Kampar has 8 primary schools, 5 secondary schools, 1 college and 1 university. It also has a Chinese funded private school for secondary forms. They are 3 Chinese national type primary school and 2 Indian national type primary school (SRJK) where all the subjects will be taught in native mother tongues besides English and Bahasa. Six of them are shown here except SRJK(C) Pei Yuan and SK Sentosa.









There are 5 secondary schools (and 1 privately owned) in Kampar with 3 of them had my name engraved as one of the top students for the respective form. However, I had the most wonderful school life in SM Pei Yuan as in those years, Form-4 and Form-5 students were given amble of freedom and a dedicated classroom so the students can virtually spend the whole days in school for studies, activities or "dating"










Kampar marked its name on the national news where the town was selected as the site for the University Tunku Abdul Rahman. I could not remember when was that annouced, but even myself could not believe that there will be a university in the town. The building of the U is still in progress here I included some of the best spots of the Kampar's pride. At the the Uni site is the college. The U is in grey while college in oranged building... color coded?













On the way to the hometown, I stopped at Kuala Dipang to capture these photo of the lotus pond.
It is always a common Chinese wrong doing... I tossed a coin to lotus pond and made a wish : May there be more survivals of the quake can be rescued and there will be no more such disaster in any coming ages.

To some foreigners of the country, this will be an awkward scene as there are people enjoying some "Lok Lok" at the road side under the hot sun. Lok Lok is a steamboat style eatery where one will dip the food (in the form of a-stick with sausage, clamps, meat, vege, etc.) into to the boiling soup and will eat them upon guessing that the food are cooked. There are also a choice of gravy either in favours of satay, sambal, chilly, ketchup etc. as the dressing.
I still remembered I used to enjoy these food while they are selling at RM0.20 per stick. The sticks also will be color coded to reflect the price of the stick. When I check today, the minimum price of the stick is RM0.60 which is 300% increase in price.
Althought the Lok Lok is great to taste, but one should avoid due to hygience reason. In addition, all the servings are high in cholesterol.
I will need to avoid seeing such road side Lok Lok as the doctor has adviced me for diet control of cholesterol

X-connect : Another Iphone Killer

The Iphone influences have really inspired quite a lot of "copy-cat" to copy its touch screen type interface and button-less features. Just after a week or so of the Touch Diamond's announcement, here comes another contender. It is the Phillips X-connect. It was rumoured to have 3G features and others as similar to the upcoming 3G Iphone.
There has not be full specification announced for X-Connect, but the appearance seems interesting. At least I am willing to try when it is launched and available later

USM Konvokesyen ke-25

I graduated from USM in 1996 on the 25th convocation. In arranging for some old documents, magazines and books, I came across about this booklet of 25th convocation. I browsed to the page that read "Sarjana Muda Sains Gunaan Dengan Kepujian" where I could see some of the well known names who were the top scorers in 1996 and were crowned with First Class Degree.
Where are all of these top scorers now? Are they serving the nation in the arena of science and technology sector?
The list are " Alvin Hee Kah Wei, Foong Swee Yeok, Khaw Lay Hong, Koay Hooi Ling, Lee Yoke Horng, Ng Chor Onn, Ooi Kean Heng, Quah Poh Eee, Tan Bee Nah, Tan Kian Wee and Wee Suk Ling"
Well, for sure I am not in the first class degree list as I was not as smart and hardworking as these top scorers. I remembered at final year, I only played "Big-D-2" at Desasiswa Damai and supper in "Kampungku"

Last night received a rather upset sms at midth of the night. It was not because it had awaken me up from sleep since I was preparing to return to office for some conference meeting at 2am. This SMS was indeed from a very good ex-friend of mine. It was nothing wrong on the contents of the SMS as the ex-friend was indeed trying to convey regards ensuring I am doing fine and "recovering"
The problem was that I had texted this ex-friend some times ago (more than 7 days) without getting a response when I was deeply depressed. Why bother to pity on a donation of response after this long, while one could easily have replied with a sms, email or even a short call! The most upset follow up was that when I replied this morning to tease that no need to have empathy of responding after this long period of time, this ex-friend furioused that this is what a friend for and let keep a distance... huh??? excuse me, if you do not like to response, please do not choose to react at all.
I do not need your donation or empatyh. I will permanently delete for sure such contact from my bio-memory. It will be from my bio-memory not to say about removal from SIM. May god bless you and please continue live in your own isolated manner.

I am hiring now... Anyone interested?

I had been busy interviewing for the past three weeks on two of the job positions I am offering. I had been also interviewed not less than 10 persons either as newly graduated or experienced. However, I am not satisfy with their performance during interview. Some of the profiles seem excellent on papers, but it was quite disappointing during the interview.
Position 1 : Cadet Engineer with degree in electronic and electric or applied science (Physic).
Position 2 : Failure Analysis Engineer with degree in applied science (Chemistry), science, materials or mechanical engineering.
Anyone who interested on this position, can drop me an email. But, if you are really interested, better to prepare yourself during the interview session. Please show that you are qualified for the position, not just on the paper, but also demonstrate you are the choice.

