68th Sapporo Snow Festival 2017

We just got home after a week long holiday in Hokkaido, Japan. It was a wonderful experience for my wife to see real snow falling from the skies for the first time. She screamed so excitedly like a happy child again. In the past, she had seen plenty of snow in China and even South Korea during our ski trip but the snow didn't fall from the skies then. 

NEW CHITOSE AIRPORT - HOKKAIDO, JAPAN

  

Our overnight flight took over 8 hours from Kuala Lumpur

to Sapporo at Hokkaido, Japan. We had difficulty to sleep well

even with the front row's spacious "hot seats".

 This is the New Chitose Airport which is very huge and

made headlines recently when the China tourists had

a nasty brawl inside with the airport officers over the

unexpected delays due to snow storm.

 They have many interesting facilities inside the airport

such as retail shops, seafood markets, museums,

children's play lands and even a spa with a hot spring

onsen for the public to relax.

 They have ample sitting areas to have coffee or browse

your smartphones with free WIFI which was very powerful.

  

The famous ROYCE chocolate factory in Hokkaido

took up large areas to house their chocolate museum,

cafe and retail shops!

  

There are so many types of chocolates here!

 We saw many cute and lovely cakes, desserts and ice cream

sold in many shops. They are so creative and innovative!

This is one of the many seafood mini markets indifr the airport
that sold all kinds of seafood catch from Hokkaido's famous seas.

 They sold many frozen crabs, fishes, squids and everything

from the ocean..... Yes, inside the airport!

68th. SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL 2017

 We took a train from the airport and arrived at this Sapporo's

JR Station which was full of people and excitement inside.

 It is always packed with locals and the thousands of tourists 

who arrive each day to discover Hokkaido.

  

 My wifey outside the Sapporo's JR Station.

It was -3 degrees C.

  

Yours truly posing outside the Sapporo's JR Station.

The snow festival was held in 3 different park areas in Sapporo

but we only visited the main one at Odori park.

They had many stalls selling barbequed seafood, sake

and souvenirs.

 

There were many snow sculptures on display and we came

here because Sapporo's Snow Festival has always been rated

the BEST. It is different from Ice Carvings.

Yours truly with 2 cute Japanese cartoons.

 They even built Donald Trump.

 Everything was so white and would hurt our eyes!

So we wore shades.

 

You could guess who is this singer?

 The snow man and I.

We made our way walking through their mile long shopping

area underground and spotted this talking robot who was

so talkative, friendly and welcomed everyone in

any language you wished to speak.

  

We stayed for 2 nights at the popular red lights area in Susukino

district and my wife's eyes went wide seeing the hot

GROs wearing skimpy G-strings ogling at their

customers at the full window views of the drinking clubs!

  

We enjoyed so much eating the Japanese barbeque

food which was delicious and hot to keep warm

together with a bottle of sake wine.

  

We toasted and cheered "Kampai"

Happy Valentine's Day 

to all the readers!

***

Human Rights Training In Jakarta

I came back from Jakarta over a week ago and my office's jobs piled up my head till I had terrible mental block. It was like a revenge for going away to China and Indonesia for too long. Today I feel almost back to track with my demanding work and strict Japanese clients who actually help to keep me on my toes.

I was happy and honoured to be invited by my old friend Peter Tan, to be his P.A. and accompany him to attend the recent ASEAN Secretariat Human Rights Training where he was invited to speak in their workshop. My friend Peter had come a long way after his swimming pool tragedy when he was only 18 years old, where he had dived at the shallow end by mistake and suffered from serious spinal cord injury which affected his limbs and mobility. He has struggled a lot to adapt to his fate and needs to use a wheel chair all his life. We lost touch briefly after I went to US and he got married later to a lovely banker wife who has a heart of gold. She was busy lately and unable to accompany him for this trip, so I tagged along instead.

1. We had a quick lunch at KLIA as we didn't expect MAS to serve us
lunch for this short 2 hours flight to Jakarta. Our friendship spans over
30 years today and it was very good to catch up again.

2. It was an eye opener to understand how passengers like Peter, with
special needs are being escorted to their seats in the aeroplane
using the special very narrow wheel chair, provided by the airlines.
Sadly, our AA do not have this special wheelchairs till now.

3. In Jakarta, the airport's personnel in pink uniform wheeled my
friend Peter from the plane all the way through immigration, baggage
claims until he got into the taxi to our hotel. I just tailed behind
and jumped through all the long queues too. Yay!

4. We stayed at this trendy upscale part of Jakarta City where
I could not see the slums or cardboard houses like my previous trip.
There are so many security and policemen guarding the city.
They strictly DO NOT ALLOW any photography of any buildings
yet I took them to share with you all. LOL

5. We stayed at this fabulous JW Marriott Hotel which has the
best and friendliest 5 Star services I had ever experienced.
Trust me, their services are really top notch.

