Malaysia
Kampong Bukit Lanjan

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    • Day 4

      1-Utama

      October 15, 2019 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      Although the day was quite overcast, the temperature was over 30c in the morning. It felt very humid, but the weather app says it’s only about 70%. The beauty of gardening here is that everything grows really well. Last time we were here we helped with re-potting a plant. The process was simply to tip it out of the pot, hack most of the roots off with a large cleaver and then re-pot with fresh soil. The climate does the rest and everything grows almost despite what is done to it.

      During the morning the Olive-Backed Sun Bird appeared on the ornamental ginger plant. Only about 4 inches (12cm ) long, looking a bit like a large humming bird with its long beak for getting nectar from flowers. While it can hover to collect food, this one just sat to drink from the ginger flowers.

      The dessert after lunch was a selection of fruit - Pineapple, Guava, Water Melon and Papaya. The small dishes contain salt and assam powder. Assam is a Malay word for dried sour plumbs. 5 a day - easy.

      The afternoon storm was not as spectacular as yesterday’s but I love sitting outside watching it.

      1-Utama is a large shopping mall containing many eating places. 5 floors and 1,000m long it’s a good place to get in some paces. The mall prides itself on being Malaysia’s “first green mall” collecting 2.35 million gallons of rain water to use in all of the toilets (weather permitting). They also boast to conserving 287,833kWh of energy per month through the building’s automation systems. They’d save a lot more energy if they turned the a/c up to above freezing.

      One can never have enough desserts so we had them with our evening meal (another Chendol and a peanut cream). I was expecting the peanut cream to be cold but it came out hot and runny rather like peanut butter mixed with a small amount of boiling water and warmed up to take the roof of your mouth off. It was a new experience. Like so much of the food, it was laden with extra sugar. The desserts we took home were kueh (kway) flavoured with green pandan leaves. The green and white is Kuih Talam Pandan, a 2-layer Nyonya kuih dessert, the meaning of “talam” is tray. The top white layer is made with coconut milk, it is soft and slightly salty. The bottom green layer is made with pandan juice and has some alkaline water added, it is sweet and has a chewy texture. The green dome was a very squidgy kway with a coconut and cane sugar filling. Yes you can spell,ugh many different ways.

      The video of the woman with the bowl shows how they clean jade. It’s placed in the bowl on top of something (I’ll have to do more research) she then runs a piece of wood around the edge of the bowl that then vibrates and hums, finished off by striking the bowl three times. As I said, more research needed.

      Gate painting tomorrow so up early.
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    • Day 9

      1-Utama Secret Gardens

      October 20, 2019 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

      Not just secret, but hidden😡 “... the 30,000sqft Secret Garden, the largest rooftop garden in Southeast Asia: it is a popular tourist attraction with over 500 species of exotic flora”

      Today’s Sunday, Jan goes to the temple for prayers. We were on a mission to find Jan something she can listen to music from her phone on.

      A quick lunch and then Bun and I were dropped off at 1U while Jan continued on to the temple.

      The Secret Gardens are not well signposted but Bun had a rough idea of how to find them, other than the obvious - they are on the roof. Only a couple of lifts go to the roof, the one we found was a service elevator with a checker plate patched floor and walls that had been well bashed. It was a surprise to arrive at a clean and bright lobby before walking into the gardens that were well kept and receiving a constant dose of fine mist from a spray system.
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    • Day 6

      Diwali and Pho Viet

      October 17, 2019 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 25 °C

      Went back to 1-Utama for a Vietnamese dinner. Other than the food was fantastic, we were most intrigued by the tea pot and how the handle actually makes it easy to hold.

      In 1-Utama they are preparing for Diwali by producing a large Kolam using coloured rice

      Diwali, Divali, Deepavali or Dipavali is a four to five day-long (varying as per Hindu Calendar) festival of lights, which is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists every autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in southern hemisphere).

      One of the most popular festivals of Hinduism, Diwali symbolises the spiritual "victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance." Light is a metaphor for knowledge and consciousness. During the celebration, temples, homes, shops and office buildings are brightly illuminated. The preparations, and rituals, for the festival typically last five days, with the climax occurring on the third day coinciding with the darkest night of the Hindu lunisolar month Kartika. In the Gregorian calendar, the festival generally falls between mid-October and mid-November.

      Forgot to mention dropping off for a combination dessert of two favourites, cendol and durian ... yes a durian cendol!
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