The Bungaraya Dynasty: A Malaysian Story

I was going through the pile of photos I took recently if there were anything I could use for my long overdue display photo in YM and MSN. Then, I came across the photos I took in Salzburg with my compatriots. They were so funny I thought of sharing them here.

Behind this happy picture, is a history filled with war, violence and bloodshed. It wasn't anything like the Melrose Dynasty but near. It was something better, something more vicious, more frightening. It was the Bungaraya Dynasty......

Once lived a man from the upper echelon society of Sampah Masyarakat, a society greatly revered by all mankind, womankind, unkind, verykind, kind-kind, whatever. Yap was his name. His two supposed loyal bodyguards- Fairuz and Zak were bestowed medals of the highest order; the medal of Great Ular that put them in the position nearest to Yap. But look very carefully the eyes of Sir Fairuz. Behind those gleaming shades, is a pair of green eyes...at least that was what I thought. (Oi! Why got shades one?!)

Suddenly, the table changed. Sir Zak turned against Lord Yap. A rifle was aimed at him. It was a do or die situation. But Zak's demand was simple. He only wanted to see his lady who went missing in Sampah Masyarakat. "Hold your fire! I said hold your fire!"

There was a twist of fate. Sir Fairuz came to the rescue. "Put down your gun or I'll shoot!", shouted Fairuz.

It erupted into a battlezone. Fairuz and Zak was killing each other! "Stop it! I say stop it!", Lady Aeni mustered all her energy to make herself heard. "I have brought you your lady! Just stop it for goodness sake!" Then Princess Rahini of Orange appeared. Dressed in her red outfit, she called on Sir Zak. Okay, to cut the long story short, they lived happily ever after.

Lord Yap, all merciful and grateful and full of $^!T thanked Sir Fairuz profusely for risking his life to save him. Lord Yap also apologised for thinking wrongly about him and pre-judged him earlier about his green eyes behind the pair of fake Rayban. In his usual cool composure, Sir Fairuz accepted nothing but a handshake and gave nothing but problems. Just look at the blunder of this shot. Jeans and shade?! And Lord Yap; sneakers and jeans??!!

Cut! Cut!!

Oh well, the end...

Hahaha...hope you enjoyed my lunacy...(the only way to keep myself sane from working alone for my dissertation)

But if you liked my work, do donate a pound when you see me. Hahaha...

Here's the making...of the Bungaraya Dynasty...

Sorry, no photos of the girls. They were in the dressing room....

Blast from the past

I had a shocked finding when I was clearing one of the drawers. At the base under the last drawer, there were some "hidden treasures" from the previous person who stayed here.

Confirmed this person was from the Asian origin. I found a packet of Chinese dried foodstuff. Hmm, interesting. I took up to look and saw the expiry was August 2004! Shocking. It must have been the third 3 previous resident who stayed in my room, or a PhD student who never found his/her lost treasure.

I decided to check out the content. I pried open it and off came out a horrible smell! It was like opening up a dead curse! You can imagine dead carcasses of some sort. I quickly took it off my room and chucked it into the bin before it fills the room. So much for satisfying curiosity....

O yes, it was plural; I said hidden treasures. Obviously this person was a male. There was a male underwear too.

Back in Cambridge

It's great to be back after being away for a month. The weather is just great at 10 to 23 deg C daily. I heard it was raining heavily for the past two weeks and it was chilly. When I arrived, it was sunny. So I most probably brought the tropical sun back to Cambridge and the rain went to Malaysia. KL was raining yesterday, so that's confirmed.


"Excuse me, may I take a picture of you?"; "Sure, but why do you want my picture?"; "You look pretty!"

Today is the Strawberry Fair. Honestly, I still don't know what it is but it's one big fun fair with food stalls, bands, face painting and cross dressing. Met up with Winson and we were basically catching up on news back home rather than being part of the event. Anyway, we have lots of that back home, I thought. But the weather was great; bright sunny day!

Smile for the camera, you little tiger!

The crowd hanging out at the lawn.

