My wish did come through. I was enroute the Bolehland from Beijing quite recently and I thought a short stopover in Yunnan wouldn’t do me any harm. The first stop was in Kunming the capital of Yunnan which was only a 5o minutes flight away from Lijiang. Lijiang is one of the very well preserved ancient city in the province. The air-view along the way to Lijiang was very pleasing. The undulating terrain, isolated tiny villages high in the mountain, vast fertile lands in a diverse landscape were impressive enough and astonishingly beautiful. Luckily my sanity was still prevail otherwise I would have jump out and parachute off the plane just to experience the bird-eye view of this natural wonders. On a second thought, it was not entirely a bad idea though.

My 2 faithful colleagues and myself ended up spending 5 exciting days exploring the ancient town of Lijiang and her surrounding area. We literally inched ourselves up the snow-capped mountain and almost knocked out by lack of oxygen, braved the ear-deafening roar of Yangtze rapid in the deepest gorge, blended with the local tribes on a horseback, passed through scenic mountains, valley and lakes, paced ourselves slowly on the fine bluestones in the small alleys and traced the small streams that run through the ancient town. That was my kind of travel.

One thing that has lasting impression and really touched my heart was the people I met while in Lijiang. While communication was almost muted, sincerity and warm hospitality became a mutual natural bonding. It is a universal language through good gesture and pleasant body languages. Perhaps we were very lucky to have such good encounters. I do hope those were a representation of the whole local population. I do hope others will have the same pleasant encounters like us.

At the end of the journey, I still could not find and unravel the mystery of my ancestral origin. That elusive family tree can wait. I have the feeling that somehow there is a strong sense of belonging there. That intimate feeling was so real and it was very personal. That wonderful and mystical place has really captured my heart – forever.

The sun, the moon and open air… what else do we need to get the feeling of freedom while dumping our precious commodity in this open loo. This is the 21st century version of an exotic spa in the middle of nowhere. I thought I never had to experience this unique ancient ritual, but alas the nuclear-hot chili in my dish really had caused me to have another earth-shattering gastro-intestinal apocalypse here. What an experience!

This, in my opinion is the most beautiful and super-clean toilet in the whole province. It should be rated as a five-star toilet. Next time if I accidentally landed on this mystical land and miss the hotel booking I know where to gatecrash. Superb!

It may sounds a bit weird or perhaps utterly nonsense to have such an exceptional eye-opening experience during my inaugural and virgin trip to the Land of the dragon which somehow has something related with the loo. In fact it is aptly unfitting to discuss this intimate subject matter in an open forum especially in the first paragraph of a would-be epic journey that I will remember in years to come. The loo by itself presented me with a new life perspective and invaluable insight into what our life would be without a toilet.

This time around the visit to this part of the world really tickled and aroused all my senses. I can still smell that signatory pungent odour even when I type this particular paragraph, or at least the smell kept lingering in my subconscious mind, perhaps for the time being until I come across some other form of life-changing moment.

Yesterday I went to Putrajaya for not one but two reasons. First was to attend a nerve-wrecking high-impact meeting with the very high ranking Gomen officials, and another less important but significant reason was to personally inhale the fresh air of Putrajaya. Despite many tourist buses with full load of eye-pollutants that roamed the area (especially near the Putra mosque), indeed the air was lighter and friendlier to my lung as compared to my sanctuary in Sg. Buloh. It was raining cats and dogs too but that didn’t bother me much to cover my wilting head as I know the acid level is considerably low in Putrajaya – average pH of 6.06 (look at the above table). I can only assume that miss Afida of Putrajaya will lead an acid-free life and probably live a thousand years more.

Hard it may seem, it is now scientifically proven that my area, Sg. Buloh has the worst rainwater quality (average pH of 5.47) in term of acidic level as compared to the other sampling areas, which also explains the reason why my head feel lighter and lighter each day as the vegetation up there is getting thinner and thinner. This rainwater result however puzzled me as all this while I though I am living in a safe haven full of oxygen-rich rubber trees, which act as a good guardian against all the bad elements. Looking around me however reveals some sinister fact of which I failed to notice all these years. There are rubber processing factories that whenever in operation emit nauseating odor, numerous laboratories that discharge copious amount of volatile corrosive vapor into the atmosphere, chemical stores (nobody seems to care if there is any leakage or not) and zombies with bad mouth odor that move around aimlessly in the compound. My playground has becoming a dangerous place to be.