6. The whole neighbourhood is very swanky with beautiful
buildings yet they stopped me from taking photos!
I should be sharing good things since I am not
a threat or terrorist.

7. One for the album by the Christmas Tree inside
the JW Marriot in Jakarta.

8. My room's window overlooked The Ritz Carlton Hotel
on the left.

9. Their F&B manager personally escorted my friend around the
restaurant and briefed him on all the exotic and delicious food.

10. I was not surprised that Japan has voted this hotel as
The Best Hotel in whole Asia! The photo is the Japanese award.

11. The whole buffet spread from breakfast to lunch and dinner
were all fantastic and good.

12. I had lots of fried pork bacons for breakfast!

13. At the 3 day event of ASEAN Secretariat Human Rights Training,
they focused on the Human Rights Mechanisms/Systems and Disability Awareness.
One excellent speaker HE. Dr Seree Nonthasoot from Thailand
shared many important demographics on the plight and needs of the disabled
population around the world. The other invited speakers touched
on other important issues too.

14. His slides pointed out that China has the highest number of
85 million disabled people! That is way higher than our whole
population of Malaysia.

15. Indonesia's disabled population is over 6 million people yet
there is so much to be done to create awareness to provide all
the assistance for the population with special needs in all
the areas from toilets, road accessibilities, public transports
and every where. I always paid attention to these issues ever
since my friend suffered from his spinal cord injury.

 16. It was Peter's turn to speak together with his partner from Laos.
He is Samnieng Thammavong who suffers from polio.

17. They gave an interesting question to all the participants.
It was an easy question, yet they were tongue tied before
giving various answers. I myself learnt something from this.
What is Disability and Where is Disability?

18. The whole group of participants from Asean countries took a farewell photo.
Yours truly sat on the floor at Peter's feet.

19. This place is the departure gate at the Soekarno–Hatta International Airport
which looks cosy! The flight home gave me a new opener on the issues
of the many people with special needs around us. Japan has one of the
best facilities in the world for their aging population which is
growing very fast. Someday, we will all grow very old and weak
where we need to have the right and proper facilities.
I am wondering whether our country will be ready
for my future needs?




Peter Tan is now a weekly columnist at
Borneo Post. You read his articles HERE.

****

Attractions Of Silk Road - Xi'an & Dunhuang

Yesterday I have just returned from China after being away for 10 days. I have experienced very cold winters and seen many new eye openers which were captured in over 1000 photographs. Honestly I am still mentally tired after the long train rides and flight home. In a few days, I will be off to Jakarta for a few days on my good friend's invitation. So I decided to post just some preview photos here before I find quality time to sort the photographs and compile them for your reading pleasure.

  

Greetings from our room at Ramada Hotel in Xi'an.

It takes 5 hours by plane from Kuala Lumpur to reach

Xi'an at the Shaanxi Province. The temperature was

like averagely High 7C and Low -3C.

 We took their normal train ride from Xi'an to reach Dunhuang

which is a very ancient city at the Silk Road journey. The train

took us 24 hours each way. Lots of sceneries of mountains,

farms and melted snow along Gobi Desert. Their average freezing
temperature was like High -3C and Low -7C. Dunhuang is
located in the Gansu Province.

This map illustrates the journey from Xi'an to Dunhuang.

 

 It was a very memorable trip to see the ancient Mogao Caves which we

had talked for many years. We also visited the Mingshan Mountains

and rode camels across the desert!

We took the miserable train back to Xi'an and spent 3 days

visiting the places & temples we have missed since our last trip in 2014.

We enjoyed riding bicycle around the entire city wall of Xi'an

and saw all the tall skyscrapers in the big city within 2 hours.

Xi'an City was the first capital of China and was better

known as Chang'an with a population of over 4.5 million

inside the crowded city itself! This is the most highly 

recommended place to visit after having visited

Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chengde, Chengdu, Nanjing,

Jiuhuashan, Suzhou, Emei Shan and others!

*****

My father's Dementia - A Painful Truth

It has been exactly 2.5 months since my father passed away and it seems like many years have passed so swiftly. I have moved on with my life but with a heavy heart whenever my happiest memories flashed back to rekindle the good times. I am always thankful to my beloved parents for giving me the best upbringing any child could wish for. I want you all to be healthy always, so I will share this awareness post below.

I have been yearning to share with everyone on my personal experience, coping with both my parent's illnesses, on their final days until the funeral preparations. I am always thankful that my wife indirectly got me into becoming a volunteer at Hospis which taught me tremendously, the ways to provide palliative care to all the terminally ill patients who became my friends before they all passed away. These lessons eventually gave me the insight and strengths to provide the best support, care and comfort for both my beloved parents' final journey. Suddenly I became very loud and bold in the watsap chat with my older siblings on all the procedures and eventually went ahead to plan the exact details on how we should handle a dead body according to the Buddhist rites including the funeral arrangements.