BBQ Chicken?? Looks more like ayam percik that gone bad.

No attitude? That's new...I thought you either have it or you don't. Can you control it?

I did notice the difference in season after coming back. The weather was warmer. Yay! I could now walk in T-shirt, shorts and sandals. And the leaves are out! It's so green now compared to the dull days.

There's life here!

Research Concluded

My research in Malaysia is completed and I would soon embark on drafting the dissertation. The 1-month trip was very productive and useful. Now that I am overloaded with information, I have to start looking at the document and materials and sieve them through for important information that would be cramped into 15,000 words.

The two pictures above were taken from Golden Hope's plantation in Carey Island.

The owl is used instead of chemicals for pest control in oil palm estates. This picture was also taken at the Golden Hope Plantations in Carey Island.

Research activities have been done back-to-back until the very last day and the very few hours before I left for the airport. Last minute person as usual. I did not even have the time to meet up with all my friends and apologies for that.

Nevertheless, I was still able to catch up with friends during dinner.

We had a dinner at Chilli's

And at a Hong Kong Cafe

Research Full Swing

At the Sandakan Airport

IJMP's Quality, Training & Research Centre at Sijas. Sijas is one of IJM's three oil palm plantations in Sandakan.

I hopped into Sandakan last week to meet up with more stakeholders for my research. This time was to meet up with a planter. IJM Plantations Berhad (IJMP) with the leadership of Joseph Tek, an ex-Cambridge graduate, gave me the best Sandakan hospitability (ever) throughout my 3-day stay there. IJMP is known as the "boutique" planter in Malaysia with a total area of 30,000 hectares in oil palm. The bigger boys would have 100,000 to 300,000 hectares. So, 30,000 is just a fraction of that. However, IJMP is regarded as the epitome to sustainable palm oil. Many planters of that size would have dropped the idea of sustainable practices due to the puny scale of economies.

The gravel road leading to Sijas

River crossing at the off-roads

One of the staff residence in Sijas. I stayed in one of the units. It's quite a good life there and how can I agree with some NGOs claiming that the workers in the oil palm estates are living in bad conditions. They even have satellite tv!

I was put up a night in this bungalow at the Desa Talisai plantation. This house is smacked in the middle of the plantation. It belongs to the MD of IJMP.

The sports complex developed for the workers in Desa Talisai. I was really impressed with the way IJMP invested in its staff welfare and well being. There is employment, social cohesion and interaction. I read this as social sustainability??

The trip was packed back-to-back. I didn't even get to see the town even though it was located about 6km from IJMP's HQ. I was taken to the plantation as soon as I arrived into Sandakan. Anyone who have read about Sandakan would know that Sandakan is THE place to eat fresh seafood at a fraction of the price in West Malaysia. However, I didn't even get to enjoy this. But it's okay; it just gives me a reason to come back next time!

And by the way, Sandakan is located in Sabah, Malaysia, about 2300km away from Kuala Lumpur; that's a good 2hrs 45mins flight from home!

Rainforest and oil palm co-existing with each other. NGOs have always attributed rainforest destruction to oil palm cultivation or land expansion for oil palm, but getting to the ground to see the real thing was an eye-opening experience. I am just surprised by how some of these claims were twisted to misinform the public and solicit support from them to fight their cause! Besides, such practice is not uniquely attributable to IJMP only but industry wide.

Let's talk about biodiversity then...and what about that again??

Effluent discharge or use of fertilisers causes pollution to tributary and rivers? Is it true that you guys dump poisons into the river?? Marine biodiversity badly affected? You can never be sure unless you get your hands dirty to find out. Since I didn't bring the necessary equipment to test for BOD, COD, acidity etc, so I tested a holding pond and tried fishing. Adrian (background) and I caught 12 fishes within an hour!
Drip irrigation for seedlings as compared to the older sprinkler system to minimise water loss .

Transportation of fresh fruit bunches to the production mill.

The finished product; cooking oil or biodiesel??? Competition between food and fuel, the sustainability question that I'd be looking at...