Kerteh is a clear winner in this test (average pH 6.41). It has the best rainwater quality. In fact MULAN can save a lot of her water bill by just collecting rainwater not only for her domestic use but also for their consumption too as the pH range for drinking water is around 6.5 – 8. Actually I didn’t expect Kerteh to have such a good air quality (which cause acid rain) as Kerteh is very close to a big oil refinery plant that continuously vomiting gasses from its huge distillery that rival any alien cities. I think its location close to the shore with load of gusty wind that blows inland has a cleansing effect to the atmosphere. With such good air quality probably Kerteh is a good place for me to settle down in the future (after pencen lah).

Result from Cheras (5.95), K. brang (5.85), Kuching (6.14) and Pokok sena (5.95) exhibit almost a similar good rainwater quality and can be considered quite normal on a slightly acidic level. They still don’t fall below pH 5.6 (a level that is considered acidic). By now the lucky Bloggers must be very happy to know that whenever it is raining in their area, they can simply go out into the rain and wash their hair with the rainwater without worrying to much on using any shampoo to neutralize all the harmful elements.

To conclude my short report on rainwater quality and assuming there is no cheating involve in this experiment, it is clear that most of the sampling areas are safe to live except my area, Sg. Buloh. It is a very sad conclusion but again it is proven that scientific discoveries may change the world views which more often than not are based on many fake assumptions .

Thank you very much to all the participating Bloggers. Your endless sacrifice and timeless effort have made scientific discoveries as interesting as eating budu with petai. Perhaps for the sake of humankind and pure curiosity, we may embark into another bigger scientific endevour in the near future. May Allah bless you all.

Finally I managed to break the three month’s blog-a-pause. At this juncture I have to make it clear that this unprecedented time-lapse has nothing to do with any superstitious belief or to commemorate any special events but for sure the longest Blogosphere dormancy period by my standard. It is neither a disease nor my ideas getting into a gestation period but a symptom of mood disorder which manifested from an intimate love-hate relationship with this virtual space. Somehow I am quite relieve now to be able to associate myself and start my intimate relation again with this domain and share some interesting stories with my fellow Blogger friends.

I have to admit though. It must be these intimidating sea serpents with tentacles from the darkest abyss of the South China Sea that woke me up from my deepest slumber. For the past three months I had myself so occupied with none other but myself and somehow got lost into another psychedelic dimension. In order not to feel very guilty leaving this blog in the longest solitude mode ever, I think the best thing to do and what most other good citizens of this Bolehland normally do is to give lame excuses or find some poor scape goats. This time I shamelessly put the blame on my broken laptop – the one that broke my heart but luckily not my spirit.

A week before Ramadhan I traveled back to the Keropoklekor land for a short family holiday and some self-defined top secret/covert activities. I met some of my old friends and in one of our important kedai-kopi-tepi-jalan meetings the word ‘sutong sumbat’ (stuffed-squid) became a topic of heated debate. Normally when we, the nasi lemak eating nation meet our old friends or long-lost schoolmates in kedai kopi the type of topic that top the list would revolve around the family matters such as the current number of kid and future wives, nostalgic and funny school experiences that make us continuously giggling, future business venture that will never materialize etc. Weird as it was, the delectable dish Ganukite called ‘sutong sumbat, dominated the discussions.

I then realized the reason we talked so much on food rather on some other serious matters was because there was not much point in talking seriously on any serious matter because it seems nobody is serious these days. We are surrounded by jokers that make fun of each others. Whatever your belief is, religious matters for example are being ridiculed and mocked indiscriminately without any shame or self-respect. The world economy doesn’t help either and crumbling down faster than a sonic-boom speed. Even keropok lekor become an expansive commodity. Who knows in the future ‘sutong sumbat’ won’t have any more ‘sumbat’ (stuffing) to compliment the salty taste of the squid.

