Lake Fishing @ Three Pillars Farm

Went to a farm with few colleagues and their friends for fishing this afternoon. The farm is only open for public to do fishing during weekend. It is called Three Pillars Farm, located about 26 kilometers from Sibu town.

I went there without prepare for any fishing equipment as I just want to have fun and not really into fishing while Sparkish, PSToh, FoxKing and Jack already bought their equipment previous day. Departed from Sparkish's house around 1.15pm with 3 cars and arrived at the farm before 2pm.

Along the small road leading to the fishing lake, I could see Papaya and Banana's trees at both side of the road...

When we reached the entrance, quite a lot of cars were parking there already. This meant that we were not the only group came here for fishing.

Just few steps walking from the entrance, the fishing lake was seen on our right. First of all, we need to find a good and sheltered place to start fishing.

We walked through the small and narrow road..

... before we reached this shelter where it was the only shelter which still not yet being occupied.

Without wasting much time, those coming for fishing started to prepare themselves with fishing equipment like installing fishing rod and inserting bait onto the hook.


Tell you all a secret... these bunch of people were purely rookie in fishing. Beside FoxKing who claimed himself was once drain-fishing king (Can you believe it?), others were just first timer.

Look at this unprofessional fishing body posture. One hand carrying the rod and another hand put around waist. Could you expect him to get big fish? ;p

But don't play play, he was the only one who experienced the pulling force of the fish! Anyway, the fish somehow managed to escape! PS was the most frustrated man of the day!

Jack's new spinning reel somehow spoiled just before he could do any fishing. He was so regret that he didn't invest more when buying the rod. He was the most upset man of the day!

Sparkish tried to comfort himself after waiting for 2 hours yet not a single fish was on hooked. He acted like he was having one! He was the best actor of the day!

Whereas FoxKing was the luckiest man of the day as he was the only one going back with the prey! Hey... guys! The drain-fishing king is certainly not a fool ok!!

Yet... it was just a approximately four-inch length's small fish. Well, "better than nothing"! This is how he tried to comfort himself.

At another side of the lake... I found someone caught a big Patin fish!

I guess he could feel the satisfaction by catching such a big fish!

This is what I mean by a more professional-look fisher - sit back and relax while angling, wearing a hat to avoid from sunshine, prepare multiple fishing rods and having a pail beside you just in case you got the fish! One more thing... don't talk so loud... because it will really scare the fish away! haha!

Fishing in Three Pillars Farm is actually not free. Each person doing the fishing will be charged RM6 per hour and person like me who went in there for no purpose is free of charge!

We spent about 2 hours there before doing the tidied up and prepared to go home. Some felt unsatisfactory with the outcome today because only managed to bring back a small little fish which is just suitable to keep inside aquarium. They sure will go back there one day to revenge!

For me, I was satisfied and enjoyed the trip. Although I didn't fish, but I enjoyed the funny moments seeing those first timer doing fishing! It was certainly a good experience to everyone joining the trip. Special thank to PSToh for the ride and Sparkish for being the trip planner!

Busy Wharf Prior To Gawai Festival

Iban ethnic is Sarawak will be celebrating their biggest festival - Hari Gawai on 1st and 2nd of June. It is a 2-day public holiday in Sarawak as Iban is the biggest population in the state.

Don't be surprised if you walk out to Sibu town on these 2 days and discovered it is abnormally quiet because most of the Iban people have go back to the long house where they came from to celebrate this festival.

The busiest place in Sibu a day or two before the festival starts will be Sibu wharf.

It is because those going back to their long houses at upstream of Rejang river such as Kapit, Belaga and Song which are not accessible through land will have to use boat express from Sibu to reach there. Sibu is the gateway to these places.

I went to Sibu wharf to experience the real situation there. Really... it shocked me! The boat express terminal were packed! People are waiting for their time to board the boat express. I hardly moved around when I was inside the terminal.

Those going back to their long houses not going back empty handed. Beside luggage, usually they will bring lots of thing back from foods to electrical appliances which are hardly acquire at remote area. Some people treated this as a business opportunity. They pushed their trolley around and asked if anyone needs their service to help carry the luggage by charging certain amount of money.

These were the eggs they gonna bring back to long house. I think it is not for sale... is for their own use.

For the boat expresses, they were full with passengers, from inner to outer. As long as there is still a place to accommodate a person, they will try to fit in. Everyone want to reach their destination as earlier as possible. Just like the boat express below, I think it was a bit imbalance because of overloaded.

The boat express not only need to carry human being, but also the goods or luggage those people carried. See the goods on the roof top of the boat expresses... Ya! you can even see passenger on it!

No need to rub your eyes... yes... that is a sofa set on roof top.

I believe this situation will gone by today when most of them already make their way back to long houses and prepare for their biggest celebration on the next day!

So for all the Iban friends, Selamat Hari Gawai... Gayu Guru, Gerai Nyamai!!

