New Page..New Image..New Life!!~~~~

Hi there, I already develop a new page with new brands! Come and join me there as well. Do visits another me at http://janggeltrekking2.blogspot.com/ . There are more stories related to my daily life and everything happen surroundings. Thank you for all support and wish me a gud luck! Happy New born JANGGELTREKKING2!!!

A little paradise in the city

By GOH EE KOON Photos by IBRAHIM MOKHTAR

NOT too long ago, the partly hidden recreational spot in Taman Tun Dr Ismail was a little bit of nature for children and adults to enjoy.

Among the trees, small and shallow streams with fish would delight the younger ones, who would bring little nets or even dip their hands into the water in attempts to catch them while indulgent parents looked on.

The spot is still there, but the place has changed quite dramatically, turning from an unofficial recreational spot into a park that is visited by scores during the weekdays and hundreds during the weekends.

The Lembah Kiara Recreational Park is perhaps one of the newer ones in the Klang Valley, but its popularity already establishes the fact that it is going to be well used for many years to come.

Entrance is free and most of adults who come here either do so with their friends or families. The mornings and late afternoons are the most popular times to visit this place.

One of the biggest draws of this medium-sized park is its well-paved running path. With a cushion-like surface, the red-coloured path absorbs the shock of impact from pounding feet and exercising and running is a lot more comfortable than the more challenging 5km undulating walk a little way off.

The route of the run is broken up into two sections – one with higher inclines for the more athletic and a slightly more level one for those who prefer to take a leisurely stroll around the area. Both paths join and separate at different points, and hence, each one that visitors take offers different sights.

The wider path winds through different types of trees, and at certain vantage points, you can see almost the whole park. Along the path, a suspension bridge is also popular and is built over a large stream.

The smaller walking path circles through the large pond and here and there, couples and families settle to enjoy a spot of fresh air or look for fish and turtles swimming near the surface.

The smaller walking path also allows access to a cemented platform, where teenagers often play ball or adults carry out line-dancing and Chinese fan dance sessions.

The landscape of the Lembah Kiara Recreational Park is also well-sculpted, with palms, clumps of flowers like cannas and different types of shrubs, all of which are well-kept.

The clearing nearest to the car park is the most popular place, where a wooden bridge often sees young children hanging over the side to look into the water.

At the side, specially-erected bars and benches are popular among those who want to build up muscles.

Lembah Kiara Recreational Park is located at Jalan Abang Haji Openg, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

Air Quality Modeling-Level 1

This few days, I attended a course of Air Quality Modeling – Level 1, for 4 days at EiMAS (again after 3 month courses on September last year). Actually, I’ve been asked from my boss to replace her for this course. Terpaksa la pergi sebab nanti boleh tambah benda nak tulis dalam SKT and of coz I will nurture more knowledge regarding Air Quality Modeling which is a part of my job descriptions. Hehehe...

I met all my frens there, and togather we share stories from the past 4th months. It was really great.!! PEACE!!!

Taman Alam Nature Park ~ PART 2

Continued from the previous issue.. "Taman Alam Nature Park". I found this article from Utusan Malaysia dated on 28 March 2008. Please read this article for further information regarding this beautiful place.

"KUALA SELANGOR 28 Mac – Jika anda masih mencari-cari lokasi yang keindahan alam semula jadi masih belum tercemar dek arus pembangunan, Taman Alam Kuala Selangor pasti memberi anda pengalaman manis yang sukar dilupakan.

Ini kerana alam semula jadinya masih ‘dara’ tanpa sedikit pun pencemaran, sekali gus menjadikan taman tersebut sentiasa mendapat perhatian pelancong tempatan dan asing.

Taman seluas 296 hektar itu dibuka pada tahun 1987 dan dibahagikan kepada dua bahagian utama iaitu hutan hujan tropika seluas 201 hektar dan selebihnya merupakan hutan paya bakau.

Taman itu diletakkan di bawah pengurusan Persatuan Pencinta Alam Malaysia dan persatuan itu jelas berjaya mengekalkan keindahan alam semulajadinya tanpa sebarang gangguan yang boleh merosakkan habitat yang menjadi ‘penghuni’ setia di situ.

