Go Green, See Green Adventure
Written on 15 June 1995
What do birds, fireflies,
coins, vegetables and flowers have in common? Well, they were the things
we saw in the recent trip organised by the YMCA to Fireflies Sanctuary,
the National Mint and Cameron Highlands from 1st - 3rd June 1995. A group
of 44 members and friends joined this trip.
The first day was spent in
the Malaysian Nature Society(MNS) Nature Park in Kuala Selangor. Upon arrival,
we were given a nature talk plus slide show by a MNS guide. Then we went
trekking through the trails. We climbed up the bird watching tower with
binoculars to watch out for exotic birds and animals. I was disappointed
for not being able to spot any foreign birds because it was not the season.
Those foreign birds from China, Russia and other countries will only come
to the park during their winter months. Anyway, I saw a few quite colourful
and beautiful birds but I can't remember their names even though the MNS
guide told me.
That night we had a sumptuous seafood dinner then we left for Kampung Kuantan to visit the Fireflies Sanctuary. Each sampan could carry only four passengers. With 11 sampans in all we were rowed along the Selangor River. We saw the trees lit up by the presence of thousands and thousands of fireflies. The marvelous sight reminded me of Orchard Road in Singapore during Christmas. Our boatman told us that the male firefly flashes 3 times per second while the female firefly flashes once every 3 seconds. Each sampan had its own interesting adventure to tell. For our sampan, we saw extremely big and bright flashes high on the top of the trees. The boatman claimed that was the 'King' of fireflies and it flashed once every 5 seconds. He also added that we were lucky to see it because it came out only once in three months and sometimes not at all. The other three sampans had a 'scary' adventure that turned out to be a prank by a monkey. After viewing the mysterious and beautiful wonder of nature light show, we went back to the MNS Nature Park and spent the night in the chalets.
On the second day, we left the park for Shah Alam to visit The National Mint. We were given a briefing on the processes of coin making and were shown slides. Then we broke up into two groups after emptying all our pockets and locking our things in the lockers provided. During the tour, we were able to identify the processes, machines and tools that had been explained and shown during the briefing. Everywhere we saw coins and coins. If you like picking up coins from the floor, there were plenty for you to pick up. We saw the coins coming down from the stamping machine like someone striking the jackpot. It is a pity that we were not allowed to bring in our cameras, if not I would have scooped up the coins with my hands as though I had won the jackpot! On our way out, we had to be scanned for coins. The beeper went off and I remembered my metal pendant and quickly showed the guard. On the way to the bus, three of us were saying that we would have liked to keep a blank coin for souvenir. One of us suggested that we could use chewing gum to stick the coin to our sole. Of course, we would not do it! After all we are law-abiding citizens.
We left Kuala Lumpur
for Cameron Highlands. On the way up, we stopped at the scenic Cameron
Valley Tea Plantation and had a cup of warm, soothing tea. We checked in
our hotel and enjoyed steamboat dinner there. After dinner, we visited
the night market, some of our tour mates starting their shopping spree
by buying vegetables, flowers, cactus and etc.
On the third day, we
had 'Bah-kut-teh' for breakfast. It was a wonderful idea, just the right
thing for the cold morning in Cameron Highlands. Later, we visited Robertson's
Rose Garden and wet markets for more shopping. Everybody bought something.
The bus was full with vegetables, flowers, cactus, strawberries, oranges,
potatoes and etc. We went back to the hotel for lunch and checked out.
On the way down, we stopped to see the Lata Iskandar Waterfall. We also
stopped at the Aborigine Settlement to peek at the Orang Asli's hut and
to witness a blowpipe demonstration. Some of our tour mates tried the blowpipe
and of course they missed their targets. During the journey home, the bus
had a puncture. Ha! I guess we had bought too much and made the bus
too heavy, or perhaps one of the blowpipes hit the wrong target! When we
reached Penang, everybody went home happily with their purchases and memories
of the wonderful days with nature.