After such a long break, I think it is not superstitiously good and nice to indulge in some serious topic to start with. I don’t want to talk very seriously at the moment as my mission now is to find out whether there is any ‘sutong sumbat’ being sold at any of the scattered bazaars around my neighborhood. That is to find the answer to some of our dispute during the old friends meeting while in Ganukite.

…Selamat Berbuka Puasa folk!

With all that scary possibilities in mind and after some poking into my left and right brain, I’ve come up with a “syok sendiri’, bombastic but holistic idea. I’ve decided to set up a special platform in this Blogosphere with the intention to share the items with you, my trusted fellow bloggers in hoping that those unused items will find another good home, good owner and good use. It is a concept of recycling things and the best thing is they are free (if you don’t include your petrol for traveling).

You can have a peek into the new blog “khas untuk Blogger aje” to get the feel of the concept and see if there are items of your interest for a quick grab. It is still in its infancy and any suggestion to make the idea to flourish and metamorph into a community playground is very much anticipated. More items will be added up from time to time. I just have to find the right time to gather all those items and convert them into a photogenic material.

This is just the beginning and I hope it won’t be the last.

The first test kit for rainwater collection was safely landed on my table last week, the day after it was dispatched from the land of the hornbill. I was very excited because the samples were all in good condition and had already analyzed the samples. The report will be published here when I receive all the test kits from the other volunteers for all our bloggers to share and talk in office canteen and comment in kedai kopi. This small scientific effort could give some insight on the real condition of our atmosphere.

I am looking forward to receive the remaining test kits from our volunters and thank you very much for taking part in this small project.

The first time somebody officially asked me about my ambition and I seriously replied with full of enthusiasm to become a scientist was in 1978. Without much thought on the dark secret life of a scientist, that was exactly my answer. I was in standard two at SIS Kemaman, my first year at the primary school after the hijrah from SOS Dungun. The person who asked me that significant question which later influenced the way I think and shaped my future was the bubbly Cikgu Zubir.

At this point, I have to make it clear that my ambiguous decision to pursue that ambition however had nothing to do with the prospect of how many girls I could charm with that bombastic ambition nor that I could change all the zombies into productive monkeys. But it has all the reasons in this world to influence my future romantic journey which took precedence over my entire life.

Oblivious to me at first, that childhood ambition was actually the precursor that endlessly ignite the fire that flamed the greatest love story ever – “cinta monyet di menara gading”. The flame never died ever since. As any other great love epic- among others, the place was one of the important settings for this romantic journey to take place. My feeling over the years, subconsciously evolved and influenced by my surrounding, which were diverse in their complexity, unique characters and major players.

The sparkling new laboratory at the deserted new KUSZA campus marked its inaugural opening with load of enthusiasm by scientist wannabes. The first experiment we were asked to take on was on the exciting concept of endo and exothermic reaction of chemicals. As we were still very innocent, ignorance and careless – evidence from the naive faces in the photo, the idea of mixing chemicals that release or absorb energy was very alien and intimidating. The idea of courting and flirting with girls was also very alien and intimidating too. The natural surrounding dictated boys and girls should mind their own business. I hardly knew who were the backbencher girls in the laboratory or even in my class. They all looked very similar to me and I assumed they treated me the same. Teropong iman at that time was still in its infancy and under-developed.

That fateful day however, we saw one of our colleague at the end of the experiment had almost burnt down the whole laboratory (the one at the back who was seen seriously meddling with the Bunsen burner and he was also the one and only ardent fan of Eddie Lawson that I mentioned in the earlier entry – Dharma Kasuma). He lost his eyebrow as well.

My subsequent jihad to Bangi had presented me with a totally new perspective on life and a bigger laboratory to experiment with too. Suddenly the atmosphere had totally changed. Nothing seemed to dictate the way you dress, to whom you should talk to, where you should eat or even how long you could have your leisurely afternoon siesta and missed your important lecture. It seemed like a total anarchy. To survive one had to be strong and of course discipline.

I could not remember what experiment I was doing (in the photograph above) or what was the name of my project partner or in which lab the photo was taken because my mind was not focus as it should be. Luckily I managed to finish all the assignments, thanks to my project partner of whom I still could not remember his name. There were so many distractions. The only thing I remember was how excited I was and so looking forward to go to the biochemistry practical laboratory to do my assignment. For the first time, something had caught my eyes and motivated me to spent time doing my experiment obediently in that particular lab. For the first time I stayed focus. That laboratory was the perfect setting for some serious chemistry reaction to take place. It was irresistibly powerful and I am helpless. I blamed that on my puberty hormone. The jeling-jeling and senyum-senyum process started here.