Fire! Fire!! Fire!!!

Look whose house was on fire? Where was the "BOMBA"?
This was indeed a scene where the local authority was spraying DDT for Denque control. Denque is a deadly disease.
The mosquito responsibles for Denque is Aedes and can be easily identified with its black-white stripes on its abdomen. The Aedes commonly launches attack to human at late evening (after 7pm)
Everyone be awared! It could be a season of Aedes now as there are commonly rains in the evening every now and then. The rains had provided a habitat for Aedes reproduction. A small container may be already the best habitat for hundred of Aedes. Let's clear up all the containers that can contain water.

This small street was one of the "old places" when I was still a teenager. I used to be spending hours at one of these stalls enjoying the herbs tea under the cool open air for chit chat every weekend with some of my old mates. At those time, there was no mobile phone yet. Even if there was, it would be huge like a battery box and only a few wealthy folks can afford. However, we still can "date" for the almost same time and same spot for night gathering after the break of studies.
I do not know how these stalls are operating now at night as I rarely can have night gathering with my fellow old mates. Everyone seems to be busy with their life. It was really an old day when we only care about the exam but nothing else.. Those were the days with a lot of fun and meaning.
The more one grows up, the less time one can spend with one's old friends.
Is this life?

I had been living at the side of a river ( I believed it is called Sg. Rasa) which easily over flow and causing flash flood whenever after the heavy downpours. It was quite a common scene to me having a muddy flood at butt-height. It would be once every week during the rainy season or once every two months for the rest of the years.
The cause of the problem was that the river always clogged and with its two-side banks fully grew with grasses. The image here is seeing the river banks being widened and cleared up. It is now looks more like a stream of water rather that a river. In contrast, some 20 years ago, this river would allow kids to swim a little and catch quite some big fishes with its water height at the belly. Seeing this river reminded me a lot of those old days...The scene is totally changed now. Btw, how are you my fellow old time mates?

This is an illegal site of dumps where some locals happily throw away theirs and some even set fire on these dumps. Instead, when I was taking this image, there was a local still transporting their dumps to this site and staring at me.
How come the people can be so much irresponsible on their dumps!

I am born and grew up in a small town name Kampar. It is a small town with quite a number of housing estates around making a total population of approximately 10,000. I believed 90% are chinese who are mostly speak in cantonese. Kampar is a town where gained its name because of Tin, if I am not wrong. It was once famous of tin mining and everywhere wherenever there was river, you can likely see some ladies will be busy "dulang-ing" Kampar used to have 5 cinemas which could house more than 200 audients. But now, there is none of them still operating. Some years back, Kampar also has one of the highest numbers of banks branches around (almost 15 of them) due to extremely high inflow of foreign currencies. These were all the "jump aeroplane" funds which made Kampar on the top ten list. (Jump Aeroplane = cantonese way of saying illegal work at overseas). There after, Kampar again gets another great name... the old folk town as there isn't jobs for youngsters. All its glory had been gone with the winds.



This is the railway station in Kampar. It used to be a hotspot for morning joggers. But it is now closed. Although it is still maintained but the access road is now full with shoulder-tall weeds. Locals no longer jog here. There was also no train! That is why there is a no entry site at the entrance of the station.







This is the NEWLY built railway station. It is also not being used or opened for public. It has been CLOSED for years. Well done, KTM! I still perfer to old station as compare to this new station.








Kampar has added a new work-out facility and had annouced spent over million of ringgit to have this "RAKAN MUDA" sport utility buildings. These will be a great place to visit if you are keen for work out.



Next are the TAR college, UNITAR and the new town ship, taman bandar baru kampar and btw, Tesco is building its outlet there now. To be continue...

I thought of having the mother day celebration with my mum but she has gone on a trip to Thailand. So this will be the year of not celebrating the day with my mum. Instead, I will join my kids to have their mother day celebration.
I do not bake these cupcake but instead I have these order through a friend of mine. These are nicely made and baked. If you are interested, do visit her blog at http://lea-oven.blogspot.com. It is however too sad that she will be leaving Ipoh soon. Where can I have these cakes again?

Venue for some food

If you are around in Ipoh and looking for food that are consider plain (not too salty without too much of ajinomoto), drop by to these two restaurant. The first one is pork free with a nice environment of free wifi access. The second one is a vegeterian shop and normally is crowded with peoples. These are not superb food but great if you are in a hurry and yet do not want to look for water to quench your thrist and eat under the hot sun. Both are air conditioned.
Have a trial!

Iphone killer : HTC Touch Diamond

At last, I believed I have been introduced with a truly Iphone killer to my likes. This is the newly launched HTC Touch Diamond. The customized TouchFLO is really amazing at least on the promo video. I will need to test it only can feel if the touch sensitivity can really compete with Iphone.
You can see the promo TOUCHFLO interface video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5fetcaQIaA
Is it really perform as if in the video??

