Honey4Boyz

Posted by Xian Jin Where else to spend a short break, but Ipoh? It was unplanned, spontaneous and out-of-the-blue when my dad decided to bring us to Tasik Cermin, a place embedded deep in his childhood, even though he had only been here a few times. From the outside, it was the most unappealing and unattractive of landmarks; construction, lorries and sand deterred visitors. Who would ever visit such a place?  The Tunnel that bridges reality to fantasy. Tasik Cermin - "Mirror lake" in Malay.  Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all? ps. me Struggling to get stones to skip more than 2 times. It was an enchanting and beautiful experience. Something so beautiful hidden from the world, disguised as a deserted and sandy land. I could stay here for hours, reading or relaxing under the tall, shady trees in silence. This hidden gem may not last long, however. Already, there are constructions ongoing, a...

We're privileged to join the researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia in their last public heritage walk at Gua Tambun for the year. The site  is located just over 7 km from Ipoh Old Town. It seems like an odd place, situated in the midst of some residential houses and a polo club with horses grazing in the field.    The hill looks like just any other limestone hills in Ipoh. What made this place special was the discovery of hundreds of ancient paintings and drawings dated 4,000 - 2,500 years ago, known as Tambun Rock Art. The rock art was first reported in 1959 and later in 1984.   A steep, almost upright steps leading to the Tambun rock art site. The view from Gua Tambun, situated in Gunung Panjang limestone hill.  The rock art site survives the modern times in Ipoh, and seems oblivious to the fact that it was once a sacred site for local spiritual ceremonies. The hill also survives blasting by the quarry operators. The researchers were quick to p...

Posting by Xian Jin The Kiwanis Youth Camp is an annual camp organized by Kiwanis Club of Kuala Lumpur. This year it was a 5 day 4 night trip to the Earth Camp, Gopeng. The day before it started, I had mixed feelings because I was afraid to do some activities I have never done before but I was curious as this was my first time. We took a bus from a meeting point to the Earth Camp. In the bus, everyone was silent as we did not know each other. When I reached Earth Camp, I was amazed by the cleanliness of the dorms, the size of the place and the hospitality given by the staff there. After a brief intro, we were divided into groups and had ice breaking sessions. We played many games like the tug-of-war and it was dinner time. The food was way beyond my expectation. I finished dinner with a very happy stomach and went on to wash up. After that we had a meeting and we slept. The next day I woke up feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep. We first did water rescue...

The wondrous cave in Malaysia - Gua Tempurung in Gopeng, Perak!!!!! What is unique about this cave is - it's a natural limestone with an underground river passing through it. We experienced our first caving adventure as a family on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year. It was a busy time in Gua Tempurung due to the holiday season. There were 4 types of guided cave tours according to the level of difficulty. We chose Level 3 - ie the platform dry tour as well as the river adventure. It's a journey of about 2.4km from entrance to Golden Flowstone (Platform 3), Top of the World (Platform 5) and back through the underground river. Our cave ranger was Salleh, and he said it would take about 2 1/2 hours. Located about 25km south of Ipoh, it is made up of 5 huge domes that resembled coconut shells, hence the name 'Tempurung' came about. Each dome has different formations of stalagmites and stalactites and is also different in temperature, water level, content of limestone an...