interested as my wife had a recent makeover at home to inject some new life at home. I think she threw away 1 ton of rubbish and old books. My only part was to think of adding potted plants to brighten up the place. I do not want to worry about watering plants when we go on travels.

I have been shopping for fake plants over the last 2 weeks. Honestly, I had a terrible fright to see the prices of nice plants at SSF and IKEA where they easily cost over RM50 per stalk!! Good things don't come cheap! I being a Penang born kiam-siap clan sure had to find innovative ways. This TOMEI shop is located at Jalan Masjid India in KL! Yes, I was there on Sunday with all the crowded Banglas, Indons and foreign workers jostling and rubbing each other's sweaty bodies! Wakakaka It was fun dei.

Take a peek at my green potted plants lining on the top of my wife's book shelves. 

I found that that the cheapest porcelain pots in town are definitely from DAISO which costs only RM5.90 each. They come in several pastel colours too. Other places are selling from RM9.90 up to RM18.00 which sounds like robbery to me!

 

I went to SSF, Daiso, IKEA and a "2 Ringgit Shop"! The above are from SSF (RM9.90 Eucalyptus) Tomei (RM6.90 Lavender) and Two Ringgit Shop (RM2.12 each stalk /Unnamed plants)

Dua Ringgit Shop  (Daiso Pot RM5.90 & Dua Ringgit Plant RM2.12 )

Ikea (Ikea Pot RM9.90 & Ikea Plant RM14.90)

These 2 pots are inside my bathroom now.

Sui boh? Cantek boh? Give me your vote please!

***

Hutan Lipur Rainforest @ Terengganu

HUTAN LIPUR LATA TEMBAKAH

I made a trip to this famous rainforest & waterfalls at

Hulu Besut in Terengganu. It is about 60 km from Kota Bharu

which took less than 2 hours drive through

kampung & winding roads.

Look! That was the first Petai Tree I had seen.

It is so mighty tall and steady with a monkey sitting

up there while few guys sat below.

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

That was amazing how the master talked to

his pet monkey like a father and guided the

monkey to pluck petai from branch to branch.

Monkey was so obedient & not tied up.

It could nod its head saying Yes & No!

A bountiful harvest of Petai stalks.

The monkey gave us free Petai.

Yours truly loves to eat Sambal Petai Prawns!

When our urine smells, that means the petai has cleaned

up the walls of our dirty bladder. Our bladder smells

stinky and not the green petai.

I started my trekking into the thick forest with my driver

who became my trekking guide.

Jom! Follow me into the Hutan Simpanan Kekal

Negeri Terengganu.

The trees are old and very tall with fresh smelling plants.

This place is famous for its 5 tiers of waterfalls.

The rapids of clean water was crystal clear & chilly.

Bridge to heavens!

The water would swell and flood during rain season.

The scary notice board gave out warning that

33 persons have drowned & died in the water.

They have several neat chalets with private balconies

& air conditions.

The price is cheap and you can sleep with all the snakes,

wild boars, squirrels and tigers roaming at night.

 

My faithful guide is my friend now.

I learnt so much about the lifestyle

of East Coasts in 2 days.

  He is a GRAB driver, My Guide and My Friend now....

Call Him Today: +6-019-4756308

(Mr. Rosaifuddin)

**** 

Pantai Cahaya Bulan & Roti Titab @ Kelantan

This is the most famous short stretch of beach in Kelantan as it is ideally located by its capital Kota Bahru.

This PCB beach was formerly known as Pantai Cinta Beach and had to change its

name to Pantai Cahaya Bulan after some issues with the local folks.

A favourite getaway for family & freinds on weekends

when it's impossible to take photos by yourself!
No space!

 I was lucky to visit on a weekday! The whole beach for myself.

The wind was so strong like typhoon lashing its force to the waves.

Look at the coconut trees!

  

 Look at my hair!

All messy!

I cry!

They have many small restaurants lining the street with

everything you want to eat! Seafood, Western, , Kelantanese, Siam, Chinese

you just name it.

 The colourful kites blowing like our daily lives!

Sometimes it's calm and sometimes kencang!

So sabar lah.

When you don't like someone.

Ask him GO FLY KITE!

 How nice if we can become kids again.

How would I want to live my life?

I would have remained in US and not

listen to my brother to return home.

She just farted loudly!

My tour guide and driver is the BEST IN KELANTAN!

You must know by now how patient he is.

Call Him Today: +6-019-4756308

(Mr. Rosaifuddin)

 He took me to eat all the famous food in Kelantan.

This is Kedai Kopi Khuan Heong Yan

which is located along Jalan Che Su.

(Opposite Hotel Crystal)

Everyday this shop is packed with local folks and 

hordes of tourists like me.

We were welcomed by this friendly kakak who wore

a full bridal make up even at the kedai kopi!

She was so hilarious to tease us for sharing 

a set of toasted bread! She didn't know that

we had just eaten the best Nasi Soup Ayam Bakar

on the next street. I was greedy and had to

try their famous Roti Titab.

We ordered their thick and aromatic Kopi-O and Kopi Peng

with half boiled eggs and kaya bread.

 I couldn't believe my eyes! The eggs were so huge

that I had to ask whether it was dinosaur or

ostrich eggs??

Kakak insisted that we had to try this steamed bread.

I didn't order the real Roti Titab that would place the half

boiled eggs on top as I was sharing with my guide.

 This is the charcoal toasted bread that was so

fragrant and nice.

  

Look at the fillings of thick butter and homemade kaya!

This is heavens!

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