Kampar Waterfall

I was from Kampar, a small tin mining town located in the Kinta Valley, Perak State in Malaysia. I left my home-town since 1965 and never returned there except for occasional visits over the years.

Lately there were two tragic incidents from Kampar. One was the collapsed of a newly constructed hanging bridge, and three students fell into the river and were swept away by the strong currents and they drowned. Yesterday, another three University students were swept away and were drowned at the Kampar Waterfall by flash floods. The fourth lucky student was pulled out of the rapids by local people who saw the tragedy.

When we were young, the Kampar Waterfall was a local favourite for picnics and camping. There were in total about three big pools and several smaller ones. The above picture was taken there around 1970's while were were all at College. Can you recognize me? Through the years many people drowned there either due to mishaps or people getting caught by sudden gush of water pouring down from the highlands. Although water falls are usually safe places but in Malaysia, these harmless water falls can turn into death traps if you happened to be there and there is heavy down pour somewhere up in the hills. These gush of water can be very powerful and even the best swimmers can get into trouble.

Once when we were camping at the Kampar Waterfall, one of the students fell into a churning pool and the Scout Master jumped in to pull him out. We watched it happen and the boy just could not get out himself and we saw his body rolling over and over under the swirling currents! What a scary life experiences for all of us.

Here in Malaysia, we have horrendous rain falls especially during the Monsoon season. To the Westerners they have never seen how frighteningly powerful are our thunder storms! In Sarawak which is part of Borneo, many people were drowned due to flash floods and most of them were caught by surprise. It seems that one could hear the waters coming and it sounded like a mighty roaring and the advise by the local natives is to climb a tree as fast as you can. Well, one bit of personal advise is not to go camping in our local forests during the Monsoon period! Any heavy down pour can be dangerous to campers or swimmers in rivers or waterfalls. These down pours may occurred some miles away from the camp site and that's why they are so dangerous because you just do not know until you hear the roaring waters coming your way!

Beautiful To Behold But Beware

Beautiful as they may be, some flowers are much more than they appear to be. Believe it or not, these seemingly harmless plants can really ruin your vacation. To help you know what flowers to stay away from on your trips, with a list of the worlds most attractive but dangerous flowers:

1. Daphne

Also known as Lady Laurel or Paradise Plant, Daphne is a 1-1.5 meters tall shrub, usually grown for its scented flowers. All parts of the plant are poisonous, but the greatest concentrations are in the sap and berries.

Daphne contains Mezerine and Daphnin, two powerful toxins that cause stomach aches, headaches, diarrhea, delirium and convulsions. If Daphne berries are consumed, the victim might fall into a coma and even die.

2. Lily Of The Valley

Just like the Daphne, Lily of the Valley may look beautiful and harmless, but it is entirely poisonous. Eating one or two of the plants bell-shaped flowers wont hurt you very much, especially if you're an adult.

Eaten in large quantities, Lily of the Valley causes pain in the mouth, nausea, vomiting, cramps and diarrhea. People with heart conditions should be most careful since the toxins cause the heartbeats to slow down or become irregular.

3. Belladona

Known as one of the most poisonous plants in the Western hemisphere, Belladonna contains potentially lethal Tropane Alkaloids. The entire plant is harmful, but its good-looking berries pose the most danger, especially to kids.

The symptoms of Belladona, or Deadly Nightshade poisoning are dilated pupils, blurred vision, headaches, hallucinations, delirium and convulsions. Atropine, the toxin contained by Belladona, can kill a person by disrupting the nervous systems ability to regulate breathing, sweating and heart rate.

4. Angels Trumpets

Despite its name, there's something very evil about this plant. The toxins it contains can be fatal to humans and a number of animals. Known as a powerful hallucinogen, Angels Trumpet should not be used for recreational purposes, since the risk of an overdose is very high.

Angels Trumpet plants contain a variable amount of Tropane Alkaloids, like atropine and Scopolamine, and it is used in shamanic rituals by indigenous tribes in western Amazonia.

5. Rohododendron

This popular evergreen shrub, featuring large, beautiful blooms, has been known for its toxicity since ancient times. Xenophon recorded the odd behavior of a group of Greek soldiers who had eaten honey from rhododendron flowers.

Rhododendron contains Andromedatoxin which causes nausea, severe pains, paralysis and even death. Azaleas, members of the same plant-family as rhododendron, are also poisonous.