My dashing father who swooned many ladies in town.

My late father was a very handsome and healthy man all his life. He worked with the forensics of the government's Chemistry Lab to handle all the very serious narcotic cases in the northern states of Malaysia. He became an expert in all liquid chemical stuffs after being sent to United Kingdom under the scholarship of the Colombo Plan. Naturally he was extremely fussy on his food consumption and preferred home cooked meals which meant healthier food. As a cheeky kid, I often had to sneak out and buy the 'dirty' hawker's fruit rojaks and iced waters which he often raged out on the toxic dyes and saccharine contained. My father was a better known public figure in my hometown for all his charitable contributions and fund raising projects, helping his closest allies like Honda's tycoon Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew and Datuk Seri Tan Hoay Eam, to build & manage the homes for the old folks and cerebral palsy handicapped children for many decades.

  

His earlier ballroom days with a partner during competitions.

At the same time, his greatest passion and love for dancing had created his legendary name in the whole ballroom dance circles after winning a Gold Medal from the Royal Ballroom Dancing School in London. He often waltzed and tangoed his nights away with my beloved mother during their retirement years. The famous E&O Hotel gave my parents the honour of a complimentary lifetime F&B coverage each time they patronized their dance floors. Later years, the Hollywood's movie producers were tipped off and approached my father to help out in their filming set of the famous "Anna & The King". He just had to coach the actors Chow Yuen Fatt to waltz beautifully with his partner, actress Jodie Foster in the sequel of the Thai King dancing inside his palace. My Thai-born mother who hailed from Bangkok's Samutprakan village, was a very staunch loyalist of the Thai Royalties, owing to her family's direct connections with the Grand Palace, therefore my father had to respect and decline the glamorous task to coach the 2 famous movie stars. This movie was naturally banned in Thailand.

When my father's age approached the mid 70s, his health was still strong but his brains started to slow down which showed signs of memory loss. He started to forget names, places and often drove the car alone in circles until he lost his way home. Visits to doctors finally confirmed that he had developed "Dementia" which was an alien word to me. I read up a lot about this and watched documentaries on these dementia patients. The doctors at Hospis had cautioned us to get prepared that my father would eventually suffer the worst when his brains could no longer send anymore signals to all his strong & able limbs. Fast forward to his advanced dementia stage, he could no longer remember how to bathe, use the toilet, wear his clothes, eat, walk and even talk! The worst scenario was he could no longer recognize all his children and family on most occasions, therefore he was often very frightened as he was completely confused, lost and drawn into his own world. The last stage would be, his brains could no longer signal his body to receive food and any liquid. His throat and lungs would often get stuck & choked until we had to admit him to the ICU several times to drain out everything. One doctor had warned me that he would eventually die of hunger as his body would reject everything including hospital's bottled drips! It was so painful to watch him slowly fading off even though he had no terminal sickness or whatsoever pain.

Before my poor father passed away eventually, my wife and I had attended a special talk by a university's professor about dementia to learn about its history, causes and preventive measures. I was very-very shocked that Aluminium is very harmful and directly damages the human's brain cells!!! My next blog topic will share the hazardous details of aluminium and Dementia's story. Stay tuned, be healthy and don't curse me please. LOL.

Warning: Food wrapped by Aluminium Foils.

****

Good Bye To My Parents

The journey of life is not always a path of roses and happiness. The world is enveloped with the balance of night & day, happiness & sadness and birth & deaths, eventually.

My dearest mother left us in March 2015 and my father joined my mother in August last month. They have been the most loving couple I have seen as they had never quarreled even once and were inseparable. 

My family made a trip to our hometown in Penang last week to fulfill my parents wishes to conduct the internment of their ashes into the sea. 

 It was a beautiful morning from the windows of my room

at Evergreen Laurel Hotel @ Gurney Drive.

 We arrived at the quiet and tranquil beach of Teluk Bahang

where no tourists would swim here. I fetched 2 monks to bless

and conduct the internment ceremony.

My family, siblings and their families boarded the chartered boat.

I brought along an ice box full of jasmine with rose petals.

My parents loved flowers and we always had beautiful flowers

in the gardens of the homes we had lived.

After some chanting and prayers by the monks, the older

siblings had to pour both our parents' ashes into the sea.

My sister wept throughout the whole journey as she is

the oldest child who was naturally the closest and well pampered

by my parents. When you become the youngest child in the family,

you will notice that you have the least photographs of yourself in the

family albums, naturally. They also spoke lesser to me!!

Muahahahaha!

........Good Bye to my parents......

 My parents are reunited again in the Land of Eternity.

 Thank you very much to my parents for giving me the 

happiest memories!

 Our hearts were very sad and heavy. 

We had to return to the land and life moves on.

******