Colours of KL

Nowadays, the old buildings of Kuala Lumpur has been given a facelift. What a difference a new coat paint can do to old buildings. Even the backlanes are repainted. With its coordinated colors and regular pattern of the windows, well it looks pleasing to the eye.


I'm sure this Burger King outlet will have no problem attracting customers. It is so bright and colourful, it just jumps out at you! I didn't get a chance to 'makan' there though, as I was stuck in the awful Saturday afternoon traffic jam to downtown Petaling Street.

More pictures of KL at Jan Sojourn Blog.

Rain, Rain, Glorious Rain!

The Sunday rain brought much relief for us folks in Kuala Lumpur. Though the haze was much less on Saturday, the added heavy downpour on Sunday not only clear up the haze but also cooled down the climate weather. Us folks in KL now can breath easy!

But the sudden downpour did wreak some havok, especially in some of the poorer drainage area of the Klang Valley. Some minor flash flood was experienced. And not only that, my ADSL modem was hit by lightning and now all it does is making beautiful blinking lights on its led display with no data passing through at all! Ah, well, looks like I have to buy a new ADSL modem.

The heavy downpour made outdoor activities rather inconvenient and many people resorted to dropping by the shopping mall (me included)! Pretty much jam up the shopping mall addionally as if they are not jam enough already during the weekend!

Bad Haze in Kuala Lumpur, No Haze in Cameron Highlands

Lately, we are having some very bad haze in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding Klang Valley and some parts of Malaysia. Fortunately, Cameron Highlands is spared from the terrible haze. The haze originated from Sumatra, Indonesia. It is caused by the burning of peat in the plantation or jungle area. This type of fire is very difficult to put out because the amber fire is smouldering away deep into the ground, fueled by much of the decomposed vegetation and trapped methane gases.

I took some shots with my Nokia 6600 mobile phone around my office working area. Visibility is probably only about 1~2km. The air is somewhat smelly and feels irritating in the nasal passage when you breathe.



I have an earlier picture of the park before the haze came over. What a difference! The sun shines through clearly and the trees looked really healthy. Just in case you are wondering why the trees had become leafless; the leafless trees of the hazy picture are not caused by the haze, but by the city council pruning the trees.

All of us in the Klang Valley is hoping to get relief from this haze soon. The Air Pollution Index (API) is in the hazardous region. Any rain would be good to wash away the smog, but the weather is a little dry and the water authorities is planning for water rationing too as the water level in the dam is getting kind of low.


Ah, how I wish I could go away to Cameron Highlands and get away from this haze! Seen here, a recent view of Cameron Highlands taken from the Heritage Hotel web cam. Nice, clean, clear air!

Cameron Highlands Strawberries

Cameron Highlands Strawberries grows very well in the cool climate weather. All year round the strawberries are available and grown at the various strawberry farms. Visiting the farms and markets I managed to get a few interesting shots of the juicy red strawberries.





Strawberries starts off as green and turns red as it ripens. This shot seem to sum up its metamorphosis from green strawberry to ripe red juicy strawberry.





"RM$10 for 5 plastic packs of strawberries!" said the stall seller! Well, if I have known, I would have waited before making purchases! That's the problem with the prices of vegetables, fruits and produce sold in Cameron Highland. The prices varies, and if you got the time, check around before making your purchase. Haggling is necessary to get better prices. But frankly speaking, I don't find the prices here any cheaper than in Kuala Lumpur!

Just for the fun of it, bargain some and try not to regret too much when you find other stalls sells cheaper! After all, the stall holders survive by selling to the tourist. And there are lulls and peaks of when the tourist comes and goes.