Sandie and Harry

 Another excuse to hire a lovely car.  Sandie and Harry are in town.

 Gek and me have been on the island for 2 years now and still there are new places to visit.  This is Ayer Atam dam, just south of Penang Hill.

 The reservoir is full to over flowing following the monsoon rains we have had recently.

And of course, old favorites to visit, Genting.  Their coconuts taste different. Very lush.

 The drive up is interesting,  but the drive down is quite scary.

This is really taking care of your fruit.  Durians hanging over the road, tied to strings to stop them falling when ripe.  Every durian on every tree next to the road was tied this way.  Must have taken days to do them all.  Must be love.

 Gek and brother Harry at Straits Quay.

sPICE - October 2012

 Most the piling done for the right side of the site's new buildings.  Still tidying up the left side.  Phase 1 - do up the indoor stadium, seen here as a landed 'space ship'.  Phase 2 - do up the aquatic centre and build shops on the right of the picture.  Phase 3 - New hotel and convention centre on the left of the picture.

Book - Alan Clarke Diarys 1982-1991

I recommend reading 'Alan's Diary' and the 'Life of Elizabeth 1' books at the same time.  Same same.  Men sulking went they don't get their own way.  500 years of zero progress.   What with Brown and now Mitchell running off at the mouth, our technology gets sharper but we humans remain completely wet!!!!

Book - Secrets of Leadership

Well not really,  A hurried romp through the 30 centuries of generals battles, with nothing new to reveal.  All a bit to obvious. Get your followers to love you.  More on tactics used to accomplish a strategic aim. 

Book - The Life of Liz No. 1

Earlier this month there was a rather large book fair in Times Square.  All English.  Amazing value and some really interesting buys, including this one about Liz.  At 550 pages it is heavy read, in more ways than one but well worth the trouble.  Liz was equal to the violent times she lived in.  Two things.   How could Europe have lost the road build technology developed by the Romans?  Lost for other 1000 years.  And these 'Christain' monarchs were not averse to chopped off their citizens appendages if one should offend 'one'.  Write a defamatory pamphlet,  off with his right hand!!!  All very Alice, if you ask me.

East Coast Trip

Kota Baru central market.  I don't usually do foodie blogs but.....

 

A mixture of deep fried everything.  Banana, sweet potatoes

All taken with freshly opened coconut.  Linden, Mei Li and Meow,  enjoy.

East Coast Trip

 Driving north to Kota Baru.

Beautifully empty beaches.

East Coast Trip

 The Crystal Mosque in Kuala Terengganu at sun set.

 After the sun has set.

And to the state museum.  A concrete building based upon a traditional Malay house design

Aside from the artifacts in the main building, the grounds are home to a selection of differing traditional  houses.

East Coast Trip

 

The next day, we upgraded our boat trip to a 2 hour island hop.  Sofas and life jackets!!

 

First stop,  the waterfall but no rain means no gushing stream

Then the island with the herb garden where I partook of 'A Mans Drink' and Gek 'A Woman's Drink'.  

Great setting.  Peace.

It is the end of the dry season and the lake is very low.  In a couple of weeks the rain starts in earnest, giving these trees cause for alarm.

The resort is hid in the trees.  135 large bungalows.  Only the main centre is visible from the lake.  Great piece of camouflage.

East Coast Trip

 Lake Kenyir.  Another return visit.  Love this place.  So peaceful. 

Gek got us a package deal with the Resort which include one complementary dinner as well as a three hour birdwatching walk.  We had to get up real early for the birds and as it turned out, squirrels.  This photo was taken just after he/she had had an altercation with a goshawk over who's branch this was.  Squirrel 1, goshawk 0 ---  but nice try gos.

We did see loads of birds but the real stars were the hornbills.  There were a number of these Oriental Pied Hornbills in the resort grounds.  This snap was taken through the Rangers telescope at about 500m. 

East Coast Trip

Gek, Linden, Mei Li and myself set off from Penang heading east to the far side of the Malaysian Peninsular in a Hertz rented car.  Love to drive!!!  Our ultimate destination was Kota Baru to meet up with Meow there.  A 7 day trip in all. First two nights we spent at Lake Temengor on the island Belum Rain Forest Resort. The resort is under going a face lift and extension.  But just as welcoming as on our last visit with Ruth a couple of years ago.

Bamboo orchid on the drive over to the East Coast.

Malaysia's Blue Mountains.  Rain forest all the way to Thailand.

Going all Penang colours.

Wild colours are the order of the day for this beauty!!!  And yes there are loads of houses this colour in Penang.  This is going to be an art house coffee shop.  Art upstairs, which Gek is going to create for me, and a coffee shop downstairs.   Again, I have gone over the top on size.  Although the house is only 15 inches wide, the three sections add to nearly 8 feet in length.  I could have made the rear section a little shorter but only by 6 inches.

Taiping.

A mini break with Chris and Ranu.  Marvelous food, lovely company.  

There hadn't  been much rain for the past 2 months, resulting in low water in the lakes.  This is not normal.

4 am.........4 am.  What was I thinking of!!!!!  T'was a great show.  Even Freddy made an appearance.

sPICE - August 2012

Clearing up after the demolition.  Less dust blowing our way now.

Book - Brave New War

Basically, interstate war is finished.  Countries depend too much on each other economically to go kicking seven bells out of one another.  That's the Good news.  Bad news is that we are moving to open sourced warfare.  You have a personal grouse,  then pay someone to go fight for you.  Internet is great at facilitating this.  Go attack a vulnerable network, oil pipe line, railway line etc.

Also, and rather scarily, Mr. Robb predicted the HSBC scandal from last week where the bank has been accused of laundering dodgy money.  He wrote this book, in a bit of a breathless way, in 2006.  He makes the point that the banks, which are operated for profit and not their customers, would not be able to resist the huge profits to be made from criminal activities.

End of globalisation?  Case not made.  In fact the reverse.

Irony.  The WW2 blitzkrieg was a German perfection of a British strategists idea. Go figure.

Esplanade.

Evening at the Esplanade.

Hanging around

Look gross, don't they?  Taste foul too.  Should stay up there.  Wonder wards aren't full of people with head injuries.

Meat

Well, don't have beef very often,  so allowed to enjoy.  China House in Beach Street, Penang, is the place.  Very nice.  Like me new braces?  Thank you Ruth and Richard for the new supply.

Penng Street Art.

 Comes in various guises. Commercial promotion.

 Making use  of what is already there.  Lithuanian artist.....

Or just leave the weather to its stuff.

New Bridge progress

Second link progressing well.  Little brother in the foreground.

Second Link Bridge.

Looking like the bridge will be finished by Sept 2013.

PISA redevelopment.

Old car park almost gone.  New hotel going to be built there.  All the trees were very carefully lifted and transported away for replanting.  Took 2 weeks to move them all.

Bukit Genting

Out third visit in 2 weeks.  This is why.

New Shophouse Model.

Finally gotten started on the modular shophouse design.  Follow http://www.davidwhitworth.me/DOLLHOUSE/Dollhouse.html for the associated web pages.  The drawings needed a little correcting in the light of the build, nothing major,  but the materials cutting list was spot on. This is house number 12.  I love design and make.