6. Oleander

Oleander is known as one of the most poisonous plants on Earth, often used in suicidal cases around southern India. The numerous toxic compounds contained in the entire Oleander plant, including Oleandrin and Neriine, affect the nervous, digestive and cardiovascular systems, all at the same time.

Oleander poisoning leads to drowsiness, tremors, seizures, coma and even death. The plants sap causes skin irritation and severe eye inflammation.

7. Autumn Crocus

One of the most endangered plants in the world, Autumn crocus is also probably the most poisonous. It contains Colchicine, a deadly drug used effectively in the treatment for gout. Unlike other toxins found in the flowers above, Colchicine, an arsenic-like poison has no antidote.

Autumn crocus poisoning leads to reduced blood pressure and cardiac arrest.

Google is Not Helpful

First and foremost i want to offer my apologies to friends, bloggers and relatives for the "SPAM MAIL" from me requesting for financial help because I was stranded in London and was robbed of all my cash! Well, it was NOT true at all!

What happened was my gmail was hacked and hijacked by a Spammer who then changed my password ( I can no longer sign-into my gmail account now). Then this Spammer used my Contacts List to spam my friends, bloggers and relatives for money!

I believe this Spammer is porbably a Malaysian because a friend of mine, just out of curiosity responded to the spam mail in Malay and she got a response back in Malay! Hahaha! I was bogged down with doing a heck of a lot of changes to my sign-up programmes, changing email address and passwords and it took me 3 days all in all!

From this horrific life experience, I learned something important which I am sharing it here. Firstly, if you happened to be in the same situation, be informed that you get very little help from Google! Upon knowing that my gmail was hacked I contacted Google for help but I was required to prove that I am the owner of the account! Fair enough but to my horror, the information they required was something very few of us (I guess) do! Below are a just a few examples of the information required :-

Gmail Verification Code

Exact Day, Month and Year of sign-up

Exact Day, Month and Year for other Google Programs like below list

Picasa, Google Groups, Analytics, Adsense etc

I signed up for my gmail way back in 2004 and at that time, it never occurred to me to keep a record of such things! So for those who did not record such details, I advice you to create a new account so that you can record all the above details if you have never done this for your present account! It will also be good to submit a Secondary Email in all your sign-ups

Eventually since I could not furnish the details, Google just ignored my Support Ticket to them and I am still stuck! It was good that most of the Programmes I signed-up for allowed me to change my email and password and so now I have to abandon my hacked gmail account! I tried to call them via phone to their US address but don't seem to be able to talk to a person! For the benefit of others I spell out Google's Contact below.

Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: +1 650-253-0000 Fax: +1 650-253-0001 is the phone number for Google Customer Service. You need to press 5 at the prompt. No guarantees for live person.

Rehab At Its Best

Today I want to take you for a visit to this place and see whether you can guess what place is this. Take a look at the Photos below:-

From A Distance

Nearer View

Hall Area

Lounge

The Gym

Basketball Court

Recreation Room

Typical Bedroom Room

Visitor's Lounge

I'm sure you have guessed correctly that this is a Prison in UK! Wow! It sure looks much better than many Hotels! Criminals are treated so well nowadays!

Foie Gras Horror

To the Chinese, there are very little that they would not eat. The Westerners especially dog lovers are horrified to know that Chinese (especially those in China) eat dog meat! I guess every culture has its own special favourite food which is deemed offensive to others.

Never in my life have I eaten Foie Grass which is Fattened Goose Liver and it is a delicacy in Europe. In order to obtain this Fat Liver, the poor Geese suffered to death to provide the Europeans their passion in eating Foie Gras. Below are a series of photos showing how Geese are made to grow Fat Livers and eventually they die in the process. I hope after you have seen these photos you will be put off eating Foie Grass!

The Liver

Serving

Inserting Steel Tube

Confined Geese in Cages

Forced Feeding Round The Clock

Swollen Feet due to prolong standing in cages

Damaged Anus of Geese

Finally the goose Died due to over-eating

End Product A Fattened Liver

Foie Grass being served

Well Folks! that's how you get Foie Gras! As much as the Chinese love for Shark's Fins caused the cruel death of many sharks, Foie Grass also caused the cruel deaths of hundreds of thousands of Geese! Perhaps it's time to consider avoiding certain food that caused cruelty to animals for as the saying goes when there is no demand the killing stops! For this reason, my daughter Dawn strongly objected to having Sharks Fins as a usual Chinese Wedding Dinner Dish when Sharlene got married!

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