I later also found out and realized that playing with fire in the biochemistry laboratory could be one hazardous endeavor especially if the fire is so big as what happened to my friend Dharma kasuma. Luckily I didn’t loose my eyebrow. But over time I learned to control the flame and harnessed its affectionate power. Life was full of flowers and its smelled nice too. Flamed by unfamiliar but a pleasant feeling, that was the exact time when my teropong iman started to activate.

I got my first motor-kapcai after completing my SPM in 1985. It was not because I wanted to join the indigenous mat rempit and terorizing the folk along Jalan Pasir Panjang by ‘rempiting’ all the way to Bandar KT but simply because I got bored waiting for the offer letter from our local ‘menara gading‘ and have nothing productive to do in order to fill in the void. Those time the word ‘rempit’ was hardly heard of and biking was still considered a healthy and safe activity because the road was less congested, the lipat kijang skill was well mastered and for some freak reasons it seemed that most kaki motor possessed a 9-cat-life.

The motor-kapcai was a Yamaha Y80 of which I bought (partly subsidized by my father) from my cousin, who upgraded to RXZ 135 which had just hit the market. Instantly the kapcai became the joy of my life. Pantai Batu Burok became my regular lepak place almost every afternoon with my other motor kaki. Occasionally I cruised along the beach alone just to feel the salty breeze slap gently on my face before settling down to stare at the the seafarers passing by in the horizon while enjoying the heavenly keropok lekor. The original keropok lekor and not the one so elastic and jawbreakingly hard which tasted and smelled like a selipar Jepun.

It didn’t take that long before my curiosity got the best of me and the kapcai underwent some major cosmetic adjustment and minor body surgery. Under the srong influence of my younger brother and Eddie Lawson’s achievement as the world champion in motorcycle Grand Prix, a new ‘exzos potong’ was fitted to to give the kapcai some distinctive sound identity, a new and bigger piston was dumped into the bored-engine and different size of sprockets were experimented to transform this timid machine into a super-kapcai. The best modification in my opinion that made this super-kapcai looked a Grand Prix worthy was the excessive addition of Nolan stickers onto the body parts.

Despite all the illegal modifications by my father’s standard, I’d only involved with only a few minor accidents. One that I clearly remember was that fateful Saturday morning, I sped off with my super-kapcai for my weekly town tour and in such hurriedness and rocket-speed I forgot that the previous day the main road that lead into my kampung was loosely tarred. For a while I think I could easily become a stuntman. The other unforgettable accident involved a cat that had clearly no civic-minded who jaywalked and crossed the road without looking left and right. Luckily both the victims survived with only minor scratches.

My intimate relationship with my super-kapcai continued and flourished further to the ivory tower in Bangi. That was the time when ‘Fansasia bulan madu’ was the no. 1 hit in my local pop chart and soup ekor and daging merah became a food of envy to any students who didn’t have any mode of transportation to reach makeshift kedai tomyam at Bandar Baru Bangi (BBB fasa 1). The distinctive supersonic sound from my exzos potong that echoed nicely in between the hill and Pejabat Pentadbiran UKM had in many occasion caused some dispute among the varsity’s Pak guards. Not until they banned the motorbikes from entering the campus which almost caused another student riot that put the end to any sound pollution in the campus.

At the end of my campus year, I was very proud to say that my super-kapcai was still a virgin. During the first 4 semesters not a single awek was shuttled here and there around the campus on my super-kapcai simply because having an awek on a 80cc kapcai (even though a super-kapcai) didn’t look cool at all. It was a misfit and considered a taboo and unacceptable by my kaki motor.

My allegiance with my campus kaki motor however was tested to its limit and about to be broken when I entered my third year and some unexpected turn of events happened along the way. I was totally taken off-guard and it happened all of a sudden. Suddenly my teropong iman was activated and I smelled flowers all around me.

But that was another long and interesting story to tell.