Jika anda mahu ke sana, perjalanan untuk ke taman yang terletak bersebelahan dengan Bukit Melawati itu hanya mengambil masa satu jam sahaja dari Kuala Lumpur.

Walaupun taman itu agak terpencil dan kurang dikenali, namun ia masih mampu menarik ramai pengunjung setiap hari terutamanya pada hujung minggu dan cuti umum.

Selain kehijauan tumbuhan, Taman Alam itu juga merupakan sebuah taman burung dan pengunjung akan berpeluang melihat sendiri pelbagai jenis spesies burung yang hidup liar dan bebas di taman itu.

Menurut Pegawai Pengurusan Taman Alam Kuala Selangor, Asokumar Rajadurai, terdapat 156 jenis spesies burung di situ, termasuk burung-burung dari luar negara seperti dari Siberia yang berhijrah dari negara mereka terutamanya pada bulan September hingga April.

“Sesetengah burung yang menjadi penghuni di taman ini ialah burung-burung dari kawasan sejuk di hemisfera utara yang mencari makanan di kawasan panas di hemisfera selatan.

“Antara spesies burung tempatan yang menjadi penghuni setia di taman ini ialah burung bakau, burung bangau, ketitir, pekaka, raja udang, pucong, serandau, helang bahu hitam dan jika anda bernasib baik, pasti kelibat burung helang merah pasti memukau pandangan mata.

“Manakala burung-burung yang berhijrah pula ialah seperti purple herow, great eagle, tiger shrike, brown shrike, arctic shrike, warbler, purple swamphen dan banyak lagi,” katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia baru-baru ini.

Bagi memudahkan pengunjung melihat kehadiran burung-burung tersebut, beberapa menara tinjau disediakan untuk para pengunjung.

Mereka pastinya akan terpegun dan leka menyaksikan pelbagai mergastua berterbangan bebas di alam semulajadinya tanpa gangguan.

Kehadiran burung-burung itu juga menjadikannya taman tersebut sebagai sebuah lokasi yang paling menarik untuk dilawati, selain kelip-kelip di Kampung Kuantan, tidak jauh dari situ.

Malah, taman itu juga menjadi tumpuan para saintis dan pengkaji untuk menyelidik tentang habitat dan kehidupan burung-burung tersebut.

Selain dapat melihat pelbagai burung-burung yang sukar dilihat di tempat lain, di taman ini juga terdapat pelbagai spesies tumbuh-tumbuhan liar yang masih terpelihara.

Di kawasan hutan paya bakau yang meliputi kawasan seluas kira-kira 100 hektar pula, pengunjung boleh menyaksikan banyak spesies haiwan yang jarang ditemui.

Hutan paya bakau yang terbentang luas untuk diterokai itu juga pasti memberi pengalaman baru yang berbeza kepada setiap pengunjung.

Hutan paya bakau di sini bukan sahaja berfungsi sebagai ejen pengekalan ekosistem di kawasan itu, malah turut menjadi habitat semula jadi kepada beberapa jenis haiwan. Bagi pengunjung yang belum pernah melihat spesies haiwan yang menghuni paya bakau, inilah tempatnya untuk ‘berkenalan’ dengan haiwan-haiwan tersebut. Terdapat pelbagai spesies siput seperti siput sedut, siput roman dan siput beliung menanti pengunjung di tasik buatan manusia seluas lapan hektar yang terletak di tengah-tengah taman tersebut. Selain itu, pengunjung juga dapat melihat ikan belacak yang gemar bermain di akar-akar kayu pokok bakau serta beratus-ratus ekor ketam batu yang berwarna-warni membina sarangnya. Tetapi, pengunjung dinasihatkan supaya berhati-hati apabila meneroka taman tersebut kerana kebanyakan haiwan seperti biawak, memerang, belatuk, bangau dan lotong oren dibiarkan hidup bebas di habitat itu. Di samping melihat haiwan, aktiviti lain turut disediakan di taman itu seperti aktiviti mandi lumpur, penanaman semula pokok kayu bakau serta aktiviti pendidikan dan penyelidikan untuk pelajar-pelajar sekolah. Bagi pengunjung yang ingin menikmati keindahan suasana malam sambil mendengar ‘kicauan’ cengkerik di taman itu, mereka boleh menginap di taman tersebut. Taman Alam dibuka setiap hari dari pukul 9 pagi hingga 6 petang dan bayaran RM4 bagi dewasa dan RM1 bagi yang berumur 17 tahun ke bawah dikenakan."

