Sun-drenched

Nice Rice

Mmmmm.... Yati's Ayam Percik restaurant at Jalan Long Yunus in KB serves really yummy nasi kerabu, ayam percik and a whole slew of delicious lauk and local kuih-muih.

BABE in Kelantan

This was the pig that was merayau-rayauing on the roadside. Obviously belonged to someone local but nobody was that bothered. Why am I making this point? Read the previous post "Buddha is welcome in Kelantan" for reference.

Who's the "Taliban" now?

(Source: The Star, 2003)

This post relates to the one before, called "Buddha is welcome in Kelantan". I'm not trying to plug PAS here but the truth is, the state government has been very gracious and generous about giving land to the Chinese and Indian community to build their places of worship.

(Of course there are lots of restrictions that the state government imposes on the people of Kelantan but that's another story altogether...)

In Selangor for example, many churches and temples (both Buddhist and Hindu) have resorted to building their places of worship illegally because the state government takes years (in the case of the Methodist church in Shah Alam, it applied in 1989 for a piece of land and got approval last year after over 15 years of to-ing and fro-ing) to approve the construction of these buildings, even when it's on private land.

Buddha is welcome in Kelantan

This giant Reclining Buddha (and supposedly the largest in South-east Asia) is situated in "Taliban-run Kelantan" (as according to Chua Jui Meng in 2003; see above). Wat Pothivihan is located in Kg. Jambu, in Tumpat district.

I was in Kota Bharu in April and it was a very interesting experience. I also saw a babi kampung wandering about listlessly on the roadside on the way to the Buddhist temples... a very common sight especially early in the morning, say locals who did not bat an eyelid when responding to my query. In Selangor, there probably would have been an entire Rela and Islamic Department contingent of 200 out to hunt this poor pig down!

More on Kelantan coming up later. For those intending to visit KB, here's a decent litle entry in Wikitravel.

Temple in a Cave

Sixty kilometres south-west of Hanoi is the Perfume Pagoda, a very important place of worship for the Vietnamese. It's 2 hours by car out of Hanoi, and then an hour's boat ride, and then an hour to climb up to the temple. All I can say is, thank god for the cable car!!!

The 'temple' is actually set inside a cave or grotto at the top of a mountain. It's a bit like our Batu Caves. Read more about the Perfume Pagoda here and here.

Messing around ...

... on Photoshop yielded the second picture, which I personally think is slightly more interesting, cos there's a bit more texture eh.

The most important site for Nepal's Buddhists, this is Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Read more about Boudhanath and the other 9 World Heritage sites in Nepal.

Blind Charity

"Derma kepada badan-badan amal" - "Donate to charity organisations"

Er... which ones? Malaysia Airports? Nah... I'll pass.

The cheek of them! Telling us to donate but they don't state who or what they're giving the money to!!!

This was taken at Kota Kinabalu Airport last year sometime.

Spicy!

Asian markets in general are great for browsing, and this one in Hanoi was no exception. Taken in early May 2007.

EEEEK!

Tarantula, cockroaches, grasshoppers -- you name it, they eat it in Cambodia.

Disparity

This was what I saw out the plane window when we flew out of KK, Sabah, sometime last year.

How civilised!

We saw this doggy-toilet in Macau a coupla years ago.

The local touch

... at the Rainforest Fest 2004.

Meow!

Sunset in Kuching... I was in Sarawak for the Rainforest World Music Fest 2004.

* Find out more about the Fest here.