Rains drops on the roof

Before the evening heavy downpour, I managed to snap images of rains drops on the roof. I need to quickly snap these images as the rains quickly splashing to the balcony.
Phiew, that was closed!

These type of playground, I bet one can easily observe everywhere, be it shopping mall, garden etc. It always painted in attractive color as attraction to children.
I still remembered my type of play ground during my days were just the sandy ground with self innovated games like "gasing games, kite flying that self made and occasionally for kite fighting, spider catching and fighting etc. etc. All such occasions had been long vanished and even I am back at my home town, I can see no more of such games being played. The children will be either playing at the modern day playground or TV games.
I bet I will need to have my kids for fishing training sometimes soon.

Woolley Food Court or better known as "Cendawan Haven" by local is one of the common places for eatery. It was once famous with its curry noodles in 90s but losing out due to its outdated facilities, choice of food and appearance. It did not at all attractive to youngsters who perfer those coffee shop type of outlets for food.
It has been renovated I believed last year and formally changed its appearance now with inclusion of LCD TV and more appealing enviroment.
To me, it can be still a place to be visited if you are not particular about the food. But let be informed that the price of food is not cheap any more or at all.

Jusco at Kinta City has recently added another franchised outlet to its newly renovated food court. It is the "Big Apple Donuts & Coffee"
There is at least a crowd of lines up of miminum 20 customers along the queue. It is really my luck that two of my kids have never like donuts or else I bet I would have to wait at least half an hour for these fancy cookies.

I have this gift of crystal Betta in blue some years back. I had been keeping it in my closet till recently that I have made it as my travel guardian and accompany. It will accompany me all the while whenever I am driving.
There is only one Betta here as male Betta can never be kept more than one in a single territory. I hope I will get another Betta to match up as a pair soon. It is alone here! Will it leads me for some idea of when to find the missing other?

I always complain my spouse that she has bundles of pairs of shoes at her car while she is only wearing one at a time with the others as spares. Never to my awareness that, indeed my car also filled with pairs of shoes of my kids!
My little kid captured this image when he was toying with the Nokia phone. I only come to know about this situation when I checked the phone images today. Amazing! I have 4 pairs of extra shoes inside my car accompanying me all the times. Thanks to my kids that I did not role model for what I had complained of!

When I was leaving Tesco last night after some late night shopping (approx 10pm), I noticed that the car park was having some youngsters with some coupons on hands and eyeing for some "prey" for scratch and win.
I managed to snatch a photo through my Nokia phone and when I was passing by, he is still pursuading the prospective "client"
Scratch and Win is preying on the greeds of human beings and always will find some "unfortunate victims" Well, who is to blame for, if one is not greed to be pursuaded to try one's "luck" in such easy winning "contest". All the best! Only one's self consciousness will win such temptation.

I had been enjoying the white coffee at old town kopitiam since 2004 till recently. I still like the slightly different coffee aroma compare to street side coffee, but not the price.
I remembered for a typical classic white coffee was sold at RM1.50 sometimes ago but now has been increased to RM2.50. This is an increase of 67%! I believed the street side coffee still selling at around RM1.30 - RM1.50 and what has made this old town white coffee worth another 67% This is simply no no no. Of course, I can afford the coffee but I will be avoiding such place now if possible as it is merely commercialized too much now and do not give me the traditional feel of "kopitiam" I would prefer an open air street side in bamboo chair table with some coffees and chit chat with some old friends. Well, those will be old days in 90...

Iphone on LG

The introduction of Iphone has ignited a wave of changes to phone manufacturers. Now most of the manufacturers are trying to innovatively copy the Iphone fully TOUCH screen type of design. HTC and LG are two of the most successful with quite a bundled of phones provide alternative touch experiences.
Once you have used Iphone, you will be attracted by its touch innovation and the responsive interface of the touch experience. So far, yet, in my opinion, there is no other phones that yet come close to it.
Recently, I tried one of the latest LG innovation of touch base phone, LG viewty with 5MB xenon flash camera phone, the LG KU990 Viewty. This is a really light device and sexy in design. It looks exactly like a digital camera when one looks at its back. This is also a fully touch base phone with customized LG own interface. The touch responses still lose to Iphone but edge away from HTC WM6 phone.
I had change the native LG interface to an Iphone alike interface and walla, it makes me feel like owning an Iphone with 5MB camera and 3G wireless connection.
Hallo..I have an Iphone with 5MB camera and 3G wireless connection. Would you be admiring this phone?

Siamese Betta Fighting fish has extremely attractive color on its fins and body. It is even more appealing when they are aggresive with meeting another male to its territories.
With its fighting behavior, I like to keep it inside my watery plants pot on my study table as a "guardian"

There other dumping ground which i had its image captured weeks ago now finally being "cleaned" up with rubbish dumping ban order by the mayor.
And the site has also been setup with a sand devider to "block" vehicles from going inside to dump thier loads. Great!