BOTTLED WATER BOYCOTTS: Back-to-the-Tap Movement Gains Momentum

Hello guys.. I found an interesting article from the internet to share. I think, this is the good way to nurture people to appreciate their environment. how bout you guys??

Janet Larsen (http://www.earthpolicy.org/Updates/2007/Update68.htm)

From San Francisco to New York to Paris, city governments, high-class restaurants, schools, and religious groups are ditching bottled water in favor of what comes out of the faucet. With people no longer content to pay 1,000 times as much for bottled water, a product no better than water from the tap, a backlash against bottled water is growing.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, which represents some 1,100 American cities, discussed at its June 2007 meeting the irony of purchasing bottled water for city employees and for city functions while at the same time touting the quality of municipal water. The group passed a resolution sponsored by Mayors Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City, and R. T. Rybak of Minneapolis that called for the examination of bottled water’s environmental impact. The resolution noted that with $43 billion a year going to provide clean drinking water in cities across the country, “the United States’ municipal water systems are among the finest in the world.”While the Mayors Conference fell short of moving to stop taxpayer money from filling the coffers of water bottlers, a growing number of cities are heading in that direction.

Los Angeles, which has restricted the purchase of bottled water with city funds since 1987, now has more company. By the end of 2007, purchasing bottled water will be off-limits for San Francisco’s departments and agencies, saving a half-million dollars each year and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. St. Louis is poised to ban bottled water purchases for city employees in early 2008.At the launch of Corporate Accountability International’s “Think Outside the Bottle” campaign in October, Mayor Anderson of Salt Lake City described the “total absurdity and irresponsibility, both economic and environmental, of purchasing and using bottled water when we have perfectly good and safe municipal sources of tap water.” He urged city government departments and restaurants to stop buying bottled water.

In November, the city council of Chicago, beleaguered by swelling landfills and a stretched budget, placed a landmark tax of 5¢ on every bottle of water sold in the city in order to discourage consumption. That same month, Illinois state agencies were banned from purchasing bottled water with government funds. With 86 percent of used water bottles in the United States ending up as garbage or litter instead of being recycled, switching from the bottle to the tap helps to alleviate the trash burden.New York City is urging residents to drink tap water, which is naturally filtered in the protected Catskill forest region. In Kentucky, the Louisville water utility hands out free bottles for residents to fill with “Pure Tap.” Dozens of other local governments are talking up tap water and are looking into banning the bottle. (See list of other cities and initiatives.)Tap water promotional campaigns would have seemed quaint a few decades ago, when water in bottles was a rarity. Now such endeavors are needed to counteract the pervasive marketing that has caused consumers to lose faith in the faucet. In fact, more than a quarter of bottled water is just processed tap water, including top-selling Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani. When Pepsi announced in July that it would clearly label its Aquafina water as from a “public water source,” it no doubt shocked everyone who believed that bottles with labels depicting pristine mountains or glaciers delivered a superior product.

Despite the less-frequent quality testing and sometimes commonplace origin of the product, bottled water consumption has soared. Annual consumption in the United States in 1976 was less than 2 gallons for every man, woman, and child; some 30 years later, Americans on average each now drink about 30 gallons of bottled water a year. (See data.)

All this hydration costs Americans more than $15 billion a year. The price of individual bottles of water ranges up to several dollars a gallon (and more for designer brands), while tap water is delivered directly to homes and offices for less than a penny a gallon. People complaining about $3-a-gallon gasoline may start to wonder why they are paying even more per gallon for bottled water.

With sales growing by 10 percent each year, far faster than any other beverage, bottled water now appears to be the drink of choice for many Americans—they swallow more of it than milk, juice, beer, coffee, or tea. (See data.) While some industry analysts are counting on bottled water to beat out carbonated soft drinks to top the charts in the near future, the burgeoning back-to-the-tap movement may reverse the trend.

