Roaring Forties

29 March – Manchester United stretched their unbeaten home record against Aston Villa to 25 years as Cristiano Ronaldo proved yet again why he is truly one of the best players in the world. His 35th goal of the season was really wonderful and could only be attempted by Cristiano Ronaldo. Only he has the confidence, the arrogance and the skill to attempt the cheekiest goal I have ever seen. The ball fell on the outside of Ronaldo’s left leg on the 30th minute. For any normal players, it would have been at the wrong side and they would have to shift their body to control the ball. But not Ronaldo. He just used his right back heel to steer the ball first time through in-between the legs of the  defender in front of him and beyond reach of the goal keeper. He made it looked so simple but no one else could have scored the way he did. It was truly a goal with a Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark.

Cristiano Ronaldo then went on to prove why he is truly one of the best player in the world when he provided the perfect cross in the 33rd minute for Carlos Tervez to head the ball in for the second goal, after which he flicked the ball past the Aston Villa defence for Wayne Rooney in 53rd minute to make it 3:0 and lastly but not least, he again supplied the pass in the 70th minute for Wayne Rooney to score his brace.

The match ended Manchester United 4 Aston Villa 0 with Cristiano Ronaldo having a part in all four goals.

Cristiano Ronaldo proved that he is enroute to become one of the legends of Manchester United as he took his goal scoring tally for all competition to 34 goals by adding another goal to his name in the historic 3:0 win over Liverpool.

It has been truly an amazing season for Cristiano Ronaldo and no one has proved to be more valuable to the club since Eric Cantona. Cristano Ronaldo is true No 7 hero for Manchester United. 

Mar 23 – Nothing gives a true Red Devil fan any more pleasure than for Manchester United to beat their greatest rival Liverpool and Manchester United did that again at Old Trafford 3:0, repeating their earlier in Anfield on Dec 16, 2007. It was truly a historic night with Wes Brown scoring a very rare goal, Ronaldo scoring his 25th EPL goal of the season and Nani completing his goal with his trademark acrobatic celebration.

What a night! Liverpool fans will have to hide for the rest of the season.

Manchester United proved without doubt that they are the better team. 

19 Mar – Wanted to check out the St Mary’s Catholic church in Dubai but found the street leading to the church totally cordoned off by the police. My friend, Benedict advised that we can drive by but we should not stop, if not I would be questioned by the police. I was extremely puzzled.

Benedict then showed me another church across the road which was the St Thomas Orthodox Church. The road was totally deserted with police barriers lining the road and a police patrol car parked at the entrance of the church.

What’s going on? I have not read anything at all in the local media and would not have noticed anything amiss in Dubai if I have not decided to take a detour to check out the local church.

According to Benedict, the authorities had advised the churches in Dubai that they received some bomb threats which were scheduled to mar the Easter celebrations. As a precautionary measure, the police had decided to increase security at all churches and banned vehicles from parking near the churches since Palm Sunday.

Having lost in the incredible sights of modern Dubai and its cosmopolitan dwellers, I was suddenly reminded that under all the glitter lies the existence of sick individuals who would go at all lengths to wreak havoc and suffering to those who do not subscribe to their twisted beliefs. For that moment, I shivered at the thought of how vulnerable we all are. With all the progress we made, yet people are not allowed to worship in peace.

I am truly praying that nothing untold will happen this Easter, not in Dubai, not anywhere in the world.

I have been to Cameron Highlands on numerous occasions and has always wondered what Robinson Waterfalls was like but never actually attempted to visit it.

Finally, I managed to assembled a group of enthusiasts (May, VM, YP, JS, ML, JT, Joey and the kids) for the mini adventure. Locating the falls was relatively easy. Coming up from Tapah, take the first right turn after the main row of shoplots in Tanah Rata. Drive on for about one km and look out for sign to indicate another right turn.

Proceed straight to the end and park your car. The path to the Robinson Waterfalls lies across a concrete bridge. From the bridge, walk for one km and you will reach the main falls.

What’s interesting about the falls is that you reach the top of the falls first and the trail leeds down the mountain. We could see the falls but could not find any assess to the falls as the side of the trail faced a steep ravine.

As we walked down the trail, we found that it led us away from the falls. After a good 2 km down the mountain, JT and I being the least fit were horrified at the thought of climbing back up the long 2 km uphill. To our relief, failing daylight forced us to turn back as we did not want to be caught in the dark.

We met an orang asli on our trek back and asked about the falls. Our good man advised us against going to the falls because the water is very toxic as it was actually a pesticide laced ground water flowing from up the mountain where all the farms were. His reasoning made real sense.

We also inquire about the trail down the mountain and we were informed that it stretched a good 10 km all the way to Ringlet.

Robinson Waterfalls is an easily assessed falls from Tanah Rata and makes a great trek in the cool atmosphere. After the advice from my Orang Asli friend, I would think twice before attempting to bathe or swim in its waters.

