We’ve noticed for a long time that Indonesia remains a popular destination for Malaysian tourists and it’s not hard to see why considering that the two countries have quite extensive historical and cultural ties. Nevertheless, most Malaysians like to visit the popular tourist destinations of Bali, Surabaya and Medan. We’ve not heard of too many people going to visit Jogjakarta and it’s a shame because it’s a truly magical city with many cultural and natural attractions that will keep you enchanted for days.

We could go on for pages and pages about the cultural treasures of Jogjakarta but we’ll just mention two that particularly stick out in our mind – Borobudur and Prambanan. Borobudur is, of course, one of the most well known Buddhist temple complexes in the world and is only a short drive away from Jogjakarta. However, the history of Borobudur is shrouded in mystery and debates are still raging on who built the temple and why it was abandoned the way it was but the general consensus is that it was built some time between the 8th and 9th centuries AD and influenced by the Srivijayan Empire. The rediscovery and restoration of Borobudur is quite fantastic as well, having been discovered hidden in the deep jungle and buried under tons of volcanic ash and then publicized by none other than Sir Stamford Raffles, the credited founder of Singapore. Read the rest of this entry »

In this article, I’m going to just revisit the words of a famous economist written a few centuries ago and who remains popular in the areas of population studies and economics even though many of our readers have probably never heard of them. In essence, Thomas Malthus says that Earth’s resources grow only in an arithmetic progression while the population of the Earth grows in a geometric progression. In other words, the population of the Earth is growing at a much greater rate than the Earth can handle and ultimately, we will simply run out of land, space and other resources to deal with the sheer number of people on the planet.

Of course, many cynics will say that these fears are overblown. After all, since these words were written hundreds of years ago and we don’t seem to have a problem sustaining humanity on Earth, doesn’t that mean that the theory is wrong and we’ll be fine? Actually, it doesn’t. These cynics have neglected the fact that the past few decades have also seen the tremendous growth of technology and knowledge that’s allowed farmers to have much better crop yields and can use their land more efficiently, which has allowed agriculture to catch up with the growth in human demand. But the technology development curve doesn’t go up forever and, at some point, even that won’t be enough to cope with the longer life spans and increasing numbers of humans. In other words, maybe what we’ve been seeing until now only amounts to a stay of execution. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure if this is a problem I share with a lot of the readers but I found this article particularly scary. For those who don’t have the time to read the article from the BBC, it essentially tells us that, in the process of creating a “24-7 society”, we have been neglecting our sleep and it is taking a greater toll on our health than we have previously suspected. In fact, it is estimated that there are more road accidents caused by sleep deprived drivers than by drunk drivers.

This is a pretty staggering statistic and even though the research was done in the United Kingdom, we’ve found from our experience that Malaysians, especially those working in Kuala Lumpur, are also shifting towards a 24-7 society. I know I’ve traditionally had quite a few sleeping problems and was even once prescribed sleeping pills by my doctor. However, in my research, I’ve found quite a few natural sleeping aids that have actually been a lot more effective in helping me with my sleeping problem. Here are some suggestions: Read the rest of this entry »

This article might appeal more to the “techies” amongst us, but we hope that everyone else will find it interesting and informative, nonetheless. One concept that I have particularly liked over the past ten years or so, which unfortunately does not get much press here in Malaysia, is the concept of “open source” software. To sum up a long and complicated discussion, open source software is software that is released with the source code (think of a program’s source code as the ‘recipe’ that makes up the program) and generally with a very permissive license that allows developers and users to modify and customize the software to fit their needs, or to add functionality that the original developers never envisaged. Best of all, many open source software packages are mostly free to use!

You might think this is a subtle and moot point to mention, and it probably doesn’t matter to most of us since we generally use commercial and restricted license software like Windows and Office, right? In fact, the most popular Web server (this is the program that serves you the Web pages that you view on the Internet) is Apache which is open source software, so you’re probably a user of open source software at this very moment. Read the rest of this entry »

Several months ago, we wrote some articles about hybrid and electrical cars that are much kinder on the environment and that would help greatly in reducing the air pollution in our country. We also lamented that the import of electric cars is only planned to be further in the future and highlighted some of the problems involving high costs that might be deterrence to widespread ownership. However, we’ve recently seen this article in The Star that we find very encouraging for the environment and that should create a lot more awareness about the benefits of electric vehicle ownership.

It seems that some of the problems associated with electric bikes and scooters in the past have been resolved. We note that electric bikes were quite popular a few years back although, without the Transport Ministry officially sanctioning their usage then, using them on the trunk roads of the country would be an offense in the eyes of the law. Nevertheless, with legal and road-worthy electric bikes available for sale, we think this should bode well for a lot of motorists who are keen to try alternative fuels but don’t feel like committing to an electric or hybrid car, which remain expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and then, we find one of these places around Malaysia that are a surprise to us. Sungai Klah Hot Springs Park is one of those – we normally don’t expect to find hot springs parks outside areas with substantial volcanic activity, and Malaysia certainly isn’t famous for its volcanoes. Nevertheless, Sungai Klah Hot Springs Park is not only a relatively hidden gem, it’s actually even pretty near to the big city of Kuala Lumpur.

Sungai Klah Hot Springs Park is only 10 kilometres from the Perak town of Sungkai, or approximately 70 minutes drive away from Kuala Lumpur on the PLUS highway so it would make a good location for a quick trip out from the city. However, it is generally recommended that visitors spend at least half a day or a full day out in the area to really enjoy all the facilities and attractions in the area. Read the rest of this entry »

I wrote about Earth Hour in these blogs and encouraged our readers to participate in this event as a way of creating awareness about environmental issues but, as it turned out, we didn’t have to. I was more than surprised to note that the event was not only widely publicized over all forms of media, but I was actually out on the day itself to see if anyone else would participate and many restaurants and hotels did end up turning the lights off (or at least dimming the lights) for Earth Hour. So, well done Malaysia! It is so easy to be cynical about Malaysians’ lack of participation especially when it comes to things like environmental awareness so this was definitely a refreshing surprise.

I did note that there were the usual cynics who claimed that all this was a publicity stunt and wouldn’t achieve anything and therefore they wouldn’t participate. Well, they actually do have a point and, as we have said elsewhere in these blogs too, just switching off the lights is not the best way to save electricity (remember that the air conditioning and the refrigerator are two of the biggest sources of electricity usage in the home). However, it’s also the best way of creating awareness of the environmental issues facing all of us today – and who really can forget the striking images taken in Sydney with a dark Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the background? Let’s not forget that this is an effort that takes the efforts of millions Read the rest of this entry »

For those of our readers who aren’t already aware, April has been designated as Earth Month and many companies have already been participating in Earth Month. Although we’re almost at the end of April, readers should note that some of these campaigns last much longer than a month and therefore there is still an ample opportunity to get involved in some of these activities. Here are some of the campaigns being run in Malaysia:

■ The Estee Lauder Companies are organizing a “Recycle for a Better Tomorrow” campaign where customers can bring their used cosmetics containers (of any brand) to the Mid Valley Megamall to custom made recycling bins. This campaign runs until the end of June 2009 so there’s still plenty of time for you to dispose of your old cosmetics containers responsibly. More information about this campaign is available at The Star’s page. Read the rest of this entry »