Batu Arang Exploration

I grew up not far from this place. Batu Arang was known for its coal mines and brick kilns from the 1900s until the 1970s. Most of its original residents have left the town due to increasing soil erosion resulting in sinkholes. It's now a heritage town with abandoned brick kilns, red brick buildings and sleepy old shophouses. I decided to go explore this semi-forgotten little town one weekend and invited my friends along.
 
   
 

The abandoned brick kiln which brought Batu Arang its fame and wealth back in its heyday.
   
  

Exploring the tunnels of the old brick kiln with Marcus, Hari and Jay.
 
   
 

Nature taking over, slowly but surely.
 
   
 

Ficus roots having a good grip on a crumbling brick pillar.
 
   
 

More unfinished red brick buildings -- these are the school caretakers' quarters.
 
   
 

The Chap Khuan Chinese primary school. The red brick walls kept the classrooms cool even in the hottest of weather.
 
   
 

A group photo at the town square for posterity.
 
   
 

The Chapel of St. Michael, probably constructed in the late 1930s. I was immensely excited to see this Art Deco masterpiece out in the boondocks.

February 2017 in Pictures

 

 

4th Feb 2017: Bathing dogs at the PAWS Animal Welfare Society shelter on a Saturday afternoon. This lovely dog's name is Christmas and he is super friendly.

5th Feb 2017: Acrobatic lion dance performance by the multiracial Shaolin Goh Chor troupe at Sunway Giza, Kota Damansara.

7th Feb 2017: My juvenile delinquents, Luna and Harriet. (Don’t worry, the whole apartment is screened in and cat-safe. This is just the storeroom window which looks out into the laundry room. It’s safe to jump and the window panes are covered in adhesive glass protection film.)

9th Feb 2017: My water supply pipe blew out on a public holiday eve, so there I was at the neighbourhood launderette at 2 a.m. washing away the evidence of the previous night's wild party, with Noam Chomsky for company.

11th Feb 2017: Behind-the-scenes shot of the photoshoot today, courtesy of Michelle Tam of The Star.

11th Feb 2017: Brunch and books at RGB The Bean Hive. Fuelling up with a broccoli burger before an afternoon of volunteering.

11th Feb 2017: Two teens, Liam and Joanna, helped to bathe and tickwash the shelter dogs under my supervision at the SPCA. Liam had just turned 13 and couldn’t stop telling everyone he is a teenager now, so I said he must be ready for more volunteering responsibilities and got him to bathe dogs with me.

11th Feb 2017: Bath and tickwash day for the shelter dogs. This lovely mutt’s name is Serena and she has yet to find a home :(

12th Feb 2017: Day out with my family toddler niece. Until she is old enough to volunteer and do data collection with me, the city aquarium will have to do!

12th Feb 2017: A pinecone fish looking decidedly pineconey. The Twin and I discussed its possible merits as a hand grenade. Cos we're both really grownup that way.

14th Feb 2017: Had a long Health and Safety Committee meeting. Look how comprehensive my meeting notes are! Wow, what a productive afternoon!

17th Feb 2017: Back in the groove of postcrossing after a long hiatus. These ones are going out to Belarus, St. Petersburg, Taipei, Pennsylvania, Brooklyn, British Columbia, and Hamburg.

18th Feb 2017: Another Saturday afternoon at the SPCA. Treating this puppy for a bad case of mange and hoping he will recover and be adopted into a loving home soon.

 

 

 

18th Feb 2017: “The name’s Stout. Guinea Stout.”

My friend Pyo brought Stout back to the SPCA for a visit yesterday and I got to hold Stout. Look how fluffy and fat he is now! Unreal. He looks like a stuffed toy. I was perfectly delighted. Too bad Stout didn't feel the same way. He was all "WTF?!?!"

19th Feb 2017: My idea of an 'experience gift' for my good friend Lin Idrus is to drag her through caves. Thankfully, she did not object and so we did the Dark Caves Educational Tour with our friends Ayu, Kyle and Dash.

21st Feb 2017: Turkish Delight on a Monday night. You can’t get a better combination than Yeni Raki with Orhan Pamuk.

22nd Feb 2017: Inflorescence, deconstructed. (Edible flower petals in ice cubes)

24th Feb 2017: Successfully repaired yet another burst pipe. Yes, it's 3 a.m when this was taken. I am a beast. At least now I know if this lawyering gig doesn't work out, I can go into the plumbing, home repair and remodelling business. And probably draft my own contracts while I am at it.

24th Feb 2017: This gorgeous huge reticulated python was crossing the road on our drive up to Frasers Hill. We stopped to let him/ her pass. He/she must have been at least 6-7 feet in length. Simply stunning.

25th Feb 2017: Our booths in the town centre on the occasion of the Frasers Hill International Bird Race 2017.

25th Feb 2017: I saw a Common Sun Skink run across the road and stopped a car so it wouldn't get run over, and my friend Steven rescued it. The skink, not the car, I mean. Cars don't need rescuing. Not this one anyway. I managed to overcome my fear of lizards enough to touch the skink.

25th Feb 2017: Quaint little government clinic up in Frasers Hill.

25th Feb 2017: Come to mama, you beautiful tarantula!

25th Feb 2017: Gorgeous little Tree Hole Frog.

25th Feb 2017: Wolf Spider. Good thing it was a moonless night or it might have turned into a Werewolf Spider.

26th Feb 2017: A table full of succulents and cacti in warm-hued pots.