It is one of the most assessible waterfalls. Lata Iskandar is located at the side of the mountain along the main trunk road to Cameron Highlands. You can park along the road and take a short walk to the bottom of the falls where you could have a good overall view of the falls. 

The more energetic could do the 3 minutes hike up the cemented steps to the top of the falls. It is a nice small   but tall falls which would make a perfect picnic and swim spot if not for being easily assessed. The place can be crowded during week ends and tne holiday season. Souvenir stalls near the falls offers an interesting range of handicrafts including orang asli products.  

Lata Iskandar is an ideal stopover for city slickers (not the hardcore nature lovers) on the way to Cameron.

No visit to Perak is complete without a stop at the famous “Ngap Thui Meen” at the “Pun Chun” restaurant in Bidor, Perak. The “Ngap Thui Meen” is actually a duck drumstick cooked in herbal soup and served together with “wantan mee” noodles.

Almost everyone who visits Bidor will order the famous duck drumstick noodles, I prefer the simple “Char Siu Wantan Mee” available at the same restaurant which I would rate to be one of the best around where the Char Siu is the reddish coloured type unlike the dark coloured ones you normally find in the Klang Valley. The “Wantan” at Pun Chun is absolutely the best. You can taste the crunchy prawns and I would purposely detour to Bidor just for the “Wantan”.

The restaurant also sells a wide variety of local delicacies and cakes along with the famous Kampar Chicken biscuits and Bidor Tau Sar Piah along with the Heong Peng from Penang or the dodol from Malacca. To me, these items are more of a tourist trap but nevertheless, it is very popular and you will find the KLites raving over their purchases.

To get there, just turn off the North South Highway at the Bidor Interchange, proceed to a T-Junction, turn right to Bidor town. Look out the “Pun Chun Restaurant” on your right. If you reached a petrol station on your right, you have just missed it.

Check out their “Wantan” or their “Ngap Thui Meen”. You won’t regret it.

Mar 8, 2008 will be engrained as a historic day in Malaysian politics where for the first time in 50 years, the ruling coalition government Barisan Nasional (BN) failed to win a two third mandate from the people (Rakyat) in the country’s 12th General Election. It was also the first time, the opposition coalition comprising mainly of PKR, DAP and PAS won the right to form the state government in 5 out of 13 states.

It was truly a most unexpected result. There was mixed feelings from the out-come of the election. But the best description for the political atmosphere was that both the ruling government and the opposition were equally shell shocked. The BN did not expect to lose so many seats while the opposition did not expect to win so many seats, let alone winning 5 states.

Where billions of Ringgit had been spent on the campaigning, the ruling government was left wondering where did all the money go? What happened and where did it all go wrong? Initial comments from some BN candidates blamed it on the internet and the bloggers. There were also comments from certain quarters that the opposition spread lies and told the Rakyat only what they want to hear. Trying to find excuses for the shortcomings which the government had, was the very reason why the BN has lost so many seats. To continue in this manner would not help the BN but would plunge it further down in an abyss which it may never climb back up.

It is high time BN stop looking for excuses and start working towards becoming a clean, transparent and efficient government. Drastic reformation is needed to restore the Rakyat’s confidence and 5 years is a very short time. The sooner the BN starts working, the better the chance they have of winning back the Rakyat.

The Opposition maybe feeling euphoric with the historical wins in the 5 states but did they really win all the seats based on their hard work and ideology? Absolutely not! Until the last minute, the Opposition was still disorganised and was desperately fielding unknown and untested candidates due to the lack of choice. The ‘loose’ alliance which the Opposition lacked unity and a common ideology. It was a miracle that the Opposition performed so well.

The Opposition won so many seats purely because the Rakyat had enough.

The 12th General Election Results was a wake up call from the Rakyat.

This wake up call should be for both BN and the Opposition that they have to do much better if they want the Rakyat’s support in the next elections.

8 Mar – It is election day and marks a long period of travel for me.

Will be heading for Cameron Highlands later today for a short break with friends where we will the last guests for Mrs Chong, the caretaker of Hill Top Bungalow. Mrs. Chong will be retiring next week and I am really glad that we have the opportunity to visit the Eu Yan Sang owned British era bungalow before she retires. Things will never be the same without Mrs. Chong.

Will be back on Monday and from Tuesday it will be a two solid week of traveling through Iran, Qatar, Oman and the UAE. I love traveling but not for business. Unfortunately this will be an official trip. But nevertheless, I am looking forward to Tehran.

Today is the day for the 12th Malaysian Election. After two weeks of intense campaigning, Malaysians will go to the polls to choose their next government.

I am predicting that the opposition will  be able to increase their parliamentary seats by 150% to about 50 seats from their representation of only 20 during the last term and they will capture about 45% of the votes. For the states, PAS will retain their majority in Kelantan and capture Perlis.

Let’s see whether I am right. May the best man or woman win.