A Brief Story Of Duanwu Festival

For Chinese, today is Duanwu Festival, one of the important festival in Chinese culture. Duanwu Festival or in Mandarin 端午节 (Duanwu jie) falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of Lunar Calendar.

It was believed to be a festival to commemorate a true patriot as well as great poet named Qu Yuan who commited suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River when his state Chu was conquered by their ally Qin. Qu opposed the idea of forming that ally yet being accused of treason/disloyal to his country.

The local people who respected and admired Qu paddled boats out to retrive his body and throw foods into the river to avoid fish from eating Qu's dead body. These were said to be the origin of dragon boat and chinese dumpling called "Zongzi". That is why, Duanwu Festival also being known as Dragon Boat Festival or Dumpling Festival.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival

Zongzi or rice dumpling is the most significant food in this festival. The celebration looks not complete without it. Anyway, making Zongzi is not easy. It needs good skills to produce a well-shaped and delicious Zongzi. I tried to wrap the Zongzi myself before, but it failed! What a shame! Maybe I really need more practice before I can manage the real skill of wrapping Zongzi.


The main ingredient of Zongzi is glatinous rice and it can be stuffed with different fillings. The most common fillings are red bean paste, peanuts and pork. The shape of Zongzi can be vary, depend on the culture. The most common shape is tetrahedron or triangular.

That is my brief story about the festival. Wish everyone especially my fellow blog followers Happy Duanwu Festival and hope you have a great time celebrating it with your beloved family!

A Short Visit To Dong Zen Temple

In my 2 months working attachment in KL, I was lucky enough to have chance to visit a very famous tourists attraction temple in Jenjarom, Selangor called Fo Guang Shan Dong Zen Temple (佛光山 东禅寺). It is about 20-30 minutes driving from Klang town center.

[View from main entrance]

Actually this temple is best visited during Chinese New Year period as the whole place will be decorated beautifully with flowers, lighting and lantern. You will amaze by the scenery and ambience at that time! But don't be surprise on the number of visitors and length of the traffic jam you will face during that peak period!

[Floor plan of the temple]

During normal day, the place only open for visiting until 7pm. So, you can't see any nice lighting, yet the surrounding and scenery around the temple compoud is still attractive and eyes-comfort. It certainly worth a visit!

Just like other religious which have their own holy places, so as Buddhism. Not far from the main entrance are models that show the four holy places of Buddhism or pilgrimage sites based around the life of Gautama Buddha.

First one is Lumbini - the place where the Buddha was born. It is located in Rupandehi District, Lumbini Zone of Nepal near Indian border. It is the place where Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama who later became a Buddha and founder of Buddhism.

[Model of Lumbini]

Second place - BodhGaya at Bihar, India. This is the place where Gautama Buddha attained nirvana or enlightenment.

[Model of BodhGaya]

Third place - Sarnath near Uttar Pradesh, India. Sarnath is a deer park where Buddha first taught the Dharma. (No wonder I saw a deer statue there... I thought is some sort of misplace ;p )

[Model of Sarnath]

Fourth place - Kushinagar at India as well. This is the place where Buddha attained Parinirvana (Final nirvana) or died.

[Kushinagar]

Near the main area of Dong Zen Temple, you could see a giant gold Buddha's statue sitting on a specially designed platform.

[Giant gold Buddha statue on special platform]

To the rear of this platform, it is the main temple hall. I heard the hall is gorgeous, yet I didn't make it to step into the hall. What a regret!

[The main shrine]

To the right, it is Lumbini Garden. This is a very pretty garden where you must visit. You can see a lot of thing here including...

[Lumbini Garden entrance]

Cute monk statues...


Cute baby Buddha statue...

Gardening arts...

Pagoda... but this pagoda only look nice at night time with lighting.

Lotus pond with Kuan Yin statue..

[Kuan Yin on lotus pond]

... and also a giant Nemo statue. I still wondering why Nemo statue? It is like not match the environment, yet I think it is to cheer up small kiddies. No harm also right?

[Giant Nemo!]

Not far from the Lumbini Garden, is the 33 Kuan Yin street. You can see 33 types of Kuan Yin statues here.

[33 types of Kuan Yin statues]

If you walk deeper from here, you will come to another garden. This is where the very cute and giant cow sculpture is located! Why cow? Well, because for Chinese, this year is cow's year. That also mean you may see a giant tiger sculpture next year at the same place.


It was certainly a very nice place to visit with nice landscape and scenery. Trust me, if you visit here on Chinese New Year, the ambiance will be 100 times more amazing than this!


I would like to express my gratitude to my sister and brother-in-law for making all the efforts to bring me there. Although the time was rushed and we just spent very short time there, but I really enjoyed and appreciate it!


For those who have interest to visit the place, here is the address:

Address:
PT2297 Jalan Sg Buaya,
Jenjarom,
Kuala Langat,
42600 Selangor,
Malaysia.
Tel: +603 3191 1533
Fax: +603 3191 1467
Website: http://www.fgs.org.my
Email: info@fgs.org.my


View Dong Zen Temple in a larger map