Kampar

When I first got to Kampar, I noticed two things that were a bit different than Seremban or K.L. First of all, the mosquitoes were vicious and many, but there were NO cockroaches to be seen! Hallelujah! What a wonderful thing that was. I never saw a single cockroach for the entire time I stayed here in "New Town" Kampar.

Two nights ago, a cockroach flew at me while I was standing out in my yard! What a shock. I had almost forgotten they existed.One of the dogs ate it. The house was my hasty retreat. Since then, I still haven't seen a cockroach. They are a bit rare in the town of Kampar, for some unknown reason, for which I am thankful.

The other thing you notice about Kampar is the humidity. Of course, during rainy season, it gets a lot of rain. But, generally speaking, there is always, always a cloud of water over your head. Talk about a little black cloud over your head. You have it here, day and night.

 

Also, the water buffalo are a bit unusual. Take for instance, just now, -Alfred was barking with his, "I-have- a-right-to-bark!" bark. I looked at him, questioningly and he looked at me, then back to the road. At first I didn't see, but he was definitely barking at something moving in the bush. Maybe someone was worshipping the Buddha idol . . . then, two horns appeared and I saw it! The biggest of the water buffalo, right in front of Alfred's nose, poking around at the idol! I agreed with Alfred and advised him that the water buffalo was naughty, so he should keep barking.He did. And, his mother joined him.

Alfred knows that those water buffalo are no friends of ours, ever since they attacked us on our walk!



 Durian is my favourite fruit, although it seems more
like a pudding to me than a fruit. It's just so devine.
I was first introduced to it in Thailand, back in the 80's and I guess it really depends on what sort of
mood you're in when you try your first taste of this
amazing food. Because of its smell, many people
from outside of SE Asia refuse to even try it.
Admittedly, it does smell like a sewer. It has been said "Durian smells like hell and tastes like heaven."
It's just so cute to look at too. All soft and wrinkly.







 This is one of my granddaughters, one of my "pearls of the orient", born right here in Malaysia!

Yesterday, while walking the dogs beside a little creek, I was able to observe two monitor lizards. They climbed down the bank on the other side of the creek. The part Samoi dog, Alfred stood there at attention watching as they came closer. But, I told him not to move and he stood so still, they calmly proceeded into the water without a glitch. They were almost as long as Alfred, but not as big as we have seen them before.

The birds around here are also amazing. An entourage of white birds follow the water buffalo wherever they go. You know, those white birds that stand on their backs. What are they called again? And we have herons. I love herons. Majestic birds.

One of these colourful birds, a White Throated King Fisher, was sitting still as a post on a post beside the road as I drove past on my bike. Just gorgeous colour on his back.

Crazy as it may seem, there are rooms upstairs over the shop lots that are specially designated for birds. I guess they attract them with syrup or something so that the birds go into the room and build their nests on the walls.

There are swallows that build their nests with their saliva. The nest is a delicate little cup all made from bird saliva and that's what they make birds' nest soup from! Yeah, it's supposed to be a cure-all magic pill type deal.

Well, one of my students told me that her uncle took her to one of these places where they collect the nests and he had her "clean" one of them. She said it was a lot of work and took hours to clean one nest. But, apparently they get a better price if they ship the nest already cleaned.