26th Feb 2017: The boundary marker for the states of Selangor and Pahang. Also very quaint. I got a kick out of this.

26th Feb 2017: Just got back from a rather quiet weekend of volunteering up in Fraser's Hill. Felt rather restless so I went out again to clean up the forest reserve and park. The forest trails were okay but the picnic areas were dreadful. It was clear what happened -- the picnickers put their trash in bin bags and stuffed them into the ostensibly monkey-proof bins. But the bins were stuffed beyond capacity and the monkeys could reach in easily. The fact that the litter was all within a 2-meter radius from the bins and there were torn bin bags and cartons and tins with monkey teeth marks everywhere supports my theory. Managed to clean most of it up in 1.5 hours and drove all the rubbish home with me for proper disposal. Will have to write to MBPJ about increasing the frequency of rubbish collection, especially on Mondays after all the weekend hikers and picnickers have left.

28th Feb 2017: An odds-and-sods bento cos my Ikea falafels (I can neither spell nor pronounce Grönsaksbullar) were starting to get freezer burn.

28th Feb 2017: The Boomerang Kid who never did fly the coop. (These are our apartment pet chickens and they are our friends, not food.)

January 2017 In iPhone Photos

1 Jan:

I organised another forest reserve cleanup on New Year's Day. Around 15 volunteers showed up to help, and we cleaned up the trails, lake and park. This is our haul of rubbish for the day. Not too shabby at all for two hours of work, considering that some of our volunteers are very young children. This was followed by a potluck picnic, Lucky Draw session (in which everyone won something) and a tree-planting session with some of the saplings I brought.

 

1 Jan:

While cleaning up the lake, Hari found part of a turtle or terrapin's skeleton. Jay and Geok Chunn's girls found other bone fragments, so we played at being amateur natural historians and tried to piece it back together.

 

 

1 Jan:

Marking New Year's Day 2017 by planting indigenous trees.

 

 

3 Jan:

First bento of 2017. Rainbow pizza, with fruits for dessert.

 

 

7 Jan:

Photographing street art in downtown KL on a Saturday morning after leaving Scott's apartment. I took a photo of this mural in Lorong Panggung.

 

 

7 Jan:

'Rage Against The Machine', an Ernest Zacharevic installation in Jalan Sultan.

 

7 Jan:

The SPCA shelter no longer has a fulltime vet. But it does have a weekend Ee Lynn, and that's not too shabby now, is it?

 

7 Jan:

Looks like I've found a new place to read a book and enjoy a fairtrade cuppa.

 

 

8 Jan:

Fresh vegetables, fairtrade coffee, homemade ice pops and garden parties at the Titi Eco Farm Open Day.

 

 

12 Jan:

Lunar New Year celebrants shopping for flowers and plants.

 

 

13 Jan:

I allow myself one ovo-lacto cheat day a week while transitioning to full veganism, and on this cheat day, I treated myself to an ice cream cone from Hail's Soft Serve.

 

 

14 Jan:

Bathing dogs, administering flea and tick treatment and cleaning ears at the SPCA shelter on a humid Saturday afternoon.

 

 

14 Jan:

Acrobatic lion dance performance by Kun Seng Keng, national high pole lion dance champions, at One Utama.

 

 

 

 15 Jan:

When your kicks match the Rapid MRT train seats and all is neat and orderly in your universe.

 

 

16 Jan:

Serina gave me bagsful of toys and books for my community service projects and for reuse. My little niece Hailey inherited the plastic farm animals, while my cats and I got the dinosaurs. We've been playing 'dinosaurs' every night here at the Wee Green Flat. Preloved toys are rawrsome.

 

 

16 Jan:

The real reason for dinosaur extinction.

 

 

17 Jan:

Malcolm was in town so I invited him out to dinner at Garage 51, a hipster cafe near my workplace.

 

 

 17 Jan:

Vegan mushroom sandwich and lots of chips for me at Garage 51. It was alright but not remarkable. Not even sure if it deserved a dab.

 

 

18 Jan:

I created the cheeriest little office windowsill vegetable garden ever.

 

 19 Jan:

"What a strange thing!

To be alive

Beneath cherry blossoms."

- Kobayashi Issa, Poems.

 

 

21 Jan:

Doggie-Doos Washing Day at the KL Pooch Rescue shelter today.

 

24 Jan:

Taco Tuesday with my good friend Ellen -- we had mushroom soft tacos and sweet potato fries and I had a strawberry mojito. Yums!

 

 

24 Jan:

Taco Tuesday with Ellen at Thyme Out, a cosy little place across the road from my office. Love the company, and love the food!

 

24 Jan:

I love the stained glass pendant lights at Thyme Out Sunway.

 

 

 

25 Jan:

Vegan nasi lemak set at Kukus TTDI. I think I died a little and went to heaven.

 

26 Jan:

Lion dance on the occasion of Australia Day at my office.

 

 

28 Jan:

Lunar New Year family staycation by the beach.

 

 

30 Jan:

Lion dance performance at my good friend Audrey's housewarming do.

 

 

30 Jan:

Solo walk in the woods on a quiet afternoon. If anyone doubts that the state ban on plastic bags and styrofoam containers can effect behavioral change, I can categorically state that there was a very marked reduction in plastic bags and styrofoam food packaging spotted during my usual trail cleaning rounds.

 

 

31 Jan:

Things I do on my day off. The SPCA was rather shorthanded that day so I took over some of the cleaning duties as well.

 

 

31 Jan:

LED lion dance at Symphony Walk, IOI City Mall.