Lata Kinjang

If you're driving on the North-South Highway heading north near Tapah, you will notice a beautiful waterfall on the mountain. This is Lata Kinjang. In order to get a closer look at this place, you will have to exit at Tapah, get on to the Federal Road due north for about 7km. Turn into Chenderiang and follow the road signs which will lead you to Lata Kinjang.

My wife and I took a drive there this morning as it was a beautiful day. It was just a ten minute drive from Chenderiang town, with rubber estates on both sides of the road. Upon reaching the place, we saw lots of people having a good time in the cool water. We got closer to take a few snapshots of the waterfall. The photo above shows the foot of the waterfall which flows into a river. I must say it was beautiful and cool with lots of butterflies. Its a good place to spend a few hours and enjoy nature.

The Sixties

I started to get interested in the guitar way back in the sixties when I was in my teens. Things were way different then. The tape recorder wasn't even invented I think. The only gadget available to record anything was the big monstrous tape with two big reels. You can imagine trying to pick up the chords or the lyrics of a song ......we had to replay the track on the vinyl record on the turntable over and over again. Many a time the record will get stuck on the track where the needle has literally made an indentation so deep that the delicate vinyl record is damaged. We did the same thing when we needed to copy the lyrics of the songs as there wasn't the internet like now where we could just google any song lyrics that we want or just listen to the tune on Youtube.

The Grundig turntable at my parents' home was a console type . I had to sit very close to it on the floor and with my ears literally pinned to the speakers to pick up the chords to the songs. I started to learn the guitar by gathering at friends' house and we will just sort of teach each other. It was considered cool to be guitarist then and it was a good way to attract girls too and our teenage ego need the boost. We formed a small four piece band and started playing for functions like weddings and at tea dances too. Tea dances were popular in the sixties and as the name suggest was at tea time on weekends usually. The Venue was the night clubs that were not being used in the afternoons. That was the pop scene then. Most of my friends led very carefree lives and we loved congregating at each other's homes, jamming and planning parties. We used to perform at shows too sometimes in halls and other times in Cinemas.

In Malaysia in that era, we were more exposed to the British pop scene so names like Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Beatles, Hermans Hermits and many others influenced us. Later I joined a local band called The Fabulous Falcons playing the lead guitar. We played songs by the Shadows. When we toured Thailand, we found that they were influenced by the American Music scene. This helped in our future performances back home.

The group split up after a few years and I took up employment in the civil service. I quit the music scene for many years and got married. After the birth of my second son, I had the urge to get back into music. I went solo playing the guitar and keyboards as well as singing. I've been doing this all this while and I still perform at Dinner functions. I guess music still rules in my blood.

Ipoh - our food haven

For those of us who lived in Ipoh and have migrated overseas or perhaps moved to another state, there is always a feeling of wanting to Balek Kampung whenever we can. I grew up in Ipoh and lived in Greentown which has changed into a commercial centre. Gone are the govt. quarters and trees. Spiderman, famous for his fried kuay teow, used to pedal his stall everyday along the main roads of Greentown before heading to Cowan Street (as it was formerly known) and back to his home in Fair Park. You could identify his house in Fair Park as his frontage had lots of cockle shells. Another stall would be the Indian man selling Nyonya kueh. He would carry his kandar with a hot pot of laksa gravy and not forgetting Mr. Choong, the famous popiah man. I used to cycle out to Cowan St. at night to buy Apong from the stall in front of the bakeries namely French, Noor Jahan and Paris Bakery. That was way back then.

Of course, Ipoh is famous for its Hor Fun and Nga Choy Kai. Head over to Leech Street and you will find a food haven there. Mention Ipoh, and folks all over will drool when the topic of food comes up. Everyone will have something to say about their favourite food and where they can be found. A friend of mine who now lives in Chicago can attest to that and says that when he's back, he will be on a food trail. Hmmm! Watch those calories. There are lots of yummies that I have not mentioned yet but will do so in my next blog.