In contrast to tap water, which is delivered through an energy-efficient infrastructure, bottled water is an incredibly wasteful product. It is usually packaged in single-serving plastic bottles made with fossil fuels. Just manufacturing the 29 billion plastic bottles used for water in the United States each year requires the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of crude oil.

After being filled, the bottles may travel far. Nearly one quarter of bottled water crosses national borders before reaching consumers, and part of the cachet of certain bottled water brands is their remote origin. Adding in the Pacific Institute’s estimates for the energy used for pumping and processing, transportation, and refrigeration, brings the annual fossil fuel footprint of bottled water consumption in the United States to over 50 million barrels of oil equivalent—enough to run 3 million cars for one year. If everyone drank as much bottled water as Americans do, the world would need the equivalent of more than 1 billion barrels of oil to produce close to 650 billion individual bottles.Concerns about this high energy use and the associated contribution to climate change, along with worries about waste, are driving many groups back to tap water. The United Church of Canada is one of the religious groups abandoning bottled water for moral reasons. The Berkeley school district no longer offers bottled water. And after watching 3,000 empty bottles pile up each week, the Nashville law firm Bass, Berry, & Sims has stopped stocking bottled water.Europeans have long led the world in per person consumption of bottled water. Italy tops the list worldwide, with Italians drinking 54 gallons per person in 2006. Italy is closely trailed in per capita consumption by the United Arab Emirates and Mexico, followed by France, Belgium, Germany, and Spain. (See data.)Yet even in Western Europe the bottle is starting to lose clout. Rome, a city of many historic fountains, is promoting its tap water. Florence’s city council, schools, and other public offices offer only city water. In the United Kingdom, the Treasury and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have ceased offering bottled water at official functions. Bottled water sales in Scandinavia are projected to fall because of growing environmental concerns.Even France, home to Evian, is seeing a sales slowdown. During a 2005 tap water promotion campaign in Paris, the water utility handed out refillable glass carafes. Now Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë serves only tap water at official events and encourages others to do the same. Total bottled water sales in France fell in 2004 and 2005, but rebounded in 2006.

Slowing sales may be the wave of the future as the bottle boycott movement picks up speed. With more than 1 billion people around the globe still lacking access to a safe and reliable source of water, the $100 billion the world spends on bottled water every year could certainly be put to better use creating and maintaining safe public water infrastructure everywhere.

Pulau Redang Trip

Salamsssss…I’m back! No matter what happened yesterday, I will still proceed with tomorrow! GUUUUUDDDDD!!! (hehehe with a new trademark). This year will be a great year for me in order to manage my life to the fullest! I have new busy life, I got new friends (go to hell to those burglars!), I got new ‘son and daughter’ (hehehe thanks to them all, I will take care of you till the end of life! InsyaAllah) and the most important thing, I on my way to change my life.

Ok let’s leave those Guuuuuud things in my pocket; the tiredness is still with me when I put my steps together out from the airplane. Actually I just came back from a wonderful trip to Pulau Redang with my wonderful partners. It was really fun. It was my first time went there and the first thing appeared in my mind was; “Oh my GOD, It was so beautiful”. The nature still untouched and virgin. The sea crystal clear blue water makes me almost to cry. I enjoy snorkeling and swimming, and the best part is the time feeding the fish with my own hand! The feeling was so great! Thanks to my Redang roommate, Fadli, Nordin and Budiman..you guys are the best. We have a great fun there right???? And not forget the person who brought me into this ‘world’, Sam and Nazrul, you are the best among the best! PEACE!

Taman Alam Nature Park - Kuala Selangor

I went to Taman Alam Nature Park at Kuala Selangor last weekend as part of my compulsory training program (EiMAS) and it was a great experience!. We (trainers) arrived there on saturday afternoon and the program started with nature walk activities. and then at night we went to Kampung Kuantan to watch Kelip-kelip!!! hahahhaha it was so exciting! and in the Sunday evening, the program ended with Nature Hunt and my team manage to be the 2nd runner up of!!! here, i put some photos to share..enjoy!!. PEACE!!